Sunday, February 22, 2009

Early Voting in Chicago

Made it over to the early voting station at the Lincoln Park Branch of CPL during a break. It's for the Primary to replace Congressman Rahm Emanuel. The last time I had been there was in October for the General Election. Needless to say, the one or two people waiting to vote this time round in no way matched the scores of people all packed in and waiting just a couple of months ago. Instead of close to an hour, it took maybe 5 minutes.

Obama a Lefty ?

Am I the last person on earth to realize that Obama writes with his left hand? You know us 'lefties' feel a kinship for one another. Notice he's wearing his watch on his left hand as well. A true lefty might wear it on his right -- to afford mobility to the dominant hand.

Saturday, February 07, 2009

Document of the Day: Dead But Still Homeless in Mississippi

Apparently until the following legislation finally passes, if you're dead in Mississippi but don't meet the "residency requirements", your chances of getting a pauper's grave don't look too good:

MS HB 1316, 2007-2007, Holland; An Act To Authorize Counties To Waive The Residency Requirement For Determination Of Pauper Status To Qualify For Burial Costs; To Provide That Counties And Municipalities Burying Paupers May Use County Or Municipal Employees And Equipment, Purchase Necessary Materials And Contract For Necessary Services For That Purpose; To Provide That Those Provisions Do Not Authorize Public Funds To Be Used For Ceremonies Associated With Burials Or Funerals; And For Related Purposes.

No doubt, the current requirement is in place to prevent Mississippi from becoming a haven for transient dead people.

[Found while searching on a demo of Serial Solutions 360 Search for "keyword contains burial and materials"]

Wednesday, February 04, 2009

Chicagoland Drupal4Lib BoF (3/20, 1:30p)

I'm pleased to announce a Chicagoland Drupal4Lib BoF on Friday, 3/20 (1:30p-4p) at DePaul's Loop Campus, 1 E. Jackson (10th fl., Rm# 10028), Chicago.

GOALS OF THE CHICAGOLAND DRUPAL4LIB BoF

The Chicagoland Drupal4Lib BoF will be an opportunity for librarians to get together and discuss how they use (or would like to use) Drupal in a library context. We'll ask people to present projects they're working on and we'll field questions on problems and approaches to implementing Drupal. All levels of knowledge from expert to n00b are welcome.

Also, since we're the 'host' city for the ALA Convention in Chicago in July, we'll have an opportunity to think about what we might want to do for that.

This Chicagoland Drupal4Lib BoF is a follow-up to our successful get-togethers last year at the Metropolitan Librarian System and at the wildly sold-out Chicago Drupal BarCamp in October.

CHICAGOLAND DRUPAL4LIB BoF - QUARTERLY BASIS

We'll be doing one of these on a quarterly basis -- or at least that's the intention. The people at DePaul have kindly made their location available for March; We'll be meeting at McCormick Place as part of ALA in July; After that we'll be meeting at the downtown offices of the Metropolitan Library System (MLS).

PARTICIPATION AND SUGGESTIONS

It goes without saying that your participation and suggestions are welcome. The format is free and open enough to accommodate a ton of different ideas and needs.

You can sign up here: http://groups.drupal.org/node/18820

Feel free to leave a comment there or email me directly -- and everyone start planning for an informative and rewarding event -- on 3/20!

Sunday, February 01, 2009

Weird Library Commercial of the Week

And the winner is: a cornstarch laced brown foamy liquid that apparently is supposed to appeal to easily distracted (and hallucinatory) teenagers.  [link]