The Olive Grove (2)

Olive Grove, by Vincent van Gogh

They would say no angel came.

Why angel? What came was night,
moving indifferently amidst the trees.
The disciples stirred in in their dreams.
Why an angel? What came was night.

The night that came was like any other,
dogs sleeping, stones lying there—
like any night of grief,
to be survived till morning comes.

Angels do not answer prayers like that,
nor do they let eternity break through.
Nothing protects those who lose themselves.

New Poems

Daily Thoughts 3/31/2011 (Poetry, Adult Summer Reading)

"Le premier livre des cachets, marques et monogrammes" (inside title page, p. vi)by George Auriol (Paris: Librairie centrale des beaux-arts, 1901)

Daily Thoughts 3/31/2011

This morning, I spent a little more time reading The Wise Man's Fear. 

Today, I checked the displays, updated the Twitter account, and spent a little bit of time making sure that the display for old photographs of the library was in order.  I also put up a display for National Poetry Month which is in April.  On April 14, 2011 we are doing a Writers Networking event from 6:30-8:00 p.m. focused on poetry.  I also picked out a few poems for the Poem In Your Pocket event on April 14, 2011.  http://www.poets.org/page.php/prmID/409

We had a meeting this afternoon focusing on summer programming.  We are going to have an Adult Summer Reading program.  I am thinking about two events for the program, a Scrabble hour, and a Lunch Hour Book Chat where we talk about books which we are reading.  This is part of a program where we sign up people to read books.  At the end we have a celebration where we raffle off a gift basket and some books for people who participated in the program.  Last year The Friends of the Library helped us with this.

This afternoon, I printed up some more flyers for a few programs in the library.  I also spent some time typing the paper surveys into the computer.

The Olive Grove (1)

 Olive Grove, by Vincent van Gogh

He went out under the grey leaves,
all grey and indistinct, this olive grove,
and buried his dusty face
in the dust of his hot hands.

It has come to this. Is this how it ends?
Must I continue when I'm going blind?
Why do you want me to say you exist
when I no longer find you myself?

I cannot find you any more. Not within me.
Not in others. Not in these stones.
I find you no longer. I am alone.

I am alone with everyone's sorrow,
the sorrow I tried to relieve through you,
you who do not exist. O unspeakable shame.
Later they would say an angel came.

New Poems

Daily Thoughts 3/30/2011 (The Wise Man's Fear)

[Main Reading Room under construction in the Library of Congress Thomas Jefferson Building]
Shows circular central desk and reading room desks.  Date Created/Published: [between ca. 1880 and 1896]

Daily Thoughts 3/30/2011

I finished watching Star Wars yesterday and started watching The Empire Strikes Back.  They have a very different feel to them than when I first saw them. The story is very basic.

I also have been reading more of The Wise Man's Fear by Patrick Rothfuss.  It has a beautiful quality to it.  The fantasy has elements of intrigue, romance, games, music, and poetry.  It is not swords and sorcery.  The story is quite sophisticated.

The Last Supper

Olive Trees with the Alpilles in the Background

by Vincent van Gogh

They are assembled around him, troubled and confused.
He seems withdrawn,
as if, strangely, he were flowing past
those to whom he had belonged.
The old aloneness comes over him.
It had prepared him for his deep work.
Now once again he will go out to the olive groves.
Now those who love him will flee from him.

He had bid them come to this last meal.
Their hands on the bread
tremble now at the words he speaks,
tremble in sudden silence
as a forest does when a gun is fired.
They long to leave, and they will.
But they will find him everywhere.

Book of Images

Como vives

1. ¿Como vives una vida de sopresas?

Estando "aquí", dejándome sorprender, no juzgando ni analizando

2. ¿Como vives una vida llena de experiencias?

Actuando, arriesgando, viviendo "Hoy"

3. ¿Como vives una vida de alegrias?

Con libre albedrío,con capacidad de escoger la vida que quiero vivir

4. ¿Como vives una vida llena de entusiasmo?

Siendo creativa cada segundo. Venciendo la apatia. Haciendo lo que me gusta

Noah Capo

5. ¿Como vives una vida FELIZ?
....

