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...

Word of the day: adduce

v : to offer as example, reason, or proof in discussion or analysis

My sentence using adduce: Perhaps after reading my account of my public librarian testing mistakes in the preceding post, one might adduce that I am not cut out to be a public librarian.

Doh!

I had another interview and another round of testing for a public library job today. The interview went okay - it was one of these where I wasn't entirely sure I was giving the right answers but maybe I was. The questions were weird and it was seriously the most structured interview ever. I work better with a little less structure. But it could have gone well. Hey, they only interviewed six out of 70 of the test-takers and I was one of the six so I feel like I already won.

Then came the testing for a different job but in the same library system, where I had a brain freeze which might result in me not getting an interview. One of the questions was "What is the name of the sixth book in the Harry Potter series?" Umm, I have actually read the Harry Potter books but I'm sorry to say that I am not a fanatic and do not remember the order of the book titles. I put Harry Potter & the Order of the Phoenix which I am PROUD to say is the title of... the fifth book. Oops. Close. But, hey, at least I didn't put "Harry Potter & are you seriously asking me this?" which I was tempted to put.

THEN, I had to "name three authors (currently popular) in various genres": mystery, romance, science fiction/fantasy, horror and western. Umm, again with the currently popular crap... That was on the last test too. I've been a graduate student for the last two years so I have no idea what is currently popular - this evidenced by the fact that I'm a book behind on the Harry Potter series. Ha ha.

So, anyway, mystery was easy for me, romance a little harder (I came up with two and then really struggled to think of a third when finally duh, Danielle Steel finally came into my head. She's only written about 800 books.) I went with old stand-bys for horror, hoping that these writers (Stephen King, John Saul and Dean Koontz) are still writing and therefore "currently popular", and then all I had left was science fiction and western.

Science fiction/fantasy: I was totally stumped. Umm, yes, I have dated at least six guys who are total sci-fi nerds. TOTAL fanatics and yes, even lived with one for years who read the same books over and over and over again, yet I could not come up with the name of any authors. None. Terry Brooks popped into my head eventually so there was one. After some struggle, I thought of Terry Pratchett, but I wasn't even sure if he wrote sci-fi or if that was my imagination. (Turns out he does.) I could NOT think of a third. I kind of thought of like 8 or 10 but kind of doesn't count when you don't remember their names!! Finally, I put down Isaac Asimov since I caught about 12 seconds of I Robot on cable the other night. Asimov is a sci-fi author but I doubt he would be classified as "currently popular." We'll see I guess. Who I wanted to put down was Robert Jordan, since I actually met him, but "that guy I met with the bushy beard who writes like one book every four years" probably wouldn't have cut it.

Western: Umm, are there even three authors who write westerns? Because I don't think there are. I put the obvious Louis L'Amour and then was like, umm, who else? I was desperately picturing that guy who won the Oscar for writing the screenplay for Brokeback Mountain, but could not for the life of me think of his name. (Larry McMurtry). I so wish I could have thought of him - or had the balls to write "the guy who won the Oscar for best screenplay for Brokeback Mountain." Instead, I settled for Annie Proulx who wrote the short story "Brokeback Mountain" and is so totally not a Western writer. And for the third name, I put Tony Hillerman, who I know damn well is a mystery writer but I was pretty sure his books take place in the west so I went with it.

Boy did that suck! These questions are ridiculous. The remaining 8 questions on the test were at least more like interview questions: "Explain what customer service means to you." "Tell me about your customer service experience." "Tell me about a time you made a mistake on the job and how you corrected that." I feel like I can bullshit my way with those kinds of questions, probably because there are no right or wrong answers staring me in the face.

Anyway, bottom line: I feel stupid and I have more waiting ahead of me. They told me to expect a couple week wait after the interview and I know it will probably be at least a week before I hear if my score on the test qualifies me for an interview.

Belated birthday present

Yesterday I finally got my birthday present from my parents: an Mp3 player!! It's sweet but I haven't had a chance to really look at it or try it out yet.

Word of the day: interstice

n : a little space between two things : chink, crevice

My sentence using interstice: Usually when I cannot find one of the remote controls, it ends up being in the interstice between the bed and the wall.

