Watch Out Wilber!

Twenty weeks have passed! Where does it go when you're running in circles?! OK, I must admit that I wasn't wildly excited about 20 for 2.0. Poking around the internet is a time hog, nobody can deny that. But my prior online exposure was, shall we say, somewhat limited . Somewhat is an understatement. Who could have know there is so much available. I love google earth, del.icio.us, flickr, pandora and yahoo free games and how they can all work together. Thanks for the opportunity to learn about so many new things, and yes I would be interested to learn more. Perhaps I'll get organized enough to start a wiki for my book club. It certainly has the capacity to make communication easier.

Yahoo! Games!

How have I been living without Yahoo games? Marble Lines (which I've never played) and Mahjongg are fun, although the addictive

quality is high on the scale. It's hard to stop!! Sudoku takes on a whole other sense of accomplishment what with buzzers, lights and congratulatory music. The implications for our work force? I can't imagine. Perhaps a reward at the end of a long day.

Quite Amazing

With the cost of flying what a surprise to find out that you can fly for free on Google. I absolutely loved how you zoom in from outer space. What a trip! My map-loving husband could be lost forever on Google Earth. Don't suppose it will work well, or perhaps not at all with our home dial-up. I absolutely hate to give Comcast more money, but these weekly lessons are teaching inviting search tools and OK, fun.

I could zoom over to my Mother's place in Ohio., even seeing the tree by her front door. That is just pretty amazing. You couldn't go directly to my in-laws home, they live a ways off the main road. But knowing the lay of the land, a person could arrow their way there. Google Rocks!

Resident?

Could this be my new place of work? The virtual library on Second Life. Reminds me of the Matrix. You can see the appeal, but I'd rather spend my time with flesh and blood things that breath and absorb sunlight. When I need to escape, I like to climb between the pages of a book, or put a movie in the player. Perhaps these are similar things. That's something to ponder. But no, I don't have a "Second Life" that I know of, and at this juncture I really don't want one.

Microsoft's librarian, Ms Dewy is a trip! I like the concept and the way it works, but was it really necessary to make her such a sex pistol?

Google Docs Rock

So far I do feel like we can trust Google, as far as electronic things can be "trusted". It's amazing what is available, FREE. Who would believe documents too? After taking the "quick tour", I did "try it out". OK, I succeeded in sending myself a document by email. Oddly enough it arrived in my mailbox marked; [SPAM - Blacklist]. What's up with that? But it was nice to send it without any of the making an attachment business. It's also nice to think perhaps I can get by without Microsoft Word when a new computer comes to live at our house.

BONUS: While completing this assignment, I also figured out what Google Reader was, and added a few sites.

The Invisible Web

Who could believe there are "spiders" crawling around the web consolidating information? Better there, than the usual places they show up and surprise me. So many search engines, what's a girl (url?) to do? I've loved the ease of Google and also that they fly in the face of Microsoft. Granted they aren't the little guys anymore, but they've retained some of the spirit.

Surprises with the alternates? I liked that Dogpile used "go fetch" rather than the standard "search" and also that they included a "Joke of the Day!" What really surprises me is my returning again and again to Del.icio.us and Flikr to search. I've been looking to buy a hammock for my daughter who is employed by a rafting company in Utah. It's been quite interesting to see what the various search engines have came up with. I even found directions on how to make my own, complete with step-by-step illustrations.

"You Belong Anywhere a Good Book Is"

Stephanie Meyer says a person belongs anywhere a good book is. She finds the lines between adult, teen and juvenile to be "irritating, a good book is a good book". I couldn't agree more, and it was fun to see her video image telling me so in an Amazon interview. OK, it wasn't a podcast, but it's still in the spirit of technology promoting books and the love of reading. And if there is any doubt about her teen appeal, check out the line waiting to buy her book.

Sno-isle Libraries was the site I chose for podcasts. What a surprise to find I could listen to Nancy Pearl recommendations! Of course, I had to put a title on hold. And she reviewed a couple of children's books. I didn't even know she did that. What a delight to listen to peers read a variety of picture books. Anne Jones, Marilyn LeBlond, Debbie LaGasse and Bryan Stratton, "you go". Bryan, you made me laugh out loud with your rendition of "Cowboy Baby". What a hoot!

1, 2, 3, Not My Cup of Tea

What can I say? I poked around in a number of the listed sites. It seems like they require you to agree to terms and download. Call me paranoid but it seems like this type of stuff opens your computer and email to a variety of uninvited "guests". Although there were some cool visual graphics, I just wasn't that temped. These are the same sites I avoid like the plague at home. Some of the things I've learned in 20 for 2.0 have been terrific. Thank you for the opportunity. But this just isn't my cup of tea.

A Problem!!!

With a few books and some music by Koko Taylor in my cart ready to download, I repeatedly was unable to complete the task. I took the guided tour, and listened to "download" and "digital rights management" twice. I've spent as much time as I can afford (and more), being thwarted by the message box, "A problem has occurred in retrieving the Digital Rights Management machine identification. Contact a Microsoft product support". That's all I have to say about that.

Peace Be With You

And so, del.icio.us was completely unknown to me. What a useful tool! As with all tools, a learning curve is involved. My curve has taken way more than an hour! Enough said. I searched on Greg Mortenson, the author of "Three Cups of Tea". Social bookmarking seems to work like Amazon ratings; more bookmarking perhaps means a better site. Much less junk to wade through as with Google. I stopped at tagging three sites. The Central Asia Institute site featured a large article with hauntingly beautiful photographs of the land and children that inspired Greg to build his first school. It's well-worth a look-see, and if you can afford it, a donation.

