Daily Thoughts 11/30/2010 (Lynd Ward, Publishers Weekly)

Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy resting in the forest. Oil on canvas. 60 × 50 cm. The State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow. 1891

Daily Thoughts 11/30/2010


This morning, on the train, I started reading First Break All The Rules What The World's Greatest Managers Do Differently by Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman.
It is about what makes a great manager.

Today has been relatively quiet, I checked the displays to see that they were in order, read the latest copy of booklist, and handed in the monthly schedule.  It has been one of those days where you do what is necessary because that is what makes you professional.  I am thinking about how to rearrange the ordering schedule and possibly get the Elite Street ordering system for bestsellers from BWI.

I read some more issues of Publishers Weekly.  It is a solid distraction while two more new people are let go.  I also took a few minutes to look at Lynd Ward volume II, Prelude to a Million Years, Song Without Words, and Vertigo.  This is a collection of wordless woodct novels.  They were done in the 1930s.  Art Spiegelman is the editor. These are considered by many to be the precursors to the modern graphic novel.

I am feeling quite tired right now.  For me coming in and doing my everyday work helps me face up to the changes occurring around me.  One of the things that determines professionalism is the ability to work under pressure.

On the way home, I looked through the wordless novels of Lynd Ward, it is a beautiful book, the woodcuts have a very stark Germanic feel to them with strong dark lines. They remind of the art from the Works Project Administration.  I learned that the books were made in a printing cooperative based on democratic principles which was interesting.  Most of the drawings are set in the great depression.  People are living their lives in a very stark time.  There is a sense of the poetic and the biblical in the art.  This is a link to a review from NPR.  It is a very beautiful set of books. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=130915507

Gleeful Tuesdays

Two words: Darren Criss.



Sorry, I mean, go New Directions!

They're totally going to win tonight, right? I mean, as much as I need more excuses to see Darren Criss on Glee, the McKinley High glee kids have got this one in the bag. I mean, they're going to Nationals! In New York! Sectionals is just a stepping stone to the battles that will follow.

The husband and I have argued about this extensively. He thinks that the Warblers might pull out a victory. Maybe, if they had done Teenage Dream. But, New Directions is totally going to win. They have to. What else are these kids gonna do for the rest of the season is they're not working towards their stated goal of beating Vocal Adrenaline?

So, fellow Gleeks:

1) Will New Directions come out victorious tonight?
2) Are Blaine and Kurt finally gonna get together? Have you heard them sing, Baby, It's Cold Outside?
3) Is Kurt going to transfer back to McKinley?
4) Am I the only one who is now obsessed with Darren Criss (I'll answer this one: yes)?

-- Lisa

Daily Thoughts 11/29/2010 (Advocacy, Reduction In Force)

A logo of the United States Library of Congress following with the theme of using the outline of the Thomas Jefferson Building as an identifier.

Daily Thoughts 11/29/2010


I got a request from NYLA -- the New York Library Association to fill out a form letter to support bills that could support libraries.  I often send letters to the local politicians and the politicians around the area where my job is.  Unfortunately, libraries have become an easy target for cuts and legislation.  It is partially due to self preservation and partially due to wanting to keep my profession alive that I am active in contacting local politicians. http://www.nyla.org/index.php?page_id=925http://www.nyla.org/index.php?page_id=925

During voting time, I got eight reminders from door to door canvassers reminding me to vote as well as a dozen phone calls and tons of junk mail.  It was kind of annoying.  I think it is the result of writing about two form letters a month to politicians. Most people do little or nothing.  It does not take a lot of time to write one letter a month or simply fill out a form for a cause and add your information.

Today, I got the notice of demotion as part of a reduction in force.  The two librarian IIIs above me were reduced to Librarian IIs, all of the Librarian IIs were reduced to Librarian 1s.  Two librarians were laid off.  There was also a senior clerk that was reduced to a clerk, and a clerk who was laid off.  That means three people were laid off.  Earlier three people had taken retirement.  I have a letter which describes this as being purely budgetary.  It is supposed to go into effect on December 1st in two days.  Today is November 29, 2010.  This has effected about a third of our building.  The last attempt at layoffs and demotions affected half of our building.  It was on July 11, 2010.   Each library in our county has a separate budget.  If I read the articles about our budget with the differences between the comptroller and the mayor, there could be a several million dollar budget gap in about six months.

 I finished reading Writing That Works on the train to the job.  I had the day off, but went in to get my paperwork. Sometimes, patience is what is needed.

Dancing with the Stars/Bristol Lost!

