Librarians, was RE: [SG] HAMR

> --- John Crimmins <johncrim@voicenet.com> wrote:

> Hey, I'm willing to bet that I deal with more

What are you, a librarian?

This explains your obsession with secret cabals of information brokers
controlling the human race from behind the scenes...

On Sun, 17 Mar 2002 14:03:41 -0800 (PST), John Atkinson
<johnmatkinson@yahoo.com> wrote:

> --- John Crimmins <johncrim@voicenet.com> wrote:

A children's librarian, to be specific.

(Today's Gem:
PARENT: My child has to do a report on a famous African-American, and
her teacher assigned...here it is: Marie Curie.

ME: <weeps openly>)

> This explains your obsession with secret cabals of

More a reflection of the frustration that comes of dealing with a pack of
maddened pre-teen children every afternoon.  "Control, control, must
establish control.... You! Stop dangling your brother out of the window! And
you, why are you looking at porn? Oh, yeah, sure: it's an assignment for art
class. Get up, time to go. Hey, look! A bag full of white powder. Great, time
to call the cops...."

(It happened. As soon as they heard "white powder" 911 connected me to the
fire department, but it turned out to be a bag full of drugs, just as I'd
suspected. Coke or heroin; I don't know which.)

And yeah, the Cabal has yet to contact me. Bastards. I'm giving serious
thought to making an aluminum foil cap to wear; that'll show 'em. No, wait,
*lead* foil! I've got some spare minis that I could pound flat....

> (Today's Gem:
Damn...........Although I do remember this female sergeant asking after
returning form an over seas deployment, and going through mandatory customs in
Alaska. " Why can't we do this in the states?" I just shook my head...Sad
isn't it.

> And yeah, the Cabal has yet to contact me. Bastards. I'm giving
Make sure you wire it correctly.....)

From: "John Crimmins" <johncrim@voicenet.com>

> (Today's Gem:

Oh My Sainted Aunt.

That's one of the scariest things I've seen on this group for a long time.
Poor kid. I hope the parent made a formal complaint... or at least had a
little talk with the teacher. It may have been a mis-communication. I
hope.

> Get up, time to go. Hey, look! A bag full of white powder. Great,

> > What are you, a librarian?

Hey so that's two of us on this list:)

> More a reflection of the frustration that comes of dealing with a pack

Funny you just described my normal working day, which is even more depressing
when I tell you I look after postgraduate medical/biology/pharmacy and
nursing students!

On a regular basis I have conversations like. Me "this book is on a weekly
loan" Student "when is it due back then?"

Or Student "I'm looking for the book I was using last week" Me "what was it
called?" Student "I cannot remember, it was a large green book"

Jeremey

> On a regular basis I have conversations like.

Three days!

> Or

All the green books have been removed for cleaning, come back next week. or
All the green books are now on the third floor (or wherever), go ask there.
(this lets a colleague in on the fun!)

Folks in tech support have much the same problems with people with are
ostensibly bright and presumably well-educated. On helpdesk at UCSF I
lost track of the number of times I heard this appeal: "but I'm tenured

faculty!", as if that makes a difference when their computer is spewing

smoke.

Do the librarians have webpages for trading anecdotes, or do you just vent on
mailing lists? n.b. anything funny is never too far offtopic

Raise your hand if you've had a teacher who was neither as smart as nor as
well read as you were.

This one really needs to be straightened out before more damage is done;

at least America was a state while the Curies were working.

> Alan and Carmel Brain wrote:

> From: "John Crimmins" <johncrim@voicenet.com>

Michael Llaneza schrieb:
> Folks in tech support have much the same problems with

The best of these I heard was when I worked at Lufthansa. I was in charge of
one system among hundreds they have on their mainframe. Somehow, a user had
gotten my number: "Are you in charge of the program on the computer?"

Turned out, it was indeed my baby he had a problem with. :-\

Greetings

> At 08:43 PM 3/18/02 +1100, you wrote:

As do I.  It's happened before.  Teacher to child to parent -- there's
bound to be miscommunication.