Esta última te la dejo para ti. Después si quieres te doy mi respuesta

Dread and Bliss

 

Sorrow, 1882, by Auguste Rodin

Art Institute, Chicago

The person who has not, in a moment of firm resolve, accepted—yes, even rejoiced in—what has struck him with terror—he has never taken possession of the full, ineffable power of our existence. He withdraws to the edge; when things play out, he will be neither alive nor dead.

To discover the unity of dread and bliss, these two faces of the same divinity (indeed, they reveal themselves as a single face that presents itself differently according to the way in which we see it): that is the essential meaning and theme of both my books (The Sonnets to Orpheus and The Duino Elegies).

Letter to Countess Margot Sizzo-Noris-Crouy

April 12, 1923

Daily Thoughts 3/28/2011 (library photographs, The Wise Man's Fear)

Book jacket with engraving of E. T. A. Hoffmann, Lebens-Ansichten des Katers Murr, third edition, Berlin 1855, volume 2. The title is nearly identical to that of the 1st edition; the jackets of both volumes are identical besides the caption “Erster Band.” and “Zweiter Band.” The engraving showing the learned tom cat Murr is based on an original design from Hoffmann. Hoffmann also gives a description of exactly this picture in his preface to the 1st volume.

Daily Thoughts 3/28/2011

I read some more of The Wise Man's Fear this morning.  I like that the main character was a student at a university for magic.  It adds a nice touch of intrigue.

This morning, I put up some photographs of the library from the local history room in the rotunda.  We house different exhibits in the rotunda.  I also put in a few banners which explain what the photographs are.  We have scanned in a number of the photographs and the senior clerk who works with computers is captioning them right now on Flickr.  It is very interesting to look at.

I also updated the Twitter account, entered some surveys and checked the displays this morning.  This afternoon, I checked on the gift books.  There was one I added.

I placed a hold on the novella, The Alchemist by Paolo Bacigalupi; it is part of a book with another novella, The Executioness by Tobias Buckell.  I also placed a hold on a short story collection, Metatropolis edited by John Scalzi.  The Desert of Souls by Howard Andrew Jones also looks execellent.  It is a story set in the 8th century middle east.

The graphic novel, Richard Stark's Parker The Outfit adapted by Darwyn Cooke came in for me to read.  Richard Stark was a pseudonym for Donald Westlake when he was writing his hard boiled crime novels.  The previous Richard Stark graphic novel, The Hunter won the Eisner Award in 2008.

I took a few minutes to look through the Mount Vernon Public Library Anniversary Calendar 1896-1946 which has a number of captions describing photographs we are planning on showing on Flickr.  The calendar was produced for the fiftieth anniversary charter of the Mount Vernon Public Library by the University of the State of New York, March 18, 1896.

Para começar bem a semana: Dicas do Rosenbaum

Segunda-feira. Mais uma semana começando. E como toda segunda é "o" dia de todas as promessas, que tal  usar essa segunda pra planejar aquela mudança que você tanto quer fazer no seu lar doce lar?

E quem melhor que Marcelo Rosenbaum  para nos dar dicas simples, mas preciosas, de como transformar sua casa?

 Então, vamos ao que interessa:

"• Compre um móvel antigo (ou “roube” da casa da avó) e pinte com uma cor primária ou outra bem vibrante e moderna, como o roxo. 

A mesa amarela da Rafaela Fajardo - Casa Montada

• Quando viajar traga sempre alguma coisa para sua casa.

Esse é meu!

• O papel de parede voltou com tudo, mas de uma forma diferenciada. Em vez de revestir uma sala inteira, opte por colocá-lo apenas em uma parede, por exemplo.

Sala da Cin - Casa Sues

• Invista em capas de sofá. Elas dão uma cara nova para o móvel e para o ambiente inteiro. E brinque com estampas: se você tem dois sofás, compre uma capa lisa para um, e uma listrada para o outro.

Tirada do blog Tudo é DImais

• Crie um novo contexto para um objeto importante da sua vida ou infância, mesmo que esteja fora de moda. Dê a ele status de “objeto de arte”. Se você patinou no gelo boa parte da sua vida, pendure os patins na parede em vez de deixá-los mofando no armário. Coloque sobre a mesa um brinquedo inesquecível. E assim por diante.

O disco de vinil vira uma silheta - Imagem Google

• Pinte uma parede importante de um ambiente com uma cor diferente. Ela trará vida, felicidade e acolhimento. Na dúvida, opte por cores terrosas e tons opacos. "

Via

O texto foi publicado no site da Revista Elle .

