A 100-year man from Huntsville, Ontario, who only learned to read at age 93, is being called a “poster boy for literacy.”
“In
an emotional acceptance speech, after which he received a standing
ovation, Brazier said he decided to learn to read after his wife of 64
years died. She had read everything to him.”
Got this from Iona Henderson and wanted to pass it along as a way to encourage people to participate. The Coffee House was a lot of fun last semester (the picture of Linda from my “Rock Star Librarian” post was taken at the Coffee House) plus your attendance helps support Student Council financially.
—
Hey everybody!
Student Council is pleased to announce that the Coffee House is back.
This is an event where you get to show off those “special talents” you’ve been hiding behind tons of schoolwork.
Ideas
include singing, playing an instrument, reading poetry or jokes, air
band or simply air guitar, interpretive dance, … basically anything you
feel comfortable doing in front of other people. Not to worry, there is
a licensed bar, so plenty of liquid courage to make you do things you
may regret.
This
event will be taking place in mid-November at the London Music Club,
and this is notification to get you thinking about fun stuff to do.
If you have any questions or would like to submit your name as one of the performers, please email me at ihender@uwo.ca
The Library Association of Alberta did a calendar a few years back featuring photos of librarians doing their non-work hobbies – riding motorcycles, belly-dancing, mountain climbing, etc. We had some brief chats about doing something similar here – either for my cohort or for the whole program via Student Council. I don't think anything ever came of it but if we did, I think Linda could be Ms. October (October 26 to be precise.) Here's an e-mail from her:
Hey all,
I'm ditching the boys in my band for a
night & playing a solo spot at the London Music Club on Thursday,
October 26th. Doors open at 7:30 p.m., and the show starts at 8:30
p.m. I'm opening for Sarah Metzner, who's from B.C. and Tiiu
Millistver, from Ottawa (originally from Guelph). The cover is $5.
It
isn't very often I get to play on my own, so I'm actually looking
forward the challenge. I've got a few newer songs I'll be sneaking in
for the 30 min. set.
The
London Music Club is where MLIS hosted a talent/variety show last
semester, and is a cozy venue. It's at 470 Colborne St. (between
Dufferin and Queen's Ave). You can find out more about how to get
there etc. at: http://www.londonmusicclub.com
If
you want more info about me I'm not all .com'd up. So to hear me, you
gotta phone me and I'll sing to you over the phone. Or come out &
hear the live version. Thanks.
Funny story. After my “Public Libraries in the Community” class today, my group met because we have to come up with a business plan proposal for a new “for fee” service for a library. We were sort of struggling to come up with an idea as most of us were thinking “libraries = free” (I love my group!)
Some ideas included charging for a tutoring service (that would be more advanced than the still-free homework club that most libraries have). Someone else proposed a business centre with faxing capabilities, computers with no time restrictions, telephones, etc.
Stealing an idea directly from the Regina Public Library, I came up with the idea of implementing a full-scale film theatre as part of the library's services. None of the ideas were really grabbing us though.
But then our instructor came up and suggested a speaker series. Brilliant! Why didn't I think of that?
(Meanwhile, I had 10 Lunch Bucket posters sitting in my backpack at that very moment!) Another bonus of this idea: since I planned (or helped plan) for a lot of speakers over the past 10 years, this assignment will be like second nature. Yay!
Man, when I was a kid and Question Period came on, I used to practically cry. But this afternoon, I'm watching Michael Ignatieff spar with Bob Rae (they were roommates in college), watching Scott Brison (one of Canada's few openly gay MP's) say that if he didn't support gay marriage, it would cause a “gay divorce” and just wondering in general if Ken Dryden is the smartest hockey player of all-time? I'm not a Liberal but if I was voting in this leadership race, I think Gerard Kennedy, a good prairie boy, would be closest to my own views.
If you're not familiar with Digg, it's a site that's gotten hugely popular in the last year or so. How it works is: anyone can submit a story (mostly technology stories but there are other stories as well including the best YouTube videos, political news and so on) and then all the other users can choose to “Digg” or “Bury” the story.
The most popular stories rise to the top and are easily viewed by anyone who wants to see them (I think I mentioned in an earlier post that I have my Netvibes page set to display the feed of Digg stories that have been “dugg” at least 300 times.)