> Get up, time to go. Hey, look! A bag full of white powder. Great,

I work in a public library -- schools are at least a little better.  We
did recieve a few phone calls the next week from a fellow who had lost his
"dietary supplement" in the library.

> The final scariest thing is that your emergency services immediately

This was back in December, when 911 was getting calls about white powder
every five minutes or so.  I hated to participate in the hysteria -- I
knew
what the reaction was going to be -- but what choice was there?

But anyway...I'm being all off-topical.  I'm trying to think of
something to bring us back around to SGII, but all I can think of is GW's
Space Marine Combat Librarians. I should pick up some just so I can run a
scenarion about their launching a raid on an enemy stronghold to collect some
overdue books....

> Do the librarians have webpages for trading anecdotes, or do you just

Not that I have discovered. I think the big problem is that when you hear it
so often, you don't want to be reminded of it!

Probably the most stupid person I've had was during a powercut.

Student: "why are all the lights off?" Me: "the power is out at the moment"
Student: "so does that mean I cannot take anything out?" Me: "that's right,
because none of our computers are working" Student: "oh in that case can you
just check my record for any overdue books I might have?"

How I keep a straight face during these exchanges is beyond me;)

Jeremey

> At 08:43 PM 3/18/02 +1100, you wrote:

At Minamicon (UK anime convention that I attended a couple of weeks ago) we
saw the first few eps of "Read or Die", a fairly new anime series about (wait
for it) the Covert Special Operations Division of the British
Library....!
Yes, it is JUST as silly as you'd imagine (probably more so actually) -
Cute Superpowered Girl Librarians rescuing priceless/arcane/dangerous
books
from the clutches of Evil Master Villains - trust me, you need to see
this,
if only for the wonderful image of the heroine's wall-to-wall (and
floor)book-stuffed apartment in the opening sequence.....  ;-)

On Mon, 18 Mar 2002 19:50:52 +0000, Ground Zero Games
<jon@gzg.keme.co.uk> wrote:

> At Minamicon (UK anime convention that I attended a couple of weeks

Sounds great! Any idea where we could find it this side of the pond?

Reminds me of a Cthulhupunk game I ran, where one player was a member of The
Bank (in the future I invented there was only one bank). He was a Covert
Lending Officer...

> On Mon, 18 Mar 2002 19:50:52 +0000, Ground Zero Games

Sadly, no. A lot of what they were showing at the Con was (AFAIK) quite new
stuff even in Japan, most of it fan-subbed. A web search should turn
something up.......

Jon (GZG)
> Reminds me of a Cthulhupunk game I ran, where one player was a member

> --- Michael Llaneza <maserati@earthlink.net> wrote:

Given the quality of grade school teachers[1], anyone with a pulse can do so.

> From: John Atkinson <johnmatkinson@yahoo.com>

> Given the quality of grade school teachers[1], anyone

Some of us are working on changing that.

3B^2

> --- John Crimmins <johncrim@voicenet.com> wrote:

> > What are you, a librarian?

You poor bastard. School?

> More a reflection of the frustration that comes of

Children: Can't live with 'em, and it's illegal to drown them. Frankly, I
don't understand why anyone bothers with those things. They smell bad and are
heinously expensive.[1]

> John Atkinson <johnmatkinson@yahoo.com> wrote:

> You poor bastard. School?

> Children: Can't live with 'em, and it's illegal to

Gee, you'd probably want to have me committed - I'm actually working my
way through school to become a teacher.

Of course, I'm aiming at teaching High School, not grade school.

3B^2

> John Atkinson wrote:

> --- John Crimmins <johncrim@voicenet.com> wrote:

Well... Notice how you were a child at one point:) Unless my original guesses
were right...

------------------------------------------------------------------------
---------------------------------
"Computer games don't affect kids, I mean if Pac man affected us as kids, we'd
all be running around in darkened rooms, munching pills and listening
to repetitive music." - Kristian Wilson of Nintendo, Inc.  1989
------------------------------------------------------------------------
---------------------------------

[quoted original message omitted]

> --- Chen-song Qin <cqin@ee.ualberta.ca> wrote:

Uh, I was pretty intolerable as a child. I'm still an asshole, but I was much
worse before.

