Frivolous Friday Food!

This post isn’t about frivolous food, but rather, a fun post about food (and how to keep it fresh)…on Frivolous Friday!  In a workplace of five women, we talk about food quite a bit.  We talk about what we ate last night, what we’re making for a special occasion, and what great deal on food we just got at a particular store. So when I came across this great post called 27 Ways to make your Groceries last as long as Possible, I thought it was something I should share.

Some of the tips are genius, and some look a little wacky, but I might give them a try. (Storing onions in pantyhose might work, but I’m not thrilled about leaving them out where anyone could see them. You decide if you’d like to try it.) Anything to make our money stretch a little further is always appreciated.

Will you try any of these tips? Do you use any of these money-saving ideas already?

Snow Art!

Would you walk for seven hours a day in the snow?  Would you do it in very specific patterns…just to make art?  Simon Beck does! This creative artist uses snow as his medium to create amazing (and huge) geometric artworks! How long they last is completely up to Mother Nature, but he takes photos to document each one.

We certainly have enough snow here in Carleton Place to start thinking about doing something like this ourselves. Maybe it will inspire you to get outside with the kids, enjoy the fresh air and do something creative. You can follow Mr. Beck on Facebook here.  Wonderful!

Community

The library is definitely a community hub and community partner. Have you noticed the special monitor we had installed earlier this year that plays community events? It’s right near our library catalog computers, just across from the front desk. The presentation changes weekly and includes all kinds of community items, including upcoming library events.  There are monitors installed in other places around town, such as the Town Hall and the Arena, so take a few minutes to stop and read what’s going on. You might be surprised!

Sea creatures

This week, we’ve had several kids in the library looking for books on various sea creatures. It’s project time! Lucky for us, we happen to have a large number of books on everything from whales to sharks to jellyfish, so the kids are leaving with two books each on whatever species they’ve chosen. (So much better than an entire class doing a project on corn–in French! Uh, our selection there is small, to say the least.)

But it reminded me of a recent story I read about a “Christmas Whale”, the loneliest whale in the ocean. This particular whale has been swimming a channel in the North Pacific Ocean since at least 1989.  That’s when researchers started tracking him.  A Baleen whale (a cetacean without teeth) uses sound to communicate and has a very particular vocalization frequency range (between 10 and 31 Hertz).  This one, however, vocalizes at 52 hertz…much higher than the other whales in his category.

Scientists have been listening to whales in the North Pacific for years and usually pick up this particular whale’s vocalizations between August and December (which is why they call it the Christmas Whale).  Here’s where it gets sad.  While whales use their vocalizations to attract other whales, to find a mate or family member, no other whale on record has ever answered the Christmas Whale’s call. It simply drifts along the corridor of microphones, sending out whale-message after whale-message, only to finally swim off.  Alone.  Every year. Breaks your heart, doesn’t it?

It’s possible the other whales just can’t “hear” the Christmas Whale, since its song is so different. Or maybe they won’t acknowledge it, sensing it as something foreign. Either way, it must be a lonely life for C.W.  You can read more about this interesting creature on the Wood’s Hole Ocean Oceanographic Institute’s page. Or you can listen to a recording of the 52 hertz whale vocalizations at at NOAA here.

So far, no one has asked about books on whales, but I’ll certainly suggest this if we get any more students in to do projects.

Perfect? Not so much…

It’s Tuesday, and I’m writing this blog post on Monday. Right now, much of the Eastern seaboard in the United States is under the very real threat of the most terrifying storm system(s) we’ve seen in a long time.  And it’s not even winter!  Hurricane Sandy is doing her best to come ashore and several states are in Emergency mode, with highways closed, shelters open and people just hoping for the best.

Several years ago, Sebastian Junger wrote the harrowing tale of the Andrea Gail, a swordfishing boat that was lost at sea during another “perfect storm” which occurred almost during this exact date. It seemed too crazy to be real: a fishing boat goes out in relatively calm seas but encounters several mammoth storm systems that merge together at one point, exactly where the Andrea Gail ends up. The captain and crew members were lost and the Andrea Gail was never recovered.

Later, it was made into a movie, imagining what happened to the captain and crew while they were out at sea. We happen to have both the movie and the book at the library, if you’re interested in reading about/watching this other perfect storm. 

Today, I’m afraid many people are feeling the same things as those family members in the movie, awaiting word from their loved ones and wishing for their safety. Thanks to the internet reports, Facebook posts and Twitter feeds, it’s a bit easier to keep tabs on everyone.  If you want a good view of what’s going on, I suggest checking out the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration website. We certainly live in an instant culture and if the power remains on, then the information will get through. Good luck to everyone facing this storm!

Google Street View

For our Frivolous Friday post, a story in pictures. One of our favourite things at the library is Google Street View.  Some of us use it to see the places we read about in books. Some of us just want to know where that French bookstore is located. And we’ve probably all dropped in on our homes to see what was going on the day the Google trucks went by.

But what about those unexpected images that get captured just because the cameras are pointed somewhere at the exact moment something interesting or terrifying happens?  Well, artist Jon Rafman has started the Nine Eyes of Google Streetview, a project that has him putting together all the unexpected images shot by the nine cameras on the Google trucks.

These photos are amazing, heartbreaking, funny, shocking and frustrating, but they’re all interesting.

Be warned, some of the images feature nudity and some can be disturbing, but take a few moments to scroll through the site.  You’ll be amazed and it’ll make you think about Google Street View a little differently the next time you log on.