Today I Love

Picture from Cornell Lab of Ornithology

Red-winged blackbirds.* I remember seeing and hearing them on walks with my parents (often at the same Bellefields park that I will have pictures of later). I didn't hear or see them for years while I was living in Texas - too much in the city I guess - but they are abundant at the two local lake parks where Miikka and I walk. I love hearing them as I walk in the early morning.

*Take a look at the awesome Cornell Lab of Ornithology website. It has a searchable database with pictures, habitat information, conservation status, and most awesome - sounds. If you follow that link, you can hear just what I hear in the mornings on my walks.

Helping Haiti

The blogosphere and traditional news are full of appeals and information about how to give money to help Haiti. We have given money to two of our favorite charities: Doctors Without Borders and Heifer International. It is important to make sure that the charities you give to will use your money wisely, not just now in a time of crisis, but on a regular basis. There are several places online that you can go that evaluate charities. My favorite is Charity Navigator. From their website:

Charity Navigator's rating system examines two broad areas of a charity's financial health -- how responsibly it functions day to day as well as how well positioned it is to sustain its programs over time. Each charity is then awarded an overall rating, ranging from zero to four stars. To help donors avoid becoming victims of mailing-list appeals, each charity's commitment to keeping donors' personal information confidential is assessed.

This information includes the CEO pay, how much money goes to fund-raising and operational costs, versus how much goes to actually doing their charitable work.

The Better Business Bureau also has a database with information about charities for donors.

Encyclopedia of Arkansas

When I interviewed for my job, E. asked me what my favorite reference site was, and I didn't have a very good answer. If I were asked that question today, my answer would be The Encyclopedia of Arkansas. It has well-written articles on many aspects of Arkansas's history, along with pictures and citations for further research. I used it just this morning to help answer a question Dad had about a Japanese internment camp that was located in Rowher, Arkansas during WWII. I have used it to answer multiple questions, in fact, my own and those from patrons. So, if any of y'all want to know more about my new state, take a look.