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.