Whispers of the Muse

Change

nobody@vox.com(Dylan) — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 21:53:29 -0600

"There must be some way out of here,"
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.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

The Legend Of

nobody@vox.com(Dylan) — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 10:50:31 -0700

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?

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Get the Phone, it's Nintendo!

nobody@vox.com(Dylan) — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 10:43:46 -0600

Nintendo

So apparently word of my library's video game programs somehow filtered back to top men at Nintendo of America.

While setting up for my school-age video game program last Tuesday, my coworker Jessica grabbed me and told me that I had a call from Nintendo of America. I shot her a look of disbelief and asked her if she was messing with me. She assured me she wasn't, so I picked up the phone in the office and sure enough it was frickin' Nintendo!

Actually, it was someone from a PR firm working for Nintendo, who told me that he'd heard about my library's video game programs. He was collating data in order to put together some sort of package (possibly including product) to send to a few libraries that had been these sorts of programs. He asked what sort of video game programs we've had, how many people have attended, and what games we played.

He didn't have a whole lot of information to give me at the time, but he assured me he'd call back in a week or two with more information. So now I'm anxiously awaiting another call from Nintendo like a kid impatiently waiting for Christmas. I pretty much share T-Rex's sentiment: "NINTENDO. I guess they got me when I was young and uncritical, but I really LIKE them, you know?"

More updates when I have them!

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Going on a Magical Adventure

nobody@vox.com(Dylan) — Tue, 22 May 2007 10:27:35 -0600

As a follow up to my post involving hilariously random unicorn videos and the submission of my graduate school application, I bring you these updates:

I received a letter yesterday with this information: "Greetings from the Information School! I'm pleased to inform you that the MLIS Admissions Committee has decided to recommend you for admission to the distance Master of Library and Information Science program for autumn 2007."
Apparently, unicorns can go on other types of magical adventures with not-so-sugary goodness. Is it also land of sweets and joy and joyness? Watch the video below (but be warned of the prevalence of the f-bomb and themes not suitable for naive and/or innocent children).

Unicorn Fantasy

I just now realized it's going to be increasingly difficult to find more unicorn videos to include when I want to talk about graduate school, so I may have to branch out into other mythological creatures. (Sunnymuffins anyone?)

(Via StumbleVideo on the Nintendo Wii.)

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Welcome to the Wii-brary

nobody@vox.com(Dylan) — Sun, 21 Jan 2007 19:47:03 -0700

Nintendo Wii

The Ada Community Library is now among the public library elite. Why? Not only do we have a frickin' kickass website, but as of 10:05am this morning, we also have a frickin' Nintendo Wii.

I posted myself outside of Circuit City this morning at 9:15am (no midnight stint for me), led there on a tip from Wii Seeker. Fortunately, Anthony was there to keep me company with some multiplayer Elite Beat Agent action until the store opened. Even with less than an hour before opening, I still happened to be fourth in line (alas, no rioting here).

Prize in hand, I was determined to try this extolled next-gen system, so Anthony, Anna, L and I put it through the Wii Sports paces. I was wowed several times over by the overflowing amount of careful consideration Nintendo packed into the their tiny new console. Though we only had Wii Sports to try, we we're able to whittle away most of an afternoon with it.

I can't wait to bring it into the library and wow our youthful patrons (and their parents) with our new library resource. Seriously, how cool is a library that has a Wii for library use and Wii games (as well as those for other consoles) available for checkout?

Getting to paid to play with LEGO robots and a Nintendo Wii? It's simple: my job is crazy delicious.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Captain Planet

nobody@vox.com(Dylan) — Sun, 05 Nov 2006 15:56:43 -0700

Four Elements

It's a bit late, but at long last, here's the four of us library ~~slaves~~ staffers in our Halloween costumes for 2006. Hands down, we had the best group costume at work (not that anyone was foolhardy enough to try and compete with our mightiness). In case you can't figure it out (from left to right) it's Anna as Water, Erin as Fire, Leslie as Earth and Dylan (me) as Air.

I don't know we're going to top this next year, but I'm already scheming about group costume ideas for next Halloween. The Village People? Super Smash Bros characters? Any suggestions from the peanut gallery?

You can see more library Halloween photos over at the Ada Community Library Flickr page. Keep checking for more crazy delicious photos of library antics.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Firefox 2.0

nobody@vox.com(Dylan) — Mon, 23 Oct 2006 10:37:14 -0600

Sleeping fox

Tremble in fear, all you Internet Explorer bitches. Firefox 2.0 is now available and ready to kick some more blue "e".

The most kick-ass browser isn't yet available officially, but thanks to a tip from Ars Technica, you can now download the final release before the rest of the unwashed Internet-browsing masses get their grubby mits on it. Windows users can download this file and enjoy the improved Firefox.

A new library website and a new Firefox? Does the World Wide Web get any better than this? I think not.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Video Games on a Library

nobody@vox.com(Dylan) — Mon, 09 Oct 2006 19:35:48 -0600

Library Interior

Mario Party 7 (for GameCube) = $49.95 (purchased by the library)
Refurbished XBox Console, Halo Edition = $119.95 (purchased by the library)
Karaoke Revolution (for PS2) = $49.95 (purchased by the library)
Playing video games for work = Priceless

"There are some things money can buy. For everything else, there is the public library."

Had the best day at MPOW (my place of work) today. We'd closed to the public for our annual staff inservice, meaning it was all staff and no patrons. Here's the good stuff:

Presented the new website I've been slaving away on to the rest of the staff. I got a round of applause and a lot of positive feedback from everyone. I can't wait until we go live later this month.
Ate an awesome all-staff lunch provided by The Director. Who knew you could get such awesome stuff at Costco?
Demo'd and played video games with a dozen other staff members. It was frickin' awesome to see so many librarians and library employees having a great time gaming, especially the ones who'd never picked up a controller before. (Though I'm going to be teased about my horrible Karaoke Revolution attempt of Material Girl for a long time to come.)
Getting off of work @ 4:30pm. When you work until 9pm most nights, 4:30pm is a blessing!

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Salutations from Mother Russia

nobody@vox.com(Dylan) — Thu, 05 Oct 2006 11:25:17 -0600

St. Basil\'s Cathedral

The Pants and I are in Moscow, ID for the Idaho Library Association Annual Conference. But we're not just sitting on our butts and attending the various presentations, workshops and roundtables that they've got going on at this jazzy conference.

Rather, as part of SPLAT (Special Projects Library Action Team), we're here to teach other Idaho librarians useful tools, like IM (through Meebo) and RSS Readers (through Google Reader or Bloglines). I also brought my laptop and copy of You Don't Know Jack! to quiz librarians on high culture and pop culture.

We rolled into Moscow yesterday afternoon, hit a preliminary SPLAT meeting, went out to dinner and listened to some jazz. The Pants needs to remind me to never try cutting through parking lots in this crazy college town again -- I'm quite certain I don't want to hear the underside of my car make that horrendous scraping noise again.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend