Thing 26

I'd joined Ning as one of the first 23 things but didn't stay active. To complete this Thing I posted a picture of my cat to the Ning and tried posting the Ning badge to my blog, but somehow the code was corrupt or unevenly tagged. Since it's a matter of posting code which I've previously done, I won't try to figure out which code is unbalanced. Because it's another quasi-social networking site, if I were looking for someone in the field, I may look there, but I didn't join any groups or even pursue beginning one.



Sometimes sites are laid out compactly and manage to hide features from me. If a website or network's page changes significantly, I don't plan to invest enough time on them to make them readily updatable or find out where "that thing" went in order to update my information. If I focused on one website where activity was more my style, I'd make it more of a priority to find where "that thing" went to in order to keep it up to date.

Thing 25

While I understand the necessity of readability piece in a blog, when something is assignment-based, the practical application piece of 'readability' will be something I set aside until I need to personalize it. I try to know who my audience is and write things that may be of interest to them.

I must say that several of us have taken our Facebook accounts, Twitterized them (used our status like a Tweet), used mashups, photo manipulators, added links, videos, articles, and quizzes, many of which are in this Thing. We all seemed to recognize the "Twitterizing" of our FB status on the same day, and when we discussed it, we all agreed that it's a version of one-stop shopping. Dont'cha just love how we can verb things on the spot? ;-)

Thing 24

Although I haven't blogged a lot since completing the first 23 Things, I had changed my avatar, added a widget (quote of the day), read many other blogs (continued interest), added a few blogs that I do follow, and took a lot of time to digest details from those first 23. In my personal information, I added a picture of our library mascot, Booker instead of a picture of myself -- it was handiest.

What happened to October?

October blew right off the calendar! Now that it's November, we can await the birth of our first grandbaby. Webby's due date is today. We're grateful he or she wasn't born before today because DDIL's maternity leave is significantly better than it would've been yesterday. It's the one-year anniversary at her workplace today, which is the date the benefit gets higher.

DS got a digital movie camera for his birthday. We hope this will provide a few video clips for family who aren't nearby enough to see the baby and family often. Between birthdays, family gatherings, being really busy at work, re-roofing our house, the engagement of DD and her newly affianced, all I can say is "whew". The leaves are waiting today, so I'd better get out there and help. It's a deliciously bright and sunny day, even if it's a titch cold. Raking is not my thing so I hope I'll be able to use the leaf blower. I'm all for automation!

In a week, my library will partake in our annual In-Service day. One of our guest presenters will be the local director of our multi-type library system, Metronet. She will be talking about the successes of the first 23 Things on a Stick (Web 2.0/Library 2.0 technologies) and talk about the next Things we in libraryland will be encouraged to learn. I am thrilled to see how many of my colleagues completed 23 Things on a Stick.

Enough here. I'm stickin' the earphones in my ears and hitting the switch on that leaf blower. DH will think I've procrastinated enough! Remember to turn your clocks back tonight.

How time flies

I can't believe it's the end of September already (Happy Birthday, DA!). I haven't had much to post about lately, and I haven't really listened to the myPod either. Haven't been gardening, haven't had a lot of free time, and a few bouts with nasty cold germs have kept the family sharing them.

It's high editing season for j2 and I'm up to my eyeballs in alligators, as they say, keeping students happy (most of them are psychology students -- haha!). I'd like to get back to figuring out that myPod thingy. We didn't have the Internet at home for 2 weeks of this month either. Now that the Internet came back home (the modem-that-really-isn't-a-modem went walkabout), maybe I'll get to spend time with the machinery. Well, whatev ... what will be, will be.

Audiobook woes again!

This past weekend I had enough time to do some significant weeding in the flower beds. Had irises that needed trimming and culling, as well as getting rid of the weeds that threatened taking over. Even though I enjoy the fruits of nice flowerbeds, I have to work myself into pulling weeds. Did a few gentle stretches, downed a big glass of water and steeled myself into the work. Had myPod inserted in my ears, with the right buttons pressed and got down and dirty. About 45 minutes into the new story, it stopped! What? It's not supposed to stop.

After a brief break to get up, take off garden gloves and finding some shade, I advanced the myPod (by holding down the button -- my fancy vinyl clip was in the house) past the part where it stopped. The story continued and I went back to my weeding. Some 15 minutes later, it stopped again. By now this was wearing thin. I don't want to take the time to stop what I was doing and move the dumb player past its points where it stops (remember this is the player that always goes back to the VERY beginning each and every time). The third time it stopped I just quit on it and turned on music. myPod has an FM tuner too. I might've preferred listening to the Twins game on the radio but there are lots of things I'll listen to on the FM band. Guess I'll have to check into the licensing on the audiobook to see if it expired yet -- it was a compelling story, but with its idiosyncracies and abrupt stops, it's not the download I can count on. I do want to listen to the story (I think I do anyway) so I'll re-check the bits and bytes and hopefully will make it work. Will update on this later ... sigh. In the meantime, I have to heal the blister from cutting back plants with a poor scissor.

Came up with a workaround

I ended up not using the alligator clips because I found a vinyl covered clip sort of like a clothespin. It didn't scratch the player, advanced the time quicker than my sore finger would've, and with my timer set (5 minutes per hour), I advanced it. When the timer went off, I was close to where I remembered stopping. Voila! It worked. And I finished the e-audiobook.

Not sure how it got off myPod, but in my computer's Windows Media software, I removed it from a playlist. Plugging in myPod to recharge the battery and sync it, somehow it happened (can you tell I have little faith in this technology?). Made a new playlist and sent the next title to it. The new title got there so I will have to find time to start listening to it. Next I have to figure out how to renew what I have "checked out." The 3 titles I checked out were optimistically checked out at the same time. I had no idea it would've taken me as long as it did to work out the technical machinations, listen to it, and consider the next title. Baby steps will help me become more confident, that's for sure!