Wall Drug in Wall, South Dakota

While this is a weak example, the I-90, the highway that cuts across South Dakota is littered with promotional signs for Wall Drug. A drug store tourist trap that is a must-see in South Dakota–if only to answer the mysterious call of the dozens of billboards that boast all manner of exotic treasures at the legendary Wall Drug.

An 80-foot dinosaur greets you in Wall, South Dakota, along the highway. If you head into town you see the infamous store.

I don’t want to ruin the Wall Drug experience for anyone! So only a couple of pics of the inside. It’s a wacky labyrinth of mini shops offering everything from jackalopes to cowboy hats and everything in between.

One of the most unusual–and quiet (and oddly empty) spots is the traveler’s chapel. Just a quiet respite in the midst of a cacophony of tourist trappings. Pretty fabulous. Worth the minor detour. And you’ll be thirsty by then anyway!



Mitchell Corn Palace, Mitchell, South Dakota

There’s nothing quite like the world famous Mitchell Corn Palace! It’s worth the stop on any road trip through South Dakota.

The outside is filled with corncob art that is completely rebuilt on an annual basis.

As you an see it wraps around the building. Each panel is made entirely of corncobs.

Inside, there is quite the tourist trap, and it features a roaming cob!
There are more panels of corncob art on the inside.
Here’s an overview of the interior! Quite the mega-mart of corncob-themed supplies.

On Fear

Not many people know this about me but I have a long-standing, abiding—some might say irrational—fear of home invasion.

My fear is not just the thought of someone breaking in and snatching my laptop and the Wii (They’d have to have the strength of Hercules to snatch the TV) and leaving the door open for my cats to get outside. Those are fears, certainly. But my fears are more graphic, violent, often involving bloody scenarios that lead to the death of my husband, sometimes even the cats, and leave me violated and alone.

Most of the time, in my daydreams and nightmares (there have been many of each), I’m at my most vulnerable: taking a shower in an empty house. This scenario has played itself out in my subconscious so many times that at various points I have had actually plans in place. For example, in my current apartment there is a wooden stand that holds our towels. If I tip it in front of the door this will slow the assailant down and leave me time to either cry for help or jump out of the bathroom window. Preferably both.

I have kept knives in the bathroom within reach so that if Norman Bates happens to appear I can at least stab back. I have also kept cell phones in the bathroom so I can call for help.

This is sounding insane even to me and I’m the nut who does it. I have come to understand that I misplace anxiety and turn it into fear. Once I realized that the fears subsided greatly. I stop myself in the midst of anxious thoughts for a moment and think things through. I tell myself crime statistics for my neighborhood. I remind myself that even if there is a break in the carnage that ensues in my dreams is a rare occurrence. So, at least I’m not that crazy, right?

In order to curb these imaginings, I put limits on things that escalate my paranoia. I don’t watch scary movies, generally speaking. I avoid most murder-of-the-week shows. Despite my love of science to solve crimes I no longer indulge in any of those crime TV shows that use the miracles of science to figure out who killed the girl (it’s almost always a girl).

And so my paranoid fears are still there but have greatly subsided. But still. They linger.

If there’s one thing I always liked about myself in my horrific visions it’s that I am usually calm in the face of terror. I am terrorized but I am fierce. My hands do not shake.

Turns out I’m not so cool in real life.

This morning I was in the shower. I was not thinking about break-ins or murderous lechers lurking in the hallway outside.

And then I heard it.

A rattling pound. A pounding door? It happened twice but after the first one I was in a panic. I scrambled out of the shower, grabbed my towel, tore open the bathroom door and demanded, “WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT NOISE?”

Silence.

Shaking. I ran to the front door—it seemed it had come from that direction, but had it? I listened but all I could hear was the pounding of my own hearts in my ears. I ran to the bedroom so I could look at the back porch. A light dusting of snow lay undisturbed.

I ran to the kitchen and grabbed the first knife I could and whipped around, ready to fight to the death while actually clutching my towel around me. Looking down I realized I had the bread knife. Bad idea. I turned back around and grabbed the smallest, sharpest knife. I could keep hold of it and make a stabbing motion, if needed.

I walked back into the hallway and headed toward the front door. Still no sound except the shower. The water from the shower sounded louder than anything. I looked down, ashamed to see that my hand was shaking so badly that I’d be lucky not to stab my own fool self.

I pulled my arm in tighter, hoping that would calm my hand, and walked the perimeter of the entire apartment.

When I got to the bedroom I saw that three or four books had been knocked off my nightstand. Suddenly I felt foolish. I was shaking like a frightened animal over a few books. Or was I? It had been a calamitous sound that seemed as if it were coming from another direction.

I couldn’t talk myself into it either way. I called my husband, looking to him to tell me I was overreacting. But, of course, he doesn’t understand the extent of my fears. He’s seen me wake up out of a dead sleep to double check locks on doors. But it’s not like I call him every time I get spooked, which is more often than I’d like to admit.

He chastised me for not calling the police. “There’s nothing I can do from work! Call the police and call me back!”  And he was right. I should have trusted my instincts that something was wrong.

But, of course, in my innumerable dreams the police are never an option. It just hadn’t occurred to me to call them.

I did call the police, just to be safe. They checked the apartment hallway and found nothing. But there was a gouge in the wood next to my doorknob I don’t remember ever seeing before. And downstairs the neighbors’ lock had four gouges by it. Their door was locked. There were no chips on the floor so I have no way of knowing when those gouges occurred. Nobody answered the door when the officer knocked.

