Soothing fire

Now I am turning to a 6 oz box of Hot Tamales to ease the pangs of Senioritis.
I didn't realize I was quite so freckled. These are the dangers of being glued to a computer with which you can take pictures.

Homework block

I am alternating between Rosemary Clooney ("Come On-a My House") and "De-Lovely" (Patti Lupone production of Anything Goes) on my mental soundtrack, and nothing is getting accomplished!

Today's most awesome name.

Vyvyan R. (Masterson) Stoothoff-Garcia

And the Boston Red Sox are the World Champions

Somehow it wasn't as shocking this time around, despite the similar comeback, but the outcome was still sweet. And it provides an awesome excuse to purchase a new Red Sox hat . . .

Birthday #30

On the occasion of my thirtieth birthday, I thought that I would review my life in ten-year increments.

1957: Launch of Sputnik. I am nowhere to be seen. Coincidence? I think not. Also the debut of Leave it to Beaver.
1967: Apparently a famous UFO sighting in Canada.
1977: Birth of me. Also . . . actually, not that much appears to have happened that day.
1987: From the pictorial record, it would appear that I was wearing a frumpy purple party outfit, and I forced my guests to play croquet and read books of scary stories and enter a can-crushing competition.
1997: This is a little fuzzy, since I've never been as good at labeling my pictures as certain people in my family. At the age of 20, I had never dated, did not own my own car or computer, and was just beginning my third year of college. I am sure I had a cake.
2007: I am now a grown-up, whether I want to be or not. By and large, I think this is a good thing. I am still in school, however . . . I also recently celebrated reaching the coveted 19th grade marker.
2017: I hope that I will be forcing neighbor children to play croquet for someone else entirely. Cheers.

NBC apparently has rocks for brains

Since they decided to fire Bud Collins (legendary tennis commentator and Boston Globe correspondent) from Wimbledon coverage after this year. Now, Collins may have an interesting wardrobe, but as far as I know he had recovered from his recent health problems and is more than capable of guiding American audiences through an understanding of tennis. He is an icon, a landmark, a legend. NBC: firing Bud Collins to get a fresher, younger face on the camera is not going to make American tennis prospects any brighter for the foreseeable future! Andy Roddick is just not at the level of Federer or Nadal! Get over it! At least if Bud was around, we could still remember the glory days. Anyway, hooray for Venus Williams for pulling it out again. I can't believe I've spent this long talking about tennis, but there you go.

New Developments in My Life

Apparently I look like a Stop and Shop employee, because twice in the last few weeks I have been stopped and asked where something was. Damn my collection of green shirts! Then again, I can't be held accountable for how nice I look in green . . . but yesterday, I was actually wearing a Red Sox hat as well. How often do you see Stop and Shop employees who are wearing ball caps and pushing shopping carts while on the job? Anyway, I helped both of them as best I could. I prefer to think that they sensed my general aura of helpfulness as a reference librarian (exuded even on my off hours) and not that they are completely oblivious people who have a Pavlovian reaction to green.

Maybe the Sun will come out today . . .?

We are going to see a game tonight and hope it won't be as depressing as the last three. They have managed to lose 8 of their last 10, but by those small, demoralizing margins. However, they did beat Indiana last week and they are facing them again tonight, so fingers crossed.

This just in . . .

Westfield State College has an Institute of Homeland Security from which you can earn a Graduate Certificate in Homeland Security Studies. WHAT have I been thinking this past year? Clearly I applied for the wrong graduate program. Why am I wasting away in Libraryland (tm my professor) when I could be helping them rewrite parts of their homepage?

"The Institute of Homeland Security's philosophy precedes first from a recognition that knowledge in homeland security and its related issues are an essential prerequisite for the construction of sound decision making."

Huh?

Well, I'm not sure that I'm willing to give up library science just yet, but maybe I have room in my schedule to audit CRJU 0643 Counter-Terrorism and Infrasturcture Protection. Yes, that says "infrasturcture." It's the terrorists' version of infrastructure.

