a 24th thing

Last year when I was appointed to the campus EAP board I was curious about how the service has changed since it have been contracted to Human Solutions  One aspect of their services is a website chock full of resources from articles and newsletters on specific topics to a personal health assesment tool that lets you track and store information on a secure site for yourself and your family  to mulimedia e-courses on things like taking control of stress or retirement planning.  Given the computer savvy nature of this workplace I was shocked at the low utilization stats on this resource.

Then I found out why.

I tried registering on the site and did not get my confirmation and password email.  I waited.  I waited some more.  I called their 1-800 number where a helpful person suggested I try clicking on the 're-send my password' button and then checking my spam report.  Still no sign of it.  Though I did report the possibility that people registering using a U of S email account might have their confirmation going into the spam file to the Board and HR person in charge.

It has taken a while, but finally this registration/password notification bug is fixed. (it was getting eliminated at our end as unwanted spam and not even clearing into the "suspected spam" report that we receive - someone in IT had to "whitelist" the sender)

So even though this online resource is not part of the 23 things, it is part of your compensation as a U of S employee and has a variety of topics covered from parenting skills to pre-retirement planning. I think this is a subtle and convenient medium for delivering advice and information on sensitive issues. 

By the way, in the process of exploring the site and testing the registration process I did manage to register very easily using a gmail account, as did a couple of colleagues who helped me test it with their campus, as well as Shaw and hotmail accounts - so you can use a personal email to register if you prefer. BUT now the campus email works too.

Another book (book 5)

Castle Waiting by Linda Medley is a graphic novel which is now enjoying popular success after a difficult effort at self publishing.  Read all about it on this blog.

brilliant observation

Vagueness  by Clark Whelton - sort of thing the Shoemaker might enjoy

"The decline and fall of American English, and stuff"

Time for another book

Who knew the periodic table could be so fascinating? The Disappearing Spoon is a romp of colourful characters, interesting adventures, and very well explained science.

Full title: The Disappearing Spoon: And Other True Tales of Madness, Love, and the History of the World from the Periodic Table of the Elements  by Sam Kean  Please don't recall our copy - I have it in the Chemistry display.

out there in the ether

Google Documents do work seamlessly  - I had not been tempted to try them before but now that I understand the shared editing capacity I can really see the appeal.  I had a conversation about google documents on my way to work this morning - which being the break and being here earlier (early is a concept that I am generally allergic to) I have been getting rides with the resident tech support instead of plodding though the snow. (not only does he fix printers, get the lids of jars and remember the co-op number, he reaches things on high shelves AND drives a car to work) 

The idea of storing stuff on free server space out there seems just a little nervous making.  What happens if the great google disappears - how dependent should we allow ourselves to be on this benevolent web based empire?

yes it is a hollow fear - the documents can be downloaded for local warehousing as well.

But setting that aside what a better way to share documents than the tedious MS office  which is always upgrading and leaving one third of the various committee members behind and unable to open the agenda or minutes and the recently upgraded folks not geeky enough to grasp the concept of  saving things as text files or in previous incarnations of word.

Google documents - very collaborative friendly.  We have come a long way from copying things out on velum.

The madness continues

 It was a long weekend - I spent as little time as possible near a computer, I tried the tomato (below) I started on the pea pod...two sets of dpn's feels like I am holding a little hedge hog as I knit. 

Book 3

The Archimedes Codex: revealing the secrets of the world's greatest palimpsest by Reviel Netz and William Noel.

When you work in a library, stumbling across fascinating books is a bit of an occupational hazard.  I have been reading this one during my lunch breaks for a while.  It's part of our Popular Science Collection.

"At 2pm on October 29th, 1998, at Christie’s auction house in New York, a very special old book was sold to an anonymous collector for $2,000,000. This collector deposited the manuscript at The Walters Art Museum in Baltimore in order to conserve it, image it, and study it. The book is special because it contains seven treatises by the ancient Greek mathematician Archimedes. Two of these treatises, The Stomachion and The Method exist nowhere else in the world."

