Eight Things Meme (Blog Tag)

MyServe tagged me.

So, I'll be a good sport and play along.

Rules are:

• List 8 facts/habits about yourself.
• Post the rules of the game at the beginning before those facts/habits are listed.
• At the end of the post, "tag" 8 people by posting their names.
• Then go to their blogs and leave them a comment, letting them know that they have been tagged and asking them to read your blog.

So...

One (fact): I have only once had a non-book related job

Two (fact): I have lived in five states, with Maryland being the southern-most

Three (fact): I am an oldest child/daughter

Four (habit): I'm kind of assertive about the topics in which I am interested

Five (fact): I don't like air-conditioning, but I tolerate it

Six (habit): I stay up too late to finish reading (just one more chapter)

Seven (habit): I overanalyze summer movies (but why would the dragons need thermal vision if they aren't really predators)

Eight (fact): I love post-apocalytic, urban fantasy (and science fiction)- a very small field

I tag : Animal Ness, Baby's Blog, Bahama Mama, Candid, Freaking Out, Library Diva, SkyBlueSnowball and TheLibraryLass

IYKWIM

Libraries certainly love our jargon and acronyms (although the one I used for my titles is a text message acronym). But why stop at six letter acronyms? We can do better!

Tune in to the Wheel of Confusion to view the episode on "the longest ALA acronym". (Link takes you to a different web page.) A very cute look at a very bad practice.

GIP - Round two

So tonight's lesson was fun with Flickr mash-ups and then fights with Blogger and PaintShop to get my nifty logo to post the way I wanted it. There is probably a better way to learn about Paint Shop then the stab in the dark fashion I am currently using, however motivation and time are key. Currently my time is slim and my motivation (for Paint Shop) is periodic.



The previous post shows how Blogger allowed the Flickr image to post with no interference. Since I didn't feel like changing my layout for one post, it was evident that I needed to be able to edit the image. I wasn't up for experiments in html (since there was an awful lot of it in the banner), so reducing it to a simple image was my option.

This little guy (Ronon from Star Gate: Atlantis as drawn by Pentapus) pretty much says it all for me by the end of the endeavor.

Images

Flickr (thing 5)

There are a number of photosharing options out on the web, and I have only just started to explore them, although I'm sure that some will be bought out by others. Flickr, for example, is now owned by Yahoo (who will probably get rid if their own product, Yahoo Photos, if they haven't already).

So far, I've:

• uploaded photos (very slow)

• set up a family only group for family pictures

• plotted the geographic location on a map for my non-family pictures

The map feature is neat, but either not many people have done this to their photos, or they are choosing to not share that information.

I have some more playing to do with Flickr, but I think I want to explore Google's Picasa site as well.

Life-Long Learning (thing 2)

I did finally view the Charlotte & Mecklenberg Public Library's Library 2.0 program, and while the content was important, I would have much rather read the information. That's just me.

However, judicious googling lead me to this article from Computers in Libraries. "The C's of our Sea Change: Plans for Training Staff, from Core Competencies to LEARNING 2.0" by Helene Blowers and Lori Reed.

The article was very interesting and offered a "behind-the-scenes" look at the 23 things learning program phenomenon.

Getting back to the 7 1/2 habits, I agree with most them, particularly habit 2: accept responsibility for your own learning.

There is always something new and interesting to learn, and the trick is tying it your job description if you think you should learning it for your career. However, much of what is encompassed by this training will hopefully interest some folks enough to keep poking at the various programs and social networking services after the program ends. It is only by diving in and becoming a user that some of these skills are really learned. So, if not for your career, maybe for your hobby.

GIP (gratuitous image post)

Doing this the hard way... Since I can't figure out why the addresses I placed into my profile won't save and then load the image, I'm doing the multi-step process. We'll see how this turns out.



ETA: This picture is taken from (cropped and slightly altered) this glorious image of Queen Anne's Lace, posted to Flickr by CMM.

That which we call a rose... (thing 3)

This blog will mostly record my progress on the Maryland Libraries' 23 Things self-guided learning program.

So, technically this isn't what my first post is supposed to be about, however... Finding a name for my blog that was unique (and therefore available) was very dificult.

This process actually stalled me for at least 3 days as I consulted:

• lists of latin epigrams (mostly used)
• punny phrases (I'm not that clever)
• maps of mythical places (too weird)

Finally, I knuckled down with an online thesaurus and churned through the words I really wanted to use. (Of course, while doing this I had to "cheat" and consult Technorati and Google's blog search a bit early in the Maryland 23 Things timeline. Oops.

I may be a little wound.