librarygirl.co.uk

OH HAI!

Four months without an update, not bad, really.  Lots has happened so I won’t really recount it all since I’ve probably forgotten most it, but here are some highlights in list form:

1. Dakota died suddenly - don’t know how or why, but it was heartbreaking;
2. Went to Paris at the end of August. It was meh. Yup, meh.;
3. I had a birthday last month;
4. My 3rd anniversary in the UK passed a few days ago.

See? Exciting times.

Anyway, my real reason for updating this is to slightly pay homage to the fact that this site is called librarygirl because I work as a librarian and of the female ilk.

I’ve spent the last two days at a library conference. Internet Librarian International to be exact. I spoke at the US-version four years ago and attended the international version two years ago. This years conference was actually very good. There was really only half of one session that bored me so much that I had to get up and leave for fear of falling asleep and falling off the uncomfortable chairs.

The focus was really on a lot of this “Web 2.0″ stuff and how to use it in libraries, etc and just getting on and doing it regardless of whether you have the support behind you or not.  Going to this sort of conference always opens my eyes to tools that I didn’t know existed or ways of using them that I hadn’t thought of so it’s energising that way. As mentioned above, a big message was just get on and do it because it’s actually easy - you tend not to have to know programming languages (beyond basic HTML) and while there may be an initial investment of time needed and perhaps a little bit of money, it’s all pretty minimal with the potential of big pay-offs.

So I’ve decided I am going to do some of it on my own because it’s not going to happen via work for a number of reasons I won’t get into here. One of those reasons is the fact that our IT structure (as in our network) is very restrictive and it doesn’t really make sense, but trying to get that loosened up has proven to be a losing battle time and time again (in fact it’s actually become more restrictive).

Recently I’ve been thinking that I fell into a career that wasn’t right and spent a lot of money getting the necessary degree, etc. But when I attend these sorts of things I realise that there is something very interesting and rewarding here; I just need to figure out how to make it my job.

Please note that this post wasn’t at all what I’d written in my head as I travelled home this evening. I may have to give it more thought and write a bit more detail, but don’t hold your breath.

I’ve recently started going to more gigs again. Well, out of six recent gigs, three of them have been the same band, heh. I have never been one to see a band multiple times. Obviously, that is different for a particular band.

I have managed to see Travis three times in as many months. I saw them on their pre-tour in March and again in May and June. Even though the set lists weren’t very different and the same gimmicks were used at the shows, I’d still happily see them again. And again. Not only do I absolutely love their music, they seem to be genuine, easy-going, and cute as all get out. I had hoped to win tickets to a special gig this evening, but no luck. Boo.

I’d also see The Shins and Belle & Sebastian again, just for the record. I’ve only been to one show each.

The other day I got a letter from my bank, Lloyds TSB. It actually looked like one of their marketing things so I nearly threw it out without opening it at all, but for some reason I was compelled to open it.

It still looked like marketing stuff - full of glossy leaflets - until I read the letter. I have a Visa card with them. My one and only credit card. The letter detailed how they would no longer issue Visa cards so come July they would be sending me not one, but TWO new cards - a MasterCard and an American Express.

First, I don’t want TWO cards even if they are really the same card. I expect that because they are different companies, it will show as two creditors on my credit report and I don’t want that. Even if it doesn’t, I don’t have need to have both since the chances of some place accepting an American Express, but not a MasterCard are slim to none.

Second, they seemed very excited to say that not only would I get to keep the same outrageous percentage rate (seriously, credit in this country is expensive, which is maybe good because having low rates likely means spending more), but they have teamed up with Airmiles and all my purchases will earn airmiles.

Except not.

If I use the Mastercard I will get ONE airmile for every £50! And if I use the American Express I will get ONE airmile for every £10. They include samples of what I can redeem my airmiles for:

London Eye river cruise experience FROM 140 miles so that’s probably a children’s ticket. Let’s see, according to the London Eye river cruise experience web site, I can buy this ticket for £8.50. Let me be generous and say my bank is offering me the adult ticket which costs £10.50. Well if I save up airmiles to redeem for this, it will cost me anywhere from £1400 to £7000.

WHAT THE FUCK?

Now, Tesco supermarkets allow one to get one clubcard point for every £1 spent. Once you reach 250 points, they send out a voucher for £2.50 off your shopping. OR you can redeem this £2.50 voucher for SIXTY airmiles. For 200 airmiles I can get to France; for 600 to Germany or Italy; for 3000 to the east coast of the US. For the 200 airmiles I need £8.50 in vouchers which means I have spent £850 shopping. Now, that is obviously far more than it would cost to buy a ticket myself, but at least the ratio is better than the bank.

I am going to write ANOTHER letter to my bank asking them if they’ve made some serious typo on their leaflets and tell them I am not interested in having TWO cards from them. In the meantime I will shop around for a new credit card so that I cancel my credit card(s) with them.

Wow. Time does fly. I haven’t done anything since that post. Not even behind the scenes. Nothing. Nada. Zilch. Zip. This is down to many things - busy with my hobby (hobbies? maybe), being exhausted from work, and just being busy in general. Which is funny because I do feel like I have a lot of spare time, but obviously that spare time has proved to be better spent staring into space or sleeping.

Since the last (first) post, my mom and sister have been and gone and I’ve travelled to Northern and the Republic of Ireland for a very relaxing time. Being in Northern Ireland and so close to the ocean that you can see it and get to it within minutes reminds me that I need to find my way back near an ocean.

I’m not sure when I’ll find the time to flesh out this site and make somewhat regular updates.

I realised I don’t actually have the interest right now, nor can I see me finding the interest, to actually update my stagnant web site. I don’t know what I’ll write here, or how often, but at least it will be some content to let you know I haven’t fallen off the planet.

It will take me some time to populate the pages and navigation. I already keep other blogs / journals and while some content will certainly be repeated (e.g. holiday photos), I think this will take on its own life.