Flunking Thing 20

Oh dear, I’m not doing very well here at Thing 20. I’ve been searching through all the possibilities –and I must admit there are a lot–but not many of them seem interesting - or something I want to spend my time on. Doesn’t that sound elitist?

I keep coming back to the same old things : things that Mara introduced us to in Thing 19 (If I capitalize it, does that make it better?) Wanting to do collaborative writing and planning. Google.doc seems the better choice. How unimaginative.

Here’s what I want. An annual calendar. Does someone out there have that to offer?

I say that because I asked a question about another concern (not putting pictures of kids in our program out to EVERYONE) and someone from slideshare answered me back. Why would someone, besides one of us, be reading my blog?

I put our bylaws on google.doc and asked trustees to make changes. So far, the change suggestions have come by email-not changing the original document. No real experience in my major concern–that people would make changes and I wouldn’t even know what they were.

I think I’ll just keep working on the future I had mapped out for Thing 19, and not try to spread myself too thinly.

Oh, we had a great program today! River Exploration. OK, Stream. Everyone was looking under rocks and finding things. Gotta go now, so I can make a slide show about today. Tomorrow- Drawing From Nature.

Google Docs

Only created one google.doc. Our trustees need to review the bylaws for our next meeting, and last night I said I’d send the latest revision out. I was wondering if this would be a good use of google.doc, so I did it that way.

First Thing. (pardon me, maman) When I went to upload, Google told me that it couldn’t tell what kind of document I was sending. I’ve become very accustomed to Mac naming, but someone warned me that I’d need to use the suffix for advanced procedures. This is the FIRST time I’ve run into that.

Second Thing. I was wondering if public documents, or even limited audience documents are moderated.
By that, I mean, do I get to look at them before they are changed?  Once I put that thing (pardon me again) up there, I wondered if I’d be able to FIND all the changes people are making? This is truly a great experiment.

Third Thing. I’m going to try to figure out 30 Boxes. I’ve been doing the yearly calendar for the board very untechnologically. Let’s see if I can adapt this. (I wasn’t able to do it with iCal.)

Fourth Thing. Can slideshare be the way I can share pictures of events without making them public?

I’ve got a lot more to explore here.

I’m going to have to keep referring to my blog to find out what I plan to do. I have so many plans, so little time. Getting some knowledge, though.

I’m trying to rush through, because lambs are due to start coming on Sunday, so I might be away for a while - again.

I was just looking at the categories. Learning, playing. That’s what I used to say to parents - playing is learning - learning is playing.

My Favorite Frog

As I was working on thing 18, and diligently adding my favorites to vacation spots, plants, and wondering about restaurants and books, I came upon frogs.

At storytime we sing about 5 green and speckled frogs, with little frog puppets.
How could I resist taking a photo and adding it to the list?

Thing about wikis is that they’re not static. As I was reading though the favorite blogs, I was guessing that the Librarian’s Guide to Etiquette was not the blog of one of us. Funny though.

PLLoggerR had a good idea, that I think I’d like to play with…..”what about a wiki-podcast for a book discussion? You know, where everyone could add to the podcast, so that you have a shared, non-real time book discussion? Or is that too much like a chain letter where you hope that something valuable comes back to you? “

And I did figure out how to get photos in there.

Trying

I’m trying to add photos to the wiki for favorite vacations (just having returned), but when I insert the pictures they’re too big and distort the whole page. Then I tried the insert photo plug, but it’s blank when I go to preview. So, for now, it’s just words. But, tomorrow. I just tried to put them here, but I have to convert them again, and who remembers how? Guess I haven’t finished with thing whatever. 18? Big trouble here is that no way works the same for every program. As much as I dislike Microsoft, I must say I appreciate the fact that the command for copy works in whatever program I’m using. That has advantages.

Tripping Around MySpace

I’m trying to change my profile, especially, the picture. But still no luck. I was able to add comments to the picture of little paper sheep the first grade had made for me. That seemed SO important?????

So, I found the group and joined, and found Vermont Librarian. I didn’t look for more friends, but maybe I should have entered some of the names of 23 participants.

As I was exploring other groups I realized that this might be a good place to have more info about our book group and the current book they’re reading. So I sent an email to Laura (Laura is the volunteer who organizes our book groups), suggesting that she look at some of these for ideas. Sent her links to a few pages, although I don’t know if she’ll be able to open them. I could set something up for her, and then she could write about the book and invite people to comment. That might be fun for her.

