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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

So What's Up With Las Vegas? The Las Vegas Walking Edition, part 2

Got into Vegas yesterday afternoon, just in time to experience heat and light like never before - and I live in Florida, aptly named The Sunshine State.

As soon as I walked through the doors of Circus-Circus, I knew it was going to be everything I had read in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, and more!  The front of the room had little room for standing around, as slot machines blinked and beckoned in an endless ocean.  I slung a bag on each shoulder and lumbered to the nearest line that looked like a check-in for the hotel.  For once when I sniffed the air I didn't smell arid, baking concrete - I smelled cigarette smoke from years and years ago that had permeated the wall-to-wall carpeting, in the days when you could still smoke in most establishments. No amount of carpet-cleaning was going to get that smell out, I decided, and reminisced about the days when I used to smoke.  Within 5 minutes I was in front of a clerk who looked at me suspiciously before asking me to repeat myself. "Manor Motor Lodge - I'm here to check in," I explained.  "Honey, this is the line for joining the Circus Players Club."  She pointed to a poster on the wall next to the desk that offered information on how you could play slot machines and get "comps" like a free room discount, 2-for-1 chicken wings, and things like t-shirts and beach towels.  After asking where I go to check-in, her suspicious look changed to pity as she saw I was close to heat exhaustion.  "You're going to have to go all the way to the back," and she pointed straight ahead and behind me.  "Just keep going and you'll see signs."

Breathing in the ancient second-hand smokiness, I turned around and started the second death-march, this time in the comfort of air-conditioning.  It was loud - people shouting and slot machines - I turned down my hearing aids and kept going.  I passed the first floor of slot machines and saw that not only were the penny slots already engaged by old ladies (I'll check those out later), but there were themed slot machines for every occasion.  TV shows like True Blood were represented, as were popular movies like The Hangover.  I had taken the virtual tour of this room before leaving (and I'll link to it as soon as I find it again), so this part of the resort looked familiar.

I finally started to see signs, and an escalator ride with tourists of every shape and ethnic persuasion crowding in around me, I walked yet another mile past a gauntlet of overpriced tourist traps, to get to the check-in area - a long, slow-moving line had formed as check-in had opened a half-hour earlier, at 2pm.  At this point I cared little about the line as I was able to put my bags down, take my hat off, and finally start to calm down after my near-death experience on the lonely Circus-Circus Drive.  I watched the clerks and the tourists - they both looked harried and tired, and most of the people checking in left in a huff.  Was there something wrong?  Was I missing something?  The place looked well-appointed - molded plaster jesters smiled blankly from the tops of pillars, and large murals of circus acts decorated the wall behind the hotel desk.  People waiting in line seemed to leave placeholders while they wandered away to find a bathroom or just to get out of the boring situation of queing up.  It all looked oddly familiar, but I couldn't quite put my finger on what it reminded me of.  Small children danced around the stanchions that kept the line somewhat straight, causing them to wobble precariously.  My mom instinct clicked and I was about to lurch forward to snatch a little girl away from a falling, heavy brass pole, but it wobbled back into place and she danced off, completely unaware of the danger, as were her caregivers (apparently).

A Korean family ahead of me was having problems interpreting their map and reservation information and waved me through to the next clerk.  She was incredibly nice and I was soon given a key and a map to my room.  Why was everyone in such a state of irritation?  Was there some kind of weird vibe?  I looked at the people behind me still waiting in line - a grossly obese young man wore a foam cowboy hat with playing cards and dice etched in bronze and black, and his t-shirt had a picture of international stick figures showing people running from other stick figures in red.  The inscription said, "Warning: If running away from zombies, I will be tripping you."  I decided I hated everyone in the immediate area, and then it hit me:  This was exactly like checking into a Disney Resort, right down to the harried parents, spoiled kids, and garish decorations.  Coming out of the swinging 60's and 70's, Circus-Circus had at some point decided to adopt the Disney model of cartoonifying every aspect of their resort amenities.  I had the evidence - a game app I had downloaded on my phone before pushing off for Nevada.

This is the screenshot of the MyVegas slots app for the Disney-fied Mirage resort.  Wait, wasn't this the casino that Oceans 11-13 tried to heist?  Why does it look like an iPad app for 3rd graders?  Why would a 3rd grader want to bet on the slots?  It's kind of insidious.

Anyway, distances were misleading and I couldn't quite parse the ink line the clerk had helpfully inscribed on the map.  A helpful salesman next to the 1/2-price Vegas show counter was able to understand it, and directed me out a battery of glass doors to what looked like an underpass parking stand for taxis and shuttle buses.  "Is there a way where I don't have to go outside?" The feel of  crawling heat stroke was still haunting me, and the clerk nodded hurriedly.  "Yes," he said, "but it's going to take longer to get to your room."  I said I didn't care and he directed me to the escalators going up another level.  "When you get off, just keep walking to the back and look for the signs that say 'Manor.'"

