Spring forward, fall back

I always always always thought (at least, I think I always thought) that Daylight Saving Time* was something the U.S. put in place to increase the daylight hours for the farmers. It was just recently that I had a conversation with someone about how difficult it is for the farmers to switch the clocks twice a year, because the cows aren't ready to be milked an hour earlier, and the planting and harvesting seasons bookend the DST hours, so don't benefit much.

I'm listening to Hattie Big Sky, and she casually mentions that she thinks it is strange to start President Wilson's new daylight saving plan to save coal for the war effort on Easter Sunday.

Whahhhhh? I honestly can't remember ever hearing that DST was put in place to conserve energy while we were at war -- so of course, I had to look it up, and there's all sorts of fun facts about that small event we do on the second Sunday in March and the first Sunday in November that wreaks havoc on my circadian rhythm known as daylight saving time.

• Benjamin Franklin first suggested it while he was an ambassador in France. (This link also has a table showing the start and end dates for both the United States and the European Union, which are different each year...).
• The United States implemented a time zone plan in 1883 to regulate the transportation across the country. The telegraph, and morse code, made it possible to coordinate the time zones. International Standard Time was adopted at the International Prime Meridian Conference in Washington D.C. in 1884. (Okay, that isn't actually about DST, but I like the point that this idea, coordinated time zones, was probably something that was long needed, and finally made possible with the ability to coordinate the clocks. It's the tipping point thing.)
• Daylight Saving Time was first observed in the United States for seven months between 1918 and 1919 to conserve energy for the efforts in WWI. It was unpopular, was repealed, but reinstated in 1942 when the United States went to war again, and was year-round until 1945.
• Daylight Saving Time was optional from 1945 until the Uniform Time Act of 1966.
• About 70 countries observe, or have observed DST at some point. It can still be fairly erratic. Kyrgyzstan began year-round observation in 2005.

For even more than you would ever want to know about Daylight Saving Time, you can visit NPR's Time-Change Timeline, Seize the Daylight, or read the book Seize the Daylight: the curious and contentious story of daylight saving time, by David Prerau.

*Doh! I also learned to day that it's Daylight Saving Time, not Savings.

Money, money, money, money...

MON-EY. (you know, that song from The Apprentice).

You know how paychecks say they are void after 90 days? I guess I always thought that the money went back to the company -- but I found out that it has to go to the state, and that it stays there for a LONG time. If you're wondering whether you have any unclaimed checks out there, you can search the Missing Money site for unclaimed property across the states, or you can visit each state's site. Minnesota's is here.

And there's a LOT out there! As of 2004, there was over $184 million in unclaimed property, $50 million of it from 2004 alone. That's crazy! People!! Cash your checks!

A perfectly mindless night

I have always appreciated the energy that is required of teachers. But today, I have a new appreciation -- or I guess I should say -- I have a specific appreciation. Over the course of the last two days I gave 23 booktalks at the local middle school. The booktalks were 20 minutes long -- and I talked about 20 books. I have a specific appreciation for teachers who give the same lesson plan several times a day, and who talk all day, and who are 'on' all day.

To give an example of how grueling it was for me, by the end of the second day, my arms were shaking so much that I actually hit my teeth with the microphone several times, my feet were swollen, and I had a massive headache by the end of the day. My voice held out fairly well (mainly because I was drinking so much water that I had to go to the bathroom every hour), but toward the end that was shaky too. Most of my books featured characters that died (a fact that I didn't really notice until the end of the second day...but there was a nice variety nonetheless) so my crackly voice was somewhat appropriate. Then I went to work to cover the reference desk for the last hour of the day, and help the after-school crowd. One of my colleagues said I was making a cameo appearance at work -- she didn't know how right she was!

It was worth it. The media specialist received so many wonderful comments, as did I. There was so much buzz about "the librarian and her booktalks" throughout the school. By the end of the first hour on the first day there were kids coming into the media center asking if their grade got to hear the booktalks. There were many requests at the media center for certain books, and questions from kids who weren't regular library users about how to find their public library, how to get the books, how to get library cards, etc. The teachers were especially grateful. They were grateful that a librarian would take the time to visit their school, and help them generate excitement about reading over the summer. Some of them mentioned that they heard about some books that might tie into their curriculum, some of them mentioned that their non-readers were talking about some of the books they wanted to read over the summer, and all of them mentioned that their kids were listening intently. Even though not all the kids live in my service area, and I know I won't personally see them all at my library, I am confident that the readers and non-readers alike left feeling excited about the stories that await them this summer.

But. I am completely out of shape when it comes to being on my feet, talking, and being 'on' all day. I am 'on' all day at the library, but this is a completely different pace, and I'm pooped. Happy, but pooped. Tonight I did nothing but mindless activity -- mindless games, mindless eating (air-popped popcorn - not the worst choice, but it was mindless eating), mindless television, and mindless blogging.

I guess it's okay to have a few completely mindless nights.

This just ain't right...

...but I enjoy it!



My mother tivoed the new kids when they were on the Today show, and surprised me with it Friday night. (I new they were making a comeback, but didn't know when). While I still feel it's a little bit wrong for the boy band to come together again, I was kind of excited to see them again! I was transported right back to my 13-yr-old self for a half hour -- singing along, sitting on the floor in front of the TV, and telling people to be quiet because I was watching the New Kids (but *my* comments were okay). I have since gained perspective on my junior high celebrity obsession, but it was fun to go back.

And I love that my mom recorded it for me!

A weekend at Mom's

We spent the weekend with my brother and sister-in-law helping my mother put her house back together after she had new cabinets, counters and flooring put in. (Her house looks lovely). With five people gathered in one spot, there was plenty that came up in conversation that they all knew, and I did not.

1. Shoes on the telephone wires is a signal that crack is available for purchase.

It never occurred to me that 'shoefiti' was anything other than a weird prank. The Straight Dope says that there are several possible reasons for this increasingly common sight, as does Snopes. I like to believe that it is something that graduating seniors do, but whatever the reason, I wish that people would just stick to trees. You know, like the shoe tree on Washington Avenue.

2. Teeth will shift if one tooth is cracked.

I mentioned (probably more than once) (and after someone asked about the grimace on my face), that my front tooth felt loose again. I also noticed that there is a larger space between my left canine and lateral incisor. The immediate question was "is the tooth cracked? Teeth will shift when there's a cracked tooth." It makes sense to me that a cracked tooth would move, allowing the others to move as well, and tooth mobility is occasionally listed as a symptom of a cracked tooth. My dentist is certain that there is a small crack in the structure of the root that my crown is on. Evidence is mounting that I am headed for a dental implant. Please, please, please hold on until January when I can enroll in the health care savings plan!

3. Volte is a word.

I love Scrabble.

You again?!?!

