What I just read ...

Phantoms in the Brain: Probing the Mysteries of the Human Mind / V.S. Ramachandran and Sandra Blakeslee.

I agree with the foreword, "deeply serious but beautifully readable." What's better than that, for one thing? What strikes me if that we sometimes feel at all complete and like "a person" rather than a host of inputs/outputs (note that I say "sometimes").  I think what fasinates me most (today) is the ghost in the machine, or the "zombie" that records things without me "knowing." I wonder what my zombies will do today?

Through the Wormhole

I watched Morgan Freeman's Through the Wormhole last week and it was very interesting.

http://science.discovery.com/tv/through-the-wormhole/

I recommend it, but I pretty much recommend the Science Channel in general. I do love edu-tainment because it feeds passion for learning. Speaking of passion ... I had a crush on Morgan Freeman when he played Easy Reader on the Electric Company. Maybe that's one reason I'm a librarian today. One never knows what will generate the spark! We're going to light up the darkest night like the brightest day in a whole new way ....

Things We Think We Can't Do

I was just thinking on the way to work this evening about the fact that most things I've said I'd never do or be able to do in my life I have done. Case in point: Nook. I do have a Nook now, and I do read it. It turns out that I read e-pages just as enthusiastically as paper pages. Yes, I still like the smell of a new book, yes, I still like books--yes, I like my Nook. Turns out, there is a big welcoming place in my life for both paper books and electronic books. I think it's possible that we may in future enjoy an illuminated book like we have never known it before.

It's also kind of interesting to me that I made the journey to e-reading before I acquired a Nook--lots of cataloging references have gone electronic; my own specs have gone electronic (I no longer keep pieces of paper at my desk to look up procedures), etc. So I have been used to reading screens for some time now. The Nook is like a nice shady area to rest in compared to the glare of my work life. I wonder if that was necessary for me to take the leap? In any event, I'm glad I did; I'm having fun with my little library (and I think I've sold two or three just walking around with it; I should get a free e-book from B&N!)

15 Books

A good friend of mine sent me this challenge: Fifteen books or book series you've read that will always stick with you, so here goes:

Butternut Bill and the Bee Tree (1st book I remember reading)
Miss Twiggleys Tree
Frederick (about a mouse who wants to think about colors instead of collect food)
Smoky the Cowhorse
King of the Wind
D'Aulaires' book of Norse myths
The Hobbit
Moby Dick
Huckleberry Finn
Kon Tiki
The Alphabet versus the Goddess
The Patrick O'Brien novels
Under the Vulture Tree
Witches & Neighbors
Leaves of Grass

It's interesting--once I began, I thought of all these cool books I read when I was young and I had a hard time "growing up" and thinking of all the cool books I read as an adult. Some resistance there, I think, to "coming back" to adult life :) So the last books were squeezed out of my brain with some effort. I want to read Frederick again, and Miss Twiggley's Tree ...

Disturbed--The Band and the State of Mind

Just feeling a little out of it; worked too hard. Maybe I'll learn the lesson this time, but I didn't learn it last time. There is still hope, though. There's always a glass half full ... (Oh, yeah, I like to listen to the band; they do a lot of my primal screaming).

KLA is always a learning experience; this time it was just a little too exhausting. I did buy a Nook and I'm reading novels again, which is a good thing. I hope to even out my energy enough to take some kind of vacation this summer.

I really enjoyed 23 Things Kansas before I dropped out to become a brain case. Hopefully, I'll get back in there in the next weeks and catch up. Information crush! Informacrush! This is my brain on information and it looks like a fried egg.

Week Six: 23 Things Kansas

So the theme of this week is "rethink." I kind of tried delicious before and really didn't like it much. I watched the tutorials for diigo and decided to try that, but first I tried something different on delicious just to make sure I knew how to use it (shared a link with someone). Now I'm building lists on diigo and, so far, I think I favor it. I might actually get somewhere with this one. I like the toolbar. At first I had trouble, not making, but adding to the lists, but now it's working.

Week Two--23 things Kansas ha ha (There is no time in The Web!)

Just realized I didn't blog the 2nd week--just goofed around on Facebook. I'm on Facebook because my son's on facebook and I'm attracted to genius. Truly if there's a place 2 b, he will b there. However, when I have a blog, and a facebook, and a twitter and this e-mail account and that e-mail account, I do start to feel a little split personality. It's interesting that the very first thing to slide was my personal e-mail account, which I rarely check anymore. I think Facebook will last for me as long as I can connect to those important folks for updates. It's easier to find my son on Facebook than it is to phone him (we're too busy). It seems like just when I get absolutely disgusted with the tons of information, I find Michio Kaku on Facebook, or a new blog or Web page that's so much fun. What a rollercoaster is this membrane we eletronically inhabit.

Speaking of Kansas (and who isn't?), if you haven't yet, check out http://www.flyoverpeople.net/  cool pics to grace your space

Coolest blog so far

This is the coolest blog I found so far while goofing around filling up my rss feed page: http://infocult.typepad.com/   Looking forward to finding other cool stuff ...

