bizgirl

The End

2005-06-14T10:58:00.000+12:00

The end? Well, sort of. How about we just call it an extended intermission.Back when I was a gainfully employed librarian, I found the time to work on this blog virtually every night. I'm currently in a situation where I just can't find that time any more, the posts are getting further and further apart, and I'm walking around with this gnawing sense of guilt that I haven't made a post for weeks.

It's the vibe

2005-05-25T19:22:00.000+12:00

I spent the entire day rehearsing the basslines for my audition with Bertel's band (which, for the purpose of this blog, will hereafter be known as Hamlet).The band have been holed up in a studio apartment downtown (Bertel and I have spent a couple of nights at a hotel around the corner, to try and get a bit of privacy, but it would seem the cost of privacy in this city is fairly exorbitant), so

Chur Bro

2005-05-21T19:49:00.000+12:00

There are a surprising number of New Zealanders here in New York City. I am stumbling upon them with happy regularity. Bertel's band (who have been in pre-production for their album since we arrived in New York) are rehearsing at a studio where one of the main sound engineers - Tom - is a kiwi.After a night out seeing yet another fabulous act I would never have dreamed of seeing (or, admittedly,

Efficiency pays.

2005-05-15T21:06:00.000+12:00

Well, thank-you to everyone who emailed after my last post, and suggested workarounds to the task that lay ahead of me at the start of last week. With the help of a couple of otherwise under-utilised lads within more-or-less instantanteous MSN or Gmail contact, I managed to cut hours from the task that had been allocated me. By the start of Thursday, I had done all the updates, and even

Thunks.

2005-04-30T15:29:00.000+12:00

Firstly, if there's anyone out there who can tell me where I can get good coffee within walking distance of the Canal Street subway station, I'd be most appreciative.The impression I got from American films and TV was that NY was absolutely awash in coffee, which may be true, but I've yet to find anyone who can make me the perfect flat white (or café au lait, as I've discovered as being the

Temping

2005-04-27T21:21:00.000+12:00

Well, in an effort to catch up with myself, I'm going to skip our Chicago adventures. I'll save them for a rainy day.Bertel got a call last week from his band's manager telling him that the pre-production sessions were now going to be taking place in New York. We booked airfares and were in the Big Apple the next day, our taste for long-distance cross-country road-trips now well and truly sated

A la mode it

2005-04-11T07:28:00.000+12:00

Bertel and I had two 'must-do's' on our visit to Memphis: the Reverend Al Green's Sunday Service (Bertel's choice) and Graceland (mine). We must have driven up and down the streets of 'Soulsville' in the south of Memphis a dozen times looking for the church, but it completely eluded us. We did have accurate directions to the Stax Museum of American Soul Music, so we traded a 'must-do' for a '

A quack of anguish

2005-04-06T21:28:00.000+12:00

Bertel and I arrived in Memphis in the early afternoon on Good Friday. We found an internet cafe and spent a useful half hour on Google Maps, before heading to Goner Records, a store a few miles east of downtown that Bertel (a fanatical vinyl collector) had been informed was the best place to satisfy his vinyl habit. Before too long I was aching from standing around listening to Bertel discuss

Jesus rhymes with Pieces

2005-04-04T19:51:00.000+12:00

Well, it would hardly be suitable for the self-professed 'International Librarian of Mystery' to jump on the first plane home when the chance to continue my foreign adventures dropped into my lap (so to speak).So, yes, after probably far too short a time of weighing up the scenario, I decided to head out on the great US road-trip with Bertel, my new Scandanavian rock-star boyfriend. I emailed the

The Money or the Bag?

2005-03-23T19:32:00.000+12:00

Well, I finally got a job offer! I logged into my gmail a few days ago, and there was an email confirming one of the jobs I had interviewed for shortly before leaving for Austin was mine for the taking if I wanted it.It wasn't the dream Te Papa job, but was something that paid twice as much for half as many hours work, and had me working at the heart of the New Zealand Government. I was going to

My name's Wayne

2005-03-18T21:34:00.000+13:00

THE NEXT CATEGORY IS: BEST AUSTRALIAN OR NEW ZEALAND WEBLOGi want a bumper sticker that says "my metafilter account can kick your slashdot account's ass"Crickey!yea!Olsen is trying on an Aussie accentwhoa whoa whoaMAKE THAT A PRO FEATURE MATTIt's trying, all right.stynxno: lol<

As fine as cream gravy

2005-03-13T13:28:00.000+13:00

So, here I am in lovely Austin, Texas!I had big plans for writing up my last few (eventful) days in New Zealand on the plane on the epic trip over, but there seems to be some sort of inverse physiological relationship for me between height-above-sea-level and motivation, whereby if the former ascends, the latter plummets. As soon as the plane took off from Auckland the desire to write was

The blog of the play of the blog

2005-03-06T21:06:00.000+13:00

Artemis invited me along to another rehearsal of the 'play-of-the-blog'.I went along all ready to give him a piece of my mind at the outrageous liberties he had taken with the story. The preposterous ending. The outrageous love interest. The completely over-the-top characterisation of my librarian colleagues.But then, as I watched it all the way through for the first time, it didn't seem too bad.

