Daily Thoughts 2/28/2011 (Twelve, twitter)

[Mary Roberts Rinehart, three-quarter length, seated, facing left, reading book]

Daily Thoughts 2/28/2011 

Today has been another quiet, steady day.  I did what I usually do; check the displays, do some weeding in the storage area, go through the gifts.  We got a few gifts by the authors Omar Tyree and Eric Jerome Dickey who are very popular African American novelists.  Our budget has been cut to the bone, so it is a necessity for me to check this regularly.

I also took some time to check on the missing items report.  There were a few minor snags with the report.  The public service survey is now back on the front of the website.  I have been steadily working on the library Twitter account, it is up to 92 followers.  Each month it will steadily grow.

I have been reading Twelve by Jasper Kent.  The story is a bit different.  It is set in Russia during the Napoleonic invasion.  A lot of the story happens in Moscow.  It is both a story about warfare, spycraft, and vampires.  The vampires are more than just terrible creatures. They are terrible creatures that hunt men in the name of nation building and war.  There is a back story in this about Wallachia and the Turkish invasions which is a bit different. 

Way to go ^^

I still haven't visited Facebook today.

I'm going to study some and then I will have one deserved hour of Facebooking. Proud. :)

PostSecret

The name should be enough to strike some curiosity. Recently in my Art 100 class, we had to do an assignmen called a Post Secret, which for those who may not know, is basically a post card designed by you and you put stuff you would normally not tell anyone on it and design it. In my class, we got to get up and read them, a couple guys started laughing in a friendly way when I got up and read mine. Here is some of the stuff I put on mine:
1. Hippie, tree-hugger, peace lover are just 3 of my common nicknames
2. I proudly admit that I find Mick Jagger to be drop dead gorgeous and that if I were his age I'd marry him in a New York second! I proudly admit, I'm 20 years old and I think Mick Jagger is the sexiest man alive!
3. I have a super huge thing for Italian, Asian and English guys, I guess it's because of the accents
4. I love all things 1960s: peace signs, tie-dye, hippies and more!
5. Ballet and soccer are 2 things I wish I was better at.
6. I'm scared to death of spiders, I'm arachnaphobic
7. I'm afraid to express myself because of what others may think.
My PostSecret has tie-dye all over it and a couple pictures of Mick Jagger not surprisingly. Sorry, but there is something that is very physically attractive about him that I seem to like, there is something about him that sort of turns me on.

     


     





This is basically just some of the stuff I put on there. I'm not afraid to admit that someone as young as me finds that someone as old as Mick Jagger drop dead gorgeous, I mean, if I were his age, I'd marry him. I'm not like some women who would marry someone that looks as loving as him for money, totally not me, I'd marry him because he looks sweet, very loving, and looks like he enjoys having a good time. My teacher started laughing in a friendly way when I said that I thought he was cute and still has a nice body, well, he does! He's 67, and has the body of a 30 or 40 year old man? Normally it would be considered disturbing to find someone as old as him cute, but he is!

The Secret

Yesterday my mama told me that when waking up tomorrow (this morning then) you are going to smile and think of how grateful you are for everything in your life. She said that I was supposed to imagine as if it was Tuesday and that Monday’s exams went fabulous, because in that way I would be surrounded by a lot of positive energy and thereby good things will automatically be drawn to me.

Yeah right, I thought. But since I always listen to my mother I still did it. And the thing is that I actually think it worked. :o

So people, don’t only follow your crazy ideas, follow others’ too! ^^

Me & mami last year

Daily Thoughts 2/27/2011 (We Claim These Stars, The Digital Experience)

Nihonzutsumi no rakugan tamaya uchi Tamagushi, Print shows Tamagushi, a courtesan, full-length portrait, with several hairpins, seated, reading a scroll; picture hanging on the wall above her shows geese descending on the Nihon embankment.  Date Created/Published: [between 1818 and 1822]


Daily Thoughts 2/27/2011


I finished reading Designing The Digital Experience by David Lee King.  This book takes a different approach to designing websites.  It focuses on the customers experience inside a web site.  It is very much Web 2.0 focused and describes services like Twitter, Facebook, and Youtube.  For David Lee King a website is more than just content and service; it is the total experience which a person has when visiting a site. The site must be easy to use, easy to find things on, browsable, searchable, and focused.  I liked the concept of merit badging or collecting experiences.  I collect experiences when I visit conventions or go to meetings then I write them down here.

