said the joker to the thief.
"There's too much confusion.
I can't get no relief."
--"All Along the Watchtower", Bob Dylan
I had an epiphany driving home from work yesterday; a realization that had long been brewing in my mind but finally percolated to conscious thought. It's time for me to step away from the library profession and walk a different road.
There are many things I love about working in libraries: finding answers to tricky questions, helping others find what they need even if they don't know what that is, and much more. I've also met a great many awesome people while working in libraries, as well as made some close, trusted friends, and hell, even found my wife.
But the thing is, right now, I'm pretty sure I'll never be completely satisfied long-term working in libraries. I've slowly discovered that I need a career that is constantly challenging me intellectually or at least keeping me on my toes. That doesn't happen often enough in the field I am now (or at least not in the way I need) and I don't expect it would change much even if I stick with it.
I don't yet know where I'll look to next, as I have some soul-searching to do first, but there are plenty of possibilities. And that thought alone gives me the courage to start anew.
Here's the cute little dragon I whipped up in a few minutes. Why not make one of your own and post it to your own Vox? (Or if you prefer canines, this artist has a Create A Wolf application too!)
I've been meaning to get around to this post for awhile now, so you'll just have to forgive me that I'm announcing my own personal video game of the year for last year a few weeks late.
The year two-thousand-and-seven was an amazing year for gaming. I've posted about many of my favorite games this year, including Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo Tales, The Legends of Zelda and Spyro: Phantom Night, Pokemon Diamond, and Wario Ware: Twisted! I also didn't post about some game I really enjoyed, like Super Paper Mario and Halo 3.
But although all those games rocked my socks, my personal pick for video game of the year can go to only one game: Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings for the Nintendo DS. My wife gave it to me in the middle of December as an early Christmas present and as soon as she did, I was hooked. Although it's both a sequel to a game I hadn't ever played AND in a series that I swore off after terminal frustration with random battles, this game captivated me completely.
What's not to love? The art and visual design of the game is gorgeous (with cute, retro sprites for the characters you control); the music is amazing for a portable game, the story has surprising twists and turns (and was far more compelling to me than the much-lauded Mass Effect, which I consider to be an Ass Defect); and the gameplay, though repetitive, was fun throughout (the difficulty did vary widely throughout the game, as the final missions were insanely tough, but even that didn't damper my spirits). Honestly, I can't think of a better game I've played in a long, long while. My highest praise is that I'm looking forward to playing through it again soon and I never ever play through games twice.
But now I'm curious, my video game playing friends, as to what your personal Game of the Year would be? I know that L's involves assassination, and the Pants might go with one that involves rocketing around as a slime, but I'd love to see a blog post or two about them. What game of 2007, in your opinion, was super special awesome?
But if you aren't afraid yet, you should be. For, L and I will soon unleash our greatest weapon of doom upon the hapless citizenry of the world. Prepare yourself, if you can, for... LOLBILBOZ:
Whatever, the reason was that people weren't showing up in droves to see this movie, they were really, really missing out. It's been a few years since I listened to the amazing audiobook production of the series (His Dark Materials), but I was not disappointed by this adaptation. The acting was phenomenal and the special effects were beyond impressive -- I'm still not sure how they pulled off all those deamons as well as they did. The movie suffered a little for an incredibly rushed storyline (but at least it didn't bog down) and some of the music was simply atrocious in a movie of this caliber.
I'm eager to see how the second and third books are rendered into films and I can't wait to see how they'll deal with some of the more challenging issues that crop up further into the series. I'm also looking forward to rereading (or perhaps re-listening to) the books, to see how they really measure up with their movie counterparts.
Speaking of the movies, have you all seen The Spiderwick Chronicles trailer? I haven't read the books for that series yet, but it looks like fun. Plus, a gryphon! (What more do I need in a movie? I mean, I suffered through Narnia for just a few gryphon cameos, proving that I will watch just about anything for some sweet, sweet gryphon action.)
Two "legendary" games have been simultaneously occupying my greatest video game console for the past month. I picked up The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass primarily on Matt's recommendation in a comment on one of my earlier posts, though if I hadn't have bought it then, I definitely would have after Jay's positive review. Though I didn't like the Twilight Princess installment on the Wii (and hadn't experienced any other Zelda incarnations), the Phantom Hourglass has quickly become one of my favorite DS games of all time. Hardcore gamers might complain that it is too easy or too short, but those are both aspects I appreciate. I still haven't quite finished the game after playing it on and off for the past several weeks, but I'm still loving it. (If only I could get all the Demon Ship parts, my heart would be filled with joy.)
The other "legendary" game I picked up was The Legend of Spyro: The Eternal Night at the urging of one my favorite gaming blogs, DS Fanboy. I steered clear of the purported crap that was the DS version of the game and went straight for the super special awesomeness that was the Gameboy Advance version. This game has been touted as possibly the "last great GBA game" and I find nothing lacking in the game's greatness. The gameplay is just awesome fun, with a cleverly designed one-button combo attack system that is gorgeous to see and enjoyable to play. I beat the game on "normal" difficulty with a little bit of a challenge and now I've gotten myself stuck on "hard" difficulty, but I haven't thrown in the towel yet. Definitely some of the best thirteen dollars I ever spent for a game.
