Scott Freeman

In yeas past I have labored heavily over my year end music list. I plan to provide my top releases tomorrow night but it will probably be contained in one list rather than a multi-part series. To be honest, I am much more interested in my year end book lists coming up next week.

I think there were a couple of factors that contributed to a less than enthusiastic desire to share my musical picks of the year:

1) eMusic opted for big name back catalog rather than quality new releases. I am not a fan of the new eMusic. Sure it was great to be able to add back a few older recordings I had not converted to MP4. However, the change meant that there was less appeal to Tuesday new releases. There just were not as many. I canceled my subscription as of tonight.

2) My available time to listen to music declined rapidly the second half of the year. I no longer sit before a computer in an office by myself all day. I also had less discriminatory funds to purchase music outside of eMusic.

That does not mean that I have no opinions. I do and will get to those in due course.

I can state right now the two biggest disappointments of the year:

Monsters of Folk–Rather than four times the greatness it was four times the suckitude.

That Derek Webb album–I will be the one to say it: his music stinks. I like the lyrics and appreciate a good controversy but I will pass. I can’t pretend to be a fan any longer.

If there was any question that I was asked most often during my ministry career, that was it. It was hard to explain how study, preparation and the other day to day activities could consume so much time.

I didn’t realize that moving into the library field I would still be asked that question. Granted, if you had asked me two years ago what a librarian did during the work day I would have been hard pressed to fill out an 8 hours slate.

But now I know. There is a lot that comprises my week.

I spend 23 out of my 40 hours each week at The Help Desk. I am the guy that people go to for any questions that they might have. Most of the time those questions are computer related or regarding services that the library offers. However, there is more to it than that.

I am the answer man. At the help desk people come to me with all kinds of questions. I have helped people with research papers, find long lost relatives, find arcane pieces of trivia and other pieces of information that they might need. Over the last few months I have become very familiar with reliable databases that can help me find information that Google alone cannot reach.

My favorite part of the desk time, however, is my Readers Advisory role. If you are looking for a recommendation for a book I am your guy. I love being able to point people in the direction of a good read that meets their tastes and interests. Looking for a Nick Hornby readalike? Here you go. Want a good book about the end of the world? I can hook you up.

The rest of my week is spent “off desk.” During this time I am fulfilling my other responsibilities which include:

–I do all book ordering for 200s, 500s and Inspirational Fiction. 200s is religion and 500s is science. I have a passion for both of those so that has been somewhat easy to get up to speed on. Inspirational Fiction? Not so much. The genre is so series oriented that there is a lot of familiarization that I have to do.

–I am the tax guy. I am responsible for procuring, stocking and keeping readily available all the tax forms that we supply.

–I handle donations. Our library gets a ton of materials that people leave behind. I sift through all of that and determine what we want to add to our collection.

–I will be hosting a book club that begins meeting in January. The flier we used to promote that is above. I likely will be starting at least one more because the first group is full.

–I plan and pull off monthly adult programming. For example, in January we will be doing a Madden Tournament the weekend before the Super Bowl and in February we will be doing an Academy Award Film Series.

That is just a taste of what I do all day. I absolutely love it.

It has been so long since I blogged for a general audience that I scarcely know where to begin. So much has happened over the past year that I have yet to fully process it all. Some bullet points might be the way to go:

–I retired after 20 years of full-time active ministry
–I began work as a part-time circulation clerk for the Ponca City Public Library
–I got a part-time job as a campus minister for the Northern Oklahoma College Wesley House
–We moved into a new house in Ponca City
–I lost my oldest brother suddenly to a heart attack
–I got a job as a full time Reference Librarian at the Stillwater Oklahoma Public Library (of course I quit at the Ponca City library when that began)
–We moved to Stillwater
–During all of this I was taking 9 hours towards my Masters in Library and Information Sciences

Needless to say it has been a time of overwhelming stress and chaos. There were days I didn’t know if I was coming or going. Working two jobs that involved a commute and driving 1-2 times a week to Tulsa for class made September and October absolutely exhausting.

My retiring from ministry has been in the making for a while. However, my departure was hastened for a number of reasons. None of those reasons are really important right now. Suffice it to say I made the right decision at just the right time despite the difficult that ensued.

I look forward to blogging again. It won’t be a place of controversy or pushing the envelope like it might have been at one point. However, this will be a place to talk about the world of libraries, books and information.

I hope that you will consider being a part of this discussion.

First off, if you read my blog by using Internet Explorer it probably looks pretty messed up. That’s because you shouldn’t be using Internet Explorer in the first place.

Download Firefox now and improve your browsing experience.

One of the things I like about Firefox other than the fact that it is more stable and less prone to security attacks are the add-ons and plug-ins that can simplify your office production and web enjoyment.

Here are the ones that I am currently using. All of these can be downloaded here:

Clipmarks–This is a handy little tool that allows you to highlight and select any portion of any webpage and post it directly to your blog or Word document. Or you can save them in your own library. If I come across a quote or a section of an article that I particularly like I just have to copy and it’s automatically kept. And the publish to blog feature is great.

StumbleUpon–This is an addictive little add-on to your toolbar. You enter in your interests and it directs you to websites that it thinks that you might like. The more sites you give the thumbs-up to the better it is able to tell. You can also rate sites by clicking the button. Want to increase traffic to your blog? Give yourself the thumbs-up.

Download Statusbar–This add-on is great. If you download a file you don’t get the annoying pop-up. It does it automatically down in your status bar.

Foxytunes–Speaking of status bars, this nifty little addition allows you to control whatever music player you are using without switching over. It tells you what you are playing in your status bar and use all the important controls. I can listen to iTunes all day without switching windows.

PDF Download–If you are like me you find opening PDF files a hassle. This extension automatically checks and gives you the option of opening it up directly in your browser.

What extensions and add-ons do you use?

Tracy is way past 30 now.

Steven Carter gives us a wonderful reminder to love, even when we disagree, in his article The ACLU is Not Evil.

Great article by Andrew Sullivan on what he calls “Christianism” Here.

Maybe in death, his voice will be heard again: John Kenneth Galbraith, 97, Dies

Hats off to the governor of our home state for rising above partisan politics and doing the right thing: Arkansas Gets a Raise, Who’s Next?

Great editorial in the New York Times about gas price solutions