I’ve been learning a lot recently. It’s funny. As an adult, you learn so differently than you did as a child. It’s easier in some ways and it is so much harder in others.

I find that because it is conscious, it is easier. I know what I am learning and I know why I am learning it. If it is for work, it is clearly defined and usually time specific. I need to learn this software program in order to do X by the fifteen of next month. It is a task. it is usually quite contained. I have something I need to do and the software is the way to do it and I need to learn the software in order to get this task done.

When it is for personal use, it is often less defined, less time specific and less clear what, if  anything, is going to be accomplished - but it is still conscious.

I am the one making the decision. People forget that they always have a choice about learning. No one is going to make you learn something. It just usually is that people do not want to live with the consequences of not learning whatever it is that they “need” to learn( at work or in a new relationship).

We rarely chart our process as we learn something new. We just see it in terms of whether we can do what we need to do. Can I send an email with a photograph enbedded in it? (or whatever job we set ourselves to learn). We might learn things that we can’t use today or tomorrow but might need in the future.  It is often an uncomfortable time when we are so acutely aware of what we do not know. It’s something that happens in school so much that we are constantly told what we do not know but in adult life, we can often avoid focusing on what we do not know and stay with what we do know. I am sure we all know people who at a dinner or other social setting just talk about what they know even if no one else shares that knowledge or enjoyment of that topic.

” Let me tell you about the aging process of the Blue Lascar Butterfly of the Burmese Highlands.” This might be right after someone mentioned a new movie called ” The Blood Pool of Knightsend”.

It’s sometimes makes me feel sad when I witness this because the person feels so out of place, they can’t even stay quiet and wait until the conversation comes back to something they do know about and can share in the conversation about.

I am reading a book about adults learning a new language as adults( Dreaming in Hindi by Katherine Russell Rich). The author says how hard it is and then offers studies that back her up on many fronts. Language is one set of skills but anything we learn as adults has a progression.

We talk about the learning curve but when you are actually in a learning situation, it is tough to see that it will all become more clear and that before too long we will be more knowledgeable than we were before.

I say, keep learning, it keeps the brain well oiled. We don’t all need to learn a new language or musical instrument but keep learning. Deal with feeling uncomfortable for the time in between when we do not know anything and when we start to know a little. Rejoice. You are uncomfortable but you are doing a great thing. Keep learning, encourage others to learn as well. It will help us all if we all keep learning.

One of the trials of my moving to California from Massachusetts that I didn’t envision and that no one warned me about was the loss of humor for a while. If you move to a place where you know no one, then you cannot joke. It is as simple and ugly as that.

If I were to attend a comedy club in Iceland where all the comics were Icelandic, I would undoubtedly miss all the really good jokes(This is even if the comics were speaking English which is the only language I understand- and why would a rocking club in Reykjavik have English speaking comics when the audience would be speaking Icelandic?). I don’t know any Icelandic history ( think all the George Washington, Abe Lincoln, George Bush jokes you’ve heard), I’m not proud of this. I know nothing about Icelandic eating habits, (think all the American fusion diet jokes, the as American as Apple Pie jokes). I know no Icelandic authors (even though I hear that they have some good mystery authors( Arnaldur Indriðason -Reykjavik Murder Mysteries   1. Jar City (2004) aka Tainted Blood 2. Silence of the Grave (2005) 3. Voices (2006) 4. The Draining Lake (2007) 5. Arctic Chill (2008) 6. Hypothermia (2009) and Yrsa Sigurðardóttir  Last Rituals ( 2005) and My Soul to Take: A Novel of Iceland(2007)).

Think of some stupid joke;  a duck walks into a bar. The bartender hands him a drink ( the newest Pomegranate margarita or mojito) and says; “That’s $25.97. How do you want to pay for that? The duck says; “same as always put it on my bill.”

Ok to understand that award winning joke, you have to know some cultural context. You need to know what a duck is, why it is unusual for a duck to walk into a bar, what a bar is, who the bartender is ( and all the bartender jokes) and then you have to understand why the punch line has a double meaning.

