photos

Akumal Bay

Akumal Bay, looking south

CEA

hot, hotter, hottest

Yesterday I got quite a sunburn. I had sunblock on (maybe not enough?) but I think I must have forgot my left arm. Yes, my stomach and my left arm hurt most of all. I had to sleep in the dorm and not the condo because the condo only has fans and I really felt I needed the cooler temperature for my flaming skin. I'm reminded of that song about the roof being on fire (or is the room? I could never figure out whether it was the roof or the room). Well, yesterday my skin was on fire and I was quite upset with myself for allowing this to happen. I bought an aloe gel that contains lidocaine (I couldn't find Solarcaine at the convenience store). After about an hour of lying in bed last night, the pain subsided (tylenol helped too). Man, I really underestimated the intensity of the sun. I was so determined not to burn here. But everyone has such beautiful tans, even the Dutch guys!. But they've been here for almost 4 months. They must have been my colour when they got here, right?? As I sat under a beach umbrella by the pool at Club Akumal Caribe (I had the whole pool to myself!), I'm pretty sure the sun was still burning me through the umbrella (that's what I think now, but yesterday I thought I was safe). Well, I've learned some kind of lesson here. And I'm staying out of the sun for the next two or three days!

The other health problem I've encountered here is that the pompholyx rashes (on my feet and hands) that I get sometimes at home are flaring up here. I think it may be because of excessive sweating. Some of the itchy patches on my feet are probably also due to insect bites, but the itch feels more like pompholyx (and the lesion that comes up after looks particularly hideous, insect bites heal faster). I have two on my left arm that I've covered so people don't think I have so kind of strange tropical disease!

I'll have some photos posted here soon (not of my skin, don't worry). I find it's a major hassle to take the camera everywhere I go, so I don't have many pictures yet, (and it drives me crazy that the thing only stays powered up for a short period of time, even with rechargable batteries). Now that I've purchased a block of internet time, and they have a little device I can put my memory stick into, I don't think it will be a problem to get some photos up on this blog. As the Mexicans tend to say, "It's possible".

I'm going to work now. Y'all might be wondering if I actually do any work while I'm here. Well, "more or less". :- )

I'll fill you in on how I'm progressing with my "work" in another blog entry.

Cheers,

Tam

World Turtle Day

Yesterday was World Turtle Day. Groups of school children from Akumal Pueblo descended on CEA for the day to participate in several planned events beginning at 8am. The first event was a clean-up of the stretch of beach to the south, in the direction of Tulum (not that we walked all the way to Tulum... this isn't exactly possible!) The kids and volunteers picked up garbage and separated plastics from glass (the majority of waste was plastic). It was the windiest day its been since I got here May 6th. There were large white caps out in the distance and the beach "shrunk" because the sea water came further inland when it hit the shore. It was an awesome morning for a beach walk; the children really enjoyed the waves and the 'treasure' hunt. My biggest find was a green plastic lawn chair. I thought I was going to have to walk all the way back with it (about 1-2 km), but we were able to leave all the bags at the end of a laneway, to be retrieved later by truck. After the beach clean-up there was a contest to see who could build the best 'turtle' out of sand and CEA had lots of swag for the winners.

In the afternoon, I went looking for a nearby hotel that might not care if I had a little dip in their pool. Sure enough, Club Akumal Caribe had a pool I could access from the beach. There were only two tourists sunning nearby - no staff or lifeguard to be seen. One of the American women told me that this hotel does not mind if non-guests use their pool (although the posted 'rules' clearly indicated that this was not the case). I figured that I was 'good advertising' for their hotel if potential guests came by while I was swimming... the pool would obviously look so much better with someone in it! It was very refreshing, and this pool was deeper and more rectangular (=cool water and ideally shaped for laps) than the pool I was in last tuesday (north, up the road on Half Moon Bay).

Speaking of Half Moon Bay, it is also a turtle nesting area (Green turtles and Loggerheads). The Turtle Watch volunteers visit this beach every night, to watch for females coming to shore to lay their eggs. When I was there on tuesday, I saw one nest close to where we were sitting. It's really impossible to know that the nest is there, but that is one of the volunteer's tasks: if they see the turtle lay eggs, they mark the area with a little white sign. Apparently, if people walk over nests, this can pack down the sand and make it more difficult for the hatchlings to emerge later. When they do hatch, they use the light reflected off the sea from the moon to find their way into the water. Sometimes, hotels and businesses have used too much light [projected outward toward the beach]: this confuses the hatchlings and they head off in the wrong direction!

