He's just jealous that another Democrat is getting some.   |    8:00 a.m.

[Thrice-married] Bob Barr, being a jackass. Yet again.

From the Atlanta Consititution, since the archive is only free for a week:

Meanwhile, Rep. Bob Barr (R-Ga.) came forward Thursday as the first member of Congress to ask Rep. Gary Condit (D-Calif.) to resign amid the speculation surrounding him and the disappearance of Levy.

According to news reports, Condit told authorities last week that he and Levy had a romantic relationship.

Barr said such affairs "indicate that we have a very serious societal problem here."

"You can't have interns coming to Washington and have stuff going on. It's bad policy," Barr said in a television interview.

Memento, explicated   |    8:03 a.m.

Warning: do not read this if you haven't seen Memento.

From yesterday's Salon.com, one brave film critic's attempt to explain Memento. I'll be seeing the film again in about 2 weeks when it plays at my [new] university movie theater (great films a block away--just like my undergrad time at UGA), so it'll be my chance to see if Andy Klein's arguements hold up.

And a week from today I'll be on a plane to Florida to spend a 4-day weekend with my oldest friend (c. 1986), who I haven't seen in nearly 3 years. I love my new job, but I do need the rest--and other than DragonCon this is the only confirmed vacation I'm taking this year. The beach, Busch Gardens, and eighth-row seats for Depeche Mode, with the one person who'll swear that I was only slightly less cynical in high school than I am now.

"In the not too distant future..."   |    8:17 a.m.

Thanks to Tori for sending me this link, Richard Corliss' article about a "reunion panel" this summer for most of the geniuses behind MST3K.

God, I miss that show. Maybe tonight I'll go through my 25 or so episodes and find one to watch. Perhaps of the infamous biker films ("Wild Rebels"), or the ultra-cheesy "Planet of the Apes" ripoff, "Time of the Apes." There's also "Manos, The Hands of Fate" (which a friend of mine once made me turn off after 15 minutes because she was in pain from laughing so much), or I could rent "Battlefield Earth" and have a DIY MST3K night.

Dead-On QAF review   |    8:16 a.m.

An excellent review of the U.S. Queer-As-Folk's first season, from the Boston Globe.

Bad video store drivers   |    8:04 a.m.

Jon Carroll's rant about video stores and their adverse effect on drivers. If you've ever worked in a video store (like me), you have seen at least some of this.

Casual Friday   |    8:18 a.m.

I now get to wear jeans on Fridays. If you knew anything about my previous place of employment, you would know what a big perk this is for me.

Salon's review of American Gods, which I'll probably pick up this weekend.

Not much today   |    8:14 a.m.

Just added the newsbit below and updated the links on the right, but I start work at 8:30 and I don't have enough time to do anything more than the quick news items. If I can get my Epguides.com installment done for Queer As Folk #118-120 tonight, then I'll post more here as well.

I just saved $165,630!!! ($233,530 factoring inflation)   |    8:10 a.m.

Here's how you can save, too?

Moulin Rouge   |    8:20 a.m.

Grade: A-

Strange. Beautiful. Mesmerizing. And more original than anything else I'll likely see this summer.

"Whose Line Is It Anyway," the DragonCon Edition   |    8:21 a.m.

Cool! It was posted last week that Richard Biggs and Jason Carter (Stephen and Marcus from Babylon 5) are returning to DragonCon this year. They showed up for one of the 'Whose Line Is It Anyway?' matches that the British Sci-Fi panel sets up, and I don't know what made it funnier: that neither actor had ever seen WLIIA and didn't know the first thing about playing it, or that one of them ended up playing while being a "bit" intoxicated.

Bush Promotes Fatherhood   |    8:19 a.m.

And he's been such a fine, upstanding role model for his how kids.

A real, live film critic   |    10:11 p.m.

In response to this weekend's "shocking" disclosure regarding Sony's attempt at creative criticism, I offer up a film critic who I guarantee is not a figment of some marketing exec's imagination: Scott Tobias of The Onion. Unless, of course, it's not the same film expert/critic Scott Tobias I knew in college. If this is the case, then I haven't the slightest idea who The Onion guy is and have no choice but to question his very existence.

