Pride and Prejudice and Zombies

   Okay, so first off I want to say that I am not one of those zombie fanatics. I don't dress up like them.  I don't secretly wish that a zombie apocalypse will occur. I am not storing up weapons for when the zombies come. Honestly, I think these people are weird and they need serious mental therapy. The truth is that I am terrified of zombies. When I was fourteen, I had a panic attack when I forced to watch Resident Evil. I mean I was crying. Of course then I was afraid when I saw Scooby Doo on Zombie Island. At least with vampires and werewolves, there is an internal struggle. You can see the tortured person within them. But not zombies. . They don't get to choose evil or good. They just eat brains.
     However, I decided that I would give Pride and Prejudice and Zombies a try. I really enjoyed the original book by Jane Austin. And I thought this might be pretty cool. I thoroughly enjoyed the book. Basically Seth Grahme-Smith, who also wrote Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, took the original novel added his own scenes and created alternate explanations for the behaviors of the characters. It was very amusing for me to imagine Elizabeth Bennet and her sisters killing zombies. It was truly amazing. A lot of the dialogue was changed slightly for example. However, the characters do remain mostly the same. For example, even though England is plagued with zombies and death, Mrs. Bennet only concern is that her daughters put away all of their "silly fighting and find husbands". In the original novel, Lady Catherine de Bourgh inquires if the Bennets had a governess. She replies that they did not. Lady de Bourgh exclaims "Five girls and no governess!". In this book, she exclaims" Five girls and no ninja". Yes, this book had ninjas too. It was fantastic. I recommend it to any one. Although you will need to have read the original novel in order for this book to mean anything to you. There is suppose to be a movie coming out soon. I can't wait.

Stupid Zombie movies. These movies used to keep me up at night.

My Epic journey that led to Epic Failure

The following story is true. The names were not changed to protect the innocent.

     My story begins on a day in March in 2007. So, I was studying earlier that for my Geography test and I decided to take a break and enjoy this nice weather. I went to the Quad  at UA and continued reading a novel I just started, Son of a Witch by Gregory MacGuire(the sequel to Wicked), which my neighbor,Jacob Burnett, let me borrow.
         An international student asked me to take a few pictures of him. So I put my book down and picked up his camera. He asked me to take some pictures of him near the benches close to Denny Chimes. We also got some pictures of him sitting on the bench with Gorgas library in the background.The cameras I was taking pictures with were an strange sort of thing, they had two lenses and he said that they used for 3-D imagery or something.
          So after we get done taking the pictures I look to find my book and it is gone. Nobody had passed us but this one Indian girl.Neither one of us had seen her take the book nor had we seen it since she passed. The both of us were wondering why would somebody just pick up book. While we were debating this the Indian girl, who was our prime suspect was getting away. The oriental, international student guy went on his bike extremely fast to try to catch this vandel and see what she knows. Meanwhile I am kind of walking around the Quad seeing if I might have just misplaced the book. I was also trying to formulate how I was going to tell Jacob that I had lost his book that he had entrusted upon me.
       After about five minutes, the oriental/international guy came back. He said he lost her. Even though he felt extremely guilty, even though it was not his fault. He thinks that this Indian girl might have been another international student such as himself. He got my e-mail and said he would send out an e-mail to all the internatiol students to see if this girl would return the book. I guess she was implementing the Finders/Keepers theory. I always thought that rule was stupid.
      This event just reminded me that life is completly unpredictable and sometimes unexplainable things just happen. .....

Present Day
      So, I decided to check the book out from the library where I intern at. At first, I was very excited about this opportunity to finish the story I had started. The story seemed a little disconnected as I got through it.  The main character, Liir had a  sorta kinda girlfriend who was lovely but he cheated on her. Liir never knew what he wanted and never accomplished his main goal which was to find his half sister. The villain was never seen once he became the villain. Very little in the book made since.  This turned out to be one of the worst books that I ever read in my life. I loved Wicked, but I hated Son of Witch. It was just plain horrible. The moral of the story is that if an Indian girl takes something from you, then you probably don't need it.jk. Actually, perhaps the moral of the story is that maybe you should read the review of a book before you check it out. You know it is just one of those things. With all the books in the world, you run into a bad apple every once in a while. I just really hoped that I would get an awesome ending to go along with my awesome journey.

