stupid stupid stupid old blog feed is still taking over bloglines. in better news, my new feed is fianlly there, but i still can’t figure it out for the technorati. boo.
i did add some plugins though. see? i’m trying. i mean, i’m avoiding my homework. and i’m grumpy that i can’t watch the everton v. man city match live! they’re not showing it live in china, so it won’t be live in the house’o'pie. booo!!!
tonight robojoe and i stayed in, ate boca burgers, and watched time bandits. i hadn’t seen that movie in quite a while, and it’s still pretty good. overall, i think the movie is somewhat uneven but the acting is good. i forgot how funny kenny baker is. i really identify with the fidget character, but i suppose that’s typical. i think the movie also marked john cleese’s last non-obnoxious performance, at least in intentional comedy.
i know i often comment on how unfunny cleese is, but it’s true. thankfully he’s retired from performing. i’ve been watching the original monty python episodes (of which i need the whole dvd collection… if anybody needs present ideas for me…), and he just isn’t that funny. sometimes he is, but many times he isn’t. only eric idle is less humourous. they just pain me. the two funniest were graham chapman and terry jones, in case you were keeping tabs.
i could moan about how tedious work was today, but i’ll just let you know that i can reset the fuses in the library now. it’s sad that i need to be the one to do that, but maybe i’ll add it to my job description.
and now to test…
Technorati Tags: boca burgers, monty python, time bandits, john cleese, humour
it’s happened again. remember the last time my ipod died?? well, it’s killed itself, and i didn’t do owt. i put some songs on it (i’m shamed to say op ivy), and then it died. everything is dead. boo! way to kill my information buzz i had from doing a mini-report on random house.
but i guess it’s karma because i’m getting a car. (karma… car… yeah…) funny that. see, this is the first time i’ve ever been handed a car. my parents are nice, really nice. and now i can dry to west oakland to play drums and kick it with people. i can also give rides. maybe. i’m feeling old, and i have no music.
eta- robojoe fixed the ipod (for now). he says it’s time to look for something new. why is it that all the non-apple stuff is so small? i want megastorage without the headache. sorry drones, but this ipod’s soured me on apple. almost as much as steve jobs has done.
last firday, after the epic a’s game, we stuck around for fireworks. by that point robojoe, tom, john, and i were all extremely goofy. after sitting in left field for two games, i became enamoured with a patch of dead grass that jay payton kept messing with. after the fireworks were over, john, tom, and i took turns rubbing the dirt on our pants. here i am trying to add to the chavy grass stains. sad, really.
this might be one of the few pictures where i’m really smiling though. and that shirt is ghastly. i’ll be sure to wear it to the first playoff game. joe has one in black. it’s the new bart card shirt, i swear. too bad we don’t live in oaktown.
two posts with pictures of me in a row… am i the new jeff? wait till i get my everton shirt next week.
and in other news, i totally jacked my shoulders and wrists today cutting locks off lockers.
robojoe and i are just happy that the season’s not over yet. i don’t think my larynx agrees, but that it’s own problem. the added bonus to this whole thing is that the angles are not going to the playoffs. they suck. for some reason i like seeing them looking sad. does this make me a mean person?
perhaps.
oh well, i should get going on my homework.
this morning a guy came into the library. he comes in maybe once or twice a semester. he usually wants help researching, which is what we’re here for, but he doesn’t want to put any effort into it. why should he? isn’t that what librarians are for?
uh. not exactly.
he asked for the reference librarian. unfortunately i’m all there is in the morning. i ask him what he’s looking for and he tells me some sort of report that is actually pretty easy to find for three cities.
“have you looked in the catalog?” i ask.
“no. i thought i’d ask here first, to streamline the process.” he replies.
funny thing is, i know he’s had two full sessions of bibliographic instruction. he knows roughly what to do, but it’s easier for him to ask me to do it for him.
“try looking in tris or melvyl and then let me know if you have any problems.” i tell him, and go back to my desk.
he’s now doing that impatient dance of trying to look like he’s trying but not finding anything, in the hopes that i’ll do the search for him. ha! i told him where all the reports can be found, now he should go find them. and not use a circ card as scratch paper, that’s just rude.
one of my classes wants us all to introduce ourselves. this is what robojoe’s having me write:
Greetings from Berkeley, CA!
Hi, I’m Kendra from semi-sunny Northern California. I graduated from Berkeley in 2005 with a BA in History and Germanic Linguistics. I’ve been working in the Harmer E. Davis Transportation Library (affectionately known as HEDTL) at UCB for past two years. I started as a student grunt and worked my way up to being a Library Assistant. (Circulation Manager is my fancy title.)
This is my first quarter at Drexel and I’m still nervous about taking classes online. I’m excited to become an actual factual librarian.
how boring is that? i would have preferred something like this:
Hola from the Yay Area!
