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Stay tuned... The (official) Chicago Marathon Training Journal, by Jenny and Kate is coming soon. This morning, like a similar morning in the spring of 2002, I found a message in my email account that I'd been signed up for the Chicago marathon (only three years ago it was New York). We talked about it, we started running a little longer, and Jenny (like the first time) took the initiative. We are registered.
It's more than ten years since we met (August 1994), more than nine years since we started going out (March 1996) and Sunday was the first anniversary of our wedding in New Paltz (March 27, 2004). We've known each other for more than a third of our lives.
I just saw on my friend Ari's site an interview with Adriana Tatum (another friend). Here's my favorite quote:
Several years ago, in Israel, I got into an argument with a classmate who questioned the validity of literary study. She was a Professor of Accounting and basically asserted that because reading is something you can do on your own, why bother spending money on a literature major? The fact that a novel, for instance, has a historical and cultural context that is relevant to the work but not explicitly stated within its pages didn't matter to her. Did she really need to take a class to know when Don Quixote was written? No. Would knowing anything about Don Quixote really matter to her life at present? Would it change her reading of the novel? If you are reading for pleasure, I guess not. So when I asked her why I should take an accounting class--after all, do I really need to study accounting to do my taxes? Isn’t that what HR Block is for?--she replied, “You don't need to know that stuff, but I do. Someone needs to know how it works.“ Ah-ha! I said. You may not need to know anything about the history of Spanish Golden Age literature and the literary and cultural impact of Quixote but I do, because someone needs to know how it works. Someone needs to know—to remember--how things connect. Don Quixote was written 400 years ago. A lot happened half a millennium ago that is now lost to us, why is this book still on our bookshelves?
Ubisoft is planning Prince of Persia III for next year! Jenny and I finally finished the Sands of Time a few nights ago and seriously, that game was good. We started Warrior Within and plan to set aside some video-game time this weekend. But, why isn't POP 3 listed for the PSP?
I'm so close to sold on PSP but I'm not excited about a single game that's launching, and without a good game, I can't find a good reason. POP 3 for PSP could have been the reason.
Jenny found forgotten locks at Crunch's lost and found and read up on how to open them by feeling for the tighteness... and she got them open and wrote down the combinations! If you accidently forget your combination, just give her a call! She can pick most combination locks in a matter of minutes.
At the information desk, patrons often interrupt when I'm helping another patron, saying, "excuse me-- I just have a question."
When you're in a store and can't find anyone to help, sometimes you can cut the line of people waiting at the check-out line if you just need to know where the bathroom is, or what time the store closes, or something quick-- just a question. And even then, the people in line usually give you nasty looks.
But in a library, at the reference desk, this is all we do, is answer questions. I could understand if they were cutting the line just to ask a directional question, like where the bathroom is, but often they're cutting the line to ask for help with their homework or for help finding a book.
So, now that information (answers) can be bought and sold like a commodity (answers.google.com and others...) , how do we value what answers are worth? Some patrons think "just a question" isn't even worth waiting on line for, and other people will pay for answers on google.
We no longer have any budget for rubber stamps. At first I was entirely dismayed because rubber stamps, like the shushing noise, are icons of my chosen profession and without them I feel a little lost. Maybe I will get a call number tattooed on my spine.
If I did this, I think I'd make my call number in the 599.8s. Or maybe 796s.
The scary part about getting older-- I remember this from 1998, when I was googlestalking (but we didn't call it that way back then, and come to think of it, I probably wasn't even using google...) library students and trying to decide which program to go to!
I almost wanted Tina to take Bette back after that sad crying scene last Sunday. If I were Tina, I think I'd just want to know that Bette really regretted it. They've got to find balance, and maybe if Tina does sleep with her divorce lawyer that's all that's needed, and they'll get back together.
I can't believe just two episodes ago I thought it was over forever, and I still think Bette needs to think seriously about her role in her relationships, but now there's a glimmer of hope.
