I Want One: Parking Meter Alarm

This parking meter alarm from Restoration Hardware (via) is awesome! It holds quarters so you can just keep it in your car and never have to worry about having money for the parking meter. Also, it has an alarm that can be set so you know when you have to make it back to the meter to insert more quarters! Did I mention that it's a keychain too? Perfect!

I Want One: Unazukin

Unzaukin are cute little "dolls" that work like a Magic Eight Ball and come from Japan (via). They look like Fisher-Price people or Weebles or a nesting doll and apparently are voice-activated so when you talk to them, they nod or shake their head in response. Also, I guess no two are alike. It's a cute little toy that is perfect for my desk at work - when I eventually get a job, that is!

Which Super Villain Are You?

Unlike the Superhero quiz, this time I got a female match. Although I'm only a 55% match. I'm also glad that I got a villain I have actually heard of and know because I'll admit that many of those listed mean nothing to me!
Your results:
You are Mystique

Mystique 57% The Joker 53% Catwoman 53% Riddler 51% Dr. Doom 51% Magneto 49% Venom 49% Apocalypse 48% Poison Ivy 46% Juggernaut 45% Lex Luthor 44% Dark Phoenix 43% Mr. Freeze 39% Two-Face 33% Green Goblin 29% Kingpin 27%

Sometimes motherly, sometimes a beautiful companion, but most of the time a deceiving vixen.

Click here to take the Supervillain Personality Quiz

Which Superhero are You?

Here are my results from the 'Which Superhero are You?' quiz (via). I guess it's pretty cool that I am a 95% match with Spider-Man. I guess. I am intelligent, witty and a bit geeky but I'm not so sure that I have great power and responsibility. What does it say that despite being female, I do not much at all with the female superheroes?!

Spider-Man 95% Superman 55% Robin 53% Green Lantern 50% Hulk 50% Batman 40% The Flash 40% Iron Man 30% Wonder Woman 28% Catwoman 25% Supergirl 23%

You are intelligent, witty,a bit geeky and have great power and responsibility.

Click here to take the Superhero Personality Quiz

Christmas movie review recap

I'm finished with the Christmas movies for the year! There was one more that I taped but after watching nearly 20 Christmas movies in the span of about two weeks, I am sick of them and don't want to watch any more. Thanks to my ratings and recaps, next year I'll know which ones I've seen, which ones I might want to see again and which ones I will want to get off of my television as quickly as possible! Looking at the overall grades (below), I think I may have been too generous!

A
Chasing Christmas (ABC Family)
Holiday Wishes (Lifetime)
Recipe for a Perfect Christmas (Lifetime)
Santa Baby (ABC Family)

A-
Christmas Do-Over (ABC Family)
Christmas in Boston (ABC Family)
Home by Christmas (Lifetime)
The Road to Christmas (Lifetime)
Under the Mistletoe (Lifetime)

B+
His & Her Christmas (Lifetime)
Snow (ABC Family)

B
A Perfect Day (TNT)

B-
A Christmas Wedding (Lifetime)
Christmas at Water's Edge (Lifetime)

C
If You Believe (Lifetime)

C-
The Year Without a Santa Claus (NBC)

D
Deck the Halls (Lifetime)

Christmas movie review: Deck the Halls

Rating: D

First of all, do not confuse this Deck the Halls for the one that hit the theatres this year starring Danny Devito and Matthew Broderick. This one is a cheesy Lifetime movie from 2005.

One word about Deck the Halls - Ugh! This movie was awful and I'm sad that I finished off my Christmas season by watching this horrible horrible movie. Gabrielle Carteris (Beverly Hills 90210) plays Holly, a widowed mom who moves back home to help run her dad's toy company. She's a tough, bottom line kind of gal and is in direct conflict with Nick, who her father has hired on as a consultant and is spending money like crazy. And is her neighbor. Oh yeah, and Holly has given up believing in Christmas and all that. Did I mention that Nick is apparently Santa Claus? Despite the fact that they never really come out and say that, we are supposed to believe this (Holly's son certainly does) and as such, he teaches Holly and her son about miracles. Holly hates Nick, for about 12 minutes and then seems to do a complete about face after maybe two conversations. It's a little hard to believe. Also, hard to believe is that Nick & Holly are seemingly attracted to each other and at the end, there is a vignette showing Holly's wedding to the town vetrenarian. Umm, what? Yeah, plotline that makes little sense, pure hokiness, bad acting and we have probably the worst Christmas movie I've seen in a long time! Ugh.

Word of the day: soporific

adj : causing sleep or drowsiness


My sentence using soporific: Thanks to the soporific effects of Christmas activities, I slept for a good solid ten hours last night and it was wonderful.

Christmas movie review: Home by Christmas

Rating: A-

Home by Christmas starts off cheerily enough, ha! Linda Hamilton plays Julie, a wealthy housewife who finds out her husband of twenty years is cheating on her. They divorce and she accepts a settlement of $25,000, a car and some odds and ends for their daughter. And apparently she thinks she can survive on that. Well, she has to move into a 1-bedroom apartment in a questionable area of town, has trouble finding a job and soon her daughter has moved back in with the dad. Then, Julie is mugged and things go from bad to worse as she is evicted, broke, alone and homeless! Thanks to some incredibly generous and giving people she meets along the way, Julie rebuilds her life and lives happily ever after. Basically. Although I question the rapidity in which everything happens (the whole entire story basically takes place within a couple of months, it seems, and I'm not sure you can even get a divorce to go through that quickly, let alone some of the other things that happen), it is a sweet story and you can't help but like Julie. Also, it sure is a great marketing campaign for free and cheap things like women's shelters, the library, post office boxes and stairwells in really tall buildings.

Christmas movie review: Holiday Wishes

Rating: A

Holiday Wishes is kind of Freaky Friday meets Christmas. Two fifteen-year-old girls (one a spoiled rich kid, the other a bounced around foster kid) make wishes at the exact same time at Christmas dance and find themselves switched. The rich girl, who wished for a pony, is now suddenly in foster home hell terrorized by her "siblings" and taking care of a pony 24/7, while the foster kid is suddenly thrust into a 'loving' home only to find that her parents are too wrapped up in their own lives to even notice her. The two girls quickly realize they want to return to their regular selves and somehow enlist the help of Danni, who is the party planner for the rich girl's mom. I'm still unsure why Danni is expected to solve the problem but she is and she tries and eventually manages to do it, with everyone learning a lesson along the way. It's pretty predictable but in a good way and it actually made me cry briefly and although it isn't that hard to make me cry, I appreciate sentimentality that can bring me to tears. That didn't happen in any of the other Christmas movies I watched this year! So yay, I loved it!

Christmas movie review: Recipe for a Perfect Christmas

Rating: A

Very enjoyable is Recipe for a Perfect Christmas. This is definitely one I'd watch again, although I really hate watching movies twice. It's a cute romantic comedy that happens to take place around Christmastime. It stars Christine Baranski (as Lee), Carly Pope (as JJ) and Bobby Cannavale (as Alex). JJ has just become a top NYC food critic and Alex is desperate to get his restaurant reviewed by her. Meanwhile, JJ's mom Lee shows up out of nowhere and moves in with JJ, much to JJ's chagrin. To get both her problems off her back, JJ sets Alex up with her mother, agreeing to check out his restaurant if he keeps her mother out of her hair. Needless to say, JJ starts to fall for Alex and is not so happy that Alex & her mother are seeing so much of each other, especially since JJ has not been able to get close to her mother in years, not since her father died. Anyway, I don't have to tell you how this ends; I'm sure you know. Everyone is happy and everything turns out great. It's sweet, though, and the plot turns are believable and to top it all off, these people can actually act. Plus, Bobby Cannavale is such a cutie. I've had a crush on him for a few years.

Christmas movie review: If You Believe

Rating: C

Nothing more than average was If You Believe. This one stars Ally Walker, who back in the day starred in that TV show The Profiler - which I never watched but thank god I didn't, because I found Ally Walker particularly annoying and not that good of an actress. Plus, she looked awful and yes, I am superficial. Anyway, her character is Scroogey Susan and after telling her seven-year-old niece that there is no Santa Claus during Thanksgiving dinner, her brother banishes her from his home. When she wakes up the next morning, seven-year-old HER has shown up and becomes her constant companion over the next month. The seven-year-old is there - I guess - to help her find her inner child and eventually it works, of course. The main reason I recorded this movie from 1999 was because the seven-year-old is played by Hayden Panettiere back in the days before she was the cheerleader who needed saving on Heroes. Hayden is cute, but also grating. So, anyway, whenever adult Susan does something, kid Susan is there to criticize and try to change behavior. Of course it works and soon adult Susan is happier, successful at her job again, finding romance and making sacrifices. Tres predictable and tres boring. Because I didn't get invested in anyone or anything, I give it an average rating.

Christmas movie review: Christmas at Water's Edge

Rating: B-

Christmas at Water's Edge is your typical Christmas story, I guess, in that the selfish character discovers the true meaning of Christmas, and just in time, too. It's kind of blah, to be honest. An angel with a mission.... A really spoiled, selfish rich girl who needs to be taught the "Christmas" lesson... a group of underprivileged kids who hang out together after school at a place called "Angel House".... that's about it. The rich girl (played by The Cosby Show baby Keshia Knight Pulliam) has to work at Angel House as part of a school assignment. The angel has to work with the rich girl to earn his wings. The kids at Angel House want to put on a Christmas concert. Rich girl finds out she really loves helping out at Angel House and then oops, daddy's company is trying to shut it down to build a shopping center. But, no worries, everything ends happily ever after when rich girl yells at Daddy and figures out a solution. It's not that good, but it's not that bad either.

Merry Christmas!

Hope everyone has a very merry Christmas!!

Christmas movie review: The Road to Christmas

Rating: A-

I really liked The Road to Christmas. It almost makes me want to go back and make the grade for A Christmas Wedding even lower because they both have really similar plotlines, yet I enjoyed this one so much more. It's kind of bizarre that they both debuted on Lifetime at around the same time.

Anyway, this again is a story of a kind of workaholic woman (played by Jennifer Grey!) who plans to marry at Christmastime. She decides to leave town early and surprise her Italian fiance, who is apparently making all the wedding arrangements in Aspen. Of course, transportation problems ensue and she can't just take a plane or rent a car. She ends up hitching a ride with a man and his daughter, who are both still a little messed up about the loss of their wife/mom quite a few years before and are lacking a real female presence in their lives. Of course, although there is some early tension between Jennifer's character and Tom, the main male character (played by Clark Gregg, Jennifer's real-life husband), the two soon find themselves growing attracted to each other. Despite fighting it and thanks to Jennifer's cheating fiance (which is expected but also somewhat unexpected!), everything ends happily ever after, of course.

Overall, it was just a cute love story for the holidays. The only downfall to the film was that the daughter, who is supposedly 13 years old, looks much older than 13. Upon further IMDB investigation, she is 20 years old! 20 years old playing a 13 year old? Give me a break! They couldn't have made her just a few years older or found an actress that was younger? That was too distracting to me to give the movie a solid 'A'.

Christmas movie review: A Perfect Day

Rating: B

A Perfect Day is yet another movie that is only incidentally a Christmas one. It is based on a book by Richard Paul Evans, author of Christmas drivel like The Christmas Box and Timepiece, and tells the story of a man (I guess like Evans himself probably) who loses his job, decides to finally write that book he's been working on and soon finds himself a very successful author. And, along with his newfound fame and money, he also becomes kind of a jerk. He is never home as he has one huge non-stop book tour and starts to treat his family like crap. He goes from devoted family man to asshat in about three days. However, just as you begin to think there is nothing redeemable about him anymore, he meets a stranger (an angel?) who informs him his days are numbered. Thinking he's going to die, the main character kind of realizes what an ass he's been and starts to remember what's important in life and returns to the man he once was.

Overall, yes, it's a little hokey (of course!) and has a good cast (Rob Lowe is the main character, Paget Brewster his wife, Frances Conroy his agent, Christopher Lloyd the stranger), but I didn't really enjoy it. The portion of the movie where he becomes a jerk seems to be about 1 hour and 40 minutes long while the redemption part seems to be about 20 minutes long. It just seemed rushed towards the end and while I understood the twist at the end (regarding the stranger), it just didn't make enough sense to me. I'll take a miraculous turnaround but I'm not so convinced that this one is for keeps.

Job in Chicago

So I've had a whirlwind week sort of, starting with last Friday when I had a phone interview at a trade association in Chicago. That was actually my second phone interview there. It went pretty well and they called late Friday afternoon to set up a time for me to come there in person. Well, to tell me when to come, because it honestly didn't seem like I had much say in the matter. After setting up a time, though, I soon realized that to go there Thursday like they wanted was going to be a lot more expensive and likely a lot more hassle for me than if I could reschedule it for earlier in the week or the following week. Finally, late Monday afternoon they gave me the go-ahead to come in Wednesday instead. So I got up at about 4:30am Weds. to fly to Chicago for a 9am interview and then flew directly home again afterwards!

In Chicago, the interview went okay. I met with the two people with whom I had already phone interviewed plus a new person (some VP) and also got a tour of the office, a tour of the library, and was taken out to breakfast at the apparently extremely famous Lou Mitchell's. It seemed to go well, at least for the first three hours. I was pretty exhausted and had a splitting headache by the time noon rolled around and I finally met with the VP. I found her kind of annoying in ways I can't really describe. Also, she seemed to want me to jump on the table and scream with excitement, "I LOVE it here! This is exactly what I want!!" which I wasn't about to do. For one thing, I'm not that kind of person and also, I just don't feel that way about this job.

I think the job would be okay and it's better than half of the other things I've interviewed for, but I couldn't say I would be excited to work there, no. It would be more me just biding time until I could find something better. I do think I would be picking up some good skills for my resume for the next job I might want to find, so it could be useful. And, I do think I would get along well with the other librarian so that's a plus. However, the prospect of moving to Chicago is less than desirable to me. While there are definitely worse places to live, there are also a few places I would be a lot more excited about. If the job was really cool, I think Chicago would look more desirable to me but the combination of the two has me less than enthused. Chicago is a lot more expensive than I thought and while I know their public transportation system is pretty exhaustive, it's also difficult to understand and find your way around. It took me a long time to get any useful information from their outdated, unfriendly Web sites and the few people I conversed with while there - lifelong Chicagoans! - seemed equally perplexed by it all. So, if it doesn't even become clearer once you live there, how encouraging is that to me?

Overall, I think they really liked me. They called yesterday while I was out to possibly make an offer. Although I do think they sensed my reluctance and that might mean they chose to go with someone else. I have yet to hear back from them today so I'm just waiting. I have no idea what I'd do if they did indeed make an offer but it would probably depend a LOT on the offer that was made and their explanation of the benefits. The brief explanation of benefits I got makes me think they are really less than ideal.

Choosing your 2008 Presidential Candidate

Take this quiz and find out who to vote for among the potential 2008 Presidential candidates.
I'm a 100% match with Senator Obama and a 97% match with Congressman (MY Congressman, in fact) Kucinich. Those are some pretty high matches, eh? That's kind of encouraging. I already knew that I liked a lot of what Kucinich says but it's good to know that I apparently like a lot of what Obama says, too, especially since he's much more likely to get the nomination over Kucinich. Ah, poor Dennis.

"A classic time of year"

An appropriate article (found via TV Tattle) about what makes a Christmas movie a classic considering I've been reviewing all these made-for-TV Christmas movies. I'm not sure I agree entirely with everything she says but nonetheless, I'm sharing...

