Is it Friday yet?

: 'When the Children Cry' by White Lion
: Contented

Well, no, unfortunately...still have a little over half an hour to go. Actually, I can't complain too much about this week; it hasn't really been that bad. And tomorrow is jeans day at work, yipee.

I don't have anything particularly earth-shattering to report for the day. My boss (I guess it's semi-official) at KET let me know that my application is winging its way to Frankfort, so barring any trouble with the state, I think I'm hired; at least I made it through the acting director. My start date's listed for next Wednesday...we still have to iron out the details (I'm not even sure what my job is called yet), but it sounds like it'll be interesting.

I froze coming home on the bus tonight. We're under a frost advisory and it's already down to 37 degrees. I'd taken my hose off at first opportunity (no, I'm not really that big into dresses, did I mention I need to do laundry?) and then ducked into Walgreens for shampoo, toilet bowl cleaner, burritos, and dog and cat food. (I know, strange combination), first heading to the bathroom to do what every woman has to do when she hits cold air and put the damn hose back on...I could just imagine them thinking I'd shoplifted it or something. Of course not, I just pulled them out of my capacious bag of doom. I figured they might believe me if I pointed out the white cat hairs. Fortunately no one challenged me and I was able to make it back home slightly warmer.

I watched a documentary on the killings at Kent State. I was too young to remember it (having just turned three) but I've always been interested in how the events unfolded, having read various books on it. It was interesting listening to the people who were there--whether students, Guardsmen, or faculty. I always wondered how much the school itself had to do with things; it seems like the mayor of Kent and the governor of Ohio at the time were the main forces behind bringing in the Guard, as opposed to the school. I would hope that we've learnt a few things about dealing with crowds of civilians since then. That entire situation should have so been handled differently. I think both the students and the Guardsmen were let down by the people who were supposedly in charge.

But now I'm chilling to 80s music. As much as I love a lot of the music (it is, after all, the music of my high school and early college days) it never fails to amaze me that anyone thought the big hair and glitz was somehow cool. We've had a resurgence of the glitter, if not the big hair. I read something in the paper today that a more natural look is coming back now in terms of makeup, with a more classic look becoming popular. I'm glad...I don't tend to really follow trends, but does affect what's available to wear, and the streetwalker look was stupid in the 80s and it's stupid now. I look back at my high school yearbooks and cringe at some of the hair. Of course, I was the geek trapped in the 70s, with the long hair parted in the centre, so I never went that route (which is good, because short of teasing, I don't think my hair could). The most 80s I ever got were stirrup pants or leggings with a bright fuschia tunic with a tiger face and stripes. (Note: I look awful in fuschia, especially if someone has convinced me to get a perm). And leg warmers. Gods, why did anyone ever let those things onto anyone other than professional dancers?

Speaking of years gone by, I got this in my e-mail today:

Re: Libraries and journal "access"
From: Lisa Broadbent
Date: Tue, 1 Jun 1993 16:45:43 EDT
Reply-To: Medieval History

As someone who is currently working on masters' degrees in both mediaeval history and library science, I can assure you that this is a very great concern among librarians, especially as the clear majority of their materials budgets in research institutions go toward journal subscriptions.

Part of the problem, as I understand it, is that for many years (mainly in the 1960s and 70s) library funding was at an all-time high from the government and other sources, and as such costs were not as closely monitored as they must be today; hence requests made by faculty were much more likely to be filled. This meant that vendors could raise
prices steadily and still have a viable market. In a sense this is the same as a local shopping center which after years of renting to the feds so they could maintain surveillence on nearby bars, has priced itself out of the market so to speak. Unfortunately, serials are like a hook, and once a library starts a subscription, there is a good deal of pressure,
internally and externally, to maintain it.

There is some hope. In protest of the situation, I believe the Association of Research Libraries has agreed to pay vendors only once they've finally settled on a price (libraries traditionally pre-pay, often to obtain discounts, which have grown smaller in comparison with the extras tied in). Libraries are beginning to say, 'wait a minute, you work for us'. I don't know how much effect it will have, especially on foreign vendors, but it does seem that this year has not seen the same quantity of increases as the past few have. Hopefully, if librarians and researchers can work together, in the end we may be able to save the crucial areas and cut out the waste.

It was an archived copy of an e-mail I sent to a mediaeval history list in response to a complaint about journal access right before I graduated from library school--long enough that it was under my original name (I changed my name nine days later, actually). Interesting the things that are still out there. When it was sent to me, there was nothing identifying it until the end. It's odd to read something you wrote so long ago and you still pretty much think it's on target. :)


PS Maybe I'm finally getting the hang of the whole fiscal responsibility. Having been paid I immediately 1) Paid my back rent, 2) Made payments on two other bills, 3) Talked to the folks at the student loan place about getting an unemployment deferment 4) looked into how much I could save by cutting back on the cable subscription (not an appreciative difference between the standard and digital formats...the difference is in the packages themselves), 5) got some necessities, and otherwise resisted temptation to nickel and dime myself to death. Still on my list...shop for simple (and cheap!) black pumps to wear to interviews...my clunky boy's sandals aren't going to work for a winter job hunt.