"A library book, I imagine, is a happy book." Cornelia Funke

"Everything puts me in mind of a story." Ben Franklin

Tuesday, February 25, 2014

Thing 7: Content Saving and Sharing, Pinterest


Pinterest: "Pinterest is a visual bookmarking tool that turns that traditional list of bookmarks into a bulletin board-type display of photos. You pin to Boards (folders) you create so you can find the pins again. Each photo/pin is a link to the site where you found it. This is great for visual learners or anyone who needs a pictorial reminder of just why you saved that link. Pinterest has many social features to explore, too, but this Thing focuses on the saving/finding features of the mobile app for Pinterest."

I am a mad fiend for Pinterest and I love using it on my iPhone. I use it both personally and professionally. How much do I use it?

Personally, I currently have 137 boards and yes, I am going to bore you with what they are. I am heavily into vintage and antique things and fairy tales. Fair warning.

  1. Aged P's (inspirational senior citizens)
  2. Alice, I Love You (Wonderland related)
  3. Wonderful Animals
  4. Art Deco Glamour
  5. Art Nouveau Jewelry/Hair Ornaments
  6. Art Nouveau Splendor
  7. Arthurian Tales
  8. Arts and Crafts Period
  9. Authors and Other Famous Folk I've Met
  10. Autobiography 1963+
  11. Autumn
  12. Beauties Illustrated (pictures, not photos, of the beautiful, mostly women)
  13. Black Cats, to Thelma
  14. Book Beauty (book covers)
  15. Book Fun (book covers)
  16. Ray Bradbury Tribute
  17. Burlesque Beauties
  18. Buttons and Buckles
  19. C is for Clauser (letter C script)
  20. Carousel Creatures
  21. Chickens
  22. Old-Time Circus
  23. Art Deco Cosy Cottages (illustration)
  24. D is for Donell (letter D script)
  25. Downton Abbey
  26. Dreamy Beauties (Pre-Raphaelitesque photos)
  27. Playing Dress Up
  28. My Faerie Fey
  29. Fairy Gardening
  30. Fairy Princesses (old photos)
  31. Fairy Tales (misc.)
  32. Fairy Tales Around the World
  33. Feedsack Prints
  34. Fabulous Felines
  35. Flowers
  36. Flower Fairies of My Garden (Cicely Mary Barker's illustrations)
  37. Gardening/Cottage Gardening
  38. Girlfriend Looks Like a Boyfriend
  39. Glamour Girls (old photos of famous ladies)
  40. Glamping!
  41. Our Baby Goddaughter, Olive (present ideas)
  42. Halloween Postcards: Finding True Love
  43. Halloween Postcards: Romantic
  44. Vintage Halloween
  45. Vintage Halloween Photos
  46. Vintagey, Shabbyish Home Style
  47. I Like It (misc)
  48. Whimsical Illustration
  49. Jesus
  50. Jewelry
  51. Lovely Lace
  52. Librarians
  53. Sumptuous Lingerie
  54. Lucky Cats (Maneki Neko)
  55. Makeup, Hairstyles, Nails
  56. Mysterious Merfolk
  57. MN Spay/Neuter Rescue Cats (where I volunteer)
  58. Naughty (and vintage)
  59. Interesting People
  60. Peter Pan
  61. Pin Ups
  62. Pin Ups with Pets
  63. Pinocchio
  64. FATshionistas Plus Size Style (group board, not created by me)
  65. Plus Size Style
  66. Pre-Raphaelites and Co.
  67. Prettiest in Pink
  68. Reading Relate
  69. Maurice Sendak: a Tribute
  70. Spring!
  71. Squirrels for Mom
  72. Style Inspiration
  73. Colorful Tara
  74. Tea Party Time (vintage with primarily children and animals)
  75. Terraria
  76. Tricksters (Coyote, Brer Rabbit, etc.)
  77. Trims and Embellishments
  78. My Twin Cities
  79. Valentines
  80. Vintage Children
  81. Vintage Couples
  82. Vintage Gentlemen
  83. Vintage Ladies
  84. Vintage Pets
  85. Winter Holidays
  86. Glorious Victorian (begins boards of vintage fashions)
  87. Edwardian Beauty
  88. Edwardian Beauty 2
  89. Edwardian Underpinnings and Sleepwear
  90. 1920s Style
  91. 1930s Style
  92. 1940s Style
  93. 1950s Style
  94. Vintage Stylemakers (modern folks with vintage flair)
  95. Armless Maiden (begins boards of fairy tale illustrations)
  96. Baba Yaga
  97. Beauty and the Beast
  98. Billy Goats Gruff
  99. Bluebeard and Co.
  100. Boy Who Drew Cats
  101. Bremen Town Musicians
  102. Briar Rose
  103. Brother & Sister
  104. Cinderella
  105. Donkeyskin/Manyfurs
  106. East O' the Sun, West O' the Moon
  107. Emperor's New Clothes
  108. Frog Prince
  109. Goldilocks/Three Bears
  110. Goose Girl
  111. Hansel & Gretel
  112. Jack & the Beanstalk
  113. Jorinda & Joringel
  114. Juniper/Almond Tree
  115. Little Match Girl
  116. Little Mermaid
  117. Little Snow Maiden
  118. Princess & Pea
  119. Puss in Boots
  120. Rapunzel
  121. Red Riding Hood
  122. Red Shoes/Andersen
  123. Rumpelstiltskin
  124. Snow Queen
  125. Snow White
  126. Snow White & Rose Red
  127. Steadfast Tin Soldier
  128. Three Pigs
  129. Thumbelina
  130. Tinderbox
  131. Toads and Diamonds
  132. 12 Dancing Princesses
  133. Wild Swans
  134. Andersen's Fairy Tales Covers
  135. Grimms' Fairy Tales Covers
  136. Oscar Wilde's Fairy Tales
  137. Fairy Tale Faction (group board, not created by me)

