Ambergirl

New Year New Things

2008-01-29T20:15:00.000-05:00

I'd gotten so wrapped up in the holiday season and everything else I hadn't posted anything lately. I'm glad we got a chance to do the 23 things but I'm finding that I'm using most of the fun exercises that were not included in the 23 things. Zamzar has been a big hit. It really has helped when we do not have the updated version of some software on our computers. The kids that come into the libraries also have a lot to offer. I found that you can click on a drawing or picture on a website then right click to print it out. Our printing software gives you the option to blow it up into a 8"x 10", 5" x 7" or other sizes and print it out. Keep your eyes open you might see someone doing something new. If you're like me I ask how did you do that. Kids get a kick out of showing you how to do something new.

Zamzar.com

2007-09-11T14:15:00.000-04:00

Okay I'm back in. The web address we were sent if you want to continue with learning things put you in the updated blog site. I found the site for things 24-37. This give you the list. Thing 24 is great Zamzar.com. It allows you to convert documents programs etc to different formats wihtout downloading the software. If you'r like me you've probably gotten documents in one format and couldn't open them. Or, got some gibberish when you did. This will allow you to open those files. Oh yeah here is the link to get to the master list for things 24-37. They keep adding new things so keep your eyes open. http://explorediscoverplay.blogspot.com/2007/04/learning-21-master-list-of-things.html

LOLCAT Thing 30

2007-08-02T14:46:00.000-04:00

I got plenty of laughs from thing thirty. The cat images are hilarious. I tried building my own site but the site was congested. When I finally got in the site said that the save images function was down and would be restored soon. Will see what I can do later. Got back in on 8/8/07 and created a LOLCAT. I lost my first image somewhere but here is the URL to the second one.
http://kscakes.com/LolCats/Detail.aspx/worked-to-hard-total-meltdown/
Now I just have to figure out how to keep adding to it.

Marylandsandbox

2007-07-19T14:55:00.000-04:00

Its a good thing that I checked the box to be notified of changes to the Sandbox. I got an email saying that someone had erased most of the entries in the sandbox. Sure enough I went in to see if my post under Favorite books was still there and it was gone. If we are suppose to have people monitoring that site to see if we added our blog address and posted something there and somebody erases the entry how can we prove that we complete one of the exercises in the Maryland 2.0 23 Things? At least my Blog address was still registered.

Thing #23

2007-07-19T13:38:00.000-04:00

I made it! This has been and interesting learning experience. I'll try to answer thing #23 questions in order but I know I have a tendency to jump all over the place when something catches my attention.1. My favorite discoveries were the Merlin community, RSS feeds, Gutenburg and Web 2.0 awards list. 2. I found that these sites will help me the most in my job and with learning new skills. 3. The unexpected takeaways was learning what could possiby keep our younger customers glued to the computer screens all day. It was fun exploring all the new sites and finding the links for Meez, online radio sites, youtube, google images. Its so much out there. 4. What could you do to improve the program. I'll have to think on that one. I'm hoping that the links are left on our website so that I can go back in and do more exploring. Some of the sites referred you to additional websites. 5. If the another program was offered I would definitely participate. Who knew I would have so much fun creating and maintaining a Blog. Now that I have more time I want to go back and work on my Blogline account, Technorati, Library Thing, Wikis and Del-icio-us. 6. This has been interesting, frustrating and rewarding all at the same time. I learned a lot and now that customers think we know it all(and I do mean Know It All!) I can actually help more of them when they ask me about blogs etc. I've been sharing my Blog with friends outside of our Library community and they've been learning right along with me.

Thing #22 EBooks

2007-07-18T15:35:00.000-04:00

I looked at the ebook information today. Since our Library already has NetLibrary and Overdrive I was already familiar with them. I checked out Gutenberg ebooks. I didn't know that there was a free ebook distribution center that operates on donations and with volunteer workers. Its nice to know there is a third source for ebooks.I also found that Gutenburg is available in different countries. I took some time going through their website to see what was available. Going futher into the website Ifound a link that allows you to download CDs and DVDs. I had never heard about Jigdo, BitTorrent or Edonkey. These are sites to download free software when you download movies. They also have a RSS feed for new books that are downloaded to their website. They even have digitized music sheets.Whoo Hoo!!!!!! I've got to go back and explore some more.

