I know, I know. Where the hell have I been? I'm not dead (you probably guessed that), just really, really busy.

Anyway... Even though I'm working my booty off, I can't neglect my Field Trip Friday duties. Today's field trip is actually not a field trip so much as a cool thing to download. Trillian is a neat little tool that allows you to simplify your chatting and/or instant messaging. With Trillian you can simultaneously connect with Yahoo Messenger, MSN Messenger, ICQ, mIRC, and AIM. I'll admit that I am not a big user of chat or IM, but I would definitely take advantage of this tool if I was. Enjoy!

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For this week's field trip I am recommending the official movie website for Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events. This website was driving me nuts earlier with its "Eye Collecter." I finally found the fourth eye, so now I am able to enjoy reading about the movie. See how well you do at collecting the eyes!

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And then post a scary diatribe about what just happened to me, but then I got distracted. When I signed on to Blogger there was a nice pretty add offering me Gmail, because I am "an active Blogger user." That's just sad if I'm considered active. Anyway, I thought to myself "Privacy be damned, I want to try this mother out!" I know, I know. My librarian friends are disappointed in me.

If you'd like to give me crap about this, send a message to kellyw@gmail.com.

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I was going to blog on this earlier today, but I was busy with my pirates (Makes you think, doesn't it?). Last night I watched the results show of American Idol, and I witnessed something truly horrifying. When the group did their weekly music video, they sang Poison's Nothin' but a Good Time. To quote my good friend The Trophy Wife, "Oh the pain." It was so wrong. Ass rock like that does not deserve to be desecrated that way.

On a side note, did you all know that Kiss and Poison are touring together this summer? Throw in some Winger or Warrant, and I am so there.

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A little late in the day for a field trip, so I'll make this quick. Today I'm all about pirates (don't ask). In honor of that visit the Pirate Name Generator and find out your pirate name. Why? Because Privateer Bessy the Cutthroat Eye says so.

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As I have mentioned on this blog before, my library is experiencing a financial crisis. We tried to get a referendum passed and it failed. Since then we have been dealing with the fallout. Most of our patrons have been understanding. However, we have had several who have not been kind to staff members when they were informed that certain services have been or will be cut. While I can understand patron frustration, I do think we need to draw a line when that frustration manifests itself in a personal attack.

What has me on this tangent? A story my good friend Mary told me this morning. When she was working Tuesday night she helped a man locate a book he wanted. Unfortunately, it was not available at our library. It was available at a library in our system, so we would be able to get it for him in a matter of days. He thought we should buy the book for our library. Given our current financial situation Mary had to explain to him that we could not do that. His response?

If your salary was cut in half the Library could afford to buy my book.

ARGH!!!!!!! The thing that kills me about this is that this jerk said this to Mary, the sweetest person at our library. If that buttmunch wants to come in here and say that to me, fine. I'm a bitch, so I would have a scathing response designed to not get me fired to give back to him. Mary's too nice and doesn't deserve to handle crap like that.

It's just like my friend Eric says: I don't like the man, but I don't like the people either.

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Tonight is our annual Tax Night Party, so I will be kicking it at the library until midnight (after a brief trip home to watch the finale of The Apprentice, of course). I've attended this event for the past five years, and it still amazes me that people wait to the very last minute to file their taxes. And I mean last minute. We've had people come in at 11:55 p.m. to get an extension form. Two years ago I made a woman cry on the phone when I refused to give her directions to our library. She called at 11:50 p.m., and there was no way she was going to make it from her town (which was a good 25 minutes away) to our library in 10 minutes. I told her she wouldn't make it in time, and she burst into tears.

Should be a fun night...

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Seriously. I've been going around all day singing this in my head:

I know you'd like to thank your ..... don't stank
But lean a little bit closer
See that roses really smell like boo-oo-ooo
Yeah, roses really smell like boo-oo-ooo

Why? I like Outkast, but I really wish I had something else rattling around my head instead.

Roses really smell like boo-oo-ooo... Damn it.

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We can dance if we want to
We can leave your friends behind
'Cause your friends don't dance and if they don't dance
Well they're no friends of mine

If you're anything like me, you enjoy shaking your groove thing anytime, anyplace. Normally I can keep it under control, but sometimes you just have to dance. What do I do when this happens? I visit my friend Dancing Paul. From the comfort of my office chair I can make Paul get jiggy with it when I can't. Visit Dancing Paul and see what combinations you can come up with. My favorite backup dancer is the euro-dance guy. He has a Charlie Brown shirt!

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Last night's episode of 24 didn't leave me as excited as last week's, but it was still really good. A few of my favorite moments:

1) Any moment with Chappelle on screen. Him telling Tony to think of Michelle as being dead already and to get over it was classic Chappelle. When you think he can't be a bigger ass he somehow finds a way to out ass himself. If he lives past the next episode he should seriously consider becoming a counselor. He could be bigger than Dr. Phil and Dr. Laura. Someone call Oprah!

2) That whole scene with Jack and Chase in the car talking about Saunders. I love any scene where Jack and Chase are driving together (Chase's longing looks at Jack are classic), but this one had so many other things going on under the surface I found myself sitting on the edge of my seat. I can only hope that within the next couple of episodes we will have a Chase-Jack-Saunders scene. That would be good.

3) David and Wayne: the un-dynamic duo. With Sherry out of the picture those two are starting to look more and more like Beavis and Butthead. I was right last week when I said I thought Palmer might be the Kim of this season.

I posed this question to my friend Michelle yesterday, so I'll throw it out here too: Doesn't it seem odd that Michelle isn't symptomatic yet? She didn't take the face full of virus that Gael did, but other than looking a little tired she seems okay. I think something is up there.

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Abba says "No" to reunion

I guess we will all have to make do with Mamma Mia.

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The class I am teaching this quarter started at 9:00 a.m. At about 9:15 a.m. I had my first student DROP the class.

Yeah. People love me. How much do you want to bet that I will have three more drop within the next two weeks? And is it because I'm a big evil bitch of a teacher? No. It's because I'm asking them to learn something new. I'm not even expecting them or requiring them to be good at it. I just want them to try it.

Sigh.

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Since I am the LibraryDiva and many of you are readers, let me ask you something that has been bothering me this afternoon. Earlier today I read Library Journal's article Out of the Genre Ghetto. The article talked about the ways in which the mystery genre is redefining itself. That isn't what is bothering me though. The article's use of the term Genre Ghetto does bother me, especially since this is not the first time I have seen it used. I also find it very inappropriate to use in a magazine geared towards librarians who are suppose to be respectful of all reading tastes.

I can feel a rant coming on, so I'm going to cut it off before it can start and ask you this: Do you think genre fiction belongs in the book ghetto? Why or why not? Do you read genre fiction? If you do, are you embarrassed to admit it?

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Today's field trip is something I actually use for work. At JigZone you can create a jigsaw puzzle out of any image. You can select the number of pieces you want, as well as the cut.

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