You can find these boards here: http://www.pinterest.com/cleery/

And some that have come and gone: Nutcracker, Tribute to Edward Gorey, Compassion, Wardian Cases, etc.

Professionally, I have 29 boards. I use them to share book titles and to save display and programming ideas.

  1. Adult Fiction: Fairy Tale Root
  2. Adult Fiction: Mythological Root
  3. fiftyfifty.me 2013 Books
  4. fiftyfifty.me 2013 Movies
  5. Flannel Boards
  6. Fairy Tale Retellings: Chapter Books
  7. Fairy Tale Retellings: Teen
  8. African Folktales
  9. Australian Aboriginal Tales
  10. Chinese Folktales
  11. Japanese Folktales
  12. Russian Folktales
  13. Kid's Bulletin Boards
  14. Based on Greek/Roman Mythology: Chapter Books
  15. Based on Greek/Roman Mythology: Teens
  16. Kid's Craft Ideas
  17. Kid's Program Ideas
  18. Librarian
  19. Library Decoration
  20. Matryoshka Stories
  21. Pro Reading/Pro Library
  22. Based on Mythology: Chapter Books (Norse, Egyptian, etc.)
  23. Based on Mythology: Teens (Norse, Egyptian, etc.)
  24. Passive Programs
  25. Storytellers (Pueblo Storyteller dolls)
  26. Storytime (activities)
  27. Family Storytime Books
  28. Teen Displays
  29. Teen Program Ideas

Check them out at: http://www.pinterest.com/bookbesotted/

Thursday, February 13, 2014

Thing 6: Creating and Editing Docs


Although I can't imagine ever choosing to create or edit a document on the tiny screen of my iPhone, the app that I picked for this thing is CloudOn.

