long books are hard to read

i'm trying to finish the historian.
i'm not holding my breath.

a coin in your pocket

i recently read the book everlost by neal shusterman and it was great.

blue peter

i just finished reading silent to the bone last night (i didn't go to sleep until i finished!) and i thought it was a pretty good book. it is about a friendship between two boys. the plot is a bit predictable, but it is charming. this is the first book from e.l. konigsburg i've read so i didn't expect much, but it was a nice surprise to find an easy read that dealt with complex issues.

ms indecision has made a decision

since i started this whole blogging business my posts have been random, sporadic, and lackluster. i've decided that i am going to start writing about book i've read (since that's part of my job so i know that i'll always have something to write about). since i am pretty sure that less than five people read this blog it probably doesn't matter. this will just be my own personal book list. :)

sometimes...grrrr!

people are so rude! yesterday tested my patience. some teenagers (this is just speculation, but i think a very accurate speculation) wrote obscenities on one of the libraries computers and left it up for patrons to see (against chinese people and mormans [sic]), took half of a shelf of children's books and scattered them in the children's section (even hid them behind other shelves), and brought food into our computer lab. others were rude....talking to me while i am talking to someone else, demanding things, etc. i had more than five people give me the impatient huff/sigh/tapping of fingers on the counter. i understand that people have bad days, but seriously! the world doesn't revolve around you (mr-whiney-pants). what if i came to your work and did that to you, huh? anyway, sometimes i wonder where they learned their manners from....

blah.

i'm sick. functionally sick, which means i can't just lay in bed and be miserable because i'd be bored out of my mind. boooo...

what, what, what?

john edwards going for it...again? he is expected to annouce his bid for the president's seat in 2008. i'm pleasantly surprised...this is shaping up to be an interesting race for president. i don't know if i would vote for hillary, but i would defintely vote for edwards or obama.

read this article from MSN: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16239360/.

world aids day

today is WORLD AIDS DAY...represent your red.





http://www.worldaidsday.org/default.asp

unshelved

a while ago, my manager sent me a cute comic from overdue media that publishes unshelved, a comic strip about libraries. this is definitely a librarian thing...

money, money, money, money....MONEY!

a few days ago i was watching 20/20 and they were doing a report called "cheap in america." i just thought it was really interesting...it's kind of a "yay, america!" piece, but interesting nonetheless.

20/20 reports:

Americans gave $260 billion away in charity last year — that's about $900 per person.

i wish stossel would have focused on the good some charities are doing rather than asking ted turner and other billionaires, "well the money you gave away is a lot, but can't you afford more?" sometimes that mustasched man just irritates me.

disturbing incident at UCLA

In a recent article in the Daily Bruin, UCLA student, Mostafa Tabatabainejad, was repeatedly stunned with a taser (even when he was handcuffed!) after a random ID check found that he did have his student card. When he did not immediately leave the police were called and "Police officers said they determined the use of Tasers was necessary when Tabatabainejad did not do as they asked."

I understand the need to follow the rules, especially, as the article indicated, after 11 for the safety of the students; however, is tasering necessary when he was handcuffed? He doesn't pose a threat when he can't move AND isn't it procedure to check for weapons right after he is handcuffed so they know he isn't dangerous? What if he had a medical condition and the police killed him? Does the punishment fit the crime? I don't think so. Sure, he may have been a problematic patron not having ID, but I am sure the police could have handled it better. Could it have excalated because he was Iranian (which poses other complicated questions)? Who knows, but this is very disturbing. I am in no way proclaiming absolute knowledge of this incident, but what I have read makes me sad.

Video of this incident:


Additional articles:

Cops use stun gun on student who won't show ID

UCLA Community gathers to protest the Taser incident

Student to file suit against UCPD

Beware of easy knee-jerk reactions

sounds like a personal problem to me...

recently i've been gentley urged to go back to school to get my ph.d. i don't know about this...i tried to whole ph.d. program thing and was only accepted into one school (my alma mater). i'm not sure if i should try again. i would love to get my ph.d., but i am not sure about the intense nature of getting a doctorate. and then there is the problem of getting into "the u" (the university of utah, for all those non-utahns).

anyway, that's all. i know, know...poor baby.