CELEBRATION BALLOONS

celebration balloons,
originally uploaded by tonz B.

Celebrating the successful conclusion of my Quests!!!!!!! (click on photo for larger image)

END OF THE JOURNEY

Now that I have completed all my Quests I am wondering what to do with my blog? To keep it for posterity, or to destroy it? In virtual reality I could place it in a time capsule for some future generation or alien to this planet to discover. What would they think? What would they deduce of our species from my humble blog? Would it make any sense to them? One thing for sure, I had much fun, gained knowledge of technology I might otherwise not have, and hopefully I can share some of what I learned with those who wish to listen.

Meantime, this blog is dedicated to all at Tech Trek 2.0 and Charleston County Library who made it possible for me to dig a little deeper into our ever expanding brave new world. And now, the writer has left the building..................

PODCAST

Sorry, this was disappointing for me. I tried to find interesting book reviews, latest world news, information to help with projects, such as a school report on the life of Jane Austen......all to no avail. I browsed several podcasting sites but came up with obstacles each time. Either a search did not produce relevant information, it was not updated, or I couldn't activate it because I didn't have the right control. Of course, my computer is almost as old as I am, so maybe it was just too much for it, LOL! I guess podcasting could be useful for the young and restless (more stimulation), but I have no interest, nor do I think would the majority of our patrons. C'est la vie.

YOUTUBE

When I first explored this site I really believed it was going to be a tedious, frustrating, irritating, useless waste of my precious time. BUT, I happened to come across something, without too much effort, which would have been invaluable to me before my new life at the Library. For ten or more years before my move to Charleston in 2005, I was a very passionate tai chi instructor. The following video shows you what I taught. What an incredibly useful tool this video would have been for my students to watch in between their weekly classes with me! YOUTUBE definitely has alot to offer those who wish to learn a new skill or trade or need a visual reference tool. So, to all my 'groupies', who followed me faithfully and didn't give up their personal Quest for balance and harmony in life - you know who you are - this goes, with love, to you. Enjoy, thank you, and continue to have "fun, fun, fun, and if it's not fun, don't do it!"

TAI CHI 24

JUST BECAUSE

Think this is an orange day , raining outside , so I am as to what to do this morning. Maybe chase the dog that is eating my cat's food .........maybe that I have finally reached the end of Harry Potter.........(btw did I tell you I have seen the actual train that goes to Hogwarts in my home county Yorkshire in England?)...........or maybe have lunch with someone very special to me .......yes, definitely .

ADVERTISING

I like Bob Dylan. I don't like ads. Enough of them on my TV screen. Don't want, need, nor see any reason for them on my computer screen. Request to Tech trek : PLEASE no more ads, thank you!

ZOHO WRITER

This is my logo, courtesy of Zoho, as in my previous post, which was courtesy of Google Docs. I wanted to see what differences there were, if any, between the two websites. I think Google Docs was slightly easier for me to navigate, perhaps because it has less to offer. Both are to be recommended, particularly for the corporate world, which is filled with documents, presentations, spreadsheets, conferences, etc. So I give them a B+

GOOGLE DOCS

This was my logo back in 'my previous life', Librarian Asst., B.C., when I was an instructor of holistic wellbeing. It is my yin/yang Butterfly, design by one of my two genii sons, Oliver!

INTERMISSION

Decided it was time to review what I have written over the past few weeks. It reminds me of when I was a young girl, I would pour my innermost thoughts and emotions into my journal for a while, then get tired of it all and stop. Weeks, months later, I would come across the journal and, with somewhat amused curiosity, reread the pages. Inevitably I would be amazed at the depth of feeling I had for things that I must have thought at the time to be extremely important to me but which now seemed very trivial. I would experience almost a sense of shame. Was that really how I felt? It seemed so childish to me and I wanted to tear out the pages and start all over again!

Now, years older and hopefully wiser, I don't have that urge, but I do see a common thread running through this blog of mine: Confusion! One minute I am all for the "new world", the next I want to keep the status quo. Maybe I just need a vacation....... :)

VENI, VEDI.................WIKI

Library wikis: I am all in favor of patrons being allowed to post synopses and reviews of books they have read and movies they have seen! I would like to see these in different languages.

Community wikis: Great idea to use the library's website as a community resource - with posting and editing done by residents, tourists, et al.

Staff wikis: It would be extremely useful to have instant access to updated staff policies, circ/reference manuals, etc at the click of a mouse!

Wikis definitely get my vote. However.........

This beautiful, sunny, morning I have spent two hours at my computer reading my emails, blogline newsfeeds and now researching wikis. How much technology is beneficial to us and when does it start to become detrimental? I think we have reached our limit. Do we really want our children to acquire their knowledge of the world from a machine, which represents the thoughts, fantasies, truths and lies of billions of strangers? Is this a new form of brainwashing, albeit voluntary? What happened to seeking out our elders, grandparents and respected community members for their vast wealth of information and life experiences that could be listened to with open ears and questioned with enquiring minds? Let there be balance in all things.

ALL THE WORLD'S A STAGE

..........And all the men and women merely players.

As we advance ever forward in this technological world, the game becomes broader, wider and all encompassing. I have discovered this through our latest Quest, the exploration of social networking websites. My question: Why would I want to expose more knowledge of myself, my habits, interests, lifestyle to potentially billions of faceless and bodiless strangers? How does learning that a sixteen year old girl somewhere in the world of BEBO likes all types of music whenever she gets drunk, help me in any way whatsoever on my journey through life on this planet? I learned this when I entered the search word "knitting" on that particular website! Is she for real? How does anyone know? Maybe I tried the wrong game. I did come across a fairly new site, still of small proportions, called http://www.peoplejam.com/. It claims to be more professional, perhaps comparable with the game of Chess or Weiqi (Go Board Game) rather than Wheel of Fortune or Operation. It could have some merit. Check it out if you are bored with your present game. Personally, I prefer to play with real people outside of Artifical Intelligence.

