The New Musings of a Quiet Geek

As many of you know, for the past 5 or 6 years, I have been actively pursuing Social Security Disability.  It has not been an easy road. It was hard for even my lawyer to wrap his head around the fact I have a Masters degree in Library Science.  Never mind that there was little wrong with the left side of my brain. I, like many with disabilities, have been able to beat the odds and overcome adversity. My parents were told I was blind and would never walk. Sure, both are issues for me but I can still do them!  And then my dream job at the seminary happened. How can I prove I can't work when I in fact am and am now reasonably able to pay most of my expenses? Should I have turned down? Maybe. Have I ever pondered saying "No?" Hell, no. Two months later, the seizures happened and simultaneously, I experienced the darkness months of my life (Much of that time I don't actually have memory of...) but my case, morbidly gained new life. Recently, I've been mentally, ps...

The whole Donald Sterling controversy is surely blazing inferno in our society and I must put my thoughts down for posterity. Conservatives pounced when the NBA cracked down on it.  "We're allowed to be assholes!" a friend commented on Facebook. Like fuck you are! In this particular case, as owner, Sterling was the face of a NBA franchise which, theoretically, should be a family friendly thing.    "If you don't agree with his policies, just boycott." Yes, you could, still, for that matter, but the NBA still did the right thing for removing the reason for doing so. I have never been to LA so I couldn't tell you how far apart where the Clippers play from where the Lakers play but let's assume the NBA aren't just money grubbing whores and LA needs both teams for the greater good. "But he's been a racist since he bought the team back in the '80's." We didn't have the internet so info didn't travel as quickly.  The Cl...

I guess we'll start on Saturday. I had an alumni Homecoming celebration downtown. As usual, nobody from my class came but I was surprised as I entered that a friend from high school was there. It turns out that her sister is the director of Alumni Relations at my college. Somewhat weird I think although I didn't go that far way to college so that may explain it... Sunday we were supposed to go out to eat with family as some of my aunts and uncles were going to be up but lunch was scheduled too early for us so my other aunt and I ended up getting our food to go before heading over to my grandparents. This turned out fine in the end. We started a book group at my church that afternoon. I guess we'll be meeting monthly. I discuss the first book after I finish it which shouldn't be much longer. Monday, my cousin/roommate, my aunt and I met my aunt and uncle who had been up visiting from Jersey. This went well until we got talking politics against my better judgment but what...

One of the days this week, I can't remember which now, maybe Wednesday, the publisher's sent me a PDF of the cover art. Admittedly, I'm not as exstatic about the font they used for the title as I could be but decided not to complain this time. Next book, we'll see... The design as a whole, though, is totally awesome! They actually superimposed an outline of Armenia to it! (I had to check this with Google Maps to confirm my suspicions.) Given my last statement, it's probably obvious that they didn't go with my aunt's design but I'm glad I can't remove her name from the acknowledgement page as she still did help with it and I'm greatful. The current president of the seminary where I volunteer is retiring in a couple months. On Thursday, there was a meet and greet with the new "President-elect." The Board of Trustees won't vote until early next week but it seems fairly certain he'll get in as that's the norm with pastoral searc...

After my week of blah-ness, I went back to work today and managed to stay most of the morning before becoming a bit too tired. I am improving greatly though so that's good. While there, I was doing the striping project and I thought I finally came across a book that didn't not only didn't belong to us, it didn't belong to the Seminary at all. I ran it through and a message informed me it belonged somewhere else. Did we steal this from them? My boss came out and ran it through the catalog which revealed it did indeed belong to us. I ran it through check in again with nothing special happening. The bar code scanner read it wrong. But what a mistake! Long story shorter, this story really doesn't have a point! Oh well... While I was laid up, I finished a new book. Timothy Zahn is one of the main writers of Star Wars books. In fact, he's one of the few "originals" still writing them. I've said it more than once. I used to really enjoy Star Wars books ...

The last several weeks at the library, maybe even for more than a month, I've been working on a project. To determine which books belong in our library and which books belong up in Bangor, there is a colored stripe on the spine. We found a ton of books with no stripe at all so it was placed upon me to first make sure the books do indeed belong down here and then place a blue stripe on them. This morning while I was working on this project, checking in a book to see if it was ours brought up an ILL hold alert. We're not sure if this was a new request placed after we checked that morning on an old request kicking around the system for awhile. My boss told me to just prepare it for shipment as even if it's not a current request, they'll just send it back. It was very weird. And yes, I did stripe it! Last evening, I finished the second book in the new Genesis of Shannara trilogy by Terry Brooks: The Elves of the Cintra . I've read some really good books lately, and s...

Since I've been living up here for about a year, I figured it was about time to set up a doctor and dentist up here. My planned first step was to find a dentist as I'm due for a cleaning. I found a dentist within walking distance but I called them and they apparently aren't taking any new patients. I go online and find the name of another dentist who's not within walking distance (Well, not safely anyway.) but on the busline. I call them but they're closed. The secretary calls me the next day and informs me that they only do extractions not cleanings. There are a few more dentists within city limits including one slightly closer than the extractionists. The search continues. I began my search for a doctor at the same time. Mapquest's listings are apparently not updated often as the first name I found was apparently now in another town which is not on busline. I found a practice on the other end of the main street here but I was really hoping for someone closer. ...

Music: "Driver's Seat"- Sniff'n The Tears First, let me describe my final day at work before the holiday. I went, did a little ILL and then, when really nothing was going on, I went home. While I'm writing an important, or at least possibly important e-mail, that I don't want to discuss right now but may later, I get a call from my pastor who is also an adjunct faculty member. She needed help finding some material and wondered if I could come back. So I do; after finishing the email, of course. When I got there, she gave me the list of books she wanted to find and made me tea and a plate of animal crackers. I actually found most of the books in our collection and was able to request the others through ILL. This was the first time I had done that for a patron, although I had done it for myself, so it was kind of cool on a certain level but all this trudging back and forth has made me a little tired. Thankfully, I can rest tomorrow... I close on a personal note....

Last night, there was an Alumni Happy Hour put on by my college at a restaurant downtown so I went. The music was great as was the appetizers and beer. I went over to give my drink order and I couldn't think of anything. I mean I wasn't craving anything in particular so I asked the waitress what she recommended. She said they just got some new Sam Adams Octoberfest so I just went with that. Most of the TVs in the room we were in was tuned in for the Red Sox game but it was raining so hard in Chicago, I knew they'd never get the game in. I had a great time but left early as there was no one I knew who attended. My class sucks... I overslept this morning by about an hour but somehow we managed to get the section of inventory done anyway as it wasn't as bad as it looked and there was still time for a little shelving. I admit I'm more extroverted than I use to be but I can't believe I'm this extroverted. (I think it's the fact that I'm not scared of soci...

First, even though I think many of you already know this, at least two of you dear readers do not so here it goes: the countdown for my parents last Sunday in CT has officially begun. Yes, my father has a new job in Ellsworth, ME starting later on this month. Before you ask, no, they'll be only an hour closer to me. My mother is still looking for work but I think something will turn up. This of course means that my two CT readers will not likely see me in person any time soon unless you come to me which you're welcome to do so. The Boston sports world has been interesting as of late. The Sox picking up Eric Gagne is a cool move and I think trading Dave Murphy was probably a good move as the major league squad has Coco and his phenom Jacoby Ellsbury in the wings so we can part with a center fielder. I am not happy about them giving Kason Gabbard. I don't think Schilling will be as good as the management apparently thinks he is. We'll have to see of course but I'm alr...

First off, I must ask: Where the bloody hell is my copy of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows ? I ordered the thing five days ago! I'm going to start reading spoilers soon! I really want to read this book! Anyway, so I'm still volunteering at the library. We're in the middle of an inventory now. I've also looked in the catalog, one, to see if we had certain new books already and, two, if we did, to see which branch. This week, I've been assigning call numbers to new books. I haven't done that at all since school and that was Library of Congress (LC) classification anyway while here they use Dewey and Cutter numbers. Tomorrow, I won't be going in as the librarian is out today and tomorrow and I did all the work she left for me already.

I figured it was time to update you on what I've been up to this week. On Monday, I started my volunteer job at the seminary library. I've only gone in for a couple hours each day but I went in all week. This week, I did was move books out of the chapel area and other shelving but I was told I might do some cataloging and other tech service stuff so that'll be good. Sure it's been all grunt work but someone has to and I didn't really do any of that when I worked at RCC so this has been good. Yesterday and today the cell phone problem was corrected. Yay! The battery was delivered yesterday and after charging it, it still didn't seem to work. The booklet said I needed to wait until the "battery icon" disappeared. It never went away which concerned me but I pressed the power button today and it worked! Yay again! I also finally got around to setting up my voice mail. Of course, only three people have my number... The last couple days, I've really been...

I was going to see how long I could hold out before someone actually asked where I went but I can now see my readers aren't that type so I'm posting. Friday, my mother's church had a "Parent's Night Out" event so my father and I went to lend technical support. After dinner we played a special Connecticut Conference UCC edition "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire." Yes, it was as exciting as it sounds... Saturday, my mother and I went to The Old Avon Farms Inn for a Simmons Alumni Winter Tea with guest speaker author Elinor Lippman. As a writer myself, I enjoyed it despite the fact I was the only male. The champagne punch didn't hurt either... Sunday, was my church's annual meeting so that was different. Oh and I was asked to greet so I had to get up a whole 30 minutes early to be able to get over early enough. In the afternoon, we went to a family party and my mother's cousin whom we met just after we moved down here. This will be the third ti...

You Know You're From Maine When... You've had arguments over the comparative quality of Fried Dough. You call four inches of snow "a dusting." You don't understand why there aren't fried clam shacks elsewhere in the county. You know what an Irving is and the location of 15 of them. You knew all the flavors at Perry's Nut House. Your car is covered in yellow-green dust in May. You can drive the Augusta traffic circle without slowing down. You've hung out at a gravel pit. You think a mosquito could be a species of bird. You once skipped school and went to Bar Harbor, Old Orchard Beach or Reid State Park. Even your school cafeteria made good chowder. You've almost fallen asleep driving between Houlton and Presque Isle. You know how to pronounce Calais. You've made a meal out of a Jordan's red dye hot-dog, a bag of Humpty Dumpty potato chips and a can of soda. You've gone to a Grange bean supper. In high school, you (or a friend) packed Dee...

Ok, no it isn't the new year in the traditional sense but my new class started yesterday and Charmed starts tonight so in a sense it is. Ok. Fine. Whatever. I'm taking Collection Development which I'm sure means nothing to any of you but, then, who really cares anyway? To quote comedian Jay London, this post "will be over in a minute." The Stargate quality was reversed this week. The original written by castmember Chris Judge, and his episodes always seem to be good, not only had the return of Jolene Blalock as Ishta but had an interesting plot as well. Atlantis just sucked. Not only was the fact they were on a fake Earth totally obvious, they revealed this fact in the promo of the episode! And why is it always the suave male lead on the show that is the one to figure it out first? Can't they mix it up a little? We've had good stuff on Justice League the past two weeks. "Fearful Symmetry" introduced the character The Question. Other...

I finished my database this afternoon. There are some flaws beyond my control but it's still infinitely better than anything I've done in the class all semester so that's something. Smallville was fairly good last night. It was almost like Clark had to face a fellow Kryptonian but doesn't encroach on any continuity issues. Nice. I was especially interested in that fact Jor-El used Jonathan's body to heal Clark. I can't wait to find out what's going on with the two of them. I love the Native American analogy to Clark and Lex's future relationship. An interesting touch. I do have a question though: when Holdsclaw set fire to the truck with heat vision, any idiot could tell he was going to do it and Clark had time to stop it. Now, I know doing so would enforce the professor's belief Clark is the deity Naman and it was just a truck but still... Angel was infinitely better than last week. Angel and Spike are hilarious together. The on...

I'm in the computer lab. I just took a test in my Telecommunications class. I definitely did better on this test then the last one but then I didn't read an e-mail this morning from a woman just wanting to be friends. The question is though, did I do well enough to pass this class? Basing an entire grade on three tests is very lame indeed but it was somewhat refreshing not to have to write a paper. Charmed was rather lame and had Aaron Spelling written all over it. Paige conjures a guy because she's horny. Oh yes, she feels put upon, which she should given the current status of her sisters, but that's no excuse to misuse magic. When will the younger sisters especially ever learn? More Piper than last week but we need more! Leo and Chris seem top be making a little progress in healing their relationship. Breaking your son out of jail does that I'd imagine. Alias was so awesome last night! Vaughn told Jack he didn't handle is problems with violence...

I see a light at the end of the tunnel as far as the project's concerned hopefully I'm not just being optimistic. I definitely should skip my morning class tomorrow since doing work is more productive than listening to others do their presentations. I always feel bad about doing that though. That's probably the only way I can be considered "studious" however.... When I turned on the TV last night, they were showing the Red Sox game that had been rained out the night before. (Hail in Texas? WTF?) I was expecting Enterprise. So I went down to do work. At 9pm, I decided to take a break. Good thing I did to because that's when the game ended and Enterprise came on. What did I think of it? I thought it was very good indeed. The main plot of Archer convincing Degra to join him against the other Xindi, particularly the Reptiles, was very well done. Degra and the Sloth guy were just skeptical enough without being overly obstinate. T'Pol's ove...

I really can't afford to take any time off but I have much to catch you all up on. Smallville rocked. It's hard to say who exactly is more of a threat to Clark: Lionel or Dr. Garner. I thought it was neat that it turns out Clark's first word was "Lara" which is of course his mother. You knew it was really Lillian who killed Julian but it's highly understandable that Lex would take the fall for it given Lionel's state of mind. Angel was merely a space filler this week. There had to be an episode where the Illyria situation was more or less resolved but there's only so many ways to do it I think. The other storyline with the demon cult wanting some woman's baby was even less interesting but plays a major role in upcoming episodes. Obviously, Angel is just pretending to give in to the Senior Partners and act like a lawyer but the question is what does he hope to gain by it? Oh, did anybody notice Mercedes McNab was finally added to ...

Finally a new episode of Enterprise. Overall, the episode was good, I guess. We finally find out why T'Pol has been acting so emotional lately. Perhaps that's why the earlier Vulcan expedition into the Expanse went wrong. Could they have been experimenting with Trellium D in an effort to experience emotions as well? While it might have been nice to resolve the issues brought up during part one of this, I suppose it's good they are continuing it throughout the rest of the season. While the main plot was certainly original I don't think I like the implications. Attacking a ship to steal a warp coil is not how Star Trek should go. This is a Babylon 5 plot. Archer kept justifying it by saying they really need the warp coil. No, they didn't. They are already are in Xindi space near the weapon. They don't need warp any time soon and can wait for someone else to come along to help them. I know this is a hundred and 10 years before the Original Series but this...