Sunday, October 31, 2010

Nice Sunday

After 11 hours of sleep, the day couldn’t have started better. Overall, this Sunday has been pretty nice actually. Sleeping half the day. Putting some effort into reducing my pile of homework. Facebook-ing (we addicts can’t get enough ^^). Going down to town to celebrate mum’s belated birthday with a good dinner. Getting home to watch Gossip Girl…

And the best part - no school tomorrow! :D

My look of the day

Daily Thoughts 10/31/2010 (The Story of Stuff, ebooks)

Image from The Book of Hallowe'en. Caption "A Black-Cat Table.", 1919, Author Ruth Edna Kelley

Daily Thoughts 10/31/2010

Have a happy Halloween.  The kids were out early today while it was light trick or treating.  We gave out candy.

I've been reading more of The Story of Stuff.  I agree with the author that stuff should be more durable, repairable, recyclable, and upgradable.  Too much stuff which you can buy nowadays is poor quality and easily broken.  I have had the same car for ten years and the same computer for six years with upgrades.  I just fixed my watchband yesterday.  I have had the same watch for over ten years.  I also agree with the idea of reducing the amount of material which we use to make things.  Packaging is getting lighter and more recyclable lightly.  I wish this was true of many other items.

Web Bits

Lynn Abbey, CJ Cherryh, and Jane Fancher have an ebooks site where all the proceeds go to the authors.  They are all excellent fantasy writers. http://www.closed-circle.net/

I took a few minutes to go back and check who was linked to my blog.  There is Publishing Perspectives http://www.publishingperspectives.com/ and Meditative Reading http://meditativereading.blogspot.com/

Blameless An Alexia Tarabotti Novel by Gail Carriger


Blameless An Alexia Tarabotti Novel by Gail Carriger.

This is a wonderfully silly fantastic novel. It manages to mashup steampunk with werewolves and vampires in a comedy of manners. It is quite fun to read.

The main character who is pregnant by a werewolf travels to Italy where she meets the templars and learns a bit about her fathers history.

Lots of silliness ensues. Alexia Terrabotti endures ornithopter rides, angry vampires, and pesto in her travels in Italy. She wards off villains with her weigted dart shooting parasol with the help of her trusty footman Floote and the cross dressing hatmaker Madame Lefleux.

The writing is lighthearted and fun. It is well worth following the author, Gail Carriger. Her blog is quite fun to read with its pictures of parasols and other victorian and steampunk fashions. http://gailcarriger.livejournal.com/

Happy Halloween

Hey Guys, Just wanted to pop in and wish you guys a Happy Halloween.  Are you guys doing anything to celebrate the holiday? Last night I went to a nice little gathering held by my friend Sonya.  She made a delicious spread of appetizers...
Lots of goodness...caramel apples,  spiced pecans, pesto dip, chips & salsa, sausage balls and a bacon/pumpkin dip made by my friend Bunny. I made a pumpkin cake(no picture-dang it) and swamp water...
This ugliness is actually quite tasty. I found the recipe online and decided to try it because it was very festive and easy to make. You just mix 7 cups of orange juice with pulp, 750ml of vodka & 3/4 of a  2 liter bottle of Dr. Pepper(I used diet). Sounds disgusting but it was GREAT!.  I filled a latex glove with water and froze it to make the ice. Very Martha, don't ya think? 
Ooops, some of the fingers came off. hehe! That's me and Sonya having a little fun with ice.

And because It's Halloween. I had to leave you with this...
Michael Jackson's
THRILLER
Happy Halloween!
Bob Out


Saturday, October 30, 2010

The Junior Officers Reading Club Killing Time and Fighting Wars by Patrick Hennessey



The Junior Officers Reading Club Killing Time and Fighting Wars by Patrick Hennessey.





Patrick Hennessey describes his infantry and officer training in Britain. Then he describes his tour of duty, first as an honor guard for Buckingham Palace, then his tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan. This is very much a story about being a soldier willing to fight in hard circumstances.



Mixed in with his descriptions of of every day soldiering are descriptions of his reading. One of the books he is reading in Iraq is The Marsh Arabs by Wilfred Thessiger. Another book is Allan Hollinghurst's The Line of Beauty which he reads in Afghanistan. He also writes about some of the films he watches in basic training like Band of Brothers, Gladiator, and Saving Private Ryan.



The writing is thoughtful, analytical, has a touch of black humor, and throws in some strong language. The strong language is appropriate for some of the muddy, dirty, sandy places in Iraq and Afghanistan. It also fits in the leave time where soldiers drink hard, read, and think.



The writing swtiches between thoughtful stretches and lulls between combat. The combat scenes are fast, people get killed, ambushed, blown apart by IEDs (Improvised Explosive Devices), and are wounded. The author is up front about his desire to get on the ground and destroy the enemy.



The description of the ANA (Afghan National Army) and the Iraqui guard are not very flattering, but the enemy taliban and Al Qaedar are described as being far worse. You get a sense from the book that the fighting in Afghanistan is much more intense than in Iraq.  Also the descriptions of our allies in Afghanistan was quite eye opening.  He does a good job of describing how different their thinking is than people in the west. The one thing which he does say that is intriguing is that the Afghanis don't want doctors and aid, they want teachers and learning.  Patrick Hennessey also describes without hesitation how the taliban often use Chinese and Russian small arms and rpgs and are trained by Iranians.



