Quote of the day

On the sidebar, there's a widget that gives a quote of the day. Today's is from Abraham Joshua Heschel:

"Wonder rather than doubt is the root of all knowledge."

I rather like that.

A video that makes me happy :)

Rob Thomas, 'Someday'


I like every song on 'cradlesong'. My two favourites, 'Fire on the Mountain' and 'Natural' haven't been released, as far as I know. But this is one I like that has been.

Maybe someday
We'll figure all this out
Try to put an end to all our doubt
Try to find a way to make things better now
And maybe someday
We'll live our lives out loud
We'll be better off somehow
Someday

(Lyrics by Rob Thomas, Matt Serletic, and Shy Carter)

I think we all should live our lives out loud. :)

And of course, another part of Eurasia has horrible floods

Pakistan floods 'hit 14m people'

The worst floods in Pakistan's history have hit at least 14 million people, officials say.

Twelve million are affected in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab provinces, while a further two million are affected in Sindh.

In Indian-administered Kashmir, at least 113 people died in mudslides.

Meanwhile, it has emerged that a charity connected to a group with alleged al-Qaeda links has been providing flood relief.

Flooding has submerged whole villages in the past week, killing at least 1,600 people, according to the UN.

And the worst floods to hit the region in 80 years could get worse, as it is only midway through monsoon season.

According to the federal flood commission, 1.4m acres (557,000 hectares) of crop land has been flooded across the country and more than 10,000 cows have perished.

A UN official, Manuel Bessler, told the BBC that with crops swept away by floodwaters, some Pakistanis could be forced to rely on food aid to get through the winter.

So awful. My thoughts and prayers are with them. Here are some organisations helping:

CARE
International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies
Oxfam International
Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders

If you have the wherewithal to donate, please consider it.

Natural disaster meets man-made one...what will happen

I'm thinking of the Russians dealing with drought, fires, and smog--and the possibility that fires will pick up contaminants left over from Chernobyl and make them airborne...



Thanks to Occasion for sharing the video. We don't have a lot of beliefs in common, but concerns for the environment and the people dealing with them are something we both share.

Well, I did it again

Listening to 'Fire on the Mountain' by Rob Thomas
Reading Proven Guilty by Jim Butcher

I was so tired last night I laid down at 8 pm and I was gone until 8 this morning. I did wake up hourly from about two to seven. I had finally decided to get up when a friend called. I was up early yesterday for the cable guy, have catalogued many books (48 since Monday), did all the other library stuff, and had a lot of fairly complex data entry to do (but I still left at 6 pm when I finished). I guess anything that takes a lot of concentration tires you out, but, gee, I'd like to stay up some night and get stuff done, or get up early enough to do them. The next house-related thing is to do dishes. I'll try to do that tonight. And while that's running, I need to work on game notes.

Today is jeans day at work, yay! I'm in my 'The League of Extraordinary Librarians' shirt and some khaki jeans. It's been hot as fire outside (although not as bad as some places), so I hope I don't burn up in them.

On the agenda today is more cataloguing (I have some books left from awhile back, and a new order on its way). I also have a project to work on, and then later, of course, there's data entry, but it's a light clinic today so that shouldn't take the whole shift, either. One of my co-workers suggested I should go to school for medical coders--they're always in demand and our tuition reimbursement would pay for it, since it's a position we hire for (that's the caveat on ours; it doesn't work for history or such, but does if I took a library science class). It might be worth considering, I don't know.

