CIL2007: Pre-conference Day

Not much to tell as I'm already as tired as if I'm on day four. My session went well but as usual I had too much material for the time allowed. I did do an audio recording of my session but I've not yet secured permission to distribute it. I'll work on that tomorrow.

I ended up trying both Wii bowling and Guitar Hero after Jenny and Aaron's session on gaming. There is video evidence of this but I have not yet secured a copy of said evidence. In the mean time, here's a video I too of David Lee King battling Aaron Schmidt in Guitar Hero. (I don't remember who won.)

I went out for dinner (sushi for me) with Louise, Jenny, Amanda and Aaron and most of us ended up meeting up with many others including Meridith and Jessamyn at the hotel bar.

Tomorrow, the sessions start. NO real plans just some intentions when it comes to attending particular sessions so you can be a surprised as I am when I post.

Sushi

I've not had sushi since I moved to Lincoln. It's available, I've just not had the opportunity. These images reminded me of this.

IL2006: Day Three Wrap-up

Last day of the conference and I woke up tired. That's not necessarily a bad sign as it was not unexpected. Plumes for coffee, by myself this morning as others decided to sleep in. (This also was not unexpected.) Morning keynote then off to the wikis souble-session. Lunch somewhere; I honestly don't remember where. (Oh yeah, it was the free lunch that I rushed through before doing my book signing at the Information Today booth. Duh!) Then back to the conference center for "social softwr" and blogging tools.

Liz Lawley's closing keynote was on gaming and I did ask her a question about her thoughts on what we're doing at the Second Life Library 2.0. I didn't blog it at the time as I didn't want to be typing as she was answering my question. What she said was somewhat unexpected yet thought provoking. Basically, she doesn't feel that SL is a game at all (I agree) as there's no "point" or "goals" for the "players". The more interesting point she made was that she feels that SL is "the AOL of virtual worlds". In other words, it's where companies and people will get used to things before moving on to the next stage, as may did with AOL before moving on to the Internet. Thanks Liz! I enjoyed your response very much and I'll be thinking about what you said for a while.

I then went back to my room for two hours to relax and watch the first two eipsodes of Torchwood(!). At 6:30 eleven of us met in the Marriott lobby and headed off for some great Sushi at Ko-To. (If you want spectacular sushi at reasonable prices without all the "fru fru" atsmophere, Ko-To is the place to go in Monterey!) $265 dollars later (plus tip) we were all stuffed and looking to head back to the Crown & Anchor. There more merryment was had, "goodbyes" and "see you in March"es were shared and I finally succumbed to the exhaustion, leaving about 10:15.

This morning I'm waiting to meet up with an OCLC researcher to talk about social software for an hour or so before heading back to San Francisco for a 2:30pm flight. I'm assuming that I'll blog about the meeting when I get a chance and will definitely post some final conference thoughts in the next 48 hours.

Internet Librarian, Day -2

It's Sunday morning in Monterey, CA and I've found my way across the street from the Portola Plaza Hotel for some free WiFi so I can finally uplaod some photos, a video, and make this post. Yesterday was an interesting day...

I woke up to snow in Denver and didn't notice it until I opened up my back door to head out to the car. The plane taking me from Denver to San Francisco had been sitting all night at DIA so a total de-icing was required. Somehow we let Denver 30 minutes late but got to San Francisco only ten minutes late. (Don't tell me those "estimated flight times" aren't being manipulated by the airlines to make them look good.) Anyway, I got my rental car quickly (thank you National Car Rental for giving me executive level in our program as I was totally able skip the long line @ SFO) and hit the road down to Monterey.

I decided to take the scenic route so I headed down US280 and cut over to Half Moon Bay on CA92 to take CA1 south to Monterey. Well, as the computer in the car told me when I got to Monterey, I'd averages 31.5 mph the whole trip. 100 miles took me about four hours. The two worst spots were CA92 where I never put my foot on the gas pedal, and Santa Cruz where everything was backed up again. The problem on CA92 was a large pumpkin patch and fall festival in Half Moon Bay that had traffic backed up for miles. In Santa Cruz, your guess is as good as mine.