G'day,

> Frankly, I don't understand why anyone

1) It is easier to teach them to paint models well
2) Its an excuse for more models - they're armies can be borrowed after
all 3) They are so full of surprises and learn so fast that you have a ready
source of scenario generating info and opponents who will do their uptmost to
beat you just to prove they can and give you a hug afterwards <e.g. our "walk
to school discussion this morning" centred around what we were doing
this Fri/Sat... Lachy is planning a hand-to-hand
gene-stealer/xenomorph/bugs
fight on Friday evening and Janneke is keen to fly WWI airplanes on
Saturday... so all I have to do now is "turn up and play";)> 4) You can make
as many sound effects as you like 5) Its funny watching grade school teachers
responses to being given a
lecture by an x-yr old on French Grand Batteries, Sa'Vasku power
allocation, Light Cavalry from Mongolia or half a dozen other topics during
"show and tell" 6) When they're yours it makes all those other factors seem so
very
different... its why non-parents wonder at why parents rabbit
irrationally about their kids, it really is something you can't understand
until you've been infected yourself;);)

Have fun

> --- Beth.Fulton@csiro.au wrote:

> 1) It is easier to teach them to paint models well

Yeah...

> 2) Its an excuse for more models - they're armies

"Some people have children to buy toys for. I prefer to cut out the middleman
and buy toys for myself."
I'm single--I have no reason NOT to dump my entire
disposable income into the gaming industry.

> this Fri/Sat... Lachy is planning a hand-to-hand

Ah, now that I can understand.

> 5) Its funny watching grade school teachers

YES. Anything to wierd out teachers.

> 6) When they're yours it makes all those other

I'm not saying there aren't some upsides. I've got a cousin I introduced to
OGRE and DSII...I think he just turned 13 (we have so many March birthdays in
my family that we just hold one big celebration at the end of the month). But
it's best if they are someone else's so you can feed them sugar and give them
back.

> > 2) Its an excuse for more models - they're armies

Well, aside from stocks, bonds, real estate, etc... No, no, no. Haven't you
learned about the oblique approach yet? You tell the child's grandparents
"what he really wants for
Christmas/birthday is..." and let *them* do the buying.

> > 6) When they're yours it makes all those other

When you are in the process of having your first, at some point you will say
to yourself "I understand there will be some changes in my life, and I'm
prepared for it." You will not in fact be prepared for it at all and will have
no faintest grasp of how much your viewpoint

[quoted original message omitted]

[quoted original message omitted]

Quoting John Atkinson <johnmatkinson@yahoo.com>:

> Children: Can't live with 'em, and it's illegal to

Old collegue of mine used to refer to children as "burning lotuses" which
induced blank looks. He did eventually explain he'd worked out that having a
kid was about the same price as buying a top of the line lotus sports car and
setting fire to it...

Partner-of-a-friend is a university librarian, and from what she says,
that's

G'day,

> But it's best if they are someone

Is there no end to your evil ways?!!!!

;)

> At 07:50 PM 3/18/02 +0000, you wrote:
Great, time
> to
We did
> recieve a few phone calls the next week from a fellow who had lost his

Thanks -- I'll be keeping an eye out for that one!  A quick web search
brought up a number of pages about it; I'll have to check with my anime
contacts to see if they know anything about a dubbed/subtitled release.

> At 12:25 PM 3/19/02 -0800, you wrote:

Public. Horribly enough, a lot of the schools in the area don't even have
librarians; the budget's been slashed to the bone. The Philadelphia school
district has really big problems.

> More a reflection of the frustration that comes of

It's the younger ones, the preschoolers, who makes the job worthwhile. Pure
enthusiasm, they actually *care* about learning and reading and such. A few
years of school tends to beat that out of most of them, alas.

But I've found it impossible to do a storytime for infants or toddlers and
walk away in a bad mood, so long as I remember the two cardinal rules:

1) Keep expectations low -- you'll get everyone's attention at some
point, but never at the same time.

and 2) Tape the light switches in the "on" position. 'cause trying to navigate
through a dark room filled with two year old children is like something out of
a Hitchcock film.