Então agora não tem desculpa! É só colocar a mão na massa e começar a semana com força total!
Beijos

Life's Other Half

Rilke, artist unknown

I am not saying that we should love death, but rather that we should love life so generously, without picking and choosing, that we automatically include it (life's other half) in our love. This is what actually happens in the great expansiveness of love, which cannot be stopped or constricted. It is only because we exclude it that death becomes more and more foreign to us and, ultimately, our enemy.

It is conceivable that death is infinitely closer to us than life itself. . . .
What do we know of it?

Letter to Countess Margot Sizzo-Noris-Crouy

Epiphany, 1923

Daily Thoughts 3/27/2011 (The Wise Man's Fear)

Ishiyakushi  Print shows an elderly traveler or monk reading banners hanging above a watering trough; his hat is on the ground behind him. Date Created/Published: 1804.

Daily Thoughts 3/27/2011

I am taking a little break this weekend.  Right now, I am reading The Wise Man's Fear by Patrick Rothfuss.  I am also watching the original Star Wars trilogy on video.  I am enjoying reading The Wise Man's Fear.  The book is on the Locus Bestseller list as well as the New York Times Bestseller list.  It is fantasy. Most fantasy books do not make it there.

Remembering

Rodin drawing a Cambodian dancer

Marseille, 1906

And you wait. You wait for the one thing
that will change your life,
make it more than it is—
something wonderful, exceptional,
stones awakening, depths opening to you.

In the dusky bookstalls
old books glimmer gold and brown.
You think of lands you journeyed through,
of paintings and a dress once worn
by a woman you never found again.

And suddenly you know: that was enough.
You rise and there appears before you
in all its longings and hesitations
the shape of what you lived.

Book of Images

Barcelona

foto: mariposa feliz (26/03/2011)

La rebuda ha estat amb els braços oberts com sempre

Ets tant bonica....

Tan sols fa dos hores que t'he deixat  i ja t'enyoro.

*****

El recibimiento ha sido con los brazos abiertos como siempre

Eres tan bonita...

Solo hace dos horas que te he dejado y ya te echo de menos

Alegria, alegria!

Olá meninas!
Sentiram minha falta? Pois é, dei uma sumidinha, mas foi totalmente involuntária...
Andei meio mal esses dias, caí de cama e quase não conseguia fazer nada. Mas a semana se foi levando com ela o meu mal-esta e aqui estou, recuperada e muito feliz com a surpresa que eu tive.
É que, como postei o sellinho e "sumi", acabei não avisando a qem eu tinha repassado... (Peço mil desculpas por isso!) E não é que, devagarzinho, elas foram passando por aqui e descobrindo a indicação?
Vocês têm ideia de como isso me fez feliz? Pois então aumenta! Mas aumenta com vontade, porque ainda vai ser pouco!

Acho que o "piripaque" que eu tive foi um misto de cansaço com stress. Chegou uma hora que o meu corpo me fez parar à força. Quem convive comigo sabe o quanto eu sou exigente, não tanto com os outros quanto sou comigo. Eu simplesmente não aceito algo feito pela metade, ou mal feito, ou simplesmente desconhecer algo. E, principalmente, sou super centralizadora! Aí acumulo mil coisas para fazer. Eu sei que é o meu próximo ponto a ser trabalhado, mas... agora não dá!
E depois de uma semana quase toda ausente do trabalho, o que é que eu vou fazer hoje? Trabalhar! Pois é, eu simplesmente encontrei uma verdadeira montanha de papéis  na volta... e como não sou de deixar pra depois, resolvi encarar de uma vez esse monte de notas, relatórios e todo o tipo de docmento (e de bagunça também) que está por aqui. 
E já que eu vou tabalhar, resta sonhar com o lugar onde eu gostaria de estar agora...

Imagem: Google

Porque um pouco de sombra e água fresca não faz mal a ninguém!

Bom fim de semana! Divirtam-se bastante, por vocês e por mim!
Beijos

Annunciation (2)

 Minerva, by Auguste Rodin

(The angel speaks)

I stretched my wings wide
and became incredibly vast.
Now your narrow dwelling
overflows with my robes.
Yet you are alone as never before,
and barely look at me.
I could be just a breeze in the grove.
You, though, are the tree.

