Up In The Air Junior Birdmen - Girl Scout Camp

After many decades, I still have fond memories looking back on my scout camp experience. I was probably 10 or 11—at that vulnerable age just shy of the terrible teenage years.

I went to camp two years in a row and the first year was, by far, the best. Although, the 2nd year taught me much more about life and relationships.

The first year, four of us friends who grew up together, went to school together and played sports together, resided for two weeks in a three-sided Gypsy Camp cabin. While there was some mild bickering amongst our quartet, we remained fiercely loyal to each other and pretty much stuck together. As I remember, we came in 2nd in the end-of-camp talent contest performing a skit to the tune of Junior Birdmen.

This is the way I remember it:

Up in the air Junior Birdmen
Up in the air upside down
Up in the air Junior Birdmen
Keep your noses off the ground

When you hear the doorbell ringing
And you have your badge of tin
Then you know, Junior Birdmen
That you sent your box tops in.

(If you have another version, please post it!)

The 2nd year wasn't quite as much fun. We graduated to the next level; a full-size cabin with 8 scouts, one of which was the daughter of the head counselor. "Lynn" (not her real name - I'm afraid she'll find me and beat me up, again) was a real, uh...snot. It was either done her way or she ran to her mother to squeal on how mean we were being to her. Like the four of us who grew up together, "Lynn" had 3 life-long friends in the cabin with her. Only difference was, they couldn't stand her either.

As stressful as that was, I learned some valuable lessons:

1) Those in charge are not always kind to the masses.
2) Life is not always fair.
3) I'm never going to be able to get along with everyone.
4) I can rise above injustice and have fun in spite of disagreeable people.

So, to all you Junior Birdmen out there..."Keep your noses off the ground!"

I have no idea what that means, but it seems like a good way to end this blog post.

I'm the author of the 'Tween time-travel series, Cynthia's Attic.

Download the series on Kindle today!

Mary Cunningham Books
Amazon
Kindle
Fictionwise
Quake/Echelon Press

Daily Thoughts 6/30/2010

Cover of the pulp magazine Strange Tales of Mystery and Terror (October 1932) featuring "The Hunters from Beyond" by Clark Ashton Smith.

Daily Thoughts 6/30/2010

I recommended Swann Galleries as an auction house for rare books. They have an excellent reputation. http://www.swanngalleries.com/index.cgi

Stores See Google as Ally In Ebook Market. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/30/business/30books.html?scp=1&sq=google%20e-books&st=cse

Today has been an interesting day. There are budget problems where I am and I waiting to see what will finally happen. It is not pleasant. I am trying to maintain my focus today.

I am starting to come to terms with it and think of next steps along the way. It is a matter of deep and abiding patience.

NEW BOOK COVER!

My publisher just sent me a copy of the book cover for my upcoming tween novel, Back to Bailey's Chase. It is the sequel to The Secret of Bailey's Chase. In case you haven't read it, it's about the adventures of two pre-teen cousins with super powers. Sparky and Grey Bailey live in Bailey's Chase, a town named for their great-great-great grandmother. It is her special gifts the girls have inherited, but they didn't realize it until tragedy brings them together.

The girls love to play detective and solve crimes and having magic at their disposal certainly helps. In the new book, the girls are a year older and their powers have grown with them. Now they find they have the ability to travel into other dimensions.

By the way, one of the main characters is a boy, Newt, a boy genius/scientist. He doesn't have special powers, but he goes along on their adventures with them.

Hopefully, the book will be available soon in paperback or an an E-Book. Kindle anyone?

You may visit me at http://www.marlisday.com/ or check out my blog at http://wwwmarlisday.blogspot.com/

or order my books at http://www.quakeme.com/

Daily Thoughts 6/29/2010

The New Novel, Winslow Homer, 1877 Museum of Fine arts, Springfield, Mass

Daily Thoughts 6/29/2010

We spent some time talking with a gentleman from GO2 media design about redesigning our website. They have designed a number of other library websites. http://www.go2mediadesign.com/taxonomy/term/49

I spent some time reading Jason Shhhh! an almost silent comic with a variety of slice of life scenes. They are curious with black and white line art. It is hard to describe the exact nature of the art. I rather like it. This is a link to an article about it. http://www.newsarama.com/comics/Jason-Almost-Silent-100129.html

Two new books came in for to read, Deank Koontz's Frankenstein lost souls and Fitzpatrick's War by Theodore Judson.

Today has been fairly quiet. It was a chance to look at the displays and put some orders together as well as get ready for some meetings on telephone customer service, a staff meeting, and a meeting on using electronic ordering for our library this week.

I also had a chance to read some more Harry Mintzberg's Managing. I am reading a bit about the concept in leadership of moving away from I to we. The point is to be more team oriented and speak and identify as part of a community. This is difficult in some ways. He uses the word communityship which is a concept which I'm trying to get my mind around.

Selinho - presente da Cin

Recebi esse selinho da queridíssima Cin, do Casa Suess, um blog incrível, cheio de idéias legais! Não conhece? Corre lá pra ver o que você está perdendo!

Sobre o selo:

O Prêmio Dardos é um reconhecimento dos valores que cada blogueiro emprega ao transmitir valores culturais, éticos, literários, pessoais, etc... que em suma, demonstram sua criatividade através do pensamento vivo que está e permanece intacto entre suas letras, e suas palavras. Esses selos foram criados com a intenção de promover a confraternização entre os blogueiros, uma forma de demonstrar o carinho e reconhecimento por um trabalho que agregue valor à Web.

Regrinhas:

- Exibir a imagem do Selo no Blog
- Exibir o link do blog que você recebeu a indicação

- Escolher 10, 15 ou 30 blogs para dar a indicação e avisá-los.

E o selo vai para: (que rufem os tambores!)

1 - Priscila, do Um lar, simplesmente um lar...
2 - Vanessa Biali
3 - Paty, a Dona Amélia
4 - Ly Mello, do Design My Life
5 - Renata, do Rerossini
6 - Carmem Rubim
7 - Sônia Facion, do Nana's Patch
8 - Cinthya, do Fala Mãe!
9 - Ju, do Decore Ju
10 - Elisângela, do Cantinho da Eli

Beijos!

Daily Thoughts 6/28/2010

cover scan of Old Sleuth Library, no.40, from the collection of Larry Latham

Daily Thoughts 6/28/2010

I took some time to read Iron West by Doug TenNapel. It is a graphic novel set in the old west. The style of the story is very tongue in cheek. The drawing is a bit different. Doug TenNapel uses a very loose style with very wide brush strokes. I liked the storyline far better than the art. It is very cartoonish. The drawings contain a lot of humor.

It is cowboys versus robots. The robots are replacing people. It is rather silly to look at robots with sixguns. There is also a sasquatch and an old native american medicine man. This makes for a kind of mixed up story. It is very much a mish mash. It seems to be drawn more for the action and humor than a coherent storyline.

