Technology through the eyes of a child

My eldest daughter was born at the end of 2000. She is certainly a child of the 21st Century. Technology to her is a common everyday affair. She has asked me the following questions: "When you were a little girl, what was your favorite website?" or "When you were a little girl, did you have a favorite computer game?"


I have to tell her that there were no things like websites and computer graphics in the 1970's when I was her age. Computers were used to perform detailed calculations. Any computer screens might be someone's old television with either white, green or amber type. She can not fathom such things.


She is also puzzled by black and white movies or tv programs. I have to explain that originally television was only in black and white. I tell her I remember that we had one black and white television when I was a kid. Also, that movies from the silent Charlie Chaplin films she's seen to Miracle on 34th Street were in black and white either because A) the technology did not exist for color films or B) color film in the 40's and 50's was so expensive that many movies were made in the cheaper black and white format.


Perhaps the drastic changes of music technology are not as foreign to her since she has seen our turnable and albums and 45's. We have an extensive collection of albums, cassettes and cd's, but have not jumped on the iPod or mp3 bandwagon.


She is growing up in a world where, because of technology, you don't have to really wait for anything. Instant gratification. Everything is so fast. I wish that as a parent I could teach her patience, but perhaps my slow dial-up modem is about the only way she can understand that things don't always move as quickly. While she waits for a computer game to load from "Club Penguin" she reads a book. ; )

World in Pictures

I explored the 3rd party Flickr tool called World in Pictures. I searched for Yellowstone National Park since I lived and worked there for 8 1/2 years before moving back to Arizona.

I was greeted with images of bison, moose, Hayden Valley, Old Faithful, and Mammoth Hot Springs. These images have inspired me to add my own Yellowstone pictures to this site when I have the time. (The above image is from my personal digital photo collection).

I also look forward to browsing the World in Pictures website for more locations such as Mesa, Arizona (since I live here again); Victoria, British Columbia (since I have always wanted to go there); Brussels, Belgium (since I visited there 20 years ago--Yipes!) and maybe even see if I can pull up pictures of the Cascade Mountain range volcanoes.

I also looked into Mappr and noticed it had an intriguing map of Route 66. I couldn't figure out how to take a closer look at the photos. Maybe when time permits . . .

Cat ownership at 30

As a part of my lifelong learning, I became a pet owner for the first time at the age of 30. If you asked me when I was 9, I would have said my first pet would be a dog.

Instead, my first pet was a cat, and not the one pictured to the left. She is cat number three.

My first cat, Molly, was adopted on February 6, 1999 from the Stafford Animal Shelter in Livingston, Montana. She was about 5 months old and literally walked onto my lap at the shelter. I figured this was a good sign, so we adopted her. She lived with us in Yellowstone National Park for her first month with us.

In March 1999, my husband and I moved with Molly to a 20-acre ranch 20 miles south of Livingston and rented a small apartment there. Molly watched from inside and watched the landlord's calico cat, three dogs, horse, crazy llama and ducks wander around the ranch.

In May of that year, she ventured outdoors and didn't turn back becoming very confident in being outside. She became a proficient hunter. She loved to find the oddest hiding places, including an abandoned horse trailer, to take outdoor naps. After awhile, we decided as long as she knew where she was, that was okay by us. She'd come back when she was good and ready.

In time, Molly moved with us to our 8 acre property 3 miles down the road a-piece. She would let out panther-like screams when neighboring cats came on the property. My dad installed a catdoor for us and Molly loved to bring in mice, voles, and birds. After awhile we decided we didn't enjoy the live animals indoors (besides Molly herself), so we had a piece of wood to block the catdoor. Whew!

A few years later, we adopted a orange tabby we named Tony, so Molly would not get so lonely when we traveled. Molly didn't know what to think of Tony who was a tiny kitten at the time. She eventually tolerated him and would engage in cat-wrassling and the occasional grooming session. The two cats where like John and Yoko with their occasional bed-ins. The younger ginger Tomcat and the older, more exotic lady cat.

In 2006, we saw a Siamese at the Bozeman PetSmart. She was our 3rd cat. My daughter felt it was her birthday gift, as we adopted Koko, two days before her birthday in December. Koko was a stray so we have no idea how old she is. As with most Siamese, she is extremely playful and curious. Tony was scared of her at first and Molly just tolerated her. Tony warmed up quickly to Koko and they tussled and Koko always groomed Tony. Tony was 12 pounds and Koko only 6 pounds, but they were such a cute pair!

Molly could care less about the other two cats--as long as she could go out and hunt, she was okay.

Stay tuned for a future post on the cats travels of 1200 plus miles down to Mesa, Arizona. . .

SUNS eastern road trip

This is test blog post #2, so I am going to write what is in the back of my mind today. . .

I am a Phoenix Suns fan. Tonight the team plays the Cleveland Cavaliers. Everyone knows that when Cavs player, LeBron James, is playing well, he is hard to beat.


Hopefully when Grant Hill gets back into the groove (he just had an appendectomy on January 10), he will help the team gel a little better. We shall see.


However, when Grant was out, some other bench players stepped up and fought hard against the Lakers, TWolves and Nets. Marcus Banks and dare I say, Boris Diaw, to name a few.

Let us hope that after a day off, the Suns have had a chance to regroup and practice their shots. Remember guys, defense!!!

7 1/2 Habits of Lifelong Learning

Since I work in LibraryLand, I feel that everyday I am a lifelong learner. So I would have to say that the habit of "Accept responsibility for your own learning" is definitely the habit that I find easiest. Every time I work at the information desk, I am greeted with various questions from a diverse range of people. Some are as simple as placing a reserve on a best-selling book. Some are asking whether we have a book on how to write a letter to a friend who has a terminal illness.

Just a few days ago, for almost every question I was asked our library did not have exactly what the customer was looking for. Some people I helped didn't have the time to go into more thorough searches for their queries. I find that in these instances my hardest habit of lifelong learning is "View problems as challenges." I know I am challenged with some questions but sometimes I view them as problems instead. For example, when the library does not have the exact type of item they are looking for, I am frustrated that we don't have a book on that subject! However, I was able to suggest to our non-fiction selector some subjects that we could look for to order for the library system. So I do try to take the lemons and make them into lemonade, if you will.