Marlene's Blog

Gone again, back again.

2008-08-12T13:14:00.004-04:00

*SIGH* so a lot has been keeping me busy and I haven't had time for anything. Not this blog and not for tons of games sitting on my floor unopened and here is just another I will be preordering and hopefully getting around to playing sometime soon. :)

http://www.talesbrigade.com/link/?i=7293RR

http://www.talesbrigade.com/link/?i=7p8XWr

http://www.talesbrigade.com/link/?i=gocMJQ

Next stop...Marlene's Blog!

2008-03-10T13:13:00.011-04:00

Well it has been some time since I posted anything on here. Since before X-mas I believe. I have been busy the beginning of this year.

Work as always keeps one busy. And life in general has its moments. Lately I have been trying to get my music in order. Trying to get more music for my Ipod and organizing the music I have on my PC (Itunes), etc. Next I gotta get down to business and organize my folders & files on my PC (pics, videos, etc.) and delete progs that I'm not using. *sigh* that should be fun...oh well but its like spring cleaning for the computer. ;)

I've really been into my music lately. I love Trance and Rock as well. But I REALLY love Trance especially Vocal Trance and Dance. I listen to it alot. I live on BPM (XM Satellite Radio) at home and on The Beat (Sirius Satellite Radio) in the car. On the go I usually listen to whatever I got on the IPOD. At work I pump BPM as well online. My friend/co-worker listens to "lite music" at work sometimes but that stuff just puts me to sleep. I need something to keep me going at work.

Too funny!

2007-12-26T15:06:00.000-05:00

I enjoy my Asian Entertainment and this is a new one for me. On the Korean Channel MKTV they are showing a Korean Sitcom w/English subs called "Unstoppable Wedding". Its pretty silly but funny. Last nights eps showed the family pretty much deciding they can get by with only having to know "NO" and "Yes" in English. See how well that worked:

YAY! Merry Christmas to ME! ;)

2007-12-19T12:51:00.000-05:00

Yay so I got my $25 gift card. What I thought was really nice aside from the gift card was that Commerce Bank is also donating a coat to a child. I thought what a great thing. It made me feel doubly nice. :)

Now to figure out what Christmas gift I will get myself with the gift card...theres just sooooooo many things I want... the possiblilities are endless. ha ha! ;)

Now begins the countdown to the Christmas holiday. I didn't ask Santa for much this year. Whatever he gives me is ok since I usually get what I want myself during the year anyways. :) I've done most of my Christmas shopping. Just one or 2 more lil odds and ends left. It is my nephews 2nd Christmas but since he is one now it should be alot of phone to see his reaction to his toys. Santa got him the new Tickle-Me Elmo TMX special edition so that one should be alot of fun.

Assignment #23..its the end but its not over :)

2007-12-06T15:15:00.001-05:00

Woohoo I made it! This is the final assignment. But like I said before this will not be the last you hear of me. Before this assignment I never thought I could get into the whole blog thing. I always thought that I would not know what to say or not have time...but after I got started I got really into it...especially personalizing it and learning all kinds of new stuff. I got compliments from other staff members on my blog and others asked for help which I happily gave. I even added some little tips to the QLChat thingy. I completely enjoyed this project and definitely hope there will be more like it.

Questions & Answers:

What were your favorite discoveries or exercises on this learning journey? I was going to pick my top five but since I can never do everything exactly like everyone else I am going to pick my lucky number top 7 ;) And they were:

