Blogging for A Cause

On October 15th, 2007, I plan to blog about the environment as part of Blog Action Day. Feel free to click the link above for more info and join me if you like!

Make Friends With Your Library!

We have a MySpace for STA! Woohoo!

I used a couple of sites to make the layout. I used Whatever Life 's layout generator, with a picture I uploaded from my computer to my Photobucket image hosting account. I used a UK site, My Gen to generate the contact table, which is malfunctioning and not showing the text. (I see that alot on MySpace; wordless contact tables, which are the boxes that say "Add Me", etc). I also used an image of a CCPL library card that I uploaded onto photobucket. So if you are in the "neighborhood" , add us, if you can figure out where the button is! (Upper middle left side of the library card). Just click around, you'll find it!

A Tisket, A Tasket

I accidently deleted my blog. Ah the 7 Habits come into play. After much muttering and G Rated cursing, I got back on the horse and rebuilt it. I like my metaphors shaken and stirred!

Aychteehemmell

No it's not Elvish or Klingon. It's the dreaded code! I am trying to work on my professional Myspace page, which has long lain dormant, in preparation for setting up one for the branch where I work.


I wanted to add some pictures with links so I set up a free Photobucket account. I loaded some pictures. So far so good. Then I copied the html link from picture in my Photobucket album that I wanted to use on my Myspace page and here is the glitch. Because I used a "free" Photobucket account. They put their own html into the code so that clicking on the picture would take the viewer to the Photobucket site. Well I wanted the viewer to click on the picture and go to Jon Scieszka's Guysread site sooooo I had to fix the picture link. Much trial and error and mental cussin' was involved. The upshot is that I had to remove the "href" Photobucket code and add my own.

Great Blogs O' Fire: Know the Code

I have completed Mission Four (Set up RSS Feeds) (I think!) Gotta to reread the instructions to be certain! Click here to entangle yourself in my Bloglines.

I thought I would have to use some html code or something. I am trying to overcome my fear of code and increase my fluency. I want to make jokes in html. My current favorite phrase is "href". I think it means "let's go"; the html equivalent of vamos or allez. Well, das ist alles so I am going to make like a banana and href on out of here.

My big tip: Bloglines has a public blog address and a public blogroll address. Apparently they are separate entities and you must post both links if you want them to be seen. The address that will show your blog or blogroll has "public" in the url.

http://www.bloglines.com/public/mybookhouse - the blogroll section

http://www.bloglines.com/blog/mybookhouse - the blog section

Honey, IM Home

Well I am IMing again! I haven't done it for several years and two computers ago (one crashed and one fried by lightening).

I think IM is the granddaddy of texting. My daughter was really into it a few years ago and we listened to the nightly sounds of constantly chiming IM tones as she and her friends chatted endlessly about middle school minutiae. I even went so far as to ban IMing on my computer (I was in school) and got an el cheapo computer for her to use to keep her from burying my harddrive in spyware. When my computer crashed and I got a new one I swore I would NEVER EVER IM again. Somewhere in 9th or 10th grade my daughter discovered MySpace and her IMing days came to an end. I thought I had heard the last of IM and that the world had moved on. Well, you know what they say, "Never say never!"

So I am IMing again! At work and now at home. But hey, it's professional; it's my job!

Seven and a Half Lifelong Learning Habits

None of the 7 1/2 Habits of Lifelong Learners (as defined by PLCMC) are hard for me except sometimes #4 (Have confidence). I like to learn - a lot. I went ahead and made up my own personal 7 1/2 habits some of which are hard for me!

My 7 1/2 Lifelong Learning Habits are:

1) Stay curious.
Our page, who is a special guy, sometimes uses the phrase, "Let's find out!" I have sort of adopted this phrase as my unofficial librarian motto. I even find myself saying it as a response to patron's questions! I hear his voice inside my head every time I say it.

2) Follow all the steps, including reading the directions.
This one is harder for me because I tend to jump ahead. I am not a linear thinker. I learned this one from E.L. Konigsburg's book, The View From Saturday. In this book one of the characters learns the art of calligraphy. The first thing he is taught is how to prepare the pen. The person teaching him tells him to think of preparing the pen as a part of the writing process and not some barrier to it. I try to look at directions and details from this perspective; part of the process and not an ancillary nuisance.

3.) I can learn how.
Another tough one. I have to tell myself that I am not too old, too inexperienced, too whatever, etc, to do whatever it is I don't know how to do.

4.) Don't give up. Hard, but essential.

5.) Everyone is a teacher.
I learn from everyone - all ages, cultures, education levels, etc. This is an easy one because I am a big people watcher and culture vulture!

6.) Mistakes are part of the process.
Another hard one. It is easy to get discouraged when things go awry but often you learn as much from what doesn't work as you do from what does.

7.) Have fun!

7.5) Stop and smell the roses.
There is more to life than just getting stuff, achieving goals, etc, IMHO. Kick back, meditate, and let the stuff you've learned gestate in your mind. This is one of my easiest habits. I am something of a dreamer, but hey, to paraphrase Bobbie B. (Burns not Brown), "A woman's reach should exceed her grasp or what's a heaven for."

Oh Brave New World: Tech Trek Take Off

Ok. It's official. I am joining the Tech Trek -X- odus to boldly go ..... you know the spiel! So this is Mission 2: Blogging.

The view from STA about Tech Trek is really positive. We have a number of people that have made it all the way to Mission 4 and lots of folks who are working that way. I am really excited about the "play" aspect of TT2.0. I think it really captures the spirit of what Michael Stevens talked about at Staff Day!

Jango!

I got a chance to try Jango, a new personalized music/online radio social networking site today. It is really very interesting with a wide variety of music. Jango represents another dimension for social networking. I am not downloading any music so I don't think any copyright laws are being broken that I can tell, but I am enjoying listening to a wide selection of music that I really enjoy including old favorites and new interests.

Check out Jango at http://www.jango.com/?r=59892561.

Thanks to Jango staffer, Stella, for providing this link!

Photo: Jitterbug (1939)

I Got Simpsonized!

I tried the Simpsons movie-related website, Simpsonize Me, which is sponsored by Burger King. Here I am coming out of the Kwik-E Mart.

If you would like to use this site to turn yourself into a Simpson's character, step one is to follow their photo guidelines (a head shot against a white background) that is or has been resized to 640 X 640 pixels. The first pictures I tried were too big and I kept getting a message that the site was busy. Once I resized the pictures, the site worked quickly to "Simpsonize" them.

I saved my created character pictures on my PC but the file format is not a JPG or GIF and I could not view the picture until I uploaded it here on Blogger. I think that it is an image that is only viewable with a flashplayer.

The website has a feature where you can order merchandise with your Simpson character on it. Perhaps not allowing the image to be saved in an easily reproducible format like JPEG is a way of ensuring that site users don't produce their own items with the images on them and are pushed to buy the site's merchandise.

Tech Trek 2.0 at CCPL

Charleston County Public Library is boldly going where it's never been before and taking its staff into the brave new world of online social networking! Staff will have a chance to participate in Tech Trek 2.0 this fall, a special program for learning and playing! See you in cyber-space!

I made this image at http://www.imagechef.com/, an online image generator site, where you can make fun images to jazz up your blog, use as avatars, and enliven your online posts!