Entries from September 2007

September 30, 2007

くすだま

 
i attended an origami workshop last week. I am now a kusudama (くすだま) master. kusudama translates into english as ‘medicine ball’, and kusudama origami is the folding of paper into a sphere. it’s pretty amazing what can be done. the image i have posted is not mine - it’s far too intricate and beautiful for me right [...]

September 30, 2007

shanghai dumpling challenge: round one

i shouldnt be talking about food on this site because it doesnt sit well with my anti-foodie ethos. however the dumpling challenge was more about food consumption in quantity, rather than quality.
the challenge was to, in Camy Shangai Dumpling House chinatown (note use of capitals = respect), eat dumplings.  as many as humanly possible, with the guidelines [...]

September 27, 2007

“Tell me about being a librarian”

Then she said, more conversationally, more conventionally, “Tell me about being a librarian.”
I said, … It’s a sort of communism, without ideology or Marx or any of that bullshit. We’re in the business of giving away knowledge. For free. Come in, please come in, and take some knowledge for free, no limit, keep going, gorge [...]

September 23, 2007

picture books: the bad and the good

in the past two weeks I have stepped out of my literary comfort zone and read two picture books: one completely and utterly shit, the other completely and utterly amazing.
the bad first: an english version of a japanese manga comic - it was so bad i cant remember the name. something about ‘the last people from this happy planet’. ie they even fucked up [...]

September 21, 2007

library mudflap girl

 

 This is the best library marketing I have seen in a long time. Come to think of it, it is the only effective [at least in attracting attention to the service, who knows if its increasing membership] library marketing I have seen in a long time since i actually can’t think of any other campaigns. 
’shock [...]

September 19, 2007

vic specials newsletter: # 3 out now

i finally got my shit together to get the third edition of the victorian special libraries newsletter out. I feel that my greatest achievement in the library world, to date, has been to be able to mention shane warne in a (semi) legitimate context on the cover of a libraries newsletter.
what does warnie have to do [...]

September 19, 2007

the chin family

 
i don’t cook. in the way that i don’t sing karaoke, ever, even in japan. however this does not stop me from thinking that I can or will cook one day.
i came across this “cool stuff that I need” in the blogosphere the other day. hip design company Alessi has recently collaborated with the national [...]

September 18, 2007

lady geeks - are you pink?

 
suspended from a beige silk cord, this heart pendant splits into two parts, revealing a hidden USB memory key. Made of polished stainless steel with fully faceted, asymmetrically-cut Silver Shade crystal, the two halves are held together with a pin. There’s 1GB of data (which is about 250 songs or 1,000 photos) with password protection [...]

September 15, 2007

lms, unicorns, origami-ists, blade runner

in a couple of months we are upgrading our library management system [the software which basically runs the library - checkouts, checkins, fines, cataloguing etc],which is currently Dynix Classic, to a product called Unicorn. looking for appropriate unicorn images for our communications branding i came across a couple of sites dedicated to origami unicorns, and also the [...]

September 15, 2007

library stereotypes. YAWN.

this video is fucking hilarious, in a roll your eyes here we go again kind of way. and i know that i shouldnt be posting it here because it doesn’t warrant the attention.  the NZ equivalent of Today Tonight or A Current Affair have run a story on dowdy librarians. basically, nz librarians are not [...]