Mooching Books

BookMooch is a community for exchanging used books and lets you "give away books you no longer need in exchange for books you really want." How does it work?

Every time you give someone a book, you earn a point and can get any book you want from anyone else at BookMooch. Once you've read a book, you can keep it forever or put it back into BookMooch for someone else, as you wish.

Rolling Ridge Conference Center - Andover, MA

This will be my home from July 28 - August 1st at the Rolling Ridge Conference Center in Andover, MA at the New England Library Leadership Symposium. I'm sure it will prove to be an exhausting and inspiring week.

Reading about leadership yourself? The 2006 book by Bolman and Deal, The Wizard and the Warrior: Leading with Passion and Power, is a terrific read.

Seattle Jazz

If you like jazz, listen to samples and discover new artists at Origin Records or subscribe to their podcasts with an RSS feed.

A Family of Readers

Read the continuing debate in the New York Times, or watch the video about the Sims family.  Does it matter where and what and how we are reading?

Opposites Attract

Opposing Views presents debates on both sides of multiple subjects.

"a newly launched startup that lets experts go “on the record” and state their position on a controversial issue."

Are You Worldly?

The Language Trainers Group has a test for you - guess the accents of the world.

Unkno

Unnecessary Knowledge generates interesting trivia at random. You can even upload your own.

Old Friends

A friend sent me a link to this touching video from 1970 and I thought I'd pass it on.  Information from Wikipedia: Two Australian friends bought a lion cub at Harrod's in London but found that he needed to be returned to the African wilds as he grew. After the lion had been in Kenya a year, his original owners, "Rendall and Bourke, returned and visited their former pet. The animal recognized them, reared up, grasped and nuzzled both of them. The following video of the event received widespread dissemination around 2007-2008, more than 35 years later."  The video is circulating the web as a special message to 'get back in touch.'  A  movie version of their story was produced in 1971.

Thanks to Linda Lord.

On This Day

See the story at On This Day - New York Times. Thanks to a post on Reddit.com

Graphic from PEW Research Center website.
Take the PEW Research Center's Current Events IQ Test to find out how savvy you are about the news. Results are somewhat dismal for the US population although the older population does much better than the younger.

For additional fun, take the PEW Technology Quiz and find out if you are a Connector or an Omnivore. If you are reading this blog I'd think you'd be either.

Is It Real or Not?

I always try check the source of email that I forward; some of us have learned the hard way at some point in our eLives. There is one way to check that is very nearly guaranteed to find the hoax ... and that is to search Snopes. Sometimes you need to finagle the keywords; Googling an exact phrase from the email will bring Snopes up an urban legend front and center.  You'll usually find the top 25 urban myths on Snopes which comprises the top 25 most-widely circulating hoaxes.  

If you receive a virus alert message that you feel you need to send on to your friends and family or coworkers - check VirusHoax first before you forward anything about it. One may be very, very true and you'll find that out if it is.

"That's what this site is all about. We're here to help you make sense of the viruses and virus hoaxes that are floating around the internet. After all, wouldn't it be nice to know which warnings are the ones to worry about and which ones you can safely send to the recycle bin? Sign up for our email alerts (we will never give or sell your email address to any other company) and you'll receive info on what's a virus -- and what's not. Don't be fooled by the latest hoax."

However, please, if you've received a warning email and discovered the hoax - reply directly to the writer of the email.  Kindly ask them to let their friends and family know about the hoax. There's nothing heroic in making a fool of someone in everyone's eyes.

Too Many Meetings, Too Little Time

I scheduled a few meetings last fall as conference calls through FreeConference and it worked really well as an option.  No money spent on gas and no time spent away from the office.  It is just that convenient and so Green. The organizer simply signs up for a phone number online and emails attendees with instructions to call that number at the specified meeting time.   Another online company is GoToMeeting - they offer expanded options that aren't free but webinars and presentations are included. And you can have a free trial. Other online free sites are TotallyFreeConferenceCalls, Foonz and InstantConference. Basic conferencing calls are usually always free.

Say Cheese!

The book group I've joined just read Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver. This book was a joy to read ... even delicious at times. And funny, inspirational and perhaps life-changing.

Several of the book group members brought ingredients to make the mozzarella cheese that Kingsolver described in her book. Visit the Cheese Queen's website for a mozzarella cheese kit and other cheese-making ingredients and books. It's really easy and delicious and I know because we were tasting it within a half-an-hour. I've ordered the cheese book at the Dover Town Library and can't wait to take on the recipe myself at home, wrapping it in basil and garlic oil just like Trader Joe's. You can sign up for Saturday or weekend workshops in Ashfield, MA at the New England Cheesemaking Company and learn how to make six cheeses in one day ... or more gourmet cheeses in a weekend.  My thanks to my friend, Hillary Sochacki, for the invitation to join her book group and for offering her kitchen for our cheese foray.

