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Well, here I am again with a collection of bits to post because you miss me and so I must post something. Well, I will pretend you have missed me. It hasn't been PARTICULARLY long, but it feels like it a bit. I've had a lot less computer time this past week and a half-- it's amazing how much computer stuff I accomplish while on reference desk. This is NOT (dear employers or otherwised concerned) to imply that I don't actually do my WORK while on reference desk. But I get a lot of Internet read while there, too. And as I haven't HAD a reference desk for the past week and a half (OPENING DAY IS TOMORROW!), I've been as obsessively reading-- or skimming-- my favorite blogs as much as possible in whatever time I can squeeze in at home, which means I also haven't been typing anything. Imagine.
Today we went Strawberry Picking at a pick-your-own farm. Maddie reminded me very much of Little Sal (we must go Blueberry Picking next month), and it is only luck-- or the fact that there simply were no bears around-- that kept her from wandering off after a mother bear. Sam was very enthusiastic at first, but it took me awhile to figure out what he meant when he was trying to say that he wanted to Pay With the Strawberries Now. By the time I DID comprehend his pleas to go home, we had filled about half of our ten-pound volume basket (and none of the now-stained basket Maddie had carried and added berries to, kaplink, kaplank, kaplunk, before eating them). Five pounds fresh beautiful little berries-- plenty for jam and a few more besides.
In other completely unrelated news, I was rather amused by Robin McKinley's latest post, because she basically draws the exact same conclusions I drew in my Learning to Sing on Paper post the other week, but in the opposite order! Because she of course already knows how to write. :P
Speaking of authors, I just got an email notification informing me that "@dduane is Now Following [Me] on Twitter." SQUEEEEEEEE! Too bad I don't say anything intelligent.
Fifthly (I think), the other day I actually got TAGGED in a LIVEJOURNAL SURVEY HICKEY THING. Wow! How very 2007! I did comment once long back that I missed those surveys. Then![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
vovat actually posted one about a week later. But I was very busy that week, and the survey was full of those embarrassingly perverted questions written by teenagers who think they are more amusing than they are, which really didn't seem to match the happy professional family-friendly vibe I seem to have developed on my blog in recent years, anyway, so could I really justify doing the dang thing? Well, THIS week (or last, or something) vovat did another one AND TAGGED ME DIRECTLY, and also, the rules apparently aim to fix these problems:
Rules:
* People who have been tagged must write the answers on their blog and replace any question they dislike with a new, original question.
* Tag eight people. Don't refuse to do that. Don't tag who tagged you.
I LOVE the concept of replacing questions! Except what's the definition of "dislike"? Questions I actively DON'T LIKE ONLY, or can I also replace questions that are mildly boring? In which case, why bother taking a survey at all? I could just write a new survey. I always wanted to write a survey based on the Dewey Decimal System. But I definitely don't have time for that.
1. Make a list of 5 things that you can see without getting up.
the computer monitor (possibly a cheat), a box of staples, a tangled yellow bird marionette, Omaha Steaks promising me a FREE GIFT IF I OPEN NOW!, an address book, a pencil cup, and, for good measure if the monitor doesn't count, a roll of packing tape. No, I haven't been packing anything here recently. I just have a roll of packing tape on my desk.
2. How many times have you changed your hairstyle in the past five years?
That depends if you call "hacking off the requisite ten inches for donation and then letting it grow back the same way, which it always does in exactly two years, and nobody noticed you cut it anyway" as "Changing your hairstyle."
3. AmySavesYouFromBoringSurveyQuestions#1: If you were offered a job working on Sesame Street, which part of production and research and et cetera would you most want to do?
Well, I'd be happy enough as a writer, but I've always dreamed of being a Muppeteer, too.
4. What's your favorite cartoon?
Currently, Word Girl on PBS. Ever, Animaniacs, which keeps coming up in conversation lately and WHY DON'T I OWN IT.
5. AmySavesYouFromBoringSurveyQuestions#2: Explain to me why you are the most qualified person to be filling out this survey. Even if you're not.
Because I WROTE THAT QUESTION MYSELF. I am that awesome.
6. What's your favorite mystical creature?
I feel like I ought to come up with something more interesting than this, but I'm going to have to go with dragon, too. Technically I would go with "hobbit," but I think they count more as a People than a Creature.
7. What are you thinking about right now?
Hobbits. And my convenient water bottle. And Paul McCartney who is politely singing the song on my computer for me. I was just reading a review and subsequent comments of McCartney at the A.V.Club and found the need to put on a very specific playlist. Luckily, I have a whole lot of material for it.
8. Write the first word that comes to mind.
I can't do this when I'm reading a bunch of friggin' words! As well as listening to more! Lovely Rita, Meter Maid...
