Girl Scout Camp

I loved Girl Scout Camp so much that I devoted a whole chapter to it in my upcoming novel, Back to Bailey's Chase. The readers get to go to camp with Sparky and Grey Bailey for a week.

Trying my best to remember the camp activities, I conjured up a week of adventures, hoping my readers would enjoy the camp experience as much as I did.

Of course, no magic was involved when I went to camp, but Sparky and Grey have those super powers that come into play when needed. And they are needed....when the camp bully targets Lulu Thompson. I hope my readers will laugh as they read Chapter Seven and find out how the girls turn the table on the mean girl, Ellie.

If you haven't read the first book about Sparky and Grey, The Secret of Bailey's Chase, you can read the prologue on my web site: www.marlisday.com In this book, which is available as an eBook or at www.quakeme.com or on www.amazon.com the girls slip into the scout camp when it's locked for the winter. They have a harrowing adventure there with a bully and a vicious dog. It only seemed fitting to take them back during their summer vacation to enjoy a real fun-filled week of camp. If you check out my blog at http://wwwmarlisday.blogspot.com you can see the cover of the sequel, Back to Bailey's Chase, which should be available soon.

Excuse me, I have a sudden craving for a s'more!

Colocando a vida em ordem

Meninas, aceitam flores como pedido de desulpas pela ausência no cantinho de vocês? Eu sei que estou em falta com todas vocês, mas chegou a hora de colocar minhas visitas em dia, então prepara o café que eu tô chegando!

Ontem à noite dei uma organizada na cômoda do quarto do Victor (que ele nunca usa, porque sempre que está aqui dorme no quarto que dividia com o irmão). Aí vocês vão me perguntar, mas se ele não está em casa porque fui arrumar as coisas dele? Simples: porque tinha pouco tempo, já era tarde e pra arrumar o quarto do João Lúcio eu preciso dele perto e ele já estava dormindo.
Eu ainda tenho na minha frente uma lista enoooorme de coisas que quero fazer até amanhã lá em casa! (sim, LÁ em casa, porque agora, sábado de sol, eu estou trabalhando...) No topo da lista está: Fotografar material para postagem.
Então, deixa eu correr, que tem muita coisa pra fazer, muito cantinho pra visitar e espero voltar cheia de novidades para mostrar pra vocês!
Beijos

Daily Thoughts 7/31/2010 ( grants, libraries )

Central Stair Hall, Library of Congress, Washington, D. C. (1900-1902) Detroit Publishing Postcards Series 5000.
Daily Thoughts 7/31/2010

I walked up to my local branch library and picked up a copy of Webster's New World Grant Writing Handbook by Sara Deming Wason.  It is a basic overview of the grant writing process.  I found this article from Oxfam kind of interesting.  http://www.mrss.com/oxfam-eoy-2008-fundraising.pdf   It shows a fairly common web application called a lightbox combined with a web video that is used as part of a fundraising campaign.




It is kind of interesting reading about the different types of foundations and trusts from community trusts to family foundations to corporate foundations.  It is mostly new to me.  I am reading it in the context of  getting new technology like MP3 players, Ipads, Nooks, digital cameras, and software into the library.




I have been going through all my old emails for the last couple of years where I came across examples of people, corporations, and foundations giving money to libraries in our county and compiling them into a single document.  It is mainly a mix of news articles and biographical profiles.

Daguerreotypes in the American Antiquarian Society Collection

Link to American Antiquarian Society Daguerreotype collection is http://www.americanantiquarian.org/Inventories/daguerreotypes

• SAN FRANCISCO, CA., ca. 1855. Whole plate. View of the harbor with boats in distance. view larger image (scan #003580-0111)
  
• SAN FRANCISCO, CA., ca. 1855. Whole plate. View of the hills with Tehama Market in foreground. view larger image (scan #003580-0112)
  
• SAN FRANCISCO, CA., ca. 1855. Whole plate. View of the hills with houses scattered. view larger image (scan #003580-0113)  

SF DAGUERROTYPES IN AAS COLLECTION

http://www.americanantiquarian.org/Inventories/daguerreotypes.htm#S

• SAN FRANCISCO, CA., ca. 1855. Whole plate. View of the harbor with boats in distance. view larger image (scan #003580-0111)

