#23

No More Things

2009-08-03T09:52:00.000-07:00

Well, I've got my prize for completing More Things on a Stick. So, what to do with this blog now? I'm thinking abot repurposing it to be a place where I can comment of the library world. But then, this is public and I'm not always , um, nice enough to publicly share all my thoughts. Still I suppose I vet my thoughts before sharing.

23 Things

2009-06-19T12:24:00.000-07:00

If you (Gail) want to work on 23 things, here's the link: http://23thingsonastick.blogspot.com/2007/12/what-are-23-things-on-stick.html

Thing 47

2009-06-17T08:32:00.000-07:00

The End: Well, it was a lot of fun. At the very least, I feel a lot more familiar with a lot of cool stuff out there on the web. I must say I enjoyed more things quite a bit more than 23 Things. I would totally do something like this again!

Thanks!

Thing 46

2009-06-17T08:13:00.000-07:00

WebJunction: I've seen a few webinars from webjunction, and I've had a few folks say nice things about the classes. I think the classes and webinars are the best bits. The classes are a great way to enhance your knowledge without an outlay of cash.

I'd love a section for staff from specific Minnesota libraries so I could see all my rochester hommies.

Thing 45

2009-06-12T07:36:00.000-07:00

The Cloud: I dig the whole concept of the cloud. Accessing thing via the web instead of having them stored on you PC. It sounds great. Your machine would be dedicated to running the stuff instead of storing. Plus, I think cloud gaming will be major league kick ass. Now, it feels a little clunky. I'm thinking of the stuff on Facebook and web based games, not MMORPGs think WoW, whcih relied completely on stuff installed on your machine. I'm all about the cloud. The convienence, less reliance on your machine. It all sounds good to me.

I've been using google docs for years. I love it. I love have access to my stuff anywhere.

You put cloud computering and mobiloe devices together: Bomb. A 40 mageton awesome bomb.

I'm ready to make the jump to the cloud. Punch it Chewie!

Thing 44

2009-06-08T14:40:00.000-07:00

Money: I really liked the explanations of compound interest and the economic crisis. I also was both frightened and impressed with Mint.com. You just plug in your bank's names and it just know stuff. Wicked, wild and weird. I dug it though. Feed the Pig was annoying, but interest. I liked the coupn sites. I have used coupon sites from time to time.

I buy and seel stuff on eBay. I guess I'm old school like that. All the kids are doing the Craigs list thing. I remember when you could get everything on eBay. Not so much anymore.

I think my overall favorite thing in this thing was mint.com

Thing 43

2009-06-05T13:31:00.000-07:00

Internet TV: I loves me some hulu. I'm so happy there's so much content available online now. A few years ago, a dirth (of legal sources), now everybody has stuff up so you can catch. Which is a godsent for shows like Lost.

It's sad that the BBC won't let us yankees watch their TV online. I'm guess that'll happen eventually.

I've had Netflix for years and year. I wish my Tivos were new enough to use the Netflix feature. Alas, I have 2 series 2 tivos, and you gotta have series 3 tivos for the Amazon, and Netflix stuff to work. Eventually, I'll upgrade, just not in the next few motnths. Probably when I make the jump to Blu Ray.

Thing 42

2009-06-05T13:25:00.000-07:00

Internet Radio: I gotta say I totally dig internet radio. The customization, the wealth of variety, the commerical free-ness. All totally, totally awesome. I've used a lot of internet radio stuff before. I'm back on Pandora now. I also love that the current streams online and that you can look at the paylists. That's liquid coolness:
http://minnesota.publicradio.org/radio/services/the_current/playlist/playlist.php

So, yeah, I must say More Things has reintroduced me to something I previously loved, but somehow Internet radio fell out of my life. I'm just glad it's back.

Thing 41

2009-06-05T12:56:00.000-07:00

Friendfeed: As much as I love both Twitter and Facebook, whenyou have something like Friendfeed that mashes them together, I'm just not that into it. I'm the kind of guy that eats my burger, then my fries. I like my boundaries I guess.

I'll keep it up for a few weeks to see if it grows on me. Somethings do, somethings like iGoogle, don't.

Thing 40

2009-05-29T13:17:00.000-07:00

Mash ups: Okay, I've been listening to Pandora for all of 15 seconds, and I love it! I have, of course, heard of Pandora before, but I hadn't checked it out until right now. Weird huh? How something that's totally up my alley escaped me for so long. So yeah, the first mash-up with the whole lastdotcom and pandora thing? Yeah, that rocks. It rocks like granite.

The author signing thing didn't work to well, as none of the author's I want to meet are currently tour. But I tried it. Neat idea. Same with the the than 200 pages thing for amazon.

The lunchbox thing would have been really useful when I was in NYC. Well, it might have been handy. It's hard to say. If you're in your office and think, "hey, where should I eat?", awesome. If you're on the street walking around; maybe not so much.

Interestingness was, well, interesting. Lot's of picture people in the world taking lots of pictures. Good for you picture people. Good. For. You.

Time tube is pretty cool. I, of course, had to search Doctor Who. I liked the lay out and it gave you quite a few videos.

The crime report thing didn't work too well for me. Oh well. Maybe I just live in a really safe neighborhood.

Let me google that for you was pretty awesome.

I've used travelr and bubblr and I still have my mash up of places I've lived on my blog.

There are tons of used for mashups. It sounds like the way things are going mash-ups will be sort of the norm in the not too distant future of cloud computing. I'll be looking forward to it. While I wouldn't say I've fully embraced mashups (as I haven't created much of anything), I'll be down with the whole thing. The not having to know any programming to crate new aps is mighty cool.

I checked out yahoo pipes as well. While I didn't make any pipes, I did give it a good sniff round and I think I might be able to use it to create some cool stuff. That is, if it isn't already done. I was going to use it to map crimes in Rochetser. Guess what? Already done here: http://www.rochestercrime.org/

2009-05-29T12:28:00.001-07:00

Thing 39

2009-05-22T12:36:00.001-07:00

Digital Scrapebooking: So guess what I'm going to say about this one? I don'ttake a lot of pictures, and scrape booking ranks right up there with underwater basket weaving as far as things I'd like to spend my time on. So, yeah, not a big fan of the digital scrapebook. But I'd be 10 times more likely to scrapebook online. And I thought Smile Box was very easy to use. A lot of people would really like this I think. Maybe my mom.

