Reflections

Sometimes I would go home after doing a particular session and tell my honey "We need to do this!" I would be so excited about something like Flickr', that I thought we could use for our art. Some things seem so much a part of the future and the future is where things are at. As I go out into the web world, I can recognize the skill involved in some web sites, things I didn't fully appreciate before. When one of our art sites expanded their site to include a blog, video and pod casting, social networking sites and a host of other refinements, I could really appreciate the work someone had done to make them that interactive.

Doing some of these things takes practice, using them over and over. If you don't use them, it's really easy to forget how. I am still somewhat puzzled by social networking sites and how to best use them. I need to get out the directions every time I try to go to my Facebook account. And all the passwords become a blur. Now that I have all these accounts, how long do they stay active? Will I eventually get dropped off if I don't keep using them? Do I need to go in and delete them somehow? Doing some of these activities would be greatly enhanced if I had more than dial up at home. I would try to apply them to our sculpture website, but for now it would only lead to frustration.

If I had the opportunity to do something like this again, I would wish for more time and more application. Fitting the adventures into a busy week was sometimes a challenge. It would have been nice to focus on one thing for a couple of weeks before moving on to the next. It was more difficult to do some of these things because we share machines; so on-line chatting for instance had a narrow window of opportunity. In this work application, it's use was limited. Some of these skills are a tool, just like a hammer or a crucible or a furnace is a tool. Sometimes I'm more comfortable with the hammer or the crucible and the furnace. But trying them out was good for my brain and a good challenge.

I was sorry that I didn't get the opportunity to read more of other people's blogs and make comments on them. It is still my goal to read all of them and make a comment. People worked hard on them. It was a real challenge for some people who guard what they share of themselves. I appreciate how difficult it was sometimes.

There is the issue of time. How much time am I willing to give to this part of my life? I am beginning to accept that I don't do things as quickly as I used to; it takes more time to do the dishes, the laundry and make dinner than it used to. Time goes by far too quickly. I have things that I really want to savor. I love seeing my almost 90 year old mother who is so much fun to be around. I challenge anyone to not come away with a smile after an encounter with her. You just have to appreciate life after a few minutes with her. I love getting smiles from my grandchildren, or a talk on the telephone with them. So what do I cut out to give myself the time to do these new activities? Do I stop working in the garden, even though I know it is good for my blood pressure? Do I give up my hour or two of T.V.? Reading? When I stop to think about it, I am not surprised so many people have stress related illnesses; our worlds are going so fast now and exponentially there is so much to learn. So for now I will be satisfied that I was introduced to these concepts and hope that I can apply some of them to my on-line life eventually.

Sucking You In

When my grandson was two, he could play Jimmy Neutron faster than I would have thought imaginable. He could barely use the mouse, but he could use keystrokes to do anything he wanted. He would get up in the morning and after cuddling with his mama, he would jump down and start his game. Then about half an hour later, he was ready to visit and get on with his day. He seemed to have an automatic shut off, where he just stopped. I know games and gaming will be a big part of his life, so I am glad that he still wants to go outside and watch the blueberries get ripe in the afternoon sun.

For myself, gaming is something I avoid (usually); I just don't feel the need (most of the time)and certainly don't have the time. My new goal is to get my house cleaned up before Thanksgiving, so spending an hour playing some game on the Internet is counter productive to that. I guess it goes back to the 'getting a life' aspect of this process. I think games can allow a depressed person to ignore the things in their life that are troublesome and contribute to their depression. I'm sure it is a good way to fill the void for some people.

Sometimes it seems like a value thing; cleaning up the house has become less important for most people, just like cleaning up their desk at work. Why take thirty minutes to clean up when you could use that same thirty minutes to play a killer game of something? I am sure it has an impact on the workforce; in any situation you will have a range of abilities. If it takes one person two hours to do their job when it takes everyone else five hours to do the same work at the same level of accuracy, what do they do with that other three hours? They can play on the computer! They say some of the games are really good for your brain, so I'll use that as the explanation for why one might want to. But for me, I'll just keep on trying to manage what little free time I have without Spider Solitaire calling to me every time I turn the computer on.

I still have trees!

