Bring on the Deep Heat

I shouldn't have done those shoulder press exercises at the gym last night. My neck and shoulders, always a little vulnerable to stress-related tightness, had just gotten over the worst of the muscle-crunch they suffered on Monday. Too optimistic, I thought it'd be okay to get them working again. I was wrong. I can barely turn my head more than 50 degrees each way, making it hard for me to do the hair-flick thing which I sometimes do (to get hair out of my eyes, not as a flirtation device).

I've been preparing for an ANZAC Day display starting next week, and it's looking pretty good:
- There's a guy with his own museum of militaria, who's coming in on Monday with some rare memorabilia for our display case.
- I've got posters, poppies and reproductions of old ads from 1915, from the RSA.
- I've got a recipe for ANZAC biscuits
- I have a copy of the McCrae poem, of which one verse is always read out during the Dawn Service (its an anti-war poem, but they managed to find the verse which dwells on the heroism of our fallen).

I was one of the many who disapprove of the US's invasion of Iraq. That doesn't mean I can't support the Kiwi lads who've gone over there to help bring back stability to the country though.

Meanwhile, it's school holidays and I'm occasionally having to put up with smart-alecky kids with loud voices. Only fifteen minutes to go before home-time...

Extreme makeover possibilities part deux

How could I have forgotten two really obvious ones? Liposuction and dental work.

Liposuction I wouldn't bother with, only because I've made lots of effort (on and off) over the years to get into some kind of respectable shape. While I wouldn't exactly give my bod a 10 out of 10, at least it's what I've made it (sort of). So I wouldn't want to wreck all that hard work by simply getting a bucketful of fat sucked out of me.

Dental work. My teeth are victims of the classic Asian mouth-too-small-for-teeth condition. From the time I was a teen, it was always a possibility that I'd get braces. But back then we couldn't afford it, and by the time I could I was grown up and wasn't keen on having a mouth full of wire. Now I'm so used to having crooked teeth I forget all about it.

Extreme makeover possibilities

It's fascinating in a similar way that car crashes are fascinating, but less morbid because none of the players get killed (although there was that chinless Scotswoman whose cheek went all fat and yellow for a few months). I'm talking about the television show 'Extreme Makeover' of course.

If I were given the opportunity to go on the show and get 'done', what would I ask for? Well nothing, actually, because I don't like what I've seen of the in-between stage they go through (it's kinda ugly, not to mention the possibility of things going wrong).

- eye laser surgery. I'd had this done already. I went from obsessively wearing my contact lenses in order to avoid the milk-bottle bottom look, to not having to wear corrective lenses at all. So okay, if I hadn't already had the operation this is the one I would have chosen.

- leg-lengthening operation. The fantasy operation for me. Apparently over in China heaps of young Chinese women are undergoing some form of this operation in their quest for jobs. I haven't heard of it in the West though, and I couldn't be bothered with it by now, I've come to accept that my bum is far to close to the ground for a modelling career.

- anything to do with breasts. Nah. I'm okay there I think

- hair. It must be an age thing. I'm quite okay with my hair too - unless there is some way to stop hat-hair.

- fashion and makeup. As above, but if Trinny and Susannah were to offer me two thousand pounds to spend on clothes according to their rules, I'd probably go along with it.

A dream revisits

I just had a flash of a dream I had last night or early this morning. I dreamed that my bum had become smaller through all my gym efforts and was now too small...

First impressions of 'Lirael'

Well first of all, I was pleasantly surprised that our heroine (at age 14) decides to get a job in the library. Lirael the Third Assistant Librarian. If only more libraries were as magical and dangerous as hers. I was also surprised that the boy hadn't told me this, before I started reading the book - but then he's pretty good at keeping plot twists to himself.

Unfortunately, all the heroes in this tale are quite tall; this is the thing about 'Sabriel' which annoyed me mildly.

Anyway, I've found 'Lirael' a more exciting read than it's predecesor (I'm lots of trouble spelling that word!). So far at least, I can identify with the heroine slightly more just because she's felt like an outsider in her community, since she's the only one there who isn't a seer.

Now I'm going to work on my essay for another couple of hours, so I can reward myself with another spell of reading 'Lirael' later...

Science can tell you what you want to be true

New Scientist is such a good magazine - it's almost a pop-science journal, because it's relatively easy to read and full of interesting stuff which actually means something in everyday life.

I was looking for the source of a newspaper article which says that if you eat chocolate every day while pregnant your child will be a smiley happy one. I traced the information as far back as New Scientist.

I'm including it in my essay, as an example of how information is modified for general readership, so it would be nice if I could get hold of the previous source (Early Human Development Vol 76) - however I couldn't find it in the University's library catalogue...maybe I'll try to Interloan it.

