Week of Concerts

Last November, I went to 4 concerts in one week. Sunday was Jim Gaffigan at the Paramount, he pretty much did his Beyond the Pale show. It was fun the seats were extremely uncomfortable. R and G got their pic taken w/ Jim after the show.

Wednesday and Friday I saw Sonny Landreth in concert, Wednesday at Triple Door in Seattle and Friday at JazzBones in Tacoma. He was superb. The Triple Door is more a 'concert' nightclub, and JazzBones if more of a bar. Both shows were great and fitting the settings the 1st was rather formal and the next more casual. I really should have blogged about this at the time.

Darcy and Josh came into town on Friday and attended Sonny with me in Tacoma, though they had come to town to see HIM.




HIM played Saturday at Showbox SoDo, a venue near Safeco Field. Showbox SoDo is just a big empty room, with a bar on one side. It was a fun show. The opening band Bleeding Through (or something like that) did that scream shouting vocals which is tedious, even though on occasion the singer would actually sing and he was good. HIM were really good. Pretty too.

EXCITEMENT ON MY STREET

Last Thursday morning, all of a sudden my street became the sight a lot of police action.

A bit before 9 am I heard many sirens, but didn't pay a lot of attention as my street is used as a shortcut for police and fire. Then I heard gunshots, that got my attention, I peeked out my east window just instinctually knowing it was happening at the 7-11. YIKES Seattle Police, Shoreline Police, marked cars, unmarked cars.

So of course I went for my camera, which had gasp it's last gasp of life. So the pics below are from my phone camera.

KOMO channel 4 report

Seattle Times report

PLAYOFF BASEBALL BROADCASTING

Game 2 of the ALCS went for a long time. What gripes me is the broadcasters were like "wow what a long game" well duh you freaking morons, FOX adds at least a minute longer to each commercial break than games normally have. So how can they be so damn amazed?

Tim McCarver continues to underwhelm with his hardly insightful analysis. He must have something on the bigwigs at Fox Sports, that can be the only explanation for his continued employment.

Who the hell dresses Craig Sager? I'm all for people expressing themselves, but sheesh some of outfits make me wish for black and white tv.

KJR 950 AM Seattle's ESPN affilliate, is very spotty on having the games on the radio. When they aren't having the game they suggest tuning to 850 AM for the ballgame. I don't know where that station is located, but it isn't in Seattle and it has a VERY weak signal. If I do happen to tune it in it has so much static barely a word can be heard. SIGH.

Sunday evening at the library.

There seems to be a lot of activity but no one needing my circulation skills. So alas I thought I'd talk to you.

Lots entering lots leaving. Usually by now it is completly dead.

hey someone just needed to know where the books on cd were. Yeah something I could answer. She had black hair with bright blue extensions, very striking.

There's a man in a suit at self check out and i would think he was coming or going to church but his wife and daughter are casually dressed, so maybe he had to work, someplace where dress is important. I would think that even Real Estate agents would could wear 'casual business' on sunday. Car salesman, nah he didn't look that smarmy. Maybe he sells mens suits so he must wear the product.

The clam puppet just went home with a nice young man.

Funny people tonight.

Woman came in to check out biographies for her son who had taken books on Kurt Cobain, Jimi Hendrix and Pele in to read, but the teach said "no no no" Kurt and Jimi took drugs. Pele wasn't American! OMG can you believe it. So Mom came in and got no drugged up Americans.

Which Author's Fiction are You?

Anne Rice is writing your life. Go you goth girl, go.
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My Oh My Mariners.....Sigh

They've lost 5 in a row. Did we jinx them by putting money down on playoff tickets?? Are they tired from playing so many days in a row, most of them on the road? Well they better buck up they've got quite a few more, including 3 with the blanking Yankees who just went ahead of them in the Wildcard standings.

Sigh.

Sigh.

Though I do think it is a bit unfair that they do have to play so many games in a row because the schedulers thought it would be a good idea to play in cold climates that don't have roofs in April. They are being penalized for poor planning and the lack of roofs at other stadiums.

We should sue.

Alienation of affection.

Cruel and unusual punishment.

Irreconcilable weather conditions.

Sigh.

Cleveland today.

Toronto Tomorrow

New York on Monday.