I like the ending where Patrick Hennessey is sent to the United States to train marines to fight the taliban. Patrick Hennessey was promoted in the field to become the youngest frontline captain the United Kingdom's army. This book is honest, well written, thoughtful, often uncomfortable, and bloody.  It is a memoir.

Daily Thoughts 10/30/2010 (The Story of Stuff, Library Funding)

Geokeys, Globalization

Daily Thoughts 10/30/2010

Sometimes things are a bit tense.   Six people have been offered retirement packages.  There is no way to know if people will take them.  There are added years of service but no additional severance being offered.  With this comes a statement about peace of mind.  Apparently, this is in preparation for further budget cuts from the city.  There is a lot of hearsay flying around so I don't know the exact figures being given.  The final budget for the city is being prepared.  I could guess that we will experience another round of reduction in force, possibly with deeper cuts than before.  It is tiring and uncertain.  Currently the library is $400,000 in debt which is 10% of our current budget.  An easy way to say this is that the city has no money and it is very likely there will be considerable additional cuts.

We will be having a book sale in November on November 5th and 6th to raise money for the friends.  This usually brings in a couple of thousand dollars in total.  It also generates a lot of goodwill.   There is also the annual gala which is going to be hosted in the library on Thursday, November 11, 2010.   It is put together by the library foundation. Tickets are $50.  The foundation raised $20,000 for the childrens room last year.  Hopefully, they will do better this year.  In addition, there is the donation form on the library website.  But, it probably will not be enough. 

It would be nice to see a larger donor step up to the plate and for corporate sponsorship to happen as well.  We have had the Women's Enterprise Development Center, the African American Chamber of Commerce, members of the Chamber of Commerce come in to do programming, and will soon have SCORE counseling.  We also plan on working on a separate small business collection.

I spent some time looking for leads early in the year for prospects and the library recently updated our email list by over a thousand people.  It might help a little bit.

It leads me to thinking about my own future.  I have to consider different options.  The economy is in fairly bad shape. I'll probably be going to Thinking Outside the Library: Non-traditional Careers for Information Professionals  http://mysite.pratt.edu/~sla/ .  There are other programs as well.

My watch band broke so I had to go and get it fixed. I took the bus downtown because it is very hard to find parking without paying. I read some more of The Story of Stuff. She is describing problems of countries which rely on mining, oil, and other extractive resources. Because these pay for the government and the citizens often don't, there are problems. It is interesting enough. Once again, though, she annoyed me by saying we could just use wind and solar to power our future. Wind, solar, solar towers and concentrators, biodiesel and other biofuels, geothermal, run of the river hydroelectric, wave generators like pelamis, waste to energy like plasma gasification, highly energy efficient devices, and advanced energy storage devices like flywheel energy storage together might completely power our future but not just wind and solar.

busy - tragedic day

lately i have many homework and assignments
i'm really really busy so i can't update my blog
i can only online facebook or my twitter from my blackberry * wanna my BBM pin? :p
i seldom online from my pc
but now, it's weekend! let's finish it all
lol.
_______________________________________________________

 yea, tsunami
at 26th of october 2010 there are many disaster that hit my lovely country, INDONESIA
they are:
- tsunami at mentawai, west sumatra
- mt merapi eruption at central java
how pathetic
those disaster caused many victims
they loss their family, their precious things, and many more
i feel so sad :(
almost all of my contacts in my bbm changed their display picture with "PRAY FOR INDONESIA" pic.
i also changed my display picture with that pic
beside that, i received many broadcast messages that told me about the signs of doomsday that have happened in indonesia lately
they said that almost all of the big disaster that hit indonesia happen at 26th
like tsunami in aceh, happened in 26th of december 2004 (?) * i forgot =p
 and the two new disaster that happened in 26th of october 2010
i think that disasters happen just because the irony of fate
some people said that 26 is the unlucky number, because if you divide it with 2 it will be 13, the most popular unlucky number
beside that, some people said that in Haggai 2:6 there's about the doomsday
but when i read it, it's not in Haggai 2:6 , but it's in Haggai 2:7
ckckck, i don't know what are they thinking about
just making sensation maybe?
nobody knows, haha
_______________________________________________________
huh, lately i'm super duper busy!
i have many homework and assignments
i can't imagine it!
why teacher loves to give their students many homework and assignments?!
i still can't get it
do they think about their students? about their student's health? 
and one thing ..
some teacher always thinks that their students must only study and do their subject!
do they think that students have MANY assignments, homework, or even exam?!
not just your subject, teacher!
all of the subject, we must study about it and we're tired enough of it
ok, this is the list of my assignments and homework :
- math assignment [ making a diagram from real data ]
- indonesian language assignment part 1 [ determine the fact and the opinion from an advertisement ]
- indonesia language assignment part 2 [ find event for speaking test ]
- geography assignment [ social and cultural changes ]
-  biology homework [ do the essay problem ]
- indonesian language assignment [ change the lyrics of a song for exam * group ]  
- art [ decorate book holder * group ]
see?! and look! some of them even still don't have check mark. ckckck
i'm to tired for doing it all
tonight, i want to do the indonesian language assignment, change the lyrics of a song
i use Common Denominator for the song and the theme is about friendship
 this all stupid things make me stressed!
especially, the deadline
OMG, i hate it
i hope that teacher can understand their students MORE
Amen ..

