Great sports day here in Cleveland!

The NFL draft, as much as I HATED hearing it dissected endlessly on sports radio here, turned out to be awesome for the Browns! This article sums it up pretty well. And, the Cavs won Game 3 of their playoff series, on their way to their first-ever sweep! (knock on wood) But, don't worry, it wasn't all good - the Indians lost. But that was kind of an odd game.

LOC blog

Not to be confused with the blog I had when I worked at the Library of Congress two years ago, I now see that the Library has started its own blog. Wow, I'd love that job! And, knowing how the government operates, that probably is ALL that person does!! (via)

"We’re Off to See the Wizards"

Yay! The Cavs won their second playoff game and are now headed to Washington DC to continue the series. I love how that article on the Cavs Web site is more travel brochure than it is sports article.

Cough cough cough cough

If you cough cough cough were cough cough cough cough cough talking cough cough to me cough cough cough cough in cough person cough cough today, this is what cough cough cough cough cough cough cough I cough cough cough would sound cough cough like. Cough cough cough cough cough cough.

"Yankees drop into last in AL East"

Heh. Why does that headline make me laugh so?

Word of the day: prolix

\pro-LIKS; PRO-liks\

adj. 1. Extending to a great length; unnecessarily long; wordy.
2. Tending to speak or write at excessive length.

My sentence using prolix: Sometimes, I write some very prolix blog entries.

Questions for this Monday

Earth Day
1. Do you make an effort to be environmentally friendly? Yep, although I'm sure I could do more.
2. Did you see "An Inconvenient Truth"? Did you find it effective? Yes, I enjoyed it and thought it was very effective. It should be required viewing of everyone around the world, particularly those of us in the U.S.! But, I think there needs to be a whole lot more on solutions or 'What Can I Do?' included in it. It focuses almost entirely on convincing us that there is a problem. After the first hour when you become convinced that there is a problem, I wanted to know what I could do to change things!
3. Would you drive a Smart Car? Like an electric car or a hybrid or one run on some other alternative fuel? Sure, I definitely would, depending on my needs and the accessibility to the fuel. I'd really love a hybrid as my next car. But, according to Wikipedia, a Smart car is just a really tiny automobile and I don't see that it has any great benefit for the environment. In fact, that Wikipedia article says that they don't meet US emission regulations.
4. How many continents have you been on? Just one.
5. Did you ever watch "Captain Planet"? Nope, never heard of it. Based on Wikipedia, I'm a little old for it.

(questions via)

"Cleveland rocks in Game 1"

Judging by the topics on sports radio, few people around here care about basketball but the Cavaliers won their first playofff game against the Washington Wizards, as expected!! Yay!

Bad cold

I spent most of the day in bed today feeling awful. What a wonderful thing to add to my already insanely busy April!! I've been sick now for like four days and each day, it's like I have completely different symptoms so it makes little sense. Today was by far the worst, too. So I couldn't go outside and really enjoy the beautiful weather... but, that's okay. If anything, it made it seem more like a typical finals week of school. The weather is always beautiful at the end of the semester when you need to spend all day inside writing papers or whatever.

Find information about names

I've seen sites like this that calculate name data but this is from WhitePages.com so I guess it's only going by people who have phones in their names! You can type in a first name and find out how popular it is or which state has the most people with that name. For instance, Cheri ranks 1,037 in popularity as a first name. And, the most number of Cheris live in California, Texas, Florida, Michigan & Ohio (hmm...). Kinda interesting! For my last name, Ohio ranks third! (via)

Completed: My last group paper

Since I'm not planning on taking classes again any time in the near future, I can say with some confidence that my last group paper is now finished! Yay! It is actually due right about now but we turned it in awhile ago and I think it went really well; the group seemed to work well together. Who knows what kind of grade we'll get though - my professor grades tough.

With that paper complete, I'm basically finished with that class entirely, although I do still have a short lecture and some short readings to do this week. My other class, though, is a different story. I'm still way way behind.

"Clean Your Dishwasher with Lemonade Kool-Aid"

Interesting cleaning technique from the Real Simple folks. I'll have to remember to try it, if I find my dishwasher full of lime deposits or iron stains. And my new apartment DOES have a dishwasher, which is a step up from my last one! (via)

Assignment extension?

