Life Long Learning

Well howdy-do everyone! I did promise updates on my plans to qualify myself as a Pilates Instructor as I signed up for education for the first time in a very long time. Well, with the plans of mice and men, my plan did not go as I hoped. My course required an 'Anatomy and Physiology' unit as a prerequisite.

I enrolled in the required Anatomy & Physiology class at a college and arranged my other commitments around the session time. However, like the plans of mice and men, things just did not work out. The class was rescheduled for later in the day. This meant that I could not make the commitment and I needed to withdraw until it is again offered later in the year.

Life!

So, I think I have stumbled across what may just be the best book of 2011 and it is amazingly titled 'It's a Book'. In a world full of gadgetry everything can be by replaced by one. With Kindle and other E-book viewing and reading devices it is not surprising that the 'jackass' of this book has no idea what one is. It is a full illustration of the separation that is starting to occur between the individual and the everyday bound paper book.

Put in my hands by a young child hoping that I would read it for them I was totally blown away by the content of the book. I have not seen a book like it since 'Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus' and loved every page of it. I think I have found my 'gift of the year' not just for nephews and nieces but also for each and every one of my geek girl and geek guy friends. :)

This is my book of the year for sure. Set with a sense of irony that it is published in a print format rather than an online cartoon this great book illustrates the gap between a reader and the hard copy print of a book as a result of the digital age. Poking fun at the gadget comparisons of what a device can or cannot do this book shows the absolute wonder that comes from opening a seemingly plain book. It is fantastic book and I recommend it for any child or adult as it has put everyone I have spoken to about it into roars of laughter and even tears. It truly shows how times are changing...

Holidays where Dad is home is always very special. Each of our children has their own way of finding special time both with Dad by himself and with he and I together. Today Boof had his special time.

With his brothers occupied with a DVD they got for Christmas he saw his chance and jumped at it. With a busy home schooling life, and PJ Bear's special needs, I need to be ever so mindful to make time for Boof and, thank goodness, he is mature enough to be able to seek our attention in truly positive ways.

We have been on a mass cleanup in preparation for having tradespeople romp through in coming weeks and we had spent most of the day collecting up all the odd toys, bits and pieces with a view to getting them sorted and packed away where they belong.

We made some great in roads though I am still left with a large pile on the floor. Mid afternoon, though, my back was feeling the strain of all the effort of shifting all our furniture around to thoroughly clean and I was due for a break. In the process of cleaning, Boof noticed that I had made some games more accessible for him and as I stretched my back he picked up his favorite family game, Boggle and asked to play.

Of course, Boof is not a child prodigy, he is barely forming letters let alone identifying words. In reality he just loves shaking the box with all the letters in it. (Yes, I know the new version doesn't need a box). It is loud and when he is done he has his own pad to write on as we get to the serious task of word finding to 100 points.

It was great to be able to play without the children so that we had an evenly matched competition for once! Of course, my husband beat me 108 to 73. I am sure that it is only because he writes faster than I do as we are never usually short of word finding with only one exception this time around. It was a doosey and we were stonkered. I put it aside to show you all but, in typical fashion, absentmindedly either misplaced it or threw it out. Oh well, next time!

My Christmas wish for you is that in these festive times you can see past pain, hurts and troubles to reach out your hand. I pray that your hand will give hope to another as you reach out to help.

My Christmas wish for you is that all that you do, albeit the same as any other day, that it will be done with appreciation for all that you have that others may not. I pray that you are enveloped in joy as you serve others.

My Christmas wish for you is that you take the time to love someone else that you find hard to love. I pray that in doing so that you feel loved for just being yourself too.

My Christmas wish for you is that you can consider others with a higher regard than yourself. Then, when you arrive home safely after your celebrations, I pray that you can bring thanks to God that no one lost their life at your hands that same night.

My Christmas wish for you is that you can share the spirit of Christmas in special ways with those who see you in a faceted way. I pray that your life is a testimony of love to work colleagues and clients, to playgroup mums and to the barrista at your local coffee bar.

My Christmas wish for you is that as you contemplate the year ahead that your already laid plans clearly seen as wise or unwise. I pray that all fear, angst and stress be replaced with empowerment, encouragement and, above all, peace.

With love at Christmas

As a household, we are now 'known' for our library and for a long time I have been lost as to how to get it into a maintainable order. This has been, in part, owing to the need for custom shelving to be put into place but that is a separate matter.

One of my big issues is classification and recording the content of our collection (primarily for insurance purposes) because we have about 2,000 titles varying wildly in the cover price of each. Something that makes this harder is that indexing records are held behind a barrier called 'money' so that doing these things for yourself, in your own private collection, becomes a problem.

So, on my pre-bed quest of the night I went searching for answers...

..until I stumbled upon Library Thing. This was a dream come true that had me asking, "Where have you been all my life?"

The web site is primarily made up of forums and your profile which includes the ability to list books from your collection which is great! Now, don't be thinking that's all because I am sure there is more there but I have been overwhelmed with the wealth of information I have gleamed already.

They also have Group forum areas. This is where I will say it is not necessarily child friendly because there are some very liberal groups in there. For the discerning adult, this is a fine place to visit as long as you make an active choice to just not visit the groups that you may have moral/religious/political/other objections to.

So, as part of my group subscription trawl I came across an interesting group called the 'Build the Open Shelves Classification' which has a wiki that it is working from at the moment. It appears to still be at a grass-roots level at the moment (from my brief reading) but I look forward to delving deeper in the nearer future. It has been a while since I have been on the Open Source scene so it may be a good chance to dust myself off and get to work for a change!