Henry Madden Library

While checking out Vintage Days at my alma mater today, my brother and I walked over to the new Henry Madden Library. While I had seen it throughout its stages of building, I hadn't seen it since its completion, so I wanted to check it out.

I was quite impressed. When I started at Fresno State they still had the old building in operation and use, and it was definitely outdated and obviously crowded. This new building is a much needed addition and upgrade. Here are a few of my observations:

• The library utilizes space saving shelving. Shelves are about 40 feet long, and are on rails which can be moved back and forth by the push of a button, which cuts down a lot on wasted space. The shelves utilize sensors to tell if someone is in the aisle, and won't shut if there is someone there. My brother and I tried this out a few times as we walked the shelves, it was a lot of fun.
• The main collection is on the lower level which was a cost saver for the University because that great weight of books doesn't need extra support from steel beams, etc.
• The stairs. The main stairs in the library are some kind of woven metal fabric type thing. They look really cool and have a lot of grip, but they seem to make more noise than you feel comfortable with when in a library. I felt like I should be getting dirty looks from the librarians as I walked the stairs.
• The high-tech LED huge screen showing an artist weaving a basket was pretty cool. The sun was pretty bright though, and I think it would have more of an impact in the dark.
• The amount of reading rooms, study rooms, seating, tables, etc. was pretty fantastic. That is something that was definitely missed those couple of years that we didn't have a proper library.
• It is a very impressive structure. Even walking by it when the frame was up during construction, it seems a lot bigger now.
• The Peace Garden is much better than it had been. With some rolling hills, a few more artistic structures, and the new library as a backdrop, it definitely is more awe-inspiring.
• They have a Starbucks, and yep, it's basically a Starbucks.

See pictures of the library (new and old) here.

Jump Rope Dance Routine

Quite possibly one of the best choreographed routines I have seen in a while.



http://soonereyo.blip.tv/#1826380

It just keeps getting better and better, and by the end you are wondering if there is not some CG trick to it.

Thanks to Sean for emailing this to me.

RAK

Random acts of kindness. They are pretty awesome.

I would really like to start doing more of these types of things. They are often cheap and easy to do.

John Voelz at Vertizontal posted this list of RAK that his Church will be challenged on performing over the next week. It's obviously not an exhaustive list, but a good starting place to be sure.

Check it out and come up with at least a few that you'd be interested in doing.

Eating Challenge

While I have been involved in numerous unofficial eating challenges by my friends, I've never done a real eating challenge at a restaurant. It has always intrigued me, because I can eat a lot of food very quickly. I think I could do very well, especially at a contest like this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FtMhPZpmL0Y&feature=player_embedded

The burger doesn't look that big, and ten minutes is a long time for me when it comes to eating. The description of the contest is at 3:35 of the video. The other great thing is that this is local, so I don't have to travel outside of Fresno to participate.

Anybody want to join me?

From The Guys Who Like To Eat Via Mike Oz at the Beehive

Should Facebook Listen?

As a follow up to my post the other day about all the complainers of the new Facebook, read this post from Seth Godin about ignoring your critics.

This kind of message is hard to swallow and even harder to actually implement, but its true that the masses usually only want the status quo. Growth requires change, and change is often difficult.

Quote from Kings

I am in the middle of watching episode 2 of Kings (which I blogged about yesterday).

King Silas just said something that really caught my attention.

Every day I look for signs in my life and try to read into them God's intentions
take a good look at your life right now, and think hard, what does God want you to do today?

I really like it, what do you think?

Kings

I watched the first episode of NBC's new series "Kings" this evening. Here are my thoughts.

• It is based on the story of King Saul and King David from the bible. It takes place in what appears to be present-day United States, but rather than the US as a democratic country, it appears that it is a number of different monarchies and kingdoms.
• The story, so far, seems to be generally following that of the biblical account. Obviously, a number of the aspects have modern twists. The epic battle between David and Goliath is portrayed as David going head to head with a type of tank called a Goliath.
  
• I wonder if the series becomes popular will they start to change and add on to the story to allow the series to continue or will they keep with the biblical genealogy of David, then Solomon, etc.
• There seems to be a fair amount of spiritual and God references, as well as what at least appears to be divine intervention in certain situations.
• If the storyline does continue on with David and his genealogical line of Kings, it seems like they will have to write in a lot more about God into the story. I think this would be great, but I think this is unfortunately unlikely.
• The visual effects and action scenes are pretty good
• One of the real draws for me is that the fantasy of this show is strongly based in our current time period and is therefore easy to relate to. Even if some things like a King ruling a Kingdom within what I know to be the United States is far fetched, it's not a far stretch when the cars, computers, fashion, and all the other little things are the same. (Also one of my reasons for liking Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis so much.)
  

I still have yet to watch the second episode, which is also available on Hulu, and I believe the third episode airs tomorrow night (Sunday) on NBC.

As of right now, I am planning on keeping up with this series.

Alberta's New Logo

If you haven't heard, the Province of Alberta recently redesigned their tourism logo.

Growing up I always thought the old logo was good, but it needed an update. However, like almost everything else, what goes around comes around. The comment from Armin in the Brand New link above says it perfectly, "The old logo... is quite awesome and would probably sell like crazy on a ringer tee at Urban Outfitters."

Check out this brand book (PDF, 5.22MB) showcasing the new brand and what it means.

Also, check out this video.

The similarities in the "A" was one of the first things I noticed in when I saw the new logo. I like the new logo, and I don't mind the square at the end, which some people aren't too fond of.

What do you think?

Worry and Stress

I have realized over time that I don't easily get stressed out and I am not usually a worrier. This is really nice because emotionally I tend to be much more evenly distributed. I imagine this makes for an easier life in general.

There are, however, times when I do get a little stressed out. This is how that process goes for me.

It always involves something important to me, for example relationships.

I am very much a thinker, and when something happens I will usually try and think through all the possible scenarios that I can imagine. I also tend to want to be prepared for all scenarios. In my opinion the scenarios that require the most preparation are the worst case scenarios. This usually means that the scenarios I tend to dwell on as to what might happen are the worst case scenarios. The combination of dwelling on the negative possibility and the whole subject being important to me will start to worry me and give me a bit of anxiety.

What I have been working on more recently is realizing that a)I am not as smart as I sometimes think I am and that means that I probably don't know exactly what other people are thinking, b)worrying rarely does any good and I probably won't be able to change something even if I do, and c)It is so much more helpful/useful/rewarding to give all this worry and stress up to God.

God is in control, and as long as I trust in his goodness, power, and plan then it doesn't really matter what happens.

Appropriate Advertising

While driving around on my scooter today I passed by a teenage boy holding up a sign that said "Car Wash Today". I was the only vehicle around on that road at the time, and when he saw me he jumped wildly with his sign to get my attention.

I don't think it crossed his mind that I was in fact driving a scooter and that the chances of me stopping for a car wash with my scooter was very low. He could have been just practicing for when a real car came by, and I guess it really didn't hurt to advertise to me but I guess it just seemed strange.

Would it have been worth their time, for raising money, to have more specific advertising for motorcycles/scooters? Maybe a greatly discounted price for washing a motorcycle, you'd need a few more signs, but even if you got a couple more customers, I'm sure the cost/benefit ratio would have been worth it.

I think it's probably just short-sighted and a lack of creativity that stops people from thinking about different scenarios that they can actually use to increase their business.