'Go Home Happy' (but after 11:30 p.m. it's just 'Go Home')   |    9:18 p.m.

On the Blockbuster settlement.

Checkin in   |    9:08 p.m.

Not much to say tonight. The new job's going very well, and I might post more about it this weekend between screenings at the Atlanta Film and Video Festival and taking my mother to the airport (another work conference, this one in LA so she'll get to spend a few extra days with the sister).

Unhappy Anniversary   |    11:37 p.m.

From the Los Angeles Times and the San Francisco Chronicle.

More about Kaycee   |    11:07 p.m.

Even the New York Times has something, albeit flawed, to say about it.

(Saundra has written several pieces about the Kaycee mess, including this brilliant essay and her thoughts on the Times article.

My first exposure to the Kaycee blog came in early in May, following the links from Laurel's blog. I guess I'm a heartless bitch for not being moved by the plight of a 19-year-old dying of cancer, but I read a few entries and thought..."whatever." It wasn't as if I read it and saw the discrepancies that so many others saw and used to reveal the blog for the fiction it was. It's just that I try to maintain a healthy skepticism about what I read on the Internet. Nobody really exists until they prove otherwise.

Example. I have been reading Saundra's journal off-and-on since late 1999. In what has become my regular pattern, I started as a faithful reader of her fanfiction (she wrote outstanding Homicide and Homicide/XF stories) and so I just followed the writing. [That this wasn't the case with Kaycee is probably another reason I wasn't affected by what I was reading.] I have corresponded with her in the past, about Homicide, her stories, journals entries about her child and health problems. I still have some of that correspondence on my computer. But does Saundra really exist? Yes, I think...maybe. I'm as sure as I can be because there is at least some history there (and the NYT article doesn't hurt). But because I have never met her, and will most likely never do so, it's not something I can swear to beyond reasonable doubt. If my best friend from high school, or my college roommate, or my closest friend from the job I just left Friday started a journal or blog, I can vouch for them because I know them. But unless you knew me--and I mean really knew me, none of that IRC/e-mail/IM stuff--how would you know that what you were reading in Christine, Tori or Diana's journals/blogs was real?

Do a Google search on Kaycee and cancer or leukemia, and see how many people were pulled in by this. It just seems too easy to empathize (sympathize?) with the plights of online personas when the only communication anyone has with those identities is electronic. I think we just need to exercise a little bit more skepticism, utilize some critical thinking skills. Even if it means taking a second look at what you currently read, and no, not because the other journals/blogs you have been reading (including those in which writers have been chronicling their health problems) are fictitious. But because there will be more hoaxes like Kaycee, and the collective Internet memory is short.

And another reason why some skepticism is sorely needed: studio plants posing as online film critics.

My work here is done...   |    7:35 p.m.

At 8:00pm I am officially "outta here." After six years, nine months, and one day I leave the first and only "not-paid-by-the-hour" job I have ever had. New job starts Monday at 9:00am. The strange thing is I'm not the least bit nervous. That will probably begin late afternoon on Sunday.

My co-workers blindsided me with a small party yesterday, with a movie theme as a tie-in with Blockbuster since my last day there, for now, was Sunday. Considering I had never wanted a party in the first place (and the person who knew that was overruled), it turned out rather nice. It was announced that the person I'd been training to take over serials had actually been offered the job and had accepted it, and I think she's going to do a great job. The party itself included popcorn donated by my supercool Blockbuster managers Jim and Andy, movie theater giftcards, and two mini movie posters where my head had been placed on Carrie Fisher (Star Wars) and Uma Thurman's (Pulp Fiction) bodies.

I should probably say something else about leaving work, but right now I'm too numb. Maybe later.

Archaeological Excavation   |    8:08 p.m.

