43 Things at 43

Meta: blog no more

2005-08-10T09:36:00.000-05:00

My mother died on July 18. This, of course, effects all kinds of things, including the 43 Things I'm likely to accomplish this year.

I was usually writing for her when I wrote in this blog, so I don't want to continue. Maybe the object of this blog was to get the Chautauqua Diary, which gave me a way to honor my mother's life.

I think I will continue to be active on 43 Things, but I won't re-post my entries here. And I will be revisting my list of Things and either considerably shortening it or making it more of a Life List than a This-Year List.

I will continue my Wanderings of a Student Librarian blog, so please follow my progress there.

Meta: blog no more

2005-08-10T09:26:00.000-05:00

3. read 30 books in 2005

2005-07-10T22:41:00.000-05:00

12 down. 18 to go.

Ex Libris by Anne Fadiman is a wonderfully-written series of essays about books, reading, and writing. I thought my favorite essay in Ex Libris was going to be "You Are There" about reading passages in the same places where they are set. But I liked equally well the next two essays, one on gender-neutral language and one on hereditary proofreading.

39. decorate the loft at the cabin

2005-07-10T16:39:00.000-05:00

Rick's night stand

Before:

After:

Big improvement, huh? The new piece is a child's wash stand. I got it from a friend of my mother's who recently opened an antique store.

6. publish in a peer-review journal

2005-07-08T08:29:00.000-05:00

It turns out I was wrong last week when I thought I hadn't won the student paper competition. I received word today that I won. Either they were running behind their time schedule or somebody backed out and I'm the runner up. I'm not as happy about this as I thought I would be because I had really adjusted to the idea of not having to do all of that work right now. Now, my summer looks way over-scheduled....OTOH, this was and is my best shot at meeting this goal, so it's time to call in that 43 Things spirit and get going.

23. Switch to reusable shopping bags for groceries

2005-07-06T19:20:00.000-05:00

The last time I tried to do this I couldn’t get in the habit of getting my bags in the car when I go shopping. I’ve solved that problem. As soon as the bags are emptied they go on the doorknob and I put them in the car the next time I go out (whether it’s to the grocery store or somewhere else).

Now, the problem is that I too often leave the bags in the car when I should take them into the store! So I can’t call this done yet. I still have half of a habit to develop….

4. get a job

2005-07-06T19:11:00.000-05:00

I mailed two applications today. I have done several things to pursue this goal, but this is the first step that might actually lead to a job.

2. Be a better blogger

2005-07-06T19:02:00.000-05:00

This blog has a spin-off. The Missouri Humanities Council took an interest in the pictures and entries of the Chautauqua. Since the blog wasn't a really good forum to send people to (reverse chronology and you have to go back to the June entries to see the relevant posts), I pulled the Chautauqua entries into a separate diary.

32. watch more movies

2005-07-01T09:53:00.000-05:00

War of the Worlds

I think this one was enjoyed equally by myself and my teenage movie buddy. We liked the intensity, focus on character, and special effects.

11. take a walk everyday

2005-06-29T21:21:00.000-05:00

Walking at a conference is no great trick. But "taking a walk" (for fun, health, and peace of mind) rather than merely walking for transportation can take some doing.

The convention center in Chicago doesn't make it obvious, but if you're diligent enough, you can make your way out to a marvelous bike/pedestrian path along Lake Michigan. I highly recommend that as a place to walk during a Chicago convention. I did it twice.

My last day at the conference had no free time. I intended to walk when I got home, but my flight was delayed so that it would be after dark before I got home. So, I walked the airport--all three concourses of Midway (Concourse C is short, Concourse A has the coolest stores).

8. present at a conference

2005-06-29T21:14:00.000-05:00

Good news on this front. I found out last week that the proposal I submitted to present at the Missouri Library Association conference was accepted. So, if all goes as planned, I should complete this goal in October.

6. publish in a peer-review journal

2005-06-29T21:13:00.000-05:00

Bad news on this front. I didn't win the graduate student paper competition I entered--the date has passed when I would have heard had I won. On a positive note, this means I can do the project more on my own time schedule.

4. get a job

2005-06-29T21:08:00.000-05:00

I did two interviews and talked with someone from a third institution about an opening during the American Library Association conference last weekend.

14. go to library conferences and workshops

2005-06-29T21:04:00.000-05:00

I went to the American Library Association conference in Chicago last weekend. That's the biggest U.S. library conference of the year--over 25,000 attendees. When Barak Obama spoke at the Opening Session, the first thing he did was look over the audience and say "that's a lot of librarians!"

32. watch more movies

2005-06-23T14:35:00.000-05:00

Herbie Fully Loaded

I took my movie buddy to see the Love Bug (but I don't think they ever called him that). I'm sure he liked Star Wars better, but he was a good sport about it. It was especially fun for me since I've been watching so many races this summer.

36. learn about wikis

2005-06-23T08:00:00.000-05:00

I added a page (my conference schedule) to the unofficial ALA conference wiki. I also edited two pages, adding my schedule to the Attendee Schedules page and my blog to the Conference Bloggers page.

The only problem I had was that I couldn't see my name on the Attendee Schedules page. Meredith advised me to clear my cache and that did the trick! Otherwise, it was easy.

25. catch up reading professional journals and magazines

2005-06-23T07:58:00.000-05:00

I read my entire backlog of American Libraries--motivated by the American Library Association conference this weekend.

4. get a job

2005-06-19T11:41:00.000-05:00

I just completed the latest draft of my resumé (Word doc). Feedback welcome!

3. Read 30 books in 2005

2005-06-18T22:18:00.000-05:00

11 down, 19 to go.

The Man Who Ate the 747 by Ben Sherwood.

This novel is about J.J. Smith, Keeper of the Records. He validates world records for a book like the Guinness World Records, but in this novel, it's The Book of Records or, simply, The Book. J.J. goes to a small town in Nebraska to verify that a man is eating a 747 airplane. There begins an unlikely love story. To quote Fannie Flagg from the book jacket, "I laughed all the way through and cried at the end." What fun!

14. go to library conferences and workshops

2005-06-17T12:34:00.000-05:00

I just signed up for the MCDC Training Conference - 2005 to learn all about census data. In particular, I'll be taking the workshops "Accessing Data on the Web" and "Introduction to GIS."

4. get a job

2005-06-16T22:56:00.000-05:00

I signed up with the Placement Service at the conference I'm going to next weekend--the big annual conference for librarians. And I sent messages through the Placement Service software to people with jobs posted that I might be qualified for. I've received one polite rejection (not enough experience) and made one appointment for an interview. I can handle a 50-50 success rate for this.

32. watch more movies

2005-06-15T15:37:00.000-05:00

Took a young friend to see Star Wars III: Revenge of the Sith. Or maybe he took me, since this was the 4th time he's seen it. Visually stunning. But the only character I could bring myself to care about was R2D2 and it wasn't on the screen enough to keep the story interesting for me.

3. read 30 books in 2005

2005-06-13T22:44:00.000-05:00

10 down, 20 to go

Under a Wild Sky: John James Audubon and the Making of the Birds of America by William Souder.

This was my Chautauqua book because Audubon was one of the featured characters. I saw Richard Johnson portray him twice, once at the evening session and once at a school program. It turned out that I spent so much time going to sessions that I only read about half of it last week. But today was my recovery day and I was able to finish it.

The book takes readers on Audubon's amazing journey through the natural world of early 19th century America, particularly Kentucky and Louisiana. We see unimaginably large flocks of Carolina parakeets and passenger pigeons. We wait on the edge of a cliff for an enormous eagle that Audubon eventually calls Bird of Washington and Souder makes an almost convincing case may actually have existed and is not, as is generally supposed, a case of misidentifying the juvenile bald eagle. We learn how Audubon posed dead birds in lifelike positions as models for his drawings. The latter part of the book, and Audubon's life, is somewhat less adventurous (although he still manages some wilderness travels) but contains fascinating details about producing Birds of America, Audubon's famous work.

28. attend a Chautauqua

2005-06-12T16:33:00.000-05:00

Today I am 43 years old and one month and I get to check off my first "thing." Attending a Chautauqua is well worth doing.

Part of my enjoyment came from returning to my hometown and being part of the community. But I also think it would be rewarding for someone on vacation in a new place. For example, Heartland Chautauqua goes to Osage Beach this week, the largest resort community on the Lake of the Ozarks. Tan-Tar-A is a favorite place of mine. I could definitely imagine a delightful week staying at Tan-Tar-A and attending Chautauqua events. So, if you get the chance, attend a Chautauqua!

28. attend a Chautauqua

2005-06-11T23:55:00.000-05:00

An Evening with George Washington Carver

I went to two of Paxton Williams' programs this week about George Washington Carver as an artist and teacher so I've become pretty familiar with the life and times of Dr. Carver. But I still learned new things tonight and was able to pull together for myself a good chronology of his life.

Dr. Carver was raised by Moses and Susan Carver who had owned, as a slave, George's mother. The Carvers cared so much for George's family that when the infant George, his sister, and his mother were kidnapped by night raiders, they hired a soldier to track them down. Only George was found. After the war, the Carvers raised George and his remaining brother who had not been kidnapped as their own.

The kidnapping left George a sickly child. "Aunt Sue," as young George called Mrs. Carver, taught him to clean, sew, and tend a garden. People around Diamond Grove, Missouri noticed that he was good with plants. Aunt Sue also taught George to read and write, but he was unable, because of his race, to go to the school there.

To get more schooling, he went to Neosho, Missouri where another family took him in as long as he did well in school and helped out around the house. He called the woman of that household, "Aunt Mariah." He remembered many bits of advice from Aunt Mariah, including:

find a cure for any ailment in nature

lift as you climb

go to church

From Neosho, he ended up in two different towns in Kansas. In one, he saw a man lynched, an incident that haunted him the rest of his life. In the other, he finished high school. After that he was accepted into Highland College in Kansas but was turned away from the door when they discovered he was black.

From there he homesteaded, worked as a chef in Iowa, studied art at Simpson College, and studied agriculture at Ames before taking the job at Tuskegee Institute that became his career and his life.

Tonight, our George Washington Carver said about racism that America is a bountiful nation, but it is also a wasteful nation. We throw away clothes that are out of style and plants that aren't growing precisely where we want them. We throw away people sometimes, too. We can make better use of our resources whether they are material goods, food items, or the minds and spirits of our citizens.