Thing 23 - Survey

I don't know if I am actually supposed to post something for Thing 23, but I did the survey and now I am done with the 23 Things yay!

Thing 22 - Staying Current

Okay, I admit it, I have learned a few things and found some sweet new tools. There is no question of whether or not I will stay current with the internet and all it has to offer - I don't really have much of a choice (and that is just fine with me - I love learning new things). And, I certainly dedicate more than 15 minutes a day to the internet. In fact, a few minutes ago, my power went off (and it still is off) and I am still sitting here typing up my blog response on my laptop. As for keeping up my blog, I will probably leave this one for a new one - one that isn't dedicated to the 23 Things...on that is more about me ;) . I really have being able to put my 2 cents worth out there...even if no one reads it.

Thing 21 - Student 2.0 Tools

This is kinda cool but I don't think I would use it as a college student. By college, or at least after your first big paper or two, you should have your own research style (or at least I do...). I do however, think it would be a good way to help teach high school kids about the research project and how to manage your time for a big project. This would be good for AP college-bound kids and those more vocationally-bound. I found it interesting that the Assignment Calculator asks for the subject area of the assignment but doesn't offer any specialized information or links based on the subject area. As for promoting it to students in the library, it would probably be most applicable in high school media centers but I might post information about these sites near the literary criticism books in the reference section (when I was in high school, this was the only thing I did any research for...and I hated it).

Thing 20 - Books 2.0

Now, I have grown up in the digital age but I still really like good ol' fashoined books. Most of the time, I would rather have a physical book, ya know with paper pages and a cover and all, than read from a computer (or cell phone - ick) screen. It does come in handy when a textbook is available via the internet so that I can read it during the down time at work without having to lug it around with me all the time. Also, it's always nice to use the "Find" feature to help search for an answer for your homework or whatnot. Good stuff. But, when I am reading for pleasure and most of the time for class, I would rather not read it from a screen. And books are just so much more portable - I pretty much always have one in my purse. "But, Katy, don't you always have your phone in your purse also - you could download a book onto that!" Yeah...no...my cell phone doesn't even have a camera on it so the screen is tiny - that would be painful to read an entire book or even a page or two via my phone. I wouldn't even want to read on my mp3 player and that has a slightly larger screen. On to "Reader's Advisory" and "Online Book Communities"...um, isn't this totally what Librarything is? Pick one book site with everything (or almost everything) on it and stick to it, please. Now, the audiobooks sites would be handy if I wanted to listen to a book while I workout - but that too, I would really rather read an actual book book. All in all, Book 2.0 seems kinda lame. I mean, come on, if it ain't broke, don't fix it!

Thing 19 - Other social networks

Dangit! I already did this in my Thing 18. See the last paragraph of the previous post.

Thing 18 - Social Networking

I have been hinting at the glory that is Facebook for some time now, and I finally get to talk about it! I joined facebook the summer before I started college - back then (in the good ol' days) it was only college students (or alumni, or employees) who were allowed on. Of course, there were ways of getting on without actually being a college student (i.e. using your professor dad's e-mail), but let's face it, that was cheating. Within a year, high schoolers were allowed to get a facebook, and soon after, it opened up to everyone. Now, I do have a lot of facebook friends who are not college students, so I kind of embraced the inclusion, but there are a lot of problems that come up when you let kids under 18 on a site like this, so it can get a bad rep because of it. I think high schoolers belong on MySpace, but that's just me (I also have -or have had- my fair share of high school friends).

Anyway, facebook. This is generally my first stop when I hop on the internet and a default for whenever I am bored. It really is a one-stop-shop. You can e-mail, post pictures (and see your friends'), get event notices, post links to your favorite sites or news articles, and of course, facebook stalk! Okay, I know what you're thinking, "Don't be creepy or anything, Katy." First, I will refer you to it's urbandictionary definition for a general understanding of the term. Now, facebook stalking is not really anything creepy, after all, it is just looking at the information that a person has chosen to post about themselves for others to see. Also, it sometimes takes talent to facebook stalk - you have to know how to find a person. You can make your profile private, so that only your friends can actually see it, or you can make it so that it doesn't show up when someone outside of your network searches for you (or you can be invisible to everyone but your friends, meaning that in order to gain friends, you must friend them). Facebook stalking is not analogous to obsessively following someone around in the real world (you know, the kind that leads to restraining orders). Like I said, you cannot find out anymore information about someone than he or she wants you to find. Also, facebook has it's own twitter-like application in the form of updates. Now, I think twitter itself is stupid, since it is a site dedicated to up-to-the-minute details about your life, but I think it works on facebook. You don't have to have a status update, and I just don't condemn it as much.

