I'll go back to Manga, but here's a book to tide you over

The Lady by Anne McCaffrey

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This is an odd book, it doesn't really match McCaffrey's other works and it's really a shame she didn't write more like it. I never had a horse girl phase, but some of my friends did and I always thought it was kind of stupid. We lived in a city, most of us would never see a horse let alone ride one. This is the first and only horse book I've ever read and it makes me see why girls go horse crazy.

The book is set in Ireland in the 70's, and it has a surprising number of focuses. Sure it's about horses, but it's also about a family, and about a young girl becoming a grown woman, and about politics and about love. One interesting factor is the coverage it gives to the rights of women, which is a pretty deep topic to cover in a novel. McCaffrey does it pretty well, she gives us enough detail to see that the issue is important but she doesn't overwhelm or get preachy. That's important in a novel, since most people will go to a non-fic book (or Wikipedia, lol) for hard facts.

I've read this book about five times and while there are a few details I don't like (extra marital affairs, anyone?) something about this book really draws me. I think it may be how the characters really feel like real people. They have flaws, and some of those flaws are pretty big, but I still think it would be neat to go visit them and learn about horses and riding. That's a pretty big thing to learn for a horse book hating girl.



View all my reviews

Flicking back and forth over Flickr

I found my flicker account again! So I might actually use it again, depending on how easy it is to get pictures off of my camera and phone. The new phone links photo's right to Facebook at the press of a button but it's more difficult for Flickr. Then again Flickr isn't a privacy seller like Facebook so it's definitely has an edge.

Cantarella

Cantarella is a rare manga that follows real historic people, in this case the Borgia family. The main character is Cesare Borgia, and the narrative follows him as he grows up and takes on his destiny. I enjoyed how it tried to follow a more neutral path than many other stories about this family. For people who have enjoyed the Assassins Creed games you might find this confusing, but then Cantarella takes a lot less artistic license than the games.

The art is gorgeous.
One thing that might be a bit off putting is the amount of violence in this series, although I don't think it's excessive considering the time period. There is also a bit of mystical stuff to hinder the true historian. Cesare's father sells his son's soul to become Pope, etc. Given that this is set in medieval/ Renaissance period I think that it still fits the the story.

I haven't read much of this series yet, but I plan to finish it soon. I really started to feel for the main characters and how they were trapped and shaped by the ambitions of the people around them. Of course it's easy to enjoy if you are new to the story, or if you already know it and can see the foreshadowing. At the very least it makes reading about history fun and rich, and oh so pretty to look at.

Hikaru no Go

Now back when I was a kid and manga was new to these shores manga for boys mostly consisted of harem manga, with full fan service, and giant robots with people in them beating each other up. Things have changed since then and there are a lot more options and genres available.

One genre I see a lot of now is sports manga like Prince of Tennis, Whistle, Rebound and many others. These generally consist of one Joe average who loves the game but isn't really very good at it and often is the worst player on the team. They usually end up succeeding through some special inner skill and a whole boat lad of determination and love of the game. I'm sure you recognize the plot from any number of western sports movies.

Hikaru no Go is a little different than most of this genre; firstly because Go is more like chess then football, and secondly because Go is usually played by old men and not boys. To get around this the main character, a punk kid named Hikari Shindo, is haunted by the ghost of a great Go player named Fujiwara-no-Sai. In order to get his life back Hikari starts to learn to play Go, mostly to keep Sai off his back. He unwittingly starts to love the game and eventually finds himself playing against the strongest player in his age group as Sai. This starts a rivalry between the boys and Hikari vows to reach the other young man so that they can play as equals.

For someone who could easily have Sai switch in whenever he starts to lose Hikari is surprisingly honest. He never cheats except by ignorance of the game and often has to keep Sai from playing when he shouldn't. Unlike other boy types there is almost no violence 9other than a few school yard scraps) and no sex or other things you might like your young men to avoid. It's manga like this that proves you can tell a good story, and keep boys engaged, with out resorting to an "R" rating.

"Boy Manga"

Because I started reading manga at a young age I've found it pretty easy to narrow down my choices to things I know I will like. Because I started at a time when girls thought boys had cooties and vice versa I often choose to avoid "boy manga." I have some pretty serious stereotypes about it too, although I prefer to call it genre classification. :) Over the next little while I'm going to challenge myself to read some of the less objectionable and bring my new opinion to you. Basically it's a chance for us all to learn something new, and that's where the fun's at.