Saga of the Grog and Gryphon

2007-07-18T12:20:00.000-04:00

I finally found a podcast I liked. I originally had thought to get the Sci-Fi Bad boys podcast. Took me a while to figure out how to get a RSS feed for the podcast. I finally saw that some were feeds and others were downloaded directly to your MP3 player or computer. I managed to get it from Podcast.net. It was a little easier than the other two sites. But Hey you might find the other two easier to use. Onward to thing 22. I finally got this added to my Blogline account. I kept trying to open it from my Blogger account and couldn't so I went back and reread the instructions and added it to my Bloglines account.

Podcast Thing #21

2007-07-17T15:03:00.000-04:00

I read through the podcast information on thing #21. I actually made it through the information while on the information desk. Yahoo has a very comprehensive tutorial and give you quite a bit of information. I plan to explore all the different links for podcasts. I'm not sure I'm ready to produce and publish my own podcast yet. I was surprised by all the different podcast available.

Thing #19 Web 2.0 Awards

2007-07-12T19:38:00.000-04:00

There's quite a few awards in the Web2.0 link. I chose to follow the health awards link. There were four links under the health link. I took my time going into all of them. The PeerTrainer link gave information on exercise and health(weightloss).There were links for online support groups, daily logs and meal logs. From those links you cold go into other related websites. MedStory allows you to type in a query and gives you the results by categories. Under each category it allows you to view all information related to it and rates? it by relevance. It also gives you at the bottom of the page web results, articles and website links. Healia I found to be simular to Medline or the NIH websites. The honorable mention revolutionhealth.com was set up like a community webpage newsletter with links to conditions, health news, insurance, doctors and hospitals etc. Covered a wide range of topics. It was not like Medstory which gave you a link to Medical trial studies.

Thing #18

2007-07-12T18:31:00.000-04:00

Well I tried a flyer in Zoho. It turned out alright but some of the options available in Microsoft Office are not available in Zoho. When I published it to my Blog it took over the page. I guest it was just too big for it. I should have tried something smaller. Some of my words were cut off or shifted to the next line. It great for memo reports etc. It does allow you to insert pictures but not borders. I tried editing what I typed. When I tried changing the font size by highlighting it and clicking on the font size it wouldn't let me change it that way. I had to delete and retype. I printed out a copy of my flyer and what seemed so large in Zoho documents was actually very small on paper.

Untitled

2007-07-12T18:25:00.001-04:00

Black Voices Book Discussion

Come Join us to discuss

Daniel Blacks

They Tell Me of a Home

Tuesday July 17, 2007

6:30 pm

at the

Surratts Clinton Branch

Whoops!!!!

2007-07-12T13:29:00.000-04:00

Looks like I did thing 20 before I did things #18-19. Not sure how I missed them so I'll have to go back and do those two.

Okay I'm editing this and I realize I had skipped #18 until I could have more time to do it. Well it is frustrating. I already had a Gmail account I went to them first. There were no templates or suggestions so I figured it was for someone who already knew what they were doing. Then I went to Zoho and it gave me templates and examples of different documents you could make. Well I got an account and everytime I opened up one of the templates I got a Microsoft error message and it would ask me If I wanted to report the problem or not. Needless to say it cut me off no matter what I chose and I had to start over. It did that 5 times so I'll create my own.

Spray Paint Art Thing #20

2007-07-11T12:47:00.000-04:00

I couldn't resist. I was cruising Google's videos (youtube etc) and found this guy that makes spray paint art. Take a look. I was fascinated that he didn't have a definite plan as he made them. Enjoy! You know I had already done this while exploring how to add a page element.(see the Star Trek video clips) Oh well practice makes perfect.

