Month: June 2004

bindery

Just out of curiosity, does anyone out there know of a bindery that is able to handle a shipment of about five or six boxes of journals and/or theses without making mistakes on 25% or more of the bound items?

Just out of curiosity, does anyone out there know of a bindery that is able to handle a shipment of about five or six boxes of journals and/or theses without making mistakes on 25% or more of the bound items? My institution has used three different bindery services in recent history, and all of them seem to slip into shoddy work after the honeymoon period has passed. I’m wondering if this is an industry standard or simply our misfortune.

towing

I should quit this librarian gig, get a tow truck, and then I’ll be living high on the hog!

Last Saturday, I drove over to Louisville to attend the first annual Living Out Loud music festival. I volunteered to help promote the National Women’s Music Festival by chatting up folks who came by the table, and also several of my friends were performing in the festival. A good time was had by all, and afterwards my famished performer friends and I caravaned on over to Ramsi’s Café on the World for some fabulous food.

At this point in the evening it was nearly 11:30pm, so none of us thought much about parking across the street in the Mid-City Mall lot, since it was obvious that the mall was closed and there were plenty of spaces away from the mall itself. I was the only one in my group of five (the other three arrived later) who noticed the “parking for mall customers only sign,” but I assumed that it would be okay. Why would the mall need those spaces at 11:30pm on a Saturday night? Right? Wrong.

It seems that they have recently gotten tough on those parking there who are not mall patrons. During the day, it’s harder to catch them, but after the mall closes, it’s apparently a gold mine for Dave’s Towing Service. At $107 a pop, no wonder they are quick to tow offender’s vehicles away. Out of the eight of us, they made $428 that night. Cash. That was the most expensive dessert I’ve ever had.

We had such a great time talking and laughing at Ramsi’s that it was quite a shock to walk out at 1 a.m. and realize that our vehicles were no longer parked in the lot. We managed to get directions to the lot where our vehicles were being held and flagged down a taxi. Once we got there, we encountered Mr. Towing Jerk. MTJ sat in his monstrous truck with the huge engine loudly running as we tried to explain to him that only two of us had our $107 in cash on us, but that the other two had their money in their cars. He seemed quite put out that he would have to take them to the lot at the far end of the street in order for them to get the money for their cars. Mind you, my friends with the money in the cars had all of their gear and instruments in those cars. We weren’t leaving.

MTJ finally drove down to the other lot, with one of my friends in the truck with him. He offered to let the rest of us ride in the back, but I wasn’t getting in there. The three of us decided to take our chances walking down the road to the lot. All of us but my friend who rode with MTJ quickly found our vehicles and were able to move them over towards the exit. However, the fourth vehicle was blocked by another car, and MTJ sat there with his engine running and headlights in our eyes until one of his tow trucks returned to move the blocking vehicle. By 2am, we returned to the Mid-City Mall parking lot and retrieved the other four passengers.

Dave’s Towing Service was out in full force that night, and I pity the other souls that had to deal with Mr. Towing Jerk. The $107 was a hard hit to my wallet, but his attitude was a much harsher blow. Yeah, I’m sure he has to deal with a bunch of drunks every night, but we were obviously not drunk and equally obviously stranded without our vehicles. The least he could have done was shown us some sympathy for our situation. However, for a towing service charging an outrageous $107, I’m not surprised that they only hire the worst dredges of humanity.

I’m looking forward to hearing what the five songwriters in the group come up with in retribution.

wi-fi blogging

Posting from Common Grounds using the new laptop and their free wireless network.

I am sitting in a window seat at my favorite coffee house in Lexington, Common Grounds. It’s just down the street from an apartment I used to live in, although I didn’t spend nearly as much time here then as I do now. Go figure. As I write this, I’m waiting for some folks to show up for a meeting here. It’s a great place to meet with small groups of people, and now that Lexington has a smoking ban, there’s even more room for a pleasant, non-smoking experience. Anyway, that’s all I’m going to write for my first post using a wireless network. I have a much longer tale to tell that will require its own entry.

redneck woman

So here’s to all my sisters out there keeping it country
Let me get a big ‘hell yeah’ from the redneck girls like me

I’ve been listening to the local country stations lately while driving around when the public radio stations aren’t broadcasting anything I’m interested in. I never cared much for country until I saw the Dixie Chicks at a Lillith Fair in 1999. I started scanning the dial on long car trips, and discovered that there are in fact some witty songwriters in the country genre, as well as some great toe-tapping tunes. One of my recent favorites is a song by Gretchen Wilson that was profiled yesterday on NPR’s All Things Considered.

My reactions when I first heard this song were mixed. On the one hand, I appreciated the songwriting and gutsy humor, but on the other hand I felt a tinge of discomfort. I’m not a redneck woman, nor do I wish to be, so I couldn’t feel a kinship with the song like the women screaming “hell, yeah!” in the chorus. What appeals to me is the independence and unashamed statement of self proclaimed in this song. The commentator put it in the same category as the Dixie Chick’s Goodbye Earl, another song I can’t relate to directly, but greatly appreciate the sentiments.

I recommend giving the tune a spin on your favorite audio medium. If anything, you’ll be doing some chair dancing.

speaking of douche bags…

Impolite behavior in the virtual community.

Yesterday, some un-named asshole left a very vulgar comment on my post about the suckage of politics. I deleted the comment and put him on my blacklist as soon as I saw it. I don’t know who it was or why they found that post, but it pissed me off. I dare that asshole to say something like that to my face. I’ll be s/he wouldn’t. As Karen noted last week, it’s a whole lot easier to be nasty to other people in the virtual community than it is in Real Life™.

john kerry is a douche bag but i’m voting for him anyway

Yeah, we know he’s no Howard, but look at the alternative.

Essayist Alan Blevins is hoping to persuade people like myself and others not enchanted by Kerry to vote for him in November by admitting that, indeed, he is a bit of a dork. He has plans for five essays, with the first two already written. I read the first one, and although his reasoning is well articulated, he could use a bit more in the research department. His second essay is a bit better about providing links to sources, although many of the news sources are from the so-called liberal press (no Fox News citations here). Good luck to him, but I think he’ll mostly be preaching to the choir.

I’m voting for Kerry, only because he’s the most likely of the Anybody But Bush crowd to get enough of the popular vote to win. I’m still a Deaniac progressive Democrat at heart, and it kills me that yet again I have to vote for a moderate, sluggish politician.

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