My new shiney!!

I got a smart phone for my birthday, so now I can keep up with the 23 things on the go. I haven't found apps for them all yet, but I'm still looking for them or for alternatives. I might even catch up to my peers in web connectedness (yeah, right). Come by and I'll show off. :)

Smile boxed up

I think I'm going to leave this one, at least until later, because it wanted to download something to my computer. I can't do that at work! Bad Smilebox, no biscuit. So I'll try it at home sometime, and see what I can send. Not sure I'll use it for much, I like being creative, but I think it might be too noisy for me. Yes I am a grump, and the examples just seemed too busy. Maybe for my mom, she loves singing cards etc...

Yokaiden

This is the first manga I've reviewed that's had its creative origin outside of Asia. This is mainly because I feel that these second generation manga have a different feel and tone than Asian manga and I would prefer not to blend the two. I will read Western graphic novels, but then the subject matter is usually also Western. Yes it's a horrible, horrible bias and I'm a bad girl but that's the way it is.

Yokaiden has the benefit of not only Japanese style art but also Japanese style subject matter. Namely: Japanese myths and legends. I have been interested in myths since I was quite young, I find that great stories have a habit of lasting.

I think this would be a great book to add to the collection. So far (I've only read the first volume) the main protagonist is a young boy who loves yokai (more like the old school fae than demons, which is how the term is usually translated). He wants to make friends with the yokai and teach them to co-exist with humans. Since some yokai eat people you can see why his neighbors, and especially his hateful old granny, would have a problem with this. When his granny is killed by a yokai the boy sets of to the homeland of the yokai, not to get revenge exactly, but more to find out what happened. His adventures seem to be the core narrative of the book.

With a good natured male protagonist and a lack of romance subplot I think this is an excellent book to introduce to young male readers. It has a little violence, but no sex or language and especially no sports or giant robots: the two main staples of boy manga. I also enjoyed reading it, and I'm not a boy. The back has a glossary of spirits, sort of an encyclopedia of everyone the hero meets and what they do. My fave? The spirit that eats the ring in dirty tubs. Talk about eww factor, right? Now go find a boy and explain it to him, then give him this book.

A few shelfari problems

Sorry guys, technical difficulties with Shelfari, I will try to update my shelf as soon as they are sorted out. Thanks for your patience.

Ghost Hunt

Mai is an ordinary Japanese school girl who gets wrapped up with a team of paranormal investigators led by a young man named Shibuya. The team tries to use scientific means to investigate hauntings and other forms of psychic phenomena. While the team does try to break the actual investigating into scientific terminology and uses tools like heat sensing cameras the actual getting rid of ghosts is usually done by the rest of the team: a monk, a Shinto priestess, and a catholic priest. This is an area that seems a little sketchy since they seem to be trying so hard to prove how ghosts and psychic powers could exist scientifically but don't do much to explain how the counter powers exist. It seems to be just inborn or inherent to certain people. Another thing that got me was how the Catholic priest is basically 16 years old, I'm pretty sure you need an advanced degree in Theology for that.

Some of the things I liked about this series is how very Japanese it can be when it focuses on old legends and ghost stories. It also has a section in the back where it explains things in depth for none Japanese readers. It's based on a novel so the character building is slow but also pretty deep in comparison to other series. There are many mysteries between the group members, mainly focusing on Shibuya and his assistant Lin.

While some of the stuff that happens in this book is a little dark it's no darker than your usual mystery. People do die, sometimes a little graphically but it's usually integral to the story line. It also has a romance sub plot, although that's pretty light and only seems to feature when the action isn't heavy. All in all I enjoyed this series, and I think it's the first mystery series I've read. Pick it up for it's uniqueness, or because you want to add a new genera to your manga collection, or just because it's cool.

Wrap up and sad endings

So this is the end of the 23 Things program and I'm really going to miss it. I seem to be the kind of person who needs a lot of help keeping up digitally, or at least I lose a lot between Library 2.0 classes. A side effect of taking this program that I will miss is the introduction to many people at work that I don't see daily. I got a chance as the newbie to see opinions and interests that I might not get to see on my own. I also got to sign up for book making, something I've been interested in but unable to self teach myself.

One thing I wish had been a thing was some kind of music program. I realize that it's hard to find something that shares music legally, and that it isn't directly related to libraries. I just think that with the way 99% of students seem to have their ipods turned on 99% of the time it might have a tenuous link to libraries. Maybe we could create a "study time in the library" playlist? I guess that's just because I really like music. I still think the library 23 things program was really awesome, and I'm glad that I joined and that others created and participated.

One thing I will take away from this project (other than the programs) is a new love for photography. I'm still really bad at it! But I know people on the Internet might still find my cruddy pictures a little interesting so I'll keep at it for a while.

I know that I will not blog as often now that this is done, and I know most won't blog at all but I hope some people will. I'll be going back to talking about manga, but I think I'll add posts about other things that come to mind too. I hope those of you that enjoyed me will check back occasionally, and that you'll like what's here. Thanks for reading all, and I'll see you at work.

Social Bookreading

So this is one of the things we learned in our library 2.0 class and it was really helpful in many other classes we took that year. We looked at LibraryThing, Shelfari, and GoodReads and I'm going to break down the merits of each, but I warn you I have a clear bias towards GoodReads.

So LibraryThing is the "thing" that we were given, so it gets to to first. The benefits of this one over the others is that it has full MARC coding, and is targeted to small libraries. The downside is that it is quite clunky to use, searching for series with the same title is time consuming and frustrating. Also I quickly used up my 250 book limit and was unwilling to pay further, even though it isn't much money. So in short I think this is mostly useful for small specialized libraries that need lots of detail and searchability, or that use it for cataloguing.

Shelfari is by far the prettiest of the three, and if you look to your left you will see that it is used on my blog to keep track of what books I talk about. I love the visual nature of it! It gives you a picture of a shelf and allows you to fill it with book covers. It is compatible with many other programs (not sure if it's owned by Google) and looks nice but I don't use it much for the social aspect. It is used by my book club to keep track of our reviews.

GoodReads! I love it like I love chocolate (Almost). It is big, it is easy to use, it also gives book covers but also lists title and author and other important info. You can also stalk favorite authors, many of whom have pages on GoodReads that they use to talk to fans. There are also user generated lists (best Gothic fiction, best characters you love to hate), trivia, and quotes.

As far as using it as a social media I can't talk much about that since I've moves almost exclusively to GoodReads and haven't used the others in this area much. I do know that GoodReads gives you recommendations and lets you know what friends are reading, but I don't know about the others. What I recommend is trying each and seeing which works best for you. Happy reading, and feel free to "friend" me.

Wordle the turtle walked in a cloud

So I'm a big geek, and I decided to use wordle to make a cloud of Jane Austin's "Persuasion." I honestly expected a lot of oldtimey words but I forgot how much of the book is people talking about other people and so most of my cloud is made of names. I did manage to make the colours and fonts look regency like, or an approximation of it at least. I also made one of my blog page which was much nicer, but it didn't even show the word manga, a hint that I need to get back with the program I think.

Goodbye flickr

The first of my things to lose my interest, simple because I can't find my account. At least I still have my photos backed up on my laptop. Maybe I'll try Picasa instead, and post them again. Until then I'll use flickr to find photographs to look at, but won't share my own. At least it's still a good shopping tool (look up Saskatoon and wedding cake together and decide where you'd like to go).

Youtube revisited? Maybe.

So when we did the 23 things part that involved youtube I told my self that I would never post a video. "Why," I told my self, "would anyone want to see a video I posted." It would either be too personal for a mass video site (like one of my nephews), or too boring (like a video of a hawk preening I shot from the bottom of the tree it was sitting in). But then I ran into a friend of mine yesterday, he's posted about 30 videos and one of a ladybug eating an aphid got 8,000(!) views. People actually watch these things. I think I need some time to go back and revisit the old applications now that we're more familiar with some of the others. I know I'd like to get better at merging them together more seamlessly.

Now I never need to be lost again (except in thought)

I love this weeks thing! I am notorious for getting lost, my friend used to joke about me getting lost in my back yard. Mostly joke. I think I'm going to use this to plan my summer vacations/ trips to see friends weddings. I can look for fun things to do and build my own walking tour. I'm also using it as a restaurant guide for my friends. Places we've been before and might like to go again. I seriously love having the control over the map, instead of the other way around.