Ok, back to me coming to California. All the attempts at humor were in English. But I didn’t know any Californian geography( or distances between towns or cities), history,  notables(Herb Caen, the twins), reputations(Why would anyone voluntarily go to Fresno?), institutions( Thrifty Jr., Albertsons, Wells Fargo, Bank of America, Candlestick, the maze, Telegraph, the Haight, Stern Grove, The Greek Theatre.

One kind of humor is repetitive. If I say something like Excusssse Meee (think Steve Martin in the 80s), if I say it repeatedly, in every conversation, eventually it might become funny. It might not, it might become tedious boring and really annoying. If I tell a weird story where something doesn’t make sense but the rest of the story is absolutely normal, that might be funny ( Think Monty Python re dead Parrot or the Council of the Funny Walk). If I tell a story and something truly unexpected happens that might be funny. There are lots of different kinds of humor but a lot of it depends of some shared assumptions. If you are new to a place, a culture, a group of people, you have to be careful of your assumptions and many times you should not assume that others share them.

In the early days here in California, I was struck again and again by saying things I thought were perfectly normal and having people stare at me and say after a polite pause, “What?” Clearly what I had said to them had not been understood as I meant it, let alone as a humorous remark. I would then retreat and answer politely, and go another day without exchanging any humor with anyone. It was fascinating to watch when I would risk another humorous try. I always considered it a mark of true friendship when I knew someone well enough not to have to think before joking. I also found there were definitely times when I would be taken aback when someone would actually joke with me out of the blue. Be it at the grocery store, or in line at the bank (when one still stood in line at the bank).

I have lived in other parts of the world where language divided me from people and the ability to joke, but this move was the first time I was aware of being denied humor simply because I did not know people well enough to joke with them.

It was also a lesson for me in that I do not want to live long without some humorous interaction. I might have to but I always prefer a little humor…

I talk with Librarians at other libraries so I won’t mention what library this story comes from but it was in the bay area. A man came in and asked for the book the Power of Positive Thinking by Norman Vincent Peale. The Librarian involved showed the man where the book was on the shelf. When the librarian turned to go, the man asked,” Is it realistic not to get angry?”

The Librarian was taken aback.  She said, ” Probably everybody but the Dalai Lama gets angry.” The man looked puzzled, maybe he didn’t know who the Dalai Lama is or maybe didn’t expect a Buddhist to be brought into the conversation.

“I did some work for a lady. I was supposed to get paid. I went to collect my check but she said my boss had collected the check.” He paused.” I try to live a good ethical Christian life.” He paused again and looked down at the Librarian. “What should I do? I had already asked my boss and he had said he’d never collected any money from her.”

The Librarian was stuck. How can one answer? She told me that she showed him the books on the shelf, which were all sorts of self help, both Christian and non-denominational. She told him, “9 out of ten people would feel angry about being lied to and cheated. Being angry was a normal reaction but we always have a choice how as to how we react.” She said she went on about one of the good things about a Public Library is you can go inside and see how many different ways there are to be in the world. You can learn how to react to events in ones life a new way, a nonviolent way, or how to negotiate with ones boss to get the money you are owed.

The Librarian said the man walked away with his book then turned around and went back to the shelf to look at some of the other books. Who knows how his story turned out but this story struck me as another example of how valuable the Public Library is in the lives of so many of us.

The wisdom of the ages and continents contained within four walls and an internet access.

Recently I had a computer set-back. If you work with computers, and I think the majority of people do these days, you will have some sort of accident, mishap, disaster, meltdown, glitch or simply a little oops moment. Mine was that I had over 1500 photos entered into my IPHOTO on my  home computer. They were in various folders all within that same software program IPHOTO. Some were scanned from old photos. Some were silly snapshots I had taken with my digital camera but liked well enough to save. Some of them documented events, like my cousin’s 90^th birthday party. Some of them were simply shots of images I liked. They comprised over 6 years of photographs. In some cases the original photos date from the 1800s (these were the ones that I had scanned in).

A month ago they all vanished without a clue in a single moment. What happened no one knows. I have had a technician look for them but he could find no clue. After that single moment, one has to move on.

Step One. Accept what has happened. My photos are gone.

