hmmm?

this journal is officially pulling down the blinds.

(sorry for the x-post'g)

so on a day that i have a midterm and all i can think is "yuck"
i get hand-delivered the latest copies of
Online Magazine
and
Counterpoise

At last, I look forward to my weekend reading! In this month's Counterpoise there is an article about radical librarians!!!

Tomorrow, I give a 3 minute quickie presentation on Sandy Berman, legendary radical librarian. And in good Sandynista style, instead of taking time to talk about his awards, I will direct students to libr.org to learn more about social responsibility in the information professions.

On a final note, I will leave you with this quote came from a colophon on a clay tablet from Assyria:

"He who breaks this tablet or puts it in water or rubs it until you cannot recognize it [and] cannot make it be understood, may Ashur, Sin, Shamash… the gods of heaven and earth and the gods of Assyria, may all these curse him with a curse which cannot be relieved, terrible and merciless, as long as he live, may they let his name, his seed, be carried off from the land, may they put his flesh in a dog’s mouth"

as of 8:30 pm tonight
i will have successfully completed
my 29th revolution
around the sun!

weee-heeee-heee.

so for all those who care to come,
i will be planning a birthday celebration
next year
for the ever-exciting, much awaited,
dirty thirty
!!!XXX!!!

bring it on!!!

as for this year, today, to celebrate at work, there will be chocolate cake and repeated listenings of :

http://platform.smash.tv/ramgen/dublab/ten_elements/ten_elements_22.rm?usehostname

[dublab's 10 elements Show 22.
&
yes, there is a Cat Power song in the mix.]

Don't Be Fooled by Corporate Greenwashing

http://alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=15699

I just hope that Georgia Pacific received the Don’t Be Fooled award way back when (like 13 years ago)...when they clear cut a pine forest in South Georgia --- the native stomping grounds of the threatened gopher tortoise and Eastern indigo snake --- and after they had their way with the land, they then designated it a preserve. Afterwards, there were many a commercial about how much they care about the environment.

hey, h. in s.f.,
that's right, you,

your e-mail is full!!!
i can't send mail to you.

yes, i can call you on the phone.
and i will.

but what about when i have a brilliant thought at work?
please help.
make yourself e-accessable.

please.

so after a relaxing Saturday of bike rides,Piccadilly, and the thrift store, i return to the subject of my previous entry.
i wrote it yesterday afternoon after getting all paranoid about a brief meeting i had with the asst. dean of the library. Really, it all went well: I asked for library support for GOAL members to attend the Louisiana Library Assoc. conference that's coming up in March. She said yes. No problem, right?

well, i felt so awkward talking to her. I walked in apologizing...which just pisses me off...apologizing for nothing. huh, wuh, who do I think I am? Catpower?

plus, i am starting to realize that i need to focus more on my 2003 projections, or they will slip through the cracks like so many other "i'm gonnas"...

of course, i did start grad. school this month and finally had a Anne Bonney rehearsal...all of which just made me realize how much work i have ahead of me.

as for what i did last year, here's what i submitted on our new yearly evaluation form at work...we get to actually "toot our horn" as they like to say:

“What I regard as my major contributions this year”

I am most proud of increasing my involvement in various activities at the library without drastically affecting the quantity of work that I contribute to my department.

“Other Accomplishments/Achievements”

(I list the following in no particular order.)

• Organized departmental keys, created master list of keys and key needs
  
• Completed final draft of Provisional Doc. for Voyager
  
• Focused on large donations to the Amoss collection , copy cataloging at various levels
  
• Began work on Help Desk
  
• Founded the Group Of Aspiring Librarians
  
• Currently, acts as Head of the interest group
  
• Created and maintains GOAL website
  
  
• Participated on Latin American cataloguer search committee
  
• Volunteered as Area Technical Liason for Jazz
  
• Created provisional name authority files with local call numbers for literary authors
  
• Attended CWE workshops on Dreamweaver, Fireworks, and grant writing
  
• Attended Solinet workshop on XML
  
• Created poster for Cataloging Dept. open house
  

[For my management class we are reading Machiavelli's The Prince...thus far, thus disturbing to my sensibilities.]

“But when accquires states in a province of disparate tongues, customs, and orders, here are the difficulties, and here one needs to have great fortune and great industriousness to keep them; and one of the greatest and most lively remedies would be that the person who acquires them might go there to live. This would make the possession more secure and more durable; as did the Turk in Greece…

…The other better remedy is to send colonies into one or two places that they may be fetters to that state; because it is necessary either to do this or to keep enough men-at-arms and infantry there. One does not spend much on colonies and he sends them there without expense to himself, or little, and only offends those from whom he takes the fields and the houses, to give to the new inhabitants, who are a miniscule part of the state; and those whom he offends, remaining dispersed and poor can never harm him; and all the others remain by one side unharmed, and for this reason should keep quiet, fearful lest they err, for fear that it not happen to them as to those who have been despoiled. I conclude that these colonies do not cost, are more reliable, and offend less; and the offended ones cannot do harm, being poor and dispersed, as is said. By way of which, one has to note that men must either be caressed or extinguished; because they avenge themselves of light offenses, but of the grave ones they cannot.”

