Round Up

If you are on the look out for an unusual job, I think I may have found something for you.

I'm not all that much of a team sports fan, but I have been to quite a few Pittsburgh Pirates games. This was many years ago when they were still playing at their former home Three Rivers Stadium. That was also back when I was absolutely ga ga over Roberto Clemente. I was absolutely crushed when he was killed.

Me going to any sports venue consisted of me people-watching, eating, running to the rest room and usually reading my latest Nancy Drew or some other book. Perhaps if I had been reading some baseball fiction, while watching the game I would have had a better time.

Another photograph and search site-Pixsy.

I think most of us have a Pyrex measuring cup or possibly a Pyrex casserole hiding out in our kitchen cupboards. Well, in my web wanderings I found a Pyrex blog. And after looking at this woman's collection I am green with envy. There's even purple pyrex. MUST GET SOME!!! And also Flickr Pyrex. Hey, where have I been? There's a Flickr blog.

The Elder Wisdom Circle was founded on the premise that people over 60 have wisdom to impart. Its 250 members nationwide offer advice to thousands who e-mail the group's Web site. These self-described "cyber-grandparents" even have a column that appears in several small newspapers.

Many Circle members are computer-savvy seniors in their 60s, 70s and 80s. But the network also taps residents of nursing homes and old-age centers who may not be computer literate. Facilitators meet with groups of these elders, reading aloud letters and taking notes on the combined comments. The group's advice is later e-mailed back to the sender. I think this is just a wonderful idea. Here's the NPR story on the circle.

For those of you who celebrate Halloween have a spooktacular one!!



I was going to leave you with Robert Burns poem Halloween until I saw how long it was. I still think it's worth the read though.

"Eye of newt, and toe of frog, Wool of bat, and
tongue of dog, Adder's fork, and blind-worm's
sting, Lizard's leg, and owlet's wing, For a charm
of powerful trouble, Like a hell-broth boil and
bubble." William Shakespeare, Witches in Macbeth

Secretary of State and Gilmore Girls

I'm beginning to think you must have an unusual name to be Secretary of State. For instance the present Secretary of State is Dr. Condoleezza Rice. Unusual first name. Here are some others:

Dean Gooderham Acheson 1949-1953
Cordell Hull 1933-1944
Bainbridge Colby 1920-1921
Philander Chase Knox 1909-1913
Elihu Root 1905-1909
Hamilton Fish 1869-1877
Elihu Benjamin Washburne 1869
Jeremiah Sullivan Black 1860-1861
Abel Parker Upshur 1843-1844


Two with unusual middle names are Edmund Sixtus Muskie was Secretary of State from 1980-1981 and Alexander Meigs Haig was Secretary of State from 1981-1982.

I don't know about anyone else, but I am getting tired of the Gilmore Girls. Not the show so much, and I'm not tired of any of the other characters, but I am tired of the Gilmore Girls. Lorelei and Rory are just getting on my last nerve. I know the show has new writers, but, I don't know what the problem is. All of the things that I used to find so charming about both of the lead characters, now get on my nerves. And by the way, I hate Christopher and Logan. Okay. I feel better. I just spent a bunch of energy commenting on two people who don't even exist.

How would you like to have another woman from a different country come and stay in your home for a couple of days and experience your home and work life? Pretty cool huh??? Or you could go to another country and do the same thing. Women Welcome Women World-Wide has been providing this sort of opportunity for women since 1984. Very nice way to foster international frienship and goodwill.

I appear to be a little late in discovery Jacquie Lawson, but check out her clever, fun cards. It's a bit (just a little bit)early for Christmas, but access the last card on the left-hand side. Too cute.

"In everyone's life, at some time, our inner fire goes out. It is then burst into flame by an encounter with another human being. We should all be thankful for those people who rekindle the inner spirit." - Albert Schweitzer

Round Up

Perhaps you were thinking it would be nice if Fortune magazine would come out with some sort of nifty database that contained every year of their listing of America's largest companies starting in 1955. Okay, maybe you weren't thinking that, but they did it anyway.

Powerful short film that every woman should watch. Now lets hope we see this when all the shows aimed at the teen to 35 year old female demographic are being televised.

Nice listing of films that prominently feature food on the Gastronomic: The Magazine of Food and Culture site. Can you think of any other foodie films?

It would be nice if we didn't need such things, but the Anti-Racist Parent Blog is great. It's for parents committed to raising children with an anti-racist outlook. Lots of good things on this blog.

To scare myself even more about what's going on the world I spent the better part of an hour on the Nuclear Weapon Archive.

Love this alternative to candy for Halloween.

