Branch-land

I work at the main library in our library system. Its a large, 6 story, bright red building. Its been needing repairs for a long time and this week they started on some major work. Because they've had to build scaffolding in the lobby and turn off the HVAC in order to fix it, the library has been temporarily closed. So I have been working at a branch library all week instead. I've heard many tales about branch libraries, most of them not good, but it really wasn't as bad as the stories I've heard.

Good things about working at a branch:
- Its quiet. Yes, libraries really can be quiet places.
- Its clean.
- There's no mad rush at opening for Internet computers.
- You don't have to pay to park.

Bad things about working at a branch:
- Getting emails from Central Reference saying there's sweets in the basement.

Feeding Max

Here is the video of Max I told you about a couple of days ago. It finally worked. Yeah!

A Taste of Winter

As I stepped out of the church last night, after Young Women's, I was very glad that I had my coat instead of just a jacket. There was a coldness and crispness to the air that I haven't felt since I lived in Utah. You know that sharp, dry, cold that comes when the temperature drops below freezing? Yep, it fell below 32 degrees last night, and before midnight. :)

Feeding the kitten

Max is the most unusual cat I've ever had. He's sweet, but also kind of dumb. He's got this really long legs that would be good for jumping, but he hasn't quite figured out how to jump yet, unless its to them climb onto something. Just jumping onto thing, like counters and banisters, he doesn't get. He's tried to jump onto the railing too. He gets his paws hook around the railing, and then starts sliding down. Its rather amusing.

Another amusing thing he does chase his food before he eats it. He will not eat dry cat food without pouncing on it first. I took a video of him and was going to share it with all of you, but it won't upload. If anyone has some tips on how to get video from a camera to upload, I'd appreciate it.

Just missed it

On Monday the excitment started. A cold front was sweeping across the country and it was going to hit Texas. Not just the Northern Texas Panhandle either, but all of Texas. Snow was coming.

Rumors were flying on Tuesday, Wedsnesday and Thursday. We would get half and inch. We would get 10 inches. We would get 2 inches, but it wouldn't stick. Inclement weather policies were reviewed. The city could shut down.

Friday came. Snow fell . . . in the Hill Country, north of us. In Stockdale, south of us. In Houston, to the east. But not in San Antonio. We were encompassed about with snow, but we never saw a flake of it.

The closest we got to snow was a layer of frost on Saturday morning.

It made me laugh

I was showing a guy what electronic resources we have and how to access them through our catalog. As he walked away he said "I'd tell you I love you, but I'm married."

Don't know what this is

I want to write something, but I'm not sure what to say. Its like there's something on the back of my mind, percolating, but it hasn't come to a boil yet. It might be about the holidays, or about my next vacation. I just got a booklet of travel vouchers in the mail, inviting me to come on a short cruise and listen to some people talk about time shares. Well, they don't actually say time shares, they use some other phrase, but it sounds like the same thing. It could be fun.

I feel like I'm the edge of something. Or close to it, but I can't quite see what's on the other side yet. But I'm so close.

Or maybe I feel this way because all my stress-filled projects at work are over and done with and I'm waiting for the next one to appear. I just don't know.

Did I miss Thanksgiving?

Last night as I was checking the mailbox, I noticed that one of my neighbors had Christmas lights up.

Christmas lights!

Castles

You can't visit Britian without seeing castles. Wales has castles all up and down the coast, to watch for Irish invaders, and castles inland, to watch for the Celts, Pics, Saxons, and who knows what other tribes. So we had a lot of choices for seeing castles. We choose Harlech.

Harlech was on the coast, it had its own train stop, and Kirsten and MBC hadn't seen it yet. (They'd been in the UK for a while before I joined them and they had already seen many castles.) While the walls of Harlech were pretty much in tact, the interior wasn't. You could see where walls and ceilings used to be though. It was raining the day we visited, which added to the atmosphere. I feel like I need to read more medieval murder mysteries because now I get how dark and creepy castles can be. The stairs were particularly clausterphobic.

The stairs were not this light. All this light is from the camera flash.

I like taking pictures from odd angles. So here's some of my more interesting shots.

On Thursday we decided to visit Aberystwyth. It was another coastal city, and we went specifically to see the coast. It was a beautiful, clear day.