I knew I was on the right street when I saw the clear cut of 40 acres across the street from me and the clearing to the west; what an impact from space. I could find the neighbors big buildings, but mine looked different. In the end, I realized I still have trees, so there isn't nearly as much of my junk to see. In fact, at first I thought it wasn't right because I couldn't see the shop. Turns out it was in the trees, you just had to look harder. I must admit, I could play with this one all day. It is not totally accurate, but it sure gets close. You just have to pay attention to the details, like did it put you on the wrong side of the road as it pinpointed where you were supposed to be.

It's me 45 years ago!

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Except for the hair...but I always wanted purple hair. It took a long time to do this; seems my imagination taste runs close to my real taste and it's just like shopping. I was never very much into the "In" thing and I still am not. Fun but I was surprised how conservative I was, even when I could be anything I wanted. Nice to know how to do it though.

Using free stuff just got better

Free always comes with some sort of "price". (I guess that's the little cynical part of me popping up.) In this case, I guess the "price" for me would be deciding which of these Online Applications to use. Wow, what a "price". Trying them out was a bit of a challenge for me, though. Like trying to surf the Internet, I never can come up with somewhere to start, something I'd like to know about when I'm starting out. Once I go on to something else, all sorts of things come to mind. I expect that if you know what you are looking for, what you need, you could go out there and find it.

This will be a good tool to share. There are people out there who don't have access to all the bells and whistles some computers provide. It would be a challenge to set yourself up with some of these various accounts; Flickr, blogs, online applications etc. and then try to manage everything on a public computer. You could do a documentary on how to take advantage of all the services offered for free over the Internet. It would be perfect for someone who wants to try and have less of an impact on the earth by sharing the resources of others.

The sharing part would be the trick. You wouldn't want to be like the resident hippie we once gave a ride to. He was part of the Love family that lived on the top of Queen Anne hill. He hitched a ride with us one fall evening when it was pouring down rain. Once in the shelter that our old VW bus afforded, he promptly started lecturing my Ronnie on the sins of driving cars. You'd want to avoid this attitude if you were going to try and manage your online life with all these free opportunities, but it would make a good tale if you could do this successfully. And you might get the benefits of the computers, without the pitfalls (like getting sucked into some game) that can arise when you use your own computer.

So far we have had exposure to some very neat things in this odyssey, some that I enthusiastically embrace. I tell myself I'm going to apply this one, then I go home and it is so much easier to just keep using the same old tried and true stuff. I sometimes wonder how people make the time to use all these different programs. I've finally decided that they just live lives that are different from mine, and they make different choices than I do. Sometimes, the more you do, the more time you seem to have. Perhaps that's how they do it. If you need to manage that time, there are lots of Online Applications that can help you do it.

To Google or Not to Google, that is the question

I thought this might be more of an adventure than it ended up being. I couldn't remember the results of the first search after I started the second, so comparing them was difficult. This forced a more scientific approach to the whole process; write down my exact search terms, then try it, then print out the first page of results and compare the hard copies. What I found was that the same three sites came up in each search engine within the top five results, usually within two or three spaces of each other. Not much difference there. Do I need to do more trial to see if I think one is better than the other? I'm not sure but it doesn't fit within my time limit for the assignment.

I hoped for more exciting results, an outcome that said WOW! look at this search engine, but it didn't happen. So which one should I use? I think it's nice to have options and feel like Google doesn't control my internet life. The reality is that I am comfortable using Google and the refinements I can make on it. It's good to know about the others and the differences they might provide, but for me they don't offer much that I can't get from Google. So I will probably stick with that one for now.

Podcasting not peas in the pod

Being summer, when I hear the word pod I go first to peas and then to Orcas. But that's not what they mean is it? Each podcast I listened to seemed different, so there is lots of variety out there. It would be fun to try out more of these, but I have put myself on an extreme time constraint with the rest of these assignments. I am trying to limit myself to the hour we were told it would take. So far, I'm not doing very well. It is so much easier to do this when I can be uninterrupted, which isn't very often. And having your own machine so you didn't have to log on and off would be a great benefit too. But in the meantime, instead of exploring to my hearts content, I am trying to do the minimum to get the assignment finished. It's like being in school all over again, and it's the end of the semester.

