Yahoo! Blog News Story

It’s a strange, new little thing, the blogosphere. Michael Gorman, the president of the American Library Association, made some general and negative comments about blogs and “the blog people”. He pissed a lot of people off, to the point that some librarians have revoked their membership to the ALA for as long as he is president. Blogs can be a good way to share professional information, especially for a group as concerned with information sharing as libraries are. However, whenever I write on my blog I always keep in mind that it could be read by anyone. ANYONE. And I assume the worst, that if I write something that a certain person shouldn’t read, then I shouldn’t write it, because they probably will. If people don’t follow those guidelines, then to some extent I believe they deserve what they get. Though as far as legality goes, I don’t know how strong the cases of those companies can be, at least without a written policy in effect.

Some people I know think blogs, and bloggers, are crazy. I think as a technology, it’s interesting, and that it will change (and already is changing) the way the internet works and the way information is transferred. It’s not always to the good, i.e. who the hell cares about the angsty problems of every 14-year-old in the world, but it’s not going anywhere, so we might as well get used to it.

In an effort to mix things up a bit in my life, I recently applied for a job at the Tacoma Public Library. For those not familiar with Washington geography, Tacoma is about 30 miles north of Olympia on the I-5. It’s a city known for smelling bad, but it’s also got some damned cool stuff going on, a much better darts scene than Olympia, and is half the distance to Seattle. So hey, why not!? I interviewed for the position yesterday, after taking an hour-and-a-half written test the week before, and I have to say that I think it went very well. The commute can be pretty bad between Oly and Tacoma, as far as traffic goes (perhaps even as bad as this), which is why I’m thinking of moving up there when my lease runs out the end of July. Whether or not I get the job. There are certainly more jobs available up there, so even if I don’t get this job, it seems reasonable to assume I’d be able to find something in a relatively short period of time. Right? Right.

While I was waiting to interview (I got to the library a good 40 minutes early), I walked around a bit. The main branch of the library has an art gallery, called the Handforth Gallery. The current exhibition is by a group called Beautiful Angle. I liked one in particular.

Random bits:

Daniel Craig is going to be the next Bond. After seeing Layer Cake, I think he’ll do a superb job (though he needs to darken his hair). Check it out, and let me know what you think.

Existentialism is, for me, a simple guideline on how to live. “Be.” Or perhaps rather, “You are, so you’d better be enjoying it.” I appreciate it as a philosophy in which people have to take responsibility for themselves, something which seems to be less and less prevalent in our (American) society. I’m curious what other philosophically-minded folks think about society’s views on responsibility, and what role existentialism could play in the modern world. Granted, as a philosophy, it’s a bigger word than most people would like to deal with. Much longer a word than, say, “God”.

Steamboy is playing downtown at the Capitol Theater. I wanna go watch it.

In parting, remember: the monkey represents sharing.