So the population center for the United States is Edgar Springs, Missouri. This is all according to the U.S. Census Bureau (not my favorite government organization).

Once again, I want to thank the Laundress for mentioning, not only mentioning, but saying such nice things about Fig Newtons and Scotch in her blog Dirty Laundry. All I can say is thank you and right back at ya. I have learned so much from reading your blog and you have made me laugh on many an emotionally gloomy day.

Instead of a quote I will leave you with some fall splendor.

Library Stuff

October is American Archives Month.

List of libraries that use virtual reference or live reference or chat reference. Oh, how I wish I worked somewhere that used modern capabilities. I wish I worked somewhere that didn't have loud-mouthed, rude, common,competitive jerky women too, but that's another rant. Hopefully my situation will be soon changed.

Damn fine science librarian has a damn fine blog.

Most library folk are nuts about signage, yours truly included. Check out these library signs.

I have problems with this on so many levels, but here goes anyway. Looking for a Halloween costume? Look no further. I understand that Target is also selling these.

The United Nations Dag Hammarskjold (yes, there is supposed to be an umlaut over the o in Hammarskjold)Library has a blog.

The British Library's Collect Britain website is awesome. The site showcases thousands of items from the British Library. You can browse the collections, tours and exhibitions, or search the site in many different ways. Register or log-in to enjoy more features.

Great medical librarian blog.

Apparently Henry Ward Beecher loved libraries.

"A library is not a luxury but one of the necessities of life." Henry Ward Beecher

"A little library growing each year is an honorable part of a man's history." Henry Ward Beecher


"A library is but the soul's burial-ground. It is the land of shadows."Henry Ward Beecher

Worry/Envy

I think one of the things I envy the most about people is that some of them appear to not have any worries. Now, I know that the majority of us have worries, but at times I am very tired of my worries and would gladly trade them in for some others.

The majority of the people that I work with appear to have nice lives. Most of them have nice incomes and more than likely have a financially secure future. They have their nice home, vehicles, take their expensive trips, and probably have enough money in the bank to choke a horse. I wonder if they worry about retiring. Or worry if they'll ever be able to retire. That is something I worry about all of the time, 24/7. Here's how it works-you make a good salary and then you are able to stash some of that money away in a 401 K, savings, whatever. If you don't make the money, you can't save anything. If you are never able to get promoted into positions that pay a good salary then you are SOL. (for those unhip folks-that's Shit Out of Luck-real old school)I just chuckle to myself when people tell me their big retirement planes. A. and I will both be working until we are both quite old. That's the way it is, and it's of no fault of ours. We both have masters degrees. A. has 2. Does it matter? No.

I think that there are a lot of folks out there who really don't have any clue of what it is like to work-while black. Most people have heard of driving while black, well guess what, there's vacationing while black, shopping while black, choosing somewhere to live while black and working while black. These are things that I have to consider and have had to consider every single day of my life. As do most people of color. Unless you are rich because, oh yes, money is the great equalizer in so many cases.

I could go on and on about all of them, but for now I will focus on working while black. Yes, it's government-mandated that minorities are hired, but it is not government-mandated to promote people of color once they are on the job. Myself and so many persons of color I know are in this boat now or have been in this boat. It has nothing to do with work habits, efficiency or anything else. It has to do with these offices being minefields and no matter how mentally prepared or psychologically savvy one is, one can stil get blown to bits.

I can remember growing up I was taught that I would have to work twice as hard, twice as much as a non-person of color. I always knew that and still subscribe to that today, but I thought that working twice as hard would at least get you somewhere. I have found out time and time again it does not.

I could go on and on and on with this, but I just needed to rant. I'm tired of being a minority female, but there's not too much I can do about that except suck it up and keep on keepin' on.

Friday Round Up

Whenever we have our first cold morning (to me it's just perfect, but already people are complaining about it being cold) I always think back to when I was a teenager. For some reason whenever we had our first cold spell someone would always say-Jacks back or the hawk is out. Does anyone else have some similar weather-related saying?

One of the wonderful the Internet has done is opened the world up for people. Even though you will probably never meet these people, it is still interesting to read about what some people have done and are doing with their very interesting lives. The Vanilla Queen is one of these people. Here are some links for this amazing women and she is also looking for folks to donate working laptop computers to send to vanilla farmers in Kenya, Somalia and Rwanda. If anyone can help her email is rain@vanilla.com. I read about the Queen on the Smallfarms site.

If anyone is old enough to have seen some of the Blackplotation films you may have seen Tamara Dobson's portrayal of Cleopatra Jones. This 6'2''former fashion model was absolutely stunning. Sadly, she passed away at the age of 59 after suffering from multiple sclerosis for the past few years. Here is an image of her from Wikipedia.

