Thursday, January 10, 2008

Week Five - PLAY WEEK

Thing #12 - Roll your own search tool.

So in exploring the Rollyo Search Engine creator, I have to say this a cleaver devise. I thought it would be fun to put together a bunch of sites coming up with dinner ideas, since I find myself to be at a constant loss in answering the eternal question "what's for dinner". I guess everyday you have to wake up, and at the end of each day you have to come up with something to feed the masses. Such is life. I'm sure if I truly use this handy search engine to become a more organized kitchen guru, I will find some better recipe sites to add on.

All in all, I can definitely see trying to come up with some other search engine themes and playing around with the usefulness of this.

Here's the link to my search engine, which can also be accessed on the right side of this blog.

http://rollyo.com/latte_lover/whats_for_dinner/


ttfn!
LLL2

Sunday, January 6, 2008

Week Five - PLAY WEEK

Thing #11 - Explore Web 2.0 award-winning applications and Ning

So, this has been a lot of fun. I noticed a few of the award winners that I already knew about or use, and I wanted to explore something that I was unfamiliar with so, I went to Pandora Radio. I had a lot of fun finding out about the Music Genome Project, and creating some internet radio stations unique to my own musical tastes. Pretty easy, and pretty fun. The upcoming semester at SJSU just got a little more interesting, as I spend hours on my computer, and do a lot better with music (too much stillness makes me go a little crazy). I'm really glad I found this site (it's playing right now!).

I also went to Ning, and set up an account and played around a bit looking at the various genres of social networks. There really wasn't that much that appealed to me in terms of joining something, it just seems like one more "thing" to check in with and keep up with that I can do without right now. Really great concept though.

Finally, I went to check out my travel IQ, admittedly, geography is not one of my strengths so I only got to level 4. Between this and Freerice.com, I'm anticipating a boost to my vocabulary and geography knowledge base!

LLL2

Friday, January 4, 2008

Week Five - PLAY WEEK

Thing #10 - Play around with online image generator

ImageChef.com - Custom comment codes for MySpace, Hi5, Friendster and more

From http://www.imagechef.com/

I'm still playing but I thought I'd get the perfect image for me up!

We're going to brave the storm and head to out to Berkeley tonight with friends, tomorrow I'll play some more. I know I've seen stuff like this on various myspace pages, so it's been fun playing around!

LLL2

Thursday, January 3, 2008

Week Four - RSS AND NEWSREADERS

Thing #9 - Locate a few useful school library related blogs and/or news feeds.

So, I've spent some time yesterday and today looking through various blogs through the Edublog links, and found some interesting and not so interesting links. It seems that there would be potential to use this in a school library setting, but it seems unless there is a reason to have an interactive conversation going on, a web site might be a better way to communicate. I like the idea of finding a reason to communicate interactively with a blog, so far, the most interesting possibility to me is a book club. I've been playing with the idea of starting a book club blog ever since the CLSA conference back in November. We'll see.

I also took some time to explore the various search tools to find feeds. (Feedster seems to be temporarily working on some upgrades) I had some fun looking at the various offerings of the various other ones listed for thing #9. There's some great information to be had for sure. My hesitation with signing up for more information however, is that I fear that this will become way too time consuming to read and follow, and therefore will become another thing on my list of failures. I barely have time to read the headlines to the newspaper when school gets back in session, so I can't see adding more onto the list of blogs that I subscribe to.

I do like the idea of subscribing to some blogs though, like The Shifted Librarian, since there's some relevant topics there for me. First of all, I had never heard of freerice.com and I can see spending some time here, but more importantly my soon to be SAT taking high schooler can spend some time here as well. There was also a great discussion about gaming in academic libraries that lead me to this great site that is perfect for my always in need of mulitiplication practice fourth grader Academic Skills Builders So, my main thought about all this, is that is it really great, and there are myriad ways to find great, interesting and bizarre blogs and conversations going on in blogs, but you have to temper it with how much time you can truly devote to all there is to read.

With that, I must tear myself away from all the blogs and their links and start taking down the Christmas tree!

LLL2

Wednesday, January 2, 2008

Week Four - RSS AND NEWSREADERS

Thing #8 - Learn about RSS Readers and set up a bloglines account

Well, before I forget, here's my account:
http://www.bloglines.com/public/LatteLoverLibrary2


So as you can see, I have set up my account. What a great way to stay in tune to what's going on in all different aspects of life, be they professional or personal. I can also see how you can potentially get consumed with information even if you have it organized in such a way that the information is available in a nice neat organized way. I guess the key is to subscribe to the thngs that you know you'll have a chance to look at.