There is a fight between the loch ness monster and a giant robot made from an old west train. Ultimately, it does pull together in the end, but not before a lot of silliness. If you want to relax and read something for lighthearted humor and action, this graphic novel would fit the bill.

There is a map of the pattern of library closings here. It shows a steady increase in library closings between 2008 and 2010 http://www.losinglibraries.org/

Today was the opening day for Summer Reading, June 28, 2010. We sat in the lobby next to the gallery and handed out flyers to sign up for the teen summer reading program and the adult summer reading program. We also signed people up online on a laptop. We are planning on having a raffle at the end of the summer for people who sign up and read books or listen to audiobooks. I also handed out flyers for events associated with the summer reading program.

It was a pleasant thing to do. We answered peoples questions and had cookies for people to snack on. I think I handed out a little over 45 signup sheets for adults and signed up a few more people online as well. The childrens signup was downstairs.

This is It

Não, este não é um post sobre Michael. Pelo menos não da forma como você pode estar pensando...
Ontem, assistindo ao especial exibido pela Globo o que mais me chamou a atenção não foi o desempenho, o talento, nem a comoção pela morte do astro. Dormi sem ver todo o documentário, mas pensando nas sensações que ele me despertou.
1) Como somos insignificantes. Tudo bem, você escuta isso a cada desastre, mas...
2) O que é que escutamos todos os dias que precisamos fazer para sermos uma pessoa saudável? Se manter magro e ser praticante de exercício físico. O cara era magro, praticava exercícios e tinha ótimo condicionamento aeróbico. Do contrário não teria conseguido ensaiar por 10 horas seguidas meses a fio cantando e dançando daquela forma.
3) Por mais que a gente pense que sabe sobre a vida de uma pessoa, não sabemos nada. Era comentado o vício dele em analgésicos e a dificuldade para dormir. Mas alguém poderia imaginar que ele precisasse de uma anestesia geral?
4) A gente sonha, planeja, trabalha, se esforça e... não tem nenhuma garantia! Michael morreu uma semana antes da sua tão sonhada volta aos palcos!

This is it.

Beijos

Daily Thoughts 6/27/2010

Profile of Adam Smith authors of An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations Etching created by Cadell and Davies (1811), John Horsburgh (1828) or R.C. Bell (1872). The original depiction of smith was created in 1787 By James Tassie in the form of an enamel paste medallion. Smith did not usually sit for his portrait, so a considerable number of engravings and busts of Smith were made not from observation but from the same enamel medallion produced by Tassie, an artist who could convince Smith to sit.

Daily Thoughts 6/27/2010

I have started reading Henry Mintzberg, Managing. Harry Mintzberg is a professor of management studies at McGill University in Montreal in Canada. This makes the book have a different perspective. The author writes about Canadian, British, French, and Dutch companies which gives a more international perspective to his writing. He also talks about the Harvard Business Review. This comes across as more international in flavor.

His focus is on practice, not just theory. The focus of the program he teaches at is practice. He covers the day to day activities of what happens inside organizations in private corporations, publicly traded corporations, government, and nonprofit sector. There is a focus on tracking what actually happens in the day to day activities from line managers all the way up to chief executives.

I took a brief break from reading and watched a bit of James Cameron's Avatar which is quite interesting. I am enjoying the film so far.

If you have time, and are in the United States, Tuesday is Library Advocacy Day, call or write your senator or congressperson about libraries. http://americanlibrariesmagazine.org/student-member-blog/take-five-minutes-make-difference-libraries

A Portrait of Amy

I think I am getting back to normal now with a new computer, no 'flu and school holidays.

The school holidays are nearly two months this year because of the World Cup (though why the two are connected, I don't know!), so I'm not teaching and there are no art groups.

I have, however, taken advantage of all the workshops that our society organises during the Winter months, and last Tuesday did an oil portrait workshop with one of our top portrait artists, Lesley Charnock.  For the first time I worked with just 3 colours and white - it was a revelation and something I realise I should have done 3 years ago when I first started painting.

Amy was a superb model and I think I caught her likeness quite nicely.  So here she is - in ultramarine, cad red, cad yellow and a bit of titanium white!

The Coupon Mom's Guide to Cutting Your Grocery Bills in Half: The Strategic Shopping Method Proven to Slash Food and Drugstore Costs- Stephanie Nelson

The Coupon Mom's Guide to Cutting Your Grocery Bills in Half: The Strategic Shopping Method Proven to Slash Food and Drugstore Costs by Stephanie Nelson

This book exists to sell a website http://www.couponmom.com/ . The website collects personal information then gives out online coupons. It is a trade off. I saved about $7 from the online printable coupons when I went shopping this week.

It also reminded me to check the grocery circular at my supermarket and my local drugstore while I was there. Money is tight so I tried it. I saved some more money at Walgreens on a few items like toilet paper and hand soap. Another $3.

While I was at the produce store, I got a few things which were cheaper at the produce store than the supermarket; yogurt, hummus, vegetables and fruit are cheaper at the local produce store than the supermarket. The reason it is this way is they don't spend as much on advertising and other things. The Coupon Mom book reminds you to comparison shop. There was probably a difference of another $10.

While I was at the supermarket, I bought a case of diet coke. It is cheaper than buying it from the vending machine at work. This probably saved me another $5 this week. The book reminds you to eat at home more. I have been packing a lunch starting last week. This probably saves me another $10 for the week.

I had a few coupons left over which I will keep in a folder for when I will need them.

There is nothing brilliant or new in this book other than the online printable coupons. I went shopping on Saturday so I did not get a chance to look at the coupons in the Sunday paper. This might have saved me a little bit more money. I saved $35 this week. I won't say it is half of my grocery bill, but I am just starting. It could add up to a decent amount of money over time. This is a solid guide on how to comparison shop and use coupons. There is a lot of hype in it, but it also has some good advice.

The real question is how much money is your time worth. It takes a little bit of effort to do this.

The book is easy to read. It has an index, basic charts, and lots of testimonials from people who have used her website. The testimonials are not that believable. There are also numerous shopping tips which are much more useful than the testimonials. For example, it is cheaper to buy spices and bulk dry goods from the produce store most of the time than the grocery store.

Stephanie Nelson has appeared on Oprah, CNN, and the Today Show. She comes across as practical and personable. There is something satisfying and practical about an Assistant Professor of Classics at Boston University writing about coupons.

Daily Thoughts 6/26/2010

17th century bronze lectern, Notre-Dame-la-Grande church, Poitiers, June 2008, Danielclauzier, own work, Creative Commons Attribution 2.0, Found on Wikimedia.

Daily Thoughts 6/26/2010

I finished reading Much Fall of Blood by Dave Freer, Mercedes Lackey, and Eric Flint. The Heirs of Alexandria series started with The Shadow of the Lion a fantasy set in a magical Venice. It was followed by This Rough Magic which was set in the Isle of Corfu. There was a standalone book by Dave Freer called A Mankind Witch that was set in Iceland. This book was quite entertaining because of Dave Freer's sense of humor. Much Fall of Blood could be considered the third book in the series, or the fourth book in the setting.

