(E)Book Talk: Hunting season: a field guide to hunting and capturing the perfect man

When I bought my Kobo, I took a break from Jane Austen to read this book by the author known as 'Elle'.  (A dating book written under a pen name is not a good sign.)  I downloaded the book from the public library and demonstrated a prime advantage to ebook titles; Nobody on the bus has to know if one is reading something trashy, smutty, or deliciously forbidden .

In Hunting Season, Elle applies to pursuit of prey to the pursuit of men.  (Notice a guy did not write this regarding women.)  She advises setting up a 'deer stand' (hunting ground), not 'hunting' between September 1 and April 30 to allow the herd to refresh itself, and differenciates between different kinds of men (Stags, bucks, and trophy).  Elle mines her experience in the dating field to apply many of the principes outlined in the book.  Not surprisingly she also advised not to show this book to any guy.

Well d'uh!!

I read the book for the sheer comedy of its chapters not to get serious dating advice.  My first thought in seeing the book was I guess that makes me the Elmer Fudd of single women.  The book is well written in its conversational tone.  It felt like Elle and I sitting around over coffee while she outlines her technique.  A few times I swear the Hinterland Who's Who theme played in the background with some parts of the book.  I do like the idea of using September 1 to April 30 as a kind of recharge time even for the 'hunter'.  I met women always on the look out, always going on date after date, without taking a break of any kind.  If one doesn't like their own company then how is a guy supposed to like it?  I always thought patio season in Winnipeg  felt like I entered a hunting ground at my own risk.  Unlike actual hunting, nobody has vest on to prevent 'accidental shootings'. 

Would I recomment this book to my friends?  Absolutely, for the sheer purpose of getting women together over a glass of wine and making up as many dating, women, and Elmer Fudd jokes as possible.   

Blog Spotlight: Geeky Girls Love Sci-Fi

While I read blogs to keep up with the world of libraries, I am a dye-in-the-wool geek.  I thought the best way to combine both is spotlight blogs people may want to add to their favourite RSS feed.  Therefore kicking off this new feature is a blog I discovered by accident and really enjoy for its well-written entries combined with cheeky humour.  (No surprise as the ladies responsible for Geeky Girls are in fields such a PR and journalism.)

In the blog spotlight:  Geeky Girls Love Sci-Fi.

The blog covers anything and everything related to science fiction and fantasy from their home base in the UK.  Besides the usual Doctor Who entries, the blog also covers gift ideas and any tidbits gathered from the web. Sometimes they even score interviews like one entry interviewing the stars of Torchwood: Miracle Day. 

Keep in mind the 'Geeky Girls' are out of the UK and do write about shows like The Fades and Misfits, two series not shown in North America. I would add 'yet' to that last statement as both series may make their way to either Space or BBC Canada.  It's just good to say you knew about something out of the UK before anyone else gets to read about it in their local paper. The ladies behind Geeky Girls Love Sci-Fi can keep you, reader, ahead of the game.

Sometimes entries stop for a few days, or a week, and sometimes they come in bunches.  On the day I decided to create the blog spotlight, I saw three new entries on my Google reader.  No surprise as Christmas usually means a new Doctor Who special.  Overall they are worth keeping on your RSS feed and you can also like them on Facebook, or follow them on Twitter.  (I personally do the former.)

Keep checking back on Fridays for a new blog spotlight.

Blog Birth: Growing Pains

The blog gestated for months before I finally set it up.  I wrote two entries, then nothing happened for a long period of time.  Nobody noticed since I said nothing.  It's the usual worries about what to write about, should I do a blog on something specific, until I settled on Stack and Ranges with a subtitle capturing everything I wanted to write about in the blog.

Now people know it's out there and a few people even read it.  One person even put it on their Google reader.  It made me proud and nervous.  It means writing and that also means finding the time to write.  It's part of the reason I set aside days for a weekly 'Blog Spotlight' and 'Book Talk'.  I figure those two features will prevent me from getting stuck on a topic.  The information literacy entry allowed me to take a concept like 'information literacy' and apply it in a fun way.  I never intended it to answer the age-old question about evaluating information, just a demonstration of the concept.  Plus it's geeking out and one can never have too many 'geeking out' sorts of blog entries.

I took a creative writing class to fulfill a promise to myself during my library technician training.  I wanted to take one course for myself and that one course was a creative writing course.  I discovered the will to keep writing after the course finished.  The blog is a way to keep the will alive as I do other projects.  I don't knit and I need something to keep me sane.

Here's to 2011 as the year of this new blog and may I grow it in 2012.  Now if blogger could do something about the referrer spam reeking havoc on my stats, things can go a little more smoothly.

Book Talk: The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

I read to find out about other people.  I know I grew up in a middle class family, in a suburban area, and fortunately met people who redirected the trajectory of my life.  If I want to read about people similar to myself, I should just put down my book to remain in my own little cocoon.


The Absolutely True Story of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie, takes the raw materials of his own life to fashion a story of love, loss, high school, and basketball.  Arnold Spirit aka 'Junior' narrates the story telling the story of his birth with hydroceles (water on the brain), his decision to attend a white high school far from his reservation, and the impact the decision has on his relationships.  Cartoons also help tell the story as Arnold uses his drawings to show his emotions and support the humour used to combat bullying by both the white kids and even the reserve residents.

I read a few stories from The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven and seen Smoke Signals, the film based on one of the tales in the collection.  Alexie does not hold back on things like racism, sex, or poverty.  The novels honesty lead to challenges and outright bans in school around the US, and I wouldn't feel surprised if someone in Canada held the book and shook their head.  One of the memorable passages from the book concerns poverty as Junior bluntly outlines its destructive power:

It sucks to be poor, and it sucks to keel that you somehow deserve to be poor. You start believing that you're poor because you're stupid and ugly.  And then you start believing that you're stupid and ugly because you're Indian.  And because you're Indian you start believing you're destined to be poor.  It's an ugly circle and there's nothing you can do about it.

Poverty doesn't give you strength or teach you lessons about perseverance.  No, poverty only teaches you how to be poor. (p. 13)

 The novel made me laugh, left me shocked, and taught me a lot about constructing voice in a novel.  Sherman Alexie mined quite a bit of the plot from his own life, which included his decision to attend a high school off his reserve.  His reaction to a library banning his book?  Sending a box of books to the same place.  People talk about young adult literature as too grim, too broody, while to him they are 'written in blood'.  YA literature needs novels like this one to show heroes don't always get it right, friendships will survive changes, and art leads the way out of tragedy.

An Every-Day Exercise in Information Literacy

 It began with an interesting tidbit from Google news regarding The Hobbit films.  Two sites-Superman Homepage and Comic Book Movie-claimed The Hobbit and Man of Steel will swap release dates.  Both pointed to another website called Think McFly Think claiming The Hobbit fell behind and Peter Jackson wants a new release date to insure the high quality of the films.  It must be true right?

If the story is true then Nathan Fillion plans to spend Christmas with me. I wrote it, published it on the Internet, therefore it must be true.

My BS detector went off the moment the two  aforementioned sites published the story.  I watched the The Hobbit Production videos, I knew the same team responsible for The Lord of the Rings came back for these two movies.  Plus Peter Jackson looks like the kind of guy who would keep fans posted and can meet a deadline.  On top of everything else both sites did not scream credible.  Why? Comic Book movie is mostly a fan site and it's a geek paradise publishing anything related to a superhero project.  Rather than talk about if it's true, or if the source is credible, the rumour goes online.  I admit hearing a site like Think McFly Think 'broke' the story dialed up the BS detector to one hundred.  The other source, Superman Home Page, didn't seem interested in questioning the story either.  It's a new Superman movie, directed by Zach Snyder (300) and produced by Christopher Nolan (Inception), which gives reason for people to start their nerdy salivating right now.

Not to say I didn't consider both films could switch and The Hobbit coul come out in 2013 instead of next year.  I knew the date of the last production video was quite a while ago, the film had a number of problems getting off the ground, and they even structured the filming around Sherlock to make sure Martin Freeman takes on the feet as Bilbo Baggins.  May be it's true, I thought, and I need to wait for some official word.  I had a number of possibilities I located, identified, and will use to effectively evaluate the information. (Those three terms come from an article cited below.) I waited for Peter Jackson himself to make some announcement either through FaceBook or The Hobbit official site.  I also waited for a credible entertainment news source and Entertainment Weekly is my 'go to' site.  I did have one fan site I trust in The Onering.net.  Why?  The Onering has a history, if you don't believe me believe Elijah Wood:

Notice the gears turning through out this entry. I may have read it on the Internet, but it doesn't mean it's true.  It turns out the two films will get released as planned.  The Onering.net reported it as did a website called Cinema Blend, both having some kind of relationship with people involved in the film, or can credibly write about it.  Eventually a rep from Warner Brothers did put out a final definitive word  and that word is nobody is swapping anything.  Building information literacy skills takes time and Google does not do it all despite what people may think.  Google cannot do your thinking for you. ( Seriously, it should be a chant like 'Om....Google cannot think for you...Ommmmmm")

Whether you looking to see if The Hobbit will release in December 2012, or researching the latest topic for a paper,  the questions remain the same: 

1. Can I trust the information?
2. Does it answer my question?
3. Who put this out?

Libraries provide the resources and instruction to search out the answers from books, to databases and beyond.  People believe Librarians and Library Techs know everything.  In reality we don't know everything, just how to seek the answers out.  Time to emerge from your own personal hobbit hole and take on the information literacy quest.



Works Cited

Koufogiannakis, D., & Wiebe, N. (2006). Effective Methods for Teaching Information Literacy Skills to Undergraduate Students: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis. Evidence Based Library And Information Practice, 1(3), 3-43. Retrieved from http://ejournals.library.ualberta.ca/index.php/EBLIP/article/view/76

Zombies, Vampires, and Brits

There must be a secret commandment among American television producers specializing in geeky/SF/Supernatural shows.  It goes something like this:

1. Thou shalt have a (cute or smouldering) Brit playing the (American) lead.
2. It's advisable for a Brit to drop his voice an octave or two, maybe go with a southern accent.
3. It is equally advisable for a Brit on occasion drop his clothes for artistic purposes.
4. If there is no Brit for the lead, go with an Australian. 
5. If an Australian is not available, go with a New Zealander.
6. Thou shalt NOT confuse a New Zealander with an Australian.
7. Thou shalt NOT do the opposite of number 6.
8. If thou wants a suspension of disbelief about fighting zombies, fighting cylons, or falling for telepathic waitresses then cast a Brit.  They will make a viewer suspend disbelief and immerse themselves into another world.
9. The casting of a Brit usually happens after many, many, many actors are considered for the part.
10. The above commandments are about the male, but do not discount a Brit of the female persuasion.

 If I have to add an addendum then number 8 would have a clause reading If one is doing a medical drama then cast a Brit, or substitute red-headed Scotsman capable of an American Accent.  However, pretty much all the silly commandments have additions, exceptions, and clauses.  The geeking out would never end.  The whole exercise came out of my viewing habits and a recent episode of ABC's new hit drama Once Upon a Time. 