The other success of the site is attracting a very desirable demographic – young males between 20-30 who are making $75 000+ per year (which pretty much describes me, don't you think?)
Anyhow, if you're already a member, why not give my story a Digg? And if you're not, why not sign up and try it out (even if you're not in their target demographic!). Warning: it gets very addictive!
Came across The Birthday Calculator which tells you your date of conception, how many days, weeks, months and years old you are (you probably know that one) on Ian's blog via an embedded Digg link that displayed on his site because he was using Feed2JavaScript, a neat little utility that allows you to embed RSS feeds into web pages easily. (I really like reading the blogs of people in the Social Software class because it's like I'm getting to take the class for free and without all of that nasty assigned reading! )
Speaking of RSS feeds, I'm getting quite addicted to NetVibes.com which uses tabs, a checkered layout (what's that called again?) and other Web 2.0 goodness to make a really effective way to display RSS feeds. You can share tabs and other modules with other people – I found one that had most of the best library blogs on a tab and ready to import to your own page for instance. I'm liking NetVibes so much compared to the WizzRSS Firefox plug-in that I used for RSS before that it's getting close to being a contender for my “default home page” setting. That's the big time real estate, boys!
The other time waster I found (I think also via Digg through my NetVibes site – I like how you can configure it to only display stories that have 300+ Diggs or whatever so you only get the most popular stuff showing up) was called “How Many of Me” which compiles how many people share your first name (about a million), your last name (about 84 000) and your full name (278) out of the 300 million people recorded in the last US census. Oops, just remembered – I found this one via a writer's blog that I read on occasion. (She had 0 matches for her very distinct name.)
What else? Oh yeah, the Centre of the Universe story (sorry, not about your blog, Jill). One of my favourite moments of first term was a classmate who was born in raised in Toronto but had spent some time in Regina collaring me at the Grad Club one night and asking “Tell me the truth – do people in the west really hate Toronto?” “I actually like Toronto,” I replied “but I hate the Maple Leafs. Does that count?”
In what's becoming a mini-tradition here, my Saturday post is about hockey as in about an hour or so, the Calgary Flames are in Toronto for the first game of this week's HNIC double-header and I am sure they're going to trash them pretty good (just as westerners do about Toronto – when they're not being asked by Torontonians! )
The fact that I'm watching on TV instead of sitting at Air Canada Centre in a scalped $200 seat gives me an idea for a list…
THINGS I REGRET NOT DOING WHILE IN LONDON FOR A YEAR – probably won't get to an NHL game in any nearby city (Toronto, Detroit, Buffalo, even Columbus had some appeal last March if the timing had been better) – missed a lot of excellent concerts in Toronto as well – we're likely not going to get to Huron County north of us which is supposed to be beautiful, especially in the fall – not really a regret but I thought we might get to the States more than once – we've missed a lot that London has to offer – the Grand Theatre, the Banting Museum, Museum London, the Labatt Brewery Tour, the Kellogg Factory tour – not visiting more of the libraries in both the small towns and cities I did visit – I got into Toronto a few times for conferences and conventions and while helping to move people and passing through both by car and train. But Shea and I only only really had a couple days in Toronto to be tourists. The good news? We might get in for a couple days during the research week at the end of this month. The bad (?) news? There's a baby show that weekend so we'll be spending a lot of time looking at baby stuff. Just to clarify so – I really wanted to get to Port Dover to visit some friends we have down there. We got to see them at the Fred Eaglesmith Charity Picnic in August but they were working (she works for Eaglesmith as his manager) so we didn't get a great visit.
Sometimes, a hug is all what we need. Free hugs
is a real life controversial story of Juan Mann, A man whos sole
mission was to reach out and hug a stranger to brighten up their lives.
In this age of social disconnectivity and lack of human contact, the effects of the Free Hugs campaign became phenomenal.
As
this symbol of human hope spread accross the city, police and officials
ordered the Free Hugs campaign BANNED. What we then witness is the true
spirit of humanity come together in what can only be described as awe
inspiring.
In the Spirit of the free hugs campaign, PASS THIS TO A FRIEND and HUG A STRANGER!
