Today was my day off, a nice relaxing day. And so I got a daytime photo! This is the view from my back porch through our backyard. The backyard is small but it makes up for it because it opens into a park. You can see the park, the grassy part and then the trees in the bog that the trail loops. It's a great walk (just about 1 and a quarter mile) and a lot of fun. I have walked it and skied it. It's quite beautiful, the frozen bog. I'll have to get photos of it. For now just see the tree line.

( Year of Photos, Day 5 )

And of course two days ago to celebrate statehood, after fireworks we tracked down Snowzilla. There's quite the history of Snowzilla. It is a giant snowman that is annually built in an otherwise quiet neighborhood in a man's front yard. It's become quite the tourist/internet/local attraction. However this year, when Snowzilla was no more than a base, the city left a notice for the owner telling him not to build a giant snowman. This prompted a fury in the public, protests at city hall (of both the human and snowman variety), snowmen protesting just out of town, and other natures of rabble rousing including a few very funny letters to the editor. And then miraculously in the middle of the night Snowzilla was rebuilt. Naturally no one knew how that could have happened. The city gave Snowzilla a Christmas reprieve, but is still threatening to pull him down. Of course part of the problem is that the city has a very legitimate complaint, the guy is running a junkyard out of his frontyard. It's quite the eyesore Snowzilla notwithstanding. But we had fun getting pictures with him. Now the city wants to build a giant snowman for the Fur Rondy festival. So they're telling this guy to tear his down, while stealing his idea. Of course it won't be in the middle of a quiet and peaceful neighborhood.

( here are pictures of Snowzilla and me )

Long time, no post. And not much time now before work. However, and I'm sure most of you are watching this, but Doctor Horrible's Sing Along Blog is the best thing ever. It is a project Joss Whedon (creator of Buffy, Angel, Firefly, etc) cooked up during the writers strike. It starts Neil Patrick Harris (Doogie, How I Met Your Mother) as an inept, sorta sweet, super villain trying to get admitted to the Evil League of Evil. Harris has been all over broadway and is a seriously good singer/dancer. Fantastic! It also features a Buffy alum and Nathan Fillion (sp?) who was Captain Mal on Firefly. And it's a musical. It's geek girl heaven! So popular it broke the site and itunes trying to sell it (go to the site to see it for free - scroll down to the bottom).

In other news, my uncle was here last week and we did NOT get arrested by Homeland Security so that is always good.

One more week of summer programming and two more weeks of summer reading program and then I can stop going insane. But there are a ton of fun things in store for this fall.

I hiked up a mountain.

More details on these things and photos later.

Here are a variety of things that have crossed my path recently that I have saved to share with y'all. Enjoy!

• Test your typing speed It's a fun way to test your typing speed, something most of us haven't done since school. I average around 85-88 wpm. The only problem is that unlike the tests we took in school there are no points taken off for incorrect words. And I'm so used to fixing mistakes as I go along, that slows me down because it is hard to force myself to keep going.
  
• From the files of soldier photos of Alaskan stationed soldiers, comes this fantastic photo. I love the dog's facial expression.
  
• I'm a bit of a lit/book geek, but I find this video of an upcoming pop up books absolutely amazing. The video is cool and the book is incredible. And okay I'm more than a bit of a book geek.
  
• And you thought that you knew the alphabet. These alphabets are really cool. I love the one made of people, and when I realized that this one was made by the sky through the edges of buildings, looking up from street level that I was simply blown away.
  
• Have some free time? Write your own comic! There are characters, props, thought bubbles, and word balloons. It's fantastic. Saturday was Free Comic Book Day and our library was a participating site. I wore the promotional tshirt and gave away comics. And my coworkers and I had WAY too much fun creating our own. The librarian was always the hero.
  
• There are a lot of celebrities out there who should NEVER be anyone's role model. So this is a breath of fresh air. Gretchen Wilson earned her GED. There was no need for her to do that, but she didn't want her daughter to see her mother so successful without an education. That is very cool of her to admit and for her to go to that effort and do. It's a short story and worth a read. Congrats to the self-proclaimed "redneck woman".
  

Enjoy the random links! Stay tuned for my latest moose adventure.

