W O N D E R L A N D

I fell through the rabbit hole into the virtual wonderland of web 2.0, and as it happened I did need the push. I want to thank the web 2.0 team for their guidance and the push!

My Favorite discoveries/exercises was one of the initial 20; creating a blog. I didn't think I wanted to and didn't think I had anything to say. More then anything else I enjoyed the expressions and creativity of other Sno-Isle blogsters. Diverse and thoughtful, sometimes raw and always entertaining, such smart cookies. Thanks for sharing!

I seem to favor the more entertaining tasks of streaming music and video and appreciate the pressure drop of finally using overdrive.

Remember that expression (was it a George Carlin?) "Life is just one big continuation school"? That is how I feel about how this has affected my lifelong learning goal within and without Sno-Isle. I can approach some subjects that were vague before with a modicum of experience and I can continue to expand my knowledge with the jump start these classes have allowed me.

I have been surprized by how much I have missed when using the internet and by how often I didn't challenge myself with "what does that mean"? I often saw references to RSS, podcast, wiki, apps, etc. but I paid them no mind. I have noticed an increase in my awareness level when visiting a site. The unexpected outcome is mentioned in my first paragraph; all the talented, mysterious, curious, colorful, enchanting others along the way.

Overall I thought the presentation, layout/format, support, expectations and time allowance was tangible and generous. I began with a slight case of intimidation and apprehension and yes, I would participate in another discovery program if offered. This one I will definitely file under Jamie's school of ALRIGHT!

fun and games and games and games and Ken Jennings

I tried the five minute word games. They went longer then five minutes.
There is an insane amount of free and downloadable games for every taste and talent.
I always liked boxed games. Password was my favorite, Go to the head of the class we knew every answer to eventually, Yahtzee was King, Jane West was Queen, I wasn't crazy for the game of Life and monoply always seemed to bring the bad sport out of me.
Same kind of games out there online.
go play.

Duh!

I forgot to blog about apps.
I like the integration aspects.
I tried to create a slide show presentation but failed.
I was using clowns as my subject. I believe they influenced my mojo.
I will come back to this at some other point in time.
It is already after the fact.
But good to know about all these things on the web

Earthling

When I was small I took apart a transistor radio to see just what was inside that made Barry McGuire sing Eve of Destruction to me. It was such a cute little radio and I was never able to put it back together exactly so or figure out how all those teeny tiny little pieces worked to make sound. I have always been baffled and astounded by the world of electromagnetic spectrum and I know I could find out exactly how they work by reading (what a concept). I still think there is an element of magic and always will be to emanations of electrical waves. And so I was equally electrified by the google earth site and just kept thinking, "how do they do it"!? It is wondrous, spectactular and an amazing tool all at once, like a time machine, a magic carpet, or a transistor radio!
There on the monitor my own address that I navigated to with the joystick and yes, even google earth knows I live in the woods as all one can see as far as the eye can see is green. I am a google earthling. I am navigatable, I am verified, I am documented, I belong.
It lends itself to many uses and users and is an easy enough device with no pilot license required.

Virtually yours

Virtual faux feathers in hat (animal rights advocate),virtual size 7.5 feet (I wear size 10 and I never wear pink except in a virtual world or a Susan Komen ribbon), definitely virtual waistline, virtual strategic freckles (mine are random acts of nutmeg), virtual red hair (mine is more on the loaded with silver highlights side (or as one of my lovely and generous coworkers said "salt and red pepper"), I do wear glasses but they look better on a cartoon....oh and virtual google eyes...no other size was available. It's funny but virtual internet worlds do not interest me in the least. I don't like to "play" on the internet with the exception of a few things like the free rice game that crazed bunny blog mentioned. I like word games. Rockin' n' Ridin' blog said it best "I don't need a second life". I am trying to be as present as possible in this life. I don't want a back-up life to disappear into. Okay ,okay virtual lady we get the picture already.

I found my thing

Book reviews are the podcasts I can live with. I used the NY Times but there are a zillion others. Me happy now.

GOOG IS GOOD

So I went to google web search help center and typed in a question in the text box next to What can we help you with? Is manzanita safe for cockatiels? which lead me to a web search and the first hit answered my question completely. The site had a safe and toxic plants list for birds. So now my bird boys, Kirby and Charlie Byrd will have some very fine manzanita branches to do their bird walking and talking and whistling and singing on.

Hanging out in Marvin Gardens

This is as far as I could get with this assignment. I will try some of the other options along the way because they look fun and entertaining but for now rich uncle pennybags will have to do. He's such a card!