• SAN FRANCISCO, CA., ca. 1855. Whole plate. View of the hills with Tehama Market in foreground. view larger image (scan #003580-0112)
  
• SAN FRANCISCO, CA., ca. 1855. Whole plate. View of the hills with houses scattered. view larger image (scan #003580-0113)

Daily Thoughts 7/30/2010 ( ebooks, reviews )

Artist: Reymerswaele, Marinus Claesz. van Title: Deutsch Hl. Hieronymous, 1541
Daily Thoughts 7/30/2010

Article-- Will the Book Survive?  by David "Skip" Prichard    http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2010-07-28/the-future-of-books-ceo-ingram-skip-prichard-feels-confident/?cid=topic:mainpromo1




"eBook Feasibility Study for Public Libraries," http://www.cosla.org/documents/COSLA2270_Report_Final1.pdf




Checked the displays this morning and started doing my orders for August.  I also put out flyers for a public service announcement by Dwayne Wade about library cards and did my first shelf talkers for the authors Danielle Steel and Stephen King.  I am going to be doing more as time passes.




I am reading more of Kraken by China Mieville.  There is a neat section on Simon a Star Trek obsessed mage which is darkly funny.  It is an appropriate comment on fandom.




The new copy of the Overstreet Comic Book Guide 40th Edition came in.  I will take a little time to see if there are any interesting ground level comics which I have not seen.  It has become a standard guide for pricing comics.  Some stores often sell the easier to get comics at half the price guide price and the harder to find titles at full price.




Overdrive sent me some marketing material which I can print up as well as some staff training material.  I think I might print up some of the 11" x 17" posters. 




The recent Kirkus Reviews has a graphic novel section with a few interesting titles in it; Anne Frank: The Anne Frank House Authorized Graphic Biography by Sid Jacobson and Ernie Colon, and Siege by Brian Michael Bendis, Illustrated by Joe Quesada really stood out.  Siege should be an excellent superhero comic both the writer and illustrator are top notch.  Also there is an autobiographical comic by Sergio Aragones called Mad's Greatest Artist, Sergio Aragones.




Roald Dahl has an authorized biography coming out called Storyteller: The Authorized Biography of Roald Dahl by Daniel Surrack.




On the way home, I finished reading Kraken by China Mieville.  One of the way you know a novel is good is that the main character at the end of a novel is often very different than how the character is at the beginning of the novel.  At the beginning of the novel, Billy Harrow is a curator at a museum, by the end of the novel he is a warrior adept at saving the world and fighting magic.

Eu sonho com uma despensa...

Ok, eu devo ser meio louca, porque só uma pessoa louca pode ser tão apaixonada por despensa quanto eu. Sim, eu AMO uma despensa bem organizada desde que me entendo por gente.
Quando eu era criança, enquanto meus irmãos corriam pra ver o que minha mãe tinha comprado de gostoso no supermercado eu queria logo guardar as compras na despensa. Arrumar tudo nos armários: enlatados pra um lado, caixinhas pro outro, material de limpeza em prateleira separada. Tadinha da mamis, na construção do meu lar doce lar 2, ela perdeu a despensa dela... (a despensa, o quarto de despejo, a horta, a área de serviço, o banheiro de empregada, o quarto de costura, o terraço, parte do quintal...)
Eu ainda não consegui ter a minha despensa, mas ela faz parte dos meus planos futuros.Uma despensa grande, daquelas que, além da comida, dá pra guardar aqueles eletrodomésticos tão úteis quanto difíceis de "esconder". Ou alguém tem um lugar melhor pra um aspirador de pó?
Enquanto a minha não vem, fico namorando as despensas alheias:



Não tem tanto espaço? Que tal essa despensa giratória que eu vi no Habitué?


Isso serve de depensa, de closed e até de home office!

E você, tem uma despensa em casa? Conta como ela é e me mata de inveja! (rsrs)
Beijos!

Daily Thoughts 7/29/2010 ( readers advisory, book game )

Okumura Masanobu Itinerant Vendor of shikishi and tanzaku (paper and books) 1720–1730 Signed: Okumura Masanobu hitsu. Publisher’s seal: shu-no-hyōtan (in form of a calabash); seal of Masanobu’s own publishing house: Tōrishiochō.  Actually it is an actor playing an itinerant vendor for paper for poems (shikishi and tanzaku), books, and instructional material on waka poetry and koto playing as indicated on her crate. She is holding a calligraphic copybook (tehon) and a brush. One of the books at the top of her crate is named: Genji-monogatari. 




Daily Thoughts 7/29/2010

I put in some comments for my Readers Advisory 101 class on Enders Game by Orson Scott Card.   I also read the section on library marketing for readers advisory.  I may create some shelf talkers for the shelves.  These are cards which say if you like a specific author, then you might like these other authors.  Usually they are lists of three to five other authors.  Some libraries also sometimes maintain a cart for books that are always popular reads.  It is something to think about.   A lot of people use the Novelist database to create the shelf talkers.



I did not get as much as I wanted done today.  I am thinking about a couple of things to do.  We are planning on doing a library card registration drive.  We need to get more people through the front door.  As part of this, we will probably try to get more Friends of the Library to register.




There are also a few minor things that need doing like updating some bibliographies and creating some shelf talkers.  I also need to speak to someone from the Mount Vernon Public Library Foundation.




The book the Fuller Memorandum by Charles Stross came in for me to read.  It is a mix of espionage, horror and weird tale.




I read some more of Kraken by China Mieville.  I am finding a subplot in the book to be quite entertaining about a labor union of wizards familiars and other magical constructs.  It is wonderfully quirky.




Guess the book by its cover game http://www.sporcle.com/games/bookcovers.php

Creative Surplus Creativity and Generosity In A Connected Age by Clay Shirky

Creative Surplus Creativity and Generosity In A Connected Age by Clay Shirky

The central idea of this book is that because of social media people are able to pool resources in their free time to create unique digital projects.  These projects can range from free encyclopedias like Wikipedia to lolcats which is a collection of funny pictures of cats.  Social media in this book expands beyond computers to include smartphones and cell phones.




Clay Shirky is arguing people are moving away from passive forms of entertainment like television to more interactive forms of entertainment like the internet.  He compares television to gin which is a bit far fetched but entertaining.  This change represents a shift in values which should create a more interactive future.



I found the book to be very positive and a bit evangelistic about the benefits of social media.  He dismisses the disruption caused by deprofessionalization when amateurs volunteer to do many jobs that were professional in nature.  Clay Shirky touches only briefly on the concept of digital sharecropping where writers and other creative professionals work for free or very little money on blogs and other digital projects.



The description of the benefits of social media is the best part of this book.  We learn how cell phone use makes government more transparent, how people created open source software, and how computers are making us more connected.  He points out that services like http://www.meetup.com/ extend social networks into the real world and allow people who had only met on computers to meet in person.



This book had a conversational tone that spoke directly to the reader.  It tried to connect with peoples every day experience of using the internet.  I found it to be easy to read.  It was also well researched with extensive notes and an index.



Clay Shirky also wrote Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations.  He is considered an internet guru and is a professor at New York University.

Sobre a arrumação

Ontem eu disse que tinha começado a empreitada de organizar a casa. Digamos que, como eu tenho secretária, estive um pouco ausente das minhas funções de dona de casa (pra falar a verdade eu não tava olhando nada, mal mal a compra de supermercado que era pra não passar fome).
Então ontem fui retirar o lixo espalhado pela casa. Era bem pouquinho, como eu já esperava. Sei que o pior vem quando eu resolver abrir os armários...
Agora na hora do almoço aproveitei pra começar a arrumação dos banheiros. Já tinha pedido pra Ivanete tirar tudo do armário e limpá-lo, então foi só verificar as datas de validade, retirar algum frasco vazio, excesso de potinhos de lente de contato, escovas de dente fora de uso e jogar tudo fora. Dei uma corrida no supermercado (o que significa descer as escadas, já que moro em cima de um) e já comprei algumas coisinhas que faltavam.
Agora estou sonhando com uma bandeja linda assim, então se alguém tiver uma aí sobrando saiba que eu aceito o presente, viu?



