Literary terminology

Every once in a while I see a specialized literary term go by, and for a little while now, I've been noting them as I see them. Good stuff to know, trivia-wise. Not sure there's much other use to these...

Bildungsroman: Basically, a coming-of-age novel. Anywhere from Catcher in the Rye to Harry Potter. See the Wikipedia entry for more details, including bonus definitions of entwicklungsroman, erziehungsroman and künstelrroman.

Vade-mecum: A pocket reference. Like that thing the Mythbusters always pull out that has all the formulas and stuff in it.

Festschrift: An academic thing, a publication honoring a person, usually presented at their retirement. By their grad students, maybe? German thing, go figure. (According to Wikipedia, if published posthumously, it's called a gedenkenschrift. OK, enough German.)

Dénouement: Ah, on to the French. Here we have the conclusion of the story that happens after the climax. In Harry Potter terms, when Dumbledore explains what's going on to Harry after the big fight.

Deckle edges: Super- untrimmed, ragged edges in the paper in a bound book. Check out this post at the Powells.com blog for a great explanation and pictures.

Epistolary novel: A book written as a series of documents - letters, emails, postcards. Example: The Locklear Letters is a novel written as a string of obsessive fan-mail to Heather Locklear.

Lipogram: A lipogram is a word, sentence, or book written without the use of a certain letter or letters. (It's easy to write without Z or X, writing without E or S is harder.) Many examples of lipograms in the Wikipedia article.

A really fun book I read a few years ago, Ella Minnow Pea by Mark Dunn, is a "progressively lipogrammatic epistolary fable." He loses a word each chapter (written in the form of letters) until there are only a couple left, then gains them back.

San Mateo Public Library

A few pictures of the San Mateo Public Library, where I'm spending this week at a training:


A model of the building, on display inside. The conference room I'm in is at the far left of the building.


The conference room (Acorn room, I think) with it's aforementioned HUGE screen.
Oak Meeting room, actually - Here's floor plans if anyones interested in that sort of thing...


A view from the magazine mezzazine (try to say THAT out loud) toward the staircase.


And a view from the third floor across toward the cafe and internet stations, and down toward the second floor and mezzazine.

Worth mentioning: this library has the most comfortable meeting room chairs I have ever been in. They're a wire frame with stretchy mesh fabric on them, and I'm totally comfortable sitting in them all day. Good thing...

Training

So, enough with the books review. I'm away from Reno for a few days attending a training on MARC records as part of my new job as a cataloger. It's being held in San Mateo, CA, at the newly built public library here. I'll be here for four days (today was day 1), heading back to Reno Friday after class. Couple pictures so far:


Morning view from my motel, in Belmont, CA.


Outside the San Mateo library. I'll have to try to get a few more pictures tomorrow; it's really a beautiful facility...

New job

This post is kind of late, but I wanted to see how thngs were going before I wrote about it. I started a new job within the library system last week - I'm not at a branch any more, but in the Technical Services/Collection Development department, working as a cataloger. Basically, what I do (or am being trained to do, right now) is apply cataloging rules to items in the library's catalog. Mainly, this involves editing the MARC (Machine Readable Cataloging) code to match our library's own local rules. Here's an example of a MARC record for a book that I just finished. I'm starting to get a feel for what to look for in the records, but I've got a long way to go. It's kind of like learning a new language - at this point I can order dinner and find the bathrooms, but I'm still far from fluent. But I think this kind of job is really going to suit me, so we'll see how it goes...

Cupcakes

It was a co-worker's birthday today, and another of my co-workers (Amber the prolific anonymous commenter) made cupcakes. Let me just say - as much as I like to bake, and as fancy stuff as I make, I am terrible at cupcakes. Always end up overflowing or not filling them enough and having puny little cakelets. Amber's were a dream. Got a little smudged in handling, but that's ok. Anyway, she had to go home with a sick child this afternoon, but I promised her a picture of them. Voila!

Stream

Well, actually, it's a little drainage ditch that runs in between the Library's parking lot and the soccer fields next door. It's landscaped pretty well, though, and looks pretty in the mornings. The big embankment past the soccer field is actually Highway 395, and just on the other side of that is the Summit Sierra Lifestyle Center (read Mall). That ice will be gone by Thursday, when it's going to start to rain...

Wear red

Today was national Wear Red Day, to raise awareness of women's heart disease. Almost all of our staff did wear red, and we took this picture, which I got to tweak a little. Made a b&w layer over the color photo, then erased the b&w over the parts I wanted to be in color. I think it came out pretty nice - good enough that I tried this with a picture of the outside of the library. Fun stuff - I'm only scratching the surface with the GIMP, but this was a pretty easy project, so I can't wait to learn more.

