I know Abby Blachly

the LibraryThing librarian. Well, not really, but I did sit next to her at the Kevin Henkes author luncheon at WLA in the Wisconsin Dells last year. And we did joke about how we have ducks in the Dells and they have ducks in Boston (see, I do know her, I know she lives in Boston!). She was very cool. Abby Blachly=Cool.

So in honor of ABC (Abby Blachly=Cool), I created a fun alphabet library for this week's Project Play assignment.

Some thoughts on LibraryThing:

Strengths
LibraryThing is a beautiful concept. You can organize like crazy! You can catalog your personal collection, books that you have read, books that you would like to read, books that you have reviewed (there is a MADreads LibraryThing group) and on and on. It is easy to use and has tons of information available without being overwhelming. It is also fun to find out what your peers (and total strangers) are reading.

Weaknesses
This is too much work for me. I do not have my home library cataloged in any discernible way (horrors!). It is loosely shelved like so: young adult fiction, adult fiction, cookbooks, film books, all of my husband's books, oversize and so on. I focus my talents on color coordinating my closet - this truly gets me out of the house more quickly in the morning.

Unsuggestor
This is plain weird. But amusing. I typed in The Joy of Cooking and clicked on the Unsuggestor box to get some bad recommendations. The list was weird, and included quite a few biblical titles and The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists by Robert Tressell. Unrecommendations noted. It should also be noted that the Suggestor provided a lot of really useful, sensible titles like Mastering the Art of French Cooking and The Enchanted Broccoli Forest (one of my favorites by Mollie Katzen).

Silly Dummiez Book Cover Maker


Play more. Learn more. Fear less. Read Chicka Chicka Boom Boom. It is without a doubt the best alphabet book ever written.

survey results favor television viewing

Library people watch television! Thank you to the various participants of my survey. I now understand how SurveyMonkey makes their money; I was tempted to upgrade my account in order to have the data analyzed for me. Sadly, I had to cut and paste the answers into a word document and then analyze the data myself. Here is a summary of responses:

1. Did you watch the season premiere of Pushing Daisies and if so, what did you think?
All but one participant in the survey watched Pushing Daisies and everyone who watched loved it. One participant compared it to the movie Waitress, another described it as a cross between a Tim Burton movie and Wonderfalls. One participant watched it twice!

2. Are there any other new shows you are watching? If yes, what new shows are you watching?
People are watching (in alpha order) Chuck, Gossip Girl, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Journeyman, Mad Men, Moonlight, Private Practice and Tell Me You Love Me. What this data tells me is that not only do library folks watch television, they also pony up for the fancy premium cable. Aside: Janice Min, the editor of US Weekly chose to include Mad Men in her editorial this week! If you missed this new series, an encore of season one begins Thursday, November 1 at 9:00 on AMC.

3. If you do not watch television, why not?
The majority of respondents really enjoy television, but reading and busy schedules get in the way of watching more. There was even a shout out to MTV.

4. Do you have any "one touch and it was gone" technology disaster stories that you would like to share? If so, please tell us!
Two lucky people did not have any harrowing tales to tell. Another had the "laptop won't talk to the projector" problem. Don't I know it! The majority of frightening happenings include losing data while working on the web: while creating web pages, losing brilliant blog posts and comments, having online software go buggy and not read necessary files or losing photo changes. The photo changes were particularly tragic as they were for a Lost Kitty poster. Thank goodness the kitty was later found. Whew! One participant is still suffering post traumatic stress over a techno incident gone wrong. Sorry about that! Didn't mean to dredge up any painful memories.

Thanks again for your feedback! Play more. Learn more. Fear less. Shell out the big bucks for expanded basic cable. It's worth it.

alphabet fun with flickr

I created a tiny collection of photos featuring my various abc paraphernalia. I generally load all of my photos into Kodak Gallery, so I don't really have the hang of Flickr, yet. I wish that I could organize the photos on the main page; I figured out how to organize them as a set, so I am linking to that here. And don't forget to visit Taffy the Wonder Doodle's first magazine cover. I could have spent all day working on that!

good books, the smart choice

Thanks to Sloganizer for these words of wisdom! This week's Project Play lesson focuses on feedback thingies, so I am begging for comments, people!

In order to achieve a greater sense of community, I would like to tell a little tale. This is a story of people coming together. Not at the library, not while reading books, not even where people gather to spend money (like Starbucks, or Target). In this story, people are gathered around their TV, sharing in a cultural phenomena, in the privacy of their own homes, not unlike our online community here, where we are gathered around our computers, participating in Project Play via cyberspace. I am talking about Pushing Daisies, the fall season's hottest new prime time show.

In a nutshell, Ned, the adorable main character of the show, has the power to bring dead people back to life by touching them. Once the dead person comes back to life, they have one minute to remain alive before someone else in close proximity will die. If Ned touches the "alive again" person at any time after they have been brought back to life, they re-die. You can see the double-edged sword here! Someone is going to die either way. And if the "alive again" people want to remain alive, they need to stay as far away from Ned as possible. But the show is sweet and mysterious and Ned is using his powers for good (as far as episode one, anyway). And he bakes pies. I will definitely keep watching.

Has anyone else seen this fantastic new show? Will anyone watch it this week because I referred to it as "the fall season's hottest new show"? This may be an editorial statement, but in general, the reviews have been glowing. Click here for a quick survey.

And finally, can anyone totally relate to Ned's ability to bring life back from the dead, only to lose it all with a simple touch? Am I the only one that sees a parable for our modern society and technology here? How many times have I searched for the perfect resource online and in one click, lost it forever? Or worse yet, spend time working on a document to have the computer freeze or the web go down and lose whatever I was working on, at least up to the point that I had last saved it? One touch, and all is lost...

So on that note, I will end my entry.

Play more. Learn more. Fear less. Watch Pushing Daisies on ABC/Wednesdays/7 Central. And please comment.

more addictive than italian cream cake

I am back for more trouble! Today I subscribed to more blogs than I probably should have, but it is fun and addictive:

• A Librarian's Guide to Etiquette
• Annoyed Librarian
• Bloglines News
• Cute Overload (couldn't resist)
• Frenzied Librarian
• Grammar Girl's Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing
• ISTHMUS - The Daily Page - DAILY RSS Feed
• Kasey's Page
• Library Link of the Day
• Library Web Chic
• Love That Dog (love you, Barney!)
• MADreads
• Mr. Manners
• Nonfiction Readers Anonymous
• SatisfiedCuriosity
• Unshelved
• Veronica's Play

I am really enjoying Project Play and look forward to the new lessons each week. I did not know that I could sign up for podcasts with bloglines, so I added Grammar Girl to the list. I normally receive it automatically through itunes, but I sometimes forget to check it if I am just re-charging my nano. Now I have a handy reminder that something new has been added.

Until we meet again: Play more. Learn more. Fear less. Appreciate reversible tights.