Christmas movie review: Under the Mistletoe

Rating: A-

Overall, I enjoyed this movie. And, I really didn't think I would. The downgrade from an A to an A- is simply because it's only incidentally a Christmas movie. Under the Mistletoe tells the story of a mother and son living in sort of perpetual sadness because they lost their husband/father in a car accident at Christmas the year before. And it's now Christmas time again and both are still clinging to the deceased man too much. The son, in particular, is having trouble moving on because he sees and talks to his dad's ghost nearly every day! Needless to say, the mother is worried about her son's "visions" and also kind of jealous that she can't see her husband like her son can. For reasons I still don't get, the son & father decide to enter the mother (played by Jaime Ray Newman, who played the memorable Kristina Cassidine on General Hospital) in a dating contest sponsored by the local radio station. I guess the idea is that she needs to move on. Of course, as soon as she starts dating someone, the son and father don't like it. I guess it's just because the guy is a jerk, which he is, but they can't have everything, you know? Meanwhile, the son bonds with his counselor at his school and it doesn't take a psychic to realize which man Jaime's character will end up with. Anyway, it's a pretty good movie: sometimes funny, sometimes cute, sometimes sad, sometimes mystical. Pretty much, it's a little bit of everything. A small gripe is that I found it somewhat hard-to-believe that Jaime Ray Newman could have an 11-year-old. In real life, she's 28 and sure, it's possible, but she just looks too young, I guess. I also had a slightly difficult time differentiating between the actor who played the dead husband and the actor who played the school counselor. They look enough alike that every time one of them was on screen, I had to stop and think "Is this the ghost dad? Okay, no, it's the counselor." It didn't help that both actors had a lot of scenes with the son. Overall, though, really enjoyable!

Christmas movie review: Christmas Do Over

Rating: A-

Ah, what to say about Christmas Do Over? This is a Groundhog Day rip-off in which the main character, who is a total ass and is played by Jay Mohr, keeps reliving Christmas Day over and over and over and over again. At first, he takes the opportunity to be even MORE obnoxious and a-holey than he already is. Eventually, he of course becomes a better father and better person and realizes some of his shortcomings. It's predictable but kind of sweet, despite the fact that Jay Mohr is pretty grating. Daphne Zuniga, who I swear hasn't worked since Melrose Place despite what her bio says, plays the ex-wife. Go figure, Jay & Daphne actually have a little bit of chemistry.

Check out the full movie, streaming online here.

Christmas movie review: A Christmas Wedding

Rating: B-

Airing on Lifetime this season, A Christmas Wedding is in the vein of Planes, Trains & Automobiles in that it tells the story of a bride (played by Sarah Paulson from Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip) desperately trying to get home from a business trip in time for her Christmas Day wedding. Along the way, she rides boats, planes, motorcycles and sleighs, to name a few. Meanwhile, because she's trapped away from home, her fiance is in charge of dealing with all the last minute wedding problems - of which there are many. A little role reversal, if you will. Not to give it away, but, go figure, the bride makes it home in time! It's kind of cute but more than a little annoying. I'm not a fan at all of Eric Mabius (from Ugly Betty), who plays the groom, and he looks especially goofy here as a blond. Dean Cain plays the mean boss constantly calling Sarah's character and expecting her to work and he's okay, I guess, but he's playing a jerk and does it well. I'm meh about Sarah Paulson too. And really, if getting home for your wedding is so important, then stop going out of your way to help people!

Word of the day: hie

v 1: to go quickly : hasten
2: to cause (oneself) to go quickly

My sentence using hie: With Christmas rapidly approaching and few presents bought for friends and family, I have to hie to the mall and get shopping!

Christmas movie review: Christmas in Boston

Rating: A-

Christmas in Boston is really only a Christmas movie incidentally, which is what accounts for its A- rather than a straight A. It happens to take place around Christmastime and the main character (played by Marla Sokoloff, who is currently starring in ABC's wedding sitcom Big Day) happens to love Christmas so there is some wooing-by-Christmas strategy employed by her suitor. Otherwise, it's just a cute romantic comedy about two 13-year pen pals who both kind of adore each other but are too chicken to admit it and too wary about possible disappointment to reveal their true feelings, or even their true identities, when they suddenly find themselves in the same city and meeting for the first time. Lots of misunderstandings occur and despite having kind of a high UGH! factor (meaning there's a lot of "UGH! Just tell her!" moments), it's sweet and the main male character, Patrick J. Adams, is pretty cute. Enjoyable!

Word of the day: septentrional

adj : northern

My sentence using septentrional: Santa Claus, who is popular this time of the year, lives in the most septentrional parts of the earth.

Christmas movie review: Chasing Christmas

Rating: A

Chasing Christmas from 2005 stars Tom Arnold (yes, people are still giving Tom Arnold acting roles) in the Scrooge role and also stars Leslie Jordan (probably best known recently as Beverly Leslie, the bain of Karen's existence on Will & Grace) as Christmas Past and Andrea Roth (Rescue Me) as Christmas Present. While this is basically a Scrooge story - man hates Christmas, man gets taken into past to see how things once were, man loves Christmas again - it is unique enough that I really enjoyed it. We start off with a debriefing of the spirits, learning the next case they'll be working on, which, you know, these stories don't usually show things from their perspective. While Christmas Past is doing his thing and taking Tom's character back in time, he knocks him out and does something magical to make them both humans in like 1965 or something. Seems Christmas Past is so desperate for a smoke that he's willing to give up his job of the last 2000 years just to succumb to some nicotine. So the rest of the movie is spent chasing him (hence the title) to get Tom's character back to where he's supposed to be without messing up anything in the future. In the meantime, Tom's character sees how much he used to love Christmas and that the big traumatic moment he blamed for ruining Christmas (his wife cheating on him) actually was inconsequential because she'd been doing that since their honeymoon! So: Christmas themes, check. Happy ending, check. Uniqueness, check. Overall, I liked it!

Incidentally, this movie can be viewed online right now through the ABC Family Full Episode Streamer.

SNL Peanuts Christmas

Saturday Night Live just ended with host/musical guest Justin Timberlake and I didn't find anything particularly amusing. Although, truth be told, I was only half-listening and I missed the first half hour, which is typically when the funniest parts air. Regardless, it being Christmas season and all, I was reminded of one of the funniest SNL skits from Christmastime a few years ago, where they took footage from A Charlie Brown Christmas and told a different story, namely, that the kids recognized their talent of making crap shine; you know, their ability to make that weak-ass Christmas tree that Charlie Brown bought into something spectacular simply by waving their hands over it. Anyway, here's the clip with the kids and their magic hands.

Christmas movie review: The Year Without a Santa Claus

Rating: C-

Seriously, I wanted to give The Year Without a Santa Claus a D, which is my worst grade, but decided to give them just a little more for their ingenuity. I do like when someone takes the expected and changes it up a bit. In this case, they upgraded and tried to make this popular 1970s cartoon into a more modern story with some 2006 cultural references. I think they changed the basics of the story a bit, too, although I honestly don't remember the original TV special all that much. Santa isn't going to do Christmas; elves Jingle & Jangle try to save the day; Heat Miser and Snow Miser are bickering; everything ends happily ever after. Chris Kattan's character is a high-maintenance kind of publicist/agent for Santa and well, clearly, that wasn't in the original. Overall, although this film had its moments (the Miser Brothers were funny) I just did not like it that much. It was SO boring and I just couldn't get into it. I guess it's sometimes best to just stick with the original.

Make a snowflake for charity

If you go to this site, they are asking people to create snowflakes (it's like grade school snowflakes - you get a fresh sheet of folded paper and are asked where to make cuts). The more snowflakes are made, the higher the donation to Salvation Army will be. Fun and philanthropic! You can search for my snowflake - it's 3737436. I'll probably make more, too!

Exhausted after a day of shopping

Today, we went to the nearby outlet mall, where a remarkable number of stores were shut down completely or were going out of business. Now, I love a good going-out-of-business sale so that was fun. When the Tops grocery stores all closed around here a couple weeks ago, I bought a bunch of cheap stuff that I'm going to try to sell on eBay. I thought about buying more cheap stuff for eBay today but I didn't. But I did get some new books. Book Warehouse is closing; apparently all the stores across the country are, so if there is one by you, you might want to check it out. Prices at the one I went to were $4 for all hardcovers and $2 for all paperbacks. There was a TON of stock left, too. Anyhoo, I got a few new trade paperbacks, which I may start reading ASAP since I'm totally struggling with my current read, Auntie Mame.

"Comedians hope to kill in NBC's "Colosseum"

Just a little blurb about a television show in development on NBC where the next top comedian is going to be found based on how much she/he can get certain audience members to laugh at their act. The article says, "Each comedian will be judged solely on the laughter of randomly selected and unsuspecting members of the crowd." I hope for the comedian's sake that I'm never in the audience because I tend not to be a laugh-out-loud kind of gal when I see comedians or watch movies.

Second interview of the week

I counted last night, just out of curiosity, and I've had 17 interviews (or pre-screens or whatever they might be called) since about mid-September. Not sure if that is good or bad. One might think after 17 interviews, why are you still not employed? I prefer to not think about that, though, to stave off utter depression!

Today's seemed to go really well, though. It's a trade association in Chicago so it would be kind of what I want. I really like the idea of working at a trade association - although I kind of was thinking I would be doing so in Washington DC and not Chicago. But I do like Chicago a lot and two of my best friends from college live there and it's just as far from home as DC. I'm not sure if I like the different time zone thing - that would take some getting used to. But the job is cool, the benefits are decent (it's only a 35-hour workweek plus an onsite 24/7 gym) and it seems like it would be a good experience. We'll see. She said they aren't going to make any decision before the end of the year. Oy.

"ABC To Stream Hot Topics From The View"

This article (via TV Tattle) mentions that ABC will start airing "snippets" from Hot Topics but it doesn't say when it starts. That's kind of a good idea, although it's the only interesting part of the show and might affect viewership if people don't have to catch it at 11am. I know if I've got the TV on and am doing nothing or getting ready to go out (as it was the time I typically got ready to go to campus over the last year) and it's that time, I'll usually tune in to her what current events they are discussing. And then turn it off when it's time for the interviews to start because I think those interviews have to be the worst, most kiss-ass, least informative interviews on all of TV. Maybe they've gotten better with Rosie there, but I can't say for sure. The other thing, though, is that I don't think it's difficult to find snippets on YouTube.

Chrstmas movie review: Santa Baby

Rating*: A

I loved Santa Baby! It's new for 2006 and stars Jenny McCarthy as Santa's uninterested-in-her-family-heritage, intense-corporate-executive daughter who comes home for the holidays after her dad gets sick. She tries to use her corporate expertise to get Santa's workshop running smoothly but has difficulty trying to tame elves who are more interested in having fun and taking cookie breaks than they are following her ideas. Along the way, she has love conflict between the old high school sweetheart still back at the North Pole and new corporate executive boyfriend from New York. She reconnects with her dad, who seemingly never appreciated her or her business acumen and is generally pretty nice to her overworked assistant, other than making her come to the North Pole with her, that is. But I think the assistant likes it there. Anyway, this movie had a good cast (George Wendt from Cheers plays Santa), a cute storyline, a little romance and of course, the hero-saves-the-day type of ending. Bravo!


*Remember, this is on a Christmas movie rating system.

Christmas movie review: Snow

Rating*: B+

I want to give Snow an 'A' simply because Tom Cavanagh (from Ed) is in it and I LOVE Tom Cavanagh but really, I found the whole thing a little annoying. Oh, and Ashley Williams is the love interest and I don't like her so that detracts. But, this is the story of a reindeer that got away. Somehow one of Santa's magical flying reindeer got away from the North Pole or wherever and ends up caged in a zoo. Tom's character proceeds to act zany in his attempts to free said reindeer while simultaneously falling in love with Ashley's character, who works at the zoo. Of course, need I tell you that everything ends up happily ever after. Bobb'e J. Thompson plays the kid neighbor who learns Tom's character's secrets and helps out - and is cute along the way. And there is also the requisite bad guy who wants to make money off of the reindeer AND wants Ashley's character all to himself.

Oh, by the way, Snow is available for free streaming online at ABC Family's Web site.


*A disclaimer about the ratings: These ratings are slanted for genre. Consider a scale where "A equals outstanding Christmas movie" and "D equals so awful that even it's sweet message cannot save it." By no means whatsoever can these ratings be compared with non-Christmas movies. Christmas movies, though they should be well-acted enough, have a level of hokiness, mysticism and coincidence that one has to be willing to accept. If not and the story was truly evaluated, all Christmas movies would probably get a poor grade.

Christmas movie review: His & Her Christmas

Rating*: B+

His & Her Christmas is a romantic comedy Christmas story about two warring journalists, one a guy who is very successful, is looking to cash in on his popularity by getting a TV show and is sort of disillusioned about Christmas and the other a gal who writes an advice column for a smaller independent paper but starts writing columns about how great Christmas is right after she finds out that their paper is getting bought out. Her hope is to rally the local citizens by reminding them of their love for Christmas. I guess. It's kind of hokey. Of course. He is forced to write response columns and well, go figure, the public takes her side and doesn't like to read a Scroogey column. Meanwhile, he's falling for her based on her picture and her way with words and she kind of falls for him instantly upon meeting him. But wait, they aren't supposed to fall in love, they are supposed to hate each other! It's actually kind of cute as long as you remove all expectations of plausibility. The two main actors, Dina Meyer and David Sutcliffe (Christopher from Gilmore Girls), are good actors, have good chemistry and do what they can. My one problem is that (spoiler alert!) he gives up his dream of having a talk show to save her paper after I think they shared one kiss and hadn't even been on any dates yet. Umm, wow.


*A disclaimer about the ratings: These ratings are slanted for genre. Consider a scale where "A equals outstanding Christmas movie" and "D equals so awful that even it's sweet message cannot save it." By no means whatsoever can these ratings be compared with non-Christmas movies. Christmas movies, though they should be well-acted enough, have a level of hokiness, mysticism and coincidence that one has to be willing to accept. If not and the story was truly evaluated, all Christmas movies would probably get a poor grade.

Christmas movies

I LOVE Christmas movies, the made-for-TV kind. You know what I mean... the kind in which one of three things usually happens. It's either a Christmas Carol ripoff where the stingy, grouchy, hateful person comes to learn the "true meaning of Christmas" thanks to revisting his/her past and getting a glimpse into his/her future. Similar themes occur with the presence of an angel and not necessarily a "ghost." There are also the ones where something is amiss and Santa might have to cancel Christmas, either his reindeer is missing or he's sick or there aren't enough believers out there or he needs to find a wife or they stopped creating houses with chimneys or some such peril. Of course, in these kinds of movies, the day is always saved and Santa always sets off to deliver the toys just as expected. The third type kind of combines the previous two elements and always has a happy ending. These ones feature an Average Joe or Jane in trouble or missing something, whether it is a spouse or a child or a good job or happiness or whatever. Through the magic of the Christmas season, those problems are always erased. A new boyfriend is found. A dream job is found. A house does not have to get knocked down to build a new shopping mall. A foster child doesn't have to stay at the orphanage. Etc., etc., etc...

So because of this love and because I haven't had cable television or the time to watch much television in December the last two years, I've gone crazy trying to get my fill of Christmas movies the last two weeks. Lifetime has its Dream December with a different movie or two playing every day. ABC Family has its 25 Days of Christmas promotion with a movie or holiday special every night. The Hallmark Channel has Hallmark for the Holidays, with two movies every night, plus brand new ones each Saturday night. And various other channels have a movie here or there that they play. It's just a wonderful time of the year.

I'm going to provide ratings (A, B, C, etc...) for the movies I watch for your help and more for mine, so in case I want to watch them again in subsequent years, I'll remember just how bad (or good) they were because once you have seen a few, they all seem to run together. Even ones that I KNOW I've watched, I can't remember if they are worth watching again or if they are just so beyond stupid that I can't even enjoy them for their stupidity!

Rejection number 99

I probably have not been rejected 99 times this year but it actually feels like more and today, I got rejected YET AGAIN from a job. Today it was an investment firm in Boston. I was told that they really enjoyed talking to me and really liked me a lot but just decided to go with someone who has more experience. She went on to say that they were going to hold on to my resume and if something came along that was better suited for my experiences, then they would keep me in my mind because they really liked me. Fine, whatever. So if something comes along where they need someone with NO experience, maybe I'm their gal? Is that what she's saying? Honestly, the job description said they were looking for someone with 3+ years experience, which I don't have of course, but why waste both of our times with an interview if in the end you say it's because I don't have the experience? It's just so frustrating! Also, I hope the person you are hiring with all the experience doesn't work out for you! Ha!

eBay roundup

I put more stuff on ebay last week and all the auctions ended last night. I am so pleased about the fact that ALL the items sold. There were only eight but I honestly was only expecting about a 50% sales rate, if that. Couple that with the last eBay go-round a few weeks ago and I sold 18 of 19 items. More mystifying to me is that this time, the only things I put up were VHS movies from my dad's old video store. I just am surprised to see that people still want VHS movies when you can get DVDs so cheap.

