This was pre-snow

I got my car shovelled out with the help of a young man next door and I will make it to work. Before I bought my car four years ago, I took the T everywhere. Now I hate the thoughts of waiting out in the freezing wind for a bus. The library is nice and cozy when there is snow everywhere.

Essential Services

Our library was open Friday, Dec. 19, 08 but we closed at 3p.m. I had a pretty bad skid out on my way home. The snow started and got bad very quickly. Yesterday I was very surprised that we were to open. We all made it in though. I walked down to the main street but saw no buses. So I shovelled out and drove in. It took me 25 minutes to park the car at work becaue the police cars, from next door to the library, were blocking our spots. One big officer grumbled I was going to get stuck up in my spot anyway, as he moved his car. Today is Sunday and I don't have to go anywhere. I can cook and watch movies and get online. Since the snow hasn't even slowed down I wonder about tomorrow. I live on the inside of a dead end street. The plow comes down and pushes the snow to my car. I don't think anything is going to move tomorrow.

Christmas Magic

Time to Browse

Now that the Things are completed, I have time to browse and browse. This pic is for Michael. I want to thank Clayton for his Delicious favorites. I already watched Twilight on the free movie site. It was good to meet everyone. I tried a Delicious site of my own but my computer kept shutting down. Don't know why. I am also trying to figure out how to use my MP4 player. Don't laugh, I never owned an ipod or any hand-held wonder. My cell phone is very basic. Oh..The picture is of Silky. She plays fetch until I get too tired. She fetches, not me.

25 Food Blogs

http://www.creampuffsinvenice.ca/


This is lemony bread-pudding french toast.
I found this blog from someone who's family came from Calabria in Italy. My great-grandmother was from there.

Then I started searching through other recipes to see if I could find one my grandmother made and one my mother made. I didn't find them.

My grandmother used to cook these little pizzas I've never seen anywhere else. The piece was square with a top like a mini calzone. She made spinach and raisin pizza for the adults and squares of cheese pizza's for us kids because we didn't like spinach. Ours didn't have the top piece. I remember the smell of the olive oil she used. I don't think anyone got the recipe or if it was even written down.

My favorite dish has always been my mother's turkey stuffing. She taught my brother and I how to make it and told us not to give the recipe to anyone. My brother gave it to my cousin and my mother never let him forget his disloyalty. (Is that a word?) My cousin made it but it wasn't like my mother's. When I make it it's close to my mother's but I'm wondering if she left some tiny ingredient out. She did tell me about the hard boiled eggs and black olives though, and a couple of other things.

24 Twitter

My Twitter Friends: update
Originally uploaded by Josh Russell

I learned about Twitter during a week-long training. About ten people in the room were on it. I read it all later and could remember every part they were talking about. I also understood how some people had plans all of a sudden.
This would be good for the library staff. Even though we're not in a large building, it would help to keep track of what people are working on. They could also document when something is going on in another room, note when certain patrons are unruly or when certain teens are asked to leave.
A seperate Twitter could be set up with the patrons. We would let them know when their materials are in, or when we have something new they might like. We could tell them about the various programs and of any last minute changes with the programs. An update on the status of the computers would help. Of course if they are coming to the library to use the computer, they probably don't have one at home. Patrons could tell about books they enjoy. Teens could post about their graphic novels, mothers about books they read to their children and kids about their latest series title. Patrons could give us ideas for programming. The possibilities abound.

23 This assignment is made for leisure study

Mutandina by Mutandina

I have been browsing Magnatune and found this cd from Argentina. I don't know what they're saying but I like it. I love the way they use the child's voice in #2. This post will be continued.
On Pandora I like the way the music or artist I pick is described and then similar music is selected. What I don't like is that they don't play the specific song I choose but often it's another selection by the same artist. I could spend hours - I think I have - on these two sites.

Thing 22- Way Back

http://web.archive.org/web/19961030161655/http://www.bpl.org/

Public Library, Boston Massachusetts
Originally uploaded by hanneorla

The first webpage of the BPl was boring and scattered with no focus.

It's difficult to read because none of it stands out.

Searching the different sites listed in this lesson, I found a piece on Einstein.