Frustration thy name is...

So I love how much there is to learn through the 23 things. I really think I can use some of the things in my daily life on line and am thinking of getting a phone that will let me do the things while mobile. Here's the kicker though: I wanted to integrate the things more, add them to my blog or to each other. But I can't! After spending a half hour trying to remember my flicker login and password and another looking for blogger widgets of out things I' giving up for now.

But I will be back, oh yes... (evil cackling laugh)

Diigo

I like Diigo so far, it's nice to be able to bookmark from anywhere and know you have access at home. I've been using that feature on StumbleUpon, but then I get sucked in to a whirlpool of unproductivity and before I know it two days have passed. (For those who don't know StumbleUpon is a program that sends you user generated content about things you find interesting).

I like being able to link things that I don't want to lose but also can't read at work because it's work time and not fun time. Even if I book them at my work computer it's not likely that I'll come back to read them since it's almost always work time at work. :)

I'm not a student anymore, but I can see how using this as a research tool would be pretty awesome. I was in the generation that did a lot of reading on line but before tools like this and OneNote existed. Too bad, but we made it through anyway. I think as time passes and the world gets more electronic that tools that combine the ease of use of paper and the availability of electronic media will get more popular.

Vote mobs

During the last election, when I was still a student, the feeling on campus was one of hopelessness and apathy. People felt that voting was useless because change wouldn't happen, no matter the amount of effort put in by the "common people." I was sure this election would have more of the same (only 30% of youth voted last time) until I saw the videos of Vote Mobs. Here is the link to the video. I wanted to embed it but it kept crashing my blog, but please take the time to watch it. It's just this incredible thrilling feeling to watch the youth of the nation rise up for a cause.

Dah dha dha dah inspector widget

For those of you reading this please look to the right of this post. This is my shelfari widget, it allows me to update and display my shelfari shelf list to my blog. Since this was originally a book blog that tool is really handy for readers who might be interested in picking up or searching for the books I talk about. I also have widgets on my computer at home, one is a stick note for reminders and one is a slide show of photos saved to my lap top memory. I kind of like having the ability to customize a web page to my specifics, or to the needs of the page's visitors.

I feel like a twit 'cause I don't know how to tweet

This is the first thing that really made me feel lost. I went on twitter, signed up, found some people to follow (am I a duckling now?) and then what? I found the help section and they spend most of the time talking about how it's a great way to find info really quickly. What? Most people use twitter as a way of sending things out, not to bring things in. Have they all been using it wrong? Or does twitter have high expectations? I tried to use it to find info like the help guide suggested and while the actual tweets aren't that useful the ability to use them to reference other online articles works pretty well. Anyone how wants can send me a message, just add @kem248 in it and it should show up. I think. Maybe.

Sock puppets before they were puppets

That's right a blog about socks. Those who have seen me recently may have noticed my nifty new leg wear, and some of you have asked where I got them. The answer is an online sock store called sock theory http://www.socktheory.com/ . It has all kinds of socks from stockings and tights to tiny anklets. It even has socks shaped like sharks, or pencils. Give it a look see if you're interested.

That old book of faces

I feel very ambivalent about Facebook. On the one hand it is a good tool for keeping track of people who don't live nearby, or people you used to know but now don't really want to catch up with but still want to find out how they are doing. On the other hand Facebook has stated (as a corporation) that they don't believe in privacy and that they basically own everything you post until the end of forever. Now maybe it's just a life time of living with tech-savvy and paranoid people but that really creeps me out big time. If you do something, and someone takes a picture and posts it, then that picture exists on the net until the end of time. It's one thing to say don't do anything stupid, but shouldn't people be aloud a youthful indiscretion or two without it ruining career chances well into adulthood?

I did use Facebook to plan my wedding, and boy did it make life so much easier. I got in touch with my husband's family with only a few button clicks. Things are easy to plan and carry out on Facebook, which is why flashmobs use it. But all of this only happens if people use it. Facebook was the default social media for several years, now that it's starting to splinter will the new sources be as useful?

I guess the most important part of enjoying Facebook is to put more into it. If you ignore it for weeks then you will be ignored upon return. Check it every hour and you have a thriving Facebook life. Me, I'd rather live IRL then in Facebook but I'm old fashioned that way.

