Working at the Library
Jul 15th
For the past two and a half years, I have been what I affectionally refer to as a “libraryman”, or better yet, a man who works at a library (the name stems from a Penny Arcade comic which i became rather fond of once I got the job). Okay, so I didn’t have a library science degree (something required to be a librarian) and my nametag title was “Library clerk”- but I wholeheartedly disagree.
I was a librarymans through and through- having to work with the public directly at the front desk, answer questions, check out books, look up when movies were to be returned and answer the phone- all at the same time, usually. It was a job I loved, a job I was happy to do time and time again. A job that I seriously considered pursing for a career.
I speak with all of this in the past tense, because as of today, I am no longer a librarymans. I was laid off of my job yesterday.
While this didn’t come as a shock (as I had my own gut feeling this would have been happening sooner or later, as rumors spread about the possibility of such a thing occurring had been reverberating around the library for a month or two beforehand), I’m sad to lose this job.
Part of me thought that I could have kept that job until I graduate from college, at least.
It was a job where I had coworkers that I considered to be another family in itself. A family of nutjobs, to be honest, and I say this in the happiest way possible. The family supported one another through thick and thin. When someone was feeling a bit under the weather, others would come in to help them out. When someone was hungry, we’d share food to keep them sated until the end of the day. We all really do care for one another, and do our best to help out the patrons there. This was a group of (mostly) women that would be there to help patrons however they could.
Hell, even the patrons were amazing. There were regulars that would come on a certain basis- bi-weekly, weekly, even daily- to chat with about how their lives were. There was a history professor who knew how my school project were coming along and asked me how they were coming along as he checked out his mystery (and history) books for the week. The father of two girls who always came up to talk shop about the latest Apple news. The ex-gangbanger who would check out the biggest stack of films he could laughing as i told him my usually obtuse and random opinions on the films. The teacher who always struggled to get books back from her reading-frienzied students. They were all regulars I can remember looking forward to seeing day in, and day out.
It all felt right to me. I’m writing this as a sort of catharsis for letting my emotions out. When I was finally able to tell people about my impending last day, there were looks of shock, looks of anger as i realized that I was a part of the patron’s lives as they were of mine. And that made the shortening time I working there even harder. I had so many memories from working there- the good, the bad, and those that made the job all the better. I held on to working there for as long as possible. And now that that last day is passed, I feel as if a chapter of my life has closed. One I wish could have lasted longer, or not have been closed before I had a chance to end it myself, on my own terms.
When I read a recent piece at a Chicago FOX subsidiary contesting the usefulness of libraries, I recoiled and balked in horror. In the din of the everyday craziness that is modern life, to have a place of knowledge and quiet serenity such as the library should be considered to be a welcome haven for many. There were families who couldn’t afford to go to Blockbuster to check out movies, so they’d come in every week for free rentals from the library. Regulars from all sorts of race and age who would come in to enjoy books, CDs, and DVDs. If you wanted to see how much of a melting pot Southern California really was, you could just sit at the library and watch the commotion such a quiet place brings. There wasn’t a day when we didn’t have lines of people checking out books or getting new library cards. Having someone getting angry at me for the littlest thing. If you had an excuse for why the books you checked out were late, chances are, I’d heard it already from someone else. And i enjoyed that. I truly did. (if that doesn’t show how crazy I already am, I don’t know what does)
(by the way- the followup from the Library Commissioner from Chicago to that Fox reporter is the best reaction to such sensationalist piece of journalism. The library is still a wonderful place, and even more so a resource more should use.)
Yeah, I’m incredibly sad about what has gone on and where I plan to go in the future, but I suppose it’s for the best. I plan to shoot some short films while I get ready to apply for transfer to art schools- have a portfolio readied for the fall. Madness, considering I have about a month and a half to do so. (Anyone want to help?)
But I’ll miss being a librarymans. Through thick and thin, it was a job I cared about.
I was a proud librarymans.
The Delicious Library Experience
Jun 26th
I know I’ve waxed poetics time and time again over the Mac OS X and the software it has delivered over the years. There’s a unique style design that comes with so much of the software that it has become almost a standard to the platform- giving way to unique, beautiful pieces of software that can be productive and inspired in design.
One in particular, has become a bit of an organizing obsession for myself, called Delicious Library.
