Celebration Dinner

Last night, those of us based at the Lynnwood Library who have completed the Web 2.0 course met at the Maddox Grill to celebrate our new Badge of Honor. I think we would all agree that the most satisfying result of our joint effort has been the camaraderie. In addition, perhaps we all feel a little braver and a little less hesitant to step out of our comfort zones.

Final Day of Web 2.0

Chatting today with 2.0 pals - Linda L, Erin and I while at LYN; Suzanne and Linda HG from their homes. We attempted to do it on Meebo, which is great for one-on-one online instant messaging, but kind of difficult to do the group chat. At least, our Gang of 5 couldn't seem to do it. So HG lined us up through our gmail accts and, just at the end of our allotted hour, we were able to communicate a little. However, I had really wanted to stay on Meebo, because I'm nuts about their cute little emoticons, especially the ones that move. Also, I was hoping to start chatting with Erin sooner, so that we could all hear about her recent trip to New Orleans. Hopefully, we'll hear more at our scheduled 2.0 dinner! Thanks again to Rozella and Judy Sasges for giving us this great training opportunity. It's been a barrel of fun!!

Here is my beautiful son, Peter, in the Chuckanuts near Bellingham.

Yesterday, I played with Google Earth and, thanks to Joanne, Google Maps, which has the "street view" feature that I had been looking for. Still haven't figured out "geotagging". Apparently, one needs to create a Flickr acct to use this feature, something I haven't yet done.
I realize now that both the Google Earth and Google Maps sites are not in real time, which is a good thing unless one values "Big Brother". I tried to follow, in Google Earth, my daily walking path, but the current terrain is a little different than the one photographed. When I visited my house in Google Maps, my lawn looked very dead - must have been photographed in August! Then, I tried to visit my parents' last home in Napa on Google Earth, but because it was in a gated community, the photographer could only drive by the entrance. Wouldn't Thomas Edison be amazed at photography today, though?

In Our Mind's Eye?

I am trying to "collect" all these wonderful avatars in one place! Can't seem to get them labeled. So far, I have Linda L, Maria W, myself, Suzanne, Erin, and Linda HG.

Lesson 20 - Relax and Reflect

My favorite discovery through the Web 2.0 process has been all the entries and photos of friends and family on the Facebook site. I've also enjoyed accessing music on my computer through Pandora. The social book marking tool, Delicious, has been invaluable for accessing my most oft-used sites from other locations. It's been fun creating and adding to my very own blog, after many years of following that of my son's; also been fun commenting on co-workers' blogs and reading their comments in turn. I probably will not continue "blogging" after completing the Web 2.0 course, but who knows? The Online Applications and Tools lesson really opened my eyes to the whole "cloud" idea. I didn't realize it was possible to not have to rely on Microsoft office or other purchased software.



I have spent several hours at home on the Web 2.0 program, being fortunate to have my own up-to-date computer available. It has definitely been worthwhile; however, I do appreciate Sno-Isle offering us part-timers sub hours for the time we spend on the lessons on site after our regular shifts.



Participating in this course has definitely improved my confidence level in use of computers and given me some understanding of this new technological world, and a much greater appreciation for its advantages. A whole new vocabulary has been created by many of these "20 things" and if the program were revised today, I'm sure "tweeting and twittering" would be included!



If another discovery program is offered in the future, I would definitely consider participating.

Lesson 17 - Second Life

I gave Second Life a quick look, not wishing to create an account. It could be interesting for people who wish to try creating their own displays, whether it involve fashion, architecture, landscaping, gaming, etc. There have been instances in the news where adults got a little too absorbed in their "Second Life" and abandoned their homes for the virtual partner. That might be a danger for people who are easily influenced by external factors.

Linda and I were looking for golf course pictures, so I could show her how to click and drag a photo onto her blogpost. This is a picture of Silverado Golf Course in Napa CA, where my parents lived for many years. We celebrated many events here. My father was one of the very first Club Presidents and worked many PGA tournaments here, usually on the reader board. I worked at one of them myself and took lessons here when I was quite young, but unfortunately, never did pick up the game. Isn't it beautiful?

Lesson 17 - Avatars & Second Life

This is my cutsie little avatar. No, I do not already live in Second Life and I haven't tried that part of this lesson yet. I'm pretty proud of myself for having posted my avatar by clicking and dragging, which is my new way of getting pictures on my blog, all else having failed - such as using URL's, etc. I am more interested in being real rather than virtual, as I intend to live a quality "real" life for a lot longer and want to take care of this "real" body and mind. All this other stuff is too distracting and time-consuming for me. Give me my yoga!

Lesson 18 - Maps and Geotagging

I downloaded Google Earth today and flew into my hometown of Napa CA. I oriented myself so that I could view my sister's home, my sister-in-law's home and my high school alma mater; also the beautiful food and wine museum - Copia - which has recently gone defunct. I also looked at Mukilteo and flew around town a little, from my house to the Lighthouse and back up the Spdwy towards the library. It was a dizzying experience, unlike holding a map in your hands, which I think I may prefer. I'm a little worried about overwhelming my old computer with downloads, so I think I will "de-install" this program now!

Lesson 16 - Online Applications & Tools

Today I spent approximately 3 hrs perusing Google Docs and Zoho Writer. I played with recipe formats and a membership certificate template and sent a couple items out to co-workers that I created thru both application providers. It was time-consuming, but fun. Google Docs seems a little more user-friendly and I liked all the template options it offers. I understand now that there's a lot more out there in cyberspace than Microsoft Office. I think I could go a little crazy using this, if I wanted to sit down long enough.

