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Two lovely bits of serendipity yesterday
Sep. 18th, 2013 11:08 amPart the first: I was researching my university's library. I'm taking classes in library science, and one project was to tour three libraries and do a report based on a list of 31 questions. Two weeks ago I got to tour the National Library of Medicine on the campus of the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, MD, and it was awesome. Our local library, not nearly as awesome but much more versatile, not to mention closer.
I'm able to answer most of the questions through observation and when I'd exhausted that, I took a stroll around to see what more I could answer. I was quite pleased to see a DVD section, and as I leaned against a study carrel to write notes, I saw that they also had audiobooks. I'm not a fan of audiobooks personally, they tend to put me to sleep, but I decided to walk the aisle to see what they had. The DVDs were a variegated lot, including all of the Jackie Chan/Chris Rock Rush Hour movies. the audiobooks had an amazing find: Richard Feynman's physics lectures! 20-some disc series! I may have to check it out for my wife. Anyway, while glancing at the titles, I could see the backs of the DVDs on the opposite side, and the words 'John Cleese' immediately grabbed me, I've been a huge Monty Python fan for over 30 years. Then I saw the title of the movie: The Taming of the Shrew.
I knew of the existence of this movie, but had never seen it. A friend of mine highly recommended it, it's a Python-era movie, so Cleese is young and in full form. Reportedly there's a scene where he's walking around pantomiming a chicken and clucking.
I immediately checked it out and am really looking forward to watching it tonight.
Part the second: Over three years ago I bought an Olympus digital voice recorder. Sweet little thing, not only recorded in stereo but also recorded directly to MP3 AND had a built-in USB plug! Slide the plug out, plug it in to your Mac, and you could directly transfer files to/from it. No cable required.
It vanished.
Last night when I went to bed I wanted to do a little NY Times crossword puzzle work on my Nintendo DS. I dropped the stylus and couldn't find it by groping around, Russet gave me her flashlight (astronomers always have flashlights) and saw a small rectangular object under the bed, waaay back. It was the Olympus.
No idea how it got pushed back that far, I would guess it fell out of my pocket. I have since bought a Sony voice recorder which I never liked as much: functionality much less useful, larger, etc. So it's nice having the Olympus again.
I'm able to answer most of the questions through observation and when I'd exhausted that, I took a stroll around to see what more I could answer. I was quite pleased to see a DVD section, and as I leaned against a study carrel to write notes, I saw that they also had audiobooks. I'm not a fan of audiobooks personally, they tend to put me to sleep, but I decided to walk the aisle to see what they had. The DVDs were a variegated lot, including all of the Jackie Chan/Chris Rock Rush Hour movies. the audiobooks had an amazing find: Richard Feynman's physics lectures! 20-some disc series! I may have to check it out for my wife. Anyway, while glancing at the titles, I could see the backs of the DVDs on the opposite side, and the words 'John Cleese' immediately grabbed me, I've been a huge Monty Python fan for over 30 years. Then I saw the title of the movie: The Taming of the Shrew.
I knew of the existence of this movie, but had never seen it. A friend of mine highly recommended it, it's a Python-era movie, so Cleese is young and in full form. Reportedly there's a scene where he's walking around pantomiming a chicken and clucking.
I immediately checked it out and am really looking forward to watching it tonight.
Part the second: Over three years ago I bought an Olympus digital voice recorder. Sweet little thing, not only recorded in stereo but also recorded directly to MP3 AND had a built-in USB plug! Slide the plug out, plug it in to your Mac, and you could directly transfer files to/from it. No cable required.
It vanished.
Last night when I went to bed I wanted to do a little NY Times crossword puzzle work on my Nintendo DS. I dropped the stylus and couldn't find it by groping around, Russet gave me her flashlight (astronomers always have flashlights) and saw a small rectangular object under the bed, waaay back. It was the Olympus.
No idea how it got pushed back that far, I would guess it fell out of my pocket. I have since bought a Sony voice recorder which I never liked as much: functionality much less useful, larger, etc. So it's nice having the Olympus again.