I’m Kendra coming straight outta Carmichael! I studied Nazis, dead white guys, and sound shifts at UC Berkeley. I work in a library about trains, planes, and automobiles. There’s a lot of pavement too, and I’m not talking about Stephem Malkmus. I want to be a librarian because they get know everything, and I want to be omnipotent like the Q.
In my free time I DJ and try to act like I never left college, pretend I’m a northern bird, make my boyfriend sneeze because he’s allergic to guinea pigs, and act hi-fee off of 8oz Dr Peppers.
sadly, i didn’t have the guts to put that. robojoe wins!
it’s another monday and it’s my first day of school as a grad student. i already have homework and already feel behind. nevermind that i dropped too much money on playoff tickets for the a’s. if you told me 17 years ago that i would willingly spend money to go see the a’s in the playoffs (and root for them), i would have laughed. but i did it folks. is matt williams crying now?
so, while is think about other things, like the a’s spanking the m’s, you should read some free advice. oh margo!
DEAR [KENDRA]: My dilemma is really simple. I happen to love a certain 19th-century authoress and have read every biography I can find about her.
Ever since I was 14 years old and read her classic novel “Pride and Prejudice,” I have been bewitched. She is a lady and a half, the gilder of my heart, the best woman I am sorry I never met.
I was recently at a party with my wife and was asked why I like Jane Austen so much. (The question actually was why I am so “obsessed.”) I responded to the question with vigor and as eloquently as a man “in love” can be allowed.
The problem is my wife. She is crazy jealous and has suggested that I should be married to Lady J.A. instead of her; that I never seem to have that glow in my eyes when speaking of her as I do when speaking of the great Miss Austen of Steventon, 1775-1817.
I am sure, Kendra, you would join me in declaring my wife a little over the top and unreasonable about this. Is there a way you could articulate why this jealousy is irrational?
— DEVOTEE OF JANE AUSTEN
dear devotee,
why is this jealousy irrational? because jane austen’s dead so you can’t very well leave your wife for her. that said, you sound extremely affected and creepy. a 14 year old boy falling in love with pride and prejudice? a little weird, not that that’s a bad thing, but just not normal so don’t try to act like it is.
i also can understand where your obession can be off putting to your wife. obsessions (that’s what it is) can be weird, but if you’re aware of it, you can do things to ground yourself and not go off the deep end. i know i’m obsessive in nature, so i try to remember that not everybody cares about the f.a. cup like i do, and not be a bore. you are a bore and probably neglect your poor wife for it. though i’m a little suprised she didn’t know she wasn’t just marrying a pretentious guy, but jane austen as well. that was her mistake.
so dev, stop acting like the injured party. if you really want to be that creepy guy obsessed with jane austen, then do it and stop worrying about other people, like your wife. if she doesn’t like it, she can leave. or you could tone it down a bit and save your marriage.
i hope this helps.
DEAR [KENDRA]: I am concerned that my husband is heading toward becoming an abuser. He is either in denial . . . or maybe I’m just wrong. There have only been a few incidents over the five-plus years we’ve been together (married for one).Most recently, we were having an argument because he’d invited a co-worker to our messy home, and I felt compelled to clean up for the visitor. Around midnight, my husband tried to get me to go to bed, but I wasn’t finished cleaning to my satisfaction. He grew frustrated and made a threat: If I didn’t come to bed, he said he would just “mess up” the house in the morning after I left for work.
The next day, I told him that threats were unacceptable, but he tried to rationalize, saying it was only “to get my attention” because I was being “so stubborn.” In the past, on a few occasions, he has lost his temper and become destructive, mangling a CD, tossing the vacuum against a wall, kicking things around.
He has never touched me and has never broken anything too valuable. He claims that it’s better to hit an object than a person, and I do agree. But I think that making threats, damaging property and then making excuses are classic symptoms of an abuser and could escalate.
I want my husband to recognize his problem and seek help, such as anger-management counseling. He thinks he doesn’t need it. What is your opinion?
— WON’T BE A VICTIM
dear won’t,
i too have an anger problem that manifests itself in the destruction of goods, not people, so i can sort of understand where your husband’s coming from. (is this point out my faults week?) i doubt your husband is going to physically abuse you, though it seems like he already has emotionally. throwing a vacuum against a wall is pretty serious stuff. he should work on his anger, for the both of you. maybe anger management, maybe classes, i don’t know. but he needs to keep it in check. help him with it, but don’t freak out and go passive aggressive on his ass because i know that will only make it worse.
i hope this helps.
i am still sick. reminding franklin guttierez that he still sucks didn’t help that. i also have some odd bug bite/rash on my right arm. it’s annoying. i was supposed to be having the first band practice of my new band (it’s going to be awesome, i swear…), but instead i’m home eating rice and doing my drexel online orientation. let me tell you- it still seems like a joke. i know next week the joke will cease to be funny, and i will be a librarian-in-training (that still sounds fake), but for now it seems weird. it’s an hour and a half. maude’s not amused. neither am i.
