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.