2012 Calendar (basic design) word template

Looking for a nice basic 2012 monthly calendar for Microsoft Word?  I couldn’t find one that I liked that was similar to the one I used to download in the past so I took the 2010 calendar (basic design) template and updated it to 2012.

2012  Calendar (basic design) – Word 97 format

How to open .dotx files

I recently wanted to open and print out a Calendar template file from the Microsoft Office template site, but most of the templates were for Office 2007.  I needed to open an Word 2007 template file which has the extension .dotx which is a proprietary Office 2007 XML file.  Unfortunately I couldn’t load the Office 2007 compatibility pack to my locked work computer which is running Office 2003.  Like most IT departments, mine is totally behind in updating pc’s with patches in software and operating systems by several years.

Fortunately you can go to http://www.officelive.com or go through your Hotmail account and access your Live Skydrive or Office Live section and upload your .dotx file to view and print the file.

Outsourcing public libraries

http://www.libraryjournal.com/lj/home/887000-264/lssi_controversy_still_brewing_in.html.csp

It seems LSSI is being considered to run the Stockton-San Joaquin County Public Library to save money.  I think more public libraries should be privatized to save money.  Some public libraries that have too many employees with maxed out salaries and sit on their jobs as if they’re entitled to a job for life.  California city and county government job salaries all seem to be highly inflated.

Librarians should wake up and start thinking of their jobs as business professionals rather than public service workers.  Rude and unproductive librarians and library staff should be fired.  New public librarian positions shouldn’t only be for young adult and children’s librarian jobs while the older librarians sit in their offices or go on paid vacations to useless library conferences.

I don’t think LSSI is one of the better private library services companies, but then it’s definitely moving forward and changing the library landscape.  The library workers will get paid less, but then a job is a job and those who want to work will work.

Library budget cuts

http://www.newsweek.com/2010/08/23/libraries-face-increasing-budget-cutbacks.html

Libraries are always the first to go when government budgets get tight.  Anyhow I think it really helps get rid of a lot of dead weight and the ones who think it is just a cushy job.   Even if everything is digitized they need catalogers to organize it and make it accessible.  Of course who needs catalogers or librarians when we have Google.   Fortunately Google searches are turning into crap since most of the top links are mostly there because of search engine optimization techniques and paid advertising.

I’m calling this blog The Linearseat Librarian

The title Linearseat Library just does not inspire me to write anything.  Instead of just Linearseat Librarian I’ll change it to “The” Linearseat Librarian since it sounds better.  I guess whenever you refer to yourself in the third person with a fictional name it means you got something up your a$$ or in your head.

Moku

Name change and some recommended free WordPress themes

I decided to change my website name to the url of my site Linearseat.net. I noticed that there were quite a few sites with the word “Librarian” in it and I just didn’t feel like calling myself the Linearseat Librarian. Actually I visited a few librarian blogs and I thought they were all too academic and scholarly, especially the ones with presentation slideshows, and their unfascinating thoughts on library issues. I also visited two male librarian pages and they both had the DIYthemes Thesis WordPress theme. I guess they are seriously into blogging since they plunked down money on a theme that claims to be extremely customizable and SEO optimized. It seems a lot of people have bought that theme.

Here are two WordPress themes that I like and am currently using.

1. Swifthemes http://swiftthemes.com/
This theme is very simple to use and offers many fancy features. I don’t believe it’s extremely fast, but it’s probably fast enough for most people as the name claims itself to be swift. It has an easy to use theme option selection where you can customize colors visually and insert advertisements or adsense code in the most common advertisement placement areas of a webpage. There also is the option to have the blog frontpage be in magazine or traditional blog format. Customized menus can be created above or below the title along with inserting a background image. This theme is highly recommended for beginners who don’t know how to customize themes manually.

2. Thematic http://themeshaper.com/thematic/
This second theme is also highly customizable, but only for those who know how to use css and html. It also has child themes created by other users, which are easily downloaded and loaded into WordPress just like any other theme, but the original Thematic theme must be installed for them to work. The author encourages users to create their own child themes using CSS and their is a forum dedicated to assisting users customize Thematic for their own purposes. Right now it is primarily a 2 column theme with a 3 column version in the works.