I started watching the show a couple of weeks ago and noticed the Prince Charmings on the show kept the American accents in their regal roles.  Twenty years ago it would never faze me, but after seeing Cinderella's Prince Charming it seemed...meh.  The thought entered my mind this goes way better with a British accent.  It's not just about the accent, it's about the way UK actors (Brits, Scots, and the occasional Welshman) carry themselves in a role. 

You can google a number of articles on British actors as leads in American shows.  (Heck, get a library card and you can get access to databases for the same search without wading through all the useless results online.)  One person on Entertainment Weekly's message board on Game of Thrones HATES the fact British actors are in a show like Game of Thrones.  Game of Thrones is logical considering the whole novel models itself after Britain's War of the Roses.  Many people would say American parts should go to American Actors, while Canadians would quietly add and the odd Canadian.  Let's face it the British not only invaded television, they pretty much set up their own colony. When someone hears an actor, like The Walking Dead's Andrew Lincoln, speak with their natural accent, it usually gets a shocked reaction as if they were an alien.  (I would use Cylon, but I don't know how many people saw Battlestar Gallatica.)

Now, before heading straight to the comment boards this is not about who's actors are better.  In fact the whole thing better be a wake up call for anyone in North America considering a career in acting, especially television acting.  Why do these guys, and gals, score the parts?  So many reasons, but I can narrow it down to two guesses:

1. Most are Trained

Take a good look at some of the bios for British actors in particular.  They either trained at the London Academy of  Musical and Dramatic Art, or the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.  Some actors may have trained at another place like Guildhall, but they took the time to learn their art.  It's not all about the Shakespeare, but the first thing student learn take a sledgehammer to their own regional accent.  They either make it generic, or dial it down, either way they already know what it takes to begin a character and it's all about the voice.  That's only one of a myriad of things learned in their study.

2. Their Look is Diverse

Diversity comes in all sorts of packages.  We have the obvious diversity of ethnicity.  I seem to see a lot of interracial couples on British TV.  It's nonchalant and the topic only gets broached if needed.  Overall I see men and women with extraordinary features and yet look relatable.  I first saw Terra Nova's Shelly Con in Strike Back.  She's a beautiful woman yet she doesn't look generic. The same goes for Lucy Griffith from Robin Hood as another actress without a generic beauty often seen from actresses.  (You know like the same cheekbones, the same implants, or whatever is the hot thing in the surgeon's office these days.)

Oh, but let me wax poetically about the men...

We have a diversity of hotness from the UK men.  Ever seen Idris Elba?  Check out The Wire and not only is man smokin' hot, he's also smokin' talented. Like red heads?  May I direct you to Damian Lewis and Kevin McKidd complete with convincing American Accents.  Need a southern hero?  Cast a bloke like Stephen Moyer or  Andrew Lincoln depending if you need someone undead or someone to dispatch them.  I know it's more silliness and people can supply more names, but again nothing generic in their look and it's all about relating to the character. Do they have have the same noses? Eyes? Hair?  (Read:  Did they see the same surgeon?)


It comes down to a simple question:  Can they play a character?  It's something showrunners look for more than name recognition.  They have a character and need someone to best embody the character.  Right now they are British, Australian, and yes sometimes a Canadian. 

The Three Goals of Blogging

For a little while I kept the blog mostly to myself.  The idea of people knowing about it kept me nervous and it's not like I never kept a blog before.  I completed a creative writing class, complete with reading out loud for classmates to offer advice, and it felt right to go ahead with this blog.

In my e-mail to my former creative writing classmates, I said the blog will do three things:

1. Get me to write on a semi-regular basis.
2. Get me to write for an audience.
3. Get me to write for an audience despite falling metaphorically on my behind. 

After the e-mail, I went to my Facebook page and let this blog out of the holding pen.  The scheduling function of Blogger is great.  I can write something up as a draft, have a deadline, then it's in the queue for publishing.  I write at home, during my lunch at work, or on a coffee break.

In fact it's my lunch break right now as my fingers tap along the keyboard.  I already fixed up a couple of spelling mistakes on previous entries and updated.  Behold, I made a mistake and the world didn't end.  For the time being, I want to continue doing blog spotlights and book talks.  I want to get better as a writer and most of all I want to have fun.  I just want people along to have fun, even if it's just to read it.  Comments are optional and I feel ready for the trolls if they comes along. 

Get ready for some exciting entries.  I have a book talk on an award-winning YA novel, my first blog spotlight, and a geeky entry on Brits in television that took me a while to get right.  It's all scheduled while I work on some more tidbits either on life, libraries, or in between.

*Ding!*  My lunch break is done.

Book Talk: Austenland

We all had our obsessions and pretty soon 'ringers' will have an actual hobbiton, complete with a pub, to visit.  Shannon Hale imagines a place for Jane Austen fans to visit and live out their Darcyesque fantasies.

Austenland tells the story of Jane Hayes, reluctant artist, stuck in a job she doesn't like and has relationships that don't work out.  Her solace is watching the BBC version of Pride and Prejudice starring Colin Firth as the penultimate Mr. Darcy.  (Sorry Matthew MacFayden, but we still like you as Tom Quinn.)  An inhertance allows Jane to visit a special resort for Austen addicts to live out their regency dreams.  Will our heroine find true love amid costumes and actors playing regency parts?

