Happy, Merry and Bright!

If anyone happens to wander upon this blog, here's my wish for a blessed, joyous holiday season, whatever holidays you happen to be celebrating.

Now it's Really 8N08!!

I've finished the last two exercises for our technology project. I listened to a "Car Talk" podcast, and I downloaded Part 1 of Wayne Dyer's book, "10 Secrets for Success and Inner Peace." I'm excited that now I might be able to find a use for the MP3 player that's been sitting in a drawer since last Christmas!! I'm a lot more comfortable downloading books and things now.

I'm also familiar with the social networking sites, MySpace and Facebook. My nieces and nephews all keep in touch with my kids through Facebook, so they may be surprised to find Aunt Pat on the site soon. I started setting up a profile, but it's not finished yet. In fact, Facebook alerted the family to a tricky family situation and we were able to correct things before anything bad happened. The social networking sites can be very useful.

I'm grateful for the 'gentle nudge' into the brave new world of technology. The various exercises we did were well-written and not that hard to do. I've learned a lot through this challenge.

Out of Order but Moving On

Just a quick post to say that I've finished the 7th 8in08 exercise--I haven't yet done #6, but this is due to limited availability of workstations with the correct software--it'll happen soon. We explored Wiki's for this assignment. Here's what I found today:
The Uncyclopedia featured article was a very crass rumination on why the author liked the "Tango and Cash" movie.

I did visit the ALA Wiki and found some useful sites for ALSC which will be useful to me for early literacy information. A couple of the links did not work because of ALA's restructuring of their website, but most were good.
On WikiHOW I found out how to strengthen my back with Pilates, and I was very glad to learn that the moves that I do often in my Yoga class were moves that were recommended, and I can do them!!

I was not impressed with Wikia--most of the subjects I typed in had no information available. (OK, two of those subjects were Arlo and Folk Music--but nothing on Folk Music??? Really??)
The quilting Wiki had a grand total of 3 articles, and I couldn't access 2 of them. The one I found was just a sappy inspirational poem about quilts and our lives, etc. I christened this one the Icky Wiki. I may be inspired to create an account if this is all the information available on this site. There WAS a very detailed Harry Potter Wiki which was nicely designed, but given all the HP information widely available, I doubt I'd use this source for research.
That's my experience with Wiki's.

Still Here

OK, it's been almost 3 months since I've posted, but I've got a good excuse! I've just started my second 'new' job in 3 months in the same place. I am loving, LOVING my newest duties as a supervisor, but that's because my staff is wonderful. That being said, I'm sure that excuse is not going to get me out of completing my 8in08 assignments--but I have 34 days left--I'll get it done!

RSS: Simple enough for me!

I've looked at all my favorite sites, and I'm surprised at how many don't have the RSS option, but I did add 2 to my feeds list of favorites. This is a nice option for keeping up-to-date on the latest happenings in news and other subjects. I imagine more sites will offer this as the technology becomes more widespread.

Technology: Great when it works--arrrgh!!!

I've seen lots of blogs with people's Shelfari shelves displaying beautiful book covers, so I decided to make one, too! Following the easy steps on the website, I tried to add it to my blog page, but alas, my gadget seems to be broken and I can't fix it. Here's the link to my Shelfari page, so you can see what I'm reading:
http://www.shelfari.com/o1518002185/shelf

Unfortunately, you can't see it right here on my blog.

4 of 8n08

I've discovered lots of new ways to play on the Web. I've made a new radio station (all Arlo all the time) and created my own search engine at Rollyo. I've looked at mashups and tagging (although I still can't figure out how to tag books at the Ann Arbor library site). I've uploaded pictures, and played with image generators. It's been fun. Here's my attempt at political humor:

I'm not singling out any particular party--there's more than enough blame to go around!

Tagging--Easy as ABC???

Tagging--a new way to share your ideas about books, photos and websites, right? Well, not if your computer is acting wacky, or if you have to sign up for bunches of more sites and remember even MORE passwords and user names. I've tried 3 times to add tags on the Ann Arbor library site for books I've read, and haven't been able to so far. Both LibraryThing and Amazon want me to sign up for an account, and I haven't done that yet. the CPL catalog is down, so I can't try to tag there. So, I'll tag this post and maybe that will count, right?

Holiday Fun

The July 4 Twin Sizzler in Medina, Ohio. We just did the 5K walk--we keep thinking that one day we will do the run, but as time goes on, the walk seems to be the perfect way to start the holiday!

The hat I'm wearing is the one I made while our son was deployed in Iraq. The crown is decorated with buttons, one per day that he was gone.

Busy, busy!

It's finally starting to feel like summer. School is out--in fact, we've had a prom and a graduation since my last post.

We have several graduations in the family this year, so we're planning a big family party early in August to celebrate. It's interesting that the same year my oldest granddaughter graduates from preschool, my youngest daughter graduates from high school.

Hey, this is fun!

I've been playing and adding things to my blog. I can see how this could become addictive. I'm looking forward to working with photos soon, so check back--those adorable granddaughters may be making appearances here before long.

One Down, Seven to Go

Here's my first blog post! Why is it when you're faced with a big empty box to write in, you can find absolutely nothing worthwhile to say. Hopefully things will get better. I'm looking forward to the rest of the 8N08 challenges. Who knows, maybe I'll actually keep this blog going for more than a few months.