A day off YEAH!! Sleep boys Sleep.

Then Detroit.

BASEBALL DISPLAY

Today I put up my annual baseball display at the library. Dare I say it looks good. I have so much fun doing these things and requesting the books to put up. I also made little Baseball Cards with books instead of players on them.

Here's the pictures.

Oh look it's time to go home, and watch the Mariners try to continue their amazing winning streak!!

MP3 PLAYER HAS BEEN CHOSEN

It is the Creative MuVo V100 2 gb. It looks great. I though am already Creative fan, having bought a Creative Zen a few years ago and recently filled up it's 40 gb capacity. Yikes.

Hey

When I went to the bank today, my favorite teller told me her nephew's band Danger Radio had been signed to a major label. She also told me I could hear some of their songs on MySpace, so I did.

They are poppy, the lead singer sounds a bit boy bandish. Very Peppy. As good as many of the pop bands that are out there now.

Also if you go to a Key bank this week it is Teller Appreciation week, fill out an Appreciation card for your teller.

I don't think the mission accomplished widget on the sidebar reflects it appropriatly, yep it's day 1500. Though sometimes I wonder why an even number is more significant than yesterday or tomorrow, or last week, or next year, since it appears we'll be stuck in this quagmire for a long time giggity giggity guh!

Yet what was the media covering today, Paris Hilton's return to jail. Good god what the hell is up with that??? Who cares, some rich young woman who has achieved nothing, has done nothing but show up at the 'right' places to be photographed. Alas this dangerous woman was released early and fearing for the community at large the judge ordered her back to prison.

So while American soldiers are being blown up and blowing up in Iraq and Afghanstan, innocent civilians are being slaughters in Darfur, this is what the media is worried about.

sigh

WHAT WOULD DEWEY DO?? Check out Unshelved.com and find out. Recently the authors gave us a challenge to turn their cartoon to a pop-up (no not the bad internet kind). Here is the result.

Lesson 26 Reflect on your Learning 2.0 Experiences


It's been great to see what every one's blog looks like, seeing if someone will be your 'friend' on myspace.

There are a few lessons I'd like to go back and either re-do or look more into.

How has this program assisted or affected your lifelong learning goals?
I always want to learn, and to keep learning so it has been a great asset.

What were your favorite Learning 2.0 discoveries or exercises?
I really like blogging and my space, I've had a lot of fun doing that. I've actually had this blog for nearly 4 years and I had never posted anything until Learning 2.0, now you can't stop me, I'm a posting fool!!

Did anything surprise you?
The biggest thing that surprised me about the Learning 2.0 is that it has been a team building exercise. People sharing what they've found,and talking about what they've found. More than once I've heard "HEY look at this!!" (and for once it wasn't something gross in the book bin). The best part of all that being everyone helping each other! As Library employees we are used to helping people, but when we get a chance to help each other it is special. It helps us to grow and know and respect each other a bit more.

I guess the other thing that surprised me was when I would read someones blog and they were B***ching about Learning 2.0, sheesh no one was making them do it!! But I'm always surprised when people complain about opportunities they are given.

Was there enough help available when you needed it?
Yes, as I said we all helped each other and if I had questions I e mailed Learning 2.0.

What could we do differently to improve upon this program’s format or concept?
I think it all worked well. Keeping us up to date is a good, there was little on here that I had done before, so that's good.

The speakers were good, but maybe a more interactive program would have been nice.

Would you like to see similar training opportunities as new library-relevant technologies emerge?
YES, emphatically.

And, last one, if you could go back in time and tell yourself to either participate in the program or skip it, what would you do?
I would do it. I don't like to be left out or behind of anything!!


Lesson 27 Suggest one more Web 2.0 topic you would like to learn

I found Google Alerts to be interesting and of possible use to patrons, but I found that along the way, but maybe there is more too it than what I made of it.

So what would I learn if I could learn something else that would help me and KCLS patrons? Boy oh boy that is a good question.

Gaming, I just realized that all the new X-boxes, Wiis, PSPs connect to the Internet now and can be social. I still play Gameboy, by myself, I've never hooked the cord up to another Gameboy person. What about the computer online games like World of Warcraft? I know KCLS has gaming in some of the branches. I wonder if patrons will come in seeking online games, and are there ones that will help children in school, help older patrons keep their minds sharp?

