Icon by @ThatSpookyAgent. Call me Tir or Julian. 37. He/They. Queer. Twitter: @tirlaeyn. ao3: tirlaeyn. BlueSky: tirlaeyn. 18+ Only. Star Trek. The X-Files. Sandman. IwtV. OMFD. Definitionless in this Strict Atmosphere.
Kalpana Chawla was born on March 17, 1962 in Karnal. Her official date of birth was altered to 1 July 1961 to allow her to join school underage.While other children of her age dressed their Barbie dolls, Kalpana liked to draw the pictures of airplanes.
She moved to the United States in 1982 where she obtained a Master of Science degree in aerospace engineering from the University of Texas at Arlington in 1984. Determined to become an astronaut even in the face of the Challenger disaster, Chawla went on to earn a second Masters in 1986 and a PhD in aerospace engineering in 1988 from the University of Colorado at Boulder…
Her first space mission began on November 19, 1997, as part of the six-astronaut crew that flew the Space Shuttle Columbia flight STS-87. Chawla was the first Indian-born woman and the second Indian person to fly in space, following cosmonaut Rakesh Sharma who flew in 1984 on the Soyuz T-11.
Chawla died in the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster which occurred on February 1, 2003, when the Columbia disintegrated over Texas during re-entry into the Earth’s atmosphere, with the death of all seven crew members, shortly before it was scheduled to conclude its 28th mission, STS-107. Just 16 minutes before landing, the space shuttle disintegrated, killing all on board.
You know what I miss? There was a tiny ass library in the tiny ass town where I went to ‘upper elementary’, and it was the greatest. I read all the horse books I wanted from that place. Found the Vampire Chronicles there. Even got help researching Greek Mythology there. The ppl were always so nice and it was so cozy!! It’s not even there anymore. How fucking sad is that.
When I was a kid, my family and I were homeless for a few years. We spent a lot of time at libraries. Libraries will open their doors and their arms to you. Librarians will talk to you about the books you look at but never check out, about the little lizards you see outside the door, about anything. They will support your presence when everyone else is trying to run you out. Libraries are sanctuaries.
When I was in college, I had problems. I didn’t feel comfortable at the college library, but the local one was very close by. I went there all the time. Not even to find anything. Just to be. Altho I did borrow some things. Many of Alan Rickman’s movies for a dollar. Cheap entertainment. Good times.
I’ve only been to the library in this town once. I should go more often. Libraries are so very important. They shape our lives, give us hope and direction and focus.
Love your local library. It loves you.
Does anyone else just scroll through random blogs when they’re bored?
They always have ppl on here taking questions and like 99% of the time I have no idea who the fuck they are.
I mean you can say it’s a cooking competition and not an attitude competition, but do you really want tp advance someone who had a fucking tantrum and tried to walk out?? And them completely ignored all the garnishes?? Like he didn’t recreate any of those damned dishes. He fucking cooked three proteins and that’s it.
Tannoria fucking tried. And yeah she should havr gotten her tenderloin on sooner. But at least she put effort into the garnishes and completing the dishes.
Argh. Grrr. This show is making me dislike Gordan Ramsey.
It is not a stupid question. Even if it is a stupid question, we have been thoroughly trained to answer your question without judgement or second-guessing. Besides, we’re mostly just glad you’re not asking us about the noise the printer is making again.
There are probably (at least) two desks in the library. One is where you check out books and is mostly staffed by people wearing nametags that say “Circulation Clerk.” These people can answer your questions about damaged or missing books, fines, and how many forms of identification we’ll need if you want to get a library card but your mailing address is in Taiwan. The other one is closer to the books and computers and is mostly staffed by people wearing nametags that say “Librarian.” These people can answer your questions about spider extermination, how to rent property to the United States Postal Service, and the number of tropical island nations in which you could theoretically establish the first United States Embassy. We would love to answer these questions for you. It would be a nice change from the printer.
We probably own a 3D printer by now. 3D printers, are cool, right? Please, please come use our 3D printer, it’s so lonely.
We spent a lot of money to hire this woodworker to come and teach a class at the library which you can attend for free. You will probably be the only person between the ages of ten and fifty in attendance, but your presence will fill the librarian with an unnameable joy. They will float back to their manager in a daze. “A young person came to my program,” they will say. You will have made their entire job worthwhile.
Every time you ask us for a book, movie, or music recommendation, a baby librarian gets their first cardigan.
Somewhere in the library, there is a form. If you fill out this form with your name and library card number and the details of the thing you are looking for, we will find you the thing. Sometimes the answer is “the thing is in Great Britain and they will not send it to us,” but more often the thing will just appear on hold for you, and one day you will pick up a copy of that out-of-print book you never thought you would read and maybe you will say, “Wow, the library is amazing,” and the librarian’s heart will glow.
Please bring back book #2. The rest of its series misses it very much.
Five dollars is not a large library fine. Believe me, before I started working in libraries, I too wondered how someone could sleep at night, knowing they owed money to the library. When we laugh as you sheepishly apologize for your $2.50 in overdue fees, we are not mocking you, we are thinking of the ten people we sent to debt collection already today.
We really don’t care why you’re checking out Fifty Shades of Grey. Maybe you have a specifically-themed ironic bachelorette party to plan. Maybe you’re working on a thesis paper about mainstream media’s depiction of female sexuality. Maybe you just got curious. We will give you the benefit of the doubt.
Whatever you’re smoking in the family restroom, please stop.
Somewhere on the library’s website, buried under “Links” or “Research” or “On-line Resources,” is a page that a librarian spent a month’s worth of work on. It contains many links to websites you thought everyone knew about, and one to a page that you could never have imagined existed that perfectly solves a problem you never expected to be resolved.
Imagine the kind of person who would think to themselves, “Library school sounds like a thing I should do.” For the most part, you are imagining the kind of person who is now a librarian. We want very much to help you, but we’re not entirely sure how to do that unless you ask. You are not bothering us. Please, come and say hi.
Yes to all of the above. Except our 3D printer is rather busy but still loves all the work.
