New pic of new baby

Ian at 4 months...he's so precious.

Thing 23

Based on previous posts, I must say that my favorite discoveries or exercises were several. First of all the entire experience has been generally positive. It became an obsession at first, but then as I realized that I was not getting my regular work done and had to get back to work. Then it became more difficult to return to the 23 Things again. I think at this point many people dropped out. There were some difficult concepts somewhere in the middle. For me, it was all the "tag" business. I am still not sure about that one. I hope I can take a look at del.icio.us and us.ef.ul and Technorati sometime in the future and figure them out.
I really enjoyed Library Thing. I put a lot of books I've read on there and it will come in handy when I'm trying to recommend something as I usually remember what the book was about but might forget the title or author.
I enjoyed reading coworkers' blogs and using some of their ideas. It was fun to play with Tim Blevins' caricature site. I also enjoyed using Bloglines and signing up to receive RSS feeds of coworkers' blogs, other blogs of interest, and several podcasts.
I think my favorite fun site is Flickr. I love pictures. It's true that a picture is worth a thousand words. That's why I imported some pictures from Flicker, the Internet, and some of my own into my blog. It's especially fun to share photos of my little grandsons.
Regarding my lifelong learning goals, 23 Things has been a grand experience! I feel like I at least know what is being used at this point in time. I know that these things change faster than we can keep up with them--or at least older folks like me! You young ones do a better job of it! Heh, heh!
Well, the biggest surprise will be when I win the laptop or the MP3. Other than that, I think I was surprised at how basically easy it is to set up a blog in the first place. The one thing that I became unsure of and expressed it at some point is whether or not anyone is reading my blog. Maybe I'm just spending all of this time for nothing and nobody! I know of at least two coworkers who have read my blog. I read many other coworkers' blogs at first, but then as with everything else online, the sheer immenseness of the whole list and everyone's blogs became too much to spend time on.
TIME is the big thing. It's fun for a short assignment, but is fun what we are here for? This experience has taught me a few things that might come in handy for helping patrons with reference questions.
As far as improvements on this program go, I wouldn't know as I'm sure all of you who planned this program are way beyond me in knowing what's out there. Bless you for that! And thank you for the experience. I'm sure you spent a lot of time planning it. Maybe could stretch it out a little more...one activity per week or something. I know many people dropped out because they just didn't have the time to finish. :( I thought about it when I was having difficulty and then was gone for several days to PLA. Here I am, though, at the bitter end. I made it!
Of course, if another similar program is offered and there are terrific incentives like laptops and MP3s, I would participate!
Thanks again! Rose bouquet to y'all! Happy Trails!!
Monica

Thing 22

I viewed Wikipedia on Podcasts, NPR Podcast Directory, and Podcastalley.com. I added RSS feeds to my Bloglines account from NPR for KUOW's Nancy Pearl Book Reviews Podcast and APM: Garrison Keillor's The Writer's Almanac Podcast as well as a couple personal podcasts. I also added from Podcastalley.com LibVibe and a couple personal podcasts.
These will be fun to view on Bloglines.

Thing 21

I watched PPLD's YouTube Channel, viewing Zorro, Alice In Wonderland, Treasure Island, 1936 Cheyenne Mountain Zoo. Pretty cool! I didn't know we had this! I'll have to go back sometime and watch more.
I also took a look at Yahoo! and Google videos which don't seem to be as good. There aren't as many in the categories I wanted to view.
Good to know though. I didn't know that Yahoo! and Google had videos. Another new thing.

Thing 20

I learned about Zoho and craigslist. I am glad to finally have a chance to look at craigslist. I have heard of people using it and loving it because you can buy things locally. Now I know where to go--explored a couple of items of interest there.

Thing 19

Zoho. Interesting. This may be something useful.

Welcome

Hello. I just registered for a free account on Zoho. This might turn out to be something useful. It might come in handy for patrons especially who don't have a computer at home, or who do have a computer at home an no printer and maybe want to save a document and print it here.