On to MySpace. I'm not gonna lie, I think myspace is lame. I have a profile (I got it before I had a facebook), but I don't really update it or check it ever. Every once in a while, I will get a friend request or message, but myspace has a lot more spam-like stuff on it. True, it is good for musicians - you can be friends with your favorite singer or band, and new musicians can try to recruit fans by suggesting that fans of a similar band listen to them (which means that if you like Jason Mraz, you get a lot of e-mails from Jason-Mraz-wannabes). Oh yea, and there are porn stars on there as well who will try to be your friend (ew). And, yes, it is generally easier to access a person's profile and information - if you can find them. Myspace's search kinda sucks. You can't actually refine/filter your search, even though it gives you the option, it just freaks out and says it can't find anyone with those parameters.

Facebook and myspace are not the only social networking sites out there, though. Search for a networking site based on your hobby or profession. I love Ravelry - a knit/crochet/fiber networking site (you have to ask to be invited in order to get on, so don't expect to explore the site unless you actually get on it - also, they don't let you upload photos directly from your computer, which is pretty much the only reason I have a flickr). LibraryThing could be considered a social networking site, too. Check out this list of social networking sites from my beloved Wikipedia.

Thing 17 - Podcasts

I've been really positive about the last few Things. Not so much for this one. I have gone and sat in class for an hour at a time for at least 3 days a week for the last, oh, I don't know, 16 years, listening to a teacher lecture about a topic. So I ask you this: What on earth makes you think I would want to come home and listen to some random other person talk for any length of time? I've never been a fan of talk radio, and that's pretty much all this is. Okay, so it's more accessible on both the making and receiving ends, but I don't see why I would listen to a podcast unless maybe it was done by someone I know - the same problem blogs have. I kinda get the comedy podcasts and if you were using your podcast for a lecture (say for a seminar), that's great, but I don't see why I would voluntarily listen to them or clog up my mp3 player with them. What happened to enjoying silence? Am I the only one who doesn't need to be listening to something every waking moment? I really only listen to music when I'm driving or working out and I never turn the TV on just for background noise.

That is all...sorry for my negativity....

Thing 16 - You Tube

Thing 15 - Rollyo

The other day, Alice came to me and asked about my thoughts on rollyo. Of course, I hadn't dont that Thing yet, but I had checked it out a bit. I thought it seemed kinda neat, but she said (and a few others agreed) that it was stupid. If you have been following my blog, you know that I am pretty critical about a lot of the Things. But this one I like. I could see how it would be of no help to the casual internet searcher, when google would be sufficienct. But, if you are like me with a bunch of neat-o sites, some of which are similar in topic, rollyo could be really useful. I haven't actually set up my own searchroll, but I plan to when I get home. I do really like the pre-created e-books search - a lot of times, professors will assign us readings for a book that isn't checked in at the library and it would be easier to just read online, the search would come in handy for such times. Also, this would filter out all the dumb extraneous links you can sometimes get when you google. Let's see...in the library this would be useful for the Great Links! available on our site, since a number of them are very similar. Also, it would be great for searching a bunch of databases at once (though ACLD and the UF libraries already have a search-all kinda thing).

Thing 14 - Online productivity tools

Okay, a lot of the Things are kinda neat, but are really just another way to waste time on the internet. These are super cool, though. Yeah, you can get caught up and end up wasting some time, but they are just so handy that it is forgivable. A lot of them are cool and certainly useful for numerous people the world over, but some I just can't really use. The calendars are neat-o, but I don't really have enough appointments or anything to keep one - and I like my good, ol' fashioned wall calendar with it's color-coded ink. The to-do list that you could send to your phone would be really handy, too... except that my phone doesn't even have a camera, it's so old-school. And if you have the sticky notes, you don't really need the to-do list applications also.