Oh Yeah! Bristol lost on Dancing with the Stars! I was so glad to see that diva in training Bristol lose! When I heard Jennifer Grey and Derek Hough were the winners, I did a little dance of joy! Because from what I hear, Bristol's dumb as a bag of bricks mother Sarah was blocking up the phone lines by having people vote multiple times just for her sleazy daughter, who I may add, can't dance! What she NEEDS to be doing is be at home taking care of that little angel she brought into the world. Where was her mother when she was having sex and getting pregnant as a teenager? Her mother must have been up on her soapbox preaching about abstinence when she probably realized she had an unwed, pregnant teenage daughter. Enough about that! Jennifer Grey and Derek Hough won! I also heard about who is going to be on the next season of Dancing with the Stars, they are really running out of people. John Gosselin is supposed to be there, along with Rehab Rita aka Lindsay Lohan, hopefully she cleans up her act and gets out of rehab, because I really have hopes for her getting clean, I really think she can do it, and I think Paul McCartney would be an interesting person to see on Dancing with the Stars, along with people like Halle Berry or Denzel Washington or someone like that! Oh man, if Denzel Washington ever went on Dancing with the Stars, I'd be following that show religiously, I love him, he is a really cool actor and not to mention drop dead gorgeous! It would be interesting to see people like Halle or Denzel on there, or have musicians like Joe Perry or Paul McCartney go for it, that would be cool!


And if they ever had other people be on there, I think The Rolling Stones would be interesting to see on there, to see if Mick can ballroom dance or tango or see if Keith, Charlie or Ronnie can rock on the dance floor, omg, if they ever went on to Dancing with the Stars, I'd follow it religiously!

Facebook for Hire!

Yeah, the title should attract attention. While I was in class on Tuesday looking at different social networking sites, the teacher for the class informed us that some employers hire people based on what is on their Facebook account. Personally, this is ridiculous, no employer should hire someone based on what is on their Facebook account. What an employer should hire someone because of is how they work with others, their qualifications or something else, not a Facebook account. I mean, I have an account and if an employer were to look at mine, they'd see that I'm a music lover, because most of the stuff on my Facebook page have to do with music, like announcements for Rihanna going on tour, U2 going on tour, Paul McCartney going on tour, the Beatles releasing an album, etc. I personally think it's stupid that some employers would hire you because of what is on a social networking site that you use. Because when we looked at Facebook accounts, I'm pretty sure everyone in the world has seen mine and they pretty much know that I'm a  music lover because of all the music tour announcements, album releases, etc. But I just think it's stupid that some people would do that, it's almost an invasion of privacy, I mean, on Facebook, you can say just about anything and that some people who hire would look at one's account and see something like someone talking about partying or something, that might make the person hiring a little hesitant to hire.


What I think an employer SHOULD look at is what that person can bring to the table, their skills, if they can work well with others, their qualifications, what they can do, their interests or something, my dad has a friend who is a Graphic Designer and he told me he thought that it was ridiculous that some people hire based on what one has on a social networking site. He said that most should hire because of skills/qualifications. And if Denise reads this, I'm totally with her on the whole Facebook issue, no employer should hire a person based on what is on a social site like Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, etc.


Personally, If I'm going to look for a job, I'm just going to keep the same Facebook account that I currently have, if you ever see mine, there is never usually anything dirty on it, most of the stuff on my wall is stuff pertaining to the Breast Cancer Foundation, I'm a strong believer in there being a cure for breast cancer, it runs in my family, happy joy!, Shriner's Hospital is on my wall, I believe in kids getting miracles, a-lot of the stuff on my wall is charity and good stuff and music tour dates, music album releases, musician announcements, etc and just friends talking, but unfortunately, most of the friends I have on there like to talk dirty and I usually tell them I don't talk like that and they just keep on doing it!


Just thought I'd make my text green because of the rapidly approaching Christmas holidays. And thank the Good Lord I have my Christmas shopping done. I swear, I never knew shopping for family would be so hard, I have my sister taken care of, I bought her a blanket of this cartoon character she likes, called Invader Zim, and a book about this athlete she likes, Apolo Ohno, I bought my dad a movie,The Expendables, he loves all those exploding action movies, I bought my mom a book about the topic of Organized Crime, she finds in interesting, I bought my step-father a set of model race cars, he's a major fan of all those car races, like the Le Mans, Indy 500, etc. So hopefully, they love their gifts, I care about family and just wanted to give them something they like.

