Aurlog

Two visions of Hell

Here are two visions of hell to ponder. Firstly: I never particularly hated school or anything, but the strapline on the latest Trutex catalogue we got from our son's school did frighten me a bit:

It's term time all the time with Trutex.

They managed to trump the depressing Back to skool mantra that wrecks summer holidays with something truly scary. Even more horrifying, however, is the following advert being carried at the moment by London buses:

Win Michael Bublé tickets every day!

Can you imagine? After a few nights, just when you're looking forward to a quiet night in watching the most excellent and realistic archaeological BBC drama Bonekickers, you get the phone call that you've won again and you have to steel yourself for yet another excruciating evening of award-winning big band entertainment...

Still, anything's better than braised enterovirus.

A.D. XVII KAL. AUG. MMVIII

Permanent link | Comments (0) | Comments RSS (subscribe)

Thoughts on the Eurovision 2008 second semi-final

The second Eurovision 2008 semi-final was somewhat disappointing after the first one. It got off to a reasonable start with Iceland's stock Eurovision entry and, after the inexplicably popular Swedish entry, seemed to be getting strong with Turkey's very good contemporary guitar-based indy nonsense, and Ukraine's very entertaining men in boxes. However, it was downhill from there: Lithuania got the man from the IT Crowd who lives in a cupboard to sing theirs, which seemed to promise much, but there were no ridiculously gothic dancers to back it up, no actual guitarist to put his hair in the way of the ubiquitous wind machine during the guitar solo, and no explosions of unnecessary fireworks to accompany the last chorus. Shame.

After that, Albania was just plain disappointing: the 16 year-old clearly came from the Christina Aguilera school, but not a in a particularly good way (I expect she gets on well with the Greek entry (who was better)). Switzerland's song "Era stupendo" ("It was wonderful") was flatly not wonderful. Nothing much to report after that really. The only bright spot was Malta, and that wasn't too bright as spots go.

Even the Latvian entry was a complete missed opportunity: all dressed as pirates singing an entertainingly piratish song:

We are robbing you blind,
We hope you don't mind.

This was promising but it was just rubbish: the song was rubbish, and they could have done so many more piraty things than hire costumes and put a ship's driving wheel (whatever it's called) on stage: where were the parrots, hooks for arms, treasure chests with scantily-clad backing singers leaping out? If you want to see this done properly, watch the Lazytown pirate song: the song itself is stronger and the visuals are more entertaining, and do remember how irritating Lazytown is.

One temporarily bright moment was Hungary's entry: Hungary had a (dismal) song called, in English, "Candles". So, they put candles on stage, which is only fitting, except that they all went out. Ha ha! I blame the wind machine.

We voted, vainly as it turned out, for Malta, partly on grounds of quality, and partly on realising the need to engage in political voting ourselves: Malta are always nice to us, so we should do the same. Somehow, though, the dreadful Georgian and Portuguese entries made it through instead. Tellingly, given the above comments, the first six, not including Lithuania, went through.

I predicted last year's result correctly, so the pressure's on again. I think Ukraine will win: they have good block-voting credentials, have done well in recent years, and have a moderately good song and stage presence. I think Finland will also do well: Scandinavia is a not often talked-about bloc, but one which is important, and Finland stand in the middle of the Scandinavian and Eastern blocs, which is partly why I think they did so well with Lordi. This song isn't as good, nor is their stage presence, but it is not bad. I've probably written some "diva" off, like Sweden, but I really can't see it, except perhaps for Portugal, which seemed strangely popular and has some passing similarities to last year's winner.

I hope Finland or Azerbaijan win, preferably the latter as I think they worked harder on all the blood and everything, although I would really like to hear the songs again properly.

A.D. X KAL. IUN. MMVIII

Permanent link | Comments (0) | Comments RSS (subscribe)

Thoughts on the Eurovision 2008 first semi-final

Some thoughts on last night's Eurovision 2008 first semi-final in Belgrade which was, generally, very interesting.