So, last March I made a quilt that I didn't like at all. I ended up donating that quilt top to my mother's church, where the ladies-who-quilt put a border and a backing on, and gave it to the quilt auction for world hunger relief.

Never thought I'd see it again!

My mother stood and guarded that quilt during the auction, and bought it for herself. I'm impressed with the fabric that was chosen for the border (it really offsets the colors and brings them together nicely), and am touched by her persistence in buying the quilt (she actually did have to bid against other people!).

X is for xylophone...

...because X is always for xylophone. Unless you're creative, and make X stand for equinox. In this same children's alphabet book about animals, Z was for zorilla, a small animal related to the weasel, but that looks like a skunk.

A lot of my time at work is spent weeding this time of year. That's what librarians call getting rid of old books to make room for the new.

It is a unique experience, to go through all the books in your library, one by one, and really look at them. We're looking at book's condition, how often it's checked out, and if there is something better that has superseded it, etc. But there's so much more -- The other day I came across various relics left behind by previous readers -- a 5 dollar bill, a picture of Jesus, a tootsie pop stick that still had some stick...

And then there are the publishing oddities. There's a book picturing children doing yoga...and they have huge smiles on their faces. You notice how everyone else doing yoga in books has a meditative look on their faces? D came across a book where someone was modeling with their hands how to do something, and the hand model was not a good choice. Her nail polish was chipped, her hands were dry and cracked, and her cuticles were a mess. It was very very odd to look at.

It's fun.

O Henry!

The O. Henry Prize Stories are the best of the best contemporary short stories.
The O. Henry Prize Stories are the best of the best contemporary short stories.
The O. Henry Prize Stories are the best of the best contemporary short stories.

I figure if I write type this 100 times by the end of the day I will finally memorize this.

Today was probably the third time that the same customer asked me if we have any copies of this year's anthology, and this is the third time I've had to do a quick Google search to figure out what she was talking about.

I know it when I see it

I think most people would say that a classic novel is 'classic' because it has universal themes and 'staying power.' Is determining whether the novel you're reading is a classic a case where the 'you know it when you see it' approach will suffice?

What makes this complicated is when is something a modern classic? Really, what I'm looking for is what makes a classic a 'modern classic'? Is there a set criteria? A set date? Do you take Penguin's or Everyman's definition of what constitutes a *modern* classic?

I actually used my library's databases to investigate a bit further, and came across an article* that identified a paradigm shift that began in 1950 in how writers treated their protagonists. They started using their protagonists in a way that was "made to serve the writer's assumption that the individual is forever trapped in his loneliness and psychic impotence." I'm not well-read enough to know if that is true, or even what that means, but it does support my hesitation to arbitrarily decide that books published after, say, 1970 belong on a modern classics list, and books published prior to that belong on a classics list.

From there I started looking at various timelines of literature theory, and got waaaaaay of track. But it does seem like 1945 is a common cutoff year. And that makes sense to me, what with the war and all.

I suppose I could go so far as to consult some books on literary history, to expand my search for an authoritative definition of a modern classic. But, not now. Now, I'm going to sign off and read a little bit more from Madame Bovary before going to bed.

*Sources:
Polzner, Walter. "Is Modern Literature Unique?" World & I 12.3 (1997): 320-338. MasterFILE Premier. EBSCOHost. Hennepin County Library, Minnesota. 15 May 2008. http://search.ebscohost.com/

And now, for something kinda gross

I can't be the only one with this information....

We no longer live in a world where there is simply a number one and a number two. (You know to which bodily functions these numbers refer - I don't need to spell it out). I learned from my morning radio show that there is a number three. And, probably more numbers.

Now, my radio hosts never spelled out exactly what they meant by number three, but they implied vomiting. And the VH1 Best Week Ever definition of making number three supports that. I'm comfortable with that. But, when I checked the Urban Dictionary's definition of Number Three, I found significant disagreement on what this phrase in the pop culture lexicon means. Making number three, according to UD, can also refer to either explosive diarrhea, or ejaculation after masturbation.

I guess it's one of those things that I'd have to listen to the context to know what is meant, but until this cantankerous debate is resolved and one definition prevails over the others, I will refrain from making any casual references to number three. Because, you know, I talk bathroom talk all the time.

A spider inside her

Thanks to this article from Cracked.com, and a verification at Snopes.com, I can rest easy knowing that I probably won't swallow a spider in my sleep tonight. Yes, I, along with millions of people, believed the "people swallow an average of 8 spiders during their sleep in their lifetime" declaration for most of my life. Whew!

And, I'm back.

A week off

When I haven't been blogging much, it is safe to assume that I haven't had any "oh, duh!" moments recently, or that I'm not prepared to write about what's up, or that I'm wasting time by taking tons of online quizzes. This week, it was all three. Plus, I've been reading a lot, and started my third fourth attempt at a book blog.


87

Just another Monday

From a woman who gives me the best reading recommendations...
What's that book about a woman who fled the pogroms in Russia, and then tried to find the daughter she was separated from?
Away: a novel, by Amy Bloom. A pogrom is a "Russian term, originally meaning “riot,” that came to be applied to a series of violent attacks on Jews in Russia in the late 19th and early 20th cent."

Cut it out!

I have wanted to know how to do this FOREVER! Finally, I figured out how to remove the background from a photo using gimp. It was actually pretty easy, once I figured out how to invert the selection and then delete the background.

Win some, lose some...again

I'm okay with judging myself harshly (been doing it all my life, after all) but am not okay with others deciding to lay into me because of X, Y or Z. A sampling from this week of both...

I thought I should have known that Larry McMurtry is the author of Lonesome Dove and Terms of Endearment.

A patron told me he likes books by this author, who I had never heard of, of course. I took his recommendation, though, started listening to Telegraph Days, and when I went to add this to my GoodReads account, discovered who Larry McMurtry is. I felt better when I learned that there are managers in my library system who didn't recognize Twilight... and that's hot right now. Larry -- not so hot right now.

Somebody else thought I should have known where to get a bike license. This was over Instant Messaging service. Went something like this...

Me: Motorcycle?
That person: No.
Me: To register it so you can claim it if it's stolen?
That person: No.
Me: A license to ride your bike?
That person: Yes.
Me: Looking at the Minnesota Department of Transportation, I don't see that you need a license. Can you tell me more about what you heard? Or where you heard it?
That person: This is taking too long. They need to find someone who knows what they're doing. Thanks for nothing. Choice Words.

Turns out, Minneapolis used to require bike licenses, and Anoka (not in my service area, but...) currently does require a license for bicyclists. He had disconnected by then, and before I asked where he lived.

Those squiggly marks

When I consider my DH's incredible skill with languages, I sometimes think he was meant to be a linguist. He remembers a LOT of German without using it daily (and when he does speak, his diction is very impressive). He has a thorough understanding of and appreciation for our English language - he speaks well, and he talks about speaking well. And he likes to talk about English and other languages.

This is a snippet of our conversation tonight while waiting for our reubens.

Him: How far do you go to pronounce foreign or imported words authentically?
Me: Well, I don't say hah WAH (stop) ee because my throat gets exhausted.
Him: Glottal stops hurt your throat? That's weird. Well, in English we don't pronounce the glottal stop often the way they do in Austronesian languages, so that makes sense.
(BTW, the apostrophe in Hawai'i is called an okina.)

Me: I don't say ca FAY la TAY because I think it's pretentious that they use the mark over the 'e.'
Him: Definitely. It's a grave accent anyway, which just means that you should pronounce a letter that is typically silent. If it were an acute accent, you would pronounce it differently. Like resumé.
(The accent mark in the restaurant Cafe Latté is an acute accent. It is still considered nonstandard, and IMHO, pretentious. I guess they have the goods to back up their pretense, though).

We then went on to list all kinds of other diacritical marks and how they affect our pronunciation (the circumflex-not-the-caret, the cedilla, the tilde, the umlaut) as well as naming the different stops in our speech (glottal, labial, etc.). I stumped him when I asked if there was such a thing as an epiglottal stop, like when we make the 'ng' sound with our epiglottis, but I'm not going to answer that.

(Hint: If there are any speech therapists -- any at all -- out there, now would be a good time to try posting a comment!)

Anyway. While I was reading a little bit about diacritical marks, I learned the the keystrokes to make accent marks. ¡Quiero escribir en español ahora! Pero, no recuerdo muchas palabras. ¿Cómo estás? Y ¿Qué tiempo hace hoy? Y Deseo que tenía un otro amigo español. Practicaría español otra vez. Oh well.

Forget something?

Today was one of those rare and dreamy days. I spent the entire day IN. MY. OFFICE. Oh, I got so much done. I was in such a groove that I forgot to leave work on time...I didn't notice it was 5:30 until the first closing announcement was made.

It doesn't happen very often that I forget to leave work on time -- but I've had my fair share of embarrassing "what did I come here to do?" moments. You know the ones -- where you walk into a room and by the time you get there, you forget what your purpose was. Also, as documented in this blog, there are quite a few facts that I've managed to forget throughout my life. I'm not that stressed about it, but it is pretty annoying to forget things. A feeling that others share...

Don't fret. There are options, people. You could try...

a backup for your brain!

Evernote allows you to capture information (pictures, voice, data) in a number of different places (your desktop, internet browser, cell phone or PDA), and then search and retrieve that information from any of those devices. (Really, the video does a better job of explaining it.) They're saying you can remember everything. My initial reaction to this was "this is over the top! it's still a crutch for your brain! it's no different than pen and paper and what's wrong with pen and paper anyway?" But, then I remembered the message I Jotted to myself earlier today because I never have pen and paper with me on the go. Then I thought about how happy I am that I can access my Google Docs anywhere with Internet access. The list goes on.

There is apparently a rapidly growing brain fitness software market. I'm not sure that Evernote qualifies as brain fitness software, but he's tapping into a real desire, I'm guessing.

a prosthetic for your brain!

Today's Future Tense had to do with memory, too. Gary Marcus, psychology professor and author of Kluge: the haphazard construction of the human mind, says "implanting chips in human brains would help us overcome evolutionary limitations on memory." I get where our brains are not computers, and it would be cool to organize our memories the way we organize our email inbox or feed readers for easy search and retrieval, but seriously. Would you really want to index your own memory? Really?? There are things that I'm trying to forget, and I don't want any tags on those memories. At all.

a bike for your brain!

The StarTribune reported yesterday that the Mayo Clinic's Study on Aging finds that (drum roll, please) physical exercise is good for the brain. I haven't been on a bike for several years (mainly because I hate biking), but I'm tempted to check out the bike auction this spring. I love the trails near my house.

Betty Botter bought a bit of butter

As he's doing a lot more baking lately, my DH asked about the difference between salted and unsalted butter. He didn't appreciate my "one has salt, the other doesn't" response, but that really is the difference. Chefs prefer unsalted butter because it allows them to control the amount of salt in, and thus, the flavor of the dish. The Joy of Baking says that the shelf life of unsalted butter is about 3 months, while the shelf life of the salted (preserved) butter is about 5 months.

Given that butter never lasts that long in my house, I think we should give the sweet butter a try.

And, for more than you could ever want to know about the history of butter, read on.

Not just a video game

Guitar Hero is just a step towards new ways of engaging or interfacing with music, and there is more to come from the MIT Media Lab.

A crossword puzzler

I helped someone with a crossword puzzle question yesterday.

Q: What is the function whose domain is between -1 and 1?
A: Um...

I haven't had a math class since high school, and although I was good with the maths and enjoyed them, it's been over 10 years (gulp, wimper, waaaa) since I thought about what a function, domain, value, sine, cosine, or a tangent was. Luckily for me someone blogged the answer, so I was able to cross-reference pretty quickly and give the caller the answer. Made sure it fit the clue in her crossword before getting off the phone, etc., but sheesh! That would have taken quite a bit of digging otherwise. And, really, isn't the point of the NYT crossword puzzle that they are impossible to solve?

The funny part was that a mathematician, who I am almost certain would know something like this off the top of his head, was sitting about 6' away from me, probably listening to the whole thing. I'm not a favorite of his. So if he did happen to overhear, I'm wondering what he made of my stumbling through inverse trigonometric functions.

Cats and coasters

The girl cat knows the rules, and lately has been testing her boundaries. The most important rule is "no kitty on the keyboard." She usually sits right next to the keyboard, or quickly struts across, rather than walk around the computer. Tonight, she saw her chance and blatantly defied the rule.



This is Tiki looking all innocent and cute when she knows she's doing something wrong. She really has a talent for this.



How quickly she changes tactics. Here is Tiki looking at me with disdain after I tried to gently nudge her off the computer.


I originally had the camera out to take pictures of the quilted coasters I made with the leftover fabric. This is how they turned out.


Incidentally, if you saw them in person you would see cat hair all over them. Not only does Tiki love the computer, she also likes to help me quilt. She will oftentimes crawl right up on my chest and stick her butt in my face while I'm sewing the edge of a quilt. That's my girl.

Going on staycation?

I want to get OUT OF TOWN! I am still not sure if that is going to happen this year, but I really want to go to the Amish quilt auction in Ohio, and I want to take trips to Portland and Chicago to visit friends and family. I know my first problem is that I need to be more deliberate in making that happen. However, in April, which is when I intended to go on my first vacation, I'm facing the prospect of a staycation. If, like me, you aren't going anywhere soon, I'm here to say I feel your pain.

