Well between week eight and week nine, both were very challenging, time consuming and frustrating. Evem though I'm a cat, new tricks don't come easy, especially when there is little time in the day. These are great tools of entertainment and information, perfect for someone with lots of time on their hands. Now I know why I haven't done either before. As with myspace and podcasting, I just can't seem to figure out how to invite friends that I know. I really don't want to know perfect strangers. Us cats are known for our finickiness. Without friends e-mails, not sure how else to do this. Probably the most frustrating part of this whole exercise. Besides that aspect, Youtube was very easy to use. The hardest part was finding a user name that wasn't already taken. My URL is http://youtube.com/King27kitty. I chose Mr. Bean at the library since I was in some desperate need of some humor. Frustrating that I couldn't get it to sit nicely on my blog...you will notice you can't view the entire screen shot of the video. You may want to go to Youtube and search Mr. Bean and Library...it really is worth a good laugh. I also found a number of music videos and created a playlist (you will see at the very bottom of this blog). I was quite impressed with the wide variety of music available with videos, especially the "old" stuff. Adding the video and the playlist to the blog was very easy..the embedding stuff. At first it wasn't intuitive because I thought it was a "video" but it isn't...it is a java thingymahopper. Just exploring Youtube was hours so didn't explore other sites. Most interesting thing I learned is that if one has no life at all, they can never complain about being bored. Youtube could keep one amused for years. If you ran out of things to watch, you could then learn how to upload videos which actually would be very cool too. Using Youtube in a library setting might be interesting, especially to broadcast a public licence approved movie remotely. In-house it might be frustrating because it might stop and start quite occassionally as I experienced with some of the videos this evening. It might also be a way to broadcast author visits, special programs such as the Russ Parsons program, or concerts. Since I learn much better by "seeing" than "audioing" Youtube was a great visual help in showing me how to use Youtube.
Podcasts were interesting though I never did figure out how to put my podcast site onto this blog. I finally gave up. I chose podnova.com as my choice for podcast downloads. Some interesting ones that I found were:
The La Porte Report http://leoville.com (yep I'm a nerdy cat) and YaBookcast at yabookcast.libsyn.com which I found fun. Horn book had a podcast too but I couldn't figure out how to get it into my podnova profile. I think I would find podcasts useful, especially for professional development and training and keeping up with new and relevant information. It would be fun to do a podcast of new materials for specific age ranges as it would be another way to reach people. You know how people and cats can be, we never read signs, much less lists.
Other libraries using podcasts include Sunnyvale and Denver Public Library. Sunnyvale had both audio and video broadcasts of library programs and "voice" stories...actually pretty cool. Denver Public Library did booktalks which was also cool. podcast.denverlibrary.org/. This learning is hard on the brain...time for a cat nap.
Thursday, March 27, 2008
Friday, March 21, 2008
Week Eight
Social networking is interesting but alot of it isn't what it seems. Creating an account was easy, as was setting up a profile, etc. The hardest thing was finding friends. I thought how fun, I'll just look for a famous musician and invite them to be my friend. Well, that is where it was quite, shall I say, eye opening, not to mention surprising. I found nothing on what I wanted and everything I didnt' want. I know there are some cool cat teens and twenty somethings out there with a Myspace account but trying to find them by name is almost impossible, or, if you do find the name, it definitely isn't the cat. Inviting a total stranger to be a friend was very uncomfortable, not to mention, the total stranger may say one thing and be something completely different. Imagine, I was hoping to find another cat with similar interests and find out it is a bulldog instead...yikes...guess that is why I like to be a one cat family. I tried adding music but that didn't work well either. Yo Yo Ma definitely isn't a cello player on Myspace. Some musicians weren't even listed and weird stuff, not even a remote resemblence to the real one.
The pros, if any, would be to keep in touch with people, not necessarily something I would prefer to do. The cons, well just about everything else...kind of like my friend Spooky...you just let it all hang out and don't get much in return. I guess these sites are popular because it lets one post pictures and meet friends and friends of friends. Not sure there is much usefulness for us. Not sure we would be the cool cats to befriend the kind of friends we are wanting to befriend. The url is http://www.myspace.com/kingkity
The pros, if any, would be to keep in touch with people, not necessarily something I would prefer to do. The cons, well just about everything else...kind of like my friend Spooky...you just let it all hang out and don't get much in return. I guess these sites are popular because it lets one post pictures and meet friends and friends of friends. Not sure there is much usefulness for us. Not sure we would be the cool cats to befriend the kind of friends we are wanting to befriend. The url is http://www.myspace.com/kingkity
Monday, March 17, 2008
Week Seven
Google Docs is interesting and definitely could work to one's advantage. For instance, I am a pure carnivore, everyone in the feline family knows that and you would think my owners would too. They are always trying to give me lettuce or tomatoes or spinach or asparagus. I just don't eat those things. I created my menu preferences and hope this will help in my menu planning and food preparation in Google Docs. It was easy to set up and easy to use. Just a bit slow in processing. My favorite feature was how similiar it is to Microsoft Word or Excel. Very easy to use and a nice way to collaborate on a document without sending a slew of e-mails back and forth. I could definitely see a use for it, though speedier would be nicer.I couldn't figure out how to post the form into my blog. I would think that would be doable. Tried collaborating to the blog but it didn't recognize that. Tried pasting the long e-mail link but it didn't "link". It is called King Kitty's Menu. With some great help, now I can say it is very easy to share documents...I just had to click on the publish tab...now you can view it. To see my menu, check out http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=pFF6E3GNzUOD7rjk5yKhcJQ.
Other applications include the Fun Brochure, Display cases, input to the Emergency Manual, and other documents that solicit input by everyone.
Other applications include the Fun Brochure, Display cases, input to the Emergency Manual, and other documents that solicit input by everyone.
