This is the effervescent Savannah. Her name tag may say Elizabeth, but we'll get to that in a moment.The New York Times ran this (undecided on my adjective) piece today, Anger As A Private Company Takes Over Libraries. Now I (and all of the people I've met in my program) decided to enter the Information field not only because we find information fascinating, but because we think it is a great equalizer, the cornerstone of democracy, because we want to make sure each individual gets the information they need to enrich their lives. Apparently, L.S.S.I. thinks information professionals get their Masters so that they can slack off for 35 years and retire.
Quotable quotes from Chief Exec Frank Pezzanite:
“There’s this American flag, apple pie thing about libraries, somehow they have been put in the category of a sacred organization."
I think that's the cornerstone of democracy thing. I'm sure Ben Franklin would think the public library a sacred organization.
“A lot of libraries are atrocious, their policies are all about job security. That’s why the profession is nervous about us. You can go to a library for 35 years and never have to do anything and then have your retirement. We’re not running our company that way. You come to us, you’re going to have to work.”
I'm curious if Mr. Pezzanite has spoken to a single librarian in his life. Perhaps he should try that before alienating himself and his company with such an insulting statement.
So now I get to start my week off with that.
Here's some of the "nothing" going on in my life:
Heather and I went to a volunteer session at the Inside Books Project, a local organization that provides reading material to prisoners in Texas. It was extremely rewarding, volunteers get to open the letters and choose the materials from the donated library. If you have any books, magazines, pamphlets, anything, it's a great place to donate them.
My semester seems to be a bit bimodal in terms of assignments due and I've hit the dip (you should know what bimodal means if you have taken statistics in recent memory), but indolent I will not be. I'm starting my volunteer work at the Austin Public Library on Saturday and I will be a reader for a student at the Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired this semester. Also, I'm not part of the event coordination team for ASIS&T. Me and technology? Who knew? The Texas Book Festival is in October, too and I'm signed up to help out with that.
Considering the trillion-hour work weeks I've been putting in, a girl can't work too much without some play. Some unofficial extracurricular activities my ISchool crew has been up to:
Alamo Drafthouse for a 90's alternative singalong
Crashing a ten-year high school reunion at The Belmont (see photo above). Full bar, catered, and Savannah walked away with a cute guy's number
Cutting in line and not paying cover at Molotov Lounge. Like Savannah says "all you have to do is act like your shit don't stink and people will believe it"
Some of you may have heard the UT lost the game against UCLA on Saturday. Helen and I were driving down The Drag post game, and it was a sea of depressed, burnt orange people.
Apparently a losing game is not a game worth going to.Here is a video of some unicycle football going on at the end of my street last week. I'm still learning to love Austin and its weirdness.
Inks Lake, 
Meg showed off her baking skills once again since we were also celebrating Helen's birthday.
Tuesday was the worst and I could have stayed inside all day seeing how I had no classes, but I have my duties decided to brave the torrential downpour to visit the Book Lab and the library for some studying. I'm used to rain, right? Good Lord, not that kind of rain. There were plenty of people on campus still in sandals and without umbrellas, their T-shirts matted to their bodies. Perhaps they didn't get the news? Maybe they don't own umbrellas? I offered my umbrella to a poor girl at my bus stop who had an about-to-disintegrate newspaper over her head. I mentioned that I'm from Seattle and she asked "So it probably rains like this all the time up there, right?" No one understands Seattle.
Meagan spotted this rubbery looking demon on our porch the day after the storm and urged me to blog about it. We've already been having a roach problem, so I was worried the storm would make a bunch of bugs seek shelter, but luckily our porch was enough for this guy. I would lose my appetite for days if I saw this thing crawling around.