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.
My former classmate Iris and I both made Walt Crawford’s latest Cites & Insights! Go UWM SOIS Class of ‘05!
Some scruffy-looking nerf-herder (who is definitely not half-witted or stuck-up) has thrown down the gauntlet regarding domain names. Recently, it seems like I’ve gotten the question more than I ever have in the past: why “goblin-cartoons.com”?
The answer isn’t a long story, but it’s not a particularly interesting one either. Basically, it goes like this: 5 years ago, I was going to start a blog and I wanted my own domain name. I didn’t want it to be “joshuaneff.com” or some variation on that theme. The phrase “goblin cartoons” popped into my head and seemed to sum up the kind of prose and poetry writing I was doing at the time. So, I went with it. Beyond that, there’s no real significance to it. I still like the name, and I’ll probably never have to deal with anyone else using it.
And there you have it.
In general, I find WordPress to be easy to use and a really nifty blogging engine.
But–I find editing and modifying the sidebar to be a major exercise in frustration and futility. Even reading the support docs and replicating the code, I can’t get the sidebar to do what I want. I’m trying to add a little “Banned Books Week” button to the sidebar (something that would’ve been a snap with Movable Type), and I cannot. Get. The. Button. To. Appear.
Sheesh!
Happy Talk Like a Pirate Day, y’ bilge rats!
I don’t know why, but my Goblin Cartoons email seems to be acting a bit wonky. Emails I compose and send are only arriving sporadically. And emails aren’t being received. So, if you’ve sent me an email since this morning, there’s a good chance I haven’t gotten it.
I hope this will sort itself out soon, but you never know.
UPDATE: It looks like my email is working again, although there seems to be a lag in receiving mail.
The Kansas Libraries & Librarians Flickr group has gotten a mention on Library Stuff. Which is exceedingly cool.
…Let David King come over–to Kansas!
Starting in October, I will be the Digital Branch & Services Manager (read the job ad, if you’re interested) at the Topeka and Shawnee County Public Library. I’ll be in charge of all things digital - including the website (and building a new, extremely cool library 2.0 site - stay tuned on that one) and the IT department.
Congrats, David! You’re a hep addition to the Northeast Kansas Library family!
