they're all gonna laugh at me

okay, so i'm gonna look like some kinda freak when i get around to getting down to the library. i have 11 books out, which i've finished reading and am ready to take back (except the one i'm loaning to sharon so she doesn't have to hunt it up herself). but here the bad part. when i go to the library to return these 10 books, i can then pick up my 16 holds. yes, you read that right, 16 holds. and not 16 holds that i have, 16 hold that are ready for pick-up (out of 27).

this is partially because i forgot the danger of asking my personal librarian to send me 3 books from her branch to the one i go to, and therefore got an extra 3 that i didn't ask for. while i'm not saying this was a bad thing for her to do (as in, no i'm not actually mad at you) i really didn't need any help finding more things to read. of course, it also doesn't help that i forgot how much faster stuff gets out of processing at central. so now, with a little help from my friends, i may have shot myself in the foot here and become one of those people who don't return things really promptly, about whom i was bitching in my last library related post.

oh, and as long as i'm trying to blame others for the fact that i'm about to be buried in reading material: damn you sharon, for getting me to read manga in the first place! without that i'd only have two holds, one book to pick up (aside from anything extra katie decided to send along with it) and nothing to return.

we're starting a collection

so, as you may know, ( i don't expect anyone to be reading this who doesn't know me, because why would they?) there has been a dead pontiac sunfire in our driveway for a few weeks now. my brother's lovely (ha ha) car has a blown head gasket, and since he has no money my parents are going to have to pay for it to get fixed. well, the guy who did his timing belt a few months ago is too busy, so he passed us to a guy he knows, who also didn't have time either, so he passed us to another guy, who wanted a lot more money. so the original guy is getting us a quote on what it would cost to actually have it done at the shop where he works.

well, i guess the pontiac got lonely, but now it has a jeep to keep it company. that's right, the jeep died last night while the boys were taking chris's girlfriend to work. like it just died without any warning as they were driving down 64. chris said it reminded him of when his timing belt broke, but the mechanic said it sounds more like it seized up. if that's true, that means a whole new engine. thankfully it's still (barely) under warrantee. of course, according to the forum posts my mom's been reading this seems to be slightly common for liberties around 40,000 miles (mom has 38,000) and they do their damnest to keep from having to pay for it.

so that mean that the only transport we (my parents, me, my brother, and his girlfriend) have is a dodge truck with only 2 seats. let the fun begin! and mom can't work without wheels, because real estate is an on-the-go job. so, yeah, it totally sucks major balls.

because i'm a massive geek

i couldn't get the cool picture to work (dammit), but go here and vote for lauriew3180 (that's me) so i can go to england (with 3 friends). yay! i like england, and harry potter, and friends.

a set of fours

i hear all the popular kids are doing it, but i just don't know...

Four jobs you have had in your life:
1. selling crafty stuff
2. selling sunglasses
3. selling gas and smokes
4. selling sausage and gifts

Four movies you would watch over and over:
1. o brother where art thou
2. the star wars trilogy
3. 10 things i hate about you
4. the changeling

Four places you have lived:
1. my parents' house
2. bowling green, KY
3. 8034B
4. with the big red whore

Four TV shows you love to watch:
1. ER
2. family feud
3. law and order
4. trigun

Places you have been on a TRUE vacation (as opposed to those pretend vactions?):
1. england (yay!)
2. tennessee
3. kentucky
4. tennessee

Four websites you visit daily:
1. hotmail
2. my college email
3. the group page (nothing been going on there in a while)
4. www.evpl.org (gotta check those holds)

Four of your favorite foods:
1. red lobster
2. alfredo sauce
3. ice cream (preferably ben and jerry's chubby hubby)
4. cheesecake

Four places you would rather be right now:
1. england
2. somewhere warm
3. somewhere with more books
4. bed

I'm tagging:
probably nobody since anybody likely to see this has already been tagged

a rant on a serious topic

i was reading this just now, and felt that i must comment on it. and i think i have the right to, since i myself am obese.

i'm not saying that you shouldn't be able to sue food companies because you're obese. in fact i think that you should be able to sue anybody you want for anything you feel like, you just shouldn't win.

