Procrastination

I am a procrastinator. I always have been. For the most part, I’ve learned to live with it, although I am trying to plan better and start earlier.

Sometimes my procrastination works out for the best. Running flat out at a deadline often causes the creative juices to flow, resulting in some good work.

But there are other times when it’s a decided disadvantage. One example of this is when it comes to writing letters. I’ve lost touch with some friends over the years due to my slackness in the note-penning department. {Kendra M. is one of these, if anyone knows where she is now.}

So, to C. in Ira, Vermont and S. in Dundee, Florida: there are letters coming. They were going to be inserted into the Christmas cards, but that deadline somehow came and went when I wasn’t looking (I’d mention the cold I’ve been nursing since the 16th, but that would sound like a too-convenient excuse).

Anyway, please know that I have gotten your letters and emails and I’m really going to write to you.

Soon….

MS Thesaurus

Microsoft Word has me scratching my head again.

I wanted a synonym for the word 'information' and since there was a cat on my lap and my thesaurus was on the other side of the room, I decided to see if MS Word had any good suggestions.

Yes, I was balancing the laptop computer on the lap desk and the cat on my lap all at the same time. Obviously, it was Oreo and not either of the boys or there wouldn't have been room. There wasn't really enough room for her, but she was so insistent. And purring....

Anyway, which of these do you think I should use:

in order
in sequence
in turn
in rank
in a row

Huh?!

And here I thought we were living in the Information Age?

Thanksgiving 2006

The tradition continues...

Things I'm thankful for:

Opportunities
Having others believe in me
Second chances
Answered prayers
True Love
Laughter and smiles
Friends
Family, including my three black shadows
My wonderful house and shiny car
Chocolate
Disney
Books, Music, Movies

I hope you and yours have a fantastic week.

A Matter of Courtesy

Picture this:

Your favorite radio station is giving away a CD that you want. You’re the correct caller and the DJ (announcer?) tells you you’ve won. You say, “Wow! Really? That’s great!”

Stop.

What’s the next thing you say?

I listen to a country music station that’s broadcast from the Mainland and they have contests every Thursday and most weekends. I hear a lot of calls, received from cities and towns all over this nation, where people have just been told that someone is going to give them something. And only one out of every twenty or thirty says what I consider the natural, logical next thing: Thanks.

I’m going to refrain on posing this as a commentary on our modern, materialistic, “I deserve this” society.

Or maybe I’m not…

Earthquake

My house is fine. Mom's house is fine.

My cats are fine. Mom's cats are fine.

Mom is fine.

I am fine, except that I got the flu beginning Sunday night -- most of this week is just a hazy blur (yes, that fuzzy).

If you called to check on me, thanks! and I'm sorry I haven't called back.

Today I officially began freaking out about the fact that I leave next week. Losing a week can really mess up a girl's schedule...

My Itinerary

A stipulation of my contract is that I attend a distance learning conference. The one that I've chosen is in Portland, Oregon at the beginning of November.

If you think I'm going all the way to the mainland for a conference and then turning around and coming straight home, we obviously haven't met -- Hi, I'm Amy and I'm not crazy about flying. Yes, I do live in the middle of the Pacific, in the most isolated place on the planet, but let's set that conundrum aside for a moment....

So, in an attempt to get as much out of this opportunity as possible, my schedule is thus:

Leave Hilo on Friday, October 27.
Spend an hour in Honolulu racing from the inter-island terminal to the mainland terminal. I hope they can check my luggage through from Hilo directly to Seattle. I really hope they don't lose my luggage between Hilo and Seattle.

Arrive Seattle 10 pm.
Pray that I can recognize my own brother, whom I've not seen in more than 12 years. Now you know why I'm going through Seattle -- my stepmother, her parents, my stepbrother, his wife and their two children. Lots of family I either haven't seen in almost a teenager's lifetime or have never met.

Drive from Seattle to Portland on Wednesday, November 1.
Wish me luck -- it will be the longest I've driven in many years.

Attend WCET conference on November 2, 3, and 4.
In the evenings, expend all my willpower on not buying too much at Powells Books.

Arrive in LA around 6 pm on Saturday, November 4.
Take shuttle to hotel, check in super-quick, then walk (calmly, don't run!) around the corner and down the street and eat dinner somewhere cool 'cause I'M GOING TO DISNEYLAND!!!! I am spending 4+ days at the House of The Mouse. I get to see Skellington Jack at the Haunted Mansion, the new Pirates of the Caribbean with Cap'n Jack Sparrow, Monsters Inc. at California Adventure -- I could go on and on and on... And maybe, if I'm very, very lucky, I just might get to see the Christmas decorations, too. It's going to be super-weird being at Disney a) without Mom and b) alone, but I'll try to enjoy myself nevertheless.

Leave LA on Thursday, November 9.
A late afternoon departure means I get to spend about half a day in the park! Arrive in Honolulu around 9pm and fall into bed at Mom's.

Attend the HLA Conference in Waikiki on Friday, November 10 and Saturday, November 11. If it wasn't for the buffet dinner and presentation by Kumu John Lake, I'd see if N and S were free for dinner. Raincheck, ladies?

On Saturday evening, I finally fly back home to Hilo, two weeks and one day after I leave. While it would be nice to laze about and reaquaint myself with my babies, alas, I must away to work on Sunday (although not until 2pm, thank heavens).

Fear not for my kitties -- their grandmother has enough vacation time to be able to hide out at my place and be their servant.

Okay, time to start on the packing list:
winter coat
scarf
hat
gloves
heavy socks
boots
sweat pants
sweatshirt
....

Need a Halloween Costume?

S.O.B. is gonna have dreams about this one....

Thanks to Jessamyn for the link.

House Anniversary

Last year, I promised pictures of the outside of my house. Unfortunately, the images are sitting in my camera, which has no way to connect to the computer because I left the cable at home. For the third time this week.

Why yes, I am still experiencing massive amounts of chaos.

So, I will just say that I still love my wonderful house, even more so since Mom and I rearranged almost all the furniture last month. I'm more organized (not completely organized, but there's hope) and it feels better.

Here's to many more years...

JW at HLA

I am psyched that Jessamyn West of librarian.net is going to be at the Hawaii Library Association Conference this year.

Fall 2006 Chaos

The beginning of a semester (especially Fall) is always a particularly busy time, but the past four weeks have been almost non-stop chaos.

The telephone service on campus has been intermittent: one minute the phones will work, a few minutes later all you get is static. They’ll occasionally cut off in the middle of a conversation (the way I thought only mobile phones do) or randomly delete voice mail. And nobody knows why.

The wireless reception on campus is strong and covers numerous areas, except in the library, where the signal is weaker and covers fewer areas than last semester. And nobody knows why.

The networked print system is clogging so badly that after clearing the print queue, the computer has to be turned off and back on. Not just rebooted, but completely powered down. And nobody knows why.

I could go on and on, but I think you get the idea. We are all running around playing firemen, drowning flames that appear to be quenched, only to find that they were just smoldering and have burst into life again.

Could somebody please figure out why?

License Plate

As promised, here’s a photo of my new license plate.

What’s it mean? Good question.

WED are Walter Elias Disney’s initials.

The WEDway People Mover is an attraction at the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World. For me, though, WEDway also has another meaning – it means to do things in the Walt Disney way.

Not necessarily the Disney way, but the Walt Disney way. Yes, I think there is a difference. I don’t agree with some of the company’s current philosophies, but I do believe in Uncle Walt’s ways.

For those of you who clicked on the link and are surprised that a librarian would use Wikipedia, I’ll just say that I’m not sayin’ you should use it for your research paper, but for stuff like general knowledge and pop culture information, Wikipedia   can   be   pretty   gorram   cool.

Yeah, I use Google, too. And no, the first result isn’t me...

Hey, I Know Her!

I got a nice surprise last night as I was watching the first season of Numb3rs* on DVD – a former co-worker in the episode Counterfeit Reality. I didn’t get to work** with Sarah for long, but I admired her a lot. She’s smart, funny, charming, poised, personable, enthusiastic, dedicated, hard-working, fluent in at least two foreign languages... and, of course, she’s beautiful.

Okay, I’ll be honest – I didn’t just admire her, I envied her. She is one of the most perfect people I’ve ever met.

I’m glad to see that she’s working on a regular basis on TV and has finally started getting movie roles. Although they are movies I probably wouldn’t ordinarily go see, I might try to catch Whisper and Celestine Prophecy. Not only is Sarah in them, but so are some of my other favorites: Dulé Hill and Teryl Rothery in Whisper and Hector Elizondo in Celestine Prophecy.

