This Is A *Library*?!

i will admit to having been spoiled silly by my undergraduate library. not only did i work there for a year after i graduated, thereby earning for myself joys and privileges that most students could never have (e.g., facetime with the college librarian, quality time with rare books, sitting on the friends of the library steering committee, and being on a first-name basis with the ILL and circ staff), but i also just found it to be a pleasant, appealing, comfortable place to work. my carrel, #423, which overlooked longfellow pond and lake waban, while cold, was home to me my senior year. and the books were organized in a sensible fashion (i.e., in alphabetical order) across the four floors that held them.

penn's library, by contrast (and with the exception of rare books and manuscripts, which has stellar collections and a lovely staff), is a piece of shit. and i am being kind. the books are all over the place -- i'm talking A, B and Z on the 4th floor, P and my carrel on the third, and several other alphabets on the 5th, as well as stacks and stacks of dewey books on 3 and 4 -- with lippincott taking over sections of shelves in the main building, not enough bathrooms, missing books on cramped shelves, an electronic catalogue that times out every 10 minutes, no self-checkout machines, and the most angry/bitter/unhelpful circulation staff of any institution i've ever seen. this is not even to mention the horse and pony show that is opening your bag when you leave so that the security guards who aren't paying attention can nod perfunctorily at you to tell you you are good to go. even things that seem like pros are not (for instance, being able to check books to your carrel -- this only means that they show up on catalogue searches so that people can go to your carrel and look at them, which in turn means that they have occasion to grow legs and walk away. also, didn't anyone tell these people that sticking ugly blue carrel tags in the books to designate them "carrel books" ruins the pages and leaves residue?). finally, what about the ridiculously lax policy on bringing food in?!!? the undergrads eat mcdonalds and all manner of other food while studying -- messy, aromatic or whatever. god alone knows what gets into the books and the stacks. i know i am more curmudgeonly than most on the matter of respect for books, but this is seriously uncool.

i remember the research/reference librarian liaison person who did our (3-hour-long!) library introduction my first semester of grad school saying that the library where a person does her graduate work is the library that will be closest to her heart for the rest of her life. no way, buddy bob, no freaking way.

Hah, What A Hoot!

google turns 10, and decides to go back in the cyberspacetime continuum to 2001 (which, obviously, is not 10 years ago, but is still highly entertaining and amusing!):

<http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/09/2001-search-odyssey.html>

Life Can't Be That Bad

the last few weeks, i've been having bad hair day after bad hair day.

a) my new shampoo + conditioner combo, while it smells great, has undetermined effects on the sheen and bounce of my hair -- i'm testing it one more time, and if i see negative after-effects i'm taking it back to CVS for a refund.
b) the stress of the 50 book exam has been making my hair fall out in large quantities. (yes, even now. what, you thought everything would go back to normal as soon as i walked out of the slaughterhouse?) as someone who has always had thick, thick hair, i'm disturbed.
c) i haven't been swimming as much, but the chlorine is doing terrible things to my hair, i just know it. i've started wetting my hair pre-pool, and have even gone back to using dabur hair oil (i smell just like i did in school -- brahmiaamlakeshtel types!) but i don't know how much of an effect that's having yet.

but today, as i was standing on the steps outside the gym waiting for the shuttle so that i could get home, a random, mildly cute indian guy changed his trajectory down the stairs just so that he could stop by me, look me right in the eye, and say, "you have lovely hair."

... and voilà, life is good again!

Subliminality

what does it mean when you log on to amazon.com and, five times out of ten, the "recommended for you" display is the "#1 in engagement rings" category?

eep!

God Is In The Rain

for my first ten days in my new apartment, i couldn't open any of the windows in my living room, as they had been painted shut by my landlord's apparently-unconcerned maintenance folk.

a considerate maintenance person came by and knifed them open this morning, about an hour ago. i jumped at the chance to get some fresh air by opening them all, propping one up precariously with a bug screen (there's no chain on the window to keep it open -- evidently my apartment windows have long been neglected!)

then, five or ten minutes ago, it started to thunderstorm. the air is cool, electric as i sift through my email. my living room and i are refreshed. grey skies or not, it will be a good day!