The outfits made a fairly strong showing, especially with leather worn in a scantily-clad style, although Slovenia decided to be more chaste with all-over leather, with ropes to ensure the dancers couldn't escape and be naughty. Or something. That was the first half anyway; the second half seemed to favour almost elegant dresses or traditional ridiculously short skirts. Ireland, of course, had a turkey with a man up its arse; we'll have to wait until tomorrow to see if Turkey have a man with an island up his arse. Or something. More encouraging were Israel's demons, Azerbaijan's angels and demons (if I write Dan Brown Dan Brown Dan Brown I might get some inadvertent hits), the Polish lady's fake (God, I hope so) tan, and Bosnia&c's four meringuèd brides.

The quality of the songs wasn't bad either, I thought. I am usually a fan of the traditional Eurovision song, but there were a number of attempts that I did think were a little too boring: e.g. Slovenia again, or Armenia's shouty entry (which somehow got through); the Netherlands was OK; Greece, however, did it very well. Finland did metal again: although it wasn't up to the standards, either of song or costume, of Lordi, it was certainly one of the best songs on the night. What is weird about both these Finnish metal entries is that despite the genre and the obvious gimmick they are both comparatively strong songs in terms of the competition. However, they were certainly out-gothed this time with the operatic, metal-ish, over-costumed brilliance of Azerbaijan, which had blood and everything.

Two entries stood out for originality: 1) Belgium, mainly because they made up a language (Ishtarian: sadly no Wikipedia page as yet) to sing in, which neatly side-steps the political aspects of which language to perform in. They also had an original, very slightly bizarre, but thoroughly charming and floaty sound, with no drums and little in the way of backing. Sadly, they didn't make it to the final. 2) Bosnia&c, who also had a quirky though more upbeat song. It would have been a good song anyway, if you could concentrate over the aforementioned quartet of brides, the washing line, "strawberry" dress, and the strange strange poses of the lead singer. Luckily, this one got through.

A further note on the Irish entry. It was shit. It should and could have been funny, but it was, instead, shit. The lyrics were well put together but the song was just chanting interspersed with a few dance beats. And there was a hoarse turkey (not a horse turkey) on the stage. I'm all for novelty, me. But this was shit.

Oh, and they didn't show the episode of Top Gear where Richard Hammond mated with a hobbit, but it must of happened because the result was singing for San Marino.

My favourites (with 4/5 points) were Azerbaijan, and Finland, both of which you can see on Saturday. My next favourites (3/5, but not all so scoring) were Belgium (out), Bosnia&c (in), and Greece (in). However, how Poland, Moldova, Armenia, and Romania got through I don't know. Although some non-Eastern bloc countries got to the final this year, thanks to the revised semi-final voting, it is noticeable that the poorer entries that got through are Eastern bloc: both the Netherlands and Belgium deserved to beat any of those four by far.

A.D. XII KAL. IUN. MMVIII

Permanent link | Comments (0) | Comments RSS (subscribe)

On stopping reading books

I normally don't like stopping reading books- I even made it all the way through Labyrinth by the implausibly named Kate Mosse- but I knew I'd run into trouble on p. 9 Matthew Reilly's promisingly-titled Seven Ancient Wonders where he describes Crocodylus nilocticus, the notorious Nile crocodile. Apparently it is the most man-eating crocodilian in the world. Too much excellent grammar for me.*

The book would make a passable film with an enormous special-effects budget to make up for the lack of real plot, unconvincing elite teams of ruthless military archaeologists who seem to know all the secrets of the places that haven't been touched for millennia, reliance on drawings to describe the numerous traps they are all bound to overcome, and the excerpts from encyclopedias that don't seem to, oh whatever: the point is don't bother reading it; don't waste the £1 or so I spent on it in the charity shop.

Sadly we no longer have an open fire on which I can dispose of this, so I will have to do the done thing and recycle it.

*Surely, it should be man-eatingest.

PRID. KAL. MAI. MMVIII

Permanent link | Comments (0) | Comments RSS (subscribe)

Revamped cow pages on aurochs.org

I have overhauled the cow pages on aurochs.org. They now look nice and cow-like in the same style as the cow games page, which looks a bit like this page too. In particular, there is a new cow jokes page, based largely on the cow Christmas cracker jokes post I did on this weblog just before Christmas, and a revamped cow songs and poems page. The list of cow pages is now as follows:

I am always interested to hear of new entries for any of these pages, but particularly for the latter, which is still quite short, although I am being picky: I would like poems or songs where the mention of cows is not incidental, which are preferably classic or by classic authors, and which are not simply doggerel (cowwerel?) for children. There isn't a lot, as far as I can see.

A.D. IV ID. APR. MMVIII

Permanent link | Comments (0) | Comments RSS (subscribe)

The meaning of gullible

From the Urban Dictionary:

gullible

The only word that is not in the dictionary. Go look.

I swear, gullible is not there.

Worth checking.

KAL. APR. MMVIII

Permanent link | Comments (0) | Comments RSS (subscribe)

Beast changes number

Apparently, the Number of the Beast has now changed to 616 (via comment by Jennie on Information Overlord). However, I believe the area code is still the same.

A.D. III ID. MART. MMVIII

Permanent link | Comments (0) | Comments RSS (subscribe)

Criticism of CILIP

There have been a number of recent posts debating, and in some cases criticising, CILIP and why one would join or become a chartered member:

In CILIP: What is it good for?, Information Overlord asked

if you're a member, why are you a member? Out of habit? because you think it looks good if you are? some other reasons? If you're not a member, what would make you want to become one??

The many commenters were mostly law librarians and mostly unenthusiastic. There was some debate, including some rare input from CILIP people who focussed on the publicity angle. Elspeth Hyams of CILIP made the point in response to CILIP's silence on difficult issues with reference to the Kent "deprofessionalisation" that CILIP cannot intervene publicly in these cases as they represent both sides:

Kent was an interesting case because it illustrated why, unlike the Royal College of Nursing, CILIP cannot act like a union: the disagreement was between managers and their staff, at both levels, members of CILIP.

I think this is an admission that CILIP cannot and will not do public advocacy of the profession and support its members. In reply I wrote:

However, I cannot see why CILIP could not have even made a statement of the kind you just made, explaining the case, even[if] it only appeared on its website. Why when I read about this [issue] in the Guardian were CILIP not mentioned emphasising the importance of professional librarianship- which is surely half the point of the organisation- while the AUT were mentioned as campaigning against job losses? Surely too, there were also AUT members on both sides of that dispute: many university managers are also AUT members.

Matthew Mezey (news editor of Update) and Debby Raven (editor of Gazette) seemed to suggest that part of the answer lay in contributing more to these internal publications, to which I replied:

Update is an internal document. I doubt that many university or council managers outside the library read it, so I don't think this is publicly advocating the profession at all. You talk of publicity, but preaching to the converted is hardly the issue. It is people and organisations outside the profession that need to be convinced. For example, when library closures are in the news, why is Ian Snowley [CILIP president, or not anymore I believe] not on TV?

Information Overlord provides an excellent summary and discussion of the above comments (without the vain self-references as above). In a comment to this second post, Jennie points out another Kent story, this time of a library closure, where the local community are marching and protesting and forming action groups, and still no word from CILIP

Anne Welsh picked up on this post by asking Why CILIP? She is a lot more positive and while noting,

I also noticed that although the post went up on 26 January, the first comment from a Cilip representative / employee was not until 11 February, indicating, perhaps, that RSS flows slowly to Cilip HQ.

she is generally much more positive and gives a number of reasons which she summarises thus:

So, I guess for me Cilip is all about keeping informed and networking. Further, I'd say that, as a member, I think of Cilip as something that I am part of, that I can contribute to, and, if there are enough other members with similar views, change.

Fair enough, although I think there are increasingly more ways to keep informed without handing over cash to Ridgmount Street, and that CILIP has failed to lead the way in information delivery and dissemination. I understand that CILIP will be invaluable for networking, depending on how you view networking and its necessity/benefits, something I don't want to go into here. Anne also wrote a related post called Why charter? which discussed a talk she attended on the subject. There are some reasonable reasons given at one point (my numbering):

These are all things (no. 3 excepted) I feel I can, and should, do myself without having to rely on a crutch such as CILIP or part with money for the privilege. What worries me is the observation near the end that:

She and the other chartered librarians in the room all agreed wholeheartedly that chartering is a personal journey, so that although everyone fulfills the same criteria, the experience they gain along the way is totally unique.