quinta
 

Friday, October 29, 2010

Friday night...with mami ;)

Tonight I decided to stay at home and just take it easy. And since my sister is out on a date, it’s only me and mami. ;)

Nevertheless, since my mum has errands to run early tomorrow, she‘ll soon be off to bed…But since I’m a night owl, I think I am going to watch a movie and eat some more candy…a habit that has to stop. Hehe. ^^

Daily Thoughts 10/29/2010 (Business Books, The Story of Stuff)

Interior with poppies and reading woman (Lizzy Hohlenberg), 1905, Oil On Canvas, by Anna Ancher, Skagens Museum

Daily Thoughts 10/29/2010

This morning, I started reading The Story of Stuff How Our Obsession With Stuff Is Trashing the Planet, Our Communities, and Our Health by Annie Leonard.  It is very much an environmentalist and anti-consumerist book.  It follows the path of our stuff from when it is made to when we use it to when we throw it away to when it ends in the dump.

This morning we talked about possibly merchandising (creating a separate collection) for the small business books.  I am looking at the Gaylord catalog which is a label catalog for business labels.  We also talked a bit about business dvds.

I did a little bit of weeding in the oversize books and a bit of shelf reading in the 800s.

In the New York Times book review, one book caught my attention; The Gun, The AK-47 and the Evolution of War by C.J. Chivers. 

On the way home, I read some more of The Story of Stuff.  The author is using a lot of liberal causes in her writing.  It feels very politically correct which can be annoying at times.  However, the sympathy there seems to be right.  I am not sure that I agree with everything she is saying.  I am reading this book because it is printed on recycled paper.  Ecolibris is doing a campaign to get people to read books printed on recycled paper.

Web Bits

All Hallow's Read http://www.allhallowsread.com/

If you get a chance take a look at the New York Librarians Meetup blog, it is well worth going to their events.  http://nylibrariansmeetup.blogspot.com/

Thursday, October 28, 2010

Gretchen wins Project Runway

This blog is brought to you by the letters...
WTF

Did Gretchen really just win Project Runway? OMG! I have to know...did you guys like her collection?
I didn't at all! I thought it was very bland.  Mondo should have won. However, I didn't like those damn head pieces he designed. Maybe if he had canned those his collection wouldn't have looked as costumy(is that a word?) to Michael and Nina. Who knows? I guess they know more about fashion than me. I am just soooo disappointed. This was the best season yet(to me)... until this.
TOTAL BUMMER

Bob Out

Daily Thoughts 10/28/2010 (The Junior Officer's Reading Club)

U.S. Army Spc. Michael Perkins, right, assigned to 1st Calvary Division, hands boxes filled with books to a fellow soldier in Kirkuk, Iraq, April 26, 2009. U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Gustavo Olgiati, Government Photo, Public Domain.

Daily Thoughts 10/28/2010

I read some more of  The Junior Officers' Reading Club.  I like the description of how it was so hot in Iraq  that the pages were coming unglued from The Marsh Arabs by Wilfred Thesiger's.  I also liked the authors decision to stop reading Don Quixote by Cervantes.  Most of the book is about soldiering.  There are a few literary references as you go through the book.

I did a little bit of weeding today in the oversize books and printed more copies of the Internet Marketing bibliography.  I also checked the displays to make sure they are in order.  The new website is starting to shape up nicely.  It is done with Drupal which is an open source system. http://drupal.org/

On the way home I read more of The Junior Officer's Reading Club.  It is interesting contemplating Patrick Hennessey reading Ayn Rand in Afghanistan.  For some reason, I find it utterly appropriate.

Web Bits

American Library Association Book Donation Programs List http://delicious.com/alalibrary/bookdonations

I Just Wanna Say I Love You

jika memang kita ga bisa bersatu
trima kasih untuk semuanya
trima kasih kamu telah membiarkanku mencintaimu
trima kasih atas semua sikap tak pedulimu
yang buatku bertambah menyayangimu
seuntai kalimat yang trus terucap dalam hatiku
hanya dapat terbuang sia-sia
tanpa sedikit pun kamu mendengarnya
tapi mengertilah
sampai waktuku tiba
I JUST WANNA SAY I LOVE YOU



agnes angelina
27.09.2008

dear mom

I’m feeling tired today
Left alone in the room hugging a pillow
Touching my phone distracted my mind
It’s lonely to eat tonight

Suddenly, i was frightened by the ringing phone
my mom’s worried voice asked if i’ve eaten
these words annoyed me but today it’s different
The forgotten promises are remembered

I will be a person with pretty heart
And become a person who is selfless
I’ll keep the love of my mother’s wishes
I think of mother who used to share my dreams and brush my hair

Though I’ve made hurtful wrong choices
You silently watched over me from behind
But now I think more than an innocent child
The meaning of mom’s silent prayers

What will i do, yet my heart is small
Can I do better without holding mother’s hand

I’m afraid that it will still lack
I’ll be a wise daughter of my mom (Give me the courage)
I will be a proud daughter no matter where I go (You’ve been there for me)
I’ll keep the love of my mother’s wishes
I’ll show endless love
I’ll have a warm heart I’m shy to express to mom

That I really love my mom

That's So Gay: The Pink Triangle

I hate it when people use the phrase "That's so gay" in a negative way. It's usually used to describe something tacky or tasteless. I've decided to take the phrase back and make it positive. This is the second in a series of posts I am doing about all things gay.

