Thing #13: Image Generators--Good Clean Fun (if you try!)

And remember to be tasteful too! say the instructions for this week! No kidding--I had a lot of laughs along the way doing the exercises with the image generators, that's for sure.

I found The Generator Blog to be fun and yet a bit frustrating, since either the library internet connection was having a bad day or a multitude of generators were not functioning any longer. From personal experience, I've found that the generators that, *cough* generate *cough* the most fun are the ones you can't post in a work-related blog, haha! So here's my nice, work-friendly image, from ChineseTools.eu. I'm so digging on the PinYin!


Laura 劳拉 - prononciation (PinYin) : láo lā

And I swear, I didn't go looking for this, but there's an R2D2 Translator! It takes words and translates them into the beeps and blurps of everyone's favorite astromech with attitude, and then you can save the .mp3 file and use it on your mobile phone or wherever, I suppose. Sadly, my pay-as-you-go phone does not support custom ring tones. :-(

Moving on, Letter James was an exercise in patience--again, there seemed to be connectivity problems, as well as, ok, I wasn't really sure what to do with what they had to offer, but I'm sure I could now make some killer e-cards! Thus, I bring you "Romance in the Library":


And finally, I returned to my old friend, FD Toys (where I made my namebadge for the earlier Flickr *growls* Thing), and used the used the Warholizer to immortalize Mr. Lucas--and I'm mightily amused by the lower right image. Sith!George! (Please note: for all my fangirling of his 'verse, I do not especially fangirl George. But his hair cracks me up to no end.)


Let me add here that I felt 10 kinds of guilty while playing with these generators today--it really was playtime and felt like I was completely dorking around on the Internet, lol. But I did learn a lot AND had a lot of fun, so it's all good.

RSS Feeds: from 0 to 16 in, um...well, a short amount of time.

Let me start by saying I'm SO FAR BEHIND!!

*breathes*

Ok, so I'm very amused that what was touted as the longest/most challenging of the 23 Things was really one of the very easiest for me--I had waaaay more issues with Flickr, as I've already whined about many posts above.

So I set up my Bloglines account, and easily found myself with something like 16 feeds! I didn't really need to go looking for any because I seem to have a plethora of websites and blogs that I regulary visit, so choosing what to include was easy. I also REALLY like that I can have some public and some private--whoo! I think the appeal of Bloglines/aggregators is obvious--it prevents a whole lot of timewasting/running around on the internet, or if you have manic-obsessive tendencies (who, me?), you don't have to check 50 billion times a day to see if there's an update you've been waiting for.

I used Bloglines' search tool by accident, actually. I think while setting up my account it kicked me into some kind of default "add feeds" screen, so between that and the tutorial that was suggested we use, I had a whole lot of fun not only adding obvious rss feeds, but doing the whole cut/paste thing with the url's right into Bloglines, letting it figure out for me if a site had an rss feed. FANTASTIC. I'm all for increasing my lazy when it comes to technology! I also love that Bloglines will track when my new addiction, The Force-Cast (a SW podcast), has an update. Yeah, my iTunes at home does the same thing, but hey, sometimes I forget to look at one or the other and this way I'm double covered, right?

Topix was interesting to use, but almost too much information! I did a search and added it as an rss feed, but I'm not sure how long I'll keep it. There comes a time when enough information is enough. Technorati drove me nuts, though! I found it irritating that I couldn't just link to the article/post from Technorati for older posts (older being, oh, 5 or so hours). This perhaps is a good thing all around--it keeps the information you gather very current, no matter what the topic. I think I'd have to spend more time with Technorati to find more merit with it. To be honest, I already spend far too much time online with blogs as it is! If I keep adding them I'll never leave my computer at home, I swear.

And I'll say it again, sometimes, you CAN have too much information! I think rss feeds and blogs and podcasts are GREAT, and can reach so many people where traditional news sources have left them cold, but wow, you totally can have information overload. Do I need newsfeeds to BBC and NYT and CNN, in addition to listening to MPR/NPR like the newsjunkie I am? At least I've given up on the local tv news and the newspaper. Although I've more than made up for that with the addition of podcasts, but we won't even go there.

I'd like to add here that I would never have looked for or tried podcasts, much less rss feeds (even though I've seen them, um, everywhere), without this project, so thank you very much, 23 Things people! It's cool, it's fun, and it saves me a whole lotta time!

Thing #10: eAudioBooks

I'm tickled that the netlibrary eAudioBooks is one of the 23 Things if only because I just had the eAudioBooks training here a couple of weeks ago. So this gave me the chance to practice those skills again, while the training was still fresh in my mind.

Admittedly, I've had a hard time with netlibrary in the past--simply logging in, or showing patrons how to log in, has been frustrating. Of course, it might have helped if I'd practiced that a bit, but rare is the time I've been asked how to access an eBook. I'm thinking, though, that the eAudioBooks are going to become very popular as mp3 technology spreads and becomes even more pervasive. With that being said, it is extremely unfortunate that netlibrary cannot support iPods because of the DRM protection needed for the eAudioBooks. I sincerely hope they can find a solution around this--iPods and now iPhones are everywhere, and I will hate having to explain to an enthusiastic patron that yes, we have eAudioBooks to download, but no, they can't play them on the most popular mp3 player in the world.

