Dumas Key

I have long been a Stephen King fan but due to many twists and turns in my life over the past seven years, my focus has been on non fiction rather than fiction, particularly political and environmental works. Recently I found myself craving a good novel so I picked up Grisham's The Appeal (which by the way, is a riveting book). While re-shelving the Grisham book on our rental collection display, I noticed a copy of Dumas Key. The cover intrigued me with its Salvadore Dalian (probably not a word) cover art so I lugged the tome back to my office and tucked it away in my backpack. If you want to add some weight to your workout, I'd suggest tying a King novel to your back.

It took me about two days to find time to begin the novel, but was it ever worth the wait. While the book certainly had elements ala vintage King, I was blown away by how much King has evolved as a writer. He has completely mastered the art of subtlety without compromising his ability to set your heart-rate into high gear. Dumas Key is intoxicating, riveting, engaging and, at times, horrifying. Who thinks of building a tale around a one-armed artist and furthermore makes you long to befriend this man and his contingent of captivating pals? Now I want to move to Florida, find a secluded property on the edge of the ocean and live in my own "Big Pink" on stilts.

Podcast from Outer Space

Isn't the word "podcast" a stitch? Now honestly, didn't pod people come to mind the first time you heard the term? Of course there's always the pea-in-the-pod image too, but I kinda like the idea of E.T. sending me messages via podcasts. Everyone can use a "turn on your heart-light" moment now and then, right?

I just took a gander at "Uncontrolled Vocabulary" and added the RSS feed. Lost myself in an article concerning the cessation of social networking sites at a particular library. Gang activity was apparently one of the reasons for this unfortunate decision. I have long been frustrated by the knee-jerk movement of setting rules and policies based on a minute percentage of problem people. Why do we move toward negativity and subsequently send a message to our 99% trustworthy populace that we don't trust them? This seems bass ackwords. So I digress. I tend to get these soap box moments quite frequently.

Podcasts are actually pretty cool. I love the idea that we can scroll through archives to draw up a past notable broadcast and share it with friends or colleagues. Interacting in real time as was the case at WLA last year (using OPAL) was exciting. Podcasts allow us to dispense with the barriers of geography and even lend themselves to enviromental stewardship given the vast amounts of fuel we conserve by eliminating travel.

At this time, I am content to subscribe to other's podcasts. To responsibly establish a podcast through our library would be completely dependent upon having enough staffing to keep current and that's not going to happen anytime soon. But we do have the promise and the opportunity exits.

Senator Feingold & Me

Late last year, Senator Russ Feingold held a listening session at our library. He arrived early for a tour of the first LEED certified library in Wisconsin. Suffice it to say, my staff and I were agog. Senator Feingold has rock star status around here.

Gotta Love My Space & Facebook

What great fun to have permission under the auspices of continuing education to explore My Space and Facebook. I signed up for a Facebook account and my sis popped up as a Friend. Funny what you uncover about family members when you innocently happen upon their on-line activities. Suffice it to say she has way too much fun, at least it appears that way given the number of margarita glasses displayed in front of her!

I checked out the LaCross PL & Oshkosh PL Facebook links and the Arapahoe My Space link. What a hoot to see 96 & 97 year-old female in the profile. CSP is just a baby since we've only been around since 1964. At least that was the first established library. There was a traveling library in the early 1930s. I digress. I was quite taken with the the appearance of the Arapahoe PL link. It's savvy and teen friendly. Great photos, fun links and totally contemporary. The possibilities are endless.

Every trip during Project Play has first excited me, occasionally confused me and made me wish my only role here was to solely implement all the cool things I've discovered. But alas, this is not to be. I fear my priorities will be troubleshooting facility maladies, creating endless spreadsheets and dealing with political ineptness for years to come. I hope there's a 3rd semester because we all need a legitimate excuse to "play more."

Finally - a Moment to Blog

Can't believe I missed the freebie week. It's freakin' crazy around here what with annual report, snow, loss of two employees, snow, illnesses, snow, interviews, snow - catch my drift?!! Anyway, I'm in-between interviews right now, grabbing a bite and wishing I had oodles of time to blog.

Last week was one of those weeks. Here's a sampling of just three hours in one of my surreal days. First the power went out as I was sitting at my work computer. Of course the fire notification system began to beep so I rushed to call the security folks to verify we were not ablaze. No electricity means no working telephones. I scrounged for my cell phone, managed to call them off and -snap - the lights went back on and - whoosh- the HVAC systems kicked on with such ferocity, for a moment I thought I was having my first hot flash. Keep in mind the systems are programmed to turn on at 9, not 7:15. Not only did heat blast from the vents, but then I detected a burning ozone odor. Panic set in as I tried to locate the number for the service people. Finally I get the call through only to be met with a lengthy message about office hours, however, I was then provided with an after hours emergency number. Here's where I very nicely said "##@%##$$! The emergency number was the same as the normal business number! I left a very sweet message telling them their emergency number was worthless and to please call me back on my cell phone. Of course I couldn't remember my cell phone number and told the voice mail box to wait while I found it. They called back and said someone was on their way. In the meantime, the local fire trucks went out and I shouted out "don't go, I may need you." By this time it was 7:50,time to log-on to the computers and at least run a pick-list while waiting. No LINK access and no one available to troubleshoot before 8. This wasn't an emergency so I waited, then called the help desk after checking everything I could think of to determine why I couldn't log onto LINK. The upshot was that our great folks in automation couldn't remote in so I had to rush back to the network closet. Panic set in again as I feared I'd miss the HVAC repair man since I couldn't make like a clone and be in two places at one time. Fortunately we solved the LINK problem and I made it back to the front entrance just as the HVAC fellow pulled up. By this time the systems had shut down and only someone with a dog's olfactory senses could catch any remaing whif of ozone. There was no explanation but, there was a $170 bill that arrived this week. Quite a high price to pay for what I'm sure the repairman thought was my overactive imagination.