Nina Lewis

Sometimes it’s feast or famine.  At least that is what it feels like when I try to check out books from the library at the university where I work.

If there is a recently published popular fiction book either the library does not have a copy or it is already checked out.

The check out policy is that administrative folks and faculty can check out a book for 6 months!  You can put a ‘request’ for it and then the person is supposed to turn it back in within a week.  But my requests seem to fall into a black hole never to be seen again.  So, if the library has that popular fiction book and it is checked out, I might as well forget about checking out the book for a decade or so.  Then, it won’t be so popular.

If by chance the library has a copy of the book that I want and it isn’t checked out, you’d think that I would be able to find it on the bookshelf.  Right?  Wrong!  As I recently learned, people can sign up for lockers in the library.  They can take books off the shelf, use them, and then store them in their locker until they no longer want them.  The check out system claims that the book is available.  But, in reality, it isn’t.  Fooey on those people!

Last week, I hit the jackpot.  The computer said that the library had copies of three books that I wanted to read.  When I went to the bookshelf, lo and behold!  The book was there.  All three of them.  Of course I immediately checked them out.  I didn’t want to chance them being gone if I only checked out one at a time.

So, two books are snuggled on my desk and one accompanies me on my bus ride to work so that I can read it.

In preparation for our trip to Denmark, I decided to buy a book or two (ahem . .  or three . . . ahem . . . or five!).  Who can resist purchasing a book when it is less than $4?

Book one (a fiction book about Japanese sisters) arrived within 2 days.  The second book (about China) arrived the next day.  The third book (about Darfur) came two days later.  A day after that came a fiction book about India.

Now I’m waiting.  Waiting.  Waiting.  Do you hear my impatient toe tapping?  Where is my fifth book — my book about American politics??  I check my e-mail from Amazon.  It will be delivered by September 14.  September 14?!?!!  I want to take the book with me to Denmark.  I’ll be in Denmark on the 14th!  Methinks I’ll just have to read it when I get home.  Le sigh (to quote my daughter-in-law).

Then there is the book on education that I am reading at work for work.

And the marketing book that I got from work that I get to keep.

That makes nine books for Nina.  Wait.  Let me count them up again.  Mmmmm . . . That makes ten.  Ten books for Tena (pronounced ten-uh)*.

That just might keep my eyeballs busy for the next little bit.

Oh wait!  I forgot the book that I got from a friend that she asked if I would read and write a review about it.  That makes eleven books!

I’m having a feast!

*Tena was the nickname that my older sister gave to me when we were teenagers.

Dear Readers,

This is a letter of apology for all of you who may not be quite into technology like I am.  For that I am sorry. (Sorry that you are not into technology.  Not that I am writing this letter to you . . .)

You can stop reading right now and go your merry way to scrub toilets, wash windows, give the dog a bath — or whatever activity that brings joy and happiness to your soul — if  you don’t care for technology.  If you hunker after it like me, read on.

Dagon Design has created a WordPress Plugin that allows you to schedule a draft post to be published at a later time.  So, you ask.  What does that have to do with the price of rice in China?

Lots, I reply.

This plugin means I can write something and then set a time for it to be automatically published.  I don’t have to go back in to click the publish button.  It’s done presto-pronto on time all by its little self.

Here’s why it is appealing to me.

I recently wrote that my sweet husband and I will be traveling to Denmark.  I want to be able to have posts published on my sites during that time.  But, I don’t know what Internet access will be like in Denmark.  Heck, I don’t even know if I’ll have any desire to be posting to my sites while I’m in that delightful country that is going to add a plethora of pounds to my body because of its tasty pastries.

So, I can have something written in advance (and that will be a key issue here!) and the plugin will publish it while I’m off galavanting and having fun.

I like that idea.

Now.  If you are reading this post, you know that I was successful in getting it to work.  Happy day!

If you can’t read this, then I’ll be going back to the drawing board — or to the php coding to try and figure out what I did wrong.

All the best,
Ms. Techno-Geek-in-all-her-glory

Over and over I hear the phrase ’sense of entitlement’ used by the older generation (my generation) about the younger generation.  The older generation sees many instances in which the youth of today exhibit feelings that they are entitled to things: expensive cars, elaborate homes, the latest styles in clothing.  Entitled to things and privileges that their parents worked a lifetime for.  After all, these young folks deserve it, don’t they?  Why shouldn’t they have it?

I would like to pit any one of these entitled youth against Deo to see who would last the longest.

Deo who for six months hid from the violence, the mayhem, and the murder that was happening around him in 1993 in his country of Burundi.  For six months, he fled from place to place, eking out a meager existence, hiding in the forest, following steams and rivers, and avoiding people for fear of being killed.  Six months of seeing mounds of dead bodies, of smelling the breath of death.  Six months with little to eat that left him a gaunt skeleton — a person who resisted sleep because sleep brought nightmares.