this orientation so far is a bunch of suits talking about being a student. one guy just told international students to learn english and to not “huddle” with people from their own country. that would never happen in berkeley. never. philadelphia sounds like a cool city. i bet i’d be getting more out of this if i were in the room. i should go school supply shopping this weekend. i’m not ready for taking notes. i still don’t have a single text book. this is not a good start. at least i know how to shelve books.
the a’s game last night was fun. martina and john got free lower level tickets from the guy at genova deli, so we sat in a decent section. right by the left-field foul pole. i couldn’t stop screaming at franklin gutierrez, which was funny because he’s an inncuous ball player. i’m just an ass at a’s games. of course this started the loud heckling from the whole section, and one guy starting yelling horribly rude stuff about guttierrez’s mother in spanish, and well… franklin was pissed. he kept looking at us, which made us yell more. i’m going to miss that.
the a’s one, and the magic number is 5. how’s that? awesome!
i’m wearing my nick swisher t-shirt today because i’m going to the a’s game tonight. i like to wear my allegiance like that because it helps make the experience better. if i want to shout abusive things at the other team, i should look like a fan doing it.wearing a team shirt also opens one up to random talk with other fans/people who are interested in the game. any time i wear an a’s shirt to work, all the construction workers give me a bigger smile than when i don’t. they ask me about last night’s game, slag off the angels, or lament crosby’s injuries et. al. it’s fun, and makes me feel like i’m part of something. it’s pretty silly, and rather superficial, but i guess it’s one of the ancillary benefits of being a fan. when i was in hamburg, i felt safer with my st. pauli hoodie and it was great hearing random people shout “saaaaaangkt pau-liiiiiiii!” when they saw me.
it’s the same with my england kit. when i wore it during the world cup, the old guy at bear’s lair was extra chummy because i too was a fan of “stevie g”. and when england lost to portugal (in 2004 and 2006), people who paid attention to that sort of thing gave me extra sympathetic looks. i guess the best pay off i got from wearing my england kit was when ray davies gave me a thumbs up for supporting england. i guess there’s also a bit of elitism to go with the whole england thing. (well, i know that’s why i picked gerrard instead of becks, owen, or rooney.) i mean, to really understand how stupid my “stephen gerrard is a bad kop” shirt is, you first have to know who stephen gerrard is, then you’d have to know the signifigance of kop. i know it doesn’t make sense, and i get “who’s stephen gerrard?” and “why’s kop with a k?” quite often. i’m pretty lame yeah? but if i get that chuckle of spotting one new person who thinks it’s funny, then i won.
it’s like the other week when i took a picture of a kid in everton kit on campus. i was suprised anybody would support them. he was supprised anybody would recognise the shirt and was more than happy to have his picture taken. there’s also a grad student here who has a gerrard england shirt (home), which was a clue that he’s a footie freak. (he’s a gooner, and has the shirt to prove it.) i wonder what will happen when i get my everton home kit, larry willing. i hope people don’t mistake is for chelsea or something. or when i get my sheffield wednesday home kit in january, will other owl fans come crawling out of the woodwork? i don’t know.
this whole shirt thing extends beyond sport. it’s why we wear shirts with slogans anyhow. my “beheaded like beckett” shirt always provokes a comment about how samuel beckett didn’t lose his head, or people wonder why i’m “straight outta carmichael” or why did i touch dave carswell’s ass? (again, most people ask “who’s dave carswell?” very few say “he’s my favourite canadian!”) but the whole thing goes to bands as well.
if somebody is wearing a hi-fives shirt, i want to talk to them to see if we can be friends. some bands’ shirts illicit that response. it waves your taste proudly and like minded people can flock to you. i guess that’s why i’m sick and tired of seeing belle & sebastien, le tigre, sleater-kinney, smiths, et. al shirts at kalx. you don’t need to advertise cmj’s top 100 at a college radio station- it’s understood. but to the general unwashed masses, it’s understandable.
it’s like buttons. i you know somebody is cool if they have a button, maybe not the shirt. jenn spotted all my sacto buttons 6 years ago and said hi. i think dr. frank and dallas denery’s first conversation was prompted by a joy division button, but i might be wrong about it. but that was also back when a joy division button really meant something. now, not so much. i feel like an idiot with my kinks button, but well… i like the kinks so i deal. it’s funny how i stopped wearing most of my buttons. it’s been milhouse and some anonymous saint for months. now i’ve got a hi-fives button on again, but i’ll probably ditch it milhouse again. i need to preserve all my hi-fives gear for posterity.
this whole long thing belongs in scenester bangs’ thing about band shirts. so does this great picture of larry in a crimpshrine shirt.
and so are my ears. i feel pretty icky right now, but i can’t lay down because my head hurts when i do. i’m at work now, but not feeling so hot. maybe if i can find a DJ for tonight, i’ll be feeling better. if not, i’ll just die a slow death from midnight to 3:30am.
