#Uwe River

[me-and-the-m00n]

I am a junior at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where for the past four days, there has been an encampment set up at Library Mall in protest of the ongoing genocide of Palestinian people in Gaza. I wasn’t one of the campers but I showed up to support for a few hours each day Monday-Wednesday. We are relatively late to the game compared to other American colleges, but we had hundreds of people show up the first few days to show their support for Palestine.

The protest has been peaceful, up until 7 a.m. Wednesday morning when state patrol and Madison police officers showed up while protesters were asleep and raided the encampment. They were called by Chancellor Mnookin. I wasn’t there, but they dismantled tents, destroyed food and supplies, and assaulted students, faculty, staff, and community members. Over 30 people were violently arrested, at least 2 of them being professors. The two professors that I know were arrested were people of color. The camp was re-established at 11 a.m. that morning thanks to the protesters. As of right now, organizers have met with Chancellor Mnookin and she agreed to have no further police action at the encampment until their next meeting, but has yet to say anything about the protesters’ demands.

I honestly don’t know if anyone will see this but I have been seeing so much misinformation being spread and I want to clarify some things. The pro-Palestinian protest at UW-Madison has not included any violent or anti-semitic actions towards Jewish people. There was an article being spread that stated that protesters were chanting “Heil Hitler” which is NOT TRUE. Furthermore, calling for a free Palestine does not mean we want to eradicate Jewish people. It means we condemn Israel’s actions, which include the illegal occupation of Palestinian land and the genocide of Palestinian men, women, and children, among other things. Many people seem to conflate Zionism with Judaism and therefore take these protests as a personal attack. Our protest calls for UW-Madison to divest from companies that fund Israel’s genocide; we DO NOT want to harm our fellow Jewish students or any Jewish people, for that matter.

Being pro-Palestine does not make you anti-Jew. I, personally, condemn anti-semitism and simultaneously believe Palestinian people deserve to be free. This fight is not about Jewish people, it’s about Palestinian lives. There are many Jewish people on our campus that recognize this and show up to fight for Palestine. There have been instances at other universities of people being anti-semitic, but the majority of protesters have been largely focused on divestment and calling for a free Palestine.

I’m sure many of you have seen the violent police response at universities like Columbia, UT Austin, and UCLA. I just want to say that if you think that the violence inflicted upon students, staff, faculty, and community members of universities by police is justified, you are sick in the head. I don’t give a fuck what those students were doing, they do NOT deserve to to be treated that way by state sanctioned police officers. And if you’re one of the people whining about protests not being peaceful, you’re part of the problem. For the most part, they have been peaceful UNTIL police and/or counter protesters showed up and escalated things. We had Israel-supporters show up at our protest and yell at the protesters standing around and protecting the people praying, and try to incite violence. Protesters knew not to engage.

Another point I wanted to make was how insane the police presence was on UW-Madison’s campus yesterday. When there were literal neo-Nazis marching down State Street in November not a single thing was done about it. My roommate called the non-emergency help line and the lady on the phone said that hate speech isn’t illegal so they can’t do anything about it, which is fucking ridiculous. Also, there was an active shooter at a middle school west of Madison yesterday but Chancellor Mnookin thought it was best that the police spend their time assaulting students that are protesting genocide.

I made the mistake of looking at Twitter threads and saw people wishing us dead. Or wishing for our arrests or expulsions and calling us terrorists simply because we want a say in where our tuition dollars go to. We have a right to protest. And we will not stop until our demands are answered.

I just wanted to come on here to say how insanely proud I am of my generation for standing up and fighting against this genocide. Keep protesting. Do not back down. Within our lifetime, we will see a free Palestine.

DISCLOSE! DIVEST! WE WILL NOT STOP, WE WILL NOT REST!

[lesterpubliclibrary]

Worldviews of Angry People by Lester Public Library Via Flickr: Scholar for Life Series, Dealing with Angry People. Dr. Ryan Martin, professor of psychology and associate dean for the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences at UW-Green Bay presented 'Dealing with Angry People at the Lester Public Library, Two Rivers, Wisconsin

[uwmspeccoll]

Indigenous People's Day

DR. HENRIETTA MANN Cheyenne

On this Indigenous Peoples' Day, we are featuring Matika Wilbur’s recent publication Project 562: Changing the Way We See Native America, published by Ten Speed Press in 2023. Wilbur (b. 1984) is a visual storyteller and member of the Swinomish and Tulalip peoples of coastal Washington. She holds a degree from the Brooks Institute of Photography alongside a teaching certificate that has shaped her style of educating through narrative portraits.  

Project 562: Changing the Way We See Native America, a book born from a documentary project of the same name, resolves to share contemporary Native issues and culture. In 2012 Wilbur set out from Seattle to visit and photograph all 562 plus Native American sovereign territories in the United States.

Wilbur’s engagement with the communities she visited resulted in the creation of hundreds of dynamic portraits and documentation of conversations about “tribal sovereignty, self-determination, wellness, recovery from historical trauma, decolonization of the mind, and revitalization of culture.” She refers to her portraiture approach as “an indigenous photography method” that includes several hours and sometimes days of interaction with the participants, an exchange of energy and gifts, and asking sitters to choose their portrait location. The outcome is a stunning collection of Native narratives and portraits.  

