King Tut's Unveiling

There is something about the exhibition of Egyptian mummies that has always bothered me. If modern day corpses were put on public display, wouldn't we call it desecration?

I'M DONE! I'M DONE!

23 Things Summary

I must admit that I have become familiar with many new technological advances as a result of the 23 Things program, and I also have become comfortable with them. My favorite discoveries are Del.icio.us and Bloglines, where some of my "finds" are housed. The entire process took me a lot longer than anticipated.

I would like to stay abreast of innovations and would therefore welcome another discovery program.

Audiobooks

No one needs to sell me on audiobooks; I listen to them constantly while driving. I watched the tutorial on Overdrive, and assumed that I would need to download the necessary program on my home PC. I viewed the available titles and concluded that this is something I will probably do. I think that this service would be very valuable to library customers who have difficulty getting to a branch.

Podcasting

I found the Yahoo podcast search site to be the most useful. I added the Lonely Planet Travelcasts to my Bloglines account as I enjoy learning about places to travel. After I finish the 23 Things and receive my MP3 player, I plan to download the travelcasts as well as some racier broadcasts! I am amazed at the wealth of information out there on just about every subject. When did this happen???

YouTube; FunnyorDie

Viewing videos is one of the 23 things that I have been doing for quite some time. There is a site called funnyordie.com that I prefer because I tend to enjoy comedy. Funny or Die came to my attention when I read a newspaper article about a video Will Farrell had made expressly for this website called "The Landlord." There have been other celebrity contributors and additional Will Farrell videos as well as many hilarious ones submitted by the public.

Of course, I personally owe my 15 minutes of fame to the submission of the 2006 HCPL Staff Day Elvis skit.

Upcoming and Farecast - 2.0 tools

From the 2.0 Winners List, I selected two sites. Upcoming by Yahoo lists upcoming events in many areas -- sports, cultural, educational, music, etc. -- plus some pictures from recent events. I particularly liked that I could view everything happening in the Baltimore area in just one place. It could be very useful in a library setting as a reference tool. The second site I visited was Farecast. In addition to searching for airfares, there were graphs that allowed one to view fare trends. The site was very easy to use. I liked both of these sites so much that I tagged them for my del.icio.us page.

Zoho

I was not aware that free word processing software existed, and I was impressed that it was easy to use and just as good as the software you purchase. I think that there could be many instances where it would be helpful.

My Zoho Creation

Young Adults

To those of you who are parenting young adults, I heartily endorse the theories of Never Give Up and Let Them Be Themselves. I was experiencing some frustration with my daughter, age 22. She was not happy at the University of Maryland on multiple levels and not settling into a major. So after 3 years, she called it quits, traveled across the US for a month, and attended a Wilderness EMT program in Yosemite National Park. Since that time she is focused and has transferred to Frostburg State University, where she is happily pursuing an outdoor education major. My husband and I had both been very discouraged by her lack of academic progress, but thankfully we continued to be supportive and everything appears to be going in the right direction.

Sandbox Wiki

Why am I the only person listed under HCPL on the blog list?

I created a new page entitled "I love dogs." I hope that other people will add to the page about their canine experiences.

Wikis

I have been using Wikipedia for several years, so I am comfortable with the concept. Here at Edgewood, we have our own wiki called "Wikedge" developed by Shannon McElroy.

With regard to HCPL, wikis for material reviews by patrons and community events would be useful.

Library 2.0

I originally watched "The Machine is Us/ing Us" a few months ago, and just watched it again. I was surprised at how many things I now recognize because of participation in 23 Things.

After reading several articles about the future of libraries, I wonder if we will stop maintaining reference collections and devote our resources to popular materials. While I was at the MAPLA Conference in 5/07, I attended a session hosted by several librarians who had visited the library systems in Hong Kong and Singapore. One librarian noted that these systems had "surrrendered to the internet." At the time I did not fully appreciate the statement, but now understand how the future of libraries could change dramatically.

Technorati

I could really spend a lot of time here. I created an account and claimed this blog.

Michael Vick - Jury of his Peers

Check out the cartoon I found while browsing Technorati.

del.icio.us is super!

Del.ic.ious is definitely one of the most useful things I have learned. There are often websites I find and want to store somewhere for quick reference, but I don't consider them "favorites." I added a currency converter cheat sheet site that I like for future use.

Wendy Ward Charm School

Are there any other graduates of the Wendy Ward Charm School out there? This service offered by Montgomery Ward existed in the 60's and taught me how to pivot and enunciate properly. I had forgotten about Charm School until one of the radio stations was talking about it on a morning drive show.

Rollyo

I created an account and a search engine for Welsh Terriers in honor of my dog, Rhys!

Library Thing

I think that this site is a very interesting way to keep track of your literary interests. My link is www.librarything.com/catalog/rosemaryarms.

Meez

Check out my new alter-ego -- Compass Rose!

MERLIN

I poked around MERLIN and viewed several discussion forums. I particularly liked one titled "It's All Good." There was an interesting discussion as to whether listening to books is cheating.

Bloglines

After establishing a bloglines account, I selected several feeds, but my very favorite is Joke of the Day.

Sports and Technology

As an avid sports fan and fantasy football in particular, I am constantly amazed at the vast amount of information that is available to me on the internet. Not so long ago, radio and newspaper sports reporters were the major providers of sports news. Now, breaking stories are posted instantly on several major sports sites and countless smaller ones. The blogsites for everything sports are endless. I can receive text messages from my favorite team (Go Ravens!) on my cellphone. Play-by-play information and scores can be sent to cellphones. The statistics available at my fingertips are amazing. An hour viewing sports related information can go by in a flash. And the free fantasy team site that calculates everything for our league, the Library Loonies, makes our fun possible. Wow!

Lifelong Learning

The Lifelong Learning podcast was interesting in that it outlined the steps involved in learning. For me, the easiest habit is play. I am curious about a broad range of topics and an avid daily newspaper reader. I enjoy new experiences, people, and places. The hardest habit for me is viewing problems as challenges, often seeing too many roadblocks in my path.

Geotagging/Flickr

I have acquaintances who are fans of geocaching. For those of you unfamiliar with the term, there are lists of markers placed around the world that people seek to find using GPS coordinates and clues. Sometimes you just locate the marker; sometimes you leave something small inside a capsule. On Flickr, there is a link to geotagged photos, which appear to be another form or enhancement of the game. There is substantial additional information on Wikipedia about geotagging and Flickr's role plus numerous links. I think this could be fun to pursue while traveling.

Flickr

I have just discovered Flickr within the past month, and it is great. My daughter is currently traveling in Central America. We communicate via e-mail. This week she is in Costa Rica, and I type in the names of the places she visiting on flicker to view other traveler's photos. This makes her experiences more alive to me.

dogfighting

I am very disturbed about dogfighting in general and the apparent involvement of a number of NFL players in particular. While the footage shown on ESPN was brutal, it might have been upsetting enough to bring about necessary change. There is no place in American society for dogfighting or the culture that supports it. Roger Godell has been coming down hard on NFL players, and I hope his intolerance extends to this area.

My first blog ever -- a bold step for a gal with a bit of aversion to technology!