One of the movies I had for sale was The Air Up There with Kevin Bacon. About 15 minutes before the auction ended, there were no bidders. Someone emailed me and asked me how low was I willing to go because she wanted it for her children. Well, the bidding started at $1.50 so I wasn't really sure how much lower I could go. I mean, if you aren't even willing to pay $1.50 but you still want it, well, go to the library and check it out! Anyway, I wasn't sure what to do because honestly I wasn't willing to go lower. Not that I was being stingy but the auction wasn't even over yet and there were people who were "watching" it and could very well bid on it at the last minute. Last-minute bidding is very common on eBay. So I ignored her and the movie ended up selling for $3.25! I just thought it was an interesting tactic on her part.

Late Show monologue humor

Letterman just made a joke in his monologue that still has me laughing. Of course I'm not going to do it justice, but, to paraphrase...

Sylvester Stallone has said that he abstained from sex while making his latest movie sequel, Rocky Balboa. Hey, Sylvester, how about going ahead and having sex and instead abstaining from making movie sequels?!

Interesting or exploitative?

I came across this blog, Celebrity Baby Blog, yesterday and kind of feel like I should have a problem with it because all it does is focus on, well, celebrity babies and shows picture after picture of babies, children and pregnant women. It seems almost stalkerish... So-and-so took her children here. So-and-so took her son here. So-and-so is having a boy. So-and-so is going to circumsize her son.

But, on the other hand, it talks about products that the celebrities use or buy, provides links to online shops and clearly celebrates motherhood. It posts all kinds of quotes from interviews where celebrities talk positively about being a parent. It's pretty interesting. And boy is it thorough.

Number Seven

Looks like my all-time favorite Cleveland Indian is going to have at least another year in the Majors, this time with the Texas Rangers. If he passes the physical.

Email down

Of course... on the day I was going to dedicate to emailing all my friends who I have been so bad about keeping in touch with, my email is down and has been down all day. How frustrating! The other thing is that with my email down I don't have access to the jobs I want to apply for, since I save them in an email folder. Sure, I can try to find them all again but that is such a pain and nearly impossible considering all of the places I look.

Friday afternoon, I got this email from a woman about a job in Chicago. She told me to call her this weekend, either yesterday or today. Thank God I called her yesterday because today I would not have been able to access the email with her phone number in it! Ugh!

Smoke Free Ohio

I went out to dinner tonight and realized that yes indeed, the smoking ban is in effect. Celebrate! Now I have to go celebrate in a bar!

RSS breakdown

I finally broke down and subscribed to an RSS feed. The idea behind it is basically that it searches your favorite Web sites and tells you when they've been updated instead of you having to go to each one individually and check for updates on your own. I'd been resisting just because I really like to check Web sites on my own, but I thought I would finally try it because 1.) I'm supposed to be a librarian/information manager and therefore up on current technology and aware of how these things work and 2.) it is designed as a time saver so maybe it will cut down on my online time a little. However, I fear that I will add all kinds of blogs and web sites to it that I don't already check regularly and will actually end up spending MORE time online.

By the way, this blog is one site that can be added to an RSS feed, as I found out. I think all Blogger blogs can be.

Job news, chapter 29

I got a rejection letter today from the previously mentioned Indexing/Abstracting Librarian job at the National Security Archive. I love when I get rejected without an interview, especially for a job that I know I would have kicked ass at and despite being told I was "well-qualified." I'm not going to lie to you and say that if I cannot even score an interview for an Indexing/Abstracting Librarian when I 1.) was an indexer/abstractor for 5 1/2 years and 2.) am now a librarian, that it doesn't hurt. Because it does and it makes me mad.

On the bright side, I got an email and have a "phone conference" set up for Monday morning. This is with a law firm in Boston. At least I think it's in Boston. The advertised opening was in Boston but her wording in the email said something like she wanted to "further discuss opportunities" with me, which makes me wonder. Like when Ernst & Young called me and said that I wouldn't be good as a Business Researcher but would do well as a Network Associate. Umm, no, I wouldn't. Anyway, this woman who emailed me is apparently located in New Jersey. The firm has like 20 offices so if they want to hire me somewhere else, I'd probably take it. Except maybe Albany. Or Tallahassee. Or Tokyo.

Word of the day: irrefragable

adj 1: impossible to refute
2: impossible to break or alter

My sentence using irrefragable: It is an irrefragable truth that wiping snow off of one's car is not fun.

Smelling pretty

I was just in Sephora the other day sniffing perfumes and feeling kind of overwhelmed as I sought out a new scent for me (not that I wear perfume all that much) when a day later what convenient article should I see in the San Francisco area's InsideBayArea.com but one telling me the perfume choices of some of today's female celebrities! So maybe next time I'm there, I'll try Fracas by Robert Piguet so I can smell like Lauren Graham or L'effleur by Coty so I can smell like Paris Hilton.

Okay, I think I might stay away from the Paris Hilton choice.

The Break-Up on DVD and in reality

I guess I have such bad relationship karma that just after I watched The Break-Up on DVD, real life couple Jennifer Aniston and Vince Vaughn actually broke up!

There's kind of a fun game on that official Web-site, where you have to drive Vince's character's bus (he's a tour guide) and pick up lemons. Of course, I sucked at it. I am so bad at driving games, you would think I don't own a car.

Heroes

Is anyone watching Heroes? I really enjoy it. I went online to watch the latest episode last night and found out they have all the episodes from this season there for the watching. Usually, NBC.com only has the latest episode available so I'm not sure why the bonus now but anyone who might be interested but has missed some episodes can catch up! Or, rewatch. However, I will warn you that I hate NBC's streaming video player. I've had the most problem with it out of all the network's players.

Hmm, I just saw that all episodes of Friday Night Lights are also available. I might partake...

Headaches

For about the last week, I've had these horrible headaches nearly every day. For a few days, it seemed like I woke up with them and had difficulty shaking them all day... Then, on Saturday, I was out shopping with my parents and a massive one just came out of nowhere... Last night, it started just as I was about to go to sleep.... Today, it started about an hour ago.

I just can't imagine what the problem is but I don't like it. I don't like having to take so much aspirin/painkillers, which do usually work but then the headaches seem to come right back when the medicine wears off. I wonder if it has something to do with the weather. I'm a big believer of general unwellness stemming from constant weather changes. Or, I might have a brain tumor. Or, maybe it's just stress. My other thought was that it has something to do with the large amounts of caffeine I've been consuming - I've been drinking way too much Coke. It's been years, but I used to get similar headaches regularly (although not this regularly) when I was living with my ex-boyfriend and he always told me that it was because I was dehydrated. So, maybe that's the case now. Of course, I think the headaches back then were caused by having to deal with a total asshole on a daily basis!

Snow

Today was the first day that it really snowed here this year. Snowed enough to stick to the ground and still be there all day. Yuck. Actually, though, I don't mind snow at all. What I mind is the cold.

Word of the day: vorago

n : an engulfing chasm : abyss

My sentence using vorago: I don't know what happened to that job posting; it must have disappeared into a vorago.

The disappearing job ad...

I found this job last week at the University of Chicago that sounded really good and here I am ready to write my cover letter and apply for it and I can't find it anywhere. Nowhere. I have the job description, which I copy and paste into an email and then move into my "Job Opps" folder. However, there is no contact information provided and it says to go to the U of Chicago HR page to apply. Yet, on the HR page, there is no such job listed. I have the requisition number - and nothing comes up. I don't know. It's like it vanished into thin air. I suppose it's possible that I missed the deadline or something and the job has already been removed; however, it was only posted ten days ago and, according to the description, the position was supposed to stay posted until May 2007 (presumably for six months). So weird. And kind of a bummer.

Word of the day: trichotillomania

n : an abnormal desire to pull out one’s hair

My sentence using trichotillomania: As frustrated as I have become during this job searching process, I have not suffered from trichotillomania and have all of my hair still intact.

A new week, a new interview...

I had another interview today. Well, technically they called it a "phone screen" but it was about 40-45 minutes long and seemed a lot like an interview so I am going to use my terminology! Anyway, I think it went pretty well but of course one never knows. The job actually seems pretty exciting to me and kind of what I hoped to get when I started this whole library school thing so we'll see. I won't hold my breath. But, I will remain cautiously optimistic.