Anyway, I like chocolate but I'm not a huge fan of it - but this article just might convince me to make it part of my diet. And that's just to ensure that I'm as sweet as can be.

Just a pawn of The Fates

Finally, after lunch in town and a browse through the shops, my boy decided yesterday that we would go away for the weekend.

I'd been in a dilemma over whether to make the most of the last long weekend before Queen's Birthday, or catch up with my old mate Claudio whom I haven't seen for ten years. Maybe it's the Libran in me, but I couldn't decide - so the boy decided for me. For an hour or so after we hastily packed, got petrol and left the city, I tried vainly to enjoy myself. What's the point, after all, of choosing between two options and then agonising over the one I didn't go for? He must have sensed the tension, because I sat up in my seat rather than going all relaxed and collapse-y while he drove.

Then, at Raumati, we hit a nasty public holiday weekend-style traffic jam - and that was it. He decided he wouldn't bother, and we turned around and came home again. I still can't be sure if it was the traffic that did it, or whether he was sufficiently tuned in to me to notice I'd really wanted to stay in town.

So we met Claudio and Hannah for dinner. We went to Chow, possibly the coolest eating establishment in town. Not cheap, but not expensive. Cool and trendy, but friendly and not at all snotty. Exciting cocktail menus and tasty Asian-fusion food in a grown-yum char kind of way. I got to hear about how Claudio and Hannah met (he was teaching a wine appreciation course and she was taking the class) and caught up on mutual friends and aquaintances. We were charmed by each other's mates.

Afterwards, I knew that it was a damn fine thing that the traffic at Raumati was so horrible.

Amazingly, the weather's been really nice since Friday afternoon. Which makes it a little frustrating that my neck went out overnight and now I feel like that girl in 'Sixteen Candles' who spent the whole movie with her neck in a brace (but older and shorter).

Ole' Square Eyes am I

I've only been ticketed for speeding once in my life, so I have no personal stories about attempting to avoid the fines. This guy argued that he can't have been speeding because he was only a few days old at the time.

So far this holiday weekend I've managed to:
1. watch five episodes of The X-Files, Season 2 (including the wonderful episode about murder in the freak show town. You know, the one with Conundrum/Jigsaw Man and the guy with the detachable Siamese twin)
2. take my boy out for a much-needed walk
3. consume three large pieces of gateau
4. watch Trinny and Suzanna re-style a 40-something Indian woman with a taste for yellow gypsy skirts
5. spend a couple of hours each, on study and the essay on misinformation
6. worry about whether to stay home and meet up with my friend from the UK whom I haven't seen for 10 years (and make me happy), or go away for the rest of the weekend (and make my boy really happy)

Isn't 'Happy Easter' an oxymoron for Christians? Happy Easter !

I'm happy, because I don't have to go to work for four whole days. And it's still 10 days before I starting driving the mobile library around ALL ON MY OWN. This is a big deal for me, because I have never, ever driven the bus without either a driving instructor or fellow library-person on board (to remind how to drive the bus, or to tell me how to get to the next stop). Thank goodness I can distract myself with study, assignments, whether or not to start a family in the near future, and how to replace my fence which got blown down last month.

We watched 'Cypher' on DVD last night. This SF/alternate reality movie spent very little time in the cinemas, and we hadn't gotten around to seeing it until now. Despite the fact that Lucy Liu was in it, it was good movie with an interesting plot. Shades of 'The Matrix' without the special effects and fancy kung-fu, and some similar themes to that of 'Total Recall' (without the special effects and the violence).

In other words, 'Cypher' is a plot-driven movie. There's a twist, which surprised me as much as that of 'Vanilla Sky'. My boy claims to have picked it up less than half-way through the movie, and but he still really enjoyed it. I ,myself, am Ms Gullible when it comes to picking out plot twists, so I didn't get it until 'Cypher' made it pretty obvious.

Probably the best part was watching our hero re-invent himself from nerdy boring guy to attractive, risk-taking guy - and there's a 'Clockwork Orange'-esqe scene in there too. An you know what? It's a love story too.

Toes of ice

Geez, it's cold today. The temperature is probably not that low (I'd guess around 11 C), but I really felt it this morning. What makes it worse is that the library building is a little over-heated, while the bus is mostly unheated. Dressing in layers is helping (t-shirts at my desk, add the jacket in the public area, zip the jacket up and stomp the feet when on the bus).

I've finished reading all of the novellas in Tales of the Slayer Volume 3. They were enjoyable, and the fighting scenes were well-written. However, the one thing which I felt was missing was character development. Of course, this is a hard ask for a novella or short story, especially when comparing it to a whole television series (BtVS). I'd thought at first that the combination of familiar setting (the Buffyverse) and unfamiliar characters would work really well for me. But I never get to really know the Slayer, nor follow her growth as an extraordinary human being. So I don't know whether I'll try reading any of the other Tales, or any of the novels about Buffy.