Wiki Wonderfulness

Today's photo comes from Fuchsia Foot. If you look closely at her beach read, you can make out Jodi Picoult's curly blond locks. As a matter of fact, a Flickr search renders 191 results of Jodi! It's gratifying to see so many images of books and people together. And not just Jodi either. What does this have to do with wiki wonderfulness? Seems like a wiki could be a helpful tool for a book clubs. My book club experiences difficulty selecting books. This is where Jodi Picoult comes in. Her books have consistently been liked and also provide good discussion points. How cool would it be to have a group wiki where book suggestions could be made? Widgets could be embedded with reviews and author interviews. And hey it could bring an end to those potlucks with five desserts and a couple of appetizers. Hmmm...

Three Cups of Tea

Three Cups of Tea? YouTube, Hulu, and Fancast, none of them are exactly my cup of tea. But one (me?) must admit that they add a useful view of many things. For some reason I experienced difficulty watching anything in it's entirety on YouTube. The clips came in "parts pieces", and I didn't find the library pieces very captivating. Searching on "Three Cups of Tea" poured forth choppy images of author, Greg Mortenson. Scrolling down, I found a cube of sugar for my cup: A humerous five minute segment by high school student, Laura Nelson who interviewed Greg when he was a guest speaker. It was fun to see him in a relaxed and unrehearsed way. His words were simple but powerful!

Perhaps libraries could consider adding more dimension to websites by featuring clips of various authors and events. Seeing authors and illustrators bring books alive!

As for Hulu and Fancast, they played with absolutely no interruption. Interesting. Of course there are commercials that you can't avoid. I enjoyed watching a clip from the crew that adapted the book "Horten Hears a Who!". You just have to love Horten and all the other characters that Dr. Seuss brought alive.

Found My Daughter

And her friends. Some surprises, definite humor, what an elaborate network! Although I admire the creativity, it doesn't really hold attraction for me. Navigating the myspace site is cumbersome for the novice and downright frustrating in some instances. For example some guy named "Tom" had posted to my space and I can't figure out how to get rid of him. Makes me appreciate my answering machine with the easy to use delete button. (Photo from "Brymo".)

Picture This

No digital camera in our household at this date. What a surprise for a woman that doesn't own a cell phone either. Going, going, going with option number one. Oddly enough, I stumbled onto Flickr a few weeks back when I attempted to access my blog from home. I couldn't remember my URL, so I googled "Handtruck Hannah" to see if I could find the site. Not on the first try, but I did find another Handtruck Hannah. She is the little girl from Essex that has been pictured on my blog for a few weeks. What a hoot to be able to view a series of photos of Hannah, her grandparents and her little brother.

After reading Miss Manners, I see I should have given credit to the photographer. That can be fixed. Today I'm including a photo from a person who calls himself Spinadelic. He's created a primary rainbow of handtrucks. There are some pretty strange (creative?) images under the tag "handtruck".

Remember Me?

Amaze the heck out of me! I was sure I'd erased my cookies since the last time I used Pandora, but went I went to the site...it knew me. That just makes me feel so warm and fuzzy about technology sucking up all of our privacy. All sarcasm aside, Pandora is terrific! Believe it or not, a random stranger I was having a conservation with turned me on to the website. We were talking about getting older and losing touch with much of the new music. At the time I tried Pandora at home, but my older computer with dial up couldn't handle it.

Work was a different experience (no dinosaur on my desk). After the remodel at Service Center, I felt my new work area was often noisy and distracting. We all work differently. Pandora helped me over the hump of change. Waiting today were the five stations I had created; Collective Soul, Beatles, Gary Moore, Jonny Lang, and Allman Brothers. I added a Van Morrison station on this day, because it's always a good time for a Moon Dance!

RSS Anybody?

So, I had no idea there was such a thing as RSS. As instructed, I signed up for Bloglines, then scrolled through their list of most popular sites. Who could know that a person could be sent the "Word of the Day" or the "Quote of the Day"? Obviously the list goes on. BBC headlines sent to me daily. A person could get lost and never get anything done. The absolute icing on the cake would be the daily Sudoku puzzle delivered fresh. Yikes!!

Making an IM Date

Lucky me, I was able to set up an IM date with my niece. (Preschoolers don't get all the fun with play dates.) She was able to guide me through "my very first time". No, no IM experience here. Although it was fun "chatting" with her, and to be fair I can see the appeal, it's just not my "communication of choice". My niece did pass on the sage advise, "If you really want to relate to 20-somethings, check out the online Urban Dictionary".

Bonus Exercise

To be honest, it's been quite awhile since I've participated in anything involving "bonus points". I don't know if I could again be motivated solely by the opportunity to push my grade point average a little higher. Hard to say.

I think I have always been a lifelong learner. A "highly successful" lifelong learner? That depends on how you measure success. My life is full; at least half a glass full all the time. That's all I have to day about that. (Forest Gump was on to something.)

My thoughts about the 14 minute tutorial?

• Favorite part - Lifelong learning is the idea that it is never too soon or too late for learning.
• Least favorite part - My Learning Contract
• Hardest habit - View problems as challenges
• Easiest habit - Play!

Early Ride to Lynnwood

Thank Heavens for Everett traffic being good this morning. Left here a few minutes late and still made it to the first place on time. I don't know about everyone else, but I like the Everett split lanes. It's kind of line having our own rush hour express.