I took a chance on this book for the premise alone and after hearing it will be made into a rom com movie.  (Jamie Callis from Battlestar Gallatica plays the actor who plays a Darcy-type character.  Here's hoping he took notes from Colin Firth while co-starring in Bridget Jones' Diary.)  I needed a little bit of lighter fair after going through book two of Song of Ice and Fire. The book's outlandish plot stays simple to remain plausible with a few chuckle moments through out the book.  It does read as a love letter to Jane Austen and Colin Firth in the influence of the mini series and novels on the hopes and dreams of women.  (Let's face it Colin Firth could crash the message boards a la Richard Armitage in no time flat.)  The book also works hard to say fangirls have a place in the Austen universe, but obsessions do not.  I thought Shannon Hale did a good job of allowing Jane to examine her Austen fixation and its impact on her love life.  The message is not to completely dump the mini-series and live in the real world, just put the medium on a proper shelf in order to live in the present.

The novel itself is not a long, only 208 pages, but it's perfect reading for cold winter nights.  Just remember the first three letters of the author's name and get thee to the nearest fiction section of your library.

Guess That Dwarf

I really should create a new tag called 'I found this by accident'.  As mentioned in a previous post, I follow the development of The Hobbit from its director changes, to casting, and now to its production.  The Onering.net keeps tabs on news and they seem to have a network of spies to rival MI-6.

Pictures and articles, other than those kindly supplied by Peter Jackson, are few and far between.  Someone managed to snap pictures of the 'dwarves' disembarking in Nelson, NZ with the dare to name the dwarf.  Alright, I spot one well-known elf.  However I spy with my little eyes Aidan Turner, Jed Brophy, and James Nesbitt.  No sign of Mr. Freeman or the other dwarfs.

Once again the gangly bloke is nowhere to be seen.  For a guy who just claims to play a spy, he certainly knows how to go covert at given times.

Kobo Klassics

I resisted getting an e-book.  The idea of not holding an actual book in my hand seemed a little blasphemous.  Alright it sounds melodramatic, but I grew up with books including lugging their weight around going to and from a library.

Then I got my Kobo.

After doing a little homework, even considering buying an ipad, I settled on the Kobo for its ease and one hundred classics preloaded on the device.  I downloaded a few books from the library, but I still return to the classics.  I read Pride and Prejudice on commutes and enjoyed it more than as an undergrad student in university.  I guess attending a few wedding and witnessing a few more divorces makes me pay attention to what Austen wrote about relationships.  I currently have Sense and Sensibility on the Kobo after watching both the 1995 move and the 2008 miniseries.  It's good to know I have a hundred books in one place and can head to Project Gutenberg for a few more. It cut down the lugging I do from the library, except I haul a few more DVDs in its place. (A wee bit lighter and limited to only 10 titles by my local library.)

I like my Kobo, but I would never say 'the book is dead'.  I do want the feel of a book from time to time in my hands.  In truth, not every book is available electronically and sometimes publishers make it difficult to get a hold of them from the library.  Whether it's a book or an e-book, these things cost money and libraries are places for people with not a whole lot of money to get a new book to read.  Hearing about Harper Collins or Penguin limiting library access to their titles makes me more than a little mad.  It makes me entertain the notion of gathering all their titles and putting them in a cage for ransom.  The demand?  Loosening the constraints on libraries for idiot things like e-books getting only 26 downloads.  (I am looking at you Harper Collins.)

In an ideal world I would like to not replace my Kobo every two years.  Why? It's expensive and I tire of chasing after the latest, shiniest, brightest gadget to keep myself up to date.  I would like to read e-books without worrying if the format will download into my Kobo. (This time I cast my hairy eyeball toward Amazon.)  All people want to do is read not worry about if item A will download to platform B.

Need a place to start reading about digital rights and libraries? I suggest heading over to a blog called Librarian in Black written by Sarah Houghton, Assistant Director of the San Rafael Library.  Two notable entries to read are:

The eBook User’s Bill of Rights (February 28, 2011)
Lessons from 2007 on Digital Rights Management (March 9, 2011)

Her blog is still worth reading overall and I still keep on my Google reader.  Be patient for new entries as Ms. Houghton is one busy woman.  (One I would love to hear in a keynote speech if she ever came to Winnipeg.)

Back to the 'classics' part of this entry.  I did try downloading a title from Google books and it lead to an interesting discovery.  I watched North and South and decided to read Elizabeth Gaskell's novel.  The library copies were not only taken out, they actually had requests.  I wanted to read the book and I wanted to read it NOW.  I managed to find North and South on Google books, a scan dated from the 19th century, and made do with the PDF.  (Let me tell you it proved cumbersome to adjust the size.)  Turns out whomever scanned it, missed about 3-5 pages.  I went to Project Gutenberg and downloaded a copy and had the pages filling in crucial pieces of the plot.  It's a good rule of thumb for e-books, or EBSCOhost articles, to check if the scanning is accurate. 

The Thrill of the Search and the Agony of No Hits

I work in post-secondary setting with access to some form of training on EBSCOhost.  For those with a DIY streak either by necessity or choice, the database offers a variety of ways to learn how to search.  I noticed power point presentations, adobe flash videos, and even YouTube.  In fact EBSCOhost has its own channel with a variety of tutorials depending on the library setting.  It's part of giving students a fighting chance, especially those transitioning from high school expectations to college or university.  The YouTube clips can serve as a great take away for students, especially those more visual in their learning style.


