tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-165902492012-01-19T11:34:17.699-07:00The strange and nearly hallucinatory world of a lifelong <em>Underground Librarian</em>.James~Quinnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12220220887224478464noreply@blogger.comBlogger451100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16590249.post-70155860258518426212010-11-09T07:00:00.002-07:002010-11-09T07:09:43.366-07:00

Let's Play Library!littlelibrarian.net sells a kit with library cards, book cards and pockets, etc., so kids can turn their personal book collection in to a library ... very sweet!

James~Quinnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12220220887224478464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16590249.post-80659344367290845642010-11-08T04:55:00.002-07:002010-11-08T04:55:00.364-07:00

Working With Google Books's Download Restrictions I wanted to read an item from Google Books offline, but it wasn't downloadable, despite being available in "full view." Unfortunately the interface is so clumsy that it takes forever to get from one point to the next.. If you save a very simple html file using the "embed" code in the Google Books entry, however, it will still load from Google (

James~Quinnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12220220887224478464noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16590249.post-8528020517942890182010-06-13T02:24:00.006-06:002010-11-08T03:49:46.058-07:00

Someone posted this on Facebook ... A woman posted the following comment on the Facebook "cause" page entitled "REMOVE "f**k Jesus Christ" in Facebook this is antichrist, and its hurting us Christians": Well Who Ever Came Up With This You Had Better Believe There Going To HELL The Crap That People Come Up With Anymore Are So Unintelligent,I Love My God & His Holy Son Jesus Christ,God Bless You

James~Quinnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12220220887224478464noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16590249.post-3379522280969609992010-03-04T20:44:00.000-07:002010-03-04T20:44:51.268-07:00

Brown Paper Dreamscape I was with nine or ten other people in a field of knee-high, green grass, that waved in the wind. We were all supposed to “join hands and form a crop circle,” so one of them had been saying to the rest of us. But hands were in short supply, as several of them had either one hand or none. So it got really weird. One of the people turned out to have been Albert Einstein,

James~Quinnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12220220887224478464noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16590249.post-70510297818540809722009-12-23T20:07:00.008-07:002010-11-06T14:35:25.153-06:00

My Last Holiday Supper So You're all through learning when to say “Shit,” and when “Hell,” schooled in the ins and outs of polite society. And then you have another problem: Dinner. Your education in theology helps.           GOD'S HEAD PUDDING           1 part Easter           snagged           in a rabbit-proof fence.           2 parts Good Friday           nailed           to a god-proof

James~Quinnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12220220887224478464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16590249.post-37357421643624453152009-09-29T02:07:00.003-06:002009-09-30T04:06:17.971-06:00

Body Ritual among the Nacirema HORACE MINER University of Michigan THE anthropologist has become so familiar with the diversity of ways in which different peoples behave in similar situations that he is not apt to be surprised by even the most exotic customs. In fact, if all of the logically possible combinations of behavior have not been found somewhere in the world, he is apt to suspect that

James~Quinnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12220220887224478464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16590249.post-92054755029957689022009-09-28T19:18:00.002-06:002009-09-30T18:29:13.246-06:00

Another Zen Moment Watching TV, an episode of House, we had to turn on the closed captioning to understand what a deaf character was saying.

James~Quinnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12220220887224478464noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16590249.post-67507288154022022702009-09-19T05:22:00.003-06:002009-09-30T18:50:27.754-06:00

Yale University Library Digital Archives Here are some Gurdjieff-related pictures in an archive at the Yale University Library, in their amazing digital collection:    http://images.library.yale.edu/digitalcollections/Search.aspx?q=gurdjieff Raw links to selected items of interest: 1071676.jpg 1071678.jpg 1071680.jpg 1071689.jpg 1072439.jpg 1072441.jpg 1072443.jpg 1072445.jpg 1162486.jpg 1162489

James~Quinnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12220220887224478464noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16590249.post-91011302105595031352009-09-17T22:47:00.007-06:002009-09-30T18:32:07.061-06:00

