Driving Me Crazy.....

Sorry Gang, I've been in and out so much visiting schools, I let this get past me. I think my schedule is driving me crazy. Starting today, I'm slowing down.
I started driving at 16 in my brother's old stick-shift jalopy. Although we had some good times piling teenagers into the homemade convertible, we probably took way too many risks.
My first real car came with my first teaching job. It was a 1965 Volkswagen beetle, dark green. It cost $1,800. brand new. We drove it as a second car for years.
I'm driving my third white Dodge caravan. Love it. Love the space, the high seat. My vanity plate says, "Whodunit" in honor of my mystery series.
I know I must trade one day for something greener, but not yet. Thought you might like this picture of my grands driving across my driveway.

Valborg

Then Valborg 2009 was off the checklist, haha. Valborg is April 30th every year and is celebrated to welcome the spring. Here in Uppsala it's one of the biggest "happenings" each year, because it is a studentstad (student town). Mostly, all of the young people (and often also the "wanna be young again") get drunk...However, there are also lots of other stuff happening. But they are not as important as to get drunk here, I guess. Hahaha...As you see, I am not as some wild and crazy after party, but it doesn't really bother me at all. I had a great day with some friends in town, and the sun was shining so brightly. The only downside with it all was, that the sun was shining so brightly. Because, now my face has started to become really brownish and since I am going to Asia this summer...it's not suppose to! Oh my goodness, I have become so typically Chinese!

Daily Thoughts 4/30/2009

Elisabeth Maria Anna Jerichau-Baumann, 1855 (right: Jacob Grimm; left: Wilhelm Grimm)

Daily Thoughts 4/30/2009

Today was another intensely busy day. The new slat walls were put up yesterday. We shifted over most of the new books to the new display area. It looks a lot better than the old place where we kept the new books.

I also worked on a few other minor projects; putting together a list of graphic novels for a bookmark, filing some looseleafs, arranging for a program, and attending a meeting. I had a chance to read the latest Publishers Weekly, but not much else.

I read some more of Good to Great on the train. The message is fairly clear; choose great people before you plan anything, be humble, face your problems, and focus on discipline.

City, Pond, Water

Cities are imagined

like pools of water

around a quiet spring

They grow rapidly

along the river edge

spreading like new grass

Skyscrapers are weeds

blotting the horizon

rising in the sun

Houses are mushrooms

clumped close together

around paved street roots.

Cities grow organically

to fill empty spaces

consuming the wild world

The Sad Stories of Hoover and Lotto

Ten years ago, a young man of my acquaintance made an interesting decision. Well, two interesting decisions. The first was to experimentally apply a vacuum cleaner for the purposes of sexual release. The second was to tell all his high school buddies about it.

It must have come as a big surprise to this young man that his friends didn't think his idea to be as clever and revolutionary as he did. Rather than congratulating his creativity, they merely pissed themselves laughing, dubbed him "Hoover", and continued to call him that until the end of high school.

My Very Clever Polyamorous Friend notes a similar situation which arose in his single-sex boarding school. Apparently a young man was overheard telling an unknown party on his mobile phone that; "I've had a look around, and I'm pretty sure I've got the biggest one in year 9". The unfortunate youth was evermore known as "Lotto" (The Big One).

High school was riddled with bizarre and cruel nomenclature, which prompts me to wonder; what would you do if the world at large knew your high school nickname? Could Hoover, an attorney nowadays, still hold up his head at the office if his colleagues knew?

Here are a few other examples which might be difficult to explain:

- Clever Sister's friend "Babs" (thus named for looking "like he works in a kebab shop")

- Clever Bitch's ex-boyfriend "Scrotum" (so named, ironically, by a peer support leader who looked down on the shivering year 7 and guffawed; "Hey, this kid looks like a scrotum!").

- Clever Bitch's friend "Bald Eagle" (a word to the wise - never let your friends see your junk until there's some grass on the pitch).

Luckily, Babs had a shave and Eagle grew some pubes. Scrotum still looks a little like one, but is a financial adviser nowadays. Still, I wonder if any of them live in vague unrest, fearing the day that someone finds out their high-school nicknames. Those things stuck for five years - if you let them back in now, they could be for life.

What are the worst nicknames you recall from your high school?

Baby You Can Drive My Car

by Pam Ripling

My first car: Of course, it was older than dirt, older than me, older than the universe.

Have fun with me as I reminisce about my history of driving.

Ah... the 1963 Oldsmobile F-85, forerunner of the popular Olds Cutlass that debuted the following year. Mine got me to school and back, cracked block and all. Four doors, bench seats... I hated my parents. HATED them! The most uncoolest car in the lot.


The Ghia. My beach car. Wrecked it twice before selling it to my boyfriend, who wrecked it again. Great car, bad karma.

Did you know the trunk was in the front? 1969 VW Karmann Ghia. RIP.






Funny thing about driving a BMW. People flip you off for no reason. I wrecked this car, too. Ran over a median curb. Hard enough to set off the airbags. My bad.

We called this '02 530i a "Friday car", because it had so many defects--myth is that Friday afternoon workers are tired and want to go home. 'Nuff said. But it drove like a dream.



I know, I know. I never should have gotten rid of this one. Can you spell C L A S S I C? The 1966 Ford Mustang is still a hot selling car today.

Now this one, my boyfriend wrecked and we then painted it orange. Bad idea. You've heard of orange peel-textured paint? This one was the worst ever.



We called it the "kidney-shaker". Give you a clue? I learned to drive a stick-shift in this monster. Great for off-roading, not the most comfortable vehicle around town.

If you ever get offered a ride in the back, turn it down. Trust me. Take note: 1972 Toyota LandCruiser.





Now this is a car. My beloved '91 Miata. Drove it all the way to Las Vegas and back, alone. Sunburned the heck out of my head. Was worth every mile. Once crammed three kids in it -- please don't tell their parents. I still miss this gem.

Note: Not good when vs. Escalade on freeway.


1973. VW "181" Thing.

Top down, barreling down the I5 into Mexico with my 2 BFF's. Broke down only twice.

How did we live to tell? We called it the square rolling lemon. Wonder why?


Okay, now you know my life in cars. But here's the catch. One of these is a blatant, all out lie. Can you spot the fraud?

Pam Ripling is the author of middle-grade mystery, LOCKER SHOCK! Buy it at Quake, Fictionwise or Amazon today! E-book version now available for your Kindle! Visit Pam at www.BeaconStreetBooks.com.

Lessons in Life and Driving

You know that poster about everything we need to know about life we learned in Kindergarten? Let's see if it applies to driving...

Don't hit people, keep your hands to yourself.
Oh, I think this is a match. Even though they say 'keep your hands on the wheel' in driver's ed, they also tell you not to mess with the driver lest the car become a weapon of mass destruction.

Watch out for traffic, hold hands, and stick together.
Well, I know from being both a kid and a mom that Moms will do the arm bar thing for whoever or whatever is in the passenger seat (even if it's just her purse) if something happens on the road, so I'll count this one too.

In Kindergarten you learned the biggest word of all: 'LOOK'
This definitely applies, though often while driving it becomes 'LOOK OUT'...for the squirrel, bicycle, or (ahem) the Kindergartner.

