Zaijovan's This and That

wrapping up Learning 2.0

2009-02-06T11:41:00.003-06:00

I missed the deadline for the Nebraska Learns 2.0. I did learn about new web applications. I learned more about some that I already used. Some that I never got to I will to go through and learn. Others that I never got to I use quite a bit already. All in all it was a good experience, and if such a program is offered again I will try to participate and keep up so that I get the full benefit of the program.

Thing 8 Discover Flickr

2008-12-09T13:38:00.001-06:00

I’ve looked around Flickr before, looking at pictures when people have posted about it on their blogs. It can be a very helpful site! At one point a group I used to belong to started talking about ATCs. I was clueless and they told me it was for Artist Trading Cards and suggested I go to Flickr and search on that tag. If you are a quilter try searching Crazy Quilt ATC. You’ll find some beautiful work. These pieces are only the size of a Baseball trading card.

I’m not going to blog about the ATCs on Flickr though. I want to talk a little bit about this picture.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/halsi/3096163440/

I am a fan of urban decay photos. To me they are absolutely inspirational. This particular photo is a ruined theatre in Germany, uploaded by Hasleman. What little I’ve looked around he has quite a few urban decay pictures. Anyway anyone can see that this is a falling down building with chipped paint, exposed wood, and well to me it looks like the ceiling is going to cave in. I suspect I would have loved to play inside it as a child. Now as an adult I’d love to stand inside and smell the rotting woods, examine the details of the pillars, see if the stage can still be walked on. I would try to imagine the plays that had been performed here. What would the audience have looked like? My imagination just runs wild with all the what were(s) when it comes to these urban decay pictures.

Thing 7 finding feeds for RSS

2008-12-09T12:51:00.001-06:00

I’m having the same problem Anj mentioned in her blog post. 5 more feeds, I already subscribe to quite a few. So I went looking. It took me a while to find 5 that I really wanted to follow. We’ll see if I keep them all. The ‘chosen ones’ are a mix of politics, library, and personal interest. I expect that I will keep at least one or two and I really need to go through all that I am subscribed too and see if I want to keep them all. Since the bloggers at least don’t all post daily I may end up keeping them all as I won’t have to read something from all of them every day.

Thing #6: RSS feeds

2008-12-09T11:23:00.003-06:00

I have been using Bloglines for about a year now. It has always been mostly personal stuff. I tried to do the exercise for this, but bloglines seems to be down at the moment. But what do I think about RSS feeds. I love them. For just news I read straight from the reader. For blogs, I often go ahead and click on the link and go to the blog. I've found that on occasion, with some of the craft type blogs, the formatting doesn't transfer well. I will go back a little later and try to add some of my co-participants blogs and some of the recommended feeds from the exercise.

2 posts in 1 More Learning 2.0

2008-11-13T10:52:00.002-06:00

Thing 4:

Ummm, well for Leraning 2.0 this is done, however as far as how does this help my patrons or co-workers. If they don't know where your blog is, how are they going to be able to go there and find all that useful information you keep learning and typing about? If you are going to use your blog for work, then the people who need to know what is in it need to know where to find it. Advertise yourself!

Thing 5:

Instant messaging

I IMed with Allana, and asked her about starting up on this whole program of Learning 2.0. The whole conversation went exactly as a reference question should go. She was right there; there was virtually no wait for answers. Afterwards I jumped in and started looking around the Learning 2.0 site and thinking about how all this can work in a library setting.

There is a lot of potential for keeping up with co-workers in a different part of the building, asking questions about how to get that invoice paid, or clarifying procedures. It also has some benefit for reference work, but if your reference desk is busy with face to face questions, the person handling IM for reference might be better placed away from the desk.

How can blogs be helpful in a work setting?

2008-11-13T10:34:00.004-06:00

Thing 3:
Grab yourself a blog in 3 easy steps.

How can having a blog help our co-workers or patrons? A perfect example of this is the blog of one of my co-workers -- Criss Library Focus On Online.

Blogs can be used by the Library as a whole for things like informing the community of events, new materials, or anything else the library wishes to publish. It can let patrons and co-workers know about helpful websites, which is how I’ve used my internal blog where I work. Okay, so no really new ideas here, but Library Blogs have been around for a long time now.

Lifelong Learning

2008-11-13T10:34:00.001-06:00

Thing 2:
Lifelong learning.

Thing 2 talks about lifelong learning. There is a brief video to watch with some handouts to help us tackle new learning projects.

Linking lifelong learning to working in a library and using it to help our patrons and co-workers. I’m going to be brief and flip here, and say that we all practice lifelong learning and it goes by the name of professional development. As stated in an earlier post, my goal for this is going to be to try to relate the individual ‘Things 1-23’ to helping patrons and co-workers.

Learning about Technology while working in a Library

2008-11-13T10:06:00.001-06:00

Thing 1:

Discovery has never been so much fun.

Okay, linking discovery and learning to help library patrons and customers internal and external. This is an easy one. Our patrons/customers are becoming more and more tech savvy. Many of them can help themselves and learn the new technology on their own. But, do we have to provide that technology in our libraries. How do we know what to provide? Can we as library workers use the technology ourselves so that we can help our customers who are not tech savvy?

