Mental Flotsam and Jetsam

I read somewhere recently -- probably a blog or a message board -- that it was odd to hear someone from one of the less populated states talk about feeling terrified about another attack on US soil when the likelihood of it where that person was was very low. The responder pointed out that even NYers don't feel that way and this was one of the two cities attacked, and the one with the most casualties. And it's true. We're all going about our lives. But is that calm just the exterior, hiding grave concerns and even fear?

I wonder, therefore, if I'm the only one here who gets on a subway and wonders if these will be the people who will die with me. It doesn't stop me from getting on the train and going to work or whatever, but the thought does pop into my brain now and then. Or at lunchtime today when I was in a Barnes & Noble checking the September release pbs that were out, and I looked around at the other folks in the store and thought, will this be the group of folks I die with? Or will we be the survivors of a the latest disaster?

Not the healthiest of mindsets, but my imagination is a bit too active lately. And I'm still convinced there will be another attack and waiting for it is like waiting for the second shoe to drop and the horrors in Russia aren't helping. It can be so easy to kill people.

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I have the bestest job. Not just the best, but better than that. Along with my regular duties -- answering patrons questions, supervising the other folks who answer patron questions, doing monthly reports and statistics, collection development, and other fun yet typical librarian functions -- I also get to work on our website, edit our newsletter, oversee our online patron forums (aka bulletin boards), and now, ta da!, I get to do our blog. Yes, finally, it's live. It is so cool. I can't do much with it visually -- it has to be accessible to folks who are blind or visually impaired and needs to work well with screen readers and enlarging software and it's already failed on a Bobby test in some areas -- but I was able to get the header graphic from our website into the template so they are visual complements of each other, and there are links and three entries now.

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The day started very nasty, drizzly and humid, but got hot and sunny by the afternoon. But we still have the remains of Frances to deal with probably tomorrow. I still haven't heard from all my FL friends, especially my collaborator. I hope she's okay.

When I first started blogging, I obsessed over the count. I still check the numbers before I go to bed and when I get home after work to see how many folks have been reading. Now that I'm on Bloglines for most of the blogs I read, I subscribed to my own so I can quickly see how many subscribers each has. Can we say "obsessed"? At least I don't check Technorati more than once a week or so to see if anyone new has linked to one of my blogs.

I posted a number of fun links over on Cyber Chocolate over the last few days. Go look. I'll wait. Okay. Did you enjoy them?

I also feel a bit odd when something big is going on and I don't blog about it because so many other people are, like the hurricane or the political conventions. Which reminds me, I'm due to build up a rant for Occasional Blog.

Another recent obsession is to click on that Next Blog link on the new Blogger nav bar. I can do that endlessly for hours, though I also still click on the interesting sounding links (usually blogs) on other people's blogs. I've found some fun journals that way, but I'm starting to really hate those blogs that have popups that don't let you move on. You have to click Yes, and I don't want to. So I simply do Control-Alt-Delete to shut the browswer and start over. It's very annoying. And I had been thinking of adding a tag board here or on Presto Speaks! but half the blogs I've been on that have them also have popups which I so do not want.

This is probably the first new TV season where I'm not all excited. I'm looking forward to the return of favorite shows, but all the reality shows and hard to keep track of seasons on cable and the early start on some of the networks has really sucked the thrill out of things for me this year.

Well, I think I've emptied my brain of enough mental debris, so will end this now. I'm sure I'll have more to unload soon.