GREG BISKAKONE JOHNSON Lac Du Flambeau Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians

HOLLY MITITQUQ NORDLUM  Iñupiaq

J. MIKO THOMAS Chickasaw Nation

MOIRA REDCORN Osage, Caddo

HELENA and PRESTON ARROW-WEED Taos Pueblo/Kwaatsaan, Kamia

STEPHEN YELLOWTAIL Apsáalooke (Crow Nation)

LEI'OHU and LA'AKEA CHUN Kānaka Maoli

ORLANDO BEGAY Diné

KALE NISSEN Colville Tribes

GRACE ROMERO PACHECO Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians

ISABELLA and ALYSSA KLAIN Diné

NANCY WILBUR Swinomish

DR. JEREMIAH "JERRY" WOLFE Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians

RUTH DEMMERT Tlingit

MARVA SII~XUUTESNA JONES Tolowa Dee-Ni' Nation, Yurok, Karuk, Wintu

Matika Wilbur will be speaking on UW-Milwaukee's campus Thursday, November 16 from 6-7p.m. in conjunction with her exhibition Seeds of Culture: The Portraits and Voices of Native American Women on view at the Union Art Gallery November 16 through December 15, 2023. 

-Jenna, Special Collections Graduate Intern 

We acknowledge that in Milwaukee we live and work on traditional Potawatomi, Ho-Chunk, and Menominee homelands along the southwest shores of Michigami, part of North America’s largest system of freshwater lakes, where the Milwaukee, Menominee, and Kinnickinnic rivers meet and the people of Wisconsin’s sovereign Anishinaabe, Ho-Chunk, Menominee, Oneida, and Mohican nations remain present.

[strid3rofthen0rth]

Comfort with Discomfort

It ain't always wine and roses out there. In fact, it rarely is.  A lot of times, it's even gonna suck a little.  If you spend a life outside, you're going to sunburn and shiver, bring home scrapes and bruises along with a full game pouch or a bucket of fish, but it isn't often addressed in the glossy mags or erudite literature, and I think a touch of reality is in order.

Outdoor excursions for most of us common folk begin with throwing the gear and some food in the truck. Then we do what we do all day, and haul it all back out of the vehicle, slightly more wet or muddy than it was when we left home. There are no dog handlers, no chefs, no maître d'. This isn't a landed gentry peasant shoot. It's up to us to power through the slogging and sorting, the cold and wet and tired, the fish cleaning and deer gutting by headlamp, because this is what we love to do.  

The vast majority of the time there are no panoramic vistas or transcendental moments. Those are the rare treasures we seek but seldom find, and they are that much more powerful in their rarity after countless hours sitting in the cold, picking leeches or ticks out of unmentionable areas, or stumbling around on slippery river rocks until we take an unplanned swim while fully clothed.

Unmentionable areas? Wait, this is Tumblr. I've absolutely pulled ticks off my taint and asshole before.

And it's a perishable skill, dealing with the discomfort. Look at the snowbirds who retire to Florida, then return home for family Christmas and can barely survive a walk out to the car in the dark and blustery snow. You lived here for 62 years, Aunt Marsha. Suck it up for the width of the driveway.

To remain comfortable with discomfort, you have to practice. Actually do it. Get frozen and sunburned and bug-bitten and exhausted. Catch a fish hook through your thumb. It reminds you that you can, that you have that craggy edge of toughness you can access deep down in there. That you can do hard things.

I've heard the hardships we encounter in outdoor pursuits compared to having a headache or being famished in a long work meeting. You acknowledge it's there and move on. Toughen up, Buttercup.

I was suffering through it on the ice this morning. Single digit temps, fish not biting. Very cold, embracing the suck. And I knew I could because I've done it many times before. Things eventually picked up, and I got a most delicious fish fry out of the deal because I'd stuck it out.

I was reminded, fondly, of taking a neighbor ice fishing decades ago in Madison. He and his wife were guest professors at the UW and native Arkansans. Southern by birth and fantastic folks. We hit it off as soon as they moved in next to us.

He'd been an outdoorsy kid, but after years in classrooms and meetings, he'd drifted away from it, was looking to find his way back to it. He saw my ice fishing gear while we were enjoying some garage beers together, and became instantly fascinated, never having done it before. Would I take him ice fishing when it got cold enough? Absolutely, my professorial friend.

Months later, we set out on a brutally cold morning. The Triangle on Monona Bay, a favorite local panfishing spot. Wind up from the north, single digit temps, eye-watering cold.

We did well, had a lot of fun. The fish were cooperative, and I could've sat on my upturned bucket all day, but our Southern friend was quickly becoming a frozen block of ice. Suffering. Uncontrolled shivers, just a touch of slurry speech. He was approaching real hypothermia. He'd never had the chance to practice this particular form of outdoor suffering. Didn't have the skill set to cope with it. So I called it off before he went full dead polar explorer right next to me.

Back home, he recovered and they came over later that night for a fish fry. It was hard and beautiful and ridiculous, but he'd loved it. There was a certain thing he'd become fixated on, however, especially after a couple cocktails.

It was one of the first things he'd told his wife when he got home, and kept going back to it in stunned amazement as the dinner party continued. I hadn't been wearing gloves on the ice.

I remember phrases suitably eloquent for a college professor. "That's fucking crazy!" "Fucking insane!"

