THE 19TH CENTURY ROCKS

SELFISH PRAYER

2008-12-01T15:13:00.000-08:00

"Dear Little Baby Jesus, please let me win that new laptop! Pleeeeeeease! I work PT at the library, so I can't afford one and my PC is on the fritz. I need it to spread more sweetness and light in the world! Isn't that what you want? Amen."

SUMMARY

2008-12-01T14:59:00.000-08:00

You know, although it may have the least practical use, I really loved messing with the image generators. Fun, fun, fun!

I think it is good thing to become more conversant with more of the information tools out there.

Library Thing will be great to help me keep track of and remember books that I like and so help with readers advisory.

Truthfully, the biggest surprise was how much I enjoyed this.

The only thing I could see that would be an improvement would be to state upfront where a site hasn't exactly gotten up and running. Some were still kind of thin on content (eg. MOLDI) so I couldn't get too excited.

If there were another program like this offered, given the time, I would definitely avail myself of it.

MOLDI

2008-12-01T14:56:00.000-08:00

Found an audiobook copy of "The Mel Blanc Show - Cousin Dottie Visits Betty."
Gotta love Mel Blanc! Over-all though, from using the search option, I'd say MOLDI is pretty sparse. I'm sure it will fill out with time and be very useful.

PODPEOPLE...I MEAN PODCASTS

2008-12-01T14:20:00.000-08:00

One podcast I found I thoroughly enjoyed: Instapundit. Really liked, "The Glenn and Helen Show: Talking Guns and Politics with Dave Kopel"

So refreshing to get news from somewhere other than the Church of the Obamessiah!

Still not good with the rss thing tho.... :(

Eventually I will find someone with the knowlege and more importantly, the time to help me with this, as I think it's pretty darn cool!

POWER TOOLS

2008-11-20T17:15:00.000-08:00

Book Burro is a nice add-on, but seeing as my primary literary interest outside of work lies with fallen-through-the-cracks books published in the 19th century, I would have little use for it.

I used to follow BoingBoing until they contracted Bush Derangement Syndrome. Nutbags. I had enjoyed some of the quirky links and tech stuff, but I'd rather not soil my eyes with all that creepy-ness now. So much better dealing with people that live on planet earth.

I think that it is great that we have the powertools page on our site. Very good!

GOOGLE DOCS

2008-11-20T17:07:00.000-08:00

I found a couple of things I like about this. One, how cool is it that you can publish directly to your blog- although I haven't quite got it to work yet. But even if I can't, I can cut from it to paste to my blog. Doing that with word, you import word code, so it doesnt work. This way I believe it will. Let's see:

Words of wisdom from Chris Knight, on the way to stay the hell outa trouble:
"You can't hang yourself, if you ain't got enough rope."

Well it didn't keep the type, etc., but still.... I'm likin' it.

USING THE SANDBOX

2008-11-20T15:43:00.001-08:00

How insanely frustrating. hr. and a half down the tubes.

in PBWiki, you
can add links just by clicking on the “Edit” tab and then using the
“Insert/Add
Link” button.

I clicked edit, and it gave me a box to ask for permission. I had made an accnt, got the confirmation email and clicked the link.

Don't know. "Hi! Can I help you find something?" (sorry, a patron wanted my assistance)

WIKI WIKI WIKI

2008-11-20T15:08:00.000-08:00

Can someone please tell me the name of that tune from the early 80's? It was kind of an electo-hip hop thang. Tom Tom Club, perhaps? Anyway, LearnNplay, thanks for the earworm! lol.

Checked out the Booklovers wiki. Looks like they're just getting their feet wet with this -not much there. Good luck to em.

Also looked at the Library Outreach Wiki. Meh.

DELICIOUS AND SOCIAL NETWORKING

2008-11-20T14:42:00.000-08:00

Pretty cool idea. I can see how this can allow you to navigate to pages you may like. Nice way to channel info.

TWITTER

2008-11-20T14:11:00.000-08:00

M'kay. I'm HickOmatic. It seems to me that twitter is mostly for those that need even more constant ( but low-quality and stunted) connection than is provided by a cell phone. Guess that's good if that's what you like. Seems kind of a pointless waste of time to me. Twitter me and let me know what you think about that! (just kidding).

YOUTUBE

2008-11-20T13:29:00.000-08:00

ZO FOR PRESIDENT 2012

IMAGE GENERATORS sure are fun!

2008-11-17T17:13:00.001-08:00

RSS FEEDS

2008-11-17T15:50:00.000-08:00

I set up a bloglines accnt. and subscribed to some feeds, pasting in the url's. However some sites, when I right clicked on the "syndicate" line, it would not GIVE me the option of saving the link.

In addition I am clueless as to how to get one them there cute lil' rss things on my blog.