I need to follow in Matt's footsteps and post my own autobiographical retrospective on (video) gaming, so look for that when I have time to take 20. In the meantime, let me share my recent good news: a video game grant I wrote for my library was accepted. This means I get to buy SIX more Wiis for my library (along with six digital projectors) along with SIX copies of Mario Party 8, Super Smash Bros Brawl, and Mario Kart Wii. We'll also be giving away a Wii and DS (among other things) next year for this program. Gametastic, right?
Anthony and I hit our first ever Worldwide Dungeons & Dragons Game Day yesterday at Empyre Games and we surprisingly had more fun than we would have expected. We were a little worried at first when we found out that we were the most experienced D&D 3.5 players in the group (except for possibly one other player), as the DM had only run 1st Edition D&D games. However, the one-shot adventure designed for the event (The Fall of Frostsilver) really turned out great for what it was. The DM in particular did an awesome job at keeping everything moving along and staying fun.
One of the best things about the event was the diversity of players there. There was a four person family (a dad, mom and two teen/preteen boys) who all came to learn D&D 3.5 together that were completely hilarious. The two boys were completely bloodthirsty and in it for their own characters (as they tend to be at that age), which made for some pretty hilarious exchanges. The younger one that was playing a half-elf rogue/sorcerer kept wanting to search all the bodies of everything we killed (even while a combat still raged) and the older one who was playing a dwarf paladin (ostensibly the brother of my dwarf cleric of Moradin) threw away his paladin class abilities when he kicked his mother's halfling away from a corpse he wanted to loot instead (and he only got 30 gold pieces in exchange for all his paladin class).
Because Wizards of the Coast sent more free stuff than there were players at this event, we managed to walk away with some pretty good loot as well. I managed to add an assortment of new miniatures to my collection and got another set of dice for the wife. One of the most interesting things was the 4th Edition preview stat card of the Spined Devil promotional miniature. The stats look much more streamlined than 3.5, but I'm more wary than ever. Will Dungeons & Dragons turn into a tabletop MMORPG experience? If so, I think I'll be sticking with 3.5.
- The Google Homepage (I think this would be pretty hilarious to wear at work, i.e. the library)
- Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple (since I've gotten just about everyone I know an iPod)
Please comment and let me know which idea you like best! Also, if you come up with a different geeky costume that you think would be great for me, please suggest it in the comments as well. I promise that whatever gets chosen, I'll post photos of myself in my costume on Halloween.
My crazy exciting intense busy super special awesome week-long residency for my first week of graduate school at the University of Washington in Seattle is near the end. Right now, I'm chilling in the iSchool computer lab, tuning into Pandora and surfing the Web on one of the brand-spankin'-new 24" iMacs running Windows Vista. It seems like a fitting end to a busy week full of long school days and exploring a little of Seattle via death marches and mass transit.
Outside of class, hitting the Seattle Public Library was at the top of the list of things to do for Anna, Melody and myself. We hopped a bus to downtown on Tuesday evening and with a little walking, we soon found ourselves confronted by a futuristic glass-and-steel structure. On the outside, it sure didn't bear any resemblance to any other library I had seen. After we entered, it turned out the interior was even more confusing, with minimal signage and bizarre layouts. After trekking from bottom to top, we were all rather disappointed with this public library that could have been so much more (with less money even).
I've had some great food while I've been here and met some great people within my graduate program. In a way, it's been like a combination of work and vacation, experiencing the best of both worlds all week long. But, as the saying goes, it's good to go, but even better to come home. And so today (as it does change day by day) the aspect of my distance graduate program that I'm relishing most is that being on campus is only a fleeting thing. It's been a great trip, but I can't wait to be home, hitting the books and coursework in my pajamas on my own time while enjoying the comforts of home.
I just finished my first day of class for graduate school and to paraphrase a certain song, damn, it feels good to be a student (again).
However, I don't know if I'd be feeling that way if I hadn't taken three years off from academia. The (approximately) thousand day break gave me plenty of time to recharge my personal batteries for another stint at formal education (along with other important things, like nabbing my first full-time library job and getting married). Because I took some time away, it's great to feel like I can (and want to) hit the books on my own terms.
I've got to say that another huge plus to this program is that I get to share it with two great friends and fellow first-year graduate students, Anna and Melody. I feel extremely lucky to have my very own support group to brave this whole experience with (not to mention the support of my other friends, my family, and especially my wife).
Sure, it's going to be hard work and stressful at times, but because library and information science is one of my intellectual passions, it is also going to be totally worth it. No pain, no gain. All the blood, sweat and tears (and fistfuls of cash and loans) are going to be a small price to pay for what I'll come out of this program with.
My school is the iSchool. What's yours?
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Ernie said:
awesome, dylan! such nauseatingly adorable dragons! i'm gonna make mine PINK!! read more
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