2813 When bloggers go on vacation

WSJ reported that going on vacation is a problem for high profile bloggers. Not me. My stats actually increased when I was in Finland and Russia. I'm not sure what that means. Were people checking back often? Of course, the article was about blogs that may get 70,000 hits a day and hundreds of comments, where the regulars chat with each other. For no reason that I can figure, my stats changed this past week from an average of about 177 a day to 240. I think my readers are coming back from vacation.

Me on a blogger's vacation
High profile bloggers sometimes have guest hosts blog while they're gone. The closest I come to a guest host is MurrayT who actually has his own blog but he gets more readers for his positive, upbeat style here. He's a clever guy. But I appreciate all my readers and commenters.

Next week the Thursday Thirteen is an assigned topic. I probably won't write it because it would be like school or work.

2812 Ask a Librarian

For years librarians have looked for ways to bring more people into the library. No problem now. The federal and state governments are increasingly sending them in to file forms via computer. I don’t have an answer, but I understand the problem. At our house, I’m the "Ask a Librarian."

My 68 year old husband doesn’t use a computer. I do all his documents for his business, search for information for him, accept his e-mail for meetings, send attachments, etc. If he wants to read my blog, I print it. The other night he asked me how long would it be before the ordinary person wouldn’t be able to function without knowing e-mail and the Internet. What’s spurring him on, I think, is his new digital camera. He needs a way to download and edit his photos.

So I said, "First you need to learn how to use a mouse. Let's start with the Solitaire game." Oops. He's never played Solitaire. I have to begin with plugging in the laptop and turning it on and closing it down. Doing it wrong, or getting impatient, I’ve learned the hard way, can erase everything.

Shirl Kennedy in reviewing an article in Current Cites about libraries being drafted for e-government in the current issue of Library Journal says:

"he problem is obvious. Among other scenarios, this article describes how, earlier this year, senior citizens signing up for the Medicare prescription drug plan "were encouraged to seek information and register online." As a result, public library staffers not only had to assist these folks in using the Internet, but they also had to become familiar with the ins and outs of this particular government program. Hurricane Katrina, in the areas affected, resulted in an influx of people who needed to use library computers to register for FEMA benefits. I've tried to help several people in my library sign up for federal financial aid for college online...or file their income taxes. Privacy issues aside, this stuff is time-consuming...and while I am tied up extensively with one customer, several others are being inconvenienced. "

I can’t even imagine the work load on public libraries for these tasks. There seems to be money for computers, but not additional staff for hand holding. Sometimes I don't understand the information that comes up and I use a computer everyday, so there must be a lot of anxious seniors who don't even know what "enter" means or how to move a mouse cursor.

Here's a school in Illinois that has 7th graders teaching senior citizens how to use the computer.

2811 The Devil wears Prada

It's been a slow week at Lakeside, so we went to see a movie. From the looks of the audience, so did everyone else in town.

"From beginning to end, the movie is funny and fascinating and real. And Streep rules it like a particularly nasty goddess."


Although I might not have thought it was as good as this reviewer, Orson Scott Card, it was much better than I expected.

Perhaps the best movie I've ever seen for Meryl Streep. Anne Hathaway seemed to do a lot of running, sort of like those car chase scenes you see in action movies. If you've seen one gallop in 4" heels, you've seen enough.

2810 A shocking experience

Rolling at a stroll pace through the Wal-Mart Superstore, I felt a tingling in my right hand, the only one actually on the cart handle. I stopped. Shook my hand, thinking I'd pressed a nerve, and kept going, moving down a side aisle. When I returned to that aisle heading for the groceries, both hands on the handle, I felt a very distinct shock, coming through the cart handle. It was a bit stronger than hitting your "crazy bone" in your elbow or building up static electricity with your shoes on a carpet. I lifted my hands, the tingling stopped. Put them back on the handle, it returned. I moved to a side aisle, it stopped. I returned to that main aisle, it returned. Hmmm.

Wal-Mart, Target, other big box stores and some large libraries use an RFID, radio frequency identification, tagging system that consists of a tag with a microchip in the merchandise and a reader, which has a transmiter and receiver. It can track a lot of information about point of use and where an item is in transit or storage. I can't imagine it was tracking me, but I'm wondering if my cart or some merchandise in it was misbehaving with something embedded in the aisle material?

When I checked out, I told the cashier (sales associate?) and she looked surprised. I told her she should report it to someone. I turned around and Dave Kilbreth a local contractor was behind me in line. I asked him what he thought, but Dave's a lumber and nails sort of guy, and he was as mystified as I.

