Dear credit card companies,

Please understand that the very last thing I would ever want is a Disney character on my credit card.

Thank you.

P.S. Offer Toad, and we'll talk.

This entry title could begin a whole series of meditations on items found in library books, but I'll just mention what I found today: A laminated bookmark for an organization called OC International - Decision/Spain, which seems to be a fund-raising group to promote evangelism in Spain. Spain? Yes, Spain.

The bookmark presents 3 bulleted points intended to get my attention:
* 7000 people abandon their Christian faith in Europe every day.
* Islam has grown in Spain, half a million believers in ten years.
* Spain is the country of the western world with the lowest rate of evangelicals per inhabitant.

These three disparate sentences are clearly intended to instill fear (OMG) in a god-fearing person. I always wonder why fear is a preferred method of proselytizing, but anyway. Let's discuss the points:

7000 people abandon their Christian faith in Europe every day.
Of course, my first thought is, "Hooray!" *grin* Seriously, though, this isn't news. Excluding the US, the western world is abandoning religion left and right. However, I suspect this point was included because it's perceived as a threat. Puzzling.

Islam has grown in Spain, half a million believers in ten years.
Oh, I get it now! Following point #1 to point #2, I think they are slyly suggesting that those abandoning Christianity are all converts to Islam! Now that's just silly. Islam has increased in western Europe because of immigration, and not because 7000 Christians are converting daily.

Spain is the country of the western world with the lowest rate of evangelicals per inhabitant.
I'm not sure why this is threatening or even noteworthy. Everyone knows that Spain is historically Roman Catholic. But listen further: This organization's goal is "planting an evangelical church in every un-reached town in Spain by 2012." Wow. Just imagine for a moment that the funds used to build churches each year were used to, say, further education. Instead, it's being flushed down some gilt and bejeweled toilets. Heartbreaking.

FSM save us!

Secularism isn't threatening or injurious -- quite the contrary:
“Norway, Iceland, Australia, Canada, Sweden, Switzerland, Belgium, Japan, the Netherlands, Denmark, and the United Kingdom are among the least religious societies on earth. According to the United Nations’ Human Development Report (2005) they are also the healthiest, as indicated by life expectancy, adult literacy, per capita income, educational attainment, gender equality, homicide rate, and infant mortality. The United States is unique among wealthy democracies in its level of religious adherence; it is also uniquely beleaguered by high rates of homicide, abortion, teen pregnancy, sexually transmitted disease, and infant mortality. The same comparison holds true within the United States itself: Southern and Midwestern states, characterized by the highest levels of religious literalism, are especially plagued by the above indicators of societal dysfunction, while the comparatively secular states of the Northeast conform to European norms.”

Sam Harris, Letter to a Christian Nation

Several of my colleagues recently attended a health care conference and have published some of the information they learned in our union newsletter. Interestingly, the state of health care in this country is no surprise, but it is quite another thing to actually read and compare real numbers:

Contrary to most Americans' beliefs, we don't have the best health care in the world -- just the most expensive:

* USA spends more on health care than most other western countries.
* USA has fewer doctors and hospital beds than most other western countries.
* USA hospital rate is 40% more expensive than in most other western countries.
* USA out-patient services cost 36% more than in most other western countries.
* USA prescription drugs cost 27% more than in most other western countries.
* USA administration costs are 82% more than in most other western countries.

It's that last that boggles the mind. 82%?

At what point did it become OK to allow the entire health care industry walk all over us? Other countries have proven that it is possible to provide effective -- even better -- health care to their citizens without robbing them blind and padding the pockets of the health care and pharmaceutical industry.

OK, let's say you're at Target and you're ready to check out. Lane #12 is lit and there is an employee standing cheerily awaiting you, while lane #11 is unlit and completely empty of employees. It would be strange and even perhaps a bit rude to stroll over to lane #11 and expect the employee to switch lanes to help you, right?

No, you wouldn't do it at the grocery store; why do people do it at the library?

I'm having a ranty week, and today there was a man I would like to have punched. For those of you who don't work in public service, you'd be appalled at how downright rude people are these days. On the lesser scale, it ruins your whole day, and on the larger scale, your faith in common decency is diminished, eroding away slowly with each bad experience.

It's astonishing how much someone can find to complain about the services libraries offer to the public for FREE.

Open letter to the men of the world:

Could you please not urinate all over the restroom floor, in particular in workplaces and other public places? I'm sure you've had years to practice your aim. If for whatever reason you are not feeling so confident about your ability to hit the bowl, maybe you ought to have a seat and have a go at it that way instead. You're guaranteed not to miss. Believe me. I've never missed once.

And you know what? If I did, I would probably make a good-faith attempt to dab it up so that the next person using the restroom would not have to stand and/or sit in an awkward position in an attempt to avoid the puddles on the seat and floor.

My thanks to men who are already thus considerate of others. Would you please spread the word to your brethren?

I really ought to brush up on my Spanish.

For almost four years I'd somehow convinced myself that the Mexican restaurant nearby was called "The Monkey," -- or as we joked, "The Crazy Monkey." Only tonight, after we finished eating there for the very first time, did it dawn on me that "loro" is parrot, and not "monkey." Loro/Mono, anybody could have mixed that up! ;)

"The Crazy Parrot" isn't half as fun-sounding as "The Crazy Monkey," but it will have to do. I shouldn't forget to mention that the place itself was fantastic! The decor was somewhat rustic, and it was quite busy so a bit loud, but the food -- I've had "authentic" Mexcian food very few times in my life, but I'm convinced this was one of them. We both had burritos (chicken for me, steak for Jonas) with some yummy butter-cream sauce (or something?) on top. Mmm, mmm, mmm, delicious.