This book tells the true story of Deogratias who was a third year medical student in Burundi.  He managed to escape the ethnic violence in his country and flee to New York City.  Deo (as he is called) delivered groceries for a paltry wage and slept in Central Park.  He was taken in by Charlie and Nancy, learned to speak English, and graduated from Columbia University. Deo crossed paths with Paul Farmer (as written about in the book Mountains Beyond Mountains) who sponsored Deo when Deo was accepted into Darkmouth Medical School.

Oh, and by the way, Deo became a United States citizen.

He has paused in his medical studies to return to his village to build a health clinic as a mark of his forgiveness for those who had tried to kill him and a sign of hope for Burundi’s future.

In May 2010, Deo was honored at the Voices of Courage Awards in New York City for his work in providing health care to refugee women and children.

I highly recommend that you read this amazing book. 

And, get down on your knees and thank God for all of the bounteous blessings in your life.

The advancement in technology for cell phones never ceases to amaze me.  But then, it isn’t hard to amaze my addled pea brain, now is it?  You can check your calendar, send e-mail, play games, listen to music, check your to do list, keep track of finances, locate business and restaurants, manage your physical fitness routines, take pictures — and oh, yes, place phone calls.  (What I want to know is how soon until it will be able to wash windows and scrub toilets, huh?)

The other day I came across a spectacularly innovative thing:  camera lenses for your cell phone.  Imagine that!

I’m not a professional photographer by any means.  But I do know that to attach a lens to a camera the lens screws on.  As in there are the ‘threads’ that allow you to twist the lens onto the camera and hold it tight-y tight and snug onto the camera.

And, I am smart enough to realize that cell phones do not come equipped with those all important threads that hold a lens on. Not my phone. Not yours. Not anybody’s!

So what gives?

Well, hold your horses for a moment, buckaroo.  I’ve gotta tell you about the lenses first.  There are two of them.  One is a fisheye lens.  The other one is a macro/wide angle lens.  They work with ANY cell phone.  Did you catch that?  It will work on my fabulous iPhone and your Blackberry Torch 9800.  Your LG, Nokia, myTouch 3G, and even your Samsung or Sanyo phone. As long as it has picture taking capabilities.

How is that?  How can a lens fit any and all cell phones?  Such flexibility doesn’t happen in real life with SLR or DSLR cameras . . .

With a detachable magnetic ring. (And that’s gotta be one powerful magnetic ring to hold on the lens if you ask me!)

How cool is that?

The fisheye lens only costs $25.  The wide angle/macro lens runs $20.  Bundled together they are only $40.  (That’s just two trips to the movies and two large tubs of popcorn and large drinks for my sweetie and I . . . totally affordable.  Totally!)

Oh my! I want them, I want them, I want them!!!

How can I justify getting lenses for the camera on my cell phone?  I’m not a serious photographer.  Not even a half-serious one. I only take pictures of lime green sandbags or insanely adorable grandchildren (mine) or surreptitious photos of random women at Fijian airports whose haircut I happen to like.

It’s just that my technology addiction needs a fix.  I think these lenses would be the fix for that fix . . .

(Note: this is not a paid advertisement.  It’s an out and out public display of coveting.)

For years and years and years and YEARS, my husband has said that he wants to take me to Denmark.  He served a mission for our church there.  He loved the country.  Loved the people. (Loved the pastries . . .)  Now he loves me.

Finally, he decided that we could afford to go.  The Euro is declining so it won’t be such an expensive trip for us.  Rumor on the street has it that Denmark is the most expensive place in Europe.  Just my luck.

Our airplane tickets are purchased.  We’ve been planning and preparing more for this trip than any other trip that we have taken.

Saying that we are excited to go is the understatement of the year.  Make that century.  We’re in a relatively new one — and his promise started last century.  (That sure sounds like a long time ago, huh?  Well, it WAS!)

The other night on the news, there was an interesting report about the work of the Danish artist Carl Bloch coming to the United States.  Churches and museums are busily packing up their pictures and sending them off for an art show in the United States.

Just my luck.

To say that I was not a happy camper is the understatement of the century.  (Wait.  There is another comment that holds that rating.  I guess this is the second most understatement of the century.)

After all of these years, we finally make arrangements to go to Denmark.  And, once we get there, we’ll see empty wall spaces in those museums and churches that for the past one hundred years have displayed Carl Bloch’s paintings.  Over 100 years they’ve been there.  Waiting patiently for me to come see them.  And now this.

I’m so mad I could eat worms.  (Not really.  Well, maybe.  If they are gummy worms . . .)

To top it off, guess where those paintings are going on display?  At Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah.  THAT IS WHERE I WORK!!!

Folks, do you see the irony in this situation?  We’re going to Denmark.  The pictures are coming here.  We’re like ships passing in the night.

I just might not go see the display once it opens here on campus.  That’ll show them, huh?  (Whomever them might happen to be . . .)