We find out or learn what technology is needed in many ways: talking to our patrons, reading professional journals, attending training courses, and going out on the web and looking around for it. I think we all know that Google is not just a noun. I google frequently to find things. So what if it isn’t a scholarly source, it does find scholarly papers that have been web-published. It finds vendors that want to sell you the technology you are looking for. Sometimes you even find freeware. We as librarians are in the business of evaluating resources to see if they are valid or not, we just use that evaluation skill to determine which sites are giving us the good information. I find Wikipedia to be an excellent source for answering many quick questions like what is (insert name of computer program you need information about here). For example go to wikipedia and type CAD in the search box. The main entry is about Computer Aided Design, but there is a disambiguation page on Cad that fits my introduction to the word (many many years ago): Cad (character), a man who seduces a young woman, often to her social or financial ruin. (My mom used it in reference to Ashley Wilkes and his dishonesty in dealing with Scarlett.)

I could go on and on about how we need to continue to learn and discover new things to help our patrons and co-workers but really I think it has all been said before and much better than I said it in the previous paragraph. I think the only thing left I want to mention here is, is this fun? Well, for me it is. Especially when I am not on a deadline, deadlines always take the fun out of things, don’t they?

Learning 2.0

2008-10-30T13:25:00.003-05:00

Hi, I'm back after almost a year. I'm also going to muddy the waters even further. I am working on the Learning 2.0 project through the Nebraska Library Commission. If you are interested in this program, you can read about it here. And what the heck, I'm going to work on National Novel Writing Month in November along with Learning 2.0 so I'll blog about it here too.

Gee general overlapping with craft and now switching to Learning. The Learning 2.0 exercises will be a part of work, and I'm going to apply the learning 2.0 specifically to work this time around and how these new skills can be used in the library to help patrons, or co-workers.

Those of you looking at this blog from library land will probably find my personal life floating in and out, but at worst I will be writing out the posts at home and uploading them quickly at work. At best only the learning 2.0 will be on work time and anything personal will be uploaded after work.

Good Samaritans

2007-12-07T08:24:00.000-06:00

There is at least one good Samaritan in the neighborhood I live in. I have been the recipient of his/her generosity several times over the past few years. The Samaritan(s) in my neighborhood come armed with snowblowers or shovels.

Yesterday I got home early from work, (sick) and quickly shoveled the 3 inches of snow off my sidewalks, then went inside and curled up for a nap. I was awakened around 4:00 as the neighbors got home and fired up their snowblowers. After a while I realized that I wasn't going back to sleep off the fever, so I got up and dressed to go shovel again. My front walk had been snowblown! I know because I took another 2 inches or so off the walk leading from my front door down to the sidewalk. I also shoveled the end of my driveway. That is all I ever shovel off of it because it is in horrible shape, big dips and dives and lots of ground upheaval underneath. This morning when I went out to head into work, someone had come by again and snow blew a path to my car door.

To all you good Samaritans out there, thank you.

Mall Shooting

2007-12-06T08:41:00.000-06:00

I was going to write a little about video games today, but then one of life's tragedies happened. The shooting at the Westroads Mall in Omaha Nebraska. This mall is about a mile from where my parents live. When I was a young teen I would walk to and from the mall as there was no bus service that far out. We were not even in the city limits at the time.

I have not seen a list of the victims yet, but I have not received any calls from grieving friends, relatives, or co-workers. For some strange reason, I am one of the first ones people call. I cannot do anything for these people but be there, hold their hand, and sometimes cry with them. Somehow this comforts them, so I do it. I had a counselor describe this grieving I do with others as empathic. He liked to have me around in bad situations as well. Perhaps on some level I am empathic and perhaps I do siphon off part of their pain. I know there is no scientific proof of this. I just know what happens. Since I have not been called to someone's house, or hospital room to just be with them, I trust that all those I know are safe. They are safe but feeling the grief and shock that all of us in Omaha are feeling.

Gate of Souls: a Familiar's Tale

2007-11-09T08:26:00.000-06:00

I received my copy of Gate of Souls last night. I am quite excited and cannot wait to read it. Probably will sit down Saturday morning with a pot of tea and some scones and really enjoy it. I was a beta reader for this book when my friend Verna was writing it. It was great then, I loved it and was thrilled when she thought she had it published. That promise fell through, and in retrospect it was a very good thing it did. Since I first read the book, my friends Rick and Verna have moved so I haven't seen the changes in this book. Verna published several short stories in e-zines and in this way was 'noticed' by a book publisher. A Familiar's Tale was dusted off and has been through some serious editing. The title of the original, A Familiar's Tale, has become the series title. The story is told through the eyes of the sorcerer's familiars. The first time through Mellypip was the main character along with his sorceress Runa. I expect this hasn't changed any. As sweet and endearing as these two characters are Belwyn the owl -- and Mellypip's tutor -- was a favorite of mine, and everyone in the writers group. To a person, in our imaginations Belwyn had the voice of Edward Woodward. No one tried to give actors or voices to the other characters, but try giving this book a read and see if any voice other than Woodward's comes through for Belwyn.

I hear the 2nd book in the series is almost done. I wonder how much chocolate I'll have to mail out to Verna in order to see a rough draft of this book ahead of time?

Ramblings

2007-11-08T08:38:00.000-06:00

Last night I finished another book club book, just in the nick of time. It was a library book - due today - and book club is tonight. The book was "Water for Elephants". It was a very good book. I had sworn, or rather promised myself not to do another forced read for book club, but somehow life keeps getting in the way. Well, life and procrastination.

Tonight, between work and book club I'm hoping to get some tatting ironed, and also iron some muslin while I am at it. I haven't posted any new tatting over at my other blog for a while and that needs to get done. I'm about 2/5 through the challenge and I need to get the last five items posted and get 'credit' for doing the work. The challenge is to create 25 tatted motifs in one year. I currently am at 9 motifs, the last 5 needing posting.

