TWF 344: Lego At The Library!

Hey all,

Been a while.  Hoping to make it to Pride On The Mile this year (June 15th I believe), but in the meantime I just had to share this.

After all, I am a huge Lego fan.  I just wish there were more opportunities.

TWF 335: Lots Of Library Events Coming Up!

 Hello, friends,

A short one, today.  I've talked about the Freeport Memorial Library previously.  It's awesome.

I saw a post on one of the Freeport Facebook groups that I wanted to talk about.  There's a Freeport Camera Club meeting on Wednesday, January 25th, from 7:00PM-8:45PM.  That got me looking at the library schedule and, hooo boy is it busy!

I encourage you to look for yourself, but here are some highlights:

 - There are apparently multiple sessions of ESL (English as a Second Language) classes for those looking to learn English.

 - There's a social work intern, Kathleen Willig, who will be available at times to help people with any social services, such as emergency housing.

 - There are Yoga, Zumba, and healthy-living classes available, as well as substance abuse counseling.  It's good to have these things in our community!

 - There's a whole chess-club meeting!  I mean, I used to be big into chess.

 - There's even tween anime viewing sessions!

The bottom line is that there are some really cool programs going on, and they shouldn't be forgotten about!

Jesse Pohlman is a science-fiction/fantasy author born and raised in Freeport.  His novels are available through his website.

TWF 317 - Praise For The Freeport Memorial Library

Hello, friends.

Libraries around Nassau County are amazing places.  Not only do they have books, but they have digital books.  They provide access to computers for those who might not have working internet connections.  They host classes.  They also provide services for children's enrichment.

Growing up, I remember spending hours upon hours at the Freeport Memorial Library's computer desk.  I remember having to sign in and wait my turn to work on some tremendous CRT monitor and - well, let's be honest, I went there to play games.  My parents encouraged me, since it gave them some time off and it trained me to operate those machines-of-the-future.  You know, like the one I'm writing this on?

I can still see flashes of images in my head from that time.  They're very welcome.

Image courtesy of the Memorial Library webpage.

Yet all is not well as we approach January of 2022.  CoVID-19 has continued to be mainline threat to all of, yanno, Humanity (maybe worthy of a hyper-local update article?).  As a result, in-person community events are largely suspended.  Yet, thanks to the proliferation of technologies such as Zoom (far from the first, but arguably the most widespread), the Library has continued to provide events.  Here's the list for tomorrow, 12/22/2021, and Thursday 12/23/2021:

Click the link near the top of the article to check out the full library schedule!
 - Also, I believe the Chorale Holiday Caroling was cancelled.  Bummer.

There's really no greater purpose to this post than to praise the Library.  Libraries are one of the last great free services provided by our society to our society, and while we really do need more of those, we also need to praise the ones we've still got.  Times are tough.  I know first-hand that librarians at all levels, from the NYC system down to your local elementary school, work extremely hard.  I know CoVID has taken a toll on them.

So, for no particular reason, thank you for everything.

Jesse Pohlman is an author from Long Island, New York, who spent his formative years and many more in Freeport.  He's presently thinking of his parents and good memories because it's his first Solstice without his father, and that's rough.