#3 The Blog - this is where all the fun started...like I said before I never thought I would be into the whole blogging thing but I really did get into it and I am enjoying it. I plan to keep it up as well.
#5 Flickr - I used Flickr before and it was fun to show some of your pics and see others.
#6 Flickr Fun - It was fun trying out the Mash-ups and the fun Flickr Tools.
#7 Blog about Technology - Being a techy talking about technology is always fun...in my blog post I was able to vent about my PC issues and Ipod headaches so it relieved stress as well ;)
#10 Image Generators - The image generators were alot of fun because you can personalize stuff and I loaded a bunch on my blog. This was definitely alot of fun. Most of the Help Desk is also working on Blogs and they also enjoyed this one.
#11 LibraryThing - This one was alot of fun because it was cool to see what other people are reading. Plus I loved the bookshelf widget you could add to your blog of your own books.
#19 Web 2.0 Tools - This one was fun to see all the Web 2.0 tools out there..who knew there were soooooooo many for every "taste". ;) I personally was thrilled to find another site that had great widgets as one of the top 2.0 Tools.
#20 YouTube - I totally LOVE YouTube so I enjoyed this one alot. And whatever chance I get to see more of U2 is always a GOOD thing. ;)

How has this program assisted or affected your lifelong learning goals?

This program assisted my lifelong learning because as I said in the beginning of this project that learning something is always an enhancement to your life. I learned alot about stuff out on the web like RSS feeds and Del.icio.us. I mean being a techy I did know about these but pretty much overlooked them and there usefulness. So I am glad to this project for actually showing so many possible uses for these technologies beyond what I thought. It definitely was a LEARNING experience.

Were there any take-aways or unexpected outcomes from this program that surprised you?

I think like I said before being a techy person I thought I knew a good amount so I wasn't really expecting to learn much...but I was pleasantly surprised at how much I did. And as I also said before I never knew that I would be one of these people who were into the whole blogging thing and look at me now. ;)

What could we do differently to improve upon this program’s format or concept?

I thought for me personally the program was done well. Everything to me was pretty easy but then I did hear alot of people had trouble. I think that if you decide to continue the program or start another maybe you can cater it to different learning levels. For instance maybe have assignments for those who are beginners and those that are a but more savvy. Maybe cater the "prize" accordingly so that way you can have the beginners shooting to learn the beginner stuff and move on to the more complex for a better prize. Some people where scared they were "too far behind" to bother with even starting. But in general I think that alot of people just did not want to be bothered even if you made it the easiest thing in the world there will still be some who don't want to be bothered. Oh well they are all just missing out on an opportunity to learn, grow and better themselves. I always think that you should take whatever opportunity you can. But then that's just me. ;)

If we offered another discovery program like this in the future, would you again chose to participate?

YES, YES, YES definitely. I had alot of fun during this program and I feel I learned alot. I do hope there are more programs like these. Programs that will help us grow and have fun while doing it. I think the people who did not participate did not give it a chance without even trying and I think that they would have been pleasantly surprised had they tried. I am actually kind of sad that its over. I mean I am glad I reached the end for a sense of accomplishment and a $25 gift card helps. ;) But it was fun doing the assignments even the zzzzzz ones...ha ha! Do Definitely bring more of these programs because I'll be there with bells on. :)

'Tis the holiday for giving...so if you're feeling it....

2007-12-05T15:34:00.000-05:00

Happy Holidays everyone! I am close to reaching the end of this project but since I enjoyed it so much I plan to keep up my sight and update it with my random rantings. :) Anyways while everyone is still reading I wanted to put up this post because this is the season when people feel like giving. Although I don't think charity and caring for others should be only a "once a year" thing since most people are more in the mood at this time a year here are a FEW of my favorite charities to think about if you're in the mood for giving:

There are TONS of Charities to give to but just be smart when choosing a charity. The Better Business Bureau runs a site at http://www.give.org/ that gives tips and list SAFE charities. You can even spread some holiday cheer while helping, why not purchase your holiday cards from a charity site. The money goes to a good cause and you get some really great cards. For instance check out National Geographic's Holiday Card Center for some really cute cards! But you know it doesn't have to be money or to a national charity. Why not spread some holiday cheer to a "senior home" or how about a nice plate of cookies for your local firehouse or police station. Its not just about spreading the wealth but about spreading the love. :)

Here's to wishing you all have a great holidays and a prosperous new year. May they find you and yours always healthy and happy. :)

Assignment #22-Audiobooks...I'm almost there! ;)