23 Things Kansas--RSS Feeds

This was definitely easier than I imagined. I used My Yahoo since I'm tired of creating new usernames and password and I already had a yahoo account for Flickr. Now I just need to find cool blogs to subscribe to and find the time to customize my reader page.  Making progress, albeit slowly!

23 Things Kansas--sharing photos

 It's a little chaotic with the photosharing--there's so much out there. Here is my "Photostream": http://www.flickr.com/photos/ems_flash/  Just have the pups up right now. Trying to get the hang of searching. There are so many "cute dogs" that I can't find them right now. I guess on to RSS now ...

How are the X-games like a library?

Some of my colleagues have already heard me talking about this week's X-games (check it out at: ESPN). If so, or if you're reading this and you know me at all, you also now know that I'm a big fat liar, as I've often said that I'm not into sports at all. X-games isn't so much like watching sports, though; it's more like watching magicians. So here's how X-games is like working in the library:

Radical performance measures (did you see that cool spike measuring the big air?)

Performance measures work together: it's not just how high or how many but how you're stylin' If you do three massive tricks but ultimately fall on your face, you still have to get up and go again to reach the podium.

Friendly competition and camaraderie.

The successful are magicians, but even to participate you must have the courage to risk a fall.

23 Things Kansas--Online meetings

For week three in the program, we're doing online meetings. I admit that online meetings have been part of my job for many years, since I formerly managed a satellite office for OCLC. So, I'm now beginning to look at the online meeting more from the point of view of a presenter (although I've not yet been a presenter at an online meeting). It may be useful later for our consortium.When exploring some of the online meetings available on the lists, I found one that doesn't seem to work anymore (which will be a good thing for me to avoid as a possible presenter). 

Because of 23 Things Kansas, I discovered both WebJunction Online Conference in Feb. and The Kansas Creativity Group (which was in Sept.). I knew about WebJunction, I had an account, but I guess I needed the structure of 23 Things Kansas to get me going. I knew this would be a good idea!

Information tsunami

In library school, and before for that matter, we talked about "information overload." One of the primary reasons I believe that I am a librarian is that I don't have to "pick a topic." Honestly. It's one of the reasons I followed art, and one of the reasons I studied poetry. And one of the reasons I stayed in study hall in sixth grade when other kids were playing baseball. I figured that any information I encountered would be fodder for my development. All topics, all the time (although I guess baseball was down on the list). When I hesitated to dive into the deep end of the swimming pool, I never hestitated to dive into the information tsunami without a surfboard.

But here's the deal; my path is motivated by my passion about a particular topic, and I don't put a lot of limits on that topic (limit passion?). Where's the reason? Reason is by definition dispassionate. But I consider myself a very reasonable person.

In the information tsunami, how do you balance passion and reason? How do you find your path? Is it linear? What shape is your path? Is your career guided or pushed by the information tsunami? Are you a surfer or a swimmer (or a diver)?

Week One: Blogging

What does "Week one: Blogging" mean? I am participating in "23 things Kansas" to get myself kickstarted in social networking etc. http://www.23thingskansas.org Although I started my blog last semester, there hasn't been a whole lot of networking here yet :) and I'm still really getting my feet wet. Although I have a beginning knowledge of some of the tools we'll be using in 23thingskansas, I'm really clueless about some of them. Blogging seems to me second nature in some ways and radical in others. The most radical is the activation of the internal censor in a journaling venue. I'm used to off or on--full throttle, uncensored journaling or none at all. Just have to find that middle voice ...

eM's Web--What is it?

So, here we are in 2010. I promise to write my blog; I promise to write my blog; I promise to write my blog (I'm pretending this is a chalkboard). I'd say now "All kidding aside ..." but, although this will be mostly a professional blog, I can't say all kidding will be set aside. They say that a blog should have a theme to be successful. However, I tend to get claustrophobic with too narrow a view, so the theme is very broad--the "information planet," or the "information universe" or "information and society." "eM's Web" is my brain on the information universe. I'd be happy to have you visit sometime. And, yes, as you can probably tell, I am kind of new to The Blog. Here's a little list of topics that might show up here:

Cataloging--specifically: metrics in cataloging and measuring outcomes of technical services; psychology of detail-oriented jobs; how best to teach cataloging in a way that reveals how much fun it is and keeps it fun.

Graphical information transfer; the information transfer cycle (which I love); aesthetics; communication theory; anything about art or science or nature and information transfer in art or science or nature; measuring student outcomes in the university; mind mapping; interesting new teaching methods; cognitive theory.

I first studied art, then literature, then information science, so you might see where a lot of this comes from. And, I think I'll keep blogging on these books, as what I'm reading always get smushed into this big Web in my head, sometimes creating semi-truth and mythology, and sometimes, well maybe most things are semi-truth and mythology after all, depending on your point of view. See? The Web is tricksy and water flows right through :)