Here is the deal: "CloudOn brings you Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint to your device. Sure, there are other apps that do this, too, but this app brings them to the device and they look exactly like they do on your computer, so it’s not hard to figure out how to use them."

 It was easy to download, and I opened up a Word document, but from there I admit I was clueless. I couldn't figure out why my keyboard wasn't coming up.

So, I Googled CloudOn for iPhone and found a helpful little video:

http://site.cloudon.com/help/knowledgebase/articles/148789-video-cloudon-for-iphone-overview

So, umm, you need to open the document in your "desired service," in my case, GoogleDrive. From there you can type and edit as you choose. It seems handy, and I might use it in a pinch, but honestly, my work computer and home laptop would be all I'd need in most cases.

Chinese Fables by Shiho S. Nunes


Chinese Fables: "The Dragon Slayer" and Other Timeless Tales of Wisdom by Shiho S. Nunes, Illus. by Lak-Khee Tay-Audouard, 2013.

The book's preface explains that the nineteen fables in this collection were chosen from Chinese Fables and Parables by Wolfram Eberhard, an American folklorist.  In the eary 1970s, he recorded five hundred tales with a line or two. Nunes expanded the descriptions into stories such as "The Practical Bride," "Kwan-Yin, the Goddess of Mercy," and ""Sakyami and Lao-Tse," and kept the core truths and moral lessons. Many, like ""Scaring the Tigers," "The Same Difference"  and "The King of Beasts," will make readers smile. The original sources, from 500-250 BCE to 1368-1643, are listed in the back of the book.

The book's attractive  pencil and wash pictures have elements of traditional Chinese art and are inspired by Chinese folk art. To match the "rustic quality of these tales" Lak-Khee Tay-Audouard used ground tea powder, earth, pressed leaves, sackcloth, charcoal and bamboo rag paper to create her illustrations.

Sunday, February 9, 2014

Rabbit's Gift: a Fable From China

Rabbit's Gift: a Fable From China by  George Shannon, Illus. by Laura Dronzek, 2007.

This centuries-old folktale has been shared in China, Germany, Japan, France, Spain, Syria and Jordan. In wintertime, a lucky rabbit finds two turnips and decides to leave one for his friend Donkey. She already has enough food, and kindly takes it to Goat's door and so the gifting goes on. Imagine Rabbit's surprise the next morning when he finds it again at his house!

Laura Dronzek's  child-pleasing acrylic paint illustrations enrich the story. The uncluttered, serene pictures put the emphasis on the generous animal friends. The rich colors Dronzek has chosen contrast nicely with the snowy winter landscape.She includes decorative turnip borders that incorporate the Chinese symbols for rabbit, donkey, goat and deer.

Saturday, February 8, 2014

Mouse Match by Ed Young



Mouse Match by Ed Young, 1997.


This is a Chinese version of a folktale also found in Japan (see The Greatest of All, retold by Eric Kimmel, described in my post The Mightiest One ) . In his Author's Note, Ed Young tells readers that  some variety of the story is told in Korea, India, Burma, Ethiopia, France, Germany and North America (by native peoples).  In Mouse Match, loving mama and papa mice try to find a suitable husband for their wonderful daughter. They hope for no less than "the greatest and most powerful one in the world." So, they begin with the sun, only to learn that there is someone more powerful, the cloud, who claims that there is another still greater than he. The mice are passed through a chain of the mighty and finally find a surprising yet perfect match for their daughter and also gain wisdom that helps them to answer questions for the rest of their days.

The book's pages are printed on heavy card stock and folded accordion style so they can be pulled out to view the entire tale like a mural. One side is in English accompanied by Young's collage illustrations and the flip side has the story in Chinese:




From http://learningmandarinwithmydaughter.blogspot.com/


This book nicely showcases Ed Young's pastel and watercolor collages. The stark black silhouettes of the mice stand out against these backgrounds and the creatures' body language makes them endearingly expressive.  As in Young's best work, there is plenty of texture and subtle color variations that make readers want to touch the pages.