I will try to come back to this lesson and spend more time on it at a later date.

Lesson 19 - Gaming

This lesson is a real eye-opener to the temptations out there confronting young children. Parents beware! These "free" gaming sites are loaded with ads and pop-ups with click to purchase buttons. It is easy to click on something by mistake when trying to play a game. It makes me grateful for our Sno-Isle website to which I often refer parents of small children.

I did play a couple of games - Word Roundup and Sudoku. Even at the lowest level of difficulty, I was unable to successfully complete them, but it was kind of fun trying. I am not competitive by nature....

I hope families will continue to gather around the table and play boardgames with their young children, but I do realize that online gaming is particularly popular with the tweens and teens of both genders, more so with boys. Sometimes adult patrons complain about the young people using library computers for gaming purposes, but I think they should be encouraged to do so - perhaps during certain hours or in certain areas of the library. For many boys today, it is their primary means of socializing. Anytime that a group of young people are gathered in the library, I do think that a librarian should be nearby and focused on their behavior and language. The roving librarian is a concept that should be used much more often and staffing levels increased accordingly, if we want to accomplish our mission of being a community center.

Lesson 14 - Podcasting

I listened to a library podcast from Cornell University about their chimes, hoping to hear them play; however, the podcast was rather long, so I never did hear them. There seem to be several steps towards getting to an interesting podcast thru this lesson. I did listen to a teenager talk about wishing there were more days in the month of February, on a Boulder Colorado high school library website. That was kind of fun, but not very informative... Finally, through the Learn Out Loud link, I found the American Experience podcast and subscribed to that feed on my Google Reader website, as that is one of my favorite tv shows. I don't know that I will ever listen to it on the computer, but I may refer to it to find a show to order from the library on DVD.
I have no experience with creating podcasts; I have periodically listened to them on my computer at home thru the NPR website. I really do not like using earbuds, so if speakers are not available to me or appropriate for the site I am at, I will probably not pursue podcasts. Many of our patrons are now users of earbuds, so I can imagine that podcasts might have heavy usage at our libraries. Of course, the issue is always being able to provide them enough time on the computers.

I Left My Heart in San Francisco

Great Flood of Dec. 2007

Now that Teresa has corrected the error of my ways in trying to post a picture on my blog, I wanted to see if I could do it at home without her! This is a photo of my downstairs hallway after we had the flooring and molding pulled up. These little fans were all over the house in addition to two monsters. It was so noisy, that I would come to the Lynnwood Library for some peace and quiet!

Lesson 13 - Online Image Generators

Okay - Now I understand that the reason I have been unable to post pictures from my desktop onto my blog is because I have been using the HTML feature rather than the COMPOSE feature. Online Image Generatoring is probably something that I will not take the time to use, but can see the value to it, especially for marketing - such as flyers for library programs.

Lesson 15 - Search Engines

I performed a search on various sites, including Dogpile, Rollyo and Mama. Kind of fun, as I had never tried anything before other than Google. However, when I returned to Google, the answer I was looking for ended up at the top of the page and was a lot further down on the other sites. I entered "sewing AND guinea pigs", just looking for a project to make a little gift for my daughter's newest foster child, Millie. All the search engines did come up with the same site, Guineapigcages.com, though. I liked that MAMA numbered the results - just seemed easier to track. Hopefully, I will make a cute little Cuddle Cup for cute little Millie soon! As far as surprises, I was pleasantly surprised to see that Google will remain at the top of my list for search engines. On to the next lesson!

Lesson 12 - OverDrive Downloads

I checked out 1 book and 1 music CD. I would really much rather read than listen to books, so will probably not use this Overdrive feature, but found it a useful lesson, as many of our patrons do use Overdrive and I now know a little more about accessing it. I didn't realize that there was a limit of 10 checkouts and that it is not possible to return one's items, but that one must wait for them to expire. I do intend to explore the collection a little further when I have more time, but probably won't actually check anything out as long as I still have my vision!

Lesson 8 - Facebook

Just had to make another comment about Facebook. I have been having so much fun viewing the photos that family members (who condescended to accept my invites) have posted. They are all so far away - Calif, New York and DC - it brings me closer to them. I even figured out how to transfer some of their photos to my site. This lesson alone has made the WEB 2.0 course very worthwhile for me. Thank you, Judy Sasges, for offering it to PSA I's! Of course, beyond the personal rewards, the whole process has increased my comfort level with the various internet tools available today. I can't say I fully understand what I'm doing half the time; however, I'm becoming more courageous about just diving in.

(Still worried about compromising my privacy though.)

Lesson 11 - Tag, You're It - Social Bookmarking in Delicious

Whew - That was a lot of work, but I think I have completed the lesson. I created a Delicious acct to manage my bookmarks, having imported (exported?) all my Firefox bookmarks to my new Delicious acct, so that I will be able to access them from any computer. This will come in handy, I foresee. I think that I added some tags; will check back on that when a little fresher. I searched for 2 things on the Delicious site and compared my findings to a similar search on Google. It did seem a little easier on Delicious - at least it instantly directed me to what I was actually looking for, without having to look at a myriad of shopping sites, etc. I found a simple breadbaking recipe and a simple pattern to sew a stuffed pig, exactly what I was looking for. I bookmarked both sites, using the new Delicious tool tag which I had added to my Firefox toolbar, as per the instructions on the Delicious website. That reconfigured not only my toolbar, but the look of my whole frontpage. Don't know what my husband will say about that, when he sees it. Again, I will revisit that when my brain is a little fresher. The other thing that I am a little unsure about is sharing all of my bookmarks; for now, am keeping them private.