Congratulations! You can rest easy knowing you've actually been learning to drive since Kindergarten!

Regan
Accomplished driver and author of the Hobbitville saga and the Shadows of Justice series available at Quake and Echelon Press

Daily Thoughts 4/29/09

Reading Lady. Kamisaka, Sekka -- Artist Woodcuts From:Momoyogusa = Flowers of a Hundred Generations. c1909

Daily Thoughts 4/29/09

Today is rather interesting. We had a morning meeting discussing the many things which are currently happening. We are doing a lot with getting the library collection more organized. I spent a considerable amount of time making sure the law collection was being covered properly today.

We have a reggae poet doing a workshop right now. I stopped in for a minute to check on things. He was talking about how to do free writing. He has a cd of his poetry which he is giving to participants. There is also a class visiting from the local baptist church who are working on a project on different countries around the world. The final thing which is happening is a city Green Committee which is meeting for the first time in the community room. We are making a concerted effort to increase community involvement in the library. The reggae poet did very well. He wants to come back again to do another workshop. He gave two of his spoken word cds to the library.

I started working on a bookmark for graphic novels. It has a nice short selection of what I think people might like to read. I might also do one for writing as well.

On the train home, I started reading Good To Great Why Some Companies Make The Leap... And Others Don't by Jim Collins. There is also an accompanying monograph called Good To Great And The Social Sectors Why Business Thinking Is Not The Answer by Jim Collins. The monograph is quite short, only 35 pages of text.

The Power of Positive Confrontation by Barbara Pachter with Susan Magee

The Power of Positive Confrontation by Barbara Pachter with Susan Magee

The Power of Positive Confrontation is about how to confront people in a polite, clear manner. The book discusses more than just confronting someone. It also gives many examples of how to improve your conversational skills by stopping self discounting and other bad habits.

The information in the book is both practical and useful. It is not theoretical. Barbara Pachter covers both verbal and nonverbal aspects of confrontation; personal space, nervous habits, facial expression, listening, proper diction, politeness, and eye contact are reviewed.

There are no pictures and no charts in this book. It is only text. The descriptions are often broken into actionable numbered lists or steps. The language is clear and straightforwad. There is even a section on how and when to confront someone in writing.

I was surprised to find information on technological etiquette in this book. This is not something which I have seen before; email, phone, voice mail, and cell phone etiquette were described.

The final section of the book is how to be polite and diffuse potential confrontations; sharing space, greeting others, and avoiding cultural conflict.

This is a useful, practical book which gives many actionable tips on how to confront people in a polite prepared way. It is well worth reading.

Daily Thoughts 4/28/2009

Religious Freedom In America 3 Cent Stamp, 1957

Daily Thoughts 4/28/2009

I spent some more time going through the technical processing area today. We are starting to put out the new video games for patrons. We have Fallout 3 for the Xbox 360. It has a bobblehead doll of the vault dweller that comes with the packaging. We are going to use it as part of the display of the new game material. We also have Guitar Hero II. This is the first time we are going to circulate video games.

I also spent time filing looseleafs and weeding some more of the 700s area. Things are getting a bit more organized.

I am looking forward to going to the Westchester Library Association Conference on May 8, 2009. It should be very interesting to go there.

On the train here, I read Eat This Not That by David Zinczenko. It is very interesting. It is a menu guide comparing different foods and which ones you should eat. It gives the pictures of the best and worst items from fast food restaurants like Taco Bell, McDonald's, Appleby's, Denny's and others. There are also comparisons of different food items in the supermarket; popular brands of cereal, salad dressing, snacks, ice cream, and other food items. There were also guides to choices for food during holiday meals. Do you pecan pie or pumpkin pie?

I learned a few things about food. Green tea and grapefruit help you with losing weight. Sherbet and frozen yogurt are better for you than ice cream. Oatmeal is one of the best foods you can have for breakfast. The tips were simple and useful. The pictures were all in full color. The descriptions and layout were well designed. I can recommend this book. It is a fast easy read.

I am looking forward to getting the Eat This Not That Supermarket Guide.

On the train home, I tried to read Ideas Triumphant Strategies for Social Change and Progress by Lawrence Lader. I could not read that far into the book. The problem was one where the author always seemed to present his side as winning. There was never a retreat from a losing argument, or an attempt to regroup around an idea. I found that it did not portray the full span of conflict between opposing ideas. I believe in the concept of a "war for ideas" where there is continuous conflict about what ideas will become prevalent. The book was too one sided in its presentation for me to read.

The second book I attempted to read was The Anarchist In The Library How the Clash Between Freedom and Control Is Hacking the Real World and Crashing the System by Siva Vaidhyanathan. The thing which threw me off with this book is how he portrayed freedom as anarchistic and control as oligarchic in a kind of dialectic. I am not a big fan of dialecticism. I follow with the idea that Descartes was wrong about people being divided into two parts, rational and emotional or the mind and body. People develop rationality and spirituality from baser emotions.

I find myself thinking back to a book called Descartes Error which has influenced my thinking considerably. I like to think of things in a more holistic way. I often find the concept of everything being split into two sides fractious.

Our first "business lunch"

After a lot of confusions and a lot of cancelled plans, the ladies and I finally got our "business lunch" that we have been talking about for ages. And I have to say, that I wouldn't have wished to spend my lunch in any other way than with my Oh-So-Lovely-Friends, close to the buffet table at Dragon Palace. I'm really considering to fulfill the pop-up idea that I just got now, of a buffet revolution in Uppsala! Hahaha...Goodness I'm crazy. Sandra come to common sense now and realize that if we would make a buffet revolution, and try out all the buffets here in Uppsala, we would probably roll down the hill instead of running down the hill when we graduate! Haha, and with that in mind...I think I'll pass -.-

Shill and I was terrified over the biology test this morning.

Don't we just love group pics? - Yes, we do.

So what girls do we have here? One sucking her spoon and another one marketing a bread crumb?

The real reason I went to the place! Hahahaha xD

Daily Thoughts 4/27/09

Alexis De Tocqueville author of Democracy In America

Daily Thoughts 4/27/2009

Today, I went through a bunch of gift books that had been in storage for a while. These were things which we had planned to add for a while. We are slowly catching up with a back log of books. I prepared four shelves of books to be added. There were several x-men graphic novels which I thought that people would like

I also finished up ordering adult fiction titles for the month. There were a few other miscellaneous tasks that needed to be done; bringing down some art books for storage and filing some law looseleafs.

I took some time to look at a site called http://www.earlyword.com/ , a site which connects librarians and publishers. There are a lot of forthcoming publishers catalogs. They also have some very interesting sites for forthcoming books.

Amazon Popular Preorders
http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html/ref=amb_link_21724301_3?ie=UTF8&docId=1000147741&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-3&pf_rd_r=0J6WJP37A3GJJCPXRF50&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=438625301&pf_rd_i=15372101

Barnes & Noble Coming Soon
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/bookstore/coming-soon.asp?cds2Pid=16450&linkid=1207854

I Had A Fast Car...