While we were exploring the city and window shopping, we found another castle. Or what was left of a castle.
We found it about half an hour before we had to go catch our bus, so we didn't much time to explore it. I had no idea what the momument is to. I didn't get close enough to see. The castle kind of surprised us because they were just these ruins in the middle of the city. Well cared for ruins, but open and public, like a park. You didn't have to pay to see this one. But we really shouldn't have been surprised. Its a city on the coast of Wales, practically every city has a castle. We probably should've expected it.

Walking through Wales

Okay, so this is coming a little later than I had hoped. I got home from Wales on a Saturday, on Monday I had a presentation for work and on Wednesday I had Young Women in Excellence, in which I was in charge of the special musical number. So I couldn't really rest after I got home. After YW in E, my body protested doing anything else and became a gooey puddle of mucus. I've been coughing and sniffling ever since. BUT, this morning I felt hungry. I haven't felt hungry in days, so I think that's a good sign.

Anywho, back to Wales.

We did a lot of walking in Wales. I don't know if it was because we were in a National Park, or if this is just something that appears in Britain, but there were little walking signs all over. An official path would have either a little hiking man pointing the way, or just a yellow arrow. And the paths don't look like the paths in the U.S.'s National Parks either. There were no neatly paved trails or well kept dirt paths. A lot of the time you just had to watch for the trodden down grass. Sometimes we didn't even have that to go by. And the paths went everywhere. Through fields, over streets, across backyards. One said it was a trail but I suspect it was actually a small stream. Our feet certainly got wet enough. If it weren't for the turn by turn directions we got at the resort reception office, we might still be wandering in the hills of Wales. Not that that would be a bad thing.

We did 4 trails. Three in Machynlleth and 1 in Pennal. Machynlleth, or Mach as we quickly learned to call it, was the main town we in and out of to catch buses and trains. Pennal, the little village where our resort was, was about 4 kilometers away from Mach.

Here's the view from the top of hills looking down into Mach:

Very picturesque, no?

Another of our walks took us through Mach's golf course:

Can you see the sheep? I wonder how much of a penalty it is to hit a sheep?

Kirtsen points out the way:

Notice all the ferns. Ferns were everywhere. On this walk we went through a fern forest.

And this is the view from the top of the hills; okay, okay, I'll call them mountains (baby mountains), in Pennal:

The resort is in one of those valleys.

This is a horse we met on the way up the mountain. I think he's used to getting food from people when they walk by, because he was very attentive. I took this picture especially for my nieces D and A, who love horses.

I don't know where he went, but he was gone by the time we came back.

One thing I really liked about Wales was how green it was. These pictures really don't do it justice. Even when you have the contrast of changing leaves.


They say its very green in Ireland as well. I think I'll have go there to compare.

Poetry Workshop

I just got out of a poetry workshop with Naomi Shihab Nye. She had come to the library to do the yearly William Morris lecture for staff, but instead of lecturing us, she had activities and stories for us. Naomi is a poet and author who has been writing since she was 6 years old, and has won numerous awards. She is probably most known for her poems about her heritage because she is part Arab. I first heard her on NPR. She has the most wonderful voice. She has one of those voices that I could listen to for hours, but not drift oft to. I could listen to her and pay attention to. So you can see what I mean, take a listen to this.

Doesn't she have the best poetry voice?

Anyway, back to the workshop. Even though the workshop was geared towards activities for children and outreach to schools, I came away with many ideas for the Poetry Picante program, which is an open mic poetry program that I help run. I've got names of new poets to invite to read and group writing activities to try. Poetry Picante struggles. Or I think it struggles. I don't have many other library open mic programs to compare it to, but we get an average of 6 people attending each month. Some people tell me this is good. But I don't know. I think part of reason why I think it struggles is because I only have one regular. So I get all these people who show up once, and then never come back. We do better when I can say we have a specific poet coming, so if I can get some of these new poets to come, things should pick up.

As part of the workshop she had us do some writing. Just some short little pieces that came from some writing prompts she gave us. Here are mine:

You may not be who I think you are.
How can I tell, if you never come back
from Korea?

The kitten Max loves to chase gnats across
the carpet. Which is cute. He also love to
climb the drapes; which is not.

What's a cassette? asked the 5 year old boy,
who had never paid much attention to the old
machines at grandma's house.

She gave us some tips for responding to poems too. She says to ask questions like "How does it make you feel?" or "Does this bring anything to mind?" and to never ask "What does it mean?" There can be multiple meanings for any one thing. Asking what it means restricts it to one interpretation.

I also have many more books to add to my reading list. Its so easy to get enthusiastic about reading something when someone who adores the books give them to you. So onto my list go:

Today's Special Dish by Nina Lindsay
You Hear Me? poems and writings by teenage boys edited by Betsy Franco
Braided Creek: a conversation in poetry by Jim Harrison and Ted Kooser
Is This Forever, or What? poems and paintings from Texas selected by Naomi Shihab Nye
Going, Going by Naomi Shihab Nye

I'd like to pass on a recommendation for Going, Going to anyone who likes to discover independent restaurants and businesses. B-town crew, this means you.

Introducing Max

Hi, my name is Maxamillus the Bold, or Max, for short. I am 3 months old and I like to climb things. I am the best climber in the world. I can climb up to my mommy's shoulder in 2 seconds. Sometimes she screams when I do this and sometimes she doesn't. I don't understand why. I also like to pounce on my big brother, Ghost. I wait for him to walk around the couch and then I jump on his back. Then he chases me around the living room. But he lets me chase him too. He's the greatest. He knows all the best places to sleep and hide.

Ooo, a jingle ball. Bye!

woosh

Lost

I have lost my ring.

I have, or had, a pretty, silver CTR ring. I hardly ever took it off. The only times I did were at the gym and in the shower. Guess where I was yesterday? Yep, at the gym. When I'm on a treadmill I take my watch and ring off and put them on the treadmill. The treadmill's have little ledges and holes for you to put your stuff in, my glasses will sometimes go in their too, depending on how much I'm sweating.

Last night I was talking with my roommate and realized I was not wearing my ring. I've retraced all my steps and the gym is the only place I was where I would have taken it off. I have called them, but of course it's not in their lost and found.

I only hope that someone will find it and return it and not keep it.

Did I miss something?

Remember the guy from poetry night that I went out to dinner with a few months ago? Well, he's back. Sort of. He emailed me saying that he had question about my religion and asked if I could meet with him sometime. Well, with this training schedule and new Young Women's calling, I haven't had much extra time. I sent him a link to Mormon.org and told him if had any questions to email them to me, because I didn't have time at the moment, but would be happy to answer his questions. He never emailed me backed.



The next poetry night he shows up (had hadn't come since our date) and we talk for a little bit. I ask if he saw the website and he said yes, but still wants to go out with me to talk. I say okay, but I need to check my schedule. After a few days (can you tell he's not very high on my priorities list) I let him know when I'm available. Thinking that we'll be going to lunch somewhere, I tell him it doesn't matter where we go and to let me know where and when. He emails me back to say he's booking a room in a hotel.

A hotel???

He says he misunderstood me and feels ashamed for it. Part of me wants to ask him what exactly lead him to think that I would be comfortable with him in a hotel room. That part of me also thinks he might be sincere in wanting to know more about the LDS Church. But then I'm also thinking that he never actually asked me any questions, and he's had ample opportunity to. Another thing, after our date, he stopped sending me poems to spell check and critique. It may be that he's just using the poetry and religion to try to get closer to me. Or it may be that I'm reading way too much into this and am acting like an idiot.

What do you think?

Stuck at 4 miles

I thought the half-marathon training was going well. I've been doing the speed training and short runs during the week faithfully and actually waking up at 5:15 on Saturdays for the 6:00 am group runs. I didn't think I'd be able to do that, but I haven't missed a week yet.

What hasn't been going well is the actual group run. My group has been running 4 miles for the past 2 weeks, but I haven't been able to run the full 4 miles. We keep running up Stadium Dr, which starts out as a gradual slope then it curves around to a pretty steep hill. For those familiar with Roy, UT streets, you could say it starts out like 5600 and ends up like 4800, right before the tracks. It kills me. Although there has been some progress. Instead of taking just over an hour to complete the 4 miles, last Saturday it took me just under an hour.

This coming Saturday we get to run 5 miles. I hope they change the course.

Equestricat to the Rescue!