Delicious Library is a virtual bookshelf of sorts, allowing you to organize quite literally anything you own into it. You can add all sorts of things to this digital bookshelf- Books, movies, video games, etc- things that can be added using Amazon’s own giant database of goods to identify objects by name, or even by its IBSN number. The software can use the webcam on your computer as a bar code reader, complete with the little boop sound barcode scanners make when you scan things at the grocery store coming out of your computer speakers. it’s little touches like that that give Delicious Library that little extra touch that wasn’t there before.
As soon as I started playing around with a trial version of the software, i bought it and proceeded to add every last item i could to this virtual bookshelf from my actual bookcase. I would sit there in glee as it would try to read aloud the titles of the books using the mac’s own Speak Aloud software to deliver monotone renditions of titles, speaking out “Fifty cent-blood on the sand” (it sounds so much funnier when you hear it read in a monotone, robotic voice that Macs give you, trust me.).
Everything I own in terms of books, movies, and videogames are now all stored within the digital recesses of my Delicious Library. I keep track of who has borrowed things from my “library” and keep all their names stored (thanks to the cross integration with the Address book in OS X, i’m able to even import their basic information to the program as well), making sure I don’t forget who had my copy of Valkyria Chronicles. You can keep track of who you allow to borrow your DVDs, and how long they’ve had them out for.
Even with my room a complete and utter mess, I was at a happy standstill, thinking to myself- it’s allright Daniel- everything is organized in Delicious Library anyways. No need to worry about it.
It can work for both the owners of large collections of books or dvds or just the casual collector, as I am right now. I back up the whole collection regularly as a way to keep a good list of my possessions. It feeds some sort of odd obsession i didn’t even knew I had in the first place, to get a new game and almost automatically, boot up Delicious Library to scan it in to the virtual collection.
The price of the software is a bit pricey (well, not overly pricey, as you would see in photoshop or other pieces of software along those lines), but at $40 (honestly, any higher and adults my age would balk at it), it was one of those investments that I really do cherish and enjoy. Delicious Library is available in demo form, for anyone to try.
When Delicious Library 3 comes (and I do hope it does) I’ll probably come running, frothing at the mouth.
ps, i do plan to post news soon in the future. i just had to finish this piece. more next week
The Uncharted 2 Nametag
May 4th
My current job, working as a library clerk, requires me to have a nametag on at all times. I try to keep it on, but I was having difficulty trying to figure out a way to customize it. After going to one of the theater-demos for Uncharted 2, I finally found a way. Now, I wear my nametag (not pictured) with this lanyard given to me at the demo. I've gotten compliments for it, oddly enough, including someone who works at Naughty Dog.
The Hackintosh Experience
Apr 27th
I needed a laptop. Quite badly, in fact.
It was getting tiresome to be running to the school computer labs after every class to be using Windows XP machines that had barely upgraded to Internet Explorer 7.
It was tiring being the only friend who wasn’t able to check their email, to get things done when I was out and about. So many times I would be stuck at a local coffee shop frequented by myself and my friends, only to be the only one without a laptop, staring into the glowing apple logos of my friends’s laptops as they happily got some work done.
It was getting even more tiring not having a place to write scripts away from home.
Having my iPhone helped some, but I really needed a solution to getting a full keyboard- I even considered getting an external keyboard for the iPhone when I was out and about (only to remember how geeky I looked years and years ago when i was accustomed to typing things out on my handspring platinum and its foldout keyboard in high school)
I started looking into getting my own laptop for a bit, even thinking about saving money to buy a full blown macbook- but even that proved to be rather costly, as the prices starting out at $999 or so was a bit on the stiff side for me. Netbooks became my little solution, and i heavily researched which one I really needed- even pouring through discussion forums and trying to find the right one for me.
Thankfully, Twitter solved all of my problems.
I was following a great writer by the name of Stu Maschowitz, a special effects savant (I say this in the utmost respect and care- the man really knows his shit. Read his blog, ProLost, to read more about his work and what he knows. When he offered to sell his MSI Wind U100 on twitter, I jumped- rather, launched myself at the offer of having something to work upon. He responded quickly, and after meeting Stu on the 16th of April, I came into possession of a MSI Wind U100- one that had been hacked to run the native operating system of Macintosh computers- OS X.
