Tired

I still haven't written my concert post. Right now I'm in my usual (of late) mode of just trying to somehow get through the week without my head exploding. Only to make it to the weekend where I will lounge about in recuperative (but unproductive) stupor so I can get ready for next week. I'm so ready to graduate next month. Between work, school, and volunteering at the library I have so many hours of my existence devoted to things that right now are feeling more like obligations than choices (even though they're really all choices of various levels). I ditched the library today because I just didn't feel like getting home with only enough time to eat dinner and then go to bed.

I hate that my house is such a dump right now. I don't feel like expending a lot of effort in my free time towards cleaning. At least with the end of school I will hopefully have a little more time for stuff like that. You know they say that the state of one's house is an embodiment of the state of their mind, and I can kind of agree with that at the moment. Cluttered house = cluttered mind. I need some clarity.

What The Hell Is Going On?

I'm finally out of paper hell. I feel like Rip Van Winkle. It's like I was in this netherworld for a week where all I could do was work on those papers! And now I have awakened.

I have to say it was tougher than I thought it would be. I wasn't really dreading it that much when I went into it, because one of the people that I work with at the library went through it a year ago and when I told her I was worried about it she said: "Aww, it's no big deal. Don't worry." So I didn't. But when I saw the list of 12 questions I started freaking a little because there weren't any on there that looked like slam dunks. And I thought there would be at least one that looked easy. After I wrote the first 2 papers I struggled with selecting a third question. I didn't feel like I knew much about any of the questions that were left!

I kind of laughed at the terminology of this thing at first. They call it an "experience", which seemed kind of funny to me at first, but damned if that's not what comes to mind now when I think about it! Oh well, I'm glad to be done. I need to get caught up on blogworld. I'd say that I'm never writing another paper, but the class that I'm taking this summer has a final paper! Gah!

New Tenants

Damn, I should be in bed by now. Lately Sunday evenings have turned into the equivalent of the day before vacation for me - I feel like there are so many things that need to be done before the week starts for real and I end up waiting too late and not getting them all done. Like blog posts!

The end of this school semester is approaching quickly. There was lots of drama with our group project last week, but we got a pretty decent project turned in. Several of the people all but disappeared, and I was writing stuff until a couple of hours before deadline and sending it to the person collating the report. I'm just glad to be done. I have to finish writing a short paper about my internship and then I will be done for the semester. This summer is my last semester. I don't feel the usual feeling of freedom, though, because in the first week of summer semester I have to do the "final project" deal where I have to write 3 papers in one week. Not looking forward to that.

There's a bird construction project taking place on my front porch. Some barn swallows have built a nest of mud and straw out there. I didn't know that they could just build one on the side of a brick wall! I don't see that it will hurt anything, so I'm letting them move in.

It's almost done. I wish I would have taken some more photos during the construction - it was kind of interesting to watch it take shape.

Do Over Day

You know how sometimes a day just doesn't go the way you want it to, no matter how hard you try? It was one of those days. Starting with the commute from hell. Why are people such shitty drivers? I mean really, it's not that difficult to pay attention and be careful. But someone had to act like they were in their own movie and cause utter gridlock. Things got better in the middle of the day and I was all set to finish my concert post tonight, but then the trip home annoyed too. And I can't finish that post in an annoyed state. So. It's actually appropriate that storm clouds are rolling in. I want a do over day tomorrow. Tomorrow will be better, but here are some photos of some funky ass clouds.

These are mammatus clouds. They usually form on the bottom of thunderstorms.

Some people call them fish scales.

This is known as a sky cameltoe. OK, maybe not, but it should be.

Yikes!

Springtime's Revenge

Oh my gah I should've never said anything about my allergies feeling better yesterday. I had to go out and do some weed-whacking, and even though I wore a dust mask, today my allergies have been terrible. I just want it to stop! Spring - stop springin!

I found out last night that apparently it is possible to read by candlelight. Although I did end up supplementing it with my little LED keychain light. I'm always amazed when I think about how candles and wick lamps used to be the only nighttime illumination. I probably wouldn't have been as much of a reader had I lived in those days. But I'd probably be better at telling stories.

