I got an email last week about September NaNo prep. Hmmm. I think I will be sitting out NaNo this year but I will keep writing. Just not so fast, furious and to exclusion of the rest of my life.
To all the ones thinking about doing it, trying for the first time, and newbies just hearing of NaNoWriMo. I applaude you and your efforts. Huzzah, james
A few days ago I shared a story about Ms. Carla Hayden being appointed as the new LoC director. I read several articles about the things she did at her previous library in Boston. She saw the importance technology could and would play in the library and took steps to make technology available. That spirit has been lacking at the LoC for some time. She understands the importance of giving people acess to knowledge via the public library.
A library is more than a building with books, computers, movies, and other stuff. A library houses a treasure of knowledge, and knowledge once gained can not be taken from you easily. They also are a way for people to connect. I smile over the image of students talking and the stern librarian shushing them. However the connection I mean is when a person today reads a sonnet by Shakespeare, they form a connection to the Baird himself, and every person that ever has or ever will read those same words. Knowledge is power, but so too is that connection joining past, present and future. Without libraries, I shudder to imagine what our world would become, education becomes unacessable and only for the elite. The populus would be doomed to a life of servitude dependent upon the educated.
Remember it has only been within the last 600 years that books became affordable and more prevelant. Before the Gutenberg Press in 1440, books were copied by hand and kept in private libraries, mostly church libraries at that. Knowledge was tightly controled by the both The Church and the aerostracy. With the creation of Gutenberg’s press, knowlege exploded into mainstream life. This was the beginning of our modern society. Think of all the books you have read through the years, those books wouldn’t have been possible without the Gutenberg Press.
Some food for thought the next time you pass your local library. Step inside and see the treasures within you may have missed. Cheers, james
http://www.loc.gov/bookfest/author/carla_hayden
Dear Readers,
You know I have become a Library of Congress convert recently. So I am tickled to share the new director of this proud historical institution. I wish Ms. Hayden all the best in her new duties.
Cheers, james
Ms. Diana Wynn Jones wrote this fantastical tale and later Studio Gibli turned them into classics. If you love stories of magic gone awry then this book was written just for you.
The title character Wizard Howl is a strange fellow in a world full of the strange and fantastical. The author paints a vivid and fully developed world. She people this world with folks that you know and have passed on the streets of your hometown. Doors lead to new and exciting places. I urge you to give it a try.
Cheers on this Sunday evening, james
The aforementioned website is where I got my start with bullet journaling. I saw a post on the Innovative Journaling’s facebook group. Very cool group dedicated to journaling, writing and fountain pens, all brought together by IJ founder Arthur Scharf. I posted on my start last week.
I have been doing this for a week now. Some things I like, some I’m not really sure of, and some are my own personalizations. On the website it says try it for a month. And I seem to feel like things are getting done. Still learning and the Index makes lots of sense, its just getting used to a different way of thinking and working.
Do you bullet journal, or use another manner of keeping up with day to day life? Feel free to share.
Cheers on this stormy evening, james
Wind rustle in the trees,
Rain drops twinkle and sparkle,
In the night, bright with light.
Thunder rumbles, lightening flashes.
The storm comes on unhurried and unconcerned.
Mothers comfort children,
Old folks whisper half forgotten tales.
Still the storm comes on.
Until at last the peaked furry subsides, and quiet calm remains.
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