Lovely Thanksgiving

It was quiet but lovely day. Michael & I went to my parents. Michael played with Grandpa, while Mom & I took a walk in the park. Michael & Grandpa joined us for bit. We had a lovely chicken for lunch. None of us are big on turkey. Michael tried pecan pie. He decided he liked it. He actually ate part of a dill pickle also.

His nap ended with a change of clothes. Luckily Grandma keeps spares. Dad burned up some sticks. Michael & I helped. We had our leftover chicken in soup for supper. We came home and packed, tomorrow we are off on a driving trip to Milwaukee. Dad is driving. I'm going to be trying to entertain Michael for 5+ hours in a car. Oh Joy. We return on Sunday. Still it will be nice to see my Aunt.

Windows 7

It was not nice to load, but the ned result has been fantastic. A week of no crashes rather than a crash every 30 minutes which what I was averaging with Vista. Bliss.

Windows 7

Well it's finally loaded. Still recovering from having it wipe out everything.

Short week ahead!

Well another 6 day week is over. Life gets so busy these days. Michael enjoys school and loves when we go to McDonalds before school. With 1.25 hours to get him, travel to school during rush-hour and eat, McDonalds or Subway are the most convient.

This next week will be interesting. I get to go to the Dentist again to finish with my crown. I have Thursday off due to MEA. My daycare provider tends not to work it. Our Saturday is booked up with 2 events, that I'm looking forward to in Washington County. Sunday, I'm thinking about Boo Zoo, I got the tickets today. The weather will probably decide what we'll be doing on Thursday & Friday.

I haven't worked on Michael's baby book since the scrapbook party. I did buy some more supplies and get some photos printed that I needed for it, but have not sat down and actually worked on it.

This morning was exciting chores like laundry and grocery shopping. We skipped church I really needed to catch up.

Depressing

I just read that Philadelphia is closing all their free libraries. They have not had state money since July 31. They want their materials back and plan to close down by 10/2/09. Now that is truely depressing.

Summer almost over

Summer is waning.

The summer reading program ends in 12 days.

The fair will be starting in 16 days.

Hopefully the bearing that went out in the A/C unit at work will be fixed soon.

It should be interesting to see how we do for business once school starts up again.

Start of the summer reading program

Today, the Summer Reading Program starts. Two reference staff called in sick. The kickoff party is at SV so we were already only running with 4 people here minus 2 equals 2. Rainy day, beginning of SRP, and 2 Ref? ACK! HH to the rescue. BM sent HH back to us from 10-3. Yahoo!

Uncle Edgars / Uncle Hugos

I was checking on Uncle Hugos/Uncle Edgars webpage today when I noticed they have their own blog on livejournal. So I dusted off my RSS reader knowledge and added them to my reader.

The blog appears to list titles that have arrived recently at the store. I find their lists handy sometimes for more local authors and /or reissues of titles, but don't care for the format of the lists overmuch. It makes sense for them, but it's a pain in the neck for how I use it. I'll have to see how I like their blog.

Thing 47 Evaluation

Best thing - Ok, I really liked scrapblog.com. Some of my co-workers saw my at home project which was a Lifebook for my son. It turned out so much better than anything I could do at home.

Worst- Twitter- get over it!

I thought the first grouping had more things I actually had not done or used. This time through, I had to wait forever for the "things" to get posted. Please do not put up incomplete lists. It drives me crazy. I tend to go full speed ahead when I have time and when I have to wait for someone to finish something it tends to drive me crazy.

So goodbye for now. I will probably only post periodically on this site unless they come up with more things on a stick or some other online learning.

Thing 45 Cloud Computing

Ok, I read the PC magazine article. Yes there are advantages to having your stuff backed up at remote services. If there weren't do you think businesses and such would bother? Do I plan on doing it? No.

I tend to backup the most important stuff on flash drives these days. I had a computer crash last summer and lost stuff. I got the computer up long enough to retrieve my vital stuff before it crashed again. So backing up documents is something I'm trying to be better at.

Even the safest sites have security issues and I don't want my stuff out there. Paranoid, maybe, but I feel ok with that decision.

