Thoughts.

Every semester is something new, up to the bitter end. College has been so beyond what i thought it was supposed to be. I grew up in ways that i didn't even know people could grow, i learned things that i didn't even know existed. I don't regret any of it, though if i were to do it again, I admit, I would change a thing or two, but nothing too huge. I look forward to the next adventure, though it is going to be nothing like i had imagined it would be. I don't know where I'm going to wind up in a year, that excites me. What excites me even more, is that it could be anywhere. Whenever you get too down about today, just remember there are plenty of life experiences waiting down the line.

Unmasked!

Last we left our intrepid splendiferous hero, Elliptical Man, skirmishing for food after successfully completing an important event to rekindle people's love for fine Jewish composers. Elliptical Man's family even sojourned to attend the event. During our hero's perilous search for a fine dining establishment, he notes the calm that has come over the city.

"Perhaps," he considers, "because I fed the Tubby Tabby her tuna tonight that the town has turned to such a peaceful state, or maybe it was a fantastic concert, either way, things seem to be at peace."

However, as he said these things aloud, gusts began to tussle the tree's branches. Knowing that the only reason wind

would suddenly kick up and possibly tamper with an otherwise good evening, it meant that the Pocatello Wind had heard him monologging...but then, he would have had to be in hearing distance, and withing the Perkin's Parking Lot, there was nobody but him and his family.

His father being hard of hearing was not a logical choice, his girlfriend had been with him many times, and never had the wind whipped when she was present. So it left only one option...that the Pocatello Wind must be... his own brother!

What will become of these shattered family values! How will the plot thicken? Whatever happened to that cop gocart thing? And will the Tubby Tabby ever shut up!? Find out in our next issue!

Every Thing on It

This blog post is dedicated to, and about, a life long hero of mine, Shel Silverstein. If you are not familiar with this man, he is an author and poet of children's literature, including such popular titles like The Giving Tree, Where the Sidewalk Ends, A Light in the Attic, and many other titles to his name.

His books were some of the first pieces of written art I have in living memory. My parents would always read to me and my brother before we could really read (and even a little while after), and my dad would usually select some poems from one of Shel's books. His unique illustrations and accessible children's poetry are iconic for me, as well as (dare I say) a great percentage of those from my generation.

Recently, his estate (or publishing company) decided to release a new book of his previously unpublished materials, titled Every Thing on It. I personally like to believe his estate allowed this, because to me it would be insulting to such a brilliant man's memory to just go ahead and capitalize on a dead man's B sides, which were unpublished for reasons. So if his estate deemed it was ok, then Shel probably wanted these snippits to improve, but ultimately his wish was for this art to make it to the public.

In any case, reading through this posthumous tome, I feel almost that Shel knew his end was coming, and had a sense of the weight his writings would have on so many people. The book feels more like it applies to my life now as a 20-something than even his children's books did when I was a child. To me it seems that Shel understood he was more than just a children's author, but that he himself was a writer for our generation. Admittedly, I am being a bit presumptous about his importance, but that is only because I only know what it is like to have him as such a huge influence. Nevertheless, when reading the collection, it feels like it wasn't written with children in mind, but how Mr. Silverstein envisioned those children he was writing for would grow up to be, the things they would need to hear, or the feelings they would need reminded of.

Generations X and Baby Boomers both had one Dr. Suess, another beloved author who not only had a unique poetic flavor, but also very unique illustrations and huge impact on a countless number of lives. It is well known that Seuss did write for all ages, his topics were very controversial, but also humbling, or just plain silly. His writing was ear marked, and a lot of posthumous material has fabricated over the decades since. And his material speaks to the generation he wrote for when he was just in it for the kids.

So please don't ever forget those that were able to move you as a child, teen, adult, or whenever. As artists, they understand the scope of what they are accomplishing, and hope that they can deliver it in the safest and clever manner available to them. So even in his death, Mr. Silverstein has been able to remind me of what it is in life that sometimes I forget, or need and want. And he is able to do this with just a few lines of silly, simple, lyrics.

I tip my hat to you, whatever plane you may be roaming Shel.

The 7 Year Itch

This isn't a post about the movie, or the subject the phrase is supposed to mean (being that after being in a relationship for 6 years it is a trial to not cheat in the 7th or something like that). No this is about the fact that I have been in my college town for 5 1/2 years. Before I leave, it will be a full 6 years of this town, and despite much incentive to stay more, I just couldn't do anything professionally or academically for a 7th year here. Not only is my #2 grad school choice doing a partial in state program here in the fall of '12, but I also have a shot at a full time job where I work that will pay me a professional wage. Both would be exceedingly tempting, if it were anywhere else in the world than where I live.

Why is it I have a hard time staying despite these obvious advantageous incentives?

1) I've never really lived in a town for longer than 6 years. I get an itch to just move someplace different where I am unfamiliar. The world is small, my life is short, I don't want to settle in a town until I'm ready to start a family.

2) This town has no soul. I have tried to make the best of it, but this town has nothing to offer. I just want a book store, someplace I could hang out, and something more than just going to the movies. Not to mention the populace of this town is generally uneducated, and don't support education, but also are completely uncultured and don't make a stab at it.

3) Ending my undergrad is a landmark in my life, seems like the perfect time for change. I'm willing to stick around this place for those few weeks that my classes are actually going on, but I don't want to stay here for another 2 years. I'd freaking kill myself (not really, but I wouldn't really progress as a person very much).

Now I understand the job market sucks. I understand that student loans are crippling. I am not an individual who lies down and takes what stupid things society says I "should" believe, or I "should" do. I intend to specialize in a technological field, a field that despite what the news wants you to believe, is still growing and needs more people to fill the ranks. My plans aren't to work in a library per se, but to program, alter, tweak, and design catalogs, web sites... Even then, this is just for a day job while I continue to compose and travel around the world, and try and make my music a full time job. No, this isn't delusions of grandeaur, I will work myself to the dirt to make this happen, because even though the world economy is tanking, I don't need to go down with it. Money is immaterial, it's imaginary, if I need more I will figure a way to get more. I can market my intelligence, I can learn new tricks to satisfy employers, I can work hard, and even do manual labor. But, if I want this lifestyle, I CANNOT STAY WHERE I AM. Funny when you live in a town where its GDP drops well above national rates (meaning local economy=impossibly poor) that a dream of making decent money, just isn't that realistic.

There are plenty of people my age that make 6 figure incomes, I WILL be one of them before I am 30, and I WILL have traveled to at least 3 continents at that point too. This will happen, but not so long as I live in this town.

So, I do have senioritis, I have an itch to get the hell out of this town, but that's because I want to do fun things, live the life I want, despite society telling me a lower middle class citizen should stay there.

I might sounds like an idealistic college student, but the only thing I have really learned in college is that to get anything you really want in life, you have to work at it. If there is one thing I believe I am good at, it's that I am a good worker.

Hiatus!

It has been an eternity since I've made a post. Sorry about the hiatus, summer ended and school began. So let me just break this long drawn silence with something that matters a great deal to me: the first amendment.

Why out of all things, would I decide to post something about the freedom of speech? Simple: I work (live rather) in a library, and having the freedom to print and post your opinions is a God given right (just a phrase). It is amazing for me to think that we live in this wonderous age of technology, where all information is a click away, we can see people instantly, THE WORLD OVER, and that we can become the most educated humans ever to have lived! Even more amazing are the people who prefer to remain ignorant and spiteful of this great gambit of society. There are organizations that are supposed to represent the root of the ideas of liberalism-literally, "the belief in the written word," and not just agree to challenge printed books from being publicly accessed, but to outright BAN these marks of society from the public altogether!

