Yes We Can

This is a music video by will.i.am of the Black Eyed Peas inspired by Barack Obama's "Yes We Can" speech. I think it's inspiring and I know we're all hoping for great things for the U.S.



It was a creed written into the founding documents that declared the destiny of a nation.
Yes we can.
It was whispered by slaves and abolitionists as they blazed a trail toward freedom.
Yes we can.
It was sung by immigrants as they struck out from distant shores and pioneers who pushed westward against an unforgiving wilderness.
Yes we can.
It was the call of workers who organized; women who reached for the ballots; a President who chose the moon as our new frontier; and a King who took us to the mountaintop and pointed the way to the Promised Land.
Yes we can to justice and equality.
Yes we can to opportunity and prosperity.
Yes we can heal this nation.
Yes we can repair this world.

Yes we can.

We know the battle ahead will be long, but always remember that no matter what obstacles stand in our way, nothing can stand in the way of the power of millions of voices calling for change.
We have been told we cannot do this by a chorus of cynics...they will only grow louder and more dissonant ........... We've been asked to pause for a reality check. We've been warned against offering the people of this nation false hope.
But in the unlikely story that is America, there has never been anything false about hope.

Now the hopes of the little girl who goes to a crumbling school in Dillon are the same as the dreams of the boy who learns on the streets of LA; we will remember that there is something happening in America; that we are not as divided as our politics suggests; that we are one people; we are one nation; and together, we will begin the next great chapter in the American story with three words that will ring from coast to coast; from sea to shining sea --

Yes. We. Can.



Celebrities featured include: Jesse Dylan, Will.i.am, Common, Scarlett Johansson, Tatyana Ali, John Legend, Herbie Hancock, Kate Walsh, Kareem Abdul Jabbar, Adam Rodriquez, Kelly Hu, Adam Rodriquez, Amber Valetta, Eric Balfour, Aisha Tyler, Nicole Scherzinger and Nick Cannon

Democracy & Bread bowls

Mike and I took advantage of "early voting" at the Champaign County Clerk's office and did our civic duty on Martin Luther King, Jr. day. After we came out of the ballot boxes Michael wanted to know who I voted for! I informed him that voting is private and confidential and it has to be that way for our democracy to survive. Later that evening we went bowling. Mike still isn't sure who I voted for.


The picture below is dedicated to Rachel Terry Lund, who made it possible. She gave us the recipe for these excellent bread bowls that looked so lovely I had to take a picture of them. We had a couple over to dinner on Saturday night and had mulligatawny soup in bread bowls, a fun game of Uno Spin (I lost) and Skookies for dessert. Good times.


What I'm reading:
Getting Things Done by David Allen. I'm actually reading this for work because I'm helping to teach a workshop on keeping all of your research organized and we're using this guy's method. I think it's pretty useful.
Library: An Unquiet History by Matthew Battles. Garth told me a few months ago that he was reading this, and I was intrigued. Now I'm about halfway through and it's a really fascinating history of libraries that starts with the ancient world and the Alexandria library in Egypt.
What's up next:
Neuromancer and Pattern Recognition by William Gibson. These are two sci fi, cyberpunk novels recommended by the professor for my class Library, Information, and Society. I'm pretty interested.

First week of school

While visiting my family over winter break, my very dear grandpa asked me about what it is I'm going to do once I'm finally done with school. "Because to me," he said, "a librarian is the gal who stamps your book with a date and says 'Bring this back in two weeks.'"

Let me explain: Librarianship is concerned with the collection, organization, preservation, and dissemination of information. My main interest is in the dissemination of information -- educating people, helping them find the information they need, and teaching people how information is organized so that they can be more self-sufficient researchers. Information comes in many forms, of course, including books, movies, MP3 files, electronic journals, blogs, academic periodicals in print and online, and much much more. The information universe is expanding exponentially and that's why I am optimistic about future employment -- even if I don't always work in a brick-and-mortar library there will always be people who need to find information and are not sure where to look.

Last semester I took classes on information organization, reference services, and user interfaces. I learned about how print items and electronic items are coded and stored, how to use reference sources (encyclopedias, atlases, indexes, etc.) most effectively to help users, and how to design and test online user interfaces (like search interfaces and library catalogs) to make them more user-friendly. This semester I'm taking classes on:

• libraries and society (how the economy, the publishing business, politics, and other factors affect libraries)
• sources in the social sciences (how research is conducted in social science and what sources to use to find answers to users' questions)
• searching online systems (how to conduct searches for information in subscription-based databases)
• and collection development (how to pick and choose sources that will meet your patrons' needs).

Hopefully that clears a few things up. I find that people have mixed ideas on what librarians are like and what they do. Here's one very entertaining music video example. Enjoy!

Captain Kirk should have been a librarian

For those of you who don't know, my husband is a recovering Star Trekkie. This post is dedicated to you, Mikey.
(Credit for finding this vid goes to the Lipstick Librarian.)



Mr. Spock speaks the truth.

Wicked

This is the green edition of Adventures in the Midwest. (Don't worry, I'm not going to preach environmentalism. Except for one little thing: RECYCLE!) I just have a few comments to make about the Broadway smash Wicked. Mike and I saw the musical last weekend in St. Louis and it's such a fabulous, smart, and funny show, I couldn't resist a little commentary.

First, a brief synopsis of the show (you can read more -- and hear some sound clips -- here): Long before Dorothy dropped in on the land of Oz, two other girls met there. One, born with emerald-green skin, is smart, fiery and misunderstood. The other is beautiful, ambitious and very popular. Wicked: The Musical is the story of how these two unlikely friends end up as the Wicked Witch of the West and Glinda the Good Witch.

The musical is, in large part, all about spin. About how a person is assigned a simplistic label and then, in the eyes of the public becomes that quality. (i.e., the Wicked Witch of the West). In a song called "Popular" that Glinda sings she says:

When I see depressing creatures
With unprepossessing features
I remind them on their own we have
To think of
Celebrated heads of state or
Specially great communicators
Did they have brains or knowledge?
Don't make me laugh

They were Popular - please
It's all about Pop-u-oo-lar
It's not about aptitude
It's the way you're viewed
So it's very shrewd to be
Very, very Popular
Like me!

This may seem like a non sequitur, but I'll go for it anyway: Since the Iowa caucus results blew all predictions of an "inevitable" race between Clinton and Giuliani out of the water, we have a bit of a chance to look at candidates with a (slightly) fresh perspective. Sure, Clinton has been labeled the "experienced" candidate, Obama the candidate of "change," Huckabee the "Christian leader," McCain the "maverick." But what does that really mean? Those one-word labels (like Wicked or Good) are completely meaningless when decontextualized, as they generally are in the press. In order to get any substantive information about policy plans, I think the best place to go is to a candidate's website to find out what is behind the carefully crafted look and message that is released through the media. It's not about who is "popular" or "wicked" or "good" or anything else. To participate in the process in a meaningful way, we need to know more than the brief and superficial descriptions we get from the media.

Ponder on one more lyrical example of how smart this show is. The Wizard sings the following lyrics:

A man's called a traitor - or a liberator
A rich man's a thief - or philanthropist
Is one a crusader - or ruthless invader?
It's all in which label
Is able to persist
There are precious few at ease
With moral ambiguities
So we act as though they don't exist. . .

Very happy holidays

I know it's a bit late now to wish you happy holidays, but I hope you enjoyed the season as much as Mike and I did. We had a wonderful trip to Cache Valley, got to visit with lots of our family members, and spent some great quality time together in the car as we criss-crossed the plains.

Highlights of the trip (in chronological order -- more or less):

• Listening to Driveway Moments from NPR as we crossed Illinois and Iowa
• Spending an afternoon and night in Laramie, WY when I-80 was closed due to wind and snow
  
• Driving into Cache Valley from Sardine Canyon and seeing the whole beautiful place laid out before us (while listening to Christmas music on the radio)

Do you see why I love Cache Valley so much?!?

• The Hansen family Christmas party at Aunt Roxane's -- visiting with everyone, eating, giving gifts, opening presents
  
• Church in Fairview -- seeing lots of people we love
• The grandparent party on Christmas eve -- and visiting Grandma Hansen's new house and visiting Grandma & Grandpa Bowles
  
• Getting all matching PJs with the Bowles family
• Watching movies, playing games, and generally hanging out with the fam
• Staying up late talking to Rob and Sarah
• Talking to Justin on the phone on Christmas morning
  
• Cross-country skiing in Mink Creek on Christmas day
• Having lunch with Karl & his mom
  
• Eating at Cafe Sabor with Jensie, Tyrell, and Lucie (one of the cutest 2-year-olds we've met)
• Visiting Grandma Terry and Aunt Rosie
• Meeting Rachel & Jake in Logan for a great visit and an awesome lunch with Grandma & Grandpa Brough and Uncle Mark
• The Bowles family Christmas party -- visiting with cousins, aunts, and uncles and eating great food
• Listening to This American Life and The Things They Carried on the drive back to the flatlands.

Happy 2008!

Packing

I just pulled out our suitcases to start packing (we're leaving for Cache Valley tomorrow!) and Simone wriggled into one of them. She's going to be so disappointed to find out that she's not going with us . . .