16 December 2006
Backs and Doors
We’ve all seen those moments in movies or on TV, they’re usually cheesy, when a character exits via a door or shows someone out the door, only to stop just after it’s been closed to lean up against that very door to ponder the emotion of the moment that has just passed. Usually these moments come right after either a particularly romantic or heartbreaking event.
But seriously, who does that? I never have. Do people do that?
It’s one of those things that only happens in the movies. And while I know that unrealistic things are done in movies for effect, it’s one of my pet peeves. I can’t abide by it. I can’t buy into that behaviour. I can’t get behind that! Exit the building and then do your pondering. Get in the car and then pause to let the emotion sink-in. But leaning against the door when the other person is only a foot away on the other side? Wouldn’t they hear you not walk away and start to wonder? I think I would.
Maybe I should try it the next time I exit a particularly romantic or heartbreaking event.
-exit
-door closes
-pause
-lean
-sigh
-reflect
I’d probably wack my head against the door, only to be heard by the person on the other side. Or they’d be staring out the peephole to watch me walk away (because I assume that some people do that…), only to see me go nowhere and think: “How wierd, what is she doing, stalking me?” Somehow, my attempt at having an intense moment of reflection would turn not turn out so perfect. Somehow, I’d manage to bring embarassment upon myself.
So why? Why the leaning against the doors?
Or perhaps the real question is: Do “intense” moments like that ever really happen in the first place? Bah!
14 November 2006
Graffiti
I kind of like what this artist named Banksy does. Ever since my friend Patrick introduced me to his stuff I’ve enjoyed keeping track of his shenanigans. Stenciling random images on surfaces around town is a trend that’s really caught-on in the past few years.
Here in Edmonton I always enjoyed the new things that would pop-up weekly on various surfaces along Saskatchewan Drive; my favorite being this stencil of Magnum PI.
Recently I got a lot of joy from the stencil of a dinosaur skeleton. It was applied to a wall along a flower planter on the side of the main Canadian Blood Services building. There he was, Mr. T-Rex or whatever just creeping along, creating a little delight on a very drab wall in a very drab wintry scene. One day on the bus I was thinking about T-Rex and the little smile he always gives me, only to find that as I passed by his spot, he had been “erased.” Well, they had spray-painted or smudged something over him anyhow. Now instead of a delightful little piece of art, there is just a big ugly smudge on a big ugly wall. I don’t know how or who should decide what graffiti is good art, but I thought that was good.
If someone would stencil William Shatner’s face around town, that would make me very happy.
4 November 2006
Google is easy
How true it is. Google is easy.
Allow me to vent:
Random undergraduate needs to find articles on topic X. I show her the quickest way to access the databases she needs through the library website. Response:
“Yeah…this website just isn’t as easy to use as Google.”
I won’t argue with her there. The library website is in constant need of improvement, but let’s get some perspective kids! Lots of quality information is not free. However, you’ve paid for access to tons of great info when you pay your tuition fees. Take a few minutes and learn how to use the “not as easy as Google” library website.
Basically, if my response was neither “just Google it” nor “here is a search box that will help you find whatever you need,” she was not going to be satisfied.
No wonder there are so many grumpy librarians out there. People are schmucks.
Rest assured, I gave the best possible service, even after realizing that nothing short of “just Goolge it” would do for this poor lass:
“Is there something specific that I could help you look for?”
“No? Okay, would you like some help picking a good database to use?”
“No? Okay, just let me know if there’s anything else that I can help you with.”
Oh, and good luck with Google.
1 November 2006
A particularizing effect
I like to use the word “the” to particularize things that normally aren’t particularized. For example, “He’s got the cancer,” “I’ve been to the Europe,” “The philosophy is a neat subject.”
It’s a fun thing to do in an otherwise far too serious world.
Turns out, President Bush is also fond of this little exercise in small amusements. Apparently, he’s a fan of “the Google.” Well isn’t everyone.
In France we tried to introduce the verb “to google” (googler) into their fair language, but it didn’t take.
je google
tu googles
il/elle google
nous googlons
vous googlez
ils/elles googlent
J’ai googlé mon ami hier.
Please feel free to correct my conjugations.
21 October 2006
Speeling
Be forewarned, wordpress does not offer a spell-check function. And I’m not so good with the spelling.
Fact: the Blogger spell-check function does not recognize “blog” as a word. No joke. Perhaps this site can shed some light on the matter.
Blogger, remember, is owned by the Google.
New Beginnings
I’ve decided I want to have a blog that is apropos of absolutely nothing except that which I find mildly interesting and want to share with the world (that’s you). Lots of the stuff that I post on here will be about nifty things I’ve been learning in library school. Other things, well, perhaps they’ll just be tremendous ways of killing time (because we all need more tools for doing that, right?).
Some of the best blogs are those which actually have a specific purpose (ie a specified topic or field that they address), but I don’t feel that I have anything particularly useful to contribute to any topic at this time. And besides, most of the blogs out there are completely pointless and self-indulgent anyway, so I decided that I wanted one of those too!
Here it is.
Underwhelmed 