Beyond the Things

Now that I've completed the 23 Things, do I still want to keep this blog? The answer, which surprised me a bit, is yes. In fact, I want to improve it (the photo by my friend Mark Perry is a start) and perhaps give it a wider circulation. This won't happen overnight, but think its worthwhile to use what's already out there. I'll move a little bit away from library stuff and discuss the things that matter to me like politics, economics, trains and maybe even some family stuff, although I tend to want to keep most family things private. So time will tell if this works or not.

Random Things 5-10

I got carried away with Random Things 1-4. This is much better.

5. Met Lenny Kravitz

6. I once dated three young ladies at the same time (that's not bragging, just the way it worked out) named Becky, Becki and Rebecca. It didn't last very long because when they called the house, my sister would ask "and which one are you?"

7. I worked with Jimmer when he was first hired by the library way back in ....

8. I never owned a leisure suit but did wear bell bottoms, a white belt and beaded choker chain.

9. I went on 62 interviews between April and September 1996 after being laid off. Not all were job interviews; many were referral or informational interviews. One of the referral interviews led to my getting a job at Ashland Chemical that fall.

10. I get chills up and down my spine when my daughter Lauren hugs me and tells me she loves me.

Random Thing About Me #4....

On our first date, my future wife asked me out, not the other way around.

Random Thing About Me #3....

I've never been out of the country.

Random Thing About Me #2

I love the desert. Don't get me wrong, I also love Ohio, the change of seasons, the family and friends. When I first visited the desert in 1989, I immediately developed a love for the place. It's part of the reason why I took a job in Vegas a year later.

It's hard to explain. Maybe because its an extreme environment and life takes extreme measures to adapt and survive. And there is plenty of life in the middle of the Mojave. You just have to know where to look.

Maybe its because for the most part, it's vast and empty and untouched. Mother Nature moves very slowly out there. It's the opposite of so much of the modern world where change is constant and incremental. When change comes to the desert, it tends to be in reaction to a catastrophic incident, like a flood or a landslide -- sudden, violent and awesome. The change wrought by that sudden incident might remain the same for another ten, fifty or one hundred years. You never know. There are still wagon tracks in Death Valley from when the pioneers headed west in the 1850s. One day, in a matter of seconds or minutes, they'll be gone when that change comes along.

The desert demands respect and demands that you pay attention. The consequences for failing to do so are extreme. Maybe that's what I like best about the desert --you have to pay attention. When you pay attention, you get to soak up the beauty of it all.

Random Thing About Me #1

I was talking with someone yesterday about the election and I baffled this person when we discussed the various candidates. I did voted Democrat for presdent, because I left we needed fresh leadership, but I voted Republican for some of the other offices. This left this person a bit baffled. I've never been a fan of either side of the neo-fence. I tend to follow the Third Way http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_Way_(centrism) as I feel that really offers the best of both worlds.

BTW, I posted a link to wikipedia! Holy Cow! Hipes-who-trashes-Wikipedia-at-every-opportunity posted a link to an article there. I trash Wikipedia more than I trash YouTube. What's next?? Will I create a YouTube account and download there???!!!

23 Things ...That's a wrap!

Started late and finished on time...always a good thing.

Some final thoughts.....

Overall, a good program. It gave me a much needed push to go in and start using a couple of things that I have wanted to do, like Flickr and On-line productivity tools. Both have become part of my daily on-line life. So has Twitter, but it will be interesting to see if that holds up over time.

Other things that are good and useful: The on-line image generator was tons of fun and can see doing more with those in conjunction with stuff for Lauren. It was good to rediscover RSS feeds. I now have four of them but need to develop a habit of checking them daily. Pod and vodcasts are also useful and have a place in my daily routine but again, not there just yet. Since the new president is going to start with weekly vodcasts, maybe that will be the push to get me to using them more often.

The only bad element of the 23 Things was the confirmation of my dislike of YouTube. I suppose its possible if you set it up for your interests it might be OK but for just browsing the site, there is too much BS, violence and sex that comes to the top. Does that really contribute to making our world a better place?

I'm indifferent to some of the utilities we looked at , like LibraryThing and del.icio.us. I can see their worth, it that's your thing. It was good to have to look at them, to learn what they are all about and understand their place in the web 2.0 world.

In regards as this being a way to help our patrons, we don't see too much of this where I work. YouTube is popular but people don't ask for help. I rarely see anything else that would be considered web 2.0 here. Not saying its not there, just don't see it.

Thanks for the opportunity to learn these things, its been a good six weeks.

MOLDI eBooks

MOLDI has a nice selection of books, especially new books. It's easy to browse, easy to download, at least the PDF's are easy. I didn't have Mobipocket installed on my work computer but may put it on my laptop at home. Not that I like the idea of reading a book on a laptop in bed...I have watched movies on it in bed but that's another story for another day. I digress.

Anyhow, being all juiced up in the aftermath of the election, I found this title that appealed to my political geekness. http://clc.lib.overdrive.com/4D4079D0-5843-4CD7-9492-4777BAE8024B/10/234/en/ContentDetails.htm?ID=B95062B4-9315-4E35-B788-98D390619E26 Reading something like this for a little bit is one thing, but I wonder what will happen when I go deeper into the book....will I get tired of looking at the computer screen? Stay tuned.....

Podcasts

I hadn't given too much consideration to Podcasts before Thing #20 came along. As usual, lots of things out there to check out, some better than others, some free, some free but want you to subscribe and others require subscriptions that cost $. No thanks to paying for that.

As for useful search tools, why wouldn't you just use a basic search engine? It takes you to thousands of podcasts quickly. Maybe I don't understand the question. I'm for whatever gets me there quick and finds what I'm looking for just as fast.

Some are audio, likehttp://www.npr.org/templates/player/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=1&islist=false&id=97078523&m=97078482 and some are video (vodcasts) http://www.cnn.com/services/podcasting/popups/cnn.daily.html

Some podcasts are more important than others http://sports.espn.go.com/stations/player?context=podcast&id=3698767. I was amazed at the number of adult podcases out there http://wordpress.com/tag/adult-podcast/ (SORRY this is just the list of blogs about those kinds of podcasts -- we don't need any more pornification of this blog than what's already on there)

YouTube..better you than me

I had preconceived notions about YouTube before I starting exploring the site. Guess what? All of those perception were proved. Call it self full filling prophecy if you want, but its content is mostly junk and its a waste of time. Violence, sex, people trying to be funny and failing miserably. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZdCd4abfW1M

I can get the content I really want (news, sports) elsewhere without having to deal with the bs.

YouTube: further proof of the dumbing down of our culture and society.

Power Tools...Wait, We're Not Talking Saws?

I always scrunch up my eyebrows and forehead when someone talks about power tools and computers. I guess I need to look up how the term "power tools" came to be applied to a collection of on-line sites that are mostly fun and efficient to use. I suppose its because they give the user the power to do whatever they want and they are on-line tools. OK, whatever works.

As for the "power tools" listed on our webpage, I played with some of the ones that looked like fun. BoingBoing was a lot of fun with some really interesting stuff:
http://www.evilmadscientist.com/article.php/kitchenLego
or how about this: http://www.pointclickhome.com/image/tid/4109 People will pay too much money for anything.

I dig Digg. Lots of wacky factoids on here; http://health.howstuffworks.com/lobotomy.htm, more college football lists that should have remained in some one's head http://bleacherreport.com/articles/80179-epic-failures-top-10-busts-of-the-bcs-era/page/3
and then there's this, kind way out there: http://www.maclife.com/article/reviews/ohmibod_naughtibod

The not so cool stuff includes Technorati -- guess you have to be a real techie to like it; its just too much information. Why does MOLDI have music? Seems like too much of a sideline. Too many others do it better. They do have some esoteric movies, however like these: http://clc.lib.overdrive.com/4D4079D0-5843-4CD7-9492-4777BAE8024B/10/234/en/SearchResults.htm?SearchID=19236748

Last comment, glad they give the user of the option of adding Firefox. We all know just great IE can be sometimes.

And the winner is....

Lots and lots of posts about SEOmoz's Web 2.0 awards. I have this visual what the award ceremony looks like and its not pretty as I invoke every stereotype about computer people that could be out there.

I'd expect to see You Tube, Twitter, Flickr, etc at bringing home the gold but some of these winners I've never heard of. Of course I don't do Content Aggregation or Genealogy or Philanthropy so I have no reason to know about them.

Not really too impressed as I'm not big on awards. They're just nice things that come out of good work (usually) then its time to move on to the next thing and not dwell on the past.

On-line productivity

When I consider the words "online productivity", I tend to think its an oxymoron, like "military intelligence" or "constructive feedback". I mean, when you get on-line and start surfing, playing and looking around BAM! that's two or three hours of your life you'll never get back. Maybe you learned something, maybe not.

So I took my typical cynical attitude to start looking around to fulfil the requirement for Thing #17, online productivity. I was blown away at home stuff is out, most of it free, to help you and me organize and share our documents, work lives and other things we want to communicate.

For starters, I had no idea there were so many online office suites, calendars, documents, RSS Readers, start pages, invoice managers, time tracking apparatus, project management tools, to-do lists, personal organizers and on and on and on. Id' heard of Google Docs and Zoho but learned that most of the big players have a foot in the door. My favorite name: Adobe's Virtual Ubiquity. (ubiquity and ubiquitous are among my favorite words--don't ask me why).

