Done... bloody finally

Just posted my last response to the big discussion thing. Posted my own response and one of the two others last night. Frankly, I find it kinda hard to believe that they expect any form of truly "lively discussion" from a bunch of burnt out students at the end of the sem.

Well, I'll continue to post crap to this blog as long as I can. Don't know, though- my website went for 3 years without an update before I finally just shut it down. I'm not real good on this keeping up thing when I'm not forced to. Either keep checking back or just subscribe to my RSS.

Finding it a tad hard to believe that the semester's actually over. Hasn't really hit me yet- keep running over crap in my mind to see if there's anything I have to do yet. As much as of a bitch as it was to try to keep up with the work, I did have fun. You folks, oh dear readers, were a major part of that. Look forward to seeing y'all in Oct. and tappinatcha for then. See ya virtually in a few weeks. I'm off to find a videogame. Schmater.

Whine and complain

Thought I'd catch up with the rest of the Chort, so here's my post full 'o' whining, bitching, moaning and complaining...

First off, I haven't gotten around to the discussion/review thing yet. Last night I was doing a rescan of the books, then today... well, it's been a bit insane. Spent 2 1/2 hours this mornin' gettin' my kids registered for school, then had to give a class in scanning when I got in (this is a scanner, you put paper on it...) Have to get to it tonight, I guess.

First thing this morning I got up, and grabbed my phone to sync it with my PC. It was then I realized that the damn thing had performed a hard reboot on itself, and all my info was wiped off the ROM. So I put it all back in, getting a message about low battey even though it was at 83%, and resync it. Hit the HP website to see what the problem could be. Saw there was a new BIOS flash for it, which would supposedly sole the problem. I flash it, and... all my info disappeared. Had to put it all back in. What's even more amusing is that Microsoft ActiveSync wouldn't recognize it after each operation, so I now have three different sync folders on my desktop, all for the same phone, which the system doesn't think is the same phone... Argggh... Yet another reason to intensely dislike Bill's corporate giant.

Tomorrow I'm tag-teaching a class. It's an hour and a half long, with three of us in on it. There's three of us, so it was supposed to be about 25 minutes per, allowing for questions. I did my 5 PowerPoint slides, our former Acquisitions librarian did her five... then our Digital Cataloger got in on it and added 30-some more to the mix. So I'm guessing that my 25 minutes is more like 5. Oh, well, at least I'm getting paid for it.

To top it all off, I'm basically at a standstill at work. My Commissioner, who's an MBA, not an MLS, is having issues with "disbinding". In the case she's most concerned about, though, all they did was cut the stitches to relax the gutter, then ship it back to us in a nice acid-free box, ready to go into the Rare Books Room. My Director, who does have an MLS, freaked out over the whole issue and ran about screaming that she was losing her job, instead of trying to explain that disbinding is standard procedure for certain cases in both filming and scanning, and that we weren't willy-nilly guillotining the piss out of things. Added to that, she brought up the idea that maybe we should be driving these things to the vendor, in Wisconsin, instead of shipping them via UPS. So, not only can we not disbind, the Commissioner's not even sure if we can ship things out of the building. Ican neither scan, nor plan for outsourcing, 'cause we're in "all systems stop" mode. I have a meeting with the Comissioner, my boss, my Assistant Director, the Digital Cataloger, and the Director on Tuesday. Hopefully we can sort it out then.

Can't think of anything else to bitch about. Don't have any fun links. Go see another blog for entertainment. Tapatcha later.

Video

By all rights it should be Justin postin' this one. Ran across a link on an unnamed site, and had to share.

Mairead Farrell

Here's the Wikipedia entry:

Mairéad Farrell

To anybody who actually reads this damn blog

So I was working on the final 2600 assignment. Didn't like the way Netvibes was laying things out, so I scratchbuilt it in Composer. Go to http://www.pitt.edu/~wtf6/State_Library_Portal.html and take a look, if you would, before I take the bloody thing live and submit it. Feel free to give plenty of issues and complaints.

Few caveats:

Yeah, I know the background image is too opaque, but it's something we use on our pages and it wouldn't take a higher trnsparency.

The Yahoo and Google searches will not line up, no matter how large a WMD I use.

There are 2 placeholders. The first, the OPAC search box, is because our system times out after 15 minutes, so I can't directly link to the search. The second is the G-Mail account, 'cause I ain't opening one no matter how many points I lose. I hate the damn things.

