It's snowing, and it's beautiful outside. I stayed after work to play with 23 Things. I attempted Meebo, but didn't know it would latch onto a user name as my main identity, so I'm trying to get rid of it. It's off my blog, but not the Meebo account. Obviously, there aren't always easy 'takebacks' with these many accounts. That's somewhat frustrating if I enter without knowing what to expect in the outcome.

I'll play more with it later. I looked over the calendars and just thinking of another calendar anywhere in my life makes me feel as if I'm being sucked into a mire.I have groupwise and I have my wirebound planner. If I added another, I may not be able to function. Calendars at home are for things like recycling day, etc. My life is in my wirebound. Maybe I'd use an online overlay calendar if I were using my laptop all the time, but I need more memory, but can't afford it right now.

After work on Friday I spent several hours at a coffee shop 'reorganizing' my next week. It calmed me to make that transition. I had sent letters out for the second of several meetings I'm facilitating with absentee landlord/property owners and neighborhood residents. The first meeting went really well, stayed focused, on time, and resulted in do-able action/goals. The second meeting will be even more focused and, I hope, flow just as nicely and be as productive as the first.

Participating in Wilder Foundation's Neighborhood Leadership Program has been even better and more applicable than I had earlier thought. It's a great program and worth the time. Our session started in October and we'll 'graduate' April 28. I'll miss my group.

Back to the calendar. I'm visual, and using highlighters and different colors of ink for a series of meetings works for me. I need my calendar with me at all times and life is fluid enough that I want to make changes right away. A good friend could give me a blackberry, I suppose.....

I've signed up for a class: 'Community Organizing and Social Action'. That should come as no surprise to those who know me! I need a class to energize me right now. So, in my spiral bound, it was somewhat easy to x out my Senate District meetings twice a month and insert my classes, simply because I need that break.

Neighborhoods....the real connections (new photos at end of this post)

Three hook and ladders, two ambulances and two or three smaller fire trucks (I lost count, but was impressed) wailed up to the front of Polly’s coffee house (on Payne Ave.). This seemed an apt welcoming as I made my first visit to grid 34 to listen to another neighborhood group and learn what they are doing to improve their area.

I stood outside and watched the firefighters enter the frame ‘for sale’ house next door, evacuate the young resident, and disperse the smoke. On the sidewalk Polly’s Saturday regulars gathered; some took charge of two dogs from the house and calmed them inside Polly’s. A young woman from the apartment above Polly’s then took charge of the woeful animals and took them upstairs to her apartment.

A man within the sidewalk group acknowledged me as if he knew me. I flipped though my mental facebook and contact list and was pretty sure I hadn’t met him before, but find that with involvement with a number of diverse groups around the cities I can’t always instantly place people. …instead I start what a friend calls my friendly interrogation, asking what kinds of groups is the person in, and reel off some of mine; where does the person live or work; and disclose mine. Usually we find the common ground and more memory.

He thought I was a person who lived a few blocks away. I explained I had been in this neighborhood quite often, but had never stopped at Polly’s. He gave me his name and I exclaimed, ‘You’re the reason I’m here!’ A colleague from the Wilder Neighborhood Leadership Program I’m in thought Larry would be a helpful connection for me with my neighborhood efforts. I spent the rest of the morning listening to their initiatives, grid planning, neighborhood boundaries, and resident activism. Side conversations took on quiet, unobtrusive lives outside of the primary dialogue.

On the periphery a chess tournament with prizes was being pulled together for youth at the Arlington branch library; two persons brought in prizes and chess sets. The subject of serving on a board briefly surfaced; then a swapping of gardening books. An exchange of nformation reached out to several within the group, and was then enhanced when two new arrivals were identified to me as master gardeners. Larry shared their ideas on fundraisers and the influence they’ve found in applying ideas from Jay Walljasper’s The Great Neighborhood Book: a do-it-yourself guide to placemaking. One of Walljasper's points was that a great neighborhood has boundaries and a coffee shop. I've got the book and am moving it to the front to read.

Finished with their call, firefighters came in for coffees and lattes. Several of us expressed our thanks for their quick response and the work they do. One told me he used to live in Dayton’s Bluff; for various reasons, we tend to see more than our share of fire department responses in my area.

I considered my Saturday morning both fruitful and enjoyable. Joining the Saturday Polly’s group was like visiting with my parents and three sisters at the table years ago. My then husband couldn’t understand how we could all talk at once and still hear each other, let alone carry on several conversations and not be enveloped in any sense of chaos. Polly’s group felt like family…and all are welcomed! ###My slide show disappeared and haven't been able to re-apply it yet...go to blog: 'walkonmyearth' to see it.

Note on LibraryThing

I just read the latest 23 Things News. I can't say enough positive about LibraryThing. I've been a member since February of 2007. The site is constantly being improved for and with the help of its users. Though I don't get to it every day (I am behind in cataloging, but not TOO bad), I am constantly finding new tools on the site, and generally enjoy browsing other libraries, stats and background info.

