Frances is LEARNING!

As part of the Public Library of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County's Learning 2.0 initiative, I created this blog to record my progress through the 23 Things.

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Location: Charlotte, NC, United States

Monday, August 28, 2006

Satiation

I am FED! I have created a Bloglines account and set myself up with about 15 feeds. Today I enjoyed organizing my various feeds into folders like "Comics" (I am psyched to be able to follow "For Better or For Worse" again!) and "Library". I even used Blogger's search tool to locate some special interest blogs to add to my feeds. One, YouthMinistryBlogs, is actually just a host site for a ring of youth ministry related blogs. Instead of adding the blog to my Bloglines account (pointless, since it's author doesn't write new posts), I tagged the blog with my handy dandy del.icio.us icon and will use that link to visit the page often and check out all those listed blogs. I have so much WORK to do when it comes to sorting out which blogs I want to follow - there are just so many to explore!

Visiting Technorati is definitely on my "to do" list. I also want to browse through more of my coworkers' blogs for Learning 2.0 and see if there are any I want to keep tabs on.

Friday, August 25, 2006

You (better be careful) Tube

This week I have been exploring the wonders of YouTube, which hosts movie trailers, television program clips, music videos, and hilarious homemade videos online. At times, I've been very disappointed with the website. The offerings are abundant, yes...perhaps too abundant. Browsing the popular videos and even searching for harmless subjects can present visitors with R-rated material - both in the text descriptions and in the videos themselves. YouTube visitors with a conscience must be very careful and specific in seeking decent entertainment and information.

Such is the case throughout the Internet, I know. But I found I must be especially vigilant at YouTube and similar sites, such as GoogleVideo.

However, I do have some fun videos to share! First, a homemade music video about making pancakes (it SO reminds me of my time in Oxford, where I celebrated "Pancake Day" - their version of Mardi Gras - by eating lemon and sugar on crepe-like pancakes).

Next, a black and white clip of Victor Borge's Phonetic Punctuation routine.

And lastly, a flying dog! (Made you look!)

Please direct me to any more that you enjoy by pasting the link into a comment! Thanks.

Wednesday, August 23, 2006

Yahoo! Avatars

Yay! I figured out how to create and customize a Yahoo! Avatar for myself, AND how to download it, AND how to display it on my blog sidebar! Go me! Well, actually, I must give a nod to the Questing Librarian, whose description of her venture into the unknown charted my path.

I want to use my avatar as my profile picture; the Blogger help files instructed me to first post the images so I can link to them. Here they are!

Tuesday, August 22, 2006

Blue hydrangea



I also tried out the Flickr Color Pickr. I chose my favorite color blue and the photos that came up were ... okay. Then I limited my color search to flowers and WOW did it offer some lovelies, including this one. Blue is not easy to find in nature, but this variety of hydrangea shows it well!

AND guess what else?! I WAS able to download this picture (Flickr even offered me a variety of sizes to choose from) and set it as my desktop background. It may be a bit too monotone to keep long, but it will make me smile for a few days for sure. Then I will pull another photo from my Flickr Favorites and make it my new background. The possibilities are limitless!

Flickr Trading Cards

I just explored the Flickr trading card tool. How COOL! I can use this to make a perfect gift for my boyfriend, who loves the Yu-Gi-Oh trading card game. The layout of these cards is very similar to the Yu-Gi-Oh card layout. Now I just need to decide what picture of him to use, what monster name to give him, what his special trick will be, and how many attack and defense points he should have...

Picture this

Flickr: so far, SO good! Signing up was a breeze, and exploring the photos could keep me occupied for days! I love the groups feature, which allows us to look through pictures with a common theme. I joined several groups, including "Catholic." I like that this group required a request for admission - that assures me that Joe Shmoe can't post nasty pics to the group.

I am very excited about potential applications of Flickr, especially wedding photo sharing. I'm definitely going to invite my mom and sister to join so they can explore it and consider using it to collect and share pictures frommy sister's December 2006 wedding.

Now I'd like to find the perfect nature scene for my computer desktop. That is, if we can download the pics from Flickr. I haven't tried that yet, and now realize it might not be possible, given copyright and all...

Speaking of desktops: I bought a new computer last weekend and it came with a 19" wide LCD screen. It's awesome for watching DVDs (by the way, Wallace & Gromit: Curse of the Were-rabbit is cute and hilarious) but I'm not sure I'll be able to find potential backgrounds with the right proportions for a widescreen (standard images get s-t-r-e-t-c-h-e-d).

Any suggestions?

Wednesday, August 16, 2006

Yummy?