I emailed my one professor last week and asked him if it would be possible to get an extension on our big final project that is due May 1st and he hasn't gotten back to me yet. I am incredibly frustrated by it but it's pretty typical of the professors in my program - teaching seems to be the lowest thing on most of their priority lists. Seriously, I had only a handful of professors in three years of grad school who seemed to enjoy teaching and who seemed to want their students to learn. Those that teach via distance format seem to be by far the worst. So, I'm not sure if my professor is ignoring me or somehow didn't get the email or what? He did respond to another student's question in the meantime so I know he's been online to see it. I guess I have to email him again and risk being a nuisance.

Found a place to live!!

I went to Washington, DC, this past weekend to try to find a place to live (after being extremely stressed out about it all last week) and actually found a place. It's an apartment and I'll have a roommate but she seems pretty cool and I think we'll get along well. After living with my parents, I think any place where I get more independence will be fine. She is also currently moving from a one-bedroom into a two-bedroom so she has some adjustments to make too but it seems like there is enough room for me to bring most of my belongings (even those that do not fit in the bedroom) and all utilties are included, plus there is a washer & dryer on premises, a huge balcony with great views of the city and other extra-curriculars like a pool, tennis court and billiards room. Seriously, I want to learn how to play pool because I SUCK at it. All my friends literally laughed at me every time I tried to play the last two years. Another good thing is that the location is really close to where I lived when I was there two years ago so I know where everything is and like it. It's about a 20-minute drive to work, I'm told, even during rush hour. Since I don't have to take the freeway to get to work, I can't imagine traffic is too unbearably stop-and-go. AND, my new employer pays for parking so that makes driving that much nicer! In sum, it's a HUGE relief to have it taken care of...

"Librarians 'suffer most stress'"

This is what I have to look forward to?

Weekly meme entry

All In The Family

1. Which member of your family do you get along with the best? My mom? I guess so.
2. What aspects of your personality do you think are a direct result of the way you were raised? Umm, all of them? Either I am the way I am because my parents are also that way and I just became what I saw OR I am the way I am because I didn't like the way my parents were and grew up specifically trying to avoid those traits. That pretty much explains my personality!
3. What's the stupidest fight you've ever had with a family member? My brother and I are not even a year apart... we had all kinds of stupid fights the whole time we were growing up! Usually regarding what to play and how to play with it.
4. Who in your family do you look the most like? It used to be my brother, without question. Everyone thought we were twins. Now, I'm not so sure we look as much alike but he still seems like the best choice.
5. Do you relate to the characteristics associated with your place in the birth order? (ie. Only children are regarded as being typically selfish and youngest children are often babied. Check out the Wikipedia article on birth order for further info). No. I definitely was always a little spoiled in terms of getting things from my parents, but I wouldn't say I was "pampered" and my brother is equally spoiled. I do not think I'm an "outgoing charmer" at all. I also don't think I'm "manipulative or control-seeking" either. Maybe I'm "an endearing and delightful friend" but I guess you'd have to ask my friends!

(questions via)

Movie review: School for Scoundrels

I watched School for Scoundrels last night and it was kinda cute. A harmless comedy with a protagonist you want to root for... I hadn't wanted to see it when it was at the theater (I kinda hate Billy Bob Thornton) but the DVD was at the library so I got it. Anyway, what I mostly wanted to say about it is that I watched the alternate ending that is on the DVD and actually liked it better. Usually, when you watch those types of things - alternate endings and deleted scenes - you realize that good choices were made. This was a rare time that I actually preferred the alternate ending.

Also, it was so odd and actually off-putting to me to hear Jacinda Barrett (who plays the love interest) speak in an Australian accent. She was on The Real World:London back in the day and I knew she was Australian but it seems to me every movie she's in nowadays, she plays an American and hides her accent.

Cool site? Midomi

Midomi requires a microphone for its really cool feature, so that eliminates me from being able to use it... however, the idea behind it is great. It lets you sing or hum a few bars of a song you want more information about and then retrieves the song for you! I can think of a zillion times when this might have been useful to me (like when I used to recap American Idol!). I have to wonder how good it really is at recognizing tunes, especially those sung by horrible singers. (via)

Subway to start selling pizzas

Great! Maybe I'll go to Subway more often. I'm not really a big fan of sandwiches but I am a big fan of pizza. Especially at $2.99 a pop. That's a good deal.

Paper done

After all my griping and paper woes, it's officially turned in. On time, too. I think it was actually a really good paper but I don't think it satisfies the assignment specs too well. But, do I care? Not too much. It's not my fault that I could not access the database. Therefore, the paper is a lot more theoretical than I intended. But still good. But probably will get a poor grade. Anyway, it kind of feels like my final assignment for that class, because even though I still have a group paper due in two weeks, I really only have to do a third of that assignment.