My first final is in 8 hours, and I am so jangled up, I can’t sleep.

It’s English, so I’ll be fine.  Assuming I remember that while it’s fine for me to say ‘fuck’ three times every sentence here, it’s not okay when I’m being marked.

It’s 4am, and I am going to bed, at last.

I’m pretty sure my shoes are ruined.  I got puked on.

I need friends my own age, cause these kids can’t hold their liquor, and I am so very fucking tired of being the mother hen.

shoesonwrong:

Are mommy and daddy getting a divorce?

At this point, the clown wig may do more harm than good.  You may need to break out the tiny car.

funsizebytes:

As I said, I’m at the library, researching whether I could use ssh tunnels to subvert their filtering software (called WatchGuard), which blocks, among other things, Twitter:

Answer: no, because they also have managed to terminate SSH/SCP connections (I believe they also block VPN). FTP is allowed.

They had previously blocked BoingBoing but it is now available.

They are not blocking Tumblr, or Brizzly, or (and I am not making this up):

https://twitter.com/

which means that I can’t access http://twitter.com/ but I can access https://twitter.com/.

They also block YouTube and Google video. (http://vimeo.com/ is available.)

And Google Image search. Presumably because of the boobs.

Flickr is also blocked.

And http://del.icio.us/

And http://stumbleupon.com/

http://www.reddit.com/ is available, but

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&safe=off&client=safari&rls=en&num=100&newwindow=1&ei=qFIdS6v0MYya8AbNt6XTAw&sa=X&oi=spell&resnum=0&ct=result&cd=1&ved=0CAYQBSgA&q=reddit&spell=1

is denied because “Banned combination phrase found.”

Facebook is available.

By far the strangest decision, to me, is that there is one, and only one, room which is completely closed off from the rest of the library, meaning that it could be the quietest room in the library. Except that there is a TV on. With the volume turned up just barely loud enough to be audible:

the sign says:

Attention Patrons

Do not adjust or turn off television

The TV is tuned to CNN headline news (I believe that the last time I was here it was set to MSNBC).

My question is why. Why put a TV in the library? Why force it on people who don’t want it?

Anyway, that’s the result of my research.

That is fucking crazy.  My mother is a librarian, and on a daily basis has to tell people why her library won’t install filters or blocks on anything.  Plenty of parents complain to her that their kid saw a boob on GIS, and her response is, “If you will review the Terms Of Use agreement you signed when you registered Little Billy for his Internet Use ID, it clearly states that you take full responsibility for the internet use of your child, and will supervise his use of the internet.  So, you’re supposed to be with your child any time he is signed into our service.”  Sure, lots of people violate the policy - which includes stuff like not looking at porn - but the library decided it’s not their place to babysit adults as they surf the web.  As my mom pointed out, they certainly don’t restrict anyone’s access to any book in the place, why would they restrict the internet?

shoesonwrong:

And as soon as I said the words, “He doesn’t live at the address you gave me,” My agency case worker (liason? person who sets stuff up and does stuff?) said, “That is unacceptable. Where do they live?” I told her, and she was aghast, saying she would never have placed me with a kid that far away because it’s just not feasible and doesn’t facilitate a good mentoring situation. I then brought up his weird schedule, and she was also pretty pissed about that — not that he’s in a tutoring program four days a week, but that neither she nor I were informed about it until after we’d already started the process. She’s going to call Zip’s mom, tell her that I am unable to continue with Zip, look into his living situation further, and also contact Zip’s sister’s mentor. Zip’s sister also has a mentor through this agency, and presumably that mentor is being jerked around by Zip’s mom as well.

I still feel crappy about the whole situation, but when the agency employee was royally pissed off about the situation and totally on my side, I at least felt some relief. I was worried that I’d have to defend myself to the agency. I still feel bad for Zip. He waited for almost two years to get a mentor, and then I had to bail on him.

Speaking of all this, are you following fosterhood? That woman is pretty much my hero.

You did the right thing - for you, and for Zip.  If mom is providing the mentoring agency with fraudulent information, it bears looking into.  The living situation for that kid may not be healthy, or even safe, and that definitely needs some investigation.  You should especially not be spreading yourself too thinly, or taking on too much emotional baggage.  You’re volunteering to mentor, which is a good thing, but since you’re donating your time, you’re entitled to a certain level of convenience.

GODDAMN, IT IS 5:30!  WHY ARE YOU HAVING SEX IN THE LAUNDRY ROOM?  AGAIN!

Fuck, I hate my neighbours.  Also, I’m googling laundromats in the area, otherwise I will not have clean undies for tomorrow*.

*Well, I will have clean undies, but they’re the ‘do-me-on-the-first-date-party-panties’, and aren’t really designed for wear on ‘Clean The Apartment Saturday’.