Getting off the escalator, I walked through another gauntlet of over-priced food stands and tourist tchotchke kiosks.  I knew I was going to be beholden to some of these stands for food in the morning - I was almost done with my bag of Probiotic Boost Blend trailmix that had quelled my hunger up until now.  I walked past the Adventuredome, an indoors amusement park featuring El Loco, a coaster that boasted a 90-degree drop and G-force pulls.  My usual enthusiasm for such strange locales was buffered by the overload of stimuli and people.  I hurried past and kept on, struggling with my bags and hoping for an end to the walking.

Finally, I came up to a people mover like at airports - I was able to put my bags down and sigh with relief.  The only sound now was the repetitive friendly-female voice welcoming me to Circus-Circus resort and reminding me of the many amenities.  Coasting along, I looked to my right and saw one of three swimming pools at the resort, filled with clamoring children and adults relaxing off to the side in lounge chairs covered with red and white-striped circus-style canopies.  It looked inviting, but I was past caring about anything except getting to my room.  Would this walking trip ever end?  I wish I had had the wits about me to use Map My Walk to find out how the hell long this whole twisted trudge had been.

After getting off the people mover and down another escalator, I could see the first of the Manor Motor Lodge buildings and hoped to God this was the building where my room was.  I stepped briefly back into the world of heat and light and scuttled through the glass door.  To my right were stairs but I was not walking up any stairs at this point, so I asked the closest cleaning lady where the elevator was and headed towards it.  I figured the walking was fine as long as I didn't have to do any walking up anything.  Stepping off the elevator it was another quarter mile to my hotel room, and for once the key card worked on the first try and I was inside my room, where I finish writing this post.  It's a nice room and I managed to get some of my clothes hung up before laying down to watch cable for a few minutes.  Until I woke up at 6am this morning.

I missed Whisk(e)y Wednesday and my apologies to the librarians who organized it - I really wanted to see the Irish pub in the New York New York resort and meet my fellow ALA colleagues.  Well, tonight, then - I go on the ALA Vegas All-Conference Pre-Party club crawl with the ALA Think Tankers.  I just visited the Facebook page and noticed that the link to the Eventbrite event was taken down - so, sorry stalkers, you'll have to find me some other way.  Anyway, I'm hoping that it's more fun than Circus-Circus.  See you later!

So What's Up With Las Vegas? The Las Vegas Walking Edition, part 1

So, I got into Las Vegas and lugged my two over-packed cases to the bus stop and, using Google Maps I saw that I would have to walk 11 minutes to get to Circus-Circus from the Las Vegas Hotel/Convention Center 108 bus stop.  Eleven minutes?  I can do that!  Only, it was 11 minutes in blinding, mid-afternoon, 102-degrees, Las Vegas sunshine.  Houston was right - there is something about Las Vegas that makes everything seem closer than it is.  Eleven minutes became a death-march past empty loading docks and construction along Circus-Circus Boulevard.

About halfway I found a patch of shade next to a gated entry and stopped to put down my 50 lbs of luggage.  I realized at that point that I wasn't sweating and after TSA made me chug the contents of my water bottle at the check-in point or throw it away, I was too spooked to refill my bottle even after disembarking at my destination.  This was definitely bad news.  I had a half-mile more to go, and while I could see the concrete big top of Circus-Circus in front of me, I knew it was a trick of the heat - I still had 5.5 minutes to go and I wasn't sure if I was going to make it.  I removed my hat, hoping that the hot, stiff breeze flowing down the boulevard would give me at the least the illusion of cooling; no such luck.  I looked to my left and saw a newspaper box; each compartment had a beautiful, naked woman of every ethnic persuasion on the cover of a booklet; scattered on the ground were business cards advertising escorts in equal states of undress.  The private parts were covered with a spade or a heart - haha, because women are like playing cards!

The only person I saw was a young man in a red t-shirt from neighboring The Riviera, who had slipped through some door to throw a bag of garbage away; I noticed he didn't stay very long because before I could ask for some water he had quickly disappeared back into the bowels of The Riviera.  Steeling myself for the last leg of the "walk" I shouldered my enormous bags (what the hell had I packed, anyway, bricks?!) and lurched back into the white-hot light.

I was starting to get light-headed - I had forgotten that I was prone to heat exhaustion, which made me ineligible for most jobs in Florida that required outside labor - and was wondering if whoever found me prostrate would call an ambulance or just rifle my bags for the laptop and wallet before taking off.  Circus-Circus came into closer view and I saw people crossing the intersection and cars waiting impatiently at stop lights.  I was almost there!  At least, if I collapsed before crossing, some tourist might take pity on me and call 911 before rifling my bags and person.

