17. the post.

my mom sent me a little package filled with mail and a few magazines.
and wouldn't you know it, some stickers:

16. via camel.

“After eating candies there remains nothing. But after reading a book you will have it in your head.”

-Dashdondog Jamba, author, poet, and founder of Mongolia's mobile library

i purchased several of his books while in UB, including when will the mobile library come?, a children's book about the travels he and his family make to bring books to young people in the countryside.

you can read more about his literacy efforts here.

15. wandering eyes.

i proctored an exam for someone at the library today and it took me back to my first year of grad school in 2009. i got a job as an exam proctor, staring at undergraduates for $10 an hour in large lecture halls.
my favorite place to proctor was foellinger auditorium (capacity 2500), former site of my own class lectures and several concerts.
one time a student fell asleep during a three hour final ("no, it's okay, i'm almost finished"), another the proctors played a very silent, very slow game of tag.
we couldn't sit while proctoring, or read, or talk, or do anything but watch and circulate.
foellinger was the best because it had the most places to lean:

today's form of proctoring was much more agreeable: sign the student in and peek at her computer screen every 15 minutes or so. otherwise, go about my work.
i like my job.

14. pop.

sometimes you leave the country for the summer and miss some songs and it takes a traffic-ridden commute and a cycle of 4 radio stations to catch up.
two recent favorites that i'm a little late on:

1. gotye, "somebody that i used to know"

paint, memory, and a xylophone

and then five people play one guitar to cover it beautifully:

2. selena gomez

purple pianos, unicorns

i may only like the video for this one because i'd really like to hit a piñata with a lightsaber.

13. goodbye england, covered in snow.

(a winter's walk through ithaca last weekend)

(photo by jj)

12. bird by bird.

"We are a species that needs and wants to understand who we are. Sheep lice do not seem to share this longing, which is one reason why they write so little. But we do. We have so much we want to say and figure out."

 -anne lamott

11. weeding, two.

in december i was assigned to some of the 900s for weeding.
this was a bit more fun to browse, and i checked a few titles out along the way (but not these).

1. "from susan b. anthony to xena":

2. the shrutes?:

3. and just to test my emotional limits:

at least they can find good homes at the book sale.

10. plain of susceptibility.

"a map of the open country of woman's heart":

 

(source)

09. blackout.

a lot of folks have been sharing this today, and with good reason.
from the oatmeal:

08. little hands.

via thedailywhat:

Sad News of the Day: Milo, the 12-year-old sea otter who gained Internet stardom after being filmed holding hands with his female companion Nyac, has passed away.

Milo was undergoing chemotherapy for lymphoma at the Vancouver Aquarium, but sadly succumbed to the disease earlier this week.

“He was the very first live sea otter diagnosed with lymphoma,” said Aquarium veterinarian Dr. Martin Haulena. “He was also the very first sea otter that I’m aware of that had chemotherapy.”

Bodies of wild otters recovered after death have tested positively for lymphoma, but Milo was the first living otter to be diagnosed with it.

“He was one of our emblematic animals who was loved by staff, volunteers, members and people worldwide,” said the aquarium in a statement. “Our team—especially those who worked closely with Milo during the past months to provide specialized care while he was receiving treatment — are saddened by his death, but take solace in his peaceful departure.”

Nyac, Milo’s significant otter, arrived at the aquarium in 1989 following the Exxon Valdez oil spill. She passed away in 2008 from chronic lymphatic leukemia at age 20.

07. mid-atlantic.

reports of the year's first big snowfall in my home state yesterday were a bit jarring, since it was 57 degrees and sunny here. 
lupe the dog, tiny friend to emma back in champaign, looks like he's having a hard time adjusting:

06. primary use.

i've been looking into buying an adult-sized tricycle for awhile now, for general cruising, exercise, and grocery getting.
considering how mild the winter has been here so far, i wish i had it now, but until then i've been reading reviews and watching prices.
most of the product reviews are written by those over 65, who are happy to be mobile again.

what kind of "stuff"?

 perhaps this next reviewer has some ideas:

05. where's waldo?

my sister, brother-in-law, and best dude all came to visit over new year's and part of the weekend was spent at the other air and space museum, the steven f. udvar-hazy center, an enormous hangar next to dulles airport.
it houses hundreds of planes (including the enola gay and an SR-71 blackbird) and thousands of flight-related artifacts (the best being space cameras and housewares associated with the french balloon mania of the late 1800s).
my favorite part was seeing the space shuttle enterprise:

not to be confused with the other enterprise:

04. the essentials.

when moving to a new state/house/time zone, one has to purchase a few things.
mainly, a chalkboard and a puppet.

03. weeding, one.

i may not be cataloging strange books anymore at my current library, but i do get a monthly weeding list. our policy is to generally discard things that haven't circulated in over year (with some exceptions).
i chose to document only the ones that appeared ridiculous. i really can't speak to the content of these particular items, and there are certainly people who enjoy these titles.


with that said, first on jc's chopping block (also the best possible section for me to weed because i have no emotional attachment to the content):

adult science fiction/fantasy 

1. because knives are for sharing:

2. it is 2012:

3. if princess leia was also a sim:

4. i'm afraid to see what the non-prodigal troll looks like:

5. more like mother of knives (am i right, people?):

 and as a bonus:

02. year of the falafel.

i had to work yesterday, and so missed enjoyed the bizarre 65 degree january weather.

but it was still nice out when i went to eat with my housemates emily and will for dinner.

amsterdam falafel: a splendid way to start the year right (also featured on the washington post's "40 dishes every washingtonian must try," one of the few vegetarian options on the list)

the tables had convenient holes built right in:

we sat by an open window and watched people debate whether they could resist the smell of fried things spilling out onto the sidewalk. 

then we stopped for cupcakes to take home and ate them while watching the simon & garfunkel episode of flight of the conchords. 

i was still full this morning.

01. you say it's your birthday.

welcome back. i fell out of posting about the year 2-6 after returning from mongolia. i'm also bad at keeping in touch with people on a regular basis, so this might help.
a lot of changes since last january 7th: a new job, new state, new home, new $15 eyeglasses.
as my friend robin wrote in the card she sent me, this is my first full year as a "real" adult (the card had bananas on it, so it's pretty authoritative).
 it's strange, i very sincerely thought i was never going to find anything i liked doing, that i would spend my life in jobs that i hated, being generally unhappy for roughly 40 hours per week. i don't know why working in a library didn't occur to me until after i was already done with college, but i'm glad to have found it and am so grateful to have the job i do now. it may be far away from most people i know, but it sure feels like the right place for this moment, for this twenty-seventh year.

but i still wish we were all having cake together tonight.