I think this is adorable (via Ezra Klein):



Almost as adorable as the original Barack/Michelle fist bump.

Making plans for next Tuesday....These will involve going to vote on my way home from work, then spending the rest of the evening flipping between various news channels, refreshing about 15 tabs, and biting my nails.

Still haven't gotten my computer fixed, but I set up a couple podcasts and videos on my work computer to sync with my new birthday iPod. So now I can listen to Rachel Maddow and Keith Olbermann on my way to and from work! And I found a free program to convert .avi files to .mp4, so I'm putting some MST3K eps on the iPod too. My dad didn't understand the point--won't I be driving? Yeah. I've seen them so many times I really only *need* the audio at this point. My iPod is currently named Rupert. I plan to change its name to Ripper after I get my computer fixed and can actually put cool music on it.

I missed work yesterday because of a really bad migraine. When I got in this morning (after YET ANOTHER traffic jam because PEOPLE DON'T KNOW HOW TO DRIVE), I found a giant printer sitting in my cubicle. It's the one from the classroom, and it's broken, but I don't know what the hell it's doing in MY area. B has a WHOLE ROOM to scatter junk in, after all.

Oh, and "Undead Journal" can bite me.

I visited the school that does the training for the A+ certification. The training for this one test is $3000. Three thousand dollars. THREE THOUSAND DOLLARS!

Not so much happening.

On the up side, they made it sound like the A+ test is hella easy, so maybe I can just study for it on my own. Of course, they also do training for a bunch of other tests, including all the Microsoft certifications and the CCNA, which is reputed to be, like, the hardest test in the whole entire world apart from maybe the bar exam. So maybe they just think the A+ test is easy because they're comparing it to these other tests. I will have to look into it some more.

This school was also a major sausage fest. The recruiter was a guy, both instructors who were there were guys, and the 8-10 students currently there were all guys. They didn't make a big deal out of it or act like it was cute that a girl wanted to try to work with computers or anything like that. They probably didn't even notice it. But I did. I've gotten used to this not being a problem, since I work in a library and librarianship is traditionally a female field. But now I'm remembering college and one of the reasons I didn't want to pursue computer jobs after I graduated: even if the guys aren't actively trying to make you feel inferior, the fact that it's a primarily male field is uncomfortable and makes the job harder. It doesn't have anything to do with the guys I'm working with (usually). It's just the patriarchy and internalized sexism. And I hate it.

*hearts VeloNews liek whoa* They're managing to make this whole doping thing much less depressing and actually slightly funny. They may have gone a bit crazy as well, but I say more power to them.

VeloNews' Live Update Guy posts this:

12:45 PM: Our apologies
Many of you may have had difficulty in reaching VeloNews.com yesterday, following Carlos Sastre's stage win atop L'Alpe d'Huez. We have received a detailed explanation from our server provider, regarding the technical issues that cropped up, partially due to the heavy demands generated by one of the most interesting stages in the Tour de France.

There were technical issues and those have been corrected... but the Live Update Guys have also found a developing scandal involving the very core of our computer network, the creature you know as Herbie the Hamster. More on that as the story develops.

Followed by this:

01:03 PM: Yesterday's technical issues
While our server issues have been resolved, the Live Update Crew appears to have found another reason for the problem.

Ever the self-appointed anti-doping crusader, Charles Pelkey, our Senior Live Update Guy - we call him "SLUG" - discovered a suspicious link between Herbie the Hamster and a Milan-based veterinarian, Doctor Michele "Mickey" Lamborghini. The SLUG has demanded Herbie's blood profiles, results of which will be made available later today.

Next we have:

01:34 PM: More on Herbie
It appears that our problems yesterday were, indeed, rooted in SLUG's suspicions about our Hamster's relationship with the mysterious Dr. Lamborghini. Right after the conclusion of yesterday's stage, testers showed up at our server farm, looking for samples. Herbie, forewarned of the tests, apparently scampered out of his wheel, leaving a text message that he was training in Mexico.

We don't blame Herbie... we blame SLUG.

And then they start posting text messages from "Herbie":

03:10 PM: Meanwhile ...
To bring you up to speed, Herbie the Hamster, the power source for the VeloNews.com web site, disappeared suspiciously, soon after yesterday's stage, leading to a server crash.

Herbie has been in touch with SLUG, the Senior Live Update Guy, via text message. His tone is becoming closer to confessional.

"LOOK," he texted. "im not admitting nothing, but u dont no the pressure we are under. if you think we can power 1 mill page views on water and crackers, ur crazy. I mean, lol."

This is now my explanation for every computer problem ever. If someone calls and says there's something wrong with their computer (particularly people I don't like), I'm going to tell them the hamster that runs their computer had to be removed on suspicion of doping, and we'll have the test results back in a couple weeks. (The sad thing is, I can think of a couple people who would believe me.) Then I could replace their computer with an Etch A Sketch, a la Dilbert's Pointy Haired Boss. *ponders this idea with increasing glee* I'll be generous and let the people who want dual monitors have two Etch A Sketches. Because I'm nice like that.

I have just hung this Garfield without Garfield strip in my cubicle:



I'm such a rebel.

Yesterday was annual safety training, again. This year's class only had 9 people in it, which meant the instructor was, like, talking to each of us individually and stuff. Hooray. He also showed lots of stupid videos that had nothing to do with safety training, like some guy getting run over by a police car. Yes, please, next year can we have even more "fun" videos involving car accidents? Apart from that, it was pretty much the same as last year.

He took out the bloodborne pathogen movie, so we didn't see the heteronormative graphic connected to "sex with an infected person" (I notice the weirdest things.). The instructor told the same story about a woman getting Hepatitis C from a tattoo "a few months ago," so I think he made the whole thing up. (Of course, as we all know, you can also get Hepatitis off a burger from a countrycide stand.)

I vaguely remembered HazCom Man, but had apparently blocked out most of the horror. HazCom Man has red sequins all over his hard hat. His whole outfit is a parody of Superman's suit, covered in color-coordinated sequins. Clark Kent *wishes* he was this fabulous.

Methods for detecting a harmful chemical release include seeing, hearing, smelling, awareness, and observation. Observation means that you notice people are acting funny or sick or whatever (for example, if their faces start turning into gas masks and they start wandering around asking everyone "Are you my mummy?").

Our power finally came back sometime this weekend. acostilow, both our cats, and I have all been staying with my parents an hour away, so we didn't come back over the weekend to check if it was on yet. We still haven't cleaned out the fridge (...I know). So we were without power for not quite a week. Several people I know didn't get there's back until Monday, and I don't think they've got everyone up yet.

The library closes at 5 on the 21st and won't open again until 7:30 AM, January 7th. So I'm about to have a really awesomely long break! And! Guess what! I'm going to be working the Reference desk 1.5 hours/week starting next semester! *twirls*

For anyone who hasn't heard from me:

We didn't have power overnight. Still no power this morning. Work was closed yesterday and is opening at 11 today. Mike texted me that the library still has no power, but we have to go in anyway. So I guess we'll just sit there and stare at each other. I'm at Starbucks right now, since I needed to charge my phone and check my email.

If the power stays off...I guess we'll have to board the cats or something and go stay in Shawnee with my folks. Not something I'm looking forward to, but I have no idea how long it will take them to get power back for us. Hopefully it will be back by the time I get home today.

There's a leak in our roof. The phone lines are down, so I can't get through to the office to report it. Whee.

Anyway, we're still alive and kicking. Roads are fine this morning--only took me about half an hour to get to Edmond, which is what it normally takes. I'll check in when I can.

I think I've figured out what's so annoying about H coming in every morning when he gets here to ask, "anything going on?"

It's that you have to pretend to think about it before telling him no, or he won't believe you.

Today the librarians are having a web conference on library renovation. It began at noon, so they're having pizza. Mike and I had to set up the projector, so we decided that made us officially part of the meeting and entitled us to pizza as well. So I have just had pizza! Not paid for by me!

So, my presentation is over. It went...okay. People are telling me it was good, so I'm trying to just take them at their word. Anyway, it's over. H even said it was good, so it must have been truly outstanding. And he talked with me like I was part of the team instead of a stupid underling. That won't last, of course.

I'm going to be attending the Reference meeting every week now as the representative from Systems. I think this will actually be really cool. I'll get to go and be the expert, and have something to do for awhile, and their meetings are way more fun than Technical Services' meetings. For one thing, H is not at their meetings. So that's a positive development.

My Internets at home are awesome. The wireless router hates me, but I have momentarily given up on it and just plugged the computer straight into the modem. Maybe this weekend I'll try to get it working again.

My birthday is Friday! It will be totally awesome. My family is taking me to lunch on Saturday at Belle Isle Brewery in 50 Penn Place. I love this restaurant. They're almost never busy, and they have tons of vegetarian meals, including the option to substitute a veggie burger on all their burgers. They have pizza and burgers and Mexican and Italian oh my!