Now, ice fisherman will attest that when the bite is hot, you can't really wear gloves and remain effective. They eventually get wet and useless or gooped up with fish slime and useless, and you can't really tie a knot or bait a tiny hook with them on anyway, so you end up tossing them aside to get your hook back in front of fish faces with as much alacrity as possible.  And your hands get cold, but you deal with it.

Long as they turn pink and not white, you're good to go.

There is a minor caveat, however. Occasionally huffing and puffing on frozen hands, whacking them on your legs and cussing, or boinging around furiously with your hands thrust between your thighs like you just smacked your thumb with a hammer are all perfectly acceptable substitutions for gloves during short fishing breaks. But you don't do any of that in front of your male Arkansan neighbor. You sit somberly and give your best Intrepid Ice Guide thousand yard stare from behind the beard and mirrored shades. There is a manliness protocol when taking southern guests ice fishing.

Haven't seen that guy in 25 years, probably never will again. But I thought of that day fondly this morning. While huffing and puffing on my hands and cussing a blue streak.

[workingforitallthetime]

this bar is showing the UW women’s hockey team vs st. cloud on multiple screens. and check out this pillow i want to steal from my hotel:

i skated on a frozen pond this afternoon and i’m gonna do it again tomorrow because there is a wholeass giant frozen lake i can literally walk to from my hotel! and it has ice fishing huts in the distance so i can skate around and think about ike taking frankie ice fishing and fucking in the little hut.

also i got to go on meghan’s morning trail today and we definitely saw werewolf paw prints on the frozen river, so. it’s very unfair that i have to go home when i just want to stay here and eat cheese and watch hockey and recharge my awesome warm gloves.

[govpubsfinds]

Discovering Washington’s Wine Legacy: The Columbia Valley AVA

Please enjoy wine responsibly, and remember that excessive alcohol consumption can have serious health risks.

I recently visited Southern Oregon and had some amazing wine tasting there. The lush vineyards and smooth reds left me wondering: what about Washington? Does our state have any hidden gems in its wine regions? In my search for answers, I stumbled upon a government booklet from 1986, published by the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms. It turns out that Washington has some pretty impressive American Viticultural Areas (AVAs), with the Columbia Valley being one of the most notable. 

Established in 1984, the Columbia Valley AVA is a vast region spanning much of central Washington and extending into northern Oregon. According to the booklet, this area has nearly perfect conditions for grape growing.

this viticultural area experiences a growing season for over 150 days, and an average rainfall of 15 inches or less…The Columbia Valley is a large, treeless basin surrounding the Yakima, Snake and Columbia Rivers in Washington and Oregon.

It’s incredible how this government document captures a time when Washington’s wine industry was only beginning to gain recognition. Now, I’m more excited than ever to explore Washington’s wine regions and see how they compare to my recent adventure in Oregon.

United States. Bureau of Alcohol, T. (1986). U.S. viticultural areas. [Washington, D.C.]: Dept. of Treasury, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms.

Full text available via HathiTrust.

UW Libraries Catalog Entry: Permalink

[chaotic-on-main]

for some reason every time I go to reblog the final chapter with my notes, my tumblr crashes (I'm pretty sure it's because it's a 20k chapter, so fuck you tumblr a;sldjf) ANYWAYS I'M GONNA MAKE A SEPARATE POST

Here lie my notes for the final chapter of 5 Husbands by @kingkonoha MAJOR SPOILERS BELOW

SIGH. OKAY. HERE WE GO.

so first and foremost i'm super lazy. when i was reading, i was out in a park enjoying the sun and sounds of the river and NOT by internet so i wrote all of my notes in a word document. i'm not gonna repost them, instead i have screenshots of my notes. i did nOT go through there so there will be a lot of feral screaming, typos, and weird thoughts idk take them or leave them. underneathe these screenshots i will provide a more personal note <3

OKAY JUST-

SO. this story has been a huge part of my fanfic journey. tay has taught me so much with her writing and the fact that i got to help brainstorm a few monumental plot points with one of my favorite writers has just been. well it's been a blessing and i loved every moment of it. yes okay, i did give her the idea to kill levi and am i gonna throw myself off a cliff for it?? probably.

regardless, she did it is such a beautiful and heart wrenching way that it has TRULY changed me. my day is actually ruined and that's a good thing because that means she wrote something so heartbreaking SO WELL. the way she just brings us into this world and can make you think one thing then trip you up not oNCE BUT TWICE?? (THE FOREHEAD TAY REALLY?!?!)

SIGH

she ended this series with how she started, with love and exceitment. it's crazy to think there was a time that she was ready to put it down and while i 100% understood why and i definitely supported her for it, i'm so glad she changed her mind. i love this story so much and i cannot thank tay enough for writing something so incredibly different.

i will miss you the world of 5 husbands, but it's time to go back to UW because i need comfort AND I MISS WHEN LEVI WAS ALIVE BYE

[artifacts-and-arthropods]

Gold Lion Figurine from Georgia (South Caucasus), c. 2300-2000 BCE: Georgia contains one of the oldest prehistoric gold mines in the world, dating back to about 3400 BCE; researchers also believe that the Greek legend of the "Golden Fleece" was inspired by the goldsmithing traditions found in Georgia

The peoples of Georgia (the country, not the state) have been extracting and processing gold for many thousands of years. Georgia is even home to the oldest known gold mine in the world -- a site known as Sakdrisi, where there is evidence of gold mining operations dating back to about 3400 BCE (roughly 5400 years ago).

