19 May 2009

Thing 33

I do not travel, ever. That is unless you include trips to other small towns for track meets or my regular visits to my mother in Minneapolis. None of these excursions involves overnight stays. We used to take day trips into Wisconsin to visit my mother-in-law but she moved to California. The last overnight trip I took was in 1989. Oh, I almost forgot, we spent the night in Wisconsin in 1996 when my father-in-law died. As I said, I do not travel, ever.
I did check out some of the sites suggested. Some of the blogs were a way of traveling vicariously and some of the sites would be useful to people who planned to travel, particularly those who were going abroad. We have many library patrons who check out books on various travel destinations and many use our computers to book transportation and lodging. I would probably recommend some of the suggested sites to those patrons that I know will be traveling and also to my friends. I probably will not use these sites myself. You see, I do not travel, ever.

Thing 32

The maps and mashups had some fun stuff on the sites. I sent my son a crop circle message, although the aerial map of our town had too much cloud cover so I had to site the circle south of town instead of on the football field. I played around with some of the other sites and I have decided I will eventually bookmark all the sites I find useful through these "Things" on my del.icio.us page.
I don't really like Google maps. I find other sites are more useful when I need directions here in Minnesota. I haven't tried maps for out-of-state locations because I never go anywhere except here in the area. In the past I tried to get my husband's running route measured on one of these sites and found it difficult to use and we didn't find the distance anyway. I tried it again today and it is no better than when I used it the first time. I usually use MapQuest or Yahoo maps. MapQuest is familiar, even if I usually get the scenic rather than the direct route. Yahoo maps is okay but I haven't used it as much.
I started making my own map and I am finding it more difficult than the direction video made it seem. I'm not sure yet how these maps and mashups will be useful here in the library. I do know we are regularly asked by patrons for help in getting directions to different places but no one has asked for help to make their own map yet. We have had a few patrons ask about aerial and satellite maps of the area, however. I can find my house on these maps.

Thing 30

I have spent my afternoon reading upon RSS feeds, how to streamline my use of them. I set us some RSS feeds in the first "23Things" but I have to confess I am not using them at all right now so I have no need to filter them in any way, though that may change in the future. I can definitely understand some of their uses. My del.icio.us account is getting fuller and this has been the perfect time to organize it, of course, if it weren't for this program I would have nothing to organize and my life would be much simpler. I choose not to share my bookmarks on my blog. Of course, no one reads it so I suppose it doesn't matter, but the openness of the internet is of concern. My name and information is out there everywhere. I even hesitated to add an RSS feed from the government. Paranoid? Maybe, but while I love all these sites and have signed up for most of them, I would like to keep my life and interests private.

18 May 2009

Memorial Day

Tomorrow is Memorial Day so I have the day off, at least from my library jobs. I have a ton of work to do at home. I love to go to work for many reasons, one of which is to rest up from the work at home. My husband is an OTR trucker and comes home every other weekend. He also has multiple allergies so he is probably the only trucker out there that doesn't eat truck stop and fast foods. The weekends that he is home are spent getting him ready and stocked to leave again. That means lots of cooking and laundry and shopping. He has a little home on wheels with his cooler and crockpot and his pantry of home canned meals and safe snacks. All our kids try to stop in on those weekends to visit with the grandkids. The weekend passes in a blur.
On the weekends when he isn't home I do all that home canning so that he has allergy- and gluten-free meals. Forget housecleaning. Besides taking care of the feeding and cleaning of the two kids I still have at home, I also make a run to the natural foods co-op and other specialty stores so he can stock his pantry. I see the grandkids, too, when he isn't home. I spend time with mu kids and I help them take the kids to their check-ups and help them shop and garden and all sorts of other chores. And, of course, I babysit, in fact, that's what I'm doing right now. My daughter has a computer and when I babysit, the kids get to bed on time so I can work on my "Things." For these particular grandbabies, I'm the tough grandma compared to their other ones.
So, tomorrow is a holiday. I have to get some groceries in the house. My last two babies are 18 and 20. One's a high school athlete and the other is a bodybuilder. I need those groceries. I also have more babysitting duty. It's a lot of work, tougher now than when I was younger, but grandchildren are a wonderful thing to have and they seem to like me even though I'm the tough one.

Thing 28

Today I made myself a home page. I will continue to tweak it as there are so many gadgets to explore. I used igoogle and am having a little trouble editing my weather gadget, but after reading user comments I realize I am not alone. I am having fun with this one, reading jokes, playing games, etc. This is one "Thing" I want to continue to explore and utilize.

Thing 36

I had a lot of fun with this one. Some of the sites were already familiar to me. Some of the sites suggested seemed silly to me. I don't need help generating passwords, I need help remembering them. I did enjoy playing around on these sites, however. I made Hollywood signs for my co-workers and I made newspaper headlines. I can see a lot of use for these here at the library and especially, for my personal use. I used the newspaper generator site, fodey.com

16 May 2009

Thing 43

I have seen TV ads for Hulu so checked it out and looked into Joost also. It was great to know that I can catch up on NCIS. I miss the new episodes because I am working. My probem, however, is that since I do not have computer acess outside of work, I would have to watch my favorite shows here at the library and TV watching on company time is frowned upon. I did like the fact that I could find old shows (a trip down memory lane for this baby-boomer) and these sites will be great to recommend to our classic TV fans. We have quite a number of patrons who enjoy the oldies and usually get them on DVD. I also like to watch Bones but I've missed it lately. Now I can catch up.

Thing 31

Okay, okay, so Twitter has a lot more uses than I thought. I read through the info on Twitter and find it is much more versatile than I expected. I don't know yet if I'll use it, however, as I have trouble just keeping current on my e-mail and facebook page.

15 May 2009

Track Mom

Yesterday was the conference meet. It was the best of days. It was the worst of days. The day was sunny and windy and the familiar road to the school was long but pleasant through miles of farmland. I've been there many times before yesterday. I resisted the urge to follow the many garage sale signs along the way. The school where the meet was held is the site of many memories over the last four years, some of them good, some not. The host team is our favorite (?) rival. This meet was a bit of a grudge match between us and them, the other seven teams were insignificant. So, there we were for the last time and the day started off badly for my son and teammates. There were bad jumps and worse hand-offs and even the best of our boys posted less than their best times. My son left his last event alone, walking around the track, head down, disappointed at his performance. He almost caught that guy in the final leg of the relay. The relay team came in second by a fraction of a second. There were no team hugs and celebrations, just discouragement. I felt the agony of defeat for my son. It's tough being a mom sometimes.
The mood changed when the boys team won the conference title. The victory margin was slim but it's not how much you win by, but that you come out on top that counts. A win is a win is a win. There was joy at the end. And my son ran a personal best and he knows that his time goals are definitely within his reach. And to top it off, I left his car at the school for him (and walked home) so he and his teammates could go out and celebrate and plan and dream for the next meet, the sectionals. There is still disapoinment but there is also hope.

14 May 2009

Sill No Time

I am trying to get through as many of the "More Things" as possible but it is a struggle for me. I know I am learning things for my own use as well as helping our patrons but I am really doing this program as library training. I work in a small-town library, well, actually I work in two small-town libraries, and though we have slow times, like when the weather is good or there are other activities going on in our towns, but we generally are very busy. We have too much work and not enough time. I have piles of work sitting here waiting for me and I am trying to do these "Things" as well. I know I could be doing this in my free time and I have done some of it when I can find a computer to use away from work as I do not have one of my own at home, but I find I am doing a lot of library work in my free time already. We all do. I spend time off doing work-related reading, research, and program planning. Don't get me wrong. I like coming to work most of the time and I like, maybe even love my job, but the library isn't my life. So, I will learn what I can from these "Things" and I will use my time at work when I can and I will eventually get through them all and maybe even be better at serving our patrons because of it. I know the value of finishing what I start even if I finish last.

12 May 2009

Thing 29

I checked out some of the Google tools. I have a shared calendar already and I already use the maps and directions. I started my library and looked at some of the other tools. I have some of the same tools already on other sites so I didn't try out everything but I loved learning about the Google411. I can use some of these tools to help patrons here in the library which is the main reason I'm doing these "Things" anyway.

Thing 27

Okay, I said I would never Twitter and I still don't plan to but I did sign up to follow a couple of people. I appreciate the brevity of the tweets but from the ones I read I don't think I'll be using this "Thing" very often.

Thing 24, Thing 25, Thing 26

So, on to the next "Things." I have refreshed my blog although I kept it dark because I like it that way. I added some gadgets and moved things around. I often want to add new posts but find time a problem. I just started on these new things because I waited until I finished the first 23. Now for a mad dash to get as many done as I can. I joined the 23 Thins Ning and have been browsing the groups and the photos. I need ideas for this summer's reading program "Be Creative @ Your Library." Onward and upward!

Thing 22, Thing 23

I have glanced through the suggested sites for continuing my quest to learn more about the internet and all that it offers. I have found these 23 Things to be overwhelming at times, there is SO MUCH information out there, it is difficult to sort it all out. Thanks for guiding me through some of it. But I have enjoyed exploring some of it. I feel I should be writing in depth about how to use what I've learned here in the library. I'm still figuring it out. For now I will continue to visit my favorites of these sites, share what I've learned with patrons and co-workers, and decide if I really need all the networking accounts I have accumulated. It's been fun.
I would do this again, in fact, I signed up for More Things On A Stick but wanted to finish the first 23 things before I go on. I only started this because several of my co-workers said this would be really good training. I lost them somewhere along the way and I've taken far longer than I planned but I finally finished and I will go on. Amidst the frustration of some much information and so little time, I enjoyed the experience (most of the time) but I am still a Luddite at heart.

11 May 2009

Thing 21

I have checked out some of the social websites that were suggested. I joined the 23 Things on a Stick on Ning. I posted a comment on someone's page. I added my Ning badge and I explored a group called Knitting in the Library. I even poked a friend. I can see how this kind of networking would be attractive to people and useful to connect people with similar interests. I imagine this would also be a great place for librarians to share tips on how to stimulate interest in libraries and how to better serve our patrons.

04 May 2009

Thing 17

I have spent the afternoon searching the EBSCO databases. I have created my own folders and played around with designing web pages. I can see how this would help anyone doing research. I plan to recommend this to my college-bound son. I've already shown him the websites that can help him prepare for papers with a time-line. These sites are compatible. I can put research into different folders and pull them up whenever I want. I did have some previous knowledge of these databases from some library training.

01 May 2009

Thing 16

WOW! I like these sites. I could have used them when I was in school, although I probably would have done all the work the night before the assignment was due anyway. These would be helpful to suggest to students who come in to do research for their various school projects. I like to suggest websites and other resources that they may not have thought about when I help them and I like these and plan to use them.