The Pink Triangle


The story behind the pink triangle begins prior to World War II. Paragraph 175, a clause in German law, prohibited homosexual relations. In 1935, during Hitler's rise to power, he extended this law to include homosexual kissing, embracing, and even having homosexual fantasies. An estimated 25,000 people were convicted under this law between 1937 and 1939 alone. They were sent to prisons and later concentration camps. Their sentence also included sterilization, most commonly in the form of castration. In 1942, Hitler extended the punishment for homosexuality to death.

Prisoners in Nazi concentration camps were labeled according to their crimes by inverted colored triangles. "Regular" criminals were denoted by a green triangle, political prisoners by red triangles and Jews by two overlapping yellow triangles (to form the Star of David, the most common Jewish symbol). Homosexual prisoners were labels with pink triangles. Gay Jews- the lowest form of prisoner- had overlapping yellow and pink triangles. This system also created a social hierarchy among the prisoners, and it has been reported that the pink triangle prisoners often received the worst workloads and were continually harassed and beaten by both guards and other prisoners.

Although homosexual prisoners were not shipped en mass to the Auschwitz death camps like so many of the Jewish prisoners, there were still large numbers of gay men executed there along with other non-Jewish prisoners. The real tragedy though occurred after the war. When the Allies defeated the Germany and the Nazi Regime, the political and remaining Jewish prisoners were released from the camps (the regular criminals- murderers, rapists, etc.- were not released for obvious reasons). The homosexual prisoners were never released though because Paragraph 175 remained West German law until 1969. So these innocent men watched as their fellow prisoners were set free, but remained prisoners for 24 more years.

In the 1970s, the pink triangle started to be used in conjunction with the gay liberation movement. When people, especially public figures such as law makers, were confronted with such a symbol, they risked being associated with the Nazis if he or she were to attempt to openly limit or prosecute gays. In the 1980s, when the triangle's popularity truly began to take off, ACT-UP (AIDS Coalition To Unleash Power) adopted  it as their symbol, but turned it upright to suggest an active fight rather than passive resignation. I've also been told that some people wear their triangles pointing up if they personally know somebody who has tied of AIDS. In any case, the pink triangle is definitely a symbol very closely connected to oppression and the fight against it, and stands as a vow never to let another Holocaust happen again. Like the word "queer," it is a symbol of hate which has been reclaimed and now stands for pride.(Information taken from www.lambda.org)

Bob Out

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

If it wasn’t transparent…

I would so show it on me. Just because I love-love-loved the color, I had to buy it! :D


Daily Thoughts 10/27/2010 (Bibliography)

We can talk over Sops-in-wine.... Digital ID: 1701830. New York Public Library
We can talk over Sops-in-wine. And drink to our next meeting. Children's book illustrations / Illustrations -- Crane -- Floral fantasy in an old English garden

Daily Thoughts 10/27/2010

Today has been quiet.  I finished printing up a new internet marketing bibliography.  We are having an internet marketing class by a gentleman affiliated with the chamber of commerce.  Hopfully, it should have a positive impact for our library.

I also did a little work on my ordering today.  It is something I try to do every single day.  I am also thinking about the databases for musical; Naxos, Freegal, and Alexander Street.  I think it might be interesting to have music downloads at the public library.  We already have Overdrive for ebooks and downloadable audiobooks.

Hump Day Hunk(Jon Stewart)

Today's hunk may not be a hunk in the traditional sense of the word. That's just because he doesn't have a super hot physique.  While he does lack ripped abs he more than makes up for it in wit and intelligence. He's been named the most trusted man in America and just yesterday, the most influential according to askmen.com...
Jon Stewart

Check out this cute pic of Jon from his college days at William & Mary...
CUTE!

Don't forget...


Happy Hump Day, Everyone!
Bob Out

The Art of Non-Conformity Set Your Own Rules Live The Life You Want and Change the World by Chris Guilleabeau


The Art of Non-Conformity Set Your Own Rules Live The Life You Want and Change the World by Chris Guilleabeau

The contents of this book like the books title suffers from excess verbiage.  The message of the book could have been written in half the number of pages.  This makes the reading a bit distracting.

The Art of Non-Conformity starts with a series of exercises focusing on what you want to do with your life. Then it has no written exercises until the end of the book.  This creates a book too focused on telling you what to do, but not showing you how to do it.  This is a bit disappointing.

Chris Guillebeau spends most of the book talking about his own life and what he did to make himself able to live free from punching the clock.  His life is interesting and has some examples of how to be different; however it is more about telling you how he lived differently than showing the reader how to do it themselves.

The chapters on how to build a following on the internet and self education are quite good.  This book is designed to motivate you to do something different.  The motivation would work better if the book was shorter and more focused.

I learned something new, but would have been more satisfied if the book was shorter,  more focused, and showed you how to change, instead of focusing too much on the authors life.

