ala mid-winter

My mom was in town last weekend for the American Library Association (ALA) mid-winter conference in Seattle. It was SO MUCH FUN! Primarily because I got to hang out with my mom -- but also because I got to meet all these cool librarians and get a little peak inside of their world and the world of information management. It was fascinating. Librarians are true activists. I was a little surprised by their constant activism -- it seems so natural to them that most didn't notice they were being activists! But every single one I talked to (and granted this was a skewed set as they were hanging out with my mum and she's always been an activist) was up to something to protect their library users' rights to information. They were concerned about censorship, about access to literature in book format or digital format. Across the board people were frustrated by internet laws that were trying to prohibit the content users could access.

There were a number of interesting trends:
(1) The Card Catalog is dead. Just knowing what one is dates you!
(2) Lots of questions around how to validate the source and credibility of online content. Can the internet be a resource of validated, citeable, information? There was a lot of discussion around this process of information validation online -- how do you know the quality of a source?
(3) Book length for kids has increased. This was interesting -- I heard repeatedly that kids are reading longer books post-Harry Potter. Apparently JK rowling's books showed readers that 400+ pages can be interesting!
(4) Science Fiction was huge at the conference. Everyone was talking about how they were expanding their shelf space to accomodate Sci-Fi. Particularly for teen readers. They love Sci-Fi, more so than fantasy.
(5) My Space - I met about 5 librarians who were putting their libraries up on myspace. They told me that their young readers use my space and if they can get them to use the library via my space, they have to be there. Fascinating.

The other fun thing we did? Crash parties. As with any good conference there are also a number of parties to go to! We went to one at the EMP -- the experience music project sponosored by Wiley Publishers. It was fun , I got to walk through a "history of hip hop" exhibit with my mum. The next party we went to was at the top of the space needle. However, it turned out that we had the wrong invite! They let us in anyways (it was supposed to be the Innovative party but instead we were at the Thomson Scientific party). Thomason was completely wonderful and the views from the top of the space needle were great.

All in all, I have to say that hanging out with Librarians was good times. I'd like to do it more often!

Natala

frozen tankini's and some other things about 2007

I promised to blog on thursday's. I'm going to add to that promise: I won't blog about the weather or my dog on thursdays after today. They are easy back-up posts -- as we all saw, Cuba is incredibly cute and ridiculous ( you should see the videos...) and well, I can talk about the weather for hours. Really. Now mind you, seattle has been having some interesting weather this season...but even so, linking to photos of snow, wind and power outages aren't the best blog fodder.. so on that note, here's my final thursday blog post with a bit on the weather.

So...I decided to do a Triathlon. Not just any triathlon, but an olympic-distance triathlon in Maui at the beginning of June. I'm *so excited*! I've done two sprint tri's before ... but i was honestly not sure I was in the right shape to do an olympic distance triathlon. Which, being a goal-oriented person, meant i had to do it. So I signed up via Team In Training and I start officially training in February. In order to prep, I've been swimming twice a week at the pro club. It's so much fun to be back in the pool. On Monday, I pulled my tankini out of my swim bag. I guess it had been a little bit wet from the last time I had swam. And it has been cold. Very cold. Well. My tankini was now FROZEN! Yep. What's a girl to do but swim in her frozen tankini? I had to shake out frozen bits from my swim cap too. Ah, the fun of training in a non-temperate weather zone.

Triathlon's weren't the only thing I've decided to tackle in 2007. I don't really make new year's resolutions, but i do pick focus areas. So what are my focus areas? Well, one is going to be my diet. I'm not going raw or any of those crazy things, I just want to eat good combinations of mostly organic, whole grain real foods. And lots of avocados. And blueberries. Maybe some papaya. And bacon. Always bacon... I'm also focused on optimizing my living spaces. My house is great. But now I want to tackle the outdoors. I'm going to completely revamp my yard space. I'm soooo excited. Expect at least one post on gardening. Finally, I'm going to launch at least one of my side projects this year. I can't wait. I'm so excited for 2007. So far, it's been awesome. Best year ever!

cuba libre

So, last June I got a dog. And by dog I really mean a micro-dog. A morkie to be exact. What is a morkie…well, let the Cuba FAQ explain it all!

Cuba?
Yes, that’s her name. We have a history in my family of naming our pets after locations. And she’s small, so a small name seemed appropriate. But she’s tough. So this one really fit. As far as I know, she isn’t a communist…but when she’s bad, I call her Fidel. Boys tend to call her Cuba Libre. Lately I’ve been calling her muffin. My family calls her “the morkie” and my office mate called her the “micro-dog.”

Morkie?
Yes, she’s a morkie. That’s a Maltese – Yorkshire terrier mix. Which means she’s a scruffy little mutt.

How big is she?
Well, she’s small. Really small. When I got her she was barely 2 lbs. She’s since DOUBLED in size since then to almost 4 lbs! She’s pretty much going to stay this size. It’s like she’ll be a puppy forever.

Does she have a job?
Yes. She’s the official morale generator for my team. She loves coming into the office and provides joy and humor for everyone.

What’s it like having a micro-dog?
It’s ridiculous. She has hair – not fur, so she actually gets cold and needs sweaters. She loves to go on long walks – but she’s slow. She sniffs everything. And she doesn’t really walk, she kinda hops and traipses and frolics. She provides constant amusement. And she never really barks or yaps – she’s not that kind of dog. The best part is that because of her size she can travel with me pretty much anywhere. We’ve been to California 4 times already. She loves brizzie. Everything brizzie does, she wants to do. It’s hilarious.

Net-net: she’s awesome. She may be small, but she’s all love and sweetness and a lot of cuteness.

me + weather

So, sometimes I forget that I now live in Seattle and that it might be raining or possibly *snowing* outside. Like today. I dressed as I would in California in January -- a light sweater, cute skirt and heels. I grabbed a scarf, because well, it is Seattle and out the door I went. 5 minutes later it was *SNOWING*! Yes, really. I had no idea that this could be possible. It didn't even cross my mind. I guess I am still in my Californian mindset that, on average, the weather will be pretty good and I can pretty much wear anything. This is soooo not the case in seattle. *sigh*...by the time I adapt i'll probably be back in CA!

On another note, one of my new year's resolutions is to blog every Thursday. Woohoo. I can blog on other days, of course, but i'm going to commit to Thursdays. Happy reading!