Yezbick.com: If It's Weird, Flip It Over and Check, It Might Be a Yezbick

Ladies and gentlemen – after you have removed the cellophane from your toilets, been doused with dixie cups atop doors or whatever other April Fool’s day shenanigans you’ve had to contend with – be sure to check out Bunny's Bum

It’s part of the bums and gin calendar for 2009 that you may not have been aware of – but that can be yours by clicking on the link at the top of your screen.

Anne at Annearchy has tagged me, so here goes…

1. The rules of the game get posted at the beginning.
2. Each player answers the questions about themselves.
3. At the end of the post, the player then tags five people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know they’ve been tagged and asking them to read the player’s blog.
4. Let the person who tagged you know when you’ve posted your answer.

What were you doing five years ago?
I was getting ready to make my move from Atlanta, Georgia to Michigan to begin my studies at the Library and Information Science Program at Wayne State University

What are five things on your to-do list for today (not in any particular order)?
1. Work
2. Get Five Things out of the way
3. Read Sweethearts
4. Begin my Library Arsenal series
5. Put gas in the car.

What are five snacks you enjoy?
1. Nachos
2. Doritos
3. Chips
4. Pistachios
5. Quesadilla

What five things would you do if you were a billionaire?
1. Retire
2. Buy a house
3. Disappear
4. Buy a baseball team
5. Hide it

What are five of your bad habits?
1. Chewing fingernails
2. Falling for the wrong gal
3. Drubken emails
4. Doing anything but reading
5. Something else that I won’t say cause it’s a family blog

What are five places where you have lived?
1. Dover, New Hampshire
2. Canton, Michigan
3. Snellville, Atlanta, Tucker Georgia
4. Monterrey, Mexico
5. Farmington Hills, Michigan

What are five jobs you’ve had?
1. Deli-boy
2. Paper boy
3. Paraprofessional at Farmington Community Library
4. Librarian at Farmington Community Library
5. Web editor – freelance

I now tag:
I don’t have any Internet buddies that would do this – except maybe oomny, but she’s probably already done it.


Afternoon Walk from kevinyezbick on Vimeo.

I’ve been playing around with iMovie a lot recently. It’s fun. The walk is from this summer, on our way to dinner before a bunch of us went to see the awesomeness that is Avenue Q in East Lansing. The music is from The Desert Sessions Vol 9 & 10: I’m Here for Your Daughter.


Pull my String from kevinyezbick on Vimeo.

From Anne’s party earlier this year.

Sadly, this went on for three more hours.

(You may notice I’ve changed the default theme — to the Agregado theme. I hope to make it my own soon.)

Fashionistas, originally uploaded by Kevin Yezbick.

Last night I headed to the East Side of Detroit and the Atwater Brewery to pitch in on a fundraiser for the residents of the Forest Arms Apartments. A few weeks back the apartments were gutted by fire leaving hundreds homeless, many of them students of my alma mater.

I met up with Carlie and Eva, had a few drinks and a really good time. I heard about the event via motorcityblog, saw Carlie online and threw it out there for something to do. An hour later we were all gangbusters at the bar and getting reacquainted after not seeing each other for many months.

There were DJs and Bands and a Fashion show – which was rather interesting and can be seen above.

It was good to get out of the house. Tonight it’s Ferndale and the New Way.

I miss you too. I keep feeling that at any moment I’m gonna get back in the groove and have something to say. Bear with me. Things are very strange.

Much love,
k

The googlebooks script I ran for the Farmington Community Library was turning out to be pretty pointless in that the FCL collection is miniscule in comparison with the amount of books available through Googlebooks. In comparison with the Wayne State University Libraries collection, there was an obvious solution to the pointlessness. The FCL script is still here: FCLgooglebooks — but I’ve disbled it in my own browser in favor of the newbie I’m working on…

When I told my friend and LIS classmate about my copycat efforts to link up the catalog of my library to both Amazon and Googlebooks — she was, like most people in the world, less than enthusiastic. She has become wary of Google’s movements of late – and has trouble even muttering their name…She did manage to ask if I could apply the scripts to the Wayne State University Libraries — and I’m glad to say that I can and have. So – these are for her.

