need calculator

Just a quick note before I drop into the bed, to see if anyone out there has a used TI-83 or 83+ they can part with... One of my students, who is in dire financial straits already, had hers stolen (along with a lot of other stuff, lots of it irreplaceable) from her mom's van on Saturday. She called tonight to ask if I knew of where to get another or if I had an extra I could loan her. So I'm putting the word out there, as I don't have an extra... Any help you can give will be much appreciated. Thanks!

Update: I have had at least one offer already (see comments) but if anyone else sends calculators (or if you are local I can pick them up) I will put them to good use. I always have or know students who are in need. Recently I have begun to do some volunteer GED tutoring and they need calculators, too.

For all you foodies out there...

Click on the title for an article that was in the Ch. Observer yesterday. I don't have time for a post right now -- I'm headed out the door to a long Thursday -- but thought I'd give everybody an opportunity to start the day with a chuckle, the same way I went to sleep last night after reading this article. (Apologies to Rachel Ray, wherever you are...)

collecting

Having seen Everything Is Illuminated* over the weekend, and having had discussions recently with various people about clutter (a perennial problem for me), this morning's StoryCorps segment immediately caught my attention... It is either a springboard for new ideas of things to "collect" or a cautionary tale -- I choose the latter :]

*The protagonist collects things... Everything Is Illuminated is a really good movie, and the soundtrack was especially wonderful. I think it would be even better on the big screen, as the scenery is beautiful as well. For you dog lovers out there: there's a dog in the movie that is absolutely fantastic. She was almost my favorite character, and she's in almost every scene.

Smiley Library

Last night while looking for links that discuss "book addiction" I discovered this humorous piece and through it found the blog Library Dust. My interest has been piqued, and this morning (when I ought to be getting ready to go to work) I started reading back posts from the beginning, and came across this one. It's all about Smiley Library! That's the public library in Redlands, CA, where my aunt and uncle and cousins have lived for the past 40+ years, and now my mother lives there, too. So I've been there lots of times. I even watched, with my dear cuz Mary, some of the filming of a movie there late one night a year or two ago. What a hoot that was! (I wish I knew what movie...)
Reading about Smiley brought back memories of visiting other libraries in small towns I have visited over the years. When my kids and I traveled (in their growing up years) we often visited towns and cities that were new to us. The two places we went to loved to explore in particular were the local grocery store and the library. In addition to Smiley Library, some libraries that stand out in my mind are the ones in Dublin, GA, Haddonfield, NJ, Burlingame, CA, Atlanta Ga (the old Carnegie library with its squishy floors and the Ida Williams branch, now the Buckhead branch) and the first library I ever went to, which was in Minneapolis, Minnesota -- it was a children's library and I loved it very much.
I'd put more links but I've gotta run!
Addendum: I left out two of the best libraries: The Public Library of Charlotte & Mecklenburg County and the York County Library. Both are fabulous!

Update: Now that I have posted this, the "Library Dust" blog has been taken down. The author has started a new blog, On the Job, but it just isn't the same!

Books, reading, and good news....

The thing about reading slowly that frustrates me is that there are waaay more books that I want to read at any given moment than I have time to read even if I had years to read them all... For example, I have three books on tape out from the library (I listen to these in the car; I'm currently in the middle of two of them) and I am reading at least four books (mostly from the library) and have at least two others out from the library that I want to get into asap -- one is about one of the current presidential candidates and the other is Perfectly Legal by David Cay Johnston, the author I referred to in yesterday's post. (I couldn't get his latest book at the library so I decided to try this one in the meantime.) Anyway, "book greed" is how I like to think of it, but that's really too charitable a description. There was a period of about 6-8 years when I couldn't get through even the shortest novel (for reasons that are still somewhat unclear to me) but ever since I got back into reading a few years back it's become sort of an obsession. When I was a kid I read all the time (albeit very slowly) and now I feel as though I am getting like that again.

On another topic: I have my first real Rock Hill student next Friday! Finally the next phase of the transition has begun!

p.s. Don't hesitate to click on the link in the title. It cracked me up -- and I think I'll still be chortling about it when I wake up in the a.m., like when Lizzie posted her "That's an airplane?!" comment....

David Cay Johnston on Fresh Air

Just wanted to post the link above for anyone interested. I am not a die-hard Fresh Air fan, but this segment really struck a nerve -- very well done and a real eye opener. David Cay Johnston is the author of Free Lunch: How the Wealthiest Americans Enrich Themselves at Government Expense (and Stick You With the Bill) which sounds (from the interview) like something we all should read. What got my attention was they were talking about Cabela's, a huge store out in the middle of Nebraska... I've seen lots of signs for it when travelling in that area. For more, go listen to the interview.

I'll try to post again soon. I'm still writing Christmas cards and "treading water" in other respects.

Corollary to the "When Mama ain't happy" saying...

I just want to say, when Mama's kids are happy, Mama's happy! So I'm happy today! (See here and here to see why.) The third kid and the two spouses haven't weighed in online, but I'm reasonably sure they are happy, too. (Though I think one of them has a sore throat? I hope her hubby is taking good care of her...)
I'm also happy because we had .88" of rain in the past 24 hours. ("A lot" for us these days is anything more than a quarter of an inch!)