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Comfort eating

Yup. I am sitting in the couch, comfort eating Exotic Snacks while trying to finish my Economics IA. I can't asy that it's going well though since all I can think about is far away from school. Gaaah, I feel sorry for myself.

just a dream


 Aku menanti keajaiban yang Tuhan kirimkan untukku. Ku menunggu seorang diri, dalam kesunyian hati. Berusaha ku lalui hari demi hari walau terasa berat dan terkadang membuatku putus asa. Tapi entahlah, semangat untuk terus menunggu selalu ada. Dan pada akhirnya membuatku bangkit dan terus menunggu suatu hari yang begitu aku dambakan. Inikah cinta yang sebenarnya? Mengapa Tuhan membiarkanku merasakan cinta yang begitu sulit? Padahal merasakan manis percintaan pun aku belum pernah.
            Mengapa harus kamu orangnya? Padahal begitu banyak pria yang jauh lebih baik dari pada kamu. Tapi mengapa hati ku tak sedikit pun mau berpaling? Kamu membutakan seluruh jiwa dan ragaku. Pikiranku. Hatiku. Cintaku. Semua untuk kamu. Berkali ku mencoba membuka hati dan menyingkirkan bayang-bayang tentangmu dari pikiranku, tapi itu semua tak berlangsung lama. Karena pada akhirnya, aku tetap kembali kepada kesendiriaanku. Kepada keheningan malamku. Kepada kebodohanku. Untuk menunggumu.

NBL

Oktober 2005...
            Siang itu, seperti kebanyakkan siswa lainnya aku melangkah menuju kantin sembari bercanda dengan teman-temanku. Tiba-tiba mataku menangkap sosok yang pada akhirnya mengubah duniaku. Yang membuatku mengenal cinta yang begitu rumit. Sosok itu adalah kamu. Kakak kelasku. Satu tahun lebih tua dariku. Dan satu hal yang membuat perjalanan cintaku begitu sulit, aku tak sedikit pun mengenalmu dan mempunyai keberanian untuk mendekatimu.
            Ketika aku menceritakan semuanya pada sahabat terdekatku, dia hanya berkata, “Aku hanya bisa membantumu lewat doa.” Satu kalimat yang dikatakannya dengan nada bercanda tapi cukup membuatku mengerti bahwa perjalanan cintaku kedepannya tidaklah mudah. Tetapi karena perasaan jatuh cinta yang memang begitu indah dan membutakan apa pun membuatku mengabaikan pikiran itu.
            Sampai suatu hari, setelah hampir satu tahun aku menaruh hati padamu. Aku dikejutkan dengan kabar bahwa kamu telah menjadi milik orang lain. Pagi itu, ketika aku mencari tahu sendiri kebenarannya, hatiku hancur. Untuk pertama kalinya selama 14 tahun aku hidup didunia ini, aku menangis untuk seorang pria yang sama sekali tidak aku kenal.
Seolah langit ikut merasakan sakit dan sedihnya hati ini, hujan pun turun membasahi dunia ini. Aku seorang diri didalam kamar. Ditemani siaran radio yang saat itu memuturkan sebuah lagu milik Glenn Fredly berjudul “Sekali Ini Saja”.
            Awan hitam, rintik hujan, hawa dingin yang menusuk tulang, dan lantunan lirik lagu yang begitu sendu. Lengkap sudah hari ini sebagai hariku yang menyedihkan. 14 Maret 2006. Hari yang takkan pernah ku lupakan. Setiap detil kejadian yang terjadi dihari itu, terekam baik didalam hatiku. Cinta yang ketika itu ku kira indah, ternyata malah menorehkan luka dihati.
            Hmm… Memang cinta itu telah menyakitiku. Tapi…apakah kamu mengira aku akan mundur? Kamu salah. Keesokkan harinya, aku bangun malah dengan semangat dan cinta yang lebih dalam. Entahlah, aku sendiri pun bingung. Cinta ini sepertinya telah membunuh akal sehatku. Aku telah dibutakan oleh perasaan cinta yang tak tau apa endingnya.
Biarlah. Toh, tak ada yang dirugikan dalam hal ini. Sakit dan sedihnya hanya aku sendiri yang merasakan. Sekarang aku mengerti, mengapa begitu banyak orang yang mengatakan cinta itu buta. Cinta itu bodoh. Dan Cinta itu tak mengenal logika. Karena ternyata memang benar, pada cinta hanya perasaan yang bermain. Tanpa bisa diganggu dengan apa pun.

