Sunday, September 20, 2009

Thing 6

Here's a banner a made with Image Chef.



Here's a photo, made with Image Chef. It's about derby, because that is one of my favorite thingies.
I didn't see any copyrighted material on Image Chef in the templates. I searched for Star Trek but , didn't get any results. I search for Doctor Who, and got an ID card for David Tennant, who played the tenth doctor, authorizing him to be a "sexy man". That's nice.
Just searched "Simpsons", which was mentioned in the 23 Thing's Thing 6, and found 1 icon "remix" created by a user, but nothing provided as a template.Maybe these copyright issues were mostly resolved in the time before 23 Things started and now.
I didn't do anything with ToonDoo, because after browsing the user-made comics, I was not much humored, plus they wanted me to create a user account. I have about enough spam mail as it is, thanks, Toon Doo.
And, I almost forgot, I made a derby trading card at big huge labs, which might not be a bad idea for us to actually do. And I'm first! Sweet! Thanks, 23 things!

Thing 5 - Spell with Flickr

The mashups on thing 5 were interesting. Clockr took a while to load, but there's only so much of a changing time clock that I can enjoy. I can't stand to wear a working watch, unless it is decorative. Watching the time tick drives me crazy. Aside from that, clockr was cool.
Since I don't have a Flickr account, I just admired the Gallery at Big Huge Labs, and got sucked in via this photo collage.
I love the Colr Pickr, it reminds me of the Etsy shop by color feature. I imagine the Colr Pickr inspired the shop by color Etsy feature. I love cruising for purple in either mashup!
It was interesting to learn that using the Splashr mashup was not dependent on my owning a flickr account. I borrowed Simone Sartori's account to use the splashr presentation.
It would be cute to make a photo puzzle for someone as a gift. I made the puzzle photo with a picture of my friend Betty D and I, but didn't save it.
Spell with FLickr was my favorite, and seemed to be the most useful to me personally, maybe for making roller derby flyers and digital mailouts.

Here's my derby name in Spell with Flickr!



letter E V I E Be rusty letter O L blue squared circle A

Thursday, September 10, 2009

Thing 4 - Flickr

Woo! I an enthused with the Library of Congress' 1930's and 1940's color set! There are many interesting comments on that set from all kinds of users. I've used Flickr before to look at pictures from blogs I visit, and from friends, so this wasn't a whole new world for me. I took the tour, and lo and behold, i didn't realize flickr provided photo edting! Maybe that's one reason why everyone's photos look so great. And the social networking, of course, and printing?! Flickr is vertically integrated web 2.0. Very smart, Flickr.
While on Flickr, I checked out the photos from Cook (Almost) Anything at Least Once, a fabulous Australian food blog, with amazing photos (maybe at least part in thanks to Flickr). Then I searched "red dirt rebellion" which is my roller derby league. It seems we have a Flickr account that no one has updated in 18 months. Here's the pic where we're a tiny baby league:

We are not good skaters at this time. Half those girls don't skate with us anymore. It's kind of like looking at a yearbook and seeing the people you liked and the one's you didn't and exactly what nerd YOU were. Ouch. But this is a good ouch.

I don't want to start another account for something I won't use regularly, so I won't open a Flickr account.

Third Thing - RSS Feed.

Like a dummy head, I have avoided RSS feeds for some reason. i thought they would be just one more thing eating up my time, and never bothered to even find out anything else about them. Looks like they are the opposite. So now I am enthused to use Google Reader.
I'm adding my favorite authors' blogs. Through the search feature (searched "Sacred Harp") I found a blog on U.S. religion, which is a subject of interest to me, and added that. I added two of my classmates' blogs. This is defintily a technology I appreciate. Think of all that extra homework could get done with the ease of RSS feeds. I am all over this, about 5 years after the cutting edge. This 23 Things is a good excercise.
As an aside, let me say that Google's info videos are HOTT. They are fast and to the point, and near heroic. My boss always wants to cram every detail possible into instructionals, and then people stop reading them because they are too long. Which is not the desired effect at all. If the product is good and intutive, you don't need to go crazy with the basic user guide. That's what Google and I think, anyway. Never read this, John.

Google will be a benevolent overlord to the 21st century. Remember I said that, Google masters.

Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Thing 2 - Library 2.0 Overview

Stephen Abram's perspective on 2.0 I think the most important thing that he emphasized is that 2.0 users HAVE to take a personal interest for it to click and become useful. You have to do it because you like it and it makes things better, not because your boss told you to. This is a knowledge society era commentary.
John Blyberg's overview says there is certainly an L2, as he calls it, and he cites all the commonly mentioned changes in industrial to knowledge society conversions. The most important bit of reasoning is that Web 2.0 changes the way things are done in the world at large and that affects libraries and the way things are done there. As part of society, libraries have to change socially and technologically, and they are changing.






http://23thingsonastick.blogspot.com/2007/11/thing-2-library-20.html

Let's Do This Thing.

Alright, probably no one but me is reading this, so it's time for some positive self-talk. I think this is going to be an awesome class and an awesome assignment that will give me perspective and bearing on my MLIS career as a whole. I'm going to do at least to Things at a time, and blog about them immediately afterward. Let's get started, precious.

P.S. Self - You look rockin' in that profile pic! I wish I could outrun the AZDD like you can!