Alex Tew created the Million Dollar Homepage project to fund his college tuition.

Starting in August, 2005, Tew began selling blocks of pixels on his page for $1 a pixel. Buyers could use the space for advertising or whatever they wished. Word of the project spread and soon Tew was getting coverage in mainstream magazines. After a month, he had sold over $150,000 worth of space and by January, 2006, he had exceeded the one million dollar mark.

It reminds me of the adage "A journey begins with one single step."  From TechCult's top 100 Web Celebrities. 

Numbrix

Gerry knows that I love a number puzzle or two so he sent me to this link for Marilyn vos Savant's Numbrix, puzzles which are her own invention. Marilyn vos Savant is an American magazine columnist, author, lecturer and playwright who rose to fame through her listing in the Guinness Book of World Records under "Highest IQ".  Wikipedia

Now, That's Italian! (Not)

I'm reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver. This video reminds me of what her take is on the traditional American (mass-produced, chemically induced, non-'food') meal. Thanks to Dark Roasted Blend.com and the link to PES's latest short film, Western Spaghetti

Beyond the Multiplex

Author Andrew O'Herir, of Salon.com, polled his readers for favorites among family films in dvd format. Here's the article Beyond the Multiplex from Salon.com.

O'Hehir writes: "A few words about what's not included. There are no Disney films made after the 1960s, and no major box-office hits of at least the last 30 years. There are quite a few family classics that could plausibly be included but got hardly any reader votes, probably because they seemed too obvious: "Mary Poppins," "The Sound of Music," "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang," "The Wizard of Oz," "It's a Wonderful Life."

If you remember a few of these movies,Labyrinth with David Bowie and a very young Jennifer Connelly, for example, you'll be able to assess their family quality. Labyrinth is a wonderful movie my daughters watched a bezillion times but Labyrinth and The Princess Bride and others can be a bit frightening the first time around. Of course, I wondered where The Neverending Story and Nannie McPhee were on the list ... but that's another blog post. The movies are linked to Amazon in the Salon.com article. Here's a partial list linked to our library catalog:

The Iron Giant
My Neighbor Totoro
The Princess Bride
Time Bandits
The Adventures of Baron Munchausen
The Point
Born Free
The Yellow Submarine

Vineyard Chill

"I'm very fond of libraries because they're full of books and are run by people who are smart, who like their work, and who, unlike many public employees, welcome customers."

Philip R. Craig in Vineyard Chill, his latest and last book. Thanks to Ellie Herd, librarian, for sharing the quote from her latest read.

You can read excerpts from new books on Bit O'Lit. Shannon MacDonald publishes a zine which circulates on the Washington D.C. Metro. You can listen to a podcast about this service on NPR. But Shannon - please tell your audience to go to the LIBRARY to pick up a copy of the book.

Is Your Garden High On Grounds?

From Greentalk.com: Starbucks and local coffee houses often give away grounds for your garden. Those of us who drink the real stuff at home? We do have our own supply, depending upon the caffeine levels in our bloodstreams. Never as much as the coffee house, however. How much is too much? Are they Friend or Foe to our plants?

Forbes: Norfolk County Among the Best

Forbes.com lists Norfolk County the 20th best place in the United States to raise a family. Read the entire article, "America's Best Places To Raise a Family" or go directly to the Norfolk County data.

Raising a happy family requires more than just a good school system. With that in mind, we ranked the remaining counties using 10 data points: cost of living, graduation rate, standardized scores, home price, property tax rate as a percentage of median home price, percentage of homes occupied by owner, per-capita income, air quality, crime rate and commute time. Forbes.com

Where on Google Earth Was Matt?

Matt Harding danced ('badly', he claims) around the world in 2006. He did it again and 18 months of dancing later you can watch the video on YouTube. The video above is Matt's explanatory video Where on Google Earth Is Matt? To see his dancing around the world in 2006 and 2008, these links take you to YouTube.

has some great remedies for mosquito bites. Did you know a little Scotch tape can work wonders for the itch? Read the 40 Remedies

at TipNut.com.

Put Your Stamp On the Fourth!

The Spellman Museum of Stamps in Weston asks you to join them

"for our HAPPY BIRTHDAY USA party Friday, July 4 from noon to 4:00. Special Olympic Stamp exhibit and Patriotic Stamp exhibit, stamp games and puzzles, stamp designing, arts and crafts using stamps. Free refreshments and packets of stamps. U.S. POST OFFICE AND GIFT SHOP ARE OPEN. "

Imagine that!

The Spellman Museum is an independent, not-for-profit cultural organization (501(c)(3)) with a mission to promote knowledge and understanding of worldwide history and geography through the study of stamps, letters, and other artifacts of people's communication through the mail.