"Your call is very important to us..."

This is certainly a morning for being put on hold. The folks from Epilepsy NZ still haven't shown up to put their display up and I've been trying unsuccessfully to get hold of them. The local rep isn't taking any calls, though so the display board continues to look bare and scrappy.

I also tried to get hold of Inland Revenue, to ask about getting some of my student loan repayment money back. This tried my patience even more - after being put on hold for approximately half and hour, I was told that I'd be put through to Student Loans, then I was on hold again. I persisted though, and after a couple of interruptions (like.. work and stuff), contact was made. Only it turns out that I've wasted all my time, because I should be talking to Payroll.

So I'm not going to wait in any more phone queues today.

The rampant consumerism continues

Not satisfied with spending my hard-earned dosh on evening wear, underwear and yet another Buffy book (this time it's the updated The girl's got bite by Kathleen Tracy), we went out again yesterday for more domestic wares. An hour and a half later, we emerged from The Warehouse (a chain of huge cheap-import stores housed in big red un-airconditioned buildings) with a large burgundy rug for the lounge, a kitset typist's chair for my study and a microwave oven.

And the rationalisations are...
- we needed the rug because the scrappy carpet in the lounge is not only ugly and coffee-stained, but it's also lacking an underlay.
- I needed the typist's chair because the computer sits too high on the computer desk. It was either buy a height-adjustable chair or take a hacksaw to the computer desk
- I've been looking for a microwave oven priced at less than one hundred dollars for approximately four years now. Originally I wanted one to heat my wheatbag, but now we need one because I keep forgetting to take meat out of the freezer ahead of time. This particular microwave oven was only about seventy bucks, so I really did have to have it.

I should be getting some money from work soon though - I'm fortunate that our newish manager (who is, coincidentally, studying for his MLIS) managed to get the City Council to agree to pay for library-related study. I hope I can put the money straight into the savings account though, instead of spending it.

That's spooky

I guess I'm a Violet both inside and out...

what's your inner flower?

[c] sugardew

I found it at Quiz Blog

Shopping for glamour

I did some research on FashioNZ, and found a couple for really great outfits by State of Grace. So, armed with printouts (I won't try to describe them; just follow the link and look for 'Ariel' on page 1 of the Winter Collection and Queen Mary bodice + Poseiden skirt on page 5), we went into town to look for something similar but cheaper.

What I ended up getting was something quite different. I got a silver stretch lace cap-sleeved t-shirt (one size larger than usual so it wouldn't cling, and on sale at less than forty bucks), which I figured I could wear with black pants or long skirt. I then had to look for underwear which wouldn't scream for attention from underneath, but that was fairly easy.

Pulled in the opposite directions of gunning-for-glamour (which goes for Librans) and being practical (which is probably a Cantonese thing), it's never been easy. This time it was so easy that the boy insisted we try a few more clothes shops in case I was on a roll. Well, I found a really fab strapless raspberry dress with a fishtail - but it would've looked better on me if I had a narrower waist, a longer torso and bigger boobs. And perhaps longer legs and a pair of Sex in the City-type shoes. It was at this point that we decided to go home before I started looking for corsets and tummy-flattening pants.

Loan-free

I paid off my student loan last week. It's not quite as impressive as it sounds, because my loan was actually quite small. All the same, it'll be nice to have that extra fifty bucks every fortnight (which was being automatically deducted from my pay).

So I was kicking myself yesterday when I realised that I was supposed to tell the people over at payroll to stop giving the IRD my money. I got my payslip, and instead of a big fat empty space where the words 'Student Loan' had been - those words were still there and sitting next to a dollar figure.

I've heard that it's really hard to get one's money back from the tax folk; soon I'll find out for myself.

And now it's time for a cheap thrill...I was shelving some of the returned non-fiction this afternoon on the bus when I came across a couple of dinosaur books (as you do). It's so childish, I know, but I couldn't help sniggering when I put the 567.91 DIX right next to the 567.91 COX...