I figured out how to embed but it won't play. I need to upgrade.

E Books

I still prefer to hold a book in my hand. I looked at several of the sites listed and it's more enjoyable for me to walk to a shelf. I have this vision of everyone in their rooms at home glued to a screen. I think e books might work with students and their Summer Reading lists. There would be no running out of a title, or having to send for it from another library, or getting the last copy of a title and it's falling apart. The libraries would not have to keep reordering them each year once they are missing. We could save on shelf space when there are titles that don't go out. If you have a student that doesn't read anyway, would they be more likely to read it electronically?

20 IM

Sunday morning chats are a favorite pasttime for me. This morning I was IM ing (is that a word?) with Coach about Thing 19. I was having problems posting to my blog from Clipmarks. She looked into my blog somehow and saw a pic I had clipped but that never actually posted. I will try Delicious and give it another shot. Later. The sun is actually shining. Oh...It was. I changed the look of my blog.

Thing 19 clip clip

I've tried this three times. I watched the little video about clipping. very Simple. I signed up to clipmarks. I clipped three different times and each time I said I wanted it sent to my blog. I clicked blogger and put in the url to my blog. I got the message three times that it was sent. I saw the preview each time but it's not on my blog. I give up for now. I am going to read my book. Cane River has me hooked.

Books are easy.

18-wiki

When I began thing 17 and was looking into Underground Railroad sites, I came across Lalita Tademy and her book Cane River. I ordered this book for the library but never got to read it. Since I just started it and can tell I am in for a treat, my wiki post is an overview of Tademy and her search for family.

http://bplbooklists.pbwiki.com/BookList

17.2 The Red Lending Menace

I browsed many of our shared sites and picked Stephen Colbert on Libraries as my favorite. I tried to embed it but still don't get it. I copied the embed code and saved it to my desktop. Then I clicked on 'add video' in my new post. I browsed and clicked on the desktop. It started the process but then said there was a problem. This is the first time I got this far though, so that's good.

17 Underground RR Station, Hull Farm

Underground RR Station, Hull Farm
Originally uploaded by Mr. History

The online tutorial I would have for the library is about the Underground Railroad. National Geographic has a good site for this. There is a part of it where you make choices about escaping and you find out if you're further on the road to freedom or if you've been captured. The National Park Service has a lot of info too. On the library info site there would be maps of the routes the slaves took, the quilts that were used as signals, the songs with hidden messages and oral histories. There would be lots of pictures of people and houses on the routes and a forum where people could add their family stories. One section would list tours to the sights around the country. Teenagers and kids from the library would make utube videos telling about this time in history.

16- google presentation

The Library of Ephesus
Originally uploaded by jemiligonzalez

I tried to create a presentation with flickr pics but I couldn't download them onto it. (I need to learn the language of 2.0)

I did a presentation with my own pics. So instead of an in depth look at ancient libraries such as the library of Ephesus, we will look at several shots of my garden. http://docs.google.com/Present?docid=dsz9654_2hsqj4jhq&invite=zmkn92

ETSY

The first time I heard about Etsy was through craigslist when an artist posted a link to his work. I love to browse this site and especially like shopping by color.

colour
Originally uploaded by Linda Cronin

http://www.etsy.com/color.php

When you move the cursor over the page, circles of colors appear and blend and change to other colors. Click on the color you like and you'll have pics of things for sale.

Pic from SallyT on Flickr

Halloween 2008 thing 14

I went to American Towns and searched Boston for Halloween events today. I only got one hit

which I thought was strange. http://www.americantowns.com/ma/boston/events/beacon-hill-with-a-boo-halloween-tour

I found this pic on Flickr. I love Flickr.

Halloween 2005
Originally uploaded by bcompetent

Library Thing - Thing 13

I began a library thing site with favorite books I read. They are mostly YA books as I was working with teens at the time.
http://www.librarything.com/catalog/CarinJ

For Halloween I would suggest Stephanie Myer. She is read and reread by some teens I know.


http://www.thetwilightsaga.com/

Here's the website. I tried to copy and paste the book covers on this post but that ddn't work. The movie Twilight is about to come out, so stock up on this series.