Oh, this one is in Boston! It's actually one of a few jobs I've seen recently that look good and are in the Boston area. A job that was posted yesterday was as a cataloger at the JFK Presidential Library. How cool would that be? I just have to write a cover letter...

eBay wrap-up

I sold ten of the eleven items I put up for sale last week. I'm pretty pleased with that. I'm also pretty pleased with my take. One of the movies sold for $28.00. Did I mention that it's on VHS? Apparently it was a hot item and I'm glad I could help someone get it... especially since it's been sitting in my parents' basement for about ten years!!

Now I'm trying to find other things to put up.

Discover your zodiac personality test...

I took a quiz to test my zodiac personality. One thing it doesn't ask is your birthdate. Yet, I scored 'Cancer' anyway. It's not that surprising to me.


Discover your Zodiac Personality @ Quiz Me

Ebay is excellent

I think I mentioned I put some items up on eBay the other day. I love it! I swear one of the quickest natural highs a person can experience is to check the 'My Ebay' page to see how one's auctions are coming along and to see the bidding going up each time you check. It's so fun! I put up some of my Dad's old video store movies, some old soap opera magazines, plus a bottle of perfume my mom never wore and a couple of items of expensive clothing that still had the tags on but were never worn and no longer returnable. Three items sold 'Buy it Now!' style within the first day and three more items have bids on them even though we are only halfway through the auctions. That's kind of good news because the truth is that the majority of bidders like to wait until the last minute. The perfume bids keep going up and up as does the bidding for one of the movies. I started bidding at $2 and it's now up to $11. Yay!

The only downside to eBay is the constant monitoring of the auctions. I TRY not to check every time I walk by a computer but I can't not do it. It's so addictive.

I'm debating about what else I might put up. Last Tuesday was a discounted day for sellers so I hurried to put some things up, but really, I have other stuff I wanted to put up and the regular insertion fees are not that high.

Thanksgiving weekend

I hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving! Mine was fine. We went to my sister-in-law's parents' house and there were about ten of us there. The food was good, the alcohol was sufficient and the conversation was decent. Their house is very nice; I could totally see myself living there! I felt a little wistful, I guess you would call it, because they now live like a mile from where I used to live and I had some memory flashes.

The day after Thanksgiving was relatively quiet for me. My parents got up at 3am to start shopping but I decided there was nothing I needed (or could afford!) that required me getting up that early. I was tempted to go to CompUSA for an adapter thingy to make my computer wireless (the technical term, ha ha) but didn't even do that. When my parents got home at about noon I heard their crazy stories of long lines and people waiting to get into stores, etc... Seems to me like a lot more people are getting up to hit the stores early than ever used to. Maybe it's just because more stores are opening early. Heck, the one local outlet mall opened at midnight and stayed open through the night!!

I couldn't let Black Friday go by without purchasing anything so I did end up visiting Best Buy and Circuit City for a brief time and bought a couple of $6.99 Greatest Hits CDs. I swear, my entire 200+ CD collection is comprised of Greatest Hits CDs. Okay, I exaggerate, but I honestly think about 75% of it is greatest hits CDs. My parents got an awesome deal on a 42-inch plasma HDTV though and it should arrive in 10-14 days! You have NO idea how excited I am about that!! They really don't want me to leave, do they?!

So, today did not go as planned....

It was kind of a bummer of a day today. First, I woke up not feeling very well so I stayed in bed a little later than planned. Then, I checked my email and had gotten an email from a place I applied - Vanderbilt University - wanting to set up a phone interview today. Umm, that's a lot of notice! Not. So, I emailed them back and I had a couple hours to get ready for it. In the meantime, I called back the woman from the county library system where I had interviewed last week. And, let's all say it together, I got rejected. It sounds like I was the runner-up and they went with someone who already works in the county system at another branch so it was pretty much a no-shot-in-hell opportunity but I did think they really liked me and were considering me. Not. Then, the librarians at Vanderbilt called and I totally bombed the interview. I just did not do well and I know it. I'm not sure what, if anything, I can do to fix it but I do hope they take into consideration that I had such short notice, because I would really relish that opportunity. But, probably not. Finally, I checked my other email and had gotten a note from eBay announcing that there was a discount on insertion fees so I thought it would be a good day to put stuff up on eBay. Umm, a good idea, I suppose, but it took me like 6 hours to put up like 10 or 12 items just because of a slow Internet connection as well as gathering information and cropping pictures for the ads. Let's hope I make some money, though! But again, probably not!

The Wheaton College Community Covenant

I saw this job posting for a cataloging librarian at Wheaton College, which is outside Chicago. What caught my eye was that the job description mentions that "Wheaton College is an evangelical protestant Christian liberal arts college whose faculty members affirm a Statement of Faith and the moral and lifestyle expectations of our Community Covenant." Intruiged, I clicked on the link provided to read more about this "Community Covenant." Seems that all members of the college community (students, staff & faculty) have to agree to follow the expected lifestyle of a true Christian. In other words, no tobacco use, no alcohol, no dishonesty, no slander, no gossip, no vulgar or obscene language, no premarital sex, no behavior or entertainment that would be considered "immodest, sinfully erotic, or harmfully violent." That's just the highlights. Interesting, no doubt, but definitely not the right place for me.

"Your clothes are on, so I don't see the problem"

The headline caught my eye first, something about a school dance being cancelled for fear of 'grinding' and then 'upstate New York' caught my eye so I read the entire story. Turns out not only is it upstate New York, but it's the Fayetteville-Manlius High School, which is a suburb of Syracuse and a city I know quite well. After all, that's where a Target is! And I have a few friends who work (have worked) at the Fayetteville Free Library. It's the upscale suburb, I guess. While I'm not sure I agree with cancelling a dance because of potential dancing techniques - the kids in the article are kind of right - but I know if I was still in high school, I wouldn't be too devastated about the cancellation of a dance considering I rarely went to school dances and when I did, they were one of the worst, most miserable experiences of my life.

Family Guy episodes

You guys may remember that I found this Web site a few months ago that has links to all the episodes of South Park and I was pretty excited by that. Well, now I found a similar one with links to all the episodes of Family Guy!

I LOVE watching TV on the Web.

Word of the day: maffick

v : to celebrate with boisterous rejoicing and hilarious behavior

My sentence using maffick: Thanks to the awesome victory pulled out by the Buckeyes yesterday, there was much mafficking by fans!

Go Buckeyes!

It's a HUGE game today at 3:30. I'm psyched... and nervous. Go Ohio State!

Grey's Anatomy

I know I haven't posted much about television topics lately even though ironically the whole reason I started this blog was to supplement my InsidePulse TV column... Do not fret, I still watch too much TV!

I came across a couple of Grey's Anatomy-related tidbits today (via TV Tattle) that I found interesting. One: Next week's episode, airing on Thanksgiving Day, is going to run an extra ten minutes long. Luckily, I already checked my DVR and it's set to record until 10:10pm. Phew. Two: Rob Lowe turned down the role of Derek Shepherd, aka Dr. McDreamy! I just cannot imagine Rob Lowe in that role.

Feeling better about turning down the offer

Immediately after I turned down the job offer I got last week, I started to regret it and think that I had made a mistake. As was evidenced in this post from the other day... However, after talking to one of my friends yesterday and explaining to him why I didn't take it, I felt like my points were really valid and that maybe I did make the right decision after all. He seemed to agree with me despite the fact that both of us are desperately searching for jobs still and keep saying we'll take anything.

The other reason I'm starting to feel better about the whole thing is that they reposted the job opening on Craigslist and they really downgraded the expectations. It no longer says anything about even needing a Master's degree and they will in fact consider someone with only an Associate's degree! No longer does it say 'Librarian' but it merely says 'Library Assistant'. I'm sure they did this to potentially get more interested candidates, but also, if they are willing to downgrade the educational requirements so much, then clearly they realize that you do not need a Master's degree to do the job. That was one of my 'cons' on my list when debating what to do, too. I felt that I was smarter than the job.

Word of the day: sop

n : a conciliatory or propitiatory bribe, gift, or gesture

My sentence using sop: I think my interview at the public library went well and I did not even have to offer the branch manager a sop to get her to like me.

Post-interview report

Well, I think the interview at the public library branch went pretty well yesterday. Then again, I always seem to think that. Seriously, how do you know when an interview doesn't go well? They aren't going to ask you to leave before it's over or anything obvious like that.