Secondly, so much of this stuff is free! How long can that last? I will admit, I did not probe deeply into just what you get for "free". I suspect that if you want to put a lot of stuff online, there is a charge since advertising can only give so many a free lunch. BTW there are no such things as free lunches, right?

Anyhow, I'll probably create a Google Docs account in the very near future so I can share my paperwork for my model railroad. People will look at the pics on Flickr then find a link to take them to a map or timetable or other railroad-related doc. Pretty cool stuff.

Playing in the wiki sandbox....no throwing sand!

Openness, trust, organic, fluid and observable.

These are five words that kept coming up over and over again every time I read something about wikis, what they are, why they exist. In some circumstance, they are probably a better communication vehicle than a blog.

The CML wiki sandbox looks like fun. Think I'll come back and play another day!

http://learnandplaycml.pbwiki.com/Favorite-Album

Of bookmarks and tags

Wow, I was really NOT thinking Web 2.0 as I approached Delicious. My thinking is completely utiliatrian when it comes to bookmarks and tags, what they are and how they could be used. I would have never considered the idea of tag clouds that change like clouds in the sky depending on my bookmark needs at the moment. If I were to look at the Bookmarks I have on my home PC, many of them have been there for a long time and half of them aren't even used anymore. it requires effort to delete them so I don't. The tag cloud idea is one way to help end that problem.

So I start playing around on delicious and found some interesting stuff fast!

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122461906719455335.html Tweet tweet

http://railsandtrails.com/default.htm trains and maps...oh yeah! This one is a keeper. Surprised I haven't run across it before.

http://www.libraryinstruction.com/info-tech.html Had to look for something like this..huge bibliography but kind of short on substance.

So in the space of just a few minutes, I found some stuff that is usable. That makes del.icio.us pretty usable. Good stuff.

Twitter

OK, Twitter is kind of fun. I thought it would be more like chat (yuck) but its something else, much more simple. It's cool how these little snips reflect a person's mood at the moment. I can see checking on this every now and then.

Web 2.0 Library 2.0 Steve 2.0

Maybe that should be Steve 1.5.

I think a lot of the stuff I have learned during Learn & Play is pretty cool. I had been "thinking" about setting up a Flickr account for months. L&P was the push I needed to actually do it. A year or two ago, I had a couple of RSS feeds that kept me up to date with news and sports. I got away from it and forgot about it. L&P was a nice reminder that such services are out there and can be easily incorporated into a digital setting where I visit almost every day. Still, there are things in L&P and Web 2.0 that are, well, just stuff to do.

Here's where a "gap" comes into play. To me, social networking is about personal interactions. It can be one-on-one, small groups, large groups. The difference, and the point where I disagree with some of the "Oh Web 2.0 is the end all and be all" is that to be truly effective and lasting, those interactions need to be face to face. Nothing can replace that.

Andrew Keen wrote an interesting article that discussed the seduction of Web 2.0. I don't agree with much of what he wrote, and think he is just wrong with his use of the Marxism analogy. Still, he has a point that so much of what is being discussed loses some of its impact as each individual waves his own flag (blog) and content gets lost in the collective whole of the web.

http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/006/714fjczq.asp

On the flip side, Bryan Alexander writes about the use of Web 2.0 for learning. A key concept here is social networking tools reduce the barriers to entry to the digital world for the average Joe. So we can set up a Keen vs. Alexander debate, both would score points, both would be right and both would be wrong.

http://connect.educause.edu/Library/EDUCAUSE+Review/Web20ANewWaveofInnovation/40615?time=1224605792

I think Alexander's point for using this stuff for learning is more aligned with the way I feel about Web 2.0. I don't have the time to loiter on-line, just like I don't have the time to loiter down at Joe's Bar. Yet by learning about what's out there, I can pick and choose in my utilitarian way and get what I want out of Web 2.0. That's what it really needs to be about; my choice, my time, my way. (Sounds like a fast food commerical from the 70's doesn't it...the more things change, the more they stay the same)

Library Thing (is that like Wild Thing?)

This could be kind of fun to play around with. I added only a few titles when I realized I could go on and on and on. If I were really interested in doing some social networking with other book lovers, this would be a good place to start. I'll keep this in the back of my mind as something to do some night when I can't get to sleep. Whoops, wait a minute. If I do this at 11:00 at night, it will only stimulate the brain even more and I'll never get to sleep. OK, this is something to do on a cold, rainy Sunday afternoon in Feburary or March when there is no football on TV.

http://www.librarything.com/catalog/sthipes

Messing around with an image generator

I can see where this might be fun if you had something specific in mind to create. I'll share what I've learned with my wife and maybe together we can have some fun with kid and pet pics and share them with other family members. Otherwise, I'll probably not use an image generator again anytime soon.