Here are some suggested ones that I liked and a few I found on my own (and with the help of my beloved StumbleUpon):
Sticky Notes - dude, these are super cool. It took me a bit of fiddling around with it to figure out how to make them do what I wanted them to, but I really look forward to using this (though I'm sure I will use classic Post-Its often as well).
HassleMe - I know what you're thinking, "How could an application called 'HassleMe' be used for productivity?" Just check it out - it can be used for relatively unproductive reminders (like working out) or I could use it to send myself an e-mail every week so I never forget to do my weekly Religions of Asia homework (seriously, I swear, one of these weeks I will forget to do it).
PDF Converter - in all of my seemingly infinite computer/internet wisdom, I have never really figured out/learned about PDFs. Don't get me wrong, I use them all the time, but I'm still not really sure how they work. But no matter, PDF converter to the rescue!
DropSend - this is a neat place to store documents and whatnot online and send really big files that some e-mail providers wouldn't let you due to size limitations. I know a lot of people are all about GoogleDocs, and storing stuff online is sweet, but just be careful, because there have been many a times when there has been no internet, but you can still get stuff done because you have everything backed up on your flashdrive and don't need the interweb.

Again, I am a child of the digital age and I know that I probably rely on computers and the internet too much, but I must caution again about wholly depending on these wonderful devices. Sometimes, paper and pencil is just as good, if not better, for certain things - and many times more reliable, too.

Thing 13 - LibraryThing

I read about LibraryThing a few months ago when flipping through a library journal at the reference desk and decided that I needed to check it out. I really like it! I think it is super neat. I have entered the books I have read and own and want to read. Okay, it's not all the books I've ever read, but just those since I've been in college and have come to value my breaks in between semesters as times when I can squeeze in as many books for pleasure as I possibly can (I'm a religion major and about each semester, I have one class that demands I read a book a week ... and at least 3 other classes with a good amount of required reading, so I don't have time for my own reading during the semester). Also, I only added the novels I read, not any of my reference books, though I am considering adding them. I have played around with the site, but I don't think I've ever read something because another user reccommends it - though I'm not saying that I wouldn't. In Thing 9, one of the reccommended database subjects was books that I want to read - I thought it would be silly to create a database for something that already has a whole website dedicated to just that (and more!).

In the (real-life) library this could be a neat tool to display reccommended books, best sellers, or new books (mmm...I love new books...). It would also be a good tool for finding other books with the same subject or those rated well - this could be helpful at the reference desk (especially when the library catalog is being a pain).

Thing 12 - Wikis

I love, Love, LOVE Wikipedia. No, seriously, I really do love it. I know that if my mom, the library media specialist/copyright fanatic, is reading this, she is shaking her head in slight embarassment for this statement. When I discovered Wikipedia, it was like angels started singing and a light shone from behind the computer monitor. It was glorious. But anyway, my mom is not a fan of my favorite website because she believes it to be almost wholly unreliable because of the face that anyone can edit it. Understandable, which is why if I read something that sounds a bit crazy (and even some things that don't sound very wild), I take it with a grain of salt. But it really is an amazing resource. I have learned so much from Wikipedia-ing things. I mean, say you want to know a little bit about the Four Noble Truths of Buddhism or read a brief history of chewing gum - Wikipedia's got it. And, it's great for libraries, not just as a random resource for almost anything you ever wanted to know about, but you can look up authors and see the order of a series they have written (like James Patterson's Maximum Ride series). Amazing. I do understand, however, teachers not wanting kids to use Wikipedia as an official source for research projects. On the other hand, it is a great jumping off point. I mean, how many kids have come to the reference desk asking for information for a project about the Iroquois? Kids may not know where to start (hell, in my papers on religious iconography and whatnot, I don't always know where to start), but Wikipedia can send them in the right direction. I know what you're thinking, "But Katy, this is what books and databases are for!" Do you know how may middle schoolers even know what a database is? And not everyone has the book they need or can get to the library when possible, but, I ask again, How many 4th graders do you know who use the internet daily? I rest my case.

