tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-50264702024-03-13T12:38:52.407-04:00Capital City DeskCapital City Notes & Gossip, plus Tales from Library LandLisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16791914604898998749noreply@blogger.comBlogger1335125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5026470.post-45366253902340813212023-12-31T16:25:00.002-05:002023-12-31T16:30:42.480-05:00Mission AccomplishedUnless a red-breasted nuthatch -- or something even more unlikely -- wanders into my yard today, I am calling this "medium year" complete with a list of 138 birds! Give that at different points in the year I told myself I'd be satisfied at 100, then 120, that's not bad. As I knew from my Intention, accounting would be tricky: as a newish user of ebird, all kinds of species that I certainly Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16791914604898998749noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5026470.post-59056025424137757442023-08-12T17:52:00.000-04:002023-08-12T17:52:02.285-04:00Found Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16791914604898998749noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5026470.post-19251775698535947482023-01-10T10:50:00.001-05:002023-01-10T10:50:09.207-05:00Intention Prodded into action by a variety of factors, the most recent being finishing Noah Stryker's Birding without Borders, in 2023 I plan to either, or maybe both:- Add six species to my Life List- See __ % birds on the Virginia Ornithological Society's checklist for the CommonwealthThe first could be done easily with a trip to the U.S. west coast, to Texas, to Florida ("easy" if I were more at ease Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16791914604898998749noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5026470.post-61202841282778429252022-06-24T15:49:00.006-04:002022-06-24T15:49:57.024-04:00Survival of Memory The other day I read John McPhee's The Survival of the Bark Canoe (1975) and parts reminded me of the one canoe trip I took in Maine when I was fifteen, a trip that's usually a blip on the memory timeline. Often books with grand outdoor adventures make me feel less-than for not doing that sort of thing all the time. This time I felt wistful, yet also proud of this thing I'd accomplished many Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16791914604898998749noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5026470.post-26933323017453097092022-04-27T11:57:00.000-04:002022-04-27T11:57:07.926-04:00Gentrification Book Reading Notets How To Kill a City: Gentrification, Inequality, and the Fight for the Neighborhood by Peter Moskowitz New York : Nation Books, 2017)Tiny summary: Capitalism combined with state and federal laws to set us up to value real estate over people. Author documents examples in New Orleans, Detroit, San Francisco and New York.Author's thesis statement: "In every gentrifying city -- that is, in everyLisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16791914604898998749noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5026470.post-66667941912092671652022-02-01T19:59:00.000-05:002022-02-01T19:59:57.326-05:00Boontonwarecream and sugar at my house Today I learned that Boonton melmine dishes, the sturdy dishes gracing my Girl Scout camp dining hall, were designed by a woman named Belle Kogan (1902-2000). She studied mechanical drawing in high school and studied briefly at the Pratt Institute in New York. Boonton was promoted as stylish and sturdy -- indeed the company would replace pieces you broke. Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16791914604898998749noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5026470.post-56147631291132128702021-03-20T20:10:00.002-04:002021-03-22T09:47:30.029-04:00Juxtaposition I liked the way these covers looked together on my Goodreads page Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16791914604898998749noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5026470.post-12683572825401110272020-12-29T17:45:00.003-05:002020-12-30T10:57:12.300-05:00Recommended 9: Isolation Isolation is a word that can encompass living with or seeing with a few -- or a few dozen -- others, such as on a wildfire-fighting team, or if you launch into space (or just role-play the latter). I do okay leading a solitary life, and some days seeing 5 or 6 coworkers (plus some patrons, but always for just minutes at a time) is more than enough people time for me. Yet for two nights in a row, Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16791914604898998749noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5026470.post-87413143583385735682020-10-01T08:45:00.004-04:002020-10-01T08:47:03.985-04:00Thick: And Other Essays by Tressie McMillan Cottom
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Tough issues illuminated in prose that I’d call “conversational,” but she uses footnotes, so maybe I can’t."Because I was such a big deal to an actual big deal, the black man seated to my left made a great effort at small talk. I wish he had not bothered. I hate small talk. It is small. Small is for tea cups and Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16791914604898998749noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5026470.post-16012399605033883162020-05-02T15:49:00.001-04:002020-05-02T15:49:05.338-04:00Oh No Not AgainFifteen years ago, I didn't really want to build another life and another persona with SecondLife. Why would I take time away from creating my primary life to build an alternate Lisa and an alternate house, public library for her? It with that same weary mindset that I read about the metaverse and the likelihood of it launching out of (violent) gaming. The only appealing part of it, from my read Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16791914604898998749noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5026470.post-16875228829343153482020-04-11T12:43:00.001-04:002020-04-11T12:43:20.169-04:00Recommended 8
Jill Lepore in The New Yorker describes two essential structures for "plague novels": stories set during a time of sickness and quarantine, and those "set among a ragged band of survivors." She cites many, beginning with The Last Man (1826) by Mary Shelley, that end with a portrayal of society having regressed.
And that, in the modern plague novel, is the final terror of every
world-endingLisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16791914604898998749noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5026470.post-86875234009188782062020-04-08T14:46:00.000-04:002020-04-08T14:46:16.422-04:00Are We on Web 3.0 Now?
The other day, a colleague asked me to remind her about the 23 Things initiative we did when we worked together. It sounded like she was looking for structure to guide people in their self-teaching activities while working from home. I used my 23 Things tag to direct her back to some of the original posts. At the same time, I glanced at those "web 2.0" posts and the things we were excited about Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16791914604898998749noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5026470.post-87456364415754279832020-04-08T14:20:00.000-04:002020-04-08T18:55:40.320-04:00Recommended 7 99% Invisible on toilet paper.