I sure would like to figure this all out as it seems pretty awesome, but seeing as I spend most of my time on desk here to serve our patrons, I guess I better call it a day on this one. Too focused on figuring this out and not enough focus on pro-active reference.

LIBRARIES 2.0 'N SUCH

2008-11-13T17:32:00.000-08:00

One article I read was "To a temporary place in time..."

While I can certainly appreciate the "transformational" effect of all the
acid people ate in the sixties, it has become obvious that this generation has
been transformed in creepy ways that they are seemingly blind too. "the
aesthetic economy, the dream society" ? Well thank God (apologies for any
offense that word may cause) we will no long have need for police officers,
construction workers or impertinent plumbers- it will just be a world of
happy, floating dreamers!

Most of us have been schooled to live in disconnected deconstructionist,
post-modern ivory towers. Its a pretty, glittering hall of mirrors reflecting
myriads of images of our oh-so-highly-evolved selves. Pretty! Shiny! There is no
"truth," reality is just what we say it is. We aren't religious, we're
"spiritual" so that we can pick and choose whatever justifies what we want to
do.

The "forward looking, intelligent elite" have become arrogant enough
to believe that they can engineer evil out of the human soul and build heaven on
earth. You would think that after the good work that other Utopians such as Lenin,
Pol Pot and Mao did to build more "caring" and "fair" societies the brilliant
elite in this country would realize that the result of such continually failed
thinking is not heaven, but hell on earth.

Good intentions may give one
a good "spiritual buzz" but they do not equal good results.
But who the hell cares. It's all about feeeeeling good, isn't it?

The other article I read was "Away from the Icebergs."

I agree with some of what he has to say. I agree that you don't need
a large "just in case" collection of non-fiction, for the most part.
Fiction, however is another story. Most people I have spoken to only like
to read on screen if it's a few pages, at most. After that, they prefer an
actual book.

One thing I don't think he addressed, is the emerging mind-set that says
the only good books are popular books. Yes, I know, it is not the
libraries duty to "elevate" the public by choosing what they should read.
I agree. But in only providing what is most popular at the expense of
other material, diversity is degraded and we have joined the over-whelmingly popular race to
the bottom. What of the serendipitous stumbling upon a book the patron may
have never otherwise thought to look for? What of breadth and depth?
Should we have such a narrow focus? Having enough copies of the current
hooker romance to go around is great, but not if less wildly popular titles are
eliminated to provide them.

(note: anyone that can school me as to why this posting has those wacky, mid-sentence breaks all the way through, I sure would appreciate it. Looks fine in the edit window....)

WEB 2.0 AWARDS

2008-11-13T17:13:00.000-08:00

I checked out biblio.com, the 2nd place winner in the "book" category. I found it very inferior to AbeBooks. I did a search on both for "Sam Lawson's Oldtown Fireside Stories." Biblio yielded 7 results, AbeBooks yielded 30. I also prefer the layout and usability of Abebooks.

Of course, the name of the site isn't as hip and cool. Abe? Is not cool.

2008

2008-11-13T16:44:00.001-08:00

BOOKS I'VE RECENTLY READ/AM READING- POSTED ON LIBRARY THING

2008-11-13T15:56:00.000-08:00

My name there is NoPoMo.

IMAO, it sure is better than Great Reads, as far as ease of use.

LIBRARY RELATED BLOGS AND/OR NEWSFEEDS

2008-11-13T15:19:00.000-08:00

I have found these blogs both enjoyable and informative:

http://bookwormroom.wordpress.com/

Wonderful in that it combines a love of books with current events.

http://miss-information.blogspot.com/

So very amusing. Of course, as she has posted, she doesn't really work in a library. She would never blog about real experiences of a librarian in a real library. It's all just made up.

http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/index.html

Affords hours of exploratory enjoyment, digging for forgotten and thrown away 19th century authors who's books can only be found in used book stores and ebay. And that's as it should be- no deconstructionist, post-modern nihilism here. What possible use could these books have? Sheesh.

THE WAY TO BOIL A FROG.....

2008-11-13T15:01:00.000-08:00

....is to turn up the heat sloooowly. Otherwise the frog will jump out of the pot.

Google is compiling data on keywords entered for searches that may be related to the flu. This information is then relayed to the government to help track the spread of the illness. Of course, I trust Google because they are, in their own words, "not evil."

WAIT A MINUTE.....THIS ISN'T HALO!

2008-11-13T14:45:00.000-08:00

So yesterday!

SENTIMENTAL JOURNEY

2008-11-13T13:51:00.001-08:00

WELCOME TO MY WORLD

2008-11-13T13:42:00.000-08:00

It's a world filled with bunny rabbits and puppy dogs. I'm embracing the future and acquiescing in Happy Gumdrop land. Can I get a Kum-By-Yah?! Hug me!