Practising everyday

I am practising my bass guitar everyday. Can even even hold a rhytm as long as I don't fret too much. I can manage to hold at least 2 of my 4 strings silent most of the time. I can switch string when I pluck whithout looking (wow!). Mariève doesn't complain that much when I practice (which is 15 to 30 minutes per day, on average), but maybe she is just in love with me and doesn't want me to down my pityful efforts to pretend I can play a musical instrument.

Even my daughters don't complain THAT much.

Of course, some people can actually play bass guitar. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVl39LBZGMw . A pity he passed away. I hear he never was one to boast.

Besides, spring is in full Bloom, the recession appears to have bottomed out (I do not say it appears to have recovered!), and perhaps the end of the world will be kind enough to postpone its visit if it had any planned in the near or mid term future...

Rock Band did this to me

Bought a bass guitar. Cheap, of course, as much as they can be cheap in a music store when they are a chinese Replica... $400 after haggling. There were cheaper instruments, but they were heavier and the one I bought at least seems to be well built. Okay enough to learn on it without disgusting myself.

This being said, My Made in China Typhoon -- a Jackson C-20 Concert Bass replica -- actually works. A 10 watt amp actually provides enough power to give a quite powerful sound, to my surprise, especially in a small house. And there I was thinking that the hard part was to hit the right note and I could start playing. Wrong. Oh so wrong. You need to keep 1 string ringing, and 3 strings silent. When you play you have to touch all 4 strings at all time, 3 of them to mute them off. If you dont, all strings vibrate and you get a muddy sound. If you want to play bass, the only sounds that should come out of your instruments are the one you want to get out. No string slipping, no string plucked with fingernails by accident, just one clear note. And I tought 4 strings would be easier to learn than 6 strings... Ah well, at least I have figured my C major scale. Should now buy a metronome to force me to keep a steady rhythm.

Now, to practice everyday...

The Joy of the Weed

To Weed is good. Collections look better, Browsing is easier, books look fresher, they are not as crowded, and turnover rates improve. It also allows for intimacy with the collection. Those books who stay have been litteraly touched by you. The subconscious mind remember they are there. When it comes to Readers' advisory, this comes in handy.

The catalog is a fantastic tool, but knowledge of the collection allows us sometimes to wring that little extra bit out of our holdings when helping patrons. To have a collection that is fresh, up to date, and doesn't list Brian Mulroney as the current prime minister of Canada is also a good thing :).

Oxygen

O Is a very strange thing, and its relationship to Life and Us and All things on Earth is quite amazing. Nick Lane almost manages to vulgarize this--I mean by this that I can understand about half the book. I am fascinated by what we are and how we came to be, a fascination that I think exists since we do exist. Mr. Lane makes a remarquable effort in trying to explain to us how much that one specific element has defined all life as we know it on earth. Still reading it, and I will read it to the end, even if it is a bit technical and tough to understand for a non-scientist like me!

It's not all about games...

Obtuseness. A gentle reminder that when one has nothing positive to say, perhaps he should considering saying nothing. Ah well. Lack of vision is not a crime, and by some it's seen as a virtue. http://www.ottawacitizen.com/Life/Library+games/1393761/story.html.

Perhaps if Mr. Taylor had bothered to look at OPL's mission statement, he would have seen that those activities DO fit in our mission statement, under "community building" and "connecting people with each other". It also is an inexpensive way to advertize library's services: Our Friday March 13's tournament was run by teen volunteers, all the library had to do was to provide registration and poster production and advertizing. I wasn't in the room but parents who were present in the room found the event well run and inclusive. And although the participants brought in snacks and drinks, the room and table were cleaner at the end than when they took possession of it to run their event.

Anyway, libraries are about information and people, not just books. Books are a tool. There are many other tools available. Our main purpose is to serve the community and help it becoming stronger. Video games are but another tool.

And since this is Saint Patrick's day... No, I don't have any Irish blood :). My co-workers were kind enough to tell me how to actually pronounce Leprechaun...

