It turns out that Amish romance novels are neither Amish nor romantic.

Christopher Walken knitting wins the internets today.

Dear Internet,
Today was the day we were to start our week of museuming while TheMIL is in town, but no one was seemingly getting their shit together to go at a reasonable manner, which was not necessarily a bad thing. Well. I fly out of bed this morning, take a shower, put on bra AND pants, so I am a bit miffed at being over dressed at Throbbing Manor while MIL and TheHusband hang out in their jimjams. I’ve been assured dinner is going to be out of the house at some point this evening but it’s slowly ticking into the dining hour and no one else, but me, is apparently ready to rumble for dinner. And I’m starving.
And grumpy.
If you’ve been following me along on Twitter at all today, you know I’ve been raging against yet another white, privileged, middle class male who decreed on his blog that having a code of conduct in place for conferences was akin to the thought and moral police dampening our right to free speech. In addition to the every growing commentary, I’m especially fond of the person who responded to one of my comments that,

You got issues. Don’t know what earth you live on, but most white men I know keep their hands to themselves and respect their colleagues. Sorry for whatever the fu …. happened to you but like I said, you got issues. Maybe it’s time to deal with them. Let go that anger.

I can’t even. I’ll let Dolly do it for me more succinctly:

As of this posting, there are four very well thought of pieces in response to the originating post  by Andrew, Nina, Kate, and Matthew. I’m still on the fence about writing up a post of my own, but even if I don’t, all of these (including the originating post) will get added to annotated round up for January.
I’ve decided to get off of Twitter,  and maybe the internets, for the rest of the night. One can only take so much willful, hateful ignorance in one go. Let’s hope to a better tomorrow.
P.S. Title today comes from LOL My Thesis.
P.P.S. Why are trolls so afraid to post under their real names? Are they not MAN ENOUGH to back up what they are saying? Just a thought.
P.P.P.S. Edit: 1/2/2014  Will Manley took his site off line, claiming it was part of his “new years, new goals.” Earlier in the day of 1/1/2014, his site was still accessible via Google webcache. As of the morning of 1/2/2014, the cache has been wiped. When I find articles to add to my weekly link roundup or for future use, I save them in Pocket, which I thankfully did for Mr. Manley’s. Sadly, the comments have not been saved.

notes for cabinet particulier, part ii: History of Edwardian postcards

Edwardian postcard.

Dear Internet,
Today TheHusband, my MIL, ThePug, and myself spent majority of our time in the main living room doing various and sundry tasks. I curled up in a chair with a constant cup of tea near me with ThePug conjoined to my hip as I researched on Cabinet Particulier and juxtaposed the research with recreational reading. TheHusband worked with my MIL on her oral history — she literally is one of the most interesting women in the world. In between bits of cookies, tea, and reading, I gave archivist advice on documenting, curating, and archiving her stories. She, along with my FIL, are published poets and writers and there are plans of TheHusband and I becoming the family historians in the next few years to start documenting their papers and stories to save for future generations.
I have been toying with the idea of my heroine as supplementing her income as an actress by becoming an Edwardian postcard model, which was something many of the actresses of the era did, something I had come across from my initial research a few years ago. As I started falling down that particular research hole this afternoon, I came across this great paper The Edwardian postcard: a revolutionary moment in rapid multimodal communications which discusses a current project at Lancaster University co-directed by the authors. The paper goes into great detail about literacy and accessibility of writing postcards, which lead into it becoming a social phenomenon during the beginning of the 20th century.