Decemberist, May 4, 2007, Paramount Theatre

Crane Wife 1,2 & 3
The Island-Come & See/The Landlord’s Daughter/You’ll Not Feel The Drowning
Leslie Ann Levine
The Bachelor and the Bride
Yankee Bayonet (I Will Be Home Then) with Shara Worden from My Brightest Diamond
Shankhill Butchers
Culling of the Fold...The song too violent for the album according to Jenny Conlee
O Valencia
Billy Liar
Perfect Crime
Your Love(Outfield)-lead vocals by Chris Funk
When the War Came
Encore
Eli The Barrow Boy
Mariners Revenge

Right now I can't find the words, to describe this concert and it's way to noisy to think here anyway.

This weekend I bought the new Michael Chabon book The Yiddish Policemen's Union.

"BUY? but she works in a library!!".

I just had to because then I can get it and my other Michael Chabon books signed at Third Place Books on May 15th.

"OTHER?? she owns other books?? but she works in a library".

HEY pipe down, sometimes you just have to own something to put your hands on the nice clean cover, smell it when it's new (and not coughed, smoked or god knows what upon).

Which made me think about when he was on the Simpsons!

Lesson # 24 Podcast, Podcasts

I went to Podcast.com and listened to a little of Library Channel through the Arizona State University, I chose Native Voices-Native Amercan language materials in the Labriola Center. The podcast was about a book they had just gotten in by Frank Brannon titled Cherokee Phoenix Advent of a Newspaper which sounded like a wonderful book so it set me searching to see if KCLS had it, I didn't think it would since there were only 500 copies made, and they were made with handmade paper. See how much you can learn in a few seconds of listening!

Next I went to Podcast Alley after I typed in Library 2.0 (as advised in the lesson) 103 items come up.

Over to Yahoo Podcasts where I found KEXP has a Song of the Day podcast, which is what I had chose to RSS.

I must confess I'm not completely new to a podcst. I have listened to a couple Prairie Home Companions that way. One week they had the Flatlanders and I did not want to miss that!!

So what's the difference between a podcast and streaming? Ok I presume it means I can download it to my Creative Zen Nomad MP3 Player (nice of the world to give iPod free advertisement by nameing it PODcasts, and they were LATE to the MP3 world anyway sheesh).

Which Broadway Musical Are You?

"Little Shop of Horrors"
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Lesson #23 - Video In The Post-Betamax World

So YouTube was recommended so of course I hightailed it over there and typed in "Decemberists" and a list of their few videos came up so I watched 16 Military Wives. It was very fun.


Would you like to see it too??



Yee haw on MySpace page, I have a video of Nora the piano playing cat. Also on MySpace I uploaded a snow travel video .


So I bet you're wondering what my obsession with the Decemberists, it's because A.)I love their music B.) I'm going to their concert this FRIDAY!!!!!!!!!

Web 2.0 Awards

Lesson 22

Of course I chose the Web 2.0 Awards, then of course I went to music where they recommended last.fm where I listened to

I couldn't figure out if I could add music to my Decemberist station. Then I went to tools, and there was some software I had to add, and since I'm at work, I'm not sure that would be appropriate. Last.fm had been talked up by Aaron Schmidt our Learning 2.0 lecturer last week.

So I went back to Pandora.com where I already had Carrie's Eclectic set up, which I refine more day by day, or maybe I expand it day by day. Where I have found it easy to add artists and tell them if I like something or don't like it and there is even a page where it shows my thumbs ups and downs. Pandora.com did get an honorable mention on the Web 2.0 Awards.

The advantage I can see to last.fm is that I could embed the tool to listen to the Decemberists on this blog. You can click Carrie's Eclectic to listen to the station I've made on Pandora. Maybe last.fm needs more perusal than I have given it. But Pandora (recommended by my niece Carmen) is very easy and no downloads.

LAURIE'S SHOWER 4/28/2007

Click the link above to see all the photos!

Blues name generators

Face the Music Blues

Outlier Music

Capital Gold



So my blues names came out:
Voodoo CC Pearsall
Crippled Liver Bradly
Feeble Dilly Hawkins

I was not satisfied with any of those, so I decided my blues name would be:

Voodoo Dilly Hawkins
or
maybe
it
should
be
Voodoo Dilly Pearsall.

I guess there was NOTHING I liked about Crippled Liver Bradly.

I was nearly famous yesterday, on the Mountain, here's what happened on the Morning show with Marty Reimer.

Marty had played Bill Mahr's earthday monologue and part of it was about the bees that are dying.

So then he proceeded to play a sting song, so I e mailed to the studio "I know why the bees are dying they are bored to death by Sting. Irony!!"

By the time I had done that he was talking about playing a cover song by Chris Cornell (Soundgarden, Audioslave) and said I'm not sure if he still lives in Seattle or not. So I added to my e mail, "last I heard chris cornell was living in france".

So when the Chris Cornell song ended he said we got an e mail from Carrie :) and he read the France bit. The he said "Oh and Carrie added....(the Bee bit w/o the Irony part) then he said wow SLAM we usually leave that to Lee Callahan to Slam the artists, and she said that was ok she could use the help.

Which Eddie Izzard Joke Are You?

THE SPACE-RACE JOKE!Youre just downright silly, but thats exactly what everyone loves about you.
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Get Your Cyborg Name

Lesson #21 - the labs of Google

I checked out Google Labs. Clicked a link to Google Music Trends. All the songs looked WAY old, I saw a link for Participate in Music Trends, which looks like it might be fun, but it does use iTunes, which I do not (we'll go into that later).

As recommended I went to Google Trends and typed in 3 of my favorite musicians, one had TONS of activity, and the other two, one briefly in 2004 and the other a bit this year. So I wondered what activity there had been on Miss Baseball and Baseballs4me.


As you can see Miss Baseball is HOT in Jackson, Mississpi! Maybe I should go visit!! Or there might be another Miss Baseball around. Baseballs4me barely makes a showing. Oh well. Guess I'll have to search for my aliases more often.

Zoho vs. Google Docs

Both are great. I think they would be well worth it for people who don't have their own 'office' software, and library users who need to save their documents and don't have a flash drive!!

I tried out the Spreadsheet Option on both, both of them I pasted a Desk Schedule Spreadsheet in and it looked ok, but not all of my formating came over with it, so I had to fiddle around with it quite a bit and printing it didn't print any colors. I was originally thinking maybe I could post the next weeks desk schedule there and all could access. Alas I don't feel like I can take the time to fiddle about with it, unless maybe in the future I just do my original desk schedules there.

I swear I already posted this, but I couldn't find it when I was going to tell Learning 2.0 that I had done, so if you're an avid reader of this blog, I apologize for any duplication.

Web 2.0

I read the articles on the OCLC NextSpace Web 2.0 site. It's all about keeping up with and even being ahead of what the patrons want and look to libraries for. Two of the articles were by academic Librarians. Acedemic Libraries and Public Libraries have different purposes and different Patrons. The acedemics say their circulation is down 55% which is a far cry from what KCLS is experiencing, and how much of the KCLS decline can be attributed to the loss of SPL patrons placing holds.

Yes, there are more public library patrons who come in and just use computers, for the internet, word processing or databases. Some public library patrons never step foot in the library and use the online databases. These are the patrons who are Web 2.0 users and our knowlege will benefit them and us.

However that being said we still have a LOT of patrons who still like a good read.

One day while doing check in I found this video with it's enhanced picture. It has given many moments of laughing.

I'm sure Jeff Renner couldn't be prouder!!

Rollyo vs. Google Custom Search.

Of course I liked Google better because it didn't have the ads, and I felt it just gave me more variety

When I set up the Google Custom Search for Baseball Fiction, it worked like a regular Google search box if you weren't specific enough.

Here try it:

stars collide

thank you rick

PsychoAirapist

No pink hair on the Simpson's site. Oh well.

I like the South Park Character better.

So if I lived in South Park this is what I'd look like today. The computer at my desk hath died. Most of the important things are backed up on my lovely lost and found jump drive, but it is strange being at someone elses desk and using their computer which has the screen images huge as can be, so I have to do a lot of scrolling, though I can sit more than an arms length away and read (I don't think it would be nice of me to change their settings).