I had a enjoyably chaotic day at work, partly due to the public phone line not working for several hours. A man called on the private line and said when he called the public it just rang and rang, no answer. So I picked up the public line -- no dial tone. Huh? Great, no patrons could get through! I tried everything I could think of, including rebooting the ADA machine which I honestly didn't think would help anyway, but no luck. Then all of a sudden someone remembered that there was a guy in the building messing with our security system. We didn't think that should really affect our phone lines, but to be safe I thought I'd better ask him. Sure enough, he didn't seem surprised at all that we were having trouble with the phones -- in fact, he appeared to find it strange that we were surprised. Apparently he knew all along that it was going to screw up the phones and never bothered to tell anyone beforehand. Hello, this is a place of business? Phones are necessary. Moreover, it would have been nice if he had visited on a morning that we were NOT open to the public. </rant>

I should be able to move to a new desk tomorrow. I'll still be sharing a cube with Janet, but we'll be off in our own little corner instead of right smack in the flow of traffic as we are now. Not that I think anyone's particularly interested in what I'm doing at my computer, but everyone seems to unintentionally look over my shoulder anyway as they walk by. Well, it's going to be an early night tonight -- last night was way too late.

I wish I had the guts to say what I wanted without worrying about whether it would be rude. Like in the phone call I just got.

Yesterday in the mail a form letter arrived from a local realtor from Coldwell Banker. It begins, "1st Time Home Buyers Now Is The Time!!!" in large letters at the top. Three more paragraphs extolling the virtues of home-buying follow, leading with an opening sentence of, "It's a buyers market and the interest rates are at there lowest in over 40 years."

Come on -- two errors in the very first sentence? In a professional mailing? There's no way in hell I'd buy a house from this woman who first is sending out mass market advertisements, and second does not even proofread her work.

That was yesterday. So just a few minutes the phone rings and it's her! She wondered if I (or someone I know) is "interested in taking advantage of today's low interest rates." I told her that we're already in the process of buying a house (true), but what I really wanted to tell her was that I would prefer a realtor who was literate. I feel like pulling my hair out by the roots to see grown adults who have no grasp of grammar or spelling!

OK, saw the house today. A quick visit, because Jonas had a date with some buddies to go hit some golf balls. That is his new thing -- he thinks he wants to start golfing. The three of them are all learning together. He wants me to try it too, but I don't know -- I don't really feel any enthusiasm for it. Maybe I'll try. Once.

Anyway, the house has carpeting! All over the place. I squooshed my toes in it! That's about all that had changed since Tuesday. It seems to me they ought to be blacktopping the driveway soon. The neighbors have had blacktop for several weeks now. We mentioned to Eva that on Tuesday there had been a large puddle in the basement (god, I hope it is not a leak). She said she'll relay our concern to Scott (the foreman). What I hope he'll say is that somebody spilled something down there! :)

Well, I should get something done this evening. Tomorrow I will have some time in the evening, but the whole rest of the weekend is fairly shot as we're heading down to Nelson, Wisconsin for a family reunion. Every day at work I keep making lists of things to do when I get home, but once I sit down here I just feel blah. It's hard to get into housework after 7pm -- I need to take a whole day or something.

Christ.

Is a little hygiene too much to ask for?

Working with the public on a daily basis, you encounter people who shower and people who don't. Luckily, 99% of the people I see each day subscribe to the theory of personal hygiene. But there's that 1% that doesn't, and that really stinks (haha).

I would be understanding of a situation where someone is perhaps homeless or doesn't otherwise have access to bathing facilities, but from what I can tell these are just your standard, working-class people who live in a house or an apartment. Sure, there may be more to the story than meets the eye, but for the sake of argument I'll make the assumption that if they have a street address (we require a proof of address when issuing library cards), they have somewhere to bathe.

So today I call for repair on our lobby copier, and I swear the guy who showed up hadn't bathed in a month. I had to stand there talking to him about the copier and what was wrong with it, all the while wishing I had a gas mask.

I've heard that you tend not to smell your own body, but I'm not sure I believe it. There have certainly been times I've realized myself that I needed to hop in the shower! So I don't buy it. In addition, if you had roommates or family who stank to high heaven on a regular basis, wouldn't you tell them?

Maybe all the stinky people in the world live alone. Unfortunate, in more ways than one.

God.

I'm so embarrassed to be an American sometimes.

So I watched like 10 minutes of the State of the Union address. And watched several hundred men and women make complete fools of themselves.

Sure, go ahead and applaud when you hear something you really like (or even when you don't, but everyone else is applauding) -- but do you really need to stand up and sit down like carefully choreographed marionettes every 5 seconds??? It totally negates any actual merit the president's speech might have had in the first place.

I admit I'm not a fan of the president. In fact, in most cases I enjoy seeing him look like a fool (he's pretty good at it). But it's quite another thing to demonstrate to the rest of the planet that an addition to the president, the rest of our government looks like mindless puppets as well.

I don't know when the excessive ovations began; I'm certain it didn't begin with the current president. Perhaps when the addresses began to be televised, or broadcast to the rest of the world (Look how much we love our president! Nyah, nyah.)? Unfortunately, the rest of the world is laughing its ass off at the inanity. How embarrassing.