What's this about Library 2.0?

Gentle readers,
I was checking my feeds on Bloglines this morning when I saw that there was a post on LibraryThing (oh what a tangled web we weave ...) about someone nominating the article on "Library 2.0" to be deleted from Wikipedia. That's the crazy thing about Wikipedia, you can write a whole article on something and someone will turn around and think it's not worth the space. It was being discussed on the Librarians Who LibraryThing discussion board, although not terribly much. I was interested because 1. This is what this whole staff development project is about and b. I'd never seen a deletion in action.
You can see it for yourself. (Click on the post title.) It was an overwhelming vote to keep the article, even backed by people who hate the "YaddaYaddah 2.o" terms.
While I was about it, I looked up Library 2.0 on Wikipedia (actually, I did that first in case they were planning on deleting it) and read the article, which helped solidify what the buzz is about in my mind. (You know, you can go to these conference things and get all excited about something and then later when Real Life kicks in and then you start wondering what all the fuss was about.) I also tried reading some of the links in the article, but my eyes glazed over and I started thinking, "Oh, reading the shelves sounds like fun!"

XML

Everyone probably already knows about my obsession with LibraryThing. I just love LibraryThing. Anyway, it's such a pain to keep checking those pesky postings on the groups and then it's so disappointing when no one writes anything. Soooo, I tried doing the RSS, which I have managed elsewhere. Unfortunately, I seem to be RRS*. Anyway, I then tried the XML button. Ooooo! Up came a prompt asking me which aggravator (or whatever it is) I wanted to use and I picked Bloglines from the list and hit subscribe. I think I had to do it on another page (which gave me too many options on how it should look in Bloglines, such as, do I want it to pop up on my mobile? Feh!), but then Presto! I now have a whole list of things to look at in one glance on Bloglines instead of a lot of little things to check. Which is just as well because no one yet has posted anything. (B******s!!!! Who do they think they are?! I need entertainment! New book recommendations! Where's my fix!?!?!)
And this just goes to show ... ? Well, it shows that the more you get involved on the internet (horrors!), the more you need to aggregate your ... poo.


*Really, really stupid

Whee! Marf Learns Something New!

Susan rose to my level this afternoon to show me how to update the calendar etc. on our website! OOooooOOoooo! How very exciting! I had, in fact, learned enough from the sort of stuff I've been doing so that it wasn't very scary. In fact, I barely took a page of notes. I was updating our schedule for the winter/spring and was able to use that info on the calendar and on our events page. I just added the new stuff, not taking away the old. I can do that in January! She showed me how to add little clip-arts and everything! Whee! I finally feel as if I have accomplished something on the computer! Something actually and directly useful to my job.
Ohhh, I know, this will all be useful eventually when our community gets into the swing of 2.0, but in the meantime I feel like a fossil floating around all these young people who seem to be out for only one thing! I don't think there's anyone close to my age on Facebook other than Robin.
And Bob now has more "friends" than I do on MySpace. Grr! (Shakes clenched fist in a threatening manner.) sigh.
I finally got a stream from "GWBH Morning Stories." Oh, I had a connection, but I've been waiting so long for a new story to come along. Luckily I now have these fabulous headphones back here! Stay tuned about "Morning Stories."

Something people seem to be missing is that we should be commenting on each other's blogs. They need to get good and messy with comments and replies, etc. I know you all (well, not all - you know who you are) are reading these because you tell me when you see me. Well, send a note! I've tried to drop some comments on some posts. We gotta getta dialog, goin' here, people!

I take it all back

Okay, some of it. I have said in a previous post that I wasn't able to put pictures into myMySpacespace blog. I can. I did it today. But it wasn't easy. I needed a url, so I had to upload a photo somewhere (MySpace, as it turns out), find the url, and then copy and paste it into the box. Blogger is soooo much easier. You click on the little landscape icon above the text box (Add image), and chose either url or browse. Phew! On MySpace you have to upload, it has to be the right (small) size or you have to save it in another format, then get the url ... it's madness.

This is so much easier. The photo, by the way, is a comparison to show what happens when you leave a container of gummi bears in a hot car for 11 hours. It's a Science Project!

Mein Dolmakampf

Just to let you know how selfish I am, here I am trying to steal the last stuffed grape leaf from the bride, Despina.

You Know What's Nice ...

about MySpace blogging compared to Blogger? I know if someone has looked at my blog, my profile, my anything. If I post a blog and look ten minutes later on MySpace, it shows me that 13 people have viewed it. And I have no idea who they are!

