PEACE AND QUIET

Libraries serve
as "mind gyms"
away from technohastle
with comfy chairs,
quiet and good light.

DISCOVERIES: Week 6, Thing 15

Libraries worry too much about their future. After reading Perspectives and Library 2.0 definitions, it's clear to me that some of their best thinkers and leaders already have the right ideas and ultimately neo-Library 4.0 will emerge. All libraries have to do is stay tuned to their users and "what floats their boat," and eventually as promised the effects of connecting the digital and the sensual will evolve into libraries that become mind gyms - better yet, "knowledge spas" (I love that term) - for meditation, relaxation, and immersion in a luxury of ideas and thought, existing in WiFREE space, away from technohastle, with comfy yet practical chairs (yes, vinyl can be comfortable, please don't take the chairs away), peace and quiet, good light, coffee and a few desserts.

DISCOVERIES: Week 6, Things 13 and 14

Things 13: Had to pass on the alternative podcast tutorials for del.icio.us on my home computer which operates on dial-up. After a cursory exploration of us.ef.ul and Habits of Successful del.icio.us Users, etc., I decided to move on to something that would be more useful for my purposes. I wondered if the prevalence of tagging is making searches by Google etc. too cumbersome in the long run by bringing up too many possibilities. It was, however, interesting to view other library home pages. I thought one library's Lost in Blogs idea of "What's for Dinner" with recipes from a book or magazine in the collection was a good idea for summer reading for adults.

Things 14: The idea of trying to organize the 100 million blogs that probably exist in blogsphere by now seems like a daunting task. In the process of examining the process and results, after locating and bookmarking Boing Boing, I inadvertently stumbled across the No. 1 video "everything in the known universe about noelia." Hmm, I wondered, who is that, before finding my answer on Videochismes, along with links to many sites that could have resulted in being tossed out and banned from the library forever had I been sitting at one of the public computers. Foiled once again, this time because of my Adobe Flash which is out of date, I was unable to view Noelia or any other video on YouTube. Incidentally, I wondered whether or not tagging is providing challenges to blocking and filtering materials not meant to be seen by eyes of the very young.

Random Thoughts About Aging

Since it's not fashionable to reveal one's age, I didn't give one in my profile. There must be a reason for hiding one's age, for example in resumes and news releases: it keeps people from thinking "he's too old," "he's not old enough" or "he's old enough to know better." In my case, suffice it to say I'm old enough that being cool doesn't matter to me anymore. An advantage of this is that I don't have to run around with my underwear showing (not that I ever did).

Let's just say I'm old enough to become confused by some of the terms I've run across lately while wading my way though 23 Things and discovering they're not what I thought they were, e.g., MERLIN (a magician), MEEZ (someone's last name), RSS (the initials of a friend), OPAL (a gem stone), ROLLYO (something you do with your hole card in poker), pod (housing for peas), AVATAR (some kind of automobile), Del.icio.us (a thick coffee milkshake made with coffee ice cream and coffee syrup), tag (a game played in the back yard). Not to mention WIKIs (what burns in the middle of a candle) and WIIs (as in "whee," that was great).

Even so, although I might never find a constructive use for Rollyoing and some of the other cataloging-type tools that would force me to become organized, I realize that where there's a will there could be a Wii (something I long to have). Besides, there have been some rewarding "ahas" that have occurred along the way, and so I forge ahead.

How old am I? I'll never tell. :-)

Select...CandiddigitalstuffSearch The Web

Discovery Week 5: Thing 12 Rollyo

Managed to create a Rollyo. I wasnt successful in being able to upload my bookmarks and choose sites from them nor was I able to create a searchbox. Perhaps I'll go back to both. Becoming somewhat frustrated with the Del.icio.us thing - the 12-minute video doesn't show up. Oh well.

The rest of the story ...

All is well in blogland - at least for now. The template problems must have worked themselves out so that eventually all of my entries were appearing in my chosen template. As for inserting the photo into the Profile - that's another story. Once I finally deciphered the instructions (I'm a bit of a slow learner), I posted the edited jpeg version and used the HTML editor, but was never able to make it turn up in the Profile, so I gave up on that (I learned later that it might have worked if I had known which part of the HTML line to copy). Being persistent (stubborn?), I forged ahead using the existing avatar that was on the post until, by trial-and-error, I managed to copy the correct portion of the ID and - voila - after pasting it where it belonged, the image popped into place.

Now I can get back on track. I have realized that I can save time by printing out the Week Discovery directions and exercises for fast reference.

CONFUSED

It appears that I now have two or three templates in the works! What do I do now?

Help

Not sure how to save new template choice - it doesn't seem to be working.

Time Out

Took some time out from working on the Discoveries to figure out how to add the avatar photo to my profile. It took a while before I was able to figure it out. Onward.

Experimenting

Avatar

Trying to figure out how
to add this to my profile
before deleting it from
this post.

Discovery

Week 5: Thing 11
Created my own library.
http://www.librarything.com/catalog/rschaefe

Discovery

Week 5: Thing 10

Had fun playing David Hockney

by Hockneyizing my grandson

and his band.

Hooray

Meet the safari hunter!

Avatar creation

Yahoo! Avatars U.K. & Ireland
This shows the page where my avatar lives. Can't seem to save the avatar to paste in somewhere else. Is it possible?

Discoveries

My Blogline
http://www.bloglines.com/myblogs

Discovery

Week 4: #8 and #9: Learned the meaning of RSS and set up a Blogline newsreader account with some 15 entries, including MERLIN. Began to facilitate the ability to podcast via Audacity. Located a YouTube tutorial for future exploration. In spite of having spent much wasted time alerting grandchildren to the dangers of MySpace, actually became tempted to join the ranks of social networking by ninging and and winking (who wouldn't want a Wink Widget all their own?). MEEZ was a little frustrating - it slowed me down considerably, as did the speaking faces.
Not sure if I have anything worth blogging about, but I found some fascinating sites which opened many new doors. One of my goals is to learn how to create a video that I can post on YouTube and maybe send to my grandson's MySpace site!

Success

I managed to figure out what I wasn't doing right and have set up a Blogline with 13 feeds. Hooray!

Blogline

Tried to create a blogline - need to try again!

Digital bridging

Thanks to the magic of digital photography, four family members were able to photograph festivities at a large graduation party and immediately afterwards compare results. The best of the bunch will be sent via e-mail, combined and burned onto a CD for various family members - and maybe even mounted on Flickr for the whole world to see and admire!

Discovery Week 3: No. 6

Learned about "mashups" and creative things to do with Flickr tools such as Mappr, Flckr color and Montager. Any marketing possibilities for original trading cards? Immortalized my grandson by wharholizing a photo of him playing guitar with his band.