Jersey Girl Librarian

Hello are you there?

2007-03-29T11:51:00.000-07:00

I know that is the question on everyone’s mind lately. Yes, it’s been a while since I’ve updated my blog. But I think that’s a good thing. That just means that I have been keeping busy.

I told y’all at the beginning of the year that one of my goals for the year was to see the sights around the region. I think I have been accomplishing at least that goal.

In the last few months I have been to the revolutionary war site at Kings Mountain, the national white water park in Mount Holly, Latta Plantation in Huntersville, Old Salem in Winston-Salem, and Korner's Folly in Kernersville.

Looking at this list I have seen sites from various eras of United States history. The revolutionary war era, early 1800’s town life and mid 1800’s plantations and merchants, civil war, and current recreational trends. Pretty interesting and eclectic. Now the dilemma is what to do next.

I am currently taking suggestions from the few people that look at this blog on what I should do next. Let me hear from you……………

I'm back!!!!

2007-03-09T07:57:00.000-08:00

Well I just decided to take a look at my blog and realized I have been a slacker lately. No excuse really, just time getting away from me and thinking that there will always be time later to update everyone on my oh so exciting life. Let's see, what have I talked about with my blog friends? Oh yes, my fish, Well, Herman and Fred 5 are doing great! They are very happy here at the house. I open the blinds for them every day so they can see what is going on in the world. and they seem happy to see me when I come home from work. Okay I know I sound crazy and pathetic, after all they are just fish. But hey little things make me happy these days. Anyway, while I was on the hunt for replacement filters. I asked the fish guy at a PetCo store how many fish could comfortably fit in my size tank and he told me that two were plenty. Because fish use about 2 gallons of oxygen per day and I have 2 fish in my 5 gallon tank, so that would leave me with just a half of a fish which is just mean. So while I feel bad about killer dying I can comfotably say I didn't over or under feed him or give him bad water which is what I was thinking. Which then led into a whole guilt trip depression thing about me being a bad mom (which is a whole other issue for me). Anyway the guy at the Walmart who sold me Killer said it didn't really matter how many fish I had in the tank that they would adjust. At least the PetCo guy sounded more official with his math equation , I don't know if he is right or not. But I am going with right because he knew he was loosing a sale buy not selling me the cute black bulgy eye fish that I wanted to buy.

Although that math equation thing doesn't explain the carnival Goldfish I had growing up that lasted for weeks without getting fed and months without clean water that managed to survive in my round fish bowls for years. Did you know that round fish bowls are dangerous for the mental health of fish? They go stir crazy swimming in circles, or so says a study in France from a few years ago. So if you are ever in France looking for a round fish bowl forget about it, they are outlawed. At least if my memory for useless facts is to be believed I think the study was in France and the outcome was outlawed fishbowls.

Well enough from me today. I could write all day today but I should clean the house, joy oh' joy!
Look for more from me later this weekend. I promise to update you on my new year's resolutions soon!

Have a swimmingly good day!

new years resolution update

2007-01-25T12:52:00.000-08:00

Well I have some good news and bad news.

I always like to get the bad news out of the way so I will just get those confessions out of the way first.

You may surmise from my need to be negative (bad news) first that I am still negative. and you would be right. Although when negative thoughts and actions come out of me, I am more aware now of the negativity. And "they" say that being aware of your faults is half the battle. I still have hope that I will change.

I still think about my old home wistfully, but I don't think that I am talking about it as much, so that is an improvement. If you will indulge me for a little bit I will mention that I am going home next weekend and I am so looking forward to the visit. I think alot of it is just getting away from the stress of home and work and not having any responsibilities for 5 days except to have fun and visit.

I am eating less and thinking about what I am eating more. SO that is definitely an improvement! I actually passed up chocolate cake today.

And I have begun to explore the region I now call home. I have been to King's Mountain to learn about the Revolutionary War battle that took place there. I am planning in the next few weeks to go to Kerner's Folly and will eventually go to the Museum of the New South.

So I think I am actually doing pretty well in the resolution department.

How about you?

Saddness abounds

2007-01-25T12:36:00.000-08:00

It is with heavy heart that I announce the early demise of my beloved Marble Goldfish, Killer. I came home the other night from work and went to greet my brood and feed them dinner, but I was saddened to see that Killer was floating among the plants of his home. After a brief ceremony "above the bowl", he went to the goldfish home in the sky.

I am still undecided if I should get another fish. I guess the appropriate mourning time for fish has not yet passed.

fish

2007-01-19T13:32:00.000-08:00

Well, I have a Christmas update for the masses of people who are waiting with bated breath to hear what happened with my father-in-law and the fish.

Nothing

Well, not exactly nothing, but close to it.

The day I told him I would go fish tank shopping with him, I rushed home from work, so I could meet him at the store we agreed upon. What did I find when I got home? My in-laws and husband all there at my house waiting for me to get dinner ready. This was not the plan that I agreed upon when I left them the night before, and no one bothered to call me during the day. To my surprise plans had changed during the day and it was all of a sudden more important to "help", aka watch, my husband put together the new computer he desperately needed so he could go in circles better (racing games).

Okay, enough of the grousing about the priorities of the in-laws and husband.

I went last weekend and got the fish tank, a pretty 5-gallon tank, with some plants and rocks and a cute snail that has a sign that says "no fishing" set it all up and put 3 adorable fish in it on Tuesday, me and my fish are happy as clams. (No pun intended)

My fish; Fred 5, Herman and Killer all seem to be doing well and are happy to see me when I get home from work, because they already know that it is supper time when I get home and I turn on their light. Let me tell you a little about them.

Fred 5 is the predecessor to all my other fish that I have named Fred. For some reason, whenever I have had fish in the past I have named one of them Fred and I felt that this one needed to stand out. Well I can't remember really how many carnival goldfish I have had over the years and Fred 5 sounded cool, so I gave him that name. He is a little gold fish with these cute puffy cheek things. They look like sacks of air on the side of his face. Can you say adorable!

Herman is named after one of my favorite picture books when I was growing up, Herman the Helper, by Robert Kraus is about a fish that goes around the ocean helping all the other sea life, and I just thought I would give ol' Herman a nod. He is the largest fish that I have and he has predominantly white scales with an orange underbelly and fins.

Killer, is the name that my father-in-law wanted me to give to one of my fish so I have named the ugliest one Killer, He is the middle size fish and his scales are a multitude of colors; black, orange, red, white. Funky looking to say the least. I have secretly named him, but I can't reveal that name or it wouldn't be a secret. It is a much prettier name, to give this homely guy or gal some confidence.

Have a great weekend everyone. I'll let you know how I am doing on my new year's resolutions next week.

New Year's Resolutions

2007-01-05T12:14:00.000-08:00

Well, it's that time again to come up with some crazy resolutions that most likely you are not going to complete.

Well NOT this year!

This year I decided to come up with a workable list of things that I might actually complete. Granted I "borrowed" some of these ideas from other sources but the ideas are great. so thanks to Ellen DeGeneres and the Charlotte Observer columnist that does the "new in town" column.

1. I resolve to see something unique to this area of the country at least once a week. This is the easy one since I am new to the area I haven't seen much.

2. I resolve to not eat as much. Now, I didn't say "diet" I am choosing not to eat as much or as late in the evening as I don now. Hopefully this small change will lead to the real goal, but I am taking small steps.

3. I resolve to not talk about my old home like I would rather be there than here. I have nothing to say about this, because I might just start waxing poetic about my old home, and that would defeat the purpose of this whole thing.

4. I resolve to be less negative than I am now. This will be a hard one since I am stuck in a rut of negativity, I am hoping to get out of this slump and on to happier times.

So what do you think? Short and simple not that extreme. I think some will be harder than others but if I keep a positive attitude about things it might just work. I'll have to revisit this post throughout the year and see if I am living up to my resolutions.

How about you? Are you resolving to change anything this year?

Holidays part 2

2006-12-27T16:35:00.000-08:00

Well, I got the money for the fish tank and because I couldn't go home for the holidays, he is traveling specifically from New Jersey to North Carolina later this week so we can go shopping and he can share his opinion on the tank. Oh what a joyous shopping trip that will be. Now we get to "discuss" in public instead of over the phone. So if you are in the Concord Petco or Petsmart (I don't remember what the store is) on Saturday night you might be treated to a rousing debate between me and my father-in-law.

My husband also got THREE (yes 3) types of saws for Christmas, a weedwacker and several other tools, that I am sure he will never use, since in the 10 months we have owned the house he hasn't lifted a finger to do any work around the house. They would have been better off giving me the tools and him the slippers I got because I am the one who seems to be doing everything around the house. It has fallen to me to pick out fixtures,and furniture and do all the painting and general fixing up around the house. And GOD forbid I do something he doesn't approve of.......

Okay in the words of my co-worker, I'm being snarky tonight. I am a little cranky because not only did my husband drag me down here to NC so he can pursue his dream career, but he sees nothing wrong with leaving me here when his job shuts down for the holidays. And I have to stay here to go to work, and he goes back to NJ to visit his family.

Luckily, my mom is a teacher and gets long holidays at Thanksgiving and Christmas. She comes down here and we visit and hang out and she gets to relax and read while I am at work all day.

Well that is enough snarkyness tonight. Have a great New Year!

I resolve to be less snarky in the new year!

Yeah, right!

Holidays

2006-12-22T06:24:00.000-08:00

What is it with holidays?! I am an adult, with no kids, and can afford the essential things that I need in life. I try not to buy myself things that are not absolutely needed and I try to give gifts like that as well. Okay, occasionally I splurge on myself and get something fun, and my gifts aren't always practical. I don't expect nor want extravagant gifts and I think that people should respect that. This time of year, whether you celebrate Hanukkah or Christmas (or both like me) or another holiday isn't it the thought that counts, not the size or the monetary amount of the gift that matter?
Case in point, My father-in-law, all year long I hear how they don't have money, money is so tight, blah, blah, blah. But when it comes to Christmas he goes all out and gets gifts that his grown kids and kids-in-law don't need or want. He just buys buys buys with no thought. I so want to say to him if you didn't spend so much at Christmas you wouldn't be scraping by the rest of the year, but I keep my mouth shut for family harmony.
Two years ago I asked for sheets, he was appalled that I could ask for something so practical (the ones I asked for were pretty expensive). He got me a George Foreman Rotisserie grill that is still in the box, last year it was a panini maker that is also still in the box. He knows I don't want or use these things but yet he buys them for me. (Apparently he thinks I am a bad cook)
This year, when he asked me what I want I thought I was finally prepared for him, but alas I still was not as extravagant, outlandish and non-practical as he wants. I asked for a fish tank. Not at all practical, not at all serious, and not big enough for him. I specifically asked for a 3-5 gallon tank that is easily transportable, easy maintenance and if I ever get tired of the fish, can be stored easily. Apparently a 5-gallon tank is not big enough he wants me to get a 12-15 gallon one. We have been "discussing" this for a few weeks now and I am frustrated at his lack of respect for my decisions.
He is not the only one I continually have this conversation with, I just don't have the space for everyone.
And isn't this holiday supposed to be for kids anyway? It has been a long time since I have been a kid and I don't feel I should be treated like one where my opinions don't matter.

Why does everything have to be so big and extravagant? Why can't it be what I want?!

Bah Humbug.

Happy holidays, what ever it is you celebrate!

24th thing

2006-11-30T14:24:00.000-08:00

Wow, am I jazzed. We had a follow up to our 23 thing program earlier this week and I got excited about the process of learning all over again. I think I want to be a perpetual student. Except I can't figure out how to pay tuition and still have money to do what I want. The dilemma of the perpetual thinker, or nosy nora as I was called as a child who always wanted to know what was going on around me.