Bitch and suggest away on the thing. I'll even try to change the named problems, if I can figure out how. Tanx and bombs.

On a more positive note, I finally got hold of a Cingular tech who knew what she was doing. 20 minutes and a couple of radio on/offs later I was surfing the web on my IPAQ. Gotta love new toys.

Anywho, tapatcha later. Gotta actually read the crap for tomorrow's discussion. Hope yer havin' more fun than I am (shouldn't be too hard).

Technological problems

Okay, so the bloody pictures didn't post. Check 'em out on my website here: Burntdisk's Nifty Page thingee

They're down below the links table.

Miscellaneous babble and stuff

Working on finishing the review that's due at noon. As I stated in the paper, I was going kinda insane trying to figure out how to approach it until I hit a common thread between the four works. That thread was NETWORKS. I was innundated with them. I was swimming in them. I had an absolute Wealth of Networks... So it all kinda fell together, and all I had to do was pull it out my... I mean, sit down and seriously write an informative and well-thought out review of the four important works that we were to confront.

So, time to pull out family pics.

Here's the fam:


Here's the grand old dame, my 7 year old cat:


My dog, Scruff:


Einstein, also known as Putsit:


And the newest pair, Emmaline and Sam:


Enjoy. Here's your links. Hah, I'm not doing LIS stuff:

The venerable Fangoria of Toronto, Rue Morgue can be found at this addy.

And Fango itself, while the website's often out of date and difficult to navigate, is here.

Have a blast. Tapatcha later.

I'm such a bloody slacker

Man, it's been friggin' insane on this end post-Pitt. Between the joys of catch-up at work, and trying to get stuff done at the house, I just hadn't gotten to this blog thing here.

Picked up a Cingular IPAQ 6515. Needed a mobile phone for the drive each day. Turns out that the Dept. of Ed has a deal with them so that any of their employees get a major discount. Got the PDA for less than 200, and voice and data for 71 a month. After looking at Verizon's 150 a month I was absolutely amazed. Still having some problems with the 'net on it- turns out they hadn't added my data account, then the network went down- but it'll be pretty cool once it's back up.

Response to comments:

Hey, Justin, who has the time to actually read or watch a movie? Can't wait for the break in August. Have fun in the city of brotherly backstabbing. Uptheira!

Cara- wish I COULD get extra credit for it. I'm just looking for a nice academic job...

Stephanie- I frankly find my popularity more than slightly creepy. Keep checking my car for stalkers... Have fun corrupting 6th graders.

Megan- Would love to get down for one of the Exhumed showings. Have to foist off the children on somebody at some point. Have to admit, though, I actually never wanted to see Cannibal Holocaust. Don't mind the people getting offed- it's the animals.

Well, Chris stole all mygood links for Deep Codes, so I don't have anything to post. Something should come up before I tapatcha next. Have a blast.

The post-Pitt thing

I was reminded today that I hadn't updated this thing yet this week...

Had a blast in Pittsburgh. Stuck for 7 hours on the way back without a smoke, but it was good to see evrybody. Should be even more amusing when we get back together in October.

Did hit up a couple of the professional orgs that got mentioned while we were out there. Actually joined SLA and ASIST. Only warning I'll give with the latter is that they'll take your money and then tell you that you need to have your advisor send them a message confirming that you are indeed a student. No great shakes, though, and I don't figure a lot of my fellow Chort 6 members will be joining the American Society for Information Science & Technology.

Haven't really had a chance to find any real fun links. Will be team teaching a course in Grantville (between Harrisburg and Hershey) next Friday, if anybody's gonna be in the area. Realize it's short notice, but they're taking registrations up to the 26. Drop me an email at wfee@state.pa.us if you want a registration flyer- I couldn't get the bloody thing to upload.

Tapatcha later. Enjoy.

Made it

Well, here I am in Jolly Old Pittsburgh... well, Wexford, actually. Had to get a room out here 'cause of the bloody All-Star game. Currently, at 9:45 in the AM, raining and overcast. Sorta like the trip. 6 and a half hours, 10 minutes late getting into the station, and a 40 dollar cab ride to get to the hotel. At least I managed to get them to switch me to a smoking room- otherwise I probably woulda spent the night standing outside for my nicotine fix.

