Today

Today I:
*Went to Target to buy necessary things (including marked-down candy, flannel bedsheets, and drano)
*Wrote the first 1,928 words of my NaNoWriMo novel (which will be terrible, and I still have no idea what it's about)
*Finished the above in time to watch the Phillies game
*Debated whether or not I want to watch the Phillies game based on the outcome of the last two
*Decided that I would feel responsible if the Phillies lose and I don't watch, because the single area of my life where I am completely and totally superstitious is baseball

This is more than I have done in the past several days combined. I hate being sick, and greatly prefer not being sick.

What I did today

Today at work, I counted bits of brightly colored paper. For the entire 3.5 hours. (Well, no. Also I looked up an email address for my boss).

See, the organization I'm working for hosted Big Public Party on the 4th of July. To get into this party you had to purchase a ticket, and of course turn it over at the gate.

Now, for reasons which I'm not entirely certain on, those tickets now need to be counted. Guess who gets to do that? Me! So, yesterday afternoon I started counting. I counted 2,100 little pieces of paper.

Today I got to work and was told that not only was I supposed to be counting the tickets but also separating the two different types of tickets. So, I sorted through the previously-counted 2,100 tickets. Then I kept sorting, and counting. And sorting. And counting. And counting and sorting. And so on.

So that's what I did this morning. But I also met a lovely dog, and got a pair of nice capris for cheap at REI this afternoon, so overall I say a win.

Worst thing ever

I generally keep my little shower basket - with soap and body pouf and face wash and all that - in the bathroom on the floor. There's a little alcove with a bathtub that no one ever uses, so it's a good place to just stick something like that.

I hop in the shower today after biking back from the grocery store. Grabbed my pouf - and a goddamn cricket jumps out.

I hate crickets. They creep me the hell out and they're evil and nasty and vile and foul. And this one had that awful jabby appendage sticking off it's butt, which I know isn't a stinger but it looks like one and it's horrible.

Luckily, it did not jump on me. Also luckily I did not totally freak out and scream and slip and fall and crack my skull open on the tile wall. I did, however, stomp on it, repeatedly, far more than necessary, and with great glee. Stupid crickets, trying to ruin my shower.

Top secret missions in liberal arts

I suspect that the college administration has concocted a nefarious moneymaking scheme with the makers of magnetic card readers.

In the past, you've truly needed your college ID for three things: your cafeteria meal plan (they swipe the card when you enter), to get back on campus after a certain hour at night, and to verify your identity with security if you needed them to unlock your room for you. The second and third things really only apply occasionally (number of times I've locked myself out in my entire career here: three). And that was pretty much fine, because when you attend (or work at) such a ridiculously small institution, you at least recognize people. You might not really know them, but you recognize them as a part of the college.

Lately, the college has been increasing the importance of carrying your ID. In the fall, the front doors to the dorms will ostensibly switch from a key to a swipe-card system. Personally, I foresee lots of doors being propped open and/or simply left unlocked, as they are now.

You already need to have your ID for them to swipe when you go down to the gym. In the past, you just needed to sign in on a clipboard; now they've got a fancy computerized setup.

And now I just got a notice informing me that (at least during the summer), you'll need to present your ID in order to pick up your paycheck. In the past, you went down to the office, initialed next to your name on the list of paycheck-getters, and they handed you your check.

Keep in mind that this is a school with student body of less than 500. During the summer there's only a few dozen student employees. During the school year obviously there are more, but still. I'm confident that the staff has it in them to be able to recognize when someone's not the person they say they are; it's pretty hard to disguise your identity in this small and isolated of a community.

It all seems to me like ridiculous for-show measures, or some sort of insane attempt to modernize things that really don't need any modernization.

Oh boy

I've decided - though I don't know if I'll follow through - to try to begin teaching myself Arabic this summer.  So far I'm working through the beginning of The Arabic Alphabet: How to Read & Write It.  

So far I'm very, very intimidated.  

It's so delicious

Happy Pi day!  But far, far more importantly, happy last day of classes before break!

Also, happy 'apparently I'm getting another cold' day!

Book sale!

The library book sale was this weekend.  On Friday, they opened it up for the college community.  Today was bag day, three bucks for a bag.  All told, I got fifteen books for thirteen bucks.  Not a bad deal indeed, though I'm never going to have time to read them.  

One of the books I got was Dune, which I've been meaning to read for years.  It's long, so it'll take me a while to get through on top of Kant, but it so far lives up to the hype.  I think Tolkien and Herbert were kindred spirits, so to speak.  They had entire universes in their head.  

Yesterday afternoon I worked as a cashier.  They had us students working, and also volunteers from the library guild.  I ended up working with an older couple, and they were absolutely lovely.  He apparently had been a journalist by career and had worked in DC during the Vietnam era.  And they'd been to London a number of times, which of course provided a conversation topic.  We had a whole one or two customers, but there was no problem whiling away the time chatting with them.  

Sometimes, it's nice to just sit and talk to the more senior generations.  They've got interesting stories to tell.

This post contains everything that is good in the world.

Neil Gaiman and pandas. *swoon*

Signature

Apparently this little promotional bit of animation won some award at the Cannes. Very well done, I think - Amnesty is one of those organizations that can be a bit tricky to sum up concisely, but I think this does a very nice job.