Category: Personal

Squid? Or Savior?

I’m sure that most people have seen by now that the first ever film of a live Giant Squid (Architeuthis) was captured by some Japanese researchers, and stills from the film have shown up at National Geographic.

squid

But I think something more is going on.

Is it just a coincidence that the Squid reveals itself to us now, after all these millenia? Choosing now to come forward and appear before our cameras? I think not.

Behold! The truth!

FSM vs Squid

These Giant Squid are the messengers of the One True Being: The Flying Spaghetti Monster. They are truly created in His image, and low he has given unto us their smaller brethren as tasty fried snacks. Truly He is a benevolent entity.

This also explains why we are to dress as pirates in worship: because it reminds us of the times when we were on the sea, and closer to the Messengers of the FSM (rAmen). Many pirates may have indeed been touched by their noodly appendages, and brought closer to the FSM in so doing. This also brings into the realm of Holy Scripture such works as Jules Verne’s 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, wherein a Holy Messenger attempts to convert Ned Land and the rest of the crew of the Nautilus.

I am in awe of the revelation of the grand designs of the Flying Spaghetti Monster. You should be too.

Library Issues Personal

TENN-Share, and thoughts

I spent last Thursday and Friday at the Nashville Public Libary attending a small conference made up of Tennessee Libraries called TENN-Share.

The venue was really quite nice…the Nashville Public Library is in a wonderful building. However, none of the technology worked as it should (basically all presentations were done without computer assistance) and when a major portion of the program is Federated Search, that’s an issue. Also, for a major metropolitan library to not have wi-fi? Whassupwidat? I had planned on live-blogging the sessions, but NO wi-fi left me in the technological dark ages.

There were a number of good sessions, especially the ability to see different vendor products and be able to ask questions about content and usage of those products. It was also a great opportunity to meet other Tennessee librarians and network a bit…something that I haven’t really had a chance to do yet here.

Due to the majority of Thursday being about federated searching, I learned a lot about a word that was unfamiliar to me. De-duplication. Possibly this is because I haven’t done sufficient real database work, but I had never encountered the word before. I’d used the classic deselect, a grand old library term for remove from the collection. Patrons tend to be less excited about that when you use a word they don’t understand.

Tags library

Personal

Me and Mom

IMG_0285

Originally uploaded by griffey.

Bets and I are going through our photos and choosing some to print and hang in our new house. Bets chose this one of my mom and I. Gotta admit…it’s a good shot. This was taken at Tim’s Ford Lake two years ago.

Media Personal

Another CAT 5

Ok…this is just wrong. Hurricane Rita is now a Catagory 5, and may strengthen further.

Two Cat 5’s in the Gulf within a month of each other? AND we’re about to run out of hurricane names…all we have left this year are Stan, Tammy, Vince, and Wilma. If that happens it would be the most active hurricane season in recorded history.

But global warming…nah, not a big deal, right Mr. President? I suppose the Salon article is right…if you can’t even admit that evolution is a fact, how can you possibly be asked to understand Global Warming?

Tags Media

Digital Culture Personal

Arrrr!

jolly roger

Today be th’ official Talk Like a Pirate Day. If’n ya be a scurvy dog n’ want to read th’ blog as it’s meant to be read, you can read the translation here. This is also the grand high holy day of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, be ye touched by his noodly appendage.

Avast! I’ve been re-christened with my true pirate name! What’s yours?

My pirate name is:

Dread Pirate Flint

Like the famous Dread Pirate Roberts, you have a keen head for how to make a profit. Like the rock flint, you’re hard and sharp. But, also like flint, you’re easily chipped, and sparky. Arr!

Get your own pirate name from fidius.org.

For more pirate goodness: the Flickr tag for pirate.

Arrr!

Library Issues Personal

Quick update

Crazy busy week ahead of me, and it only just started.

