Winter Break!

Woo! My first semester is over! I turned in my last paper at midnight last night. Fortunately, I didn't have to work today, so I could stay in bed all morning and read a novel. That was very happy. I bought The Truth About Forever by Sarah Dessen with my gift card (thank you again!) a while ago while buying Christmas presents and it has been patiently waiting for me to finish. Now I have to spend some time cleaning, since I've been ignoring everything and the place is a complete disaster. But that's what this afternoon is for! Music and cleaning. And then some movies. :) I come home Sunday night and I'll be home for a week. I'm definitely going to come by the library at least once. Too bad I come home late Sunday and you're closed Monday or I might stop by for some books. Hehe. My winter reading list is quite long! I'll never get through it all, but that's ok. Top of the list is Golden Compass. Oh yes, I also bought myself a paper Christmas tree, which I will set up as soon as I've cleaned a space for it. How could I resist a Christmas tree in-a-box?? With origami ornaments no less. Oh! And And And. I'm so excited I cannot say. I'm going to be my brother's witness in his wedding in April. That made my day Monday when I was writing papers, let me tell you. *sigh* :) Now I'm off to do something else. It's fun trying to do three things at once. :)

Finals

Final papers due one week from today. Will try to remember to give a real update after that. Hope everyone's having a nice holiday season so far!

December

The months are just flying by here. I am reading Octavian Nothing, which is good so far. Impressively long compared to our other class novels though. Go and Come Back is our other book this week, which looks good too. I'm not very interesting this morning. Three more classes this semester. Bunch of reading, three more papers varying in length from very short to reasonably long. Then Christmas! Magpie still hasn't gotten back to me about the week after Christmas, but I'm going to talk to my parents about flight plans tomorrow anyway. I can only wait so long to get tickets after all. If you're interested though, go here: http://community.livejournal.com/magpie_store/
to see some of the neat stuff they sell. It's really quite a range from the 'I could make that myself' to 'Someone made that by hand?!' Yup. Anyway, fun as this is, it isn't getting me into my productive day mode. Later!

Hi everyone

Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving! It was really nice to see some people while I was home, I'm sorry I missed everybody who wasn't working on Wednesday. And I still forgot to get my books from Janice, though I guess she wasn't there so we can pretend that's my excuse for forgetting about them again. I guess I'll just have to try again at Christmas time.

You know what I find annoying? When you e-mail someone and they don't answer what you asked about. I find that has happened several times lately. Answering some of the questions is good, but all would be better. Oh well. The end of the semester is coming. I feel the pressure. After Thursday will be better. (I have to present about what I'm writing my paper on, which means I really need to figure out exactly what my thesis actually is.) :( I have information, I just don't know if it's the right information or if I have enough (probably not) or what I'm going to do with said information. Well, back to trying to figure all that out.

Yay!

Denise! I miss you! I am going to try to come by the library next Wednesday, since you'll be closed Friday . . . I'm thinking around 4, but I'll update if anything changes. I can't wait to see everyone!

In other news, I have a job, though I probably won't really start until after Thanksgiving. I have had some training though. Yay retail. At least it's fun stuff! magpie-store.com Plus, my brother and his fiancée are friends with one of the owners (there are five of them). I think they know some of the others too. Oh! And last 'weekend' I went to a friend from college's wedding and that was super fun. I had never been to a Jewish wedding, it was very cool. And I got to see a bunch of people I hadn't seen in a long time and then hang out with my brother. Pearl River, American Museum of Natural History, Kinokuniya, Central Park, Nintendo tetris, and wandering around NYC (for the first time by myself) fun! Now I should probably do some homework, since I'm guessing I won't get a lot done while I'm home! Hope to see everyone Wednesday!

PS -

It is so not 7:36AM! What are you thinking Blogger?

Happy Halloween!!!

So, I haven't been on Blogger in a while now, sorry, if there's anyone out there reading and checking anxiously for news of me. (Hahahahahahaaha) Ahem. I did get Skype and it is super fun. Makes it easier to continue talking to someone as I cook dinner (or whatever) as I frequently do. Umm, there were other things I was going to say . . . things are crazy as usual in the schoolwork department. Trying to read zillions of things. We read Carver: A life in poems last week, which I was surprised to find myself enjoying. This week it's Avi's Nothing but the Truth which I'm also so far enjoying. Reading Freud again (but of course different things) for my other class, which I am still not enjoying. What else. I'm listening to Endymion Spring which I'm on the fence about. The pace is sort of strange, really slow a lot. Maybe it's one I would have liked more actually reading. I'm trying to plan a trip to New York/New Jersey, which I'm not really good at. I really like traveling, I've done a fair amount, but mostly planned by other people. Oh, and I finally joined Facebook, which I like better than Myspace so far. So, library people, (if any of you read this) if you have it, come find me!

