constant cockatoo

El Fine

2008-07-18T15:24:00.000-07:00

On this Web 2.0 journey, I learned many new things. I especially liked learning about Flickr and podcasting. Flickr has some really cool pictures, MUCH better than Google images! In fact, I got all of my blog cockatoo photos from Flickr. I also identified some really interesting podcasts, which I will listen to on a regular basis. I now know what an avatar is; I can even create my own. I enjoyed "flying" with Google Earth, and I can now listen to my own mix of music on Pandora.

I enjoyed learning about the 20 things - I'm not sure I will use all of these things, though. In fact, I can say for sure that I will never use many of them.

Nevertheless, I now know more than I did before my Web 2.0 journey. Knowledge is a good thing.

Gaming - Or, Flax and Monster Play Chess

2008-07-09T15:41:00.000-07:00

I tried Wordsense as one of the 5-minute Daily Games, and it was easy and fun. I also played chess, although I had to create a Yahoo account to do it (I didn't like that part - I don't need another online account!).

I'm not a gaming person - I would rather read a good book than to play an online game. So, the probability of my downloading a game to my home computer, or paying for a game to download to my home computer, is pretty much zero.

Implications for our workforce? Provide entertainment during breaks?

Incidentally, the game pictured above is called "budgie chess". The object of the game is to throw as many chess pieces on the floor as you can. The winner? Flax (the yellow bird).

Google Earth and As the Cockatoo Flies

2008-07-02T19:41:00.000-07:00

Wow! This was cool. I located the two houses in which I grew up - 32 Montrose Rd., Scarsdale, NY, and 1328 Greenwood Ave., Wilmette, IL. For the latter I was able to retrace my daily walking route from my house to New Trier High School in Winnetka. Both houses looked pretty much the same as when I lived in them in another life.

What surprised me? The "flying" feature. When they say "fly" they really mean it! I also thought the Flight Simulator was amazing! This week was just plain fun.

Book lover/bird lady avatar!

2008-06-24T15:50:00.000-07:00

It was fun to create my own avatar from Tektek, although it is a little corny (I tried DoppelMe as well, and thought those avatars were cornier).

I am pleased to find out that my alma mater, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, offers a four-week course about Virtual World Librarianship in Second Life. I have always been extremely proud that I obtained my M.S. in Library Science from their Graduate School of Library and Information Science, consistently ranked as #1 in the country throughout the years!

It was fun to watch videos of the Second Life world - some of them were quite good!

What do I think about our virtual selves vs. our “real” selves? I think we need to spend more time with the latter, not the former.

Do I already live in Second Life? No.
Would I like to live in Second Life? No.
Why not? See my answer above concerning our virtual selves vs. our "real" selves.
I'm sorry, but a Second Life world just doesn't interest me - I'd rather live in the real one.

Cockatoos are cool

2008-06-18T16:13:00.001-07:00

Cockatoos are cool - beautiful, smart, playful and affectionate.

I published this to my blog through Zoho Writer and also converted it to a PDF file.

I like the concept of Online Applications & Tools. Your documents, spreadsheets, etc. are not restricted to access at one computer only; you can log in at any computer anywhere and add/edit documents online. Also, the idea of shared collaboration in creation/editing of documents is wonderful - there is one document and one document only to which editors can make changes! How many headaches will that one little feature prevent??

Cockatoos are cool

2008-06-17T17:19:00.000-07:00

Cockatoos are cool - beautiful, smart, playful and affectionate.

I published this to my blog through Google Docs.

Search Engines and Male Moluccan Cockatoos

2008-06-16T12:00:00.001-07:00

I tried Rollyo, Mamma, and Dogpile, searching for articles about Moluccan cockatoos. In Mamma I found a wonderful article about male Moluccan cockatoos titled "Magnificent Male Moluccan". I also like the concept behind Rollyo - creating your own customized search engine, or searchroll, which can eliminate a lot of unwanted information from websites you don't really care about.

Podcasting - Rare books, great books, and Botticelli

2008-06-08T16:04:00.000-07:00

This is my first experience with podcasts. I have had no previous experience listening to, or creating podcasts.

The library podcasts I listened to were Bibliophilia and Great Books - A Free Podcast of Masterpieces from the World of Literature and Poetry. Additionally, I chose Art History Podcast for my own interest (I went to Florence, Italy last year - talk about art!).

Bibliophilia is a podcast about rare, antiquarian, and first edition books. I listened to a description of a 4-volume set of poetry by Robert Burns. For the Great Books podcast I listened to Chapter 1 of Kafka's Metamorphosis. The Art History Podcast provided me with detailed information about Botticelli's Birth of Venus (which I saw in Florence at the Uffizi Gallery!). Listening to all of these podcasts was very enlightening. I know I will return to all of them since they are now added to my Google Reader.