Thing 18

Google Labs. Explored Google Transit--looks like it might be good, but Colorado Springs is not listed yet. Sent them a message requesting that it be added. Explored Experimental Search--Timelines would come in handy for students. Looked at Google Code Search--it's beyond me. Looked at Accessible Search for the visually impaired--???What's up with that??? Looks like GOOG-411 would save folks a fee for information. Google Reader looks rather like some of the other sites we've explored to keep track of our favorite sites. Google Video's pretty cool.

Thing 17

Library 2.0. What do I think of these ideas? I'm not sure of where this is going. I just don't think all of this online stuff will produce a higher quality of humanity. I think we need to go back to talking to each other face to face, meeting in each others' homes, or at least using the telephone to hear each other's voices. I believe there is too much anonymity online. We don't have to be who we are; we can be whoever or whatever we want to be to whomever is reading our blog, tags, technoratis, bloglines, etc. I guess I am getting more old-fashioned as I grow older, learning to value the things that really matter in life like family, friends, happiness. Does being online 40 hours a week perpetuate truly important relationships and quality of life? There's something to ponder.

Thing 16

Technorati: It sounds like something Italian like food! Everything makes me think of food! Another Thing that I would need to spend lots of time on to understand. I guess I'm just not getting the "tags" idea. I can't imagine I need Technorati to improve my life. I think I'll just stick to yoga. Thanks for the experience, though. I subscribed to gingerlemongirl.blogspot.com in bloglines. I'll get more yummy gluten-free recipes--just what I need!

Thing 15

Yes, I explored del.icio.us and read the instructions on us.ef.ul. Somehow, I still don't get it. I think this will be something I'll need to spend a lot of time looking at if I'm going to really use it. I did create an account, but now I have so many accounts with different logins and passwords, I'll have to start a database just to keep track of them. Where will I find the time? This was the most difficult Thing yet! Do they just keep getting more difficult? I'm running out of time. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Precious Grandsons

New pictures of two of the boys. Aren't they adorable?

Thing 14

I created an account in Ning and joined the PPLD site. Looks like a person could do a lot of things in Ning--weird name, but I'm not sure why I'd want to or what makes it different from the other sites or a blog. I doubt I would use it. The blog's enough for me.

Thing 13

I just joined Facebook and the PPLD group! Cool!

Thing 12

Well, Rollyo is another way to save lists. I am getting so many lists, I don't know if I'll ever be able to keep them straight. I will have to do a lot more exploring about how Rollyo works before I could count on it to find web sites. I am a list maker, however, I was unable in a short exploration to figure out how you actually get to the sites by clicking in Rollyo. I created a great searchroll so I probably will go back in and try to figure it out.

Classical Music Concert

If you like classical music--Mozart and other beautiful choral music with handbells, you might want to consider attending a concert at First United Methodist Church on May 3 at 7:30 p.m. Here is the link to the web site. http://www.solideogloriacs.org/concerts.htm

Thing 10

I just joined LinkedIn.com. Now I'm waiting for someone to say they know me. Does anyone out there know me? I'm not sure I really know myself. Is anyone really reading this? If you are reading my blog at all, please make a comment. I enjoy my own blog and all of yours, but it would be great to know if anyone is really reading this. HELLO OUT THERE!

Caricature

Thanks to Tim Blevins, I have posted a caricature of myself in my profile. I'm really not sure about the hair color though. If anyone has a suggestion about how to improve it, please let me know. The available colors do not really look like hair colors. Besides I have some highlighting and some "natural highlighting" that makes my hair multi-color. Wow! That was fun. :) Maybe I'll have to go back to that site and make caricatures of all of my family members.

Here are some more turtle/tortoise/terrapin photos from our new database International Wildlife Online. I love this database already. It is available in Electronic Reference under Reference Shelf, Kids Web, and Teen Zone.

We had a fantastic Easter, cooked like fiends. It was wonderful to be with all of our family. Here we are.

I love this Easter bunny photo that Janice McPherson sent us.

Owen and Mzee

Here is a picture of Owen and Mzee. I love the story of Owen, the baby hippo separated from his family by a tsunami in December 2004, and Mzee, a 130 year-old Aldabra tortoise. They became best friends and are now quite a tourist attraction at Haller Park in Kenya. Turtles and tortoises are amazing for many reasons. They are slow, gentle, vegetarians, and these tortoises live to be very old, averaging about 200 years old--some even older.