On to wikis other than the grandaddy of them all.... As great as they are, some things are just not meant to be wiki'd. For example, floating material and who needs what and who wants to get rid of items (huh? ACLDers know what I'm talking about). I get wanting to jump on the bandwagon that is wikis, but don't make more work for people. Where wikis do come in useful is when they are used to get customized information to people. Anyone who watches Lost, for example, would love Lostpedia. However, some things are better suited for blogs or good, ol' fashioned e-mail.

Hey, check it out, you can even Wikipedia "Wikipedia"!

Thing 11 - Social Media

Ugh, didn't we just do this? And in the RSS feeds Thing, too. How many times do I need to say how much of a time waster this is? Like, I'm not wasting my time by talking about it, but getting addicted to Digg and everything will suck up all your time. Seriously, it will. Yes, it would be helpful for a library to share news about the district and the library/information world in general. But, okay, so you know how some of these are all "compile all of your favorite sites here!"? FACEBOOK, PEOPLE! Facebook has like all of these things and then some. Okay, I am going to move on before I get stuck on my soapbox.

Thing 10 - tagging and bookmarks

I have chosen not to call this Thing "delicious". This is because, delicious is sooooo not the only website of it's kind. Personally, I LOVE StumbleUpon. What is this glorious website tool of which you speak, Katy? Well, StumbleUpon is basically the greatest. It is very similar to delicious in that it keeps you bookmarks and allow you to tag them and has a toolbar feature like delicious does. But the really great thing about StumbleUpon is that with the toolbar comes a button to "Stumble". This button is both magnificent and addictive. I have found both totally random sites and amazingly useful sites with this magic button. Seriously, people, try it.

Okay, but delicious and tagging. It's alright, I suppose. I am all about having your bookmarks wherever you go. Also, I have done some tagging with facebook photos. That is neat because with facebook tags, when you click on "photos of Katy" it pulls up all the photos in which I have been tagged, including photos other people have taken. Fancy that. You can of course untag yourself, if you wish.

On the Alachua County Public Library website, there is a page of "Great Links!" It would be neat to have these websites on delicious or another bookmark/tagging site, because a link could have more than one tag, as a number of these fit under more than one category. That's my two cents for now.

Thing 9 - slideshow

Holy crap...internet explorer just screwed up and lost all of my post - I'm not retyping it, you'll just have to trust that I did it... I really freaking want to move on!!

Thing 8 - communication

1. Okay, I have been using AIM for years, litterally. First, I want to say that AIM does not require you to download anything, unlike what it says on the 23 Things @ NEFLIN blog. You can use AIM Express which lets you used AIM through just the internet, without downloading the AIM package. Now that I've gotten that off my chest.... You know how I have been bashing a lot of the Things, but I promised there would be some that I love? This is one of them. I used to love it more, but I really haven't been using it as much as I used to - I'm not really sure why, though. Anyway, it was pretty awesome back in high school and it's still great. I also like to use Facebook chat, which is relatively new, but it sometimes has glitches, so it can get annoying. I must admit, I have never used Ask A Librarian, but I think that it is a great tool.

2. Ahh, text messaging. I admitted to Heather that I don't text and she said that I'm probably the only person under 30 who doesn't. This is probably true. I like the idea of texting in its basic sense, like to text someone and ask if they want to get dinner later and not inturrupt them at that moment, but there a some kids like my brother who are just like constantly texting and I just don't get it. Seriously people text all through class, sometimes even just across the room (I'm not kidding). Okay, but anyway...I think that a cool way to use text messaging in libraries would be to have, say, teens sign up to receive texts (with the permission of their parents, of course, who are probably the ones paying the cell phone bill) about events that are happening later that day. This would probably really increase the attendance to young adult programming since a lot of people just forget about an event that they were meaning to go to. This is made easier by the ability to send mass texts and there are some websites that allow you to send a text message for free.