Okay I have now gotten way way off topic. I am supposed to be blogging about my 24th thing and what I want to accomplish. It never occurred to me that while preparing to teach a class I would be learning also. It just hit me in the seminar that that was my learning contract goal.

I have noticed since I came here that a lot of people don't know how to open an email account but they want to learn and it is hard to help them fill out the form while helping the other 14 people in the computer lab. So several weeks ago I asked to be able to create and offer a class on opening an email account. So I am in the process of creating my very first powerpoint presentation and writing a curriculum for the class.

So while I am finding material and learning how to create a powerpoint presentation I will be fulfilling the goals of my learning contract and one of the key ideas behind learning 2.0 and I didn't even realize what I was doing. How cool is that?

I had mentally answered all of the questions in the contract but I hadn't put any of it in writing. Now I have a completed learning contract and a thought out plan on creating this course.
GO ME!

Anniversary

2006-11-10T06:51:00.000-08:00

Sometimes I forget how good my husband is. Last night was our anniversary and I figured he would either forget or just say oh yeah "happy anniversary" and that would be that. But he actually took me out to dinner. We went to this awesome fondue place in town. And what was funny was I had been talking about the restaurant with one of my coworkers that day. She even said maybe he would take me to the restaurant and I said he wouldn't. That if anything we would go to a restaurant near the house. What a fun night it was. I am still stuffed from all the delicious food. Oh to have cheese fondue everynight, followed up by the delicious chocolate!

The only downside to the evening was a burn I got on my hand. What a clutz. No matter how many times the wait staff said don't reach over the pot. I did. I couldn't resist another piece of squash.

P.S. Thanks to the 2 people who actually remembered our anniversary. What special people you are!

Newark Bull

2006-11-04T14:47:00.000-08:00

Check out this story. A bull loose in Newark New Jersey's largest city

Mac-O-Lantern

2006-10-31T08:15:00.000-08:00

One of my coworkers just shared this with me. I don't use a Mac but I thought this was ingenious so I thought I would share the Mac-O-Lantern.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

MacGyver skillz

2006-10-27T07:30:00.000-07:00

I just performed a MacGyver feat of skill in the computer lab and all I got was a " it worked fine last week." Some Witch got her disk stuck in our " crappy machine" and I managed to retrieve it with a paperclip, scissor and fingernail (still attached). When I told her she couldn't use the disk any more because of the cracked case and mangled metal slide. All she could do was give me the carolina evil eye (my opinion only, please don't write me, defending this place) and say, "it worked fine last week, it must be your crappy machines that broke it" and stormed off, shoving the disk back in her jam-packed backback without the benefit of any protection for the disk. Yeah, our crappy machines did all the damage, not the way she treated the disk.

Would a simple thanks or sorry have hurt this woman?

great finds!

2006-10-27T07:09:00.000-07:00

I just found two great things on the Internet. One is a blog called Dumb Little Man. Which I originally thought described my husband to a T, but that is a whole other story that I won't get into here. Actually, they are the exact opposite of my husband, according to their blog "15 to 20 times per week we provide tips that will save you money, increase your productivity, or simply keep you sane. The simple goal is to make the average person's life a little easier through smart thinking, smart use of technology, or a combination of both." I learned how to crochet with my left over grocery bags, what the little windows button on my keyboard is for and how to find information on a new neighborhood such as; average commute time, average household income, political affiliations, etc.

Pretty cool finds on this dreary Friday.

mistakes that turn out good.

2006-10-25T16:41:00.000-07:00

I did a really stupid thing, but I look good. Sometimes when I am depressed or sad I go shopping. I have always done this and it always worked in the past but it backfired now. So anyway I go shopping and buy clothes that are to expensive or I don't need (usually both). and I usually don't try them on, just take them home let them sit for a few weeks and then return them when my sanity returns. Well last month I went shopping and bought 5 or 6 (one was a sweater set) pieces of clothing for slightly over $250. Let them sit waiting for my sanity to return, which evidently it didn't. Well when I finally got around to uncovering the bag and returning them, I had missed the thirty day return policy by a week. SO now, I am the proud owner of two new outfits. The really lucky part of this whole fiasco is that the clothes actually fit and I look good in them.

yahoo and blogger don't mix

2006-10-16T07:47:00.000-07:00

I recently upgraded my yahoo email account to the "new and improved" beta version. One if its touted features is the ability to track your rss feeds similar to bloglines. I was very excited about this feature because that would mean that I didn't have to log into yahoo and then bloglines to check both email and rss feeds, I could do everything from one log in. Well it works great with everything but blogger accounts. I am assuming because blogger is linked with google that Yahoo won't accept the feeds. Because every time I try to link a blogger blog to the account I get various messages basically saying can't link to that site. But everything else works fine. Seems a little coincidental that everything else works but the blogger blogs. I hope this is "fixed" soon because as we all know the customer is always right and should always be happy.

I wish everyone would just play nice!

chocolate

2006-10-12T07:57:00.000-07:00

Okay, So I am posting again. My previous post was saved as a draft for several days as I contemplated continuing or not. Well this morning a coworker asked me if I was going to continue to blog because, I guess she likes to read my posts. So I explained my thoughts and she suggested I write about something generic like chocolate. So I am taking her advice and seeing if this will get me out of my slump.

Thoughts on chocolate.

