23things

#70 - Genealogy

2010-07-28T08:45:00.000-07:00

1. Sorry, I will not "create a free account" on any further websites. I really do not care if I look like any known celebrity, and I already know which parent I look most like.

2. I'm sure Footnote and websites like it are really helpful for people who are using the internet to search for ancestors and fill in family trees. I think it is great that people will post items for the public that have nothing to do with their own histories. My own family has compiled research and filled in the family tree back to the mid 1600's the old fashioned way - searching documents in libraries, court houses, churchs and cemetaries; and by visiting relatives both known and newly-found and adding what they know to what was already known.

#69 - Genealogy

2010-07-28T07:55:00.000-07:00

In HeritageQuest, I found my maternal grandfather listed in the 1920 US Census in Dormant, PA, and in the 1930 US Census in Stamford, CT, which agreed with 'written' history from the family.

My grandparents moved from the North East to New Orleans in the 1930's, and my Grandmother had her children, my Mother's three older siblings write their version of the move. These stories or essays have been kept with the family records for more than 60 years.

#68 - Genealogy

2010-07-28T07:45:00.000-07:00

I haven't persued an oral history, and probably wouldn't, just as a preference. I used a 'tree' form, and really did like the way the information was readily available for each name.

I could not figure out how to search for the oldest grave in a cemetary; however, I did find the listing of my paternal grandparents burial sites, in the Lawndale Cemetary, in Houston.

#67 - Genealogy

2010-07-28T07:41:00.000-07:00

I began researching my family tree when I was in high school, by interviewing my Grandmother and my Mother's siblings who were all at least 12 years older than my Mother. I would suggest this as a way to begin research for any family tree.

65 - Coin collecting

2010-07-21T07:15:00.000-07:00

I know that coin collecting can be profitable and fun. But it really never interested me as a hobby. The weight of the coins for a collection would be an issue, I think.

I looked at the coins in my wallet - and found nothing with more than face value, not that I expected to.

On GoogleMaps, I found a coin shop in Humble at 113 1st Street West. Maybe I'll go "window shop" sometime; however, I still do not see this as a hobby I would persue.

#60 Recession Busters

2010-04-27T14:51:00.000-07:00

At the Recession Cookbook website, I found recipes for Black Bean Soup, made from bagged black beans, and Arugula, Avocado, Orange Salad. The cost of the raw materials for this meal was less than $10.

One useful tactic I use at the grocery store to save money is to use coupons. I use them for items on sale and also for items that I use often, and stock my pantry ahead of my needs.

Shopping the sale ads for seasonal items, checking shelves for discontinued items and seeking out the 'bent & dent' bins for items that I can use right away can be a way to reduce the 'pain' at the checkout register.

#84 Writer communities

2010-04-26T13:28:00.000-07:00

I have gone to some of my favorite authors websites - actually what is written on the book jacket is usually enough information for me. Even though some of my authors have websites, I do not wish to interact via the web. I consider that way too invasive.

Books published on popular vote is way too close to voting for a politician-I would have way less faith in the material.

#83 Paper to pixels

2010-04-26T13:26:00.001-07:00

I prefer the traditionally printed on paper books.

I don't normally buy books - paper or digital - I wait until thety appear in the library and borrow them.

I guess for those who buy books, the preview would be a good idea.

#82 Publishing Evolution

2010-04-26T13:22:00.001-07:00

Looking at the published book list on the self publishing web sites - none of the titles seemed familiar. I was truly amazed at the number of web sites for self publishing. As a reader, I would prefer books that have passed through the 'ritual of fire' and been published the traditional way.

#59

2010-04-23T10:57:00.000-07:00

I was unaware of how a Credit Score was calculated until I read "How Credit Scores Work".

The budget we use in my home is very loose-but it seems to work for us.

The TCDRS site was interesting. I found all the ways(5,I think) I can choose to get my funds from them.

Money & Finance #58

2010-04-23T09:27:00.000-07:00

My bank does offer online banking, however I do not use their service.

I know that budgeting is a good tool to use, and I do it in a very loose way.