Sandbox Wiki

2007-07-10T15:58:00.000-04:00

Just left the Sandbox. It was interesting. I learned that means to underline something and means to stop underlining. Trying to figure out how to change the text color in the Wiki. Under favorite books I entered Dark Celebrations. If you haven't read Dark Celebration and are not into paranormal type romances skip the book but copy the recipes at the back of the book. They're Great!!!!! Just viewed my blog and saw that the little symbols didn't come through. So look at your keyboard and over the comma and the period on your keyboard there are is a little sideways v. You put those on either side of a u and that means to underline in HTML. Those on either side of a /u means to stop underlining.

Library 2.0 in 15 min.

2007-07-10T14:32:00.000-04:00

I've been into the Library 2.0 link. Let me tell you! You can get lost in there. There is so much to learn and see. It seems to go over some of the same things we've learned in the earlier exercises. I'm finding more links to other fun sites. I've been exploring the last six items of things I was unfamiliar with. I went into the music sharing link and tried some of the things there. I like Last.fm better than some of the others. I wasn't that interested in making and sharing a list of my songs but I found with some of the sites if you have kids coming to public libraries looking for sites they can get music and sometime videos the sites listed are great. I thought about looking up some of the song I hear and making a playlist. Then I can burn the songs to a CD for myself. Twitter was a online texting site. Widgets was something I hadn't heard about but I'm reading through the info. My next foray will be into the sandbox. http://www.librarything.com/blog

Wiki's Week #7 thing 16

2007-07-09T17:11:00.000-04:00

I've been reading and exploring the the different Wiki sites. I like th Libraries for life one and the one for RocWiki. I can see using them for tourist information because sometimes locals would be able to add more pertinent information. I had my doubts about other sites until I read further. Its nice to know that Mediawiki exist to get rid of spam. I wondered how it would work and who would be interseted in adding to a website. Now I'm a little less wary of using sites like Wikipedia. I managed to get through most of the links for #16. I'm planning on going on to using firefox next. Didn't make it to that link today. I was a little confused that thing #16 wants us to take a look at Blogging. Oh well will find out more when I get to that link.

Technorati

2007-07-03T19:13:00.000-04:00

Checked out Technorati and read through the Tour. Very interesting but I'm not sure if I'd ever use it. When you log onto the page unless you know what you're doing your first reaction is What is this. After I got into it I liked the parts of it I managed to explore while on the desk. #15 on the list is very interesting. The youtube video "The Machine is Us/ing Us" put thing into perpective. I'm not sure how to put it into words but it was like the world and the way we view it was getting smaller as I watched the video. I watched it several times. It made me curious about Web.2.0. Going exploring again. Later

Del.icio.us Week 6

2007-07-03T18:47:00.000-04:00

Okay tried Del.icio.us and went through the links. I actually managed to go in get a website for myself and creat several tags. The only problem was when I went from getting my username and password to installing the Del.icio.us icon and tag icon it wouldn't let me go to step three. So I thought because i hadn't closed my original IE connection it wouldn't proceed. Well it had installed the icons but still wouldn't go to step three. So I click on the Del.icio.us icon and got started. I was able to get into the help and tutorial in a round about way. If you want to see my tags go to http://del.icio.us/neworleanspearl/tags. Well I'm going on. You can get to the tutorial by podcast too under one of the links. On to Technorati!!! Sorry about TMI (Too much Information) run on.

RSS Feed

2007-07-02T16:56:00.000-04:00

Okay I'm jumping all over the place. I decided to try to add a RSS feed to my Blog. I added as a page element a connection to Unshelved a Library relate comic strip feed at the bottom of my Blog. It was easier than some of the other things I tried. I went to Bloglines and copied and pasted the RSS URL for the site and pasted it into the add a page element Feed section. Enjoy! I'm going to get down to business now and take a shot at Thing #13. Wish me luck! I can't believe I've made it this far into the exercises. By the way Thanks Generator Guy for the input with the image generator. I've been looking at the site you sent.

Secret Trekkie

2007-07-02T12:27:00.000-04:00

Okay the secrets out. I'm a big Star Wars/Star Trek addict. I love anything thats from the Sci-Fi genre. Alright let me change that! I love books almost anything with a strong leaning towards Sci-Fi. I'm on an adventure now. I'm going in to explore more of the 23 things and see what I can find. Will keep you posted. "Beam Me Up Scotty!"
I stumbled upon this feature under my template function. You go to customize in your blog then to add a page element. From there look for video clips. You can add all these great clips from Youtube or Google that are actual mini movies to your Blog. Have fun!!!!

