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Lil's Atelier
Social Life Begins and Ends With Etiquette
E-cards are fine by me, but I wouldn't open them at work.
Cards in general - paper or electronic - I'm ambivalent about. Some years I don't send any, this year I've been trying to send to those who send to us. But I know, having had years where I send none at all, that it makes no difference. I'd hate to think anyone would think less of me cos I didn't send a card, and I extend the same generosity of spirit to them.
|   | Subject: 107Xth Conversation chez Lil
Posted Dec 21, 2011 by Bluebottle
This is a reply to this Posting.
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If I used the internet at home more I'd probably get distracted and not write so much.
 It's usually books from the library for me that I read while typing notes on the computer. I drag these gibberish notes into some form of order so they make sentences and paragraphs, reword them so they make sense and hope for the best. If they don't form sentences and paragraphs, then they make lists or tables. It seems to work for me most of the time, but probably not the best way of writing. The gibberish notes often go completely off topic, so I sit down intending to write about one thing and end up with lots of notes about something completely unrelated as I empty my mind of what's in it. In the first draft on my article on Winchester Cathedral I have notes all about the lengths of the beards in the Harryhausen Sinbad films (they didn't make it to the end version).
<BB<
| | Subject: 107Xth Conversation chez Lil
Posted Dec 21, 2011 by Agapanthus
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*Is encrossinated about Eats' windshield*
Christmas cards - I write them, and send them, and try to do it before the end of the second week of December, BUT and this is a hugely important BUT, I do it because I like doing it and it amuses me to do it and it's part of my jolly festive ritual, along with whisky&ginger ale or hot toddy, and carols on the stereo. Do I want people to send me cards in return? Not exactly. I mean, I LIKE it when I get cards, but I most certainly don't think less of people who don't do cards, and I certainly don't send cards in order to GET cards, and to be honest, when I get cards addressed to 'Mr and Mrs Scrumph Scrumphington' I go so ballistic with ire that I'd rather not have had the card at all. I mean, I didn't take Scrumph's surname when we married anyway, and I can just about put up with 'Scrumph and Agapanthus Scrumphington' if I take a deep breath, and realise they can't remember how to spell my surname, but Mrs Scrumph Scrumphington? Who the bally heck is THAT? And where am I in all this? Why won't they call me by my actual real proper legal name? ARGH. Also, someone sent me a card last week addressed to Mrs and Mr Agapanthus Agapanthusman, which entirely delighted me (and amused Scrumph too, for that matter) BUT I DIGRESS.
Where was I?
Oh, yes, cards. I do them for my own amusement. I have no expectations and I make no assumptions about people who don't do them, and I certainly do not speculate as to whether they like me or not if they don't send me a card. If my relationship with friends was that influenced by the wasting of stamps on colourful bits of paper, the friendship I doubt is salvageable. Though if people really disliked getting cards, I'd hope they'd let me know so I could stop sending them.
And e-cards? I like them too. Sweet idea. Apart from the noisy blarty ones. Noise is, as far as I'm concerned, almost invariably a Bad Thing. I'm not a librarian for nothing.
It's the end of term at last, and for the past few days the Library of Glum has been very quiet. And, oh, my Bob, how I LOVE it when it's very quiet. I know being semi-deserted is not the point of libraries, but the stress and unpleasantness and neediness and MESS, damn it, when it's busy, give me hives. Walking from the offices to the desk during peak hours takes every last nerve I've got to stop me running amok shrieking 'stop sticking books back at random! Stop talking! Stop leaving things in piles on the floor! Stop demanding I find stuff for you when I'm supposed to be elsewhere! STOP TALKING! Stop leaving sweet wrappers and coffee cups everywhere! Stop whining at me because the shelves are a mess - YOU messed them up! Stop hiding books behind other books 'for later'! Stop demanding I get books for you at once when the books are out on loan, no I am not going to call the borrower right now and shout at them for you! STOP, oh please STOP TALKING!'
I don't know what can be done about the overcrowding, beyond building a whole new wing twice the size of the current one and hiring 30-odd more staff, neither of which are gonna happen, ohhhh no, budgets are being CUT, dontcherknow. Fewer staff and less money to provide more services to more students, better, because they're after all paying more. The fact their increased fees don't actually make up for the GIGANTIC cuts the government made to our state funding last year is a point well and truly lost on the student who wants everything down-to-and-including a pint of lager and a foot-rub while they wait for nubile young librarians in tight shirts to run to the bookshop and personally BUY them their own copies of the textbooks to take home and keep forever.
Grumpy Agapanthus is grumpy. Comes of buying Hanukkah doughnuts for the entire office and not being able to eat them herself. I freakin' love doughnuts. I've just given up wheat in the desparate hope that doing so will stop my insides glueing themselves together like so much melted plastic. AAAAUGH.
You know ... I have to say, I don't really participate in cards, beyond creating my own cards (in Word, as like not) and delivering them in person to those who I will in fact meet in person. (I think this year's theme will be "I like ____ about you." Possibly with a punchline in the form of a card for the  which will say "I like Nellie's ... uh ... I like Nellie.")
In other news, it seems that my annual Atrocious Cough is in full swing. Doesn't seem to be any kind of actual disease, it's just some sort of reaction my body has, or something. Who knows ...
 Agapanthus, have I mentioned lately how much I love having you in the salon?