Never was there such longing,
so great and so uncertain.
Maybe something is soon to occur
that has come to you in dreams.
I greet you, for my soul sees now
that you have ripened and are ready.
You are a high and awesome gate
and soon you will open.
You are the ear my song is seeking,
the forest in which my word is lost.

So I came and made real
what you dared so long to dream.
God looked right at me, it was blinding . . .

You, though, are the tree.

Book of Images

Daily Thoughts 3/25/2011 (The Wise Man's Fear)

Lesende im Scherenstuhl. Um 1900. Aquarell und Kohlezeichnung. 69 x 57,5 cm, by Max Hendricke.

Daily Thoughts 3/25/2011

Today, I started reading Patrick Rothfuss, The Wise Man's Fear.  I rather like that the main character studies both alchemy and music at the university where he is learning magic.

This morning, I checked the displays, updated the Twitter account, and did some more tabulating for the survey.  We have 147 surveys that were brought in directly by the library and 44 that were sent in via the website so far.

We are working on putting together an annotated Flickr! gallery of historical photographs of our library.  I already printed up a few color pictures to put in one of the display cases.

Today has been slow and steady.  I took some time to clean my desk and update my phone book.  I also checked out the book, Getting More How To Negotiate to Achieve Your Goals In The Real World by Stuart Diamond.

The March 17, 2011 New York Times Book Review has a review of The Information by James Gleick.  I liked reading the book.  It was information as the underpinning of how the universe works from the positive and negative spin of electrons, the code in dna, to the zeros and ones in computers.

Hopefully, I will get a chance to go to a Meetup to tour The Swann Galleries in Manhattan with the New York Library Club and the New York Librarians Meetup on April 5, 2011.  It would be a nice break and a chance to see something interesting.

Annunciation (1)

 Cambodian Dancer

by Auguste Rodin

(The angel speaks)

It's not that you are closer to God than we;
We are all far from God.
But your hands seem to me
so wonderfully blessed,
made ready as no other woman's.
They are almost radiant.
I am the day, I am the dew.
You, though, are the tree.

I am tired now, I have traveled a long way.
Forgive me, but I have forgotten
what He, enthroned in gold like the sun,
wanted me to tell you, quiet one.
All that space made me dizzy,
but I am just the beginning.
You, though, are the tree.

Book of Images

Daily Thoughts 3/24/2011 (webinar, library photographs)

Wonder Book For Girls & Boys by Nathaniel Hawthorne, 1892,  Illustrated by Walter Crane


Daily Thoughts 3/24/2011

I finished reading The Physics of the Future by Michio Kaku.  It has a very positive feel to it.  The author reminds us to not let go of the ability to constantly invent new technology and research new science, it is extremely important for our future.
We had a webinar this morning in the computer lab, AARP's Living Well in Westchester Webinar Series. It was focusing on affordable housing and assisted living for seniors.

Today has been steady.  I made some calls to schedule workshops on different subjects during the next several months including wills, foreclosure, and energy efficiency, all subjects which I think there might be some interest in.

I also spent some more time looking at different photographs of the library.  In the early 1900s we had a fireplace in the childrens room which is a bit different.  There is even an advertisement to buy a brick for the fireplace to support the library.  We also have pictures of a doll case display from 1970 which is intriguing.


Web Bits

Your “Library” Doesn’t Participate in Social Media, But Your People Do – A TTW Guest Post by Dr. Troy Swanson
http://tametheweb.com/2011/03/23/your-“library”-doesn’t-participate-in-social-media-but-your-people-do-a-ttw-guest-post-by-dr-troy-swanson/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+TameTheWeb+(Tame+The+Web)

The Voices of Librarians and the DPLA (Digital Public Library of America)
http://www.libraryjournal.com/lj/home/889797-264/the_voices_of_librarians_and.html.csp

Submissions- exhibition made in conjunction with glasgow school of art and byam shaw school of art

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?id=768009745&aid=372954&closeTheater=1

http://ppprojectdocument.wordpress.com/

in the kitchen

here is something i put together recently staring ian beale.

Mirrors

 Man Stooping with Stick or Spade

by Vincent van Gogh

Any angel is frightening.
Yet, because I know of you,
I invoke you in spite of myself,
you lethal birds of the soul.