Muppet personality test

Which Muppet am I? Yay! I'm Fozzie. Fozzie was always my favorite Muppet.

You Are Fozzie Bear

"Wocka! Wocka!" You're the life of the party, and you love making people crack up. If only your routine didn't always bomb! You may find more groans than laughs, but always keep the jokes coming.

The Muppet Personality Test

If you don't know your phone number, how am I supposed to call you?

I have another interview scheduled for next week (I had one Tuesday in Columbus) and the director of the library who left the message said that she was setting up interviews for Friday, September 9th (when she apparently meant the 29th) and then left the wrong phone number, too. Umm, is it wrong that I find two mistakes like this in the span of a 2-minute answering machine message a little discouraging? In terms of, like, maybe that person isn't the greatest manager and not necessarily someone you'd want to work for... To her credit, though, she was nice when I called her back. After I figured out the correct phone number, that is.

Reality shows

I am SO glad that Big Brother All-Stars is ending tomorrow (well, later tonight since it's after midnight). You have no idea how much time I wasted with that this summer. Remember when I announced that I was addicted to it? That was only a couple of weeks into it. It definitely got worse before it got better, but I am proud to admit that for the last month or so, I have been a whole lot less addicted to it. Every summer I get pulled into that crap and every summer as I watch it and try to find out what is going on in the live feeds, I endlessly complain about how horrible it is. Yet, why is it so addictive?

Having been a HUGE reality fan in the past, I'm finding myself not too interested in the upcoming reality debuts. I don't know what happened. My love of Survivor (which starts Thursday) has definitely waned during the last two years. I'll probably watch it but it isn't going to be can't-miss-TV for me. I might just watch the episodes on the Internet when I get a chance. Even The Amazing Race (which starts Sunday) has little appeal to me, although that show usually sucks me in anyway. I just don't know what my problem is. Dancing with the Stars? Meh. Celebrity Duets? Ick. American Idol? I barely watched that this year. Treasure Hunters? Hated it. America's Got Talent? It was horrible. The only show that I'm really enjoying now and am eager to watch each week is Project Runway. And this is the first season I have ever watched that. What is wrong with me? Is getting sick of reality TV a sign that I'm growing up?!!

Job testing angst

I went for testing today for a job I applied for at the local county library branch. It said this was preliminary testing covering "the basic skills" needed for the job. Whatever that means. I tried studying a little, which meant I looked over the New York Times bestseller lists and the Dewey Decimal System. I thought initially we would be tested on using the catalog and I knew that would be a piece of cake. I can use their online catalog backwards and forwards. Anyway, overall, I wasn't sure quite what to expect.

Well, there were about 70 people there! I was shocked. I don't know if everyone who applied was invited to the testing or if there was some pre-preliminary qualifiers. I mean, as part of the application process, there is an online test... one of those that asks if you like to work alone or work in groups, if you are a leader or a follower, if you are flexible or rigid regarding working hours, etc... I imagine some candidates can be eliminated based on their answers to those questions. But, geez, it was kind of discouraging to see so many candidates for this part-time job!

Anyway, so there were about 70 of us and it was kind of ridiculous. The "test" consisted of five questions. The first two questions basically described the work schedule and asked if that was satisfactory (nights and weekends) and what prior commitments one might have that could impede their availability to work. A third question asked us to describe in detail our previous experience working with the public. Only the final two questions had even a little to do with those "basic skills" for the job we would be doing. The one question told us to name the titles and authors of three recently published books and tell us why we might recommend those books to others. Umm, yeah, that might sound easy but it wasn't. Recently published? What does that mean? What's the cutoff for 'recent'? I picked one that was published in the past few months but the other two are from like 2003 and 2004 because I just couldn't think of anything else, even anything I hadn't actually read but knew what it was about. It's not like I have the money to buy newly published books and if I wanted them from the library, there is usually a wait!

