Test Run Librarian

gubersheek -- you have the father headache too. it is quite common. the remedy is to get over the fantasy that the father is absolutely necessary for your development. we focus on that too much i think. maybe it has something to do with our belief in -- no, our obsession with -- the one-god-the-father.

you had a freedom growing up (without the sperm donor) that other girls were jealous of...and it's made you the fun person you are today... no need to have ties to the past weighing you down.

it's hard to get rid of ingrained cultural beliefs though

--the pot calling the kettle black

posted by Amanda @ Thursday, June 03, 2004 0 Comments

This is an interesting article about libraries and weblogs. Steven Cohen wrote it and here is his weblog: Library Stuff.

Check this out too: Federal Contractor Misconduct Database

posted by Amanda @ Thursday, June 03, 2004 0 Comments

THIS IS AN AWESOME ARTICLE ABOUT HOW BABY BOOMERS IN LIBRARY MANAGEMENT NEED TO LET GO (and stop telling nexgen "no"): Memo to Baby Boomers, by J. Berry, LJ, 6/01/04. John Berry is the Editor-In-Chief and he is very open-minded. How refreshing!

posted by Amanda @ Wednesday, June 02, 2004 0 Comments

this is a tattoo desire 

I climb the road to Cold Mountain,
The road to Cold Mountain that never ends.
The valleys are long and strewn with stones;
The streams broad and filled with thick grass.
Moss is slippery though no rain has fallen;
Pines sigh but it isn't the wind.
Who can break from the snares of the world
And sit with me among the white clouds?

posted by Amanda @ Tuesday, June 01, 2004 1 Comments

I have returned to a book entitled Solitude by A. Storr. This non-fiction work is an argument for the virtues of aloneness. It presents many interesting ideas, and I will summarize them in a future blog. One idea that sticks out in my mind is this: one cannot solely derive one's pleasure in life from one relationship. Even if one is married or committed to a lover, it is necessary to cultivate new relationships with others (and continue to cultivate the existing ones, of course).

This is an idea that is antithetical to our notion of a loving marriage. A partner, if s/he loves you, is not supposed to have emotional bonds with members of the opposite (or same, depending on your orientation) sex. But this book is saying that's fucked up. It also says that happy adults tend to be ones who were allowed, as children, to be 'alone in the presence of another,' such as a parent. Enormous emotional deficiencies (depression, anxiety) occur in individuals whose parent(s) died when they were very young. (This can also apply to individuals whose parent(s) did not die but abandoned them at an early age or ignored them and sent them off to boarding school...) I will write more later about this.

I am now going to the pool and hopefully I will not be harassed again (yesterday I was invited to Key West by an individual -- completely out of the blue -- I did not know this person, nor did we have any conversation beforehand. Of course I said no and was annoyed, but at the same time this struck me as sad because this young man was not so bad looking, so why was he in such a state of desperation as to do such a thing? Or am I reading this situation incorrectly? These Florida men are truly srange. Truly!)

posted by Amanda @ Sunday, May 30, 2004 0 Comments

Book Review: The Tattooed Girl by J.C. Oates. Interesting read, and I appreciate Oates' awkward attempts at portraying the dark side of human nature. However, I am not sure if she fully understands it. The character of Alma, who is anti-Semitic, ignorant 'white trash' from rural Pennsylvania -- has these disfiguring tattoos on her face and body, and their origin is never fully explained. This strikes me as laziness on the part of the writer. While I can understand that a person such as Alma (whom I don't really know because her character is flat, one-sided, and undeveloped) would not remember where she got these tattoos -- this is the stuff of real life, not fiction. A writer doesn't enter an idea into the realm of fiction without having a point. The tattoos should be explained in full, or Alma should have some startling revelation about them that supports the themes of the novel, but she never does.

Like other Oates' novels, this one engaged me at the beginning. Oates is a great writer, despite her overuse of adjectives and lack of commas (where were the copy editors? does she have so much celebrity that her STETS are heeded at the wrong times?). But the novel just falls apart towards the end, and I just don't care what happens to the characters. I am not moved, but I should be. I also wonder if Oates' use of the Holocaust in the novel is offensive to Jewish people, as she never fully develops that theme either?

posted by Amanda @ Sunday, May 30, 2004 0 Comments