Week 6, Thing 12: Online image generator

Remember when I mentioned that the movie poster I made about talking books interested my counterparts in other states? Well one of those wacky people sent me a photo I realize now come through an online image generator. It was a picture of busy Times Square, with one of the larger ads being for their state's talking book service. As for me, I spent way too much time trying to make an avatar that was my spittin' image. I couldn't decide whether I wanted to be reading on a couch in a library, petting a cat in the library, doing the limbo in the library, or chasing a turkey in the library, all appropriate activities for me. I settled on eating a piece of cake in the library, which was mostly wishful thinking. Anyway, it was fun. Meez was the site I was using. On the other hand, the speech agents do not appeal to me. I don't want a cartoon character helping me conduct business on the web. It could work well for kids, but not adults.

Week 5, Thing 11: Set up Facebook/MySpace

Thank you, thank you, for not making us do this! I really don't want to!

Week 5, Thing 10: Explore social networks

I think it's great that libraries are using social networking software to reach their teen patrons who use the stuff. I don't have any interest in doing it myself, however. I tried to explain my reasoning in this blog posting, but it just sounded like I'm down on technology, which is not the case.

Week 4, Thing 9: Library feeds

Maybe it's because it's late Friday afternoon on a very snowy day, but these library feeds are not doing anything for me at the moment. I don't see any on talking book libraries...does that mean I should start one?

Week 4, Thing 8: RSS

I used Sage to set up some RSS feeds. I don't think I'll be using this feature very much in the immediate future. I'm already too much of a news hound, checking CNN.com every time I turn around, and I'm trying to stop doing so. If I found some sites whose content I was very interested in, I could see a use for me for this. For now, though, I need to step away from the computer screen.

Week 3, Thing 7: Write about anything technical

I just got a new upgraded Tracfone, so that has my technical focus this week. I'm not a big phone person, so a Tracfone has been just fine as my cell phone for the last few years. I like to know about new technology, what it is and what it can do, but I also want to be able to pick and choose what bits of it I can really make good use of and choose to pay for. I have no interest in having a Facebook account, for example, but I am interested in podcasting. It's not pleasant to feel you're trying to catch a speeding train. It's also not pleasant to realize you've spent money on gadgets you're not using and have been upgraded into oblivion anyway.

Week 3, Thing 6: Flikr mashup

So I had a bit of fun creating a movie poster based on my library. Click on this box to see it:

Week 3, Thing 5: Flickr

I like this photo from Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/soozika/106359955/ , for many reasons--it's a book, it's in German, it's a great photo. I understand an ancestor of mine is credited with funding Gutenberg's movable type. He later then sued Gutenberg for not paying him back, and took over the type. Details at http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/people/A0819925.html
I had a difficult time loading photos into my blog....
But adding the poll feature to my blog is coooool.

Week 2, Thing 4: Register

Really impressed with the look of the blogs by the other participants. Don't think I want to spend a lot of time customizing mine, though.

Week 2, Thing 3: Blog

Well they sure make it easy to blog, don't they!

Week 1, Thing 2: Lifelong learning

Of the 7 1/2 things listed about Lifelong Learning, the easiest for me is to accept responsibility for my own learning. The most difficult is a tie between seeing all problems as challenges, and having confidence in myself. I can do these sometimes, but not always. I have greater confidence in myself with mental challenges than with physical ones.

Week 1, Thing 1: Beginning

So, I'm looking forward to learning about these things in greater detail. 23 Things is a weird name. 23 is a weird number, but apparently used quite a bit. Example: Preservation Trust of Vermont's 23 Things to do for historic preservation. 23 as a magic number is new to me. Any clues as to its origin?

Falling off a blog

So, here I am in blogdom. I would like to start a blog talking about ice tea, as in REAL ice tea, or iced tea, with critiques of bottled so-called teas and lists of restaurants serving honest to goodness real brewed ice tea. But first, I'm in a class learning about various forms of social software and using this spot to post my obligatory blog.