I discovered a very tasty Mexican drink this week. It's called a banderita. It is served in three shot classes, each being a 'colour' of the Mexican flag (sort of... green, white and red). You drink the 'green' first (lemon), then the 'white' (tequila) and last, the 'red' (sangrita...I think, which is a kind of spicy tomato juice). The combination takes the edge off the strong alcohol taste in the tequila. I would definitely have it again.

Today is cloudy, but I don't expect it to rain. It just doesn't feel like rain. And it just never rains here. Maybe in June it pours? I guess I'll soon find out. I have to go to Playa del Carmen this afternoon because I am completely out of pesos again and I would like to use the Scotiabank I know is across from the bus station. I could always use the bank machine in the convenience store here but the surcharges are likely to be through the roof.

I will write again in a few days.

Tam

gatos y perros

On the weekend, I had the opportunity to volunteer with a different group of people. A vet clinic was held in Akumal Pueblo for cats and dogs in the area to be spayed, neutered and vaccinated for free. (If the owners only wanted vaccinations, but not spaying or neutering, there was a charge). Vets from Meridia came to town to do the procedure for anyone who brought their animals to us for the day. It was held in two classrooms of a secondary school (which I found out is not high school, but grades 7, 8 and 9... high school is in Tulum). One classroom was the operating room and the other was the recovery room (there was supposed to be an intake room too but this wasn't made available, so intake was kind of done outside and in the recovery room). We didn't have the canopy set up until very late Saturday, so we got extremely hot working outside in the sun, registering the animals and getting them into kennels. On Sunday, everything went according to plan and it was very organized. The women that runthe clinic live nearby and I'm quite certain they are all from the U.S. originally (some live here part of the year, others make Akumal their permanent home). Four or five times a year they run clinics in different places in the Yucatan. On Saturday, I helped in the recovery room. The animals (mostly dogs... the cats were done later in the afternoon and four of us took off for a break while the cats were recovering!) needed to be monitored, ice applied to the incision area (sometimes), IVs taken out (I let the more experienced people handle this), heads stroked, ticks picked out, ears cleaned (if they were really dirty), and claws clipped.

On Saturday, my job was to tend to the kittens that were dropped off (no one really knew their story or where their mother was). One kitten was only about 2 weeks old (at most). They brought formula which I fed her from a bottle through the day (they need to be fed every 3 hours). It's kind of tricky to position the bottle/nipple just right to make sure it is going down properly and not into the cat's lungs. Three other older kittens (6 weeks maybe) were feral so Jen took them out (hissing prefusely and trying to scratch) in a small towel and put them (one at a time) on my lap. For about 3 hours, I was holding one feral cat with the littlest one. The younger one fell asleep but I'm pretty sure the feral cat never totally relaxed. One of the ferals was a beautiful calico with really cool markings. It takes several days of handling to make these kittens become used to people, but eventually they become tame. Apparently, you can adopt two cats under 8 weeks of age and take them aboard most U.S. airlines (in the passenger cabin). I can't imagine subjecting an animal to hours in a cargo hold, but some airlines have a special area set up for animals, and someone to check on them too. At the end of the day, I was convinced that I would adopt the littlest one (although there was no way I could foster it back at the dorm in a room with 7 other people!), but I have to think about Scooper and how it would affect her. I don't think it would be wise.

I finally went to town (Playa del Carmen) and bought batteries for my camera. I will take them to the office today with the charger to see if there is anywhere to plug it in and get them charged. My dorm has one outlet, but everyone has their electronic equipment plugged into it (possibly overloading the circuitry, but maybe it's ok).

