Walt's comments on Liblog Mortality reminded me that I have a blog that surprisingly few people have unsubscribed from in the past two months. Thanks for sticking around.

I'm sure you spent absolutely no time wondering where I went, which is good, but I'll tell you anyway. I've been in the midst of a substantial reorganization of my life's priorities in an effort to become an overall healthier person. I'm working on being a better, more attentive and involved daddy and husband. I'm working on not spending all of my time staring at a screen. And of late, I'm working on being a better guardian of my temple, so to speak. Better diet, less snacking, more exercise, that kind of thing.

It all started with the new job. IT is a new world to me and I found myself still preoccupied with its complexity when I came home. No time for blogging/podcasting when I could be doing all the little organizational things that one can't get done during the work day. And more significantly, the preoccupation was negatively affecting my family.

So change was needed, and quickly. First, I removed all self-imposed pressure to produce, whether that was in the form of blogging, podcasting, public speaking or otherwise. I then made two tough decisions:

1. Pass the Carnival torch.
2. Pass the podcasting torch.

The Carnival torch was passed formally to my buddy Chadwick (thanks again). The podcasting side was a little more behind-the-scenes. In part, I simply stopped producing. But I also redirected all requests for consulting or speaking to other qualified individuals. It was a difficult decision to abandon the niche that I'd carved out for myself, but quite frankly, I was growing tired of the topic anyway. [This is not unusual for me, as I constantly crave new avenues to focus my energies on.]

As part of reducing my information intake and self-imposed pressure to "keep up," I reduced the number of feeds in my Bloglines (current count is 128) and cut out many of the podcasts that I was listening to, including most of the library-related content. Again, tough decisions, but better for my overall state of mind.

I also made a commitment to myself to not do any non-critical working from home. [Note: This has been only somewhat successful, as I really like to keep on top of my Inbox.]

So is it working? Absolutely. I feel more involved with my family and less obsessed with work and career, which really makes me more focused and effective during my working hours.

Satisfied that these approaches have improved my mental health, I'm turning my attention to physical health. I'm horribly overweight and my love of sweets has been a lifelong battle that I've never chosen to fight. Until now.

Getting up at 5:45 every workday to hop on the elliptical trainer is tough, but necessary at this juncture. Walking away from the box of Russell Stover chocolates that stares at me in the office is even tougher. But I'm enjoying the battle and I know the long-term goals are worthwhile.

Anyway, thanks for indulging me, both in my extended absence and in my present logorrhea. I hope all is well with you and yours in this new year.

Because this is what library conferences are really all about: Xlerator!

I'm playing around with Wallop, which works like a Flash-based MySpace. It's mildly amusing and is certainly more attractive visually than the typical MySpace page. Two big advantages over MySpace, if both features bear out in the long run: unlimited storage for photos and music (how is that possible?) and no advertising. The revenue model is based on people creating Flash "mods" that they can sell to each other with Wallop getting a percentage of the transaction. Techcrunch discussed the site at further length a few days ago.

I can invite a few people, so if you want in, put a valid email address into the contact form. First come, first serve.

Just read on Lifehacker that Skype is offering its SkypeOut service, which allows you to make VoIP calls to a landline, free of charge until the end of 2006. Sadly, the offer is only good for calls placed and received in the USA or Canada, but for those folks this is fabulous news and a great excuse to check out Skype, if you haven't already.

Another good reason is the new SkypeCast feature, which is currently in the preview stage. SkypeCasts are big hosted, public conference calls of up to 100 people that anyone with the Skype client can host for free. You can host SkypeCasts on any topic, but they are public calls, so they will be directory-listed and open to anyone. As host, you can choose open discussion or a one-way broadcast (with the ability to "pass the mic" to others), which opens up a variety of ways to do teleconferencing on the cheap. I've had good experiences with SkypeCasts so far and hope to see some librarians take advantage.

I can't properly describe how I'm feeling right now, having just read that one of my newest friends John Iliff has passed away.

I'd only known John a few short months, but as a podcasting enthusiast, we had much in common. Many know him for the variety of things he has done over a celebrated career (including his role in starting PUBLIB), but I will remember John as the guy who was so excited to talk to me about podcasting, that I could barely keep up with the pace of our conversation. I wish we'd had more time to share.

My sincerest condolences go out to his family.

I've been getting headaches at night on a regular basis lately. This is an entirely new phenomenon and one with which I am not at all pleased.

I'm testing the hypothesis that these headaches are caused by spending entirely too much time staring at a computer screen. So it's time to purify.

