Gaming

I have used Yahoo! games in the past to play word games. I had serious addictions to Text Twist, Book Worm, Flip Words, and another one I can't recall. I also like free cell. They are fun and seem pretty harmless to me, except when I keep wanting to play for a long time to break my high score.

I don't know if the more elaborate games build certain skill sets. I would like to think that video games instill persistence in young addicts. I haven't found that to be the case in playing word games.

Google Earth

Google Earth is amazing and exciting. Also maybe a bit scary in the "Big Brother" sense. I found what I was looking for. I was a little disappointed that zooming in results in blurry lines and indecipherable smears of color. I *loved* the opening tour, but somebody was looking over my shoulder and they were feeling a little "seasick" just watching.

A very cool tool! Thanks for assigning this.

Avatar.. avaricious... I feel a hostile vibration!

Here's my avatar. I have a bat on my head.

My thoughts regarding virtual selves vs. our “real” selves: I would like to think that these virtual worlds let us try on new personas, lead us to new insights about ourselves, and on to enlightenment. However, I think it's interesting that in the virtual world, a lot of the women are parading around in bikini tops, while there are a certain number of men that are clearly on steroids or else "guitar heroes". I didn't see anybody who looked like the Dalai Lama. I have to admit that I think this is a way to escape one's own self and live out some media-created idea of the "right" way to be. I think it's better to come to terms with ones self and accept life. If life is really bad for someone, (chronic pain, terminal illness, whatever) then why not float off and be some kind of jungle vixen or Indiana Jones to while away your time. But I don't think it makes your unplugged reality any better. I think it's like other addictions: you feel pretty good while you're out of your body, but once you come back, you've just sat in a chair doing nothing for an hour, and you're even farther from being the jungle vixen.

Answer these questions in your post as well.

Do you already live in Second Life? No.

If you don’t already live in SL, would you like to live in Second Life? If there were a holodeck I could wander off into, I'd do that. However, I don't want to strain my eyes and sit in a chair staring at a computer screen. It is pretty mind-blowing to try to project into the future and wonder how close we are to the holodeck. However, if the holodeck is full of jungle vixens and guitar heroes, no thanks.

Why or why not? There's a saying: "Before enlightenment, chop wood, carry water. After enlightenment, chop wood, carry water." I think both the self-actualization AND the wood-chopping are good for human beings. I think living in the computer world is a kind of limbo or stasis or vacuum in which neither enlightenment nor wood-chopping happens. Maybe not what you wanted to hear, but you asked. :-)

O Thank Heaven for 7-11

Today's topic: Online Applications.
I really liked using Google Docs and Zoho. It's easier than using Microsoft 2007. I created documents on both sites and shared them with my husband.

I can see a lot of ways to use this: building booklists, planning budgets, crafting documents, etc. Fon example: take Banned Books Week: you could 1) build a list of books to display, 2) have a sign-up sheet for props, poster ordering, etc; 3) use a spreadsheet to track use of budget; 4) build a list of PR contacts; 5) craft a FAQ for patron inquiries (such as answers to questions like, "why are you promoting these "bad" books?").

I'm still trying to figure out what situations would be best served by email, which by shared docs on sno-isle servers, and which using an Online Apps.

What a great lesson! Thanks--

Search Engines

It was interesting looking at Rollyo, Mamma, and Dogpile. At first, I felt disappointed because I was approaching in in my Librarian hat, but when I saw it as a web 2.0 development, (personalizing the web, tailoring content, sharing, social applications) then it became more interesting.

My initial search (in my Librarian hat) at all three sites was "Internet for Beginners". There are still people that come into the library that have extremely little computer exposure and want to get started on the Internet. As the web develops, it crams more and more content, visuals, graphics, etc. into every webpage and bombards the user with data. It's pretty bewildering for the newbies that I see. The problem is, there are very few tutorials on basic internet around, because everyone assumes that there are no longer any neophytes around. Not true!

At Rollyo, I limited my search to "reference". I was disappointed at the 8 or so websites that it searched (no lii.org?!). At Mamma, I found a cool tutorial that I'd never seen before, but it was created by the BBC, and its approach would be confusing to American newbies. Dogpile dug up a site at microsoft that was informative but very spartan in appearance.

I thought, what the heck, this is lame! So I returned to Rollyo and looked at the "dashboard" and some of the premade "rolls" for more recreational or homey subjects. THey were much better than the Reference set. For example, the Parenting one had a nice list of credible sites. The News "roll" seemed like an good general list too. I can now appreciate the recreational use that Rollyo is already well-designed for, and the ways I can create a tailored list for work use.

I ran out of time to do more experimenting with Mamma and Dogpile. For now, I think it's worthwhile to doublecheck a google search at one of these three other search engines. I did see helpful results that I hadn't noticed in my google searches.

Podcasts ... (yikes, am I ever behind!)

I signed up for two library podcasts which give reviews of adult books, one from Pierce county and the other from Curtin Library. I wish I had an iPod because I'd like to listen to these in the car on the way in to work, but since they're on my work computer, I guess maybe I'll listen to them on my dinner hour. The one podcast representing a personal interest of mine that I subscribed to was the sermons from my church (see www.uuchurch.org, if you're interested), which I was glad to get since I was the Preschool teacher and missed out on the sermons this year.

It took me a while to get the hang of which URL to paste, and how to paste it, into the subscription box, but I finally got the job done. My husband is a podcast maniac and gets a ton of them downloaded each morning before heading off to work. He's a scientist on a lonely lab bench & so he has political commentary & stuff like that to keep him company at work.

I'm glad to have this exercise to force me to learn how to do this, as I normally rely heavily on my techie husband to do all this stuff for me. Thanks!