Librarian vs. influenza: day twelve

How did you spend your holiday vacation? For the last two weeks I’ve had the flu! I got better for awhile, then right before my future in-laws came for a visit, virus.pngI reverted to what has become my default state: slumped on the couch, cat snoring on my shoulder.

I met a new symptom yesterday (let’s call him “Ralph”) who requires me to consume only miso soup and saltines.

In other news, um, nothing. I’m becoming a connoisseur of Ze Frank’s The Show, which is hilarious and requires only that I summon the energy to press play once in awhile.

I messed around with View Erica Olsen's profile on LinkedInthis morning for a bit before passing out. My cat nurses in his sleep.

How are you? Please write comments and make me feel like I’m part of the world. Anything will do. What did you have for lunch? Heard any good jokes? Movies? Adventures? Accidents? News? Alien invasions? Alan invasions?

Does anyone have cable? Can you tell me what is on tv?

Help.

Librarian vs. influenza: day six

Amid the body pain, sore throat, fever, and seal coughs, I’ve managed to keep myself entertained. Here’s how to beat a week-long flu using only a laptop, broadband, and some good over-the-counter drugs.

Web

  • South Park character maker Version Two. Yes, I said version two. spark2.pngWith even more hairstyles, weird hats, and weapons. Waste your holiday break the new-fashioned way!
  • Download obscure mp3s from emusic.com, a DRM-free site that gives away 50 free downloads to get you hooked. Quite successfully, I might add. They have the entire Alternative Tentacles catalog, so you no longer have to fill out the little form in the back of your Dead Kennedys cassette tape.
  • Facebook – Stalky stalky!
  • Shoe sale at Amazon.com. Ann Klein boots are 65% off. I’m powerless against low-priced yet stylish footware.
  • E-tarot cards. It’s so much more meaningful when you shuffle them with your mouse.
  • My dad’s blog (caution: ham radio geekery)

Print

  • New Universal – The latest comic by transmetropolitan genius Warren Ellis. The premise? In a slightly alternate world where Paul was killed instead of John and China owns the moon, individuals begin to spontaneously develop superpowers. Often with unhappy results.
  • White Oleander – I grabbed this from the library book sale because it wasbmag.png well-reviewed, and I enjoyed it despite my friend Kara’s warnings. She has a point, the characters can be less than sympathetic. Still, I enjoyed the book’s authentic voice, and the author’s willingness to describe a young woman’s reaction to desperation and loneliness.
  • Bitch Magazine – I’ve got a subscription. You should too. Give this to smart female patrons who haven’t yet tapped into the vibrant young feminist culture out there.

Video

  • Invader ZimFind and watch this. Kill if you must.
  • The Tick – Mighty! I love Bi-Polar Bear.
  • Battlestar Galactica – There is good acting and directing here, if you don’t mind the occasional robot army and Deus ex machina. zim.pngHere’s a 44 minute recap to get caught up on the plot.
  • Thank you for Smoking – I haven’t watched this yet, but I’ve got the Netflix envelope sitting on the coffee table. I’ll letcha know.
  • Creature Comforts – Not sure if you know this or not but, the Wallace & Grommet folks have a show on the BBC called Creature Comforts. They interview people in Britain about random topics, and overlay their voices onto claymation animals. It’s rather wonderful.
  • Loose Change – an independently-produced video exploring many of the unanswered questions about the events of 9/11. An interesting topic, and less frothing than most. (warning: do not watch while taking cold medicine, as you will be especially vulnerable to sad footage and will probably need to stop the film several times to blow your nose and cry)

Realia

  • Cats – Preferably in a large pile, nesting around your head. Include one that doesn’t mind being used as a pillow.
  • benzydamine.png

  • French cold medicine. Seriously? This stuff is fun. I can see my house from here.

Things seen in New York…

  • Man with a gun wrapped in a newspaper
  • Diner called “The Usual”
  • Brooklyn brownstones waiting to be demolished and replaced by a mall
  • City dogs, patient and tolerant
  • Fashion victims, many and hideous
  • Deli salad bars with better food than most Ithaca restaurants
  • Rat-like dog
  • Dog-like rat
  • Four drunken librarians
  • One Contemptuous waitress
  • Parents lugging strollers down the subway steps
  • Ice skating in the NYPL backyard
  • Park Slope, “where New York goes to breed”
  • Excellent hats, knitted by Alexandra
  • Anorexic woman doing extreme yoga in a store window
  • Giant whale

Tonight, we fly to Paris on Air India. Stay tuned!

Plagued by reference questions…

I haven’t worked at a reference desk for almost ten years, but I still get reference questions.

I’m convinced that Librarians and Library Workers have some sort of radiant askability that compels people to ask us stuff.

Like this confused gentleman here:

I’m looking for photos of ‘The Avengers’…

Alas, my friend, it’s Librarian Avengers, not Avengers Librarian. I could sell you some photos of our cats, if it’ll help. They, too, wear catsuits.

 

Hey Kids! Be a Librarian for Halloween

Target sells these INCREDIBLY accurate Librarian Halloween costumes in its online store.

Still, why spend $59.99 on a costume when we librarians can just open our closets and wear one of our many ALA-mandated cape/miniskirt combos?

Not to nitpick, but my book-skirt is a bit longer.

Update: Holy cow. Here’s another one.

It’s hard out here for a digital library interface designer/product manager


Photo by パックマン

10:40pm and I’m still at work.

Science Magazine is publishing a blurb about our library of animal sounds on Thursday. We got an award for second-best “educational interactive”. Yay.

Unfortunately, this means that a huge group of people are going to visit our site.

And our site was, up to a few weeks ago, still half-baked. We’ve got one of those higher education software teams, consisting of five underpaid geeks and a couple of CS students. Ebay, we are not.
These last few weeks have been a blur. Everyone on my team is pulling dot com hours, working for twelve hours on Sundays, and generally being foolish with work-life balance.

Tonight we ate dinner at the mall food court.

The weird part is, I love this.
I love the focus.
I love the commiseration.
I love the feeling of doing something good for the world that I get working at a nonprofit.

But right now, I would really love a beer and some sleep.
Goodnight, all.