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 . . .