So much for that

Well, I got an email from our contact with the UAE Libraries Deanship today. She's so sorry that she didn't get hold of us earlier, but they have selected two other candidates for the Reference positions. I guess it's nice that they want to keep our applications active, "just in case," but this is the topper on a week that was already kind of depressing. All the more reason it's a good thing I'm leaving for Ottawa tomorrow.

The good news is that if Frances hits, I'll miss her. Though I suppose I should take the contact information for my landlord and my insurance company just in case. The margin of error on the projected path of the storm is pretty wide, so we're still not sure at this point exactly where it will come ashore.

long time no blog

Once again, it seems like a long time since I've posted here. Pretty much same old, same old, I guess, and I would rather be absent than boring!

School is back in. Though the kids don't seem to be as bad this year. Maybe it's because with the new time-management software they need to use their library cards to use the computers, as opposed to last year's video-arcade free-for-all. Don't know if it'll last but I'm enjoying it while it does.

Having the usual fun with my TN renewal paperwork. Thanks to a completely, totally, one hundred per cent incompetent secretary, my renewal letter had to be rewritten three times, under intense supervision. Oh, and did I mention her bad attitude and the rudeness and the fact that she argued that she was right and we were wrong when we pointed out basic mistakes like the fact that she got the name of the USCIS wrong??????. Don't ask me why I don't just get over this crap and not let it bug me....every year I'm stressed out by this stuff and my paperwork is never ever done until the last minute.

This year it's compounded by the fact that I am needing to also get a new passport. They tell me before I send in my application that it will be sent to the Miami Consulate when it's done. Then when I call to see why it is late they tell me they are waiting for me to confirm where I want to pick it up! Then when I follow the agent's instructions to arrange to pick it up in Ottawa I get a phone call 3 days later saying that that is a problem because there is no counter for exchange there (they need to invalidate my old one so I don't have 2 valid ones at the same time). Sigh. To give Justin credit he has promised me that it will be ready in Ottawa on the third, and that if he runs into problems there he will bend the rules slightly and have me come to his office in Hull so he can handle it personally. And both of these offices are less than 10 minutes of driving from my aunt's place. But still...come on...you've had an entire month!!

On top of all this other testing-my-natural-impatience stuff, I've just found out that the engagement ring that we finally found and ordered won't be ready until after we get back. And I want it now, darn it!!!!

hmph.

The good news is that I'm soon out of here for a week of heaven in Canada with Michael, who has been in Spokane the past week with his family. And I. can. hardly. wait!

BTW, if you're looking for some light entertainment to pass the time, may I suggest Etiquette Hell. I'd better warn you in advance though, the site can be addictive....

Thar he blows

Okay, this is just freaky.

We are all obsessively tracking Hurricane Charley, which is now a category 4 hurricane--winds up to 145mph---and twice as strong as originally forecast. Articles from this afternoon describe the kind of effects that places on the west coast, especially Tampa, may expect to experience. Want to see what he looks like? check the map from weather.com.

So far things here in Broward haven't been too bad. We had a heavy rainfall in the middle of the night last night, and things were sunny and calm this morning. However, the wind's been picking up dramatically for the past couple of hours and we expect more stormy weather to come. We are also under tropical storm, flood, and tornado watches until sometime this evening. Naturally, I have to be out tonight...hopefully I won't end up driving to my bellydance gig in the middle of pouring rain.

Here Comes Charley!

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5653487/

Forecast to just miss us, thank goodness!

Too bad the storms weren't named Bonnie and Clyde.... :)

Some small consolation

Well, my suspicion was correct. DHL responded to my complaint letter with....coupons! Somehow they just didn't get the "never using your services again" part, I guess. Oh well--at least they promised to investigate and take corrective action. Though promising and doing are two separate things. If you're interested, here's the complete text of their letter.

