Relax and Reflect

I think the Web 2.0 training is a great idea. The "independent study" format is well-suited to the subject material, as well. (i.e. the web is a great tool for distance education and training, and using such a format to discover the web just seems appropriate.)

As I've gotten to reflect a bit on the experience, I think the thing that strikes me most about the whole web 2.0 trend is how predictable it seems. Remember when you had to learn BASIC to make a PC do anything? Before Mac and windows, only a few people could use computers. But then the platform became more user-friendly, and pretty soon everyone could use word-processing and spreadsheet applications. Then the web came along, and at first, the means for publishing in this platform were too complex for most users to take the time to learn. However, the longer the technology was around, the more simple applications became. Pretty soon, anybody with a computer and a little bit of curiosity and some trial and error could make a web page, post a blog, or post their photos online. Lickety split.

So, seems to me that things just keep getting easier. I can't wait to see what's next.

Gaming

So... I played "Burger Island." I think the fast food companies are funding the dissemination of this one. Yup. I found myself totally addicted to putting pickles on cheeseburgers. There were these little boxes that popped up in the corner of the screen, illustrating instructions for each of the four orders I was expected to work on at any given time. The instructions were all in pictures. When I finished a level, I could buy a new recipe i.e. for spiced fries, or veggie burgers. Reminded me a little bit of the more complicated games -- the ones based on role-playing games like Dungeons and Dragons, where you earn points by performing tasks, and then you're allowed to buy more stuff (abilities, weapons, etc.) with the points you earn.

I've done a little gaming with my many geeky friends, and the thing that struck me most about the recent trends in gaming is the freedom with which you get to try and try again if you fail. I grew up playing games on my family's little atari console (space invaders and pac man!) and you got three lives and that was it. And, of course, the complexity of the games has increased dramatically. And the incremental rewards... much different from the way things used to be when you put your quarter in the slot at the arcade.

Maps and Geotagging

Google Earth is amazing. There is so much information here. Beyond the outrageous coolness of being able to zoom in on a sattelite photo from out in space to your backyard, you can also discover any number of useful things. For example, you can turn on the traffic layer to see red, green, or yellow dots to indicate the flow of traffic on a given road. Click on one of the dots and you get the actual speed of the traffic at that location! Or turn on the "Places of Interest" layer and get tons of icons placed all over the map indicating such things as bed and breakfasts, schools, stores, and national forests. Or -- my personal favorite -- explore "Trimble Outdoor Trips" under "Gallery," and find hikes and other outdoor adventures. What's great about all this is that you can hover the cursor over an icon, see what it is, and if you want to know more, click away!

And, like google maps, you can use it to get directions to your girl scout meeting in darrington. Wooo hooo!

Online Apps

This is my google document! I created this post in google docs, and then posted it to my blog.

I have been using Zoho for several months now... in fact, when I interviewed for my PSA II position at Stanwood, I used Zoho Show to create my presentation. It was great -- I was getting some guidance from a fellow techie who lived in another state, and I was able to share the presentation with her and she was able to make edits (though she only corrected one thing -- a typo!) Once the presentation was done, I didn't have to worry about having it on a disc, or bringing in my own laptop, since it was saved online. I just used the Sno-Isle laptop, logged in to my Zoho account. Pretty slick!

Avatars and Second Life

Alrighty. Here's the digital me. Not too bad a likeness, though I'm a lot taller and my hair never looks this good..

Regarding my presence in second life: I currently live but one life, my first. I appreciate the fun that there is to be had in escaping from the real world into an idealized digital world where things can be as we want them to be... but alas... I don't have the time. I'd rather be outdoors, riding my bike, or sniffing real roses.

Search Engines

Well, I have to say, I'm a google girl. I searched for something I've been wondering about: a map of the trails at Fort Ebey State Park near Coupeville. I searched on Google for "Fort Ebey State Park trail map" (not in quotes in the search box) and got a map as my first hit. On Mamma, the same hit came up as #5, and 1-4 didn't even include any evidence of a map, nor even reference to a map. On Dogpile, my hit was #11, though I could see evidence of map references in my other hits (1-10). Rollyo was fair: it didn't give me a direct link to a map, but did give me the wikipedia article with links to a trail map.

So, then I tried to find a schedule for the Guemes Island Ferry. A search on Google for 'guemes island ferry schedule' took me right where I needed to go on the first hit in the list -- the ferry schedule. Dogpile gave me a list of commercial, irrelevant hits at the top of the list, but also took me where I needed to go via the fourth hit on the list. Dogpile was even worse -- a whole long list of irrelevant commercial links, and the link I needed was #5 in the non-commercial list! Rollyo was as good as google in this case.

I also love google for the ability to cache websites -- you can have your search terms highlighted on the web pages in the list of hits. Helps a lot when you're scanning content for something in particular.

Podcasting

Well, it's just another way to get media into your life... conveniently... and without having to read.

So, I checked out a few podcasts from various library sources, and I like "This Week @ Your Library," which is a podcast feed that covers current news and events at the Mississippi State University Libraries. I also discovered some feeds for podcasts of actual library programs. These both seem like things that could be useful at Sno-Isle -- podcasts that explain various library services, for example, might be kind of cool to put on the website. Users could subscribe to an RSS feed and be kept abreast of new goings-on.... or maybe just library news... like a newsletter, except in podcast form. And podcasting video or audio from library programs might be kind of neat, too. We could certainly increase our audience by making those events available outside the constraints of time and space (i.e. you don't have to come to the library at a specific time to see the speaker you want to see.) Just some thoughts...

So, anyway, I subscribed to a few personally interesting podcasts as well in my google reader -- some stuff from the center for fairness and accuracy in reporting (FAIR) and daily podcasts of "Democracy Now!" -- one of the news shows I like to catch. I'm sure they'll just pile up in my reader, but it's worth making an effort.

Online Image Generators

Here's my image I made. I though it was appropriate, given the difficulties associated with driving these days... i.e. it now costs me $50.00 to fill my HONDA CIVIC. I have to move closer to work.

OverDrive Digital Media

So... I did the whole download a book thing. It was, for the most part, a pleasing experience. I placed a hold on a book I've been wanting to read for a while now and received a notice that it was available for "checkout" in about a week. This was especially nice because I'm also on the holds list for the actual book on CD, and I've been waiting much longer than that already... with no light at the end of the tunnel. Yay! When I downloaded the book at work, it took about 20 minutes (kind of a long time), and now I'm going to try to burn it to a CD so I can listen to it in my car.

I also browsed the movie collection, and was not as impressed with the selection as I was with the books. For the most part, I was able to find books I wanted, but the movie selection seems to be lacking in recent, popular, or... frankly... any films I want to see at all. So. Little bit of a letdown there.

I did experience a bit of a bummer when I tried to download the book I ordered to my personal computer. While I was able to download the OverDrive Media Console without any problems, the link provided in SnoIsle's instruction for downloading the current version of Windows Media Player did not yield any downloads of the current version for Vista (my operating system.) I searched and clicked for about 15 minutes, and finally threw up my hands in frustration... then I thought, "Wait, maybe me computer is new enough that is has the most current version!" But... nope. No such luck. I tried the book download with my current version of WMP, and it didn't work. Still trying.

del.icio.us and social bookmarking

This is a dangerous exercise. Any time someone tells me to start looking up things on the internet that interest me, I go into a time-free zone where nothing else exists except, well, at the moment, going backpacking and fishing for trout in Washington's high lakes.

So... now that I've emerged from the wormhole, here are my thoughts:

del.icio.us is a useful tool if you want to be able to access your bookmarks from any computer with web access. Most of the time, I'm just messing around on the internet, so access to my "important" bookmarks isn't something I really need. However, if I were doing a lot of web-based research, I can see how this would be EXTREMEMLY USEFUL. I could find articles or blogs that address things I'm researching, get myself some feeds, and go to town. I imagine if you're doing academic work... and thus academic networking... that this would also be very useful as you could make connections with folks who are researching the things you're interested in.

I guess if I were more of a socialite, I could hook up with hiking or fishing buddies through the whole social bookmarking thing, but... well... I've kind of got some buddies already...

As far as usefulness in libraries is concerned, I think social bookmarking could be very useful in reference, especially from the tagging standpoint: the ability to search for bookmarks by keyword, especially if those bookmarks are compiled for their usefulness to library reference staff, could save lots of time and effort.

Wiki Wiki Fun

Wikis are COOL! Seriously. For the amateur organizer of the things, things, and more things that make up the details of daily life, this is an awesome tool! I think my next project is going to be making a wiki for myself to answer all the questions I have to ask my co-workers every day at work, and can never remember the answers to. It's going to be called "Jane's List of (annoying) Questions," complete with a database of things I can never remember how to do and links to the relevant Sno-Isle intranet pages that explain the procedures in question. If I were a really ambitious wiki-er, I'd invite my co-workers to answer my questions on my wiki, but they're usually pretty busy, and when I have a question, I usually need their answer right away. Asking them to enter the information in my wiki might be going a little too far. No more treats for me at break time!

I think this tool might also be useful for community libraries to compile local information, such as clubs and organizations, or perhaps local historical information that isn't covered in the collection.

YouTube

Here's a video I found on YouTube about Web 2.0, called "The Machine is Us/ing Us." I actually included a link to this video in my presentation that I gave at my interview for my PSA II position at SnoIsle. The presentation was, incidentally, about Web 2.0. Go figure. I guess I was a little ahead of the curve; I did most of the things on the "SnoIlse 20 for 2.0" list while preparing my presentation!

