Liteweight

This isn't much of a story, but I was at the libery this afternoon, looking through the new books. I could hear the reference librarian in her office talking to a patron. Apparently the patron did not like the answer she received to her question. The librarian got an "edge" in her voice, said something like, "Ma'am, I looked up this question yesterday for another person, and now you are questioning my answer."... After a bit she ask the patron if she would like to talk to another librarian, so she transferred her. I couldn't hear any more...

How would I have reacted? Probably would have started speaking R E A L S L O W . . . and loud. And the "edge" would have been there, too!


I checked out a Jane Heller nove, "Some Nerve" and a William Tapply mystery, "Cutter's Run". I JUST THIS MINUTE (Monday, while fixing typos) see on my Books Read list that I have already read the Tapply book! Oh No!

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I've been fixing broken Apple ProMice for work, on my own time. I got some hints on how to go about it at Opening And Repairing An Apple Pro Mouse and at Apple Pro Mouse Repair. Their articles are pretty complete, but I wanted to post this picture showing an actual splice, as I accomplised it.


(Click image to visit flickr and see the BIG version, with comments!)

It's a pretty nifty feeling to have the mouse actually work after I've had it apart!

I was going to put a picture of me wearing my magnifier hood, but the image has disappeared!

This is last night's dinner:



Clicky on the image for the rest of the series (three more, pretty much the same) with Clever Captions and Humorous Mouse-Over Text, at flickr.com, of course.

I actually enjoyed eating this pizza, it wasn't THAT burnt. It was neat letting the hard bits soak in my mouth and gnawing away at them. Must have been like eating hardtack, back in the day. Without the weevils.

Smoking Tax Redux

On Fark.com there was a discussion about a proposed tax increase on cigarettes in Missiouri. Check out the discussion here. There were a lot of interesting opinions.

I looked up cigarette taxes for each state. The lowest was South Carolina (surprise!) at $ .07 per pack, the highest was Rhode Island at $ 2.46 per pack. California was number 23 at $ .87 per pack. SOURCE: Federal Trade Administration

I thought California would be higher than that.

I had a cigarette last night at 7:00 P.M. That breaks my 7 week stretch (I don't know what that means, but "stretch" seemed to fit nicely in there.). I took down the QuitMeter. I'm starting over again.

Vote No on 86

If you are in California, please vote NO on prop. 86, the tax on cigarettes iniative. I believe it is an unfair tax, because the tax on cigarettes was raised by several dollars s a few years ago.

I think it would be fair to raise taxes on alcohol, as the abuse of alcohol is a very bad thing in society. I do not recall the tax on alcohol be raised, ever.

I would not be opposed to a tax on movie theaters, either.

In the spirit of full disclosure, let me say that I do not drink alcohol (for no particular reason, actually I had a beer this summer, don't tell my diabetes doctor!), and I don't go to the movies much (saw the first Lord of the Rings, and I THINK I saw Star Wars Episode 2. I think I fell asleep...), but I DO support a three hundred dollar a month smoker.

Whither reading?

I was searching teh intarweb for "textbook storage" and found these articles.

I'm just gonna pick some quotes out, you can read the articles if you wanna.

Reading for Fun will Boost Scores

"The kind of reading that really counts is free voluntary reading"

But in many, many homes in the South Bay and throughout the state, I also know there are homes without books and newspapers. Homes where no reading is done by anyone. Homes where young children are never read to in the crucial lap position. Homes where children never see an adult reading a book or a newspaper in any language.

They come to school without having heard the language, any language, in complete sentences, in stories told, in looking at printed words while a loving person says those words aloud. They have never participated in family discussions about what's going on in the world. These children have no idea of the structure of language. They don't know that sounds go with the printed symbols.

In the United States, there is one school librarian for every 900 children. In California in 1992, there was one school librarian for every 5,000 children.

And in California in 1999, there is one school librarian for every 6,200 children.

And most importantly, re-open all elementary-school libraries all day with trained librarians.

Library a chapter in school's past Computers seemingly replace

If students at Castlemont High School want to check out "The Autobiography of Malcolm X" or find books on Polynesian culture, they'd better have a bus pass or some good walking shoes.

"I think it's unfair," parent Chavone Johnson said. "I can't see a school not having a library. ... That's denying them a part of their education."

"We ain't been able to checkout books or nothing since I've been here," senior Erik Fuller said recently.

Some books appear to be randomly organized -- on one shelf you can find a book called "Herpes" right above a book called "The Right Dog for You."

"That's not a library, not what a normal high school is supposed to have," said Johnson, whose son attended Castlemont this year but is now in juvenile hall.

Many books in Castlemont's former library are gone -- it's not clear where they are. Some books may have been sent to the Hurricane Katrina relief effort, and one teacher may have sent some to Africa, school employees said.

Rick Gaston, principal of Castlemont's Business and Information Technology school, said computers have supplanted traditional school libraries, at least when it comes to doing research.

In Oakland middle schools, librarians have become scarcer over the last few years as the schools choose to spend their resources elsewhere, officials said.

Here's another article on an un-related subject:

ANN BIANCHETTI Diary #12 Indirect Lessons learned at a one-day workshop.

I don't have anything to say here, it's just my dooty to point you towards informative stuff out there!