h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

The Library of Doom has gone into systems-related meltdown. Two days before the end of term!

As with Hyp's recent scare, it seems as though we may lose a month's worth of data. Thankfully not circulation data, but pretty much everything else. Everything that has been withdrawn from stock is showing up on the catalogue again, inter-library loans have gone haywire, reservations are laughing at us, and any changes made to the status of books has been reversed. Argh, argh and argh.

I read that article too, could be interesting.

But aren't there federal laws that require proof of actual native descent? Odd, that.

Off to breakfast with a friend, then a meeting...sometime in here, I really, really have to actually write a chapter...

MR, the article says that the Lakota are withdrawing from all treaties with the United States, and effectively declaring themselves a seperate nation. I have no clue as to whether they can actually do that in any effective way, but assuming they CAN then they get to decide what their own laws are, and the federal government would no longer decide who is and is not Lakota.

Part of me really, really hopes that they are able to do this. The realist in me, though, just hopes that the U.S. doesn't choose military force as the best way to stop them.

Wait a minute. The article says that activist Russell Means and "a delegation of Dakota leaders" announced this. Speaking as a person who actually lives smack dab in Indian country, I can tell you that unless the Tribal Council voted on and agreed to this, it's bunk. All the announcements by all the activists in the world don't mean poop unless a Tribal Council and its elders decide what's to be done on a particular reservation. Plus, there is no unified "Lakota Country". There are several reservations, Pine Ridge in South Dakota chief among them, who comprise the different homelands of the several branches of this tribe. So unless the Tribal Council for each reservation proclaimed this and annexed adjoining property in several states, there is no one "Lakota Country".

By the way, the tribes themselves decide who is and who isn't a member. For instance, earlier this year the Cherokee Nation created a controversy when they decided to expel thousands of people off its membership roll because they were the descendants of the *slaves* of the Cherokees in the 18th and 19th century. Until then, these folks were allowed to be members of the Nation, but apparently the current administration wants to tighten up blood ties.

Yeah, reading more articles on the subject, it becomes painfully clear that this "Means" guy is not part of the tribal government, and is not, in fact, that well thought of in his own community.

Oh well.

Dare to dream, I know.

I'd like to take this moment to apologize for the shoddy grammar of my post above.

In the words of the Who, "You are forgiven!"

{Teuchter}

* eleven more mouths to see to before I can stop for Xmas.

Poor David! Let's hope your problem turns out to be as short-lived as mine was. But, this brings up something disturbing. In the old days, before library automation, we could never lose our data like that. It might all burn up in a fire or something, but we were actually much more secure than we are now. Granted, automation makes our lives easier most of the time. But...

Today is my last work day until Dec. 31, when I will have a half day. And I managed to schedule a clean-up crew for my yard.

Hyp, I feel your pain. For about a month our office did almost nothing because our case management database was down. We couldn't get to any client records that weren't already in hard copy. Of course, lots and lots of hard copy is (a) difficult to keep track of, (b) time consuming, and (c) bad for mother nature (unless you're usuing all recycled paper, which is slightly less bad). It's like nuclear power: clean, efficient, cheap, and with only a 1% chance of completely blowing up in your face. That 1%'s a killer, though.

> Someone up there hates me....

Yes, but who is it? The guy on the fourth floor?

I have exactly 11 hours of vacation time left before the first of the year, so I must use it wisely. What I want to do is go home and sleep, but that's not exactly productive. I should get cracking on making more masks... Essentially, I only have three months to make as many masks as possible before the Main Street Arts Festival.

This year, we decided to go cheap and make pumpkin bread and hot sauce for everybody, along with a cool ornament from World Market. So I've got some extra pumpkin bread here... (Hauls out a big loaf of pumpkin bread and starts slicing away. Crumbs fly everywhere.)

*Sees Titania looking at the X painted over the northern fifth of the map of Finland*

See, while it gives a good general location, the center of that X is still a good amount of area to search. There could dozens of ancient treasures there, so it's tough to say whether or not we'd find the actual spot that this one points to before we find something else.

Unless there's some sort of activation key that lets the ornament be more effective as a map.

Shared with David re: Library of Doom's lost data! I was hoping that the end of term would be a nice, slow, peaceful wind-down. How wrong I was...

Belated happy birthday to Titania!

Activation key? Like a Windows Activation Key?

Hyp - We had a vaguely similar situation at work recently. First the background: Instead of paper gift vouchers we tend to sell gift cards, which are like credit cards with a magnetic strip that holds a unique number. When a card is swiped the till contacts a central computer to find out how much the card is worth and take or add money as required.

Now the other day the connection with said computer wasn't working, meaning that no-one could spend gift cards. Anyone with one of those old fashioned paper voucher things had no problem. Progress, eh?

I resolved to sort out Christmas cards and presents this afternoon. So far I've written a list of names.

Yeah, Russell Means is a -- well, lets put it this way, his "defense" of Leonard Pellitier was that Mr. Pellitier was justified in shooting at the FBI because they were foreign invaders.

Not exactly the way to make friends and influence people.

And I emailed my Lakota friend and she just got back to me...yep, no such council vote was taken at Rosebud, so guess what? He's on crack.

So's Mike Gravel, we don't hold that against him.

So... Russell Means means nothing...

All that lost library data - aaaaaaagghhhhhhh.

Tomorrow, last day of work before holidays. Very very few people actually in, as for some reason they all seem to either be ill or using Christmas as an excuse to run away and gad about. The Library of Glum is alas not deserted as some of our students seem to feel a year-round need to photocopy the entire contents of the journal collection. So the Valiant Few struggle on, on a diet of instant coffee, chocolate and doughnuts.

Hurrah for doughnuts.