I had two projects to complete tonight by midnight in preparation for tomorrow’s Call of Cthulhu game

The game notes, which I finished about 2:30 pm (starting about 10 am with about a half-hour break at some point), and then a passage from a few years ago that was important that somehow never got transcribed because it was a very complex 15-minute snippet of a recording with very dense information, also related to the game. That got finished about 8:30 (that one small snippet took about an hour-and-a-half to transcribe). In the interim I went and visited with friends for about an hour-and-a-half, as A and I were supposed to do the Saturday grocery run, but he’s got some sort of crud and so we postponed it until tomorrow when he’s hopefully feeling better (or if not, it’s not a huge list, I can go do it before the game for them).

It was nice to finish, though, because that’s two items off my to-do list, plus another (I finally found my stamps, much later than needed!) I’m now about 30 experience points away from 50th level on Habitica as a result. :) After that was finished, I laid down for a half-hour ‘nap’, setting my alarm carefully and despite my tendency to go to sleep rather than nap, was hopeful of waking up and doing some things around here. But I just woke up and it was 12:30 am. I guess I was more tired than I had thought. My phone helpfully told me that Donald Trump won our state’s Republican caucus (not surprising, really, as I’m not sure they have a viable candidate to really put the brakes on his momentum, and that’s sad). Bernie Sanders won two states as well. (Our Democratic primary isn’t until May). I could have gone back to bed, but I thought I’d get up and write for a bit.

I have to admit, I haven’t felt up to major physical activity today. I’m not sick. But I’ve had a headache and muscle aches most of the day (the weather has been rainy and not particularly warm, and in fact kind of icky). I ate too much early in the day and didn’t take any of my medicine until I went over to my friends’ house (I just took all the bottles over there and filled up my pill reminder tray) and took my insulin then, too. My blood sugar, as a result, has been running higher than usual today, and I’ve felt out of sorts and tired. It’s not too bad right now, all things considered, about 170, but that’s the highest I’ve run in a while, at any time today. It was actually over 200 earlier, which is almost unheard for me of late--even my fasting sugars in the morning have been pretty much normal. I’m back on track, though, and once I take my bedtime insulin, should be doing better tomorrow, hopefully, as it is game day now that we’re back from hiatus and one of the NPCs (non-player characters) is trying to kill one of Brenda’s characters who had her committed, so best to be operating on all thrusters. Diabetes is somewhat hard to manage; there are so many things that affect blood sugar, from food, to medicine, to stress, to illness, and no matter how consistent you are, sometimes it doesn’t work well. And if you do get off on taking care of yourself, you can see changes for the worse pretty quickly. It’s not an easy illness to live with, and while I should be a pro at this by now, I’m not. I’m not sure anyone really is, to be honest, no matter how diligent--all of us have times when we feel bad. But it’s worse if you’re not diligent, of course, and that was my problem this morning, as I was focused on what I had to get finished and not taking care of myself. With diabetes, self-care really has to come first.

I am getting a little sleepy again now. I’m sitting here staring ahead at my diplomas. Really, some day, I should get them put into my name now. I changed my name in 1993--almost 23 years ago--and they’re still in my birth name, so whenever I need to copy them and send them somewhere I include a copy of my court papers. It costs about $50 for both diplomas to be put in my legal name. If it were just a matter of having a different last name, it would be one thing, as that’s common enough with women, but my entire name was changed (it was Lisa Kay Broadbent). I’ve almost made it as long with my new name as with the old, and that name seems foreign to me now. But if you’re looking for an old classmate or something, yeah, that’s probably me. Anyway, that’s low on my to-do list. Really, after I pay my car insurance and cell phone bill, I’m already tapped out again in terms of funds, and while I did pay my rent on time, get some groceries and gas, and the like, I was disappointed that I wasn’t able to get my hair cut (it was just going to be a basic hair cut at Supercuts, not a salon sort of thing) this weekend. Even though I’m operating within my budget, and got a raise (that’s offset by a biweekly payment on a debt), I’m still struggling. I still have too much debt (yes, my fault, of course). Next year may be far worse, given that my job is ending, and unemployment lasts about 6 months these days, and any severance will be eaten up with taxes and be fairly fleeting. I’ve stepped up the job search, but it’s hard to find a library job in this area, and I can’t move. At six month’s out, I may have to start looking beyond the library field entirely, which saddens me. I love being a librarian, and I’m good at it, and I’d like to continue with my career in that field. I’m not married to the idea of always being a medical librarian, but I would like to be working as a librarian somewhere in the area. If you hear of anything, let me know. My resume and curriculum vitae, along with my e-mail, are on the links on the sidebar. Meanwhile, I’ve got Indeed alerts and check the Kentucky state library job list every couple of days, as well as other job sites. I had such hopes for the University of Louisville/St. Joseph job, but it wasn’t apparently meant to be. I need to e-mail the supervisor of that position and see if she has any input for how I could have made my application stronger.