I'll post my scrape book later, It's on a different machine.

Scrapeblog posted above. I had to switch to scrapeblog after Smilebox refused to post my digital scrapebook. Bastards!

Trekkie

2009-05-22T12:18:00.001-07:00

Yep, I'm a Trekkie Here's an article from the paper to prove it: http://www.postbulletin.com/newsmanager/templates/localnews_story.asp?z=2&a=398322
(as if further proof were necessary).

Thing 38

2009-05-13T13:11:00.000-07:00

Screencasting: Okay here's my screencast: Or least it would be if It did error every time I tried to post it. So, it's off to the right now.

No audio, I know, but I don't have a mic. I downloaded and used Jing. Mainly because the non-downloady ones didn't like my java. So, yeah, it's all about how to waste scads of time at work. It was quite easy to use, and I can see it being very helpful in creating training material.

Thing 37

2009-05-13T08:08:00.000-07:00

Photo Stuff. Again, I'm not a real big picture person, but the tools are easy to use. Here's the video I created with Animoto: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tbk3lGiqYRY . I used roflbot to create this:

Indy and Hellboy. You can't tell me that wouldn't be awesome!

I used the mosaicr thing to create this:

Which isn't a stellar likeness, but it certainly gets the job done.

There's a new Gen Con Slide show over on the right, that I used FlickrSlidr to create.

I used Bubblr to create some captions on some of my Gen Con pics, but then I couldn't save them or anything. It's entirely possible it's my fault and not bubblr's I might come back to it later. The caption I created weren't particularly hilarious or anything, so if they are lost, it's not a big deal.

I've used Picnik in the past. I just did a quick crop and red eye reduction on this:

I found this on flickrcc:

Which is cool. It was taken at Gen Con, which fits the theme of almost all of my other pictures.

Mostly, with the exception of bubblr, the photo sites were easy to use and fun. If I were more of a picture person, I'd totally use this stuff. As I've stated many times though, I'm not really one for the pictures. I was in NYC a few weeks ago, and I managed to take one picture. At the airport.

Thing 36

2009-04-10T08:01:00.000-07:00

Hey, I got an actual legit comment on my blog! I said something that caused someone to feel strongly enough to comment about my opinions! I feel like I've won some sort of blog-Oscar. I'm not talking about a shout out from a coworker or friend, nor am I talking about some inebriate who stumbled on to my blog and typed random stuff. I got a comment that was thought out and made a great point. Thanks Bill! You make me feel like blogging.

Content Generators: Password/E-mail Icon generators seem a bit odd to me. I guess I like to generate my own passwords and e-mail icons. especially passwords. I have a terrible memory for stuff like that, so I need my passwords to make some small measure of sense to me.

I tried the BGpattern genrator, and I like it in principle, but I find the actual created backgrouds sort of samey. Still, better than I could do on my own. I also tried the image generator, which is good fun.

The free image converter could be very helpful. I hope I remember it next time I need to convert a picture.

Wufoo also looks helpful and fun. I'm going to use it to create an online incident report! Which isn't fun, but needs doing.

Where were citation generators when i was in school? These rock! Again I hope I remember them when I go back to school.

The graph and chart creators are also very cool, and once again, I hope I remember them when i need them. I'm getting pretty good at creating charts and graphs with Excel, so I might not need this, but you never know.

Tag Clouds are nice and all. The one I've already got going on suits my needs just fine. Which brings me to the crux of my point with this thing I believe. When I need something like the tool in this thing, knowing the tool exists would be seriously awesome. Alas, I fear I won't remember the tool when I need it. Plus there are ways of doing this stuff that I can already use. For now on I will use this easy to remember acronym for that point: WINSLtTiTT,KtTEWbSA.AIFIWRtTWINI.PTAWoDTSTICAU

Time Toast: WINSLtTiTT,KtTEWbSA.AIFIWRtTWINI.PTAWoDTSTICAU

Simply Noise: Umm, it generates noise. How is that cool?

Random Web 2.0 name generator: It's funny. Name generators usually are.

Label Makers: WINSLtTiTT,KtTEWbSA.AIFIWRtTWINI.PTAWoDTSTICAU

Some of the stuff in the 'Other' catagory baffles me a bit, but whatevs, to each his or her own.

Here's the comic strip I created: http://stripgenerator.com/strip/230156/

I tried the text to movie thing a few times, and It's just not working for me. If I remember, I'm try it at home some time.

Lolcatz are always funny. I just watched the Big Bang theory episode with the Lolcatz shout out. Well, technically, I just watch all of Big Bang Theory. Good show. Here's a picture:

As far as useful goes, generators are fun, but I'm not exactly sure if they are useful. I guess I can create comic strips explianing things to people. That's some what useful. Mostly though, I'm thinking fun. Which is not a bad thing.

Thing 35

2009-04-02T11:55:00.000-07:00

Book 2.0: I love using Librarything. Librarything might be my favorite thing for the 1st 23 things. For this thing I decided to try lib.rario.us. It's pretty cool. Seems to be pretty much the same thing as Librarything. I suppose, if i was so included, I could keep track of my DVD collection here. I am ultra nerdy and i keep track of what I've watched and when I watched it last. I could totally use lib.rario.us for that instead of little slips of paper tucked instead all of my DVDs.

I checked out Books in My Phone, but I couldn't get it to work right. I'm sure with a little more fiddling I get it. It'll just take some time.

I tried Read Trails, and it's an interesting concept. I'm not sure I really get it. It's not so much about listing books in a series as it is listing books that have a vague correlation or books with similar themes. I added one, I don't know that I will become a frequent user, but you never know.

I checked out Overbooked, and it seemed pretty cool. I got a lot of Douglas Adamsque recommendation that I hadn't gotten before.

I took a look at Book Sprouts. Online book groups could be cool. I'm generally afraid of book groups because I don't think enough of the people in them will share my tastes enough for books I will enjoy to be selected as reading materials. Plus I find people take book groups too seriously. But an online might have a totally different vibe.

