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.