Daily Thoughts 5/3/3009

This is from the New York Public Library Digital Gallery. I liked the Image.

Daily Thoughts 5/3/2009

Right now I am reading The Volumetrics Weight Control Plan by Barbara Rolls, Ph.D. and Robert A. Barnett. This is a little bit different than most diets. It contends that most people eat the same total weight of food each day, whether it is of high calorie food or low calorie food. It claims that foods like chocolate, cookies, nuts, and candy have much higher energy density compared to weight. The objective of this diet is to eat foods with more fiber and more water in them to fill you up on less calories. Barbara Rolls has a Ph.D. in nutrition.

Daily Thougts 5/2/2099

Poster by John Cecily Clay 1905

Daily Thoughts 5/2/2009

I walked up to my local library. It is very nice outside. It was refreshing. I picked up a manga by Hideo Azuma called Disappearance Diary. It is about a manga artist who has a habit of wandering off from his family, becoming alcoholic, becoming homeless, and acting a bit wild. The manga won the Grand Prize at the 9th Japan Media Arts Festival in 2005. It reminds me a bit of On the Road in a way and other accounts of wandering artists. I finished reading it tonight and will write a review tomorrow.

I also finished reading Good To Great by Jim Collins. This is a very interesting book. It will take me a while to think through what it says. There are a lot of implications about what it is saying that are quite relevant to what I am doing. I also finished reading the companion monograph, Good to Great and the Social Sectors

Steven Barnes has a mass market paperback of Great Sky Woman out. The book is about a prehistoric tribe in the shadow of Mount Kilimanjaro. He is an African American writer of science fiction. He incorporates many historical motifs in his novels. Steven Barnes was nominated for the Hugo award for Novelette, The Locusts which he cowrote with Larry Niven. The sequel, Shadow Valley is coming out on May 5, 2009.

I finished watching Sidewalk Stories on dvd by Charles Lane. Charles Lane lent it to me to watch. I found it rather interesting. He acted, produced, and directed in this film. It is a silent black and white film set in New York city. The musical score is what makes the film exceptional. It takes the place of the dialogue. He also lent me another film, True Identity which is a comedy. He both acts in and produces this film.

Web Bits

Thomas Nelson has a book review program for bloggers. They give a free book to people who review their books. http://brb.thomasnelson.com/

Daily Thoughts 5/1/1009

Takehisa Yumeji Postcard Showa Era

Daily Thoughts 5/1/2009

This morning I spent time going through the 700s, weeding older material, shifting oversize material to the oversize collection, bringing a few books down for mending, and examining the collection. We probably need to order books on flower arranging and numismatics.

I am also working on setting up a foreclosure workshop. I hope it goes well.

I filed some law looseleafs for the New York Code of Rules and Regulations, and ordered a piece of a missing section of a law book.

A new book came in for me to read, The Elements of Visual Style The Basics of Print Design for Every PC and Mac User by Robert W. Harris. I like to read books on print design. It is a useful thing to understand if you are selecting books for people to read. The design of a book can effect whether or not a person will pick it up and read it.

I was reading Publishers Weekly and I noticed a new book that was coming out with a starred review by Chris Anderson who is the author of The Long Tail. The new book is coming out in July, it is called Free: The Future of A Radical Price.

Web Bits

A search for the word library on Flickr Commons. http://www.flickr.com/search/commons/?q=library&w=commons&m=all

Daily Thoughts 4/30/2009

Elisabeth Maria Anna Jerichau-Baumann, 1855 (right: Jacob Grimm; left: Wilhelm Grimm)

Daily Thoughts 4/30/2009

Today was another intensely busy day. The new slat walls were put up yesterday. We shifted over most of the new books to the new display area. It looks a lot better than the old place where we kept the new books.

I also worked on a few other minor projects; putting together a list of graphic novels for a bookmark, filing some looseleafs, arranging for a program, and attending a meeting. I had a chance to read the latest Publishers Weekly, but not much else.

I read some more of Good to Great on the train. The message is fairly clear; choose great people before you plan anything, be humble, face your problems, and focus on discipline.

City, Pond, Water

Cities are imagined

like pools of water

around a quiet spring

They grow rapidly

along the river edge

spreading like new grass

Skyscrapers are weeds

blotting the horizon

rising in the sun

Houses are mushrooms

clumped close together

around paved street roots.

Cities grow organically

to fill empty spaces

consuming the wild world

Daily Thoughts 4/29/09

Reading Lady. Kamisaka, Sekka -- Artist Woodcuts From:Momoyogusa = Flowers of a Hundred Generations. c1909

Daily Thoughts 4/29/09

Today is rather interesting. We had a morning meeting discussing the many things which are currently happening. We are doing a lot with getting the library collection more organized. I spent a considerable amount of time making sure the law collection was being covered properly today.

We have a reggae poet doing a workshop right now. I stopped in for a minute to check on things. He was talking about how to do free writing. He has a cd of his poetry which he is giving to participants. There is also a class visiting from the local baptist church who are working on a project on different countries around the world. The final thing which is happening is a city Green Committee which is meeting for the first time in the community room. We are making a concerted effort to increase community involvement in the library. The reggae poet did very well. He wants to come back again to do another workshop. He gave two of his spoken word cds to the library.

I started working on a bookmark for graphic novels. It has a nice short selection of what I think people might like to read. I might also do one for writing as well.

On the train home, I started reading Good To Great Why Some Companies Make The Leap... And Others Don't by Jim Collins. There is also an accompanying monograph called Good To Great And The Social Sectors Why Business Thinking Is Not The Answer by Jim Collins. The monograph is quite short, only 35 pages of text.