Tweeting and twittering

The comic strip, Unshelved, which is set in a library, is doing a series of cartoons about Twitter at the moment. It's all good fun.

We all need a superhero

This is a fun site where you can make yourself a superhero. Here's one I whipped up earlier:

It's all about a mild-mannered, cardigan-wearing, booky type who ends up in the wrong telephone booth one day . . .

Be Prepared!

Because I know this will affect so many of us in our line of work, I include here a link to the Oscars night speech generator - cut out hours of agonising over the right words and use this to cobble together something succinct yet meaningful.

Here's my speech for tonight - Best Supporting Lilbrarian

"Thank you so much. But really, it's just an honor to be nominated alongside so many other gallus actors. I want to thank my agent, who stuck with me after I was found jinking that Tattie scone. I'd like to also thank my champit family, and jings Barra boy. I better stop now before I say something eejit. Thank you, and hoots mon!! "

Tales from the bedroom

Here is a little video of what happened in my bedroom last night (no need to get excited; it's clean).

Usually the cat is locked in the garage overnight and the dogs in the laundry. Somehow last night Abigail must have eluded capture and the Camp Commandant hadn't done a proper headcount. I ended up at 2am, with Abi on my chest reading Dear Fatty (Dawn French's book) with me. She must be enjoying it coz she was purring.

Now here's a movement I can go with

Uproar in the UK as Apostrophes abolished by council - Birmingham council has banned the use of apostrophes in street signs because its staff spend too much time dealing with complaints about grammar. (It seems being forced to spend extended periods indoors with a blizzard raging outside has been all too much!)

This is a move that has deeply upset John Richards, the founder of the Apostrophe Protection Society. Mr Richards suggested the move could prove to be the first step towards linguistic anarchy. "If you don't have apostrophes," he said, "is there any point in full stops, or semi-colons, or question marks? Is there any point in punctuation at all?" As a chronically confused user of apostrophes, I applaud the decision. And as for the rest of the punctuation, my granny managed just fine without punctuation in her letters - she wrote as she spoke, no room for a breath in, she seemed to be on intravenous oxygen. (It could take quite a while to get away as we waited for her to take a breath in so we could say, "got to go now Gran.") What do others think?

Do check out the comments at the bottom of the article and some of the related stories in the links to the right such as Council bans jargon and orders staff to return to 'common sense speaking' and Primary school drops word school from name as 'too negative'. Hooray for political correctness gone mad!

Our house - a peek inside

Every week the Zits comic strip features in our Sunday paper. The comic strip features an adolescent boy, Jeremy, and his parents. It is often spot on where our boys are concerned.

Here is the one from last Sunday which those of you who have met the boys, or who are parents of boys might be able to relate to:


To be able to read it properly you might be better clicking here.

For those of you unable to follow the link here's what it says.

Jeremy : I'm home.
Jeremy then empties the contents of the fridge into his mouth.
Jeremy : I'm going out again.
Dad : Along about the sixteenth year, the pitter-patter of little feet gives way to the ransacking of the refridgerator.
Mum : I'd better not find any chicken bones in the shrubbery again!

Ernies

One of my favourite awards, the Ernies are awarded for sexist public comments. The annual Ernie Awards have 10 categories and are decided by the level of boos, jeers and stamping of feet at the women's only event held at the New South Wales Parliament.

This year the Golden Ernie was awarded to the Mayor of Mount Isa, Councillor John Moloney for suggesting that ugly women should move to Mount Isa, in NW Queensland where men outnumber women 5:1, to find themselves a husband. "May I suggest if there are five blokes to every girl, we should find out where there are beauty-disadvantaged women and ask them to proceed to Mount Isa," Cr Molony said. But it was when local women retaliated against the comment that Mr Molony earned his golden Ernie award by replying, "The protesters are blaming me for their looks."



Winners of the Silver Ernies, from whom the Golden Ernie winner is chosen were:

• Western Australia's Treasurer Troy Buswell picked up the Political Ernie for snapping the bra of a female Labor staffer, making sexist remarks to a Liberal MP and famously sniffing the chair of a Liberal staffer.
• The Nine Network's John Westacott won the Media Ernie for his comment that "Sheilas do health and consumer stories - you want your blokes, your main guns, doing the real news stories."
• Professor Mark Wooden from the University of Melbourne won the Industrial Ernie for saying - at a National Press Club panel discussion no less - that "The pay equity gap has got a lot to do with the fact that women are not prepared to work longer hours."
• The hotly contested Elaine Award, "for remarks least helpful to the sisterhood", went to federal MP Sophie Mirabella for her comment during a debate in parliament about taxpayer funded staff at the lodge. Pointing to Deputy PM Julia Gillard, who does not have children, she said "You won't need his (Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's) taxpayer funded nanny, will you?".
• On a positive note, the Good Ernie Award "for boys behaving better" was a dead heat between rugby international Brendan Cannon, and transport company Veolia.
  Cannon said, "I don't want my daughter Phoebe growing up in the country where almost all women will be victims of physical violence or sexual abuse during their lifetimes" and the Veolia transport company was acknowledged for applying to the Anti-discrimination Commission for exemption from the Anti-Discrimination Act, so they could exclusively employ women drivers "because women are better drivers and gentler on the buses."