I’ll be very busy on Monday, between doctors’ appointments and working in scheduling. After that, it gets better. I may or may not be in scheduling other days of the week (we have I high clinic census and the person who is out may or may not be back Tuesday). But there aren’t any evening appointments or ones’ during the day, for that matter, to go to.

I am beginning to feel like my life, and this blog, is getting somewhat more boring than normal. Am I in a rut? Maybe it’s just that I’m not online that much with no home Internet. I’ll try to blog more new stories and not ramble about the minutiae of my day as much, and I also need to add more commentary when I do include links out to other stories. Maybe, just maybe, I’ll write more about libraries and librarianship. If I’m facing having to leave the profession, at least for a while, at the very least I can blog about it to keep it in my system. But on the other hand, I’m still blogging at least every couple of days, and considering I’ve been writing this blog for almost fifteen years, regularly, I think that’s pretty amazing, given how people drop them over time when they get busy or lose interest, or how more people share things on other social media sites like Facebook these days. So I’m still committed to blogging.

Anyway, I guess I’ll sign off for tonight. Hope you’re having a good weekend.

Oh, my

10-Year-Old Icelandic Girl Denied A Passport Because Her Name Is 'Harriet'

Icelandic girls can't be called Harriet, government tells family: Authorities reluctant to renew passport of Harriet, 10, as name is not on approved list of 3,565

You can be Aagot, Arney or Ásfríður; Baldey, Bebba or Brá. Dögg, Dimmblá, Etna and Eybjört are fine; likewise Frigg, Glódís, Hörn and Ingunn. Jórlaug works OK, as do Obba, Sigurfljóð, Úranía and – should you choose – Vagna.

But you cannot, as a girl in Iceland, be called Harriet.

"The whole situation," said Tristan Cardew, with very British understatement, "is really rather silly."

With his Icelandic wife Kristin, Cardew is appealing against a decision by the National Registry in Reykjavik not to renew their 10-year-old daughter Harriet's passport on the grounds that it does not recognise her first name.

Since the registry does not recognise the name of Harriet's 12-year-old brother Duncan either, the two children have until this year travelled on passports identifying them as Stúlka and Drengur Cardew: Girl and Boy Cardew.

The problem is you cannot decline names like 'Harriet' and 'Duncan', in the Icelandic language. So it's a problem in terms of the naming laws. And before you think you're free to name your child anything in the USA, remember recently a Tennessee judge ruled that a boy couldn't be called 'Messiah'. Although in that case, at least the ruling was overturned and the judge later lost her position. Here's hoping the Icelandic courts recognise that Harriet and Duncan, who have a British father and have British names, do not need to be known officially as Girl and Boy, but can get passports after all. And I bet some other countries they've travelled to think their names are Stúlka and Drengur, as most people aren't familiar with Icelandic names. I would probably make that mistake, and I at least understand a bit how the surnames work.

Time for phase II of the day

I had a nice nap, of course a little longer than I planned. I ate a few tomatoes and got something to drink. What's next?

Hmmm...I think it's time to water the plants. The lavender looks a bit droopy. The pepper outside looks good but could stand to have some, too. Drat, that means I have to change into real clothes and out of my nightshirt. Nevermind that it shows less than my shorts. :) I think I'll open the windows, too. It's just 76 degrees.

Then there's the things to tackle in the bedroom, putting away laundry (yes, I've been living out of a hamper for a week, and that's got to stop. Besides, I have clothes to put in the hamper.) I'll do that after I water the plants.

After that, I'm going to try for full relaxation. Watch a movie. Or read. Definitely read for awhile, anyway. I downloaded a book called The Rook because the Unshelved folks had it in their 'book talk' comic strip yesterday.

[Oh, and on the subject of that day's stirp, Myfanwy does NOT rhyme with Tiffany. The 'f' is a 'v', the second syllable is stressed, and it ends in a 'wi' sound. Don't know where they got that from. Someone should have gone to http://www.pronouncenames.com. It seems to be accurate, at least for the few Welsh names (Myfanwy being one) I put through it (including my own, Eilir, with is 'A Leer' not 'I Leer', something I didn't know for years after changing my name, until I got with a bunch of guys online whose parents gave them that name and who were actually Welsh. I was quite embarrassed. That's what I get from trying to learn Welsh out of a book. Yes, Eilir also a boy's name, even though the name means 'butterfly' and is pretty. Many Welsh boy names are pretty. Many Welsh girl names are not, Myfanwy and Bronwyn being notable exceptions.) :)]

I'm such a names geek

I collect names and names books. I love names. I don't have children (although I do get to use them on game characters), but I have something like five or seven baby name books, because, well, I love names.

