Cheery Exercise People…Ugh

Library of Congress: Female student exercising…Washington, D.C 1899?

So don’t get me wrong, I exercise and I know it’s important, but what’s with all of the cheery exercise people on those fitness DVDs? It drives me crazy. Lead the exercise, just don’t be so darn happy about it. You know we don’t want to do it. You are being paid to lead it.

I could make a lot of money (I think) by creating a new series of workouts, the CRANKY Workouts. No cheery leaders. They’ll say things like: “I know you hate this but TOO BAD COUCH POTATOES, GET MOVING.”  They won’t say things like “Exercise brightens your mood and makes your whole day better…blah blah blah.”  They won’t look like swizzle sticks either, they’ll look like real people who eat cupcakes now and then. They also won’t tell you things like: “Cupcakes are the root of all evil! If you eat one, the earth will stop spinning on its axis!”

Until the cranky workouts are ready, the library has good DVDs for working out in the privacy of your home. Yes, there is a bit of cheeriness, but they are still worthwhile. Leslie Sansone, fitness guru says: “After a workout, you never say ‘I am sorry I did that.’ You are always glad that you did.” OK Leslie, even though you are wayyyyy too chipper, you have a good point.

To find exercise DVDs:

1. Go to Find Movies
2. Enter fitness

-Anne R., CADL Reference Librarian

May – National Bike Month

Take off the training wheels and join your fellow Americans in celebrating National Bike Month during May!

For the past 56 years, advocacy groups like the League of Michigan Bicyclists (LMB) and League of American Bicyclists have promoted the many benefits of bicycling — health, environment and community building.  They’ve lobbied legislatures (federal and state) to protect the rights of bicyclists, promote creation and preservation of trails, allow bicycles on public transportation (thank you CATA!), standardize right turn signals, provide public safety training and promote bike share programs (Adrian College is one example).

The LMB office is located in downtown Lansing at 416 S. Cedar Street.  They offer many resources on their website and at their office: lists of rides throughout the state (2012 Michigan Ride Calendar), Routes and Maps, Education and Advocacy Toolkits, and free publications such as “What Every Young Michigan Bicyclist Must Know,” “What Every Michigan Bicyclist Must Know,” and the 2012 Michigan Ride Calendar. We now have a supply of these 3 publications available at CADL Downtown Lansing.  You can also check out CADL resources for tips on bike repair, maintenance, guidebooks, and training.

Here are some May dates to remember:

• May 9 = Bike-to-School Day
• May 14-18 = Bike-to-Work Week
• May 18 = Bike-to -Work Day

 ”It’s like riding a bike.  You never forget how.”

- Eunice B., CADL Reference Librarian 

Check the Forecast

Local career expert Lisa (a.k.a. Recruiter Uncensored) shares some of her knowledge with us every Monday. You can read this post in its original form along with comments here.

Most make a point to check the weather forecast when making plans for a weekend or a vacation. Knowing ahead of time what conditions to prepare for is key to the planning process and helps ensure a positive experience. Job seekers need to do the same thing with their search. It’s imperative to take in whatever information is available in terms of trends, events, legislation, etc., that shed light on what may develop in the future so job seekers can better decide what destinations to target and what gear they may need for the journey once they arrive.

Every day I meet individuals looking for work who haven’t armed themselves with enough information on the direction business is heading. They don’t know who the businesses are in their area, what those business are up to and what economic, political and social developments influence their potential for success. These are things job seekers must have an understanding of in order to make the sell they are a good fit for helping a company to not just survive, but thrive.

The information is out there. Much of it is low hanging fruit. It may not be as simple as logging on to a web site or turning on the television for a quick glance at a weather forecast, but it isn’t nearly as labor intensive as it was prior to the internet and the age of 24/7 news channels. I often hear individuals say they don’t have the time to dedicate to researching this stuff. I personally feel they don’t have the time NOT to take a look at what’s happening around them. Being in the know can substantially reduce one’s time on the shelf of unemployment.

Find the time. Seek out advice on efficient ways to obtain information. Develop solid networking channels so you can pull from the efforts of others. Show prospective employers you are interested enough in being relevant and helping their company succeed to choose enlightenment over ignorance.

- Lisa W-P, CADL Guest Blogger

Sherlock, the BBC’s modern reinvention of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Homes mysteries, is one of the best things on television. I’m hardly alone in my opinion: check out Jessica’s glowing staff review of the first season. PBS is finally airing its second season (already available to put on hold at CADL), but there’s a major problem: each season is only three episodes long, and for a raving fan like me, that’s hardly enough.

If you find yourself wanting more, take a look at some of the source material. Series 1 was inspired by A Study in Scarlet, The Valley of Fear, and The Adventure of the Dancing Men and other stories from The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. Series 2 hews closer to the books, the three episodes having been inspired by A Scandal in Bohemia (From The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes), The Hound of the Baskervilles, and The Final Problem (from The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes). If someone could convince Benedict Cumberbatch to narrate an audiobook of the stories, I’d never again be seen without headphones.

The show departs wildly from the original material, however, and if what you’re really looking for is more of Sherlock‘s signature wit and style, you’d be well advised to pick up Mark Gatiss’s Edwardian mystery novel The Vesuvius Club. Gatiss is a producer, writer and actor on Sherlock: he takes sole writing credit for my favorite episode to date, “The Great Game” and plays Sherlock’s brother, Mycroft Holmes. Now get reading! The game is afoot!

- Sara D., Public Services Librarian at CADL

City Chickens: Watching an Idea Become Reality, Part II

Meet Heather and Brian, Lansing residents and hopeful urban farmers. Follow them as they document their new project: raising backyard chickens. You’ll see the construction process, meet their chicks and follow their development over the summer.