  • Mail delivery happened in major cities up to 10 times a day, so responses were often “instant”
  • The average number of postcards written during this period, per person, is 200
  • UK Postmaster General reported to have delivered 6 BILLION postcards during the Edwardian era
  • Postcards were significantly cheaper to send than regular letters (Half penny per postcard as opposed to a full penny for a letter)
  • Postcards could be, and were, written in a very informal style which gave writers more freedom of expression

[Postcards] are utterly destructive of style, and give absolutely no play to the emotions. George Sims circa 1902

I found the above quote amusing since near identical verbiage has been given about Twitter.
The paper and the project were the source of why numerous articles in 2009 popped up about Edwardian postcards and referring to the postcards as the grandfather of social networking.
For those like me who are interested in more history on postcards, and their rise in Edwardian era, below are good points to start out:

If you’re interested in seeing examples of Edwardian postcards, Google, Flickr, and Tumblr each have a treasure trove of examples that should keep you busy for some time.
xoxo,
Lisa

This day in Lisa-Universe: 2012, 2012

Collectioun of Cunnynge Curioustes: December 28, 2013

Johann Georg Hainz’s Cabinet of Curiosities, circa 1666. Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

During the Renaissance, cabinet of curiosities came into fashion as a collection of objects that would often defy classification. As a precursor to the modern museum, the cabinet referred to room(s), not actual furniture, of things that piqued the owners interest and would be collected and displayed in an aesthetically pleasing manner. Collectioun of Cunnynge Curioustes is my 21st century interpretation of that idea.
Dear Internet,

Writing

F.U.C.K.

Watching

  • Blandings
    Based on the stories by P.G. Wodehouse, a frothy watch that is coming back for a second season in 2014.
  • Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.  and Sleepy Hollow
    I watched the first few episodes of both and let the rest pile up on the DVR. I found, as time went on, I had no fucks for either show. I was bored, found Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. neither clever or intriguing and Sleepy Hollow was just plain boring.
  • Boardwalk Empire
    Another show, like Homeland, that I stopped watching at some point in mid-season only to have TheHusband keep me up to date on the goings on. Now that one of my favorite characters is dead, the plot is overly messy, another character has been tossed to the side, I am glad this is now over. If this gets picked up for another season, we’ll more than likely not watch this hot mess.
  • Downton Abbey Christmas Special
    This was, it has to be, a parody of the entire show. Two major events were pushed easily to the side and summarily forgotten, no real movement in the plot, and speculation about some of the characters was heightened all dressed under snark about the English upper classes by the characters playing the upper classes. Just meh.
  • Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries Christmas Special
    Yay Phryne. Now what am I going to do until season three comes to fruition??
  • Death Comes to Pemberley
    Based on the novel by P.D. James, this three part series is currently being shown in the UK. I have yet to read the book, but, the series is interesting. It has loads of good actors, Matthew Rhys, Matthew Goode, Anna Maxwell Martin, and others. But the movement is slow, the dialogue is a bit thin, and frankly, I am not caring enough about the characters but I will continue.
  • Raised by Wolves
    Written by Caitlin Moran and her sister Caroline, it is an emphasis of their ramshackle homeschooled life from the ’80s, except placed in the current climes. I have a love/hate relationship with Caitlin, and the first episode got a slow start, but I found myself warming up to the show pretty quick.

Weekly watching: BBC Tudor Monastery Farm, Reign, DraculaProject Runway All-Stars, Breathless, Atlantis,  Elementary, Doc Martin, QIPeaky Blinders,  Sons of Anarchy,  The Vampire Diaries
What have you read/watched/listened to this week?
x0x0,
lisa

