Addendum to the End, or, the End is in Sight

I have been writing holiday letters to European relatives in Google docs - it has a spellcheck that automatically senses the correct language! Not perfect, but charming. I also have a series of trip checklists going for an upcoming vacation to visit our studying-abroad daughter, and the aforesaid relatives. It's convenient to be able to access them from any computer. And encourage my husband to log in and contribute. Google calendar is next!

And then what was the challenge question? Can't locate the APLE newsletter (yeah, yeah, I should know where to find it, but...), so I seem to remember that it involves revealing 10 things about ourselves. Scary, since anybody can access this! OK, here we go: 1) I'm addicted to Minesweeper, 2) I love to knit, read, bicycle, garden, hike (I could go on), 3)we have a labyrinth in our back yard, 4) I am of Swiss descent, but the name Jain comes from Spain via France - there's a whole province named after me! Jaen! We're going to check out the family chateau on our upcoming trip. 5) we have 3 cats at present, and they are all crazy, 6)I ride a recumbent bike with underseat steering. Kids tend to stare, then yell "cool!" as I cruise by. 7)One of my kids is studying in Switzerland, and just called 5 minutes ago to say that her flight to Greece for Thanksgiving was cancelled cuz Alitalia is on strike. Much unhappiness there. 8)The other child could be delivering your mail - watch for tall, handsome & silent. 9)My husband & I are anachronisms: we have both worked for the same employer for almost 30 years, and are working on our first marriage. I tell my kids this is ok. 10)I pick and choose among technological innovations as needed to make life workable, but am basically a luddite at heart. I could easily be a hermit. I don't really want everyone to know what I am doing at every moment, or vice versa! And here I am, throwing it all out into the internet. Doncha love it!

This has been fun.

The End

But not the last word, I'm sure! This has been a fun trek, from knowing nothing, to having nibbled at a multitude of online goodies. Certain ones tweaked my fancy: Flickr, Youtube, MOLDI, Delicious. Others less so: Twitter, wikis (loved the Google online tools, tho). What I need at this moment is 2 weeks of dedicated time to explore and become proficient in all this stuff!!!!! My opinions on what is fun or not might change if I had lots of time to get into each Thing. But that will come.
I am more than happy to have taken part in/completed the 23 Things. Now I know what it means to "Follow us on Twitter", embed a video, etc. And better yet, I can help customers when they ask questions about it.
Oops, I'm due out on the floor - there will have to be an Appendix to my End!

The MOLDI Thing

Even after taking an Overdrive webinar and going through the tutorial, I still find this needless complex. Maybe the problem is that I have been unable to download anything that I've checked out. I had hoped that I could use my phone, since it's usually in my pocket & I could listen to books during my lunch walks. But so far I haven't figured out that it's compatible. And I don't have another mp3 player to try on. OK, next I tried downloading a book onto my work computer - learning Spanish as I cruise email would be great, right? Hmm. Got a message saying that a problem had occurred in retrieving the Digital Rights Management machine identification, & I should contact Microsoft support. Like that's going to happen! Guess I'll keep trying, though, cuz this is a wonderful resource. I want to be able to use it myself, as well as helping our customers!

Podcasts

I am typing this as I listen to an NPR podcast - what fun! I have listened to political podcasts of all stripes, and some just for fun. With this, as with other products, spending time searching for exactly what you want is the biggest issue. Wow, winnowing down the selection is a daunting task. Being able to listen to a show when you want, though, is hard to beat. This could be great for a library to get its message out to the community, with regular broadcasts. At least to those savvy enough to find and subscribe to the podcast...

YouTube

This is a favorite of mine. So much cool stuff, and all for free. I chose to embed a book cart drill team, cuz 25 & 24 did such a fantastic job with ours for the 4th of July parade this year. We rocked! So take a gander at this one and see where we could be next year!!

Toolbox

Lots good stuff here. I tried StumbleUpon & got lost trying out scads of cool sites such as Moderncat, HopelessGeek, etc. I have long wondered where people came up with the fun sites they sent out, & this is one good way to search to hold up my end of it! Worldcat is always helpful, too, and we've tried many of the other things in the toolbar.

Thing #18

Food sounded like a likely topic, so I launched into that area. I tried UrbanSpoon, which allows people to rate/evaluate restaurants in their area. When I clicked on the logo, I went straight to Columbus -gosh, they know me! It was fun, but had many failings. Not many reviews, very few menus loaded, and at least 1 listing for a restaurant that has been gone for years. But still, it was interesting to see what is in my neighborhood. Customers sometimes ask that very question - where can one eat around here? Is there a coffee shop (mexican restaurant, whatever...) around here?