I was clearing out some old books from our shelves today and ran across this title: Equestricat.

When you hear or see a title like that, what comes to mind? I picture a large animal with the body of a horse and head and tail of a cat, with claws. Or a cat that neighs. Turns out its a cat that has an affinity for horses. The cat saves the day by helping the horse win the big race. I have no idea how it does this, but I bet a cape in involved.

Librarian power

I just discovered that as a librarian, I have a an amazing power. Apparently, I can control the Internet. And I don't just mean other's access to it. I mean I can control websites, passwords, everything. Apparently this a power all librarians have.

Can't access your account? You probably ticked off the last librarian you met and s/he changed your password. The website you visit every single day has disappeared? Yep, that was us. We got tired of your looking at. Thought you could spend your time doing something more rewarding, so we took it away. That test you took online for your new job, which your employer didn't get, we deleted it. You didn't do so well, so we're giving you another chance.

I should probably thank the patron who let me know about this power. Otherwise, I'd still be thinking that it was a combination of human and computer errors. Silly me. Those things just don't happen anymore. Its the librarians.

On Not Running

So I let myself be talked into joining a 1/2 marathon training program. I thought it'd be a good way to keep myself motivated in going to the gym and exercising. And it's always nice to have people to exercise with.

We're only a couple of weeks into the program, and the training has gone something like this: run 20 minutes one day, 15 the next, rest, run 20 minutes again; run 1 mile on Saturday. Which I can do. I'd been running 30-35 minutes 3 days a week before I joined. And then I got sick.

I wasn't very sick. It was just a little cold. But I didn't do anything I absolutely had to do. The last couple of times I caught a little cold I ignored it and ended up being sick for 6 weeks or so with all sort of infections. I wasn't going to go through that again. Last week was full of cough drops, lemon and honey, and lounging in bed. I only ran once. This week, the running is killing me. I didn't even make it through the 20 minutes on Monday. I had to stop and walk. It was so sad and pathetic. What a difference a week makes, eh?

Top New Species

I just saw this article over at CNN. They've named the top 10 new speices of the year. My favorites are the 14 inch long stick bug, the snail whose shell twists on 4 axis points, and the suicide plant.

Its amazing that we are still finding new animals and plants on our planet. There is still so much to explore. I'm sure my neice, A, will enjoy the new bugs.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/science/05/22/top.10.new.species/index.html#cnnSTCText

Awkwardness

So let me give you a little bit more background on the poetry patron I went out with. Like I said yesterday, he comes to the poetry open mike night and reads. English in not his native tongue, so he asked me to help him with spelling and grammar, so I said sure. In between emailing me poems, he would also ask me to dinner or see if had any plans for the weekend. Since I always took my time answering these, he point blank asked me if I was interested in him as he was in me. I answered "No".

I went out with him because 1) he asked; 2) I haven't gone out in a long time and thought it would be fun; and 3) I've been very busy and need time away from work/home/church/gym.

All first dates have a bit of awkwardness, but the drive home was the worst. The conversation went something like this:

boy: Do you ever get lonely?

me: Yes, but not as much as I used to.

boy: So do I. I want a relationship with someone. Someone to holds with. Aren't you looking for a relationship?

me: (in my head, yes, but not with you.) Yes, but right now I'm just want to have fun.

long pause

boy: I know you don't want a serious relationship with me, but could we try to have one? You don't have to introduce me as your boyfriend or anything.

me: (in my head, what?) Look, I'm can be your friend. We can go do things together, like dinner or movies or bowling or whatever.

another long pause

boy: I get so lonely. I really think we should have a relationship.

me: I have a group of friends that get together once a week, usually on Mondays. You'd be welcome to join us.

silence

The really awkward part was that every time he started talking about being in a relationship, he would slow down to 50 mph, on the freeway.

Going Out

So I'm going on a date tonight. I haven't been on a date in a long, long time. Dates are rare things for me, so I'm usually excited about them. But not today.

It might help if I were more interested in the guy. But he did ask. And I'm not completely creeped out by him, like I am by most guys who hit on me as the library. Yes, he's a library patron. But I've only ever seen him at the poetry program, so he's not one of the library bums or stalker guys that usually hit on me.

I wonder, if I didn't meet him at the library, would I still not feel like going out with him?

It makes me happy

For those that don't know, I am a Doctor Who fan. I loved the original series and I adore the new series. I used to stay up late Saturday nights to watch it on PBS. Out of all the doctors, David Tennant is the best!

But this post has nothing to do with David Tennant. One can't mention Doctor Who without mentioning him. So on to the real post.

A poll was conducted by Total Sci-fi about the best science fiction television theme songs. Doctor Who won. If you've never heard the theme song, then you need to check this out:



They change it a little bit for every Doctor. This is the most current version. I've even heard a version with someone playing the spoons.

Anyway, for the rest of the poll, check out http://totalscifionline.com/features/3393-doctor-who-wins-best-sci-fi-tv-theme-tune-of-all-time.

Red Dwarfers will be happy to know they are on the list too.

The Best Toys

My kitty has a lot of toys. He has a Lazar pointer, jingle balls, mice of various shapes and sizes, birds on strings (with many spares - he "kills" these quite often), and lets not forget shoelaces, yarn, cardboard, plastic bags, and any paper he can find. But the very best toys are the ones he finds himself and brings inside. Like this one:


Yes, that is a lizard he's got. He loves being outside on the balcony and sometimes other little animals find their way up there too. Ghost then brings them inside to play. The first he did this, he had a cockroach. This isn't the first lizard he's brought in either, but its the largest one so far.

I'm sure you all know how the story ends. The cat killed the lizard. Big surprise. But cats will be predators.

The lizard has gone on to its next stage in life, and is now fertilizing my tomato plant.

In other news, The Race for the Cure was last Saturday. I made it to the Rivercenter Mall (about half-way) and then had to alternate between running and walking. I didn't see the clock when I started, but I think I finished between 30 - 35 minutes. Which is not bad for my first 5k ever.

This happens every year

Or it seems like it.

I got my tax refund last week. It wasn't much, but it was enough that I thought I could go pick up some books and movies that I've been wanting for while plus some things that I need - like new pants. I spent all last week prioritizing my wish lists. Which ones do I want to most. If they don't have it, what substitutions will I accept. I know, its a little obsessive, but these are books we're talking about. And I haven't actually bought any new books (for me) in over a year.

I was going to go shopping yesterday. It was my day off and I had no other plans. But then, my car died. It just wouldn't start. Luckily for me there are about 20 car repair places on my street. Its working fine now.

It seems like every time I get a little extra money and I want to spend it on myself, something major breaks and I have to spend that extra money on the broken thing. Last time I think a couple of tires split and I had to buy new ones. Another time my water heater broke. Does this happen to anyone else? or is it just me?

Race for the Cure

Well, its official. I got my T-shirt and number in the mail. I'm officially participating in the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure on April 4. That gives me 19 days to practice running 5 kilometers. I won't say "train" because a) I don't have a trainer or a program or anything like that, and b) even if I did, I wouldn't do everything he/she/it says anyways.

I can run 3 miles right now, which is close to 5k, but its a very slow run. More like a jog. But then, I don't have to be fast, since I'm not doing the timed competition. I would like to finish in under 40 minutes though (yes, you can laugh here) which is about what it takes me now.

And the Prizes are In

The 23 Things may be over, but the fun keeps on happening.

Anyone who was able to finish the 23 Things by the end of January was eligible for a prize. Turns out that we got to choose our prize. Since the 23 Thing was all about technology, the prizes were all technology related too. We could choose from a Flickr pro account, an MP3 player, or a flash drive.

Remember all those posts I did had the phrase "If I had an MP3 player. . . ?" Well, now I do. So now I can actually do all those things that I wish I could. YAY!

Swan Lake

Like my little brother, I cannot drive without music. I need something I can listen to, otherwise I start talking to myself. And when I'm talking to myself, I pay more attention to what I'm saying then the other cars on the road. Its not a good thing. But music keeps me from doing that. Yes, music can be a distraction when driving, but not as much as a distraction as me monologuing.

As I was driving home one night, as I was scanning through stations, I heard Swan Lake. I don't usually listen to classical music when I'm driving. Its hard to sing to, but every time I hear Swan Lake I have to listen. Its probably the only piece of classical music that I can hear anywhere in the piece and recognize.

When I was really little and still had to take naps, my mom would play Swan Lake on the record player to encourage us to sleep. Or at least be still. Sadly enough, I have never seen the ballet. In my dream city - the city where I will one day live, but haven't found yet - there will be a ballet company that does more than 2 productions a year and I will see Swan Lake.

Happy Quirky Alone Day!

For most people, Feb. 14 means Valentine's Day. A day when you give/get chocolates and flowers to your significant other. But Feb. 14th is also Quirky Alone Day. A day to celebrate those who are just a little bit different from the average bear.

Do you want to find out if you belong to them? Take this quiz to see if you're quirky.

I took the quiz and guess what? I'm very quirky.

"How quirkyalone are you? Your score was 92. Very quirkyalone: Relatives may give you quizzical looks, and so may friends, but you know in your heart of hearts that you are following your inner voice. Though you may not be romancing a single person, you are romancing the world. Celebrate your freedom on National Quirkyalone Day, February 14th!"

Best Things About New Orleans

So this is the last part of the fabulous Great Cruise of 2008. After touring through several countries, we had to return to the US. But the fun was not over yet. Nope, we had 2 more days of fabulous-ness in New Orleans. The highlights of which are:

1) getting my first ever cup of gumbo and having a claw sticking out of it. I ordered the seafood gumbo, which came with crab. But, they don't take the crab apart before they put it the gumbo. Nope, you get the thing whole. 'Twas a little alarming to see, if you're not expecting it. Messy to eat, but still oh so good.

2) Staying in a haunted house. One of the first things we did was take a haunted history tour of New Orleans. You can't stay in the French Quarter without taking this tour. The best part is that its at night, and any local who sees you will make ghost noises as they walk by. The second best thing is that our hotel was the second stop on the tour. Alas, we did not see any ghosts.

3) St Joseph's Cathedral's Free Christmas Concerts. We were only a block away from St. Joseph's so we went to this every night. Guess who we saw? Ellis Marsalis. If you know anything about jazz, you know how cool this was.

4) Po'boy's as big as your head. Before we left for this trip, many people told us we had to eat at Mulate's. They have really good food and live Cajun Music. On the day we had planned to go, we had po'boys for lunch. By the time we got to Mulate's, which was probably around 8:00 pm, we were still full from the po'boys. We had to force ourselves to just eat dessert.

Great Cruise 2008 - Cozumel

Cozumel was our beach day. Instead of going on a tour or excursion, Mason and I decided we would do the beach. And we were rather certain we could find the beach ourselves, so we declined the Cruise Ship's offer of taking us there and back. We didn't want to be limited to their schedule. In hindsight, we probably would have been better off going with the ship.






How hard could it be to find a beach in Cozumel? They are known for snorkeling and beaches. And its not that big of an island, so we thought if we just picked a direction and started walking, we'd find one in no time. Not so. After half and hour the most we saw was rocks, some sea side diners, and another dock for more cruise ships. So we turned backed, thinking we could catch the ferry to Cancun and spend some beach time there. Turned out that the ferry schedule wasn't that great. We would only have 30 minutes or so before we'd have to turn around and come back or be left by our ship. Finally, we gave in to one of the many guys calling "Taxi!" and had him drive us to a beach.



Unfortunately this was the coldest day of our trip. The locals were all in coats in hats. Since Cozumel weather is not much different from Texas weather, I was cold. Getting in and out of the water was not a pleasant experience. You know how once you get a lake or a river or something and its cold at first, but then it warms up? The opposite was true for that part of the Caribbean. We did manage to stay floating in the water for about an hour. Then I gave up. After about 20 minutes of watching me shiver on the beach, Mason took pity on me and claimed she was cold too and we spent the rest of the day picking out souvenirs. The sun came out when it was time to leave though.

Just look at those clouds! If you were swimming under that, wouldn't you be cold too?


And just because I haven't shown you yet, here's a shot of our cruise ship, the Norwegian Spirit.

And then we came to the End

This is it. The last post for the 23 Things. Oh how I will miss those furry little numbered Things running around my computer; introducing me to Library 2.0 applications and tools. My favorite Things were Flickr and Downloadable Media. I even created my own Flickr account; and, now that I have a digital camera, I can actually upload images to it. I'm sure I'll continue to use Google Docs and, of course, Blogs.