Why the Guitar you ask?? I thought I'd take my frustrations out on my axe. I hear some POWER CHORDS now. I dig Rock AND Roll music.

Pink hair, I had it in '79 when only PUNKS not posers had colored hair.

Baseball cap for my love of baseball.

The image on my t-shirt behind the guitar is Tweak from South Park. I think him and Butters tie for my favorite supporting character.

You too can be a South Park character.

PET PEEVE OF THE DAY!!


CENSORED FOR BAD LANGUAGE

WIKI, WIKI, WIKI

Reminds me of the sound people make when they're trying to make the 'scratch' sound the Hip Hop DJs do.

I went to PBWiki and entered my blog address, I also signed up for a Wiki, I'm not quite sure why or what I'll put on it. Though maybe it would be a place to put my playlists I'm thinking about (Monkey Songs, Car Songs[not to be confused with Road Songs], Road Songs [not to confused with Car Songs]). Which makes me miss my notebooks where I would put all these things. If I start blogging and wiki-ing what will I do with all the notebooks I have bought over the years!! I still like having them to jot stuff down in.

Ok well I digressed (as usual), when I was looking at the various wikis out there, there was the lady who kept her shopping list on the wiki, she must be able to access her list from her phone, which then makes me wonder why she doesn't just keep it on the phone?



Then I went to the the Book Lovers Wiki, and on the 1st page the 1st book was Flushed: How the Plumber Saved Civilization by W. Hodding Carter which reminded me of when I worked at White Center Library in 1977 and this guy would come in and he would stand at the check out desk and tell us the history of the Toilet and Thomas J. Crapper, everyday and very loudly. I think his name was Patrick. I wonder if he's still around, I wonder if White Center should request a copy of this book for him?



And all of this doesn't really tell you what I think of Wikis. In the past I have found Wikipedia to be helpful, but knowing anyone can post just about anything has made me a little leary of using it as the only source. So Wikis are kind of like the internet in general where anyone can post anything they want, and reader beware or try to go to ones run by reputable places like Princeton University etc. etc. etc. (sorry for the King and I reference)

I think I need to read about and look into technorati more. I did it yesterday and now I can't remember much about it.

I just did the Library Thing (see my books on the side over there--->). That's really cool, though I do like my notebook journal, but this is probably way more practical, though there isn't a place for me to draw pictures or designs.

del.icio.us

So that's Lesson 12's assignment. It would be useful for keeping my favorites so I can access them regardless of what computer I am using. I can see it being useful on a reference desk.

I just got back from this exhibition at the Nevada Museum of Art in Reno. It really was fascinating, and made me wonder if Andy Warhol ever had copyright problems with the pictures he re-made.

There was also a photo exhibit Inge Morath: road to reno. She had behind the scenes access to the filming of the Misfits. There were many pictures of the movie stars but also pictures that were America of that era. The interesting thing also is that later she married Arthur Miller.

I just wanted to say it wasn't the assignment yesterday that put me in a foul mood. It was just one of those days. Thank you kcls learn 2.0 whoever you are.

I fear that My Space maybe too big for me!! Too much to do, so much to keep track of. Oh my goodness I'm so old fashioned. I do like blogging I can't seem to get enough of it!!

I set up a My Space page today. It is now officially the most boring My Space page in the history of My Space. This is kinda a bad day for me to post anything to anything.
Blah blah blah...... really makes you want to sign up to be my friend on My Space doesn't it!!

So Miss Baseball has neglected to write anything about baseball, that seems a bit like false advertising doesn't it. Baseball's opening day is 2 weeks away. It looks like there will be a Sunday night game, but REAL opening day is the 1st Monday of April, and the 1st game is always in Cincinnati , this date should be a holiday, but alas it isn't nationally, in Cincinnati it is I don't know if it's an official holiday or just one that has endured. I was driving through Cincy on opening day back in '95 and everyone was celebrating the opening of baseball season. Providentially I was in Boston, for the 1st home game of the season for the Red Sox the game was about to start but since we only had 1 day in Boston we went site seeing, though it was fun just being around Fenway on opening day.

