Warning to fellow Potter fans

Since I won't be able to get the new book for a few weeks, I'd just like to say that anyone who spoils the book for me will die a painful death.

Ditto The Wilding.

There are very few things I hate being spoiled -- books and Doctor Who are the two biggest.

Hey, Mslulu! Check this out!

This will mostly appeal to my pop culture-specializing sociology-trained friend, but others might also wish to look for it:

Everything Bad is Good for You: How Today's Popular Culture is Actually Making Us Smarter, by Steven Johnson.

The gist is apparently that today's television is teaching people to juggle various plotlines, backstories, and bits of data in ways never before necessary. Caveat: That's just my sense from the review I read; I haven't actually read the book.

Here's the Amazon listing. Reading the reviews, it's interesting to note the wide disparity of opinions on this topic, and fairly easy -- in my opinion -- to see the bias of the reviewers.

Hmmm.

One of my coworkers has been tapped for an interview for another position in another department. When I got back from lunch, my boss pulled me aside and asked if, in the event that Alex gets hired for the other job, I would want Alex's.

Considering that the job would come with a promotion and a $1.25 raise, I said yes. So now I'm doubly rooting for Alex to get the job.

Incidentally, I did the math: Even if I got the tutor position I've been considering at the highest possible hourly wage, I would make $200 less than if I stayed in the Library and took over Alex's position. This is because even though the hourly rate on the tutoring job is higher, the maximum hours per week is about half that of the library position.