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Be happy .. आज सुबह घर के सामने दो बच्चे बाते करते हुए किसी तीसरे का इंतजार कर रहे थे. मैं पौधों को पानी दे रही थी और अनायास ही ध्यान उनकी बातों पर केंद्रित हो गया. एक बोला कि वो जब भी किसी से दोस्ती करता है तो यह देख कर करता है कि वो मोटा है या पतला और अगर वो पतला है तो वो दोस्ती नही करता. मैं हैरानी से बात सुन रही थी. दूसरे ने पूछा कि यार ऐसा किसलिए ?? तो वो हाथ हिला हिला कर बोला कि देख यार मोटे हमेशा हंसते रहते हैं और खुश रहते हैं और पतले लोग हमेशा सडे और चिडचिडे होते हैं.

Be happy

इसी बीच उनका तीसरा दोस्त जोकि थोडा मोटा था वो आ गया और वो आगे चले गए. मैं मुस्कुराते हुए सोचने लगी कि शायद बच्चा ठीक ही कह रहा था वैसे मोटे लोग खुश मिजाज ही होते है जबकि पतले लोग … !! वैसे ऐसी बात है भी नही … जो लोग टेंशन नही लेते अपना काम ईमानदारी से निभाते हैं वो खुश ही रहते हैं उसमे मोटे पतले की बात नही है … खैर, ये तो बच्चों का संसार है बच्चो की सोच है …  वैसे आप क्या सोचने लगे  …..     वो कहते हैं ना donat worry … Be happy बात मोटे पतले की नही है बस ऐसे आप हमेशा खुश रहिए   आपको देख कर दूसरे भी खुश रहेंगें …

The post Be happy appeared first on Monica Gupta.

Hi Everyone

I am so excited to have a shop on Society 6.   Check it out and if you like my stuff please promote or follow me.  I plan on adding a few more illustrations soon.

Hello Everyone I just wanted to let you know I opened up a Society 6 shop. Check it out at http://society6.com/keridawnstudios

This week—August 15, to be exact—celebrates the climax of Air Conditioning Appreciation Days, a month-long tribute to the wonderful technology that has made summer heat a little more bearable for millions of people. Census figures tell us that nine out of ten Americans have central air conditioning, or a window unit, or more than one, in our homes; in our cars, it’s nearly universal. Go to any hardware or home goods store and you’ll see a pile of boxes containing no-fuss machines in a whole range of sizes, amazingly affordable, plop-’em-in-the-window-and-plug-’em-in-and-you’re-done. Not only do we appreciate the air conditioner, but we appreciate how easy it is to become air conditioned.

When it comes to cool, we’ve come a long way. But in earlier times, it was nowhere near as simple for ordinary citizens to get summertime comfort.

One of the first cooling contraptions offered to the public showed up around 1865, the brainchild of inventor Azel S. Lyman: Lyman’s Air Purifier. This consisted of a tall, bulky cabinet that formed the headboard of a bed, divided into various levels that held ice to cool the air, unslaked lime to absorb humidity, and charcoal to absorb “minute particles of decomposing animal and vegetable matter” as well as “disgusting gases.” Relying on the principle that hot air rises and cool air sinks, air would (theoretically) enter the cabinet under its own power, rise to encounter the ice, be dried by the lime, purified by the charcoal, and finally ejected—directly onto the pillow of the sleeper—“as pure and exhilarating as was ever breathed upon the heights of Oregon.” Lyman announced this marvel in Scientific American, and in the same issue ran an advertisement looking for salesmen. Somehow the Air Purifier didn’t take off.

More interesting to homeowners was the device that showed up in 1882, the electric fan. Until then, fans were powered by water or steam, usually intended for public buildings rather than homes, and most of them tended to circulate air lazily. But the electric model was quite different, with blades that revolved at 2,000 rpm—“as rapidly as a buzz saw,” observed one wag, and for years they were nicknamed “buzz” fans. They were some of the very first electrically powered appliances available for sale. They were also exorbitant, costing $20 (in modern terms, about $475). But that didn’t stop the era’s big spenders from seizing upon them eagerly. Delighted reviewers of the electric fan claimed that it was “warranted to lower the temperature of a room from ninety-five to sixty degrees in a few minutes” and that its effect was “like going into a cool grove.”

The fan combined with ice around the turn of the century, producing an eight-foot-tall metal object that its inventor called “The NEVO, or Cold Air Stove.” The principle was simple: air entered through a small pipe at the top, was pulled by a fan through the NEVO’s body—which had to be stuffed daily with 250 pounds of ice and salt to provide the cooling—and would then be discharged out an opening at the bottom. “It dries, washes, and purifies the air.” As the NEVO had more in common with a gigantic ice cream freezer than with actual temperature control, and the smallest NEVO cost $80 (nowadays, $1,700) and cost $100 per season (over $2,000) to operate, it didn’t get far.

By this time, a young engineer named Willis Carrier had developed a mechanical system that could actually cool the air and dry it, the Apparatus for Treating Air. But this was machinery of the Giant Economy Size, and used only in factories. In 1914, one wealthy gent asked Carrier to install a system in his new forty-bedroom Minneapolis home, and indeed the system was the same type that “a small factory” would use. Unfortunately, this proud homeowner died before the house was completed, and historians speculate that the machinery was never even turned on.

It wasn’t until 1929 that Frigidaire announced the first home air conditioner, the Frigidaire Room Cooler. This wasn’t in any way a lightweight portable. The Room Cooler consisted of a four-foot-tall metal cabinet, weighing 200 pounds, that had to be connected by pipes to a separate 400-pound compressor (“may be located in the basement, or any convenient location”). And it cost $800, in those days the same as a Pontiac roadster. While newspaper and magazine articles regarded the Room Cooler as a hot-weather miracle, the price (along with the setup requirements) meant that its customers came almost solely from the ranks of the rich, or businesses with cash to burn. Then fate intervened only months after the Room Cooler’s introduction when the stock market crashed, leaving very little cash for anyone to burn. Home air conditioning would have to wait until the country climbed back from the Depression.

Actually, it waited until the end of World War II, when the postwar housing boom prompted brand-new homeowners to fill their houses with the latest comforts. Along with television, air conditioning was at the top of the wish list. And at last, the timing was right; manufacturers were able to offer central cooling, as well as window units, at affordable prices. The compressor in the backyard, or the metal posterior droning out the window, became bona fide status symbols. By 1953, sales topped a million units—and the country never looked back.

Appreciation? Of course. And perhaps, adoration.

The post An appreciation of air conditioning appeared first on OUPblog.

        

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Just in time for the release of THE DUCKLING GETS A COOKIE?! Cartoonist & all around funnyman, Mark Anderson spent his free time making an insane Pigeon with LEGO blocks. Awesome! He's also created a great version of Cul de Sac's Alice.  I wish I'd known before I took over the strip for a week, I could have used it as a model. You can see HOW he did it here. Huzzah & thanks,

I'm off to talk and draw with students in Dubai for a week or so (really).  It should be great fun as I love that part of the world and have yet to go to Dubai itself (pal Jack Gantos had fun there, but he can have fun anywhere). I'll report on the trip upon my return. And what an incredibly nice send off, Elephant & Piggie's brand new adventure LISTEN TO MY TRUMPET! has debuted this

The fire is spreading! A little over a month and The Hunger Games move will be in theaters! I am so excited, and so are my students (even the ones who haven't read the trilogy!) Today during library, we played some very challenging Tribute Games to see if we have what it takes to survive in the arena. Sadly, I have played these several times and have failed to survive. I am a chicken. I would never make it in the arena. I would dig a  hole and hide. They would still find me. How about you? Could you go head to head in the arena? Are you CUNNING, SMART, FAST and COURAGEOUS? Take the test and see! Let me know if you succeed! (But don't spoil the game by giving too much away!)

Trial By Fire Screen Shots. 

1 Comments on Always The Tribute... Never The Victor, last added: 2/2/2012

Am I the last person on the planet to learn about YourNextRead.com? I'm not? Good! After I finish a book, I mull around before I jump into my next book. I pick 2 or 3 books and read the first page or so. If I can't put it down, I keep reading. If I can put it down, I pick another book. I need a way to speed up the process! Normally, I would tell you to ask your librarian or your friend for a book suggestion. But, they aren't always around. So, try YourNextRead.com.
You don't have to sign up for an account, but you can. If you do, you can connect to your GoodReads account and all of your books magically appear!
Let me show you how it works.

Go to YourNextRead.com

 

When I see this video I think 3 things:
1. Books really ARE magical!
2. Is this what it's like at Prairie Lights when everyone leaves?
3. Mr. Jones could do this!

I checked on my YouTube comments today and found a message from one Mr. Eric Litwin... author of Pete The Cat. It wasn't for me though, it was for Leah!

The Writer’s Police Academy is the coolest thing ever. I went in 2010 and plan to go again next year. Held in September in North Carolina, it’s totally worth a visit if you write books that have anything to do with crime. You can learn about fingerprints, do firearms training, learn handcuff techniques, hear why people kill, ask what it’s like to be a sniper, learn how to defuse a bomb, etc. etc. Last year I got to talk at length to a guy who was on a dive team (for evidence and body retrieval) and he reviewed a chapter in The Night She Disappeared.

Photo gakked from the website: They even staged a hostage taking - solved by a sniper.

Read more about it here - and see more cool pictures.

I have been very lucky to have The Lemme Library mentioned in one of my favorite bloggers.  Betsy Bird at FuseNews has a great point of view and sense of humor. She posts the most interesting links and keeps be up to date on the latest trends and issues.  Book Talk Tuesday is mentioned in her post today- and I can't thank her enough for the shout out. The whole reason we do BTT is to spread the word about amazing books for kids PK-8.  If you are a new visitor, please come back next Monday at 7 PM central to post your review- or come back and visit all of the amazing blogs that post each week!

From FuseNes:
"We have Nonfiction Mondays, Poetry Fridays, and my own Video Sundays.  So why not Book Talk Tuesdays?   That’s the idea behind The Lemme Library’s newest feature, and it’s a bloody good idea.  A well-written book talk is (to a children’s or YA librarian) worth its weight in gold.  Check out the newest links gathered this week and get some ideas for book talks of your own."

I am a loyal 1st Avenue Hy Vee customer during the week.  It is very close to Lemme School- I go nearly every day! (My husband works for the company and  I put myself through college working there myself!)   Each year, Hy Vee has a "Spring Time Party" where each store spring cleans and decorates the entire store in a fun theme.   To my surprise and delight, I walked in on 1st Avenue Hy Vee's Party and found a CHILDREN'S LITERATURE theme!  The entire store was decked to the nines in all of the characters and pages from classic children's books.  One of the show stoppers was a ginormous version of The Very Hungry Caterpillar.  When I saw that- I knew it had to be mine.  I asked them to hold it for me and 1 week later, it arrived- delivered by 2 very friendly and smiling Hy Vee Employees.  I was mortified to learn that this monstrosity would not fit into the building, let alone the library.   I left it outside for the night and hoped for the best.  I came to school the next morning to find that the book had magically been brought into the building by our amazing custodian, Annie.  For the rest of the morning, Annie and Mr B plotted how they would get the book into the library.  1 toolbox, a little elbow grease and a handful of very long screws later, the book arrived safely in the library.  The kids love it and I love it- I am so thankful to the friends who helped get it here!   And- a big pat on the back to 1st Ave Hy Vee for taking on such a beautiful and meaningful  theme- the community has loved it.   I love this book so much that when I retire, I may turn it into my summer home. 

The Front Cover!

The back cover!

A cute little model to put the size in perspective!

I was afraid I would miss the hatching of the first baby eagle!  I did!  It took all day, but at around 2:30 this morning, the first eaglet hatched.  If you missed it too- you can watch the highlights on Youtube!  This is like reality tv for smart people!  If you have enjoyed the Eagle Cam, you might consider making a donation to the Raptor Resource Center- I will be!