Via boingboing, Researchers Jonathan Flombaum and Dr. Laurie Santos, both from Yale University, have found that rhesus monkeys consider whether a competitor can or cannot see them when trying to steal food. (From Current Biology)
We have this folding chair made of transparent plastic, and one day left a cat toy on the seat of the chair, and soon discovered one of our cats not understanding why she couldn't poke her paw through the plastic seat to retrieve the toy. She was very persistant, and finally we gave up watching. A few hours later we came back and the toy was gone, so I imagine she either figured it out, or the toy fell down from the repeated batting.
So, this is an example of the cat not being so good at figuring out what humans know. But, our other cat's a real smartie. He regularly pees on in the corner of our dining alcove, under the table, and he knows we don't like it when he does this. We figured out his routine (we arrive home from work->he scratches post, gets pet on the head, stretches and then poos in the litter box->the litter box is now dirty so he hops out, drinks some water, licks his paws and face-> then he pees under the table), and we started watching for the part where he's licking his face, and then following him around until we see him head for the table (and making sure we clean his box). At this point we grab him and stick him in the litterbox and since he has to go anyway, and he's already there, he seems fine with using it.
We did this for a few days and finally realized that he was watching where we were looking and he'd sneak away, change his routine, throw us off and then pee under the table when we didn't expect it. This is a smart cat. Smarter than most monkeys.
NYPL Digital recently launched. The African American Migration Experience is the project Jenny worked on as a metadata librarian (assigning subject tags to media, like a cataloger).
Straight people should not be forced into same-sex marriages, just as LGBT people shouldn't feel compelled into straight marriages. We all need to be able to marry whatever person we fall in love with. His words aren't so wrong, just not the whole story and not representative of his actions.
The New York Times has an article about the library's new digital images gallery. I worked a tiny bit on this. Those who read iPalimpsest regularly might remember when I posted about the Ripley's cigarette cards with a link that didn't work anywhere outside of the library's networks, well, now you can go see what the hell I was talking about! I not sure what the reviewer means by "a few undated typed messages that read like lascivious fortune cookies: 'Grown-ups enjoy reading, also.' 'Come into the booth and ask questions about your libraries.'" What's so lascivious about those messages?
Also, the digital library project that I worked more on than the gallery, was Schomburg's In Motion: The African-American Migration Experience project, which is now on display at the Schomburg library.
If you have a few extra hours or a couple of extra dollars, either volunteer for, or attend, the GLAAD media awards. We volunteered last year and plan to again this year, because fair and accurate representation in the media is a huge step towards equality.
The one-year anniversary of our New Paltz marriage is at the end of this month, and we still can't make it legal. There are still people who hate us, simply because we love each other.
I've been thinking for a while about Jessamyn's link to library blogs discussing Michael Gorman's article about the "blog people".
Jessamyn is amazing. Librarianship and libraries need to change to keep up with the new needs of our communities, and I'm not sure we're actually meeting anyone's needs, but Jessamyn gives me hope that maybe we'll figure it out.
The president of ALA wrote, "Given the quality of the writing in the blogs I have seen, I doubt that many of the Blog People are in the habit of sustained reading of complex texts. It is entirely possible that their intellectual needs are met by an accumulation of random facts and paragraphs. In that case, their rejection of my view is quite understandable."
First of all, the "blog people" have huge spending power. I'm willing to bet (based on the length of that list, and that he's asking $30/person, though I don't know how much people are actually giving) that Jason just raised more in a week for his blog, than my branch has to spend on new materials for an entire year. Clearly, there's some untapped funds in the blog world, and these are people who clearly care about their reading materials.
If you out there are an untapped fund, let me direct you to a place to give.
For just $40, you can become a friend of NYPL. You get admission to fantastic events, like the gala holiday open house which is when they close the humanities and social science library (the one with the lions) to the public, and they get jugglers, live bands and people on stilts and invite all the friends to eat food and drink wine and enjoy the library. You also get discounted admission to programs featuring Lawrence Lessig to Margaret Atwood.
If you're in your 20s and 30s and can afford a little more, you can join the young lions.
Joining the library also means that you believe in the importance of literacy. All you bloggers out there with some extra cash... the next generation might not grow up with the literacy skills to read your site. If you want sustained funding, you'll need an audience that can read. Join your local library.