You too, Yar. When I have an Atrocious Throat or an Atrocious cough I swear by Fisherman's Friend lozenges. They taste so vile that they must work.
Night all.
What Lil said.
Except that Fisherman's Friends do not taste vile. But then, Danes have a certain liking for licorice... 
I'll keep an eye peeled for Fisherman's Friend. Mind you, I'm generally content (more or less) with Ricola lozenges. It's not the immediacte effects that are really a problem so much as the fact that it sort of just, y'know, hangs around, and doesn't seem to have any interest in leaving.
| | Subject: 107Xth Conversation chez Lil
Posted Dec 22, 2011 by Eatsmice
This is a reply to this Posting.
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"BUT I DIGRESS"  
Ags, if you didn't digress I would be disappointed.
 'cos I like 'em.
Waiting for the stove guys to come and reseal the seals in the flue pipes and give it a general checkover. Otherwise I would still be snuggled up with Mrs Eats snoozing. The tomcat had a 24 hour bug yesterday, but has declared himself well this morning and gone back to bed. The Kangaroo is firmly in her toasty pouch and still out for the count.
Peace, like Ags library today, reigns.
Ag, of all the eloquent ranters I know you are my absolute favouritest and I could happily listen to you rant all day (especially if you're actually as well-spoken as I imagine you to be  ).
As for the "Mr. and Mrs. So-and-so" thing... we get cards addressed to Mr. & Mrs. Dreadful McDreadful occasionally, but they're all from older relatives of the sort that won't leave the house without a tie on (or hat in the case of the womenfolk), so we let them get away with it. I think if we got it from anyone who is younger or habitually less formal we'd have to have Words. Almost all of our older relatives are formal types, but we don't have very many of them.
Ag, your digressions are well worth stepping off the beaten path,  'em!
Eats, so sorry to hear about your windshield; hope it's fixed soon. Rotten timing!
Yar, Ricola Green Tea and Echineachea (sp?) are the best lozenges, MUCH better than menthol ones. Also helps me that they're sugar free.
Is it a bad sign when getting the wheelie bin out to the curb feels like a big accomplishment? 
| | Subject: 107Xth Conversation chez Lil
Posted Dec 22, 2011 by  Z
This is a reply to this Posting.
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I got a couple of cards addressed to Dr and Mrs Z. Zen. Also from relatives in their 90s. I rather like it but I'm not sure how she does. There were Correct Ways to Do Things Then.
Sending cards to people my own age usually get their screen name, or their first name.
Otherwise we have a whole bunch of problems.
Is Mr and Dr or Dr and Mr, if she's a Dr and he isn't?
If one of an Dr and Dr have passed their membership and go back to Mrs it is still Dr and Mrs, or is that a come down for her, because she's acquired the Mrs by passing an exam not getting married cos she was a doctor when she got married, so I do Mrs and Dr.
 We once adressed a wedding present to good friends as "For Mr and Mrs <education prefix HisFirst HisLastName". Just for  . Fully knowing what we did and that it was all good-spirited fun, the bride still quite didn't know whether to laugh or fume...
Big Picture's photos of 2011, batch 2 (with links to 1 and 3 coming tomorrow):
http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/20...2/the_year_in_pictures_part_ii.html
| | Subject: 107Xth Conversation chez Lil
Posted Dec 22, 2011 by Phil
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The end of term. I've managed to have the time to get loads of stuff done now there are hardly any students (or academic staff) here. Still it isn't quite enough time to do all that is asked of us.
Thankfully we get cards addressed to us by our names and don't have any of this worry about titles. Some of your dilemmas sound like you could end up in quite a tizz about it Ben.
I'm on a late train to work having seen one of the nice   at the surgery. Everything seems fine but I'll wait to see what the blood results are (yup they found some). An annoying faff but I seem to get much better care than some I read about.
SC, the windows defender and security essentials is more than enough. Uninstalling Norton should trigger defender to reactivate itself.
If someone wants to send me and him a card, then that's great. I can't get worked up about the form of address. You can call me Mrs The Death and I'll reply - but all my accounts, pasports, etc as well as my work name, are the same as they were before I married him.
| | Subject: 107Xth Conversation chez Lil
Posted Dec 22, 2011 by Eatsmice
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I think Mrs Eats would only get upset if someone addressed a card as "Mr E. Eats and the dishwasher" Otherwise she's quite happy.
Do doctors get hung up on titles in general mail? Away from work I'm a Mr and introduce myself as such, not my military rank.
I must admit I am completely unmerciful to retired people who try to use their old rank etc as a title when being introduced. Address them as first name or mister and then sit back and watch them squirm and seethe
| | Subject: 107Xth Conversation chez Lil
Posted Dec 22, 2011 by Z
This is a reply to this Posting.
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No, but I like to wind up my friends.
| | Subject: 107Xth Conversation chez Lil
Posted Dec 22, 2011 by Eatsmice
This is a reply to this Posting.
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Oh forgot to comment on the anti-viral one... Lifehacker.com recently, again, names MSE their best anti-virus solution for Windows:
http://lifehacker.com/5865356/the-best-antivirus-app-for-windows
Read the comments, though, on safe practices - including keeping Windows, Flash etc up-to-date. A good tool for that bit is Secunia (and my liking for that goes beyond them being a Danish company!)
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