9. What musician is your favorite to see in concert?
See, if I could see Paul McCartney in concert, that would probably be my answer. But as it is I'll have to say the Chicago concerts were the most consistently good concerts I've been to in my life.
10. If you came across $2,000 (or other currency) would you keep it or turn it in?
Depends where I came across it. Curiously, this is almost exactly one of the prompts I pulled from my Writing Prompt box this morning. But which was not, incidentally, the one I went with.
11. What was the last thing that you bought?
Five pounds of strawberries. DUH.
12. What other countries have you been to (if any)?
Canada, Mexico, Iceland (just an airport), England (also, very unfortunately, just an airport), France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Italy, Germany, Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, and Poland. I think I got them all. Spent the most time (three weeks) in Austria, if you wanted to know. Most individual trips to Canada, of course, but that was before you needed a passport.
13. Do you have a favorite comedian and if yes, who?
this is an interesting question so I'll leave it even though I'm not sure what the answer would be. What's your definition of "comedian"? Do comedic actors count? What about storytellers who tell funny stories? What about... oh never mind. The answer is my daughter Madeleine.
14. Last book you've read?
I am currently in the middle of The Ring of Solomon by Jonathan Stroud. (PSST!vovat! You would really like this one!) I don't remember what the last book I read in its entirety was, because I took some time off from checking books out there. For a couple weeks. Seriously, I did.
15. What are you doing this weekend?
Kid-wrangling as usual. Church festival's this weekend, though. Might give that a shot.
16. What is your song of choice RIGHT NOW? The one you select when you kick off your playlist in the morning or whenever.
It was totally "Rhapsody in Blue" a few weeks ago, but now I'm back to not having a particular song of choice. It might be Stevie Wonder's "Sir Duke," because I keep getting it in my head and it's awesome (as opposed to songs I keep getting in my head that make me want to beat it back out of my head), but I don't actually own that so as to put it on a playlist.
17. Favourite movie of the last six months?
If you mean a movie that came out in the last six months, I'm not even sure I could NAME one, let alone have seen it. The most recent movie I've seen is Deathly Hallows pt 1 (which I was going to link you to my review of, but it seems to have DISAPPEARED. I have no idea what's up with that).
18. Favorite season?
Christmas
19. Which part of this year are you looking forward to the most?
OPENING DAY TOMORROW! Actually not, as my babysitting is up in the air. When Sam starts preschool maybe. Or also maybe not.
20. Best thing this year so far?
NEW LIBRARY! TOMORROW!
this is where I'm supposed to tag people, but I'm not even sure who on LiveJournal actually still reads this anymore. I suppose I could tag non-livejournal people, but that would be just weird. So I'm going to BLATANTLY IGNORE RULE 2!
Today we went Strawberry Picking at a pick-your-own farm. Maddie reminded me very much of Little Sal (we must go Blueberry Picking next month), and it is only luck-- or the fact that there simply were no bears around-- that kept her from wandering off after a mother bear. Sam was very enthusiastic at first, but it took me awhile to figure out what he meant when he was trying to say that he wanted to Pay With the Strawberries Now. By the time I DID comprehend his pleas to go home, we had filled about half of our ten-pound volume basket (and none of the now-stained basket Maddie had carried and added berries to, kaplink, kaplank, kaplunk, before eating them). Five pounds fresh beautiful little berries-- plenty for jam and a few more besides.
In other completely unrelated news, I was rather amused by Robin McKinley's latest post, because she basically draws the exact same conclusions I drew in my Learning to Sing on Paper post the other week, but in the opposite order! Because she of course already knows how to write. :P
Speaking of authors, I just got an email notification informing me that "@dduane is Now Following [Me] on Twitter." SQUEEEEEEEE! Too bad I don't say anything intelligent.
Fifthly (I think), the other day I actually got TAGGED in a LIVEJOURNAL SURVEY HICKEY THING. Wow! How very 2007! I did comment once long back that I missed those surveys. Then
vovat actually posted one about a week later. But I was very busy that week, and the survey was full of those embarrassingly perverted questions written by teenagers who think they are more amusing than they are, which really didn't seem to match the happy professional family-friendly vibe I seem to have developed on my blog in recent years, anyway, so could I really justify doing the dang thing? Well, THIS week (or last, or something) vovat did another one AND TAGGED ME DIRECTLY, and also, the rules apparently aim to fix these problems:Rules:
* People who have been tagged must write the answers on their blog and replace any question they dislike with a new, original question.
* Tag eight people. Don't refuse to do that. Don't tag who tagged you.
I LOVE the concept of replacing questions! Except what's the definition of "dislike"? Questions I actively DON'T LIKE ONLY, or can I also replace questions that are mildly boring? In which case, why bother taking a survey at all? I could just write a new survey. I always wanted to write a survey based on the Dewey Decimal System. But I definitely don't have time for that.