I have very much enjoyed reading this alternate history/fantasy. The magic is done well, so are the villains and heros. They are mashups of figures from history that are given magical powers; Countess Bartholdy, Duke Vlad of Valahia, Prince Manfred, Bortai from the Hawk Clan of the Mongols, Jagiellon Grand Duke of Lithuania, and others.

The settings are Aquitaine (a magical France), The Holy Roman Empire (think christianity with contact with angels and the forces of light and darkness), The League of Armagh (a kind of mystical Celtic state), the Territories of the Knights of the Holy Trinity (think of the knights Templar), the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and Poland (controlled by the dark forces of Chernobog), and the Kingdom of Hungary (influenced by the wicked Countess Bartholdy). There are also cities in Italy, Milan, Venice, and Rome. With Much Fall of Blood, we get introduced to Prince Vlad, Duke of Valahia, grandson of the dragon, as well as characters from the mongol hordes. The setting is fantastic.

The breaking point in the series, The Heirs of Alexandria, with actual history is the survival of Hypatia and the Library of Alexandria creating a very different world filled with magic.

Music to Get You In...The Mood

Usually, I'm either writing in a notebook between patients, or dropping into my desk chair at night after a long day at work. Either way, I can't just flip a switch in my brain to put it into writing mode. Usually it only takes reading the last page or so of what I've written, but sometimes my mind is just a little too buzzy, and won't settle down.

In those cases, I have a backup plan. For most books I write, I make a soundtrack of songs that specifically remind me of the emotional climate of the book. I found out I wasn't the only one it worked on when I shared the soundtrack of a work in progress with a friend, who was pregnant at the time. The soundtrack, which was full of breakup and "goodbye, I still love you," types of songs, left my friend, in her vulnerable hormonal state, crying for 45 minutes afterward. Oops.

Other days, I sit down to write with no distractions but the ones I end up creating. That's when I love using soundtrack music. There are actually albums exclusively made up of driving, emotionally exciting soundtrack music, the best of the best, and I can tell you, this stuff is pretty much perfect for any project you're working on. Kerry Muzzey and Corner Stone Cues are some of the best of these, in my opinion.

Well, now you know all my secrets--make sure to check out the soundtrack music, you won't be sorry!

Jacquelyn Sylvan is the author of Surviving Serendipity, a YA fantasy containing absolutely NO damsels in distress. Click the link to buy on Amazon!

Daily Thoughts 6/25/2010

English writer Neil Gaiman. Photograph taken at the 2007 Scream Awards. Source is Neil Gaiman. Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 from Wikimedia.

Daily Thoughts 6/24/2010

Neil Gaiman on closing libraries being a terrible mistake. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/culturenews/7852404/Neil-Gaiman-says-closing-libraries-would-be-a-terrible-mistake.html He is a wonderful author and has done a lot to support libraries and intellectual freedom. My favorite of his books is Neverwhere and my favorite of his graphic novels is Stardust. The Graveyard Book is also an excellent read.

Ebooks Libraries at the Tipping is $20 for early bird registration it is on September 29 http://ebook-summit.com/ Hopefully, I should be able to attend this. It should be very interesting.

Today has been quiet. I spent some time updating the displays and looking at items that need to be processed to be added.

I also read some more of Much Fall of Blood by Mercedes Lackey, Eric Flint, and Dave Freer. I am enjoying the mix of history, fantasy, and magic.

Meu presente chegou!

Olá meninas!
Eu quase não acreditei quando recebi a notícia, bem no dia do meu aniversário, de que tinha ganho a promoção feita pela BlogArte em parceria com a Provence Home & Banho! Gente, eu nunca ganhei nada, nada mesmo! Sabe aquele tipo que compra 29 bilhetes de uma rifa com 30 e o sorteado é justamente aquele 1? Sou eu!
Não! Era eu! Agora isso mudou!
Fato é que ganhei e ontem recebi esse maravilhoso difusor de ambiente com cheirinho de maracujá. E quem disse que tive coragem de deixar em casa? Veio comigo pro trabalho!
Marido chegou agora a pouco e falou: "Que cheiro diferente é esse?" E eu: "Meu presente." "Muito bom!" Pra homem prestar atenção já viu, tem que fazer diferença mesmo!

Aqui ele na embalagem:


E eu feliz da vida!

(foto muito mal tirada pelo filho mais novo, mas foi o que deu pra arranjar...)

Morreu de inveja? Vai lá na loja virtual da Provence Home Banho e compra o seu.
Eliane e Andrea, mais uma vez, muito obrigada! AMEI!

Beijos

Daily Thoughts 6/24/2010

Heyman Dullaert. A trompe l'oeil with plumes in an ink bottle, a letter, a seal stamp, a delft pot and a bottle, arranged upon a wooden shelf. Oil on Panel

Daily Thoughts 6/24/2010

The Westchester Library System where I work is facing cuts. This is an article on the cuts.
http://chappaqua.patch.com/articles/librarians-to-albany-stop-shelving-our-funds-3

I am looking at a graphic novel called Mr. Mendoza's Paintbrush. It is beautiful in its style. The story is about a man who writes graffiti about the lives of people in a small Mexican town. The artist Christopher Cardinale is a muralist. His website has some very interesting artwork. http://www.christophercardinale.com/ The story and artwork are wonderful to look at. The writer, Luis Alberto Urrea has written many novels including Into The Beautiful North and a pulitzer prize finalist for The Devil's Highway. His writing is very entertaining and relevant. http://www.luisurrea.com/home.php

I wrote a flyer for The Summer Reading Events that are coming up at our library this morning. Mostly, I have been planning things like meetings. Tomorrow I am calling Poets House to see if they can help us with working on poetry at our library. http://www.poetshouse.org/

I am checking out Henry Mintzberg, Managing as the next book I will read. It is a book of theory. It looks quite interesting. He focuses on management in practice and is critical of a purely numbers oriented approach.

Daily Thoughts 6/23/2010

Reading In The Forest, Oil On Canvas, 1880, Paris, Public Domain, Wikimedia, Eva Gonzales

Daily Thoughts 6/23/2010

I have been reading more of Coupon Mom's and looking at the website. There is a little bit of money to be saved, not a huge amount for the effort involved. The online coupons are kind of interesting. I don't buy most of this stuff.

This book is proving to be about much more than coupons. She describes the advantages and disadvantages of shopping at big box stores, supermarkets, discount stores, health food stores, wholesale clubs, and bare bones stores. I liked some of her ideas.

She reminds us that it is not good to buy giant packages of junk food from wholesalers, this leads to overconsumption and an unhealthy lifestyle. She also tells us that it is cheaper to buy fresh herbs and bulk food products like nuts from produce stores and healthfood stores than supermarkets. Stephanie Nelson follows the maxim that we must watch what we put into the refrigerator to make sure we are buying what we need, 15%-40% of food in refrigerators goes to waste in the United States.

