Book Repository Cooties

Most my friends know me to be a bibliophile. Lacking the funds and erudition to build a library of leather bound first editions, I'm a bibliophile in the way of a happy hog at a trough. I love consuming books, and more is good. Forget those ancient hand bound tomes with exquisitely illustrated plates - give me my mass produced, pulpy fiction for a quick escape, please. Unfortunately, with ever diminishing bookspace, a desire to be "green," as well as diminishing funds, I've recently decided to attempt to use the public library.

As a child, the public library was where I loved to spend my summers - peacefully quiet, cool AC, racks upon racks of undiscovered stories and people. I'd stumble home with a pile 8 or 10 books every few days. Over the years, I've slowly grown disused to utilizing the library for pleasure. I think college and grad school stained the library with stressful memories of long nights, lots of hard work, very little pleasure. (I probably needed a better, hotter, study partner). Additionally, the thought of reading a publically owned item in my bed (and I admit, worse places) gave me the creeps. How many other people have read this book in who knows where? What if the previous patrons had children in the house who sneezed or slobbered on the books?

I am proud to say, that after going to the library this Monday - I've come to peace with the cooties aspect. The cooties I get from just going to the library, and the cooties from actually bringing home and reading the books. And so far, it's made my habits of reading a book a day much much more affordable.

OMG! A truck just smashed into the building!

That was my first thought this morning as I heard the rumbling and felt some serious shaking whilst sitting at my desk at work. Then I came to the realization that this is Southern California, and that this is lasting a little too long to be a semi crashing into the hospital (why would a semi drive into a the hospital anyways? derr!). Belatedly I stumbled to the doorway (an old wives' tale?) and when the shaking stopped, I looked around the corner to see my boss on all fours crouching underneath the flimsy plywood counter. Bwahaha!

Anyways, it was a mere 5.4, I can't imagine how crazy it must have been for my brother who was in Chengdu when that big 7.8 hit in May. According to USGS, there's a 99% chance for a 6.7 or greater in the next 30 years. Yikes!

I Want to Believe

ZOMG! I can't believe they're back for another movie! I just have to be able to hold out until Tuesday when M's parents leave to be able to watch it.... (Michael has no idea how lucky he is I didn't drag him on an X-Files tour while we were in BC - heh heh!) It looks MUCH better than the first movie - more along MOTW than part of the confusing mytharc (at this point, who can even remember the mytharc?) And more URST with Mulder and Scully! That looks like may become RST! (of course, that can't really happen, I'm just another sucker for those previews.) Haha! I'm such an X Files nerd!

How To Turn A Hot Chick Into A Geek

I ran across a link to this article reading Salon the other day. Pretty funny, but don't they realize that geek girls are already hot chicks, hence no need to work on the non-geekster hotties?

SIGH

This has been a crazy time for me ... recently I've committed myself to finding a new job, contemplated moving to another city, had a major wreck on my brand spankin new mountain bike, and saw my dog nearly get mauled to death.

Unlike life, I'm gonna blog with one thing at a time.

So a dilemma that I know many Californians face is: should I stay or should I go? After living here for a year, I've unexpectedly found myself truly enjoying my life here. Yes, the traffic is bad. And materialism is a badge of pride. And downtown LA really sucks for such a huge city. And its the epicenter for the entertainment industry.(Yes, this is a bad thing.) But I've been seduced by the weather, the diversity of cultures, awesome Chinese food, proximity to the mountains and the outdoors, and all the cool places you can go within a days drive of LA. The biggest drawback that makes me seriously consider moving out of state? The ridiculous price of housing. Those who left in the last decade were the smart ones, the ones who didn't get sucked into the bubble. The ones who haven't had to declare personal bankruptcy and lose a lifetime of savings and possibly their only chance at homeownership.

I recently was offered a job that closely approximates what my dream job would be. The drawback? Denver. It's cold there in the winter, I don't relish playing in the snow, and I hate to say this, but it's awfully white. It's nice not being a minority in LA. But in Denver, I can own a great house well within my budget, still enjoy the outdoors, and be in the same city with some of my closest friends. And, my retirement and financial situation would have a much rosier outlook there.

Reading this post I can almost convince myself to move there. Almost. But not yet.

Pasadena Farmer's Market Flowers

$5 for a bunch of flowers - not your everyday carnation, lily, rose - but lots of vibrantly colored sunflowers, china roses, Queen Anne's Lace - the list goes on and surpasses my admittedly limited botanical knowledge. This weekend I snatched up some purple China Roses - who doesn't feel a little happier seeing a big bunch of purple flowers at the breakfast table in the morning?