pedestrian saga

Ira Glass and Stephen Colbert at the same table on my computer screen…That’s, like, one striped tie or pair of spectacles past hyperventilation.

(Aunt Mary, faithful reader, more hyperventilation-inducing eyeglasses tomorrow! The Decemberists are performing on The Colbert Report Monday, April 27.)

Earth Day slasher flick
Drive rental car to Eugene
Dennis and Bruce rule!

One more thing I did this week to be happy was visit DogWoman at Open Salon, where I contracted the Extreme Sheep bug. What can I say? My immune system doesn’t stand a chance against viral marketing videos that feature Welsh shepherds making extremely geeky art. Symptoms include wide eyes, slack jaw, random tittering, and the compulsion to hit play over and over.

I hope to beat Very Short List to the punch by declaring this video the sweet chewy center of a delicious Venn diagram flavored with Wallace and Gromit, Andy Goldsworthy, and Wooster Collective.

Go on then. Watch the video and the BBC News making of. And three cheers for DogWoman, those “good dogs and sensible sheep,” and sexy British shepherding geek artists everywhere!

Another week in pursuit of happiness…

I finally sank my teeth into Season Five of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and relished Eurotrash Dracula, mysterious kid sister, Xander doppelganger, Spike backstory…with the Buff gymnastical ass-kicking a steady thrill.

I cast off self-defeating excuses (”I can’t afford a day off work, or the registration fee”; “I won’t know anybody there, and I’m a poser!”) and forged ahead through my first professional conference for library and information science—OLA in Salem. It was a fabulous experience!

• Allyson Carlysle’s presentation on the future of cataloging, a major motivator for attending the conference on Friday, was fascinating in an over-my-head-but-totally-validating-to-sit-in-a-room-full-of-people-who-embrace-minutiae sort of way. Now, in addition to her reading list, I have a stack of acronyms to study and the impetus to synthesize my vagabondage in the world of cataloging. Long live metadata!
• I dug the tag team presentation on manga collecting and cataloging, even if it, too, was mostly over my head. Chibi Vampire, here I come!
• The exhibits hall jump-started my orientation to MedlinePlus, a nifty source of authoritative health information from the National Library of Medicine and National Institutes of Health. Next week I’ll begin a volunteer project to help enhance the Go Local listings for Benton County, Oregon.
• I also cornered reps from Emporia State and the University of Washington for the prospective student inquisition. Conversation at the UW booth revealed that my application had been accepted, which sent me floating about the conference center all afternoon in a happy daze.
• Lunch was an exercise in immersion therapy—the horror of entering a party alone! I succeeded probably thanks to adrenaline from the well-timed UW news. I approached a friendly-looking guybrarian sitting solo and made conversation about library school and librarianship in the Portland area. The food was yummy, the cost was included in the registration fee, and I didn’t spill any on myself. w00t!

And on a gorgeous spring Sunday I cooked a vat of carrot soup and delivered a meal on two wheels to a new mum. My foray into the gluten-free diet proved more interesting than daunting. And, omg, isn’t a blooming magnolia tree the bomb?