And by god, was it amazing. I quickly redid the system, rehacking it to 
run the latest and greatest that Apple had to offer- OS X 10.6, code named “Snow Leopard” by those in Cupertino, mostly to be able to experience the trials and tribulations such a gray market process had to offer. Such a experiment isn’t for the faint of heart, but in the end, I’ve been happy so far with what this brought forth. There were all sorts of applications I used on OS X that I now have in a portable basis, exclusives such as OmmWriter, CSSEdit, and 1Password that were just amazing to have on the go.
There are some technical problems that were present- the original hackintosh install had no headphone jack support, and subsequent upgrades killed the sleep feature. Even after upgrading the laptop to Snow Leopard, there were kernel panics constantly, which I later found out to be the fault of the bluetooth kext module. Again, it isn’t for the faint of heart, but for those who are accustomed to the Apple platform and want to do something really geeky and fun, it’s not a bad way to go.
Yeah, it’s not a full blown laptop. I’m not going to be able to watch HD videos.
I’m not going to be able to edit video, even SD video.
I’m not going to be playing full blown games. Crysis would give me the middle finger if i tried anything. (although older games might work)
I’m not going to do some crazy shit on this system.
But with what it offers, I’m quite happy, glad even, to have a small laptop that I can take on the go, that I can call my own to get work done without having to be at home, or to sit in a lab with
And my little Hackintosh, Haruko, has been nothing but a joy to work with. She’s my netbook.
The two phones
Mar 25th
Every day when I leave the house, I walk out with two gadgets- an original model iPhone and a Blackberry curve. I use two phones on a daily basis, and while it can be quite cumbersome, it’s a system I’m quite happy with.
The iPhone is a hand me down- much of the gadgets or phones I’ve used for most of my life have been hand me downs from either my mother or my aunt. Both loooove gadgets, but most of the time, they have no clue how to use them half of the time, or what to do when things go wrong (and that’s when they call me).
I used a Handspring Platinum back in high school- that, combined with a fold out keyboard, gave me the ability to write my webcomic reviews (or ongoing serial stories) all the easier. I’d pop out the keyboard, plug in the pda, and write in Word to Go. (it was just showing how nerdy I really was to my classmates- pulling out a PDA with a foldout keyboard does automatically label you as a nerd, especially in high school) In college, I’d toy around with an SNES emulator I found for a Palm Zire 72 Special edition, playing Yoshi’s Island in the back of geography class. Both of these PDAs were hand me downs- from my mother and my aunt respectively.
When my aunt switched to an iPhone 3GS, she gave me her first generation iPhone. After a complicated jailbreaking (i say complicated because i was cursing most of the time). I turned the contract required iPhone into an iPod touch with a camera built in. Almost anywhere I go often has a wifi point, so keeping the phone on airplane mode (to remove the power to the now useless phone) and turn on the wifi whenever possible to use the internet hotspots. The phone has been the best little present I’ve been given in years. With every paycheck, I allocate ten bucks or so for the apps on the phone (I have never been tempted to “pirate” applications on the iPhone. Paying for them is still completely worth it, and knowing that I can support part of the mac community with my purchase is worth it). And I love it.
I’ll bust out the iPhone most of the time, to answer emails, check twitter, or write down a idea I had. It’s a sweet little thing, and I love it dearly. The integration with my mac helps a bit as well. Certain little applications have made it all the better- Hipstamatic, Evernote, and Gas Cubby have made it useful on the go (I can list quite a number of apps i use on a regular basis, perhaps I’ll have to make a top ten list post sometime).
The blackberry, on the other hand, is a different story. I came to using the blackberry a year ago, and I really did love it. It was the first phone that I actually bought for myself, and with it, gave me some great appreciation of the phone. I quickly loved all of the features- Powerful email, nice keyboard and a great contextual menu (click the blackberry button and send your image to a certain program! click the blackberry button over a phone number and send a text to that number. All sorts of things can be done with that menu that you don’t see on the iPhone.).
The honeymoon period though, lasted only so long.
The amount of decent applications for the blackberry is minimal at best. An app store was created for the blackberry system, but the sluggish nature (and annoying paypal tied paying system) keeps me away from the more premium apps. Most of the apps are either really incredibly slow or don’t really work on my Blackberry- a curve 8330. The phone itself is incredibly slow- running even one application in the background forces me to stare into the blackberry’s version of the Beachball of Doom- a simplified hourglass that taunts me with every passing minute. So much of the operating system on the blackberry feels like a relic from the time it still competed with the original Palm OS. Nothing on that phone feels fresh anymore- yeah, if i had more friends using blackberries, things like Blackberry Messenger would actually make sense- but i don’t. Everyone just uses iPhones these days.