I started the other blog to be just tatting and leave this blog for everything else. Well, the lines have become blurred and now I'm wondering how to blend the 2 blogs into one and change the name to reflect the whole. I know other people have moved blogs so it can be done, it is just finding out all the mechanics behind it.

Catching up with requests

2007-10-23T07:36:00.000-05:00

In the comment section, I got a request for some crazy quilt links. I don't have a lot yet, but the blog that got me all inspired for crazy quilts was Honey Bee's Bliss. Hers is the only one I currently have linked over at the tatting blog. She has some great links on her site and when I'm looking for information on stitches or quilting, I usually stop by her blog to find the sites she uses. I'm sure as I actually start working on my own projects I will develop my own list of sites and blogs that I find helpful.

Several months ago a co-worker asked for a list of the 100 best books of the century and pictures of my cats. Those many months ago I did get the best books list blogged, but I never posted cat pictures here. So here are a few piccies that are different from those posted on the tatting list. The black cat is Banichi. He is named for a lawyer/assassin from the Foreigner series by C.J. Cherryh. Leo still has the name is rescuer mommy gave him for Leonardo DaVince. He likes to shred things artistically. And Motoko is named for the beautiful yet scary Major Motoko Kusanagi (better known as shousan) from the Ghost in the Shell movies and books, and series. Unfortunately the pictures are all a year or more older. I need to get one of my friends with their digital cameras over to take some updated pictures for me.

Naming confusion?

2007-10-22T07:52:00.000-05:00

I realized that I have a naming confusion going on here in my blogs. So I'm taking a moment to sort it out. My blog name is listed as Kelly, my tatting blog says it is Catherine's tatting attempts, the online Tarot community knows me as Catherine, at one job they call me Kelly at the other they call me Catherine, and no I don't have 2 personalities. At least I don't think so. My mom and my aunt both loved the name Kelly for girls. Whoever had the first girl got to name her Kelly. I was the first girl and so that is what my family calls me. My legal birth certificate name is Catherine Marie, after my grandmothers. I use the names almost interchangeably, and you all can too. But please use Catherine and not Cathy. Oh, and dear Peter in Oz, you and you alone are allowed to call me Cate. ;-) The only other person to do so was my Master Sergeant when I was in Junior ROTC in high school.

Endless possibilites with Fibres, & a videogame mention

2007-10-18T07:58:00.000-05:00

I was going to try and post at least once a week here, oh well. I have been posting a bit more regularly on my tatting blog -- link is to the side. Life is seeming so disjointed for me at the moment. I did finish another video game. I think this brings me up to about 24 or 25 % of games finished. This one was Final Fantasy XII. In general, I love the FF games. For me they have a great deal of replay value so I really get my money's worth out of the game, especially since I usually buy used games.

While wandering around tatting blogs to get ideas and inspiration from other tatters, I have discovered some very interesting sites on embroidery and crazy quilting. Just what I need, more UnFinished Objects or UFOs. However looking at the crazy quilts, this looks like a possible way to incorporate some of those other scattered projects into a coherent whole. A way to use those purchased materials - yarns, threads, ribbons etc - in one piece. I had never tried a crazy quilt before because it looked like so much work. But looking at what they are doing with them nowadays, it is incredible. I've already started scavenging through my supplies, and racking my brain to see what I might have on hand. I have a list of people that I hope to hit up for nicer scraps of materials. It still looks like a lot of work, but it doesn't need to be a whole quilt. Throw Pillows, Christmas Tree Ornaments, Wall Hangings, Christmas Stockings and more ideas if I keep reading those blogs.

I did buy a dictionary of embroidery stitches earlier this week so I could learn some more stitches. I've done crewel work, cross-stitch, and other embroidery projects over the years, but they have all used the same basic set of stitches, maybe 10 different stitches, 20 if I'm being generous. I thought that made me somewhat accomplished at embroidery. What a laugh, this book has 234 different stitches. 72 are for needlepoint alone. Now instead of somewhat accomplished, I will place myself at rank amateur. I don't see this as a bad thing at all. It gives me permission to not be perfect, and then all the things that I get the joy of learning how to make. The possibilities have left me unable to start at the moment. I'm finding myself wanting to design and make a lovely needlepoint sampler, showing off all 72 stitches. Not realistic at all is it? Plus 3 of the stitches are just 3 ways of making the same stitch, so now we are down to 70 stitches. Still not realistic to expect to get 70 stitches into one sampler and have it look planned and coherent.

So, trying to be realistic, trying to be sensible, I have dug out my sampler kit, looked over it and will work on finishing it. I've only had it for 25 years now. I've never counted it as unfinished though, it has always been a long term project.

More Games

2007-10-05T07:57:00.000-05:00

No, I haven't bought any more, just been playing them in all my spare time, and time that should be spent more productively. Once again, poor Ghost in the Shell is languishing in its case unfinished. I dug Final Fantasy XII back out. Like a few of its predecessors that I have it it has seen a lot of game play. Definitely pennies per hour by now. Other than that, work at the 2nd job and allergies have taken up much of my off work time. On my full time job, I've been living in Wiki land. I love special projects and was totally engrossed. Now I'm afraid I must surface and deal with what wasn't getting done for the last week, and seriously think about training issues.