[Machiavelli, Niccolo. The Prince. Translated and edited by Angelo M. Codevilla. New Haven: Yale University Press ; 1997. p.9]

i have flipped my date stamp to 2003!
what joy!
what pleasure!

also, the mechanical pen Mama Santa gave me
will make writing call numbers fun.

Now for my Freewill Astrology horoscope:

Taurus Horoscope for week of January 2, 2003

Trendwatching.com coined the term "snobmoddity" to describe the exaltation of ordinary consumer goods into chic luxury items. You know the phenomenon. Go into any supermarket in the Western world and you can buy scores of exotic varieties of bread, water, lettuce, or coffee. Salt is the next likely candidate to become a snobmoddity, say the experts at Trendwatching.com. They further predict that you "will one day insist on having Saharan desert sand in your children’s sand box, and Saharan desert sand only." You're way ahead of the curve on this, Taurus, and in a far more soulful way. Already the zodiac's master of bringing high art to life's most familiar things, you'll raise this practice to new levels of beauty and grace in 2003.

---------!

we returned last night to our home and five kitties.
only to have UGA fans here for the Sugar Bowl!
can't get away from them Georgia folks.

highlights from the last few days:

• 
  drove alone around Decatur and drove with my mother on the exciting twists and turns of Ponce de Leon
  
• went to my favorite spiritual center...the existentialist congregation. And there I passed off the gift money that redrider sent me. again, more on that later.
  
• saw Chris Verene and Ani Cordero, of the band Cordero, at the Pardner show.
  
• visited with my sweet friend Sarah at a Decatur cafe complete with burning fireplace.
  
• confirmed that i will throwing a baby shower Mardi Gras weekend for Holly's soon-to-be baby.
  
• received an old video camera from j's uncle and aunt!!!!!
  

now i feel the need to write some old friends.

thinking in list form:

• my sister's cat had to be put to sleep a day after my previous entry. She had a tumor around the heart. After being with our family for twelve years, we are all sad to see her go. Yesterday my sister picked up her ashes and will be making an urn for her. I will post pictures of Cleo, aka Mama Kitty, as soon as I can. *wipe tears*
  
• i received redrider's package. OOOOH MY HEAVENS! i was expecting a card, that would have been oh so sweet....but instead i got a box full of fun! i am shocked and surprised and supremely pleased...more details in a later entry. *sends hugs and kisses and "you-shouldn't-uvs"*
  
• i spent x-mas eve and morning with my whole immediate family at my dad's house in North GA...stepmother and mother included. i feel very lucky that my stepmom is so sweet and loving to my mother and that they both really like each other and that my father and mother are mature enough to not get freaked out. My man cooked a delicious turkey...and once again i ate some...that will be enough turkey to last me the year. we got a cell phone from santa...very weird. i felt so pristine before. my father got the husband what he had asked for: a .22 rifle. i was pleased when i realized that it just sounds like a bb gun...i shot it a few times. strange. won't be in the house though...we are saving it just for target practice out in the GA woods. My father was thrilled to be able to get j the gun. oooh, yes, male-bonding. a mystery. *shrugs shoulders and feigns confusion*
  
• then we went to j's family's land on the other side of the mountain. At the top of the mountain it was all white all over... it was booooooooo-ti-ful! we camped out in the tent in 20 degree weather...brrrrr...purrrrrr. *buries head under covers*
  
• then after getting back to At'ill, i slept alone over my sis's house. last night started a list of projections for 2003.
• today i got my ears pierced at the mall as a gift from my mother *twists ruby red studs in pride*
  
• currently on the computer at M. and H. house. H. naps to prepare for Pardner show tonight. Her belly is busting out with baby beauty. *rubs belly and wonders if and when...*
  

MERRY! MERRY!

The next phase of the documentary's website is up...and at its own domain name!...on my friend's server! dang, i'm just thrilled. [note: i added what i could, but the director will be writing blurbs about various artists and expanding on the "details" page...also, this is just the beginning, by the time the video is ready to premiere, i imagine lots of video clips, high quality stills from the orginal digital video, an interactive bounce history timeline, and e-postcards to help with promotion]

Bounce, baby, bounce bounce bounce

-----------------------------------
on a more somber note, will you please pray for my sister's 12 year old kitty who just had a blood clot lodged in her spine, causing paralysis. They might have to put her to sleep today. So she needs kitty prayers. And my sister needs lots of prayers to help her get through this. This kitty is my sister's baby who has been with her ever since she moved out on her own.

meeeeow.