I tried Zoho & Goodgle docs and found them to be a pain. Too much advertising or not that easy to use. They bogged down my productivity since I had to figure out how to use them and then had to correct whatever it or I screwed up.

I glanced at some of the bookmarked cloud applications and at this time do not plan on using them.

Thing 44 Economy

I liked Yard Sale Treasure Map. It was missing sales though. The local paper mentioned that this weekend there would be lots of sales with a map benefitting the local high school.

I took a quiz on mymoney.gov. I got most correct. It was interesting. It had some nice educational information.

I have used FuelEconomy.gov site before. It has some useful info.

I have Quicken at home so I really don't need or want alot of the online financial sites.

Under construction

Ok, things 44, 45 & 47 still appear to be under construction. Obviously, it's being done in MN - under snow or under construction.

Still waiting

for things 44, 45 & 47

I'm glad it's Friday for me, I need to go home before I go crazy

P1 calls asking about Mueseum pass program. I give the spiel. Then she starts asking about the Children's Museum. This one not part of the program - I explain SPPL or DCL. She asks which musuems in our prgram. I list them. Then she asks about the Children's Museum again. I explain again call SPPL or DCL about Children's Museum.

P2 calls saying SV says call us we have VC. I check catalog - ours is in transit. MP has it in. I tell patron MP has it, but am a little confused why SV told her to call us. A couple minutes go by. She calls back MP said no they don't have it we do. I check catalog again wondering if it's been checked in. Nope. I do not understand. I IM MP to see why they said that we have it wondering if there is some glitch with the computer. It appears that SV & MP didn't double check the title. It's a series. #1 is not at RV. It's in transit. #3 is at RV. Patron wanted #1 not #3. ARGH!!!!!!!!!!!!

Why isn't it 5 o'clock yet?

Thing 44 & 45 Still Missing

Hello? When will these be posted? Our library is getting ready to pack up and April looks to be a very bad month to do this. It would be nice if I could get this done.

Still waiting

Thing 44 & 45 still not posted.

Cleaning desks

I can see most of my desk top. This much hasn't shown in years. I got rid of weekend schedules from 2007 that BK had sent out. The paper clutter is unbelievable. I've been trying to clean out the clutter and take home personal stuff. What I have left can be loaded into a box now I think quite easily.

More things on a stick still has not posted thing 44 & 45. I wish they would hurry up and post them so I can finish it up.

Thing 46. WebJunction Minnesota

Ok, I registered with Webjunction.

I tried searching for friends on it. One of my coworkers was signed up for it and sent the friend request. Others may be out there, but with 14 pages of results for St Paul MN and a very slow connection, I gave up trying this feature.

I checked out the Calendar.

I browsed the course description and looked closer at the Reader's Advisory one. I did not sign up for it. The connection to this website can be very slow and it eats bandwidth. I also don't really have the time right now and do want to deprive someone who really wants a course from taking it.

I'm not interested in joing into a discussion at this time again due to website's length in loading anything.

If I had the time and a faster connection some of the courses looked interesting. I'm not sure if I'll be back here in the near future or not. Sorry, I don't have any great ideas at this time of what I'd like to see.

Now if they could get thing 44 and thing 45 up, I could get this batch finished....

Thing 43 Online TV and Video

Ok, Joost tends to freeze my computer. I looked at it and Hulu. I decided to try tv shows I like to watch. Hmm. No joy. I tried searching a couple shows. They were not on there. I tried searching some present shows and few were on there in full. To be honest a video recorder or a dvd set works a whole lot better for me than this.

On my home system, I have dsl not cable ( I can't afford cable). My sound is crap and the speakers are turned off. The amount of bandwidth video eats is incrediable. Our library does not have unlimited band width either.

At this point with the costs involved with this I do not see it in my near future, so it will not change my viewing habits at this time. I dropped cable after figuring out that I was spending over $500 a year to watch a couple sci-fi shows and the rest was free regular channels. I buy the dvd sets or get them of the library of the few shows I like that I can't get on broadcast tv. Will online tv and video, impact broadcasting? Yes. Sooner or later, they will figure out how to make a buck on it somehow I'm sure. Just think, while tv is free - they get you with commercials, pbs free- pledge week will drive you nuts, cable - you pay through the nose for it.