SLO

It's coming, but I guess that this year again, we (OPL) are not going. Le Salon du Livre de l'Outaouais will be held between March 26 and 29 at the Palais des Congrès in Hull. Here's the official website: http://www.slo.qc.ca/ . My friend Claude Bolduc http://claudebolduc.tripod.com/ goes in a frenzy about a month every year, at about this time of the year...

I must say I think it's a bit of a shame that the biggest bilingual library in North America can't go there considering that after all, Gatineau IS part of Greater Ottawa's "catchment area" and that there are a lot of potential paying users on the other side of the river. Although the Bibliothèque Municipale de Gatineau does a fantastic job with the miserable yearly budget they get, we can offer services beyond what they can offer, especially with our Databases and Overdrive products, among other things. Also, a lot of our francophone Ottawa Users cross the river to go see what's up in the Francophone Publishing world.

I sometimes come to think that the river that separates Ottawa from Gatineau is awfully wide for its size. And I don't claim it's all Ottawa's fault. Far from it.

Sushi

Miam.

Inaris, especially. I've developped a fondness for these.

Fried Tofu sheet filled with rice. A bit sweet. Fantastically tasty.

It is a matter of worry

The way the markets and the economic situation is decomposing. Rotting away. Has the look of a death spiral. Thinking that 2 years ago, we were floating on a cloud of economic global bliss, or almost. Then one little bloc from the JENGA economic tower was removed. ABCP, it was written on the little wooden bloc.

Since then, the JENGA economic tower has been tumbling, and isn't done crumbling yet, it seems.

It is said that bad economic times are good times for public libraries, as more and more people come to use and rely on our free/inexpensive services. Good for us library workers, in a way, as being asked to do more with less is a kind of lesser evil compared to someone loosing his/her job and being stuck in economic distress. Still. I see nothing here to rejoyce about. Let's roll up our sleeves...

Are you smarter than a 5th grader?

This morning my daughter's school was hosting a science fair. Rachel and her friend Claude-Hélène where hosting an exibit on fossils, along with maybe 20 other groups. Some were so so, some were good (including my daughter's) and some were truly amazing! The amount of work and dedication these pre-teens put into their displays is quite impressive, and they sometimes were obviously helped by their parents (some had powerpoint presentations on laptop at their booth!!!), but still. Some of the fair booths well well researched, well illustrated, and the 10 years old actually maning (or preteening?) the displays KNEW their stuff!

Seriously, I've learned that you can use Botox to relieve cerebral palsy symptoms, that in some parts of Canada it's 90% of the population of polar bears went down the drain, and was granted the horrible pleasure to see gruesome pictures on the effects of head trauma, polio and anorexia.

Some of these kids will go far, given the chance. They also have means and tools that were only a distant dream when I was their age...

Ipods: Fantastic antidote to procrastination?

My beloved got a Ipod classic for her 30th birthday. And she sooooo deserves it. As I'm much older, a small Ipod shuffle would be aplenty for me! So let's go on a lenghtyish post here to make my point that the iPod shuffle is mine, not thru privilege, but because I worked hard to deserve it (and I'm filthy lucky, too!)

I basically enjoyed the whole workshop, including the little commoncraft videos on YouTube. I must say that what I disliked most is FaceBook (we call it FesseBook at home, it's great to be francophone). I enjoy having a blog, I've improved my l337 RSSing skillz, and Flicker is great! Honest, I don't see how to improve that workshop. Not having us shuffling around in our cars to go from one end of the city to the other is great, too! It's GREEN! It means we are fullfilling one of our strategic plan initiatives! *Rachelene slaps Matt and Caitlin in the back* GREAT JOB, YOU TWO! I may have thought that the lifelong learning video was a bit of a bore, but I do agree and believe that the best way to learn is to have fun. I'm having fun now! Really!

So, let's check what I've done to get my tiny wonder of technology...