(umm... those are Dewey Decimal codes in case you haven't set foot in a public library for a while)

today's brain dump

Films
These are the film industry names which would make me want to see a movie (without knowing anything about it):

- Peter Jackson
- Ben Stiller
- The Coen Brothers
- Charlie Kaufman
- Johnny Depp (-ish. He's let me down a couple of times, though generally it's still true)
- Lars von Trier
- Zhang Yimou


Sleep
Oh, for some! Every evening I go to bed with one of my trusty Buffy books, reading a while before falling asleep. Every morning I wake up to the rude noise of the alarm clock, and I'm bleary-eyed, unrefreshed and possibly not quite fit to drive for at least another hour.

Playing dress-ups
A friend of mine is getting married early in October; between now and then I have the task of trawling the shops, looking for something suitable to wear. I don't like girly gear, I don't like exposing my legs, I can't walk in high heels and I don't have the bod for clingy clothes. I thought I might look for a strappy dress with a little jacket, plus some pointy-toed knee high boots. Or I might give up after the first couple of shops and settle for some of the ten-year-old stuff in my wardrobe (hoping it hasn't been mildewed to death). Oh, for the donated services of a fashion stylist and a couple of grand in spending money!

nostalgia

I got an e-mail from an Irish friend yesterday, someone I used to work with years ago when she was doing her travels around the world. Back then, I was a spirit-drinking early-thirty-something who participated in a major annual pub crawl with a gang of hard-drinking IT guys who really liked to wear ladies underwear occassionally. It was on one of those pub crawls - the theme was Village People and I was dressed up as a biker chick - that I picked up a toy boy fan. I was quite flattered to be stalked by the 24-year-old, who didn't pluck up the courage to come and talk to me until six whole months after that big night.

Boy, have things changed since then. Serious-minded, teetolling and hitched in all but name only.

Confession

It was me. I was the one who let the book-stealer leave the library.

Actually, I don't know for a fact that the woman was stealing anything. I do know that she set the alarm off when she left the building, that she kept on walking and that I let her go.

I tried to stop her - when I heard the alarm go off (and it goes off several times a day; usually it's a false alarm), I looked up from behind the information desk and she was already two automatic doors ahead of me. I had to walk right around the desk to get to the entrance/exit, stand in front of the inner automatic door for a second waiting for it to let me out...by then she was already heading around the corner. That's when I thought "I'm not going to go running down the street after her". I was probably also thinking that that would look undignified, that I was leaving the information desk un-manned, that by the time I got someone to help the woman would have gotten even futher away, that it was probably another false alarm.

True, she probably wasn't doing anything wrong except not stopping for the alarm. But she was moving pretty quickly for a short, round person - almost as if she was in a hurry. And the more I think about it, the more likely it seems to me that she was hurrying out of there with an un-issued book.

It made me feel horrible all afternoon. And guilty too.

Q and A

A friend of mine sent me an e-mail wondering why middle-aged men's nose- and ear-hair grows so thick'n'fast, at a time when head hair diminishes disturbingly quickly. I didn't know the answer, but being a library worker, I vowed to find out.

And I did.

In the process, I found a fascinating site called The Straight Dope. This guy, Cecil Adams, is syndicated in various newspapers, so you people in North America may know of him already.

It's a lot of fun. Go on, ask him something.

urgency

All this time I've been very lazy about exercising my pelvic floor muscles.T he boy thinks I should be doing it on a regular basis; he claims to do the exercises himself. Well I had to exercise 'em today.

I should always go straight to the loo after a workout, since I'll have drunk a litre of water and we all know that the body can't absorb that much water in one hour. I shoulda, but I didn't, and to cut a long story short I was out on Main Street with my boss looking for tulips to put in our Spring Festival display. My hipsters were pressing on my bladder but I was too shy to say I needed to pee (and this is something which has been with me since I was a child). Centuries later, she went took off to get her lunch before heading back to the Library. I made it back in time, but along the way I found out the hard way that the public toilets are locked and they should really take down the enormous sign pointing to them.

Home comforts

The boy has been testing out his new toy (the X-Box) on some new games. BTVS isn't one of them, which is a pity; although I have a natural aversion to computer games, I would have been interested to see how the TV show translates into an interactive activity - especially when it's being played by someone who knows his console from his ...other game equipment.

Now that my couches and cushions are all furry, I find myself touching them all the time - when I'm sitting on them and when I'm just passing by. Back in the days when you had to wear a dead animal on your back if you wanted the feel of fur, I might have had a tough time avoiding real fur coats (okay, maybe not so tough - fur clothing on a short and sturdy figure is a less-than-sexy combination).

