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.