I just saw this link on one of my favorite kiddie lit blogs, A Fuse #8 Production. It's an OLD film about librarianship as a profession. Someone observed that it is important to distinguish for you young things the difference between a filmstrip (like a story told on PowerPoint) and films (more like a video.)
If I still didn't manage the technology, go to http://fusenumber8.blogspot.com/ and see for yourself.
this is for you. Katie K and I recommend "Lord of the Pounce" and "Wild Kitty". Enjoy a pint of guinness in a kilt with your favorite cat by your side.
Compliments of Slate Magazine.
Particularly funny are the YouTube shorts that rescore the pivotal "The Shins will change your life" scene from Garden State with wildly different music. And yet, Natalie still looks so earnest...
Check out:
Garden State Tip Drill
and
Garden State Meow Mix
Image from Boston Globe
The newest weapon in the War on Terror(TM) is the Flat Daddy! I only wish some of my ex-girlfriends had one...then they wouldn't have needed...
Who am I kidding, I wish I had a Flat Daddy...then maybe there wouldn't be such a huge void in my heart.
As Solidad O'Brien said this morning, "At least it's half a solution."
I know that I mentioned this (drunkenly) to some of you last week, but is anyone interested in doing some swing dancing at the Union on Saturday night? There is supposed to be a live band and free lessons (at 9:30, I think). I know, to some of you it might be an aged fad that went out in the late nineties, but I'm dying to get my hep cat on!
Any takers?
I just read this nytimes article about the new, ever-so-slightly relaxed liquid ban on U.S. domestic and international flights. And I saw something a little funny. Okay, first of all, why the hell is Homeland Security advertising big brand names like Crest and Johnson & Johnson? And second of all, WHAT IN THE SAM HILL is that Evian Aerosol Spray, "le brumisateur" if you will, doing in the new Homeland Security-allowed quart-sized "zip-top" bag? AND WTF, ZipLock? Can't you pony up for some government-sponsored product placement? Most importantly, of course, while I contemplated how the French got to participate in this TSA photo-op (seriously, what does that say about quality control at DHS?!), that ultimately made me wonder why nobody ever thought to come up with a FREEDOM SPRAY that they could make for probably 56 cents and sell for fifteen dollars. A whole marketing opportunity that was never exploited! See the photo, folks. Connect the dots. We are clearly losing the war on terror.
For Digital Libraries, we are digitizing some pictures from the old year logs in the commons. Tucked inside a sleeve of my assigned log, on beautifully yellowed paper, I found this little note to us from the library school class of 1924:
Our beloved Madge Klais was on WPR today talking about the importance of school librarians. The program is repeated tonight at 10pm if anyone wants to catch it.
It'll make you feel proud and important.
Learn the TRUE (that is to say, evil) meaning of your Meyer-Briggs personality type. Are you an Evil Overlord, Mad Scientist, Control Freak, or the Thought Police?
I'm INTJ, "The Outside Contractor", which still isn't very exciting. But I do border on both "Evil Overlord" and "Conspiracy Theorist".
If you missed taking the mini Meyer-Briggs assessment in Management class last week, or if you want a second opinion, you can take a 72-question online version here.
Have you guys ever heard of Poutine? Part of me is repulsed, but another part of me oddly, disgustingly intrigued.
So I'm here at the College Library reference desk, making the world a better place one question at a time, when a young man walks up to me with a question about student emoployment at the library. He asked "How can I get a job like yours, you know, as a receptionist at a library?" I'll leave you with that.
Since my last little ditty went over so well, I've decided to share a number I wrote shortly after the Oscars this past year. This was inspired by my own experiences in the gritty and brutal world of non-permanent office staffing services.
Check it out, now...check it out...check it, check it out like a library book...
It's Hard Out Here For a Temp
CHORUS:
You know it's hard out here for a temp (you ain't knowin'),
When she's tryin' to get her money for the rent (you ain't knowin'),
For the groceries and gas money spent (you ain't knowin'),
Because a whole lot of temps they jumpin' ship (you ain't knowin').
At my job I done seen some crazy things in spreadsheets,
Gotta number check 'em all to earn some changes for me.
So I gotta keep accounts tight, like H&R on tax night,
Like takin' from a temp who don't know no better, I know that ain't right.
Done seen people fired, done seen people deal,
Done worked a full shift with no break for a meal.
No insurance where I work, but that's just how it is.
