goblin cartoons

As I said on Twitter, the two bad things about driving 3 hours to Wichita for the KLA annual conference is: 1) it’s a 3-hour drive, and 2) you end up in Wichita. The good things, though, are very good. I got to hang out with some of my library friends, I got to see my pal Bobbi Newman give an excellent presentation on transliteracy, and I got to be part of a panel discussion/presentation on comics and graphic novels with my friend Royce Kitts and Gene Ambaum and Bill Barnes, the two guys who do the online comic strip Unshelved.

If you read Unshelved, you’ll have the impression that Gene and Bill are very smart, very funny and very cool. In fact, they’re even smarter and funnier and cooler in person. I liked them immediately. They know more about the history of comics than I do (which, all modesty aside, is saying something), they’re quick and wickedly sarcastic. We all had a lot of fun on the panel. I’m just sorry I couldn’t stick around in Wichita (really) to see Hot Tub Time Machine with them.

The defining moment of the panel (and the conference, really) for me was while Bill was talking about the history of comics, Gene suddenly got a look of inspiration on his face and quickly scribbled something down in his notebook. He then slid the notebook over to me, grinned at me, and pointed to what he wrote: “I don’t believe a word he’s saying.” It was all I could do to not bust out laughing.

“Bow ties are cool.”

I watched the premiere of the latest series of Doctor Who, “The Eleventh Hour,” the other day. As I’ve mentioned before, David Tennant’s Doctor is my favorite, but I wasn’t very happy with how his run ended. Still, Matt Smith had some big shoes to fill as the Doctor. And Karen Gillan had some big companion shoes to fill as Amy Pond, especially after two of my favorite companions, Martha Jones and Donna Noble.

I’m thrilled to say Smith and Gillan did a smashing job. While there were a few shaky bits (to be expected in a series opener, especially one that has to introduce an entirely new cast), the episode was clever, funny, creepy and touching. Smith’s Doctor seems to be a nice mix of Peter Davison‘s reckless enthusiasm and tetchiness with Jon Pertwee‘s brash confidence. Plus, he wears a bow tie! Gillan’s Amy Pond is great, too. She’s tough and snarky, but with some nice warmth showing through.

I’m really excited that Steven Moffat, who has written my favorite episodes of the new Doctor Who, has taken over as producer and chief writer. I expect this entire series to be full of mundane creepiness & terror, as well as action, adventure and comedy. I can’t wait for the rest of this series to unfold.

*Props to my girlfriend, Berkie, who made the “this one goes to eleven” joke about the latest Doctor.

My friend Royce Kitts is the director of the Tonganoxie Public Library in nearby Tonganoxie, KS. The library has redone its website, and it looks fantastic! Check it out!

The site has a definite look to it, but it’s not overdone. It’s comfortable and appealing. It’s easy to find things. I love the picture of the old card catalog at the catalog search box. I absolutely adore the “world’s nicest library” tagline. And the first post at the top of the page? A listing of library rules and guidelines for staff. Sheer brilliance! I think it sets a new standard in transparency.

I’m floored at how simple and wonderful this site it. Well done, Royce!

From my dear friend Mary Carmen Chimato:

If life were easy and didn’t scare us from time to time it wouldn’t be nearly as fun or adventurous. It also wouldn’t provide us with the opportunities to change, evolve, and grow. We can choose to look at the hard times very negatively or we can choose to endure, persevere and try to learn something from the experience. It’s easy to do the former and requires much much effort to do the latter. You’re on the right path. If you weren’t you’d feel a thousand times worse. Sometimes the right decisions start off feeling like wrong ones, but that’s usually because we’re scared.

I just flew in from San Francisco and, boy, are my arms–sorry. Let’s not go there.

A couple of months ago, in the heart of an extremely cold and snowy winter, I suddenly had an urge to be in San Francisco. I was born there, but we moved away when I was about a year old or so. I’ve been back a couple of times since then, but the last time I was there was 25 years ago. Why I had this urge to go back, I can’t really say, but it was there. My girlfriend, Berkie, had never been. We both looked into airfares and hotel rates, discovering that a trip was actually affordable.

And so we went. 5 Days and 4 nights in the city of my birth. We had an amazing time. I’ve said before that San Francisco is my favorite American city. This trip confirmed it. Berkie and I were terribly sad to leave the Bay Area.

We stayed at the San Remo Hotel, which I highly recommend. It’s cozy and beautiful, with very friendly staff. It’s in North Beach, a few blocks from Fisherman’s Wharf. Across the street is a fabulous coffee shop, Caffe Capriccio, where we had breakfast every morning.

While in the Bay Area, we geeked out outside of Mythbusters HQ, visited the grave of Emperor Norton, discovered why people are so fanatical about Trader Joe’s (because it’s awesome!), checked out City Lights, saw the house in Berkeley where my parents lived when I was born, met some online friends in person for the first time, saw some college friends I haven’t seen in 15 years, and ate loads of incredible food. We traveled around the Bay Area by foot, bus, trolley, BART and car. We fell in love with the restaurants and coffee shops, the architecture and design, the multicultural mishmash of people. If I didn’t have so many friends and family here in Kansas City, and if the Bay Area wasn’t so freaking expensive, I’d move there in half a heartbeat.

I’ve posted my vacation snaps to Flickr. Check ‘em out, if you’d like.