Daily Thoughts 11/28/2010 (Get Glue, Writing Tools)

First page of a miniature of Cicero's De oratore, 1400s, Northern Italy, now at the British Museum.


Daily Thoughts 11/28/2010

I've been reading more of Writing Tools this weekend. There are a lot of ideas about writing that I had not thought about before.  The author describes when to use unusual words as well as how patterns of words on the page effect stories. I learned quite a bit about things like sentence length, length of of words in series, patterns in writing, and other mechanies.  I learned about how important it is to look for unique names and find the names of even the most unimportant characters in your writing.  So far, this is an excellent book that has introduced me to many new concepts about writing.




I am still playing around with Get Glue http://getglue.com/BookCalendar/books.  It is very easy to get drawn into sites like this because they appear that you are doing something important when it is really more for frivolous enjoyment.  However, it does make you more visible if that is what you are seeking.

I went in and added a few more links to my selected links page from the last month. It is slowly growing.  I also pulled out a few more books and topics to add to Get Glue.

The day after

After a long round in the city with my dear friend Sabina last night, I have literally slept away the entire day except for the two hours when I ate breakfast, showered, and went to Gränby Centrum (Uppsala’s biggest mall) for a quick shopping with mami and Vicki.

The initial plan was that we all were supposed to go to this Första Advent’s party at a close family friend’s place, but as I feel really crappy and sleepy, I told mami and Vicki that they’d just have to do without me. So now I’m all alone. Maybe I’ll just sleep some more…

Holding On!

This is another painting taken from one of Shelley Smart's blog, A Year at the Beach.  Thank you Shelley!

As usual I've not been blogging or visiting this past week, for which I (yet again) apologise.  And with Summer and looming holidays and sports fixtures, I keep falling behind.

But to celebrate Summer (although it's very peculiar weather we're having at the moment!), I thought I would post this one.  I loved it when I started it, but was not all that happy with the end result.  Oh well, another learning curve!

And on a final note, and I KNOW it's late, but I hope all my American and Canadian blogging friends had a great Thanksgiving.  Because it's not an event we celebrate, I tend to forget.  Sorry.

The Day Job

I just posted samples of the some of the cards I've created for my day job (I'm a greeting card writer and editor in case you didn't know). They're on my second blog, which kind of functions as my online writing portfolio for my freelance work. Stop by and check them out!

I was involved with creating a line of greetings cards that are also whoopie cushions. Yes, it was a proud day for me! The tricky part was coming up with enough clever fart jokes. Oddly enough, the release of the cards was actually covered in the national media. Wow. Here's one of the gems I edited:

I also created and wrote a line of sock puppet cards. It's called The Lost Socks and each card features a sock puppet character you can pull off the card and play with. Arrrgyle the Pirate Sock is my favorite, I think:

I also posted a bunch of packaging copy I wrote for some Christmas ornaments a few years back.

Oh, and I disabled comments on my other blog, so if you want to comment, feel free to do so here.

Thanks for caring!

-- Lisa

Daily Thoughts 11/27/2010 (Get Glue, LinkedIn, Social Media, Budget)

Interior View of the Astor Library, 1854

Daily Thoughts 11/27/2010 

Using Social Networks To Select Material.


I have two books that I placed on hold after reading Linked In; What Technology Wants by Kevin Kelley and Letting Go Of Words, Writing Web Content That Works.  Librarians often talk about the books they like on Linked In.  It is often career oriented material.  While I was on a thread in Linked In on LISCareers, they had a number of career books they were discussing.  The thread is called Best Books For Career Professional/Personal Development http://linkd.in/f0VYYT%20  Two books that caught my attention were First Break All The Rules: What TheWorlds Greatest Managers Do by Marcus Buckingham and Creating A Life Worth Living: A Practical Course In Career Design For Aspiring Writers, Artists, Filmmakers, Musicians, and Others Who Want to Make A Living From Their Creative Work by Carol Lloyd.

I also spent some time on Get Glue looking at different book lists.  I ended up picking out three books Rules For Revolutionaries by Guy Kawasaki who also is on Twitter, Dust of Dreams by Steven Erikson, and Paper Cities an Anthology Urban Fantasy, Edited by Ekaterina Sedia.  This is my list on Get Glue of books http://getglue.com/BookCalendar/books

I find looking through lists of books on social networks sometimes very interesting and useful.  There are a lot of people with computer backgrounds who have lists of new computer books which are often not available from standard review sources.  People also recommend a lot of book that are never reviewed in the standard review sources like Library Journal or Publishers Weekly.  I think only 1% of published books are reviewed professionally.  This leaves a vast array of books with little or no coverage.  They are often things like computer books, books on construction, textbooks, and other materials.

