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

So what’s the most exciting thing I’ve found in the past couple of days? I’d have to say this.

Yeah. I know. Not really all that grand right? But it’s made for some fun diversions at work and in chat, so I thought I’d mention it.

Actually, the past couple of days I have mostly spent in bed. I think between Friday and Saturday I was out of bed for about 8 hours total.

Then I went to work on Sunday. It was hellish.

So I really haven’t had a lot of time to cruise the interwebs in order to scrounge up any other tasty morsels. About a week or two ago I did manage to stumble across Programming Librarian. Immediately added it to my diet of feeds and look forward to seeing their booth at PLA (booth #1035) in a couple of weeks.

I’m also rather intrigued by this Anythink business. They’re really pushing out their message along the social channels – but I still don’t quite get it. LISNews ran a story about ‘em back in September. The comments on the story, while brief, are somewhat telling. (They seem a bit angry too, don’t they?) I especially like the “branding” comment. Right now this seems like somebody has taken a library system, changed the philosophy, and really pumped up the marketing. David Lee King did a presentation for them in October, also mentioning the word “brand” in his blurb. I look forward to seeing them at PLA as well, and maybe getting my hands on a kazoo. I kinda feel like I’ll have to watch myself though, or risk indoctrination. I really need to know more to say anything else about it.

More about PLA Portland – I’m once again working on constructing a map to guide me around town.

View PLA 2010 in a larger map

Thankfully, http://www.portlandbeer.org had already mapped out the breweries, and http://foodcartsportland.com the infamous food carts – so that saved me a lot. If any PDX residents want to drop some helpful hints on what else we should hit up while we’re there – the comment box is open.

If there was one thing that drove me batty when I first began my professional career as a librarian…or, err, a paraprofessional in a library setting…it was how my coworkers always complained about not having time to explore new technologies, or, really, anything else that may come between them and their to-do lists. I was a freshie out of school, doe eyed, optimistic.

I have sadly become one of them.

There’s a lot of stress in library world right now. What with property taxes taking a nose dive and the economic downturn as a whole, not only is the general public on edge, but your friendly, normally heavily sedated librarians are feeling the grind as well. At our library we’re looking at a 15% reduction in the budget, on top of the 5% or so drop we took in last year. Where does that leave us? Substitute librarians are a thing of the past for now. Department, committee, and any other meetings that take us away from the desk are being shuffled and cut and spaced out further and further apart. (I can’t say that this is completely a negative thing. There are often better ways to communicate within an organization than through monthly meetings. Still, the encouragement to become involved with your professional organizations or any other outside the box thinking is not as boisterous as when I first arrived on the scene about 5 years ago. Our lot has been cast, and that lot means that) Our eight hour days are now to be spent with additional hours on the desk dealing with increasing amounts of reference transactions.

Yet, even with the increased gate counts and reference transactions – libraries are taking a hit. It’s a cruel twist that in the times we’re used most, we don’t get the support we need. So it goes.

So I am pressed for time, and I’m pressed for sanity. It hasn’t been an easy three years for me. I’ve experienced unspeakable pain and loss, well, unspeakable in that I won’t talk about it to anybody but my therapist. I really had no desire to sit down here and type anything out. But the other night I was lying awake in bed and I was thinking about how good it felt to finally sit down and actually think things through and just write it out. I have a post about group/silent study rooms or the lack thereof to thank for that. I’ve read Nicole’s work on the web as far back as I can remember, but group study rooms and their demand has become such a flashpoint in the past two years that I had to respond. I was a little unfair in picking at her choice of words, but I was trying to convey that there was equal frustration on the other side of the coin in regards to what libraries can and can’t do with the space and resources that we have. I think she understands that, and I’m glad that she takes the time to write up posts that are more often than not worth the time none of us have to read.

So I want to start writing again.

I used to put pen to paper daily. I used to love the ink releasing and actually used to have decent handwriting. I’d go all out for the loopy letters. These days I’ve been reduced to chicken scratch. I would much rather type than pen. I think I just have to accept the new medium, but I can’t accept where it’s put me as regards to my writing. I don’t need to find the time. I need to make the time, getting back to the introductory paragraph. I don’t want to be that person who shuns off something because they feel they’re too busy. I know I can do this. I see other people doing it everyday.

There are really three things that stopped me from writing. One was the aforementioned unspeakable. I went to a dark place, and I think I’m just about ready to emerge from that. I’m not afflicted with clinical depression, thank goodness – but I was definitely not in a good place for the past 3 years. The second was the chilling effect from worrying about what work would think about what I wrote. It was doggone thoughtless to register this site and expect to write about professional matters without fearing the repercussions. I’ve got a backup plan in the works for when I feel like I need to vent, something akin to this, but not. The last reason was that I’ve become fed up with my hosting provider. All I wanted was for the lifestream to update on its own, every 30 minutes or so – but these guys haven’t been able to get it done. So – for the first time since Yezbick.com has existed (2003?) – I’m likely to migrate to a different host once my lease runs up here.