So this piqued my interest:

Jacob, Isabella top baby names: Names inspired by 'Teen Mom' and 'Twilight' also gain popularity

In the course of my daily life I see LOTS of children's names. Like the person quoted in the article, I've noticed a trend for traditional names spelled in unusual ways. And names do have trends. You can approximately tell the age of many people from their name, when it was popular on TV or in books, for example.

PS What would my names be for a boy or girl? That has changed over time. When I was younger, it was Tristan (almost unheard of at the time) and Kendra. Tristan became one of the children of a character of mine. Now I favour Julian and Amelia (the former from the pagan emperor, the latter from Elizabeth Peters' Amelia Peabody books). Both are Roman names. The middle names would be Trevyn (Cornish) and Niamh (Irish), given my Celtic ancestry. Niamh, by the way, is pronounced 'Neeve'. Each would get a second middle name after my best friend. (That's a trend, too, with more than three names, from what I can tell. I have two middle names myself, for that matter, but then I chose them.) :) Totally academic at this point, as I doubt I'm going to spend my waning years of fertility having babies, but still.

The meaning of names is important too, not just the sound. My own means oath of God (Elisabeth--Hebrew)--butterfly/spring/resurrection (Eilir--Welsh)--spider/web (Aranea--Latin)--mountain ash tree (Rowan--Scots/Irish/English). They were chosen carefully from a religious viewpoint, from ethnicity, and for that matter, from a numerological standpoint (my name numerologically matches my birthdate). What can I say, I was paying for it, I wanted to do it right. :) My old name was Lisa (Hebrew--oath of God) Kay (Greek--pure) Broadbent (English--from the broad and grassy plain). Neither was bad, really, but I never cared for Kay as a name and well, no one could ever spell Broadbent anyway, even though it's two English words together. I'd had a break with my father, the main reason for dispensing with it, but that was a problem as well. Of course now I have the Elisabeth/Elizabeth issue and many people here pronounce the 'Row' in my last name to rhyme with a disturbance rather than what you do to a boat, as there's a local Rowan county pronounced that way, but I can live with that. Just don't call me Liz.

I really like working with one of my new co-workers

but he's done a couple of things I've had to smack him gently down on. One was calling me 'Liz'. My first name is Elisabeth (Eilir is a middle name); shortened it is Lisa. No offence to those of you named Liz out in the world but every one I've known has been utterly insane, and the name has bad associations (I feel the same about Mary and Chris [of either gender]). The second thing he did was tonight he kicked me several times in my right ankle. I explained to him that he should stop and that he was kicking me on the ankle that's hurting so much right now. He apologised for both; turns out his daughter's middle name is 'Elisabeth' with an 's', and he thought my knees were bad and didn't realise he'd cause me pain, he was just joking around. So everything's fine, except my foot really hurts, but I think ibuprofen's the best response to being kicked in an inflamed tendon.

Fun with names :)

HowManyOfMe.com

There are people with the name Elisabeth Rowan in the U.S.A. How many have your name?

The other does scientific illustrations, and I think her middle initial is 'E' as well. But when you put it with 'Eilir' as my middle name, I'm pretty sure I'm the only one here:

HowManyOfMe.com

There are or fewer people with the name Eilir Rowan in the U.S.A. How many have your name?

YKWIA is quite unique--only one of him in the US, and only 114 with his last name (but oddly enough, 1,537 with his first name). Thanks Brian for the link.

PS There are 14 people in the US with my birth name.

Neat

The Social Security Administration has a baby name site that lists most popular names by decade, etc. For the 1960s, the most popular girl's name was 'Lisa'. Yes, just like me (I go by Eilir online, my middle name, and of course Elisabeth is my first name--but my birth name was Lisa, and I still largely go by that, since it's short for Elisabeth. I changed it when I chucked my father's name in 1993. Full birth name: Lisa Kay Broadbent. Full name now: Elisabeth Eilir Aranea Rowan. That might help if you're someone from my past who Googles me. Anyway, you get the picture.) Check out the site.

Thanks to anderskb from LISNews for that tidbit.

