Pot Luck #57 - Texting

I am very familiar with sending text messages on my cell phone, I have been doing so for many years. I send about 2-3 text messages a day. If I am very busy and do not have time to chat on the phone with somebody, but I need to ask them a quick question, I just send them a text message. I am usually busy after work once I get home, because I have my routine where I cook dinner, eat, shower, then watch a dating game show and soap opera in the evening. I don't like being interrupted while doing any of those daily activities, so texting is a life saver. I visited the Lingo 2 Word website and it was very cool. I typed in "where are you" and it was translated to the text lingo "u@"; "how are you" was converted to "HRU"; "call me" was "911", which I do not agree with, because I don't want people thinking that I have an emergency, if I don't actually have one. I read the New York Times article on texting and driving and it discussed how dangerous this combination can be. There has been an increase in accidents over time, because people are distracted by texting and driving at the same time, sometimes it is even deadly. It also stated that a group representing emergency room doctors send out a warning in July against this dangerous combination, citing an increase in injuries and deaths in emergency rooms across the country.

Potluck #56 - Twitter

1. I visited two Twitter celebrity profiles, Ashton Kutcher & Britney Spears. They both posted short comments on what they are up to right now. Ashton had a lot of religious posts and said that he had finished reading "The Shack", and it "forces you to find the God like features in everyone and everything." I never pictured him as a spiritual guy, since he is always cracking jokes and trying to be mischevious. Britney's posts talked about her kids and her upcoming Circus concert. She also had posted pictures of her kids and concert appearances. She said that she had gone bowling a couple of days ago, so she seemed down to earth. I would probably search Twitter every now and then to get updates on the celebrities who have Twitter profiles.

2. I used the search feature and looked up "Austrian man." About 50 hits pulled up, and they were either links to articles or people's Twitter profiles, commenting on the Austrian man's case. He was sentenced to life in prison for his horrendous crimes: locking up his daughter for 24 years in a small room underneath his house, raping her at least 3,000 times, fathering her seven chidlren, and causing the death of his twin baby by not seeking medical help for him. All of the Twitter posts stated the same thing, he deserves life in prison and more!

Pot Luck #55 - Getting the Most out of Facebook

I had already signed up for a Facebook account about three months ago. I joined because a friend of mine had e-mailed me asking me to join Facebook and add them as a friend to my account. Facebook also suggested friends that I may know (by high school connection or other friends friends) and would want to add, so I added more friends this way. I don't visit Facebook on a daily basis, more like a monthly basis, so I had a few things waiting for me. I had two quizzes to take and I had a best friend request. The application that I added was the "add a fairy" selection. I named the fairy Bianca and I created a fairy garden named Serene. The garden will eventually contain colorful exotic flowers, tropical palm trees with coconuts, and a large waterfall that cascades into a pool with red rose petals floating around. The fairy garden gives you gold coins and bonus diamonds, depending on the different games that you play and by joining the garden. I played the magical mushrooms game and the object of the game was to match up two mushrooms that contained the same amount of gold coins underneath it. Towards the end, I had collected 60 gold coins and it was time to go shopping! I bought a flower pot for 5 gold coins, a new seed (cumulus albiflorus) worth 3 gold coins, and a sprinkling of water for 1 gold coin. If I don't log onto Facebook within 48 hours, my plant will never grow and it will die.

Books, Readers, and Beyond - #54 Social Networking Through Books

1. I have never been a member of a book club. Octavia Fields’ Read It and Eat It Book Club sounds fascinating though. I like the fact the members get to sample the recipes that are displayed in the books. If I were to join a book club, I would probably do it in person as opposed to online. I think it would be more entertaining in person, especially if I get to sample food!

2. I visited the Reading Group Guides website and they had some suggestions for implementing a book club in a library. They mention that an ideal group size would be between 8-12 people. Less than 8 people might lead to fewer discussions and more than 12 people may cause some members not to be heard. Members need to be dedicated and commit to attend the book club meetings. Notices on bulletin boards or word of mouth can trigger new members to sign up for the book club. A good title to discuss at a book club is The Break-Up Diet: A Memoir by Annette Fix. I found this book on the Reading Group Guides website, and they also provide discussion questions for the book, a big plus!