Podiobooks is also interesting. I started listening to "down and Out in the Magic Kingdom", and it seemed pretty cool. I like that the site has stuff you're not going to find anywhere else.

Swaptree is an interesting idea. I might become a user of this site. Though I'd prefer a place to find people who were interested in buying stuff I want to get rid of. Still trading is cool.

BookBrowse also seems pretty cool. There's a lot of neat stuff out there. It's just a matter of being able to keep it all straight. When I want a recommendation for a good book, I have like 9,000,000,000 options for where to go. Plus there are the piles of books I have at home that I've yet to read, and all the books that look cool as I see them getting checked out to other people. It's almost overwhelming.

Just One More Book would be cool if i had any interest in kids books. I don't, but if someone did this would be a cool thing to check out.

Booksfree is netflix for books. But it's not free. Which is somewhat miss leading.

I've tried a few of Facebook's book aps. And I like them, just not as much as I like Librarything. Which reminds me, I need to shell out a little green if I want to keep using librarything.

Honestly, I think books are going to be around for quite a while yet. There's still money to be made. When there isn't any cash involved anymore, then you'll see an exodus away from them. The library is as busy as it's ever been and our numbers keep going up. I think this points to people needing/wanting one of our core services: Books! Many of the sites I visited enhanced book reading, but didn't really make me think books are going out of style.

Thing 34

2009-04-01T12:27:00.000-07:00

Answer Sites: I think answer sites are fun. Some of the stupid questions people ask are hilarious, plus some of the answers can be hysterical too. And I think that's the appeal. A lot of the questions people are asking aren't factual. It's somebody wanting an opinion on their hair, or wanting relationship advice. there were some questions that had real answers, but those questions were in the minority. Also, people were using the question site as a jumping off point for discussions, or to validate a thought. I didn't see a whole lot of stuff that belonged at the reference desk. I don't like people are using these site as primary definitive answers. It's just a fun way to get some quick info.

I looked at Yahoo Answers and Askville. They were booth similar and both had the comedy of silly questions and laughable answers.

the Slam the Boards thing seems to run counter the the purpose of the sites to me. the site themselves seem light and fun, the slam the boards thing seems like a way of saying "In Your Face! Our Library-Fu Defeats you Google-Jitsu!" Which is sort of silly. Besides, what sort of primary source do you use for the question "OMG, should i cut my hair short?"?

I answered a video game question at Yahoo Answer. It seemed fine. I didn't feel the urge to wash my hands afterwards anyway.

So, yeah, the one thing I think this raises for me is that these answer site are fun. Are libraries fun? When was the last time you got a fun reference question that made you smile? Do patrons think of libraries as a fun place?

Thing 33

2009-03-23T10:02:00.000-07:00

Travel 2.0: I'm going to NYC in a few weeks, so I'm pretty psyched about this thing. The blogs and podcats are only marginally interesting to me, the review site I find some what helpful, but the're just so much bitching. It's almost hard to know if you're really gonig to get a great place. At the same time you do get a good indication by the number of positive and negative reviews, which is helpful. I dug Vcarious, seems like a fun idea, but again teh overwhelming number of posts makes getting a really useful review of something from some one with tastes analgous to my own is tough. But I guess that's true of pretty much every review site for pretty much every thing. I checked out a few of the mash ups. I like the mash up way of just having the info right there on teh map. It feel more halpful and in prevents the overwhelm sea of reviews.

Thing 32

2009-03-23T08:45:00.000-07:00

Google Maps, Mash-ups: I've used goggle maps fairly extensively. It's pretty cool. I made maps and done driving directions. I've used yahoo maps, mapquest, and the like and I think they are very cool. It makes getting to places so much easier. I'm headed to NYC in a few weeks and google maps is going to be a great way to get places I wanna go.

Mash ups are pretty kick ass. I like the bringing together of information for oodles of sources.

So far this is my favorite mash-up: http://beermapping.com/brewery-maps/

Thing 31

2009-03-19T08:00:00.001-07:00

More Twitter: I'm digging Twitter. I'm still a n00b but I'm getting there. I think right now my Twitter page says: "Hey I'm new at this, here's what's on my mind." I don't have a fancy theme, or anything like that. It might because I look at my tweets mostly through iGoogle, so I'm not so concerned about my actual twitter page. Mostly I use twitter to tweet my beers at Mystery Beer Night. I must say I use facebook as my twitter for the most part. I have a few friends I'm following and few friends are following me. I guess my twitter page says "I'm a drunk". Which is fine and not entirely untrue.

I'd say twitter fits into my social network stratedgy by allow me to follow my friends in another way. Mostly I use online tools like twitter and facebook to keep up with my friends. I don't do much business through Facebook or twitter, but I'm not so obnoxious that if work contacts found me that wouldn't be totally turned off by my remarks. I'm just being me.

So for me twitter is just another interesting way to see what Russ is doing.

Thing 30

2009-03-17T11:53:00.000-07:00

More RSS and Delicious. I must say I'm really not that down with RSS. I try and I try, but I just can't get into it. I've tried bloglines and Google reader and I want to like them, but for some reason, I can't. Prehaps it's because I don't get a chance to look at many websites regularly anymore. The moments I got to do that have been stolen away by Facebook. I think I said much the same in my 23 Things post. Other folks I know love RSS though. I guess it's just one of those things. I'm going to give it another go though, just to say I did.

As far as other Delicious features go I guess searching other folks bookmarks would be my favorite feature. The inbox stuff didn't seem that cool to me, but I did add a tag cloud to my blog, for what it's worth. I dig Delicious, I really do, but as a spot where I can access my bookmarks. I guess I driven to discovery by need. As soon as I need something else from Delicious I'll discover it. I guess I like tag bundles too.

So, I don't view my RSS regularly, I don't really have any suggestion for using RSS stuff or Delicious beyond explore. With everything I done with 23 Things or More Things, I can say if something piqued my fancy, I'd spend some time with it, I'd really see what it could do. And if something didn't, well there's always the next thing.