Friday Family Photo

Here it is September already. We were married in September 1960, and in our little photo album, there was no photo of us with Rev. Carl Myers, who married us. So we fixed that in 1999 at my sister's wedding in the same church, same pastor (although he was retired from the pulpit). His brother was my high school English teacher. Carl also officiated at my father's funeral and I think he was the soloist at my mother's funeral.

2808 Some librarians deny

that this YouTube video could happen in their libraries, because they never see a janitor, let alone see one dancing. Remember the card catalog? We used to get requests to purchase them when people wanted to store their tapes in them. But that would be pretty low tech now in an era of i-pod storage.

Thursday Thirteen

13 phrases about architecture that make me shudder.

If architecture is best understood through our senses--why design and build theaters, libraries, schools, churches, homes, and federal or state buildings that assault and sicken, that weave, swoop, glare, and dismantle our sense of space? I visit many sites (my husband is an architect) just for fun and read many articles because the magazines keep coming.

Wexner Center at Ohio State; maintenance nightmare and tax money sponge

These writers' phrases of approval are often synonymous with "ugly," to my eye, and I know in 30-50 years we'll be taking them down.

1) cadence of chaos
2) giddy
3) radiating from every curve
4) recycled
5) engage in new forms
6) salvaged from demolished (insert a building that was lauded in the 1960s here)
7) faceted glazing
8) challenge your preconceptions
9) paradigm shift
10) glass addition to . . .(usually a 19th century building)
11) holistic and ecological
12) splayed
13) edgy or renegade or "on the cusp" or whatever shape a computer can work up

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2807 Rumsfield's speech to the Legion

It's being sliced and diced by the anti-administration folks, but Blue Star Chronicles has posted the whole speech, with her comments. She's got other good things to read too. She's worth linking to.

"Indeed, in the decades before World War II, a great many argued that the fascist threat was exaggerated — or that it was someone else’s problem. Some nations tried to negotiate a separate peace — even as the enemy made its deadly ambitions crystal clear.

It was, as Churchill observed, a bit like feeding a crocodile, hoping it would eat you last.

There was a strange innocence in views of the world. Someone recently recalled one U.S. Senator’s reaction in September 1939, upon hearing that Hitler had invaded Poland to start World War II. He exclaimed:

“Lord, if only I could have talked with Hitler, all this might have been avoided.”

Think of that!

I recount this history because once again we face the same kind of challenges in efforts to confront the rising threat of a new type of fascism.

Today, another enemy — a different kind of enemy — has also made clear its intentions — in places like New York, Washington, D.C., Bali, London, Madrid, and Moscow. But it is apparent that many have still not learned history’s lessons."

He's not calling our war protesters fascists or Nazis (indeed, they'd be the first slaughtered by the Islamofacists), but he is reminding them and us that feeding the crocs in hopes of placating them has been done and done and done.

On the other hand, doesn't that anonymous Senator sound like Kerry?

2806 Rhetorical question

Why is it that every Democrat and media muffin and leftist news source from Lamont to Sheehan to the New York Times can bad mouth the President, his motives, his commitment, his intelligence and denigrate our troops, Murthering them and lie about them, and hide all the achievements of the Iraqi people, BUT when the president goes on the offensive, and stops playing kissy face with them, all of a sudden he's being "political?" I flipped through the ABC/NBC/CBS morning news today (no remote and no cable), and I swear they were reading the same script/crap. Shame on you guys. You should all be splitting one rip and read salary. Click to off.

2805 Cleaning gutters

Worst home maintenance job in the world. Glad I don't do it! When we sold our home of 34 years, my husband was happy to say good-bye to the giant oak tree that didn't finish dropping its huge leaves until February. But the worst job was cleaning gutters. He would sit on the roof (metal), brace his feet on the guttering, and scoot around with a pail and yard bag. Metal roofs are hot in the sun and cold in the shade. A few times we tried a gutter cleaning company, but all they did was scoop it, drop it, and drown it. So then we had muck on the side of the house as it splashed going down, and clogged down spouts. That's history now. We love those yard and roof crews at the condo.



But there's still the cottage at Lakeside. This is a photo, taken this morning, of the late summer gutter cleaning. There will be a late autumn (if he can beat the snow) and a late spring cleaning also. Last year he came up with our son-in-law in the late fall and there was an early snow. They worked terribly hard, but much of the debris had frozen, so the mess was waiting for him in the spring. Although this is a one story house, it has a high foundation and an extension ladder is required. The tree behind him is a magnolia, which is magnificent in bloom, the few years we've seen it.

