Author Archives: Sarah

Twitter Search Operators

An advanced twitter search screen is available, or use these operators from any search box:

General: Searches tweet text unless you toggle to people search.
Can toggle results between Top/All: Top is “most relevant” (don’t yet know how this is selected/ranked and behaves oddly if you click on Top multiple times), All is everything sorted newest to oldest (though if it isn’t everything, I’m not sure how I would know)
Search terms in tweet are in bold.

default operator is “and”
search in quotes for phrase search Punctuation is ignored within phrase.
OR for or operator, can use in lowercase to search for word “or”
-searchterm for NOT operator
#searchterm for tag search
from:username for tweets from that user
to:username for tweets to that user, only if username is first in tweet or only after RT and MT, not if listed later in tweet
@username for tweets mentioning that user
near:cityname searches for tweets from that city, does not work for countries/regions or cities within a larger region.
near:cityname within:distance limits by distance in mi or km
since:2010-12-27 for term since date in year-month-day format
until:2010-12-27 for term until date in year-month-day
searchterm :) Twitter says “for term with positive attitude” but looks like this is a search for :) :-) or :P (search for :-) and :P also work the same)
searchterm :( Twitter says “for term with negative attitude” but looks like this is a search for :( :-( (interchangeable in search, same as above)
? for question mark in tweet (other lone punctuation seems to be ignored)
filter:links for tweet with URL
filter:images for tweet with images (not yet listed?)
filter:videos for tweet with videos (not yet listed?)
source:twitterfeed (or any other posting method) to search by posting method
lang:en for tweets in English, lang:fr in French, etc.

Truth in Headlining

What I imagine the content is for the article headlined
The 9 Most Dangerous Health Foods
9. Yogurt, glass shards and fruit at the bottom
8. Tack-flavor energy bar (now with real tacks)
7. Lowfat weasel (live)
6. Lowfat weasel, rabid (live or cooked)
5. Low-sodium sawblade, radial
4. Explosive granola
3. Bottled arsenic water (all-natural)
2. Kale chips fried in motor oil (summer weight, cholesterol free)
1. Raw milk, now with added cholera

Neat Things About Babies

Things I like about the babies, toddlers, and preschoolers I meet at work:
When you can sort of see what parts of their face they will still have as a grownup.
When you can see how they resemble their parents.
When they concentrate really hard, but because they are babies, it is often on something fairly simple like standing or eating a cracker.
When they start picking out their own clothing and exhibit a wild baby style.
That they want to try things out, even if those things are a little bit out of their ability.
When they are just getting comfortable with locomotion and have to stomp or lunge everywhere.
When they are just being casual, eating a bagel or some Cheerios.
That baby accent, before they can pronounce all the sounds very well.

Modern Age Meditation: Motels

For a more modern feel in your meditation, why not focus on a clean and empty motel room? Listen to highway sounds or air conditioner hum and empty your mind.

From James Lileks’ The American Motel.
Yuma Flamingo
Space Age Lodge
El Centro
Cloud Motel
The Rainbow
HoJo
University Motel
Cloverland Motel
Town House Motel
Tower Court
Sands
Unnamed
Quality
Smith’s
Imperial
Flamingo
Little America
Town Campus Motel

The Lighter Side of… Horrifying Tsunami Aftermath

Another in an intermittent series of comments on The Atlantic’s photo feature, this time on the anniversary of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan.

#5: I know that I have to take the photographer’s inclinations to portray local color and things that are poignant or exotic into consideration– after all, these are not a random sampling of images by a long stretch, but I am quite interested in the religious reaction to the event, which has its own schedule.

#9: Those oven-mitt hats don’t look like they would protect your noggin from debris any heavier than a paperback book, and not a very long one, either. Perhaps splitting the difference between something cheap and easy to store and an actual helmet?

#10: Now THIS looks like the earthquake drills I know.

#11: hard to imagine wandering through so many photographs, looking for familiar faces.

#14: I guess celebrating the only tree left standing is seeing the glass as 1% full instead of 99% empty.

#16 & #23: those car or boat on roof images are going to stick with people

#17: warm knitwear on statues is a thing in Japan, like a more emotion-laden yarn bombing.

