Duh!

So I’ve been using Meebo (www.meebo.com!)  for …I don’t know how long now.  And it’s FABULOUS.  Simplifies life in the way of not having to install or download anything ever.   And you can access practically every IM chat available from this one interface, from everywhere and anywhere there’s a web browser.  And talk like a pirate even when it’s not Talk Like a Pirate Day.  (Do /pirateon to get piratespeak!)  And WHY I only just discovered this morning that I can make the entire interface purple is beyond me. 

Life is complete.  And I love Meebo a little more.

Thrown into the Murky Waters of Reference!

Oh yes.  It has been done.  Last Friday was my first official day (okay, two hours) on the dreaded Reference Desk.  I practically had to be dragged kicking and screaming onto the reference desk.  I’ve been so terrified of it, but my boss and my boss’s boss have been pushing me to do it…I think the reason why I was so scared was because that reference desk is the end all of places – if we can’t help you there, then that’s it for you – you’re totally screwed!  That’s way too much pressure!  I can’t have someone come to me for help, and what if I don’t know what to do?  Aggh!  I’ve been doing circulation for 10 years now – and I’ve always had the right to pass off anything research/reference related off to Reference, and rightfully so.   Sometimes I hate doing that, sometimes I’m okay with it.  Because I am the library geek and I *do* know practically where every single book lies in my library, I hate passing our patrons off to the reference desk at the other end of the building.  At the same time – I have my fellow circ workers who aren’t trained to look up books and do ref work – so the issue lies in that, if they see me doing it, they think they can do it too.  Which would be fine, except I’ve witnessed people doing it totally wrong – as in like, “I’m sorry, but there is no book called The Sixth Target by James Patterson, it does not exist in our catalog” – I cringe every time I hear something like that. (FYI – it’s listed as 6th Target, and because my catalog is crap, like most library catalogs, the thing doesn’t know that when I type in Sixth Target I do actually want 6th Target.  Unforgiving search engines FTL.)  I especially hate passing off things when I tell them to go to reference, and the patron stares over to the ref desk like it’s 90 miles away and say “nah, I’ll do it later” and walk out the door.  Makes me want to just tackle them down and say hang on!! 

Okay so anyway. Day 1 of Reference.  Went very smoothly – I wound up in the middle of a rush for a book that some professor demanded for a class – within 5 minutes all three copies in all three libraries were gone, on top of 3 additional holds placed on the book.  Crazy!  Someone wanted a copy of A Thousand Splendid Suns.  Done.  Someone wanted to reserve a study room. Done.  Someone needed a guest card to use the computers. Done.  My boss, who sat next to me, got a *real* reference question – someone wanted to know if local antique and jewelry stores were rated somehow…thank goodness I didn’t get that one.

So my first day on Reference wasn’t horrible – it was smooth sailing really.  It helped that I had two fabulous reference folk on either side of me too.  The best part about being on the reference desk was that I could really actually help people.  Circ and Ref are such totally different worlds.  At the circ desk, the patrons tend to treat you like dirt.  At the ref desk, the patrons are much more understanding and patient.  At the circ desk, I feel unable to really help them – I’m just the one checking out their stuff and telling them they owe $.30 for a book returned in 2003.  At the ref desk, I feel truly enabled to help people – and at the end of my two hours I really felt a glow from the feeling.   That may change once I wind up having to deal with the patron looking at porn on the computers or the 5 kids trashing the teen room…while I’ve known it all along, being on the desk really just confirmed that I really do love helping people, in any shape or form.  ^.^

Scott Westerfeld @ my library!

Scott Westerfeld just walked through my library doors not more than 6 minutes ago.  He’s doing an author talk and selling books and all that fun stuff upstairs.  I’m personally feeling horribly bummed (read earlier post ) - but my library is buzzing with life and excitement because of this author, and I can’t help but feel excited and delighted, too.  The teens – the long-neglected generation of many libraries – have been arriving in droves since the schools let out at 2ish.  Parents are flying in with their kids – everyone’s bouncing off the walls.  This is how my Fairfield Public Library  should be every day, brimming with life and excitement.  All libraries should be hoppin’ like this.  If we can’t get a big-time author to come in every day, we should at least push ourselves to be at the forefront of the place to be – be it through gaming, technology, art gallery exhibits, any event, to attract different people - not a place to be shushed but a vibrant, active, community place.  Libraries aren’t about books anymore – we can’t be.  We’ve already lost that title to Amazon.com…

