I have subscribed to Merlin

Watch This! I have just subscribed to the Merlin network for Maryland Libraries technology resources and information. This should be very useful to those of us who need to raise our Tech-Quotient.

Have YOU been Tagged yet? I have.

Here's how it works: Each player lists 8 facts/habits about themselves. The rules of the game are posted at the beginning before those facts/habits are listed. At the end of the post, the player then tags 8 people and posts their names, and then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know that they have been tagged, and asking them to read your blog to find out how it works!
Here are some facts about me.

1) I am celebrating my 25th Wedding anniversary this year.

2) I can walk to work every day, and only use my car on weekends.

3) I am recovering from major eye surgery, but the world gets brighter and clearer every day.

4) I was the unofficial Russian Language librarian for BCPL for 20 years.

5) I started working for BCPL in May of 1975.

6) History is not an interest, it is a passion.

7) I also love Classical Music, drawing, reading, and traveling when I am able to do so.

8) I have travelled to every country in the Northern Hemisphere between the U.S. and Russia and Ukraine since 1982.

Password Management & Housekeeping

It is really a good idea to have a record of your various subscriptions and electonic group memberships online. This list should contain all of your IDs and Passwords so that you don't have to remember all of them (especially if you don't use them regularly.) There is also the problem with Yahoo and others that if you skip two weeks in using the site (because you've had eye surgery and can't read a screen for at least two weeks.) Your membership may be cancelled and you will have to resubscribe to the site. This happened to my Flickr account, but now I am signed on again and I found this very nice picture.

Finally, A video feed for the Pride of Baltimore II

Avast!
I finally managed to make a successful capture of a Youtube video feed of the Pride of Baltimore II cruising just outside the Inner Harbor last month. This is a very cool video because it not only shows the Pride II under sail, but also shows some her broadside capability using one of the cannon shown in the still photo from the previous post. (See the September 12 post for this video feed)Enjoy me Hearties! (If you feel like singing along to "the Pirate Song", you may, as long as you have Quicktime audio that can play the MIDI file melody)
http://www.contemplator.com/sea/pirate.html

September 19: Talk like a Pirate Day

Everyone has a hobby....one of mine is "Living History". I have an 1812 uniform provided by the National Park Service at Fort McHenry. My job as a volunteer interpreter is to informally teach the public about Baltimore during the War of 1812, the Defense of Fort McHenry...and Privateering. A Privateer was a "legal" pirate who only preyed upon ships and crews belonging to countries at war with the United States. A Privateer Captain carried a "Letter of Marque and Reprisal" signed by the President of the United States that was a license to plunder the enemy. Privateers during the War of 1812 cost the British crown over $45 Million, or about the same amount of money it cost to wage war against the U.S for one year. The insurance rates for British ships crossing the Atlantic in 1814 rose eleven times the cost from the spring of 1812. By 1815 the British government was nearly as bankrupt as the American government...which is why they were willing to sign the Treaty of Ghent (not to mention the military setbacks at Baltimore, Lake Erie, and the British disaster at New Orleans). The Pride of Baltimore II is a very close replica of the Chasseur , one of the largest Privateer vessels built in Baltimore and owned by a cartel of investor-adventurers which included men of the Baltimore Fencibles, which I deptict in uniform. This past Friday I sailed with my unit into Baltimore harbor aboard the Pride II with uniform, sword, and because of my eye surgery...I got to wear an eye patch. Aaaaarrrrrrrghhhh! If i find any pictures from our "invasion of Baltimore Harbor' 2007, I will be sure to post them.