The Week in Review

I decided to give up The Year of Eating Dangerously after I threw it down in disgust. Tom Parker Bowles is an idiot that has traded on his family name and I have no use for him as a person much less a writer. He makes some moral high ground statements about the Japanese refusing to give up eating dolphin and how inhumanely they are killed in Japan. This was news to me. I lived in Japan for 7 years and never heard of anyone eating dolphin--whale, an entirely different story but dolphins? What? A little internet research illuminated that it is in fact two fishing villages in Japan that hunt dolphin and most Japanese have no idea that it happens. It amounts to a couple of thousand people practicing something is a country of 150 million people. That is like saying all American's support and love dog fighting because one football player kept dogs for the sport. Come on really.

Then what sealed the deal was that the next stop was in Korea where he was in search of dog soup. After detailing the torture that these dogs allegedly undergo--up to an hour of beating before being dispatched. Mr Parker Bowles still wants to give it a go and then after he tries it he reports that he believes he feels all the potency it is reported to instill after consumption, thus validating the torture and inhumane the way the dogs are reportedly (he cites his source as the internet) slaughtered.

After I threw the book, I had to quickly check to make sure that I didn't damage it since it is a library book. I would certainly hate to have to pay for the bloody awful thing in the end!

Other news, I no longer have internet or cable TV. I gave it up yesterday. On Thursday when I got home, my connection was dead. I called Oceanic, the customer rep said that it would have to be repaired by a technician during a service call. I hate being held hostage in my apartment. The last time when Oceanic installed my internet the guy was 1:30 outside his 4 hour window. I was crawling up the walls by the time he left me with internet. So since I was considering getting rid of the cable box, I decided I could just as well get rid of internet as well. Panera Bread is down the street and I am rather fond of their French Onion soup. The bowl just had was very tasty indeed.

On Friday I ended up at the my committee meeting 30 minutes late. It took me almost 2:30 to drive 45 miles. Friday traffic compounded by a major accident on my freeway jammed everything up. See this is why I hate freeways--they go way too fast for me or way too slow. And might I add that people are rarely on their best behavior in the car.

Glendale lies about halfway between Downey where LHQ and the Antelope Valley. I decided I would stop by to see the new Americana Residential Shopping area that kicked of the previous evening with Arnold, Tony Bennett. Parking wasn't as difficult as I imagined it might be especially considering the sheer volume of bodies walking along the new promenade. It is truly a sight to see. Perfect in all the right ways. The a mini-Bellagio style fountain synchronized to music. All the right shops, Tiffany's, BCGB Maximara, Armani Exchange, etc. I thought, wow it must be the life to be able to get one of the 100 apartments going for 1+ million dollars. But then I had to think, would I really want to live here? Sure if someone bought it for me. But in reality the whole experience was something that I am rapidly coming to despise. This whole, sugar-coating and dressing up of America. I realized that one of the reasons that I was so distressed by the state of my hometown was because not everything was cookie-cutter perfect suburbia. There are some amazingly well kept beautiful homes in my town--they just happen to be next door to some of the sagging, paint stripped structures as well. I have become so suburban in my expectations that I fail to see the beauty in un-uniformity.

I have decided that like most things in life, the 80/20 rule can deal with Librarianship and customer service. Twenty percent of our users take up 80 percent of our time. Today one of our 20% wanted to use one of the reference computers after she reached her 2 hour limit of internet time. Since we have let her in the past, she no longer thinks that this is actually enhanced customer service but now feels entitled. Accidentally, the other reference librarian knocked over her bottle of "herbal infused juice". It spilled all over the rug. Believe me the only infusion was of the fermented potato variety. So here I am giving reference to people, the strong smell of alcohol wafting through the air. And all I can think is that we are going to get complaints that the reference staff is sloshed on Sunday.

Well, it seems that I am a bundle of positive outlooks and opinions. Really it was a good week. The weather has been nice and my commutes have been smooth with my audiobooks keeping me company and I am thankful, I have both a CD player and cassette player in my car. Life is really quite good--especially now that I have decided to toss that wanker Tom Parker Bowles load of bound tripe.