Sonny Boy

Posted on March 8, 2009 by Steve

Yesterday we drove to Kewanee, IL to pick up an eight year-old sun conure named Sonny Boy. (Photos of him are available here.) It was a long trip, almost 400 miles round trip, and much of it was white-knuckle driving in high winds and pounding rain. Everyone came along for the ride and overall, we had a good time.

Kewanee is the self-proclaimed “hog capital of the world” but nowadays it seems kind of economically depressed. Still, it is located in a surprisingly pleasant area of rolling hills.

Our new pet made the trip without incident and seems to be settling in pretty well. This morning I let him out of his cage for the first time and he enjoyed it. All of us got to feed him pieces of food. The little kids especially enjoyed this. Unfortunately, Champ, our golden retriever, is just not used to having Sonny in the house yet and is annoyingly persistent in trying to get a closer look at the bird.

I’ve always wanted to have a bird like this and am quite pleased that we got him. He was advertised for free adoption on Craigslist and Michele saw the ad first and we were (barely) able to be the first callers. This bird is a great addition to our menagerie of loverbirds, blue diamond doves, tons of fish, and two dogs. He may live as long as 22 plus years.

Along the way we stopped in Dixon, IL, former President Ronald Reagan’s hometown. It was great to see the house where he grew up, and to see a large chunk of the Berlin Wall in a nearby park.

Lots of reasons for giving thanks

Posted on November 27, 2008 by Steve

I hope friends in the USA who celebrate Thanskgiving have had a great day. I am sitting on the couch at my in-law’s feeling like a round ball full of good food. If someone gave me a shove I think I would just roll across the floor!

I like this holiday because I think it is important to spend time thinking about all of the blessings I have received in my life. I am thankful that Jesus sacrificed himself for me. I am thankful to know His loving kindness and tender mercies.

I wonder where I would be without my wife, Michele. And how grateful for my four children as well as extended family. I am thankful to have a job and to have many friends.

Who could ask for more?

New pets added to our menagerie

Posted on March 29, 2008 by Steve

This beautiful bird is the type of bird we bought today at the Spring show of the Greater Chicago Cage Bird Club held at the DuPage County Fairgrounds. None of us had ever been to one of these shows. We decided to go because Tristan really wanted to get a bird as a pet. He still remembers Ben and Jerry, our two parakeets we had many years ago when he was little. We went expecting just to have a good time looking around and seeing some interesting birds. But when Tristan and I saw an Asian American lady with two cages full of these birds, we thought they were quite irresistible. The woman who raised them gave us them for $5 off the list price because we were buying them for the children. I have never seen such birds before. They are called diamond doves (Geopelia cuneata — see more information at http://www.diamonddove.com/) and the specific kind we purchased is a blue diamond dove. We were able to purchase a pair; the male is about six months old and the female is about a year old, we were told. I think these birds are originally from Australia.

We bought a cage and food for the newest additions to our menagerie, and at the moment they are cuddling together going to sleep for the night.

After thinking about names for a while, we decided to call them “Onslow” and “Daisy” in tribute to two characters from our favorite BBC show, Keeping Up Appearances.

(Photo Credit: jmaximo)

Travellers now home

Posted on July 30, 2007 by Steve

The weekend was fairly quiet; it seems like I spent most of it asleep (which, unfortunately, is not much of an exaggeration). On Saturday we left the house only once, to visit a nearby AT&T store where I tried, unsuccessfully, to determine whether our street address was eligible for DSL service. Long story, but basically, because our house is new and built in between two older houses in an established neighborhood, it appears that our address is unknown to AT&T. Since it isn’t in their database, apparently it doesn’t exist

Yesterday was also a quiet day and the only time we went anywhere was in the late afternoon. We made a trip to Woodman’s in Kenosha (I don’t like grocery stores but this one is more tolerable than most) to pick up some food for dinner. My parents-in-law along with Keegan and Tristan arrived back from their week-long missions ~~missions~~ trip shortly after we got home. They had a great time; so great, in fact, that there was a lot of “weeping and gnashing of teeth” (yes, I am being a little sarcastic) at the fact that the trip was over. This happens every year and there is an air of gloom and doom and sorrow for several days before equilibrium is reestablished.