Or at least I'm out of clever title entries for the journal. We drove about 437 miles today. There are so many things that make driving hard. The road looks fine on a map, but it is fairly windy around mountains. There has been constant snow, packed snow on the highway, blowing snow, it's just amazing. We've been in whiteout with little visibility. And horrible blowing winds. The last 20 miles I was only doing 20-30mph and fighting for every inch of road. We were driving around this lake called Kluane Lake. It was just awful, incredibly awful. The truckers we talked to over dinner (and road repair guys) said that we're allowed to drive anywhere so long as we stay on the road. We sort of stay in the middle only getting over when passing another car or truck (about once or twice an hour). Just pick your favorite rut, tire track, or vaguely clear patch, and go. The yellow line in the middle is merely a suggestion, just stay in between the two outside white lines. We simply couldn't drive any farther tonight. We're also hampered by the lack of sunrise. We've been trying to get up early and get going, but it isn't even worth it with no sun until 9:30am.

I put up pictures here on my photobucket. I'll try to put up a full view of them and some explanation later. It's beautiful, but repetitive beauty.

Jane Austen cat has learned how to open up her carrier. She let herself out while we were paying for the hotel. Mom had to jump in the car quickly to catch her so she wouldn't jump out of the car (into the two feet of drifted snow - that would've been a shock). Mainly we open her carrier and she crawls a bit to see how things have shifted (the overnight bags we take in get repacked slightly differently every day), and then she settles in her carrier, or in this little nook by purses and bags she has found. From her nook she can sleep, see out the windshield, it's high perched up and snuggled between some bags. I've been leaving the nook free for her and she seems very content. She's getting used to this routine of travelling. Sometimes I wish I were doing as well. I'm tired, stressed, and sore. It's okay, but not an ideal situation. Thank heaven for Aleve. Mom and I have gotten better about switching drivers more often rather than just at lunch and each taking a half day. It's easier to do your half day in shorter shifts. Whoever isn't driving either crochets, or takes photos, or naps, or reads the Milepost about coming road conditions (curves, steep grades, bridges, etc).

We're stopped in Destruction Bay, Yukon Territory, Canada. The hotel has internet (again - we've had amazing luck with the internet), rooms, and a restaurant that makes a pretty good monte cristo sandwich. The farther north we get, the more pronounced the accents. We try very hard not to chuckle when they say "eh" or call us "luv" or any of those things. And they try very hard not to chuckle when we say "y'all" or mispronounce every name of every town.

The scenery (when we could see it) has been beautiful, but far too often we are only seeing white fog. We are now up to four moose spotted. They remain hard to photograph though. Seen lots of bison - though less today. Mom and I don't even think we have seen a moose in the zoo. However the scenery is repetitively beautiful. Overall we drove 437 miles today and have 543 miles or so left before Anchorage. But the roads and weather are so bad, we're not sure we can make it. But we really really really really really really really really want to.

We have seen only one person who was not white (he was Black) in all of Canada. (With the exception of the members of the First Nations - Native Americans). I pointed this out to mom when she wanted to order Quesedillas about 2000 miles from Mexico.

My car is so dirty and snow covered you can not even tell there is no tag on it. Before I picked up the Jeep they had installed an Engine Block Heater in it. The last couple of nights there have been plug ins at every hotel room. I raise the hood, get the plug in, get my extension cord (which I was smart enough to make a special trip to Target to purchase before I left Kansas) and plug in the car. It keeps the oil from freezing, makes it easier to start your car in the morning. I've yet to have trouble starting my car, but this is easier on the car (and as a fun by product severely reduces your carbon emissions because you idle the car for less time and it warms up faster). Actually we've been going down mountains so much today that our gas mileage has been the best of the trip.

To keep me going those last 25 miles, we started playing the abc memory game. You know the one from when you're a kid, I'm going camping and I'm taking... you say that then an item starting with an a, the next person says what you said and adds on an item with the 'b'. The point is to get to the end of the alphabet without forgetting anything. Here is our version:
( I'm going to Alaska and I'm taking... )

Read this story

He was charged with "fraudulent possession of women's underwear". That is so fantastic.

And yes I know that Singapore has a lot of very strict laws but this made me laugh hugely.

Apparently if I move to Alaska and fall on ice/snow that naturally accumulates, I can't sue...
Even on an army base

Also no more Ho Ho Ho for Santa...
Give him the old heave-ho

Do you ever see the funny photos over at I Can Has Cheezburger? It is funny cat photos captioned in "internet speak" because obviously cats can't master proper grammar or spelling. And they really want cheeseburgers.

