Monthly Archives: February 2005

Ani at The Auditorium

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Saturday I went to Chicago to see Ani DiFranco at The Auditorium Theatre.  She was amazing as usual!  Just her and bassist Todd Sickafoose.  The opener, Andrew Bird, joined them for a few songs near the end.  Andrew plays guitar, violin, glockespiel, and whistles.  He uses a sample pedal to add layers.  Simply amazing performance! 

Went up earlier in the day to hang out with my friend Ace.  Had a nice time.  Unfortunately, by the end of the show I had a massive headache right in the base of my neck/top of my spine.  It still isn’t completely gone.  I’ve been getting these infrequently over the past 6 months or a year or so.  I seem to remember having my 1st in Normal before moving here.  I should’ve just spent the night at Ace’s but I drove home anyway.  Stopped at the 1st rest stop and napped for about 2 hours but it was cold.  I finally made it home at 3:50 AM.  Tried to make a massage appointment yesterday but it had to be today at 11 AM.  I sure hope it helps!

The Auditorium Theatre.  What can I say?  It sure was nice to get back to that visually and aurally lovely theater.  I’m not sure when the last time I was there or even who all I saw there, but I’ll never forget seeing Muddy Waters, circa Hard Again, with Johnny Winter and Pinetop Perkins there (1976 or ’77?)  I certainly will never forget seeing the Grateful Dead there for their Bicentennial Tour in 1976!  I am so glad that the Auditorium is still in business.

Must-have book “Empires of the Word”

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Thanks to Nicole  at A Capital Idea I have added another must-have book to my Wish List—"Empires of the Word: a language history of the world" by Nicholas Ostler.

If you like words you should be reading Nicole’s blog.

  It really is far more interesting than its subtitle ("A copy-editing blog covering grammar and newspapers like they’re going out of style.") makes it sound.   Sorry Nicole, no harm meant and maybe that sounds jazzy to some but it just doesn’t do much for me.   But, her blog does tickle my mind in the all the right places.

Work creates illness

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Sure wish I could complain about work here in detail, but not a good decision so I’ll keep it generic.

I’m really starting to feel crappy this evening and it comes from the stress of work again.  We had a major change implemented right at the beginning of the new semester.  It was badly implemented and has caused us no end of headaches as we try to help all of our users to deal with this.  This change directly affects a monetary benefit.  Thus, when the various and multiple manifestations of the problem arose they "cost" the user.  I had been repeatedly told stories (because I asked many times) that quotas would be reset, we weren’t counting, we were but weren’t charging, and so on.  Soooo, on several occasions when a user had a problem I did not record it and assured them it would be fixed (soon).  Well, most of the bugs have finally been worked out but nothing on the cost recovery front yet.  I started looking at my quota and my log and guess what?  We have been counting and we have been charging! 

I got a little riled to say the least, and as is usual the first person I should be addressing this to was not available.  Great guy, just very busy.  Finally went and talked to his boss and got the "straight story," which I had just figured out.  But, yes, we were going to reset quotas.  He made a call and it is supposed to be happening.  I’ll be watching to be sure.

So maybe I jumped the gun and increased my own stress levels.  Well, duh, that would be something new for me.  I don’t mind that fault in myself so much though when it is on behalf of my users.  We bust our butts for our users and they generally do think we do a great job for them.  We could do so much of a better job though.  Things are (very) slowly progressing but damn….

So, I made myself sick again.  I’m not sure that this time I’ll get off so easy.  Been feeling a little something (not quite sure what) lately but it hasn’t exactly been positive.  Just hope if it does degenerate that it passes quickly.  LEEP weekend is in a week and a half and that will be busy; need to be healthy.

Been taking it easy this evening and looking at blogs I haven’t read before.  Certainly some interesting things out there, e.g. Bitch. Ph.D.  Not exactly sure how relaxing it is but it sure is interesting.  Wish I could have an attitude like hers and her husband’s on occasion, but then I don’t see how I ever will.  Not that mine is bad—just a bit straightlaced.  Of course, with the way my love life is the point is moot anyway.  Anyway, back to the relaxing; and yes, I’ll continue to make myself sick on my user’s/patron’s behalf.

Update: Quotas were reset.

Happy Birthday ‘Old Boy’

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ain’t it hard to stumble
when you’ve got no place to fall
in this whole wide world
yes i got no place at all

ain’t it hard to stumble
when you’ve got no place to fall
in this whole wide world
yes i got no place at all

cause i’m a stranger here
i’m a stranger everywhere
i would go home, but honey
i’m a stranger there

hitched up my buggy
and i saddled my black mare
gonna find me a fair deal
in this world somewhere

hitched up my buggy
and saddled my black mare
gonna find me a fair deal
in this world somewhere

cause i’m a stranger here
i’m a stranger everywhere
i would go home, but honey
i’m a stranger there

looked down the track
just as far as i could see
and a little bitty hand
kept a-wavin’ back at me

looked down the track
just as far as i could see
and a little bitty hand
just a-wavin’ back at me

cause i’m a stranger here
i’m a stranger everywhere
i would go home, but honey
i’m a stranger there

i’m a stranger there
i’m a stranger there

"i’m a stranger here" (public domain) as sung by Lambchop on the Hank EP.

I chose this song to begin my day, the 1st of this my 46th year,
because it resonates with several interrelated themes of my life.  Some
of these themes have been life-long although they have only been really
felt these last few years.

It seems I have been traveling my entire life.  Moving from Normal
to Urbana this past summer was rather traumatic for me.  I had lived
there 6 years and it had become my ‘home.’  Sure, I did not like living
in an apartment and dreamed of having my own house someday.  I have no
idea what the hell "the American Dream" is but I know that for me it
does not involve living in an apartment. 

Six years you say, so what?  Well those six years were the 2nd
longest that I have ever lived anywhere in my life!  The longest was
about 9 years, but they ended when I was about 14, and they also
included 2 different places technically.

I’m so very tired of being a ‘stranger’ everywhere I go.  And
yes, this is both metaphorical and literal.  There’s an awful lot going
on this head of mine on these issues and I myself don’t even yet know
what they are entirely.  It may not be as depressing as it was before,
but it is and probably will always be a very melancholy subject for me.

cause i’m a stranger here
i’m a stranger everywhere
i would go home, but honey
i’m a stranger there

Happy Birthday to me….

Do SUVs Make You Stupid?

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A wonderful piece that I wish I could say I wrote.   I can’t, but at least we share the same first name.

Do SUVs Make You Stupid?
Pointless, dangerous and vain as ever, land tanks still sell millions. Only one explanation possible

You can see it in the eyes of most every new SUV buyer as they stare, wide eyed and overwhelmed, at the massive vehicles in the showroom: some sort of veil drops over their eyes, some sort of weird opiate pumps into their brains and they lose all sense of reason or common sense or environmental concern and their ego balloons and their testosterone kicks up three notches and they go into some sort of spasm of denial about how purchasing one of these things will, in fact, contribute quite heartily to the overall ill health of their own bodies and the planet as a whole, not to mention the very reason we are so desperately, violently at war.

…

But, really, we have to just admit it: the SUV is hypocrisy incarnate. It is the perfect emblem for the American view, for our position in the world: gluttonous, vain, dangerous to almost everyone else on the road, mostly useless (over 85 percent of SUVs never see a dirt road, much less need 4-wheel drive), ugly as hell and as graceful or practical as a school bus on an ice-skating rink.

Mark Morford does far more than accuse, believe me.  He shows up the myth of roominess, safety, feelings of invincibility, and so on.  Go ahead, read it.  The catharsis just may do you some good.

Analysis of Entry-level Librarian Jobs

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Haven’t had a chance to read the whole article or judge its methodology yet, but this article, An Analysis of Entry-Level Librarian Ads Published in American Libraries, 1982-2002 by Sproles and Ratledge should be very interesting to those of us in school and all the recent library school grads complaining about the lack of entry-level positions.

From the conclusion:

Overall it appears that today’s entry-level librarian will have the following qualities:

  • They will have an ALA-MLS degree.
  • They will have a high level of computer/automation knowledge and/or experience. At a minimum they will be a skilled user of the web, e-mail, desktop computer hardware, peripherals, and software.
  • They may also have a fair degree of basic computer troubleshooting skills and the ability to create relatively complex web sites.
  • Most will have a significant level of knowledge of, and/or experience in, their specific area of specialization or interest.
  • They will exhibit a high degree of communication ability and interpersonal skills.
  • They will have a high degree of diversity awareness and ability to work well with others regardless of background.
  • They will show evidence of scholarship or scholarly ability.

Read, study, and think about all of those points people.  I may not have the best self-esteem but I have most of my peers in school beat on all of those points right now.  You want to be a librarian?  Do your research and prepare yourself.  No one is going to give you a job just because you graduated from school.  One place to start is to read the above article. 

The journal, Electronic Journal of Academic and Special Librarianship is peer-reviewed and free.  Above article is from v. 5 no. 2-3 (Fall 2004), ISSN 1704-8532. 

Truth and Falsehood

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I told my 1st story today in Storytelling.  I went last which was tough but it went OK.  Here is the story I told:

Truth and Falsehood

Once upon a time, and a time before that, and maybe, maybe even in our own time, Truth and Falsehood met at a crossroads.

After exchanging greetings, Falsehood asked Truth how the world was treating her.

"How goes it with me?" said Truth.   "Each year is worse than the last."

"I can see the plight you are in," said Falsehood, glancing at Truth’s ragged clothes.  "Why, even your breath stinks!"

"Not a bite has passed my lips these 3 days."  "Wherever I go, I have troubles, not only for myself, but for those few who love me still.  It’s no way to live," she sighed.