The article on cutting back on spending was good. I do employ some of the ideas expressed in the article. My grocery store offers a 10% discount for store brand items, and also a 10% discount for shoppers over 55 years of age. I also seek out the 'bent & dent' bin for items that I use all the time.

Zines

2010-04-23T08:22:00.000-07:00

I cannot see any reason why I would make a 'zine'. I barely have enough time to apply myself to my favorite interest, let alone write about it to share with anyone.
With as much information that is available on the internet, I fail to see why homemade, handmade items should be catalogued in our library.

#62

2010-04-22T16:06:00.000-07:00

Many years ago I did decoupage projects as gifts, so this craft is not new to me. I didi greeting cards made into placques for the grandparents of my sons. I enjoyed doing them: however, I don't think I will be doing any more of it.

#61

2010-04-22T15:01:00.000-07:00

The "apron tee shirt" @ craftzine really looked cute. I would prefer written instructions, with perhaps video as a back-up. Sometimes seeing is more helpful - but not always.

#75- Searching Google and beyond

2010-01-26T09:30:00.000-08:00

My three searches in Blindspot hit google once and yahoo twice. It really seemed to me that a lot of the tag lines were the same in each column, just arranged in different order. Google was the top of the Hitwise list on January 26th. I thought it very interesting that Bing offered cash back on items pruchased on line through its offering of merchandisers. Interesting, however, I rarely purchase on line so it really doesn't make that much difference to me. It is good to know that there are new search engines available, but I probably will stick with the ones I currently use, just because of familiarity.

Potluck #49-Love of languages

2009-06-11T08:38:00.000-07:00

I found all the sites listed- livemocha, mango, and wikibooks- to be very interesting. However, I think for my purposes livemocha would be the best choice. It seems to really be at the pace of the learner. Since distractions are always around, my pace would be hard to be consistant. I love the sound of the French language, and took a year of it in high school, and I wouldn't mind being able to speak it for my own pleasure. However, the more usuable language for my job would be either Spanish or one of the Middle Eastern languages, since they seem to be the most common ones spoken by our patrons, other than English.

iHCPL # 54. Social Networking

2009-02-28T12:11:00.000-08:00

1. I joined a book club in Junior High School. The book was 'Lord of the Flies'. I went to one meeting. That was enough for me. I prefer to read for pleasure. I do not care about symbolism, author's agenda or whether or not anyone else likes the book I want to read. I won't be joining a book club again, either on line or in person.

2. IF I were to want to implement a book club in this library, I would choose one for readers of cozy mysteries. To gather members I would put fliers in the lobby and invitations to join in the books being checked out by other cozy mystery readers. Using Goodreads, I would choose Diane Mott Davidson's 'Prime Cut' for the group to read.

3. I searched for 'The Good Dog' by Avi on Shelfari and Goodreads. Both sites gave the book a 4 stars or better rating.

#53 Finding Books Online

2009-02-27T13:21:00.000-08:00

1. The 3 closest booksellers to me are: Echo Mountain Press, a private printing company; Homeschool Haven, a homeschool book store; and Barnes & Nobles, a true book store. All have websites. The private printing company appears to be based in a home. The homeschool store is specifically for the purchase and selling of books for homeschool programs. Barnes & Nobles is located in the Deerbrook Mall.

2. 'The Cat Who Wished to be a Wise Man' by Alexander Lloyd is not listed as being available from Barnes & Nobles, nor is it available from Giant Book Sale, which is the forth closest book store to me.

3.For 30 minutes I read 'Chasing Time: A Magical Bicycle Mystery' from my computer screen. I would not choose to read a book this way, I prefer to have it in my hand to read. I can see the advantage to being able to download a specific book to listen to for travel purposes.

iHCPL #52 What to Read

2009-02-10T09:16:00.000-08:00

1. Using Novelist Plus, I entered Lilian Jackson Braun as a cozy mystery writer and the results included Rita Mae Brown, Nancy Atherton and M C Beaton. I have read all these authors and agreed with the results as being read alikes. The lists from What Should I Read Next and Fiction_L Booklists were not the same, however there were some authors on each that I have read and I do agree that they are cozy reads. I like Diane Mott Davidson from What Should I Read Next, and Jeff Abbott from Fiction_L Booklists.

