Category: Life

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Blarghahtpth…gurble

Hi guys – I’m on day four of a head cold. Meaning, my head feels like it was stuck on by something tacky and impermanent – like that stuff that holds posters up in dorm rooms. Anyway, I’m going to let others blog for me today instead of subjecting you to more tortured similes.

Here’s Mike at The Book You’re Not Reading blogging about a guy you’ll just love to loathe: The Beckoner. (Hi Mike. You are as funny as a British Adventuress could ever wish to be!)

Video Dog over at Salon has a highlights/lowlights reel of Superbowl commercials, for all you cat-hefting fuzzy-slipper-wearers like me who couldn’t be bollixed to watch the game.

Jessamyn has some commentary on the British Library’s wickedcool DRM-bashing. Nothing new to librarians facing superrestrictive e-journal licenses, I’m sure.

And finally, here’s a link to the first two episodes of The IT Crowd, a new British sitcom (I’m quite the UK fangirl today) written by the same guy who did Father Ted. And if you haven’t seen Father Ted, well I’m just sad. Disappointed and sad.

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Maysan Haydar is Cool

My friend Maysan Haydar has always been cool. She introduced me to Bratmobile and Swing dancing back when such things were hip. She got a tongue ring before everyone else. She was the first person I knew to dye her hair purple.

She escaped from Flint, majored in Linguistics and moved to NYC to write for The Nation. Now she’s a social worker. Oh. And she wears the hijab. Here’s an excerpt from an article she wrote for the book Body Outlaws about why she wears the veil, and what it’s been like.

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Daleks

At work we have a squadron of slightly outdated DVD jukeboxes. I’ve always been a bit intimidated by them, but until today I didn’t know why. However, the truth has finally come out…

The new BBC Dr. Who is really good, by the way.

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Trash for Christmas

I’m back, and am the proud new owner of a headlamp! If anyone wants to go dumpstering with me this weekend, send an email. I’m well-equipped. If you think dumpster diving sounds horrible and gross, here’s a good, well thought-out discussion of the topic, along with some great examples of what you can find. Being filth-averse, I tend to stick to non-food dumpsters and recycle bins. Also, here’s a link to an interesting California legal precedent which might help with the police if you ever get caught. Librarians: this is a great way to aquire new books…as long as you aren’t picky about things like covers. .

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By the way…

If you are one of the kind people who has written to me in the last few months, my lack of response is not necessarily an indication that I don’t love you. Although that is entirely possible. I deleted my entire inbox right before I left. It was a gory Thunderbird conversion accident. You may now call me slick and proceed with the wedgies.

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Comforts of home

box o' nyquilWe’re home and happy to be here. Although we didn’t fall to our knees and kiss the ground upon landing, we did nearly kiss the cashier at Sparro’s in the airport, which sold several varieties of vegetable-laden food. In the heady postprandial bliss that followed, we sung several verses of “Proud to be An American (‘cause at least I know I’m Free)” and, after finding Advil, Sudafed, and Nyquil on sale at the newsstand, nearly joined the Armed Forces.

Owl the cat was so happy to see us that he immediately fell over. He’s been purring for about twelve solid hours.

I apologize for the disturbing picture in the last post. The greasy keyboard made me do it. Those legs really do hang in every restaurant, bar, and grocery store in Spain, though. Just to remind you that yes, you are eating pig. This pig.  Here he is.  Say what you will about the soylent greenishness of the U.S. attitude toward meat, I’m not sure hanging desiccated corpses around is a compelling alternative.

Ooh, A Prairie home companion is at my alma mater Michigan State University tonight. Yay! 

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Spain update

jamon.gifHi all – a quick update. I don´t want to type much since I´m using a cybercafe machine and the keyboard is greasy, perhaps due to the monumental consumption of pork products in this country. Great XForms tutorial this morning at the conference. I learned a whole lot about XHTML 2.0 as well. This is some damned exciting stuff for libraries and the library-ness of the web. I´ll try to talk some more about XHTML2 when I´m not dizzy from Spanish over-the-counter cold medicine.

Right now I´m going to stay away from the complicated topics and just wish everyone in Los Estados Unidos a happy Thanksgiving. Wish I was with you eating stuffing instead of sitting in a weird cybercafe looking at a pig leg and inhaling secondhand smoke. Good times. I´ll see you all on Saturday back at home.

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Dark night of the soul

Hi folks. It’s five am here. I’m in Gijon, Spain. It’s the morning before my conference and my cold has gotten worse. I went to La Pharmacia yesterday and tried to secure something to make my nose stop running. Medicine here is weird. I don’t recognize anything. There’s all this herbal and homeopathic stuff, and when I described my symptoms to the nice pharmacist she gave me the Spanish equivalent of Alka-seltzer with vitamin C. I’m at the point where I would sell my cat for some Advil Cold and Flu.  Oog.