NBL

November 2009…
            Saat ini aku tengah menuju tahap kedewasaan hidup. Tak terasa empat tahun lebih, yang sama artinya dengan 1.372 hari telah ku buang sia-sia dengan hanya tertuju padamu. Menatapmu sebagai sosok sempurna dan tak tergantikan. Hari demi hari yang ku relakan itu, tak sedikit pun menunjukan perubahan yang berarti. Walau pun kini kamu sudah bukan milik siapa-siapa lagi. Tapi kamu masih tak mengenalku apalagi mengetahui perasaanku. Padahal, waktu yang ku habiskan untuk menunggu paling tidak sedikit perubahan kecil yang terjadi untuk hubunganku dengan kamu tidaklah sedikit.
            06 November 2009. Tepat dihari ke 1.378 aku memutuskan untuk mundur. Mundur dari cinta yang ku bangun sendiri. “Bodoh!!” Mungkin kata itu yang kamu katakan jika kamu mendengar semuanya. Ya, aku terima itu. Karena memang itulah kenyataannya. Aku memang bodoh dan telah dibutakan oleh cinta. Yang pada akhirnya membuatku membuang hariku sia-sia dan tak mendapatkan hasil sedikit pun, malahan membuat luka dihatiku.
            Disamping aku mulai tersadar akan kebodohan itu, aku punya alasaan lain mengapa aku mundur dan menyerah akan cinta tak berlogika ini. Ada sosok lain yang sedikit mampu membuatku berpaling. Walau belum sepenuhnya. Karena sejujurnya hati ini masih begitu berdebar-debar, wajah ini masih terus bersinar kala aku melihatmu disekitarku.
            Aku tidak tau apa aku benar-benar mencintai atau hanya sebuah perasaan yang timbul karena banyak kesamaan antara aku dan dia dalam hidupku ini. Entahlah. Intinya, saat ini aku sedang menikmati saat-saat tertawa lepas dan terlupa sejenak akan kamu yang sudah empat tahun ini menghantui pikiranku.
            Sahabat-sahabatku yang tau akan perjalanan cintaku, cukup ku buat bingung saat aku mengatakan perasaanku akan dia. Karena memang dia tak sebanding denganmu. Mungkin kamu akan berbangga hati jika mendengar semua ini. Aku tak melarang, kaerena memang itulah yang aku rasakan selama empat tahun ini. Aku memandangmu sebagai sosok sempurna. Walau aku tau beberapa kelemahan darimu.
            Mereka, sahabat-sahabatku, mendukungku bersama dia. Entah karena apa alasannya. Padahal mereka tau, kamu lebih baik darinya. Mungkin karena mereka terlalu kasihan melihatku dengan segala khayalan-khayalanku akan kebersamaan dengan dirimu.
            Aku tak mengerti apa memang ini jalan hidupku atau hanya suatu kebetulan. Yang ku tau pasti, dia, sosok yang saat ini mampu membuatku sedikit berpaling darimu, mencintai seseorang yang pernah dan masih kamu cintai. Seseorang yang aku tau pasti sampai saat ini pun sebenarnya hatimu masih mengharapkannya. Ya, dia mencintainya!! Dan aku harus kembali berada diantara kamu dan sosok yang kamu cintai sejak empat tahun lalu. Sama seperti lamanya aku mencintaimu. Persamaan inilah yang membuatku merasa sejalan dengannya. Aku mencintaimu sekian lama, tapi kamu sedikit pun tak melihat kearahku. Dia pun mengalami hal serupa.
Satu hal yang perlu kamu tau, dia tidak akan pernah menjadi sosok sempurna dihatiku. Walau mungkin mampu membuat wanita mana pun terpesona. Tapi tidak dengan aku. Dan sepertinya, kalimat ini juga dia ucapkan dalam hati kala memikirkan sosok sepertimu yang harus dia kalahkan untuk mendapatkan cintanya yang juga menjadi cintamu.

NBL

Februari 2010…
            Seperti yang sudah ku duga dan sudah diperkirakan oleh orang-orang yang mengerti betapa aku mencintai kamu. Kalau ternyata hatiku tak semudah itu berpaling dan meninggalkanmu. Hanya 3 bulan aku sanggup bertahan. Dan hari ini aku kembali mengharapmu. Kembali dengan cinta dan kebodohanku. Sesempurna apa pun sosok dia, ternyata tetap tak mampu membuatku berpaling dan meninggalkanmu. Secret admire mu telah kembali.
Kembali dengan harapan, mimpi, keinginan, dan pertanyaan yang tak berubah sedikit pun. Hanya satu dan tetap akan menjadi satu sampai disaat kamu telah memilihku dan berada disampaingku. Sampai saat cerita ini menemukan ending yang terbaiknya. Entah itu ending yang akan membuatku sedih, terluka, tetapi membuatku semakin dewasa dan kuat untuk menghadapi cintaku yang baru. Atau ending yang akan membuatku tersenyum, tertawa, dan bahagia karena cinta yang selama ini ku tunggu akhirnya aku dapatkan.

           
NBL

Sebuah ending yang indah dan diharapkan semua wanita dibelahan dunia mana pun. Dimana seorang pria berlutut dihadapannya, dan memakaikan sebuah cincin sembari mengatakan “Will You Marry Me?” Dimana dengan haru mereka semua pasti akan menangguk pelan dan tersenyum manis. Senyuman paling indah yang pernah mereka berikan. Setelah itu, hari-hari akan terasa begitu indah untuk mereka. Dimana mereka mulai merancang pernikahan impian mereka. Memesan gaun pengantin yang terbaik.
Dan dihari paling mendebarkan, mereka akan mengenakan gaun putih terbaik pilihan mereka itu, berubah menjadi wanita paling cantik dihari paling bersejarah dalam hidup mereka. Didepan sebuah altar gereja saat seseorang pria yang mereka pilih dan mereka yakini sebagai “The Best One” mengucapkan janji pernikahan dihadapan mereka, air mata haru itu akan mengalir keluar bersama dengan kecupan hangat darinya tanda bahwa kini sebuah keluarga telah dibangun.
Gaun impian. Dekorasi impian. Yang paling penting adalah pria impian yang pertama dan terakhir telah mereka dapatkan. Dan kini siap mendampingi mereka mengarungi sisa hidup bersama-sama. Ending yang seperti ini yang ku harapkan terjadi. Entah itu denganmu. Dengan dia. Atau dengan sosok lain yang akan aku temui nanti. Yang terpenting, doa restu dan aura kebahagian akan mengarungi kehidupanku nantinya. Bersama pria terbaik yang menjadi “Endless Love” untukku.
agnes angelina
04 maret 2010

