Activity # 23: Summarize thoughts

It just never fails to amaze me how much there is to learn. I'm glad of it, ecstatic really, but also intimidated. No single person could ever get through such a wealth of info in a lifetime. That's one thing I struggle with, that I feel depressed about.

I'm the kind of person who "studies" constantly. I haven't just done that since I've been going to library school. I've always done it. Right now I'm working my way through Penguin's 'History of the World.' I'm still in the early parts, at Mesopotamia, but I find it all so fascinating seeing connections between things, how one thing lead to another. That kind of thing. Once I finish this book I'm going to see if I can learn basic theories of the Universe. And after that? Philosophy, then spirituality. Then, who knows?

This experience, of experiencing 23 things, was eye-opening. I know the internet's rich, but forcing myself to zone in on specific sites really helped control my impulse to surf blindly, something I do all the time. And I do mean ALL THE TIME.

I appreciate this assignment, the thought that went into it and the points it made. The internet is nearly infinite, and it's only getting bigger. Sounds a lot like the Universe, eh? And like the Universe none of us will ever get to the end of it.

Lisa

Activity # 22: Netlibrary

WOWZERS!

Now this place is cool. If it wasn't run by OCLC I'd be a little worried, since it would be stiff competition, but as it is the place rules.

The list of publishers is unbelievable. Talk about your one stop shopping. This is incredible!

The list of university presses alone is staggering. I love the university presses. They always put out such eclectic books you can't find anywhere else. I'm reviewing a book for Harvard UP right now. Struggling to understand it (it's on philosophy) hurts my brain, but I'm pretty honored they sent it to me!

Lisa

Activity # 21: Useful Search Tools

I found this site:

http://www.pandia.com/sew/111-podcast-search-engines.html

And it's excellent! Very comprehensive.

This one's pretty good, too, but not as good as pandia, as far as I can tell:

http://dailysearchcast.com/

Lisa

Activity # 20: YouTube and other video sites

YouTube rocks! I already knew that, but check out the video I helped my husband make:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ulo30CLjyk&eurl=http://www.paulsreef.blogspot.com/

We took photos every thirty seconds for three hours, and this is what we wound up with.

Lisa

Activity # 19: Site from Web2.0 Awards

I went to: http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/your-shot/your-shot

And wow.. I'm an amateur photographer and the images here just blew me away. The photos are breath-taking. I'm learning a lot about perspective as well as a lot of practical techniques. They teach about f-stops, shutter speed, you name it. They're very forthcoming and don't try to put themselves on a pedestal, because frankly they're already there without bragging!

Lisa

Activity # 18: Online productivity tools

This one looks great:

http://lifedev.net/big-list-of-online-productivity-tools/

It has all sorts office tools, and even To Do Lists to help you get organized. Really a gem.

Then there's this one. Still a powerful tool, but I found it not quite as easily navigated than LifeDev:

http://mashable.com/2007/07/20/online-productivity-god/

Lisa

Activity # 17: Learning 2.0 Sandbox Wiki

Did it! I signed up and just posted a very general post. I'll go backk there again when I can think of something more substantial to say.

Some of the subjects there are so darn weird! Piercing nipples? I guess that's for some people, but frankly it makes me cringe. "Write my name in wet cement" is another odd-sounding tag. But maybe it makes sense if you follow up with it?

Or, maybe not.

Looks like a fun site, though. I'm going over to poke around a little more when I get a chance.

Activity # 16: Wikis

The first thing I think of when someone says "wiki" is Wikipedia. Right after that, I think of Nancy Pearl's website, Book Lust: http://www.nancypearl.com/

I used to be fairly active on Blook Lust, so much so one of the moderators had mentioned I may like to run a book discussion group there. That never did pan out, which is probably for the best. I'm already too busy!

I set up a page for my library at Book Lust, and also added an author interview or two, and a list of favorite books. But it's been so long since I participated there. It got squeezed out of my life, like so many things did when I started grad school.

Nancy Pearl is, of course, the uberlibrarian we can only dream of being! Her site should be more popular than it is, at least as of the last time I was there. Maybe it's grown since then, but I did enjoy reading Nancy's musings about her reading.

I love the concept of Wikis. The downside and upside are the same, anyone can contribute. Those with less than honorable intentions can leave insulting comments, but I really think the majority of people who use wikis are genuine and well-intentioned.

As for libraries using wikis, I went over to the LISWiki site: http://liswiki.org/wiki/Main_Page

It's set up very similarly to Wikipedia, and it looks as though it's still pretty new. There's not a tremendous amount of content there. I looked under the heading of "cell phone use in libraries," a pet peeve of many librarians. That links to relevant articles. Once they get more content this should be another great site to visit, for research and general info.

Activity # 14: Technorati

I've been here before, too, and registered my blog: http://bluestalking.typepad.com/



I love seeing what the most popular blog buzz is. Those are listed at this site. Unsurprisingly, a lot of politicians are in the top 10.

This is one of my "go to sites" for that behind the scenes info on blogs. I don't go there often, but I check in occasionally.

