I am really beginning to think
Nov. 11th, 2003 01:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
camwynthat in this specific physical location I have some limited ability to warp reality to my will. Very, very limited, the kind of thing that really ought to have me forcing myself to wake up only to discover that I've either spent the past ten days or so in a Paradox Realm or else am plugged into some vast device trying to keep me out of real world action. Why do I say this?
Because the power of my Geek Fu has increased to a level where I can walk into two out of three bookstores on a given block in southern California - in an area where people have repeatedly asked me if I would like to go to Tijuana just to say I went (answer: no, not really) - with the vague and fuzzy intent of locating 'books on Canadian history, for preference something to do with either the Mounties or the late 1800's in general', and have it happen. I have come within spitting distance of this poorly formulated intent in two entirely separate bookstores, despite one of the booksellers telling me 'well, yeah, we have a Canadian history section, but it's small - it's not like anything really HAPPENS up there'.
Oh yeah? Then how come you have a bright and shiny hardcover copy of Policing a Pioneer Province: The BC Provincial Police, 1858-1950 by Lynn Stonier-Newman? The answer can only be that my geek fu has evolved to the point where, given enough interest on my part, I can find Canadiana anywhere.
As for my Sinophilia - please. This is California. That's a gimme. All three of the used bookstores had enough books on China, Tibet, and wee bitty Himalayan kingdoms I'd never heard of to build a small house from. I walked past an antique store called Circa that had 3/4 lifesize replicas of the terracotta soldiers of Qin Shihuangdi guarding the entrance. They were wearing Santa Claus hats and fuzzy yellow scarves.
Somehow I rather expect that if I ever travel to Vancouver I had better stay out of their Chinatown, or else the reaction will be so intense that an area several blocks square will temporarily wink out of existence until I can get the geek fu under control.
Because the power of my Geek Fu has increased to a level where I can walk into two out of three bookstores on a given block in southern California - in an area where people have repeatedly asked me if I would like to go to Tijuana just to say I went (answer: no, not really) - with the vague and fuzzy intent of locating 'books on Canadian history, for preference something to do with either the Mounties or the late 1800's in general', and have it happen. I have come within spitting distance of this poorly formulated intent in two entirely separate bookstores, despite one of the booksellers telling me 'well, yeah, we have a Canadian history section, but it's small - it's not like anything really HAPPENS up there'.
Oh yeah? Then how come you have a bright and shiny hardcover copy of Policing a Pioneer Province: The BC Provincial Police, 1858-1950 by Lynn Stonier-Newman? The answer can only be that my geek fu has evolved to the point where, given enough interest on my part, I can find Canadiana anywhere.
As for my Sinophilia - please. This is California. That's a gimme. All three of the used bookstores had enough books on China, Tibet, and wee bitty Himalayan kingdoms I'd never heard of to build a small house from. I walked past an antique store called Circa that had 3/4 lifesize replicas of the terracotta soldiers of Qin Shihuangdi guarding the entrance. They were wearing Santa Claus hats and fuzzy yellow scarves.
Somehow I rather expect that if I ever travel to Vancouver I had better stay out of their Chinatown, or else the reaction will be so intense that an area several blocks square will temporarily wink out of existence until I can get the geek fu under control.
