Technorati Tango

Bloggers, following blogs that follow blogs. At least Technorati has some organization and searchability, or you'd never find anything in blogdom. I did my poking around in Technorati, looking for "learning 2.0" and discovered that tags seem to link to more blog sites than searching in the directory. I did some exploring and found a pretty good library-ish site that I enjoyed: Librarian by Day. This blog did come up when I searched tags on Technorati for "learning 2.0" but didn't appear in other searches elsewhere. Hmmm. I did not claim my blog on Technorati as it required a sign-in/registration. But I did ping my blog.

Tag, You're It!

It took a while for me to figure out tagging. Sure, I listened to the tutorials, and I did poke around in delicious, but it looked like mostly computer technology and web design related stuff. Tagging sounds like a great way to better correlate the Web, but it may be too little too late. Since the web design and development links on delicious were sometimes over my head, I tried "travel" as a tag. I found one link, "Hotels to Stay In Before You Die," that was interesting. I think I'm going to need to explore further to get a better handle on tagging.

Gaming

Just read an interesting & appropriate article from the BBC News feed on gaming. According to the article, it's not just geeky, overweight guys gaming--40% of gamers are female.

For simple gaming, nothing beats Bejeweled, which I play at home a bit too frequently, usually late at night when insomnia hits me. I prefer Bejeweled 2 through the Yahoo Games link, however. Better sound effects & animation. Next I played an interactive game, Free Rice. I tried language subject German, harking back to high school German class. Didn't do too horrifyingly, and I think someone might get a small bowl of rice for my efforts.

7 Degrees of Separation...

Social networking looks like a terrible investment of time. Not sure this is really for me, but I did create a MyFace account. It just looked a lot easier than MySpace. What was weird was all the people it pulled up that matched my educational profile. My high school was huge, and I graduated a year early, so I don't know these people. College--well, my graduation year was for my Masters degree, so there's even more folks I didn't go to class with. It just feels a little creepy that MyFace automatically pulled these profiles all together with what little information I gave for my profile.

Chatter

Did you know that the word "chat" has its root in "chattering" as in the noisy chirping of birds? The word evolved to mean "idle conversation."

I did try to chat, really. But my son--who is ALWAYS chatting on his computer--would not respond, so I don't know if I did something wrong, or if he freaked because his mom was inviting him to chat. So I had to phone him and he talked me through chat. How redundant! But yes, assignment completed. I did actually chat.

More Feeding...

I finally found another feed that I like--sewing! It's got crafty hints and sewing projects, which is great. Appropriately, for creating the perfect multi-loop bow just in time for Christmas, click here.

Feed Me!

RSS feeds are not exactly new to me, but I've never really subscribed and kept track before. I didn't know that there were sites to actually facilitate keeping track of the feeds. I subscribed to BBC World News--the only place where you will really find out what the world thinks about America; then to Librarian.net, which I've been reading for years; next Unshelved--the library comic strip that is altogether too real sometimes. Looking at this really short list, I realize I need to do more poking around and find some more interesting feeds...Suggestions, anyone?

It's All About Image...

Today I played with image generators. There were almost too many to chose from. Some of the magazine cover generators looked fun, but everytime I tried to upload a photo from my files, the program complained that it was too big. So I explored some more and found this interesting effect called Hockneyizer. It didn't cry uncle when I uploaded a library picture, so this is my project for this exercise.

Flickr Tools

I found this cool tool called Motivator that lets you create motivation posters with your photos. So I gave it a try, just to see. Here's my cat Peaches incorporated into a "motivational" poster. I'm sure she's motivated by it. More of my Flickr photos are at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mychickadee/

Flickr Fun...

Per our CTLS 23 challenges, I've created a Flickr account. It seems that there are a lot of really good photographers out there, but I'm not one of them. I've included one of my photos from Flickr here.

There is a bird feeder at the Library right outside the north window. This little garden area was created as an Eagle Scout project. At the beginning, I was the one to refill the birdfood and add water to the bird bath. Last spring, as I was doing my weekly birdfood re-fill, I heard a couple of mockingbirds up in the trees behind the Library. They were hissing at me--very angry. I ignored them to my peril. As soon as I was standing still at the birdfeeder, they began to dive at me. One came at my head, causing me to duck and squawk. The second mockingbird aimed lower and actully hit me on the side of my back. That really made me squeal and jump. After that, I fled.

Did I mention that the birdfeed was just outside of a very large window? While I was dancing around getting attacked by birds, everyone in the Library had a view to the show.

Fun with Google

Playing around with Google, finding so much more than just a search engine. I am starting to see how people can spend all day on the Internet, though. SketchUp looks quite cool--I'm going to have to play with that some more. Google Earth doesn't show my house, however, just an empty field. Also, if you aren't too lazy in your searching, you can set up preferences in the general Google Search to cull out things you don't want.

In the beginning...

Blogging is a bit foreign to me, like trying on clothes in a department store dressing room without a door. Others may have no fears about revealing how they feel moment by moment, or what's on their mind about any particular topic. But part of the CTLS 23 Things is going to push me into stuff outside my comfort zone. Which is good, right....?

Being lifelong learner certainly is a nice fit. Working in a library, there's always something new to learn. But this process pushes me away from the books and into more of the newer technology that I'm only passingly familiar with. Time is a giant factor, as the day is full of constant interruptions. Perhaps accepting that my pace may not be as fast as I'd like is just one thing I'll have to accept.