Skype

So, a friend of mine told me about Skype last night and it sounds really cool. This seemed like an appropriate place to talk about it, since this whole blog started with learning 2.0. Skype is apparently a free (with other members of Skype) chat/call/videocall service. So you can talk to someone over your computer for free, as long as they have a microphone and have downloaded Skype. Sounds really neat, I may have to try it. Also, they actually have it for macs, which I find quite a few web applications (like Google Chat) do not. Which seems odd, to me, since mac is a big thing right now. Anyway, anyone else heard of Skype? Good things, bad things, tried it your self? Anyone?

I'm delighted to present the award to . . .

So last night was the Boston Globe-Horn Book Awards. Very cool. The honor book award winners get a silver plate, and the award winners get a silver bowl. And they give little speeches - some of them couldn't be there, so editors or publishers or whoever gave the speeches for them. Those were some of the best speeches, but I guess that makes sense, since these are authors, not orators. :) Though M.T. Anderson is very articulate and Tim Wynne-Jones is very funny. To be honest, I haven't had time to read either of those two, but I will! I have to read Octavian Nothing for class later this semester, but I think Rex Zero will have to wait for break. I checked them out, just didn't get to them. Although I highly recommend Sarah Pennypacker's Clementine. I also liked The Strongest Man in the World: Louis Cyr. Not normally something I would pick up, but its very interesting, a biography that is in graphic novel format. And the pictures are good. Nicolas Debon was all cute and French. The author and illustrator, Jean-Luc Fromental and Joelle Jolivet, of 365 Penguins are also French, but they couldn't be there - though they did send along a note for us all. Penguins unite! After the presentations and speeches, they were selling books and the authors were signing. I really wanted to get some things, but I resisted. It's a slippery slope. Once you buy one, you want more . . . Presumably there will be other opportunities to have people sign things, perhaps when I have some disposable income. What an odd phrase. Anyway, I meant to go to bed early, so that will have to be all for now.

It's October, when did that happen?

Interesting. I made a title and then went to type in the box and it said 'Congratulations, you posted!' Or whatever it says. So I had to come back to add the actual post. Silly blogger. Yay for Columus Day! My mom was here for the weekend and we found some great stores. A yarn store, a bead store, a quilt shop, a toy store, and a children's book store. And we made chicken soup. Because it actually got somewhat chilly here, unlike the 90 degree weather I hear VA had this weekend. No class today was fun, I'm trying to get extra stuff done with the extra time, though that extra is sort of theoretical since mom was here and I have a lot of time to begin with. But we'll see. I need to pick a paper topic for my folk and fairy tale class. It has to have something to do with folk and fairy tales. Specific, no? I want to do something with Japanese folktales because I've interested in them for a while, but I don't know what. Any thoughts? Stupid that being the only grade for that class . . . Anyway, I need to go to sleep so I can be awake to read tomorrow morning!

Saturday

I hear it's one book, one community time again. Anything exciting planned for that? I've been reading some interesting books - good ones, although I'd probably never have picked them up on my own. This week was M.C Higgins, the Great and The Circuit; last week was The Goats (good, but very strange). For class on Monday, I have to psychoanalyze one of the two books, I chose M.C. It's bizarre, when you think about it, how much influence a strange, strange man like Freud has had. Fairy tales continues to be an interesting class. I like finding out about how the Grimms altered the stories as the went along. Interestingly, the upped the violence and downplayed the sex as they started to make them more for children. Well, to be fair they were pretty squeamish about the sex from the get go. Anyway, that's what I'm learning so far. I have also been watching Heroes when I'm not reading (or writing) and I love it. Yay Masi Oka! Also, it is soo entertaining to understand a thing or two when they're talking. Plus, George Takei. Oh, and Jenn, I don't know if you've ever picked up 365 Penguins, but if you haven't, do. It's very cute. I know it's annoyingly large, but still cute. Also, it's being honored at the Boston Globe-Horn Book Awards. (Which my class gets to go to! How cool is that?!) Anyway, time to have lunch. Hope you all are well!

Note to Self

Janice has some of my picture books. Remember to get them back. Would like to say more, but must at least get through Freud first.

Ode to Ashburn

My library is ugly. It's a terrible thing to say, I know, but it's true. Think cinder blocks. Intimidating black door. I asked if there was a form to fill out for a card and she said I needed I.D. and proof of address. I said, I know, I don't have proof of address today, but is there a form? (I know, I know, unbelievable that I forgot it, I was so ashamed). And she asks if I want to use the computer. Now I'm confused. What does that have to do with anything? I said no, I don't think so, I was just wondering if there was a form. And she says something about the form being for parents with minor children or something and it was weird. But she gave me a form that I am now unsure whether I'm supposed to fill out or not. Oh, how I miss Ashburn. At least it's close - 20 minute walk. There is a bus too, if I don't feel like walking but do feel like waiting. I also made it to the post office (which is about five or so minutes further than the library. That is, if you don't stay on the bus many many stops further because you don't know where you are and don't realize you've long since passed where you want to be . . . and you didn't listen to the voice telling you to just get off and go back. On the other hand this did teach me that that is probably the way to go to the apartment of the one person in Boston that I know. (Aside from my cousins, but I already know how to get to them. Although, granted, it may not be the most efficient way, but then I don't know the most efficient way to get anywhere!) That's the latest in my adventures in Boston.

PS

I've already used my "Not For Tourists Guide" and it's super useful!

PPS - I can still log into my Loudoun e-mail, is that bad?

The stars of the sea are the same for the land

After some login confusion, I have returned to blogger-land! Ironically enough, I remembered my password perfectly, but was confused by the login. Who can understand the mysterious depths of my mind? Now that I'm back, I wanted to thank all my Ashburn friends for your generosity and thoughtfulness in my send-off. I love all of my gifts. And . . .

I officially live in Boston! I have a bed and everything. Cinnamon is settling in ok - she's not yet used to the loud noises, but we did play fetch this morning. And at night she'll sleep on the windowsill, which is pretty cute. Am I ever tired. Maybe it's the heat. Even though it's not ridiculously hot, it has been a while since I've been without air conditioning where I live. I have to say, it is truly bizarre to actually be living in a city. I'll keep it short, since I'm currently on 'borrowed' internet until I can get that set up. Tomorrow is a day for phone calls and trips to library/post office/etc. (The libraries aren't open on Sunday . . . and only the main branch is open on Saturday . . . ) Hope you all are well! Miss you already!

THE END

I've been waiting and waiting for thing 23. It's been a whole week since thing 22! So I decided to do thing 23 from Learning 2.0 and assume it will be the same for us. I rather enjoyed most of this Learning 2.0 stuff. I liked the way I could sort of expand on things I already knew how to do. I'm not sure I'll use a lot of it (like bloglines and technorati) but then I am excited and do use flickr and I must admit Youtube is really cool. I think Librarything is my favorite . . . along with flickr and technorati was my least favorite. If something like this was offered again I would probably participate.

The end is near!

I created a Netlibrary account - though it didn't seem to require I have a library card, but I assume that is because I was actually at said library. There are several books I would like to listen to out there. I've been to the site before, but haven't yet tried downloading anything. But now that I have an account, I'll have to test it out.

Podcast

So, I was looking around podcast.net. I clicked on one supposedly for crafty people, but it really seemed to be about books . . . And I thought to myself, 'She has a nice voice, but why would I listen to this?' But then I found a podcast that was someone reading fairy tales. Awesome! I thought this was a really great idea. So, I click on one - but I can't stand her voice. I'm sorry to say, but it happens. Anyway, I searched some more and found another fairy tale one that's better. It's kind of like our dial-a-story. Now I'll go add the feed to my bloglines.

Why Sumo is Better than Karate

I didn't realize it was almost over! I guess I'd forgotten this whole thing stops at 23. But Youtube. It's fun! I'd heard about it before, of course, but I'd never really been intrigued enough to go out of my way to look it up. I found one of my favorite little videos ever, which I will post for you at the bottom. One thing I don't like is that you can have the exact same video posted a hundred different times under different titles, that seems silly. I was thinking though, wouldn't it be neat to have little videos that explained how to do stuff at the library? How to access your account online, or search for a book you're looking for, how to self-checkout, maybe a tour of each library. . . I don't know if anyone would ever use such a thing, but it seems like a neat idea nonetheless.

