# 9

Interesting things found searching bloglines about librarians.
http://librariansmatter.com/blog/
This is a blog from Kathryn Greenhill from Fremantle, Western Australia. She actually gave participants at a conference an overview of what Library 2.0 is about. An interesting blog.

http://technogeekery.blogspot.com/ is from Carol Cooke. "This came across my desk today from the Toronto Star "Facebook banned for Ontario staffers". The staff this refers to are Ontario Public Service employees. Can you believe that MySpace wasn't banned as well? I wonder why?"

One of my favorite finds so far is http://librarystories.blogspot.com/
That is where the library bag comes from.
It has an article from Geeks are Sexy on "how to get rid of those clients are are just a plain ol' pain in the tuchis (or however you want to spell it)".

Also of interest, Mango is a new site that lets you take language lessons for free. The site has just launched in beta.

New & Noteworthy Paperbacks from the New York Times

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9503E0DA1631F932A25752C0A9629C8B63

http://www.slv.vic.gov.au/services/education/youthlit/readalert/

So much information!!!

#8 Bloglines pay off

I subscribed to a few RSS feeds and I am very pleased with myself.

I found The Godmother By Carrie Adams HarperCollins, on the USA Today book review feed.

Here is part of the review:

By Ann Oldenburg, USA TODAY
Hugh Grant. It's impossible to read this book without envisioning one of the main male characters, Ben, being played by Hugh Grant. Ben is charming. Handsome. Caring. And married. That's Tessa King's problem. She's in love with her buddy Ben, who's married to Sasha. But that's not Tessa's only problem. The leggy lawyer is also godmother to four of her best friends' kids while she has no husband, no children and, for the moment, no job (sexual harassment issues arose at the firm).

The characters are complex: troubled, sympathetic and very different from one another. Francesca is struggling with her husband and her teenage son (Tessa's godson). Helen is trapped in a marriage with an obnoxious husband and twin babies (Tessa's godchildren). Billy is a single mom with a deadbeat ex and a sick child (Tessa's goddaughter). Claudia has tried for so long to have a baby that she doesn't know what else to do. And then there's Ben. Tessa's journey to find out what she really wants out of life coincides nicely with all of that.
Don't write this off as another one of those books about a whiny, self-indulgent thirtysomething yearning for the picture-perfect picket-fence world. It's not.

Then I found the book on the shelves at Korumburra Library where I worked today! Serendipity Doo Da!

#6 and #7 More Fun with Flickr and technology

I have become better acquainted with Flickr. I have a Flickr account. I have some photos on Flickr. I have made a trading card. I have linked by blog to my Flickr Account. I had hoped that the trading card would appear here but it has not.
If you click on the rectangles you can have a look at my trading card.
Still lots to learn.

I have had a play with a "mashup" site that links a world map and shows you where ebay items are for sale. I limited this to Australia and had a look at cycling items available near Melbourne.
http://vbay.info/

There is a Matthew Richardson signed jumper at $399 finishing in 10 days...."tell them they're dreaming".
This is all so new and different. I could spend hours playing on different sites. Reading about new applications and trying them out. Sometimes I feel I am wasting time ...but I can justify it because it is "work".
I was asked about why do I add new posts on weekends. That is because at work I am too busy "working". I am sure people would not be too understanding if I blogged all day instead of dealing with my customer service tasks. My family is far more understanding although the pay is lousy. That is why I fulfill my technology based learning on my days off.

Time is an issue. Where we told the investment would be 15 minutes a day?
Computers are supposed to make communications and information faster and easier but I think we ( well I know I ) spend alot of time on the computer. It is fun though.
It is similar to the TAFE subjects that say 20 hourscommitment for this subject. But I spend 4 times that and all I get is a PQ. The highest mark available.

Oh well....bring on RSS!!

I just had a look at bloglines and my head is spinning.....so much information....so little brain.

Flickr

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

Swooping Magpies

What is it with magpies? I was swooped upon yesterday. (Rode 32 KMs) The magpie would not give up. I was on a track when it struck. I thought when I got on to the road it would stop but it kept on going. I almost had to retreat into a hardware shop to hide.
I have some holes in the left side of my helmet on the foamy part near my ear!! I have a couple of cable ties sticking out of my helmet like antennas but that did not deter the bird.
The advice from DSE is to get off my bike and walk away but that is too scary. I just want to get away as quickly as I can.

Is this an omen? I am a bit worried about the AFL final on Friday night. Geelong will have problems with all the magpies swooping. I hope the cats have eyes on the back of their heads. (another DSE suggestion).

#5 playing with Flickr

So....you get a Yahoo account. Get a flickr account. Take photos. Publish them on flickr. People look at them. People can comment on the photos. If they have a flickr account.
That's nice. That's new. That's different.
Yes, there are some really great photos on flickr.
Search "Inverloch" and 200 beauties come up.
Search "Librarian" and some are nice, some are weird.



I am unable to use any of the photos in this blog...
which is disappointing but there must be copyright issues.
Any hints or comments about this?

"Not only does Flickr make you smell better, it also makes you more attractive!"
Well that's what the blurb says.

learning new things

This is an aardvark.
It is the first animal in the dictionary.

I have just worked out how to change the time on my blog so that I am not writing this yesterday. And I can put images on my blog.
This blog business is really fun.
Instead of boring my family with what is going on with me I can bore heaps more people with my conspiracy theories and adventures real and imagined.
so don't say you weren't warned!!!

cycling in the city

On the weekend I tried out some Melbourne bike paths. The main Yarra trail, the capital city trail. We cycled from Alphington along the Yarra. Passed Studley Park Boat House, the Collingwood Children's farm. (Yes they were growing lost of the rascals.) Along Southbank. Lunched at Docklands. Travelled through Royal Park near the Zoo. Continued through Brunswick. Merri Creek path. passed the Fairfield Boat House. Across the Pipe Bridge. Under the Chandler Highway bridge following the Yarra and the Freeway to Burke Road. Then back behind the Ivanhoe Golf Club coming out at Wilson's reserve and the Ivanhoe Boulevard and back to Alphington via Heidelberg Road. 5o km's.
But why do bike paths have steps? I had to carry my bike up and down various flights of stairs along the way. There is a lack of directional signs along the paths. I often took wrong turns trying to find my way especially at Royal park and Rushall station. Yes, I can see you shaking your heads at my lack of direction but I am from the country. And I had a map from Don at the Leongatha Bike shop.
It was difficult to get a decent speed up on the bike paths too. They are very busy places. People everywhere.

#3 & #4 Things Whoo Hoo!!

This is my first posting in my first blog.
I feel very proud and slightly confused.