Lasers and Cake

Posted on September 29, 2011 by kevinyezbick

Well, not lasers exactly.

This morning I was able to recall my dream. It probably helped that I woke up to my own laughter. I apologize in advance for doing a dream post, I am compelled…

I was sitting at the smaller of the two reference desks – the one normally reserved for handling the majority of phone calls – when a youngish hipsterish type couple with child in tow approached and began speaking to me in low voices. I couldn’t hear a word, and said as much, to which the lady of the duo said – it‘s so quiet in here… – which, in point of fact, it was definitely not.

While they continued to soft talk, a line started to queue behind them. The low rumble of multiple bodies in proximity began to grow. I continued in vain to try to understand exactly what the soft talkers were after – beginning to lose my patience. Some of those in the queue took rest in the seats provided on the other side of the reference desk.

“look – I can’t help you if I can’t hear you – you’re going to have to speak up.”

Then – looking over with concern to find their child who had wandered off some distance – I noticed that another member of the queue had taken the liberty of resting in my chair, which I had vacated so that I could lean in to try, oh how I tried, to pick up any syllable of these mumblers. And she was eating cake! They were ALL eating cake! (It was pink cake, for the record)

For some reason this struck a nerve.

“Excuse me, if you could wait on the other side of the desk, and really – there isn’t supposed to be any food by the computers…”

At this point, shit got real. The growing noise of the gathering masses was beginning to tweak my senses. It was then that I realized that in addition to the shuffling, breathing, mumbling, childing, waiting in the queue conversating – a familiar crescendo of music was rising. All of a sudden, the track lighting began to dim and brighten – like it was some laser show spectacular – over the reference desk – in time to the music – which was similar to Pink Floyd’s “One of these Days” – but different.

I looked over my shoulder to see my brother, Willishrinx, seated before a lightboard – with his familiar maniacal grin face – rapidly manipulating the dimmers in time with the music. This brought on a slight sense of panic – and I quickly looked towards the main desk as if to say “I don’t know what’s happening – I’m SORRRRRRRRY” – before looking back at his shit eating grin and just breaking out in laughter.

That’s when i woke up.

Should be an interesting day.

Liquid Dance Courage

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A passive aggressive fb reply

Posted on June 27, 2011 by kevinyezbick

Personally, I think this has been a wonderful philosophical exchange in the style of Plato’s Dialogues. I’m glad that we could all make it here today and I’d like to thank everyone for their participation, and for the most part, keeping things civil. Frankly I’m surprised we didn’t arrive at Godwin’s Law – given how sensitive we are to all the issues put forward in our discussion. What we have achieved, I believe, is a conversation stripped of esoteric language and laid out in a way such that we, librarians and laypersons alike, can understand the implications of what seems to be a continuous conflict between the demand for services and the value we are willing to place on those services. Sadly, we are finding ourselves forced to do more with less, and admirably, many of us are. What we have here is a collision between the old way of thinking and the new reality. Certainly, one of the primary goals of the field is to provide excellent service to our patrons. Many of us, I presume, believe that this can be achieved even while we are reading our Journals while stationed on the reference desk. While I agree with the well documented research on reference anxiety, and I would even venture to agree with the belief that people are less likely to approach someone who appears “busy” (though decidedly less so after having logged many a reference desk shift hour), I do not believe that banning the reading of professional literature while at the public service desks is the ideal solution. This is simply one of the lasting pillars of an ideology that still stands, guarded from the elements likely because its supporters have themselves not had to face the weathering tides, the daily push and pull, for quite some time. We are sadly underestimated if there exists this idea that as professionals, we are unable to multitask and still provide exceptional customer service. Some of us have unconsciously grown up in the era of multitasking and didn’t even need a name for it until those same persons assigned one to our mode of living. Many of us pride ourselves on the service we provide and cringe when we see a colleague unwilling to lower their shoulders against the winds of change and continue the righteous march. I will not place the blame solely on the old guard however. I think there exists an equally devastating detriment to progress in our field, albeit one less obvious though more widespread. It gives rise to the lofty languages that cloud our communications and can create an unintended backlash that will stifle creativity. This second deadly obfuscation is takingourselvestooseriouslyitis. It is a killer of fun, a breeder of rules, decrees and policy, an enabler of hierarchy and a real downer on facebook. In conclusion: tl;dr – also – what the hell is a yiss?

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Comebacks aren’t easy

Posted on May 11, 2011 by kevinyezbick

Moon over my Hammie


This is what happens when you come out of retirement at the age of 34 and try to play softball like you’re still in High School.

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Considering…

Posted on April 5, 2011 by kevinyezbick

…responding to the convenience store guys’ queries as to whether this is a
“…good beer? Do you like it?”

with

“It’s convenient.”

But it is a good beer.

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On the FlipSide of DaBiz

Posted on January 25, 2011 by kevinyezbick

So after that last, in my opinion, rather optimistic and cheery post — things kinda piled up on me real quick. That’s the nature of dabiz though. Pick yourself up and keep moving. Some other things on the not so bright side of life that have been breaking down:

External Hard Drive

Back in December my external hard drive ceased to be recognized by my tower. I’ve had it for quite some time and use it mainly to store my music files and my iTunes library. When it went, panic set in, and eventually I had to accept that I was going to need some outside assistance to get it back up and running.

Thanks to twitter I know somebody in the business and put my trust in him to set things right. After picking up some chazzano coffee I dropped off the external hard drive, watched him run a quick ear test for the dreaded click of the dying drive, and then left it in his hands. A couple days later he let me know that the data was fine – it was just the enclosure that needed to be replaced.

This led me to go all in and agree that establishing a backup system would probably be the bees knees. I’ve got too much music on that drive to let it all go to waste. So we’re in the final stages of that now. He’s ordered a secondary drive for the tower and a new enclosure for the hard drive and all of that should wind up, at long last, before this weekend with some backup software installed.

No word on the cost yet. It likely won’t be cheap. But data recovery never is.

Furnace

I can’t say that I’ve been too concerned with the data mess. The holidays came and went and I got to spend a lot of quality time with my family. As I continue to grow into my old man years – my love for my family grows exponentially. It was incredible to hang out with seestore, willishrinx, the nephews and my in-laws, including my new seestore-in-law.

A couple of highlights include their first dining experience at Slows BBQ, sledding on the hill of doom with the nephews, a visit to the DIA to see the Fakes and Forgeries exhibit, taking in True Grit, Bloody Marys on Christmas morning and a heckuva lot more.

Shortly thereafter, the parents left for their new snowbird home in Florida. I woke one morning to a rather brisk bedroom – and as I descended downstairs, to an even brisker family room. Something wasn’t right. I still wasn’t awake, but if you ever need a jolt stronger than coffee to knock your senses around – try staring into a thermostat that’s supposed to read 60 and get 46 in return.

The furnace wasn’t keepin on like it’s supposed to keep on. It’d rumble for about 45 seconds and then cut back out. I ran through the troubleshooting in the manual, but nothing seemed to be taking. I’d have to put in a call for maintenance.

Now get this. The guy they sent out was actually named Sammy Lovin. Not McLovin, just Lovin. It took the keen eyes of a good friend to point this out to me when she happened upon the receipt – but I’m glad she did. What a name!

Sammy rigged it so the fan would stay on until they could order a new control board – which meant I had heat over the weekend – but that my electricity bill is probably going to take a hit. That Monday he came back with the new control board – and after $395 – I have a heated house again. Oof.

Heated Car

So the house is heated and all is starting to be right with the world again when what should happen but another heat related catastrophe. Whilst out with said good friend, after a delicious encounter with dessert and drinks at Cork Wine Pub, the fan in my 2000 Ford Focus went schizo. When I moved the switch from 3 to 2 – it cut out, and then full on blasted – and then cut out again, for good.