3. Web conferencing. I have taken a few classes online, but none of them have really used web conferencing-like tools. However, I know that there are some offered at UF that do (math classes and such). Also, I think that I end up taking some classes that would require web conferencing when I start grad school. A lot, if not all, of FSU's web-based library science classes (almost all of them are web-based, in fact) are structured so that all of the class meets online at a certain time (usually in the evening). These may or may not include video, but it would probably include an open chatroom for class discussion.

Challenges: Sooooo, I think the word "twitter" sounds dirty. I also think that it is mildly stalker-ly and probably gives one the opportunity to offer up more information than anyone would want to know (not like when you sign up it asks a lot of stuff, more like, I can't imagine anyone wanting to know what I do every moment of the day, so I'm not going to waste my time posting it). Also, Facebook offers a twitter-like thing in the form of one's status, which I sometimes use.

Thing 7 - online image generators

I don't really think that online image generators need their own Thing. It seems that they could just go along with mashups - I'm rather critical, though. Also, I think that it would be much easier to call these applications something along the lines of "image templates" or something. So, from the image generators given, I didn't get what ToonDoo was about at all, but I did like The Generator Blog and ImageChef. Big Huge Labs was on the mashups Thing, but that one was a bit annoying. Okay, that's all for this Thing - I am rather behind so this is a short one.

from ImageChef

Thing 6 - mashups

So, because this is related to flickr, I was already not crazy about it. To be honest, I had no idea what a mashup was before this. I think the word "mashup" for these applications seems misleading. I don't know what I thought it would be, but it certainly was not what mashups really are...if that makes any sense to anyone other than me. It seems to me that it is just a name for a bunch of neat applications you can use to do creative things with your flickr photos. I think some of them are lame, though there are definitely people who would use them. I like the flickr color pickr, but I don't know for what you would use it. I thought that the calendar creator would be cool, but I have changed my mind. It is frustrating and has very few options. Okay, I think I really like the wallpaper-maker. I like to get creative with my desktop wallpapers - I usually like to put a great yarn photo up, but it is sometimes hard to find a good one that is big enough.

Anyway, I started this post a few days ago and I no longer know if I had a point. I spelled my name with spell with flickr - ta-da!

Thing 5 - Flickr

I already have a flickr account, but the only reason I have one is so that I could upload photos onto another site (it does not let you upload photos directly from your computer). So, most of the pictures on my flickr are of yarn or knitting projects. Also, I would like to clarify that the reason the pictures are of such terrible quality is because I had to use a bad camera and in order to get the color of the yarn right, I had to have the shutter open for longer than usual, making the pictures blurry. Anyway, I added a few more pictures from library events (and one of my BFF, Barack).

I am not a big fan of flickr. It is not very user friendly, and that means a lot coming from me. It is very frustrating and you must take very circuitous routes to get where you want to get. Flickr makes me mad. Sorry, it just does. I would much rather use facebook to share my photos with people. Okay, okay, I thought of one thing I do like about flickr - I like that you can search everyone's photos for something you want, kinda like google image search. I have found some great desktop images this way. But that's all that I like about it.

As far as using flickr in the library, I think it is a good idea for posting pictures of events. However, the issue of consent comes up because posting pictures of people on the internet is sometimes a touchy subject. Okay, I'm ready to be done with flickr for the moment...and now I will post a picture of my BFF to get me out of my rant:

Thing 4 - RSS and newsreaders

I hate to sound like I am bashing all the Things. There will be Things that I love - I promise.

RSS feeds. So, in theory, these are great. You can get all the new information from your favorite sites/blogs in one convenient place. Here's the thing...I feel like this just makes it easier to waste away your time on the internet. Likewise, if you read so many blogs that it is extremely inconvenient to check them all, chances are that you read too many blogs. One nice thing, however, is that this allows me to follow my coworkers' 23 Things blogs that are on sites other than Blogger. Yeah, that's pretty much it.

