Friday, January 07, 2005
What are YOU doing Saturday night? If you're in town, you should be at the Club Creatures' debut night at Jacobs! Say hi if you see us!
Also, the kitten situation has gone to Orangish-Red Alert: the landlord is smacking the hammer down, and we're going to have to find homes as soon as possible. So if you don't want the happy, cute family (or parts thereof) pictured below, please please please send me recommendations for shelters. I'm going to try the Scratching Post here in town first, but they're usually full up and can't take any more. Bonus points if they can come and take them; I don't have a cat carrier anymore, and I can't see us wrangling a pissed-off mother cat into the car without one.
Links from others! (Thanks, everyone.)
From Tracy: the good folk at Brick Testament just keep updating. They're getting a lot of mileage from the Star Wars Legos, that's for sure.
From the Graveworm: the Ohio University webcam. It's just like being on College Green, but without the people and the bells and the buggies. (Which is pretty much the entire experience, but hey.)
From Holly: spooky taxidermy. I especially like the Goth Griffin. (NYT article, registration may be required, blah blah blah.)
From Danny: "I just read the daz forums and found they had issued a challenge for people to make their own b-movie posters; plus, they had some links in there for examples. Might be nice to see what comes out." (Registration may be required for this as well.)
Okay, go look at Frazz, and then try to tell me that this is not the work of Bill Watterson. It's Calvin & Hobbes, ten years later. It is! It IS!
I am feeling officially old today after reading the site of a videoblogger who is one third my age and twice as articulate. You go, Dylan.
The Pulse of eBay keeps you in the loop of pop culture and weirdness, if nothing else. For instance, did you know that the most currently watched item is a giant snowball?
Piss off a pro-life person today and pledge pennies for a Planned Parenthood picketer! (Now say that five times, fast). This is brilliant, and nonviolent, too. It's perfect.
Have a great weekend, everyone. See you Monday.
Thursday, January 06, 2005
Did you know that this is Naughty Librarian Month on Book Television? (Have you ever even heard of Book Television? I hadn't.)
LISFeeds is a handy resource for all things library-related, and it's in a constant state of change (in a good way!).
I haven't said much about Google's announcement that it's going to be digitizing huge amounts of print information, mainly because I have a wait-and-see feeling about how it turns out. However, a group of librarians held a Q&A session about the news, and many columnists weighed in on the issue as well. (For the most part, I agree with the columnist I linked to: different information suits different needs, and different methods of getting that information suits different circumstances.)
In other search engine news, it was announced that all Federal websites will have search engines on them by the end of 2005. Having tried some of the search engines out there, I can't really say if this will be useful or not. (Ahem. State of Ohio, your search engine does not work. Well, it works, but your "limiting" capabilities result in limiting everything to zero results.) But hey, points for trying, at least!
If you've ever wondered what happens to an institution's archives when the institution changes names, locations, or levels of existence, the story of the Montreal Expos memorabilia may interest you. (Try to ignore the very scary ad next to the story.)
Around the world: Georgia Tech has a very cool archive of moving images that's worth a look; Seattle's public library is amazing (and I really, really want to visit it, even if the signage leaves a little to be desired); and Brazil has decided not to tax books. I've been inexplicably fascinated with Brazil recently, so I take this as a good omen.
What words do you think were most overused in 2004? Bling-bling? X (as in extreme)? Embedded? See what the consensus was, and start thinking about your nominations for 2005!
Wednesday, January 05, 2005
The kittens right now are very bedraggled, owing to the Biblical amounts of rain we've been getting. This pic shows them in happier, drier times. Aren't they cute? Wouldn't they make good companions? (Yes, Mom, I'm talking to you.)
I am somewhat bedraggled myself this morning, so I will now point you on to other fun places to visit...like the Graveworm's new blog. Yay!
Also, the good folk at OddBooks have updated the site with some truly weird stuff. Mr. Graveworm, I think you will find the Sharon Code to be of particular interest.
Some enterprising artists have, er, discovered a way to sell you authentic holy water! I love this kind of stuff. It's art, religion and culture jamming, all smashed together.
Speaking of holy places, you may have heard of the ossuary (also known as the Bone Chapel) in Prague. There's a similarly fascinating place in Rome. And PBS, which always seems to have great companion websites to their shows, has one on Egypt's Golden Empire.
And finally...phoons! What are phoons, you ask? Well, go and see! I have a few of these and didn't even know it. (We took them back in our UK days, near statues of horses.)
Tuesday, January 04, 2005
Monday, January 03, 2005
Happy Monday and happy 2005, everyone. As a New Year's gift from the gods, we have a small feline family camped out on our deck. Anyone want a fairly friendly mother cat and two cute kittens? Let me know! In the meantime, here's some stuff to read while I get my coffee and wake up a little more. (Incidentally, the Steampunk Librarian has been updated, and there will also be another blog in the near future. It's true!)
Arthur C. Clarke lives in Sri Lanka, and while he is fine in the wake of the tsunami disaster, it's been quite the experience, judging from what he writes.
The Snow Show is set to begin in Finland soon. Snow! Art! Yoko Ono! (Well, she's participated in the past, at least.)
As the new Doctor Who gets ready to debut in England, why not make your own mix of the show's theme? Show up KLF and Gary Glitter!
If you've ever wondered whether people understand their tattoos of Chinese or Japanese characters, you're not alone. Now there's a place where you can find out what that cool tat really means. (Like, say, "my abusive husband pimps me out." Real nice, there.)
Overheard in New York is my new favorite site. I want to start a sister site, Overheard in Cincinnati, and compare the two cities for surreality points!
