thebookpile

I turned on the TV this morning and watched as Stephen Harper drove a few hundred meters with four (four!) vehicles from 24 Sussex Drive up the pathway to Rideau Hall. Then I cycled in to work from Orleans to downtown (coincidentally, past 24 Sussex) to put in some extra hours before the week begins.

On the way home on Friday, I got in flat in my rear wheel and had to use my last spare inner tube. When I went to MEC to buy two new spares yesterday, I also bought a mirror for my bike. I installed it before leaving today and can't believe the difference it makes in downtown traffic!

My New Blog - Because You Might Not Want to Hear Me Complain About Work and Libraries

Now that I'm starting to work in my new profession, I have decided to set up a separate blog for my discoveries, musings, and rants related to library and information science. It somehow seems appropriate to keep my professional and personal posts in different places (and my posts here are now being friends-locked more often).

Instead of sticking with LiveJournal, I have decided to set up my new blog on Wordpress.com. I missed using Wordpess since moving out of Ottawa-Centre, where I used it for the OttawaGreens.ca website. It's easy to find: thebookpile.wordpress.com (the current title, "Open Source Librarian", is a placeholder). I promise to keep posting all of the juicy stuff here on LJ.

Google Chrome

It's only available on Windows, so I was only able to give it a quick whirl at work. I found that it does three things better than Firefox:

Tabs are located above the URL box. Having them below the URL box has always seemed illogical to me.
It's noticeably faster at page rendering and JavaScript (at least, from my 12 minutes of testing).
Dragging a tab outside of the window opens that tab in a new browser window. I never knew I wanted this feature in a browser until I tried it. I really miss this in Firefox now.

I would also add that it's cool that one tab can crash without affecting the others. I didn't include this in the above list because I didn't get a chance to see it happen, so I can't comment. Also, the graphic story intro was very neat.

There are, however, two areas where Chrome lost me as a user:

No Linux port yet, which means that I can't run it on my own computers.
No support for extensions. Stuff like Zotero, which is wonderfully useful when I'm writing a paper for school, will likely never exist for Chrome.

I can't really see myself switching between browsers, so I'll likely stick with Firefox for now. Still, Chrome does look promising. Once I've written my last scholarly paper in April 2009, I might jump on board (if there's a Linux port available at that time).

Grades

Got my grades back for my second term. I must have tanked on my last assignment in Advanced Cataloguing because I got my first sub-80 mark (a 78). I'm really, really disappointed with that because it was a great class and I enjoyed it a lot. My other grades were slightly higher: 83 (Digital Libraries), 84 (Surveillance and Freedom), 85 (Information Equity), and 85 (Literature Appreciation). That gives me an average of 83 for the term and 84.1 overall, which is respectable. Given that I was commuting between Ottawa and London on a weekly basis, in addition to reading through Bill C-61 and pestering my MP about it, I'd say that's pretty decent.

Reading News

I am halfway through Volume 1 of Sherlock Holmes: The Complete Novels and Stories. This is a two-volume set, with each one containing two of the novels, and the collections of short stories. I had already read A Study in Scarlet during my Lit. Appreciation Class, so I continued with The Sign of Four (novel), and have now finished The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (short stories). The smaller cases are fun because I can read a 20- or 30-page mystery before going to bed.

Yoda greets a young Anakin Skywalker and Padmé in Minnesota.

Is this the best picture you can find of the Prime Minister? Really?

I love it when someone directs me towards a good book. It's even more amazing when I get put on the trail of an entire genre.

That's how I feel about graphic novels. I kinda, sorta knew that they existed but I had never read any. That was before I was friended by

vonandmoggy . You see, Von has been working on a graphic novel and I've been lurking on his blog (which he shares with Moggy) watching his progress as he worked to complete his story and get it published. It encouraged me to seek out some other graphic novels and now I can't imagine my bookshelf without Blankets, Maus or Persepolis. Both The Missus and I are hooked.

So I want to make sure that any of you reading this blog take a look at what he's cooked up! His novel, the road to god knows..., is freely available online at GirlAMatic.com. Go have a read!

Also, Von has also published a set of short stories that include characters from the novel, called Li'l Kids. Von has made it available online as a PDF (under a Creative Commons license), and a print version is also available for those interested! See the website for more details.

My triumphant return to football, due today, has been delayed until next spring or summer.

I had a minor setback a month ago and at my 1-year post-operation check-up today, it was confirmed: while the new ligament is strong, there is a problem with the meniscus (which acts as a shock absorber in the knee). Now, that's not too bad; there's a chance that it will settle down without intervention if I refrain from certain activities. However, regardless of whether it fixes itself or not, it means that I need to go in for another MRI, which will take some waiting (and it's non-urgent, so I'm not on the ultra-fast CHEO list like last time). That means that I'll likely have it in the winter (January-March).

