Pitbulls welcome, but no hockey moms here, please

One of the most-quoted lines from Republican veep nominee Sarah Palin’s acceptance speech is, “You know the difference between a hockey mom and a pit bull?  Lipstick.”

Governor, I’ve worked and played with pit bulls, I know pitbulls, I am friends with pit bulls.  Governor, you’re no pitbull.

Most pitbulls I have met are sweet, non-partisan souls, who would rather lick a person into submission than lay teeth on them.  They can be hazardous around cats and squirrels, but unlike most hockey moms, can often be taught to leave smaller critters alone.  They bear fewer grudges than your average politico.  I haven’t known one to wear lipstick, but some have painted toenails.

I run a program, Paws to Read, where children can read to dogs, and two dog members are pitbulls:  the effervescent Egg and Monte the Magnificent.  Egg is cream colored, with big dark eyes and a nose made for kissing.  He is always ready to play, but easily settles down.  Monte is a huge brindled hunk.  Like the Rock, he is daunting to look at, but is a serene soul who is unfazed by hordes of small children.

Not any Joe Blow dog can join the program.  They have to be tested and certified therapy dogs, safe around people, obedient to their handler.  Therapy dogs are invited to hospitals, schools and libraries.

Hockey moms or beillergent governors?  Not so much.

I don’t have permission to put Egg’s or Monte’s picture up here, but here are some other pibbles I’ve been lucky enough to know:

 

Where the Wild Cards Are

with apologies to Mr. Sendak

The weeks Lin wore her librarian suit/and made mischief of one kind/and another/the system called it “Web 2.0″ and Lin said, “I’ll text you up!” so she was sent to bed without texting anything.

Okay, enough of that, or it’ll tip over from stupidity right into sacrilege.

Since my desk and work area is composed of various stratification of materials, I was very curious about the various To-Do lists: WorkHack, Tadalist, Todoist.

Workhack is very WYSWYG, which made it easy to get going.  It is very, very simple,  and once I found you could visualize by size, the huge font point and glaring colors were manageable.  My design-oriented DH would absolutely hate it.  Bad points:  1)you can’t edit the tasks once you type them in, and you can’t make sub-categories (i.e, ‘Lamorinda Reads’, and all the stuff you need to do under that.) 2) WorkHack is meant to be bookmarked, so most useful if you use one computer.  The other two are accounts, so can be logged in from anywhere (or put on your deli* account if you’re one of those)

Tadalist definitely had the worst homepage.  It was very cluttered, and the you could not see any sample pages, and why would I going to join if I couldn’t see what the pages were like? (Aside:  This reminds me of Blockbusters horrible webpage.  They won’t tell you about their rental plans until you give them your personal info) There are supposed to be links to actual Tadalist pages, but they were either dead accounts or had gone private.  And then there are no instructions.  At all.  A mostly white screen pops up with  ‘My Lists’. What the @#$% ?  After my third try, when my blood pressure went down, I finally saw the little FAQ on the side.  Tadalist (which is quite a horrid name:  ‘Ta-dah a list’? ) and the next one, Todoist, operate on the principle that you have projects, and each project has sets of tasks to be completed. As opposed to WorkHack,  which just has you make a list, hierarchy be damned.  Once I figured out about projects, I was able to merrily create.  You can even RSS your list (to yourself, I guess) if you happen to be one of those.  Bad points:  1)  You can’t sort anything by date or urgency; 2) you can’t show your tasks on the main list page, only when you go into each individual list.  Tadalist does this intentionally, keeping things simple [somewhat]; 3) Tadalist upsells their other programs.  Pretty low-key, but irritating nonetheless.

Todoist.  OMG.  Obviously designed by geeks or engineers.  There are so many add-on-doohickey-web-thingys that it took me a while to figure out how to start a list.  The homepage boasts that it is simple and intuitive, but it is neither.  However, unlike Tada, there is a LOT of help info on Todoist, in the form of screencasts, which show you how things work.  The screencasts are a bit tedious (the creator/narrator could have used a tighter script), and obviously you can’t use it for a quick referral, but essential for figuring out this thing.

Todoist (another odd name) has a learning curve like Lombard street.  You can do a LOT in Todoist.  You can make hierarchies, date them, color-code them, make sub headings.  Bad points:  you have to figure out how to do these wonderful things. That takes time.  Lots of time.  Hope none of your projects are too pressing, or your deadlines will be shot to hell while you try to create your projects lists.  Todo* reminds me of Doug Adams wonderful Last Chance to See.  While observing an obsessive bird, Adams thinks of how he will happily spend the day creating a program that will pop-up a window on a certain part of text.  The creator of Todo* reminds of Adams.

In conclusion, I haven’t quite figured out which of the three works best for me.  They do all have their good points and bad points.  I like the ease and color coding of WorkHack, and the hierarchy of Tada*.  If I get the time to sit down and figure out Todo*, I can see that being very useful.  At present, I will continue to scribble in my calendar, and tape little notes to my monitor and above my desk.

 

Vod-i-o-dee-o

I subscribe to some podcasts (geek confession:  I actually prefer to listen to radio broadcasts than music), most notably Radio Lab.  I also recorded for our very own CCCL story podcasts.  You need to be careful with podcasts and pick a story that can stand on its own without the pictures.  We are such a visual society (and getting more so with every technological advance), that we forget that words can paint a picture.  Seems like some of the writers and editors forget this as well (especially artist/writers).

Vodcasts add the visual element, and many layers of complication, since you usually have to ramp up the technical sophistication.  The Fort Allen library video showed a nice variety of shots:  long, close-up, overhead.  That meant a lot of camera shots and a lot of time editing.  On the other hand, after the library video, I watched a craft video on the making a coffee sleeve into a cuff bracelet.  This video was just a close-up of the hands.  While there was a bit of editing, it certainly wasn’t as fancy.  But that would be a cool thing for the library — to make a craft, and then show the book and have a subtitle:  “for more projects like these, check out…”  Not sure what kind of copyright violations that would be.

