#21 Discover some useful tools for locating podcasts

First off, I didn't like the Yahoo! Podcasts search. I have a Yahoo! account, but I don't want to have to log in to access them. Half the time I forget my password for yahoo! because I never use it. :-P

But I did find a Severus Snape podcast from http://podcastalley.com/
Yay!! I like Podcast alley as it is much simpler to use rather than Yahoo! I then managed to add it to my Bloglines account

So go me, I'm finally done with my 23 things!!!!

#9 Locate a few useful library related-blogs and/or news feeds.

http://www.topix.net/

This is great to be able to find all sorts of new related posts right from Frederick County. And much cheaper then getting the newspaper ... but no comics :-P

I can even search the news in London, England!

I don't get the paper at home and I hate trying to shift though the online version so this = a much easier solution.

I must go bookmark this!

#23 Summarize your thoughts about this program and learn more about where to go from here

• What were your favorite discoveries or exercises on this learning journey?

I loved the "fun" exercises; YouTube, Flikr, The Web 2.0 awards site. The others were great as well and I really learned a lot from them. But in my day-to-day life, knowing how to use Flikr is going to come up more than some of the other sites.

• How has this program assisted or affected your lifelong learning goals?

Its taught me that I can find just about anything on the web to help me do just about anything. Its a matter of staying in practice with all the new toys I have play with over the past few weeks.

• Were there any take-aways or unexpected outcomes from this program that surprised you?

All the cool and neat stuff on the web that I never knew existed. And that many of the things that I thought were going to be hard and challenging we really quite easy. Yet the other things I thought were going to be easier were hard!

• What could we do differently to improve upon this program’s format or concept?

I like this concept. That you don't flood us with the things and space it out over the week. Also that you gave us time to play catch up at the end to was great!

• If we offered another discovery program like this in the future, would you again chose to participate?

Yep!

• How would you describe your learning experience in a few words or a few sentences, so we can share our successes and promote this program?

Interesting. :-)

22. Take a look at the titles available

NetLibrary was nice, but I spend to much time looking at a computer screen a day as it is. Its great If I can find a book on here if I can't find it anywhere else. But besides that, I'd much rather have the ink-and-paper version.

I must confess that I did spend a bit of time reading the Aeneid once I found it. Yes, I'm a bit weird, I know. :-P

http://www.netlibrary.com/

20. Discover YouTube

I love YouTube! I don't pay much attention to the comments because most of the stuff I find had me recommended to me by friends. Also, I like the feature on the side that shows related videos.

I've included one from my favorite BBC TV show Top Gear. Its not shown in the US but you can get it off the Internet.

Usually its a bit more serious with honest car reviews, but this episode was made the when the winter Olympics were on so its like putting the cars into winter games. If you want a laugh I highly recommend them both.

19. Explore any site from the Web 2.0 awards list

http://www.fuzzmail.org/ This site is pretty cool, you basically type an e-mail and it sends it to the other person, except they read it like you typed it. For example, if I typed something .... then erased it, it shows that.

http://grant.robinson.name/projects/guess-the-google/ : so very fun, you basically have to look at the 20 pics they give you and guess what the Google Search was. Its addicting!

http://www.pandora.com/ I love this site and use it all the time, the only annoying thing is that you can only pass over 5 songs an hour. My suggestion is to make lots of stations to bounce around between.

Oops... wasn't I supposed to say how they could be practical in a library setting? Hmm.. Well, I think these are practical for those days when you've just had enough of library stuff and need a break from it all. ;-)

18. Take a look at some online productivity (word processing, spreadsheet) tools.

I love Google Docs. I've used it for a long time now and love the fact that no matter where I am, as long as I am a near a computer I can get my documents. I can't tell you how many times it's saved me in school when my flash drive is misbehaving and I can just open up my Google account and print it from there.

Its a simple form of Word in my mind and works just as well with out all the fancy bells and whistles. Which is just fine in my mind. :-)

17. Add an entry to the Learning 2.0 SandBox wiki.

I've posted my blog : http://marylandlibrariessandbox.pbwiki.com/Favorite-Blogs

:) Which was a lot easier then I thought it would be. I was worried when I went in to add my blog to the list that I would accidentally hit the wrong button somehow and delete everyone's entries. But, thankfully, I didn't.

Go me!

And it was pretty cool to be able to look at everyone else's blog from the state.

#16 Learn about wikis and discover some innovative ways that libraries are using them

http://booklovers.pbwiki.com/ : I love this site, not only does it give good quality reviews, but its also a great way to find my next book to read. Amazon.com always seems to flood you with suggested titles and after a while they all start to blend together.

I think libraries would benefit from something like the above wiki. Some partons will come up and ask what is a good book and etc. But for the others who don’t want to ask or whatever, this would be a great recourse; and a way to feature some of the books that are not as well known. I know that Urbana has many books on amazing subjects, but not many would think that we would have them.

…. I think I rambled a bit, but you get the idea. :-P

#15 Read a few perspectives on Web 2.0, Library 2.0 & the future of libraries

Away from Icebergs : I agree with him that libraries today really need to start thinking about getting a great deal of material turned into “electronic” resources. Whether we like it or not, Google has been turned from a noun into a verb. How often do you hear someone these days say, “Hmm, I have no idea, Lets go to the library to find a book about it.” No, its more like: “I have no idea, Google it!”

To better bibliographic services: This guy also has the right idea, that we need to work on getting everything centered in one place.

#14 Discover Technorati and learn how tags work with blogs

Technorati was pretty interesting, I had no idea there are so many blogs out there about some of my favorite topics. I loved finding a few on ‘Top Gear’ ( A BBC car show). I guess it has its uses. That you can search for just blogs on a certain subject instead of wadding though everything Google pops up. I don’t think I’ll use it on a regular basis, but its nice to know its there.

