Edmonton Day 12421

So in the end I made it back - Returning to Edmonton via Houston and Denver, only detouring 2,100 mile (3,380 km) -Thanks United Airlines, two days after I was supposed to get home I'm finally here, a little wiser than before.

My flight home was pretty bad - but the only thing worse that living through it would be forcing my good readers to read about it - so let's say it was awful and move on.

The conference was pretty amazing - I got to meet all sorts of fascinating people and didn't feel too overwhelmed by the Exhibit Hall.

Would I recommend a trip to Chicago?  Absolutely, but maybe try to go during the summer.

Things I've noticed: I'm kind of a nerd

Without going into too much detail (blogging about your workplace can lead to many unforseen consequences), a significant part of my new library job is being the budget tracker for my new department. 


What does that actually mean you ask? (you being the folks who didn't immediately hit the "next blog" button as soon as you read the word "budget" or I suppose the people who stuck around after I promised a lack of detail...)


It means I look over a lot of invoices, receipts, claims and forms - basically a lot of stacks of paper with their own rules which, although I had the help of a wonderful person in terms of training, all start to look pretty terrifying to me as soon as the numbers stopped adding up.


Taking a small break to solve my Rubick's Cube it suddenly struck me - I might be looking at the wrong stack of papers!  Slamming my cube down with two algorithms (sets of patterned moves I need to do to get my cube on) remaining, I dashed to the budget backlogs and indeed found what I was looking for - numbers that added up with the reports I was dealing with!


After double and triple checking my numbers and found they worked I jumped up from my seat and looked around the library for someone to share my realization with and then I saw the clock.


I realized I had stayed over 15 minutes late at work.


Then I realized I had stayed over 15 minutes late working on math problems.


Then I realized I had stayed over 15 mintues late working on math problems and I was currently looking for someone so I could brag about that fact.


So yeah - I think I'm becoming a nerd, and you know what?  It's pretty awesome.

Things I've Noticed: I'm Switching Jobs

Although I don’t tend to get into specifics here, I am leaving my current employment of two years this week and starting in a new position on Monday – it’s back in the library field, closer to my house and has one of the most spectacular views I’ve ever seen from a library.

Leaving is a little scary – I’ve really enjoyed my work and the team I work with specifically have been great – supportive, friendly and really fun to be around.

All I’m saying is that the next team is going to have a tough act to follow.

Genre Characters of the Week: Ratchet and Clank

Have I ever mentioned how much I love my local library? As I'm working my way through classic PS3 games, usually through purchases at EB Games, there are a number of titles that are still currently too far above my price point to purchase - Red Dead Redemption, L.A.. Noire, etc.) so once I found out that my local library has video games, some of those pricier titles are now available to me. Case in point, the first title featuring this weeks genre characters: Ratchet and Clank: Tools of Destruction.

Ratchet (pictured left) is an alien creature known as a lombax who, along with his servant/backpack/friend/robot Clank save the universe on a pretty regular basis. What I really enjoy about both characters is that they are pretty genuinely funny (humour and SF are always good friends of mine), and that by playing the game I'm seeing lots of neat settings, amazing and varied weapons and I can also play the game whether my kids are watching or not (there are a lot of horror-themed games where I have to play the game early in the morning with the sound off, and hiding under a blanket).

In the end, these guys are funny, effective and have a lot of heart. A solid game.

Book Review: Thor by J. Michael Straczynski

As we are getting closer to summer movie season, I'm continuing my prep-work on movies I'd like to see. Basically my thinking goes like this - if I take the time to read whatever book the story was originally adapted from, I am a little more justified in paying theatre costs to see the movie when it first comes out, rather than having to wait for it to be released on DVD.

Case in point - Thor. Last month I read my local library's entire collection of the Walter Simonson run from the '80s - to be clear, this wasn't the entire run, just what my library had (volumes 1-3 of 5), remember the point is that I invest time, not $$$ into research to justify to myself whether or not I should see something in theatres.

Anyway, this month I read my library's collection of the J. Michael Straczynski run on Thor (and yes, this was the entire run).

So here we go - a quick caveat: my only background is the various trailers for the new film, the first three volumes of the Walter Simonson run, and whatever I gleaned from that little Thor-crazed kid in Adventures in Babysitting.

Apparently sometime between the Simonson run and now (Straczynski's storyline was published from July 2007 to November 2009) Thor has died, also there was some sort of Civil War between Super heroes - I actually tried to understand what the heck was going on with Civil War as I was reading Peter David's Friendly Neighbourhood Spider-Man at the time and the only thing this massive plot seemed to do was wreck the story line I was currently interested in.

Back to Thor: after having a chat with his past alter-ego, Dr. Donald Blake (who disappeared during the Simonson run), Thor returns to an Asgard-less earth and goes about re-creating his godlike home in the middle of the Oklahoma plains. This gives us a lot of culture-clash story lines as the good folks who already live there begin to make nice with the new neighbours Thor keeps showing up with (Thor is magically restoring the other Asgardians around the globe). The early issues include a quick denouncement of the Civil War storyline (Thor beats up a much-deserving Tony Stark) and a wonderful romantic sub-plot involving an Asgardian and a short-order cook named Bill.

These comics were a lot of fun, and although I have very little context for them, I felt the story moved at a nice pace and kept me interested. The artwork, by the way, was fantastic across the board, this was some of the most incredible comic art I've seen this year (the only better I can think of is the stuff in Batwoman: Elegy).

If you have time to check these issues out, definitely go for it. The series was a lot of fun and continues to get me excited for the upcoming film.