Happy Holidays, Everybody

Missions and visions and goals and objectives,
Meetings chock full of ennui and invective,
Simple procedures bound tight with red strings,
These are a few of my least favorite things.

Special Report

We interrupt this Library 2.0 Blog to take part in NaNoWriMo.

I've been thoroughly distracted by trying to tap out 50,000 words in 30 days. Normally, I'm an "edit as I write" sort of gal, so trying simply to get to a certain number of words per day, without dissecting every sentence, is a good thing, I think.

Anyone else trying it? I keep thinking I'll go down to the labs at Main Library (I hear Lynn might be a tiny bit lonesome in that classroom), but I've been doing okay at home so far.

They say everybody has at least one book in them. We shall see.

Cooking 2.0

Recipe found scribbled on a piece of scrap paper left on a table in the adult department:

Spaghetti Squash

Boil heat 1 IN. water (salt)

Download to computer when done

All I have to say about next week's survey

Fatwa temporarily rescinded?

allconsuming, mp3, and... gulp...

For the most part, I've been moving down the "21 things" list in order. Astute readers might notice that I skipped right over instant messaging. There's a reason for that.

I remember the first time I heard about instant messaging, though I don't remember the year. A woman came into the branch and asked for information on ICQ. I had no idea what it was, and when I found out, I shuddered.

Suddenly, I was living in a world where e-mail wasn't considered fast enough.

I've been avoiding IM ever since, and I will continue to do so for just a little longer.

As for mp3 players, they've been a regular part of my life for a long time. I covet a Zune.

Allconsuming was interesting. I don't see it becoming a daily or weekly destination for me, but I might drop by now and then. After completing the assignment, I found myself sidetracked by the 43things group of sites. Those were intriguing-- the 'net as a tool for life goals. Hmmm. I typed in two quite lofty goals for myself, then noticed in the "term cloud" thingy goals like "get more body piercings" and "get to level 60 in World of Warcraft." Somewhere out there is a planet where I'd be considered normal, I guess.

Oh! I just went back and looked again, and in the cloud I spotted "go to the library regularly." Nice to know I'm living somebody's dream.

I've Twittered, Have you Jotted?

Incidentally, if the help discussion forum at blogger is to be believed, there's no way to thread comments. That seems... sub-optimal. (Thank you, Lisa U., for introducing me to that term a few months ago. It has become one of my favorite words.)

Have you used Jott ? I signed up a few months ago, and while I don't use it every day, I think it's neat. You call Jott from your cell phone, and it transcribes your message into an e-mail. I'm using it primarily for reminders to myself, but you can Jott anyone you enter into your address book.
You can also use it to to do blog and Twitter entries. If you set up a group online, you can e-mail your entire staff with one phone call.

The voice to text translation, for me, has been uncannily accurate. You can even spell words you think Jott will have problems with.

RA

Was that even an acronym twenty years ago? I clearly recall learning about Readers Advisory service in library school, but I don’t remember referring to it by initials. Then again, that’s how you can tell something is hot in the library world—when we decide it’s just too exhausting to say all 6 syllables, and come up with letters.

Still, every time I see the letters RA, I have to stop and tell myself “No, they don’t mean rheumatoid arthritis.”

I didn’t truly understand RA back in library school, and I don’t understand it now. Oh, I get the definition, and the mechanics. It’s the concept of people not knowing what they want to read that I don’t get.

If I could stop working tomorrow (are you listening, lottery gods?), and could devote the rest of my life to reading whatever I wanted to read, I would still die with hundreds of books that I really wanted to read untouched.

Even if you added the stricture that I wasn’t allowed to peruse any lists of new books, pick up new titles from the newspaper or tv, or even heed any titles mentioned to me by friends from that day forth—I wouldn’t be in any danger of running out of reading material.

If you got truly draconic and told me that for the rest of my life, I could only read things that were actually in my house at that moment—I’d be more than a little irritated with you, but I still wouldn’t run out of things to read.

How can anyone who calls themselves a reader not know what they want to read?

That’s not to say I don’t enjoy having conversations about books. Far from it. I love talking about books. I love hearing about books. I’ve read some wonderful books on the recommendations of friends, and even complete strangers. (I’ve read some terrible books that way, too.) Talking about books is how you expand your reading horizons, and that’s terrific.

What I don’t understand is the person who, metaphorically speaking, grabs you by the lapels, shakes you, looks at you with levels of desperation usually associated with castaways on desert islands, and begs you “Tell me what to read!”

And after you’ve found something for them, they come back in a week or two, and do it again!