Week Six
Week six was a bit more challenging but interesting. Tres neat that I can upload all of my pictures to one place and not have to take up lots of memory on my owners' computer. Also neat that I can access all of my photos from anywhere! I do like being able to find other photos of cats...almost better than prowling the neighborhood...I said almost ... since I still like to know who has been in my territory, let the new kids on the block know who's King (moi), and stop and smell the flowers along the way. Did you see my new photos? Since I have 9 lives, nice to think how I might want to spend them. In Ancient Egypt, cats were considered sacred and we were "mummieized" so that we could pass to the afterlife with our owner. I hope I can be reincarnated into someone handsome and artistic such as these photos so that I will live a pampered life and be loved and adored as I have so far.
Uploading photos to Flickr was a challenge. First, I downloaded some special software that took 11+ minutes to download only to find out it didn't help at all. I downloaded it again and it still was useless. After that, time for a nap. I was worn out. I finally had to send a photo to my e-mail, save to my desktop, and then upload into my Flickr account. Once I figured this out, it was very easy to do and easier still to add a comment and name. When I did this, I was also hoping for a link to upload to my blog but didn't see one.
As for adding my own photos to Flickr, there must be an easier way than to save to desktop and upload... I will have to explore further, after I've sunbathed and contemplated this a bit.
As for tagging, this was quite interesting because I tag alot throughout the neighborhood, if you know what I mean...but tagging in Flickr is more, shall I say, civilized? I just put in "Cat" and you can find me! Of course I did see the tag "cute" and thought that was a nice tag too but it didn't lead back to me...just to another cat and a bunch of other pictures having nothing to do with me. Picking the right name for tagging is important, especially if one wants to find their pictures again and/or similar pictures. It does make a difference if you capitalize or not so I guess it might be best to not capitalize.
I was a bit confused (I must be getting up in years...my birthday is tomorrow!) when I looked at Contacts and Groups. Definitely don't want to belong to a group as I am a one cat family and don't want to share their indulgence on me with anyone else. I tried Contact and think I have Contacts now, though not sure they want to be part of my Contacts list. I tried to go back and modify it but I couldn't seem to get back there.
The Flickr mashups looked fun. Would be nice to make a motivational picture for my owner...something with a picture of a chicken or fish as a daily reminder of my favorite food! I wouldn't mind my owner putting vacation pictures into that trip planning mashup. That would be fun too...to see where they went and what they saw as I have no desire to travel. I tried it once to the desert, I even had a birds eye view by sitting by the steering wheel, but I was so scared and shook so bad, my owner thought I was going to have a heart attack...and I was only a kitten...nope, travelling is not for me.
Flickr is a great way to share fun photos with family, friends and the community. As we already have a Flickr account, it is a fun way to share community events with the community. It is also a fun documentation of all of the fun things we have done over time. It also might be a way to upload photos for publicity.
Uploading photos to Flickr was a challenge. First, I downloaded some special software that took 11+ minutes to download only to find out it didn't help at all. I downloaded it again and it still was useless. After that, time for a nap. I was worn out. I finally had to send a photo to my e-mail, save to my desktop, and then upload into my Flickr account. Once I figured this out, it was very easy to do and easier still to add a comment and name. When I did this, I was also hoping for a link to upload to my blog but didn't see one.
As for adding my own photos to Flickr, there must be an easier way than to save to desktop and upload... I will have to explore further, after I've sunbathed and contemplated this a bit.
As for tagging, this was quite interesting because I tag alot throughout the neighborhood, if you know what I mean...but tagging in Flickr is more, shall I say, civilized? I just put in "Cat" and you can find me! Of course I did see the tag "cute" and thought that was a nice tag too but it didn't lead back to me...just to another cat and a bunch of other pictures having nothing to do with me. Picking the right name for tagging is important, especially if one wants to find their pictures again and/or similar pictures. It does make a difference if you capitalize or not so I guess it might be best to not capitalize.
I was a bit confused (I must be getting up in years...my birthday is tomorrow!) when I looked at Contacts and Groups. Definitely don't want to belong to a group as I am a one cat family and don't want to share their indulgence on me with anyone else. I tried Contact and think I have Contacts now, though not sure they want to be part of my Contacts list. I tried to go back and modify it but I couldn't seem to get back there.
The Flickr mashups looked fun. Would be nice to make a motivational picture for my owner...something with a picture of a chicken or fish as a daily reminder of my favorite food! I wouldn't mind my owner putting vacation pictures into that trip planning mashup. That would be fun too...to see where they went and what they saw as I have no desire to travel. I tried it once to the desert, I even had a birds eye view by sitting by the steering wheel, but I was so scared and shook so bad, my owner thought I was going to have a heart attack...and I was only a kitten...nope, travelling is not for me.
Flickr is a great way to share fun photos with family, friends and the community. As we already have a Flickr account, it is a fun way to share community events with the community. It is also a fun documentation of all of the fun things we have done over time. It also might be a way to upload photos for publicity.
Tuesday, March 4, 2008
Andre Rieu from his website
And...since we have 9 lives, if I can't be James Bond, perhaps Andre Rieu? He plays the violin beautifully, gets to travel the world and makes classical music tres fun!
Photo from http://www.andrerieu.com/site/
James Bond 007 by hayash naohiro2007
As we were saying, we have 9 lives. In my next life, I would like to come back as James Bond 007...handsome, adventurous and always a gentleman. Of course my owner would like that too. Wonder if I'd still have to sleep at the foot of the bed?
Photo from flickr.com
Cat Conspiracy by Tjflex2
Your attention please! Is anyone listening to me? Perhaps I need to bring some treats to the next meeting. Today I would like to discuss our 9 lives. This is our life now...quite good don't you think?
Photo from flickr.com
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