Florida says, "Now let's eat the baby!"

This state gets absurd sometimes. Our state legislature, having been encouraged to do so by the populace, is now on a rampage to destroy the evil property-tax-monster. However, the citizenry seem not to have realized that their property taxes aren't just gobbled up by the big-government-demon, but actually provide particular funds that have to come from somewhere.

So my fellow Floridians will soon discover that, whichever of the various plans being suggested in Tallahassee wins (9.25 % sales tax is being seriously considered!), they are stuck with a massive cut to the budgets of local government.

Yes, I obviously care that this may impact my own existence (I work for the city, in a public library), but the idea of cities shutting down their libraries, recreation centers, and parks (and probably more in some cases) scares me. It makes me start shivering and not really stop. I think it should make other people shiver too, once they realize what they've really done here.

Tumblr

So, I've discovered the coolest thing. Tumblr is essentially a scrapbook/patchwork take on the blog concept, more suited to short links, quotes, images, brief thoughts, etc. Honestly, a lot of what I've done on this blog. So from now on, some of that stuff will be on my tumbleblog, SeaSlug.

blue blue

Your Psyche is Blue

You are deeply emotional and very connected to everything (and everyone) around you. By simply understanding other people, you are able to help them heal and let go. While you are a very deep and thoughtful person, you do have a very silly, superficial side. When you are too blue: the weight of the world's problems hangs over you When you don't have enough blue: you lack perspective and understanding

What Color Is Your Psyche?

i'm smart in important ways...

Bacardi 151 Congratulations! You're 155 proof, with specific scores in beer (120) , wine (150), and liquor (113).

All right. No more messing around. Your knowledge of alcohol is so high that you have drinking and getting plastered down to a science. Sure, you could get wasted drinking beer, but who needs all those trips to the bathroom? You head straight for the bar and pick up that which is most efficient.

My test tracked 4 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender:

	You scored higher than 97% on proof
	You scored higher than 93% on beer index
	You scored higher than 96% on wine index
	You scored higher than 91% on liquor index

Take the Test!
The Alcohol Knowledge Test

answer me this, noisemaker

Put your music player on shuffle.
- Press forward for each question.
- Use the song title as the answer to the question even if they don’t make sense.

How am I feeling today? Tell Mama (Live) -- Janis Joplin [I guess I'm feeling kinda noisy-Janis-ish today. Or maybe I should call the 'rents.]

Will I get far in life? Old Milwaukee -- Rollin' In The Hay [Not so good at first glance, but maybe it's something to do with contentment...]

How do my friends see me? Little Maggie -- Bob Dylan [Umm OK.]

Where will I get married? Time Will Tell -- Bob Marley and the Wailers [Umm OK again.]

What is my best friend’s theme song? Marie Laveaux -- Waylon Thibodeaux [The NOLA connection is eerily right on. The witch part is interesting too. Hehe.]

What is the story of my life? The Ascent of Man -- R.E.M. [Hahaha...]

What is/was high school like? Clockstopper -- Galactic [Right on]

How can I get ahead in life? Run Like Hell -- Pink Floyd [Of course.]

What is the best thing about me? Angel from Montgomery -- Bonnie Raitt and John Prine [Can only be good, and I guess part of my family IS from Alabama...]

What is today going to be like? Crazy Baby -- Joan Osborne [True so far...]

What is in store for this weekend? Sick and Tired -- Grateful Dead [Damn. I was planning to clean the house.]

What song describes my parents? Gone Round the Twist -- Perpetual Groove [Wow hahaha.]

To describe my grandparents? One Bourbon, One Scotch and One Beer -- John Lee Hooker [Sooo not right at all... Quite the opposite.]

How is my life going? Don't Ride That Horse -- Old Crow Medicine Show [Interesting...]

What song will they play at my funeral? Froggie Went A Courtin' -- Bruce Springsteen [That would be great, but maybe someone else's cover of the song...]

How does the world see me? Union Maid -- Pete Seeger [Sweet!!]

Will I have a happy life? Beyond My Wildest Dreams -- Mark Knopfler and Emmylou Harris [sounds good to me...]

What do my friends really think of me? If It Wasn't for the Money -- Tea Leaf Green [Yea, my friends are well aware that I'm broke!]

Do people secretly lust after me? Little Earthquakes -- Tori Amos [Sorta creepy.]

How can I make myself happy? Highway Call -- Dickey Betts [Got it. I need to move.]

What should I do with my life? The Connection -- Phish [Makes sense.]

Will I ever have children? Mr. Zebra -- Tori Amos [What a great, playful, silly song!]

What is some good advice for me? White Rabbit -- Jefferson Airplane [Tempting, indeed.]

How will I be remembered? Nothin' But a Breeze -- Jimmy Buffett [Love it.]