Thing 29

2009-03-13T08:14:00.000-07:00

Google News. I fully admit I'm not as up on the News as I should be. I avoid it. Mostly, it just makes me angry and I don't want to be angry all the time. I wouldn't say I stick my head in the sand and ignore the world, but I don't like the feeling that I'm being force feed certain things that are obviously blown up of proportion. Perhaps Google News will allow me to filter out the junk I don't care to here about. I like the personalized news stuff. Google stuff feels so over-lappy. I feel I can do most of the stuff from Google News in iGoogle. I guess it's all about what flavor you like your google.

GMail. I've used gmail for quit a while. It's my friends only e-mail. I probably like it the best of all the web based email stuff. I still keep my yahoo account but that's the address I give out to anybody. I don't get much spam on my gmail and it is really nice to not have to worry about deleting anything. There are some pretty cool features in the Labs. I added some bits and bobs. Unfortunately it doesn't look like I'll be able to Sync my work calendar to gmail, but you what? I don't need to have my work calendar everywhere. I changed my theme, which is a feature I'm a little bored with. Everything seems to have the same tired themes. If you can't give me a truly kick ass theme, if all I'm really doing in changing the colors, just forget about it.

Thing 28

2009-03-06T13:19:00.000-08:00

iGoogle. I went with iGoogle. Mostly because I already use loads of google stuff like google docs, gmail and so forth. It's kind of cool. I'm going to have to try to fully utilize it, which might take me a bit.

It was really easy to set up. I found a Doctor Who theme I liked and a bunch of gadgets, like a twitter one and a Facebook one and I added all of those. I also added a clock and something that tells me movie times in my area, so that's pretty kick ass.

I really dig the movie gadget. It's actually quite helpful. Hopefully I'll used it this weekend to avoid showing up at the wrong theater like I did 2 weeks ago.

Thing 27

2009-02-24T12:11:00.000-08:00

Twitter: I've been using twitter for a while now. Mostly I use it to tweet my Mystery Beers on Monday night so the folks at home can play along. I like tweeting it's pretty fun. I do tend to use Facebook as a tweeting place than I use Twitter.

I use the above sweet pic of my tat as my avatar on twitter along with the handle andystehr (clever huh?), so if you wanna follow my tweets, please yourself.

I'm not sure about the library usage of Twitter. I guess you could tweet good books to folks. Not the best place to answer reference questions, but it's hip it's fun, why not go for it?

Thing 26

2009-02-20T07:29:00.000-08:00

Ning. I signed up for the Ning when I was doing 23 Things (I was a round 3 participant [and yeah I know there wasn't a round 3]).

The uploaded a few pictures and I created a new group. You can check that out here: http://23thingsonastick.ning.com/group/rochesterpubliclibraryinthehouse

I Ning could be pretty cool depending on the focus of your social network. It's really all about which flavor of Web 2.0 you prefer.

I also set up my own Ning social network which I'd be happy to invite you to, if you'd like to check it out. It's mostly blank.

Thing 25

2009-02-18T12:07:00.000-08:00

Widgets and Such. I didn't mind the widgets so much. I liked some, I disliked others. I put all sorts of them on my blog, then I took down the ones I didn't really like. There are just so very many. And some are useful. Well, depending on what type of blog you're doing. I loved the idea of talking about specific topic and embedding a browser in your post with wikipedia right there for people to explore additional information about your topic. I'd totally do that if my blog was one of those 'useful' blogs. But it's not, so I'll stick with Sudoku and kitties.

Most of the gadgets were easy to get on my blog. I tried the tag cloud, but it was a little too much for me. Luckily I had backed up my blog before I tried to do this one. I did break my blog for a while, but then I fixed it. I don't think I'm going to be fiddling with the HTML in my template again any time soon.

I spent probably about an hour and a half to two hours on this thing. Mainly because I was helping other folk with 23 Things at the same time. Uninterupted, it probably would have taken 45 minutes to an hour.

Conan the Librarian

2009-02-18T11:03:00.000-08:00

For John.

Thing #24

2009-02-09T13:30:00.000-08:00

Update. As I just finished 23 Things, I don't have a lot of updating to do. I've already updated my avatar a few times. I was thinking of doing some stuff to it again, but I like it as it is. My profile is fairly complete. Just so you know I didn't completely punk out I did change my profile picture.

It's been like a week or something since my last post, so I think I recall what I've blogging about. What I like about blogging is getting my ideas out there is the world. People don't have to read my thoughts, but they're there is they want them. I, on occassion, consider my self a writer and I've been told I can turn a phrase, so I think to think if someone were to stumble upon my humble little blog they my earn themselves a chuckle or two.

I have found a few other blogs to read. I'm helping a few folks with 23 Things, so I read their blogs on occassion. Also I started reading a few blogs that I heard were funny. I do comment other people's blogs. It's not something I make a huge habit of, but I do it. I lurk in a few forums here and there too. I come out of my shell and ask a stupid question from time to time. My interest in blogs is directly related to my interests. I like movie blogs, and Sci-Fi blogs, book blogs and pop culture blogs, so I'm not really blogging for business purposes.

So that's thing #24 for #23

Thing #23

2009-02-04T11:15:00.000-08:00

My thoughts. My opinions on Web 2.0 stuff hasn't changed. I still think is a over-hyped and I still think people will come to information. I guess the only thing I softened on is I think is important to have many access points to information and library services. I've actually always felt that way, I just came off as anti-access-points previously.

May favorite things are: LibraryThing, Google Docs and Gcast. Gcast was the only one of those things I found out about through 23 things. I've bit a much more avid Librarythinger thanks to 23 Things. I'll have to upgrade my account soon.

I've started scheduling tutoring sessions for other folks who want to do 23 Things or more things at the library. I must say, helping others really motivated me to finish 23 Things myself. I owe John a debt of gratitude. It also made the things more fun.

The content is pretty good. The only issue I have the amount and how many of the things I'm going to remember say next year. That's on me though.

I'm already signed up for more things!

I'd describe my 23 Things experience as: Fun. In the end it was pretty cool to take a look at the Web 2.0 stuff out there. I feel less curmudgeonly.

I'm pretty sure I'm going to keep up with my blog. I spent too much time on it to stop now!