So part of it reads like the script for an action thriller - who is this anonymous collector? Part of it takes you back to the scholarship of Archimedes - ancient communications - I just read a lovely bit about how scrolls of papyrus which were made in Egypt, shipped to Syracuse and Archimedes  carefully wrote down his findings in the form of a letter to Eratosthenes in Alexandria. - so that scroll made it's way back to Egypt. That we know about it is mere happenstance and it provides a great example of how remarkable the codex find is in itself. Medieval repurposing the original treatises into a prayer book and the late 20th century imaging technology to read the original manuscript and how it all comes together - a true story that makes Dan Brown's fictional concoctions pale in comparison without any of Brown's gratuitous sex and violence.

Google Reader

Hoo Hah this little 'thing' seemed to set itself up. I was already logged into my 23things account in another program and when I opened Google Reader in another tab to take a look - hey presto! it populated itself with all the blogs I follow and the news gadgets from I-google. To paraphrase Mehitabel (one of my literary heroines) : "Archy what in hell have I done to deserve all these applications"  Now I just have to see if there are design customizations.

Friday wind up

So today I took time to browse some of the other 23 thing blogs. WOW excellent participation and some really interesting blogs folks! Idj (my resident geek who is also great at getting the lids off jars and reaching high shelves) remarked that the rhyme gadget was pretty lame and I agreed so it is gone! (it was ugly and rhyming "orange" with "bright orange" or "frog" with "tree frog" is not too useful).  Also I had to bring the finished eggplant into work for show and tell.  Yes my desk is a little more of a disaster because I am working on a display - and must make every effort to keep little knitted vegetables from invading it.

The 23 Things bit

Almost through week 2 and although I have worked on blogs before - I am trying out different features with this one.  After the I-Google assignment last week I got interested in 'gadgets'  not the odd little things I don't know what they are for that collect in the kitchen junk drawer or the basement tool box....you know "parts" of things that didn't fit when you put it together and the growing collection of Allen Wrenches.  So trying to find and control "gadgets" that I like has been a preoccupation. Alas like that physical junk some of them are sort of what you need but not quite.

For me 23 things is a exercise in "old dog + new tricks" and the books thing - well you know old dogs are often fond of our old tricks too.

woof woof

last night's book

Last night Beth and I had the first of our annual little series of Chap Book workshops at Art Placement as part of their February paper and book making supply sale. This year we have been learning the Coptic stitch style of binding and this book was one of the samples I made a few weeks ago using up some of my stash of paper scraps. 

 

so far my favorite resource on a simple but elegant way to sew up a book  using the coptic stitch is a series of youtube clips by jaescala ( University of Wisconson Art Professor Jim Escalente )

It's wonderful to have such a great resource available online but it is really nice to get together on a cold winter night in a warm bright gallery with a dozen people and play together at learning how to do it.

more stuff related to yesterday's book

http://www.yarnharlot.ca/blog/ Stephanie Pearl-McPhee  has published some fine books of that select genre "knitting humour" her blog is fun too.

AND my copy of the book arrived yesterday! and the eggplant is growing well.

today's book

Amigurumi Knits

by Hansi Singh

No I don't know how to pronounce it but I think it is highly addictive.  Last week it I saw it on my friend Lynne's coffee table - it was a public library book, she was leaving on a trip, she gave it to me.  Yesterday when I renewed it in my name at the Francis Morrison Branch, it took a little fiddling because it was from another branch, the Library Assistant looked at it and said "we should have a copy of this one - do you mind if I show it to the person who does the ordering.  By the time she was back there were now 3 library staff admiring it.  I am two thirds of the way through the egg plant.  With any luck my very own copy will be between the doors when I get home.

picture courtesy of Amazon - you need to follow the title link to actually look inside.