Now, the blackberry is just a glorified phone- I’ll check it from time to time whenever I don’t have wifi available for the iPhone. I’ll send text messages from both gadgets (the beauty of having a jailbroken iPhone- Google Voice running on both!). My real wish is to one day seeing the iPhone on my network of choice- Verizon. While that may be a far-flung hope (and ridicule from one friend- I’m looking at you, Ross), I still have some ill conceived hope on the subject. To have the iPhone as my only gadget would be a godsend. I don’t mind the virtual keyboard so many seem to loathe- the auto-correct feature (something phones with physical keyboards should have) usually saves my hide from my terrible spelling track record.
For now, I’ll be walking around with an iPhone and a Blackberry in my pockets, confusing people who see me with my two phones.
my friends can be assholes.
Mar 20th
I usually find my friends to be helpful, kind people which I rely on time and time again.
This is not one of those times, unfortunately. This is one of those stories that ends up on the opposite side of the spectrum.
I arrived at my friend Primo’s house one Saturday evening quite hungry, as i had not eaten anything that day. As I am inclined to do time and time again, I raided his fridge for food I came across about two and a half squares of brownies cooked by his girlfriend, Michelle- moist and very appealing brownies to my quite hungry eyes. I tore off the note she left on the note and- to put it simply- I “went to town” on the brownies, eating the baked goods in a slovenly manner. I didn’t care, I was famished.
Primo and another friend, Nick, watched with amusement in the kitchen as I ate the brownies. They waited for me to finish the brownies before laughing hysterically, leaving me quite puzzled as i started picking out small chunks of the brownies still in the inside of the pan. I questioned them on the reason of their laughter, so Primo showed me the note Michelle wrote. It read:
THESE ARE “MAGICAL” BROWNIES! ENJOY!
I froze in shock, looking to the obscene mount of brownies I ate, the pan hanging off of my fingers as my wrist went limp, eyes wide as I glanced back and forth between Primo and Nick in pure horror. Nick chortled and observed that, “Those brownies are going to hit you HARD”.
To say I had a bit of a freak out is putting it midly. I tensed, waiting for the brownies to hit me, to really be stoned for the first time. Primo and Nick took extra care to observe me that night- even going as far as to have Primo instructing Nick to watch me in the car as he went to the ATM so I “don’t have a freakout”.
I was tensing up a lot- sweating, clenching my fists and hyperventilating, waiting for (and I quote Primo on this) “the munchies to kick in”.
We decided to go to In and Out Burger, a popular fast food joint for dinner. Primo and Nick continued to watch as i ordered another obscene amount of food to eat for the coming munchies. I sat there as cars went past us to pick up the food. My palms were sweaty, i was trying to calm myself the best I could. I was going to enter an altered state of mind I hadn’t been to before.
Primo and Nick watched utterly amused, giggling. I stopped to look up to them and asked them what they were up to.
They giggled and waited for a few minutes before they told me that the pot brownies were a lie.
I ate regular brownies.
And I thought I was high.
No one at In and Out took a second glance as i started to choke Primo out.
Goddamn you, placebo effect.
Hipstamatic
Mar 14th
So no real news. But I’m oddly fond of this picture. Took it using Hipstamatic app for my iPhone. The little nuggets of images I turn up just with the iPhone’s pretty fantastic lens (as long as it gets good light) has been quite fun. The variety of apps for the camera alone has been worth it. Oh, and the games. Can’t forget the games.
More to come later this week. I’m trying to aim to write in this a bit more.
I’m blogging again
Feb 25th
So I used to be a webcomics reviewer/blogger. I quit that joint long ago, as the site i used to work on disappeared.
Now, I’m back. I’ll be writing for Insulin Funk, for a good friend. I’ll be covering geek news: movies, games, comics, etc.
This might be fun.
Spoils from the library
Jan 26th
Working at the library has it’s perks. This is one of them: two records (in good condition), The Wire (season 1), and Zack and Miri Make a Porno.
All for six bucks.
Sah-weeet
Garlic works.
Jan 10th
Something that shows the cutting edge of news reports in Southern California with the pure ineptitude of certain residents of this area.
I’ve tried to come up with something witty to say, but at this point, I want to drive out there to see the garlic plants.