Aries Rising

Spoke too Soon Again

2008-02-11T09:05:00.000-08:00

In a previous post I lamented that I fell short of the goal, i.e. no Twitter, no MP3 player. After talking to a couple of fellow workers who said I had to do Twitter and finish, I reconsidered my stubborness and did Twitter. I signed up, but still say I have no time for social networking. I have 3 email accounts and now Sharepoint coming up. I think my computer time is pretty well taken up. Also, my job as LA is so social-network-oriented, I don't need any more. But I've been known to eat my words, so I'll keep this short.

AR

Good-bye MP3 Player

2008-01-29T11:30:00.000-08:00

I've gotten behind in the program. I finally made a small contribution to the Kingston wiki site, in addition to having taken the picture of our library's location that replaced the old one. No one at our branch set our to work together, but editing the site is open to all, as long as no one does permanent damage, which I unfortunately did at one point. Working on the WIKI is not as easy as it might appear. I think a little more one-on-one training would have helped some of us "get it" a little quicker.
Twitter is where I say good-bye to the incentive that got me this far. It just doesn't inspire me to want to join, which is the assignment. Not that I don't see the point, but there are other ways to achieve the objective. Actually, it's been a while since I've thought about the reward. Although I don't embrace everything we've been introduced to in the KRL 2PT0 experience, the doing and seeing so many of the "assignments" has indeed expanded my cyborizons.
The student site is truly amazing. I viewed NoteCentric, NoteMesh, Digication, and Jobster.
I wish some of these were available when I went to college. Miss a class, but not the notes! A syllabus online. No more going to the bookstore, waiting in line to buy it.
The sun beckons and I must take a walk.

Later,
AR

Never Say Never

2008-01-12T09:11:00.001-08:00

With winter here I thought I'd have lots of time to work on 2pt0, but no. It's been very busy. I didn't get around to WIKI, but will catch up later.

It's time to move forward.

Facebook, hum. I heeded all the warnings and decided not to sign up. Meredith Farkas' article was very evenhanded. She did a superb job of presenting the pros and cons. I'm of an age that I prefer my social networking face-to-face and via telephone (and I don't mean texting). Now that I've positioned myself on the chronological map, I do feel that those proficient in communication-in-the-moment technology are the future library users/supporters. If libraries are to play a role in the future it's essential to keep up.

A retraction: A couple of posts ago, I wrote something to the effect that YouTube wasn't for me. Suffice to say, that's no longer true. I recently read Censored 2006 (the top 25 censored stories compiled by Project Censored at Sonoma State.) Several alternative sites were mentioned that I visited on YouTube and I've been back since. Having said that, I have no choice, but to sign off as,

Opinion Tentative and Subject to Change

New Home

2007-12-15T08:51:00.000-08:00

Not feeling exactly comfortable as Beating a Dead Horse, I've relocated. It means searching for new images, but while time consuming, I really have fun with that.

We're in WIKI week one, and I have this to say about that. It looks like a challenge and I'm a little daunted, but more than willing to do my part. Readers advisory would be an area I would be interested in, but there is so much talent in that area already. I'm sure as things unfold, I'll find an area of interest. At this point, I haven't a clue. See you in week two,
AR

Consciousness Streaming

2007-12-06T10:06:00.000-08:00

I looked at YouTube and tried to be objective, but honestly it's not something I could get into. I talked about it with a co-worker. She gave me some pointers and offered her take on it. I'll grant that it has appeal to a lot of people for a variety of reasons. It looks too much like reality TV for me. Actually, I deliberately try to limit my exposure to TV. Now movies at the theater! That's something else again. I love the willing suspension of disbelief at the movies. Jerry Mander commented in his book, In the Absence of the Sacred, that the medium is the message. The message being that a person is often alone in front of the television and now a computer, whereas going to the movies is by its nature a shared experience . As for being a grassroots-type site, I'm not so sure. If I see a major paradigm shift, say away from war and other atrocities as a means of controlling the world's resources or even a shift away from conspicuous consumption as a defining aspect of modern culture as a result of YouTube-ish sites, well then color me there. But I appreciate the look/see.