Also many social networks have lists where people give what they are currently reading.  These are sometimes curious to look at because they tend to have a wide cross section of books.

Budget and Politics

It is almost the end of the year.  I learned we have enough money to make it until the end of the year without layoffs.  This is a relief in a way.  I am waiting to hear about the finalization of people retiring.  On November 29, 2010 we are having a union meeting to discuss the budget with union representatives from the state. The mayor announced there would be no layoffs in the city.  However, our library is moving away from being part of the city, we are in the process of becoming a school district library at the request of the Board of Regents of the New York State Library.  This would put our budget up to vote in 2011.  It also means that the board of trustees would have to be elected as well.  It is very political.

I now know that there will not be any furloughs, it goes against the CSEA statewide union policy.  It is something I would have liked to consider.  It requires a lot of patience to think about these things.

In the city itself, there is some dissension, the city comptroller has announced that she is against the mayors budget.  This makes things even more complicated.  Right now in Westchester County, they are having budget hearings.  Funding for libraries in Westchester County are being considered.  The Westchester Library System which does some of our services is being cut.  They already have cut the bookmobile.  In our city, it went to the homes for the aged and the local armory.

It gets even more complicated, because the civil service has to work with the library if there are layoffs or a reduction in force.  They already did a reduction in force for our library on July 11, 2010 which was rescinded.  This makes them very careful.

In the surrounding area in the five boroughs of New York City, Mayor Bloomberg has suggested a $16.5 million dollar budget cut.  This would eliminate 404 librarians leaving a lot of librarians out of work with a limited amount of open positions.  Many of the open positions are for technically oriented positions, systems librarians, metadata specialists, digital image specialists, information architects, content specialists, and web technology specialists.

The whole profession is in a shift, much like the publishing industry is shifting to new technologies, libraries are slowly starting to do it as well.  It is a very disruptive time period.

It also is a very important time to learn how to advocate for your library and find advocates in the community.  Choices which are made now, will affect how or whether libraries will exist in the future.  In my personal opinion, reform is necessary, not elimination.

Writing That Works How To Communicate Effectively in Business, 3rd Edition by Kenneth Roman and Joel Raphaelson

Writing That Works How To Communicate Effectively in Business, 3rd Edition by Kenneth Roman and Joel Raphaelson





Writing That Works is an updated book on business writing that includes sections on email, presentation decks (bullet pointed lists often in powerpoint), and a reminder that computers are only as good as what you put into them.



The writers describe when it is appropriate to use paper memos and letters to add a personal touch or appear official. They also talk about how to give presentations to sell your product or idea in person.

The book covers written documents, presentations, and the internet. The chapters are short, clear, and present clear business objectives; getting a job with a resume, getting money for your ideas, saving time by managing email properly, and selling yourself in writing.



Kenneth Roman and Joel Raphaelson open the book with a statement that the point of business writing is to get things done, not just to be clear.



There is a reminder to edit your work, be understandable, and write for a specific objective. Kenneth Roman and Joel Raphaelson do this with ease. They make excellent use of bullet pointed lists, indented italicized text, and bold headings which catch your attention.



Kenneth Roman retired from being CEO of Ogilvy and Mather Worldwide and Joel Raphaelson retired from being Creative Executive Director of Ogilvy and Mather Worldwide. This makes them very qualified to write about business. This book is well worth reading.

Lucky girl

Right now I am so envious, but still so happy for my sister who this morning found one of the 100 boxes that the newly opened NetOnNet has hidden all over Uppsala. Tomorrow she will go and pick up her new lap top. Talk about being lucky…

Daily Thoughts 11/26/2010 (Get Glue, The Copia

Paul Cesar Helleu, Woman Reading, Circa 1895, Drypoint on Paper

Daily Thoughts 11/26/2010

I have been reading a little more of Writing Tools and trying out Get Glue. It is quite interesting.  I learned it has some qualities that are not so great.  Synching it with twitter will fill your twitter messages full of Get Glue which can appear spammy.  It is very easy to create a very large list of books you have read.

I spent some time going through The Copia, http://www.thecopia.com  It is a social network for books. I started out by downloading the seven free books which they are offering on their network.  I first had to get a license from Adobe to do this and create an account with Adobe.  I think they are mainly using the Adobe Epub format.  Once I was logged on, I had the choice of either downloading an application for Mac or PC that would synch with the website.  There was also an Ipad application.  This was fairly easy to do.