I just finished piecing that back together. It started with a $25 resistor, as I’d replaced that part before and it was my prime suspect. No such luck. Had to pull the blower motor. Took that up to O’Reillys auto parts, where they were having some problems getting some juice into the motor to test it. They kept running the wires to it and to other things and were having no luck. They were at wit’s end and even at the point of giving up, suggesting that perhaps it was the $81 motor. But one guy kept at it, improvising with some motorcycle jumpers – which created a delightful shower of sparks – but also spun that motor to no end. It wasn’t the motor.

That left the switch. That simple thing on the console that goes from 1 to 2 to 3 to 4. I had to special order it but it was delivered this morning. Picked it up and about two hours later I had heat coarsing through the car. Awesome. $26

Headed to work and realized the turn signals weren’t working. Not a good thing for the anxious. I just finished one of my worst shifts ever in the public librarian realm — came home — popped out the stereo and saw that I had forgotten to hook up one of the wires. That’s done.

Wire DVD

Speaking of wires… After much urging I decided that I’d take up another friend’s repeated suggestions that I watch The Wire. Apparently people that watch The Wire must make other people watch The Wire. She has the complete season – and had lent out Season One to the friend that had introduced us.

Tiny Apartment #103: “The Wire” from Tiny Apartment on Vimeo.

(video via said friend)
I’ve misplaced disc two of season one of The Wire you guys. IT’S NOT LOST. It’s just misplaced. If, for some reason, it doesn’t reveal itself soon — I’ll likely be purchasing Season One of The Wire. $30.49. Or losing a friend. She really wants to not be my friend right now because of this.

So that’s another 1000 word update. Sorry it’s not quite so uplifting as the last.

(Update) Found it. Hiding under the keyboard.

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Da Biz

Posted on January 19, 2011 by kevinyezbick

An examination of what’s occupying my time these days.

Work

The office these days

Oh work. You little time occupier you. I see so many opportunities for you to grow and improve yet you keep insisting that I change to be more like you. Don’t you know that’s not how you love, work? Don’t you know that that isn’t change at all, but rather a recipe for stagnation and slow death? Look, I know we’ve had some rough times, work, but obviously we’re going to have to see this thing through for a while. Why don’t we both try to come to a better understanding? I understand that you like things done a certain way. I’m frustrated that your way of getting things done moves along at a snails pace, and that it requires having at least one committee, more often two – climb aboard that snail and make the travel that much more infuriating. I get that, work. I don’t know if I’ll ever dig it though. I’m beginning to suspect this is done intentionally to allow a meticulous purging of topical ignorance. If that’s the case, work, why not just say so? I don’t mind talking one on one. I like communicating with people. But when you put me at a table with a bunch of other people, each trying to convey something different from the other, that’s when I tend to bury myself.

Oh, it’s not all bad, work. I like the shopping bit. I like finding new and useful resources. I don’t even really think of that as work. I think of it as social networking and sharing and only realize it’s work when I incorporate it into a reference question. And the reference questions – sometimes you really do bring up some interesting and challenging queries. I do seem to learn something new everyday. Perhaps I should keep track of that as a way to stay positive…

And then there are the things that I made an effort to incorporate into work that were put on the backburner for so long until they could be properly supervised that I have lost any ambition to pursue. I like the spontaneity of social networking and the conversations they create. If every little blurb I put out there under the library’s name is scrutinized by somebody else – it just saps the energy – it’s a chilling effect.

work work work, no time to fix glasses

Ugh you guys, enough about WORK.

Ferndale Library
I’ve been spending my time off from the library working with…another library. I volunteered to be the President of the Friends of the Ferndale Library last year and have been making an effort to help out however I can with the newly renovated library in my neighborhood. It’s been a rough year. The library had it’s grand opening last summer, but unfortunately a loose pipe over the Thanksgiving holiday flooded the library, knocking it out of commission until sometime in February. More recently I’ve learned that the Director submitted his resignation and a search committee is being rounded up to find a replacement. It’s a lot to deal with in your first year as a Friends organization. I’m still hoping we can put together a number of successful projects we’ve been discussing throughout the year.