I am starting reading an old Ace paperback with the code G-697 which is a series code used by Ace books.  The title is We Claim These Stars by Poul Anderson.  It is classic science fiction from 1959.  It features the character "Flandry of Terra."

This was classic science fiction with a flamboyant character.  I like that Clive's, Flandry's assistant used growth hormone to heal his wounds.  There is something old fashioned about this. The cover art for the book is by Kelly Freas, it has a nostalgic, slightly cheesy, sparkly look to it.  I like Kelly Freas's artwork, it is very expressive.  It is also a much faster, shorter read than todays science fiction novels.  Hopefully, the web will open up shorter form science fiction again.  Things which you can read in several hours.

Web Bits

Citizen/Public Journalism Bibliography Citizen/Public Journalism Bibliography http://www.poynter.org/uncategorized/790/citizen-public-journalism-bibliography/#

Facebook rehabilitation

When having lunch with my friend Lewar earlier this week we discussed our Facebook addictions and came to the conclusion that we maybe have to restrict ourselves from the website during mocks. Dramatic as Lewar likes to be, she suggested that we’ll change each other’s passwords so that it will be impossible for us to log in (to our own accounts that is, mohaha!). At first I thought that idea was pretty brilliant but then it hit me that mocks is going on for two weeks. Am I going to live without Facebook for two whole weeks!? Impossible. (Without me going a bit mad I mean.)

Sooo instead I told my other friend, Sabina, about this “dilemma” and she came up with the even crazier idea (after calling us dorks ^^) of only allowing ourselves to check Facebook 10 min per hour. Clearly that indicates that I am allowed to be on Facebook 4 hours a day…which is like…now so I think I have to ditch that suggestion as well. :o

BUT, smart as I am, I came up with my own idea of just allowing myself to be on Facebook 1 hour a day until Friday the 9th of March. In that way, I will fully focus on my studies and at the same time get a more…normal I guess…dose of that addictive website. ^^

Au revoir Facebook

Reading Corner

Over the last few weeks 3C has been heavily involved in a project to redesign our reading corner.

Reading has always been (and will continue to be) one of the most important skills a child can develop. Good reading ability allows a person not just to engage with their learning but, more importantly, gain a sense of enjoyment from an interesting text. Interesting texts come in many forms: a fictional story, an information book, a comic, a football magazine, a music book, or whatever you choose to read for enjoyment.

About a month ago we asked the children for their initial ideas of what they would like their reading corner to become. Here are some of their efforts:

Next we voted on our favourite themes and on key details from our designs. With Mrs. Khan's expert help we organised our ideas and added them to our overall class design. Next we started ripping up paper for our papier mache tree, bush and volcano. After glueing our paper together and covering it with more paper we were ready to begin painting our 3D creations:

Meanwhile, another group of students took it upon themselves to restructure the way we organise our reading books. Completely independently, they decided on catagories for the books, sorted through them to remove unwanted texts, designed labels for the new catagories and even set up special boxes for author studies of Roald Dahl, Roger Hargreaves and Jacqueline Wilson:

Other groups took it upon themselves to create the tall grass background and the jam-jar lanterns:

All our creativity, hard work and effort finally paid off as we reassembled the reading corner. We now have a new, exciting area for everyone to share books and reading experiences with and, hopefully, to gain an even-greater enjoyment of the simple pleasure of reading a good text!

Daily Thoughts 2/26/2011

Funny side up, Poster Promoting Reading,  WPA, Between 1936 and 1939

Daily Thoughts 2/26/2011

I have been reading some more of Designing The Digital Experience by David Lee King.  Right now, I am reading about putting together communities using blogs, flickr, and other resources.  It describes the process of getting people to interact. 

I also have been reading the Dublin Core metadata standards on the web.  It is something which I am finding interesting.

Web Bits

Cory Doctorow HarperCollins to libraries: we will nuke your ebooks after 26 checkouts
http://www.boingboing.net/2011/02/25/harpercollins-to-lib.html

Mma With Genital Herpes

Women: Contemporary Reflections In Memoriam

"Architects build, artists destroyed, "said the American artist Dan Graham and theoretical.

