Tag: Disco

Benson Memorial Library, Family, Fidelia Hall, Libraries, Life, Music, Three Things, Video Games

THREE THINGS 2017.1 (Mini Deluxe Edition)

Justin Hoenke
  • I am very uninspired with library work. I have two major projects in my mind for the Benson Memorial Library but I feel stuck. The projects are: bringing high speed fiber internet into the library and repairing and renovating our Community Room. Both of these projects are much needed and would be well received by the community. I am having a hard time finding the funds to pull these projects off which then leads to a general malaise inside of me that festers with time. Money and the lack of it really holds things back. My brain then reacts to being held back in a negative way. I want the path forward to be clear and positive, yet money is always standing in the way. I’ve researched grants, foundation money, and other paths but nothing is clicking. Maybe it will click soon enough. In the meantime, I am right here sitting at my desk feeling like the end of libraries is right around the corner.
  • I am still very excited by disco. When I use the term “disco” what I really mean is the following: Music from the NYC club THE SAINT, Sleaze/Morning Music, Italo Disco, and everything else in between.
  • I have signed a contract to provide a library related news platform with 6 articles/pieces from now until June 2017. Writing is something that I enjoy doing and the challenge to come up with a 2,000 word piece has been tough but ultimately rewarding. I’d love to write more of these. Heck, maybe someday I would like to be my full time job. I enjoy the opportunity to craft all of the thoughts inside my brain into well structured sentences. I also enjoy talking to others, getting their insight into the topic I am writing about, and sharing their story. There are so many good people out there.
  • One of my favorite things to do on the weekend is to do our laundry.I have developed a system in which I tackle certain segments of the laundry one at a time. It helps me manage the flow of work to be done and provides a good feeling once each segment is done.
  • I am not happy with my weight. I am over 200 lbs for the first time in my life and my body does not feel good. While I do not have the world’s best eating/exercising regiment, I feel as if I’m doing pretty well. There is room for improvement and I will get there.
  • I am well over 50 hours into The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild for the Nintendo Switch and I still cannot recommend this game enough. It is what I’d call a perfect video game: a marriage of great gameplay, visuals, sound, and experience. It doesn’t matter what you’re doing or where you are headed in the game. You will be amazed every step of the way.
  • And finally, the rehabbing of Fidelia Hall continues. At a recent auction, we acquired 8 radiators, 3 steel doors, 1 set of track lighting, and 1 hot water heater for $125. My mother and father also made one of the nicest donations to us: they got a furnace for our downstairs space. Both of these things were so very inspiring in the restoration process. The next steps look something like this: repair and paint the tin ceiling downstairs, repair and varnish the floor downstairs, install and hook up gas pipes to our new downstairs furnace, build a bathroom downstairs, repair/install new outlets and light switches downstairs, and finally rip out the upstairs radiators and install our newly acquired radiators. The work never ends, but the end product will be glorious for our family and the community so I am OK with the process.
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“Don’t talk, take my hand and let me hear your heart beat” -Brian Wilson and Tony Asher

 

Family, Fidelia Hall, Life, Three Things, Titusville, PA

THREE THINGS 2016.7

Justin Hoenke

THE THINGS WE PUT INTO OUR MOUTH

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Think about all of the stuff you put into your mouth and then chew and digest throughout the day. That’s a lot of stuff. Here in America, we also have a tendency to produce a lot of crappy food that’s easily accessible. Donuts? Candy? Hamburgers? Come and get it at the cheapest prices around! But vegetables and other healthy things? We don’t love to have those easily available at the tips of our fingers. I have been doing this for quite a few years now, but recently I am really starting to pay attention to what I put into my mouth.

Haley and I have started seeing an herbalist in an attempt to not only get healthier but to also get off all of our medications. Long story short? The cons outweigh the pros and we want to see if this new route works. So far the journey has been interesting and I look forward to seeing everything in action over a long period of time. If you were ever curious about the food (both healthy and junky) that I put into my body, you can check that out here. I am enjoying documenting this part of my life. It keeps me very aware of what I’ve been doing during the day.

CHICKENS

Chickens in Chattanooga changed my life and to be completely honest with you life here in Titusville, PA hasn’t been the same without them. I enjoy going out into my backyard and hearing their clucks, discovering the eggs they laid, and just walking around the yard with them. Well, last week that all changed and we got our 3 baby Buff Orpington chickens. They don’t have names yet (we’ll see how their personalities turn out) and they just squeak a lot right now but it’s so good to have chickens back in our lives. Next up comes their coop and their run. We will enjoy building that.

DISCO

Just hit play and sit back for the next hour and enjoy this great set from DJ Robbie Leslie from Easter 1986 at THE SAINT.

Family, Kids, Libraries, Life, Music, Technology, Things, Titusville, PA, Video Games

2015 Year In Review

Justin Hoenke

PLAY

LISTEN

READ

WATCH

THINK

  • Be nice to each other.
  • Library. What a weird name for what public libraries actually do in 2015.
  • Have fun.
  • I want to stay at home with my family more.
  • Hi There.
Social Media

Social Media is Really Fucking Stupid These Days

Justin Hoenke

why-you-unfollow-me

About a month ago I heard about a site called Who Unfollowed Me. Once you log in with Twitter, this site will show you who has unfollowed you on the service. I logged in and saw my list of recent unfollowers. It was a mix of the following:

  • Authors who thought “oh he’s a librarian I’ll try to sell him that book that I published on Amazon” and then discovered I wasn’t that kind of librarian.
  • Librarians who haven’t used Twitter in months-years.
  • Other random people who don’t fit into a neat and tidy category.

