3 recent interviews of interest.

1. George Meyer, Simpsons writer.

GM: Oh, yeah! That one had my personal favorite internal gag that nobody outside of the show will ever see. At one point, the hobo is spinning a yarn, and Lisa interrupts with a story of her own. The hobo snaps, "Hey, who’s the hobo here?" And in the script, his dialogue note is "[ALL BUSINESS]." [Laughs] I love the idea that a hobo would be "all business."
BLVR: "I’m not a stabbin’ hobo…"
GM: "… I’m a singin’ hobo."
BLVR & GM [singing in unison]: "Nothing beats the hobo life, stabbing folks with my hobo knife."
GM: Wow, you weren’t kidding about being obsessive.
BLVR: It’s a little sad, though, don’t you think?

2. Umberto Eco. I am excited to read The Vertigo of Lists. Umberto Eco is like Borges in that, when I understand what he's saying, I think he's wonderful; but I only understand what he's saying about 30% of the time.

I realized immediately that the exhibition would focus on lists. Why am I so interested in the subject? I can't really say. I like lists for the same reason other people like football or pedophilia. People have their preferences.

3. Sylvia Earle, oceanographer and environmentalist.

"We look to those who killed the last dodos, the last great hawks and say, 'Why did you do that? What were you thinking?' That's not too distant in our past. Future generations will look at us and say 'How could possibly eat tuna? Didn't you realize how important they are? How there's so much we can learn from them, how they move through the water, how they communicate ... and you ate them?' They'll think that we are neanderthals."

Random Can't-Believe-My-Library-Owns-This book of the day:

The Collector's Encyclopedia of Buttons. Sally Luscomb, 1967.

I may order a newer edition.

Chickens? Chickens!

Today I ordered some eggs from a co-worker who keeps chickens. I'm inordinately excited about fresh eggs from happy chickens. (Which have not been de-beaked, or, I should think, tricked into thinking it is spring all the time.) AND! When I mentioned to some co-workers my enthusiasm at finding a source for local, fresh eggs:

Co-Worker 1: I keep chickens too. And I give the eggs away for free.
Co-Worker 2: So does Co-Worker 3, in our department.
Jocelyn: WHAT?!?

What is up with all these people with chickens? I had no idea it was such a phenomenon. I am beginning to think that I, as a non-chicken-keeper, might be in the minority.

[Note: this is because I work at a county library, and a number of my co-workers live on acreages or even farms. I expect this level of chicken-keeping is not seen in the general urban population. OR IS IT?]

When Animals Attack Magicians, part 34,286

Holy moley, this is amazing: Caught on camera: hippos kill crocodile in rare clash. I don't know what it is about African animals, but they're like Transformers: I love watching them fight.

Talking to Canadians!

Today I was contemplating ordering a new dictionary or two for my much-neglected reference collection, and in my research I stumbled upon the Wikipedia article on Canadian English. Fascinating! It was clearly written by one or more people with a serious interest in linguistics, as it does consider the "eh" phenomenon but goes into considerably more depth. My favourite part:

The ending "er" is often added to the end of words:

"Gooder" means a good thing, as in "that's a gooder". "Header" means to leave, as in "we gotta header". "Giver" means to exert allot of effort, as in "to push the truck out of the ditch you'll have to really giver".

Heh. Awesome. I can't say I really use many of these colloquialisms, although I guess I have probably said the phrase "We gotta header" on occasion-- although my inclination would be to write it as "We gotta head 'er." Also I thought about editing this article to note that the present participle form of "giver" is obviously "givering." Anyway.

I don't think I say "eh," but whenever I talk to Americans I suddenly become hyper-aware of the fact that I MAY HAVE said it.

Also: when I visit my parents in Washington state, everyone I talk to sounds like me, to me. I don't notice an accent. And yet people there know I am not from 'round those parts. Also, while I was at an antique store in Monterey a couple weeks ago a guy asked me if I was from England. So clearly accent-awareness varies from one person to the next.

Entrist? Entry-er?

I had to take a typing test online related to applying for some extra hours at my work. Results:



DON'T MESS WITH ME. Those are some serious typing skills! I should become a data entrist.
It only took me 4 seconds to type this blog entry :)

Day off project

What is this? (Besides a blurry, crappy photo)


Hmmm...


Yeah. It's a little sleeping bag/pocket for my dog. Jorge Garcia's dog has one so it's only fair, since Emma loves burrowing under soft layers more than any other animal I have ever met. I made it today with fleece and quilt batting and some leftover fabric and VELCRO!

