Reflecting …

… that I won’t get much sleep tonight, as I think about that presentation by Larry Lessig (Sue’s done the hard work, so check it out via suelibrarian), and about the wondrous creativity that I witness as I wander through this programme.  It’s daunting, cause there is just so much clever stuff, and given that I am just at here … woah!  It’s also a heap of fun, rewarding, and, well, it just sets the brain to full forward.  This is the personal development that I am seeing; jumping in and working it out, where I can; delving into a blog or help forum when I give up ;-)  Remembering that I have a computing science major!

I think about the implications for these tools and skills for MPOW; we are soon to run a current awareness blog, and its easy to see the added appeal when an image is included.  Some of my posts to those blogs come straight out of feeds I get; I’ve very recently moved to FeedDemon so that feeds from workplace servers (ie those behind firewalls) can be established.  I’m an information filter, its what I’ve always been; just that I feel I can now do this more efficiently, and perhaps more expansively – I am covering a wider range of sources.

I’m conscious that I’ve let some of it drop already; I don’t give Facebook as much attention as I thought I would when I started.  On the other hand, I’m setting up a Flickr site for MPOW, for those of us who like to take photographs of the wildlife we see around the site, like this serious little willie wagtail sitting on that well-constructed nest.  This type of activity has the potential to add to the sense of community of a workplace, so this can be more than professional development.

Its getting late, and the reflections become hazy …  I’m off to prepare to be away from home for a few nights, at an Open Access Publishing workshop in Syd-er-ney (long live the oh!lympics), followed by a day with Monet and the Impressionists at the NSWAG!

Where oh where did November go?

And I’d better include October in that, as well.  Go-o-lly!  Its nearly 2 months since I posted to this blog.  Its not that I’ve stopped my programme; its just that another project has required almost all of my attention and energy.  That’s okay, too, cause I’ve got to give it everything I’ve got; but I was having a lot of fun with the image generator, got quite carried away, and none of it that worked in with anything I wanted to say.  Now, I’m not sure that this one will work as I’ve had some trouble saving the image, but I’ll give it a go:

With thanks to txt2pic.com

 

Yay!  No. 5 is in the basket!

Finally, no. 5 is alive

Waaa (and I’ll come back to that) … I have had some fun creating an avatar, using Manga … walking the line between what features are available, what I want it to look like and some reality   O’course, with this type of “thing”, you can do what you want, who needs the reality checks?  I started by trying to simpsonize myself, but kept getting errors with the photo size, so moved on to Manga.  I’m very tempted to become a zwinky!

The waaa relates to dropping in to wordpress to write this post.  I clicked on the write link after logging in, and then saw the wordpress tip: … or upload an avatar (hyperlinked), but I was too late (note to self, read the wordpress tips before you hit the write tab).  I hit the back button on my browser (IE7) as quickly as I could but it was too late, so for now I’ll go via the Add Media link in the Post “toolbar” … so … presenting Manga Annie:

There’s a second part to my no. 5, so I’ll tackle that after a break – might head out on trusty treadly for a while.  A piu tardi.

Previous post – nonsensical

The bit about getting the images centred and space them out a bit – okay, so they’re not quite in the centre (the centre alignment icon seems to decide on the centre of the whole width, rather than the centre of the post column – I got around that a bit by trying to select left alignment, but that didn’t quite work the way I expected), and they do have spaces between them – that I can’t take the credit for.  Every post is an adventure!

No. 4: Flickr

Done, done and done … while seriously concerned over the addiction.

I had used Picasa Web previously, but only once or twice, and its been a while since the last time.  I remember the process was easy, but clearly I wasn’t bitten – I think that is more about me than the product!

So, digged deep for an old yahoo account which I was able to re-establish (yay), and have joined Flickr, with a couple of photos of Neo and another “local scene”.  This morning started with an early morning bike ride with hubby and dog, followed by delicious breakfast cooked for me (I know that I am lucky), then some gardening … well, weeding mainly!  The plants are doing well again except for the native orchid – something has been stripping the flower stalks!  These photos are from last year, the orchids didn’t do very well at all this year, but the kangaroo paw is just as dramatic, and there were lots of lovely violets because we had quite a cool winter.

