Blood Pressure Alert...

Mine is really where it ought to be, thank you Doctor Jin, just hope my liver survives those three pills. Discussion at work about a brother (not mine) that had tried to hurry across America and was stuck in Michigan - and how Americans seem to push themselves to get it all done. Maybe I am not pushing so much any longer and that would be a good thing. I like to think I am accepting what is and fixing what I can when it is possible and not worrying about what I can't, there are a few billion folks out there and so many more capable then I.

Reading pieces of Paul Revere's Ride, and both books from writers that ought to know about Crazy Horse. Next trip to South Dakota and I will go see the mountain and the carving of his image. All I have to do is schedule the time to break free, after I get some new tires on the Triumph. Actually planning on motorcycling to the Idaho Appleseeds since a sleeping bag and possibles fit well if packed properly. Have you noticed, Summer is fleeing? Best catch some of it before it is gone again. My program manager is going to be on the beach for two weeks, and has one shopping bag of books to read and expects her sister to have another of recommended reading. I will continue to add more books to the McNeil Island collection, talk information resources and entertainment with the fallen (ever wonder where Fallen Angels go? Purdy is where).

Yeah, acceptance is important and being in love is excellent, and being loved is really good for that blood pressure... okay, I will still take the pills and watch Doctor Oz on Oprah... yeah, right.

The Sun was out, the sunglasses needed...

Thursday afternoon as I got into the Caravan for the trip home the Sun was shining brightly, I put on the sunglasses and buckled the seat belt and put the machine in gear. Nice to go home with the Sun still up and shining, means that motorcycle weather can't be far behind, and Friday is the last riding day of this week - it is a date... So I got up and dressed and opened the garage door and rolled the motorcycle out to start it up. It is thirty-four degrees, frosty mostly everywhere, and foggy in butter knife cutting possibilities. Doesn't matter, get the boots on and grab the gear, if one has to be driven about something riding a motorcycle is a good way to go. With the fog I won't notice the fogging of the face shield, will I? Just riding in the gray cotton misty cold. The humidity is high, or those are really fat drops of cold cloud making the morning fog. Doesn't matter, only the ride, staying up and leaning hard and rolling up and out of it. Gets colder, since the gloved hands don't get warmer, I run out of the primary tank fuel, switch to reserve and ride on. So quiet, figuratively, and so alone and in control. Roll into the parking lot, shut down and leave the helmet.

Friday is clean up day, finish the unfinished week, wish I could go home early, but don't - talk books, tell the big old worker that F. Paul Wilson has a book about Jack before he got old enough to be a Repairman. Talk to one of my workers about David Drake, whom is the best writer in the current world according to the worker, I got happily stuck on Hammer's Slammers long before he (David Drake) wrote some nice postcards back to me while I was performing speed bump duties in Saudi Arabia in Desert Shield. We had lots of time to read as we waited for an opportunity to excel. I have finished building the March book cart of stuff to buy, will submit it on the 1st of March, doesn't pay to wait they could cut my budget again and I would rather be ahead than behind. I did a lot of talking today, even with other staff - very rare, but they have been talking to me about work, re-entry resources, motorcycles and today - rifles and shooting in Europe and here in the Northwest. I lock up after shutting down the computers, a good week of work - in four days, one more of five to go and February will be history, too.

I talk a little on the ferry, ride the bus to the parking lot and start smiling more as I get closer to the Trusty Triumph. Get the helmet, start the bike - remembering to put it on reserve tank, and ride off to re-fuel and go home. The Sun is shining, it is warmer, much, than it was in the morning, but the traffic is heavy and don't know about the economy where y'all are - the I-5 South lanes are a slow moving parking lot as I glance that way as I zoom over the bridge above the lost upon the highway to California... riding home is good the bike is responsive and I don't see the fearless woman on her Sportster, although I did yesterday, she has new black leathers with fringes, new to me. I think she goes home early on Friday afternoons. There must be a secret to missing all the red lights, but with too many cars there seems no hope. I do fill the tank up, and head on home. Roast, corn, potatoes and hot coffee the news tells me that Wall Street doesn't believe the Whitehouse about Bank NATIONALIZATIONS this weekend. But I am not holding stock (directly in banks now - my mutual funds are a different matter) in banks. I do trust my wife, my motorcycle and my M1 Garand - which I am off to shoot with tomorrow.

From the Big Bad Wolf...

The Bookworm Award...