1. Set up a Google Account. *CHECK*
2. Set up a Blog using Blogger *CHECK* well, as they say, if you are reading this...
3. Create your first Blog Post *CHECK*
4. Create a post in your blog on Lifelifelong Learning. (Which is easiest? hardest?) *CHECK*
5. Add a link to your Blog on the wiki *CHECK*
6. (Optional) Add a comment to one of your colleagues' blogs *CHECK*
7. Set up a Google Reader Account *CHECK*
8. Subscribe to 10 RSS feeds including an OPL feed *CHECK*
9. Post in your blog about RSS *CHECK*
10. Set up a Delicious Account *CHECK*
11. Add a bookmark to your Delicious account and tag it *CHECK*
12. Create a post in your blog about your experiences using Facebook *CHECK*
13. Add a post in your blog about Flickr and Creative Commons, OR Create a Flickr account, post a photo and provide a link to it in your blog *CHECK*
14. Create a post in your blog that reflects on your experiences during this workshop *CHECK*
15. (Optional) Continue blogging after this workshop and discovering new web applications and technologies! *OF COURSE!!!*

And again, thanks for all of those who assembled this lovely little package. It should be compulsory for anyone who works @ OPL in the information field, although I think it would be of use to almost anyone. Being aware about these tools means added expertise I can share with our patrons. Fantastic job!!!

Wednesdays Wednesdays...

That is our new Family vehicule. Basically accurate, including the color and the bike rack. The roof box is much cheaper however, being Canadian Tire Karite stuff...

Ridiculously exotic Devonian trilobite from Morocco (B&W version)

Ridiculously exotic Devonian trilobite from Morocco (B&W version)
Originally uploaded by pomphorhynchus

Truly amazing, no? And sent directly from Flicker to my Blog. I deserve 2 Ipod Shuffle, Methinks...

I really, really love flicker!

Why do 2 when you can do only 1?

Of course, why not do two exercises instead of only one?

Time to share my burning interest in paleontology with the rest of the world. Here is a nice pictures I've found in the Creative Common photo search on Flickr... And the next photo I will ship to my blog straight from Flicker!!!

Nice little monster leftovers, no? All of them found on publicly shared photos on Flickr!

I may not like Facebook, but I'm definitely liking Flickr... Got to push it on my Girlfriend, now...

Flickr exercise

Well, I sure can see a use for Flickr! Somehow, the first impressions REALLY is good. I feel that I can make use of it, if only to back up photos. And I haven't figured the catch yet! I always wonder: Whoever makes this, what is their motivation and how do they come into their money and time? How are they rewarded in the end?

Anyway, here is the link to my new Flickr account and some dated photos (yes, the daughters are very busy growing...): http://www.flickr.com/photos/rachelene2

Exercise complete: I can already smell the Ipod shuffle...

A little more details on what I think of Facebook

Facebook is one of those things I think they have invented the word "clutter" for. It's a very silly thing, in many ways, and basically a vehicule for advertizing, and I suspect suspicious advertizing at that. Navigating facebook is like walking in a minefield. Whenever you go for applications you sometimes must import files and links that reek of ... unsafe? Also, although it's a way to stay on the grapevine for family and friends, it's also a way to see how bad they spell.

Anyway. I'm always very glad to see banners where I learn that my mailbox is full and I have 7 friends in Montreal and that 2 of them have a secret crush on me. All I have to do is click on the banner, and enter some personal info. It's not a biggy if the banner won't disappear unless I fill all the fields or reboot my computer, right?

This being said, it has been useful on some occasions. I can see many ways where it could assist in job searching, for example. For advertizing services, it can be useful, although it seems to me it can have unpredictable and unforseen results. There is a little bit of facebook that reminds me of someone standing on a soapbox in a place he doesn't know and saying whatever he wants to say to some friends and a lot of strangers who, in the end, won't care much (if you are lucky). You can also play silly little games to waste your time. Enough said, it's time to go pet Nibloo in my "Winnie the Pooh" pets application on Facebook, so I can have some money to feed, train and groom him...

Being ahead in time...

Knowing a few things ahead of time damages timing at times. Well, I'll practice Facebook and feed Nibloo a bit. I'm still working on my delicious tags and finding it somewhat useful. Up to now I think I'm doing okay with that virtual workshop and sometimes dream of some shuffle in the near future... :)

With the buses, activity has increased at the library to pre-strike levels. Little time to be bored.

Red shoe boxes

Buses are back in the street this morning. It looks strange, as in two months we were getting used to not see them around. They are not exactly cute, although it's not their purpose to be. Their purpose is to be useful. Reminds us that for 2 months they were of no use whatsoever...

Well, if people still want rides, they just need to ask. I was getting used to my new part-time job. I'll miss having people in my car.

Talking of vehicules, I just bought a small SUV to act as second vehicule and official family car. Mariève will be able to go around and I will spend a bit less time running around all over the place. I think it will be more practical than overloading the poor Protégé like a donkey everytime I want to get lost in the woods. Surprisingly the new vehicule is advertizing fuel needs that are lower than my protégé, even for a vehicule which is 1000 pounds heavier. We will see. They look big, still it has the same ground footprint as my car.

I'll take delivery in about 2 weeks.

30

Today Mariève turns 30. She's shared my life for almost 5 years now, with all of it and a little more than she'd want at times. She also helps immensely with my daughters, keeping me in rein when I go excessive, and pointing to me plain common sense that I'd miss if she didn't give me feedback. I'm not the social kind much, I feel a bit autistic in society at times, but she's got a strange facility with those things that amazes me, especially since she can doubt herself so much, while at the same time being able to do so much. My beloved Mariève is gifted in so many ways and I think at times she doesn't know it, but she is so generous and capable of bringing so much to people around her, and all of it looking so natural!

My beloved is no fraud, she's real, she's whole, she's got good quality brains and I love her. I'm lucky to be loved by such a fantastic human being. Merci Mon Amour de partager ta vie avec moi!

Facebook

Always get a bit of a feeling that Facebook is more of a gimmick to throw advertizing and silly little games with a field mine of click-on spam junk at you than an efficient way for social networking, but that's what's there, right? The screen is very loaded with lots of information, lots of it irrelevant, and I don't find it especially user-friendly. My dumb brain doesn't compute it all very well, say. I REALLY enjoyed that commoncraft little video. Now that's my kind of little presentation: To the point, No flafla, straight on it.

I found it sad that our own OPL fan club generated only 4 comments on its wall. One is to decry the lack of French on our Facebook page, while we claim to be the biggest bilingual library in North America. Eh. He is right, I fear.

For the rest, I think that although we should be there, I think the potential for this is a bit lower than you'd think. Public Libraries remain, and must remain, a place to go with our biological entities in whole. They should be a welcoming for the whole person, not just our braincells. Although the web allows reaching a bit further and wider, a physical library cares for the whole of use, not just our information need. We meet people, we touches thing, we get out and socialize a bit, we share with real human people. We also get to see how messy it is, and we get a feel of who is left out of the electronic world because it's to hard to access, economically or intellectually.

Internet networks are important, but as long as we are made of living cells, it is not enough. And they are out of reach to a lot of people too.

Today

Today is the name of a nice song by Smashing Pumpkins. Well, not that nice, it's a bit dark in the lyrics, but it is very nice as far as the music goes. My thought of today goes to Susan Taylor Davidson, who is ever nice and who is no fraud in being nice. I think I'll miss being taxi, I get to abuse nice people like her and Nicholas and Melissa with my music and my bad humor. It beats 20 minutes alone in the car going to / coming back from work.

