moving.

there are a couple moves in my future: one pretty cool, one pretty lame. the latter is an office move from a mod, breezy, light-filled area to an old-school gray cube, reminiscent of my first seattle job circa 1998. dang.

i'm committed to breaking up the gray. since the walls are that yucky fabric stuff, my thoughts turn to covering parts with cool fabric or hanging colorful posters. any other suggestions? i've searched online for tips, and one inane article offered that a candy dish and plants spice up the space. yow.

my move needs to happen in the next 2 weeks, and i'd love to have a plan for redecorating before then so i don't have to endure the drabness.

larger, slower, feet up

that's what i am.

i strained a muscle last week that's definitely on the mend, but becomes aggravated when i stand up after sitting. in order to prepare for traveling and sitting, i've slowed down, stopped walking so much, and after today, i plan to wear my sneakers as often as possible.

during all of this self-preservation, lots of big, exciting events have cropped up--all at once! tenure, new apartment, cool travel opportunities. march has been crazy, it's true. and also, pretty great.

(thanks for the shot, anastasia!)

what i did over winter break

i ate.
i slept.
i read.

repeat.

my time was well spent, and i'm well refreshed because of it. seems like most of my co-workers felt the same, too. every person i polled responded with a dreamy expression, sharing that they did nothing, meaning no work, no hassles, no drama = nothing. this all made the work environs the first day back more chill than normal, which was pretty sweet.

in my opinion, it was all made possible because my work shuts down over the holidays. no one works--it's a forced holiday, so no one worries about what they need to accomplish or what they're missing. there's nothing to miss! we should shut down more often.

open the box.

i used to be a big fan of pandora. i've talked about it before, and haven't used it much lately, as some peeps turned me on to lastfm a couple years back.

tonight i went to an online community meetup at work where pandora's community manager shared her tips, tricks, and challenges managing their enormous community of music lovers and listeners. i was reminded of the pure joy i experienced the first time i was introduced to the music genome project. i had never spent time considering the attributes that comprise my musical taste, and was surprised and intrigued by pandora's selections for me, as opposed to annoyed by other music sites that based their tune choices on radio play or a malformed "if you like this.. algorithm.

for i like...

minor key tonality
a subtle use of vocal harmonies
mild rhythmic syncopation

it's true. i think i'll listen some more.

and yes, the comm manager is a librarian. love it.

hello, brain

today marked the first day where the fog cleared and the momentum and clarity moved moved moved me forward into a very productive day. whew. i've been home sick all week, and was feeling pretty wussy about it, until today blossomed into a day where it seems i'm caught up on all i may have missed. now, many of my team members have been out with strep and flus and colds, so the bar was lowered, but still. whew. felt nice to actually enjoy the work and the stimulation. hi there. i'm back.

whilst i was a bit googly-eyed, we received a most remarkable email from a new participant to the september project. from guatemala. he exclaimed, "for freedom!" at the end of his inspired post about how his library is marking september, "the month of Freedom and Independence." i liked that quite a bit.

this is pretty rad, too:

best IM sesh, ever.

i've never felt a need to share an IM exchange, but this one was too rich. and i've never burst into tears at work from laughing so hard:
(note the "***" for the expletive)

Ryan says:
david's hair is a continual source of amazement and joy for me.

Ryan says:
it keeps getting more profound.

swash says:
i can't stop laughing

swash says:
my co-workers think i've lost my mind

Ryan says:
:)

swash says:
one just stopped by and was frightened by the tears streaming down my face

Ryan says:
haha.

swash says:
he's one of the more fragile peeps around here, but STILL

swash says:
i'm glad you appreciate his hair. he often asks me if it's too crazy, and i don't know what to say... i mean, i LOVE it, and i think i'm not a good judge of crazy, or hippie, or...

Ryan says:
i think it's TOTALLY F***ING AWESOME.

Ryan says:
i don't just think that, i KNOW it.

alert: ridiculous generalization

a friend of mine who is around 7 months pregnant (i say "around" because every time she says what week she's at, i say, "what's that in non-pregnant time?") and i were chatting at the water cooler today about women who admit to loving pregnancy. she's of the camp who is counting the days until this time of her life ceases, so we took the opportunity to make wild conjectures, and distill women-who-love into two categories:

1. women whose job requires they maintain a dangerous and under-nourished weight. 

models, actresses, and other non-essential workers use pregnancy as a time to catch up on eating, and luxuriate in the feeding frenzy. 