Another Game Finished

2007-09-27T07:54:00.000-05:00

I finished another video game last week. Radiata Stories. It is a RPG with a fair amount of replay value as a choice is made 2/3 of the way through the game, and the hero will follow totally different paths depending on what you choose. There is also supposed to be a fair amount of after-game material. I have not explored that yet, but went on to try and work through Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex. I've started this game many times, but keep getting frustrated at it. RPGs are much more forgiving than Shooters. Anyway, I have now officially finished about 22% of the games I own. For folks my age I hear that is a really good percentage. For younger people that is a really bad percentage.

After reaching level 6 of GitS, I got distracted by my tatting -- if interested see my tatting blog, link is on right side of this page.

More from my Book Club

2007-08-24T07:58:00.001-05:00

I belong to a book club started by several ladies I work(ed) with. It is called Discriminating Women. I was a faithful attendee for several years, then I went back to school and couldn't keep up with classwork, social life, and reading a book from outside of my comfort genres. I had a list from one of the founding members, it was on a computer that crashed. Because of that I am posting the list of books that the Discriminating women have read. Now, hopefully that list will be safe from crashing computers, and maybe I'll get some of those missed books read. And I realize now that our next meeting will be our 10th Anniversary.

This post will probably be edited over a period of time as I look up books to add links. As I link them to the find libraries with copy pages in OCLC's Worldcat Beta, I will try to double check and correct typing and spelling and add authors where needed.

1997
September
The Rector's Wife by Joanna Trollop
October
Montana 1948 by Larry Watson
November
Cannery Row

1998
January
She's Come Undone by Wally Lamb
February
At home in Mitford by Jan Karon
March
The Book Shop by Penelope Fitzgerald
April
A Lantern in her Hand
May
The Professor's House by Willa Cather
June
Deep Water Passage by Ann Linnea
August
The Diary of Mattie Spenser by Sandra Dallas
September
The Awakening by Kate Chopin
Circle of Stones by Judith Duerk
October
Zen Zele by J. Nozipo Maraire
November
Refuge by Terry Tempest Williams

1999
January
No Time on her Hands by Grace Snyder Yost
February
The Giant's House by McCracken
March
Possession by A.S. Byatt
April
The Summer of the Great Grandmother by M. L'Engle
May
Pope Joan by Donna W. Cross
June
Birdsong by Faulks
September
The Divine Secrets of the Ya Y Sisterhood by
October
Ill Wind by Nevada Barr
November
Smilla's Sense of Snow by Peter Hoeg

2000
January
Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood
February
The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
March
The Mirror by Lynn Freed
April
The Ginger Tree by Oswald Wynd
May
The Glass Lake by Meave Binchy
June
The Killer Angels by Michael Sharra
September
Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson
October
Watery Grave by Bruce Alexander
November
Imagining Argentina by Lawrence Thorton

2001
January
The Poisonwood Bible by Barabra Kingsolver
February
The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K. LeGuin
March
no meeting bad weather
April
The Girl with a Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier
May
The Red Tent by Anita Diament
June
Mrs. Dalloway by Virgina Woolf
July
The Archivist by Martha Cooley
October
Corelli's Mandolin by Louis DeBernieres
November
Ladies Auxiliary by Tova Mirvis

2002
January
Moo by Jane Smiley
February
Confessions of an Ugly Sept Sister by Gregory Maguire
March
Hawk Flies Above by Lisa Dale Norton
April
My Only Story by Monica Wood
May
Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
June
Roxana Slade by Reynolds Price
July
Meely LaBauve by Ken Wells
September
Gone to Soldiers by Marge Piercy
October
The Road from Coorain by Jill K. Conway
November
The Fourth Hand by John Irving

2003
January
Women of the Silk by Gail Tsukiyama
February
The Tall Pine Polka by Lorna Landvik
March
Behind the scenes at the Museum by Kate Atkinson
April
The Death of Vishnu by Manil Suri
May
Bell Canto by Ann Patchett
June
Mr. Posterior and the Genius Child by Emily Jenkins
July
Saving Graces by Patricia Gaffney
September
The Dive from Clausen's Pier by
October
The Lake of Dead Languages by Carol Goodman
November
???

2004
January
Plainsong by Kent Haruf
February
Galileo's Daughter by Dava Sobel
March
The Passion of Artemisia by Susan Vreeland
April
The Elegant Gathering of White Snows by Kris Radish
May
Nine parts of Desire by Geraldine Brooks
September
The Lovely Bones by
October
The Day the World came to Town by
November
The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd

2005
January
Middlemarch by George
February
The Amateur Marriage by Ann Tyler
March
My Antonia by Willa Cather
April
Rose's Garden by Carrie Brown
May
House of Sand & Fog by Andre Dubus III
June
Standing in the Rainbow by Fannie Flagg
September
Carter Beats the Devil by Glen David Gold
October
Year of Wonder by Geraldine Brooks
November
The Turk and my Mother by Mary Helen Stefaneak

2006
January
The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffennegger
February
Cry the Beloved Country by Alan Paton
March
Revenge of the Middle Aged Woman by Elizabeth Buchan
April
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
May
The Rich Part of Life by Jim Kokoris
June
The Year of Pleasures by Elizabeth Berg
September
The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck
October
Oh my Stars by Lorna Landvik
November
The Solace of Leaving Early by Haven Kimmel

2007
January
Twilight Sleep by Edith Wharton
February
His Oldest Friend by Sonny Klienfield
March
The Handyman by Carolyn See
April
The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri
May
Pay it Forward by Catherine Ryan Hyde
June
Last of her Kind by Sigrid Nunez
And the rest of 2007 is listed in a previous post.
I have not yet read entries in blue.