Beijos!

Daily Thoughts 7/28/2010 ( Bayou, Advocacy, Kraken, Made Possible By )

Simon Guggenheim, American businessman and philanthropist

Daily Thoughts 7/28/2010

I am looking at an IMLS Institute of Museums and Library Services grant and trying to figure it out.  It is the first time I am looking at this material.  It makes reference to a document called 21st Century Skills, http://www.imls.gov/pdf/21stCenturySkills.pdf  I find it kind of interesting.  It is a bit different.  There is also reference to a course called Shaping Outcomes which is about Outcome Based Planning and Evaluation for librarians.  http://www.shapingoutcomes.org/ 




Link to information on save libraries widget.  I just added it to the sidebar in this blog. http://www.ala.org/ala/aboutala/offices/cro/getinvolved/saveyourlibraries.cfm




Jeremy Love's comic Bayou, Issue #1 is now free on the web.  It is quite interesting.  https://comics.comixology.com/#/issue/2584/Bayou-1




I put Smart Startups How Entrepreneurs and Corporations Can Profit by Starting Online Communites by David Silver, Wiley, c2007 on interlibrary loan.  I am requesting it from another library system than my own.  This process can take several weeks. 




I also requested another book as a hold, Made Possibly By Succeeding With Corporate Sponsorship by Patricia Martin.




On the train home, I read some of Kraken by China Mieville.  It is an urban fantasy novel.  Somehow, it maintains more believability than most fantasy novels I have read.  It is in that eerie space where things are real but not quite real.  The place where horrible things happen for not quite explained reasons.  There is an almost fortean feel to the novel.

SI MONUMENTUM REQUIRIS CIRCUMSPICE

"If you seek his monument, look around."

Um projeto interessante

Já tem um tempinho que eu estou "namorando" o projeto Organize sua casa em 50 dias, do Desbagunçando.
Eu não sou um primor de organização, mas também não deixo ir bagunçando muito, porque senão dá pra pirar em casa. E agora resolvi começar esse desafio! Baseado, mas sem seguir à risca o original, mesmo porque cada um tem necessidades (bagunças) diferentes.
Por que resolvi começar hoje? Motivo, mais que simples: Fim das férias escolares, filho mais velho já foi para JF, e aí sobrou aquele tempinho que nas férias eu reservo a ele.Por flar no meu filhote, domingo fiquei morrendo de pena dele. Fui levá-lo em Ponte Nova, na rodoviária, e quando ele se deu conta de que só faltavam 15 minutos os olhinhos foram se enchendo de lágrimas... Mas ele adora o curso e com a ajuda do celular diminui bem a distância. Nesses dois dias já foram uns 10 telefonemas...

Voltando ao projeto:
Hoje é o dia de retirar o lixo. No meu caso, juntar tudo à noite para colocar na rua amanhã. Essa etapa é fácil, tranquila, mas dá até medo do que vem por aí...
Então é enfiar a cara com toda a coragem desse mundo e mãos à obra!

Route 9 (The West End)

Animal Cliches in Stories & Movies

SUDDEN CAT! - These little critters just love to pop out of nowhere in horror movies, startling one of the characters (and giving the audience a cheap scare). This usually happens just before a psycho/alien/monster jumps out to kill the character.


THAT BELOVED DYING DOG - As Gordon Korman once wrote, “check any book in the library with a dog and an award sticker on the cover, trust me, that dog’s going down.” (Examples: Old Yeller, Where the Red Fern Grows, Marley & Me, Sounder)

THE IMPOSSIBLY SMART HORSE - A staple of westerns since the genre was created, these creatures have uncanny intelligence at least equal to the bad guys, and have some sort of sixth sense to always be where their owner needs them to be in a time of crisis. Bonus cliché: the closer the horse is to his master, the more likely he is to die.

MISUNDERSTOOD WOLF - Replacing the old cliché that all wolves are inherently evil, wolves in modern stories are now noble, maligned creatures, unfairly persecuted and hunted down by angry farmers.

SHARKS - No matter the story or film, when a shark appears, the animal has an insatiable taste for human blood and will eat far more people than it can physically stomach.