Read part of Wealth on the way here- think I just got into chapter 2. Terribly dull in tone, but seems to be a tech version of the socialist theory of my undergrad days, even if he denies it. Check out the manifestos on the Beyond Cyberpunk site http://www.streettech.com/bcp/BCPgraf/manifestosTOC.html for better writing. I want my, I want my, I want my Internet...

I'll be catching a ride in with Debra around 11:30, so if anybody's around, take a look for a guy with bleached blonde hair, a greying beard, and a pair of shoes that look like tattoos. Talk to ya later- probably tap as well. Ah, human contact...

The pre-Pitt thing

Well, Maria got back to me over the having to come in on the 11th thing. Said she hadn't checked her email, but will talk to Sue on Monday. Some hope there, we'll see what happens. Still waiting for my refund to come in so I can even afford to pay for my hotel. Alas, unlike 95% of humanity in the States, I don't have a credit card, so I can't even max that out. Unfortunately, the workaround of staying in Slobovia and catching a ride in thing doesn't really work for me. I'm comin' in by train, and I'd have to figure out how to get out there. Little disheartened, actually- most of my cash has gone into the house, and now my refund won't come in 'til at least today. I hope anyway.

Well, my slant on the whole access principle thing was sorta forget the science journals, where's my Humanities stuff? Seems to get a bit of short shrift in the Willinsky book. I know there are more problems with opening access on these titles, but come on...

Fun fact 'o' the day (sorry folks, no link)- just got in the list of papers that got done in the last run of the PA Newspaper project. Originals arrived here safely, as did the film. No word on the digital yet. But here's the list, for your perusing pleasure:

Columbia County Republican
Elk Advocate
Elk County Advocate
Elk County Railroad and Mining Gazette
Indiana Progress
Springtown Weekly Times
Success Weekly
Bratstvo
Democratic Expositor
New Holland Clarion

All small town newspapers from mainly un or under-represented counties. Hit up your local library and ILL away. 'course ours have to be cataloged yet, so it may be a couple weeks, but I'm sure that others have gotten them.

See ya in Pitt, whenever I get there.

Blab 'o' the day

Forgive the blather- I was up 'til midnight takin' the quiz, and had to get up at 4. Anywho, I'm about half way through The Access Principle, and I'm finding it terribly dull, as I said last night. Good topic, lousy writing style. Could have been far more entertaining. Ah, well, done with it after the review.

Also working on the web page, though I haven't had much of a chance to have at it. Zipped the thing and emailed it to myself at work, but the State mail server stripped it out. Forgot about the fact that it does that, even though it happens on a regular basis. Had to dump it to my little 64 MB flash and carry it that way.

Moved into the new house, and now I'm trying to get the rest of the stuff up there. Now realize how much "stuff" you accumulate until you have to move it. Still getting used to switching from a half hour walk to work to an hour drive as well. And to top it off the furnace is also the hot water heater and it keeps going out. Aaarrrggghhh! Joys of moving. At least there's a one year home warranty.

On the entertaining web article side, we have the news link of the day. Well, it's sorta class-related, but Merriam-Webster has added new words to their dictionary. Here's the Yahoo News link: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060706/ap_on_re_us/dictionary_s_new_words_5

Back to it. Guess I gotta do some scanning. Schmater.

Mid-week whine

Well, still looking for a place to stay out in old Pitt next week. Have to wait 'til Friday until I get paid again, and hope I can still get a room. 'course, if any of you gentleman in the Cohort don't mind a slightly ant-social tech geek, I'll split room costs. Even sleep on the floor, and go outside to feed my nicotine habit.

Anywho, basically caught up. Haven't touched the quiz yet- too busy makin' pretty pictures for work- but I know it's there. Probably get to it tonight before the chat. After I load my car with more of the stuff from the old house, drive it home and unload it, of course.

On the subject of male librarians, here's the amusing link of the day- a cartoon on the topic from Unshelved. Enjoy
http://www.tk421.net/photos/v/librarians/comics/dewey1.gif.html

Another short post

Bleh, posting from work. Spent four days moving, still only have half the stuff at the new house. Wife and I own about 5000 books between us, and there's probably over a thousand DVDs, plus all the other assorted stuff. Back hurts, brain hurts. No amusing links. Hopefully I'll be back online tonight.

Started the Access Principle, but I'm not really far enough in it to comment. Can't seem to keep my attention on it in the five minutes I grab here and there.

Anywho, just thought I'd share the amusement. Tapatcha later and enjoy.