R Words: Deja-Vu Recycling

Monday, July 15, 2013

Deja-Vu Recycling

I've noticed that everything is beginning to look the same. The whole world seems to be growing increasingly generic. Is there no originality left? Or is it that items which are at first unique, are copied over and and over until they become commonplace?

Or....is it me?

I'm all for recycling items to prevent waste, but some things can only be repeated so many times before they become insipid. I work at a library, so of course one of the first things I noticed was book covers. Pick a theme - any theme- and I'll show you a jillion copies of the same thing.

Take the original book cover for Twilight by Stephenie Meyers for instance:

The popularity of this series has spawned endless copy-cats. This theme is used to sell new books as well as revamping (pun intended) the look of older classics.

It's even used to sell products and services.

But, wait a minute...did this theme really originate with Twilight?

Pick another book cover theme...

BUTTERFLIES

Girls in Beautiful Dresses

EYES!!!

Doesn't matter what book cover you choose, there are a thousand others that look virtually the same.

Everything is similar. Look at these new cars.

Can you tell the BMW from the Honda from the Mercedes from the Subaru?

Hard to do, isn't it? Now look at the cars from the 50's below.

You may not know which is which, but you can tell a Ford from a Maserati from a Chevy from a Lincoln from a Cadillac.

We weren't so bland back then.

We eat the same things too - and at the same places.

The Five Major Food Groups seem to be Burgers, Chicken, Sandwiches, Donuts and Pizza.

Where do we go to eat them?

Burgers: Burger King, McDonalds, Hardees, Wendys

Chicken: KFC, Chick-Fil-A, Bojangles, Popeyes, Churchs

Sandwiches: Arbys, Subway, Blimpie, Quiznos, Jersey Mikes, 5 Guy

Donuts: Dunkin Donuts or Krispy Kreme

Pizza: Dominoes, Pizza Hut, Papa Johns

Someone comes up with a sucessful business model and it is copied endlessly.

Our neighborhoods all look the same.

Notice how much the site map looks like a computer circuit board?

We work in the same places, doing the same things.

We wear the same clothes.

I want to be around individuals

who are not afraid to be themselves.

Who live an independent life.

Who can provide for themselves.

Who take pride in their abilities.

Who can express themselves creatively.

Whatever else you are, you are unique.

Don't blend in.

BOOKS AVAILABLE AT CHESAPEAKE PUBLIC LIBRARIES - Click Links Below

Green Equilbrium: The Vital Balance of Humans and Nature by Wills, Christopher

Tree of Life: The Incredible Biodiversity of Life on Earth by Strauss, Rochelle

Front Cover: Great Book Jackets and Cover Design by Powers Alan

Hottest Muscle Cars by Woods, Bob

The Visual dictionary of Cars by Dorling Kindersley

Guide to Wild Foods and Useful Plants by Nyerges, Christopher

Dangerous Garden: The Quest for Plants to Change our Lives by Stuart, David C

Design and Landscape for People: New Approaches to Renewal by Cumberlidge, Clare

Suburban Nation: The Rise of Sprawl and the Decline of the American Dream by Duany, Andres

Living Large: From SUV's to Double D's, Why Going Bigger isn't Going Better by Wexler, Sarah Z.

Unbuilding: Salvaging the Architectural Treasures of Unwanted Houses by Falk, Robert H.

Junk Jewelry: 25 Extraordinary designs to Create from Ordinary Objects by Elershaw, Jane

Sewing with Fabulous Vintage Fabrics by Franklin, Arden

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Rebound Report 10=J

Raising Demons by Jackson, Shirley
When I saw the title I thought this book was going to be about the supernatural. It wasn’t. Even though it started with a spooky spell, it had nothing whatsoever to do with witches! It was a fictional story related by a Mother of the comings and goings of her four children and about their move into a big house with a barn on a large property. The children didn’t seem to do anything spectacular enough to write an entire book about them. It was rather like a 1930’s version of The Brady Bunch. I was disappointed.

I Googled her and found out that she was famous for being
the author of the classic short story “The Lottery” which WAS scary! see link below:
http://sites.middlebury.edu/individualandthesociety/files/2010/09/jackson_lottery.pdf

Rebound Report 5=E

Silas Marner By Elliott, George
I’ll confess. I skipped over E. I read books by authors F and G before I could bring myself to go back and read Silas Marner. I remembered reading this in school and absolutely HATING it…it was so boring. But, guess what? Once I started reading it again I actually enjoyed it! Maybe you need to have a certain number of life experiences in order to appreciate just how lonely old Silas Marner was until the illegitmate child Eppie was left on his doorstep when her mother died, how noble he was to sacrifice everything to care for her…
and how wonderful it was that she did not abandon him in the end when she was offered great wealth by the biological Father who had left her unclaimed for all those years.

Rebound Report

The Letter H
Hilton, James – So Well Remembered
Set in the English town of Lancashire between World War I and World War II, this story follows the life of George Boswell and the people around him. It ponders the “might-have beens.”
This author wrote two very popular books that were made into movies–Goodbye Mr. Chips and Lost Horizon. I remember both being required reading when I was in high school, but I never heard of this book. However, it too, was made into a movie in 1947 starring John Mills (father of Hayley Mills) and Trevor Howard.

Rebound Report

Rebound Report G
Gordon, Caroline – The Strange Children
This book was told from the viewpoint of a 10 year old girl as she reports on the comings and goings in her household and the people who live and visit there. The adults are the “strange children” and this girl is the one whose behavior is sound.

Oddly enough, this book seems to parallel the author’s real life. She was born in 1895 on an old Kentucky plantation into a wealthy family. Uncommon for that time, however, she graduated from college, worked as a newspaper reporter, became pregnant by and then later married a bohemian poet.

She was friends with F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, William Faulkner, T.S. Elliott and Flannery O’Connor. You have to wonder if she is describing some of these people through the eyes of her own daughter.

Rebound Report

The Letter F
France, Anatole – The Crime of Sylvestre Bonnard
This was a slim book translated from its original French about an old professor whose search for a religious document takes him on a journey across Europe and then ends at his own doorstep. It was a little clunky to read, but very interesting.

The author, son of a bookstore owner, was born in 1844, won a Nobel prize for his poetry and died in 1924. He was very outspoken politically and reviled by some for his statements. Example: “We have never heard the devil’s side of the story. God wrote the whole book.” You can find this book online free at http://www.gutenberg.org/

Rebound Report

The Letter D
DeMille, Nelson – By the Rivers of Babylon
The plot for this story is that a plane full of diplomats headed to a U.N. Peace Conference crash land in Palestine and have to fight off terrorists. The author is well qualified to write military adventures like this as he was an Army officer in Viet Nam who got a bronze star.

Two of his other books have been made into movies–The General’s Daughter(with John Travolta) and Word of Honor (with Don Johnson) one book was a 2005 TV movie May Day (with Aidan Quinn)–and four others are “in production” by various studios: Up Country, The Lion’s Game, The Gold Coast and The Charm School.

So, obviously, these are well written and a lot of people like them. Unfortunately, this type of genre is not one I am fond of and I had to struggle to get through these 391 pages. If it had been made into a movie with someone like Bruce Willis I could have sat through it.

I’ve watched and enjoyed Patriot Games with Harrison Ford, The Sum of All Fears with Ben Affleck, and all the Jason Bourne movies with Matt Damon but, I can’t read a Tom Clancy novel or anything by Robert Ludlum without feeling like I’m being punished somehow. Sorry.

Rebound Report

Well, I thought I’d really enjoy this one because it is a Fantasy novel, but I quit after 25 pages (of 855). It sucked. The so called hero of this quest named “Listener” is the son of a great warrior chieftain and the grandson of a magic flute player, but has inherited the talents of neither. A bigger dullard you’ll never find. For no apparent reason, he is given a magic stone by a dying man on the battlefield where he was too chicken to fight and then promptly gives it away to an evil woman he meets. She admires his “pelt”. (Evidently, he is a hairy man as well as being stupid.) He talks to birds and frogs who give him advice he doesn’t follow and he has a man’s tongue cut out because he doesn’t like what the man told him. All this by page 25.

This book was translated from a German author and is supposed to be a beloved classic. Sorry, I don’t get it. The only book worse than this one is The Name of the Rose by Italian author Umberto Eco. (Although the movie with Sean Connery and Christian Slater was pretty good.)

Rebound Report

In a future Earth, where cities are enclosed under glass domes and older people fear to venture outdoors, robots are used/misused as humanity's servants. Generations have lived under the domes, but young people - longing for adventure - are seeking travel to other worlds. There is trouble in the space colonies as robots begin to question and resist man's authority over them. It's up to one man to find the diplomatic solutions between Earth and the colonies, between older and younger generations, and between men and robots.

Tesla's Wireless Energy

“When wireless is perfectly applied the whole earth will be converted into a huge brain, which in fact it is, all things being particles of a real and rhythmic whole. We shall be able to communicate with one another instantly, irrespective of distance. Not only this, but through television and telephony we shall see and hear one another as perfectly as though we were face to face, despite intervening distances of thousands of miles; and the instruments through which we shall be able to do his will be amazingly simple compared with our present telephone. A man will be able to carry one in his vest pocket.”-Nikola Tesla

DC Versus AC

In order to deliver enough current to its final destination, DC power required very high voltages from generators. It also needed “pumping” stations along the way to boost its voltage, because it kept dropping due to the long transmission lines.

DC power could not be converted to higher or lower voltages, which meant that separate electrical lines had to be installed to supply power for every appliance that differed!
---
Tesla’s AC system, however, could be transmitted over long distances using lower current and could be stepped down to lower voltages for use in homes and factories.

SUCCESSFUL CHANGE

CAUSE AND EFFECT
Think about what is causing problems and how changing it will affect other issues.
PLANNING
Once you know what needs to be done, think about how you can achieve it.
SETTING GOALS
Make the overall objective clear to everyone and easy to remember.
DEAL WITH RESISTANCE
Don’t fear another point of view. Respond quickly to resistance by engaging others in a frank discussion of the advantages and disadvantages.
PREPARE YOUR TEAM
Address training and development needs to ensure others have the ability and confidence needed to accomplish tasks.
MONITOR AND REVIEW
Maintain two-way communication to monitor progress and execute changes.

R Words

birch

Monday, July 15, 2013

Deja-Vu Recycling

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