Tristan looks quite different: his hair has been bleached a little bit (especially his eyebrows) by all of the time spent out in the sun, and he now has a tan and freckles on his face. We think he looks a lot like his cousin, Bjorn, just now. Shortly after getting home, he started complaining of a stomach ache and later in the evening, he threw up. He then fell asleep on my lap and hasn’t stirred all night long. (Yay! Maybe this trip finally cured him of his nighttime wakefulness!)

I went to bed really early last night so I woke up early this a.m. It was supposed to be a nice, quiet, “alone time” but that was quickly dispensed with by Brinley waking up within minutes, crying for me. She’s wide awake next to me right now, playing with her stuffed animals and other toys rather than going right back to sleep. I predict a crabby day ahead for her.

Some NASIG conference impressions

Posted on June 4, 2007 by Steve

It’s no secret that NASIG is my favorite professional organization and that I enjoy NASIG conferences more than any other. Why? One reason is that there is nowhere I feel more at home than at NASIG. People are friendly, warm, supportive, thought-provoking, and do very interesting things both in their personal lives and professionally. The NASIG organization is all about relationships. Funny, that is exactly what serials are like, too. I remember my former professor and mentor, Kathryn Luther Henderson, writing about serials in a Serials Librarian article a long time ago and comparing serials to families.¹

Aside from the many warm hugs I received from longstanding friends, here is a smattering of what I remember most about this year’s conference, in no particular order of importance:

My friend and fellow “way past it” NASIG president, Susan Davis, jokingly remarking that I had peaked early (referring to when I was NASIG president eight years ago) and it was all downhill from there.
My friend and another “way past it” NASIG president, Anne McKee, mistakenly using the word obituary when referring to me in her introduction of a session I took part in.
Listening in amusement (and sometimes, amazement) at the open mic session Saturday night as various attendees stood up in front of a supportive audience to tell funny stories, read poetry, or sing acapella. I laughed ’til I cried at the story told by friend Gail Patrick of Depauw University that involved a motorcycle trip, snakes, and a visit to a place known as “The Garden of Eden.” Then there was a hilarious story from one woman that involved her mother’s false teeth. One first-time attendee worked up the courage to sing a solo. The whole event was great!
Wonderful food and great conversations at the dine-arounds Friday and Saturday evenings. Saturday night especially featured fantastic food at a restaurant in downtown Louisville named Saffron that featured simple yet elegant Persian-inspired food. I had an incredible rack of lamb on a bed of basmati rice, accompanied by a wonderful old vine Zinfandel whose name I can’t recall. I also remember one morning when we sat down with someone I had known for many years who is a cataloger at a state institution in the Washington, D.C. area. She was there with her husband and in the course of conversing with them I was floored to learn that they are avid thoroughbred horse-racing buffs and that they own several racehorses! Even more amazing was the fact that her husband knew of someone with whom I grew up in east central Illinois who is now a highly successful trainer based at Arlington Racetrack. His comment about my classmate, whose name is Chris Block, was simply “Money in the bank; money in the bank.” I told them how much I was fascinated with thoroughbred horse-racing when I was growing up and how Chris planned to grow up to be a trainer and I was going to be his jockey. He has reached his dream but somehow I grew out of any jockey aspirations They even invited me to go with them to one of the nearby stables where they were going to check on the status of one of the brood mares they own. Unfortunately I couldn’t do that because I needed to leave for home immediately after the conference.
Many stimulating conversations on personal and professional topics with Mark Lindner, who shared the car trip and conference hotel room with me. I really enjoyed getting to know him and was glad to spend time with him. One of his many strengths is that he is unabashedly open and frank about what he thinks and about his life.
Talking with Sanjeet-Singh Mann, a student grant award winner from UCLA’s Department of Information Studies, about the importance of values and ethics in librarianship, among other things.
Meeting and talking with Steve Black from the College of St. Rose about the serials course he teaches at SUNY Albany, and also learning about a podcast program he founded for his institution called Periodical Radio, which focuses on interviewing editors and publishers of magazines and periodicals. Steve is also the author of a recently published book on serials management from Libraries Unlimited entitled Serials in Libraries: Issues and Practices.

There was of course much more to the three days. I haven’t even mentioned anything about the sessions I attended. I’ll try to mention some things about that in a different post.

—————————————————————————

Henderson, Kathryn Luther. “Personalities of Their Own: Some Informal Thoughts on Serials and Teaching About How to Catalog Them.” Serials Librarian 22, no. 1/2 (1992): 3-16.

Death is part of life

Posted on December 6, 2005 by Steve

In the past few months, there have been a number of deaths among extended family or friends. While in most cases it was expected, the death of someone you love is hard. Michele’s Uncle Donny died while only in his 50s, of cancer. My Uncle John came really close to death but thankfully is recovering. Someone I’ve known all my life as Aunt Lona, although not really my aunt but a distant relative by marriage, also died. Aunt Lona was in her 80s. Although I last saw her a very long time ago, I can still picture Aunt Lona, with her striking white hair, her piercing eyes, and her tanned face with its prominent cheekbones (she was part Native American). Staying at her house was an adventure in part because she lived in one of my favorite places in the world (Montana) near the entrance to Glacier National Park. I remember us reading the Kalispell, Montana newspaper to find stories about grizzly bears (I think my parents even subscribed to the newspaper for a while). In my mind’s eye she always wore an apron and was always busy about the kitchen.

Late last night my mother called us to tell us that a close friend, also in her 80s and someone whom I’ve known since I was a little kid, had died just a few hours before. Dorothy and her sister, Betty, never married and lived together all their lives. They were like aunts to us kids and they doted on us (and many others). I have so many happy memories of visiting them or staying at their house. Dorothy always wore dresses, while Betty prefered blouses and skirts. When talking about them with others who hadn’t met them yet, we sometimes referred to them as Dorothy Dress and Betty Blouse as a way of telling them apart. Dorothy and Betty lived to serve others. Dorothy did the cleaning while Betty took care of the cooking. They cared for countless visitors, never complaining, always happy to serve. Their house was a haven of good food, candies, toys for the kids, and other treats. I am very sad about her death but at the same time, glad that she is at rest, forever free from any more pain or suffering in her body, finally able to enjoy her heavenly reward. I wonder how her sister, Betty, will fare.

As I fell asleep last night, aside from the grief I felt at the news, the thought that was running through my mind was that death is part of life. We all have to face death. Those who put their faith in Jesus Christ have the promise of eternal life; death has no power over them any more. I was thinking, too, of Jesus’s promise that He has prepared a place for us with Him. “I am going there to prepare a place for you,” that’s what he told His disciples (John 14:2-4). I am comforted by this assurance. Nearly every day I think of my father, who died unexpectedly almost four years ago, as well as my maternal grandparents, all of whom are in their places that have been prepared for them, enjoying His presence.

Christmas party

Posted on December 4, 2005 by Steve

Tristan has a dragon painted on his face

Originally uploaded by Steve_Oberg.

Last night we attended the Christmas party for my work. The weather wasn’t good and we debated about not going, but the kids were really excited about going so we decided to go after all. Michele had bought the three younger ones really cute outfits and they enjoyed getting dressed up. The party turned out better than we thought, with lots of special activities for the little ones, such as a face painter and a magician. There were special little gift bags with toys for them, and the kids even had a special meal with food they liked, including macaroni and cheese, and chicken tenders.

“I don’t have to go to the library…”

Posted on April 26, 2005 by Steve

Chicago Tribune | Welcome to campus; have an iPod

This article in today’s Chicago Tribune caught my eye because of one particular phrase. A DePaul University student is quoted as follows:

“I don’t have to leave my room,” said Emily McDermott, a freshman who said her room is usually littered with pizza boxes. “I can get everything in my room on the Internet. I don’t have to go to the library, I can have food delivered, I can talk to people online.”

It’s the mention of libraries that I think is interesting. Is this student typical? Do students really not bother coming to the library anymore because so much of what they think they need is available online? I am doubtful of this. I think this is true for some, but certainly not for all, or even for most. It is quite interesting for me to see the heavy use of my library by those who use online resources. Sure, circulation statistics are down, but use of the physical space is still pretty high. Students come to the library even if they are doing their research online.

The real problem, I think, is in communicating to students about the wealth of resources available online as well as offline. I think that if libraries did a better job of highlighting the two together, more use would be made of both. Most students I interact with are overwhelmed by what the library offers. They don’t know where to start. Once they know about what is available to answer their research needs, they use it.

One time about a year ago, I overheard a student tour guide tell parents and prospective students who were trouping through the library: “The library has x number of books, x number of periodicals, but actually, everything in the library is available online, so you don’t even need to come here.” I about choked.

Family Man Librarian

A blog about family, technology, and libraries

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