What's Up With My Little Sister?

Check out my sister's new blog at wattsupwithrhonda.blogspot.com!

WWU Library Search

I created a search plugin for the Western Library catalog. This plugin works with Mozilla Firefox.

You can download the plugin here. Once your download is done, click on the .exe file wherever you saved it on your hard disk. It will run as a self extracting .rar (.zip) file. Choose your browser's search plugin directory as the "extract to" or "destination" folder. Usually this folder is C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\searchplugins . Then just restart Firefox.

The search plug in loads in your search bar in the top right of the browser.

By default, it will search by title, but you can change this setting in the code for the plug in. Just open the .src file with notepad. The file is in the searchplugins folder. Then edit this line of text: action="http://lis.wwu.edu/search~/t"

By changing the last letter, you change the search parameter, "a" for author, etc... Then save the file as new, and give it a new title. Something like "Western by Author," and your done. You can also create a 16x16 .gif file as an icon for your new search plugin. Just give it the same title as your new .src file, save it to the same folder and Firefox will do the rest.

If you have any problems, if you know of a better way to host/download the plug in or if you just have questions or comments, please email me.

What Happens Next?

Monday is my day off. I get up late, watch TV in bed, take a nap. The usually day off stuff. Then I hop on the bike and go book shopping. Bellingham is a great place for book lovers. There are at least half a dozen used book stores within the city limits. Three of them are located on the same block of Grande Avenue. One of the three is closed Mondays, but Grande is still my first destination. Walking into the store is the best part. You push to door ajar, it sticks a quarter of the way through its motion and you have to transfer its weight to your shoulder briefly to keep it swinging open. As you take your first steps in, the bell rings over the door, the signal for the woman stationed behind to counter to look up briefly from whatever tome she happens to be engrossed in today. Your eyes adjust to the dim light. Then the scent hits your nostrils. Dust. And paper of course, but mostly dust. But this dust is no ordinary dust. This dust is different. It smells different. It smells like adventure, laughter, romance. This dust has history and science and stories to tell. It’s the dust of ideas, and it smells wonderful.

Sometimes I know exactly the book I’m looking for. Other times I let the book find me. I like to start at the very back of the store. I work my way forward quickly, just glancing over the books at eye level. Stretching my hand out to one side or the other, I let my fingers run over the bent and broken spines. The concave of paper-backs and the convex of hard-backs flowing by underneath my palm. On rare occasions, I’ll find one simply by touch. But usually I end up back at the front of the store. Then I return to my favorite sections; History, Science-Fiction, Classic Literature, and make a more thorough search. The key to finding the good stuff is to remember to look beyond eye level. In a store that’s wall to wall books, it’s easy to forget that it’s also floor to ceiling books. Squat down or sit on the floor, get a stool or stand on your tip toes, whatever it takes. The good stuff has been cleared out of the middles of the shelves by other people. It’s up above and down bellow where you’ll usually find your day’s catch.

My first used book store experience came at the age of 10 or so. My mom would take my sister and me to Book World. It’s now a hardware store, but at the time it was the most amazing place I’d ever seen. I was so used to going to the store with my parents, finding stuff I wanted, then being told I couldn’t have it. But here, I almost always found something I wanted, and my mom would usually buy it for me. Partly I think, she wanted to encourage me to read, but I suspect it was also a cheap way to get me to shut up for a few hours.

I suppose that’s still why I do it. They’re cheap entertainment used books are. But there is one problem with used book stores, and it’s people like me. I own somewhere on the north side of 300 books and I have never, will never, sell any one of them to a book store. I’ll loan one to a friend sure, even for years at a time, but while it may stay somewhere else, it’s still mine. The used book store is an intermediary between book lovers. We go there and find the books we want that someone else no longer wanted. But some of us want all the books we have. That’s where the system breaks down. If everyone who owns a particular book still wants it, then there won’t be any copies in the used book store for anyone else to buy. And so, every once in a while, I am forced to make a trip to a new book store. Don’t get me wrong, despite living in a certified hippie town, I’m no Wal-Mart protestor, and I don’t have any moral problem with frequenting large chain book stores. My problem isn’t one of the heart; it’s one of the wallet. I’m cheap you see, and new books are not. None the less, I walk through the well oiled doors, and hear the electronic beep signaling half a dozen clerks to converge on me, asking if they can help me find anything. As I step onto the well lit shop floor and see the perfectly spaced shelves freshly stocked with pristine, unopened books, I remember that every single one of those dusty, dog-eared, water warped, coffee stained, sunlight faded, beautiful used books started its life in a store just like this one. Freshly printed and cut, just waiting to be purchased at retail price.

A book is so much more than just a pound or so of paper and ink. A book can be a teacher, a passport, a conversation or a challenge. And whether you’re the first to read it or the last, whether you sell it, lose it, loan it, or keep it forever, it will always be yours. Because the most amazing thing about a book is that it’s not limited to the words contained on its pages. The book is only a beginning. What its ideas create is all up to you. So… What happens next?

A Doctor, a Tornado, a Kentucky Kid and No Pirates!

As I'm sure most of my readership (both of you) is aware, a new movie was released this weekend.

No, not that silly Pirate thing! I'm talking about "The Doctor, The Tornado & The Kentucky Kid." The documentary, from the same guys who brought you "Faster" and "Faster & Faster" will be available in special screenings across the country and the DVD is available through www.dtkmovie.com. I just recieved my copy today. Believe me, this is the most exiciting movie of the summer. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, if you have no idea what MotoGP is, well the guy who wrote the blurb on the back of the DVD case does a way better job than I could explaining it:

DTK captures all the action and drama of a race which, like all the greatest sporting events, turned out to be far more than a mere contest. It is the sotry of an awe-inspiring moment of truth beneath the California sun: a tale of extaordinary characters chasing a dream in the face of real danger, under unimaginable pressure, with no margin for error. It's a record of the greatest hour in American motorcycleing history, and of everthing that went into it: the months and years of striving for success; the hopes and fears of the riders, teams and families who live and breathe this glamorous, dangerous sport at its very highest level."

Go see this movie!

Fifty Words!?

I recently received an email from the people organizing a program publication for the high school football team I volunteer with. They wanted some personal information from all of the coaches. After a few general questions about past playing and coaching experience and family and occupation, they included this writing prompt:

"And finally, please include a small paragraph (approx 50 words) about what makes you passionate about coaching football and/or what you are looking forward to most for the 2006 football season.”

Fifty words!? They must be crazy! Yes I know, a good writer can work within the constraints placed on him… but 50 words!? I think even Hemingway or Faulkner might have had trouble with that.

Here is my response. It's 134 words by the way.

---

The game of Football is an avenue for aggression. In a developed society which frowns on violence, men have found it necessary to channel their fundamental need for combat into the arena of organized sport. What makes Football ideal as a substitute for battle is that it requires cunning and wit in addition to brute strength and power. And it is this balance between mind and body, between thought and action, which has made Football the passion of millions, and a passion of mine. The process of transitioning from player to coach has caused me to become passionate not only about the game of Football itself but also about teaching young men to play Football, and more importantly teaching them to transfer what they've leaned on the gridiron to the rest of their lives.