The author tells us that it is cheaper to eat vegetarian on occassion. Vegetables, rice, and beans are cheaper than meats or cheeses. I am about half way through the book and am enjoying reading it. I have sent ten online coupons to my email inbox for things which I purchase regularly.

There is something different about writing about practical books. Most reviewers will not describe their experience using practical books; books on homeownership, power tools, carpentry, plumbing, personal finance, and other practical subjects are often not reviewed enough. Maybe, there isn't enough intellectual cachet in it.

Today has been quite busy. I have been working on a few things. The new display advertising for the playaways came in. We now have new bookmarks, signage, and posters for our playaways section and will soon have new packaging for the playaways. I also printed the Chick Lit bookmark today.

We are almost ready for the Adult Summer Reading in July and August http://www.summerreadingnys.org/. We just put together a banner for adult summer reading and I am working on creating a flyer for the events associated with the summer reading program. We have two author events in July, two brown bag book talks, and a literary tea planned so far.

One of my colleagues suggested a graphic novel, Rabbi Harvey vs. the Wisdom Kid, A Graphic Novel of Dueling Jewish Folktales In the Wild West by Steve Sheinkin. It came out in March 2010. Another book came in for me, Much Fall of Blood by Mercedes Lackey, Eric Flint, and Dave Freer. I especially like the writing of Dave Freer. I put in a request for a weird western graphic novel, Iron West by Doug TenNapel which I saw from this list http://www.morevikings.com/recs-and-rants/weird-west-reading-list/

On another thought, acccess to our library catalog will soon be available as an Iphone App http://www.sirsidynix.com/iphone/apps/bookmyne/

I finished reading The Coupon Mom's Guide to Cutting Your Grocery Bills In Half by Stephanie Nelson. It has an old fashioned thriftiness to it. The author tells us she uses baking soda, vinegar, borax, and rubbing alcohol for her cleaning needs. She also makes a recommendation that you should grow your own vegetables, even using the term "victory garden". It has a homespun feel to it in parts even though it is very much touting coupons from major brands.

I started reading Much Fall of Blood by Mercedes Lackey, Dave Freer, and Eric Flint. Each author has numerous fantasy novels to their name and a decent following of readers. They somehow mesh well writing this novel. This is the third novel in a series. The first two are The Shadow of the Lion and This Rough Magic. It is set in a medieval Europe filled with magic both black and white. The characters are drawn from historical figures like Madame Bathory, Prince Manfred, and Prince Vlad Duke of Valahia. It starts nicely, moving between Venice, the Carpathians, and the tents of the Golden horde.

Daily Thoughts 6/22/2010

Design on Page 123 of The Library by Andrew Lang, c1881

Daily Thoughts 6/22/2010

This morning I read some more of Bootlegger's Daughter by Margaret Maron on the train to work. The characters are quite interesting. There is plenty of tension in the story because the author includes bits on sexism, racism, and homophobia. She writes about peoples prejudices and fears and has some quite interesting conversations between characters. It may make some people uncomfortable, but it has a direct feeling to it missing from many other novels.

I put The Coupon Mom's Guide to Cutting Your Grocery Bills in Half by Stephanie Nelson on hold. I don't usually cut coupons, but I've noticed that food prices are rising and I think I might need to start doing this. It came in this afternoon for me to read with another book, The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch. The Last Lecture is a lecture by a college professor from Carnegie Mellon who was dying of terminal cancer. It was a bestseller.

There is a new teen novel which looks like quite interesting called Go Mutants! by Larry Doyle. Universal pictures has already bought the film rights. It is a mix of teen angst and aliens and monsters from 1950s B Movies. It sounds very good.

Today has been a day to schedule and arrange for programs. We are working on a Brown Bag Lunch book talk series that will be tied in with the Adult Summer Reading Program.

The shifting in the storage area is moving along very smoothly. Tomorrow, I think I'll ask to have the Chick Lit bookmarks printed.

I finished reading Bootlegger's Daughter by Margaret Maron. I enjoyed reading it a lot. I am not going to review it. It feels strange thinking about reviewing something that you have to read for a class. I also logged into the Readers Advisory 101 class for the first time. It is being presented by the RUSA (Reference and User Services Association) division of the American Library Association.

I have started The Coupon Mom's Guide to Cutting Your Grocery Bills In Half. It seems like a lot of hype. I have managed to find four online coupons so far to print. There are a few strategies in it to reduce grocery bills. This is the kind of book where the results you get from reading the book are what matters. It is a practical book. The only way to know whether it works is to try out what Stephanie Nelson practices.

I also donated $5 to keep the Ning Book Blogs network going. They need $500 in total to keep the network going for the year. I find it quite useful. They are using the Paypal donations system.

Daily Thoughts 6/21/2010

Lesestunde, Pastell-Gemälde von Carsten Eggers, 80 x 110, 1988, Own Work, Eigenes Werk, Creative Commons CC-BY-SA-2.5, Found on Wikimedia

Daily Thoughts 6/21/2010

Lerner Publishing sent four books to my library as a prize from Book Expo America, Draw In The Dark by Ilsa J. Bick, Traitor by Gudrun Pausewang, I-1I by Steve Brezenoff, and The Freak Observer by Blythe Woolston. These are all young adult titles.

Today was a very busy day. The shifting in the storage area is moving along nicely. We also have to work on the Adult Summer Reading Program. The Evance website is moving along nicely. There are several events that are associated with adult summer reading including some author readings, two brown bag book discussions, and a literary tea for the finale. We are going to be signing up people via our website soon. The Friends of the Library will be helping us with putting together the literary tea for adults.

We also have to work on creating a display for summer reading. I have a few ideas for bookmarks, a brochure, some signage, and a flyer. It is a lot to plan on.

We put up a new sign for the foreign language books and I finished creating a bookmark for Chick Lit.

On the way home, I read some more of Margaret Maron Bootlegger's Daughter. The main character, Deborah Knott's father sold bootleg whiskey and went to jail then was pardoned. The novel has a lot of politics in it. Deborah Knott is running for Judge while she is finding out a mystery. There is a lot of southern culture in the novel which is set in North Carolina. I like it.

Rebecca Brothers sent a comment recently about her charity to help people in Nashville, Tennessee get books. There was serious flooding in Nashville. It got into many of the schools. Rebecca is an english teacher. Her charity is A Dry Read: New Books For Nashville.

I remember her at the Book Bloggers Convention. She was very pleasant and mannerly. She made little individual lemon cakes with yellow bow ties for her charity and left them as a dessert for lunch with a card. Information about her charity can be found at http://www.rebeccabrothers.com/

E que venha Portugal!