Okay, the fifth question was the kicker, though. It listed ten people or things and asked us to describe who or what they were. Briefly, I guess, since there wasn't a lot of space. Assuming the test gets changed up regularly and also that the few readers of this blog are not going to be taking the same test, the ten things were:

Jimmy DiMora
IPod
Call & Post
Sam Fulwood
Charlie Frye
Rachael Ray
YouTube
Broadband
Jump Drive
The 4400

Yeah. Well, some of them (like Jimmy DiMora, Sam Fulwood, Call & Post & Charlie Frye) are local things. And, considering I haven't lived in Cleveland much for the last two years, I was a little annoyed. Luckily for me, I had no problem at all with the others. Or Charlie Frye, since that's sports-related and I know sports. My guesses were pretty close, too, although I'm not sure what kind of answer they are looking for. I guessed that Jimmy DiMora was "a public official in Cleveland" when in fact he is the County Commissioner. Technically I'm right, although pretty vague. I guessed that Sam Fulwood was the editor-in-chief of the Cleveland Plain Dealer newspaper when in fact he is just a columnist in the Metro section. But kind of close, right? And I put that the Call & Post was a newspaper serving the NE Ohio area when in fact it is a Cleveland-area African-American newspaper. Close but kind of missing the key ingredient.

So, the test was kind of bizarre, not at all what I expected, and frustrating to knowingly be competing against so many others. I fully do not expect to make it to the next round at all. Did I mention that this job doesn't even require the Master's Degree that I will go into debt paying off? So if I can't get this job, is there hope for a Master's Degree job?

My dating profile...

Sometimes these quizzes are so right that it's eerie; sometimes they are so wrong that it is laughable and sometimes they just make no sense. This time, I can't get over how very accurate the 'Date Match Profile' is. Those descriptions and rankings are really pretty much dead-on what I would want in a man, based on my experience and what men I have dated have lacked. I have never dated a man I would call 'Adventurous' (hmm, maybe one comes to mind...) and I really would love that. Practical yet adventurous with some mystery that I can try to crack. Totally...

On the other hand, I don't think my dating profile is too accurate at all. Yes, I am definitely liberal but I'm not sure that would be the top identifying feature about me. And, adventurous? Not so much. Anyone who knows me would have to agree that 'Funny' should be in my top 3 and not adventurous. And there's no way that 'Shy' would get ranked below 'Religious'. I am religious in no way at all.

Your dating personality profile: Liberal - Politics matters to you, and you aren't afraid to share your left-leaning views. You would never be caught voting for a conservative candidate. Practical - You are a down-to-earth individual who is not impressed with material excess. You care about the stuff of like that really matters. Adventurous - Just sitting around the house is not something that appeals to you. You love to be out trying new things and really experiencing life.

Your date match profile: Practical - You are drawn to people who are sensible and smart. Flashy, materialistic people turn you off. You appreciate the simpler side of living. Adventurous - You are looking for someone who is willing to try new things and experience life to its fullest. You need a companion who encourages you to take risks and do exciting things. Shy - You are put off by people who are open books. You are drawn to someone who is a bit more mysterious. You want to draw him out of his shell and get to know what he is all about.

Your Top Ten Traits 1. Liberal 2. Practical 3. Adventurous 4. Funny 5. Intellectual 6. Romantic 7. Big-Hearted 8. Sensual 9. Religious 10. Shy

Your Top Ten Match Traits 1. Practical 2. Adventurous 3. Shy 4. Intellectual 5. Funny 6. Sensual 7. Big-Hearted 8. Conservative 9. Romantic 10. Traditional

Take the Online Dating Profile Quiz at Dating Diversions

Library card

You probably have to be a total library geek like me to be excited about this like I am but I got a library card for the New York Public Library today! I found out last week that all residents of New York State and students of New York State are allowed to get a free NYPL library card (otherwise, anyone can pay $100 for one) so I wasted no time in applying and I got it already. That was so fast! There are some databases accessible to NYPL patrons that I have no experience with so I'm hoping to bulk up my resume.

Word of the day: pecuniary

adj 1: consisting of or measured in money
2: of or relating to money

My sentence using pecuniary: Although I'm currently enrolled in class for the fall semester, I may have to drop out due to pecuniary concerns.

Happenings of the last few days...

