Month: October 2009

Here’s something I love: I love all the new words. Pwned. Squicked. Knollish. Words are great. There can never be enough of them.

Here’s something I hate: the emoticon. I don’t understand why the same words if written in a letter will easily convey the writer’s intention, but if written in an email require the punctuation of a happy face. I’m not arguing that this isn’t the case. I’ve watched it happen many times; most of the email dust-ups I’ve been involved in started because something meant as a joke was taken as serious comment. So I see the emoticons are useful. And still I loathe them. Nor do I like LOL, ROFL, 4EVA, and the rest of that ilk. A cliché is still a cliché, no matter how quickly you deliver it.

I love the blogs, but only the blogs I love and only if I don’t have to do one myself.

Yes! Very well put!

The rest is here: http://www.powells.com/blog/?p=6241#more-6241

On the same day, Clark had packaged seven books to ship out — paying all the postage personally — though he said both the incoming and outgoing stacks were smaller than average. Web sites make it possible. Clark has 800 books listed on www.bookmooch.com, 1,500 on www.swaptree.com and 2,500 on www.paperbackswap.com. He keeps a wish list of items he’s looking for, as do librarians and individuals all over the world. Computers do the matching.

In an era when any publicly funded institution has to spend wisely, Clark manages to make a lot out of a little. His annual buying budget of $4,400 comes from donations, grants, and proceeds from the library’s endowment. His salary and other operating expenses are covered by contributions from the towns of Hartland, St. Albans and Palmyra.

Very cool story about a library doing a lot with not much of a budget at all!