Thursday, November 8, 2007

Deborah's Trading Card


Deborah's Trading Card
Originally uploaded by hcl23bosil

Again, my card:)

Party Time: Week 9--Thing 23!


To whom it may concern: Kindly get your derriere down one blog entry to the brewski and click yourself a virtual Killian's Red in my honor, 'cause I'm finished! Yeah! Cue the confetti.
Actually, I spent way too much time searching for free animations to incorporate into this last entry. I found the obligatory fireworks, party horns, and champagne and even a flying pig--'cause you know the appointed time for me to learn anything techy was when oinkers took wing. Only, my lovely blog won't let them just dance around like animations should. The reader has to expend the energy of actually clicking on them. Rains a bit on my creative juices, but hey, maybe I can post them to one of my husband's scientific publications.
I know, I know. You're asking yourself, is she actually going to blog about Web 2.0 or just ramble like a mad woman? Here I go. This is me, being serious. Or the closest facsimile I can muster:
Let me start by saying I tried to copy and paste the sample questions on the MD Libraries for Learning 2.0 blog to a Zoho page (which I'm using to post to my blog), but Zoho is really tricky (read: a pain in the rear end) when copying and pasting. That said, the convenience of having your word processing work stored on the world wide ether is soooo wonderful I'm willing to overlook many of its flaws. If I start a program/paper/project on Zoho, I can call it up on any computer with ease and ad to it, change it, whatever. Zoho qualifies as one of my favorite discoveries of the 23 Things Project. Other favorites: Flickr, UTube, RSS feeds, Bloglines, Blogger, podcasts--Holy Cod Fish (mackerels get enough press) I learned a lot--DoppleMe, Overdrive, image generators, Library Thing and I absolutely loved making the Librarian Trading Card. And I must say, I made a fantastic card. Possibly the best. If there was a contest for best Librarian Trading Card, oh, I would so be in the running.
Now for the list of Not-So-Great-Things or Things-I-Couldn't-Wrap-My-Brain-Around also known as Things-I-Won't-Be-Remembering-The-Passwords-For: Rollyo --I get enough spiders from my daughter, Katie. Really. Del.icio .us--I like to believe that I still think like a five-year-old (albeit with an annoyingly large vocabulary); a bit too young to grasp the genius of that social networking site. I regard Wikis as useful, but I worry about so many students turning to them for concrete information, because they are not reliable. Technor --What-i? No, seriously, I get the site, I just don't need it. But I acknowledge that others may and the sheer act of knowing a bit about it makes me a more effective librarian in case a patron has a question about it. But still, how great is my Library Training Card?
2) This program has definitely assisted me with my lifelong learning goals, because before 23 Things, I didn't have any. At least, none on paper or defined or mentioned, as such. Now, I know what to call it the next time some new curiosity overtakes me--You may find this hard to believe, but occasionally, sometimes, when I like a subject or project or game, well, I get a bit carried away. You'll just have to take my word for it. See, Husband, taking all those courses in How to Croak Like an Ecuadorian Tree Frog makes me a Life Long Lerner, not a kook. Well, and broke, of-course.
3) Take Aways: DoppleMe
Yeah, I've got a take away, alright. Earlier in my blog I mentioned sharing the amusement of creating an avatar with my children. (Like they'd let me NOT share something with them. Hah!) Anyway, I wrote of my son, Ethan's, interest in the avatar. The next excruciatingly early morning after creating the avatars, my son charged into my bedroom and excitedly begged me to call up our avatars so he could change his avatar's clothes and expression. My son had chosen a mad face for his first incarnation. So I did, fearing, even then that I had created a monster. Well, my fears were well founded.
The next morning my son barges into my bathroom, hysterical. He yells, "Mom, you forgot to bookmark my avatar!"
No kidding. My son actually used the word bookmark. Being so doggoned articulate, I replied, "Whaaaaa ?"
"My avatar! You were supposed to bookmark it!"
I zeroed right in on the problem. "How do you know the word bookmark?"
He rolled his eyes (I don't know how he learned that either, as we lack a teenage presence in the household). "In Technology."
