Friday, April 16, 2010

Rincón Latino: Despedidas Tristes

Las despedidas son para los que tienen temor. Entonces por eso digo que mejor nos vemos en otro sitios, en otros recintos y con otros amigos. Mejor ampliar nuestro séquito y vivir más momentos de felicidad. Pero recuerden que todo trastorno conlleva un equilibrio.

Gracias por leer nuestras notas y crear nuevas enlaces de amistad y propagar nuestra bellísima cultura hispana. Las bibliotecas en los Estados Unideos sirven como un gran depósito de una memoria colectiva. Por eso deberíamos apoyar y engendrar la enseñanza y la cultura en nuestros hogares. Y sobretodo apoyar las bibliotecas para así no arrojar nuestras vidas al olvido. Todo cambia incluso nosotros mismos.

Por favor síganos en Twitter y en Facebook.


Thursday, April 15, 2010

The Last Post on GrandCentral: Thanks For the Memories, Until We Meet Again on Facebook, Twitter

We didn't quite make 500 posts - 478 to be exact - but the GrandCentral Blog resulted from the dedication and diligence of library employees who truly cared and care about what YOU know about the library and the world around you. Because we still care, we are migrating our content from GrandCentral to both twitter and facebook - same wine, different bottles. Our address at twitter is http://twitter.com/saclib_Central, while our Facebook content can also be found at http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/saclibrary.

Not only did GrandCentral benefit from a variance of library talents, it was seasoned by the talents of YOU, the reader and the mindful comments that you've been posting on GrandCentral since 2007. So...thanks for the memories, dear friends, until we meet again at Facebook and Twitter. We're never more than a click away.

Signing Off,

Danskabeaver

Thursday, April 8, 2010

Rincón Latino: ¡Sonrisas: Libros Para Niños!

,,Bella Luna = Beautiful Moon" por Dawn Jeffers


Con la ayuda de la luz de la luna, una pequeñita desea que no termine un día espectacular. La pequeñita juega hasta que termine exhausta y desea el regreso de la noche para finalmente descansar.

¡Un libro verdaderamente encantador!

Monday, April 5, 2010

Facts on Funerals

Funerals are like weddings. They last a few hours, yet you can end up still paying for them a decade later.

I honestly don’t get the expensive funeral thing. A while back a high school acquaintance with one child and another on its way told me how financially difficult it was to bury his mother. “There was hardly any money left.” I couldn’t scream at him, “You have kids and you put all your money in the ground! Are you nuts?” Instead I settled for, “Sorry about your loss. I have a coupon for a #7, no mayo, diet Pepsi.”

Seriously, I don’t agree with the costly funeral = love equation. I feel your loved ones wouldn’t want you to become a ramen noodle eating studio apartment dweller because you picked the metal casket over direct cremation. Or, better yet, they’d rather you’d have spent the money on them when they were alive to enjoy it. Imagine if you gave everyone a choice between the following:

a) 10 seven-day cruises
b) Trips to the Super Bowl, Final Four, NBA championship and World Series
c) 100 “Kat’s Meows” specials---foot and hand rescues with a full body massage
d) Enjoying a bathroom makeover for 2 years+
e) A $10,000 funeral

Can you really see anyone saying, “Forget cruising to Greece, I’d much rather have a pricy funeral!” Of course not. So why do we often get caught in the expensive funeral trap?

Sure, it’s hard to digest that few of us will have the Michael Jackson service complete with a gold casket in the Staples Center, Jennifer Hudson singing, and the productivity level in California dropping to negative 3 because everyone views your memorial as a free concert in the middle of the work week. (Planners, why didn’t you put it on Furlough Friday?) But spending a huge chunk of your savings on someone’s funeral doesn’t tell the world, “I really loved this person.” Instead, it says, “Guess the kids won’t be going to college after all.”



If you really love your family, show them by fully planning your funeral and estate. Yes, it sounds horrible. Not quite as horrible as having the DMV place our real weight on our licenses, but horrible none the less. Still, the alternative is your family being forced to sell the house because the funeral director convinced your spouse a marble headstone is, “What Casey would have really wanted,” and shushing the person who says, “I think Casey would have really wanted to still be alive!”

For information on how to plan a funeral, come to Central’s Facts on Funerals program on Wednesday, April 7th at 12 noon.

Thursday, April 1, 2010

Rincón Latino: ¡Películas en Español!

,,Mataharis" de Icíar Bollaín

,,Inés, Eva y Carmen trabajan en una agencia de detectives en Madrid. Inés (María Vázquez), infiltrada entre los empleados de una compañía multinacional, investiga a Manuel (Diego Martín), un directivo de la empresa. La investigación la coloca ante un dilema ético. Eva (Najwa Nimri), que acaba de reincorporarse a la agencia después de una baja maternal, descubre que su pareja Iñaki (Tristán Ulloa) le oculta algo importante. Carmen (Nuria González), la más experimentada de las tres y con un gris matrimonio, observa y graba el naufragio conyugal de Sergio (Antonio de la Torre). Desde la agencia de Valbuena, para quien trabajan, estas tres profesionales de la vigilancia traspasan a menudo las fronteras de la intimidad ajena, pero nadie les ha preparado para enfrentarse a sus propios secretos.Y también interpreto esta película Carlos Santos."

Monday, March 29, 2010

Tax Time

Doing my taxes is not high on my list of fun things to do during my lunch hour, but I always remind myself of the following:

---Taxes pay for things.
---When my street light goes out, I don’t have to pick up a bulb from Lowes and shimmy up a pole.
---When the fire department comes out for a fire, you don’t have to cut them a check.
---Clean water comes out of my tap without me having to tell anyone, “Hey, I want clean water!”
---The police have yet to charge me for when I call them on the neighbors and they have to bring out 5 squad cars and a helicopter. (On a related note, does anyone have a house in a nice neighborhood I can buy? Or a nice guy I can marry who lives in said house? It’s okay if he’s on his death bed…)
---$10,000 per year for private school ($130,000 for K-12 education) vs. $0 for public school. (Top that!)
---When something goes wrong in the government I can actually reach a representative. (Or, as one put it, "It's you again!")
---Amtrak’s Capital Corridor is the best trip ever!
---Cal Grant and Pell Grant were very good to me.
---While UPS and Fed Ex wanted $66 and $72 to ship my box to Hawaii, USPS only wanted $20. (No wonder they’re going broke!)

Plus:
---Taxes support libraries.
---I like having a job.
---Libraries are warm in the winter and cool in the summer. (Or, in Kids’ Place, it’s sweater weather in the summer and bikini season in the winter.)
---Having a job and healthcare is a good thing.
---We have DVDs you can borrow for free.
---Having a paycheck means I can pay for incidentals such as food, clothes and a roof over my head.

Remember, there are a few things you don’t want to mess with in life, and IRS is at the top of the list. If you haven’t filed your taxes yet and you made under $58,000 last year, you can file both your state and federal taxes for free!!! Go to the Beehive to do so.



Tax time, too, shall pass.

Thursday, March 25, 2010

Technology Festival

On Wednesday, March 24, Sacramento Public Library staged a Digital Technology street festival on 9th Street, just outside the Central Library. Overdrive's Digital Bookmobile was the anchor, and staff from all branches set up tables showcasing all the digital and electronic materials and services the library offers.

Staff with bright orange laptops sat at tables in tents and demonstrated our array of databases, which patrons can use at home even when the library is closed. Using our newly-revised database page, it's even easier to find them and select just the right one, whether it be homework, Do-it-Yourself, business research, or browsing newspapers.

Staff also highlighted our online text and chat services: AskNow and Homework Help Now, where you can get your questions answered via the web, JobNow, where you can get help with your resume and practice for a successful interview.

Our newest service, Info Quest: Txt4Nswrs had its own table. When you're on the go and don't have access to your computer or the Internet, just text your question to 309-222-7740 and a librarian will text the answer back to your cell phone.

Digital storytelling is growing in importance as people age and less emphasis is placed on print preservation. Who writes in diaries any more? and how many of us blog regularly to tell the stories of our daily lives? And even if we did, how long will blogs last, before the Next Big Thing? (Does Twitter count?) The library is creating and preserving digitally the stories of Sacramento residents. These stories, told in their own words and enhanced by photographs, increase our appreciation for the people who helped Sacramento become the great place it is.