A different kind of manga gender swap

I sometimes go down to my local public library and pick up half a dozen "new" manga starting with the first volume. I like to expand my tastes by picking up some random books, and sometimes this nets me a new favorite (like Skip Beat).

One of the good ones from this group is called Otomen. It has a tendency to get zany and play up the girly manga tropes but I think it's still good. The basic premise is about a young 18 year old guy named Asuka who is your classic all around male on the outside. He reads books about the warrior way, studies kendo and judo, and is well respected around campus. But all is not well for our hero, because he secretly loves really girly things like knitting, cooking and frilly sparkly pink things. He hides out pretty well, until he falls for a cute girl in his class and then things start breaking out. Add another pretty guy who mysteriously knows his secret and a famous manga (self referencing it's own genre) that is eerily like his life and things start to get really fun.

Japan and the western nations share a very strong patriarchal past, although it seems to be stronger in Japan now. This seems to be the basis of conflict in this manga, men are expected to be manly and any intrests that aren't manly are looked down upon. While some people know Asuka's secret others put a great deal of presure on him, either on purpose (his evil mom), or by accident (other students). He can't be himself anywhere except at home and at lunch with his friends. It's pretty sad.

I don't think there are any problems for picking up this manga. I've only read the first four volumes but so far the relationship has progressed to holding hands only. There are the occasional fight scenes, and even a run away bull that Asuka has to fight, but the violence seems minimal. All in all I don't think there is any reason not to pick this up, it's smart and self-referential, it has interesting characters, and it has a premise that I haven't seen before. Or and there is soooo much cute. :)

Murray Library at night

Murray Library at night, a photo by keu482 on Flickr.

This looked much nicer on my little camera window, but then I am an amateur. :)

Encyclopedias

One thing I liked to do as a (very geeky)child was to comb through encyclopedias for the weird and wonderful. My grandfather was an encyclopedia salesman so we always had a copy somewhere. As I grew older we bought a copy of encarta which had a game that introduced strange trivia topics and you could explore them as they came, or choose to ignore those you found boring. And now we have Wikipedia.

Wikipedia is cool because it has entries on almost everything. It has an entry on madeup countries and what their flags look like. It has entries on the most obscure animel, vegitabe or mineral. I know that all that is there, but how do I find it if I don't know to look for it. It's like a library of information with out call numbers to sort and organize it. One upside is that you can go straight to the info if you find something online, or even IRL, by typing it into a search engine. It usually pops up in the top three. I guess both ways are good, as long as I have access to the weird and zany.

Lightbox

As I was processing new journals today a quick mention of this site caught my eye. Another way of showing photos (I think you need t o sign up, and possibly pay for services), other than Flicker and Picasa. I went and looked at photos of the devestation in Japan, the numbers are impossible to process but the photos will hit you right in the heart.

Biting off less than I can chew (for once)

So I've been looking at the amount of new stuff to do this week and I've decided to do this in small bite sized pieces instead of a full meal. That means lots of smaller posts when I have time, instead of in a great big chunk.

The first post is about how I haven't even gotten to the photos yet. I have seen Flicker photo streams before (some really wicked cool wedding cakes, for instance) but this time I got to the 365 library days project and I hit a snag, namely the introductions page. Wow, so many different types of libraries and librarians. Some from Pakistan and Singapore! And all of them are promoting their libraries and being engaged. Also someone will mention a specific talent and another person will ask for their help on a project. Or offer advice about something. I haven't seen a single library photo and I can already see the use of this as a collaborative tool and marketing gadget. I'm pretty excited about tomorrow and what I can learn then. Tune in tomorrow boys and girls, same bat time, same bat channel.

Library cat video

I've always thought that having a library cat would be a fun thing. I know it's not really feasible at an academic library but here is a library that has one. Meet Pages, the library cat.

Just like Owl from a Milne book...

...the Owl at Purdue University is very wise. All the way through the last half of my undergrad and my entire library tech class the Owl has shown me how to cite. I had the 2009 version of MLA in book form, but of course I routinely left it at home when I needed it. That's why having a clear, electronic form at your fingertips is a great thing.