Skeletons, indeed

A Nazi Past Casts a Pall on Name of a Disease

As someone who has to look up syndromes and disorders fairly often for patrons, I dislike the confusion that happens when names of discovering doctors are given to the disease--or possibly more than one disease, names that vary from country to country and change over time. It's not really precise or scientific, after all.

But what do you do when you discover the disease is the namesake of someone with a previously unknown sordid past? Medicine has grappled with the legacy of Nazism for decades now--whether to accept research that may have merit even though it was done in the most appalling matter, whether to accept publications such as anatomy atlases created through 'Nazi medicine', etc. This article looks at the issue of disease names and a Nazi past and what happens when they meet.

Gleaned from the solo librarians' list

Hobbit Name Generator

or, if you prefer,

Elvish Name Generator

Reasons a library should be called a library

Change a Word, Change a World (My Word's Worth: a weekly column by Marylaine Block)

Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox' take on 'Using Old Words When Writing for Findability'

Okay, got to run now!

One last thing

My Peculiar Aristocratic Title is: Baroness Eilir the Appropriate of Mellow under Trollness Get your Peculiar Aristocratic Title

Sounds like a good pen name...

Your Old Fashioned Name Is...

Sybil Loddington

What's Your Old Fashioned Name?

Cerys' appointment is Wednesday with Dr Vice, so only two more days of itchiness to go. I saw my counselor today and it was a very useful session, with a focus on my passive resistant behaviour (think passive-agressive without the aggessive part--it's still a childish attempt to manipulate authority by seeming to comply be not doing so) and manifesting dreams by changing how we view the world and how it treats us. I also did laundry tonight, so there went a good chunk of my list.

One of the reasons my last name is Rowan

You Are A Rowan Tree

You are full of charm and cheer. You light up a room. And while you crave attention, you do it without ego. You are an interesting mix of contradictions - and very unpredictable. You are both dependent and independent, calm and restless. You are passionate, emotional, gregarious, and (at times) unforgiving.

What's Your Celtic Horoscope?

Mind you, it's probably all a crock, but there you have it. When I changed my name I didn't care for most of my maternal surnames (Craig, Lamb, Roach, Reardon, among others), but I have for some time been drawn to the rowan tree with its rich folklore (it's supposed to be a powerful amulet of protection). So, I went with Rowan. [As to why I changed my name, I was divesting myself of my father's name, since we were estranged. Also, I never cared for the name Broadbent]. Since I was changing the last name, I went for broke and changed the whole thing from Lisa Kay Broadbent to Elisabeth Eilir Aranea Rowan. That way I'm still Lisa (short for Elisabeth). But online I use Eilir Rowan, which is terribly Pagan (Eilir means spring, rebirth, or butterfly in Welsh, and Alban Eilir is one name for the vernal equinox that Pagans celebrate as a holiday).

Friday!!!! Friday!!! Friday!!!

Okay, I'm going to sound very, very self-absorbed in this. But, one, I love names. I collect baby name books and dictionaries, even though I don't have kids. I love to look up their backgrounds and meaning. I also have gone through the process of naming myself, so I actually had to put a lot of thought into it, so if this runs on, that's why.

1. Is the name you have now the same name that's on your birth certificate? If not, what's changed? No. My name was: Lisa Kay Broadbent. I changed it legally in 1993 to: Elisabeth Eilir Aranea Rowan.

2. If you could change your name (first, middle and/or last), what would it be? See above. People often ask me why I changed my name. I changed my name at a time in my life where I was re-inventing myself. I'd just gotten out of an abusive marriage (I never took his name), but also things came to a head with my father and we broke off contact with one another. Since I was doing that, I changed everything else.

3. Why were you named what you were? (Is there a story behind it? Who specifically was responsible for naming you?) My father named me, but I'm not sure why he chose Lisa. My mom wanted to call me Margaret, but everyone said that was too long a name with Broadbent. She would have nicknamed me Gretchen, which I just can't see myself as. Of course, it I were a boy, I would have been named either Gregory Scott or Dwayne. So maybe it's just as well that my dad did the naming. But I never really cared for my name. It seemed so ordinary, and short, with little to do in terms of nicknames, etc. I particularly didn't care for Kay. Being Southern, of course, I was (and still am Lisa Kay to my family). But I never could really see being a little old lady named Lisa. Of course, there will be a lot of little old lady Lisas when I'm old--it was so popular that I kind of felt it was overdone. I could never buy things with my name on it, because they'd be out. ;)

Elisabeth was a no-brainer since my family and friends were still going to call me Lisa--Lisa is taken from Elisabeth, you see. I've got some co-workers who call me Elisabeth and some have loosened up to Lisa. So it did give me a lot of other options. It's originally Hebrew ('Oath of God'), and when I took Hebrew at UK the rabbi who was teaching us gave me Elisheva--the Hebrew form--as my Hebrew name. So, even though I'm not Jewish, I have a Hebrew name. After all, a rabbi gave it to me, right? That seems official. :) My biggest trouble with Elisabeth is breaking people of the 'z' habit.