The nice thing about Blogger, though, is that I can add a picture, any picture, to the blog, right in the blog. This is roomy and comfortable. Of course, I'm in Blogger Beta, by the way, so I have to log-in Google-wise. I'm not sure what the difference is other than posting is a one-step process, not a two. Okay, you have a Blogger blog and you're writing some drivel to prove that you know how to do this. You press the "post" button. Then there is a separate "publish" button to push as well. In Blogger Beta I have a "save as draft" and a "publish" button and that's it. No, "You will have to publish your blog, yaddah-yaddah," messages. I will press this little orange button down here and all will be done. MySpace, by the way, does not have a "draft" save function, which is annoying. I have material posted on here as a draft that you-all can't see. Nyah, nyah, nyah. Maybe I'll publish it, maybe I won't. It's just a rant anyway.

Firefox Is

... spellchecking my work in these text-boxes! I tried it in LibraryThing and got the same dotted red lines under questionable words, such as spellchecking and LibraryThing here. Nice built-in. Also, there are two tabs above so that I can toggle from one window to another (keeping the search screen for GCL available at all times), a feature that is more confusing on these new computers. You can have seven internet sites open at once and it's all the same button below with a number (7) next to it. Sorry, Mr. Gates, but that idea blows.
By the way, I discovered a couple of nights ago that Dan Savage has a podcast of his sex advice column ("Savage Love") available now. Of course, I don't listen to it here, but I just love his work. I recommend his book, The Commitment, to anyone who has questions about same-sex marriage. Even Savage resisted the idea. Watch Dan react when his adopted son tells him he wants to be gay when he grows up. Hoo hoo!
Oh, if you're interested in his podcast, find it yourself. But be prepared to hear the f-word a lot.

Firefox

I thought I'd lost my cursor, but it was there after all. Okay, I'm in Firefox now, but of course it isn't make any difference here in Blogger. At least, so long as I can find the cursor it isn't doing anything. Hmm, did Blogger have spellcheck before? I seem to have a spellcheck now. I haven't thingied ... um, posted in a while (over 5 minutes, which seems to be my memory limit now) so I'm not sure. Anyway, Firefox/Mozilla offers open source code. That means you can tinker with the code to make the internet perform or look the way you like. That's way too scary for me, but someone who knows what they're doing would probably have a ball, at least, judging by the "skins" and add-ons that were offered. I tried to change to a cat-themed skin, but it said it wasn't compatible with the F 2.0 version. I'm also a bit interested in a skin called "Pimpzilla." Heh, heh.
Bob writes code, and there is always someone (say, the US Air Force) who wants open source code and claims to be willing to pay for it. Aside from the fact that if you are selling programming, OSC would enable someone to figure out your proprietary info, it also allows someone to tinker and destroy your work ... and then complain about it. Or else they call and say they can't make it do such-and-such and Bob has to stop what he's doing and troubleshoot. Bob is a detail person and he can deal with that. I'm not.
I'll explore this a bit more, though.

Appalling Holds Procedure

I just read the most appalling postings on LibraryThing. Apparently, there are libraries that put their hold books on a self-serve shelf so that the patrons can pick them up themselves. Not surprisingly, this has led to people being informed the book they requested was on hold for them to check out, only to discover that upon arrival at their library, that it has been checked out to someone else. Then they are told that the library has no way of knowing who checked it out, even after it comes back. How could the circulation system check this book out? The circulation staff claims to have begged upper management to keep these books behind the circ desk, but they were overruled. What the aitch-ee-double-hockeysticks is this??!! Some sort of Alternative Universe where Mr. Opposite lives??!!

Wiki-wacki-woo!

I just added a teensy sentence and a link to Wiki on the GCL. Hee hee! Better look quickly before someone deletes it! Ummm, that was No. 16 or something.

Really Simple Somethingorother

Ha! I did it! I found something I was actually interested in somewhere on the internet and put the RSS feed onto the hated Bloglines. I just don't really see the point of Bloglines, but there you are. I met Tony Kahn in Charleston and he told me about the podcasts of his Morning Stories program from WGBH. I had been listening to the streaming of some back casts and decided to try to put it on there. The rest of the stuff was just from within Bloglines, so maybe it didn't count. Now, of course, I want to stick a hundred things on there!