Tiny Pantone matches on Tumblr.
"Stephen King is Sorry You Feel Like You're Living in a Stephen King Novel" on Fresh Air
Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16791914604898998749noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5026470.post-65189132801928274412020-04-04T10:00:00.001-04:002020-04-04T10:00:43.033-04:00Recommended 6: News Sources The Washington Post makes COVID19 related articles freely available, here.
The New York Times makes COVID19 related articles freely available, here.
Quality coverage for Virginia includes
Central Virginia COVID dashboard.
Virginia Mercury
Richmond Times-DispatchLisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16791914604898998749noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5026470.post-51285041031883590392020-04-02T11:38:00.000-04:002020-04-02T11:38:24.922-04:00Recommended 5My folks aren't interested in FaceTiming me. They're retired and not trying to #wfh. They live in rural Virginia and have terrible internet speed. They're not talking about zoom or new podcasts or what restaurant has pick up now. Mom's pretty tech savvy; Dad, not so much. Thus I am surprised to tell you that today's recommendation for something to do while isolating comes to you from Dad. He Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16791914604898998749noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5026470.post-1122042065702772912020-03-31T13:15:00.000-04:002020-03-31T13:15:07.820-04:00Recommended 4Break out of your claustrophobia with the Lumberjanes! Sure you should start at the beginning, but Indoor Recess is my quick pick today.
Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16791914604898998749noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5026470.post-55658168862758161662020-03-21T11:27:00.000-04:002020-03-21T11:27:10.243-04:00Recommendations 3The Librarian is In, a podcast from the New York Public Library, made me want to be better at readers' advisory (the practice of recommending books to all kinds of readers). General interest listeners will come away with additions to their To Read list. This year's first discussion of a book on the NYPL 125 list prodded me to read Giovanni's Room, a title always lurking on my "should have read" Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16791914604898998749noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5026470.post-50450246816058722862020-03-19T12:27:00.002-04:002020-03-19T14:17:29.280-04:00Recommendations in the Time of COVID19, part 2
Graphic Novels and the Like
Many public libraries buy into the digital hoopla collection for their patrons -- this service offers music, steaming video, and books including comics and graphic novels. Henrico's collection includes Joe Hill's Locke & Key which you may have gotten sucked into via Netflix (surely that wasn't just me?)
Some things I've read recently that I recommend areLisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16791914604898998749noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5026470.post-22238761779544325982020-03-17T12:22:00.003-04:002020-03-17T13:39:57.446-04:00Recommendations in the Time of COVID19Tuesday
Listen to Bill Nye and Alan Alda chat over tea about science and communication.
Read a romance in which a NYC epidemiology student keeps ignoring the emails from "an African prince" -- so he shows up at her door. Princess in Theory, by Alyssa Cole.
Monday 3/16/20
Read the Lager Queen of Minnesota and spend time with generations of a midwestern family as they shift form farmers to Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16791914604898998749noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5026470.post-13744598024579130962019-04-05T15:28:00.000-04:002019-04-05T15:35:52.511-04:00All AboardFastrack acquired and assembled; transformer got a check up. We're rolling!
Note for future:
White wire to top terminal.
Don't put freshly-greased engines on carpet.
Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16791914604898998749noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5026470.post-55761057013352069502019-02-19T10:45:00.001-05:002019-02-19T10:45:20.560-05:00To Clean or NotI assumed cleaning the trains would be the right move: years of nicotine, cat litter dust, and of course remnants of the driveway gravel we'd fill the hopper cars with. Then I found a whole chapter in a train book about how to dirty up the cars to make them more authentic. So I guess this is permission to do a bad job cleaning?
Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16791914604898998749noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5026470.post-77851852422776700972019-02-18T11:14:00.002-05:002019-02-18T11:14:22.066-05:00A Think Piece For the most part, I gave up my habit of jotting down apparently wise or humorous things people say. One tidbit I held onto for a long time I wrote on an official Valentine Museum notepad. I captured museum director Frank Jewell's observation "race, class, gender: difficult stuff." That was the gist, anyway, and at 22 or so, I found it to be a profound observation that I knew should guide my lookLisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16791914604898998749noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5026470.post-17249577388511412302019-01-20T17:06:00.001-05:002019-02-19T10:45:30.993-05:00TrainsI have the family train set and really thought that I just needed to hook up some wires and hit go. I didn't realize how much wiring Pop-Pop, my uncles and/or Dad must have done for the board layout. Well. Maybe because the first thing I read was more ambitious than I am right now.
Dumping some links here and fretting a bit about joining some kind of train club.
Lionel's website re current Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16791914604898998749noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5026470.post-82836496780322927722018-01-07T10:16:00.002-05:002018-01-09T15:32:44.945-05:00CBC, King and Queen Co. 2017Because it was 20 degrees on our assigned day (12/31/17), Dad and I shamelessly birded from the car only. Because K&Q is rural, it's not hard to do so safely and without annoying others. Mom reports that ebird rejected the large number of palm warblers we ID'd sharing a field with meadowlarks. The list we submitted for the territory we were assigned includes Mom's yard list plus our roaming:
Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16791914604898998749noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5026470.post-58181923788174775512018-01-01T12:59:00.000-05:002018-01-01T12:59:16.932-05:00CleaningYou know what I use even less often than Blogger? Browser bookmarks. Only I today I do want to set some to easily rediscover two birdwatching things that I couldn't remember by source. Who runs the bird count project I've been doing: Audubon? Cornell? Somewhere else? (Project Feederwatch is sponsored in part by Cornell, but that's not in the url.) And then there's the online class that did Lisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16791914604898998749noreply@blogger.com0