This afternoon I began cleaning up my "office," which doubles as our mailroom and storage space for about 1/2 of the journals that are not bound or on the current shelves. It's not an office proper because there are no walls, although there is a credenza that nearly cuts the room in half to divide my workspace from the mail/fax area. This was formerly where the Interlibrary Loan supervisor worked, but I moved into this space in 1997 when it was decided that ILL needed to be in a more public area and Serials was the "department" (really just me) that could be moved as far away from public access as possible. And I've been here ever since.

At times I felt like I was being banished. I missed at least one staff meeting and several birthday parties because nobody came by to collect me. If it weren't for the fact that my co-workers had mailboxes back here, there would've been days where nobody spoke to me. The flip side was that I could play my CD's at a normal volume and not worry about headphones and play the music I wanted: Debussy, Depeche Mode, Headstones, Morphine, Cowboy Junkies, movie soundtracks or any one of my dance or 80's compilations. Being so far removed from anyone else also meant that on nights and weekends I could play music very loud and not disturb anyone else. I don't expect to take the radio to my new library, but I won't be running around as much so hopefully there won't be a problem playing CD's on the computer w/ headphones.

Anyway, I started cleaning out the desks and credenza today. I have two desks: an excellent desk I only got last month to replace the computer stand I'd been trying to use as desk since I moved back here, and the desk I've had since September 1994 which was moved back here in 1997 even though it's nothing more than a large paperweight.

Here are some of the things I have unearthed:
• A 1997 calendar, unused
• A rubber-banded stack of those office-style page-a-day calendars, with daily statistics of the number of journals I had checked-in that day as well as other activities that would've gone on my monthly reports. For the 1995/1996 fiscal year.
• Post-it-note packets still in plastic wrappers
• Souvenirs from librarians' vacations going back at least 4 years
• Drugs: Nuprin that expired in 1998, Flonase that expired in 1997
• Broken sunglasses from when I wore contact lenses, which I stopped wearing in early 1996
• Ticket stub for the Richard III with Ian McKellen, early 1996
• Financial aid paperwork for my first semester at Clark Atlanta, Fall 1998
• The original posting for the job I start on Monday
• "Homicide: Life on the Street" calenders from January-July 2000. Since I couldn't get a real calendar, I would make a page each month using one or more screen captures or publicity photos from the web and pin it to the wall above the monthly grid I would print from our calender software. January: Frank and Tim, February: Howard and Felton, March: Munch and Bolander, April: Lewis and Crosetti, May: Kellerman (the only new character worth a damn), June: Danvers, Brodie and the M.E's, July went back to Frank and Tim. I left that one up for a few months, then picked up again with "Hard Core Logo" and "due South."
• Direct deposit paystubs and performance evaluations going as far back as 1996.
• The original authorization request we sent to OCLC so I could have access to OCLC for interlibrary loan and union listing. Dated January 4, 1995
• And the strangest find of all: monthly reports from October 1994 (my 2nd month here) to May 1996. Sad. I have to scrape together an annual report tomorrow and I'm not sure if I even did half a year's worth of monthly reports that get compiled into an annual one.

Sopranos links   |    2:41 a.m.

Joyce Millman on the season finale, in Salon. Her May 29 article on the season finales is also dead-on perfect. She nails "The West Wing" for its numerous Screenwriting 101 cliches, rips into "X-Files" (which beat out ER for worst season finale of the year) for its implausibility and stupidity, and heaps enough praise on "Buffy" that it firmly holds the title of "Best Show I'm Not Watching Because It's On During the 7-10pm Time Slot When My Mother Controls the TV."

In the New York Times, about the show's appeal among psychologists and psychiatrists.

Serials Management (after hours): the Soundtrack   |    2:12 a.m.

Hard Core Logo soundtrack

nickels for your nightmares, The Headstones

Exciter, Depeche Mode

UK Queer As Folk soundtrack

Fully Completely, The Tragically Hip

Gattaca soundtrack, Michael Nyman

midnite vultures, Beck

Serials Management (after hours)   |    1:25 a.m.

I'm at the library. Just me and the cleaning crew.

I finally had no choice but to pull an all-nighter, not if I wanted to get all my "work" work done and still have the time to get my "not-work" work done by Friday.