Once I had the application downloaded, I decided to do a little free riding which is the nice word for looking for free things.  I searched the catalog for free downloads and downloaded Walden or Life In The Woods by Henry David Thoreau, The Novels of Jane Austen, and An Account of Egypt.   This left me with ten books.  I then looked through the community list of books.  Many were also downloading free items.  Computer books from O'reilly publishing and public domain history texts were also downloaded. I downloaded Vikram and The Vampire by Sir Richard Burton which is another public domain classic.  I now have eleven books to try out and read on the system.  The downloads were fast and easy to do.

I also went through and looked at the groups and joined a few under my name to see how they worked as well as made a few comments to check on how that worked.  It was an interesting experience.

I also updated my profile with a thumbnail for this blog.  There was only one thing which did not work that well.  I tried to search people for librarians, publishers, authors, writers, editors, and other book people.  I was not able to find any in the people search.

There are supposed to be some features which are not available in other social networks for books.  You should be able to annotate books with notes by the book, the page number, and highlighted text.  This all should be shareable.  I am looking forward to trying it out tomorrow.  I like to spread out these kind of things over time.

Up early…

The fact that I am up already is just insane, but I seriously cannot sleep. :/

Usually this feeling is what tends to keep me up to 2 a.m. in the morning almost every night, but somehow it got reversed today, leaving me morning alert. So weird. Well, well, I guess I will just crash into bed at 9 p.m. tonight due to exhaustion. Hehe. ^^

Daily Thoughts 11/25/2010 (Get Glue, Writing Tools, Thanksgiving)

Lithograph, Home To Thanksgiving, published by Currier and Ives., 1867


Daily Thoughts 11/25/2010


Happy Thanksgiving, hope all is well with you.  I am home today which feels very well.  Anyways, today is a day to relax.


I read some more of Writing Tools.  I spent some time going through the New York Post  crossing out words that ended with ing in them.  It was a writing exercise.  There were not a lot of them. The Post, despite its tabloid reputation, has very tight writing with very few errors in structure or grammar.  I may think there may be errors of opinion, but there are few technical errors.

I also registered with Wikipedia as a user.  I am not sure why, but there is a BookCalendar account on both Wikimedia and Wikipedia.  I have never attempted to provide any input into their database, but I have used them quite often.

In addition, I now have an account on Get Glue http://getglue.com/BookCalendar%20

Chagall

Wohoo!

There are no words to describe the happiness I am feeling right now. Test week is over for this year and tomorrow I am off from school, which means extended weekend. Hihi :D

Anyway, after school I went to meet my lovely sister for a date at the trendy Chagall, which I by the way have to recommend. Their baguettes are delicious, their coffee lovely, and the owner super-friendly ;)

Went for the no-bangs look today ^^

Daily Thoughts 11/24/2010 (Writing That Works, Writing Tools, Layoffs)

Thanksgiving Day. Happy Thanksgiving if you are in the United States.

Daily Thoughts 11/24/2010

I had the day off today. I relaxed mainly. I finished reading Writing That Works How To Communicate Effectively In Business by Kenneth Roman and Joel Raphaelson, Third Edition.  Both authors were executives at Ogilvy and Mather Worldwide.  The book is very concise and useful for business writing.  It gave me a better understanding of how to write to ask for money as well as to write a resume.

Reading , Writing Tools 50 Essential Strategies for Every Writer by Roy Peter Clark.  Roy Peter Clak makes  words interesting.  I liked the statement it is as important to talk about books as it is to write and read. In one of the exercises he asks me to read the Gettysburg Address by Abraham Lincoln and "I Have A Dream" by Martin Luther King, Jr.  It is the first time that I have read "I Have A Dream."  Roy Peter Clark also recommends the esssy, "Politics of the English Language" by George Orwell which is excellent http://www.george-orwell.org/Politics_and_the_English_Language/0.html

Web Bits

New York City library systems suffer $16.5 million 'adjustment' http://bit.ly/eWN4Zr Bloomberg makes a mid-year trim.  I don't particularly like this because it helps justify trims in other library systems.  There is a kind of follow me effect.  Our budget has not been announced yet to the public.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family!

I'm in the process of moving a bunch of hours up the road.  I'll likely continue blogging my new food/farm/grocery/cooking adventures there, but first I'll need things like a) a permanent place to live, b) internet service, and c) time. 

I'm looking forward to hopefully making pumpkin challah and cakeballs between tonight and tomorrow afternoon.  It's ambitious, and my success will be traffic-dependent. 

