Thursday, September 16, 2004

Quick Update

I have only sporadic Internet/email access. Please forgive me if I don't respond right away. Updates will be scarce until I find out what kind (and how much $$$) Internet access is going to be at the new place.

Moving companies were outrageously $$$, so Mom and I have packed everything ourselves and will be loading it into a U-Haul on Monday, September 20 and then taking it out of the U-Haul on Tuesday and loading it into a 20' cargo container. The container sails on Wednesday and arrives in Hilo on Friday, but I won't have access until Monday.

Don't be on the Aloha Airlines flight that leaves Honolulu at 8:10 a.m. on Monday, September 27 -- Mom, Noreen, and I will each have one carry-on of one cat. Gotta remember to talk to the vet's about tranqs....

On Monday the 27th and Tuesday and 'til noon on Wednesday, Mom and I will get to take everything out of the cargo container and load it back into a U-Haul, truck it :) to my new apartment (description later -- it's way cool) and heave it up the stairs and into place.

Looks like the final box count for the books is 46.

Two of the things I hate most are moving and looking for a new job (no news yet) -- and at the moment I'm doing both at the same time!

Gotta run, but I'm still alive and doing okay...

Thursday, August 19, 2004

To Hilo

It's been a busy month and it's not over yet...

Tomorrow is a state holiday -- Yeah!

I'm off to Hilo on Monday where K. and I will be hosting an ALOHA meeting Monday morning and then working in the IfA Hilo Library on Monday afternoon and all day Tuesday.

Mom is joining me in Hilo Tuesday nite to assist in my search for housing on Wednesday and Thursday. If you know of a place to rent in Hilo, please let me know!

Sometime next week I will be having a phone interview with the University of Hawaii at Hilo Edwin H. Mookini Library for a Librarian position that I'm really excited about.

Friday nite the 27th K. and I are hosting an SLA event at IfA Manoa.

Saturday nite, N. and S. and I are going to try to get into The Cheesecake Factory in Waikiki.

Tuesday the 31st is my last day at IfA Manoa.

In the meantime, I continue to pack my books. I'm only on box 8, so obviously, I've got quite a ways to go...

Laptops in Classrooms

This topic is alternately depressing and infuriating. It's easy for me to get really worked up and fuming and I have to consciously take deep breaths to settle myself.

Repeat after me: EVERYTHING IS NOT, NOT, NOT ON THE INTERNET!!!

I agree that technology has done some good things and has some great possibilities, especially for long-distance learning. But the Internet should be only a complement to, not a substitute for, textbooks.

Here's the most depressing excerpt from the latest mistake:

“Next August, Tucson's Vail Unified School District will open a new high school without textbooks. Each of the 250 to 300 freshmen and sophomores will be handed a laptop computer instead.

"If we can rely on almost limitless information available on the Internet, why do we need a textbook?" Vail Superintendent Calvin Baker said.”

Fortunately, the NYT has published a cautionary tale about laptops in the classroom. As always, the answer lies in dedicated, creative teachers...

Wednesday, August 18, 2004

Astronomy in Hawaii

Honolulu Advertiser article about the benefits of Hawaii's location and weather conditions to the study of astronomy, and also about the benefits that the astronomical community provides to this state.

Friday, July 30, 2004

Blue Moon... Or Not?

It doesn't mean what you think. It's apparently the result of an error that has taken on a life of it's own. Here's the real scoop from Sky and Telescope where the problem began...

Radio

Now that I'm moving to the Big Island (in September), Honolulu has finally gotten a radio station worth listening to: KHUI "99.5 Bob FM."

Okay, first off, you've gotta love the name :-)

Now, don't get me wrong: The Big Kahuna's Classic Rock is a good station, but they play too much of the same stuff.

The Bob FM format is mostly 80's and 90's popular rock. It's actually much more diverse than that, but I can't be any more specific with actual titles and artists -- I've just got no memory lately. It's not always stuff I want to listen to (they play too much Tom Petty for my taste), but they are:

a) playing songs that aren't being played on every other radio station in town

b) not playing the same songs over and over and over (like every other station in town)

c) playing stuff that I haven't heard in many, many, many years.

Their tag line, though ("Music from the 80's, 90's and Whenever!") really stinks. If only they could get Darah to do their advertising...

Tuesday, July 20, 2004

Misc. Thoughts

Once again, others have said perfectly what I want to say, only this time they're friends. There's Lori's summation of fundamentalism and Puanani's review of Spiderman 2 and Stargate SG-1. I would add only that I was impressed by the makeup for Tobey Maguire's eyes when Peter Parker was so tired all the time -- for some reason that really struck me.

I don't know if it's because I'm new to blogging or what, but I was especially tickled a few weeks back when somebody I don't know mentioned my weblog.

Lastly, I finally got to see the version of Sense and Sensibility with Emma Thompson, Hugh Grant, Alan Rickman... It was so refreshing to see a movie where an entire scene is one shot, not micro-edits of many different takes. And, yes, my heart broke when Colonel Brandon (Alan) is waiting outside Marianne's sick room and says to Elinor "Give me an occupation, Miss Dashwood, or I shall run mad." Rewind, watch again, rewind, watch again....

