Packing up my troubles

Well, I'm heading to the Middle East for work - it's official. They've now sent me my e-ticket and I fly out on 4th August.

The suburban job is now My Previous Place of Work. I finished up last Wednesday and am now between jobs. (small cheer!). I'm glad I'll be going back to the business of librarianship (as opposed to event management).

Still, MPPOW gave me a lovely sendoff and pressie and I'll miss the lot of them - as well as the "clients".

So now all I have to do is pack up the house (ha!) - move it into storage at the big blister's - and hopefully have some kind of holiday.

Luckily the neighbourhood throwout allowed me to get rid of a small portion of the junk I've accumulated - unfortunately the Council or the scavengers didn't take Billy the cat! (That threadbare carpet looks much better in the photo)

The whole exercise of packing up my house has meant that I have to examine every possession I have, and make a judgement as to whether it's worth packing away and storing for at least three years, or evicting it forever. It takes me back to those discussions of which way is better - "just in case" or "just in time" . I'm weeding my house - but not doing it very well.

By the way - does anyone want a cat?

Movielens

I've just discovered Movielens - it's a bit like Librarything - but for movies.

You can keep track of movies & DVDs you've seen and review them - or at least just rate them using a star rating. After you've added a few movies it will make recommendations or suggestions of based on the movies you've recorded.

When you search for a movie - it even predicts how you would rate it!! It also has links to Imdb & Rotten Tomatoes.

In Beta mode - they're trying out classifying you according to your viewing preferences - I've wound up in the Rhino Group, which supposedly has other people who enjoy the same types of movies.

Still exploring but it looks like fun!

Sculpture by the Sea

On Saturday morning I was lucky enough to see the Sculpture by the Sea exhibition. My favourite pieces were those that had a sense of humour in their execution or had a feeling of whimsy. Like the pack of dogs that were made out of bits of dismantled furniture - legs made from tables or bits of junk. Or the floating 8 ball bobbing out in the sea - supposedly a tribute to our pub culture - the artist had originally thought of placing a pool table on the beach. There were about 50 sculptures dotted along the shoreline.

They had mixed reactions fromthe public, with people walking around each installation to examine them fromevery angle.

I'd dropped a bag and a couple of towels on the sand and when I returned to retrieve them, a women told me she'd just snapped them with her camera - "the colours are so beautiful - I thought they were part of the exhibition!"

Loclib Conference

On Friday I attended the afternoon sessions of the Loclib conference. I was really keen to see Jessamyn West and wasn't disappointed.

There were many to whom the whole blogging thing seemed very new and confusing, and couldn't quite see where this would fit into public libraries. A lot of us are still hamstrung by our organisations who are worried about "uncontrolled" information about them being published on the web - but I think that things will change gradually. The Act Public Library Blog is a really good Australian example of how it could work.

Jessamyn spoke about blogging as if it was no big deal and emphasized the social side of the technology.

I was lucky that I knew about some of this stuff from MPPOW - thanks CW!
I also bumped into some non-public librarians who'd crashed the session - it was good to meet Kathryn again, too.


One of the best things about conferences is hearing of new things (well, new to me) which I checked out when I got home.

• I loved Ask Metafilter after I'd checked it out and will subscribe today
• Vox looks so easy - and I'm going to set up a more personal blog there, I think.

So thanks again Jessamyn!

Treasure Hunting

My favorite part of the weekend just gone was kerb crawling the streets of one of the wealthier suburbs with sister and friend, looking for treasure that may have been discarded for the local street verge throwout.

Some may find this practice degrading, or even ghoulish, but I see it as a form of recycling. It's amazing how wasteful our society is and what gets thrown out. Recently I've noticed a plethora of larger televisions, no doubt many are in good working order, but I suspect they've been replaced by a plasma screen model.


We have some rules - we try not to disturb the piles too much - I know people would hate to see their trash scattered in all directions. We've also developed a fine eye for spotting something useful at the back of a rubbish pile.


My past finds have included a beautiful mahjong set complete with racks, and two over-the-top gilt lamps that you can see in this picture. Last weekend I found two small wall shelves in the shape of angels with gold detailing - they suit my current rococco themed phase of decorating.

S won the spotters prize first off - with two authentic boomerangs, and sister was very happy with her haul of garden pots.

Regrettable clothing

I'm going through my old clothing to see what needs throwing out. It's not that I love clothes - I just find it hard to part with them. The first suspect is this one. You need sunglasses to wear it - but it's pure wool - and hand knitted! And warm! Forget that it's shapeless, and if I wore it I'd look like something from Play School. I don't think I've worn it for 15 years, but it's going - today!

Blogging again - on holidays

I'm on holidays for two weeks and decided to start blogging again after a long hiatus.
The book that spurred me on is No One Cares What You Had for Lunch - 100 Ideas for Your Blog. It's a good start for someone like me who suffers from "bloggers block", and provides lots of ideas for subjects to opine on. So lets see where this leads me. (Oh - and I've changed the name, too)

I'm using my holidays to start some good habits again. My projects:

• Get organised - throw out all those unused old clothes
• Start exercising properly again - gym or bike
• Get in touch with old friends, be it coffee or just an email
  
• Choose a shed - a large double garage if possible (a girl's gotta have a shed!)
  
• See some culture - the Perth International Arts Festival is on again
  

I've already seen some culture - last night I saw Marcus Zusak at the State Library as part of the One Book program of events. Ashamedly, I haven't read the book yet, but after hearing him speak - that's another thing to add to my "to do" list. He was so unassuming, but obviously committed to his work. I liked how he spoke about ensuring that there'd be a small gem on each page, be it a phrase or a character. He used another author's phrase about a cruise ship entering New York Harbour like a mountain in a tuxedo.
Now that's writing!