Now this sounds overly dramatic, but this is my life, and it is drama to me. I believe that everyone has their rights to express their opinions openly, and without criticism so long as it doesn't harm people. Now this is a bit tricky to justify because how do you claim harm or expression? Well harm is easy, because I mean physical harm, forcing someone against their will. Not this "I really don't like those pictures of naked people, and it hurts me to look at them." Nobody forces you to see it, and if it offends you that much, turn a blind eye. I mean if someone were to murder another because they were of a different race, and the previous person wanted to prove that race was weaker. That isn't speech, that's another class of expression entirely. Opinion though, that to me means any artistic or intelligent expression. So art, writing, public or private speaking, music etc... I understand not everyone agrees with this, but hey, my professional opinion.

Now consider that with all this wealth of information, groups that support this undiluted freedom, to display any and all information pertinent to their collections, would remove an item. This occurs from drastic measures. Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn is a classic example. When this book was written, it was an adventure story about a boy, freeing his friend, Nigger Jim, and exploring the great American South. This was all based on the times and events that Mark Twain would have been able to witness and live through in his age, not fictional like our day's elves(fantasy) and androids(sci-fi). So many people pull this book out from the stacks because they claim it promotes the following:

racism

anarchy

ignorance

disestablishment

theft

immorality

and probably much more.

I've read this book many times over. I love this book. I have learned a great many principles from this book, and I understand there are many elements to it that can be said as politically incorrect or corrupt in our day and age. Those who often want this book banned themselves have never read it. They prefer to make a judgement decision instead of educating themselves and making an informed decision. To me this is sad, choosing ignorance and hatred over words rather than trying to further yourself as a human. What is even sadder is libraries caving to such a dishonor to the first amendment. There are reasons why establishments do ban books that I can understand, namely threats of a physical type (yes, small libraries do have threats of being burned down, destroyed, or other such stupid acts). I also understand that if you have a K-5 library (elementary level) that Dostoyevsky might be banned because it is age innapropriate. This idea doesn't conflict with my moral philosophy because a book of that callibur IS innapropriate to expect a 10 year old to read and understand. Now do I believe a 10 year old can't read Dostoyevsky? No, I do believe if you raise children correctly and openly, they CAN read it and gain something from it, but it is hard for me to swallow that they would have the brain development to understand the political, arching, religious, and all other deep topics that a book of that magnitude would really imply. (age has been an argument made badly too, Harry Potter is just an example, parents too afraid to say it is "anti-christian" or other such nonsense). Most of the time however the reasons are just silly-going back to racism, anarchy, etc...

It is a library's function to house materials of all kinds freely. It is the orginization that hosts the library to decide that library's goals (academic, children's, scientific, religious, ...), and it is the librarians' jobs to maintain and expand the collections appropriately. Provided these librarians do their job correctly (not hard) then all materials they enter into the collection serves a purpose to further the library's objective goal. So banning Harry Potter from a children's library is rather counter productive, being that that particular series was born to be read by and for children (based on its content as well as its creators opinion). So when a librarian purchases this item, it would stand to reason they would back this decision up against all ends, but it just isn't so. Anyways I'm ranting, so to draw this back.

I believe that everyone has their rights to express their opinions, facts, and other trivial knowledge that they want, as well as to investigate other's opinions, facts, and other trivial knowledge as well. Don't be a person who decides to force others to turn a blind eye by revoking their abilities to ascertain these items, because then you're taking away another person's freedoms just so you can remain in the same bubble as before.

Here is a fancy-pants site about banned books straight from the horses mouth! Please, don't let your freedoms be challenged and your personal growth be stunted! Go read a banned book, go see an art gallery, watch some avant-gaurde films, try and find the artistry and message in a medium that you just couldn't stand, or have decided is too against you to be valuable. You get one life, and deciding not to as much with it as possible is a waste.