C’mon, Hollywood, let’s keep this girl on the screens!



* No matter how many episodes I watch, to me, David Krumholtz will always, first-and-foremost, be Mr. Universe.

** The work was not acting-related. Anyone who knows me well knows that I would make a lousy actor.

Good Reads

Ruth has given me some very enjoyable reading lately. First, she was reporting from the SLA Conference and then from LISA V (both conferences I wish I could have attended). Then she recommended Old Man’s War by John Scalzi, which I borrowed from the library and liked a lot. I’ve added John’s blog to my Bloglines and am enjoying his postings as well. Thanks, Ruth!

Success!

Welcome home, Discovery crew! Congratulations to everyone who made this safe journey possible.

Cap’n Jack is Back!

No spoilers in this post, but I can’t vouch for the comments. You’ve been warned.

I’m always worried that sequels will just re-hash the best bits from the previous story – both movies and books have this tendency, in my experience. If it worked once, do it again, and again, and again....

Dead Man’s Chest manages to reference the fun of Curse of the Black Pearl without redoing it. IMHO. Others may disagree.

I wouldn’t say it’s as-good-as or better-than the first movie, but it is a worthy sequel. And that’s all I really asked for…

Oh, and just for the record, the smile on Jack’s face as he calls Elizabeth, well, something after she, well, you’ll know the look when you see it. That’s one example of Johnny Depp’s brilliance. That look is PERFECT for that moment.

Re-Reads

I owe Mercedes Lackey an apology. For my 52 in 52 reading challenge in 2005, I read the first four books in her Elemental Masters series and dismissed them as not re-readable. Must’ve been the mood I was in at the time, ‘cause I’ve just re-read them and did enjoy them.

Why did I reread them when I said that I probably wouldn’t? No clue. Happened to see one at the library, picked it up, read it, went back for the others. And now that I know there's a fifth one, I'll be visiting my library again.

And why, back then, did I not like the fact that she was using traditional fairy tales? There are plenty of re-tellings of stories that I enjoy, some of them quite a lot.

If anyone out there figures me out, would you have the decency to clue me in? Pretty please?

Transportation

One other thing I love about where I live now is the way all the cars, on both sides of the road, pull over to the side when an ambulance or fire truck approaches. I don't know about where you live, but they don't do that on Oahu and it drove me crazy -- 'Get out of the way! They're on their way to save someone!"

While we’re on the subject of transportation, another reason I love my new car is her better turning radius. Still not as good as Baby Car (who can turn tighter than a cat curling up for a serious nap), but better than Baby T.

And even though I still haven’t figured out what the name of the new car is (although I’m leaning toward ‘Beauty’) I did order her a new license plate. Unfortunately, it will be 2-4 months before I get it. When I get it installed, I’ll post a picture. Until then, I’m gonna make you wait to find out what it is. For those of you I've already told, no sharing!

Handy Tip

If you get a game piece on a drink from McDonald's, peel it off right away.

Good News

As you may (or may not) know, my position at the UHH Library is only temporary. Full-time with benefits, yes, but it's not a permanent position; once the search committee is able to full the position with a permanent body, I have to find something else to do.*

Well, the search committee has done their job and hired a tenure-track, Librarian II, Public Services Librarian.

They hired me.

YIIPPEEEEEEE!!!!!

I was completely stunned when I found out, because there was another candidate whom I felt certain would be their choice.

The official duties are:

"...this position will be responsible for a wide range of academic library public services duties, including delivering reference service; participating in library instruction activities; providing outreach to distance learners and support to faculty teaching distance education courses; collaborating on the design and maintenance of the library's Web site; working with faculty to improve library services; performing assigned collection development responsibilities; serving on Library, University, and UH System committees; and other duties as assigned."

Basically, that's what I've been doing, except the distance education outreach.

My colleagues here have been wonderful in their support while I was applying and interviewing and in their good wishes since the announcement that I got the job.

I am home.



* That 'something else' would probably be in this library, as there are several openings right now, but the distance education position was the one I really wanted.

Interesting Site

The many bibliophiles I know might enjoy BibliOdyssey, a site that features "Books~~Illustrations~~Science~~History~~Visual Materia Obscura~~Eclectic Bookart."