From a KC Librarian

Just an average guy trying to make sense of his life in the library and beyond.....

Tuesday, February 26, 2008

Random Notes

  1. My thoughts go out to my niece as she is getting used to her new braces which she got last week.
  2. After a six-month hiatus, I finally went to the movies. I went to see No Country for Old Men. I thought it was worthy of its best picture status from the Academy Awards. And in particular, I enjoyed scrutinizing the character played by Javier Bardem, the villain of the movie who carries out his acts in unmitigated violence. I got into a conversation with JG about this movie at work today. While he liked the Bardem character, he wished for an explanation from the movie as to why the character was mean, evil, and ruthless.
  3. It was busy this past weekend at the library. Lots of tax form questions. And lots of questions about automotive repair. During a thirty-minute portion of my Sunday, I worked in the audio-visual department (to help cover for breaks). It has been four and half years since I worked in AV. I remember that working in AV can be challenging, especially when patrons come in wanting to load up on movies and CDs and the staff barely gets a chance (and sometimes never getting the chance) to re-shelve any returned items. Sundays are particularly frustrating. I think AV has hit a library evolutionary point where changes need to be made. In particular, the closed-stack system where staff retrieves desired patron items has to come to an end. The library needs to consider perhaps opening the stacks, letting the patrons check out DVDs and videos with the media already in the case, and redefining the service interaction between patron and staff. This change, of course, won’t happen overnight. And if it does happen, it will happen over a gradual period of time. It starts with a vivid plan and input from all library staff.
  4. Speaking of library evolution, we are still cutting our proverbial teeth as far as wireless goes. One big issue which was raised by two occurrences is providing wireless for our guests who use the auditorium and the conference rooms. Access to wireless requires User ID and PIN, which usually means a library card number and the birthday PIN. But we’ve encounter guests who have requested wireless after they have taken occupancy of the auditorium or meeting room. And this leads to library staff scrambling to produce new library cards or guest wireless receipts just so they can have access. I sent out an email today to supervisors suggesting we try to be more proactive in room bookings to include inquiries of the guest to see if they plan to use wireless. As I see it, this is no different than asking them if they plan to use an DVD player or a VCR in the room. These sort of things have to be planned for.
  5. The King's Singers performed this past week at the Folly Theatre in downtown KC. Unfortunately, I couldn't go this year. I heard that the concert experience was a little different this year. The Kansas City Star reported that one of the singers had to take bereavement leave and return to the UK. Still, the five remaining singers still delivered a good concert. Here's hoping the group returns to full vocal strength soon. This is their fortieth year of singing and entertaining, I believe.
  6. Finally, taxes for 2007 are done.

Thursday, February 21, 2008

Monty Python-Star Trek Mashup

As soon as I post one Star Trek video on YouTube, I find another one. This time the gents from Monty Python provide the sound.

White Rabbit-Star Trek Mashup

I absolutely had to post this mashup. :)



I especially liked the look on Spock's face.

Saturday, February 16, 2008

The smells of the job

Dealing with the "public" in a public library has its good moments and bad moments. And I must say that last Wednesday morning I experienced a bad situation in the lab. When the doors first opened, a gentleman came in smelling completely of cigar smoke. After he checked-in the lab, the cigar smoke smell filled the area. I had a couple of patrons who decided to read instead of come to the lab because they could not deal with the smell. Fortunately, the gentleman was only in the lab for thirty minutes.

Friday, February 15, 2008

Global Warming affects places I have visited

I'm following two separate weather stories this week primarily because I have been to these locales that are experiencing it:

First, I was shocked to see pictures of Lake Mead by Hoover Dam this week. I was further surprised when scientists declared that the lake is in danger of drying up in the next 9-10 years. One explanation I have heard is drought conditions have kept the flow of the Colorado River low and, as a result, the lake is draining faster than the Colorado can fill it. These events are of concern to me, especially considering my 1983 adventure through the Grand Canyon (Jan 15 posting).