It might be new to you, but it's been like this for years.
It's blood, sweat, and tears when it comes down to this job.
I'm tryin' to get cash for to move out from my mom's.
I'm tryin' to have things, but it's hard for a temp.
But I'm prayin' and I'm hopin' to God I don't slip, yeah.
CHORUS
Man, it seems like I'm duckin', dodgin' staples everyday.
Temps hatin' on me cause I got shoes from Tar-jay.
But I gotta stay paid, gotta stay above water,
Couldn't keep up with my loans, that's when it got harder.
Manpower's where I'm from, I'm QTI bound,
Where temps all the time end up lost and never found.
Man, these girls think we do things, earn a big wage,
They practice Word every night, and then they do some FrontPage.
Now I can do Access, and Excel too,
You pay the right price, I'll do both for you.
That's the way the game goes, gotta keep it strictly tempin',
Gotta have my hustle tight, makin' change off my typin', yeah.
CHORUS
So the Sun Times, Fox News, and the Hindustan Times are all reporting that Whitney Houston and Bobby Brown are calling it quits; and those being my most trusted news sources, I can only wonder if it was another man?
PS: I also just discovered that Frank Zappa wrote a song called Bobby Brown. It's messed up (go figure).
This lovely ditty by our fellow librarianette, Kelly, was too good to be hidden away in the comments. [In reference to this post.]
I like big butts, and I cannot lie.
You other 'brarians can't deny,
That when a girl walks in with a real high waist,
And a white bra in your face,
You feel STUNNED, wanna post on your blogs,
'Cause you know that look went out with pogs.
Oh, those slim jeans she's wearin'!
I'm hooked and I can't stop starin'!
Oh, SLIS blog, I wish I could quit'cha,
But I love these wack celeb pict'chas.
I've had a remarkably crummy day, but this news story cheered me up.
Madrid's regional government has instituted standards barring models who are medically underweight from appearing in the city's big annual fashion show. (Thirty percent of last years models were rejected this year thanks to the new regulations.) Milan may soon follow suit.
Incidentally, the photo accompanying the story is NOT of one of the non-underweight Madrid models. It's a file photo of a model in New York.
Perhaps Mayor Dave can look into this idea for crowd-control at Halloween. I think microwaving U.S. citizens is perfectly reasonable. Right?
Is it wrong that I'm watching 200 Cigarettes and coveting Kate Hudson's jacket? Erm, it's set in 1981...
Fellow proto-librarians,
The following expression of superior academic fashion is what has been wandering the halls of our great university's largest library tonight. Of course I have not been able to take photos of the many instances of such mode, as the ALA professional ethics are sure to preclude one from taking photos and laughing at patrons but I have found a suitible example to share.
Forget skinny jeans, white bras with black tank tops and sky-high waist lines. This is truely the future of fashion
DUDES! WTF? Why has the fashion industry forsaken us? Have you been reading the Fuggers on Fashion Week via the New Magazine website? First of all, it wasn't just a rumor, skinny jeans have taken over the Gap AND CAMPUS (I'm not even going to MENTION leggings--leggings with nothing over the top!--because they make me nauseous). And now fashion designers are serving up high waists come spring. Check out the UGLY photos via the link and the UGLY photo of ScarJo below. SERIOUSLY why do designers want everyone to wear MOM JEANS? Why do they have to be such HATERS? This may sound kind of bizarre, but I think they want every woman to look like a stereotype of a middle-aged librarian! Nooooooooooo!
Does anyone want a friendly, 3 year old, adorable kitty kat!? A lady from work is trying to find a home for a lovely little meow who used to live with her neighbor, but the neighbor had to move into a nursing home. Kitty will have to go to the humane society if they can't find a place for her to live.
If you're interested let me know and I'll give you Edie's (the human from work) email address...
Meow!
Hey is anyone interested in seeing any of the following shows?:
Built to Spill: Sept 14
Starlight Mints: Sept 22
Okkervil River: Oct 6
Regina Spektor: Oct 17
To all those who may perhaps download certain songs onto certain cellphones....beware!! Your tongue-in-cheek joke may be the catalyst for an even greater revolution.
I'm still waiting for a suggestively posed statue of the woman.
A little gem about everyone's favorite founding father that is too funny to just put on a mix cd. Maybe you shouldn't check it out at work. This president named George ate opponents brains and invented cocaine and doesn't that just make every George since seem, well, lazy? Apologies if you've already seen this. Theshortkatie's been slow with the blog checking.