There is a good chance that I will be cutting back the length of my trip by 2 or 3 weeks. I'd love to stay on and everything is going well, but now that our dorm is full, life has become more stressful. If I do catch an earlier flight home, I will spend up to a week in Playa del Carmen in a hotel room where I can unwind alone. I knew it would a challenge to share a room with other people, but now that I'm really doing it, I've discovered just how hard this situation is for me. And it isn't the people; these are the nicest bunch of university kids you'd ever want to meet (they came in from Mexico City on Sunday night). I spent the day shopping with them and they're amazing. Very intelligent and a lot of fun.

The only thing I want to make sure I do before I leave the area is check out Tulum and Copa (where there are ruins). Tulum is just 20 minutes away (opposite direction from Playa del Carmen). There are "colectivos" that pass by the highway outside Akumal every ten minutes and they are cheap (15 pesos to Playa)! I wish Hamilton had colectivos; the ride to work would be a dream instead of the nightmare that it is. (A colectivo is a comfy minivan with a/c that seats 10 passengers). And I've never seen so many taxis in one small place. They are not cheap, but ideal if you are sharing a ride with others.

Ok. I guess I should go to the office and do some work... oh, maybe not... I just got an invitation to go to someone's pool! (Maggie helped on the weekend, and she is also the director of the public library in Akumal). Yay! This will definitely cheer me up. :-D

Tam

Recent Akumal Photos

1. A Cenote at Selvatica & 2. Akumal Bay(photos courtesy of "Staniam's Akumal Adventure"), Akumal forum / locogringo.com

The Final Countdown

There's only 5 days left until I leave! I can't believe I'll be on Akumal Beach at this time next week. I finally pulled my MEC pack out of my closet. I also found my lucky passport pouch (it's been with me on every overseas vacation I've taken in the past 10 years... oh, and that would be Cuba, by the way!) I've decided to transport the fins in my pack... fortunately, they fit. Buffalo Niagara Intl airport rules stipulate that you're allowed one carry-on and one 'briefcase'. I don't think they make briefcases for fins, so I'm not taking any chances by just showing up with them in my arms. My snorkeling equipment is probably the most important thing I'm bringing.

I also have 500 book pockets and borrower cards ready, if CEA would like a circulation system for their collection. If they want the materials inventoried, I can use an Office program like Excel or Access. I was investigating an Open Source ILS system (made in New Zealand) called Koha, but this might be beyond what they need or want. All the same, it's good to know that there are programs out there (and that their basic versions are free!) I may not use it for CEA's collection, but it certainly might come in handy in the future. I think if I was more informed as to what they wanted (or didn't want) for the library, I could come with a more detailed plan in tow. Classes and exams have finished for the term at the university and I am basking in the peace and quiet we've had this week. I'm very glad I chose these 2 months to go there (and glad that the library agreed to this leave of absence!) Unfortunately, I will miss an important planning meeting in Toronto for the 2009 OLA Superconference, but I should be back in time for the next one (which I think will be in July or August).

I have Scooper's favourite toy ready for her to take with her. It's a stuffed, round, furry ball, peach coloured, with its rolly eyes still intact (I bought it for her at the Peach Festival in Grimsby in the early 90's). She doesn't actually play with anything much anymore, but she definitely has her playful moments. I'll miss her. I'll keep a few photos of her on my new camera.

Tam

Blog Adventurer heads South

Baby Loggerhead turtle

It's hard for me to believe that I'm leaving for Mexico in less than a month (27 days)! My flight is booked: I'm flying out of Buffalo with US Airways on Tuesday, May 6, arriving in Cancun at about 3:30pm. We make one stop-over, in Charlotte, NC (on the way back, flying with United Airlines, we stop once in Washington before heading on to Buffalo). My friend Patricia, a geologist who has been to the Akumal area several times to do water and cave research, is not actually leaving at the same time as I am, but there is always a chance she might come down later in May. I will have to rely even more on my minimal grasp of Spanish. I understand many key words and phrases but only if someone speaks to me slowly or I see it in writing. After nearly a dozen trips to Cuba, and an Intro university course, you'd think I would have picked up more, but I get lazy and don't make the effort. I'll take my mp3 player with me and listen to the Berlitz lessons I downloaded on it...

There has been no further email convo between me and Paul Sanchez-Navarro, the director of CEA (since last December), about what form my volunteer work will take, but I'm quite prepared to do administrative [office] work, or go out with the turtle volunteers at night. Actually, the more I think about it, the more I would rather be involved with the turtles themselves, despite my original hesitation (due to the fact that the work is done through the night). I was concerned about what I would store my snorkelling fins in when travelling: my large MEC backpack probably won't accomodate my long fins. But Trish suggested taping them together and bringing them on the plane as a "personal item". Problem solved. My landlord is paid up until the end of the summer, cable cancelled, bills prepaid, and I will ask a friend to pick up my mail. Scooper is going to Dundas to spend the weeks with my Mom & Dad and their cat, Tina. She's been given plenty of warning, but I think she's become even better at tuning me out in her old age. Cats. Why do I even try??


I think I'll be okay with the food: there's lots of different types of fruit (stuff with a peel is best, otherwise it should be washed or even disinfected, someone told me), eggs, tortillas, beans, rice, advocados, salsa. mmm. My pesos are in at the bank so I'll pick them up tonight on my way home.

On locogringo.com, I found a webcam that displays a section of Akumal beach, just nearby the restaurant/beach bar named LOL-Ha (cam is set up there).

locogringo has some helpful maps:
satellite photo
Central Akumal map (aerial beach tour)

I'll write again soon...

Tam

Akumal

I've let a lot of time pass since my last post, but I refuse to berate myself for this. (And yet I really wish I could make myself write more.) There are only two months left until my leave starts. I am going south to work at CEA (Centrol Ecologico Akumal) in Mexico. I'll be volunteering (details at this point are somewhat sketchy). I'm not too concerned. If I have free time on my hands when I get there, I'll start writing my first novel. Oh sure. So at CEA they help sea turtles who make their home [nests] along the Maya coast. There are Green turtles and Loggerhead turtles and volunteers come to CEA every year from April to November to relocate their nests to safer spots and to release hatchlings. I've found out that my friend Trish is also going to Mexico in May so we should be able to share a ride to the airport and take the same flight to Cancun.

Tam

A New Year, A New Post

After May 28, 2007 it proved difficult to create new blog posts. I'm not sure why. Perhaps it's because our Learning/Library/Web 2.0 program ended and it was no longer mandatory for me to post my experiences with emerging technologies. Or maybe it was because, from June to December, my job did not stimulate my muse. [How do people who write daily comic strips do it? Day after day? Don't they ever wake up not having a clue what their next joke will be?] Or, the reason could be that my shoes were too tight...
Yeah, that's gotta be it. I feel better now. It's always nice to be able to find a reasonable excuse for laziness, rather than just coming forth and stating the obvious. How would I ever fill this blog space, if I didn't ramble on with excuses? By the way, it's January and my job is still not very stimulating. And there's no excuse for that.

It might pick up on January 7 when the students come back.

Yes, the students. The clientele of this fine establishment. How I miss the hustle and bustle of the Learning Commons: that crazed, hyper, busy, wired, social-hub-of-a-room, dubbed "Club Mills" by everyone who doesn't work here. Technology trumps books and anything written on paper, ladies and gentlemen, in case you haven't been paying attention. I see it every day.

Today's library buzz word is... digitization. Can you say digitization, boys and girls? Soon, thanks to Google, you'll be able to read anything written in the world from the comfort of your laptop. In English, I guess. I'm not sure they've figured out how to deal with those other languages.

Yep, rapid tech advancement is the name of the game and it's happening faster than you can shake a pen at. But people don't communicate with pens, so I should forget about altering my sayings to give them literary flair. Make that a stick, please. A carrot stick, because it's January 2 so I naturally must think about eating less and eating better (whatever that means).

On the subject of writing, with pens, or carrots, or otherwise, I'll have you know that my latest article has been published in Perspectives. You may remember when I posted on May 28, 2007 (or just look below this post for goodness sake since 7 months is too long ago for anyone to remember anything) to tell you the Summer 2007 issue was out. Finally, just before we all broke for the holidays (hmm, broke and holidays... how those two go together so very well), the winter issue of Perspectives was released. For my article, see the Mac Facts section, but not until you've read my Mom's article and the editorial (also written by Marlene Monster). Enjoy.

Oh, and a quick word about LOLcats. I luvs dem. I don't care that the english language is being defiled: that is what makes the photos (+ captions) so wonderful and thoroughly charming. I had a brief discussion about LOLcats with a librarian, (also an English major, like me) and she finds the corrupted english to be annoying. Maybe she doesn't like cats either, maybe that's her problem. Perhaps it could be that her shoes are too tight. My apologies to this librarian if she reads my post, I still luv ya ML, but I will forever worship I Can Has Cheezburger. I can't start my day without checking the new photos through my RSS feeds. As you can see, I was so inspired by one of today's LOLcats that it came before anything else. Let us end this post with one of my favourites from last year...

lol.

Perspectives Newsletter

I added a link to Perspectives newsletter on my blog today. I joined the Perspective's editorial board last summer and two articles have been published to-date ~ see September 2006 and Winter 2007.

Perspectives is a newsletter for and by employees of McMaster University. The editorial board consists of:

Madeline Barr
Marlene Monster (retired)
Tamara Monster

We are always looking for volunteers (McMaster employees ~ but I guess that is obvious) who would like to join us on our editorial board. Please get in touch with me, or click here if you'd like to make a submission for an upcoming newsletter! The new issue will be 'on newstands everywhere' very soon...

Tam

The Cat Diaries Episode 2

My cat hates you

Stella Mae
Tiny and Teeny

The title of this post comes from a website I found online today. Very amusing cat photos. A few are even a bit scary...

Tam

Mad World- Gary Jules

Learning 2.0 @ Mac Wrap-Up

It's been a wild ride but I am happy to report that I have completely finished all the Learning 2.0 activities. Yay!

Nevertheless, the learning doesn't stop just because the program has wrapped up. Social networking in libraries and new technologies for communication, teaching and learning are constantly being created and recreated, and will continue to play an integral part in libraries in the future. I plan to stay active on my blog because I truly love to write (and edit). On days when I might not have anything to say or post, I will likely keep posting/archiving interesting videos from YouTube and cute cat pictures from Flickr and Google. And I'm certain there will be opportunities to participate in collaborative projects with staff and students (of McMaster University Library).

In some respects, many of the Learning 2.0 activities seemed to fall more into the category of playful fun, rather than work/education, but I suppose this doesn't make them any less important. I was really glad to be given the chance to practice finding my way around all these electronic tools and inventions. I am looking forward to trying to download audio e-books to my new MP3 player (I am hoping this is possible!), as well as finding my favourite tunes on the web and being able to take my music with me on-the-go.

If ETG offered another discovery program along the lines of Learning 2.0@mac, I would definitely be interested in participating again. In some cases, I was able to help friends and family work with web 2.0 stuff, and it was very satisfying to be able to instruct others. Thanks to Amanda Etches-Johnson and the rest of the ETG team at Mac for leading us down the social networking path!

Tam

The Machine is Us/ing Us (Final Version)

Mozilla add-ons and Morris bookmarklets

I've been a fan of Mozilla's browser (Firefox) for a few years. This week's Library 2.0 lesson introduced me to the wonderful world of add-ons: additions and features that can be installed to enhance and customize your browser. I decided to install the "server switcher" because it can allow me to switch easily between our website's 'development' server and the 'live' server. This comes in handy when editing our library webpages. I also downloaded "StumbleUpon" which I'm having a lot of fun with. With the "Stumble!" icon now on my toolbar, I can click it and Mozilla displays a website (randomly) based on interests that I have selected from a list. I told StumbleUpon to display sites on: Psychology, Quizzes, Cats, Web design, Books, Desktop Publishing, Bizarre/Oddities, Internet tools, Multimedia and Writing.

StumbleUpon's criteria for selecting sites for viewing is based on how popular they are (i.e. the number of times a site was hit). If I'm only in the mood to look at cat websites, I can ask Mozilla to only search and display cat related sites. I have stumbled upon several websites dedicated to writing and books and I've saved these to a special bookmark folder: I might want to revisit them, or possibly refer these sites to others in the future.

I installed the Morris bookmarklets feature but haven't used it much yet. I programmed it to search: Title, Author, Subject, Journal title, Journal title, Keywords anywhere and Title keyword. I think it's neat that I can access this search box for items in Morris (our library catalogue), even though I may have a different site open in my browser (Mozilla will recognize that I'm asking for a search in the catalogue and, viola, I'm taken over to Morris).

Tam

Nora, The Piano-Playing Cat (www.ravenswingstudio.com)

This is one talented kitty!

Colonel Mustard with the Rope in the Library

After I read this article by Heather Newman on Freep.com (Detroit Free Press), I wasn't wholly convinced that games necessarily have a place in every library setting, but if gaming activities manage to draw young people into the library with the promise of fun 'n' games (i.e. they may not equate it with learning or schoolwork), then there is definitely an argument to be made for games as an aspect of a library visit. As today's youth spend more and more time playing computer games, and less time reading, public libraries would be one step ahead of the game (no pun intended!) by bringing people what they want: youth will get hooked and keep comin' back for more (maybe even inspire someone to read a book!)

In academic libraries, maybe not all games would be as suitable in the same way they could be with children and young adult programming in a public libraries. However, virtual 'worlds' such as Second Life (and MMORPG games such as Battleground Europe - WWII Online) most definitely have a role to play encouraging and promoting teamwork, leadership, new learning styles and creating new social networks. Library staff should continue to try to reach patrons with all the new technological tools (for gaming and communication) that are becoming a staple in our culture and society (for the young and old alike!) The library of the future may "look" substantially different than 'the way it was', but if we can't offer the types of resources and services that appeal to the masses, I think we stand the chance of becoming antiquated and somewhat less appealing than at any time in the past.

Tam

It's a cats world

I downloaded one of my favourite arcade games today and managed to get to Level 16 with 110,780 points! Cubis Gold is available from MSN Games as well as Yahoo. Cubis is a 3-D puzzle game: you move and left-click your mouse to remove a number of colourful cubes (with a time limit) to advance to the next level. This is done by matching three same colored cubes (that can span up to three levels). As the game progresses and you move up the levels, you are introduced to wedge cubes, osmosis cubes, and laser cubes.

A friend recommended this game to me about 3 years ago, and I fell in love with it: it's extremely easy to learn, and the high scoring possibilities are good for the ego! After my free downloaded version expired (when I first learned of Cubis, years ago), I played the online version, but it is not as flashy and aesthetically pleasing (the music and sound effects are pretty cool too... they really suite the game's graphics). I'm unlikely to become an addicted player of Cubis: I'd hate to develop a repetitive strain injury in my wrist! (But I'll revisit it from time to time since it is such good fun, and a great way to distract oneself from more serious pursuits).

Tam

Hello Facebook!

Facebook, "a social utility that connects you with the people around you", is a handy-dandy, no-nonsense tool for keeping up with friends, (and making new ones? The jury is still out on that one). Before Facebook, there was MySpace. Not that MySpace isn't around anymore, it was just born before Facebook. I had a peak at MySpace and didn't like the busy, hyperactive "look". Ivor Tossell, Globe and Mail writer, finds "MySpace [to be] a post-aesthetic wasteland of blinking, honking, neon things; photos that [cascade] down the page, animated baubles and all manner of widgets." He's got a point. Most profiles on MySpace are just too darn hard to look at. Every attempt at creativity in MySpace lends itself to hideous results. Facebook offers the same services as MySpace, but without the messiness, so I think I'll stick with a social utility that is organized, uniform and aesthetically pleasing. The only drawback with Facebook: it would not allow me to enter my surname (but my brother found a way around it, so I must ask him how he did that).

I found some famous Canadians on MySpace, just by accident, I might add (I didn't go looking for them, honestly.) George Stroumboulopoulos and Sook-Yin Lee could be my MySpace friends, with just a few clicks (but it appears George has 3 MySpace profiles... hmm, which one is the "real" George? uh-oh, the first one doesn't display graphics in my browser. wow, Sook-Yin Lee has 3013 friends... how long will it take me to be that popular?) Well, as tempting as it may seem, I think I'll stick to friend-ing folks who show up in my Facebook networks and groups. (Not that I don't want to be friends with George or Sook-Yin: they are very cool and it would be neat to run into them in the street, or maybe just watch them on t.v. ...or listen to them on the radio... gosh, I guess I already do that from time to time, so that makes me cool too).

Tam