San Francisco Chronicle now offering podcasts

The San Francisco Chronicle is now offering several podcasts for your listening pleasure. Thanks to CyberJournalist.net for the info.

Proud to be an alum

Congratulations to the team from my alma mater (cleverly named "Dewey, et al for my Baby") for winning the Book Cart Drill Team World Championship at the ALA annual conference this past Sunday. Way to go!

Good luck Amanda!

On Friday, the movers are arriving and then Amanda is on her way to her first professional librarian position and new life in New York.

Amanda and I became friends during our time together in library school and I should have started paying her long ago for listening to my many complaints about our courses, my relationship problems and most recently, my job hunting tales.

But on a serious note: Amanda, you're a great friend and I wish you all the best as you head east. This position is going to be a wonderful experience for you, of that I have no doubt.

I'll have to visit New York sometime and I hope you'll visit me as well, wherever that turns out to be.

Thanks j!

For your insights, advice and for understanding my need to follow my heart.

Custard is on me!

Naperville Library: your fingerprint please

Patrons wanting to use public Internet terminals at branches of the Naperville Public Library will now be asked to prove who they are by way of a fingerprint. A brief (about four minutes) piece regarding this new policy was on NPR's Weekend Edition today.

My very own feed!

Of course my site has a feed: Subscribe to it, won't you?

Wish I was there ...

At ALA's annual conference that is. Especially with its location this year being just a two hour drive from where I currently live.

I haven't been shy in saying that I have issues with ALA, namely my belief that the organization simply doesn't address the topics and issues particular to those of us working in special libraries and information centers.

But I have to admit that I wish I was there for some of the speakers. A fantastic lineup is being offered, with an opening general session featuring Illinois Senator Barack Obama and the closing session featuring Henry Winkler. Henry is mostly remembered for playing the "Fonz" on the television show "Happy Days," but he's also a director, children's author and a literacy advocate. (He discovered when he was 31 that he is dyslexic.)

Bright and early tomorrow morning, author Erik Larson will speak. He wrote a fantastic book, "The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America," which tells the story of the men behind Chicago's World's Fair, intertwining it with the story of H.H. Holmes, who murdered scores of people who came to Chicago in anticipation of the fair's opening. A while back, I read that goofy Tom Cruise had purchased the rights to the book and was planning to play Holmes. (No pun intended.)

So, while I doubt I would have gotten much out of the majority of program presentations, I'm sorry I'm missing these three notable ones. Hopefully someone lucky enough to be there will fill me on what I missed.

Birthday wishes for Gary

A very happy birthday to one of my News Division colleagues, the fabulous Gary Price!

Thanks to Search Engine Watch for the heads up.

"Hollywood Librarian" attire and paraphenalia

Ann Seidl, who is currently producing a film entitled "The Hollywood Librarian: Librarians in Cinema and Society," gave a wonderful presentation to a joint meeting of several southcentral Wisconsin library organizations in April 2004 and I can't wait to see the final product. In the meantime, check out the items you can purchase to benefit the film, make a fashion statement and proclaim to the world, "I'M PROUD TO BE A LIBRARIAN."

IMDB feed

Yeah!!! My favorite Web site, the Internet Movie Database, now offers a feed for its Movie and TV News page!

Happy Fathers Day, Dad!

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to spend Father's Day with my dad because the house is full of sickness at the moment.

My sister and nephew now live with my parents and on Wednesday my nephew was sick with the flu. He passed it on to my sister, who in turn passed it on to my mom.

I felt rotten, but I just didn't want to go over there and take the chance of coming down with anything myself.

My brother didn't go either, but he did go to the house at 3 a.m. this morning to help my parents with their paper route. I talked to him at 8 p.m. this evening and he was heading to bed because he had never gotten a chance to get back to bed this morning and was exhausted. What exciting lives this family leads, NOT!

I sat out on my balcony trying to finish the latest book for my reviewing gig and was bored to tears. The book profiles some of the best business presenters, but in my mind, the style is all wrong. I would have done interviews with those profiled and then edited the various comments into a book where the participants discussed the worst presentation they ever gave, how they polished their presentation style and how they maintain their interest and passion for the topics they discuss with audiences. In its current form, the book simply comes off as a bad infomercial.

Congrats Sweet Moustache!

Congrats to my ex, SM (no pun intended). He finished the HHH with an unofficial time of 10 hours and 3 minutes.

Yes, I admit I still look at his biking Web site from time to time, but not several times in one week as I did when he first dumped me.

Time does heal all wounds and I wish him no ill will, only the best. I'm sure he doesn't wish the same for me, but I'm taking the high road on this one.