Venice, Italy

Venice, Italy
Originally uploaded by steffengo

This pic goes with the podcast entry below. I am getting much of these assignments but still missing the fine tuning. I wanted this pic in the earlier post. I'm still trying to imbed the video on the youtube post.

Lonely Planet

I spent two days browsing podcasts. I got lost in podcasts I would never want to hear again. I found others that were boring and finally some that were interesting to me. I like history channel. I finally picked Lonely Planet because I want something fun.

http://www.lonelyplanet.com/travelstories/podcast/

YouTube

I learned how to embed somewhere around thing 25

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gzbDdgWiaS0

I'm Confused

I've read Thing 10 several times and I'm hitting the same brick wall. I don't have a cord for the scanner I bought on Ebay so all of my pictures are recent. If I get the scanner working, I would look up places I've been and add my pics. I could go to Google maps and look up Nantucket. That's one search that had lots of pictures with it. http://maps.google.com/maps?ie=UTF-8&hl=en&tab=wl

So if I want to upload pics that I have, I am back on Yelp and the reviews. My confusion is that this is like a previous Thing. This time on Yelp I added photo's instead of a review. Boomerangs is a store in Jamaica Plain where you can find used furniture,clothes, shoes and stuff. I have found some great pieces. I've posted pics of three items. The carpet was only $30, the entry table was only $35 and the black table was $100. http://www.yelp.com/biz/boomerangs-jamaica-plain

O.K. I'm understanding Thing 10 better.

Thing 9

http://www.flickr.com/photos/cienne/2414710474/ I'm having a great time browsing photos on flickr. I put in the search term 'standing stones' and got thousands of results. Then I put in the word 'village' and found this picture of an abandonned village in Italy. This could be used in the library to document programs. I'll be using it whenever I want to see a certain place.

CALENDAR

I created my calendar and put in my trip to Paris for lunch and my trip to Venice for whatever. In reality I was with Cleo in the emergency room of the MSPCA. Cleo is on the left. The vet thought she had cancer because she lost so much weight. I am leaving for a training, through work, tomorrow. This past week was spent learning Cleo has kidney failure and training with the tech person so I can give her I.V. fluids each day. "Do you have a problem with needles?" he asked. "No, not at all," I lied. Then another call from the vet to say she also has an infection. Back to Angell for the meds. I tried them in her food but it's too chancey that she won't eat it. I pry her mouth open and toss a half a pill in. Oh yeah and then there's the pill to make her have an appetite. Once she got her first fluid treatment she came home and headed for the food. She's doing well. I'm a mess. I thought I may have to immediately make the decision to put her to sleep. In between crying about that, I'd try to decide if I had to back out of this pre-paid training. I also kept doing the things I had to do to go to the training. I replaced broken eye glasses, bought travel sized bottles and toothpaste and such. Wondered what clothes to bring and what to leave. I even had to buy a carry-on bag for the flight. Tried to get some house cleaning in so I won't look like too much of a slob to the people feeding the cats. I found someone to come in and give Cleo her fluids. She came today and did a much better job than I've been doing. So the training is all week. I was concerned because I have a hard time sitting still in a classroom environment. But now, after this past week, training will be a breeze.

Biblical Archaeology Review

This is my site for Google reader. I love ancient history and archaeology and this magazine. I hardly ever buy it though because it's not carried in places I am close to in my day to day life. I had a subscription once but lately I'm lost in the details of my life so I was so excited when it came to me online. I love that it goes to previous months too. Aren't publishers losing money if people don't buy the magazines? Is that one of those questions everyone knows the answer to and I should too? Something about online advertising. The first article I'm going to read is, Ancient Assyrian Monastery Survives Modern War. Also there is a link to blogs of all active digs. O.K back to earth. I'm only finding small blurbs and not articles. Is that how these feeds work? I think I'll go out and buy the magazine.

Craigslist vs Herald/Globe

Two years ago I needed to find part-time work, and I spent a lot of time on Craigslist. The classifieds in the Gl0be and Herald were worth a scan but I didn't find anything there. With CL there is much more variety and you never know what you'll come across. I found a job working for an elderly man right up the street from me. He needed an editor. I put an ad in once looking for an artist to exhibit their work and I found someone. I have some things to sell and will post on CL when I find the time.