The good news is that if they determine that surgery is required, the operation is much less invasive than my previous ACL repair, and recovery is much quicker.

It's Olympic central here in the TheBookPile household. Last night, we started watching the games at about 8pm, with the live coverage starting at around 10pm. The Missus promptly fell asleep on the couch, while I watched the most incredible finish in the men's 4x100 relay in swimming (with the US narrowly edging out France after an amazing comeback). I then watched some volleyball, both beach and floor (with Cubans winning convincingly in both games).

At about 1:45am, I woke The Missus up, got her up off the couch and upstairs. I fell asleep before 2:30 watching the Games in bed, but she stayed up until 7am.

So our coverage of the coverage is quite good, at least for Day 3. It won't last long, though: work starts up again soon for both of us.

I watched the last bit of the opening ceremony in Beijing. The show was absolutely incredible.**

Unfortunately, the entry of Canada's athletes into the stadium was a disgrace. They looked unorganized, nearly half were stopping to take pictures or videos, and a good number were talking on their cell phones. They looked like a bunch of spoiled children. Contrast that performance with the US, whose athletes were obviously told not to carry any electronics and to politely wave to the crowd as they walked around the stadium.

That said, I find the raw athleticism on display at the Summer Games to be absolutely incredible, especially in gymnastics and track***. While I'm cheering on our Canadians (rather loudly, just now, during the Canada-China match in women's football), I love watching any athlete from any country do something spectacular.

** At the end of the opening ceremony, I felt really bad for the Vancouver 2010 Winter Games. I don't think they'll come anywhere close to matching the ceremonies in Beijing.

*** Although I have a soft spot for the Winter Games - there seems to be more spectacle involved in the winter sports.

Want to have the chance of having your documents or electronic devices confiscated without reason? Then it's time to cross into the US!

The policy gives border agents at any point of entry into the United States the authority to also take documents, books, pamphlets and hard drives. The items can be seized from anyone crossing the border and may then be copied and shared with other government agencies, according to Department of Homeland Security documents dated July 16.

(...)The policy does not outline a timeframe in which materials must be returned.

This is just getting out of hand. I wanted to head down to the US for the code4lib conference in February but now I think I'll pass. Particularly since the hard disk on my laptop is encrypted - they might not take too kindly to that.

We had been trying to rent The Simpsons Movie this weekend, but Rogers Video had it recalled from their local store due to some problems with the DVDs. Last night, we ended up renting Persepolis instead. It was absolutely wonderful and now I have yet another graphic novel to add to The Book Pile (and this one I'll try to get in French). In the past eight months I have read Blankets and Maus, now I wish to add V for Vendetta, Persepolis, and Watchmen.

Meanwhile, I have barely advanced in Dickens' Great Expectations. Due to my hectic schedule last week, I'm only 50 pages in and the final exam in my literature appreciation class is on Tuesday. Still, I'm not worried: I finished ten of the eleven books for that class, which is more than most; we were told that we need to have at least seven under out belt for the exam questions. Still, I hate not having finished it.

It's going to feel great to have a week to just read for pleasure. Since January, all such reading has felt like time that was stolen from assignments and other chores. I have a "mini-Pile" set up for what I want to read first, but its contents and order keeps changing.

Tobacco giants to pay up to $1.15B over contraband sales

Canada's two biggest tobacco companies pleaded guilty Thursday to customs charges and agreed to pay as much as $1.15 billion in fines and civil payments in connection with aiding contraband tobacco sales. (...) The companies pleaded guilty to "aiding persons to sell and be in possession of tobacco manufactured in Canada that was not packed and was not stamped in conformity with the Excise Act."

Way to go, Google. Way to go.

Some thoughts in a bulleted list:

These days, if I'm assigned a paper on intellectual property and copyright, it practically writes itself. This is a good thing this week.
After cursing a bit about some oversights in its online documentation, I'm actually quite impressed with Greenstone as a digital library platform. I have nearly finished my final project for my Digital Libraries class using it - I just need to tweak its appearance with some CSS - and I have had very few issues.
I recently joined Twitter. It seems to take the most useless aspect of Facebook - the status updates - and base an entire online application around them. The result is that I find it to be a total wank-fest ("Ooooh! A new Follower!"). There are people on there who do cool things in real life but I would rather engage them on a mailing list, through comments on their blog, in a Facebook group, or at a conference. I don't care if they lost their luggage, fed their cat, or got stuck in traffic this morning. A random example is Nicole C. Engard. On her Open Sesame blog, I read about her take on the use of open source software in libraries, which can be quite useful for me. On her Twitter account, I can read her complain if she doesn't have wireless access in her hotel, or if she can't find eggplant at the supermarket. Brilliant.
Cuil (pronounced "cool"), a new search engine, is being launched. The name reminds me of Koules, the computer game with THE DARK APPLEPOLISHER as the boss!

