Gimme Indie Rock!

First, Harold & Kumar: Escape from Guantanamo Bay: I was kind of disappointed. Possibly only because I have been looking forward to this movie SO MUCH since a trailer first appeared on the internet. I felt like the humor was less clever and subtle. But then again, I am talking about Harold & Kumar, and I'm not sure how subtle the comedy really was in the first one. Christopher Meloni's cameo should have been longer. But it was funny. Not as funny as Strange Wilderness.

Second, Saturday was packed full with an amazing engagement party for two very lovely people, and a Metafilter meetup that was tons of fun. Meeting new people is fun! I spent some quality time with Miss T-Po yesterday watching Coupling (the British one), and it was entertaining.

And now, I have a librarian rant. But I'll cut it for you! ( librarian rant! )

A lesson in "can you ever trust your sources"- yesterday I found an error in a Mass. law on Lexis. Not just a little oopsie, but a bunch of words that should have been there were not there, as verified by a print copy of the law and the copy posted on mass.gov. Sheesh. If you can't trust the #2 law purveyor in the land, who can you trust?

Yesterday was crazy at work, I suspect this entire week is going to be exhausting and nonstop.

Also, music update: I can't stop listening to Tullycraft's Disenchanted Hearts Unite, such a great album!

We're seeing Daniel Johnston tonight at the Roxy! Here's hoping he plays "Greviance" and "Devil Town!"

Augh, so much hassle!

Library hassle: So inter-library loan is considered sort of the golden rule of libraries. When people need to borrow something from you, you lend it, and the good karma comes back when you need to borrow from some other library. So yesterday I faxed an ILL request form to a library in DC, adding a note that we need the book by Friday, so could they please Fed-Ex it to us overnight (I even included our Fed-Ex account number, so they wouldn't have to deal with the shipping charges). I call this morning to check on the status, and the dude doing ILL told me that maybe he could send it out on Monday, but he's too busy to guarantee anything. Grrr. Was he even going to call to tell me that if I hadn't called?! I reiterated that I really need it by tomorrow, and could he please try to get it out today. He says, well, maybe he can get it out on Friday as a favor. WTF? I need it on Friday! So now I'm trying a library in Denver.

My brain is mellllting. XML is hard. But hey, I just did something right, so that's good. I'm smart, I'm not a technophobe, I can figure out this coding business. It would be nice if computer language didn't involve words like parsing and CSS.

Besides, I'm out in beautiful Southborough and actually have a window next to me to see the sunlight.

Edit: Ack, of all the days for Metafilter to be broken!! Damnit, I need entertainment of the webby variety.

Edit 2: Ack! Sleater-Kinney play Boston the day after we get back from our honeymoon! I don't care how tired I'll be, I have to go!

Pardon me while I completely geek out for a moment: I've been appointed to the Law Librarian Recruitment Committee for the American Association of Law Librarians. I feel like such a grown-up now. This is sweet, as I've been interested in "career development" and "professional growth" lately. I'd love to know how people find the time to do stuff, though. Ideally, I'd like to be able to throw myself into some professional activitites and network or whatever it is that adulty librarians do. I'd like to have some personal growth stuff to do, like taking classes and volunteering to help homeless people (though I'm still a little burnt by the homeless people, maybe they'll be nicer to me when I don't get paid to help them). But I also really need just plain socializing time to hang out with people. All that, working 35 hours a week, hitting the gym after work to stay in some semblance of shape, and cooking dinner at home to be healthy. There is no time! I'm also back on my law school kick, though that will absolutely have to wait until a time when I work somewhere that will pay for my tuition.

Yesterday I heard the most beautiful radio transition ever: Mogwai into Built to Spill. Which made my day, it was just breathtaking how well the two songs worked together. It also comforts me to know that the kids these days are still actually listening to music I would be playing on my hypothetical radio show (I'm reading the WMFO email list now, and I promise, promise, promise that when they have sign ups for the summer I'm going to get on that train).

