Another Se7en

Seven things I've learnt, and have to keep relearning because I think they are important:

1. You can't control the waves so you'd better learn to surf.



2. Accept that not everyone is the same as you. Just because you find it easy doesn't mean it isn't hard for others; just because you find it hard doesn't mean it isn't easy for others.



3. It isn't about you all the time - in fact - it is hardly ever about you personally.



4. If you don't want the truthful answer don't ask the question.



5. Fear is the mind-killer (thanks Muad'dib - seems I have to relearn this every day). Worry wont stop something happening, it just means you may have to go through it twice. Once in your mind and once in reality. If you don't worry you only have to go through it IF it happens in reality.



6. Everyone is as important to 'them and theirs' as you are to 'you and yours'.



7. If you want someone to agree to something try to make it possible for them to say yes.

Se7en

Thanks @fionawb.

Seven phrases I am known to use, and wish I didn't

1. Okey Dokey Smokey (Am really trying to stop this, it drives me NUTS)


2. Feck it (I want to be feckless this year)


3. Yes, no, but.... (WTF does that MEAN? Yes, I understand you, no I don't agree with you, but here's something you forgot to take into consideration...)


4. Can I ask a question (um, you just did...)


5. Look at it this way (My way...)


6. That's interesting (when I mean I disagree. That's interesting, I think the complete opposite...)


7. What I mean is... (my GOD woman just say it, once, clearly, then LET IT GO)

It's all meme all the time from now on :)

Romantic Fiction

My weekend was a bust as far as doing non-family related stuff. I think I'm going to have to decide to blog everyday except weekends. It is either bend the rules a little or give up completely.

Ok, so here is what I've been thinking about the last couple of days. Why is there so much SUPERNATURAL romantic fiction as the moment. It can't all be the fault of Twilight and Edward Cullen.

I have a theory.

I did a study on romantic fiction (Mills and Boon in particular) for my honours. I studied the change from the 1960's to 1990's (yes I AM that old).

I haven't read much since then, so I may be way out of date, but my basic theory about supernatural romance is: that it has let the writers go back to the traditional hero, who is older, smarter, richer, more powerful and extremely goodlooking, without having to face any irritation in their modern readers.

Is it that modern women, even when enjoying some romantic fiction, (don't START me on the whole romatic ideology of much of that fiction) wouldn't be able to accept the inequality a lot of such fiction is based on, without some supernatural reason for the man being so vastly superior in every way?

The whole uncommunicative, handsome and powerful guy, who is basically Darcy in disguise, is so very very outdated, and yet so appealing to many, that the excuse of "vampire" or "werewolf" has to be used to excuse what is otherwise just supercillious & patronising bad behavour on the part of the hero. It lets some women tap into their desires without having to give up all their politics.

Any thoughts?

Three minutes left

I have three minutes left to do today's post. What have I been doing to almost midnight on Friday? Something exciting right?

Well, I AM a middle aged librarian, so perhaps you wont be shocked to learn I have been sorting out my e-book collection - tagging, cataloguing etc. Some people may think that sounds sad - I think it's fun.

I now have 1790 ebooks - and now they are all in order and cross catalogued.

So this is reference...

... and what have you done?
Another stapler given, answered reference questions... none.

I LOVE reference work. I love doing reference enquiries. It makes me feel like mighty mouse when I have a bewildered student come to the desk ready to drop out and leave the desk feeling secure in the new found knowledge that yes, the answers are there, and yes I will help them track down the info they need to form those answers.

Yes Virginia, there are databases!

I think it is moments like this we, as librarians, love - when students stop us on the stair case to say we have "single-handedly changed the direction of their studies", "stopped them dropping out", saved the day, and had a vast and measurable impact on their lives. I've had a PhD student tell me I 'changed their life'. And yes, while I appreciated that only a WAAPA student would have put it so dramatically, that was still an ego rush. I walked around all day smirking to myself: "I'm a librarian and I change people's lives".

So believe me when I say I understand the attachment librarians have to the reference desk - but there has to be a better way. I've been sitting up here on level 4 of my library for over an hour, and literally the only question I've been asked is "Can I borrow a stapler?" and, as I don't even have a stapler, I am beginning to feel a little depressed.

I want to keep the part of my identity as a librarian that says "I help people, sometimes very desperate and stressed people" but I am truly ready to drop the part of my life that involves spending hours at a desk trying to engage students that sometimes seem to think I'm just a creepy old lady who sits behind a desk and accosts them with unwanted smiles and offers of help whenever they have the misfortune to have to come up to the fourth floor.

Most of what I do up here could be done by effective signage, but we all know students don't read signs.

What is the solution peeps?

Wow, another year?

Another year, another opportunity to blog everyday in June. This year I've decided to give it a go. Other than getting a year older what has changed? Well, for a start I now own an iPad and so can blog from bed. I can't tell you how much more likely this makes it that I will actually blog.

Ok well that sorts out the time element, but their is still the problem with coming up with something interesting to say everyday. That is just too much pressure! I said I would blog everyday, I can't be making promises about being interesting as well.

It is a cliche that on every birthday one looks around and judges where one finds oneself But I have to say I find myself once again really very content with my life. My 25 year old self would never believe it, but as I get older things might get harder physically, but emotionally there is no doubt that it is all getting easier.

Yep the Beatles were right, I have to say it's getting better, getting so much better all the time.

Don't worry though, these posts won't all be mindlessly and unrelentingly cheerful - I still have my moth-eaten old moggy Rowl to talk about.

Goodnight folks and I look forward to learning a lot more about you in June.