Title: The Adventures of Lil Cthulhu
Info: Want a child-friendly way to introduce your little one to the traditions of the Old Cult? Meet little Cthulhu, who lives in the magic city of R'lyeh with all his friends, as you and your child embark on a fun and educational journey through the world of the Great Old Ones, meeting all kinds of new buddies from the Necronomicon along the way, from Azathoth to Yog-Sothoth! This series has won multiple awards and has been enthusiastically approved by the department of child-developmental psychology at Miskatonic University.
Credits: Story and animation by TheZebu. Voice acting by Erika Fontana. Music taken from the Shaman King OST. Original characters by HP Lovecraft.
URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOHJUrcVdJk

I'm back in California, but I'm having internet difficulties. I can't get the wireless router to work and the instructions are less than useful. Will post more (much more) when things are less crazy and my internet connection is 100% functional. This may take a few days. :-/

At least the antique German clock that rests on the fireplace mantel works. I think I woke the whole neighborhood up this morning while testing whether or not the chimes worked. (They do! Yay!)

And then I'm unemployed! Wheeeeeeee!

PRAGUE – Czechs and Poles expressed rancor and relief Thursday that President Barack Obama had pulled out of plans for a U.S. missile defense shield — reflecting deep divisions over a proposal that some feared would make them a target for terrorists. (Source)

That shield thingy in Poland never sounded good to me, either. *sigh of relief*

For those of you still looking for something to fill the void since Battlestar Galactica was canceled, I highly recommend Defying Gravity (ABC on Sunday nights). Human drama, government/business conspiracy, mysterious forces...all delivered by an outstanding cast and framed with a cinematic style usually reserved for the big screen.

I'd give you details, but that would be spoiling it.

You can see the episodes that have already aired here. But to get the full effect, download the first three hours from iTunes for free. You'll be glad you did.

Music video: "Librarian" by Haunted Love
Credits: Camera work by Claudia Babirat, direction and editing/effects by Donald Ferns. Starring Haunted Love (Rainy McMaster and Geva Downey) and Henri Davidson.
Description: Drama and intrigue in the stacks! Reading glasses! Rubber stamps!
URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ne_WXP7lUWM

Download a copy of your very own to love and to hold at: http://www.derivativeaudio.net/downloads.php

From the Paizo forums:

The fighter - I can kill a guy in one turn.
The cleric - I can kill a guy in half a turn.
The wizard - I can kill a guy before my turn.
The bard - I can get three idiots to kill guys for me.

--DM_aka_Dudemeister (Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber)

Happy birthday, H.P. Lovecraft!

John Flansburgh (of They Might Be Giants) wrote a musical? WHY WAS I NOT INFORMED?

You can check out some of the tunes of "People Are Wrong!" at:
http://www.myspace.com/peoplearewrong

...and I'm not liking what I see. There must be more to being a librarian than begging for money, planning special programs, and managing volunteers.

THINGS I LIKE
Shelving books
Acquisition of books
Providing people with information
Organizing and categorizing information
Technology
Using technology to organize and categorize information
Helping people utilize technology
Intelligent people
Variety
Creating procedures
Figuring out ways to improve procedures
Databases <---added

Maybe I'm going about this whole library school thing all wrong. Perhaps I would be better suited to a Masters of Information Science. I bet the pay would be better, too.

Off topic, but relevant: The downtown library was waaaaaaay behind on shelving when I was there last week. More so than usual. And the folks that were actually doing the shelving were moving very, very slowly and they looked miserable. The homeless sitting in front of the library in the 102F heat looked happier. Seriously.

"...People become librarians because they know too much. Their knowledge extends beyond mere categories. They cannot be confined to disciplines. Librarians are all-knowing and all-seeing. They bring order to chaos. They bring wisdom and culture to the masses. They preserve every aspect of human knowledge. Librarians rule. And they will kick the crap out of anyone who says otherwise."
--from "Thwart not the Librarian! Why you should fall to your knees and worship a librarian" by The Librarian Avengers

The prize for the worst librarian recruitment page goes to the Central Jersey Regional Library Cooperative. It looks like it was handcoded in HTML circa 1996. (It's actually Microsoft FrontPage 4.0. Same thing.) The "Why I Love Being a Librarian!" brochure looks like it came from 1974.

Subject: Disney Parody explanation of Copyright Law and Fair Use
Synopsis: Professor Eric Faden of Bucknell University provides this humorous, yet informative, review of copyright principles delivered through the words of the very folks we can thank for nearly endless copyright terms.
URL: http://cyberlaw.stanford.edu/documentary-film-program/film/a-fair-y-use-tale

Ah yes, Disney. The company that forced a kindergarten to repaint it's walls, fought to block VCRs, prevented a park from erecting a statue of Winnie-the-Pooh, and thinks it owns the right to Peter Pan. Don't get me started.

Wait, Wait ... Don't Tell Me! Newsletter
NPR without the dignity delivered to your inbox every week. And coming soon: the daily news quiz. (View Sample)

I'm a big fan of Wait, Wait. :-)

If my Gregg shorthand studies go well, I think I've found the perfect Halloween costume.

"I arrange to bring new life to old themes."
--Andrew Owen

In a chance browsing through the Clearance Nostalgia section at Half Price Books I stumbled upon a very old Gregg Shorthand textbook. Yeah, shorthand! Once upon a time, this was the only way to capture speech, word-for-word.

The book is a bit banged up and has pencil scribbles throughout, but hey, it was only a dollar. And I have tons of free time to kill at work. Why not learn shorthand? It's so deliciously retro!

I Googled "Gregg Shorthand" and found this amazing site by Andrew Owen. In addition to posting pdf copies of several old, out-of-print shorthand textbooks, he has edited an old book on the adaptation of Gregg Shorthand to Esperanto. Andrew Owen: you are my kind of geek!

The benefits of learning Latin
The benefits of learning Latin in high school

I feel for these authors. I don't know who gets a worse rap, Esperanto or Latin. "Nobody speaks Esperanto!" "Latin is dead!" "Latin is too difficult to learn!" etc.

If kids can keep up with the wild forms of texting and LOL Cats speech, they are more than able to learn (and benefit from) Latin.

The problem is not that Latin is hard, rather we adults underestimate the mental capacity of our kids. That, and the American educational system is run by unimaginative, short-sighted administrators and not funded appropriately by tax-paying citizens.

The only thing I love more than learning is teaching. But when I hear stories from my friends who teach, I shudder. Things are even worse than they were when I was earning my BA. :-(

The good folks at Dreamwidth have the best diversity statement I have ever read. (And I have over a decade of HR experience to support that statement.)

( pure awesomeness behind the cut )

I contrast that with my current employer, who has yet to provide company-wide training on diversity, and I sadly shake my head. It is no wonder to me that our line of business is led by 23 white guys, a token woman (Communications) and a token black (HR). Depressing.

"For me, the biggest difference between nonfiction and fiction has to do with the way I feel writing it -- the contrast between feeling grounded versus that of having a waking dream. Writing nonfiction is like a three-in-the-afternoon, sunny-day walk, where one foot naturally precedes the other toward a known destination, where the path both behind and ahead is well defined. Writing fiction, on the other hand, feels like being in some dark place where I don't see anything well, but I walk on anyway, trusting in something I cannot really define, having no idea where I'll end up."
--Elizabeth Berg, Escaping Into the Open

"I always write from my own experiences, whether I've had them or not."
--Ron Carlson, novelist
(quoted in Writing Fiction by Janet Burroway)