 

It’s a Ning Thing

Caroline set up an Orinda Library Ning, especially to facilitate communication between staffers that don’t have a library e-mail.

Social networking has the potential to be an excellent way to communicate and connect. The trick is keeping a group active. There’s a Youth Programs and Services group, but it hasn’t posted since Feb. 7 By contrast, the Pubyac listserv will send out an average of 5 to 10 messages a day. Maybe the topic (Web 2.0) is too narrow? An inactive group is a sad thing, a bit like having noone show up for your program.

 

Another landmark bites the dust

Whenever I got to Hawaii, I have to visit Longs. My husband looks at me strangely, but if you are from the Islands, you know that the Longs on the West Coast are not the Longs of Hawaii. More better stuffs, as we would say. Even besides all the crack seed, the Hello Kitty paraphenalia, the Heritage Hawaii Post-Its. I always find something in the kitchen section that I need. Longs has some of the soul of Hawaii. Not something you would find the Hawaii Visitors Bureau saying, but true nonetheless. “Folks you meet at Longs” (a set of short stories about disparate people)  is absolutely true.

And now, Longs has had a ‘friendly buyout’ with CVS. They’ll keep the name, at least for a couple of years, and then it’ll revert — like Liberty House/Macys — to a bland drugstore just like Rite Aid or Walgreens.

I don’t think this is of any interest to anyone, and certainly doesn’t have anything to do with children’s literature, but it struck me today.

 

RSS

Bloglines wasn’t the easiest site to navigate, but knowing what new dvds are coming up makes it worth it! It is frustrating not to be able to go straight to the catalog, but I can open another window for the catalog (Classic)

I had thought that RSS feeds meant I would get e-mails from my selected sites. I get enough e-mails as it is, and didn’t want to have to wade through them all. Going to a site is results in less clutter.

The calendar didn’t show this week’s puppet show!

I’d be curious to know how many of our patrons subscribe, and what they subscribe to.

 

IM

Me and Meebo don’t quite see eye to eye (e to e?).  Admittedly, most of this is missed connections; I’m not online when the meebo lab or any of my buddies are on.  For meebo, or any IM to work, you have to be connected to your device, which has to be on.  I am quite 20th century, and prefer not to be so available. 

Unlike most of the upcoming masses, it seems.  I can see the library using it, especially for a teen page.  Is there a way to get it on the MySpace page?  You then have to have someone monitoring it.  Because if patrons don’t get a quick response, they’re not going to use it anymore.

But we better move fast.  It looks like there’s a similar game in town:  18002ChaCha, to be used on any mobile phone.  For twenty cents (when will there be a keyboard that includes the cents sign?  I’d definitely buy it) you can text a message and get an answer within minutes.  I heard about it on public radio, but neither NPR or Marketplace gave me a hit.  Here’s a totally biased explanation from the ceo

 

The Boy Who Lived

After HP7 was published last year, I figured after all the hoopla and Hogwarts and Every Flavor Beans died down, that Harry & Co. would gently ride into the sunset, to be superseded by the next flavor of the month.

Oh ye, of little faith!  My Super Summer Readers, who read double the standard number of KSRP minutes, get to have their name put in a library book.  FIVE (5) of them have requested their precious plaque to be put in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.  I’m running out of copies.

HP7

 

Suite and sour

Did a Google suite. I uploaded my ‘Super Summer Reader’ label, and then printed out a test page. Formatting weirded out, but that probably wasn’t a fair example. Since we don’t have a shortage of computers here (except for the fight to use the 2-hour ones), I don’t envision me showing it to patrons. Of course, it would be good if they didn’t bring along a disk or flash drive to save it, but then they could just e-mail to themselves.

I like the idea of collaboration.  Added my title to the post-grad spreadsheet.

 

The Puppy Wants a Pigeon!

There are 4 young hawks in our nearby park. When I walk the dog, I can hear the high calls (for food? for company?) and see them flapping from tree to tree. The parents were kept busy feeding these voracious youngsters, and though I hoped some of the many,many squirrels in the park would disappear, most of the food seemed to be pigeons, judging by the scattered feathers beneath the trees. But not only feathers. I heard Old Pup go crunch, crunch around the base of a tree. Old Pup is a master forager, and must be monitored around picnic tables. But it wasn’t a chicken bone I pulled from her mouth. It was much smaller and slenderer; some unidentifiable pigeon part.

Well, I guess Old Pup is just fulfilling her part in the ecosystem.

In other news, Mr. Kitty decided to take control of his own diet. Since being diagnosed with FLUTD (Feline Lower Urinary Tract Disorder), he is having to go on Hills c/d (what does the ‘c’ stand for? Why not u/d?). Mr. Kitty is an obliging sort, and ate his prescription kibble, with occasional longing glances at our cheese and chicken (previously, he would be rewarded with these tidbits if he looked pathetic enough). Yesterday, DH (Dear Husband) heard the cat come in, meowing for attention, which he often does. DH turned around, only to see Mr. Kitty come around the corner with a bird in his mouth. To his credit, DH did not scream at the cat, but he did tell Mr. Kitty to get outside in a rather commanding voice. Mr. Kitty did, and since DH didn’t want to share the bounty, Mr. Kitty ate it all himself.

This was something of a surprise to us, for Mr. Kitty would not be considered the Great Orange Hunter. He has brought in a couple of mice, and once a rat (which he let go in the house), but we’ve seen him chatter at birds, which doesn’t seem much like an effective technique. And we’ve never seen him eat his prey.

Which shows you what he thinks of his diet.