The Eye of the World

So, I figured I should write about the books that I read since this is a library blog. A couple of days ago, I finished a book called, The Eye of the World by Robert Jordan. It is the first book in the Wheel of Time series. Well actually it is the second book if you include the prequel. But apparently you are not suppose to read the prequel until you have read most of the books in the series. Wikipedia lists The Eye of the World as the first book in the series. And you can't argue with Wikipedia. Anyways, a friend of mine, Lizzy Theris, let me borrow her copy of the book. I thoroughly enjoyed it. It was exciting and entertaining.  It is a fantasy book, so if you don't like fantasy then you probably should not read it. Since I have only read the first book, I don't think I have got an idea on the overarching plot of the series.  It is also really hard to describe in a few words as to what the book is about. Basically a small village comes under attack at the beginning of the book. It is discovered that an evil force wants something to do with three young men of the village. These men are named Rand, Perrin, and Mat. These men leave with an Aes Sedai (She is kinda like a witch. I think she is good. At least she was in this) and a Warder (A guy you don't want mad at you) to take them to a place of safety. They have many misadventures along the way. If you liked Lord of the Rings or anything like that than you probably would enjoy this book.

Why We Need Libraries

       Yesterday, something heart breaking happened at the library. This lady who was about forty needed help with her e-mail. She had about five combinations of log ins and passwords. Eventually she called her daughter who set it up for her and I was able to log her in. She wanted to put her resume on an online application. Her current place of employment   now but they are laying off a lot of people. I made some edits on her resume. She could barely remember where she had worked and when she had worked at different places.She didn't even know the name of her current supervisor. She did not even know what her current job title was. She did not know the full names of her references. This lady did not know how to fill out an application or a resume. It was up to me, someone half her age to help her.
      I spent about an hour and half typing her application for her, because she did not know how to type. In fact she had never used any Microsoft Program before. I only worked until 10, but I was with her till 10:30. My heart was broken because I knew for a fact that this lady was not qualified for the job she was applying for. I do hope that she will  find a job somewhere that she can be successful.
      This is why libraries exist. They are not places with old books that no body cares about. Libraries function to serve and help people in the community. Whether it be suggesting a book to read, helping with research, or helping fill out an application for a job. Libraries are vital and active. People who say libraries are things of the past have no idea what they are talking about.
 

Celebration

   So, I yesterday I got a letter in the mail saying that I had been approved for an assistantship for the Library School. I am very excited abou it. I am not entirely sure what I will do. I will either work at a library or work for a professor. We will just see what happens in the future.
     I got another letter today saying that I had been approved for a scholarship in the summer. This is really amazing and unexpected. I thought I would only get an assistantship or scholarship. I did not think I would get both. This is truly a blessing.
     Also, I am very happy that my website that I spent weeks building for my Information Technology class is completely finished. I am very proud of it. I created a fan site for my favorite show, Smallville. Here is the link: http://www.bama.ua.edu/~rlburgess/Smallville%202.html

Edible Book Festival

Every April 1, the Library School has the Edible Book Festival. Basically you bring book inspired food or food shaped like books to the festival. It was an awesome experience. It is actually an international day.  I brought a Harry Potter cake.  I think that the best one was a Winnie the Pooh cake that Carla Leake made. I can't wait until next year. Here are some pictures from today:

My First Blog Post

My name is Robert Lee Burgess. I am a library student at the University of Alabama. I have really enjoyed my time in library school. The purpose of this blog will be to share my stories in my library career. I have a job as a student worker at the Information Desk in Gorgas Library. My job is to answer basic reference questions, answer directional questions, fix the printers, and handle small emergencies on the first floor. It is a very enjoyable job. I also volunteer once a month at The Library at The Botanical Gardens. It is a very small library located in the back of the information center at The Botanical Gardens. This summer I will be interning at Vestavia Hills Library in the Forest. I am very excited about it.