Long time no here...

I know it's been a long while since I posted... I've been busy with this and that...
One thing is, I brought 90 books into the house at one time (that's a record for me) and now I am trying to sell most of them... (Hopefully I'll get to post about that tomorrow or Saturday!)

Also I was away for awhile. And had some company, too. All good :-)

Anyhow, I am enjoying listening to The Yiddish Policemen's Union, by Michael Chabon on tape as I ride back and forth to the emerald city almost daily... Also have discovered a new (to me) e-mail list to be on -- as if I had time to read another thing -- but it's by a favorite writer, James C. Howell, who is a Methodist minister at Myers Park Methodist Church in Charlotte. He is the author of Servants, Misfits and Martyrs: Saints and Their Stories, among other titles, and he has written a number of columns for the Charlotte Observer.

flying high

I know I shouldn't be awake at 5:30 after going to bed so late, but I woke up with a belly laugh, just like I went to sleep: one of the last things I did last night was look at Facebook, and there was a comment on this photo from Lizzie. The comment was, "That's an AIRPLANE?" It brought on one of those laughs that comes up from way down inside, a really satisfying outburst. I slept like a baby, until I woke up at 5:11 with everything coming together in my mind. The photo...the conversation with willowlaughter I had earlier in the day about the poor quality of airplane air ("as bad as a very smoggy day in L.A." -- learned from NPR's Science Friday)... the fact that I had just made my forty-hundredth airline reservation this year (yes, "forty-hundredth" is a number, I'm a mathematician and I know!)... and a blog post was born.
First of all, I didn't even notice the odd way the plane was decorated. That's partly due to the fact that I have very little decorating sense, but also because everybody expected airplanes to look like that back in the day. Flying on an airplane used to be FUN! Here were some of the attractions for me -- and some of them still exist: anybody could come see you off at the gate (sometimes it was a real party!), and once you got on there were no phones to answer (this could soon change), comfy seats with lots of pillows and real blankets, plenty of free food and drink (I remember at least once eating a steak meal - in coach! With a real knife to cut with. No, I wasn't always a vegetarian...), no TV and of course no movies (there wasn't even a way to do that at home), no potential terrorist threat (although the occasional plane was hijacked, you didn't have to worry unless you were flying near Cuba), a lovely assortment of magazines for your reading pleasure (no SkyMall or airline mags back then), steaming washcloths 2/3 of the way through the flight to freshen up a bit (that's what Joseph is doing in this other photo), free playing cards and wings for the kiddies (and probably other stuff, too -- they were all into entertaining children) and when you got off the plane, your friends and/or family were there to meet you at the gate! Ah, those were the days! We didn't have problems with people raging at the flight attendants. Of course, the downside was people were allowed to smoke on the airplane, if they sat in "the back" (meaning the last half of the plane!) I guess why I like flying (or did, until I OD'd on it with at least 14 flight-segments this past year - a personal "best") is I am still living in those days, back in my mind. Pure escapism, like going to the movies -- only better, because you get to create your own plot, with the backdrop being the scenery out the window and the lovely, colorful decor. I loved it. And here I go again!

Expanding my vocabulary

I've never seen a myrmidon
I never hope to see one.
But I can tell you anyhow
I'd rather see than be one!

p.s. This exercise (but not the word!) reminds me of my father, whose birthday it is today. He would pick a vocabulary word (out of a 1000-word box we kept handy) and post it at work. He "required" his apprentices (? interns? I hesitate to call them myrmidons...) to use the word appropriately in a sentence sometime during the day. He also liked it when we did that... and it became our habit to ask him what the "word of the day" was and talk about it a bit, at dinner? breakfast? (My memory is so fuzzy -- maybe one of my brothers can help me out here... I wish we could recreate some of these long ago moments...) Anyway, Dad loved words (as does my mom) and it appears this love of words is shared by his grandson -- and Dad would have relished this new exercise instituted by Z!

The non-violent way of life: an example

I just read this excellent essay by John Dear, and couldn't restrain myself from sharing it with my readers. I have not been to the Abbey of Gethsemani before, but I have been to the Trappist abbeys at Moncks Corner, SC, and in Conyers, GA: Mepkin Abbey and the Monastery of the Holy Spirit respectively. I can attest to the strong spirit of peace in these places. Reading John Dear's article makes me want to go to Mepkin for another visit. Alas, my path does not head in that direction anytime in the near future... but in the meantime there is The Oratory, a sanctuary within the bustle of college and town life, with peace-filled prayer opportunities and a community dedicated in all sorts of ways to social justice and non-violence issues.

Speaking of Faith

Thanks to the time change, I just heard an interesting discussion* of what is behind the current events in Burma. One thing that struck me was when the guest was talking of "lovingkindness", which is also the subject of a book I'm currently reading, The Sacred Art of Lovingkindness: Preparing to Practice, by Rami Shapiro. Lovingkindness is a practice that I first read about in Rabbi Joseph Telushkin's books, and it is sorely needed in our world today, especially in our culture.
Other interesting aspects of the discussion: how Buddhist spirituality affects the way the people of Myanmar respond to oppression, the reasons behind the monks' marches, and the whole concept of power in different cultures.
Well, that's what's on my mind today. Now I'm off to do my laundry.
*At this link you will find the program online as well as downloads for MP3 and iPod.