Jane appears on Facebook

So, I did it. I put my face in facebook. And I even found a friend. I uploaded my picture, I updated my profile, and I started a photo album. Thing is, not too many people I know do this stuff, so I'm kind of out there on my own. If I could get my 70 year old dad, or my 5 year old niece to get on board... now maybe that would be fun. The folks I want to keep in touch with don't really do this stuff. Anyway, like I said, I did find one friend... Debbie Adriance and I chatted for a while last week, and it's cool -- she uploaded a youtube video to her site, and I received a notification on my homepage when she did. Pretty neat.

I checked out the marketplace too... found a nice mountain bike. Thought about selling my spoon collection...

Flickr and Photo Sharing

on the peninsula
Originally uploaded by miss jane tabby

Here's a little photo of me that was taken on a trip to the Seven Lakes Basin on the Olympic Peninsula. What a great place! I caught my first trout on a fly during this trip. Maybe next time I'll post the picture of me with that tiny fish -- I look a lot like gollum in it.

I added a few tags to this picture as well: Jane, Lien, Olympic, Penninsula, Backpacking. Then I searched for my photo via "tag only" and... voila! I am available for all to locate and adore!

I have actually been using flickr for a while, but this assignment forced me to be a little more diligent about labelling and tagging.

And I'm back on my theme -- this post actually has something to do with one of my uphill/downhill pursuits!

Streaming Music

So... I tried out Pandora. Pretty cool. I created radio stations based on artists I like, and rated songs as well. I wonder -- does this mean that the radio station will never again play me the songs I don't like?

I was also able to retrieve information regarding bands I like, and had I been into it, I could have done a little social networking as well.

This is definitely something that I'd like to use personally - a great way to access music that suits me!

Instant messaging and rss feeds have nothing to do with running!

But I made this blog to track my progress with web 2.0 tools, so, there it is.

I spent a lovely 15 minutes IMing my colleagues at the Stanwood branch last week. We had a group chat, and successfully made all the other folks in the office jealous that we were having such a good time!

I have several means of tracking my rss feeds... I suppose I should have just one, but when there are so many options, why limit yourself? I use Bloglines, but I just started getting my feeds on my iGoogle desktop. I also get some feeds in my personal Outlook mailbox. Google is my favorite, since I am almost always logged on to my google account.

Thwarted by Biology

It's a bummer. My knees have been bad. They hurt when I'm just standing around. So, running is going to have to take a back seat to biking... which will be hard, considering that I don't yet have a bike. I guess I'll do pilates, and the photos from that aren't very interesting.

Larabee State Park

It snowed in Bellingham last night. I ran up to Fragrance Lake in Larabee State Park this morning, and when I got to about 500 ft, there was snow on the trees. Nice run, though not as nice in the morning as it is in the late afternoon or evening. The sun hits the west slopes in the afternoon. Last week, I saw a pileated woodpecker on my morning run up this route. What an amazing bird! They're so big, and so striking! He let me hang out and watch him hammer on an old dead tree... I wasn't more than 20 feet away. I followed the re-discovery of the Ivory-Billed Woodpecker a couple years back, and even though this wasn't one of those (seeing as how they only live in the swamps of the southern U.S.) it was evocative of some of the old films of these birds. Really quite beautiful.

I'm buying a digital camera tomorrow (my old one broke!) so I can start posting photos.

Total Run Time: 1 hour
Total Distance: about 4 miles (2 fiercely fighting gravity and 2 controlling the freefall)
Oohs and aahs: 1 for the Sun sparkling on Bellingham Bay off Chuckanut Drive, and 1 for the snow on the cedars and ferns.

Bowman's Bay and Rosario Beach, Anacortes

The beach smelled like oysters yesterday.

I started running at the Rosario Beach parking lot (off highway 20 outside of Anacortes) and circled out onto Rosario Head, a lungbuster with a bit of scrambling up some rocky impromptu trails, and then headed west along the beach and bluffs (on the Bowman Bay/Rosario Beach trail) to Bowman Bay. I then headed south along the beach at Bowman Bay and up another bluff trail, which heads first toward Deception Pass Bridge, and then loops around and heads back toward the beach, the Bowman Bay/Rosario Beach trail, and Rosario. I finished in about 40 minutes, and still had some time left, so I headed up onto Rosario Head again, this time taking some time at the top of the bluff to take in some scenery.

Total run time: 50 minutes
Total Ooohs and Aaahs: at least three or four, all of them having to do with the way the Sound looks from the top of a bluff -- that deep blue-green as you look down into the water... and the smells! Fecundity was the word of the day -- it smelled like LIFE -- plants and mud and the animals of the ocean -- I never complain about the weather when I get to run in a place like this!!!

A Reason to Run

I love to be outdoors, but like most people, I spend the bulk of the day inside, living and working my daily life. I try to get out and run every day, in whatever weather, but sometimes it's hard. So, to motivate me, I now have a blog where I'll post images and thoughts on the places I visit during my daily sojourns. Perhaps it'll be easier to get myself out in the cold and rain when I know my blog is waiting!