rooku

Athenaeum Library
I shelve romance
& turn to crime

i just dont get time to blog during the week as i have been quite busy of late, hence the number of consecutive posts here today. this is the last as I head off to get some real work done. i just wanted to bring attention to this great rooku, which is australian variant of the japanese haiku poem.  this particualr rooku poem about the Ath was submitted by an athenaeum library member as part of a melbourne moving galleries project, and can now be pondered upon by train commuters as they travel to and from the city every day. 

white gadgets

I have a confession to make and it’s that I have a penchant for white gadgets. 

not having the patience to wait for apple to realease the iphone here in australia, I yesterday wandered into a phone store and bought a new phone, for no particular reason my old one still works perfectly, on the superficial criteria being that it was sparkling white, and that it was designed by my favourite surfwear label. 

but this post is not about my excellent roxy phone, its about Kindle, the wireless reading device from amazon, pictured above.  i have never been a fan of electronic reading devices, but this one looks really nice. being white helps, but it does also seem very clear and user friendly.  i have added this to my white gadget wish list.

kevin 07

 

 john howard is out. my faith has been restored in australian sociey.

i remember witnessing the last federal election in 2004, having  a month prior returned to australia for good after being overseas for a period long enough to only think of australia being an eternally sunny and carefree place to live (because that is how others think it as, and you too begin to believe it because you are not there to see the reality).  the post election feeling i had was of a sad lack of confidence in voting australians to consider the issues that are vital to a functioning society, such as education and industrial relations to name just a few.

however, this election the balance has swung to the *left* and I wait in anticipation to see what kevin 07 and his posse will deliver.

you may well be thinking: “what does a japanese chick in a coninical metallic bra have to do with this post?”.  i came across this a while back and have been since trying to think of a way to include it here in some sort of context, rather than just have a pic of a scantily clad asian woman.  and this is my chance.

this ‘voting costume’ is what japanese bra maker Triumph has resorted to in its effort to help increase voter turnout in japan. according to the article it is less that 30%.

According to Triumph’s press release, voter turnout in Japan, which averaged 70% to 90% about 30 years ago, has fallen to between 10% and 30% in recent years. With voter apathy and a general aversion to politics worsening each year, the government has taken a variety of measures to encourage participation in the election process. Taking matters into their own hands, Triumph decided to focus attention on the problem by unveiling the Voter Turnout Lift-UP! Bra along with their fall/winter collection on May 9.

read the rest here. where would I be without japan to entertain me.

bikes and tats

whilst the inner city melbourne suburbs are undergoing mass gentrification, the particular block where I live (melrose place) seems to be bucking the trend. in the course of a week, a tatto parlour called ‘the third eye’ has taken the place of the hairdressing salon to the right of melrose and to the left, what formerly was a computer repair shop is now a motorbike shop.

I can just imagine the type of lowlife characters (because that is what tatoos and bikes equal) we are going to get hanging around the vicinity of melrose place,  so i am going to have to be extra careful with my personal posessions from now on. 

but even more concerning to me is the fact that I just know that I am going to be seduced into: 1. getting my bike licence so I can buy a bike at the shop next door and 2. wandering into the tattoo parlour on my day off and leaving with a tramp stamp (probably a celtic design on my lower back).

this is what i didn’t see at the melbourne cricket club library

 

love the white gloves, which are required if you want to read the cricket book. and i have no idea why katy us attempting to climb the shelves of a library which she doesnt even work at.

over dinner i casually enquired if the staff had ever seen any famous cricketers using the library [in an attempt to get inside cricket gossip]. the response was a stare and the question thrown back at me: can cricketers read? 

point taken. i replied by saying that they could write their own best selling biographies [therefore read??]. once again that look and a question as answer: have you ever read one of them?  point taken again.

however, to give credit to cricketers and cricket fans in general, during the boxing day test matches the library attracts over 12,000 visitors a day.

eaten in the committee dining room:

 

feng shui at the ath

the athenauem library has a lucky cat who sits high on one of the shelves and welcomes patrons with gentle wave of her battery powered left paw. apparently, since the arrival of lucky cat, good things have been happening [the librarian in the background is a lucky cat impersonator in her spare time].

the libray also has pony who perches himself on display cabinets, especially during melbourne cup time:

when i was wandering around the ath yesterday i noticed that it had some really good displays. ive posted the pics on my flickr site. see flickr link at right, the library set.

the rehab group wouldn’t even accept me

this is kind of the post that never was. earlier this week i was all excited about visiting the Melbourne Cricket Club for the ALIA  Victorian Special Libraries end of year dinner and tour, but because my life is so shit right now I got caught up in a bibliographic record deleting crisis and had to stay back at work to deal with it.

so i rock up to the MCC an hour late. the following ensued:

– guy at door denies knowledge of library event occuring and sends me to another gate

– donna goes to other gate, which is closed

– donna returns to main gate and points to electronic sign which says ALIA Special Libraires end of year event

– guy at gate points to group visible on third floor doing tour of the MCG  (which is huge) and sends donna after them

– group turns out to be “IT people” [more on this later]

– donna spies group in function room drinking cocktails.  asks to join the group. woman at door says that they are the rehab group not librarians. donna asks to join rehab group (who clearly would know the concept of ‘a good time’). woman at door denies entrance to rehab group function.

– donna wanders the building searching for library group. bumps into guy who has been searching in vain for the “IT group”. polite joviual conversation ensues about IT people and librarians (unprintable).

– donna continues to wander the levels of the MCG looking for library tour group. comes again to the rehab group, tries again to get invited to rehab group event. unsuccessful.

– finds a guy who calls himself the events manager. tells donna that the tour should be nearly over and escorts her to the club dining room where she can have a beer (which she orders as soon as she gets in) and wait until everyone arrives.

– on way to committee room pass “IT group”. events manager tells donna that they are the “private detectives” group.

So all’s well that ends well i suppose. But I have absolutely nothing to tell you about the MCC or the MCC library, apart from the fact that the main course I had in the stately member’s dining room (duo of duck) was fantastic but the dessert average.

free lice

this is probably a bit nerdy, but no doubt some of you will find it fun.  Free Rice is an alternative to aimlessly browsing through others’ facebook friend lists (and discovering bizarre degrees of separation) or spending a night watching random YouTube vids to find amusement in the discomfort of others (see Halloween violence post below).

Free Rice is a word game that tests your vocabulary. some of the higher level words are actually quite tricky so it is a good chance to expand your vocab if you feel up to the personal challenge (i got up to a level of 42 then went back down again). For every word you get right the sponsors who advertise on the site will donate 10 grains of rice to the UN world food programme. apparently since the site started there have been over 1 billion grains of rice donated. 

free rice will have its detractors (ie why doesnt fujistsu/toshiba/macey’s/apple/etc just donate the freaking rice?) but on the whole I think it’s cool.

amongst other things, when i played free rice i discovered that a goober is a type of peanut and that moxie means courage.

i think im losing the plot

we are just about to  [less than 4 wks] ‘go live’ with a new library management system and staff are already dropping hints to me that if things fuck up its all my fault. well, it kind of will be my fault as I was the one who had the responsibility of the data mapping between the old and the new system.

i think that if i wanted a career in IT i wouldve stayed at kapers. and since i am not at kapers anymore it seems that i dont want a career in IT.

where are the cruisy library jobs where all i have to do is sit around all day and read books?

i am not into violence but

this is my new favourite youtube video