I listened to several but for now settled on NPR and oops a library site focused on marketing whose name I have already forgotten. There is lots to be learned, I just have to pay attention. It is good to see and hear different perspectives. Once people learn how to use pod casts, I think there might be a wide variety of interests for library users. Yes, I have both listened to and created pod casts; it's lots of fun. The creating can be a real challenge since we have very few sound proof or even sound resistant rooms at our disposal. But it's still very hands on.

Generators (but not power generators)

This is the perfect activity to pursue when the power has gone out and you just don't know what to do with yourself. In my experience, as soon as the power goes out you want to do all manner of things, dishes (no water, wells need power for the pumps) laundry, vacuuming, catching up on your email. So I can add to the list sit and play with "Online Image Generators". Now I will have one more thing to obsess about on those windy days.

It looks like this can be lots of fun. All it takes is a little bit, or a lot, of time. Maybe I'll pursue them further in the dead of winter when the sun isn't shining. At least I know about them now.

this may be a reason for dsl

Well, I finally got around to this one and now I have a real reason for dsl. OverDrive looks like it could have lots of uses, but in order to use it at home, we would definitely require dsl or some other high speed access. Since we are on the outskirts of a service area, we still don't have this advantage.

This is definitely a tool that is available to the haves and is one more way to differentiate between those who do and those don't have. The have nots can't take advantage of this service from their local library since we don't yet provide the ability to download on public computers. So once again, the question of social equity pops up to the surface. So as to the things I don't like, well I don't like the fact that the library system offers this to some of its users but it is not available to those whose only computer it the one at their local library. I understand that this may be changing but for now it comes up on the negative balance sheet.

So...I don't have a strong opinion one way or the other; the selection was okay, I was surprised by the selection of authors.

Still, would I really use it if I spent the money for dsl and could? Probably not. I still like to hold a book in my hands and look at the pictures. I don't have my own computer at work so I couldn't be listening to a book while I slaved away on an excel spread sheet, and it isn't really useful for my home application. It is nice to know about it though. However, I learned more from a coworker while I was trying to figure things out than I got from the FAQs or any of the instructions. Guess I'm just a little dense.

As to the adventure of this segment, after looking at the first 100 or so titles, then switching to the music then the video, I would need several hours to plow through all that is available. I found the search option less than effective or helpful, so for me it meant looking at each entry and that was an adventure, but I finally had to quit before I found anything that really interested me.

new tools

del.icio.us is certainly a tool for those who use more than one computer and want to be able to find that special site again. Trying these things out can be a challenge because I can never think of something I want to search until the middle of the night. So it takes a little practice and some patience. I can see the advantage intellectually but today had more problems with the application than the first time I wandered around on it. Of course I got completely different results than I did the first time. Since I didn't have an account and didn't have the time to set it up the first time I tried it, I couldn't tag the things that really interested me. It will be a treasure hunt to find some of them again, but it won't happen today. Still, I look forward to the adventure some day in the future. And at the end of the assignment, I understand the concept of the tag so now I will have to go back and try it again. However, right now I am intent on just finishing this part of things; I'll leave the exploring for later.

This is certainly a way to create a favorites list of your own instead of cluttering up the favorites on say a reference site. You get the added input of others who researched something as well. If you had sifted through twenty entries looking for just the right information, you could save yourself that trouble the next time if you tagged it. And I think if you were doing serious research, this would be a good way to compile the things that you had found most helpful. I think it will be a useful tool and I can't wait to get more time with it.

Widgets, Wiki's and All Manner of Words

One of my favorite old movies is a piece of fluff from 1963 with James Garner called the "Wheeler Dealers". In this movie Garner, who plays a irresistible conman, is involved in buying a factory that sells "widgets" but no one seems to know what they are. Who could have imagined in 1963 that a "widget" would have particular significance to a Wiki in 2008? Of course the "widget" of 1963 is not the "widget" of 2008, but still, it is one of those coincidences that tends to make my brain go in a different direction. You can't help but look at all the weaving the universe does as it moves us along helter-skelter.

But back to Wiki's. I found it interesting that the introductory video didn't address many concerns but instead was just this "It's great!" presentation. As I looked at the examples offered and more links, people started identifying possible short comings and how to address them; things like spam and security. For instance the ability for people to edit is a big selling point in the video, but what if you don't want them to edit what is there? I never really got a good answer to that but can extrapolate that in the details you address this factor when you set the Wiki up. I am assuming that if a teacher wants to use it as a means of communication and sharing, there are places on the Wiki where people can communicate, but you could also have your syllabus on the Wiki that only you, the teacher could edit. I may be wrong about all this though, because I never found a site where they answered these questions.

I could see where a Wiki might serve as a tool for pre-meeting brainstorming within an organization like ours. Instead of people traveling 50 or 60 miles, a lot of the groundwork could be done via the Wiki. For instance if you wanted to determine 10 positive steps to get teens to turn out for a program you could generate a list and people could add to the list and prioritize it. So this could be a helpful tool. You could enlist ideas from a larger sampling than just the group involved in the meeting by opening up the Wiki to all staff. But, someone has to take the time to maintain it, people have to have the time to use it and so you have to evaluate how useful it would really be. Like the My Space accounts, the blogs, and all the other tools we've been learning about, someone has to pay attention to these accounts and maintain them if you create them. How much time do we want to give to this and what are the trade offs?

Not For Shy People

Is the Internet a good tool for shy people? Looking at YouTube I wonder. There certainly are the folks out there who aren't shy; watching some of them I wonder if some day they will regret their willingness to do dumb things in front of a camera, when they want to run for president or something. That old view from my "wisdom" that comes with age. But then I think, times a changing. Pretty soon so many of them will have stuff out in cyberspace, that those of my generation might view as ill advised or compromising, that it just won't carry that impact that it does right now. So even shy people can be bold, brave, stupid, because the Internet is so impersonal that they feel safe in expressing themselves.

Libraries are no exception. A site like YouTube will change the way people perceive libraries. I'm pretty sure those perceptions will not always be positive, because you can find lots out there that may be in questionable taste, even though it is really funny. (I'm being purposely vague here.) But I do see the potential for a good PR opportunity too. Then I get mired in the proprietary questions. If a library wanted to post an event, would they need to get permission from all the people attending the event before they could post it? The would be screen writer in me can come up with all sorts of modern day scenarios that could play out. You could have a mom whose kids were snatched 5 years before, who goes to YouTube to check out other sites for her job. She comes across a library program posted on the Internet and sees her children attending a program. Drama and pursuit follows. They were just visiting. Hope dashed. The ideas are limitless.

Hulu and Fancast both offer the potential to help customers find things they want but that the library doesn't have. It is like a supplemental collection. They seem to carry a lot of less popular, some almost cultish selections. I could see suggesting to a patron that they might be a good place to look for something if it wasn't a part of the collection. If I didn't have dial up I could see suing either of these sites. I found Hulu much easier to use initially but I could see going to both if I didn't find what I was looking for on one. they certainly warrant more playing with if I have the time.

These three sites certainly highlight the advantages available to those people in our population who can afford high speed computers and high speed access. For the rest, the sites might not be so useful. They are "FREE" but only f you can afford the extraneous stuff, like a computer and high speed access to begin with. Yes, you can access them from your library but that access is limited. If you only have a limited amount of time, are you going to use that time to watch an old movie? Choices, choices, choices.

Old friends and new

I have finally started with my of social networking. It really isn't something I ever had time for; I have trouble with real networking. I like the real contact. I'm getting to be a touchy feely kind of person. And the older I get, the more like my mother I become. She is like a tiny whirl wind. She loves everyone when she first meets them; you have to do something seriously bad for her not to like you. And she hugs complete strangers with such enthusiasm some times that they just can't help but smile. So computer networking just wouldn't work for her. The nurse in her demands the human touch, literally. And I'm not sure it will work for me.

But this requirement linked me up with a couple of old friends that I had lost contact with. They are the kind where you pick up the conversation you were having the last time you talked, even if that was five years ago. You just don't miss a beat. How much I'll keep up with it is a different question. If I didn't have to work and could instead spend lots of time browsing and checking things out, I might do it more.

I am not sure there are specific things I like or dislike. I try to be neutral about these things and give new experiences time before I pass judgement, so being asked this question repeatedly is a bit irritating. I did not find them as user friendly as I thought they would be. I quickly found things I thought were at least in bad taste. Sometimes, I wonder how so many young people ended up with such bad manners. If this is how they express their personalities, I fear for the future. But this is a snap judgement; as I said I try to avoid those.

I imagine they are popular, because they give the sense that you can have your say the way you want. They let you reach out to a larger audience and provide the opportunity to perhaps get discovered. Stories about someone "making it" like in the movies, because of their MySpace account are starting to sound a lot like the winning the lottery stories. It opens up the world and expands the possibilities. Use it right and it definitely can be your friend; get too sucked in and it can lead to tragedy. One person committing suicide because of something a stranger they never met said to them on the Internet is definitely one person too many. But enough for this posting.

Flickr is cool man

The faster I go the behinder I get. Or, "I'm late, I'm late for a very important date. No time to lose, hello goodbye I'm late, I'm late, I'm late." But I shall press on, over the river and through the woods to the computer once again.

Flickr is cool, man. I have been familiar with it for a long time, thanks Anne, but just never got around to using it. Should have taken advantage when it first came up, then I wouldn't be so far behind. Now I have a Flickr account that I can try to learn to use, at some other time.

So, let's see if I can figure this out on my own, because the instructions are a little muddy to me. But Help is there to guide me through. When I preview this, I don't see an image but I am out of time so I will publish and if it isn't there, I guess I'll just have to come back to it.

Exciting!

This part of the adventure definitely gets a big YES! I love the music stuff. I still can't use it at work (in reality) but I can use it at home. And this one I will teach to my honey. He will really love it; he can leave the computer playing in the background all day as he goes about his routine of creating. One day he can listen to streaming Sno-Isle music, another his own personal play list. How is it possible that the three categories we have for our streaming music are his top three categories? This will go a long way in getting him to forgive us for getting rid of all those Folkway Records we had (oh so long ago when we had a real 33 1/3 circulating record collection). Now if we could just do something about the art prints.

This is so exciting; I have logged in successfully three time in a row and I am caught up; it is still week six for two more hours!

The adventure of RSS; is it something I would honestly use? How many hours are there in a day? How much time do I want to spend on the computer beyond what I already spend at work? Would the rest of the day be better spent with the flowers and the sky? Would I rather be mowing the grass that grows as we sit and watch it through the window? I feel like I am part of a secret reality show and each week I slip a little further behind the pack.

So, to post an answer: I'm not sure there is anything special I like about RSS and feed readers and I'm not sure I will really use it. I don't dislike it; I just haven't used it enough to know if I really LIKE it or not so I can form an honest opinion. But I know I can't do it while I wash the dishes, fold the laundry to say nothing of mowing the grass. As for most of what I do at work, keeping up on the latest news of the library world isn't really going to benefit the speed in which I process delivery. I'm sure that there are ways that RSS can benefit the libraries; instead of waiting for the newest journal to come out with something on the edge that someone else is doing you can get that information much quicker this way and without bothering to search for it yourself.

I'm not sure just who thought this would take an hour a week, but I think you were wrong. Next time, perhaps you should have some less advanced guinea pigs so you get a more accurate assessment of how long this really takes. I suppose we could put us all on a bell curve and maybe I'm just way out on one end, but listening to other people I don't think so. There is way more information here than I can absorb and act on in an hour; just looking at other blogs easily takes up the hour. This week the adventure has moved to a challenge with different time constraints in play. And for this adventure, I found that when things didn't click, I forgot some basics, like hit enter (which is not part of the directions) so of course I wasn't successful, which lead to frustration.

IM was fun, when I found someone to talk with and got myself up and running and remembered to hit enter. That took probably three or four hours. I still prefer talking on the telephone to IM programs, although I could see the advantage if all my kids were on-line at the same time. But they are much faster typers that I am and probably would much rather talk to each other without me adding my two cents worth. And I'm usually trying to be asleep in the middle of the night though so no advantage there. I really prefer face to face; I like to get the feel for what someone is saying with the body language as an added bonus. I think it interesting that we (some parts of society)want to "Kill Your TV" but are choosing to spend more and more time on the computers and we are okay with that.

