Who Knew?

I just read the first few items I posted over six years ago. Some make me cringe, but I think it would be fun to read back over everything--I've never done that. One of my first posts was, interestingly, a bit of foreshadowing: What's an Agar Plate?

I was reading Emerging Infectious Diseases then (I'm sure I Googled something or used a library database to find that one article) and now I'm reading an epidemiology textbook to prepare for the first semester of public health classes!

Drawing a Blank

I know at least one reader of this space eagerly checks for a new post every time she goes online. Sorry, in yet another way, to be a disappointment, but I'm drawing quite a blank of late.

Do you ever catch cold, lose your sense of taste, and fear it will never return? Or hit a reading slump and fear that you'll never find another good book to read? Well, I sort of feel that way in relation to the blog. What if I never have anything interesting, clever, or original to say again?

I do have a few mundane updates to give, which I'll save for another post, but other than that, it truly is the dog days of summer around here--hot enough to make you pant and hang your tongue out, and busy enough to make you work like a dog.

Better Blogging Ahead

Finally, I may be able to approach the quality and entertainment value of other blogs out there. Well, probably not, if we want to be truthful. But, I will have better subject matter to work with once the W. family moves to Bowling Green!

I know I probably won't see them as much as I imagine and all the visits won't be as heavenly as I imagine (no offense), but I'm nonetheless THRILLED that they will be so close. As Mr. Brumbaugh, may he rest in peace, would have said, being single and far from family really inhales.

Six Quirks, Or Oops!

So, the Duchess tagged me. Here goes. I don't have six blogging friends, so I have failed on that point already. Also, I don't really think I have that many odd quirks (many faults, but those aren't the same as quirks). Guess I'll let the readers judge.

1. Link the person who tagged you: The Duchess
2. Mention rules on your blog.
3. Tell about six of your quirks.
4. Tag six fellow bloggers to do the same.
5. Comment on their blogs to let them know or leave a list of names at the bottom of the post.


Auntie K's a Quirky Gal?

1. She walks barefoot in her own home only extremely rarely. She never walks barefoot in another person's home. For some reason, being barefoot in her office doesn't bother her nearly as much as the other scenarios.

2. She refuses to use a bookmark. They just fall out anyway.

3. She is very careful to state her complete order up front at the Wendy's drive-through window, so the cashier doesn't have to ask a bunch of unnecessary questions. The script is: "Yes, I'd like a #1 combo medium, with no lettuce, onions, or pickles...and a Diet Coke." (The cashier usually responds with "what size?")

4. She can't talk on the telephone with the receiver against her right ear.

5. She has four alarm clocks, and usually sets at least two of them for different times anywhere from 4 5o 18 minutes before she actually intends to get out of bed.

6. She can't leave the house without an adequate supply of Puffs Plus, Vaseline Lip Therapy, and Curel.

Is the West Family game to participate? You could list two quirks for each adult and one each for each child to-date.

If M. would blog, and I think she should , she could participate. But then, if M. blogged maybe I wouldn't have any more fun surprises of finding a personal letter in the post box.


PS and background for post title: I hit publish post and then viewed the post and was surprised to see the library's chat widget showing on the blog next to my post. Then I realized I had inadvertently posted to the library blog instead of to this blog.

The library blog showed up first in my list of blogs because it was updated more recently than this blog. What a horror that would have been! When I do post to the library blog, I don't do it under my blogger account anyway, so I think I need to gracefully remove myself from the library blog before I have a personal debacle on my hands. I can just see myself blogging, on the wrong blog, about some handsome man I met at work or any of the other trivial and embarrassing things I reveal here. Talk about a bad dream!

What Might Have Been

When I started blogging, the Blogger URL for auntiek was already taken, hence my current URL. I'm disappointed to see that the other Auntie K hasn't done much (if anything) with her blog. The least she could do after hogging the name is to put it to good use. I may not be as witty as I was back in the beginning, but at least I'm trying!

Looking Back

I gave a coworker my blog URL today, so of course I had to come home and post and add some tags so he doesn't think I'm totally lame (You see, I obviously don't care if my current readers think I'm totally lame!).

While adding tags, I looked at this old To Do List. It's particularly amusing to read it in "Edit Posts" view, where the bulleted list shows up as an unpunctuated runon sentence. It turns out I have actually done a few things on that list in the two years since I wrote it. For example,

I have a tiny little Flickr account (it would be better if I saw nieces and nephews more often, so I wouldn't have to take photos of myself and my groceries) (thanks for the comments, Starr--you're my Flickr idol.)