Yesterday I created a del.icio.us account. I always get excited when I can register at new sites with my favorite username, ShepherdsLamb. I was hesitant to download the easy tagging buttons for my browser here at work, but I have since read a blog post by Helene which indicates that I am free to do just that. Yay! To start, however, I just played with posting URLs at the del.icio.us website itself. I'm learning how to choose appropriate tag words, including different forms of the same word to cover all the bases (e.g., Catholic and Catholicism). I also discovered that I can insert a Network Badge to my blog to direct readers to my del.icio.us link list. I just need to figure out how to get into the html of my blog posts and paste in the Java Script. Hey, why don't I do that now? Here's my attempt:


Did it work? Did it work? ...

Alas, it did not. Maybe next time!

Thursday, August 10, 2006

So Punny!

As a reward for reading my blog, I offer you these hilarious treats from an email forward:

1. Two antennas met on a roof, fell in love and got married. The
ceremony wasn't much, but the reception was excellent.

2. A jumper cable walks into a bar. The bartender says, "I'll serve you,
but don't you start anything.

3. Two peanuts walk into a bar, and one was a salted.

4. A dyslexic man walks into a bra.

5. A man walks into a bar with a slab of asphalt under his arm and says:
"A beer please, and one for the road."

6. Two cannibals are eating a clown. One says to the other: "This taste
funny to you?"

7. Patient: "Doc, I can't stop singing 'The Green, Green Grass of
Home.'" Doc comments "That sounds like Tom Jones Syndrome." Patient
asks "Is it common?" Doc: Well, "It's Not Unusual..."

8. Two cows are standing next to each other in a field. Daisy says to
Dolly, "I was artificially inseminated this morning." "I don't
believe you," says Dolly. "It's true, no bull!" exclaims Daisy.

9. An invisible man marries an invisible woman. The kids were nothing to
look at either.

10. DejaMoo: The feeling that you've heard this bull before.

11. I went to buy some camouflage trousers the other day but I couldn't
find any.

12. A man woke up in a hospital after a serious accident. He shouted,
"Doctor, doctor, I can't feel my legs!" The doctor replied, "I know you
can't - I've cut off your arms!"

13. I went to a seafood disco last week...and pulled a mussel.

14. What do you call a fish with no eyes? A fsh.

15. Two fish swim into a concrete wall. The one turns to the other and
says "Dam!".

16. Two Eskimos sitting in a kayak were chilly, so they lit a fire in
the craft. Unsurprisingly it sank, proving once again that you can't
have your kayak and heat it too.

17. A group of chess enthusiasts checked into a hotel and were standing
in the lobby discussing their recent tournament victories. After about
an hour, the manager came out of the office and asked them to disperse.
"But why," they asked, as they moved off. "Because," he said,
"I can't stand chess-nuts boasting in an open foyer."

18. A woman has twins and gives them up for adoption. One of them goes
to a family in Egypt and is named "Ahmal." The other goes to a family
in Spain; they name him "Juan." Years later, Juan sends a picture of
himself to his birth mother. Upon receiving the picture, she tells her
husband that she wishes she also had a picture of Ahmal. Her husband
responds, "They're twins! If you've seen Juan, you've seen Ahmal."

19. Mahatma Gandhi, as you know, walked barefoot most of the time, which
produced an impressive set of calluses on his feet. He also ate very
little, which made him rather frail and with his odd diet, he suffered
from bad breath. This made him. (Oh, man, this is so bad, it's
good)..... A super calloused fragile mystic hexed by halitosis.

20. And finally, there was the person who sent twenty different puns to
his friends, with the hope that at least ten of the puns would make them
laugh. No pun in ten did.

Monday, August 07, 2006

Lifelong Learner

Whew! That Lifelong Learning tutorial was a bit on the LONG side... but the technology used to present it was pretty cool. Now I'm ready to report on my experience of the "Rules of Lifelong Learning": I feel confident in my ability to put numbers 2 through 7 1/2 into action. If I have to choose one of them to be my "easiest" I'll say Rule 2: "Accept responsibility for your own learning." As the firstborn of four, I am an independent, take-charge kind of gal. I take control of most aspects of my life, especially my learning. My desire to learn and grow is motivation enough for me to use all the tools and skills I've gathered and developed.

The hardest Rule? Number one: "Begin with the end in mind." I don't know if I agree that this is necessary. In a way, I feel it contradicts Rule 7 1/2: "Play!" I'd characterize my approach to learning as random or wave-like; the amount of time, energy, and interest I invest in learning something ebbs and flows. I don't like feeling trapped by a specific end or concrete timeline. I like to be free to explore what, when, and how I want to each day.

Still, I do have some definite goals, such as obtaining a Master's degree. I will have that end in mind as I tackle each course's requirements and each week's assignments, but I won't be thinking about it constantly. I'm going to enjoy each day and the unique possibilities it offers.

FEED me, Seymour!

In exploring the settings options for my new blog, I came across "Site Feed" and clicked on the little question mark in a circle. It took me to a help article with references to syndication and Atom vs. RSS. I gotta learn more about these!

First Post

Here is my grand entrance into the blogging world - woohoo! I am so excited about Learning 2.0 - aren't you?