1/31/11

Inspite of the weather I have sent off the ten sets of bookmarks that I prepared yesterday. I'm glad that I got that done!

1/30/11

I finished up addressing and putting together ten sets of bookmarks for nine university libraries and one public library (in Elmira, NY.) I am planning to mail these out tomorrow which means that I have sent out thirty-one sets of bookmarks (at 30 bookmarks a set) to thirty university libraries. I'm glad that I reached my goal and am looking forward to getting additional readers to my web page.

1/28/11

The past few days I have been putting together sets off bookmarks and putting them in envelopes to be sent out to libraries. But not for public libraries. These sets will be sent to libraries at colleges and universities all over the United States. I was able to put together twenty-two sets which I sent out today. I am planning to sent out thirty sets but I need to get another box of envelopes so I can complete my project before the end of the month.

I finished reading an interesting biography today:

I got a book today that should prove to be interesting. It is "The Card: Collectors, Con Men, and The True Story of History's Most Desired Baseball Card" by Michael O'Keeffe & Teri Thompson and is the incredible saga of the 1906 T206 Honus Wagner Baseball Card and how this rare card transformed the simple hobby of baseball card collecting into a billion-dollar industry with counterfeiters, con men, and obsessive collectors. I'm looking forward to reading it and putting in an issue with two other books about baseball card collecting and manufacturing.

1/21/11

I finished reading "The Marxist and The Movies: A Biography of Paul Jarricho" by Larry Ceplair today. And is was a fascinating account of screenwriter Paul Jarrico and his movie career and political activities. As the biography presented the writer and his times and the effects that the blacklisting had on him and his contemporaries. The history of the time of blacklisting should never be forgotten.

1/18/11

I'm back to reading two books at the same time. Both are very god reads on two different subjects.

"The Marxist and The Movies: A Biography of Paul Jarricho" by Larry Ceplair and is the account of screenwriter Paul Jarrico and his movie career and political activities. Until his blacklisting he worked steadily in Hollywood and was the recipient of an Oscar nomination. Throughout his life he engaged in political and social causes and fought to restore screen credits to blacklisted writers who, like him had been denied screen credits from the late 1940s to the mid-1960s. A good read which will be part of an issue of biographies of blacklisted writers.

"A Movable Feast: Ten Millennia of Food Globalization" by Kenneth F. Kiple and is the story of the globalization of food from the days of hunter-gathers to present-day genetically modified plants and animals. Also written about the establishment of agriculture and domestication of animals in Eurasia, Africa, the Pacific, and the Americas and diffusion of plants and animals throughout the world and the impact it has had. This book will be part of a "Food History" issue.

1/16/11

At the end of this month in San Francisco is Macworld 2011, which I found out about thanks to Wired.com. And so i have sent 100 Bookview cards to the operators of the expo in hopes that the cards will be put out for people to pick up. I hope that it works.

I also put out fifty cards at Local Burger and fifty book cards at Liberty Hall.

1/14/11

I got two interesting books today which will be part of the issue I am planning to call "Banana History." The books I got are:

"The Banana Men: American Mercenaries and Entrepreneurs in Central America, 1880-1930" by Lester D. Langley & Thomas Schoonover and is the story of ambitious entrepreneurs, isthmian politicians, and mercenaries who dramatically altered Central America's political cultural, economies, and traditional social values from the late nineteenth century until the onset of the Great Depression. And it was all about the banana. This book is about the United States-Latin American relations.

"On the Inside: A Story of Intrigue and Adventure, on Wall Street, in Washington, and In the Jungles of Central America" by Thomas McCain and is the story of how for over a half a century, the United Fruit Company was the most powerful economic and political force in Central America. "El Pulpo" use force, bribery, and political subversion, often in secret cooperation with the U.S. State Department and the CIA, to control Central American countries to control the land on which they grew bananas. This book is an updated of the 1976 "An American Company: The Tragedy of United Fruit" and should be as equally fascinating!

1/1/11

I finished reading a book published back in 1952, but it was still a very good read as it was a history of a retailer (Marshall Field & Company) from its beginning to its hundredth anniversary. And this history is very interesting as well as educational as it presents the history and evolution of retailing in the United States. This book is "Give the Lady What She Wants: The Story of Marshall Field & Company" by Lloyd Wendt & Herman Kogan and is an account of the first one-hundred years ( 1852 - 1952) of the retail giant. I am now reading another book about the history of a retailing giant which no longer is as big and powerful as it once was, but this book is an another important read in the history of retailing in the United States. "

A new year has started and I do hope that it will be a better year than 2010 was. 2010 was just a hellish year that I am so glad to see gone. Just too awful to reflect on.

This new year, 2011, represent an important anniversary for me. It was twenty years ago that I got my first Apple Macintosh computer. My first real computer. Up to then I had been using a Commodore 64, a Commodore 64+, a portable typewriter, and an electronic typewriter. All okay, but with limitations. But with the purchase of my Apple Mac Classic II everything changed.

When I began working at the KU Bookstore Textbook Department, I was introduced too, and got to work with, an Apple Macintosh SE30 and was just blown away with what could be done with a Mac. I knew that I had to get one as I was doing a review zine called Pulsar in which I reviewed science fiction and fantasy books I had read. And so I began to save up money as I was going to buy a Mac and a printer. I felt that both should be purchased together. I would add ClarisWorks to that by the time it came to purchase the computer.

And sometime in early 1991 I purchased an Apple Mac Classic II, a printer, and ClarisWorks and began to experiment with it. Using the Mac SE30 at work was a good way to be introduced to the Macintosh operating system, but when I started typing up issues of Pulsar on my Mac I was just blown away at what I could do! It was just so cool. I could do such as the system was so flexible. And it was so delightful to work with.

And since then I have delighted in the Apple Macintosh computers, and the Mac clone a PowerComputing computer, that I have owned since 1991 and have delighted in what each has done for me. It's been a delightful twenty years!!!

(c) copyright 2011 by William Tienken