technical difficulties

Apparently when you add pictures to your blog, they are automatically saved in albums by Google+. Apparently when you delete them from the Google+ albums because you don't need them there and you don't want them all saved on your phone because your phone is an Android and automatically syncs with all things Google ... inhale ... they get deleted. From everything. Including your blog. Naturally, I didn't know this. So you can imagine the mild heart-attack panic-induced state I found myself in when I checked my blog and almost all of the pictures from recent posts were gone. In their place, black squares and rectangles in the same sizes of the pictures that were once there. Ghosts of their former selves. Thankfully, I was able to restore all of the posts from the most recent months. So unless you're digging through my archives, you won't see any of the sad black boxes. Let this be a lesson to all of you Google+ users: don't delete the pictures if they might be on your blog. You're welcome.

there's something very wrong here.

Is it just me, or does anyone else want to get some matches and gasoline and torch this whole section? Pardon me. Sections. Why Teen Paranormal Romance warrants two whole sections, I'll never know. I'm sure it would make for some very nice kindling. If you're looking for me in a bookstore, you'll find me around the shelves of literary fiction or poetry, usually hovering somewhere between M and T.

customer service

Today, as I perused through the blogs that I read regularly, I came across my friend Amber's blog. She's one of my dearest friends, and has an adorable baby boy. (Just scroll through her blog to see the pictures). Today, she wrote an amazing post about customer service and how people should really give customer service representatives a break. As long as the representative isn't being rude to you, they're usually doing everything they can (and are authorized to do) to help you out. As I currently work in a similar department, I've experienced everything she's talking about and more. 

Read her post about it here.

i graduated with a degree in english.

Does it bother anyone else when someone says your expertise is something other than what it is? Lately, at work, people have been saying that I have a background in technical writing. Yes, I am a good writer, but my background is in literature and literary criticism. Technical writing is mostly the writing of manuals and forms. Not what I do. My specialty is reading, analyzing, and writing about books. Specifically, Modern, Postmodern, and African-American books. Do any of you get upset if someone (who knows what your actual specialty is) says it's something different? Maybe I'm just the odd one, but I worked hard for that degree in English - not technical writing. 

rant = over.

book club.

In church this past week, this notice was passed around. All I saw was "book club" so I snatched one up in hopes that it might yield some intellectual discussion about literature. I was wrong.

In case you can't read it (I crumpled it up and gave it to my cat as soon as I realized the lack of intellectual stimulation such a gathering would provide) it says that "Elsa Jean will review the book Pollyanna." Firstly, Elsa Jean is old. Elderly, even. Not that old people aren't intelligent, but the choice of book is a tip off that this isn't going to be the type of discussion I'm used to. Secondly, Pollyanna? Really? It was fine when I was ten, but even then, not really. I was more of a Tolkien girl at age ten. The best part is that they want suggestions of books to read and review. I feel pretty secure in saying they don't want the books/authors that I'd recommend: Morrison, Plath, McCarthy, the Russians, Shakespeare, Danticat, Hemingway, etc. Then again, maybe I'll go and see if anyone is open minded about some good literature. Wishful thinking.

Why is it so nearly impossible to find a book club that discusses real literature?