Again, as with Bloglines I see a lot of hits from Technorati on my own blog. That's why I went there to poke around initiallly. The stats are useful and interesting for we addicted bloggers!

Activity # 13: Del.icio.us

I started setting this up, but since I'm at work I can't download anything, unfortunately. I'll do this one from home, then come back and finish this post.

Activity # 12: Rollyo

I entered these sites:

http://www.aldaily.com/
http://www.snopes.com/
http://www.olivereader.com/
http://www.ala.org/
http://www.libraryjournal.com/
http://ricklibrarian.blogspot.com/

And these tags:

library, librarian, intellectual freedom, banned book

This is so utterly cool! Can't wait to see what hits I get.

Activity # 11: LibraryThing

I already have a profile there as Miss Woodhouse. I've cataloged over 1,000 books there. I've been on LT since near the beginning. I got the super-cheap rate they charged early on, before they raised prices realizing how popular they were getting to be.

I have a tote bag and coffee cup from there, too! I love LibraryThing.

Lisa

Activity # 10: Online Image Generators

Oh, I've done this plenty of times! You can find at least one on my non-library-related blog:

http://bluestalking.typepad.com/

They're so much fun!

There's a blog with loads of these, thegeneratorblog.com:

http://generatorblog.blogspot.com/

I play there a lot!

Activity # 9: Useful library-related blogs

One of my favorite things! Library-related blogs:

My own: http://bluestalking.typepad.com/librarianuncensored/

A great site with lists of library-related blogs:

http://www.ipl.org/div/blogs

Librarian in Black:

http://librarianinblack.typepad.com/

This one sometimes annoys me with all the whining - Annoyed Librarian:

http://annoyedlibrarian.blogspot.com/

Library of Congress blog:

http://www.loc.gov/blog/

Librarian.net:

http://www.librarian.net/

And so, so many more ... I used to have a long list, but I've lost it somehow. :-( But, once I get Bloglines up and running I'll be all set.

Lisa

Activity # 8: RSS feeds

I went to Bloglines to set up my account, and got through the first couple of steps just fine. But the site is down right now, so I can't set up my bloglines. I'll try again later.

I have a pretty good idea what RSS feeds are, since I see them mentioned in hits I get on my own blogs. On the stats page I can see where my visitors came from, and what they used to view my posts if they're using RSS feeds. So I'm pretty used to the concept.

And I'm anxious for the site to come back up. I've never gotten around to setting up my own RSS feeds and I really want to!

Activity # 7: Anything tech related

The headline read: "What's $ 700 B in Apollos?"

In other words, how many NASA moon missions would equal the financial bailout package price recently signed into law by GWB?

The answer? About seven. Translated into 2008 dollars, the 1969 Apollo 11 mission cost about $ 100 B. In light of that, we could conceivably send seven more missions into space for the same money we're using to (hopefully) get the U.S. out of our current money muddle.

We'll see.

Why was this interesting to me this week? Well, I've been glued to the news for the past couple of weeks, waiting and biting my nails. What would the market do, what would the government do ... These two questions lead to some restless nights here, let me tell you. Those of us heavily invested in the market as a means of helping put our children through college, then ultimately retire, have been very, very nervous.

Now that we know the bailout's a go, I found it interesting to read about what could theoretically have been done with that money. It's all academic, of course. The $ 700 B wouldn't have been earmarked for NASA if it hadn't gone where it did. It's just fun to consider.

Reading that article led me to this one about an Apollo-scale program for energy independence, which is apparently a political issue related to legislation on global warming.

Who knew?

On a related topic, I learned that Google, a company accused of being a real energy sponge, is talking about helping the U.S. solve some energy problems by working on "green technology." I guess that's their way of atoning, or just plain good business. More likely the latter.

And those are my interesting tech tidbits of the week.

Activity # 6: Flickr mashups

I found this really cool Fotoland site, combining Flickr photos and a map. You can click on cities and see recently uploaded photos.

Pretty cool!

Overall, though, mashup sites are a little confusing to me. Could be because I'm at home, the TV is on, the dogs are barking and my kids are running through the room yelling every five minutes.

Then again, maybe it's just age. See previous post.

Activity # 5: Explore Flickr

Flickr used to be my photo hosting site, but I got out of the habit of using it once I hit the limit for free photos. I figured I'd find another hosting site and just never got around to doing it.

The last upload date on my photos was 2006, if that gives you an idea how long I've been pondering a replacement. I'm being very careful, okay?!

So, to get a feel of it again I went into my account and deleted all my old photos (mostly cool animated .gifs), and uploaded a couple more, just for practice. This is a digital picture taken of an old b/w instamatic photo of me when I was about 2 or so:

Then I realized I feel old as h*ll looking at this picture. And yes, they DID have cameras back then, thanks very much.

That shadow behind me is my mother, with a stiff, hairsprayed 'do that's a miniature of the "Marge Simpson" look.

To make myself feel better, I uploaded this one, too:

It's one of mine, taken with my 35 mm digital Canon EOS xti. The camera one of my cats peed on this week and probably ruined. The camera that cost about as much as a mortgage payment.

I have SO not had a good week.