Finally

The CT Sun finally pulled out a win last night, ending their franchise-longest losing streak at five games and making my waning faith perk up a bit. Not that I'm a fair-weather fan, but the dismal home record and the inability to win close games was becoming somewhat wearing. Luckily the Red Sox continue to impress, despite slipping a bit in June, and the Yankees (even though they mounted a spirited comeback and will doubtless continue to creep closer) look more human than they did a week ago after being swept by the Rockies.

I never did wrap up the NBA season, so here are my thoughts re: the surprising (to some sports media heads) Jazz season. If they can quit bickering and get a good few rookies through the draft, as they have done in several recent years, they may actually have a chance to contend for the title next year.

I just saw the Boston Bruins revised uni designs on Uni Watch, and they're pretty awesome. When I heard that the NHL was going to redesign their uniforms--perhaps in an attempt to redesign league-wide attendance to reach a higher number?--I was, naturally, petrified. Especially after the WNBA debacle earlier this year. I haven't forgiven you yet, Adidas!

In other sporting news, I was reminded while listening to Only A Game this morning that the professional women's soccer league will soon be reborn. I have to confess that I am looking forward to the women's world cup and the possibility of going to a few matches in New England, after all the fun we had attending the last World Cup at Foxboro. I wonder if any of the games will be on Gol TV?

Meta

Is it possible that I just read in my textbook this sentence:

"It may also include a header containing meta-metadata."

If my book (The Organization of Information) contains descriptive information about that potential header, does it make the paragraph meta-meta-metadata?

MARC records are fascinating

Clearly this is why I am in the right place. This morning the power went out at the library, and we had to close our doors because we can't have people going upstairs and hurting themselves (or doing anything else, I hesitate to guess what) in the dark stacks. Also it is difficult to check out books to people when your circulation system requires electricity. One of the French translations of which was "jus." Now we are all out of whack and it reminds me again how much reliance there is on computers in the library. We use them to look things up. To make signs. To find out whether a patron has five million dollars in fines or has had a restraining order placed against them. To check the weather. I guess the people that keep their physical reference collections around "just in case" might have a point.

In other news, my library just got "Brokeback Mountain" in Russian (the text, not the movie, although it does borrow from the movie photo). Awesome.

Back Again

Classes have started for the summer semester, so naturally I have returned to considering all that relates to library science and sports. Particularly Cataloging and the Red Sox, since the NBA playoffs are done and I am on partial strike against the WNBA until they change their new uniforms (Yuck!) and the Sun pull it together and have better than a 1-4 record at home. We watched the 2nd half of their game last night against the Liberty and it was . . . let me coin a word here . . . wincerrific.

Here is my burning question of the moment: has anyone ever made it to the bottom of a tube of chapstick? Is there anything down there? I know in my house growing up, we had tubes of chapstick that were metal rather than plastic, so I always assumed that chapstick was self-refilling or something. I am off to learn more about MARC records . . .

Tornado Watch

Cool, there's a tornado watch and we might have to close down the library. We haven't had this much excitement since the bomb scare or the time that light bulb exploded and rained glass down on the rental collection. Also, what is it with Wednesday nights and programs/meetings? We have about five different groups all meeting at the same time. It's never this busy on Thursday night. Maybe programming + hump day = formula for high attendance?

Ugh.

I just noticed that no one in the Red Sox lineup is batting over .300. This is going to bite them in the ass (no matter how good the pitching) if they don't shape up.

7 Down, 5 to Go!

I am now more than halfway done with my third (and hopefully final) degree. Hee, third degree. Anyway! It is very exciting . . . soon I will be able to put ", Librarian" after my name in a pretentious way.

I am also very excited to take Cataloging over the summer. I know that a lot of people hate it and would never ever take it if it weren't a required class, but I like to know the logic behind things. And without cataloging, how would we put books on the shelves? One of my professors said that the most important thing to have in a library is good shelf reading (because if books aren't where they're supposed to be, there's no point in having a library). But I also think that appropriate cataloging is crucial, because so many people browse rather than search the catalog . . . I'm sure that I'll have more opinions on this as the course wears on.

Tip and Wag

I envision this like Stephen Colbert's Tip of the Hat, Wag of the Finger.

Tip of My Hat:

Utah Jazz, for not folding under pressure like they (sometimes) are wont to do. Bring on the Golden State Warriors! (Maybe I'm just a pessimist, but I find them rather intimidating after they destroyed Dallas).