I'm thankful for my family, my friends (including you), my health, and for the delicious Ray's Hellburger I ate last week--probably my last for a while.  Blackened, Heck sauce, lettuce, tomato, pickle, cooked "recommended."  I forgot the grilled onions, but didn't notice at the time.

Melina Velba Breast Milking

Alejandra Duarte: Consciousness released

The photographic work, "Portrait Collection" Alejandro Duarte, playing with that aura of truth that wraps the photographic image. Constantly plays with the image you want to offer herself. His portrait and the dream that we produced through the modification and manipulation, it seduces us while we distort you into believing that it encompasses everything we see.

Thanks to this game, subjectivity and objectivity has become pieces of construction / deconstruction of our reality. Our look is the way we measure is actually the way through which we establish close relationships and intimacy. We position ourselves emotionally to the image from the interpretation of our eyes makes it only stopped when we think that Alexandra is real.

His pictures tell stories that deal specifically with the inner state of being, is a work of introspection, to become aware of our body and mind as to the immensity of the universe. Alejandra takes us to a world of sensations, perceptions, tastes, smells, memories, childhood, desires, fantastic landscapes where each visitor is the protagonist of his own fantasies.

Duarte The photographic image is taken as a painter, in the end it is illusory, artificial, ie a mental recreation of the artist by virtue of its materialization photo also confronts us with the aesthetic criteria beauty and truth. Alejandra investigates the power of our mind, because without a doubt is what defines what is real to us, telling us what is important and which significantly changes the meaning of things. Thus, his work is more painterly than photographic urges us to see only what you really want to see.

" The picture I drew from the outset to be a medium that creates spaces, areas, relationships that would otherwise never exist. For me, a means to discover and explore both the visual and inner world of human beings around me, and of course mine, its continuous wave, changing landscapes, its contradictions ... I greatly enjoy doing portraits.

I have worked with all types of analog and digital cameras, from small to large format dark laboratory Partly, I learned to control all the way to the final copy and so I managed to materialize the images that pop into my mind . "

Ultimately, their work frees us and drags us into the inner world of feelings and emotions, the paradise of the subconscious, from which the real and unexpected impressions of our being. They are images that arise during the silence, moved by the sight of the diversity that surrounds us, in the search for self-consciousness, to understand what is real to us and what is not.

Break ins/Christmas

Yeah, the title explains it all. I figured combine 2 blogs into 1. Last night, me, my dad and sister were finishing the movie How the Grinch Stole Christmas and that's when we heard someone opening the screen door. And from living at the same house for 20 years, I've grown quite accustomed to the sounds of that door. And less than a minute later, I heard someone trying to break the door down! Nobody realizes how scary that is! Someone was actually trying to break in! My dad called the cops because he was concerned. 10 minutes later the cops show up and they take a statement from my dad. They also say that they have been getting numerous reports about people being seen in the woods behind me and my neighbor's houses, in fact one house up the street I have a neighbor who says he's missing quite a few power tools and he thinks someone broke into his house when no one was home and stole them. And I'm really worried about this. I mean, what if someone breaks into my house even if the doors are locked?


Ah yes, Christmas is once again approaching. It seems as though it gets here quicker and quicker every year. I'm happy because I'm able to buy something for my dad, sister, step-dad, and mom. But the thing I love knowing is that Christmas isn't about the gifts, or the decorations, or the bargain sales at the stores. For all the lovely church going people, here's something for you: you probably know this, but Christmas is about the birth of Christ for God's sake! It's not about how much you can spend, how many gifts you can buy, how much the gifts are worth, none of that matters. The thing that truly matters is being surrounded by family, sharing special moments. In past years, I've felt like "What's the point of celebrating Christmas when everyone is so completely consumed by greed?" I mean, it's hard to try and tell people what the true meaning is, but they just don't listen. And sometimes I hear on the news about how people will get trampled to death just because some parent was buying an expensive game system for their kid that probably deserves a good smack upside the head, do these kids realize we're in a depression? It's like the Great Depression 2010, people are losing their homes, people are losing their jobs, people can barely afford to put food on the table, support a family, or pay bills, but you got these families out there buying their kids expensive crap they don't need. If I were any of those kids' parents and they came to me saying "I want a Wii system" or "I want an ipod Nano", I'd simply tell them "You want that game system or ipod? Go out, get a job and pay for it yourself, because I'm not doing it." Because, I'm a young adult and I may not be a parent, but I know plenty of people who are parents and they would probably say something similar to this. I'm just tired of hearing about the so called Christmas Greed, all I hear kids say nowadays is "I want this" or "I want that". I'm really glad I'm not like this, if I want something, I go out, get a job and pay for it myself. If I do it that way, I'll appreciate it more, that's the magic of hard work.