Wednesday, July 14, 2004

Writing Exercise

My friend P. told me about this and it's a lot of fun! The next time you're bored, try this:

Write something where every line starts with the next letter of the alphabet. It can be a letter, a poem, a story, a song, or dialogue between two people, like this:

Alright, have you seen my llama?
But why do you ask?
'Cause I can't find the bloody creature!
Don't you swear at me!
Every time he goes missing, he runs to you.

and so on... I finished this one (my first) in about 5 minutes. It just really flowed.

No, sorry, you don't get to know why it's a llama, which is a shame, 'cause it's a great story...

Measuring Day

I'll be getting measured at Curves again tonight, but this morning I got an opinion that I really appreciated.

Mom dropped me off at work 'cause she needed to use my car (hers is temporarily out of commission). As I got out of the car, she said, "Hey, your butt's getting smaller." I laughed, crawled right back into the car, gave her a big hug, and told her I loved her.

It's a slow process, but apparently worth it...

Thursday, July 01, 2004

Tech Toy Note

Some clarification about checking library holdings from online bookstores:

The check is being done by ISBN, so a bookmarklet can be created for any site (not just Amazon and B&N) that uses the ISBN as part of the URL for the record (e.g., one of my fave places BookCloseouts.com).

BUT, this means that if the library has the book in a different format (hardcover instead of paperback), and therefore a different ISBN, the record may not show. Of course, you can always click on "Other Editions" and check from those pages.

I still think this is way cool...

Wednesday, June 30, 2004

New Technology Toy!

I'm so tickled about this that I just can't stop grinning:

With one click and drag of the mouse, you can have a new tool, called a bookmarklet, that will allow you to check a library system for any book that you find on Amazon.com or BarnesandNoble.com

The example below is for the University of Hawaii Library system, but this page lists several different library systems that bookmarklets are available for.

Bear with me now, because this is exciting!

From this page, click-and-drag the "USA - Hawaii - Honolulu - University of Hawaii at Manoa" link up to your browser's link toolbar. The links are listed alphabetically, so you have to go about halfway down the page.

Now, the next time you find a book on Amazon.com or BarnesandNoble.com that looks interesting, but you aren't sure that you want to buy it, this tool will allow you to check if it's available in the library so you can preview it.

Say you are looking at the Amazon.com page for The Most Beautiful Libraries in the World. Just click on the bookmarklet on your toolbar, and a new window pops up that shows you the UH record for that title.

Increasing the coolness factor is that each subsequent check will re-use the same window.

I'm off to try to create one of these for the Hawaii State Library's iPac system...

Thursday, May 27, 2004

Measuring My Curves

Well, I've had another measurement at Curves. No, don't go searching the Archives, thinking you missed something. I didn't post about the last one. And don't look for any specific numbers. You don't get those (yet).

When you sign up at Curves you get measured, and then each month on your anniversary date, you're reminded when you check in to get measured again (so I've had three measurements so far). The nice thing is, you don't have to get measured on that exact date (if you're feeling bloated or something).

Anyway, I want lots of measurements before I'm going to get really excited about them, especially since each time a different person has measured me. It is nice that I've weighed less each time (!) although I know that many different things can affect your weight, so weight loss has never been one of my goals. It's still nice, though.

And my chart shows that I have been losing inches (hips, thighs, arms, etc.). I'll be more excited about that when the trend continues for 6 or 8 months (or the measurer remains constant for 3 or 4). The thought that I'm losing inches is nice, too, but I'm not throwing a party just yet….

But then there's the body fat measurement. They have a machine that they program (age? height? weight? I'm not sure -- if anybody's curious, I'll find out more details) and you hold onto this little machine for a moment and it supposedly measures the percentage and pounds of fat in your body.

Which is the reason why I'm not going straight home to my very lonely cats, the Netflix movies that are waiting, the new bookcase that is longing to be integrated into my library, or the stack of books that I'm behind in reading. Instead, I'm going to exercise. And enjoy it. Why?

Because every month that little machine says that I'm losing body fat!

And that I will get excited about!!

Wednesday, May 19, 2004

WW2

West Wing Season 2 marathon begins tonight!! Thanks, Poppy!!

Friday, May 14, 2004

Spelling suggestions

For email at work, I use a program called Eudora. As I was typing an email today, I missed the 'i' in library. Just out of curiosity, I used the spell-check and it suggested the following for my misspelled word lbrary:

February
already
bad
back
bank
breath
stay
black
bring
sorry
always
chair
great
treat
trial

Now I know we all hate the big M, but at least MWord's only suggestion was library...

Monday, May 10, 2004

Links

Well, I've finally started to add some links over there on the right. I'm looking into BlogRolling (thanx, Lori!), so hopefully more will crop up soon. For now, here's a quick rundown of what's there as of today.