Feeling pretty tired and burnt lately, as I've been involved with a new software installation at work that has required way too many 7am start times. Not the morning person, just not. But I think that EnvisionWare will make our lives much easier. Much much less computer policework, no standing over patrons well after close telling them to get off the computer now, and so forth. Let's hear it for patron self-management and automatic terminal shutdowns at the end of the day! woo hoo!

The other big news is that SIAST offered me the job in Moose Jaw. But, I turned it down. I think it was the right decision, but it was still a difficult thing to do. It was hard to know that while it would have got me out of Broward County and back to Canada it was still not the right job for me. And the lack of opportunities--professional and academic--for Michael would have made living there difficult. Oh well. I'll just hold on and hope that the UAE works out, or, if not, something else does.

Testing Meme Propagation in Blogspace: Add Your Blog!

This posting is a community experiment that tests how a meme, represented by this blog posting, spreads across blogspace, physical space and time. It will help to show how ideas travel across blogs in space and time and how blogs are connected. It may also help to show which blogs (and aggregation sites) are most influential in the propagation of memes. The dataset from this experiment will be public, and can be located via Google (or Technorati) by doing a search for the GUID for this meme (below).

The original posting for this experiment is located at: Minding the Planet. (Permalink: http://novaspivack.typepad.com/nova_spivacks_weblog/2004/08/a_sonar_ping_of.html) --- results and comments about the experiment appear at that location.

Please join the test by adding your blog (see instructions, below) and inviting your friends to participate -- the more the better. The data from this test will be public and open; others may use it to visualize and study the connectedness of blogspace and the propagation of memes across blogs.

The GUID for this experiment is: as098398298250swg9e (Note: this replaces the longer, original GUID -- listed below -- which didn't format nicely in narrow column layouts. Those sites still using the longer GUID will still be found in the data set).

The above GUID enables anyone to easily search Google or other search engines for all blogs that participate in this experiment, once they have indexed the sites that participate, which may take several days or weeks. To locate the full data set, just search for the any sites that contain either the short GUID (above) or the long GUID (for your reference, the long GUID is a single 72 character string comprised of the following segments put together with the white-spaces removed: as098398298250swg9e 98929872525389t9987 898tq98wteqtgaq6201 0920352598gawst -- they are listed here as different segments so that they will format better in narrow column layouts.)

Anyone is free to analyze the data of this experiment. Please publicize your analysis of the data, and/or any comments by adding comments onto the original post (see URL above). (Note: it would be interesting to see a geographic map or a temporal animation, as well as a social network map of the propagation of this meme.)

INSTRUCTIONS

To add your blog to this experiment, copy this entire posting to your blog, and then answer the questions below, substituting your own information, below, where appropriate. Other than answering the questions below, please do not alter the information, layout or format of this post in order to preserve the integrity of the data in this experiment (this will make it easier for searchers and automated bots to find and analyze the results later).

REQUIRED FIELDS (Note: Replace the answers below with your own answers)

(1) I found this experiment at URL: http://www.podbaydoor.com

(2) I found it via "Newsreader Software" or "Browsing the Web" or "Searching the Web" or "An E-Mail Message": Browsing the Web

(3) I posted this experiment at URL: http://darcysworld.blogspot.com/

(4) I posted this on date (day/month/year): 04/08/04

(5) I posted this at time (24 hour time): 14:42:00

(6) My posting location is (city, state, country): Pembroke Pines, Florida, USA

OPTIONAL SURVEY FIELDS (Replace the answers below with your own answers):

(7) My blog is hosted by: blogspot

(8) My age is: 32

(9) My gender is: Female

(10) My occupation is: Reference Librarian

(11) I use the following RSS/Atom reader software: none/don't know (sorry for the illiteracy here)

(12) I use the following software to post to my blog: blogger

(13) I have been blogging since (day, month, year): 05/06/2002

(14) My web browser is: IE 6.0.2880.1106

(15) My operating system is: Windows 2000