The grind

Very important picture today - this is the view I have for a few hours every day. I usually sit at this station when I am scheduled at the front desk, which usually ends up about 6 hours a day. Sigh...

First ride

Been kinda cold so far this year; today was the first day I rode the bike to work. My general rule is: if the high is over 50, it's okay to ride. Any below that and it's just too cold in the morning and evening when I ride to and from work. I didn't go in until 1 today (meeting in the morning and then took my car into the dealership before lunch) so it was a pretty nice ride in to work. Bit chilly on the way home at 6:15, though - hands got pretty cold even through my winter riding gloves. Warmed up quick with some great broccoli soup that Mich had made, though. Yum. Anyway, this is where I park - like my "Washoe County Vehicle?"

First Aid

Boy, these photos just get better and better, don't they? Makes me realize just how much of my life revolves around getting the kids fed and to school, then work, then home, dinner and a few chores before bed. I'll have to make a point of being more creative. This is our first aid station at work, if it's not obvious. At least this weekend's pictures should be better - Mich and I are going to Northern California to meet some friends for the Trinidad to Clam Beach Run. Should be a good time.

(Actually, about the boring photo: I was just trying to come up with a post that Amber couldn't ask a bunch of questions about. I got taken to task yesterday for not answering them...)

Babies

Got our first look at my co-worker, Chris's new baby Hannah today. Precious little girl, very sweet but with a good set of lungs when she has something to say. Another co-worker, Mary, grabbed her and wouldn't let me get a picture of dad holding her.

Oh yeah - babies, plural. In other baby news, our branch manager, Tammy, is soon to be a grandmother - she was at the hospital most of today with her son and daughter-in-law. Still awaiting news on that...

Digital Camera Presentation

I did a "Beginning Digital Cameras" presentation at the library last night - it was about 30 minutes, plus 10 or so for questions. About 20 people showed up, and most of them brought their cameras (some still in the boxes.) Went through my powerpoint presentation, which covered basic photo taking, file formats, storage, editing, etc. It was basically the same program I had done 3 years ago, slightly updated to reflect higher pixel counts, new websites like flickr, but really, not much has changed. I wish I could do a more in-depth program - how to edit and manipulate your photos, for example. That would be hard, though - there are so many different programs, I don't know how I would pick one to focus on.

Clouds

Couple things going on here. First, we're pretty lucky to live and work in such a beautiful place - Sure, it's windy sometimes, but that sure makes for some majestic cloud formations. This is the view off the back side of the library that we had yesterday. Second, I included both pictures to show what a little photo editing can do - the first is obviously the raw picture I took, but all I did on the second was a quick crop and the "Auto fix" button (I use Microsoft Digital Image Pro 9.) Took all of 12 seconds to do. Sometimes the auto fix overdoes it a little - the yellows are kinda bright here, but it sure makes a striking contrast with the blues in the sky...

Science experiment

Pretty cool photo of the day: The end product of Amber's science program on density (at the library.) Honey, oil and water, seperated into levels, with a grape, a hazelnut, a lego, and a nut on different levels. Wish Julien could have been there for the program!

New Snow @ Your Library

Nice little snowstorm in Reno last night - of course a little snowstorm here means total chaos on the roads, accidents everywhere, and twice as long a commute home. Fun trying out the AWD in the RAV4 last night; worked great in the snow and ice. And things sure were pretty at the library this morning. Here are a couple shots looking up toward Mt. Rose from our front windows. Wish I'd been skiing today...

New word

Made up a new word today, and it's so cool, I think the world needs to know. I have a coworker (Amber the anonymous commenter...) who has a habit of whistling at weird times during the day. Thing is, her whistle never sounds like it's coming from where she is - everyone looks around to try to figure out where the sound is coming from. So today I called her a ventriloquistler. Try to say it - cool, huh? No results from a google search, so I'm pretty sure that I coined it.

Work

So, in honor of the place where I spend an average of slightly under 40 hours a week (less, lately, with the holidays), here is a picture of the South Valleys Library, as it looks when I drive in in the morning. The yellow gets less comments now than it did when we first opened; either people are getting used to it or the color has mellowed over almost 4 years. Probably both.

Bond Books @ South Valleys Library

Bond Books @ South Valleys Library
Originally uploaded by turi_b.

Saw and enjoyed the new Bond movie recently - in honor of it, I have a display of my collection of Bond novels and other books on display at my library.

Bonus Bond trivia question: Which Bond movies had theme songs that had titles that were different from the movie's title?