Weblog
Friday, 25 November 2011
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Random stuff in my life
As you can see, I haven't given up blogging entirely, but my life sure doesn't allow much time for it these days.
We went to Denver for Thanksgiving. The Museum of Nature and Science was open and we spent all day there. They had the animated dinosaurs. Paul (4) and I had to visit with a security guard to see if they were real. They were not, but you could hardly tell. We went back to see them again, but the kids wouldn't let me go for a third time. I want a pet triceratops now.
We went to the zoo today then ate at...write this down if you plan to go to Denver...Cora Faye's on Colorado, right by the zoo. It was home cooking -soul food like I have never had.
Mom brought two decks of cards, a pinochle one and a regular one. We played slap jack then three handed pinochle last night, but tonight we played pitch with Paul and Leo (5). They also played slap jack at the same time. Leo was kinda paying attention to his pitch hand, unlike his brother. Papa was a good sport.
BTW @ordinarybutloud I am not a DARE fan myself. My kids are hyper-alcohol sensitive for lots of reasons. I had a beer (first one in a month or more) then listened to a lecture about drug use. If they don't see anyone drinking responsibly then how are they going to know the only way to drink is to open the box of beers and drink until the box (or bottle or whatever) is empty?
I got to take a bath in a real tub tonight, instead of my square tub! Woo hoo!
Wednesday, 28 September 2011
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More about Banned Book Week
I spent the day helping our fair citizens excercise their First Amendment rights, right up until closing time. Then I had supper around 9 and I am ready for a hot bath. Before you say, "this sounds like a Facebook update not a blog," let me share a link with you. Tom Lehrer "The most amusing song about Roth v. U.S., 354 U.S. 476 (1957) I've ever heard." ...anonymous Youtube reviewer.
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this song are those of the composer and singer and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of wildflowersp.
I campaigned for the right to make a display for Banned Book Week. Here are some photos. My vision was to fill the bookshelves entirely with books which had been banned. I didn't quite accomplish that, but it does look pretty cool. I fished books out of donations for our upcoming book sale to supplement books on loan from staff. I won't tell you how many of them are my personal books...
The whole thing.
The left side.
Sorry about the reflections.
Monday, 19 September 2011
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Librarians: the original search engines
The First Amendment is a cause close to my heart. Banned book week this year is Sep 24-Oct 1.
The first time I really thought about censorship was when I heard the Ayatollah Khomeini had issued a fatwa on Salman Rushdie- the author of The Satanic Verses (a very cool link). I was in high school at the time. He wanted to kill a guy for writing a book he didn't like. While I was harboring my own thoughts along that line concerning Nathaniel Hawthorne, the loss of The House of the Seven Gables was hardly worth the loss of The Scarlet Letter.
Why are books banned? Profanity, sexual references, racism and religion are the main reasons children's books are challenged in the US.
The following children's books have been challenged in the US since 1980: Ask yourself why.
- Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank
- Where's Waldo by Martin Hanford
- A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle
- The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by CS Lewis
- The Egypt Game by Zilpha Snyder
- Little House in the Big Woods and Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder
- Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? by Bill Martin Jr.
- Where the Sidewalk Ends and A Light in the Attic by Shel Silverstein
- Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl
- Little Red Riding Hood and the Three Billygoats Gruff Traditional Fairy Tales
Tune in for more tomorrow
Friday, 16 September 2011
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This week in review
What a week. It wasn't bad, I just ended up dealing with some weird people, and some normal people in weird ways.
I had a little girl come to check out some books with her dad's card. She started lying to me from the beginning and the tale grew from there. At one point I actually said, "I don't need the song and dance, just tell me how to spell your last name." She had lost her card and owed about $70 for lost movies and books, so she was using her father's and her sister's. Neither of which had her last name. There is a lot more to the story but none of it is interesting, and most of it is untrue.
I got the mean librarian award for that and for yelling at some teenagers as well.
Then a woman with a last name like "Bimilinikil" claimed someone else had used her name to get a card, check out books and not return them. I told my co-worker he could deal with her. He was okay with it, since he had seen me with the tap-dancing young lady.
I ran into my Junior Prom date...who pretty much looks the same as he did in 1988. And my gradeschool track coach who also looks about the same as he did in 1984.
I got lectured for not setting up the meeting room and for setting up the meeting room. The biggest part of that problem was five different outfits used the room in two days.
Someone called yesterday and asked if the internet was up. I said it was at the library. He said his computer was not getting online. I asked if he was on our wifi (like maybe in his car or something). No, he was at home. Then he asked me who he should call to find out why he couldn't get online.
Then a guy wanted to know how to get an email address. I looked him up later, he was 30. I listed a few free sites and welcomed him to the 1990s (with a smile). He laughed and told me he had an 8-track player in his car. I didn't ask if it was a Dodge Charger, which I think of as an icon of the 1970s.
A woman who has been using our computers for three hours a day for the last three months came up all upset because she didn't know there was a time limit for computer use. Your card blocks after your time is up. Coincidentally the limit is three hours.
Maybe most exciting was the news I had about my multi-lingual abilities. A man came up and wrote out that he wanted my help getting his laptop on our wifi. He spoke only Spanish as I found out when he opened his laptop and I couldn't understand a thing! I know a little Spanish, but not the word for "settings". I have also assisted people whose laptops spoke German and Chinese. Oddly, my grandfather spoke all three of these languages.
You don't get bored working at a library.
Wednesday, 24 August 2011
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New Clothes, sort of
Ordinarybutloud@xanga was bragging about her new Thomas Jefferson T-Shirt. Well, my dad went to WDC last month and brought me the same thing in white. Same size too. Seems like mine is a little big, but not a lot big. It says, "I cannot live without books." In my job on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays we can wear casual clothes like jeans and a T-shirt. They prefer we wear non-potentially-offensive (non-political or advertising type) shirts. I have a jersey-type shirt that says, "Vonnegut" across the shoulders and has the number "5" on it. Most of the patrons don't get it, but the boss lets me wear it. Now I can wear my TJ shirt too along with my neon green Summer Reading Program shirt which Mom says makes me look like I escaped from the work release program at the local prison. My favorite WDC shirt is one my step daughter bought me with Rosie the Riveter doing the bicep pump thing with "We can do it" across the bottom. I wear that to work too as well as my freebie blood donor shirts.
One of my co-workers took pity on me and gave me hand-me-down clothes. This is good. I don't like shopping for clothes. I am too picky. But this gal has about the same taste in clothes that I have and she gave me a bag full, including a nice brown and pink and red striped shirt that goes with the new Rockies I bought this summer. I bought them for $16 which is beyond incredible for a pair of Rockies. And since they are brown I can wear them to work any day. I am reluctant to buy used clothes. I don't know why, I just don't like pre-enjoyed clothes, but I will take these because I didn't have to shop for them, and they look like my kind of clothes.
This past week I was in my old town, the one I left a year ago. I had a minute so I visited the library, and they recognized me! And not because I had a "wanted" picture in the break room about my outstanding fines- they just remembered me.
Wildflowersp
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- Name: Sherry
- Gender: Female
- Member Since: 6/21/2007
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About Me
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If my parenting style was a weather forecast it would be “Mostly benign negligence with brief periods of intense creativity.”
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I opened up my blog and put some stuff on protected. I think I am ready for the real world again.
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It is operator error or is the Xanga editor out to get me?
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I'm thankful I am not in the emergency room with a kidneystone and some excellent painkillers this year.
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