Thing #22

2009-01-26T14:42:00.000-08:00

Thing 22. I'm going to do the More Things thing that just started. That's how I plan to keep up on my Web 2.0 savvy. I think I'm going to keep doing Mystery Beer Night Podcast too. Those are fun.

A way I'd recommend to keep up your savvy is to help other people learn stuff. I've been helping a friend, John, learn 23 Things. It's a lot more fun to help someone else than it is to do the things on your own. Also, I'm starting 23 Things tutoring. I find people use the things differently, so the more people I help learn the things, the more ways the use the Things I learn.

I had fun with this. I'll almost definitely keep up my blog. I find it to be amusing at the very least. Here's a not so good picture of me waving bye, or more precisely adieu. Until More Things, I'll see you then. Well, then and Thing 23

Thing 21

2009-01-16T13:07:00.000-08:00

Other Social Networks. I started a Gather Account. I posted to the Doctor Who fan section of Gather, and I was not exactly impressed with Gather. Just another social network. I did the Ning thing too. I might be able to use that to run a Call of Cthulhu game with my pals. I think a play by Wiki will work out better. I'd probably use PB wiki for that. I joined the 23 Things Ning. Ning seems like it might be a little more useful to me than other things. It also sort of got lost in the shuffle. I couldn't remember if it was Gather or Ning or 43 Things that was the social network creation site. I also joined 43 things. That could also be useful. One of these days I'm going to write a novel. 43 Things might help me accomplish that.

I added a Ning badge to me wiki and I added another slide show with Ning. John keeps saying that 23 Things is, like, 3 things over and over again. The Ning slide show was totally that.

I am a member of a couple different online communities. Outpost Gallifrey, World of Warcraft, and Facebook and MySpace. So I'm not a stranger to this stuff.

Oh, I added a kick ass picture of Ultra Magnus for pretty much no reason.

I'm going to try 43 things for a bit. I might even check out a few others. Also, Ning might facilitate some online socializing of my own.

Thing #20

2009-01-07T14:35:00.000-08:00

Facebook and MySpace. I've had both a Facebook and MySpace page for years. I started off with MySpace. It looked like a great way to keep in touch with all my hommies from college. Alas, I found that my network of hommies grew too large and unwieldy on MySpace. And then I started getting spam, and that ended my love of MySpace.

Then one of my Hommies got a Facebook account. He loved it and told me and some of our other hommies. I much prefer Facebook over MySpace. I find my network isn't so unwieldy and also, no spam. It's really easy to keep up with my friends, and I find it to be fun. I don't mind checking Facebook a few times a week. For some reason MySpace felt like a chore.

As far as layout is concerned, I don't have any sort of preference for one over the other. Managing my peeps is what my #1 concern is with the whole social networking thing. I don't want to get invites from bands in my area, I don't want to find out when Lyndsey Lohan is dropping her next album. I just want to keep up with my hommies and perhaps put up some amusing photos from time to time. That's about it.

2009-01-05T10:00:00.001-08:00

This is my attempt at a mobile blog post. Let's see if it works.

Thing #19

2008-12-19T14:21:00.000-08:00

Podcasts. Thanks to Doctor Who audio adventure produced by Big Finish Productions, I have gained a new appreciation for audio formats.

A good friend of mine, Russ, is a DJ, so I have a passing familiarity with talking on the radio/recording my voice for other people to listen. I think it's a fairly good way to communicate with folks. You can infuse your voice with emotion, unlike e-mail. Also, sarcasm, something I'm fond of, can be conveyed over voice snippets. I think I could get used to podcasts. I subscribed to a Doctor Who podcast, and I subscribed to a podcast by some dudes from England ho I met at Gen Con a few years ago.

All of the podcast directories were pretty easy to use. I joined the podcast.com one, and then added my feeds from that to my Google reader.

I tried the Gcast thing. It was pretty cool. I'll post my podcast a bit later. I'm off to diner now!

Thing #18

2008-12-19T12:23:00.000-08:00

Youtube. I have a passing familiarity with youtube. It's great when I want a quick snippet of something to make me chuckle, but other than that, it's kind of, I hesitate to use the word 'useless', but it it fits. Youtube is for fun. That's it.

As far as having it be useful in the library, well, yeah, it's useful for finding fun little snippets to chuckle at.

I had trouble embedding a video (I did figure it out), so instead of a video embedded in this post, you'll notice the video bar at the bottom of my blog. I really like the Sesame Street "No Cookies in the Library" thing. Classic.

I suppose I should mention that RPL has posted some stuff on youtube that could be helpful to patrons. We have a video showing how to use our AMH and a couple other videos on some other stuff, so I guess we have used youtube in a way beyond snippets for chuckles. But I feel chuckle snippets are the majority of youtube's usefulness.

Thing #17

2008-12-17T12:29:00.000-08:00

It's a shame that the ELM databases aren't really accessible to all Minnesota libraries. It would have been, I think, a good idea to allow all libraries access without any strings, but who am I to question the powers that be.

Anyway, I tried Net Library. It a resource I've used before, but I took a better look at it this time. It's an impressive and well maintained database. I'm shocked at how many full text books are available. It's astounding the amount of information that can be found online at no cost whatsoever.

When John gets to this thing I might have him create an account and we can try the shared folder challenge. I might revisit this a little later on.

Thing #16

2008-12-17T11:57:00.000-08:00

The Assignment Calculator and Research Project Calculator are good tools. The timelines are realistic and the tips are very help. This is the sort of thing that I would have loved had it been around when I was a freshman from college. As it is, I'm not. I could use these tools for my own projects, but the tools are pretty specific to writing projects, and the type of projects I've got on my plate right now don't really fit. When I start school again, I hope I remember these tools. But as I've said before 23 things throws a lot at you, and it can be daunting to try to fold a lot of this stuff into you life. Especially when there's a learning curve nad you already have a system in place.

That said, I am a notorious procrastinator, and these two things may be of particular aid to me in my endeavor to get my library degree. I'm hoping to remember and use these things later. I'll just have to remember to revisit 23 Things in the future.

I don't work with students much here at RPL. Unless they have fines. But if I did, and if those kids were the type of procastinators that I am, I'd recommend these tools. As I mentioned, the tips are good and timeline is realistic.