NINETEEN

Oops, Caps Lock. Anyway, I looked at several of the web tools (from the short list - the long one was way too much to process). Some of them we've already looked at, so I figured those didn't count. One or two I've heard of outside of this, like myspace and facebook. Anyway, so I decided to look at Wayfaring. I think I'm missing something. I put a point on a map ok, but that's as far as I could figure. How to make a journey? No idea. I'll work on it though. I'm edumicated, I should be able to figure it out. Right?

eighteen :(

I officially do not like webapps. Neither Zoho Writer nor Google Docs would allow me to access my blog to post. And then I accidentally deleted the little post I'd written in Zoho. Yuck. I don't know why it thinks I shouldn't be able to access my own blog through them. Honestly. Guess I'll try again at a later date.

17

I added myself to the 'Favorite Blogs' page. Incorrectly the first time, but I figured it out - I didn't notice the spaces in between the url and the []s. I also added my tally to Cats in the 'Favorite Animal' section. This 'PBWiki' thing seems neat . . . I can't really think of anything I would use it for at this moment though - except maybe to keep track of the listing I like to do, but that doesn't take advantage of the public part of it all.

Sixteen

Now that I've updated my log, it's time to catch up with blogging. For the library wikis, my favorite is the one with book reviews. It's a neat idea - especially since the card catalogue is not always helpful about what books are actually about. So, for the same reason, I also like the subject guide idea because again, you can look a subject up in the card catalogue and not always get everything that's out there on the subject. I still don't always find them easy to navigate, but I guess that just takes practice. It might be interesting for a library to have wikis geared toward certain age groups, teens maybe, and have it like the Bull Run Library wiki, only specifically for teens.

Thing 15

So, Library 2.0. This seems sort of like a discussion about how libraries should keep up with changes in the world. To me, it seems fairly obvious that libraries will continue to change as information changes and the way we get to it changes. If a library is all about information, then it can't be static. Not that I think we should go out and get rid of all book collections because they're obsolete. I think it will be a long time before people stop reading actual books, even for educational or self-educational research.

Fourteen

I tried searching for Learning 2.0 under different headings I found a few of the same things, but mostly different ones. And different blogs yet again when I did it under "Learning 2.0." It's fun when it comes up in other languages. Of course, searches on Anna Nicole Smith and Brittany Spears are popular right now. Which is depressing.

oh

I figured it out. Duh.

Hmm

So, I signed up for de.icio.us. But as far as I can tell (and maybe I'm missing something here)I can't actually add any tags without the buttons. Curious. You would think there would be another way to do it as well. At the very least they don't seem to explain another way anywhere. But I'll keep searching.

Del.icio.us.

AT first, I didn't think this would be useful at all. Even after watching the tutorial. But when I read Us.ef.ul I thought, well, I do really like bookmarking. And this claims to be even better. So, I may just sign up for an account anyway. I can definitely see how it would be useful for research. If I were researching. Or if I were any good at online research . . . though perhaps this would help make me better, should I ever have reason to online research again. Which, hopefully I will. But I won't make an account today because it's about time to go home. Gotta love Wednesdays. It's unnaturally quiet here - it's fantastic! One more reason to love snow.

Thing 12

Roll with me . . .
Disclamer: I mean that in a completely non-raver sort of way . . .

My feelings about Rollyo. It took much longer than I feel it should have and I'm not sure why. I'm not sure I like it. I can see how it could be useful, thanks to 'All Roads Lead to . . .' But I really don't think at this point there's a way to make it useful to me. Oh, and just so you know, most of those sites in my roll are not 'trusted.' Some of them are, some of them I've at least been to before, but mostly I was just trying to make a roll. I'll keep thinking about ways this could be useful for me.

Ps - Thanks to Jenn for teaching me how to make my links actual links!

Library Thing

I like this Thing. This Thing is fun. I went to sign up, and of course we have to put at least 5 books in the log. Naturally, I can't think of any of the books on my shelf at first and then the only ones I can think of are children's books. But as I got going I remembered some more. I can't believe I didn't think of Harry Potter until today. Anyway, I'll do some from home where I can stare at my bookshelf while I do it. I read adult books, I swear. :D Here ya go. Fun for all.

caught up

It seems strange to be caught up on all the Learning 2.0 things after being behind for so long. Some of these internet toys are really fun!

Fun with Flickr!

I'm so entertained.

I tried to do this before but for some reason it didn't work then and now it did

Yay it worked!

Not just tasteful, but tast-y

Oops, way to read the whole post. Here is the Cappucino customizer.


