thursday next

TLC has facilitated interdepartmental communication and allowed me to see aspects of my coworker's personalities that I would not otherwise be privy to, but honestly despite all the opportunities to meet and greet other Nova library employees, I tend to spend most of my TLC online time with the other two YS librarians. Sure, I could just as easily shout from my office door to Rebecca's to ask how her day is going, but I like the added communication and insight I get from reading her blog. If nothing else, I can see the goofy picture she's posted of the Shermanettes (one where I'm wearing crazy BFG ears for a Roald Dahl storytime). And while Beth isn't quite as prolific a poster, it's fun to peruse her posts -- she has such a distinct writing and speaking style, I can almost hear her reading the posts aloud. It's not surprising that when I finally checked the facebook account I'd established months ago, in addition to friends requests from my older brother, a friend from undergrad and a friend from high school, I also had a poke from Beth. I promptly passed the poke along to Rebecca, and I'm sure the cycle of pokes and messages is just starting.

Readers of my blog may have noticed that in internet land I often go by the name Thursday Next. Occasionally that name has been taken by another Jasper Fforde fan, so in some places I'm also known as next.thursday (or some variation thereof). Obviously, not every Thursday you meet on the net is me, but it still seemed odd to search for story times at podcast.net (looking for public libraries posting songs and storytime sessions on the Internet) and stumble across a podcast posted by a Next Thursday that is, uhm... not quite work appropriate. "Hmm," I say to myself, "that's not the kind of bedtime story I'm looking for. I'll try a yahoo podcast search instead." This time I don't even have a chance to type in search words -- 5 of the top 20 podcasts in the "most popular" section of the main page are marked "explicit". Two of the top twenty, however, are language assistance podcats (for learning Chinese and ESL learners). This inspired me to search for "learn spanish" and check out a few podcasts that will (hopefully) help me connect and converse with my boyfriend's family. There is certainly a wealth of useful information on the interweb for library patrons, but I'd advise you to use caution when including podcast search engines in your programming.

Come downstairs to PLS to see a special Halloween display featuring the eyeball collection of Dick Fredrickson. Thanks Dick!

I discovered Kayak on my own a few days ago when price shopping for plane tickets, so it seems appropriate that I discuss this tech tool in today's post for tlc. Kayak is quick and convenient; a one stop shop for comparing the prices of the major discount ticket distributors. You can select your vendors, hotwire, expedia, etcetera, and the results will pop up in multiple windows side by side on your screen. The only thing not to like about Kayak is the logo, I know it's supposed to look like, well, a kayak, but to me it's more like the eye of Sauron. Creepy.

Most things in Library 2.0 have a cute name, and zoho is no exception. So it's cute and supposedly convenient but I think the odds aren't great that I will use this tool often. There are only so many gizmos and gadgets I want to add to my life, and this one doesn't seem essential. Yes, it's convenient that I can, presumably, save a document and continue working on it from a different computer, but I already tend to email myself important documents (thanks to the absolutely ridiculous storage capacity of gmail). In an ideal world, I'd just buy a kickass laptop and take it with me everywhere. Besides, I find zoho a total pain to use; I ended up clicking on random things only to watch the screen refresh to show ... the exact same screen. While some of ya'll seem to have mastered zoho with ease (*cough* tallmanicus), I plan on pretending zoho doesn't exsist.

NEW YORK - Harry Potter fans, the rumors are true: Albus Dumbledore, master wizard and Headmaster of Hogwarts, is gay. J.K. Rowling, author of the mega-selling fantasy series that ended last summer, outed the beloved character Friday night while appearing before a full house at Carnegie Hall.

After reading briefly from the final book, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows," she took questions from audience members.

She was asked by one young fan whether Dumbledore finds "true love."

"Dumbledore is gay," the author responded to gasps and applause.

She then explained that Dumbledore was smitten with rival Gellert Grindelwald, whom he defeated long ago in a battle between good and bad wizards. "Falling in love can blind us to an extent," Rowling said of Dumbledore's feelings, adding that Dumbledore was "horribly, terribly let down."

Dumbledore's love, she observed, was his "great tragedy."

"Oh, my god," Rowling concluded with a laugh, "the fan fiction."

Potter readers on fan sites and elsewhere on the Internet have speculated on the sexuality of Dumbledore, noting that he has no close relationship with women and a mysterious, troubled past. And explicit scenes with Dumbledore already have appeared in fan fiction.

Rowling told the audience that while working on the planned sixth Potter film, "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince," she spotted a reference in the script to a girl who once was of interest to Dumbledore. A note was duly passed to director David Yates, revealing the truth about her character.

Rowling, finishing a brief "Open Book Tour" of the United States, her first tour here since 2000, also said that she regarded her Potter books as a "prolonged argument for tolerance" and urged her fans to "question authority."

Not everyone likes her work, Rowling said, likely referring to Christian groups that have alleged the books promote witchcraft. Her news about Dumbledore, she said, will give them one more reason.

Personally, this just gives me one more reason to thank Rowling for creating such a wonderful world full of rich and diverse characters. It is important for people to see their lives reflected in literature, and many times the GLBT population is either shut out of popular fiction or relegated to small sidekick roles. Dumbledore is a popular and widely respected character, known for his intelligence, integrity and strength. I only wish that we had known earlier in the series -- better late than never I suppose but the fact that Rowling only felt she could reveal Dumbledore's sexuality after the series is safely finished only emphasizes that homosexuality is still seen as taboo, particularly in the world of juvenile literature. But let's focus on the positive, young people who are questioning thier sexuality or struggling for acceptance now have a new positive role model, one who is a legend in the wizarding world -- Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore.

I must be a genius, since I already wrote a post on technorati for tlc. Check under August posts or just click on the tlc label and scroll down for the original post.

Alright guys, I need you to do me a favor. I've lived in Fort Lauderdale for over a year now and I only have two favorite restaurants: 1. Mario the Baker: good Italian food with lots of garlic & 2. Capsian Persian Grill : simply delicious. I love to play in the kitchen, making random recipes and a few favorites and Pablo is such a damn good cook that we hardly ever bother going out to eat. It's easier on the budget I suppose, but it means the kitchen always seems to be a bit messy and we hardly ever get a night off or a night out. So, back to that favor ... everyone should go to the nsulibs wiki, check out the favorite resturants section and recommend at least one good local place to eat. What kind of resturants? Anything non-TGIFy (everyone knows where to find Chili's & Bennigans). I'd love to hear about little local places, mom and pop diners, great ethnic cuisine and the like. Thanks!