Mood:  bright

LeEMS on TV has officially taken place.  One media outlet, millions to go, right?  My anticipatory mortification proved a little overboard, 'cause I have to say, even I thought it went pretty well.  That's a pretty awesome editing department they have.

So, now that it's aired, the episode info is up on the HGTV site now and oooh looky--is my name and website.  And you know what's really cool--in a world where people are actually considering their future children's google-ability (still don't quite understand that), my name happens to be crazy rare on the internets, so you look for LeEtta Schmidt, and you get me.   LeEtta Gross would previously bring me up at like the 8th hit.  Though I suppose doggedly sticking with my website as it wall flowered a tiny corner of the virtual party helps too.  I think she's at least got a better dress than she did at first.   

Mood:  chatty

Its time for one of those rare trips into my professional brain.  As I was working the other day I came across something that had me absolutely flabbergasted.

First, a little background:  OCLC is a shared catalog that lists the holdings of libraries all over the country and beyond.  Not every library is in it, but its enough to find just about any book you'd ever dream of.  The public side of this massive system is Worldcat/Firstsearch, and I was here when I found a record for a blog. 

I am well aware that anything can be cataloged, and I suppose that by cataloging web material into library systems, libraries can fight back against the giant shadow of Google that we're constantly told to be afraid of.  But, but.....really?  I expanded my poking around a bit more and found cataloged in Worldcat/Firstsearch a website and blog about a book club.  Is it just me or does this feel like spiraling into a worm hole? 

Is this bad?  I dunno really.  Librarians are all about indexing and organizing and this could be a normal evolution of that in an environment that is increasingly online, but we should also be about helping the patron to the source as quick as possible.  I find that when people look at a library catalog--especially one with little request buttons and links to Interlibrary Loan services--they tend to request the item the long way around and may not find out till the following day when library staff have had a look at the request that they could've accessed the material last night when they first heard of it.  This lag time is not good.

I have, however, forgotten to praise Worldcat for their public initiative.  A while ago Worldcat.org was launched as a public access multilibrary catalog.   What previously was only accessable to signed in library patrons can now be used by the general web-going public.  This is huge as databases like this are usually subject to contractual agreements and a whole lot of money and consequently can only be accessed by members of institutions that pay for them.

Mood:  happy

I used to visit the movie theaters two and three times a week, seeing movies more than once, seeing things I wasn't really excited about just because I wanted to see a movie, any movie.  That time 's long gone now and partially because of my ever towering list of projects, and the fact that watching movies at home allows me to divide my attention and never not being working on something, and the ridiculous price increases of movie tickets, I have become more and more picky about what I want to see.

Coraline was what I wanted to see last weekend because I had read the book by Neil Gaiman and loved the book, and now that I have seen the movie, I love the movie.  I am so glad I didn't miss this one in theaters.  First off, we saw it in 3D.  I honestly don't remember seeing anything in 3D besides the Hitchcock mini movie in Universal Studios.  Coraline in 3D is awesome.  The character designs fit wonderfully into the imagined visuals that I worked up while reading the book with some extra hypnotic eye fancy thrown in.  The music is beautiful and a little creepy--I will be getting the soundtrack very very soon, I think.  It is an all round great theater experience and though I will be getting the DVD as soon as I can, I don't suggest waiting for its release to see this movie.

Mood:  bright

Are you ready yet?  I will be one of the crafters on HGTV's "That's Clever!" Thursday morning at 8am.  It was two years ago now that I got signed up for the show and was taped happily crafting in my cramped little apartment.  I have no idea what it'll look like--I don't even know what I looked like two years ago, but I do remember what I was wearing. 

Slightly off topic though, have you noticed how being a crafter has gotten a bit of a bad reputation.   I mean, maybe my ideas of it are old fashioned and too reminiscent of crochet toilet paper holders and cozies of all sorts.   I know there are awesome people making awesome things, but I still tend to cringe a bit at saying I'm a crafter.  Well, crafter I am this Thursday, anyway.  

Tampa Bay Online even had a little blurb about the show and yes, they spelled my name wrong, I'm used to it.

"LOCAL HGTV: In January 2007, a HGTV crew filmed local artists creating their special craft for a show. Those artists are finally getting their time on TV when they are featured on "That's Clever," a half-hour series highlighting contemporary crafting that airs weekdays at 8 a.m.

This morning, Jennifer Ault Fernandez of Brandon will demonstrate how to make a doghouse necklace. On Thursday, Letta Schmidt of Tampa will embellish a book cover with image transfers.

