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Remember that time I was 27 weeks pregnant and finally wrote about it?

Me too.

It is hard to believe that in just one week I will enter the third trimester.

What??

Here is the most recent picture of me and the little babe:

More pics and prego stories to come.

I promise.

For reals this time.

Love,
Libs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZR6DqWkcVo&feature=youtu.be

Last week, as we stopped for a traffic signal, I spotted a bumper sticker that I had never seen before. I want to share it because it speaks the truth and our country needs to wake up to that truth.

Pro Choice is a lie,
Babies don't choose to die! 

I remember when Rowe vs Wade took affect. At that time a woman who was unmarried and pregnant had few choices. She may not have had access to birth control. She had to carry the burden of shame, the man didn't. She probably could not get a job to support herself or if she had one she very well might lose it. She might not even be able to find a place to live because of the shame and the lack of funds.

The man was not judged for getting her pregnant nor was he held responsible for the child they conceived together. He didn't need to fear losing his job and he might even have bragged to his friends about what he had done. So it was the woman and the child who suffered.

Is it any wonder that "some" of these women turned to back alley abortionists, killing their unborn child and risking their own lives in the process? Many died. Many developed infections or other damage and found themselves unable to ever have a child.

I remember feeling sympathy for these women, stuck between a rock and a hard place that they did not create alone. 

Then the Supreme Court stepped in....now our courts could have held the father responsible and forced him to support the child and provide for the woman....or they could have made it illegal to deny a woman a job or place to live because she was pregnant....but no!  The Supreme Court in all of its wisdom decided that abortion would be acceptable if we could only convince people that a fetus is not a human being....that a fetus is just tissue....that this tissue isn't something living that feels pain...therefore we can rip it out of a woman's body, dismember it without the pangs of guilt for having murdered a child. Shame on them and shame on us!

Women today have many choices: abstain from sex, use birth control, carry your baby to term and give it up for adoption, or carry it to term and love it. She can pursue child support through the courts and she can continue to hold down a job and support herself and her child. Abortion shouldn't be anyone's choice. Abortion is not birth control! This is a different world, wake up!!!

Last month, I was given the opportunity to create a family portrait for an expecting mommy and her expanding family. This was one of the most enjoyable commissions I’ve received thus far. She was such a joy to work with and this is just about the most laid back family I’ve ever met.

The thing(s) I enjoy most about private commissions, is that there’s a bit more freedom in terms of what I add to each piece, whether it be playing around with new textures or brushes or a new technique etc. Private commissions allow me to grow which is just about the most rewarding experiences one can receive as an artist.

Yayers. Hope the family enjoys this as much as I do!

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It’s being said that if you want a baby born on 11-11-11, you should “get ready to get on it this weekend.” So…

By Allen J. Wilcox

You already know where babies come from – the business about sperm and eggs, and getting them together. You also know something about birth control – after all, people spend most of their reproductive years trying NOT to get pregnant.

But there comes a time for many women when they ready to have a baby. That’s when some interesting questions arise.

- Once you stop using birth control, how long does it take to get pregnant?
- Is there something women should do to increase their chances of getting pregnant?
- What can a woman do to help make sure her baby will be healthy?

Let’s start with the last question first. The most important thing a woman can do before getting pregnant is to start taking daily multivitamins with folic acid. Folic acid helps prevent serious birth defects of the brain and spine (neural tube defects) and probably other defects as well. These defects happen very early in the baby’s development – waiting until you think you are pregnant can be too late.

Another thing you can do, if you are a smoker, is to quit smoking. Smoking puts a damper on women’s fertility (although apparently not on the fertility of men – life is not fair). Smoking also increases the small chance of fetal death later in pregnancy. Do yourself (and your baby) a favor, and give up the cigarettes.

Besides that, what should you do (besides the obvious)?

Nothing.

Really, nothing. You already have a lot going for you. Consider the benefits of your family history – not a single one of your ancestors was infertile. If you are a reasonably healthy person with no history of reproductive problems, and if you are having unprotected sex at least weekly, biology is on your side.

Some useful facts

There is a spectrum of fertility, ranging from very low to very high. You won’t know where you are on that spectrum until you actually try to conceive. On average, your chance of getting pregnant in the first month is 25%. For a few unlucky couples, the chances are zero – they are sterile. Other couples may have a 50% or 75% chance of getting pregnant in their very first month of trying. For couples as a whole, about half will be pregnant after three months. That goes up to two-thirds of couples after six months, and more than 90% after a year. Even if you don’t conceive in the first year, you still have a 50% chance in the next year or so. Only about 5% or so of couples are unable to conceive at all by natural means.

Probably the biggest predictor of fertility is woman’s age. Women are at their reproductive peak during their twenties. As they move through their thirties, their fertility begins to decline. This is relevant because many women (for lots of good reasons) delay their childbearing until they are in their 30s or even older. If a woman is not so fertile to start with, this delay can cause problems. Unfortunately, there is no medical test to tell women in advance how fertile they are.

The fertility window

Let’s get down to the biology. Pregnancy happens when couples have sex during the five days before ovulation and the day of ovulation itself. (In other words, sperm can survive up to five days in the woman’s reproductive tract.) This six-day fertility window gives you a fairly wide span of days in each cycle for intercourse that can produce pregnancy.

But there is a catch. Most women don’t know

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This Saturday is the 38th anniversary of Roe v. Wade. Believe me when I say that I could write for days on the significance of the decision, and even more about recent news and the current state of reproductive rights. If I tried, I could probably recount verbatim the conversation I once had with Sarah Weddington (the lawyer who argued Roe at the young age of 26!). But I won’t. For now, I will simply offer the following excerpts from Ourselves Unborn: A History of the Fetus in Modern America by Sara Dubow. To those of you who celebrate it, I wish you the happiest of Roe Days.     –Lauren Appelwick, Blog Editor

For most of the twentieth century, abortion was simultaneously proscribed and practiced. In 1953, Alfred Kinsey reported that nine out of ten premarital pregnancies ended in abortion and that 22 percent of married women had had an abortion while married. In 1955, the continuing demand for abortion motivated Planned Parenthood’s medical director Dr. Mary S. Calderone to organize a conference featuring women testifying about the hardships of dangerous and unwanted pregnancies, and physicians advocating for liberalized abortion restrictions. Whereas the American Medical Association (AMA) had led the nineteenth-century movement to criminalize abortion, it was now in the vanguard in an incipient movement to legalize it. In 1960, physicians at the AMA annual convention argued that laws against abortion were unenforceable, thus undesirable, and in 1962 the American Law Institute (ALI) endorsed the liberalization of abortion laws.

*          *          *

Not satisfied with reforms that kept the power to grant or refuse an abortion in the hands of doctors and hospital boards, grassroots activists began advocating for the repeal of all abortion restrictions. In 1969, the National Association for Repeal of Abortion Laws (NARAL) was founded at the First National Conference on Abortion Laws, and the radical feminist group Redstockings held the first speak-out on abortion.  In 1970, the New York state legislature legalized abortion, an act endorsed by Republican governor John D. Rockefeller.  In 1971, a national poll showed that more than half of Americans favored legalizing abortion, the American Bar Association issued a statement supporting the legalization of abortion up to the twentieth week of pregnancy, and the Supreme Court heard the first round of oral arguments in Roe v. Wade. On January 22, 1973, the Supreme Court ended the nearly century-long prohibition against abortion in the United States. In his majority opinion, Justice Harry Blackmun made clear the Court’s desire to remove the abortion question from the abstract realms of philosophy, theology, and morality and place it in the concrete realm of law:

I simply cannot contain the news any longer: I'm expecting a little on this May! This is certainly another reason why I have not been posting in the last month. In fact, it's been quite hard to do anything other than sleep, eat and feel sick during my first trimester (I'm three months today). I'm so glad I'm part of the blogging community and that I've been exposed to many of the illustrator parents out there that seem to be able to "do it all". While I adore where my career has been heading since I went freelance nearly two years ago, I'm also excited to let it slow down while my life shifts to new priorities. Thanks to everyone who's followed my blog these last two years!

Sometimes things happen for a reason although you may not know or realize it at the time. Only later on do you see some type of plan in the works. Or perhaps fate taking a hand.

As a youngster attending afternoon Hebrew School, it was an activity I dreaded or at least disliked. After a full day of regular classes at school, an hour of having to learn a new language wasn't something I relished. Watching TV was definitely a more interesting option. However, go I did, balking all the way and trying to come up with new and creative excuses to stay home. Most didn't work.

In addition to my mother's determination to ensure that I get some type of Jewish educational background, my teacher who also happened to be the school's principal, did everything in his power to make sure I attended classes. This included the actual physical act of coming to our home to find out the reason for my absence, on occasion unbeknownst to my mother. In restrospect I thought it was a conspiracy between them to prevent me from enjoying life as a kid.

Obviously, the experience left a lasting impression since I wrote and sold a number of short stories based on my experience.

Every year I bring out my favorite story, "The Dreidel King" a.k.a. "The Chanukah King" and post it in the various forums. For me it's a "feel good" story that transcends religion. Another story about how the simplest act of lighting Chanukah candles brought an unexpected response from seniors, comes a close second.

It occurred at this stage of my life that I have the makings of a children's/family play and will use the content of both stories to this end. There are few plays that I'm aware of focusing on Chanukah, especially aimed at children so it's a labor of love.

As I wrote - sometimes things happen for a reason. At least I'd like to believe it.

At last month’s Internet Librarian conference, we learned that among other services for seniors, the Old Bridge Public Library in New Jersey was planning to hold a Wii tournament for older adults. Why on earth would a library do this?

Old Bridge Library Unites Generations

“You’re never too old to rock out.

Just ask the 10 Old Bridge seniors who took up Guitar Hero III as part of the Old Bridge Library’s ‘Senior Spaces’ program on Nov. 8.

Seniors, alongside teenage volunteers, tested their mettle in the ubiquitous air-guitar video game and various other games available for the Nintendo Wii gaming system as the first step in the library’s plan to make seniors more technologically proficient and to include them in what Allan Kleiman, assistant director of the Old Bridge Public Library, called the inevitable redesign of libraries.

‘We want to get them to feel they are part of the 21st century library and not left out,’ Kleiman said….

Kleiman said gaming in libraries is becoming more and more common but using the video game to slowly introduce modern technology to seniors is a relatively new idea.

‘This is a lot less frightening to play with than learning to use a computer,’ he said.

Kleiman said seniors should be able to snap a photo with a digital camera or surf the Internet or use the various other technologies surrounding them. The program, he hopes, will provide the catalyst for further learning and inclusion among that community.”…

The program bridges gaps between the ages as well, Kleiman said, allowing teenagers well versed in the ways of the Wii to teach the seniors. The two groups will find a common denominator in competition over the video games. Kleiman said the age segregation that is often found in libraries breaks down when young and old are united by the desire to win.

Kleiman said, though the seniors are undoubtedly learning from the program, they are not the only students in the room. The teenagers learn a bit about life from the seniors.

‘It gives them a whole sense of what growing older can mean,’ Kleiman said, challenging the stereotype of the elderly in nursing homes….

That does not mean the library is going the way of the video arcade. Kleiman said the foundation of the traditional library is still intact but the video games for seniors help “make them feel relevant to what people are doing.”[Home News Tribune]

I really like how the staff at OBPL are approaching this, placing it in a broader context, using video games as teaching moments and touchpoints for social interactions between groups that otherwise don’t socialize together in the library. There are so many video games now that are social activities, not just someone staring at a screen alone (not there’s something wrong with that), and as Eli Neiburger notes, libraries can make games social and add value in the same ways we do for storytime.

I think the social interactions and socialization that takes place around gaming are often overlooked as being something less valuable than when it happens around books. This is one of the reasons that (as with anything) you can’t truly understand the benefits of video games in libraries if you’ve never played them. It’s why I encourage regional organizations (like state libraries and consortia) to purchase a console in order for their member librarians to experience this. It’s difficult to have an informed discussion without the experiential learning aspect. It’s like deciding if a library should offer a book discussion without ever having read a book. Not everyone has to do this, but the folks involved in the discussion should be familiar with the subject, and they can learn from playing the same way seniors at the Old Bridge PL will learn.