Is It Tuesday Yet?

Today sucked. It was one of those crappy-ass Mondays that come around every once in a while to smack you over your unsuspecting head. There is a reason why Mondays seem to be especially reviled by the average working person. "Looks like someone has a case of the Mondays" Yeah, and if I could extend my middle finger in textual form you would be seeing it right now. As boring as this makes it for you, the reader, I'm not going to rehash all the gory details. I just want to forget about today, get a good night's sleep, and try again tomorrow. And that's that.


As far as other things go, I have enjoyed working at the library. BUT. This two jobs thing kinda sucks. Especially Saturday. It was pretty tough to work all week and then have to get up and go to work on a Saturday. I actually didn't feel too bad when I was up there yesterday, but I'm a little bit worried about the fact that I have to work the next 3 days from 5-8. When am I supposed to eat? I must be very careful about my reaction to exceeding my maximum human contact threshold. If I flip out, I must do it at my "real" job. Don't want to scare the library folks! But, if I didn't flip out today there's a good chance that maybe I can hold it in long-term. And all this work will help me in the long run.

I guess that's enough whining for one day. I'm going to sleep now so I don't kill anyone tomorrow.

The Hermit

I don't know what's wrong with me. Every weekend lately it seems like I don't want to get out of bed and I don't want to leave the house. This morning I had to force myself to get out of bed at 10:15. Maybe I'm depressed. Or maybe I'm just getting old. Or maybe there's nothing wrong at all. It just seems kind of weird. Who knows?

It looks like I was able to recover most of the files from my fried USB drive. Somehow the boot sector got corrupted. It wasn't easy, I tried every free piece of software known to man. I got one to work, but when I tried to copy a bunch of the files all at once to my hard drive the program got hung up so I shut down the computer and then I was never able to get that software to pull anything from the USB drive again. I ended up buying a recovery program for about $30 that worked like a charm the first time. The only bad part is that the filenames were lost so I'm having to look at each file to figure out what it is, which is pretty slow going. Oh well, it gives me something to do while I'm shut in my house.

At Least I Won't Have Time To Be Bored

The supervisor for my upcoming internship at the public library sent me a proposed work schedule for this spring. This internship is going to be tougher than I thought. To get all my hours in I am going to have to work 2 or 3 nights a week most weeks and some 6 hour Saturdays. Boo hoo, I guess. I knew it was going to be a big time commitment since I have a full time job. It'll be worth it, but it's making me reconsider trying to finish up this spring. I have a few more days to decide.

Ugh, my USB flash drive went belly up. I took it to Arizona and it was fine when I got back because I had saved a few of the photos I took in San Diego on it and I was able to get them copied over to my computer. The next day, Boom! When I plug it in the computer says it's not formatted. I downloaded this free disk recovery software but all it pulled off of there was text files. Luckily I don't think anything too major was on there, a lot of the files had been copied to my computer's hard drive. I'll keep futzing with it but I won't pay a lot of money for a recovery service or software.

Tomorrow it's back to the dentist to get my permanent crown. Yippee!! At least there shouldn't be any drilling involved.

My mom's Christmas cactus was blooming while I was visiting.

Sunset 12/24/07

Tooth Trouble - The Musical

Today was a bit discombobulating at work (but nothing like my freakout week before last!). Today was the day that we all moved to our new work area. It was good to get out of that fishbowl I was in, it’s just going to take me a little bit of time to feel like I’m in my own place. There were tons of boxes to unpack and things just had that unsettled feeling. It will get better in time.

Things aren’t the greatest in tooftown. A couple of days after I got my temporary crown last Tuesday my tooth started hurting a little bit. In fact, the last two nights I have been awakened in the middle of the night by a sore tooth. It seems to get better when I take some Tylenol, but I’m having to pretty much take it every 5 or 6 hours. My tooth is kind of sensitive to both hot and cold. It’s been coldish outside, and my tooth actually seems to start hurting a little after I’ve been outside even for a little bit. From what I can tell it’s not time to hit the panic button yet. Tooth sensitivity with a temporary crown isn’t all that unusual. So I may have to wait a couple of weeks after I get my permanent crown (not until January 3rd) to know whether I should worry or not. I just really don’t want a root canal, they’re so damn expensive (at least in this country!).

