Pet Peeve #234

I just finished reading a trilogy of romances by Kathy Love, and I finally put my finger on why I was a bit irritated by them. The story was great, I liked the humour, the plot, and the characters, but there was something a bit off about the dialogue. It's because the author did not use many contractions at all while writing the dialogue. Now, I don't know if this was the author or the editor who decided that her characters don't say "I'm" or I've" or "haven't", but it is weird to read dialogue that is completely lacking in those small idioms.

Online quiz fun!

Hey, take the The Ultimate Canadian Test and see if you can beat me! I scored 90 Canada speak and 87 Canadianess. And I got 30 out of 30 questions right! Yay me!

Stuff for sale

Those of you who know me know that I get bored with what I own pretty fast. Usually rearranging the furniture makes eveything better, but right now I really want to get some new stuff. In order to do so, I have to clear out some old stuff first.

First up: my really nice industrial looking steel baker's rack



If you want it, it's $50 bucks and you get to cart it out of my place.

Contact me for more details or if you're interested.





**UPDATE**
Sold to an extremely tall hippie guy with poor personal hygiene. Yay craigslist!

Where's the lego section?

Quickies:

I had a guy come in to the library today and ask me quite earnestly where our lego collection was. I began to point him towards where we keep our books on games and toys, then realized that he was looking for the legal section.
..........................
Someone in the library smells. really. bad. Like when you walk down a street and the aroma of stale (and fresh) urine reaches out from an alley or corner and knocks you back a step. It's like that.
..........................

Just because they are so cute...

hedgehog babies!

Just when you thought it was safe to return to the lab

Every once in a while you read something that makes you laugh so hard that you scare the people in the next office. I'm sure that Newton would agree...

Evangelical Scientists Refute Gravity With New 'Intelligent Falling' Theory

Go to the Fringe!

If you're in Edmonton, go to the Fringe. And if you haven't already on the basis of my previous post, go to "No Entry" at the Cosmopolitan Music Society Venue.

You have 5 more performances to go:
Today - Tuesday, August 23: 4:30pm
Thursday, August 25: 1:45pm
Friday, August 26: 9:30pm
Saturday, August 27: noon
Sunday, August 28: 8:15pm

I hear they got a sold-out audience for their first show. Yay them!

Pledge-a-Picket

There is a Planned Parenthood Clinic near me, and every weekend there are picketers outside. I get completely disgusted when I walk by the building and see them and now I can twist it so they actually benefit Planned Parenthood!

Here's the text of a letter I recieved today:
_______________________________________________________
Planned Parenthood Southeastern Pennsylvania

Familiar with the picketers outside our Locust Street health center?
Wish you could raise your voice against theirs?
By joining our Pledge-A-Picket campaign, you can!

Every time protesters gather outside of our Locust Street health center, our patients face verbal attacks from them. They see graphic signs meant to confuse and intimidate. They are sometimes blocked from entering the building and occasionally they are videotaped. They are offered anti-choice propaganda and free rides to the closest "crisis pregnancy center."
Staff and volunteers are also seen as targets. We are called murderers, are lectured to about committing sins, and are told we will pay the "ultimate price" for our actions.
You can stand with others in the community against these acts of intimidation and harassment.

Here's how it works: You decide on the amount you would like to pledge for each protester (minimum 10¢). When protesters show up on our sidewalks, Planned Parenthood Southeastern Pennsylvania will count and record their number each day from October 1 through November 30, 2005. We will place a sign outside the health center that tracks pledges and makes protesters -fully aware that their actions are benefiting PPSP. At the end of the two-month campaign, we will send you an update on protest activities and a pledge reminder.

Example:
If you pledge 30¢ per protester, and PPSP has 100 protesters in October and 160 pro¬testers in November, your donation would be $78 for the entire two-month campaign.
Similar to sponsoring a runner in a charity marathon, your pledge total can be capped at a pre-set amount, if desired.

