Facing up to Facebook

I just noticed that lots of people had posted about setting up a Facebook account. Not to be outdone I faced up to the challenge and started one - on deadline day. Now I am getting messages from family members who suspect that I have gone a little off the tracks. So far, no-one has refused to be my friend. (Sounds like Mr. Rogers.)

Maybe it will be a great way to stay in touch with family although some families survive better out-of -touch. And, do I really want to know that my son has over 200 photos of himself there? Or, that my daughter found out that her cousin was moving before my own mother knew? With two sisters who don't speak to each other this could get a little complicated.

New catalog

I love that one can find GED books and Zane at first touch. No more awkward pauses trying to eliminate poor Zane Gray or Grey from the search. On the other hand the social interactivity is a little scary. I am so glad that Chriss didn't do the Scavenger hunt in French. Quelle horreur!! Of course I could brush up on my French with BYKI or henpeck my way through Babel Fish to translate it. And, my hand keeps involuntarily twitching up to the "go back" button. No going back. We go forward.

The World Comes to Me

A few clicks and I am getting feeds from Library Garden, Library Journal Book Reviews and Librarian By Day. And, I added the Tribune and the Irish Times for good measure. Now if I could get a feed updating me on the whereabouts of my coffee cup!

Browsing the Best

Obviously I am still not a true interactive trekie because I had to look up my username and password. For shame!

I did look over Sally's shoulder a few nights ago when she was exploring the I'm Cooked site and was entranced at the amount of "stuff" that Sir Paul McCartney was adding to his mashed potatoes. Really - quite a small amount of potatoes to which he added gobs of butter, handfuls of onions and milk. I kept saying to Sally - no he is doing it wrong. It must be scallions or green onions - did he scald the milk - is that real butter? If I were you I wouldn't follow his directions even if he did get a knighthood. Instead, use the recipe below.

So, I avoided the I'm Cooked site and went to my old favorite, BBC iplayer where I found to my amazement that I couldn't watch some of my favorite "unwatchable" tv series. Nobody who lives 2 miles away from the area understands East Enders. However, I did watch snow falling in Europe and learned that they expect a "weather situation" in East Anglia (southeast part of England) with accumulations of maybe 20 centimeters. Then I watched the results of a truly horrific car accident in Co. Down, N. Ireland and wondered if I had ever travelled on that road. Did I travel with two lls or just one - British or American spelling. Forget the British comma, why have I devolved into one of my old bad habits - using the dash. I used to love the dash and liberally sprinkled it in all my research papers. Who says this social media stuff doesn't provoke serious self reflection?

Next, I travelled to some interesting social sites for making family trees and learned that I could order my ancestral DNA test. Too late for my Christmas list this year. If I indulge in a little more self-reflection I think I am part Norman, part Celt and maybe even a little Viking mixed in. Definitely some cold and draughty castles somewhere along the line. And later, of course came potatoes, thanks to another British knight - which brings me back to champ. And, a dash!

Here is a recipe for champ from a site called Foody UK and Ireland which updates some of Mrs Beatons' recipes.

Serves 8
1.8kg (4lb) Potatoes 300ml (½ pint) Milk 225g (8oz) Chopped Spring Onions 110g (4oz) Butter Salt and Black Pepper
Peel potatoes and cook in boiling water. Simmer milk and spring onions together for five minutes. Strain potatoes and mash thoroughly. Add hot milk, and the spring onions, salt and pepper, and half the butter. Champ is served piled high on the dish, with a well of melted butter in the centre. It is eaten with a spoon from the outside, each spoonful being dipped in the well of melted butter.

Do you think I should make a video and post it somewhere?

"Alive in another time"

Even if you have never read Ulysses by Joyce and few people have, you will enjoy this great piece of writing. Colum McCann, an Irish-born writer won the 2009 National Book Award for Fiction with "Let the Great World Spin."

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/16/opinion/16mccann.html?_r=1&emc=eta1

A Visit Home

As the days shorten and the winter grey settles in, I start thinking of going home. It is a siren song that surfaces and urges action. Check the passports and the calendar. Never arrive on or the day before the twelfth of July. Their blood is up and there could be trouble. Wait until the next day and maybe you'll see the burned out cars still smoking in parts of Newry or wherever we cross the border. Yes, old battles that are completely out of sync with modern Ireland yet more real than the recent history of development, holiday homes, private helicopters and greed. Will it be different this coming year? What about all the new millionaires? Maybe the new road planned to cut through the Hill of Tara has been postponed. Maybe the Irish have been saved from themselves.




For a while it seemed that the whole world descended on Ireland to find the picture postcard world. Huge tour buses weaving along narrow mountainous roads over bogland to find the black lakes or the vistas to the ocean. Parking lots hastily constructed over fields. Paths closed because of erosion. High crosses moved from graveyards and roped off inside tourist centers. What are all these people doing here? There used to be no-one but the sheep trailing their tattered fleece. Or, maybe a small family on a Sunday outing unaware that they were sitting on a neolithic settlement.




So, I need to face my memories again. My aging aunts and mother are still there. But the family farm and homestead belong to my brother now. I have been slowly shadowed out of that landscape. There are few traces left of me at home except for the pictures that form part of my mother's gallery of photos. Maybe a visit to the windswept northern coast to see Dunluce Castle with its smuggler's entrance at the foot of the cliff, past the small village of Bushmills, home of the famous Irish whiskey. It is only a few miles from home and one can see Scotland on a clear day. So, I'm a tourist now, saying hello, saying goodbye.

Lifelong Learning & Me

I apparently bailed out of my first assignment to complete the lifelong learning task so I think I am starting with an incomplete.

For me, lifelong learning is how I would define myself and it's best thing about working in a library. It is positively mind blowing and I often go home after work saying "do you know what I learned today." Needless to say, my family are getting a little tired of this and the sooner Mom starts banging around pots and pans the better. My husband thinks our local paper is a "worthless rag" but nevertheless it is a gold mine for a reference librarian. I think my mind just trawls through lots of "stuff" and I wish it retained more. I have begun to identify with the people in the commercial who start spouting gibberish overload.
So, what's easy about lifelong learning. I do accept responsiblity for my learning. I have to confess that wasn't always the case. I tell my kids about how much time I wasted in my youth and they don't believe that my sober librarian self ever had a mispent youth. Of course I did learn to rationalize my behavior so I suppose I did learn. See - this could become a gabfest which is why I think a personal diary/blog is slighty dangerous for me. Too stream of consciousness ....
What's hard about lifelong learning? I suppose I haven't created the "learning toolbox" which allows me to use technology to my greatest advantage or to integrate it effectively into my work and personal life.
I could go on but that's probably enough introspection for now.