Libraries Will Survive

23 Things continued.......

I found a Wikipedia article about my son Kris' band - Brand New Sin - and was able to edit the two minor mistakes very easily. I remember that we had to use a Wiki alot back when we were making that transition to POLARIS.

I think it's neat that anyone can chime in with what they know about a given subject but the fact that Wikipedia articles are so easy to create/alter should make anyone very hesitant about trusting the accuracy of the information contained in them. I have, however, resorted to Wikipedia when I can't remember things like the title of a song or the author of a book and want a quick "jog" to my memory.

BTW: If I hadn't been following our 23 Things, I would never have guessed at the origin of the word "Wiki". For some reason, I had it in my head that it had something to do with that ubiquitous "wi" that gets attached to all things wireless.

I am trying to do the multimedia thing now without much luck. I guess I'll have to wait until Nancy Boisseau comes back from her vacation and see what I am doing wrong.

Another of the "23 Things" accomplished!

I just set up my Flickr account and uploaded some family photos along with a very old (adorable) video of Blaed performing his very first karate routine when he was 4 years old. Friends and family can find me at www.flickr.com/photos/countess48.

I need to start using my digital camera at some point! I've had the thing for three years and am still kind of afraid of it. Not to mention that it seems that whenever I do take it somewhere, I discover that I need a new battery or a new memory card or something. I think I am just an "Instamatic" kind of girl at heart. What I really used to love were the throw-away cameras. Sigh.... Enough nostalgia!

Oops! I need to get back to work. A little short-handed here tonight with Mary B. on vacation.

23 Things #??

I don't know where we are anymore. I did my "linkdIn" thing. Touched base with Lynne, Carol Westcot, NJB, etc. Got alot of catching up to do.

Goodbye Nana

It's always a sad thing to lose your mother. Mine was 89 years old and well-loved by everyone who knew her. She lived with me the last six years of her life and was a joy to come home to every day. She deserved not to suffer at all but she was very ill for about a month before she died and I am grateful that that is over for her and also that I had the chance to care for her and comfort her near the end.

My life is changing again.

Another weekend

Busy busy busy! The only enjoyable thing I did was visit my new grandbaby with the punkin children. Blaed and Ariel are pleased with their new cousin and Olivia seems to have accepted him completely. Lindsay is feeling good and Andy is glad to have the family home and settling into the new routine.

It was all downhill after that visit. Saturday morning I met with cases managers at Loretto to get Omi settled in to her temporary digs. She's still mad at me for making her stay there. Then home to poor Nana who is still in alot of pain and still not eating enough. In between changing dressings and administering pain pills, I painted some more of my house. This was complicated by rain showers off and on all afternoon.

Weeded my garden and mowed the lawn. What a drudge I am!!!

I'm looking forward to work tomorrow. My great escape!

23 Things Post #3

I set up a Meebo account today with a little help from Elaine. It was not very difficult to set up but now I will have to fool around with it in order to see what I can do with it. I sort of remember Instant Messaging from a long time ago when my family bought our first computer and we had an AOL account (dial-up!!) Other than that, my only experience with IM is when the little pre-teen girls used to come into the library, get on the computers and furiously IM nasty things back and forth to each other.

I have Skype on my "booklet" at home but the only person I actually "skype" with is my son Andy and my little granddaughter. They live all of three miles away so it's not such a big deal for us. We are trying to talk my sister who lives on the west coast into loading the program onto her laptop and then I'm sure I would use it often.

2nd 23 Things post

Ok, Ive commented on a couple of my co-workers blogs. It's really cool to check out everyone's progress. Annie's blog is the most fun so far. I'm working on the RSS feeds. Is it possible that I had some feeds set up a long time ago somewhere?? Maybe on my library account on the OCPL web site? Sounds so familiar. I've got the Twitter thing goin' on too.

It's just so tempting to overwhelm myself with info though! Is this a problem for anyone else? I wonder if my biological cpu - otherwise known as my "brain" is too slow and just not up to the job? Sometimes I feel like I need to empty a recycling bin in my mind in order to free up disk space for the new stuff. But I have a hard time deciding what to get rid of PERMANENTLY because I know darn well I'll need whatever I delete as soon as it's gone.

Holy Cow! I just blogged my way into an answer to my dilemma! Google docs! Cloud computing! The ever-evolving world-wide web! This stuff gets metaphysical fast. Hmmm? Anybody know where I can score some weed? Lol.

I miss my Dad

When I read Tom Brokaw's book I kept waiting to turn the page and find the chapter about my Dad. He was such a typical Greatest Generation guy. He was born in 1917, grew up in Syracuse, got his business degree at S.U.married my Mom and then went to war for four years. When he came home from Germany he got a job with a finance company and hated the desk work so much that it affected his health. He went to work training tractor trailer drivers for the Atlantic-Richefield Oil Co. and stayed there for forty-five years. He had four children. He never ever talked about the war.

