i'm getting behind on me things, so here it goes. blogosphere, what a fun word! i'm not sure that i'll really use this feature, the blogs i read are about my friends and i can barely keep up with those. kind of like i can hardly keep up with my friends. i'm not out looking for more, so why go looking for more blogs to read. i guess when my friends get too annoyed with me and go away, then i'll be looking for more friends and blogs.
i put 'mormon' (because i am one) into technorati and came up with lots of things on prop 8 when searching posts, but when searching blogs i got lots of personal blogs by mormons. i like the authority feature, but wonder who decides who has authority. the advanced search options were nice for where in the blog (title, content etc.) should the search look.
i then did google blog search and got a mixture of personal blogs and corporate/education/government. this searched posts, not blogs, but did have some blog suggestions at the top. sorting by date was nice and quite specific.
technorati just seemed to have more stuff to do. i liked the tabs at the top and all the options that brings. plus format wise, i just liked the layout and fonts of technorati better.
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
a wonderful weekend
its been so long since my last post. i've set down many times and gotten a few sentences, but always get pulled away to help somebody. its hard being so smart :)
so my weekend was fantastic. i had four days off and made the most of it. the best adventure was walking to the local park with emily and her boys. on the way back she needed to go to the bank and we decided to cut across a ditch and walgreens parking lot. there was construction, because they are building a cvs next to the walgreens (those two always have to be together), and the ditch had some cement colored mud at the bottom that was cracked and looked dried. so we start across the ditch, emily pushing the stroller and me carrying aidan's bike. halfway across i scream because my left foot has sunk to my ankle. emily starts to sink too, but manages to escape. we start laughing and can't stop. i can't get my foot out, so i hand the bike to emily. i have to take my foot out of my shoe and dig around in the muck to pry me shoe out. then i had to put my poor foot, clad only in a little ankle sock, down into the mushy mess. luckily my right foot came out with the shoe still on. meanwhile aidan goes across further down on sand and has no problems. the fact that he weighs a lot less than us probably didn't hurt either. we stop on the side of walgreens and try to scrape some of the yuck off our shoes. we are still laughing, especially when aidan tells all the walgreens customers coming to and fro, that mommy fell in the mud. after cleaning up the best we can, i put my shoe back on and try not to touch anything with my gray hands. arriving back at emily's, i took of my shoes and socks, with some help from aaron, and scrubbed the drying cement mixture off my hands. a very amusing afternoon walk!
i also went to orlando to see some friends and their adorable daughter olive. we got manis and pedis, did henna tattoos on each other (mine is so cool!) and had jeremiah's gelati. my first try of this delicious concotion. soft serve ice cream layered with italian ice. i got vanilla ice cream with strawberry ice. next time i'll try pina coloda. after coming home, i went to a little surprise bday party and had a blast!! the next day i did a lot of sleeping and then scrapbooked at a friends. i was very sorry to see the weekend end. but i'm going to arizona this weekend for a wedding, so more adventures are in store!
so my weekend was fantastic. i had four days off and made the most of it. the best adventure was walking to the local park with emily and her boys. on the way back she needed to go to the bank and we decided to cut across a ditch and walgreens parking lot. there was construction, because they are building a cvs next to the walgreens (those two always have to be together), and the ditch had some cement colored mud at the bottom that was cracked and looked dried. so we start across the ditch, emily pushing the stroller and me carrying aidan's bike. halfway across i scream because my left foot has sunk to my ankle. emily starts to sink too, but manages to escape. we start laughing and can't stop. i can't get my foot out, so i hand the bike to emily. i have to take my foot out of my shoe and dig around in the muck to pry me shoe out. then i had to put my poor foot, clad only in a little ankle sock, down into the mushy mess. luckily my right foot came out with the shoe still on. meanwhile aidan goes across further down on sand and has no problems. the fact that he weighs a lot less than us probably didn't hurt either. we stop on the side of walgreens and try to scrape some of the yuck off our shoes. we are still laughing, especially when aidan tells all the walgreens customers coming to and fro, that mommy fell in the mud. after cleaning up the best we can, i put my shoe back on and try not to touch anything with my gray hands. arriving back at emily's, i took of my shoes and socks, with some help from aaron, and scrubbed the drying cement mixture off my hands. a very amusing afternoon walk!
i also went to orlando to see some friends and their adorable daughter olive. we got manis and pedis, did henna tattoos on each other (mine is so cool!) and had jeremiah's gelati. my first try of this delicious concotion. soft serve ice cream layered with italian ice. i got vanilla ice cream with strawberry ice. next time i'll try pina coloda. after coming home, i went to a little surprise bday party and had a blast!! the next day i did a lot of sleeping and then scrapbooked at a friends. i was very sorry to see the weekend end. but i'm going to arizona this weekend for a wedding, so more adventures are in store!
