All your questions will be answered!* All your problems will be solved!** Introducing Minnesota’s first 24/7 statewide cooperative online reference service. Eight Minnesota public and academic libraries working in cooperation with each other and a national 24/7 cooperative online reference service bring you, Minnesota, AskMN: The Librarian Is In.

So, check it out. This is the project I’ve been working my fingers to the bone on for the last 6 or so months. It’s finally live and fully functional. We’ve just done a soft launch so far with the participating libraries and will be adding on more libraries throughout the summer and look to do a large, statewide marketing push sometime this fall. I’m also going to be adding facebook and myspace pages real soon, as soon as I have a kitschy little librarian girl (or guy) drawing to upload. Gotta put that together. Give it a try! Go on, we don’t bite!

*May not answer all your questions but we’ll do our darnedest!
**Won’t solve all your problems.

Yesterday we had a visitor to our yard, an opossum. It must have come up from a sewer drain from the river. It came into our yard then wandered around the block before heading out for places unknown. It’s strange because they’re nocturnal animals and it was broad daylight. Oddest thing I’ve seen wandering into our yard yet. There’s raccoons around the neighborhood, probably from the river as well, and we have a few rabbits living in our wood pile in the backyard. But an opossum?

Then I went for a run around Lake Calhoun and came across a water rescue. I was running along the dirt path next to the shore and passed these canoeists going along the shore through the ice chunks. I thought “why would you want to scrap up your canoe like that?” Then I thought as long as they stayed along the coast they should be fine, thinking that they’ve done this before otherwise why would they be out there (they hadn’t). Well, apparently they veered off the shore straight into the thickest part of the ice chunks on the lake on the south side of the lake. The north side of the lake is all open but they went into the thickest part of the ice. Then they capsized. By the time I was making my second lap around the lake I saw the fire trucks and rescue vehicles racing to the south shore. They were in the water for a good 30 minutes with no wetsuits so they had a pretty bad case of hypothermia, I’m sure. Turns out, they two guys who had just moved to Mpls from New York and thought they would try canoeing on Lake Calhoun, first time canoeing. Harsh lesson learned I guess.
*If you listen to the audio at the end of the Kare11 video Rick and Sven (Sven!) are talking to the SO on his cell phone as the rescue was unfolding.

My friend B is from New Zealand and last night at the Kimya Dawson show he said the most stereotypical kiwi thing:
B: I can’t believe that the two most exciting acts coming out of New Zealand today are both in Minneapolis on the exact same night (referring to Flight of the Conchords at First Ave and Liam Finn at the Cedar, both on May 13). That’s it. I’m just not going to either of them.
Me: You do realize that’s such a typical thing a kiwi would say, don’t you?
B: I don’t care. Fuck ‘em.
Me: Ok then.

Kimya Dawson, btw, was OMG awesome! I can’t wait for her kid’s album to come out. She had two openers, then she played for 90 minutes. The show didn’t end until 11:35. That’s pretty late for a school night! I was yawning today but it was worth it.

Today is one of those rare days with no obligations. Shhh! Don’t tell anyone. I have no meetings and no work piling up to attend to. Well, I do have work I could. There’s always that. But nothing pressing, no agenda. I haven’t had one of these day offs since the snow days of late December. I get to go at a slow pace, listening to music, reading blogs and news online. Maybe I’ll even contribute my stupid remarks and opinions to mnspeak, something I haven’t done in about a year cuz I just didn’t have the time at work to play around. I also have this strong desire to go to Target and slap down cash for crap I don’t need. So far, all I’ve done is make tea, play on the internet, do laundry, and annoy the fuck out of my bird, Willie. He’s pissed off at me now. He needs his quiet time.

Yesterday I came home from work and there was a ChemLawn sign in my front yard. I thought that was odd since I don’t condone the use of chemicals on my lawn and hiss vehemently at my neighbors if they try to pull that crap. Then I see there’s an invoice on my door. Oh, yes, please spray your death chemicals on my lawn and then charge me for it. Thanks! I look closer and see that the invoice is not for me. It’s for some guy 2 blocks down. They sprayed the wrong house! That’s what I get for living in South Mpls with all the numbered streets and avenues instead of names. So I call ChemLawn and let them know they sprayed the wrong house and give them another chance to spray their death chemicals on another lawn. They pretty much said Merry Christmas, enjoy your weed-free lawn! I just didn’t know what to say to that.

I’m trying to convince myself that the roads are too icy to go out but the urge is great. Maybe I’ll also go to IKEA to really work that urge out of me for a good long time.