So, what can I do here? How can I create a little mini-vacation in my own hometown?

It shouldn't be so hard to enjoy my city. Frommer's ranked it among the top ten destinations for 2007, and the city's website boasts landmarks, architecture and tours, and MEET Minneapolis created a list of 150 Things to Do in Mpls in honor of the state's sesquicentennial. Yet, exploring Mpls has never been on my list of top-10 things to do on any given weekend. Maybe I'll cross the river and head to (gasp) Saint Paul next weekend! Or, sit down and actually formulate a plan to go on a real vacation soon.

The corpse flower

Oh, drat. I missed a rare opportunity to smell a flower whose scent is reminiscent of a day-old dirty diaper pail. Yes, I'm writing of the corpse flower that bloomed at the Como Conservatory yesterday. The Amorphophallus titanum, which roughly translates as "giant misshapen penis," blooms 2-3 times in its life span, so flower people got excited about it. Me? I'm fine looking at pictures.

Makes sense to me

In a meeting with other librarians today, and one of them said "yeah, my kids use acid all the time, and they love it." And we all said "cool!"

Out of context, that sounds disturbing, alarming, and frightening. Fear not. Librarians aren't hiding anything. Acid is a music production software created by Sony that allows you to create original music and remix other music.

A few other terms have crept into my lexicon over the last few years that might sound strange. Here are some examples:

I'll just Jott my Gubb list so I don't lose that thought.
I have Scratch on Tuesday.
I'll just tweet my twits to let them know I'm at Starbucks.
I think I'll throw a fish at Amy, or at least write on her wall.

Any other phrases that you thought you'd never say? Or that sound bizarre when you hear them?

World language learning

A friend of mine is a Spanish teacher, and she told me today that her school district requires a 3.0 GPA for high school students to enroll Spanish I. I had never heard of such a requirement, but I checked the Minnesota Department of Education, and sure enough, there are no statewide standards for world language study. Both the University of MN and the MN State Colleges expect graduates of Minnesota High Schools to have had 2 years of a single foreign language study for admission. (They don't indicate a minimum or a target grade point average, but don't "C" students get into college anymore?).

It's nice for my friend to have the go-getter students in her classes, but (and she agrees) it is sad that many students who wish to enroll in Spanish are not able to.

Internet roundup: how do I...

I've been noticing a number of how-to sites lately. Especially within the last few weeks, how-to sites have been spotlighted in various blogs and resource lists. Given that this blog is about all that common knowledge that people seem to have collected, I thought that how-to sites fit the scope of Oranges and Peaches.

WonderHowTo claims to have collected every how-to video that exists on the internet today. Anyone can submit a video's URL, but membership is required to create playlists and leave comments and grades for the videos. Didn't dig around too much, but today I learned how to escape from handcuffs and watched a new recipe for stuffed mushrooms.

World Hum is all about "exploring travel in all its facets: how it changes us, how it changes the way we see the world, and finally, how travel itself is changing the world." To them, travel is a state of mind. I love it. Two editors and several contributors have written various articles about different aspects of travel -- much more than where to go and what to see. They also maintain a blog -- I stumbled across this entry on how to use a squat toilet. It is a very humorous how-to, but given that this is the third day in a row that this taboo subject has presented itself to me, I had an extra laugh.

Rules of Thumb, which strives to collect all rules of thumb in one place, employs a user-rating system to determine the accuracy of the vignettes of wisdom that are submitted. "When planting seed, don't cover it deeper than three times its diameter," and "your thumb and index finger will encircle four modest servings of uncooked spaghetti" are just a few of the rules of thumb you can find here.

And, finally, ReadWriteWeb pulled many sites that teach you how to do stuff. The sites include some techie how-tos (it's a tech blog, after all) and some general all-purpose sites from amateurs and professionals.

Colicky babies

I simply thought that colic meant that a baby screamed and cried for no apparent reason. Turns out, people have been walking around with the knowledge that colic has to do with the baby's digestion. News to me.

In my defense, though, M-W's second definition for colic is "a condition marked by recurrent episodes of prolonged and uncontrollable crying and irritability in an otherwise healthy infant that is of unknown cause." The Mayo Clinic starts its article on colic off by saying that it is defined as "crying for more than three hours a day" in an otherwise well-fed and healthy baby. They go on to say that no one really knows what causes colic. Plus, I'm not a parent so this topic doesn't really come up in conversation, or in the books I read.

But, yes. I heard more stories about my DH's infancy over the weekend. Some very funny stories, one of them being how colicky and crabby and unhappy he was for the first few months. (Not funny for his parents at the time, of course, but the way my mother- and father-in-law tell stories is awesome). On the way home, D said that he would rather not have heard about how his colic manifested itself with bouts of explosive diarrhea. So, don't tell him I blogged about it. :)

Sanguine stress

Common knowledge item: blood stains are difficult to get out.

If you treat the stain while it is still fresh, there are things you can do.

HowStuffWorks breaks stain removal down by material, describing how different fibers will react to various substances. Water and ammonia are mentioned the most, but a quick google search will give other options (like dishwashing soap, salt, peroxide, etc.,) if cold water doesn't do the trick. The most important thing to keep in mind is that blood is a protein stain, which means that hot or warm water will set the stain even more. So, use cold water immediately and all should be well.

:)

Since when?

You mean to tell me that Luke and Leia are TWINS?!

I learned this tonight while watching a bit of Star Wars with A&C. C was patient in giving A & I a brief reintroduction to the characters we thought we knew (even though I've never made it through an entire StarWars movie in my life) when he pointed out that Luke and Leia were actually twins.

It went like this...

Us: WHAT?! When did that happen?!?! Since when?!
Him: Ummmm....since the 80s.

Well, this just confirms that I'm a different brand of geek from most geeks.

Cocktail hour: solving the world's problems one glass at a time

I just love the conversations that come up with the in-laws. Even when the conversation steers towards politics. It seems we can all agree that we genuinely trying to figure things out -- even if we disagree on the specifics. In addition to politics, the conversation last night ranged from No Child Left Behind to imitation foods, from president Abraham Lincoln to photo processing in the 1950s and 1960s.

Everyone (even me) in the grouping seemed to know that...

• Abraham Lincoln was a political outsider (thanks to Doris Kearns Goodwin's Team of Rivals), but we didn't know that his name was not even on the ballot in southern states;*
  
• Imitation pork is usually made out of sietan;
  
• Students in many other countries are placed on different educational or vocational tracks at a certain age, but we lack specifics on how placement is determined (Eurydice and EuroEducation provide profiles of European educational structures, and if you can read other languages, UNESCO profiles educational system structures around the world.); and that
  
• Cecil's still makes the Best. Reubens. Ever.
  

