The Next Dark Age
We're in it Now
At the Refuge – Luna
There are some birds that I know, if I could just spend some quality time, they would warm up to people. Luna, a Congo African Grey Parrot, is such a case.
She does not want people to touch her. She would rather stay in her cage than to risk being touched. However. One day last year I could tell she wanted something. She wanted to play with Prince, the Resident Grey. And Prince is a big tease.
One night, I let her out and she was on top of her cage with Prince. Prince flew away – he is extremely steady. And Luna started to follow. She landed on the floor on the other side of the room.
I slowly walked over, knelt down and offered a hand. She stepped right up and I carried her back to her cage. No fuss.
She is motivated by almonds, which always helps in training. She is not afraid of people. Not afraid of other birds. She just isn’t entirely comfortable. She needs some quality time.
Luna is available for adoption and you can read more about her here.
This is Why I Watch PBS
http://www.youtube.com/get_player
Last night, on PBS, they were running a biography of Eleanor Roosevelt. Even the lamest history of the Roosevelts will include some mention of how in 1939 the Daughters of the American Revolution refused to let the great Marian Anderson sing in their ivory tower or whatever because they didn’t like the shade of her complexion. Mrs. Roosevelt resigned her membership and suddenly Ms. Anderson is singing at the Lincoln Memorial before the biggest crowd ever.
What this piece had, that I had not seen before, was video. They showed Ms. Anderson singing “My Country ‘Tis of Thee”, and had some interviewees talking. Then she started singing “Ave Maria”. My limited reading on the subject suggests that she owns that piece, and the program gave me just enough to see that it was positively majestic.
Even factoring in that any media footage (including Forrest Gump), that involves the Lincoln Memorial is likely to make me all misty, this was bloody brilliant. So I jump onto bn.com to find it. Nothing. Google sent me to YouTube which has a one minute, poor quality video of “My Country ‘Tis of Thee”, but no video of “Ave Maria”. But I found this, which I just had to post if only so that I can have it handy all the time.
Survey Says
I participate with a survey company called Zoom Panel. It does online marketing research on behalf of corporate clients. They e-mail you a survey and if you complete it, they give you so many “points” that can be traded in for rewards. I don’t know how many points I have and I have never cashed in my points, but I support the concept. I can do it or not do it, and on my own time. Not over the phone and not on paper, having to mail something back.
As often as not, after three questions or so, the survey says that I am not in the demographic they want to survey. So I collect 5 points and go on my merry way. They average complete survey is about 50 points.
I don’t remember how I first became involved, but I started actively participating after taking that Marketing class in school. Generally, the surveys are about things in the grocery store – yogurt or frozen foods or something. And for those surveys that are prior to product launch, I am required to click on a Non-disclosure agreement.
But just recently I was sent one regarding the financial services industry. I have an awful lot to say about the financial services industry. I pay my bills online. I track my credit cards online. My mortgage, my retirement account, all of my savings I manage online. I am the person that goes out of her way not to talk to a human being in my banking – which is what the banks really want. So when I call, it is because I have a serious problem and I require immediate human intervention.
Now the survey was more “what does this brand mean to you”, rather than any detailed analysis of particular products or services. But they did ask questions about cost vs. loyalty to one institution, which I find fascinating. I once told a bank that they would never have my “primary checking account” business because I have my current account number memorized and I wasn’t about to start over again.
The disappointing part is that I do not have the opportunity to see the full results. I would love to see statistics on cost vs. loyalty (or what may, in my case, just be laziness). How many people even know the difference between WaMu and Wachovia? And how does the mortgage crisis change perceptions? It has knocked on mine a bit.
In the interest of being a more informed consumer, I think I will keep an eye out. Maybe some statistics will leak.
Wal-Mart Classifieds
I pretty much think that Wal-Mart is the Evil Empire. But Best Friends Animal Society noted Wal-mart doing something worth mentioning:
“Last week, Wal-Mart launched a free online classifieds website, walmart.oodle.com. Suddenly, thirty million ads, reaching five million consumers each month were available through Wal-Mart. This included tens of thousands of ads offering puppies, kittens, birds, horses, and every other animal imaginable for sale. Wal-Mart is not alone in offering pets for sale through classified ads; pick up any newspaper in any city, and there will likely be a full page of classified ads for pets. It is one of the most frustrating indications of our culture’s overzealous back yard pet breeding, despite the 12-13,000 animals euthanized every single day in shelters. But, it turns out, Wal-Mart is different than the thousands of print and web outlets that help people sell their pets. Just days after the Wal-Mart Classifieds launched, people began contacting the corporate office with their concerns about the “pet for sale” ads. By last Friday, just days after the site launched, Wal-Mart had removed all the pet ads from their website.”
You can read the entire piece here. It includes a link to contact Wal-Mart and thank them.
At the Library – On the Web Site
Our Used Book Store is both dependent on and for the benefit of the Library. We don’t want to be troublesome to the Library staff, so we try to be careful not to ask for too much.
I wrote a page on the Used Book Store for inclusion on the Library’s web site and the Web Guy, Richard, was nice enough to put it up for us. He asked for any changes and I asked for a correction to the link for the Amazon Bookstore, which he did very quickly.
Then I saw a grammatical error. It wasn’t anything terrible, like “there, their, they’re”. It was a simple prepositional inconsistency and the average web site reader will not even notice. I noticed. My mother would notice. My boss would notice. I do not want to ask this nice man to update the page again for a mistake that I made – that is bothering no one but me. It wouldn’t even bother me if it were on my own blog, but this is for the Library.
Would you believe that I already have a strategy for fixing this? The copy notes the next semi-annual sale, which is July 12-13. On July 14, I have an excuse to edit. I will be doing so.
At the Refuge – Mikki
Public Service Announcement – HHS Web Site
I was reading an article in one of my trade magazines that made a link between issues with our physical health and issues with our financial health (Ever use your credit card at McDonald’s?). The main idea is that these problems – like gaining weight and growing debt – sneak up on us. And there is no quick fix.
On the physical wellness side, the article offered up a website from the Department of Health and Human Services called “Small Step” that is meant to show that small changes in our habits can make a difference in our overall health. While this isn’t a new idea, I thought you might appreciate the resource.
Some of the tips include:
(# 56) Keep a pair of comfortable walking or running shoes in your car and office.
(# 97) Walk the beach instead of sunbathing.
(# 154) Keep a bowl of cut-up vegetables in the refrigerator for snacks. Carrot and celery sticks are traditional, but consider broccoli, cucumbers, or pepper strips.
You can find the web site at:
At the Library – The Street Sale
Friends of the Glenview Library will be at the street sale during the Glenview Summer Festival on June 28. The street sale is basically vendors with tables outside on the street, but it attracts a pretty big crowd. I hate crowds, so I haven’t attended since about college.
This is new for the Used Book Store. The idea came out one day because several of us noted the number of customers that say, “I had no idea you were here!” Two years after we planted ourselves in the mezzanine.
We plan to bring a bunch of boxes of paperbacks, nothing extravagant. Just enough to let the average citizen on the street know that we exist. Let’s just hope the weather holds up.
In other news, it looks we are finally getting approval for the plans on the new Library. There are several comments I would be making here, if I wasn’t a Lady.
That was to make my mother laugh.
Shadow
Doesn’t even look like the same dog, does he? Shadow does not have his own web site and is not available for adoption.
At the Refuge – Website and Other Stuff
The Next Dark Age 