At this time it will not impact my family. My son is 2. His idea of high excitement is "Wheel of Fortune". He tends to watch for a maximum of 30 minutes maybe. He'd rather be playing which is fine with me.

Thing 42 Music 2 0

Ok, I started using Pandora last year. I like older country music. The local stations seem to play only what is the current hit list. I prefer some Statlers, Tennessee Ernie Ford, & Sons of the Pioneers mixed in to name a few. I have not been back in awhile due to my new computer I bought last July. The sound system stinks so bad I turned off the audio.

Alot of the sites don't work with our computers at work. I know this from trying to help patrons get to radio stations they want to listen to.

So this thing is pretty futile for me at the moment.

Thing 41 Mashup Your Life

Ok, I looked at the various sites. I liked the idea of Digby but it required a download. Then I thought ok I'll try fuser - our computers are too out of date to use for this.

ARGH. I finally went with friendfeed since it did not require a download and would accept our older software. The trouble is I really don't care for what it covers. The first two were much more useful to me. I have 4 email accounts I think. It would have been extremely useful to be able to access them all. I'm not as into the social networking. What I want to keep up with I do and the rest can go by the wayside.

Thing 40 Mashups on the Web

I first tried http://tinyurl.com/clszf6 (Let Me Google that for You) with the search libraries in the twin cities. It's fun to watch it type the question.

I doubt I'd ever use lazylibrary.com but I could see students interest in it. The website did not pull up when I went to look at it.

Libworm would be interesting but I don't have the time to sift thru 1400+ RSS feeds.

I was going to try travlr but it required a download. Phreetings did not work. I used Bighugelabs previously and wanted something new. I'm not into the "perfect outfit".

Here's one that appears to work:
http://www.dapper.net/transform.php?dappName=TVOnMediaNewsFeedTVShowsOnDVDandmore&transformer=HTML&applyToUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.tvonmedia.com%2Fnewsfeed.xml

Or not.

Wheel of Lunch was fun to play. http://www.coverpop.com/wheeloflunch/

They can be fun to play with, but alot of them don't seem to work well.

Thing 39 Digital Storytelling

Well I'm not sure if this worked or not. it was lots of fun to play with. If it doesn't work here go to

http://www.scrapblog.com/331BAC9B-7F5C/0CEB181B-8290 to see it. Ok, I might try this for home but I really don't see myself using this at work. I work with Acquistions (Fiction & Spanish) and Reference. There just isn't much call for digital scraping answering reference questions or buying fiction.... It was fairly easy to use.

The website did not come up on the regular site, but the tutorial came up fine and I linked through it. I had to retype the account registration more than once. But it was fairly easy to use. I do use photo sites though personally from home alot and have been playing around with Broderbund's CD products for years.

Thing 38 Screencasting

Download a program onto a library computer? Are you joking. I looked at Jing and watched the flicks. Screen-o-matic says I have the wrong version of Java so forget that one. I also glanced at Screentoaster and decied to try Skitch. The tutorial worked and I didn't have to download a progam. Argh Skitch requires a download also. Goodbye Skitch. Hello Screentoaster.

Well this one has been loading for a couple minutes and nothing. It could be handy for the library for making tutorials, but who has time? I don't see using it much personally. I tried pulling it up on the desk. I gave up after 25 minutes of waiting for it to load. The other no-load website will not work on our computers because we have the wrong Java. So I am unable to do this thing. The tutorials were interesting and it looked fun even though it's not really practical for what I do.

Thing 37 Photo Tales

Ok pictures are always fun to play with and I could spend hours here. I however do not feel comfortable putting recognizable people pictures on an open blog, so I don't.

Check out the bottom of the blog for my collage from collagr.com I liked the way it looked. The photos are from various vacations of scenery I liked. I also created a guest book sign in at the bottom from Slide. I tried tiltshift but didn't care for the results.

I already have too many photo accounts online. I spend time with them when I am getting photos printed and edit them then. I don't work with photos at work. There are a ton of photo sites out there. I like this thing, but it it's more of a personal use than work thing for me.