Health Care Reform We need a total reorganization of the way people pay for health care services in our country. I mean, we need to come together to find a way to get the millions of uninsured & underinsured people the security they need. But it's dangerous ground. We've all seen it time and time again. People get together to help one another—all pitch in to clean up after a hurricane—and the

James~Quinnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12220220887224478464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16590249.post-86204356312358496132009-09-17T08:15:00.008-06:002009-10-11T16:24:55.457-06:00

FFS!   These are just a few of the 74! abbreviations listed in a glossary on a discussion forum site: FFS for f**k's sake FWIW for what it's worth FYI for your information HTH hope this helps IIRC if I remember correctly IKWYM I know what you mean IME in my experience IMHO in my humble opinion IMO in my opinion IYKWIM if you know what I mean IYSWIM if you see what I mean LMP last menstrual

James~Quinnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12220220887224478464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16590249.post-10931600213097245492009-09-16T21:23:00.007-06:002009-12-23T22:57:33.633-07:00

Gosh I really do love Asian English Say, if you want to know whether this particular software will meet your needs, you need only visit the publisher's website: 1: C/DVD Mate Deluxe support microsoft Windows x86 32bit Edition(9X/ME/2K/XP/2003) and microsoft Windows x64 64bit Edition(XP/2003). 2. The edition on probation that the trial edition is downloaded for the network, if you have not

James~Quinnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12220220887224478464noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16590249.post-74049517269261855712009-09-13T23:16:00.006-06:002009-09-13T23:55:23.198-06:00

In case you were planning to ask, no, I don't know why I suddenly have an abnormal obsession with religion. But anyway ...I spent quite a while the other day reading through a Christian web site for college students. I took the time to fill out this damned web contact form, and no matter what I did, I could not get it to post!They had several science-related articles in which they acknowledged

James~Quinnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12220220887224478464noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16590249.post-81121856528001377632009-09-12T09:14:00.009-06:002009-09-14T00:50:21.617-06:00

Wow. This is the first time I've written anything for a class since 1980. Where does the time go?The class is called The Problem of Evil in World Religions, and the assigned topic was "Why did Job suffer?" The professor is a Roman Catholic Priest, a physician specializing in medical ethics at the V.A., and an out lesbian. I thought the Episcopalians had the market on openly lesbian priests pretty

James~Quinnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12220220887224478464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16590249.post-53106722038748964352009-09-07T22:37:00.012-06:002009-09-14T00:55:19.649-06:00

I'm always on the lookout for good music sites, and I came across this really excellent thing called "Huevos," at pettingmytapeworm.blogspot.com, written by a really smart and funny 17-year-old from Louisville KY. Bouncing around her various inter-linked sites, I was really impressed, and left her a couple of notes to tell her so. So she wrote back, something like, "Who the fuck are you? Fuck you

James~Quinnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12220220887224478464noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16590249.post-13629799505961532972008-05-08T19:38:00.015-06:002008-12-07T16:53:19.255-07:00

Begotten (1991)This movie goes to Eleven!My brother Brian and I just watched this really, truly, wonderfully, motherfuckingly freakfucking movie called "Begotten."O.K., so, Fuck! Mother of Hell! God, death, insanity, terror, incontinence, misery! Even my Avowed Inner Nihilist had to cringe and look away several times. It will definitely make my Top Ten list. The photography is stunning, and I

James~Quinnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12220220887224478464noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16590249.post-37336511688429785862007-03-03T17:39:00.000-07:002007-06-08T04:24:38.052-06:00

I heard recently that geologic evidence has come to light indicating that three times in the history of Earth, the entire surface was melted by a massive impact, sufficient to destroy absolutely every living organism on land and in the sea. Every drop of sea water would have been vaporized, leaving every inch of sea floor exposed, and all the resulting salt deposits subsequently melted and

James~Quinnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12220220887224478464noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16590249.post-1153630940233937532006-07-22T23:02:00.000-06:002007-03-03T16:39:51.460-07:00