My second thought of Today goes to our beloved federal politics. Mr. Ignatieff seems to be a born politician. Now truly hated (until the wind changes) by NDP and Le Bloc, he gives new life to the Conservatives, who I think have been a bit chastised by end of last year's near death experience. Mr Ignatieff gets the blame for finishing the coalition--and we know he couldn't worry less about this, and he gets the credit for armlocking the conservatives into doing some of his bidding. Win-Win for Ignatieff. The Bloc can go back to wallow into relative irrelevance for a little time. NDP got its wing clipped nasty. Ignatieff gets some credit for sparing us another (!) election. For a year or so? We'll see...

From my Quebecker point of view, the question is: Can Ignatieff regain some ground for the very tarnished Liberal brand in Quebec, and can he start climbing on top of the Bloc? The bloc will be hard to move, considering the federalist vote in Quebec remains splitted in 3. Vote splintering is very annoying in a first-past-the-post federal democracy like ours...

The Power of Law, part 2

The power of threats is that they are sometime more effective in getting things to move than the execution of the said threat. Knowing that they were about to be smitten by a special law, they chose to go to binding arbitration. At least, it means we are going to have bus service soon.

The sad thing here, of course, is that they couldn't resolve this by themselves. Binding arbitration means that they will all be able to say that they didn't back up until they were forced to. Real mature, for both sides. But I get saving face is still quite important in this world...

Of course, they could have gone to binding arbitration right away instead of having the whole of Ottawa in pain for almost two months. Why they didn't is, I think, a quite heavy question. That a whole city had to go arthritic for so long over scheduling issues defies common sense.

The power of Law

Now will they be forced to make up after a serious scolding from uncle Fed? Since our two unruly kids are refusing to work together and find a way to resolve their dispute amicably, it is to be (wished? feared? expected?) that they will both have to be kicked out of their camped positions by special legislation. I however doubt that this will do anything improve relations between the drivers and the city. That's not something I'm looking at with joy and delight as OC Transpo doesn't exactly have a reputation as a happy work place...

On this, the Ottawa Public Library has a much better record! Never been on strike for the 21 years I've worked @ OPL or GPL. Conflicts, sometimes. Stupid fights to the finish, we can do without. Public services should mean patrons first. Whatever our problem, they pay us. End of discussion. Period.

So dazed and confused at times...

I'll echo a post from a very kind, sharing and caring person: It's easy to forget who you are on the web. I try to stick to one name, but sometimes I have to go on variations of what I want to use: Rachelene, or Rachelene2. As for passwords, it's hell. We can access the web from everywhere, but our notes and mementos in the real world don't always walk with us! So I try to KISS it (keep it simple, stup*d), but some website will ask for a more complex password than the one you are using, and... we have to remain safe, you know. Still I sometimes wonder why somebody would bother stealing ME or whatever information I have, it's not like I have much to hide. Still. Better safe than sorry...

So tell me. How many website have YOU been where you have logged in, connected to, got involved in telling yourself "this is the best thing in the world, how could I have done without it?" to then forget it, as goes to the oblivion of your subconscious mind as you find a new "this is the best thing in the world, how..."? Yeah, tell me...

Take out the trash every week or else...

Engaging De.li.cio.us heads on. Besides it not importing automatically my gazillion bookmarks I never look at, it help me see how many broken links I have in my favorites list. I'm looking at them one by one (and a full fourth of them are dead links!), and tagging them as I go. Which points at me that tagging is a science I will need to refine. Well, I'm on it. Sure was overdue on that favorites list cleanup...

At least dead links are not like real life trash. I live by the Gatineau Park. Pure lovely, I really enjoy it. I love nature. But it has its downsides. Besides 2 bear visits on my deck, we have to padlock our garbage cans, or we can pick up whatever was not wanted in the morning, and those Racoons and Skunks are thorough. They go to the bottom, and to get there, they get what is on top out. Logical, no?