 The other reason I wanted to point out these tutorials harks back to the earlier mentioned DIY streak.  It may come out of necessity as staff cuts may make human help harder and harder to find.  Those with a willing do-it-yourself style may appreciate the resources to see how to search various databases, then try those skills themselves.  Whatever the case it's still all about the hunt.  I love research.  I love stumbling about and finding interesting articles, or trying to find articles based on my own geek interests in EBSCOhost from time to time.  For some students, research look intimidating and time consuming.  If one asks a question, one feels stupid.  (Somebody hijacked question posing into an intelligence test.  Asking questions proves intelligence not keeping one's mouth shut.  That's another post.)

Meredith Farkas wrote a fantastic entry on the pressure to search entitled “I need three peer reviewed articles” or the Freshman research paper  on her blog called Information Wants to Be Free. Students can get their articles for a given assignment, but do they know why they got them beyond fulfilling a rubric.  It's the question faced at reference desks on any given day, in any given library, by any given librarian or library tech.  Ms. Farkas' experience talks long term goals in searching as building transferable skills rather than the intense, and soon forgettable, focus on a given assignment. 

In my undergraduate days, my most unforgettable research assignment happened in Canadian Social History, a first year class focusing more on people and events than dates.  (Although I seem to recall a heck of a lot of statistics.)  The assignment involved using the municipal archive and seeing what happened in Winnipeg the year we were born.  I recall seeing the city council minutes introducing Folklorama as part of the Winnipeg centennial.  The object I most remember was a letter from someone uneasy about John Lennon possibly visiting Winnipeg or something to that effect.  (I think he started his bed ins for peace around that time.)  I waded though lots of archival material to get a sense of what happened the year I was born, what now passed into history waiting to be discovered.  I never forgot that assignment.  I never forgot the car, the process, the discovery, and the thrill.  It didn't feel like work at the time.  However you are reading the words of a person whose last entry dealt with a bloke I never met.

Whether a student learns how to search by a YouTube clip, or one on one at a reference desk.  The goal remains the same:  Give students the tools to gather information as active learners.  If they are active, creative learners they will be active creative people in whatever field they work in after graduation. 

Patience and Hobbits

The making of The Hobbit proves just as perilous as the quest itself.  It  made sense to make the prequel to round out The Lord of the Rings movies and it looked like the movie would never get made after MGM's collapse.  (That sound you hear is Bond fans letting out a sign of relief as another delayed project goes into production.)

While I admit to not casting my lot with the Tolkien purists, or the the ringers, I do have one 6'2, blue-eyed reason to follow this project.  Martin Freeman's announcement as Bilbo required no thought, as if he was born to play the part in much the same way Stephen Fry was born to play Oscar Wilde.  Once Richard Armitage won the part of Thorin Oakenshield, without Peter Jackson seeing any of his previous work, people scratched their head and wondered if he's 'too good looking' for the part.  Really?  Let me tell you nothing makes an actor more smoking hot as talent.  There's one other thing making him smoking hot in my books other than his talent.

Richard Armitage keeps his head down and does his work.

Other than a few words in the production video, and some of it in Maori, he has said nothing for months.  Mr. Armitage displays a talent for disappearing is on par with Bilbo putting on this ring. (Ever see the first group photo of the cast?  It's amazing how a self-described '6'2, gangly bloke' can hide in the back .)  He has gone on record saying he does want to Twitter or blog to prevent jinxing a project.  Good for him.  While I do follow some actor's Twitter pages for progress reports on their projects, I yearn for some to simply lay low and work.  It's part of cultivating delay of gratification, the skill most associated with the story of kids either eating the marshmallow right now, or waiting five minutes to eat two.  Right now I stare at the marshmallow known as Richard Armitage dot net for my pay off.

What is the pay off?  A Hobbit trailer would be nice and can giev a sense about his take on Thorin Oakenshield. At this point I will take him poking his head up to say hi.  (May be via Sir Ian's blog if he would be so kind.)  I can't fault Mr. Armitage for the radio silence since I pretty much did the same thing juggling two, sometimes three, jobs after graduating from my Library Tech program.  The commute to the set has some great scenery, but it has to take a lot out of him and the other actors.  I myself remember sitting on the bus on the way home from a looong day waiting for a neuron to fire to suggest supper ideas for the evening, much less remember to eat.  I hope he has a few neurons left for the press junket he will have to do for the film(s).

So patience is the rule.  Mr. Armitage is just wandering, not lost.

Rules for the Road

Students now blog or tweet as part of their studies.  Many already do it on their off time, but why do it as part of their studies if they already know how to 'do it'.  Setting up a blog or a Twitter account is more than just a username, password, and may be CSS for a cool background.  The technology is great, but it never replaces the technology given to us between the ears, namely a little thought and common sense.

I do admit sending an e-mail, or posting on a message board, without proofing or missing an error.  People can sound grammatically correct and funny, but if they say mean things about another person or write about work in great detail it's only asking for trouble.  I admit to thoughtlessly writing about someone, a person not completely innocent either, in my earlier blogs.  I thought if I used the first letter of the person't name then it's perfectly fine.  I did notice something after I posted the entries.  I felt strangely depleted.  It's not the kind of emptying you get from really expressing yourself with its giddy overtone.  The depletion I felt made me feel hollow rather than powerful for saying a witty barb regarding the person. 

Yes, people get off on saying more than barbs on a person.  Some even set up careers blogging about people, mostly celebrities, in the most brutal terms possible in the name of honesty.  Some people get off by bullying a person.  Trolls are fascinating creatures on the internet.  I wonder what they are like as people once they shut off the laptop or monitor.  What kind of black energy does it take to fuel the vitriol?  How does it feel to bully someone so much online, the person takes their own life?  I saw the black energy coming a long time ago and made a choice.  I stopped writing about the person and usually reserve such discussion for my written journal.  Yeah, but your doing the same thing and nobody sees it, comes the wise response.  Nobody sees it but I do, and the whole point is ask myself what's up and why.  Do you see many bullies stop themselves to ask those questions?