There's almost nothing to this blog because it was started in August but the author goes by the Blogger pseudonym "library guy." Manbrarian in cyberspaaaaace!
I can't remember if anyone's posted this here yet. It's a clip of Bush edited so that he's singing U2's "Sunday, Bloody Sunday".
So the NY Times is reporting the release of financial aid database info from the Dept of Ed to the FBI. But the FBI swears they didn't actually use the information for anything, and it was just an identity theft issue:
Under the program, called Project Strikeback, the Education Department received names from the F.B.I. and checked them against its student aid database, forwarding information. Each year, the Education Department collects information from 14 million applications for federal student aid.
Neither agency would say whether any investigations resulted. The agencies said the program had been closed. The effort was reported yesterday by a graduate student, Laura McGann, at the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University, as part of a reporting project that focused on national security and civil liberties.
In a statement, Mary Mitchelson, counsel to the inspector general of the Education Department, said, “Using names provided by the bureau, we examined the Department of Education’s student financial aid databases to determine if the individuals received or applied for federal student financial assistance.”
Information collected on federal financial aid applications includes names, addresses, Social Security numbers, incomes and, for some students, information on parents’ incomes and educational backgrounds.
Generally, only United States citizens and permanent residents are eligible to apply for federal student financial aid.
An assistant director of the F.B.I., John Miller, said in a statement: “During the 9/11 investigation and continually since, much of the intelligence has indicated terrorists have exploited programs involving student visas and financial aid. In some student loan frauds, identity theft has been a factor.’’
Mr. Miller said the Education Department was asked to “run names of subjects already material to counterterrorism investigations” to look for evidence of student loan fraud or identity theft.
“No records of people other than those already under investigation were called for,” he said. “This was not a sweeping program, in that it involved only a few hundred names. This is part of our mission, which is to take the leads we have and investigate them.”
Mr. Miller said that the effort was not concealed and that it was referred to publicly in briefings to Congress and the Government Accountability Office.
A spokeswoman for the bureau, Cathy Milhoan, said the Education Department had provided financial aid information on fewer than 1,000 names in connection with terrorism investigations.
The information sharing was disclosed as the Education Department examines a proposal by the Commission on the Future of Higher Education, established last year by Education Secretary Margaret Spellings, to create a national student database that would follow individual students’ progress as a way of holding colleges accountable for students’ success.
“This operation Strikeback confirms our worst fears about the uses to which these databases can be put,” said David L. Warren, president of the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities, which represents 900 institutions. “The concentration of all this data absolutely invites use by other agencies of data that had been gathered for very specific and narrow purposes, namely the granting of student aid to needy kids.”
The Federal Bureau of Investigation would not discuss the specific criteria it used in seeking information on students but said the program was narrowly focused.
“People are trying to turn this into something that it wasn’t,” Ms. Milhoan said. “We are not out there arbitrarily running student records for the sake of running them.”
Ms. Mitchelson of the Education Department said a review of the files of the people named by the F.B.I. had not led to any cases that charged student loan fraud.
Ms. Mitchelson said the information sharing was possible under a law that permits a federal agency to release personal information to another agency “for a civil or criminal law enforcement activity.”
She said the department had spent fewer than 600 hours on the program, including 50 hours over the last four years.
Ms. McGann, the journalism student who reported on the program, said she saw data sharing mentioned, but not described, in a report by the Government Accountability Office that she reviewed in the spring as part of a research project after a seminar on investigative reporting.
“I thought that was pretty unexpected for the Department of Education,” said Ms. McGann, 24, who graduated this year from Medill. “So I decided I would try to look into that a little more.”
She said she found another mention of the program in a report from the inspector general’s office in the department.
In June, Ms. McGann went directly to the Education Department.
“Eventually, I did an on-camera interview with a deputy inspector general there who did comment on the program,” she said.
She said his name was Michael Deshields.
“After that,’’ Ms. McGann added, “I decided I should file a Freedom of Information Act request.”
Last month, she received documents in response to her request that were heavily redacted, she said. Among them were Education Department memorandums describing F.B.I. requests for information on specific people whose names were blocked out and an internal memorandum dated June 16, 10 days after her interview, stating that the data sharing program had terminated. The name of the author of that memorandum was also redacted, she added.
I remain skeptical....
