Me, Robot

Machinemind
Medium: Mechanical pencil, Artliner, Photoshop
I thought it might be nice to show a more-or-less finished work. I don't often finish my sketches because it takes a little while, but colouring a lined drawing like this is much quicker for me than doing a fully rendered piece. And really, we can't do anything about technology with out least one robot, right?

Lunchtime Sketches III

Giant's Supplication

Medium: Ballpoint Pen

Another fine example of why not to forget your pencils when trying to do something a little more subtle. I may fix it up later, but more likely it will fall into the vast dark pit of forgotten sketches.

Ironically Del.icio.us

I like to think I'm a fairly bright person, you know? So why is it that I only really learn something when pain is involved?



I'd heard of del.icio.us but had never tried it. Too much bother, I thought. I can bookmark perfectly well in Firefox, I can't think of anyone who'd be interested in my bookmarks anyway...well, not unless I had an unusually shy stalker.



I figured out one reason to use it, though, when I stuffed up my computer trying to be clever. I managed to get back most of my information, and fortunately it was the stuff it would have been difficult or impossible to replace, like in-progress artwork. All my bookmarks, however, have gone to the great big information graveyard in the sky, along with why Astro Boy fired bullets from his bum and who ever thought Vanilla Ice was cool.



The day after the computer crashed, I went out and bought an external back-up drive. Now off to del.icio.us I trudge, to reconstruct more than a year of accumulated bookmarks. I may have had a little trouble absorbing the lesson but I've decided I'm only going to learn it once.

Tagged

But not in the bad, call-the-graffiti-removers way. Warning: possibly boring dribble ahead (of course, I hear you cry, it's your blog).



I found the wiki article on folksonomies pretty interesting. I have messed around with tagging things a little but hadn't previously thought much about the implications of folksonomies vs taxonomies. It seems pretty clear that both have things they do well: folksonomies have a practically non-existent entry cost, in terms of learning a system and how to apply it, and can be applied to rapidly changing concepts like....let me see...well, most of Web 2.0, without worrying about information hierarchies.



Taxonomies, on the other hand, have a much higher entry cost but have less duplication, more accurate targeting, all the stuff we as librarians like to make it easier to find information. Both have their uses and will continue into the future: I think what's really going to be interesting the interface between the two, and what role librarians are going to play in that. Who else better to understand and make sense of the way information can be organised and categorised?

Lunchtime sketches II

Masked
Medium: Ballpoint pen
I know, I know, it's another monstery thing. It's not indicative of anything deeper: drawing monsters just seems more fun. Plus they never get bored and start saying things like 'Can I move my legs now?' or 'Aren't you done yet?'.

Lunchtime Sketches

Glance
Medium: Mechanical pencil and graphite stick
Well, the subtitle of this blog was 'Random Links and Infrequent Sketches'. I've got the random bit down pat, but I thought I had best add a sketch before 'infrequent' slid gently into 'nonexistent'.

Temporarily Bewildered

For anyone who occasionally feels dazed and confused...

I typed out the name of my blog in the staff list. Four words, right? Under. The. Troll. Bridge. Simple, right?

I managed to make a make a mistake on every one. I misspelled bridge three times.

Apparently the Dyslexia Fairy has come early this year.

Half Way

We've hit the half-way mark here (but it's a bit like the half-way mark in a marathon, isn't it? The question lingers as to whether you've been running uphill and it will soon be a long, leisurely coast across the line, or whether you'll turn the corner and see the ascent to the finish. It all seems to be falling into place at the moment, but your mileage may vary). I'm up to the bit on streaming videos, so I thought a short break to savour the moment would be appropriate.



*ahhhhh*



Well, that seems long enough. Now on with the videos!




I chose this one because it illustrated one of the fantastic things about easily uploadable, easily acessible video: it can show you how to do stuff (stuff being the technical term, of course). To paraphrase Terry Pratchett, I am a great believer in the usefulness of knowledge as derived from books. Some things, though, need to be demonstrated and seen to be understood. Hence my love for things like this.

Life Lessons

The thing that always amazes me about life is that it keeps falling over itself to offer you lessons to learn. Sometimes we ignore it because we're too tired or cross or scared, but they're there all the same.

Today, for example, I learned a great deal. I'd have to say the most immediately applicable lesson was the difference between a properly tightened fuel filter on your car and an almost properly tightened one. It's one of those lessons that I think will stay with me.

Yeah.

Wikid II

I have to confess that Wikis challenge my sometimes, uh, less than fulsome belief in my fellow man. Anyone who has experienced any kind of online gaming environment will soon see that a public forum combined with effective anonymity creates, in a certain kind of person, the apparently irresistable desire to share their opinions. And by 'share', I mean 'shout'. And by 'opinions', I mean 'stupidity'. And by 'person', I mean...

Whoah there. Best keep this PG 13.

So it's always good to have a reminder that it's not you against the vocal idiots of the world, it's you and the rest of the world.

As one of my readers, of course, I am automatically discounting the possibility that you're one of the idiots, as you must be a person of taste, discretion and intellect.

Why are you looking at me like that?

Wikid

Geddit? Because it's about wikis but sounds kinda like 'wicked', so...aha hah ha....haaa *sigh*

Lame puns aside, I really liked the Book Lovers Wiki: we all know people love to get a recommendation before picking up a book. Doesn't matter who from, but we seem all seem to be far more inclined to give a book a go if we've gotten a thumbnail portrait of it from another. I'd really like to see something like that work in BCC libraries....actually, why limit it there? Why not an Aussie wiki of reviews? (It's at this point someone slaps their forehead and pens a comment pointing me to such a thing that already exists. Take that as a challenge if you will) I think it'd need a bit of staff contribution to get it up and running- people generally don't like being the first one to scrawl on the blank slate that is a brand-new wiki.

(But for some reason, you can't beat morons off with a stick when it comes to posting daft things like 'Whooo! 1st post!' in the comments fields of game websites. Sorry, where was I?)

Oh yeah, I also loved the Wookiepedia but candor compels me to admit I'd like it even if it was terribly designed. I just like Star Wars, okay? (Except for the three latest movies, but we'll pretend they don't exist and that Jar-Jar is just an extended bad dream we have yet to wake up from)

My Five Feeds

Okay, so the title sounds like some kind of sitcom about vampires or something, but I've carefully chosen (translation: randomly picked) 5 RSS feeds. It's been really good- I've always seen the little orange icon on sites and have heard people talking about how cool they are, but I've never bothered to chase it up. Now, I suspect, it'll turn into one of those things I never knew I wanted but will use. Possibly constantly. Like so many things in life, it's so simple once you know how.

For those who are interested, a demographic consisting I am sure of absolutely none of you, these are the feeds I've linked to...

The Powerhouse Museum
Librarian.net
LibraryJuice
Our own 23 Things blog, natch
And MightyGodKing...by turns funny, thoughtful and rude. Undoubtedly comes under the heading of 'Inappropriate use of the internet', but has some really good suggestions for graphic novels, too.

Warwind

1088114164_brom
Originally uploaded by adrian207

Hi guys,

I chose this as an image to share (whee! I found out how to link to blogs! Also: Yahoo is evil and Gmail is much, much nicer)

This was painted by the fantastic American artist Brom, who applies to fantasy and science fiction all the skill and dedication that a Renaissance painter might have applied to a portrait. I love practically all his work.

First Blood

Hi guys,

For my very-first-ever post, I've copped out with a link.

http://www.librarian.net/

A fantastic blog by Jessamyn West about all things library and Web 2.0, usually in conjunction.

-Troll