Miscellany

Editing Myself – a new song from me

by David Lee King on December 31, 2011

As long-time readers of my blog know, I like to write and share music every once in a blue moon. I don’t know when the next blue moon might be, but it’s the end of the year, so here’s a song!

I’ve been working on a book for much of 2011, and will be doing more writing in 2012 … and I’ve been editing myself a lot … so I thought I’d write a song about editing myself.

Feel free to take a listen (song is embedded above)! I’m playing with Bandcamp too – here’s my Bandcamp page. If you REALLY enjoy the song, feel free to buy it for a whopping $.99 (plus tax, I think). Bandcamp is cool!

OK – the song…

Editing Myself (by David Lee King)

Drinkin lots of coffee, got my writer’s hat on
inkin lines on my laptop, typin into dawn
if it doesn’t measure up, if my copy don’t fly
I’m gonna click and drag it right into my trashcan pile

I am editing myself
I am editing myself
pullin my thesaurus off the shelf
cause I am editing myself

I don’t always scribble everything exactly right
all my words don’t rhyme and my letters seem to fight
I can highlight copy paste to my heart’s content
rewrite what i don’t like until my brain is spent

now i got a rhyming dictionary and I’m lookin up a word
I need three syllables that rhyme with bird
not sure how it’ll fit, it is probably absurd
but if you’ve listened this far, well, you might have overheard

Enjoy, and here’s for a wonderful 2012!

 

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Claiming my Blog at Technorati

by David Lee King on May 7, 2011

Not sure why, but Technorati doesn’t show me as owner of my blog! So I’m going through the claim process…

and need to drop them this code – 6WK3AM9WEERE

So there. Fun stuff!

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Can You See Me Blushing This Morning?

by David Lee King on December 19, 2010

Guess what? I’m a bit embarrassed. Why is that? well, I was wrong about a couple of things that my library does. And I HATE being wrong. Especially in such a public forum. But – I can admit when I goofed up, so here goes.

Here are the facts about Topeka & Shawnee County Public Library (as they apparently stand this fine Sunday morning, pointed out to me by one of my colleagues):

  • nametags – managers use full names, other staff not so much
  • names on the website – everyone uses their real name and has a pic by it – but most staff are only using their first names.
  • The Digital Branch Manger – is saying “oh dang oh dang oh dang oh dang” right now. A lot.

So – I think I’ll go make a couple small edits to my last three posts, to correct those bits of wrong info. And maybe pay a bit more attention to nametags for the next couple of weeks.

Let the public flogging commence…

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FYI – Interesting Sounding Grant

by David Lee King on November 11, 2010

Someone from the Knight Foundation emailed me, and I thought it sounded relevant enough to pass on to you – here’s the gist of it:

If you have an innovative media technology idea, you might be able to get funding from the Knight News Challenge contest.
Run by the Knight Foundation, the grant competition awards up to $5 million annually for innovative projects that use digital technology to transform the way communities send, receive and make use of news and information.
More info can be found here: http://newschallenge.org. The site includes application information, as well as details about past winners.
This year’s application deadline is December 1. The News Challenge is looking for applications in four categories: mobile, authenticity, sustainability and community.  All projects must make use of digital technology to distribute news in the public interest.
The contest is open to anyone in the world.
A simple description of the project is all you need to apply. Submit a brief pitch to http://newschallenge.org. If the reviewers like it, you’ll be asked to submit a full proposal later.
If you have questions you can a) reference the FAQ: http://www.newschallenge.org/frequently-asked-questions, or; b) check the archived chat transcript here: http://www.newschallenge.org/1026-live (another live chat will be held on November 18 at 1:30 EST).
You can follow Knight Foundation at http://twitter.com/knightfdn. The News Challenge Twitter hashtag is #knc

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Test Numero 2

by David Lee King on September 18, 2009

Testing again – move along. Thanks!

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The Librarian in Black has a New Blog!

by David Lee King on August 31, 2009

Anyone read Sarah Houghton-Jan’s blog, the Librarian in Black? I know I do – Sarah always has some great stuff to share. Well, she has an important announcement – she has a shiny new blog & URL!

From Sarah:

“Librarian in Black has been updated, and moved. Please update your links, bookmarks, and RSS feeds.”

So go ahead, click the links, update your RSS feed readers, subscribe via email, whatever you usually do … I’m waiting…

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Day in the Life of David, Take Two

by David Lee King on July 28, 2009

Remember that I told y’all about Bobbi Newman’s Day in the Life project? Well – here’s my contribution to that. Only doing one day, but boy – it was a doozy of a day!

So – My Day in the Life, in roughly chronological order:

  • Met with Cafe staff to get firm pricing for breakfast/lunch for Podcamp Topeka
  • Posted a reminder about Podcamp Topeka on Twitter
  • Met with Communications Manager about a couple of “interesting” comments to a blog post on our library website
  • Took down (closed, not deleted) a couple of comments
  • Helped hunt down why some comments weren’t appearing on our website (fixed) and figured out a better way for me to get copied on comments (Feedburner RSS feed was too slow – now subscribed to the direct comment feed, which is much faster for some reason)
  • Posted email to all staff in relation to comments and library policies (written with Communications Manager)…
  • … then answered emails about THAT email
  • Updated by Digital Services staff on our recent battles with the conflicker worm (we won) and our DVD Dispenser (electrical problem)
  • Participated in a BCR Public Libraries Advisory Group conference call
  • Had another conference call/meeting about comments on our website
  • Proofread a galley proof of my upcoming LTR
  • One more (late) meeting about the comment (no, it’s really NOT that bad – we just needed to figure out some procedural things, like what to say, who gets to say it, etc stuff)

Now I’m going home!

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Problems with my RSS feed

by David Lee King on July 12, 2009


Hi! Someone reported that my RSS feed wasn’t sending out info had an error on it … and they were correct! The upshot of that is that some of you might not have been receiving posts from me. If that happened to you – sorry!

As of now, my main RSS feed is fixed, and I still have to figure out what’s going on with my comments RSS feed. Looks like I have to find the wordpress file for the feed and remove a couple of blank lines at the beginning of the file. And that probably won’t happen until AFTER ALA2009!

Whadda ya know – it’s working again. Yay! So as of now, both the main feed and the comments feed are up-and-running as usual.

Thanks for reading!

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Shiny New Facebook URL

by David Lee King on June 12, 2009

So – anyone else stay up to nab their name on Facebook? I’m now http://www.facebook.com/davidleeking … and an admitted dork, too. But a happy dork!

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Ford Flex – Final Thoughts

by David Lee King on May 21, 2009

Some final thoughts on my Ford Flex experience (then back to normal for this blog):

  • Today’s video shows the “packability” of the car. A family of five fit in nicely, luggage included.
  • Just checked my gas mileage. From Branson back to Topeka, I surprisingly got 24 mpg, even though I drove through the Ozarks. That’s pretty decent for the Flex.
  • Hills – my parents live on the side of a small mountain (or a large hill – it IS the Ozarks, after all). The Flex, even when put in the “hill” setting, had to work to climb up those hills, even on the highways.
  • I’m tall – the headrest was never in the right place for me. I figured out how to get around it by adjusting the seatback so my head didn’t touch the headrest. Shorter people won’t have this problem, I’m thinking.
  • And just a thought – this is 2009. Ford built a new car. Why isn’t it a hybrid?

All that said, my family and I had fun driving the Flex! Thanks to Ford and the Social Media Group for the experience.

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