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How to search Amazon for sale stuff

As a librarian, I feel obliged to share this method of procrastination resource with others:

These clever folks figured out how to link directly to stuff on sale at Amazon. So if you want to look at 80% off Office Supplies for some reason, you are now able.

micetoys.jpgThis ability proved to be distracting once I discovered the 50%-off pet supplies. Owl-the-cat will soon possess 60 “Rattling Rainbow Mice (in Cheese Wedge Display Box). He goes through the damn things like popcorn, and I’m sick of paying two bucks each for them at PetSmart.

Here’s the pet links for you Dog People and Cat People

Link via Lifehacker

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Four…

FOUR JOBS YOU’VE HAD IN YOUR LIFE
Historical Reenactor (1800s)
Historical Reenactor (Renaissance)
Waitress/Bartender (Dublin)
Designed a website for a group of Butterfly Researchers

FOUR MOVIES YOU WATCH OVER AND OVER
The Quiet Man
A Room With a View
The Commitments
Standing in the Shadows of Motown

FOUR CITIES YOU’VE LIVED IN
Flint, MI
East Lansing, MI
Dublin, Ireland
Ithaca, NY

FOUR TV-SHOWS YOU LOVE TO WATCH
The I.T. Crowd
Veronica Mars
Father Ted
Colbert Report

FOUR PLACES YOU’VE BEEN ON VACATION
Budapest, Hungary
Ada, Oklahoma
Belfast, Northern Ireland
Shepherdstown, West Virginia

FOUR WEBSITES YOU VISIT OFTEN
Popgadget
Mimi Smartypants
Lifehacker
Cute Overload

FOUR OF YOUR FAVOURITE FOODS
Fried wontons from the Cantonese Gourmet in Flint, MI
Anything from the Earthen Jar in Ann Arbor, MI
Obnoxious cheese
Beer

FOUR PLACES YOU’D RATHER BE RIGHT NOW
Frank’s in Ann Arbor for Sunday breakfast, the newspaper, and friends
Sailboat in Georgian Bay, Ontario, getting sunburned and listening to the radio
In bed with the cat on my chest
In a canoe on Town Lake in Austin, TX with water moccasins

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The contents of my (outsourced) brain

My brain and my bookmarks are getting more tightly interwoven as the years go by. A few hours away from my desk and I start itching for the hive mind. Here’s a few of the tabs I’ve had open lately.

  • Wild Turkey Sounds
  • Dojo, a JavaScript toolkit that takes the hard work out of stupid Ajax tricks
  • The Current State of the Irish Language
  • Palaeography, the reading of old handwriting. I got to translate a contract of indentured servitude for work once. That was cool. (thanks metafilter)
  • Routine Recording Cards (thanks lifehacker)
  • Cat and Girl debunk animal myths
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NYPL Web Resources Rock my Mundo

I got my New York Public Library card in the mail today.
rosettaspan.jpgAnyone who lives in New York state is eligible for a card, so I now have access to the library’s impressive collection of online resources.

I spent the morning refreshing my Spanish at the NYPL’s Online Language Learning Center. It uses the Rosetta Stone software, which now has a place on my desert island list of media resources, along with the White Album and the entire first season of The Dog Whisperer.

If you haven’t used or seen Rosetta Stone, it is Language learning software with the remarkable ability to hack your brain and force it to actually understand and remember all of those verb conjugations you had to memorize back in college. rosettaspan3.jpgThe lessons are reinforced with audio, video, writing and images, so it imitates an immersion experience more than a typical grammar-based language course. There’s even a module that has you speak into a microphone and shows you a waveform comparing your speech with someone who doesn’t suck.

I haven’t explored the other web resources, but I’m tickled at getting access to this one. The software is in the $300 range, and Cornell doesn’t have a license, so I feel like I’ve gotten my taxes worth this year. Thanks NYPL!

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Status Report, in metaphorical couplets

fungus.pngMy tenure as couch fungus has ended.
No longer do I contain the churning seas.

I miss my days-long hibernation
I also miss being an overpaid cat-pillow.

Detaching myself from the couch was the hard part.
Since then, everything’s been duck soup.

After two plague-ridden weeks, I returned to work.
It’s much easier to be an office chair fungus.

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Librarian vs. influenza: day you have got to be kidding

You guys rule. Thanks for the comments and updates. I’m still sick. Here’s some replies to the kind souls who wrote yesterday…

Carisse: Hook ’em horns! From what I hear, the philosophy department had one heck of a softball team.

nycejo.jpg Catrina: I totally agree. I’ve beendrinking pints of DeTox and Breathe Easy, with a side of Echinacia and Chamomile mint. Stupid Ralph left for the day, but his friend Vertiginous Vinnie stopped by this morning. Which means I’m typing this with my eyes closed as the keyboard spins rather disturbingly otherwise.

Cute Overload is the best. I refreshmonkey their feed regularly. Bunnies cure all.

Steve: Thanks! This flu is like a writing exercise. My lit professors always said that constraints catalyze creativity. I’d like to add that vomit volumizes verbosity.

Has your son experienced a traumatic event? His DVD behavior sounds like a cry for help. But then, I’m a girl. It could just be a call for boxing gloves and a little brother.

Meg: Eggs? Org. Perhaps I should rethink my question.

Seriously though, the new kitty nurses. Like, he sucks on things. Schlurp schlurp schlurp. He’s a big snoring baby with hairballs. Schlurp.

Also, hooray to your librarian destiny! Mine got beat up by my better-pay-as-a-user-advocate destiny. But librarianship is an identity, it’s larger than a single profession.

Linda: I have no idea what movie this is. The only thing I really miss by not having cable is the movie previews. Sometimes I remember to check the apple site, but mostly I just rely on word of mouth and Salon.com. This was good? I should watch it? Better than Ang Lee’s finest? Will I require insulin? Will they even play it here in the cinematic desert of Ithaca, NY?

All: My friend Kara has put up some of our photos from NYC and Paris on flickr if you wish to travel vicariously.

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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.

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Librarian vs. influenza: day seven, Christmas edition

Today’s theme was “relapse!” (imagine a glittery song-and-dance number) with special guests Seal Cough, Bleary Confusion, and starring Blissful Unconsciousness.

brut.jpgI didn’t travel this year, so my tragic demise will only be witnessed by the Cats (who couldn’t care less and will cheerfully sleep on my head, living or not). I’m done for. Save yourselves.

My favorite gift was an Audubon bat house, courtesy of my parents. They know me well.

Happy holidays everyone, and get your flu shots.