A few years ago we visited a traveling exhibit at the Art Institute of Chicago called The Medici, Michelangelo, and the Art of Late Renaissance Florence. Among the exhibits was a small collection of reliquaries of the period, including a large, silver, cathedral-shaped box identified as a “Reliquary of St. Sixtus.” It took me a few minutes to realize that behind the small crystal window you

James~Quinnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12220220887224478464noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16590249.post-1150238860214142802006-06-13T16:41:00.000-06:002007-03-03T16:41:04.481-07:00

Our beautiful cat Buster passed away suddenly last Wednesday, six weeks after her sister Sophy and almost exactly on their 16th birthday. Buster was our Wise One. When the cleaning ladies would race through the house like a tornado, and all the other cats would cower in a closet or under the bed, Buster would sit serenely on the sofa until they came around with the vacuum, and she would act a

James~Quinnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12220220887224478464noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16590249.post-1146008252198206942006-04-25T17:34:00.000-06:002007-03-03T16:44:14.800-07:00

Our beautiful cat Sophy passed away on Sunday. She spent her whole life with Aimée, and that was a very lucky thing for both of them. We will miss her very much.

James~Quinnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12220220887224478464noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16590249.post-1141412868272773592006-03-03T12:01:00.000-07:002006-03-03T12:24:05.116-07:00

Proving once again that we humans far outstrip such mighty predators as the shark in our bid to earn the title of Nature's Most Efficient Killing Machine, our friends at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency are trying out ever new ways of enslaving animals to do our dirtiest work for us.Stealth sharks to patrol the high seasNew Scientist , March 1, 2006Pentagon develops brain implants to

James~Quinnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12220220887224478464noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16590249.post-1140943181073227262006-02-26T01:36:00.000-07:002006-02-26T01:40:30.900-07:00

Blunder left trail of lethal radiationBy Andrew NorfolkSafety cap left off toxic cargo as it travelled 130 miles across BritainA LETHAL beam of radiation was emitted from a casket containing highly radioactive waste on a three-and-a-half-hour road journey across England, it was disclosed yesterday.Thousands of people were put at risk by the “cavalier” attitude of workers for the privatised

James~Quinnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12220220887224478464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16590249.post-1140544672357243712006-02-21T10:44:00.000-07:002006-02-21T11:02:29.886-07:00

Some scientists in India think that a myseterious red rain that fell after a metoer exploded in the atmosphere may contain extraterrestrial microbes.Regular People's VersionThe Real DealRelated article of interest

James~Quinnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12220220887224478464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16590249.post-1140294168206742622006-02-18T11:38:00.000-07:002007-03-03T16:50:21.173-07:00

They have a recipe on the Hostess Twinkies website for Twinkie Sushi!Tip: "Light" Twinkies are marginally vegetarian, without the "animal and/or vegetable shortening" that figures so menacingly in the ingredients of so many processed baked goods. I think it means "whatever was on sale that day at the rendering plant," which caused Twinkies to pop to mind as I was reading the article on Jimmy

James~Quinnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12220220887224478464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16590249.post-1139973762708815072006-02-14T20:22:00.000-07:002006-03-05T14:37:02.640-07:00

This is our cat Samantha. She saved Aimée's life once in Spokane by waking her up in the middle of the night while she was having severe asthma in her sleep, allowing her to get to the hospital for treatment. This was shortly after we started dating, before we moved in together.When she went to work the next day her co-workers asked if I was beating her, because Samantha left a big scratch and

James~Quinnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12220220887224478464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16590249.post-1139641962848569612006-02-11T00:00:00.000-07:002006-02-11T00:26:00.613-07:00

Boo Radley is completely fascinated by water. We used to grow grass for the cats to chew on in a long square planter, and whenever I watered it he would stare at the soil, fascinated, smelling it, pawing at it. As the grass started to sprout he became all the more fascinated. I think he sensed a connection between the water and the grass growing.He's totally psycho for anything that bubbles. When

James~Quinnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12220220887224478464noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16590249.post-1139326439607730742006-02-07T20:27:00.000-07:002006-02-18T14:13:46.360-07:00

The Calming Thought of Allby Walt WhitmanThat coursing on, whate'er men's speculations,Amid the changing schools, theologies, philosophies,Amid the bawling presentations new and old,The round earth's silent vital laws, facts, modes continue.