Speaking of blogs, I just found out from the PLA blog that there's a way to search library catalogs from Facebook. Its some sort of plug in or application. The blogger was talking about how he (or she) was going to learn how to do it at the ALA conference in Denver. I think that would be so cool! Guess I've got some more learning to do.

Proof that I'm a Nerd

Today I was revisiting a series that I had started some time ago and hadn't finished. The book that I stopped at was Voyager. Guess what pops into my mind whenever I see that word?

V'Ger.

And if you're a nerd like I am, you won't have to click on the link. You'll already know what V'ger is.

Almost There

We're at Thing #22. Downloadable media.

Our library uses two different vendors. Overdrive Media and NetLibrary. I really like Overdrive. I think its easy to use. I've never had a problem downloading stuff from Overdrive. I borrowed one of the library's MP3 players and listened to Terry Prachett's WinterSmith during workouts. I must say it is easier to listen to book while running than it is to read a book while running. Sadly enough, I have tried. (Treadmills can get boring, especially if you're by yourself.)

I don't think NetLibrary is as user friendly. At least it isn't with the ebooks. It may just be our setup that's confusing, but when you have to access it differently from outside the library then from inside the library, its not a good start. I know they've been making changes, so I should probably try them out again. And look, they have Le Guin's Powers available. Guess I'll have to check out an MP3 player again.

Podcasts

I think I would enjoy podcast more if I actually had a MP3 player. Sort of hard to download and listen on the go without one. I explored Podcast Alley, which indexes free podcasts from all across the web. You can browse by topic or search using keywords. Although, I'm not sure how accurate their keyword search is. I was searching for some of my guilty pleasures; and, when I tried X-men, I got one called Crochet for Men. I suppose if you say them really fast, they sound alike, but still not sure how it ended up on my search results.

I've been intrigued by podcasting for a while. I think it would be fun to do a book talk/reader's advisory type of podcast for the library. But I have no idea how to start one. I don't mean the technical part. That's pretty easy to find out. I mean convincing other people to do it and getting them to commit. Any suggestions?

You Tube

Oh Cookie Monster in the library.


I've got a whole different perspective on this, now that I work in a library.

Great Cruise 2008 - New Orleans

There will be more about New Orleans, later. (After I tell you about Cozumel.) For now, here is a mosaic of some of the graves we saw in Cemeteries No. 1 and 2.

Great Cruise 2008 - Belize

In Belize we saw more Mayan Ruins. The site was called Altun-ha. This is where a carved head of Jade was found in 1968. According to our tour guide, the head is now on display in a local bank, but we didn't get to stop and see it.

Altun-ha seemed to be more complete than Kohunlich. The buildings were closer together and the jungle farther back. You can't really tell, but the next two pictures are panoramic, taken from the top of one of the buildings.

And this was the building they were taken from. We didn't climb the really steep stairs to the top. I don't think I would have made it if we had to do that. A wooden stairway was built on the side of the ruins, so anyone who wanted to could make it up. Going back down was a little scary, cause you had to take a couple of the original stairs down before the wooden one started up again. But they don't tell you that before you go up.

One more thing about Belize, the port is surrounded reefs, so really large ships, like our cruise ship, aren't able to come into the port. We got do what is a called a "tender port". Smaller boats came up to the cruise ship and we would board them; then they would take us into Belize. Although these boats were much smaller than the cruise ship, they still could carry about 50 -75 people at a time. They had two seating areas, one enclosed and one above open to the air. Going into Belize, I sat up top. We went so fast that my hair came out of my pony tail and created a huge rat's nest on the side of my head. The moment we got off the boat, someone in a dolphin suit grabbed me and someone else took our picture. It later went up in the ship's gallery. I wasn't even tempted to buy that one.

Not only is Belize the only English speaking country in Central America, it also has its own special language. Here are some the words and phrases we learned:

belize it or not

unbelizeable

seeing is belizing

I can't belize it

Great Cruise 2008 - Costa Maya and Guatemala

Well, I finally got all my pictures from the cruise I took in December. So I'm now ready to blog about it. Yeah!