IM is just one more way to communicate. I can see where someone might say something without thinking things through all the way and get themselves in trouble. Sometimes when things are written down, they have a different texture than if you said the same thing to someone face to face. And sometimes we think we are being very clever and we aren't. I think it is an easier process for people who have always had computers around, and allows for quick contact with someone who you might not otherwise call on the phone or chat with at any given time. I see my kids (the 30 to 40 somethings) use it and stay in touch with freinds who they would otherwise probably lose contact with because there just isn't enough time in a day to keep in touch with everyone. And, it's easier if you have a computer that you aren't sharing, you are logged on and you are using the computer all at the same time. I certainly see the advantages for some but I'm not sure it will be me long term.

So, I'm not sure what the problem was today but I had a terrible time getting in to post this new comment. I need to keep better notes, I guess. Perhaps it is fatigue and I just didn't realize what mistake I was making. Enough for now though.

Adventures Abound

These activities can be a real challenge, especially if you forget your password right off the bat or are unsure which log-in/password combination you need for which application. This takes concentration! Pay attention, I tell myself; this isn't rocket science. (I always wondered what I really mean by this phrase, since rocket science is really made up of all these other little bits of science from here and there.)

So, here's to more adventures. Hopefully they won't require resetting my password again; I'm not sure this is a fun adventure. The ferry adventure was fun; coming into the Mukilteo dock only to have the captain swing the boat in a big circle and take us back to Clinton with the announcement that we are going back because the dock is broken. With much scrambling and lobbying by the passengers on board, it was decided they would take us to Edmonds after unloading everyone so those who didn't want to go to Edmonds could get off the boat. There was the little girl about eight years old, headed for the airport with her family and a 12 o'clock flight to somewhere who was very concerned about the state of affairs. We taught her all about adventures. There was the wonderful ride to Edmonds, the scenic route is what we always call it. It gives one the opportunity to check things out from the comfort of a BIG boat. There was the challenge of the Saint Patty's Day race and all the traffic congestion that caused. And the rain in the evening.

None of these adventures caused the stress that forgetting the password did. So, taking a deep breath, talking it through with a couple of people and jumping back in, I solved that problem for myself. Now I feel almost competent. I think I always try to make things harder than they really are. This time I will remember, no more log-in adventures for me.

Musings

It's a new adventure and I love adventures! This adventure is not going up the mountain to the top of the claim in the back of the truck, with the dynamite in the front, hanging on for dear life. This one doesn't involve gray roads that go to hashed roads, to no roads on road maps, but I'm sure there will some dirt involved, somewhere down the line. It doesn't involve taking the short cut that turns into a cow path then a gully wash and back to a cow path. But it is an adventure. And it probably requires taking the braces off my brain.

So, with one foot firmly in last century's technology I try to look toward the future and the technology coming for all of the most loved rug rats nipping at my heals. My grandmother didn't have running water in her farm house until the 1950's. Cousin Annie had a dirt floor in her kitchen in her house on Lake Quinult. But she had technology; an Underwood typewritter that was far beyond a pen and pencil. I grew up with a four party line (we were BIG stuff in our neighborhood, lots of people had 8 party lines for their telephones). I'm betting that there are a number of you who have no idea what I am talking about. Now my 89 year old mother only answers her landline phone about half the time , but she never misses hearing a call on my sister's cell phone, which she dearly loves.

Contrary to what you might think if you listened to the news about the state of our children, watching the little ones at the puppet show earlier this week still brought with it a roomful of laughs and giggles. No computer animation, just plain old hand puppets. They weren't bored, they loved every minute of it. Then they came into the library and someone immediatley sat down at the pre-school computer with their tiny little hands manipulating the mouse. By the time this group of kids are tweens (maybe even before) I bet many of them will have whatever comes after a blog of their own. For them it will be a piece of cake. And I will be trying to keep up with that change in technology. Still as we forge toward the new, we continue to embrace the old. So even though my daughter can get any recipe she needs off the Internet, the one she wants is the one out of my old cookbook, it is tried and true.

I will try to fold the new technology into the old somehow and keep learning for the sake of the children (oh and my brain too, they say it really does help keep us young). While I teach them how to do things the old ways, I suspect that they will teach me how to do some things the new way. The changes will engulf all of us, but a flower will still be a gift and each day will bring delight just there for the taking.