Step Two. See if someone can help recover what was lost. I thought of a computer technician I know and engaged him to investigate.

Step Three. Accept it if they say the item is gone, that it is in fact gone. He looked and said he could find no trace of my photos.

Step Four. Move on. So not let this loss stop your enjoyment of photography, of working with computers, of life.

I am in step four. I am moving on. I do not yet know if there are copies of some of those photos elsewhere. I will figure that out when I start rescanning photos. I will miss some of the photos which are not going to be rescanned. I will miss some of the images that can not be recovered. It does me no good to mope or to try and figure out some new technician to ask- I have asked the question and gotten it answered by a good, capable technician who looked for the photos. I think that these situations are good mini practices for the big losses in life.

I am sad, don’t get me wrong. I can’t be too sad though. Part of it is my own fault. Did I back up each photo by saving it somewhere else as well as in IPHOTO? No. That is the end of the story. If I had stored each and every image in IPHOTO and also on a cd-rom,  I would have only lost what was stored on the computer, I would be able to reload the photos and go on with nothing more than a few minutes spent importing the photos.

Granted we can not guard against all of life’s tragedies  but with computers we can safeguard our files by saving them in more than one location. Put your files on a cd-rom, or in another application.  I can put my photos in both IPHOTO and simply elsewhere in a separate folder (that is not connected to IPHOTO).

I also want to stress, this loss like the bigger more important losses that are bound to happen to us, is not something to stop us, not meant to end our enjoyment of life, it is simply a way to remind me in this case to be more vigilant in saving my images and to appreciate them while I have them. Of course in life as in photography, the real lesson is to enjoy your life as you are living it, not rely on some printed form of it to substitute for the real thing.

As you go forth, safeguard your work, savor it while you create it, and then if something happens, you will have had the enjoyment of the moment when you created it as well as the memory of your work. Let my story remind you to safe your work before something happens.

One of the things that many of us need help with these days is how to handle the complex situations in life that involve many agencies. For example, if we have an aging parent and are concerned about their future- we have legal questions, we have medical questions, we have questions about their psychological welfare, we have questions about how to rearrange their house if they are staying there, or where to move them to if they can’t stay in their house. The Hayward Public library is here to help you. We are having a program called CARING FOR OUR AGING PARENTS-Locally on Saturday October 10 from 1:00pm-3:00. Various social service agencies are coming to answer your questions. We are going to try to provide most of the  answers you will need. Come and join us, as always, it is free. If you live in Alameda County you can call 211 for any social service question.

Once again, we are trying to provide you with the information you need, when you need it and in the form that suits you.

I recently read a great piece by Monique le Conge who is Director of the Richmond, CA Public Library system. She wrote an article entitled 7 Ways Your Public Library Can Help You During Tough Economic Times.
I liked her ideas so much I wanted to customize it; 25 Ways The Hayward Public Library Will Help You Survive Tough Times. Here are my ideas:
1.)    We’re here for you and we lend our materials free of charge. How great is that?! It’s free to get a Hayward Public Library card. It’s the MASTER key that opens every door. The doors of opportunity, of education, of relaxation, of family togetherness, of possibility, and self discovery all can be opened with a free Hayward Public Library card.




2.)    We have public access computers with internet access to help you look for jobs, submit job applications, file your resume on various list servs and receive emails concerning jobs and interviews.




3.)    Those same computers can help you write your resume and we have printers that can print out your resume if you are submitting it in person somewhere.


4.)    Those same computers can also be used to keep in touch with friends and family during these times when we need all the emotional support we can get.

5.)    We loan DVDs and videos to both provide instruction to help you learn something new ( like cooking or Taibo) as well as simple entertainment when you are relaxing.



6.)    We loan audio books and cassettes to help with the commute when you live far away from your job and have quite a commute. The audio books are fiction, nonfiction and language instruction. That means you can enjoy a good mystery while driving, learn Russian or learn Donald trump’s secrets of salesmanship. Put that commute time to good use.


7.)    We also loan downloadable audio books and Ebooks( think free Kindle).Explore these possibilities either during your commute or when doing chores, increase the time you can learn or enjoy books. Someone reads them aloud and you download them to your computer, MP3 player or other device.