Next step: I am going to put those adhesive grippy things for the bottom of the shower on the bottom. Then she can ride in it in the car and she won't slide around on the leather seats.

Aside from Canada, I also super-love The Internet.

Three Woolf Moon. Amazing. The saga continues.

Oh, Canada.

How I love your semi-socialist ways. CBC proposes a basic Canadian TV package with the price to be set by the CRTC. TV IS A BASIC HUMAN RIGHT!

Blurg

Hey, blog-boyfriend.

I should probably be doing one of a thousand work things but instead I just drew a little picture of how to build a sort of FrankenIKEA shelf that I think will meet James' and my clothing storage needs. It involves more EXPEDIT. Our house is basically just an EXPEDIT warehouse that also happens to accommodate a couple of people and fifty computers and a dog.

I returned last Thursday from Monterey, California, where I was at a conference. It looked like this:

And more importantly I saw this:



Those are harbour seals, I think. They are basically living my dream by sleeping on a platform in the ocean in an "actual pile." HOW DID THE HIGH ONES GET UP THERE? I waited around for awhile hoping they would show me, but no dice.

At this moment I have a firefox window open with the Wikipedia article on codeine, which I needed for a reference question earlier today. I'm leaving it there in case someone is looking over my shoulder. I want to create an aura of mystery around myself. Although the sad thing about working in a library is that my co-workers will probably just assume that I needed it to answer a reference question.

Geez, I'm boring. Sorry. When I opened this Notepad window I really thought I had something to say.

i left my heart in san francisco

if by "my heart," you mean, "more money than I should have spent," and if by San Francisco, you specifically mean, "a surprisingly charming bookstore in the airport."

I'm home!

Internet Librarian resolutions

I'm at a conference in Monterey, CA. Yesterday I totally wrecked my feet walking about 4 miles in totally inappropriate ballet flats. (Note: how far is 4 miles? No one knows! Speak kilometres, people! I hope it's a lot.) A few resolutions:

1. Why don't I have a netbook? Why am I typing on my fiddly little iPhone screen and hunting around for good wifi? I am a bandwidth peasant.

2. Why don't I have a totally supercharged and impressive FireFox install on both my home and work computers? NEED MORE EXTENSIONS, clearly.

3. Why don't I have a pet otter? They are adorable and so good at diving. Actually I should probably get two, that way they can do that cute paddling-while-holding-fins thing.

I got some wedding pictures printed a few months ago (for some of my more old-timey relatives) and I was pleasantly surprised by the experience. I haven't had physical prints made in a long time. It turns out now you can upload them to something called "the Internet," and then the photo store near your work emails you to let you know when they are ready (less than 24 hours later) and then you can go pick them up on your break.

But this led me to a dangerous new compulsion: having fancy little prints made of EVERYTHING I THINK IS BEAUTIFUL. You can see how this is a dangerous road to head down. Because apparently you can print anything that's a digital image. And you know where you can find digital images? The aforementioned "Internet." And you can get these beautiful matte white-bordered prints made for $.39 or something! So in recent weeks I've gotten the following made into prints:

• A few war posters from the previously-linked Boston Public Library.

• A couple images from this flickr photoset: Olivetti Lettera 2 Typewriter Instruction Manual [I love typewriters, plus, so mod!]

• This striking LIFE magazine portrait of my librarian superhero, Jorge Luis Borges

• And a print of the image from this threadless tshirt: Now Panic and Freak Out [I didn't use the actual image from threadless but a slightly less-official, but also less t-shirty, one I found in google image search]

Plus some art from artists which I am too ashamed of myself to link to. Although to be fair to myself-- only artists who don't have an online store or an etsy shop. Why have your art portfolio online and nowhere to buy your art? Use your 2.0 brain!

Today I am thinking of printing some of the signs from the 826 Vallencia Pirate Store.

I decorate my whole house and desk area with them. I need some kind of tiny-art bulletin board for my desk at home because right now everything is just sitting around, waiting for me to be inspired with a good way to display them. People who are into scrapbooking, or renovating, or event-planning actually call these "inspiration boards." I prefer to think of them as "stuff I like," because I'm too cool to use the term "inspiration board." Although these things do inspire me. Especially Borges. Look at him! You can tell he knows everything, but he's not telling.

Sometimes i love science

CBC News - Fist bump can pound out flu transmission

Amazing interview with Maurice Sendak, Spike Jonze and Dave Eggers.

But you have all the Disney characters on your mantel behind you.

