Attack of the Mutant Mosquitos???

Is it just me, or do mosquitoes seem to be getting bigger, lately? Been seeing some @ work that would work well in a monster movie.

Can you hear me NOW?

We got new phones today at work, and they are very complicated. Several of the buttons for different functions look very similar and are not labeled. Took us awhile to figure out how to end a call that was on the intercom. Boy were the patrons confused when the phone started ringing ALL OVER THE BRANCH. Teeheehee. I hope to learn it better, soon! :)

Ya Want Salt With That?

Yet another reason why I don't wish to work in fast food. *Twiddles thumbs*
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SOURCE


Oversalted burger leads to charges

Sun Sep 9, 2:02 PM ET


UNION CITY, Ga. - A McDonald's employee spent a night in jail and is facing criminal charges because a police officer's burger was too salty, so salty that he says it made him sick.

Kendra Bull was arrested Friday, charged with misdemeanor reckless conduct and freed on $1,000 bail.

Bull, 20, said she accidentally spilled salt on hamburger meat and told her supervisor and a co-worker, who "tried to thump the salt off."

On her break, she ate a burger made with the salty meat. "It didn't make me sick," Bull told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

But then Police Officer Wendell Adams got a burger made with the oversalted meat, and he returned a short time later and told the manager it made him sick.

Bull admitted spilling salt on the meat, and Adams took her outside and questioned her, she said.

"If it was too salty, why did (Adams) not take one bite and throw it away?" said Bull, who has worked at the restaurant for five months. She said she didn't know a police officer got one of the salty burgers because she couldn't see the drive-through window from her work area.

Police said samples of the burger were sent to the state crime lab for tests.

City public information officer George Louth said Bull was charged because she served the burger "without regards to the well-being of anyone who might consume it."

Whoops...

I finished the short story within one night, but never did get around to blogging about it. I've been having issues logging into blogger from home this week for some reason. Anyway, as I said before I finished up the original version of Brokeback Mountain very quickly, and have to say that the movie followed it almost exactly, right down to dialouge. I liked it! :)

I'm still rereading Goblet of Fire, but am taking my time on the series this time around so it'll probably be awhile before I finish it. Probably next up on my current reading list is a book called Vampirates (please remind me to find out who the author is, later), which is a book that Craig handed me from our donations section. It looks to be about exactly what the title hints at - vampires and pirates! Sounds interesting, as I am the PiratePrincess, and enjoy my share of darker subjects like vampires, as well.

Ciao for now!

Books and Bad Baseball...

I saw a picture yesterday that amused me to no end (I think credit to the photo goes to Yahoo!Sports ?). This is just totally craptastic, lmao. I thought the Orioles had hit an all-time low the other week with that game where the other teamed scored 30 runs, but it's pathetic when fans have to resort to this, to protest:



Ah well, hopefully it'll bring about much better management or something positive (one can dream, right? lol).

The other topic of this blog post...Books. What am I reading this week?

Still rereading the Harry Potter series now (I'm currently on Goblet of Fire), although I've stopped momentarily to read a couple of items that came up on hold for me the other day, one of them being a MARINA loan so I have to read it pretty quickly.

As a fan of the movie Somewhere In Time, I've wanted to read the novel (originally called Bid Time Return, but later changed with the popularity of the film) for the longest time, but could never find it. Thanks to MARINA, I got to read it this weekend. Although I already knew some of the things that were going to be different in the book (I won't say what, incase someone here plans to read it), there were some things that really caught me off guard and pleasantly surprised me that weren't in the movie...Much more face time with Richard Collier and Elise McKenna! :) I felt like the book filled in some major plotholes from the movie, so that was great, too. The book also had some rather funny internal commentary from Richard that had me rolling. This wasn't really expressed in the film, as you usually can't tell what he's thinking except by watching his facial expressions, words, and actions. I have to say that if you're interested in a very beautifully-written, touching story, check out this novel by Richard Matheson. It's definitely a page-turner.

As I write this, I'm beginning the book, Brokeback Mountain. I wanted to read the original short story, by Annie Proulx, which of course later became a touching film starring Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal. ;-) It seems to follow the movie pretty closely so far. I'll give my thoughts on this book in a future post, once I've finished it.

Happy Labor Day Weekend! :)

Yummy!

Clips from the play, The King & I, that I wanted to see, but unfortunately didn't get to attend this time around. One of my favorite (lesser known, but very talented) actors, Paolo Montalban, is featured as "Lun Tha". Nice clip of "I Have Dreamed." :) Lorenzo Lamas is playing the King, btw. I had no idea that he could sing! lol

The verdict is...

It's nice. I like the mp3 player so far. I haven't figured out all of the features yet, but I did figure out how to install it (very user-friendly so far) and upload some songs. I already have a huge playlist going (a bunch of things I had saved on my computer for a long time) and have been listening all day. :) What fun! It'll be great to finally delete a bunch of files from my computer so that I have more room on it. :) I haven't ventured into downloading any audiobooks yet, as I'm a bit apprehensive about doing it since I'm on dialup internet at home. I'll let you know how that goes though if I decide to check it out at some point. :)

Ciao for now!

Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!

Wahoo! Hooray! Woohoo! Yippee! *Dances with glee*

My MP3 player for completing "23 Things" has arrived today. I will let you all know my thoughts on it in the next entry, once I get a chance to try it out. :)

Thanks to our liason, Gail, and everyone in charge of the program, for the cool prize. I hope it comes in handy (which I'm sure it will, assuming I can get it to work on my computer. *Crossing fingers* ).

Harry Potter Survey! :-)

WARNING! This contains SPOILERS for Deathly Hallows (and other books in the series, for those of you who are still reading!). Read the following at your own risk. You have been warned! :-p


What would be your Patronus?
-I don't know. Maybe a dolphin or some kind of bird or something...

What would you want your wand to look like/be made out of?
-Unicorn hair and birchwood (or cherrywood, maybe).

If you could be an animagus what animal would you be?
-A hummingbird or a tiger.

Would you join the D.A?
-Yep.

Who was the character you hated the most in the books?
- *Cough* Toadface! *Cough* Er...I mean -- Umbridge. *Whistles innocently*

Who were the characters you loved the most?
- Heh..that's a toughy. I liked several characters a lot for different reasons.

What character are you most like and how?
-Luna or Tonks.

What house would you be in at Hogwarts?
-I think I established from work that I'd be a Ravenclaw.

What was your favorite store in Hogsmeade or Diagon Alley?
-Weasley's Wizard Wheezes and (I can't remember the name of it at the moment) whatever the sweet shop in Hogsmeade was called.

If you could play Quidditch what position would you play?
- Probably Seeker

Would you honestly eat the kidney pie?
- Ehh I'd probably taste it, but I don't know if I'd eat a whole slice unless I liked it lol.

Dark mark or D.A "Galleon"?
- Galleon. Did anyone actually answer Dark Mark? I want to know, haha.

What magical creature was your favorite (ex. centaurs,house elves,etc)
- I'm not sure. There were several that I liked.

At the moment if you walked by the room of requirement what would it turn into?
-Somewhere comfy to sleep (because I'm tired at the moment).

What would be your boggart?
-Probably wasps or something similar.

What was your reaction to the Ron and Hermionie "thing" in book 7?
-I was amused and probably said something like "About damn time" lmao...

If Thestrals were real could you see one (meaning have you seen someone die)
-Probably not. I knew people who passed away, but I don't think I've ever SEEN a person die.

What memory would play over and over again in your mind if a dementor got too near to you?
-Something fun and happy to keep it away.

What would you see in the mirror of Erised?
-Me sucessfully in a career that I love and happily married all of my life with many wonderful children and to die peacefully surrounded by family as an old lady.

Are you Brave like Harry, Funny like Ron, or Intelligent like Hermione?
-Maybe a mixture.

Which of the Deathly Hollows would you choose (the cloak, the stone, or the wand)?
-Probably the cloak (that could be fun!) or maybe the stone.

Would you be a member of S.P.E.W.?
-yeah.

Out of the Marauders map, Sirius's dagger, and a Sneakoscope, what would you choose?
-the Marauders map.

What pet would you take with you to Hogwarts (toad, cat, owl, etc)?
-owl. :-)

Who was your favorite teacher at Hogwarts?
-Lupin.

What subject would you like to teach at Hogwarts?
-Maybe charms. Flitwick's classes always sounded like fun.

On a scale of 1-10 (ten being the worst) how depressed are you that the series is over?
- 5-6

Which was the best movie so far?
-I haven't seen 5, but I'm going to say number 1. The movies really don't live up to the books for me. I get a bit disapointed with them.

