Library Pictures for Social Media

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Jane Fonda

Good morning mr and mrs librarian at ALA annual and all the ships at sea!  Sorry if you couldn't make it to annual - just use the hashtag #leftbehindalaac14 and get instant insincere sympathy from you colleagues who got to attend!

Sitting down to a croissant sandwich before the Jane Fonda excitement takes over the Las Vegas convention center.  Actually, sitting down is merely a polite gesture as I'm going to scarf this thing down and head to the exhibits hall for more swag.  

Busy day ahead - going to interview Alexander McCall Smith, popular author at 2:40 today - I'm so nervous!  I hear he's a great guy, though, so viva free-floating anxiety!

UPDATE: U-Stream Fail

Because internet access at the LVCC is so spotty, I won't be ustreaming the beginning session of Craftcon; I will attend a session and blog about it!

Sorry if peoples were going to tune in - I'll try to stream the opening of the exhibits floor.

Day 2: Vegas morning

I am soooo glad I don't live here, as I'd be a helpless gambling addict.  I think that's where all the homeless people come from - arriving in Las Vegas with hopes and dreams of hitting it "big" and succumbing to the vicissitudes of Lady Luck and her capricious nature.  Okay, that's probably wrong, but I can definitely see myself as a young woman getting into some terrible, terrible trouble in Sin City.

So I woke up early, went to McDonald's (after the lousy in-house coffee and danish yesterday, I went straight to the old go-to for cheap, fresh breakfast), and then sat down at a couple of slot machines and ended up 3-dollars ahead!  Woo-hoo!  I'm like my dad, who was game but not a gambler.

Off to Hash House A Go Go to meet up with Facebook (hope-to-be-real) friends and then hopefully make the last hour of the Annual Unconference, which starts at 9am.  Crap!  Just realized that there are THREE Hash Houses in Vegas, and I don't recall which one we were supposed to meet!  Dang!  Okay, deep breath...

Okay.  Okay.  Anyway, just a reminder that I will be live-streaming coverage of two events today, the first session of CraftCon in the Uncommons (2:30pm), and the opening of the Exhibit Floor (5:30pm) - hope you can join me - I'll be filming on my phone so won't have a chance to check chat but I hope peoples who can't make it to either event will take a look and meet some of the great people I've met so far at the Annual ALA Conference for 2014.

Postscript:  Found out which Hash House, duh.

Shuttles!

Now that I shelled out the dough to register, I was told that I have access to the shuttles.  I found the shuttle for the riviera which is across the street and waited for the bus driver to open the door.  She ignored me until one of the ALA helpers waved at her and asked her to open the door. It swing open a foot and a half and I squeezed in - my "hello" was greeted with a grunt when I sat down in the first row.  "So, ready for the onslaught of librarians in Las Vegas?" Was completely ignored as the driver continued to flick at her smart phone.  

Woman without a country

Or without a press pass.  After a frustrating 45 minute sit in the American Libraries Magazine office, I'm now standing in line for advanced registration to open.  Then I've got another frustrating round of disorientation as the registration staff check through their files and find they have no record of me.  Then I go back to my hotel room and sleep some more?  No, I've got to find my editor, first.  

It took me two miles to get to the convention center, by the way.  I need more coffee.

The cage

Found out what "the cage" is - a place to cash in chips - and that I can't hock stuff at the counter but I have 

to go to one of the pawn shops on the strip.  #protipsalaac14 #alaac14 #alaat