Good stuff.

Thing #15

2008-12-17T11:23:00.000-08:00

Libraries and Gaming. Well, I'm down with the gaming. You may have gathered that from all the Gen Con pictures. I'm old school; I do PNP (that's pen and paper with is the same as table top or TT role playing). I've also delved into the world of the MMORPG (that's massively multi-player online role playing game). I've played City of Heroes, City of Villians, Star Wars: Galaxies and World of Warcraft. I'm still planning WoW (World of Warcraft). There's a guild that's all library folk on one server. I might sign up. Libraryman talks about that here: http://www.libraryman.com/blog/2008/10/29/libraries-and-librarians-world-of-warcraft-guild-update/ . Next time I create a characer I think I'll create one on that server and join. I do a lot of soloing when I play Wow. Mostly because of the times that I'm on. I can't really guarantee that I'll be able to be on at a certain time, which can hinder playing in a roup. Most of the characters I play are in guilds, so I am part of the community and I help people by answering questions and giving advice. I dislike running through the same dungeons with lower level people over and over, so I avoid the common question of "anyone wanna run dm with me?". A friend of mine recently started playing, and my uncle plays, so we might try to get together online a bit. He lives in Colorado now, so it'd be good to get a chance to game with him again.

As far as the games this Thing suggested; I didn't get a chance to try out Second Life, but one of these days I will. I've heard a lot about it and I've even heard it suggested that in the future we'll surf the net via avatars such as the avatars in Second Life. I've heard it suggested that vurtual worlds are a huge possilbity not just for people to get together, but also for advertising and learning. I can see the applications, but I think this sort of thing is in it's infancy right now.

I did try puzzle pirates. It was fun. Not as many bells and whistles as I'm used to, but it was a decent way to kill 20 minutes. I chatted with the other pirates a little and tried sailing. It was a pleasant distraction, but I don't think I'll be trading Azeroth for the world of Puzzle Pirates.

Thing #14

2008-12-10T14:04:00.000-08:00

I love Library Thing! I love having my books online. I dig the community of bookish folk commenting on stuff. I just dig the whole thing. I've been using Library thing for oh, 2 years now. I keep track of what I've read, what I want to read, what people have told me to read that I don't have any intention of actually reading, and stuff that I've heard of, would like to read but know I never will. There's a large contingent of Doctor Who book fans and that makes me happy.

Plus, I've used Library Thing to answer reference questions. The tags are great for finding things like Steampunk books or finding books people who like Doctor Who books like, but aren't other Doctor Who books. I saw the Library Thing guy talk at MLA. He was cool. Plus I liked Library Thing for Library's. That seems cool too.

Bottom line: I like this, I use it, it's fun!

Thing #13

2008-12-05T13:47:00.000-08:00

Online productivity tools: that's an oxymoron. I have been looking for a good calendar. If 30 boxes synced with my phone, it would be perfect. It does not however. Still there's a chance I'll actually remember that I signed up as in syncs with my Facebook. My Facebook page is really important* to me. I check it probably 5 or six times a year.

I went with both iGoogle page and My Yahoo. Why? Because I already had them. I find both almost completely useless. Almost. I just don't need "my" preference in my face all the time. I'm happy to go out and get my e-mail when I want it as opposed to having a smiley face pop up every time I get a new e-mail. Also, I'm not a big news reader, and the stuff I do care about isn't an option to have on the front of my iGoogle or my My Yahoo page. If I was an Internet junkie, I could see why this stuff would be the hippest hypest, as I'm more of a casual internetter, I just don't find myself gravitating to these tools.

If I was a heavy Internet user these tools good be very useful at home and at work. But I'm not, so they are not.

I do like 30 boxes. Not enough to fold it into my life and spout to all my friends and relations about how much I adore it, but I like it enough that I'll probably use in for at least a week.

I make to do lists ALL THE TIME**, but here's the thing, they need to be quick and portable. As I'm not in the habit of dragging my laptop into Target with me, I find online to do lists unhelpful and cumbersome. A little piece of paper is infinitely more useful to me.

I've tried Lifehacker before and thought it was the bees knees for about a week, then I forgot it existed until now. There's just too much out there. It all gets lost.

I looked at Backpack. All I can say is "No thanks". Perhaps I'm getting full of website and online aps and cool ways to access my information, but as I watched the "How easy it is to make a Backpack page" I found myself rolling my eyes. I think that means it's time to call it quits for the day.

*Italics denote sarcasm

** All caps denotes my being actually serious about this statement. Any statement not in all caps has approximately a 50% chance of being serious.

Thing #12

2008-12-05T13:22:00.000-08:00

The Reddit, Mixx, Digg, Newsvine thing is coolish. These site remind me of RSS feeds. Long time readers will remember that I'm not particularly down with RSS. It's just not for me. The same goes for these site. Yeah, it neat that you can vote on articles, and it can be helpful, but it's only helpful if people on the site share interests with you. Sure, I found loads of stuff on gaming on Digg, but not so much on Doctor Who.

As far as being useful, well if you sure tastes with the folks on the site, you'll find the sites immeasurable useful. If not, then not so much.

I did read a few articles because they were on the sites, but any news site I go to I can find an article or 2 to read. Finding stuff to read isn't difficult, finding stuff to read pertaining to my specific interests that I have already read on a site I regularly visit? That a challenge. A challenge that Mixx, Digg, Newsvine and Reddit all failed.

Fun interesting stuff yes, but in a month, I don't think I'll even remember that I created a Dig account.

Thing #11

2008-12-01T13:49:00.000-08:00

Delicious is quite cool. I like having my bookmarks wherever I go. Though I have the google tool bar, I haven' really gotten into the bookmark features. For some reason I think I like Delicious more. Don't ask me why, I couldn't tell you. Well, maybe it's because I don't need to have the tool bar app installed to use it. Or maybe it's just that I like the name more. I like having the button right there on my tool bar. That's help. Delicious seems easy to use and fun.

I can see loads of uses for Delicious. It's fun to see what other people have tagged, and it can lead you to some reasources you weren't aware of. Delicious gets a thumbs up from me.