Attention passengers, we are experiencing some turbulence…

Never before have I experienced so much chaos in my life all at once.  Just about every aspect of my life is turning upside down – in the end it’ll be sunny side up I think, but right now I feel as if I’m drowning.  My A.D. reads me like a book – she knows I do not like change.  Yet everything that has been rock solid to me is melting, but I know all of it is for the better.  I just wish it wasn’t happening all at once.  Work, school, love, friends, family.  What else is there?  World of Warcraft.  Oddly enough, it seems to have been the one rock left, but even with that, guild drama never ceases, no matter how hard everyone tries, no matter what anyone says or does.  Yet I know that, at least, my sweet little purple gnome will always be there for me to set everything in her path on fire.  I think I am long overdue for a mental breakdown anyway – I have to have those at least once every three or four months – and even though tonight I’m supposed to finish two websites, turn in homework I didn’t know I was supposed to turn in, and carry the work of 3 other people in a group project due this weekend, I will most likely wind up becoming a big fat pile of tears surrounded by 14,238 tissues listening to Madonna.  But that’s okay.  This little rock needs to have a meltdown too to become stronger.

Sad Pandas and Bunnies

So like….what are you guys doing?

Really.  I’m looking at my blog stats, and I see A LOT of you searching for “sad panda” and “bunnies” and winding up on my blog.  And I totally don’t mind.  And I hope you’re enjoying what you’re reading.  But I’m VERY curious as to what’s going on in the world in the last two days that’s making a bunch of people search for sad pandas and bunnies.  Don’t get me wrong, they are dreadfully adorable. 

http://sadpanda.newtomorrow.org

Curses, you stupid McDonald’s Monopoly game!!!

Yeah okay, I’ll freely admit to visiting and eating McDonald’s food on a daily basis – but only when the McDonald’s Monopoly game is in town.  And it’s back, and they have this online feature now, where you can punch in stupid codes and try to win more $$.  Well the stupid site keeps bugging on me and for the last two days every time I put in a new code, it crashes and does nothing, so I hit refresh and the code has been eaten and I sit around cursing for a while because I can’t get a fair chance to do the game right.  AND to top it all off – some of the stupid McDonald’s I go to aren’t giving the stupid codes on the stupid food that you’re supposed to get the stupid stickers on – I keep buying stupid hash browns (those things are deadly, literally) and they don’t give me the bloody friggin’ stupid game pieces. 

I’m sure I have a zero-to-nil chance of winning any cash - but I’m a total sucker for that kind of stuff.  Which is why I’m always at Mohegan Sun, or playing stupid scratch off tickets (oh I love those things so much), or gorging myself on evil french fries just for a little game code. 

And, just so you know, to date, I’ve won…nothing.  Unless you count the little stack of 10% coupons to Foot Locker.

Stupid, that’s me.

Yay Kelly Clarkson!

So I saw Kelly Clarkson in concert last night over at Mohegan Sun - they sent me free tickets, and they were in the second row off the floor – not bad! I may or may not be a gambling addict, they sent me a $40 gift certificate for dinner anywhere, and last night I blew it on a $42 filet mignon at Todd English’s Tuscany…and I have to say, it was worth it.  They also gave me $10 to use inside the arena, so my friend and I got M&Ms and a Sangria.  I love my Mohegan Sun, and clearly, they love me too.   

Back to Kelly – she’s a GREAT performer – she has this amazing, strong voice and she’s not afraid to use it.  She played a lot of songs off her new album, My December, and it’s mad angry stuff with a more rock feel, and I love it.  I feel guilty that I didn’t even pay to see her – so tonight or some time I’ll be off to buy her CD, and also Jon McLaughlin’s, who opened up for her – he’s a great singer and an amazing pianist as well – you can see big things for him down the road.  The last song he played, Indiana, really reminded me of Elton John, singing and playing so passionately.  

Back to Kelly, part deux.  She talked a lot in between her songs, and she seems like a really down to earth, sweet person.  I love that she’s strong enough to ignore what the media is telling her to do – lose weight, do more radio-friendly songs, etc.  All I know is, Kelly, you’re a beautiful strong woman, and you keep doing whatever the hell you damn well please, girl.  Do what makes you happy, and we’ll be there cheering you on.

 Oh.  And the best part of the Kelly Clarkson concert?  It was practically all in purple. 

Sorry for the sideways photos, I’m not at a computer that has photo editing.  ^.^

LibraryThing!

Just came back from a Social Networking class presented by some great folks – John Blyberg from Darien Library, and Kate Sheehan from Danbury Public Library.  I hear the same things over and over again when I go to these talks – libraries just have to stay connected and stay with it!  We have to keep watching the way users, customers, patrons – whatever you want to call them – use the technology and how Web 2.0 changes it all.  Libraries have always offered service and books – users come to the library and check stuff out and that is all.  But times are a-changin’ – users want to do more.  They want to participate, comment, share their thoughts, provide feedback.  They want to find stuff in a way they can actually find it – have you ever looked at how a record in a library catalog looks?  The subject headings are so …authoritative.  And yes there’s the argument of needing controlled vocabulary – which I totally understand.  But there’s also nothing wrong with letting your patrons into your OPAC (that be Online Public Access Catalog, library-speak) – and letting them add tags, reviews, etc. to our books – just like you would on Amazon or YouTube or Flickr. 