1. Make a list of 5 things that you can see without getting up.
the computer monitor (possibly a cheat), a box of staples, a tangled yellow bird marionette, Omaha Steaks promising me a FREE GIFT IF I OPEN NOW!, an address book, a pencil cup, and, for good measure if the monitor doesn't count, a roll of packing tape. No, I haven't been packing anything here recently. I just have a roll of packing tape on my desk.
2. How many times have you changed your hairstyle in the past five years?
That depends if you call "hacking off the requisite ten inches for donation and then letting it grow back the same way, which it always does in exactly two years, and nobody noticed you cut it anyway" as "Changing your hairstyle."
3. AmySavesYouFromBoringSurveyQuestions#1: If you were offered a job working on Sesame Street, which part of production and research and et cetera would you most want to do?
Well, I'd be happy enough as a writer, but I've always dreamed of being a Muppeteer, too.
4. What's your favorite cartoon?
Currently, Word Girl on PBS. Ever, Animaniacs, which keeps coming up in conversation lately and WHY DON'T I OWN IT.
5. AmySavesYouFromBoringSurveyQuestions#2: Explain to me why you are the most qualified person to be filling out this survey. Even if you're not.
Because I WROTE THAT QUESTION MYSELF. I am that awesome.
6. What's your favorite mystical creature?
I feel like I ought to come up with something more interesting than this, but I'm going to have to go with dragon, too. Technically I would go with "hobbit," but I think they count more as a People than a Creature.
7. What are you thinking about right now?
Hobbits. And my convenient water bottle. And Paul McCartney who is politely singing the song on my computer for me. I was just reading a review and subsequent comments of McCartney at the A.V.Club and found the need to put on a very specific playlist. Luckily, I have a whole lot of material for it.
8. Write the first word that comes to mind.
I can't do this when I'm reading a bunch of friggin' words! As well as listening to more! Lovely Rita, Meter Maid...
9. What musician is your favorite to see in concert?
See, if I could see Paul McCartney in concert, that would probably be my answer. But as it is I'll have to say the Chicago concerts were the most consistently good concerts I've been to in my life.
10. If you came across $2,000 (or other currency) would you keep it or turn it in?
Depends where I came across it. Curiously, this is almost exactly one of the prompts I pulled from my Writing Prompt box this morning. But which was not, incidentally, the one I went with.
11. What was the last thing that you bought?
Five pounds of strawberries. DUH.
12. What other countries have you been to (if any)?
Canada, Mexico, Iceland (just an airport), England (also, very unfortunately, just an airport), France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Italy, Germany, Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, and Poland. I think I got them all. Spent the most time (three weeks) in Austria, if you wanted to know. Most individual trips to Canada, of course, but that was before you needed a passport.
13. Do you have a favorite comedian and if yes, who?
this is an interesting question so I'll leave it even though I'm not sure what the answer would be. What's your definition of "comedian"? Do comedic actors count? What about storytellers who tell funny stories? What about... oh never mind. The answer is my daughter Madeleine.
14. Last book you've read?
I am currently in the middle of The Ring of Solomon by Jonathan Stroud. (PSST!
vovat! You would really like this one!) I don't remember what the last book I read in its entirety was, because I took some time off from checking books out there. For a couple weeks. Seriously, I did.15. What are you doing this weekend?
Kid-wrangling as usual. Church festival's this weekend, though. Might give that a shot.
16. What is your song of choice RIGHT NOW? The one you select when you kick off your playlist in the morning or whenever.
It was totally "Rhapsody in Blue" a few weeks ago, but now I'm back to not having a particular song of choice. It might be Stevie Wonder's "Sir Duke," because I keep getting it in my head and it's awesome (as opposed to songs I keep getting in my head that make me want to beat it back out of my head), but I don't actually own that so as to put it on a playlist.
17. Favourite movie of the last six months?
If you mean a movie that came out in the last six months, I'm not even sure I could NAME one, let alone have seen it. The most recent movie I've seen is Deathly Hallows pt 1 (which I was going to link you to my review of, but it seems to have DISAPPEARED. I have no idea what's up with that).
18. Favorite season?
Christmas
19. Which part of this year are you looking forward to the most?
OPENING DAY TOMORROW! Actually not, as my babysitting is up in the air. When Sam starts preschool maybe. Or also maybe not.
20. Best thing this year so far?
NEW LIBRARY! TOMORROW!
this is where I'm supposed to tag people, but I'm not even sure who on LiveJournal actually still reads this anymore. I suppose I could tag non-livejournal people, but that would be just weird. So I'm going to BLATANTLY IGNORE RULE 2!
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Date: 2011-06-15 11:26 am (UTC)From:Have FUN with the new library opening!!!
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Date: 2011-06-16 02:21 am (UTC)From: