goblin cartoons

Folks have been showing a liking for the phrase “charitable reading” and citing me for the phrase. Which tickles me to no end. Except I didn’t invent the phrase or the concept (not that anyone has actually accused me of being so clever) and I feel that for honesty’s sake, I should point to where I got it from.

I got it from the Forge.

I used to spend a lot of time on the Forge, but these days I mostly just skim a small amount of the threads there. I’m still friends with the daredevils who run the Forge, Ron Edwards and Clinton Nixon. They’ve made a serious and strong effort to keep the level of discussion on the Forge above most internet free-for-alls and flamefests. They’ve enforced a fairly high level of civility and decorum, as well as calling out intellectual dishonesty and petty social dysfunction when they see it. In my experience with internet forums and discussions, the Forge stands out for me as something better, something to aim for.

One member on the Forge wrote a post about “charitable reading,” and the moderators liked it so much, they made it required reading for participating in discussions there. It has since become an important concept in the blogs and web forums that have splintered off from the Forge. I think it’s important when dealing with any kind of written communication, particularly with the high-speed exchange of voices on the internet. So, here is where I got the phrase and concept from: “On Charitable Reading.”

Biblioblogospheroids have been linking to this autism spectrum quiz and revealing their scores. Not to be too “me-too“-ish (hardy har har), but I went ahead and took the quiz.

I scored an 8.

So…I’ve got that going for me.

I generally save internet quizzes for my Livejournal, but I find these two together to be both amusing and insightful regarding my role in the library:

Your results:
You are Spider-Man

Spider-Man 80% Robin 70% Superman 70% Iron Man 65% The Flash 65% Hulk 65% Green Lantern 50% Supergirl 45% Catwoman 45% Batman 45% Wonder Woman 35%

You are intelligent, witty, a bit geeky and have great power and responsibility.

Click here to take the Superhero Personality Quiz

As a small flurry of snow leaves a light dusting outside and we gear up for a quiet night at home waiting for 2007 to come sneaking in, I’m reflecting on the past year and what it’s meant for me, librarian-wise.

This year, I went to my first Legislative Day, when Kansas librarians meet with Kansas politicians and try to get things done to the advantage of libraries and library users. This year, I didn’t just attend NEKLS Tech Day, I co-presented, my first time presenting at a conference. I participated in a panel discussion at another local conference, NEST. And I attended my first out-of-state professional conference, Internet Librarian. (And I had a ferociously terrific time at all three of those conferences.)

This year, I made more librarian friends locally and on the intertubes, and got to meet a number of brilliant folks at Internet Librarian. I discussed wikis and Wikipedia with some cool Kansas cats. And I saw one of my best friends get a library job and begin his work in Library School.

All in all, 2006 was a kneeslappingly good year, and I have every hope that 2007 will be at least as good. So, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to procure some Chinese food, don my pajamas and robe, ease into my slippers, and slack the night away with my family until the new year comes. I’ll see you all on the other side! Happy New Year!

It was one year ago today that I made the first post for this blog.

Looking back over the last year of posts, it’s hard for me not to be overly critical and self-deprecating. But I’ll try to put that past me and point out the blog posts I’m most proud of:

“The Modern Prometheus”

“DIY”

“Uprising”

“Beta to the Max”

“A Hand in the Blog Is Worth…”

“Degree or Not Degree, That Is the Question”

“Open the Library”

Reading those posts in succession, I think a glimmering of how I feel about libraries and librarianship becomes clear…although I’ll be blinkered if I can say what it is.

Anyhoo, here’s to another year of blogging about libraries, librarians, open information and communication, and all those other topics I tend to babble on about! Cheers!

Here’s one more thing people reading this blog may not know about me:

Today is my birthday.

Sylvie Szafranski tagged me, and I’ve now contracted a meme that’s going around. If you’re not hot for Josh Trivia (and who is these days, what with the price of eggs and all?), you should skip this post and head straight to your favorite purveyor of fine delicacies.

1. I have a hard time not singing along with songs I like. When I listen to music in the car, I tend to sing along as loudly as I can, especially if I’m alone or with people I feel particularly comfortable with (like my wife and daughter).

2. I once saw the band Electrafixion, formed by the singer and the guitarist from Echo & the Bunnymen, play at a bar in North Carolina. Echo & the Bunnymen is one of my favorite bands, so I was awfully psyched. After the show, my friends and I hung around outside the bar, and I ended up meeting and talking with Electrafixion/Bunnymen guitarist Will Sergeant, who I’d idolized for years. He was incredibly nice, funny and self-deprecating. We mostly talked about comics we liked.

3. It took me longer than four years to get my undergrad degree. After my first year of college, my grades weren’t so great, to the point that I was on Academic Probation, so I dropped out of school. After one semester of working fast food, I was ready to try college again. I usually went part-time, partly to make sure I was staying focused and maintaining decent grades, but also because I’d quit fast food and gotten a job at the university library, and I loved working at the library so much, I worked as many hours as I was allowed in a semester. Despite the fact that I loved working at the library and hanging out at the library, it took me almost 10 years before I realized that I wanted to go to library school and make libraries my career.

4. I love being a librarian, but sometimes I wonder what my life would be like now if I’d instead become a professional comics writer or improv performer or singer in a successful post-post-punk band.

5. I know I’m being neurotic, but I worry a lot about my health. I frequently stress about contracting something terminal or permanently debilitating. Lately, I’ve become particularly worried that one, some or all of my teeth will fall out, even though they show no signs of doing so.

And since I’m supposed to tag 5 fellow bloggers, I’ll reach out and zap Gregg Winsor, Iris Jastram, Maire Kruppa, Jessica Langlois, and Erica Reynolds.

It’s been busy at MPOW with end-of-the-year stuff (like employee evaluations), and I’ve been busy in my off-work time with a project (of sorts) I’m not ready to talk about yet. I just haven’t had the time or energy for blogging.

But I’m not busy anymore, so expect more blogging, both here and at Library Talk.

As I’ve written before, when I first started blogging, I picked the name “goblin cartoons” because it seemed to sum up my writing and my approach to writing, particularly when it came to poetry. I used to write quite a bit of poetry, but I haven’t written any in ages. When it comes to poetry, I have a confession: I didn’t really write because I loved the art of poetry (although there is a lot of poetry that I like); I wrote because the medium of poetry seemed like one of the better ones to express my love of words.

I’ve always loved words and the magic of words, the way you can practice “word alchemy”–combining two or more words that don’t usually go together to evoke images and feelings of mystery and wonder.

The new website Wordie is a natural site for me, then. It’s brilliant in all kinds of ways. You can create lists of words you like, which is cool enough. (I’ve done that on my own anyway, but it’s nifty to be able to put them up on the web and share them with other people.) Signing up and creating a profile automatically generates an hCard–cool! Your word lists generate RSS feeds–cool! And let me say that I wholeheartedly approve of this trend of being able to link to your profiles on other social sites in your profile. LibraryThing does this, too, and I think it latches right onto the magic of the social interweb.

Here’s my profile. My word lists will probably update frequently. Like I said, I love words. And so I love Wordie.

“I’m feeling really blogged down right now,” a coworker said to me today.