Things 8 and 9

It's only Monday, and I have already learned about RSS feeds and subscribed to 6 different feeds including PPLD's and 4 of my coworkers. Maybe I'll subscribe to more later, but I only like to read about good news so I'm very picky about the news I subscribe to. Maybe I'll even find some sites that actually pertain to my job!

Tristan and Ian

I just received a new picture of the brothers. They are so cute!

Thing 11

A little out of order. I went on LibraryThing, created an account, and added all of the books I could think of that I've read. I'd like to add more info to it and do reviews, etc. I have been wanting to find a way to keep track of the books I've read. This is great! I like the flexibility of it. I'd like to find out how to put my "Library" on my blog. Haven't gotten that far yet, though.

Sea Turtles in Cancun and Hawaii

We have been so fortunate to visit both Cancun and Hawaii. Of course, whenever I am in a place where there are turtles, I have to seek them out.

In Cancun, we were walking back to our hotel along the beach at night when we saw a group of people gathered with flashlights. We stopped to find that they were watching a giant sea turtle laying her eggs in the sand. This had been one of my dreams! We stayed for a long time and just watched. Apparently, the turtle when laying her eggs, gets into a trance and is not disturbed by visitors. After she lays her eggs and goes back to sea, the area is protected until the eggs hatch. Sometimes the eggs are moved a little closer inland so they are not so vulnerable to disturbance by visitors.

In Hawaii, we were snorkeling close to shore but were out far enough that we were able to swim with the sea turtles. What a thrill! The wildlife is not to be touched, but it was so exciting to be out in the water close enough to touch them.

Norway Fjord

On another trip with my family, we took a working cruise through Norwegian fjords. One of the most beautiful sites I've seen. Another photo from flickr.

Switzerland

In 1981, I visited Switzerland with a friend. We took a boat trip across the two lakes at Interlaken, Tun and Brienz. Here is a photo from flickr of the area of Tunersee.

Thing 7

flickr is time-absorbing! I could spend hours on it. I would like to set up an account so I can share my photos. I love the fact that I can type in almost any subject and find photos on it. I found some fun dogs and some beautiful newborn sets. I don't even pretend to be this good at taking art photographs. Mine are mostly family shots and a few of our favorite places to visit.

Fritz and Cinco

Here is a photo of our dog and cat in one of their favorite hangouts, on the back of the couch where the sun shines in and they can look out the front window. This day they just happened to be there at the same time.
Cinco is an almost 19-year-old calico of unknown origin good at giving the evil eye to match her personality (the "Don't-touch-me-if-you-know-what's-good-for-you look"). Our kids' friends used to call her "Psycho."
Fritz is a 6-year-old dachshund/chihuahua mix. He is usually a gentle sort except when his "sister cat" tries to take the spotlight. Notice the look of dejection.

The Cabin

This is a cabin where we like to go to find peace and quiet. One time we were there trying to do as little as possible, and it started snowing. We captured the awe in this photo.

Thing 6

Well, I explored Mappr, mashups, librarian trading cards, APIs. Seems like there are a lot of things to do, but I'm not sure how or why I would use them.

Quote from The Dalai Lama

"If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion."
Dalai Lama

The Grandsons

Tristan (Ian's big brother), Andrew and Tyler (brothers) and little Ian

Thing 5

flickr is fabulous! I could spend hours looking at the photos. I looked at ppld's flickr photos and like those of Palmer Lake with the flowering trees and the Carnegie at night. Very arty!

Thing 4

Did this. Easy.

Thing 3

Yep. I did all of the exercises for wikis so I can claim to know all about them. I did learn about one perhaps useful wiki for info on services for older adults. Here is the link to Squidoo, Computers, Gadgets, and Tech--Technology Training for the Older Population. Hopefully, this will work. There is the option to get RSS Feeds from this site, but I need to explore this a little more first.

Thing 2

Here is Baby Ian at 1 day old. The picture of innocence.

Thing 1

My favorite thing to talk about is my family so I hope everyone reading this blog likes little boys because I have four little grandsons. I will be posting photos of all of them eventually, but since Ian is the newest--almost 2 months, he is the one I have the most photos of.