"Whaaaa?"
Okay , it was bad enough he interrupted my ritual Plucking of the Eyebrows, but to compound it by not even being able to say "Computer Class," well that just tore it. "You're five," I explained with visual aid (fingers splayed). "Five. You're not supposed to be smarter than your parents until at least the age of seven."
Then I did what any self-respecting disciplinarian would do. I marched him downstairs to his little PC, found the DoppleMe site, and bookmarked it. And yes, he's been playing with it ever since. In fact, he's dressed, undressed and redressed his avatar self so many times, he's run out of new duds. Here's the kicker--he wants a new avatar with more options, like a Meez. Only no way can his little trash 80 PC support one. So he's asking Santa for a new computer this Christmas. Thanks Jaye. Thanks.
So how's that for a take away--I found the Techy Boy version of the modern paper doll. Yea, me.
4) What would I do differently to improve this program? 'Cause everyone is always lining up to take my sage advice . . . Well, the one problem I did have with this, is it feels like a vacuum. I get that it's self-directed learning. But most of the Web 2.0 sites and tools highlighted in the program are of a collaborative nature. It seems to make sense to me (which I understand is no guarantee that it actually does make sense) to assign a 'buddy' or partner for many of the Things. Which, considering the versatility of the sites, would not necessarily require both people to be off the desk at the simultaneously--if the employees were doing the Things on library time in the back room. Not only would such partnerships better serve to explore the collaborative nature of many of the tools, they would make the assignments easier (going on the Two Heads Are Better Than One Principle) and certainly more enjoyable (going on the Who'd Rather Be Alone? Principle) and it would provide constant, on-going feedback (going on the Deborah Needs Another Edit Button Principle), which in turn can be a strong motivator. A major compliant I have about this 23 Things is the lack of feedback. Yes, people were 'encouraged' to comment on other participants' blogs, but how many really did? Do you see how many comments are here? Very few. And some of those few are even canned. Can we say cheesy? Granted, my blog might be a little off-putting, possibly even scary, but I've noticed the same lack of comments on other HoCoLib blogs. Does that really convey the message that this project is supported and embraced within the library system?
5) That said, I would love to do another one! Sign me up!
6) No, I would not describe my learning experience in a few words. I would not describe anything in a few words. Not when I have can do it in many. (See above) (See below) In fact, I would like to know who has the longest blog. Can we find that out? How great would it be if I'd created the longest blog? I'd be so proud.
The fact is, I was more than apprehensive when I started this program. In a recent e-mail, my manager called me tech savvy. It's okay, I didn't break anything when I fell off the chair. The doctor says the goose egg will eventually go down. Seriously, I do not consider myself tech savvy at all. I think people mistake my pit-bull tenacity for smarts. And hey, that's okay. We'll go with that. But I have to admit, this project loomed large and potentially stressful. But I surprised (and pleased) myself by not getting upset when I didn't know something and letting go of all those amazingly creative ideas that I couldn't shoehorn into my blog. Playing helped. A lot.
Another main worry I had when starting was of exposing myself. I know, you're all thinking . . . what? This nutty chick is the linguistic version of a vocational exhibitionist. Am I right? But while I don't mind exposing my mind to people I know (or potentially could if I attended a meeting or two) I worried (and still do, a bit) about exposing myself to billions of strangers, some of them dangerously strange. But anonymity is becoming increasingly more illusive. Better I take the helm of my public image and shape it myself rather than let the strange masses and stranger marketing people do it. I have a voice. (Boy, do I have a voice) I want to have the guts to use it.
What I'd like to do is begin a new blog. One that tackles some library news, but mostly recommends books, storytime techniques and 'class' ideas. I hope I follow through with it.