Which character do you wish was real and you could befriend?
-I'm not sure.

Would you enter your name in the triwizard cup?
-I don't think so lol.

Who do u want to marry or date?
-Umm...Sirius, maybe. Or Snape, if he washes his hair. :-p Mwahahaha!

Whose death out of all the characters upset you the most?

- Psst...*SPOILER ALERT!* :-P


Sirius, Dobby, Fred, Snape, and Cedric's. :-( They were all extremely unexpected to me. Oh, and I was kinda mad about Hedwig.

Week 9, Thing 23...Summarizing my thoughts.

Hooray, I've finally completed 23 Things! I'm going to go ahead and answer the questions individually as they were listed on the site. :)

1. What were your favorite discoveries or exercises on this learning journey?
My favorites were creating my blog, Flickr mashups, creating my own virtual shelf on Library Thing, and Youtube.

2. How has this program assisted or affected your lifelong learning goals? I learned a bit more about technology than I would've otherwise and it made me feel more knowledgable and confident in helping others, as well. Several of the sites listed I hadn't heard about before.I think the program also taught me a bit more about working towards goals within a certain amount of time. I liked how everything was set for me, week-by-week, because I'm generally a bit disorganized when it comes to doing activities in this manner. It also helped me in my 7 & 1/2 Habits. Although I'm still uncomfortable about viewing problems as challenges, I am less uncomfortable about it than I was before.

3. Were there any take-aways or unexpected outcomes from this program that surprised you?
Not really, but I think I was surprised at how much I didn't know about sites that existed.

4. What could we do differently to improve upon this program’s format or concept?
Maybe include a few more tutorials for some of the more difficult exercises. Other than that, I think it's fine so far as it is.

5. If we offered another discovery program like this in the future, would you again chose to participate?
I might participate again if they included some fun, user-friendly, activities (and incentives?).

6. How would you describe your learning experience in a few words or a few sentences, so we can share our successes and promote this program?
There isn't much to say except that I enjoyed the experience and the explanations on each Discovery exercise page were mostly pretty helpful. I had fun doing this, this summer! :)

In conclusion, if my fellow co-workers (like Craig) end up keeping their blogs, I might just keep using this blog to keep in touch with everyone. This has been fun this summer, and broke-up a bit of the usual things I do at work each year. I even told several of my friends about the program, in hopes that they might learn a litte bit of something new about technology, as well. I'm glad I participated in this.

Week 9, Thing 22

I liked the look of Overdrive, from watching the tutorial. It looked somewhat user-friendly and I liked the design of the site. I tried to find several different authors and book titles from Project Gutenberg without any success, unforunately. As I'm currently on a dialup internet at home, I don't see myself downloading audio books personally. I think I'd prefer to get audio books the old fashioned way in the physical sense, by checking one out at my local library. Still, it's nice to have this as a possibility for other folks. :)

Hello, Mr. Battery-Eater...Goodbye, Extra $ (Ranting)

MUNCH..MUNCH..MUNCH...

That lovely little portable cd player that I bought the other month has so far turned out to have been more trouble than it's probably worth. It seems that this particular cd player continues to use up the batteries even while I'm not playing it, causing it to die almost immediately after I go to play a disc. This was foreign to me as it had never happened with any of my previous players. I suppose I'm going to have to resort to taking the batteries out each and everytime I finish using the cd player. What a pain!

Week 9, Thing 21: Podcasts!

This was kinda cool, although I initially had trouble figuring out how to find the RSS for a podcast. I selected 2 podcasts from Yahoo Podcasts. The first was a Phantom of the Opera podcast appropriately titled Phancast. The other was a Harry Potter audio called Snapecast, which featured a male host whose voice (no offense, it works for this particular podcast lol) reminded me a bit of the type of voice you'd expect a creepy funeral director who doesn't get out much, to have! :p Both of these podcasts can be found in my bloglines account. My bloglines account link is still located on the sidebar of my blog for your convenience. It looks like various libraries are finding some interesting ways to use podcasting. In my searching, I discovered that there are interviews with authors, tutorials for staff and patrons, booktalks, stories being read, library news, and that's only a few of the ways libraries use podcasts. I guess podcasts ARE pretty useful!