Kinetic Brew

Last week I blogged about a sign I saw on O Street for a new coffee shop named Kinetic Brew. Seems that on Friday's they're doing a "name your own price" sale. After Fluxus left some comments encouraging me to stop by (especially today) I gathered up my coffee cohorts and headed down the street.

We chatted withe Jeremy the owner a little bit and he said that this was just the third week he'd tried it and so far it had been going quite well. Most people, he said, were confused by the concept and insisted on paying the list price for their drinks. I'll admit that the three of us all paid below list price but as a result he's definitely earned three new customers.

Since today is also Halloween, he was in costume. And what a costume it was! This thing was totally tricked out with both lights and sound. I think next time I'll bring more cash and pay double for my drink just because of the costume.

  

Thanks Jeremy! We'll be back.

OpenSource pricing

Taking a cue from some recent attempts of bands trying the "set your own price" model of selling (I'm assuming) a local bar/coffee house had this sign out at lunch time today. I'm thinking of going back to talk to them after work but I'm still exhausted from conference so I might not get to it 'till next week. (Yes, a very long post about IL2008 is on the way.)

A brutal stabbing & user-generated content

It can't be said that our police chief, and blogger, here in Lincoln doesn't have a sense of humor. From the Lincoln Journal Star:

“There was a brutal stabbing last night,” Lincoln Police Chief Tom Casady told reporters the next day.
Victim’s last name: Bob.
First name: Sponge.
Yes, he wears square pants.
And he’s yellow.

"Police had no word on the condition of the air-filled Christmas decoration, but they estimated damage caused by the stab wound at $20." The article adds that "luckily, the fallen SpongeBob SquarePants was rescued with some clear duct tape."

Beyond the obvious humor in this story I noticed something more serious and interesting at the end of the article.

Publishing opinions about the guilt, innocence or character of the accused in open criminal cases can affect that person's constitutional right to a fair trial. For that reason, JournalStar.com has chosen not to accept user comments on this story.

In other words, there are just some stories that the paper isn't going to let you comment on since those comments might influence a defendants right to a fair trial. Interesting. I've not seen this before but the again I don't read newspaper Web sites with much frequency. Is this common or is this the first time you've see this too?

In-service Day

On Friday I was honored to attend and present at the Lincoln City Library's In-Service day. I haven't had a faster or more fun Arbor Day in my life. I was great to meet so many librarians from my new home town and to see how excited you were about all the new technologies I was presenting. At one point during my Flickr presentation someone asked for more specific examples of how to use Flickr in a library. Well, here's one. Use Flickr to post a slideshow of an event on the library's blog/Web site.

Embed Slideshow

Being introduced

Being introduced
Originally uploaded by Travelin' Librarian.

I'm now giving my flickr session to Lincoln City librarians.

University of Nebraska won't play along

I can't say that living in Lincoln is going to turn me into a Huskers fan but this news has started to turn me into a fan of someone on campus. Turns out that University of Nebraska will bill RIAA $11 for each threatening letter received from the RIAA. The RIAA has backed down!

Snow in Lincoln

I noticed this before but now that I actually live here it's totally blogable. People in this town are obsessive about snow removal. Yes, this is generally a good thing when it comes to the city streets. In fact, I'm totally impressed when it comes to the city removing snow from the public roads. The obsession comes into play when it comes to folks removing snow from their driveways and sidewalks. I grew up along Lake Ontario in New York, and lived in Denver for the past ten years. I know snow. It snows, people dig out. If you can drive on it, it's not worth the trouble. Here in Lincoln, by 7am the snowblowers, shovels, and brooms (yes, brooms) are out and my 9am, I'm the only house on the street without a clean driveway and sidewalk. Talk about trying to keep up with the Jones'. However, when I cam home from my first day at the office on Thursday, planning on shoveling out my driveway before making dinner, I found that one of my neighbors has taken their snowblower to my driveway. Now that's being neighborly!

Lincoln Update

I'm in Lincoln waiting for my stuff to arrive at the house tomorrow morning. Today was a productive day which included investigating new bank accounts and cell phone service. Shelving equipment was also purchased for the basement as we'll be using it as the master bedroom. Most importantly (to me anyway) I got my Lincoln City Library card! I'm a legit citizen of Lincoln now.