wow, it has been a while...

I figured I would try to blog a little now. It has been "many moons" since my last musing and I feel the need to write. Life is a little crazy now and I am stressed. It is interesting to me to see how, when Spring arrives, everyone comes out of hibernation to busy themselves with the outside world. Everything is louder, faster and crazier. The drivers , the teenagers and people in general have got "spring fever". It appears that the schools are experiencing many "incidents" at this time and the streets are usually filled with people hanging out. I see tempers flaring in the stores--everyone is in a big hurry to get where they are going to. Of course, gas prices are now causing a drastic rise in tempers!

I, myself, always get a little energetic to get things done around the house and yard and usually get a little depressed at the enormity of it all! I have sooo much to do and little time to do it all. Summer is fast approaching and I am still not even half finished in my organization of my home!
I always look forward to summer for the "laziness" of it, but unfortunately, I cannot afford any time to be lazy yet. Hopefully by August I will enjoy a few moments to actually just sit in my swing or in the yard and just LISTEN. I love just sitting a listening outdoors when I can hear the birds and watch the little bits of nature that appear in my yard--bugs, birds, etc. I feel, sometimes, that God wants to grab our attention in these times of quiet. I definitely need more of these times in my day to day life. So on to Summer...

"...it seems we just get started and before you know it, comes the time we have to say, so long..."

#22 I cannot believe that this is truly the end of our lessons! What a journey! This was truly a learning experience for me. Having no other "library experience" other than my job and using the library for taking out books, etc. , I never would have thought that there was so much out there in cyberland! It has actually been a fun experience for me--learning how to create a blog in the first place was in itself a learning exp. Adding new and different ways to get information was certainly fun, but very time consuming. I honestly could spend so much more time, than I actually ever have, on doing this type of exploration. I realize what I have missed in the past 18 yrs. of having not been in school and keeping up with the technology out there. I have to say that it was intimidating in many ways to see what is out there and then try, for myself, to learn about these things--technorati, for example. I still cannot say I am "educated" in many of the things we tapped into, but it is a start.
What a thrill to finally be able to actually be able to add my booklist, videos and thoughts as well as share websites, etc. with people right from my own blog. When I actually was able to create things like the chocolate or add a simple picture--it gave me a good feeling. My colleagues were VERY supportive and helpful. We were all able to speak about how far we were in our lessons and help each other out --getting to know our likes/dislikes along the way. I think in many ways, it has brought us closer as a staff to be able to share in this project. It was so much fun to see and experience all of the blog postings that we created!
If we were ever able to embark on such a learning project again, I think it would be a positive experience. Yes, it was difficult, time-wise. I had to do much of this at home, but was able to use the e-learning center many times with my "partner-in-crime" msdee. We even were able to laugh at ourselves in this project. Learning about tagging, rss feeds, wiki, online generator, and librarything as well as just learning all about blogging were so helpful in my experience with web2.0. Thank you to Jeannie for all of your hard work in helping us at NFL learn 2.0!

faces, spaces and bebo eons...

#21 I have looked at myspace and facebook for a couple of yrs. now with kids that are at that stage in life. One thing that I really did not know about was how very many groups you can join . There are just sooo many groups that one can be part of. I signed up for an account with myspace but never use it for myself. I actually got an account to see what my son was liking about it. I guess it is slightly like having im in the way you can carry on conversations with people. I did take a look at the 3additional sites: bebo, eon, and bookspoke. I really loved
eon! The layout of the site was so easily navigated and "user friendly". I guess that due to the fact that the site is for ages 50 and over, I found it to be terrific- many useful areas on that site to explore. I may have to wait a bit due to the age requirement... I looked into bookspoke and thought that as far as the library goes it would be a useful tool for us to look at--I see that at least one of our staff already utilizes the site! I think that myspace and facebook are so popular due to the ease of use (saves time on the phone) as well as the fact that kids, especially, are attracted to the profile emphasis where you get to talk about yourselves and your likes/dislikes, your favorite things, etc. etc. It builds common ground with people you may not know, etc. Of course, for the young user and the inexperienced, it can also lead to problems that are serious or not, like bullying and even more serious threats.
As far as ease in using these sites with patrons, I think that the library could create its own group which could serve patrons who want to ask questions --general or book/tech related-- add suggestions for buying/purchasing new materials for library, etc. It would have to monitored, but this could benefit the library and our patrons.

technorati continues...

#12 continued... I finally got back to this site. I went into the popular blog searches and looked up "boing boing" blog (which was the number 1 blog) and others. I then went onto the video section which led me to the latest jib jab video--the looking back on 2007 one. Interesting to learn that you can add yous and your families head pics to one of their videos for fun--following their directions. Interesting thing to do in your "spare time"! Anyway, it was interesting for me to navigate technorati at this late date and find it much easier NOW to do so. I guess it is due to the fact that I have been working on this nfllearns2 for a while now. It was also interesting to note what was considered "popular" sites. I guess everyone has their own interests. The tags were easier than I remember to navigate, also.

flickr, mashups, etc. etc.

#6 I know that I had looked at this before exercise 7, but at that time, the links were not connecting! After that, I forgot to go back and do these things, so now... Anyway, I went onto Bighuge labs and downloaded a picture from my computer of my daughter and a good friend. I had it worked as a disc picture which looked cool. I did not get it onto my blog as I could not figure out how (it seemed that I would have to get it into flickr first, but didn't want to do that. I also did the colr pickr and chose a color field for a particular picture which was neat--liked playing around with that.

Breath Of Heaven; The Nativity Story

I love this Amy Grant rendition of this song and the movie! Love sharing this at Christmas time.

HEY EVERYONE!

Hi, I just discovered this website and think that it is sooo worth a quick look! My cousin in California sent it to me and he just discovered it himself. It is a neat way to say "thanks" to our service men and women who are away serving overseas. It may take a minute of your time, but it is worth it. Thanks for taking note of it! Here is the website in case you do not click on it under my link: www.letsaythanks.com/Home.html. I have sent quite a few cards now and it is a good way to send greetings and encouragement.