I don't exactly know what Shakespeare is all on about here, but it's all very lovely, especially sung, as I have rousingly made it do in collaboration with my robot friends. I don't by any means perfectly get along with robots, but on the whole have formed a fair few friendships with them. And I like some of our work here. I have been singing "Over hill, over dale" for a week now and little do people know that when I do this I AM LEARNEDLY QUOTING SHAKESPEARE!!! I spent the day working on a few pictures with some new tools, but they really took too much time and didn't work as w ..read more

  Late of a work evening I was telling one of my co-workers some bit of nonsense, or cleverness, or god knows what, because the person suddenly looked up at me in a curious way. "I am a font of wisdom." I explained. But then, upon reflection, I was concerned I would be misunderstood, so I added, "Not a font of wisdom in the sense of a fountain, rather more in the sense of a set of characters in a consistant size and style ..read more

  This Spring's half day In Service Day came and went without my attendance. But the one thing that everyone was super excited to tell me about is the moment when the county's human resources department explained to everyone about the the county's 36 step hiring process. Over the past years my library has been shedding workers like fur from an old sheepdog. Replacements are ever promised, yet never arrive. Finally, an explanation! A 36 step hiring process. This, the County thought, would surely explain it to us all! That was the highlight of the day. I think it was the combination ..read more

  Our self checkout stations are basically just big screens that offer clear, simple, even cartoonish instructions and work very well. But one of them was freezing at a particular part of the checkout process, frustrating people, so I decided I would try to reboot it to see if that could resolve the problem. This was one of three machines in a row. None of them were being used. I stood next to the one I was trying to fix to be able to access the power switch on the back of the machine. I turned the self checkout station off. The machine went completely dark, as it does when it has n ..read more

In these times where politics are breathing down our necks, it is important to remember that at their core they are not complex. Even the reviled and reductionist Left-Right scale, simply expressed, can have potency. Here I convey the three main stops on the scale as self-expressing entities: Right:  I cut myself to try to feel, but sometimes I'm just here to drink the blood. Center:  It would be insane to swallow this jar of thumbtacks, so let's just swallow half of them. Left:  I have an impulse to do good, but most especially when it is easily thwarted.  ..read more

  Having gathered a head full of steam on my setting poetry to music and making music videos project, I have a new one already!  I just happened to have a free day lying around, so I spent every last second of it cobbling together a music video for Charles Baudelaire's "The Ragpickers' Wine".  It is a super long poetry/song, more than seven minutes, so you have your work cut out for you. But it will be worth it. It might be worth it? I have this beautiful dream that you'll find it worth it? Yeah, that last one. I would tell you what "Ragpickers' Wine" is about- Paris, p ..read more

  I have been periodically resolving that clerkmanifesto is a grand plan. And though for many of its formative years it hewed to a strict written format, it almost immediately wandered into every subject my mind is capable of touching on. Then, at some point, it irreversibly ventured into images, and at this point, it wanders the universe at will: video, VR, time travel, and so on. And just look where it is now. Floating in space.  Just like you. As you might know, my current obsession is with setting poems to music. Though I probably have something close to twenty songs painst ..read more

  It was an absolute pleasure to work with Walt Whitman! He is a beautiful writer, a very positive person, and a charming collaborator. I don't know what he thought of working with me because he is dead. In what is just one of several downsides to being dead, the dead belong to us. Which I suppose makes me sort of a grave robber, but the good kind! The kind doing important anthropological research into the evolution of people. Or their stagnation. Or whatever. Today, finally, I have a poem set to music, with serviceable, appropriate imagery I shot down by the river. Down by th ..read more

In a bit of bombshell news, in a week full of bombshell news, it has come to my attention that one of the most universally beloved of all my co-workers is taking another job at the County. This long-time library co-worker, who is an absolute delight to work with, has found a job in the county that pays her more fairly and even lets her work sometimes at home! So, uh, good for her. I guess. Whatever. I can take it. I've been here before. It's a trail of broken tears around here. The bad people go and become hilarious anecdotes, the good people go and leave their misty little scars, and he ..read more

Momentarily we will return to our all poetry format, wherein I post YouTube videos here I have made of famous poetry set to music, and then crudely crafted into music videos. These are magnificently popular among my poetry-starved readers.  I mean, they would be if I had any poetry-starved readers.  Oddly the whole world is kind of topped-up on poetry right now, but can't get enough pool-cleaning videos. No judgment. But this brings me to the point of today's missive: You have to know your audience! For instance, ten minutes ago at the front desk of my library, a patron came up ..read more