Rules:Pass it on to five other bloggers, and tell them to open the nearest book to page 56. Write out the fifth sentence on that page, and also the next two to five sentences. The CLOSEST BOOK, NOT YOUR FAVORITE, OR MOST INTELLECTUAL!


Okay I will play, the book beside my left elbow as I stood at my computer reading is:
(well, just guess)

"The response to the call for the minute men was remarkable. This was a touchy point, since it meant that the regimental commanders, in allowing the minute men to organize themselves and elect their own officers, would actually be giving away not only one-quarter of their strength but also many of their best fighters. In view of this, the active support that the regimental commanders gave to the reorganization is one of the best indications of the strength of the minute man concept."

from "The Minute Men: The First Fight: Myths and Realities of the American Revolution" by John R. Galvin

Now to five bloggers that may read and respond, well

My sister teaching in high school Just a Math Teacher not very original title but she writes about her work well.

Little Drops into the pool of Life, whose Friday funnies are great and what she cares about shows in her other postings.

North View Diary which I automatically reversed to Northview Dairy, which isn't far from totally wrong since there are real cows on the property. The words are worth the read and the pictures are awesome.

The Breda Fallacy.. Breda is working on nail polish and sharing right now, but she works as a real librarian in a real library so she probably reads when they let her out.

Oops! one would think I don't read any men's blog so I give you - Wyatt Earp from Support Your Local Gunfighter, I don't know for sure that he reads, there are rumors.

Ah it is raining, really Northwest Coast Raining...

It is constant, it is heavy and there is more on the way, the streets are wet, when the drains plug up with fallen leaves the roads become little rivers flowing to find escape from the cars spraying and splashing large fans of water. The large umbrellas come out, the rain coats and rubber boots, it is darker, and the rain falls heavy drumming upon the roofs and roads. The Sound absorbs the rain from the Pacific but the trees and ground want to shed it, and can't. Since the ground is already soaked, the rivers start to rise flooding in the near future, warnings on the television to clean the drains of leaves, watch driving across slick wet leaves and an example of a car that went over the embankment when it slid out of control.

In the library today my crew and I worked on steadily, the primary shelver was on a mission to find all the books I would withdraw because of pages and pictures missing. They are torn or cut out because there are so many stupid people in prison, ones that still believe their wants out weigh that of the many, and if they don't get it first some other guy would steal it anyway. Always remember that these inmates will be released back to your neighborhood one day. As I say that I remember putting about forty-two donated books into the collection, many brand new donated by inmates that do care and will share. When I put the newspapers out about Senator Obama's victory with his speech and pictures of his family and Senator McCain it was a pretty good set of coverage. In an hour they were all stolen and the local bookie couldn't get his NFL spread for this weekend's betting. Do remember that I am not here to provide targets and opportunity for more crime, I do circulate real fine information and reading material.

Swelled head, helmet almost doesn't fit...

Work went well today, tomorrow I should be caught up. In the Email was a note with a PDF file of an article in the OCLC "Western Trek" magazine. I mentioned being interviewed over the telephone before. The article was the result, and since my Program Manager was needing some notice and support for her budget proposals she sent the word to the world of the Office of the Secretary of State for Washington State. Lots of positive feedback from Department of Corrections and from the State Library, and the Secretary of State Sam Reed himself. This seems to be the kind of stuff that makes Legislatures take notice and approve funds.

I also find my name on the WALE Conference Program - the 3rd session period - right after lunch and right into a nap, oh, I have to present don't I? Well, it isn't until the 3rd of October, 2008. My mother will be proud of me, now all I have to do is make my rough draft captivating! I do work in a prison don't I?

RULES? well, Gravity Rules... all other is pretense.

the rules:
1. Pick up the nearest book of 123 pages or more. No cheating!
2. Find page 123.
3. Find the first five sentences.
4. Post the next three sentences.
5. Tag five people

1. Picked up
2. Found
3. Found first five
4. Posted:
"I did not see how this was possible but did not challenge Ali's claim. If anything, I encouraged him to increase his boasting as the pool shot up to positively astronomical sums. A kind of fever gripped the division."
from "Matches" by Alan Kaufman, from the McNeil Island Corrections Center Library branch.
5. Tag five people, sigh, I am not that kind of a guy - I could in good conscience recommend the book to those thinking about military life, the Israeli-Arab question and where are all the good men gone. But I hardly know five people on the internet to tag. But here are five that would benefit from the reading: Toy Soldier, Ka-BOOM!, Iraq: The Purgatorium, Rogue Gunner, They should have asked. A finer bunch of people would be difficult to find and they have their own reading and writing to do. Anyone else thinking this is a good thing may hop on and blame Breda for trying to make me a joiner... time to go get some fighting knives to save, sharpen and shoot.