I believe a qualification (counting chartership as a qualification) should not be about the journey but should prove something to a current or future employer. I don't go to work for personal gratification or for a journey: I do so because I need the money but I want to do the best I can while I am there. A commenter, James P. Mullan, says something similar which I wholeheartedly disagree with:

I also think Chartership shows a committment to a career in Librarianship, I'm always concerned about anyone who doesn.t want to become a Chartered Librarian as a result.

The library profession seems obsessed by proving commitment (rather than providing skills): I've heard that used as a reason to pursue the M.A. too. Surely this is something for an employer to worry about: commitment to a job is surely far more important than commitment to a career or a profession. I'm happy to do my job to the best of my ability and don't think I am a worse librarian in any way because I don't attend certain seminars or training courses in order to pursue chartership.

101 Tips for School Librarians has a different take on chartership:

CILIP are often accused of non-representation in the school library community. They take £17 off my pay every month, and I still can.t figure out why, other than the fact that I can continue to call myself .chartered.. My wife pays £30 a year for the same privilege as a teacher. Something doesn't add up. I'm sure CILIP would disagree with my assessment, so their end of the stick can be found here.

However, they do have a couple of useful spots on their website, and they offer decent training events if you can afford to travel to London.

Most of this of course is available without membership, although training events will obviously cost more; the range of training courses, especially in terms of specificity, also needs drastic improvement in my opinion. He also mentions LisJobnet (freely available online, even to non-members), and their special interest groups. Having never been a member, this latter is one area which I really cannot comment on, although Mr 101tips says they "vary between the bland (2 shoddy leaflets a year) to the sublime (real support)".

I would in any case recommend you read the actual posts and comments, especially the Information Overlord ones.

A.D. V ID. MART. MMVIII

Permanent link | Comments (0) | Comments RSS (subscribe)

More Cataloger's Desktop comments

The Library of Congress's Cataloging Distribution Service is doing a survey on the development of its Cataloger's Desktop, which they are planning to overhaul. They seem keen to rework it for the web rather than replicating the CD product it is based on. I hope they think profoundly about this to make sure it is properly a web-based resource or, as I would prefer, a loose collection of separately accessible resources. Below are the comments I put in answer to one of the earlier questions on general satisfaction:

The content is second to none, but the presentation of the content is appalling:

  1. It is extremely unwieldy: there is no reason to shoehorn everything into one package and one great list. E.g. AACR2 would be better presented as a separate product as it is complex enough as it is. Rather than having shaky preferences, I would like to see separate sites for which I can produce my own list of links, as I do anyway for other sites.
  2. Despite being presented on the web, the site tries its hardest to discard the advantages of the web by imposing its own interface. This is bad practice as it means another interface to learn and is not intuitive (e.g. I cannot use the Back button to go back, or link to a section of a resource). Standard HTML pages are more than up to the job. I don't think a system like this is very successful if you have to provide training in how to use it: it would be like inventing a different kind of book where you have to train readers in how to turn the pages.
  3. There is no need to have a system which has to find its way round popup-blockers: this just shouldn't be an issue. These factors prevent me from using Cataloger's Desktop nearly as often as I should. I mostly want it for quick look up of AACR2 and other standards. Instead I often find myself referring to an out-of-date paper copy for simple rules and abbreviations. I was hoping to have weaned myself off it by now.

My previous comments on a similar survey in 2005 are here.

A.D. IX KAL. MART. MMVIII

Permanent link | Comments (0) | Comments RSS (subscribe)

Library-themed weddings

Speaking as a librarian married to another librarian whose brother is a librarian I still cannot find the stomach to appreciate this library-themed wedding (via post on Autocat mailing list), although I am unusually sensitive to work-home infringements. One commenter also apparently had a library themed wedding with Dewey-numbered tables at the reception. Another commenter also claimed:

We did the same with the birth annoucment [sic] for our youngest. We put a shelf of books on the announcement, each with a name of our older children and ourselves with a Dewey number on each book befitting each of us. We sent these announcements out to library friends...

When our youngest was born, I barely had enough energy to compile a round-robin email and throw a few photos onto the computer. Quite how this person managed something so elaborate with at least two other children to look after I don't know. Good on them though: maybe the other children helped, or something.

PRID. ID. FEB. MMVIII

Permanent link | Comments (0) | Comments RSS (subscribe)

Tom