Dad bought the house I still live in in 1952. He left for work every morning before I was up and came home for supper at 5:00 every night. His favorite dinner was hot dogs with fried potatoes and stewed tomatoes and his favorite television program was the Jackie Gleason Show. He loved watermelon. His dream was to see the country in an RV and he did that in 1977. When he retired, he and Mom wintered in Florida where he took up golf. He cared for his elderly parents and later for his widowed sister. He died at the age of 79 on the fourth hole at his favorite golf course.

And this very ordinary life is what made him (and all of those other men just like him) so great. They experienced the epic event of their century - maybe the epic event of all centuries and then came home and got on with their lives. They raised their families and did their jobs. They paid their taxes and helped their neighbors and they never seemed to be afraid of anything. My Dad grumbled about his boss and complained about crooked politicians but I never heard him tell a dirty joke or use a racial epithet. He drank beer at family gatherings and company clambakes but I never saw him drunk. He loved to talk but he also loved to listen and he knew alot about alot. He read the Readers Digest and the Saturday Evening Post but he also read James Hilton and John Hersey. He taught all his children and grandchildren and most of their friends how to drive (I told you he never seemed to be afraid of anything). He taught me how to do my own tax return, replace a washer in a leaky faucet, create a budget and swim. He was a good bowler but terrible at cards and he never went to church.

It's Fathers Day and I really miss my Dad.

A sad tale from Library Land

WOW! Somebody probably told her she had to have her library card to use the computers!

From the AP:
BOISE, Idaho — Police in Idaho think they might have solved a yearlong condiment crime spree. Authorities said a 74-year-old Boise woman arrested after pouring mayonnaise in the Ada County library’s book drop box is a person of interest in at least 10 other condiment-related crimes.
Joy L. Cassidy was picked up Sunday at the library, moments after police say she pulled through the outside drive-through and dumped a jar of mayo in the box designated for reading materials.
Cassidy was released from jail and faces a misdemeanor charge of malicious injury to property.
Boise police say Cassidy is under investigation for other cases of vandalism that started in May 2009. Library employees have reported finding books in the drop box covered in corn syrup and ketchup.

Some RSS Feeds

I couldn't wait to do this: I just subscribed to an RSS feed for my son Kris's band (Brand New Sin). They left Saturday for a three week tour of the East Coast and now I can follow their progress while they're on the road. While I was at it I added a feed for my other son's Andy's band (Invisible Mustache) as well as for the NOPL 23 Things feed. I used Google Reader which, like most Google stuff so far was not too hard to figure out. I know I'm only using a small percentage of the power of all of these great tools, but I'm hoping to catch on as time passes.

Vampire Fiction

Does anyone else hate the "Twilight" series as much as I do? I guess anything that will get teens to pick up a novel is a good thing but there are so many really fine novels out there for young adults, it really seems a shame that they are overlooked in favor of this stuff. I loved Elsewhere by Gabrielle Zevin, Goose Girl by Shannon Hale and the Pullman trilogy (His Dark Materials). See? I have nothing against fantasy. But not much can happen in a vampire story that isn't predictable (and silly). And when a ridiculous number of authors jump on the same bandwagon, it makes it even worse.

Millenium Grammy

Note to historians: This is what it's like to be a grandma in the first decade of the the 21st century. I need some answers.

I'm painting my house. I live in the house I gew up in because I moved back here after my husband died and my Mom needed not to live alone. This was no sacrifice on my part. I needed not to live alone too. The house has been "cream" for as long as I can recall. Now it will be green. I would have installed siding but the current siding is asbestos and it would be prohibitively expensive to dispose of it. I'm glad to leave it on my house where it is not damaging the environment - just want it to be a different color. How come I can't get three nice days in a row to paint??

My grandchildren were here all weekend. They are awesome children - really and truly! I credit my daughter-in-law. They are polite and thoughtful and respectful and totally confident in their own abilities - and mine! I love it when they are here and miss them when they go home. What would I do if they lived more than 10 minutes away?

The World Cup is awesome too. We watched the U.S. team tie with England yesterday sfternoon at my son Andy's house and today we watched Germany whip Australia. Why does soccer not catch on in America? It's a game the whole world plays. The players are always good-looking and fit. There is a good mix of young and older players. The rules are simple and easy to understand. You don 't need a bazillion dollars worth of equipment to play. Why doesn't America love this game?!

Now Nana is in cyberspace with a bunch of her great grandkids!

Nana grew up in an apartment over a library and since Depression-era children did not get many books as gifts - even at Christmas - the library became her home away from home. She told me that her parents always knew where to find her and that the librarian allowed her to shelve and dust the stacks. When she married my Dad he was in the army and everywhere they were stationed she would seek out the local library before even locating the nearest grocery store.

When I was five, we moved to North Syracuse and the little white house that served as the Free Library became a famiar and frequent destination for me and my siblings. I got my first library card when I was in the second grade. I really liked the Jack & Jill and the Highlights magazines and some of the illustrated fairy tale books. Make Way for Ducklings was another of my favorites.

When I was nine years old, Mom had me check out Little Women and we discussed the developments in the novel every morning at breakfast. We both had tears in our eyes when we talked about Beth dying. Nana next suggested The Five Little Peppers and How They Grew. Soon I was hooked on a series of books Mom had found in the library about Sue Barton, a fictional nurse. I followed her career in medicine passionately (Sue Barton: Student Nurse, Sue Barton: Senior Nurse, Sue Barton: Visiting Nurse, Sue Barton: Nurse Administrator and finally Sue Barton: Neighborhood Nurse (she had married her doctor boyfriend, had three children and was on hand whenever a rabid dog or a heat wave threatened her suburban neighborhood).

Mom was so frequent a visitor to the library that she was offered a job. I remember how thrilled she was! "A dream job - to handle all the newest mysteries before another soul had cracked them open". There was always a big pile of novels on her nightstand and most nights her reading lamp would be on far into the wee hours as she rushed to finish the final chapter of a hot item that needed to be cataloged in the morning. She continued recommending books to me and my brothers and sister. I loved the Hardy Boys but had little use for Nancy Drew. I became a fan of biographies and became an expert (or "know-it-all" as my Dad put it) on the likes of Clara Barton, Florence Nightingale, Harriet Tubman and Emily Dickinson. And then I discovered the poets!

Favorite Poems Old and New was renewed for me so often that there are photographs taken in our living room during that period in which that volume is visible.

There are so many things I am thankful to Nana for. Her careful fostering of my love of reading is surely one of the most important.

1st 23 Things Post

I'm really excited to get started on the 23 Things project. I originally created my blog as sort of a journal of what is happening in my life and to help organize my thoughts and feelings on different issues in the world. I'm not very good at blogging but I'm hoping to learn more as I go. The same is true for most of web 2.0 stuff. I've used a computer daily since 1995 - both in my job and at home - but hardly ever in a creative way. I guess I have mostly thought of the web as a place to get information or maybe even manage information. I think participating in creating content for the the web sounds like fun.

Amazon.com: Letters From The Earth (9781451594652): Mark Twain: Books

Amazon.com: Letters From The Earth (9781451594652): Mark Twain: Books

Wonderful Staff Development Day at work today. All about old dogs and new tricks.

HELP!!!!

So I am already lost in Blogland! Can't find my last post.

Here we go:

When I was about 7 years old I discovered in my grandmother's attic a 5 year diary that had belonged to my great aunt Maitie Schreiber, a woman who had died when I was only a year old. I was thrilled to read entries (some of them concerning adorable infant ME!) about events that took place in a world that existed prior to my own ability to remember it. I hounded my poor grandmother for snapshots and other information pertaining to the life of Aunt Maitie
and learned that she had been married, had given birth to a child who died in early infancy of a condition known at the time as "failure to thrive". (In fact, today this condition would be repaired fairly easily by surgically repairing the pyhloric valve that was not working, causing the poor little child to vomit up all nourishment before it could reach the stomach.) Grandma assured me that Aunt Maitie adored all children even more because of this horrible loss and that she particularly doted on me - her first great niece, playing pat-a-cake for hours, rocking me to sleep and singing lullabies until she was hoarse.

Anyway, the discovery of Aunt Maitie's diary inspired me to revise my Christmas list and request my very own 5-year diary. The ivory colored little book delivered by Santa came complete with a little gold key on a pink ribbon that could be worn around one's neck for safe keeping. I did have a sister who shared my room, although she never exhibited any interest whatsoever in my diary. As a matter of fact, she too had received a diary from Santa that year. Hers was green with a matching ribbon for the key. But Jeanie never wrote anything in her diary. I know because I checked - often.

I, on the other hand, faithfully filled in the few (inadequate) lines for each day with cramped and crowded little letters until the realization hit me that I could use an entire page for one day and the only drawback being that I would need to ask for a new diary for Christmas every year instead of every five. Thus began my career in journal-keeping - a practice that would last through high school, through my first real love affair, through a number of bachelorette apartments complete with wild and crazy (or dull and studious) roommates and even through the first (also wild and crazy) years of my marriage. The arrival of my three children (all boys and all between the years 1975-1979) put an end to most of my free time and I stopped keeping my journal. This blogging is like coming home with a vengeance!

Welcome to my blog

Welcome to my newly created home on the web. I'm on my way to work right now - on a gorgeous Sunday morning when no one would be thrilled to be doing that - so I'm saving my very first big entry for later this evening.