Resonate

2005-03-03T12:08:00.000+13:00

I checked my email yesterday morning, and found this one from noizyboy.subject: reminder, film archive mediaplex - resonate, 12:30 today.Be there.Very direct lad he can be sometimes. I knew a bit about Resonate - it's a get-together that the British Council and NZ Music Industry Commission (amongst others) have organised over the last couple of years, where a few UK music big-wigs are flown in to

Breakfast at Fidel's

2005-02-22T12:16:00.000+13:00

Between selling off all my worldly possessions in order to get myself to Texas (for a web award where I might win $20), interviews with international media organisations, and watching my story being turned into a controversial school play, I've remained unemployed, and in search of a job.And having a bad time of it. I think I may have been black-listed by the Library Association. I'm now been to

Austin, Texas, here I come!

2005-02-20T14:41:00.000+13:00

Wooohooo!I am off to the Bloggies next month!It's amazing how much money you can get together in a short amount of time when you put your mind to it.First up was the payment from the woman's magazine, which was but a drop in the airfare ocean, but, then, out of nowhere noizyboy randomly threw some cash my way for the editing work I do over on his music website. This got my bank balance up to a

Finding My Character

2005-02-11T21:22:00.000+13:00

Despite the instructions, I got lost trying to find Artemis's school, and arrived twenty minutes after the rehearsal start time.Artemis goes to a swanky school in town - one I thought was boys only, but which I have since discovered has mixed senior classes. The private girls' school down the road is apparently too small to be able to maintain senior classes on its own, so the two schools join

Big in Australia

2005-02-09T17:02:00.000+13:00

Well, after getting my hopes up, I didn't get the job. The Director rang me the next day as promised, and was ever so nice, but had to tell me they'd found a candidate who was so suited to the job he had overshadowed all the other 'highly qualified' candidates. Best of luck for the future and all that. Since I had him on the phone, I enquired as to the prospects of getting one of his

Could Well Be In

2005-02-02T21:57:00.000+13:00

I spent that last half of my remaining severance pay on a haircut and a new pair of shoes. I figured it was worth the risk - I had three interviews coming up over the next two days, and a swish do and a new pair of heels were my self-prescribed psychological pick-me-up to get my career back on track. The first interview was a 'Legal Library Assistant' position at one of the middling sized firms

How about standards compliance?

2005-02-01T22:33:00.000+13:00

My first job interview since being dooced from the Library had been going extremely well. Up to now. "So, Natalie, you're confident with technology?" "Yes." "What are your core web skills, would you say?" Deep breath, here goes... "Well, um, probably designing user-friendly interfaces and HTML layouts. But I've also helped develop some web initiatives using active server pages and vbscript ...

A drama unfolds

2005-01-22T13:56:00.000+13:00

Artemis was sitting on a bench-seat near the bottom of the lighthouse-slide that takes pride of place at Frank Kitt's Park. He saw me and waved me over."Natalie, hello, commiserations on the job-loss.""Hi Artemis, thanks," I said, sitting down next to him."Any jobs on the horizon?""No. Not that I've looked hard. I'm going to start looking properly next week. Not that I'm in any rush. It's quite

All is quiet, on New Years Day

2005-01-13T16:55:00.000+13:00

The blow of being dooced was softened by the joy of going on holiday, albeit, a now open-ended one with financial ruin looming in the near-future. Still, I vowed to forget about my unemployment crisis, put the blog out of my mind, and postpone all romantic encounters until at least next month. These pre-emptive New Year's resolutions were fairly easily to keep, as I flew home (tickets paid for

Dooced II: The Hiccups of Terror

2005-01-08T21:41:00.000+13:00

I was in a last-day-before-the-holidays-haze, going through the motions before the start of my endlessly-awaited two week summer break from the Library.The daze was probably a good thing: the citizens of the city appeared to be dump-trucking their books onto the returns desk before departing on their own holidays, a situation that would normally drive me to despair - but today was merely a

Dooced

2004-12-23T13:39:00.000+13:00

Yes, I have been dooced. Really. To add to my woe, my home internet connection has been cut off - my automatic payment bounced due to lack of funds. I'm just quickly dropping this post in from one of the internet terminals at work. After this, I'll be walking out of the library, never to return as a paid employee. I'll post the full story as soon as I find internet access again. Oh, and Merry