This day in Lisa-Universe in: 2011

notes for cabinet particulier, part i

Maude Fealy, American actress, circa 1901

Dear Internet,
I spent most of last week working on my book by scraping most of my original notes, reworking some plot points, researching down rabbit holes, outlining the first six chapters, and taking copious new notes. I reactivated my Tumblr/Pinterest accounts for the book for inspiration and historical note taking as well as started a Pinboard bundle for other links of research/interest/do-not-forgets.
I am insanely curious of how other people approach their writing habits/research/thought process, even more so on topics of specific interest to me. When I come across these works of fictional interest and there is no research notes, thoughts, or the only comment is something along the lines of “well-researched/heavily researched,” I am suspicious. I am, at heart, a librarian after all and part of my job is to verify the authority of a work. Example: I was looking for other titles in my time period and came across a soon to be released YA title of interest by someone who lived in England for numerous years and showed horses/was a horse trainer. The book has nothing to do with horses, but is about a young girl who is breaks free from social ties to go to art school. Early reviews have been hugely favorable on the work and much of the commentary notes how heavily researched and accurate to the period the book is. Fabulous! Good to know! But where did this person get all their research from since the only bio background they provided was they trained horses and lived in England? Why is there not a bibliography page or something of note to let readers wander through related interests on their own, even on their website?
[Addendum: Krazy Kate, once when we got into a heated debate about Dan Brown, said the whole reason she adored Dan Brown was that he had a bibliography at the end of each book. I have to grudgingly give the man props.]
I purposefully made the conscious effort to keep track of all my research, online and off, for this specific complaint. It keeps me better organized and I know others are looking for the same research so why not keep make it freely available?
My specific interest for the book is 1890s – 1915 or thereabouts, with the main action to take place sometime between 1907-11 England. Depending on the geography, this period is referred to the Gilded Age (US), Edwardian (UK), or Belle Époque (France) with Art Nouveau and Modernism filling in the edges.
I love this period for its swift social, cultural, and technology changes. It was important to me to have a time that I could play with and bend to my will, that things my character do are not so far removed from modernity as we know it, but new enough to raise an eyebrow or two in the time the books are being written. Motor cars, electricity, telephones, indoor plumbing, bicycles, public transportation, portable photography –  the list goes on of the number of things that we take for granted every day but were all coming of age during this period. I wanted my main protagonist to have the latest and greatest but have it still have new enough that it would be considered. I wanted to specifically concentrate before the First World War or even before the Titanic sinks. I wanted the real world to still have a touch of innocence to her before all the chaos of the 20th century takes its hold.
My main protagonist is an American stage actress living in London who makes a modest living and occasionally gets close to being famous except for one thing: She has massive stage fright. She gets such anxiety over public speaking, which has gotten worse as she gets older, she’s barely able to support herself. She is beyond beautiful (Maude Fealy is one of my female inspirations), but she’s getting a little long in the tooth for this acting business and frankly, she’s a bit bored with it all. She has lived a bohemian life (married numerous times our girl has and also counts numerous women of note in her conquests), but she wants something more. She is bestowed a Kodak Brownie from one of her admirers and everything changes.
I wanted her to be “other” enough (American, living/working in England, going against societal rules) that some of her actions would not seem out of line with her personality but with enough toes in the formality of the period to not be rejected from “those who matter.” I imagine it would not be too difficult of a  stretch for her to have dinner with Arthur Conan Doyle, be escorted to a ball given by P.G. Wodehouse, or flirt with Henry James. The working title, Cabinet Particulier, is Edwardian slang to refer to a private rooms, usually in restaurants, where men would meet their mistresses. I liked the sly side wink of the context and the infinite possibilities of the suggestion.
When I got the idea of the book in the summer of 2012, I thought it would be a good idea to research everything from class and behaviour, to theater of the period, even make up and shopping . I also thought it might be a good idea to read authors written in the era and downloaded whatever I could from Amazon (or Project Gutenberg) of  works from G.K. Chesterton, Rudyard Kipling, P.G. Wodehouse, Henry James, Edith Wharton, and so on. Contemporary authors writing fiction in the period are slim, namely as many pick up with the First World War and go forward, or they skip over the Edwardian age by calling it high Victorian and wrap everything under a single bow. I’m half way through Sick of Shadows, the third book the M.C. Beaton Edwardian series, which has been great for research as I’ve been keeping tabs of slang, behaviours, and other things of interest. I’ve also started a list of future reads over at Amazon as I find them.
As always, any suggestions for authors / blogs / interest, please don’t hesitate to pass them along!
x0x0,
Lisa