Thanks!

Remember--drink the virtual beer:) Deborah

P.S. Please excuse the red lines. Apparently, words caught in Zoho's spell check that are not corrected are forever underlined to shame the illiterate writer. My bad.

Party Time: Click on the beer!

Thursday, November 1, 2007

Download Lowdown--Audio Books: Week 9--Thing 22

Wow, Thing 22. Only one more to go!

Well, I guess I have to finish this one first. Okay. I established an account with Overdrive and searched titles after searching Project Gutenberg

Searching was effortless. I put a few titles I liked on hold and tried to download The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents by Terry Pratchett. No luck on the download, but I'll try again when my husband comes home and can help. He ADORES audio books! He gobbles them up like candy. He listens to them through the car CD player on the way to work, on his MP3 player at the gym, and through a PC (either the home PC or one of the laptops) at home. He's an addict. I can't find audio material fast enough for him. Before audio books, the man did not read fiction. Serious. I just couldn't get him to pick up a novel. He said he read all day for work, why read during his leisure time? Ha, ha. A challenge for any bibliophile! So I began checking audio books out for him from the library. And checking them out. And checking them out. Unfortunately, there aren't enough books in audio format. At least not for his appetite. I wish there were more.

Podcasts--Week 9--Thing 21

Wow, I feel like I was body snatched. I lost four hours on this puppy. How does one loose four hours when even Fall Back has been postponed? Simple. Podcasts. And I don't mean the obvious, that I was so enraptured, amused, or horrified by what I was hearing/seeing that I could not escape. No, I'm not talking about a deer-in-the-headlights experience, but rather a frustrating one of not being able to kick my mule of a computer to faster speeds. I assume it's my home PC. (I don't do Things at work) I swear Windows Media Player laughed at me when I threatened it with the riding quirk and spurs. Sometimes I long for the good ole days when fixing a glitch merely warranted a swift boot to the engine. And, Teacher, the podcasts I tried to access stuck their virtual tongues out at me (the rotten cyber bullys), all because I didn't have their favorite plug-in. Wahh. Obviously, I could have tried to download the plug in, but really, why give the prima dona podcasts the satisfaction? No, kidding. I just didn't want to risk a manual install without my Techie hubby present. Plus, there's enough garbage on my PC as it is. Probably why it's so darned slow!

On the positive side, I did get to enjoy "If Britney Was My Mom," a heartwarming parental instructional video. And I found a great episodic podcast called, Blast the Right (see RSS feed on side), 'cause I'm such a staunch, Steven Colbert-type conservative.

What else? Well, using the recommended sites for podcast searching wasn't always successful. While I couldn't access any on Podcast.net (every one I checked required that dratted, ratsa, fratsa plug-in), I found tons of what appeared to be interesting podcasts fitting my search. The only difficulty I had is when I got ornery and started searching for topics too off-the-wall or out-of-the-mainstream to merit keywords in the menu. Yahoo Podcasts and Podcast.net
turned up only a few children's craft podcasts.

PodcastAlley.com did me up good, though. Using the search box returned dozens of hits--ones I could actually access, too. None turned up a tutorial on how to shoot milk out my tear ducts (a useful skill for a mom of five-year olds, I figured), though Yahoo Podcasts landed a neat recipe for Bloodshot Eyeballs.

One absolutely wonderful stand out site-- August House. I found it through Denver Public Library: Sites for Kids on the Merlin podcasting learning link
Unfortunately, Denver Public Library is busy now and I can't get the URL link at the moment. Sorry. But it's worth looking at, especially the animated books on August House.

Well, bye for now:)

Monday, October 29, 2007

iTube, uTube, we-all-Tube: Week 9--Thing 20

Posting a uTube video to a Blogger blog is soooo easy! I can't believe I was worried about this Thing! The hardest part of about the whole exercise was yanking myself away from all the videos. I have to say, there are some amazingly weird and twisted Halloween entries. Wow. And I thought I was cracked. But I came across a gem of simple animation. 'Wake Up Cat' below is by an English animator called Simon Tofield and it is actually called 'Cat Man Do.' He works for an animation company called Tandem Films. Enjoy.

Imagine video storytimes . . . Picture books turning their own pages and reading themselves aloud . . . Short instructional classes 'taught' by librarians . . . Booktalk segments . . . even book recommendations by librarians, teachers, and/or customers . . . Video tie-ins to college courses . . . Video tours of each branch . . . Oh, the places uTube can go . . . in the library.

Now . . . how post the video my five-year-old took on his Spongebob digital camera onto uTube? Maybe I'll have him show me. Hey, maybe I'll make a video of my five-year-olds uploading their digital pictures, playing on Club Penguin--the child social networking site--and playing video games. I'd 'play' an old broad clueless about tech. Could be funny. I'll keep you posted:)

iTube, uTube, we-all-Tube: Week 9--Thing 20

Whoa, Thing 10 Deja Vu: Week 8--Thing 19

Yes, I feel like I already looked at those Award sites, during Generate Fun week, but heck, it was fun, so maybe I'll find something else I like.

Reddit had me laughing. I loved Maddox's rant on women's fashion trends. (But as my blog is somehow tied to my place of employment and therefore in need of seeming presentable, not causing people to blush, I will refrain from posting his link--you're on your own, kids). Reddit also had substantial news articles that I enjoyed.

The book and self-publishing site, Lulu appealed to me, also. It doesn't seem like one of the many shady vanity presses out there. And I liked the children's authors section, especially the Aspiring Authors program. I wonder if my children's school is involved? I plan to ask about it.

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

Zoho-ho and a bottle of rum: Week 8--Thing 18

Well, below is my experiment with Zoho. I hope someone enjoys the anecdotes. I could not copy and paste from my Word files, but had to import them to Zoho. Also, it would not allow me to import multiple documents onto one page, but rather I had to create a new document with each import, and then copy and paste, redo the tabs, and carriage returns, etc. It's a bit off work, but I will play it more because I like the idea of being able to save documents and files without the fuss of a USB or disc, etc. I'll see if I can edit the entry below and rename it.

Ancedotal Zoho: Week 8--Thing 18

1) I was at my in-laws’ dressing for a wedding, when my sister-in-law emerged from the bathroom wearing different shoes.

“I bought these two pairs because I couldn’t decide between them. Which looks better with my dress?” I indicated the flashier pump, but her husband pointed to the other.

She rolled her eyes. “Are all guys fashionably illiterate?” She turned to me. “What would your husband say if you came home with these shoes?”

I didn’t have to think. “He’d say, ‘Good grief, woman! You bought TWO pairs of shoes?”


2) My one daughter
is in her “ask why” phase and it’s making us crazy. The other night my husband attempted to read her a picture book about cars, but her incessant questions made it difficult.

“Why is the car red, Daddy?”

“Because red looks good against the yellow background,” he said.

“Why is he sideways?” she interrupted again.

“Sometimes people look better from the side,” he said.

“Why is doing that?” she asked, pointing to a picture.

“He’s changing his car’s oil.”

“Why?”

“So it keeps running. Cars need oil and gas and I need you to listen.”

“Okay.”

He hurried to the next page, but was ready when our daughter pointed to a picture of a gas pump, the charge of$10.35 written on it.

“Why does it say that, Daddy?”

“Because this book is fiction.”


3) The other day in school my daughter's kindergarten teacher told me Juliet had volunteered the following:
"Juliet, what makes you feel special?"

"Uh, I am a triplet. That means I was squished in my mom's belly underneath my brother and sister. And they kept kicking me! That's because my mom kept saying to God, 'Can I have a baby, can I have a baby, can I have a baby, can I baby?' And boy, did He say yes!"


Sand-In-My-Shorts: Week 7--Thing 17

First, I think the "Sandbox" exercise was flawed, and not because of the problems with the Maryland Libraries' site. If I'm understanding the concept of a "Sandbox" correctly, it's supposed to be open for many people to add to/change, etc. The "Sandbox" designated for us is basically a run-on blog. The rules strongly discourage (read: prohibit) changing, deleting, and/or editing another's entry. Exactly how is that supposed to convey the feel of and participation in a wiki?

Initially I considered posting a faux program--I was loving the idea of Pimp My Pram (for those of you on this side of the pond--a pram is a baby carriage, though, of-course I would have included strollers in my program.) Along the idea of Pimp My Bookcart, proud parents could enjoy testing/seeing all the pimp-potential toys in our collection. I'd also include information on where to buy the best cup holders, Wiggles hi-def, and tinting options for bug netting. And for the parents desperately in need of self-validation through the exploitation of their children: Pimpfants attire.

Again, allow me to reiterate, this would have been a fake program, for the sake of FUN and PLAY, but one other employees could tweak, add to, comment on, erase, whatever. That would have been an organic experience more in the vein of what a wiki really represents.

Still, I enjoyed playing the crazy on the "Sandbox" and hoped it illustrated a major short-coming in the validity of wikis.

Monday, October 15, 2007

Hiki nĂ´ wiki! Week 7-Thing 16

Aloha Web 2.0!

Laki librarians, learn on wikis (say that five times fast--go ahead, you know you want to)! There are some Ă¢iwaiwa wikis out there.


There are tons of time-saving, smart uses for collaborative editing of documents. My husband uses wikis when he's working on a project tapping science teams around the world. It's a lot easier than making the poor Chinese members stay up until four o'clock in the morning to dial in for a conference call.


Obviously, there are tons of applications for such wikis in the library community, both internal and external. Most of the pages I viewed lent themselves well to subject guide design. Librarians and consumers can add news of interest to the the public sites, growing them into organic, relevant sites people will be interested and motivated to keep checking. One miki`oi wiki was the Princeton Book Lovers. I've thought for a long time that our customers would appreciate and benefit from the documentation once a month of a few librarians' personal puke recommendations in the Source catalog, but such an invaluable reader's advisory would be even better on-line where customers can also contribute to it.