Yoga
I started hitting up this yoga joint last year but slacked off over the holidays and can’t seem to get up the nerve to go back. I need to, as is evidenced by the above stress points and the growing feeling that I am morphing further into a fat, lazy slob.

I get exercise anxiety. I get too nervous that there are eyes on me or that my form is completely off and these are things that yoga is supposed to ease you out of, and it did for a while – but then the studio went ahead and put themselves on groupon and what was a smaller, less intimidating class became a crowded room that I couldn’t deal with. Also, the holidays. Also, I missed somebody farting in class recently, which would’ve been hilarious. Also, ugh.

Food and Drank
Again, relating to the above – I’ve become more attentive to food and drink in the past year. On occasion I will find the time to experiment with a new recipe, often with a good measure of success. I’d like to find more time to cook and create – including getting back into the groove of homebrewing. Somebody suggested incorporating scheduling into my Sunday evenings. I think I’m ready to take that plunge.

I’ve also started subscribing to a greater number of food related sites. In addition to subscribing to search alerts for “Quick and Easy Cooking” through my library’s Gale PowerSearch database, I’ve managed to attain “participant” status in the forums of Gourmet Underground Detroit. There are a lot of good people lurking there that have opinions and tips, some of them expert, on the food scene in the Metro area. A number of them are on twitter, easily found through #GUDetroit.

Greenmarket Produce Scans
Grand Army Plaza Greenmarket Produce Scan of the Week

www.Scanwiches.com:

Also of late, in addition to staring at pictures of scanned food, I’ve been wanting to begin making bento boxes.

Social Customs
Things are the best they’ve been on the social scene in quite some time. I’ve made some really great friends since I’ve been back up here in Michigan and seem to meet someone interesting and intriguing every few weeks.

I occasionally hear from the Georgia peeps. There were rumors of a visit last summer that never seemed to materialize. I’ve kind of made a promise to myself to not head down there until one of those rascals becomes a houseguest up here.

I also don’t hear from the Westside Librarians as much. Hopefully they are still my frenz, cuz I like having them as frenz, especially when they are frenz with you even though you fell off the deep end.

WELP. That’s it. A 1,000 word update on life at the moment. Hopefully I’ll make this part of the Sunday scheduling.

Posted in Event, Food and Drink, friends, On the Mind, workschmirk | 3 Comments

Ahem

Posted on November 24, 2010 by kevinyezbick

Oh boy Thanksgiving you guyyyys. Here we go.

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R.I.P. Jack Horkheimer

Posted on August 21, 2010 by kevinyezbick

Stargazer extraordinaire Jack Horkheimer is dead at 72.

This dude made stargazing cool for me.
Keep looking up Jack.

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A nibble

Posted on July 31, 2010 by kevinyezbick

Sooooo I made a guest post on my friend Amber’s blog. We split a CSA — community supported agriculture — and, well, you can read the rest over there.

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Summer Beer Festival, Ypsilanti, MI

Posted on July 26, 2010 by kevinyezbick

On Saturday Seestore was kind enough to drive me and a couple of friends out to Ypsilanti so we could attend the Michigan Brewer’s Guild Summer Beer Fest. There were over 300 beers to be sampled, and the rain made way for the sun as soon as we arrived.

Following the Beerfest we marauded over to Brian and Debbie’s for a graciously hosted cookout.

Then I closed my evening out on a roof in Hamtramck with Seestore and Nicole. We saw a Wendy’s scraping monster and fireworks with a nice breeze.

Anyways, I made a quick video.

Beerfest 2010, Ypsilanti MI from kevinyezbick on Vimeo.

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