The question of whether cats will scratch leather came up. Basically, yes. They will. And not necessarily intentionally -- just by jumping on and off the furniture, their claw marks will show up more. Soft fabrics fare the best, according to various forums on a range of home design sites, but the best solution is to provide more appealing alternatives for the cats. Luckily, our boy cat likes his sisal rope scratching post, and the girl cat likes her variegated cardboard.

And finally, "how is *the merger* going?" All I can say is it's huge. It's a huge thing that will take a lot of time.

*Whenever I get disgusted with the division within the Democratic Party, I just try to remember that the Democrats actually split into northern and southern wings at one point in our history, and that we aren't there now.

101 Ways to waste time

1. Create peep dioramas illustrating the current political situation. I gave this 'assignment' as a joke to my mother-in-law, but was delighted and impressed when she actually completed the assignment. Photos to come soon, I hope.

2. Play around with ToonDoo. If you're not inspired by your own text, use a poem. I don't think the Academy of American Poets had cartoonish interpretation of poetry in mind when they established April as National Poetry Month. Rilke was German, anyway.

You'll have to come up with the other 99 ways to waste time.

Every day is national history day

More and more students (grade 6-12) across the nation research and prepare History Day projects (exhibits, performances, documentaries) based on a pre-determined theme. The theme for 2008 is Conflict and Compromise, and students could identify topics such as Galileo and The Vatican, segregation of military troops, supreme court cases, strikes -- anything that has conflict and compromise.

So, for the last few years, I've been trying to figure out exactly when National History Day was, and finally decided to look this up. No wonder I couldn't find an exact date -- there isn't one.

But, I did find that Minnesota's regional history day events were held in March for 2008, and that the statewide event will be held in April. The national history contest will be held in June, at the University of Maryland. Through this process I also learned that the University of Minnesota provides a History Day Hot Line and email for contestants. That's pretty cool.

Color color everywhere

Baby Quilt
Originally uploaded by just_katherine

I'm not crafty enough to have a separate blog for my quilting accomplishments, so you're stuck with a few posts here at Oranges and Peaches.

I made this quilt for my little newborn cousin. I chose the colors when I thought he would be a girl, but I don't think he's into gender identity just yet so they should be fine. Perfect for his little newborn eyes that need contrast. The batting is the thickest my machine would handle (for that all important tummy time), and the backing is a fish theme (for the biologist mother).

I'm using the leftover fabric to make coasters.

"It was a dark and stormy night"

Best first line of a book. Ever. And, I just learned today that Madeleine L'Engle was not the first to pen that phrase. No. Edward Bulwer-Lytton's* 1830 novel Paul Clifford opens with

It was a dark and stormy night; the rain fell in torrents, except at occasional intervals, when it was checked by a violent gust of wind which swept up the streets (for it is in London that our scene lies), rattling along the housetops, and fiercely agitating the scanty flame of the lamps that struggled against the darkness.

In fact, there are many more instances where this phrase was used and made popular in literature, at least according to Wikipedia.

I started this post thinking it would be about great first lines in general (you know, "Call me Ishmael," "They shoot the white girl first," "It was a pleasure to burn," "Mrs Dalloway said she would buy the flowers herself") and a rant about the American Book Review's placement of "He loved big brother" at number 7 on the list of 100 best last lines from novels (should be number 1), but I got sidetracked by "it was a dark and stormy night."

*Bulwer-Lytton also coined the phrase "the pen is mightier than the sword."

Digital fiction

Well, this is humbling. Here I am all excited about mapping out events that take place in books at my Twilight program tomorrow, but here is a story that takes place on a google map. This is very cool, and there are more to come.

Two men at your library

The theme for YALSA's Teen Tech Week this year was Tune In @ Your Library. When this theme was used for the teens' summer reading program a few years ago, some of my colleagues heard it as "two men" at your library. I will always think of it as "two men".

So, what did I plan for "two men" this year?

Today I had a circuit bending workshop at the library. It was presented by Beatrix*Jar, an electronic sound art duo. They are awesome, and lead a very very good workshop for teens.

Basically, they take battery operated (that's a key point. battery operated. no electrocution on their, or my watch!) devices and rewire the circuit board to create new sounds. In the workshop they took apart a Casio keyboard, tried different wiring until they found an effect they liked, then soldered it in place with a new switch. Then the kids got to dig through their box and pull out other keyboards and educational toys from the 80s and give a try at rewiring the sounds.

I'm not doing justice to how cool circuit bending is. I started to wonder if it was just cool to me because it never occurred to me to take something apart and make up my own use for it, but no. It's cool. Check this out...



My library system does Teen Tech Month as its way of participating in Teen Tech Week. Why? There are a lot of non-print resources available for recreation and education these days, and it's important to recognize that that people need to be technologically literate. And, it's important to me that librarians be considered as qualified, knowledgeable and trusted go-to people when it comes to information technology (as well as print resources), and that the resources and services we provide are seen as relevant and current.

I must keep this underlying professional reason in mind as I get ready for my next Teen Tech Month program -- a techie book discussion / Twilight party. I am geeked about the google map we're going to create of all the events that take place over the course of the books. I also must tame my inner-nerd by then, to keep it at a minimum.

An obituary column

Who knows what will come up in conversation at work on any given day? Today, it was deaths.

Jon Hassler. The excellent Minnesota author.
I met him in my early teens in Park Rapids. My aunt complimented him by saying that he was the Ernest Hemingway of our times, and for YEARS I thought I had met Ernest Hemingway. Even though I read Staggerford shortly after meeting him, I think I was in college before I figured out that no, I had met Jon Hassler. Not Ernest Hemingway.

Arthur C. Clarke (science fiction author of many titles, including 2001: A Space Odyssey), Margaret Truman (mystery author and daughter of President Harry Truman), and Anthony Minghella (director of The English Patient and Cold Mountain).
Just part of the list we generated at work today. We were literally gathered by the water cooler for part of the discussion.

William F Buckley Jr. Founder of The National Review, member of Skull and Bones, and revolutionized conservatism (while being in favor of legalized marijuana).
I received his obituary from my mother in the mail today with a note saying that if I don't know who he is, I should. (I didn't). And, that I completely missed the point of The Good Shepherd. (My italics). Thanks, Mom!! You rock!

But, all of this obituary talk today made me realize that I haven't heard from the First Wives Club lady in over a week. This is really unusual. I hope she's okay!

Postage

Does anyone use the term postage to refer to their blog posts? If so, my postage level is at 102 posts (yay, me), my average postage is 21.25 p/m (posts per month) (yay, me), but my postage rate has decreased this week (booooo). But, I don't think postage should be used this way.