Are you sure you want a second home?

Things are quiet this week

The final week of the season at Lakeside has no programming, so it's a good time to work on the first selection for book club, Team of Rivals, which has about 900 pages. But we're also having a brisk wind from the northeast and the waves are huge. Lake Erie being so shallow can really kick up a storm. The dock has been closed for three days. My husband tried the video feature on his digital camera and got some good wave action--I just don't know how to put it on the blog. Any suggestions for a non-techie blogger?

Today I took the book toOoh-la-la", a coffee shop/deli that just opened in Lakeside this season.

2803 Live from the Ladies' Room

It's a bit disconcerting to hear cell phone conversations from the next stall in the ladies' room--especially with toilets flushing and hand dryers humming. But imagine hearing the conversation over national television! Poor Kyra Phillips, CNN anchor. Her blather about her marriage and her bitchy sister-in-law went out over the President's speech in NOLA. Apparently, no one at CNN controls was paying attention to the speech and a colleague finally went to the rest room to stop her. Story here.

Kyra Phillips
CNN

2802 Trip Tale: Tsarskoe Selo

This was the Tsars' summer residence, having been originally built for Peter the Great's Lithuanian bride, Ekaterina Alexeevna (became Empress Catherine I) in the early 18th century on land formerly controlled by Sweden. The last Tsar, Nicholas II, was born and lived here 22 years. Some of this family's private rooms have been restored. After the Communist revolution it became a museum, and in 1937 the town around it was renamed Pushkin, in honor of Russia's famed poet. Each monarch who lived here remodeled and changed things so there is a long list of architects and decorators. Catherine the Great was particularly interested in the gardens and used German and English designers.

Tsarskoe Selo (Царское Село) was virtually destroyed by the Nazis in WWII, and horses were stabled in some of the buildings. It is only partially restored, but is so huge it can accomodate throngs of visitors--as our little G-6 tour discovered.

2801 Now is the time

to be sure of your core beliefs and values. The elections are about two months off. Unfortunately, the research says that our brains are more impressed by the volatile emotion of the moment and negative ads than our intellect and reasoning. Both parties are going for the niche voter--knowing that may be the key.

In Ohio, for instance, the ads for Strickland (D) contain all the buzz words for a Republican--family, lower taxes, and jobs for the middle class. But he is a Democrat. Then the Republicans are rhyming an ad with Brown's name, like "Brown has let us down," using typical buzz words, higher taxes, hurt the elderly. So you can't rely on just the words--know your own core beliefs and what a candidate believes. We're getting 3 or 4 ads every half hour.

So take a few minutes to clarify what you really believe, and refine it for the local campaigns. Then when the political ads start swamping the airwaves and cyberspace, you won't be hood winked. Don't vote just for a party. Vote for the candidate who will work the hardest for your beliefs, but if a party best respresents you, support it. Don't let gasoline prices or the latest bomb threat in Baghdad decide your vote. Bush bashing or Hilary hating is not a rational plan for getting through the election ads. Yes, I know it's not a presidential year, but many important state and federal seats are open.

Update: Here's another buzz word/phrase to look out for: "Interestingly, Andrew Cuomo has a political ad on TV how he took on the NRA to keep guns out of the hands of criminals, but never mentions that his program was so ineffective and stupid that Congress passed a national law to prohibit it." Budd Schroeder at American Daughter

2800 And if a Republican had said this--with pride?

Chris Wallace to Joe Biden: “What kind of a chance would a Northeastern liberal like Joe Biden stand in the South if you were running in Democratic primaries against southerners like Mark Warner and John Edwards.”

Joe Biden: “Better than anybody else. You don’t know my state. My state was a slave state. My state is a border state. My state has the eighth-largest black population in the country. My state is anything from a Northeast liberal state.”

So is he saying Delaware is a southern state because of slavery? That slavery is what defines the South even in 2006? That Delaware borders the South and therefore isn't in the northeast? That Delaware is a conservative state? Delaware was the first state to sign the Constitution; its state colors are colonial blue and buff. Sounds a bit northeastern to me.