What is my signature dancing song? Ramble on Rose -- Grateful Dead [Definitely.]

What is my current theme song? Panic-Oh! -- Los Abandoned [Works for me.]

What does everyone else think my current theme song is? Diamonds on the Inside -- Ben Harper & The Innocent Criminals [OK.. I guess that's nice.]

What type of men/women do you like? Easy -- Cowboy Mouth [That's not true!!]

Courtesy of Sweet Memes

National Library Week

I'm currently working on plans for National Library Week, which is April 15-21 this year. Admittedly a little late to be planning, but better than not at all. Maybe a couple of displays are in the works... Something more than just our traditional Readathon for the kids.

More on this to come.

Florida Book Awards

The 2006 winners of the new Florida Book Awards include a couple of books I've read and a few I want to read...

absinthian glory

Not exactly true, but that absinthe in Prague was really, really fun, so I had to post this one.

You Are Absinthe

You are a sloppy drunk, purposely so If drinking doesn't make you feel crazy, it's not any fun Truth be told, you tend to prefer drugs to drinking But you'd never pass up any absinthe that came your way!

What Alcoholic Drink Are You?

Time to get a WHAT?!?!

I like to claim that I'm so messy at home because... well, I work in a library. I'm really super-organized at work, so maybe I use up all my cleany and organizy energies there and have none left for my house. But honestly, my own space has always been like this. And it works ok for me, most of the time, except for that whole losing-important-stuff issue. And that's only an occasional thing. I know living with me drives some people crazy, but fortunately Frank and Bandit handle it fine...

You Are Very Messy

You are a slob, and you really don't care if other people know it. You don't love messes, but you just can't be bothered to clean on a regular basis. While being messy and disorganized feels easy, it's probably making your life harder. Maybe it's time for you to get a maid.

Are You Messy?

hidden bits

Yeah, actually, this one is dead on. For once, a quiz has it totally right. Scary how true this is...

The Part of You That No One Sees

You are wise, insightful, and brilliant. Your wit is sharp and occasionally hurtful... Revealing your scorn for people with less intelligence. Underneath it all, you feel burdened by the stupidity of humanity. You know what's right in the world, but it's overshadowed by everything that's wrong. People see you as arrogant. While this is partially true, you are also very sensitive.

What's the Part of You That No One Sees?

let me eat cake

You Are a Chocolate Cake

Fun, comforting, and friendly. You are a true classic, and while you're not super cutting edge, you're high quality. People love your company - and have even been known to get addicted to you.

What Kind of Cake Are You?

Largo is infamous

Great. Local stupidity has made the top of CNN.

I keep ranting about this at my own kitchen table, but honestly, I have little to say that a number of sensible individuals haven't already said. I do recommend Howard Troxler's ongoing commentary on the situation.

If nothing else, this should serve as a reminder that an ignorant majority can be a powerful creature. That all-American inclination to interfere in the inconsequential details of others' lives, yet again, trumps all logic and reason. It's so much fun flinging stones at those we don't quite understand.

Largo can't handle Susan

In case I was starting to forget how many nasty, close-minded, ignorant individuals really live amongst us...

Stanton job may hang in balance (St Petersburg Times 2/27/07)

Many citizens of Largo, Florida (and, I suspect, a variety of imported meddlers) are getting exceedingly agitated because their highly competent City Manager, Steve Stanton, has taken the difficult step of publicly announcing his intention to become 'Susan' Stanton.

If you ask me, amongst all the worries about the city employees (whose rights may be dubiously trampled by having to address this individual as "Susan"), and the city's reputation ("that's Largo, home of a transsexual!!"), this situation is really only a big deal for... drumroll... you guessed it: the Stanton family. An earlier St Petersburg Times piece (2/25/07) provides some background...

And if the City of Largo finds itself unable to calm down and handle the situation in a reasonable manner, I really hope Stanton decides to challenge their idiocy. Or at least finds a job where talent and competence are priorities.

ooo fun

Travel Horoscope for Cancer

When you travel, you crave warmth and comfort. You want a vacation with a home-y feel, a great view, and wonderful weather. You should travel to: Fiji San Diego Cape Cod Greece Venice

What's Your Travel Horoscope?

to go back or not to go back

So I'm trying to decide, yet again, how I feel about going back to school. I'm taking this semester off, and actually I know exactly how I feel: I hate the idea of ever taking another class. I know grad school is supposed to be hell, and one is supposed to want to run away from it, and yet my hatred of it is so enormous. I can't quite imagine that anyone should spend even a month doing something they detest this much. Much less another year or so.