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
my first weekend
So I worked my first weekend in our new location. If you don't know what I'm talking about, you didn't checkout my library's blog found in my first post. It wasn't a crazy weekend, like we had in the other building, but there were a few mishaps. I changed are phone message to tell people about being closed on MLK day. However, I said we close at 5:30pm on Friday and Saturday instead of at 5pm. Of course no one came late on Friday, but several angry people showed up at 5 on Saturday with problems with their accounts and they wanted them fixed right then, because they had called and made sure we were open. So I felt like a complete idiot! I helped one person and then immediately changed the message, but I was so upset, I had to do it twice to get it right. Not a happy person was I. But then I had a yummy dinner with a bunch of friends and that cheered me right up.
On Sunday I had a very interesting patron, who was giving me a hard time, first in jest and then started to get upset because I had to update his card. What an inconvience to follow the rules. So even though the weekend went pretty smoothly, after 7 days straight of working, I was very happy to have Monday off.
On Sunday I had a very interesting patron, who was giving me a hard time, first in jest and then started to get upset because I had to update his card. What an inconvience to follow the rules. So even though the weekend went pretty smoothly, after 7 days straight of working, I was very happy to have Monday off.
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Thing 2 - Is Library 2.0 for Real?
I've heard of Library 2.0, spawned from Web 2.0, but I'd never seen it shortened to L2. The world has gone crazy with making everything shorter, JLo, Brangelina, <3, idk, etc. Mostly I find it annoying, can't people just spell correctly? Are you so busy that writing '2' for 'to' is really saving you that much time? I digress. However, I do think L2 is kinda cute. I think it is quite laughable that people think L2 is a trend, a passing fancy. Its here and you can't stop it, so you better get with the program.
Saying that I'm all for technology to a point. I love that my library has downloadable books to put on your MP3 player, that we have Digital books so you just add a AAA battery and headphones and you've got a story to go. I love love love our databases and the mounds of fabulous information they contain, I just wish they got used more. I get to participate in AskALibrarian once a month on a Tuesday morning. Some days I'm swamped with questions, other days I get time to tackle the piles on my desk. Our Headquarters library does email reference and sometimes forwards questions to my branch. I think its great that you can look things up on our catalog, put them on hold, renew your books, and see where you are in line for Twilight, all from the comfort of you home. Email has saved the library so much money. We just shoot you an automatic message that your book is ready to be picked up, or oops you forgot to return that new John Grisham novel. Basically, when it works, technology rocks!
However, that's not why I love being a Librarian, its not why I became one. Yes I get frustrated on a continual basis with our patrons, there are some that make me cringe when they walk through our doors, but on the whole I love them. I love helping people find information. Patrons come to us with millions of different problems, questions, concerns, and queries. From I just found out I have cancer and want to learn more about what I should expect, to my daughter is having trouble potty-training, to my son is in jail in Georgia and I need a map and directions to visit him, to I've lost my job and need to make a resume and apply for jobs online, to just plain old I need a good mystery to read. People come to us for help, they know they can't do it alone. The library is one place in your community you can go to get help, when you don't know who to go to. I love that face to face contact with my patrons and I'm pretty sure from their comments, that they love it too.
I agree with that we need to continue Library 1.0 but also bring in 2.0. Many people love all the technology we offer, but I often hear, why can't you bring back the old card catalog, I knew how to use that. I've seen people pick up a mouse like a remote, point it at a computer screen and click, expecting something to happen. I agree with Blyberg about changing the way we think, allocating monies differently, and hiring people who can compute but also interact with people. I'm just afraid that we may get ahead of ourselves. I find that many government agencies and businesses have done this by only being accessible through the Internet. You can't get food stamps with out filling out forms online, you can't call and make an appointment to update your green card, you have to schedule that online, you can't type a resume and send it in, you have to attach it to your application online. Online, online, online! No wonder people crave human contact so much, with all this being online, who has time for relationships anymore. Wait you can do that online too! Internet dating, chat rooms, IM, oh my!
I am excited to learn about these 23 Things. I've heard of about 2/3 of them. I follow several blogs, have a MySpace account which I rarely use, and a Facebook account I use often. The rest haven't had an opportunity or desire to interact with. So here's my chance. I'm excited, will probably get frustrated and wanted to smack my computer along the way, but in the end I'll have learned some stuff, and that's always a good 'thing'.
Saying that I'm all for technology to a point. I love that my library has downloadable books to put on your MP3 player, that we have Digital books so you just add a AAA battery and headphones and you've got a story to go. I love love love our databases and the mounds of fabulous information they contain, I just wish they got used more. I get to participate in AskALibrarian once a month on a Tuesday morning. Some days I'm swamped with questions, other days I get time to tackle the piles on my desk. Our Headquarters library does email reference and sometimes forwards questions to my branch. I think its great that you can look things up on our catalog, put them on hold, renew your books, and see where you are in line for Twilight, all from the comfort of you home. Email has saved the library so much money. We just shoot you an automatic message that your book is ready to be picked up, or oops you forgot to return that new John Grisham novel. Basically, when it works, technology rocks!
However, that's not why I love being a Librarian, its not why I became one. Yes I get frustrated on a continual basis with our patrons, there are some that make me cringe when they walk through our doors, but on the whole I love them. I love helping people find information. Patrons come to us with millions of different problems, questions, concerns, and queries. From I just found out I have cancer and want to learn more about what I should expect, to my daughter is having trouble potty-training, to my son is in jail in Georgia and I need a map and directions to visit him, to I've lost my job and need to make a resume and apply for jobs online, to just plain old I need a good mystery to read. People come to us for help, they know they can't do it alone. The library is one place in your community you can go to get help, when you don't know who to go to. I love that face to face contact with my patrons and I'm pretty sure from their comments, that they love it too.
I agree with that we need to continue Library 1.0 but also bring in 2.0. Many people love all the technology we offer, but I often hear, why can't you bring back the old card catalog, I knew how to use that. I've seen people pick up a mouse like a remote, point it at a computer screen and click, expecting something to happen. I agree with Blyberg about changing the way we think, allocating monies differently, and hiring people who can compute but also interact with people. I'm just afraid that we may get ahead of ourselves. I find that many government agencies and businesses have done this by only being accessible through the Internet. You can't get food stamps with out filling out forms online, you can't call and make an appointment to update your green card, you have to schedule that online, you can't type a resume and send it in, you have to attach it to your application online. Online, online, online! No wonder people crave human contact so much, with all this being online, who has time for relationships anymore. Wait you can do that online too! Internet dating, chat rooms, IM, oh my!
I am excited to learn about these 23 Things. I've heard of about 2/3 of them. I follow several blogs, have a MySpace account which I rarely use, and a Facebook account I use often. The rest haven't had an opportunity or desire to interact with. So here's my chance. I'm excited, will probably get frustrated and wanted to smack my computer along the way, but in the end I'll have learned some stuff, and that's always a good 'thing'.
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
whiny much?
So I sent out an email to my friends about the blog and my work people know about it too, because we are all doing the 23 Things. I wanted to use this blog for my Things, but also to vent and whine about the problems in my life. How am I supposed to do that, if the people I want to talk about are reading the blog? I'll have to be very vague about who I'm complaining about I guess. I could do a lot of crying about not enough money or being overworked, or current events. Those kinds of posts shouldn't hurt anyone's feelings. I'm not a mean person, ok not a really mean person, and I'm not much of a gossiper, but I do like to talk about my frustrations. If I get too whiny just let me know.
Monday, January 12, 2009
Thing 1 - The Creation of a Blog
So for those of you (my friends, enemies etc.) who read this and don't know why I've started a blog, let me enlighten you. NEFLIN a organization that offers classes for library staff (at least that's what I use it for) has started a program called 23 Things. It began in Charoltte, NC and now we're trying it here. The 'things' are different technologies that librarians encounter in their job, usually because patrons ask for our help and we end up looking like idiots because we've never heard of what they're talking about. So over the next few months, I get to try, use, interact, etc. with 23 technologies and blog about them. I have several friends (you know who you are) who have blogs that I follow, so now you have to follow mine. I plan to use the blog for the 23 Things, but also for me to vent, inform, and organize my thoughts. I chose 23 personalities, because they wanted us to put 23 somewhere in the title and because I come from a long line of crazy, so I probably have 23 personalities floating around in me somewhere.
Now for the boring stuff I have to write about my experience to get prizes. (Did I mention if I complete the 23 Things, I could get really cool prizes? Free stuff! Woohoo!) I already had a Blogger account, because my library has a blog and we were asked to get an acoount so we could read the blog and/or participate (check it out http://millhopperstaffblog.blogspot.com/). So the only hard part of that was to remember what my password was, but I got it on the second try. So then I named the blog. That was the hardest part of all. Then I picked a url which was something I use on occasion, since I'm a girl and work in a library and then my initials. Easy to remember and share. Next was picking a template. I figure I'll change it soon enough to put my own look on it, so it didn't really matter. I like green, so green it is. Now I'm going to register my blog with NEFLIN. If that works, then Thing 1 will have been a rousing success for me. If only all the Things could be this easy. Sigh.
Now for the boring stuff I have to write about my experience to get prizes. (Did I mention if I complete the 23 Things, I could get really cool prizes? Free stuff! Woohoo!) I already had a Blogger account, because my library has a blog and we were asked to get an acoount so we could read the blog and/or participate (check it out http://millhopperstaffblog.blogspot.com/). So the only hard part of that was to remember what my password was, but I got it on the second try. So then I named the blog. That was the hardest part of all. Then I picked a url which was something I use on occasion, since I'm a girl and work in a library and then my initials. Easy to remember and share. Next was picking a template. I figure I'll change it soon enough to put my own look on it, so it didn't really matter. I like green, so green it is. Now I'm going to register my blog with NEFLIN. If that works, then Thing 1 will have been a rousing success for me. If only all the Things could be this easy. Sigh.
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