Revisiting some old favorites

Just trying to get back in the groove. It's been a while since I got out with my camera.

Thing #28 The end and the beginning!

Finished! This was a lot of fun. I learned new technologies and was able to go more in depth on others that I was already familiar with. This has been my favorite library training course - I would love to see more like this.

Rollyo (#12)

At first I created a search engine called "free ebooks", but it wouldn't let me link it (told me it was spam). I created it again and called it "ebooks" and it will let me link it. It's not just public domain books because I included the Baen free library.

Ebook search

Thing #27 Google Maps and mashups

This is something I had never done before! I had a lot of fun and a nostalgic moment creating a map of my daily walk to school as a teenager.


View My Walk to School in a larger map

There were many interesting and useful mashups on the linked lists, like the one for finding a US mailbox and the one for mapping zip code boundaries.

Thing #26 Streaming Media

I'm already registered with Pandora, have created several stations and I love the Pandora app, which I have on my Iphone. I knew of Last.fm but had never used it, so for this exercise I conducted an experiment. I brought up both sites but did not sign into Pandora nor register with Last.fm. Then I tried to create a Blackmore's Night radio station on both. It worked immediately with Pandora (again, without my signing in) but, though Last.fm brought up a Blackmore's Night media window, it never played anything. I do like how Last.fm shows me similar artists (but I like the Genius feature on Itunes better). As for Pandora, I love how it tells me *why* it has chosen music for me, as in: "we're playing this track because it features folk roots, a subtle use of vocal harmony, acoustic sonority, acoustic rhythm guitars and many other similarities identified in the Music Genome Project." That is soooo cool!

For a long time (an excruciatingly long time) we weren't able to take advantage of Hulu because our so-called broadband wasn't sufficiently broad. However, 6 months ago dsl became available in our area (I am still dancing my happy dance!), so we've been able to use it. Great for when you miss a show! But no Criminal Minds??? What's up with that? :-)

Thing #25 Screencasting

I think the most obvious use of this in the library as well as other settings is  for teaching software. It is a most effective tool for that.  For 2 years I had a paid subscription to Scrapper's Guide , a site that specializes in teaching digital scrapbooking.  Linda Sattgast, the site owner, uses screencasting for her fabulous Photoshop and Photoshop Elements tutorials.

Thing #24 Facebook

As with Twitter, I've been on Facebook for a while, though I use it more. I'm also already a fan of the Tulsa City County Library.

Facebook is a great way to connect and keep in touch with friends and family. I'll have to say, however, that there are ways that Facebook makes me anxious. Privacy is a concern, so I found the video that is part of this exercise very useful. I intend to review my privacy settings in the near future. I also worry because I don't check my Facebook page every day, so I'm afraid of being thought rude because I don't answer a message or a comment immediately.

I have the app on my Iphone and find that I'm more likely to do a quick check that way than to access it on my computer.

Thing #23 Twitter

I am "Analund" on Twitter and have been on it for a while but posted my first tweet tonight as part of this exercise. I'll keep exploring but I honestly don't see myself using Twitter a lot. Or rather, I don't see myself *tweeting* a lot, though I might continue using it to check the few people I follow. My husband is more into this than I am. He follows accounting professionals, news sites and weather sites.

I did begin following Central Library.

Thing #22 Audiobooks

I have been happily borrowing audiobooks from TCCL using Overdrive for some time now and was thrilled when Overdrive updated its software to make WMA books available for the Ipod. This is a great service!

Thing #21 Podcasts

I usually subscribe to Podcasts via the Itunes store, but by exploring Podcast Alley I found the Audiobook Reviews podcast and added it to my Itunes podcast subscriptions as well as adding the feed to my Google Reader account.  It was very easy.

Although I have issues with some of the ways that Itunes limits users (like allowing one to manually sync music with only one computer at a time - switching to syncing an iphone with a new computer is a nightmare that involves wiping out *all* your media),  I like the way it handles searching for and adding podcasts.

Thing #20

Wow. YouTube. Love, love, LOVE it! Useitallthetime. You can find tutorials on anything - I have watched countless photography and Photoshop videos and waxed nostalgic over Puertorrican commercials from the 60's, 70's and 80's as well as video captures of old DOS games (ZZT! Kroz! King's Quest!).

