The For Dummies Series May Have An Issue…

There’ve been some funny “For Dummies” titles to have come out.  Washington DC for Dummies. Dungeons & Dragons for Dummies (I love D&D, by the way…).  The most cringe worthy book like this was actually a different series: The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Enhancing Self-Esteem.  Ouch.

But we just got in Veterans Benefits for Dummies.  I can hear people saying “OH NO THEY DIDN’T!” from here.  Of course, it is just a matter of the series’s naming convention, and the series is pretty beneficial in general.  Part of my job is programming and I’m proud to have PHP & MySQL for Dummies on my personal bookshelf.  Handy stuff!  And frankly, what could be more confusing than government paper work?  If anything, I think having a guide like this is quite the beneficial resource for our veterans (students and staff) to make sure they’re getting every last benefit available to them for serving this country.

Book of the Day Looks at American Arguments

Let’s talk about Howard Fineman.  Fineman’s a political correspondent frequently on MSNBC, writer for Newsweek and is probably best defined by an increasingly bad dye job:

hpost_fineman

Yeah, I know!  But the truth is, he’s a smart guy.  His book, Thirteen American Arguments: Enduring Debates that Define and Inspire Our Country is really neat.

Instead of taking on specific incidents in America’s past, he looks at general topics that keep coming up over the course of this nation’s life.  So instead of taking on slavery, abortion, and other issues separately, one argument he presents is “Who is a person?”  If this book has any shortcomings, it is certainly its focus on current events, which some argue will date the book.  The theory behind it, however, is that future generations could look back at it, and say, “Yes, those questions applying to old issues are relevant to current issues now.”  So, regardless of how it will hold up through time, it is worth reading now.

Today’s Item: Jamaica’s First Movie

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Yes!

I repeat: Yes!

We’ve got some updates coming to our DVD department, including some of the best movies about music ever made.  My personal favorite also happens to be one of the first Jamaican flicks created, The Harder They Come. If you liked The Departed, The Godfather, Scarface, or any story that follows a rags to riches to corruption theme, then this will be of interest.

The lead character is played by Jimmy Cliff, one of the most influential men in reggae not named Marley, and the soundtrack is hot stuff.  It also highlights some issues within Jamaica’s economic structure during the 70s, with your rich neighborhoods and tourist attractions next to the poor shantytowns struggling with crime and violence.  It is a good look into the frequently ignored parts of the country, and the parts which the tourist commercials conveniently don’t mention.

But hey, while the movie may not be a feel-good picture, the soundtrack will lift you right back up!

Book of the Day Gets.. Month-ish

So, starting in February, and into this last week, I’ve been traveling, presenting, and not necessarily hitting this up proper.  So we’re going to hit up some highlights from today’s 250 item update to the New Item RSS feed.  Yeah… that’s a lot.

So first, we’ve got this Artists of the 20th Century series of DVDs, which covers everything from Warhol to Dali to Francis Bacon.  Yeah: Bacon. These DVDs take a look at one particular person, their life, their work, but also function as slideshows of their work.  Even if they aren’t the best made series on the planet, it is a lot easier than fishing around the Internet or traveling to where they’re kept to see them in person.

Next is a book called Wikipedia Revolution, which examines how the most comprehensive encyclopedia in the world is maintained by common folk and self regulated.  I’ll be the first to admit that I approach Wikipedia information with a skeptical eye, but I’ll also admit that I start a lot of research there to better form the searches I’m about to do in article databases, or to check referenced articles to see if they’re usable.  It is really a revolutionary product of the Internet, truly unique in its vision and scope, and this book does a great job researching some of the impact it has had.

AHHH !!  Dental implants!  You know, I was perusing the list of items, and a lot of them seem to be focused on terrorism.  This right here is real terror.  In Asbjorn Jokstad’s Osseointegration and Dental Implants you can learn all about putting scary things in your mouth.  As someone who had a dentist put in fillings, braces, permanent retainers, and then take out the fillings to replace them with prettier ones, I can attest to this: I live in fear of that chair.  My sympathy to those enduring dental implants, and my salute to those of you brave enough to enter the dental profession.  I do not hold against you what you must do to keep these teeth shining.

… but seriously… GAHH…

Books of Today: GAME Support (Unleashed!)

Today, we’ve started to process two series of books: Game Programming Gems and AI Game Programming Wisdom. Both series have come recommended by the folks in our GAME curriculum, so if you possess any interest or are taking the classes, you’ll have these handy reference materials available for your perusal. They’re full of tips, tricks, interviews, how-tos and information about the different specializations within the game development industry.

If you’re not familiar with our Library Reserves, they’re the books on the first floor that you probably think are all dictionaries and encyclopedias.  FALSE! Well, not all of them, anyway.  They are materials that can’t be taken out of the library (sadface) because they’re either too valuable or (like these) are books designed to be glanced at in short intervals and not always worth reading cover to cover for your need at that moment.

Books of Today… Freaking Me Out

I think that today’s RSS feed revealed some of the most disturbing titles we’ve seen this year.  And the content reflects it, I’m sure.  The first eye-catcher was First Kill Your Family: Child Soldiers of Uganda and the Lord’s Resistance Army. That’s pretty self explanatory, but kudos to whomever dreamt that title up.  Nothing drives home the horror of war like those which recruit children, and the Lord’s Resistance Army is absolutely horrifying. The book is worth checking out if you’re concerned about world events, child exploitation, or military history.

The next jolt to the senses comes from the famed New Age philosopher (should that be in quotes?), Sylvia Brown, with Psychic Healing: Healing Using the Tools of a Medium to Cure Whatever Ails You. Now, far be it from me to take on proving or disproving psychic ability, but when you’re used to seeing scholarly material fly past your eyes every day, this isn’t exactly the first thing you expect to see.  It’s an audio book, so who knows.

Some other exciting titles include Death of a Witch, Promises in Death, Terminal Freeze, and the innocent sounding The Accountant’s Story, until you see the subtitle: Inside the Violent World of the Medellin Cartel. Some winners today.  Surely one of these peaks some morbid curiosity.

Back of the Class # 2

Well, it isn’t really the second week, but it is the second update.  In the second week, we were broken into groups and asked to start putting together a report on a flooring product.  Our group chose bamboo flooring, and the research began.

Here’s a research tip for this update: instead of digging through database after database for articles, try out our federated search tool.

Can I do this from home?!

If you are a JCCC student, then yes you can.

alright!

When you load the home page, you’ll see an articles tab in the middle, revealing some pre-arranged categories.  Something as specific as Interior Design isn’t really there, so you gotta be creative.  There will be relevant articles in “art”, “business”, and others.

To cut out some guessing, there’s a link that says “Multi-Database Search“.  That takes you to Central Search (requires JCCC login if off-campus). This tool digs through  lots of databases at once.  Once in there, you can enter your search terms above and select multiple categories below.  Thus, I put in “bamboo flooring” for a keyword search, and select the categories of “business” and “science and technology”.  I probably could check more, but I figure bamboo flooring is a manufactured product that is relatively new, and it is a big part of the Interior Design world right now.  Business and Science/Technology should return plenty of results.

You’ll get articles that are often linked to the full text, and at least an abstract to let you know if the article is relavent. It isn’t perfect, and it may not catch all available subscriptions we have, but it certainly trims down the time when you’re not 100% sure where to start.  Don’t be afraid to try it!

Time To Be Barefoot and Pregnant: It Is BotD!

I was once told that when a man and a woman love each other very much, the woman might quit her job to stay home and wait for the stork to stop by with a baby to keep her company while she stays at home.  My father, he’s not a creative guy.  But he’s also wrong.

Aside from being misogynistic, the above can be adult-ified as saying “women leave the workforce for family”.  I’ve heard it called “the Mommy Track”, but another term is “opting out”.  Our book for this Friday, Opting Out? Why Women Really Quit Careers and Head Home by Pamela Stone.  Stone researched a group of women who were fortunate enough to be able to afford leaving their jobs after having children, and it turns out that it wasn’t to fill the gender role.

As it were, work sucked. The workplace had put undue stigma or pressure on them, and made work unfun.  Others weren’t able to find the balance between being a successful employee at the top of or on an advancing track and being the parent they were expected to be. This look at gender in the workplace might reveal less about the mothers’ motives and more about workplace prejudices and ideals.

Book of the Day Aims to Teach

So this guy, Gardner, he comes up with this theory about their being 8 kinds of intelligences, and there’s a lot of research out there about it.

So our book for today, Teaching & Learning Through Multiple Intelligences by Linda and Bruce Campbell with Dee Dickinson, has a chapter for each kind of intelligence, and breaks down the multiple aspects of teaching, assessment, test-taking, and oodles of other considerations needed for educators to do their job to the best of their ability.  With that model repeated in each chapter, it sets the tone for handling each student, and something future and current educators might want to consider, or at least explore if curious about Gardner’s proposed learning behaviors

Unfortunately, the author is not the same Bruce Campbell I wanted it to be.

best actor ever