2.Using Novelist Plus, I found The Cat Who Wished to be a Wise Man, by Alexander Lloyd and The Good Dog by Avi for the fourth grade girl. I also found Real Ghosts, Restless Spirits and Haunted Places by Brad Steiger, and Restless: a ghost story by Rich Wallace for the 13 year old brother.

3.For the customer who has read all of Koontz's books, using What Should I Read Next, I would recommed Iris Johansen or F. Paul Wilson; using Novelist Plus, I found Greg Bear and John Saul.

4.Using the What's Next website, Alanna:the First Adventure comes from the Song of the Lioness Quartet series. Book 2 is In the Hands of the Goddess; book 3 is The Woman Who Rides Like a Man; & book 4 is Lioness Rampant.

iHCPL #34-Geocoding and geocaching

2009-01-26T17:18:00.000-08:00

The location I chose to find was 4102 Rustic Wood, my library, of course. The coordinates are:
30.054655,-95.185497
N30degrees3.27930 W095degrees11.12982.

http://www.geocaching.com/seek/nearest.aspx?lat=30.0633614&lng=-95.1692752&dist=100 is the GPS coordinate of the geocache I looked at.

I can not think of any thing I would be less likely to do than geocache.

iHCPL #33 Relocating with Online Maps

2009-01-22T12:45:00.000-08:00

Using the HAR website, I searched for available houses in my own zipcode. I found which were empty, which would be quick move-in. All had pictures posted of the interior, and most of the back yards. If I were relocating to a new home in the same area I now live in, I would want to find a house that was not on a main road, not too near a school, and was relatively ready to move into (i.e.-landscaped, fenced, with drapes). By entering the address of the ones I found on HAR into the Google mapscape site, I was able to determine which of the selected ones best suited my criteria.

This website was by far the easiest to use of the three listed. However, when I was searching for a second home in the Hill Country of Texas, I used Realtor.com, and found that to be easier than HAR.

iHCPL #32 Current events

2009-01-22T08:13:00.000-08:00

Did you know that there is a website for free public restrooms? True! The Houston Public Library is one of the ones listed on www.safe2pee.com. Finding where others might be is just one of the things you can find on Google Maps. At Globalincidentmap.com you can keep currently abreast with terrorist activity anywhere in the world. I'm thinking we don't need to tell Ann about this site. However, it seems a bridge in Vancouver, BC was an incident site(maybe today, I'm not sure if the iHCPL link is current or for the date it was put out for the staff).

iHCPL #31 - Maps

2009-01-22T08:09:00.000-08:00

I have begun the module on mapping. My son is coming from Oregon this summer, and wants to do the tourist thing in the Houston area. I have mapped the route to the Houston Aquarium. If I can not lose it between now and this summer...yea!

The virtual tour option is neat. I can see what is around the exact map spot on ground level. Great idea.

Week 10;THE END

2007-11-21T13:48:00.000-08:00

If I could choose only one word to describe "23 things", it would be frustration.

From the fact that there was a time frame in which it ALL must be completed to get CE hours, to lengtht of time it took to do each exercise, it was too compressed. Things that I had absolutely no interest in doing were required, and the things I would like to understand so that I could use were just another step to get through so I wouldn't get behind. I have no real understanding of any of the tools offered, and can't even remember the names of some of them.

Being asked to offer my personal information to the entire internet community by setting up accounts that I didn't want or will ever use was very disturbing. At the very least this is not a responsible request that any employer should be making of employees.

I don't feel that the committee used the lowest common denominator when setting the goals or divising the exercises. And somebody certainly failed to check the dictionary for the definition of 'bling'. As a reward, or incentive, a thermal mug or memory stick would be more fitting and certainly more useful.

If I had known in September what the course for the "23 things" would be like, I would have opted to ride the bus to Prairie and take classes there for 4 or 5 times.