Librarians

I saw these on Stephen's Lighthouse:

You might be a librarian if . . .

and

Ten reasons to be a Librarian and Ten reasons why not to be a Librarian

Soothe me

I've got a headache now. I need something soothing:

I found this in the Widgets bit of the Web 2.0 Awards site

Big poll question - give it a go

http://doodle.com/participation.html?pollId=pmhc3s6ww9e5afcd

Survival Quiz

I could survive for 60 seconds chained to a bunk bed with a velociraptor

Created by Bunk Beds.net

Mair tattie tales

Having spent a fair time puddling about with web 2.0 and ignoring the trolley of cataloguing at the side of my desk this week, I'd PROMISED myself I would knuckle down and get through said cataloguing . . .

However, my beloved side-kick here has been doing Week 10 and asking me questions and I've got sucked in big time. We've had quite a giggle. She'll hate me telling you this (sotto vocce), but she Warhol-ed herself and ended up with a fabulous beard. All shredded now sadly . . .

Thought I'd let you know about two other mashup things while I remembered.

First up is AutoMotivator. Similar to the Motivator in Big Huge Labs. Helps you create posters. How creative could we get at work? Very I think.

Here's one I prepared earlier:

The second is Wordle. Have I mentioned it before? Take a muckle great wad of text and put it in Wordle and see what happens.

This is how To a Louse came out:

Now, isn't that so much easier to read??

Champit tatties*

*(scots. - mashed pototoes - as in haggis, neeps and champit tatties as eaten at a traditional Burns Supper. Yummmmmm).

Lots to look at again this week. But it was fun and interesting.

Had a read of the wikipedia description of mashups first and looked at all the different sites. Thought the AlertMap was great. There's a "locust and other beetle infestation" at Temora right now! Great site for kids doing their 'disasters' projects.

Also impressive was CLEARMAP, in use by the Chicago Police to record and warn citizens of crime levels in their area. Useful for statisticians, politicians, sociologists and students for up-to-date and retro info. on crime. Wonder if any local police services are doing similar things? Didn't like the google maps do-it-yourself one though; too open to nefarious posts I should think - people trying to make up crime stats to suit their own purposes (see politicians above!).

Diaroogle - what a sensible site I thought, then I read it's mission statement - "It's for the discerning, on-the-go defecator who is brave enough to use a public bathroom, but still demands a hygienic and private bathroom experience." Hmmmm. That aside Diaroogle does help you find quality public toilets from your mobile phone. Handy. Compare it to the National Public Toilet Map, an initiative of former Liberal government minister, Bronwyn Bishop - with that one you have to check out the loos and try and estimate which one you'll need to use BEFORE you go out. Indeed the site acknowledges this - there is a Trip Planner to make life easier.

What a hoot the Big Huge Labs are. I've made a little brag book of the new babies for my daughter to take to school, and a dice on the same theme. And here's me by Andy Warhol. Quite fancy myself in the MOMA.


See my library poster? The boss has already ordered A3 copies from the printer so expect one in your boxes soon.

London : a life in maps. Love it. Can see the Local History boy having fun doing something like that. Have bookmarked it to really pour over later. Need to hurry before we're disconnected at 2pm.

The Public Library finder has obvious relevance to our lot. Anyone doing that in Oz?


When you have a spare several hours, have a look at The Generator Blog. There's hundreds of things to play with. One recent one is The Lazy Bloggers Post which I've already flagged before.

Sign language

The Sign Language pages from the UK's Daily Telegraph had me laughing out loud.

There is more than just one sign each week; see there are more to scroll through at the top right hand side of the page. To go to a previous week click on Related articles under the scrolly thing or on the Last week's sign language link under the main picture.

Psedonyms

I found this on Unshelved (cartoon about a library - great fun for your RSS feed)

It seems Cedar Mill Community Library makes a regulat habit of naming their trolleys.


Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

Rene Decart is my favourite I think. The Ramona one had me baffled. What about you?

Can we come up with some fun names for ours?

There's nothing more nauseating than an ex-pat in full flight!

It's official, The Guardian Books Blog is my favourite blog and Carol Rumens my favourite contributor.

Why? She's promoting Robert Burns' To a Louse as the Poem of the Week.