The speed of the traffic did allow me to get some good pictures on the way (in the flickr photoset of this trip) and I did stop at Pescadero State Beech and got some great photos of the coast and a video of some waves coming in. (Posted to my YouTube account. Links at the end.)

I check into the hotel, got to my room, logged on to their DSL connection and agreed to pay the $9.95/day fee. I did a search, downloaded a file, typed in the URL to upload my vid to YouTube and everything stopped. Their system would no longer give me a valid IP address and despite a tech coming to help me try to fix the problem for 30 minutes, nothing was to be done. I don't believe it's my laptop (as that it's working here but not in my hotel room) and I desperately hoping that it'll work in the room where my pre-conference is this afternoon. I'll be getting to the room 1.5hrs early and meeting the tech there to see what happens. Cross your fingers everyone.

I then went to dinner with Karen Coombs (University of Houston) and Jason (Montana State University, Bozeman) for some Sushi, a great walk down to Cannery Row, coffee, and some spectacular conversation about conference politics, wikis, blogs, servers, and book writing. I wasn't up as late as I could have been but later than I should have been.

A full eight hours of solid sleep later, I'm up and taking it easy for the morning, catching up on the uploading and e-mail, and waiting to see what'll happen when I try to use my laptop for my session.

As promised earlier in this post, here are the links to my YouTube videos and to my flickr photoset for the conference.

Sushi Etiquette

I'm not totally new to sushi but it's becoming something I eat on a semi-regular basis. I thought I had most of it down but The Sushi FAQ - How to Eat Sushi taught me a few things. For example I didn't know that "gari (ginger) is considered a palate cleanser and eaten between bites or different types of sushi. It is not meant to be eaten in the same bite as a piece of sushi."

Sushi!

DSC01538
Originally uploaded by RaubDaub.

Just had to share this photo I found in flickr this morning.

Web standards?

Sushi Den
Originally uploaded by travelinlibrarian.

Here's proof that a Web site can follow "Web standards" (they say so in their code: "Sorry, this site's design is only visible in a graphical browser that supports web standards, but its content is accessible to any browser or Internet device.") but still not allow people access to their site. This is yet another site that won't let me do something because I have a .info at the end of my e-mail address.

The "four things" meme

I've been tagged...

Four jobs you have had in your life:
1. Internet Trainer
2. Writer
3. Bookseller
4. Clerk @ a Bed, Bath, & Beyond

Four movies you would watch over and over:
1. Labyrinth
2. Brotherhood of the Wolf
3. Chasing Amy
4. High Fedelity

Four places you have lived:
1. Rochester, NY
2. Albany, NY
3. Las Vegas, NV
4. Aurora, CO

Four TV shows you love to watch:
1. 24
2. Bones
3. Battlestar Galactica
4. Doctor Who

Four places you have been on vacation:
1. London, England
2. San Francisco, CA
3. St. Louis, MO
4. Phoenix, AZ

Four websites I visit daily
1. Bloglines
2. Blogger
3. del.icio.us
4. flickr

Four of my favorite foods:
1. Sushi
2. Cheesecake
3. Pizza
4. Garlic Nan

Four places I would rather be right now:
1. Anywhere but a Holiday Inn
2. Anywhere but a Holiday Inn
3. Anywhere but a Holiday Inn
4. Anywhere but a Holiday Inn

Four people I will tag thinking they will respond.....
1. I do these but I don’t pass them along…
2.
3.
4.

Four things I always carry with me
1. Pen
2. Treo 600
3. Wallet
4. Keys

How to Eat Sushi

How to Eat Sushi
Originally uploaded by travelinlibrarian.

For those of us that need some help, here's an instructional video.

Sushi Pictures

Fun with sushi.
for L

Soft Sushi

The Original Sushi Pillow is currently available in three flavors. One Ebi Nigiri for moi please.
Thanks L