Searching for Van de Water

As I started to poke around in LibraryThing, I was reminded of a question someone asked this morning at our Windham County Librarians’ meeting -How do you get the book info into your catalogue? We type it in, I replied. That’s alright for a few books, but for several thousand when you’re trying to move to automation? I wonder if LibraryThing could help?

So catalogue five of my books. Hmmm. Since I’ve become a librarian, I don’t think I’ve bought a book - that’s 10 years. Then, I remembered a series by Frederic Van de Water that I have most of. (I’ve gathered them from used book stores, and there’s one more I want. I think it’s called Catch a Falling Star.) Looked up Van de Water to add to my library, since the title Day of Battle had 691 choices.

I really loved these books - historical fiction makes history come alive. In one of them, the hero walks from Dummerston to Marlboro, and back. People used to do that sort of thing. Trying to write reviews of books I haven’t read in 10 or 15 years is tough, so the reviews are pretty slim. That’s alright, the exercise inspired me to reread them all. And to buy the last one.

I look forward to exploring this site more. I’m sure it’s got some great additions for our bookblog.

But wait. How do I link my library to my blog? I wonder what I just linked to. I’m sure there’s a way, but I have to go to ballet.

thing

My mother didn’t speak English until she was 16 and met my father, in Aldenville, Massachusetts. She became a BEAR about proper English, and never let me get away with a thing.

I notice all these posts are called THINGs. Maman would not approve.

Thing is a stand-in for another word, she would say. Use the word. I can hear her now.

Do I Have It?

photo mosaic of our puppet show

Guess not. Try again.

mosaic

The thing that’s most interesting about this exercise in futility is that I’ve learned to first look at the address to find out where I am. The address that they give me to link my mosaic does not look like any other address I’ve ever seen. It starts 1. <a href

Have a thought: mosaic

Well, that was interesting. It gave me the first photo in the set, and then I could view the whole set, separately or as a slide show. Well, that mosaic isn’t all that great, anyway. I think I’ll try something else on this thing. Whatever thing it is. Oh my, I think I’m stuck on thing 12.

So, looked through all the other possibilities- I need to know them, but do I have to do them? Yes, of course! The only other interesting thing was the avatar. But, I’ll tell you what. What an interesting way to spend your time. Thinking about your possibilities. I was about to say what a dumb way to spend your time. But possibilities. Is that all that’s left to people? I’ve been reading the news too much.

I can see having fun with that with kids. That’s the time to dream about your future. But, I must say, with all my back problems (gone we hope), I saw myself as a skier. How else do you get there?

Now, I wish to object. There was no ballet dancer as a possibility. And I must admit, I’m as gray as I am blonde. Honesty finished, can I move on to the next thing?

I can’t believe it’s snowing. And, even more, I can’t believe I’m complaining about it. I love it when it snows - but this year the snow is so high that the sheep just walk over the fence. So, we blocked off half the barnyard because the guys are so pushy at meal time that they are getting fat. Gotta separate them from the girls. This third try might be successful.

I ought to be keeping a separate sheep blog, but too many sites, too many passwords. Too many compartments. I’m a whole me.

Don’t Worry, Mara

Don’t worry, Mara, I’m still here. I’m just a little (lot) overwhemled by March. First, there’s getting ready for Town Meeting, then there’s the AfterSchool Adventures program and planning for spring break and the summer reading program. But, MOST IMPORTANTLY, I’ve always believed that the only possible time to leave home is March. And so we will. Destination- Florence, Quince Terre and Venice. I’ll take my camera, now that it’s a light, little digital. (I, the daughter of a photographer and photofinisher gave up taking my camera for many years, and brought my sketchbook instead. These myspace places can allow me to do both. We’ll see what happens this time.

Get ready for all that and doing the 23 Things pales in comparison. I have finished preparing photos for my mosaic, but somehow I’m too tired to deal with the next step right now. I will, I’ll just be behind by a few weeks, and rarin’ to go, I expect, when I come home in April with three more weeks to go to lambing.

Oh, lambing. The sweetest time of the year. There’s nothing better than going down to the barn in the early morning and hearing that “mother-grunt”. And there stands that newborn lamb, doing exactly what a newborn lamb needs to do to stay alive. I carry the lamb into the barn and mama follows. I give her sweet hay and molasses and they fall in love with each other. There’s not a better way to start the day.

So, I warn you Mara, I’ll take a break about the end of April, too.

Starting on Thing 12

Poking around the possibilities, I came across a place that makes your photos into a collage, among other things. So I’m preparing photos. Meanwhile, I’ve sent out an invitation to the trustees to look at my MySpace page. One trustee sent back a message -” I don’t want to go there.”

Well, I don’t blame her. I’ve looked at some other stuff on there and I wonder…Do I want to go there? But, it’s what you want to make of it. I want to make a useful tool, and I want to communicate with patrons and parents. So, I’ll keep looking for the best way to do that.

And, I’ll find a place that Judith wants to go.

This has become a journal- that’s why I’m so obsessed with  it.

Tripping Around MySpace

I’m trying to change my profile, especially, the picture. But still no luck. I was able to add comments to the picture of little paper sheep the first grade had made for me. That seemed SO important?????

So, I found the group and joined, and found Vermont Librarian. I didn’t look for more friends, but maybe I should have entered some of the names of 23 participants.