In a similar vein I have another rant. Last week I was waiting in a doctor's office and picked up Newsweek for 26 Nov. On the cover was Jeff Bezos of Amazon beside the big story, Books Aren't Dead. They're Just Going Digital. The article is about Amazon's Kindle, the new E-book. The author of the article really talked it up. It's going to revolutionize reading, get more people on board (apparently in 2004 only 57% of adults read any book in a year.) The article depressed me. After mulling it over though, I realize that our old-fashioned books will be around a while yet. Not everyone is going to go out and spend $400 for a Kindle that requires paying for books to fill it. People go to libraries to borrow books and all other manner of media, in lieu of buying and will continue to do so as long as libraries exist, I reckon.

Sorry I got carried away, but you may be pleased to know that I used a lot of restraint here. Merry Christmas and/or Happy Holidays,

Horse

Carried Away on Librarything

2007-11-08T15:49:00.000-08:00

Yesterday one of our regular patrons mentioned that he grew up with someone who reminded him of Ichabod Crane. He talked about a humorous blunder "Ichabod" made, while reading a portion of the The Highwayman aloud in a high school English class. I just reread the poem. Very exciting. Makes me want to reread Washington Irving. Speaking of reading and other bookish things, I enlisted on librarything. After reading the assignment, I asked myself how many of these things that I'm signing up for am I realistically going to continue to revisit once we finish this program. I believe librarything will be one of them. I didn't consider myself interested in what others were reading, but I was wrong. It was fun to see what others are reading, and that most people are all over the map with their literary tastes,as am I. I think I put about 15 books on my list, but I'm not finished yet.

Horse

Option 2 and Then Some

2007-11-06T10:31:00.000-08:00

The horse thing has taken over. Krl has a book about the Burning Man festival that takes place in Nevada every summer. My youngest daughter goes every year. After looking at our book, I have a new appreciation for the creativity that goes into the festival. The picture in this post is what appear to be horses made of some metal wire.

I opted for signing up for a Flick account. I downloaded some pictures from CD of a trip to France in 2005. I found the site (#1) easy to figure out, but I also think I'm becoming more adept at looking for info I need to make the manuveuring "plus facile." The #2 is that I also found the site uncluttered and spare in a way that appeals to me. I know someone who has used photobucket, so I went to that site and was put off but it's busy, billboard-y look. It's getting harder to find the clean look on the web these days. I like google, because it's simply elegant, but not so attracted to yahoo-- it's too busy. One of my favorite iconoclast novels is The Monkeywrench Gang. I'm sure Edward A. would be horrified with some of the stuff out there today. Come to think of it, these horses remind me of that great man of desert lore.

Horse

Moving on and Loving It

2007-10-30T14:05:00.000-07:00

I just finished week 4, RSS. Thanks to 2 Cents and Sensibility, I managed to figure it out. Merci beaucoup . My week of blogging was pretty gruesome, but thanks to B.C. and his faith in us all, I came in over the finish line on that one. Tagging went suspiciously well. In fact, tagging went so well, I had the confidence to add some touches to my blog. I do believe I'm getting the hang of this. And loving it. I can't wait for flickr week and weeks.

I have a confession to make. I'm not really a horse person. They are beautiful animals, but it's my sister who has the horses. On the other hand, I'm not anti-horse, as my moniker may have suggested. I was merely rambling on about my computer inadequacies as were others and I just felt that it might be tiring for the over-achievers to have to put up with us. Enough said.

Horse (with no name)

More random thoughts

2007-10-16T13:43:00.000-07:00

I have a feeling this whole thing is not turning out the way I planned. It took me a good half hour to come up with a url that was acceptable. If the "beating the dead horse" thing comes in somewhere conspicuous, I just want all to know that refers to my agreement with those blogs I read that support the spirit of intellectual growth involved in the krl2pt0 enterprise, while cautioning the decline of other mental processes. Readers might be tired of hearing that point of view. Also, whoever commented on the notion that this develops instruction-following skills was right on. I usually avoid anything that has too many instructions attached. That I signed on to this is a testament to my desire to get my citizenship (alluding to the native/immigrant thing). I'm clearly an immigrant, even though I'm a one-handed cell phone user.

Yes, I was going to add some nice little image in my blog, but I feel absolutely drained after getting this far. Can you tell I'm out of my comfort zone? My comforts are reading, gardening, and cooking. Heck, even working out at the gym is comfort! I'm not giving up on this yet though. By the end of week 19, it HAS to be more comfortable.

Next time,
S