If anyone is interested in checking it out they can be found at the Owl at Purdue
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/08/

Those old collective cookbooks

Does anyone remember those? The ones that are made by a group of dedicated older ladies or by a class that brings in mom's favorite recipe. The ones in which every recipe has been made at home for dozens of years, and been simplified or added to until each one is just perfect. The ones with randowm uplifting quotations or jokes on the pages where too much space lived. Not even the big glossy books published by world famouse chefs can compair to those.

I mention this because last Christmas my husband Brain's Grandma bought one for me! They still existed! I had seen copies of them in my mom's recipy cupbourd and mourned the idea that their time had passed and that I would never own one for myself. But the best things in life are never truly lost, and that makes me happy. Now I'm going home tonight to make me something that I know has been loved, and that will be loved my my family.

Mahalo Wikis

Yeah, I seem to be one of the few people who isn't instantly in love with wikis. I wonder if that's because I haven't really done much group work before. I use wikis, sometimes I even just go to wikipedia (I can hear my Lib Tec teacher screaming). I can even see the use of creating a wiki for students and library patrons, since there's just so much for people to know about us. I just can't see how I would use a wiki that was only for staff. Maybe other, more experienced people could let me know?

Ignore if you don't like the silly

Sorry guys, I saw this and couldn't resist.

Fly you fools!

So it's Starbucks' birthday or some such thing, and they're giving away free cake on a stick. My advice gentle readers? RUN! That stuff is evil. The texture, the flavour! And now the lingering sugar headache. Never again guys, never again.

I live in a pod, but I definately don't podcast

Maybe it's just because I'm shy, or because I have nothing to say, but I really don't see myself creating a pod cast or a youtube video. Mind you I once thought I would never blog either and here I am, so maybe someday. I notice that no one has linked any of the podcasts they found so maybe I will at the bottom of this post.

I find that the Miro program and my new MP3 player are great motivators to play more with this Thing, something I had never had interest in before. The Miro program is great because it organizes pod and video casts for you, and you can play them on the program itself with out transfering it elsewhere (right on your computer screen). The MP3 player is portable, but small and videos have to be converted first before they will play. It comes with the software, but converting a video takes a looooooong time.

I think that no matter how much fun these two Things are a lot of work is necissary to really make them a part of my life. The reward is worth it, but I don't know if I have the time or inclination.... oh! I'm just lazy, probably.

Well here are some sights I found:

For the CBC lover here is a list of all the podcasts they make, news, local content and music: http://www.cbc.ca/podcasting/

For the forward thinker here are the TED talks; lectures from great tinkers on many different subjects (these are video): http://www.ted.com/talks

And to download Miro, if you're interested: http://www.getmiro.com/

Finding those little lost podcasts

So I'm using Miro to find and sort through podcasts. It seems to have both audio only and video, which is pretty cool. Apparently my new MP3 player (remember the old one wound up under a bus or something) plays not only audio podcasts but video too. Since it's so new I haven't checked that out yet, I'll get back to you when I do. I'll also post a podcast I like once I've listened through a few of them. One my husband likes is the "Onion News."

P.S. Keep in mind the news casts are fake.

How YouTube might work for libraries

So I saw this in my Library Tech classes and remembered it when I needed to do this project. It's a silly training film on customer service in libraries, but it could have been library cart drill teams instead. Pretty much any form of training, from how to use the specific machines like microfiche to how to do a reference or readers service interview, videos can make it fun and easy. Sometimes it just looks hokey, but at least it's better then sitting through a half hour lecture.

Cookie Monster at the Library

Love this clip, although I think the librarian needs a vacation or maybe a cookie.

The Prezi pretzel

So I love Prezi. One thing that bothered be about Microsoft PowerPoint is the squareness and the liner aspect. That's just not how I roll. But Prezi is so different, it looks the way I think, by grouping ideas and concepts together. This is the first time I could visually map out my leapfrog brain, not that every thought is there but it's a loose approximation. So yeah, it's a little random, but come see my prezi pretzel. http://prezi.com/taw9g9kelwu6/music/

One thing that troubles me. In power point you can add sound files, but other than the YouTube videos I can't seem to add one to prezi. Kind of funny, all these presentations about music but you can't add any in the background to listen to.

Lies, Damned Lies and Statistics

I know the title isn't apt, but I love that quote so lets roll with it. I was looking about on the blogger tool bar in my dash board and found the Stats button. You guys have to try this out! It's a really great feeling to know that your reader ship is higher than you expect. It even has graphs.

