can you tell me

Can you tell me what the heck is up with Kelly Ripa these days? Have you seen her commercial with Reege where they go to some bank in the middle of the night, and she's in this hot pink cocktail dress,and high heels, and is carrying on like a lunatic, looking so emaciated you'd swear she's gonna topple over and shatter into a million pieces because she's all bone. She's obviously gone to the Nicole Ritchie School of Anorexia and looks absolutely disgusting. You know its bad when you're standing next to Reege, who has the Dick Clark of wax faces, hair plugs, and He looks better than You! The Clue Train has left the terminal folks!

Next - can you tell me what the frick is going on with music? Why are songs sounding like stuff they should only play at a strip club? No, I've never been to a strip club, but I've seen movies/tv shows where theres some club, and they always have on this not-for-radio type of smut music going on. Have you heard the one where the chick is whining about cheating on her man, and how she should just put a bullet in his head and kill him, because thats what her cheating is doing to him, and the chorus is something like 'i no wanna be a murderer'... And the topper to the whole song, is that She Can't Sing! Its like nails on a chalkboard bad. Like Simon and Paula and Randy would have ejected her first round and then replayed her horrendous audition throughout the season for all to mock -- its that bad! Who the hell produces this crap? Who the hell puts it on an albumn? Who the hell thinks it should be played on the radio? Why did I listen to it? It was like a train wreck of songs -- I had fliped to it mid-song, caught a bit, and was like "she said What!?" and then had to listen to the rest because I just could not believe what I was hearing.

LFD

Being so busy you can't even stop and think is actually very exhilarating.

Today: I got up, went to a different branch within my same library system for a meeting. I was called upon, (without prior heads-up) to introduce myself, the podcasting station, and tell assorted facts about myself. In talking about John I almost lost it and cried on the Director's shoulder, but I pulled through.

Then: leave the meeting, go to lunch, go back to my own branch, go to another meeting.

Then: meeting ends, work day is over, go home(read: drive for an hour) and eat dinner with the kids (scarffed a slice while standing next to the sink and watched my kids on the swing in the back yard).

Next: we're out the door and over to the fire house for a Girl Scout meeting, (I'm a co-leader). Give up on getting the girls to just sit the h down and stop screaming.

Leave the meeting, and head over to the school for a school board meeting, where, after listening to people (read: adults acting like children) argue for almost 2 hours, I get up to the mike and say my peace. Ahhh-- that felt great!

What a Long Friggin Day! I'll name it and those of its kind the LFD's. It's now late, I'm killing time (communicating with You, wink wink) waiting for Lost to end so that I can watch it on the dvr and go to bed, hopefully this week with some added knowledge as to what the hell is going on on that island! (yes, yes, I know it'll never happen, but I can hope, can't I?)

Like Helen Reddy, who said it best, I am woman and I am invincible!

Dear John

How long do you need to know someone before you can call them "Friend"? I know it sounds so strange, but really, if you think about it, how long is it? Days? Weeks? Years? And what constitutes being a friend? Sharing an experience? Learning from one another? Laughing together?

I met John Iliff this past February. He came to our NJLA IT section meeting at the library where I was working, and put together this fantastic program on podcasting for us. We, the IT team, had the idea of a podcasting station for the upcoming spring conference, and John, a library technology consultant from the company Palinet, helped us to run with it. He was so energetic. Charismatic. Instantly warm and generous, he explained things in a sharing way -- not in a "I have the knowledge and you dont" kind of way. He joked with us. He listened to us. And he helped us to develop not just the podcasting station, but 2 other programs for the conference as well.

At the conference, 12 days ago, I introduced him to the standing room only crowd. And again, he delivered a knock-out presentation, easing the crowd through the complexities of RSS feeds, podcasting, and all its intricacies. He was so wiped out from the full days of conferencing, he did that presentation for us from the floor -- and laughed all the while about it, and made the audience feel really at ease, and I heard them after saying "that guy is so cool." He really was cool.

Earlier that day, John and I talked for about a half hour or more about library PR, how to get the word out, how to get the excitement to the people about what libraries can do - Are doing - with technology. Talking to him, you knew you were on the right track - that your thoughts about whats wrong and whats right were being heard. I left the conference thinking that John would be someone who I would talk with and learn from throughout my career.

John died this weekend. I dont know how, I dont know when. I dont know much of anything really about him at all other than what I've just shared with you. But John and I shared an experience. We learned from one another. We laughed. And he was my friend.

I will miss you John

Did you ever notice...

songs that use the word "over" or any variation of the word, have to use it Twice!? Like the Motels, "take the L out of L-Over, and its O-Ver..." or Joan Jett "Crimson and Cl-over, O-ver and O-ver..." And now the new Ashley-Parker-Something-Or-Other (who is really nice looking btw) with the lyric "its not like we havent tried O-ver and O-ver again..."

Just an observation. Its like the word Over just by itself just isnt good enough -- to get the point across you have to use it twice.

I wonder,--- can you use that in the library too? Like "i've told you over and over to stop running," Or, "Sorry, its over. And over." Or, "Re-shelve the books over. and over. and over."

Do the right thing

I have to say, I admire those librarians out there that write about real library stuff. I think its admirable that they voice their opinions, on issues and topics that face all of us, and put themselves out there as a voice for librarianship. I think thats hard -- I think that when you start blogging about a certain topic, all of a sudden you are the expert -- and that may or may not be true, but it happens. Perhaps its just that what you say others agree with, and so, you are now revered as the one who knows best. But really, its things that we've all thought, and you just happen to state it very nicely and with just the right amount of passion. And you link us to other pages and other people to support your statement. It's really quite cool.

Now, there are other people out there, like myself, who tend to shy away from the big library issues, not because we don't have an opinion, or even because we don't think they're important -- its just the opposite. But for 1 - I think there are way smarter people out there who say things 10 times better than I ever could and 2 - I just find blogging about silly situational things so much more of a release, and really, thats what this bogging thing is about, right? Well, for me it is, anyway --