library

There are 2 posts tagged library.

did you say something? I WAS OUTSIDE!

my weird dilated eyes

So I’ve been gone for a lot of the past few weeks. People think it’s sort of a funny joke that there is a “high season” for library conferences but in the last month and change there have been five library conferences that I’ve been interested in and I got to go to three of them. Last weekend was bookended by MLA and CLA (MA and CT) which are both conferences that I really enjoy. Got back home Tuesday night with some pollen-induced sniffles and have been staring out the window or walking out the door, pretty much ever since.

The exciting news, which is not that exciting, is that I went in for my every-decade eye test and my vision is still good. Doc says I probably have two years til I need glasses, just on average. Coming from a family where everyone has worn glasses seemingly forever, I feel sort of ootchy because I always liked glasses. I hear that the thrill wears off pretty quickly. I also got a bone doc to look at my achey shoulder and she confirmed that it’s fine and I probably just need to do some shoulder exercises. I got sent home with my x-rays on a CD so I can look at my bones whenever I want.

While I was sitting around reading trashy magazines, I also asked the docs the questions I’d been waiting to ask.

Q for X-ray doc: What’s your opinion of the backscatter machines in the airport, and am I a crazy person for not wanting to go through them?

Answer: Less exposure is better. They’re probably safe but you’re not crazy to want less x-ray exposure.

Q for eye doc: What’s your opinion on the Zenni Optical phenomenon? Would I be okay getting $10 glasses from China?

Answer: We always like people to have one professionally ground and fit pair of glasses so that they know what a good fit and a good pair of glasses looks and feels like. If they want to get a second or third pair of inexpensive glasses, that’s fine, but I worry that people will get a bad pair of glasses and not know that they’re a bad pair.

Here are some other things that have been cluttering up my desktop that you might enjoy.

The last two days I’ve worked short shifts at the local public library and there is something about walking the half mile to work at the public library in the morning in the almost-springtime that makes me exceptionally happy to be alive.

the story thus far

I wrenched my shoulder overswimming and now have to take it easy and do exercises according to my physical therapist (a nice Libertarian sort who uses words like “wimpy” and “freaky” to describe my physiology but I have to believe he means it in the nicest way) so I’ve been annoyed and a bit under the weather lately. Add to this that two of my other female colleagues seem to have fluish symptoms of eerily similar description and I’ve shifted from my normal low-grade hypochondria to full-on chemical warfare conspiracy theories. My guess is that I am only right if they’ve been able to somehow lace the toxic agent into the local pollen because there’s certainly a lot of that around and I haven’t had any of my normal Spring sniffles….

In any case, I’ve been tired and achey and taking it easy. I got back from NH only to head back out to go to my Dad’s for Father’s Day and a MetaFilter meetup in Marlboro MA on my way back home. This weekend I’m going to a wedding in Brooklyn and then I swear I’m staying home.

I had some good successes at work today, more Ubuntu happiness as well as more old people with new computers who seem to think I am some sort of super wizard lady when I explain how to open a program, follow a hyperlink or send an email. It’s sort of low-hanging fruit I guess, but it’s fun for me to do I also got to talk to one library about a long range plan that might include an open source library catalog and a media creation center for people to learn how to interact with their web environments. I’d be happy if that happened, but I was happy just to get to say it out loud and have someone seriously listen to me.

When I got home from my friends’ house this evening, there was a phone message from JetBlue — the airline that lost/stole my stuff in Puerto Rico — saying they had forwarded the letter I had sent to their CEO to some central baggage specialist who would be calling me back in a few days. Apparently JetBlue may not want to go to small claims court over $70 worth of cables. I, on the other hand, would love to go to small claims court over $70 worth of cables. I have nothing but time and a burning distaste for getting jerked around over technicalities on stuff like this. I like JetBlue an awful lot most days, but I think they could have handled this with more class.

My only other recent event of note is that I bought a car, on Facebook, from a friend of mine. I need to go to Ithaca to get it, or get someone from Ithaca to drive it here. If you are Ithaca-linked in some way, please feel free to drop me an email.