> At 09:28 20/03/2002 -0500, you wrote:

> >>>From: "John Crimmins" <johncrim@voicenet.com>

> and her

Oh, I believe it. I watched an apparently sober American academic explain how
Cleopatra was 'African American' (and I thought she was the Macedonian Queen
of Egypt). Poor old Trevor McDonald was introduced on American TV as
African-American (he is actually Oxbridge Black English whose parents
came from the Caribbean), much to his astonishment. The term African American

clearly means something in the states where you have an American people who
came from Africa many years ago but the meaningless term African-English

has started to appear in our newspapers. We have second plus generation
Black English subjects, African-derived subjects (usually Nigerian) and
black Caribbean subjects (often Jamaican) and culturally they are unlike

each other.

> From: KH.Ranitzsch@t-online.de (K.H.Ranitzsch)

> > Spoken like a parent; although, we tend to put it:

My favorite quote of this nature is from Mark Twain. My roughh recollection of
it goes: "When a child turns 13 you should put them in a barrel, nail the lid
shut, and feed them through a hole. When they turn 16, you should plug up the
hole.

3B^2

> John Crimmins wrote:

> It's the younger ones, the preschoolers, who makes the job worthwhile.

Amazing how some of us never lose it, or manage to regain it.

> But I've found it impossible to do a storytime for infants or toddlers

Thank you, you have just brightened my day.

3B^2

On Tue, 19 Mar 2002 12:25:13 -0800 (PST), John Atkinson
> <johnmatkinson@yahoo.com> wrote:

> Frankly, I don't understand why anyone

Ah, but they are also a constant source of amusement! Like taking a three year
old to his first battlefield and having to actually drag him away! Or, seeing
the rifled muskets in a display case, he points to them and cries, "I want a
Hogarth!" (This only really makes sense if you've seen the movie "Iron Giant",
but the kid's blunderbuss shaped air gun has his name on it, and the kid's
name is Hogarth.)

> On Wed, 20 Mar 2002 13:09:07 +1100, Beth.Fulton@csiro.au wrote:

> 6) When they're yours it makes all those other factors seem so very

Tell me about it! *L*

> From: Allan Goodall <agoodall@att.net>

> Or, seeing

One of the most underrated animated movies of all times. I absolutely loved
it (although the scene with a 12-year-old on espresso is FRIGHTENING).

3B^2

Yes, Iron Giant is an EXCELLENT movie. It contains of of the few characters
worthy of the word "Hero" in today's contemporary movies... It still hits me
as really, really cool when the Giant closes his eyes and thinks "Superman"...

Joe from Mighty Joe Young fits the bill of a real hero too...

> On Wed, 2002-03-20 at 12:39, Brian Bilderback wrote:

On Wed, 20 Mar 2002 07:56:28 -0800, "Brian Bilderback"
<bbilderback@hotmail.com> wrote:

> John Crimmins wrote:

My wife likes to observe that a casual visitor to our house would never think
that two adults live there...biut she's the one who asks for Lego sets for
Christmas, so she can't really complain.

> >But I've found it impossible to do a storytime for infants or

Hey, they can be dangerous! You wouldn't believe how hard a toddler can
punch....

> Hey, they can be dangerous! You wouldn't believe how hard a

And their at that perfect height for maximum damage too.....

> --

> From: "John Crimmins" <johncrim@voicenet.com>

> My wife likes to observe that a casual visitor to our house would never

> think that two adults live there...biut she's the one who asks for Lego

> sets for

I'm the Lego addict in our household.

> Hey, they can be dangerous! You wouldn't believe how hard a toddler

I'm an uncle, my wife's a Nanny. Yes, I would believe.... I just meant the
idea of reading to kids brightened my day.

3B^2

> From: "Hudak, Michael" <mihudak@state.pa.us>

> > Hey, they can be dangerous! You wouldn't believe how hard a

Not to mention they have energy reserves that would lead one to believe
they're fusion powered.....

