Month: May 2007

Here I am.  I am posting to my LJ.  I am caught now between having too much stuff to do, but not finding much of it sufficiently interesting to write about.  I officially do not have a free evening this week (until Saturday).  And now, I find myself double-booking (I am wanted to do a storytelling program during gaming time on Friday, I’m attempting to do both).

On the interesting side, I saw a “little person” pulling coaxial cable for a construction project on post this morning.  At first I thought he was farther away than he was and then I realized that he was just proportionally smaller.  It was a WTF moment.

Many of you may know that we (thats Tiernen and me), don’t have cable or satellite TV.  We took a look at our viewing habits and decided that we’d rather spend our entertainment $$ elsewhere.  Therefore we have a Netflix subscription and high speed internet and WoW, plus free stuff from the library and our small personal VHS and DVD collection.  This provides us with entirely too much entertainment and we are happy with it.

I like Netflix.  It’s got an excellent selection, good customer service and adequate turn around times.  My only gripe with them is that the DVD’s are too frequently smudged or scratched when we get them, so we have to send them back without watching them.  And they have responded to this problem and alleviated it somewhat.

Well, now they have a new program to love.  Online movies.  Part of the collection is now available to watch for free (provided you have a Netflix account) online.  Including ALL of the seasons of Red Dwarf.  Smegging heck!  They even put a list on the free movie page of all of the movies in your queue that are free online, so you can trim out said queue.  This is very cool.  The caveat of course is that you get as many hours of free movies per month as you have dollars in your rental plan.  The plans go from about $5 to about $50, so you can do the math.  This is, of course, in addition to the movies you are still getting through the mail. 

So, if you have Netflix and high speed internet, check it out, and if you don’t, you may want to consider it.  I know I sound like a shill,  but this is an exciting inovation and I’m pleased to see that the company is not charging extra for the service.   

You would think that a social worker would be trained in what to say to soothe people and put them at their ease.  Especially a Doctor of Social Work.  This is not the case at my work though.  

My most persistent ILL’er is one of the afforementioned social work types.  She orders 5 books a week (she would order WAY more, but we keep her to 5 a week).  These books are sometimes about work related things, but are usually travel and gardening titles.  I don’t fuss about the non-work related ILL’s because it seems mean spirited.  She knows how many ILL’s we let her have in a given week.  If she wants to get gardening books, it’s none of my business.  

However, when she comes to pick them up she INVARIABLY makes a comment that could be easily misconstrued as a criticism.  Usually, it’s some remark about how slow the books are in coming or that she stopped down earlier and the library was locked, whatever.  My point is, this happens pretty much every time and I so dislike it that I try to minimize my contact with her as much as possible.  I couldn’t imagine telling my problems to this woman and expecting any sympathy, and yet, that is her job.  She is employed to provide support and help to people in desparate circumstances.  Don’t people in the helping professions get any training in treating others well?  It’s a mystery.   

Just a quick missive from the swamps.  Things here are progressing all right.  I am working at work on getting my computer system fixed so I can catalog books again.  We have a conference call with the vendor today.

We’re busy with our hobbies, lots of SCA fun has been had in the past two weeks and the next week looks to be much the same with two evening events (sewing workshop and fighter practice) and a full weekend of practice/potluck/picnic and baronial meeting.

Tiernen is still job hunting.  We’re still holding out hope for something to come through.  

Life goes on. 

I’m on my own at work today.  I like being here alone ’cause I get more interaction with the patrons.  Going to a meeting with the graduate medicine folks in a few minutes.

This past weekend was great for our local SCA group.  We had a big fighter practice/picnic thing at the home of one of our members.  We had about 35-40 people show up from all over the area.  Our group mainly, but also some folks from the Air Force base to the north of us.  There was something for everyone to do and I hope everyone felt welcomed and included.  It really reinforced that “family” feeling that attracts and keeps people in the SCA.  We can (and do) talk at length about the purpose of the SCA and whether we should be focusing on activites or scholarship.  And these are valuable discussions, but I hope we never lose that core of acceptance that is the heart of the Society.  Well deserved kudoes to all involved.    

While I was visiting my little sis (she has cable y’know), my mom had us watching a bunch of design shows on HGTV.  So now I want to spiff up my house (or more honestly, I want to get a house that’s mine to spiff up).  However, we are still beset by the “too much stuff” quandary.  I think I need to take another day and just go nuts on a room.  It worked fairly well for the hall and we’re trying to keep it clean and uncluttered.  Maybe we’ll try the kitchen.  I think if I had a neater kitchen, I’d cook more.  Right now it’s such a hassle to get at anything that I don’t want to bother.  I’m going to have to re-think the space and try for something that will work better with how we use the room.  And a big clean wouldn’t hurt.  Now to find the time.