Thursday, April 19, 2007

Acronomious?

During an IM conversation with Richard today, I came up with what I think is a very clever acronym. SOUP: Significant Other Upgrade Program. As in, something to avoid installing at all costs because it tends to crash the relationship.

Hee.

So, SOUP is like a kind of virus. Except soup is usually good for getting rid of viruses, which makes it that much more insidious. Ah, geekery.

Saturday, April 14, 2007

Progress

Okay, the To Do list is all updated. And I even knocked a few things off of it! Yay me. Now, on to the most urgent To Do items, school assignments. And in order to guilt/remind myself, I'm listing them here.

Last day of classes and also the last day anything is due is May 4. That's about three weeks. And here's what I need to accomplish, in chronological order.


  • Summary: Classism article
  • Advanced Cataloging term paper
  • Summary: Patriot Act article
  • Storytelling Future File
  • Storytelling Project
  • Storytelling Presentation
  • Catalog 3 items of different formats
  • Advanced Cataloging Presentation
  • In-class final for 502
  • Work on incomplete assignments from last two semesters
  • Email those instructors from about progress

Hoo boy.

Laundry is in the dryer as I write, dishes will get done after dinner tonight. I'm already prepped for picking Richard up at the Indianapolis airport tomorrow. Tickets to The Decemberists are in my wallet and hopefully Richard's plane will be on time so we can actually go. I need to stop at the library today to pick up a hold, so I'm going to go work there until they close at 6pm. Let's see if I can get those article summaries out of the way.

Okay, no more excuses.

Storytelling Festival

So...I've been asked to perform at the GSLIS Storytelling Festival this coming Saturday, April 21. I was totally shocked (but incredibly happy) to be asked, especially since my class nominated the story-songs I sung in Storytelling class.

I will be singing either "Mr. Fox" (creepy), or The Scotsman (funny), or both. I'll find out on Monday what it is going to be. And they record the Festival (let's hope they actually figure out the equipment *before* the performance this year), so even if you don't come see me in the flesh, you'll be able to listen later.

You know, I've never heard a recording of myself? I don't know if I'll be able to listen to the recording once it's done. I know I have a nice voice, but the last time I was asked to sing in a public performance was when I was in the second grade. I bowed out of that one (major stagefright!), but I'm not backing out of this one. I just hope I can start on a comfortable key, unlike the last two times I sang. One was too low, the other was just not quite right. Not off-key, but not my strongest voice. Here's hoping...

Small steps

The goal today is to work on my to-do list. No, not to accomplish things on the list, to actually update the damn thing. I have hope (ever optimistic) that I will get to the items on it, but the only thing I am holding myself to is the updating part. Wish me luck.

Only 3 weeks left to the semester...

Thursday, April 12, 2007

hate, hate, hate

I hate voice-activated phone help lines. Hate.

Saturday, April 07, 2007

Irony

Today's procrastination exercise is taking the form of a cleaning spree. I've done laundry, cleaned the litter boxes, and as a coup de grace, I cleaned the fish tank.

The dirty, filthy, hadn't-been-cleaned-in-over-6-months aquarium. Poor fish.

I haven't been taking very good care of them lately. I forget to feed them (luckily they can go safely without food for several days), ignore them, and don't clean their home as often as I should. The cats can at least remind me of their presence by yowling, tipping their water over, and peeing on things; the fish have no such recourse.

Several fish have "disappeared" I'm down to three, total) over the last few months. I'm guessing that the culprit is the huge sucker-mouth catfish in there. He either got hungry and decided on a little snack or someone died and he took care of the remains. Hey, he's actually a scavenger fish, so at least he's doing what nature intended. Unless he's hunting down fishies in cold(er) blood; then it's my fault for not keeping him fed.

In my hallway I have an extra, empty 35 gallon tank with a smaller 2 gallon tank inside of it. Kind of zen, actually. But it's also sitting there and reminding me that I need to decide what to do. Should I get rid of the fish and all the accouterments I've collected over the years? That's hundreds of dollars of equipment and years of effort. Should I switch the tank's denizens to the tank with the smaller footprint and relocate my little underwater world out of the living room and the sunlight (which isn't really good for aquariums), like I planned to do last year? Would that actually address the problem or exacerbate it, taking the fish out of my immediate view and leading to even less frequent care? Do I even want to have fish any longer? Should I sell them? I absolutely hate moving them from one residence to another; it is truly a pain in the ass and takes a lot of preparation to do it right (set up the main tank, let it condition for a few weeks, move the fish from their old home, etc.). I am moving in another year, come hell or high (aquarium?) water. Is there another option that I haven't thought of?

Either way that I decide (and if you have any advice, I will willingly hear it), I rolled up my sleeves and cleaned the damn thing today. The bathtub now needs a really good scrubbing and at one point I slopped half a bucket of thankfully clean water over the living room floor, but I did my much belated duty as a pet-owner.

And now the tank is clean. The fish are able to filter oxygen out of the water without sucking in mass quantities of sludge and are swimming around happily, thinking little fishy thoughts. Now if only the light worked so that I could actually see the little buggers.

Friday, April 06, 2007

Shiny!

I think setting up a Koha installation has taken over my personality...

Delicacy and specialness? Hmm, I could get behind that.


Your results:
You are Kaylee Frye (Ship Mechanic)

























Kaylee Frye (Ship Mechanic)
80%
Malcolm Reynolds (Captain)
70%
Dr. Simon Tam (Ship Medic)
60%
Zoe Washburne (Second-in-command)
55%
Jayne Cobb (Mercenary)
55%
Wash (Ship Pilot)
55%
River (Stowaway)
55%
Derrial Book (Shepherd)
50%
Inara Serra (Companion)
45%
Alliance
25%
A Reaver (Cannibal)
15%
You are good at fixing things.
You are usually cheerful.
You appreciate being treated
with delicacy and specialness.


Click here to take the "Which Serenity character am I?" quiz...

Wednesday, April 04, 2007

Blue

1. My vacuum is broken and both sets of parts that I've ordered to fix it are the wrong ones. I picked the right ones, but the ordering website was wrong. The shipping costs were also unreasonably high.

2. There is something in my kitchen that smells awful and I can't find it.

3. I can't have anyone over because there are cat hair tumbleweeds everywhere. See broken vacuum above.

4. I had to bring my plants inside because it is going to freeze tonight and every night for the next few days.

5. All the pretty tulips in the backyard are gonna die tonight.

6. I had to turn the heat back on because it's only 55 degrees in my place at the moment.


But in the good news, I finally got the Z39.50 interface to work in Koha at the Family Resiliency Center to work. Woo hoo! Yay me!

Sunday, April 01, 2007

Koha on Windows

I finally figured out how to partition my external hard drive so that I could save both Windows and Mac files to it, even though I've been told that I could save both file types without needing to partition. I decided that I would have better control with syncing if I put Windows files in one place and Mac files in another. But first I had to figure out a way to both partition and format as fat32 without using a DOS based program. You see, my external HD is USB, and no DOS program I found would even recognize that it was even connected to the computer. I used the disk utility that comes along with Windows XP to partition the drive and then used this program to format as fat32. Worked like a charm. I think. I haven't tried backing up my Mac yet, just the PC.

And just now, I successfully installed Koha on my PC. Yay me! It took 4 different installs/uninstalls of the Apache server. Koha didn't like the latest version of Apache, so I had to use an earlier one. Of course, I hadn't uninstalled the newer version, which caused a hiccup, but in the end I figured it all out. If I was Catholic, I would be going to confession right now for taking God's name in vain so many times. I must remember to tell the people who wrote up the Koha on Windows info that the latest version of Apache doesn't seem to work with Koha without editing conf files. Not hard to do, just needs to be noted. Hey, it hasn't been updated since 2004.

There was one scary moment where my system stalled, first because it was low on virtual memory, then because there was a Perl hiccup somewhere. But everything looks like it's working now. Hopefully it won't bite me in the ass later on. We'll see.

Now I've got to uninstall the pieces that are still on my Mac. And then back it up. Thanks to the commenter who offered help installing on a Mac, but I think I'm going to stick with the Windows version for now.

Crazy renter

I just got done writing a crazy-tenant letter to my landlord. I hate being a bother, but since I am paying to live here...

1. Futon frame, car tires, other bits and bobs sitting behind the dumpster for months now. Not their responsibility to haul away, but something needs to be done. I'm tired of the view (my place faces the back of the dumpster) and the potential mosquito breeding ground and the garbage people aren't going to haul it away.

2. Linoleum in my utility room still coming up in pieces. The door catches on it constantly and I can't keep the floor clean because the kitty litter gets trapped underneath it because the linoleum is *taped* together. With clear packing tape. Just laid down over the original tile floor. Very professional. I'd rip it up myself, but I don't want to be responsible for any "damages" that might occur. Or having to haul it away. I guess I could just throw it on top of the other crap behind the dumpster.

3. Smoke issues. As in, cigarette smoke coming into my apartment when the windows and doors are closed. It's bad enough that my neighbors smoke on their front steps (yes, I know they have to smoke somewhere) and the smoke comes right into my living room, which is only 5 feet from their front door. I'm going to be here another year (dammit) and smelling smoke all Winter sucks. But since we all got a letter about keeping dogs on-leash they haven't been sitting out there nearly as much (they are the main offenders, surprise, surprise). We'll see how that goes.

4. Annoying small neighbor child still coming up and smooshing his face against my front door and staring in at me. Gives me a heart attack every single time. I didn't actually put that one in the letter (craaazy), just needed to get it out of my system.

5. Too many cars parked here. I'm pretty sure that we all get two parking spaces, but I know that at least two neighbors have extra cars that get wedged in to our collective parking lot/front yard. Didn't put this one in the letter either, will save it for some other time. I need something to stew on, after all.

Other annoyances include garbage from the garage/warehouse next door blowing into my yard, the lack of trees to block the nasty view of the street (they got cut down last fall), and the ugly Christmas lights that are still up on the outside of the unit across from me. Add their kid's toys (I count 5 bikes today) and the assorted trash in their yard...

Sigh. I'm getting old. Keep off my lawn, you damn kids!

Google TiSP

No mention of the OCLC takeover on Google's homepage, but I did find this:

Google TiSP


Google TiSP (BETA) is a fully functional, end-to-end system that provides in-home wireless access by connecting your commode-based TiSP wireless router to one of thousands of TiSP Access Nodes via fiber-optic cable strung through your local municipal sewage lines.


And what do you get when you spell TiSP backwards? Well, not quite, but close enough.

Google buys OCLC!

It's finally happened. Hell has frozen over.

Google buys OCLC, announces new products

As of today, WorldCat has been renamed "Google Library," and every work ever published is now available for full-text searching in the system. Publishers are already crying foul and their lawyers are furiously filing lawsuits, but our reading of copyright law and the fact that Google has added the name "library" to the product means the lawsuits will ultimately fail.

I...I can't believe this. What will Google take over next? I guess I should start working on my resume now, since we're all going to be working at Google in a short time. I might as well get ahead of the rush.

From Hectic Pace:
A source at Google who did not want to be identified said, "We're looking forward to finally having enough librarians on staff to catalog all those web pages."

Nooooo!!! I hate cataloging electronic resources! I don't wanna be a cataloger any more!

.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.

April Fools! See, librarians *can* be funny. And I'm gullible. You don't want to know how long it took me to remember today's date.