WSU Google Books Script
WSU Amazon Lookup Script

What I really like, and what I really was having the most trouble with today concerning these scripts — is that they will now retrieve results for E-books as well. The screenshot I’ve posted shows what happens when the scope of the search returns both a physical book and a book that is available as an E-book in pdf format. If I limited that scope to just books — the E-book wouldn’t appear in a googlebooks search or amazon lookup. For a while I thought I’d be stuck just searching for books — but figured out how to hook in the [electronic resource] string in the script and clapped my hands and said yeah.

WSU’s catalog shows an "ebrary" of 2000 items thus far — but there are probably more out there. If you don’t care for the ebrary materials – as you don’t have access to them not being a student or whatnot — you can just change the part in the script that reads "var libraryUrlPatternTrailer = ‘&searchscope=1′;" to:
"var libraryUrlPatternTrailer = ‘&searchscope=2′;" and that will set your search scope to only browse the books…

I haven’t come across a book on hold yet — I’m digging through the catalog looking — but that aspect isn’t yet included in the script. If you find one — shoot me an email: kevin[at]yezbick.com – or leave a comment so’s I can plug it in – and shoot this script into a more public space.

Again — all credit is given in the script to Mr. Ed "Superpatron" Vielmetti, Jon Udell, Carrick Mundell, and Gordon Mohr — without all of whom I wouldn’tve been able to fill in this template.

Update: I’m now going to have to figure out how to adapt this script in light of This Script — which cycles through different collections and winds up in worldcat…I was wondering how to do this…Unfortunately it doesn’t check for the actual status…

That was one odd evening…

To reach into that nook and attempt to pry it open. To take my fingernail, scratch at that crack on the wall, chipping away until the flesh is worn and the red drops rain – peeling back until I can sink my fist in. Leaning back with my hand hooked on the interior, pushing with my feet against the base until the wall is loosed and I fall backwards suddenly – staring at my feet with the blurred ceiling beyond.

I just want to get to them. I haven’t forgotten – but I feel forgotten.

So as I continue to rip away at the structures that I suspect impede the conduit – perhaps my clawing becomes emblematic of desperation. It may be that my efforts, brimmed with good intentions, are misunderstood as maniacal acts. But I suspect it is worth the chance.

I hope that when I finish with this wall – when it’s shards are stacked about and behind me and I can stare out at whatever is behind it — that I’ll have gathered the residents beyond who wish to share my journey. Strength in numbers – perhaps – but in the past few months I’ve learned that I do, in fact, have the gumption (in this case, a better word than will) to go it alone.

There will always be more walls. But as walls are constructed – they can be deconstructed. I’d rather take the planks of their composition – and lay them flat across the chasms – and build bridges.

I don’t want to surrender those I’ve held in my heart. It just hurts sometimes to feel that I’m the only one willling to keep these links alive. Still – while it isn’t the best of options – I’m starting to love reaching into the darkness beyond the walls. Lately – there seems to be more light pouring in from the outside…and I’m beginning to think I’d had it all backwards. Maybe I’m not trying to get to them – Maybe I’m just trying to get out…

Strange events raised me from my slumbers the past two days.

This morning, upon seeing the remains of a gutted kitchen laid out to the side of the road — smashed cupboards, splintered cabinets, etc. — for pick up by the garbage crew — said environmental technicians chose to notify my neighbor of their displeasure with several blasts of their horn.

Apparently failing to rouse him, or failing to realize he was not in — the crew returned twice more with further annunciations on their horn…

The pile still sits…twenty yards deep, six feet high, as I type…

Previously -

Another neighbor is having her backporch redone…Pressure washing and painted over…There are probably only two or three workers on the job for this one.
I mention this incident for its peculiarity.

These workers woke me with their choral attempts at “I Don’t Want to Wait” — the Dawson’s Creek theme song…
Not quite the song you would expect from home repair experts – but hey…It was much more pleasant – (perhaps more for its bizarre nature than actual skilled rendition) – than waking to the garbage crew percussion section.

Also – the Dawson’s Creek theme song may be nearer to my heart now – since a few friends and I have been role playing the gang in emails ever since the whole Cruise/Holmes saga began…The thread of the email has gone multimedia — with pictures interjected with imagined scenarios…

How they manage to free their time — I don’t know…