Just Giblets

Came across this blog post today. Got me thinking about how differently her experience would be if we had online communities on the library web site. As Web Services Manager for the Boston Public Library, its something I think we really need, but I sure hadn’t considered the direct user interaction she’s got in mind! Maybe we need to provide chat rooms too.

***UPDATE***

Since this post has been picked up by a few other blogs, I really guess I better be sure to point out that it’s entirely tongue in cheek. Well, not entirely. We do want to offer more user-participatory services on the BPL web site. But dating services and personals are not part of our current goals.

See?      

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Originally uploaded by mcolford

My Mom and Scottie reflected in the window of a Chinatown shop featuring duck and squid.

I usually don’t go for these holiday inspired blog posts… oh, it’s thanksgiving, what am I thankful for, but this morning, I guess I’m in a reflective mood.  I don’t often stop and think about what I am truly thankful for in my life and that’s probably not a good thing.  It’s so easy to take the blessings in one’s life for granted, and today, I’m going to take a step back and acknowledge the things I am most thankful for.

When you’re healthy, it’s so easy to take your health for granted.  I have been fortunate enough to be pretty healthy my entire life.  Sure, as a fortysomething-year-old man I should lose a few pounds, eat better, be more active, etc.  But I did quit smoking this year (last January) and I feel really thankful about that!

Friends and Family are such a blessing.  My family is happy and healthy.  Everyone is doing well.  I am especially thankful that my parents, both in their mid-eighties, are doing so well.  And as a gay man, friends are so important, and I’ve got great friends from so many different areas of my life.

Six months ago, my friends and family would be shocked to hear me give thanks to my job… but it’s true.  Of course, in this economic climate I’m thankful to have a job at all, but never in my wildest dreams since becoming a librarian did I think I would ever have this big a job.  And for the first time since I started this job, things are really looking up.  A new leader has really rejuventated by interest in my career, and although things are still pretty difficult in many ways, I’m so hopeful for the future.

Having been a homeowner for a couple of years now, I have to say I am grateful that we’ve got such a comfortable home and great condo-mates.  As Scot often reminds me, we could definitely spend a little more time focused on our home, and that’s something I think I’d like to try and do in the coming year.

In that home I have to give thanks to our kitties, Gertrudis and Parker.  The joy these cats bring me is sometimes astounding.  Gertrudis has been with me for over 14 years, and she is truly part of my family.  And I’m so thankful that we were able to provide a home for Parker and that he seems to have alleviated some of Gertrudis’ anxiety about being the only cat in the house (when she remembers to stop fighting with him.)

Finally, and most importantly, I am so thankful for my husband, Scot.  First that here in Massachusetts I can actually have a husband, and secondly, but more importantly, that he’s someone as kind, understanding, complex, and beautiful as Scot.  I don’t tell him this nearly enough, but it comes from my heart… I love you, Scottie, and I am so grateful that you are a part of my life.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

No, this isn’t Parker, though it looks like his butt sticking out when his head is hidden.

Chickens breaking up a bunny fight.

Valerie ---------------------> Tallulah

I’m just ecstatic hearing that Valerie Harper (yeah, Mary’s Rhoda) is playing Tallulah Bankhead in a new play entitled Looped. Apparently, the title comes from the idea that the whole play takes place during an ADR session for Tallu’s classing Hammer horror film, Die! Die! My Darling!

I lost some respect for Valerie after she walked off the set of a show named after her. Jeesh, during the first season, even. Pretty freaking sad if you can replace her with Sandy Duncan and still manage to keep the series running for five more seasons. And that union president race against Laura Ingalls got pretty nasty. But this just may make up for all of that.

What? You haven’t seen Die! Die! My Darling!? Holy frijoles, get over here quick. I’m itching to watch it again, especially since Tallu plays a bible-thumping vegetarian who — once upon a time — was a … well, a loose, jazz-loving woman. Okay, she was a whore. And Stephanie Powers plays the mod girl Tallu kidnaps. And a very young Donald Sutherland plays the retarded groundskeeper. What’s not to love?!

I meant to post this a couple of weeks ago and never got around to it.  The Boston Public Library, where we work, has been voted one of MSN City Guides’ Top 10 Coolest Public Libraries.   Of course, they’re really only talking about the McKim Building, which faces Copley Square and is pretty amazing from an art and architecture point-of-view.  What I’ll really be jazzed about is the day the BPL is chosen for the top 10 coolest public libraries because of the services it provides.  Still, the very fact that there is a Top 10 Coolest Public Libraries list is pretty cool.

Quite by accident, I found myself watching a Canadian, computer-generated children’s cartoon called Turbo Dogs this afternoon. I’m a little concerned about the behavior of these professional race car-driving pooches.

In the segment I watched, one pup, appropriately named Stinkbert, is disturbed to realize that he may have put the damper on a fellow cur’s birthday celebration because of his foul smell. See, Stinkbert’s got a rather significant problem, not only with hygeine, but with behavior. His offensive odor is not caused by, you know, anything internal, but rather because of his compulsive need to roll in refuse. Yes. Stinkbert is a garbage addict.

Once he realizes the apparent effect his problem has on his dear friends, Stinbert — to his credit — decides to get clean. Literally. He learns to bathe, disinfect his home, and with much difficulty, even withstand violent compulsive urges to roll around in the trash. However, since no one helps him with behavior modification, he’s left with nothing to do but sit bored, contemplating the satisfaction he’s denying himself every second.

Eventually, Stinkbert overhears his friends’ plans to meet at the municipal dump. Unable to restrain himself any longer, he speeds off in his convertible, intent on a full hedonistic waste binge. Though one canine races alongside him pleading with him to come to his senses and reconsider, he blasts off in a dangerous burst of speed and reaches the junk pile where his remaining friends are urging him not to enter.

Obviously distraught by his conflicting desires, he implores them to stand aside, claiming “I am sorry. I tried to get clean for you, but I’ve just gotta be me!” His comrades eventually relent because they say that they never wanted him to change. In fact, they have been at the dump setting up a “stink party” for Stinkbert to celebrate his valiant attempts to get clean. Stinkbert immediately commences rolling in discarded fish parts vowing to get clean once again, but not for his or his friends’ well being. Rather, he wants to repeat the torturous exercise again because it makes the high of getting smelly all the more potent.

The vignette ends with the enabling pooches placing clothespins on their snouts so they may continue to ignore their loved one’s serious problem.

Sad. That’s all I can say. I wish Stinkbert well and hope that some day he finds within himself the courage and strength to overcome his addiction. Denial ain’t just a river in Egypt.