The Things got boggy in the middle, but here I am at the end and I MADE IT! This exercise really opened my eyes as to what the web has to offer. I'm surprised that I like blogging - I didn't think I would. I found a lot of good productivity tools and useful websites, care of Things 18 and 19. I love You Tube, and I'm going to download an audio book once I get my MP3 player. Ta ta for now and it's been fun!

Audio Check

Get a Net Library account. Check. Try some searches. Check. Note to self: Use this like Google Book Search for quotes and samples in books. Look at the audio books available on our website. Check. Anticipate downloading an audio book when I have my MP3 player. Check. Blog about said anticipation. Check. One more thing to go!

Tropicast

I went looking for tropical podcasts to give my island a little ambiance. I had mixed results using the three search sites listed in the instructions, so I also searched for library podcasts. Yahoo Podcasts had the most listings and I thought their site was easy to use. I did the same searches on Podcast Alley and Podcast.net but was underwhelmed by the number returned and the selection. My best find was the TropiCast Radio Network: Offical Soundtrack of Your Tropical Dreams. Cool.

Tanagrian Wildlife

This is a glimpse of the rare dancing elephant native to our island, which was captured by stealthy videographers and posted on You Tube. You Tube is more than the narcissistic clips that I expected. I see the potential that anything ever captured on film or video could one day be online. It's a video library!

A Tree Grows in Tanagra

The Web 2.0 Awards site was great! I found a tree widget at www.springwidgets.com that should change with the seasons. Fall colors in paradise! I looked at Google docs, similar to Zoho Writer, and several of the others. I'll remember this site for patron referrals since I know all of the choices are award winners.

Zoho Cheeseburger

Cheeseburger in Paradise
Heaven on earth with an onion slice
Not too particular, not too precise
I'm just a cheeseburger in paradise...

Thanks to Jimmy Buffett for providing an unofficial theme song for Tanagra and a chance to practice with Zoho Writer. Easy to use and totally Internet based to boot!

The Wonderful World of Wikis

With time off for good behavior and a week of Community Cup banner building, this feels all new again! What was my password?

The PB Wiki looked clunky behind the scenes because I was expecting something like blogger.com. I added my blog to the YPL Favorite Blogs, which kept kicking me out when I tried to preview it. It didn't look right, either, so I copied someone else's html code. I really expected it to be easier! As for a use for wikis at YPL, a wiki might be a way to get rid of our computer tips notebook and make the tips available to everyone in the system. I've heard we are getting a YPL wiki, so I might have a place to try it.

Things 13, 14, 15

Del.icio.us
We had a project in IS once where a great many of us were looking for articles and websites on a multi-part topic. This would have been the perfect way for everyone to see what websites had been found and for which part they were intended. NOW we find out about this!

Technorati
This was a revisit, since I had to use this for the bloglines Thing. I found the tagging interesting, but why wouldn't keyword searching be more efficient? I want the whole enchilada!

Library 2.0/Web 2.0
We are at a generational crossroad now, with those who have never embraced technology (and never will), those who are digital immigrants and have learned technology (see the Digital Immigrant Book Woman blog), and those digital natives who were born with keyboards in their hands all living at the same time. For the older generation, librarians are the ones who help them get the information they are told is online. We also help the digital immigrants who know their information should be online, but have tried to access it and failed. We could also assist the natives, since they THINK they know all about technology, but only know how to use the part to which they've been exposed.

Remember BASIC and freenets? It was only when the web came into existence and the commands were hidden that the Internet boomed. The same goes for tagging. The majority won't be involved until the tagging is automatic and hidden from the ordinary user. No passwords or user names, but fingerprints, voice recognition, or retinal scans. Spoken commands may be all that's necessary to make things happen, or even a flick of your eye over an icon on the screen. No copying html code or clicking buttons! When things are that easy, then everyone will be on an equal footing and librarians may no longer be necessary. But for now, there is still a need for librarians to offer assistance (and computer classes!) for those struggling along.

Rollyo rocks!

Oh, I love this one! Rollyo lets you search only the sites you know and love without all of the garbage that a Google search brings up. I made a recipe rollyo, which you can try for yourself.

Bookshelf

I've added some titles to LibraryThing, finally, and posted them below. Paris Hilton and I have both read The Power of Now, but I didn't have to go to jail first. (Perhaps if she had read it before she might have avoided that little fiasco?)

Image Generated!

I found my welcome sign at http://www.signgenerator.net/

Dead People Server

Much to my amazement, the Dead People Server has an rss feed! Who knew? Add this one to Bloglines and you, too, can be the first to ask everyone that riveting question: "Do you know who died?" Finding other interesting sites was trickier than expected. Technorati was the best search tool because it brought up my blog when I searched "tanagra". It also found four others. Two were in French, one was in Russian, and one said "so if you are reading this you are most likely some kind of twisted deviant." Hmmm...interesting.

Letterpoppin'

explorediscoverplay.blogspot.com is the continuation of the 23 things. I looked around for a Thing 7 and found http://www.letterpop.com/, which allows you to make a really snazzy newsletter. I started the inaugural issue of the Tanagra Times, but didn't have the right photos to upload. Maybe after my siesta...

We certainly have a lot of blogs now! I've been commenting and it's fun, although I wonder if they are erasable in case I want a do over.

Fun with Thing 6

King card
Originally uploaded by mellormi

I tried a few of fd's Flickr Toys but they were a little clunkier than expected. I had the most success in touting the King of Tanagra with his own trading card. Long live the king!

flickr

I've been exploring flickr for Thing 5. I'd like to say that this is my island hut where I compose my blog, so I'll say it. This is my island hut where I compose my blog! Since I did not get struck by lightning, I'll just add that creating a Flickr account and posting my blog entry from that site was not as hard as I thought it would be. Now on to adding my own photos!

Note: My original island hut photo disappeared from Flickr - bummer. Check out the new digs above.

Habits

The first thing in no way upset the relaxed, island paradise I've created since I already knew about blogs in general. In mulling over the easiest and hardest habits, however, a light breeze kicked up. The easiest habit for me is play - I love to just sit down and try things out. Now the hardest... Did I sign up for introspection on this tour? The hardest habit is using technology to my advantage since I don't have a lot of technology outside of work. No web access at home (rural and SLOW), no downloading, no firewall issues, so no practical experience. Working through the 23 things may be just the start I need to join in all of the fun.

Welcome to Tanagra!

This is my island on the ocean of cyberspace, named after the mythical island of Tanagra from the Darmok episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation. Strangers meet there, share danger, learn to communicate, and leave as friends. So, here's my blog, a new and different (possibly dangerous?) place that I've never been before, where I'll learn to chat with friends old and new. Bon voyage and we're off!