Wee 9;#22

2007-11-14T12:04:00.000-08:00

There were more titles than I expected on the digital library at HCPL. I was impressed that some of the title are for really old things, i.e. Hopalong Cassidy. I can see how movies on the downloadable database would keep children on the airplanes quiet. (Hooray, and tell all their parents!)

I haven't used either the HCPL downloadable site or any of the others out there, so I don't know the differences in downloading.

These are not things that I can see being useful for me, however I can see that they would be useful in some situations, and for some people.

Week 9; Podcasts

2007-11-13T09:39:00.000-08:00

I can not tell you how excited I am that this is week 9. That means that only one more week will I have to spend my work room time on things that I will probably never use again. With the help of other staff members, I did get Garrison Keilor posted to my bloglines account. I will be able to hear his poetry minutes, if I choose.

Week 9; YouTube

2007-11-12T13:54:00.000-08:00

There are some cute videos on YouTube and Yahoo. I'm sure that somebody could figure out how to use the amimation sites for a library video, maybe for a teen or children's video. But I really can't see myself spending time during the work day to tune in to any of them. And while I might think they are cute, my time away from the work place is geared to home things, not computers. This is not something that I will probably use in the future.

Week 8: EXTRA

2007-10-30T13:03:00.000-07:00

We have been without computers at the circulation desk for most of last week, books being returned have been piling higher than the window on our counter, returns have not been sent on to their owning branches, requests have been cancelled and returned, and patrons have been upset when their requests diappeared, and rightly so. And you have the gall to send out a new '23 things' exercise to those in the trenches who are already stressed and will now have to deal face to face with the unhappy public. Thanks for all your support in this time of need.

Week 8: 19

2007-10-30T12:48:00.000-07:00

I opened the ZOHO writer account, and it would not let me create a document. I checked out every item on the tool bar, some are cute(emotions) and some are necessary (spell checck). If I had to write a paper and could use the bold, italics, color combos, etc., it might make it more fun to write the paper. However, I am probably past the point in my life that I will need to write a paper for any reason than my own edification, and for that I will use paper and pen.

Week 8: 18

2007-10-30T09:37:00.000-07:00

I enjoyed viewing the pictures on Dogster & Catster. Those people who post diaries on those web sites must be coupon babies or retired, or just have way too much time on their time. Perhaps they should consider donating time at the local animal shelter.

My space, facepage and a lot of the other sites seem to offer real opportunities to have your identity stolen or to put people in other dangers. I am not in favor of them. Recalling the youtube offered at the beginning of these exercises regarding the young girl whose underware color was discussed by even the ticket taker at the theatre, posting to many of the social networking websites should be a 'no-no'. The younger generation seem to think nothing of sharing all and sundry information on the web. Just because it is there doesn't make it good!

Week 7; #17

2007-10-23T12:39:00.000-07:00

I thought the avatar was 'fun'; so what? Working in the yard is much more fun for me. We each have our fun things to do. Technology is obviously not mine. I'm working my way these '23 things' so that I can say that I have done them.

I have done them all so far, and I intend to finish them all. Will I ever use them again on my own time? Extremely doubtful. Will I be the worse off for not using them? Absolutely not.

Week 7; # 16

2007-10-23T12:18:00.000-07:00

I agree with whomever said that wikki's are wacky! How can you rely on something that any one can edit or change at their whim? Who is to say that the person monitoring the changes or edits is reliable enough to keep the information true?

The favorite sites are okay, and even cute with the amimal pictures, but why do I care about the favorite board game of someone in Dallas? Or even the favorite music of someone across town? I'd rather 'ask' the person in the desk next to mine about their favorite game or music. At least I know who they are.

Week 6: # 15

2007-10-17T12:35:00.000-07:00

I find Library 4.0 to be a very disturbing vision of the future. Library staff will be sitting more, viewing work time through 'virtual reality' eye wear, being less physically active, developing more illnesses, living less years, and especially less 'well' years. I hope I do not live long enough to be a part of Library 4.0.

The statement in Library 3.0 that some Secondlifers spend more than 40 hours a week on the web, I found to be SAD! Pathetically SAD!!! If those people would donate half those hours to a charity, they and the world would benefit.

One thing I have discoverd while reading the '23 things' weekly email exercises, is that people who rely on computers, emails, and the internet to communicate have lost their grasp of the basics of proper grammar.

This exercise has taken a whole 2 hours to complete. Having only 3 hours of workroom time today, I feel totally robbed of those 2 hours.

Week 6; #14

2007-10-16T09:24:00.000-07:00

"Learning 2.0" entered in 'blog posts','tags', and 'blog directory' brought up different stories or 'blogs'. And I never did find any regarding HCPL 2.0(did I not look far enough? time was limited). I was surprised at how many people think that others will be interested in what they have to say about any given subject. Especially interesting was that there seem to be very few 'experts' choosing this way to expound on their subjects. Most blogs seem to be done by ordinary people with opinions on various subjects. Conclusion: There are a lot of people in the world that have way more time on their hands than I do.

Week 6: Tagging

2007-10-15T13:29:00.000-07:00

I can see how Delicious would be really helpful if you had a lot of bookmarks and you used more than one computer. And it seems to be really easy to use.

Some of the sites on tagging were interesting, if I posted any pics to the net, I can see how that would be helpful to others. Personally, I don't share, or try to find any on the net, so it is moot for my purposes.

Week 5; #12

2007-10-10T09:38:00.000-07:00

An 'elf' account is now in my life. Big deal, if keeping track of the library books I have out needs to be watched by someone else, I am in big trouble. Al Gore(notice that it's a 4 letter word) should never have invented the internet, as far as I'm concerned. Why should I be required to put personal information on the internet in order to earn c e hours for my job?

Week 5;# 11

2007-10-09T09:56:00.000-07:00

http://www.librarything.com/catalog/gg2rrett

Wow, this was rather iffy as to being able to get a link to my blog. Library Thing's instuctions just stop. No next, no forward...just stops!!

Week 5: #10

2007-10-08T13:02:00.001-07:00

This is not play, this is work. It has taken me more than an hour to do this exercise, and at a branch this amount of continous time in the workroom is not always possible. These "23 things"should net us more than 10 c.e. hours. The committee should have had a "real" non-techno on the test staff. Those on the committee obviously had a leg up on all this stuff already. The frustration level alone should net us a couple of c.e. hours!!

wee 5; #10

2007-10-08T12:54:00.001-07:00

Week 5;#10

2007-10-08T09:59:00.000-07:00

This is my avatar. How wonderful?? "Play" is not a word to describe this exercise.

week 4;#9

2007-10-02T09:53:00.000-07:00

Evidently there is an RSS feed for virtually any subject matter you would want to get information on out there, no matter arcane. I can see usable applications for this service, however none that I would need to employ in the near future.

Week 4;#8

2007-10-02T09:41:00.000-07:00

I tried to post this yesterday(10-01), but for some reason it did not appear. And yes, I did hit the 'publish post' button at the bottom of this page.

At any rate, I have added the 10 (or more) RSS feeds of interest to me. Tomorrow I will check to see what news I get. I don't foresee using this after this training session, but I now know what an RSS feed is and why it is used.

Week 3: #7

2007-09-26T12:22:00.001-07:00

neon plant
Originally uploaded by gjg23things

This is the picture from my earlier blog, that has been Pixar'ed'. Still I'm asking: Does any body know the name of this plant?

Week 3; #5

2007-09-26T10:57:00.000-07:00

I thought the trip planner was interesting. However, since I belong to AAA, I would probably just call them for a TripTic.

When does the "23 things" get to be fun?

strange plant

2007-09-25T12:06:00.001-07:00

strange plant
Originally uploaded by gjg23things

To get to this point has been an EXTREMELY FRUSTRATING exercise!

Does anybody know what this plant is?

Flickr shiver

2007-09-25T08:27:00.000-07:00

Tried to get this in yesterday-total bust! Wouldn't take!

Back again today, and with kind help from passing staff member, I'm in!!

Second week

2007-09-18T15:35:00.000-07:00

The best way to retain your privacy on line is to not put anything on line.

First day of 23 things.

2007-09-11T13:44:00.000-07:00

It has been quite frustrating to get this far!