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.