O primeiro jogo do Brasil não me empolgou. Tanto que nem toquei no assunto da Copa... Apesar de torcedora incondicional, assisti a um jogo tão decepcionante que tive medo. A Coréia do Norte, o adversário mais fraco, desconsiderado no grupo conseguiu impor dificuldades ao Brasil. A seleção não se acertava, errava passes, e o homem do gol não marcava nada.
Veio a Costa do Marfim. Temidos, respeitados. Considerada a melhor seleção da África, com vários jogadores atuando na Europa. E o nosso futebol apareceu! Apareceu a arte, a ginga, a vontade de jogar bola, de vencer. E surgiram os gols: de direita, de esquerda, de braço...

E a Costa do Marfim mostrou que sua maior habilidade não é o futebol, mas a luta livre. Usaram da força, da maldade, da falta de respeito.

Provocaram até que Kaká perdeu a cabeça e foi expulso.

Atitude de um juiz que não soube controlar o jogo. Que foi omisso em muitos momentos e tentou se impor à força no final. Um francês, que atuou tão bem na partida quanto a seleção de seu país na Copa.

Mas não são só os brasileiros a pensar assim! Garanto que Maradona deve ter gritado: Ah, deixa pra expulsar o Kaká quando o Brasil for jogar com a Argentina! E deixa a "Mão de Deus" só pra mim!!!

É Maradona, é duro ser o segundo...

Daily Thoughts 6/20/2010

Berthe Morisot, The Mother and Sister of the Artist, National Gallery of Art, 1869-1870, Washington DC. USA

Daily Thoughts 6/20/2010

I started reading Bootlegger's Daughter by Margaret Maron for my Readers Advisory 101 course. It is a mystery. Pretty soon, I will have finished reading all the background reading for the course. I like being ready well beforehand for these things.

I took some time to join up with the social media aspects of the New York Library Association. I have http://twitter.com/nyla_1890 NYLA on twitter, http://twitter.com/nyla_nmrt NYLA New Members Roundtable, http://www.facebook.com/pages/New-York-Library-Association-NYLA/48043315840 the Facebook page for NYLA, and http://facebook.com/group.php?gid+18742794776 The Facebook New Members Roundtable for NYLA. This should be interesting. I also found a group on Linked In for NYLA and applied. Every day, I am going to take a bit to look at NYLA's resources.

I read some of Bootlegger's Daughter at the laundromat today. It is not something I would have picked up on my own. I prefer noire, hard boiled, and police procedurals when I read mystery. This mystery really does not fit into these categories. It is a mystery set in North Carolina featuring a woman attorney who is investigating the death of a woman who died over a decade ago. There is a lot about southern politics and life. The Readers Advisory 101 class is introducing me to some new ideas already.

Proper Care of Your Peeves

We're going to pet our peeves, today!

Yay!

(clap, clap)

Where to start? There are so many things. I might hurt myself.

So here we go...

We'll start off with the word ... 'myself.'

I hate the word, 'myself,' myself. Because so many people just screw it up, leaving me grinding my molars into chalk. Worse, people who know better obviously don't know better. I can't tell you how many times I've heard a teacher, an announcer, a politician say something like, "my friend and myself went to the store..."

Grrr....

My family has learned to duck if we're watching a show and someone uses it improperly. I explode, frothing at the mouth (as opposed as frothing anywhere else), and they just cringe, knowing I just have to rant and rave every time.

Of course, that's what a peeve is all about.

And I gots lots of them.

Here's another one.

How about someone who races you for the merge, and when you let him go ahead, he slows down below the speed limit?

And more.

How about supposed BA's wearing knit caps in the middle of the summer? Yeah, maybe you are tough after all.

Grand Prix drivers (read any of my books, I destroy one or its driver).

People who brush by you without saying 'excuse me,' or even acknowledging you were there in the first place.

People who don't have weeds in their lawn.

Guys who don't flush after going to the bathroom, or worse, wash their hands.

The thing about pet peeves is you have to take care of them. Feed them, keep them safe. Fortunately, there are so many people out there who feel it's their personal responsibility to keep your peeves charged up.

Here's to them.

Norm

www.normcowie.com
(vampire, humor book Fang Face on ebook for three bucks)

Grrr

Pet peeves... hmmm. I have things I really, really hate (i.e. racism) and then I have things that seem to more fit the "Pet Peeve" label; annoying, annoying, annoying, and annoying. Like homework.

Now that it's summer vacation I don't have homework every day, so I have more time to gripe about how annoying homework was and will be again next year. As a student I understand the effect teachers want homework to have--review of the day's lesson--but as a teenager I see the actual impact it has on my and my friends' lives. If I hear that a highschooler (or middle schooler for that matter, or college student, et cetera) is a total grouch in the morning, stressed, shredding books in frustration, and up until all hours of the morning, I know the diagnosis imediately: homework.

I agree that students need to be responsible for making sure they understand what they're taught. I also agree that studying is usually necessary and should be done, and even review the night after a lesson if someone has time and feels the need. But the reality is that most homework that's assigned is simply busywork under the disguise of "review." In order to keep up a grade a student must complete the mind-numbing repetitive work in multiple subjects, which can take hours, and usually this is done after hours already spent in school, after-school sports or activities, and other obligatons such as practicing an instrument or working or doing chores.

There's my post-school rant...

Kieryn
www.kierynnicolas.com
www.kierynnicolas.blogspot.com

Daily Thoughts 6/19/2010

Woodblock print, about 1768, Suzuki Harunobu V&A Museum no. E.1053-1963 From Wikimedia

Daily Thoughts 6/19/2010

I check my blog stats sometimes. Here are a few interesting places that visitors have come from. http://guy-who-reads.blogspot.com/ Guy Who Reads, http://libraryjuicepress.com/ Library Juice Press, and
http://blogs.botw.org/Arts/Literature/ Best of the Web Blogs -- Literature (Web Directory).

I am working on a Chick Lit Bookmark today. When I create bookmarks with lists of authors or books, I make sure the authors or titles are for books which our library owns. It is also preferable that the authors have more than one book published.

On the way home, I read some more of Ice Station. It is turning into a strange mish mash of conspiracy theories, suspense, paranoia, special forces, and aliens. As I read the book it becomes more and more odd. I can understand why it became a bestseller, it would appeal to suspense, conspiracy, and military action readers. There were lots and lots of silly, improbable action scenes involving scuba diving, big explosions, hover craft, icebergs, and underground ice stations. The action scenes were very cinematic in style.

Having finished reading Ice Station by Matthew J. Reilly, I can now say there are no aliens. There are irradiated mutant creatures, secret military cabals, man eating killer whales, black aircraft, and special forces teams, but no aliens. I was hoping there would be aliens. SETI was included in the story, but there were no aliens. It was silly escapism. I don't think this book would be something I would have read on my own. It took a Readers Advisory 101 class to motivate me to read it. I liked reading it. The book is c1999. I borrowed it from my library.

Pet Peeves

I've been told I'm easy to get along with. Few things get on my nerves.