The weekend involved the usual going out and doing stuff. Had a very interesting girls' brunch at the East Coast Grill, their brunch is all spicy and full of unnecessary meats. We were so lazy on Saturday that we took a Zipcar out to go to a party in JP, as JP is simply too far away for us to stand the commute on the T. It was expensive laziness, but well worth it for the decreased hassle (though I suppose my horrid driving probably hassled poor c_m_i more than it hassled me, even I'll admit that I was driving terribly that night).

I finally found a bag to replace my lame library conference bag. It's cute and red. I was expecting to get a much more expensive messenger bag, so with the money I saved, I got a copy of The Fiery Furnances' "EP," which is quite good. I love jangly indie pop.

So, I just signed up to host a library student for SLA's Host-A-Student-Day. It's so weird to me that I'm actually a read adult professional. Speaking of, I should really get cracking on some research I have looming over me right now.

Seriously, how do we get out of here?

I am so tired. I have no good reason to be, but this week has felt like the longest week ever.

Today I learned the valuable lesson that the reference interview really is important, it keeps you from wasting oodles of time. Yes, the lesson was only clear after I had wasted said oodles of time.

Time to go home now? Please?

The woman who taught my legal research class just emailed me- she wants to put a copy of my final paper from that class on reserve for this semester. She said it was "outstanding." That's pretty cool. Now, actually finding my copy of that to give to her will be an entirely different story, as I have no idea if I still have the file floating around on my old computer.

Yesterday we watched The Hunting of the President, which was interesting. I didn't enjoy it as much as OutFoxed, and was hoping for more hard evidence of crazy right-wing conspiracies, but it was decent.

Man, Library of Congress subject headings are annoying. Who on earth would think to look for "beauty operators" instead of "cosmetologists?" Now I have to make cross-references and all that crap. D'oh. Just realized that for the 10 volumes of this set I've already catalogued, I should go back and check on some cross-references to be sure to get everything in there.

Anyway, I now have how many weeks to buy presents? It's about that time for me to start freaking out about money. If my calculations are right, then I don't have much to worry about, but I will be much more cheap than usual when going out (and perhaps suggesting that we reinstate the "Friday night thing," as that's cheaper than going out ). Thank god for that extra Dec. paycheck, though a good chunk will go toward plane tickets. I keep checking the All Tomorrow's Parties website, but they still only have Slint listed in the line-up. I'm ready for Indie Rock!

Last night UPS learned a lesson in hell hath no fury like a woman who doesn't get her 9 pound box of hay. So, once a month I order hay from the loverly folks at Oxbow, and write "leave on porch" in the shipping instructions, because UPS has some rule about not leaving packages for apartments (never mind that entire area of metro-Boston is apartments, so maybe they should have more than one run of deliveries after 5:00 if they want to stick to that rule). Usually, this is no problem, and my hay gets deposited on the porch. Once in a while a driver neglects to read the instructions, or just outright ignores them, and I don't my hay. When this happens after I've had the worst day of work ever, well, let's just say that the poor guy came back to our house and gave me the damn package last night. My heart goes out to the guy, but seriously, I don't write "leave on the porch" for shits & giggles, I write it because I want the package left on the porch.

In other news, I just exchanged some ILL emails with a librarian who was sitting 3 rows behind the infamous Bartman at last year's Cubs game.

I just solved a reasonably difficult reference question with Google. Does this make me a really good librarian, or does it make my job almost obsolete?

Whew. I have Pearl Jammed, thanks again to spacedthekeys. We snagged a ride home with a cabbie from the Middle East who had lots of opinions about politics, hating France, and Kerry kowtowing to the UN (which was also on his hate-list, along with the president of Germany). Gotta love that the god old GOP proganda machine has worked so well. Today's adventure in serials cataloging was slightly better than a sharp stick in the eye. Of course, since I catalog without ever having to use or look at MARC tags, a lot of it didn't apply to me, but I came away with knowledge, some good ideas, and a lot of thankfulness that my cataloging system is dummy-proof and does not involve MARC. I also got to wow the academic librarians with my tales from law librarian-dom, which is worlds away from what they're used to (i.e. we're glad when people remember to check out the books before they take 'em until they retire, there is no "circulation" system). Picked Drew up from work, then shopped for the cutest little red jacket and hat ensemble, a TiVo, and miscellaneous home goods. *Yawn* Now I'm sleeeeepy.