On a lighter note, if you’ve got some time to kill and you miss those good ol’ TV theme songs of yesteryear, check out this page. All your craptastic favorites are here – Hawaii Five-O, Diff’rent Strokes, CHIPS, Charles in Charge, Smurfs, Banana Splits, Sigmund and the Sea Monsters, Hong Kong Phooey. The Baretta theme blew my little 3 year old mind. Knight Rider is pretty rockin’. I dare you to spend less than an hour at this site, at least if you were as much of a TV junkie as I was when I was a kid. If you check it out, let it me know what some of your favorites are. (Look at me, I’m all Gen-X cool with the pop culture references! :P )

Under Pressure

I'm starting to freak out a little about things that I have to do for school. This week is finals week. It will be busy, but not exceedingly difficult. I'm more worried about next semester. Next semester is supposed to be my last one, but there's a big "but". I have to have a certain amount of library experience before I get my degree. Since I have never worked in a library, that means that I have to find a job somehow. I really thought that the school would help me out more with this, but that doesn't seem to be the case. It appears as though I'm pretty much on my own. That means that I have to do maybe the one thing that scares me more than anything else in this world - I have to cold-call people and beg them for a job. "Hi. You don't know me, and I have no experience. Wanna give me a job?"

While it is to the employer's benefit that they don't have to pay me while I work there, the duties performed are supposed to be of professional-level. So since I have never worked in a library before that means that if someone decides to give me this experience they are going to have to give me a lot of training. So despite the fact that I come free-of-charge, they're going to have to take a lot of time out of their day to train my dumb ass. Who would want to do that? What's in it for them besides the good will of someone they may never see again?

Another sucky part is that I have to register for a class to log this experience. But they won't let me register for it until I have something lined up. So that means I have about a month to find something before it is too late to register. Otherwise I may have to tack on another semester. Although I guess if I find something between spring registration and the start of the summer semester and get the required work hours then I could apply for a waiver on the class. I'm not too thrilled with my advisor right now.

Considering that today I really screwed myself by not getting enough sleep (lowering my IQ by about, oh, 50 points or so), I'm going to bed now!

Give Up The Funk

Ugh. Yesterday my olfactory system was assaulted in a way that it rarely has been before. Somebody at work smelled absolutely putrid. This smell made Baby Powder Man seem like a dream of heaven itself (Baby Powder Man has become mostly a non-issue. He's able to work from home now, which he does quite a bit). We are in the process of moving from one floor to another at work, so I am in temporary quarters until about the middle of December. I've been in my temporary spot for about 3 weeks. Yesterday was the first time this awful incident happened. The fact that I'm in a new area made it difficult to determine where the smell was coming from.

I'm not even sure I can describe this odor. It smelled like a man does when he doesn't take a shower. For like two days. It wasn't straight B.O. It was B.O. plus sweat plus old man smell plus bad cologne plus yot. Basically it was like I had a dirty armpit right under my nose all day.

I usually eat lunch at my desk. Yesterday I'm afraid that was impossible. I guess I could have tried to eat while only breathing through my mouth, but I do like to fully taste my food. Smell is an important component of taste. I gave it a good try, but I just couldn't do it. I went downstairs and ate in my car in the parking garage. And then went back up to stink city. If I had a laptop at work I would have moved in a heartbeat, but I'm tied to a desktop. I tried to dissipate the funk with the fan that I keep in my cubicle, but to no avail. It didn't help that I wasn't entirely sure who the offender was. By the end of the day I think I may have figured it out though. Luckily this person does not seem to be in the office too much. If this happens again I don't think I'm going to be able to handle it. I better stock up on air freshener.


On a completely unrelated note, check out this temperature drop (you can click on the image to see a larger view). We went from 70 last night to 39.9 tonight! Looks like something approaching fall is finally here. Good thing I'm going to Arizona tomorrow!

Research Paper Blues

All this week I've been working on a research paper that is due this Monday night. It's for my preservation class and I'm writing about deacidification of older papers. Yeah, fascinating I'm sure. I'm not too far from being done. The paper length is OK, but some sections need a little bit more cohesion. I'm really getting kind of tired of messing with it, hopefully I can finish it up soon. I'm not quite at the "I'll turn in anything" stage yet, though.