Finally, finally, I made it to the door, but stopped briefly to take my hat off again and straighten myself before entering.  I don't care how close to passing-out I am, I WILL look presentable when entering a high-class resort like Circus-Circus.

From the Schedule and Beyond: Highlights from #alaac14 (continues) (now with 15% more hyperlinks)

So I posted a couple of days about about The Library Games, and event which takes place on June 30th, and thought I'd mention a couple of other cool things that are happening before the weekend.

CraftCon, hosted by Kate, is an event listed in the  Networking Uncommons area, so it may get overlooked if you don't look at the schedule.  It starts at 2:30pm on Friday, June 27th, and runs at various times throughout the weekend.  Bring your own crafts, bring crafts to share, show off projects, or just come hang out with a bunch of chill library peoples.  I'll be Ustreaming the start of the CraftCon on the Ustream channel, before hunkering down to do some subversive cross-stitching until my next session.

ALA Play, hosted by the Games and Gaming Round Table and Graphic Novels and Comic Books groups is listed in the ALA scheduler.  This promises to be a fun event and a great way to unwind after the opening sessions on Friday, June 27th and runs from 7:30pm-10pm at Caesar's Palace.  The theme is Welcome to Nightvale - interesting!

Keep checking back as I post more updates - trying to decide if I should post the ALA party map...

Your ALA Conference & You!

Because it's all about you!  Saw this in the FB feed this morning and thought I'd share:

Broadcast schedule on Ustream, so far

So here are two events I'll be live-streaming from Las Vegas on the Ustream channel, ALA 2014 Las Vegas, Baby! Both of them are on Friday, and I'm hoping to add to these soon, so keep checking back!  If I remember correctly, you can sign up for email alerts when the channel is live.

Uncommons: CraftCon Friday June 27th at 2:30pm

I'll be bugging people at the Uncommons area throughout the conference, but this will be covering the CraftCon event that starts on Friday

#alaac14 Opening of Exhibit Floor Friday June 27 at 5:15pm
This is where I get really excited and jump around, talking to exhibitors and gathering the best swag when it opens on Friday afternoon.

Two Days to GO!!!

I can't believe it's almost time to go to ALA!  What a trip it's been to work on this blog, get funding to go the conference, and now work as a stringer for American Libraries!  Feeling very lucky and very grateful to all the folks who helped make it happen.  Hope to see many of you in Las Vegas, but if you can't make it please subscribe to the UStream feed and keep up-to-date with activities from the floor of the Las Vegas Convention Center. I'll also be blogging here, tweeting, and facebooking.

I think ALA.org is also doing some broadcasting, but they've been a little opaque about where and when they are doing this.  When I can't go to conferences I still love watching live-feeds or reading live-blogs about them, and hope those of you who keep up with Zen and Loaning will get as much enjoyment out of viewing it as much as I will in producing it for you.

From the Schedule and Beyond: Highlights at #alaac14

Over the next couple of days I'm going to highlight events that might otherwise get looked over when planning schedules using the ALA scheduler.

The first of the events I want to highlight is The Library Games, and below is a description of the events happening.  I've added the description from the Facebook event site but it will be a spectator sport of watching teams of librarians play games in a winner-take-all Hunger Games style event (without the blood and violence, natch).  This takes place on Monday, June 30th, from 5:30pm to 7:30pm:

First there were the Olympic Games, then the Hunger Games became all the rage. Combine the two and you get The Library Games! Four brave teams of librarians competing in several fast-paced, cut-throat events to take home the trophy and be crowned the champions of libraryland. Audience participation and voting will be crucial to the outcome, so make sure you are there to witness history in the making. 

Round 1: Lip Sync for Your LIfe -- one song/competitor (2.30 second clips)

Round 2: Flanneldecks Showdown -- large felt board, 25 random felt pieces, 2 minutes to create and tell a story on an unknown theme.

Round 3: Book Talk for your Life -- one book/competitor (competitors will be given a list of possible books they should be prepared to book talk)

Round 4: Battledecks -- four competitiors; 3 minute slide decks

Round 5: Trivia Challenge or an @midnight style type of event (TBD)

Between two of the rounds, 4 random people will be chosen from the audience to demonstrate Cards Against Librarianship.

Reading material for the flight

So, I swear, this copy of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas was messed-up when I checked it out of my library to re-read before the conference.  But, yeah, I'm probably going to have to replace it by the time it's traveled from here to Vegas and back again.  

Zen lesson for the day: Follow the rule of law

So, I got a traffic violation for doing a California stop through a stop sign yesterday - I had no plausible reason for doing it - the police officer even asked me if there was an emergency. I didn't have a good explanation other than it was habit for me, so he gave me a huge-ass ticket.