As a person who tries to do things which are good for me, or healthy, or whatever you want to call it, it seems weird to intentionally do something which is so clearly bad for me. Being free from classes this semester makes the contrasts really obvious: grad school makes me depressed and horribly anxious; it makes me sleep too little, eat too little, consume far too much caffeine and nicotine, and spend too much time indoors; grad school makes me a stranger to my friends, even the ones who live in my neighborhood; grad school makes me hate hearing and reading about topics I otherwise find fascinating; grad school causes my husband and dog to think I'm a lunatic (or more so than they did already).

Yet supposedly getting the damned piece of paper is a good thing. OK, so I know it would be a good thing. But it's just so hard to convince myself that the torture is worth it. Especially when, not being in school right now, I get to catch some music downtown with Frank on a random night, and we run into friends, and their jaws drop because they haven't seen me in over a year, especially anywhere away from a library or a coffee shop. Can anything really be worth behaving like a horribly dysfunctional and miserable pale-in-Florida hermit for several years?

If anyone has an answer, I'd love to hear it.

I know, I'm not the first or the last to say all this, but the whole grad school culture is the most obscenely strange thing.

paws..

What Your Hands Say About You

You are logical, analytical, and rational. You have good verbal skills. Idealistic and dreamy, you tend toward the impractical. You have a knack for getting yourself in sticky situations. Consistent and reliable, you like to count on structure and routine in your life. Your emotions tend to be nervous and potent. Your energy - both positive and negative - deeply impacts your life.

What Do Your Hands Say About You?

of course...

You're the Tortured Intellectual!
Take What sort of Hipster are you? today!
Created with Rum and Monkey's Personality Test Generator.

You're sensitive, you're emotional, and you wonder why everyone else in the world exists on a different plane. You cannot eat, breathe, or sleep without analyzing each action to death. You're usually sombre, depressed, lethargic, but you can be nearly glad from time to time. You wear whatever you can find on your cluttered bedroom floor. You carry books, notepads, reading glasses with you wherever you go. You have friends, but only a few who truly get where you're coming from. You frequent coffee shops, libraries, and the less crowded bars. You're obsessed with past people, past ideas, past lives. You wish you could die and be reborn as Jack Kerouac.

i knew it..

I realized the other day that it's impossible to find a spot in my house without... a pile of books. Some are on shelves, most are in piles and stacks. Not all mine of course, but that doesn't really help matters.

What Kind of Reader Are You? Your Result: Obsessive-Compulsive Bookworm You're probably in the final stages of a Ph.D. or otherwise finding a way to make your living out of reading. You are one of the literati. Other people's grammatical mistakes make you insane.
What Kind of Reader Are You? Create Your Own Quiz

purple?

Your Brain is Purple

Of all the brain types, yours is the most idealistic. You tend to think wild, amazing thoughts. Your dreams and fantasies are intense. Your thoughts are creative, inventive, and without boundaries. You tend to spend a lot of time thinking of fictional people and places - or a very different life for yourself.

What Color Is Your Brain?

implicit minds

Just sharing one of the cooler things I've found recently, Project Implicit, which describes itself as:

"a Virtual Laboratory for the social and behavioral sciences designed to facilitate the research of implicit social cognition: cognitions, feelings, and evaluations that are not necessarily available to conscious awareness, conscious control, conscious intention, or self-reflection."

If you've got a few minutes, check it out. It looks at lots of different topics, many of them nice and controversial, and may produce some curious insights. Besides, it's a fascinating project!

drink more tea... really!!

So, I'm excited. Apparently we now have a bonafide teahouse in St. Pete. And the Hooker Tea Co. is open until 10 pm, which is later than most places around here.

This gives me a good reason to start spending time downtown again too. The endless profusion of cookie-cutter, crap-for-music bars just wasn't doing it. And I love the Globe, but variety is good thing.

So I know where I'll be this weekend, or maybe before...

violets...yummy

Your Aura is Violet

Idealistic and thoughtful, you have the mind and ideas to change the world. And you have the charisma of a great leader, even if you don't always use it! The purpose of your life: saying truths that other people dare not say Famous purples include: Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr., Susan B. Anthony Careers for you to try: Political Activist, Inventor, Life Coach

What Color Is Your Aura?

Synchronized Fish

Whoa! This is what Frankie can do when he grows up! >>A Japanese fish trainer is able to guide fish through mere hand motions.

Fish Tank

This is the sort of thing that I always expect to happen in our house. It just hasn't yet.

just too good.

In a Past Life...

You Were: An Insane Spice Trader. Where You Lived: Mongolia. How You Died: Suicide.

Who Were You In a Past Life?

new year to-do stuff

I couldn't have made this up...

Your New Year's Resolutions

1) Get a pet hairless cat 2) Eat less onions 3) Travel to Sweden 4) Study rare insects 5) Get in shape with spinning

What Should Your New Year's Resolution Be?