Followers, follow me! or lead me, either way.

Friday, March 23, 2007

Okay, now I have a nice new clean Myspace page (now deleted). Oops, I wasn't supposed to say that. At any rate, I made my "real" profile private because I was tired of impudent males asking stupid questions. Can I block them in my real life, too? No, I suppose not. But it's so easy on the computer; it's also easier to overreact or take things personally!

But how much personal stuff do you really want out there? Think of the elected official, Rob Smoke, article below. Do you really want to invite trouble?

"The Boulder city council is set to discuss new rules of conduct for those who serve on boards and commissions after one staffer received heat for material posted on his MySpace page.
A member of Boulder's Human Relations Commission was criticized by the city council for comments he posted on his personal page.
On his MySpace page Rob Smoke said, "I'm tired, I'm hungry, I'm horny, I'm stoned ... and I'm a city official."
Many of Boulder's elected officials consider the postings inappropriate. On Tuesday, they will debate a resolution that would, in part, require board members to show respect for the law. Those who don't could be fired.
Smoke said it shouldn't be up to the city to determine what speech is and isn't offensive and that the questionable posting is a joke. He said that part of the quote was taken from lyrics of a song sung by The Doors' Jim Morrison.
On his page he also jokes about marijuana and getting arrested.
The city council said the resolution is meant to clarify expectations.
"What the city council is saying now is that they want to be able to eliminate commission members at the drop of a hat if they deem your discourse disrespectful in some way," said Smoke.
He said the city council is trying to stifle dissent and he's not a city employee -- he's a volunteer and his MySpace page is clearly personal.
"They're saying that anything you say is subject to scrutiny," Smoke said.
He said that the new rule would expand the city council's power and that people should be allowed to vote on it. The public will get a chance to comment Tuesday night. "
http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/11056200/detail.html

Social ambiguity: As discussed earlier in this article, the missing face-to-face cues of e-mail makes it potentially ambiguous. Even sophisticated e-mail users will lapse into moments of miscommunication. It's very easy to misunderstand what others mean, resulting in worried efforts to decipher their possible intentions. That social ambiguity tends to draw out and heighten one's own anxieties and insecurities.

John Suler's The Psychology of Cyberspace

Monday, March 19, 2007

"What do you think about libraries taking part in social networking sites? Create a blog posting with your thoughts."

I hear the U.S. Army tried to use Myspace as a recruiting tool but it backfired when there were some rumors of child predators using their page. Don't ask me how...I think the same could happen to library Myspace pages but hey, sometimes you have to take a chance.

Besides that, is it really owned by the evil Rupert Murdoch? Fox News, Myspace, what's next in the evil empire? Wow, I just found a Myspace page purportedly of the Rupert. Un--*(#&A(-believable! here are his interests: "Global domination and the conjunction of church and state.Censorship of private or liberal interest groups.Censorship of MySpace pages that do not agree with my views.Dictatorships are fun... as long as I'm in charge." And under his blurb: "I just bought MySpace.com, soon I will own the rest of the internet.I aspire to become the most powerful man in the world. I promote the efforts and conjunction between right wing conservatism and government. I encourage my television and radio stations to become Republican soapboxes. There are many important benefits to fascism." There's even a segment about Fox with Jon Stewart that ends with a link to www.outfoxed.org. The wonders of the Internet (really the WWW) never cease!

Tuesday, March 06, 2007

Bell's Palsy is not fun


A victim of Bell's Palsy! Doesn't she look sad? She is trying to smile. The pic above is from the first week of Bell's, paralysis of half of the face. First the rash from Lyme disease, then the Bell's. Reiki, acupuncture, nasty herbs, MSM, injections of Vitamin B and the traditional medical treatment of steroids, and a week later, almost normal!
Still not quite normal looking but not being pointed at and scaring small children. Or being stopped by neighbors asking if I'd had a stroke!

Monday, March 05, 2007









DIA DE LOS MUERTOS



Why is Dia de los Muertos so appealing? I was in San Miguel de Allende this past November and there were a ton of Americans (estadounidenses), maybe because people weren't going to Oaxaca for that holiday due to the political problems there. So with all the Americans celebrating Day of the Dead and quite a few people doing the ol' Trick or Treat shtick, the plaza was crowded! Some of the Mexican parents were teaching their kids to ask for candy and that disturbed me; although I like the holiday, I didn't think we should teach the kids begging. Their own customs are so rich! The little girl dressed up as a skeleton with her confused and lost expression seemed to stand for the changing customs in Mexico and especially in San Miguel.

Friday, March 02, 2007

SMOKING IN THE LIBRARY--NOT!
A nice thing about working in a library is that no one smokes in the library. It's true we have to help stinky patrons (and why is it that the big men with big bellies like to lean in and breathe all over you?) and can't state a preference for non-smoking patrons. But I can't think of a single co-worker who smokes and that is wonderful. I think of them as the Gray People; not as in Grey's Anatomy but as the people who will eventually turn grey like the color of cigarette smoke; their skin gets that awful pallor when they are older. You can quickly tell--usually-- when a middle-aged person is a lifelong smoker.
YOU TOO CAN HAVE A CAPTIVE AUDIENCE FOR YOUR MUSINGS
(besides this one)

WriteAPrisoner.com - A website hosting personal and or legal ads for prisoners seeking correspondence with the outside world. See their photos and here the stories of how they were incarcerated. Write them directly at the prisons. Their addresses are posted free to the public. This site also has an "In The News" section to keep you current on events in the correctional system. Stop by. And please, write a prison pen pal today! http://www.writeaprisoner.com/homepage.asp
Also, look at some of the art produced by prisoners!
You can have your portrait done using a photo!
http://www.prisonart.org/

I started writing to 2 prisoners and now it's three. I like making these people happy, even if it is momentary--men who have some good in them and perhaps have made some bad decisions and lived a hard life through no fault of their own. One prisoner said, "to say how happy it makes me feel to receive a letter from you is beyond my ability to put into print, after all the time I have spent with so little contact from outside these fences and walls, I am so overjoyed to have met someone as friendly and exciting as you."
me loves cartoons and I'm no kid
I love cartoons! I even subscribed to a cartoon service for a year! You pick which ones you like and then they email them to you every day. Yes, it's easy to fall behind. Here are some good ones: http://www.minimumsecurity.net/index.htm Stephanie McMillan's very political cartoons
http://www.overduemedia.com/ Yay, librarians!
http://comics.com/
http://www.artbabe.com/home.html (Jessica Abel's Perdida comic, about her heroine Carla living in Mexico and learning Spanish and getting into trouble)

Thursday, March 01, 2007


the BIG and ferocious Min cat!


Everyone thinks my cat Min is fat and spoiled. She is big but she has been on a diet, like so many of us, and suffered the indignities of very slight hunger and not eating food every time she meows. She must be part Maine Coon or raccoon or Bigfoot. Maybe she has worms...She probably is spoiled, however. Not having kids, of course I focus my affection on my cat! She is not named Min as short for Mini or Minnie; rather, she is named after Minnaloushe of the W.B. Yeats poem, "The Cat and the Moon".