Monthly Archives: February 2006

Life lately…

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So I make sure the newest member of Team Awesome is OK for shutting down her class and locking up and then make a dash for the bus station.  Dashing and being really out of shape aren’t conducive to "relaxing." Stood around in the cold for about 10 minutes.  Odd vibe, in a non-positive direction, and crowd on bus tonight.  Get home about 9:15 PM and realize that I drove to class/work this afternoon.  The car is back on campus.  Has to be removed in a few hours.  Thirty minute walk away. 

<sigh>

Life.  lately.

</sigh>

It’s in the high 20s and light winds.  Or I could take the 10:14 back to Campus Town.  The walk might be best for me.  Allow me to get a bit of consistent non-hurried exercise, listen to something on the iPod.  Should be nice out if the winds truly are light.

Update:  10:45 PM Back home.  Not necessarily settled in.  It’s more like just walking in the door for the evening.

Took the walk.  Regretted it a bit on occasion, got into a good rythm now and then.  I stopped at another one of our local corner pushermen and got a small hot chocolate with whipped cream to go.  Drank it quickly.  Was tasty.  Crossed quad and went past C.O. Daniels and Kams in ninja stealth mode.  Got car and drove home.

Now I’m on this instead of relaxing.  Invigorating walk though.

And thanks for the reminder Jenny but I don’t need saferide.  But others, feel free.  The weather wasn’t  that bad and I could’ve waited 10 more minutes and taken the bus to Green and 6th, if I hadn’t wanted to walk.  I don’t feel unsafe on any part pf my walk at night, except maybe near Kams and C.O. Daniels.

I got a boat load of indexing homework to do by 1 PM tomorrow.  After that I’m booked until class time in the evening.  So.  I have absolutely no choice about my primary focus after I get up in the morning.  I did read 2 of the 5 articles I have to index.  Underlined some terms.  Not even a start really.  </sigh>

I have some posts started but who knows….

Lure the Fox by Haley Bonar

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I’m really not sure why, but Haley Bonar’s music appeals to me at one or more fundamental levels.  Sparseness.  Openness.  Voice.  Incisive. …

I am completely enamored of Lure the Fox, Haley’s soon-to-be released CD.  The CD release party isn’t even until 17 Mar.  I love buying CDs directly from the artist at a show.  It seems more honest and an all-around more ethical way to engage in commerce.  I’ve seen Haley twice now and I have 2 amazing CDs.

The new CD is certainly different in a way.  Maybe a more grown up loneliness.  Less alcohol on the mind.  Not quite as despondent sounding.  Either way, it is clearly and distinctly Haley.  And that is a very good thing.

Haley played more new songs the other night, but she had played a few of them at the first show.

they say Daedelus
taped his own wings on
and continued to
fly towards the sun
as his father cried
"they will come undone"
that’s when he took the plunge

"hawaii"

…can i hold your paper smile
can i love you for awhile…

…can you sail a paper ship
do we both know how to swim…

"captain captain"

i fell in love with a devilish man
he was only man i knew
i fell in love with a devilish man
he was only man i knew
and he took me to the river and showed me to the water so blue

"devilish man"

And I have no idea why, yet, but I find "too much nothing" to be entirely captivating and entirely haunting at the same time.  I do not know what it means for me nor to me.  For now, I only know it means something.  This song is flawless.  A small but rare gem.

and if you think it’s getting better all the time
you must have too much nothing in your time
you must have too many women on your mind

"too much nothing"

I even changed my blog header to fit the mood.  I’m not feeling as warm and toasty as I was.

the value of voice

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I only have a minute … but I have to pass on this lovely little conversation about "voice" and other related topics.  The follow on discussion in the comments are a wonderful example of how conversation can work in the blogosphere.

"the value of voice" by jesse wilbur at if:book.

Are you reading if:book?  I find it somewhat sporadic as to what I’m interested in, but when they do hit, they hit big.  And comments are generally of high caliber.  I wish I had time to explore even more of the Institute’s site:  The Institute for the Future of the Book.

This is the group Karen Schneider of Free Range Librarian went to hang out with a while back.

Anyway, just wanted to pass along this exquisite little exchange over at if:book.  I wish I had more time to ponder all that was said, consider which parts I agree with and with which caveats, ….  Back to work on the Gross and Taylor article.

<grumble> stupid computer got stupid.  took 20+ minutes just to get the last 2 links in.  not located, just inserted …. </grumble>

Haley and Andrew at the Canopy Club

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Score one more for Mark and Birthday Month (the flowers were one).

The show at the Canopy Club was pretty good.  The venue was better than I expected.  It is like an old movie theater that has been stripped to the outer walls, which have then been painted with jungle scenes.  Haley actually sounded better than she did at the Union (which wouldn’t be hard).  The lyrics were generally understandable, at least to one already familiar with her voice and phrasing.

I don’t think many people were smitten with Haley.  Kind of an acquired taste maybe.  I loved it though; except for all the talking others were doing.

I wasn’t close enough to get decent stage photos with my camera, or I
don’t know how to use it well yet.  I did look up how to do a few
things that might help besides pure auto mode but not much luck.  I
didn’t try exceptionally often either as I couldn’t see over folks for
large swaths of time.

After Haley, Martin Dosh who accompanies Andrew came out and played for about 15 minutes until Andrew joined him.

During this part, I went and talked to Haley, bought her soon to be released CD, Lure the Fox, got it autographed, and had a picture taken of us.

Martin played some really interesting stuff, but it sounded more like concert hall music than stuff I’d play at home.  He plays drums, small keyboard(s), and lots of other things.  He’s another one-man band just like Andrew.

Once Andrew joined him they played for quite a while.  Believe it or not, but they actually had me shaking my little butt and most of the rest of my body.  For me it was anyway.  Still a long way from the formal verb "dancing," mind you.  But maybe it qualifies for some less formal and limited concept underneath "dancing."  In other words, I was definitely enjoying it.  I just wish I could have seen better.  Seeing Andrew play is a large part of the fun.

Once over I hung out waiting for the crowds to thin out.  I stopped by the merch table again and bought 2 more Andrew Bird CDs, Weather Systems and Oh! The Grandeur.  Then Andrew came by and I had him sign both my CDs.

Headed home to take care of some business, grabbed something to read (pdf on the laptop) and headed out to Merry Ann’s diner at 12:30 AM for some breakfast before bed.  Except for the overcooked bacon, my breakfast was perfectly cooked for once.  My hashbrowns were truly crispy.

During breakfast I read about 3/4 of Nancy J. Williamson, "The Importance of Subject Analysis in Library and Information Science Education."  Technical Services Quarterly 15 (1/2), 1997.

Got to bed about 2:30 AM and didn’t get up until after 10 AM.  Now it is minutes away from noon and I’ll accomplished is eating breakfast and writing this.

Having listened to all 3 new CDs once now—the initial impression is I chose well.  I think I’ll like them all, as vastly different as they are from each other.  Even the 2 Bird CDs are pretty different.

Now, back to home work.  And planning, or at least keeping an eye out for, the next fun Birthday Month event.

I told you…

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…it was February in Central Illinois. 

After I hit send and got up and saw all those beautiful dark threatening clouds outside I took a look at the weather.  It is currently 50 degrees out.  With a small thunderstorm rolling over.  It will be breezy to gusty the next few days.  Light snow possible for day or so.   But lows of 20.  Highs tomorrow in low 30s.  Low tomorrow night of 19. 

Not exactly weather crisis.  But 50 to 20 in a few hours is a start.  And I’d prefer a couple day transition from 50 and dry to 0 and 2 feet of snow on the ground.

But rain seriously complicates the concert tonight.  Nowhere nearby to legally park.

Ahhh, a thunderstorm.  It sucks being dark at 3:30 PM, but then it is a thunderstorm and there are few bright ones.

In pursuit of birthday month… Day 2

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Going to see my friend in the south suburbs of Chicago is always more adventure than it needs to be.  Yesterday.  So not a Birthday Month day.  I am officially striking it from all Birthday Month memories.

Before I get into that … there’s a pending question, a question just begging for input from those hipper than I, and those who are as uncool as me too.   We all get a voice in my world.  But the forces of marketing in the real world get final say on whose voice is listened to.

Anyway, the question of the moment is :

So … what’d you like to suggest for hosting at the library at uiuc?

I mentioned my going to see Andrew Bird tonight in my post and Greg commented:

Hmmm, Andrew Bird will be playing at my library (you read that right) in a few weeks. Sounds like I really need to go.

[A bit later he said:]

Yeah, actually the whole series is pretty amazing. Started with
Loudon Wainwright III. Iris DeMent is this weekend, followed by Andrew
Bird, Dar Williams and finishing with Ladysmith Black Mambazo. And it
all happens right in front of the circulation desk!

Sometimes my library comes through in ways one couldn’t possibly imagine.

A whole series of amazing people in the library.  My mind boggles.  Further discussion of the music in Greg’s ibrary and of Andrew followed.

So Lisa asks the aforementioned question of the moment:

So … what’d you like to suggest for hosting at the library at uiuc?

It is a very important question, and something I’d love to see the UIUC Libraries try in various formats/places.  My 1st question to this is "Where?"  I’d do better suggesting places in Milner than at UIUC.  But more importantly, I said (excerpt):

My immediate answer:  Lambchop.

But let’s back up to a couple of caveats: (1) I am about as atypical
as a college student can be. (2) I have absolutely no idea about
current pop culture and what would actually draw other students to the
library and cultivate the idea of the library as a cool place. So
although I’d appreciate having a voice, I’m the wrong one to ask.

…

I went on to make some suggestions, and I could make more.  But any I make are really only in my own interest.  I can’t begin to speak to anything that would create the buzz that we’d want the libraries to get from this.  I’m not saying that I can’t be inadvertantly hip, but not on demand, only by accident.

Anyway, over there or here, let me know who our libraries should bring in?  What about other forms of artistic expression in the library?  Such a radical concept.  Oh, if you’re local or been here, what "venues" are there in the various libraries of this university?

Yesterday

Always. Too. Much. Adventure. 

Friendship?  Priceless.

Up way too early.

Escalating stress.

Late for work.  (Gave plenty of warning at least.  Score 1 for cell phones.)

Non-stop out-of-the-ordinary tech problems for 2 classes.  And our students are starting to get "demanding" and wanting their music before class.  But it is great to get requests, especially with our much more limited selections now.  Garret is finding amazing free or free to us music with our latest music procedures.  But, folks, I broadcast 5 classes.  I cannot remember just who likes what in all those classes.  I’ll do my best … but honestly, just remind me and I’ll get to it at some point.

The final technical parts of my 1st class didn’t want to end as they should.  We were late getting into the other studio—about 7 minutes before class time.  People are asking me where their music is?  I get it started, but it disappears… all the while I’m getting Carole and Em situated with something new we’re going to do tonight for the 1st time.  The 1920s Appalachian CD just would not play.  [It was already in the player.  I had no time to be selective last night.]  I ran across the hall with about 2 minutes to class and no live audio and grabbed the 1st thing I could get my fingers on—Cowboy Junkies live—and then it finally works.  Carole’s getting into the music and we started a few minutes later as I got other weirdnesses worked out.  As in answering who it was I finally put on.  We’re supposed to tell them that, and I had intended to, but getting the minimal things to actually start class were a bit higher priorities still.  Then they’re telling me, "Last week’s music was better.  I want that."  Great, last week’s music.  I’m still so generally stressed that I’m still hovering about a foot and a half off the ground.

Anyway, that bit of grumbling is all in jest.  I love that at least one or two of the students are willing to care about the small details.  They are, after all, my patrons.  I love serving them.  I just don’t like having to trot out the "it’s some internet thing" phrase as often as we do.  It is generally the case when we say it, but it can be too easy to fall back on something that could always possibly be the case.

It finally starts settling down a bit.  Then Em’s computer got stupid.  Windows.  IE vs. Firefox browser issues.  Printing issues.  Large swaths, but not all, Java behaviors disappeared.  Try another browser as primary.  Finally get everything killed and force the machine to reboot.  Log in … log in ….  All good.

Somewhere in there, get it printed from my laptop, because I couldn’t print from my work station.  Ran downstairs and fetched the copy I printed for Em.  She couldn’t get it on the computer and had no print copy.  Customer service in one of the few ways I can.

All-in-all, it finally settled down, and we were being accused of having a good time in the studio.  Lots of laughing and giggling.  We still had many small moments with the new, improvised chalkboard technique.  It was a bit light-hearted, and one must take their fun where they can.  The mood helped me calm down a bit, but the tech issues kept me on the edge.

And if there is any such thing like karma in the universe, then darnit, it’s my turn.  I volunteered to do this class with my advisor, Carole, and one of the best friends I’ve ever had the honor of having in my life, Emily.  We deserve some fun amidst the sometimes Rube Golberg-esque ballet of live distance education.

And let me tell you, 3 years on a nuclear missile site in thenWest Germany during the Cold War will help one to develop a highly fine-tuned discernment of exactly the minimum number of discrete steps, and their exact order, if and when appropriate, in a "crisis."  Of course, another 17 years just caused a sort of natural response.  Six years at main circ, reserves and ILL at an academic library in tornado alley, other assorted extreme weather events, leaks, fires, and all the other real world events of keeping an academic library open.  For at least 4 years of my time there, I had keys to the building.  Worked lots of evenings and weekends.  Opened and closed routinely.

Not to say that all those years of "practice" at dealing with varying levels of "crisis" has made it any less stressful for me to experience.  And people wonder why I don’t like extraneous decision-making.  Constantly being in situations where one may well be responsible for making important, possibly life-impacting, decisions and thus being able to get an instant fix on the "mission."  What is critical at this second?  Next ring of criticality and so on until fully under control, and then documented.  What is the minimal number of absolutely essential of discrete steps, what order, which slip in and where when more time is alloted, does the order shift with more or less time,….  It plumb wore me out.  And it still stresses me.
 

Life at the moment

I am not keeping up.  In many ways.  In many areas.  Something has to go.  Priorities need to be set.

Education and work are key.  Education, though, gets (or at least can be) parsed in many ways.  Things not directly related to school work are most susceptible.  Education is costly (at moment) and resource intensive.  Work almost pays the bills and makes education as inexpensive (or at least makes it as affordable) as it is at the moment.  And "No," I did not contradict myself.

I should say some things about Virtual Jounal Club, but it has to wait.  I need to do school work and work work.  Although often, I honestly can’t tell one from the other.  That can be both good and bad and points in between.

I’m not keeping up on the comments as well as I’d like at the moment.  And the comments are really great at the moment.  Thank you all!  And I’m sorry for being slow to respond.  I love them all and please continue to talk to each other.  Multiple voices speaking with each other.

On that note, in reply to a few comments on Birthday Month.

Lindsey:  Ambitious?  I guess, but at the time it was pure and simple survival.  And a lot of luck that many things worked out.  Lots of differences this year; not much luck so far, but luckily it’s not so much survival anymore but nice benefit when it works.

Andrew Bird is amazing to watch.  Hehe.  I just looked at when I saw Andrew with Ani.  It was Birthday Month last year and it was the Auditorium show.  Ah yes.  Impressed I was.  But it had also been another case of Always. Too. Much. Adventure.  [Stitching those thoughts...]

Are you still going to be in Baltimore next April?  ACRL 2007 and I intend to go at the moment.

Angel:  Thanks for the well wishes.  I’m doing a bit if the same at the moment.  :-)

Flowers certainly can do wonders for one’s mood.

Do your best on keeping up on the music.  But it is sadly just like trying to keep up on the books.  However you instantiate them.

Moving on:

I’m losing the Battle of Bloglines too.

It doesn’t look like I’ll get a word of Buddenbrooks read for Mimesis seminar on the 27th.  Not a good way to wind down Birthday Month.  Oh well, Birthday Month will never work as well as it did for me the 1st time.  I don’t see how it’s possible.  But that still leaves plenty of room for future versions to be of vast benefit.

Heck.  Perfect example of life trumps large swaths of rest of life.  Downloaded Walt’s newest Cites & Insights as soon as it was announced a few days ago, as usual.  Haven’t. Even. Cracked. It. Open.  Not. Once.  That is highly unusual.

And I have one more request for Birthday Month too.  This is a weird one for me, because I am enjoying the sun and the large number of days with 40s and 50s in them, but this is February.  In Central Illinois.  I want at least 2-3 days of horridly cold and wet weather.  The Midwest Birthday Month fairy demands it.

I’m alive and kicking off the encroaching entanglements of life.  I hope to see some of you around the blogosphere as I have been enjoying seeing others comments elsewhere, but I may be scarce on and off for a while.  It’s time to start cutting some, and reordering the rest, of the discrete steps to survive.