I did run some numbers last evening regarding my pay (I don't remember if I wrote this last night or not). Anyway, the gross pay from 20 hours at the library + 28 hours at the store was about $40 more than the 20 hours at the library +15 hours at the data entry + the 8 hours I'm doing at the store right now. Now, more money is taken out for taxes (they always take out too much at the hospital, and not enough at the store) and retirement (I changed my withholding to 6% because they're matching up to that now, and of course that's 6% of more money). So I'm technically making less net if I don't get that extra 5 hours a week. Plus, it's still not getting off early enough to do much with friends or for that matter really working an extra shift at the store. Plus I won't be getting that shift differential. That means I'm unlikely to save for a car or pay off my debts as easily. I don't know. I'll give it a couple of pay periods to figure out if I can make it on 35 hours a week at the hospital or not. But that, coupled by the fact that I have about $3 to my name at the moment, means I'm a little worried financially. I'm used to getting about $180 a week from the store, and now I'm getting about $60, which I'm mainly using for food. And last time I got paid at the hospital went to rent and medicine. Ironically, that was most likely my first full paycheque, but about $250 was taken out to repay where I'd been overpaid in July. I'm tempted to use some of my PTO (personal time off) to make up the difference and get a whole cheque this time, but I have a limited amount of PTO, and Labour Day is coming up. Right now I have three days' worth of PTO, which is what I need if I get sick, since it doesn't kick over to my EIB (extended illness bank, which I have several months of, even now that I'm working at least theoretically 8 hours a day) until the fourth day. I may double-check to see if I need to use any to get that 15 hours (I think I left at 5:30 a couple of times, rather than 6, but I stayed till 7 at least a couple of times) and leave it at that. Then I'll see about how much I'll make normally.

Anyway, that's what I'm worried about these days.

PS I think the data entry is making my carpal tunnel a little worse. I dropped and shattered a plate the other day. Unfortunately my schedule doesn't really allow for hand therapy. Somewhere around here I have some hand braces I got before my surgeries. I need to find them. They're probably in a box in the closet. (Keep in mind that was five years ago). On the other hand, my feet are doing much better now that I'm not standing on them for days on end. :)

I'm behind on my news

So it's just now that I learned that Hemingway, the kitten found in a Pennsylvania library book drop (and of whom I'd blogged before), died a few days ago.

Kitten dies after being found in book drop

On the other hand, I saw this story today of Walter, a puppy saved by a blog and Facebook:

Meet the dog who was saved by a blog: A tail-wagging tale of how cyber-community rallied for puppy left to die

People have no business allowing their pets to breed if they are not prepared to take care of the babies, and they certainly shouldn't 1) allow kittens and puppies to get into the shape these two were in and 2) abandon them when they become a problem. Please consider spaying and neutering your pets.

My modem died

So it was a pretty easy fix. I've had the same modem for, gee, almost six years, I think. They usually give up the ghost at 4. The technician was friendly, competent, and showed up early enough that I will be able to go into work at the normal time. Yay!

More posting from the Kindle

I'm glad the Insight tech is coming tomorrow morning. Last evening I got some stuff cleared out of the living room, although there's more cleaning to go, it looks better. I read From Dead to Worse by Charlaine Harris, which I finished today during my lunch break. Now I'm reading Jim Butcher's Proven Guilty. I also ordered the next Sookie Stackhouse book, using all but the last 65 cents of that gift certificate. I got four books out of that. Not bad.

I also talked to my mom last night. It was her birthday. And I listened to a lot of music by Rob Thomas. I was asleep by 9:30 and slept almost 12 hours. I did a lot of cataloguing today plus the data entry, which I finished early so I came on home. Actually, I'm apparently too good at my job. There may not be enough to keep me employed full time at this point. I talked to my boss today. We'll have to see. It will probably vary. Variable does not equal dependable, but I can probably count on 35 or 36 hours at the hospital. I guess it is still better than I had.

Of course there is the Kindle to bypass the lack of Internet

Listening to 'Mockingbird' by Rob Thomas

Okay it's a little slow, but it works. I started my day with a phone message from someone who sent me an animated hugging elephant. She made my day first thing out. That's two days starting out with well wishes (Brandon texted me yesterday.) T was on her way to the doctor. I hope all goes well; she has cancer that has returned from before, so she's had it rough. But she took a few moments to wish me well.

I need to pass that on today as it is my mother's birthday. In the meantime, hope you have a great day!

I'm at the Eagle Creek library

because this morning my Internet connexion flaked out and I'm not sure I'll have service when I get home. A technician is going to come on Thursday morning; they just had all day appointments Monday-Wednedsday, which I think is just ridiculous; why should someone take off work and stay home all day just for a 20 minute appointment? At least on Thursday it runs from 8-11 am, so I can still get into work, just a little later. But it's really inconvenient for Insight to do that.

Anyway, I'll try it when I get home, too, but just in case, I just wanted to let you know I might have to blog from the library on my way home each night in the meantime.