Proof: When Michael Moore wrote “Stupid White Men” it was to be release for publication in October, 2001. After 9/11, the publisher decided it didn’t want to take the heat of publishing this book at such a delicate time in America’s history so all the books that had been printed were on their way to the pulper. Shortly after finding out his book was going to be turned into kitty litter, Michael Moore was giving a speech to a bunch of librarians in New Jersey. Heartbroken that his book wouldn’t be published to ease the minds of the republicans he found himself spilling his guts to the librarians in the room about what was happening. After the presentation a librarian got on her librarian listservs and started spreading the news. Two days later the publisher brought Moore to let him know they would go ahead and publish the book after all. The publisher to Moore: “What did you tell those librarians?” And that was all that was needed.

Proof: Today, I read in Minnesota Monnitor a librarian discovering something fishy when performing searches for ‘abortion’ in the health database Popline “the search site is run by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Maryland. It’s funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development, or USAID, the federal office in charge of providing foreign aid, including health care funding, to developing nations.” Her results were coming up “No records found in latest query.”

From Wired:

A librarian at the University of California at San Francisco noticed the new censorship on Monday, while carrying out a routine research request on behalf of academics and researchers at the university. The search term had functioned properly as of January.
Puzzled, she contacted the manager of the database, Johns Hopkins’ Debbie Dickson, who replied in an April 1st e-mail that the university had recently begun blocking the search term because the database received federal funding.
“We recently made all abortion terms stop words,” Dickson wrote in a note to Gloria Won, the UCSF medical center librarian making the inquiry. “As a federally funded project, we decided this was best for now.”
There was no notice of the change on the site.

THIS WAS BEST! Censorship and denying access to information, medical information, was the best route they came up with? This just makes my blood boil. The world needs librarians to say “No. This is wrong!” when and where appropriate and to know the proper channels to say this to so it is heard and not swept under the rug. We librarians are a subversive bunch!

I’m so jealous. My volunteer friends from Eden Prairie district schools are at it again. This time without me. They are in Villa San Antonio, Houndras for their spring break working for Hogar de Ninos Tierra Santa which is a home for abandoned children. They have a school, group home, and some land that all needs upkeep and basically people in to do some major fixin. I wish I could be there helping. Reading their blog makes me get all antsy and my heart goes out to them. They’re doing some real good things down there. I just couldn’t make it this time around. But it wasn’t in the cards. I’ve got my own things a brewin’. Take a look at their blog, it’s really fascinating learning about this community that has welcomed them and are making part of their lives.

(friend spotted this sign in the mpls airport on her way back from san fran. this weekend)

Stopped by Hard Times today for a latte and vegan brownie and was serenaded by this young poet. He recited one of his poems to me for a cup of coffee. It was sweet and made me smile. Shoulda asked him to write it down, though, cuz damned if I can remember it now!

Everyone’s been pissing and moaning about all the fricking snow today. Nonstop. Last day of March. In like a lamb, out like a lion. I don’t mind it. It’s kind of nice. It’ll all melt tomorrow. I don’t know what it is about the wet, damp weather. Just puts me in this other world kind of mood. Maybe it’s from the dry, bitter cold of winter and the relief from that. Maybe it’s from my time living in England and the west coast. Not sure, but I just love it. Go splash in a puddle!

Why can’t we just have both of them. I don’t want to have to decide between them. I like them both and they have very similar political views and strategies. I have confidence that either and both will perform exceptionally at the position of commander and chief. So why not both? Two heads are better than one. Or they could switch off one be pres for a year and the other vice-pres then switch the next year and so on and so on for the next eight years. Their adults, they know how to share. I bet their brainstorming sessions would be fantastic! Come on, it’s not a bad idea. Think of all the things that could get accomplished: get us out of the recession, even out the tax structure, health care for all, conflict resolution for Iraq, and so much more. For republicans, these ideas fall into the “socialist” realm of politics, which is radical left-wing craziness! Granted, Oblinton is more main stream than that, but still there is the potential of some greatness here. I think people should keep an open mind to this. And no, I’m not smoking any wacky tobacky!

Even though winter is slowly loosening its grip on us (frickin’ snowing all weekend and snow again tomorrow!), but it’s spring! It’s really spring! How do I know? you may ask. Because I saw my first bald eagle of the season on my run today! Yay! It looks like its started a nest near the Minnehaha Creek by Lake Nokomis. I’ve seen eagles there before, seems to be part of their spring/fall migration path. That sure did put a smile on my face!

taxes suck! In case you didn’t know. Fried brains.