Here's what you will get on this blog.  I am a geek.  I make no apologies for it.  My wall paper on my home laptop has Richard Armitage.  (Sometimes I quip about a 16 year old trapped in a 41 year old body.)  I like what I do as a Library Technician and have no ambition at the current time to get my MLIS.  I also what to write entries asking the whys and hows of something and sometimes I just want to 'geek out'. To all the students stopping by with a blog to write as part of an assignment, ask if someone wrote about you, would you use the same words?

Happy (writing) trails.

So Much Happened, So Little Words to Describe It

I attended my first Science Fiction/Fantasy convention.  The Central Canada Comic Con put on by C4 continues to grow on both their guest lists and their attendance.  This year the list includes Nana Vistor (Kira from Star Trek:  Deep Space Nine), Ethan Phillips (Neelix from Star Trek: Voyager) among many others.  I attended three panels:

1. Kate Vernon (Ellen Tigh from BSG)
2. Jonathan Frakes (Yes, Riker himself)
3. William Shatner (Yes, THE starfleet captain himself)

Jonathan Frakes spoke quite a bit about directing series and felt grateful he learned the skills while on Next Generation.  If being 50 and a woman seems tough in the TV business, 50 and male without 'enhancement' proves equally difficult.  He spoke with wit and candor, especially answering a question regarding the box office disappointment of Star Trek: Nemesis.  Basically Paramount rushed out Trek after Trek until people felt sick of it.  Even I recall feeling sick of it during that period.  While the entertainment business is a business, greed is not good in creativity.  Mr. Frakes did praise JJ Abrams reboot of the franchise, singling out Karl Urban's performance as Dr. McCoy as a memorable part of the movie. 

Kate Vernon proved a laid-back sort of person and encouraged everyone to ask questions. She talked about about the craft of acting, including the stresses of being a guest star after having new pages delivered to her the day before shooting her scene.  One fact I missed, and I saw the movie several times, she was in Pretty in Pink as one of the snooty rich crowd with James Spader.

As for Captain Kirk himself, well he doesn't disappoint in his appearances.  The word retirement doesn't appear in his lexicon and my friend got his autograph.  I stuck up my hand for a question about why stage is still important for actors and writers.  I got more than I bargained for as he used seeing Kevin Sorbo on screen as one example than went to the corner closest to my spot and said "I love you" with his usual dramatic flair.  (When he used Kevin Sorbo as his man for the screen, I substituted Nathan Fillion in my head.) Somewhere someone has a video of the event.   Needless to say point proven about the immediacy of the stage.  He also said 'nice question' and I do aim for good questions. 

The whole thing seems like a dream right now.  The event was held near the end of October and here we are in November.  Would I attend again?  I heard Brent Spiner is due to attend next year.

I heard about TecCrunch from a co-worker.  I don't consider myself a true 'techie' more like a dabbler, or someone willing to try to solve a problem before calling someone in knowing more than I do.  (Hopefully without making the problem worse for the person trying to solve it.)

TechCrunch has its own streaming TV with a program called 'Keen On' tackling business and technology issues.  This week's episode has someone dubbed the 'Guru of Customer Service' named John Tschohl (pronounced tish-hole).  I didn't know the guy was a guru, but working in retail taught me a lot about serving people and it's translated into library work.  The segment talked about Netflix's bungling on splitting its service (bad idea and luckily didn't happen here in Canada) and continuing to bungle with their public relations.  I subscribe to Netflix and a real-live person helped me deal with a problem with my Microsoft Silverlight, after I tried to solve the problem on my own.  I do wince at the articles on the CEO and his inability to admit the Qwickster experiment failed and he's alienated a whole host of people.  Have a look at the video below:



I haven't heard about this guy, but his argument made me look him up.  He's given workshops around the world, including Target and Zellers.  (Obviously before any merger took place.)  He said companies assume they are in the 'banking business' or the 'airline business', but do not look at themselves as providing a customer experience.  Libraries sometimes look at themselves as providing information literacy, research skills, and access while assuming people naturally provide good service to a user.  (From now on I write 'user' or 'library user' as opposed to the traditional term 'patron'.  It's really the same thing and I simply want to pick one term.)  I don't think it's good to assume service just happens naturally with the information at a reference desk. Sometimes even the best librarian, or library tech, have to ask themselves if the service they provide was enough to:

1. Enable the user to come back again with another question, or if they need clarification.
2. The service is enough to answer the question, or enable the user to flex the newly taught skill.

I ask myself that question a lot as a Library Tech dealing with people.  If I catalogued, I would still have to consider the user experience although contact is limited.  I still serve the user if I deal with people or not.  A large part of what I do, and it's one of my strengths, is putting people at ease.  Why?  People feel uncomfortable and more than a few times label themselves as stupid for not knowing something.  (I heard that label said by students young and old.  It still breaks my heart.)  Other times I have to work hard to gain someone's trust if their last experience in a library made them feel humiliated and stupid.  I put a person at ease because at one time I was that person.  I met some brilliant library folk not very adept at dealing with people.  As an information hound, I need the access and I will slay dragons to get at what I want.  Another person would simply give up and sometimes blame themselves.

People may think John  Tschoh's pronouncement on Netflix sounds harsh, but they, and libraries, deal in customer experience.  Nobody can be a service superhero, just deal with the user as they are during their particular moment.  After getting stuck with this cold, I feel anxious to go back to work and really practice remaining present to my user and impart a good experience.

