The Eating Book

‘Let’s be done reading, Dad.  Let’s tell stories.’

So I begin…

‘Ok, this one starts in a tiny library in a tiny town.  And the library is so small it fits in a trailer which is great because the librarian has a big truck and sometimes he’ll hitch up the library and take it on the road to other communities on the island that don’t have libraries.  

The Beauty of the Non-Linear Browse

Illustration by Joon Mo Kang

An interesting perspective (RANT) on the Future of Interactive Design from a former Apple User Interface designer.  Some very cool “potential technologies” on display in the video and pictures included in the post.  The author argues that the future of innovation should go beyond hands interacting with pictures under glass but should take into account the wonders of not just our hands but the graceful “ballet” our entire bodies perform almost thoughtlessly to interact with objects every day.  Innovate our bodies, our voices, our minds.

From a library perspective we’ve been thinking about the relationship between reading and technology instruction lately.  In the past, the library provided access to knowledge through books, we wouldn’t read the books for you but would available to show you  how to find them, open them and if you start bringing your children to the library early in life, we will demonstrate and teach important early-literacy skills.

Now enter new technology, new formats and new devices on which we input knowledge, take ebooks and ebook readers for example.  Now libraries find themselves in a position where not only do we help people find a book (ebook), we are one of the only places people can turn for instruction on how to use or interact with these new technologies.  How do I open this book, wait before I do that,  how do I get it off the shelf  (ie download and get the digital rights and transfer to my preferred reading device)?  Libraries are now playing a big role  in providing the digital literacy instruction needed to be a reader in an ever evolving technological climate.

Here’s a great article by author Lev Grossman about the evolution of reading technology from scroll to codex to ebook and the value and innovation of non-linear reading.  And then to lighten the conversation, a slapstick take (video) on the codex as a technological advancement over the scroll.

preparations for free woodstove

free sounded good
all that cast iron and unseen
engineering, convection, conduction
and combustion
put to work
warming my
drafty old house

just rip down
the false walls in the
corner of the living room
and pipe that sucker
into the old chimney

interior wall demo-
16 hours, blood and
sweat labor

interior clean-up
2 hours sweat
+ black lung
the dirty south
two listens

Progressive Energy Solutions AK

The continuing adventures of getting AK municipalities and homes off of oil….

Delta High School is gearing up to put their wood biomass boiler online to heat the 77,000 square foot school with the

option to expand to neighboring buildings.  Nice article in the Fairbanks News Miner, here.   Between grants from the Alaska Energy Authority and reimbursements for residential energy efficiency improvements from the Alaska Housing Finance Corps’ Home Energy Rebate program, Alaskans are kicking oil!

On the wood front, I’m excited to be nearing completion on the install of a salvaged Waterford 104 woodstove utilizing an existing masonry chimney in my 1915 home.  The plan this winter is to burn Idaho Energy Logs and pallet and construction waste scrap to supplement our electric forced air system.  Wood heat on the brain for sure!