It kind or reminds me of my magazine subscription to the New Yorker. The New Yorker is a publication I have a always enjoyed, but as more and more things began adding to my life (kids, a job, school), I was not able to get to reading them. I would keep them in a pile that was a constant reminder of my inability to read them, therefore becoming one more thing I hopelessly failed at.

I can see though, how if you get onto the right feed, good information finds its way to you, instead of the other way around.

One Question - I was confused about adding to my Bloglines account from the San Jose Mercury News Feeds. When I clicked on the link, I was brought to a live list of blogs from others in Library Learning 2.0. Am I to add one of these on as one of my feeds, or was the intent to get an actual news feed from the San Jose Mercury News? This is unclear to me. Let me know.

Otherwise, I also added my blogroll over on the right. I'll be playing with this a bit more.

Alright then, I guess I should go read some of my new feeds - maybe I'll even prepare of the recipies from the recipe blog (cooking for my family is another catastrophic failure of mine)!

LLL2

Tuesday, January 1, 2008

Week Three - PHOTOS AND IMAGES

Thing #7 - Technology related blog post

So here's my chance to wax eloquently on some technological aspect of life I love. Hands down, it's Mapquest, Google Maps or any other website that gives directions - and reverses them for you so you can find your way back. Being that I was born with no sense of direction whatsoever, and we have yet to get a GPS devise for our car (another nifty technological feat), I am so thankful to not have to constantly refer to my Thomas Guide and AAA maps that were once littered in my car. I seriously believe these sites were created with me, personally, in mind. Thank you NASA.

I also love my ipod. My music, my downloads, my ability to listen to Fresh Air and This American Life and other NPR favorites despite the fact I'm working while they're on or otherwise occupied on a Saturday. I can also hook my ipod up in my car and listen while traveling - it's all great. There's not enough minutes in the day to utilize all the fabulous technology available to us!

Oh, and as I get ready to publish this post, I'll add one more thing that technology has brought us - spell checking!

LLL2

Week Three - PHOTOS AND IMAGES



Thing #6 Flickr fun, mashups, and 3rd party sites

So I thought it would be fun to try the trading card maker. I can see having a lot of fun with this one. I'm still having fun looking at some of the other mashup applications and what you can do, but I wanted to post this fabulous card of our beloved beagle Ducki. He's infamous now. I knew there were tools out there to create stuff like this, but I've never really explored doing any of it. What a blast!

LLL2

Week Three - PHOTOS AND IMAGES


Spider Lynx green on pink hibiscus
by Vicki's Nature (no name given for attribution)

Thing 5 - Explore Flikr

So I had a lot of fun looking through flikr and exploring the Creative Commons aspect of the site. I came upon this photograph and couldn't resist. I'm a pushover for spiders on hibiscus flowers. What's not to like?

LLL2

Week Two - BLOGGING

Thing #3: Set up blog, create avatar, do some posting - check, check, check.
Thing #4: Register blog - check!


So, setting up the avatar was fun, I've never done that before. I enjoyed the flashbacks to my younger days with paper dolls - loved them.

I have created a blog before in a class I took at community college a little over a year ago on web design, so although I created this one pretty quickly and it was second nature to me at this point, the elation I felt upon creating my very first blog successfully was euphoric. Seriously though, I have come a long way in the past 18 months!

Happy New Year everyone!

LLL2

Week One -LIFE LONG LEARNING HABITS

Thing #1
Read the "about" the program section - check!
Thing #2
View Pointers from Lifelong Learners tutorial and post about easiest and hardest habit - check and see below.


Hi all!

I'm a little late to the party, but I'm ready to start the 2.0 Fun!

After viewing the Pointers From Lifelong Learners tutorial, I have to say the easiest habit for me is accepting responsibility for my own learning. I love learning new things. I think it makes me a more interesting and happy person. I am right now starting my 2nd year of work towards my MLIS at San Jose State, and as much work as this is, and as hard as it is, I love it. I also realize that any new skills and technology that I can acquire through my current job is my responsibility to learn and apply towards my current situation. I love learning new things (have I said this enough?!), and I get excited at the prospect of what I can do with the knowledge I acquire.

The hardest thing for me is to look at problems as challenges. In my life, since there is so much going on with school, work and my 4 kids, 2 of whom are teenagers, any little snag in the mix tends to throw me a bit, and I really don't look at problems as good things. I suppose I could try harder to find a different way of looking at things and see problems as challenges. It can't hurt!

LLL2