James~Quinnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12220220887224478464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16590249.post-1139081070947692332006-02-04T12:18:00.000-07:002006-02-05T11:30:25.970-07:00

People have lots of expectations about how their lives will change when they lose weight after gastric bypass surgery. I recently read a popular magazine article about young women who had been fat all their lives, had rarely or never had boyfriends, and expected their love lives to blossom magically, only to find that relationships were just as difficult as they were before.During the intake

James~Quinnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12220220887224478464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16590249.post-1139039929421437692006-02-04T00:58:00.001-07:002009-09-14T00:46:09.314-06:00

What profit do people get from all their labors?One generation dies and another is born, but the earth goes on forever.The sun rises, the sun goes down, then it circles around and rises again.The wind goes south, then north, whirling around and around, yet always coming back to wherever it was before.The rivers flow to the sea, but the sea never fills up, because the rivers return to their source

James~Quinnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12220220887224478464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16590249.post-1138686598763608692006-01-30T22:46:00.000-07:002006-02-04T13:54:15.136-07:00

We have one of these in the back window of our car. Aimée isn't 100% comfortable with it, since she is a believer after all, but it's not about God, per se, but people who use their idea of God to club everyone else over the head. Anyway ... feel free to print it out and post it everywhere!

James~Quinnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12220220887224478464noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16590249.post-1138686362593360402006-01-30T22:44:00.000-07:002006-01-30T22:46:02.593-07:00

James~Quinnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12220220887224478464noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16590249.post-1138685837546440042006-01-30T22:20:00.000-07:002007-03-03T17:26:28.883-07:00

I'm thinking about the time I called my mom's longtime companion Charles from Las Vegas, because I couldn't remember the formula for the area of a circle. It was the first time I had ever needed it in real life, and it slipped my mind. He said "Radius Squared Times Pi," and I said, "Oh yeah, [as our generation learned it], Pi R Squared." Aimée and I were trying to decide whether to get the two 12

James~Quinnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12220220887224478464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16590249.post-1133452439567662482005-12-01T20:52:00.000-07:002005-12-14T20:28:16.026-07:00

I asked a grocery clerk, "Do you guys take Federal Reserve notes?" She asked to see one and I gave her a $20 bill. So she called the supervisor and said, "Do we accept these?" The supervisor said "Yes" without comment and walked away.

James~Quinnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12220220887224478464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16590249.post-1133283027459867412005-11-29T21:45:00.000-07:002006-02-18T14:59:16.970-07:00

I had gastric bypass surgery on February 22. In nine months I've lost 106 pounds, and I feel great.First off, knowing what I know now, I would do it over again in a second. I was drowning from congestive heart failure, and I could barely move around with the combination of psoriatic arthritis and diabetes-related nerve damage I suffer from. If we went to a museum I had to be pushed around in a

James~Quinnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12220220887224478464noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16590249.post-1130556470249313532005-10-28T21:20:00.000-06:002006-02-18T13:48:27.500-07:00

I love these things because they bring back fond memories of my Mexican sweetheart from California, who used to make me something similar when we were dating in the 70's. And the version with the mild green chile is from the true love of my life, who hails from New Mexico. So I guess there's something about me and girls and cream cheese and places with "Mexico" in the name.It's really simple.

James~Quinnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12220220887224478464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16590249.post-1129681727568254282005-10-24T18:10:00.000-06:002006-02-18T14:01:27.433-07:00

I stumbled on a fabulous site, LiveScience.com, containing scads of fascinating articles on science issues in language non-specialists can follow. This one is about the odds of dying from one particular thing or another.It's a little hard to conceptualize. When we're born, it's as if each of us spins a giant wheel of fortune that keeps spinning and spinning until we die. If your odds from dying

James~Quinnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12220220887224478464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16590249.post-1129735311852580392005-10-19T10:51:00.000-06:002005-10-28T21:41:51.230-06:00