"You have only yourself to blame," Falsehood told her.  "Come with
me.  You’ll see better days.  We’ll dress you in fine clothes like me,
and you’ll have plenty to eat.  Only you must not oppose anything I
say." 

Truth consented, just this once, to go and eat with Falsehood as she
was so hungry she could barely keep upright.  They set out together and
soon came to a great city.  Going to the best hotel, full of people
enjoying their entertainments, they sat and ate of the very best.  When
many hours had gone by, and most of the people had gone off to other
distractions, Falsehood rapped his fist on the table.  The hotelkeeper
himself came up to see to their wants, for Falsehood looked like a
great nobleman.  He asked of what they desired.

"How much longer am I to wait for my change from the sovereign I
gave the boy who set the table?" asked Falsehood.  Then Falsehood grew
angry and began to shout, saying that he never would have believed that
such a great hotel would rob people who came there to eat, but that he
would keep it in mind for the future, and he threw a sovereign at the
hotelkeeper.  "There," he shouted, "bring me the change!"

Fearing that his hotel would get a bad name, the hotelkeeper would
not take the sovereign, and he even gave change from the reputed
sovereign of the argument.  With that he began to box the ears of the
boy who could not remember taking the coin.  The boy began to cry, and
protested that he had not taken the sovereign, but as no one believed
him, he sighed deeply and said, "Alas, unhappy Truth, where are you?
Are you no more?"

"No, I am here," said Truth, through clenched teeth, "but I had not
eaten for three days, and now I may not speak.  You must find the right
of it by yourself, my tongue has been tied."

When they got outside, Falsehood burst out laughing and said to
Truth, "You see how I contrive things?"  "Isn’t life better like this?"

"Better I should die of hunger," said Truth, "than do the things you
do."  So they parted forever, or at least until Truth, she again became
complacent.

I (slightly) adapted this story from "Favorite Folktales from around
the World" edited by Jane Yolen.  New York: Pantheon Books, c1986.  The
main changes I made were to the beginning and the ending.  I changed
those because I wanted people to understand that the fight for truth is
an ongoing, eternal struggle that won’t be magically fixed one day when
Truth turns her back on Falsehood.  I also changed Truth’s gender as I
agree that Reason (reason), and by proxy Truth (truth), has been
coopted as a masculine virtue for far too long.  This story just speaks
to my philosophical side, but more importantly, it speaks so very
deeply to our current situation in America—"Wherever I go, I have
troubles, not only for myself, but for those few who love me still.
It’s no way to live."

Must be tough to be white…and rich in America

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Along with the many other things "our man in Washington" says vs. what he does, how do we put up with things like this?

Blaming Black Men

If President Bush is serious about reaching out to the African-American
community, his time would be more wisely spent addressing countless
inequalities faced by African Americans in the U.S. today, like unequal
access to health care, a higher incidence of unemployment, a
disproportionate poverty rate and a higher rate of deadly youth
violence. Instead, he has systematically cut programs designed to help
combat these very issues.

Read the article and then take action.  And if you think he’s going to take care of your poor white self, think again JimBob!  See the following:
Bush’s Middle Class Tax Hike
Bush’s Class War Budget by Paul Krugman

It may sound shrill to describe President Bush as someone who takes food from the mouths of babes and gives the proceeds to his millionaire friends. Yet his latest budget proposal is top-down class warfare in action.

This President is a complete and unmitigated liar!  Yes, yes, I know, so were most of the others before him, especially that Clinton guy.  But, think for a second will you?  Wild Bill lied about his willy and what it may have engaged in in the Oval Office.  And yes, I have no doubt that he lied about things of real import—in fact, I am convinced of it.  But Bush is guilty of far more damaging lies than any President since I was born a week shy of 46 years ago.  He is destroying this country and the world.

Storytime

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Oh how I want to comment on the proposed budget and related issues tied to Bush’s comments and what he is actually doing, but that will have to wait as I have homework.   And besides, I really do not want to give myself that headache tonight.  Lest you think I am speaking metaphorically, I am not.  Those sorts of topics, be it thinking or writing about them, literally give me headaches.

I am taking Storytelling this semester.  Why, you may ask?  Because I tell many (we all do), and usually poorly.  Besides, it has far more practical applications than one may think.  Anyway, my first telling is coming up this Monday.  Yep, Valentine’s Day.  I sort of looked for a ‘loverly’ sort of story but couldn’t really find one I liked enough to tell.  Besides, we are supposed to search until we find one that really speaks to us—so I figured the whole theme-based idea wasn’t such a great idea.

But I found my story today!  Now I need to adapt it a little and start learning it.  Go ahead, can you guess?  I should tell you that our 1st has to be a folktale.  Well…he says suspensefully.  It is from one of our texts [Favorite Folktales from around the World edited by Jane Yolen.] and is the 1st one in the section entitled "The Getting of Wisdom."  From Greece, or from our present circumstances, I will be telling "Truth and Falsehood."    Need I say more?