741.6 WriteOnIt: Another Image Generator

Librarian Philospher passed this site on to me! Write On It.

Played around a little.

Add it to your image generator collection.
Caution: some of the frames may not be appropriate for young kids!

P.S. That's my Copper in the middle and the azaleas outside my front door in the bottom one! Springtime IS here!

688.7 Happy Birthday Barbie!

No picture of the original Barbie here...out of respect for the copyright notice on the web site stating that it is copyrighted material!

But that doesn't lessen the fact that I choose to celebrate the 50th "birthday" of an American icon. Yes, there are plenty of reasons to say otherwise...I have heard them all over the last 50 years.

I was seven, but I had to WAIT a WHOLE year until I was eight before she got to come live at my house. My birthday was only a few short weeks after hers so she was just one...and she was just a few months short of 50 when I laid her to rest...but that's a sad part of this story and this is day for happy stories!

I loved her. I didn't think she would ever be mine. My parents weren't much into "the latest and greatest" and turned deaf ears to such things as "EVERYBODY has one!"-type statements. At the time, she was hard to find and again, my parents not being super shoppers, well, it looked hopeless.

Now you have to understand...I was not a girly-girl. Anybody who knows me, can figure that pretty fast. I did lots of other things besides play dolls. I really don't remember the particular fascination with Barbie...even my mom didn't recall.

I DO remember the day however...only I didn't know at the time. All five of us were in the car driving from place to place and ended up at a drugstore ACROSS town one evening. My parents told my brothers and me to stay in the car...you could do that back in the 1950s. About 10 minutes later, they came out with a store sack...we didn't ask...we knew it would do no good. My parents were great parents...they just weren't free with information that they thought you didn't need to know!

About 3 days later, I turned 8. My party consisted of a group of 7 friends, my mom and me attending a ballet performance in our Sunday finest! It was grand and even more special because we got to stop afterwards and have ice cream sodas. That's when she was presented to me...in front of my friends...with her golden blode ponytail and back & white striped swimsuit. That began some of the greatest times I ever remember. The last time I actually remember playing with her was in the summer I was 13 with my summer friend. We would spend hours making up adventures and changing her clothes to fit the adventure!

You see, back then (at least in my circle) you had ONE doll and you shopped for clothes and accessories. We poured over the catalogs, saved our babysitting money, and put our choices on Christmas and birthday lists. And we NEVER messed with her hair!

When Barbie turned 25, I was back into the Barbie business but as the mother of two girls eventually! You bought all kinds of theme-Barbies that came with special outfits and accessories. My girls didn't have many extra outfits; they had big storage boxes of Barbies...all with messed up hair!

Things changed, but things stayed and continue to stay the same. Barbie is fun. Barbie is magic. Barbie is memories!

Happy 50th Birthday Barbie!

More stuff about Barbie and the celebration

http://barbiestyle.barbie.com/history.html

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/life/main/6300277.html Barbie trivia quiz

http://barbie.everythinggirl.com/

028.6 Cybil Awards for the 3rd Time

The winning titles of the Cybil Awards for the 2008 year have been announced and can be reviewed here in detail.

I love the nonfiction picture book Nic Bishop's Frogs selection of course...in fact used it in a catalog class situation last week. It is a perfect example of why kids can't get enough visually-stimulating science books! Here is a podcast with the author of the winning book from the Just One More Book site!

The only other winner I am familiar with enough to even mention knowing is the haunting, somewhat disturbing, YA novel Hunger Games. So much to think about on many levels.

Information about past winners can be found here for 2006 and here for 2007.

Happy Reading!

551.5 Winter Weather in Texas: Never a Dull Moment!

I had an opportunity to do a 1200-mile circle around part of Texas about a week ago and got to see the effects of weather in several ways...the terrible effects of drought in central Texas, the wild winds of the West Texas Plains...and the freakness of a hailstorm that happens when a cold front meets warmer air coming up from the Gulf! Earlier this school year, we got to experience a little snow at home in Houston. Take a look at what I ran into coming down off the Caprock between Post and Snyder! NO...it is not snow...it is hail and thank goodness it fell about a hour before I passed thru the area...or my cute red car may have been pelted and dented!

741.6 ObamiconMe: A "Sign" of the Times

The Obama Hope campaign poster ...and the more recently created inauguration poster ...by Shepard Fairley have inspired another creative group to develop ObamicomMe, an image generator where you and I can play around with the technique. Here are few of my favorites from the gallery of creations.

From these examples above, I see lots of ways they can be used in libraries and classrooms. Don't you?

Here are some of my efforts.

It does require you to register in order to save your creations, but it is super easy and a whole lot of fun!

image 1 & 3 of my creations: Microsoft Clipart

image 2: personal colection

025.8 Adminstrators' Conference: The Value of Libraries

Are you a TEXAS SCHOOL Librarian?

If so, have you nominated your principal, your assistant principal, or other administrator to attend the 5th Annual Strong Libraries, Strong Scores Administrators Conference to be held Wednesday, April 1st during the Texas Library Association Conference in Houston? The nomination process has begun.

Nominate

Restricted to TEXAS School Administrators & Trustees

The administrators will hear how strong school library programs CAN positively effect TAKS scores. The evidence will be presented by nationally-known experts and teams of successful administrators and their librarians. There will opportunity to share experiences and ask questions on how to make current programs better!

