Category: musings

traffic rant

Today while driving with the summer traffic on I-90 to Seattle, I had a road engineering idea that I think might resolve some of the issues I had with my fellow drivers. Rather than just two lanes going both directions, we really need four: the fast lane, the slow lane, the truck lane, and the … Continue reading “traffic rant”

Today while driving with the summer traffic on I-90 to Seattle, I had a road engineering idea that I think might resolve some of the issues I had with my fellow drivers. Rather than just two lanes going both directions, we really need four: the fast lane, the slow lane, the truck lane, and the drives-like-a-grandpa lane. Today, the slow lane and drives-like-a-grandpa cars kept coming over into the fast lane to pass other slow and drives-like-a-grandpa cars that were going a fraction slower than them, thus causing the rest of us to brake suddenly and curse loudly. I’m glad no one was in the car with me, because I used the word “fuck” in many forms and frequently.

checkout coupon printer

I haven’t been feeling well today, and I suspect that this morning’s hike didn’t help that, either. So, after sitting in my miserably hot house all evening, I decided to take action and get some ice cream and juice from the store. I also picked up a box of candied ginger to help settle my … Continue reading “checkout coupon printer”

I haven’t been feeling well today, and I suspect that this morning’s hike didn’t help that, either. So, after sitting in my miserably hot house all evening, I decided to take action and get some ice cream and juice from the store. I also picked up a box of candied ginger to help settle my stomach a bit. Apparently, this combination of purchases equated to a need for a coupon for maxi pads, or at least that’s what the algorithm in the checkout coupon printer’s computer concluded. If I had written the program, I would have had it print out a coupon for cold medicine or throat drops.

Maybe it’s because the orange sherbet I bought has dark chocolate chips?

library visionary

Linda Absher asks, “Where is the true library visionary?” She continues: “I’m asking this question in all seriousness. After ten-odd (at times very odd) years in the profession, we’re not only fretting over the same problems I read about in library school, we’re now obsessing over the exponential rate at which these problems grow. We … Continue reading “library visionary”

Linda Absher asks, “Where is the true library visionary?” She continues:

“I’m asking this question in all seriousness. After ten-odd (at times very odd) years in the profession, we’re not only fretting over the same problems I read about in library school, we’re now obsessing over the exponential rate at which these problems grow. We worry about our obsolescence; we ponder about The Future of Librarianship, the salvation usually being whatever is trendy or sexy at the moment. And we wonder if anyone besides us notices (much less understand) what we do.

I hope I’m not too harsh, yet I can’t help but feel that we as a profession fall painfully short when it comes to coming up with an idea, a vision–a something that inspires the MLS/MLIS masses to greatness. We’re eloquent when it comes to reacting to threats: the Patriot Act, censorship, disappearing budgets, et al. But when it comes to going beyond defensiveness, we lose it. Other than a constant (and–thanks to increasingly sophisticated search engines and other information gathering technologies–justified) preoccupation with survival, we lack a true vision that makes our minds race or inspires us to go beyond just making through the next fiscal year or technological innovation. In other words, we have no post-millennium Ranganathan.”

I wish I could give a better answer, but I must admit that I don’t know who this person is or what kinds of things we should be worrying about as a profession, if the above are not enough. It’s good to ponder it, though. Particularly in light of Tuesday’s post.

I look up to certain librarians in the blogosphere and in my professional circles; however, I don’t think that any one of them is the kind of visionary voice for the profession like Ranganathan was. In thinking about Ranganathan and his five laws, I begin to wonder if we really need another visionary right now. It seems to me that we are still not following those laws to the best of our abilities, or at least not when “book” is translated to “library resource” or some such thing. We are often stuck on #4 with library policies and cumbersome technology that does not save the time of the reader. I think it is the gadgety solutions to this problem that causes some librarians to geek out over The Next Best Thing, but we also must remember law #2 and that not every library user will want to use The Next Best Thing, so we still must find a solution for them.

Perhaps my response to Linda is not, “I don’t know,” but rather, “We don’t need another grand visionary until we’ve fully implemented the vision of Ranganathan for our times.”

nasig part two

Knowing that it was my only opportunity to do so, I slept in again on Thursday. At some time close to noon, Bonnie and I made our way down to Hell’s Kitchen for lunch. I had drank a bit too much the night before, so I didn’t have my normal appetite. However, the mahnomin porridge … Continue reading “nasig part two”

Knowing that it was my only opportunity to do so, I slept in again on Thursday. At some time close to noon, Bonnie and I made our way down to Hell’s Kitchen for lunch. I had drank a bit too much the night before, so I didn’t have my normal appetite. However, the mahnomin porridge was excellent and just what I needed. They also made an Americano good enough to rival Starbucks. After brunch, we headed over to the conference hotel and picked up our registration packets. I had a few minutes to kill before it was time to meet for the NASIG skits rehearsal. (Yes, there was much teasing from my friends about me being a thespian.) This year was the 20th NASIG conference, so there was a bit more hoopla in the schedule of events, the skits being part of the anniversary part/dinner on Friday evening.

