Archive by Author

The New Man In My Life

21 May

Meet Max!  Max comes to us from the Lawrence Humane Society as of six days ago, and he’s already stolen both of our hearts. He’s 16 months old and an itty bitty 8 pounds.

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Max is sweet, muscular, affectionate, and chatty with huge wideset yellow eyes, leaving no doubt in our minds that he’s a li’l Burmese kitty. Also, did you know that apparently it is super hard for shelters to get people to adopt black cats and dogs? WHAT IS WRONG WITH EVERYONE?

Anyway, I’m looking forward to lots more exciting stuff coming up in the next few weeks — we’re moving into our new house, going to the 2013 US Air Guitar Championships Qualifier at the Record Bar, and I’m finally joining the ranks of Lawrence Nerd Nite Alumni with a June talk about — wait for it — KU Boobs. Will post more soon as the deets become available!

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I’m Having a Riot

6 Mar

Andy Warhol Banana

I’m so excited to tell you that I recently joined the ranks at Book Riot as a contributing writer!  I’ve been eating up Book Riot with a spoon ever since they launched in 2011, and am so honored to now be a part of this awesome online journal.  Keep your eye out for biweekly Book Riot posts from me, maybe more if I’m feeling ambitiously bookish.  And if you like thrillers with badass female characters, you might just like one or two of the books I recommend in today’s Genre Kryptonite post.

Book Riot may be the new home for my sexy librarian, pop-culture and bookish-themed content, but keep checking back in on me over here for periodic updates on life in general and what I’ve got cooking at my library.

Fun with Library Website Redesigns in Drupal

25 Feb

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At my library we’re in the midst of redesigning our entire website in-house using Drupal, and I’m learning tons from our esteemed web designer (and Karaoke maven) CourtieBeeds.  User experience, information architecture, navigation tests, designing for mobile-first, etc.!

As a content writer first and a web designer pretty much dead last, it’s fun to play around with how my skills fit into the mix.  My latest project has been figuring out what content we want to display on our “About Us” page. How do we make it informative but also super fun to read?

In these situations it’s always really helpful to prowl around for inspiration on the internets (which, by the way, are AMAZING guys) and I found all the inspiration I needed right here: www.madebysofa.com

Just scroll down and look at the staff profile in the lower right corner.  Pause to appreciate its beauty. Then, mouse-over said profile and die from the magic of it all.

Choose-Your-Own-Faulkner February

11 Feb

Remember that book club I started up with those jokesters over at The Larryville Chronicles about a year and half ago?  We’re still going strong!

William Faulkner with Pipe

This month we’re switching things up with a book by a dead white guy.  Make that ‘books’ plural.  If you live in NE Kansas and like book clubs that are charmingly disorganized and consume copious amounts of cheap beer, you might want to join us for our weirdest experiment yet: Choose-Your-Own-Faulkner February. Continue reading →

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What Glee has to say about #KUboobs, Beyoncé, and Self-Objectification

7 Feb

Glee Naked Calendar

Yes, I still watch Glee. And I’m glad I do, because otherwise I would’ve missed last week’s fascinating Naked episode about the phenomenon of self-objectification, choice, and empowerment, so timely in the wake of #KUboobs and Beyoncé’s recent sexy Super Bowl performance.

I love that this episode is so playful in its exploration of sexiness and agency.  And it’s not the first time Glee has explored body issues — the series often charts the waters of bulimia, handicapability, steroids, and gender identification, all with its signature playful pop-culture sensibility.  Read ahead for the highlights: Continue reading →

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Goodbye Poem to a Short, Chubby Cat

6 Feb

Ten days ago we lost our cat Lupa. She was eleven years old, and she had cancer that had moved into her lungs.

cat sleeping on heater

Lupa loved making the bed with us when we took freshly washed sheets out of the dryer.  She was shy and liked having her cheeks rubbed. And she was sneaky in her lifelong quest for yogurt and cheese. Continue reading →

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Twitter Book Chats in Libraries

4 Feb

I think it all started because I wanted to annoy my Library School professor.  She’d assigned us to write an academic paper about a digital information tool like the Google Art Project.  I picked Twitter. Today, Twitter and Facebook are still a huge part of my library career.