Fated to be happy from the beginning of time,
creation's spoiled immortal darlings,
summits of the cosmos shining at dawn,
pollen from heavenly blossoms, limbs of light,
hallways, stairs, thrones carved from existence,
shields of ecstasy, shrines for delight—
and suddenly, each one, mirror:
where our own evanescent beauty
is gathered into an enduring countenance.

From the Second Duino Elegy

An Angel

(dale pause al audio del reproductor de la parte derecha
para poder escuchar el video)

Daily Thoughts 3/23/2011 (Books)

Young and old visit the library on the parkway Poster promoting libraries, showing a family going to the library.  Date Created/Published: Pennsylvania : WPA Federal Art Project, [1936 or 1937]


Daily Thoughts 3/23/2011


This morning, I checked the Twitter feed and tabulated some more surveys.  The surveys are interesting to read.  We also opened the computer lab in the rotunda so people could search for jobs.  It went quite well.  There are two handouts we created for internet job search.


I also spent some time looking at identified pictures from the libraries history.  We have many pictures from 1938 as well as some pictures from the childrens' room in 1909.  I especially like a picture of the old bookmobile from 1940.

Esmeralda Santiago has a novel coming out in July called Conquistadora which is about plantation life in Puerto Rico.  I very much enjoyed her autobiography, When I was a Puerto Rican.  Also John Scalzi is coming out with an authorized version of a book called Fuzzy Nation which is based on H. Beam Piper's Fuzzy books.  Another novel which looks interesting is Embassytown by China Mieville which is about alien contact and language.

Sometimes you see things which are a little funny.  There is a new children's picture book which features surfing called Dude: Fun With Dude and Betty by Lisa Pliscou, illustrated by Tom Dunne.  The title caught my attention along with the review in the March 21, 2011 Publishers Weekly.  It is supposed to be a spoof of the Dick and Jane books.  Another title which caught my attention is Pink Boots and a Machete:  My Journey from NFL Cheerleader to National Geographic Explorer by Mireya Mayor in the March 15, 2011 Booklist.  These are both wonderful examples of how a title can catch a readers attention.  There is a third title which caught my attention as well, this is something I might read; Johnny Appleseed: The Man, the Myth, and the American Story by Howard Means.

The March 15, 2011 Booklist is a graphic novels issue.  I put the the graphic book, Richard Stark's Parker: The Outfit by Darwyn Cooke on hold.  It looks to be a noire graphic novel.

Web Bits

Masterpiece Theater Book and Film Guide
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/bookclub/guides.html

What Will You Do, God?

 Woman as Vase
by Auguste Rodin

What will you do, God, when I die?

I am your pitcher (when I shatter?)
I am your drink (when I go bitter?)
I, your garment; I, your craft.
Without me what reason have you?

Without me what house
where intimate words await you?
I, velvet sandal that falls from your foot.
I, cloak dropping from your shoulder.
What will you do, God? It troubles me.

From The Book of Hours I, 36

Daily Thoughts 3/22/2011 (The Physics of the Future, Budgets)

Sproatt and Rolph was a firm of architects based in Toronto; the bookplate (Ex Libris) is dated 1915. It shows a woman kneeling with a blueprint or plan of a building which is being constructed behind her, in the Gothic Revival style.

Daily Thoughts 3/22/2011

I read some more of The Physics of the Future by Michio Kaku on the train.  He is writing about advances in medicine which will extend life expectancy.  He describes things like nanomedicine, restricted diets for reducing aging, regrowing organs using stem cells, and genetic medicine.  It is very much a survey of different technologies that are being developed broken into sections.  There are sections on computers, artificial intelligence, health, nanotechnology, energy, and other subjects.  Right now, I am reading about nanotechnology.

This morning, I updated the Twitter account, checked the displays, and tabulated some more of the surveys.  I also reformatted the author lists for African American Novelists and African American Mystery writers.

I was reading Library Journal today.  They are writing about budget cuts.  It looks like there will be both federal cuts to libraries as well as New York state cuts to libraries.  I imagine there will also be cuts at the county level as well.  There are more proposed cuts to libraries in the five boroughs of New York city.  It seems that there are endless cuts.

I did some more weeding in the mezzanine today.  I plan on possibly scanning some old photographs of the library from the local history room to help create a Flickr gallery of the libraries history.

Web Bits

Plan to eliminate Statistical Abstracts of the United States and County and City Data book in US in 2012 http://bit.ly/eiX4Wm

Selinho!

