This and That #2

© 2007 by Julius Lester


1. I don't know why but I seem to be in a preservation mood these days. I've been spending an hour or so each night putting polyester covers on book jackets from my library. There's something about doing it which is very centering. And I love how a book feels when the jacket is covered. Somehow the experience of reading is heightened when I feel the cool smoothness of the cover as well as know that the jacket will be preserved.

2. I bought a 500gb external hard drive and I'm backing up my entire system. I've always backed up my Word files and photographs, but last June my hard drive crashed, and because I back up everyday I only lost my e-mail addresses and my Bookpedia files, the program which is the database of my library. However, more
annoying was having to reinstall so many programs and losing the settings I'd made in those programs. So I'm backing up everything and that's a chore, but a good one.

3. I am also backing up my iPod. I was discussing with one of my children what he might want of mine when I die, and he listed all kinds of things. I told him, "What you should want is my iPod." I have everything on there from Bach to the Staple Singers. But I've decided not to give my iPod to any of my children. Just in case there's an afterlife, I'm having it buried with me.

TODAY'S QUOTE

"Statistically, the probability of any one of us being here is so small that you'd think the mere fact of existing would keep us all in a contented dazzlement of surprise."

Lewis Thomas

TODAY'S WORD

Today's word is one of my all time favorites:

Acushla It means "my heart's pulse, dear heart, darling".

TODAY'S PHOTOGRAPH

Curls of rushing water in a small stream.