People, StarGirl, and other Musings

It is a quiet and peaceful Saturday morning. My husband went camping/hiking for the weekend, so after I kissed him goodbye this morning, I made myself a cup of tea and settled in for some reading time with the kitties. It's what I call "People Saturday" - where I spend some quality time reading the latest issue of People Magazine and getting caught up on the latest Hollywood news. Lately, I have not been enjoying People Saturday as much as I used to. I think that it is my own undoing though. I like to read celebrity websites, like Perez Hilton, and by the time the actual magazine comes out, I have already seen most of the stories. I kind of spoil it for myself, which I don't like to do, but I'm full-on addicted to the Internet. What a catch-22!!

There wasn't too much exciting in this week's People anyway. I decided to amuse myself by reading the latest Jerry Spinelli book, "Love, Stargirl." I loved the original Stargirl and was curious to see what he'd do with this one. So far, I am enjoying it - told in letters written by Stargirl to Leo, her boyfriend that she left behind when her family moved from AZ to PA. I love Stargirl and the free spirit that she is. She's passionate and strong, but she is also incredibly human and at times, childlike. She is able to see the world from a different perspective and that is something that I envy about her.

I think that I will get myself together and go out to enjoy this beautiful day. Since my hubby is out of cell-phone range, I don't have to worry about missing a call from him. I'm not sure where I'll go today, but somewhere that I can be outdoors and enjoy the sun. I hope that you enjoy the day too!

Things That Make Me Happy

I've been having a lot of happy days lately, and while it can't be attributed to just one thing, I thought I'd share some of the things that have made me smile lately. First of all, the Yankees are coming on strong. The post-season seems likely and the AL East Championship is looking better and better. I am especially happy that my favorite Yankee, Mike Mussina, is doing well. He's had a rough year and it is good to see that, like his team, he seems to be bouncing back. Something else that makes me happy is The Bourne Ultimatum. I loved that movie. In fact, I saw it twice in the theater, which is twice as often as I see a lot of movies in the theater! I love the fact that Jason Bourne and Nicky Parsons had some type of a relationship. I love the character of Desh - he is incredibly hot and has a really interesting biography on IMDB. I love the tea set that my husband got me for my birthday. I look forward to weekend mornings when I can make a pot of Oolong tea and just veg out with my book or Sodoku puzzles. Either way, it is glorious relaxation time. I also love the LoveSac that we have. It is the most giant poofball of a not-exactly-a-bean-bag chair. Instead of beans it is foam pieces and it is the best nap I've had in years!! I can't lay in it without falling asleep within 10 minutes. I love it! Talk Like a Pirate Day made me really happy yesterday. I wore a head band with skulls on it to work (not something that one expects to see of their librarian, that's for sure!) and I enjoyed the looks of interst/confusion on my customer's faces. It was explained quickly enough and others seemed to enjoy the day. I also love finding incredible sales. I had a Sears giftcard and while I'm not a huge Sears fan, I found some great clothes on sale. I bought a dress, skirt, and 2 shirts, which retailed at $130 for Twenty Bucks!! That was a good sale - and some good shopping!! I love my nephew Jack and the latest videos on his blog. I am grateful that my brother and sister-in-law are keeping a blog for him. Since he lives so far away, this helps me see how he is changing and growing. It makes me happy. Last, but certainly not least, I love how happy my husband has been makind me lately. I love our evening strolls and our playful banter, our dinners out, and our time together. It has been really great lately, totally ordinary - there is nothing major going on in our lives, but just really great. I'm happy and that is a wonderful feeling!!

Monday Morning

It's Monday morning and I am recovering from a busy weekend. Actually, the weekend itself wasn't all that busy, but my parents were visiting and while we had a great time, there is the constant need to entertain and I'm looking forward to a quiet evening. It was nice to visit with them. Charley and I took them to dinner on Friday and on Saturday we spent some time shopping and then we had a nice dinner at home. We went for a long walk that evening, which was lovely, except it was probably a bit long for everyone else. Oh well - it was such a wonderful temperature, not hot at all. Really very pleasant. Yesterday was a quiet day. We watched a movie, played some games, and just chilled out for most of the day. So, it was relaxing, but it still somehow felt busy. We said goodbye this morning and I headed into work. And now I am here and I have much to do. I'll sign off for now and wish you all a good day!

23 Things is Important

I have said this in a few other entries, but the point needs to be re-stated. I feel that 23 Things has been a very important process for staff members of public libraries go through because it is an easy and comprehensive way to familiarize ourselves with technologies that our customers are already using. It is important to be aware of these Things, so that we can directly relate to and understand our customers. It is also important to be aware of these Things because they may be useful to our customers, and while they may be receptive to learning about these Things, they may not be aware of their existence. I keep thinking about Flickr and how great it will be to share photos with my family and friends of the various things that happen in my life and the things that are happening in their lives. We all live various distances from one another and it will be great to share our lives in "real" time. I think that customers will be able to relate to this and find it a useful tool. So, overall I do believe that the Things we learned in this process have been important. I may not make use of all of them in my own life, but it is very important to at least be familiar with them because the people that I deal with and interact with every day may be making use of some of these Things or may have an interest to learn about some of these Things. And now I will be able to help.

Week 9 - Thing 23

I can't believe I've finally reached The End! This has been a really good experience for me. There are lots of new technologies that are out there that I haven't had the time to discover. This concise program was a good way to get familiar with a lot of different technologies that I may not have found otherwise. I will certainly be making use of Overdrive, Flickr, YouTube, Yahoo Podcasts, and Library Thing. And it is great to be aware of all of the Things that we discovered in this program because now I can better relate to customers that make use of these Things and I can recommend them to customers that may not be familiar with them.

I am particularly excited to further explore Flickr. I have a new nephew that lives in Minneapolis, so I am hoping that my brother will make use of Flickr to help me (and my parents, who live in Connecticut) see photos of little Jack growing each week.

I knew that I would enjoy making discoveries in this program, but I didn't know how much I would come away with. There are at least 5 of the Things that I plan to regularly use in my life - and that is something! Actually, I am planning on continuing this blog, so that is another Thing!

This has been a very positive experience for me. It has been fun checking on other folks' blogs and to see what kinds of things other people are discovering. It has also been a good teamwork experience because many of us had to ask other co-workers how to accomplish various Things. It was good to work together and get input from one another. I would certainly participate in a program like this again. I think that giving us 12 weeks to complete the 9 weeks was a good idea. This way we didn't have to feel enormous pressure if we got behind or took a vacation. It's been a fun experience!

Week 9, Thing 22 - Overdrive

I am so glad that this was one of our 23 Things! I have been familiar with Overdrive for some time, since we got an Overdrive station at the Westminster Branch. However, I did not spent enough time familiarizing myself with it and I felt a bit uncomfortable talking it up to customers. This tutorial was fantastic and I feel much better about recommending it to customers. I installed Overdrive on my home computer, updated Media Player, and proceeded to download a couple of audiobooks, including "Dave Barry's Money Secrets: Like Why Is There a Giant Eyeball on the Dollar?". It was so easy! I even put a few on hold that were unavailable at that moment. I'm going to burn a book or two to CD, so that I can listen to them in the car. And now I really can't wait to get an mp3 player! This has been a really great Thing!

One more to go - I'm almost there!!

Week 9, Thing 21 - Podcasting

I have only heard about Podcasting over the last couple of months, but I have been a listener of podcasts for a lot longer. I just didn't realize it! For this Thing, I spent some time searching for various podcasts at Yahoo Podcasts, which is so easy to search and a lot of fun. I originally searched for some children's author podcasts and then I went searching for Harry Potter podcasts and found a link to one of my favorite sites: PotterCast, which has everything Harry related that one could hope for! I added a feed to my bloglines account for an author website called Book Voyages, which contains podcasts about "Children's Lit from the point of view of a school library/media specialist." It has some contemporary authors and books, including "Heartbeat" by Sharon Creech. I will certainly be checking for updates to both podcasts and it is exciting to know that there are so many more out there that may be interesting one day in the future.

Only 2 more Things to go! I can't believe I'm almost done!!