Phase III: Building the Brooder
In Michigan many people order new chicks in early spring so they can be moved outside as soon as warm weather arrives.  We elected to delay our chick delivery a bit to have more time to work on the coop, so our chicks will live inside from mid-May to about mid-June.  In order to make this arrangement comfortable for everyone we built a large brooder in our basement.

Our new brooder. Not quite finished, but close!

You can use lots of things to make a brooder — cardboard boxes and sterlite containers are popular and thrifty choices.  We usually have a renovation project or two going on, so we used leftover plywood and lumber to make a brooder that can be disassembled for storage.  If you need lumber for a brooder or coop you might consider visiting MSU Surplus to purchase a load of dorm loft material in the Spring.

We’ve also lined the brooder with leftover tile from a kitchen project and built it on a sturdy raised platform. Here is a gallery of some build features.

Raising chickens gives you a wealth of opportunity to repurpose building materials. You’ll see more examples of this idea in our coop build later on.

Speaking of the coop, we’ve made some progress!  We’ve removed most of our old dirt mountain and dug a trench around the perimeter (which created a new dirt mountain, incidentally.)  We are sinking cement blocks in the trench and then filling it in with dirt.  There are two reasons for this: the blocks will keep the coop supported and level without sinking posts, and they will deter predators (remember those pesky raccoons?).

Curious about how much a backyard chicken project start-to-finish might cost?  Here are our expenses so far for initial set up:

• 5 Chicks with shipping and vaccinations – $54.  Shipping accounts for the majority of this cost as they are shipped overnight in a heated container. Buying from a feed store is a lot cheaper.
• Chick supplies. Pictured: feeder, waterer, books, pine shavings, starter feed (I’ll need lots more), heat lamp and bulb – about $60 to start.
• Brooder supplies – no cost: We used stuff we already had.
• Total so far: $114

Our goal is to keep  the total project cost  under $1000.  We’ll add a cost breakdown at the end of each building related post and see if we can keep it all under budget.

Next post: Meet the Peeps!

© hgoupil 2012

The Meatloaf Emergency and Other Interesting Questions

I was perusing through our historical clippings (highly distracting and fascinating by the way) and came across this little gem. ”Lansing Public Library Gets Odd Requests“ was in the Lansing State Journal on December 16 1945.

Some of the requests mentioned:

• “How do I raise angle worms for profit?”
• “What is the weight of a bushel of tomatoes?”
• “What is another term for mercy killing?”
• “What is the function of an iconoscope* and how is it operated?”

One of my favorite requests was a guy who called in a panic because his wife had left him a raw meatloaf for his dinner and he had no idea how to prepare it.  I looked up how long it needed to be baked. I think it’s great that he even thought to call the library!

People who don’t work in libraries think of the requests we get as “odd,” but we think of them as business as usual.  Today we get things like:

• “I need to find a good picture of a tiger for my tattoo.”
• “How do you get an email address?”
• We still get the standard telephone number and address lookups as well. We are happy that people think of us when they need help.

Ask us @ 517-367-6346 or ask online.

The article also features strange things that people leave in books as bookmarks. Yes, that still happens. My favorite thing mentioned was BACON. Ewww. But they neglected to show the bacon in the picture. No fair.

*The iconoscope was the first practical television-camera for picture pickup, invented in 1923 by Vladimir Kosma Zworykin.

-Anne R., Reference Librarian @ CADL

Movie and TV Fans, You Can Lean on CADL

I am a fan of the ‘moving picture.’ Films. Flicks. Yes, even Talkies—I will watch just about anything.

The Capital Area District Library helps feed my hunger for film, thanks to its DVD collection. CADL also has VHS tapes, which makes me glad I didn’t toss away my old VCR, like everyone else I know. Sure, I get teased for keeping it around, but how else am I going to watch my copy of the ‘80s classic, Red Dawn? It’s a film best experienced on VHS, I think. Kinda like listening to Deep Purple on 8-track.

I was chatting with a friend about comic book films at a party (yes, I do have friends, and yes, they do invite me to parties). We were discussing the Avengers film, which combines several of the Marvel superheroes (Captain America, Iron Man, The Hulk, Thor…um…Arrow Guy, and Scarlett Johansson). I told my friend I was rather luke-warm about seeing Avengers, and that I hadn’t even watched Thor yet.

My friend suggested, despite my concerns, that I remedy my Thor-deficiency ASAP. While assuring him I would do so, I took out my smartphone, went to cadl.org, and searched the catalog for Thor on DVD. With a tap of my cucumber-sandwich-stained finger (it was a Kentucky Derby themed party), I placed a hold on Thor.

A day later, I received an email letting me know the Thor DVD was ready to be picked up at my nearest CADL branch. This was handy, as there is nothing more disappointing than traveling all the way to the library, only to find what I want is not available.

This is not the first time I have used cadl.org to request DVDs. A few months ago, I reserved the BBC version of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy with Sir Alec “Don’t Call Me Obi-Wan” Guinness. I wanted to watch the mini-series before seeing the new film, with Gary Oldman replacing Sir Alec. As would be expected, the mini-series was a hot item leading up to the release of the film, but I was notified by email once the DVDs arrived.

Speaking of a hot item (no, not me), I put a hold on season one of the HBO fantasy series, Game of Thrones. As you can see by the screen capture below, I have quite the wait.

More like 'Wait of Thrones.'

Good thing I have a lot of books on my To Read list to keep me busy.

–
Daniel J. Hogan is the geek half of Ginger and the Geek. He also (poorly) draws the webcomic, Clattertron. Follow him on Twitter, @danieljhogan.