A kupaianaha wiki I posted to my he `ono was EZ Library Programs, offering a searchable index to a wiki dedicated to sharing children's programing ideas. Now, each entry was a bit raw and pa`akikĂ® to understand, the data run-on and stream-of-consciousness. But in spite of needing serious paragraph breaks and requiring a great deal of ho`omanawanui to sift through it, the material proved useful and hoihoi.

Pau!

P.S. Thank you, Pukui, Mary Kawena & Elbert, Samuel H.,
Hawaiian Dictionary, Revised
and Enlarged Edition, University Of Hawai`i Press, Honolulu, 1986. This post would have been blah without the real Hawaiian words!

Ă‚iwaiwa Amazing

Aloha Hello, goodbye, love

He `ono! Delicious

Hiki nĂ´! Absolutely able to do!

Hoihoi Interesting

Ho`omanawanui Patience (it takes patience just to pronounce the whole word:)

Kupaianaha! Wonderful!

Laki Lucky

Miki`oi! Excellently made!

Pa`akikĂ® Hard

Pau! Done!

Puke Book




Perspective: Week 6--Thing 15

I loved the following quote about Web/Library 2.0:

Dr. Wendy Schultz's OCLC Newsletter article, Infinite Futures

"
So while books may get in your 3D face all by themselves, people will prefer personal introductions—they will want a VR info coach. Who’s the best librarian avatar? How many Amazon stars has your avatar collected from satisfied customers? This could create librarian “superstars” based on buzz and customer ratings. People will collect librarians rather than books—the ability not just to organise, but also to annotate and compare books and other information sources, from a variety of useful perspectives."

What a thrilling, frighting idea. So no more lounging with feet propped behind the Information Desk eating bon-bons anymore, huh? Seriously, the idea of on-line geek fame has a certain appeal. I want to be a 'superstar' avatar librarian! Talk about book deals! (timpani, please)

Being the mother of triplets, I'm used to constant cycles of change. It was the initial upgrade (ie; birth) that was so hard. So the analogy that 2.0 is more a mindset of constant cycle of change versus a series of upgrades appealed to me. I also appreciated defining 2.0 along the lines of user-centric and uber-customer (pardon the lack of umlaut) friendly. Not only is that a concept I can wrap my brain around, it's one I genuinely like.

It's not proscuitto. Technorati ham, sliced thin: Week 6-Thing 14

Technorati Profile


I'm attempting to claim my blog on Technorati. Quick claim didn't work--possibly because of the @ sign in my blog's username. So we're going old school here and just posting the HTML on my blog.

Cool beans! It worked. It even flipped me into the Howard Participants section, where I could view my name. Woohoo.

Okay, now that I've created another new Web 2.0 something-or-other, let me ramble a bit about Technorati, the blog search and tracking tool where any blog that's any blog goes to the head of the pack results, the blog equivalent of Nielson ratings. And like the Nielsons, Technorati's most popular blogs were mostly pop-culture, tech, and current-events related. Big surprise. Actually, what did surprise me was how ill-written some of the blogs were. Here I've been afraid to put my less-than-witty self out there. Forget witty, people are out there hurling the F bombs at other bloggers. (Maybe Valerie should consider taking the 'Civility in Howard County' webside.) Anyway, Boing Boing was interesting, if crude. I did notice that much like the amusing agitators (read; hams) in my own family, the Powers That Be at Technorati chose articles and news bites guaranteed to get a rise out of the population. Clearly, though, they are doing it better than other, similar blogs.

Searching Technorati's blog posts for learning2.0 turned up 169 blogposts, many of which just mention the term learning2.0 someplace in the overall text. Not necessarily helpful. In contrast, the blog directory hit my target dead on--librarian journal/blogs about the 23 things. I especially liked reading the Australian blogs and seeing all the ones in different languages. 23 Things is big--really big.

Monday, October 8, 2007

del.icio.us--Week 6 Thing 13

Wow, people come up with some interesting tags. It's even more interesting when people post seemingly unrelated tags. For example, you have to know Gina Z to know she tagged her Pennsylvania Polka pictures 'oceanscapes' because she had 'escaped' a bad marriage and her 60-year-old Aunt Ethel cheered her up by entering her in the annual Lady's with Liver Spots dance contest. Now, before you all Google Gina Z, I made her up. But hers is the sort of voyeuristic, Deer-in-the-Headlights-compelling, personal drama I found myself stumbling into by following the labyrinthine tag paths on del.icio.us. Really, I can see the fascination. Though disturbing. Sooooo disturbing. Who knew polka could go so wrong? My PC needs a serious cookie purge. It will never be clean again!