At the age of 15, I had the opportunity to go to Leadville, CO with a church youth group. We were on a missionary tour to help a church paint its fellowship area. Now there's news that the town may be swamped by waters contained in abandoned mines that reside in the mountain above the town. Apparently, the mountains around Leadville have received enourmous amounts of snow and rain. The melt-off is gathering in the tunnels of the mines. To complicate things the water may be contaminated by metals from the mine. This makes for a dangerous health situation for Leadville should the water find its way to the town.

Saturday, February 09, 2008

You're busted, kid

I had to kick a kid out of the library yesterday afternoon as he was typing threatening messages in a chat room. I won't go into details but I had to act on this because of a complaint from an adult patron.

Wednesday, February 06, 2008

Doing the challenging commute--to and from work

Through no fault of my own---er, well okay, I could have been more responsible and cautious. My drive into work and my drive home from work presented some interesting challenges.

On Tuesday morning, I had an eye doctor appointment with a full examination. A full examination with my opthamologist includes the dilation of my pupils. Since the appointment butted close to the time I depart for work on Tuesday, I had to make a decision as to whether I should take half a sick day or go ahead and drive in. I decided to drive in because it was cloudy and overcast. If it were sunny yesterday, I would probably have called in sick until my pupils undilated.

A snow storm hit KC on Tuesday night and driving home was tense. The storm came right as we closed the library--a sleet, snow combination. After taking the obligatory ten minutes to warm up the car and scrape the windows, I took off for home. The drive in Wyandotte County was okay. But once I crossed the Missouri River bridge on 435, the road started to become snowpacked and I started losing site of the road markings. To make me more nervous, a car was tailing me all the way home. Who did he think I was, a trailblazer?

Anyway, schools are closed today and our library's open is delayed today by 2 hours. Areas in North KC are expected to get 10 inches total from this storm. Meanwhile, places in south KC are only getting a dusting of one to two inches.

I hope this is the last snow this season. I still need to get out and take care of the tree branches in my yard, the damage from the early December ice storm.

Sunday, February 03, 2008

My Favorite Super Bowl Ads 2008`

Here are my two favorite Super Bowl ads for 2008.

This one for Johnson County based Garmin.



and this one for Diet Pepsi



I also enjoyed the FedEx pigeon commercial as well but had trouble with the HTML coding as it applies to this blog. Oh well.

Er, about my Super Bowl Prediction

I guess my lesson is never be 100 percent totally sure that everything will go your way on Super Bowl Sunday. Here are the actual results and compare them to my previous post:

Plate full of cheesy, sausage nuggets
A Bowl of Chili
Two Beers
Two chewable Pepto-Bismol tablets (seriously, I had an upset stomach by third quarter)
and the most surprising but funnest statement of all: Giants 17 Patriots 14.

Summary Judgement about the Patriots: Their defense forgot to show up for the final two minutes of the game whereas the rookie and second year offense players for the Giants saved the victory and gave the veteran Plaxico Burress an opportunity to win the game.

Super Bowl Prediction

I'm getting ready to head to Lawrence for the Super Bowl with my sister's family. But before I go, here's my prediction:

Two hamburgers
Two and a half beers
Potato Chips
Ice Cream
2 Rolaids, and
New England 27 New York 20.

Enjoy the game sports fans. And for you non-sports fans--enjoy your book, enjoy your video, enjoy whatever you're doing on this Super Bowl Sunday.

Saturday, February 02, 2008

CNN.com's stories on successful weight loss

As I am now in my tenth month of walking/walking on the treadmill, I have noticed that CNN.com has been running stories of various people who chose to lose weight. Some of these people lost the weight due to self-esteem issues and other lost weight because of health concerns. All of these people are inspirational.

Here's a link to the story of Phill Novak, a man who lost 192 pounds by starting a walking routine and working his way to jogging on a day to day basis.