As far as Furl goes, it seems much the same. I like that it saves a cached copy of the original page. Other than that, it seems pretty much the same as Delicious.

Thing #10

2008-11-26T11:22:00.000-08:00

Rochester Public Library has a staff wiki that we've been using for quite a while now. While I wouldn't call myself a wiki expert (Brian is our resident expert), I'm pretty good with a wiki. I really like that anyone can update the wiki. That way information can be modified as soon as some one notices in isn't right. Plus if there's only one person who can update something, and he/she is on vacation, it can cause issues.

So yeah, I see loads of applications for wikis. I thinn of wiki's as the "meat" of web 2.0. They are basically collaborative website. I think I'm going to be using the word collaborative a lot from here on out.

Here's a picture of our wiki:

It's blurry I know, but I wanted to show it off a little.

Thing #9

2008-11-26T10:42:00.000-08:00

I've been using Google docs for quite a while. I have a professional journal that I keep there and some other stuff. I find it's very useful. Especially when I buy books when I'm out and about. I can update my inventory from anywhere. The zoho stuff looks very similar I'd use it, but I'm already hip deep in google docs. They are both pretty much the same. The only reason I have a preference at all is that I've been using the google docs, as I've mentioned like 5 times before. So, I'll stop.

The founding fathers were all about giving people a voice. I think they would dig collaborative documents and web 2.0 technology in general.

I've already posted a slide show that I created with Zoho. I hope that shows I'm adept enough of the collaborative skills. I've also used a collaborative document tool in "the real world" for the MILE 2009 application. Well, Dora used it and I logged and and thought it was pretty cool.

Thing #8

2008-11-25T12:25:00.000-08:00

Slideshows: This is pretty awesome. As the thing description says, it's a great way to have a back up presenation. I can see this being very useful. I'm not a power point guy. Well, I would be if I had to do lots of presentations, but I don't, so I don't use power point much at all.

Oh, and thanks for helping me and John out yesterday Steve!

Picture Trail: I put up a fancy-schmansy picture doohickey. Again, I'm not a picture person really. The only time I take pictures is my annual trek to Gen Con. So that's what you get, my vacayion photos. You're going to get really sick of seeing me dressed like Indiana Jones. If you like pictures, and I know many folks are, picture trail is a cool way to put up pictures. If you're like me, it's something you're not going to be that into.

Lazybase: I checked it out. I already have so many databases I'm not using. If I had a need for a database, this would be a lot more helpful. As I don't, it's just something I'll have some knowledge of so that when, and if, I do need a quick database, I'll have a chance to remember lazybase.

Which brings me to a failing of of 23 things. It's too much! I have to hurry through and I'm not going to be able to retain all the information. I guess I have a bunch of web 2.0 info in one spot and if I ever need a web 2.0 solution, I'll know where to go.

I was going to do the eFolio thing, but that looks like something I'd want to put some time into and actually take some what seriously, so I'm skipping that. Maybe I'll come back to it.

I should add that I use Google docs quite a bit. That's one reason Lazybase wasn't too special for me. I already have easy to access databases, and I just don't feel like recreating them.

Thing #7

2008-11-24T14:11:00.000-08:00

E-Mail: I love e-mail. I would have e-mail as my primary means of communication if I could get away with it. I love e-statements from my bank, I love having time think before I reply, and I love that e-mail isn't as invasive as a phone ring. I've had a g-mail account for forever, plus I have a yahoo account. I also have a work e-mail, and I've tried hotmail and about a billion other e-mail services. I dig it.

Instant Messaging: I never got into instant messaging. We do reference via IM here and that's cool, but personally, I never got that into it. I do have a bunch of IM accounts, and thank you Trillian for making them all accessible at the same time. I tried to get into IMing to keep in touch with college friends, but it just never clicked with me.

Texting: I'm loving the texting. Don't ask me why I'm not down with IMing, but I love texting. I get so many little chuckle nuggets throughout the day via text. Just a quick little 150 or less character giggle in my phone. It's great. I can see people wanting reference questions anwered via texting. It's just fun. Plus it's the only way I can keep in touch with my sister.

Webinar: I've attended many webinars. There was somethnig about helping patrons not too long ago, and a some training I've gone to has been via webinar. What I like about webinars is it allows you to get training that you might not have had a good way to get to before. It's convienent, and you get to connect with scads of folks you wouldn't otherwise. The things I don't like are: the technology never seems to work completely right. There's always at least one person who can't hear, or isn't at the right site, or the power goes out, or your mouse catches on fire. Also, it's hard to get your questions answered if there are 100 other folks listening in.

Twitter: I set up a twitter account. I could actually see work application for twitter. You could update where you're at on a project throughout the day, or where you are physically in the building (I do a lot of running around. I'm hardly ever in my office). I might like Twitter. I'm give it a shot and see if it floats my boat

Thing #6

2008-11-05T13:23:00.001-08:00

Here's my trading card for Thing #6. I also checked out toondoos, and it was fun. I could spend hours doing this kind of thing, but apart from hours of fun, I'm not sure I'm seeing much that's applicable to the library job as such. I guess you could make fun comics about happenings in the library, but Unshelved is already doing that.

Oh, here's a picture of my tattoo:

This does bring up an interesting issue of rights. My tattoo for instance is obviously a Tardis from Doctor Who. Does this mean the BBC can sue me? And as far as things like Toon Doo or other image sites, they allow you to create things using pictures you've taken. What if those pictures have other folks in them. Do you have to get their premission to use the picture?

Thing #5

2008-11-03T14:00:00.000-08:00

Well, I did the Flickr mash-up stuff, and I must say I'm not terribly impressed. It's kind of cool, but not extremely useful. I added a "spell with Flickr" thing of my name on my blog, and I'm pretty happy with it, but bottom line, I'm not seeing a huge use. I know what you're thinking, you're thinking "Uh, it's the Internet, it's not supposed to be useful". And I get that I do, which is why I said "kind of cool*". I'm not saying I hate it, I'm just saying I'm not seeing this stuff being really useful. Other than making cool signs, I'm not really seeing any use at all.