At the Warehouse

2004-12-17T22:27:00.000+13:00

Rather than take the risk of getting to within a couple of days of Christmas without having bought anyone presents, and then realising I had no money to do so, this year I resolved to do all my shopping the day after my pay went through, so I wouldn't fritter it away over the course of the next fortnight on frivolities like food and phone-bills. I went the Warehouse on Tory Street to stock up on

Christmas Party

2004-12-15T16:55:00.000+13:00

The Library Staff Christmas Party was, for some obscure reason, on Monday night. Normally I'd have bowed out early, but the opportunity to make the most of the free wine and food was too much to resist, as I'd consumed the last of my home supplies late on Sunday afternoon, and was still a couple of days short of getting my next pay-packet. My stomach had been growling all day, despite my best

At the Zoo

2004-12-10T22:04:00.000+13:00

I was slogging my way through about section F of the gargantuan Saturday edition of the Dominion Post, when I flicked over a page to be startled by a big photo of myself standing amongst the book-shelves at the Library, peering coyly over my glasses from behind Vikram Chanda's book Love and Longing in Bombay (which I had randomly pulled from the shelves as a prop to hide behind). It was from a

BIZ063

2004-12-09T22:28:00.000+13:00

Finally, finally, I got home from the library on Friday night, pulled my Personnel File out of my bag, and hunkered down in a beanbag for some serious analysis. After about 10 minutes, something became horribly clear to me - I didn't have the context to decipher what it was I was holding. For starters, it was all colour-coded, and my photocopies were in black and white. At the top right of each

I have a ten trip

2004-12-08T22:40:00.000+13:00

Normally, when I finish work at the library I've got time to walk a up a couple of blocks to one of the first stops on my bus route home. This ensures I beat the rush at the more heavily populated stops near the library, and that I get a seat for the trip home, with the corresponding benefit of the chance to do some reading on the bus. After my closing up shift on Friday, however, I didn't manage

Phrase and Fable

2004-12-07T09:31:00.000+13:00

The worst thing about working at the Library is closing up. There's about 20 chores to do, and you can't really get them under way properly until you've got all the patrons out the door. It's like a cruel indoor version of sheep herding, but one where the sheep take affront at your efforts to move them through the gate. Today, for example, I was trying to tidy up the study desks around the

Declined

2004-12-05T21:51:00.000+13:00

I arrived at the Library especially early on Friday morning so I could get to Admin and get hold of my personal file as soon as possible. But on Fridays, it tranpires, the Admin office (where the record are held under lock and key) doesn't open until after 10am. My earlybirdness had been in vain. With a resigned sniffle, I slunk off to my local cafe so as to avoid being roped into any work

Thanks, driver!

2004-12-04T21:53:00.000+13:00

I'm pleased to see that Dave over at Killing time has similar problems with Hull's bus-drivers that I do here with the Wellingtonian variety. As Dave points out... Bus drivers in Hull are nasty people who assume you have memorised the tarrifs and timetables and react with disdain when you ask them where the bus stops and how much all this sub-standard journeying is going to cost you.So, so true.

On File

2004-12-03T22:32:00.000+13:00

Mrs Liddesdale - my boss, called me into her office. It was first thing Thursday, and I had got to the library still suffering from a head-cold. I had spent the entire weekend recovering from the vodka-fired hangover I had inflicted upon myself on the previous Friday night. Josh called in the middle of my most self-pitying misery on Saturday evening, and we had an 'off-the-blog' discussion (you

Just a quiet G&T down at the Lawn Bowls club

2004-11-30T13:01:00.000+13:00

I think it was the Thursday afternoon shift tidying up the Children's Library that gave me the cold.Not only am I on extra shelving duties as part of my penance for my blogging sins, I've also pulled a couple of extra end-of-the-day-clean-up details in the kids' area. I love kids, but they really do make a mess of the library. I can completely empathise, of course, being a slob, but where I don't

Not naming names

2004-11-24T21:44:00.000+13:00

Mrs Darjeeling requested my company again on Monday. "Natalie, you must know why I've called you here." "Not the blog?" I'd have thought, after laying low for a week, that they might have forgotten about the whole thing. Apparently not. "Well, yes. I mean ... Mrs Oolong, and actually, I also ... we both thought...well, after our discussion last week, I thought it was understood that you would

A Smoking Mouse

2004-11-19T20:55:00.000+13:00

warning: some kiwi vowels in use. I hid out on Monday night, and only caught up with Josh when we were rostered onto Issues together on Tuesday. He told me that my blog retelling of his school-days playground accident had caused some mirth at his expense. "I was on the info desk, telling a guy where the toilets are, left, right, past the magazines, left, and Bella said 'you're sure you don't

I never knew that about pearl necklaces either...