In honour of Iffat...

Found another cool thing guys, it's called ZooBorns, http://www.zooborns.com/ . It has pictures of the adorable and exotic baby animals born at zoos all over the world. From the obvious pandas and koalas to tapirs and aardvarks this site has it all. The pictures are amazingly good and there are little blurbs about the zoo's work to keep endangered species alive and thriving. Here is a picture of one of my faverite animals.

Google Docs, part duex

So I made my husband co-editor of my first Google document, just so I could explore it as a sharing tool. So far it's pretty cool but I still need to stress test it to see how robust it is. One thing that bothers me is that it seems to not register all of my keystrokes. It misses at least one every two words. This doesn't happen in blogger so it's not my keyboard. If anyone has an idea to fix it I offer chocolate in return, the extra time needed to edit is very annoying.

Just like Microsoft, only better?

So this weeks things are the first ones I haven't been previously aware of, and the ones I've been least enthused about. Maybe it's my age (young) or my newness to the work force but I found Google docs and Google spreadsheet to be kind of boring. Now I know for a fact that these tools are both really useful. I can see how they can be applied to library work, especially in an academic library, really easily. I even feel like a bit of a traitor for saying this, but I'm still just too used to Microsoft Word. The same thing happened when my Husband tried to switch me to open office. I think I fear change, or some fun thing like that.


One thing though, I think that I will never again choose to pay for Microsoft Office, when there are other products on the market like this one. I mean why would some one choose to shell out a hundred dollars plus when Google has almost all of the same features and you can share documents with others and even let other people edit them as well? So I guess I'm going to have to put more effort into playing with this weeks things, since we will need to be good friends soon!

Genbu Kaiden, a Fushigi Yûgi prequel

So I've been reading the newest version of Fushigi Yugi lately and I'm actually enjoying it even more than the first one. The main characters are Takiko Okuda, a young girl from Japan who spends her days looking after her sick mom and attending an all girls school. The young man is Limdo Rowan, a prince from a country in side of the mysterious book Takiko's father brings home from a trip. Once Takiko is pulled into the book the two meet and the story truly starts.

One thing I liked better about this version is that the main character has about 100% more guts than Miaka did in the original. Because of the era Takiko grew up in (the 1920's) she's actually trained in weapon fighting and one of the first things she does is get one built for her self in the book world. She never acts helpless, even when she's scared and she never turns to food for comfort (unlike Miaka). So far she has failed to get anyone killed.

Because of the epic nature of the story there is quite a lot of violence and adult themes. The country in the book world is entering an ice age and people are poor and starving. Young women are forced into sexual slavery and prostitution. War, and all of it's trappings, is quickly approaching. Mostly these dark scenes are mixed in with light humor and a love story so the book never gets depressing even while we feel deeply for the characters.

And now the best parts of a Yuu Watase series: The Awesome art and the hours of painstaking research she puts into her work. Here is a lady who loves what she does and it really shows. She even talks about the research trips around the world she takes in the sidebars. Her line are is gorgeous. I would buy her books just for the pretty art, but the story telling is just as good. While it's still being printed in Japan and we have to wait for the next issue I highly recommend picking it up for your library, or even for yourself.

I'm so out of the loop it just looks like a straight line from here

So lately I'm becoming more aware of how unaware I am. Now it could be squeamishness on my part, or it could be because I've spent the last eight years in tunnel vision until I graduated. For whatever reason I don't always know what is going on in the world. On of my goals in working with the current journals is to read at least one article a day on my break. Another way of fighting my giant wall of ignorance is online news feeds. Many people in this group seem to be subscribing to RSS feeds from local and foreign news makers and I might try that. I've also added some to my iGoogle page. I like how it doesn't save piles of stuff for you, that way I'll never get bogged down in what I missed. I've also added a few sources from around the world (India, Japan, GB) so I can compare. We'll have to see which (if either) method works. Other wise I'll be the one reading the comics and the horoscopes in shame.

Cool free radio? Is such a thing possible on the internet?

Has anyone heard of the site called Stereomood? http://www.stereomood.com/ They offer free music organized by moods like "road trip" "it's raining" and "busy as a bee." This is how I organize my play lists at home so finding a radio station that does it too is a real gem. But here's the thing... I'm not sure how legal this is. I tried reading the disclaimer about what they do and it sounds okay, but I'm not up with the legalese. So anyone who knows better let me know. Or just give it a try, because it's a really cool thing. Many of the songs are emerging artists but they also have classical and oldies as well.