When I came upon the 'Local' addition the other day, I added one of my favorite independent bookstores, Common Good Books (I keep telling the staff about the site, but I don't know if anyone has connected with it).

I've also suggested LibraryThing, and demonstrated it to our Teaching and Learning Center person as a way to catalog their book collection. LibraryThing has special groups for nonprofits. Many university and college departments use LibraryThing for their curriculum collections.

The other day I discovered I could introduce author information, so I entered information on one of our faculty authors. Much of LibraryThing is a Wikiexperience!

Wish I had been there.....

My son sent this video to me, saying he knew that if I had been in NYC when this was initiated, I would have been there participating....he knows me like I know which Girl Scout cookies to send!
I'm having trouble putting this video on my blog. It's a Maniac World video and I can't find a code. So, it's not how I wanted to do it, but here's the link:
http://www.maniacworld.com/frozen-in-grand-central-station.html

03/12/2008PS: I did try the hints on adding a 'non-YouTube' video (cookies, pop-up, etc.) but was told by our helpdesk people that a code was not accessible. If anyone out there has a suggestion to try something else, I'm open to suggestions. I'll go back and try again in a few days - sometimes a bit of space is all that's really needed.

"Understanding how students use technology...."

This was a talk given this afternoon by John O'Brien, Ph.D., Academic VP, Century College. He presented at Metropolitan State: "Understanding how students use technology provides the basis for understanding their changing expectations for instruction and campus services." Besides a charming presence and animated wit, O'Brien offered instruction and resources for our audience. I found it especially helpful because it ties in so beautifully with '23 Things'.

I don't know if you can find a video of John's presentation or one similar to it, but here is his reference website; the website, http://johnobrienpersonal.googlepages.com/webography , is all references used in his talk and may be totally disconnected out of context. Explore, and I'm sure you'll find stimulating information for thought and discussion.

On trading cards and recitation

Last night I was thinking of uses for trading cards. Yes, I could do political ones, but I was thinking of using them for poetry, speeches, and books read. Each card would have a point value, based on what, I don't yet know, perhaps poetry or speeches memorized or read. I could hand them out to neighborhood kids. About twelve 'leaders of tomorrow' wait at my corner at 7:30 each morning for their school bus...maybe I could interest them in hot cocoa and poetry?

Has poetry and speech memorization been tossed with all the negativity of 'rote memorization'? 'Eggbert the Easter Egg' was a poem I was assigned to memorize in 4th grade. From then on through 8th grade it was Frost, Sandburg, Gettysburg Address, scenes from Hamlet, poetry by Vachel Lindsay, Longfellow, etc. We had to stand in front of the class for recitation. Surely there was a value in this? Considering I was an extremely shy child, this, as unnerving as it could be, really helped in challenging me to come out of my meek self. For my continued love of the written word, etching poetry into my heart, and helping me to find my ground and my voice, Thank YOU, Mrs. Winifred Gravrok, from Bloomingdale, Illinois 7th grade!

My creation - Trading Card

My creation
Originally uploaded by finnflix

This is my trading card...writing a meaningful blurb is always the most difficult part. I was trying to edit the card but was thrown off course.

I feel privileged, blessed, that Sam is so much a part of my life. I count him as my most trusted friend. I admire him for his ethic, his ability to reach out to people, his wit; I respect him for how he leads his life, finding that balance of head and heart. He is wise and he is compassionate. At this point he would laugh in his resonant voice and say this sounds like an obituary!!

Contemplation on letterwriting

This morning another staff and I talked about blogging and I again recognized its connection for me - letterwriting and journaling (excuse the 'verbing'). I found that we shared an enjoyment of physically putting ink to paper. Besides realizing afterward that I must have droned on about my pure enjoyment of paper textures and weights, I also was reminded again of the satisfaction of both writing and receiving a posted piece of friendly mail!

Part of our conversation was on where to find writing paper. Wrapping paper from places like Wet Paint or the Paper Patisserie can be cut or torn down into writing paper size when one can't find 'real' writing paper. The decorative beauty on one side complements the personal message on the other!

I've always liked onion skin paper (also known in the past as 'airmail' paper). It's been difficult for me to find, even at the Hmong and Vietnamese shops on University. My son had found some in NYC's Chinatown, but hasn't come up with more.

I know there are shops online, but half the fun is in the touching. The other is shopping for it when I'm in the mood.

Lagging a bit

I'm lagging on my '23 Things' (salmonella last week). My last item was a third slideshow and I admit to feeling a bit of a glutton, working with the photos. But then I ran into a snag and it took me much, much longer to do this third show. I used a larger number of photos and had to add them to PictureTrail in three batches, with a different title to each batch. Then when clicking on the thumbnails, one photo from batch 'b' made its way into batch 'a'. I had to work around that several times, so I now feel appeased in my gluttony because I learned something else!

I spent some time reading about the communication tools and may or may not add something to my blog site. I definitely will be playing with some in the next week as I can use them in my 'extracurricular' activities.