Other artists to be featured in future episodes include: Feb. 24, Barbara Melby-Burhans, casting paper; Feb. 27, Maggie Green, beaded daisy art; Mar. 5, Mike Sherard, papier mache marlin; Mar. 6, Sana Doumet, unity pin; Mar. 10, Dominique Martinez, steel mirror; Mar. 11, Josh Sullivan, robot CD case; Mar. 17, Vickie Brunner, hands hat; Mar. 20, Cindy Arriola, frog painting; Mar. 23, Ellen Errico Schon, quilt-inspired collage; Mar. 24, Stephanie Schorr, ceramic wall sconce; Mar. 25, Michele Palenik, fused glass collage; Mar. 26, Boo Ehrsam, T-shirt magnet; Mar. 27, Kimberli Cummings, tango dancer vase."

Mood:  cool

There are lots of reasons why I am currently plumbing the depths of my memories to create a list of all the books I've ever read.  I don't suppose that I will be completely successful, but I at least want to get as many titles and authors as there are vague plot lines floating around in my head from long ago.  Even I think this project is a little crazy, but its one of those things that I get wrapped up in on a whim.  I have to say I'm doing pretty good--better than the first time I worked on it getting just under three hundred titles that was then lost in Google Notebooks, then found, then lost again--its probably my fault.   All that's neither here nor there because what I want to talk about is Loganberry Books a bookstore in Ohio.  

While conducting my vague plot reminiscences I stumbled upon the Loganberry Books Stump the Bookseller.  I'm sure there are other forums to get help from people who might know what your talking about when you only have a sliver of an idea, but Stump the Bookseller has popped up repeatedly in my searches for strange stories about separated twins, virtual rock stars, and red wizards.  I realized that I was doing a diservice to it by simply using it as a mine for my potential forgotten titles, so I'm talking it up to you guys.  I want to visit Loganberry books someday--anybody who lives near it should wait for me though.  Go and keep this place in business!   

Mood:  chillin'

I was unsuspectingly reading through my own personal news real when io9 brought me this awesome bit of news about Anne Hathaway being cast in one of Stephen Chow's new projects.  Not much is known about the film so far and it is untitled, but it has to be one of the shiniest news bits I've ever heard.

Although Stephen Chow broke into U.S. theaters with Shaolin Soccer and Kung Fu Hustle, there are too many people who've never heard of this genius writer, directer, actor, in my opinion.    

I talked up Stephen Chow once before, and if I didn't convey my admiration then, I just wasn't doing my job.  So, I'd already be waiting on the edge of my seat for a new movie from him, but the news that Anne Hathaway has been cast in it is even more giggle inducing.  Though I have to admit I have no inclination to ever see Bride Wars, Anne Hathaway had already won my heart long before that.  She has an easy way of presenting a character that is completely believable and translates well to comedy.  I can't wait to see how they'll work together.

picture from CRIENGLISH.com

Mood:  bright

My romance with bookstores has recently encountered some rocky terrain, I am the first to admit it.  I have been wanting more and more from our rendezvous than I had ever before.  What with all the book ads and blog posts I read online about new and exciting material, the bookstore just cannot bring me everything I want and I am cruel for wanting it to.  Yet, there is still the wonderful browse through shelves to find something I hadn't heard of online or from a friend, something I wasn't looking for, but that still excites.  Times like this remind me why I got into this relationship in the first place, because the bookstore will most always show me something wonderful I never expected from it.

It will show me something like, The Big Book of Weirdos by Carl Posey, because it knows about the softspot I have for graphic novel treatments of history and literature.  And when it shows me, it dresses it up in skimpy price tags smoothly affixed to a buff cover.  Yes, this is why the bookstore and I will never break up.  I haven't had a chance to do much more than skim the heavily black illustrated scenes of various historical figures, but I know I won't regret the purchase.  While I've never had any problems reading books, even non-fiction, without pictures--a graphically presented history marries two of my favorite things in the world.  You know, history and pictures. 

Only slightly less wonderful than history and pictures, is when literature I enjoyed gets pictures too.  I saw the Picture of Dorian Gray and wrestled with myself over it, but I have a much easier time of refusing the bookstore's whiles when its graphically noveled literature.  I suppose its because I have to really like the literature already, and when I do really like the literature I am only more and more critical of the art that is chosen to go with it.  Now, in defense of  Picture of Dorian Gray, it looks really good and the story is, of course, amazing---I was just able to resist it somehow.  I probably won't be able to resist on my next trip. 

Mood:  bright

Over the last couple years I have noticed that my blogging style has changed incrementally, so too has my RSS aggregator feed. I have subscribed and unsubscribed from feeds as my interests have changed. In the beginning I had the noble goal of getting more information and news on a broad range of topics and interests so that I could fill the gaps in myself that happen from not watching much TV or reading the newspaper. I've given up on much of that. I have a couple of newsish feeds remaining and some really good off topic in-depth study feeds like Tetrapod Zoology, but most of what I look at day to day is eye candy--artist blogs and design blogs. I've got some professional development and some blogs selected specifically to test and add to my language studies. After all of that, there are a few personal blogs I subscribe to and hoard every post like an afterdinner mint. I save them and squirrel them away until I've gone through everything else and can afford enough time to adequately digest them.

There is something magical about well handled language. The writer and speaker who can unite words in brain massaging ideas and sentences will always have me enraptured. I'm uncomfortable with being a fan, but there’s no other explanation that I can offer for reading the personalities I do. Anthony Bourdain's command of image birthing vocabulary parties speeds me through his writing even as it erects a giant echo of his voice in my head (most likely because I watch his show as well). Mark Dery cooks such amazing gut tickling sentences that I could care less what he's writing even as I'm absorbing it. And Stephen Fry can offhandedly fling linguistic beauty like tossing a apple peel. My brain gasms just thinking about it.

There's something more that Stephen Fry does though that I've only just noticed. I was reading one of his more recent posts offering his twitter followers some suggestions when I noticed. I consider Stephen Fry a celebrity, a great actor, a great intellect, and I know he lectures and writes and works on many and varied projects--he is a busy man. He is a busy man who manages to straddle celebrity without being aloof or requiring that a PR team stand between him and people who would strive to make contact. Where other successful entertainers would balk at the task of managing an honest desire to engage their admirers and a fear that an admirer slighted would pose some kind of danger, Fry jumps into the internet community the way few have learned to use social software.

It's hard to relate how impressed I am. There are other stars that write blogs and keep pages of advertisement on social networking sites, but how many answer or reciprocate in the discussions they inspire?

Mood:  happy

I'm a sucker for being told about myself and so the Bean is as well.  I headed on over to Typealizer to get the instant Myers-Briggs personality assessment of this blog and do ya know what it said?  do you?  do you? 

Apparently the Bean is an ESFP or a Performer.  I quote:

"The entertaining and friendly type. They are especially attuned to pleasure and beauty and like to fill their surroundings with soft fabrics, bright colors and sweet smells. They live in the present moment and don´t like to plan ahead - they are always in risk of exhausting themselves.

The enjoy work that makes them able to help other people in a concrete and visible way. They tend to avoid conflicts and rarely initiate confrontation - qualities that can make it hard for them in management positions."

I love the little disclaimer that the personality rating of a blog may have little to nothing to do with the writer's "self-perceived personality."

So, to take them up on that "little to nothing to do" part, I found a site where I could take a mini Myers-Briggs quiz myself.  I am pretty evenly spread with no really high percentages and no really low, but I rated the strongest as an INFJ.  From Myersbriggs.org:

INFJs "Seek meaning and connection in ideas, relationships, and material possessions. Want to understand what motivates people and are insightful about others. Conscientious and committed to their firm values. Develop a clear vision about how best to serve the common good. Organized and decisive in implementing their vision."

 Considering the two results, and the fact that I am currently the only writer of the Bean, it looks like I enjoy beauty, entertaining, and helping others as long as it happens in the organized and constructed reality of my own head for which the internet and its interacting media (like blogs) serves as an external mirror.

What with all the legal issues and stories of employers using the Myers-Briggs to pre-evaluate applicants, I suppose it could be self-damning to just share all this.  Most psychologically analytical tests that I've come accross make the mistake of predicting action based on a snap-shot of the inside of one's head.  There are two fatal flaws here, I think.  One is that a snapshot is a static depiction of a moment in time.  We each bend and grow based on our environment so one test could never accurately reflect you forever.  The second is that there always seems to be an unevaluated peice of the mind that serves as a bridge between what you think and what feels most natural to you and what you do in any given situation based on the needs of the moment.  While I will nod my head and agree with the evaluation of myself, I know too that I don't get to be like that most of the time simply because of the work that I do and the people I interact with.  I am just ruminating here, and all these tests have various disclaimers and studies that probably point out exactly the same things I have.  This is why using them in a business situation is wrong and kind of dumb.  I can't imagine many people getting more from personality tests than personal amusement and satisfaction.  I sure think it's fun.

Mood:  happy

I was at a theme park with Mom and Richard.  Like Adventure Island and Epcot, the park itself grew off the banks of a large lake.  The water was big enough that there were double decker ferry ships making rounds from the dock as a ride.  Mom wanted to go and as we neared the ticketing agent I noticed one of the ships heading out so overladen that its deck was only a foot above water.  From one ticketing desk to another we were sent downstairs were people were packed in everywhere.  I started down a tightly spiraling beige metal staircase that had no handle and as I saw the people packed below and the stair treads got narrower and narrower, I stopped unbalanced and told Richard, who was behind me, that we couldn't go any further.  I felt like I was going to fall, and Richard grabbed me and pulled me back up the stairs.  The three of us when down to a dockside bar to mourn not getting a chance to go out on the boat even though the departing ferries were heading out with their decks submerged.  The bartender told us that they sold tickets for the boats there too and Mom was still really excited to get out there.  The tickets turned out to be for a strange little fishing boat with a covered cabin and wall-less deck.  We boarded and tried to figure out how to drive the thing while we waited for our chance to depart as the half submerged ferries on either side of us kicked up the waves and made all the smaller craft dance. 

Rabbit Hole Day:  January 27th ---change your blogging style

Mood:  cheeky

You know, a good many of the posts I do with references elsewhere, I write so that I'll remember them too.  I sure hope you like shiny  new architecture designs as much as I do, because I could not help but show you these.  Read like a book, they are:  Carlos Marreiros'  giant Rabbit building for the Macau Pavillion at the Shanghai World Expo 2010(Neatorama), Aeolus Airship designed by Christopher Ottersbach  (Inhabitat), Milano Santa Monica (Inhabitat),Herzog and de Meuron  (Inhabitat),Daniel Libeskind recently unveiled a soaring green skyscraper for New York (Inhabitat), a new city in South Korea, Gwanggyo(io9), Shanghai Tower (Inhabitat)

Articles for more beautiful buildings:

Buildings that look like spaceships you've never seen at io9

Top ten green architecture projects of 2008 on Inhabitat

15 Bizzare houses on Neatorama

 Previously on the Bean:

Shiny Buildings and Historical Space Programs

I love me some futuristic architecture

Buildings of the New.  Again.

City of Silk Rail Network tower to rival Burj Dubai

Our Wonderful Future

On top of the Sea

Ever Expanding Dubai

Mood:  bright

I am intrigued by the idea of having a different drink for different seasons.  Wine is a top choice for me all the time, but I can't say I always notice a difference or improvement in cheaper varieties compared to more expensive ones.  I can tell the difference in the type all right, but I think my pallet is more attuned to the differences in heavier liquors.  Enter Cruzan Black Strap Rum.   This might be the only liquor I've ever had that is wildly flavorful with no perfume back snap that isn't all that cloyingly sweet.  It has a smokey, tangy overhang of molasses that I find delightful.  This at once tastes of alcohol and of enough other things that people who hate the taste of alcohol but still drink might actually enjoy it too.  

Edradour, on the other hand is not for people who can't take it straight.  It is the product of the last full hand-worked Scotch in Scottland--which makes it pretty expensive.  I've noticed too that the heavy odor of peat varies per batch, but it all goes down the throat smooth and light.  It is imported to the states by the way, and I have heard that various liquor stores will order it if you ask.      

Mood:  chillin'

Over Christmas I finally filled the hole in my DVD collection for Calamity Jane. Watching it over the weekend I realized first, that this musical version of Deadwood is like a 1950s 15 year old's dream of what the old west was like--and I loved it.  Then I realized that the man playing Wild Bill Hickok was the same man who played the unfortunate lead in Show Boat.  Unfortunate only because his character gave me the creeps.  A little more thinking and I remembered that Howard Keel was also in Kiss Me Kate.  And then came the inevitable thought, "I wonder whatever happened to him?"  

After a hayday of musical making with one of the nicest baritone voices I've ever heard, Howard Keel ventured jauntilly on in roles that varied from The Day of the Triffids to guests spots on "Here's Lucy," "Walker Texas Ranger," "Murder She Wrote," and "Love Boat."  It seems to be universally understood that his role as Clayton Farlow on "Dallas" was the biggest he'd had since his later musicals like Seven Brides for Seven Brothers.  My memories of "Dallas" are the type of fond ones that involve being snowed into a hotel when my mom and I planned a weekend at Six Flags.  

Perhaps it's only "Dallas" fans that think the role of Clayton Farlow redeemed Howard Keel's career.  His list of roles is impressive, varied, and constant in my opinion.  

Mood:  caffeinated

On my first trip to Virginia Beach I prepared myself by looking up restaurants in the area and shops I might want to see.  I had a list and on it was The Jewish Mother.  I didn't end up visiting, then or the next trip to Virginia Beach even though it was always in the back of my mind.  When I got back home from the second trip I read an article about the troubles the restaurant was going through and mentally kicked myself again for not going.  Well, I have made good. 

After some mediocre food experiences, on the third day of our trip we set out for The Jewish Mother.  I normally suspend my on-again, off-again vegetarianism when traveling, and I was really glad I did because I was served the best burger in the history of the universe--it was the Momma Ada Advacado Muenster Burger.  My dining companions were equally impressed with their burgers and we sat comfortably masticating in silence in the uneven, multiflooring, awkwardly laid out, aging diner that is The Jewish Mother.  I feel kind of sad that I could not visit at night when the lights and the band would bounce from wood paneling to mirror and transform the place into the warm and buzzing Hernando's Hideaway type local secret I knew it was.   What I know now is that, day or night, this is not a dining experience to skip.