On May 12, the cost of postage stamps will increase to $.42. Last weekend my mom asked me if I had a supply of the $.39 and $.02 stamps left, and if she could trade them for some forever stamps. I had never heard of the forever stamps, even though they've been released for 11 months now. I basically never use stamps, and I had to confess that I was still using leftovers from my two sheets of $.39 children's characters that I purchased in January of 2006.

I just don't mail much that requires stamps. Bills are online, Netflix is pre-paid, and I email people if I have something to say. (And, yes, this means I haven't mailed Christmas letters for...probably 3 years.) (And, this also means that even though I receive one or two letters a week from my mom - which I love - I don't write back. I email or call back.)

And, speaking of the cost of postage -- if you didn't get your "Economic Stimulus Payment Notice" in the mail, "all individuals receiving payments will receive a notice and additional information shortly before the payment is made". The IRS spent something like $42 million to send these notices via mail, but they have make it more difficult each year to send your taxes in the mail to them. Oh, well.

.... . .-.. .-.. --- / .-- --- .-. .-.. -..

(Hello, world)

I always have one book going in my car, and one going on my mp3 player. Twice today I heard a reference to someone speaking in morse code (with a pencil in Thirteen Reasons Why and with a light switch in Looking for Alaska). It got me to thinking that a) I'm glad I never had aspirations to become an engineer, because my brain won't understand how radio signals work, and b) those author-types sure are creative.

BTW, Morse code is still in use today. Although the FCC doesn't require the Morse code test for amateur radio certification anymore, many still use Morse code to communicate. And, if anyone wants to create a secret spy message using Morse code, here's a handy chart for you to learn the alphabet.

The Three Musketeers

Alexandre Dumas
Originally uploaded by IrishDave5000

So. I've started reading The Three Musketeers for this summer's book club. Being the fast learner that I am, I quickly discovered that it is not a bed book.

I never thought about this before...Alexandre Dumas was a black man. (My talented guys' book club facilitator and go-to person for anything literature-related pointed this out to me today when we were talking about the classics book club I'm having this summer). While we still had slavery, he was writing and being published in France. According to this biography he didn't identify himself as a black man, and that he didn't really encounter any kind of racism during his life. So, I don't know that his race played a huge role in his writing, but he's celebrated on the African American Registry nonetheless.

"Not Anne Frank, but the other one with diaries"

Anaïs Nin (pronounced 'ahna EESE neen,') has shown up more than once at the reference desk lately, and, of course, I had never heard of her before. But I started to wonder why we had so many of her published journals in the catalog and decided I was missing out on something.

Um, er...yes. I was. ;)

Not only is she well known for the diaries (that she started keeping when she was 11 years old), she is also famous for her erotica, her lovers, (her first husband was Hugh Guiler, should one ever need that information) and her views on feminine identity.

Salon.com makes an audio file of her reading in 1972 available on their website.

An example of my day at work...

...hee hee! Not really, but I'm hooked on A Bit of Fry and Laurie after watching this video. (Thanks, D!)



British comedy is an acquired taste, in my opinion, and it seems that people know a lot of the shows. I'm a Blackadder and Fawlty Towers fan, but am not as well-versed in British comedy as..well..some people. There's a group for everything!

A random sample

These are just a few of the questions that came through today...

Q: What does an armadillo sound like?
A: I can't really tell, but National Geographic provides an audio file.

Q: What holiday do matzo balls go with?
A: They are particularly popular during Passover.

Q: What does DH mean?
A: Darling Husband...or more commonly...Dear Husband.

Okay...that last question came via email from my DH who wanted to know what I was saying about him! But I was at the reference desk when I got the email...

Apparently, fire kills skeletons...

...which makes Skulduggery Pleasant, the ace detective who just happens to be a flame-throwing skeleton, even more funny. This is one of my favorite books for tweens from 2007 -- mostly for its bone-dry sense of humor -- and is also a relatively new area of reading for me. It's supernatural. I made my husband listen to my booktalk about the book last week, and he was really hung up on the flame-throwing. "That would kill him!!"

Lemon laws

Hey! Did you know that there are Lemon Laws that cover bad cars?

Under the law, if the manufacturer or its authorized dealer has been unable to repair a car’s problem after a “reasonable number of attempts,” the buyer or lessee may go through a manufacturer’s arbitration program, or to court, to seek a full refund of the car’s purchase price (minus a deduction for use of the vehicle). The law considers a “reasonable number of attempts” to be any one of the following:

• Four or more unsuccessful attempts to repair the same defect; or,
• One unsuccessful attempt to repair a defect which has caused the complete failure of the steering or braking system and which is likely to cause death or serious bodily injury; or,
• A car which has been out of service due to warranty repairs for 30 or more cumulative business days.

I have written about my POS car before, and, while my car problems were never bad enough to warrant a refund or a replacement, I wish I had kept better documentation early on.

The Good Shepherd

My DH and I watched The Good Shepherd last night, and just could not get into it. He bailed after 2 hours, and I kept watching hoping that it would come together a little bit more. When we were reconstructing the movie I said something to the effect of "I appreciate this secret society that they made up" and Dan right away said "that part wasn't made up! Skull and Bones is real." Huh?

Well, I figured it couldn't be widely known, but today when I was recounting my weekend with my coworkers - and sure enough - they all knew that Skull and Bones was a real society at Yale, and that both the President Bushes were members. Most of the details they knew came from coverage during the last presidential election, as both John Kerry and George Bush were members.

I wish I had known about the movie before I watched it. If I knew that it was about the CIA from the get-go, or if I remembered the circumstances of the invasion of the Bay of Pigs, I probably would have enjoyed it a lot more. As it was, I spent most of the time trying to figure out what was going on (too much mumbling), not sympathizing with Matt Damon's character AT ALL (he made the choice to put his work first, too bad for him that his life sucks), distracted by whether Angelina Jolie's character was good or not (she would make a great bad spy), and trying to figure out Joe Pesci's character (he was part of the mafia who used Havana as a home base until Castro rose to power and kicked 'em out).

Soda vs. Powder

The difference between baking powder and baking soda, for some reason, always trips me up. I haven't had any mishaps lately (my husband does the baking anyways) but every time I go to the cupboard, I have to double and triple check that I retrieved the correct product.

According to chemistry.about.com, both do the same thing - they make whatever you're baking 'rise.' (Knew that.) They each contain sodium bicarbonate, and when mixed with something acidic, will produce the carbon dioxide. The difference between them is that baking soda is pure sodium bicarbonate (so the chemical process begins as soon as you mix in the acidic ingredient, so you have to bake right away), and baking powder is diluted with an acidic ingredient already (usually cream of tartar - so it reacts with the liquid ingredients first, can sit for awhile, and then reacts again to the heat of the oven). A recipe calls for one or the other depending on what the other ingredients are and how they'll all react to each other chemically. And, as The Joy of Baking points out, when a recipe calls for both -- you're sure to get added tenderness in your cookies. Yum.

Cool. This still doesn't help me know I'm going for the right ingredient, though. So, I've had to invent my own device. Here it is:
Powder comes in a canister.
Soda lives in the fridge, with the soda (pop). We both drink our pop warm, though, so maybe I could try this...
Soda can de-oda-rize (deodorize) too.



(I hear you groaning. Don't worry. I'm groaning too.)

Cholera

I helped someone find resources to research the cholera epidemic of 19th Century Britain the other day. While his question was more involved (and I was able to get him started with some more in depth resources) my question was more basic: what does cholera do to a body again?

Oooohhhhhh yeahhhhhh -- duh! From the CDC...

Cholera is an acute, diarrheal illness caused by infection of the intestine with the bacterium Vibrio cholerae. The infection is often mild or without symptoms, but sometimes it can be severe. Approximately one in 20 infected persons has severe disease characterized by profuse watery diarrhea, vomiting, and leg cramps. In these persons, rapid loss of body fluids leads to dehydration and shock. Without treatment, death can occur within hours.

After reading through some of the primary resources from the Lamb Collection (courtesy of the Dundee Central Library), I'm more appreciative of our modern-day sewers. Fun times.

If only the Oscars had run half an hour longer

Quilted Tote
Originally uploaded by just_katherine

....I would have been able to say that I put this quilted tote together during the show. I pressed, cut and sewed it together during the Barbara Walters Special, and finished it during the show. I haven't gotten used to how long it takes to finish quilted projects! Sheesh.

Community Surveys

When someone mentioned this morning that every month 'they turn away 30-40 people for Section 8 vouchers' in her city, I felt ready to give up. I was reminded that I haven't taken the pulse of the city I work in (or live in) for a long time.

How to do that? Some people seem to have a knack for this. I do not. I don't know what's happening on any given Friday night, and I don't know what the housing market is like (except that my property taxes have risen a LOT since I moved here three years ago). I know the schools are in rough shape, that the mayor has a book club for teens, and that the community's garden is lovely in the summer, but I couldn't tell you if crime or construction is rising or not.

But the guys at my local hardware store would be able to tell me!

The West Metro Section of the newspaper just happens to be (!) online, and I can subscribe to it in a (!) RSS feed. And, of course, I could take the time to browse through the local weekly neighborhood papers too. Or the cities' websites. Or I could catch up on my twin cities-related blogs.

The Metropolitan Council presents some (mostly old) data (based on the census) on communities in the metro region, and MNPRO presents community profiles as a marketing tool for those looking to expand their business in Minnesota. There's some useful information there, but not really what I have in mind.

So, I will conduct an experiment this week. I will actively try to take the pulse of the city I live in. If I remember to do this, I'll report back. If I forget, well, then, I won't.

Dog lovers read Dean Koontz

Author Dean Koontz is a dog lover. You (probably didn't) hear it here first!

When I was waiting at the vet's office last week I picked up a copy of the February issue of Dog Fancy. After checking out the centerfold (ooooooooo) I flipped through the articles when I read the following statement: Anyone who loves dogs knows that Dean Koontz is a dog lover.

Even on Koontz's website it says that Dog lovers know that some of Dean Koontz's most compelling novels include dogs as key characters.

I mean, I know what they're trying to say, but doesn't it sound like the wording is more than a bit off? I mean, I'm a cat lover but I don't know which authors are cat lovers! (Oh, alright. I have read my fair share of Cat Who mysteries simply because they feature two Siamese cats). But, still.

WELL! Someone came into the library today asking for Dean Koontz. Why? She said, and I kid you not, I am a dog lover, and I know that Dean Koontz is a dog lover too.

I guess Dog Fancy wasn't that far off after all.

Righteous dudes

No. I am not writing about Bill or Ted. I (sadly) just finished one of my favorite books this year...The History of Love, by Nicole Krauss is a must-read.

I'm not giving anything away when I say that one of the characters (Bird) thinks he is a lamed vovnik. According to one legend, the fate of the human race rests on the shoulders of the 36 truly righteous ones of each generation. Those who are of that select group are thus designated by the Hebrew letters for the number 36, lamed-vav, and colloquially called "lamed-vavniks". This group is also referred to as tzadikim nistarim, or "concealed righteous ones." Given that they are the most righteous souls on earth, they have many responsibilities, but they aren't supposed to know that they are among the chosen. So, Bird finds himself asking "is this what a lamed vovnik would do?" when he is trying to figure out if he is one of the 36 or not. The passages of Bird trying to determine conclusively that he was a lamed vovnik absolutely endearing.

There seem to be different ways to spell and pluralize Jewish words. (Well, maybe -- I'm not familiar with the Hebrew language or alphabet). Krauss uses "vovnik," most sites use "vavnik," and some dropped the "nik" altogether while others spelled it out in one word - lamedvavniks. For the tzadikim, I found tsaddik, tzadi, tzadik, tzaddik, tzadikkim, and zaddik.

This is just a good reminder to use the wildcard function of your search engine, and that Wikipedia can be a good starting point for exploring new concepts.

Sir Edmund Hillary

Edmund Hillary, one of the most well-known mountaineers in history, was the first climber to reach the top of Mount Everest (along with Sherpa guide Tenzig Norgay). His success on the 1953 expedition earned him knighthood, a Polar Medal, honorary Nepalese citizenship, and the Indian Padma Vibhushan recognition. He died on January 10 of this year.

His first wife was Louise Mary Rose.

Oral ordeals

So - I spent some time last month thinking casually about dentists and how they don't suck anymore. Is that why I'm seeing a lot more of the dentist these days? I don't really believe that the universe works this way, but it sure feels like I willed myself into the world of dental health this month.

1. My boy cat has bad teeth, and always has. We brush his teeth, but not regularly enough. The vet showed me where his teeth are decaying (a cavity in a human is a tooth resorption in a cat) and how his jaw quivers and chatters when she touches his gums in certain places. Not good. In a couple of weeks we have to take him in for a cleaning, and possibly a tooth extraction. Poor cat. Fillings are not fun, but they aren't even an option for cats.

2. I'm probably going to lose one of my front teeth. I had a root canal treatment done when I was 15, and a cap installed on the remaining tooth. When I was 22, the tooth broke off, and I had it replaced with a metal post. Last fall, the post became loose, and my new dentist re-cemented it but cautioned that there might be a deeper problem with the underlying tooth. Sure enough, it felt loose again this week, and this, combined with other symptoms, confirmed my dentist's suspicions that there is a crack in the root of my tooth. Given that the treatment is tooth extraction and a dental implant (a very involved and expensive process), he tried shaving the crown to adjust my bite to see how that helps. The tooth has been dead for a long time, so it doesn't hurt or anything, but this blows.