 Ganhei esse selinho da Sônia Facion (obrigada, Sônia!), um encanto de pessoa, super-talentosa, e é com grande alegria que eu repasso para...

tcharã...

Bárbara - De.cor.ação
Giu - Espaço da Giu
Fernanda Reali
Jô - Ví por aí
Ly Mello - Design my Life
Nathalia - Um sonho de casa
Paty - Dona Amélia
Ruby - Meu Canto Minha Prosa
Tri - Coisas da Casa 08
Verônica Kraemer

Beijos!

Since I've Learned to Be Silent

 L'Estaque, by Paul Cézanne

Since I've learned to be silent, everything has come so much closer to me. I am thinking of a summer on the Baltic when I was a child: how talkative I was to sea and forest; how, filled with an unaccustomed exuberance, I tried to leap over all limits with the hasty excitement of my words. And how, as I had to take my leave on a morning in September, I saw that we never give utterance to what is final and most blessed, and that all my rhapsodic Table d'hote conversations did not approach either my inchoate feelings or the ocean's eternal self-revelation.

Early Journals

Primavera

foto: mariposa feliz

Un nuevo día, Un nuevo amanecer

Empieza la Primavera, momento mágico

El sol toma protagonismo y nos da acceso a energías renovadas

Daily Thoughts 3/21/2011 (Poetry, Sony Reader Program)

Edmund Körner "In der Klosterbibliothek". Öl auf Leinwand. Signiert "E. Körner. Dresden" 110 x 89 cm c1910

Daily Thoughts 3/21/2011

This morning, I checked the displays and am working on the marketing material for the Sony Reader program for libraries. I already put out a couple tent cards that are available on the website. We are currently putting together a poster to go above the sample reader station.

I also spent some time on the surveys and updated the Twitter account this afternoon.  The book, The Wise Man's Fear by Patrick Rothfuss came in for me to read.  It is a fantasy novel.

I did some more weeding in the storage area or mezzanine today in the 800s.  It is a slow, steady process.

For April, I think I might print out some of the Poem In Your Pocket poems for a monthly poetry display. http://www.poets.org/page.php/prmID/409

I talked to a local poet with a book, Camouflaged Drama Finding Wholeness Through Poetic Transformations  by Mary Jones.  She is doing a Camouflaged Drama Soiree on March 28, 2011 Afterwork from 6:00-8:00 p.m. at Sweet Potatoes, 393 North Avenue, New Rochelle, New York.


Web Bits

No Ebooks Without Authors
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/time-to-lead/no-e-books-without-authors-atwood-reminds-us/article1943785/

Today is World Poetry Day
http://www.un.org/en/events/poetryday/%20

Transforming Libraries At C2E2 With Greg Baldino
http://www.bleedingcool.com/2011/03/18/transforming-libraries-at-c2e2-with-greg-baldino/

Spring!

 Child with an Orange, by Vincent van Gogh

Spring! And Earth is like a child
who has learned many poems by heart.
For the trouble of that long learning
she wins the prize.

Her teacher was strict. We loved the white
of the old man's beard. Now we can ask her
the many names of green, of blue,
and she knows them, she knows them!

Earth, school is out now. You're free
to play with the children. We'll catch you,
joyous Earth. The happiest will catch you!

All that the teacher taught her—the many thoughts
pressed now into roots and long
tough stems: she sings! She sings!

Sonnets to Orpheus I, 21

Daily Thoughts 3/20/2011 (The Physics of the Future)

Extension of library of Harvard College, Iron details. Ware and Van Brunt architects
Print shows architectural renderings of new book shelf construction at the Harvard University library.  Date Created/Published: Boston : Heliotype Printing Co., 1878.

Daily Thoughts 3/20/2011

I filled out a survey of our collection. I also wrote a short report on what was being done in the library.

This evening, I read some more of Michio Kaku, The Physics of the Future.  Michio Kaku is writing about robots and artificial intelligence.  One of the topics he touches on is the singularity where robots become smarter than humans.  He also describes how people are working on robots that are designed to fit in with human society in a benevolent way.  It is all very utopian.

Web Bits

41 Reasons to Plant A Tree For Your Book
http://www.ecolibris.net/41reasons.asp

Mi Super Luna

foto: mariposa feliz 19/03/2011

foto: mariposa feliz 19/03/2011

Coming to Be

 Nude Study

by Auguste Rodin

From infinite longings
finite deeds arise...