Step 1: Reduce the pressure to "keep up."

As of the start of this effort, I had 201 subscribed feeds. Time to make some tough weeding decisions. So goodbye slashdot (one of my very first feeds). Goodbye digg. Goodbye kottke. Goodbye various Netflix blogs. Already down to 163 and dropping. Can't quite cut the cord on Boing Boing though...yet.

Step 2: Back away from the desk.

We are painting the room where my desk is located. This will require me to shut this computer down and move furniture. It's a great opportunity to create some separation between myself and the keyboard. I plan to take full advantage.

Step 3: Read more books.

This is long overdue. Reading for me goes in phases and this would be a nice opportunity to get back into it. Maybe I should try large type.

Never one to avoid an opportunity to talk about myself, I will take on the 4 Things meme that Nicole so kindly foisted upon me.

Four jobs I've had:

1. Sales Associate
2. Kitchen Manager
3. Assistant Branch Manager
4. Supervisor of Electronic Services

Four movies I can watch over and over:

1. Dazed and Confused
2. This is Spinal Tap
3. Short Cuts
4. Caddyshack

Four places I've lived:

1. Burlington, VT
2. Boulder, CO
3. Eugene, OR
4. Champaign, IL (notice a theme?)

Four TV shows I love:

1. Family Guy
2. The O.C. (my guilty pleasure, but aren't they all?)
3. The Amazing Race
4. Scrubs

Four places I've vacationed:

1. Hilton Head
2. Redwoods
3. Alaska
4. Amsterdam

Four of my favorite dishes (I'm excluding desserts here):

1. Tempeh Reuben
2. Philly No-Miss-Steak Sandwich (from the defunct Herbie's Garden and Juice Bar in Eugene)
3. Veggie Fajitas
4. BBQ Ribs (a nagging vestige from my more carnivorous days)

Four sites I visit daily that might not be totally obvious (sorry Google and Bloglines):

1. listology.com
2. cbs.sportsline.com
3. netflix.com
4. pbwiki.com

Four places I would rather be right now:

1. Firenze
2. Bali (in more favorable political times)
3. In bed
4. Seeing Fiona Apple in concert

Four books (or series) I love:

1. The Magus
2. Jitterbug Perfume
3. Snow Crash
4. Portnoy's Complaint

Four video games I can play over and over:

1. NHL 2002
2. Baldur's Gate I and II
3. Web Sudoku
4. JigZone puzzles

And in keeping with precedent, I'm not tagging anyone...so there.

Ok, fine:

Total volume of music on my PC:
11.72 GB, which includes approx. 1 GB of podcasted material

Last CDs simultaneously purchased (for myself):
Tenacious D - Tenacious D
Jack Johnson - In Between Dreams

Last song purchased at iTunes (with gift card - You didn't think I'd spend my own money on DRM'ed music, did you?):
Such Great Heights - The Postal Service

Song playing right now:
Speak, See, Remember - Pavement

Five songs/CDs I listen to alot - This will be hard as I don't really do a lot of repeat listening these days:
1. There's Nothing Wrong With Love - Built to Spill
2. The Band - The Band
3. Waiting for Columbus - Little Feat
4. The Harder They Come soundtrack (or the Tougher Than Tough box set)
5. American Water - Silver Jews
6. (Sorry, couldn't leave this off) Hunky Dory - David Bowie

Five songs that mean a lot to me - I offer no explanations and could easily have picked twenty others:
1. (Don't Go Back to) Rockville - R.E.M.
2. Taste - Phish
3. Broken Arrow - Robbie Robertson
4. Brooklyn (Owes the Charmer Under Me) - Steely Dan
5. Into the Mystic - Van Morrison

First concert:
Either Kenny Loggins (with my summer camp) or Air Supply (with my parents) - not sure which came first.

First concert by choice:
Steve Miller Band

I know I'm supposed to tag three people at this point, but everyone I know has already done it, so I'm gonna let it die here. If you're dying to share, just do it already.

Oh, my apologies for the lack of audio lovin'. I'm just tired and don't have much to comment on at the moment. I haven't forgotten about you.

The Leather Boys


Originally uploaded by planetneutral.

For those of you Flickr fans out there, they've finally announced the new pricing info that comes about as a result of the purchase by Yahoo. Pretty good deal if you already had a pro account and now only $24.95/year with twice the upload bandwidth (2GB/month).

By request, I endeavored to work out a smaller file for my screencast. After numerous attempts, I produced an acceptable Flash file that weighs in at 17 MB. I had no luck compressing the audio to mp3 in Camtasia (final video would play without audio) and the other PCM compression option proved unacceptable. So the sound is uncompressed, but the change in video format makes a huge difference. I hope that this compels some of the bandwidth wary to take a look. And again, apologies to the podcast feeders. (The Flash file is not handled as an enclosure, so it will not download automatically. In fact, if you want to download the file, you'll have to right click and "Save Link as..." or whatever is comparable in your context menu.)

Update: Thanks to the tireless work of Blake Carver, my comment form is again in working order. By the way, this inglorious post is my 400th.

It appears that my comment form has not been working properly for a few weeks. Unfortunately, I had no idea and anyone who sent me a comment wouldn't have either. This depresses me to no end. I have never intentionally not responded to a comment, so my apologies to people who sent comments in the past two weeks.

I'd be grateful to anyone willing to actually reiterate their feedback. Until I figure out the problem (and even after I do), why not IM me at planetneutral on AIM or Yahoo? It may say I'm away, but send your message anyway. I have a bad habit of forgetting to set my away message, so I leave it up by default.

Again, my sincerest apologies to those who took the time to comment and received no response.

Update: It works! Thanks Blake.

I downloaded the Camtasia Studio trial version a few weeks back and figured I better do something with it before the 30 days expired. So I decided to give you an inside look at how I create my show and get it ready for podcasting. If you are so inclined, take a look at my first (and probably only) screencast.

The file is quite big. My eight minute movie weighs in at nearly 40 MB. I'm sure that there are ways to compress the file and I probably could have done some editing, but I'll save exploration of those avenues for future efforts. Consider this a test (with apologies for those who subscribe to the podcast feed, who will receive this whether they want to or not).

Camtasia provides a number of options for what actually gets recorded: a fixed area of the screen, a specific window or the full screen. Because I was switching between applications, I recorded the full screen. This leaves you with a cluttered and unattractive web page sitting next to Audacity the entire time I was recording. Too bad, as there's a beautiful picture I took of jellyfish at the Monterey Aquarium on my desktop. Oh well, next time.

Jon Udell, who continues to be my online hero, has posted another genius screencast entitled "Content, services, and the yin-yang of intermediation." This is a must-view. Do it now. Seriously. And if you're not convinced, read what Richard Akerman has to say about it.

Looks like the next space for folksonomies will be in the music sphere. BBC Radio 6 is in a pre-alpha demo of Phonetags which will allow users to "bookmark" songs played on Radio 6 via text message and add keyword and rating tags. Tod Maffin of CBC notes that this could have interesting implications for the way both DJs and listeners interact with the music.

I know its been an awfully long time since I made an appearance round here, but I finally had something that inspired me.

Today our library lost one of its most faithful servants. No, he didn't pass away or anything tragic like that. He simply received a better (and entirely different type of) offer. After 16 years of unflagging commitment to the public and to the people with whom he worked, my boss has moved on to what we all hope are bigger and better things.*

It would be impossible to overstate the impact of the man (hereafter affectionately referred to as Lumbergh, for all you Office Space fans out there) on the people that he supervised. I have never met someone with the capacity to handle crises, push forward big projects, put out intrastaff fires and absorb criticism/complaint, yet at the same time raise three daughters and serve in an extremely demanding military officer position, all the while looking as relaxed, enraptured and carefree as a kid in a candy store.

Lumbergh epitomizes what I seek in a boss. He did not direct and command, so much as he coached and supported. I can't imagine an individual inspiring more positive energy amongst his colleagues in the workplace. And I don't mean necessarily a "go get 'em" kind of enthusiasm, although that was part of it. I mean more of a cozy, comfortable "everything will work out fine; you're doing great" type of emotional security that is invaluable for morale and extremely difficult to achieve, much less maintain. I learned as much about managing interpersonal relations from Lumbergh in five short months than I have from anyone else in my entire lifetime.

It is a gross understatement to say that Lumbergh will be missed. He was a great boss. He is a great friend. Farewell, Lumbergh. Your library loves you.

* Lest you wonder what could be bigger and/or better than public librarianship, I can only divulge that the new position involves intelligence on a national security level.

For lack of better content, I guess I'll jump on this bandwagon.

1. Grab the nearest book.
2. Open the book to page 23.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the text of the sentence in your journal along with these instructions.

"In this scenario, the engine will reindex the web site more frequently (thus allowing the user to find more current information with a search) and allow for a deeper listing (thus providing the advertiser to be listed with a broad variety of search terms)." - Steven M. Cohen, Keeping Current (seriously, it's the closest book to my computer)

Folks, I have so much to say about my experience at CiL that it will be hard to find time to say it all. I promise I will put a few thoughts out there within the next week, but with us closing on our house, my transition to a new position (perhaps more on that later as well), and other unexpected social events, I just can be sure when I'll get it all down. Sorry to keep you waiting...

Is it me or did I see Walt's mug in the orkut Libraries community? Friendship is an interesting concept applied to the blogosphere. I've never met a single person on my orkut friends list, but my interactions with colleagues through this blog, email and IM have often felt more in touch than the communication I keep with my meatspace friends. In that spirit, I naturally added Walt to my friends list.

Of course, I will meet you all. Mark my words.

Somehow I was drawn into doing a vanity search for the article that I wrote last August (about which you've no doubt heard too much from me already). Two interesting new references emerged.

I found a blog written in Japanese that has a post referring to the article. Dying for a translation, I went to WorldLingo.com and got the following (italicized):

Librarians are great filters of information and relying on a select group to provide your daily information can be a great time-saver.

Being calling filter, so without being, it is from the just a little
わ? . If so, this statement is read, as for those where it is
expected to books staff blog, never is not just story of library
industry, don't you think? it is.

Reason #4 - You are unique.
One of the problems with librarianship is image. Stereotypes of librarians abound. Publishing a blog is an opportunity to demonstrate your individuality
and thereby work to dispel some of those pervasive myths. Even if you don't think of yourself as unique and fear being
redundant, your voice is yours and yours alone, So join the chorus.

"Stereotypes of libraryans" "myths" っ て here probably is what
semantic what. When it is Japan, however the "library cartoon home
page" the air does that way.

Compared to *1 honesty and image processing this thinks as proper with
main business of workshop, but therefore in addition to you take the
labor which is suitable to photographing, furthermore plainner
contents than photographing work (w

My sentiments exactly. Now if someone out there has a reading knowledge of Japanese and would care to proffer a more reasonable translation, I'd be much obliged.

The other new reference I saw was an actual citation in a grad school paper, entitled "Blogs as Tools of Preservation." Although the author could seriously use an editor, there is an interesting discussion of authority, credibility and community, all of which leads to an interesting, if somewhat flawed, conclusion. In what I consider a bizarre connection, this paper refers to the same "Librarians are great filters of information" bit that the Japanese author does. You'd think it was the most significant piece of information to be gleaned from my article...and maybe it is.

Apparently, the most recent version of MT-Blacklist broke my Movable Type installation, which, amongst other things, made commenting impossible. I believe the problem has been fixed. If anything I've said in recent days elicited a remark from you, beloved reader, please come back and speak your mind. Thanks for reading and I apologize humbly for the inconvenience.

Welcome to those of you joining me from an unidentified class at San Jose State's SLIS program. Since I can't access your BlackBoard system, perhaps you'd tell me what class you're visiting from and what was said on the discussion board that led you here. But if you're the shy type, that's OK too.

I've been outed on my GSLIS bulletin board as well. Not that any of my schoolmates have come to visit or say hello, but I'm not bitter.

Well, I don't have anything pressing to say today. Last night, I came across a post (Nov. 14, sorry no permalinks) over at tarheel bloggers:

"Here's a librarian-blogger who links to LIS students at the Univ. of Washington: Open Stacks: "...the new way to tell the world what you think". Greg Schwartz links to a lot of other librarians, but I think it's time he learns about the excellent bloggers at UNC's SILS."

Of course, the post's author, mistersugar, is alluding to the fact that there are no SILSers on my blogroll. That's true enough, as far as I know. But those of you familiar with my history here, on Blogsource and with the dmoz LIS Weblogs categories would understand why I find his suggestion amusing, to say the least.

Since virtually everyone who visits this blog is a regular reader of Library Stuff, I really don't need to point out Steven's Public Libraries article on the "New Breed" of library weblogs. But here I am, doing it anyway. As always, Steven, thanks for the publicity. I wonder how long I'll have to keep at it to move from the "New Breed" to the "Old School." And what will be characteristic of the new "New Breed?"