Thing 36 Comic Relief-Generate Some Fun

The Help Desk By Gadfly

Carol's Dewey Decimal Section:
382 International commerce
Carol's birthday: 4/18/1964 = 418+1964 = 2382

Class:
300 Social Sciences

Contains:
Books on politics, economics, education and the law.

What it says about you:
You are good at understanding people and finding the systems that work for them. You like having established reasoning behind your decisions. You consider it very important for your friends to always have your back.

Find your Dewey Decimal Section at Spacefem.com

My name via dewey.

While the image generators are lots of fun. The biggest use I've found for them is eating large amounts of time. Maybe someday I'll use them, but I'm not heavily envolved with graphics at my library. I don't have that much time in my personal life to do much with them.

I've tried various generators and gadgets when I wanted certain things. None stood out so much that I'd mention them specifically.

Thing 35 Books 2 0

I read the articles. I had just read in Hotline some of the information on reading increasing earlier today. They were interesting.

I've tried some of the sites in the Learn section. I used to be into cataloging my books, years ago. I quit. I have a 2 year old. Who has time for it? I just don't have the time energy or interest to go to alot of these sites. Some are already bookmarked at our library and I use those for Reader's Advisory. I also use some that are not listed. Personally I love "Sop You're Killing Me" for looking for mystery series.

I already have the book feature on my Facebook account. I do try and keep that up, since I don't always remember titles or authors perfectly and I can log in to check what was that title with "Mother Lake" in it again?

I don't have a problem with reading on the Net. I do it myself. It's sort of like those who look down on people who read the penny dreadfuls or today's equivilant. I figure almost any reading is an improvement over none.

Sorry if I go to the trouble of purchasing a book, I'm not going to release it into the wild. I'm going to read it, keep it or donate it.

Thing 34 Is This Our Competition--Online Answer Sites

I loved this quote:
"Web 2.0 is good not because it makes the library more
like the Web, but because it is making the Web more like the
library. By my calculation, we are on Library 4.0 (see sidebar
on this page), so the Web has a way to go to equal the
services of the library. However, libraries have been around
for millennia, and the Web for fifteen years, so it will catch
up quickly." That Thing You Do (from RUSQ)

The link to David Lee King did not work.

Appeal of online answer sites is the ability to be annonymous to a large extent. ALso you can ask the questions 24/7. I've looked at sites and tried a few out over the years. Questions range. I do agree with the statement that you get what you pay for in some cases.

Some people don't like libraries. Some people are more comfortable with computers.

Looked at the Slam Boards. No, I did not participate. If that's what you're into go for it. I get enough questions at the refernce desk to keep me busy.

No I did not answer questions on the boards. See above on Slam Boards.

Thing 33 Travel 2.0

Travel 2.0: Social Networking Takes a Useful Turn (article by David Grossman from USA Today) I preferred this article to the first 2 which were on about.com. I seldom use that since the advertising is so annoying.

I looked at a couple of the travel blogs. Unless I'm going somewhere, and want to research a location, I would not go back to these. Even then, I tend to use websites to book my travel. If I'm exploring/researching locations I tend to use Lonely Planet, Youth Hostel sites, travel books, or the ilk. I'm not real big on podcasts, I'd rather check out a video or DVD at the library.

I looked at a couple of the review sites. So-so is my opinion.

I manage to read travel blogs when reading about IA so while the Mapness looked different, I was not really into this.

I've used map mashups before. They have their uses at times.

Would I use any of these regularly? No. None of them were that impressive to me. Might I use one at some time in the future - Maybe. Professionally - unlikely.

Sites I personally prefer include:
http://www.hihostels.com/
http://www.lonelyplanet.com/
http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/
http://www.bbonline.com/
http://www.travelinformation.com/
http://www.hotelstravel.com/
Also sites that include campgrounds etc.

Thing 32 Google Maps

See above. I finally got it up without crashing the computer, but it still doesn't work right.

Google map hopefully

View Larger Map

Thing 32 Google Maps

I keep crashing when I import the map. The first time I got the map but not the one I wanted. I finally got the map I wanted and everytime I import the html it crashes and kicks me out of the internet. Impressive not.

I'll try for the third time and see if it works. After 2 minutes it's still trying to load my maps. I give up.