The police were polite. They found nothing but said they’d be on high alert and keep an eye on our block today.

I have no idea if there was an intruder but it felt like there was one. And sometimes I just need to trust what I feel instead of talking myself out of it. Instead, I found myself caught up in a drama that plays out in my head instead of dealing with what was really going on.

Now I find myself at Starbucks trying to shake the feeling of dread that settled in after the initial fight-or-flight response kicked in. I should be doing the dishes, the laundry and my homework.

But right now I just don’t know what to do.

Cloud Computing

Class Assignment:

It seems talk of cloud computing is everywhere. I attended an event at DU last week on records management and even they brought up the idea that you should at least be familiar with cloud computing when approaching the industry because there are many applications where it will be employed in the future.

I used to be an early adopter of technology. I no longer am. Not only is it often
prohibitively expensive, it is generally quickly outdated. I spent $350 on a 3 megapixel camera. It was state of the art at the time.

The confluence of technology trends and cloud computing in this module got me thinking about the obsolescence of cloud computing; that’s not to say that is obsolete but I have to wonder about it in the same way I wonder about all technology today. I told my husband I was going to start an Internet museum dedicated just to our own outdated technology, with detailed photographs of his Apple II and my Sony MiniDisc player taken with my 3 megapixel camera.
Cloud computing is an interesting area and I think it’s filled with opportunities to bring technology to new places and the number of free Internet-based applications and software is sure to level some of the digital divide (particularly since libraries are playing an important role—wouldn’t it be nice to have libraries provide programs letting the average library user know what kinds of freebies are available to them on the Internet? I’m sure this is already happening in places I don’t know about).

I think the popularity of wireless applications in the cellular world will continue to bridge that divide. For example, I read recently that Twitter is very popular with businesses, celebrities and lower income cellular phone users (those who don’t have access to computers regularly but have adopted text messaging capabilities.

However, as future librarians (and archivists and records managers) it’s important to remember how quickly trends come and go and to be mindful of our client’s future need to access information from outdated modes.

Web 3.0: The Semantic Web

Class Assignment:

I found the readings/videos in this module very exciting. I look forward to the day that we have a true Semantic web—I feel like I’ve been waiting for it forever! I’m also looking forward to not having to drive my car.

The Borland article was pretty fascinating—it was interesting to think about how the organizational methodology of librarianship could be applied to emerging technologies. I wish this were a bigger field of exploration in our MLIS studies generally.

I think one of the most interesting elements of the Semantic Web is the criticism of how complicated it is. (I like that it might employ some catalogers). But, really, what isn’t complicated in web infrastructure and coding? It’s not like everybody learned HTML and SEO in high school (perhaps in some areas these days, of course, but not most). Like so many businesses with a presence online, as the Semantic Web is rolled out, the top tier companies will take on the endeavor because they already understand that functionality means business—real business and real dollars. Why do companies spend so much on SEO? SEO can be pretty complicated and time-consuming but it can also make a fledgling business hit the tipping point.

I’m also not opposed to keeping it simple. In fact, it’s the only way to do it on a mass scale. Leave complicated Semantic Web linking to organizations that need them and would truly benefit from the interconnectivity.

And while I know we’re supposed to tie everything to libraries, I actually think the Semantic Web will result in more jobs for knowledge management professionals—and I think that’s good news. Libraries will benefit from the implementation of a more organized Internet but I’m not sure how they will help create it—at least in public libraries (OCLC and Zepheira aside). I can see how academic libraries could implement these things. And god knows that the databases libraries regularly employ need some better search functionality.
I saw this posting on Allan’s Library and I couldn’t help but think this is the problem with library discourse. There are lots of “ooh, this is connected to something about libraries…” And I see the parallels and how it’s connected? Lots of things are closely connected in concept but that doesn’t mean they truly intersect, create stability in funding for libraries, or create library jobs.

And what, exactly, are librarians bringing to the Web 3.0 table? I hope it’s organization but I’m not sure.

Global Issues & Broadband

Class Assignment:

Unlike Ted, I’m a bit of a conspiracy theorist. Except the idea of a conspiracy is that it’s happening in secret—this isn’t. Corporations act in their own best interest; net neutrality and broadband access do not work in their favor.

This Slate article discusses Verizon’s CEO lying outright to reporters that the U.S. is number one in adoption of broadband—contradicting reports from the FCC showing that Europe and industrialized Asian nations are far ahead of the U.S. on this issue: http://www.slate.com/id/2252141/. Broadband is more expensive here than abroad and that is keeping people from accessing it—and all that is possible with technology, education, and access.

The economic stimulus and broadband article led me to further research and I saw that broadband was included as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act—but the last of those funds have been distributed, according to the Washington Post: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/09/27/AR2010092706503.html. It remains to be seen what these efforts resulted in as the implementation is ongoing.

Libraries are one of the very few places that level the playing field for those without the funds to access technology. Access is important for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is finding jobs (particularly in this economy). I found the last three jobs I had online. I haven’t gotten a job from a newspaper ad since 1999. This conversation ties in with the previous one: without regular access to emerging technologies you can count yourself out of a great many jobs in a wide variety of fields. What if I didn’t have the funds to access the internet? And high-speed internet is essential to access all that the web offers in terms of entertainment, education, and empowerment.

Additionally, libraries should be pushing hard for net neutrality because of issues of access and censorship.

Ultimately, net neutrality and broadband access are about the ability of the United States to continue to compete on a global level. If rural citizens don’t have access to broadband it stifles creativity, innovation and small business. The same goes for the outrageous premium urbanites pay for access.