My favorite line thus far from the new Daily Show book: "If 'pro' is the opposite of 'con', then isn't Congress the opposite of progress? Or did we just fucking blow your mind?!?" Tee-hee.

This weekend was, as usual, pretty great. In fact, I haven't had a "do-over" weekend in quite some time. *knocks on wood* Thursday I sat through most of a baseball game with surprising patience, but they lost me by the 8th inning. Had the dorkiest fangirl moment ever when I saw Mary Lou Lord busking in Park St. station on the way home. It involved a lot of blushing, giggling, and failing to look cool. Friday I learned that I'm either as tall as a short dwarf or a tall hobbit. Thanks, Tolkien. Saturday I tikied until I was too tired to tiki anymore. The Tiki DanceTM, however, has jumped the shark. It'll come back when it becomes retro-kitsch.

I'm psyched for this week, as I have a free lunch tomorrow with the West reps who will thank me for my patronage and probably give me more free stuff. I'm also going to the Pearl Jam concert tomorrow night. Wednesday I'm heading to Nelinet all day for a class on electronic serials cataloging. We'll see how happy I am about that when I've been sitting there for a few hours learning more cataloging.

I have discovered the best perk this job offers. No, not the ice cream. They stock free tampons in the ladies' rooms. That is just so thoughtful.

Just got back from my first meeting of Boston law firm librarians, where we just gabbed about the conference for an hour. Made me feel all professional and stuff. It was also good to check out what other people were wearing, as I really don't want to venture down the road of Ugly Suits in the future. I was relieved to see some fairly important people in sleeveless shirts.

I'm really looking forward to tonight's Beer Club for some reason. I think I just really want German food and Spatan.

So I'm liking the job. Still feeling more than a little as if I don't know what I'm doing, but that means that every question I answer correctly is a little victory. Thus far I've handled the reference questions that have come my way with varying degrees of aplomb- I may not have gone about getting the answers the best ways, but I got 'em. I still feel like the only way to be a truly great law librarian is to get a pesky law degree, but am not sure I'll be ready to travel down that dark road for a while. I also hold out hope that I can cross over back to academics at some point in my life, so that the reading I have to do for work could be interesting, like sociology or history, or even bio. God, I am such a nerd. Right now my work reading involves daily business/banking/IP/real estate news briefs and the Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly.

I made so many [brief] phone calls tonight. One involved telling my mom that I was very disappointed that she no longer has opinions of her own, and only repeats whatever her new husband says. Well, that wasn't the point of the call, but the conversation turned to politics and I got fed up. I seriously dislike talking on the phone, though. Actually, it's not so much the talking that's the problem, it's the calling. I have this thing about calling people who don't have caller id (or don't have my number programmed into their phones)- everyone knows at least a handful of Jens, right? So how am I supposed to know that they know who I am when I call? I think this mostly because I'm terrible at discerning voices over the phone and figure others must be as bad at that as I. If someone calls and just starts talking, I'm apt to go for an entire conversation without having a clue as to who it is on the other end of the line. Ahem. Anyway. Just a quirky thing. Everyone has quirky things, right?

Well, I'm about conferenced-out. You'd think that wandering around aimlessly listening to vender talks and sitting in seminars wouldn't be draining, but I don't have nearly enough to do at this thing to fill my time so I'm wandering about a lot. I've got a demonstration at 2, and then have to wait around for a seminar at 4. Oh well. Wednesday looks like I'll be getting done pretty early in the afternoon, so that is good news. If I'm a zombie later, you'll know why.