Aaron Schmidt, Adina Lerner, John Blyberg, Carol Bean, Allan M. Kleiman, Glenn Peterson, Marilyn Turner

question: bookspace page is great, looks great; I wonder about these lists, because blogs are self-correcting, but the lists seem to be more static; how do you know the lists are doing their job and accomplishing what you want them to accomplish?
answer: glenn - recently noticed that on one of the lists, someone said “here are the titles that I like about such and such and if you have favorites, comment below,” but we don’t have offer comments on the lists; so there are ways we can make the lists more organic and dynamic
Marilyn - there’s a list called “all pink book covers,” so you can’t really correct everything

question from allan: we haven’t been very successful to get our staff to adapt to 2.0, although we’re playing with sites; how did you actually motivate your staff - with or without a stick - to blog? reference staff don’t see this as part of their job
answer: Marilyn - can’t pretend we haven’t had people kicking and screaming, but feels that if you can snag new librarians who aren’t afraid of doing these things and see this as part of their job, try to harness them; had trouble getting people to contribute content for the web back in 1996; saw that staff started to rely on resources their colleagues were maintaining, which helped; something collaborative finally happened, but not sure it can be described easily; they use statistics to show usage of the web resources; staff will update their blog if you tell them you are going to feature it on the home page; something is making it real for them, but it didn’t happen overnight
Glenn - have had their intranet for a long time, which helps, because they were able to start their in a controlled and safe environment

question: why did you use coldfusion instead of php?
answer: we selected CF in the mid-1990s, one of the few developmental languages at the time; rapid development environment, can use dreamweaver with it, easy to learn, similar to HTML in the way it uses tags; might have made a different decision of making it later

question: when I go home, my coworkers will ask the “what if” about user-generated content - how you deal with the bad stuff, who deals with it, etc.
answer: john - it’s a good question; need to understand it could happen, but can have a plan for how to deal with it; you won’t get a flood of participation to begin with; aaron - noted that you can moderate comments so that they have to be approved by the person who is worried about this happening
glenn - comments go live on their site unless they get trapped by their “naughty word” filter (eg, “title” gets blocked because of the first three letters - about one of these a day gets trapped and has to be approved); trapped comments are sent to a group of employees via email every couple of days - can click on a link to follow-up

question: NJ library where user-generated comments are approved before going live; has never seen a problem; if anything, people think they’re reserving a book; have a home-generated chat room for book discussions, staff meetings, etc.; can see the number of lurkers, which is pretty high - they don’t have anything to say; in the web 2.0 world, really likes the SOPAC, how do you get the lurkers to participate? he recently put up a “suggest a new title” box on their website, and it’s been a flood; thinks all of these people never thought to participate or contribute until they saw that box
answer: john - by lurkers, you’re really talking about people who are not predisposed to using those types of services; no better way to get someone to participate than to make them mad, but in the end, you really need to create incentive for them to participate; eg, if you put in 10 reviews, we’ll waive your fines; the end game is to build a community around the core elements of the social software, get that network effect rolling
allan - one of the issues that came up a few years ago is that the ILS vendors looked at 2.0 and were going to incorporate all of these features, but that’s come and gone so we have to implement it; it’s the vendors who really need to be the ones working on this, rather than us recreating the wheel

question: how do you measure and report value? we can all agree that there is inherently good value in these things, but how do you measure that value and report it out so that it is useful for decision-makers who are not librarians?
answer: aaron - at a very basic level, you can take your website statistics and look at hits from other sites where you have a presence
john - it’s also important to remember that you can look at metrics but your ultimate goal is enhancing the user experience in a way that changes the face of librarianship
allan - has been doing workshops around the state about the value of libraries using a web-based calculator that highlights the value based on your usage; gives annual reports to customers
Marilyn - it’s important to put modesty aside and send comments up the chain; she is constantly surprised how many users leave positive comments on the site; leave modesty aside and promote those comments

question from Michael: can each of you tell us a challenge you’ve faced and how you overcame it?
answer: aaron - he’s the director of a small public library with a small budget and limited staff, and the social software they use has been of immense help to them; was able to get a decent website going using free blogging software, staff collaborates with google docs, etc.
adina - is trying to find ways to bring more people into the library and offer more challenging classes, so at the end of next month, she will be offering a new class on web-based image editing software
john - oftentimes, we reach for the stars and we climb the highest peak we can find, and that leads to failure because we’re not focusing on the bedrock of our services (the backend, the foundation), so recognizing that fact we can’t innovate for a year because we need to lay the foundation and put the groundwork in is a way of acknowledging our limitations; so when you present a project that really works (like SOPAC), that’s a culmination of not just that project, but also laying the foundation
Carol - when she was first hired, she was the only one who understood the problems of having to get a mouse to teach how to use one; she just went out and did things (buying a mouse); when other staff didn’t like what she did, other staff pitched in and did something different, which helped move things forward; if others aren’t doing it, just do it yourself
allan - the biggest resource we have is our staff, and the biggest hindrance to going to the next level is our staff, so our biggest challenge is to get our staff to realize that their jobs have changed and they are all now technology specialists; he himself has this challenge because he tries to stay out in front of his staff, which seems impossible; the challenge is what we are as librarians to keep up with technology
glenn - our biggest challenge is with staff, not the public; patrons don’t have high expectations for library technology; it’s a great challenge to have when people figure out what technology can do for them, but then we have to manage expectations for what we can do; they see the magic in front of them but they don’t always have an understanding of what it takes to make that happen; so emphasizing communication (what projects they are working on, what information they need to make something happen, etc.)
Marilyn - her biggest challenge has been to be at the table of system-wide planning; because they’re not in each building, people plan without considering the web services components; her staff goes to a lot of meetings in order to contribute to these discussions and be part of things

- Allan M. Kleiman (Old Bridge Public Library)

internet is not gray yet
“while you were whale watching, some of us were watching the salmon spawn”
whale watching = myspace, facebook
salmon spawn = cranky & other senior sites
sites that are spawning and going upstream to die
what has spawned is something “new” and “exciting” in social networking
comparing the whale and the salmon is interesting

when people think of senior sites on the web, they only think of AARP, but that’s not really a social networking site
most of all, you need to share today’s information with your colleagues and the boomers and older adults who use your library

the numbers are confusing
22% of seniors 65 and older use the internet (Pew)
fastest growing segment of internet users are those 85+
- well, if you have no one 85+ using the internet and then you do, it’s the fastest-growing segment

currently 35 million older adults and by 2020 the older adults population will double
big business in developing & “hooking” the baby boomers now
they’re trying to hook them into social networking sites, but how? no idea because don’t see any ads, flyers, etc.
older adults are not attracted to these lifestyle websites
sites that are connected to another organization are doing well, while independent sites are not doing so well
they all have the same colors and design and look the same after awhile

SeniorNet was the first organization to develop senior sites around the US, but you had to pay to join and that usually doesn’t work with how libraries operate
Allan’s library is working with SeniorNet to expand their services into libraries
their website is good for viewing structured online learning; they have book clubs, blogs, etc.
everyone else’s site looks the same, but they did it first

Third Age was the “first” social networking (learning) site in 1997

all of these sites are intended for upper to middle class, white, women
no comparable site for men yet

Eons site
they know nothing about their users’ lifestyles and don’t market to them
focus on people, fun, love, money, body, lifepath, obits (ha!), games, travel
was founded by Monster.com CEO Jeff Taylor, but he’s not a boomer so he doesn’t get it
most of the boomer websites are looking at people with money, hoping you’ll click on companies who can help you travel, invest money, etc.
Eons has $32 million investment
half of their staff was let go, though

beginning to see the collapse of the new hope of social networking sites
let the competition begin
if a site is not allied with an organization, it is running on venture capital investments hoping to reap rewards

what is useful?
- more friendly versions of myspace and facebook
- “Eons, Rezoom, Multiply (a fancier Flickr; don’t even mention money, life, etc.; only site that shows people of different ages and colors), Maya’s Mom, Boomj, and Boomertown. They look like Facebook - with wrinkles.” NYT 9/12/2007
- also said “old people are sticky,” meaning brand-loyal
but boomers are not brand loyal

new search engine - http://cranky.com/
it’s an outgrowth of eons
found the 5000 most popular websites among a group of 500,000 web users aged 45 and older and rated each site
possibly based on ask.com’s search engine
about once or twice a day, they change the rankings on the home page
#1 search was about sex
which isn’t surprising, any good social networking sites for seniors will include companionship
(at his library, they’re requesting a speed dating night for seniors!)
also high in rankings
- longevity calculator
- sudoku
- eat healthy
- jobs after retirement
- wallpapers
- online dating
- retirement community
- work from home

the search here is nonthreatening and easier to use, easier to read because of lower starting set
results are comparable to yahoo
almost 80% of what he picks up on cranky duplicates what he gets on google
they only display 4 results per page
heading = cRANKy
because it’s connected with eons, their content is listed and linked to at the bottom of each page

what’s new out there?
eldr.com - mission is to help baby boomers and their aging parents deal with the challenges and opportunities of aging by providing the most useful thought-provoking and trusted information available anywhere
one issue is out
website looks the same as the other senior sites
believes this will stay around because there is a complementary magazine and because it was started by a builder of homes for older adults; he wants to give back to the community for the people he works with

others
- redhatsociety.com; 40,000 chapters in US/worldwide; wear red hats, purple dress
- “all my life I’ve done for you, now it’s my turn to do for me”
- another site that’s based on an organization
- Boomers! TV: Redefining life after 50
- producing shows on PBS about growing older, retirement, etc.; site has a little social networking

graying of the internet is really about blogging
AP found that seniors love blogging because it helps them keep their minds going, keep yourself up-to-date because you’re ready other blogs, can share life experiences, can meet other people from across the world
in some cases, senior blogs give the authors a bit of fame
3% of seniors in the US have created a blog
17% have read someone else’s blog
22% of americans aged 65 and older use the internet (1 in 5)

The Ageless Project
a website that lists blogs or websites of people in order of their birth year; there are 2 sites for people over age 90!
(sites with no commercial content)
Allan’s library is starting a blogging class next month
will try to market the blogs of the class participants

so what do we do with all of this information?
there’s life beyond myspace
- we should show people Cranky in computer class training
- link some of these resources from your library’s website (libraries usually link to negative sites, whereas social networking sites are usually positive
- join the sites and test them; otherwise you won’t really understand what they do
- become a participant
- add web 2.0 technology to your web classes
- provide feedback, both positive and negative to the sites

social networking sites for seniors are here to stay, even if these specific sites don’t survive

things that Old Bridge PL can do that you can, too
- have created a “senior space,” possibly the first in the US (users can listen to records)
- phase one set up the area
- phase two is to develop a web 2.0 classroom where seniors can also use computers on their own
- adding a “let’s try it” laboratory
- adding to their class list based on their Advisory Board
- first library to launch Wii for older adults on November 9
- teens will teach the older adults to Wii
- planning for a Wii NJ tournament in spring 2008
- are re-training their librarians to train 2.0

keep looking for information about what’s going on with older adults and social networking

his presentation will be at libraryolderadults.blogspot.com or infolink.org/seniorspaces

question: you didn’t mention AARP, why not?
answer: AARP is still an informational site, not a social networking site; it’s not the site I think of when I want to go somewhere and have fun; I use it a lot and link to it, but doesn’t see it as a true interactive site where people can meet

question: ABA is looking at implementing MyABA; do you have pointers for how to get people to use these sites?
answer: you’ll have to do a lot of hand-holding and tutorials; train the assistants (paralegals, secretaries, etc.) to help them

question: do you know if webmasters at these sites are talking to boomers and seniors?
answer: doesn’t think so because the sites don’t reflect these groups; that’s why we need to join these things and comment on them - help them change the content to make it more useful for us and for the community