My Confession

Alright I'll admit it, I've never used overdrive until this assignment. I've helped patrons to find their way to it and have shown them the online tutorial but I never stayed and investigated the option myself. I have felt like "I should" have this one filed under my tech liaison position. I have this little voice that goes "YIKES"! inside of me everytime someone has asked an audio book question. That guilty plea isn't about to be going away anytime soon as I don't feel comfortable enought with it to say "I'm there" yet. It's challenging for me. I was never the best or brightest student. I sweated bullets to make B's and C's. I am not fearless and dive right into the deep waters of web 2.0, pushing, jabbing, linking and netting with abandon. It took me weeks to spell liaison correct everytime. I am surrounded at work by high achievers and a demanding public. It can freak me out in a private way that I try not to show in a public way. Okay, but I don't feel as if I am drowning either because I am surrounded by those aforementioned high achievers who hold me up with their unsung support. And even though I rarely made that formidable "A" I do catch on. I caught on to the degree that I can answer the questions. Selection was good. Authors were available. Easier to use then I had anticipated. And did you notice anything you liked, didn't like?.....actually I was very impressed with the small but eclectic selection of folk music downloads.
amen.

not so much

I like the name Digg better then delicious for a social bookmarking site but I chose delicious because I use the 20 for 2.0 teams default choices. It is just easier for me then to start looking around at all the others and narrowing it down to one when they already do that for me.
It was very easy to set up and use and all that being said I still think I will probably just use my bookmarks in favorites from home as I just don't need all the organizing that social bookmarking sites offer and I don't need all the socializing and sharing either. I do enough of that at work.
I am beginning to truly grasp how much the web 2.0 devices have to do with being connected in ways other then electronically. It is interesting to me that the world of communication tools has expanded so far beyond those of us of a certain age (the people of EON) who used the telephone, long hand and smith corona's to get through. What little we may or may not have to say was even further edited by the limitations of time. Today our communications may be sent and received in a flash with all our random thoughts thrown into the mix like raw batter. Which is good in that it is very spontanteous and real but that can also be bad because you can not take it back. Anyway, I find it all very interesting and enlightening and according to the brain scientist all this new stuff to learn is exercise for gray matter.

I am one of those people who feels that there is always an alarming increase in the number of things I know nothing about! I don't think I would add my input to any wiki that is based on facts except for the example from the commoncraft folks on the campers and their list. They seem like a very practical and useful tool.

Battlestar Galactica has a number nine too!

Engage.
I watched a kick butt episode of Battlestar Galactica on Hulu.
I watched an interview with Jane Goodall in which I discovered that she believes in Bigfoot on YouTube.
I watched season 19, episode 13 of the Simpsons on Fancast.
I made a Pop Newman's microwave popcorn during my intermission.
I discovered that you must set up an account on Hulu to watch Nip/Tuck....too much nipping and tucking for minors.
That was fun.
Actually, BG has a number six but there are 12 cylons so there must be a number 9 model too.
Power down.

my face your face in your space my face

I grew up in a large already in progress family where every single day all hell broke lose. I wasn't so aware of the fact that I wanted and needed peace but I was aware of the fact that the drama wore me out. I also grew up in a house built during prohibition by a sea captain so there were lots of nooks, crannies and literal hiding places. I used them to escape from collateral damage. I also found friendship to be challenging as I was usually mowed down from the various interpersonal communication breakdowns and breakthroughs I encountered in an average hour amongst family folk. I loved my friends and family but the way I was made in nature turned out to be a bit on the solitary side. A happy introvert. So, I am not interested in social networking on a personal level but I understand and value why others may enjoy it. I created a facebook account and I have two friends.....which is just about right for me.

Beauty Verdant Earth Symmetry

Banish all dismay
Extinguish every sorrow
If I'm lost or I'm forgiven
The birds will still be singing
-Elvis Costello



My first attempt to upload an image from flickr was unsuccessfull but I admit that it was done in a scurry. When I settled down with the instructions and followed through it was fruitful. Still and all my understanding of how it worked is less apparent then the fact that it did. And having viewed other number 7's attempts I am convinced that I still have not done it correctly as I do not have a link to the image or descriptive tags. Pretty picture though!

variations on an ego trip in a run-on sentence with a phantom menace

you almost always look nervous and preoccupied like you just walked away from a misunderstanding and you are searching for something you lost or misplaced and like you need a friend but don't want to look needy or even want to feel like you need and you never look for me I never see you look away because you never are looking at me and whenever I think maybe this once you will say something personal, you don't, it is always business and never how nice I look or smell or act or how this one time you are glad to see me and where have I been for the last two weeks and where did I grow up and were both my parents redheads
I look better to you
from a distance
from a galaxy far far away
there are no perfect moments
unless I circumvent
unless I get right in your space
and say "hey I'm here"
and fall back to earth
without a trace
of ever being near.