My knee has been slightly buggered up since last weekend. I thought it would go away but it's swollen and sometimes a bit uncomfortable when I walk. I believe that this is a result of a yoga pose done on the Wii Fit ten days ago (fortunately, this injury occurred after I had achieved perfect scores in the soccer heading game, both in beginner and advanced!). The good news is that it's still stable, which indicates that the new ligament is not to blame.

There is a possibility that one of the bio-dissolvable screws that was used to hold my new ligament in place is causing this in which case, this should pass. I have my 1-year post-op in mid-August, so I'm not going to panic until I get my surgeon's verdict during that visit. I'll just keep icing and exercising until then and hope that this is just one last hiccup in the road to recovery!

In the meantime, I can look forward to August 16th, when Liverpool open the season against Sunderland.

Obviously inspired by the "Dion's Tax on Everthing" ads.

(Found on on Michael Geist's blog).

Bacteria being studied since 1988 (over 44 000 generations) evolved in order to change the way they eat.

I finally got a response from the PMO regarding my many e-mails about copyright reform and Bill C-61. It was nicely worded and polite without addressing any of the issues which I had raised.

In the meantime, the Canadian Newspaper Association has also voiced its displeasure with the bill, bringing up many of the previously stated problems, as well as an interesting one from their own point of view: whistleblowers attempting to send the press electronic information.

This means that journalists who come across or are sent electronic documents (for example from a whistleblower) may be unable to use them without incurring very significant liability, even though there are no barriers on using the same materials in print format. It might also mean that citing video or other content from a digitally protected work (say, a DVD movie in which a newsmaker once appeared) could incur liability.

This echoes one of the points which I raised in my first letter to my MP and the Industry Minister: "Your government has, in recent history, been a defender of whistleblowers in the public sector. The bill your government is now tabling will weaken the position of whistleblowers in the private sector with technology relating to digital media and digital security."

I have other work to do, but I can never resist these things when they're book-related. Copied from

siobhan63

Original rules: bold what you've read, underline what you've loved. I'm adding: italicize the ones you've started but never finished, for whatever reason(s).

(I will also add a "*" next to books which I haven't yet read, but are on The Pile).

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6 The Bible (tried to read through when I was 12 and gave up with all the "begetting")
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens ** (will be reading this next week during my break!)
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare (still working on it; I read one of his plays every few months)
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveller's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky **
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens **
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34 Emma - Jane Austen
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis (bit of redundancy with #33, no?)
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli's Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres **
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52 Dune - Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen **
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens **
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones's Diary - Helen Fielding
69 Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville **
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses - James Joyce
76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession - AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert (read it in French)
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte's Web - EB White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom (I will never read another book by this man, ever)
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad **
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl (read this in French and English)
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

Current Music: My Favourite Things by John Coltrane, Concert at Newport, 1963

If you have two hours to spare tonight and you haven't already watched it, I highly recommend the replay of the Germany-Turkey semi-final match (for those in Ontario, the replay is on Rogers Sportsnet at 8pm). That was quite possibly the best football match that I have ever seen (minus the periodic signal blackouts caused by lighting strikes in Basel, where the game was played).

Lots of goals (final score: 3-2, with a last minute winner) and the crossbar was hit numerous times.

Not to mention the fact that someone forgot to tell Turkey that they were supposed to be the underdogs, and that their coach forgot to tell them to dive whenever they got clipped by an opponent (none of this rolling around on the ground - I wish all teams played like Turkey did today! If they got clipped, they stumbled up and tried to keep chasing the ball.)

If diving and ultra-boring defensive teams (*cough* Italy) were removed from football, this is what it would look like. The beautiful game.

3. During class discussion, if you insist on starting each of your hyper-pro-capitalist rants with "We don't live in Russia" or "We don't live in Scandinavia", you should bring a large map to class. When making said statements, point emphatically at these countries to show how far away they are from North America.

Optional Addition: State the distance in kilometers from your current location to their capital cities.

No wonder Harper doesn't want a carbon tax!

My New Blog and Some Tiny Updates

Star Wars Characters at Republican Convention

Dear Big Blue Machine

A Thank-You and Some Links

What's another year?

Olympic Tag-Team

C'mon Canucks!

They didn't wait for ACTA

Less Than a Week Until My Summer Reading Can Begin!

The Tabacco Industry: Pure Class

Library of Congress Subject Headings: A Cesspool of Indecency!

As I write my paper...

Aw, crap!

Attack ad?

Evolution Demonstrated in a Lab

The PMO responds; the CNA comes out against C-61

Books!

Likely the best game I've seen

thebookpile's Third Law of Grad School

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April 2010

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