We left from New Orleans on Dec. 7th. Spent a day at sea, and then arrived at Costa Maya on Dec. 9th. On our day at sea we explored the ship, which didn't take as much time as we thought. When we first saw the ship, we thought it was huge! Then we realized most of the ship was devoted to rooms and a casino, so really not that big. They did have a library, which we both needed since after we explored we spent the rest of the day by the pool reading and discovered we did not bring enough books. So I've got a new series to read thanks to the cruise.

Our first landing was Costa Maya. As we were approaching the port, Mason and I went up to the deck to watch. When we made it, I looked over the side and saw dolphins! Three or four dolphins were swimming around the front of the ship. They were kind of hard to see because they kept going too far under the water, so you didn't know where to look for them. So I got to see wild dolphins. Woo hoo!Our visit was first that Costa Maya had in over 2 years. In 2005 it was hit by hurricane Dean and its taken them this long to recover and rebuild enough for tourists. You can still see a lot of dead trees and building skeletons along the cost.

In Costa Maya we took a tour to the Kohunlich Mayan Ruins. I took a lot of pictures here, but here are the best.

This is a coconut tree typical of the area. The coconuts are itty-bitty and grow in clusters.

Bats live in some of the temple ruins.

One of the pools. The ruins are the very top of the mountains, so they have to have pools to collect rain water. Otherwise, it all runs away.

The man in the jaguar mask. There were four carvings like this in one building.

Guatemala was the second county that we visited. The coastline was a bit more like I expected tropical/Caribbean countries to be, with jungle going right down to the sea.

Here we took a very scary bus ride to a jungle park. The bus itself wasn't scary, but the roads were. You know those narrow, twisty little roads you hear about other countries having? Well this was one of these, only going up a mountain, with no guard rail. But the jungle was beautiful.

This is a typical tree found there.

And we got to swim in the river. Yep, I swam in the jungle. And I had little jungle fish nibble on my toes.

We could've stayed there a lot longer than what the tour let us. The water was cool and very beautiful. I loved the way the sun feel on it though the trees. The jungle was nice too. It wasn't too hot or humid, to me at least. Mason later told me she was dying of humidity. But she lives in a desert while I no longer do. It was really very pleasant. And we got our first souvenirs here too. Our guide gave everyone a little worry doll. The dolls are maybe an inch tall and dressed in traditional clothing. You tell them your worries at night and put them under your pillow. In the morning, if the doll is gone, then your worries will be too.

Next post . . Belize.

Web 2.0 award site

For Thing 19 we get explore a Web 2.0 award winning site. The awards comes from SEOmoz.org, which searches for the best of the best in 2.0 web sites. Since I'm going on a trip to Wales this year, I thought I would check out the winner of the travel category, Farecast.com

Farecast predicts when the prices for air travel will be lowest, so you don't have to worry about when the best time to buy is. They will tell you. You just tell them the when and where. At least, this is what its suppose to do. Apparently they can't do this for international flights yet. I still got prices for flights from all the major airlines and air fare sites (they grab the prices listed on Orbitz and Expedia and Hotwire and a whole bunch of other travel sites and compile them for you too) but no predictions on when the best time to buy would be. I may try it again for my Christmas flight this year, just as soon as I figure out which family member I want to visit with in 2009.

Thing 18 - Online Documents

Hey, I remembered a Thing's number. Yeah!

More than just web pages can be created for the Net now. You can create documents online and not have to worry about saving it to a disc or flash drive. You can save them online. Google Docs and Open Office are probably the biggest two providers of this type of service. Since you're saving documents to on online server, you don't have to worry about carrying around discs or drives or going back to the same computer every time you need to work on a document.

Open Office seems to have more features, like drawing, but you have to download the software on every computer you use. So that could be a bit inconvenient. The type of program I use most is Publisher, and Google Docs doesn't really have anything close to it, yet. They're mostly for Word and Excel type documents. Reports and spreadsheets -- they make the business world go round.

My computer still has the Corel Office Suite on it (yes, it's old. I am aware), so I have been using .rtf a lot. I'm always asking what type of file it is that is being sent and always asking them to convert it to .rtf. It's rather annoying. But with online documents, I don't have to worry about such things. I can create, print and/or share my documents without having to worry about whether or not my computer can read it. As long as it can open up the Internet, it can open up the documents. So whenever Google Docs comes up with a Publisher-like program, I'm so there.