Soon ;)

My language exams in English and Swedish are over and it feels like I can finally chill a bit. Ok, I have maths, ESS and history left, but what the heck! Tomorrow I have a family dinner on the schedule and then it's almost weekend! Party party party! :D

Now when there is snow outside I had to switch my Converse into real winter boots ^^

Daily Thoughts 11/23/2010 (electronic devices, books)

The Bookman A Literary Journal

Daily Thoughts 11/23/2010

I put the book, The Little Prince Graphic Novel by Antoine Saint-Exupery, and Illustrated by Joann Sfar on hold.  I really like Joann Sfar's illustrations.

I spent some time today looking at MP3 players for audiobooks.  The one most used in libraries is the Sansa Sandisk player.  I have seen a number of libraries which lend MP3 players out.  They generally contain a set of preloaded audiobooks on them.  An MP3 player is a little less expensive than a video game.  We lend out video games for the Xbox, PS2, and Wii.  We also lend out Transparent Language http://www.transparent.com  flash drives. 

I also spent some time looking at shelving for oversize books and creating next months schedule.  There were a few other minor things which I did like email reference and some weeding of the oversize books.

One of the books which I put on hold came in, Writing Tools 50 Essential Strategies For Every Writer by Roy Peter Clark.  I also checked out An Essential Guide to Public Speaking Serving Your Audience With Faith, Skill, and Virtue by Quentin Schultze.

On the train home, I read some more of Writing That Works.   The authors were writing about email and presentation decks.  They reminded the reader to keep your emails short and to the point.  A "Deck" is a term for bulleted presentation slides like you would make in Powerpoint or Slideshare. 

Web Bits

Going Green On Paper http://shar.es/XmysY

Read Library EBooks On Your Ipad with the Bluefire Reader App
http://t.co/zPlhEhJ


How Publishers Are Tackling The Apps Question http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/digital/content-and-e-books/article/45173-how-publishers-are-tackling-the-app-question.html

Racism

Yes, the title says it all. This blog is to see if anyone out there is against racism like I am. On Sunday, me, my dad and sister went to Traders World, that big flea market, to see a friend, she's this real nice black lady that I've known for all my life. She's the world's nicest person. Anyway, since we know her, every time we see her, we hug her and say it's good to see her. Well, obviously this didn't fly well with the countrified locals and this white guy gives me and my family a dirty look, he must have thought that it was a crime to hug someone of a different skin color. I thought we were all past the skin color issue. I mean, it's not 1950s anymore, it's 2010.


I'm the kind of person who looks past skin color, race, ethnicity, etc. I have friends who are of different ethnic groups and I look past that, I don't see them as Italian, black, Latino, etc. I see them as friends, buddies, etc. I just can't see what the big deal about having family/friends who are supposedly "different". I look at it this way-- having someone of another ethnic group/race exposes you to another of the fascinating cultures of our diverse world. I mean, I can barely stand it when I visit my aunt Lois and uncle Justin start talking bad about other people because of the way they look, their physical appearance,etc. And in high school, don't get me started. Guys wanting to be like the rap singers openly use the N word to describe friends, sorry but you don't use ethnic/racial slurs to describe friends, and when it comes to other words, teens today use the word Gay to say stupid. You don't use the word Gay to say that someone/something is stupid, it only makes yourself sound stupid. I hate when people turn things around to make something sound cooler to them, but makes them sound like they have no IQ. Because last time I checked, the term Gay meant someone who likes someone of the same sex, and homosexual is a less mean term.


If this were the 1950s, I'd be called a whole bunch of bad names because quite a few of my buddies are black, but I don't see it that way, hypothetically if someone were to ask me what it's like having black friends, I'd simply tell them, they're not my black friends, they're my friends. I don't see any of that racial/ethnic crap that some may see. You wonder how I got on this topic, the above mentioned event got me started, and plus, having an aunt who openly uses racial slurs is ridiculous. She doesn't like anyone, whenever she talks about someone, she almost puts them into a separate group, she doesn't like anyone of Italian descent, Asian descent, Latino descent, African descent. I try to put it into the least offensive way. But I can't just sit here and listen to people bad mouth others because of something simple as being of another ethnic group. If I see/hear someone insulting someone based on race in public, I will come right out and tell them it isn't right.


