Cathy's blog

Forgot Thing #2 - Oops

2007-09-13T08:22:00.000-07:00

Okay - I was one of the ones that was so worried about messing something up that I forgot to add comments about thing #2 after I set up my blog.

The easiest of the 7 1/2 habits of a lifelong learner is #1 - Begin with the end in mind. It's one of the easiest things to do. The how of getting there is more difficult.

The hardest is number 7 1/2 - Play. Sometimes I get so obsessed with a project or problem that I forget to have fun or build in time to play and experiment with solutions. I'm working on it though!

One Last "Thing"

2007-09-10T11:28:00.000-07:00

Unbelieveable! I actually made it to Thing # 23. Back in July when I was running around like an idiot, I began to believe that I would never finish. But, I did.

I enjoyed the experience. If I hadn't been given time and actually encouraged to particpate, I know I never would have made it through to the end. I did learn about things and terms that I never had a good understanding of. I really enjoyed creating the avatar, though I don't think I'll ever do it again. I never knew online tools for word processing and spreadsheets even existed. That's great.

Here I am blogging. Never thought I'd do that.

I hated Rollyo. The RSS feeds were neat to learn about, but I was unimpressed.

I always thought YouTube was for teens and twenty-somethings. It's cool. I'll be spending more time there...after the bandwidth issues and restrictions are lifted.

I would definitely recommend 23 Things to the folks who did not take up the challenge of particpating.

Thanks to everyone who helped me when I got stuck! (Which was often!!)

Yippeeeee! Done.

Thing 22- Overdrive

2007-09-10T11:24:00.001-07:00

I took a look at the Overdrive offerings after linking from the BCPL catalog. I found what I expected to find. Lots of information and materials, but not a lot of what I would like to see or listen to. I still like to hold the books that I read for enjoyment. I guess I am old-fashioned. I was less impressed with this, than several of the other "things".

Thing 21 - Podcasts

2007-09-10T11:05:00.000-07:00

I found a library podcast:
http://feeds.feedburner.com/LibVibe

It was interesting. Who knew there was a library news podcast? Really, I only looked for it because it was suggested by the 23 Thing directions.

More interesting for me is podcast about Walt Disney World. The podcast I am listening to now is over an hour and a half long. I know I won't finish it today, but maybe I'll go back to it later on.

http://www.wdwradio.com/xml/wdwradio.xml

Thing 20 - You Tube...who knew?

2007-09-10T10:10:00.000-07:00

You Tube. I've heard about it for a while, but figured that the quality can't be that good. I explored You Tube today as part of my 23 Things. I was pleasantly surprised.

Everyone who knows me, knows that I am an Elvis fan. I searched and found many Elvis videos. (Now, Elvis died - yes, he truly is dead - 30 years ago, long before the invention of the music video.) And there, he is in living color. How cool is that?

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=elvis+rubberneckin

Check out the video someone made and posted. Most of it is straight from the movie where the song originally appeared, but still very good. I enjoyed it a lot.

Thing 19 - Web 2.0 awards

2007-09-07T13:24:00.000-07:00

As part of this exercise I tried a few sites. Google maps is one that I had heard about, but never really tried before. I like that I can see the location in relation to streets. Map Quest gives you driving directions, but you never know how far you need to go after that last turn to find your spot. With Google maps, it points right to it with a big arrow. Very helpful for me.

Google maps definitely have a library application. How often do we get asked for directions?!?

I was less impressed with the other sites I tried. Care2 and Donor Choose were less intuitive. I had to hunt around to find out what they were about - why were they there. I was also less successful in getting responses for what I was searching for. I don't see an application for either of these sites.

Thing 18 - Online Productivity

2007-09-07T13:08:00.000-07:00

This is a test of Google docs as part of my Library 2.0 explorations. This looks a lot like the MS word applications we are all used to using. How cool that this is free!
You can insert a table - just like word. I do that all the time

Printing is just as easy as well.

I like it!

Thing 17 - Sandbox

2007-09-07T12:55:00.000-07:00

I had to go to the experts for help on this one. Though, when I got help, it appears that I was not as stupid as I thought. I was really only one step away from having figured it out myself. Yeah me! And - Yeah, Joyce - for helping me out.

Not my favorite exercise.

Thing 16 - Wikis

2007-09-07T12:21:00.000-07:00

So, I found a website linked off of the Bull Run Library's wiki that takes a very humorous look at the librarian stereotype. I'm not a librarian, but I found it very clever and funny.

http://uncyclopedia.org/wiki/Librarian

That's the link if you want to take a look.

I liked the Book Lovers wiki. This one looks great as a quick tool for reader's advisory, don't you think? I found a couple of titles listed that I would like to try.

Library 2.0 - Thing #15

2007-08-31T12:15:00.000-07:00

I found Dr. Schulz's concept of Library 3.0 interesting. I think I like the idea of boks/materials having personalities and avatars of their own.