Most IntenseMonster Hurricanein History Headedfor Florida!Caribbean IslandsFacing ImminentDisaster!Get Your Rain GearNow! Before It's Too Late!!!Allow 4-6 weeks for delivery&nbsp

James~Quinnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12220220887224478464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16590249.post-1129065647764172982005-10-11T15:10:00.000-06:002005-10-28T21:42:12.953-06:00

Today I entered a huge rectangular box containing hundreds of smaller internal compartments. I made my way through several of the compartments until I found one with an opening that was designed to allow passage in one direction only. Inside was a wide assortment of material suitable for physical consumption. I selected a flat, triangular portion of powdered, solidified grass embryos, covered

James~Quinnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12220220887224478464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16590249.post-1128793926775240392005-10-08T11:05:00.000-06:002005-11-08T07:33:34.693-07:00

If you've never heard the music of Hank Dogs, check it out. It's a folksy British acoustic trio of a dad, daughter, and ex-stepmom who perform wonderful singer songwriter material in a Modern Americana or Alternative Country style, with ethereal harmonies and guitar. The lyrics are melancholy, often about interpersonal relationships from the point of view of someone who has absorbed the

James~Quinnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12220220887224478464noreply@blogger.com20tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16590249.post-1128705186249783292005-10-07T11:05:00.000-06:002005-11-14T16:03:49.046-07:00

I was at the campus bookstore today when a woman called and said, "Do you have a ceramic tip jar with a cork top, that says "Girls' Night Out"?

James~Quinnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12220220887224478464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16590249.post-1128188304029435242005-10-01T20:19:00.000-06:002006-02-18T14:11:34.626-07:00

I have no idea if (or if so, how often) they actually enforce this, but in Massachusetts you can get fined fifty bucks and spend a month in jail for making noise in the library. My question is, would it be a crime against chastity, morality, decency, or good order? (Or all of the above? After all, it says "and good order," not "or.")Sometimes I wish they had a law like this in Illinois!GENERAL

James~Quinnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12220220887224478464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16590249.post-1127618071338094972005-09-24T20:50:00.000-06:002005-10-28T21:45:10.940-06:00

A medical study points to significant health benefits from walking on paths made of small, smooth cobblestones. Such paths are common in China, where they have long been considered beneficial to health.January 2004 Press Release from the Oregon Research InstituteComplete article from ORI site, (PDF reprint from the August 2005 issue of the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society)A news article

James~Quinnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12220220887224478464noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16590249.post-1126496878537376232005-09-11T21:47:00.000-06:002006-02-21T11:00:21.216-07:00

A draft of a new U.S. nuclear doctrine allows for a first strike against countries that (Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld say?) possess weapons of mass destruction. Report by the Arms Control AssociationArticle in the Times OnlineDoctrine for Joint Nuclear Operations(PDF, archived at GlobalSecurity.org. Right click and save document to hard drive if your browser has trouble opening it.)

James~Quinnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12220220887224478464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16590249.post-1126482646507702752005-09-11T17:31:00.000-06:002006-02-21T10:59:19.696-07:00

A new study shows that committed atheists face death with less fear than people with tentative religious beliefs.Regular people's versionThe real deal

James~Quinnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12220220887224478464noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16590249.post-1126481264983103182005-09-11T17:13:00.000-06:002005-09-11T22:32:28.720-06:00

Hey -- how about a flushable paper funnel that allows a woman to stand up to pee? Perfect for the OCD patient who can't stand sitting down in a pubic restroom. It comes with pictorial instructions!

James~Quinnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12220220887224478464noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16590249.post-1126383777693157762005-09-10T14:15:00.000-06:002005-10-07T06:52:56.736-06:00

I'm reading Leaves of Grass again lately. There's a cult in California that counts Walt Whitman among their "gods," and I don't completely disagree with that assessment. Personally, I wouldn't call him a god, but then, semantic arguments are universally boring. He is what he is. No more, no less. Just like all of us. Tell 'em "He Is" sent you, and leave it at that.This is one of the poems that

James~Quinnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12220220887224478464noreply@blogger.com2