Marble pound cake

Final day of the library book sale- $3 for a bag! Also, inaugurating my new bookshelf #shelfie #bookhaul #audiobookhaul

I made angel food cake.

(Am I procrastinating on my online quiz for my grad school class? Yes, yes I am.)

A selection of essays and speeches on H.G. Wells‘ concept of a grand encyclopedia. Repetitious at times and with some antiquated social ideas, but there is enough here that feels surprisingly contemporary.

“Well, I have designedly put much controversial matter before you, and I have not hesitated to put it in a provocative manner. You will, I know, understand that every new thing is apt to seem crude at first. Forgive my crudities. But my time has been short for what I had to say, and I have said it in the way that seemed most challenging and most likely to produce further discussion.”

“‘ They mean no less to be civil and kind to us now,‘ said Elinor, ‘by these frequent invitations, than by those which we received from them a few weeks ago. The alteration is not in them, if their parties are grown tedious and dull. We must look for the change elsewhere.‘”

“It is an immense undertaking but not an impossible undertaking. I do not think there is any insurmountable obstacle in the way to the production of such a ruling World Brain. There are favorable conditions for it, encouraging precedents and a plainly evident need.”

“With them came Mr. Sahm, a plasterer, who lived in a temporary ‘garage-house‘ on the ‘little lot‘ adjoining the Sivons. His dwelling amounted to nothing, nevertheless he had been the one who clamored most strenuously that the houses should be moved at the lessor‘s expense; he had even tried to put in a provision for compensation for the rows of beans and tomatoes he had planted on his lot.”

This was a rather enjoyable audiobook for traveling. There are two intertwined storylines - one from the 1800s and one present day. It was a little confusing to keep track of both sets of characters and stories at first, but once I started to figure out who‘s who, it was fun. Both storylines come into play in the present day murder mystery, but I didn‘t exactly figure out how until the final clues were being poured over.

It‘s ok. Some of the overviews were more interesting and insightful than others. Too many diagrams that did not add clarity to the texts (LIS research loves diagrams and abbreviations 🙄). Would have worked better if it covered fewer theories more in depth and organized the content conceptually rather than alphabetically.

“Marianne was surprised and confused, yet she could not help smiling at the quiet archness of his manner, and after a moment‘s silence, said -

‘Oh, Edward! How can you? - But the time will come I hope - I am sure you will like him.‘”

This is the book equivalent of comfort food. I especially enjoyed the second part, as the girls grew up and their individual stories and characteristics become more developed.

Today‘s #bookhaul

“Domain analysis is thus an approach to information science that has important implications for studies of information behavior. Its strength is that it represents a more correct and fruitful theory about cognitive processes compared to traditional cognitive views. It may contribute to the development of information systems that are specific to different groups of users.”

“For those researchers who are interested in the reading behaviors of real readers, the choice among theories of reading has implications for the research questions asked and the research methodologies chosen. Reader-response criticism put an emphasis on what readers do when reading and shifted the emphasis from the self-contained text to the relationship between text and reader.”

“Overall, elicitation as an MLIS [micro-level information-seeking] behavior provides a promising approach for both practical and theoretical concerns of information behavior in patron-intermediary interaction. The MLIS framework facilitates various aspects of higher-level information seeking and as such can be applied to information seeker education on how to improve personal information behavior in asking effective questions.”

Apple soufflé omelet (second attempt- significantly less burn-y than the first! ?)

“Lastly, while the framework is based on a set of conceptual and epistemological constructs, it provides a structure for the analysis of human-information interaction, without subscribing to specific theories or models. Sanderson (2003) explained that ‘The scientific foundations of [cognitive work analysis] are various - a ‘conceptual marketplace‘ as Rasmussen described it - because they have been appropriated to fulfill a practical need.‘”

Cedar Rapids farmer‘s market haul. Organic carrots and locally grown apples, #stormcat coffee from Wake Up Iowa, free Mount Trashmore bag from the solid waste agency (CR has a “mountain” created from trash from the 2008 flood; don‘t worry, grass grows on it and it even has a walking trail), and #bookhaul from the friends of the library sale. Plus, I got to pet a corgi!

Had to get going a little early this morning to turn in my keys to my old apartment. My mom and I were planning on stopping at Pier 1 to look around, but they didn‘t open until 11. Good thing there was a half price books just a couple stores down! #bookhaul

“Too often, the methodological premises - or primitives - lurking behind social scientific research methods are unstated, buried in long histories of intragenre discourse. Unstated, or not, however, the primitives operate to both constrain and enable possible research attentions.”

A fascinating and timely account of hoaxes (and related phenomena) through history and how they often serve to shore up white supremacy. Researched thoroughly, but with wit and wordplay of a poet. His argument could perhaps have stood out more if the book had been slimmed down a bit, but this is a relatively small critique.

“The plagiarist would rather thank a stranger than cite one. The crime here is vast, and personal: Wheeler went so far as to copy another writer‘s personal acknowledgements.”

“Jo never, never would learn to be proper, for when he said that as they stood upon the steps, she just put both hands into his, whispering tenderly, ‘Not empty now,‘ and stooping down, kissed her Friedrich under the umbrella. It was dreadful, but she would have done it if the flock of draggle-tailed sparrows on the hedge had been human beings, for she was very far gone indeed, and quite regardless of everything but her own happiness.”

“When friend is merely a verb, not a person; when apocalypses too are computer based and costly, like Y2K, then turn out to be mostly paranoia, or worse, marketing; when you can fall in love not with television or through television but on television through a series of dates you couldn‘t really afford in a rented mansion that seems specifically designed for reality TV...then you have become as fictional as the world that you‘ve created.”

