Crafts & Hobbies #64: Zines

1) I would not make my own zine. Goodness, alot of people have time on their hands! Really, though, I could understand the concept if someone feels like they are expert on a subject, have a special interest, or have something interesting to say others would want to read on a continuing basis. At this point, I don't think any of these categories apply to me.

2) I think zines could have a place in the library, especially if they have a local focus.

Recession Busters # 60: Food, Fun & Frugality

Recession Busters # 60: Food, Fun & Frugality

1. I watched Clara’s video for depression style pasta and peas. The recipe was rather freestyle:
Cut up one potato, and some onion, and sauté in pan with a little olive oil. Add a can of peas. Add enough water to cook pasta and bring to boil. Add pasta and then turn off heat under pan. Allow to sit at least ten minutes. Salt and pepper are added to taste, and if desired, can add a little tomato sauce. Yum!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DuMkW35BwK8

2. Of course, recession news has been all over the media for months. Recession busters I have come across? Packaging home services, such as cable, telephone, and internet. Shopping around for the best electric rates.

3. I have practiced some money saving tips forever, such as grocery shopping with coupons and specials, buying store brands, etc. I have also been a Consumer Reports subscriber for years and it is a great source of information for shopping wisely.

Money & Finance #59: Credit, Money Management, and Saving

1. I read the article How Credit Reports Work. One of the interesting things I learned was the breakdown by percentage as to how a credit score is determined. The hints on how to improve your score were also enlightening.
2. We have never had a formal spending/budget plan but have always contributed to savings, lived within our means, and are aware of our finances. That being the case, I really do not plan at this time to implement a formal spending/budget plan. If I were to do so, however, I liked the website suggested, on About.com’s Frugal Living section.
I also bookmarked a couple of sites that I would be useful to suggest to patrons.

3. On the TCDRS website, I found the information in the Service Center to be the most useful. As I get closer to retirement, perhaps I would find it useful to log in to check my balance but for right now, the yearly written statement is sufficient.

Money & Finance #58: Banking, Budgeting, and Spending

1)Yes our bank does offer online services, which we principally use to transfer funds. It seems to have very good security, showing special preselected screens and of course, passwords. We do not use it for online payments, as we have automatic withdrawals. We do need to be careful about passwords - that we are not writing them down, and not using the same password for sensitive money matters as \ we do other reasons/sites.

2)I did take a look at the budgeting tools and they look fine, but we really feel we have done a good job ourselves. I have to admit I am reluctant to put personal info on yet another website, which brings us back to the security issue. And Rippleplay, are you kidding me? That seems like a really bizarre concept, but I guess it must work for some people!

3)I already do almost all of the savings tips from Consumer Reports , but am interested in checking out InsWeb for competetive insurance rates and might try out taking clothes out of the dryer while still damp (hmm, that might be issue as where to put them until they dry out completely without wrinkling.)

Apologies!

My blogs for the Books, Readers, and Beyond are out of sequence because for various reasons, technical difficulties, etc., I did them out of sequence!

Books, Readers, and Beyond: #53 Finding Books Online Exercise 3

I downloaded the book, About my Sisters by Debra Ginsberg from Overdrive. For entertainment, I still at this point would prefer reading a paper copy, but perhaps that is because I do not own a device that I can download to. I certainly can not see myself reading on a desk computer a book for pleasure. I can certainly see, however, doing this for perhaps, a cookbook, or some other nonfiction title that I wish to refer to quickly. Which brings me to the advantages of the online format - being able to find words or terms quickly (handy if you want to go back and reread something) and being able to bookmark.

Books, Readers and Beyond: #54 Social Networking Through Books

Exercise 1: I have never been a member of a book club – finding the time to read books is enough of a challenge, much less finding the time to be in a club. If I did have the time, however, I would prefer one that would be in-person. It seems that the social interaction would be so much more meaningful if it were face on. And it would seem that that would be what joining a club would be all about, the sharing and the social interaction…

Exercise 2: Actually we already have an existing book club “Who Dun it @ the Library?” but we are implementing a few changes in terms of book selection. When it is my turn to facilitate, being a non-fiction reader, I decided to choose a true crime title by a local author, Kathryn Casey. This author spoke at a mystery program here and there was great interest in her true crime writing, hence the choice, Evil Beside Her. I was surprised to note that Shelfari did list this title with 2 reviews. In the future, if the club enjoys reading a true crime title once in a while, I will definitely go to ReadingGroupGuides.com to choose other titles. I was very interested to see that The Innocent Man was on that list, a possibility for next time. As a best seller, it is on the other sites, too.

Exercise 3: I searched for Into Thin Air on both Readerville.com and Shelfari.com. Not surprisingly, being nonfiction titles, there were not gobs of comments, but there were a few on both sites. The comments were similar. No surprises.