Misadventures of the Monster Librarian

Didn't get the job out East, but at least had a great interview and made another connection. The Director I interviewed with is really cool and has been helpful offering tips and sending along a job posting for another position she said that I would excel at, so that is encouraging. Not feeling super confident about my resume, I had my boss at the library check it out and I am glad to say that she helped me with a complete resume makeover that has left me feeling more confident. Who would have thought, right?! In my never ending search for resume, interview, and cover letter tips I stumbled across this. Kudos to Monster.com for making me laugh. I think #1 is my favorite. These 5 tips and more found here : 1. Using a Cutesy Email Address for Correspondence Example: cutiepie@domain.com, or -- far worse -- something like sexkitten@domain.com . You Might Think : It's a clever, memorable email address everyone will get a kick out of. The Employer Will Probably Think : I ...

Article about the interesting things that you can check out at Michigan Libraries! Woot Woot!

Went out for karoke night Saturday night with K & L and Chris. We found this hole in the wall in the Roseville/Warren/Fraser area, which is not the wealthiest area, so has potential for attracting some WT. (Is it just me or are all karoke bars "hole in the wall" bars?) Anyway, it was actually nice, had a good community feel, etc. L mentioned this fact to the lady next to us, who in return said that many of the people are regulars, coming for karoke twice a week. Each of us did our karoke best, a fact that I am always proud of since I am horrified of singing in public. L and I sang the Indigo Girls, " Closer to Fine ." Anyway, one guy sitting near the bar got up and did this great rendition of She's got a way by Billy Joel. Great song and the guy was good looking, so I spent the rest of the night oggling him and having everyone tell me that I should go and talk to him. I am the shyest person when it comes to talking to guys--no lie. Long story short, I...

Death is a funny thing. People think death is so final. I thought it was final--I even said so the other night to Chris--but I am realizing that death is so continual for those who live. It is this nagging neighbor that wants to be in every part of your life. At times you think you can escape it and then there it is again, madly flagging it's arms and shouting, "yoo hoo, over here." Death passed and now the hollow that is left inside harkens me to a feeling of utter lost-ness--and it isn't bad, really. It is like going through the days and watching as someone else does things for me. Me is really curled up on a sofa somewhere in the recesses of my mind--just resting--and this imposter Me is running the show for a while. And she sees things differently, not renewed, but new. She has never seen the sprinkling of snow, salted over Dad's garden; Mom's dormant rose bushes, jutting out hautily under a dusting of white; never noticed how pungent some foods smell; n...

3 States 2 Countries 1 Continent I feel as though I have been so far removed from blogger-dom that I have to explain where I have been. Life has been so crazy busy as of late. I have had between 3-4 papers due every week for the past month+ and so much reading. Last week was especially bad, one of those "I am going to quit right now...I don't need this degree" kinda weeks. I turned in a 9 page paper on the history and literary comparisons (of 7 different versions) of The Emperor's New Clothes, which interestingly enough, may not have been originally written by Hans Christian Andersen ; but may have come from a varied versions of a tale told centuries before in Italy and Spain. I turned in a "Book talk" and "Notecard" for All quiet on the Western Front . And most horrible of horrible, I had to give a presentation of my research proposal (this is the big final paper I have to write--though only 10 pages in length--and it sucks because what is the poi...

I am still catching up on thoughts that I had a week ago--so apologies. Once, while living out east, I was talking about birthdays with a friend. When I told him that my birthday is on October 30th, I quickly said, "ha ha, yeah I know...Devil's Night...how fitting, right?" This programmed response was due to the fact that whenever I had told anyone when my birthday was, they made some crack about how it was perfect that someone like me (prone to evil --insert Dr. Evil's voice here--behavior) should be born on Devil's Night. My friend however, looked at me like I was nuts, and said, "What the hell is Devil's Nights?" So, today a mini history lesson about Devil's Night . Devil's Night is the night before Halloween (October 30th), and starting around the end of WWII, it was a night of mischief when people would go out and soap windows or tee pee houses or something. Somehow those foolish shennanigans turned into something more mean spirit...

J.K. Rowling's handwritten book : The Tales of Beedle the Bard , will be auctioned in December at Sotheby's to raise money for Rowling's charity of choice, The Children's Voice . Rowling has handwritten 7 copies of the book, 1 set to be auctioned, the other 6 to be given as gifts to those who have been most integral in her writing of the Harry Potter series. Each book is bound in leather with semi-precious stones adorning it and each will have its own special dedication based on who it will be going to. All I can say is, "Can somebody spot me 50,000 pounds?"

This was on The Librarian's Guide to Etiquette Page: "Wikis, On pretending to give a shit that they exist Make sure that you fool your bosses (who are a million times more technophobic than your grandparents) into thinking that you are 'up on technology' by making reference to Wikis and RSS content as if they really mattered. In the old days before either of those things, librarians were constantly referring to listservs and internet bulletin boards and before that they were probably referring to modems and electronic mail. There's nothing more amusing than seeing the look on the faces of your boss(es) when they pretend to a)know what you're talking about and b)act like this bold new technology will revolutionize [fill in the blank] at the library. Every once in a while, make something up and watch their faces light up when you claim that there's a software company working on a product that will [fill in the blank] and that it's gonna be so awesome and...