TV shows are coming back. There are tons of shows I'm watching now, because I have absolutely nothing better to do than watch TV all the time. Tonight is the premiere of both Kitchen Nightmares and America's Next Top Model. The CW has been off the air most of the last couple of weeks, but it better damn well come in tonight.

Coincidentally, both (approximately) the time since my last update and the time till my birthday! Even more coincidentally, my shoes are getting old. (If you got that, MARRY ME.) Anyway, I don't feel bad, since picara hasn't updated since Bill Clinton was president. (And she never reads her flist, so she probably won't see that totally awesome insult. Woe.)

Anyway, life proceeds. My job sucks. I haven't found another one. I haven't looked very hard, though, because every job listing I look at makes me depressed. I have to give a presentation at the library general staff meeting next month about Vista and Office 2007, for which "at least 30 minutes" is being allocated. I haven't started freaking out about it yet, but, you know, stay tuned.

My summer class is over, and I made an A! I am awesome. My fall class, Ethics and Librarianship, starts today. I'm really interested in the subject, but it looks like a much harder class. Then again, it's usually easier to write papers about abstract topics like ethics than it is to write papers about which RFID/self-check system you're going to use in your hypothetical library. There are so many more BS possibilities with ethics papers. We're going to have a class blog that each of us has to spend one week moderating. This totally makes the class all "hip" and "Web 2.0." In the teacher's mind. Sadly, it's a private blog, so you will not be able to visit and marvel at the witty brilliance of me and my classmates. Or my teacher's mad blog skilz, which I'm sure totally exist.

H has just blamed me for entering Archives' new UPSs into the wrong inventory file. I didn't fucking enter them into EITHER inventory file, because nobody TOLD ME Archives even HAD new UPSs. Obviously SOMEBODY entered them, but it wasn't me, and I am so goddamn tired of being blamed for not knowing about things nobody told me about.

It's lunch time. God.

God, work is boring. There's nothing happening except that stupid spreadsheet I mentioned yesterday that I don't want to work on. H left at 3, so at least I don't feel like he's monitoring me. H will, however, be in at the regular time tomorrow. I know this because he sent out an email telling everyone he would be late.

I'm totally going to get caught up on Supernatural and SGA. It will happen. I'm in the process of acquiring all the episodes I haven't seen, and since I don't yet have cable hooked up at the new apartment (or Internet, for that matter) I should have plenty of time to watch them. acostilow hasn't seen a lot of Supernatural season 2 either, since she hasn't had cable or a COMPUTER for, like, evar. I really don't know how she survived. So we will catch up together, which is yay.

The teacher still hasn't opened the class, so I still don't have any idea what I'm going to have to do this summer, or how busy I'll be. It's making me increasingly mad, because the summer semester is short anyway. We don't have all kinds of time to fuck around. Also, I'm gung-ho about it right now. This doesn't happen very often, so I've learned to take advantage of it when it happens. And I can't, which is so NOT COOL.

This is my new favorite icon EVAR. It was made by iconzicons. Also, it is appropriate, because today sucks very much. Classes start today, and my teacher still hasn't made the class accessible on Blackboard. H, my boss, is being an asshole (as per usual). I'm trying to decipher this obnoxious spreadsheet that was created before I started working here, and I know that H will hold me responsible for anything wrong with it, even though I neither created it, designed it, nor entered the data into it. And? I didn't get any ketchup with my french fries at Sonic!

I seriously do hate my job (which is mostly H's fault, but I digress), and I'd really like to leave. But I really don't want to look for another job, as job-hunting is pretty much my idea of hell. It took me many months to find this job, and I don't want to do that again. (I don't have time, either, now that I think about it. I work 7:30 - 4:30 every day.) I'm supposed to be able to use my vacation days beginning July 1st, so maybe I'll plan on doing a little looking as I have time, knowing I can set up interviews then. Of course, as I mentioned, school's starting today, so I expect to have precious little free time. But I have to finish this degree if I want to actually find a permanent job that I will hopefully like. The head reference librarian here was telling me the other day (in response to finding out that I'm in library school) that Systems is very cool because you get to know about computers and fix everything, etc. etc. Uh-huh. You also get to get paid practically nothing (for a job requiring a college degree!), and get to deal with everyone's problems, and get to work for the loathsome H, and get to be treated like you're just passing through because you're not actually a librarian. *points to icon* See? Appropriate.

I HATE EVERYONE

Just thought I'd take a break from moving FIVE THOUSAND BOXES OF PAPER a whole FIVE YARDS to make this point. Have a nice day.

