Author: Erica Firment

Erica Olsen Firment is an omnivorous mammal of the genus Ailurus, having an endothermic physiology and a long, furry tail. Erica's range extends to both deciduous and coniferous forests, and can often be found working on software user interfaces and creating information architectures in Silicon Valley.
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SXSW Interactive – Saturday

Lists. Lists are the secret to blogging during a panel while still paying attention. Watch.

Best things about SXSW Interactive so far:

  • The BlogHer meetup is described during the opening panel as “the biggest taco-fest in Austin”
  • Vendetta, 1999 – a more modern version of the humanist Jenson typeface
  • Consumating.com
  • Seeing people from last year and feeling like they are old friends
  • Analog Tagging
  • Carrie Bickner at the NYPL gets it. Librarians don’t own metadata. Metadata, like all information, belongs to the people.
  • NYPL Labs
  • Breakfast tacos
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Texas Update

Thirty seconds to post – I’m in a computer lab in the Austin Community College campus.

Things we’ve seen today:
Peacock in the neighbor’s yard
Peacock in the tree at Mayfield Park
Peacock with his tailfeathers up
Turtles
Agaves growing in bunches along the road
Spanish moss
The House where they filmed a Willie Nelson/Kris Kristoperson movie once in the 70’s
The Stevie Ray Vaughn Car Wash
Rosemary bushes as tall as me
Migas at Kirby Lane Cafe
Palm Trees
Blooming redbuds dogwoods dafodills tulips apple and cherry trees
People in shorts and tank tops outside a sno-cone stand
Cactus growing on the roof of a coffeeshop
Kayakers on Town Lake

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Librarian meetup in Austin this weekend

Good morning, all. I’ve been death-on-a-stick for a week, thanks to accidentally ingesting some sort of peanut bi-product last weekend. The Epipen plays hell with my immune system. The good news is, I’ve gotten a lot of very important America’s Next Top Model watched. So, that’s done.

I am heading to Austin, Texas tomorrow for the annual South by Southwest Interactive conference. Jenny’s putting together a Libraryworker meetup in Austin on Sunday if you are in town.

I love the word “libraryworker”. It’s like sexworker, but you know, wholesome.

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Adventures of the Mouse in the Furnace

Short story, actually.

This morning we woke up to a loud noise and burning smell. A mouse had climbed into our furnace motor blower, got cozy, and met his doom when the heat kicked on. We had to call in the furnace guy to pry him out.

I’m not sure if this counts as a win for the fat lazy cats, or as a Pyhrric victory for Team Mouse.

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Librarain videos

These kids today and their wacky video freeculture.

libraryninja.jpgThey say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Well, after minutes of painstaking research, I have determined that librarians reign supreme on YouTube.

Steve Reed, kickass Library Media Specialist at Wilmington High School sent us a link to an excellent video some of his students made, featuring a library ninja.

As you know, one library ninja video leads to another, and another. Once I finished with the library ninjas and ninja librarians, I was naturally drawn to the librarian superheros.

Troubling indeed, were the librarian villains, librarian vampires, and librarian nazis. But worst of all, are the schlumpy “librarians” who shelve books all day.

Enjoy!

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Best. Excuse. Ever.

Sorry for not writing yesterday. Someone snuck peanut-laced almonds into my mint chutney, and I had to give myself a shot.

Anaphylaxis is a bad dining companion. It was a rough night.

Also? I got a new camera.

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Research Obsession: Climate change

I challenge you to play the BBC’s online Climate Challenge game. picture-4.pngIt’s free, fun, and uses Flash, so you don’t have to download anything stupid.

picture-3.pngI learned more about the relative merits of various greenhouse gas reduction techniques by playing this game then I did from four weeks of reading every popular science article I could find on the topic.

picture-2.pngYou are the President of the EU. You have a few years to reduce worldwide greenhouse gas emissions before the gulf stream stops churning and Europe floods and/or plunges into an ice age. Goodbye, Paris. You have a whole bunch of options, but only limited time and money. You also need to avoid plunging your economy into chaos, drought, famine, or poverty.

Go get ’em tiger! Oh, don’t forget to keep your approval rating high enough to stay in office, you tax-raising pinko, you.

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