Please complete the enclosed form and mail it back to PPSP in the return envelope. Questions? Contact us at pledgeapicket@ppsp.org
______________________________________________________
I'm going to pledge, and if you want to do so as well, here's a link to the pledge site. They have an adobe version of the form that you can print out and mail in.

Planned Parenthood Pledge-a-Picket site

Send your pledges to:

Pledge a Picket
Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania
1144 Locust St
Philadelphia, PA 19107-6734

What will I be when I grow up?

I know when I was little I dreamed of being a ballerina, an astronaut, an actress, and a bus driver (really - I would have loved to be a bus driver. Don't ask). Hmmm, I wonder what my choices were in the good old days of the sixties...

Check out these great images from What Shall I Be? The Exciting Game of Career Girls.

Shout out!

My erstwhile friend in Edmonton managed to get a Dena mention in way before I even made it back to the sunny South. And then I was lazy and neglected to post anything about my trip, Heritage Days, or Stan's amazing ability to give an endless head rub. But I'm the first to put a link to his blog on my site, so there.

And if you want to see Stan in person, he and a bunch of my friends are involved in a great show called No Entry at the Edmonton Fringe this month.

I was invited to a rehearsal of the show by the playwright and director Dave Owen. Unfortunately I didn't see the last scene due to the fact that it got late and we all wanted pizza anad beer, but I did get to read the end (thanks, Linda). This is one funny play!

It's at the Cosmopolitan Music Society, tix are $10, and the showtimes are:

Sunday, August 21: 4:30pm
Tuesday, August 23: 4:30pm
Thursday, August 25: 1:45pm
Friday, August 26: 9:30pm
Saturday, August 27: noon
Sunday, August 28: 8:15pm

Argh!

Right, I'm going to bitch now.

I haven't had hot water in the apartment for two days. Good thing it's an oven outside and the thought of a hot shower is repulsive.

I stayed up really late (or disgustingly early, depending on your point of view) last night expecting to be able to sleep in today. I woke up in a puddle of sweat because the power had gone off sometime during the wee hours and I had no more air conditioning. And it's like 35 degrees (celsius) in my home. I had no power until the afternoon. So I've been tired and cranky and hot for most of the day.

To end on a lighter note, though, the power's back, my hot water heater is working again (until it breaks down again, probably tomorrow) and I found a cartoon that made me smile:

After a long silence

It's been over a week and I've been lazy...I mean really really busy. So it's been a while since I've gotten on the computer. Plus, with the godawful heat in Phiily, I've been leaving my home computer turned off most of the time. If you're waiting for me to send you pictures, hang tight - I will be doing so soon(probably over the weekend, but I can't say for sure, I might again be lazy...I mean really really busy).

In the meanwhile, enjoy this series of photos that was emailed to me by a colleague:

Around the World in Seven Pictures

Only in China


Only in Hawaii


Only in India


Only in Mexico


Only in Texas


Only in Thailand


And finally...


Only in America

Reference Desk Fun

Today a patron came up to the desk with a memoir of a girl during the holocaust and asked if the book was short stories or a novel. I looked at the book and told her it was a memoir, neither a short stories nor a novel.
She said - but there are short sections in the book.
I said - Yes, it looks like it there are short essays or vignettes about her life during the holocaust in this book
- But are they short stories?
- No, short stories are fiction and this is non-fiction
- Short stories are sometimes non-fiction
- Actually, short stories are by definition fiction
- I don't agree with you, are these short stories?
- No, it is a memoir, which is written in chapter length vignettes
- Short stories can be non-fiction, you're wrong
- No, short stories are fiction. Essays and such can be non-fiction
- I don't agree, you're wrong (sneer)
- Okay, well at the library we do not classify short stories as non-fiction. If it is a short story, we put it in the short story fiction section.
- You're wrong, short stories can be either fiction or non-fiction

What can you do? I gave her a shrug and a smile and sent her on her way with her book.

30 minutes later the patron came back asking where she could get a definition of a short story. I pull up definitions for her, read them all out, and she says, "so the word fiction is in all the definitions?"
- Yes, it is.
- Oh.