I just had some chocolate for some inspiration. Acutally I had a Kit Kat and an Almond Joy and a swig of some hot Coke that I found in my bag. Mind you it is only 10:54 in the morning as I write this. Coke reminds me of this article that I read in the Charlotte Observer yesterday morning about Fried Coke. Apparently some genius has figured out how to fry Coke and will be serving it up to unsuspecting people at the North Carolina State Fair. Now I have heard of everything. What will these people think of next? Fried saltines?
Okay back to Chocolate. I just want to let y'all know that I didn't eat an entire Kit Kat and Almond Joy. They were the little snack size bars. That is what I love about halloween. You can pretend to buy all this chocolate in little sizes to hand out to kids but in reality most people just eat it themselves. I went to the store yesterday to buy a piece of chocolate and some soda so I could get excited about a computer class that I was supposed to teach last night. (That is a whole other story for another post.) Anyway I was at the store and couldn't decide what chocolate I wanted so I turned the corner to see if there was anything interesting on the other aisle and I hit nirvana. The halloween aisle for all those people that can't make up their minds they have provided the "Snack Bag" which has a little bit of everything for every mood that you are in. Feeling nutty have a Reeces Peanut Butter Cup, feeling tropical have an Almond Joy, feeling plain, have a plain Hershey Bar, feeling like a Kat, have a Kit Kat. Okay that last one didn't make much sense but I couldn't think of anything.
I think that is enough of a rant for today.
So remember:
1. Try the fried coke if you go to the fair and let me know what you think. I am curious to know how they crafted such a fine culinary masterpiece.
2. Halloween, it's not just for kids.
3. Snack packs great for people who are indecisive. Just don't eat the whole bag in one sitting.

Should I continue?

2006-10-10T06:23:00.000-07:00

Well I haven't posted in a week. I thought I wouldn't miss it but I actually do miss putting some of my thoughts down on "paper" so to speak. My project at work is done so I don't need to post anymore but I enjoyed it. But as I sit here struggling with what to write I wonder if I should continue to post. What will I say? How will I keep my real thoughts about NC and my job, my entire life for that matter, from leaking though on this forum so easily read by others? What a dilemma for me. Do I honestly write what I am feeling and thinking or do I keep it light and happy for those people who don't need or want to know the truth. If I am miserable at work or at home do I want to hurt the feelings of the "innocent" or self centered in my life? But then what will it matter, who will read my drivel, who cares about my life my, needs. NO one that's who. But why this need to write? Maybe I should start a diary and not a blog. Maybe I should keep a private diary on my computer for my closest thoughts and write my pretend happy thoughts here so that I will still have an outlet for the two sides of me.

No, I am not a split personality, just a stupid girl trying to make the most of her screwed up life by pretending happiness while pretty miserable inside. Isn't that all of us though?
Okay enough about me, what about you. Should I continue or let the blog die a natural death?

Finale

2006-10-04T12:02:00.000-07:00

Well, I have to admit that when I first started this whole thing I didn't think I would have a lot to say, but it turns out that I did have a lot to say and I learned a lot also. Some of it was frustrating and some of it was fun. But most of all this program helped me conquer some doubts about my ability to create and explore on the Internet.

When we first started this journey together we learned the 7 1/2 habits of highly successful lifelong learners and I tried to keep those principles in mind as I continued along the path to thing 23. Here is a little insight into what I learned and took away from this program.

HABIT 1: Begin with the end in mind: I have to admit that in the beginning an MP3 player was the end in my mind. But along the way I learned that that was not all I was going to achieve when I finished this program. I learned about myself and what I can accomplish and I learned about my coworkers and what interests them in and outside of work. I also got to meet some people at other branches, through their blogs, that I might not have met otherwise. I learned that you can start out on one path expecting one thing and meander along to find the end is not what you expected, but that it is still okay. That to me is a great ending.

HABIT 2: Accept responsibility for your own learning: I knew that to be successful in this project that I had to rely on myself to learn the "things". Because this was voluntary there was no one standing over my head forcing me to do the steps so I had to rearrange my schedule and make the time to learn for myself.

HABIT 3: View problems as challenges: I think if you view problems as a challenge rather than just a problem, it becomes more important for the person to complete the task. Wording is everything in this Habit. I viewed each of the "Things" as challenges and some of my coworkers viewed them as problems. Who finished? The ones that was challenged accomplished the goal, not the ones that were overcoming problems that's who.

HABIT 4: Have confidence in yourself as a competent, effective learner: I thought this was going to be a hard one to accomplish, but once I got started my confidence as an effective learner of technology grew by leaps and bounds. I think I noticed a change in my confidence level when people started to come to me to ask about this stuff. I thought wow, these people think I actually know what I am doing. That was impressive to me.

HABIT 5: Create your own learning toolbox: My toolbox is full of useful knowledge that I can use to share with other people or can pull out to learn something new. What a great Habit to get into.

HABIT 6: Use technology to your advantage: It is obvious that I used technology to my advantage. I even added things to my blog that weren't "Things" because I started to wonder how to do stuff so researched them and added them to my toolbox.

HABIT 7: Teach/mentor others: I tried to do this habit throughout the program by helping others from my branch. I let people know that I was available to help them when I could. I would check up on those that were not as confident in their abilities, asking them how they were coming along, did they need help, etc. But I also knew/learned when to stop asking/encouraging those that were just not into it. Because that was okay too.

HABIT 7 1/2: Play: This habit is evident in all my videos, pictures and image generators. I had a great time bring some of my New Jersey memories to NC.

To answer Helene's questions posed on the learning 2.0 blog

My most favorite discovery was zohowriter. Even though the image generators and pictures and videos were fun. I believe that zohowriter will be the most useful to me in my job and "real" life.

The unexpected outcome for me was simply that it would be so much fun to learn technology. I always learned new techy stuff for work, because I had to. But this program made learning fun, challenging, experimental and because it wasn't required of me it was okay if I didn't finish. But me being competitive I had to finish.

What would you do differently? I would have offered more guidance, such as in-person instruction/training in getting a blog started and registered. For example, I wish my branch would have encouraged and provided one on one training for people who didn't know how to get the whole process started. I had enough background in computers to do this on my own but I believe others would have participated more if they were given the encouragement to do the tasks. Perhaps assign/volunteer one person to be branch "captain" to make sure everyone was getting the help that they needed. Providing people blocks of time away from desks with computers that had all the needed software/hardware to complete the "things" would also be helpful.

If other discovery programs are offered I would definitely participate in them. I love a challenge!