Ms Rumens writes "His mastery is exhibited in this week's poem, "To a Louse", chosen in preference to the equally delightful but extremely well-known "To a Mouse". The speaker's tone here is understandably less tender to the object of his address. The movement of the verse is wonderfully tetchy and jumpy. But as the argument develops, we see that Jeanie's airs and graces are mocked by her unsavoury guest. And of course, Burns sneaks in a neat touch of anti-clericalism for good measure. Readers wishing to enjoy more of the bard in Calvinist-baiting vein may like to sample Holy Willie's Prayer - with the help of Michaelian's Glossary, of course."


To A Louse

On Seeing One On A Lady's Bonnet, At Church

Ha! whaur ye gaun, ye crowlin ferlie?
Your impudence protects you sairly;
I canna say but ye strunt rarely,
Owre gauze and lace;
Tho', faith! I fear ye dine but sparely
On sic a place.

Ye ugly, creepin, blastit wonner,
Detested, shunn'd by saunt an' sinner,
How daur ye set your fit upon her-
Sae fine a lady?
Gae somewhere else and seek your dinner
On some poor body.

Swith! in some beggar's haffet squattle;
There ye may creep, and sprawl, and sprattle,
Wi' ither kindred, jumping cattle,
In shoals and nations;
Whaur horn nor bane ne'er daur unsettle
Your thick plantations.

Now haud you there, ye're out o' sight,
Below the fatt'rels, snug and tight;
Na, faith ye yet! ye'll no be right,
Till ye've got on it-
The verra tapmost, tow'rin height
O' Miss' bonnet.

My sooth! right bauld ye set your nose out,
As plump an' grey as ony groset:
O for some rank, mercurial rozet,
Or fell, red smeddum,I
'd gie you sic a hearty dose o't,
Wad dress your droddum.

I wad na been surpris'd to spy
You on an auld wife's flainen toy;
Or aiblins some bit dubbie boy,
On's wyliecoat;
But Miss' fine Lunardi! fye!
How daur ye do't?

O Jeany, dinna toss your head,
An' set your beauties a' abread!
Ye little ken what cursed speed
The blastie's makin:
Thae winks an' finger-ends, I dread,
Are notice takin.

O wad some Power the giftie gie us
To see oursels as ithers see us!
It wad frae mony a blunder free us,
An' foolish notion:
What airs in dress an' gait wad lea'e us,
An' ev'n devotion!

Notes: ferlie= a wonder or marvel
strunt=swagger
wonner=a wonder (contemptuous)
haffet=lock of hair at the temple
sprattle=scramble
fatt'rels=ribbon-ends
groset=gooseberry
rozet=resins
meddum=spirit
dress=chastise
droddum=backside
breech, aiblins=perhaps
toy=woman's old-fashioned cap with ear-flaps
dubbie=muddy
wyliecoat=flannel vest.

And here's the YouTube clip (not the best quality in the audio but it'll give you the gist of it)

On a personal note . . .

In the past few days I have become the wife of a grandfather (I am having great difficulty coming to terms with my husband calling himself Grandad so be nice to me)

Jono, Narelle and

Fraser George Colquhoun

(born 9th October 2008)

and an aunt again . . .

Me, my sister Karen and

Xavier Christian Hale

(born 12th October 2008)

What a busy girl I've been!

Here's a slideshow of the weans :


Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

Starz Bunnies

My sons got me on to Starz Bunnies; fun 30-second animated retelling of great movies - all starring bunnies, or as we call them in our house, runny babbits.

Here's a sample:

If you think Week 7 took a long time . . .

how long do you think these guys took not to do their 'real' jobs?



(Don't you just love the embed thing? It used to take AGES to download clips into my blogs).

Week 7 And so the story ends in the LibraryThing

And was it an anticlimax? Not at all. LibraryThing was the best part of this week's exercise.

As noted before I've had a LibraryThing account for some time and have kept a list of what I have read since opening the account. Maybe I should also go back and add what's on the shelves at home that I haven't read for a while. And the kid's reading??

After admiring them for some time on staff blogs by High Altitude and Snow, I was especially thrilled to finally learn how to add the LibraryThing widgets to my blog. And aren't there a lot to choose from, one could go mad. And I added a "chiclet". Go me.

Go search my LIbraryThing - does it hurt? NB: It only seems to like one search term at a time, a search for "Ian Rankin" brings up Ian McEwan too???

I had a quick look at Shelfari and Gurulib too. Shelfari is aesthetically more pleasing perhaps than LibraryThing but appears to be no different otherwise. Looking at the sample library on Gurulib, it seems to allow you to add music, films/DVDs, games and software too which I haven't seen in LibraryThing. I might have chosen it first if I'd seen it. It's also aesthetically pleasing and has Wishlist and Recommended sections.

How long will it take me to move my LibraryThing collection do you think? Too long I suspect.