Coffee Klatch

So this morning on my way to work, two of the gas stations I passed had jumped up to $2.99 a gallon. The rest were at the same place they’ve been for days, between $2.55 and $2.69. But TONIGHT, when I LEFT work, I was astounded to see that the one that’s usually the cheapest (was $2.55 this morning) was $3.19! It had jumped 64 cents! That’s just incredible! But not as much as another one that’s usually on the cheap end of the price wars, that tonight was $3.49! Unbelievable!

Make sure you visit GasBuddy.com and find out what the rates are in your area. That site is updated all the time by consumers who post the prices they see. Prices only stay live for 48 hours, so the site is usually current. If you don’t see the gas stations you normally use, maybe you should sign up to post prices yourself and help others that use the same ones you do.

Until the psychological price war is over, we’ll all be relying more on these kinds of websites than ever before.

This weekend I took two of my boys to see Madagascar. Overall, I’d say it was okay. Probably a ‘B’ in my grading scale. There were plenty of things that were buried in it or that were rather subtle, so a second viewing could conceivably change the grade.

One example is when the lemurs were all gathering in the wrecked airplane (which was stuck in a tree as all good wrecked planes are). While they were struggling with what to do, there were a few gratuitous other-movie references. Like when one of them was talking to a Spaulding basketball that had a bloody handprint on it. He called it Spaulding. (Yes, like Wilson in Cast Away.)

In the same scene, another lemur was holding book that had the title To Serve Lemur and he was raving, “It’s a cookbook! A COOKBOOK!!” (Yes, just like the Twilight Zone episode “To Serve Man.”) I actually laughed out loud at that one. It was short but clear, and many people probably didn’t catch the reference. Unless they, too, are Twilight Zone aficionados.

A few months ago, I changed my IM screen names and began using Trillian to consolidate my IM clients. Last week I added Yahoo! IM to the available methods of contacting our Reference Desk. This meant getting a multiple-platform client for IM at our desk, so librarians that aren’t as tech-friendly wouldn’t struggle with juggling multiple IM clients. After comparison, not only have I installed GAIM on that computer, I’ve switched my own program from Trillian to GAIM. I just like how it handles things better. It’s easier to change default settings, is simpler to use, and seems more stable. It’s also cleaner and simpler overall, meaning fewer bells and whistles, but also meaning much less clutter to look at. And if a connection gets dropped, it’s much simpler to reconnect.

Also, GAIM is open source, so there’s no “pay version” that is “better.” You get what they’ve got. Period. And there are tons of people out there making improvements, so every upgrade (also free) is better and takes into account the desires and improvements of its users.

So try GAIM. I think you’ll be glad you did. Just visit http://gaim.sourceforge.net and click on Downloads (over on the right).

Current music: 500 Nations: A Musical Journey, by Peter Buffett

It’s amazing how much news can change in just one day. Last I’d heard, Hurricane Katrina had barely been a Category 1 hurricane. And then I read in Yahoo! News that it had grown while crossing the Gulf of Mexico and is now a Category Five! As of this afternoon, its winds were up to 175 mph!! It’s now the second strongest hurricane ever recorded (the worst being the Labor Day hurricane in Florida in 1935). Hurricane-force winds are being felt over 100 miles away from the center of it. Now THAT’S a big storm!

Pretty much everyone in New Orleans (hundreds of thousands of people) has been told to leave. And quickly. Worst estimates are saying the French Quarter will be severely flooded, because the storm surge could be up to 28 feet!

Say a prayer for the people who live and work down there, if you’re so inclined. And also for the oil rigs in the Gulf, which, if destroyed (they’ve already been evacuated), could add to the increasing gas prices.

Current music: Daylight, Moonlight: Live in Yakushiji, by Kitaro

We’ve got an air show going on this afternoon at an airfield about 10 miles from here. The Blue Angels are performing. They’ve been practicing their show for a couple of days now, so we’ve been able to hear them. This afternoon, they were actually flying right over our house sometimes, at the end of a stunt or something. We could see them in the distance, going straight up or down, or flying together in various patterns, but the best was when they came roaring right over the house. They were nice and low, so you could see plenty of detail on them. It was molto cool!
Current music: Capriccio Italien, by Tchaikovsky

When I went home from work Thursday evening, I noticed that all the gas prices had gone up about 14 cents since I went TO work on Thursday morning. Whether the stations were on the high end or low end, they had all gone up 14 cents.