One minor annoyance, if you can call it that, was that they seemed to be asking me the same questions over and over in different ways. "Tell me about a time when you overcame a difficult situation at work and what happened." "Tell me about a time when you had to deal with a challenging situation and how it was resolved." "Tell me about a time when you had trouble working in a group." "Tell me about a time when you faced some miscommunication with a co-worker and how you resolved it." "Tell me about a time when you corrected someone else's mistake and how you handled it." I don't know but aren't all those questions basically the same?
The one good thing is that as I was leaving I saw someone I used to work with and he apparently works there and has for two years. He really likes it there so that's somewhat encouraging. We talked a little bit about the things we both didn't like at our old job and how this one is different (quite different, it seems). On top of all that, maybe he'll actually put in a good word for me!

Choosing a book to read

A nifty Web site conveniently called Whichbook gives readers some choices on finding a book to read based on their desires. Different criteria are presented along a continuum. The reader chooses four criteria, places the indicator somewhere along the continuum (for instance, between happy and sad, funny and serious, long and short, expected and unpredictable) based on their feelings and a list of books appears. For instance, you might choose you want a book that is pretty happy but also very violent and unusual. Put in those indices and a list of books appear!

#1 Ranking

I have an interview tomorrow at one of the branches in the county library system here. Although this would hardly be my dream job either, the thought of working there gave me a little more excitement today as I realized the system is ranked #1 in the country in the annual Hennen's American Public Library Ratings list, which ranks public libraries on fifteen factors, including reference service, circulation statistics, hours open and funding. See here. If I have to work for a public library, it would be nice to work for one of the best, right?

Huge mistake?

So, I turned down the job offer I had. I can't help but think it will turn out to be a huge mistake on my part but I was so torn and so confused and so unsure about the whole thing and I felt that if it were really the right move to make (taking it, that is), wouldn't it be an easy decision to make? I'm not sad that I turned it down but I will become sad if I don't get any other offers in the near future. I'm just sick of applying for jobs and sick of being in debt and sick of not working. I'm sick of waiting, too, because I've felt like I've been waiting for something for three years. First, I was waiting for grad school to start... then I was waiting for it to finish... and now I've been waiting to find the right job. But, anyway, just because I'm sick of all those things, does it mean I should just accept any old job that is offered to me, regardless of how awful and boring and monontonous it is? I say 'no', which is why I turned down the job.

Election day quiz: Who should you have voted for in 2004?

Should have? Or did?

You Should Have Voted For Kerry

Though You'd Rather Vote for Michael Moore

Who Should You Have Voted For in 2004?

Interview updates

I got an offer from the place I interviewed in D.C. on Friday. However, I do not yet know what the offer is as I haven't been able to connect with the woman. She simply mentioned in the email that she wanted to make me an offer.

In the mean time, I got a call for an interview at one of the local public library branches here in Cleveland. This was the one where I recently thought I had done pretty poorly on the test. I guess I was wrong about that, so that's pretty exciting! That interview is next Tuesday.

And, in related news, I am continuing to write cover letters for jobs that sound interesting. There is a job for an indexing/abstracting librarian at the National Security Archive that I have to say would be perfect for me. I hope I didn't just jinx it!

Election day

Currently reading

I added a new header to my sidebar labeled "Currently reading" in which I will put a link to the book I'm currently reading. Clever wording there, eh? I'm not sure why or if anyone cares what I'm currently reading and it is by no means an endorsement of that book (in fact, the book I'm reading now [Why Moms are Weird] is pretty annoying to me, yet I read on). It was added more because I feel all happy and proud with myself when I am able to make changes on this blog. Like last week, I was unhappy with the title area for each post and decided to put a box around them so they would stand out more. I'm about 10% technologically savvy, despite what my resume says. I'd like that to be a lot higher but slow and steady wins the race - or so I hear - so I'll just learn one small thing at a time for now.

I'm trying to think of other sidebar labels to add, like 'Currently watching' or something like that but it doesn't seem as appropriate, since what I watch changes daily while what I read usually changes weekly (or monthly). If anyone has any ideas, let me know...

Jaunt to D.C.

So I'm back after 48 hours in D.C. and I'm still jobless. I think the woman who would be my boss really liked me and, if it's up to her, would hire me. I dazzled her with my knowledge of medical databases and information retrieval issues. She showed me all around the office and where I would work and we even talked so much that the other two involved in the interview (from the companies who hold the government contract for the reference staff) left us there to continue while they went home for the weekend. The woman I met with first, from the company who would hire me, seemed to like me also although she wanted to make it clear that, from what she's heard, this job is not "challenging" or full of "variety" - two things I said I was looking for in a job. Of course, this woman knows nothing about librarianship and hires people for all kinds of jobs. In her own words, she hires people who seem to be good workers and good employees, regardless of what job they do. So I figured she didn't know. Talking to the woman who would be my boss made things much clearer, however, when she said that the contractors are compeletely blended, although they are not eligible for any of the on-site benefits like the gym or the child care facilities, and that the job is often described as monontonous. Hmm, how exciting that sounds! She said that many complain there is no variety and that they grow sick of answering the phones non-stop and providing stock answers to all of the email questions. Apparently they get a lot of the same questions over and over and over and over and over again. So you see, she did a fantastic job of trying to sell me on the job. To her credit, she said she wanted to be honest and upfront and give me an idea of what to expect but all I could think was, "I did not go to library school to come work for a call center" which is what I got the feeling that was. I may not know a lot of what I want out of job (and out of life) but I do know what I don't want and I don't want to sit around a cubicle all day waiting for a phone to ring. Especially not with a fairly low salary and she told me that the pay would be in the $30,000s but no higher. Therefore, even if they do call me with an offer and even though I'm sick to death of being unemployed and of sending out cover letters and resumes, I just do not see me accepting this.

Word of the day: nabob

n : a person of great wealth or prominence

My sentence using nabob: This job-searching stuff is getting tiresome; how I wish I could find a fantastic nabob to marry so I could settle for a part-time job and spend the rest of my time volunteering for a great charity or non-profit organization.

My name is not Cheryl

It occurred to me over the weekend, when I was driving home from DC perhaps, that no one - particularly potential employers - seems able to get my name right. In the last couple of months of job-searching, I have been called all kinds of names that are not Cheri. My name is not Cheryl or Chris or Cindy or Jerri or Cherree or Cherry. It's Cheri, pronounced the same as the more obvious Sherry or, for those who are not familiar with that name either, think of share - eee.

Now, I understand the pronunciation of Cherree or Cherry and those honestly do not bother me. Cheryl is understandable - kind of - since my middle name does start with an "L". Therefore, people see Cheri L. and I guess miss the space between the i and the L. However, when I write an email to someone and sign it with Cheri (of course), I find it irksome that they respond by calling me Cheryl. Cindy is just plain inexcusable, in my opinion. Chris is actually not something I have encountered recently but I used to get that a lot when I was younger. Now, Jerri is what I was called by the one woman who interviewed me on Friday and while I guess it's a simple mistake, I still think it's totally rude for a prospective employer to not bother to try to remember my name. If I as a prospective employee called someone by the wrong name, I'm pretty sure it would be remembered and held against me.

Thank you. Rant complete.

Off to the nation's capital

I have a job interview in Washington, DC, on Friday so I made my hotel reservation just a little bit ago. I'm very happy to be paying $75/night for the hotel, which looks to be pretty nice. I was expecting the cheapest hotel in DC to be at least $100/night. There were some that were a tad cheaper (like in the $60s) but they looked a little sketchy to me so I think the small bit more to pay will be well worth it. At the last minute I decided to stay for two nights. It's going to basically be an all-day thing on Friday, with me meeting someone at 12:30pm and then someone else at 2pm, so I worried about running into a lot of Friday night traffic if I left after the interview. This way I won't have to worry and can have a relaxing and enjoyable night in the hotel on Friday night with maybe a nice swim in the indoor pool or some room service. Okay, the pool part could happen but the room service thing is probably out of my budget. It will be more like stopping at the grocery store and heating up a frozen entree in the room's microwave!

