Librarian

sorry I've got nothing except a sprained wrist

i had an ultrasound and there was nothing to see.
i had a wine or four and ate all the dip.
i work all the time and have no life.
i think i love a boy, for real, not just for christmas.

Power Outage at Monash University in Clayton today

So there was a power outage and Monash sent me out an email saying stuff like this:

Two trades staff have been injured after investigating an electrical fault at Monash University's Clayton campus today.

The two staff had entered the Clayton campus' main electrical substation early this afternoon to investigate an electrical failure which had cut power to the campus. Both staff have been taken to hospital.

Staff and students are encouraged to check the Monash website at www.monash.edu.au for further information prior to coming to Clayton campus tomorrow. Further information will also be available at ask.monash.edu.au

So that is bad. But it is not the reason why I am talking about it. Hang on though.* Back again. I went to the Monash webpage and it has a link on it about the power outage, so I clicked it and the info page that came up said to check ask.monash, which is the second link above. So I logged in to ask.monash and saw that an entry had been made about the power outage, so I clicked on the hyperlink and it took me to a page that provided me information on how to check out the latest news on the main Monash webpage.  No further news that what I cut and pasted above from my email was given in any of these places. Circle of misinformation should have been the title of this blog post. Incidentally, I reckon I am quite good at blog post titling. So there. 



* I just remembered that today I realised that I am a socialist passionate about individualism. What a gemini - how can I live with myself?

Welcome back book banning!

One of the joys of working in bookshops comes from finding out what our government does to literature through its censorship board, the OFLC. Today at work I came across a recently banned book, called The Peaceful Pill about voluntary euthanasia.

The Peaceful Pill is written by Dr Phillip Nitschke and is I believe, a response to the the overturning of the Rights of the Terminally Ill Act (ROTI) in the Northern Territory by the Kevin Andrews Private Member's Bill in the Australian Parliament in 1997. The website that publishes and distributes the book is here: http://www.exitinternational.net

The OFLC reviewed the classification of the book in February and then banned it. Originally it was illegal to import it, but legal to distribute it or some such legal hogswallop. The press press release from the OFLC is here: http://www.oflc.gov.au/resource.html?resource=952&filename=952.pdf

The thing that makes me mad about banning of books is that no one can judge how this book is going to affect individuals or society. It is just like banning a movie cos it violent or art because the artist has used Christian mythological symbols in an offensive way to some people, or some music that 'made' a kid commit suicide. I choose. I get from information what I will. Only I can make it my knowledge that determines my action or reaction. I know someone who would fly into an uncontrollable rage if they were told they were not allowed to smoke in pubs anymore (as of April in Melbourne I believe) and rant like madman. The information presented caused a reaction. If I was told I could not smoke in pubs anymore, I would say yes, but is it English? I don't care. I feel like killing myself when I hear Christina Agulera or however you spell her name, cos it makes me sick what pop has become, but that it information becoming my knowledge. I may read about how to kill myself and then go and bake a cake. Who fucking knows.

Banning books is wrong. People should learn to think for themselves. If our society is teaching us that by banning books, then that is horrible beyond belief. Why cant they teach us to think?

By the way I bought a new fridge. Well, it is a second hand fridge in actual fact. I got it on friday. On saturday I went out and bought the food that's on the receipt. Click on it, the actual size will come up. Then the fridge broke.

Incidentally, 53 items totalling $160.05 means $3.02 average for each item.

High cholsterol

I celebrated my elevated blood cholesterol results today by eating a wedge of brie. The whole thing.

There is...

A website where you can list symptoms and it will give you a diagnosis. Today, I have bad hair, a sore head and a discharge from my mouth...am looking up now....oh.
Anyway, I have decided I love databases. The symptoms one is here. It even gives you the top 50 symptoms to choose from as an alternative list so you can make sure you are part of the greater population.

Um, something else has happened in the last 24 hours. Actually 12 hours. I feel quite sick to the stomach with what I am about to say. Here goes...I broke my boyfriends computer. OK, I said it. It seems not long ago I chronically and repeatedly mis-pronounced his surname and now I have risen to the echelons of breaking his stuff. We may as well get married. Of course I truly did not mean to. I have tried to do some research into how to fix the file (it is a corrupt boot file) and it seems as though everything I have found and read, I watched him do himself last night. Oh dear! I may as well throw his dvd's out on the street. It was an ACCIDENT and I am SORRY.

Why can't there be...

A database in which you enter food items you have in your cupboard and it gives you recipes for them.

Tonight I have a tin of corn, an avocado, a lime, flour and two sausages. What's for dinner?