Fall!

Yes, today is the official first day of fall in my mind. I put on a sweater AND a jacket this morning before leaving the house. Yay!

Also, I'm going to Serenity tonight, so my joy is unbounded.

I'm looking for a book, it's got a red cover...

All librarians and bookstore clerks probably have had to deal with the person who comes in to find a book and all they can tell you is the cover colour. If it hasn't happened to you, I'm sure you've at least hear stories about it.



Last year, San Francisco's Adobe Bookshop was the place to be for these colour seekers. For one week it shelved all its stock according to colour. Check out the NPR interview on the project.

Shiny!

No, I don't mean the new movie Serenity (although if you got that, I'm sure I'll see you in line on Friday)

I mean Shiny Shiny: a girl's guide to gadgets. I like going there to see what's the prettiest of the new tech toys. Sometimes it takes a bit more that megapixels and gigabytes, it takes a nifty silver/copper finish or a mink iPod case. Sometimes I'm just shallow that way.

First there was Zork, now there's Hamlet

Once you've taken the Hamlet test, what else can you do but play the Hamlet text-based adventure game?

I remember playing text-based games like Zork (along with Lemonade Stand and Eliza) on my Apple IIe (yes, evidently I'm old now).

I always sucked at all computer games as I have a woeful lack of game logic. I've needed the cheat guides to get me through every adventure game I've ever tried. King's Quest, Starship Titanic, Leisure Suit Larry, Space Quest - if I've tried to play them, I've failed miserably at it unless I had step-by-step directions telling me to "go there and pick up this, dummy!" Even then, I wasn't so good. No wonder I've stopped playing.

**UPDATE**
It looks like the Hamlet game is gone for now - bandwidth exceeded. Hopefully it will come back soon so I can use such useful text-adventure commands such as "take skull" and "commit incest"

Interesting book

I was busy going through some new books yesterday, and I ran across this one:



Heavy words, lightly thrown: the reason behind the rhyme
The seamy and quirky stories behind favorite nursery rhymes
by Chris Roberts

It looks like fun - I shall be adding it to my "to be read" list

Is it too soon...?

Katrina: joke du jour

Q: What's George Bush's position on Roe v. Wade?
A: He really doesn't care how people get out of New Orleans.

From the fine folks at boingboing

Rex Libris

As I am ever on the quest to find cool librarian stuff, I must report that there is now an action adventure comic book called Rex Libris. Rex is a public librarian who travels across space and time to retrieve unreturned library books and unpaid fines.

I am a muse

My friend Jen found a really cool comic strip generator online. Cool in the sense that I can see how other people could make some funny stuff, but I'm way too creatively stunted to make anything remotely enjoyable. Good thing Jen is here. She made a little strip inspired by my frustration in finding a good ringtone for my new cellphone.


And no, I did not end up with Vanilla Ice as my ringtone. I have the theme to Blackadder (although I did try the Dr Who ringtone first).

Whee!

Working in a library rocks - I just got a copy of Terry Pratchett's new book 4 days before it is due to be released. I know what I'm doing this weekend!

Personal library fun!

Do you have a whole collection of books that are all higgely-piggely? Do you long for some sense of order? Now you can catalogue your books online using the Library of Congress style.

Library Thing allows you to catalogue up to 200 books for free. If you have more books than that, you can buy a $10 lifetime membership and catalogue unlimited books. And your library will be viewable online (or not, if you don't want it to be).

I'm so doing this just for the sheer glee I feel organizing things. Yes, although I might seem like a laid-back, messy person, there is a small kernel of obsessive organization lurking deep in my psyche.

*UPDATE*
I've got a pretty good start on my library now (because I've been entering books like a madwoman all evening). I've put a link on the sidebar. Check it out!

Hurricane Katrina Volunteering

If you want to more than donate money to the Red Cross and you live too far away to get down and pitch in, you can help another way. Volunteers are needed to help compile missing person posts from a variety of sources in one database. Just head on over to the PeopleFinder wiki

We lend out books, movies, and music already. What's next?

For some people, it's not enough to be able to take out books and movies and music and such from the library. They want something more, dammit! Well, how about people?

A library in Holland is lending out people to library patrons. Need an alcoholic? A homeless person? How about a homosexual? Yes, all these and more are available at the library in Almelo!