2004-11-18T13:53:00.000+13:00

Well, while I'm still working on my post of the week that was (plenty to write about, it turns out), this story might amuse you... [via Short and Sweet]

Web journal thing

2004-11-17T16:36:00.000+13:00

I was in the Head Librarian's office. Mrs Darjeeling had requested my presence as soon as I'd arrived at work on Monday morning. I went upstairs and, despite the soft cushions of the armchair outside her office, spent five uncomfortable minutes waiting to be ushered in. I finally got the call. I went in, palms sweating. "Close the door and sit down please Natalie." Uh-oh. I looked at her PC. My

A Calm before the Storm

2004-11-16T22:02:00.000+13:00

I tried my best on Sunday, but couldn't help but take a quick peek in the morning to see what the stats were doing. Saturday had topped a thousand visitors. Sunday, traditionally the slowest day of the week was nearly five times my average. I shut down my laptop before I got into a spiral of referrer checking and comments reading. The door knocked. I couldn't hide any more. I opened the door. "

The Day After

2004-11-15T22:05:00.000+13:00

I sidled into the librarian's staff-room to drop off my bag. It was about two minutes before my shift started. I hadn't seen the paper. There was one strewn over the table in the centre of the room. I took a glance. And froze. There it was, bang at foot of the front page, a two-photo story about my blogging victory from the night before. The big photo was of the anonymous librarian's photo that

International Librarian of Mystery?

2004-11-14T20:46:00.000+13:00

4pm Friday finally clicked over. A hot humid Friday. Another step closer to knock-off, but also a step into the longest hour of the week - the slow wind-down to 5pm. To make it even worse, today was the day all the cool geeks were congregating on the free booze and nibbles at the Auckland Hyatt Regency for the snazzy Netguide Web Awards. I did my hourly gmail check and got a conciliatory ping.

And the winner is...

2004-11-13T06:44:00.000+13:00

Me! Full story to come. Still recovering from the shock.

Netguide Awards 2004

2004-11-10T08:49:00.000+13:00

Wooo-hooo! The NZ Netguide Web Awards Finalists have been announced, and I'm in the running for Best Personal Blog. Thanks to all you regular readers who took the time to vote, and hello to the many new readers who have been coming this way as a result. Pretty long odds on me winning the thing - here's how I see it panning out... The Contenders... publicaddress.net Now, if I was going to get

Coffee with Artemis II: Aliens in the Archives

2004-11-09T09:49:00.000+13:00

The problem with Artemis swearing me to secrecy on his little scheme is that I really can't tell you. What I can reveal is his discarded plans, which he's decided to drop due to being too complicated, too resource-intensive, or just nigh impossible.1. The Kirkcaldies & Stains Big Heist. This involved the stormwater drains, which Artemis had calculated ran close enough to the big old Wellington

My day in the sun

2004-11-08T11:32:00.000+13:00

The end of my last post can be partly explained by my exploits from the weekend, which left me short of time for blog-writing. Josh and I met for a coffee on Saturday morning, having called a truce to some pretty petty mind games that had been going on over the course of the week. He commented favourably on my new World blouse: a white cotton number with short-sleeves, a high neck and festooned

Coffee with Artemis

2004-11-06T08:48:00.000+13:00

My 3.30pm coffee date with nine-year old criminal mastermind Artemis loomed. I was on a seemingly un-ending reference desk shift, usually a highlight for me, but, today, a deadzone. No-one, it seemed, was in need of expert information retrieval. The minute hand crawled on, and eventually staggered up to the half-hour mark. I didn't see Artemis in the cafe upon my arrival, so I grabbed a flat

bounce. bounce. bounce...

2004-11-05T14:10:00.000+13:00

Yesterday was my first day working with the web-team. I had the usual first-time-on-the-job jitters, absolutely sure I was going to be given a task I was completely unable to handle, and that my ongoing bluff - where I pretend to know even the first thing about actual IT architecture - is about to to be called. As it turned out, I was given the most basic of data entry chores as a way to

Tiger Eyes

2004-11-04T10:23:00.000+13:00

In news that has been picked up around the world, All Black and Wellington rugby centre Ma'a Nonu has confessed to wearing eye-liner while playing. There's a bit of controversy as to whether or not Ma'a has been wearing the make-up as some sort of in-team punishment, or purely as a fashion statement that sets him apart from the other dreadlocked Polynesian players in the team (Tana Umaga, Rodney

Ear Conditioning

2004-11-03T11:04:00.000+13:00

I have the most shocking New Zild accent. Working in a public library I try to talk as 'proper' and clearly as I possibly can, especially when dealing with the increasingly large number of patrons who don't speak English well, but, sometimes my vowels just morph together into a mass of dipthongs and random noises created by my tongue falling over my teeth.Yesterday I was on reference when a guy

Goodbye to the Dungeon

2004-11-01T11:44:00.000+13:00

My maps cataloguing project that I was assigned to down in the Dungeon is at an end. It took twice as long as the original month that had been scheduled, and I was feeling a little wary as I tramped up to Mrs Kambaa's office for a 'debrief'. "Shut the door please Natalie." Argh! No! I shut the door, fearing the worst. "Take a seat." I did. "Now, Natalie, first of all, I'd like to thank you

APRA Silver Scrolls 2004

2004-10-28T16:17:00.000+13:00

Ahh, another night, another awards ceremony. Tuesday was the Silver Scrolls at the Wellington Town Hall. This is the big songwriters' awards ceremony, organised by the Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA), and which is specifically geared up to reward good song-writing in a number of fields, as opposed to commercial success, or the hottest looking video, or the biggest marketing team

A Low Hum

2004-10-25T11:29:00.000+13:00

After Thursday night's antics, I felt a bit like having a long recovery weekend to allow the various toxins poisoning my body to work their way out of my system. I had to call in sick on Friday, but Josh, having avoided my own excesses of champagne and sake, dutifully toddled off to the library after I rolled him out of bed at 8am. In the cold hard light of day, I was able to see quite clearly:

Everyone needs a lucky coin

2004-10-24T16:17:00.000+13:00

After just about bringing serious injury to superstar librarian Josh earlier in the week, I was stuck for a descent excuse for refusing his invitation to a drink on Thursday night. Not that I minded too much. It was the perfect chance for me to try out my new Voon summer frock I'd bought in a New Zealand Fashion Week-inspired shopping frenzy earlier in the week. I was running a bit early on the

Watching the watchers

2004-10-19T16:46:00.000+13:00

Oohh, the intrigue. One of the great things I enjoy about my blogging is the stats. I'm a stats junky. I fiddle and squirm until the numbers get up to at least the daily average, at which point I can start concentrating on whatever the hell I'm going to write next to keep you all coming back. Anyway, today was fairly standard on the stats front, except for one visitor. Hello mysterious visitor!

The Fastest Librarian in the West

2004-10-18T20:48:00.000+13:00

Mrs Oolong was supervising the makeover of the library's display area out in our foyer. We had some new promotional material we wanted to put up in 'the eyeball zone': straight above and as part of the main entrance doors. A full-on spring-clean had been ordered to do all the required poster and notices shuffling to necessitate the new material, and to cull all of the out-of-date posters and

Artemis: A New Hope

2004-10-14T10:05:00.000+13:00

I was on issues, working on my repetitive strain injury, when I spotted Artemis in the queue. He was quietly scowling at the elderly lady in front of him, as she struggled to retrieve her library card from her handbag. There were two of us on issues, so as Artemis worked his way to the front of the horrendously long queue, I juggled it just so to get him onto my desk. "Hello Artemis." "Hello

You go. No, you go.

2004-10-13T15:30:00.000+13:00

Okay, I must admit I don't drive too often, but this morning I was entrusted with my flatmate's car so I could run a couple of errands before work, and got myself into a bit of a give way dilemma at one of Wellington's more notorious intersections: Cuba St. & Abel Smith. Foreign readers will no doubt be nonplussed by NZ's bizarre give way rules, but I thought at least I had a pretty good grasp

Librarian's semi-naked protest

2004-10-12T14:31:00.000+13:00

Before you get all excited, let it be pointed out the semi-naked librarian in question is a man. Actually, feel free to get excited anyway... For the last two weeks, Achal Singh has attended to his duties while wearing only underpants and one slipper. The 43-year old, who works at a government library in Morena, Madhya Pradesh [India], is still a temporary employee, despite having worked there

Gooooaallll

2004-10-12T09:16:00.000+13:00

I highly recommend you check out this pic that Tam I Am has unearthed. The first comment from The Saturnyne is also a gem.

The Veil of Anonymity

2004-10-10T08:57:00.000+13:00

Yes, the picture had to go - as one of my email correspondents pointed out to me the other day, why make the effort of obfuscating your place of work and co-workers names when you've got a mug-shot taking up pride-of-place at the top-left of the page? And there was one request for a crab photo, but I figured this was a nice compromise. The switch was spurred on by a near outing in the weekend

Artemis III: Missing in Action

2004-10-08T11:06:00.000+13:00

Humph. Turns out Artemis's 'scheming' was a school project after all. He's failed to show up for the rest of the week, but for the last couple of days we've been inundated with other kids from one of the local schools looking for resources on the big stormwater project and various other big Council initiatives. They're doing some sort of project related to civic amenities, probably sparked off by

What is the Sexy Librarian look?

2004-10-07T11:45:00.000+13:00

'Sexy Librarian' is a look that involves inherently really conservative clothing, with a super sexy pair of shoes or net blouse, anything sexy and contrasting. It's sexy because of the juxtaposition of preppy conservative clothes, with one or two super sexy accents.So says the slideshow that accompanies the eBay Sellers' Opinions about "Librarian" Clothes: Frumpy or Bumpy, a presentation given at

Artemis returns

2004-10-04T19:49:00.000+13:00

I was down in the Dungeon. I'd remembered to load some fresh batteries into my discman, and was celebrating with some very loud Grace Jones through my headphones. I was doing my best growly-voiced impersonation of the Jamaican diva, grooving away to 'Pull up to the Bumper'... "Pull up to my bumper baby, in your long black limousine, pull up to my bumper baby, and drive it in between." ...when I

Library news from around the world

2004-10-03T20:19:00.000+13:00

First up is the British Library team who have won the inaugural 'University Challenge - the Professionals' competition in the UK. The tournament, which began in April 2004, featured teams from 22 of the UK's brainiest professions (including diplomats, journalists, lawyers, politicians and zoologists), and culminated in last night's battle of the 'bookmen'.Had to bite my tongue hearing at least

Are you talking to me?

2004-10-01T19:52:00.000+12:00

I wandered into the tea-room and saw Mrs Farnum - one of the older librarians at our branch - with her head down in the newspaper. I made myself a nice milky cup of hot Milo, and settled down on the couch with a pile of French Vogues. French Vogue, by the way, has far nicer clothes than the British edition. I also had a couple of New Scientists, which may as well be written in French for all that

Shaggy

2004-09-30T20:34:00.000+12:00

A slightly scruffy, youngish guy (about my, age, I suppose), let's call him Shaggy, comes up to the information desk and asks... "Where do I sign up to become a librarian?" "You can send your CV to the Library Manager. If a position comes up, and you're considered a potential candidate, she'll give you a call to come in for an interview." "Oh, you mean you can't just come in and help out?" "No.

Her laugh - light as raindrops

2004-09-27T15:41:00.000+12:00

I grabbed myself the library's latest British Vogue from a 'to-be-catalogued' pile for my own weekend perusing, and was amused to find yet another section extolling the virtues of librarian fashion. Writing about the return of the blouse, Vogue impresses upon us that... "Whether it's a flouncy pussy-bow or a demure high collar you're after, the look to aim for is part Belle de Jour, part sexy

Artermis

2004-09-23T08:44:00.000+12:00

Ahh, the school holidays.In some ways, it's quite nice: parents bringing their children in to experience the joys of the public library. We librarians get pleasure from finding kids another book in whatever series they're addicted to at the moment, and instill the love of the written word into another generation of young'uns.In other ways, it's total hell: the library becomes a de facto creche/

2004 b.net music awards II: Stranded in Paradise

2004-09-21T20:28:00.000+12:00

So yes, there I was, on my own, in a strange city, surrounded by the crème de la crème of New Zealand's music scene. Everyone who wasn't partaking in a rejuvenating smoke on the venue's steps was jumping into one of the many mini-vans and shuttles that had flocked to the front of the Bruce Mason Theatre to transport the throng back to town, where the official after-party for which I didn't have a

Making wood from ash

2004-09-17T10:33:00.000+12:00

I considered ducking behind the pile of books I was sorting out the back in Returns, but I was too slow. Mrs Oolong was upon me before I could take refuge. "Natalie, are you busy?" Was she blind? I looked at the teetering pile of recently (and not-so-recently) returned books that needed to be sorted and trolleyed. Mrs Oolong totally failed to take the hint. "Err, no, not really." "I shan't

2004 b.net music awards

2004-09-13T21:31:00.000+12:00

Noizyboy, who has been to the last three b.net awards on the strength of his online schmoozing with NZ music industry big-wigs, this year managed to get both he and me tickets to this year's awards. He just asked the organisers, and they coughed up! (The b.net awards, for you non-NZers reading this, are the 'alternative' NZ music awards organised by what used to be the student radio stations,

To coin a phrase

2004-09-10T20:38:00.000+12:00

as such...

Citizen Bus Driver

2004-09-09T10:48:00.000+12:00

Citizen Bus Driver has (presumably) had his eyesight fixed, for he was back at the helm last night, cheerfully clipping ten-trips, happily instructing the throng to 'move to the back of the bus', and merrily admonishing kids for not giving up their seats for their elders. Again, we got to the Basin Reserve gridlock. Again, a hush fell over the bus as the electric trolley-bus's engine whirred to

Maps II: The Maps of Victory

2004-09-07T08:49:00.000+12:00

Mr Assam - the Keeper of the Keys - showed me down to the room in the basement where the maps are kept. I have christened the basketball court sized room, naturally, the Dungeon. The concrete lined room is deep in the bowels of the building, and is where, as far as I can tell, every broken chair, surplus bit of shelving and defunct dot-matrix printer has come to await some unknown fate. It is

Maps

2004-09-04T20:15:00.000+12:00

I suspect Mrs Kambaa has gleaned my little subterfuge relating to my non-working co-worker down in the cataloguing dungeon. We had this little encounter the other day... I'm busily surfing away, delaying the cataloguing of a particularly tedious religious essays collection. The soft sound of footsteps on the library's carpet floor reaches my ears (I long ago learnt the perils of listening to my

Go Fish

2004-08-30T19:37:00.000+12:00

Crikey. Michael Klim makes an extra effort with the whole swimmer-fish metaphor thing. That is all. [via Tam I Am]

German's struggling to procreate

2004-08-27T12:47:00.000+12:00

Found via Mandi's Imagination - the harrowing tale of a German couple struggling to have children. Why? After fertility tests they were told they were both perfectly virile and shouldn't be having any troubles conceiving. The doctor's were baffled. Questions were asked... "How often are you having sex?" "Sex? What do you mean?" Aha. There you go. Apparently their strict religious upbringing had

Working for two

2004-08-23T20:07:00.000+12:00

Since I stupidly claimed to think that cataloguing was 'stimulating and challenging' when I applied for my current job, I've been seconded into the cataloguing team to cover a gap while one of the old pros - Mrs Strathsprey - is away on maternity leave (she's at least in her late 40s, and this will be her third child, the other two now being in their 20s! There's a whole other story there, I'm

Loose the Looser

2004-08-21T01:45:00.000+12:00

I was on duty at the reference desk when the phone rang. It startled me. I had forgotten the desk even had a phone. "Reference Desk." "Hello, is that the reference desk?" "Yes it is," I confirmed. "Does the library keep old weather maps?" "Yes. The library keeps many national and international newspapers in which there are weather maps." "Could you email them to me? I have hotmail." Ahaha. 'I

Blogger Navbar: hours of fun

2004-08-18T13:50:00.000+12:00

Although it played havoc with my layout (since fixed), the new blogger navbar thing there at the top of the page is soooo much better than the horrible old blogspot ad that used to take up bit of screen real estate. The thing I like best is the 'next blog' button - I've been finding all sorts of weird and wonderful blogs by clicking on it once I've exhausted my list of regulars. For example...

Who'd have thought?

2004-08-17T09:09:00.000+12:00

"Women big users of sperm donations" A headline over at NZCity.com. Like, surprise. [via pnn]

Couch Potato

2004-08-13T11:26:00.000+12:00

News from (where else?) Florida, USA this week... Early Wednesday, still fused to the couch, Gayle Laverne Grinds died following a six-hour effort by rescue workers who struggled to lift the 480-pound woman and get her to a Martin County hospital. Unable to separate the skin of the 39-year-old woman from her sofa, 12 Martin County Fire-Rescue workers slid both onto a trailer and hauled her

Scanners

2004-08-11T09:05:00.000+12:00

Not the head-exploding type, but pretty close... One of the drawbacks of being young(ish), (relatively) computer-savvy, and (generally) polite, is that I get called upon to help older, slightly more doddery librarians with all problems IT. Yesterday was a classic example. Mrs Oolong, one of the senior librarians, came and pulled me off returns to help her out with some scanning. She'd be

Bald Female Stars

2004-08-06T11:04:00.000+12:00

J-Lo - bald. And many more female celebs with their hair removed at this endlessly entertaining site. Scary: Shania Twain, Calista Flockhart Still beautiful: Uma Thurman, Cameron Diaz Even more beautful!: J-Lo, Tyra Banks

Found Photos

2004-08-03T12:55:00.000+12:00

This site is great. The site creator has used p2p software to trawl for personal photos that people have inadvertantly (or deliberately, who knows?) dropped into their shared directories. Having grabbed a few that he likes, he throws them all into a gallery for the world to see. Above are four, randomly picked (well, I picked the messy room one because it's not too far off what my room looks like

Librarians in trouble with the law

2004-07-30T09:26:00.000+12:00

Not me mind, but it appears some librarians are releasing their pent up frustrations though sex, drugs and rock and roll. No, wait, sex, drugs and plane hijacking. [via Lipstick Librarian] UPDATE: And a Canadian librarian has just been arrested for his involvement in the Black Panthers back in the 60s, and specifically his part in the attempted murder of a police officer in 1969. [via

Gregg Valentino

2004-07-29T14:54:00.000+12:00

Oh. My. God. Words cannot express just how queasy this guy's muscles make me. Queasy in a bad way that is, not queasy in a getting-weak-at-the-kness-through-bizarro-lust way. All the imperial measurements leave me for dead, but I assume his 27" arm size is pretty massive. I mean, really, it looks like he's got a couple of third-trimester foetuses developing in his biceps.He lists his two

Cliche Hell 8 - Movie Miscasting

2004-07-28T09:48:00.000+12:00

Had to laugh at that one. And many more movie poster mash-ups and spoofs here.

