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