2799 Gasoline prices in Ohio

Yesterday we filled up at $2.59 in Columbus, and today passed a station in Dublin on our way out where it was $2.54. Last year, the WSJ reports, it was averaging $2.53 in the midwest in August. This is still higher than two years ago, however, I think it makes the Democrats very angry. It was an easy issue--took no thought or planning. They know that for some reason, nothing makes a voter madder than high gasoline prices and when the media mentions it every evening on the news, the President's poll numbers dip. People who bought huge SUVs and Hummers and power boats knowing what gas guzzlers they are, will actually vote for a party based on gasoline prices. Amazing. Americans are a very spoiled bunch.

Monday Memories

Memories of School

I saw this meme at Cathy Knits, and it is supposed to be for Friday, but I’m moving it to my Monday Memories. Cathy is a teacher and her school started August 4!

1. What is your earliest memory of school?

I attended kindergarten in Alameda, California, and I remember a lot about it. It was a one floor plan with canopies outside joining the buildings. We were given milk in small bottles which tasted wretched--why I don’t know, because I like milk. There were African American and Filipino children in my class and I’d never seen either being from rural Illinois.

2. Who was a favorite teacher in your early education?

Miss DeWall was my third grade teacher in Forreston, Il and my favorite. None of my classmates remembered her so I finally contacted her cousin (my age and also a teacher) to confirm it wasn’t just my imagination that she was so wonderful, kind and funny.

3. What do you remember about school “back then” that is different from what you know about schools now?

My first grade teacher would yank on my braids if I got my face too close to my work, and would tie a towel around my head if I talked out of turn. I don’t think that would be allowed today, nor was it appropriate then--other teachers didn’t behave that way. Special needs children were in the classrooms, but often didn’t stay in school because there was no work at their level and they weren't treated well. However, I remember a 16 year old in a 7th grade class. The female teachers all wore suits or dresses and high heels. Classrooms were much quieter. The music teacher served many schools in the district and we'd do a fabulous production once a year; there were no art classes except what the classroom teacher provided in any school I attended, K-12.

4. Did you have to memorize in school? If so, share a poem or song you learned.

We did some memorization, but not a lot. It’s one of the lacks that makes me wonder when the "golden age" of education was. I was always impressed that my mother, who went to school in the 1920s, could recite "Hiawatha" while we were doing dishes. I do remember some songs we learned, like Yankee Doodle, Waltzing Matilda and Home on the Range.

5. Did you ever get in trouble at school? Were there any embarrassing moments you can share?

See above. I was always talking out of turn. Still do. I was a real mess in first grade. I’m living proof you can have a bad start, and still love school. We’d moved in mid-year, and in my new school I stood up to look at someone else’s paper because we were “spelling,” and I was clueless. Although we were reading at the first school, we hadn’t started writing down words as the teacher spoke them aloud. I also had to stay after school one time until I could tell my teacher what a paragraph was. In 2001 my Dad drove me through a cemetery where her gravestone was--but she hadn’t died yet! I think she was over 100 years old when she died a year or two ago.

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2797 Get back to work

If you're reading this at work, I hope you don't work for the IRS. WSJ via the Treasury Inspector General reported that 74% of IRS employees had "inappropriate" e-mail messages when their mailboxes were reviewed--chain letters, jokes, offensive content and sexual content.

2796 Forreston, Illinois Veterans' Memorial

On September 11, 2006 the final list of names for the Forreston Veterans' Memorial will be released to the engraver. Over 600 names will appear representing wars from the Civil War through the current Iraq conflict. My father, a veteran of WWII, is on the list, but I was surprised as I looked through the site, how many names I recognized, WWI, WWII, and 1950s and Vietnam era (some of whom were my contemporaries). I saw neighbors, fathers of classmates and friends, local business men and community leaders--people I hadn't thought of in many years. Which is why memorials matter. Many people have contributed to our freedom; many disagreed at the time that it was a worthwhile sacrifice.

If you have someone to add or a name to correct, you can go to the online site for an e-mail. A Forreston address, (past or present) is required for eligibility. National Guard and Reserves need to have been on active duty and have veteran status to be included.

First Christian Church, Columbus, Indiana

Columbus, IN is the fifth most important site in the United States for architecture, and it all started with this congregation hiring Eliel Saarinen to design the first truly modern church building in the U.S.



Those of us on this architectural tour were very disappointed to see banners hanging in the sanctuary, and the altar removed to make room for a drum set and speakers. Stickers were on the windows. Why do worship committees and musicians think interior visual spaces don't matter?

First Christian Church, Columbus, Indiana
Columbus, Indiana
Church architecture