Questions?

973.932 A Sign of the Times: What a Difference a Day Makes

I clicked a bookmarked site this evening (that I had just used yesterday) to do some fact checking and presidential trivial surfing and look what I got! The furniture movers who changed out two households in a matter of hours were not the only ones busy making change happen today!

Not to worry...all the stuff you are used to finding at http://www.whitehouse.gov/ is still there. It's just been virtually moved around a bit. The search box allows you relocate your information!

973.092 Presidential Facts: Trivial Fun for an Important Historical Day

With these simple, few words

I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States.

a major cornerstone of the process we in this country hold dear took place for the 44th time today as the 43th man to do so took the oath of office and became President of the United States.

Despite all the campaigning, the talking, the debating, the wheeling and dealing, the compromising, the organizing, the planning, it really comes down to those few words that brings about the transition...the change...in the power of our government.

It is amazing in its simplicity.

***************

Now for the traditional first facts portion of my thoughts.

It was reported recently that Barack Obama official photograph is the first to be taken with a digital camera...no film to fade or get scratchy, disintegrate, or fall apart!

President John Quincy Adams was the earliest person who served as president to be photographed by the Bishop & Gray Gallery although his picture was not taken until 1843, some 14 years after his 1825-1829 term ended.

There seems to be some controversy over who was the first sitting president to be photographed, but general consensus gives the honor to James K. Polk, the 11th President who served from 1845-1849. The reason for the confusion is that Matthew Brady and his team of photographers and other photographers of the time were busy taking pictures of lots of famous people and dates were not always carefully noted. Some important photos include only ranges of years as the time marker!


The missing piece of my historical puzzle is which president is the first to be photographed in color? The best guess I could determine in the small amount of time I allowed myself to research this trivia is that there exists a piece of colored film of President William Henry Taft made in 1912 that was put through a process to created a colored single frame or "picture" of the 27th president.

Why does this photographic history pf presidents interest me? I take digital pictures...love the ease of them, but worry like a old person of the 20th century that I have nothing to "hold on to" for 99% of the pictures I have taken for about the last 5-6 years except for a computer file "somewhere" on some computer, old or new, while at least 2 dozen years of personal history taken on film are neatly filed away in boxes..to become faded, scratchy, disintegrated relics of times gone by!

O, yeah, and a simple little picture that I personally own that was created by the Brady team that contains the likenesses of 6 participants of the Civil War...among them, a gruff-looking, old codger with whom I share a family tie (and unfortunately, a familiar look)...and one of his staff members who later became the 23rd President of the United States, Benjamin Harrison!

Will I share this photograph? You bet...just as soon as I find the digital copy I carefully put away...somewhere!



P.S. This post also contains my favorite piece of presidential trivia no matter who is president. I love to ask "how many people have served as president?" and have them give me the number of presidents we have had. Why do these 2 numbers not match? The same person served as both the 22nd and 24th Presidents. Now it's your turn to figure out who! :-)

"Artwork" of the oath created using Wordle.
Photographs from Library of Congress files.

363.12 The Hudson Miracle

I have been watching the news on the Hudson River air crash the last few days and have truly been amazed at the stories that have come out of the event.

The Captain and his strength, ability and level-headedness at landing the plane so carefully is of course, a wonderful part of the miracle that occurred. But the individual challenges of all aboard are really something. Everyone helped each other, pitched in where it was needed, gave a hand out or an encouraging word...and turned the praise they received back towards the others.

And the images...gives new meaning to the old saying "on a wing and a prayer."

953.63 The Qatar Experience: A Worthy Flat Classroom Adventure

Early last month, I posted about a group of SBISD students who are trying to collect funds to help them attend the Flat Classroom Project Conference in Qatar next week.

The group did not meet their goal of raising enough money for all 9 students to attend, but came together, adjusted their plans, and now have three students and two teachers ready to go. The students still need some dollars for their expenses...meals, visas upon arrival, ground transportation and other incidentals needed for a few days in a foreign country.

The group embraced the goals of the program, worked hard with their fellow world-wide classmates, earned awards for some of their work, and have admirably represented what learning in the 21st century is. They DESERVE to be at the showcase...they NEED to be at the showcase representing all of us back home who are also working hard on transforming our learning, our teaching, our schools, our libraries, our world.

These kids have sacrificed much to reach this goal and so have their families. It has not been easy for anyone. Our area has been hit hard economically over the last several months...our community has been affected by the downturn in the general economy as has the rest of the country and the additonal punch that IKE caused to many of our neighbors and friends did not help! Donations have been hard to come by and many individuals in the area simply could not help when asked.

The group going only needs about $1000 more to cover everything. A thousand dollars for a life-changing experience.

The 4th student in line needs $3000 dollars to be able to jump on the plane with his classmates next Tuesday, January 21st. He has his passport...there's seat on the plane...and a spot in a hotel room. He's ready...except for $3000.

Please, readers of this blog...you regular readers and any new readers who may have been prodded by someone to read this post and its accompanying links...please go to the CHIPIN site and donate what you can.

Give up a coffee or two and give a kid a lift! It will give you a better buzz than the caffeine