The Next Dark Age
We're in it Now
The Facebook Badge
So. Over there on the right. The parrot rescue where I volunteer has upgraded to an organization page on Facebook. There isn’t much content there now, but I expect the Merry Band of Internet Addicts will be pulling together soon to make it interesting.
Back in the day, I meant to make a habit of profiling adoptable birds on my blog. Like, blog a story about one every week when I came home from the rescue. Obviously, it didn’t happen. I hope to use Facebook for more things like that.
24 hours after launch, and we have 11 Likes. Better get to work.
The Unpleasantness
A few weeks ago, Shadow got a diagnosis. It was, “You’ve done all there is to do. Now we Manage Pain and monitor Quality of Life.”
Dementia and degenerative muscular disorder. This is on top of Cushing’s Disease, arthritis, degenerating vision and a ridiculously sensitive stomach.
Do not feel sorry for this dog. He has had a good life, with better care than any previous animal my house has ever seen. This from a family that once took a cocker spaniel to the doggie shrink.
His vet’s office actually took a vote on Who is Your Favorite Client and Shadow won. Or so they told my mother.
Everyone who has a pet knows that at some point, we end up here – if we are lucky and the dog doesn’t jump the fence and get hit by a car. So I am trying to Shut Up and Deal.. all Circle of Life or whatever. We just do the best we can by the animal for as long as we can.
Shadow has good days and bad days. Some days he doesn’t want to eat. Today he chowed right down. Some days he is anxious and won’t stop pacing. But mostly, he just wants to be with his people. So that’s what we’re doing.
Now go hug your dog/cat. ‘Cause that’s what I’m doing.
Online Ordering at the Library
My favorite thing about my library’s website is the notification e-mails when something is due. The e-mail has a link that I can click to renew it right away. This has rescued me several times when I was in the middle of an audio book, and several more times when I was on the road.
I love the Internet.
The Chicago Tribune ran an article about online ordering at the Chicago Public Library. Apparently, it has grown so popular that the waiting lists have gone crazy:
“”It was an expected shock,” said Lednicer of the surge in hold requests with the advent of online ordering. She notes that 40,000 holds were placed online in the first month of the new system three years ago. These days, as many as 120,000 items are placed on hold each month, 95 percent of which are done via computer.”
The Trib calls CPL a victim of its own success.
Personally, I don’t use online ordering for library books. I like to wander the stacks. But I am glad to see other patrons embracing the technology. And borrowing books!
An Awesome Experiment
I remember reading a while back that Panera Bread, the restaurant chain, was trying something different. A very few stores would run as “Pay What You Want” establishments. The idea was that the customer would place an order, Panera would suggest a value – something like the retail cost – and the customer would pay what he or she could or wanted to pay.
“The majority of patrons pay retail value or more. Statistics provided by Panera indicate that roughly 60 percent leave the suggested amount; 20 percent leave more; and 20 percent less. One person paid $500 for a meal, the largest single payment.
“From the day it opened, the community has just gotten stronger and stronger in their support of this,” Shaich said. “They got that this was a cafe of shared responsibility.””
These stores are not part of Panera’s “bottom line”, but run through their Foundation, and they still seem to be running at 80% of retail. Anything earned above cost is being used for a job-training program.
Kudos to Panera for trying something out. And how great that it seems to be working!
Blanket 17
Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, by Seth Grahame-Smith
I picked up Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter
would read it and then mock him appropriately.
Except it was good.
The premise is that when Abe Lincoln’s mother died – he was eight or nine – it was a vampire that killed her. So he grows up to be a Vampire Hunter. Lincoln was first exposed to the horrors of slavery as a teenager working a flat boat gig to New Orleans. The novel dials up the drama by showing Abe a slave auction in which less able-bodied slaves (those older or injured or ill) are sold for “bargain prices” for the purpose of feeding vampires. Sick, right? More sick is the conspiracy that unfolds in the many, many slaveholders that are complicit.
Abe makes a vampire friend along the way, and Henry will sometimes drop him a note about where he might find an especially Sick vampire to destroy.