As I was exploring other groups I realized that this might be a good place to have more info about our book group and the current book they’re reading. So I sent an email to Laura (Laura is the volunteer who organizes our book groups), suggesting that she look at some of these for ideas. Sent her links to a few pages, although I don’t know if she’ll be able to open them. I could set something up for her, and then she could write about the book and invite people to comment. That might be fun for her.

I realize that I don’t have the public-private thing straight. But maybe those photos I posted aren’t too public. So maybe what I do now is send the address to others. I might try that. So, now I have to poke around to figure out how to add friends. It’s a good thing I have to sit still. Yesterday when I went to feed the sheep, it was raining and I got stuck - really stuck - in about 4 inches of mud. Twisted my ankle, so I decided to feed them inside. Mac rammed me, the creep, so I’m sitting on the couch resting my ankle, and nursing my black and blue hip. No permanent damage, but I’m changing things so he’s not in with the girls until…………when I’m finished being mad at him.

Got the picture changed. Of course, now the link at the top doesn’t link to the right place anymore. Let’s see if I can fix that. Poked, but no luck yet making friends. I feel very lonely. I’ve tried…Ah, found it. Sounds like I have to invite people to join and then they’ll see the photos. Let’s try it.

And I did change my profile. All except for my birthday. Can’t lie, I just don’t want it to show. But, I guess that’s asking too much.

WOW

At this point, I don’t quite remember what thing 11 is, but I have my eye on MY prize. I’m going to get a little slide show up there. And it’s working, slowly but surely.

Of course, it’s not exactly what I had in mind. It looks very public to me, and yet I had in mind to restrict it to friends. (But the pictures are so small and of such poor resolution that I hope I won’t get in too much trouble. Although, this is a class, and I should hold myself to the highest standards.)

Also, it’s very incomplete. I hope I can edit it, as I realize what I’ve left out. (Wait, Cathi, you don’t need all 295 pictures in there.) So, I next have to prepare photos for the web. That will take a while. Nothing is quite as easy as it seems.

But, mostly, I feel like I’ve come out of my stuckness.

Does this means I have to start on AVATARS now? Is 12 coming soon? Now what?

No matter what the date stamp says, it’s March 5, Wednesday, about 11:30 and I’m going to sleep now.

Time Stamp

Then, there’s this whole issue of the time stamp. I noticed that a few of my posts were happening at 4 am. Except, I knew they weren’t. Somewhere I found out that I was on Pacific time. So I changed it. This last post I made was made tomorrow, so I changed the time. So, now, it’s tomorrow in real time, and it says that I made it yesterday. Gotta figure this one out, too. I’ll never get to 12.

Town Meeting Display

I’m still on thing 11, and not doing much about it, either, because I’ve been so distracted getting ready for Town Meeting. I spent the weekend getting photos chosen, edited and printed. Then last night I thought it would be a piece of cake to transfer the slide show onto the helmet (iMac with the movable screen). There were so many photos that I was forced to streamline things. Finally ended up with 295. That’s ridiculous. (Get me going about my newly developed bad habits brought about by digital photography.) Took forever to transfer, but it was worth it. This was a very nice display of the sort of thing that happens at the library.

The scenery was tacked on the bulletin board, with a photo of each puppet, and a question about it that sort of told the story. The thespians’ (puppeteers to be exact) pictures are on the right, and the computer screen at the bottom is flashing scenes from the three days. I’ll leave it at the school for a few days, then use it to pretty-up the library.

Our increased appropriation was approved with nary a word against. (Of course, this was such a dull Town Meeting that even the 2 million dollar school budget passed with hardly a murmur. Would I prefer the fireworks of the last several years???????)

Well, I’m trying to make this photo fit, and I’m not doing very well. You still can’t see the right edge the way I can in the edit window. I’m never going to get past thing 11 if I can’t make it look the way I want it to look. Gives me something to aim for–getting past 11.

And the avitars that others are posting. I’m getting bogged down with posting my photos on MySpace and missing something here. Wake up, Cathi.

FANTASTIC

As expected, but with some trepidation, this was a great ending day to our three-day program of STORY-PUPPET-PLAY. The kids were SO focused, as long as we had many snack and lunch breaks.

Someone has asked to see a copy of the slideshow, and I will send it out as soon as I figure out how to narrowcast it.

Each year for the past several I have prepared a slide show for Town Meeting about the library. Getting to be expected. This is my town meeting plan for this year: They will take notice- and I have inadvertantly turned this into italics.

The story-the puppets-the play (use the flyer)

Slide show running- straight through, one second intervals

Background with photos of puppets attached. It’s a really cool background, and in my car right now. Hope it survives the cold.

Interspersed with story? How?

The thespians – with photos. I asked them to all pose - and they were SO serious. It was so much fun, when we called the kids “thespians. ” We dictionariazed (is that a word, can I spell it?} the word, but they were still not quite sure. We may need a little teacher-intervention here.

The helpers – with photos.

I just need to get someone to take a picture of me since I was the photographer. Here’s one of my favorite photos. Whoops, I always forget how to do this. Wait a second. here. Well, it’s not placed where want it, but it’s at least the image I was hoping for.

You guys must think I’m nuts. I’m not, I’m just tired.