How can they not know what they want to read? Why would they want to read something exactly like they just finished (and so many of them do!)? Do they not appreciate the sublime pleasure of browsing the shelves, and letting serendipity take its course? Are they not bombarded with so many new titles that sound interesting that they have to keep lists entitled “stuff I want to read… eventually”, as I do?

Is finding new books to read considered an unpleasant chore? I’ve never in my life heard anyone say, “Oh gosh, I just watched the last episode of Seinfeld, and now I have nothing to watch on tv. Please, tell me what to watch next!”

Part of the joy of reading for me is the process of finding new authors and titles that I love. It's rather a buddhist approach, I guess-- when the reader is ready, the book will appear. I've never felt the need to have anyone else assist with the process.

Graffiti Bushes

My branch is home to a nefarious species of plant life-- the graffiti bush. It grows red berries, which, every year, area scamps and scallywags use to emblazon four-letter words on the outside of our building.

How come no one warns you about these things in the "what to keep in mind during your next building project" articles in LJ?

On the bright side, how often can you say that you literally caught someone "red-handed"?

Best. Unshelved. Ever.

RSS, Flickr, Twitter

They can't all be the best thing since sliced bread, I guess.

I can see specific uses for certain RSS feeds. But as far as setting up a reader and subscribing to dozens (or hundreds)... I don't really get the appeal. It would be handy if you're trying to keep up with a zillion blogs, I suppose, but then you're only getting the text, not the full experience of being at the web page. It reminds me of subscribing to too many magazines (the paper kind, that come in the U.S. Mail), then not having time to read any of them, or only flipping through at warp speed before tossing them in the trash.

As for Flickr, it's like being held hostage by a bunch of distant relatives, all of whom want you to look at their vacation pictures. All 200,000 of them. I'm not a big picture taker, and the pictures I do take are for me, not for the other 6.5 billion people on the planet.

Neither of those hold a candle to the biggest time-waster I've seen on the web yet (yes, that includes the hamsterdance and Runescape), Twitter. The name is perfect, except they forgot half of it-- it should be Twitterpated. Does the entire world besides me have too much free time?

I'm in love!

I think I have a reputation for pooh-poohing things in general. Probably deservedly so. But when I like something--really, really like something-- I'm the world's most enthusiastic cheerleader. It's merely that I don't run across something worthy of gushing that often.

I just met iGoogle, and it was love at first site. This is everything that customizing the home page from the isp I use at home should be, but isn't. As soon as I get home, iGoogle is my new home page.

If I take nothing else new away from this 2.0 deal, this was worth it.

Edited to add: I'm nearly as much in love with Google Docs, but please don't tell iGoogle I'm cheating on it already.

Assignment: Post to an ACPL blog

I've posted to ACPL blogs before (today's contribution was to the Mac discussion), but admittedly not often.

I should love using blogs to discuss work matters. I've always preferred writing to speaking, and you don't have to wait for your colleagues to shut-- er, finish speaking-- before stating your mind on a blog. However, I've noticed several things that keep me from embracing them wholeheartedly.

First, I'm hyper-aware that someone may misconstrue what I type. So I edit. And edit. And edit again. What should have taken me 5 minutes to tap out turns into a 30 minute search for les mots justes.

Second, you don't know who's reading. Are the people you want your message to get to reading? More important, are the people you might not want to hear the message reading? If you're sitting in a meeting, you know who's hearing your message. (Egad, did I just defend meetings? Somebody shoot me.)

7 1/2 Habits of Highly Successful Lifelong Learners

Did anyone else think the narrator sounded... unwell?

My favorite part was the suggestion for making time to complete the 2.0 stuff-- ask your co-workers not to disturb you during a certain time.

This assumes so very many things that aren't true that I can't even begin to list them.

I consider myself a successful lifelong learner. Really. Presentations like this suck all the life out of the process for me.

Library Lady Got Whacked

Sometime between 5 p.m. last night, and 7 a.m. this morning, someone severed the head of a Snoopy figure I had in my office. Is that the library equivalent of finding a horse's head in your bed? And how am I going to break the news to Charlie Brown?

I have suspects!

The Kidnappers

If you don't get it, you can't be my friend.

Look ma, I can blog. Actually, I've had a Live Journal account since 2002, but if I told you that URL, then I'd have to kill you.

I'm still trying to figure out why anyone would want a public blog, if they weren't trying to sell something. I spent a great deal of time as a child trying to keep my diary scribblings secret. That's why they used to put locks on them, folks.

So, why am I doing this? I'm a sucker for a free t-shirt.