There are other things, of course. Facebook and twitter are worthwhile distractions. But they don’t give me the release I can get from pounding at the keys to usher in an 800+ word update. They distract me from that. I’m fairly convinced that this is my return. That I’ll go ahead and make an hour an evening and have a go at it. I’ve got plenty of material to rehash. For starters there’s my delicious account. I could talk about any one of those sites that I’ve found it worthwhile to store into my own personal database. It was actually my “Read it Later” queue that inspired me to sit down here tonight. I’ve let it grow and I meant to make this post an exploration of the links I haven’t quite gotten to as of yet. Instead I’m on a rant. Perhaps I’ll put that off until tomorrow. I’ve become quite adept at procrastination.

1000 words. I promise it won’t be like this every night. Not even close. More than likely it will be more akin to:

Interesting –

Social Eyes presents librarians with an exploration and discussion of new social tools and current trends. The column will address both practical and innovative uses of social technologies that will improve the quality and efficiency of library services.

Unfortunately I don’t remember where I grabbed this from – as Read It Later – doesn’t give you the spot where you actually noted it from your twitter stream or wherever. So I can’t give credit. SOZ. This isn’t the case with my delicious account. There I often make the effort to at least plug a little bit of what the site is about and try to hook up a via tag. Either way – I think there’s a lot more to be said about the things I come across – if just to make me feel better and more productive.

And here I am – closing out this rant – and it turned into something exactly the opposite of what I expected it to be. Here’s hoping I have the same resolve tomorrow to go over what I didn’t get to today.

Yeah. I’m still not blogging like I used to.

I DID, however, buy a house – which I have been trying to turn into a home — which has created a giant vortex of timesuck.

More later?

Banana Creature, originally uploaded by Kevin Yezbick.

So, I’ve been back from Britain for a while – had what can only be described as an awesome vacation while over there – and now I’m slowly getting back into the rhythm of things. It’s a rhythm that has been somewhat complicated by falling ill over the past week – but thanks to well wishes from my Gramma and a scategory of other people – I’m back in the saddle again.

Being back in the saddle means being back to work – which is what happens when your vacation ends – which is just something I’ll have to deal with. Don’t get me wrong — I’m damn lucky to have a job right now — it’s just…meh.

I also have been waiting patiently for a plugin to finally kick back into gear — the plugin that generates that lifestream that you can see on the right side of this page…It’s called lifestream…and it’s not streaming. I tinkered with the site for a while — took it down, put it up, unplugged, replugged, changed permissions – and now I’m just waiting for something to pop up and say YAY – WE FIXED IT…

But I thought I should go ahead and set something down here. Keep this fresh. Like that banana.

If you haven’t already — the other pictures are up on my flickr page.

Take Luck.

American Style Wrestling, originally uploaded by Kevin Yezbick.

I’m away from the office until the 27th – catching up on American Style Wrestling in Great Britain. Cheers.

The end of 2007. There were some good times and bad times this year. It seems to be ending on a slippery slope of bad times – but to remain optimistic and positive per Julie’s instructions – at least that will give me a healthy list for New Year’s Resolutions.

This morning I shaved my ears.

I then promptly ran into every wall I could find.

Got a note from Suzanne the other day. She actually wanted to know what happened to this site. Well Suzanne – I started taking myself too seriously. I also realized that the only people reading this site were family members — which was seriously cramping my style as far as being honest.

I still can’t be honest.

In fact — all I can do is offer up this pithy post and wish that time would fast forward.

Monsieur will be here this weekend — which is good. I need my friends now more than ever as I stumble along.

Ariel — I’d send you that letter — but the story keeps rewriting itself. Sorry.

Tomorrow is staff day at the library – where I’m lined up for two presentations. I can’t believe what a chilling effect my employment has on my writing here. I need to figure out how to work through that – because I’m doing some good things at the brary and I’m sure somebody out there wants to know. I’ve finished my first screencast – after many a struggle that produced many a learning moment that I will happily share tomorrow with the rest of the staff. It’s interesting that the mistakes are probably the most important teaching points I’ll touch on. I’ll also be talking about the new events and room reservation system the library is trying to usher in that has been shelved for quite some time. I’ll be doing this in an extremely informal manner…hope that’s kosher. I’m pretty sure it’ll be appreciated by the great majority of those in attendance.

Tomorrow is also the arrival of the new Macbook — which ought to help tremendously in terms of comfortable writing spaces. This lappy before me is whirring away right now and can’t seem to handle all the little externals I’m throwing into the mix. Having a modern machine may make tasks a little less tasklike and provide for more memorable moments – untethered by the cords that now surround.

Tomorrow is only two minutes away – so to bed I go.

Today I mowed the lawn. The hills were scary – so I avoided most of them. My face is burning. I have yet to figure out if the burning is due to the sun or the allergens.

The Robins that set-up their nest in the bush right outside our dining room window are now a family. The babies are freaky looking. Maybe I will buy a new digital camera with a really fine zoom lens and take a picture. Maybe.

Get off my back, will ya! I said MAYBE.