It's exactly one month to Christmas and if you're still looking for a unique gift for someone that perhaps better captures the spirit of Christmas than socks or sweaters, why not consider a Kiva gift certificate?
I'm proud to do my part – here are a couple different clips from Pace's first time on skates (well, bob skates anyhow) at public skating tonight. Extra funny – the person who was supposed to work the wicket at the rink didn't show up (probably watching the Grey Cup) so we got in for free!
Saskatchewan is the only province in Canada that doesn't observe daylight saving time and the commonly accepted wisdom here is that the reason for this decision has to do with the fact that the time swap would be hugely disruptive to dairy cows – which apparently don't exist elsewhere in Canada. (Oh, and in the interest of accuracy, according to that linked article, Saskatchewan does observe daylight saving time – we just stay “sprung ahead” all year round without “falling back”. This is apparently due to conservation measures enacted during the war then never switching back to a rotating schedule like everywhere else, again, because of those damned dairy cows.)
(On another side note, I take an inordinate amount of pride when I am setting up any piece of software or registering with any web site that allows me to identify Saskatchewan as a unique time zone – not Mountain, not Central. Of course, that's offset by any piece of software or web site that doesn't realise we don't do the daylight savings time dance twice per year and forces me to choose one or the other time zone.)
Anyhow, it turns out that those dairy cows are apparently much smarter than we give them credit for and the reasons for having daylight savings time may actually have a negative environmental impact overall.
I found the Secret Santa site, Elfster, via MetaFilter and thought I'd give it a shot on this blog.
Odds are, if you're reading this blog, you're a book lover who has a living space full of books you'll likely never get around to reading or will never read again. So here's what I'm proposing: a Christmas book exchange for the readers of this blog. Sign up for this exchange on Elfsterthen on the closing day (Thu. Dec 4), the site will automatically do a Secret Santa draw of everybody who's joined.
By the start of the next week (Mon. Dec 8), pick one of your books (or buy a used or new one for $10 or less, not counting postage) and send it to the person whose name was drawn for you. (I've set the site so only the person who “drew” your name can see your address to protect your privacy.)
Many of the people who read this blog know each other but even if you don't, the site allows you to create “wishlists” so people can get a sense of what types of books you want. Or if you don't know the person and they don't have a wishlist (or if you just want to “go rogue”), you could either pick a book for your recipient that you really love or perhaps a book that's got broad-based appeal to people of all tastes.
I know Christmas is both hectic and costly for a lot of us so my intent is not to burden anyone. But I do hope that you consider signing up for this exchange – as a chance to get a great new (to you) book, to share your tastes with someone else, to get into the (virtual) Christmas spirit or simply to help me cap off yet another year of blogging in a very unique way.
If you sign-up and you're a blogger – feel free to pass along the word via your own blogs. I think this is definitely a case of “the more, the merrier” and it could make it more interesting to cross-pollinate outside the readers of this blog.
In library school, we learned that young people today have become visual learners (to the point that their brain patterns are physically different than people in previous generations!)
While people of our parents age learned through books and people of my generation (Gen X) were like the transitional conductor between text and video, them crazy kids today are doing almost all their learning in a visual manner – whether via television, movies, video games or other methods. So it only makes sense that YouTube is becoming a force in the world of search which has traditionally been a text-based environment. In fact, some predict that YouTube will supplant Google as the search engine of choice! From that article:
He mentioned that his son accesses the web through YouTube. At first, I didn't get it and thought Ian was making a joke.
But then I realized he was not. Whenever his son needed any
information, he would open up YouTube, type in the search term and then
just watch the videos that showed up as matches. He never Googled
anything; he never went to any other site; his entire web experience
was confined to YouTube videos
As someone with a great interest in the impact of video online (but not enough to keep up a second blog about it – if you're interested in the topic, I recommend VideoNuze), all I can say is “wow” and “wow!”
This is pretty funny and also somewhat groundbreaking. (I'm sure some other entertainment entity has put everything they own the rights to up on YouTube by now, haven't they?)
Choice quote: “Just my two cents, but I think there are always open HR positions
because HR people are batshit crazy. Take an informal survey of anyone
you know who has to deal with an HR department on a regular basis, and
I suspect they'll agree.”
Did I mention that my position is located within our library's HR department?
I don't know if anybody pays attention to my keywords/categories but on that note, I have one for “work” and one for “jobs”. In my head, “work” refers to posts relating to actual jobs I've held whereas “jobs” is meant to refer to things about anything relating to the wider working world. And if you're confused, just be aware that I usually use both tags just to be safe!
RPL is bringing in Kathy Reid Naiman for some workshops and the most excellent local storyteller, Kevin MacKenzie is taking the opportunity of Ms. Naiman's presence in the Queen City to offer some workshops for non-library folks. If you are involved with children as a teacher, a librarian, a daycare worker or even as a plain old parent, I would HIGHLY recommend attending this workshop. I have heard rave reviews and think the workshops will be most excellentay!
