so i work at a library

So I work at the university library. Doing book repair and conservation. In the fall I will officially start my Library Science and Book Arts graduate program so I can work in a library and maybe do book repair and conservation. So... yeah. Maybe after I have a master's degree they will have to actually pay me more than minimum wage: I've gotten 2 raises since I started and still only make $7.85 an hour. What. I'm pretty sure my more-older colleagues get more money than that. Probably a lot a lot more...

Anyway.

I've been doing almost exclusive work on books from the Cedar Rapids Czech and Slovak Museum that were damaged in the flooding a few years ago. That means I do things like clean crusty flood mud off pages; flatten the books by misting them, putting card stock between the pages, vacuum sealing them like food you want to preserve then putting them in a book press; also aqueously cleaning pages that have dirt that refuses to be removed with soot erasures or PVOH sponges. (If you don't know what most of those words mean, that's ok: I just learned some of them myself the other day.)

I also sometimes learn fun facts about the Czech Republic from the Prague Post newspapers (which are in English). Did you know that contact lenses were invented in Czechoslovakia and that the guy who invented them, under Czech law, was supposed to get 25% of the profits from their sale but when an American company bought the manufacturing rights and the Czech government realized that he would be a billionaire they changed the law so he got less than .5% and the government pocketed the rest and when asked about the change the inventor simply said, "I don't know what I would have done with all that money anyway."? Or that the tuba was invented in Czechoslovakia for the famous Wagner because he wanted a low instrument for his arrangements and the oldest manufactures of the tuba are still in business there? Well know you do know.

So.

Another of the (few) perks of this tedious job is that in the many books I clean I run across amazing pictures of the Czech people which I promptly photograph with my camera cellular device and then disperse via textual picture message to people (generally my husband, my youngest brother, and Harold Miller). However, lucky readers that you are, I have decided that they also need to be shared with the world. So here they are:

This guy looks like Harry Potter. Or at least his near relation. Maybe his father was really Czech and not British after all...

He has a knife between his teeth. A k-nife, I tell you!

Jitka Harazimova is a famous body builder. I don't get female body builders. Or male body builders, for that matter...

These guys are actually Finnish, but this picture was on the front of the entertainment section of the Prague Post one week: I just love their hair. Also, not pictured here, their boots.

I liked this guy's moustache and glasses combo style. His name is Jan Volf.

I was mostly enamored with this gentleman's jacket: check out those toggles! His name is Svatopluk Konicek. Of course it is.

This was a decoration that was at the end of various chapters in one book I was cleaning: I think it looks like a uterus.

I just liked this family portrait of children. The toddler perched uncomfortably on the ottoman, the forced height variation, and, most importantly, the jaunty young lad on the right with his hand on his hip and his foot crossed over the other. Sexy.

Here's a close up so you can also appreciate his stunning ears and come-hither stare. Amazing.

Check out this little Mamasita (or whatever the Czech equivalent of Mamasita is...) I love her dress, her attitude, and, most importantly, her mysterious hair...

This woman reminds me of Kirsten, the American Girl doll (who apparently doesn't exist anymore?! What the freak Mattel? ruining the rain forest and my childhood. Gosh.)

This guy has an AMAZING moustache. It is the photo that is on the front screen of my phone. Behind the clock. That one.

Well, that's all for now. I hope you enjoyed yourselves. Also, the preponderance of amazing Czechs with style.