Now it can be told: in January, my good friend/partner-in-crime Steve Lawson and I were notified by Library Journal that we were among this year’s Movers & Shakers. I was honestly very surprised and conflicted. Of course it’s a huge ego-stroke. And it’s flattering that other people nominated us for this. (Whoever you are, THANK YOU!) But this is also kind of an “establishment” thing, which Steve and I usually set ourselves outside of. And to be honest, I don’t feel like I really did much moving and shaking this past year. (Surviving, yes. Moving and shaking, not so much.)

But it is sincerely flattering, and it’s really nice to be recognized for the work (and play) Steve and I put into the Library Society of the World. And it’s a huge honor to be included among the other Movers and Shakers. Congratulations to all of you! And here’s a public high five with my fellow carping nerdboy, Steve Lawson! I’m so glad I know you and get to make mischief with you! You, sir, rock the block!

Just now, I tweeted: “Dear Google: Opt-in social networks are good. Opt-out social networks are bad. Please remember this.” I was speaking in regards to Google Buzz, the company’s latest social networking release. Buzz is a social aggregator, like FriendFeed, pulling your content from different sites into one stream, where your friends can comment on your content, as well as pulling your friends’ content into the same stream.

I was excited about Buzz and gave it a try as soon as Google bestowed it upon me. It didn’t take long for me to grow frustrated and annoyed with it, though, and I gave up on it after less than a day’s use. Reflecting on it more, I’ve come to see Buzz as a massive screw-up in terms of social networking. Because Buzz is opt-out social networking, not opt-in.

If you sign up for MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, FriendFeed or a host of other social websites, you have to seek out friends. You can sometimes use your email contact list to find other people on those sites, or you have to find people one by one to friend. You also have to go to that site (or a desktop or mobile phone app) for access (and socializing).

Buzz, on the other hand, sits right there in your Gmail. By default, you get any and all updates to Buzz both in your Buzz inbox and in your Gmail inbox. (You can filter the emails out of your Gmail, but it’s not something you can really turn off.) Your Gmail contacts are automatically your Buzz contacts. Following contacts in Buzz automatically adds them to the people you follow in Google Reader (which increased my unread posts in Reader A LOT), even if you disconnect Reader from Buzz (and Reader is pulled into your Buzz stream by default, unless you choose to disconnect it). When you post straight to Buzz, you can choose to make a post private rather than public, but unless you disconnect everything from Buzz, your stream will continue to flow, allowing your friends to see posts and comment on them, even if you turn Buzz off (which you can only do by clicking on a tiny link at the bottom of your Gmail page).

In short, Google Buzz is opt-out social networking, not opt-in. If you don’t want to participate, you have to go through steps to turn it off, rather than going through steps to turn it on if you want to participate. Google has deployed Buzz to everyone with Gmail, causing a number of my friends to wonder what the hell it was and how to turn it off.

Opt-out social networking is a moronic and intrusive idea. Just because you use email doesn’t mean you want more social networking. Just because you emailed someone once or twice doesn’t mean you want to see everything they post to the internet (and it doesn’t mean you want them seeing everything you post to the internet). You might like fish and you might like salty food, but that doesn’t mean people should assume you want anchovies on your pizza, and you definitely shouldn’t have to ask to have to anchovies removed if you don’t want them.

Google Wave and Buzz are making me think Google Labs is some socially-isolated workshop where no usability studies are being done. It’s stunningly bad design. I’m going to be very wary of whatever Google releases next.

I’ve written before about what a fan I am of DC Comics’ Justice Society of America and I’ve made no secret that when I came up with the name and logo for the Library Society of the World, I was heavily influenced by superhero comics, especially the JSA. Right, so…

Last Friday night, the CW showed a two-hour Smallville “movie” (it was originally going to be two connected episodes but instead was broadcast as one two-hour episode), “Absolute Justice.” The episode featured Clark, Chloe and Oliver discovering a secret group of costumed superheroes, the Justice Society of America. It’s quite possibly my favorite episode of Smallville so far. Geoff Johns wrote the episode and he really groks the JSA. The Justice Society wasn’t just portrayed as a team of superheroes, it was stressed that the team members considered each other friends and family. They didn’t just fight crime together, they socialized and celebrated together. They included their spouses and children. They considered the younger generation their students and heirs.

That’s one of the driving forces behind the Library Society of the World and, I think, the biggest reason why people continue to involve themselves in the LSW. We’re not just professional library associates, we’re friends and family. We don’t just work together, we play together. We learn from each other, we support each other, professionally and personally. We’re not a league, we’re not a professional association, we’re a society.

“Absolute Justice” has stuck with me in a way few TV show episodes do. In part because it hit a lot of my superhero fanboy buttons. But more importantly because it struck a chord regarding the Library Society of the World.

Excelsior!

I finally got to sit down at a friend’s house and watch the three most recent Doctor Who specials, “The Waters of Mars” and “The End of Time” parts 1 and 2. I want to talk about them, but I want to avoid spoiling them for people who haven’t seen them yet, so…more thoughts after the jump.

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For the past 3 or 4 years, I’ve ended the year by saying, “Boy, the past year sucked! I hope the next year is better.” It’s gotten ridiculous, yet I still maintain my optimism that the next year will be better than the preceding year.

In keeping with this tradition, I have to say, 2009 was a really difficult year. If you regularly follow this blog, you have an inkling why. If you know me personally, you have an even better idea as to why this year has been…well, sucky as all get out. The good news is, it’s ending on an extremely good note. I know it’s tempting fate/karma/Eris/whathaveyou to say this, but I really do think 2010 will be a better year for me and the people I close to me.

So, with all due respect 2009, fuck off and die in a fire. And 2010? You’re on notice. If this isn’t a good year, we’re going to have words? Got it?

Happy New Year, everyone!