Serisuelo

Augustine is known for being an artist who explores the confluences and interference between sculpture and architecture, which in turn agree in thinking about space and the possibility of creating new realities through construction. Although as operator searches the internal space architecture beyond the mere geometry built. To this end, drawings and notes made previously on his book, which implies poussiana how he conceives the picture as a picture within the project.

In Memoriam is a process in itself, an investigation, which in turn generates a kind of visual and textual narrative, through their images, as it explains both the course of the play as their domestic context. Augustine in his travels throughout the province of Castellón aims to discover spaces without a name, hiding places and abandoned. No interventions carried out in buildings directly as did Gordon Matta-Clark, but thanks the photographs which deconstructs the space, move it, then rebuild it cuts through, allowing you to realize that ideas about space as a dialectic personal intuition, ie single and designated spaces in the same way that creates complexity. Augustine sets in this series is not busy and uninhabited places, where past and present coexist, destruction and construction. For this first makes photographs that are taken from the same point of view as a succession of frames, and then through the assembly of them, abandoned places reconstructed from photographic fragments. You could say that the architecture would function as a frame and the sculpture is the result of emptying. Discover, well, dualities and contrasts perfectly reflected in his photographic montages (vertical / horizontal, interior / exterior, empty / full) summarizing aesthetic experience in terms of years of research and philosophical positions on space.

In his photographs the light breaks transforming an abandoned building in a temple "That light invites us to enter, welcomes us and embraces us with warmth of home, since every house is not a case lived inert always inhabited space transcends geometrical space. Its obligation to re-think the livability of contemporary space transgress as an intruder, forcing look beyond mere functionality, opening new perspectives and drawing attention to forgotten corners that escape the logic of capitalism under which we live. Somehow, establishing an emotional relationship with the environment that surrounds us about an unknown reality virtually erased from our memory; stresses, thus, our capacity to act on it. Both

eight sculptures like twenty photographs that make up the exhibition, reveal layers of information, stories, construction of living ... The space acts as a memory device, extracted from each person their unconscious thoughts and gives them body. We need to open the house so you can remember, we must move to put freedom back into memories. That does Augustine reconstructing the image, creating gaps that cause movement and open windows and doors to wander memory. Transform

space

interpreting, assimilating and offering new perspectives. In memorian pays tribute to all those areas marginalized by our society, because each building that disappears or vanishes becomes a ritual way of life, knowledge and muted light off the locations in which lived memory and transited the passing of time.

Dim sum

Every month Vicki takes me & mami out for dinner and since salary came in yesterday, she said why not today? As mum always wants to go for Asian food we decided to try out the “new” Thai Village (by “new” I mean that they have changed owner) and boy it was good. It was the first time I’ve actually tried eating dim sum in Sweden and yuuuum. Made me miss Malaysia a bit though ;(

My beautiful sis ♥

Dessert :D

Family dinner coming up

I've just defined 150 economic terms. Time for a break.

Daily Thoughts 2/25/2011 (shakespeare's landlord, designing the digital experience)

Per Eskilson 1820-1872, Reading Loud

Daily Thoughts 2/25/2011

Today has been a quiet, steady day.  I spent some time checking the displays.  I also did a little more weeding in the mezzanine.

I plan on reading Charlaine Harris, Shakespeare's Landlord which is part of a planned book discussion group.  I also spent some time writing up several of the adult programs for the next two months planned calendar of events.  Part of this process is designing some flyers to distribute. I usually plan my flyers based on what I previously done.  We are planning to do another Writers Networking Event focused on poetry on March 17, 2011 from 6:30-8:00 p.m.

I read some more of Designing The Digital Experience by David Lee King.  The author is a librarian which makes the book applicable to libraries.  He even writes about using Drupal as a content management system.  This time, the write is describing community in the sense of websites.  He is focusing on how easy it is to share information in variety of formats including Twitter for microblogging and Flickr for photosharing.

