My hiatus from this site was unexpected, but should be over soon. In the meantime, you can read my hockey writing over at Litter Box Cats.

I decided at long-last to finish ripping the final few CDs from my collection into my computer. After several passes at the collection the last few years, the only remaining titles left were the majority of my Live Phish collection. The main reason I put them off is because they're all multiple disc sets and therefore time consuming to rip.

The original set of twenty albums came in binder pages loaded into cardboard sleeves. As those sell, the repressings are in regular quad cases. I had noticed a couple of years ago that some of the binder pages had started to leave a little bit of goo on the discs. It was only one or two of the set and so I wiped it off and didn't think much of it. I pulled the full set off the shelf on Thursday, pulled the binder page out of the first sleeve to note that it was wrinkled. I opened it up and the plastic has begun to break down leaving a massive amount of goo on the discs, which when it has sat long enough, is eating through the discs and into the foil layer, making the discs unplayable.

After designing the new entry forms, I went to work updating the other database forms. Most of it was minor adjustments, like changing the entry form for the old Professor table to new Contact table. A bigger change was the staff assignment form. While it was possible to assign staff to a setup or a pickup when the class was entered into the schedule, it wasn’t always possible to know who would be available. Also, staffing changes over time and someone scheduled to handle a class for a whole semester may be out for a day or more during that semester. The assign setups form showed all of the setups and pickups scheduled for a specific day and allowed the staff assigned to each to be set or changed.

When I found out that Public Image Ltd. was touring in the US, I was determined to make one of the shows. We ended up picking the New York show because we knew someone else who was making the trip for that show. For a number of reasons, we dropped our original plan to fly up and stay in a New York hotel for a full week and instead decided to drive up, make some stops on the drive and stay in New Jersey. At first, our plan was to leave on a Friday, drive up to Charleston and stay there for a day before heading back up towards New York.

As a librarian with a website, I don't write about work or libraries very much. I spend a lot more time writing about everything else I do, not because I don't have Big Thoughts on librarianship or because I'm not doing a lot at work, but because most of the time what I do isn't all that interesting.

As a public services librarian in charge of an understaffed, underfunded (aren't they all?) technology department, I spend very little time working on what I would consider "librarian" projects and a lot of time keeping equipment running, training staff, being a manager and generally trying to keep things working.

One of the things I've been working on during final exams is the Audio-Visual Department scheduling system.

I made these short ribs to go with a bottle of Barolo sent to us by my James and Elizabeth at Christmas. I asked what went with it and they said, "something heavy, like braised short ribs." I thought those sounded good, so I made some a couple of Saturdays ago.

Setlist: Pump, Mesopotamia, Private Idaho, Give Me Back My Man, Funplex, Strobe Light, Quiche Lorraine, 52 Girls, Roam, Party Out of Bounds, Love in the Year 3000, Hot Corner(?), Love Shack Encore: Planet Claire, Rock Lobster

Setlist: Thunderbird, Francine, Waiting for the Bus > Jesus Just Left Chicago, Pin Cushion, I'm Bad I'm Nationwide, Got Me Under Pressure, Future Blues, Rock Me Baby, Cheap Sunglasses, I Need You Tonight, Hey Joe, Party on the Patio, Just Got Paid, Gimme All Your Lovin', Sharp Dressed Man, Legs, Encore: Viva Las Vegas, La Grange > Sloppy Drunk > Bar-B-Que > La Grange, Tush

Setlist: Hash Pipe, Troublemaker, Undone (The Sweater Song), Surf Wax America, Let It All Hang Out, Perfect Situation, Dope Nose* (vocal Scott Shriner), Say It Ain't So*, Can't Stop Partying, Why Bother? (vocal Brian Bell), (If You're Wondering If I Want You To) I Want You To, My Name Is Jonas (vocal Pat Wilson, Scott Shriner, Rivers Cuomo), Beverly Hills. Encore 1: Pork & Beans, Kids (MGMT cover) > Poker Face (Lady Gaga cover). Encore 2: Islands in the Sun, Buddy Holly

Setlist: Thriller, Rock With You, Off the Wall, Billie Jean, Don't Stop ('Till You Get Enough), Black or White, Smooth Criminal, Say Say Say, Bad, I'll Be There, Hot Tub, Beat It, We Are the World

One of my favorite shows of 2008 was Tragedy: The All-Heavy Metal Tribute to the Bee Gees. That group plays metal arrangements of the disco-era Bee Gees hits and sounds a bit like the Gibb brothers fronting Judas Priest and is complete with an over-the-top stage show. We saw them opening for a band we'll travel almost anywhere to see, 2 Skinnee J's. So, when we heard about Dangerous, the Heavy Metal Tribute to Michael Jackson, we were there.