But in these dancing tears,
what is often withheld can be found:
our strength.

Book of Images

Daily Thoughts 3/19/2011 (the information)

John Hancock, 1765, John Singleton Copley

Daily Thoughts 3/19/2011

I finished reading The Information today.  Otherwise it has been a very quiet day.

Um quarto para fazer sonhar

Hoje eu quero falar para vocês sobre o quarto de uma blogueira que é pura inspiração: a Tânia Silva, do blog Pedacinho do Céu.

No dia que vi a cortina da Tânia eu pirei!
A Tânia tinha comprado uma cortina branquinha na Leroy Merlin, já pronta, só que quando chegou em casa descobriu que a cortina era pequena para a janela dela. Frustrante? Pode ser para você, ou para mim, mas não para a Tânia. Munida de todo o talento e criatividade que generosamente Deus lhe deu, ela começou a fazer fuxicos azuis. E esses fuxicos se transformaram na emenda e na barra da cortina, fazendo com que ela chegasse ao comprimento ideal.

 Confesso que eu nunca fui fã de fuxico, e principalmente por isso essa cortina me chamou atenção! Tinha tudo para me fazer torcer o nariz e, ao contrário, despertou o meu desejo!

O charmoso recorte da cortina, além de aumentar o comprimento, ainda ajudou a passar mais luz para dentro do quarto, sem tirar a privacidade do casal...
E não é que a moça se empolgou fuxicando? Fez tantos fuxicos que sobraram alguns para a linda almofada de passarinhos, que pousou sobre a cama do casal.

 E dá uma reparada no resto do quarto:

Paredes azul clarinho, roupa de cama colorida, abajour fofo...

E, pra completar, a apaixonada Tânia deixou no porta retratos um recadinho apaixonado para o marido... ai,ai! O amor é lindo!

Agora me fala se você não está achando o seu quarto assim, meio sem graça?
Deu ou não deu vontade de sair fuxicando mundo afora?
Quer ver mais o que a Tânia é capaz? Então clica aqui.

Tânia, obrigada por me permitir mostrar seu quarto!

Meninas, espero que sirva de inspiração para vocês!

Bom fim de semana!
Beijos

Like a Web

Rainer Maria Rilke

photographer unknown

When I lean over the chasm of myself—
it seems
my God is dark
and like a web: a hundred roots
silently drinking.

This is the ferment I grow out of.

From the Book of Hours I, 3

SuperLuna 19 de marzo

Mañana 19 de marzo tendremos Luna Llena. 

Una Luna especial.. más grande de lo normal, pues la más grande desde 1992

Más allá de los efectos que conlleve, gocemos de este espectáculo mirando al cielo.

Feliz Luna

:-)

Daily Thoughts 3/18/2011 (Libraries, The Information, Advocacy)

Ink stick, brush and mill stone for sumi-e painting.


Daily Thoughts 3/18/2011

This morning, I read some more of The Information.  The author is discussing the mathematics of randomness as well as how all mathematical numbers can be reduced to zeros and ones.  Part of the discussion is about how to shorten strings of numbers by making them into algorithms.  I am learning about mathematicians like Alan Turing, Claude Shannon, and Andrey Nikolaevich Kolomogorov.

This morning, I spent some time entering a few more surveys, updated the Twitter account, and did some weeding in the storage area.  Things are very quiet today.  I'll probably spend a little time planning for the next month or two.

I am interested in going to the May 13, 2011 Westchester Library Association conference because Seth Godin is going to be the keynote speaker.  He is featuring his book, Poke The Box. http://wlany.info/?p=25

Next month, April, is national poetry month, so we should probably be doing something for it.  We also have the adult summer reading program.  By the end of the month we should have the library survey tallied so we can get a better idea of the type of programs which we might do.

I did some small tasks today; printed up some flyers for events, printed up some bookmarks from cardstock, and checked the email reference.

Web Bits

Strong Libraries Are Needed Now More Than Ever
http://www.lohud.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2011103010307

(Reuters) - The rapid rise of e-books could lead to a "reading divide" as those unable to afford the new technology are left behind, even as U.S. reading and writing skills decline still further.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/03/17/us-books-technology-golden-idUSTRE72G0G120110317