In this Vampire World, the Civil War was puppet mastered by two sets of vampires: Southerners that like their easy access to the kill and the “Union” that thinks said vampires are Sick Bastards. With some help and guidance from the “Union”, Lincoln is elected President.
I have read enough history to be able to call BS on this book if it were warranted. But the history and the vampire fantasy are pretty seamless, so Dude clearly did his homework. It did feel heavy-handed sometimes, with everything being related to the vampires. SPOILER WARNING Seriously, did even Booth have to be a vampire? Was there not enough drama?
The doctored/interpreted pictures were a nice touch. I am going right now to my Civil War books to see if there really is an ax in the famous Lincoln/McClellan pic.
Drop Boxes and Recycling
The Chicago Tribune ran an article today talking about all of those drop boxes for used clothing. Apparently, while some are for charity, many are also maintained by for-profit businesses.
It went on to talk about the items that are donated. Apparently, “Americans throw 85 percent of their unwanted textiles in the trash each year” thinking that since they aren’t in a condition to re-sell, they aren’t worth anything. Not true. There are other markets, including recycling for industrial use. According to a rep from the Salvation Army:
“We want to receive any and all articles because, if we can’t sell it in one of our stores, then we can sell it to what they call the ‘rag market,'” Anderson said. “They can repurpose those textiles for anything from wiping rags or materials for new textiles to even as an additive to asphalt. (That revenue) is a big deal for us.”
Awesome.
Back to the drop boxes. I don’t have a problem with a company making a product and a profit by recycling my stuff – assuming they are honest about it. But if you want to be sure that your donations are supporting your causes, please do your homework. Call the numbers listed on the drop boxes; contact the organizations you are trying to help
Social Media Ways to Help Tornado Victims
A couple of weeks ago, mashable.com posted an article called, “Seven Ways to Help Tornado Victims.” In addition to the usual list of organizations that are on the ground helping (Red Cross, Salvation Army) was this:
“Post found items to Facebook: Patty Buillon started a Facebook page containing found pictures and items that were blown by the tornadoes. She started that page after finding pictures and documents in her neighborhood that were blown all the way from Smithville, Mississippi, a town located 100 miles to the Southwest of her home. If you live near the disaster area and find photos, mementos or other items, scan them or take photos of them and post them to the Facebook page she created specifically for this purpose, entitled “Pictures and Documents Found after the April 27, 2011 Tornadoes“. There are now more than 600 photos and items on the page, with 40 of them already identified.”
That is good use of Facebook.
BTT – Age Appropriate
http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=leartojugg-20&o=1&p=8&l=bpl&asins=0679849777&fc1=000000&IS2=1<1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifrDo you read books “meant” for other age groups? Adult books when you were a child; Young-Adult books now that you’re grown; Picture books just for kicks … You know … books not “meant” for you. Or do you pretty much stick to what’s written for people your age?
This is funny because I regularly lament the lack of age-appropriate books in my childhood. Apparently, until there was Harry Potter, there was no money to be made in publishing tween books. So I was reading Stephen King
While I read the Potter series, I have not picked up Twilight, The Hunger Games or anything by The Golden Compass guy.
There are just too many books to read and I need a compelling reason to go back to the YA genre.
However, I have been reading books with my nephew Alex, age 6. More than a few Scooby-Doo mysteries
I can’t wait to start debating the merits of S.E. Hinton with him.
Tourists
The “group activity” for the conference this week was a trip into the city. The park and Navy Pier. I had to explain The Bean to the ladies from Montana and Idaho.
“I think it has a real name, but I don’t know what it might be. It’s…um…modern art or something. People like to take pictures. It cost a zillion dollars and then a whole bunch more when they have to clean it and stuff.”
Then I started taking camera-phone pictures with them:
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| That’s the building from Adventures in Babysitting. Why are the windows out?! |
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| That’s the Pritzker Pavilion. Where they have Lollapalooza and the rallies when the Bulls win championships and stuff. |
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| Hey, look! The Hancock Building is peeking over there! No. I dunno why it’s famous. |
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| This tree gives back. That’s so Da Mare. |
The Next Dark Age 