I realize that I don’t have the public-private thing straight. But maybe those photos I posted aren’t too public. So maybe what I do now is send the address to others. I might try that. So, now I have to poke around to figure out how to add friends. It’s a good thing I have to sit still. Yesterday when I went to feed the sheep, it was raining and I got stuck - really stuck - in about 4 inches of mud. Twisted my ankle, so I decided to feed them inside. Mac rammed me, the creep, so I’m sitting on the couch resting my ankle, and nursing my black and blue hip. No permanent damage, but I’m changing things so he’s not in with the girls until…………when I’m finished being mad at him.

Got the picture changed. Of course, now the link at the top doesn’t link to the right place anymore. Let’s see if I can fix that. Poked, but no luck yet making friends. I feel very lonely. I’ve tried…Ah, found it. Sounds like I have to invite people to join and then they’ll see the photos. Let’s try it.

And I did change my profile. All except for my birthday. Can’t lie, I just don’t want it to show. But, I guess that’s asking too much.

WOW

At this point, I don’t quite remember what thing 11 is, but I have my eye on MY prize. I’m going to get a little slide show up there. And it’s working, slowly but surely.

Of course, it’s not exactly what I had in mind. It looks very public to me, and yet I had in mind to restrict it to friends. (But the pictures are so small and of such poor resolution that I hope I won’t get in too much trouble. Although, this is a class, and I should hold myself to the highest standards.)

Also, it’s very incomplete. I hope I can edit it, as I realize what I’ve left out. (Wait, Cathi, you don’t need all 295 pictures in there.) So, I next have to prepare photos for the web. That will take a while. Nothing is quite as easy as it seems.

But, mostly, I feel like I’ve come out of my stuckness.

Does this means I have to start on AVATARS now? Is 12 coming soon? Now what?

No matter what the date stamp says, it’s March 5, Wednesday, about 11:30 and I’m going to sleep now.

This Course Is Driving Me Nuts

So, here it is, quarter to eleven,
I’m so tired I can hardly see, I have to go turn up the heat at 7 tomorrow, and I’m playing around with this stuff-my blog, my MySpace page, my profile,…..grrrrrr.

We’re doing a school vacation week program-STORY-PUPPET-PLAY. It’s a three-day workshop, starting with the story WHY DO MOSQUITOES BUZZ IN PEOPLES EARS. Jody has pulled this whole thing together, in the last two weeks, after all the professionals we tried to hire fell through. It is SO good. Yesterday this collection of kids showed up on time, after one of those snowstorms. Needless to say, Jody and I just barely got there before they did. We both had grand plans.

They are so intent, so focused. I’m Jody’s GOFUR but I fall down on the job a lot, because I’m taking pictures. Pictures of everything, making puppets from scratch, starting the scenery with blank cardboard and a white sheet, backstage at the puppet theatre, the incredible jungle scene, the tickets they create to hand out tomorrow, these beautiful puppets…..

So, besides making a little slideshow for the kids to watch tomorrow, I realize that I need to make a presentation on that MySpace page and give the address to all the parents tomorrow.

I grew up the daughter of a photofinisher and started taking pictures very early-I never had to pay to have them developed. But digital cameras will be my downfall. I took 124 pictures yesterday, and about 180 today.
And I can’t throw many away, because there’s always a great little vignette lurking there. Then, of course, I have to edit them. How did that go about pixels and loading time?????? So, I’ve found about 10 that I’d like to share through MySpace. Coming soon.
Computer about to run out of juice. Must get sleep. To be continued……….

Hamster Sudoku

So, this week we’re supposed to explore Flickr mashups and third party sites. I’m looking through, and thinking ‘I’m too old for this. I don’t get it. I don’t even want to get it.’ As I scroll down through all this meaningless stuff, I find Hamster Sudoku. And I start playing it! Well, now it’s bookmarked, so I can figure out how to correct mistakes. So, the idea is to mesh your idea with someone else’s. Learning is supposed to be fun. I just have to remember that I’m playing. I always used to say that to parents-playing around with things- and ideas- is how you learn. Hope I can apply that to myself.

The OTHER thing I’m learning is how to use these tabs in Firefox. Not perfect yet, but getting an idea. Sometimes I guess wrong.

Gonna’ try using tags today, or maybe it should be categories, as I read Plloggerr and saw a few things I’m missing.

I will, eventually, get back to the library. I’ll have a blog in What’s Here, and maybe another to supplement programs, maybe. Have to figure that out.

This seems odd. So, what is path, and what is categories? Try things.