The temperature actually got down into the 40's last night. That's probably the first time since, oh I don't know, March? It was really nice.

I'm going to a concert Sunday night that I'm pretty excited about. I really hope I get to bring my camera! Stay tuned.

Tooth Trouble

Saturday night when I was brushing my teeth before bed, I noticed some sensitivity in one of my teeth. I didn't think much of it, but then last night the same thing happened. I decided to take a look in the mirror with a flashlight. There was a hole in that tooth! It was right at the gumline. It also looked like there was another one forming in the tooth next to it. So this morning I called the dentist so they could take a look at it. It turns out it was something called an abfraction. Basically when you subject a tooth to a lateral force, it bends. Eventually this can cause a piece to break off, which is what happened in my case.

The dentist gave me two fillings for the abfractions. I also had a cavity forming near a previous filling, so I had three fillings done. But hey, it's my lucky day, right? One of the abfractions was so small that they didn't charge me for filling it. So instead of being out $600, I was only out $400! My regular dentist was not in the office today so the fillings were done by one of the other dentists in the office. And I have to say, this dentist was kind of a hottie (and before anyone makes the joke, yes it was a woman)! But know this dear reader, it doesn't matter how hot the dentist is - the things they do to your mouth are decidedly non-hot. I can already tell that the bite need an adjustment. Hopefully it won't take three adjustments like it did last time!

Lateral forces on a tooth can come from three possible sources - the tongue pressing against the teeth when swallowing, an improperly aligned bite, or grinding of the teeth when sleeping. Filling an abfraction without addressing the underlying cause is not a long-term solution. So, it looks like I may finally have to get my teeth grinding problem fixed by getting one of those mouth guards made by the dentist. If I don't my tooth might eventually just break in half, and I bet that's even less fun than getting a filling from a hot dentist. I've been putting this off because it only costs a cool $600. Dammit! Maybe I can sell bald cardinal wigs on ebay.

On a totally unrelated note, did you all see the story about the chihuahua who saved the baby from a rattlesnake by sacrificing its own tiny body? Awesome!

Jury Doody

This is a real bummer – they’ve started blocking Blogger at my workplace. I was hoping that yesterday was just a fluke, but it was still blocked today. It seems like this happened once before and it was unblocked later, so there may be a shred of hope. I’m actually surprised that it wasn’t already blocked since they block flickr, Yahoo mail, and Gmail. Crap, I can’t even read comments left on my blog anymore from work. It’s like they actually expect us to work or something. Sheesh!

My favorite download site has a really nice Hendrix set for download here. While the set is quite short, the sound is great. I’ve heard tons of live Hendrix, and as far as quality these tracks can stand alongside any of the other ones I’ve heard.

Now the most boring tale of jury duty ever! Monday morning I returned to court to potentially serve as a juror. We were supposed to be there at 8:30, and I got there right about that time. After passing through the metal detector I made my way up to the 5th floor where we were supposed to report. It looked like a bus station up there, there were people sitting and standing all over the place. Luckily I brought a book, but all of the benches were taken so I had to sit on the floor. I had to dodge a steady stream of people going to and from one of the courtrooms since I was pretty close to the door (hey, don’t like me sitting on the floor getting in your way? Then don’t make me wait in the hall!). It turned out to be a pretty long wait. It was 10 before they started calling out names for us to line up and go into the courtroom. Actually, it really didn’t bother me since I would rather sit somewhere reading a book than go to work.

There were 50 of us total in the room (actually 49 since one person didn’t show). Since they only needed 12 jurors and 6 alternates, the chances were pretty good that I wouldn’t get picked. The case involved a man who was charged with selling a controlled substance, in this case cocaine. The state lawyer went through a Power Point spiel where he explained why it was a felony (there was between 4 and 200 grams of cocaine involved), how they had to prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt, and how any potential non-cocaine additives in what this guy sold would be considered to be cocaine. So if he sold 1 gram of cocaine mixed with 199 grams of baby powder it would be considered 200 grams of cocaine.