However! If you want to be sure to get on my bad side, do these:

• Be two-faced. I live my life in a manner where I always try to mean what I say, say what I mean, keep my promises, tell the truth -- even when it hurts, stand for what I believe, and treat everyone as I would expect to be treated. I expect you to do the same.
• Be petty. I can be as catty as the next girl, but I don't bite unless I've been bitten first.
• Be mocking. No one likes being made fun of, so knock it off.
• Don't listen. At least make an attempt to hear what I'm saying. If you have something to add, at least wait until I've said my piece. And if you're one of those people who carry on multiple conversations at once, or are glued to your phone, please, don't. I want to know I've got your attention. I'll try to do the same for you.

It's not that hard to be respectful and courteous and forthright. And believe me: a little politeness can do amazing things.

~*~

Heather S. Ingemar has loved to play with words since she was little, and it wasn’t long until she started writing her own stories. Termed “a little odd” by her peers, she took great delight in exploring tales with a gothic flair, and to this day, Edgar Allan Poe continues to be her literary hero. To learn more, please visit: http://ingemarwrites.wordpress.com/ or follow her on Twitter: http://twitter.com/heatheringemar

Buy a story (or two or three): Heather Ingemar in the Echelon Catalog

Daily Thoughts 6/18/2010

(personnelle) sur la littérature à partir d'images disponibles sur Wikipedia (domaine public ou libres de droits)

Daily Thoughts 6/18/2010

Today has been a quiet day, more relaxing than most. There are a lot less carts on the floor now, because a lot of the shifting has been finished in the storage area. I am contemplating weeding the oversize dewey 300s. I will have to work with the government documents librarian because many of them are government documents. Depository libraries have to get special permission to weed documents.

I am also contemplating creating a bookmark for chick lit books. This would be a new genre for me to explore. It is becoming quite popular. Meg Cabot and Lauren Weisberger are two prominent authors in the genre.

Next week, the adult summer reading program goes up on the website.

On the way home, I started reading Ice Station by Matthew J. Reilly. It is an utterly silly book. The book is reading for my Readers Advisory 101 class online. The premise is preposterous; the French and the United States are fighting over an alien artifact found under the ice in the antarctic. The story seems put together to describe French special forces versus American special forces soldiers in an exotic setting. It is pure escapism.

I have joined the NYLA New Members Roundtable email discussion list as well as the NYLA RASS Reference and Adult Services SEction email discussion list as my first steps into NYLA.

Birds of the Gulf

I honestly think that if I couldn't connect with the blogging art world, I would be lost.  And lost I was for over a week when my computer totally died.  Dead.  No more.  And with it went all my information; email addresses, pictures, photographs, documents - ja, well, no, fine!!

So a new pc has been purchased, new (updated!) programmes installed and I am now trying to find my way around them!  My gosh, but the latest Microsoft Office is complicated!

So dear friends, that is why I have been missing in action!  I now have a lot of catching up to do and will eventually get to read all those back posts that I've missed.

And because it's been quite cold here, plus the week at Kirstenbosch and the touch of 'flu, my painting has been curtailed.  The World Cup has also run interference - tonight England is playing here in Cape Town and the town is full of Barmy Army people.  Our own Bafana Bafana didn't do too well the other night and probably won't qualify, but we're enjoying having the world in our little corner of Africa.  Who are you supporting??

So, the last thing I painted during my 'down' time, was this heron and it is part of the tribute to the Gulf Crisis Challenge that Suzanne McDermott has started.  Read all about what she is doing on her blog.  She is a truly wonderful person who cares totally about the environment and what we are doing to it.  Bless you Suzanne.

New York Library Association and New York Library Meetup Combined Meeting

New York Library Association and New York Library Meetup Combined Meeting, June 17, 2010 6:00-9:00 p.m.

Tonight was the first combined meeting between New York Library Association and New York Library Meetup. It was at the City University of New York Graduate School for Journalism on 219 West 40th Street, Room 308. This was a chance to do a combined meeting on advocacy for public libraries. It was also the New York Library Association's first allied meeting to increase membership. New York Library Association is interested in increasing its activities in lower New York. Tinamarie Vella hosted the meeting.

Most of the New York Library Associations's activities are held upstate. For example, The Empire State Book Festival held on April 9 & 10 was held in Albany. The next NYLA conference will be held on November 3-6, 2010 in Saratoga Springs New York.

I found it to be quite interesting. We talked about the purpose of New York Librarians Meetup and what we planned to do for the future. Part of this was about future plans for the group. Stephanie L. Gross who is the Organizer for the New York Librarians Meetup mentioned the visit to the Jane Austen Exhibit at the Morgan Library & Museum as well as the visit to MOCCA (the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art) done earlier.

There were discussions on the We Will Not Be Shushed Read-In at Brooklyn Public Library which ran from Saturday June 12, 5 p.m. to Sunday, June 13, 5 p.m. http://www.brooklynpubliclibrary.org/events/notshushed.jsp . Attendees described the different advocacy campaigns for New York city libraries. This included the postcard campaign to support libraries as well as numerous organizations which were associated with advocacy.

Tinamarie Vella provided two excellent handouts. One was a list of advocacy resources on the internet for librarians. A few of them are http://savelibraries.org/ Save Libraries , Geek The Library http://geekthelibrary.org/ and, http://www.ilovelibraries.org/ I Love Libraries . These are all worth looking at. The second handout was a guide to what the New York Library Association can do for you.

I have participated in sending postcards, making phone calls, and contacting my local representatives about libraries. There were a few resources I had not seen before which Tinamarie Vella listed, Metropolitan New York Library Council (METRO) Advocacy Page was one of them. http://www.metro.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=90&Itemid=142 .

The meeting touched on lots of different issues in librarianship. We got a chance to look at the NYLA (New York Library Association) website http://www.nyla.org/ which has job listings as well as a variety of sections on different subjects in librarianship. The NYLA New Members Roundtable has a mentoring section for librarians. http://www.nyla.org/index.php?page_id=214 . All first time members are signed up for the New Members Roundtable. Currently, I am a member of the American Library Association and the Westchester Library Association. I just signed up on June 18, 2010 as first time member of NYLA for $25.

We also examined the New York Librarians Meetup page http://www.meetup.com/NYLibrarians/ . On the New York Librarians Meetup we discussed the need to get people more active. If you are interested in social networking for librarians in the New York metro area, it is an excellent place to join. Participating has been quite enlightening.

People asked how they could use ALA Connect which is the social networking site for the American Library Association http://connect.ala.org/ . I have used it mainly for taking classes online. It is excellent for this. I am going to be taking the Readers Advisory 101 class and will be using ALA Connect to participate in discussions for the class.

I also learned about other organizations that are tied in with libraries in New York. One of them which I heard about for the first time was the Deskset. The Deskset has dance, charity, and reading events. I have never been to their events, but they sound interesting. Their blog touches on reading, libraries, and books. http://thedeskset.org/.

A more traditional group, The New York Library Club was discussed. This group holds formal dinners and events. http://www.nylibraryclub.org/

One of the possible venues which was mentioned for a library meetup was the Poets House http://www.poetshouse.org/ . This would be a fantastic place to go. I very much love poetry. I hope they have the chance to do this. Another member offered to host meetings at Queens College which would be quite interesting.