Taught my first ENGL 121 class today..the first of what will be dozens, I’m sure. It’s one of our core classes for library instruction. Went ok, if not great. The students didn’t have any clue about topics (which I had hoped they would) and 90% of them had never even been inside the library before (which I had hoped they would). Next time I’ll ratchet my expectations down and it’ll go fine.

If anyone is interested, here’s the slides for my basic library discussion I did with the ENGL 121 class.

Tags library

Personal Sewanee

New House

We are finally in the new house, and can (mostly) relax a bit. The move was difficult, not because of distance, but because we are both so busy and the details so hard to keep up with. For the first month of trying to buy the house, it was financial stuff….getting stuff together for the mortgage officer, finding the right loan combination, making sure our credit scores were good, checking all the numbers again and again and again. Then came the approval, and we moved into prep mode: changing addresses, updating online accounts (do you have any idea how many online accounts I updated? Amazon, Netflix, online banking, Paypal, Ebay…and a ton I don’t remember yet, probably), changing over utilities (gas, water, electricity, cable, phone) making sure that all of them are done on time, house appraisal, insurance coverage…so much stuff!

That’s not counting the actual packing.

Then we decided that we were going to paint two rooms in the house before we moved things into it. Which gave us more or less 48 hours or so to get in, prep, paint, and let it dry before we started hauling things in. Then this past weekend came the moving…boxes and boxes and boxes of things, furniture, all while trying not to destroy the new paint jobs in the two rooms. And while trying to keep the pets happy.

Lets just say that the last few months have been….stressful.

But now it’s mostly over, and we’re in the new house, and it’s wonderful. The house itself is amazing. I’m just looking forward to the day when we can both come home, sit on the couch, and relax for a bit.

Tags Sewanee

Personal

update

In the midst of the insanity in NOLA and the gulf coast, and trying to keep up with all that news, Betsy and I have finally bought and moved into our new house!

It was a busy couple of days, but we’re 99% in. I’m heading to the old house today to pick up the last few items, and to sweep the place out. After that, we’ll officially be in the new house. Pictures will follow as soon as we get unpacked.

Digital Culture Personal

NOLA blogging

Found by Shel, a phenomenal blog detailing some of the street-level issues going on in NOLA:

The Interdictor

Sobering post from today:

In case anyone in national security is reading this, get the word to President Bush that we need the military in here NOW. The Active Duty Armed Forces. Mr. President, we are losing this city. I don’t care what you’re hearing on the news. The city is being lost. It is the law of the jungle down here. The command and control structure here is barely functioning. I’m not sure it’s anyone’s fault — I’m not sure it could be any other way at this point. We need the kind of logistical support and infrastructure only the Active Duty military can provide. The hospitals are in dire straights. The police barely have any capabilities at this point. The National Guard is doing their best, but the situation is not being contained. I’m here to help in anyway I can, but my capabilities are limited and dropping. Please get the military here to maintain order before this city is lost.

Wow. I’m just more and more shaken by the news coming from NOLA. So much suffering, and the real suffering hasn’t started yet. Right now, people are suffering from immediate loss…loss of home, loss of friends, loss of family. Later will come the real hardship: no job, no paycheck, no insurance. What do you do when not only is everyplace and everyone you know gone, but everything you know is gone. The whole city is gone. The people who are still in NOLA are the ones without cars, without resources to get out of the city in the first place. What can they possibly do after this?

Personal The Living Dead

Zombie flashmobs

These completely and utter fascinate me. So far there have been ~~two~~ three: the first in San Francisco, one in Austin, Texas that invaded an American Idol tryout, and now another in Vancouver. Basically, an online and SMS organized mob that dress as zombies and invade normal spaces, shuffling and moaning and generally weirding out the norms. This makes my general zombie fandom go apeshit. I sooooooo wanna dress up like a zombie and invade a mall with a group of other zombies.

Then again, if I saw a group of zombies shambling down the street at me, the one in front would be lucky if I didn’t put a cricket bat upside his head.

Tags The_Living_Dead