The opening session of the conference was much the same as previous ones with various members of the conference and program planning committees speaking about how great it was to be at NASIG again. The local historian and pictures segment was interesting if only for the flavor of the bias the historian had. He spent most of the time showing pictures of buildings in Minneapolis and Saint Paul that no longer existed along side of pictures of dismal office buildings and freeways that have replaced the old buildings. I understand his dismay over the period of time when old buildings were demolished and their history and unique architectural design unvalued, but really, we got the message and there was no need to continue to harp on it.

The Awards and Recognition Committee decided to create a new award to be given periodically to members who have significantly contributed to the organization. The first award winner is Tina Feick, who later showed her thespian skills in the NASIG skit about dorm life. Given the years she has been a part of the organization, the campus conference experience must have been quite familiar to her, and that came through in her performance on Friday evening.

nasig part one

Last year’s planes, trains, and automobiles route to the NASIG conference was a fun experience, but the schedule was such that I arrived right before the beginning and left immediately after the closing session. This meant that I missed the social networking aspect of the conference at the beginning and that I didn’t have time … Continue reading “nasig part one”

Last year’s planes, trains, and automobiles route to the NASIG conference was a fun experience, but the schedule was such that I arrived right before the beginning and left immediately after the closing session. This meant that I missed the social networking aspect of the conference at the beginning and that I didn’t have time to do a bit of sight-seeing and decompress at the end. This year I decided to arrive a bit early and stay a bit longer, and I’m glad I did.

I landed in Minneapolis on Tuesday evening, and my college friends Becky & Michelle picked me up. We stayed up late catching up on the years gone by, and then I caught some sleep on their rather comfortable couch. The next morning, Michelle and I went out and found a few geocaches hidden in the neighborhood. One more notch on my GPSr for a new geocaching convert. We went to a Panera for lunch, and I was able to make use of the free Wi-Fi to log our finds.

Afterwards, Michelle introduced me to one of her hobbies — Half Price Books. I found a nifty Wonder Woman doll and colorful book on the history of Wonder Woman, as well as several sci-fi novels that I have had on my wish list. I would have shopped for more, but I couldn’t remember the titles and authors of everything I’m looking for. It’s probably good that I didn’t, since my suitcase was busting at the seams by the time I left Minneapolis.

Later in the evening, we met up with other college friends now living in Minneapolis at Psycho Suzie’s Motor Lounge for a dinner filled with good food (beer battered cheese curds

trekkie

I’ve been coming to terms with my inner Trekkie lately. It all started when I began reading Wil Wheaton’s blog on a regular basis. He writes more about his family and poker obsession than about Trek, but it began reminding me of my absolute fanaticism as a teenager. I picked up a couple of lots … Continue reading “trekkie”

I’ve been coming to terms with my inner Trekkie lately. It all started when I began reading Wil Wheaton’s blog on a regular basis. He writes more about his family and poker obsession than about Trek, but it began reminding me of my absolute fanaticism as a teenager. I picked up a couple of lots of old paperbacks (TOS and TNG) on eBay last fall, and as my reading log shows, I’ve been steadily making my way through them. It’s been fun to re-connect with the characters, and to appreciate the abilities of some fine science fiction writers. I spent most of the past two years on cozy murder mysteries, and it was refreshing to have something different for a change.

I also bought and read Wheaton’s book, Just a Geek. In the book, Wheaton writes about his struggle with coming to terms with Trek and what it means for his life and career. In reading his acceptance of Star Trek in his life, it helped me embrace my own geeky love for the television show. It’s okay to be a Trek fan.

A few weeks ago, I decided to give Netflix a whirl. I loaded up my queue with the entire seventh season of TNG and began making up for lost time. I missed most of that season while I was in college, and I haven’t had television consistently enough since then to catch the re-runs. It’s been like reuniting with old friends, and even more so since the seventh season episodes seem to focus more on individual character development in a bittersweet-this-is-the-last-season kind of way.

There’s a documentary of Star Trek fans called Trekkies, and it’s hosted by Denise Crosby, who played Tasha Yar on TNG. Tasha was my first serious TV character crush, even to the point of creating a little shrine to her on my dresser in the height of my fanaticism. So, not only is it a documentary about people like me, but the actress playing my favorite character is the host. Of course, I had to watch it, and into the Netflix queue it went.

