Did you know you could fly

One of the fortunate difficulties of teaching library skills these days is the difficulty in finding journals that the University doesn't have access to as an example of what to do if you can't find what you're looking for.

So I'm going to appeal to a larger audience, particularly those of you working in the tech field in the 80s and early 90s - can anyone give me titles of obscure or lesser-known academic journals, newspapers, or trade publications that we might not own?

Today I have ordered replacement reserve books and faculty requests. I have caught up on discussion regarding the recent changes to our new catalog software, and met with a representative from IT about data management. Why is it, then, that the thing I have done today that fills me with the most satisfying sense of accomplishment is creating a suggestion box out of an empty tissue box and print-it-yourself wrapping paper?

Moved in this weekend. My apartment is in East Boston, in this wonderful little ethnic neighbourhood full of corner groceries and hole-in-the-wall restaurants. And, amazingly, it is even nicer in person than in the photos. The building is a converted school building, and the apartments are converted classrooms - so hardwood floors, high ceilings, huge windows, etc. Plus the grand staircase in the lobby.

Robin is alternating between 'explore neat new place' and 'OMG scary must squish self into smallest nook available' modes and helpfully discovered the gap in the kitchen baseboards that allowed him to hide behind the dishwasher for most of a day. He was out and about when I left this morning though.

Commute on the T was annoying, but not horrible (too much standing room only on the first leg of the trip). Awesome local grocery is awesome -- I totally need recipes for Hispanic dishes. I didn't even recognise half the food in the grocery.

Anyway, lots of tours and orientations and getting to know places and people at work this week. Comcast coming to hook up my internet on Saturday morning (how ever will I survive?) and then picking up rainbowmagnolia on Saturday afternoon for a long weekend and job schmoozing (so good thoughts requested). Also haunting freecycle and begging shadesong's local friends for furniture.

Organisation Meme: Pick a drawer, surface, area of carpet, etc. Some relatively small place in your environment that is cluttered. Clean it up, and post what you found (assuming it's not sensitive) and where it really should go.

( Ok, right side of my (wraparound) work desk: )

So last night I had a dream that there was a new dress code at work -- we could only wear t-shirts if the picture/text on the front was the same size as the picture/text on the back. I argued until I was blue in the face that this was unnecessarily restrictive, and that I would have to replace my entire wardrobe, to no avail. I even pointed out that the official library t-shirt (we don't actually have one, but in the dream we did) had a picture on the front and a single line of text on the back thus it was disqualified. This caused some discussion, but in the end the new dress code was upheld. And then I woke up. But I remember being so frustrated and angry!

I've really sucked at updating LJ lately, except for book reviews and such. So here's a little of what's been going on with me lately:

1) Depression/insomnia stuff - I've been on the new medication for about a month now. No bad side effects. As of the week before I left for vacation I was still having serious insomnia issues, but most of the depression seemed to have backed off some. I also have sleeping pills now to help with the insomnia, and hopefully between the anxiety/depression meds and the sleeping pills I can get my sleep schedule back on track, which I think will help enormously with my mood.

2) Vacation - I just got back on Saturday from a week in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic. This is the parent-funded "we don't see you and your brother enough so we're going to fix that by taking you on an awesome vacation" trip. With the exception of the day I forgot to wear sunblock and got sunburned, it was all heaven. We stayed at an all inclusive resort, which means you pay one price to stay there, and everything on the resort (food, activities, alcohol, etc.) is free. Right outside our room was a huge pool with a swim-up bar, and the beach was just on the other side of the building. The scenery was spectacular, although we really spent more time at the pool than we did the beach.

3) Work - My first semester class starts tomorrow. I think I'm pretty much ready, but I'm nervous. I've done one shots and guest lectures before, but this'll be my first time teaching an actual course. Hopefully I won't do too badly. I'm still working on a recalcitrant paper on Virtual Worlds with some colleagues, but it's mostly been put on the back burner while I prepare for class. I'll have to get back to it later this week.

That's mostly it, although since I've been so bad about updating, if you've been wondering about something or just want to say hi, feel free to comment :)

Had a great weekend, although quite tiring. Isaac and I went down to New Orleans for the Palimpsest show on Saturday, got to see shadesong, and Kyth, and s00j, and bunches of other great people. The show was very good, although there was a little more bondage than I was expecting :)

Sunday Isaac and I went to see Knowing, which I think takes the prize as the creepiest disaster flick ever. It was very creepy. And nightmare-inducing.

Which brings us to today, where I'm home sick at least partially because I barely got any sleep last night because I kept waking up thinking that creepy blonde people with black eyes were in my room watching me.

The other part is my damn allergies/cold/whatever, which seems to kick in whenever I'm tired and run-down. Suddenly, in addition to being tired and run-down, I'm sniffly, sneezy, coughy, and itchy-eyed. Is very annoying.

On the other hand, I'm getting lots of work done remotely, as there are fewer distractions at home. Although in a little bit I think I'm going to take my sniffly sneezy self and go take a nap, in the hopes that I will be rested and thus non-sniffly sneezy in the morning.

Got home around 4:30 yesterday afternoon and slept mostly through til about 10am this morning. The cold has definitely moved into my chest now. I've got to do another 4-hour shift tonight from 6pm to 10pm, but I think I'm going to call in sick to work tomorrow.

Let's see --

Took Wednesday off because I've been having really bad insomnia lately and I think I'm coming down with a cold on top of it. Slept until noon on Wednesday and then spent the rest of the day playing Neverwinter Nights, to which I am completely addicted.

Watched I am Legend last night. Liked it ok, but thought it was depressing. Then I went online and found out that it had an alternate ending (that wasn't on the Netflix DVD) that was simultaneously less depressing and more meaningful. Now I feel cheated. Why exactly didn't they go with that ending on the theatrical release again? The alternate ending is also apparently closer to the book as well. Makes no sense to me.

Anyway - busy busy at work. Pidgin (which we use for Virtual Reference here at LSU) pretty much went boom last week. It's be up and down off and on since, with no explanation I can find (and I'm not the only person having problems). Discussion on what to do about it brought up the fact that we actually have a comparable product that came with our internal communication software - no one mentioned it because we already had something in place that was working, but since Pidgin is having problems we're going to switch to this other one. Which means I've spent all week working with IT to get the new program installed and configured. And next week I'm going to have to teach everyone how to use it. *sigh*

This is all in addition, of course, to trying to get my other projects done, or at least progress made. I work this weekend, but thankfully we're closed tomorrow due to a football game (yes, it's a religion down here), so I really only have to work Sunday.

The chronic insomnia is driving me insane, as well as increasing my reliance on my early morning caffeinated soda beverage, which I am certain is a major contributor to all the weight I've been gaining lately. I really don't eat all that badly, but I'm mostly sedentary and I have my soda addiction. And I can't stand the taste of artificial sweeteners so diet soda is out. I need to find a way of getting my caffeine in the morning that doesn't come packed with tons of calories. I never realised exactly how much of a strain the sciatic pain was putting on my body until it was gone.

I'm in a really crappy mood today and I don't know why. I'm easily annoyed or frustrated, and I had to literally bite my tongue to keep myself from making a sarcastic reply to a person at the reference who as being particularly obtuse. I should go home early today, for everyone's continued sanity.