And why do I feel so free typing all about him? The chances of him ever looking at my blog and for that matter, caring about anything I have to say, well, are about as likely as me ever being able to do the HHH. In other words, nill.

Getting acquainted with podcasting

I've been reading a bit about podcasting, but became very interested in it recently when my good friend j decided to look into it because of continuing problems with her wrists that make it painful to type.

Then I came across this interesting tidbit in one of my feeds: the Denver Post recently began offering podcasts of the news on their site and in the first four weeks, there have been 2,000 downloads.

Last night, I decided to take a stab at my own podcast and downloaded Audacity to get me started. I recorded myself ranting about various topics du jour and while the playback was a little scratchy, I'm hooked. So cool!

I wonder though ... does this mean I am now an official tech geek?

Good luck Sweet Moustache!

Dear Sweet Moustache,

In spite of how much you have hurt me, please know I wish you well in the HHH. I know you have been training hard and that you will complete the ride this year.

Another movie confession

People seem to either love him or hate him, but I fall in the former category when it comes to Woody Allen. I love "Manhattan," "Manhattan Murder Mystery," "Annie Hall" ... the list goes on and on.

And while I'm not a huge Leonardo DiCaprio fan, I watched "The Aviator" this weekend and for the most part, enjoyed it. At two hours 50 minutes, it's a tad long and drags in spots, but I thought Leo was convincing as Howard Hughes.

And kudos to Cate Blanchett. She nailed Katharine Hepburn's mannerisms perfectly.

And because I can't let Michael Jackson's acquittal go without a mention, I've had "Smooth Criminal" running through my head all evening.

"The best movie about journalism"

I'm paraphrasing the quote a bit, because as usual I was working on the computer and watching Ebert and Roeper simultaneously.

Anyway, one of the guys' DVD picks for the week is one of my favorite films, "All the President's Men." In light of the identity of Deep Throat being revealed, I watched it again tonight and the film never ceases to hold my interest and reminds me why I love working within the environment of a newsroom.

Great performances from Dustin Hoffman as Carl Bernstein, Robert Redford as Bob Woodward,
Jason Robards (who won a supporting actor Ocsar for the role) as Ben Bradlee and Hal Halbrook as Deep Throat.

A superbly written script and class act from start to finish.

Shmoogle it!

I found out about Shmoogle at Gary Price's Tuesday afternoon presentation at SLA.

Plug in your search term and receive your results listed in completely random order.

I have returned

I arrived home from Toronto this afternoon after a busy and very enlightening conference. Of course I'm biased, but the News Division put on a great slate of programs, my favorite being that of the fabulous Gary Price.

I also got to see j, albeit it was for only a few minutes Sunday afternoon as she was rushing to get to the airport. The next day, I checked the message board and there was a very sweet note that was left for me in case we didn't manage to cross paths.

The News Division Awards Banquet at Casa Loma was fantastic, the best part being when my boss was presented with his award. Not many people are lucky enough to be able to say this, but working for him has truly been one of the best experiences of my life.

The best part of any conference is the opportunity to network with fellow librarians and information professionals and SLA definitely has some of the friendliest people in its midst. And it was so cool to meet so many people who attended UW-Madison or lived in and around the Madison area. Last night on the hotel elevator, I met a woman from Boston and when I told her where I was from, she exclaimed that her sister lived in Waunakee!

A small world indeed.

True to form, I didn't sleep well in the hotel and even though I'm less than enamored of my apartment, I am glad to be sleeping in my own bed tonight.

RSS class

So far, the class has been good at walking people through the process of creating a blog. However, it's too basic for me, since I already have a blog, know how to post to it and know how to subscribe to feeds.

Later in the class, the speaker is going to talk about how to find "good" RSS feeds. That's what I'm more interested in, since sifting through all the blogs out there to find exceptional content is tough.

Greetings from Toronto

To prove that I'm capable of rising early, I'm sitting in on a class on RSS that started at 7:30 a.m. Everyone is working on creating their own blog, but since I have my own already, I'm posting away.

Today is my busiest day at the conference. My schedule is full until 10 p.m. tonight.

My boss is arriving tonight and tomorrow evening will receive a well-deserved award. I'm very happy for him and will be delighted to see him receive it.

Baby News!

Congratulations to my friend Pam and her husband Mike. Their fourth child, a baby boy, was born on Thursday, June 2nd. No details on weight, height, chosen name or if he looks more like mommy or daddy. I'm anxious to see his first photo.

*Addendum: His name is Max and he's absolutely adorable! :)