Dear Diary,

Even though I’ve found happiness here (finally!), I can’t help but think of the world I came from. My friends, my family, my job…and there are so many simple things that I miss, like turning on the radio or the television any time you want to, taking a shower whenever you’re dirty, toothpaste, cell phones…you get the drift.
Out of all the things I had, though, I have to say the one I miss the most here is my car. It’s not that I had a tricked-out sports car or anything—it was a Subaru Outback sedan, kind of a maroon color, but I loved it.

I miss it for the obvious reason, of course—we’ve made most of this trip on either horseback or foot, except for the very memorable dragon ride—and that takes a toll, not to mention time. It’s become a fact of life now that, when I roll myself up in the blanket next to the fire at night, my back hurts, my legs and my feet ache, and I’m exhausted.

You don’t realize how much cars protect you, either, from the dust and pollen in the air, bugs flying in your face and down your shirt, and of course, from crazy alien guys attacking you with spears. I never thought about how safe being encased in that glass and steel capsule made me feel until I didn’t have it anymore.

But there’s the memories, too, and I think that bothers me more than anything. Memories of driving in the summer with Shannon and Ashleigh, all the windows down, singing to the radio at the top of our lungs, our hair whipping each other in the faces. And sitting in the parking lot of Rita’s with a strawberry ice, bare feet propped up on the open windowsill, talking and giggling and slurping Italian ice…having a car, and being in a car, kind of symbolizes being carefree to me now. And carefree is something I don’t know if I’ll ever be again.

--June

June is the heroine of Surviving Serendipity, by Jacquelyn Sylvan. Buy now at Amazon or Quake Direct!

Daily Thoughts 4/26/2009

This picture was taken from the Dictionnaire encyclopédique Trousset, also known as the Trousset encyclopedia, Paris, 1886 - 1891. I took it from oldbookillustrations.com

Daily Thoughts 4/26/2009

Right now, I am reading The Power of Positive Confrontation by Barbara Pachter with Susan Magee. It is a self help style book focused on effectively confronting people. So far, it is excellent. I especially like the sections on nonverbal behavior during confrontations and how to eliminate self discounting language.

I watched some more episodes of Roughnecks Starship Troopers on Youtube. At this point, the alien skinnies have joined the human war effort against the bugs. It is turning out to be every enjoyable to watch. It is a bit different than most other Youtube videos because they have some advertising embedded in the videos. It makes it almost like television in a way.

I also watched the last part of Sidewalk Stories on dvd. It is rather touching. It is about being homeless. It was not obvious at the beginning of the film. It is a silent film with an orchestra.

I often take time to look at statistics for my website, mainly inbound and outbound links. I checked Google Webmaster tools this morning. Bookaddiction.org-- Betty Ford For the Bibliophile has a number of inbound and outbound links to my site. This is a link to the site http://bookaddiction.org/ I am adding it to blogs that I read.

Web Bits

I thought this article in support of libraries from Last Kiss Comics was very interesting. http://www.lastkisscomics.com/2009/04/23/the-library-comics-and-me/

A podcast from 2008 Book Expo, How Libraries Buy-- http://bookexpocast.com/2008/07/24/how-libraries-buy-librarians-reveal-their-methods-for-collection-development/

Barnes and Noble Library Market Bookstore-- http://btob.barnesandnoble.com/home.asp?btob=Y

Watercolor Memories

I don’t know how to begin….ah. Well, my name is Andy, Andy Riley actually and I’m a little nervous, never spoke to this many people before you know. I’m filling in for Martin Bartloff today who asked me to introduce myself to ya’ll and say a few things about fantasy and stuff.

I grew up in Virginia and lived there most of my life. At seventeen I moved in with my aunt in Baltimore. That wasn’t my idea and I didn’t want to, but my aunt made me. She threatened to call the police if I didn’t get on that train. I don't like her; she was very mean to me and treated me like a moron. I ran away after ten days of pure ugliness, got back on a train to Virginia. Not sure that was a good thing though. I made some bad decisions, but you can believe me, I’m not a bad kid!

Hey when I was nine I had a video game called Final Fantasy, does that count? No? Well the game sucked anyway and I joined a soccer team for a while to get out of the house. That reminds me. Have you ever been soaked in a rainstorm so bad, the wet clothes felt like you weigh three times as much as normal? I have!

Once I went on a long trip with my friend Jason and his parents, the Mitchell’s. We drove on the Interstate for hours. I was so bored and stared out the window the whole entire time when suddenly I found myself in a fantasy world. I was at this beach and there was a humongous waterfall crashing into the lake. There were great looking girls all over the place, a ten foot table with the finest foods imaginable. My dad waved at me from a balcony of a gigantic mansion and my mom was planting flowers in a garden as big as a parking lot. Great isn’t it? I think we were rich or something. I had my own yacht and the guys who used to bully me growing up were working for us as servants. They were preparing a bonfire for a huge party we were having that night.



Jason was there, fishing off a boat in the lake. He reeled in one catfish after another and they were all as big as sharks, just like he always said. It was a fantasy world with no worries. I leaned back in my beach chair, enjoying the great view, sipping ice tea. Then a female voice whispered softly through the sound of the waterfall. “You…strong... Andy.” I couldn’t understand what the voice said, so I leaned forward. The voice became louder, repeating the same over and over again. “You have to be strong now Andy.” The voice was my mom's. I turned to look and my mom was no longer in the garden anymore, and there was no garden, mansion, or yacht. Everything was gone, only Jason remained on the boat in the lake, trying desperately to get my attention.

“Andy wake up, wake up dude wake up!”

I was scared so I yelled for my mom and dad, but when I opened my eyes Jason was right in my face.

“Mom, dad? Dude it’s me Jason, are you in a coma or something?”

I thought I had dozed off in the car, but Jason said I was asleep for hours. His mom handed me a bottle of water from the cooler. I drank and closed my eyes again, trying to return to my fantasy world, and my mom and dad, but I realized the sound of the waterfall was fabricated by the worn door gaskets of the Mitchell's rusted car and that my parents had both died.


If you want to know more about me you’re gonna have to read Martin’s YA novel “Torn from Normal” aka “Like a Snowflake in Summer.” I’ll be here all day, answering any questions you might have. Ask me anything you like, I’ve lost everything, time I got plenty.

Andy Riley.

Martin Bartloff - Follow me on Twitter

http://martinbartloff.blogspot.com/

Follow Martin on Myspace

Fantasy has Wings!

Fantasy often brings to mind images of magic, wizards, mayhem, and dragons. I've loved hearing stories about dragons, both good and bad, since I first started reading fairytales. The great thing about these creatures is that they are so captivating that they have appeared in nearly every culture of the world since ancient times. Chinese, Japanese, even Native American cultures all had some sort of dragon- whether they breathed fire or not! Dragons may never have really walked the earth, but they are part of the world's history- and are a figurehead for fantasy.

My favorite fantasy books of all time have included a dragon (or other mystical winged creature) in some way, shape, or form. Eragon and the rest of Christopher Paolini's Inheritance books are probably the most well-known dragon novels right now. I have read and re-read every one, and Paolini makes Saphira and the other creatures so real, I can almost imagine flying with them through their travels.