Thing 3 - blog search engines

Sooooo, I'm not crazy about this Thing. I have done it because it is one of the Things, but I don't really have any interest in finding blogs. I waste enough of my time that should be spent studying on the few blogs I do look at, I don't need to be looking at any others. Also, I don't really see why someone would need an entire search engine dedicated to blogs. You could probably just add the word "blog" to your search in Google and it would work. Also, I feel like any blog worth reading would be referenced in something in which you are already interested.

Okay, moving on to the actual Thing. I searched Technorati and Google Blog Search for blogs about knitting. First of all, Technorati let me search for blogs about knitting, while in Google Blog Search (advanced options), I could only search for blogs with "knitting" in the title of the blog. Half of the first 10 blogs that Technorati came up with didn't have "knitting" in the title so they wouldn't have come up on Google. Searching by blog title would only be useful if you knew a few words in a particular blog, but forgot the URL. Thus, should one want to find a new blog, this is useless. I don't have anymore mildly positive things to say about this Thing.

Thing 2 - Web 2.0 and Library 2.0

So, I looked over the information and links on the NEFLIN 23 Things blogs and my overall reactions is, DUH! I have said before that I am a product of the Net Generation, so it's not a big deal to me anyway. I was IMing and everything long before I could even drive. Anyway, my problem with these things is not Web 2.0 and Library 2.0 in and of themselves, but the fact that we seem to need a new term and concept for them. Okay, so originally computers and the internet were developed for what? Simple e-mail and complex computing. Now they are used for everything from taking classes to finding a date. But they are still used for simple e-mail and complex computing. Let's think about this from another angle; back in the day, there was the telegraph and it was used for relaying important, critical news across long distances. Then, the old-school telephone came along, then one with numbers you can punch, then cordless phones, then the original gigantic mobile phones, and now we have cell phones that can do pretty much everything anywhere and for many people, are absolutely depended upon. I just don't see what the big fuss is about.

Here are the questions posed on the 23 Things blog and my answers:

Why are you participating in 23 Things @ NEFLIN? What do you hope to learn? Primarily, I am doing 23 Things for the prizes, I'm not gonna lie. And perhaps to show off a bit. Also, I have found that there are a few things that I know about but didn't realize they had a name or the apparently big impact that they are having (i.e. Web 2.0).
How has the Internet and the vast resource it can be affected your use of time at work and/or at home? Well...I waste a lot more time messin' around on the internet when I should be studying or something else important. Other than that, a computer anad the internet is practically a requirement for students now so a large portion of my computer/internet time is spent working on homework, researching, or studying in general. Also, I frequent Wikipedia for general informataion for all the random things I come across and want to know more about and whenever I'm watching tv and there's an actor I recognize or something, I IMDB him/her. And I use Facebook. A lot. It has become quite a phenomenon among my age-group - Facebook is how we stalk our new dates, keep up with photos from the latest party, and just generally stay in touch. Nothing is official until it's on Facebook and if it says it on Facebook, it has to be true (psh, yea right!).
Where are you in your knowledge and use of Web 2.0 tools? I am pretty savvy with the Web 2.0 tools - I often get called over to help with said tools at work (and I'm just a page with very little reference authority). How about your library? We are becoming much more on top of Web 2.0 tools. Our branch took a great leap on this front when we got Heather as our new YA librarian. In order to even get some young adults into the library, using Facebook and Myspace is practically necessary in order to promote teen programs like the Twilight Prom.
What are you looking forward to in 23 Things @ NEFLIN? I am looking forward to not being the only one at work who knows how to help someone with Myspace or Yahoo! messenger. And the prizes :)

Thing 2 and the Protestant Reformation

This will be a quick post - I only have another 10 minutes on the desk at work. Okay, so I had this wonderful insight about Web 2.0 and Library 2.0.

Most people think that the Prostestant Reformation was just a bunch of people led by Martin Luther who objected to the ideas and practices of the Catholic church. In reality, it was much more than that, and in fact very philosophical. Before the Prostestant Reformation, it was only the priests and Pope who had access to God and the Bible. This power eventually led to corruption within the church in the form of the Vatican charging for the absolving of one's sins. Martin Luther, among many others, recognized the root underlying this corruption. Aside from the fact that few in the 1500s were literate, the Bible and church services were given in Latin, which only the educated few knew, as opposed to the local language or dialect. The Protestant Reformation, however, paved the way for one to have a personal relationship with God without having to go through a priest. Likewise, any person could read the Bible and interpret it for him or herself.

