random musings from a serialist
Ha! The creative geniuses at ThinkGeek have come up with an RFID Blocking Kit t-shirt. The best part? It’s free. I’m still giggling over the iZilla. Take the iZilla with you anywhere. It’s like having an entire home entertainment system in a handy 30 pound white briefcase. The iZilla can be powered by a standard … Continue reading “rfid blocking kit”
Ha! The creative geniuses at ThinkGeek have come up with an RFID Blocking Kit t-shirt. The best part? It’s free.
I’m still giggling over the iZilla.
Take the iZilla with you anywhere. It’s like having an entire home entertainment system in a handy 30 pound white briefcase. The iZilla can be powered by a standard 120VAC wall outlet, or runs off 16 D size batteries (not included).
If the Lord of the Rings movies hadn’t done so well, I doubt this book would have made it onto the New York Times best seller list, much less reach number one.
My sister gave me a copy of Eragon by Christopher Paolini for Christmas this past year, and last night I finally finished reading it. I’d picked it up a copy while at a friend’s house earlier this month and read the first few chapters, but then life got in the way of finishing it. Last night I decided to read a few more chapters before going to bed (early). Sigh. I finished it at one this morning, and I am still ticked with the author.
This book is a part of a series. At no point must you think that most of the mysteries will be revealed by the end; nor must you think that any conflicts will be resolved, either. Personally, I think it’s cruel to leave a cliffhanger at the end of 508 pages. This is yet another way that the author has poorly ripped off Tolkein. His depiction of Elven and Dwarf societies are very Tolkein-esque, his map of Alaga
So, I’m finally hopping on the blog tag bandwagon. I thought my categories were enough, and I didn’t know how to make the keyword field show in the entry creation process. But now that I have a brand new plugin, I’ve started adding keywords to my posts with Technorati links. I tagged the last however … Continue reading “tagging”
So, I’m finally hopping on the blog tag bandwagon. I thought my categories were enough, and I didn’t know how to make the keyword field show in the entry creation process. But now that I have a brand new plugin, I’ve started adding keywords to my posts with Technorati links. I tagged the last however many entries just now and I will tag future posts, but at 457 entries, I don’t plan to do any retrospective tagging. Heck, I think some of my earlier entries aren’t categorized, either. Probably for the best. There are some things I’d like to forget.
Oh! I had a brainstorm yesterday evening for an article topic, so maybe I’ll get cracking on that soon. After all, I just have to have stuff submitted. If it gets published, well, so much the better.
Bryan McKay has been rocking my world ever since I ran across some of his gender studies essays in is blog Les Faits de la Fiction. He’s articulate and surprisingly self-aware for a member of the dominant paradigm, which is challenging many of my preconceived notions of gender inequity warriors.
Bryan McKay has been rocking my world ever since I ran across some of his gender studies essays in is blog Les Faits de la Fiction. He’s articulate and surprisingly self-aware for a member of the dominant paradigm, which is challenging many of my preconceived notions of gender inequity warriors.
Earlier this month, I finished up an article and sent it to the editor who asked me to write it. So far, that’s how I’ve done most of my publications; I was asked to write them. Now I’m back where I was before, trying to figure out if I have anything scholarly to write about … Continue reading “scholarly-shmolarly”
Earlier this month, I finished up an article and sent it to the editor who asked me to write it. So far, that’s how I’ve done most of my publications; I was asked to write them. Now I’m back where I was before, trying to figure out if I have anything scholarly to write about that hasn’t been covered already by someone else.
Part of the reason why I am concerned about this is because it has recently become apparent that despite prior assurances to the contrary, the provost of my place of work has a rather narrow perspective of what is scholarly, and a significant portion of professional library literature would not fall under that category. If I intend to remain at this institution (and that’s looking less likely), I’m going to have to step up on the scholarly publishing thing. “How we do it good”-type articles won’t cover it. I’ll have to write stuff that looks scholarly to a biologist.
Ugh. I don’t even read half that stuff. For example, I’m more interested in what Jane Librarian writes in her blog about some innovative workflow concept that has improved library services at her place of work than what Joseph P. Librarian writes in College & Research Libraries about the number of libraries using standard workflows and the statistical impact on user services.
Here are the topics I’m interested in that directly relate to what I do every day:
Am I any kind of authority on any of those topics? Hell no. So who am I to even think about writing anything about them that anyone would want to read? I’m not enough of an egotistical poseur to pull that off. Which brings me back to where I started. Trying to find something scholarly to write about that other people would want to read and that I have more than average knowledge about.
LibraryThing creator Tim Spalding was looking for some press coverage of hitting two million books cataloged last week, so I wrote up a little news article for Blogcritics.org. Check it out.
LibraryThing creator Tim Spalding was looking for some press coverage of hitting two million books cataloged last week, so I wrote up a little news article for Blogcritics.org. Check it out.
A few weeks ago, I heard about a new online service that’s sort of like a mashup of Netflix and a swap meet. Members can list CDs they’re willing to swap on la la, along with their wishlist. The system alerts members when one of their available CDs is wanted by another member, at which … Continue reading “la la”
A few weeks ago, I heard about a new online service that’s sort of like a mashup of Netflix and a swap meet. Members can list CDs they’re willing to swap on la la, along with their wishlist. The system alerts members when one of their available CDs is wanted by another member, at which point they have a the choice of sending it to the member in the pre-paid envelope provided by la la, or declining. You can receive one CD for free, but if you want more it’ll cost $1 + $0.49 for shipping. Not bad considering that it costs $0.99+tax for just one song on iTunes. As long as you are sending as much as you’re receiving, you get new music for cheap. So far, I’ve sent out two CDs with no problems and I’m waiting on my first request to arrive. The only down side is that it’s all dependent on what other members are willing to swap. It may cost more to buy a new or used CD elsewhere (or download a bunch of iTunes songs), but you get them as soon as you buy them, and sometimes that’s worth paying for.
I can’t say much about Blown Away by Perry Wynn until after it is published this fall. I was asked by the publisher to read it and write up something they could put on the cover. However, I will say that it is an intriguing bit of speculative fiction and worth picking up.
Isolatr: Helping you find where other people aren’t.
Isolatr: Helping you find where other people aren’t.
I alternately want to throw the monitor displaying the useless manual out the window or burst into tears.
My library purchased the ERM module for III last year. I had a couple of hours of WebEx training in April or May. My notes from it are obscure and useless. I’ve been putting off implementing ERM because it is overwhelmingly huge. Today I decided to try creating some ERM records for an ejournal package rather than simply attaching separate order records to the print bibs. Less than forty-five frustrating minutes later, I have no records created and I am fighting against collapsing into a quivering pile. I alternately want to throw the monitor displaying the useless manual out the window or burst into tears.
I think I need to take some St. John’s Wort and come at this again some other day.
