Monday, June 26, 2006

Music makes the people come together

I saw this at Gwen World. I thought it was a good opportunity to make a plug for Pandora, which I've been listening to at work. It seems to know me pretty well after three weeks of telling it what I do and don't like.

The Rules:
Step 1: Put your iPod/MP3 player or iTunes on random. I'm using Pandora instead.
Step 2: Post the first line(s) from the first 20 songs that play, no matter how embarrassing the song.
Step 3: Post it on your blog and let everyone guess what song and artist the lines come from.
Step 4: Update the list with the song title when someone guesses correctly. (I will identify any unguessed songs by Monday.)
Step 5: Make your guesses by leaving a comment. You have to identify both title and artist. No fair Googling!


Here goes:
1. Anything you want/Everything you need
2. I've been lying here so lonely/
I've been wishing you would telephone me
3. I've seen the future, I can't afford it/Tell me the truth sir, someone just bought it
4. I know just what to say/It's just a game I play
5.
There's more besides joyrides/A little house in the countryside
6. Flying, show me how it feels/As dreams go sinking clouds that must be real
7. I'll call you sister Carrie but I'll never say it/Mute it to a whisper
8. You had something to hide/Should have hidden it shouldn't you
9. I walked across an empty land/I knew the pathway like the back of my hand
10. Squeaky swings and tall grass/The longest shadows ever cast
11. While you make pretty speeches/I'm being cut to shreds
12. I know you didn't mean it and you're sorry that i left/I'll go right on pretending i've got nothing to regret
13. Only this (moment)/Holds us (together)
14. Oh Mother, I can feel the soil falling over my head
15. It's three o'clock in the morning/Or maybe it's four
16. Where's the harm in voicing your doubt/You'll find me in the lavatory
17. Our unsleepable friend/Gets the message on an ill-wind
18. Nothing's gonna save you now/No one's gonna change you now
19. I want to kill this man but he turned around and ran/I'll kill him with karate that I learned in Japan
20. When I was young and full of grace and spirited--a rattlesnake/When I was young and fever fell my spirit, I will not tell

That's it. I don't know if my handful of readers will comment, but do feel free to make guesses.

Wednesday, June 21, 2006

Blue Skies

Mom and Dad left on Monday morning, so life's back to normal. It was great having them here, and I'm looking forward to my trip back to Seattle in August. We celebrated Father's Day with a scenic drive along Wyo-130, through the Medicine Bow National Forest. The views of the forest and the Snowy Range were spectacular and Dad and I totally geeked out taking pictures. I uploaded a whole mess of them, if you're interested. This was one of the prettier non-mountain shots I got.

Medicine Bow National Forest
Carbon County, just a bit west of the Albany County line

The pictures are beautiful, but it was more impressive in person. When I was facing the scene above, this is what was behind me:

Snowy Range and Bellamy Lake
Bellamy Lake and part of Medicine Bow Peak

It will take some time, but I'm already plotting to see more of Wyoming (recommendations welcome). It looks like I won't get to Yellowstone until next summer because I already have travel planned for five out of the next seven months. Besides personal trips to Seattle in August and December, I'm heading back in January for ALA. And every fall, the university takes new faculty on a several-days-long driving trip around some part of the state. I don't yet know where they're planning to go this year, but I'm looking forward to it. WLA is in Gillette in September, so I'm hoping to add a day to my travel time and go see Devil's Tower. (The
Close Encounters connection will be an added bonus. I had the lunch box as a kid and wish I still did.) That's my immediate travel future. Let's not get started talking about ACRL and ALA annual yet.

I'll close with one of the best signs ever.

The best sign

Saturday, June 17, 2006

Three's Company

My parents are visiting! They arrived Thursday afternoon and they've been enjoying learning about my new home and I finally have an excuse to do more sightseeing and visit some of the local attractions. Last night we went to a dinner show at the Wyoming Territorial Prison park. Today, we drove to Cheyenne. Mostly, we just ate ice cream at Sonic and shopped at The Wrangler ("Where the Cowboys Shop"). We did see some big boots, though.

Big Boot
Boot!

But look what I got!

Hat and Boots
Ugly Dolls and Monster check out my new hat and boots

Aren't they delicious? We went a little crazy in there, truly. Dad also got a panama Stetson, but his has a taller crown. Mom and I chose the same boots, but hers are brown with a teal shaft and I went for the goth cowgirl look. Dad prefers 1880s-style boots to modern ones, so he resisted the hundreds of beautiful styles we saw. I could have left with a dozen pairs if I had the cash. You might ask if I've been assimilated, but I say to you that this is simply a return to my roots and it hasn't completely taken hold. Like many PNW-ers, I'll still be wearing Tevas to work all summer.

Friday, June 02, 2006

Cedering Ceremony

Dancers
Dancers

The university art museum had a reception this evening to open its summer exhibits. The big draw for me was the Robert Motherwell and Jasper Johns show, but everything up right now is great. The reception included a Crow Cedering Ceremony performed by the consultants for the exibit Lifeways of the Crow: The Peter W. Doss Crow Indian Artifact Collection, Heywood and Marylou Big Day, and their sons and grandchildren. The Big Days came down from Montana for the event.

Crow Hop dance
Dancer performs the Crow Hop

It was a beautiful day to sit outside and watch the dancers. Sometimes I desperately want to go back to the PNW, but on whenever I actually go out and do something in town I start to realize how cool it is to be here and learn what this area has to offer. My parents are visiting over Father's Day weekend, and I can't wait to show them my new town. My dad the Old West enthusiast will especially enjoy it.

Thursday, June 01, 2006

New blog

I started another blog recently. I'm hoping to use it for library instruction talk. If you're interested, you can find it at ZA3075. I'll still talk about library stuff over here, but I felt like I needed a space completely dedicated to instruction, including information literacy, assessment, pedagogy, etc.