Waking up Asfaloth

For those unaware, when I got my laptop, it was white (now it's mostly still white if I shine it up). So, I named him Asfaloth.

Well, Asfaloth likes to get up from sleeping even less than book_maven does...

Had to turn him off to get onto the plane. Tried to get him up when we got to hotel ---

we dealt with... white screen of death... not wanting to start safe mode... starting safe mode and letting us online but not letting us update virus software... attempting to update and not letting us online...etc...

Finally, this morning, after three more failed safe modes, I left him to attempt regular mode while I showered

I came back, he'd loaded IM, cafepress, gmail, and a couple other things, updated himself and was just not so keen about me touching the firewall settings

I'm leaving him on. I'm usually all for energy conservation, but if I don't, and he does what he did last night this will make my life hell for keeping in contact with work. I do not want to have to read all of my emails on the ipaq (which, won't connect to the wifi yet, so, doesn't matter really, Asfaloth is it)

So, now that I'm done computer ranting, Seattle.

I told my boss I might not come back. And actually, it's really nice here. The roads, meh, it's like downtown Milwaukee. The view, excellent. The people, remind me of Milwaukee. The airport, Jake I'll have to take pics for you if I can, cleaner than Milwaukee (and more open, so Milwaukee is still more efficient, but Seattle is the first airport I've gone to and not had the WTF moments (Denver, Atlanta, and Orlando are all in the WTF, yo?! category when it comes to airports)

The hotel we are in has free wifi, complimentary breakfast all week and complimentary dinner Mon-Thur. They have a free shuttle that takes us to six different locations, including the grocery store which we were told is an offshoot of Kroeger, a place everyone keeps telling me 'Woodman's is good, but you have to go to Kroeger', which we don't have in Milwaukee. So... Kroeger place... reminded me of Sendix, with the prices about the same, maybe a little lower on some things. I was warned that prices would be higher here than in Milwaukee; to some extent, things like dairy products and beer and 'essentials' (toilet paper, kleenex) were noticeably higher; other items just slightly. Produce, some was lower. We stocked the fridge up with some stuff, as our suite has a full kitchen with fridge, range, everything. Had sushi and some really good bakery bread after we had dinner, hit the store.

We have a really great view of Seattle, like a 'daily life' view and not a 'tourist' view, which I'm appreciating more and more when we travel. The first time we were in Atlanta, we overlooked Olympic Park. It was great, but, it felt like 'I've seen this is a postcard'. So, there's something to be said about the back view.

The conference center is RIGHT next door, which is awesome. The shuttle goes to the monorail line, and I think we're going to hit the space needle today. I'm a fan of monorails, too, so that'll be fun. And, I think when we come back we'll take a stroll down to the market.

I *almost* feel let down that it's so sunny out -- I'm sure that'll change. Better it be sunny today and rainy when the conference is on and I can't get out.

The air here is a little thin, though, I've noticed, compared to what I'm used to. Perhaps because we live in a high humidity area being so close to the lake? Anyhow... time for touring! It's Mark's birthday today, so we're off to have some fun!

back for a little while -- Pre-ACRL blog

Mark says thank you to the birthday wishers!

We got back from our adventures. Rode the monorail, went to the top of the space needle, ate at the, um, I think it was called the West Lake Center? and then walked from there to the market on Pike Street. It was FABULOUS! It's as close to what I've thought the markets in Gondolin might have been like. And the multi-level part is extra fun.

Picked up cheesecake; may go back to get fish to make here later. Was funny -- there were some even-more-obvious tourists ahead of us, and they got to the first fish monger and stopped to take a picture and he says pretty loud 'whoa... fresh fish... oooooOOOOOoooo' while waving his hands in mock excitement over his head. It was ridiculously funny, and thankfully the other tourists had a good enough sense of humor to laugh -- one even mimicked him which only encouraged him.

It was quite a lot of fun. Found, at the bottom of the whole place, a used bookstore that smelled delightful and was floor to ceiling books, and just lovely since they were all categorized (correctly! oh -- had a moment at the airport when I saw magazines in an area marked 'general interest' that were very specific subjects, but I digress), but some were on the shelves neatly and others were piled up in little groups. There was a Tolkien pile almost right as we walked in -- haphazardly stacked about, though I had all but one version of all of them and held back on those. I did, however, find two books on Alexander the Great, plus a nice illustrated book on the marriage & sex customs of the ancient greeks. Ah, smut pottery. Anyhow... Mark made the comment as we were walking through the market about someday when we retire here we can stop by the market more often, and it was at the same time I was thinking, being born in Milwaukee I feel that really strong connection, but seeing the big cities I have seen (and I do think I'm more an outskirts of a big city person, but big city nonetheless) that if I had to pick without the preconceived notion of which one I was born in, after exactly 24 hours here, I'd go with Seattle with the current knowledge I have. This is, to be honest, the first city where I've thought, 'I could really seriously live here'.