This day in Lisa-Universe: 2011

attracts doves and repells dragons

Miniature of the dragon constellation from Ptolemy’s Almagest, via The British Library

Dear Internet,
One of the gifts TheHusband bestowed on me this holiday season was a wireless (via Bluetooth) solar keyboard that is designed to work with my Air, iPad, and iPhone. Set up literally took two seconds and I am loving the way the keys are feeling under my pads. While I’m a 10 key girl at heart, and I will miss having the 10 key as part of my keyboard, the loss of cords and great aesthetic functionality of the keyboard is totally winning me over.
Tomorrow my Mother-in-Law is arriving for a week long visit and we’ve been prepping the house for her arrival. We had started earlier in the week instead of leaving it all at the last minute, as we tend to do in such matters, but even then it’s now nearing mid-evening hours and TheHusband is now deciding to do some of his chores. He claims trifle belly, which lead to trifle coma, which lead to napping on and off all day while watching terrible television. I cannot be too harsh on him – I didn’t wake up until 11:30 myself and then I proceeded to spend the rest of the afternoon reading before doing my own chores.
But we did get some work done — laundry is completed, the guest suite is prepped and fresh flowers have been laid, and one of TheHusband’s pet vacation projects, cleaning up the cords and rearranging the router/nas/voip/etc, was also knocked off the list. Tomorrow I take Jeeves in for his yearly oil check and while I’m gone, TheHusband will tackle the worst of all his crimes: his bathroom. Her arrival at the airport is lunchtime, which then dovetails into having a clean house and a lovely afternoon spent with her before we fall back into our usual mess disgrace but my mother-in-law has already said she’s fine with this.
The weather continues to be at worst for wear as we’ve reached the 30″ mark of snowfall this season while in the last 30 years, the average snowfall in December has been 20″. We’re getting predictions for more snow this upcoming week, which is putting a damper on potential plans. The city has been lax in getting the streets cleaned in a timely manner, but considering the damage that came from last week’s ice storm, I can’t be too harsh on them. But overall, the weather is not inviting enough outside to even want to leave the damn house!
Now that the internets is back up and running, and most of my chores of the day have been completed, I’m off to finally take a much need and much desired long soak in the tub before heading to bed.
xoxo,
Lisa

This day in Lisa-Universe: 2012, 2012, 2011, 2011, 2002

Happy Svein Forkbeard Day!

Wednesday wishes you many happy returns

Dear Internet,
On this day a millennia ago, Svein Forkbeard was declared king of England. Because you have to love a name like Forkbeard, and Vikings, we’ve decided to start celebrating December 25th as Svein Forkbeard Day. Because – why not?
We did things half-assed backwards this year — presents were opened over the course of weeks and the rest of the loot this morning, even though the tree had not even been dragged up and put out. TheHusband was extra good to me this year: I scored a new pair of Tieks, a new winter jacket, new earrings, lipgloss, a bluetooth keyboard that will double with my iPad and MacBook Air, and the new Zelda game for my DS3. The best gift was the milk frother I had added to my list at the last minute, which showed up in time for unwrapping and which I am totally in love with. TheHusband received a new bag from Rickshaw, new Pumas, tshirts, socks, a new Harmony remote, fancy bluetooth mouse, and some kind of special router so he can do some dev work.
After the presents were unwrapped, oohs and ahhs were allotted, I put the tree up while TheHusband started on today’s dinner.
Holiday tree, 2013

A few years ago, I asked the Internet to trim our tree and the Internet did not disappoint! Almost every ornament on the tree came from someone across the globe and I love them for it. What makes this tree even more special is the how many of those who shipped us ornaments knew our personalities (or made very good guesses). Doctor Who, Sherlock, Britishisms, Pugs, Books, Gnomes, Jane Austen, and the list goes on.
Again, thank you. You are now part of our yearly tradition.
May tonight be merry and bright with your loved ones close and have a wonderful new year.
x0x0,
Lisa