Colds, Timelords, and Spooks' Last Hurrah

So much for writing an entry every day

I got the great-Canadian, common cold.  I manged to drag myself into work  the last couple of days, but fever and chills knocked me down with the one-two punch.  I even opened my windows to cool down a little bit.  I want to sleep, but I don't feel like sleeping.  I figure try to hold on until later and knock off in the early evening.

Between guzzling orange juice and Tylenol Colds and Sinus, I laid on my couch to catch some stuff on Netflix.  I actually watched an episode of Dr. Who with Tom Baker as the forth doctor.  This was the 'gateway' doctor into the whole universe.  The way people speak about David Tennant, or Matt Smith, is the way people speak about Tom Baker's run as The Doctor.  I watched the episodes making up The Ark in Space, featuring the late Elizabeth Sladen as Sarah Jane Smith.  Yes, the effects seem corny and there are guys in bug suits, but I felt like a kid again with the suspense in the episode.  Plus I can now watch the thing without the PBS pledge drive breaks.  (Something that  happened often watching Doctor Who as a kid.  One hour long episodes took me about twice that and into the wee hours.  Still worth it.)  Here's a funny piece of irony--Netflix recommended the classic Who episodes based on putting Firefly on my viewing list.

Does The Doctor and Malcolm Reynolds have something in common besides played by guys I go fan girly over?  I feel too congested to figure that one out. (By the way the Doctor I do fan girl over is David Tennant.)

I checked out my TV and Netflix and feel like watching nothing.  To make up for not writing yesterday, I will write plenty.

Let's start with the last episode of Spooks (MI-5 to us North American lot).  I mean the last one.  Ever.

Obligatory spoiler alert: If you haven't seen it and don't want to get spoiled, then don't read any further.  If you read any further and still complain then I have to wonder what's up with you.

I knew Tom Quinn would return courtesy of Anglophenia, my favourite go-to blog for British shows.  The news just confirmed a sneaking suspicion someone from the earlier season, you know not dead, would somehow come back in some capacity to help Harry out.  It figures Tom Quinn (Matthew MacFadyen) would come back.  Tom gave Ruth a second chance after finding out she was sent to spy on Section D on behalf of GCHQ.  In turn, Ruth remained fiercely loyal after he left.  Harry may have decommissioned Tom, but it doesn't mean he left the spy game for good.  I figuregoing into private security means you have a little more control over your conscious.  (When I say little, I mean 'very little, this is the spy game after all.)


I can imagine Harry thought of Tom first and foremost to get close to the Russian leader responsible for Ruth's death.  As we learned from Adam's death and the shooting of Arkardy Katchimov (still the coolest spy name on TV in my books), hurt someone close to Harry and you pay the price.  In the case of Ruth Evershead, it was closer than any section chief.  Although the cameo was a microsecond, Tom strolled to the gate soon after the Home Secretary mentioned Harry would 'call in an outside agency' to do in the operative who set the events of Season 10 in motion.  I imagine the conversation would do something like 'Ruth's dead' and Tom asking who and where to do the deed.  It was heard to watch the end of a series many of us just started watching thanks to Netflix or DVD marathoning, but the ending salvaged an uneven season in the final series.

Going up against Downton Abbey didn't help either.


However it's still a fun series to watch since we know the plots are outlandish.  Do people watch 24 for realism?  (Although the torture scenes are a little too true for comfort.)  The show exhibited some gallows humour the 24 writers should take a lesson or two, and featured some tortured heroics by a trio of very fine-looking gentleman.  (Sorry Dimitri even if they gave you 10 episodes you had some big Lucas-North-sized shoes to fill, plot twist not withstanding.)  A tip of the hat to Spooks aka MI-5, you will live on in reruns, Netflix, and streaming sites.

Writing About Being Single Without the Self Pity

I joined a singles on August.  Rather than try online, or a dating agency, I decided to join for the activities  they offered.  The group, remaining nameless out of respect for the its success stories, offer many dances among the many activities on the calendar.  I finally went to one last weekend.  Now,  I knew finding a boyfriend at my age will prove very hard.  'Very hard' is an underestimate, try next to a miracle if I meet a guy who is funny, attractive, and self-sufficient.  Of course one book in particular would tsk tsk my expectations.

A little while ago, I read a book entitled Marry Him by Lori Gottlieb detailing how a woman's unreasonable expectations made her single rather than married.  She even offered up her own story as a cautionary tale after choosing to have a child on her own, then discovering dating can be REALLY hard after such an event.  She details her own history and attempts at dating using various methods.  My favourite is the dating coach talking about dating as a 'numbers game' and urging her to find a guy way older than herself since men her age have the option to go younger.  While she wrote about her experiences and details the stories of many  other women, I kept waiting for her to question those assumptions.  Ms.  Gottlieb ignored a man's own expectations and seems to think women act a bit more choosier in the dating department.

I nearly wanted to blow my top off over the idea.  Somewhere the dating book detailing how both genders are equally stupid many never get written.  So, the idea one must feel comfortable with oneself, and don't look since love will find you, looks like a load of crap.  Men don't want 'fat' women yet the definition varies from guy to guy.  Women claim they want to socialize more, but really they join these singles group to look for a guy.  It's the reason I joined and I better not bullshit on this one.

Hmm, I can hearing someone thinking, no self-pity but an awful lot of anger.   I have read dating book after dating book, trying some of the tips they suggested.  I will try something with a better than average chance of not working:  Trust myself.  I will trust things will work out even without a boyfriend, I will trust the woman I am with all its quirks, flaws, and great qualities.  (Trust me, it took a really, really long time to get to that point.)  Yes, this singles game is a number's game and looks like it's in favour of the guys.  I will play the game by not playing the game.  I will simply go out and have a good time.  It's all I can do at this point in my life.