I mean, they haz cheesecake. What else do I really need?

I like rain.

Okay, going to get ready for conference stuff, since it starts in an hour. Bye for now.

Ink - ACRL 2009 blog Part 1

So, I'll be quite memorable to the rep at the Gale booth. I'll be 'that girl whose pen EXPLODED in the middle of the demo'.

And, I'm easily spotted. I have blue ink all over my hands -- mostly my right pointer finger. Oh, and some on my lower right arm. And a dot on my brown, um, I don't know what to call it, some over garment thing, sorry, I'm tired and I've had three drinks thus far today.

Anyhow -- yes, all rum -- I have blue ink on my hands. Oh well. Mark and I ventured through the vendors hall this evening. I skipped the keynote opening speaker, because they changed it last minute. Was supposed to be Naomi Klein, but last minute they got some dude I've never heard of that I decided I didn't want to listen to for two hours. So, we just went to the opening of the vendors thing.

Spoke to people at H W Wilson, Gale, Bullfrog Videos, and Proquest. Attempted to get someone to talk to me from Ebscohost, but they all seemed pretty frickin' impressed with themselves, so screw them. I don't care what they have to sell me, 'cause I'm not buying any.

Reviews on the others...

H W Wilson - Very friendly, good humor, and they knew their product. And, they have what I need.

Gale - Also friendly, and, when my pen exploded, the rep that I was talking to (Liz) was immediately genuinely concerned, didn't just rush to the next person, got rid of evil! pen (it was one of my favorites -- a blue one I had written a number of scenes of Unforgettable with *sniffles*), got me a new pen, and gave directions to where the restroom was so I could attempt to get rid of the ink.

Ink not going anywhere.

Bullfrog Films -- (oops, not videos...) Great rep, and one of the questions I had was something of an embarrassment (we have a pair of trouble instructors who thought it was 'just okay' to make naughty extra copies of videos and allow students to take them home -- big copyright no no!), but, I had to ask about what we can do so they aren't doing illegal stuffs anymore. Found they have a bunch of vids for a collection I'm helping to develop. Yayness.

gah, arm falling asleep on the left side. wtf, yo...

oh, um, there's one more...

Oh, Jeremy at Proquest. Ah, let me back up...

Ebscohost... so, I've got databases I'm looking for, and I wanted to hit Gale, Ebsco, and Proquest besides Wilson. So, I would wander up to the booth, look at the info, and wait for rep to approach. Wilson -- immediate approach. Gale -- immediate approach. Both before I had to really look around. Proquest -- thirty seconds, and I think they were just making sure I was meaning to be at their booth. Ebsco... three minutes of wandering around, into and through their booth area (and by booth, we're talking an area of about thirty by thirty or more), and no one approached. A few people kinda glanced over, basically giving me the 'Is that little girl lost?' look.

This is the trouble with being a library director under the age of thirty. Everyone thinks you're just a student or maybe a newbie reference librarian.

So, Ebsco pretended not to notice me. That's okay. I like Gale DBs better, and I'm really warming up to Proquest (in fact, I'm seriously thinking when I do BIs in the future, I'll use Proquest examples instead of Ebsco ones... 'cause I'm spiteful like that).

But, Proquest -- Proquest was great, and they not only knew their stuff, but they knew other college that are doing exactly the development with our collection that we are, so that was probably one of the best bits of info I got all night. Kudos to them.

After that (and we stayed until the voice overhead announced the hall was closed and it was time to leave) we went to the gaming group gathering.

I.... omg. I guess, for regular librarians, it must have been awesome. For a librarian who helped to organize the Tolkien Track of DragonCon twice? It... *tries so hard to be nice* Okay, it sucked. There, I said it. I could have organized something way better, but, I don't do these sort of events for other people anymore. Suffice to say, we circled the room, I explained some things to Mark ('no, guitar hero is just people pretending to play guitar... yes, that is stupid...'), and we left discussing the possibility of playing D&D in the hotel room instead.

We came back, I made dinner, we watched Hell's Kitchen, I sang Happy Birthday to him, and as soon as I finish this, I'm off to bed and convention fun tomorrow.

Oh, had nice discussion with person at badge correction booth. Had question to ask, could not figure who to ask, saw bored person at badge correction booth, and went to ask them, stating at the onset that they looked bored and I hoped to excite their time at the booth with my question.

Schedule for tomorrow....

Information Literacy (3 sessions), Gaming in library (1 session), Children's programming in Academic Library (1 session, and they're from WI!) So it's an Info-lit sort of day tomorrow!

There's a 'go have dinner with colleagues' thing at night... torn on going or not... will think on it...

Bedtime now! Nighters!