Internet Librarian 2009 Update--Tuesday

I'm four days into a five day conference, and time has flown, honestly. It's amazing to imagine that I only have a day and a half left before it's all done. I've been to a huge number of panel discussions and workshops, and I've learned a lot. I'm going to be able to bring home a wealth of information to use at my "day job" at the SLC library. That said, I've also been PowerPointed nearly into oblivion. Though the slideshow, presentation is the industry standard in this day and age, I think that some of the presenters may, in fact, need a little help to make their programs a little more dynamic. There have only been a few really droners, but when you hit them in the midst of much more dramatic events, they can be a little off-putting.

Enough about that! Monterey is beautiful. I've had a chance to walk around the city quite a bit in the last few days, and I'm even starting to figure out how to navigate to a destination without being embarrassingly lost every time. Fisherman's Wharf is neat, though a little commercial. Still, it was neat to be at the seaside and see the boats, water, birds, etc. I went down there just now and had a nice fish lunch (and an ice cream cone with pomegranate ice cream). Yesterday evening, I went to a cool Mexican restaurant with my roommate, Josh H. Enchiladas with artichoke hearts. Yeah, baby!

Speaking of Josh H., he's been a great choice for a roommate. Since we're both writers, and we both also like all sorts of weird strength-related sports, we have a lot to talk about. He's been teaching me a bit about lifting kettlebells, as well as getting me (darn!) hopelessly intrigued with the world of grip strength. He likes to bend huge nails, tear playing card decks, and other fun stuff. Boy, it's hard and it hurts. Of course, I love that sort of thing. I should probably see some professional about it.

Now, I'm going to have to challenge myself to progress in the "grip world". My preliminary goal is to close a type of insanely-hard hand grippers called Captains of Crush. I can close the #1 and the #1.5s, but I'd like to get up to the #3, which is where the "respect" is in that field of endeavor. To give you an idea, the COC #1 requires 140 lbs of crushing power to close. The hardest, the #4, requires 360 lbs. As far as I can see, there are only five known individuals who can say that they have an official close of the latter. Could I be one of that elite club? Who knows. I'm a pretty formidable geek. Anything could happen. As for bending nails, I'm going to give that a go tonight and see what happens. I tried the other day, in a very informal sort of way, and could only produce a mild bend. Now, don't mistake me. These are not wussy nails. They're 60 penny monsters that it would take a dozen swings to drive in with anything less than a mini-sledge. Josh H. can turn them into tacos, which is very impressive. It'll take some practice, though.

This all sounds totally random and bizarre to most of you. It is. I'm like that. Still, I haven't been this inspired about doing a physical task in a long time. This could be a "big caveman likes to smash stuff" thing. That means that it won't go away. I'm "big caveman" to the bone!

Hope you're all doing well, and I'll be back at you with more blather in a few days.

For a look at what I've been doing in my other blogs, here are some links:

Hawk Circle
Superfulous Commentary