I discover Skype

Last week, after searching high and low, we found our computer's microphone hidden away in the back of a drawer somewhere in the basement - last used by the Crown Prince playing World of Warcraft, I'm guessing. It was the last piece of equipment I needed to start using my new Skype account, so I was thrilled to try it out with my niece in Hawaii. Since I'm 4 hours ahead, we had to set up an appointment via e-mail. It worked beautifully!

After I'm more comfortable with this, I'll get a webcam and go for video calls - woohoo! Am I the last person to find out how great this is?

NPR's Food Photo Fridays blog

Can't remember how I happened upon this particular blog, but it's fun! Check out the posts for Nov. 12 called An Exhibition Called 'Yum,'



and for Nov. 5 called Carl Warner's Edible Landscapes.

Shameless Plug for Votes

The library where I work has made it to the final round in a contest from Playaway, the company that makes those clever little all-in-one audiobooks. If we get the most votes for the best promotional project for Playaway, we win $10k, so check out a neat YouTube we put together and vote for the Morton Grove Public Library. (Click the little arrow at the end of our library name to open up the place to vote, if necessary.) You can vote once for each e-mail address you have (I have 6 assorted addresses!).

Personal endorsement: when Dan was stuck having to keep his head down after eye surgery recently, Playaways were just the thing. No tapes or disks to change.

TIA!

Tubeless Toilet Paper!

I don't know how they're going to do this, but what a great green idea! It hasn't come to the Midwest yet, so I'll have to wait to try it. Read more on this press release from Kimberly-Clark.

Serial readers vs Poly-readers

At last I've found a person who reads like me - many books at the same time. I really enjoy a reading "menu" of many courses. I do like chocolate cake, for instance, but I would quickly tire of only chocolate cake for every meal. See what Julia Keller, Chicago Trib critic, says on NPR.

I feel sick....

After speed-reading Tony Blair's new biography, A Journey: My Political Life, I was all set to chalk him off as well-meaning. I remember noting his mention of war protesters camping out near sites where he was supposed to appear in his last months of office, his seemingly sincere expressions of pain and regret when thinking of the British soldiers killed and wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan, and his view that Saddam Hussein needed to be removed at all costs to prevent current and future threats to the "West" (even though no MWD were found).

Then I finally got around to watching Michael Moore's film, Fahrenheit 911, this afternoon. All about money and oil. Somehow, I had never gotten that message so clearly before. I've seen several of Moore's films, and I'm never sure about his over the top-ness. Telling the truth? Getting laughs while showing his own brand of power? Corruption and greed in government seem so pervasive. Good guys seem so powerless and ineffective. Tony Blair was duped by Bush? Tony Blair duped us? Tony Blair just wanted to be next to American?

Metal Music

In our latest venture for the Saints, the volunteer theatre usher organization in this city, we signed up for a nightclub-like venue in Rogers Park for a Sunday morning live broadcast on the classical music radio station. The artist in recital was Rachel Barton Pine, a wonderful classical violinist. You might have heard of her due to a terrible accident at the beginning of her professional career.

Her program that Sunday was a varied mix of 9 pieces all written over the years just for her, including one by Albeniz that she arranged for herself. Surprising to me was that the ones I liked best were heavy metal compositions, Thrash by Philip Pan and Theme and Variations by Edgar Gabriel. This last used all kinds of metal music for the variations: glam metal, death metal, etc. All new to me, but I'm learning!