Booked in Bellingham

Library Thing Is My Thing

2008-08-10T19:31:00.000-07:00

A customer mentioned Library Thing once, but I never got around to looking at it. This could be so useful and fun. For personal pleasure and professional growth, it'd be fun to have somewhere to link book reviews. Secondly, it would help my friend and I as we manage our synagogue's children's library (whose only catalog is a database document) and avoid us buying titles we already have. I like this idea to check the list from a cell phone. I'll let you know how hard or easy it was to upload items.

Lost and Found on Facebook

2008-08-10T19:22:00.000-07:00

I recently used Facebook and MySpace to find a family member, age 25, that I had never met. Knowing his name and the state didn't help find a phone number. Then I realized that many people that age only use cell phones. I'd have to join Facebook and MySpace and search there. Actually, my dog Sunny joined! (At first she was rejected because of her tender age, but I had to fudge that.
Found the family member ASAP in January and he was just here visiting.
He used his MySpace page to show off friends and family photos while he was here.

Read the following post for more on networking.

Tagging now legal

2008-08-10T13:53:00.000-07:00

Google Earth is an old friend, used when surveying houses for sale or trying to visualize directions. I moved on to Geotagging at Flickr. My photo at the Stanwood Library can now be also found by searching the map. All the public photos together make for an interesting snapshot of a place. I tried searching on a new town and found the glimpses both boring and fascinating.

2008-08-07T14:35:00.000-07:00

Karen Fairarian at your service! I used tektek to choose elements without any predetermined ideas about my avatar. I won't tell you what's in her bag but it's definitely useful.

Visiting Second Life (I've been in the Jewish area) again reminded me of a science fiction title by Terry Patchett. (Can't locate the title now; I'll post it when I find it, although this will be a spoiler.) Well in the future, when the worlds are run by corporations, the biggest social problem is addiction to game interfaces. The games don't show up on screens--they're right in your brain. Anyways, the story starts with a down-and-out loser type guy who has the amazing luck to become a stowaway on an interstellar ship.

An amazing story ensues where our guy survives almost everyone else on the ship, which has been taken over by an intelligent race of cats that evolved on the ship. He becomes a hero, and then has the "perfect life" in a small town, with a loving wife, etc. One day he wonders why it's always winter. Also he thinks he keeps seeing the same word everywhere-it keeps popping up.

Finally he discovers that the word is scratched into his arm. Why? Because someone is trying to get him to stop playing a game. Yes, it's all been a dream in virtual reality, and he's inside "It's a Wonderful Life" and doesn't want to leave...

Nuff said.

Tame games

2008-08-06T23:13:00.000-07:00

I tried some of the "tame games" at yahoo.com and a few I had seen while answering a reference question at the AARP website (see link.) Already addicted to crossword puzzles until my hand is sometimes aching, I tried an online crossword. Easier on the hands, but harder to jump around and scan the clues. I did like the accolades at the end. I also tried a jigsaw puzzle and found it disconcerting not to be able to feel the puzzle or have to switch the pieces. Still, I just wanted to keep going and the spatial section of my brain needs all the help it can get. I also found the flashing advertising icons distracting. The AARP is nice and simple, although many of the activities seem the same as at the Prime Games.

As a former teacher and childrens' librarian, I was curious about the link at Prime Games that said it had curriculum related materials. I browsed Holidays and selected Hanukkah. http://www.primarygames.com/holidays/hanukkah/games.htm. The games don't actually teach or reinforce, but have the graphics to match the holiday. I think reading the New York Times article posted by e.f. about the online literacy debate shows us that web content could indeed be literacy or subject related. Maybe as librarians we need to find more of the good stuff.

Now I'm slicker at Flikr

2008-08-04T16:54:00.000-07:00

Knowing I needed a photo and thinking of something that'd be useful professionally, I asked Debbie Adriance to take a digital photo of my summer reading circuit program. It was way easy to upload it in flickr. What took me the most time was dealing with passwords--my account sheet had an error.

PANDORA'S BOX

2008-05-27T12:30:00.000-07:00

The box is open, the music's on, the jury's in, Pandora's perfect...so far! I put in the name of an excellent Irish group, Colcannan, and so far have gotten one great song by my hero Guy Clark, a bluegrass tune, an "original" old-timey song, one by Colcannon, and now what sounds like Americana style music. A great way to find new music. Next stop will have to be a psychedelic rock station--if I ever can break away from this one and get back to work.

Help!

2008-05-21T14:50:00.000-07:00

I've made a draft of the post I really want about RSS, but I can't figure out how to add it. Keep "posted".

GRR RSS

2008-05-21T14:22:00.000-07:00

GRR! RSS! I couldn't figure out where my feeds were showing up. Know I know--to the Bloglines website. I'd like to link them here...

What I selected:

The Elegant Variation A self-proclaimed "highly opionionated" blog about all things literary: books, short stories, poetry, reviews, reviews of reviews:

"By Lazy Mick on Guest Bloggers
Frankly, I'm baffled by Janet Maslin's review of Bright Shiny Morning, James Frey's *cough, cough* fiction debut. It's written in Frey's curiously incoherent style and is either a low-water mark for book reviewing or a harbinger of the ascendancy of sentence fragments in adult discourse.
I think The Vulture, who predicted Maslin would review Frey favorably, gets it exactly right:
At first we were annoyed, but then we realized that's just good customer service on Maslin's part — we found the style so off-putting that it curbed any desire we might otherwise have had to read James Frey's novel and decide for ourselves whether it's any good."

Unshelved: If you haven't seen this one, you've missed the number one reality (or is it irreality) check for library staff. See the link!

Finally, I thought I had signed up for a feed about Get Smart, the tv show, but it looks like I was fooled by one submission. I'll need to find another one, and for some reason I can't get back to the search screen. Watch here for another feed.

Underbooked

2008-04-30T15:15:00.000-07:00

Other SLI Blogs
Yowza...we're all over the Dewey Decimal in terms of our interests and up and down the lexiles at our technical ability. I lingered longest on the blogs that had pretty colors, but remembered best the ones I posted to--and those with recipes.

Speaking of underbooked, (you did see the title?) I've found it difficult to write a capsule review while I'm at work at an irregular time. Those will have to wait, but please don't miss reading or listening to AWAY by Amy Bloom (adult audiences) an immigrant saga that is only conventional in its hero-quest plot but not in its situations and locations.

So...how 2.0 is going--no easier or harder than our everyday world, a little slower perhaps, but much more colorful.