I have a Bloglines account, though I haven't logged on in the past two years.

I have a digital camera, an updated resume, a job as the result of those job apps, a Library Thing account, a wiki (that wasn't even on the list), and my car is registered, though not in the same state.

I never taught myself CSS or updated my online portfolio and I still don't drink enough water.

But I passed Capstone and graduated, and I've even taken a few showers since then.

Familiar Situation

I started blogging 20 months ago, mostly as a way to avoid doing homework. And here I am, still blogging for avoidance. Not from homework, but from workwork. The ugliest kind of workwork--my Outline of Faculty Data (vita) that's due on Friday.

Instead of working on my OFD while I still have time to show it to someone before everyone splits for the holiday (tomorrow), I'm learning how to identify a Sears kit home. Now which would you rather be doing?

Oops--gotta run. Time for lunch!

The Best Part

The best part of blogging is reading everyone's comments. Keep up the good work, readers! And you lurkers--you could chime in once in a while too--we'd love to hear from you. We won't even chide you for commenting as Anonymous.

A Change

As life and blogging both enter a period of limited variety and activity, I decided to take down the Currently Enjoying and Library Item Count sidebars. Neither item has changed in weeks.

I'm still listening to Nineteen Minutes in the car when I think about pulling it out, and Rough Stone Rolling is still sitting on the floor by the side of my bed. And while the library item count fluctuates from time to time, most of the items are work-related books sitting on the floor of my office because I'm not ready to admit I'll never read them and should return them to the stacks.

I don't eat much of interest anymore either, other than your garden variety junkfood, so there's no sense in reviving the Currently Eating sidebar.

I'm open to suggestions, but for now, what you see is what you get.

Imminently on the Horizon

Should "on" in this post title be capitalized or not? I can't make my brain tell me the correct answer.

I came back from Savannah Saturday night, and the week is now winging its way swiftly toward Friday's trip to Texas. I'm not crazy about flying, not out of fear so much as inconvenience* and being such a slow packer. But I'm actually looking forward to the opportunity it will give me to knit and listen to my mp3 player (may I say "iPod" even if that's not what I own? It's easier--like "kleenex" or "xerox").

I'm particularly looking forward to seeing Allie and Baby Jack and my mother. And my brother and sister-in-law, of course. And a piece of cake. Hmm--what Texas resident(s) of the family are missing from that list?



*Yes, I do realize that flying is less inconvenient than driving--I'm just a natural complainer.

Accepting Applications

I need a guest blogger. Or I need to start running reruns. Not sure anyone is interested in reruns of my blog posts, however. Anyone interested in guest blogging?

Actually, I made small steps toward a new post last night by downloading and cropping some photos I plan to show you. Alas, they're on the laptop, I'm working on the desktop, and a) transferring photos from laptop to desktop, or b) turning on laptop to connect to wi-fi, will have to wait, since work and sleep take precedence.

In the meantime, here's what's happening in my non-work life, which seems to encompass only about 10 hours of the day right now, including drive and sleep time.

Took delivery of Lyle Lovett and the Eagles. Too busy and stressed to pay proper attention to Lyle, but I'm enjoying the Eagles.

About to start listening to Jasper Fforde's First Among Sequels (when I can pay proper attention, that is).

News of my own auntie and mother knitting together in Utah spurred me on to pull out Baby Jack's stocking. I didn't get very far before I was ready to turn the heel, and I had to put it aside, again for lack of concentration power. So I've been knitting swatches instead, a few rows a night, just to knit something. Poor Baby Jack--I started his stocking before he was born, Christmas came and went, and he's about to turn a year old, still with no Christmas stocking. We won't talk about the fact that aforementioned auntie started and finished a stocking for Jack's soon-to-be-delivered cousin in the space of a few days.

Today, my parents marked their fortieth wedding anniversary. Thanks for being my parents!



ps - A1, are you still reading? There was a plant in a post for you a while ago, but you didn't bite.

pps - Isn't that rude of me to include a secret message in a public post? If you're dying to know who A1 is and what the plant was, e-mail me.

NPR and the Holy Bible, or, Never Say Never

If you look at this site with any regularity, you may have noticed the contents of the "Currently Enjoying" sidebar are pretty static these days. I should just change the contents to read NPR and The Bible, since that's about all I'm listening to and reading these days (discounting Pandora.com, which I'm playing in the office).