But it just isn't right, seeing people face injustice because of how they appear. I'm the kind of person who believes in treating everyone with respect and dignity and that means everyone, no matter how they appear. And I think Rodney King said this, "Why can't we all just get along?" And in the "I Have a Dream" speech, Martin Luther King believed in a world united, and somehow, he gets shot for believing in a world where blacks and whites and everyone lives together peacefully. I just don't understand the mindset of some people, how some people can be complete a--holes to people because of how they appear. Wake up people! It's 2010, not 1950s anymore. So just get over your racist attitudes and get over it!

Daily Thoughts 11/22/2010 (Writing That Works, Ebooks, Shelving)

Thomas Sully, Portrait of a Young Girl, circa 1824, Oil on Canvas


Daily Thoughts 11/22/2010

I spent a little bit of time straightening out the displays.  I also called a a number of different people about ebooks.  I am applying for the Sony Library Program for ebooks.  It is a free program.  I also called Apple about Ipads and learned that they offer Ipads to libraries in New York through their Government Program with 3% discount.  I also learned about that Nook can sink and share books with up to six nooks through a single account.  This is good to know for libraries.

I received a quote for the cost of Freegal, a download service for libraries for music MP3s.  I like the way the service works.  You can listen to a minute sample of each song, but not the full song. Then you can choose to download the song based on the patrons available quota of downloads each week or month.  We are paying based on our circulation and community size.  This can be found on the IMLS library statistics search engine.  http://harvester.census.gov/imls/search/index.asp

I am also looking at the Elite Street service from BWI.

We may also be looking at new shelving for the oversize books.  These books are often quite heavy and regular shelving won't hold them very well.  We may be looking at steel shelving.  I have to look through the Highsmith, Gaylord, and Demco catalogs tomorrow.

I am reading Writing That Works How To Communicate Effectively In Business by Kenneth Roman and Joel Raphaelson. It is a very practical work.  It reminds you to use plain language, eliminate jargon, and write things that get work done. Writing that gets work done is even more important perfect clarity.  There is also a reminder that what you do with a computer is more important than having the latest model.

Partly because I had a computer virus yesterday and had to have my machine cleaned and clear out the registry, I did not get a chance to write any reviews yesterday.  I now have a variety of new software on my machine, Hitman Pro antivirus, Hijack This, Malware Bytes antimalware software, a new firewall, a new registry cleaner-- Ccleaner, Google Chrome, and other software.

I decided not to review The Referral Engine or Content Strategy for the Web.  I guess I was a bit computered out.  There is a lot of new media language and jargon in these books.  When you have been trying for six hours to get everything working on your computer, it can be a little much. I am probably going to review Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk soon. It is a bit lighter and more humorous.

Web Bits

Library cuts are not just happening in the United States, there is a lot of reporting of cuts in England.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/nov/22/library-cuts-leading-authors-condemn

NaNoWriMo Update

This is just a quick update. I'm currently at 22,156 words. And, though that rocks, it also means I probably won't be "winning" NaNoWriMo this year (weeps).

I'm still going to try and be writing a bunch every day to make it as close to the 50,000 word goal as possible. After all, every word helps.

I just set a real life goal for myself to finish my big rewrite by the end of the year. That means I'll have written what I'm hoping will be 65,000-70,000 new words in two months.

I know there are lots of people who can crank out 70,000 words in a few weeks. I, however, am not one of them. I'm a terribly slow writer. In fact, doing NaNo, has helped me realize how slow I am.

I don't really do a true first draft. I just can't type words on a page and keep going. I have to go back over them and polish as I write. My first drafts tend to come out pretty heavily edited. This is mostly because I have a hard time moving forward with something unless I'm happy about what I've already written.

For example, I have written 22,156 words in the month of November. But, my manuscript is only 14,919 words long so far. That means I have edited out or changed 7,237 words! I'm still counting them towards my writing goal (since I did write them), but in the end, they just aren't going to be part of my manuscript.

That's crazy, right? Does anyone else work this way? Do you go through and polish and edit as you write or do you just crank out an initial draft and then go back in afterwards? I feel like I'm doing it wrong, but on the plus side, it does save me time later when I'm in the editing phase.

Thoughts?

-- Lisa

Daily Thoughts 11/21/2010 (Ebooks)

: The second of four designs for the reverse of the 2009 Lincoln cent in celebration of the bicentennial of Abraham Lincoln's birth

Daily Thoughts 11/21/2010

I had some computer maintenance issues today so did not get a whole lot of time to post.  I joined the Ebooks Meetup Group http://www.meetup.com/ebooks