For a last name, I looked through my mother's family names, but I didn't really want to take on any of them--they're good Scottish and Irish names, but...ones like Roach. Not good in English. Rowan is a tree, the mountain ash, with religious overtones, but the name is also found in Northern England, Scotland and Ireland, so it matches my ethnicity. It's a tree of protection from harm. I use the form pronounce like rowing a boat, but around here there is a Rowan county that sounds more like 'there was a horrible row'. I answer to either--the sound variation oddly doesn't bother me, but putting a 'z' in Elisabeth does. Go figure.

I use Eilir online, mainly because there aren't a lot of them out there, and those are mostly in Wales. It means rebirth, or spring (my time of birth), or butterfly. It seemed appropriate at the time. Usually if there's an 'Eilir' on a post or web page, it's me. It is usually a man's name (the prettiest names in Welsh seem to be), and I once got an e-mail from an 18-year-old Welsh girl who was happy to see another female Eilir out there.

Aranea is Latin for spider, and that is a nod to a tutelary deity. Think of it as a sort of baptismal name for pagans.

You know the funny thing? I actually have learnt to like Lisa Kay. Since my family are the only ones who call me that, it's become a term of endearment. :)

4. Are there any names you really hate or love? What are they and why? Herbert. Gertrude. Harriet. Hubert. Wolfgang. Mafalda, Mathilda, Brunhilda. Trudence. Prudence (although Prue's okay)--notice a lot of those are German. Oh, and Angharad. I just don't like their sounds. Tristan and Kendra were my 'names' when I was growing up (you know, every girl has names for a son and daughter, I think). I also like Trevyn, Julian, Adair, Trevor, Colin, Gareth, Conal, Diarmid (pronounced 'Jarmidge'), Ciaran (pronounced 'Keeran'), Jaren, Kendra, Taryn, Alyssa, Brianna, Gillian, Miranda, Caitlin (which is supposed to be pronounced Kotch-leen) and Niamh (pronounced 'Neev'), all for the same reasons, plus most are Celtic. The ones I've put in the pronunciation for are all Irish, but I cant see giving them to a child here unless it were a middle name. No one would ever spell/pronounce them correctly.

Some names make me think of certain things--like Amelia, which makes me think of Amelia Earheart or my favourite mystery novel character, Amelia Peabody. I like Cassandra and Ophelia, but could never name a child after someone cursed in mythology or literature. I also don't believe in naming a child a Deity name (say, like Venus, Thor, or Rhiannon--although I love that name SO much) although diminutives and genitives are okay (i.e., Julian means Jove's child). Every Mary I've ever known has been a little bonkers (no offence, that's just been my experience). I think that's what happens when you name someone after the Virgin Mother of God. Superstitious, I know. Actually, there are just some names I wouldn't use simply because I've known people with it who I have known who were...unpleasant, crazy, or both: Chris, Gwen, Mary, Karen, and Sarah are all on that list.

Worst name an acquaintance has given a child: Tecumseh (good Indian name, of course, but for a little blonde boy in today's school system, you can imagine what it'll be shortened to). Oddest names I've known someone with: Jemearl (named for his father) and Anvia (a combination of two grandmothers' names).

Names I've given to characters in the game or their offspring: Rosalind, Melissa, Sarah, Ariana, Carolyn, Miranda, Therese (Tessa), Celeste, Amelia, Eric, Alejandra (Alandra), Kjell, Tristan, Jason, Lia, and Kaiya.

5. Is the analysis of your name at kabalarians.com accurate? How or how isn't it? Lisa and Eilir do not work well at all, but Elisabeth is right on. It says:

Your first name of Elisabeth has given you a friendly, likeable nature, and you could excel in artistic, dramatic, and musical expression. With this name, you desire the finer things in life, but you do not always have the resolve and vitality to put forth the effort necessary to fulfil your desires. Your emotional feelings are easily aroused and you will always be involved in other people's problems as a result of your overly sympathetic nature. You have many disappointments because of extending a helping hand to others in need, and then not receiving any acknowledgement or reciprocation for your generosity. After each experience, you have to guard against feelings of despondency and self-pity. You have high goals and ideals, but must incorporate more practicality, system, and concentration in order to materialise them.