it's not like the food company execs were sitting around going, "you know that new product that tastes so great? we should totally make that bad for people." they didn't even decide to make the stuff that was bad for you taste so good. it's just that the same stuff that makes food taste good happens to be bad for you. cheeseburgers taste great, but they're bad for you. does that mean that mcdonald's (evil for other reasons) shouldn't sell them to you? no. you know they're bad for you; if you want to eat them anyway, that's your own problem. yeah, they should offer more healthy stuff, and put some effort into making it not taste like cardboard, but i'll be damned if anybody (the government, food industry, etc.) is going to say i can't have a cheeseburger.

i am not fat because they use cartoon characters to make me want unhealthy snacks. it's just that most of my favorite foods contain enough sugar and/or fat to choke a horse. there are very few foods that i enjoy that would qualify as healthy, and most of those i prefer prepared in an unhealthy fashion (i.e. breaded and fried, or smothered in butter). there are plenty of seriously unhealthy foods that i don't like and won't eat, like pork rinds or mayonnaise, but very few healthy ones i will eat.

it's a lot like smoking. if i end up with lung cancer or something, it's my own damned fault. i'm the one who decided to do it. and anyone who says they didn't know it was bad for them is fooling themselves. i don't need a freaking scientific report to know that. anyone who tells you that the first time they had a cigarette (and inhaled) didn't cough, is lying, or doesn't remember right. maybe they didn't know how bad it was for them, but they knew it wasn't good. you might not know drinking causes liver damage, but you're not likely to get past the morning after without realizing it's certainly not healthy.

okay, that's my rant. off to bed, have to work tomorrow... today, whatever.

weird videos

the internet is full of strange and interesting things, like this recut terminator 2 trailer. don't like terminator movies? maybe you'd prefer to watch seven. are we detecting a pattern here? not you're kind of humor? maybe you'd rather see some profanity, or a new perspective on christmas? or maybe you're looking for something offensive, or just disturbing?

if you've enjoyed these links, thank my brother for bringing them to my attention.

thanks sharon

man, talk about a time-suck, but it's cool.

library frustrations

so, right now i'm thinking about the library. after many years of not allowing myself to read for fun two thirds of the time (the 8 months of school) because i knew i had things i really needed to be reading that would take a major backseat to a good piece of fiction, i've been reading like an junkie on a bender. and of course i have embraced the library because being that i love to read and am know to be cheap, the idea of getting to read massive amounts of books for free is just splendid.

but i have a problem with the other patrons. it's really very simple. i want to know why of the 18 books i have on hold (yes i have 18 holds), 4 of them are overdue. firstly, unless you are using them to write a paper or are taking home enough books to choke a horse, there is no reason that you should really need the whole three weeks. but these aren't even books books. we're talking about manga; it's mostly pictures. mentally handicapped children with brain damage wouldn't take three whole weeks to read a volume of manga. and now it's screwed my whole plan, because of course it's the first (and in one case first and second) volume of things that are overdue, and i can't read the others until i've read those. so of course, the only person before me who returns things as proptly as i do (i.e. rather early) had volume 6.

speaking of volume 6, why has my hold on FMA volume 6 been "in transit" for so long? are they sending it to central on foot? and yes, katie, if you see this, i know that since it's new that probably means they're processing it before they send it. but unless oaklyn branch in run by 3 people or less, it shouldn't take that freaking long. i mean, several of the other branches had theirs out (as in checked out or on hold) on monday or tuesday when i first discovered they had bought volume 6. mccollough's has already come back and is waiting on hold for it's second patron. but alas, mine is in transit limbo.

hmm, well, that rant went on a bit longer than expected, and now i must really be off to bed.

totally random

nothing like sharing a computer with your family, eh? today i found this in a minimized window. i have no idea who left it there or why, but i thought it was worth sharing.

caution: blog in progress

well, i've broken down and decided to start a blog. now, we can see if i actually do anything with it, or just totally ignore it like i did that website i made a while back and can't even remember how to access. more to come?