I did put an awesome picture of the Tardis in this post. It's not for any particular purpose, I just thought it was cool. Perhaps in a future post I'll insert a picture of my Tardis tattoo.

*see second sentence

Thing #4

2008-11-03T12:59:00.000-08:00

Right, so it's been a while. So long, in fact, most of you probably no longer care about me, or my 23 things achievements. That's fine. I don't need your hollow accolades. Some people though, important people, want me to complete all 23 of these things, so complete them I shall.

In that vein I present Thing #4: Flickr. Flickr is one of those things that I'd already be doing if I felt so inclined; but I don't. And that's mostly because I'm not a picture guy. I don't take a lot of pictures. People who know me might be some what surprised because of my piquant for graphic literature. I'm just not down with all the hassle and fuss of pictures. I'd just as soon remember or forget on my own with out the aid of photographic evidence. If I did decide to become a picture guy, I would most certainly use Flickr. Mos Def, not even any sort of argument. After getting my little self a Flickr account, I'm contemplating changing my whole attitude about pictures. I annually attend a nerdy little shindig called Gen Con in Indianapolis. I believe I may create an online album for my all of my lovely Gen Con photos.

As far as Flickr and Libraries go, I think it's a great idea. People are visual creatures. They like to see stuff. Having a bunch of photos of events and stuff going on at the library, that's a great idea. Showing people the library's success is a terrific thing. People need to see how awesome libraries are and Flickr is a great tool to do just that.

Thing #3 RSS

2008-03-05T04:56:00.000-08:00

Right, well, RSS, what can I say about RSS? I've been using bloglines for a year or so now, and It's okay. I got myself a google reader account for this here 23 things, and it, like bloglines, is okay.

I guess I haven't found the awesomeness inherent in RSS yet. I'm just not hip to the RSS jive. Perhaps I don't read enough web stuff on a daily basis. Or perhaps I get overwhelmed seeing all the stuff accumulating on my RSS readers. But I just don't like it. I've said before that I dig the web 2.0 stuff, and I really do, just not RSS. It's far easier for me to just go to the web sites I want to look at. Maybe if Marvel comics new web comics had a way to read full issues through RSS I'd be more down with the RSS craze. If smalljoes.com could update me when they get the 25th anniversary gold headed Destro back in stock through RSS, I'd chuckle with glee at the prospect. As it is, RSS is somethnig I've got going on, but don't have a whole lot of use for. Who knows what the future holds though.

I think it's a great way to push out a library newsletter, or to let patrons know when new stuff comes in.

Work

2008-02-29T09:32:00.000-08:00

Chuck, the 23 things stuff, and this blog in general, it's FOR WORK. Those people commenting, those are my colleagues. But thanks for noticing.

Back on Top!

2008-02-13T07:58:00.001-08:00

Hah! I'm back on top baby! Take that 3 Dogs! You and your canine shenanigans have been officailly put in your place. My pervasive awesomeness has again propelled me to #1.

Oh, and I'm a cat person.

Also, 3 Dogs, I'm much friendlier in person. Still, I'll give you one free shot. Just not in the face and nothing below the belt.

Thing #2

2008-02-06T08:49:00.000-08:00

Blast! 3 dogs has over taken me! What a crushing blow to my delicate ego! I'll get you 3 Dogs, and you little dogs too! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! (Actually, I won't so if anything happens to 3 dogs or 3 dogs' dogs, it wasn't me. Send to cops elsewhere)

Okay, Library 2.0. I dig this stuff, I do. I really do. I just want to say that now. I think the importance of Web 2.0 technologies is overstated. Which is fine. I'm down with hyperbole, but some times I feel that the skewed and overly enthusiastic rhetoric causes quite the backlash. And, oh, how sick I am of phrases like "Obviously, the milleninels won't think or care about libraries if libraries aren't using (fill in the blank with IM, RSS, Wiki, MySpace really whatever you'd like)". Which is quite odd considering everything I've read about Gen Y says if they want something they'll take it any way they can get it. Also, in looking at the numbers, here at RPL at least, every year our circ goes up. I see plenty of milleniels walking through the doors too. I know I'm starting to sound crumudgeonly, and I apologize, I don't mean to. I guess the bottom line for me the the customer service part of the Library 2.0 philosophy. I believe that is the most important part of the library 2.0 movement. That being said I don't think that customer service is a fundemental shift in what we're already doing.

I think web 2.0 stuff is cool and fun. I don't think it's life changing. I think the 23 things training is great because it introduces people to web 2.0 stuff. Also, It lets folks know that things change. I think learning to embrace change, no matter what that change is, is far more valuable than checking out MySpace. And I think 23 things is a great way to show people some cool stuff and hopefully show they why it's important to stay flexible.

Does anyone remember Friendster? It was sort of pre-MySpace social networking. Web 2.0 stuff will change. Change is inevitable.

Also, I think marketing and letting people know the value of a public library is more important than having a blog. I think libray folks forget that not everyone is aware of everything libraries do.

I know, I'm ranting but that's what blogs are for, right?

Thing #1 Plus

2008-01-28T09:49:00.001-08:00

I added an element to my blog. That's one of the challenges I believe.

I also haven't mentioned how blogs can help libraries. I think it would be a cool way to do reader's advisory.

I noticed my blog is still the first blog on the SELS list. I with take that to mean I am awesome. And if my blog continues to be the first in the list I will take it to mean that I am the greatest. Thank you for your support.

Thing #1.5: Avatar

2008-01-23T17:54:00.000-08:00

Well, that's thing one complete for me. I think I might try some of those fancy challenge type things tomorrow.

Thing #1

2008-01-23T14:13:00.000-08:00

Okay, thing #1. I found this blog very easy to set up. I'm having a little trouble creating an Avatar from work, but I'll take ten minutes and do it at home rather than spend an hour and a half trying to do it here. I like blogger. I think I've used blogger before. The templates are just fine. No complaints here. I'm hoping to complete Thing #1 by sundown.

Blog-ity Blog Blog, Blog-ity Blog

2008-01-23T09:20:00.000-08:00

Hooray, I've completed part of my first thing on a stick. If anyone from outside of that little training group reads this, she or he will have no idea what I'm talking about. Double Hooray!