Truth of the matter.......Shakespeare knew what he was talking about.

VENEZUELAN FROG BY OSVALDO

spread'em,
originally uploaded by Osvaldo.

What an amazing photo! I am in awe of the photographer, Osvaldo, I give kudos to Flickr for their creative website, and I remain, as always, humble and grateful to be part of the incredible world of nature.

TECHNORATI

Keeping this post short. Now that I have access to a site that indexes over 11 million weblogs, am I any better off???? NO......................So goodbye, I am going to watch the raindrops out my window, smell the freshness in the air and daydream about a world filled with butterflies, flowers, trees, birds, animals - FOOD FOR THE SOUL - and not a computer anywhere to be found!!!!!!!!

LET'S STOP AND HAVE A CUP OF TEA - (the English answer to a problem)

Here we are at Quest 6! So looking forward to it and thirsting for new knowledge, I must admit this has been a disappointment so far.

Whilst I did create my Del.icio.us buttons, .......why such a complicated way of spelling the name, and, quite frankly, I can think of a much more apt, descriptive adjective for this site...... I made a couple of bookmarks (on holistic medicine and Buddhism) and tagged them; it took forever to browse through reams of information (more boring to me than useful), and, compared with an hour spent at the beach or reading a good book, were such an enormous waste of time!

As for Technorati.....well, more on that when I can actually access the site - attempts so far on two different computers and consecutive days have proved fruitless.

All in all, technology has its place. But enough already! When it starts to upset the yin/yang balance and nature is losing, we are in a crisis situation! By the year 2030, in my humble estimation, humans (if we haven't been replaced by computer chips and androids!) will all be wearing carpal tunnel wrist bandages, thick prescription lenses, oxygen masks, hearing aids, and be in wheelchairs! There will be no more face to face communication and the only people visiting libraries will be those who adamantly refused to join the high tech bandwagon.

I'll be one of them, supping my cup of hot tea, breathing fresh air, still ambulatory and happy to be so!!!

PANDORA MUSIC

So unbelievably cool....................................!!!!!!!!!!

ADDICTION

Is it possible to become addicted to Learning?

Can someone actually crave new knowledge, search for it constantly, go online daily with the sole purpose of seeking something unknown to salivate over? It has been a while now, it seems an eternity, since we had a Quest to work on. I have this Blog and nothing new to write about.

I miss the extra hours I had to find in my day and allocate to completing my Quest tasks and exercises........ the late, sleepless nights just wanting to find and read one more Newsfeed......... the furtive glances I gave not wishing to be discovered at work opening the TechTrek site one more time in hope of finding a newly published Quest.........................

Deep breaths!!! Is there such a thing as Learners Anonymous??????

Yours in withdrawal,
and tongue in cheek.......

FRANKENPINE

Frankenpine: a cellular telephone tower disguised to look like a pine tree.

This I learned today from one of my new Blogline Feeds, "Double-Tongued Dictionary Entries".
Thanks to Charleston County Library offering its employees the opportunity to join the Tech Trek 2.0, I now have immediate access to updated news from around the Universe! How will RSS and news feeds affect my daily life? It's too early to say. I do know that, for now, I can help my patrons find specific agitprop in our System, and hopefully do so before a Greek Calends.

If you wish to be enlightened as to the meaning of the above, please check out the URL address to my Bloglines account:

http://www.bloglines.com/public/smithaccpl

Meantime, I am off to see if I can find any fake pine trees in my neighborhood!

IM: Time saver or not?

On first analysis I would have thought that to IM contacts would be a valuable time saving alternative to phone calls and emails. After all, your recipient is right there online, unable to escape, under your scrutiny. It almost gives me a sudden rush of power and control! Ha ha, now I've got you, you can't ignore me now! You can't lie to me and say you weren't home when I called, or you were just too busy to read my email......I know you are sitting at your computer.....

But now that I have made my list and contacted a few members on it, the harsh reality of the IM world has sunk in. Why is my contact not answering my IM? Have they not noticed the little orange symbol, my pleading message demanding attention? What is taking them so long to reply, can they not type fast enough, are they Instant Messaging someone else at the same time, are they deliberately ignoring me????

As with most so called labor saving devices of the 21st century, I am finding IM takes up more time out of my day, and causes me more anxiety! Oh for those "good old days" of sitting in a comfortable chair, with my favorite pen and stationery and a relaxing cup of tea, writing a long letter to an old friend and patiently waiting the week or so for that welcome reply. Ah well, c'est la vie!

Show an old dog new tricks

Who says you can't show an old dog new tricks? Am getting the hang of blogging (I think!), and am even beginning to enjoy it! Maybe I could write my autobiography on a blog?????

The Quests begin!

This is easier said than done, trying to figure out what I am supposed to do and work in the library at my job all at the same time! But, perseverance will be rewarded........

Quest one: Which habits of "7 1/2 Habits of Highly successful Lifelong Learners" were hardest and easiest?

#7 - Teaching and mentoring others is my easiest. Having taught several subjects over the years, I always maintain that all students are teachers, and all teachers are still students. By sharing knowledge, we learn it ourselves.

#7 1/2 - Play was a close second to easiest. My motto in life: If it isn't fun, don't do it!

# 3 - Seeing problems as challenges is the hardest for me. The Chinese word for problem is opportunity, and I believe this, but, in practice, it is difficult for me not to get caught up in the negativity of a problem and lose sight of the light at the end of the tunnel.