3B^2

On Wed, 20 Mar 2002 10:43:48 -0800, "Brian Bilderback"
<bbilderback@hotmail.com> wrote:

> >From: "John Crimmins" <johncrim@voicenet.com>

I just wish that I hadn't given my collection away when I turned 13 or so.
Such a fool...I gave away my Star Wars figures, too, including a pair(!) of
those big Snow Walkers.

> >Hey, they can be dangerous! You wouldn't believe how hard a toddler

I love it.  Best part of my job, really.  _Go Away, Big Green Monster!_
is better than Shakespeare.

And, to be honest, it's made me a better gamer as well. Really: I've lost my
fear of public speaking, I've become a lot more confident, and I can tell a
damn good story these days...which is a big help when running an RPG.

On Wed, 20 Mar 2002 13:40:35 -0500, "Hudak, Michael"
<mihudak@state.pa.us> wrote:

> > Hey, they can be dangerous! You wouldn't believe how hard a

Yes, exactly. And then they laugh, and you have to pretend that you just had
the wind knocked out of you.

A-M-E-N! I used to work in a daycare (preschool), and I can attest. The
female teachers were not much help either (as that was the height they tende
to throw things - frisbees, balls, hackysacks, etc.).

-----
Brian Bell
-----

[quoted original message omitted]

John Crimmins wrote:

> > I'm the Lego addict in our household.

I was too poor to own any in the first place, so you'll get no sympathy here.
I wonder if that's why I love buying toys.... er... miniatures now.

> > I just meant the

Velveteen Rabbit rocks IMHO.

> And, to be honest, it's made me a better gamer as well. Really: I've

> tell a

Plus, kids will call you on it even quicker than a gamer would if you're not
well-prepared.  On your toes.....

3B^2

> At 09:39 20/03/02 -0800, 3B^2 wrote:

> Giant",

Excellent movie for any age:)

Cheers

> Derek Fulton wrote:

> Excellent movie for any age :)

Absolutely. My wife and I bought it for our video collection. I still enjoy
watching it every once in a while.

3B^2

> --- Brian Bilderback <bbilderback@hotmail.com> wrote:

> One of the most underrated animated movies of all

Next weekend I get to introduce my cousin to
Greek-style coffee.  Makes espresso look tame.

> John Atkinson wrote:

If it's anything like Turkish coffee, you're far more evil than anyone's

imagined. ;-)

> --- Brian Bilderback <bbilderback@hotmail.com> wrote:

> >Next weekend I get to introduce my cousin to

Well, it's made in a wierdly-shaped sort of pot called
a briki. You put in cold water, coffee that's ground
really fine, and sugar (to taste--I was taught that
you put in almost as much as you do coffee, which makes it really sweet).
Served in tiny little coffee cups, and enough to keep you arguing politics and
theology with Greeks until midnight!

http://www.elenigourmet.com/make.htm

> John Atkinson wrote:

> > >Next weekend I get to introduce my cousin to

Identical method.  Bottom of the cup resembles waste sludge.   Good
stuff,
but i pity the kid's parents. ;-)

3B^2

> --- Brian Bilderback <bbilderback@hotmail.com> wrote:

> Identical method. Bottom of the cup resembles waste

Oh, yeah. Seriously nasty sludge. That's pretty hellacious if you don't know
what you're getting. Fortunately I was warned beforehand.

> On Wed, 20 Mar 2002, Brian Bilderback wrote:

> John Atkinson wrote:

Turkish/Greek(1) coffee really is evil. And as you say, don't ever, EVER
try to drink the bottom third or half of the cup!

It'll probably melt your teeth, just for starters.

(1. At least when it comes to food, Turkey and Greece are far more similar
than either would like to admit...)

> --- John Crimmins <johncrim@voicenet.com> wrote:
...
> >> A children's librarian, to be specific.
...
> But I've found it impossible to do a storytime for

As we wonder slowly away from the founding concept of the GZG site....

I found myself in the position of the favorite
leaning post/chair of a group of six year olds
today, a high point in my life, first grade is MUCH more fun the second time
around.