I was surprised by the available titles list--I'm not sure what exactly I was expecting, but I found it interesting that the majority were mystery/suspense and popular reading, whereas there was a mere 1 title listed as nonfiction. However, I'm sure the collection will continue to grow as the technology blooms and becomes more integrated into LibraryLand--like video, dvd, cd's, and databases all once had to do.

If I had a regular player, this is something I'd probably give a go at somepoint, particularly for nonfiction titles. Alas, I have an iPod Shuffle, so I lose out two ways there, lol. Like I said, I'm sure the companies will eventually catch up with the culture and technology.

Thing #9: Podcasts; or, How to indulge my not-so-inner fangirling tendencies

Ok, so podcasts--I have to admit that while I kind of understood what they are, I didn't really understand their full capabilities. I've downloaded missed MPR programs, but I didn't think of them as "podcasts" I guess--maybe bc they were on a regular radio station that I can get in my kitchen or car, you know?

But haha, I am now much better informed! I trolled around podcast.net first, but I found the layout difficult to follow, and every podcast I looked at seemed to have not been updated since December, 2006, which I found to be very strange. I switched over to podcastalley and voila! *cue angelic music* Nirvana. (and no, not the group, thank you.)

And don't look at me like that--I did find a non-fandom podcast: Hardcore History. I'm a big fan/student of history, and I'm sure I could become a wee bit obsessive about this podcast and never leave my computer if given the chance. People, this is watercooler history--I love it!! *is geek*

But ok, yes...I did find a fandom blog...or 4. For SciFi in general, there's SCIFI SEEN, for Battlestar Galactica there's Galactica Quorum and Galactica Watercooler, and for Star Wars there's TheForce.net's The Force-Cast.

Ok, and I found lots of gems on the NPR podcast directory, but I'll only highlight Nancy Pearl's Book Reviews, bc she's been recommended to me at least 3 times in the last month, so she must be someone worth listening to. (Plus she has those groovy little Reference Librarian Action Figure sets!)

Now, if only I had the time to listen to all of these! Maybe when I get to the rss feeds I can circumvent some of this. But first up...audiobooks.

Webcomic--"Excessive Quotation"

From xkdc, A Webcomic of Romance, Sarcasm, Math, and Language, which comes with the following, uh, disclaimer, lol:

Warning: this comic occasionally contains strong language (which may be unsuitable for children), unusual humor (which may be unsuitable for adults), and advanced mathematics (which may be unsuitable for liberal-arts majors).




BTW, the xkdc comic is also available as an rss feed through livejournal. I have yet to understand quite what this means, as I've not done Thing #11. All in good time, peeps. (Although since I have an lj account, I do actually know how to subscribe to it through lj, so that's kind of a cheat, I know.)

Thing #8: YouTube!

This week we got to play with YouTube. I've been a huge fan of the site for well over a year now, mostly bc it only encourages my very serious StarWars fandom habit. Ironically, I don't spend a lot of time surfing through the site bc both my connection at home and my connection here at the library is sooooooooo slow that it takes a lot of time and patience to watch a video. I either need to watch it in starts and stops, or load the whole thing first and then watch. Truthfully, most of the vids I've watched on YouTube have been sent to me by friends, and I've enjoyed them immensely.

I love how YouTube plays to not only my fandom habits, but also to my giant nostalgia gene. I can watch old videos from 80's pop groups, vids fans have put together to music of their favorite clips of their favorite soap opera supercouple, or some of the best spoofs and parodies out there. For a library's use purposes, I can see programming being recorded and embedded into the library's website (like giving patrons a choice between a vid or a podcast), or any kind of tutorial, meeting, or training. It could really be used to bring the library "out" of the building, beyond what just the Web has done.

Ok, below you'll find one of the best vids I've ever found on YouTube (the all-time funniest I can't link to here, bc, well, it's not entirely clean), Star Wars Shortened. Three guys act out all 6 movies from the Saga. They're obviously total fanboys (George Lucas Appreciation Society??), but they're so funny and accurate and they know their stuff. Enjoy! (In two parts bc YouTube vids can only be 10 min or less.)

Part 1:


Part 2:


PS. I'd like to toot my own horn here for figuring out how to embed #1 since YouTube had disabled the embedding code for that vid. Go me!!

Take a little vacation, fall a lotta behind

Ok, so I'm completely behind in this project! Let's see, where was I?

Ok...flickr. Flickr and I don't get along so well, and in the throes of trying to use flickr for some personal use, I became utterly frustrated and opened a photobucket account, which I much prefer. For my personal stuff, for my blogs and whatever, I just need a place to basically host pics that I post, and of that it's precious few. I don't have a camera phone or any great need to publish my mug for all of the internets to see, haha.

However, with flickr, I did open an account and played around a bit. One of my favorites was krazydad's Flickr Chia Head. Check it out! Pick a pic and select where you want the chia plant to grow, and then watch as it fills it out. It made me laugh. Unfortunately I've not found a way to save a pic, so that's kind of a bummer.

I also made a trading card/name badge thingy, courtesy of fd's Flickr Toys, and I see the potential uses in such things, especially for any kind of recognition program, like for kids/schools, or to make some nice and fairly inexpensive gifts for family or whatever. It was fun to make:


As for technology itself...I enjoy technology when it is easy, fun, intuitive, and when I can see a use for it myself. That being said, I reluctantly admit to being wholy unimpressed with email, the web, digital cameras, and blogs with my first few exposures. Likely someday flickr will just knock my socks off and be my new best friend...or maybe not, lol.