The site also had an option to tweet about how you found out who unfollowed you on Twitter. All in all, these two things got me thinking about social media, ego, and all that kind of jazz. I came up with this. WHO GIVES A FUCK.

The amount of followers a person has, their “social influence” and their reach? I think it is all a bunch of crap. It doesn’t matter all that much. And it sure isn’t a badge of honor that a person should wear around. Big on Twitter? That’s great. Huge on Instagram? Wow, you are amazing. Actually not really. None of this matters that much in the long run. It’s just a bunch of numbers that give the user and others in their community an inflated social media ego. It’s a bragging right that doesn’t need to be a bragging right.

The other thing that struck me (the option to tweet about how you found out who unfollowed you) was just how rude we can be to each other. Why would someone want to put this out into the world? “Hey, I found out that you unfollowed me. Here’s something to make you feel bad.” I don’t get this. But this is something that I see on social media these days; rage, anger, and the idea that one always had to get in the last word. It’s like we’re living in a social media time loop where something happens, followed by another thing, followed by this and then that. We usually get Saturday and Sunday off to forget about the hot topic of the moment and wait until Monday to start up on something else (see this for a perfect example of the social media time loop idea). It doesn’t seem to end these days.

I like the internet a lot. I like social media. I really like talking to friends that I don’t get to see everyday. This damn thing connects us and that is great! I love it! But recently, I think we’re stuck in a rut. We should all take a step back and think about how we’re using the internet and how we view ourselves and each other on the internet. Let’s deflate our egos a bit. Let’s calm down and not get so angry. Why so serious? Let’s dance for a bit. Wait a second. I have a fantastic song.

THIS is why I love the internet.

Libraries, Things

FOUR THINGS

Justin Hoenke

PROCEDURES
One of the best things to have when you’re managing public library work are sets of procedures for your employees to refer to when needed. Not only are they helpful for your staff, but as a manager who is writing them you get an interesting glimpse into workflow. You learn how to think step by step and try to simplify things.

Here’s a screen capture of a procedure regarding security cameras. Sure, writing procedures won’t be the most fun you’ve ever had as a librarian but I will say this: they’ll help you manage your time, your staff, and aid in creating a positive atmosphere at your library location.

Screen Shot 2015-01-13 at 11.40.50 AMBALANCE
2014 was the year where I noticed my personal life/work life balance was way off. I worked pretty hard over the past year or so but I hadn’t noticed it. When I started having dreams about work that’s when I noticed that I should take a step back and balance everything out in my life. It has a been a great journey. When I’m away from work and libraries in general, I don’t think about them that much. I’ve always had a worry in the back of my mind that if I stopped thinking about libraries even for a moment that I’d become stale, old, and outdated. I was very wrong about this. Stepping back and taking your mind off of your work allows you to be even better than before. It gives you more patience. It allows you to stop and think before reacting. You grow to make better decisions. These decisions allow you to give your community the best that you have to offer. Everyone wins when balance is achieved.

IDEAS
One of my colleagues Michael Whittaker once said the following to me: “You and I are idea people. We have about ten ideas every minute. Once you learn to let some of those ideas go and focus on the really good ones you become a lot happier.”

It is so much fun to sit in a room and brainstorm a ton of ideas. There’s probably some study out there that talks about how some kind of very awesome brain thing happens when you sit in a room and brainstorm. I’m  not going to link to that study here because I’m being lazy and I don’t want to look it up. But you know what’s even better than sitting in a room and brainstorming? Having ideas, weeding out the ones that won’t work, and sitting back and letting things happen naturally. Now I’m not suggesting we stop brainstorming. It is good! But we’ve all fallen into the “what we brainstormed didn’t happen and now we’re stuck in a rut” trap. Brainstorming allows us to be free and dream big. But sometimes when we brainstorm we come up with things that just don’t translate well into the real world. When we get hung up on those things not working, we can get bummed out.  That’s not fun either.

I really like my work here on The 2nd Floor.I have had so many ideas about how to make this place work and how to make it both fun and enriching for the community. Some things have worked and some things haven’t worked. As I step into a bigger management role, I’ve had to put some of those ideas aside and hand over the keys to my colleagues to be the idea makers. Some of their ideas have worked and some of their ideas haven’t worked. It’s all good. We’re all trying our best.

DISCO
I really like disco music. Specifically I love Italo Disco. Websites like Mixcloud and Soundcloud are amazing places to find disco and dance music. Check it out! Here’s a mix of JAMZ that I’ve collected on Soundcloud. Smile! Dance! Enjoy life!

Music

The Skatt Brothers “Life At The Outpost”

Justin Hoenke

Amazingly amazing.

Music

“Boogie Woogie Dancing Shoes” by Claudja Berry

Justin Hoenke

“Boogie Woogie Dancing Shoes” by Claudja Berry

Somehow, this gem of a compilation made it to my turntable over the last few days.  It’s got some of the typical disco tunes (“In The Navy”, “Ring My Bell”) but some odd gems.  “Boogie Woogie Dancing Shoes” by Claudja Berry was one of these odd gems.

Shake that butt.