The Lambrights

We’re Moving!

Donovan — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 22:02:55 +0000

The Lambriights are moving! To a new website, that is. Come see our new place at www.lambright.info.

This blog will stay up for awhile but all the content has been migrated to the new site and I won’t be making any more updates to this one.

Nicole is home

Donovan — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 12:05:50 +0000

Nicole got discharged from St. Mary’s yesterday. In the end, the tests revealed no clear reason for her symptoms. She is taking extra iron supplements to help maintain her hemoglobin levels and some medication to calm her stomach down. She will also be on a soft, bland diet for awhile. Nonetheless, it appears that the anemia is causing the stomach pain and not the reverse.

The girls were happy to see Mommy, of course, but got a little overwrought. Especially Rayna, who ended up throwing a couple of temper tantrums last night. A two-year old can only handle so much stress and emotion without blowing a gasket. A return to normalcy today should put her back on track. I’m going back to work today.

Thanks to all who called, wrote, and prayed. Your concern means the world to us.

More Tests

Donovan — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 23:57:08 +0000

OK. I misunderstood when I wrote that Nicole was getting both a colonoscopy and an endoscopy today. It was just the endoscopy. And that test didn’t show anything conclusive. So tomorrow, they will go ahead with the colonoscopy at 10:00. Hopefully, she will be discharged after that but more tests will be needed if nothing shows up. I’ll keep everyone posted.

Update on Nicole

Donovan — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 14:35:55 +0000

Nicole is still at St. Mary’s. They’re concerned about two things, swelling of the stomach wall right where the esophagus meets the stomach and anemia. They’ve been taking blood tests all weekend and are analyzing the samples today. At 2:00, they will do a colonoscopy and an endoscopy to get a clear picture of her whole gastrointestinal tract.

We hope that they will have answers this afternoon and Nicole can then come home for treatment of whatever is wrong. I’m concerned that, with the test being so late, they won’t know anything until tomorrow and she’ll have to stay in for another night.

I’ll post more here as I learn more.

Nicole is in the hospital

Donovan — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 12:49:48 +0000

Nicole was admitted to St. Mary’s hospital yesterday (04-26) with severe stomach pain. We don’t know much yet, just that there is swelling in the stomach wall. The Gastrointestinal specialist will look at her on Monday and we’ll hopefully know more then. I’ll post more as we learn more.

Final Thoughts–23 Things Step #23

Donovan — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 15:05:13 +0000

I’m done with the 23 Things on a Stick program!

This was a useful exercise and I appreciate all the hard work that people put into it. I hope that everyone will continue visiting each other’s blogs. It’s especially important that we all comment on posts. That’s how communities are created.

Staying Current–23 Things Step #22

Donovan — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 14:57:46 +0000

Step #22 of the 23 Things on a Stick program concerns staying current. It can be difficult to keep up with this stuff, mostly because it often has little prospect for immediate reward and there are always more pressing tasks at hand. I myself am trying to set aside a little time each morning for follow-up on blogs and other tools. I also have been making an active effort to try and imagine ways to use Web 2.0 tools to achieve goals rather than just purchase or create something from scratch.

Beyond MySpace–23 Things Step #21

Donovan — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 14:50:17 +0000

Step #21 of the 23 Things on a Stick program concerns social networking sites other than those we’ve already examined. I read the two articles and didn’t find the one on Gather very convincing. I think that LibraryThing has already locked up the market for book lovers pretty effectively. I also kept thinking about walled gardens (see my last post). Why would a publisher want to limit their audience to those subscribed to one (of many) social networks? The WebJunction article was very good, I thought, and tied in with the articles I linked to in my last post. Using these techniques, you could develop a very cool library website for very little money.

I signed up for Gather, mostly because of the mention of NPR. I’ve been looking for a forum online where intellegent, serious people can discuss politics. I don’t want something exclusively populated by people with the same viewpoint and I really don’t want something populated by stupid people mindlessly repeating the latest crap from Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter, Al Franken, et. al. Looking at the political groups on Gather, I’m not sure this is it. But we’ll see.

Rereading that last paragraph, I see that it sounds a bit elitist. Oh well.

I joined the Ning group and left a message. This makes three social networking sites (four if you count LibraryThing) that I’m now in. There is no way I’m going to maintain myself in three different walled gardens; it’s just not realistic. The trick is to see which one keeps my interest.

Libraries and Social Networks–23 Things Step #20

Donovan — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 20:27:29 +0000

Step #20 of the 23 Things on a Stick program concerns libraries and social networks. I just joined Facebook and have exactly one friend. I’ve also joined one group. So I’m not a rabid social networker but I am learning my way around.

The role of social networks in libraries is still a bit uncertain. Many worry that social networking sites expose their children to dangerous people. Some librarians fear that kids (it always seems to be the kids) using MySpace or Facebook make too much noise or use the computers too much. Some even worry that kids will expose too much about themselves online. Many libraries are trying to market themselves on social networking sites with mixed results. Rather than try to explore all these topics, I will point you to a great blog post from Meredith Farkas, who discusses them at length and provides a lot of good links for further discussion.

Frankly, I’m not worried about most of the concerns listed above. Realistically, a child is far more likely to be abused by someone they know in real life than a stranger they meet online. Having kids in the library is something to be celebrated, even if they are noisy and use the computers a lot. But one thing about social networks that actually does bother me is the way they are closed off to the rest of the internet. I can put photos, information about myself, etc. into Facebook for all my friends to see. As long as they have Facebook accounts. But what if they don’t? The internet is huge; why do I want to limit my potential pool of friends to the relative handful using Facebook? There’s even a name for this phenomena: Walled Gardens.

You can use blogs and other online tools, many of which are among the 23 Things, to replicate much of what you can do in Facebook. The missing component is a quick, easy way to designate relationships. In Facebook, I can make you my friend and, from then on, I’ll have quick access to your info and vice versa. It’s not so easy in the wild wild internet. Smart people are working on it with microformats and XML data standards that would allow regular old websites and blogs to “friend” each other. Now wouldn’t that be cool.

Bonus link: Replace Facebook Using Open Social Tools

Podcasts–23 Things Step #19

Donovan — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 16:09:58 +0000

Step #19 of the 23 Things on a Stick program concerns podcasts. I’ve been listening to podcasts for while now and usually subscribe to them through iTunes. It’s not a perfect solution but I have an iPod so I more or less have to use it.

I’m subscribed to a number of podcasts but usually can only find time to listen to a few that are the most valuable to me: