Karma is NOT a b*tch afterall.

I had just started working here at the library, and this one lady I'd met the day before came into the  breakroom kitchen and said "good morning" to me, in a very hoarse voice. I said "oooh, that doesn't sound good. Are you sick?" She said "Yeah, karma got me sick." Thinking it was a strange reply, I just replied "Yeah, karma's a bitch sometimes." She nearly spit out her herbal tea, not saying anything, and left. The next day, I went to some other offices to meet people, and that's when I met my co-worker named Karma. I politely said hi, gave myself a mental facepalm, and DID NOT shake her hand.

The Little Old Lady and the Bloody Truth

Walking down the Home Depot parking lot, I looked to my right and saw a fairly big group of people huddled around something. I couldn't tell what it was, but as I kept upon my path, I saw someone move, revealing a little old lady laying on the ground COVERED IN BLOOD!!! And she was sitting in a huge puddle of blood too! I thought "Oh man... what happened there?!" I figured there were probably enough people at the scene, and I wouldn't be of any help, and kept walking in. I had to rent a tool, so I sent to the Tool Rental desk. The employees there were looking out the window, and I asked them what had happened, but they didn't know. Just then, a Home Depot employee came in from the scene, and the other guys asked what happened.

"So... somebody dropped a gallon of red paint out there, and didn't clean it up. Then an old lady came walking by, didn't see it, and slipped in it, fell down, and got it all over her little old lady dress." There were even little red footprints walking away from the puddle. She was okay.

Does this person live in Independence?

There is enough evidence to support that yes, this person is from Independence.

Today's tax place waver.

I looked over at him; he was yelling something. A dirty gray hat was under his crown, and ankle-high USA socks were tucked into his Sketchers ShapeUps. I turned down the Beatles song I was listening to, but that wasn't enough. He looked like Martin Starr. Passenger window down further, driver window up completely. His lips were moving, but he wasn't facing me, as he stomped, danced, and waved. Oblivious to passers-by, I caught what he was saying. In the brief time that he faced my car, I heard the man say "Helloooo, helloooo, helloooo... I hail from Scotland" in his mostly Shrek-ish sounding accent. I giggled as my light turned green.

Logomotion

*The views in this blog are that of Rusty Kugler, and are not necessarily the views of Mid-Continent Public Library.

This is the logo of the place where I work.

It's a 7-color logo, with an abstract open rainbow book above garamond and gill sans type. At first I HATED this logo. It really was a big pain to work with, but as a monochrome logo, it's WAY easier to use, and just became part of my daily work.

The Library held a contest in 1988 for someone to design a new logo, with a VCR as the prize. Wow. Yep, a VCR. Pictured below is Brent Harris, an Associate Art Director of Hallmark, who designed our current logo. Poor guy.

We've slapped this logo on all kinds of things, and now I've appointed myself the unofficial "Keeper of the Logo." I've written a visual style guide about how the logo should be applied and when, and I sometimes feel as though I'm caring for an endangered animal who's living out in the wild. "Out in the wild?!" What am I talking about? Well, I'm talking about the internet. The digital wilderness of the world, and our logo is out there running free. I recently did a Google Image search of our logo, and was astonished at the findings.

First, I'll show the "designers" who take our logo and pass it off as theirs:

And it's bad enough that someone "designed" East Chicago Public Library's logo with stolen parts, they totally don't even know their logo is really ours.

BUT WHY WOULD YOU TRY TO PUT SUCH A COLORFUL LOGO ON TOP OF ANOTHER COLOR?! ARE YOU GUYS DUMMIES?! YOU CAN'T EVEN READ YOUR STOLEN LOGO!!!

But I digress...

Even the US Government has stolen our logo, re-worked it, and called it their own:

Horrible acts of font treachery have been acted upon our dear logo, like this chop-shop job from a library in NJ:

Or yes, even Jokerman from Brampton Library's FB page. NOOOOO!!! NOT MY BABYYYY!!!

Now I'm just going to post some of the more insane ones I found as I scrolled through the Google Image search. This is just the first 30 pages of them:

So this brings me to wondering just who this Brent Harris is... Random designer?

Or visionary logo designer of the world?

A week with Frank and James.

I recently found out that Wild West outlaw, Frank James is buried just a short drive across town here in Independence, MO. So... I decided to go over there and take a look. He's buried in a small cemetery in a ghetto part of town, but the stone walls and pumpkin plant growing in the corner of the yard was very charming.

I decided that the rest of the week, I'm either going to do something that pertains to 'Frank' or 'James.' It was Frank James week!

Tuesday, I took a photo with my boss, Jim (James).

Wednesday, I met my friend Frank and took a picture with him.

Thursday, I met a card-carrying member of Friends of James Farm.

Friday, I ate a frank. This is the worst blog post ever.

Does this man live in Independence?

Lets go down the checklist:
• 'Merica shirt? Check.
• Black and brown dad shoes? Check.
• Athletic shorts? Check.
• Ponytail? Check.
• Jeff Gordon NASCAR hat? Check.
• Bruises? Yeah, that's not really a factor. But, Check.

Yes, this man lives in Independence.