News on News

As most of you hopefully know, I am 99.8% sure that I am moving to San Antonio as soon as I find a job with insurance. For those of you who didn't know this, it's because of my health problems. I recently went to Little Rock to see an Oral surgeon and he let me know that my jaw problems may be severe enough that it might behoove me to seek treatment in a larger city from more highly trained doctors and he recommended that I first go to the head of surgery at the medical school in Dallas (my appointment is in 3 weeks). I was very resistant to the idea of moving seeing as I love it in Fayetteville- but after a lot of thinking and praying about it- it's become clear that if in fact I can't have the operations I need to fix my jaw problems in Arkansas, which is why I've stuck around in the first place, then I really can't justify staying here and it really does make sense to move on to a place where I can a) make more and save more money and b) I can be treated by better doctors and c) I can be closer to the UT Austin Library School and maybe begin taking courses part-time. Carl's parents are really great people and have agreed to let me live with them- which will really help me both because they can provide support and also because I'll be able to save money for my medical bills- which isn't so easy here making so little and having to pay rent and so on. So- I've started looking for jobs and preparing myself and my friends and family for my eventual uprooting. Anyway- to the point- I've started applying for jobs and last week I spent all this time applying for this job but then it was filled the DAY AFTER I APPLIED which was discouraging but the good news is that yesterday I found two new jobs that are really promising so I'm going to apply for them today! yay! One is for a Library Assistant I position in Cataloging which is the same level as here but I would make 3,000 more- which would help out a lot! and the other is a LA II in Archives which would bring me 6,000 more- which would probably allow me to stay completely out of debt throughout this medical bill mahem ...which would be an amazing blessing. So yeah- please- keep me in your thoughts and prayers- specifically that I be strong and brave enough to do what I need to do to take care of myself and that if that includes moving to Texas, that I get a good job down there. Thanks a zillion- and don't worry- a big part of this blog phenom is that I do intend to keep in contact. Why? because I love you!

Don't be so pusillanimous!

pusillanimous \pyoo-suh-LAN-uh-muhs\, adjective: Lacking in courage and resolution; contemptibly fearful; cowardly.

Evil, unspeakable evil, rose in our midst, and we as a people were too weak, too indecisive, too pusillanimous to deal with it.--Kevin Myers, "An Irishman's Diary," [1]Irish Times, October 20, 1999

Wedding in Galilee

So last night a couple of us watched this movie made by an Arab from Israel about a Palestinian wedding taking place in the Galilee. I heard about this on NPR because basically this director caused a stir because he is ethnically Arabian, yet he lives and directs in Israel, and yet he made a movie in Palestine, about Palestinian AND Israeli issues, using both Palestinian AND Israeli actors, and most of it was in Arabic. It was pretty crazy- but very interesting to say the least. I think the most interesting contribution to my worldview is that the Palestinians live with so few rights. Their day-to-day is constantly interrupted by the Israelis. More than that- they can't even express joy or celebrate the milestones of life without interference. Conversely, the Palestinians are have so many conflicting and sometimes outright wrong views on how to deal with the issue. Violence comes up again and again as the answer and yet for every Palestinian that wishes to fight- there are two who want the opposite. The whole conflict is so painful and confusing and the emotions run so wild and so deep. I definitely want to cultivate more historical knowledge about this. I recommend the movie by the way- but it's not a hollywood blockbuster.

wizord to the wizebster

I feel it necessary at the outset of this blog to give a short explanation of my treatment of the english language. You see- it is my view that language is here for my pleasure and enjoyment. To that end- I manipulate it, expand upon it, and often just make up words to suit my whims. There are three main types of words that will appear in my musings that could be unfamiliar to the untrained eye.
Type I:
The origins of the first type are Teutonic- which is another way of saying German. I'll do my best to translate- and I do hope you'll all take notes because nothing could be better than learning German- I hope you'll all agree! Ausgezeichnet! (Oustanding!)
Type II:
The second type of word is probably the most entertaining and the most common- it is the word that I, or one of my esteemed compatriots, has made up. I'll give you an example, and oh what an example it is! RICOCKULOUS! Perhaps it would help if I used it in a sentence: "It is simply ricockulous that I am spending precious homework time blogging in the library." Now for the explanation. My friend Kristi from MN was once listening to Loveline back when she was in 9th grade (I think) and when Loveline was on the radio and the one guy who isn't Dr. Drew- you know him- the crude one- what'd his name? anyway- that guy was talking about how if you switched the second syllable of the word ridiculous you got the word ricockulous- which means the same thing as ridiculous (sorry to be so lewd and crude to the ladies among my readers). Anyway- so this is pretty funny- but it gets WAY better- because my poor friend not ONLY thought that ricockulous was a REAL WORD but she also USED IT IN A PAPER!!! hahahaha and the teacher just handed it back to her with no markings on it. isn't that crazy funny. oh man.
the ricockularity of that situation is pretty high I tell you what.
Type III:
The third type of word that might throw the reader are words that come from my odd vocabulary- most of which I have gathered through years of reading books that are almost out of my league. To help myself and whoever else is interested in learning new cool words- I'll try to put "words of the day" in my blog every once in a while. words are mega-giga-geil (super-duper-cool)

First Word of the Day!

euphonious \yoo-FOH-nee-uhs\, adjective:
Pleasing or sweet in sound; smooth-sounding.
She combines alliteration and deft word choices with thegrace of an oral storyteller, creating euphonious andprecise sentences that are perfect for reading aloud.
--Amy L. Cohn, "Children's Books," [1]New York Times, March10, 1991

A computer whiz is born/ Intro to bloggity blog time...

well, it's hard to believe that in a new low, or high depending on your particular views on the matter, I have come to a point in my life where the desire to procrastinate- aka postpone DOOM- is so sincere that I have created a blog. Rather than compose a brilliant paper on the phenomenological approach to religious history for my grad class, I am sitting in the library tinkering around admiring other people's blogs and, somewhat obviously, have decided that I too have something to contribute (tuhut, tuhut). some of you will be thrilled beyond compare, while others will roll your eyes to such an extent as to risk spraining your pretty faces. if i were not so directly involved in the current folly, I would probably fall in the second group. ah yes- to the point- this is my blog. bloggity blog time. wouldn't it be cool if there were a frog-like amphibian that was just a little more ugly that was called a blog...not that blogs are ugly- well mine is nothing to look at- but some are nice- anyway- I just think blog is a good amphibious name is all I'm saying. so- I hope to put funny things and important things and so on in this here blog so as to keep up with my assorted collection of pals who happen to be strewn accross our fair land. Feel free to communicate all manner of things on this blog, and I'll feel free to sit here in the charming library and read and respond to my heart's delight.
much love,
effie from the trot (Felicia)