2. women who seek attention. 

according to some of my pregnant and recently-pregnant friends, the attention bestowed on the growing belly is an often tedious and unappealing byproduct of procreation. some women, however, relish this newfound attention and accept bus seats and personal questions.

i'm sure there are more ridiculous generalizations, but this is all we had time to craft during our brief work break...

my co-worker, on the daily show

my colleague testified recently in front of congress.

and then, she was on the daily show last night. it was a fun day today, listening to people giggle in front of their monitors... and then hearing her yell, "who's watching it?"

no mercy

a friend at work sent this around to a few of us library peeps:

http://consumerist.com/363274/6-days-in-jail-for-overdue-library-books

best comment: "I, for one, feel a lot safer with these ruffians off the street."

bookmobile book

today someone at work left me a mysterious voicemail, saying she "had something for me." later in the day i walked by her cube--without memory of her earlier call--and heard my name follow me down the hall. i pivoted, remembering i was supposed to stop by her desk, and she handed me a book. a book! a novel about a bookmobile in kenya. she picked it up at ala last year, and thought of me.

my coworkers are so kind.

i started reading it on the bus tonight...

wake up call

i just returned from a quick work and play trip to seattle, where my hotel wakeup call was kexp, and it was so... sweet.

i miss good radio.

and good djs

apparently i needed a traipse down memory lane, because the path john in the morning set out led me right back to 1993, a time when i eschewed all of the madness surrounding nirvana, resolute in my complete satisfaction with the smashing pumpkins. what a glorious way to wake up more than a decade later in a strange bed.

bookmobile in the news

today i found an article in the north coast journal about the bookmobile tour.

it was our second-to-last day on the road, and our third stop of the day. we were beat, and we were demo'ing how to make books to adults drinking beers (hell, WE were drinking beers!) at a wi-fi fund raiser for the humboldt county library.

whilst all of this was transpiring, a friendly journalist stopped by to pick our exhaustion-drained brains on what we were doing with a tricked out bookmobile parked on the lawn near a beer tent.

she captured some of it in her story.

for pics of the tour, check out this out.

the skirt swirls

i walk to work everyday. sometimes, i wear skirts, which has caused some unique moments.

i have a pretty fast pace for a shortie, and when i walk, my skirts shift. one day, i slid my hands down to reach into my pockets, and they kept moving, as if my pockets had disappeared. turns out my skirt had shifted completely around and the pockets were now placed behind me. this wardrobe malfunction was made more tricky due to a small swarm of walkers surrounding me.

i considered leaving the skirt in its new position, but instead laughed out loud--creating a minor spectacle--and switched my skirt 180 degrees to its original state.

a co-worker in whom i confided now describes her friend sarah as, "you know, the one with the skirt!"

i'll be somewhere else for a bit.

i've been pretty busy and having a bunch of fun preparing for a trip. a cool trip. a super rad magic bus trip!

here's the deal. i work on a project that helps libraries maintain and support their public computers. in a nutshell, we talk to librarians all the time and share their stories, tips, and techniques on our web site, in articles, and in free guides you can download from our site. so many times there's someone out there who has figured out a practical way around an issue, and we try to capture those moments and share them with public libraries--and with everyone. right now, we're focusing on the most rural and isolated libraries--often the most underserved and underfunded.

another local non-profit and new kind of library, the internet archive, also supports public libraries by scanning and making available for free books in the public domain. the organization has a bookmobile they use to raise awareness of the public domain, and to show how books are made. this bookmobile doesn't have books inside, but can download and MAKE books in minutes. this bookmobile hasn't seen much action lately.

until now.

to promote and support the libraries that are doing the hard work in rural northern california, we're taking the bookmobile on the road for the next two weeks, talking with librarians and staff members and sharing the incredible work each library is doing to keep public computers available and access to information free. each day, we'll arrive at a library in the bookmobile, demonstrate how books are made, and print and distribute free books filled with practical tips and techniques from public libraries along with free books from the public domain. cool.

keep up with my travels and check out the photos!