This one amuses me hugely, I'm not sure why this one in particular, but it does make me laugh. I keep going back to it.

( too amusing )

J. K. Rowling just completed a new book, a book of fairy tales called “The Tales of Beedle the Bard” which is of course the volume that (WARNING SPOILER!) Dumbledore leaves Hermione in his will. (OKAY SPOILER OVER). Only seven copies have been made, one of which will be on sale in an auction house for charity.

Read the story

Sadly my library's entire book budget probably wouldn't buy it. We could pay the asking price, but not as high as it is likely to go. And I doubt my parents would get it for me if I put it on my Christmas list...


Also, Ms. Rowling is suing to block a publication from a “lexicon website” because she plans to publish her own HP Encyclopedia. So that is good news for all the die-hards out there. (Uhmmm... like me...)
That story

I see another party in my library's future… Or at least a massive trivia night.

In the sharing of links, here are some early Bill Watterson (of Calvin and Hobbes fame) comics from his college days. Look quickly before they go away for copyright reasons.

Pretty interesting

I'm sure most of you have already seen this, but J. K. Rowling revealed more stuff in a recent talk...

Guess whose gay, and who Neville married...

That seemed an unnecessary revelation on her part, but I suppose many of the Conservative Christians already hated her.

This cat has taken to riding the bus. He always gets on at the same stop and gets off at the next stop where there is a fish and chips shop (this is England). How fabulous!

If this didn't specifically mention Wyoming, I'd be all over it. And I think Dad should especially appreciate this...
( cut for the sake of friend page sizes )
See more of the fun and fabulousness of this campaign to promote libraries at Wyoming Libraries.

Here I talked about International Peace Day as being the same day as 9/11. I was wrong. It is actually unrelated and the person who told me misunderstood it. I was a bad librarian and didn't research on my own before posting it as fact. It is on September 21st (tomorrow) and has been going on since the UN passed a resolution in the 80s. (Basically it is the same age as I am).

International Day of Peace

You know I'm 25 and single. And that feels old maid-ish. Or at least on the verge. But then I realize that is at least in part a function of where and how I live. This area (center of the country) has a lower average marriage age as does my subculture (conservative Christian). As a result, many of the people I know get married much younger. However, I'm slowly realizing that isn't the national average. I saw an article about a man which referred to him as "25, hardly the marrying age" (not an exact quote, but close) and another article entitled "married young: crazy in love or just crazy" (once again not exact). How young were they? 24. And the article was about a marriage of the author's in the 80s! (She had perspective now.) Yeah. 24 isn't married young in my opinion, it's basically average. But then I realize I'm in a unique position. Still... I trust in God that this will all come in God's time.

Oooh, but this comic made me laugh a little too hard.


From the incredible XKCD

I once made up my own "dating age" formula that was very similair to that. No graphs though.

Here's an interesting story:

Ancient Tablet Vouches for Biblical King

I have my thoughts and comments, but mostly I love this stuff. I wonder if it will make the next issue of Biblical Archaeological Review which is the most popular periodical at our church library. I think that says a lot about my church, that people are more interested in the archaeological evidence than they are in Modern Christian Woman. I like to hink it says that our church is very focused on an intelligent faith. Yes you take many things by faith and choose to believe, but you choose out of intelligence not fear or ignorance.

For those of you who didn't find the ending satisfying with enough details, and you wanted to know more, here are some answers as to who is doing what. (Most of you probably have already seen these).

MSNBC interview transcript
Most of the career stuff for the characters is on page 4, but the whole interview is fairly interesting.

This interview covers a lot of points about why I dressed up like Hermione (besides having the hair). From the moment I read these books, ten odd years ago, I related to Hermione. She's smart (I did well in school, etc), but she's also very insecure. She tries to doubly and triply prove herself by being the best and smartest. It's clear from the moment she steps on the train in the first book that all her brainy bluster is covering a lot of fear and insecurity. I was a lot like that as a child/teen. I was rather a know-it-all too, and used my brains and book knowledge to cover my complete fear in social situations. Fortunately I made some good friends and relaxed (though I still never relax totally in social situations with people who are among a very select few and instead I "perform". But who you see now is a lot closer to the real me than you would have seen ten years ago, everyone performs in public to some extent and I don't think mine is too far off the average). Also Hermione is at heart a rule follower as am I . I don't even speed really (much to the consernation of my sister and Heather). Hermione is a geek with few friends - none before Harry and Ron a fact which leads her to cry in the bathroom getting attacked by the troll. I never had many friends either. I understand Hermione because in a lot of ways she is who I was in school. Fortunately both of us managed to grow into functional adults. I have a good social circle now, I'm able to realte fairly well to them, I'm happy and content with a career I love and I can prosper in, all a good ending for a geeky shy knowitall with no friends (well I'm not at my ending yet, but I'm at a great place).