Both John and Kate have got the idea – John created the “SOPAC” (S for Social) at the Ann Arbor District Library – www.aadl.org/catalog – and its catalog is just unbelievable – OPAC-wise.  Library vendors really need to step up and look at this, and give us these tools for all libraries, instead of the libraries that can afford to have people spend their time programming up their own OPAC.  Danbury Library, like most public libraries, doesn’t have the luxury of such a large technology team as AADL – but yet has managed to integrate at least a small part of Web 2.0 into their own library catalog.  http://cat.danburylibrary.org - look up any book, and you’ll find the regular, authoritative record at the top, but then at the bottom, there’s a tag cloud!  And you can search through the tag clouds!  With words that make sense, instead of “cookery”!   These tag clouds are generated from LibraryThing – if you are an avid book reader, you *have* to start using this.  You can keep track of the books you’ve read, provide reviews, tags – see what other people are reading who have similar tastes, etc.  I’ll be playing around with LibraryThing a lot more to see how truly beneficial it can be for our library (you can look me up under Miriella, if you so wish).  It’s definitely a step forward in the right direction to implementing and using 2.0.

I hate complicated pants.

Today I’m wearing one of my favoritest pair of pants ever.  They’re purple (duh) – but it’s the fabric that makes it.  The entire fabric is covered in a gorgeous embroidered floral pattern, with beads and sequins sewn in everywhere.   The downside?  Letting any part of the pant touch any other part of the pant.  Case in point:  I’ve been sitting for the last half hour with one leg under my bum, and I was just about ready to stand up, and tried to move my leg out.  Except now the beads and sequins have hooked on to each other, and I am now stuck in a permanent half-lotus position.  (I can’t just break it apart you know, these were expensive pants. )  On the bright side, I’m really good at balancing on one leg (hooray yoga classes!), so I don’t think my boss will mind if I go work the circ desk now standing on the one leg.

WoWing

Just a small report on life in WoW.  Emerald Dream has reached new heights, and I’ve been raiding a whole lot lately.  Lothiriel’s been amazing – he’s taking the reins and totally take us THERE.  Stuff that we never thought (*I* never thought) would happen for months, if ever.  We have a lot of new raid-ready friends in guild now, so we’re trying to strike that balance of keeping the low level, less raid-ready folk in our guild happy along with the hard-core raiding people happy.  So far I think it’s working well - lots of Kara runs, Gruul’s, a dabble in SSC, and last night, The Eye.  It’s been exciting but raiding sucks up SOOOOO much time – last night I finally ran out of pretty much everything – potions, elixirs, primals, food, wizard oil, you name it, I’m out of it.  We got Void Reaver down to 1 friggin’ percent last night – but he enraged before we could finish him off – so for our final attempt I passed out every last bit of consumable I had.  (We couldn’t get him down though, but that’s what Friday night is for.)  So for the next couple of weeks I’m going to try to work on good ol’ fashioned farming and get my supplies back in order.  She’s starting to run low on cash anyway.  

Believe it or not, my long-neglected level 70 priest named Springroll (yes, Springroll.  You heard me.) is now holy.  I swore I’d never do it, but I did it so that I could help Lothiriel’s alts get groups much more easily.  Obviously it makes more sense for me to have a healer anyway – before she was a shadow priest, and what’s the point of having a shadow priest when you have a mage already?  She was long, long ignored and neglected, but now that she’s holy, she has a new purpose in life.  Sought after!  Invigorated!  Alive!  And creepily enough, I actually enjoy healing.  And I think I do a decent job of it – in regular runs people rarely die…but I think that’s mostly because my guildmates are just badass – they could probably run half the instances without a healer anyway.  And I got to heal Kara last week too!  It’s a frickin’ hell of a pressure-cooker though, while wiping and people dying isn’t always necessarily the fault of the healers, I always feel as if I should be able to save the group from any kind of disaster that may ensue.

My new goofy goal is to get Springroll a Mr. Pinchy AND a Magical Crawdad Pet too – for several reasons. 
(Click here for my previous adventures with Mr. Pinchy, and a nice guide on Fishing in the Outlands…)
1) To max out her fishing (she’s at just 248)
2) To max out her cooking – when and how did I get her cooking to 255 anyway? Fascinating…
3) Because I need a lot of buff foods – now for Miriella AND Springroll
4) To LOL @ Shansa for getting the pet TWICE before he does.