Monday, April 29, 2013

How I Met a Dancing Banana

I mentioned in 'So Many Books, So Little Time' that I work in a small public library.  In addition to that I am also a student enrolled in library courses through the local community college.  I'm not entirely sure what my ultimate education goals are gong to be, but I do know that by May 2014 I hope to have a certificate in Library and Information services along with my Associate of Arts.  After that we'll see what happens.

As part of my continuing education, I get to participate in self discovery programs where I can choose a topic to read about, learn a procedure, then complete a small assignment.  My post today is about one of those assignments.

The assignment was to learn a little about WeGif.com, a snazzy little site that lets you upload 2-20 pictures and turn them into an animated GIF file.  Easy enough.  The trouble came when I was trying to figure out what I was going to photograph and animate.
 
I wanted to catch one of my cats doing something cute, but anyone who has ever tried to photograph a cat knows that they never do what you want them to when the camera is out.  My next thought was that I would bake something, and photograph the sequence of events that go into making, say a cake.

That was my plan, I was going to take an afternoon and make something delicious and photograph the process.  However a stroke of luck and a moment of inspiration struck as I was out on a errand.

We drove by a dancing banana.


Dancing Banana by magicthedragon on WeGIF

The young lady and her friend were advertising for their parents garage sale, and were kind enough to let me photograph them for my project.

It's not the greatest dancing banana GIF ever, but I think it's kind of cute, and with practice a person could probably become quite proficient at using this program.

How does this pertain to libraries?  Right off I can think of one really useful application in using it to make nifty little animations for the libraries website.  Something fun and kind of flashy can add a sense of whimsy to the children's page, or advertise an upcoming book sale, or sum up the summer reading program.  Animations tend to get attention in a way that still images don't.

I intend to share this nifty little program with the lady at our library who manages the libraries Facebook page and see where she runs with it.  As for myself, I think I still want to make a cake GIF, and if I can ever get them to cooperate, a GIF of my kitties doing something insanely cute.

Tuesday, April 23, 2013

So what do you guys think of the design so far?

So I've been tweaking the design of the blog quite a bit. While some of the css rules are still defined by blogger's advanced template, I'm doing what I can to set up an explicit list of custom rules with my own css. I've got most of the ground rules laid down and I've been spending most of my night tweaking the css whitespace and rule grouping to be easier to modify. Link colors are still handled by Blogger's "normal" advanced interface, but I'm probably going to state the rules for those in my custom css, too. I think it's easier to work with a css file than it is to work with Blogger's interface, actually. I find a css to be both easier to modify and more controllable.

I'll probably be toying with it just a bit more either tonight or tomorrow. Feel free to tell me what you think of the new look in the comments!

Monday, April 22, 2013

It's Ice Cream! Sort of...

The other day when I was grocery shopping, I came across this little gem as I was wandering through the freezer aisles.
That's right people...150 calories for the whole container.

I had heard of this product before, Amazon.com has recommended it to me whenever I buy Miracle Noodles*.  I considered buying it, but the shipping made it exorbitantly expensive.  So I was quite excited when I found it at our local Wal-Mart.

There were three flavor options at the store, verses the seven standard flavors listed on Arctic Zero's website.  I purchased two pints, the Chocolate and Chocolate Peanut Butter.  The third option available was Vanilla Maple, and I'm really not a fan of maple flavoring.

Now I have a bit of a problem when it comes to ice cream, I REALLY like it.  I love how the pint cartons say four servings.  HA! Like anyone stops at a half a cup of ice cream.  So finding a low calorie ice cream option is pretty much a dream come true.

The Nutrition Info
I've had both pints now and here's my analysis:

It's OK...for something where the first ingredient is purified water.  If you're dieting and 'need' to eat ice cream it would be a good substitute.  It's also lactose intolerant friendly, and gluten free so it could be a good option for people with those food sensitivities.