Anyway, yes, I can see it as a personal bookmarking tool. Emphasis on the personal. I'm not entirely comfortable with it as a reference tool. I'm actually rather creative, really, I am. But I can't figure out how to use del.icio.us for solid, fast reference. I'd be terrified to use it in a formal setting. Heaven forbid I try to answer a customer's question about finding a local sewing circle with del.icio.us and stumble on a punk site with high quality graphics. Far better to use the tried and true.

That said (yes, yes, here it comes--the part where she contradicts herself. Pick an opinion and stick with it!), I did sign up for an account and am using it for bookmarking. How long will I last? Beats me. But I'm game.

I originally chose the username bosilovicious, but realized what worked for Sid might not work for me. Did I mention names are hard for me? Is there such a thing as being name deaf? I thought a cool, hockey-sounding, Slavic name for my son would be Sergei. How great a match is that for my last name? Then my brother pointed out that the poor kid would get called "Sir . . ." well, you know. At school. So he's Ethan. Much better. But if anyone wants to check out my del.icio.us, there it is.

Thursday, October 4, 2007

Roll a Rolly--Week 5 Thing 12

I wish all the Things were this easy! Originally I thought, why bother making your own search engine? But it wasn't a bother. In fact, I'd rate this exercise a 2 of 10 on the Hard-O-Meter (10 being the most difficult). It wasn't a 1 because I actually had to read stuff and move my fingers on the keyboard. But once I began playing with other Rollyos, I saw how handy it was to pull a series of good hits versus one or two good hits stacked atop a pile of garbage.

So I made a Reference one and 'borrowed' someone else's work by using the sites suggested for a Reference Search Engine. I mitigated my guilty sense of cheating by adding a few more sites that I'd seen turn up on the trial searches I'd performed earlier. The Searchbox looks pretty spiffy, too!

Thing Me--Week Five Thing 11

Well, I played with Library Thing.

Liked: The Unsuggester feature--recommendations based on the opposite of a book's tags. It worked, too. I put in a Terry Pratchett book and got back unsuggestions for all sorts of humorless, right-wing, fundamentalist non-fiction.

Disliked: The Suggester feature. I entered The Book Thief by Markus Zusak and it returned a list of a dozen books with Thief somewhere in the title, as if that were the only criteria for the search. Granted, it did list the The Thief Lord by Funke, which is award winning children's literature. But The Thief Lord targets a much younger, less sophisticated child reader. By comparison, for the same book, Amazon suggested three outstanding newer YA titles: The Boy in the Striped Pants by John Boyne--Holocaust, historical fiction, Yellow Star by Jennifer Roy--Holocaust, poetic, fictionalized biography, and The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation by M.T. Anderson, which while not about the Holocaust, is still historical fiction that resonates with similar themes: free will, racism, the causes of war, human rights, slavery, etc.

That said, when I called up
Equal rites : a novel of Discworld by Pratchett, the page produced a decent list of titles generated from Library Thing's recommendation machine. So maybe the detail and appropriateness of the recommendations depends on the popularity of the title?

Click on the site below to see
My Library Thing Catalogue

Avatar Redux

Ethan had to redress his avatar this morning. I hope this doesn't become a ritual.


Wednesday, October 3, 2007

Generate Some Fun--Week Five Thing 10

I already made an avatar on Yahoo, but I while exploring The Generator Blog I stumbled across DoppleMe Generator which allowed me to make an avatar of myself and three others and join them to create a family, which I absolutely loved. By the way, I tried to talk my son, Ethan, out of the mad face, but he really, really wanted to look mad. "Like this," he said, scrunching up his face. (I wisely refrained from telling him he looked more adorable than mad, as it would have upset his tough-guy-5 year-old self identity.) Must be a boy thing. I don't understand. Anyway, Katie said she wanted to look like a "pistol," yet chose an evening gown. ??? I don't even want to know what she thinks she's hiding under the taffeta. All kinds of Getting-into-Trouble gadgets, no doubt. Juliet wanted better hair, but then, don't we all?

Oh, I also enjoyed the Real Name Creator that randomly generates a real German name and lists a Google search for each one. 'Cause really, everyone needs a German name. I mean, how funny is a language that sounds like perpetual sneezing? (I am in large part German, by the way.) My favorite names: Traute Eisenhauer and Detlef Garbe and the last name Deppenkemper. Gotta love it.

Street Sign Generator was also a fun site. Ye Olde civic engineers of Bucks County, Pennsylvania sure could have used it. Anyone ever visited Street Road? Really, that's the name of the street . . . or is it a road? Whatever. Can we say creatively lazy? But I guess Thesaurus hadn't been born when they named the . . . er, thoroughfare.

Well, join me for another installment of Deb's (I mean Penguin's) mind meanderings at a later date . . .

New Avatar


Going on a Blog Hunt--Week Four Thing 9

Well, below is my Yahoo avatar. I'd wanted a Meez but for some reason the site kept crashing while loading a female template. I tried it several times throughout the day, checked my cookies and read the on-line help which led me to believe it had something to do with my computer's settings with Firefox. Way too much headache for a fun little cartoon. So I made a calculated retreat to Yahoo and actually enjoyed the experience of "designing" an avatar.

Other sites of interest this week's Thing revealed to me thanks to a web 2.0 Award Winners blog entry on MERLIN

1) Cocktail Builder

A great site for helping the aspiring alcoholic in all of us create an elixir of sheer genius based on whatever meager potables happen to be stocking one's drink library on any given bad day. Imagine my delight upon learning the dregs in my liqueur cabinet yielded the following:

Malibu Baked Apple cocktail:

2 oz of malibu coconut rum
2-3 oz of heated cranberry juice
2- 3 oz of heated apple juice

combine in stemmed mug.top with whipped cream (optional).

Nice. Not 99 Bananas, but nice.

2) One Sentence


True stories, told in one sentence. Ransom Stodder, if you're reading this, really--One Sentence is for you! I've actually bookmarked this puppy and practically slashdotted it with one-liners!

Oh, I got to explain RSS to my husband (Mr. Technocrat)! Actually, I just regurgitated the Plain English example. But hey, it's amazing how much information I retained from an on-line non-classroom teaching medium.

As for feeds, Technorati was too busy for me and a bit confusing. I preferred Blogsline's search tool. It wasn't as flashy, but also not as distracting. You all might not know it, but I can become distracted . . . Oh, look, a squirrel!

Avatar

Yahoo! Avatars

Go Eagles!

Monday, October 1, 2007

RSS is not Infectious! Week Four Thing 8

First, here's my Blogsline newsreader URL:
http://www.bloglines.com/public/dbosilov

I tried without success to add it to this blog using the template. I'll fiddle with it some more later (read: get my handy-dandy super techy hubby to show me how tonight).

RSS. Okay, why do techies love obscure acronyms? I mean, what's the thought process here? Hey, let's abbreviate the most unwieldy, high-brow, officious sounding words into a string of seemingly unrelated letters! What a great idea. Anything that sounds like a incurable disease has to be catchy. Get it, catchy? Timpani please.

Okay, but to find the point . . . I liked--and needed--the Plain English video. So easy to understand! But will I actually use the blogsline? No, probably not. Call me crazy old-fashioned, but I genuinely like the feel--and yes, smell--of newsprint. I do not enjoy reading on a PC screen. And there is just too much news out there to read. As it is, I don't finish the Sunday Post until Saturday. (If you're asking, "Which Saturday?" you know me well.) Seriously, when does anyone have the time? I killed an entire afternoon just setting up the account! Though, okay, I may look at Google's RSS. Maybe. So, I'm guessing no one's going to be subscribing to this blog:) Just a guess.

Tech Talk Week Three Thing 7

Finally, a Thing where I can ramble!
Albeit about anything techy.

I had the brilliant idea of composing an ode to 2.0, but the best I could manage was a doggerel riff on the classic nursery rhyme, Humpty Dumpty. Those of you wanting a laugh, here it is:

Humpty Dumpty lay all amok.
Humpty Dumpty then had great luck.
'Cause with freeware and My Friend Flikr
I mashed Humpty Dumpty back together.

Here's where I'd post the mosaic of Humpty Dumpty if I'd been successful with the mosaic thing. By the way, most of the free Only, it seems like my idea might be a bit big for free. I'm not giving up on the idea, but I do need to move on.

In the meanwhile, I've created a few new 2.0 tech terms that I'd like to copywrite so as to collect on all the money I'll make off them.

debooger: a programmer who picks out software errors caused by sneezing.
Expresso: A trendy, speedy programming language.
meta4: a special, undisplayed HTML tag used for storing golf-related information.
Richard Rollyo: a Rollyo of leonine verse and ballad search engines.
VCC: Stands for "Virtual Channel Change" used in conjunction with the ATP ("Asynchronous Transfer Person") by ESP's ("Entertainment Service Providers" also called "parents"). The ESP elects the ATP who stands in front a blank TV--possibly wearing PJs--and displays a DAWP ("Dance Around With Puppets").