I've used google maps for a couple years. There are features I never knew about, but considering the amount of crashing that's happening I'm not too impressed with it. It's handy for directions from here to there - though I take it with a grain of salt - I don't always care for their routes. I do like the fact that I can get satellite views or map views.

Thing 31 Twitter again

It does not have a valid link and I hate twitter. What is this love affair with twitter anyway? Enough for today.

It only works on the link from the right not the one on the main page. What's with that?

Thing 30. More Ways to Use RSS and Delicious

I love RSS Feeds. I use them to keep up with what the librarian's in my system are writing on their blogs. I also use it keep up with 2 comic strips and some blogs on adoption. I have folders with each of my 3 groups. I had more but dropped ones I didn't read regularly.

Delicious is not my cup of tea. I bookmark in favorites what I want to go back to or find it on google. I don't use it. I'm tired of keeping up with accounts I don't find useful so I drop them.

Thing 29 Google Tools

Sorry, but this stuff is old news. I've done alerts on things I've been interested in for a couple years. I've used the news feature also. I have no interest in tracking my google history.

I need another email account like a nuclear bomb. I already have 2 aol accounts, a yahoo one for the listservs that will not play nice with aol and a work account. Online Calendars have been around forever. I started using those back when aol was dial-up only. Most of my family have more sophisticated sites than I'd ever use or don't use computers.

Thing 28 Customized Homepage

I already have done this at home. My new computer came with a igoogle ready to customize as my home-page.

Let's see I have the local weather, pictures of the solar systems, pictures of National Parks, Google maps, cnn feed, movies in the area I live in etc. These all worked great. I deleted ones that took awhile to load or didn't work that well. It was fairly easily to customize. I like what I have up.

Thing 27 Twitter

ARGH! I hate twitter. I joined it before 23 things on a stick. It's the most annoying thing I ever joined. If I could remember my password and such, I'd get off it. I still get people who want to follow me. Creepy.

I know some people love it. I just find it annoying to the nth degree. Never make me go back, and I'll be a happy camper.

Thing 26 Ning

I joined Ning last year. I check on it periodically. I already have a photo I like on it of Italy. I prefer that to my mug.

I created a group for RCL Librarians on Ning and joined it previously. We are not really active.

Ning is fine but now I don't see the library using it much.

Thing 25 Continued

I changed the clocks to a world clock which I liked much better.

I finally found a weather gadget that would let me really change it to my local weather. I'm sorry but I don't care what the weather is in other places at first glance.

I moved some more stuff around.

I did like the Youtube videos on gadgets.

Thing 25

Ok, I analized my blog. According to typealyzer I am ESTP- The doers.



I had already added clocks. See bottom of the site.



I just got through getting rid of a floating hexagon of Italy, so I'm not planning on adding another anytime soon.



I added a search box. I like search boxes on websites.



I end up doing enough photo-editing in real life that I don't particulary care to do it for this right now.

Tried adding the google map feature that maps visitors. I'm not sure if I like it or if it's working. I'll have to wait and see.

I may try more of this when I'm off the desk.

Thing 24

Back at more things on a stick. BT started freezing up, so I figured I'd wander over here. If I'm going to be going crazy from the Internet it might as well be educational crazy.

They certainly have added widgets to this blog menu. I changed my format a little earlier. I added some of the new widgets. I'm not sure I like the weather one since I wanted the default to be MN not NY. The clocks get cut off, so I may switch it around. The clocks also make no sense in the order they are on there. It took forever to find USA MN, USA CO and Viet Nam. I noticed over 5000+ widget additions and gave up looking.

I deleted my turning hexagon with pictures of Italy and a few other things. I got rid of that avatar. I'm not crazy about avatars.

I am not adding more information to my profile. Some things I consider non-negotiable, this is one of them.

I have blogged some on this blog since 23 things but not much. I tend to blog more on my adoption blog. I've had more to say there. I do continue to use the tools I found the handiest.

I read coworkers' blogs and adoption blogs primarily. And yes, I do comment sometimes. However, I make no guarantee as to spelling and typing.

So registered again. I asked to be allowed to comment on the wikiblog thing. Ready or not here I go again.