Work temperatures now livable

2007-08-23T13:26:00.000-05:00

Okay, to say they were not livable before is an exageration. But almost 90 degrees with little to no air circulation was definately wearing almost all of us down. One day they even allowed us to go home on administrative leave because of the temperatures at 90 + and OSHA rules. All this week the temperature in our office suite has been in the 70s. I think even the individual offices have been dropping into the 70s. It is heaven. The humidity in the office suite is also at a good level. The air quality is better now that they have quit excavating the basement level. So from my point of view, all is well and work is good again.

My Bookclub's Reading List

2007-08-23T09:33:00.001-05:00

Below is the list of upcoming books for my book club.

September: Falling in Love with Natassia by Anna Monardo
October: Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See
November: Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen
January: Manhunt by James L. Swanson
February: Beneath A Marble Sky by John Shors

I have not yet read entries in blue.

Useless tests: lolcat

2007-07-19T13:36:00.000-05:00

Fun test time. There are lots of test sites out there that can tell you all sorts of things about you. Many of these things most of us never thought to ask about ourselves until we found the tests. For example, what kind of lolcat are you? Forget that, what in the world is a lolcat? so below is my answer to the lolcat test, and here are 2 urls, one so you can take the test yourself, and the second is a whole website of lolcats.

http://www.okcupid.com/tests/6348388576689378978/Which-Lolcat-Are-You-

http://icanhascheezburger.com/

If you go and take the test, please feel free to let me know what lolcat you are in the comment section. ;-)

Sad Cookie Cat

64% Affectionate, 39% Excitable, 57% Hungry

You are the classic Shakespearian tragedy of the lolcat universe. The sad story of a baking a cookie, succumbing to gluttony, and in turn consuming the very cookie that was to be offered. Bad grammar ensues.

Spam in Disguise

2007-07-12T07:19:00.000-05:00

I'm going to have a little rant now. I'm sure anyone who reads blogs, and has access to the Internet is aware of the problem of Spam in disguise -- Chain E-mails. These come in the form of E-mails from friends and family and co-workers. The people that have forwarded them are most likely smart, well-educated, loving individuals. They want to help. They want to help you, me, their family and the people whom the e-mails say will be helped if you forward the e-mail. There is an easy way to check out many of these e-mails. Go to a hoax site. The one I use is Snopes. http://snopes.com/

Do you remember being a child and getting a chain letter either in the mail or from a friend who handed it to you at school? Did your parents say don't pass that along it is illegal? Guess what folks, same thing here. Well, I don't know if it is illegal, but it doesn't work. Have some confidence in yourself. Before you hit the forward button and start typing in e-mail addresses remember who those addresses belong to. If they are your family, well they'll still be your family whether or not you send them the e-mail. They will still love you even if you don't pass it along. Are they your friends? You won't lose friends if you don't pass them along.

Will God remember if you don't forward that prayer and then not let you into heaven? I kinda doubt that, at least the not getting into heaven part. While I find other chain mails range from amusing to annoying, this type downright angers me. I see it as emotional blackmail. (Pagans and atheists bear with me a moment.) If you are worried about witnessing and sharing your love for God and his love for all of creation with all of creation then get up off your chair, log off the computer and go find clean blankets or towels to donate to the homeless shelter. Go volunteer to serve meals, and not just on holidays, they need volunteers all year long. You don't even have to tell these people about God, your love and his will shine through anyway. If someone asks why you are doing it, then tell them that you are living your faith, that this his how you are demonstrating your love for God and his love for the world. That donation of time or money or things may be better remembered by God than whether or not you hit a forward button. This low key way of witnessing will not push people away. If you are pagan or atheist, you can do these things, but say it is your way of giving back to the community, of contributing to society.

Spam, lets keep just for breakfast. ;-)

Games and Movies

2007-06-12T10:05:00.000-05:00

I like to game. I play pencil and dice RPGs and I play video games on Playstation 2 and some Computer games. I like movies. Movies made about games, though are usually check your brain at the door and enjoy the slugfest events. That is okay, they are entertaining for a few hours and I don't expect anything more.

That being said, most anyone who likes the pencil and dice type of RPG should check out the independent flick The Gamers. It is a Dead Gentlemen Production.
http://gamers.deadgentlemen.com/

I was expecting the same schlock as the Movies Dungeons and Dragons, or Street Fighter, only with no budget, light entertainment and then forget about it. Boy was I wrong. It is a clever little movie, only about 45 minutes long, that could only have been written by someone who plays the game. Or maybe someone who loves someone who plays the game. If you don't play Role Playing Games, I'm not sure if you would like this movie or not.

The movie follows 4 gamers, their dungeon master, an absentee gamer, and a random annoyed fellow tenant of a dorm building. Except for that random annoyed fellow tenant, I have played in that game. I think most people who have gamed, have been in that game, or some version thereof. The movie switches between the table where the players sit and the game world as imagined by the players and the dungeon master.

Some friends showed me the movie. I loved it and borrowed it. I showed it to some more friends. We dusted off our books, went to the local comic book/gaming store, visited the Wizards of the Coast website, http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/welcome and we have 2 campaigns going now. That way the other DM and I both have a chance to play. Not only am I working on the current campaign, I'm taking notes for future campaigns.

Renovation update

2007-06-11T09:46:00.000-05:00

I was hoping to post more often than I have been. Funny how life and work get in the way.

Renovation is moving along and currently out the door. The estimate is that when all is said and done 600 to 800 truck loads of concrete, dirt, carpet, and who knows what else will be removed from the 1st or basement floor of the Criss Library. I think most of the concrete floor has been removed as I have not heard any banging or pounding for a few days.

The air quality of the building has been, well dismal. They are doing everything they can to keep things comfortable for patrons, employees, and the contractors. Most of the employees are running fans as the building's air handlers get turned on and off as need be. All of my fellow employees, or at least the ones I've talked to about building issues, are keeping an optimistic attitude. There are complaints, but nothing worse than under normal working conditions, and possibly not as vocal as under normal conditions.

Also on campus this summer, the Library is not the only building undergoing renovation. The student center food court, the HPER building (or was it the field house), and the former Engineering building are all undergoing improvements. New dorms are being built, which is a good thing. There is rumor of a new parking garage, and I think the old parking garage has also been undergoing repairs. On a sad note, the home my father grew up in was torn down to make room for the new dorms.

Relocating for Rennovation

2007-05-02T12:01:00.000-05:00

Preparations for rennovation are continuing. I decided not to take my desk with me. Who needs that much storage space at work anyway? I will have a desk sized table with a desk topper and an arm off that table for typing. The person in charge of the move is pleased that I am not taking a desk along, and now I am starting to regret my decision. All the drawers are emptied, and my life at work is strewn over the top of the desk and the top of the table where I do most of my work. I have a one drawer locking file cabinet for the files one needs to keep locked up, and that is stuffed to overflowing. What I am wondering is how I accumulated so much stuff, why do I need it all, and how much will I throw away?

100 best books

2007-04-13T08:18:00.000-05:00

I have had a couple of requests for blog entries from my co-workers. The first was a request for pictures of my cats, the second was for a listing of the top 100 books of the century. For today here from the Random House Modern Library site are 2 lists of the best novels of the 20th century. And just in case anybody cares, the books that I have read are in purple.

Unfortunately most of the books from the Boards list I read for classes. There are a few books on the list that I have tried to read, William Faulkner's As I lay dying is one I will probably pick up and try again some day. On the other hand, Margaret Mitchell's Gone with the Wind I doubt will get a second chance. Not because of her writing, or the story. I just got so mad at Scarlett that I couldn't stand it anymore. Mitchell made her characters and story so real that I had to cut myself off from Miss Scarlett the way I would cut myself off from a toxic relationship in real life. I am content to deal with her in the movie. I also tried to read The Stand by Stephen King. I had the flu at the time. I put it down, I couldn't stand to be reading about all these people dying, they had the same symptoms I had. It was depressing. My friends still laugh about that one.

http://www.randomhouse.com/modernlibrary/100bestnovels.html

For all sorts of best book lists, just Google "best books" you'll get thousands of websites with lists to suit all tastes. Happy Reading.

ULYSSES by James Joyce
THE GREAT GATSBY by F. Scott Fitzgerald
A PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST AS A YOUNG MAN by James Joyce
LOLITA by Vladimir Nabokov
BRAVE NEW WORLD by Aldous Huxley
THE SOUND AND THE FURY by William Faulkner
CATCH-22
DARKNESS AT NOON by Arthur Koestler
SONS AND LOVERS by D.H. Lawrence
THE GRAPES OF WRATH by John Steinbeck
UNDER THE VOLCANO by Malcolm Lowry
THE WAY OF ALL FLESH by Samuel Butler
1984 by George Orwell
I, CLAUDIUS by Robert Graves
TO THE LIGHTHOUSE by Virginia Woolf
AN AMERICAN TRAGEDY by Theodore Dreiser
THE HEART IS A LONELY HUNTER by Carson McCullers
SLAUGHTERHOUSE-FIVE by Kurt Vonnegut
INVISIBLE MAN by Ralph Ellison
NATIVE SON by Richard Wright
HENDERSON THE RAIN KING by Saul Bellow
APPOINTMENT IN SAMARRA by John O'Hara
U.S.A. (trilogy) by John Dos Passos
WINESBURG, OHIO by Sherwood Anderson
A PASSAGE TO INDIA by E.M. Forster
THE WINGS OF THE DOVE by Henry James
THE AMBASSADORS by Henry James
TENDER IS THE NIGHT by F. Scott Fitzgerald
THE STUDS LONIGAN TRILOGY by James T. Farrell
THE GOOD SOLDIER by Ford Madox Ford
ANIMAL FARM by George Orwell
THE GOLDEN BOWL by Henry James
SISTER CARRIE by Theodore Dreiser
A HANDFUL OF DUST by Evelyn Waugh
AS I LAY DYING by William Faulkner
ALL THE KING'S MEN by Robert Penn Warren
THE BRIDGE OF SAN LUIS REY by Thornton Wilder
HOWARDS END by E.M. Forster
GO TELL IT ON THE MOUNTAIN by James Baldwin
THE HEART OF THE MATTER by Graham Greene
LORD OF THE FLIES by William Golding
DELIVERANCE by James Dickey
A DANCE TO THE MUSIC OF TIME (series) by Anthony Powell
POINT COUNTER POINT by Aldous Huxley
THE SUN ALSO RISES by Ernest Hemingway
THE SECRET AGENT by Joseph Conrad
NOSTROMO by Joseph Conrad
THE RAINBOW by D.H. Lawrence
WOMEN IN LOVE by D.H. Lawrence
TROPIC OF CANCER by Henry Miller
THE NAKED AND THE DEAD by Norman Mailer
PORTNOY'S COMPLAINT by Philip Roth
PALE FIRE by Vladimir Nabokov
LIGHT IN AUGUST by William Faulkner
ON THE ROAD by Jack Kerouac
THE MALTESE FALCON by Dashiell Hammett
PARADE'S END by Ford Madox Ford
THE AGE OF INNOCENCE by Edith Wharton
ZULEIKA DOBSON by Max Beerbohm
THE MOVIEGOER by Walker Percy
DEATH COMES FOR THE ARCHBISHOP by Willa Cather
FROM HERE TO ETERNITY by James Jones
THE WAPSHOT CHRONICLES by John Cheever
THE CATCHER IN THE RYE by J.D. Salinger
A CLOCKWORK ORANGE by Anthony Burgess
OF HUMAN BONDAGE by W. Somerset Maugham
HEART OF DARKNESS by Joseph Conrad
MAIN STREET by Sinclair Lewis
THE HOUSE OF MIRTH by Edith Wharton
THE ALEXANDRIA QUARTET by Lawrence Durell
A HIGH WIND IN JAMAICA by Richard Hughes
A HOUSE FOR MR BISWAS by V.S. Naipaul
THE DAY OF THE LOCUST by Nathanael West
A FAREWELL TO ARMS by Ernest Hemingway
SCOOP by Evelyn Waugh
THE PRIME OF MISS JEAN BRODIE by Muriel Spark
FINNEGANS WAKE by James Joyce
KIM by Rudyard Kipling
A ROOM WITH A VIEW by E.M. Forster
BRIDESHEAD REVISITED by Evelyn Waugh
THE ADVENTURES OF AUGIE MARCH by Saul Bellow
ANGLE OF REPOSE by Wallace Stegner
A BEND IN THE RIVER by V.S. Naipaul
THE DEATH OF THE HEART by Elizabeth Bowen
LORD JIM by Joseph Conrad
RAGTIME by E.L. Doctorow
THE OLD WIVES' TALE by Arnold Bennett
THE CALL OF THE WILD by Jack London
LOVING by Henry Green
MIDNIGHT'S CHILDREN by Salman Rushdie
TOBACCO ROAD by Erskine Caldwell
IRONWEED by William Kennedy
THE MAGUS by John Fowles
WIDE SARGASSO SEA by Jean Rhys
UNDER THE NET by Iris Murdoch
SOPHIE'S CHOICE by William Styron
THE SHELTERING SKY by Paul Bowles
THE POSTMAN ALWAYS RINGS TWICE by James M. Cain
THE GINGER MAN by J.P. Donleavy
THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS by Booth Tarkington

