Entertaining* Work Things

*to me, at least

1. We were give possession of an incredibly, righteously angry letter from a pianist who couldn't, COULD NOT, understand why his CD hadn't been played on air. I mean, dude was having a meltdown. And this is not some wacko with a home recording studio and a keyboard - he's a professional pianist, lots of experience, has had previous recordings played on our station, clearly should know better, and he felt it was his RIGHT to have this CD played and WHY wasn't anyone paying him the attention he DESERVES. He sent the letter to Audience Relations, and they, seeing the word "music", hastily passed it on to us. He was very lucky - the librarian who got it wrote a nice letter back with the names of a few appropriate producers to contact. I would have been "Man-child, throwing a tantrum isn't going to get your album played on air. No-one is required to play your album. That's the enviable thing about being a programmer - you get to pick and choose what gets played on your show." The whole thing was, frankly, hilarious.

2. My new(ish) manager and I each wrote a draft of an email to go out to our users about an upcoming location change (neither of us realized the other was taking care of it). Our emails were so far apart in tone that if I hadn't known, I wouldn't have realized that they were about the same thing. Mine was all "Dude, where's my librarians?!" and hers was all "Operational changes to the service point". (If you're sitting here judging my casualness in work communications, that's how my former manager always communicated with our users - very casual, lots of puns and silly pictures. I was just trying to carry on the legacy. Also, it didn't actually include the word "dude".) After reading her version, I wrote back with, "I also have a draft. It's...a bit different." Heh.

The rest of work is not so entertaining. It's a bit dour, actually. Things are progressing with the reno that will bring another 25 staff into our library space. One of the minor but weird consequences is that here are less and less places to put a random thing - I've been trying to find somewhere to keep the dolly, now that the kitchenette and supplies area has been dismantled. Half my staff is going to be rotated into the reference desk of another archives department (the hardest hit by the upcoming cuts), so I've been trying to think if there's anything that we can drop, anything that's not critical for operations. And I'm looking fondly on the days when no-one would talk to me for a couple of hours. But I'm hoping that we just muddle through and things might sort themselves out a bit by the end of April, after all the moving is done and (sadly) the schedule is reorganized to take care of the people who are being let go.

When I joined Goodreads, I was determined to continue writing up my books here (since not everyone is on Goodreads, but we're pretty much all big readers). I failed. I thought it had been a few months, but the last time I posted about books was October. So here's a shortcut version of what I've been reading.

( Books! )

Is anyone else on Goodreads and not yet my friend?

My parents gave me a magnetic spice jar in my stocking this year, as a tester to see if they'd work for me (instead of the giant useless bag of spices I currently have), and it's great. So I bought some more. I'm having a terrible time getting the stickers off the (magnetic) back, though. I found that when I left the sticker on, the jar stuck to the fridge, but peeling off the stickers hasn't really worked either. Anyone have any great ideas for getting the stick off something? I tried nail polish remover, but it just smeared it around.

If I ever get these to work, they're going to be so awesome. But right now they're just annoying and in the way. :P

Okay, fine, I admit it: Cee Lo Green's "Fuck You" is insanely catchy and makes me dance. I held out for 5 months, but I can't resist any longer.

You may notice (okay, you probably won't, because you probably don't analyze what I watch, but if you did, you might notice) that there are a lot of older movies on this list, which is unusual for me. This is because of 2 things: 1, I have this giant Zip backlog, so I decided that rather than pick and choose movies, I'd just bump up everything on my list that's from before 1990. And a few TV things, because that's most what I want to watch these days. 2, I've been following the Popcorn Dialogues podcasts, which are Jennifer Crusie and another romance novelist watching and analyzing romantic comedies, 5 from each era (I think) that are supposed to be good. The podcast is quite interesting - they're rating them in terms of how good they are specifically as romantic comedies, with scores for romance, comedy, and structure, with the idea being to learn what makes a romantic comedy really work. It's intended for romance novelists, but I've been quite enjoying their commentary, and adding some of the highly rated movies to my Zip list - and since they started with the earliest movies, so did I.

( Movies )

If you're on Goodreads with me, you may have read some of these reviews. Sorry. :)

( Books! )

Having "run" all of twice recently, I am now determined to do it a few more times. Other people seem to be able to eventually run more than 4 minutes in a row without feeling like their lungs are attempting to secede from their body (by way of revolution, not referendum), so surely I can too, one day. Perhaps the third time of trying a learn-to-run program is the charm.