Thanks for creating a great learning experience! I look forward to more

podcasting

2006-09-28T13:24:00.000-07:00

Oh geez, here we go again, new vernacular. Now I have to "sync" my mp3 player? I guess that means synchronize it to play the podcasts. Are you guys going to have an MP3 tutor session at All Staff Day? I think that would be a great idea for us newbies. Although, now that we have accomplished all of the "things" , maybe "syncing" my MP3 player won't be as hard as it sounds.

Searching in Yahoo podcasts for libraries and new jersey I found many interesting podcasts to listen to. The process was pretty easy, just like searching in a search engine.

I first found an hour long podcast from Haunted New Jersey about their investigation of a haunted library in New Jersey. But I couldn't listen to the whole thing at work and since it wasn't really library related I chose to keep looking.

I then found a podcast from an episode of LiSRadio from the University of Missouri entitled, "Library Service to Older Adults and the Baby Boomers". Allan M. Kleiman, head of reference at Westfield Memorial Library, Westfield, New Jersey was the guest speaker of this podcast. Allan is chair of the American Library Association's Committee on Library Service to the Aging, and was only one of four librarians that attended the White House Conference on Aging as an
"official" voting delegate. This was an interesting discussion on public library service and how librarians should be serving this unique population in this technological age. I added the LiSRadio podcasts to my bloglines account and I am looking forward to hearing more from them.

Now I am wondering if Rutgers University has podcasts? My alma mater by the way, and yes it is a "REAL" college as I was asked by a southerner the other day. Apparently you are only a "real" college if you have a winning football team and since Rutgers finally won (GO SCARLET KNIGHTS) a game last weekend, it isn't deemed "Real" down here. Anyway I digress.

Okay I am off to check out Rutgers podcasts.

Web 2.0

2006-09-28T08:09:00.000-07:00

Well as you will see by the post before this one I played around with some of the Web 2.0 winners and honorable mentions. While the games were pretty fun I didn't think I should write about them to much because we are supposed to be taking this seriously so I will stick to posting about some of the other sites I visited on my journey this morning.
I am glad to see that 43 things made it on the list of honorable mentions after all it is one of our inspirations. I really need to spend some time and think of 43 things that I want to accomplish in my life. I actually think that it will help me focus more on my career as well as my personal life both of which seems to be in a constant state of chaos since moving to NC earlier this year. So I am personally grateful for this site because I hope it will allow me to focus more on me and my needs instead of others.
Ok, enough of that, lets move on.

I also visited Wayfaring, which I think will give me a great way to create maps for my friends and family when they come visit me. Instead of emailing directions I can just point people to my Wayfaring map and let them figure out how easiest it is to get here. But again I worry about people who I don't want to figure out where I live, coming to visit. I am pretty untrustworthy in general so all of this sharing stuff concerns me and I am very cautious of what I put out on the web.

I know it can all be made private but I know there is some hacker out there trying to figure out how to unprivatize it.

Okay here is another gripe, yahoo! answers, do people really expect to get correct answers from a site like this!!!!?? What are we, as a society, teaching people who think that they can get sound medical advice from some Joe Schmo on the internet? We as librarians are trained not to give medical and legal advice, because we don't have that kind of training, but at least we have some training, you never know who is answering your questions on Yahoo or one of the other feedback sites. I went to a section that was health related because I am interested in that particular subject and one of the first questions I came upon was from someone who CLEARLY should be seeing a doctor for her problem but decided to ask Yahoo users instead? This is exactly why I worry about the future of the Internet.

Ok I am off my soapbox.

And if I had an exciting life and carried a PDA or other mobile device around with me the personal organization sites would be very helpful, no more yellow post-its all over the place, losing their stickiness.

I have already talked about how much I love bloglines which won 3rd place in the blog guides category. Librarything also got an honorary mention in its category as well so congrats goes out to them.

space invaders

2006-09-28T07:08:00.000-07:00

Free Online Games brought to you by Arcaplay

Good news & I'm back!

2006-09-27T17:26:00.000-07:00

I know you were wondering if I would come back to Meck. County from my weekend jaunt to New Jersey. Well I have made it back, smooth sailing from start to finish. I ate some delicious food and hung out with my mom. Now it is back to work and finishing up my Learning 2.0 objectives, Hopefully I'll complete them this week and it'll be smooth sailing onto my next techy adventure.

I have some great news! I am very competitive with myself and when I found the hits counter and put it on my blog I set a personal goal of 200 hits before All Staff Day. Well I am happy to announce that I have reached my goofy goal of 200 hits earlier this week, well before my deadline! Yeah!!!!!!!

Thanks everyone for visiting my blog and helping me reach my goal!

Do you hear the angels?

2006-09-27T17:21:00.000-07:00

Do you hear the angels singing? No? Then you haven't gotten to the end of the or the end of the program. Okay, technically I am not at the end of the rainbow or the end of the program either, but zoho writer is what I have been looking forward to. I can actually see daily work related use out of zoho and other online word processing programs.

I share a closet (oh, I mean office) with a coworker and it is sometimes difficult to get time on the computer. I also work at three different public desks so this type of program makes it much easier to begin a report/project at one place and move to another without having to hope that the information on a disk will still be on it when you come back to work on the report, or remembering to take the disk with you when you move from desk to desk. I don't have a use to share documents with others, yet, but I can see this being an invaluable tool for that type of thing in the future.

I wouldn't use it for personal stuff like journaling or financials, just like I wouldn't use blogger for that kind of stuff either. The world is too invasive as it is, I don't want to make it easier for people to get my personal stuff, but for "safe" stuff that won't come back to haunt you this is a (lifesaver). (This is a stretch on my theme but it will make complete sense to my NEW JERSEY pals. GO Bonza Bottler!)

Look at how much I have learned in just a few weeks. I can import pictures, videos, games, import posts from zoho and so much more. Hmm Maybe this should be my last post. But, alas, I will send it as my post on Zoho instead.