Wednesday, February 5, 2014

Thing 5: Notetaking





I'm going to have to skip over Thing 4 until I update my iPhone software. However, it looks like I can go ahead with Thing 5.

For this Thing, I'm trying out the Remember the Milk app:

"Make to-do lists for whatever you like with Remember the Milk. Organize and prioritize your lists, add tasks and due dates, search your tasks and notes, and even set up notification reminders via email or text message. Never forget your tasks with Remember the Milk."

You do need to set up an account once you add this app.

I admit that I was attracted to this app over the other choices by the cute cow logo. I also have to say that I have a stupid reason for being interested in a notes app. What frivolous notes do I want to keep? I've been giving up (ongoing process with pitfalls) all fizzy soda drinks and instead drinking lemonade when I really want something more than water. Restaurant lemonade varies widely. My memory of lemonades is unreliable. So, I want to keep notes in my phone of which restaurants have good lemonade and which is vile. The notes app that comes with my phone is even more unreliable then my memory; it eats my notes over time. So.

I pretty quickly learned that Remember the Milk is probably not what I need for my lemonade notes. It is also for a busier person than I am. It looks like you can nicely organize your tasks in detail. I use the calendar on my phone for events and appointments, and the one in my Outlook mail at work for work tasks. My personal life beyond that is just not that hard to manage, and I probably would use this app for my grocery list. Although honestly, I might just as likely write it out on paper.

But notes. I do want to keep some notes that I can refer to. Sometimes I want to jot down the names of my neighbors and their pets, so I can remember them. Or the name of a plant or flower that I want to add to my garden. Or the newest makeup that a magazine says will make me unbelievably beautiful (yes, master...I hear and obey...). So, I'm trying the Springpad app.

"Springpad is a free personal organizer app that lets you save and organize tasks, recipes, notes, movies and more. Save from anywhere, on any device. Springpad even offers suggestions to help you do more based upon what you’ve been saving."
 
You need to sign up for this app too, but you have the choice of using your Facebook, Twitter or email accounts.

Here are the templates to begin:

 
 
I picked quick notes. I really like it. I was able to put in all the silly notes I wanted under my own headings and in different notebooks. You can also have photos that accompany your notes. You can install the "Spring It!" webclipper to save things from the web to your notebooks.  Using this, I saved some birthday ideas for my mother in a new notebook: "Presents for Mom." I think that I will definitely explore Springpad more.

Chinese Tale Series: Chang'e Flying to the Moon




Chang'e Flying to the Moon Adapted by Wang Zhiwei, Trans. by Liu Yonghou, Illus. by Zhao Jing & others, 2005.

I think that this is the first Chinese folktale I've looked at that was produced and printed in China. It is part of Dolphin Books' Chinese Tale Series and is written in English and Chinese. The English translation is not always smooth, but the story is still quite interesting.
 Houyi the archer impresses a group of fairy maidens with his shooting talent and becomes charmed by the most beautiful one, Chang'e. Almost immediately, he has a chance to win her when he slays an attacking heavenly wolf. The Lord of Heaven decides that the two young ones should marry, but later, for reasons that are not explained, Houyi shoots down the nine suns, and gets himself and Chang'e thrown out of the heavenly palace and into the human world. Houyi adapts well to this life, having become a champion of the people and killing all the beasts and monsters that threaten them, such as Big Wind Bird, Three-Tailed Dragon, a nine headed monster and more. Chang'e is not having such an easy time. She misses her husband when he is gone, longs for life in the heavenly palace and frets because she and her man are now mortal.
In order to end his wife's worrying, Houyi makes the dangerous trip to Kunlun Mountain to visit the West Queen Mother and bring back the elixir of immortality. This brings about tragedy for the couple and explains why the moon is always bright and gentle on August 15th.

Learn more about Chang'e at: http://www.moonfestival.org/change.html