Weekly Geekly--Tags

Tags are interesting, I guess. I first really learned about them when I set up my librarything account. I end up forgetting to on shelfari because the layout is different but I do keep it up on my librarything. I find interesting information about what I read this way. Such as: out of the 144 books I have listed 111 of them are fiction and 33 of them are nonfiction. Of the 111 fiction only 47 of them are historical fiction. So I branch out of historical fiction a lot more than I thought. It's less than half of the fiction I read! So take that, people who think that's all I read! But tags as a whole are cool. Amazon used to have user-made tags regarding their books which was wonderful when trying to figure out if this vampire/supernatural/gothic paperback is a romance or a sci fi or a suspense or a...you get the idea. But they got rid of that, as far as I can tell. Anyways, despite me liking tags delicious hasn't won me over so I'll continue to use my bookmarks in my browser (I even have them saved to a word document for when the Great Computer Switch actually happens--I know, so '90s of me). C'est la vie.

The King's Rifle

Rebecca bought this one hoping it'd be good. I helped out by reading it. It involves a group of Nigerians (along with other Africans who speak different languages) who fight for the British during World War II in Burma (after training in India). So it's very multicultural, to say the least. A lot of it is hard to follow especially since it took me about half the book to realize "Janar" means "General." Some other instances include "Samanja" ( Sergeant--I didn't figure that one out until the enf of the book), "Soja" (soldier) and "Kingi Joji" (King George). Those would have been good to know ahead of time. Beyond that it was a typical disturbing war novel--not exactly my favorite genre. It's amazing to think about what the main character witnesses before he even turns 15...

Weekly Geekly--Social Networking

Shortly after starting college my friend from high school told me I just had to get on this site called Facebook. I did, and then shortly thereafter she told me I just had to get on MySpace too. I didn't. One is my limit, and it seems that the tides are turning towards Facebook now anyways. I've seen MySpace but I don't know how anyone actually communicates on there--it's all crazy backgrounds, music coming out of nowhere and people with who knows what kind of agenda wanting to be your friend. Facebook is cleaner and neater, that's for sure. I use Facebook basically to find out which of my friends are pregnant now (with who?!?!) or what their career paths are. I've found old neighbors, former coworkers and kids I went to elementary school with. That, is neat. I must say, however, that I can't really see this as a serious forum for libraries to infiltrate. I saw those librarian apps and would never consider putting something so rediculous on my page. Do we seriously think high school kids are going to ask a librarian on Facebook? If they're on Facebook, they're not wanting to do homework in the first place. Let's leave this new technology alone--there are plenty others we can geek up.

Galway Bay

Galway Bay is based on the author's ancestor, Honora Kelly's life from the Great Starvation to immigration to America to the Civil War. The story is similar to Angela's Ashes--except a lot easier to stomach. The husband isn't a good-for-nothing drunk, and eventually they don't starve anymore. As with all Irish books, I love hearing about the folklore of the old Irish and this one's no exception.

Weekly Geekly--Gaming!

What a great thing to be caught "learning" at work! I naturally tend towards pencil-and-paper word puzzles--it's in my blood: my mom's a crossword person and my grandma could do them on her death bed in pen still without making a mistake. I have ventured into sudoku and word roundups as well. I had a few little online games I'd do every once in a while (mostly from National Geographic or something geeky like that). But my coworkers have introduced me to the joy of online games. Susie and Barbara are to blame for my new favorite--big fish games. A nice site without the overabundance of ads bordering the edges. I can see online gaming as a way to relax without shutting your brain down completely. So if that's what kids are doing, at least it's a step up from being brain washed by the TV. An even better step up would be playing a game against a real person sitting in front of you. Like maybe a nice big Cracker Barrel-like checkers board...

Stardust

I had to venture into the Sci Fi section of Borders in order to obtain a copy of this for myself. It was a bit scary, but I overcame. Stardust the movie is one of my favorite movies. And, to be honest, I liked the movie better. But it was still a wondeful, whimsical, entertaining read. Way worth the trip into sci fi land for.

The Weekly Geekly--Wikis

I don't really have much to say about wikis. I enjoyed exploring some of the other libraries' wiki pages, especially if the links worked. Our "sandbox" will be more interesting when more people add to it. Wikis are sort of like the public folders where people can post things for all of the staff to see. There's obviously some good uses for that, since we're already doing it. As for Wikipedia, I haven't had the disdainful lip curl automatic response impressed into me yet at library school. Maybe that's next semester.