♥Angels- Thanks "meineinstein" for the great video http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=meineinstein

♥Rainbow - Thanks "eggman" for the great Atlantic City rainbow http://www.flickr.com/photos/eqqman/

♥Lifesaver cupcake- Thanks "unsureshot" for the great bonza bottler reference http://www.flickr.com/photos/unsureshot/

P.S. For those with a thirst for useless knowledge check out Chase's Calendar of Events ( or use your new found web knowledge and search the Internet) for info on Bonza Bottler day. We celebrated at my last job with creative dessert making.

Friday afternoon

2006-09-22T12:48:00.000-07:00

I'm going home! Yep, I'm flying out this evening for a quick trip home to New Jersey! Yeah!!!!!
Getting some good "mom" cooked food and some relaxation with my family and friends. But alas I have to come to work on Monday, so I guess you will see me back here next week to finish up my 23 things. And rest up for my first all staff day in a few weeks.

SEE YA!

mind games

2006-09-22T12:40:00.000-07:00

Hi All,

Okay this is what I get for strolling through blogs on a quiet Friday afternoon. I found this teaser on the blog MMA Days (that next blog button is my curse, I get to read what people are thinking all over the world.) Anyhoo, are you 2% or 98% of the population? answer will appear in comments

Mind Game 2% or 98 %

A little different.
MIND GAME

2% or 98%

This is strange...can you figure it out?

Are you the 2% or 98% of the population?
Follow the instructions! NO PEEKING AHEAD!

* Do the following exercise, guaranteed to raise an eyebrow.

* There's no trick or surprise.

* Just follow these instructions, and answer the questions one at a time and as quickly as you can!
* Again, as quickly as you can but don't advance until you've done each of them ... really. *

Now, scroll down (but not too fast, you might miss something).

Think of a number from 1 to
10
.................................................. ...
Multiply that number by 9
................................................. ...........
If the number is a 2-digit number, add the digits
together
.................................................. .............
Now subtract 5
.................................................. ..............................
Determine which letter in the alphabet corresponds to the number you ended up with
(example: 1=a, 2=b, 3=c,etc.)
.................................................. ................................
Think of a country that starts with that letter
.................................................. ............
Remember the last letter of the name of that country
.................................................. ...........
Think of the name of an animal that starts with that letter
..................................................
Remember the last letter in the name of that animal
.................................................. ...........................
Think of the name of a fruit that starts with that letter

netlibrary

2006-09-19T12:23:00.000-07:00

Well, I just downloaded my first book to my home computer and it was quite satisfying and easy as well. I never realized how many different books we own through this service. I found all sorts of useful books that I can pass on to patrons. Especially useful were the language books. We are always getting patrons who want to learn a foreign language and most of the time the books/tapes are checked out. Now I can refer them to netlibrary so they can study the language at their leisure at home. What a great service. Now I know how to promote it.
Thanks, Learning 2.0

sandbox play

2006-09-19T08:43:00.000-07:00

Wow, how easy was that! I added my blog, added some favorites in the music, restaurant, and book category and it was very quick and painless. What I thought was going to be confusing turned out to be an easy pleasant experience. Who knew that technology would be this simple and cool! Sandbox play here I come!!!!

wiki wiki

2006-09-19T07:27:00.000-07:00

Just learned all I could about wiki's. Bull Run gave us a nice welcome on their wiki. I understand the concept behind them but I still have concerns about the relevancy of posts as well as the vandalism aspect of the whole thing. But some of my concerns have been addressed in the wiki's that I have read so I am not as leary of them as I had been. I am glad to know that there are protocols in place when posting to wiki's and that there is usually a hierarchy involved in what is posted. When I start posting to the learning 2.0 wiki I will be able to see and understand the whole wiki thing even better. Catch me in the sandbox later!

shiver m' timbrs

2006-09-19T06:33:00.000-07:00

Ahoy thar maties!

It's National Talk Like a Pirate Day!
Learn to talk like a swashbuckler @
pirate talk

hit counters

2006-09-16T09:29:00.000-07:00

Okay, now I am really getting into this learning thing. I just went and researched hit counters and actually got one to work on my blog! Yippy Skippy I'm learning now! Check out http://easyhitcounters.com to see how many people visit your blog.

Technorati

2006-09-16T06:54:00.000-07:00

Okay so now I have a link on my blog to technorati over on the sidebar. I have added some tags to my blog and added some tags to my watchlist. I guess this is pretty cool. I'll get to see if other people actually look at my blog and see if other people are talking about the same things that I am. I am reserving my right to get enthusiastic about this "thing".

Views on Library 2.0

2006-09-12T08:27:00.000-07:00

My thoughts on Library 2.0 are very mixed. On one hand, I am very excited about what is happening on the Internet and all the emerging technology, but on the other hand, I am old school. In fact, I am so old school that my original draft of this post is with pencil and paper. I find that the easiest way for me to get my thoughts down is with pencil and paper. It is just the most comfortable way for me to write, plus I won’t play games if I write.
I got into this profession because I loved the feel of books; I loved delving into another world. Research is not the same on the Internet as it is in a quiet library full of musty old books. There is no awe, no reverence to a computer as there is to a respected work like the Old English Dictionary. Now, I know there is someone out there saying, “Hey, Technophobe, you can get the O.E.D. online”. And you would be right. The O.E.D., as well as many other resources are on the web and I will even give you the fact that some things are even easier/quicker to find on the web then they are through books. But I worry that we are becoming a society that is relying on technology too much. Wendy Schultz in, “to a temporary place in time...” says that we are not far off from library 3.0 or even 4.0 where she expects to see the library “ as physical places in the library “storefront” , they will also be mobile, as AR (Augmented Reality) overlay we can view via glasses, contacts, or projection anywhere”. This description reminds me of the young adult sci-fi novel by Anderson, M.T., Feed, which created a world where people saw “billboard”, type messages scroll across their eyes. They did not have the ability of independent thought. A character who had enough sense to realize this way of living was not good choose to remove the feed from her head, she subsequently died because she could not survive in this new world. Now I paraphrased the book immensely but the idea is the same, will we become a slave to technology or will technology become our slave. We are at the crossroads to a new way of life, how will we survive, as slave or master?

del.icio.us

2006-09-12T08:12:00.000-07:00

I don't get it?! Maybe I am just not using the web the way that you are "supposed" to. I think this is avery confusing site. I read all the tutorials, watched the video, signed up for an account and I just don't get the point? Do you sign on to this site in the morning and then go to the sites you use daily from there? Isn't that the same as bloglines, which is soooooo less confusing to use. Maybe I am to linear of a thinker but this doesn't make any sense. Which is really frustrating since I was getting the hang of everything up until this week. Maybe I should become a history professor like the Us.ef.ul: A beginners guide to Del.icio.us talked about.

Oh well maybe if I play around with it more I will see some benefit. I let you know if I see any benefit to this chaos.

You Tube

2006-09-07T13:03:00.000-07:00

just visited youtube and found this great video about New Jersey. The video is a rap song about New Jersey and the famous people that are from NJ.

This was a very easy site to use. I just put in my search term and came up with hundreds of hits. What a fun and easy way to see videos that people have posted and shared with the world.

Rollyo

2006-09-07T07:25:00.000-07:00

Well I just created my own Rollyo search tool and added it to my blog sidebar. That is a pretty neat tool. I'll have to keep trying it out to see if it will consistently get the information that I need from the places I want to get it from.

image generators

2006-09-07T06:21:00.000-07:00

So apparently I have been experimenting with image generators all along and didn't realize what I was doing. I must be a technical genius and I don't even know it. Apparently, image generators helped me create my name in blocks in this post. And create a motivational poster here. I also created the unofficial seal of the Jersey Girl Librarian blog. These are fun things to fool around with when you have the time. They are what make learning fun, personal and inspirational.

Take a look at some cool sites where you can create your own motivation, seal or blocks.

Unofficial Jersey Girl Librarian seal

2006-09-06T12:40:00.000-07:00

oops, I did it

2006-09-06T10:39:00.000-07:00

Well I did it, I admit, I performed the sin that all bloggers fear. I grabbed a picture from a site and forgot to give credit to the photographer and/or the site itself. They found out and called me on it this weekend. I have corrected my blunder on that individual post. But I also wanted to remind all of us newbie bloggers to give credit where credit is due.

library thing

2006-09-06T10:30:00.000-07:00

While, I like the concept of librarything, I don't think it is for me. It would be great for someone like my mother who has every book she has ever bought. She could finally catalogue them and see how many duplicate books she actually has. Since I deal with books in my work life I try not to purchase alot of books and I already have a low tech pen and notebook method of keeping track of the books that I read I can't see myself using this to much. But if I had a cataloguing or organizing project that I had to complete either for work or "Real" life I can see utilizing this program. With that said I did create a list of books that were meaningful to me throughout different stages of my life. You can see them on the sidebar of my blog.

nerd

2006-09-01T12:49:00.000-07:00

Okay I am officially a learning 2.0 nerd. Helene blogs us a hint about the next week and immediately I have to go check it out. I have created a Librarything library of some of my favorite, most memorable books throughout my life. I will add more next week as I think of them and add them to my blog.

Friends

2006-09-01T10:11:00.000-07:00

I know this isn't Library 2.0 related but it is New Jersey related so it fits within the confines of my blog. I can't wait. My two best friends in the world are coming to visit me for the weekend! And guess what they are coming from New Jersey! YEAH, and almost as equally as exciting as seeing them is the New Jersey corn they are bringing! I gotta say Harris Teeter corn does not match up to any corn from New Jersey!

If I had a digital camera, I'd paste a picture of us to the blog so you can see us eating our corn this weekend. Actually any camera would be good now. My husband accidentally dropped ours on our honeymoon a few years ago and I never got a new one. Still angry over those lost pictures.

Hey, could a digital camera be a prize on All Staff Day? Hmmm, I wonder, that would be a nice prize. Actually I would love anything techy, I don't have a digital camera, laptop computer, PDA, etc.

Wow, what a sad and shameless plug I just gave myself for winning a drawing. I hope all two of you that actually read this blog will wish me luck on my quest to win a drawing!

Have a great holiday weekend everyone!

my favorite blogs

2006-09-01T10:05:00.000-07:00

Wow what a daunting task set before us today. I was working up the list from Z-A but I only got to the beginning of S before I had to go to lunch. When I got back the site wouldn't load. I guess alot of people are doing the same thing. I probably won't be able to get back to the list for a few days so I wanted to give you a list of blogs that interested me so far. My criteria for inclusion in my list was simple. Have you been following the course, have you made it interesting and personal so that the course is interesting to you, have you completed all tasks to date?

http://www.spinelabel.blogspot.com This site is helpful, informative, personal and complies with the spirit of the L2 initiative. Congrats!

http://www.talknerd.wordpress.com What a great site. I love all the '80s references. This is a girl after my own heart. Not only has she completed the tasks but she has done it in a fun, cool way. I couldn't see the Mr. T video but that just allows me the opportunity to check out YouTube when I get home and have the video capability.

http://www.morethanlettuce.blogspot.com What can you say about Salad Days. She has a great site. I love the parking game. Great pictures and she has completed all the tasks so far. She is also very actively looking at other blogs and comments freely.

http://www.usefulsoftware.blogspot.com While this site was full of interesting and helpful information it has not really completed all of the tasks so far. I am including it because the information it supplied far outweighed it's incompleteness.

http://www.why-susan.blogspot.com Beautiful pictures, personal and complete so far. Although not absolutely up-to-date I had to include this because I agree with her/him? On the concern about the part-time staff. I know that there are part-time as well as full-timers that don't feel they are being given the time to complete the tasks. I will also note that some of those people don't really want to do it, so complain about the lack of time instead of just saying they don't want to do it. But on the other hand I don't feel there is enough encouragement and support from midlevel staff either. Just my two cents, for what ever it is worth

blog day

2006-09-01T09:40:00.000-07:00

Happy Blog Day everyone!