As for its use in libraries: I typed "library training" in the search box and came up with a long list of both serious classes and hilarious clips. Here are a couple of examples:

Thing #19

For this one I've been exploring Wufoo, which is new to me. I love its attractive, eyecatching and very clean interface. I can see many applications for this one: mailing lists, surveys, contact forms, etc. It seems very easy to use, with a reasonable pricing structure and it even has ready made templates.

Thing #18 Google Docs/Recipe

It was very easy to publish my document to my blog - didn't even have to sign up for it since I already had a Google account.  I'm just changing the title and adding this comment.

Chocolate Chip Cheesecake Bars (from Taste of Home)

1 18 0z tube of refrigerated chocolate chip cookie dough
1 8 oz package cream cheese, softened
1/2 c sugar
1 egg

Cut cookie dough in half. For crust, press half of the dough onto the bottom of a greased 8-in. square baking pan. In a mixing bowl, beat cream cheese, sugar and egg until smooth. Spread over crust. Crumble remaining dough over top. Bake at 350 for 35-40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack. Refrigerate leftovers.  Yield: 12-16 servings.

Editor's note: 2 cups of your favorite chocolate chip cookie dough can be substituted for the refrigerated dough.

Ana's note: I use 1 and 1/2  family size tubes of cookie dough and double rest of ingredients, then use a 15x10x3 pyrex.

Thing #17

I'm not sure what  happened  here. I was able to add a link to my blog, but as a comment. Otherwise, when I go to "blogs" and click on "edit"  I see the Page Tools but "insert link" isn't clickable.

Thing #16

Very interesting and already useful. On the SJCPL Subject Guide Wiki, I was immediately attracted to the "History Related Mysteries" entry. I'm a voracious reader of fiction and I love "If you like..." lists. This is how I discovered Diana Wynne Jones ( if you like Harry Potter...) and George R.R. Martin ( I had already read  Robert Jordan and Tad Williams). I think those kinds of  lists are an excellent resource on a library wiki.

From the  Bull Run Library wiki I was led to the WowLibrary service, which in turn led me to sign up for email alerts from TCCL.  Oh! The ways one can meander through the Internet...

Thing #15 Library 2.0

From one of the articles: "Exposing our metadata to initiatives like the Open WorldCat Project can make resources discoverable in many more settings, well beyond local online catalogs that were the original destination for the metadata. Done thoughtfully, with the advocacy and coordination of a bibliographic utility, such as OCLC, we can avoid the duplication of records in search result displays that would occur if every consortium were acting individually. Through RSS feeds, libraries can package and push their content to users’ preferred working places." 

From my perspective as a library customer, it is both exciting and amazing to me how much I can take advantage of library services from my own home and how quickly that accessibility is expanding.

Thing #14 Technorati revisited

For some reason, the first time I searched the blog directory for
"windows 7", I didn't get many blog results. The second time I got many results. Then I refined the search by date so that I could see the blogs with newer posts and I found this useful site which I intend to explore further and maybe bookmark in delicious.

Thing #13 delicious

I had an account but hadn't added any bookmarks yet, so I added a few of my most frequently visited sites. There's a mobile version, which I suspect is how I will take the most advantage of this. Also, I'm new to Windows 7 - I will be doing a lot of exploring tutorials and articles on it in the near future and probably adding bookmarks to the best sites I find related to that.

Thing #11 Library thing

Joined. Started a list of Books I have read more than once and will read again.

Thing #10

Thing # 9

    Of the news feed search sites explored in this "thing", the one that I've used is Google Reader's "explore" and "browse for stuff" options. When I first started using Google Reader I grabbed a few bundles covering topics that I'm interested in (this is what I'm in the process of trimming right now). I found many interesting feeds this way (some of which I'll even stay subscribed to :-)).

Topix: I input my area code - this may be a good way to keep up on Sand Springs news.

Technorati: Will bear more exploring. I'm looking through the "top 100". I'm subscribed to a few of those.

Syndic8: Not crazy about the interface.

   I don't know how much I will be actively looking for feeds by using these search engines. I tend to add feeds of sites I visit often. Most of these I've discovered through browsing, searching on Google, or being referred to them.

Thing #8 Google Reader

I have been using this for a while and I love it!  I've organized my feeds into folders for Photography, Books, Theology, Iphone, Blogs I Follow, TCCL and some others. It *is* very addictive and I had more subscriptions than I could handle so recently I went through some trimming. We also had to buy a new computer a couple of weeks ago and, with all the work of installing programs, transferring files and duplicating settings, I have really appreciated that all I had to do was sign into my Google Reader account and all my feeds were still there.

Thing # 7 Hipstamatic!

A phone camera is not the same as a dslr - not even close - but I've found myself using my iphone camera more and more this last year or so and really enjoying it. For one, it helps me try out things I don't feel comfortable yet trying with my Sony Alpha, like street photography. I feel intrusive taking pictures of people out on the street. I know others do it but it's something I have to learn and the iphone camera is helping me with this. For another, this is the camera that IS ALWAYS WITH ME! Chase Jarvis, a well known iphone photographer, has written a book called "The Best Camera". The title references his assertion that "the best camera is the one that is with you". There's a companion iphone app to the book, which brings me to the third reason I love taking photos with my phone. The apps! There are so many wonderful ones and many of them are geared towards retro photography, the kind of photography this camera really shines at.

My favorite app so far is Hipstamatic. It is based on a toy camera invented by two brothers in 1982. For some background history on the original hipstamatic, including the tragic story of its inventors, follow this link.

Hipstamatic for the iphone lets you try different combinations of lenses, film and flashes. There are a myriad of combinations. For a very helpful chart look here.  I have to confess that though I've tried several different combinations, I keep coming back to the John S. lens/Blackeys BW combo.

Here are some pictures I took in downtown Tulsa during a foggy day and in the park across from our church a few days later. "The Hat" was taken at Applebee's, of all things :-).

Playing with textures

Bee and Pansy

            Found in my flower bed last Fall

Mofongo!

I'm still picking through Picasa. I thought I would look for pictures of my hometown, which led me to search for Puertorrican food, which eventually led me to this. It may look gross but, trust me, it's sublime!

#6 Picking through Picasa

Christensen Agate marbles are some of the most beautiful machine made marbles. They are hard to find in the wild and pretty hard to find in Picasa too, apparently :-). Here's a site with lots more pictures of these beauties: The Marblelairium

Hmmm... Though I'll keep exploring Picasa, I think I like Flickr much better.

7 1/2 Habits

I would say that #s 5 ("create your own learning toolbox") and 6 ("use technology to your advantage") are the easiest and most fun for me, as witnessed by my previous post, and #4 the most difficult - I have to work on that confidence thing.

TCCL's 28 Things

Okay, I am very excited about doing this. Technology wows me - I am an unabashed geek. I remember the thrill when my mom took me to the store to buy my very first transistor radio (yes, I am that old).  And, having caught Beatlemania several years after the Beatles had disbanded, I remember patiently recording "A Hard Day's Night" on my cassette recorder when it showed on tv, grateful to capture just the sound but thinking: "Wouldn't it be fantastic if I had some sort of cassette that would also get the video... Nah! Like that would ever happen in *my* lifetime!" Well.

Fast forward (with blazing speed!) to today. I become interested in photography so I buy a camera, I read books, I join a club AND I also take advantage of the many tutorials on YouTube. I subscribe to the "Photoshop User TV" podcast and download it to my iphone. How's that for a learning toolkit?

I  feel spoiled by how easy it is to instantly find information about anything that spikes my curiosity. So I want to know the name of that song playing on the radio? I can hold my phone up to it and find out. Would I like to find other people who also collect marbles and like to talk about it? Well, there's a forum for that!

I'm looking forward to going through 28 things. I love the way it's been put together and, though I've already used many of these sites and technologies, I can't wait to explore them in more depth. Should learning be this much fun? Yes, indeed!  Segue into the next post...

Winter Wonderland Oklahoma Style

Pecked to Death by Ducks

To be nagged to produce (you know who you are!) is (probably) better than to be pecked to death by ducks, therefore I'm starting a photography blog.

In the last few days Oklahoma has been turned into a winter wonderland, so, with camera in hand, Ron and I took a walk yesterday to the conveniently-placed-at-the-end-of-our-street river. I thought I would shoot some landscape pictures but ended up mostly taking pictures of people having fun in the snow. And a train. And birds. And a house. Plus a fashionable pooch. Photography is partially about opportunity.  My photography is all over the place.

Pictures in next post, since I can't figure out how to post them within the post but after the text.