Just Do It

I keep coming back time after time, usually to a writer's block looking a large cube of ice.  Since my last post, I enrolled myself into a creative writing class.  My goal is not to get published and make lots of money.  My goal has turned into simply moving forward beyond the fear.

Someone once said, I don't remember who, if someone gets mad about what you wrote then something has gone right.  However, we all want to be in Willy Loman terms 'well liked'.  If I remember correctly it didn't get Willy anywhere either in Death of a Salesman.  I decided for the last week of October to simply do a blog entry a day.  The title is Life, Libraries and Everything in Between and I better make good on the title.

Right now I just had breakfast and watched Strike Force on Project Free TV.  No, it's not the latest season with the two new leads, but the first season with the one lead and a host of other semi-known UK actors.  The first season stars Richard Armitage as John Porter, but we also have Shelly Conn and Andrew Lincoln, before they all moved onto other things.  Mr. Armitage, as people already, know is filming The Hobbit.  Shelly Conn stars in Terra Nova, while Andrew Lincoln plays a sheriff-turned-zombie-fighter in The Wallking Dead.  

I saw the revamped series with the two new guys and noticed a wee bit of a difference between this one and the previous series.  In many interviews, Richard Armitage mentioned he felt a little leery taking the role if it was another 'boys and guns' show.  I did see some plot and character in between people and things going BOOM! Now we had a major cast turn over and the show is now on Cinemax, or HBO Canada.  The show decided to start from square one and definitely aware of its American audience.  Now it's the boys-and-guns show with a little bit of t & a thrown in for good measure.  Plus our English hero is now a proper bloke with a family to go with the reckless, ex-special forces  guy from the States.  (Yeah, no stereotyping in those two characters alright.) Come to think of it, the wee bit of a difference looks pretty big to me.

Now I am not a network exec and I acknowledge my bias for Richard Armitage.  (I don't belong to the Armitage Army, or any of those groups.  I guess that makes me a lone gun woman of sorts.  I just prefer my fan-girl devotion to remain semi-private.) If I took a cold-hard, objective look at the whole thing I would wind down the the series then play season one as kind of a prequel series the same way as Spartacus: God of the Arena filled in between seasons.  (Sadly due to the illness of its star Andy Whitfield.  Even more sad we will never get to see what else he can do outside that character.)  Now, when would I do my little prequel?  Again if I were an exec, and I acknowledge I am not, I would do it sometime in 2012 around the time The Hobbit gets released.  We have two faces people already met and thanks to Peter Jackson we  will have a third.  No need to film, just plop it into the schedule then off it goes until the new season.  It's a way to tell North American audiences Look!  The Brits can do a little more than period dramas.

It's silly I know.  I just wanted a little silliness to go with breakfast.  Now, if you would excuse me, I have a home to clean.  

Ch-CH-Changes

First order of business in this new blog:  change the blogroll.

I have lots of interesting places just as much as the next person.  My reader has a 'Geeky Stuff' folder for all the geekiness it can hold.  (Am I spelling that right?  Let me know.)  Plus some new library blogs.  I still like Stephen's Lighthouse, but I noticed nothing updated lately unless things changed again.

It's all about baby steps.

I don't expect my blog to get read by million of people, or Richard Armitage, or Nathan Fillion.  How about a few people, perhaps close friends, and see where things go.

Hello? Is There Anyone Out There?

Where do I start?

Tens of thousands of blogs are formed every day.  Mine is one of many.  Many are just abandoned or left dormant.  Mine is the latter.  I show up to my page and wonder what the hell do I write about anyway?

The subtitle is 'Life, Libraries, and What Lies In Between'.  I read a number of library blogs by, of course, librarians.  I guess what makes this blog different is this author is a library techncian.  What is a library techncian?  That question can go on for ages, but I will put it as concisely as possible.  I will pretend you are all Richard Armitage and this is witty cocktail conversation.

If librarians are the architects, library technicans are the engineers.  We often study the same courses, but in our case it's the details to carry out the tasks in things like cataloging or reference support.  You can find us doing circulation, and some even supervise circulation clerks and shelvers.  What a library technican does depends on the where and the who.  In some schools the library technician runs the library if the school lacks a teacher librarian.  (In Manitoba it's the case in quite a few places.)  In universities some do basic reference, others work with librarians in marketing services, or putting together material and registration for sessions they teach.  (I did the latter at my last job.)  I do get trained for the job. Two years in a college setting to get my diploma and working in a post-secondary requires a degree along with it.


I like my job. I also like libraries.  My family didn't buy a lot of books, the library often provided my novels and magazines.  I hung out for hours at my school library and occasionally made the trip to my downtown library.  If something strikes me, I find everything I can about it.  Now I can the net to my bag of research tricks.   Libraries kept my love affair with learning going, even as I dealt with boredom at school.  (In addition to bad teachers from time to time.)
 
Clear as mud, uh?
 
Well, this is what you get.  I tried to type in an orderly manner, trying to imitate the blogs and their style.  You know what?  I can't.  I do have a vocabulary and learned my basic grammar.  In my head another language still forms my English words.  If I mix up tenses, or put the adjective in the wrong place, I may have spoken Portuguese within my English.  I do know I have something to say and some people may not like it, or may love it, or go 'meh'.  Some people may feel moved to spill their vitriol all over the place.  I decided to show up.
 
And that's half the battle.