Even the Harry Potter books featured dragons in The Goblet of Fire.

But I am a firm believer in a classic tale- and you can't get much more classic than J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit or Anne and Todd McCaffrey's the Dragon Riders of Pern. Tolkien's Smaug may have been the villain of The Hobbit, but he was the epitome of a gluttonous, winged jewel-thief.

The Pernese dragons are probably my ultimate favorites, though. While they aren't technically magical, they're genetically engineered, plus they have telepathic and teleportation abilities. Later in the series, the dragons even discovered that they had telekinesis! Anne McCaffrey's books cross the bridge between science-fiction and fantasy. The adventures that the dragons and their riders get into are amazing, making the Pern books an epic fantasy saga that is never to be forgotten.

So go out, grab a fantasy, and grow wings! You never know where your dragon will take you next!

Iris Black

Enter Sam's Space now!

Daily Thoughts 4/25/2009

Writer L. Frank Baum, writing with pen. 1911

Daily Thoughts 4/25/2009

Today was an interesting day. I spent some time this morning working with Professor Teaches Publisher 2003, a computer program which teaches people how to use Microsoft Publisher. I came in a little early to get this done.

We also did a cleanup around the library, raking up garbage and trash, and picking up bottles and other things. We spent around two hours picking up around the building. It also looked like the post office picked up around their lot and building this morning. The city is signing people up for block cleanups. Groups would get extra pickups for garbage on the weekend. It is part of Earth Celebration Week. There is also a small display of books for earth day in a case. The local high school special education department did a display on alternative energy in our front lobby. We had a nice earth week.

Early today, I also had a few minutes to go into the technical processing area and review some of the books for mending in the cage. Not everything will make it to the mending shelf.

I am sitting here looking at fiction reviews. It is a very nice day outside. I have picked out a few titles, Paulo Coelho, The Winner Stands Alone is one of them. Paul Coelho puts a page up with pirated versions of his own work to increase his print sales. He also comments on various issues with the internt. http://piratecoelho.wordpress.com/ . I also picked out books by a few popular authors, Dorothy Cannell, Stuart Woods, and Robert Littlell.

Daily Thoughts 4/24/2009

Amedeo Modigliani (1884-1920), Portrait of french writer and film-maker Jean Cocteau (1889-1963), 1916.

Daily Thoughts 4/24/2009

On the train home, I read Look, Speak, and Behave For Men, Expert Advice On Image, Etiquette, and Effective Communication for the Professional by Jamie Yasko-Mangum, C.I.C. Certified Image Consultant. This book was not very deep, however, it did provide a few useful pieces of information. It has some very exact guidelines for how to dress in a business casual environment with pictures of the attire. It also gives tips on how to dress in a creative environment which most books don't cover. There are also some wardrobe suggestions for business casual.

Charles Lane one of our patrons lent me a film which he had produced Sidewalk Stories. It is a silent film with some humor in it set in the 1980s. It looks like it is in Greenwich Village in Manhattan. So far, it is mildly entertaining. It is shots of people walking around doing things. There is a classical score to the film.

Today, I spent more time in the technical processing area sorting through unprocessed books. We catalog some of our government documents. I sorted through these picking out things which needed to be prioritized. I also pulled some more books which needed to be processed for the Job Information Center. I am going to have sort through the books to be mended as well.

I also did some ordering of books. A few graphic novels. They are coming out with a new graphic novel of the forthcoming Star Trek move called Star Trek Countdown. I also selected several plays like Eugene O'Neill's Desire Under The Elms, a few poetry books by Kay Ryan the current poet laureate in the United States, the new Pulitzer prize winning novel, Olive Kittredge by Elizabeth Strout, and a variety of other works.

There were a few other miscellaneous minor tasks that needed doing. I filed some law looseleafs, and thought about producing a bibliography for graphic novels. I think I might do this. It would be an interesting thing to do. The other bibliography I might do is books on writing. Sometimes thinking about things sets you on the right track.

Now I am pondering about sleep.

Living Your Fantasy

One of my favorite things to do is attend comic cons every year. Forget the stereotype of some dingy hotel ballroom packed full of smelly and expensive discolored comics, creeping with a bunch of “Comic Book Guy” character doppelgangers from The Simpsons. The larger cons are exactly the opposite. Sharing the common thread of offering thousands of comic purveyors to the starving masses, comic cons these days are more of a pop culture assemblage. If you live in San Diego, New York or Atlanta , you know what I am talking about. These places are where the three biggest comic cons happen. The San Diego Comic Con, Dragon Con and The New York Comic Con.


These cons (or conventions to be exact) manifest the wildest dream of every fantasy fan into reality. Not only is it completely acceptable to dress like your favorite superhero, movie character, or villain, it is actually honored and adored. Trust me; your first encounter with a group of fully-geared Stormtroopers in line at Subway will be a bit surreal. The point is anything goes. Not only can you hear about the filming of the second Dark Crystal movie from Jim Henson’s daughter, but you can sit in on panels on everything from Jughead to Battlestar Gallactica.


These events are an absolute Mecca for everything the fantasy fan could desire. Want to meet Ray Parks who played Darth Maul in Star Wars? How about Sarah Michelle Gellar? Or does Natalie Portman strike your fancy? All have attended these types of events, and for the fans, the excitement lies in the chance to connect with their heroes in one form or another. To thank them for capturing the roles of their beloved characters on film and to involve themselves with the actual person that played the character if only for a moment.


Cons are treasure troves though which new ideas, fantastic artists and epic adventures await discovery. At Dragon Con in Atlanta I experienced the full creativity of the fantasy fan as troupes of Steampunks proudly marched through the halls. Everything appreciable is there. Who knew people dressed up as characters from Serenity, or in full on latex laden Hellboy costumes? They do and they love it. If you get a chance, every fantasy fan should attend one of these events. Heck, for the bold at heart, try dressing up in your best Cat Woman or Freddy Krueger outfit; you will be in good company.

http://nickvalentino.blogspot.com

What goes around comes around

Today I came to the point of really realizing that, what is out on the Internet - is out on the Internet! I had a big laugh with the girls after school when I told them about the shocking, but funny tête-à-tête I faced with my teacher Ric Sims, just minutes earlier. (However, I wonder who laughed the most...!)

So, what he told me was first of all "Hello Mei Mei!", and all I could think of at that approach was 'Sounds familiar...'. Then, he told me that he had read about my Romeo and Juliet that I wrote about earlier this year, and that he had a part in, here.When I first heard that, I was a bit shocked. But, when he continued by saying that he felt honoured, I became my usual humble-Dalai-Lama-character again...Hahaha! No, I'm not really as humble as Dalai Lama but on the other hand, I felt a bit honoured myself, for being the source of something that made him feel honoured.

Anyway, I think it was pretty cool of him to tell me that he had read my blog. - And, the fact that he felt honoured must have been good karma on my behalf, right?! =) (I really want to believe it was!)

Daily Thoughts 4/23/2009

"Fact and Fiction". Color halftone reproduction of painting by American painter and illustrator Norman Rockwell (1894-1978), used as cover illustration for "Leslie's illustrated weekly newspaper", vol. 124, no. 3201, 11 January 1917.