To a more domestic topic: I got three loads of laundry dry in record time today. The winds weren't quite as gusty as they were last Wednesday (or I would have lost it), nor so strong that the washing wrapped 'round and 'round the four clotheslines until there was just one giant noodle of wet clothes and stuff. But there was certainly enough air-flow to whip most of the moisture out of the towels, undies, jeans etc in the space of about three hours. Spring weather ain't all bad.

Furriness

I do have a bit of a 'thing' for fake fur, though I tend not to wear it. I already had a fake-fur cushion which I bought on sale at half-price, and today I persuaded my boy to take me back to the same shop for a couple of fake-fur throws too.

They aren't actually throws - they're single bed covers - but they're perfect for my two couches. There's a purple one for the mango three-seater (we ran into one of the boy's workmates outside the shop and I think he got a bit of a ribbing for having a purple furry thing in his grasp) and a coffee-coloured one for the blue-green two-seater. Hopefully this will be the end of the fur-fetish.

Apparently there is such a thing as a 'furry' - someone who likes to dress up in furs (and I think there's a sexual thing impulse there too). I wouldn't go that far - fur is so fattening to wear - but the touch of the stuff is so...sensual. Not to mention warm.

Anyhow, the boy was warmly rewarded for his good work; I walked around town with him for ages looking for an X-Box (they're in short supply nationally!) and some games for him to play on it.

new book

oooh...My The Simpsons and Philosophy book arrived today. It's all shiny and thick and full of potentially life-changing (or at least interesting and amusing) content.

To be or not to be a hero

I've just started reading 'What would Buffy do?', which is a spiritual guide based on the characters of BTVS. There's a lot of material in there about redemption, sacrifice, forgiveness etc. I'm reading it because I'm a Buffy fan and because I'm a pop philosopher, not so much because I feel the need for spiritual guidance.

But then again, perhaps it's people who don't feel the need for it who are most in need of it...

I don't want to be a hero. I don't want to have to think of other people all the time. I don't want to care about everyone; there is enough on my plate just caring about myself, my partner, my immediate family and my friends. If anything, I'd like to care less about people outside this sphere - maybe because I feel powerless to prevent countries from invading each other, or corporations from polluting the environment. It's also because I want to live a simpler life, and it doesn't seem possible to live a simple life and care about everybody at the same time.

On the other hand, I do want to be a hero, because its such a noble thing to be. But if I was so heroic and noble, wouldn't I get all bigheaded about it and think I'm better than everyone else? And wouldn't that be ignoble?

a pain in the neck, a secret passion

Probably like most office workers and people who work with computers a lot, I have a problem with stiff shoulders and neck. I've added to this recently, by unintentionally discovering a new sleeping position which ensures that I have an extra-sore neck in the mornings. If I run my fingers over the left side of my neck, I'll find a tight little knot which defies all reasonable force (it is near the base of my brain, after all). It may be time for a pillow reassessment.

There aren't many shops to browse in near my work, and there is a severe lack of interesting clothing shops. Thank goodness for Stationery Warehouse, which has opened a megastore in the last couple of months. I thought I was alone in my lust for stationery (the gleam in my eye when I spot a particularly attractive journal or photo album, the allure of the sticky plastic decorative book covers, the pull of the trendily-coloured magazine files...), but it turns out that this isn't the case at all. Fellow bloggers and library students have gushed about fabulous unfilled, unlined books; even one of my more colourful co-workers (a tattooed, pierced, belly-dancing children's librarian) is equally turned on by great stationery. But I'm still not convinced it's something to tell people at parties.

Wild Wednesday weather

Last night I kept waking up to the sound of my house's foundations being tested. It was gale-force windy, and wanting everyone to hear about it. I kept an ear open for radio reports of the highway being closed, but it hadn't happened by 8pm so reluctantly I set off for work. All the way to work in the car, I listened to more radio reports; mentally I chanted the mantra "State Highway 2 will be closed". But despite all the wind, the torrential rain and the surface flooding, I heard no excuse to turn around and come back home.