Says You! trip

We visited Charleston this weekend to attend at taping of "Says You!" and go to the reception and meet the celebrities! Ooooo, how exciting for us! Here is the panel of the usual suspects including Nancy Bloodgood, attorney in Charleston, whom I swear I know from somewhere.
From left to right, Carolyn Faye Fox,
Arnie Reisman, Paula Lyons, scorekeepers from the College of Charleston, Tony Kahn (mayn ayn boychickl), Nancy, and Barry Nolan during the taping of show #2. The shows will not air until January.
I usually consider taking photos during a performance rude, but I've decided it's not if you turn off the flash! We had a nice chat with Nancy who shared insider knowledge with us before the show. She'd forgotten Carolyn's name and Bob and I couldn't come up with it. We could only remember Francine Akbar, whose place Nancy was taking. So I leaped in and intro'd myself to Carolyn, who returned the favor and I repeated her name rawther loudly to make sure Nancy got it. Bob and I had a great time although we didn't get dinner until almost 11 pm!

Just one thing after another

You have to sign up for YouTube to comment, sorry. Instead, you might want to email Bob at weaseltraprecords@yahoo.com. I know what a pain it is to have all these log-ins and passwords.
Today I've been working with the new computer at the Children's Room desk. I'm putting on all the favorites that were lost: school district sites, state library, bootycall-ooops! Oh, whattagiveaway.
I'll have to see how to do photos. I may have to put a photo managing program on. I used to have my Kodak one on this desk, and it handled the Fuji camera stuff just as well (if not better than the Fuji program). Something has to suck the photos up off the camera and do things with them. I'll test first. Take some pictures, try to get them sucked up.

At long last!

Bob has put some of his videos on Youtube. Check it out.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-kwhkoziV4Q
Leave him a note and let him know what you think.
Sorry about yellin' at y'all earlier. Now I have to run to MySpace and report on my blood pressure.

Something weird

... Is going on here. My link in the staffblog template went awry. If you copy a link from the template to paste and make your own, make sure you haven't done anything to the link you copied. Mine was redundant, like a stutter, and one little bitty thing wrong and it won't work. Okay, I'm not accusing anyone, but it seems unlikely that it would do that by itself. We're all here to learn, but be warned: I'm off my medication!

Flickr!

Hey! Pretty cool! I've just added a link to my flickr photos! Check'em out!

Library Thing

Begone you fiend of Santa! Ummm, Satan! Whatever.
I got rid of that pointless Google (Santa/Satan) News button and replaced it with a link to my LibraryThing profile. I'm spreadin' the word on LibraryThing. Got my friend in Hong Kong hooked up to it.
Just finished My Little Blue Dress by Bruno Whatsis. Ah, so there's a reason that story is so lame! The book is rather like The Story of Pi by Martel. I spent much of the time reading MLBD wondering Why is the accent so lame? He's British; he should be able to get it right. And other such marvelings. Now I understand. It doesn't make it much better. This was a difficult concept to pull off.
I've got two books recommended by people on LibraryThing to read as well. I don't even remember why I picked up MLBD. TSOP I read after reading about it in Horn Book. Then I made my book group read it. Now, there was a lively discussion! Marlene is trying to start a book group in HK, but it's slow going, apparently. She recently told someone who borrowed one of her books that he had to sign up for LibraryThing. He had no choice. I'm not sure how she was going to make him. She didn't go into details. She can get pretty scary.
Explorer's Day was very slow. Hardly anyone came to the CR in the morning at all, much less participated. But I did have a few families in the afternoon. Some of them shyly tasted the food. One little girl bit into a date, grimaced and put the bit in her hand back in the bowl. Her mother rescued it and gave it to the littler brother who chowed down happily while his sister spit out the chewed portion in her hand and dropped it as well back in the bowl. Her mom cleaned it out, along with any dates it had touched and gave the little girl a lecture on following instructions and threatened to take her home immediately if she didn't.
Another family ate as if it were going out of style. I had cautioned the little boys that the bread might be drying out and they'd need some water, but their mom said they'd been eating it fine. They tasted about everything. Parents were happy about the olives, but not the kids. The pomegranate was a big hit. There were even some adults who'd never tasted one. I had to give instructions on eating the seeds. An older girl bit tentatively into a single seed, still holding it with her fingers, which is a neat trick with something as small as a pomegranate seed. Later, though, she was eating them merrily.
We had some attempts at the mosaic, and a couple of kids colored and cut-out Flavius, but the food seems to be the most popular.
Oh, and one kid ate a radish.

