The trouble with overheard conversations is that you can't have your say. Well, you can, but it would be considered rude to tell someone out of the blue that you have a differing viewpoint. The wonders of the internet is that you get to hear my viewpoint instead!
( Pro-anorexia communities. Also bits about suicide )

I've just had a sneaky early look at the entries for the museum's Steampunk: the Next Generation exhibition. Local (I think!) schools have submitted pieces as a response to the Steampunk exhibition. I'm genuinely impressed by a couple of the entries - especially the one that made my hair stand on end by the use of a Wimshurst machine. It's not actually designed to make your hair stand on end, but I got too close!

I've just being Stumbling (heh - it is Friday afternoon!) and I came across this gem of a quote from Wikihow:

Ever feel that books such as Harry Potter have taken all the good Magic set-ups in books?

I nearly fell off my chair! The magic in The Worst Witch was more consistent!

Today and yesterday I have been in an odd mood. Kind of bouncy, but tired. And a feeling of wanting to do things, but I don't know what. Maybe play on some swings. Or stand at the top of a tall building and watch the dawn. Or watch Princess Bride and Labyrinth and pretend that I never saw David Bowie with greasy hair looking like a mad stalker (in the 90s I think; it wasn't a good look for him).

It's a shame about the tiredness, because the result is that I'm just sat here slightly quivering instead. After surviving the Failday that was Monday, and having an awesome Tuesday - I think I might actually be feeling Happy :D

I wondered why I was feeling light-headed. It's because I've been breathing through my nose which is half-blocked. Silly cold. Silly Gemlad. Ooh - oxygen! Good idea...

I'm currently having a great time with the RPGSoc Society Game. My character has acquired a life of her own and keeps doing things that I know are stupid. She's like a character in a horror film that walks backwards. Any external observer knows that the character is doomed - yet the character still does it.

I might have to have my character do something about the hyperactive twitching though - sessions are getting tiring!

One of my tooth veneers has just fallen off. Which means visiting a dentist. Which I haven't done in over 10 years. He/she will shout at me :( (Hah - I'll shout back!)

I'm sure I checked LJ over the weekend, but the long bit of my friends' page which was unread suggests that I may have been spending too long with my Sims instead!

ION: Operation Aaaaargh is in progress, and I'm feeling a lot better about it at the moment as I can actually do something about it, rather than stew all weekend.

IOON: I have re-read The Wee Free Men and Hat Full of Sky, and I'm currently reading Wintersmith. This may lead to me shouting 'Crivens!', 'Waily, waily, waily' and 'Wanna sweetie!' a bit more than usual.

It's all very strange having intarwebs at the in-laws. Liking it a lot though :)

Christmas was Christmassy, presents were presenty and Doctor Who was a mixed bag. I realised (again) that the 'sound of the drums' of The Master is the Doctor Who theme tune. That must be gutting. "I have this unique madness of hearing a noise that I've heard forever, and it turns out to be that prick's theme tune. Well dang" I could write more but then I'd have to use spoiler tags and maybe even think of the words that I'm typing.

Hope everyone else is enjoying the festive season! Ciao.

Today I have been off work because of IBS. It seems to have passed now, but it is bloody annoying.

( Cut for TMI and whinging )

I have run out of excuses to loiter around the film crew that's currently in the museum. Which means I haven't actually 'met' Tony Robinson, as the Oxford academic is currently talking him to death. But Tony Robinson! Cool!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5i9ZX10iM64

Official video of the Steampunk exhibition :)

I'll be in Blackwells at lunch time, if any of the usual lot want to join me. I'll be there anyway, so don't worry if you don't make it! I know there's a lot going on at the moment.

bateleur, I saw this game and thought of you...

I watched the UEFA women's final last night (although I was knitting at the same time so didn't give it my full attention). England didn't win - it was 6-2 to Germany. The score line doesn't really do credit to England, who mostly played well for the first hour or so. All except the goalkeeper who seemed to be playing in treacle. I want to see keepers diving for things, not assuming it's a lost cause as soon as the ball gets anywhere near the goal. Mr Gemlad agreed, although he phrased it as "I want to see them bouncing up and down!" - I assume he meant the keepers...

Once again with women's football, I was disappointed with the commentary. I watched the Eurosport coverage, mainly because I'd already set up the Sky+ to record before I knew it was going to be on BBC. However, I was glad of the choice, because Gavin Peacock and the woman (whose name I don't know) who usually commentate on the BBC women's games wind me up. Up until the final, I hadn't heard the Eurosport commentators refer to the players as 'girls'. That didn't last. Not 5 minutes into the game, both the male and female commentator had used the diminutive term. Girls' football does exist; it's played by children of the female persuasion. However, top-level international senior football is played by adults. Stop referring to adults as children, just because they are female!

Commentators also seem unable to criticise female footballers, but for a while they also seemed unable to criticise any England player, so I can't really tell if this is nationalist, mildly sexist, or just crap commentary.

We're going off to deepest darkest Dorset tomorrow - so no intarwebs! See you in a week!

Our (small) library had a stock check about 5 years ago (well, it was completed about then). My boss asked at our recent committee meeting whether we should think about doing another before too long. My initial thoughts were yes, of course we should, mixed with the Aaaaargh that will take forever and it's me that has to do it! thought.
But I've since had time to do some less on-the-spot thinking. I've done a librarianship degree, surely I should know about this sort of thing? Well, no. I don't. We didn't actually cover collection management; I suppose I'm meant to know about that inherently (well, ok, it is common sense). I've done a quick 10 minutes trawl of the Library and Information Science Abstracts database, and the university policy pages, but can't find anything that says "You should do a stock check every N years". I suspect then that other libraries make it up. I can do that too!

Why do a stock check at all?
a) Everybody else does them
b) We get to flesh out the annual report with the statistics
c) My boss said we should do one
d) We get to see which books are missing and write them on a list then ignore it
e) (Ok, this one's actually pertinent but less funny) We have a chance to track down missing books, which may have been borrowed by previous staff members, and ask for them back before they die (ooh, I made it a bit funny in a morbid way)

However, I honestly can't think of a good reason that would justify a full-blown stock check, which would take, as my first estimate, 250+ Gemma-hours (like man-hours, but it's just me).

I have a cunning plan, which I shall call a policy and look like a profeshanul librarian. Put a new field in the library database in which I record the date I last saw the book. Then, I can integrate stock-checking into my already existing cleaning schedule. Huzzah! I am genius.