Guess who I had dinner with???

hyelakingsfan · Post by **hyelakingsfan** » Sun Jun 25, 2006 11:39 am

Very jelous

you two look great in this pic

and it looks like you guys had loads of fun.

Baakay · Post by **Baakay** » Sun Jun 25, 2006 12:16 pm

blueheaven wrote:I think, more than anything, I was surprised that there are Library Conventions. Who knew?!

Glad you guys had a good time.

WARNING: HUGE POST AHEAD

You've heard, mayhaps, of the American Library Association??

(You know, those "hysteric librarians"). It's the national association -- something like 70,000 members. There are two conferences per year, one in January or February and one in June (the BIG one). There also are state and regional groups, all of whom have conventions, and then conventions for more specialized groups like the User's Groups for the biggest of the library software systems users. (If you paid half a million dollars for an integrated system, it's good to get together with your peers to talk to folks who have figured out tweaks and tricks...)

Yep, poor New Orleans got bombarded with somewhere between 15 and 20 thousand of us -- final count not in yet as the convention goes till Tuesday. I was there because I was a presenter at a preconference. Yesterday I spent the day hitting the Exhibits, which take up two of the gigantic main halls at the Convention Center. It's so gargantuan because every publisher known to mankind comes, hoping to sell books (every imaginable type of library or library-like service is there, so there's more than enough potential market). Then you have the software vendors, the library furniture vendors, the national libraries (Library of Congress, the National Library of Medicine and the National Agricultural Library), the companies selling equipment like heavy-duty CD repair machines, stacks movers (if you've never seen an entire range of books picked up in one piece and moved, without dropping a single book, you haven't lived), compact shelving, and everything else. Promotional swag companies are fun...

And we now have a whole aisle devoted to Graphic Novels.

I see the guy from Tokyopop a couple times a year

This year we had Dark Horse, Tokyopop, Viz, DC Comics, and a whole mass of smaller publishers including an upstart "safe graphic novels" company

School librarians, but especially young adult librarians in public libraries, are latching on to manga as a way to get kids to read. ("Gee, it's fun! maybe we should have some of those in our library!") So I get to dispense what little I know about the subject every so often to libraries around here... it has nothing to do with my job, at all...

Anyway....Yesterday I made one trip through, got so many Sneek Peeks, volumes one of manga I haven't seen, and glimpses of things I have preordered, that my shoulders were aching. Snagged the year's Shonen Jump bag. (They're green this year and have Inuyasha on one side and some guy with orange hair and a big sword on the other. I forget his name. Maybe Perv-chan knows it..) So I mailed it to myself.

Then I went and listened to Vernor Vinge, David Weber, and a female sci-fi writer whose name just escaped me

That was awesome. They were all so incredibly intelligent, funny, and thought-provoking!! and went back and got more swag

OOOOO!!! A hardcover book that, if I heard her right, is to be called "Coffin" is coming out. VHD art. In a slipcase, even. It looks gorgeous.

**********************

Now then. Anyone know the number for Jigoku Shojou, so I can give Lynxa the reward she so richly deserves for posting this picture??

I was in the middle of trying to say "noooooooo"

So: 1) yes, she looks just like her avatar, only prettier!! (ever feel like a cake without the baking powder? That's how I felt sitting next to this person!

)

2) Yes, we had a great time! I haven't giggled so much in eons

3) If you go to New Orleans you MUST EAT HERE. Jamila's, 7808 Maple Street. The owner is so wonderful, you would swear he was a fictional character come to life. I've never run across such a perfect example of the business owner who knows everyone and treats them special!! And he kept asking about Ozzie, Lynxa's pug. "How is that big boy?"

The food is amazing. We each had a bowl of some kind of seafood bisque that also has spinach and... what else was it? I forget. YUMMY. The main dish (you can tell I'm a world traveller, I don't remember its name) was big old chunks of lamb with potatoes and lemons and mushrooms and olives? baked in terra cotta pots and served over couscous. Wow. Then we each had a slice of baklava and a glass of port -- I ordinarily don't drink these days but it seemed well worth a toast

. Fabulous food, not too spicy, not too heavy and with an amazing mix of subtle flavors. I'd say he could give Emeril a run for his money, except that fame would ruin the atmosphere!

So fun. I'm glad it wasn't too embarrassing for Lynxa to be out with an old lady librarian. (We had a great time bitching about Bleach

)

Oh and Monkeyboy? I do a fairly decent Warren Buffett vocal impression, if that helps...

***********
in all seriousness now, that dinner was one of two highlights of my trip (the other being last night's speechifying by Ray Nagin

and Madeline Albright, the former Secretary of State, who made me "wooo!" several times. Awe-inspiring!)

It was good for us "from away" to have some highlights to offset the sobering reality of how very far parts of New Orleans have to go to get repaired. The Convention center is beautiful, but it's only 3/4 finished. Parts of the Warehouse district are still pretty beat-up. The escalators to the Riverwalk don't work, and only about half the stores have reopened. And that's in the sections that weren't really mangled.

Keep those wonderful people and the groups that are trying to help them in mind when you have a few dollars to give to a charity. It's going to be a long haul yet. (can you tell I'm still kinda weepy around the edges??)

RoboFlonne · Post by **RoboFlonne** » Sun Jun 25, 2006 1:46 pm

Wow all those books and librarians all in one place! No wonder the National Guard was sent!

