the Feeling of Spring!

Spring may be my favourite season.  No, I said that wrong.  Spring IS my favourite season.  Never mind that this spring seems to be bringing a lot, and I do mean A LOT, of snow I don't mind because the day the calender tells me it is officially spring my brain kicks into action and my energy level soars.  I love crossing things off my to-do list, I swear that it brings a peace to my soul and a calm to my mind like none other and this spring has been exceptional at home and at work!

The library where I work, you see, has been closed to the public for a little over a week at this point and thus far we have completed about 3/4 of our to-do list.  The list that we thought would take us (if we hustled) a full eight weeks to complete.  That is spectacular, I love the feeling of accomplishment!

http://www.tubechop.com/watch/2396514

To give you a sense of the magnitude of this, imagine trying to accomplish a task, any task, at home but you have no less than fifty people impeding your progress.  Messes to be cleaned up, items to be retrieved, phones to be answered and no less than twenty little children asking you everyone's  favourite question, "Why?" at least 5 times each.  This is what we do everyday.  Now I must admit, it is weirdly quiet and I do in fact miss the many instances of humour and heart wrenching delight that is working with the public, I am soaking this in!

So, while we may be looking into the great maw of yet another storm I for one, will be looking at it from this angle point of view (my angle will probably be upside down trying to reach some filthy nether region of furniture placement where filth accumulates): Thanks Mother Nature, for making the outdoors look lovely, white and clean.  Today IS the perfect day to get something clean, I just hope my efforts last a lot longer than yours.

Bring it on spring!!

Oh and by the way the library is looking great, much like my to-do list!



Wordle is good, Meme Generator fun but nothing beats Pinterest!

I work in the children's department at the Frederciton Public Library.  It was recently renovated and it is awesome...and I don't just say so myself it really is the general consensus!  We were fortunate enough to be asked for our input, and with that we hit the web for Pinsperation!

I have been a fan of Pinterest for quite sometime, and I must admit that it has made my job much easier.  I will say that I am crafty by nature but to have a dedicated site to visit as jumping off point, well let's just say that if I had to decide between chocolate or Pinterest things could get dicey. 

One of my favorite Pinsperations realized are the trees, this is Wildwood our storytime area.  If you have a large open space with large ugly concrete columns, well, there couldn't be a better use for them (except for , I suppose, holding up the structure that's good too)!

Our storytime area, Wildwood

I also love the Wordle Welcome Wall.  As you enter the space you are greated by the top spoken languges according to the census in Fredericton as well as Micmac and Maliseet.  I cannot describe the feeling of hearing a family stop and realize that their native laguage is represented except to say that it is pretty great! 




The Welcome Wall to the newly renovated Children's Department at the Fredericton Public Library



We are finally settled into our space and occasionally explore a new thing or two and my most recent attempt at something new led me to meme generator.  It was fun.  I liked it.  Will I use it regularly, likely not but I do like having it as an option for any of the in-house signage that we may do. 

I've said it before and I'll say it again, nothing beats Pinterest!  Now go forth and Pin!

The great book shift of 2014 is near! Nose between toes...Use your legs!

na na na na na na BATMAN!

The first thing I want to do?

Week three of the 23 things project has us Social Reading.  The opening line of the introduction asks and answers its own question, "After you finish a good book, what's the first thing you want to do? Talk about it with someone else!"  For me this is not the case, I like to live with them in my head for a while I think I continue to savour the experience.  When is this not the case?  If I didn't like the book.  Case in point?  I don't think there was a person that crossed my path that didn't quickly hear of the fantastic disappointment that was the Casual Vacancy. 

I wonder if I had read some reviews before those ill fated hours wasted if I might not have chosen another way to spend my time?  Probably not, I likely would have thought  'It can't be that bad', I would have been wrong.  But this is all an aside to the suggested activity of the week, Social Reading.  I like it.  I don't do it faithfully, in fact while I have generated a few lists in MyVision I have not updated it in over a year. 

Faithfulness appears to be the fatal flaw in all Social Media formats.  They seem like a great idea but fizzle out after the initial attraction wans.  You move on to the newest, better looking not so high maintenance format that all of your friends are telling you about.  All I have to say is, "meh".  They do not differ from one another save from the glitz and flash.

I am a woman stuck in her ways.  I like email and IM-ing but I still spell the words, use punctuation and capitalisation.  I think that we, as a whole, are far too eager to move on to the newest thing and too quick to give up on things with value and I choose not to.  I like the old and value the outdated... now tell that to my shoe closet.

Twitter you say? Um, no thank you.

Twitter you say?  Um, no thank you.

If I had any interest in twitter I would have set up an account a loooong time ago.  While Twitter does seem to still have some relevant applications, isn't it really just an abbreviated Facebook site for strangers?  If I started to care about what strangers were thinking, eating and/or doing I hope I would realise that I just don't have enough to do.

Having a forum for this kind of verbal diarrhoea is a slippery slope to a society full of ignorant, loud, narcissists....wait a minute! (She pauses to reflect on her day: While driving? Yup.  While running errands?  Definitely, though a shout out to the man in the drive-thru at Tim's who paid for my cafe mocha, Thanks!  While at work?  Well, yes.  Could it be that this time is already here?  Yes.) 

I'm am not going to sit here and blame the ridiculous nature of society on Twitter directly, because that would be ridiculous.  I am, however, going to suggest that people as a whole feel voiceless and the idea that you can make yourself heard with a couple of strokes on a keyboard could be very enticing.  It appeases an emotion but only for a moment, it is the twinkie to sadness, the chips to  boredom...Nuts, now I want a snack!

I feel as though I should throw in an Oprah type A-ha moment revelation now but alas I have none.  I have made some musings on society and referenced emotional eating, yup, that's enough Oprah for me for one day. 

This is no MacDonald's...

I am not "Lovin' it".  While I appreciate the need for continued education, developing my own blog has so far been an exercise in frustration, and so I say: "Argh".  I don't use this statement lightly because while I have certainly been frustrated in real life I have most certainly not ever uttered the word 'Argh' before now.  It is very not intuitive.  I feel like a bull in a china shop, just banging on buttons and hoping for the best.

And, while I understand the desire to track the progress of this education train, I think that a blogging format is dangerous territory...at least for me.  I am a speak first think later kind of gal and now I am going to have to add my fingers to my list of things to reign in. I have only just recently developed a filter...and I am pretty sure it has holes, big ones.  I would much prefer to speak face-to-face with anyone so at least my tone and intent are clear rather than to put things in print and send it out to the unforgiving and unforgetting interweb.  So much pressure!  

Regardless, I am being a team player and blogging.  So, while I would much rather be interacting with my 'peeps'. You know those people in my life who I care about and they in turn care about me.  They sympathize, empathize, laugh appropriately (and occasionally inappropriately) and call me on stuff when when it's due to my face...I wonder if people thought about the introduction of the telephone like I feel about putting too much of yourself on the internet. No, I take that back it's probably more like the belief that a piece of your soul is being snatched by having your picture taken.

See, the fingers always take it too far...NUTS! Ah well, bring it on NB23!

Also, I realize that I have what appears to be a flagrant disregard for the rules of the English language but this is me throwing caution to the wind and blogging with abandon and the hope that you read with a forgiving eye and take it for what it is.  Please, don't tell any of my English profs.