23 technology things

Last week I started a new training at work, and thought that some of you, might be interested in trying something new.

The purpose is to introduce the library staff to new technologies. Some of the employees are really afraid to try new things. So I borrowed an idea from some other libraries and started the Jackson District Library Learning 2.0 program.

Each week, I will post a new blog about a "new" technology thing. Each post will include some discovery resources and exercises.

If anybody is interested in looking at it go to the Jackson District Library, Learning 2.0 site.

You are free to follow along and try some of the new things, if you want.

Technology Woes, Football woes. Movies and books

Not much happened this week. I spent most of the week trying to figure out what was wrong with my computer. I think it got some kind of virus, or spyware (I have McAfee anti- virus program and update it at least every week) but it was really really really slow. It took days to make sure I had everything backed up. then I had to run the recovery disk. It is finally working but It takes a while to get everything re-installed etc.

Friday night football, The Springport Spartans, played at Sand Creek in the first round (pre-districts) of the MHSAA Football playoffs.
The weather was pretty nice for Football, but the game was not so good. Final score Sand Creek 35-Springport 14. Sand Creek has some tall kids on that team, one of them was listed as 6' 10". Spirngport needs to learn how to tackle, not around the waist and shoulders - around the knees and feet guys. On one play a Sand Creek player made 5 yards with 3 Springport players hanging on him. If Springport wants to use a running game they better have some blockers clear some room for their runners.

Cross Country Regionals was Saturday- at Ann Arbor Huron. Anna came in 21st in a field of 85, not bad, but only the top 20 go on to State. Her time was not great 23 minutes or something, It was raining and cold and they had a huge sledding hill.

The Jensen Run is Monday afternoon, with a banquet for that on November 5th. The school fall sports awards is November 8th.

A couple of weeks ago we watched the DVD Wild Hogs, with Tim Allen, John Travolta, William H. Macy and I can't remember the other guy. Oh yeah, Martin Lawrence. Not bad, Charlie, Anna, and I watched the whole thing. It was one of those, where I said, OK, I'm glad I didn't pay $10 to see, (but it would take a lot for me to say it was worth $10 ) but it wasn't bad for $1.00 I paid at the library.

Charlie and Anna wanted to watch a video last night, and Charlie thought Anna would like to see The Gods must be Crazy. About an African Bushman, trying to return a soda bottle to the God's and all of the things going on around him that he doesn't understand. Charlie and Shonda thought that was the funniest movie when they first watched. it about 10 years ago. I watched it with them once, it was OK. I watched about 20 minutes last night and went back to working on the computer. Anna watched about half and decided to go to bed. We have a VHS Copy of that one and The Gods must be Crazy II if anybody wants to borrow them. I don't think you can rent them anymore.

I just finished reading (listening) to a book that Jackson has chosen for the "Big Read" Project in the Spring. Bless Me Ultiama- about a young Catholic, Hispanic boy in New Mexico right after World War II. I really didn't like it. It was about the clashing of cultures- speaking only Spanish at home- English at school, his catholic faith (his mother hoping he would be a priest) vs witch-craft, and paganism, changing cultures. For one thing I couldn't identify with any of it. It was dark, and I did not find it at all enjoyable or uplifting. Ed do you know anything about the story? If you want to try reading maybe you can get something out of it I didn't.

I didn't get any good pictures of fall color but there was an awesome sunset on Tuesday. Got some nice pictures, The sky was purple ( it didn't come out well in the photos) before it turned orange. A beautiful full moon this week too.
Keep on keeping on- JB

Family History and other stuff

Ok, I told myself when I started this that I WOULD write something at least once a week; I have found that sometimes that is not easy to do. Who wants to read about me doing the laundry and going to the grocery store?

I was away from work for 2 weeks, I had to take some vacation or loose it. We didn’t do anything in particular just hung around home and took it easy. I did work on some genealogy and found some extensions of existing branches and some new branches.

I put some family history pictures on flickr a couple of weeks ago. Last week I got a call from someone up by Clare who has been working on the Crosthwaite branch for several years. Her great grandfather was my great grandmother’s brother, so we are third cousins.

There is a feature on Ancestry.com that will show you famous people to whom you may be related. So I found out that my mother was probably not related to anyone famous, but my dad was related to five of the original Mayflower passengers, President, Chester Arthur, Rutherford B. Hayes’s wife, several authors including Laura Ingalls Wilder, Robert Louis Stevenson, a couple of Canadian prime ministers among others. I am not sure this link will work but you can try it.

http://trees.ancestry.com/RelationFinder/relate.aspx?pid=-1754542736&tid=3270021&pt=1

I went back to work this week and had a few things to catch up on, and the millage vote for the library expansion was on Tuesday. We are all disappointed that it did not pass. It has been rather subdued at the library this week. We need to look at the reasons and decide where to go from here.

As training coordinator I am always looking for ways to keep the library staff informed and up to date on new technology and library trends. I found this a couple of weeks ago and thought that some of you might find it useful too, especially if you have some websites that are frequently updated. And in case you do not know what an RSS feed is. This explains it very well, in a very few minutes and it’s easy to understand. http://www.commoncraft.com/rss_plain_english

Happy Trails