We're Not Part of Mexico!

Even though New Mexico is the 5th largest state in the U.S.--area-wise, not population-wise; for population, we are ranked 36th--we are often thought to be part of a foreign country. You can read New Mexico Magazine's monthly column, One of Our Fifty is Missing, for true stories of how this plays out. New Mexicans are congratulated for being able to speak English so well, are told that their catalog orders "can't be shipped to a foreign country," and are asked for their passports with alarming regularity by fellow Americans who hear "Mexico" rather than "New Mexico," or who just plain never heard that we are a state, located between Arizona and Texas.

You can read a fun discussion here on common misconceptions about our state; it's always a hundred degrees here, we are crawling with rattlesnakes, no one speaks English, and this one:

Airlines Representative: "Sorry, Ma'am, but we cannot fly your cats on an international flight".

Me: "Which state is international? Maine or New Mexico?"

As long as we are in video mode, if you would like to take a quick but very lovely tour of parts of New Mexico, please visit Becky's Blog to watch her slideshow.

Tomorrow: A video that probably should have stayed in the Zee family archives!

Did You Know?

Karl Fisch, a high school administrator at Arapahoe High School in Littleton, Colorado, pulled together a powerpoint with “some interesting ideas” for teachers at his school. Later, Jeff Bronman and Scott Mcleod, a professor at the University of Minnesota, generalized the presentation. 

Free Hugs

It's time to watch the Free Hugs video again. It always makes me cry, right about the place where it turns from black and white to color.

Ryan Started the Fire

If you're not a fan of The Office, I really don't know what to tell you about this video. 

Political Mud

Thank you, Auntie Bucksnort, for showing me this video.

Happy National Library Week last April (or next)

Before viewing this video, you should know two things about me. I'm a retired librarian who has worked in all kinds of libraries, from a coastal California bookmobile to a tiny New England town library; from a huge Canadian university research library to elementary school libraries to a biggish eastern city public library. The second thing you should know is that in all those years I never, ever remembered to celebrate National Library Week on time.

The third thing (beside the fact that I can't count) is that I've always treasured an old Herb Caen column in the San Francisco Chronicle that he wrote about libraries. It was probably during an actual long-ago National Library Week that he told us about the book that had been returned to the San Francisco Public Library with a piece of bacon in it that had apparently been used as a bookmark. I don't know if it was a need to protect books or a love of bacon, but from that moment on I knew where I wanted to work.

There. Now you can watch this video.

Viva Obama!

We Are the Ones We've Been Waiting For

My Clovis: Around the Neighborhoods

Making Chocolate Chip Pancakes Without Singing

Just when you thought there couldn't possibly be any more pancake videos, I bring you one showing the right way to make pancakes. There are no funny songs that will stick in your head, I promise. This comes to you from startcooking.com, a great place to learn basic techniques.

Pancakes For Your Face

You wouldn't think there would be many pancake videos, would you? Take a look at Scottish songwriter/video producer James Provan's second (see his first one here). You'll see that he has a much fancier kitchen now, and I suspect that has to do with his video successes. Check out his YouTube page for more of his works and his biography.

It's Time for Pancakes!

Did you know? Shrove Tuesday is the day before Ash Wednesday and is sometimes known as Pancake Day or Pancake Tuesday. This year it fell on Feb. 5th. I missed it, so I'm going to celebrate my very own Pancake Week starting right now.

Here is my favorite pancake video in the world. It has the best pancake song ever. Big warning: The song is extremely addictive and I predict that it will get stuck in your head. I know I always sing it when making pancakes now. By the way, the producer of the video is James Provan, screen name "GiR."

Yes, They Can

Kids in the South Bronx on Obama and His Campaign

My Clovis video returns

I am trying to toughen up. When I posted my very first video, My Clovis, on YouTube the negative comments got me down and I removed the video after a week or so. It had gotten 135 views, but it just didn't seem worth it to have to read harsh comments about the town every day from the same kind of bitter people who had posted the video Boycott Clovis, New Mexico.

I sent an email to the editor of the newspaper to ask why some people seemed so angry at Clovis, and if he thought there were any Clovis fans out there. And then the fun began. The editor, David Stevens, made my question his "question of the week" in the newspaper (scroll down to the Editors' Notebook on the March 28 edition) and on his blog, Falling with Style. You can see some of the great answers he received on the March 26 and March 27 posts.

This morning an op-ed piece by local media personality Grant McGee appeared on the editorial page of the Clovis News Journal print edition. You can read it online here. He talked about My Clovis and I scrambled to get the video back online. You can see it here and on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bqX81erwpYQ.

Please feel free to comment here or on YouTube. I promise to try to be less tenderhearted this time.

~Clair Z.

My Clovis

Ah, YouTube. When I saw a negative video posted there called Boycott Clovis, New Mexico I worked hard making a slide show of the photos that I have been taking since moving here. It took me quite a while to do because I have never put together a video using jpeg files before.

I thought that it might be a good idea to present a more positive view and to show the beauty that is here for those who look for it. I posted my little effort on YouTube, but soon found that I am far too tenderhearted to deal with the kind of negative comments that started appearing. Folks had apparently decided that they didn't like Clovis, and they resented any attempt to see it in a positive way. So I'm taking down my YouTube posting, and doing my best to obliterate my account there, which was under the name of "cloviscowgirl" because they already have enough clairz-type names on file.

P.S.: Things are looking up! See the March 28 posts on this blog.

Melting the Mainframes

Obama Girl: "The Sleeping Giant in This Election"

I Got a Crush…On Obama: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wKsoXHYICqU

Debate ’08: Obama Girl vs. Giuliani Girl: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ekSxxlj6rGE

Obama Girl Returns: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENCRu-2d35g&feature=user

Obama Wins! Obama Girl Reacts!: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rOnn1hWN-Og&feature=user

Obama Girl: Behind the Sweat: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBtqbsqonu0&feature=user

Wikipedia article on Obama Girl and the making of the videos: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Got_a_Crush_on_Obama