</sigh>

Now I must get to "work."

Birthday Month off to crappy start

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My old boss and good friend, Mo, sent me an email this morning to check on me and wish me a Happy Birthday Month (see my comments on my 1st birthday Month here) seeing as it is February 1st.  [Mo is not old, she's at least 10 years younger than me, but old as in the past.]

I’m really trying hard to be in the mood, but I’m not doing so well at it.

I went to St. Louis this past weekend for my Dad’s 70th birthday.  My sister and her family flew in from the DC area, and I drove down, to surprise him.  My boyhood best friend stumbled over some publication of my sister’s on the web and got my email address from her.  We’d been emailing for a week or two and I was able to stay with him this weekend, which was great.  We hadn’t been in touch for around 30 years.  (A few pics here.)

But on the way home on Sunday some bug bit me and I’ve been feeling pretty crappy ever since.  I also mailed some bills before leaving for the weekend that are due over the next day or two.  I figured that if I waited till Monday to mail them they’d be late and I’d have to pay late fees.  Instead, they got delivered and cleared extremely quickly, like before my check was deposited last night.  So I woke up still sick and to find out that the credit union happily charged me $44 to "protect" me.  That sucks enough generally, but I’m in a real cash squeeze right now so it just perpetuates the issue.  Of course, tuition bills will show up any day now.

Those two things were enough to really bring me down and have me start drudging up other issues….

Yesterday I stuck a cropped pic of me on the right sidebar.  It is from this weekend and as you can see I was enjoying myself to no end at Chuck E. Cheese.

Those are not my new glasses, though, as I only got them yesterday.  It is really nice being able to actually focus on things again.  But then it hurts too.  I’m hoping my eyes adjust pretty quick.

I told my friend Mo that I’ve been carrying my new digital camera with me on my walk to work each day and that "The flowers ARE going to bloom soon dangit!"  I carried it again today and on the way out the door I noticed that my sedum is greening up.  I took pics but they turned out blurry.  About halfway to school I found a yard full of these little beauties.  They weren’t there yesterday.  And boy did they help with my mood!

I’ll try making a post from flickr of another shot of them after I finish this one.

As for the Birthday Month celebrations/happenings, here’s the current rundown:

I’m going to see Andrew Bird and Haley Bonar here in town Friday night.  A bunch of friends from school will also be going.  The venue supposedly sucks, but I’m looking forward to it anyway.  I saw Andrew a while back on tour with Ani DiFranco and he was amazing!  I saw Haley here on campus 6 Oct last year with local girl Kate Hathaway.  I fell in love with Haley’s CD …the size of planets.  She’s got a new CD coming out soon and I really, really hope she has it with her this Friday.

Next Monday and Tuesday and Monday the 13th, I’ll be leading workshops on basic HTML with help from my fellow Team Awesome members for our fellow students.  Somehow I got volunteered to be the main ringleader.

Also next Monday in Adv. Cat & Class, I am presenting a reading report on Gross, Tina and Arlene G. Taylor. "What Have We Got to Lose? The Effect of Controlled Vocabulary on Keyword Searching Results." College & Research Libraries, 66(3): May 2005, pp. 212-230.  I wrote about this article back in late May 2005, but this time I’ll be addressing it from how it answered its motivating question instead of from how it was motivated in the 1st place.  But for those of you who wonder about all the "extra" LIS literature reading I do, this is not the 1st article to come up this semester that I have already read and discussed.

On Saturday the 18th I’ll be seeing my friend Eva Hunter and her band in Danville and she knows my birthday is 2 days later.

That same weekend I’ll be attending a 3-day TEI workshop.  It will really sort of cramp the weekend but it should help me with both my Metadata and Cat & Class class projects.  And it is professional development.

And then on my very own birthday I’ll be hosting Carnival of the Infosciences #25.  This will be my 3rd tour as host, but can you believe it?  The Carnival is pushing serious (young) adulthood.  So start thinking about those LIS birthday carnival relationships and draft up something fun for the week of Feb 13-19th.  Help me make this a rockin’ partying Carnival #25!

So my birthday weekend will be extremely busy, but it should be lots of fun and games.  As for the Birthday Month, well, I’m trying to get in the mood.