Too mushy... and too cute!

c. 9/15/2007

Dead Man Walking

Just a quick post about tonight... Sr. Helen Prejean, the author of the book Dead Man Walking, has come to Winthrop University in Rock Hill. She was at Mass tonight and gave the homily, then after Mass a lot of us went to a reception for her followed by a preview of the play, Dead Man Walking. That's a story in itself, because the play was supposed to be held in the black box theater in Johnson Hall, but there was a fire there Friday so they had to move to a lecture hall in Rutledge. (Maybe Em can enlighten us on how difficult this may have been.) I talked with the set designer and the stage manager afterwards and they told us that the play is technologically heavy (did I say that right?) and not having their sound system at all really hurt tonight. The performance was still great, imho... The actors did a terrific job! And the stage manager was really on her toes :-)
After the play I overheard Sr Helen talking with the cast. She told them that acting was a very important vocation, that through their participation in drama they were open to new ways of looking at things, and they opened up their hearts to new ways of feeling. She was so affirming of these young actors, it was really terrific to be there and witness this. It was also touching to see her greet the actress who played the lead (i.e., Sr. Helen)with a big hug... she was just such a loving affirming person.
I get to go hear Sr. Helen speak tomorrow night at Winthrop -- a couple of my students jumped ship because of a CMS break. Yay! (She is also speaking Tuesday night at Davidson College -- fyi, in case anyone in the area is reading this...) This is all very challenging, but I feel like I need to understand this issue better. And it really isn't just one issue...

Heads up, book lovers!

Anybody who knows me more than just a little knows I'm pretty much of a book nut... I frequent independent booksellers and used bookstores and library book sales when the opportunity arises. One of my goals in life is to have a lot of time to read...but I'm not there yet! Anyhow, I thought some of my fellow book lovers would be interested in knowing that Better World Books (BWB) now has an online store, BetterWorld.com, where you can buy books with free (in U.S.) environmentally-friendly shipping. (Shipping overseas is very cheap: $2.97) The website is pretty easy to use, and a portion of the profit supports non-profit organizations working to promote literacy. (I'm curious to find out what that portion is -- I've sent them an e-mail and should hear back in a couple of days.)

I became familiar with BWB last spring through my interest in Room to Read and just got around to sending them the first of (hopefully) several boxes of books in support of Room to Read. (see my March 22 '07 post for more info...)

More about Fr. Louis Vitale and Fr. Steve Kelly

Here's an update on my previous post. Too tired to write more now...

Distractions: Doctor Who, Foyle, sunrises, Kant, etc.

Just found this website (thanks to jonathan) and thought this particular article might be of interest to some of those who read my blog. I keep hearing about the new Doctor Who and wish I could see it sometime. Maybe that's something I should put on my Netflix list? Meanwhile I have started watching Foyle's War on another friend's recommendation and will probably continue to get the videos of these for awhile. They are very good plus this is a period of history and location in which I am very interested.

Also an interesting article I found in the Christian Science Monitor...

Okay now I've got to stop avoiding paying the bills!

(p.s. - click the title above for the sunrises article...

Franciscan news

A link to an article about Fr. Louis Vitale's peace-making efforts... I hope and pray he doesn't have to go to prison for this!! I become more disgusted every day with the people who are in power in this country...

CROP Walk

I'm planning to walk in the CROP Walk in Rock Hill on October 21 (next Sunday!) This will be the first time I have participated as a walker after years of being a sponsor, so I'm pretty excited about it. I sent out an e-mail just now to a bunch of folks, but I may very well have missed somebody who reads this blog... so just in case, I thought I'd post about it also. Here's what I said in the e-mail (in addition to what I said above):

Here's a link to information about the CROP Walk, which is a fundraiser for Church World Service. Also, 1/4 of the funds raised in the Rock Hill CROP Walk stay in Rock Hill to support local efforts to relieve hunger and poverty. One of these local efforts is Pilgrim's Inn, which I have been lending some practical support to since before my move last summer.

I ask several things of you:

First: your prayers for the success of this endeavor, as it is a very worthwhile project that has positive effects on the lives of so many of the poorest people in our nation and world.

Second: any financial support you can offer. I'm trying to work out a way for my sponsors to make online donations but until I get that worked out the thing to do is send me a check made out to CWS/CROP. Any amount you can send will be a help.
(If you want to make an online donation let me know and I'll e-mail you when that is set up. Also, let me know by posting here or by e-mail if you need my address.)

Third: see if there is a CROP WALK coming up in your area that you can support, either by walking or by sponsoring.

Thanks for any help you can give to this effort!

two interesting books...

Just a couple I found this week that look very interesting -- I've checked them out from the library so can hopefully report on them soon...
The Flexitarian Table/Peter Berley and The not so big life : making room for what really matters / Sarah Susanka.

More later...