Twitter Book Chat: Winter's Bone

For the past two years, I’ve been building a social media presence at Lawrence Public Library that Matt Anderson liked enough to put on both his 100 Libraries to Follow on Twitter and 100 Libraries to Follow on Facebook lists.  Now I’m applying the same treatment at my new library, and I’m pretty excited about how it’s going so far.

All this has gotten me thinking about some of my favorite uses ever of Twitter in libraries. Continue reading →

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Italy and Belgium Have Embraced #KUboobs

24 Jan
Francesco Furini - Sant'Agatha

“St Agatha” by Francesco Furini, Florence, 1630s

Readers, it’s officially global.

Last Friday, La Stampa — a major Italian newspaper — reported on the trend in which “the women are the protagonists of the American basketball championship.” Meanwhile, 7sur7 — the Belgian Sports Illustrated — ran a story about “the women who are here to announce their pride and strength and take their place in the Apollonian basketball tournament.”

I’ve had mixed feelings about my piece on third wave feminism and #KUboobs ever since it went viral last week.  It’s such a, well, tawdry cause to champion, especially for something that started as kind-of a joke.  I had also hoped more feminists would consider me — another feminist — their ally, which they both have and haven’t.

Is it really a victory for feminism that cute college co-eds are sexting coast-to-coast? Continue reading →

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Third Wave Feminism and #KUboobs

22 Jan

About 9 months ago I wrote a little piece for my friends at The Larryville Chronicles dealing with the phenomenon we fondly refer to as #KUboobs.  I argued that hey, maybe it’s not anti-feminist for women to post photos of their mascot-clad boobs online.

KU Fans

Last week my piece got picked up by the Huffington Post, Buzz Feed and Bust, and then made it’s way over to Feministing just today.  Some of the comments are supportive, others are critical, and I couldn’t be happier about either — it’s time for a rip-roaring debate about sexy feminism!  Here’s the excerpt that’s been getting the most play:

“It’s all about who’s in the driver’s seat, and in the case of #kuboobs, it’s the ladies all the way. #kuboobs has emerged from the throes of March Madness: a frenzied, cultish worship of the male body and its physical prowess. It’s a masculine sphere that traditionally excludes women (just like those pricks who assume girls don’t watch the games!). But with #kuboobs, ladies are here to announce their fandom, loud and proud, and to seize their own place among the Apollonian body worship that’s synonymous with the NCAA basketball tournament.”

I stand by my original words, and have just a few things to add to the dialog at this point: Continue reading →

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First There Were Meat Tastings, Then There Was Insane Clown Posse

22 Jan

Hi guys! I’ve missed you.  After navigating a few big work changes, it’s nice to say “hello” again.

Last month I said goodbye to the fabulous Lawrence Public Library and climbed aboard the web team at Johnson County Library right next door in Overland Park.

Johnson County Library Central Resource LIbrary

What I do now is pretty different from wearing banana suits at block parties, organizing meat tastings, and hanging out with world-famous authors like Daniel Woodrell, but I have to say I’m liking hunkering down in my cubicle to create hilarious (right?) social media and web content.  Writing has always always been up there among my favorite tasks at any job, and now I’m paid to do it 90% of the time.  The other 10% is spent brushing up on fun techie and UX skills.

The other major change? As a brand-new commuter, I have become totally fanatical about audiobooks.  Punk goddess Patti Smith reading her very own memoir?  Brilliant journalist Jon Ronson reciting Insane Clown Posse lyrics in a dry british accent? Yes, please!  If you’re a fan of audiobooks, too, let me know what I should listen to next.

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