where God led me later

aku mencintai dia.
entah cinta yang bagaimana.
tapi yang aku tau rasa itu ada.
dan telah menggantikan rasa kagumku yang dulu.
sejak dulu hingga kini.
tak berkurang sedikit pun malah semakin menguasai hati ini.
aku dibutakan oleh dia.
dan hanya ingin bersama dia.
untuk saat ini saja atau selamanya, aku masih tidak bisa memberi kepastian.
yang aku tau saat ini aku ingin berada disampingnya.
menggengam tangannya erat, menatap matanya dalam dan dengan setulus hati mengatakan aku ingin bersamanya.
baru aku tau begini rasanya mencintai seseorang.
ingin bersamanya tapi begitu tinggi tembok pemisah diantara kami.
ingin melupakannya tapi sedikit pun hati ini tak rela.
yang kini bisa kulakukan hanya berdiam diri mengikuti arus.
menunggu kemana Tuhan membawa takdirku pergi.
melihat pada siapa akhirnya aku dapat merasakan mencintai dan dicintai.



26 Oktober 2010
agnes.angelina

Daily Thoughts 10/26/2010 (The Junior Officers Reading Club)

Poster announcing the publication of Les Mystères de Paris (1843), a French language novel by Eugène Sue (1804-1857)




Daily Thoughts 10/26/2010

I did a little bit of weeding this morning in the oversize collection.  I also did some spot checking for the 800s in the poetry section.  I have also been looking at my planned orders for next month. 

This afternoon, I finished working on a bibliography for internet marketing which would be used in a program tomorrow.

On the train home, I started reading The Junior Officers' Reading Club Killing Time and Fighting Wars by Patrick Hennessey.  It is about a tour of duty in the British army in Afghanistan and Iraq.  I am enjoying reading about British boot camp and officer training camp right now.  He talks about some of the films they watch including Band of Brothers, Gladiator, and Saving Private Ryan.  I saw Gladiator which was enjoyable but not the other two films.  The book is quite thoughtful.

Web Bits

20 Heroic Librarians Who Save The World http://io9.com/5671047/20-heroic-librarians-who-save-the-world?skyline=true&s=i

Danny Devito is going to be the voice of the Lorax in a new live action Dr. Seuss film.  I am looking forward to it.

Zombies in the library calendar. http://www.redbubble.com/people/salin/calendars/6062484-15-zombies-in-the-library

A glimpse of light

Sleep deprived, cold, stressed, and Facebook addicted is what I have been lately and let me just tell you that that combination is not very pleasant. On the other hand, I have fall break coming up next week - so I can still say that I see a small glimpse of light in the very dark tunnel. (Thank God for that!)

But now I have to run, because me and mum are going…shopping. Hehe. ;)

Monday, October 25, 2010

Daily Thoughts 10/25/2010 (online music, blameless)

Samuel Beckett, Playwright.

Daily Thoughts 10/25/2010

I started reading Gail Carriger's Blameless on the train to work this morning.

I did some spot checking in the 300s, fiction, and mass market paperbacks today.  I found a few places where people took the plastic covers off the books so we have to put on new covers. 


The visit to The Bliss Music Center at the New Rochelle Public Library was very interesting. It is a new music center at a public library. They have a number of different services. There are two services that streamed music to the library and allowed you to listen at a computer or login at home. The first was Naxos http://www.naxosmusiclibrary.com/home.asp?rurl=%2Fdefault%2Easp . The second service was Alexander Street Music Online http://alexanderstreet.com/products/music.htm  . It was interesting listening to the music from the database. The sound quality was good for both databases.



We also talked some services that let you download music. The first was Freegal which allowed you to download a certain amount of music each month and then put the music that went over the limit in a cue for the next month. It looks quite interesting. http://www.freegalmusic.com/users/inlogin  . This would supplement our downloads of ebooks and audiobooks from Overdrive. People also come in to use Pandora which is a set of online radio stations with a variety of different music.  http://www.pandora.com/#/stations/create/  . It was an interesting experience.


I spent the rest of the afternoon updating the displays and spot checking the 800s.


I am enjoying reading Blameless by Gail Carriger.  The author adds some new elements;  first there were werewolves and vampires, now there are templars.  It has become an even more complex mashup.  Now the main character is pregnant by a werewolf, pursued by steampunk vampires, and traveling into Italy.

A simple interview form which I filled out.  http://www.whohub.com/bookcalendar#

That's So Gay: The Rainbow Pride Flag

I hate it when people use the phrase "That's so gay" in a negative way. It's usually used to describe something tacky or tasteless. I've decided to take the phrase back and make it positive. This is the first in a series of posts I will do about all things gay.

I have to admit I am a bit of a newbie when it comes to gay culture, symbols and landmark events. My lack of knowledge is what enticed me to want to do these posts. Do you know where the rainbow flag started and why? Do you know what Stonewall was all about? The origins of the pink triangle? If not, I hope you find these blogs as informative as I have researching them.