Rollyo

2007-06-28T18:49:00.001-04:00

Tried this out for the first time today. I'll post more once I get the hang of the website. this is my link to Rollyo. http://www.rollyo.com/debbiesr/ I think I need to get more natural health links in there.For some reason when I tried to get my list of websites on my Rollyo site it changed my title and gave me a preset list of websites. I managed to add more natural health urls by copying and pasting to the list.

Library Thing

2007-06-28T18:20:00.001-04:00

Went to Library Thing and set up my account. Its a good way to keep track of books you've already read and get suggestions from other participants. I thought at first I could link it with my Blogger website but it didn't give me that options. So if you're interested this is the link to my Library thing site. Hope you have fun in it too. To be quite honest I'm not sure what purpose this website serves. I can see keeping a list for yourself and being able to get suggestions for customers but we have other things for that. http://www.librarything.com/catalog/debbiesr

Merlin

2007-06-28T14:21:00.000-04:00

Finally got a chance to explore the Merlin link. I really like it. I'm waiting for my login and user passwords so I can use the site. It is exciting that I can take classes online from that site.

Meez Online Image Generator

2007-06-21T19:31:00.000-04:00

I had fun putting my character together. All the clothing and things I selected at first were ones you had to pay for. I like the Meez site because your don't have to signup for another email accoount. I didn't like the slogan link or some of the other links under thing #9. But this one I had fun putting together. I'm going to try to link the picture so that it is animated. Copied the link I hope this works better than the Bloglines link.

Blogline Drama

2007-06-20T16:33:00.000-04:00

Well I did get a public blog for Blogline. the website is http://www.bloglines.com/public/Dooleyboo. Went back in and played some more on 6/21 and finally figured it out.

Bloglines RSS

2007-06-20T14:29:00.000-04:00

Well I was crusing along creating my blogline account and having fun. Then I hit a roadblock. I cant figure out what the or how to do the sharing my feed file. I think I'm registered to share my public file but the directions are not that clear. I'm going back in!!! Wish me luck. AAARRGGGHHH!!!!!!!!!

New Screen Saver #8 of the 23 things

2007-06-18T16:06:00.000-04:00

I did It!!!! I managed to download images of waterfalls to my pictures. Made a folder for them inserted them into a Powerpoint presentation and then download the presentation as a slide show in the display part of the control panel for the screen saver. We now have really cool looking waterfall pictures fading in and out on the information desk screen. I'm frantically trying to retrace all my steps. I'm having a ball figuring out how to do different things.

Flicker

2007-06-18T10:35:00.000-04:00

I've tried to download from Flickr. What's the trick? Do we really have to have a yahoo account? I've already got three email accounts besides the work one and don't need another. I found a beautiful picture I'd like on my site. I read through the Stephen Abrams 43 Things article. I didn't realize there were so many different sites out there. I finally know what RSS mean. I explored some of the links from #6 on the Flickr link. I found a link for Picassa . It allows you to use your Gmail login to access a photo posting site. I went to that then went to the link for images from Google. I was able to download from that site the Beautiful Waterfall image. I'm trying to figure out a way to use some of the images to created a powerpoint sort of computer desktop image.
Ambergirl

Lost in Space

2007-06-16T13:11:00.000-04:00

Well when I first started this I posted a blog but I don't see it. I guess I lost it in space somewhere. Oh well just getting started so I'll get better at this.

Favorite flowers

2007-06-16T12:41:00.000-04:00

I don't have access to a computer with capabilites to upload photos but I thought I'd share some of my favorite pictures from my emails. Hope you like them. Not sure If I want anyone to see my photo. Haven't decided on that yet.
Ambergirl

First Attempt

2007-06-14T14:28:00.000-04:00

Well this is my first attempt at posting a Blog. Hopefully I haven't gotten in over my head. Would be nice if this thing came with instructions for Blog illiterate people.