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!

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