#21: sad and also nice, a shrine for a daughter

#23: another kid with a somber birthday, joining all of those kids born on 9/11

#34: tiiiiiiiny apartment! And I bet the photographer’s flush against the door

#36: My union maid persona is concerned about people working for free for a seaweed packing company

#37: the Edith Prickley of Japan (or maybe Lola Heatherton? Haaaaaaa ha!), with a quite fetching sweater. Note the combination space heater/tea heater in the background, too dangerous for US houses due to insulation.

#39 & #40: A lovely project, with some religious significance maybe (see photo on the shrine in #21). See some of the photos at the 3.11 exhibit at UBC in Vancouver.

#41: I had forgotten that Cat Island might have been affected!

#42: This picture made me realize the feature was a natural for The Lighter Side… Fish oil tank painted to look like a giant whale meat can. Japan!

February Reading

Darkness, Boulet
A delightful comic made in only 1 day at the Angouleme festival. Three stars.

Anime Club, KC Green
A comic riff from Green that plunged me back into the crazy days I was in an anime club– all the arrogance, fury, and loathing are there. Great stuff. Four stars.

Secret Six: The Darkest House, wr. Gail Simone, Keith Giffen
The much anticipated final volume in Simone’s run with Secret Six (ended because of the DC-wide reboot). Again, full of human depth for the beloved villains plus some love and maybe some redemption, despite a trip to hell. Again I realize how much I don’t get the Marvel/DC style of storytelling that reboots characters, passes them from writer to writer, and some of the deep strangeness that can arise from generations of monthly publishing (like multiple characters who live in hell). I guess it would be similar if a writer I love took on a season of a soap opera I hadn’t previously followed? [Two other historical Secret Six teams- interesting] Four stars.

Midnite Surprise Vol. 1, KC Green
An anthology of art from Green’s tumblr, apart from his comic. Very pretty, though not always the pieces I would have chosen. Interesting. Two stars.

Horribleville, V. 1, KC Green
Green’s semiautobiographical comic from when he was 18-19 (!!). Pretty great early stuff. Three stars.

Saturn Apartments 3, Hisae Iwaoka
I will blame some of my lukewarm feelings about volume 3 on the experience of being interrupted for a year or more between installments, but I’m starting to wish that there were more movement in the various mysterious plotlines to go with the glorious evocation of time and place. I was also put off by an element of the supernatural that didn’t seem to belong. Two stars.

Black & White: The Confrontation Between Reverend Fred L. Shuttlesworth and Eugene “Bull” Connor / Larry Dane Brimner
A book that is under 300 pages on this topic would have a hard time containing all of the detail of the campaign for desegregation in Alabama, and this one is only 112 pages. It sometimes seems to be a recitation of events rather than a history with any depth. HOWEVER, it is still meticulously researched, even a non-footnoted comment had several sources, though I did have to email the author to find out about them (sorry I doubted you, Mr. Brimner). Interesting, yes, accessible to young readers, yes, sufficient for an adult history nerd to feel satisfied? No. Time for me to look for that 300 page book. Three stars.

The Always War / Margaret Peterson Haddix
An important thing for youth-service librarians to remember about their own childhood reading: we were enthusiastic but not discerning and did not yet have the broad knowledge of literature and literary conventions. I was totally blown away by the derivative and hackneyed books I read, books I would be embarrassed to be seen with today. Haddix is a fine writer, but boy has this premise been done to death. A quick and painless read with only a few unearned plot developments (we never actually see one of the protagonists reading old children’s literature, but it is quickly introduced and used to advance the plot when needed). Past me would love it. Present me? Two stars.

Hark!: A Vagrant / Kate Beaton
Beaton’s art deserves this gorgeous hardcover, heck, she deserves a slipcovered collector’s edition with heavy rag paper and gilt on the cover. I was delighted that the Nancy Drew and Gorey covers were included, the Wonder Woman strips too. Pretty great. Five stars.

The Empire of Death: A Cultural History of Ossuaries and Charnel houses, Paul Koudounaris
Utterly astonishing and breathtaking photos of lots and lots of bones! Four stars

The Adventures of Hergé, Bocquet, Fromental, Barthélémy
Not a linear biography, but 2-4 page bits of his life at a time. Informative and the ligne claire art is a great tribute. Four stars.

Marcel the Shell with Shoes On, Slate & Fleischer-Camp
Book version of the short film, but with paintings based on the stop-motion photos. Doesn’t translate well. One star.