I was mad about it for about an hour afterwards, but when I got home and hit the comfy chair I had a chance to think on it, and realized that it was my responsibility to follow the laws as they are laid out for motor vehicles. There are a lot of pedestrians near that intersection - it is on a back road, though, so I think nothing of blowing through through the stop sign as I am turning into the Publix parking lot, which is right next to it. The cop was waiting across the street and had me dead to rights.

 So why do I consider this a Zen lesson? Because of something my precepts teacher, Thom Pastor, said about the precepts; know when to keep the precepts and when to break them. This is important, because I believe it is a fundamental philosophy in Buddhism. Buddhists may seem wishy-washy and opportunistic because of this, but really, it's because we are highly adaptable. So, "know when to keep the precepts" I think it means that we have sets of rules that we follow that benefit all beings - don't kill, don't get so drunk you do things that are harmful to yourself or others, and three others that I can't recall because I'm pulling this out of my butt (and welcome to my world). "Know when to break them" is the fail-safe we have for contingencies where not following the rules ultimately benefits all beings; if I had been blasting through the stop sign because I had a pregnant woman in the throes of labor who needed to get to a hospital, it might be considered understandable for me to break the law.

But there was no emergency; I was not helping to shepherd new life into the world. The cop, like I said, even asked me if there was an emergency. So, I broke the law when it was not of benefit to anyone, and may have endangered some pedestrian's life in the process. Moral? Follow the rule of law.

Return of "So What's Up With Las Vegas?"

My wonderful friend, Houston, agreed to let me capture his soul - wait, no, that's not it - his ruminations and wisdom about Las Vegas. He provides some pretty awesome tips for bars and places to tourist that are off the beaten path. He knows this stuff because he is omniscient, but also because he does some kind of professional videographer type stuff in Vegas every year. I recommend watching both of these videos because I screwed up on the first one and the second one has information that the first one doesn't.

What to pack for Vegas?

I've decided that I will take my medium LL Bean suitcase to check-in on the plane, and carry-on my Jansport computer bag with the heavy laptop and various cords and whatnot.  I'll do most of my blogging on the phone, but the laptop will help with editing and transferring any video or audio.

For clothes, I'm taking mostly skirts that won't wrinkle easily and are light - I have a TravelSmith skirt that I got at Junior League a few years' back that will fit the bill, and my beloved Athleta Whatever skort (if it were legal to marry an article of clothing, I would marry this skirt, that's how much I love it).  I'm allowing myself at least two nerdy t-shirts, and it's going to be hard to choose because they're all so nerdy and wonderful, but mostly I'll take my two Lacoste polos, a Hawaiian shirt, and a couple of American Apparel t-shirts because they look semi-professional when worn with a business-type skirt.

And, of course, my bathing suits.

Two Weeks to Go!!!!

At this point, I seem to be the only person in my library who is outwardly excited about going to ALA.  I mean, everyone is excited for me that I'm going, but the librarians who are actually going to Las Vegas are all "meh" about it.  Maybe they just hide it better than I do?  I don't care!  I'm excited and I don't care who knows it!

Two more weeks, and I'm getting nervous.  The reality of my role in this is becoming more real - I'm blogging for American Libraries, my first legit blogging gig.  I've got big plans (and I'll have to share my technology situation in another post), but will it all come together?  Who knows?  Will the wifi work in the convention center?  Who knows?  Will I have a chance to go swimming in the Circus Circus pool?  Who knows?!  Good lord, I'm a mess!

Hey, but one bright spot is that I get to talk to my wonderful friend, Houston, about his experiences in Las Vegas, in a re-boot of the "So What's Up With Las Vegas?" feature of this blog, happening tomorrow.  I might U-stream it.  If you haven't already, subscribe to my Ustream - my handle is g8rgrrl, or do a search for #alaac14 and you should find it.

Housing Update

Well, it totally throws off my blogging about the Zen center, but after agonizing over it this afternoon I decided to stay somewhere closer to the convention center.  It seems like all the cool librarians are staying at The Quad, but I ended up getting a pretty awesome deal at Circus Circus.  A vague memory of reading Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas as a wee lass of eighteen reminded me that Circus Circus is featured in the book.

What Hunter S. Thompson and his lawyer probably stumbled into, circa 1971

So, I'm still going to visit the center and pay my respects to my precepts teacher, and sit with the Sangha, if they're practicing, but staying at the Zen center itself is a non-starter.  Oh well.  But, the Zen center doesn't have a ROLLER COASTER or a 25-ride THEME PARK, does it?!  I thought not. Yeah, Circus Circus was made for me.  Party at my house!