What I do want to get around to reading is Phillip Pullman's 'Northern Lights', and probably the Garth Nix books 'Lirael' and 'Abhorsen'. After I've finished my essay on misinformation.

Meetings, academic frauds and funny stuff

I went to a library association meeting last night, in which the two speakerd were library managers who'd gotten themselves sent to Seattle for the PLA (Public Libraries Association I think, rather some Palestinian organisation) Conference. I'd been hoping to hear their thoughts on the discussions about the Patriot Act, amongst other things. So I was pretty disappointed when they said they'd been advised to withdraw from the discussion group - apparently the room was probably bugged and a non-American voice wouldn't have gone down well with the 'buggers'.

In my research for my essay on misinformation, I've found quite a few examples of scholars who've been caught falsifying evidence in order to get published. In my library training, I've been taught to trust university-linked/scholarly information more than Joe Blogg's - but obviously even the most well-respected scientist or historian can't trusted(this is an old article from 2002).

Courtesy of the Laughing Librarian, I found this site page in which people have combined two book titles to make one. My favourites have to be:

Go Ask Alice in Wonderland
Teen girl becomes drug addict, takes the trip of her life.

Lord of the Ringflies
Three-book fantasy epic about rectal parasites.

a day on campus

I've got a day off work today. My boss very nicely let me have the day off when I asked to attend a library association meeting early this evening (normally I go to work right after my class, then work till 8pm). So I was so busy getting ready for doing study stuff after my class, that I forgot half of the stuff I needed for the class itself - like my course notes.

It's nice and quiet now, because most of my classmates have gone to their afternoon class (I'm only taking one course). I'd been having trouble accessing the university's online databases from home, so one of the things I'd hoped to do was to spend time looking through the on-line journals. I'd forgotten how slow the process of downloading e-journals is, and waiting for articles to appear is frustrating.

At least I have all afternoon this time.

Ever since I started really looking into my essay topic of misinformation, I've become more aware of - and more paranoid about - the prevalence of misinformation in every source. I can no longer read a non-fiction book or article and just take it at face value (this is something I've gotten away with most of my life). It's now so much more work reading stuff, because I have to be actively sceptical and maybe even check the writer's sources.

Now I know why most people read novels in their leisure time.

lapses in the mind

I seem to be experiencing an annoyingly large number of 'blond' moments these days. I've never been blond, and if I ever was then I'm definitely old enough for the hair colour to have darkened to non-blonde by now anyway. Perhaps these 'blond' moments are actually grey moments...those lapses of memory or momentary confusion which accompany old age. Not that I'm really old, but I'm only six months away from the big fore-oh.

Once again, I forgot to lock my car door this morning when I left it. Last time it happened at work, I got my gym gear stolen. Getting my stuff nicked, did not stop me from forgetting to lock the car door at least three more times since then...

As well, I seem to misunderstand what my boss tells me - frequently. Some of it I put down to her. For example, she tells me I'm going out on the mobile library with so-and-so, and then thinks that so-and-so already knows. My workmates have similar stories. But sometimes it must be me. Or...and this is scary...we both share this trait of not being quite accurate in what we're being told or telling others - and this is what happens when two like-minded people try to communicate to each other.

Either way, it's a worry. I might have to increase my fish intake or something.

busy busy busy

It was pretty busy this morning - I was on Info Desk most of the time, while trying to help someone put up an enormous amount of Road Safety display stuff. She'd brought enough posters to cover every display board in the library, but we'd only assigned her one small one.

And it's going to be a busy and nerve-wracking month for me I think. One of the mobile-library drivers is going on holiday for six weeks, so the rest of us have to cover for her. I was most worried about a particular run which includes a very difficult 3-point turn, but enough whinging resulted in that run being 'offered' to one of the other (more experienced) workmates. I guess the old 'Asian woman driver' thing isn't going to let me off my responsibilities...

Clash of the holiday activities

We decided last night that we'd definitely leave town for the long weekend over Easter. So I was a bit put out to find that my friend Claudio, who is in New Zealand on honeymoon with his new wife, is only going to be in town for one day - and that day is in the middle of the weekend.

I'm a little bit tempted to stay at home after all, so that I can catch up with Claudio, meet his wife and introduce them to my other half. But on the otherhand, my boy really really needs a break and I was quite looking forward to getting away (at least as much as I was looking forward to seeing an old friend).

So I've decided - if Claudio really wanted to catch up, he would surely have allowed for more than one measly day in town, right? So he's probably not going to be devastated if his day in my town coincides with my much-needed trip away, is he?