I remember when I worked at the EPA Library we were always getting a lot of inquiries about Freedom of Information(FOIA)information. I knew that all federal agencies are required by law to disclose records to the public that are requested in writing. We referred people to the FOIA office and that was that, but I always found it fascinating that there is a Freedom of Information Act and that people do make use of it. Now people are also blogging about it. Scott Hodes, a FOIA attorney has a blog called The FOIA Blog.

This citation creator would have made my life so much easier when I was in school. All one needs for this one is an International Standard Book Number (ISBN).

When I first saw this word I had to stare at first of all to try and figure out how in the world to even begin to pronounce it. Here goes-Uitvlugt. I'll give you a hint-it's Dutch. It's also where my sweetie was born and that's how I found out about this place.

I will admit I have been very, very good. Ordinarily by this time of year I would have chowed down a couple of pounds of Halloween candy. So far I have had very little. I was even in the drugstore today, and looked over and saw Snickers pumpkins and I didn't buy any-none at all. However, after perusing the Ultimate Guide to Halloween Candy of 2006 I may be forced to indulge.

The groundbreaking events for the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial will take place on November 12-13. It appears that the actual groundbreaking will take place on the 13th. I may have to take a very long lunch and wander over to the events.

I probably spent a good hour on the National Atlas of the United States website. If you are like me and are endlessly fascinated by maps then this is the site for you. I'm not even going to tempt you by talking about some of the features. Take a gander and explore.

"You can't separate peace from freedom because no one can be at peace unless he has his freedom." Malcolm X (1925 - 1965), Malcolm X Speaks, 1965

Friday Round Up

Okay, one more Wikipedia list. Car-free places.

I was reading the excellent Boomer Chronicles blog and got the shock of my life. Donny Osmond is a grandfather. Yep-you read that right. The only magazine for grandparenst Grand has a feature on Donny and his thoughts on grandparenting. Thansk Boomer Chronicles.

I came across Gush magazine by accident and spent a ridiculous amount of time looking at items like the celebrity weight scale, massive jean ball art and timestrips.

Sadly I have found that the little village where I reside has not been the site of any films or documetaries. Check out Movie Mappr to see if Hollywood has come to your town.

Bet you didn't know that Henry David Thoreau has a blog.

I have been endlessly fascinated with nuns and was pleasantly surprised to see that there are some blogging nuns in the blogosphere. Nunblog, Sr. Marianne Lorraine, Sr. Bernadette in Rome and Sr. Helen Prejean's Blog.

Trying to find a B&B to escape to for the weekend. Pillows and Pancakes should be able to help you with that. Love the name.

I am not even going to introduce this next link. Just go to the Generator Blog and get ready to have some fun.

Growing up in rural America I think I just took for granted being able to see tractors, hay wagons, balers, etc. Most of the kids had miniature versions of these farm mainstays and would spend hours pretending that they were working on their own farms even if their farm was only in the family room or in the back yard. I can picture spending hours in the National Farm Toy Museum. Tractor heaven.

It's National Medical Librarians Month and Canadian Library Month. If there are any medical librarians reading this yours truly would love a medical librarian job (WDC area)so please give me a shout if you know of any place that's hiring.

Have a wonderful weekend.

"Do not be too moral. You may cheat yourself out of much life. Aim above morality. Be not simply good; be good for something." Henry David Thoreau

"The character inherent in the American people has done all that has been accomplished; and it would have done somewhat more, if the government had not sometimes got in its way." Henry David Thoreau

Company Blogs

Yesterday I was reading NPR's blog Mixed Signals and I started to wonder what other companies have blogs.

I knew that Google, Yahoo, Starbucks and FedEx all have blogs. There's even a Fortune 500 Business Blogging Wiki.

However, I am more interested in small companies that have blogs. I started researching this and this is what I have found so far. (i am staying away from my usual alphabetical order. These are listed in the order in which I found them).

Timberlines Blog

Carolina Adirondack

Nathan's Restaurant

Green Cine Daily

Mothership Barbecue

Cakelove

Larabar

Residential Landscape Lighting

One Black Bird Pottery Company

Eli's Cheesecake Blog

Two Maids

The Bees Knees Diner Ware

Far Flung Crafts

The publisher Raincoast Books has a wonderful blog, but for the life of me I can't seem to link to it.

I know there's many that I have missed. If you know of any other blogs feel free to let me know.

"Most people in big companies are administered, not led. They are treated as personnel, not people." Robert Townsend,
Further Up the Organization