There's nothing like spending all day at a law librarian conference for a good self-image boost. Damn, next to all those folks I am Teh Hotness. It is very bizarre to be in a profession where 30 year olds are the young ones; I look more like someone's kid at this thing than a real librarian (and I'm even dressing in my frumpiest adult clothes). Oh well, this means I'm closer on the path to taking over, since it seems that most people in this field are about truly ready to retire (unlike the academics, who I think tend to attract most of the fresh young blood). I had to stop for some shopping sanity after leaving this afternoon. Thank the lord for H&M, I got 3 new shirts for $33, and am currently about as de-frumpified as I can get while still wearing clothing. I will admit that I'm learning stuff, and it's valuable for the networking, I'm actually meeting people (today's crop was much nicer and way more sane than yesterday's).

Oh, and I forgot to mention: Anchorman is the funniest movie you will all summer, so if you haven't seen it: Go!

I am pretty well pleased with the new job. Yay! Though today was a very odd day, as I left at 2:30 for a 10 minute volunteer meeting for the AALL (that's American Association of Law Librarians) conference, and then after that, got to go home. In return, I'm sacrificing my weekend to my career. This means that tomorrow night I will want to do something super fun (or at least fun), to make up for the extreme library fest that will be my day. Another good thing is that I'm spending all day Monday-Wednesday at the Hynes Convention Center schmoozin' and learnin'. Plus, I get paid next week, so that means I get 2 more paychecks this month. Holy sweetness!

Tonight I am going to Tenille's, where we will watch stupid tv and/or movies and consume pizza.

It's funny that I'm developing a snobbery about online catalogs and how they're presented. I've decided I really dislike the way Harvard's catalog looks (no offense, Drew), as well as the Library of Congress. The Social Law Library's catalog, though, is right on.
Wow. I'm a geek.

I had a good talk with the director of my libes this morning. I will now have no guilt if I end up looking for employment elsewhere, and also have a quasi-possibility here. The hope of the quasi-possibility hinges on my becoming very adept at web development. I have a bare-bones grasp of rudimentary HTML right now, so I'd have my work cut out for me. I'm thinking of looking into an adult ed class. Apparantly Simmons grads can audit classes there for $400, which would mean spending money to take a class that I should just taken sometime in the past two years. But still, auditing is sweet because you don't actually have to do any of the work. But then again, it would mean sacrificing a weeknight every week to the soul-devouring monster that is Simmons. Hrrmmm. Choices, choices. No matter what happens with the quasi-potential, web development would be a really good skill to get under my belt for The Future. Anyone know any super-cheap adult ed places?

*edit- Hm, in checking out the Boston Center for Adult Education, it seems that it may be a nifty idea to get a membership there. They have wine & cooking classes that I've been antsy to try, too. Indeed.

The next librarian who behaves passive-aggressively around me is going to get it. I'm not sure what it is. It may be my foot connecting with their ass.

I'd describe the work woes, but, meh. No one needs to hear 'em. The grayness and rain outside isn't helping, and the prospect of class tonight is no upper. The good thing is that I'm ditching out of class at 8 to head to the Middle East. I think I have a presentation to give tonight, but am not entirely sure, and am not entirely prepared. If I do, I'll just read off of my project paper, shouldn't be too bad. Maybe I'll just tell stories about the bunnies instead. People like bunnies more than legal research on welfare law.

You know, whe I say that I work in a law firm, everyone always replies "lawyers must be so hard work with." But you know, by and large the lawyers are pretty affable. They respect what we do, and appreciate what we can do to help them. It's the damn secretaries. *shiver* I can't stand 'em. They're a mean, shrill lot.

Holy Crap!

I am the interview queen. I tossed my resume in the ring for a job at Wellesley, as my qualifications seemed to fit it perfectly; mostly I was just curious to see if I would get a response, but didn't really expect to hear anything. That, and it's an intersting job that would be fun. So I've got a phone interview next week. After last summer's Olympics of interviewing, I am once again excited to get out there and talk about myself; I do need to have a serious conversation at this point about growth in my current job, as I like where I am now, but am too ambitious to remain a lowly library assistant once I have my degree.

