Blog Etiquette

I just read something the other day about what makes a good blog, and blog etiquette, so I haven't been blogging.

For one thing, you're supposed to keep your blogs brief, which I haven't been doing, and even if I wasn't blogging for a project, I probably still wouldn't write brief blogs.

It seems to me that many people like to blog just to hear themselves talk, so to speak. I think that I could easily fall into that category once I got started. Bla bla bla---blog blog blog.

So I'll be back if I have any more library 2.0 stuff to talk about. And I'll try to be brief.

Thing #18, Youtube again

As you can see, I am still blogging as promised. It's funny to be writing all of this to maybe no one, and at the same time, maybe everyone. But's it's a nice way to keep a journal. Maybe someday I'll start another private blog just to journal about private stuff! Anyway...

Well I wasn't going to make my own movie or put it on Youtube, but then I remembered that several family members have so I thought I would add my "Mickey" movie just for fun and try to improve upon it someday, and I realized that I already have a Youtube account. So I was all ready with my movie and everything but the Youtube site isn't working. So I'll check later. I actually had been on my site earlier checking out my family's videos that I had forgotten about and that led me to check out how easy it is to upload videos. But I'm not going to make my "Mickey" clip public because it's not any good. (See below).

ELM Databases For All Minnesotans

Say, this is my first political blog.

I normally try to avoid library politics but I do want to add my support to a piece of legislation that would make taxpayer supported ELM Databases accessible to all Minnesotans, not just those whose libraries are members of a regional library system. My library is a member of a regional system so it already receives ELM Databases. But there are Minnesota taxpayers whose libraries don't receive ELM Databases as they should. (East Grand Forks, Taylor Falls, Crosby, Hendricks and Clarkfield.)

Please consider supporting this legislation (ELM Access Bill) so that no one is excluded from receiving access to these important taxpayer-funded databases.

Digital Day

Well, today I decided to goof around with "as many different things that I'm not good at" as I possibly could, with varying degrees of success.

I started out trying to download a video from my actor son in NY. He sent it to me via email last night. No success with it last night. Said I needed Quicktime. I had Quicktime. Some compressor thingey wasn't working. Emailed it to my other account and forwarded it back to my first account but on our desktop computer instead of laptop. Today I opened it after it told me that my Quicktime settings there were playing with some other applications and did I want them to do what I wanted them to do with my son's video clip.(Not in so many words but you get the idea.) I was finally able to see the clip which I am not allowed to show you because someone may steal their idea for a sitcom (delusions of grandeur?). Anyway, I opened, I saw, it was cool, and now I'm waiting for an 8MB one to open in my email.

So THEN I decided to put a counter on my blog--one for my bday and one for Christmas. They appeared on my blog page but didn't work, so I removed them. Will try that again someday. It's easier on Facebook, they just do those things for you.

Then I decided to try taking a short movie of my dog using my camera, which I've never done before--well once I did accidentally take a movie of my foot but I forgot how to do that. So of course my dog was not cooperative--he thought I should be taking a still shot so he stood still mostly. Then it took me some time to figure out how to replay it on my camera. Then I had to download (or upload) it into my computer which took awhile. Then I tried to upload it onto this blog page, which was my ultimate goal. Didn't work. My next trick was to upload it to my Ning 23 Things on a Stick web page, which worked. So I embeded it and transferred it to this blog--trying to do it a couple of different ways, and I finally was successful, more's the pity. Now two groups of viewers have to suffer through watching this poor little film.

Mickey Movie Take 2

Find more videos like this on 23 Things on a Stick

Countdown Clocks

Hmmmmm. Obviously the powers that be don't want anyone to know when my birthday or Christmas is. I've downloaded two countdown clocks and they are very red, but don't seem to be working. I will check back later to see if they have seen the error of their ways, but if not, it's into the bucket with them. I was going to make a countdown clock for the first warm day, but it's here! Yay!

Thing #23 One Last Thing

I've taken the survey. I'm still putzing around with this and that and checking to see if everything is complete or if I've missed anything. I've jumped around quite a bit. I'm still listening to the Opal lecture. It's almost done I think. They last about an hour.

I've been alternately pleased and frustrated with the 23 Things. But because of taking part in this program, I won't be nearly as nervous about trying new 2.0 stuff. It's funny because normally I enjoy getting and using new electronic gadgets--cell phones, mp3 players, electronic reading devices, laptops, webcams, palm pilots. But I use those items when I want to--they are not patron-driven or driven by when my boss wants me to use them. So there is a little more pressure to learn Library 2.0 stuff than there is to use my electronic gadgets.

That being said, it wasn't my boss who suggested signing up for 23 Things. This was strictly a voluntary project on my part. I think I first heard about it in an email. Then I put it aside because I thought it would take way too long to complete. I have done most of the Things while at home and not on the clock. I would never have time to complete them at work! It might have been neat to have our entire Information staff work on these "things" together but I think the program would have had to be presented in smaller chunks.

More later...