Transcript of an oline chat with JKR by Bloomsbury, reproduced on Mugglenet
More info on whose doing what

( my favorite tidbits, spoiler warning )

And now I leave you with one of my all time favorite Harry Potter quotes (from Hermione in the first book).
"I hope you're pleased with yourselves. We could all have been killed - or worse, expelled. Now if you don't mind, I'm going to bed." - Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

Pirates Vs Ninjas

Which would win in a fight? Pirates? Ninjas?

Here is a very geeky answer.

Sex Vs Brains

Does being smarter mean less sex?

A study looked at IQ points and college majors and compared them to virginity rates

For the record I don't believe in sex before marriage (which should have been clear by now), but I found that fascinating.

Music I'm Into Right Now
Quite a while ago, someone "tagged" me on a meme to mention seven songs you're really into right now. I don't remember how many songs or who it was (maybe Carrie), but here are some songs I'm very into right now (in no particular order).

• Would You Go With Me by Josh Turner
  
• Going Through Hell by Rodney Atkins
  
• Ladies Love Country Boys by Trace Adkins
  
• Calling Out Your Name by Rich Mullins
  
• Streets of Love by the Rolling Stones
  
• Sympathy for the Devil by the Rolling STones
  
• Johnny Cash by Jason Aldean
  

There are more that I will have to remember to add as I think of them. And now I leave you with some lyrics...

And she's riding in the middle of a pickup truck
Blaring Charlie Daniels, yelling 'turn it up!'
They raised her up a lady,
But there's one thing they couldn't avoid...
Ladies love country boys.
-Trace Adkins

Introducing the Cat Cam. This man made a small camera, rigged it took take pictures at a certain interval, and posted the pictures, not all of them, but a selection.

Jane Austen is an indoor only cat so I can't do this with her, but I love the idea. And I'm just enough of a geek to be intrigued by the technical aspect.

I'm doing bills, etc. It always makes me feel vaguely uneasy in some undefinable way. This website helps. I'm really quite rich. I'm not rich for the area I live in because I live in a very rich suburban area. However, I am nicely settled for this country as a whole, and rich for the world as a total.

Check it out: How Rich Are You? Global Rich List

I know we've heard it, but the little peoplelike makes it all the more real. So here are my list of richness and blessings (off the top of my head): (some of these should be subsets, but I'm not sure how to do that encoding)

• housing - clean, affordable, spacious enough, safe, etc
  
• good water
  
• abundant food - pretty much all that I want, whatever I want
  
• health insurance and access to any health service I want
  
• dental insurance
  
• a working vehicle
  
• all my luxuries in terms of vehicles and houses like heating and a/c
  
• entertainment, music (cds, mp3s, ipod, etc), tickets, movies, books - by some people's standards I don't buy that much, but I do buy them and I am blessed
  
• clothing and shoes
  
• televsion
  
• personal computer and internet access
  
• cell phone
  

The list could go on and on and on. I am so blessed, God has given me so much. Yet I want to look at those who have more (and there is always someone for 99.99999% of the population) and covet. When instead I should be looking toward Heaven from which such bounty flows (and let's face it, I work hard for my money, I went to school for my job, but a great deal of my success has been a result of being born to the right family, in the right neighborhood, in the right country) and thanking my Lord.

Only a few days behind breaking news, but on February 1st, 2007, the CDC, Center for Disease Control released their new recommendations for dealing with a pandemic flu virus. Scariest thing I've read in a long time. Warning, thinking about this too hard will give you nightmares. Failure to think about it may be fatal. ( Read on or not at your own risk. )

It's apocalyptic it is so scary. This is what keeps me up at night. These are the monsters that haunt my nightmares.