I know it’s a cliche, but as soon as I see a lawyer my BS detector goes on high alert. Some cliches are cliches because they are true. I have very little patience for the smarmy brand of BS peddled by many lawyers. They use their chicanery to get you to say things that you may not fully understand and try to make you feel stupid. This guy kept asking in each row in turn if we agreed with everything he said, and he implied that “quiet people were more likely to be picked” so that everyone would give him a loud “yes” when he asked if we agreed with what he was saying. Gag.

The defense attorney then got his chance to ask us questions. This guy seemed a bit seedier than the state attorney. He seemed like one of those guys that would have a splashy ad in the Yellow Pages or a TV commercial that runs during the Gilligan’s Island reruns. He latched onto his approach like a pit bull, and asked everyone in the first 2 rows the exact same questions: “Are you afraid of the government?” “Do you think the government could be wrong?” and “Would you be afraid to tell the government that they were wrong?” Not hard to see where that defense is going.

When both of the lawyers were done they sent us out into the hall again. Luckily since I was close to the door I got to grab some bench this time, and I sat down and continued reading my book. We were out there for about 25 minutes when they called us back in. The judge then called the names of the people who would be on the jury, and I was not one of them. Oh well. I wouldn’t have minded serving, but I’m sure I’ll get another chance someday. It was probably for the best, I might would have fried the bastard after that long wait they put us through. One odd note, there was a guy there that I went to junior high with. I recognized his name when they called it. I never would have recognized him from seeing his face, he’s about doubled in weight since I last saw him. I guess 20 years can do that to a person.

The Annoyance Coma

It’s a headphone day. I’m very easily distracted by people talking when I’m trying to read or write. There are a couple of people at work whose voices have become beyond irritating to me. When I hear them it’s like I go into some kind of annoyance coma. My brain shuts down and I can’t do anything. I think what I have latched onto about these voices is that they are different from what I normally hear. One person has a very flat, nasal, northeastern accent, and the other sounds like a record player playing at the wrong speed (too slow). Kind of like Lurch from the Addams Family. When I was working on my final paper for my management class last week I almost flipped out. I planned on having two days at work where I could get a lot of work done, but the coma-inducing voices were driving me absolutely b*&%^$t crazy. When I’m trying to do some real writing I don’t like to have music playing either. But if the choice is between music or annoying voices, music wins. At least now that I don’t have anything important to accomplish I can rock the music. Do any of you get easily distracted by voices, or am I just super-weird?

I got A’s in my summer classes! This was not a sure thing because I got a C on my management midterm paper, which was 25% of my grade. That was the one where I had to observe a library manager. I overlooked some of the instructions and left out part of what we were supposed to talk about. Killed the final though. Speaking of libraries, yesterday there was a really cool article in the New York Times about librarians. You can check it out here. It makes being a librarian sound cool! It’s very true that lots of people have misconceptions about what it’s like to be a librarian these days. Bekka, I would like to hear your take on the article since you’re a librarian and all. In the classes I have had where we had face to face meetings I have noticed a few alterna-people. Still not the majority by any means though.

Glug, Glug

Just a quick update - I'm drowning. Drowning in information, that is. I'm taking two classes at the same time running until July 6th. I have assignments due about every other day, sometimes there is only 1 day in between. So I'm not being antisocial, I just literally don't have time to do anything else besides read and do homework. Other than when I'm eating breakfast and sometimes when I'm eating dinner, I have watched no TV whatsoever since Monday. It's going to be a rough month, but it's for a good cause. I'll try to check in on your blogs when I have a spare moment!

In Search of Advice

I had the craziest dream last night. It involved Thailand, a soccer stadium, women on motorcycles, and a motorcycle accident. I know what you’re thinking, but it was nothing kinky. I did come up with a good line (at least for a dream). Someone in the dream was complaining about roaches in the bathroom, and I said to them “I’ve seen roaches bigger than that in my breakfast cereal.”

