Things 6 & 7

I logged into the Google Reader and proceeded to subscribe to my blogs there. I then subscribed to a couple of favorite RSS newsfeeds.

I love being able to look at all of this in one location. My problem is that I am used to getting everything via e-mail and now this is one more place I have to go to get caught up on "stuff". Granted, I visit the Star-Telegram already as part of my morning routine, but that is the key! I have a routine already in place and Google Reader was not a part of it. (sigh) I must learn to accept change as inevitable.

May 26, 2009

It's Tuesday, I am at work. Mom and Dad got home last night shortly after 8 p.m. Pretty sure they were glad to be home. Jen came over yesterday, got her laundry done. Gene left on a business trip today. I will be leading the children's Bible study tomorrow night at church. Grant spent most of the holiday weekend with Lindsey and her family, yesterday at Lake Granbury.

May 22, 2009

Mom and Dad arrived at Mary Frances' house yesterday evening. They called Lanna to tell her to tell me and the brothers where they were. I forget the city name but they are in West Virginia. They report that they are enjoying the trip.

Lanna and I laughed and giggled while viewing Facebook last night. We were on the phone with each other and online checking out Ryan's new pictures posted by John and Bree. Then there were the "How well do you know me quizzes?" which were funny.

I may have to let others view my blog soon.

May 21, 2009

Today is Cooper's 18th birthday! Happy Birthday Cooper!

Mom checked in again last night. She and Dad are having fun and will be traveling to the highest point in Kentucky today and then on to the highest point in West Virgina. Tomorrow they will be going to see Mary Frances. They are to be home on Monday, May 25th.

Dad called this morning to see if I had heard about some folks in DFW losing property. He saw it as a blip on CNN last night. I had not heard about it so I was not able to tell him anything.

Thing 5

It is the middle of the week now and I am almost caught up on my 23 things. The last thing I will do for the week is Thing 5 also known as Image Generators. I have looked at how to do it but being more technologically oriented and not creative at all, this is a bit harder for me. After much trying and re-trying I came up with a photo and caption using ImageChef. Here is my effort!




I noticed I can share this on my Facebook. All along, I am thinking about how our library can use this kind of "thing". We have bounced around the idea of having a Facebook account for our library, so with that kind of easy upload feature my thoughts are of posting all the pictures we take at programs and using this as a fun way to add captions, thoughts, and future advertising! As I mentioned, I am not creative so if I can do this there are many talented folks here that could put together a nice bit of information about our library. The possibilities stretch my mind in a completely new direction.

May 20, 2009

Mom called last night from Tennessee. They will be headed to Kentucky today. No other news, she was mostly checking in and making sure I watered her ivy. I did so life is good. More later...

May 19, 2009

Long story, but via a conference I attended for work, there are some new technologies I am discovering. I knew blogging was out there but never gave it a serious look until now. This is my determined effort to keep the fam up to date including Mom and Dad who are both technologically challenged.

I digress...as this is my first attempt I will keep it short and sweet. I won't even clue anyone in yet as to its existence until I am sure it is a worthwhile endeavor.

Mom and Dad visited Elvis's birthplace today in Tupelo, Mississippi. Then they visited the Partin cemetery in Itawamba County, Mississippi. This is the most traveling they have done in a while.

More Thing 4

Another thing I tried was creating a mosaic collage of pictures from Flickr with Big Huge Labs. Very easy and simple to do!

More Flickr is Thing 4

I am really enjoying using Flickr. Was not sure it was my cup of tea. I have a brother that is an avid photographer and hoped he could give me some pointers, but alas, he has not been using his account regularly. So, I am learning bits and pieces of what Flickr and I can do. More than anything, I like that I am able to share with friends who don't have a Facebook account. Here is my nickname using "spell with flickr":

Thing 3

Alright, so I was reading my May issue of PC Magazine via Zinio Reader this morning. The issue is titled, "How to Share Everything". Soon I happened upon an article about how to share photos. Personally, I share them on Facebook. But I trudged on through the article about Flickr. Mind you, I have a Flickr account... problem is I only had one photo posted. Sharing only photos and not other things has not yet appealed to me. I am an all-in-one kind of gal.

However, I have a long lost best friend that I re-found a few years ago and she does use Flickr to post pictures and does not, will not get on Facebook. So, I continued reading. Lo and behold there was a section on the iPhone and a mobile app for that no less! I had not enjoyed posting to Flickr because I share a digital camera with hubby, take most of my pictures with my iPhone, and honestly find it a pain to upload pictures by hooking up a cable to my laptop.

Make it easy for me and I will try anything! So, I uploaded all my grandson's pictures for long-lost best friend via the app on my iPhone. Logged on to Flickr, did a little organizing and then remembered North Texas 23 had something coming up with Flickr, but could not remember which "thing" it was to be.

What luck! Thing 3 is Flickr! I used Choice 2 and really enjoyed it. I even added my cats and Vegas trip. Enjoy my photostream:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/14689174@N02/page1/

Thing 1 and Thing 2

Alright, so I did Thing 1 which is to create this blog. Then I did click on 2 of the 4 links to learn about all of this. The video I watched was informative and gave me a different perspective. The reading I did was also informative but got complicated quick. So, today I decided to do what I always do. I learn as much as possible about what I have done so far.

First, I took a look at a few of the blogs already in place for North Texas 23. Many were like mine, just one of the template options available. Then I came across one with a widget for librarything and decided to learn more.

For me, that meant searching on every tab under customization on this blog. Some tabs and settings were pretty straightforward, others not so much. I did discover how to add a gadget or widget. I added the top 10 searches on Google for the day. Pretty interesting....

I am determined to plod on, er blog on!

Getting Started

Ok - here we go! My first blog post for North Texas 23 Things! It has been interesting today to actually read about and watch a video detailing Web 2.0 or L2 or Library 2.0. If you are out there and would like to do this but you are scared or fearful, I encourage you to step out of your comfort zone and give it a try! As Jeff Bond said yesterday at TechNet 2009, "You do know there are prizes involved, right?"

Personally, we are already behind technologically speaking in the library world so I think this is a great idea, great learning tool, and great way to step out there and see what your patrons already know about Web 2.0.