show us the numbers re: new librarian jobs:

Jessamyn writes: “If the numbers are there, I’d like to see them. Otherwise this speculation about the graying of the profession doesn’t really seem to be fact-based.”

And quoting Closed Stacks: “ALA is still promoting the idea that we are approaching a librarian shortage and cannot possibly train enough people to continue on the grand tradition of librarianship. This information was suspect a couple years ago, and considering the state if libraries right now–academic, public and special– it’s a damn lie.” [via @librarianmer]

Tomorrow, my classes officially start, although I have been obsessively checking Blackboard for the syllabi since I returned home from the on-campus orientation so there is no big reveal.

We are sampling the white wine that will be served at our wedding reception which is in six weeks AAAAAHHHHH.

Maybe we have had a little wine while waiting for the super homemade meatloaf to bake and the new potatoes to roast. FunkyPlaid is assembling and stuffing invitations. I am trying not to think of the million ways I can screw up my graduate school career. Because, you know, I am a positive thinker like that.

dharma wine

Thanks for all of your votes of confidence. They are even more uplifting than this wine. But not by much!

I walk down a deserted two-lane highway through a scrawny stretch of forest. My mother, who is not my mother, is with me. The forest is filled with garbage, but we are not surprised. This is how the landscape has looked since before I was born, befouled with brightly-colored plastics and decaying meat. I try to picture it lush and green.

“It wasn’t always like this,” my not-mother murmurs, answering my curious stare. “But then it came to be too much, and we had to build a second layer on top of the trash, a second world, and then a third, to accommodate all of us and all of our things.”

I nod, unsure of what to say. We walk in silence as the two-lane road turns into a tree-skeleton-lined street. I peek at my not-mother’s face; she is serene, despite our destination.

We enter the three-story Victorian and stand at the wooden counter. A thick pane of bulletproof glass separates us from the innkeeper. My not-mother holds her palm up to the glass and the innkeeper scans the chip inside. He shows her down a long hallway, waving me off to the waiting room.

I don’t wait very long.

“It is time,” the innkeeper informs us matter-of-factly, and my not-mother nods with closed eyes. He slides us a folder through a metal door in the counter that contains the usual end-of-life paperwork, the packet of tea to be brewed, the room key. I am defiant, disbelieving.

“It is NOT time! Not yet! Isn’t there anything that we can do?”

“Of course,” the innkeeper shrugs. “You instead of her.”

Dully, I slink to the room after my not-mother. She yawns, so tired from our long walk, and curls up on the bed. I drop the folder on the plastic countertop, take the kettle to the bathroom, and fill it at the tap. In the mirror, I watch my not-mother drift off into dream, and tick off the inevitable list of nexts. The water will boil. The packet will be placed in the cup. The water will pour into the cup. The water will turn into tea. The tea will be consumed.

My throat closes, convulses as I turn the kettle on. I sit on the bed next to my slumbering not-mother and press my palm to the space between her shoulderblades, warm through the woolen sweater. For a while, I try not to wake her, but then the kettle and I cry and cry.

I am attempting to wrangle decades of clutter. Please bookmark this post; it will be updated as I sort through my stuff.

Items up for swap:

• ScentBase: perfume oil (see “Halsted’s Swaps” tab)
• PaperBackSwap: books in good condition

Items to give away:

• TBD

Items to sell:

• TBD

• Hulu Plus Brings Streaming TV Virtually Everywhere – PCWorld
  Hulu launched a preview of a new $9.99 monthly subscription service called Hulu Plus that will bring the site’s TV content to popular Web-connected devices so you can take your TV on-the-go, or enjoy it from the comfort of your living room. The service supports 720p high-definition streaming, and will work across computers, TVs, mobile phones, and tablets.
• Open Library lending digital books

  This just in. The Open Library, you know that awesome website with the terrific design and great dataviz options, is lending digital books to anyone whose library has a working relationship with OverDrive. Gary Price explains more with links for further reading. I am very curious to see if a library without all the print-book baggage [disclaimer: I love to read print books also] can really make this ebook thing make real sense to people without the majority of the battling-licenses overhead that I think makes OverDrive seem so wonky in our brick and mortar libraries. Go to the lending library and see how it works. [thanks peter]

• ProPublica – Journalism in the Public Interest

  Shared by cygnoir
  
  Marian Wang leads the charge back to true investigative journalism.

• John Doe – Full Episodes and Clips streaming online for free – Hulu

  Shared by cygnoir
  
  Hulu recommended this show to me a few weeks ago. If a dear friend hadn’t said he enjoyed it so much, I might have given up. I’m glad I didn’t. The flaws are entirely ignorable, and it’s a lot of fun.

  John Doe: John Doe is a mysterious man who rises from the water off an isolated island possessing knowledge of literally everything in the world, yet having no memory of who — or even what — he is.