As I am sitting here, sucking down the fourth (small) glass of 'Costa dei
Limoni', I find that being the 'favorite leaning post' of five small children
is a high point in the journey of life. (one is sort of a problen child and
the other four are just cute, mine in particular.)

I now return to the normal GZG channel destruction.

Bye for now,

> --- John Lambshead <pjdl@nhm.ac.uk> wrote:
...
> Oh, I believe it. I watched an apparently sober

Lets reach an understanding early on...
reality, history, and Afro-centrism are mutually
exclusive terms.

Bye for now,

> --- Allan Goodall <agoodall@att.net> wrote:

...its why non-parents wonder at why
> parents rabbit irrationally

Infected in not the correct word... 'Enlightened to the perfection of the
state of cute' is closer to the real situation.

Bye for now,

> --- John Leary <john_t_leary@yahoo.com> wrote:

Well, part of the problem is the concept of the 'apparently sober American
academic' this is an oxymoron.

Bye for now,

> John Atkinson wrote:

> > Identical method. Bottom of the cup resembles waste

Yeah, me too. Grateful for that at least. Weird thing was, Turkish coffee was
strong, and I liked it, their chai was strong, and I hated it.

3B^2

> Brian Burger wrote:

> Turkish/Greek(1) coffee really is evil. And as you say, don't ever,

Evil, but good. :-)

> It'll probably melt your teeth, just for starters.

No, just gives them a nice burnt look. ;-)

> (1. At least when it comes to food, Turkey and Greece are far more

Both have their good points, both rely far too heavily on yogurt. :-P

3B^2

> On Thu, 21 Mar 2002, Brian Bilderback wrote:

> Brian Burger wrote:

Funny, I saw this as a bonus! I'd been travelling for about two months when I
got to Turkey, across W. Europe and down thru eastern Europe backpacking, and
milk products are nearly impossible to find in Eastern Europe. (except for
that vile UHT stuff).

So I went nuts with Turkish yogurt, and that great yogurt drink they make.
(irak? can't remember the name...). Then I found real, non-UHT milk in
Greece as well as yogurt...

> Brian Burger wrote:

> > Both have their good points, both rely far too heavily on yogurt.

A subjective POV in both cases, I suppose.

I'd been travelling for about two months
> when I got to Turkey, across W. Europe and down thru eastern Europe

UHT?

> So I went nuts with Turkish yogurt, and that great yogurt drink they

I'll ask my in-laws, they were there 3 years.  I developed a taste for
Adana
Kebap, a spicy ground-meat kebap, as well as for doner, durum, tsutlac
(a
rice pudding) and salep (a milk-and-some-sort-of-flower hot breakfast
drink).

3B^2

From: "Brian Bilderback" <bbilderback@hotmail.com>
> UHT?

Heat Treated milk, long life. It is the milk that can sit on a shelf in the
tropics for months without going bad. Also it is the milk served on airlines
for with coffee etc.

> Flak Magnet wrote:

> Yes, Iron Giant is an EXCELLENT movie. It contains of of the few

Iron Giant, the story that Ted hughes (?) wrote to console his children after
their mother, Sylvia Platt, killed herself. Among other things, sad events
involving depressed authors inspired a one-off t-shirt that a friend of
mine

> Rodney Stott Wrote:

> > UHT?

Ick. 'nuff said.

> Brian Bilderback wrote:

> >From: "John Crimmins" <johncrim@voicenet.com>

The only engineer that does not still play with LEGO (TM), does not have any.
Would you believe that the Lego Mindstorm was targeted for 12-15
year-olds?  It

Quoting Richard and Emily Bell <rlbell@sympatico.ca>:

> Brian Bilderback wrote:

I used to have a model city that filled a room in a previous house. Now I've
got a more permanent place of residence, I'm looking into a new version. Only
this time I want the trains routed automatically, because the manual pneumatic
switching system I used to use is too slow.

Think black-and-white bricks making barcodes down the side of them and a

mindstorms+lightsensor to read that and work the switches... <grin>

If there's one hobby that can chew up money faster than gaming, it's got to be
that. The insurance policy for the house includes cover for 6K of
Lego...