Web Bits

A New Library Advocacy Blog from the American Library Association.
http://stoptrashingmylibrary.org/

This is wonderfully silly. The Konomark.
http://www.konomark.org/

Dammit...it's Friday

This is the first Friday in a lifetime (?) that I don’t feel the “thank God it’s Friday!” feeling. My break is technically over already, and now I only have two more days of studying before mock exams begin, and I’m literally freaking out :s

The only soothing thing of today was drinking ice-latte at Barista with Vicki. A clear pause from reality is what we all need sometime…♥

John 1:29

Do you know those moments where you wish time would just stop because everything is perfect, and you don't want anything to change? I love those moments. You see, last night we had choir practice for Behold the Lamb, (http://www.beholdthelamb.com/) and as we were singing the Hallelujah Choris for the 5th time, it dawned on me that, that is what heaven will be like. I will stand there singing praises to my savior forever, standing side by side with the people I love. Nothing gets better than that. That's why I love Behold the Lamb so much, because I get to praise God, standing by my church family, proclaiming the word of God, everyday for a week. It is my favorite week of the year. :)    

"Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world."

John 1:29

You are Invited!

P.s.- if you want tickets check out the website, and/or let me know. :)

-SM

Freeee Chipotle

Or rather, BOGO--buy one, get one.  Get a friend and head over to Stuyvesant Plaza, Friendship Heights, or many other blocks in the US and use your deal.

Like something on Facebook, watch a short video (or let it run in the background while you do other work--but it features BFlay and he's so cute), and then print.

(If you haven't seen this on Facebook already, then...)

<3 You're welks.

Chipotle is one of our favorite go-to cheap, quick, satisfying meals.  Love me a burrito bowl.

[P.S. I wasn't made for quick writing.  I had to update this like 12 times because of typos.  Eep.]

Daily Thoughts 2/24/2011 (Taxonomy, Designing The Digital Experience)

Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Porträt von Jean und Geneviève Caillebotte, 1895

Daily Thoughts 2/24/2011

I missed my stride a little bit yesterday.  There were two books that came in, Twelve Russia 1812 by Jasper Kent and Designing The Digital Experience by David Lee King.  I have started reading Designing The Digital Experience.  It starts by reminding us that the customer is at the center, not the programs or gadgets.

I put the book, The Accidental Taxonomist by Heather Hedden on interlibrary loan request.  It was a suggested title from the Taxonomy Meetup last night.  I very much enjoyed going to this.  Fleur Levitz was the organizer for the meetup from Morgan Stanley.  It was interesting talking about the taxonomy setup of the New York Times Kristi Reilly.  They use computer programs to extract some of the metatags, then they adjust them with people.

On the way home, I read some more of Designing The Digital Experience by David Lee King.  He is describing how it is important to make certaing processes simple.  He also talks about how websites need to be designed in a user friendly way.

Today, I checked the displays, did some more weeding in the storage area, and spent some time checking the inventory.  We also had a large donation of art books most of which went into the book sale.

This afternoon was the last session of the Women's Enterprise Development Center for this month.  They did a session in the computer lab.

Please take some time to read this.  It is about proposed cuts to the New York City libraries which will force more layoffs in Manhattan.  http://savenyclibraries.org/

Web Bits

Bookselling Without Borders from Green Apple Books. This is a truly excellent store.
http://thegreenapplecore.blogspot.com/2011/02/bookselling-without-borders.html


Bloomberg Proposes 22 Percent Less Money for NYC Libraries
http://t.co/U0uqTkf  


(Ebooks) From some perspectives, we are tipping right now and publishers’ metrics will show it
http://www.idealog.com/blog/from-some-perspectives-we-are-tipping-right-now-and-publishers-metrics-will-show-i

Win an ARC of The Liar Society

In honor of the upcoming release of Lisa and Laura Roecker's The Liar Society, I'm doing a little giveaway. I got an ARC of the book a few weeks back and would like to pass it along to one lucky winner!

If you don't already know how awesome the book is, here's the description:

Best friends don't send emails once they're dead. With her dead best friend's pearls and skirts tiny enough to make Nancy Drew blush, Kate's on the trail to prove once and for all that Grace’s death was more than just a tragic accident. But secrets haunt the halls of her elite private school. Secrets people will do anything to protect. Even if it means getting rid of the girl trying to solve a murder...