That's So Gay: The Rainbow Pride Flag


The Rainbow Flag as we know it today was developed by San Francisco artist Gilbert Baker in 1978. At the time, there was a need for a gay symbol which could be used year after year for the San Francisco Gay and Lesbian Pride Parade. Baker took inspiration from many sources, from the hippies movement to the black civil rights movement, and came up with a flag with eight stripes. Color has always played an important power in the gay right movement- Victorian England symbolized homosexuality with the color green, lavender became popular in the 1960s, and and pink from the pink triangle has caught on as well- and the colors of the gay flag were no different. Baker explained that his colors each stood for a different aspect of gay and lesbian life:
  • Hot pink for sexuality, 
  • Red for life, 
  • Orange for healing, 
  • Yellow for the sun, 
  • Green for nature, 
  • Blue for art, 
  • Indigo for harmony, 
  • Violet for spirit. 
Baker himself and thirty other volunteers hand-stitched and hand-dyed to large prototype flags for the 1978 parade. It was an immediate hit. However, when Baker took his design to the San Francisco Flag Co. to have it mass-produced for the 1979 parade, he had to remove the hot pink stripe. Baker had hand-dyed the color, and unfortunately pink was not a commercially available color.


Later that year, when the city's first openly gay supervisor, Harvey Milk, was assassinated, the 1979 Pride Parade Committee found in Baker's flag the perfect symbol for the entire gay community to unite under in protest of this tragedy. The committee got rid of the indigo stripe to make the colors evenly divisible along the parade route: red, orange, and yellow on one side of the street; green, blue, and purple on the other. (This version also conforms to traditional color theory- the three primary colors and three secondary colors in art- rather than the spectrum of light colors of R O Y G B I V. Thus, today's six-color flag was born and displayed during the 1979 Pride Parade.

The flag quickly caught on like wildfire in cities across the country. It was even officially recognized by the International Congress of Flag Makers. In 1989 the flag was given international recognition when West Hollywood resident John Stout successfully sued his landlords after they tried to prohibit him from hanging the flag from his apartment balcony. At New York's Stonewall 25 Parade in 1994, a gigantic 30-foot wide, one mile long rainbow flag was carried through the parade route by over 10,000 volunteers.



As with any symbol, the varieties that the rainbow flag currently comes in are limitless. When large rainbow flags were first carried along parade routes with the carriers at the corners and along the sides, they found that people along the parade route with throw change into convenient valley created in the flag's center. At first, some people in the gay community took offense to this- they didn't want people to feel that they were pitiable and in need of charity. But movements cannot exist on spirit alone, so many organizations took to this occurrence with enthusiasm and the practice continues to this day.

Bob Out
(Information about the Gay Pride Flag was taken from www.lambda.org)

At last ! Haha , I have my freedom back
After a long journey facing the middle test , I'm free right now ! Hell yeah !
Hmm , I have some story to tell guys . Just read it carefully :p 
The first is about the bitch . I really don't know what she's thinking about . She plays with the 7th grader . OMG ! She really really changed . Before everybody stay away from her , she just looks like keeping her image in front of the 7th and 8th grader . But now ? LOOK ! She plays with them , she talks much with them . There's something weird or something ... I dunno :p 
 
Okay , go to the next topic . There's a new *bitch?* in our class ! Yea , actually I can't say that she's a hctib , because before she talks MUCH with the main bitch and before she do the middle test together with the main bitch , she's my best friend :(( But I can do nothing . She just fall into the deep deep hell [read : be friends with the main bitch a.k.a big liar] . What should I do now ? 
 
 Now , about the middle test . I've some problem about answering some questions . The most difficult is the religion middle test :(( . Mr. Yohanes didn't tell us which should be studied . I've studied 4 chapter in the main book that has been given by Mr. Yohanes . But I think it just help a little . I'm afraid , I'm afraid if I get bad score x( It's RELIGION ! It's one of the main subject to decide the student is graduate or not . Help meeee !
That's all guys :D thanks for reading my blog ! I love youuuuuuuuu ;)
-xoxo-

Sunday, October 24, 2010

The Glamour of Grammar a Guide to Magic and Mystery of English by Roy Peter Clark



The Glamour of Grammar a Guide to Magic and Mystery of English by Roy Peter Clark

Roy Peter Clark makes grammar entertaining.  He brings out the glamour (as in magic) of the english language.  He asks you to immerse yourself in thinking about language.

This is not a dry and pedantic book.  It does not follow a prescriptive pattern with exact descriptions of how you should use language.  Instead, the author attempts to show you a variety of ways to use punctuation and grammar for different outcomes.  He even describes how and when to use taboo words and sentence fragments.  This was surprising and enjoyable.

For Roy Peter Clark grammar is a tool for self expression.  There are many different examples of how periods, colons, apostrophes, points and other punctuation is used.  My favorite example of grammar is the use of the punk rock band, "? and The Mysterians."

If you like language and word play: You will like this book.  There is a lot of lighthearted self referential humor in the writing.  I like how he describes Appendix A ( Words I Have Misspelled), and Appendix B (Words I Have Confused.).

This book gives grammar that zing which is missing from most grammar texts.  I enjoyed the book enough to want to read Roy Peter Clark's other book, Writing Tools.