Rose colored glasses, ahoy!
Month: December 2009
Mah Bukket
I suppose it was only a matter of time before The Bathroom Performance Artists Troupe graduated from black trash bags to manky five-gallon buckets. (One in an ongoing series.)
Poinsettia, Chair, and Snow
Poinsettia
Chair
Snow
Snow
Snow on Catnip
From My Patio
It isn’t a whole lot of snow, but it also isn’t rain, and for that I am thankful. I’m sick and tired of rain, rain, rain.
Happy Damn Festivus
Instant Review: Septimus Heap
I got caught up on some of my reading while I was sick. One of the things in my “to read” stack were the second and third Septimus Heap books: Flyte and Phyisik.
I read the first book, Magyk, last spring, after borrowing it from my mom. I figured it was a knock-off of the Harry Potter books, but since that series was over and I needed something to read, I didn’t really care. Besides, I love kids’ books, so even if it wasn’t a great book, I’d probably still enjoy it. And it wasn’t, and I did. There wasn’t anything wrong with the book, it just wasn’t one of the best kids’ books I’ve ever read. It was definitely good enough to read the next book in the series, though, which was better than the first. And then I read the third book, which was better than the second. At this point, after finishing the third book, I’m pretty impressed with the series.
One of the things that stands out to me is the way female characters are handled. The land where the stories take place is ruled by a line of Queens. The queens marry whomever they please. The princess in the stories does pretty much as she likes. Instead of being locked up in the equivalent of a gilded cage, she moves freely about the town. She not only has adventures, but in the second book, she puts on her big girl pants and saves her own damn self, instead of waiting for someone else to do it for her. In the third book, she takes the lead roll in saving her brother. And it’s all presented without a hint of her strength being at all extraordinary for a princess.
She’s not just a token strong female character, either. The head wizard and the princess’ “aunt” play important roles throughout the stories. In the third book, there is a young seafaring trader who helps the princess find her brother. There are powerful female witch covens and numerous woman business owners.
This series is shaping up to be a wonderful little feminist gem, actually.
I wasn’t able to get the next two books from the library, so I went ahead and ordered them from Abe Books. I can’t wait for them to get here!
(Oh, and they are not at all a Harry Potter knock off. Yeah, there are wizards, and the books are written for kids, but that’s about where the similarity ends.)
Instant Review: The Plague
I cannot recommend this product and/or service. I think it was just a bad cold (not enough aches and fever for flu), but the coughing and coughing and coughing and coughing was kind of unbelievable. Thankfully, that seems to have died down, finally. Also thankfully, it more or less happened over a weekend, so I only missed work today and last Thursday.
Anyway, The Plague is highly overrated. Avoid it if at all possible.
Grass Spider
This little guy was hanging out above my patio blinds. I like spiders, but not huge ones IN MY HOUSE. I caught him in a wine glass, took a few pictures, then put him outside. Poor thing is likely to freeze, but I don’t feel sorry enough for him to let him stay inside, even if they are pretty much non-aggressive and harmless.
This is the only shot I got of his eyes, but just the top two rows. Grass spiders have eight eyes, with two in the first row, four in the middle row, and two in the last. The two pointy things sticking out of the end of his abdomen are his spinnerets. They’re really long and prominent on grass spiders.
Staff Meeting Doodle
gel pen and ballpoint pen in steno pad
9 x 6 inches
I meant to post this last Thursday, but completely forgot. Oopsie! We had a webinar on creating provider neutral bibliographic records for e-books–not exactly a staff meeting–last week, which is where the right-hand and lower parts of the doodle were done. Riveting stuff! Actually, one item did make me sit up and take notice. We’ve begun cataloging e-books from print copy records, instead of from the item itself, something that will make a lot of catalogers’ brains explodiate. But with the move toward FRBR, wherein multiple item types will be nested under one uber-bib record, this makes a whole lotta sense. Under the provider neutral model, individual variances (e.g. one manifestation has 155 pages and another has 146) are not important. Under FRBR (which is a long way from being implemented yet), format itself will cease to matter at the bibliographic record level (e.g. a book and a DVD of a movie made from the book will fall under the same master bib record). So I see the provider neutral model as a step toward FRBR.
Interesting stuff, if you’re a cataloger, but probably not so much otherwise.
Anyway, we started creating provider neutral records a few weeks ago, so I understood the practice, but the theory–especially the point that we are to preference good records for print manifestations over the actual electronic item itself–hadn’t quite sunk in. Hence my momentary bogglement. Using records for print manifestations to flesh out the e-book record you’re creating is one thing, but to preference information in a bib record created from a manifestation you cannot physically put your hands on? Blasphemy!
Harriet Wants a Squirrel
There were squirrels out on the patio, and Harriet wanted one. I love the way she wiggles her nub when you talk to her. The woo-wooing at the end was a bonus.
red paper boat 