Thus were the thoughts in my head when I decided to get up at 5:45 this morning and run before work. Just this once, I thought. It's hothothothothot here, so there's no way I'm running after work, but next week it'll be fine, I don't have to make this a habit.

Did you know it's still dark at 5:45 in the morning? Somehow I wasn't expecting that. My brain was still thinking it was July with the super early sunrises. In fact, it was still dark when I left the house.

Also surprising when I left the house was just how HOT it already was. In the dark. I thought it was going to be slightly early morning chilly and refreshing! HAHAHAHAHA. Plus it was garbage day (although, the smell while I was running was nothing compared to the smell as I left the house for work, just after the garbage was picked up and the truck was leaving, and there was this miasma in the air that was this close to deadly). So not exactly a lovely experience.

On the plus side, I got to see the sunrise. It was very purple and watercolour-like, as it attempted to break through the early morning haze of heat.

I have lots of movies coming to me from Zip, but I need some serial TV for in between seasons of The Wire rewatch. What should I watch? What's distracting/engrossing enough to make me forget the heat?

[Poll #1604981]

Hester Browne The Finishing Touches

Light fluffy book about a woman who was left on the doorstep of a finishing school, and having grown up there, as an adult is asked to help the school out when it's on the verge of closing. I have a soft spot for stories about makeovers (in this case, of the school) and was very entertained.

Cathy Marie Buchanan The Day the Falls Stood Still

A novel about class differences, heroism, and progress vs. nature, set at Niagara Falls around the first World War. I liked it.

Terry Fallis The Best Laid Plans

This was such a surprising delight. A Liberal speechwriter leaves politics for academia, except for just one thing: he agrees to find a Liberal candidate to run against the hugely popular Finance Minister in a permanently Conservative riding. He makes a deal with his Engineering prof landlord, trading the Liberal candidacy for a semester teaching the dreaded "English for Engineers". The agreement is based on the fact that there's no chance his candidate will win, except... It was very funny, and I like political insider-y stuff (the actual details of how Ottawa works). The writing was not always beautiful, but it made me laugh on the subway.

Anna Jane Grossman Obsolete

A collection of short essays on things from VCRs to cursive writing. Entertaining and some nice historical detail, but the tone varied pretty wildly from serious to facetious

Zoe Heller The Believers

Great stuff - a novel about a seriously dysfunctional family that has to confront itself after the patriarch has a heart attack.

Sadie Jones The Outcast

This book felt so much like a Canadian book set in the same era that I kept having to double check where it was set. Repeated mentions of "London" didn't help either. :D Good, but not awesome, story about a young boy growing up wrong (at least according to society) after his mother's death.

Brian Moore The Great Victorian Collection

Eh. A man dreams into creation an entire collection of (already existing) Victoriana and goes a bit crazy as a consequence. Interesting idea, but the book itself wasn't that great.

Alice Munro Too Much Happiness

Really excellent short stories. I rarely like short stories, but I love Munro's - somehow she manages to make them both have a story arc and feel complete in their smallness. Lovely.

Jocelyne Allen You and the Pirates

There's an explosion. You see people climbing down the side of a building. You're told you don't see them. There's another explosion. And another. A girl with pink hair appears in your house. And you're Up? An offbeat and entertaining novel that managed to hook me in completely, despite being in 2nd person singular present tense. I'm not totally sure why I picked this book up - some sort of Canada Reads alternate list, maybe? But I'm happy I did.

Alan Bradley The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie

Meh. I know this has been getting great press, but I just wasn't that interested. Maybe it was just one too many genius children, coming so soon after The Elegance of the Hedgehog.

Will Ferguson Beyond Belfast: A 560-Mile Walk Across Northern Ireland on Sore Feet

A comic travelogue of a man discovering the land of his grandfather. Entertaining read. The sore feet part was very accurate.

Stacey May Fowles Fear of Fighting

A sardonic look at post-break-up depression, with a serious undercurrent of how terrible it is to be single. Kind of a miserable read.

Julie Klausner I Don't Care About Your Band

Julie Klausner has lots to say about her bad relationships, and she's awfully funny while she does so.

Lori Lansens The Wife's Tale

A great book about a very overweight small-town Ontario woman who travels to California to find her husband after he disappears. Enjoyed it.

Connie Willis Blackout

So fabulous. Didn't want this to end! The publisher had it wrong: I would happily have had the giant book all as one (although it would have been hard to hold onto, true). A return to to future Oxford, historians, and Willis' favourite - missed connections.