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.