3. I searched The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks on the website Shelfari and it contained 618 reviews. They were mostly all positive and the majority of the reviewers gave the book very high remarks. But, many comments stated that the movie was better than the book. I also visited the Good Reads website and discovered that A LOT of people have read this book. The book received the following star ratings : 5*(by 11,089 readers), 4* (by 8,456 readers), 3* (by 5,169 readers), 2* (by 2,032 readers), and 1*(by 1,209 readers). So overall, The Notebook is a highly loved book!

Books, Readers, and Beyond- #53 Finding Books Online

1. These are the three booksellers that are the closest to my job, which I found by doing a Google search: Major Books Incorporated (7205 Fannin), Inner Harmony Books (2616 S Loop W #602), & Brazos Bookstore (2421 Bissonnet). The only bookstore that had a website was the Brazos Bookstore. They do have an online presence, because their website is very organized. It looks similar to a public library’s website, since they include a search feature that allows customers to search for a specific book in their collection. They also have updates on author appearances and upcoming events.

2. I found The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks for sale at the Brazos Bookstore. The HBK sells for $20.00, the Mass Market PBK for $7.99, the Trade PBK for $13.99, and they do have an audio version (CD) for $14.98.

3. I downloaded an e-book from the planetpdf.com website. The book was called Vanity Fair and it contained 1,396 pages. This was my first time downloading and reading an e-book, and it was quite a challenge. First, I tried downloading an e-book from the HCPL website, but I couldn’t do it from my computer (our computers are not set up to do this), so I ventured over to the planetpdf.com website. Reading an e-book from the computer is very different from holding an actual print copy. It doesn’t have that curl in your couch with a warm blanket and good book feel. It feels more like reading a very long document and I know my eyes will get tired faster from staring at the computer screen for so long. I do like the fact that you can download an e-book from a computer whenever you want though, especially if you are bored and don’t have a print book at hand.

Books, Readers, and Beyond- #52 What to Read

1. One of my favorite books is The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks. I searched Novelist Plus to find a read-alike and it displayed 5 different authors with the recommended books that they wrote : Emily Grayson (The Gazebo), James Michael Pratt (The Last Valentine, The Lighthouse Keeper, Ticket Home), Richard Paul Evans (Christmas Box trilogy, The Last Promise), Lynne Hinton (Friendship Cake), K. C .McKinnon (Candles on Bay Street). I also performed the same search at the “What Should I Read Next” website and it pulled up 10 different authors. The only record that was identical to the Novelist Plus search was The Christmas Box by Richard Paul Evans. The rest of the records contained different titles & authors. I also searched “Morton Grove Public Library’s Webrary” and the read-alike search displayed 12 hits. This website had 3 identical records to the Novelist Plus search, so it is very similar to it. I might just read those three books (The Christmas Box, The Gazebo, & The Last Valentine) and be the judge of the similarities.

2. I searched the DAWCL (Database of Award-Winning Children’s Literature) website and found two books for the fourth grade girl who is interested in animals (Bad Kitty Gets a Bath / by: Nick Brue & Charlotte’s Web / by: E. B. White). I also found two books for her thirteen year old brother who is interested in ghost stories (The Haunting / by: Margaret Mahy & Dead Connection / by: Charlie Price).

3. Novelist Plus recommends authors Greg Bear (Darwin’s Radio & Vitals) and Dan Simmons (Summer of Night). The “What Should I Read Next” website recommends Privileged Information by Stephen White. These are the Dean-Koontz read-alikes.

4. The series title is “Song of the Lioness”. These are the books in order: 1. Alanna: The First Adventure, 2. In the Hand of the Goddess, 3. The Woman Who Rides Like a Man, 4. Lioness Rampant. I obtained this information from Mid-Continent Public Library’s website.