 

Just seeing these photos cools me down … today is even warmer than yesterday – a hot westerly! That could be coming from my [what do you call the person who establishes a personalised 23 things program?] 23 things program designer, who lives on my western side … of the continent, that is … possibly encouraging me to get a wriggle on Southerly on the way, though.

Back to Flickr, I have now learned to embed the photos (thanks to a WP forum post), and get them all into one line, and get them centred; I would like to space them out a bit, but couldn’t find anything helpful … perfunctory search, though, after trying to work it out on my own >:> before heading for the forum. I hope they’re suitable I have also (drum roll)… set up an RSS feed to CW’s chihuahuas!

Large Hadron Rap

I’ve walked the dog, and he went for a swim, too;  I’ve done some gardening, and now I’ve come in to replenish the water levels (in me), move out of the warm sun (waahh, its only September!) and do some professional catch-up.  Over at suelibrarian, my #4 was posted some time ago :/, and I’ve just been waiting for the opportunity after some hectic weeks (and some steps in my technology makeover to be taken) to jump in.  My SO is off doing brotherly things and the dog is stretched out asleep in the doorway, hopefully brain is switched to sponge mode for this BLOG (b****y late onset geek).

My #4 is about images, but before I start specifically with Flickr, I want to share a link to a YouTube video, the Large Hadron Rap.  One of my researchers, a physicist, brought this to my attention (gotta love the 2way info streams). I searched my RSS feeds, and could only see one post that included it (a science feed), so apologies if everyone has already seen this.  I just thought it was so clever!  I’m a librarian, an information provider to scientists, and seeing science presented like this is so exciting!

Off to read and learn: Flickr!

Glossary of Web 2.0 terms

Found this Glossary of Web 2.0 terms while searching for a definition of meme (missing from all other glossaries that I explored although that wasn’t many more than a handful).  I had a strong sense of the meaning from the way it has been used in posts, but I wanted to confirm.  I thought this resource might be useful, particularly for other “blogicini”, and Web 2.0 newbies like me.

Learning, pointing, rambling …

Learning… that some blogs have unmoderated comments!!! and when wordpress asks for your name (when I wanted to post my first comment) it means your username, not necessarily your real name … doh!

Pointing… to a great post from David Lee King, Presentation Tips; I’ve been doing some off-the-cuff “presentations” recently and I know that they could be better, less “waffle”, more concise … much of this comes down to some dedicated preparation time; I am also preparing to conduct some training over the next few weeks via a fairly new-to-me mechanism, so this is really timely.

Well, I started this blog for a reason …

… being to record my progress following a 23 things program designed for me by a colleague.  Tonight’s post is inspired partly by a request from my team leader to me to talk about my “technology makeover” to my team colleagues, and partly to record what I have done so far.  

So, it all started with a Google Reader account.  I was pretty excited when I had subscribed to 10 RSS feeds, but that seems so funny now.  No point blabbing the number now, ’cause it grows on a daily basis.  There have been a few advantages from this first thing: many of my current awareness (info on clients’ subjects) and my own professional development info is collecting in one place; this encourages me to spend some quality time learning, understanding, sharing relevant bits; my inbox is being decluttered which is something I have been dreaming of for way too long.

The edited “Hello world” …

… or just another 23things blog

This has been a week of meeting commitments, so this one is for you, Sue!

So … this is part of my 23 things learning.  A catch-cry I love is ”never stop learning”, but I realised that I was falling behind in some of the technology stakes.  Sue had recently joined my org, and during a conference discussion, I talked about needing a “technology makeover”.  Game as a pebble, Sue offered to help, and before too long, there I was being guided along.  I’ve been dragging the chain with this one, but where will that get me?  Its also not much of a compliment for all the effort and encouragement that has been shown to me.