Sunday Bus to NYC

The Staff Association Bus Trip to New York was great.. only three and a half hours up, generous snacks included! The hardest part was getting up really early, though its just as dark at 5:30 as it is at 6:30, so there's no noticeable difference ... dark is dark!
Bagels and lox for lunch, holiday crowds at Rockefeller Center, catching Mass at St. Pat's, walking 5th Avenue, and Central Park...it was cold! We saved enough time before catching the bus home to step inside the home of the Letterman Show (Ed Sullivan Theatre), be overwhelmed by the lights on Broadway and enjoy two pints at the Pig and Whistle. As good as the pint was, what I really loved was overhearing the Italian commentary from the Stealers fan sitting at the bar. Warned that the bus leaves at 7PM sharp, with or without you, we grabbed a couple of slices of pizza for the trip home. Thanks to those who organized the trip and to John our driver who gave us a great ride up and back!

Checking out the boatshow

...from the water. The Sunday sun was going down over the city and a full moon was rising over the bay. It's been a long time since I added anything to my blog so I decided to make another badge of the pictures.

Old dog learns new tricks...

I have come full circle, sitting on the same sunporch couch where this all started. I enjoyed a full day of Hanna. It was much like a snow day; however I decided to designate it a Lump Day. (Lump Day is a family tradition begun by my brother-in-law Tim and his family for the day-after Christmas. You don't get out of your pajamas and you play with all your toys). I have watched two movies, one on Instaview, I Twittered and listened to Pandora. I added friends, links and stuff to my Facebook account, and I made three Animoto videos. Soon after I added a link in Facebook to a Newsweek article, "A letter to Hillary," I was called by a national issues survey. Do they monitor Facebook? And yes, one mo' time, Brian reminded me how I said I didn't see how people could sit in front of a computer all day.(This was in the "I- told-you-so" yada, yada, yada spirit but with a smile.)

The reason for this post is that the last holdout on my Exploration was Facebook. I had several reasons. There was privacy, and the fear of invading that of my sons. I had also observed all those kids on the computers huddled over posts and smirking. I know it has been used for negative purposes. But like any other tool, I now realize that its all in how it's used.

I signed on because a coworker said it was fun. She had connected with a friend of her daughter's, and she said it was creative (making your own Flair!). So I joined in. My son said 'Whoo-hoo'; he was happy to be my first friend. Initially I hesitated asking people if they wanted to be my friend. Would they say no? What about the man from Columbia, South America who shares my maiden name? Should he be my friend? I have since learned there are many others in Columbia and the Mideast. I lurked and watched. It took me a while to realize that this is just a way to keep in touch; and if it was really private no one would post it, although I have still not gone international.

Last, but not least, I want to give some thanks to Father Andy at St. Mary's. He has a blog (www.reflectbay.blogspot.com). Months before I began this project, he mentioned his blog in the church bulletin and I periodically check in. Beside looking forward to his posts and poetry, he was the inspiration for my figuring out a way to get the picture of the moon rising over the Chesapeake Bay in my header.

Good people at Pandora.../ Birchmere

My husband really loves all kinds of music...rock, reggae, blues. Irish punk rock, Irish folk rock, jazz, opera, contemporary Hawaiian, Jahwaiian, Zydeco, classic...and on and on to generate about 80 stations on Pandora. All this led him to an email back n' forth with one of the listener advocates at Pandora. I didn't realize all this was going on. In one very nice email they offered us our choice of several Pandora logo gifts. Thanks Pandora. I like my new bag and thanks for Brian's "Fidel" hat. FYI...my list of stations is fairly short. I lean towards things that fill in the background like alternative or instrumental New Age or jazz etc. to listen to while I work The station generated by the movie "Once" was really addictive. All I could do was listen.

Wednesday night I made my first trip to the Birchmere and saw The Saw Doctors. So far this year, we've caught the Saw Doctor's once in New York and twice at the Ram's Head on Stage. I would have twittered that I bumped into the Gov again, but my cell phone is a very uncool cheep utilitarian thing. I wish I could have taken a picture. According to the W.P. I was part of the raucous crowd (Reliable source, Style, page 3). The Saw doc's were great. (2 1/2 hr set) It was was a lot of fun and the Birchmere was not at all what I expected. It was like an old-fashioned warehouse behind a tire store. The best part is that you can be very close and move around. I had expected something like the Ram's Head live or the Norva in Norfolk.

Wrapping up and moving on

I was not anxious to jump into Web 2.0. It was just serendipity that the arrival of a new laptop coincided with a project that had to be tackled sooner or later.
Setting up a blog was simple, and I soon realized that I could have the same results as several of the blogs I followed. It was easy to be creative, and the possibilities seemed unlimited. What I'd most like to pass on to people who shared my previous misconceptions and prejudices is that the creators of Web 2.0 have made the process very simple. Mistakes are easy to correct. With a little bit of trial and error, or a friend's help, it's easy to add all the bells and whistles. Linking one application to another was simpler than I imagined. The most important points for me have been:

1. Ease of use.
2. I enjoyed the sharing of information along the way. One discovery often led to another. An upgrade to another's blog or twitter account often led me to a "how did they do that?"
3. Several of the tools could be used to personalize the library's homepage, make it more timely, highlight programming, promote library resources, and in general, pass along information to our patrons. A static homepage is boring...Updating with photographs, feeds, etc. will have the patron coming back to see what's new.
4. I've been introduced to a Wiki at one branch, and it seems to be a great tool that allows each staff member to check in and update their areas of responsibility, plan programming, and keep everyone on the same page.
5. Knowledge of business applications on the web is important to our patrons. In my position at work I do not need these applications, but I can pass the information on to our patrons.
6. I enjoyed having this style of guided learning available. It was always available during the slow times.
7. My only negative is that I signed up for so many things; the only exception being Facebook (one step too far for me). I logged onto everything with my work email. I imagine the system has much better filters and entire ISS staff to deal with any mischief I may have stirred up. Sorry....

Though I've finished the nine explorations, I realize I've only just begun to look at all the possibilities. My view of what was out there was pretty narrow and I couldn't understand how people could just sit in front of a computer for hours. Now I actually lose track of time because I'm more involved in doing than reading.

Success!

Animoto finally came through yesterday and I got the results I wanted. Even the video that 'exploded' was patched together and looked good. I'm sure my family is tired of my bothering them with a "Come look at this one!" Husband says it would be much better if I used my music and not theirs. There's a big temptaion to just keep tweeking away.

Animoto...

As a slow Sunday afternoon experiment, I began moving photos from my computer onto Flickr. I was impressed with how easy it was to tag and organize into sets. I thought if I could transfer a few then I could play around with Animoto. Animoto was fun and easy, but it was difficult to find music on Animoto that I liked and matched the project and I was too lazy to find and upload my own. The frustration came when the project was visually good, but the music not. When I eventually found music that suited, the video was jumpy and fractured. No matter how I trimmed and edited the number of photos, the two shots I most wanted were never included. Could not figure out why. One video has been stuck in rendering for more than 24 hours, and another has "exploded," and when it's fixed they will let me know.
Animoto was a great time waster. I kept hoping for something wonderful, and so I kept trying one more time. I'm sure there is something out there that is fun, simple to use, and offers more control. I've just got to find it. Any ideas?

Tagging, Folksonomies, and Del.icio.us

I have been tagging with Library Thing. My problem with tagging is that when I began I was random in my tags. Sometimes things were capitalized, sometimes not (sometimes mystery fiction, sometimes Mystery, sometimes lawyer, sometimes attorney). I just wanted to jump on and try it out. While some people may think that that's a valuable quirk, it would be of more value to me if I had given it more thought.
Re Del.icio.us: I am trying to come up with some sort of a mental device to remember where those periods are. I liked the search option and checking out favorite bookmarks. I could spend a lot of time here. I agree with those who have said they have signed up for so many things and hesitate to do one more. I also do not want to have to download a toolbar.
Del.icio.us is really a personal 'Recommended Sites' that links to huge community of contributors. A branch account would allow staff to organize and contribute to bookmarks. With several people contributing, there should be some thought given to tagging/organization. I can see a branch bookmarking sites for programming, crafts, marketing, summer reading. etc.

Google Docs

Just finishing up Exploration 6. I found the explanations of the many ways people use Google docs very helpful. This is definitely something worthwhile to suggest to patrons when the need arises.

Zoho 2

unidentified LA

July 14, 2008

 

 

 

    This is my second Zoho login.  Last Thursday I made my first document while at work.  The first problem I encountered was that the Zoho screen ran off the monitor.  I phoned ISS and Clint corrected the problem remotely and explained how to correct it myself in the future.  All in all, Zoho felt very clunky. It could have been the screen at work or maybe just not giving the exercise full attention.  In order to fit Zoho on the screen, the text and the "buttons" were extremely small. Things look much clearer at home on the laptop and now that I know what the finished product looks like when I hit "publish," I think I can do a better job. 

 

The image I chose to upload was of the Nepenthe on Big Sur.  It has been on my mind because of the wildfires in California and the fact that the manager was trying to save it. We first found it  back in the late 60's when we were camping in a puptent on our way from San Diego to Whidbey Island. 

 

 

 

• outside fire pit on the deck
• mountains behind us, Pacific in front
• cheeseburgers and wine
• candle holders made of driftwood
• at night, the tables were lit just by the candles
• I believe Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman filmed a movie there

San Diego	San Luis Obispo	Big Sur	Carmel	Monterey
San Francisco	Sausalito	Mt. Tamalpais	Redwoods
	Deception Pass	Whidbey Island

 

• Redoing the table, It is frustrating changing the text and text size, and adding color. I may be missing something. It keeps reverting back to Verdana and 10 pt.  
• All things considered, this is a much better experience then my first attempt.  I can see why this would be helpful to our patrons.  
• Publishing to a blog and adding images was extremely easy.

 

 

 

Pandora! best new thing...

A few months back I told my husband Brian I didn't see how anyone could just sit in front of a computer for any length of time. (other than the info desk and that was work...) He's been tossing that up to me ever since I began this project. I needed a mission! The new HP laptop zooms, where the old Dell plodded and every week there seems to be a new toy. This time it is Pandora and big thanks to Hravan. Pandora is streaming a playlist that began with Keb'mo, and I haven't had this much fun since I had my own cubby and computer at an unnamed location. (sorry, forgot the secret code). Also, thanks to Hravan for getting me onto a Wiki.

It pays to read...

Twitter loaded, but this time I decided to read more before I forged ahead. It worked on the first try. And I did it on my own. I do like Chocolate Chai's format better and will ask her how she did it.

Frustration

Today I was stuck at home waiting for a painter, and an estimator to come by. I was reading Twitter comments on Chocolate Chai and thought all I wanted to do was tell somebody how tired I was tired of waiting around. I could get parts of Twitter to work, but it never came out the way I wanted. I am throwing in the towel.
Tomorrow I will ask Bookpusher and Chocolate Chai for help. Uraghhhh...must be the heat. This is not the day to do things...for me at least.

Trying to upload a video...Bellows Beach..

Just wanted to see if I could do it. I have a paltry collection of videos from my Kodak Easy Share camera. Most were accidental. There are two brief ones of about 30 plus alligators in a state park in Texas, in greenish brown water chowing down on crawfish. The videos were very short and looked like churning water accompanied by a lot of gutteral sounds. That would have been short, but dramatic. Instead I found one of one of our favorite beaches in Hawaii. It belongs to the military, but is open to the public on weekends. It has lots of open space, (you can camp, and if military can rent a cottage). The water is a beautiful blue, good for boogie boarding, and because of the size of the area, never feels too crowded.

RSS feeds

The time seemed right to tackle RSS feeds. I had set up a Bloglines account, but wanted to add an RSS feed to my blog. I chose an MSNBC feed since that's something I usually check once a day. Next I think I will try and set up a link to Bloglines so everything is in one spot.

Flickr done

This morning I uploaded a few pictures to Flickr so I could add Flickr to my blog and work with it during quiet times at the desk. I was frustrated for a bit. "Flickr" would appear on my blog, but wouldn't link. I phoned a friend for help, who suggested the "help" link. There I learned that I could change the address of my account making it easier to remember. I tried linking Flickr to the blog again and it was as simple as hitting the enter key after the address.

My only regret is that this morning I was rushing to upload photos so I could follow through at work. Now that the link is done I want to see what else Flickr can do and set up an RSS feed to the blog.

Thinking about ways we could use Flickr: Our website could create links to Flickr where we could post pictures of past programming events and use them to generate publicity for future programmming. Of course we would need to have patrons permission if their pictures were involved. It could also be used to generate interest in workshops and programs, illustrating what we can offer. At on branch, a staff member set up a slideshow of an SRC program and turned the monitor around so that the children and parents could see themselves. It was very popular.

Day that the snakes came out...

This little green fellow made me jump&holler when I opened the mailbox last Thursday morning. Great for Flickr so I ran back to the house for the camera, only to find a large black snake stretched out against the back door.

Just checking things out....

Before I made any more additions to my blog, I decided to move ahead a few steps and read and absorb. Since I really don't have access to a workroom computer, I save the blogging adventures for home. I have spent time looking at Ficker, Bloglines, and RSS feeds. I plan to tackle including those next week.

Did I mention that I totally impressed my thirty-something sons when I casually mentioned I had a blog? heh-heh...

My Roadtrip...Day 1

Thank you for the gentle push to go on this journey. At first I thought I was too old to head out, but the more I read, the more excited I get, and the more places I want to go. I am even surprising myself by sittiing inside on a sunny Saturday afternoon and making a post. It also helps that my vehicle of choice is a speedy new laptop that lets me sit on the porch and catch a breeze. Life is good!

If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need....Cicero