Sadly, the prehistoric gold mine at Sakdrisi was damaged (and largely destroyed) in 2014, after a Russian mining company (RMG Gold) was given permission to resume its own mining venture on the site. The full extent of that damage has yet to be determined.

The Tsnori Lion: this figurine dates back to the Bronze Age in Eastern Georgia; it is one of the many artifacts that have come to represent the history of goldsmithing in this part of the Caucasus

The goldsmithing traditions of Georgia also continued to flourish during antiquity, and the ancient Kingdom of Colchis (in what is now Western Georgia) was renowned for both its wealth of gold and its skilled goldsmiths. To the Greeks, Colchis was also known as the homeland of the fabled Golden Fleece -- the treasure sought by Jason and the Argonauts during their mythical voyage into the Caucasus, as described in the Greek Argonautica.

It's believed that the legend of the Golden Fleece may have had at least some basis in reality. Ethnological and historical accounts indicate that the peoples of Colchis/Georgia traditionally used sheepskins to sift for gold in the rivers of the Caucasus; during that process, the fleece would slowly become encrusted with tiny particles of "gold sand," until it eventually took on the appearance of a "golden fleece." Additional research has confirmed that the rich alluvial deposits found within the region certainly would have been sufficient to have produced this "golden fleece" effect.

Researchers believe that those customs may have given rise to the Greek legends about the Colchians and their Golden Fleece -- legends that ultimately evolved into the story of the Argonautica.

The unique goldsmithing traditions of Georgia played an important role in the cultural/political development of the South Caucasus, and those traditions are reflected in the wealth of golden artifacts that have been found throughout Georgia (and elsewhere).

The Location of Modern-Day Georgia: as this map illustrates, Georgia is nestled right at the crossroads between Europe and Asia, with the Black Sea located on one side and the Caspian not far from the other; it is bordered by Russia to the North and Turkey, Armenia, and Azerbaijan to the South

Sources & More Info:

Quaternary International: A modern field investigation of the mythical “gold sands” of the ancient Colchis Kingdom and “Golden Fleece” phenomena

Archaeo Sciences: Bronze Age Gold in Southern Georgia

Britannica: Archaeologists uncover traces of Bronze Age gold workshops in a cemetery near Tbilisi, Georgia

BBC: Artefacts from the world's oldest gold mine

UW Jackson School of International Studies: Georgian environment, heritage at risk as RMG Gold exploits Sakdrisi

UTA Department of Slavic & Eurasian Studies: Ancient Georgia - crossroads of Europe and Asia

Atinati: The Golden Kingdom of Colchis

The Past: Georgia's Treasures: from the Land of the Golden Fleece

National Geographic (Georgian): Golden Lion from Kakheti

Smithsonian: Why this Ancient Civilization Fell Out of Love with Gold for 700 Years

National Geographic's "Out of Eden Walk:" Treasures of the Caucasus

Democracy & Freedom Watch: What was lost when a mining company destroyed the ancient Sakdrisi site?

[mercurygray]

hiiiiii you know i have to ask about the bitb/rowing idea!! dick taking up rowing is something i never knew i needed until now haha

She never thought she'd see another regatta.

College felt impossibly far away from where Joan was sitting in the grandstands of the Potomac Rowing Club - the sweaters, the flags, the weight of Ben's fraternity pin on her jacket. The world had looked different, in 1939 - and while she remembered that she liked a great many things about Bennett Hilliard, she also remembered being quite sure that becoming Mrs. Hilliard while he want to law school wasn't in her cards. Still, he'd come from the right sort of family and danced well and she'd liked the way she felt in his arms. Everyone at Poughkeepsie had been talking about Helsinki, and how it was a shame no one would be able to follow up the miraculous success of the UW team at Berlin.

The river in front of her today, however, was not the Hudson, and ten years was a long time in between races - a lot of water under many, many oars. Bennett Hilliard had gone on to marry some other Goucher graduate and she had gone to war.

Someone cleared his throat - a well-dressed man in glasses and a Syracuse scarf. "Captain Warren, it's so good of you to come out today. Your husband said we'd be seeing you. Usually we have to save Go Army for the football season. I like Dickie's chances - he's got to be one of the most natural rowers I've ever seen. It's Mort Greenstan," he said, holding out a hand for her to shake.

Joan finally placed the name, and abbreviated the smile that sprang to her lips hearing him called Dickie, a name he never owned to if he could help it. "The club chairman, yes, Dick mentioned you might stop by."

"Do you mind if I join you? I brought binoculars, in case you forgot."

"Thanks, I have my own," Joan said, patting the well-worn pair that had seen her through most of Europe.(She'd noticed the woman down the row a little had a lovely pair of pearl-handles on hers, but now wasn't the time for getting self-conscious. Joan Warren didn't follow things like fashion and if she wanted to bring her army binoculars to a regatta, she was damn well going to bring her army binoculars.)

"My, those have really been through the war, haven't they?" Mort said, trying to make a joke as he made himself comfortable on the seat next to her. Joan nodded serenely.

"Three campaigns in Europe and two combat jumps," she said, and smiled even wider when Mort went silent.

Down at the dock, the competitors were just getting into their sculls, each man wearing the colors of his own home club. A few colleges, here and there, Georgetown and Harvard and even Greenstan's Syracuse colors, and the other out of towners, Hudson and Annapolis and Newport. And there was Dick in his racing singlet and shorts, arms and legs all whipcord and muscle, and she allowed herself a good long look at the man she married. He caught sight of her in the stands and smiled, waving. She touched her hand to her lips, a small personal symbol of a kiss, and watched his smile widen.

The announcer was blazing through the names of the competitors, and she caught, almost missing it as it blew by, "-Colonel Richard Winters, rowing today for Potomac in the single men's sculls."

She had been just as surprised as anyone else when she'd came home from an assignment and realized there were muscles under his suitcoat that she'd hardly noticed when she left. "I joined the rowing club," he'd explained. "They were talking about it at lunch and Ken's a member, so I started going on Saturdays. It's a lot like running - the way you can lose your mind in it."

She'd nodded and agreed and made a joke about other things he could lose his mind in that required stroking, and that had been the last they'd talked about it for several hours, at least. But he'd kept at it until it was silly calling it a hobby, and now they were here, at a regatta, in the starting heats of a crowded and talented field.

The sculls were at the starting line, the rowers crouching into position at their oars, eyes ready for the flag. Joan tightened her grip on her binoculars and waited for the starter, her feet yearning for starting blocks and racing spikes, and a sudden surge of energy filled her as the flag dropped down and the race was on, and she was right there with him in his boat, shouting for the pace.

[fidelityfcrged]

By the time she makes her way out of the tunnels and into the clearing where the pack has gathered to perform preparations for the morning meal, she feels a bone weary exhaustion that she has not felt in years sinking it’s way through her. Emotional whiplash and the physical exertion of keeping her rage, and her fear, and all of the parts of her that made up her inner beast in check had drained her. She did not know if her distress was that poorly disguised, or if Cash’s abrupt departure earlier in the night was responsible for the space that she was given as she made her way out of camp, but regardless of the cause, she was grateful for it. She did not have it in her now to muster good will and warmth her packmates deserved from her.

She cut a sharp path towards the nearest bend of the river that would give her access to the icy waters and leave her in alarm distance of the camp but also leave her space and at least the pretense of privacy. Trudging her way through the trees in the first creeping rays of dawn, with the familiar scents and sounds of the wildlife around her lifted some of the pressure from her chest, and by the time she reached the river banks, she felt like she could breathe without much of a weight in her lungs. She crouched, sleeves rolled up so that she could plunge her hands into the water, scrubbing almost viciously at her arms, forearms, and then her face and neck and chest, twice, and then again. The scent of the vampire and the pig’s blood lingered, and she knew it was in her hair, her clothes, her nostrils. She would have to strip and scrub in entirety to be free of it.

Not that it would help. The moment she stepped back into camp, it would find her again.

Tears slipped, again, despite her attempt to scrub them away, and she sank down, cross legged, anger at herself as prevalent as all the other emotions that fought for dominance. She was meant to be strong. She did not feel strong. She felt small. And weak. And young. And afraid. She felt just like she had lifetimes ago when she'd learned of Des' death. And now? He was here, and he was lost to her, all over again.

Her hands pressed against her eyes, elbows resting on her knees, only drawn up as the familiar scent teased on the wind, and the sound of steps drew closer, and she felt the familiar pressure and comfortable weight of his hand on her shoulder. She turned and rose in the same movement, her head burrowing in beneath his chin, her arms flung around his chest.

@somebadguys / cash, uw.

[lesterpubliclibrary]

Wisconsin Librarian of the Year! by Lester Public Library Via Flickr: Congratulations to Terry Ehle, Youth Coordinator, Lester Public LIbrary, Two Rivers, Wisconsin, for being selected as the 2024 Librarian of the Year by the Wisconsin Library Association! We are very proud of Terry! From WLA: Librarian of the Year – Terry Ehle, Lester Public Library, Two Rivers Terry Ehle has been with the Lester Public Library since 1998. She holds a bachelor’s degree in elementary education from Western Illinois University, and after being named the 2014 SSCS Paralibrarian of the Year, attained her MLIS from UW-Milwaukee. Terry is an active member of the WLA Youth Services Section (YSS), serving as YSS Chair in 2017. She is also a member of the American Library Association, Association for Library Service to Children, and Young Adult Library Services Association. According to her colleagues, Ehle consistently raises the bar in materials selection and programming for infants to teens at her library: Ehle introduced, and is still helping widen the scope of, Reach Out and Read in Manitowoc County, a program that put 2,382 books in the hands of parents and their young children last year. Also in 2023, she submitted a successful grant application to promote early literacy and environmental awareness in partnership with Two Rivers Parks & Recreation and Woodland Dunes Nature Center & Preserve. As a result, Storywalks® were erected on library grounds and at a local park, and a large part of the park was restored to wetland, with a raised boardwalk and natural play features added. The project will delight residents and visitors for years to come. During the pandemic, Ehle spearheaded story time, youth, and family to-go packs. The plan was to discontinue the program once the building reopened, but she made the decision to continue it due to the positive response. From its start in May 2020 through July 2024, packs have reached more than 25,000 users. Ehle has championed teen engagement in the community with TR Teen Nights, an after-hours library program that has expanded to include community partners, including the city’s parks & recreation department, the school district, Woodland Dunes Nature Center & Preserve, and Hamilton Wood Type & Printing Museum. The partners invite teens into their spaces for safe, inexpensive, fun activities. The program provides enriching events and demonstrates that the community values teens and will find ways to encourage them. Through her efforts, the Rotary Club of Two Rivers awarded funds to implement a STEAM area in the library Ehle has formed a strong partnership with the Two Rivers School District. She meets regularly with administrators and educators and was a participant in community discussions to map out goals and strategies for a district three-year plan. She is president of the governance board of the Lighthouse Learning Academy, the district’s online charter school. Ehle is also dedicated to visiting district schools to do book talks. She brings library books to these visits for all students to check out, providing important access for children whose parents do not visit the library. This is no easy task - in the 2023-24 school year, she visited 32 classes monthly and checked out more than 1,600 books to students. Ehle is known as a well-versed advocate for best practices regarding the way children learn and shares this expertise with her community and her peers. Ehle leads the early literacy work group for the Investing Early Coalition of Healthiest Manitowoc County, a group which provides collaborative leadership to improve the well-being of the county. She has presented on youth programming and innovation in programming at past WLA conferences and has served as a panelist and presenter for webinars with both YSS and the WLA Outreach Services Roundtable. She recently co-wrote the article, “Practice the Practices: Kids Learn Big in Dramatic Play Areas,” for the fall 2024 issue of Children & Libraries, the journal of the Association for Library Service to Children. Due to the success of the local Reach Out & Read (ROR) partnership, Ehle serves on a Wisconsin ROR committee that is compiling a toolkit to maximize partnerships between libraries and clinics. Ehle is also an advocate for librarianship as a career, arranging behind-the-scenes tours, career days, and community service projects for area youth. She has twice participated in internship programs mentoring college students considering a library career. The Lester Public Library, Two Rivers and its surrounding communities, and the state of Wisconsin are the lucky beneficiaries of Ehle’s dedication, creativity, and vision in providing outstanding library services.

[uwmspeccoll]

Typography Tuesday

Silver Buckle Press is a working museum of letterpress printing dedicated to preserving the craft of fine printing through its collection of presses, type, and publications, distinguished by an extensive range of wood type, display faces, and decorative ornaments. It was acquired by the University of Wisconsin Madison in 1973 and resided at the university's Memorial Library as a teaching laboratory until the retirement of its last director Tracy Honn in 2016, after which the press and its collections were transferred to Hamilton Wood Type & Printing Museum in Two Rivers Wisconsin under a long-term loan agreement with the museum.

Silver Buckle had a series of curator/director/printers in its 40+ years at UW, and in 1988, when the noted letterpress printer and book artist Barbara Tetenbaum was director, the press printed this Calendar of ornamental material from the collection of the Silver Buckle Press, designed, printed, and bound under the direction of Tetenbaum with the assistance of Marta Gomez, Tracy Honn, and Phyllis McGibbon in an edition of 65 copies signed by Tetenbaum.

The calendar features the Printers' Ornament Collection from the Silver Buckle collection, and each image was designed and hand set from a variety of decorative border fonts and hand printed on a Vandercook proofing press. Our copy is another donation from the estate of our friend Dennis Bayuzick.

View more posts on the Silver Buckle Press.

View more posts of type ornaments.

View more Typography Tuesday posts.

[i-am-nickelbolt]

Bronze to Mythic: Lost Caverns of Ixalan, draft #6

This deck was pretty sweet, but just a head's up, I'm going to complain a lot about all my games. 2-3

Pack 1, pick 1 Waterwind Scout over Souls of the Lost. Scout keeps me open, and Souls is good but it's a commitment--I'd rather it be passed to me. Pick 2 I ended up on Lodestone Needle over Abrade, Belligerent Yearling, and Oltec Cloud Guard. Looking to stay one color, Abrade is good but not unpassable. Pick 3 Volatile Wanderglyph over Earthshaker Dreadmaw. I'd have to really prioritize Dinos for UG, so I passed. I was kind of regretting that pick after pick 4 Poison Dart Frog over nothing. Pick 5 Pathfinding Axejaw over Brackish Blunder. Pick 6 Tishana's Tidebinder over Petrify which is probably wrong, but I wish this were paper draft. Pick 7 a late Etali's Favor over a late Skullcap Snail. Pick 8 Orazca Puzzle Door over Dinotomaton and a late Cosmium Blast. So after pack 1, I'm thinking, "where are the good cards?" yet again.

Pack 2, pick 1, kind of a sad Triumphant Chomp over Petrify. Pick 2 Enterprising Scallywag over Petrify and Tinker's Tote. Could have had a pretty good UW start here instead... Pick 3 Sunfire Torch over Triumphant Chomp. Pick 4 Cogwork Wrestler over second Tishana's Tidebinder and Cenote Scout. Pick 5 easy Staunch Crewmate. Pick 6 Careening Minecart over Staunch Pirates. Pick 7 Dinotomaton over Petrify. What is it about White cards that I just don't see? Like, I'm shocked about the white cards I passed. Pick 8 slam Staunch Crewmate. I still need a little help at the end of pack 2, but at least I have a plan.

Pack 3, pick 1 Goblin Tome Raider over Etali's Favor, picking up a nice 1 drop. Pick 2 Abrade over Master's Guide-Mural for the alternate universe UW deck. Pick 3 Chart a Course over the umpteenth Petrify. Pick 4 pretty easy Etali's Favor over River Herald Scout. Pick 5 just give me a 3 mana 4/3 Scytheclaw Raptor. Pick 6 Volatile Wanderglyph. Pick 7 brick. Pick 8 I don't know what happened, but I missed out on a choice of Cogwork Wrestler, Inverted Iceberg, and Brackish Blunder, and instead I got Disruptor Wanderglyph for some reason. Etali's Favor wheeled!

My games kind of sucked.

Game 1 my opponent appeared to be color screwed, scooped on turn 5.

Game 2, I played the early game rather poorly, but even if I played well, I flooded out pretty badly, and yet my opponent refused to actually kill me. I don't know what they were playing around, but I was dead for *many* turns.

Game 3 my opponent scooped on turn 4, they appeared to be mana screwed, but I mulliganed and was running out of gas. Seemed a little premature.

Game 4 was a game that I played too conservatively in the mid game, there was a turn where I didn't use a removal spell and instead offered a trade, which ended up cascading missed damage over the next few turns, and allowed them to string multiple topdecks together (it had to be multiple) and stabilize. Even so I had the game won with a Brackish Blunder on the blocker for my trampler but I looked down and didn't have an untapped island in play. It was still in my hand. *sigh*

Game 5 I mulliganed a 2 mountain hand for a 2 island hand on the draw, and went through 19 cards of my deck before hitting my third land. This game would have been trivially easy had I been able to cast red spells.

Okay, I've complained enough. The deck was good, I just played bad and got unlucky.

[parasafterdark]

State of strings (March '24)

Oceans Apart

OA!Captain finally managed to get the new space station running smoothly and spent some more time as usual on recovering inside the empty construct.

Building some rapport and trust with Rajk (PA), even gaining some respect for it's knowledge about how all this works. And how quickly it caught on with the fact that the official story of the companies history is...not quite the truth.

Meanwhile Shiny's Jealousy was painful for one OA!Shal who was 1) already taken off guard by having the usual routine disrupted by OA!Captains absence and 2) has been suddenly designated both punching bag and beloved cuddle toy to cry into while having absolute no way to make sense of whats happening. Or how it could modify it's behaviour to make it stop happening.

But hey, it got a Puzzle Feeder for treats! :D

It also got locked out of it's enclosure when Shiny left for a vacation

Unused Words

"I am not a Child!", says the person making the second worst decision she could make in this situation.

"I don't need you to make decisions for me!", continues the person, pushing away the only people looking a the relationship and going: "Uuuh does this all seem kinda toxic to anyone?"

Making his stand in UW!Captains office, in front of most of xem's inner circle, by declaring that she wants to be at xis side, UW!Shal has now sealed his fate to, well suffer.

Cause yes, this relationship is toxic as fuck and that same inner circle were the only ones attempting to steer things into possibly improving a bit.

With the two of them now in a relationship of deeply undefined boundaries, UW!Captain took a couple days off (aka left said inner circle to figure out how to succesfully figure out how too crunch the current project to the deadline on their own.)

Cause there are things to celebrate, drugs to take, sex to have and new rules to be established without there being clear communication between them.

Partially due to that whole drugs and sex thing, but deeper than that for the same reasons that this whole situation has slowly escalated to this point: UW!Shals inability to set a boundary even if it would save his life. And UW!Captain taking that silence as implicit consent.

Either way, any kind of official ceremony will have to wait until after Business Stressors have calmed down and worked through, but truly, who needs that if you can burn your signature into your conquests sternum?

Hunting Grounds

The first game concluded in a loss for all as HG!Shal actively fucked up in the last Minigame just to spite a person who wasn't even at the table to witness it.

Then, instead of letting lym smugly gloat at them in person, the minigame group got split off and brought into storage while their next game was being prepared.

There gal proceeded to not dispel all the distrust gained from lyx prior stunt as gal was more occupied with slowly losing lyx mind about being trapped inside a cage, inside a locked room, inside an unknown facilty, all while having none of lyx usual coping methods readily available.

(This is where I went on a sidetrip figuring out HG!Shal's childhood and tbh that whole thing is gonna go into a different post, sorry >.>)

Second Game "Dancing in the rain"

Setting: Abandoned Themepark reclaimed by Jungle

Players: 5

Goal: Survive

Additional Rules: none

Given the already non existend trust, everyone voted to NOT have HG!Shal be part of the group. Including lym, given that gal was just happy to be outside finally. On a whim, HG!Captain managed to establish a secret signal with HG!SHal juuuust in case.

And so the players split with one going to make a camp somewhere else while the rest would set up in a cave near a river. Luckily a couple of them had picked up some outdoor survival skills in prior games, cause while they were given some starting equipment, none of them believed that that would be enough for whatever the game had in store for them.

Over time they would slowly explore the surrouding area. Both to figure out what other ressources are to be found and, slightly more important, figure out what this game was actually about. So far they have only found some empty merch stores and a barely stable rollercoaster track

It has now been a bit over a week and the rain started to fall...

[yuseonghqs]

🌊 GREETINGS FROM YUSEONG BAY !

JUST LANDED: SEO, NOAH. / / FROM: USA. / / AGE: 21.

–––– ( FOLLOW ? ) / / ( READ MORE ? ) / / ( MAILBOX ? )

born and raised in seattle, washington, noah is one of two children. if you were to ask noah about his early life, his childhood, he would describe it as eerily average. noah, born quickly after his sister, making them irish twins, felt undoubtably close to her and though the two fought, as siblings usually do, they were generally well to get along.

his mother started her education in nursing and went on to become a nurse practitioner and work in a family clinic; his father working mostly highly laborious jobs in construction, becoming a site overseer in a lot of large scale projects in the city. with both working very demanding jobs, they didn't spend much time raising their children, nor did they put much effort into their already crumbling marriage.

in middle school, noah becomes known as sort of a "basketball prodigy" and once in high school, it becomes his defining feature when the games become all that more high stake. he is the team's ace and is well known both in his own high school and others in the area. it earns him a glowing reputation, which is something he hates, because well, being shy and also popular, don't really mix well together. and while he has friends he enjoys being around, he also has a reputation for being quiet and somewhat brooding.

the discontent began to set into the house when nina and noah entered high school. fights were common, he and his sister would sit on the carpeted stairs and listen to the explosive arguments that would rattle the house. both of them knew eventually, their parents would get a divorce, sometimes welcomed it even. that is, until they didn't quite choose the same parent to live with upon the separation.

noah had always felt closest to his mother and the option between staying at his school in a city where he had lived most of his life, rather than going to a new country, speaking a new language, and experiencing major culture shock, felt like the safest choice. nina, however, chose to move to south korea with her father, who would be moving to live closer to his parents.

the choice to separate from is sister was almost worse than the hurt of the divorce between his parents; the fact that they would no longer be a whole family, now broken and continents away from each other, would leave noah feeling betrayed in a way. for the one who had always looked out for him, would be thousands of miles away. the sadness he felt and the shame in his codependence would cause him to close himself off from everyone and leave him lingering in his last high school days as a wallflower, even more reserved, anxious, and quiet.

since sports had always been his favorite outlet, besides playing guitar, he decided to entertain a scholarship to UW. with basketball dominating his life, he found it hard to really find much direction in life, because while he doesn't really want to play professionally, he also doesn't really know what he wants out of university either. he would find himself on the track to graduate with a degree in biochemistry, having a just mild interest in science courses.

not really knowing what to do with his life, noah decides to follow his sister to seoul with a exchange program for the summer. with both living near his sister again and enjoying the change of setting and life away from sports, he in passing, tells his coach and a few teammates that he wants to stay in korea and continue his education there. they do not support this idea, while it would mean losing their star player. through enough guilt, noah reluctantly agrees to come back.

tw self-harm / this would change with a "freak injury" during one of his morning runs by the han river. noah would be told by doctors in seoul that he would not be allowed to play basketball until he had significant physical therapy, or in all likelihood, ever again. this would also mean, losing his sports scholarship.

such a drastic change to noah's life, left him with even less of an answer of where to go or what to do. his parents didn't have much money, let alone to pay for his schooling, nor did he even want to go back home and confront his former teammates and coach. so in an act of desperation, he fled to yuseong bay, to live with his father and grandparents on their family farm.

currently, noah feels like a fish out of water, but ultimately he feels as though yuseong is actually helping him learn to live with that uncomfortableness. he finds comfort in blending in with simplicity, not having to make largely life changing decisions, and ultimately, just feeling calm by the quietness of the town.

[richwall101]

Bristol City Centre and Harbour

Bristol is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city in South West England. The wider Bristol Built-up Areais the eleventh most populous urban area in the United Kingdom.

Isambard Kingdom Brunel Built the first Iron Clad steam ship here in the city docks "The Great Britain" the largest passenger ship in the world from 1845 - 1854 The Ship is now restored as a museum in its original build dock in the City. Brunel also engineered The Great Western Railway from London To Bristol and South Wales, He also built the famous Clifton Suspension Bridge that spans the Avon Gorge at Clifton in Bristol.

A major port, Bristol was a starting place for early voyages of exploration to the New World. On a ship "The Mathew" out of Bristol in 1497, John Cabot, a Venetian, became the first European to land on mainland North America, and In 1499, William Weston, a Bristol merchant, was the first Englishman to lead an exploration to North America. At the height of the Bristol slave trade, from 1700 to 1807, more than 2,000 slave ships carried an estimated 500,000 people from Africa to slavery in the Americas. The Port of Bristol has since moved from Bristol Harbour in the city centre to the Severn Estuary at Avonmouth and Royal Portbury Dock.

Bristol's modern economy is built on the creative media, electronics and aerospace industries; the city-centre docks have been redeveloped as centres of heritage and culture. The city has two universities: the University of Bristol and the University of the West of England (UWE Bristol). There are a variety of artistic and sporting organisations and venues including the Royal West of England Academy, the Arnolfini, Spike Island, Ashton Gate and the Memorial Stadium. It is connected to London and other major UK cities by road and rail, and to the world by sea and air: road, by the M5 and M4(which connect to the city centre by the Portway and M32); rail, via Bristol Temple Meads and Bristol Parkway mainline rail stations; and Bristol Airport. Bristol has two football teams Bristol City & Bristol Rovers. A major new Entertainment venue is now under construction at Filton (north of the city) The YTL Arena will open in 2024

Bristol was named the best city in Britain in which to live in 2014 and 2017; it won the European Green Capital Award in 2015.