On sleep

I always worry about people who do not get enough sleep. I worry about my insomniac sister. Maybe she needs a new bed. I don’t know. Some people tell me rather smugly that they only need 5 hours of sleep. I worry about them. When did sleep ever become a precious commodity? I think 8.5 hours of sleep should be a right, not a privilege.

Since I’m a proud sleep addict, I feel it is my duty to spread the good vibes in the spirit of volunteerism and will therefore post here my top ten healthy sleeping tips:

1. Don’t eat right before getting your Zs. If you do, sip some mint tea in bed. My sister Nan (health guru extraorinaire) told me once that mint helps you digest.
2. Do not compulsively watch three episodes of Six Feet Under in a row and in the dark of your room before going to bed. I road-tested this one yesterday evening. Pass the Tylenol.
3. Take naps.
4. When you are all tucked in and ready for some sweet dreamin, sit up and read a novel for a few minutes.
5. If you have a significant other, ask him or her to read you a short story in bed (preferably something by P.J. O’Rourke).
6. Before bedtime, have a ritual: sip some fancy-schmancy herbal tea, play a game of domino, listen to the radio or draw. Bottom line, it has to be repetitive.
7. If you usually get less than 5 hours of sleep, I have news for you: more coffee won’t help.
8. In the evening, play locked out of the house and stay there for an arbitrarily determined length of time. Move around, jog, bike, or take a nice walk. Get back in around bed time, and go straight to bed.
9. For chrissakes, don’t watch American Idol: the bad hip-hop, the annoying audience, the ugly glittery stage, the obnoxious contestants, the sex-scandals. Two words: bad stimuli. At the risk of sounding like an elitist snob, stay away from the fugly pop culture.
10. After 9pm, unhook the phone. People will get the clue after a while.

This concludes the advice portion of this blog. You are welcome to post your ideas on best sleeping practices. Good night.

The funniest website I've seen all week...

...by far.
link.

Ministry of Reshelving puts 1984 in its proper place

Two bloguers/pranksters, along with The Ministry of Reshelving, launched an effort to put copies of George Orwell’s 1984 in its appropriate section in bookstores. They recommend moving the famous book from the Fiction section to the Current Events section. As a librarian, I salute them.

From the rules set:

1. Select a local bookstore to carry out your reshelving activities.

2. Download and print "This book has been relocated by the Ministry of Reshelving bookmarks and "All copies of 1984 have been relocated" notecards to take with you to the bookstore. Or make your own. We recommend bringing a notecard and 5-10 bookmarks to each store.

3. Go to the bookstore and locate its copies of George Orwell's 1984. Unless the Ministry of Reshelving has already visited this bookstore, it is probably currently incorrectly classified as "Fiction" or "Literature."

4. Discreetly move all copies of 1984 to a more suitable section, such as "Current Events", "Politics", "History", "True Crime", or "New Non-Fiction."

5. Insert a Ministry of Reshelving bookmark into each copy of any book you have moved. Leave a notecard in the empty space the books once occupied.

6. If you spot other incorrectly classified books, feel free to relocate them.

7. Please report all reshelving efforts to the Ministry. Email your store name, location, # of 1984 copies reshelved, and any other reshelving activities conducted, to reshelving @ avantgame.com. Photos of your mission can be uploaded to Flickr, tagged as "reshelving", and submitted to the Ministry of Reshelving group.

looking...

Searching the internet for new jobs from my cubicle during working hours is a perfectly reasonable way to participate in the professional development of my field. It is not, after all, part of my professional development?

Why, oh why did I have to become a librarian? The number of books now available online (freely) make me want to shit my pants. Seriously, I’m moving in the woods to live off in a world where Google Print will not be lurking around threatening my job security.

But that’s not very reasonable, or even tempting. So I’m looking for a reference-librarian job. Why? Because no one in their right mind would want to catalogue from 9 to 5. It’s soul killing. Oh sure, I try to include human interaction in my everyday office-life. I try to invite my coworkers to stop by any time to share some sugary goodness from a candy-dish left on my desk in plain sight. But I doubt my office candy-cliques will provide me with a sense of accomplishment.

If you have job hunting tips that do not involve too much derrière-kissing, please leave your comments. Thank you.

Aaaw.

This ad will make you want to hug someone.
This ad combines great stunt work with good editing.
(merci Mylène)

In his music video Fix You, Chris Martin of Coldplay wanders the streets of London singing to himself and then bam!, he's rocking the stage as the audience sing along.
(merci Caro)

His name is Lancelot, and in tight pants a lot, he likes to dance a lot.

Mike Nichols directed Spamalot, the new Broadway musical "lovingly ripped of from the motion picture Monthy Python and the Holy Grail". The website is worth a visit, and listen to the silly soundtrack bits.

Where do you people come from?

Really, I'm curious. Think of this entry as my Guestbook. Please leave a comment telling me who you are and what you like to do for fun.

For example:

Hi Kine, my name is Margaux Bergeron, wife of Hollywood Square's Tom Bergeron. If I need a little picker-upper, I'll whip up a little vodka-martini to wash down the cretons toast I usually have for breakfast.

Thanks.