December!

In November I... did way too much, essentially. My November included:

1. 2 papers (including a term paper)
2. 1 midterm
3. More homework than I want to think about
4. New doggy
5. 33,000 words of my NaNoWriMo novel (well short of the 50,000 word goal. Ah well.)
6. Hosted Thanksgiving
7. Helped my mom make my sister's Save The Date cards
8. Read13 books.

In December, I'm attempting to do 2 major things:

1. Read the 25 books I have checked out from the library
2. Blog the 15 books that I read in 2006 and haven't blogged yet. (And make a dent in the 41 books that are unblogged from 2007.)

So, stay tuned for (hopefully, probably) multiple posts a day. Because I also have to

1. Do lots of homework
2. Take a final
3. Write a term paper
4. Stop Dog from destroying my kitchen
5. Do my Christmas shopping
6. Go home for Christmas

Speaking of Christmas shopping, here's a plea. There are a lot of links on this blog. A lot of them lead to Amazon. If you click on one, and order from Amazon? Even if you buy something that is different than what you clicked on? I get a wee kickback. How much depends on how much gets ordered (the more items ordered, the bigger the kickback.) And, let's face it. Librarian isn't really a big money career. Plus, I'm a grad student, plus, I have a nasty book habit that I'd really rather not kick... so... if you want to help out, that's a good way to do it. (Or, if you order some of my gear from the "cool book stuff" link in the sidebar, that works, too.)

Anyway, I got tagged for a meme by Hilary.

So, here we go:
1) Link to the person that tagged you, and post the rules on your blog.
2) Share 7 facts about yourself.
3) Tag 7 random people at the end of your post, and include links to their blogs.
4) Let each person know that they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

So, 7 things about myself...

1. The term paper I wrote last week was about CIPA and internet filtering in public libraries. It's something I've been thinking a lot about. On one hand, information wants to be free and filtering is a form of censorship, especially some of the things that get filtered. On the other hand, kids can't spell and often the filter blocks porn they didn't mean to get to. But, filters often block a lot of legitimate, non-porn sites and lets a lot of porn through. In fact, this post will probably be blocked because I said porn so many times. PORN PORN PORN.

2. I use both Napster and iTunes. (Napster is totally legal now guys. I pay for it and everything.) Napster is a vastly superior product, because you pay $10/month and can download and listen to as much music as you want. If you want to burn it onto CD, it's an extra .99 BUT you can buy "track packs" which let you buy credits for a bunch of tracks at a discount. And, if you're buying a full album, it's usually cheaper than buying each track off the album. With iTunes, you can only listen to about 30 seconds of a song before you buy it, and albums cost .99 x # of tracks. I wouldn't use iTunes at all, but it's the only thing that works with my shiny pink iPod.

3. I really hate the use of putting "i" in front of everything information-related. I can understand "e" because it's short for "electronic" and I guess the lower-case "i" can mean information, but, really? You just sound like you're trying to buy into Apple's popularity. My library program is thinking of re-branding itself as an iSchool. It makes me want to scream. Not even getting into my issues with information schools vs library schools but to call us an iSchool?! Ew. Good luck ever getting money from me.

4. I love winter. I hate that it doesn't really snow in the DC area. I miss snow and extreme cold. I know I'm crazy, but I like a day so cold that when you breath in, the cold pierces all the way to the bottom of your lungs and your snot freezes.

5. I've never mailed out Holiday cards. Every year, I say I'm going to do it, and every year, Nada. This year, I have a great idea on cards to make. I know all the supplies I'd need and how to do it. I'm putting lists together in my head, but it won't happen. (As I typed that, I heard Dan saying "no no no no no no no no no" because he knows it would just be one of my projects that didn't go anywhere, and then I heard his giant sigh of relief when I said I wouldn't do it.) So, I'll share my idea with you:

1. Get a bunch of these navy blue cards.
2. Stamp them all over with silver snowflakes. I really like this one and this one.
3. Emboss a few of the snowflakes with this stuff, but I'm not sure which color. One of the silvery/white ones. (Mom and I embossed my sister's save the date cards--awesome and fun and easy once I figured out how to not set stuff on fire.)
4. Using double-sided type, put a bunch of these shiny white cards on the inside (ok, I totally know that they them with scalloped edges, which I'd use.)
5. Then I'd stamp the insides with a greeting. Probably Season's Greetings.

So now you can make them. And mail one to me.

6. I like Christmas carols and the Nutcracker music. My favorite carols are "O Holy Night" and "Psallite." "Psallite" is in Latin and German and is pretty, plus? Two foreign languages in one song? AWESOME.

7. For Christmas, I really want jewelry. Especially necklaces and earrings that I can wear to work. Some great stuff can be found at Tartx (especially the domino necklace with the Red Queen and a monocle necklace with the cards flipping over Alice) and Mytypewriter (especially the snowflake one) or the Cherry Blossom pearl necklace from the Sundance Catalog. (*cough* *cough* *hint* *hint*)

And now I tag Sara, Pam, Miss Erin, HolyKnitter, Kristin, Julie, and Susan and really, anyone else who wants to play.