The DVD arrived today, and I watched it this evening. It was the reality check I needed. I expected that the documentary would focus on the more extreme fans, and it did, with some coverage of the average types. After watching it, I realized that even though I may have been obsessed with Star Trek fifteen years ago, I’m not quite so much anymore. I’m a fan, sure, but not a fanatic. It’s one part of my own geekiness, but I’ll never live and breathe it like I once did.

star trek is dead

Orson Scott Card writes, “So they’ve gone and killed “Star Trek.” And it’s about time.” As long as it’s the twisted wreck of Star Trek that Rick Berman is creating, I agree whole-heartedly with him. However, I am still mourning the end of Star Trek: the Next Generation — the only Gene Roddenberry version that … Continue reading “star trek is dead”

Orson Scott Card writes, “So they’ve gone and killed “Star Trek.” And it’s about time.” As long as it’s the twisted wreck of Star Trek that Rick Berman is creating, I agree whole-heartedly with him. However, I am still mourning the end of Star Trek: the Next Generation — the only Gene Roddenberry version that was allowed to grow and develop over time.

As Card points out in his commentary, TOS was hampered by television convention of its time, and the characters were never able to truly develop in the show, although I would argue that the published book series provided ample opportunity for that to happen. I will also concede that TOS was not necessarily good science fiction, particularly compared to what was being written at the time. However, Roddenberry never intended to be a science fiction writer. His experience was with the Western genre. As it has been quoted many times, Star Trek was meant to be a “Wagon Train to the stars.”

Twenty-odd years later, Star Trek fans were given a new generation of characters and plot lines. I grew up watching re-runs of TOS, but I wasn’t a fan until I saw TNG. Back in 1988, I was a geeky junior high kid with few friends and too much time for watching TV, but I found solace in this vision of the future presented to me by Roddenberry and the script writers for TNG. It was my interest in this television show that introduced me to the science fiction genre. I would not have read any of Clark’s books had I not first come to love Picard, Data, Yar, and all of the rest of the ST:TNG characters.

So I say to you, Mr. Clark, do not look down your nose and scoff at the demise of the Star Trek universe. Be grateful to it for making science fiction accessible to the general public, and for paving the path to those series that you deem to be good science fiction.

Thanks to Bookslut for the heads-up.

core journals

Rather than spending tremendous time and energy attempting to come up with a functional allocation formula for the journal collection, perhaps it may be more useful to come up with a core journal list specifically for my institution and a long-term collection development plan based on that core journal list? Hm.

Rather than spending tremendous time and energy attempting to come up with a functional allocation formula for the journal collection, perhaps it may be more useful to come up with a core journal list specifically for my institution and a long-term collection development plan based on that core journal list? Hm.

english major wannabe

Perhaps some latent English major talent has finally decided to surface, and it took six years away from the Mathematics textbooks for it to bubble up?

The route of my walk to and from home (for the time being) passes by a printing business. Before, I have only glimpse the inner operations through a window, but today when I passed by on my way home from lunch, the garage door entrance was open. A distinctive scent wafted out through the opening, and for some reason, my mind started coming up with a description for the scent. Here it is:

the metalic tang of ink mingling with the pungent bleach scent of new paper

Perhaps some latent English major talent has finally decided to surface, and it took six years away from the Mathematics textbooks for it to bubble up? Or maybe I’ve been listening to A Prairie Home Companion too much.

cow morning

Large bovine visitors this morning.

My regular weekend gig is house-sitting out in the country for some friends who are touring musicians. It’s very pleasant out here and they have lots of cats and dogs to keep me company. The fuzz-heads don’t like to let me sleep in much, though. Usually their technique involves several cats walking across my sleeping body or an occasional solitary bark from one of the dogs.

This morning was different. Maggie was barking insistently that she needed to go outside NOW. I stumbled out of bed and headed for the back door, pulling on some clothes as I went. As I was passing through the kitchen, I saw something move up the driveway, but it was out of sight before I could look closer. I knew it was a large thing, so it wasn’t a chicken or some other wild animal. I assumed human and that I had an early morning visitor.

Maggie & Sophie dashed out of the back door barking their heads off, and I stood there stunned as a small herd of cows were hanging out under the apple trees. I know for a fact that my friends do not have cows, and even if they did, they would not keep them in the back yard. There was a human trying to herd the cows away, and presently they had moved out of the back yard towards the path up the hill to the barn. Mind you, that too is still on our property (“our property” meaning the property owned by my friend’s landlord, but having lived out here most weekends and for a while weeks on end, it feels like mine, too). They didn’t stay on the path, though, and ended up making their own off to the right. I thought, “Well, that was interesting,” and headed back to the house.

I stopped for a moment and got a shot of one of the new features in the back yard. That was when I heard some noise coming from down the hill (yes, still on our property). I don’t think it was the same cows, because it should have taken them longer to get there, but maybe they took a shortcut. In any case, I made sure I was in position to get a picture of them crossing the road.

When my friends get home, I’ll find out if the landlord is leasing the back fields to a cattle farmer neighbor, or if the herd just got loose and came for a visit. In any case, it was not what I expected I’d ever wake up to.

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