Daily Thoughts 4/23/2009

I have a day off today. I spent much of the morning relaxing and unwinding. I watched a few more episodes of Roughnecks Starship Troopers on Youtube. I am enjoying it a lot. The CGI animation is excellent. There is also a lot of action in the shows.

I received the confirmation for Automatically Yours from Baker & Taylor for some fiction authors. They were not able to do all the authors I would have liked, but still covered quite a few authors. There are a lot of authors which are popular just at our library because of cultural and social composition of our community.

I also did my exercises from the book Yoga RX and listened to the hypnosis tape that came with the book I Can Make You Thin by Paul McKenna. I found a flaw with the book. While it has gotten me to eat less and lose some weight, it has not told me the specifics of the kind of food I should be eating. I will probably have to go back over proper nutrition to lose more weight. I am going to have to read some books on what to eat, not how to eat. I am going to try the Eat This, Not That! series of books by David Zinczenko and the Volumetric diet.

I'll probably walk up the hill to my local library and drop off some books. I am going to read something light and entertaining next. Maybe, a science fiction novel, or a nice graphic novel to take my mind off work. I went to my library and dropped off two books. I did not find anything I wanted to read. When I got back I got a recommendation to read Good to great : why some companies make the leap--and others don't by James C. Collins. It is very nice outside and the sky is clear.

Twilight - Fantasy or Horror?

The big word for 2009? Twilight.

While vampire stories used to be strictly considered horror, lines between genres seem to be blurring. But Stephenie Meyer's Twilight still didn't make the top 25 with fantasy readers. (It came in at #31.)

According to this list of the Top 100 Fantasy books, the real favorite was -
Ta-da! The Lord of the Rings, which ranked at #1.

I admit, I didn't read many from the list either. How many did you read? (Well, seeing the movie counts for something, right?)

And what is Twilight - horror or fantasy?

Here's the top 10 Fantasies with older and some new authors:

1 Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkein
2 Harry Potter series, JK Rowling
3 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkein
4 Wheel of Time series - Robert Jordan
5 A Song of Ice and Fire - George RR Martin
6 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis
7 The Belgariad Series - David Eddings
8 Wizard's First Rule - Terry Goodkind
9 Magician - Raymond E. Feist
10 His Dark Materials Trilogy - Philip Pullman

** Your turn: What's your favorite fantasy book? (Or movie?)

Daily Thoughts 4/22/2009

Title: Troll in a Nutshell Description: A faked cover art. Original title of used picture: Troll don't think very fast. This one has been caught by daylight and is now becoming a mountain. Most norwegian mountains are made of trolls like this one - say some people :illustator : JNL From Wikimedia. This is a copyleft image.
It reminds me of both O'Reilly's nutshell books and West's legal nutshell books.

Daily Thoughts 4/22/2009

I am listing to Donovan singing The Jabberwocky. The blog, The Genteel Arsenal has a post on literary music. It is worth listening to. http://thegenteelarsenal.blogspot.com/2009/04/literary-music.html

I just joined the Librarian Twibe on Twitter. I wonder if I can join any other Twibes.
http://www.twibes.com/group/librarians?flash=New%20members%20found
I am also trying the Book Twibe. http://www.twibes.com/group/books

Today has not been too bad. I spent some more time going through the cage sorting books to be processed. They have cleared out all the reference books and have prioritized some of the backlog of books to be put out. There are several books which I am looking forward to reading.

I spent some time pulling more books from the shelves to be put into the oversize section. I also did some weeding based on condition and currency. I am going through the 700s, the art section right now.

My Greek Holiday

Oh, I have been so lax about photographing and posting my paintings. I just don't seem to strike the right time of day to take photos and all the latest ones have such glare on them. Even this one, which was taken by a friend of mine while on holiday in Greece, had a shine on it that I battled to subdue.

I need to search back through r.garriott's photoshop tips on lessons to combat this!

In the meantime, I painted this in January before I went to a cold, snowy, Sweden. Quite a contrast!

Look at that Shining Star!

I don't have children so I miss out on a lot of moments reserved for proud parents. But over the course of time I have become a member of a few families that have embraced me and who I have grown to love dearly. One of those families is "Team Quake." Even though I own the company, it is still heartwarming to be embraced by the authors I publish.

Right now I want to share a moment that involves a member of the "Team Quake" family. Fifteen-year-old Iris Bailey is currently the youngest author to be published by Quake. In fact, today is the release of her first short story with us--Just one of the Guys.

Not only is Iris a tremendous writer, but she is one of the most brilliant youngsters I have ever met. I can honestly say that there has been more than one occasion when I found myself floundering on my end of a conversation with her. She is just brilliant.

I am so proud to announce that on top of all of Iris's other accomplishments (and I don't even have time to go into all of them), Iris has been accepted into the South Carolina Governor's School for Science and Mathematics. If you are not familiar with establishment, it is an extraordinary school for academically talented high school juniors and seniors. The positions for enrollment are limited and well-earned.

I've known Iris for several years, and have watched her grow into a beautiful and committed young woman. I hope you will take a moment to help me congratulate Iris on this accomplishment.

Iris is only one aspect of what makes Quake such a great place for you and your kids to become a part of. It is the creative and personal goals for each member of "Team Quake" to offer entertainment and encouragement for people of all ages to chase their dreams and strive for all that is important to their spirit of survival and success.

Congratulations, Iris, we are all so very proud of you and all you are sure to become.

And don't miss Iris Bailey's Debut Short Story Just One of the Guys available May 1st!

Detestable day

What a horrible, horrible day. I could almost sense it from the moment I opened my eyes this morning. At first I tried to deny it, but seeing huge bags developing under your eyes is not really the best morning experience you can get, right...-Ok, never mind, as aunty Jessica says. But then I went to school, even though I had a sleep in, so that I could work on a French presentation with my friend. But guess what!? The damn lesson was cancelled!!! -Ok, never mind. Well, after that, I screwed up big time at a French conversation with some French guy, that is here for God knows what reason actually!? Listen to how my French SUCKS!!!??? -Ok, never mind. And last but not least, I am now completely sure of the fact that I have a virus infecting my usual superbody; leaving me snoring and tired. In short, I have bags under my eyes (which never happens to me!). I totally made a fool out of myself today in French, when the only thing I could say correctly was "Je m'appelle Alexsandra" (which is what what you learn in the first French course - I'm in the THIRD). Also, I've got a cold. And it's spring.

I'm depressed. -.- ---- I'm not sure if I should say Ok, never mind here...

The only thing good today

Daily Thoughts 4/21/2009

Original caption states: "Located on the Ground Floor Corridor, the White House Library features a collection of selected works to represent of a full spectrum of American thought and tradition for the use of the President, his family, and his staff."

Daily Thoughts 4/21/2009

Today was another incredibly busy day. I reviewed a new librarians orders with them before they were sent in. There were a few orders for books related to libraries. I am looking forward to getting Pop Goes the Library: Using Pop Culture to Connect with Your Whole Community by Sophie Brookover and Elizabeth Burns.