Sendak: I adored Mickey Mouse when I was a child. He was the emblem of happiness and funniness. You went to the movies then, you saw two movies and a short. When Mickey Mouse came on the screen and there was his big head, my sister said she had to hold onto me. I went berserk. I stood on the chair screaming, "My hero! My hero!" He had a lot of guts when he was young. We're both about the same age; we're about a month apart. He was the little brother I always wanted.

Jonze: What was he like when he was young?

Sendak: He had teeth.

Jonze: Literally?

Sendak: He had literally teeth. I have toys in the other room.

Jonze: Was he more dangerous?

Sendak: Yes. He was more dangerous. He did things to Minnie that were not nice. I think what happened, was that he became so popular—this is my own theory—they gave his cruelty and his toughness to Donald Duck. And they made Mickey a fat nothing. He's too important for products. They want him to be placid and nice and adorable. He turned into a schmaltzer. I despised him after a point.

-Where the Wild Things Are

Over the weekend I made some very wholesome food.

Slow Cooker Pork Ribs. I've used this recipe before. I follow it more or less exactly, except for the fact that James and I don't like to measure, so we just put in whatever amount of things we want; and we add most of an onion and a bottle of beer, mainly so we can refer to them as Beer Basted Boar Ribs. This is a great recipe and it's so easy to start, then you get the delicious slow-cookery smell in the house all day.

Yesterday I also made homemade chicken stock using this recipe from Get Rich Slowly. I don't buy those Safeway rotisserie chickens that often since the amount of oil they come soaked in suggests they're probably not great for you. But I did buy one on a whim a couple days before so after cutting off most of the meat I threw the bones into my largest pot with some veggies and herbs. Not only did I put several containers of stock in the freezer, but my house smelled even more delicious all day and into the evening, so it was a double-win. (I guess the closest WOW-analogue would be Steaming Chicken Soup?)

In addition to my housewifely achievements, I also:

Went to see Where the Wild Things Are. It was weird and quite wonderful! I liked those Wild Things a lot-- they were just the right mix of weird, scary and funny. I don't have that much to say about it, though. I need to watch it again.

Played a lot of WOW. Like, A LOT. I go through these phases where that is all I feel like doing. James and I decided to play through some of the old content (from the original game, a couple expansions ago) which we are now way overpowered for. We played through Scholomance and Stratholme (multiple times on each, because we needed the reputation [ps, go read that linked article, or at least the Socrates quote at the beginning of it]), both dungeons designed for 5 level-60 players. Either of us (at level 80) could probably have cleared them alone, but as a team it was even more fun-- we would run through a room grabbing all the monsters, then kill them all at once. We were taking on probably 30 or 40 or more guys at a time and still couldn't really cast spells because things were dying too fast. Very violent! This cancels out the wholesomeness of the chicken stock that was cooking while we were clearing trash mobs.

Anyway, the mini project we were working on-- getting to Exalted reputation with the Argent Dawn-- was accomplished and now we might go play through the rest of the old-world dungeons just for fun.

Sometimes I remind myself of everyone else in the world because I wish I could afford to not have a job so I could do these things-- playing Warcraft, cooking-- all day. Except I know I would get tired of that after 1 week.

ALSO, AWESOME

www.d-e-f-i-n-i-t-e-l-y.com

Letters of Note is an amazing new blog I (and everyone else with an RSS reader) just discovered. Many of them are just fascinating-- do start with the ones in the sidebar (Elvis's Federal Agent at Large and JFK's I Will Not Sign This Letter are great) but many of the letters by non-famous people are just as good.

Work angst

How is it possible that some of these things have been sitting on my desk since JULY? Why haven't they just disintegrated? Doesn't work BIODEGRADE?

if we liked those out of print books, we should have put a ring on them.*

Normally I try to keep my uber-nerdy professional interests away from this blog (I don't want to compromise my really hip, trendy image, haha) but I had to link this one. A Library to Last Forever - one of the founders of Google defends the Google Books project. In particular this:

Others have questioned the impact of the agreement on competition, or asserted that it would limit consumer choice with respect to out-of-print books. In reality, nothing in this agreement precludes any other company or organization from pursuing their own similar effort. The agreement limits consumer choice in out-of-print books about as much as it limits consumer choice in unicorns. Today, if you want to access a typical out-of-print book, you have only one choice — fly to one of a handful of leading libraries in the country and hope to find it in the stacks.

1. True as far as it goes. 2. Doesn't mean we should willingly hand over these really priceless cultural resources to what is still, ultimately, a company. with shareholders! 3. haha, consumer choice in unicorns. That's clever!

*Will this song ever be gone from my head? Not likely!