If television’s a babysitter, the internet’s a drunk librarian who won’t shut up.

In the Guardian this month, Nick Hornsby visits a group of men who’ve recently read his book A Long Way Down to discuss it with them; they’ve recently won the Penguin/Orange Reading Group Award. He discovers that [t]he High Down prison reading group is in many ways like any reading group, except with worse teeth.

Believe it or not, webrings are still around. Here’s a fun-looking one, the Alt.Librarians WebRing. . . .

In a rather difficult place. I’m starting to get rather excited about the prospect of going back to school (in two weeks! eep!), and at the same time, trying not to. I haven’t heard yet about Financial Aid, without which it’s pretty much not gonna happen (and don’t expect to for another day or two).

Today I got myself enrolled in an Arabic I class. I want to be really excited about it—I really want to learn this language—but I can’t. I don’t know if I’m even going to be there to take it.

GRRR. Soon.

Kat’ll be here on Friday night. That’ll make quite a few things better.

LIKE the Japanese soldier marooned on an island for years after V-J Day, President Bush may be the last person in the country to learn that for Americans, if not Iraqis, the war in Iraq is over. “We will stay the course,” he insistently tells us from his Texas ranch. What do you mean we, white man?

—Frank Rich rocks. (NYT)

Work has been so boring the last three days, I’ve done almost nothing but read Goats. I’ve now made it through three years of the archives—only five and a half years left to catch up. . . .

Don’t miss the Litany of Beer.

I did, in fact, make it home yesterday. Now I’m at work, and something’s making the machines cranky—everything is slow as hell. Maybe it has to do with the system update they’re doing this weekend—the staff servers are all offline this weekend, and we’re doing all the circulation off line, storing it in files on the machines till the servers come back up on Monday. . . .

Thank god I (probably) won’t be here if they ever decide to do this again. . . .

For just $1,025, you can own the pierogi with Jesus’ face fried into the side. (via apostropher)

I meer for beer!

While this student does not meet the general University standards for academic progress, he/she is considered to be in good standing and making normal progress toward his/her degree. There are extenuating circumstances which have affected this student’s academic performance. Please reinstate his/her financial aid for the 2005/2006 academic year, beginning with the Fall term.

So I got that letter from the Dean’s office, and gave it to the Financial Aid office, this morning. Now I have to wait another week to hear what the FA folk actually want to give me. If I get it, I’ll be back in—Jesus Christ, this is cutting it close—about two weeks.

I’m heading back to Ann Arbor tonight. I have to be at the “bus station” by 11:30, but I’m free until then—give me a call, Pitt-yos.

Happy 72d birthday, Jerry Falwell, you miserable scumbag. May you rot in your own personal conception of hell.

Reinstatement: A Farce in Entirely Too Many Acts

Student Records:

Your reinstatement has been approved and processed. Go find your advisor and register.

Dean’s Office:

The soonest appointment for you to get your financial aid letter is Thursday morning

Advisor:

The system won’t let me in to register you. It keeps saying “206-1″ is an invalid term for you. Oh, and all four sections of Arabic 1 are closed.

Computing Services:

Something hasn’t been processed properly, your account is still deactivated.

Student Records:

Everything’s been processed for you, and there are no holds on your account. Go back to your advisor (on the 28th floor of the Cathedral…) and do a paper registration form. Computing accounts always take longer, don’t worry about that. (thank god for Crazy Mocha Oakland, I guess…)

Registrar:

No, I can’t just check what’s up with your account for you. I can’t do anything without a form. Go see your advisor first and get a registration form signed, then we’ll see.

Bah!!

Apostropher has a question.

He also has a link to some amazing highspeed photography (about half of which has captions translated (from Dutch) into English). The non-highspeed photography is pretty damn awesome, too, though less of it seems to be translated.

Orientation campus tours make me wish I could wear earplugs at work.

Thomas L Friedman actually has something interesting to say, for once.

Apparently, at least according to Google Maps, the bridge we all know and love as the Swinburne Bridge is not, in fact, Swinburne St. Mapquest agrees, although not as prettily.

I’ll admit Mr Jeepers is fuzzy and adorable. But in my opinion, a beanie baby crawled up his ass and died.

Language Loggers have posted about Partially Clips quite a number of times. I’ve finally taken the plunge and started reading the archives. . .

In other news, I’ll be in Pittsburgh for a few days this week, attempting to get financial aid, a job, housing, and so forth so I can be back at Pitt in the fall. Those of you who read my companion livejournal can find my phone number here; others should email me for the number (which is the same as it’s been since last summer). Also, if anybody knows of well-paying jobs or cheap housing in Pittsburgh, please let me know.