If you've read the title, you're probably either (a) thinking we're some very weird people, or (b) you're wondering if we've lost our mind. The truth is neither. These were in fact just some of the topics the Jr. Friends discussed during their fourth and final day of Skype camp. Today, the Jr. Friends were given the opportunity to speak to Air Force Lt. Colonel Terri French, and Army EC3 Summer Manley.
the Jr. Friends learned many interesting facts today. First, many of the soldiers use translators when they need to talk to the Afghan people. Many know a little of either of the two official Afghan languages, but, "not as much as we probably could know". They also discussed the plumbing and sewage system that the soldiers used, and their was more discussion of some of the armored vehicles that the troops drive.
There was a slight battle between forces as well. After Lt. Col. French said Air Force was the best way to go, someone next to her said no, go Army. When asked if she couldn't go Air Force, which branch would she choose, Lt. Col. French smiled, pondering the complicated decision. She then turned to headset over to the woman next to her, Army EC3 Summer Manley, who was on her first tour in Afghanistan (Lt. Col. French has been in the Air Force almost 20 years.). She, obviously, said to go Army, but it was still very clear that the different branches enjoy the friendly competition, and they still work together side-by-side in combat, protecting each other.
So, is this the end of Skype for the Jr. Friends? I think not! Rumor is, they may soon be speaking again to soldiers in Afghanistan, maybe talking to some Navy soldiers! Who knows how large this "camp" may grow and expand to be!!
Post by: Jodi Davis
Thursday, June 24, 2010
"Hakuna Matata" are actually words in a real language!
Yesterday, the Jr. Friends enjoyed another Skype adventure! Where did they go this time? Asia? Europe? Africa? Well, if you guessed Africa..... you were still wrong, but close! Yesterday, the Jr. Friends talked to a young, newly married couple. Geoffrey and Molly have now officially been married 3 weeks. She grew up in the United States, became a doctor for the military, and began to travel the world. While visiting Kenya, she met Geoffrey. Now, many years later, they are married and about to head to Arizona where Molly will be working on an Indian reservation, alongside their native healers as a doctor. (Geoffrey is a nurse, fluent in three languages- his tribal language, Swahili (which is where the words "hakuna matata" come from), and English.) So, what did the Jr. Friends learn this time around?
Well, let's start with the fact that, yes, in some countries, people do ride exotic animals. No, they don't necessarily ride tigers (which come from Asia, and are one of the few big cats not found in Africa), but they do ride elephants in some parts of Africa. They also do a lot of walking in Africa. They don't have a lot in the means of public transportation, and what they do have doesn't go everywhere. They also eat three meals a day. No snacks, just three meals. You don't use forks either. You use a lot of your hands and spoons.
Back to the US, we learned (again), that lacrosse is still a very popular sport on the East Coast. In fact, so popular that during all four years of college, Molly played lacrosse. Lacrosse for boys and girls, however, can differ a bit. Boys lacrosse is more rough, sort of like football- more full contact. In girls lacrosse, no contact is allowed. But, the concepts of the game are the same.
The Jr. Friends are now preparing for their final Skype adventure...... this week at least. Will it be their last forever? I guess that's a mystery that will have to be figured out after today......
Post By: Jodi Davis
Well, let's start with the fact that, yes, in some countries, people do ride exotic animals. No, they don't necessarily ride tigers (which come from Asia, and are one of the few big cats not found in Africa), but they do ride elephants in some parts of Africa. They also do a lot of walking in Africa. They don't have a lot in the means of public transportation, and what they do have doesn't go everywhere. They also eat three meals a day. No snacks, just three meals. You don't use forks either. You use a lot of your hands and spoons.
Back to the US, we learned (again), that lacrosse is still a very popular sport on the East Coast. In fact, so popular that during all four years of college, Molly played lacrosse. Lacrosse for boys and girls, however, can differ a bit. Boys lacrosse is more rough, sort of like football- more full contact. In girls lacrosse, no contact is allowed. But, the concepts of the game are the same.
The Jr. Friends are now preparing for their final Skype adventure...... this week at least. Will it be their last forever? I guess that's a mystery that will have to be figured out after today......
Post By: Jodi Davis
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
What is a "small" library?
Today, the Jr. Friends talked to another library in Maryland. "A small library" they called themselves. If that's the case, what makes a library small? This public library has 6 branches. They have "people checking out books every few minutes". They estimated that they had 91,000 checkouts or so a year.If this library is small, our library must be tiny!