Tadaaaa!

Double ha! When I went back, it was showing!

HA!

Okay, that didn't work

Hmmmm. I have a link, but not an image. Shite. Now I have to find a book on HTML. I was in a hurry yesterday because I wasn't really working. I'd left work early (doctor's appt. and just p o'd in general) and came back to give Nicole a break because she was the only one left in the dept. and we get forgotten at breaktime if we don't do the "squeaky wheel" thing: "Hey! Could someone please give me a break in here? My whole dept. has abandoned me!" I had a 25 minute wait for my medication. Great, I go off one medication and I have to go back on three! I'm blogging my medical conditions elsewhere, though, so just accept that I came back for 15 minutes to give Nicole a break.
So, while I was sitting out here at the desk, I thought I'd noodle a bit. I'd seen Shannon's great map on her blog and I was jealous. So I went to World66 (No. 14) and tried to make a map. That wasn't working. I should at least have seen some touches of red in Europe. And all of NA. So I tried just the US and had to do that twice before it showed me where I'd been. Nicole was coming back and I hurriedly cut and pasted the URL, but it didn't turn out as I expected. Hmmmmmm.

us map

img src="http://www.world66.com/myworld66/visitedStates/statemap?visited=ALAZARCACTDCDEFLGAILINKYLAMDMAMNMSNVNHNJNYNCOHPARISCTNTXUTVTVAWV">

Got it, finally!

Self-Correction

Well, the problem I was having yesterday with not being linked to the staff-blog thingie righted itself overnight. I noticed immediately that the button label had changed. I clicked on it and it went where it was supposed to go. Phew!
The photo is of Bob's invention, the Harmonic Bridge. It enables him to make more sounds with his guitar. Visit his website at:
http://www.joelkilgore.com/Bob4.html.
He says his audio files are corrupted, but if you are interested in the music, just contact me and I can get you his cds.

B-word and a half

Okay, this has been a real bitch. I have a picture on this (I've been taking digital pix and uploading, downloading, and cheezing off for ages now - No. 2) that I got from my LibraryThing profile for the following reason: in preparation for all new computers in this dept., we've had to suck all our personal work off so we won't lose it. Getting it back requires finding it on the flash drive which meant standing up and with my blood pressure now in Mr. DangerZone (147/96 yesterday), standing up and walking around has lost all its appeal. So, I just got the URL from my LT profile photo and pasted that in: No. 3.
I am running out of passwords, by the way.
So, yesterday I was watching Pam helping Missy link up to the StafferDevelopment blog to her blog and was unable to resist putting in my oar. It looked simple enough.
I worked on it here for a while but couldn't find the link place in the template. I looked and looked and looked. I had to finish it last night at home. I pored over the instructions and finally saw the bit that some of the pre-fab templates don't have links in them and I'd have to put them in myself.
So I did. I even got them in the right place. But I didn't have the URL for the staffer-thingthingie so I had to wait until today and Pam helped me get things connected.
Okay, you can get to my blog from stafferland, but not to stafferland from my blog's link. Will have to tinker with that.
Last night I also signed up for flickr and wasted even more time uploading some pix. (No. 8) By the time I was done, Bob was asleep on the couch.
Dana took the photo of me and the puppets to send to the Index to adv. the upcoming puppet show next week.

Retardo

No. 1: Here I go. Bloggin' again. How many freakin' blogs do I need? I'm already on No. 11:MySpace, No. 7: facebook, No. 10: LibraryThing. Oooooo, I looooove LibraryThing. Visit me there under marfita. I can't believe there are already marfitas here on Blogger. That's why my blog name is so retarded. Flickr (No. 8) seems to be another Yahoo product. I already have tons of photos on Yahoo photo. Hmmmmm. How many places on the web do I need to have photos? But they aren't accessible on Yahoo unless I specifically send out invitations to view. Does the whole world really need to see my photos? I'm surprised by the amount of people, strangers, who have visited myMySpacespace.
I looked at libraryelf and thought it was exciting but now I've forgotten why. All I can remember is that our TLC isn't compatible.
I have to admit that I was getting bored with the internet. Now ... well, it isn't any more interesting but it is more involving.
I'm not looking forward to downloading onto an mp3. Excuse me, I'm not looking forward to downloading music. The idea of downloading audio books fairly has me in a dither. I'm picky about music and I don't see the need to download any. Especially if it involves downloading more software to accomplish same. Robiiiiiiiin! Help meeee! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGHHH!