Month: June 2012

weekly
11 Jun 2012

2012: week twenty-three

June 3 – June 9

Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday, I worked retail! Which means, I don’t remember what happened, because retail blurs my memory sometimes. I’m getting better at the fast pace, but it’s still a bit of a “What just happened?” at the end of each shift.

Wednesday and Thursday, I tried my hardest to wrap up things at good old Job #1. It’s hard, because my continued employment hinges entirely on my job prospects. I could have two months or two weeks left… I’m not sure!

Friday, I had a job interview.

Saturday, I rested.

And by rested, I mean, I played Skyrim.

 

Reading:

  • Something Blue by Emily Giffin
  • New Moon by Stephenie Meyer (about 200 pages in… no action yet, and why the heck is Edward invading Bella’s thoughts after DUMPING her? I do not get a lot of this series…)
  • Please read the two aforementioned books and mourn the loss of my literary discernment.

Listening:

  • On Saturday, all I wanted to listen to was folksy oldies. Janis Jopin, Bob Dylan, etc. We ran errands for a few hours, I went into Stop & Shop to grab two things, came back, and Lance had commandeered the stereo to play Queen. I was mad, that was how much I wanted to listen to folsky oldies… I would get mad at Queen! Who can get mad at Queen!?

Watching:

  • Switched at Birth … I’m making progress!
  • Girls mini-marathon one morning… may or may not have been late for work one day last week. It’s okay, I stayed late, no worries. Everyone likes to work until 6:30 on a Friday night, righ

 

book reviews
08 Jun 2012

Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor

As I’ve alluded to around these parts, I am trying mightily to be a better reader of fantasy and science fiction. I don’t think I am likely to ever swoon over world-building and magic-wielding like so many of my friends do because, well, I didn’t grow up on it. But I can build up a tolerance, I can find what I like and assess what teens and other readers like, and I can give books a fair chance no matter the genre. Acknowledging one’s biases. Book equality. Broadening horizons, etc.

I want to say that I picked up Laini Taylor’s Daughter of Smoke and Bone with a spirit of equanimity, but I didn’t. I knew this book was special because my roommate told me about it. She knows I don’t like fantasy, so she doesn’t tell me about all of them. And then Janssen at Everyday Reading – who is also generally anti-fantasy – not only raved about it, but gave it to her husband. As someone who carefully doles out YA books to her own not-so-fictionally-inclined male partner, I know the weight of that move. It would have to be an exceptional read to pass along something so fantasy-y.

Now, months after the buzz has died down, I pick up this book and completely fall into the story. The heroine, Karou, is a teen living in Prague, studying art. She has her own apartment. She has tattoos. She has blue hair. She has a nasty ex-boyfriend. She has an assortment of artsy friends and a macabre, divey restaurant where they all like to sit around a coffin and eat borscht. I was suprised by how normal and likable these characters were, despite the novel’s unusual setting and the heroine’s unlikely living situation. The real-ness of the characters was put even further into relief when we learn that Karou is an orphan who grew up in a magical workshop of sorts, inhabited by creatures who are kind, protective, and obviously love Karou, despite the fact that they are very clearly not human. Karou’s “father” – Brimstone – runs the show, dealing in a sort of magic that requires a steady supply of teeth – human or animal; when she’s not sketching in her notebook, she’s off on Brimstone’s errands, traveling around the world to meet up with teeth traders, and she is paid with wishes.

The “otherworldliness” here is complex, but what keeps the story interesting is that we never know more than Karou knows, and she’s been kept in the dark regarding this magical business for her entire life. As she uncovers the secrets of the teeth, the wishes, the chimaera, and Brimstone, we too discover another layer to this fantasy. And yes, there is a boy – an angel, actually. About halfway through the book, this story does become more of a paranormal romance (yeuch…). When Akiva starts following Karou around, I was like “oh great, you’re falling in love with an angel, please gag me now), but Taylor weaves this romance into something that is more than just attraction, more than a vague, unconvincing “We Are Meant to BE!”, but something wound up in the rest of the book’s mysteries, a love that is entangled with war and memories and mysticism. At the end of the book, I was swooning, I was convinced.

And the ending! This was what I remember my roommate raving about – the ending. It’s a series, yes, but the ending combines satisfaction, surprise, and a cliffhanger – it makes you certain you will read the next book without feeling cheated.

In other words: yes, this book made me forget that I don’t like fantasy. And yes, I will be passing it along to my own man-partner. It is that special.

2
goals
07 Jun 2012

happy coffee-versary!

After a few weeks of feeling grumpy, tired, and finding myself stuffing my face with popcorn and junk every night with little regard to my actual hunger… SURPRISE! I can’t really fit into my jeans anymore.

I am poor and my jeans are cute and I know it is good for me anyway so as of this week I am back off sugar+carbs. The sweetest things I eat are Larabars (usually taken in halves) and squares of dark chocolate (usually taken with a little bowl of salted mixed nuts). I started eating bacon for breakfast again, thinking that the 5 dollar weekly purchase would pay itself off in motivation/morning satiety.

It’s really not so bad. A lot of people say “Oohhhhh but I couldn’t LIVE without bread/cupcakes/candy… you just must not love bread as much as I do.” But I do, friends. I love bread more than most other foods. I love it when it’s soft and warm, love it when it is toasty and covered in melted butter, love it white, rye, whole wheat, sourdough… but you know what? If I don’t buy bread, then I don’t think about it. I’m not trying to ban bread from my life forever – I’m just trying to not put it in my shopping cart and eat something else instead. It doesn’t feel like denial. It feels like normal life.

I’m glad that even though I’m not always on target, I was able to try out this lifestyle for myself and find out that it can feel normal. And as the weather has warmed up, I am reminded of the single habit that made this bigger change possible:

I learned how to drink coffee.

Just a year ago, I stopped drinking mochas, vanilla lattes, caramel macchiatos, frappuccinos, anything that qualifies as a Fancy Sugar Coffee Drink. I alternated plain lattes with little Starbucks Doubleshots for a spell, but once I tried an iced coffee for the first time – unsweetened, lots of ice, a bit of half-and-half – I didn’t really look back. I was able to continue my shameless addiction to caffeine while at the same time avoiding sugar – I wasn’t forced to detox from both at the same time, which I think would have been so miserable I would have given up the fight.

It’s the summer now, so I walk to work to save a little money – over the winter, a new coffee shop opened up right along my commute. I tried it for the first time last week, and I liked it. The coffee tasted different than my other choices (Starbucks, JP Licks, Java City at school, or cold-brew at home), it tasted good. I thought about how a year ago, I wouldn’t be able to tell the difference. How a year ago, I was reliant not only on sugar, but on a Starbucks that I could count on to make me a drink to my precise requirements. I was thinking about how happy it made me that I could always have a nice, cold iced coffee in my life – an indulgence I don’t think I’ll ever have to feel guilty about.

grad school
06 Jun 2012

notes from the job hunt, vol 2

Ladies and gentlemen in seek of library jobs?

Heed my advice:

Get Thee a Smartphone.

First, the surface benefits. A Fancy Internet Phone is fun and shiny, yes, but when you are deep in the job search, having ready access to email can be handy, especially if you are working part-time jobs that do not afford you computer access (see: retail). You can send and reply to emails, have your calendar at the ready to schedule an interview, and even search for jobs on the go. And when you are out on a job interview, having a nice phone can be a comfort as you drive unfamiliar roads or wait impatiently for a  bus to arrive along a foreign route – Google Maps, NextBus, and simple access to the Internet to look up a phone number to call in case you are late can be a great comfort. Interviews are stressful enough without that added element of COMPLETE PANIC. Smartphones can smooth out the process a bit.

But for future librarians – those looking for jobs with kids and teens in particular – let me tell you that so many job postings ask for familiarity with web services and devices and apps, ask for technological proficiency (even passion!) across platforms. During my first interview I was asked, point blank, what kinds of apps I use. I do not have a smartphone, and use my iPad for Goodreads, Netflix, and Bejeweled. I was basically stumped. I was better prepared for my all-day interview last week for a different position – out of many conversations held over the course of the day, a vast majority revolved around the library’s role in a digital future, how we can help students and teens and children best access the information available at their fingertips, and I was asked, point blank, what kind of smartphone I use.

This is making me uneasy because although I consider myself to be a very tech-savvy person, I have been somewhat indignant about getting a smartphone. I do not have one. I sometimes want one and sometimes do not. It’s primarily a financial decision – I have never paid more than 50 dollars a month for my phone service, and during this time in my life where I have to save up money to go to the dentist, it seems irresponsible to double my expenses for a shiny new toy. Plus, now that everyone has one, I hear all about the woes of smartphone ownership – the lost phones, the dropped phones, the slow phones, the phones with buggy software. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been lost in a city and asked a companion to help navigate us back to safety, only to hear that “Well, my phone doesn’t like to do that” or “It’s too slow to be of any help.” That just seems like throwing money away.

Yes, I am stingy, but I am also wary about adding yet another device to my life. On the whole, I want to spend less time looking at screens, not more. I am addicted to the Internet already – do I need to carry my drugs around in my pocket at all times?

But here I am, in a profession where information and information access is digitizing, where mobile access is the future, where keeping up with technology is paramount. Libraries that are hiring right now are trying to stay on top of the game – and you know what is easier than training your more “experienced” staff members to use Twitter or provide chat reference or develop apps? Hiring some young, technologically-hip blood. This is most definitely not a bad thing for libraries – in fact, I think it will become a very VERY important thing. However, it’s a bit frustrating to be sitting in interviews in which 3 years of Master’s work is ignored and instead I am asked about how I use my cell phone. Your MLS program probably isn’t going to give you what you need in terms of technology. I loved my Tech class, but it’s not enough to know how a router works, to know a few html tags, to be able to tinker around in an ILS. If you plan on working in a public service department of any library – public, private, children’s, academic, etc – you need to be comfortable with the kind of technology your public is using – maybe you need to be MORE comfortable than they are, and MORE comfortable than your potential coworkers. You, as a new hire, are a de facto ambassador for the future of libraries, the future of information access. Whether you are indignant about it or not.

If you’re already job hunting, do your research, learn about what libraries are doing cool things with iPhones and such, and don’t get caught off guard. If you are a new MLS students, do yourself a favor and add the expense of a smartphone into your loan budget from the get-go. Use it. Master it. Hopefully in two years when you finish, you’ll be ahead of the game.

1
grad school
05 Jun 2012

new life, new notebook

You know what they always say:

when life hands you lemons, go out and buy a fancy notebook.

I haven’t kept a daily notebook like this in quite some time. Grad school has been a mix of self-created spreadsheets and printed schedules and elaborate systems with binders and note cards and color coded things.

Yes, there is still the Google calendar, which was necessary to balance three jobs, but there is a limit to what the GCal can do. It can tell you where to be and when to be there, but it can’t tell you what to do in the in betweens. It can’t keep you on track, longterm, when your days and weeks become less regimented and begin to blur together.

Enter: the daily Moleskine. One page per day for to-do lists, chores, schedules, dinner menus, books to read, notes, recipes, phone numbers. A place to write down what time you need to set your alarm or leave for the bus. A place to flip through the upcoming week and map out your free time. A place to practice your penmanship. To draw little pictures. To scheme. To scribble things out.

To sit down and think about what’s important in my week.

This is a luxury, maybe. Something I didn’t have time for while I was studying, something I didn’t find useful. But for now, I can, and I feel like I should.

A new notebook is good for my soul, I think. Without a pen on paper in my life, I feel like I might drift away.

2
life maintenance
04 Jun 2012

2012: week twenty-two

May 27 – June 2

I spent most of last week in either a blind panic or other state of heightened anxiety. I made and recovered from a major scheduling error, rented a car for the first time, drove it for 4 hours (by myself) to places I have never been before, prepared for/performed for a job interview, and had at least two days where I ran on 5-ish hours of sleep.

There is nothing resembling equilibrium going on in my life right now, and I don’t think there will be any time soon. I don’t want to spend the rest of my summer feeling grumpy, but I’m not sure that any amount of concerted effort/planning/worrying/positive thinking will make much of a difference. This too shall pass, but for now, I’m in the muck of it.

For now, I’m going to focus on being well – sleep, hydration, no more sugar + grains, exercise, etc. Structure. Routines. Tidiness.  Peach cuddling and cooking dinner and phone chats and documentaries on Netflix.

Other assorted acts of hopefulness.

Reading:

Watching:

  • Switched at Birth – I am determined to finish Season One! I’ve been working on it for almost a year, which is just excessive.
  • On Wednesday, there was a lot of Gilmore Girls, season one. I can’t believe Dean dumped Rory like that! Scoundrel…

 

books
03 Jun 2012

Something Blue by Emily Giffin

What do you read when you can’t read anything good?

Something Blue, of course.

Fine literature is fine, but there is something to be said for reading 150 pages in a day, for picking up a sequel a year after reading its predecessor and needing zero plot reminders to slip right in.

Maybe I’ve been trying to hard. Maybe I just need a break. Reading doesn’t have to be work all the time. Sometimes, it can just be reading.

1
life maintenance
02 Jun 2012

level up

This radio(blog) silence brought to you by:

  • Exhaustion
  • Stress
  • Worry
  • Lack of will to read a single book ever
  • Allergies
  • Headaches

and

Skyrim.

My apologies. I will try to haul myself off the couch and pry my cramped little hands from the controller sometime soon…