To enter:

Just become a follower and leave a comment on this post. You can earn extra entries by following me on Twitter, or tweeting, or blogging about the contest. The contest will run through March 5th at midnight EST.

The contest is open to U.S. and Canadian addresses only (sorry, my shipping budget is limited).

Just remember to leave your total in your comment (math is not my strong suit).

+1 for leaving a comment/being a follower
+1 for being a Twitter follower
+1 for tweeting about the contest
+1 for blogging about it

I might even be able to make it to Lisa and Laura's book launch party since they live in my hometown of Cleveland, Ohio. If I do get there, I may be able to score some extra prizes! (Fingers crossed...)

Thanks to everyone for entering and thanks again to Lisa and Laura for sending me the ARC (and for writing such a kick-butt book!).

-- Lisa

End of the good life

Yup. That was it.

I Just woke up from my last night out…until after mock exams. Lately I have been out a bit too much and I just feel that it’s time to get serious again and regain that focus that I have managed to loose some of. Living the good life too much is never good.

Now I’m going to eat a semla with mami and then STUDY.

A very dark picture of Sabina & Ebba while waiting for the bus

Daily Thoughts 2/23/2011 (taxonomy)

"Aufmerksame Lectüre", rückseitig alt betitelt und bezeichnet, signiert A. J. Franke, Öl auf Holz, 24 x 18 cm by 1924

Daily Thoughts 2/23/2011

Today has been another quiet steady day.  I spent some time checking the displays this morning.  I also planned out my events for the next two months.  This afternoon, I spent some time working on the technology grant.

This evening, I am goint to the Taxonomy Meetup.  I am looking forward to learning something new.  It was quite enjoyable.  We went to Butterfield 8 which is in midtown Manhattan.  I learned a little bit.  There is a tie between taxonomy and content strategy.  The taxonomy division of the Special Library Association was just started last year.  It is relatively new in the library field.  In a similar manner, content strategy has just started to grow.  I found this kind of interesting.

I'll write a little more about this tomorrow.

TV Shows

Yeah, the title is what it is. TV Shows. Everyone has at least one favorite, if not one, maybe 2, 3 or more. When it comes to favorite TV shows for me, it doesn't surprise a lot to know that quite a few of the shows I watch have at least one thing in common with other things: they either have an Asian actor or actress on it or it takes place in England. I guess it's because this show is awesome and maybe I have a thing for English guys or something. Not surprising, huh?
Here's a picture of one of my favorite TV shows, Top Gear, and I mean Top Gear UK. This one kicks the American version's butt!

My favorite one is the one in the middle, with the brown hair and blue jean jacket. For those who actually read this and actually watch Top Gear UK, you'll know who these guys are and you'll know who I mean when I say the one I like is Richard Hammond.

Law and Order:SVU

My favorite one is the one on the far right, B.D. Wong. He is so cute. I love his character on the show, Dr. George Huang. He is so good looking, it's sad to know he's gay, but it don't bother me, it doesn't matter what his sexuality is, I still think he's cute, he's still my little Chinese fortune cookie.

Cake Boss

I love the one guy standing up right next to Buddy(one in the middle for those who may not know). The one with his hand on Buddy's shoulder is my favorite, Remy. He's so cute. I love what he does with cakes and everything. I love watching this show because it's a good show and it's so interesting to see what he does  with cake. And plus, friends of mine always say I have a thing for Italian guys........

The Sopranos

What's kind of funny and weird at the same time is that my stepdad Greg is Italian and his costume at Halloween last year was the guy in the blue jacket at the far right. Alot of people ask me why I like this show, they say it's violent and almost glorifies mob connections, I tell them it isn't so bad, I personally like the one 3rd from the left with the tan shirt because he's really sexy, even his name is cute, Michael Imperioli, if that's not Italian,  come on, some people believe he's not Italian, can u believe that? My other favorite is the one 2nd from the right, with the brown shirt on, he's Stevie Van Zandt, a guitarist with Bruce Springsteen and the E-Street Band. Trust me, I think this guy is way cuter on The Sopranos than in real life. And my other fave is the one to the far right, his name is Federico Castellucio, and maaaaaaaaaaaaan is he HOT!