Thing #14

Google Books seems like it could be interesting-I looked up a few authors and read the reviews about their books. It's a neat way to find out more about a book before you buy it. It could be used in our library to find poems or stories that are out of print. This would make a lot of books more accessible-again, if it's out of print and you just can't find a copy.

I think that the books on the site under "Full View" should be older than 50 or 100 years-otherwise, it really isn't fair to the authors that are still trying to sell their books.

Thing #13

I tried to find my way around the del.icio.us site. (I am lost. I will never find my way out!!!) It would be useful to have your favorite sites saved to a website instead of to your computer, but I never mark a site as a favorite anyway. I don't really see how this can be used as a tool in the library, but it seems like it could be used for personal use.

When you click on a heading, it takes you to the article so you can read it to see if you want to bookmark it. If you click on the number of people who have also tagged it, then you can see what subject they tagged it under, and also any comments that they wrote about it.

Thing #12

This week I read an article in "Popular Science" about a new technology to destroy brain tumors. It was invented by John Kanzius, a man with no medical degree but with leukemia. Basically what he came up with was inserting metal into the tumor and then blasting it with radio waves. The radio waves heat up the metal, which kills the tumor. It's worked so far in studies on animals (poor little bunnies!). It's still a few years away for humans, but it's amazing how anyone can come up with an invention like that.

I've decided to choose the mp3 player as my incentive.

Thing #11

I just wandered around on the Digg website. I found the best sand sculpture ever: http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2018/2411400635_f6da20ca11_o.jpg.

Other than that, it doesn't seem any different from the other sites where you read the headlines.

Thing #10

I already had a GoodReads account, so I just played with it a little bit. I love the idea of more book shelves-now if only the books magically appeared on my doorstep. This is a great way to keep up with what everyone else is reading, and what they thought about it. Here's a link:http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/1144638 .

Thing #9

Now this was a fun task! I will definitely use this site to make silly movie posters and inspirational posters for people. (Special thanks to "Shorty" for all of her technical help.)

Thing #8

Mashups....I never even knew they existed! I went to a site called webmashup.com, and then chose "Earthalbum"-it's so neat. You can choose any country, click on it, and look at different pictures from it. I looked at Iceland and Finland. This would be awesome to use to decide where and when you want to go.

I also checked out the Delivr site. I like the idea of making your own postcard, but I wish they weren't just ecards!

Thing #7

I think I'll like Flickr. It seems like fun. When I got to the search page, I immediately searched for "cats." What can I say, I'm a catlady! My favorite picture was titled "Cat Conspiracy" and shows a cat surrounded by seven or more others. They're really just trying to get out of the sun (who doesn't want to sleep in the shade of an umbrella by the pool?), but it does look like the poor cat in the middle is surrounded by enemies. Here's the link: http://www.flickr.com/photos/tjflex/233574885/

I also looked at the "Interestingness" tab, which was fun...I looked up my birthday, December 31, to see what happened on that day. Pictures of fireworks, which isn't really surprising.

There's also a lot of different groups that you can join so that you'll have friends on the internet with your interests. :) (By the way, I already checked, and there are lots of groups for catladies!!)

And I explored Flickr using tags too....I chose to look under architecture. So many awesome pictures!! Can't wait to explore more!

Thing #6

So I played around on Technorati and got completely lost. But I did add some feeds to my Google Reader account, from The Weather Channel and cnn.com. Now those I always look at in the morning-but I'm still not sure if I would look on Google Reader versus just going to the websites. We'll just have to see!

Thing #5

Okay, so I started experimenting with the Google Reader, and quickly realized it's going to take me longer than an hour to figure it out. Mainly because I started reading about celebrity silliness, which I should know better than to start. I like the idea of being able to keep up with everything on one page, and how you can pick whether to keep up with National Geographic or Finance news. However, it looks like it could get overwhelming quickly if you have very diverse interests. (Which I might.) I look forward to experimenting with this further.

7 1/2 Things

I just watched the tutorial for "7 1/2 Things," and I realized that I'm a lifelong learner without ever thinking of myself in those words. Growing up, I didn't have a TV, so I spent a lot of time reading, playing outside, and making up stories for myself. (I was not, however, a strange child.) The hardest part of lifetime learning for me is thinking of my problems as challenges. I tend to get a little upset at first when things don't go my way, but then I buckle down and figure out how to get around them. The easiest part of lifetime learning is probably play! It's always the easiest way to introduce yourself to something new. I would like to start tutoring students at some point also-I think that's a wonderful way to give back to others.