I also went over a new arrangement for our technical service area with one of my colleagues, and spent some time sorting through books which came in separating reference books and books that needed to be processed immediately.

I am planning on ordering many of the plays and musicals which are currently running on Broadway as well as several books which people have requested.

On the way home, I finished reading Here Comes Everybody, The Power of Organizing Without Organizations by Clay Shirky. There are a lot of interesting ideas throughout this book. For example, on Sourceforge, a site for free open source software, only 5% of the open source software accounts for most of the traffic. Open source allows for lots of experimentation and failure, people are free to create the software and fail at it with little consequence. The software that succeeds becomes very successful because people very quickly add to the successes.

Web Bits

I made it into The Best of the Web blog directory. This is not so easy to do. It is a human edited directory of web sites that is very particular about who they will add. http://blogs.botw.org/Arts/Literature/

"Straight Preferred"

The advertisement hanging at my local cafe was one of those handmade types with little tear-off phone number tabs at the bottom. Someone was looking for a new flatmate, and specified some important information for potential applicants; price, location, and "preferred criteria" for the new roomie. He or she should speak English, hold a professional job, have no pets, and only smoke outside. And then, my mouth fell open. Did that really say "straight"?

It did. Someone had, apparently without shame, publicly stated their unwillingness to consider a gay person as a flatmate. Not content with simply meeting some applicants and having a chat, the advertiser was so uncomfortable with or afraid of homosexuality that he felt the need to deter gay applicants at the first opportunity.

To some minds, this is fair enough, as the advertiser has a right to choose their new flatmate, and that they might as well get their prejudices out in the open in order to spare any potential gay applicants the time and trouble.* To me, it feels like plain old discrimination. Let's not forget that we have laws against this type of thing; if the advertiser had have been looking for an employee rather than a flatmate, his eligibility criteria would have gotten him into a lot of trouble. However it appears that whilst his prejudice would not be tolerated in a professional context, it is entirely acceptable in his personal life. And the fact that he didn't hesitate to post a discriminatory advertisement in an inner-city coffee shop speaks volumes about the attitudes towards homosexuality in our society.

The elephant in the room here is that discrimination against homosexuals has in recent years become far more socially acceptable than the old-school bastions of racism or sexism. Nowhere is this more obvious than in the Opinion pages of the broadsheet newspapers. Whereas no respectable paper would dream of publishing a radical treatise on why women are inferior to men, or white people smarter than black people, it is all too common to flick the papers open and find a long-winded article or letter defining homosexuality as a sin, linking it to paedophilia, or declaring it a mental illness. Despite our legislation, it seems that gays are an easy target, particularly when you invoke your religion as an excuse for your prejudice.

Unfortunately, there isn't much we can do about the kind of person who has a blanket opposition to gays, or any other minority group other than tolerate them in the way that they refuse to tolerate others.
Or maybe just scribble "Hate Criminal!" at the bottom of their advertisement.

* The situation is similar at my university, where international students commonly advertise for flatmates, specifying "Asian preferred" on the posters. If this is defensible, it is so on the basis that people may feel more comfortable living with people who are from culturally similar backgrounds, however I somehow doubt that this argument would save me from being called racist if I had posted an advertisement stating "white preferred".

Is it reasonable to specify your preference for a particular racial group or sexual orientation when advertising for flatmates, or is it just discrimination?

Fantastical Paths from Pages to Film

Fantasy books.

Fantasy movies.

Fantasy books adapted into fantasy movies.

Hey everyone! It’s Melanie Ryder, one of Alyssa Montgomery’s characters, and I’m back for yet another blog!

One of my favorite genres to read is fantasy books. I simply love how authors create their own universe that you can easily blend yourself into and understand.

But one thing that always amazes me, however, is how they are able to take that fantasy book and adapt it into a movie that plays on the big screen. An idea that was once on paper has now come to life as an absolute vision so everyone can now, not only read it, but see it.

How cool is that??

I think one of the best examples of this adaptation is Harry Potter. These are my favorite books, and I get so excited each and every time the next book is made into a movie. What the people who work on the Harry Potter movies are able to do is amazing! Both Cal and I absolutely love the floating candles in the Great Hall (and not to mention the sky). And what about Quidditch? Those scenes were exactly as I had pictured them in the books! (And Parker wants to let you all know that the scenes are exactly the way he pictured them too).

So now that you all know about my love (and Cal’s and Parker’s) for the Harry Potter books and the adaptation of them into movies, what about everyone else? Are there any fantasy books that you love the movie adaptations of?

Melanie Ryder can be found in Alyssa Montgomery's short stories, Where Are You? and 9:53 P.M. (from the Heat of the Moment Anthology).

Daily Thoughts 4/20/2009

1977 Stamp United States 4 Cents.

Daily Thoughts 4/20/2009

I decided to create a Linked In page. Linked In is a professional social network. It is mainly focused on making contacts for business and networking. I had a page before, but it was never fully filled in. I only have a few contacts right now. This will change rapidly, I think.

Today has been another long day. I have been pulling oversize books from the regular collection to be put in the oversize collection. This is making the shelves a bit more presentable and freeing up some space. Tomorrow, I will start shifting some of the older books in the 700s (art and music) section to the storage area.

I also went over ordering with one of our new librarians. We are ordering job books for the city; building inspector, fireman, account clerk, and payroll clerk. Civil service functions which keep the city running.

We are also reorganizing the cage for technical processing where the new books come in. The shelves are going to get new labels by dewey number or category, and the inside is going to be rearranged. Our first priority is getting all of the reference books done, then processing the books with current 2009 dates on them.

Last Saturday, a carpenter came to inspect the area where our new slat walls are going up for displaying the new books. It should be a big improvement in the way our library looks.

I read some more of Here comes Everybody. As I read and observe more about the idea of software based platforms that become organizations, I am recognizing some additional characteristics of these companies. They are global in scope, they can reach anywhere an internet connection exists, they are multilingual because either they will use translation programs or hire people or recruit volunteers to translate the platform, and they can rapidly gather people together over seemingly trivial activities.

Fantastic Fantasy

Fantasy is one of the oldest writing genres on the planet, going back to Beowulf, King Authur, er, Arthur, and other mystical, magical beginnings.

It's a style with no rules, and when science started catching up, it spawned two related genres, Sci-Fi and the more fantastical of horror. These three genres intertwine like a handful of worms.

Fantasy is also the most liberating genre of all, because, frankly, anything goes. If you want your vampire to be all sparkly and pretty, sure, go for it. Wood elves, trolls, goblins ... do you want your elves to be good elves, or something darker and more foreign? Doesn't matter, there's no right or wrong way to do it.

In fact, the more novel, the more unique, the better. Books that give us a new look at an old topic are all the rave. Look at the success spawned by Wicked. Imagine, taking the old witch from the Wizard of Oz and making her someone you cared about.

I think this is one of the reasons I was drawn to the genre. After all, reading is, in a way, escapism, and if you're going to escape, why not go to a world so completely different than ours that your fascination with the world brings you more colorfully and lucidly into the story.

Look to the success of games like Dungeons and Dragons. If you liked the first Harry Potter, you loved them all, and you lived the story along with Harry, Ron and Hermione all the way to the end.

Fantasy allows the author a freer hand than any other genre. The science in Sci-fi has to be palatable, if not provable. Mysteries have to walk the line between being too easy and too hard to solve. Westerns have to be ... um ... I dunno, I don't read them. But the horses have to be vegetarians and have four hooves, all of which touch the ground.

When I wrote my Adventures of Guy series, I didn't intend on them being fantasy at all. My heroes were three college roommates and a mother from up the street who get involved on a Quest. Of course, every quest has to have an elf, sorcerer, Unbeliever, a warrior and attorneys, er, otherworldly evil creatures.

But fantasy? Nah, I just wanted the freedom to have whatever I wanted to happen in the stories happen , and if it took a bit of magic, so be it.

Still, though, I have to admit to some surprise when reviewers started using the word 'fantasy.'

But with my upcoming book, Fang Face, all pretense is thrown away. It's definitely fantasy ... a vampire story, cut and dried. And I get to make the rules. The vampires don't sparkle, can't come out in the day once they are fully Undead, and they can't tolerate Doritos.

And believe me, I love the freedumb ... freedom ... to do whatever I want.

Norm

www.normcowie.com

Daily Thoughts 4/19/2009

Ancient greek man with wax tablet Painting by ancient greek painter Douris (about 500 BC) . The image almost looks like a laptop computer.

Daily Thoughts 4/19/2009

I am reading the CREW Manual from Texas State University. They have an interesting acronym for weeding or as some people call it deselection.

M = Misleading (and/or factually inaccurate)

U = Ugly (worn and beyond mending or rebinding)

S = Superseded (by a truly new edition or by a much better book on
the subject)

T = Trivial (of no discernible literary or scientific merit; usually of
ephemeral interest at some time in the past)

I = Irrelevant to the needs and interests of your community

E = The material or information may be obtained expeditiously
Elsewhere through interlibrary loan, reciprocal borrowing, or in
electronic format.

Mustie

There were also a few interesting selection lists in the online manual as well.

Video Round Table’s Notable Videos list at
http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/rts/vrt/initiatives/notablevideos/index.cfm

“Top Fifty
Gaming Core Collection Titles” from Young Adult Library Services online at
http://wikis.ala.org/yalsa/index.php/Gaming_Lists_&_Activities#

I started reading Here Comes Everybody The Power of Organizing Without Organizing by Clay Shirky. The book started out rather slow, but has become interesting in the second chapter. It is about how the new communication tools make it possible to very quickly organize around a common interest for very little cost with minimal needs for hierarchical management.

This is a fragment of a sentence from P.107 of Here Comes Everybody, "The more an institution relies on information as its core product, the greater and more complete the change will be."

The book reminds of the earlier book on Google and Wikipedia which I have read. There seems to be a common thread running through these organizations. They are platforms for doing a specific task, Google started as a search engine, and Wikipedia started as a free encyclopedia. They both are becoming much more by harnessing a new set of social and organizational philosophies.

There seems to be an emerging pattern in the new social platforms; The are built initially by a very small group of people, they can scale very quickly, they require some kind of voluntary participation, there is usually a common interest attached to each platform (books, photography, fashion, etc.), all rely on continuous incremental improvement, all have easy to follow measurements, there is a strong customer service ethic, the technology is easy to use, they rely on the virtual world (not the physical world of atoms), and they can easily move into new ventures. You can say this of Twitter, Facebook, Google, Flickr, and many other successful social network platforms.

All I can say for libraries is that not far down the road, we have to be prepared to change rapidly. Google has previously indicated with books if it is in a library, it is worth scanning. The public domain is going to become a giant free platform available through dozens of different channels, flickr, Wikipedia, Google, Project Gutenberg and other locations. This platform is going to expand rapidly as people add to it forming novel ways of handling information. Wikipedia is already morphing into Wikibooks, Wikimedia, and other things. The technology comes first, then a period of disruption, and finally a new reality. I am not sure what it will be, but it will be a lot different than todays libraries, publishing and bookstores.

Material Girls

It's always funny when pretty and smart girls play stupidos

Yesterday, I watched this hilariously ridiculous movie - Material Girls, starring Hilary and Haylie Duff. Honestly, I have nothing against chick flicks - I mean, I've watched Mean Girls around 20 times by now, but this one...A serious disaster, hahaha...That's why it was so funny, because it was so "jj"!!!

For the people that thought that Jessica Simpson and Paris Hilton already covered it all for the genre bimbo, think again! And the worst part is that, even though it's a story made up with exaggeration (???) and humour I believe that parts of it must be true. Recently, I read an interview with a Swedish comedian, Petra Mede and she said that, "behind every joke there's some truth". Because, otherwise we wouldn't think in those terms right? So, even though this movie was so ridiculous and as shallow as it could possible be, and even though I had some serious breathing difficulties from all the laughs last night, it's scary that what I see as an impossible joke of a girl may be a possible character in reality.

Sweet Secrets

Gossip is like sugar: it can be really bad for us but we just love the stuff. Why is that?

I think the popularity of gossip comes from two basic elements: the first is summed up in the old saying that "knowledge is power." Everyone wants to be in the know, right? Everyone wants to be the first one to tell the news. The second element is the sense of belonging. If you have a secret to tell about someone else, or if someone shares a secret with you, there's a bond between the two of you. Kind of an instant "us" situation, as in shared secret knowledge between "us." No wonder the people sharing the gossip can get such a warm fuzzy from it! Unfortunately, the person being gossiped about is frequently in a position to get hurt, which is what makes gossip a twisty, slippery, and very often nasty thing to handle.

Is all gossip bad? Maybe not. It's pretty harmless to share the news that Jenny's hot cousin is coming to stay at her house for the summer again this year, or that Wyatt was the first to get a job at the new clothing store at the mall. Once we cross into the territory of spreading tales about someone's really personal stuff, though, that's when the change comes in. Like with sugar, that's when the line is crossed from nibbling a couple of cookies to chowing down an entire cake with ice cream on the side and a candy bar chaser.

So maybe think of gossip as a very sweet dessert. It's okay to have a little serving of it, but if you have too much, well, remember that the initial rush feels super, but the subsequent crash can feel really bad for a long time after.

Ophelia Julien, author of Hunting Spirits coming May 2009 from Quake

Layin' the Smackdown on Chatty Cathy

I get it…Everybody wants to be in on a big secret; it’s human nature. People are naturally curious and everybody wants to appear important by being “in the know.” But is it worth someone’s reputation? Gossip, like cockroaches, has followed us since the Stone Age.

First people talked trash about how bad Cro-Magnon’s sloped head looked in that animal skin. I mean really! He’s going out like that? Then people talked smack over the back fence when they were hanging out the laundry about how much Mr. Jones’ paid for that fancy car. Then they got on the telephone to dis’ Martha’s meatloaf recipe.

Today we have an updated term and method for gossip. We call it “cyber bullying.” Problem is, once you post: “Cindy is a slut,” as they say about venereal disease…that crap is forever. Even if you take it down, if someone has forwarded your text or email or link, then it’s out there. Why, my dear friends, do you think they call it “viral?”

The bad thing is this kind of gossip has lasting effects. When you’re done reading this, go Google “suicide and cyber bullying.” You’ll get 126,000 hits in 0.19 seconds.

Ancient people felt so strongly about gossiping that it made the BigTen. Commandment number nine says, “Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.”

I used to be a cop. I wish I could share the stories and pictures of the young men and women (teenagers) who I helped shove into body bags because someone “heard” they had said something untrue and scandalous about them. Take it from me, slander and a 9mm ain't a goood mix.

Our grandmothers had it right when they said, “If you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all.” 'Nuff said.

Daily Thoughts 4/18/2009

Portrait of the writer Aleksey Konstantinovich Tolstoy. Oil on canvas. 84.4 × 70.5 cm. The State Literature Museum. Moscow, 1896, Repin

Daily Thoughts 4/18/2009

I am almost done reading The Stepsister Scheme by Jim C. Hines. It was very enjoyable. Snow White, Cinderella, and Sleeping Beauty team up to rescue prince Armand after he is kidnapped, ensorcelled and carried off to fairyland. There are two more books coming up in the series, The Mermaid's Madness and Red Hood's Revenge. Jim C. Hines wrote the Jig the Goblin trilogy which I reviewed earlier. It is an excellent series which turns fantasy gaming writing on its head. We purchased the Jig the Goblin series for the young adult collection.

I walked to my local library and dropped off a few books. I picked up a book I had on reserve, Library Collection Development Policies School Libraries and Learning Resource Centers by Frank W. Hoffman and Richard J. Wood. It is a list of collection development policies broken into samples of gift, acquisitions, weeding, budgeting/funding, intellectual freedom, copyright, collection maintenance, collection evaluation and other subjects.

I also took a break from reading and watched an episode of Roughnecks, Starship Troopers on Youtube which ran for about 21 minutes. It was a nice break.

Web Bits

Collection Development Training for Arizona Public Libraries. Very useful. An overview of collection development. I read much of it earlier today. http://www.lib.az.us/cdt/

CREW: A Weeding Manual For Modern Libraries -- Continuous Review Evaluation and Weeding.
http://www.tsl.state.tx.us/ld/pubs/crew/crewmethod08.pdf

A Simple Book Repair Manual
http://www.dartmouth.edu/~preserve/repair/repairindex.htm

The Wikipedia Revolution by Andrew Lih, Foreword by Jimmy Wales

The Wikipedia Revolution How A Bunch of Nobodies Created The Worlds Greatest Encyclopedia by Andrew Lih, Foreword by Jimmy Wales Founder of Wikipedia.

This book is written by Jimmy Lih who was an editor for Wikipedia for over four years. The book itself reads very much like Wikipedia does. If you like using Wikipedia, you probably will like this book. Mr. Lih seems to use the NPOV (no point of view) style which Wikipedia uses in writing the book. If you look in the notes section, the majority of citations come directly from the Wikipedia site.

There is a lot of precursor material to when Wikipedia starts. The technology behind Wikipedia is very much a history of open source software, linux, and "the hacker ethic." In 1995, Ward Cunningham invented Wiki software which was a quick way to edit and create web pages by any person involved. It was not until 2001 that Wikipedia was started. Wiki is the Hawaiian word for "quick."

The book describes how already existing technology coalesces around a new form of organization to make an online encyclopedia. Wikipedia is based on volunteer time. Very few people on Wikipedia are paid. A lot of the people who are editors on Wikipedia come from http://slashdot.org/ a premiere technical community. Many of the same people who work on open source software which is free work on Wikipedia which is also free. The majority of the licensing on Wikipedia's content is copyleft, an idea created by Richard Stallman, a famous computer programmer and proponent of the GNU free documentation license.

Wikipedia is not the first major reference work which asked for donations of free time to create. The Oxford English Dictionary put out general requests for donations of dictionary entries. The Professor and the Madman by Simon Winchester chronicles a story in the creation of the OED. Wikipedia takes it one step further, it asks for donations and then makes the information freely available.

There is a story of Wikipedia taking what is already available in the public domain, editing it and expanding it into encyclopedic entries. Wikipedia absorbed the United States census data and used it as a template for creating descriptions of towns and cities in the United States. The CIA World Fact Book entries were taken as descriptions of countries and then expanded with user generated content. When I use Wikimedia, I see many images from the Library of Congress archives which are in the public domain. This is incredibly useful, however, it has some problems with reliability.

The human factor is both the strength and weakness of Wikipedia. Because anybody can contribute to Wikipedia, there are a number of problems. Wikipedia acknowledges they are not a primary source of information, the majority of their information is secondary. We learn they are not seeking to be a place for original research. I thought this was very interesting. When I use Wikipedia, I find the citations in Wikipedia's entries to be far better in many cases then the written entries because they link to primary or original research.

The structure of Wikipedia described in this book is very loose. The code of conduct seems to be more important than fixed rules. This looseness has led to a lot of controversies; inaccurate biographical entries, editors who are other than they say they are, a focus on self-promotion, a preference for popular articles over more academic works, and a way of work based on the idea of consensus. The infighting and the controversies inside Wikipedia are described in detail inside this book. We get the story of how spammers, trolls, libelous content, edit wars, and other problems are addressed.

I liked reading this book. It gives a lot of insights into how people can build on peoples previous works. I also like Wikipedia and find it a useful. This book tries to be objective, it is not pure praise which makes it much better than many recent books on technology. The writing is journalistic in style. The book has citations and an index, but no pictures.

Gossipy Minds Want To Know

Gus and Cynthia "Dishing The Dirt"

Cynthia and I don’t gossip, never did. We just get mad at each other and say stupid things. But, plenty of our friends do. And, this is waaaay back in the 60s! We'll gossip about things like: “Cindy’s wearing Tom’s letterman jacket!” Or, “I saw Mike walk Linda to Geometry class.”

Gossip is more difficult in mine and Cynthia's time. You actually have to physically whisper in someone’s ear! Ewwww! Oh, sure we always have the phone, but it's impossible to say anything private with my nosy brother eavesdropping. And, believe it or not, I can't take the phone into my room because the receiver is connected by a cord! I know. Hard to imagine.

You guys have it so easy today with email and texting.

“OMG. Did u c C n T :-<>” (for those of you over age 30, the symbol :-<> shows surprise).

I may just be an old-fashioned, 1960s twelve-year-old (soon to be thirteen!), but the statement above seems to lose something in the translation. On the other hand, texting might keep flu bugs from spreading. Waaahh...choooo!

Still, Cynthia and I are gonna have to study this texting thing. I just figured out that lol doesn’t mean, “lots of love!” Now, there’s a gossip topic! Think of all the people I woulda thought were sending me “love” before I realized they were laughing with (at) me! LOL!

Getting off the gossip track, so I’ll bring this puppy back around (somehow).

Do you like gossip, as long as it doesn’t involve you? Or, is gossip always mean? What’s your favorite way to gossip? Ear-to-ear ? Text-to-text?

Gossipy minds want to know.

BFF, Gus

Mary Cunningham Books

Quake

Cynthia's Attic Blog