A month or two ago I got handed the PC count project. It's a giant database to keep track of how many people are using the library computers. The various departments write down how many computers are in use every hour, then I go around occasionally and collect their data sheets, then enter them into the database.

I've always been of two minds about this whole thing. On the one hand, it's tedious and time-consuming data entry that serves very little purpose. On the other hand, I'm almost pathetically desperate for something to do. I was relieved to get this project for precisely that reason, because I always felt guilty about not having anything to do but surf the Web. (I manage to keep up with SIXTY-TWO blogs, if that tells you anything.) Plus, it's often good to have something legitimate yet easy to do when you're avoiding doing something else.

I was doing this data entry today when H came in to get a soda. He rapped the empty cardboard soda can box on my notebook of PC count stats (don't even get me started on how rude this type of behavior is) and informed me that he's going to get this project taken away from me, as Public Services needs to take responsibility for dealing with it.

I'm annoyed with him for taking it away from me.

H has a tendency to just out and out make decisions for other people. Once he told me to set up a flat monitor for one of the reference librarians so that she could use it with her laptop and have dual monitors. Guess what. When I got to her office with the monitor, she didn't want it, because she didn't have anywhere to put it. He hadn't even bothered to ask her! And that right there perfectly encapsulates why I'm annoyed with him right now. It's my project. If I don't mind doing it, then he needs to leave me alone and let me get on with it. The very least he could do is ask me if I mind doing it or if I'd prefer him to get it assigned to someone else. But that's not how he works.

And that's one of the many reasons I don't like this job.

Annoyingly, Mike hadn't shown up by the time safety training began. I'm pretty sure he forgot it was today. In any case, he arrives partway through the first segment. Safety training is in a tiny room in the Human Environmental Science building on the other side of campus, so I have to go for a hike at 8:30 in the morning. The class is four hours long and terribly disorganized. There's absolutely no sense of what order things are going in. The instructor just dives in to what seems to be a hazardous chemicals Powerpoint which is interspersed with random pictures he's taken on campus of improperly labeled containers. My coworker from the library, Teyla, is the person who sits in the middle of the classroom and responds loudly to everything the instructor says. I may need to punch her if she laughs at one more of his non-jokes (or at least roll my eyes when she's not looking).

We watch a lame video about Hazard Communication featuring a "superhero" called HazCom Man. Everyone else in the class finds this exceedingly funny. I realize that there are still three and half hours to go.

We learn that health effects include both illness and disease, which are apparently different things. The animated person on the screen turns cloudy blackish-purple as he succumbs to illness and/or disease. The reason for this is unclear, particularly since in a later scene he appears to be Barbie's boyfriend Ken as Bicentennial Man.

At 9:20 we take a break. In keeping with my motto, "Never pass up an opportunity to use the bathroom," I find a ladies' room. The next segment is Bloodborne Pathogens. I expect the video will feature copious amounts of red tempera paint. As boring as I find this entire proceeding, I'm still perversely annoyed when people won't stop talking during it.

The instructor tells a disturbing story about a woman in a previous class who contracted Hepatitis C when she got a tattoo (in Texas, evidently a hotbed of bloodborne pathogens). I begin to worry about whether I should cancel my plans to get a tattoo, even though for all I know she was in prison when she got her tattoo.

The bloodborne pathogen movie actually features disgustingly realistic blood. The mention of sex with an infected person features a graphic of the male and female symbols intertwined. Apparently homosexual sex is completely safe. (They're half right, I suppose. Lesbians are least likely to contract HIV. I suppose I should give them a pass on sex-related HIV details, since this is safety training for work, and FSM knows I don't want to think about any of my coworkers having sex at work.) At the end of the movie, our thoroughly whitebread host advises us to "keep it real," the name of the DVD series being Real Real Life, because he is lame. It is 10:30, and there are two segments to go.

Now we come to Fire Safety. I brace myself for our bumbling host dressed as a firefighter. I decide there's a 50-50 chance there will also be a dalmatian. Before we come to the video, however, there's the Powerpoint to get through.

Fire safety, we learn, is the instructor's favorite segment. I realize he does this for a living, but still, it's rather sad to think that his mental process includes something like, "Yay! It's time for fire safety training! Paul Gross Arms!" (Except minus the fangirl vernacular. I fervently hope.) When he explains that he used to do live fire extinguishing exercises, I expect this explains his professed enthusiasm. He doesn't do these demonstrations anymore because the fire department now requires him to recover all the overspray from the extinguisher, which he finds impossible to do in the Oklahoma wind. I'm just relieved we don't have to traipse outside to watch him use a fire extinguisher. (There is a disturbing story later about how one time he and a student got 2nd and 3rd degree burns during one of these demonstrations. I count myself even luckier.)

The fire safety video sadly doesn't have the same host as the last two. I decide that if it did he would have dressed as a firefighter and no doubt clutched a stuffed dalmatian. Therefore I win.

At 11:30 segment 4, Office Safety, begins. The instructor doesn't have a Powerpoint for this one. For some reason, everyone takes this as license to talk more. Fortunately, lacking a Powerpoint makes him forget most of the material, so this segment is only about 20 minutes long, and there's no video. Safety training ends over half an hour early. In the bathroom afterwards, I hear some of my classmates discussing how they took notes so they can go back to their departments and find out if they're in compliance with various regulations the instructor mentioned. My resolve to forget everything covered in the class immediately doubles.

I go to lunch. Safety training is over. Until next year. *shudders*

Yeah, I know, I never write anymore. I'm going to try to do better.

Today, acostilow came over and we totally watched Blade Trinity, which sucked way more than I remembered. At least CKR and Ryan Reynolds are pretty. Now that I think about it, I probably wrote an lj post about that movie the first time I saw it. In the theater. (God.)

Spring break is almost over. I have to go back to work tomorrow. I missed most of Monday and all day Tuesday. I went in Monday morning, but I felt sick to my stomach and ended up leaving after about an hour and forty-five minutes. Then Tuesday I had a terrible migraine. We ended up going to the AM-PM clinic around 12:30. It totally sucked. And H just called to tell me that the network, which was taken down Thursday and Friday, still isn't up and probably won't be until tomorrow afternoon. So when I go in in the morning I get to just tell people that it's not working and there's nothing we can do about it. Wonderful.

Man, I haven't updated in ages! Guess I'll do my best to get you all caught up.

My computer is broken. The connector for the AC adapter is loose, so it can't get power. And the battery's dead. I'm supposed to be sending it in to be worked on, but I keep not having time. So I'm using my parents' computer, which sucks. Not that I have time to do much for fun anyway. I have to be at work at 7:30, and it takes an hour to get there.

I started my new job on January 2nd. I work in Systems at a university library doing tech support. Right now I feel like I've been there forever and don't know anything. I've at least gotten a couple compliments about how well I'm doing. So far we've mainly been setting up new computers, which is frustrating and obnoxious.

My boss is "H", who is from Iran. I kind of don't like him; he's intimidating. I don't know if he's really like that or I'm just misinterpreting cues or what, though. My desk is set up so my back is to the door, and every time he comes in I feel like he's sneaking up on me and reading over my shoulder. And I don't have stuff to do all the time, so I'm, you know, surfing the net. I don't know what I'm supposed to do when there's nothing to do.

I mainly work with "Mike", who is, if possible, even quieter than me. When we go out together I seem talkative by comparison. He's pretty easy to work with, though.

Right outside our office is "Tom-Tom", who is older and in charge of queries and the catalog software. He's very acerbic. He was really annoying me today, too, complaining about spending half his time following me and Mike around after we set up new computers to configure the catalog settings. Which is his job. And we don't have logins to the catalog software, so Mike and I *can't* do it. And it would be really nice if he would just shut up.

Like I said, we've mostly been setting up new computers, which involves transferring all the user's files from their old computer, particularly their email, and then setting up the new computer and putting the files on it. And then figuring out the million and one absolutely essential programs that Mike didn't put on the image because not everyone needs them. Mike and I have been doing them together, but today I did a couple by myself. People are nice and stuff, but I still hate it. In some ways it's better without Mike looking over my shoulder, but it's also worse because he's not there to check my work and do the occasional thing that only he has rights to do. Also, I did "Cassandra", the web services librarian's, computer today. She had pretty much *everything* saved to her desktop, so I got to sit there gritting my teeth for TWENTY FREAKING MINUTES while her FIVE HUNDRED MEGABYTE Desktop folder transferred. Have I mentioned I hate everyone?

Other than work there's pretty much nothing going on. The Tragically Hip are going to be in Dallas in March. It would be cool to go, but I probably won't. I'm thinking about getting an apartment nearer to work (like, actually in the same town and everything!), but I don't have a lot of money right now, and looking for apartments sounds like absolutely no fun. Let's see. Oh! I bought a car the day after Christmas. It's a blue 2004 Taurus. I still haven't gotten the title transferred, unfortunately. Um. I can't think of anything else. Poke me if I left anything out.

In other news...I GOT THE JOB! *dances*