Sure to be popular at the Ashburn Library, where coffee rules over all.

I am quite fond of these generators. Endless fun. Anyone want to join my 'League of the Damned and Destitue Warmongers'? Oh, and you may address me as Most Noble and Honourable the Dulcet of Giggleswick on the Nazeas.



I definitely like Thing 9!

RSS Take Two

About feed finders . . . I like the Technorati page - with the top videos and music and whatever being linked to by bloggers or whatever, but I'm not necessarily all that interested in finding other people's blogs and it wasn't exactly clear to me how to do so just looking at the page. I do like Topix.net, that seemed like a good place to go to subscribe to the sorts of news stories you'd be interested in. And Syndic8 seemed silly, listing them all alphabetically. Unless you're looking for something specific (which I rarely am) how is that helpful? It would be neat to use this to keep up with my friends over at livejournal, but I highly doubt any of them are syndicated and they'd have to be for this feed thing to work, right? Which makes sense on some level becasue how can they keep them private for just friends otherwise. There you go. Thing 9.

RSS

So, I've signed up for bloglines. At first, I was confused. Then I understood what it was, but not how it was helpful. But then I realized the problem wasn't bloglines, it was me. I don't 'hang out' online as much as I did, say, in college. Then it would definitely have streamlined things - just going to one page instead of fifteen. But now that I understand why I didn't really like it, I actually like it better. It's growing on me. I've had a couple of days now to add things to it (and take away things I added when I first signed up and didn't quite understand and would never have looked at, so they were just cluttering it up) and I think I kind of like it. I believe this is my public Bloglines URL, though getting to it was absolutely nothing like the instructions on learningatlcpl, so maybe it isn't:
KittyWhite

Technology or Thing 7

I am in favor of technology, mostly. I haven't had any major problems with computers in a while. Especially not since I got a Mac for graduation. And I certainly love my ipod. Although when I was creating this blog, it seemed odd to me that it wouldn't let me use my gmail account to creat the 'Google Account.' And now, even if I changed my e-mail address, I'd still be signing in with my county e-mail address. This seems a bit odd to me. But I was going to talk about things I like, namely ipods. And video games. I really like video games. I'll go long stretches of time without playing a game and then someone goes off to college and leaves me their Zelda Minish Cap Gameboy Advance game and I want to play it all the time. To be fair, I have a soft spot for Zelda to begin with . . . but still. It's kind of funny. I'd really like to play a wii. Well. I'd really like to buy one, but that's not really the kind of money I would throw around for something I've never played and might not like. I think that's unlikely, but I would still really like to try one out. I could meander on longer about various technologies that I do and do not like or can or cannot use - I do love to ramble, after all. But I think this is enough for any poor Loudoun County (or other random people - why would you be reading this?) library people who might decide to read this.

Flickr continued . . .

Why is there no e? I miss the e. I try to insert it. Sigh. Oh, internet, what have you done to us? I have to admit, the first time I read the LCPL blog, I thought it said LEARNING 200. I was confused. Then I continued @ LCPL. And I understood. Anyway, Spell with Flickr is my favorite. I spelled my name, but I haven't signed up for Flickr, so you cannot see it here. Too bad for you. I think I like this one best because of the ones I was looking at, it seemed like the one I would be most likely to actually use somewhere. Even if only in my online journals. It's neat being able to find pictures with a certain color in them, but I can't imagine needing to use that ever. For anything.

Thing 5

i am not going to create a flickr account today, though i might eventually. many of my friends have some kind of photo account or another, so i've been thinking about getting one. they really are pretty neat. as i was poking around the site, clicking on the links in our learningatlcpl blog, i came across the following picture: http://www.flickr.com/photos/newportpubliclibrary/265298856/in/set-72057594124551311/
aren't banned books fascinating? when is banned books week anyway? and isn't there a book about banned books? i feel like i've seen one. maybe that details why each book has been banned? but maybe i'm making that up, i do that sometimes. i mean, for example: why is 'in the night kitchen' a banned book? because he's naked? (that's why it might not be a great idea to read it to a group of 3 year olds, but i'm not saying it should be banned! it's just hard to get them past that part.) and 'the lorax'? it makes me wonder how many of the books i've read are on that list.

Thing 4!

at last, the holiday madness has ended and i have completed task 4. this past weekend was crazy, but thankfully not quite as crazy as i'd expected it to be. i hope everyone enjoyed their four day weekend!