I did a blog survey last year which was very informative about who's reading my blog, how they get here and how often they visit, what they like once they get here and what they'd like to see more of. For that reason, I've decided to repeat the survey again this year.
I thank-you in advance for taking a few short minutes to fill out the survey. I don't think I posted the results last year but I think I'll do so this year (mainly because I'm always desperate for content! )
Continuing yesterday's trend of posting items long after their “best before” date, here's a press release from the Canadian Library Association
summarizing their second annual survey of challenges to materials in Canadian libraries.
Oliver Twist, The Golden
Compass and Rolling Stone magazine were among the library
materials challenged by Canadian library users in 2007, according to a
new survey released today.
The Canadian Library Association’s 2nd annual Survey of
Challenged Materials in Canadian Libraries identified 42 items
challenged by patrons. Children’s books, mainstream films, graphic
novels and popular magazines were all challenged, and a policy on
Internet access was also disputed. The survey was released in advance of
Freedom to Read Week, February 24 to March 1.
Did you know that March 4 is apparently National Grammar Day? Neither did I which is why this post is coming on March 9.
In honour of this obscure but auspicious occasion, here's a list of the Top Ten Grammar Myths.
10. A run-on sentence is a really long sentence. 9. You shouldn't start a sentence with the word however.
8. Irregardlessis not a word. 7. There is only one way to write the possessive form of a word that ends in s
6. Passive voice is always wrong.
5. I.e.and e.g.mean the same thing.
4. You use abefore words that start with consonants and anbefore words that start with vowels.
3. It's incorrect to answer the question “How are you?” with the statement “I'm good.”
2. You shouldn't split infinitives.
1. You shouldn't end a sentence with a preposition.
It threw me a bit to be typing a random list of common English words rather than the more usual sentences and paragraphs but I did okay on this site's typing test – one of many available online.
When I've done other typing tests, both online and in the real world, I get anywhere from 60-90wpm depending on the day, my mood, etc. etc.
Here's what I got with my first try on this site…
[Edit: I think “real” typing tests have a formula – every mistake counts against your final total and every five keystrokes is a “word”. So if you have 82 words per minute but 4 mistakes, you are 78 wpm – which is what I would've got if I used this methodology. And I'm not sure if they're using the “5 keys = 1 word” rule either. But anyhow, it's good to know that you can just bang away, get 150 mistakes but be told that you type 150 wpm! And make sure you put that on your resume! ]
I've been reading a lot about the race for the Democratic nomination in the US between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.
This article from the New York Times caught my eye for doing a particularly good job of capturing the essence of the differences between their campaigns – Clinton, a baby boomer, is part of the establishment who sees politics as a fight between “us vs. them”. Obama, technically also a boomer but younger, is much more open, accessible, collaborative, and inclusive in how he operates his campaign and how he comes across generally.
And where have you heard those words before? Oh yeah, in every buzzword-laden article written about Web 2.0 in the last few years.
For people raised on Jane Jacobs, who
emphasized how a spontaneous dynamic order could emerge from thousands
of individual decisions, [Obama's political message] is a persuasive way of seeing the world.
For young people who have grown up on Facebook, YouTube, open-source
software and an array of decentralized networks, this is a compelling
theory of how change happens.
[Edit: Rolling Stone has a cover story on Barack Obama in their latest issue which takes an inside look at his campaign – much of which evokes the decentralized, “starfish” approach of the most successful web 2.0 companies.]
(via Ceci N'est Pas Un Blog – Emily wasn't sure how she felt about getting that same “high school” rating for her blog. I'm just happy I didn't get “remedial junior high” )
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