• Tuesday: Most of the day training the library assistant who will be taking over (who has applied for my job and will almost certainly get it). Claiming journals and lapsed subscriptions, entering journal holdings into various systems which other libraries utilize in the course of requesting articles via interlibrary loan. Clean up computer, save and/or delete files. Delete or forward remaining e-mails saved over the last 6 years and contact all the necessary people I'm leaving.
• Wednesday: More training. Cover monthly statistics and answer remaining questions that have come up during the last few weeks of training. Spend about an hour on my annual report for last 11 months. Reorganize my paper files to make them understandable to anyone else. Begin packing up my stuff.
• Thursday: Packing and reorganizing continues.
• Friday: Official Last Day so that I'm fully covered on insurance for all of June in case insurance at the new job doesn't start for a few weeks.

If all goes well, I will get through the next four days with a minimum of drama.

Right now I'm just updating serials records. I estimate that 40-45% of my job is updating holdings information on our journals in various print and electronic sources, including several that are Web-based. I keep charts of these changes: new titles or volumes, cancelled titles, volumes that have been bound or moved to storage because the first issue of the next volume has arrived, volumes that are incomplete, etc. And as I make these changes in the various sources I check them off on these charts. There are 15-20 changes on a worksheet, and I have about 70 pages right now that are in various stages of completion. Problem is I write most of the titles on these pages in acronyms: JCO for Journal of Clinical Oncology, AJHP for American Journal of Health-System Pharmacy, BAR for Biblical Archaeology Review, SMJ for Strategic Management Journal. My information about the holdings changes are equally abbreviated, and while it all makes perfect sense to me because I've worked with these titles for so long, it won't to any normal person that doesn't know the exact shelf location of a specific title or what color we use when we bind it.

In the end it's easier for everyone if I do as much of this as possible the next few days. The more I do, the less she'll have to worry about when there's so much else she will have to worry about.

'Pearl Harbor' Bombs   |    12:32 p.m.

Tori sent me this one, Roger Ebert's Pearl Harbor review from the Chicago Sun-Times.

Random TV-ness   |    4:19 p.m.

I haven't decided what's worse: that Fox decided to renew the X-Files minus David Duchovny (and thus denying the show its last shot at going out gracefully), or that NBC has added a show with John Seda to its lineup?

Unlike shows like Highlander, I don't think there is a definitive episode where ER jumped the shark. I know it happened long before Clooney left, the cast expanded to a few dozen or so forgettable characters, and NBC started using words like "powerful" or "special" or "unforgettable" to promote episodes with extreme violence and/or bad weather. But after last night's season finale I can say with utter certainty that the show has jumped the shark so high and so far that it has left the aquarium.

The show's lead character turns vigilante, albeit passively, by refusing to shock the man who's spent the entire episode shooting up Chicago? Seen it: last episode of Homicide and the movie that followed. But this guy had been arrested, charged, released on a legal technicality, and then he bragged to the cop that he was going to move to another city and continue killing. Was I supposed to feel any of the things I felt when Tim confessed to Frank that he killed Ryland? The disbelief that he could do such a thing, met with the knowledge that it wasn't such an implausible act knowing what we know about Tim. The sadness over seeing him confess to committing an act that clearly saved lives but destroyed his own in the process. And then trying to decide what criminal charges and punishment he should face, if any.

Yes, I know he shot a lot of people, and yes, his wife and newborn would've been among them had they been home. But they were safe, the gunman was wounded and incapacitated, and there was no longer threat of imminent danger. If Green isn't at least charged with manslaughter, then Mike Kellerman should have received a commendation for shooting Luther Mahoney.

This must be the week to ripoff Tom Fontana plots. ER writers: the whole doctor-being-exposed-to-HIV-infected-blood subplot with Michael Michele's character has been done before. All day yesterday I kept thinking I'd seen it before on a past episode of ER. It wasn't ER, it was St. Elsewhere, in 1988 or 1989. Bruce Greenwood played the doctor, and Kyle Secor played the patient. I don't even need to see how it plays out on ER (assuming it isn't forgotten by next fall) to know that it was a much better story on St. Elsewhere.