Anything I missed?

Friday, September 28, 2007

Deborah's Trading Card


Deborah's Trading Card
Originally uploaded by hcl23bosil

Wow, talk about an outlet for creativity! I want to make an entire set of cards using family photos! I'll create a whole new game!

Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Lightening


Lightening
Originally uploaded by prakashodedra

Here is the lightening (sic) photo, when in doubt, actually read the directions.

Flickr Fun Week Three



Thing 5: I enjoyed going through the photo gallery. I was a bit hesitant of creating accounts with Yahoo and Flickr. Granted, my personal information would probably put Big Brother to sleep, but I still worry. Oh, wait, I mentioned that already. Still, I wanted to upload a photo, not just list the URL, only I don't seem to be doing it correctly. I tried using the add image feature. Anyway, it's called Lightening (don't judge a photo by its spelling) it was uploaded on September 22, 2007 by prakashodedra

It's a great shot. "If I'm lying may I be struck by argggg. . ."

Thing 6: Mash Ups and 3rd Party Sites. Eureka! I now know how cubicle monkeys survive their jobs! They know about mash-ups--and have the insane amounts of free (job) time to kill actually playing with/on them. The Trading Cards are a hoot. I know my husband has put dozens of photos on the Google maps and others, but I've never fiddled with it. For me, getting pictures into albums is enough of a Herculean task. (Yea for shoe boxes!)
Anyway, I am getting slightly more comfortable putting larger bits of myself out there for the world to see. I still won't strut in front of the World Web's curtains in my skivvies (oh, the Horror!), but I'm thinking of losing the insulated parka.

Blogging Week 2

Thing 3: Well, obviously I set up my own blog and I've already changed the settings too many times for one of my short attention span to count. My kingdom for the perfect name! My children's names actually carry date stamps. Instead of roman numerals, their names end in the suffix Version 28.0. Seriously, in case I change it, I want to remember--this week I was Penguin. Though maybe not super cool.
Thing 4: I registered, though now I'm wondering if I accidentally but an @ sign after my name instead of a dot on the on-line form. Well, I'll find out soon enough. Anyway, I downloaded the tracking log and filled it out. I loved printing a copy and the irony of doing the work--if only a small bit--on paper.

About This Program Week One

Thing 1: I'm eager to learn more about and become comfortable using the new and emerging Web technologies. Yes, because I'm a librarian, and unlike Model T's, becoming obsolete does not increase our value. But I'm also a parent. Now when my children were younger, I operated on containment (with love--no duck tape) and education and a sort of Darwinian practicality. But there's no containment on the web (as with life). And if I want to keep them safe and aware, I have to learn at least a fraction of what they know. Which leads me to Thing 2.
Thing 2: Goals. My goal is to complete the 23 Things project. Time constraints loom as my largest potential obstacle, so I'll have to plan my learning sessions in advance and stick to them. Personally, I'd prefer to do it in a quiet, windowless room with no fun distractions like angry, impatient customers, children not making it to the bathroom in time, and in-depth (somewhat competitive) workroom discussions of recent colonoscopies. But since I'm going to this effort, I might as well make someone, somewhere laugh. Personally, I find laughter a great goal.

Habits

I found the web cast about the 7 1/2 Habits interesting and informative, but I worry. I'm a worrier, it's what I do. I suppose that falls into the category of #4: Have Confidence in Self. Only, I don't doubt my capabilities. I can learn the 2.0 techs. I worry about losing the safety of my anonymity by hosting a blog. Really, my life's quite full enough without some irate crazy knocking on my door because he stumbled onto my name/blog and took deep offense at my dangling prepositions and stream-of-unconsciousness style. On the other hand, I'd love to publish a blog on book reviews or programs or a number of topics of personal interest to me.
#3: Viewing Problems as Challenges is definitely not my usual approach and will be the most difficult. Lucky for me, I've always cherished my inner 5-year old. So, when I do get baffled and annoyed with this learning experiment--which is bound to happen at least once--I will just play. Thank heavens for #7 & 1/2: Play--clearly the easiest habit for me. I've already picked out a special 23 Things Silly Hat. So okay, let's play.

My First Post

I'm not sure what to say in a sample post. I'm curious to learn more about the 2.0 techs, though.