ATLAS SHRUGGED by Ayn Rand
THE FOUNTAINHEAD by Ayn Rand
BATTLEFIELD EARTH by L. Ron Hubbard
THE LORD OF THE RINGS by J.R.R. Tolkien
TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD by Harper Lee
1984 by George Orwell
ANTHEM by Ayn Rand
WE THE LIVING by Ayn Rand
MISSION EARTH by L. Ron Hubbard
FEAR by L. Ron Hubbard
ULYSSES by James Joyce
CATCH-22 by Joseph Heller
THE GREAT GATSBY by F. Scott Fitzgerald
DUNE by Frank Herbert
THE MOON IS A HARSH MISTRESS by Robert Heinlein
STRANGER IN A STRANGE LAND by Robert Heinlein
A TOWN LIKE ALICE by Nevil Shute
BRAVE NEW WORLD by Aldous Huxley
THE CATCHER IN THE RYE by J.D. Salinger
ANIMAL FARM by George Orwell
GRAVITY'S RAINBOW by Thomas Pynchon
THE GRAPES OF WRATH by John Steinbeck
SLAUGHTERHOUSE FIVE by Kurt Vonnegut
GONE WITH THE WIND by Margaret Mitchell
LORD OF THE FLIES by William Golding
SHANE by Jack Schaefer
TRUSTEE FROM THE TOOLROOM by Nevil Shute
A PRAYER FOR OWEN MEANY by John Irving
THE STAND by Stephen King
THE FRENCH LIEUTENANT'S WOMAN by John Fowles
BELOVED by Toni Morrison
THE WORM OUROBOROS by E.R. Eddison
THE SOUND AND THE FURY by William Faulkner
LOLITA by Vladimir Nabokov
MOONHEART by Charles de Lint
ABSALOM, ABSALOM! by William Faulkner
OF HUMAN BONDAGE by W. Somerset Maugham
WISE BLOOD by Flannery O'Connor
UNDER THE VOLCANO by Malcolm Lowry
FIFTH BUSINESS by Robertson Davies
SOMEPLACE TO BE FLYING by Charles de Lint
ON THE ROAD by Jack Kerouac
HEART OF DARKNESS by Joseph Conrad
YARROW by Charles de Lint
AT THE MOUNTAINS OF MADNESS by H.P. Lovecraft
ONE LONELY NIGHT by Mickey Spillane
MEMORY AND DREAM by Charles de Lint
TO THE LIGHTHOUSE by Virginia Woolf
THE MOVIEGOER by Walker Percy
TRADER by Charles de Lint
THE HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY by Douglas Adams
THE HEART IS A LONELY HUNTER by Carson McCullers
THE HANDMAID'S TALE by Margaret Atwood
BLOOD MERIDIAN by Cormac McCarthy
A CLOCKWORK ORANGE by Anthony Burgess
ON THE BEACH by Nevil Shute
A PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST AS A YOUNG MAN by James Joyce
GREENMANTLE by Charles de Lint
ENDER'S GAME by Orson Scott Card
THE LITTLE COUNTRY by Charles de Lint
THE RECOGNITIONS by William Gaddis
STARSHIP TROOPERS by Robert Heinlein
THE SUN ALSO RISES by Ernest Hemingway
THE WORLD ACCORDING TO GARP by John Irving
SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES by Ray Bradbury
THE HAUNTING OF HILL HOUSE by Shirley Jackson
AS I LAY DYING by William Faulkner
TROPIC OF CANCER by Henry Miller
INVISIBLE MAN by Ralph Ellison
THE WOOD WIFE by Terri Windling
THE MAGUS by John Fowles
THE DOOR INTO SUMMER by Robert Heinlein
ZEN AND THE ART OF MOTORCYCLE MAINTENANCE by Robert Pirsig
I, CLAUDIUS by Robert Graves
THE CALL OF THE WILD by Jack London
AT SWIM-TWO-BIRDS by Flann O'Brien
FARENHEIT 451 by Ray Bradbury
ARROWSMITH by Sinclair Lewis
WATERSHIP DOWN by Richard Adams
NAKED LUNCH by William S. Burroughs
THE HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER by Tom Clancy
GUILTY PLEASURES by Laurell K. Hamilton
THE PUPPET MASTERS by Robert Heinlein
IT by Stephen King
V. by Thomas Pynchon
DOUBLE STAR by Robert Heinlein
CITIZEN OF THE GALAXY by Robert Heinlein
BRIDESHEAD REVISITED by Evelyn Waugh
LIGHT IN AUGUST by William Faulkner
ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST by Ken Kesey
A FAREWELL TO ARMS by Ernest Hemingway
THE SHELTERING SKY by Paul Bowles
SOMETIMES A GREAT NOTION by Ken Kesey
MY ANTONIA by Willa Cather
MULENGRO by Charles de Lint
SUTTREE by Cormac McCarthy
MYTHAGO WOOD by Robert Holdstock
ILLUSIONS by Richard Bach
THE CUNNING MAN by Robertson Davies
THE SATANIC VERSES by Salman Rushdie

