A Wandering Eyre

The rumor on the street is that Dougray Scott will be the next James Bond, this according to the bookmaker William Hill in England. I knew this guy looked familiar and, as I scrolled down his filmography, I realized why: He was “Prince Henry” in Ever After. While I do like Scott, I am unsure about what kind of Bond he would make, but then, anyone’s better than Timothy Dalton.

–Jane, takes a sip of coffee

This morning on my way to work, I heard a news brief that gave me pause. Nineteen years ago today, The Challenger accident occurred.

I live in a NASA town. I have three family members and countless family friends that work or have worked for NASA. When you grow up so close to something as phenomenal as space flight, it can sometimes lose its shiny veneer, so I forget sometimes the memories buried deep. I was seven years old. I remember that it was a big deal. There was a real person, just like my teachers, going up into space. I was in second grade and it was the first time that we had different teachers for different subjects. All of the classes wanted to watch the shuttle launch, so each pod of teachers gathered their classes into one room, around a small 25 inch TV. We had moved the desks aside so that we could all sit on the floor. I remember the thrill of seeing the shuttle soar from the earth. But then there was an explosion of smoke. We stared, wide-eyed at the screen, unbelieving. My teachers had tears running down their faces. My small mind took awhile to understand what had happened. It was crushing. We all went about that day in a state of unbelief.

The next year, my school planted trees, one for each of the astronauts and the teacher who was with them, in the middle of our bus circle. They were hardy little saplings that we planted in remembrance. I drove by my school a few years ago and felt my heart constrict a bit to see those trees, now grown tall, standing over the children as they boarded their busses for home.

–Jane, remembers

Two Whedon things today. The first is something I came across on Whedonesque awhile back, but which Boing Boing posted today as well. It is a database of all things Buffy, called appropriately, Buffyology.

There is also a script of an anaired Firefly episode on Firfefly.net called “Dead or Alive“. Enjoy.

–Jane, loves Joss Whedon

This is something that I meant to post yesterday. The mayor of Houston has side stepped the usual procedures and has decided, himself, that the book How to make love Like a Porn Star should be kept in closed stacks in at the Houston Public Library. Patrons now wishing to see or checkout the book will have to ask for it. There is, however, a very long waiting list for the book, so it is unlikely to be sitting on any shelf anytime soon. The story was in the Houston Chronicle on the 26th.

Jane, wonders why Bill White feels the need to tell people what they can and can not read

I was pleasantly surprised to get my new cd of the soundtrack to Phantom of the Opera in the mail yesterday. I have been listening to it all morning at work. *sigh* I am in love. It is the special edition, which came in a nice book form with pictures and such. Very nice. I have to admit that it may be the best musical soundtrack I own for the simple reason that it also includes the dialog, of which there is not much. Many musical soundtracks have the dialog in between the songs cut out so that there is a disjoint between songs. The Phantom of the Opera soundtrack preserves the dialog with the underscore; the effect is a continuously stunning poem for the ear. Wonderful.

Just in case you are ever attacked and have only an umbrella to defend yourself, Boing Boing has posted a very nice post on how to defend yourself with an umbrella.

Jane, taps her feet at work

You know you have an addiction when you start to have separation anxiety before loaning out one of your DVD sets. You would not believe how hard it was to let one of my co-workers borrow Angel season 1 yesterday. I actually watched a few of the episodes with Doyle the night before, just to feel better about letting it go. I need help. Seriously. This can not be normal. I also ask said co-worker everyday which episodes of Buffy (which she is watching concurrently) and Angel she watched last night, what she thought, and “OMG wasn’t it hilarious when Angel jumped in the WRONG car?!” Looney bin, here I come.

–Jane, that really was a funny moment, when he jumps in the wrong car, or the time when…..

Geez. Another busy day. I swear it seems like some people think that I come here to actually work all day. I am teaching a class tonight. A whole passel of Psychology newbies who need to know how to find “stuff” and distinguish if said stuff is scholarly. It should be fun. I have some time to spare before the class and my boss actually told me to write something here. I guess she is ok with me not accomplishing much at work, but I think it is just the hormones making her crazy. (She is expecting).

Aaron, over at Walking Paper, has a new spin on the iPod adverts here.

Nothing else to report of note. I have to go and mold little minds now or something. Luckily, I will have a partner in crime for this go around. I plan on coming into work a bit late tomorrow as Mr. Rochester and I are trying a new breakfast venue in celebration of his entrance into adulthood. He is buying a house. A beautiful new house which I am allowed to decorate almost to my heart’s desire. Life is good.

–Jane, smiles in delight

My posts have been noticeably fewer the last two days because I have actually been very busy at work and have not had time to go through my aggregator like usual. That, coupled with a lack of extremely interesting things to post. Therefore, I offer you only one “very dull thing” indeed (to take from Austen). But this is not dull. Stephen Cohen, of Library Stuff, presented “8 Steps For Keeping Current” at ALA(PDF). He mentions, of course, aggregators and RSS.

By keeping current we are not only keeping ahead of our patrons and clients, but are providing them with the content they need before they learn about it themselves.

I know a lot of librarians by default, being that I am one, and I think about half strive for currency. The other half waver between finding out when the patrons do and ignoring new technology altogether. Actually, make that a fourth strive for currency. Actually actively looking for it. I think we should be learning about things before the majority of our patrons. But hey, I am young and on the cusp of Gen X and the Millennials, so I think technology is a driving force in my life.

–Jane, here I am

Blogger is still having hiccups, thus I have written this post twice today. I guess the moral of the story is to type in Word first.

This weekend was filled with movies, old friends, Greek food at 4 in the morning after a night of revelry, and a lot of couch time.

On Friday, Mr. Rochester and I watched Hidalgo, which was about what I expected. It was the story of a man and his horse on a cross country race across the desert, with some intrigue and romance thrown in for good measure. While not stellar, it was a nice little movie. The scenery was very nice and I am not simply referring to Viggo Mortenson.

On Saturday morning, we watched Out of Time, which could have been named Out of Original Plot Devices Thus This Movie is Boring and Predictable. Mr. R had it figured out almost from the beginning, but I stopped caring enough to pay attention to the details. Even the “suspense” towards the end could not rouse me from the lethargy of the first hour and a half of the movie. I was very glad when it was over.

Underworld: Evolution has been given a release date of December 9th. Hooray! I have been eagerly waiting for this movie. I remember going to see the first installment of this movie series, simply titled Underworld. I lived in Dallas at the time and could not convince any of my friends to go with me on opening night. I went by myself and it was great. The biggest problem I always have when I go to the movies alone is that there is no one there to save my seat when I go to the bathroom. This time around, Mr. R and I are in the same city and he will have the joy of being my seat holder.

–Jane, had a great weekend

I think Erica Olsen, over at Librarian Avengers, has the right idea:

Why not start Librarian bar crawls throughout this land? I can see it now, schnockered crowds of library workers handing out community health and information flyers in our nation’s drinking establishments. Wear something funny, matching and visible, get a drink at the bar, say something really loud like “Librarians need liquor!” and just start talking to folks.

–Jane, is ready to crawl