Oh really? I didn't get the job?

Here is the email I got Friday from Old Dominion University:

Dear Applicant:

Thank you for your interest in the Health Sciences Reference Librarian Position, #FA598A, with the 1LB10-Library Public Services Department, at Old Dominion University.

After reviewing your application, the hiring manager did not select you for an interview and the position has now been filled. We hope you will continue to seek employment opportunities with Old Dominion University.

Sincerely,
Department of Human Resources

Well, I don't remember when I applied for this job but I can guarantee it was sometime before April 2007 so it's been at least 15 months. So thanks so much for telling me I didn't get the position. I really thought I was still in the running.

Web site Recommendations

Time has come out with a list of the Top 50 Web sites so I went through the list and, although I've actually heard of and checked out most of them previously, there were a few new ones that sparked my interest.

Mobaganda is a no-frills invitation service without requiring registration or logging in... which is kinda nice. It's like Evite for people who don't want to spend an hour creating the invitation. Looking at it, it almost appears to be too no-frills for my liking.

Lookybook features children's books, letting you read them from the comfort of your home before buying them. It's an interesting idea, I guess. Also, it's kind of what libraries are for...

Picnik claims to be very very simple photo-editing software, letting you easily crop photos or remove red eye, those kinds of things.

Zeer provides reviews of food products and label information before you buy. I think everyone has read restaurant reviews, so it's a neat idea to have packaged food reviews too.

Book review: Whacked

I finished Whacked yesterday and it was awful. Awful! It is the first book by Jules Asner, who used to be on E! as an entertainment reporter. I actually used to really like her on there and then she left to marry Steven Soderbergh, who is adorable and talented, so I was looking forward to the book. But the main character is INSANE. She has dating problems, can't find a guy, and every guy she does go out with, she turns crazy either breaking into their email to get stock tips or to see what other girls are emailing them, changing phone numbers in their address books, stalking them, breaking into their house. It doesn't stop. Oh wait, then she murders someone... AND she doesn't even get punished or anything. In fact, she gets rewarded and lives happily ever after. I guess it's supposed to be a satire or something but it just drove me mad.

The Daily Show on Hulu

This week, Hulu.com started featuring episodes from The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. I find this exciting news because since I don't have cable, I often catch episodes of The Daily Show online. However, the video clips available on its official site always stutter and need buffering over and over again. Overall, it's not a great viewing experience. Hulu, on the other hand, is a platform that's given me very little problems in the past. And I've watched quite a bunch of programming through Hulu. The only problem is that it's only a test apparently and might not last and also, only the last few weeks episodes are up. Oh and The Colbert Report is on there too!

Here's a short clip from Hulu with Jon offering some advice:

Closet drama

Ever since I moved in to my apartment, the shelving unit in my closet has been crooked. It's not bad enough that the clothes slide down the bar or anything but it is noticeably crooked. I thought it was just installed without a level by some total idiots. But now I think it wasn't in securely from the start. On Sunday, I heard this cracking sound, went to look and saw that of the three brackets that hold up the shelf and the hanging rod, two of them are hanging by a thread. In other words, each one has more than half of their screws out of the wall. Lovely. I'm guessing this didn't happen all at once. And all I need is to have that come crashing down! So I was kind of worried about it Sunday night and called maintenance first thing Monday morning. No one came. So I was worried about it again Monday night, especially because I heard more slipping sounds. On Tuesday, they came apparently. Well, they left a note on the door saying the requested maintenance was performed. But absolutely nothing had been done! REALLY frustrated by this point, I called our management company yet again Wednesday and explained that nothing had been done. She promised to talk to the maintenance people again. Last night, I get home and there's another note on the door that they came. This time it says that they'll be back on Thursday but that I need to remove everything from my closet. Aggravating. I had removed all the stuff on the shelf and all the hanging stuff... if they really needed all of the stuff that sits on the floor removed too, couldn't they just slide it all out themselves? Also, it's worth pointing out that our apartment only has three closets - one in each of the bedrooms and one small coat closet right when you walk in the door. So it's not like I have anywhere to put all this stuff that I've now had out of the closet for four days. Also, I have a LOT of stuff crammed into that closet. Luckily my roommate is out of town so I'm using his room a little. But it really aggravates me that something as simple as coming in to re-install a closet shelf has now taken four days. And I will be livid if it is not fixed when I get home tonight.

"Lost parrot tells veterinarian his address"

What a cute story this is. Apparently, the parrot had been learning how to recite his name and address and so, when he got lost, he recited it to a vet and was reunited with his family. The cutest part is that he was captured by the police but wouldn't tell them anything.

On to Game 7 and more

So I haven't been giving game-by-game updates for the second round of the Cavs series but we are down to one more, winner-take-all game after the Cavs got their third victory of the series tonight against Boston. That will be on Sunday at 3:30pm! Exciting!! However, I already have plans for Sunday so I'm not entirely sure how I'm going to incorporate game-watching into those plans. I will either have to be crafty or I will have to tape the game and watch it later as if it were live.

I've been a little busy in the last week. I met with one of my book clubs (we read Water for Elephants) and we are deciding on our next book. I went to a reception for the local chapter of the Special Libraries Association and hobnobbed with other area librarians. I hung out with some coworkers after work and had some drinks. I watched the basketball games. I got free VIP passes to see Serj Tankian because my friend's brother-in-law is in his band. I didn't think I would enjoy that as much as I did but it was really fun! I kept up on most of my television shows as the season winds down. And work has been pretty busy with a huge assignment suddenly thrown at me this last week. But I'm surviving it all.

My first YouTube embedded link

This is perhaps the funniest thing I've seen in a long time. What if people acted in real life like they do in Facebook? (via)

Weekend in a Nutshell

I had a pretty quiet weekend. My roommate is gone, which is quite enjoyable. I love having the place to myself!

I went to the basketball game on Friday night and was so amped from that for a good 24 hours afterwards. Other than that, though, I had a really quiet weekend. I'm still getting over my cold so I wanted to rest up and have an uneventful weekend. I'm a lot better but I still have this cough that I can't seem to shake. I met some friends for dinner at Ceiba on Saturday night. I also watched some movies, did a little shopping and did some things I hadn't gotten around to doing for awhile, like cleaning my room and getting my bike put together. The weather was pretty enjoyable this weekend, too. I turned on my air conditioning for the first time; seems to work great!

On to Round 2

The Cavs won on Friday night: Cavaliers 105, Wizards 88. It was a good game and I was there in person! I got a great seat in the second row of the Verizon Center, almost directly behind the Cavaliers bench and right next to the walkway that led to the Cavaliers locker room. You can check out my pictures from the game below. Click to view them larger.

Should Have Won

Yeah, the Cavs lost again last night, 88 to 87. They should have won; it was close; balls just weren't dropping in the basket at the end. But at least they still have two more games to close it out. Now, Game Six comes back to DC and I think I'll go to the game.

"The new library fad: borrow a person"

Interesting article from the UK about a "Living Library" where patrons can come in and "check out" a person to learn about a subject, i.e. Gay Man, Immigrant, Muslim, Social Worker. You choose your person of interest and get 30 minutes to talk to them and learn about them. Kinda cool! It's like skipping through a book to only the parts that interest you... (via)

A weekend of sickness

My weekend in a nutshell:

• Came home from work early on Friday because I was sick and not feeling well with a cold
  
• Got progressively sicker as the weekend wore on... and now am doing better thankfully
• Participated in some low-key activities - naps, movie-watching, book-reading, laundry
• Watched the Cavs win on Sunday - yay! Only one win away from the next round
• Traveled to Woodbridge to return items to Ikea on Saturday - had to go since their return policy allows for returns up to 90 days and Saturday was Day 90
• Had dinner with Charlie while I was in Woodbridge
• Unable to participate in shopping, which I normally like to do in Woodbridge, because I felt very dizzy and sick while walking around the mall, although I did run into the shoe store on my way out of the mall and ended up buying two really cute pairs of shoes. I guess the good thing about being sick is I had no time for my usual deliberation, I just purchased
  
• Talked to my mom for a few hours Saturday night.... about my brother potentially moving down the street from them (good news?!) and about my uncle who passed away last week (bad news)
  

Bethesda Book Club

I'm in so many book clubs now and none of them really have any names so I guess I'll call this the Bethesda one, only because we met last night for the first time in Bethesda. Our organizer would like to call it the Oprah/NYT Book Club because she prefers to read books from those lists but I think there are plenty of enjoyable, undiscovered books out there so I'm resistant to that name. Anyway, we read an Oprah-recommended novel, The Corrections, and while as recently as Tuesday it didn't seem like I would finish the book, I actually did. I had about 260 pages to go on Tuesday but I actually managed to fly through the rest of the book in the following two days so that I was done before the meeting. I feel pretty meh about the book, parts of it were enjoyable but all of the characters were so unlikeable and annoying that it was hard to sympathize with any of them. Anyway, we really did discuss the book and the women were all pretty nice and we're trying to decide on a place and a book for next time.

Afterwards, a couple of us went to a bar/restaurant to eat and watch the game. It was a good time! The only down side was that I missed the latest episode of Lost. But I did tape it so I'll be watching it tonight.

Can't Win Them All

I expected the Wizards to win game three after being dominated in game two and heading home but Wizards 108, Cavaliers 72 was way more than just losing. The Cavs sucked. It was embarrassing.

What's odd is that people seem to not even care around here. Watching the game on Monday night at a bar, there were more people in the bar rooting for the Cavs than for the hometown team. Last night, I went to a bar to watch it and they said no one had asked to have it on so they were going to keep the Nationals game on instead since people had asked for that. How crazy is that? The Nationals are in last place in their division in game 23 of a season that lasts 162 games. The Wizards are in the playoffs! And on my way home, I saw a lot more people wearing Cavs apparel than I saw wearing Wizards apparel. Generalizing, I guess Washington isn't a basketball town.

24 Picture

I was pretty excited when I saw this picture of the cast of the new season of 24. And it's not because of the show. I've never seen an episode of the show before. I was excited because the spot where they are all standing is about a 7 minute walk from my apartment so it's kinda cool to think I've been there before. Of course, the picture was probably green-screened or whatever... I'm guessing the cast isn't really standing on the Memorial Bridge.

StopForwarding

This Web site will anonymously send an email to any forward-happy friend asking them to stop forwarding you. Here is some of the content of the letter:

Please do not forward chain letters, urban myths presented as truth, potentially offensive jokes, videos or photos without being asked or first receiving permission. If you find something that is funny and it is clean and you genuinely think the recipient will enjoy it then foward it to that person only (not in an email blast to all your friends and family) and include a personal note about why you enjoyed it and why you think they will too. Avoid sending forwards to friends or relatives that you've grown distant with. It can be frustrating for the recpient when the only correspondance you have with someone is via impersonal, unwanted email.

It's kinda funny and slightly passive aggressive, but luckily I don't really have any need to use it since none of my friends are constantly forwarding me emails. I also notice that the letter has some typos in it, ha! (via)

Earth Day, Plant a Tree

Happy Earth Day! I saw this apple tree-to-be you can buy and plant for $19.13 and I would so do it if only I had somewhere to plant it. Maybe someone else can do it for me! (via)

Two in a Row!

The Cavs won again tonight! Cleveland 116, Washington 86. Two more victories and they're on to the next round.

Cavs 93, Wizards 86

I'm stoked that the Cavs won the first game in their playoff series today! Although it kind of sucks that I can't watch the games at home since most of them are on cable and I no longer have cable.