DON'T LEAVE HOME WITHOUT...

The first time I went to London was in 2002, and I was "shadowing" one of my heroes, Dr. Bonnie Thorne, who was actually leading the travel study group. I carried my beloved 35 mm camera and an extra telephoto lens. That was the only "gadget" I took. My cell phone would have been useless and it never occurred to me to carry my laptop. We DID have computer access at the dorm in Regent's College where we stayed. Things are much different now, though. Here is a list of must-have items for travel:

• Netbook--Asus eee computer
• Kindle2
• iPhone (of course!)
• Casio Exilim camera (brand new)
• Wireless modem

These items go with me everywhere, now that I think of it, whether it is for a couple of nights with Dad in the Texas Hill Country or on an international trek. The only thing that varies is which/how many computers. I will probably take my big MacBookPro if I am driving, for instance. How about you? What are your must-haves???

NANCY PEARL DOLLS KEEP STIFF UPPER LIPS DURING ELBOW SURGERIES!

NANCY PEARL REMAINS STOIC THROUGH TRICKY ELBOW SURGERY!

THE HAPPY AFTER-SHOT IS BELOW

IN THIS BEFORE SHOT YOU CAN SEE BOTH APPENDAGES PAINFULLY SEVERED AND WAITING FOR REATTACHMENT THE NANCY ON THE LEFT IS A LITTLE PALE, BUT OTHERWISE THEY MAINTAIN THEIR CHEERFUL STIFF UPPER LIPS.

Whenever I pack for an upcoming trip, I seek out my little traveling buddies, my Nancy Pearl dolls. Nancy goes wherever I go and has her picture waaaaay too often. She has been to London twice, Ireland, Mexico, East Coast, West Cost, Washington DC, all over Texas, road tripping through the South, Miami, and many more exciting places. It is necessary for me to travel with more than one, because I tend to leave them behind. One floated away in London, bobbing along in Regent's Canal. Another went AWOL after a photo op with the naked cowboy in Times Square. Others have disappeared in Dublin and in Portland, OR. So I take several dolls along. When I did inventory this morning, I made a distressing discovery. A couple of Nancys were terribly maimed. They had both lost arms at the elbow, one missing a right and the other missing the left. The one missing the shushing arm was particularly upset, but wouldn't you know, they both had characteristically stiff upper lips. Since I have packed, unpacked, and packed again and done any number of other over-the-top travel prep things (washing shoes! gluing shoes back together!), I decided I had time to perform surgery on my little buddies. I used wire and pliers, and even with these crude instruments, my little amigas remained serene and still through their procedures. I am happy to report that both operations went well and the Nancys will have a restful evening nestled in my bag. Tomorrow they will be almost good as new!

Nerdy July 4th

I guess it says a lot about my nerd quotient that I am online and looking up words July 4th. No homemade ice cream for me, though I did have watermelon for breakfast. I am spending the day packing and grading, so that I can be ready for my upcoming BIG TRIP to Toronto and Chicago, leaving early Monday morning. Anyway, as I was working away, I received an obsequious email. The missive sent me searching for the right word to describe it and that adjective popped up out of the murky recesses of my reading-but-not-speaking vocabulary. This was interesting to me because I can say with fair certainty that I have never used the word before, either in writing or in speech. I wasn't sure how to even spell it but got close enough to get myself to an online dictionary where I could verify that it was the perfect word (YES!) and also hear the pronunciation. Now I plan to use it a lot! Interestingly the email was not from a student, but from someone else I know. Anyway, this little experience turned into a 30 minute detour into territory far afield from grading or packing. Here are two more things I found out:

• I really like the online Merriam-Webster Dictionary for a quick reference and good, clear pronounciation: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/
• I LOVE THIS AD!!! It was on the dictionary page but I located it via YouTube so I could share it for sure: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kN2y2WN9bSo
• Not only that but the Duluth Trading Co. has a rabid fan base (though obviously not among beavers) and all sorts of fun links about its ads. Just Google and see! Plus if you Google today you get to see another great holiday graphic!
  
• Oh and...lots of people other than plumbers would do well to wear Duluth's Long Tail T-shirts! Check out the plumber's butt ad as well...
  

Happy 4th everybody! Have some cabrito and ice cream for me!

Sunday Paper

I slept way too late this morning. But I woke up feeling rested, a huge benefit. I was really looking forward to a nice cup of coffee on the porch and a leisurely browse through my Sunday paper. But then, I stepped out into my front yard and...no Sunday paper! Not finding it gave me a sharp pain in my planning center. I am very ritualistic about my Sunday paper, and not having one has in the past forced me into my car early in the day to find a copy. Not today though. I just shrugged, picked up a copy of Knowledge Quest and enjoyed my coffee with that. To know what a shift this is for me, you would have to understand to what degree I have been a newsprint junkie. Not only do I equate having a newspaper with having a good day, I have for years been quite ritualistic about how I read. First I go through the front section, next come editorials, and so on. Thus for me to shrug off not receiving my paper fix, and on a Sunday at that, is a fairly dramatic shift. It makes me wonder...If I am able to have such a nice day without my paper, will there come a day when I no longer subscribe? What does it portend for newspapers that a loyal devotee like me no longer misses having a paper badly enough to go beyond my front walk to get one? What will become of newspapers?

Insect Nostalgia

I am really supposed to be working on an article about Internet tagging right now, according to my list of things to do today. But in the course of writing I made reference to my childhood ambition to be an entomologist. I was a serious insect collector. I had the long pins, the mounting boards (I made mine from cigar boxes with cork bottoms), the field guides, etc. The way I classified my poor dead subjects was by little rectangles of paper which were skewered high on a pin before the specimin was mounted. Upon these little slips I wrote in tiny print the common name, scientific name, and other information. Looking back at this I can make a couple of observations:

• I was learning about any number of things at the same time.
• I was using an early form of tagging, which today's online kids are much more likely to enjoy.

Following along with my distracting activities, I am waxing nostalgic about the beetles of my childhood. I used to see those big black bumbling beetles in my back yard all the time: rhinocerous beetles, stag beetles, and others of similar ilk. Where have they gone? I have not seen one in years, and fear they will never again be as common as they once were. I wonder if any readers have seen my long lost friends? Oh, and here is the website that got me started:
Goliathus.com: Beetle Gallery: http://www.goliathus.com/en/gallery.php
I found it by searcing tags at delicious. Oh! Tags! Gotta get back to work! But have you seen any wonderful beetles lately??

Change Lanes!

If you were driving down TX 290 just out of Giddings this afternoon, you saw a crazy looking lady with a dog on a leash waving cars over out of the far right lane. A wonderfully kind man was changing my flat tire. He was fast and good thing because there is no shoulder along there and people were whizzing by like we were already roadkill. I have a bad way of putting myself out front when something like this happens. I used to be the one to step in on fights in junior high hallways, even girl fights, and I was determined to wave people over so this nice man would not get flattened. But why did this have to be so hard? People in the center lane refused to let outside laners over, and people on the right side were not about to slow down. So next time you are cruising along and you see a poor soul stranded by the side of the road, do the decent thing and change lanes, for Pete's sake! You don't have to stop and help, though you could make a call to authorities if the situation warrants. I can understand why one would not want to stop for a stranger though it is hard to see how I and my aged dog could look dangerous. But think a thought. Move over. If you hit something, Mr/Ms impatient motorist, it could mess up your car and really slow you down. Stop the honking and give some space! Geez. End of Rant.

Oh and...what does this have to do with librarianship or technology? Well, at times like this I still do feel grateful for my cell phone. What did we ever do without them? Not only was I able to call roadside assistance, but I could also call ahead so my dad would not worry when I ran late. Idella IPhone proves her worth again!

BYRD ID's BIRD!!!

I just had the most fun day-brightener I can think of! I was vegging out in my chair and checking email while watching Maddow on MSNBC. I found a message from a former student. She had wondered if I ever was able to indentify the little bird that I rescued about a month ago. Right now I cannot even remember where I posted his picture, but not here because I just looked. He had flown into a window on our campus and was sitting on the porch right in front of the building. I was afraid a campus cat would get him. I enlisted two student workers, and we scooped birdie into a roomy cardboard box. I had to go to a meeting, but I told them that if he were to start stirring around, they should take him outside and see if he would just fly away. He did, they did, and off he went! I posted his picture because I could not figure out what kind of bird he was, but never go a definitive ID. Just now I got an email from a former student with the last name of Byrd, who never met a reference question she didn't like. She sent the picture to her sister, who had studied ornithology in college. Sis emailed her prof, and we got an ID: He is a yellow breasted chat! Here is a link and his picture is up above. Maybe someone can tell me why the pic is sideways when it was right on my computer. Anyway, you can see that he was very brilliantly colored and quite lovely. Bless his little heart, he was just migrating though. I hope after his traumatic experience he reached his destination. Here is one of many locations where you can read more about him. http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Yellow-breasted_Chat/id
For those of you who are nature freaks as am I, here is another link, with better pics. http://identify.whatbird.com/obj/342/_/Yellow-breasted_Chat.aspx
If you scroll down a bit, you see a great pic of a puffed up chat who looks just like my little guy.
PS Tech tidbit: Coincidentally, before even getting the email I downloaded the iPhone app with bird calls. It is fun to play if you have a cat in the house.