Thing #11 - Library Thing

I really like Library Thing. This is a great site. I quickly added about 14 titles including a mixture of books from my home library and recent reads from HCPL. It is interesting to click on the titles, see how many other Library Thing users have the book, and then see what other titles the Recommendations Machine comes up with. The Unsuggestor was funny: Plato, Camus, Dostoyevsky, and Karl Marx are not likely to be found in a personal library of those who enjoy Janet Evanovich!
Here, I hope, is the link to my Library Thing catalog.
http://www.librarything.com/catalog.php?view=bobbjon&shelf=shelf

Thing #10 - Online Image Generators

I see that image generators are fun and that time (a lot of it!) passes very quickly when one is exploring them. I have come up with an avatar of myself (hah!) at the beach at sunset, my favorite time to be there. I have on my cheetah swimsuit as I have a group of friends who call ourselves the Cheetahs. The only thing missing is a book in my hand. Evidently the Meez characters don't read!

Thing #9 - MERLIN

I became acquainted with MERLIN, visiting and exploring the site and subscribing to its feed. I also clicked on each of the suggested search tools for finding feeds of interest (Feedster, Topix, Syndic8, and Technorati). I was pleasantly surprised to find that the Topix site allowed me to easily create feeds based on news from my hometown, Delta, PA and my vacation hometown, Ocean City, NJ. I had tried to find an RSS feed for Ocean City while working on Thing #8 but was unable to find a civic website that offered a feed. Delta is such a small town that I was amazed at the news that was delivered through the Topix feed. I played around with Blogline's search tool. I especially liked the "Matching Feeds" lists that appeared on the right side of the page for some of my searches.

Thing #8 - RSS

RSS has now been added to my vocabulary, and, through an afternoon of exploration, I feel that I have some familiarity with feeds and newsreaders. I worked through the suggested Discovery resources and then set up my Bloglines account and began adding newsfeeds. I chose a variety of topics of personal interest, suggested library-related feeds, and blogs of friends. One pesky feed has popped up that doesn't make much sense. So far I have attempted to unsuscribe to it twice, but it stubbornly remains on my list.

Thing #7 - Creating a Blog Post

Hmmm, my thoughts about technology...Technology can be great and amazing, but it can also be a real pain! During my teaching career there were many, many technological changes and advances. Our first computer (one machine for the entire school) was basically a glorified workbook, showing a smiley face on the screen if a student answered a math problem correctly. At that early stage of development, we teachers were taking courses that taught us such things as writing programs that made our names scroll endlessly down the screen. The students, meanwhile, were learning the Logo program at the third-grade level. Neither of these activities proved to be very useful in the long run. As time went on, we received more computers - and a computer lab. We teachers then spent a great deal of time mastering word processing and desktop publishing programs. The students were busy using CD-Roms such as SIM City, Reader Rabbit, etc. to engage in interactive learning activities. When our building finally became wired for the Internet, the potential uses of computers expanded immensely.
I have always enjoyed keeping up with technological advances, but, as I said, at times trying to do things in new ways can be quite frustrating. I would be determined that I was going to do something (such as, oh say, make up a schedule for parent/teacher conferences using a word precessing program) and would end up spending much more time than if I had simply done the schedule with pencil and paper. Also, the language involved when dealing with computer-related matters such as installation, trouble-shooting, etc. is not easy to understand. Those Fatal Error messages are still scary!
I do realize that technology involves much more than computers. I am enjoying using my digital camera, and it is fun to explore the many avenues , such as Flickr, Kodak Easy Share, etc., for organizing and sharing these photos. Likewise, it's hard to remember a time before the instant communication provided by cell phones and answering machines.
I thought that I was semi-proficient in technology, but, as I look over the 23 Things, I see many terms that are totally unfamiliar to me. Hopefully, the fun will outweigh the frustrations as I explore them!

Thing #6 extended

Rusty and Duke
Originally uploaded by Bobbie Johnson

Here is the trading card mentioned previously. It seems I can't get both images in the same post.

Anyway, some of the other applications that I explored included Fastr (a game where you are shown a series of pictures and attempt to guess the tag), TagMan (played like the familiar game of Hangman), and Flickr Flash Puzzle Zone (make an online jigsaw puzzle from a photo). I made a puzzle of Rusty and Duke's picture on the trading card and thought I could include the html link to it, but that's not working.

These games were fun but I mainly see them as a way to waste time. I doubt that I will use them very often.

Thing #6 - Flickr Mash-ups

Magazine cover
Originally uploaded by Bobbie Johnson

I have had a good time exploring the Flickr mashups and third-party tools. The number and variety of applications is mind-boggling and a lot of the 3rd party tools use terms that I don't even understand in their descriptions. I have created a magazine cover and a trading card from photos I added to my Flickr account and will attempt to include them here.