Triscuits, Life on Mars, and when to say "when" to blogging

Discovery Exercise #23: Final Thoughts
This will be my final post for the Learning 2.0 training experience. I'm not sure whether I will continue to post on "Salad Days" from this point forward, but I will definitely continue to explore the Web 2.0 tools that we've touched on in the exercises.

In all honesty, I have to admit that there was a point where I really didn't think I would finish the 23 Things. Every day (in my "regular" library gig) I have at least a dozen projects in various states of completion, many (most perhaps) which involve some aspect of creative problem solving in order to keep the project on track. There are some days, honestly, where I feel like I've spent 8 solid hours herding cats. It's days like that when it's easy to say, "I don't want to challenge myself any more."

That's why it was important for me to only work on the 23 Things from home on personal time (accomplished!) and to really pace myself. And to be honest with myself when I totally felt like going home to eat a dinner of Triscuits and cheese and watch back-to-back episodes of BBC's "Life on Mars." On those days, the idea of blogging was O-U-T. I think that helped keep the project "fun" for me. And I'm glad to know that about myself.

One surprising thing that I took away from the project was how my perspective on my fellow employees shifted. It was interesting to get a glimpse into my peers' personal thoughts and feelings. I feel closer to PLCMC staff now, and I really wasn't expecting that.

Would I do it again? Oh, yeah. Definitely. But right now my spouse wants to check e-mail, so I'm signing out.

Thanks a million, Helene. =)

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Sprechen Sie eAudiobook?

Discovery Exercise #22: Audiobooks
This exercise involved exploring NetLibrary, a service I had dabbled a long time ago, when it first became available at our library. At the time, it was so new (or perhaps it was just so unfamiliar to me) that it seemed clumsy and awkward. So I was pleased to try it out again and find a new level of comfort. Like many library catalogs, however, it's not very casual-browsing-friendly or navigationally intuitive.

As an example, I was in the mood tonight to listen to a snippet from a humorist author... someone like Garrison Keillor, whose audiobook "Lake Wobegon Days" I've heard and thoroughly enjoyed. An author keyword search on NetLibrary yielded no "Keillor." No "Garrison." Well, not suprising, considering there are only roughly 1,400 titles available. But now what? I decided that I might try browsing by category -- and it took me some time to figure out what to click on to get me to that point. Unfortunately a "humorist" category doesn't exist. A "Fiction and Literature" category does (a pretty broad category, if you ask me). I didn't feel like scrolling through 184 "Fiction and Literature" titles to find a funny audiobook.

Ultimately, I decided to switch gears and browse the language selections, and I must say I was impressed. With a trip to Latin America coming up in a couple of weeks, I could certainly practice my Spanish. Or, if I decide to get really ambitious, I could revisit German, a language skill that I've almost completely lost since college. "Sprechen Sie eAudiobook?"

NPR heaven

Discovery Exercise #21: Podcasts, Smodcasts!
I usually only listen to NPR when I'm in the car, and I'm rarely in the car when my favorite NPR shows "Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!" and "Car Talk" are broadcasting. That's why this discovery exercise was such treat for me because I realized that I could subscribe to "Wait Wait" for FREE and hear the podcast version of the show any time I want! A podcast of "Car Talk" is available on NPR's site via Audible.com for $0.95 an episode... well worth it for avid fans who don't want to miss the episode where a guy calls in to ask about whether he should take his buddy's advice and pour oatmeal into his leaky radiator. You can listen to pieces of the Car Talk via streaming audio for free, which I'm doing right now (and thoroughly enjoying.)

YouTube recut

Discovery Exercise #20: You too can YouTube
Finally, a chance to share one of my favorite YouTube fake movie trailers, "Sleepless In Seattle: Recut as a horror movie." First of all, let me just say how fascinated I am by the power of editing technique and music to create atmosphere. Movie trailers encapsulate this skill due to their inherent brevity, but they're also a hoot when re-cut by someone with a sly sense of humor. Meg Ryan as psychopathic stalker? Run, Tom... run for your life!

YouTube has so much possibility. I also wonder how much influence it's having over what's shown on "regular" television. Several weeks ago I noticed that the treadmill video by the band "OK Go" was surfacing on YouTube's popular list. And just this past weekend I noticed that it was now on VH1's Top 20 video countdown. Cause and effect? Hard to tell anymore.

House hunting the 2.0 way

Discovery Exercise #19: Discovering Web 2.0 tools
Buying a house has come a long way, baby. Three years ago, when I was looking for a new home, I really, really, really wanted to do the "narrowing down" myself. I knew the features I wanted (brick ranch with a garage, at least 2 full baths, separate laundry room), I knew that I wanted to keep the commute reasonable and I definitely knew what the affordable price range was going to be. Unfortunately, at the time, the online search options were somewhat disappointing, and we had to pester our real estate agent (bless her heart) with request for "just a few more choices."

If ever there were a calling for fabulous Web 2.0 tools, it is in real estate, so I decided to scope out Propsmart.com. Now this is the way real estate listing should be. Admittedly, Propsmart still has a few quirks (it didn't seem to "narrow down" the selections the way I expected when I entered a zip code), but regardless, it really seems to give house-hunting some fun factor that was sorely missing.

Check out my next home purchase. Nothing stands between me and this charming bungalow (except perhaps $6.9 million or so...)

Backtracking... in beautiful technicolor!

ms4 009, originally uploaded by msiscoe.

I just went back through my discovery exercises and realized that I accidentally missed one. Somehow I skipped #6 (More Flickr Fun) in which we were asked to explore some of the fun Flickr mashups and 3rd party tools that are out there.

Well, no time like the present. Seems like ages ago that I learned about Flickr, even though it's only been a few weeks. I decided to explore the Flickr Color Pickr and came across this gorgeous photo when choosing the color fuschia. What a fun (and colorful!) 3rd party tool.

Web-based Apps

Discovery exercise #18: Web-based Apps: There not just for desktops
I'd have to rank this learning exercise right up there on top as far as usefulness-for-library-staff-interested-in-helping-patrons. I positively love web-based apps and feel that they're a great asset to anyone jumping from computer to computer (home to work... work to relative's house... relative's house to Internet cafe...etc.). I played around with the word processing tools of Zoho Writer, but frankly, I'm more intrigued by the web-based spreadsheet software since I use spreadsheets to do most of my personal budgeting and cash flow tracking. (Yes, I know there are applications like Microsoft Money for stuff like that, but I still love creating my own cash flow statements in Excel. It's probably not the best use of those college financial management classes I took, but whatever. It's not like I have any pressing need to calculate the present value of an annuity.) Anyway, lots of potential here. Must continue exploring...

Must. Control. Urge. To. Edit.... arghhh

Discovery exercise #17: Playing around with PBWiki
For this exercise, we were asked to add an entry or two to the PBwiki Learning 2.0 wiki, and mark our visitation by adding our blog to the "Favorite Blogs" page. Well, I added a favorite site, but the real trial was trying to resist "fixing" (or doing something with) a broken link on the Favorite Blogs page (somebody posted "[http://southern-memories" but didn't close the bracket).

It's taunting me there on my screen even now.

I love the collaborative potential of wikis, but they also torment my "inner editor."

Must. Control. Urge. To. Edit.