Podcasting can definitely be a useful tool for Sno-Isle Libraries. It can be a means to produce audio content such as recordings of programs or library tours, thus making that content more widely available.

For patrons who can't make it to the library for a particular program, a podcast just might be the answer. They can listen to the program after the fact through the library website, so no need to worry about missing it.

Ideas about which topics our patrons might be interested in hearing: How about a tour of the library? Or book reviews? Or listening to what the Friends of the Library are up to?

Online Image Generators and Flight (again)

2008-05-31T16:53:00.000-07:00

This was fun! I have created online greeting cards in the past so this was not a new concept for me.

OverDrive and Flight (or lack thereof)

2008-05-23T10:56:00.000-07:00

I successfully installed the OverDrive Media Console on my computer, browsed, selected a book, and checked it out to my account. I got as far as getting the book into My Digital Bookshelf. When I tried to download the book, however, I got "Unexpected file format" and then an error message. I tried several times with different titles, which leads me to believe that there is a problem with the OverDrive software itself.

What did I notice that I liked?
What did I notice that I didn't like? It didn't work.

I browsed Audio Books - Classical Literature and was pleased by the selection of titles, and a quick check revealed that yes, some of my favorite authors were available in the collection (D.H. Lawrence, Thomas Hardy, Somerset Maugham, to name a few).

When I am able to download "A Room With a View" (the item I checked out) I will enjoy listening to it, I am sure. For now, I will have to settle for the physical book.

del.icio.us roses

2008-05-15T14:29:00.000-07:00

Here's the link to my del.icio.us account:

http://del.icio.us/mrykjohnson

As you can see, two of my passions are cockatoos and roses! The concept of tagging is new to me, but I can see the usefulness of being able to search your bookmarks using tags (from any computer) rather than searching through an entire list of favorites (tedious!). Other powerful uses of Delicious that I can easily appreciate are its use in shared reading lists and collaborative projects.

I love the word folksonomy!

WIKI WIKI and Major Mitchell, whoever he was

2008-05-08T20:31:00.000-07:00

This cockatoo is called Major Mitchell's cockatoo, which begs the question - who was Major Mitchell??

I loved Stephen Colbert’s Wikiality sketch. I found the PB Wiki Tour to be very informative as far as describing what one needs to do to edit a wiki, including adding widgets.

I can see how this type of application would work well in libraries - for subject guides, community guides, conference planning, knowledge base (library instruction resources), and collaborative editing of documents. In many cases, wikis are much more efficient than e-mail (who would have thought?).

YouTube, Dancing Cockatoos, etc.

2008-05-01T13:50:00.000-07:00

I searched YouTube for videos about my alma mater's library - University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. They have a pretty good one about the UI Undergraduate Library, where I spent many hours in my youth . . . brought back some memories!

Also found some great videos on cockatoos dancing (my favorite is Snowball, a Medium Sulphur-Crested Eleanora Cockatoo, dancing to music by the Beastie Boys). I tried to upload this video without success (kept getting an error message).

I looked for my favorite TV shows on both Hulu and Fancast. However, full episodes of Lost, Desperate Housewives, Men in Trees, and Brothers and Sisters are not available on either of these sites. Since they are all on ABC-TV, I can watch full episodes (and I have) by going to abctv.com's website. I do this whenever I miss an episode because I am working (like Thursday nights for Lost). It's just easier than setting up the VCR to record the show (I don't yet have a DVR, but will acquire one soon).

Since my favorite shows aren't available on either Hulu or Fancast, I would probably not use either of these on a regular basis. I suppose these sites would be useful in libraries for patrons to view TV shows or movies (with headphones, of course), but I am not sure how popular they would be.

Sulfur-crested cockatoo

2008-04-24T18:10:00.000-07:00

Eons, etc.

2008-04-24T16:53:00.000-07:00

I have set up my Eons account and created a profile of myself for all the world to read . . .

Eons has some interesting features, including LifePath. I can see the benefit of social networks, but I doubt that I would use one - e-mail is enough for me. I can see how one could meet similar people (perhaps even your soulmate) through this form of communication, but again - how many people do I really want to be connected with??

Flickr

2008-04-18T15:13:00.000-07:00

I have successfully moved a photo from Flickr to my blog. I have discovered that some photos may not be moveable due to restrictions from the photographer if s/he does not want his/her photos blogged (thanks, Jim).

Moluccan cockatoo

2008-04-18T14:45:00.000-07:00

Moluccan cockatoo

2008-04-17T19:20:00.001-07:00

I have one of these at home. His name is Frodo and I have had him for 24 years. He is my great joy.

Dashboard

2008-04-17T18:00:00.000-07:00

I could not access my dashboard before to post. Now I have figured out how.

Beginnings

2008-03-31T17:50:00.001-07:00

It was easy to create my blog. I look forward to spending more time with it.