8.)    We loan Books. These come in all shapes and sizes, fiction, non-fiction, in various languages and for children, teens and adults. Books can teach us how to write a resume, how to conduct a job interview, how to write a cover letter and which jobs are going to pay us what we need to make. Books can also take us away from the everyday reality by transporting us to another time, another place, even another galaxy. They can make us see the world differently, they can help us to understand the world in which we live and they can help us to change ourselves.



9.)    We have book groups where you can join a community of readers and explore mystery books, literary books, autobiographies, or books from around the globe. These groups can provide a forum for discussions and can also provide a loose structure to explore a subject like autobiography. The group means you don’t have to do all the work yourself. It is not like a college class but it has the rewards without the papers, the exams and the professor. It can provide companionship, intellectual interaction and some great reading.




10.)    We provide computer classes to get you started in the complex world of computers.




11.)    We offer English Conversation groups as a means where people learning English as a Second Language can come together and practice speaking English.




12.)    We also offer a wide range of one time programs ranging from an evening learning about Arabic Calligraphy to Japanese Brush Painting. We offer music  from local musicians, local authors come to talk about their work, we provide programs detailing how to avoid Termites, Fall prevention, craft programs as well as how to improve your writing.



13.)     We offer yoga workshops every month to give you an opportunity to come and learn to relax, to breathe and even to laugh.


14.)    We encourage and teach  literacy as the most fundamental skill that will keep us employed, employable and enjoying life.  We provide this valuable life skill in both English and in Spanish.


15.)    We offer an extensive range of programs for children, starting the day they are born.


16.)    We offer programs for children and their parents together.


17.)    We offer programs for teenagers. Some of these programs are just fun( like crafts), some are  computer games and some of them are actually learning skills and growing as a person- such as a recent photography project that culminated in a city wide gallery showing of their photographs.


18.)    We offer library services for shut-ins and seniors who can no longer get into the library. We bring the library materials out to them.


19.)    We offer a repository for living Hayward local History. We are continuing for a third year to collect video stories of Hayward residents telling of their lives in California and specifically Hayward. Come in and tell us your story. We want to save it for the generations of the present and the future.


20.)    We answer questions. If you need to know how to get to that interview in Oakland but don’t know the way, you can ask us and we can print out a map or show you on your map how best to get there. We can tell you what year Benjamin Franklin was in France if you want to find that out. We can tell you who is offering classes in Excel in the Hayward area if you want to improve your skills. We can give you the telephone number for East Bay Works. We can find the poem that starts; It was many and many a year ago in a kingdom by the sea. We can answer where to find Health or Medical issue answers(see recent entry in this blog).


21.)    We are going to be here. We have the daily papers, come in and read them. We have magazines you can follow international politics, design from Martha Stewart, Oprah’s monthly interest, magazines explaining men’s health issue. Come in, relax and read them without having to subscribe.


22.)    We loan music cds. Come in and see what relaxing or stimulating music we have from around the country and across the globe.


23.)     We offer free legal help, two to three times a month, we have a lawyer into the lawyer to answer library patron questions. The sessions are brief, just fifteen minutes but they are free, confidential and will help start the solution to the problem bothering you.


24.)    We offer many of these services in Spanish, Chinese, Farsi, Vietnamese and Hindi.


25.)    We have online services such as an online catalog, events blog, Refresh Your Life Blog, reference books, database offerings,  the ability to put  books on hold that  you are looking for, notification of the status of your books, online payment of fines, and many many other online resources.

Taking a line from long ago and far away and changing it a bit…;

Libraries will get you through times of no money better than money will get you through times of no libraries.

(I think this was an R.Crumb line; Drugs will get you through times of no money better than money will get you through times of no drugs. I like mine better- no offense RC)

‘image: www.freeimages.co.uk’

When I hear people talk about public libraries, many people think of old fashioned public libraries. We at Hayward have really changed into one of the new wave of public libraries. We do many things that help people when and where they need that help. We are always interested in hearing from people who have suggestions of how we can use our tools to reach more people. Do any of you have any suggestions? Would people like tweets from the library? If you answer yes, what kind of information would you want to receive? Someone suggested that appropriate tweets would be only when our plans changed; such as if the scheduled “Lawyer in the Library” program was cancelled for one day but was rescheduled for another. Are there other suggestions?

The end of August makes me think of learning. You get trained as a young person that the end of August means back to school. In college the start dates differ but the season is the same. For those of us who are not currently in school, there is no reason why we can not use our free resources and learn something new.

There is no reason to wait for a season to learn something new. I think that the secret of aging successfully will prove to be learning something new . The current thinking is that we should exercise our brains. One of the best ways to exercise your brain is to learn.

If I learn how to learn( no matter the subject) than I will be able to prepare for learning, I will have my materials and I can brush up on the skills I need to use. If I want to learn the piano, I know I will need to work on the health issues of now moving my fingers in an unfamiliar series of movements. Same will be true if I want to learn how to use chopsticks. I will have to pay attention to my finger and hand health.

If I want to learn to speak Hindi, I will need to pay attention to my materials, what paper products will I need to learn the writing?

What audio-visual materials will I need to listen to the spoken language? What other methods can I use to learn this language that is not currently spoken where I am living? Are there movies I can rent in Hindi? Are there native speakers I can meet at a cafe to practice with someone who would gently correct my words and pronounciation? Is there a restaurant where I could go and eat the food most often consumed where they speak Hindi? Which textbooks am I going to use to learn this language? Where do they teach Hindi in a classroom? What level is the instruction? Who are the other students?

I think learning is an exciting thing to do. We get transformed and we don’t even feel it usually. Maybe it’s learning how to use email on our computers. It is difficult until one day we receive an email and respond with no difficulty. Or maybe we are able to open the attached photographs and send them along to another family member without asking for help. Our learning successes are usually more quiet than our failures or our questions.

Till the season, go out and learn something new. Of course I would say start at your local public library. It’s free to take out the books, dvds or language discs. You can learn how to cook like Julia Child, you can learn to play the guitar, speak Russian or knot a Persian rug. The Public Library these days contains the infinitude of the possible - learn how to use it.

So many people come into the library seeking information about a medical condition, I thought I would review some of the options for you. The medical condition might be ingrown toenails or a brain tumor. When we need medical information, we need it now, we need to know who is supplying the information, when they researched it and what is their angle. Are they saying I should buy Joe’s Wart Strips because they secretly own Joe’s Wart Strips or is it that those are really the best?

I recommend you try the databaste sites at the library,  these are non-commercial and current. They are under our electronic resources.

Look at the right hand side of our web page and then click under online resources. They are listed under Health and Wellness.

There are three databases;

Health and Wellness Resource Center

Medline Plus and finally,

Pubmed.

All of these are non commercial, current and should give you the information you are seeking.

To use them, you would click on the Health and Wellness title, then choose which database you want to use.

If you were researching diabetes at the Health and Wellness Resource Center, you might see the following screens;

then you can read the articles

When you find information you want to keep, you can email it to yourself or print it out or you can download the document to your computer for further reading.

The second database, MedlinePlus is the National Library of Medicine. This are a great site.

Not only does this site have loads of information for you but it also can provide that information in many languages so if the patient needs to read the information but English is not their language, you can get the information in another language. They also have information about alternative treatments and support groups in your area. Hurrah for MedlinePlus!

Lastly, take a look at Pubmed

Together these three sites should help you understand what your health care provider is telling you about your situation.

As always, if you have questions about these or any of the resources in the Hayward Public Library, do not hesitate to ask.

Stay Healthy, use your library and let me know how your projects are working out.

I forgot to mention the other day one other trick I use to remember what is said to me; I write it down. When I listen to a program on tv that interests me, or if I go to hear someone speak, I take notes.

The actual physical act of writing down what is being said while I am hearing it sends an additional message to my brain that this is something I want to remember. It is yet another way to remember it as well, since now I have both heard it and seen it (as I am writing).

Just one more little trick. I would still love to hear from you about the tricks or methods you employ to help you maximize your gifts and minimize your skill deficits.