Fun Things I've Found on the Internet

Yes, I'm not posting one word titles for my blog entries anymore. It's hard to do and I end up starting to use the same ones over and over. So, that's over.

Anyhoo, this post is all about fun things I've found on the Internet. As the title states. Let's begin.

SurLaLune Fairytales.com
Perhaps you can surmise from the title that this site focuses on fairytales. You are right! I've always been a sucker for fairytales. They have all sorts of fun stuff on this site to support that suckerness. Here they have the original fairy tale, annotated, the history of the tale, a list of modern adaptations (my favorite), and other things. If you loved reading Grimm's Fairy tales or anything similar as a kid, check this site out.

Anke Eissmann
Ok, this is a person, but it's her website. She's an artist from Germany and I love her stuff. Granted, that's probably because she does a bunch of Lord of the Rings art, but it's so pretty! She is also working on illustrations for the Temeraire series (an alternate historical fiction series which takes place during the Napoleonic wars, but with dragons!) which are so beautiful.

You Suck at Photoshop
Most hilarious Photoshop tutorial ever. This guy takes you through all the basics, like merging pictures, cutting out images and sticking them in new pictures, etc., but the examples he uses are quite funny and sometimes irreverent. I like the one where he photoshops the picture of his girlfriend's cat. He adds some extras, like a stain on the carpet, and the cat suffocating in a plastic bag.

They didn't Study
Ok, you may have seen a bunch of these before, but check out the essay on El Nino. (Yes, there should a squiggly over the second n, but I haven't bothered to figure out how to do that on Blogger. Peter, maybe you could enlighten me?)

How I Got a Word in the Oxford English Dictionary
Read it. It's a cool story. And it makes me want to get a word in the OED.

Phonetics
I know. It sounds like a horribly boring website. But there are cool animations and sounds! It's quite interesting to see how your throat opens and your tongue moves when you say certain sounds. I'm a nerd.

The Language Accent Game
I got a less than desirable score the first time I played it. But some accents I got dead on. I really am a nerd.

Allen Smith Quotes
He's a LIS professor. His quotes make me half scared to be going into the profession.

10 Reasons Why the Internet Is No Substitute for a Library
And that's why libraries will never go away. I really think librarians could take over the world. If they wanted to.

If Real Life Were a Musical
You may have seen this, too, but I think it's the best. So creative and awesome.

Well, I hope that someone gets some amount of amusement out of these. I certainly did. But then, as I've said, I'm a nerd.

Customer Service

I love my job at the library. I really do. But sometimes there are things that just bother me. Plus, they're really annoying. (Mom, get Bryan to read those last two sentences. They were especially for him.)

Peeve #1
Patrons who never pick up the books they put on hold
Seriously, people. Why did you put the book on hold if you don't want it? Just click on the link in the email we send you to cancel it! So simple!

Peeve #2
Patrons who get furious about a recalled book
It's called sharing. You should have learned that lesson in preschool. We let you have it for 3 weeks, then it's someone else's turn.

Peeve #3
Patrons who expect me to cater to their every need
I'm happy to help. Really I am. But you expect me to call your professor to ask them why they can't find the book on course reserve? I don't think so.

Peeve #4
Patrons who mutilate dozens of books, then lie about it
Didn't you sign BYU's Honor Code? Disappointing. Maybe if you 'fessed up to it, we'd be more understanding.

Peeve #5
Patrons who don't read the whole email we send, then accuse us of being trained in our communications skills by the Gestapo
Ok, this really happened. And actually, his reply to our email was hilarious. The Gestapo part made me bust up laughing. But he claimed we didn't say "please" in the recall email. It's right there, buster. Look again. And turn in the book. Please.

Peeve #6
Patrons who leave the state for extended periods of time and take their library books with them
It's not a good idea to do this. Your books will inevitably be recalled by some poor soul and then you will send the poor Holds/Recalls secretaries angry emails demanding to know why we didn't realize you were out of town.

Now, to bring happy feelings back, there are some things that make me very happy about my job, too.

I love it when patrons have positive attitudes. It makes them so much easier to work with. Not to mention, it makes me want to show them mercy.

I love recalling books from people I know. Mostly because I get to heavily modify our standard recall email into something much funnier and way more amusing to read.

I love it when I check all the recalled books from the week before and discover that everyone turned their books in!

I love it when I track down a book that we haven't been able to find.

I love it when a patron leaves the desk happy and satisfied. Because I feel happy and satisfied, too, when I can get them all the customer service they need.

Taste

In an effort to update my blog more frequently and because I'm super bored today, here is a post.

One of my hobbies is reading books. However, whenever people ask what kind of books I like to read, I'm always at a loss of what to say. I never really thought that I had a favorite genre.

Lately, I've been into historical fiction. I've just started this book about an ex-gladiator who becomes king of the Scots in 2nd century Britain. It's called The Mark of the Horse Lord. Just a random book I picked off the shelf, really, but I love historical fiction about any part of Britain. Probably due partly to my heritage and due partly to my educational background.

I also quite enjoy adaptations of classics. Mostly classic fairy tales, but I'm reading an alternate version of Alice in Wonderland book series right now, called The Looking Glass Wars. In this retelling, Alyss is the princess of Wonderland, but is exiled to our world when her aunt Redd stages a coup and murders Alyss' parents. Wonderland is more of a techno-culture, but all the familiar characters are there: the Mad Hatter, the White Rabbit, and the Cheshire cat. Of course, their alter-egos are a bit different. The Mad Hatter, or Hatter Madigan, heads up the elite security Millinery organization, the White Rabbit, Bibwit Harte, is Alyss' faithful tutor, and the Cheshire cat is Redd's deadly assassin. What's fun is to pick out all the references from the original story: decks of card soldiers, a walrus butler, and a spinning teacup ride at Wonderland's local amusement park. It's a good read.

Skills

Moving day draws near. Very near. It's tomorrow, in fact.

My stuff is packed. I have a lot of stuff. Less stuff than my roommate, but more than I started this whole college deal with. Too bad I don't have a car to transport all this stuff. It's gonna be a pain.

I hope I have learned from all these moving experiences. I hope I have learned to not be a pack rat. I'd like to think that I can go through a box of junk that I've collected and get rid of stuff pretty painlessly. That would be a good skill to have.

And at least I would have learned one thing from college.

Okay, I've learned more than just that. Thank goodness.