#13 Tagging and Discover Del.icio.us

It took me a while to think of how this could actually be of any use. But I think that the main reason I would use it would be if I am away from my home computer and needed to access a site from my favorites list but couldn’t remember the address. … Then again, isn’t that what Google is for? :-P

http://del.icio.us/Grasshopper95

12. Roll your own search tool

So this "thing" was a bit odd to try to figure out, at first I thought that I was creating something to search a particular subject matter. So when I created a Rollyo titled "Lee A Iaccoca" I couldn't understand why I could search for "dogs" and nothing about the Ford Motor Comp. was coming up.

I figured it out after I spent five minutes in puzzlement and created, "My Library Search Thingy" :-P ( http://rollyo.com/tiger987lily/my_library_search_thingy/ )

I'm not sure if I see any potential in this, it just made me frustrated, so we didn't get off to the best start. I love Google and I know many people say that it doesn't give you as reliably sources as some other sites, but I counter that with the fact that you just have to know what your looking for. I love its clean, no no-sense set up and Rollyo looks cluttered and does not give as much info on that search page as Google.

But that's just my humble opinion. I'll give it another chance, but I am loyal to Google. :-)

#11 Take a look at Library Thing and catalog some of your favorite books

http://www.librarything.com/catalog/tiger987lily

This is a pretty cool website, but I'm not exactly impressed. I have a list I keep track of the books I've read and the authors on my computer and this just seems to be a glorified version of that. Granted, the way you can search for a the book and have all the Amazon listings pop up is cool. And it makes it easier for people to see your favorite books, but its not worth me transferring all my lists over to it.

Fun experience!

#10 Play around with an online image generator

Ok, so I created a Yahoo! Avatar... but I can't figure out how to get the picture in here because I can't right-click and save it, nor can I seem to find the place to download it. :(

I tried the others but really didn't like them and found that Yahoo! created the most real-life looking image, rather than something that looked completely computer generated/something you would see in a comic strip! :-P

Anyways, here's the link that I used to create it if anyone else should fancy a go;
http://uk.avatars.yahoo.com/

Edit 7-17-07
I think I figured it out..

#8 RSS

I love my Bloglines! It is so much easier to browse though all my favorite news and blog sites. Rather then doing it the old fashion way of going to each individual website.

One of the 'required' feeds that I subscribed to was "Unshelved" the library comic strip. Its so cute! I highly recommend it to everyone.

I'm not sure of the potential of RSS feeds for library's in the future. Maybe if each branch had one and then patrons could subscribe to it and it would keep them updated on all the up coming activities and programs at the library.

I hope this link works for my blogline. If not, I'll fix it later.
http://rpc.bloglines.com/blogroll?html=1&id=VigintiTres

2. Discover a few pointers from lifelong learners

After watching the "7 & 1/2 Habits of Highly Effective Learners" I know that I find viewing problems as challenges hard and using technology to my advantage easy.

When faced with a problem I usually have a twinge of panic and anxiety over the situation. I tend to worry much more then what I should and there more just get more stressed over whatever it is that I have to deal with.

Using technology to my advantage comes easy to me. I love the web and the ability to find just about anything I could ever need on it. It is one of the best ways to help alleviate my stress from facing a problem like I stated above because 99% of the time you can find a book, a web page, directions that will help you out.

I think all the habits are worthwhile to learn and incorporate into daily life to become a better, more effective life long learner.

I definitely have the 7 & 1/2 habit down pat, I love to Play!!

#7 Post About Anything Technology-Related

• I love my digital camera for the simple fact that I can share my photos over the web so much easier then with film prints. (I still refuse to give up my Nikon manual though!)
• AIM is one of the best things ever invented because it is the only way I can talk to many of my friends who have moved away. Plus I can chat to more than one person at a time, multi-tasking!
• The new cell phones that can take pictures (with a flash mind you), record video, surf the web, check e-mail, play songs/tv shows, etc is crazy and a bit hard for me to wrap my head around how they can get all that into a little rectangle thing no bigger then a stack of cards. I love that they can do it, just don't ask me to explain it!

#6 Flickr Mash-ups & Third Party Sites

So I played with one of Flickr's 'mashups' and found fd's Flickr Toys. I looked at a few of them, but has the most fun with the mosaic maker (You can see my hard work above :-P ). All of the images I used where randomly picked for my by Flikr when I told it I wanted pictures with the tag "dog".

Flikr Color Pickr was also fun, yet I have no idea how that would be useful unless you are creating a desktop wallpaper that you want to be all in the same color field.

Bailey (# 5)

Ok, I cheated. No, my dog is not at the library (though it would be cool if I could bring him to work! ;-) )

I had this pictured uploaded with my e-mail account so I figured I would try moving it over to my blog, I hope its going to work.

I did create a Flickr account too, so if this does not work, I'll send my photo over there and do it that way.

Anyways, this is a picture of my dog, Bailey. (he's also my icon on the far left.) He's asleep on my bed here with one of his favorite toys. He is a cross between a Golden Retriever and a Gorden setter. I got him when he was 8 weeks old and weighted a little less then 15lbs and how at 4 years old he is 80lbs of solid muscle, which he puts to great use lounging around the house for most of the day. :-P

1st Post - Yay!

So after fighting with my computer for a little over half-an-hour I finally got this thing set up. Maybe I should have used livejournal.com for my blog, I can work that. But the whole point of this is to learn something new, right?

So after I get my homework done for my college class I'll work on that other post I need to do. :-)