Great knee-length boots = rapture

I’m so rapt. Yesterday my boy and I went shopping, for boots. I needed to replace the ankle boots which I’ve been wearing for the last three winters, plus I wanted to see if I could find some knee-length dress boots (anything to be able to wear skirts, while avoiding those horrible pantyhose). And we actually found a pair which had enough heel to look dressy, but not enough to impede my walking ability. Not only could I fit my legs into them, but they looked damned fine on me AND were a nice price too. So we went out last night, so I could show ‘em off.

In the process, I discovered that my boy is like most males in this respect – he prefers me to look girly.

W went to see Lost in Translation. I enjoyed watching Bill Murray’s character having a hard time understanding the locals’ English. It made me sad though. Even though both of the characters had found a friend in each other, they were both basically unhappy people. It had a real Indie feel about it, which I like – but it wouldn’t have struck me as an Oscar-winning film though.

Look out - public holidays ahead

Easter's coming up, and with it a four-day weekend. Cool.

My boy's been complaining lately, that he hasn't seen much of me. That isn't surprising, because our normal week looks like this (bear in mind I'm usually in bed by 10.30/11pm):

Monday - he goes to an RPG (role-playing game) evening, and doesn't get in until I'm about to head for bed
Tuesday - I have a class in the morning, so I work late until 8pm to make up the time. It's nearly 9pm by the time I get home
Wednesday - I go to the gym after work, so I don't get in until 8pm
Thursday - no gym, though it's Dinner at Mum's night. We get back home around 8pm
Friday - If I have to work or go to a study workshop on Saturday, I go to the gym again today, so I don't get in until 8pm
Saturday - The boy sleeps in till noon, I go to work or to the gym in the meantime. This is the only full day we have together (see Sunday).
Sunday - It's Take Mum shopping Day . We go to the market, then to Church, then to some supermarkets (maybe just one, maybe 3!), before a late lunch at her place. Losts of driving, waiting and lifting involved. I get home between 2pm and 3pm, in a grouchy mood and in the need for a long walk alone.

So I'll pretend we're going away for the weekend (to avoid the major-ly stressful shopping Sunday), and we'll just hang.

...and a tough afternoon it's been too...

1. I had to rescue the printer (and paper) from trying to produce 500-odd copies of a map, because some kids entered a really big number in the Copies field.

2. Another kid who didn't really know what he wanted to read kept asking me to find books for him on ..I dunno.. kittens...cars...monkeys in circuses...and whenever I found him a book the little bastard said he'd read it already.

3. I was rostered to be at the Information Desk for an hour and a half, from 3pm. This was bad enough, as it meant I wouldn't get my tea break until 4.30pm. What made it worse was that my boss - who not only made up the roster in the first place, but was supposed to relieve me at 4.30pm - didn't get around to relieving me until 5pm, when I reminded her. After a fifteen-minute tea break, she came and got me to take over again so she could send a fax. I was there, mostly doing photocopying for patrons, till the end of my day - 5.30pm.

4. The traffic was worse than usual. I don't know why, but ever since I started working at this place last July it's been taking me longer and longer to get to and from work. It's not seasonal, becase it was mid-Winter when I first started. In this part of the world (except Auckland), a one-hour commute is pretty bloody ridiculous.

5. Someone keeps parking really close to my driveway - less than the legal minimum distance of one metre - so that I can't just swan into my garage at the end of the day. It also makes it harder to get out in the mornings. And that car was parked really close this evening.

Just as well my boy brought home a large bottle of wine, and there's chocolate mud cake in the fridge.

Nesian Mystik

I've decided I'm just going to have to buy the Nesian Mystik CD. They've been around a little while, and one of their songs even features on a Coke ad on television. I heard a song of theirs while I was driving to work this morning, and it was about the first thing to put a smile on my face today.

It's a mixture of Pacific Island music and hip hop, all very accessible, danceable and kinda irresistable. It's the first bit of music I've shown interest in since my discovery of Bach's cello music about four years ago. And to think that once I used to spend all my money on records...(I was fifteen and mad about Jackson Browne and New Zealand Dunedin bands).

The warm fuzzies

Remember the other day, when a baby-dreaded teenage schoolkid came in looking for information on mountain carrot and blue heather? Those are alpine plants, by the way, and apparently are regarded as pests by the Department of Conservation. I managed to find a few websites which had information on blue heather at least, and had the list of URLs printed off for the dreadlocked pupil to collect.

He came in yesterday, five minutes before closing time, for the list. He looked so pleased at my efforts that it just gave me the warm fuzzies. It's nice to see school kids interested in doing their homework, and it's even nicer to get warm expressions of gratitude.