Oy, off to work in a few minutes. I am a good worker girl.

A 2 hour video on genetically modified food is a waste of my time.

*bangs head on desk*

For the love of all that's holy, will someone please come and kidnap me out of this class? I'll give you tree-fiddy for it. And a cookie. Room 101. Main Campus Building.

*bangs head again*

EDIT: but wait, I'd like to add that the most valuable thing I learned today is that one of the girls who sits next to me is totally a punk rock/indie rock chick who also dj-ed a radio show in college (and is also from Maine). So the most important things I've learned this week are: 1) there are more fun and interesting fellow librarians than I had previously thought (waves at dezzikitty from Management class, who is also of the interesting librarian persuasion); and 2) I value my personal life far too much to ever make gobs of money working for The Man, unless The Man offers excellent vacation packages and encourages lunch breaks.

Am feeling super-competent today. Ordered thousands of dollars worth of books for the libes, am inputing records into the Automated Integrated Library System or whatever you call these things, and am feeling generally as if my job does indeed have meaning above and beyond stickering and stamping books. Of course, I did spend half my morning stickering books, but still.

I am also getting really excited, as (most of you have probably already seen this in his journal) Drew & I have decided that we're going to stick around- we had been waffling back and forth on the idea of moving to D.C. upon graduating.... I will be itching to leave Beantown sooner than later, but it'll be excellent to find a nice new place and not have to face utter upheaval of new jobs, friends far away, new city, yadda yadda.

Class tonight. Dear Lord. I will make it through. Case law is important, must learn case law. On another note- I finally paid attention to an episode of West Wing last night, and am totally and completely hooked. My dream job someday is to do research for some sort of political group or person... I know there are people who do that for Congressional conferences and committees, and it seems so nifty. All that political intrigue and drama! I definitely do not want to be the White House Press Secretary.

So... why do I have that Tom Bombadillo song from Lord of the Rings in my head?!
It's a good thing I'm done for the week after this, I think I'm losing it.

Oh, and lawyers also ask for "the red book" about such-and-such. Yup. I can find that. No problem. I'll just look for the red book. 'Cause it's so...red. Not at all like any of the other books here.

Augh! What is it with librarians and Krispy Kreme? Holy crap. I hear about friggin' Krispy Kreme in every single class, every week. No more doughnuts! They're bad for you, people! I think even smelling one probably clogs about 10 major arteries.


In other news, am feeling very, very "meh" about a lot of things.....
I want to go home and listen to Unwound or June of 44 or something else that's noisy and jarring. Rawwwr.

Ok, now I have some time to actually write.
First of all, seriously, screw jewelry and flowers, the way to this girl's heart is through video games. Drew just gifted me with a Gameboy Advance, and I am just giddy with gamey goodness. I am totally kicking ass at Donkey Kong Country, but need to stop making faces as I play on the T.
Secondly, I am absolutely smitten with our new critter.
Third, my job may soon become way more interesting and possibly challenging and fun! Our library director is very into Knowledge Management, and wants us to "be an insidious little thread that touches every part of the firm." This means that once she gets her game plan set, I'll be assigned to a practice area and will be going to official and important meetings with lawyers.
Fourth, our fruit fly infestation is almost completely history, due to some serious cleaning.
Fifth, I am just pleased with everything and everyone. I've been able to meet/get to know better some people over the past month or so, some of whom I was very skeptical about, all of whom I actually find myself enjoying quite a lot. Awww. And the prospect of seeing two of my Bates friends who I rarely see is making me bouncy. (Note to my random non-livejournaling Bates friends: post a comment or something sometime if you're reading! It surprises me to get emails about things I write here when I don't think you're reading)
Sixth, I love fall so much. The crispness to the air, the way it smells like wood stoves at night, but is not so cold that you can't slow down to enjoy it. Even walking through Downtown Crossing today was exhilerating, when it's usually just annoying with people in my way.
Hmmm.
Seventh, I'm actually sticking to the gym regimen I've set, and am feeling strong, or at least healthy (I think my control issues ultimately stem from a hatred of feeling weak- physically, emotionally, intellectually...)
Alright, that's what I've got. This coming week is Insane with happenings. Whoa, why are they disembowling a boar on tv???
Tonight Tenille & I are drinking sangria in a box and watching some sort of dvd.

Whee! I get to play for a minute. This is the first time I update since the big changes. So, the new job = hella cool. I'm all, like, being a real librarian and stuff. Which involves photocopying lots of stuff for lawyers. The new digs = happy Jenny. Am feeling quite content. And am also glad that the stress of the weekend is over. Moving went well, if a little tedious. Drew's birthday parties were Awesome, at least I had totally awesome times and was glad to be able to meet new people and talk to lots of you fine folks. I believe this Friday might involve Tiki Time, so stay tuned. Now back to more "computer training."

in class, in class, still in class.

So I've just realized that I've been going about the general business of Work all wrong. First off, I'm an ENFJ. This means that I tend to react before thinking and go with my gut instinct instead of thinking. And I'm better at figuring out people's feelings and dealing with that stuff than dealing with facts and logic. So, I don't tend to -think- a lot when I work, at least not about the big picture. I think about what it takes to do my job, and do well at what I do. I suppose that's why I was a good social worker, the problems were immediate and needed solving quickly, but with the right resources it was pretty easy to do, and being a good listener helps a lot. The library science/corporate world seems much more Machiavellan (I totally butchered the spelling on that). It seems to take a lot of orchestrating and big thinking, and I haven't been doing that. I've also come to the conclusion that I am very, very Young and inexperienced. Most of the people in class are a lot older, and the experience they bring to the table is so much more vast than little 2-years-out-of-college me has. It's interesting stuff. It's giving me A Lot to think about, so hooray for that.

So yesterday was quite a lovely day. Tenille and I had some seriously girly time, which included shopping. Which inevitably leads to oohing and aahing at Crate & Barrel, Williams Sonoma and Pottery Barn. Mmmmmm, homegoods and furniture. Watched the Simpsons, and generally hung about reading and chit-chatting, as we are wont to do. I got a new book. I love books. I like the way they feel clutched in my little hands, I like reading 'em, I like everything about them. But, as some can attest to, my tiny attention span means that I start more books than I actually finish. I get bored and distracted way too easily.
Speaking of books, the more I deal with my collection here at work, the more I question the point of archiving some things. I, personally, don't see these books as being terribly useful to more than a teeny-tiny subset of the already tiny historical business research group of scholars. There's just not much to work with here. I think I have a problem with the idea that just because something is old automatically means that it's a foregone conclusion that it must be a) valuable, b) important or c) useful. I dunno. Guess I'm not really cut out to become an archivist, which is actually quite the Good Thing.
That is all.

Assigning Library of Congress subject headings is kinda sexy.

first of all, i *heart* bob dylan. listening to him makes my morning start off gently. and that is nice.
secondly, had a meeting with the tech services supervisor today to express my interest in the job that will be opening up in the future. he informed me that they already have a "strong internal candidate," and made a really big deal of that. but encouraged me to apply anyway. now, um, i'm an internal candidate, too. whatever, he didn't handle it in the most tactful way. i think i know who the other person is, and (if i may say) i am so totally more qualified for the job. The only potential snag is that a) she would be available sooner than i and b) it's obvious that i'll outgrow the job much faster than she. but growth is good, people! professional development and all that. so we'll see. i'm not getting my heart set on it, but will definitely still apply. whatevah. i have an obnoxiously optimistic habit of believing that things work out for the best even if i don't get exactly what i want when i want it (though that doesn't mean i won't whine about it a bit if i don't get the job).
about being a librarian: i think i'm weird. i like working with people. i'm not very anal-retentive about details. i don't like rules. and i have at least a marginal amount of fashion sense (but the day that black goes out of style, that's it, i'll have to stop wearing clothes).