To Do: Woo hoo!

Done!  And Wiki says it is time for a snooze.  But before that, WHERE’S MY STERLING SILVER TRAVEL GOBLET CUSTOM ENGRAVED WITH MY NAME?  Oh, scratch that.  Wiki wants a SOLID GOLD KITTY BOWL WITH HER NAME BLINGED OUT IN DIAMONDS!  “Blinged”, Wiki?  She obviously resented the implication by that little whippersnapper Dickens that she wasn’t hip.  After all, who has the social networking page?  Ning that, Dickens!  #2 on Wiki’s “to do” list — find new home for that annoying kitten.  Right after #1 — take a nap.  Guess it’s easy to tell we chose to explore online to do lists for our wildcat … uhh … wildcard assignment.  And the winner is?  http://workhack.com/  Simple.  Quick.  To the point.  A lot like the sticky notes and little lists of paper that are written on the backs of receipts and stuffed in my calendar, under my calendar, on my monitor … until they fall off and get lost.  In fact I promptly started making a to do list on Workhack.  The main drawback is that it looks like it would be difficult to organize items and find them again when the list gets too long.  Todoist, on the other hand, looked way too complicated.  Precisely the sort of thing that would end up on a paper list somewhere under “input tasks on Todoist”.  Like that would ever happen.  Ta-Da List looked like it would have more flexibility than Workhack, but less than Todoist.  Still … it’s a bunch of lists.  Good if you have several repetitive tasks with many steps … like packing lists for foreign trips.  Or steps necessary to find a certain kitten a new home.  Actually, Wiki now has several new tools she can use to get rid of find a good home for Dickens.  This blog for one.  And his photo is up on Flickr.  She could also put something about him on her .ning page.  Or pass a google doc around with his photo and info.  She could mention him every time she meebos someone.  And hey!  Put a video of him up on YouTube!  Someone is bound to see how cute he is in action and want to adopt him.  All because she studied Web 2.0.  And how does this all apply to the library?  I think some features more so than others.  I’ve found blogging to be the most fun, but not so applicable to the library perhaps.  Video tours of the libraries would be useful.  Online to do lists.  Delicious for people who work at multiple libraries.  Some of these tools would be more useful for the public and others for the staff.  I have seen so many technological breakthroughs and changes in my lifetime that “permanent” is a little too concrete of a word to bandy about.  I think that some aspects of Web 2.0 will live on, albeit in altered forms, while others are strictly a passing fancy.  All in all, this has been a worthwhile way to spend a summer.  Too bad I wasn’t paid for all the hours I put in!  No “argh” this time.  Just a “whew”!

Add a comment August 25, 2008

Et tu, YouTube?

"All right, Mr. DeMille. I'm ready for my close-up."

  Roll over, Wiki!  Podcasts, vodcasts and YouTube are for young (4-1/2 months), hip, (sub)urban cats like Dickens!  For one thing, you need to be able to SEE vodcasts!  Wiki did listen to a podcast of “The Tale of Johnny Town-Mouse” by Beatrix Potter.  CCCL is also doing podcasts of children’s books and stories.  I then watched the teen video about the Danville Library http://www.youtube.com/watch?=Ok4En_QoVXg  which gave me an idea.  This is actually an idea I had nearly 20 years ago, but maybe its time has come.  We could do video tours of each library.  When subs go to an unfamiliar library, they could view the video first so they would know where to find things like board books or YA magazines.  This was a really easy exercise (except for having to read yet more legalese and sign up for yet one more account) so I’m just giving it a tiny argh!

Add a comment August 23, 2008

Ding-a-Ling-Ning

Add a comment August 23, 2008

Bloglines

About Wiki ...

Wiki’s back.  I’ve been forgiven.   Wiki liked Bloglines.  We subscribed to “About Cats” of course!  And I linked to library events in Rodeo.  Guess what?  Film club is coming up next week!  Gee … now why did I already know that?  Maybe because I do all the postings??  I’m having an e-mail reminder sent to me just in case I forget.  I was able to do that through Bloglines.  Not so lucky with the DVD thing though.  I was successful with the RSS feed for new DVDs but there were “technical difficulties” again with placing holds right from Bloglines.  The “mystery” exercise went better.  And then I deleted it.  I do have a better understanding of RSS feeds although I had better keep the directions for everything since I’ve already forgotten how I did it!  Which prompts me to give Bloglines a little aarrgghh …

n.b. I never did get that e-mail …

Add a comment August 13, 2008

Meebo, Shmeebo

Meebo Wiki

Aaarrrggghhh!  Are we going to do anything that isn’t, like, totally frustrating?!    I found out that I could not do anything with Meebo from AOL.  Something about “network connection difficulties”.  So I finally managed to set up an account while at work (like I have time for that).  And, again, I’m back to using Internet Explorer.  Meebo wanted something after ccclibmeebo which SOMEONE neglected to provide.  Now that I think about it, it’s probably @ccclib.org.  Duh.  So I invited my husband to be a buddy, but haven’t heard back from him.  Typical.  I’m the one who had to teach him how to IM several years ago.  I thought it would be a good thing for him to know as a laryngectomee.  I don’t know if he does it though.  At any rate, I decided the easiest way to practice IMing (which I’ve been doing for countless years) would be to import my AOL (AIM) list.  That turned out to be super easy and I briefly chatted with a friend who was online.  So did Dickens (see cat photos mentioned in the Flickr post).  I don’t know where Wiki is right now.  She used to keyboard all the time … but that was before she went blind.  I think she’s miffed with me at the moment because I just jammed 5 pills and lysine gel down her throat (successfully for a change) and clipped her claws.  But back to Meebo … I was going to add it as a widget to my sidebar, but I’ve chosen a theme that is not “widget aware”.  I’m kind of vague on widgets … obviously I’ll have to change my theme to something dull, boring and a lot less pink if we have a lesson on them.  I did try to use the meebo widget imbedded in the My Web 2.0 weblog but there was nary a peer trainer in sight.  So I left an offline message which will probably float around cyberspace forever and ever and …      Uses for Meebo?  Automation used to use somthing like IMing to notify us of things like “The system is shutting down in 3…2…1” or “We are taking over your computer”.  It’s a little more immediate than e-mail and less intrusive than the telephone so it could have a place among staff who need to have a work-related conversation without the disruption of the phone (and the inconvenience of looking up phone #s) or the lack of knowing whether or not an e-mail recipient is actually there.

Add a comment August 13, 2008

Google, Shmoogle

AAARRRGGGHHH!  More frustration!  Yahoo sent the Google confirmation to Spam and I accidentally deleted it with the ton of Spam that had already accumulated in my in-box.  So it’s a good thing I had created a Hotmail (live) account.  I discovered that a) it did not toss the Google in the Spam file and b) it didn’t have all that Spam in it.  I also discovered it didn’t like the password I was inputting so I had to change it.  That was after I nearly went cross-eyed reading (sort of) all those pages of legalese to get the Google account … like I would know how to hack into their system and manipulate the code!  So FINALLY I had the chance to get into Google Docs and it was pretty easy.  But why, oh why am I #69 in line to put in my book review?!  As Eliza Doolittle would say, “I’m a good girl, I am!”  Only she would have said it with a nearly unintelligible Cockney accent.  Wiki wants to know why I didn’t import a document on CATS, or better yet TONKINESE.  And best would be if I input HER family tree instead of my step-grandfather’s.  Unfortunately for Wiki, I seem to have misplaced it.

Add a comment August 8, 2008

Del.icio.us

Webmaster Wiki

Aaarrrggghhh!  How long is it supposed to take to do each assignment?  I ended up working directly on Microsoft Explorer.  I don’t know how this is going to work from AOL.  (I LIKE my AOL, thank you very much.)  I’ll have to experiment … but then … that’s what this is all about … right?!  My del.icio.us account is:http://delicious.com/catwatt  Wiki does not think much of my bookmarks so far.  Libraries!?  State govenment?!  She wants bookmarks and tags for “cats” and “Tonkinese” and “cat:toys” and “avoid:pills” and “avoid:vet” and “avoid:pesky:kitten”.  She thinks those would be much more relevant.  To her at least.  And who else matters anyway?

Add a comment August 8, 2008

Wicked Wiki!

Wicked Wiki

Wikis are not easy!  Well, I should have known that from experience.  My Wiki hates to take her pills.  She has become quite adept at spitting them out.  Or if that fails, throwing them up a few minutes later.  It kind of felt the same way with posting to the StaffPicks Wiki.  I kept entering the information (ISBN) and it kept spitting it back out.  Just when I thought everything was okay, my information (jacket cover) disappeared … just like it was thrown up.  And the instructions weren’t making sense so I threw them to the wind and winged it.  In the end it worked, but not without me once again saying “AAARRRGGGHHH”!  Here’s the link: http://staffpicks.pbwiki.com/Books+for+Teens

Add a comment July 29, 2008

Flickr

Wiki

Aaarrrggghhh!  If I had known I was going to need a Yahoo account for Flickr, I would have set up a Yahoo account for WordPress in the first place!  I don’t have access to StaffNet at the moment, so I skipped over Wikis.  But if you want to see my personal Wiki, as in “Wiki-Wiki” China Blue Tea, check out my cat photos at  Flickr: catwatt’s Photostream.  Wiki was born January 20th, 1992 … predating wikis (including wikipedia) by many years.  She was named Wiki-Wiki because her ancestors came from a Hawaiian cattery and she was a veritable blue streak.  Catching her on video was quite a challenge.  “Wiki-Wiki” means “quick” or “fast” in the Hawaiian language.  She is now blind which has slowed her down considerably.

Add a comment July 23, 2008

Aaarrrggghhh!

I thought I was NEVER going to get started!  I was already about 5 weeks late as it was!  Then I couldn’t confirm my web press account because the confirmation e-mail never showed up in my inbox!  I kept having to wait 2 days to try again in order to not lose my account name.  Then I gave up and tried my other e-mail accounts.  And I found out that 2 of my e-mail accounts were no longer active.  So … I have yet another e-mail account.  So easy to get blogging.  Yeah, right!!!  Just don’t ask me what I’m doing …

Add a comment July 23, 2008