A helpful walkthrough

So this is a guide to assist my peers in using the library effectively (underclassmen, listen up). This will be specifically about the library I work at and you students will more than likely use.
First topic: organizational system. There are dozens of systems libraries go by, the most common in America however are Dewey Decimal and what I will be discussing, the Library of Congress system (loc). The LoC system is a decimal system that utilizes letters and numbers. It begins with a head letter, designating the broad topic. Next is the number, which designates a narrower topic within the broad topic, or subtopic if you will. After that is another letter-number set, which usually designates author/series and book, or a sub-sub topic. So, a book on the biographical history of Johannes Brahms would read:
ML -broad topic (music lit)
410 -subtopic catagory for composer biography
B8 -b is for brahms' last name, the 8 is because there are 7 other subtopics catalogued under ML 410. B--
C54 -c is for the author's last name (Clive) and 54 is for previous subtopic entries to C.
2006 -year published, not always needed or present.
So it reads:
ML
410
B8
C54
2006
And that is the complete call number to the book Brahms and His World: A Biographical Dictionary (at ISU's library that is).
Sometimes you may see a decimal number, those are the same idea, only a narrower topic field. (so ML410 will still be organized before ML410.5). It should go without saying that call numbers are alphabetical, then ascending numerical (A-Z ; 1-100...).

Next is the catalogue. The more advanced your search quarry, the more specific hit you will get, but I'll get into the nitty gritty on this in a later post. Just know it exists and you can do more than title searches, and if all else fails, ask a librarian, they can help.

So for headings that involve you music students this is a quick list:
L-LF: teaching methods, classroom topics, teaching in general
M: sheet music, "performable" music, also "how to" with music software
ML: biographical music topics (composer, era, genre, studio, etc..)
MT: music teaching, elementary music, methods books, technology guides (more on the use, not how to use).
Sometimes more modern composers will have an odd feature somewhere in the N's, but this is pictures and art, so not usually helpful.

Next is periodicals. They are catalogued the same as main collection materials (in LoC), but they are the magazines and the like. These are useful for research on modern takes on things and the latest findings on old topics. They can be difficult to navigate, so always know: periodical title, article title, article author, topic, volume/edition/pages/... Of the periodical. the more you know, the easier to find in the stacks. Of course we have a vast collection of online databases.

That begins the next topic: internet research. Off of our library's homepage there is a link that says "databases." I prefer to organize by subject, so I can just click music. Pf the three main databases there should be an EBSCO database, which is your typical periodical database. Next is the Oxford online music collection (or whatever the blast they're calling it now). This houses an impressive collection of materials in an encyclopedic fasion. Third is a database where you can find listening examples to most classical/art music. The second two are invaluable for research, so get friendly with them (i would like to apologize for any errors at this time, I'm doing this on my phone away from a computer).

checking out materials happens at the circulation desk, and you need your student id to check out (no id, no checkout).

This should cover the basics of library usage, next time, advanced techniques.

posted from Bloggeroid

Infernal!

Our unscrupulous hero was last seen changing his location, feeling that his old nesting grounds to be safe, he moved closer to the central area of town. Close to his daily life, it adds a sense of security to his identity to be so close to his alter-ego's hub of activity. Even for heros, moving can be a trying task to take on, with boxing, packing, moving, cleaning, unpacking, it takes a great wealth of energy to do it all.
Having successfully unpacked most of the house, Elliptical Man decided to do some celebrating! Without the help of the Tubby Tabby (whom has been tragically lethargic with suspicion having moved right across the street from the Dumpster Cats), EM sought all day for the right materials, food, and favors to through a mini luau! The day was warm and sunny, perfect to fire up the grill and get some kabobs ready for the lady, and in style too!
As always though, the Pocatello Wind is with a sense of irony. Having placed all the fun decorations (thrifty Mr. Elliptical Man got them at the local dollar store) our hero was ready to get the coals burning with anticipation of the skewered entrees to come. Before you could give to strides to the nearest stop sign, the bastard of bad attitudes, the ruiner of meals, the Pocatello Wind had struck, bringing with him a terrible rain storm!
Our hero, never to cave to any evil threat, stayed on to man the grill, and get the celebratory dinner no matter what! Toiling with effort, and shielding the grill from rain using local tabliture, EM was successful at foiling the Wind's effort to ruin his good times, and thus Elliptical Man saved the day once again!