BEAUTY IS ONLY SKIN DEEP - If the animal is fuzzy, it is a loveable hero. If it isn’t, it’s a horrifying monster, bent on killing people, especially if it is a reptile or insect.

SPIDERS - In stories and movies, all spiders are aggressive and deadly. Even tarantulas, who in real life sleep for days at a time, are lightning quick and attack without provocation. Then again, who wants to read a story or see a movie about a friendly spider? (Exception: Charlotte’s Web).

AMOROUS CANINE - Telling a story and want a cheap laugh? Have a tiny dog hump a character’s leg.

CHOICE OF PETS - Heroes own dogs. Villains (especially evil geniuses) own cats.

MONKEYS - Almost always depicted as endearingly cute, especially when they ape (no pun intended) human activity. Hey, this things fling their poo when angry! Then again, if we actually did that to voice our displeasure over something, most arguments would end before they began.

MONKEYS, PART 2 - Actually, the image of a poo flinging monkey is a cliché, too.

YOU GONNA EAT THAT? - Whenever a character is lost (on an island, in the desert, in the mountains, etc), he or she will inevitably be forced to eating an animal most of us would call an exterminator to get rid of.

SUPER-VILLAIN FISH TANK - If a super villain owns a fish tank, it is filled with piranhas. If he owns a pond, it is also filled with piranhas, only this time he feeds them a henchman who failed or betrayed him.

CATS - Unless the story is about them, most cat characters are generally evil…and always hungry.

BEARS - Bears love to show up at campsites, especially if the campers are city folks not used to the great outdoors. Hilarity ensues.

INCREDIBLE JOURNEYS - No matter the animal or breed, when abandoned, they will set off on a trek to find their masters, and somehow always succeed. And, of course, even though the master left without any regard for their pets, cry tears of joy whenever old Rex appears over the horizon. The heart-wrenching exception to this cliché is Richard Adams’ The Plague Dogs.

GENETICALLY ENHANCED SUPER BEAST - Scientists love to inject a normally docile animal with some weird concoction which turns it into a killing machine. What science stems to gain from such an experiment is not really understood.

D.M. Anderson
http://dmanderson.blogspot.com/
http://twitter.com/frandavea

Spencer Downtown with Muzzy Meadow Pond

Google Earth streams the world over wired and wireless networks enabling users to virtually go anywhere on the planet and see places in photographic detail. This is not like any map you have ever seen. This is a 3D model of the real world, based on real satellite images combined with maps, guides to restaurants, hotels, entertainment, businesses and more. You can zoom from space to street level instantly and then pan or jump from place to place, city to city, even country to country.   Get Google Earth. Put the world in perspective.   (http://earth.Google.com)

Daily Thoughts 7/27/2010 ( Broadband, sribd, social networking )

Europa-Briefmarke, Kinderbücher,Ausgabepreis: 55 Cent

Daily Thoughts 7/27/2010 

This is a link to the presentations from the Library Workers Skillshare. I did not get to go to it because I was working that night http://sites.google.com/site/libraryworkersskillshare/   Some of it is quite interesting.  I created a Google Profile for example.  http://www.google.com/profiles .  It is very basic.  I am still shy of putting up images of my face on the web.  Maybe it is a personal thing.




On the train to work, I finished reading Design and Launch an Online Social Networking Business In A Week.  It provides an outline of what you would need to do to start a social media business.  I would say it is a very bare bones outline and there is still a lot missing from the book.  It is a starting point for someone interested in making a social media business.  I found it to be a little bit too simple.




Publishers Weekly has an excellent article on Scribd and HTML 5 http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/print/20100726/43942-betting-the-house-on-html5.html




I put together a display of books on New Media this morning with a banner and some flyers for our Digital Media Catalog.  Hopefully people will take the books.  The display that seems to be going most quickly is books on cooking and drinks.




I have been reading up on the National Broadband Plan.  They are going to have a number of grants that go with this plan aimed at libraries.  Their specific purpose is to introduce digital technology into libraries.  This means there may be a chance to get devices like the Ipad, Kindle, MP3 players, digital cameras, as well as training for digital technology.

THE GREY HERON OF MUZZY MEADOW POND