In a completely unrelated note, I turn to you, dear reader, for a bit of advice. I have gone on 4 dates with someone that I don’t think I’m attracted to. You know, if dreading upcoming dates and trying to find ways to get out of them is “not being attracted to”. It seems like she likes me though. For some reason I’m hesitant to just end things. I think it’s because I feel like maybe I will be really lonely without this person because there are no other prospects, nor are there likely to be any other prospects for the foreseeable future. I guess that’s the definition of “settling”, huh? A little part of me feels shallow too because this girl seems like a nice person but the physical attraction is just not there. Could she grow on me, like a fungus? So, any advice would be appreciated. Should I end things? If so, what’s the best way – ignoring communication, lying about seeing someone else, the truth (I just don’t feel that the spark is there)? I don’t have a lot of experience as the dumper.

Blog, Schmlog

Ugh. I have been extremely busy trying to finish up all my work for school this semester. Once I turn in my paper no later than Sunday, I'll be done until June 4th.

Beyond that, I've really kind of soured on the whole blog thing lately. It seems like it's been more of a pain in the ass than fun lately. We'll see if I can drum up more enthusiasm for it once this semester is over. Hmm.

Someone hit my blog today after performing a Google search using the phrase "Should I wear my dentures to a job interview?" Since I don't think they found what they were looking for, let me address this for the next idiot who stumbles upon my blog in the same way:

Short answer - Yes.

Slightly less short answer - Yes, except maybe if you are interviewing to be a prostitute or a hapless old person in a denture commercial.

Glad I could help.

Agita

There's been much agitation this week. Being tired is a part of it, but not the whole story. Yesterday I was fairly well-rested and yet I still ended up being cranky starting in the late afternoon. I think a big part of why hit me just now when I was thinking about it. I hate being controlled. I feel like my life lately has been controlled by lots of things other than me - the clock, school, work. And it's pissing me off. I want to do something that I want to do for a change dammit! I realize that life can't be just one big goof-off session, but I can't do stuff I don't want to do all the time. I need to be more patient. In May I will have more free time (best not to think about June for now). Patience has never been one of my strong points, however. The only other thing I can think of is recalibrating my expectations. If I don't expect to be able to do what I want to do all the time, then maybe it won't frustrate me so much. I don't see that one happening. I better concentrate on the patience angle. Maybe it will help to take a few moments for myself this weekend. All of this is small potatoes when I think about what other people I know are going through right now too.

On a different note, the same day that I posted about the color-shifting car I saw one of those Mary Kay cars on the way home. Pretty cool (you know, exept for being pink and all).

Fight The Power

Today has been a real knockout, dragout with Baby Powder Man. His evil stench was particularly strong today, so I cranked open the melon air freshener quite a bit this morning. BPM may have gotten the best of me today though, because now I feel a headache coming on. It's been a real baby powder beatdown. You may have won the battle BPM, but I'm going to win this war!

Speaking of headaches, I've been getting more than my fair share lately. In fact I just had to take some of my migraine medicine last night when I got home from work. I'm hoping that it's attributable to the fact that I haven't been getting enough sleep lately. That's one of my resolutions that I've been struggling with. I'm just like the rest of you - there just isn't enough time in the day to do everything I want to do. I can't even imagine what it would be like if I had children! I don't know what the answer is. Maybe it's planning my day better or dropping some of the things I like to do. I'm not sure, but I've just got to get more sleep.

And now for something completely different. On the way to work this morning I saw two of the worst bumper stickers I've ever seen. They were both real WTF experiences. The first one said "Say No To Cheap Cargo" and the other one said "Jetskiing Is Not A Crime". You know, I really don't give a shit about the opinions of total strangers so I would prefer to see no bumper stickers at all, but if you must apply one at least make it over an issue that is worth the trouble. Cheap cargo? Jetskiing? Who cares?! I wasted valuable reading time on those stickers! You know what? Douchebaggery Is A Crime, and you sirs, are under arrest.

Whew, good thing I'm at home now.

Here's some pictures of some strange-looking clouds I took last week:

These people may have been jamming cake into their pieholes today:

• Warren Beatty
• Tracy Chapman
• Eric Clapton (well, well)
• Robbie Coltrane
• Celine Dion
• MC Hammer
• Norah Jones
• Paul Reiser
• Paul Wall
• Ian Ziering