IfA Weblog is the blog I started to keep Institute for Astronomy researchers updated on what's happening in the space (pun intended) where the information world and their research collide. Probably very boring for anyone not conducting astronomical research, but hopefully useful for those who are.

APOD is the Astronomical Picture of the Day. To quote the site: "Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer." Be sure to read the descriptions to fully appreciate the images. Stuff like "NGC 4565 is only about 30 million light-years distant, but over 100,000 light-years in diameter" is just so mind-blowing…

virtuallori.com is my friend Lori's place in cyberspace. What can I say about Lori? She's smart, funny, and interesting … and she has the best recipes for three of life's essentials: baked mac & cheese, brownies, and margaritas. I miss her like crazy since she moved back East.

neilgaiman.com is the website of the brilliant mind behind the Sandman graphic novels. If you've ever wondered why I always wear an ankh, Sandman is your answer (it's a little more complicated than that, but then, most things are). Neil is another person whose writing I am in awe and envy of. So often, he phrases something exactly the way I would have if I could have, but didn't, so I'm glad he did. His views on animals is one example of this. The piece he wrote for SimCity 2000 is also an example of his ability to implant thoughts (in this case, the last two sentences) that can cause me to sleep with the lights on for a few nights.

WWdN is the online home of Wil Wheaton. Yes, the same Wil who played Wesley Crusher on Star Trek: The Next Generation. Now, before you roll your eyes and dismiss this as just one of my sci-fi induced delusions, try reading some of his entries (starting with this introduction) and remember to separate the actor from the character. I'm going to repeat that, 'cuz it's important: Remember to separate the actor from the character! I happen to know personally that one of the most popular leading male heartthrobs from the 70's and 80's is homosexual. So, separate the actor from the character and go read some stuff from the self-described "very happy husband, step-father, and writer" and I would add "cat lover."

Kiefer Rocks is a good example of what a fan site should be: timely news updates, articles, photos, even audio clips. I have to admit that I keep a browser window open on this home page and periodically throughout the day I'll hit the replay button, just to hear the opening audio. "I want your complete attention…" I'm trying to figure out just the right adjective for his voice: I don't think it's butter, nor whisky. I'm thinking it's caramel, but more research is required. If you have any suggestions, let me know…

Thursday, April 22, 2004

24

Well, last night I finished watching the second season of 24 (except for the bonus disc which I'll watch tonight) and I just gotta say, are they finished filming the third season, yet? Is it on DVD, yet? Well, is it? Is it?

Yes, rhetorical questions, but patience has never been one of my virtues. Don't ask what my virtues are, I'm on another track right now.

I had forgotten what an incredibly sexy voice Kiefer Sutherland has (probably because I haven't seen much of his work). Athos was always my fave in The Three Musketeers, partly because of that voice. To those who know me well, this will come as no surprise. Yes, I still fall asleep to Liam Neeson's narration of How the Irish Saved Civilization, and yes, I still have no idea how they did it, because I can't concentrate enough to actually process what he's saying. Other voices that make me weak? Kenny Chesney, John Spencer, Johnny Depp, Alan Rickman. Voice, smile, eyes, hair...

Sorry, where was I?

Oh, yes, 24. I can't watch the third season because I don't have access to TV stations, just my DVD collection, Netflix loans, and some old VCR tapes (although the machine has been acting up lately). Aside from CMT, Headline News, Stargate SG-1, West Wing, MacGyver, and Alton Brown, I don't miss cable (and some of those programs have seriously degraded lately). Besides, I don't think I could watch 24 as a weekly program. I'm too impatient -- as soon as I finish one episode, I can't wait to start the next one. I was seriously ticked when I realized that the post office hadn't delivered disc 4. I finished disc 3 and grabbed the next one, only to find that it was disc 5. Said some very unladylike things.

Okay, so I'm not very ladylike most of the time, but you get the idea. I was very upset at the delay...

Back on track: I'm thoroughly enjoying 24. At first I thought I wouldn't need to own them, but I'm reconsidering since I've had quite a few moments of "Oh, wow, I had forgotten that even happened!" Besides, there's that voice....

Minor Spoilers:





A few miscellaneous thoughts: Sad as it was, killing Teri was the right thing to do; disturbing as they were, the scenes of Jack being tortured were necessary. That's my two cents' worth.

To Kiefer and crew: Keep up the good work!

Library Strip Club

Yes, you read that right. The Library Strip Club, where "cocktail waitresses dress like librarians." Now why couldn't I have found out about this before I went to Vegas?

Thursday, April 15, 2004

Thought for the Day

A good friend will come and bail you out of jail.

A true friend will be sitting next to you saying, "Wow, that was fun!"


I hope that you have a true friend or two in your life. I know I do!

Tuesday, April 06, 2004

Seriously?

This CNN story is one of those things that part of me doesn't believe is serious: solar booty? snagging the capsule in mid-air? The most believable part for me, Stargate SG-1 fan that I am, is that Hollywood stunt pilots and an active-duty Air Force test pilot will be working together to make this happen.

Tuesday, March 23, 2004

5 Planets

Don't forget if you have clear skies to check out Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn sharing the evening sky.