Well I'm going back to my "working" play list, I have things to do.

Reader rabbit and the trouble with RSS

As I mentioned before I started this blog for a class project. I started using Google reader for a completely different reason. See, my husband got a little cranky listening to me grip about how my web comics were never updating on time. "If you have a reader you can just check that instead of a billion other web pages" he said. "Yeah, but that makes too much sense" said I, which forced my poor husband to sign me up instead of continue to listen to me ranting. Unfortunately I read a lot of web comics. Twenty on a daily basis and many others whenever I feel like reading through the archives. This leads to a very messy list of "feeds" showing up everyday. Now, instead of signing up for RSS feeds I'm taking the opportunity to weed myself down to the few I really want.

Another little issue I never expected: I sign into Blogger and Google with two different email accounts. This means that when I sign into one it automatically signs me out of the other one. It's possible to do work from one to the other, but kind of a pain. Has anyone else noticed this, or am I the only one using two email accounts?

I'm going to have to make a file folder for the blogs I follow too, just to keep my self organized! It's harder than it looks :)

Somedays it's all catching mice and no pats on the head.

Found out how to give me an avatar picture, so now I'm no longer faceless. I figured it was apt, since I started this blog as "Kimicat." I always try to be pretty annony-mouse on the net, just in case. Of course most of you guys already know who I am!

Blogged down in blogs :)

So I've decided to try to follow everyone on the 23 Things list. I hope no one thinks that's creepy, it's just how we went about things in Library school. I think it helped encourage people to know they weren't writing into a void, I think knowing that I was talking to myself once the class ended was a major factor in my stopping. I suppose my wedding and the massive amounts of planning might have been a factor too. :)

One thing I've noticed is that everyone seems really excited about the 23 Things project. Not a single person has said "well I guess I'll do this, since it looks like I'll need it." I find it pretty exciting too. Sadly, despite the fact that I just finished a Library 2.0 class last year there are parts of it that are already out of date. Or at least tools I've never seen before.

So that's my goal for taking this class, to keep up with the rapid change in social media and other Internet tools. I'm naturally not adept with computers (there are days when I'm sure my laptop is possessed by some kind of trickster demon) and could use all the help I can get. I have a small crazy fear of being the only girl in her twenties who has less computer knowledge then her 80 year old grandma. To be honest, my grandma is pretty spiffy and could probably kick my butt at most things but still... :)

Well whatever, blogging is really fun and I'm glad to get back into it. I'm going to try adding more posts on Manga, so you can read or skip those as you please. Have a great weekend folks!

P.S. Registering my blog was a lot easier than I feared.

The Re:Purpose of this blog

Since I started this blog for a Library 2.0 class, and I'm now taking a Library 2.0 seminar I thought that a temporary change would be appropriate. Anyone coming to the blog from the 23 Things course can blithely ignore anything I've previously published, or if you choose, you can go forth and read it. I may even add a few new Manga recommendations here and there, but not on work time. :)

So week one started out with iGoogle, something I've used before. Of course that was before they jumped on the apple bandwagon and it was called something else so it's been awhile. One thing I like is the themes, you can really customize the look of your page. Customization seems to be the big thing with iGoogle, each person can choose which gadgets they like and how they're laid out on the page. I added two new tabs to my iGoogle page and added a few apps to each. It was amazingly easy. Another thing (pointed out to me by a friend who's learning to make apps for Apple products) each gadget is free. Apparently this is uncommon, but a really nice touch.

So how would something like this work in a library setting? I'm not sure, because there are so many apps I had a hard time finding some that were functional. Mind you I did not go look at the sample layouts from other libraries, looking them up by name might be much easier. I can see how having a dictionary.com app, and various other links all in the same place would be very useful. Especially for ready reference. Maybe a customizable map of the campus that can be zoomed in, or that can have destinations drawn on like in Google maps. Or a link to good reads so you can look up information ab0ut books and authors. Or maybe the Library of Congress would be better for that.

I guess the point is that I can see how it could be useful, providing all the things I wanted could be added to my page. I'll just have to look into that, or maybe kidnap my friend the app builder and have him get on that!