I wasn't too inspired by the other articles that I read. Maybe it's too late in the day. Maybe because it's the Friday before a holiday weekend. Sorry - no more thoughts.

Thing 13 - Del.icio.us

2007-08-31T11:31:00.000-07:00

I found a site "Yarra Plenty Online Learning" that talked about a program no unlike out 23 Things. There was a photo proclaiming the joys of Online Learning and Web 2.0 from Australia. Very cool. The Internet does make the world much smaller.

I posted a comment to the owner of the blog (is that the right term?) encouraging her continued pursuit of Web 2.0 learning.

Rollyo - a dud

2007-08-10T12:42:00.000-07:00

I guess I don't get it. It seems like a dud to me. Did I do it right? Sorry. I just don't see the attraction to Rollyo. Maybe I'm too detail oriented. When I'm looking for something, I don't have a problem finding it through Google or such.

This one wasn't a hit with me.

Library Thing

2007-08-10T12:18:00.000-07:00

We heard about Library Thing at CUGM last September. Interesting concept. I would have never thought that there would be regular people out there wanting to create their own catalogs for their personal libraries. Here were my selections:

Third Base Is My Home by Brooks Robinson Brooks - the best third basemen EVER!
6 other members. Tags: None (edit)

Latin for Dummies by Clifford A. Hull My favorite subject in high school.
43 other members. Tags: None (edit)

Larousse Concise Dictionary: French-English/English-French (Larousse Concise Dic ...
57 other members. Tags: None (edit) Parlez-vous francais?

Winnie the Pooh 80th Anniversary Edition by A.A. Milne Love the Pooh!
69 other members. Tags: None (edit)

Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery Love Anne. Just a great character.
3253 other members. Tags: None (edit)

Is that an odd collection - probably. :)

My avatar

2007-08-10T12:05:00.000-07:00

This was kind of fun. I could have spent hours creating new Avatars. They are a little more involved than creating Miis on the Wii. I can pretend that that is me now - in Paris and not in my cubicle in the basement. Allons a Paris!

RSS Feeds

2007-08-03T13:19:00.000-07:00

Today I finally got back to my 23 Things. I learned all about RSS feeds. These had been talked about heavily at CARL User's Group meetings for the last two years. Now I finally understand what they are all about.

The most difficult thing for me was figuring out how and when I could link the page's information for a feed. Not all the sites I was interested in have them. The easiest method for me was to copy and paste the URL for the feed into Bloglines rather than search for them from the Bloglines site. At one point I "lost" my first feed. It turns out that I missed the second subscribe button that was at the bottom of the page. I hadn't scrolled down enough. Thanks to Ellen for figuring that out for me!!! :)

I-Phone is out today

2007-06-29T12:57:00.000-07:00

My hubby has been fascinated with the iPhone since they announced it earlier in the year. Today is the day it hits the streets. I think he would love to have one, but is being cautious about the new technology. It does look really cool, as it was demonstrated for a CBS news feature.

Me? I am not one of those people who are fascinated with new electronic gadgets. I love my iPod because it lets me take my music anywhere. And now that I have a new dohickey to power it from the lighter and broadcast it through my car stereo, I don't have to listen to any songs I don't like or annoying DJs on my commutes to and from work.

I don't think an iPhone is in my immediate future - but maybe for my technology hungy hubby it's a possibility.

mashup

2007-06-29T12:55:00.000-07:00

I liked the Yahoo Travel Planner thingy. I found a really cool 12-day Paris (and other parts of France) trip all planned out.

http://travel.yahoo.com/trip-search-destid-191501740;_ylt=AiNSRaldOd2f92FipN5UCS2fItAF

You might want to check it out, too.

2007-06-29T11:17:00.000-07:00

Patti and Robby - When they were REALLY cute.

That was just a little too sloppy for me. Let's try another one.

Here's a favorite picture of my kiddos - Patti and Robby. They are much bigger now, but when I look at this picture I remember when they didn't talk back, followed directions and were helpful. It was also a time when Mom and Dad weren't the stupidest people on the planet. A very nice time.

2007-06-29T11:10:00.000-07:00

Flickr experiment:

Okay - I've made it to step number 5. (Been away for a while. Just too busy with the end of the fiscal year stuff.) I have explored Flickr - lots of people thing lots of other people want to see their pictures. I'm not sure I want the whole world able to see my photos. Kind of a strange concept for me. I totally understand getting into it if you have family spread far and wide. Totally interesting for that.

Anyway - apparently you can find anything! Lots of scrapbooking stuff. Maybe I'll come back and look for some cool layouts when I am stuck for a solution.

Day 1

2007-06-08T07:44:00.000-07:00

Yeah! I successfully created my blog this morning. Can't think of a thing to add right now. At least it's here.

You can insert a table - just like word.	I do that all the time