Thus, Web 2.0 and Library 2.0 have made resources more available for anyone, not just techies and those literate in HTML (I'm not even literate in HTML). Likewise, and I am by no means saying that librarians are obsolete or heading in that directions, but library patrons can access resources and do research on their own. Library resources and how one would go about accessing them have become much more user friendly. In the same vein, I do not think this minor paradigm shift is any different from the switch from card catalogs to computer cataloging. I also don't think that this advance in technology warrants as much attention that it appears to be getting. Libraries, like everything else in the world, are evolving and adjusting to new technologies. More on this later....

Thing 1 part 2

So, after making my first post, I set about customizing my blog. I cannot find where I can make my links open in a new window (yes, a new window, I hate tabs). I do not think it is available, but you can always right-click and choose to open the link in a new window (or tab, if you like). This option would probably be available on a more advanced blog site.

I also added a few gadgets, but found the process to be mildly annoying. First, the search for gadgets doesn't seem very good. When I search "knitting", for example, the results come up and say "1-11 of 7 for knitting." This obviously does not make sense - okay and now, for no reason, the font just changed on me here in this post. Also, the results don't seem to show up in any order, like making the most relevant appear first. Nonetheless, I found a couple that I wanted to add to my blog and I didn't like that the gadget doesn't default to the correct size to accommodate said gadget. Perhaps this is because of the computer I am using; I'm not sure.

Thing 1 - Blogs

I first heard of the 23 Things from my mom, a library media specialist. After she told me about it, I looked up what the Things were and found that I have already done at least half of them and the ones I hadn't didn't seem interesting to me so I wasn't interested in participating. However, after I heard that there will be prizes for completing the 23 Things, I changed my mind.

About me: I am a page at the Tower Road branch library and I am finishing up my Bachelors at UF this semester - my major is Religon with a minor in Art History. At the moment, I am in the process of applying to grad school for a Masters of Library Science. I am 22 years old, so I have grown up with the internet and what it apparently called Web 2.0 (I will get to that in its appropriate Thing). Thus, I am, as my mom has dubbed me, a digital native (like a native language speaker). I am good with computers and the internet in general and I end up being called over for help at work often. I plan on not only attempting, but accomplishing all of the challenges that go along with the Things. I can help with the Things I know about and probabaly the Things I don't as well.

Okay, now for the actual Thing 1 assignment. I don't really think there really is anything to know about blogs. They are just like an online journal, I think. I did, however, like the "Blogs in Plain English" video posted on the 23 Things blog. But, I feel like the video presents blogs as something that was originally used for news purposes (in the classic sense) and then became something that individuals caught on to in order to create public journals. I think it has been the other way around, but I could be a bit biased since as a teenager, all my friends had online diaries on livejournal.com and whatnot to post all their OMG! moments and I wasn't terribly interested in "official" news at the time. I started a few of these online journals, but I never cared enough to keep up with them (don't worry, that won't happen here).

As far as setting up the blog went (I'm not crazy about the word "blog", by the way - it just sounds ugly), it was very easy. But, like I said, I may be a little biased. I am a fan of a few blogs, some of which don't offer much in the way of text, but they are blogs nonetheless.
A few of my favorites:
http://hanksyarn.blogspot.com/ - the local yarn store here in Gainesville (I'm a knitter)
http://ooh-shiny.net/ - a blog created just to show off neat merchandise on the internet; I have discovered so many cool online shops from this website, it has become an invaluable resource; the one drawback about this blog is that I am not attracted to everything zombie and pirate like the blogger, but I just skip over those posts
http://icanhascheezburger.com/ and http://ihasahotdog.com/ - anyone who knows me is aware of my love for animals, especially puppies
I could keep going but I'm sure a number of others will be mentioned in my later Thing posts.