Taxi Driving and Stalking

Congratulations, I'm now stalking all of you OPL bloggers. I've put all OPL blogs as "followed blogs", so not only you can escape me, thanks to Google Reader, I'm actively stalking all of you thanks to the "follow blog" feature. You can't run, you can't hide. You can not type in your blog, of course, but that would be cheap, no? :)

Besides, Now that we are past our half-hundred day of strike @ OCTranspo, I'm settling in in my job as a part-time "volunteer" taxi driver. One side benefit of it is that I'm getting to know Ottawa sidestreets and locations better. There is a good side to everything.

RSS readers and things I have done...

I guess that I can say I have done week 4 exercises already since I have about 20 subscriptions to my RSS reader (which happens to be Google Reader). 20 subscriptions BESIDES all of you who follow this little lovely virtual workshop of Matt and Caitlin! I even started following a blog, Gronk's blog, whom secret identity I know. I have seen Gronk. Considering what Gronk looks like, if he had a flavor, it would be strawberry-flavored cough syrup. You know, those syrups with a strange aftertaste... Now understand me well. Gronk is VERY nice. Whoever hides behind Gronk is one of the nicest person I know. Not THE nicest (that's my Girlfriend), but very very very nice.

I love all of you fellow OPL staffers

Even if I meet you only once a year at ED day. So I'm sticking you all your blogs in my Google RSS reader. Your taughts can't escape me anymore!

By the way, the cute cat realising the need for Reader's Advisory in the picture here looks very much like one of the beautiful cats I had in the days I decided to ignore my Allergy to Cats and have some near me. Cesar was a beautiful (not fat!) 17 pounder, who lived to be 17, and who still lives in my head, as most people who know me can ascertain ;)

Saturdays in the library and Reader's Advisory...

Saturdays is always a strange day to work. 21 years in the business, and I still find something... special to it. Not in a negative sense, I actually enjoy it, as I don't have my daughters on the week-ends I work so I don't mind toiling a bit on that day. The patrons are also in a different, week-endy mood. Chattier. Here for fun and leisure. More reader Advisory questions at the information desk. Miam, RA. Fun!

There is no word to describe how easier and more efficient the job of doing RA at the information desk is since the advent of the databases. I'm a bit of a lazy ploucky klutz in many ways and things, but the lazy part of me really answers well to database. Anyone remembers the day we had to find magazine articles with periodical indexes published every month? Instead of having a patron waiting 2 weeks for a photocopy, now we get the information in 28 seconds flat from the moment we hit the keyboard if the website in not down...

Novelist is the database I use most for reader's advisory. Many patrons who use it learn to really appreciate it, too!

Learner pointers

I feel like I'm a party pooper for typing that, but that sound presentation from that Library far away sounded very much like a "how to chew gum" thing. Perhaps that I'm a bit blasé because I work in a library and I float in information and learning like the a cooked carrot in a vegetable soup. I'm more interested in the "how to add blogs to my RSS feed" than on the "yes you can do it, you can be a life long learner, keep your eyes on target..." kind of stuff.

This being said, I went thru it. I really want my shot at the IPod, I guess :). Really awakened the mercenary in me, and that mercenary part of me never sleeps far below the surface.

Now that I'm caught up, I'll see to it that my Wednesday mornings belong my little weekly information mass time. Amen.

I guess I was late when I was born...

I had to forget about the Web 2.0 training. If I don't stick myself a note in Outlook and wrap it around my finger, it's like it never existed for me. Ah well, thankfully, Mark was nice enough to send a reminder to bring slackers like me back to the fold! I just hope it doesn't disqualify me from the juicy prizes they'll offer at the end of the session. Miam miam, prizes. Maybe we can eat them... Okay, back to my headphones now.

Here I am...

Fresh baby to the world of blogs. I can now spew my yarns for everyone who cares to see. Greeting to all my fellows at OPL who trudge thru Mark's training!

Today is fairly mild outside. A short respite between two spells of bitter cold. Now bring back the buses. I still wonder what's so bad between the city and the drivers that has to paralyse half the city and cause untold misery to so many people who need that basic service... I have no doubt the issues are important, but the consequences are a bit disproportionate to the issues, it seems to me.