Connecticut Sun, for starting off the pre-season with a win and making me glad that I'm a women's basketball fan. That stretch of time between the NCAA championships and now was a painful month, but I made it through!

Wag of My Finger:

New York Yankees! Why are you paying Roger Clemens $6.5 million a month to pitch for you? You would have been fine! Not that I'm a Yankees fan--I'd like to emphatically deny that right here and now. However, this move is so ridiculous and over the top (in the beginning of May, people!) that it makes me hope even more that Clemens pitches like crap and gives up five home runs a game and breaks his ankle on June 5th and they'll be right back where they were!

On the opposite note, way to go Red Sox for actually taking two of three from the Twins in the dreaded Metrodome. It could have been a sweep with the way Santana was pitching yesterday, but I think they'll take it and run all the way to the other indoor arena where they always get beaten: The Rogers Centre.

LaFrance

This just in . . . I haven't figured out what Felton Spencer is doing these days, but his middle name is "LaFrance." He is fourth in Jazz playoff history with 5.6 rebounds per game. I wonder what his fouls per nine minutes average would be.

Headed for Heartbreak?

I'm sure that I am not alone (though perhaps there aren't many in the same condition on this side of the country) when I admit that I'm biting my fingernails about tonight's sole remaining NBA first-round playoff game between the Rockets and the Jazz. Yes, its the Jazz I care about--I can't help it, I'm from Utah! This is the first year in several years that they have been in the playoffs, and so far all they've managed to do is not disgrace themselves by being swept. In a series that has been characterized by home team wins, I am not overly optimistic about their chances tonight in Houston. Even if they do manage to win, this is the only series in the first round that is even going to seven games, meaning that the winner will meet a fresh and upstart Warriors team in the second round . . . which at least guarantees a home court advantage, but look how much good that did the Mavericks. The Salt Lake Tribune ran an April Fools' article about Karl Malone coming out of retirement for the playoff run, and I hope I'm not a traitor to my team if a little part of me wishes that were true (and also Stockton, of course, and while we're at it--why not Felton Spencer? What the heck is he doing these days anyway?). Not that the Jazz managed to win it all with the StM combo, but at least it felt a lot more likely. Somehow, if they lose tonight, it won't really be heartbreaking, it will be . . . reassuring. Any team that finishes the regular season so badly probably isn't going to make it in the final round, so why not accept the inevitable early on?

On Obituaries

One of the jobs I do at the reference desk involves perusing the local papers and entering the names of the people who have died over the past several months, their age, and the page number and date of the obituary. This is so future versions of me will have an easier time of it when the relatives show up and want to see the microfilm. It is also an interesting way to study the demographics of a place like this, as well as the statistics of death. While most of the people in here are in their 70s, 80s, and 90s (and even some in their 100s), there are a surprising (possibly only to me) number of 20s, 30s, and 40s, and unfortunately also several newborns or young children. Doing a job like this makes you realize that people are dying every day, as well as being born, and there's not much anyone can do about it. The best thing about this task is the opportunity to name-watch, which I haven't done since my days of running summer registration for children's tennis. For example:

Giacomina (Richiedei) Risciotti
Czeslawa (Macierowski) Chmura
Anne P. (Kudelski) Philbrook-McMennamin
Justin Plouffe
Josephine "Pina" (Salvetti) Lorenzatti
Tadeusz Pasterkiewicz
Mario Asta-Ferrero

Hopefully these names will live on long after their bearers.

Testing . . .1 . . .2

First, I would like to reiterate that I hate the word "blog." It sounds so uncouth and like the word "smog" and "snog" (which I guess is not too bad) and "flog," but it doesn't have the power and excitement of even the worst of those. Nevertheless, I felt that I had deprived the world of my words of wisdom for too long, and therefore I am taking this opportunity to come out of my semi-seclusive hermit-crab-life and speak my mind!

I plan to speak about various things, but primarily my passions, which are: 1) sports, and 2) library science. This may not seem like the ideal combination, but it makes a strange amount of sense once you think about it for long enough--like peanut butter and chocolate.

Helga