This day in Lisa-Universe: 2011

Annotated LibTechGender article roundup for December 2013

Icicles hanging above the kitchen windows on December 23, 2013

Dear Internet,
Today is Christmas Eve. Ho. Ho. Ho.
This morning our sewer mains are going to be rooted as they have been backed up since the weekend due to combination of weather and 90 year old pipes. When we had to do this several years ago, it was due to the previous owner had flushed every period pad and tampon she ever used down the toilets, and after years of this behaviour, the cotton from the aforementioned turned into bricks which clogged the drains. Good times! While the plumber is doing his work, we’re going on our clean / bake / food prep extravaganza for dinner on Wednesday and upcoming mother-in-law visit. Hopefully at some point put up our damn tree. I still have yet to do cards this year, which I should be cracking on this weekend.
There has been so much going on in the #libtechgender world and will continue to grow, I thought it would be a grand idea to start annotating the articles in a roundup post to publish once a month. This also gives me incentive to keep the #libtechgender page up to date , so it’s a win-win situation. The articles below are ordered as I find them, while on the landing page they are in chronological order, newest at the top, since many of them are responses to the other pieces. As always, if you find mistakes / recommendations, leave them in the comments or drop me a line.
P.S. If you’re heading to Midwinter, Andromeda Yelton will be paneling with lots of awesome people on Challenges of gender issues in technology librarianship. Hie thee on January 25 to the Pennsylvania Convention Center 201 C at 4:30PM!

  • #libtechgender: the dangers of a single story by Andromeda Yelton
    Andromeda deftly discusses an ever present but hardly addressed issue: there are more than one side to a story and we need to start taking that into consideration. This piece was written in response to Cecily Walker’s piece listed below on intersectionality and privilege.
  • On Privilege, Intersectionality, and the Librarian Image by Cecily Walker
    I have to fangirl on Cecily here for a moment, so bear with me. She’s one of the few people who, I think, can adroitly discuss difficult topics elegantly and in such a manner that makes engagement on said topics totally accessible AND non-scary. Cecily is a ballerina in comparison to my bull in a china shop of approaches. In this piece, Cecily responds to Andy Woodworth’s A Libraryland Festivus, which then is followed up by the response from Andromeda above.
  • Calling In: A Less Disposable Way Of Holding Each Other Accountable by Cecily Walker
    Referencing the article of the same name by Ngọc Loan Trần (which is also a great read), this short piece is powerful in remembering our own perceptions and keeping ourselves in check.
  • Arguing for inclusivity by Coral Sheldon-Hess
    Coral is one of the few public pushers (in the library tech world) for Codes of Conduct/Anti-Harassment statements for cons, meetings, groups, etc etc. This piece is a good walk through addressing concerns with CoC and giving more insight into why we should have them. Coral has also provided oodles of links to lots of information regarding CoCs in and out of the library world, such as the Storify that began ALA’s work on getting one in place.
  • #LibTechGender, Intersectionality, and Backup by Coral Sheldon-Hess
    Another great piece by Coral on inclusivity and the Backup Ribbon Project!
  • Are we talking enough about gender bias and discrimination in the library profession? by Jennifer Vinopal
    Jennifer is on the advisory committee of the upcoming Leadership, Technology, and Gender Summit that is taking place in March, 2014. This is a launch pad post to start generating literature for research and she’s also put together a ever growing Zotero library of links to support the project.
  • We’ve come a short way … and don’t even think about calling me “baby” by Chris Bourg
    Chris offers up several quotes that are dated and not so dated to answer the question if we really have come a long way, baby.
  • #libtechgender: my world and  hers by Jason Griffey
    Jason offers up his response on being a male feminist in 2013 in response to another excellent post by Andromeda Yelton
  • #libtechgender: ALA’s Code of Conduct (Mainly) by Kate Kosturski
    Kate is another fabulous person who does a great job on summing up the ALA Code of Conduct, our Internet Librarian panel, and other related matters.
  • thanks to #libtechwomen by Eric Phetteplace
    A shoutout to #libtechwomen on becoming more inclusive with language.
  • Why the “had daughter, became feminist” narrative doesn’t work for me by Chris Bourg
    Chris brings up some very valid, to me, points on why we should not necessarily be celebrating when a man becomes a born-again feminist. Very thoughtful read.
  • Libraries need a feminist agenda…but which one? by Lane Wilkinson
    A long, but insightful, look at agendas, feminism, and history of both. Gives a lot to chew on.
  • Gender and Presenting as Professional by Nina de Jesus
    I’ve only recently met Nina, but I really like what I’ve read by her. This very real, no holds barred look at being trans* in not just the work place, but also in libraryland is in response to Andy’s post as asked by Cecily.