We have to protect all of you so we all have more free manga in the Libraries!

The library I used to work in used Acorn. Do libraries still use that?

kymaera · Post by **kymaera** » Sun Jun 25, 2006 1:51 pm

RoboFlonne wrote:Wow all those books and librarians all in one place! No wonder the National Guard was sent!

They had to send them in to keep those party animals under control. Nothing
scarier than a bunch of drunken librarians rampaging through the streets

aernath · Post by **aernath** » Sun Jun 25, 2006 4:36 pm

Baakay wrote:Snagged the year's Shonen Jump bag. (They're green this year and have Inuyasha on one side and some guy with orange hair and a big sword on the other. I forget his name. Maybe Perv-chan knows it..) So I mailed it to myself.

TEASE!!!!
Did you grab someone else's too, or are you going to cut that bad boy in half so I get to ID that orange haired sword weilding character?

You know, I gotta ID this one with my fingers

and tongue

.

Baakay · Post by **Baakay** » Sun Jun 25, 2006 7:03 pm

aernath wrote:
Baakay wrote:Snagged the year's Shonen Jump bag. (They're green this year and have Inuyasha on one side and some guy with orange hair and a big sword on the other. I forget his name. Maybe Perv-chan knows it..) So I mailed it to myself.
TEASE!!!!
Did you grab someone else's too, or are you going to cut that bad boy in half so I get to ID that orange haired sword weilding character?
You know, I gotta ID this one with my fingers
and tongue
.

CUT ... IN HALF??

nooooooooooooooo

<--all-purpose tongue.

******************

RoboFlonne wrote:Wow all those books and librarians all in one place! No wonder the National Guard was sent!
We have to protect all of you so we all have more free manga in the Libraries!
The library I used to work in used Acorn. Do libraries still use that?

Oh, yes. All those librarians in one place - I haven't felt so slim in years. (we have some BIG girls and boys in this very sedentary profession). I was a little worried about the Convention Center, you know? I can just see the headlines:

Library Conference Causes New Orleans Shoreline to Subside

Acorn doesn't ring a bell, but that might be because I work in a university library?? Not sure!

blueheaven · Post by **blueheaven** » Sun Jun 25, 2006 7:32 pm

Now see, I thought that was just my school. The librarian we have there has an ass like a tank.

20,000 librarians in one place? Turn on the hot tub and break out the beer. I smell a party!!!

Baakay · Post by **Baakay** » Mon Jun 26, 2006 6:30 am

blueheaven wrote:20,000 librarians in one place? Turn on the hot tub and break out the beer. I smell a party!!!

More truth than fiction in that one, for darn sure. I 'spec the bars and the casino will be happy we visited.

Cloud · Post by **Cloud** » Mon Jun 26, 2006 6:31 am

Sorry my body cannot yet rotate.

Lynxa · Post by **Lynxa** » Mon Jun 26, 2006 6:53 am

Baakay wrote: All those librarians in one place - I haven't felt so slim in years. (we have some BIG girls and boys in this very sedentary profession). I was a little worried about the Convention Center, you know? I can just see the headlines:

Library Conference Causes New Orleans Shoreline to Subside

Acorn doesn't ring a bell, but that might be because I work in a university library?? Not sure!

How sad that we survived Katrina only to be brought low by a few thousand fat butts

And don't let Baakay sell herself short!!! I thought she was very pretty (you are SO NOT FAT) with a wit that is just as sharp and scintillating in person as it is on the boards (even without an edit button!

).

You need to come back!

kymaera · Post by **kymaera** » Mon Jun 26, 2006 8:08 am

Lynxa wrote:with a wit that is just as sharp and scintillating in person as it is on the boards

So...was that the booze speaking or was that damning with faint praise?

Baakay · Post by **Baakay** » Mon Jun 26, 2006 8:15 am

kymaera wrote:
Lynxa wrote:with a wit that is just as sharp and scintillating in person as it is on the boards
So...was that the booze speaking or was that damning with faint praise?

I love you too, dearest friend.

(And he's one to speak. Trust me, he's not just another mindless hardbody!)

aernath · Post by **aernath** » Mon Jun 26, 2006 1:31 pm

Baakay wrote:just another mindless hardbody!)

*ding*
*poof*

Doko? Doko?

Ashura · Post by **Ashura** » Mon Jun 26, 2006 3:13 pm

aernath wrote:
Baakay wrote:just another mindless hardbody!)
*ding*
*poof*

Doko? Doko?

You're so bad Perv-chan

aernath · Post by **aernath** » Tue Jun 27, 2006 12:38 am

Ashura wrote:You're so bad Perv-chan

It's impossible to be good with lead-ins like that.

Heard today in our office:
My boss: *has been discussing some guy that just came back on island - I've been ignoring her* Oh, hey, and he's kind of cute, you'd like him Leah!
Me: Oh yeah? Where is he?
Boss: He just got off the plane.
Me: Is he still here?
Boss: Hu? OH, no, probably not, he's going up to Roi (northern island) to work.
Me: So, he's over at the other terminal?

Boss: *backing up a little bit* *nervous laugh* Um... no, probably not. I'm sure he's just starting to get settled in. *as she looks out the door*
Me: Is he there? *pointedly looking out the door*
Boss: *laughs nervously*

Good thing they know I'm really tame.