Thing # 11 - Library Thing

I have just discovered LIBRARY THING!  It's a wonderful idea.  It actually will catalog my books for me.  All I have to do is insert my books.  Then it will tell me about people who have a collection similar to mine.  Imagine!  I can also tag the books I insert with my own tags, so I can find what I'm  looking for in my collection based on how I see it.  For example, I can look up the tag "Girlfriends" and the drop down will turn up Sula by Toni Morrison among others with the same tag.  I can even catalog the books I've read, but don't own.  The books can be displayed by cover picture and there are all sorts of features.  I'm too excited.  It will take me weeks to log all my books in, but when I'm done.  I've got a catalog of my own books.  How cool is that!  I wonder how long it will take me to insert IN SEARCH OF NELLA LARSON?

Thing # 10 - Poloroided sisters

I'm currently on thing number ten (10) and had to find a image generator that could create something out of a photo.  So I selected Hockneyizer for Big Huge Labs (BIG HUGE LABS).  It takes a photo and breaks it up into two to 10 photos (your choice) of the same shot.  Then, places all photos together to create a mosaic of the original photos.  This is a shot of my granddaughters broken up into six photos. Groovy!

#9 Library Feed from Merlin or Ah! For the good old WANG days (sigh).

Students in computer room, c1990s
Originally uploaded by LSE Library

My search in MERLIN turned up several Blogs I'd like to follow.  Unfortunately, they did not all have a current link, etc.  However, I did find a live link to Howard County blog for book clubs.  http://www.hclibrary.org/highlyrecommended/?p=10598

Take a look.

At this point, I'm supposed to blog about something technology related that interest me. Finally! An easy one.

What has been of interest to me, technology wise, is downloading on CD's. Unbelievable as it may seem, after years of working with my computer and the computer on the job, I am just now getting around to trying to learn to save information onto CD disc to make room on my hard drive.

From the amount of CDs my youngest son owns, I imagine that downloading documents/music to CDs must be easy as pie, but I never learned it. I went to my supervisor, Frank Sun, asking for a CD, but he didn't have one. He said that he could teach me to take e-mails out of my e-mail box and place them in an archive folders, which would keep me from getting "Your Mail Box is Full" messages all the time.  So I actually learned to  download in Archive, while in e-mail.  While, I guess e-mail archiving qualifies as "technology", and I wanted to learn how to download anyway, so . . . I'll learn CD downloading another time.

Thing #8 - Google Reader

Using Fickr, I learned to create a magazine cover with my own picture on it.  It was easy and fun to do.  Just log into your account on Fickr's home page and look for the feature.

If SCHOONERL'S CLUB was a real news site, I could add it to My Google Reader Page.  This page allows me have all of the web sites and blogs that I like feed into my Goggle Reader.  Then, instead of dialilng up every site I want to check on, I just dial up Google Reader and click on whatever feed I want to check on, and I get the latest page, article, of post all in one place.

It's a time saver and a money saver.  I could never afford to subscribe to all those publications.  

I've forgotten what the problem was with RSS Reader, but Google Reader worked for me.

Moving right along

Yesterday I learned how to use the "Gadget" feature for adding a text (logo) to the blog page as well as the gadget feature for adding a constant picture at the top of my blog page.  Gadget logo and picture are constant.  Not like the picture and text that go into a posting.

I also realize now that to access my "blog" account, I have to go to http://www.blogger.com/ and put in my user name and password.

I guess I need to go back to the "123 Things" page to see where I went after I designed and set up the blog page

Thing # 7 - Microsoft Word Pictues Without Flickr

Remember that scene in the movie COLOR OF MONEY, when the graying Fast Eddie decides to ditch the Tom Cruise character and get back into the pool game?

The shot is of Eddie's (Paul Neuman) face and chest, arms straddling the edge of a pool table, looking out past camera, and then the camera receding, showing more of Fast Eddie, then the whole pool table in front of him, then another table in front of that table, then another table in front of that one, while Fast Eddie gets smaller and smaller into the background. The audience gets the idea that Fast Eddie has a lot of practice ahead of him, if he's ever going to successfully get back into the game. Well, if you can imagine that scene, you can imagine how difficult it is for me to get back into this 23 Things program.


I started working on this project last year. Now, I've all but forgotten EVERYTHING! But somewhere during my frustrated attempts to figure out what my passwords were, etc., I discovered that I can add pictures from my photo collection on my computer to this blog.  How cool is that? I thought I had to use Flicker to add a picture. I added a shot I took of the Schooner Windward last summer in Annapolis, because I wish I was back there instead of struggling here right now.

Wow! It's been a busy year. Who would have guess that less than a year after my last post (9-09), budget "constraints" would eliminate 80 people from MCPL's staff. The Hearings, the demonstrations, the fears and the tears. Oh, my gosh! The retirement parties! Good-bye to Susie and her van. Good-bye to Robyn Holloway and Mark Gochnour. Good-bye to Ana-Rita and Betty Valdes! Good-bye to Padma Tangirala and Demeke Seyoum. And, alas, good-bye to the African American Book Discussion Group of Rockville Library (AABDGRL) as we know it. All this in nine months. Imagine!