3. The Code on Dental Procedures and Nomenclature, part of the Current Dental Terminology manual provides a standard way of coding dental procedures to meet the HIPAA standards.

So, this means that I have reached an age where..

• I have enough health-related expenditures that I should utilize the flexible spending account option in my benefits package, and
• I (to my horror) consider my medical procedures a worthy conversation topic at the water cooler. Oh man. Me and my busted up old self...
  

Crafternoon delight: Kat made a quilt

My three-rail fence quilt (pg 56 from First-Time Quiltmaking). It's made of awesome.



What I learned about quilting

First, it takes forever. Second, there are many intricacies of fabrics, threads, needles, and machines, and it really is worth it to invest in quality materials. Third, just when you think you're close to finished with the quilt, there's about a million more things to do.




What I learned about myself

I like quilting. I like all of it - the washing, ironing, measuring, cutting, sewing, ironing, pinning, sewing, ironing, measuring, cutting, sewing, ironing, ironing and ironing. (I had no idea there was so much ironing involved.) And, I have more patience to be precise than I thought.



What I remembered about myself

I get worn out when I'm concentrating too hard. Mary (the brilliant woman who owns Quilter's Courtyard in St. Paul and taught the beginning quilting class) kept telling me "no sighing allowed."

So much for my new year's resolution

I spent a majority of my time in 2007 exploring Web 2.0 tools as a way to immerse myself in the Library 2.0 discussion. Basically, I created accounts with MySpace, Facebook, LinkedIn, SecondLife, Flickr, YouTube, Skype, Google Docs, Google Reader and Blogger and used them all regularly throughout the year. And it took a toll on my soul.

So I resolved that in 2008, I would revert back to a "1.0" lifestyle. My plan including sitting at home and reading books, learning to quilt, trying new recipes and using the Internet for email, online banking, and reserving library books only. (Well, I wasn't going to give up my Facebook or Blogger accounts. Those are fun.)

So much for that resolution! So far this year I have added two new blogs, a Google Map and a Gubb list to the webosphere (or whatever it's called these days).

Stick it to Ya (a library learning 2.0 project I decided to join last minute)
My Map (a map of adventures of reading in public places)
Between the Page and the Shelf (a blog co-authored by my writer/editor friend Kristin and myself. As of this writing, we just moved to Wordpress and are still unpacking. Come on in, but excuse the mess!)

I am happy to realize that I feel much more balanced. I'm geeked about wordpress and the maps mashups. And and and, photos of the quilt I made are expected soon. I hope.

The Little Rock Nine

My comforting thought for the day is this: so many adults are parents.

Parents have children, and children go to school. Those children come home needing help with their homework assignments. This is one explanation for why so many people remember/know things that I have not heard of before, or don't remember hearing about. Their kids had to learn about it in school, and thus, the parents had to learn about it. And, I get to hear about it when they come to the library for help with their homework too, which is cool. Embarrassing when I don't know who they're talking about, but I can usually cover up my lack on knowledge in the moment.

I was helping a woman find information about the Little Rock Nine today to help her daughter with a history project. (One of my colleagues knew who the Little Rock Nine were because she helped her son with the same assignment last year, giving a little bit more support for my theory). I had never heard of them before, but now know that they were the first nine black students to go to a previously all-white school in Arkansas after the Brown v. Board of Education ruling. And it was a long, difficult bring-in-the-armed-forces process.

Cool maps

I took a lot of cataloging classes in library school - and I wrote a paper about cataloging maps. I was so geeked about the prospect of a career in map librarianship - the idea of needing to learn the different projections (and probably feel strongly about them) really excited my inner nerd. At the time we had the controversial Peter's Map hanging on our wall, and my hubby and I dug into the controversy like it was a drug or something. I mean, we really got into it. For about a month.

But I still find maps interesting, and have even blogged about cool ones I stumbled upon at Strange Maps, and today I have to share another way to view maps. The Google Maps Mania blog has listed 100 Things you can do with google maps mashups. And, these are really, really cool. You can explore the New 7 Wonders of the World with satellite images and YouTube videos. You can find the nearest Starbucks, the tallest skyscrapers or your local libraries. I love it. And I wonder what map librarians think of this stuff. I should look at geotagging (adding content with location information) at some point. It might be a critical skill at some point.

My first caucus

I will move on from posts about the political process, but I have to report on my caucus. When we got to the neighborhood middle school (where several precinct meetings were being held) the line to get in went around the block of the location. There are nine precincts in my ward, and I don't know how many, but there definitely was more than one DFL precinct caucus held at my location. When I got to my room, I signed my name on the registration sheet then wrote my candidate's name down on a piece of yellow construction paper. There were 310 such binding presidential preference votes cast in my precinct. Approximately 100 people stayed for the caucus. There was a LOT of formality to follow as we went through the updates, and then finally the resolutions. We listened to 9 resolutions, and voted by show of hands on whether they should be brought to the district convention for further consideration. Some of the resolutions inspired lengthy discussion, which I found incredibly fascinating.

I have to say, though, that I was really distracted during the entire caucus. We were in this classroom, and the ceiling was leaking right above my head. Every three to five minutes or so, there would be another small drop that landed right between my husband and I. It was really disturbing to discover that my neighborhood middle school is leaking. What is it like to be a student there? I have to wonder. And figure out if I can do anything about it.

Random vocab words

My husband has an extensive vocabulary. This drives me nuts, mostly because I'm jealous. Anyway, we're nerds, and to prove it, there's a game we've played were I open the dictionary to a random page, place my finger on a random word and ask him for the definition. He almost always knows the definition. He's that good.

Tonight, after helping a patron find that Newbery book that had a sailboat on the front cover, I thought for sure I would be able to stump him with my new word I learned. It went like this:

Me: (laughing to self, hee hee hee) Hey! Do you know what a (dramatic pause) frigate is?
Him: Yeah...it's a sailing ship, and a quite formidable one at that.
Me: (growling) How the hell do you know that?
Him: I played a pirate game when I was a kid.
Me: Curses. Foiled again.

One of these days I'm going to stump him. Any suggestions?

Win some, lose some

I love it when I know stuff. Tonight at happy hour someone mentioned a relatively unknown name (Michael Servetus) and I knew exactly who that was, and could explain with confidence that his arguments against the idea of The Holy Trinity (his antitrinitarianism, if you will) served as the catalyst for today's Unitarian Church. (I might have scared the person who mentioned his name a little bit when I started raving about the book I read about him, but, still. I love it I know stuff.)

I ROCK!

Then, I came home and read Kristin's beautiful first post in our joint blog, Between the Page and the Shelf. I had no idea who Nabokov was. :(((((

I SUCK!

Now I know that he is the much celebrated author of Lolita (duh), and that he left behind an unfinished manuscript that is now at the center of controversy in the publishing world.