The flavor is pleasant, but faint.  When I had the Chocolate Peanut Butter, I really couldn't taste any peanut butter.  The plain Chocolate held up better.  If they ever have the Strawberry there I will get it and update with a review, I have a feeling fruit flavors might be a bit more robust.  I did eat the whole pint in one sitting, and after my tummy was full and I felt refreshed, so I will probably buy them again.

Sunday, April 21, 2013

Meet The New Design Master

Hey there, everyone! Miss Nomers needed someone to help her tweak the design of her blog. That would be me. I'll be helping Miss Nomers customize the look of her blog.

It's amazing how much you can finely tune a blog's look with just a little bit of CSS and a little bit of HTML to apply your CSS rules.

Because It wasn't Important to the Plot...

I just stayed up until 6:00a.m. watching "How I Met Your Mother" (I have no regrets). Part of what kept me intrigued for so long was a stunning plot twist a few episodes back. A plot twist that didn't pan out, or possibly was discarded by the writers. I suppose we'll never know for sure.

But it got me thinking...

How many stories are there in our lives, how many tales that never get told, because in the end it isn't 'important' in the story of us?

Predawn, in my backyard.

How do we determine what is important?  How do we decide what we share and pass on, and what we forget?

It's the age old question... do our  experiences shape us, our do we shape our experiences?

Right...enough existential quandary for one night/day. I'm off to sleep.

Saturday, April 20, 2013

Blood In, Blood Out

You can't see it, but under the bandage a wicked bruise is forming.
A few days ago I went and participated in a local blood drive.  Now I'm not squeamish when it comes to needles, but it ended up taking four tries to find my vein.

I tell everyone who has to draw blood from me that my veins are difficult to find/get to.  For some reason no one ever seems to believe me.  This time the lady said "Oh, everyone says that.  You'll be OK, I'm very picky about veins".

Then she found one and marked it, then she felt again, and it moved so she marked me again.  Then she thought she had it so she inserted the needle...

It didn't go in the vein, and she tried twice more before calling over her supervisor who was finally able to find the vein.  I would like to note here that the people collecting blood at Red Cross blood drives are not nurses, just trained volunteers.  I didn't know that.  I don't want to scare anyone off of donating, but I thought it was interesting.

After that, things went smoothly for awhile.

Once they obtained the pint and the vials for testing, they removed the needle and bandaged me up.  At this point you're supposed to lay still for about 15 minuets or so.  I did, and I drank some juice, I did everything they told me.

It took an hour for the nausea and dizziness to go away.  Though I have to say I never passed out like I did the last time I gave blood.  It took three cranberry juices and a turkey sandwich and I was OK.

At the end they gave me this nice gift bag full of an assortment of small items (some candles, trial sized hair products, etc.)

The moral of this story is; If your blood is difficult to obtain, and you seem to have a hard time during the donation process, you get presents for your troubles.

 

Tuesday, April 16, 2013

So Many Books, So Little Time

If you've read my profile, then you know that I work in a library.  If you haven't read it, well that's OK, I'm telling you now, I work in a library.  It's a small library by most standards, but I think that they have done an excellent job over the years building a diverse collection that appeals to all different types of readers.

Adult Fiction, Large Print, and Reference Section at my library.
One of my favorite tasks at work is to shelve books.  I come across so many great titles, and I find myself contemplating subjects that I would probably never think of to read about on my own.  For instance, I've recently developed a taste for pop psychology books.

In fact, they replaced cheesy vampire romance novels for my guilty pleasure reading.

One I read not too long ago was Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely.  It was a fun book, refuting the common belief that human beings act and respond rationally.  The author cited some good research, and conducted some tests of his own, and he presents his case very eloquently.  However, a month after reading the book, I couldn't tell you more than that.

A few other titles I've read are How We Decide by Jonah Lehrer, Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking by Susan Cain, and Bright-Sided: How Positive Thinking is Undermining America by Barbara  Ehrenreich.  Of those three titles I remember even less, except that I enjoyed reading them.

So the problem is that even though I enjoy these books, they don't stick with me.  I can tell you more about the plots of the cheesy vampire romance novels than I can tell you about the subjects and research in these books.  To me that's what qualifies them as a guilty pleasure.