...until i turn in the grant package.
then tonight i update the website.
...
and then we wait 'til march to hear if we get $.

---

this weekend=winter holiday gift preparation.

---

so sleep deprived i'm starting to get paranoid that the head of my dept. has me in her secret dog house.

but i will wait until after the holidays before i jump to any conclusions...
...maybe a lil' morw sleep on my part will help us all, huh?

since lj screwed with me on Thurday after I wrote a long,detailed entry, today i am going to stick to the list:

• my volunteer time at Ronald McNair Elementary has come to an end. Check out the student work here
  
• i went to the student showcase...photos of dancers and lil' ones pending
  
• i sent off the Ya Heard Me grant proposal for review to the rest of the crew
  
• i have been struggling to figure out domain name registration options...it is sooooooooo confusing to me. And many of the recommendations/advice/how-to pages I can find are outdated...but today I will put the $ down for something. *keeping fingers crossed*
  
• this x-mas is our first taking full advantage of amazon.com...in the process I confirmed that I want every book by Saxton Freymann. Here's a quick peek inside one book.
  
• today is our legal 2 year anniversary. (The official wedding anniversary was in March.....yep, that's how we do things in this house)...to celebrate we are going to eat chocolate cake and buy blue x-mas lights for the window.
  

feeling slightly overwhelmed by this grant project I am working on since I hoped to get it done by yesterday...but just got started on it last night. --On the positive side, I did get many of the photos cropped for the website--

And in the processing of doing research on PBS, I didscovered that we will probably need to get liability insurance to get it distributed by anyone. Which is no big deal, except we need to make sure we get it in the budget...and I have no idea what to expect...so I need to hurry up and come up with at least a rough estimate.

Today I am checking out some books here at the library that might help to clarify all this.

Of course, I asked for all of this. By offering to write a grant I imposed a timeline on figuring this stuff out, and the director and videographer neveer explicitly agreed to such a timeline...although they are all into me trying to get some $$$.

We'll see how this works out. It's worth the effort, just the experience alone.

oh, but yes, I am back at work, and must CATALOG!

I just got back from a lil' outing with my fourth-grade buddy who helps me in the community garden. I had misled her into thinking I was going to be able to visit at her house on Thanksgiving (but rather spent the entire day with Rosana and John and Reynoldo), so to make up for it today we walked to the near-by Aquatic Gardens store, checked out the fancy fountains, and bought 3 plants for $5 for the garden. We really need 10x that amount of plants to fill it up, but I just can't afford that...so I'm praying that the free plant give-away will happen again before too long. Our garden has always survived on the free plants. Afterwards we played at the park swingset briefly,and finished with me buyinhg her a jelly donut, J. two peanut butter cookies, and me a sinker.

I also saw my long-lost friend, Elizabeth, who surprised us yesterday morning with one of those I'm-in-town-for-the-weekend phone calls. We only had an hour to visit, but oooooooooooooh, what true heart-warming pleasure!

I spent all night reading about how to produce a show for PBS. Much more to do. And this is the weekend to do it.

I am now lucky enough to have uploading capabilties through a friend's server! YEAH!!! Now I am way more inspired to create computer art, like the Thanksgiving card I made with the help of the library's new scanner (fortunately tucked away in a desolate corner of the basement!).

Since I spent last night stuffed on Thanksgiving feast and nerding out on the simple filters on Microsoft's Picture It! with photos J. and I have taken, I have two new icons. One being the one on this journal taken from this image:
and another icon and photos of all my kitty family here

---------

so now I need to focus and
-read the PBS redbook
-research the details of independent film distribution
-update that dang website
-get that grant written this weekend

Daniel and Damien.
cafe owners in need of websites.

should i ask for cash
or just barter
for coffee
and
screen printing?

above all, i must remember their names.

on a 20 min. break

up 6 flights
and down
across the quad
up 4 flights
and down
across the sidewalk
up 3 flights
and down
back to the library
up 5 flights
and down.

feeling much better
after deciding
not to ride my bike to work
due to sleepyheadedness.

---------

some dear friends think my lj is "boring" and "not great"
but at least someone likes my othersupremely boring weblog.

--------

For today's GOAL meeting, we read these two articles:
"A 'Private' Grievance against Dewey." Clare Beck. American Libraries Jan 1996 v27 i1 p62

-- a short and speculative essay about Dewey's behavior with a fellow librarian....I had no idea he had such a bad reputation amongst fellow librarians!

"Power, knowledge, and fear: feminism, Foucault, and the stereotype of the female librarian." (Michael Focault) Marie L. Radford, Gary P. Radford. Library Quarterly July 1997 v67 n3 p250(17)

-- a good read although winding in its argument. Not only does it dicuss the librarian stereotype, but discusses the library as ordered and rational (and thus, controlled) storehouse of discourse that places the user in the position of the irrational and mad other. Do not read with the local "jams" station's morning show blasting in your ear.