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• BBC News – Bionic feet for amputee cat

  Shared by cygnoir
  
  The video made me all teary! Amazing. (thanks, vicster)

  A cat that had its back feet severed by a combine harvester has been given two prosthetic limbs in a pioneering operation by a UK vet.

• Roasted Garlic Spoonbread Slow Cooker Recipe
  The garlic roasts inside the cornbread, creating a moist and savory side dish.

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• ~ Operation Squeegee – July 1st to 15th ~

  Shared by cygnoir
  
  One of the many reasons why I love Second Life is fundraising responses like this one.

  Second Life fundraiser for the National Wildlife Federation. This is to help recovery from the ongoing oil-spill in the gulf coast ecosystem. Currently seeking volunteers of all kinds to contribute!

• Codpiece Johnson Demands Your Vote

  Shared by cygnoir
  
  Via Hawk. I had to go with “scandalously accordioned”.

  Pick your favorite two-word phrase.

  The top three phrases will end up in the upcoming Codpiece Johnson short story. How will you vote? Will you vote to challenge me? Will you vote to sate your own curiosity? Will you vote to throw a softball? To see what I’ll do with a delicious bit of profanity? What’s your metric?

• Noticed: The New Power of Petite Women
  In books, movies and TV shows, tiny women are shattering stereotypes and appearing as aggressive characters spoiling for a fight.

  
  

• RunKeeper
  RunKeeper makes tracking your workouts fun, social, and easy to understand so that you can improve the quality of your fitness.
• dailymile
  Share your training with friends and stay motivated. Find training partners, local events, routes, and groups. Social training for runners, triathletes, and cyclists.
• Photofast to bring camera to iPad, unless Apple beats them to it

  Shared by cygnoir
  
  Heck yes!

  Photofast, a company known for producing flash memory products, has entered the realm of Apple accessories, most notably iPad accessories. The main disappointment …

• calibre – E-book management

  Shared by cygnoir
  
  This converted a .lit file to a format my iPad could handle in less than a minute. Brilliant!

  calibre is a free and open source e-book library management application developed by users of e-books for users of e-books.

• Mod Retro Indie Clothing & Vintage Clothes

  Shared by cygnoir
  
  I’ve heard this site mentioned so many times, but never really checked it out before today. Gorgeous stuff.

• You Never Suspect the Man in the Chicken Suit. Wait, You Should ALWAYS Suspect the Man in the Chicken Suit

  Shared by cygnoir
  
  I am giving you all ideas for our wedding, of course.

  

  Submitted by: dunno source via Submit Page

  What is the man in the chicken suit truly capable of? Even I don’t know. Will he steal the couple’s getaway limo to go pick up chicks all night? (HEH) Will he start doing the worm in the middle of the reception dance party? Perhaps he’ll just Photobomb every single picture taken of the bride and groom? The sneaky bastard would do something like that.

  Related: Unknowing Couples

  
  

  

  

• AppleInsider | Apple's iPhone 4.0 beta includes linked contacts, iChat sounds
  A couple of new discoveries were made this past weekend by developers familiarizing themselves with the first external beta of Apple’s iPhone 4.0 operating system, namely the addition of a linked contacts feature and the presence of iChat sounds in the resource files.

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New items for 27 June 2010:

• Flickr: , 

New items for 26 June 2010:

• Google Reader: YouTube – Star Trek: Tik Tok, Fear must be conquered, not banished – life – 25 June 2010 – New Scientist

On Tuesday, I was looking for writing prompts, so I went to my Formspring page and poked the auto-question-asker. It asked me, “If you had the opportunity to live one year of your life over again, which year would you choose?”

I probably should not have thought about it as much as I have. That way lies madness, etc.

But I did. I do. Part of being me, I suppose.

Choosing the year was not difficult for me at all, but I wanted to understand why I had chosen it.

So: 2003. I would live it over again. I would live it over again because it was the most emotionally bizarre, raw, clumsy year, and I could have handled it so much better than I did.

To recap 2003 for you, in no order at all: I lived on my own in a small room in a house; I fluctuated between single and not several times; I had a Big Birthday, which I celebrated in Europe; I finally matriculated from undergrad; I met and lost the single-most significant person in my life; I entered an ill-fated relationship; I crumpled a few hearts and I trampled on friendships; I lost sight of the person I wanted to become.

And I know I could have read the question as a positive one, as a “hey, go back and experience all the wonderful things” question, but I didn’t, which says a great deal about my current mindset and also my state of resolution on some of the aforementioned items in the 2003 recap.

It would be cruel to contact people from my past to have that one final conversation that will somehow tie everything neatly up with a little bow because that doesn’t happen except in the movies. I don’t want to drag anyone else through it again anyway. But if I relived that year, I would be honest, straightforward, brave. I would have the difficult conversations. I would have compassion for what others felt, even if it was negative toward me. I would “hold on tightly, let go lightly.”

And there it is: in pondering how I would retrace those shaky steps, I see the path forward from here.