Technorati Surprise

When I looked into Technorati, I used a particular search term that eventually led me to http://freepoemsonline.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2008-02-01T04%3A29%3A00-08%3A00&max-results=10 where there were posted several poems by one of my favorite poets, and here is one of the poems:

Water Falls
The water is cold where I lie, but no matter.
Its frigidity pleases me and soothes my wearied soul.
I have gone far, and now I am here and here only.
Up hills and over long, rocky roads that jam pebbles into the soft, precious spots of the feet.
Down ravines and over bones of old, indistinguishable prey,
Eaten by something, God knows what, and left to drain of existence in the sun.
The water gushes over my head, forcing it down.
My arms flail with the will of the falls, bouncing and dancing like life.
A single, endless noise rushes past my ears, but in a moment it is gone;
Replaced by a silence of familiarity and peace.
I place my chin on the top of the boulder over which passes the eloquent stream.
Now I know what it feels like to be the rock over which the river flows
For thousands and thousands of years without end or memory.
- Written by Karen Howley

This image of Middle North Falls at Silver Falls State Park in Oregon came from the following spot: http://www.flickr.com/photos/exalthim/2145674312/

Res.ult.swi.th.del.icio.us

As with many of the lessons, in order to reap big rewards with Del.icio.us one would need to invest quite a bit of time, which I don't seem to have. Everything feels more comfortable and easier the more you play around with it, so I won't presume that this tool could not become more comfortable for me--but in my bit of exploring I wasn't overwhelmed. For instance, I searched for Northern Arizona University, and one of the tags proffered was nau. So I clicked on that tag, but none of the subsequent offerings had anything to do with Northern Arizona University. That's one of the drawbacks to folksonomies (which, by the way, seems to be spelled incorrectly on PLCMCL2's tutorial) as opposed to taxonomies. The plus side is that you can type in basically any word and get hits, and then be given a choice of similar tags to choose from. So I typed in meerkats (my favorite wild animal), and got these cute and funny photos at the following spot: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/09/05/nmeer105.xml

Facebook Fun?

I went with Facebook for this exercise, because I've heard that it is more secure than MySpace, and because I know some people on Facebook. When I was registering I filled out some of my profile, then became nervous and deleted most of it. Face to face I am apt to tell just about anyone just about anything--probably too much so, but yet I am not as comfortable with internet intimacy as some people are (and by this I mean young people!). I refer to the internet as being intimate, but paradoxically relationships on the internet can also by extremely anonymous, deceitful even, and distancing. My goodness, I'm philosophical today. Anyhow, in regard to libraries, if movies and songs can have pages, why not libraries. In fact, I bet some libraries are already in Facebook, and I think I'll go back and check!

What a cool picture of a library!!

The old library of the Muntmuseum in Utrecht (The Netherlands)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/erikvanhannen/2143007559/

Library Thing

Library Thing was one of the easiest lessons we've had so far! And while I thought I would put in a minimum of 5 titles, it was so much fun that I just kept going. I especially enjoyed seeing how many other people chose the same books as me, and then following the link to them and their other choices. Anyway, you can find my list, so far, at http://www.librarything.com/catalog/chowley

Image Generators

As you can see below, I was successful in using an image generator offered by http://bighugelabs.com/flickr/ for creating mosaics. It was fascinating, but time consuming. This was partly because the site didn't give complete instructions, so some things I had to figure out by trial and error; and partly because I wanted to use photos I had taken--and that entailed not only coercing my colleagues into letting me take their pictures in the first place (thank you colleagues), but then also figuring out how to download the pix to my computer (thank you, Rossan), and then upload them to Big Huge Labs!

Mustang Reffies

RSS Feeds Redux

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RSS Feeds

Since I have trouble finishing the paper I subscribe to daily, this was a step on our road to technological savvy that I felt I could live without. However, working on it was still fun and I was able to locate some feeds that I felt I could enjoy, without its being an onerous burden! In fact, I may just have a great time!

"On the Wings of a Nightingale" written by Paul McCartney for the Everly Brothers

I said I loved the Everly Brothers, and I mean it!

Orange Co. (CA) PL funny commercial

Tabula Rossan--roving librarians using tablet PCs will bless Rossan for her set-up work!

Don't Fear Technology!

I found this on Flickr at http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=don%27t+fear+technology

Techno Thoughts

I'm a schiztech! Or a techschiz--I'm not sure which because I just made it up. A) I love technology and its uses. Technology is vital, fun, fascinating! B) I don't love technology. It's time consuming, can be expensive, and is frustrating! C) I don't know what I think--check back with me in the next nanosecond! Right now, it's B, because I've been trying to add an image to this post but when I click on the add image button nothing happens!

This is one of my current fave photos of my girl--I may have to make trading cards of past favorites!

Here are a couple of interesting Flickr mashup urls that intrigue me, both of which I use to do what?--look at pictures of beautiful places I am planning to visit, or exploring where I might want to visit. I just bought my first digital camera, and while I'm no artist, I do plan to post things on Flickr! Try these urls: http://www.airtightinteractive.com/projects/related_tag_browser/app/
http://www.airtightinteractive.com/projects/tiltviewer/app/ and
http://www.airtightinteractive.com/projects/flickr_postcard_browser/app/

Mendocino area coastline

It's obvious that I'm very interested in beautiful scenery, and love to picture myself in particular places, especially when I'm having trouble sleeping. Some of my friends call me "Nature Girl," and it's true that I find being out of doors especially soul-satisfying and renewing!

Ok, here's another gorgeous picture of MacKerricher State Park:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/51094678@N00/2199695701

Fun with Flickr

If I have done this correctly, here is a link to a beautiful picture of a tiny piece of MacKerricher State Park on the northern coastline of California, a place my family and I plan to visit this summer! Here is the url: http://www.flickr.com/photos/eleganthack/3066972/

The ReillyCam shows the scene from the top of Reilly Hall at NAU

Richard and I were up at NAU this past weekend to visit Karen and almost got snowed in! On the drive down the mountain, it took all Richard's skill to just find the road sometimes--I was glad he was driving. But the drive reminded me of Kerry's comparison of being a lifelong learner to walking on hot gravel, which she often did as a child. The drive was definitely a challenge, definitely necessary, and the feeling of accomplishment at its successful completion was a shot in the arm!