Now, moving on to what the Jr. Friends learned. First off, we learned that this library loves animals. They have had chickens and cows visit their library before, and their mascot is a tarantula! We told them of the horse we once had in our backyard, the chicken coop we used to have, how Chaucer, our gerbil, was one mascot, and Rosy, Jasmin's dog, is our other mascot. They completely adored Rosy, and were surprised by the fact that we had a library dog for a pet.
The Jr. Friends also learned a little bit about the library itself. They, like us, have summer programs for kids. They also have their kids volunteer. The sell books to raise money, and they are located right on Main Street. Some of the other fundraisers they had were a concert and an art contest!
Now, of course, we have to talk about their location. Close to Boston, Gettysburg, and Annapolis, this library had a lot of history around it. Being in Maryland, they also have some good seafood in the area. When the library was asked what other kinds of foods they ate, they surprised the Jr. Friends when they told them that they actually had a lot of different restaurants around town. Seafood, Thai food, Chinese food, even Mexican food! A common sport in the area (relatively unheard of here in Texas) is lacrosse. Lacrosse is a major sport in the area, and, like Texas, the weather there in the summer is H-O-T!!
Post by Jodi Davis
Now, moving on to what the Jr. Friends learned. First off, we learned that this library loves animals. They have had chickens and cows visit their library before, and their mascot is a tarantula! We told them of the horse we once had in our backyard, the chicken coop we used to have, how Chaucer, our gerbil, was one mascot, and Rosy, Jasmin's dog, is our other mascot. They completely adored Rosy, and were surprised by the fact that we had a library dog for a pet.
The Jr. Friends also learned a little bit about the library itself. They, like us, have summer programs for kids. They also have their kids volunteer. The sell books to raise money, and they are located right on Main Street. Some of the other fundraisers they had were a concert and an art contest!
Now, of course, we have to talk about their location. Close to Boston, Gettysburg, and Annapolis, this library had a lot of history around it. Being in Maryland, they also have some good seafood in the area. When the library was asked what other kinds of foods they ate, they surprised the Jr. Friends when they told them that they actually had a lot of different restaurants around town. Seafood, Thai food, Chinese food, even Mexican food! A common sport in the area (relatively unheard of here in Texas) is lacrosse. Lacrosse is a major sport in the area, and, like Texas, the weather there in the summer is H-O-T!!
Post by Jodi Davis
Monday, June 21, 2010
"There are trees in Afghanistan!!"
Today, June 21st, 2010, members of the Junior Friends of the Castroville Public Library communicated with soldiers overseas in Afghanistan. Air Force Captain Robert Godiciu and Air Force Captain Ferdinand Maldonado (Air Force Lt. Colonel Michael Prazak joined in near the end) spent over half an hour using Skype to talk with the Junior Friends. Junior Friends Randi Davis, Austin Davis, Chelsea Buvia, Lisa Orr, Jazmine Owen, and Jodi Davis, were at the library by eight in the morning, where the ground rules were set. At around 8:10, the call finally came in. The kids excitedly gathered close to the webcam, watching as the soldiers appeared on the screen. The picture was a bit blurry, but, considering the fact that the video feed was from half-way around the world, the image was pretty nice overall. As everyone got situated, each kid got a chance to ask questions. Everyone's faces were glowing as the excitement of the event grew. So, what did the Junior Friends learn?
1. Soldiers can't travel far off of base. While we can travel to Walmart or a corner store any day, soldiers can't move very far off base. They have to buy and get most of their things on base.
2. Soldiers often listen to their Ipods.
3. There are two uniforms they wear. They have their regular uniform, and a PT uniform that they wear when working out. Unless they're in the gym working out, they must always have their weapons with it.
4. Most places where the soldiers are receive Internet and cell phone reception.
5. The base where the soldiers are stationed averages about two city blocks in size.
6. Soldiers enjoy receiving small packages from home.
7. There are many different vehicles over there. When asked how many different vehicles they have, the soldiers told us they couldn't list all of them.
8. One of the main forms of motivations that the soldiers receive are simply a thank you, or feeling like they are appreciated.
9. The have the chance to talk to their close families (wives, husbands, children, etc) every day or every other day.
10. The sandy loam soil helps the roses grow in Afghanistan, and..... THEY HAVE TREES!! Ok, I believe this has some explaining. Near the end of the talk, the soldier had to leave the building they were in. Not ready to end the call, they picked up their laptop and webcam, moving outside. Once they were outside, the Junior Friends were almost amazed to see trees. Everyone thought Afghanistan was only desert! They were so surprised, in fact, that their exclamations about it drew laughs from the soldiers.
There were some similarities of Texas and Afghanistan, as well as some differences. The main ones we learned were-
Similarities-
The weather is hot!!
Differences-
The women don't go outside very often.
We thanked the soldiers at the end, and everyone enjoyed it. The Castroville Public Library is working on setting up a care package drive, so if anyone has any items they would like to donate for our care package, please feel free to stop by and donate them. The Skype call was so successful, in fact, that the Library is working to make this program a standing event. Interested in joining us to Skype with our troops? Call the library for more information.
This Post by:
Jodi Davis
1. Soldiers can't travel far off of base. While we can travel to Walmart or a corner store any day, soldiers can't move very far off base. They have to buy and get most of their things on base.
2. Soldiers often listen to their Ipods.
3. There are two uniforms they wear. They have their regular uniform, and a PT uniform that they wear when working out. Unless they're in the gym working out, they must always have their weapons with it.
4. Most places where the soldiers are receive Internet and cell phone reception.
5. The base where the soldiers are stationed averages about two city blocks in size.
6. Soldiers enjoy receiving small packages from home.
7. There are many different vehicles over there. When asked how many different vehicles they have, the soldiers told us they couldn't list all of them.
8. One of the main forms of motivations that the soldiers receive are simply a thank you, or feeling like they are appreciated.
9. The have the chance to talk to their close families (wives, husbands, children, etc) every day or every other day.
10. The sandy loam soil helps the roses grow in Afghanistan, and..... THEY HAVE TREES!! Ok, I believe this has some explaining. Near the end of the talk, the soldier had to leave the building they were in. Not ready to end the call, they picked up their laptop and webcam, moving outside. Once they were outside, the Junior Friends were almost amazed to see trees. Everyone thought Afghanistan was only desert! They were so surprised, in fact, that their exclamations about it drew laughs from the soldiers.
There were some similarities of Texas and Afghanistan, as well as some differences. The main ones we learned were-
Similarities-
The weather is hot!!
Differences-
The women don't go outside very often.
We thanked the soldiers at the end, and everyone enjoyed it. The Castroville Public Library is working on setting up a care package drive, so if anyone has any items they would like to donate for our care package, please feel free to stop by and donate them. The Skype call was so successful, in fact, that the Library is working to make this program a standing event. Interested in joining us to Skype with our troops? Call the library for more information.
This Post by:
Jodi Davis
Thursday, April 8, 2010
Major Site Overhaul
Brent is on the verge of completing a site wide update! Check it out!
http://www.castrovillelibrary.org
http://www.castrovillelibrary.org
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Castroville Public Library's Oral History Project: v2.0
Back in the 80's our library had collected the history of Castroville citizens using these strange square like devices (I believe they are called cassette tapes). As you can imagine, these cassette tapes are out of date. To correct this problem, these audio histories must be converted to a newer format. Our format of choice is mp3. In order to convert these tapes to mp3 we are using a laptop (using the microphone port), headphones, an audio splitter, line in cable, the open source audio editor Audacity, LAME MP3 encoder and a cassette player with a headphone jack (which was the hardest piece of equipment to find). The line in cable connects to the headphone jack of the cassette player and one end of the splitter. The other end is for the headphones. The splitter then plugs into the microphone port on the laptop. This way we can hear the tape as it plays and adjust the volume to increase its quality. The tapes are then recorded in real time to the program Audacity and exported as mp3.
Of course because the conversion is in real time, this task will take awhile (I'm on the 3rd tape in the first box of four) but the end result will be well worth the effort. Also I just figured out how to put the tape in so side A plays first!
Gerardo James Flores II
Of course because the conversion is in real time, this task will take awhile (I'm on the 3rd tape in the first box of four) but the end result will be well worth the effort. Also I just figured out how to put the tape in so side A plays first!
Gerardo James Flores II
Friday, March 5, 2010
Workforce Computers
As of today, computers 1 and 2 at the front of the library will be known as workforce computers. They both have desktop shortcuts that lead to several different job searching websites. Also they have a shortcut to how to tutorials about using computers, the internet, etc and a typing program.
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