In keeping with my "Celebrate New Jersey" themed blog, I have choosen to share a picture of the New Jersey Cake that Mrs. Miller and Mrs. Mirda's fourth grade class from the Bridgewater-Raritan School District created several years ago.

Who knew that I would actually be able to find a cake shaped like New Jersey by simply doing a search in yahoo images for cake and New Jersey!

Enjoy a piece of cake as you celebrate Blog Day!

newsreader extras

2006-08-31T08:09:00.000-07:00

Well, maybe it's me but I couldn't get much out of any of the feed search tools. I looked at feedster, topix.net, Syndic8.com and Technorati and couldn't find good feeds on the two topics I was looking for. I found it easier just to go to the sites that I already visit and check for a feed icon. I realize that my topics might have been the problem. I was interested to see if any one was doing anything on basket making, but as I realized there are many ways to search for that topic ( basketry, basket-making, basket weaving, etc) and I wasn't getting any good hits, or maybe people into basket making aren't into computers. I also looked for feeds having to do with news from central New Jersey where I am from, but that may have been to narrow of a topic, I got news feeds from the New Jersey papers but it was all of NJ and I don't want to look through that much stuff every day. If you were really into the newsreader thing and you were interested in things that people blog about you might find these tools useful, but for a casual user they could be frustrating.

I am looking forward to next week and learning about image generators, librarything(BTW so cool) and Rollyo(what ever that is).

Have a great holiday weekend everyone!

bloglines

2006-08-28T10:01:00.000-07:00

Hi all,

Well I have just made my bloglines account public at http://www.bloglines.com/public/jglibrarian .
It was so easy, all this tech stuff is much easier than I thought it would be.
If you are interested in finding out what interests me check it out.

bloglines

2006-08-26T13:57:00.000-07:00

Okay, I admit I skipped ahead and learned about bloglines. This is a great service! I no longer have to go to 10 different websites a day, they come to me. I can now have my cartoons, news about New Jersey and keep up with some of my co-workers blog with simple clicks instead of retyping every url and waiting for the sites to load. What a time saver. I wish I knew about this sooner. I can't wait to get back to it and add more!

Ahhhhh

2006-08-26T13:49:00.000-07:00

More Flickr fun at motivator

Twitter

2006-08-23T11:44:00.000-07:00

What is the point of twitter? I just was out on the web wandering around all this new technology and came upon this site which claims it is a social networking site. It just appears to be random people text messaging random thoughts as the go through their day. Why do we need this in the world?

technology coolness

2006-08-22T06:42:00.000-07:00

How cool is this?!! If only I could make the tiles smaller.

P.S. I got them smaller so they fit on one line. Thanks to Library Lady!

Musings on technology

2006-08-21T13:14:00.000-07:00

What interests me about technology?

That is this weeks question. What a difficult question. Interest, according to the 4th edition of the American Heritage College Dictionary means "state of of curiosity or concern about or attention to something".

I don't find I have much curiosity when it comes to technology. I do feel a sense of accomplishment when I finally figure something out. But am I interested/curious in it? Not really.

But for my job it is a necessity that I know about various technologies and how to work with them. As I said before I have just enough knowledge to be dangerous and not enough to fix what I screw up. Knock on wood, so far I haven't managed to mess anything up to bad. And this blog thing seems to be going pretty well, so far.

But in the spirit of learning I have played around with flickr and some other sites and found that it was pretty fun once you get the hang of it. I particularly enjoyed playing with spell with flickr and also the flickr color picker.

I was also able to down load a book, but I'll talk about that for one of my other challenges. I also looked at some library related blogs in preparation for next week.

Doughboy in HP, NJ

2006-08-21T12:22:00.000-07:00

In keeping with my homage to my home state. This doughboy is a well known statue in my home town.

Uploaded from sheenachi's flicker page on 9/25/06

http://flickr.com/photos/sheenachi/

things that make you go hmmm?

2006-08-18T14:10:00.000-07:00

Did you ever wonder why the word

blog

is not in the blogger spell check dictionary?

Just a thought.

7 habits

2006-08-18T13:17:00.000-07:00

The seven strategies to life long learning are interesting concepts to think about. They seem so obvious when you think about them and for the most part we should already be incorporating them into our daily lives. With a little tweeking and a little shifting of attitude these all should be attainable.

For me, however, I believe that the hardest concept to accomplish will be having confidence as a competent effective learner. It is hard for me, a person with little formal computer training, but a lot of "in the trenches" computer learning, to believe that I can do some of the things that are asked of you in the Learning 2.0 experience. Will I do it right, will my blog make sense, will people get my sense of humor? I sometimes feel that I have enough knowledge to be dangerous, but not enough to fix my exploratory goofs, so I don't explore. This will make me explore.

Apparently, what will be the easiest for me to do will be to teach or mentor others. At my branch we had difficulty logging on to the podcasts from the staff computers. IT came yesterday and fixed the problem on one of the machines. I sent out an email this morning to the rest of the staff letting them know that it wasn't them, but that the computers were having problems with logging on. I also told the staff to use the computer that now has the needed "stuff" and to ask me if they needed help with anything. While, I am by no means an "expert", two heads are better than one sometimes. I have already been approached by a few staff members with questions about the program and I hope more jump on the bandwagon with me.

Keep learning!

Learning 2.0 week 2

2006-08-18T09:45:00.000-07:00

MY FIRST BLOG!!!!!

How exciting! I am really looking forward to this experience. It is forcing me to learn and try things that I have wanted to do but for one reason or another I haven't done yet. Mostly the reason is laziness but some of the reason is lack of time or not having a reason except curiosity to explore new technology. I know these are all excuses or roadblocks to learning that I must overcome.

Oh, I now have something to add to my learning contract, an obstacle. Yeah!!!!

Now I just need to figure out what I want to learn, besides blogging and tagging and wikis. I guess I could use "I will learn how to use emerging technology to enhance my work as well as social life" for my contract accomplishment.

Well I gotta go to a service desk now. I'll post more
later