Play at Any Speed

So I started working, really working, on my final project for the database class I'm in. Grrrr stupid creative indie rockers! For instance, I thought the playing speed would be a nice field with only two values to choose from. Then I remembered there is a 7" that is meant to be played at either speed, and I thought I'd come up with something creative to note that. Well, then I finally came to a frickin 7" where the A side is 45 and the B side is 33 (and 1/3, I know)....so some of this info is going in a "notes" field which will serve its purpose, but still, I'm not sure how I feel about creating my own cataloging problems instead of solving someone elses.

NULL values bad. Bad. Bad. Destroy all art with NULL values!

Consumer Database Specialist 1993-1996

Working on my Database Administration homework has me reminiscing of my high school database clean-up job. I'd go to the car dealership where my dad worked and sit at a computer visually scanning the database for duplicate entries. Whenever I saw a customer with more than one entry, I'd examine the records to determine where the mistake was (ie misspelled names, forgetting to add suffixes etc.) and eventually merge the records. The database was frickin slow, if other people at the dealership were using it the records might take ten minutes to merge, so I'd have lots of time to make phone calls to my friends in Princeton or work on my zine.

I'm a bit confused in this class since it is all reading and no required assignments; I'm doing a bit of catchup now switching from Access to Oracle. Access requires using the computers at work and I'm not feeling up to it, plus it requires having long conversations about library school to everyone who asks what I'm doing. With Oracle, I feel like I'm doing something I should have taught myself long ago. Plus cute geeks offer to help me along. I like the text based interface and hope I can make my final project as kick ass as I plan even if I do some reverse engineering of the final product. Despite having earned an A in Systems Analysis and learning all about the importance of planning everything, hey, what can I say, I believe in XP.

Lost Girls

FYI there are currently
11 holds on Lost Girls Vol.1
3 holds on Lost Girls Vol.2
3 holds on Lost Girls Vol.3

Teen Excitement

Today I worked at two different libraries and saw some of the best and worst of teen library behavior.
Good: trusting us to help find information for dealing with real life issues

Bad: Pulling all the lightbulbs out of the elevator

Funny: Telling the first teenager that asked "We've had a lot of problems in there tonight and we're going to fingerprint the lightbulbs that were removed".