There was also some mention of the larger professional associations, the ACRL NY chapter (Association of College and Research Libraries), ALA (the American Library Association), and the SLA (the Special Library Association). With budget cuts and layoffs there has been interest in increasing membership in professional associations and advocacy.

Metro New York was discussed as well in the context of professional development. http://www.metro.org/ Metro offers an excellent set of courses for librarians. I took a course on Twitter for librarians there. They are quite formal and professional in their approach. Metro recently introduced a membership for individual librarians called myMetro http://www.metro.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=210&Itemid=98

The atmosphere was very congenial. The room had an overhead projector to display web pages as well as lots of comfortable seating. Coffee and cookies were served to attendees. They had printed badges with our image from the NY Librarian Meetup web page. One of my quirks is that I collect conference attendance badges. This will go into the bag with other conferences attended; Book Expo, Tools of Change for Publishing, PC World, New York Comic Con and others.

This a short, informal summary of my experience at the meeting. I may have some more formal thoughts tomorrow. I learned a lot from attending the meeting. This is a major purpose of social networking; to go out and meet and learn from the people who you interact with on Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, and other places. There are many people who I hope to see from the networks I have joined. People go to Tweetups, Meetups, and other events.

Copy editing pet peeves

One of my tasks in my day job is copy editing summaries of court cases for legal newsletters. If you've never been a copy editor or worked with one, let me clue you in: Copy editors have a TON of pet peeves, especially if what they're editing is supposed to follow specific guidelines.

In my line of work we follow Associated Press rules for writing news stories and use Blue Book guidelines for citing court cases.

Copy editors are also generally detail-oriented, type-A, obsessive-compulsive people (and not necessarily in that order).

Here's a short list of errors that drive me crazy:

1. Overuse of the word "that." Ninety percent of the time, it's unnecessary.

2. Misplaced or missing commas. You can't just throw them in willy-nilly.

3. Using pronouns to describe two or more of the same things in the same sentence. "He gave him his book" could be interpreted as "Billy gave Tom Billy's book" or "Billy gave Tom Tom's book."

4. Run-on sentences. Enough said.

I would to say that being a copy editor my writing is impeccable. Sadly, I am not immune to errors in my stories. But I guarantee that if I need to include a court citation in one, it will be correctly constructed.

Katie Pasek is the author of "Sure-foot Sam in Jeopardy" and Junior's New Home. For more information, please visit www.katiepasek.com.

Daily Thoughts 6/17/2010

Baschenis, Evaristo ~ Still Life with Musical Instruments, undated, oil on canvas,Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan.

Daily Thoughts 6/17/2010

Flashback: NYC's Libraries, As They Face Closures from Gothamist online. http://gothamist.com/2010/06/14/library.php

I am going to the New York Librarians Meetup today. It is a combined meetup in alliance with the New York Library Association. The meeup is about library advocacy. It is something which is very important right now if you work in libraries. Right now libraries are facing tough budgets everywhere.

Daily Thoughts 6/16/2010

Pierre August Renoir, Camille Monet Reading, Oil On Canvas, 1873

Daily Thoughts 6/16/2010

I finished reading Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card on the train to work. It is the book which made Orson Scott Card's career. The book won both the Hugo and Nebula Awards. It is on the top 100 books to read for young adults by the American Library Association. If you like science fiction, you should read it. The book speaks for itself.

We moved a lot of books in the storage area today including law books and fiction. It is moving along very nicely. Also, I looked at magazines for ordering; booklist and publishers weekly.

I had the graphic novels club today. It went alright. The anime club from the high school borrowed two dvds, Steamboy and Kiki's Delivery Service, both which are fun to watch.

I had a little bit of time to pick out some poetry books for Saturday. I picked out books by Edward Hirsch, Nikki Giovanni, Langston Hughes, Charles Simic, Rita Dove, Alice Walker, Diane Wakoski, Jack Kerouac, and many others. I made sure that the new poetry books were ready for Saturday. I am looking at two poetry books right now, Bright Wings An Illustrated Anthology of Poems About Birds Edited by Billy Collins with Paintings by David Allen Sibley and Jorge Luis Borges The Sonnets. The Sonnets is a dual language edition with Spanish on one side and English on the other. Both of these books are copyright 2010.

The Viscount Who Loved Me was truly awful. It surprised me that it was one of the books which was requested for my Readers Advisory 101 Course. It was better than Danielle Steel, I'll give it that much. I am not a fan of her writing. Sometimes, we are asked to read things which we don't like to understand what patrons want. I read a few urban fiction novels when they were first coming out to see what the genre was about. Omar Tyree is a fairly entertaining writer of street literature. I still have not read any chick lit. I probably should.

Daily Thoughts 6/15/2010

Annaberg-Buchholz, Ladenschild einer Buchhandlungin der Wolkensteiner Straße, April 2010, Photo: Andreas Praefcke (Own Work), Creative Commons Attribution 3.0

Daily Thoughts 6/15/2010

I have to put The Affinity Bridge by George Mann down. It is rather dry and I am finding it a bit stuffy. The concepts are interesting, the story is interesting, the writing is not that exciting.

I finally have all four books for my Readers Advisory 101 Course, Enders Game by Orson Scott Card, The Viscount Who Loved Me by Julia Quinn, Ice Station by Matthew J. Reilly, and Bootlegger's Daughter by Margaret Maron. These are solid, predictable reads.

I received an advanced uncorrected proof for The Last Block In Harlem A Novel by Christopher Herz. It is published by Amazon Encore which is a new venture by Amazon. http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html?ie=UTF8&docId=1000373401

Today, I spent some time working in the storage area looking at shifting books. I also have been playing with Evance which is a system for running summer reading programs. I am looking at the adult summer reading module. I have figured out how to add a few links, input reviews, and setup a basic message about Adult Summer Reading. I am just getting the hang of the system.

Something which I have noticed that people like to read is fiction about the Amish. The most popular author is Beverly Lewis. It is a very different way of living to read about.

I also took a look through the gift books. I find the easiest thing to find and add are the classics. Paperback copies of The Odyssey, The Awakening by Kate Chopin, Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, The Oresteia by Aeschylus, Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury and other classic writers get donated constantly and are always used by the high school students.

Printers Row

WOW! It was my first time at Printers Row. What an experience.
If you're ever in the Chicago Area on the second weekend of June, be sure and go to Printers Row. There are blocks closed off, with tents filling the streets. Books of every kind for sale. People by the thousands streamed by buying books and meeting authors. It was a great time for a photo shoot. How exciting to meet so many other Echelon authors. It's nice to know so many people love books!

Daily Thoughts 6/14/2010

Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin recites his poem before Gavrila Derzhavin during the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum exam on January 8th, 1815. Oil on canvas. 123,7 × 195,5 cm. Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum (All-Russia A. S. Pushkin Museum), St. Petersburg.

Daily Thoughts 6/14/2010

Two books came in for me to read today. The first is Enders Game by Orson Scott Card which is required reading for my Readers Advisory 101 Class. The second is The Affinity Bridge by George Mann. This is a steampunk novel with the main characters being two detectives. I rather like cross genre novels. It makes things interesting.

I stopped reading A Novel Bookstore. The setting and the style did not appeal to me. I read the requisite fifty pages into the novel and it was enough. I am still reading The Viscount Who Loved Me. It is horrid. Fat corgis, flirting, and masked balls just are not my style. It is a definite reminder of how bland peoples lives must be to read this kind of romance novel.

I have also started on Enders Game by Orson Scott Card. It has a much different feel reading it than the first time I read the science fiction novel. There is a much stronger feeling of cruelty and desperation in the novel. It is also something I have to read for the Readers Advisory 101 class.

I started a few pages into The Affinity Bridge. The novel starts in India. I am reading three novels right now.

Today was quiet and steady. Three of my new bookmarks were printed up. Hopefully, they will be appreciated. I also spent some time checking the back orders for Book Wholesalers Incorporated. The books in storage are being shifted around. I also spent some time looking at MP3 Players in the library setting. Some libraries loan MP3 Players out.

Today was spent on minor details; checking on the poetry program and graphic novel program, looking at minor corrections on the website, and other small things. It is the small things that catch you.

Changeless An Alexia Tarabotti Novel by Gail Carriger

Changeless An Alexia Tarabotti Novel by Gail Carriger

This is the second novel in the Parasol Protectorate series featuring Alexia Tarabotti. It is set in a Victorian England with touches of steampunk. The first was Soulless. Alexia is now Lady Maccon. She is married to Conall Maccon who is a werewolf. She is the lady of a house of werewolves.

In this novel, paranormals are mysteriously losing their powers. This is bad for England because so much of their military power lies in regiments of vampires and werewolves. It is a mystery for Lady Maccon to solve. She travels between England and Scotland by dirigible, she hobnobs with werewolves, vampires, and nobility. At the same time she takes tea, wears fashionable dress, and reads the society papers.

The novel is lighthearted entertainment. The writing breaks boundaries by moving between a variety of genres from gaslight to romance to steampunk to adventure. The writing is more comic adventure than scary. She wards off the villains with her trustry umbrella and dangerous hatpins.

The backstory is one of an eccentric, intelligent lady with a difficult family and quirky friends both normal and paranormal (ghosts, vampires, and werewolves). Her friend Ivy is entranced by terrible hats and her sister must travel with her to Scotland to avoid scandal.

The third book in the series coming out in September 2010, Blameless, should be as entertaining as the first two.

Daily Thoughts 6/13/2010

Dr. Seuss cartoon, 14 November 2006, Image From Wikipedia Article by Greg Williams, Creative Commons Attributions-Share Alike 2.5 Generic on Wikimedia

Daily Thoughts 6/13/2010

During the last several days, I have been watching a dvd called Seuss Celebration 9 Favorite Televised Classics. It includes The Lorax, The Cat In The Hat, Pontofell Pock and His Magic Piano, Green Eggs and Ham, Sneetches, Zax, Grinch Night, The Grinch Grinches The Cat In The Hat, and The Hoober Bloober Highway. Some of these are cartoons which I had never heard of before. They are both longer, more colorful, more oddball, and stranger than the books of the same name.

All of them include singing and piano music. Each video comes with a sing a long which was a surprise. Dr. Seuss used piano music in many of his works. His live action movie, The 5000 Fingers of Dr. T is very musical. The vision you get of how he intends to have his books read is very different if you watch the cartoons. I very much liked watching The Lorax. I never read the book. My favorite of the collection was Green Eggs and Ham.

The arrangement of the menus is a little odd to look at. It could have been different. I am also not certain that the transfer from the older tapes is perfect, but it is good enought to enjoy.

This collection is nothing like the Beginner Book Videos of Dr. Seuss, each story includes a lot of material that is not in the books. Each cartoon runs for a full half hour in this version, much longer than it takes to read the books. It also has the cartoon characters singing parts of the text you would have read in the book. The Beginner Book Videos are a lot more formal.

The Cat In the Hat has a very different feel than the modern interpretation of Cat In The Hat like you might see with Jim Carrie. It is not a Cat In The Hat you may be familiar with. The cartoon character is much more of a tricky rascal. It is much closer to Dr. Seuss's cartoon works which you might see in the three volume set, Theodor Seuss Geisel, The Early Works of Dr. Seuss. I enjoyed watching it. I think children and adults will like it. I am a big fan of Dr. Seuss.

I did not read that much this weekend. I spent more time writing reviews. I just started reading an uncorrected proof of A Novel Bookstore by Laurence Cosse. The book is published by Europa Editions, it is coming out in September 2010 and is translated from French. So far, I have figured out that this is a mix of a suspense story and a book about literature set in France.

Digital Self Publishing Shakes Up Traditional Book Industry, an article from the Wall Street Journal. Digital Self Publishing Shakes Up Traditional Book Industry http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704912004575253132121412028.html

Drive The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us by Daniel H. Pink

Drive The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us by Daniel H. Pink

Drive is about intrinisic motivation or self motivation. The drives which lead us to excel; autonomy, purpose, and mastery. It is about how these drives are becoming more prevalent in the modern workplace. White collar work is going through the same route as blue collar work. It is being outsourced, homesourced, and automated. The creative aspects of white collar work are what survives. Daniel H. Pink is trying to counter current management theory which is often inadequate to deal with modern workplaces. He argues this is one of the reasons there has been so much economic uphieval.

He argues for an end to a focus on a rote work environment with strong fixed hours, routine work, and incentive plans. He also attacks carrot and stick management styles. In his view, there should be solid wages, more autonomy for workers, greater learning opportunities, and a focus on more than just profits.

Some of the changes in work which he describes are the ROWE (Results Only Work Environment) created by Best Buy where scheduling becomes very flexible and Google's focus on giving its engineers 20% of their time to work on projects of their own design.

He also introduces us to psychological theories of motivation that are focused on what goes on inside people. He describes how optimal experiences and performance at work are not necessarily tied to incentives, but have a lot to do with the environment in the workplace. Two people he focuses on are Edward L. Deci and Mihaly Csikszentmihaly.

Sometimes, I think Daniel H. Pink draws too much from mainstream management theorists to make his point. Peter F. Drucker, Gary Hamel, and Jim Collins are all very standard business leaders. It seems like he is often making points using people who have a different management style than the one he is proposing.

I liked his list of recommended reading. I plan on reading Infinite Games A Vision of Life as Play and Possibility by James P. Carse. I have already read Talent Is Overrated What Really Separates World Class Performers From Everybody Else by Geoff Colvin.

This book would be good for people whose work is autonomous; artists, writers, programmers, and other creatives. I saw the book mentioned on Tobias Buckell's blog who is a science fiction writer. It also might be helpful for people who have to manage in an increasingly creative work environment.