“She wondered what the business was that brought Mr. Bhaer to the city, and finally decided that he had been appointed to some great honor, somewhere, but had been too modest to mention the fact. If she had seen his face when, safe in his own room, he looked at the picture of a severe and rigid young lady, with a good deal of hair, who appeared to be gazing darkly into futurity, it might have thrown some light upon the subject...”

“The hoax uses memory‘s mysteries against it. The fake Holocaust memoir goes further, exploiting the gap between what we know and what we can understand or accept. ‘I wanted to know what other people had gone through back then,‘ the man who would become Binjamin Wilkomirski wrote. ‘I wanted to compare it with my own earliest memories that I carried around inside me. I wanted to subject them to intelligent reason...‘”

“The hoax is less a collaboration than a confabulation - mostly provided by the hoaxer, but the rest filled in by the viewer or reader, who‘s flattered following Barnum‘s lead, as expert. We might have to revise our view slightly from here on out: the hoax doesn‘t so much hold a mirror up to nature, or up to the hoaxer, as it holds a mirror up to its audience. And the hoax imagines that audience to be wide.”

“This household happiness did not come all at once, but John and Meg had found the key to it, and each year of married life taught them how to use it, unlocking the treasures of real home love and mutual helpfulness, which the poorest may possess, and the richest cannot buy. This is the sort of shelf on which young wives and mothers may consent to be laid, safe from the restless fret and fever of the world...”

Cherry cake

“That was all, except a little pause. Then Laurie straightened himself up, said, ‘It‘s all right, never mind,‘ and went away without another word.”

#downphoto

What do you mean, Litsy‘s down? 😆

An interesting selection of case studies on how academic libraries support textbook affordability efforts. Can be repetitive (many of the featured libraries use similar approaches), but a good starting point for an investigation. Would have appreciated examples from community colleges or liberal arts colleges.

Chocolate orange soufflé ? ?

“Make it your goal to create such a successful program on your campus that eventually it disappears - then there won‘t be just one size. There will be an infinite number of programmatic approaches of sizes and scopes and contents of course materials that fit every course, every instructor, and every student. Our libraries, our universities, and our collective knowledge will be the richer for it.”

Although over 500 pages, each work in this anthology is only a few pages long. This makes it easy to pick up and set down, which was good, since I have been busy with grad school and don‘t always have long periods of time to read for fun. The pieces are thoughtful and feature a diversity of perspectives (including WoC, older women, trans women). There were also several pieces on some of the ethical problems of fashion.

“I see, so it‘s difficult to find people to work here. Because it‘s a difficult job.”

“This avid consciousness that forces me to see myself and be seen by myself in a constant, grinding feedback loop, which makes the future a monstrous presence elbowing disproportionately for itself, did not slacken after the breakup. In fact, it was the only thing that remained. Destinies rise and destinies fall.”

“Good nonfiction reveals what happened; fiction what might have: the hoax instead undermines both art and the self, oddly reducing each to autobiography even as it performs its fakery. It often does this through the exotic other, or a dark double, all of which only reinforces the self as superior to all others.”

“Mutant Message represents a subtle but significant shift in our culture in which the art of fiction is less a mask or marketing tool than a concealed weapon. As JT LeRoy will, we shall learn soon enough, Morgan‘s ‘fiction‘ relies on alleged autobiography in every aspect of the hoax, from interviews to the writing itself - all while claiming otherwise whenever convenient or confronted. With Morgan, even her fiction is a fiction.”

Sunday brunch - eggs, beignets, an americano, and a good book. Then, off to the library!

Poached pears with a little cinnamon sugar on top 🍐

“While Conan Doyle did acknowledge some of Houdini‘s debunkings, he claimed Houdini was genuinely a medium and simply lying about it. Still, the two improbably remained friends - even after Houdini‘s expose A Magician Among the Spirits (1924) that dared take on Conan Doyle - at least till Conan Doyle claimed to have communicated with Houdini‘s dead mother.”

“What was ‘It‘ and what could ‘It‘ be? Once upon a time the hoax tried to prove to the reader, or rediscover, a culture thought lost - or to shore up the worth of tradition. Join us, the hoax said. A lost Gaelic poet, fabricated classicism, an unknown Shakespeare play: such where the hoaxes of the eighteenth century in England, when the successful hoax confirmed a culture‘s wishes.”

I made chocolate soft serve! 🍦🍫😋

“But perhaps it‘s less a sign of honor than of the modern hoax‘s horror that when the U.S. cycling team cheated - gulled, mystified, hoaxed - their way to their seven straight Tour de France victories from 1999 to 2006, they regularly referred to EPO, used in the vampiric practice of blood doping, by a code name: Poe.”

TFW you are asked to listen Samuel L. Jackson read Go the F**k to Sleep for your grad school class #libraryschool

You can view here: https://youtu.be/Udj-o2m39NA

“I didn‘t have money to buy expensive clothes until I started going out with Bryan [Ferry], and he was very generous and took me shopping and gave me money to buy the things I wouldn‘t have been able to afford. Unfortunately what I wanted to wear at the time, in the ‘80s, was Comme Des Garçons, black things with holes, and Bryan would say, ‘Why are you wearing those widow‘s weeds?‘”

This is a weird and weighty book, which is probably why I liked it. Peters writes like I think - making connections that might seem odd on the surface (clouds, cetaceans, libraries, google, God, writing, clocks, calendars, weather, climate, Heidegger, McLuhan, and many lists), but reveal unexpected insights when you explore how they connect or overlap, compare and contrast.

“In Moby-Dick, Ishmael uses a coffin as a life buoy to survive the sinking of his ship. ‘Beauty, like order, occurs in many places in this world, but only as a local and temporary fight against the Niagara of increasing entropy.‘ Writing is a boat in which we launch ourselves over the falls, hoping it will protect us while we drop.”