random gripe

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A few days ago (probably on Macbookless – Day Two) I remembered what right clicking is. I kept automatically alt clicking and not knowing why nothing was happening.

Have I mentioned that this laptop has NO battery? There is physically a battery in it, but it doesn’t do anything. If the power cord disconnects for more than two seconds then the whole thing shuts down.

I think I’ve figured out the limits of this computer. I can have at most two programs open (Firefox and Pidgin, although I did open Adobe Reader once, that was a trial in patience. I am not Job.) In Firefox I can have four tabs, but none of the pages can have embedded audio or video – java and flash are the kiss of death. Usually any sort of moving or singing thing will crash my browser, but it doesn’t crash quickly. It freezes, and when I try to force quit it takes another 5 minutes or so. If I have more than four tabs open, I get the virtual memory dump balloon. I’ve uninstalled the memory sucking programs that run secretly in the background, but I guess I either have missed a few, or there really is just not enough memory to handle five tabs.

I stayed away from the PC today, mostly because of a killer migraine, but also I started to get into the Picoult book. I still don’t love it. I realized one of my problems with it is I picture Cameron Diaz every time there is a chapter written from the mother’s perspective. I have a love/hate relationship with Ms. Diaz (Being John Malkovich = love, There’s Something About Mary = hate, her political and social activism = love and hate – it’s kind of endearing because she seems to be trying so hard, but it also feels like she’s that girl from your high school that suddenly became really passionate about something because she saw it on Oprah). I know this isn’t fair to Ms. Picoult, but I can’t undo it now, and I doubt I’d like the mother character anyway. Sometimes I like when chapters are written from different character’s perspectives, but it’s not really working for me with this book. I find myself dreading chapters written by certain characters, and the whole thing just seems overly dramatic. I keep getting a sense of “this is really serious you guys!” underneath all her writing. I get it, it’s serious. Quit trying to convince us and just keep that plot going. I think the 23-hour headache has made me overly harsh. I understand that Ms. Picoult has an often-hospitalized child of her own (just from the book jacket, I didn’t do any other research, I’m not ready to hear her story because I don’t want it to influence my impression of the book), and I guess that if I was a person who had an experience similar to the mother in the book or Ms. Picoult then I might feel differently. I might feel that affirmation that comes from reading a story that expresses the thought and feelings you can’t, but I don’t feel that way.

</whining>

Addendum
Upon reviewing my post, I realized that the Oprah comment was unnecessarily snotty. Although I’m not all about celebrities telling us that we can be fabulous if we’d just make all the choices they do – Gwynnie, I’m looking in your direction – it’s unfair of me to criticize the catalyst for one’s politicization. As a feminist, and a person who has formally studied gender for the past decade, it is especially heinous for me to make such a meanie-pants observation. So I apologize. Go ahead, become politicized through Oprah, but please, do some more research – like listening to NPR, because as all good liberals know – everything on NPR can be taken as gospel. 😉

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It took nine minutes for my computer to boot, open Firefox, and load this page.

Nine. Minutes.

In the grand scheme of life, that’s nothing, but I’ve come to expect more than that from my technology.

I want my Mac back.

I also realized that my “bills to pay” checklist is on my Mac, so that caused a bit of a panic today, but I think I successfully managed that.

Last night I started reading My Sister’s Keeper by Jodi Picoult. I know it’s sooo 2004. I was bratty about it when it came out and didn’t want to read it because ALL of the women I worked with were reading it. Yes, I know that’s petty, but it made sense at the time. I keep seeing the commercials for the movie, and it made me want to read it just because I feel like I may have missed something. I’m only about 60 pages in and not yet enamored, but not ready to quit. I’ve passed the 50-page mark (à la Nancy Pearl), but I think I’m going to keep going. I haven’t loved the last two books I’ve read: Special Topics in Calamity Physics and Between, Georgia. STiCP was very very slow. I read a review that described it as “overwritten” which I thought was a great observation. I cant remember where I read that, so there is no citation, sorry. 🙁 I’m not sure why I didn’t give up on it. I think it’s because I really liked the cover, and I wanted to like it because of its massive referencing.

I feel that as a trained librarian I should enjoy a book that makes hundreds of literary references, but I didn’t. I’m not sure if that makes me a bad librarian, but I doubt it, because I can still connect people with sources relevant to their information needs. 🙂 Between, Georgia was ok. It was light (although it dealt with intense situations). I was looking for a happy medium between In Her Shoes and Beloved. I wanted something chick lit-y but not fluffy. I’ve had a bit of trouble with that. So if you library types have suggestions I’d love to hear them. When I think about things that fall into the category I’m trying to get at I think of The Time Traveler’s Wife. I’m ready for suggestions!

Jackson, J. (2006). Between, Georgia. New York: Warner Books

Morrison, T. (1987). Beloved: A novel. New York: Knopf.

Niffenegger, A. (2003). The time traveler’s wife: A novel. San Francisco, CA: MacAdam/Cage.

Pearl, N. (n.d.). The rule of 50. Retrieved June 6, 2009 from Nancy Pearl’s Book Lust Web site: http://booklust.wetpaint.com/page/The+Rule+of+50

Pessl, M. (2006). Special topics in calamity physics. New York: Viking.

Picoult, J. (2004). My sister’s keeper: A novel. New York: Atria.

Weiner, J. (2002). In her shoes: A novel. New York: Atria Books.

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