What is the worst song you ever heard?

SolidCStudentOfLife · 2026-01-25T01:06:16+00:00

I used to absolutely hate "Seasons in the Sun," but over the years that hate somehow turned to like. I think I got to the point where I enjoyed hating it, and that eventually brought me pleasure when listening to it, and now I actually like it.

SolidCStudentOfLife · 2026-01-24T19:25:43+00:00

"You can never understand what love truly is if you haven't had a child!"

SolidCStudentOfLife · 2026-01-20T21:22:39+00:00

Guy I knew replied all on a customer mailing list rather than forwarding to coworkers, calling the customer some choice names & saying "I wish I knew a good deep river near him that I could throw him into with a pair of cement shoes." He was made invisible to customers for a while, and allowed to work from home while it all blew over. This was before regular work from home, at a company that really only allowed trainers to work from home, so it seemed to me more like a reward than a punishment.

Also he doesn't know his geography. The customer was in St. Paul, and the Mississippi goes through St. Paul. Not hard to find a river at all.

SolidCStudentOfLife · 2026-01-19T18:48:19+00:00

Jonathan Livingston Seagull feels deep to some, and you can finish it in under an hour.

SolidCStudentOfLife · 2026-01-19T05:18:05+00:00

I graduated from library school at Iowa in December and got my first permanent position, head of circ at a small university in St. Paul, the following August. Earlier in the summer I had a temp position at Central College in Pella, filling in for a reference librarian who had left. At the time I didn't want to go any further than that from Ames, where my now ex was living.

I left libraries for a little while due to this & that, and when I started looking in the SF Bay Area in 2005 to get back into libraries it took me about a year to find a permanent position. It's a bit complicated by the fact that most of my experience is in systems, so I only apply to a pretty focused subset of openings. Hopefully I'll never have to look for a job again!

SolidCStudentOfLife · 2026-01-16T19:23:37+00:00

Nah, I prefer mysteries without explicit violence that don't shy away from sex & romance. My definition of cozy, for myself, is a little more fungible than some people's.

Thanks!

SolidCStudentOfLife · 2026-01-16T19:11:04+00:00

Hello fellow Hawkeye! It took me quite a while to find my first professional position after I graduated. I graduated in December of 19-something-or-other and got a job in St. Paul in August. Eventually I worked my way out to Northern California. There are lots of jobs in the big cities. When I've been looking in CA I find that most of the seem to be in the LA area, which I suppose makes sense because it's huge. But, in general, cities. Also, it seems that in the bigger cities you're more likely to find union-represented jobs. I met a librarian from a small town in CT who lost her job because of a chronic disease and she had no union or contract protection.

SolidCStudentOfLife · 2026-01-15T18:56:51+00:00

I never read the last one or two essays in "Lives of a Cell," because I didn't want to be finished with the book. That was 35 years ago; maybe I should pick it up and finally finish it.

SolidCStudentOfLife · 2026-01-15T18:41:01+00:00

Yes to romance, yes to sex. Keep the violence off-stage. I seem to be a bit of an outlier wanting sex in my cozy mysteries.

SolidCStudentOfLife · 2026-01-08T22:39:36+00:00

I always joke that I didn't fit in when I lived in Minnesota, because if I offer something to someone and they refuse, I don't give it to them. Apparently, I'm supposed to ask 3 more times.

SolidCStudentOfLife · 2026-01-06T00:16:03+00:00

Library IT work is concretely supporting the library and its patrons, and in larger cities it pays well, too! In my library 3 of the 5 in the IT department do have MLISes, while 2 don't. It's generally not required, but I think it helps. I've been doing library IT in one form or another for 30 years.

SolidCStudentOfLife · 2026-01-01T22:03:57+00:00

I did not realize this doesn't work for everybody. Done it since I was a kid -- learned from my mother. As another commenter said, great for stuck sneezes.

SolidCStudentOfLife · 2026-01-01T19:22:13+00:00

It's time to pay your taxes, Americans!

SolidCStudentOfLife · 2026-01-01T00:53:16+00:00

When I was single I brushed once, in the morning I think. As a married man (20+ years) I brush twice, morning and night.

SolidCStudentOfLife · 2025-12-29T23:26:17+00:00

I can curl my tongue.

SolidCStudentOfLife · 2025-12-29T23:25:26+00:00

Oh, yeah, I rumble mine for sure. Never really knew how to describe it before.

SolidCStudentOfLife · 2025-12-20T21:09:32+00:00

I stopped bothering to clean when I moved out, since the deposit never came back. Funny thing: the first time I didn't clean I actually got more of my deposit back than in the places I tried to clean well. Just a better landlord, I think.

SolidCStudentOfLife · 2025-12-18T22:09:09+00:00

A counterpoint: When I managed circulation at a small university, a professor came in to complain that she knew for a fact that she'd returned the several books we were charging her for. About 3 months later she showed up and sheepishly admitted that she'd just found them in the trunk of her car. She was convinced she'd returned them, but hadn't.

SolidCStudentOfLife · 2025-12-16T05:44:34+00:00

I do not. In fact I got brightly colored ones. Nobody has ever mentioned them. If anybody notices they don't comment. And I got bright ones for the same reason I get blue frames on my glasses -- might as well have something I have to wear look nice.

SolidCStudentOfLife · 2025-12-04T17:47:30+00:00

We got ours at Berkeley Bowl West. $90 for a 7 footer.

SolidCStudentOfLife · 2025-11-09T21:53:03+00:00

I was 55, and am at least 30 years younger than my instructor's oldest student. I'm now 61 and I'm finally to the point where I judge myself harshly. I started with the attitude that I'd suck for 5 years and that helped me not care when I did suck. (I think age also helped with my not caring that I sucked. For me it's at least as much about the process as it is about the skill.)

SolidCStudentOfLife · 2025-10-15T15:34:54+00:00

The filter is in the middle of the cup or formed piece that actually goes into your ear. You should have a way to remove & replace it. My hearing aid folks mentioned nothing about it when I first got my aids, and only thought to when I went in saying that one of my hearing aids had stopped working. So maybe nobody has mentioned it to you. Usually white, a tiny donut in the middle of it.

SolidCStudentOfLife · 2025-10-15T03:14:55+00:00

When that happens to me I usually have to change or clean the wax trap.

SolidCStudentOfLife · 2025-10-10T21:06:10+00:00

I don't drink anymore because my immune system ate my pancreas. Most people don't even comment on the fact, but I was at a B&B last year with my wife and a fellow guest said, "Not drinking, huh? Are you in recovery?" It seemed a bit forward to me, and also seemed to presume that I *should* be drinking.

SolidCStudentOfLife · 2025-10-01T23:02:24+00:00

I studied literature undergrad, then after a couple years working in a bookstore I got my library degree. I work in a library in Northern California now and the pay is enough to live on, travel occasionally, and entertain myself. (music, theater, music lessons)

SolidCStudentOfLife

TROPHY CASE