I kept seeing people doing Five For Friday posts and thinking I should do the same, for the alliteration and for the appealing randomness, but I don't often blog on Fridays. However, November! Posting on all the days! What better time?
1. I had been toying with the idea of doing some NaBloPoMo posts riffing on the style of bloggers I know and like, under the auspices of imitation being the sincerest form of flattery. Then I read a post by Burton Cummings this morning where he seemed really annoyed by Guess Who cover bands, calling them 'impostors'. This seemed weird to me, and I double-checked the meaning of the word 'impostor' (also spelled 'imposter', which settled another uncertainty for me); it seems to mean someone who poses as someone or something they are not for purposes of deception. Therefore a cover band is not really a good example, because they're not trying to convince anyone that they are the actual act, they're just playing the same music.
Oh ha ha, I just looked a little further into it, and it's not just a cover band, it is former members of the band touring under the Guess Who name, never mind, nothing to see here. Sort of like when I went to see Journey and was confused as hell by Steve Perry who was apparently now wearing a tiny Filipino skin suit. Is Steve Perry mad about that? Cursory googling says no, although there is some sort of drama among other band members. Well that's bound to happen if you work together for decades, I guess.
2. San was talking about being organized at work with Word Documents and and OneNote and maybe a spreadsheet and asked about how other people take notes at work.
I work in four school libraries. I definitely have to take notes, often while dealing with multiple students shouting questions and checking in massive piles of books without letting them avalanche all over me. My definitely-not-foolproof-system consists of jotting down a word or two to remind me about what I need to follow up on on a sticky note. When the dust clears, I look at the sticky notes and hope to hell I can decipher what I was trying to remember - put this book on hold for Abby, find this book for Mr. G, email this teacher about this student's overdue notice, and .... something about persimmons?
At least now that I have made peace with the fact that I have no short-term memory I do commit to writing everything down, so eighty percent of what I need to remember gets remembered. For the rest? They can ask me again. There's a reason I'm a school librarian and not a brain surgeon or a lawyer. I do my very best to get everything right the first time, but if I don't the stakes are not that high (yes, I have had to break up a fist fight over the last Babysitter's Club book left on the shelf a time or two, but the stakes are not that high in real world terms.)
3. Engie's comment about pear-flavoured Jelly Belly jellybeans being gross. This is hilarious - I love Engie, and we are SO different. One of my first comments when I saw the jellybeans was "ooh, are there pear ones, those are my favourite". And there were none on the legend for this bag, so the gross ones were definitely not pear. But in bulk candy places my friend Collette and I will buy an entire bag of pear jellybeans. What's your favourite one, Engie? Is it cotton candy? Because I hate that one, lol.
4. I go to trivia nights hoping that there will be one question that I can answer that no one else can. On the other hand, when that question IS about pop culture, I find it kind of embarrassing. One year I got three answers no one else knew. Were they about important world events or esoteric works of art? Nope. Two of them were about actors named Simon. Not even really good actors. Sigh.
5. Getting back into the school routine after being away for the summer is difficult for the students AND the staff. One day during the first week of school, I had a class come in for the first time. Near the end of the period, the teacher told the class to go line up at the door. The first boy took a running start and did a cartwheel to end up at the head of the line. The teacher said "uh, try that again". For a second I thought she meant he should redo the cartwheel because it was sloppy, and when he went back and walked normally I almost told him not to give up. Like I said, not a brain surgeon. Also, sometimes the vice principal (I almost always say or type "vice president" first, which got embarrassing when I filled in in the office) sends out an email about various sports equipment that has been collected in the yard after recess, which means there's an email in the school conference titled simply "Balls". That's enjoyable.
13 comments:
Right now I have two post-its and a printout of a few lines of an email taped to my computer.
Thanks for letting me in on your definitely-not-foolproof note-keeping system. I have employed the "jotting down a couple of words on notepads" approach before (and sometimes still do) but I try to type it all out in one of the above-mentioned mediums (Docs, OneNote, Excel) immediately...LOL
Haha, the random trivia one remembers. Is it going to save the world? No. But it might earn you a win at Trivia Night LOL
Pear jelly beans are the best My faves are pear, popcorn, and cinnamon
The pear ones are MY TOP FAVORITES. They somehow capture EVEN THE PEAR SKIN
At work I use a continuous supply of scrap paper to remember everything I need to do. Otherwise I stand there at a co-worker's station saying "I came this way for A Reason. I did. Hi. I don't know why I am here."
I laughed out loud about the cartwheel performance and the email title. I needed that!
You are at FOUR school libraries?!?! Deep respect.
Post-it notes are key for political activism and campaigning, too.
I've never had a pear jellybelly but gosh they sound good!
I write things down on a piece of paper and then look at them the following week and wonder, "what was that about?" Ridiculous. i need to learn from you and San.
I don't keep notes for work. I manage to constantly check to see who has pooped. *I run a day care in my home, people. But for regular life, I keep a notebook on my kitchen island. God help the fool who decided to fill a water bottle near it, drops ice that will melt on it, or touches it - it is my external brain. All of my lists and reminder go there. I once left one of my notebooks in a hotel and I almost lost my mind.
I don't like funky jelly beans at all. Just the basic flavors that can be predicted by the colors.
I thought the same thing about cartwheel kid - Was it just not a 10? Did she think he could do better? This made me laugh.
Every time I read "imposter" now I have to think of this speach https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BoHDDgeQtlc that explains that the word is a man-made word to keep women small. I had no idea and actually think twice now to use it and call myself an imposter.
But I have not done too much research to confirm that is all true. But definitely thought provoking.
This post made me giggle. I don’t like jelly beans but I do rather enjoy the pear Jelly Belly. They are so pearlike! Definitely an achievement on the part of the Jelly Belly makers. I feel embarrassed when I know pop culture trivia too - but it’s probably a good thing to be tuned into the zeitgeist. Your job sounds so fun in so many ways - to be exposed to the kind of unfettered exuberance that makes a kid do a cartwheel in the library! And also the bunnies on the windows!
I love the pear ones too! Actually I like most of them, but I don't enjoy the coffee or popcorn ones. I mean, I'd probably still eat them, but I would do so grudgingly.
You had to break up a fist fight over Babysitter's Club, well, that doesn't surprise me. I never read those but I'd cut a bitch for Sweet Valley High.
I love the pear Jelly Bellys! And I remember being very impressed the first time I tried the popcorn one--how does a jelly bean taste so much like popcorn? Jelly Bellys are crazy that way. I really like them, but I need a chart of what is what. You can't just grab a handful like you can with regular jelly beans.
No. No. I can not believe the love of pear Jelly Bellies. I refuse to accept it. I like MOST Jelly Belly flavors, the red ones, the orange ones, the pink ones, the black licorice. I'm suspicious of green and yellow ones, though because of PEAR and POPCORN, which are nasty.
If I had four workplaces, I would lose my mind. I do not know how you coordinate it all!
I do enjoy the randomness of a bullet point post.
How could a cover band be an imposter when we know it's a cover band. I know you covered this, but still.
I like pears, but not 100% sure if I'd like them in jelly bean form since I don't really like jelly beans.
Should I be embarrassed to ONLY know things about pop culture and nothing else? Ok, maybe I'd have some answers if the topic was Butterflies. But that might be it.
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