Thirty   |    10:12 a.m.

This really sucks.

When politicians have too much free time   |    6:42 p.m.

A New Jersey congresswoman plans to introduce a nonbinding resolution into Congress condeming HBO for the "the negative and unfair stereotyping of Italian-Americans" on The Sopranos. This is certainly more important than whether Congress is going to withhold payment of U.N. dues in retailiation for our getting kicked off the Human Rights Commission and International Narcotics Control Board.

I've been a faithful viewer of the show from the first episode, and I notice how the objections and condemnations of the show, HBO, Time-Warner and David Chase have increased as the show itself has gained more viewers and fans, critical acclaim and press attention. Those individuals and organizations attacking the show (a show that I point out is not on network television and draws only a fraction of the viewers that watch the crap that regularly tops the Nielsen's) are taking advantage of that same attention to draw some of it on themselves.

I wonder if Chase had this in mind when he created Richard, Dr. Melfi's ex-husband who frequently objects to how the Mafia tarnishes the image of all Italian-Americans by reinforcing stereotypes, etc. In the case of the congresswoman and the group in Illinois that wants to sue HBO, it's the objection that a TV drama with characters in the Mafia is doing the same thing. Problem is, they're the ones that seem to be having trouble separating a small group of individuals (or a television show) from the ethnic group they believe is being tarnished.

Disrespecting the Bing   |    4:59 p.m.

From TV Tattle, links to several interesting articles written recently on The Sopranos:

• "Disrespecting the Bing," in Slate
• "'Sopranos' mob has some tough women," in the Akron Beacon Journal
• "'Sopranos' stays true to its roots", in the San Francisco Chronicle

And after watching this week's episode, I think it's time that Paulie realize that situations involving violence, the outdoors and Christopher should be avoided at all cost. Poison ivy, near-frostbite, what's next?

Favorite moment: Tony cracking up at Bobby Baccala in hunting gear. Runners-up: Paulie and Christopher subsisting on fast food condiment packets, and Dr. Melfi calling Tony on the similiarities between his unstable mistresses and Livia.

(T minus 6)   |    6:06 p.m.

I still don't know at this point if my boss knows that I've given notice. My guess is that she does know but won't deal with it until Monday when she's feeling better.

Spent yesterday at the Solinet (the regional consortium of Southeastern libraries) membership meeting in Buckhead, which was much nicer than the state consortium meetings I attended over the last 6 years. For the first time I managed to attend sessions that if not relevant to my work were at least interesting. I saw my new director and learned that she's announced my imminent arrival to the rest of the Library staff. I also ran into several library school classmates, which meant several rounds of inquiring about graduation and job status. It was also a reminder that I need to contact the people I used as references to let them know about my job. This would be my former boss at Mercer (now in CA), and my 3 outstanding library school instructors: working librarians who taught classes for the school as opposed to technophobic, mediocre faculty.

Off to Blockbuster for another Fri-Sat-Sun of customer service. Hopefully I'll get some entertaining customers with their "interesting" questions. Maybe something equivalent to the customer who called us last week thinking we produced the rental tapes in the store ourselves.

Random stuff (T minus 7)   |    12:55 am

Finally got the chance this afternoon to listen to my newly acquired Headstones CD, "Picture of Health," their first album. I liked it. I'm looking forward to listening to it numerous times at the library this weekend while I claim missing journals and work on graphics for my webpages. And again imagine how incredibly cool it would be if they ever made it down as far as Atlanta for a concert someday.

HBO crapped out this evening in the middle of what was shaping up to be one of the best "Sopranos" episodes I've seen to date. Flashback scenes with Pussy, Jackie Sr., and Tony with just a bit more hair. But I should have at least 3 more chances to get the episode before next Sunday's new one.

Made the final payment on my car today: $3,401.81. This depleted most of my savings, but it will be worth it when I have to start repaying my grad school student loans this summer and won't have to worry about car payments. So I'm now the proud owner (or will be once I get the pink slip) of a '96 Cavalier that still has less than 30,000 miles on it.