Cheaper Road Runner

This is not necessarily the most relevant post I've ever made, but then again that's really not that unusual for me.

Yesterday, I called Time Warner Cable to find out if something called Road Runner Light really exists. It does. And it is a lot cheaper than regular Road Runner. $26.95 a month as opposed to $44.95 a month. Supposedly, it is slower than regular Road Runner, although I was assured it is faster than DSL. It probably makes a difference if you do a lot of downloading or streaming, but since I don't do a whole lot of that, it doesn't seem any different to me. Plus, I used to have DSL and loved it.

So, if you have Time Warner Cable, and you are looking to reduce the amount you have to spend on it per month, ask about Road Runner Light. I actually almost like Time Warner Cable now, because the switch was so easy, you just ask and they do it and it takes place immediately.

Moral of the story: "beep beep!" can be cheap... -er. :)

A Use for Recycled Books

A friend (thanks reyn!) forwarded this website: This Into That. It belongs to an artist who turns old books into shelves and furniture. The gallery of funniest shelves are entertaining. And I really think I need to make me one of those bookcases.

I already use 4 discarded books to raise my monitor to eye level. Old books do have good uses! :)

We ZAP 'em at the library!

Bad library press. Sigh.

I heard this on the radio up in Cleveland last week - one of the local rock stations was having fun bashing the incident. Then, one of my coworkers forwarded the story around.

Apparently UCPD felt it necessary to taser a guy for not showing ID at the UCLA Library. Well, okay, I'm sure there is more to it than that.

I watched the YouTube video that one particularly quick student created. I love how everyone else just flocks to watch, too. The tasered individual was "leaving this godforsaken place" - what a great library description. More details here.

Good grief.

Cranky thought of the day

We lose students to Google as a result of lethargic library databases - lengthy loading times, etc. When it's slow, it's irritating... it's like being on dialup (*GASP*). We are losing them because Google is faster, even on its slowest days.

Of course, this is just a cranky thought without a suggested solution because I'm not sure what needs to be done to remedy this. Is it bandwidth? Server space? I have no idea. I'm not even sure where the problem is. Is it primarily a local problem? Or is it consortium-wide? Are our databases just too "heavy" and it's the fault of the providers? Yeah, no clue.

But what I do know is that I just love promising students that "it really will load eventually. Really."

Studying while driving

What do you think about students who study for a test while driving? Who spend more time looking at their notes than the road? And can't maintain even a remotely steady speed? And weave erratically?

And scare the crap out of the poor librarian who just wants desperately to pass said student?

At least it took the monotony out of my 25 minute commute to work this morning.

Yesterday morning, I saw a lady with her hair in curlers driving on the freeway. That was entertaining. :)

Bewildering Unpreparedness

What does it say for the current state of higher education when students arrive for class with absolutely nothing but themselves, their jackets, and their cell phones? At least, I'd assume they had a cell phone in a pocket somewhere - they can't seem to go anywhere without that.

No bookbag, no textbooks, no notebooks, no folders, no pieces of paper.

Not even a pen or pencil.

incest, necrophilia, and seduction

Just when I think I've seen it all....

I am slowly working my way through the reference collection, weeding out tons of books. I thought I would have already seen the most bizarre but today I discovered Show Me the Good Parts: The Reader's Guide to Sex in Literature.

This extremly useful book provides the page numbers and brief annotations of sex scenes in various books. For example, the annotation for Call Me Mistress by Tomlin Rede is as follows: "The heroine ends up with the guy who first took her innocence from her some 10,000 intercourses ago."

Or in The Devil in Bucks County by Edmund Schiddel, "A 16-year-old girl from one of the fine families gets mixed up with the town's aging delinquent. This s.o.b. leaves her with an ugly memory of her first experience, which will take a lot of sundaes and church socials to wipe out."

This book is clearly a must-have for every library. It is divided into chapters by type of sex scene, thus the title of this post. I wish I could personally thank the ingenious male librarian who wrote this book. I am surprised it hasn't gotten more use in my library.