Untitled for a reason?

Payday. Payday cheesecake. The recipe for Cookies 'n Cream Cheesecake would not do. It would make a good starting point. A jumping off point. For the cholesterol-conscious, a cliff. I indulged my inner rebel and colored outside the lines of the recipe by adding cocoa to what was supposed to be the vanilla batter. Instead of using regular Oreos, I used chocolate Oreos. Double-stuffed chocolate Oreos. ☺ (Don't look back. You did indeed see it.)
There are 121 days until Spring Training begins, unofficially. There are 281 days until I get married, officially. And at 4:30 P.M. next Wednesday, I am getting a tattoo of Hello Kitty on my calf by a guy named Splat. Just seeing if you're paying attention Dear Reader. But, it is all true. Really. ☺

Brain wrap, with dressing on the side

I could not for all I tried, get the song out of my head. "I just can't be happy today," by The Damned. Lovely, melodic, inapplicable. I am certainly anything but unhappy. I ordered it at the good ol' House of Records on Monday and it arrived Thursday. As I was walking up 13th to pick up the 2CD anthology "Smash it up," I thought about cataloging my new music. I thought about the little stack of CDs, both music and photo, the DVDs, the individual PEZ dispensers, and the collector's box set of Disney Princesses, all sitting near my computer. Patiently waiting to be described. To be cataloged. Questions arose. Without opening the Princesses' box, how would I see where each one was manufactured? The Chinese music did have English titles in addition to the vernacular, but would a simple note be enough? For me that is. Those questions could wait. First things first, else they not be first things. And could there even be more than one first thing? Upon returning to my work terminal, I greedily unwrapped the new CDs and proceeded to rip them onto my hard drive. Read from remote CDDB. I wouldn't explain if I could. First, "Smash It Up Anthology (Disc One)" and then "Smash It Up Anthology 1976-1987 (CD2)." What?!?! This just pisses me off. A bit. Why can't the metadata be consistent? Why?!? Tell me! Please. If I open The Damned folder, disc two indexes first. I tell myself that no one will ever know. But I know. And now so do you Dear Reader. Maybe there is some lesson in spiritual growth to be learned here. But I doubt it. Back to my budding backlog of things awaiting cataloging. The thought struck me that I might need a tloc for uncatalogued materials. Brief records holding places in the queue. Should I create a metadata schema to describe my other metadata schema? What would THAT look like? CDs, LPs, DVDs, photo discs, PEZ dispensers, books. What purpose would it serve? Who would it serve? It was clear to me that I needed to re-ground myself in the comfort of the black and the white. A first-time author headings list. Yes! "Davis, Angela Y. |q (Angela Yvonne), |d 1944-" Wait a minute. At least wait a second. I will be with you shortly. There is no way in H-E-double-hockey-sticks that Angela Davis, THE Angela Davis, could be making an inaugural foray into the catalog. Something had to be amiss. Perhaps askew. Awry even. Obliquely so. Indeed, the heading had changed. It was "Davis, Angela Yvonne, |d 1944-" But why had it been changed? I exported the authority record and updated the existing headings. Blindly. Obediently. I should just accept it, should I not? But to me, nothing smacks of "establishment" quite like a subfield Q. And that Dear Reader, will never be acceptable to me.

Even a drunk monkey could

1. Take lots of pictures. LOTS!
2. Upload pictures to computer.
3. Sort through pictures, rotating and removing as necessary.
4. Group pictures into logical categories.
5. Import pictures into Movie Maker.
6. Rip music and import for soundtrack.
7. Create title and credits screens.
8. Save project.
9. Open saved project in DVD Maker.
10. Burn 60 copies.
11. Repeat steps 4-10 for disc two.
12. Make labels for finished DVDs.
13. Create spreadsheet with names & addresses of intended recipients.
14. Create address labels from saved spread sheet.
15. Spend quality time applying labels to appropriate objects.
16. Go to the post office and get dirty looks from others in line as you mail everything.

There are a few steps that seemed so obvious that their inclusion would have been an insult to your intelligence Dear Reader. I have not gotten to the post office yet. Soon. This recipe was used for the pictures I took on my recent trip to Shanghai. Every bowler, every coach, and a few Chinese friends will receive copies. Looking back on the process, it seems so simple.

I have watched the DVDs. A couple hours running time. Seven scenes on two DVDs. (I did say lots of pictures, did I not?) I smiled. I cried. Then I smiled again. Now all that is left to do is to create metadata describing it. Er, I mean catalog it.

Scandalous

I am back Dear Reader. I am back. There was no way around the Great Firewall of China while I was in Shanghai so I could not post while I was there. Not that I necessarily would have. So I took notes. Forty-one pages of notes from which to keep busy here for a little while. At least. Here now, installment number one of my experiences at the 2007 Special Olympics World Summer Games in Shanghai, China.

Let's get to the reason for the title of this post. Shall we? We shall.

Eunice Kennedy Shriver showed up at the Gaodian Bowling Center one day. She was to present awards for one of the bowling divisions. Prior to the start of the presentation, her personal assistant asked Dennis, the Head Bowling Coach for Team USA, to select an athlete to meet Mrs. Shriver. He picked one of my guys, Tony. I went with him. My head was spinning. This was the Special Olympics equivalent of an audience with the Pope afterall. And then we were there. I handed one of her assistants my camera as we took our seats on either side of the founder of Special Olympics on a sofa. I was numb. I introduced Tony, and then myself. I told her she was a goddess for what she has accomplished for the intellectually disabled. After a couple minutes, it was over. I couldn't wait to see the pictures. Upon return to Oregon I found that a photo of the encounter made it to the Team USA web site. And therein lies the scandal. Look close Dear Reader. Look close. Then remember, she is a Kennedy.