FaceBook

One of my cousins invited me on facebook yesterday. Seems I signed in awhile ago and then forgot about it. Almost my whole family is on there. With the pics and posts it was quite the experience because we don't see each other as much as we did when we all lived here.

YELP

Here's my review for the MSPCA:

http://www.yelp.com/biz/mspca-animal-care-and-adoption-center-jamaica-plain#hrid:0eWFC--_bW0x_ZxQDV2wzw

I have to put another cat pic on here.

I love colors

Three ways I can use social networking is for gathering information quickly as in LibraryThing. With this network I see who's interested in the same books I am, I can find out about the books I haven't read and I can have fun browsing all the entries. Craigslist is one network I use if I want to buy something. I like to look at the furniture people are selling. I've never bought anything from Craigslist though. I use it to comparison shop or get ideas. ColourLovers is a network I signed onto in July when I was trying to figure out what color to paint my bedroom. The room is still unpainted. This site is confusing to me. It's comprised of people who put together color palettes and patterns. I manage to browse and browse but haven't put together anything specific. Through this assignment I realize how many social networks I use. Etsy is one I like for looking at what people are creating.

Social Networking

This is Sugar Ray. Note the double paws. When he was smaller than this he and his brother had eye problems. I figured it would go away. I looked for web sites and found some but not what I needed. I found a new vet because I think the former one had a drinking problem. My point is: a realistic site about cat care is what I'm still looking for. I do use Craigslist and Ebay. Does Ebay count? I am looking for a new one to use. I've been looking for something about beads and found an interesting site by one man, but I don't think it's a social network. Just a web site. There's a difference, right?

New Librarian

Today was the first day of our new ya librarian. This is her first full time job as a librarian. I showed her around and explained the database, lunch coverage, reference questions from teens who don't really know what the assignment is and online collection development. I skimmed over programming, making flyers, weeding and neighborhood organizations. I didn't get to snow storm closings, holiday schedules or students who want you to do their homework. What can you say about the 1001 judgement calls you make every day? I don't know about her but I'm exhausted.

Artists All

I went to the Open Artists Studios yesterday. As always I picture myself with a booth of my own, showing my work and having people tell me how wonderfully creative and gifted I am. I've never gotten to the point where I made enough jewelry or mounted enough photographs to try and be included in the event. I did teach a series of three jewelry classes at the library. I was very anxious about supplies. I wanted beads that reflected the topic of tribal jewelry. I went on Ebay and got good deals on African Jade, Tiger's Eye, Mother of Pearl and Coral. The three sessions were Hawaiian, African and I forget the third. The first class I put out the beads and they were grabbed up before I finished. The second class, I bagged the more expensive beads so each participant had a core collection to then add to. That went much better. I like that there is always someone in the class that knows more than I do and can show us all something.

Passwords

I found my Library Thing page. I started it in 2007 but gave it up shortly after. I can't remember my password to get back in.
http://www.librarything.com/catalog/CarinJ

I have my password now and am eager to see what everyone's reading for YA books.

Blog List

I'm trying to figure out how to make a Blog List. I should find a child. They know these things instinctively. I remember when I first tried skiing. I was moving horizontally, backand forth down the slope, out of fear. I saw something flash by and it was a child of about 5.

Tiger

I found Tiger when she was very little. I was walking and she was across the street under a car. When I heard her meowing I looked over and she was looking right at me. I put her in the front of my jacket and brought her home. I asked around later but no one claimed her.

The Buck Stops Here

After becoming the branch librarian, it didn't take long for me to realise that I am the last stop. I make decisions on everything from deciding if a fine is to be waived to whether or not to open the lobby bathrooms. Do we go through someone's bag when they set the security alarm off? What if they're in a wheelchair? When a computer doesn't work do I call the help desk, someone in particular or just shut it off for a couple of minutes? When the LA's are bickering do I get involved or keep walking? When everyone puts in for vacation time do I schedule everyone off but then take mine first?