listening

This was by far the easiest of tasks for me as I could not live without music. I have often visited musicians websites and have used radio DavidByrne for several years. It was fun to create a play list on Pandora as I have often relished the idea of making custom mixed CD's for friends as gifts. Most of my friends don't really listen to the same music I do, so that idea faded away and now I can focus on myself and share if anyone is interested. I have used an IPod and created a play list in ITunes but my IPod was hijacked. I chose Pandora to subscribe to but I looked at all the suggested sites the 20for20 team suggested and they all looked just as eclectic and entertaining. I chose Pandora because it had less of a busy website and had tangible instructions right there. I also found their video instructions useful as I have for most of the web 2.0 assignments.

number 5 again

I forgot to make this comment in my previous blog and discovered that I could not edit it after I had posted. It looks like you can only edit a blog within a certain time frame.
I still find that using the Bookmarks menu and keeping my favorites posted there in folders works just fine for me. It may be considered an archaic way of doing things these days but until it goes away I like that system of tracking sites.

Number 5

I discovered that many of the sites I would like to have subscribed to did not have the RSS reader option. I am glad to know about RSS feeds but I am not a news junkie and I don't feel that it would be something I would keep up with.

I put the I'm in IM today

I had a good time instant messaging with a coworker today. We were no more then 3 feet from one another so at certain points we would catch ourselves responding verbally to our messages rather then typing a response! Then we would bust up laughing, infact, we pretty much cracked each other up over the 20 minutes we practiced the fourth thing. I also realized today that I have been in IM mode with Office Max staff for a couple years now!

I understand its popularity because it really is spontanteous fun.

My great nephew (who is home from the war zone as of yesterday!!!) and my niece found instant messaging to be the most economical and comforting of all the forms of communication they had to choose from.

Link : a channel for communication between groups

One of my greatest disappointments in life is that I am just average! So I may not be on top of all the many ways in which we have in this world to communicate and share ideas. I don't even own a cell phone.....yet. I think that the web 2.0 is a good plan for those of us who are mere mortals and need to or feel compelled to keep up with the rest of the school of life. So, this may be something everyone else already knows about in the world of blog but I want to share anyway. I discovered a few days ago that the choices of favorites in our profiles are hyperlinks to others who share that choice! I could not believe that 8 other people out there somewhere shared my fondest for the movie The Littlest Hobo, or that 8 other people in the world even knew about it.
Anyway, I also discovered by viewing blogs that many people are above average writers and that most of us have interesting things to say even if we don't say it as well as the over and aboves do.

2:

Waking up

Tomorrow is Tom's wake. Tom died in December 2007 and I suppose we have all given him time to wake up as is the tradition behind a wake. My Uncle Hughie told me that a wake allows a person to have three days in which to sober up before they are declared officially dead. I suppose Uncle Hughie was being irreverent considering his brother and my Father was a skid row alcoholic. My Father, Doug, was a clean one though. He always smelled fresh and one of my best memories of him is the smell of old spice and aqua velvet. I wrote a poem about him with those two words as the title. But tomorrow is for Tom who took me aside one day and said that he had something for me. I couldn't imagine what it was as Tom and I were never close or talked much and the only thing we ever agreed on was our dislike of our current President and the love for my Mother. Anyway, he brings to me a box that bank checks are mailed to you in, reeking of cigarettes of course as that was his brobdingnagian habit, and inside was all of his various cuff links acquired over his 79 years. Man, I thought that was sweet. It was so real and it made me realize that maybe just maybe he noticed me more then I would ever have given him credit for. I tend to wear blouses that would need a cuff link and have complained about the lack of such. It had me wake up to the person who was Tom, to the spirit residing inside his body that made me suddenly self conscious at my own inability to connect. All those years he was with my Mom and I never knew anything about him except for superficial things and some of that was Tom's doing and the rest was my own. Well, Tomsy tomorrow I am going to share my cuff link story with your people and mine and I will be wearing the ones with the celtic cross you liked so much. Sleep tight.

There being a first time for everything

This is the first time I have blogged however I may not be making a correct statement as I believe the term blog means to maintain or add comment. Okay but I need to start somewhere and this is the somewhere. This is my first blog spot and my first post.
You know how you "learn something new everyday".... Well besides this blog I also heard this wonderful quote from the Bhagavad Gita (a sanskrit text comprising 700 verses) "The mind is as difficult to subdue as the wind". Yes, it is. I am always working on that. I have a sense that I will be blogging about that intermittently or maybe it is always all about that!
Enough for now.