Highwind in Jamaica

2007-04-12T14:41:00.000-05:00

Highwind in Jamaica
by Richard Hughes

It is safe to say that I would probably never have heard of the book, A High Wind in Jamaica by Richard Hughes, if it were not for the much debated list of the Best 100 Books of the Century. I started to read the preface, but quit as it seemed to be giving away the plot. The book was a quick read, and it was charming. It seems to me to be a combination of a child's fantasy of running away to sea or joining the circus, and a parent's worst nightmare of their children disappearing. There were a few places where the author seemed to go off on a tangent, and I was looking at page numbers to be sure none had stuck together. They were tangents, but the author always meandered back to the point. I was constantly reminding myself that I do that all the time in conversation; it didn't hurt me to be the one trying to stick to the story for a change. The preface of the book at one point stated that nothing bad happened after the first chapter. I must differ from this assessment. Bad things did happen, both to the children, and by the children. The book still managed to be charming. Perhaps it is the sensibilities of today that make it seem so. Today what happened to the characters would have been described in graphic terms, and in lurid detail. The bad things were mentioned, but not dwelt upon, in fact they were almost lightly brushed over. I am still trying to figure out the focus of the story, but each time I think I have it another aspect of it interrupts my thoughts. In the main though, I think it is the adventures and thoughts of a ten year old girl and her trip from Jamaica to England.

Preparing for Rennovation

2007-04-11T11:54:00.000-05:00

I work at the University of Nebraska at Omaha's Criss Library. We have recently completed an addition to the building and are getting ready to start renovating the old portion of the library. The library was built in 1976, and when I started college in 1978 I though it was a wonderful building, it was so new and modern. That feeling of new and modern had definitely worn off by the time I started working here in 1989. Among other things the 1970's colors were no longer new and trendy and much of the staff seemed ready for a change to conservative and classic. The architectural style of the building is called Brutalism, and I feel that people should not be made to work or live in anything described as brutal. Some staff members have described it as looking like a parking garage.

Several drawings and plans were made up in anticipation of remodeling, three that I know of. Two deans later there is funding and we are anticipating groundbreaking for the project. Literally groundbreaking. The entire slab of the basement floor will be ripped up, a process starting sometime in mid May to late June. Everyone who works on the basement floor will be relocated, as will the collections housed on the first/basement floor. The bound periodicals will be shipped off-site, we don't know where yet. I really wish to know where as I am all that is left of the serials office and even though it is not my collection, I do feel rather protective of it. The Government Documents are already on their way to their temporary lodgings on the third floor. Archives is also supposed to go to the third floor.

The staff members and Faculty from first floor will be spread out between the second and third floors. We are all supposed to be cleaning out our offices. Taking home the personal knick-knacks that came to roost and multiply on our desks, and cleaning out old files. Almost everyone involved in this move will be working from smaller offices or cubicles. Despite the fact that our work space will be reduced, and our work lives made temporarily more complicated, there is a feeling of anticipation in the air. I am actually ready to move to a workspace about a third of the size I use now. I am ready to try to fit everything in, arrange it all, and throw away more things; because, no matter how hard one tries, one never gets rid of everything before they move. Everyone at the meeting seemed almost excited. We had been joking about being moved to the cupboard under the stairs, like Harry Potter's cupboard in the first book. We joked about spiders and hoped there would not be snakes as well. Our temporary digs will be much nicer than that infamous cupboard, no matter how cramped, and we will adapt to the confusion and mess. And I am sure we will also complain about the noise and dust, we will bemoan our temporary loss of parking spaces, and no matter how quiet the workers try to be, it will be noisy. But then most Libraries are no longer the quiet refuges they once were.