Everthing I needed to know about War I learned in...

kindergarten, to borrow someone else's thought. Not that I ever went to kindergarten which is why I am so misunderstood. But back to all anyone needs to know about war - a question asked of soldiers by those that have never been, my answer has always been "Read the Iliad, by Homer" translated by Pope or Fagles, then you will know everything about war. Then the "Nay" sayers will add that was then and this is now - but the weapons don't have anything to do with WAR, they are for killing and War is the experiences of men in combat, for whatever reason they got to that level. The Trojan War lasted ten years depending on the telling of it. I have been reading the tales from that war for the longest time, the Iliad says everything I need about war, then I go to read for the story. Colleen McCullough's Song of Troy, Lindsay Clarke's The War at Troy, and David Gemmell's triology about Troy, finished by his wife since he died while writing the third book. I understand that Homer is dead, too. The stories live on in the beyond. Enjoy, for War can't be enjoyed, only the stories. Start with Rosemary Sutcliff's Black Ships Before Troy, the whole story with great pictures by Alan Lee (hardback version?).

What to read, my advisory for those in Limbo...

The segregation unit houses those inmates that have to be apart from the rest, and for twenty-three hours a day they are alone with their cell and two paperback books. So the library provides two thick paperbacks a week for them to read. My recommendations are: Border Triology, Killer Angels, Gates of Fire, A Soldier of the Great War, King Hereafter, Eisenhorn, Wheel of Time, Dune, Song of Ice and Fire, Lord of the Rings, Lonesome Dove, Honor Harrington, Wars of Light and Shadow. Those that are part of a series are only a problem if the author dies with the series unfinished, if they don't write faster and publish more it could happen. Still there are patrons from Seg that only want magazines with lots of pictures, I provide those also. When you have nothing to do, reading is a great way to escape from your solitude. I have read those titles so I must share the way out.

What do they read? isn't the important question...

When I give briefings to visitors to the library I am often asked 'what do they read?' and the cheap throw away answer is 'True Crime, of course'. The truth is that 'they' (the inmates) read everything that you do, except they can't go online and the Department of Corrections has a list of books and types of information that would be bad to have them read while in prison, mostly about security issues. I think the more important question is 'what do they steal from the library?'.

I mostly think that only stupid people steal from a free library inside a prison fence where they can never get it outside. But then the intelligence of some patrons is questioned in every library I have ever worked at, in response to their questioning mine or my co-workers', certainly. But back to what they steal, they start with stealing the sports section of the newspapers, for betting on fantasy football or other real events. They steal the colored pictures of beautiful models digitally enhanced, if not also under a plastic surgeon's care. Those things are easy to hide and pull out when one has forgotten what their sexual desires are focused on, needing refeshed. Some of the fancies are a bit stranger but I have purposely missed mentioning those.

The theft that is costly is of books, 'the self-weeding collection' as we in the prison libraries understand it, and the most popular ones are the ones that give them POWER. Robert Greene puts together a book, titled "The 48 Laws of Power" and it is immediately stolen. Yes, we do have a 3M security system and all the books are sensitized and how long do you think it takes them to figure it out? However it happens, the book is now gone, and we buy a replacement. Robert Greene comes out with another title "The Art of Seduction", and it is immediately stolen and I buy a replacement. Do you see the pattern here? He has a third book "33 Stategies of War" and we haven't seen it since the second circulation. I am buying all three in paperback and will read them and then donate them to the library, for they do have some excellent information that I have gleaned from a life time of reading, and Robert Greene found the same and put it together nicely. I expect they will also be stolen, for the inmates that steal from our libraries inside of prison have lost everything, feel no control of their lives and are afraid of most people and things around them. So they steal what they hope will make them stonger, and then don't read it, just hide it and hug it for warmth and feel it makes them a player again.

Kind of like those self improvement books, how to build one's abs - you can buy five or six of them - but until you start curling your body and flexing the core and working tirelessly in motion the abs don't change - not from hugging those books or putting them on the shelves, they must be read, practiced and re-read and understood. But then I did mention what kind of an inmate steals books, didn't I? Luckily most inmates just check the books out and return them very late, overdues abound, for inmates have a personal time that doesn't match the date due stamp - not very fair, most books come in on time or are re-newed, circulation is about seven thousand items per month, and I only have to replace the stuff that wears out or is lost. I only have about twenty books 'missing' in action a month. Write another one, Robert Greene.