How did this come about, you ask? I can't explain the NPR bit. I never thought I would end up an NPR listener (nothing at all wrong with NPR, just wasn't my style), but here I am. The music station I sometimes listen to interviews stand-up comics all morning, so one day I happened upon NPR, and here I am.

As for the Bible, by the time I get through reading for the next Sunday School lesson, I'm too tired to read anything else. Again, nothing at all wrong with the Bible, but I'd like to someday get back to the other books I've put aside.

Expanding Horizons

Online Social Activities for the Week

Added picture to Facebook profile

Changed blog template and layout

Replaced blog photo

Sprang for a paid wiki (yay--no more ads!)

Uploaded two photos to new Flickr account

Cataloged a few books in LibraryThing

New Look

What do you think about the new look? It's fun to have a piece of my life I can change up when I want without too much trouble or impact. I won't tell you, however, how many hours it took me to modify the colors in the new Blogger template (far more many than it should have).

If I knew anything about Photoshop, I would tidy up my self portrait. Alas, I'm not the expert some people are.

Oops

I don't feel perfectly ok about blogging at the reference desk, but I'm obviously doing it anyway. That's probably why I was distracted and published a post on my professional blog instead of here on its intended forum, my personal blog.

Now, I don't advertise my professional blog much because it's young and suffers from boith stunted growth and maternal neglect. But, I'm too tired to bother transferring the post (and its darling photo). So, if you're interested, click on over. At least the post is loosely library-related, so it isn't completely out of place on the other site.

What I'm Reading

More Appropriate Post Title: What I Would Be Reading if I Had the Time


The Rap Sheet - a blog about crime fiction. Yum! One brief comment: I noticed in a June 7 post that the Crime Writers of Canada recently named their picks for the best Canadian crime writing of 2006. Kathy Reichs' Break No Bones was a candidate for best novel. Now, I like Reichs just fine, but her writing is fairly formulaic, and I wouldn't put her in any of my "best" lists. The Christian Science Monitor's list of best mysteries and thrillers of 2006 is more to my liking. It includes Summer Snow by Rebecca Pawel, a young historical crime writer, and The Pale Blue Eye by Louis Bayard. Both unique, thoughtful mysteries with sound plotting and great writing.

barbara fister's place - a blog by an instruction librarian who reads and writes crime fiction. I frequently see Fister's comments on the listervs I read, and I agree with her student-centered, practical opinions about many issues. Her blog is a nice mix of library-related stories, fun Web finds, and of course, crime fiction. It's perhaps what my professional blog might be like if I were more dedicated and creative. Alas...

(yes the lack of a link to my professional blog is a deliberate omission)

photo credit: Eisters, Gerhard. (ca. 1910-1016). Photograph of Clara Louise Thompson. In Women of Protest: Photographs from the Records of the National Woman's Party, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. Retrieved June 11, 2007, from American Memory.

Baby Steps

So, I have finally posted two items on my professional blog. Admittedly, I'm not too happy with the posts, because they are more regurgitation than original thought, but it's a start, right? This isn't necessarily a plug for you to all become subscribers, but it's out there if you're interested.

Even if you don't want to read my professional blog, if you have 10 minutes to spare, click on over to YouTube and take a look at the copyright and fair use video I linked to in my post. The video's not necessarily a great example of film making, but it's clever and educational.

Blogging on the Run

I'm blogging from the Information Commons at BYU's Harold B. Lee Library. Pretty awesome!

Yes, I'm here for a few days to attend the Utah Library Association Meeting. I got two hours of sleep last night before leaving my house at 4:30 to catch the plane, so I'm about to head off to find myself some caffeine (oops, did I say that out loud?). More later, but rest assured that the BYU Bookstore is nearly as awesome as ever, and the library, remodeled since I was a student XX years ago, is truly awe-inspiring.

Looking Back

I've been blogging for over a year. I would say that's pretty good for someone with completion issues.

True, I'm not contributing anything particularly profound to the world at small or large, and no one would ever use my blog to illustrate application of good blogging habits, but I am enjoying myself. I'm always thrilled and gratified when one of you makes a comment (or tries to make a comment--sorry!). And you, dear reader, may not recognize it, but blogging has improved my writing in small ways. For example, I do actually edit some of my posts, usually for succinctness (yes, really).

So, here's to another year ahead.