Thing 14-Tools?!@#$%

For a start page I tried out both iGoogle and My Yahoo. I seem to prefer MyYahoo, maybe because that is my main personal email account and I visit that site often enough to see the information on that page. I also like the page design/template choices on My Yahoo more than I liked the iGoogle options. I chose the "forest" template.
I think some of these tools are useful and great for those who don't have a home or work computer. I find that my cell phone is the best place for me to keep my appointments because it will ring and remind me. Otherwise I must remember to log into My Yahoo to see what's going on in my life. At work I use my Microsoft Outlook calendar to keep track of my life and I like that. I can see the appeal of the Blackberry, so that people have access to email and all this info in the palm of their hand.
Once again I tried to insert the countdown clock. It said to insert the html code into the blog profile. I'm not sure where that is so I'm not having any success with this. If I have time at work, I will ask someone for help with this. Otherwise, you'll have to read my comments on my attempts which seem to fail most of the time.

Created by OnePlusYou

OMG I can't believe it worked!!!

Library Thing 13

I had fun with this tool. I actually joined Library Thing in January because I had heard of it and decided to check it out. I added books in January and today, I created a profile, added a few more books, uploaded a picture and explored some of the other options in the site. Some of the books I've read are very popular of course, like Water for Elephants, and other not so well known, like, The Last Chinese Chef. I liked seeing the recommendations list of books I might like. I think I will read some, many I had already read, but had not yet put them on my list. I tried to post a random display of my books to my blog, but I can't figure it out to save my life. I've checked into the "add widgets" area and I also copied the code from Library Thing and tried to post it into both the "image" and "video" upload options to no avail. This is where I need some help.

Is there anybody out there to help me with this or is no one reading this blog at all!

Here's a link to my Library Thing page anyway.

Thing 12--wikis

I have been using wikis, a little bit, for awhile. Of course my favorite wiki is wikipedia, and as much as library folk like to badmouth it, I love wikipedia and use it. Granted, it's not an authoritative source, but it's useful, it's clean, it's well organized and it's easily searchable. This is more than I can say for most wikis that I have encountered.
I'm not very keen on wikis as a library tool because they are not easy to edit or add to. They seem pretty convoluted actually. My first experience with a wiki was with the SSLLI wiki and I added a short bio to it, but I found it difficult to navigate or maneuver, so I never used it. I'm also part of an e-Government wiki and once again, I don't find it very user friendly, I can't usually find the information that I'm looking for. Another wiki that I have recently gotten involved with in the ACLD storytime wiki created by a Librarian in Youth Services. This is the one that I chose to add content to. I typed up a couple of favorite old fingerplays for the wiki, but when I wanted to edit the title or delete it, I couldn't figure out how. So here is the link to the content I created is listed twice because when trying to edit it I create another entry...I gave up after that. Frustrating! You can see it at the link and it's called "Old ideas for programs."
OK, wikis are not my thing, but I did it.

Thing 11-Social Media

There is an aspect of social media that reminds me of reading the National Enquirer or Time magazine in the checkout line of the grocery store. I know it is actually very different...I did watch the the Common Craft video. Once again, I realize that even though I spend most of my day every day in front of a computer, I am not an internet junkie. I think it's because I don't want to spend so much time sitting. I like to and have to be moving after I leave work. Some things, such as podcasts, allow you to move while using a technology, but reading is not one of them.
So I checked out Mixx and read the headlines under "News" and "Popular." I also read the paper this morning and read some of the same info, but the "News" link on Mixx has a more international flavor than our local newspaper. I also looked at Digg and I noticed that both sites have a similar organization to them. They let the reader know how recent the news post is, how popular it is (by number of hits) and they have categories that you can click onto to sort your news by your preference.
This would definitely be a handy tool for those interested in pop culture and the uncensored nature of it is interesting.
I can see using this at the reference desk if I get a question about latest news about something, but it would still be a lot of reading to sort and find what I'm looking for. Social Media are interesting tools and I'll have to think longer on how I can use this in my work or personal life. I guess now I don't have to go to the grocery store to read the cover of National Enquirer, I can find it under the "Popular" tab on a social media site.

Thing 10-del.ici.ous

Social bookmarking is a great idea, especially for those who like to save a lot of sites as favorites. I'm going to have to get Alan to sign up for this since his "favorites" list is long and hard to sort through. For me, I realize, once again that I'm not the computer/internet junky that I have the potential to be. I realize I don't play on the internet, I use it as a tool only.
I signed up for my del.ici.ous account and when it asked to import my current bookmarks, I quickly looked through my list of favorites to see what I had saved. The results: one site on "4th grade math problems." The rest were a list supplied by my IE browser which mostly consisted of sites that I, or those I share a home computer with, have frequently visited. YouTube is one of the sites, since my daughter loves that site another was a bank site since Alan does online banking (I don't).
Since I don't have any favorites, I did some del.ici.ous searches. I looked up "23 Things" and found a lot of blogs from libraries around the country. I searched under "travel." This brought up sites for cheap airfare as well as travel blogs that people have posted. I searched under "cheap cruises" and found lots of sites advertising cheap cruises.
I can see the uses of this. In a way it's better than Google, since there sites have a "recommended" quality to them since someone has bookmarked them as "a keeper."
What a yummy learning experience, definitely del.ici.ous.

Thing 9

OK. Sometimes these 23 Things make me feel homocidal. I think I'm going to kill the internet. I don't know why they don't work for me, but I think I have some sort of virus that prevents my brain from easily understanding how to upload this stuff onto my blog. The creating is fine. The uploading is the confusing part. Is a slideshow from Zoho an image or a video. It's all so messy. And if it takes more than 30-45 minutes for me to figure something out. I would rather kill it than do it.
Here is a slideshow I created for National Library Week last year. Since I can't upload it I'm enclosing the link. We'll see if it works.
I have created multiple slide shows in Powerpoint and more personal ones on a free site www.slide.com. Zoho and Slideshare seem to be free options for creating slideshows if you don't own a computer or your computer doesn't have the MS word office package. I know this is all expensive. But since I do have Powerpoint I'm not really inclined to put slideshows on the internet. But for patrons, I can see it is an excellent option. I could direct students to this if they must create a presentation for class. Then they don't have to save the presentaion onto a CD or thumbdrive. I have however tried out the photo sharing slideshow at the above link and had fun with it.
Later, I will see if I can get one of my Library powerpoints to load.
Sayonara

Thing 8

Instant messaging is an interesting concept. Instant access to everything we want is very much part of our culture now. Do you remember life before cell phones? We just understood that you had to leave messages and that folks would get back to us. We even wrote letters sometimes. Email was considered an amazing way to communicate and FREE. Now our ability to connect with others has increased exponentially.
I haven't done much IMing, perhaps because none of my friends really uses it much. I guess I'm more of the generation of, "why not pick up the phone and call?" I speak better than I type and I'm a pretty good typist. Or why not just email? It's pretty fast. I'm trying to think of the applications that this would be useful and I guess Gamers love IM.
I use text messaging all the time. I use it because my friends and daughter use it, but I have many friends that don't use it. I find that texting is a better way of communicating with my babysitter than leaving a message because she won't necessarily listen to her messages--too many steps. Text messages you can read instantly.
At work we have been responding to email questions for over a decade and it works well. It's also pretty quick to turn it around if they email during open hours. All librarians participate in Ask-a-Librarian online chatting. This is fun and sometimes challenging but a great idea.
Ths r my thghts. C U L8TR.

Thing 7--Eureka!

My creation
Originally uploaded by Be Astengo

Is this working? OMG I figured it out! I posted from my Flickr account. Wow. I'm not sure how to use this for work, but I can think of ways of using this personnally, but that's only if I keep up a blog. I have some more exploring to do with this one.

Thing 7

I can't figure this one out. I need help! I made posters and puzzles and the only way I can figure out how to load the image is by saving it first onto the desktop, then upload it to blogger. That's how I did the spelling, which was no small feat! Creating is fun, but posting it to the blog is annoying as heck.

spelling be

Thing 6

This is a creative activity if you have nothing to do. I can see it being fun for kids if they are so inclined. I created a jigsaw of myself since that seems playful, but I couldn't move the pieces, so not as playful as I would like.

Thing 5 part 2

For the image below I did a Google image search, but since this thing is about Flickr, I went onto Flickr to look for images/photos that would match my original search of "starry night." I found some beautiful and interesting images, and of course the Van Gogh image also. It's interesting to see what a variety of images people use under the tag of "starry night."
I have also tried out other photo sharing sights such as Picassa, since it's free and it's Google. I've also used Snapfish and Kodakshare. A friend of mine recently sent me some gorgeous photos of my daughter and her friend climbing trees and she shared them through Facebook and Picassa. The ability to share photos so easily is really delightful once you organize the photos. For me, there are complications in organizing digital photos that I can't begin to go into. It may just be part of the fact that I'm neither a neat nor an organized person and I share a computer with 2 other people at home. It can be confusing.
I tried to add 3 images from Flickr that used the tag "starry night" but it didn't work the way the image below did, so I'm not sure what's up. Instead, click the "starry night" link here and you can see all of them. Weird how technology doesn't always work the same way from day to day.

Thing 5

Here is an image I copied from somewhere on the internet. It's a well known image that I appreciate. I visited the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam about 25 years ago and loved it. My daughter drew a rendition in of this, in 2nd grade, which hangs on my office wall.

Photo sharing is really pretty great. I love how easy it is to find images and upload them onto documents or webpages. I also love how I can take 100 photos on the digital camera while on vacation and only print out the ones that I like. The difficult part is keeping track of all the photos and where they are on my computer.