Books, Bun Bun, and answering phones

As I’ve probably mention, I’ve been working in an office answering phones for the past eight weeks or so. Along with all the wrong-number callers and hang-ups, one of the inevitabilities of doing phone work is getting telemarketers. Some of them are automated, some of them call multiple times in the same day, and they’re all annoying. I stay as polite as possible with the live ones and usually just hang up on the automated messages even if they claim it’s “highly urgent.” At least I know I’m not alone in being annoyed by these people – there is also Bun Bun, a character from the web comic Sluggy Freelance. I haven’t read Sluggy yet, but I’m familiar with Bun Bun thanks to his appearances and honorable mentions in the works of John Ringo. Bun Bun is a cute little bunny rabbit who carries a switchblade, looooooves the Baywatch girls, and harbors a burning (he torched it himself) hatred of telemarketers. I purchased a small Bun Bun doll from the Sluggy Freelance online store, and he’s sitting on my desk at work as a reminder to just let it go when the telemarketers get too annoying. He will be joined soon by Monty Python’s Killer Rabbit – I figure they’ll get along great. “We’d better not risk another frontal assault. That rabbit’s dynamite!”

One of my co-workers is a long-time bibliophile, and she’s raising her kids to be the same way. We’re both big fans of the Pendergast series by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child. (I’m almost done with Cemetary Dance at the moment, and it’s most definitely up to standard.) I visited a local library’s used book shop last week and picked up some books I thought she and her kids would enjoy, and it turns out that every book I chose is on two of her kids’ reading lists for school. She sends them to a private school, but I’m still highly impressed that those teachers are asking their middle- and high-school-age students to read Clive Cussler, James Michener, Michael Shaara, and Terry Pratchett. I’m also going to finally start Stieg Larsson’s Millenium Trilogy this weekend. I managed to pick up used copies of all three books at good prices, and The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo is my next paperback after I finish Cemetary Dance.

Same again, as usual …

I’ve kept looking on the job boards, as always. And as always, while there are jobs being posted, most of them don’t fit my skill set and/or personal requirements. Many of them require experience, coursework and/or skills that I don’t posess at this time. Others look like things I could enjoy and grow in, but the fact that they are part-time would not justify my moving out-of-state right now, even if I were to gain and ace an interview. I’ll just have to keep searching, like all my fellow librarian job-hunters. I believe I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: I figure there’s a library out there that desperately needs me, we just haven’t found each other yet.

This week’s news of interest includes fossils in California, a popular (mainly) children’s/young adult author, another famously out-of-this world author, and zombies on campus. The Associated Press reported on Tuesday that a utility company building a new station in California unearthed an assortment of fossils that could shed light on the evolution of mammals, definitely in North America and possibly worldwide.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_fossil_find

Dubuque, Iowa’s Telegraph Herald published an article about a talk given by Gary Paulsen, author of Hatchet, Dogsong, and many other great books. I remember reading and enjoying Hatchet years ago, and the movie was pretty decent from what I remember. Anyway, Mr. Paulsen stated that if he hadn’t had a chance encounter with a librarian who encouraged him to read as a teenager, he wouldn’t have become who he is today.
http://www.thonline.com/article.cfm?id=296301

In case all you Discworld fans out there hadn’t heard, Terry Pratchett was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II last year as part of her New Years’ Honours. An online Australian news service posted an article detailing how Sir Terry was so thrilled to be a knight, he gathered steel (including some meteorite chunks) and proceeded with expert help to forge his own sword. There’s a link in the article to one of Sir Terry’s blog posts that includes a photo of the sword – I think it would do one of his dwarfs proud.
http://www.news.com.au/technology/terry-pratchett-creates-a-sword-with-meteorites/story-e6frfro0-1225926584339

I mentioned zombies on campus. I’m not referring to sleep-deprived, over-caffeinated students, though I’ve been in that position often enough to willingly believe in that type of zombification. The BBC reports in its US & Canada section that the University of Baltimore is going to be offering “Zombie Studies.” Oh, how I wish that class, or something like it, had been available when I was an undergrad!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-11219411

In honor of “Zombies 101,” this week’s word is Pall: a noun meaning a cloth coffin-cover, a coffin itself, a general covering, or something contributing to gloominess. Discworld’s Igor clan specializes in producing pall-like atmospheres for their employers. If you receive an Igor in a crate, beware – you, too, could be a mad scientist!

Just another day …

The job hunt continues. I’ve had a few interveiws over the past couple weeks (the Rockefeller Archive Center and two retail positions), but nothing definite from any of them yet. I’m still searching and applying, and trying to keep my head above water at the same time. Until something (else or better) comes through, I’ll just keep plugging away at the job hunt and my current position.

GLBT Pride was this past weekend, if I remember correctly. I was unable to attend any parades or celebrations due to my work schedule, but I’m very proud to be an Ally. I bring this up because of an article I found earlier today on Facebook: Somebody has apparently thought up a drug, to be administered to pregnant women, that is supposed to prevent homosexuality, bisexuality, and interest in “male” jobs and toys and such in unborn baby girls. For crying out loud, whatever happened to things like freedom of expression, and the “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” promised in the Declaration of Independence? It seems like somebody’s actively trying to prevent future generations from having potentially interesting women like Elena Kagan, Ellen DeGeneres, and Jane Lynch! This is not cool, and I can’t be the only person who thinks so. 
http://www.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2010/06/29/doctor-treating-pregnant-women-with-experimental-drug-to-prevent-lesbianism

I’ve been reading some good books this past week or so, two of which tie into what’s going on in the world. I finished Terry Pratchett’s Unseen Academicals earlier this week, and it’s another classic addition to his Discworld series. Think soccer, Shakespeare, a bit of Cinderella, and the glitter of fashion shows. Shakespeare adaptations are usually fun, especially when orchestrated by a master like Sir Terry, and the soccer element certainly meshes with the hype associated with the World Cup. I’m also most of the way through Eric Flint’s alternate-history book 1632. For those unfamliar with the series, a complete modern West Virginia mining town gets zapped into 17th-century Germany, and “Freedom and Justice, American style, are introduced to the Thirdy Years’ War.” It’s a fun book that sort of fits in with the 4th of July celebrations coming up on Sunday. It also ties in a bit to Unseen Academicals, in that one of Mr. Flint’s characters is able to definitively answer the Shakespeare Authorship Question within the story, and Sir Terry at least partly based his book on Romeo and Juliet. “Two teams, alike in dignity … “

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

I’d like to start out by wishing a Merry Christmas to everyone who celebrates it, Happy Hannukah to the latke-lovers, Happy Solstice if that’s your thing, and Happy New Year to all.

There haven’t been any huge developments in the Great Job Hunt so far. I believe I’ve mentioned a job that I interviewd for in Peekskill, NY, a few weeks ago – I got a letter today saying they chose someone else to fill the position. I know I probably don’t have everything they were looking for in terms of that position, though I thought the interview went well at the time. My dad pointed out that with the current job market and state of the economy (not to mention the large-ish pool of applicants the Director mentioned), they probably found someone who had more experience working with teens and programming and stuff than I do. I’ll get there eventually – there has to be a library out there that wants to hire a nuttly li’l book nerd like me, I just need to keep plugging until I find them. Maybe the call I got about a Library Assistant job from a third-party career center will work out. The person I talked to said they’ll forward my information to a yet-to-be-revealed institution who will contact me if they think my qualifications match up for the position.

Now I think it’s time to talk about something I find more fun to discuss than the fact that the continuing job hunt is just that – continuing. Anyway, on to books!  I started reading books by David Weber a month or two ago. I’ve read and enjoyed the first three books in the Empire of Man/Prince Roger series that he co-authored with John Ringo, but Mutineer’s Moon was the first of Weber’s solo books that I read. Mutineer’s Moon plays a bit off of the theory that humans came (or were brought) to Earth from elsewhere, and I liked it enough to get the second and third books from the trilogy. I’ll get to them eventually, and I’ve also started exploring Weber’s Honor Harrington series. I’ve known of Ms. Harrington for a couple years now, but I only recently got a copy of the first book (On Basilisk Station). It’s my current walking-around book, which I’m reading on the bus and during breaks and such.

I’m also finally getting to Terry Pratchett’s book Nation. It’s historical fiction of a sort, set in our universe (a bit of a rarity from the creator of Discworld), and geared towards the YA crowd. My mom got a copy on my recommendation, read and enjoyed it, and passed it on to me. I’ve been trying to get her to read Pratchett for a while now, so finally success! I love sharing good books. I also lent my DVD copies of the live-action movies of Pratchett’s Hogfather and Color of Magic to a new friend who is also a fan of Discworld. She hadn’t heard about the movies, or that Pratchett had released Unseen Academicals, so it was a pleasant surprise for her. Ook!