Fucked Up College Kids

Me, my grandfather, and my brother circa 1979

Dear Internet,
When writing yesterday’s entry, I came across the entry I had written about the death of my grandfather, which was 18 years ago today. The piece was part of a larger series I had written for Fucked Up College Kids, a ‘zine that I got involved with in 1997 and  1998. Shortly after my last entry for F.U.C.K., The Lisa Chronicles went live in July 1998.
I decided in celebration of the season, to make these live again on my site for the first time in nearly a decade. Some of the entries can be triggering, could use a good edit or two, and some of it is chaos in the highest order. But it’s glorious in its innocence.
Enjoy.

x0x0,
Lisa

This day in Lisa-Universe: 2011, 2002

rubricae

Wall Fragment with a Peacock. Roman, about 70 CE
Via Getty Open Content

Dear Internet,
I woke this morning with Not So Great Thoughts, which have been intensely plaguing me for the last few days. This morning, however, they seemed much more intense and even scarier than what I’ve become accustomed to. On the days it is harder than usual, I try to remember it will  get better at some point. I fight to breathe for those days when things became clear  and I don’t feel like I’m swimming underwater.
So, then, I will force myself to get up and put together a regime. I got out of bed and immediately took a shower before I even consumed my first cup of coffee. After TheHusband and TheDog woke and did their morning constitutionals (not together!), TheHusband came down with me to the kitchen where we baked for numerous hours. Golden Yellow cake (for trifle), lemon squares, banana bread, and corn bread (for the stuffing) were made. As the baking began to wind down, TheHusband heated up last night’s dinner for our mid-afternoon lunch and we planned for the rest of our week.  My mother-in-law is coming for a week between christmas and new year, so the house needs to be cleansed, food for our holiday and regular meals needs to be prepped or bought, things need to be done that I cannot keep putting off.
At some point, I randomly started crying between pulling out one item from the oven to the other. “The crazy?,” TheHusband asked. I nodded. He said, “Do what you need to do.” And I just held tight to him in the middle of the kitchen while the crying subsided.
Much of my mental exhaustion comes from the sheer pull of energy to have something that resembles a normal day where just doing things is not some herculean effort. I keep trying, desperately, to not let this thing run my life but it is incredibly hard not to let myself just slip under and let it all just flow away.
On December 23, 1996, my grandfather passed away. It is his death, and then later my father’s, that shaped much of my life in unexpected ways. This is why the month of December is always hard to struggle through because whatever terrible thing befalls me it always happens here. Once I’m on the other side of January 1, things become slightly easier.
Yesterday was the solstice and we did not celebrate but I’m thinking that maybe next year we should. Start traditions, which I’ve been badgering TheHusband about for years now, create something for us. Make our own legacy. Because after the solstice has passed, the days I know are getting longer. I watch the times on the sunrise and sunset drift farther apart. The Earth has started its rotation to spring and Mother Nature will soon swap her snow shoes for muck boots then into sandals.
And so it goes on.
x0x0,
Lisa

This day in Lisa-Universe: 2012, 2011

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