Em ơi! #346: There is a good reason

Not my most graceful moment.

I have had other crazy accidents in front of Bryan, but none come to mind as more mortifying than falling over on the kitchen floor one morning when I was not wearing any trousers.  In fact, I had just removed my jeans so I could put on my bike shorts (padded shorts I wear under my trousers for bike commuting comfort), and slipped on the wooden floor, which in my defense was slippery under my socks.

Bryan actually came sprinting out of the bedroom to make sure I was okay.  The funny part is, I thought he was still asleep, and was getting dressed in the kitchen so as not to wake him.  Also, I didn’t break my toe, I only stubbed it (on the fridge).

This comic is filed under PN1942.L86 2011, for Drama–Special types–Farces.  Burlesques.  Mimes–General works.  Sadly there was no specific category for “slapstick” or “physical comedy.”

Em ơi! #345: Bumper stickers: A brief style guide

Then I saw all of these in the grocery store parking lot.

So now that I am sure that I have passed all of my classes, I can relax. At least until June 13th, when summer classes start. I have already learned the first seven letters of the Thai alphabet though (and I can pronounce five of them!).

I wanted to write a bit about the experience of running the two 50ks I did (last week and last month) but I find that I don’t have much to say about them that other people haven’t already said. It’s worth noting that terrain makes a big difference, and probably accounts for the one hour difference between my times (the first, a relatively flat 50k was run on roads and I finished in about 4:57:something. The second, an extremely hilly 50k run on trails, I finished in a painful 5:58:something). Another note is that running an ultramarathon alone is a lot less nice than running it with someone else, and I’m quite lucky to have found a couple of very nice women (experienced runners, too) who happened to be going my way at my pace who let me run with them.

Anyway, I should note that this comic is not intended to make fun of people who run races of any length, whether half marathon or Ironman.  I personally don’t see the point of putting a sticker on your car that says 13.1, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be proud of your achievement.  (I’ve not seen any 50k or 50 mile stickers, or indeed anything for road races longer than a marathon.  I have a hunch that is because when you run farther than 26.2 miles, people tend to look at you as though you are crazy–much crazier than they suspect the average marathoner is.  I have, indeed, stopped telling people how far my races are for this very reason.  People ask, “What are you doing this weekend?”  “Oh, I’m running a race.”  And I leave it at that.)

I am, however, fairly serious about the idea that people should get their damn abortion bumper stickers off their cars.  It’s a complicated issue, and the quality of public debate on it is not improved by the sense that anyone’s position can be reduced to one or two sentences.  I should point out that the little figure on this sticker is a straw man (philosophical-speak for purposefully misconstruing your opponent’s position to make yours look reasonable and correct in comparison).

Also, a big congratulations to my brother Daniel, who graduated from his MBA program at the University of Maryland-College Park this past weekend, and to my sister-in-law Claire, who is graduating from her MFA program at Johns Hopkins later this week! I am sad I couldn’t be there in person, so I will send you some large and obnoxious gift later this week in compensation (okay, maybe just something nice).

This comic is filed under NC1400 .L86 2011, for:

Drawing.  Design.  Illustration–Caricature.  Pictorial humor and satire–History–Special regions or countries–America.

If you’re interested in cataloging, the story of how I got this number might interest you.

So it seems there is no particular category in the LCC for bumper stickers,  or, indeed, for bumpers.  In order to circumvent having to dwell on this all night, I looked up a book about bumper stickers (in this case, Bumper sticker wisdom: America’s pulpit above the tailpipe by Carol W. Gardner).  I took the ISBN number from Amazon and stuck it into WorldCat.org to get a list of all the libraries which have the book.  One (the south central library system here in WI, actually) had cataloged the book under 827 .G22.  Now that is a Dewey number and I use LCC.  Luckily, ClassificationWeb, which is the tool I (somewhat legally) use to get my LCC numbers, has a DDC to LCC converter.  This number was actually associated with several LCC numbers (827 is the rather broad category “English humor and satire”), so I then selected the most appropriate one.  I’m a bit annoyed about “history” sticking in there, but I guess today’s politics is essentially tomorrow’s history, so I’ll let it ride.

Wow, I’m wordy tonight.  (651 words, to be precise, at least as of the beginning of this parenthetical notation.)  Hopefully I’ll have another (less extensively commented?) comic sometime this week or early next.

Em oi! #344: Mazel Tov

The three Samurai? The three Muay Thai Fighters?

Although I’m not quite done with school, I attended the SLIS graduation ceremony this past Sunday. A friend’s father took this picture of several of us who are interested in South and Southeast Asian librarianship. (My spell-checker informs me that “librarianship” is not a word; not sure what to say instead–librarianism? Hm.) It was a lot of fun. I really felt like I was part of something, which (given my previous experience at UW-Madison) is unusual (for me, anyway).

Could I have put more parenthetical notations in that sentence?

Anyway, here is the picture I drew the above comic from. You can see I put glasses on myself because…well, I just don’t look right in my drawings without glasses.

This comic is filed under LB3065 .L86 2011, for Theory and practice of education–School administration and organization–School management and discipline–Graduation.

Em oi! #343: Expectation Management

I started this comic on April 1st and I still haven't heard when the books are arriving.
I started this comic on April 1st and I still haven't heard when the books are arriving.

The story behind this is quite convoluted, so I won’t get into it here (plus it has enough weird details that it would probably be found by a judicious googler, and I don’t really want my comics found by my professional acquaintances). Suffice it to say, I’m busily reviewing my Hebrew. Or at least I got a book to help me do that.

Once I mentioned to one of my brothers that I haven’t gone into a job feeling like I was sure I could competently perform all the duties I was likely to be asked to perform during the course of a job since I worked in a supermarket as a cashier. I hated that job…but I miss the feeling.

This comic is classed under Z695.1.J48 L86 2011, for (deep breath):
Libraries–Library science. Information science–The collections. The books–Cataloging–By subject, A-Z–Jews and Judaism. Hebrew and Yiddish literature.

That wasn’t even that difficult to find.

Happy Mother’s Day, especially to those who are or who have mothers, or who had or were mothers at one time.