The Lipstick Librarian recently called for library catchphrases "that resonate with the Youth of Today." Amongst her offerings:

Get the 411 @ your library
Libraries are phat!
Reading: the booty-call of free entertainment

And my personal favorite:

Wait two hours for your mom to pick you up after school @ your library

Let me offer up a few more:

Libraries: Bustin' a cap in your information gap.
The porn filters aren't air-tight @ your library
B to the izz-O O to the izz-K!

And in today's thrill du jour, David Bigwood gives up some love for my library system.

After all these years, it looks like I'll finally live out my dream of joining a Greek organization. No, not the Omega Mu's, the Beta Phi Mu's. That's right, apparently the UIUC GSLIS faculty has deemed me worthy of being part of the renowned (had you ever heard of it?) international LIS honor society. Not that this is a particularly unique distinction - up to 25% of each graduating class can be nominated - but it's nice to think I made a good impression in the two short (yet long enough) semesters I was in grad school. [cue announcer voice] "And a lifetime membership to the national organization is available for the low, low price of $50! Join now and we'll give you a one year membership to your school's chapter...absolutely free! So what are you waiting for? Pick up the phone and join Beta Phi Mu today!" No seriously, it's cool. I'm honored.

Well, tomorrow I'm off to Hilton Head to begin the celebration of my forthcoming nuptials. Be back in about a week with a ring on my finger.

In honor of my 200th post, I'm pleased to say: Welcome, LISNewsers!

In a few short days, my article has elicited some really nice comments and linkage from both within and outside of the LIS blogosphere. I am particularly fond of David Bigwood calling it "the article on WebJunction" as if the article has reached such notoriety that no further explication is necessary. After all, it was even the Library Link of the Day for August 5th.

Anyway, I just wanted to take the time to say thanks for the interest and support.

I'm headed to a wedding up in Vermont tomorrow, so I'll be off my computer till Sunday. But before I pull the plug, a few final items are in order.

I received a great little note from the Planned Parenthood Action Network here in Indiana denouncing internet filters. I've decided to reprint it in its entirety:

What is Wrong with Mandatory Internet Filters for Public Libraries?

2. Write a letter to the editor.

Next item: According to this post, John Gist, author of The Lopsided Poopdeck, is a librarian.

And finally, I found a very strange comment on one of my older posts, whose author apparently didn't understand the post at all.

Anyway, be back in a few days.

Sorry for the tangent, but I was stoked to see that Phish, a band that has consistently cultivated and reaped the benefits of its active Internet fanbase, just added an RSS feed for their News section and also a feed for the Tourdates portion of their recently relaunched website:

If you've got your geek on, you'll appreciate our RSS feeds. Frankly, we don't really understand what they do, but our site designers assure us that both news and tourdates have RSS feeds you can subscribe to read in any RSS Newsreader.

Score one for acknowledging the needs of your user community, whether you truly understand them or not (and sometimes you just don't). Librarians, please take note.

I expected to see more coming down the pipelines from the conference, but so far I've only seen Jessamyn's report. So instead, I'll take a cue from the Blog Driver's Waltz and provide you an assessment of my Buzzosity:

(Sorry, I had to remove the score box. The script was interfering with page loading. My last score was 470.)

The buzzwords I employ the most frequently are "blog" and "content." Apparently, "convenient" is also a buzzword, although how exactly I couldn't be sure.

The most buzzworthy of all? Microsoft, of course, employing frequent use of the terms "business" "management" "solutions" and stringing them together with aplomb.

Anyone happen to read Jessamyn's article in the latest American Libraries about her experience with Google Answers? Although I've read her thoughts on the experience before, as a regular reader, I liked being described as a "likely critical thinker." Thanks...right back at ya.

Not surprisingly, this is not the first project to call itself Open Stacks. Although it does not seem to be active, the original "Open Stacks is an online digital library which houses references to key works that form the intellectual foundation of interface ecology." The linked page also explains what the author means by interface ecology. Be sure to take a look at Collage Machine, apparently another example of interface ecology, which forms a collage of the images found on the pages of up to five user-entered URL's. I bet it would be cool to combine some of the quality photoblogs for dramatic effect.

A post over at Slashdot talks about electronic voting as negative in its lack of a paper trail. This got me to wondering about the long-term maintenance of paper ballots. How long do we keep the actual ballots, particularly for bigger national elections? Are they archived or discarded after some statute of limitations runs out on challenging the results?

In looking for an answer, I found this viewable PDF archive of "the ballots from Leon County, Florida that had no machine readable marks in the [2000] Presidential Race." The so-called undervotes. More to come as I find it. Anyone know anything about the fate of presidential ballots?