I had wanted to put a countdown to Opening Day on this blog but alas MLB wouldn't let me borrow it. Don't they realize the free advertising I could be giving them?? It doesn't seem that Borders or Scholastic minds me advertising the next Harry Potter book. Sigh. MLB has their head up their you know whats about so many things. I can't wait until they get a new commisioner that has vision, Mr. Selig sure doesn't.

Something I've found as useful or more useful than the RSS feed is Google Alerts, you can set them up for any of your interest and it will send you website that have updated with your search term. You can set up a search for your favorite sports or movie star (you can stalk them from the safety of your computer), your hobby, you can set up any search terms you want. Google will then e mail you everyday with results, it will even scour blogs if you want them too.

Well the question for this weeks lesson is...
What do you think about libraries taking part in social networking sites?

Anything that allows a library to reach it's community, is good. In a setting where a lot of information is hearsay, having a link or a resource to something that can find you the actual facts (and back it up), is a service needed in any community, be it online or in your neighborhood.

- Which method of finding feeds was easiest - going to your favorite sites or searching for them?
- Which Search tool was the easiest for you? Which was more confusing?
- What kind of unusual feeds did you find on your travels?

Those are the questions I get to answer for this weeks lesson.

The easiest was going to my favorite sites and getting the feed that way.

I found most of the tools confusing, but Walking Paper must have been the best (easiest?) because that is what I ended up with.

I didn't really stray off my own beaten path, so I didn't think I found anything that unusual, but I did find that most websites had at least part of their site RSS.

I have a few minutes so I can talk more about the show last night. At the beginning, Guy Clark said that there was a general policy of no rehearsing, and after Joe Ely played a beautiful lead on John Hiatt's "Memphis In the Meantime", Guy said "That smacks of rehearsal" disdainfully.

Before John Hiatt sang "It Feels Like Rain" he said, "I suppose the people up here have pretty much exhausted the romantic possibilities of rain".

Lyle Lovett talked about a Texas boys right of passage to cross the border to Mexico and thought it was probably about the same for us in the northern states and crossing the border to Canada.

Joe Ely said he had written 2 songs about Chihuahua's not because he likes that breed of dog, but because he likes the word.

It really was lovely and fun.

This morning on Sunday Brunch on KMTT Drew Dundon played a Guy Clark song, but I didn't hear the title, and I didn't hear if Drew said he had gone to the show or not, darn short car rides!

On the way into the show I stopped at the KMTT booth and got a copy of the 5:20 Funny CD, and talked to one of the women at the booth who was very very nice.

Basically I'm speechless right now. I just got back from the aforementioned show. Four guys 4 guitars (ok there were 2 harmonicas).

They sat in alphabetical order by 1st name and by last name, I had just figured that out when Lyle brought it up. Lyle was the guy who tried to keep conversation rolling, but in the end everyone just wanted to play and we wanted to listen. They each took turns doing a song, sometimes, Joe Ely or Hiatt would join in on lead guitar. They sometimes backed each other up on vocals, the highlight of which was during "My Baby Don't Tolerate".

Songs I need to investigate:
If my Chihuahua could sing--Joe Ely
Randall Knife--Guy Clark
Parking Lot--Guy Clark

Ok it was great, I'm really tired, and government is stealing an hour from me tonight, so I'm off to sleep.

I'll be going to this show tonight. I've had the ticket forever and am really looking forward to it. I think it'll be a lot of fun. I am already a big John Hiatt and Joe Ely fan. Lyle is always fun, I don't know that much about Guy Clark he's been interviewed a zillion times about other people, but the songs I've heard by him are good.

I must give proper dues to Kim who really made me a John Hiatt fan, she always liked him and when I visited her in Denver a LONG time ago she played me his music and I was hooked ever since then. I've seen him in concert twice (not nearly enough). Which then introduced me to Sonny Landreth (he was John's guitar player), so now I'm a crazy cajun fan too.

WOO HOO I finally understand RSS (sort of). I set up an account at Bloglines.com and picked out some of my favorite websites, MLB, Dictionary.com, my sisters blog. I know there is a lot more I can do on that website, but I didn't want to get brain overload.

This lesson was a continuation of flickr.com, playing with some of the 'mashups'. As you can probably tell, the spelling mashup was my favorite. I played with some of them and they were interesting, I didn't quite see a use for them in my life.

I still want to play with the trading card one.