Factors to consider:

• EVERYONE went up the same amount on the same day.
• Regarding travel, Friday is really the beginning of the weekend.
• If people are tanking up for a weekend trip, they’ll usually do it on Friday, or maybe Thursday on their way home from work.
• I checked all over the Internet, looking for a measure of crude oil prices, and the best I could find is that it looked like the oil prices may have gone up a little, earlier in the week, but they’ve gone back down. Gas prices haven’t come down since Thursday.

Given these factors, wouldn’t you agree that there’s some sort of collusion going on? It’s rather common knowledge that gas prices go up on the weekends. That’s because demand goes up in general. Smart consumers will buy their gas between Tuesday and Thursday, but that doesn’t save you much money if you’re going on a trip.

Whatever the market will bear, eh?

Current music: Egmont Overture, by Beethoven

I grew up in Arizona and have visited the Grand Canyon many times and even hiked down into it more than once. Both times were starting in the Hualapai Reservation and hiking down to (and past) the town of Supai, on the Havasupai Reservation.

Looks like the Hualapai Tribe is looking to provide a new view from the top of the canyon. Read the whole story here.

I thought this was pfunny. I got a spam message entitled “Congratulation!!!” I won’t get into the grammatical issues or anything. I just wanted to make one point, that should be enough for any sensible person to question the email’s authenticity. The email was supposedly from a Mrs. Densie de Holidrjik of Amsterdam, Netherlands. But the email was from afakeusername@tiscali.it. The “.it” extension means it’s from Italy.

Go figure!

Well, I finally did it! I made a technology-related faux pas that I’ve never made before. I replied to “the list” instead of to an individual!

In my defense, their response to me sounded like a person-to-person message, but still, I really should have checked! There’s NO EXCUSE for replying to “the list!” At least, for someone who’s been using them as long as I have. But I guess there’s a first time for everything.

The one good thing was that it had to happen sometime, and this was rather innocuous, just to a handful of librarians here on my campus, and nothing personal or embarrassing in it. It could have been MUCH worse!

Still, among technology professionals, that’s a real faux pas and rather embarrassing. I only share this story so those of you who’ve done the same thing will know you’re not alone!
Current music: Midnight Groove: The Art of Smooth Jazz

Earlier this week, the Indianapolis Star printed an article called Mind your &@#% manners!. They discussed how rude people are nowadays, what kinds of rude things are going on, how to check and see if YOU are actually being rude, and those kinds of helpful things. The following list comes from the article. Although we may laugh knowingly at some of the entries, this was a serious list of common rudenesses of today. It actually is worthwhile to look at the list and see if any apply to you. If not, then go ahead and rant all the OTHER rude people out there!!

You might be a rude person if . . .

. . . you charge onto the elevator before others get off.

. . . you begin an apology with, “I’m sorry if you were offended.”

. . . you think nothing of tossing your cigarette butts out the window of your car.

. . . you view “excuse me” as a command.

. . . you cut pedestrians off when you’re making a turn in your car.

. . . you’d much rather sit in your car and honk than knock on the door.

. . . you turn your back on someone who’s speaking to you.

. . . you think a parent struggling to get a stroller through a manual door is funny.

. . . you never acknowledge e-mails from peers at work.

. . . your neighbor waves at you and you don’t wave back.

. . . you’re a cashier and you throw the customer’s change on the counter instead of handing it to him or her.

. . . you kick the seat in front of you at the movie theater.

. . . you burp and don’t say, “Excuse me.”

. . . you reach over someone in the grocery aisle without saying, “Excuse me.”

. . . you get shushed at a movie theater and you still don’t shut up.

. . . you “forget” to turn off the ringer on your cell phone at concerts, movies and so on.

. . . you don’t acknowledge gifts for a wedding, birthday, confirmation, bar mitzvah, etc.

. . . you hog all the popular exercise equipment at the gym.

. . . you don’t clean up after your dog.

. . . you interrupt people while they are talking to others.

. . . you block pedestrian crosswalks when you’re stopped in traffic in your car.

Source: The Indiana Living staff at The Star

Current music: Mirabilis, by the Mediaeval Baebes