This interview seems promising but I'm so doubtful about the whole job-finding thing now. This job is as a reference librarian at the National Library of Medicine - which sounds pretty cool, right? Right. But I wouldn't be a National Library of Medicine employee because the government contracts out those positions. I would technically be an employee of this other company then. So that could be a good thing - or a bad thing. I'm not sure. I guess I will see on Friday.

Daily Show clips online

Clips of The Daily Show's visit to Ohio this week (which I mentioned a couple of days ago) are available online for those without Comedy Central. The entire show is apparently available, although in parts, it looks like. The link is this, with the clips to be found along the right side.

What should I be for Halloween?

Not that I'm going to be wearing a costume for anything this year (thank God, I hate dressing up), but I thought it appropriate to take the Blogthings quiz and get an answer:

Your Halloween Costume Should Be

Candy Corn

What Should You Be For Halloween?

Happy Halloween!

Battlefield Ohio

As election time gears up, Jon Stewart and The Daily Show are spending the week doing shows from the great state of Ohio! Tonight's guest: Lebron James.

"Most reliable search tool...

... could be your librarian." Here's a nice article reaffirming the importance of librarians.

Lingerie librarian?

While no one seems to want to hire me as a librarian, Victoria's Secret seemed willing to hire me today. I went into the nearby store to get more free panties and while they were trying to sell me additional merchandise, I mentioned that I was unemployed and had no money. Suddenly, they were practically begging me to come work for them. The discount is 30% off of Victoria's Secret merchandise and 20% off of Bath & Body Works and Express merchandise (and The Limited merchandise, I assume?) . Also, I guess they hire people to work in their back room keeping things organized, stocked and steamed. I am considering filling out the application since it would be nice to bring in SOME money, but I'm slightly deterred by a few things. One, I really don't much like Victoria's Secret items - unless they are giving them to me for free and then I can deal. Two, wouldn't it be better to work someplace that the discount would be useful? Three, I've noticed that employees seem to have to wear nice black pants and black blazers which is a kind of expensive investment for a job that will likely not even pay me $7/hr.

Word of the day: sansculotte

n 1: an extreme radical republican in France at the time of the Revolution
2: a radical or violent extremist in politics

My sentence using sansculotte: Election day is approaching and, although I'm undecided about who will get my vote in some races, I will not vote for a sansculotte.

Failed another test

I probably didn't fail it, but I don't think I did too well on it either. This was another mandatory testing for a Librarian I position at the local county library system. The last test I took - for a different branch - was very heavy on the reader's advisory questions, asking to name authors in different fiction genres and to name books I would recommend as well as the title of the latest Harry Potter book. Since I didn't do as well on those topics as I might have liked, that is where I focused my studying before today's test. Oops. Apparently, reader's advisory is not important at this branch. All of the questions were on resources today. Name two print resources for medicine; name two print resources for music; name an online resource for biography and a sample question for which this source might be useful; name three ways one could find out the name of the president of Viacom; name three sources for legal information, particularly Ohio law, etc... Ugh, so I did not do well at all. I was not prepared to have to rattle off the names of dozens of different resources. I really do not understand this kind of testing. The only type of question that makes sense to me is the one about the president of Viacom, which is more about the process of finding the answer than rattling off the titles of a book or a Web site. I could have wonderful, useful, informative Web sites bookmarked on my browser and know how to use them but would not be able to tell you the exact name of them. Likewise, I could know very well how to find an answer to a medical question without knowing the exact title of the book that gives me the information. I find the whole testing process completely frustrating and aggravating and I suppose that it's good that I do not pass to the interview stage or I might be a bitter employee right from the start.

Duke lacrosse scandal

60 Minutes did a piece this week on the alleged rape by the Duke lacrosse players that resulted in their season being cancelled this past spring. It was a really interesting piece and is kind of mystifying that the D.A. seems to think he has a case. I know I'm no legal expert but I cannot imagine a judge not throwing the case out of court - there seems to be no proof that these men are guilty. One of the guys has proof via phone records, a taxi driver and surveillance tape from an ATM that he wasn't even at the party during the time the alleged rape occurred. Certainly this guy could not have attacked her; yet he is one of the three suspects. Also, one of the partygoers was apparently a Jimmy Olsen-in-training and there are many time-stamped photographs from the evening showing what was going on and it doesn't seem to mesh with her story, either. Finally, the alleged victim's co-stripper, who was at the party with her, pretty much says the girl is lying. Mind-boggling. Anyway, the CBS News site has a ton of video from their story.

Word of the day: peregrination

n : an excursion especially on foot or to a foreign country : journey

My sentence using peregrination: On Thursday, I plan a peregrination back to Syracuse, New York, to fetch some of my belongings.

Free in-house cafeteria

Part of job searching is looking at the benefits offered with a position and some places offer a lot sweeter benefit packages than others. I would rather take 24 days paid time off annually than 14, for instance. And who wouldn't? But, this job in Atlanta boasts a 'free in-house cafeteria'! Not having to worry about lunch every day? Awesome.

The Quick & Dirty Career Test

After getting yet another rejection today, I thought this was an appropriate test to take and surprisingly, the results indicate I'm on the right track.

Your Career Personality: Idealistic, Service-Oriented, and Future-Oriented

Your Ideal Careers: Alternative health practitioner Architect Environmental lawyer Librarian Magazine editor Museum curator Novelist Nutritionist Photo journalist Playwright

The Quick and Dirty Career Test

Google products

Some of these are kind of funny - new types of searches that Google should create.

Online TV

My latest addiction (although that's a bit of an overstatement) is online TV viewing. All of the major broadcast networks are streaming some of their shows online, usually available the day after they air on television. What's nice about this is that you can catch episodes that you may have wanted to catch but missed when they aired. It also basically eliminates the need for a Tivo/DVR/VCR recording device. And, it's free, did I mention that? Of course there are services like iTunes where you can pay, usually $1.99 an episode, for the same thing but I doubt anyone would argue that free isn't better. I've watched episodes of (or parts of episodes, anyway) Lost, Desperate Housewives, Ugly Betty, Survivor, The Biggest Loser, Heroes, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip and Cribs over the last month.

I've sort of been looking for a good web site that provides links to all the places one can view shows online and haven't found anything exactly to my liking (perhaps I should make one of my own) but: TV Squad offers a list by network or site (AOL & Yahoo! offer some programs thanks to tie-ins with certain networks) and TV Guide Online offers a daily blog listing some of the best online TV viewing of the day.

With that all being said, as far as the major networks go, I think the ABC service is the best by far. Not only can you watch past episodes (most of the other networks only let you watch the most current episode) but I also haven't had any streaming problems at all.

Word of the day: jawboning

n : the use of spoken persuasion

My sentence using jawboning: Hopefully, at the next job interview I have I can persuade them to hire me by some subtle jawboning.

Cover letter machine

I was a MACHINE yesterday and applied for seven jobs! That was definitely my best day ever and perhaps directly related to the fact that I am STILL unemployed. Of course, part of the reason for the high number for the day is because two of the jobs expect you to apply online via their special system and do not accept cover letters, only resumes. I've started to check that before taking the time to write a letter....

Funny... and ew!

Kiss my ass, George Bush Web site. Yes, it's exactly what it says... (courtesy of Freakgirl)

Happy Birthday Mom!

Today my mom turns 60! Happy Birthday to her! Not that she'll want her age broadcast over the Internet probably, but it's a pretty big birthday, so I wanted to acknowledge it. If only I were employed and could have thrown a huge birthday party for her or something.

Word of the day: valetudinarian

n : a person of a weak or sickly constitution; especially : one whose chief concern is being or becoming a chronic invalid

My sentence using valetudinarian: Unlike my great aunt, who is out working at age 88 and traveling around the world, I know other elderly people who are valetudinarian and prefer to wallow in their old age and sit around watching television.

Long time no see

Tonight, we saw a distant relative who was in town from the Boston area and who we rarely ever see. I guess she's just my mom's aunt but since we have so little contact with her, I always think she is a much more distant relative. She was in town for a wedding so we got together with her so she could meet my nephew Ben. She is in her late eighties yet still works about 3 days a week as a nurse. It's pretty amazing, although my mom thinks the last thing she wants to be doing at that age is working at all and I'm kind of with her there. The other nice thing was that she gave me her daughter's business card - her daughter is a library director in the Pittsburgh area. So now I need to network...