I was really bummed this weekend as I was unable to access my email for all of Sunday and all of Monday. It seemed to be a systemwide syr.edu problem because I could not access any syr.edu Web pages at all, including WebCT, which houses online classes. And, yes, the first day of class was Monday. At times like that, it makes me realize that I depend too much on my email system for not only did that limit my ability to communicate with others but, since I put all the jobs I want to apply for in an email folder and since I put all the Web sites that I use to check for jobs on WebCT, I could not access that stuff either. When I was at school and relying heavily on computer labs, it was just super convenient to put information where it is always accessible no matter what computer I'm using. Maybe now that I'm basically using only one computer, I should save stuff to a more static location.

I am currently registered for two classes for this semester but I only need one to count towards the Certificate program I'm pursuing. I am leaning towards dropping out of both, though, just because my current transient situation is so less than ideal for learning. For gosh sakes, my computer is located on a TV tray!! The one class I'm in - Human Interaction with Computers - seems pretty easy, though, so I may stick with it. Is that a horrible reason to stay in a class?

My email situation was a perfect excuse not to apply for jobs, though, and that is what I did - took a couple days off from that fruitless activity. Ironically, that doesn't stop the rejection letters from coming. I got one yesterday and another one today, neither place wanting to even waste their time interviewing me. How wonderful it is to be loved!

Make a Web site work-friendly

I'm not sure where I came across this site but it's pretty cool. It's called "Work Friendly" and all you need to do is type in a Web site's URL and it gets turned into what looks like a page of MS Word. Therefore, when your boss comes up behind you it looks like you are reading a Word document rather than reading a Web site. Ingenious!

Victoria's Secret

Approximately a month ago, I posted about the free stuff I'd been getting lately. Well, duh, I forgot a major thing: free Victoria's Secret panties. My mom or dad received a coupon in the mail for a pair of free panties and then there were two coupons in two different magazines I read recently - all in all, I got three free pairs of panties from Victoria's Secret in the last month. No purchase required. It's a pretty sweet deal, considering an individual pair of panties there is valued at $7.50.

Today, however, as I was picking up my third free pair, the salesgirl conned me into trying one of their scents. I figured I would do it since 1.) I really don't have any preferred perfume that I wear so you never know and 2.) I was getting over $22 of free merchandise from the store so the least I could do is try some lotion. She gave me some Heavenly lotion, which apparently is the #1 fragrance in America (seriously? why does that make me skeptical?). She pumped some lotion onto my hands. THEN, and this is where it got good, she pumped a DIFFERENT lotion, a thicker lotion, onto my hands over the first lotion (I assume it is the luxe lotion that is advertised on that site) - which she says sets the other lotion in place!! As if spending $20 for a bottle of lotion isn't enough, now she's telling me that I need to spend $29 extra to make sure that lotion stays in place? How crazy is that? I was totally amused. These retailers, always thinking up ways to get us to buy crap!

Word of the day: climacteric

n 1: a major turning point or critical stage
2a: menopause b: a period in the life of a male corresponding to female menopause

My sentence using climacteric: When I finally become employed as a librarian, it will be climacteric since I will actually have a profession instead of just a job.

Good idea for a blog

I was thinking that it would have probably been a good idea to have kept track of all the dozens of jobs I applied for on a blog. I could have posted the job description maybe but, at the very least, it would have been good to have posted something along the lines of "Today I applied for a job as a medical librarian at Wake Forest University." (Actually, that was last week, not today!) That way, when (if) I finally get a job, I would have a good record of all I did to get one!

I guess I could start it now but considering I've been applying to tons of jobs for the last 8-10 months (I applied for like two in November; that was the start), it would be starting pretty late in the game. And while I could probably recreate some of it, I know it wouldn't be complete. Anyway, I'm just thinking out loud, so to speak.

Treasure Hunters finale

This show that's been airing on NBC this summer, Treasure Hunters, is mostly pretty bad (I'd estimate I have seen 66% of the show anyway, however) but the finale is tonight and I caught the tail end of last week's episode and their clue told them they would be going to the Library of Congress next so yeah, way to suck a girl in. I'll definitely be watching tonight and trying to see if I recognize anyone or any place NOT because I enjoy the show or care about who wins. If they run around the Library at all, especially to places that are not normally accessible to the general public, I'm going to get a little weepy. It's been exactly a year since my internship there ended.

Ikea!

The new Ikea catalog is available online. Yay!