Luck was on my side, however. At 2pm, while I was sitting in the Mobile Library reading Janet Frame's To the Is-Land, one of the team leaders suddenly appeared through the doorway and announced she would take over my bus-driving duties so that I could leave early for home. It was something about problems on the motorway about half-way along - I wasn't really listening after the bit about my going home early.

And funnily enough, it was a breeze getting home. I could see that the river was high and brown; later, the sea was all churned up and a similar colour of weak coffee. But no Hawaii Five-Oh-type waves dumped on my car, as I'd seen happening to the South-bound traffic this morning. There was a bit of wind, but it seemed a mere shadow of its early morning self.

Not that I'm complaining - I'm home with a couple hours of leisure time to spare before my library class, and because I'll be doing this one from home I'm spared the post-class exercise of putting the laptop and various cables away afterwards.

a tempest, a home network and a fairly interesting article

It's pretty rough weather out there - I drove to the gym via the coast road, and a fair bit of seawater was dumped on my car along the way. Sort of like being in a car wash but without the big brushes.

Surprisingly, the gym was quite busy; it must have been all the frustrated joggers. Apparently it was less than five degrees Celsius at 4.30 this afternoon; it's certainly not very a comforting temperature now. In fact, the first time my feet felt warm all day was after I'd been working out for half an hour.

I am so glad I bought that queen-sized electric blanket.

Well, we're on high-speed Internet now. The boy went to Dick Smith's for a geek-shopping-spree, and the cable guy finally turned up. After half an hour's work by the cable guy, and several hours of hard work by my boy, both of our computers are now on a high-speed connection and on a wireless network too. Now we can both surf, and have a phone conversation, all at the same time. Along the way he found loads of software updates which my computer needed, so he dealt to all that; but I feel like a bit of a techno-cretin for not knowing to do this already.

This'll be boring if you aren't working in the library world (and possibly disappointing after yesterday's racier offering), but should be pretty interesting if you are - especially the bit about some US library school programes costing forty-five grand per year. It's a Library Journal article presenting some of the issues facing new library grads in the States. It constantly surprises me that people go straight from their first degree to Library School, without attempting to get any library work experience, and expect to get librarian jobs when they graduate.

Waiting for TelstraClear

reference-y stuff
The homework rush for Olympics information is dying down, thank goodness. I'm a bit sick of it already, and the actual games have only been going a couple of days. I did get a very obscure request for book on the "Orion mystery". At first, I didn't understand he meant the constellation, because he pronouncied it like "oree - in". So we started looking for astronomy books, and he waited until I'd led him over there before telling me he thought we should be looking for books on Egypt. I found the name of the book he was probably after - it's called "The Orion mystery" and we don't have it.

the waiting
Meanwhile, my boy has taken the day off work to wait for the cable guy to come by and set us up for Broadband. He was supposed to turn up "between 9.30 and 12.30", and this (rather generous) time span was confirmed twice over the phone and again in a message left on my voicemail. Confident that he'd be in the midst of it all when I phoned home at 12.15, I was a little annoyed (though not entirely surprised) to discover that the cable guy had still not turned up. I'm probably more annoyed that the boyfriend is though, since he gets a paid day off work.

selective memory

My mother rang up just before I went on the 'Net. There was a fruitless attempt at drawing me into conversation about the family, the batteries for her blood suger meter and whether I was dressing warmly enough for the weather, I told her I had to go and study.

She asked me what study I had to do. She seemed to have forgotten that I've been a part-time Library student since March. 'That's why I'm always so busy, Mum" I said ( but in Cantonese). She wondered out loud how I could fit in study when I'm always so busy. "Thats... why... I'm...always busy, Mum".

She's an old lady. She can forget whatever she likes.

Diversions

Nothing really interesting to report here: I'm more than halfway through Seven Seasons of Buffy and trying come to terms with reading negative criticism about Season 7. My headache went away but my tummy was dodgy. My assignment now looks like a strategic plan, but not a good one. It's been a freezing cold day with rain and wind, but at least I still have a roof.

Deadly Smurf. That's my Smurf name - what's yours?

The boy sent me this interesting (in more ways than one) report which he titled 'What happens when a librarian finds "naughty librarian" novels? They catalogue them ', found on memepool. But I warn you now... there is actual porn content. The funniest thing is that after each plot summary is a list of library stereotypes found and whether or not the library scenes were realistic...