Terror in the Skies

2004-07-26T12:16:00.000+12:00

Well, this sounds like it was scary. Or, not, as the case may be.

Which Jane Austen Character Are You?

2004-07-21T12:31:00.000+12:00

Well, my vow to never do another quizilla 'who/what/which are you' type test again was shot down by this 'Which Jane Austen Character Are You?' one, which was just toooo appealing. I've always fancied myself as Elizabeth Bennet from Pride and Prejudice. Would my expectations be met? Amazingly enough, having misplaced the link - I googled the quiz title, and it turns out there's three 'Which Jane

Uncle Patrick’s Advice to Children

2004-07-19T09:20:00.000+12:00

You should never put a string of lit Black Cat firecrackers in someone’s back pocket while they’re on stage playing bass guitar with their band. Even if they fucked your knee up by reversing the figure-four on you that one time. And even if you crack up at just the idea of someone with their pants are on fire jumping up and down and spinning around and around like a dog chasing its tail while

Braille t-shirts with anti-groper countermeasures

2004-07-14T13:43:00.000+12:00

Oohh, I quite like this. I'll have to buy one so I can wear it to our next Accessibility Issues Committee meeting (so as to have something interesting to talk about, as opposed to it being the usual yawn-fest it turns out to be) - having more braille around the library could only be a good thing. Although, given the high quota of dodgy geezers that frequent the library, I suspect actually

The Worst 100 Films

2004-07-12T09:53:00.000+12:00

Another 'tick off the one's you've seen' list, this time of the worst 100 films as rated by IMDB users. I won't actually list them all - you can either follow the link, or head over to supergood's post on it (from whence I nicked it), I'll just list the ones I've seen, with a note as to where my mind was at when I made the decision to waste an hour and half or so of my life on some celluloid (

Bookworm

2004-07-09T12:44:00.000+12:00

Beat that.

the World's Fastest Shoelace Knot

2004-07-08T12:14:00.000+12:00

When I eventually put enough subconscious pressure on No Shoes Man to invest in a pair of snazzy brogues, he may well be interested in this - the World's Fastest Shoelace Knot. ("One day, all shoelaces will be tied this way"). Named after it's inventor - Ian - the, um, "Ian Knot" is..."...perfectly symmetrical; besides looking neat, this also means the laces wear more evenly and thus last longer.

Librarians fight back

2004-07-06T10:40:00.000+12:00

Another great "liberry" story. Inspirational, in fact. I'm going to give a couple of my more annoying patrons what for when I see them next. Mr No Shoes is in big trouble...

Farewell Will!

2004-06-29T08:56:00.000+12:00

A sad farewell to Will of Oxford, England, whose tales of singledom have been keeping me in various states of amusement, horror and vicarious frustration (and sometimes all three at once). His blog of romantic exploits is to be drawn to a close, as he's got himself a 'proper' job...Since march I have been unemployed and have been living off my savings, but last week I was offered an amazing job.

Knees

2004-06-28T21:16:00.000+12:00

Normally we play our indoor soccer games at Wellington's Queen's Wharf Events Centre on the fast and hard wooden surfaces that also get used for Basketball and Netball league games (and the occasional big international gig, garden show, or Lord of the Rings party. Actually, click through to that Events Centre link if you're just time-wasting, they've got some excellent 360 degree views of the

Hole in my Retina

2004-06-27T19:33:00.000+12:00

I was traveling home on the bus on Friday evening, stuck in traffic around the Basin Reserve, when, after a couple of minutes of as-per-normal bus silence, the driver suddenly took the opportunity to have a rant about the health system. "You don't have to listen to this if you don't want to!" he announced, as if those of us in his captive audience without headphones had any choice. He then gave

Brutal

2004-06-23T09:44:00.000+12:00

God, the team we played at indoor soccer this week must have been using the English Rugby Team as their role models. They were out to maim us. First minute in, I got a pass down the wall from Louise, planted my foot to let the ball go past so the girl coming at me from behind wouldn't get a shot at it, and then next thing I know my supporting leg is kicked out from under me, and I get shouldered