Since I'm on Flickr alot these days, the Flickr Toy FD Generator was a natural (thanks Jimmer). It's easy to use, easy to upload. Easy easy easy -- that's good.

http://flickr.com/photos/30885078@N07/2958590885/

Library blogs

Thing #10 is locate a few useful library blogs and/or news feeds.

There sure are a lot library stuff out there. I had no idea. I started with what seemed to be the logical starting, www.ala.org. They have a handy section of a whole bunch of links to blogs and news feeds. Of those that could be useful to me in my everyday work as a librarian include:

http://rusa.ala.org/blog/,
http://blogs.ala.org/libraryeducation.php?tempskin=_rss2
http://blog.booklistonline.com/feed/

I was disappointed that LIRT (Library Instruction Round Table) did not have a blog but we do have a list serv. Please don't suggest I start a LIRT blog; I have too much to do without spending more time writing on line!

http://ohiolibrarycollaboration.blogspot.com/ has interesting stuff, especially on the political (that means library funding) side of life.

And of course....http://www.librarybytes.com/ . Maybe we can call this one the "cradle of Learn and Play blogs" since it is sort of where it all started for us.

Big Blogger knows all...

I just signed up for an RSS feed (http://www.google.com/reader/view/?source=blogger-following#overview-page) and much to my surprise, when I turned on the sports and went to NCAA football, Ohio State news comes to the top! So "it" assumes since I live in Columbus, Ohio, that I would want Ohio State news first. In this case, it is correct but what about those folks who follow, say, Wisconsin or some school like that? Of course they would make the adjustment but maybe the Google Reader people should assume so much? We all know what happens when we assume....

What's in a name?

Cellphones -- is that even an appropirate term anymore? Does anyone make just a cellphone these days? The reason I ask is we got an offer from Verizon yesterday to upgrade our phones and our service. It almost read like "you'd better take advantage of this offer now because soon, you're not going to have a choice, you'll only be able to have a device that offers phone service, text messaging, the Internet, music and video downloads, GPS, remote dishwashing, digital massage and anything else you could possibly imagine". Ok, this is good stuff, so very handy, and I can see where this would be THE device for some people. Howver, all I want is basic communication. I don't have time for all that other stuff as I have a busy life beyond digital entertainment and communication. BTW, as a geographer, I never get lost so GPS would be a waste of money. Anyhow, don't tell me what I need, sell me what I want. Less can be more. I'll keep you posted on where this goes.

Flickr fun, the sequel

It's interesting how some people create some very cool mashups while others just make some minor modifications, call it a mashup and post it. I spent about 45 minutes looking a bunch different mashups and found several I like:


This one looks like the cover of a Yes album. http://www.flickr.com/photos/toophotographed/2203361992/

This one scares the hell out of me. We should all be afraid!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jdstern/360920761/

Not sure why I find this one appealing. Maybe there is so much to see, there are multiple messages. http://www.flickr.com/photos/emma_nowhere/469114959/

OK, enough for today.

Flickr fun

A nice side effect about doing the 23 Things is being forced, for the lack of a better word, to try different things. I have wanted to create a Flickr account for awhile as I felt using it would be the most time effective and efficent way to share photographs. Like so many other things, when left to my devices, the Flickr idea got pushed aside over and over again.

Now I want to complete the 23 Things so I got off my hands and created a Flickr account:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/30885078@N07

For now, there are only photos of my model railroad since so many friends have been badgering me for pics of what I've done down in the basement. Eventually, I'll create more sets with other pics of family, friends, animals and other stuff.

The Blog Police

So yesterday, I go to log into my blog for the first time in about a week and this is what I get:

This blog has been locked and unpublished due to possible Blogger Terms of Service violations. You may not publish new posts until your blog is reviewed and unlocked.
This blog will be deleted within 20 days unless you request a review.
Request Unlock Review

Since I'm typing this, they must have approved the unblock request. It just seems strange that for someone who has such a simple, boring blog, there would be a "possible Blogger Terms of Service violation" Is that like being on double secret probation? Have I run afoul of Dick Chaney and his Internet police? Is my IP a registered threat to block security everywhere? Whatever.

Now Departing.....

When I was little, I used to complain about time moving so slowly. The 4th of July will never get here.....how many days 'till Christmas? Are we there yet? I recall my grandfather telling me, "just wait, the day will come when time goes too fast. One day, you'll be longing for these days."



Of course he was right. Now, time flies by so fast its like "slam on the brakes!!!"



Anyhow, this is my first real chance to learn and play. So finally, as September comes to a close, I can finally start! Wheeeeee!



Remember Habit #4 -- Confidence? Well, I've got plenty of confidence about most things in life yet as I approach the 23 Things, my confidence is a bit on the shaky side. There are so many things to do at work, at home and I wonder, will I get all of 23 Things done? OTOH, I've got the right attitude so yes, I'll get it done.

Like the Little Engine That Could...I think I can, I think I can....