Gaming Review: Watch Dogs

Aiden Pearce is a hacker.  He and his partner Damien decide to do a massive hack on the rich patrons of the Merlaut Hotel, a swanky spot owned by Lucky Quinn, notorious Chicago Mob Boss, and the premier destination for the elite and wealthy. During their electro-heist, the hackers become the hacked, and Aiden decides to bail before they get caught.  Unbeknownst to them, their little job did not go unnoticed, and a hit is put out on he and Damien.   

While traveling with his sister and her two young children to the neighboring town of Pawnee,  yes, Parks and Rec fans, Pawnee, the hitmen assigned to him, shoot out his tires, causing Aiden to spin out of control, causing an accident that kills his 6 year old niece, Lena.   

A year later, Aiden is still traveling down the revenge rabbit hole when he is found by Damien, who wants to blackmail him into finishing the Merlaut job.  This opens up the floodgates of Chicago corruption stories, with everything from human-trafficking, to political cover-ups, and even a little more blackmail.  All the while, you're allowed to hack into ctOS, the Central Operating System, owned by Blume (or Google if you want to call a spade a spade), which controls everything in the city from bank accounts to the bridges and steam pipes. 

Uh...I wanted to like this game sooo much more than I actually do. 

I don't hate it.  But it didn't quite fire on all cylinders the way its original E3 trailer did two years ago.  Let me explain. 

Saw This and Thought of You: Library Advocacy Starts at Home!

So, while I was away at ALA, it seems one photo got a WHOLE lot of attention.   

This display, by the QBD Bookshop in Australia has over 13,000 likes and 48,000 shares on Facebook.  For a literary reference, that's huge. LOL   

Now, it isn't the first time I've ever seen the "I Like Big Books", homage to the classic rap song, but it is the first time I've seen someone take the time to do an entire verse.   

The viral photo is cute and funny, and apparently it made ALL of my friends think of me, the resident librarian, because I found myself tagged to it or shared with multiple times.   

Which made me feel great. 

Yes, there are a lot of great things about something literary getting this much attention, but even more than that, it said a lot to me about my choice to be a vocal advocate about my profession.   

In speaking to a coworker today, she said something that gave me pause.  On talking about celebrities endorsing and advocating for libraries, she said; 

"Yeah, but this starts with us.  It's OUR issue, and it wil change when WE take it on." 

This wasn't something necessarily super profound, but it was in fact worth some thought.  I mean, just yesterday, I'd been listening to librarians clamor over a startled BJ Novak in asking him to PLEASE be one of those celebs who does more than just asks librarians to push his books, but actual speaks out and for libraries.  At the time, it was humorous, thought-provoking (why DON'T more celebs advocate publicly for libraries), and hopeful. After the chat with my coworker though, I started to think more about it and realized that she was right.  We can have all the celebrity advocacy and attention we want, but without a clear vision and direction for advocacy from ourselves, even that help will fall apart fairly quickly.   

Having so many of my friends tag me to the "Big Books" photo on Facebook, made me think a lot about how much I talk about being a librarian.  Not as a gimmick, or a plea for people to "PLEASE come check us out", or even a lot of angry posts complaining about why libraries are failing.  I just talk about what I do, and how much I love it.  

Apparently, that works. 

"If you don't like what is being said, change the conversation" - Don Draper 

Librarians are in the most vital position to alter and change the conversation that people have about libraries.  (When they talk about us at all).  One of the first things BJ Novak said, in regards to being an advocate, was that he wasn't sure just what the library needs, and that he believes maybe people just don't know what the library is about.   

This is something that my followers and "Facebook Friends" can hopefully never be able to say.  I talk about my profession with as much pride, if not more, as some celebrities I follow on Twitter and Instagram talk about theirs.  I do not cower behind a faux-pology for boring everyone with my shh'ing stories, nor do I keep up the veil of mystery that was of librarians past, where people assumed we were these sheltered and stuffy people who were holding all the information to ourselves.    I try to be transparent and honest as much as possible.   

"I make this look good" - Agent J. 

I'm grateful to see that my friends and family are taking what I'm serving.  Keep the literary/library tags coming, friends!  It shows me that I've shown YOU, that my job is important, and vital, and fun, and interesting, and inclusive.   Having that reminder while I was among over 18,000 other librarians and information professionals, made my heart flutter.

And yes, in case you're wondering, I do like big books, and I cannot lie. 

My favorite big one being, "The Invention of Hugo Cabret" or "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows".

YA Review: Noggin by John Corey Whaley

Travis Coates died of cancer five years ago.
Or at least, his body did. His head was cryogenically preserved until which time that a donor body could be collected for him to be reanimated with. 
Sounds crazy, right?

Well it sounded that way to his girlfriend, best friend, and parents also, when he told them five years ago that he'd be ending his fight with cancer and flying to Denver for the operation that would hopefully give him a second chance at life. 
For five years, they mourned him, and continued with life, until a crazy thing happened.

It worked.

Writing Club: Ransom Rigg's Style

Writing Club was AWESOME today!!

First of all, I am starting this new season of writing club with a drastic location change.  Rather than using our youth services activity room, I have decided to move us upstairs to the adult conference room.  I'm hoping that this move, from the dark basement where friends and distractions can just wander in, participants will start to feel like they're in a serious classroom and that what they do matters.  

My teen summer reading program this year is all about spies and conspiracy theories, so I thought it would be cool to alter our writing club sessions this summer to fit the theme.  

Laser Tag in the Library

So, I kept hearing all of these wonderful gaming and activity programs that people were trying in their libraries.  Everything from mini-golf to hide-and-seek, so I thought laser tag would be a great and fun end to Teen Tech Week this year.  We had a great time, and it went along even better than I thought.  Want to try it?  Or at least hear about it?  Well here ya go! 

We Take This Man by Candice Dow

We Take This Man by Candice Dow My rating: 1 of 5 stars 

WTH?! This book should have been called, "We drive this dumb dude crazy", or "We stupid women", or "We Blind Mice", or anything else along those lines.

While We Take this Man, does open the door for some riveting conversation about polyamory and marital compromise, it did not do the most simple task entertainment has: Satisfy and take care of its audience. I was angry and frustrated at all of the characters from the beginning to the very end, and as a reader, that disappointed me. Even the victories and semblances of good sense and triumph left me feeling blah.

I was extremely disappointed in what this book said about both women and men!  Both sexes appeared to be morons.  It made women out to be treacherous and misguided, and made men out to be blindly driven by honor and loyalty with no personal conviction.  WOMP. T

he book also made no attempts to find solid footing for any of its blow-ups and it had no clear ending. Stylistically, these two authors did an amazing job of producing a riveting drama that was full of turns and shock values. It was a page-turner if nothing else. However, being intriguing and being satisfying are two different things. View all my reviews