2007-12-05T14:52:00.000-05:00

OK so one assignment away from the end. For this assignment I actually can say it was pretty simple for me because at the Help Desk we had to support the Digital Media. Especially for a time there when the Help Desk was handling Webmaster emails we were helping customers with using all the Digital Media. I have myself downloaded titles before so I am pretty used to use this feature. I also like this feature very much. The fact that you can download these types of media is awesome. Since I plan to hopefully do a trip to South Korea next year for the exercise I did a search for Korea. The Audio Book I was interested in was In-Flight Korean -Living Language and I also found a video South Korea -Globe Trekker. I plan to download them both from home of course. I LOVE the show Globe Trekker so I am looking forward to watching that one. :)

Assignment #21-Podcasts

2007-12-05T09:52:00.000-05:00

This assignment was another easy on for me because I already subscribe to Podcasts. Since I have an Ipod I have to use Itunes and as a result that was my introduction to Podcasts. You can pretty much find a podcast on anything you are interested in out there. The Podcasts that I subscribe to show more of my interests. Including Technology of course, Anime & Video games because I am a total gamer-girl. And Happy Tree Friends well its just a bit of that sick twisted humor that we all need now and then. ;)

The podcasts I subscribe to are:

Anime Network & ADV Films-DVD Dojo - Monthly look at new Anime Releases.
Trak-shun - A video review of new Anime just releaded in Japan.
X-Play Video Podcast - Get into Video-gaming mania.
PC Gamer Video Podcast - The official video Podcast of PC Gamer Magazine.
TechToys Video Podcast - Video podcast featuring demonstrations of high-tech toys, robots and gadgets in Japan, fun Japanese events, people and places, and blog/podcast promos, all set to pod-safe music.
Happy Tree Friends - Cute, cuddly, and horribly wrong... It's the Happy Tree Friends!

For the exercise I did a search for Books on Podcast.net and I found an interesting Podcast Comic Books and Graphic Novels The description says "Interviews with the creators of comic books and graphic novels with a special focus on how parents, teachers, and therapists can use to communicate with kids and teenagers." I thought this was an interesting concept and might be useful for Teen/Children Librarians. For the 2nd part of the exercise I added to my Bloglines account an RSS feed to Trak-shun one of the podcast I subscribe to through Itunes.

Assignment #20-U2..I mean YouTube..I mean U2 on YouTube! ;)

2007-12-04T23:02:00.000-05:00

OK this was another one of those assignments I really enjoyed. Especially because I already use YouTube. And I do think that these videos may be a useful tool for libraries. For instance Children Librarians can video Children Programs or book readings and they can be put on the library website where Teachers can show to their students. Or even training courses can be put on video and posted to the QL site or staff site for public or staff. I LOVE YouTube. So for this assignment I went back to U2 and decided to look up videos on YouTube of U2. The video that I decided to use was one for a song that U2 did with Green Day (another band that I like)...whats great about the video is not only does it show 2 great bands together on a great song but it also showed their humanitarianism. And during the holiday season I always feel that we all are humbled and take a look at humanity and charity in a more clear light than we may do the rest of the year.

The Saints Are Coming-U2 & Green Day:

Assignment #19-Web 2.0 Tools..And the winner is....

2007-12-04T16:18:00.000-05:00

For Assignment #19 I looked at the short list of Web 2.0 tools. I looked through the list and being that I LOVE widgets I decided to pick that topic and I looked at the tools there. I liked SpringWidgets. What I liked about the site is that everything was organized and you got to preview the widgets. Also what was great is you have the option of downloading widgets as desktop applications or as code that you can put on a blog or site. And for the blogs they have pretty much all the popular sites so you can pick the embedded code that is right for your blog. I actually added the Christmas tree widget and the Christmas countdown widget on my blog now from SpringWidgets. Can Widgets be useful say on the QL site. Sure depends on what type of Widget. Some widgets are interactive and can make certain items on a site personalized. I can see patrons like this feature. For instance I can see maybe a calendar widget on the site maybe under My Account so patrons can see the day that their items are due.

Assignment #18-Online Office Solutions

2007-12-04T15:35:00.000-05:00

For assignment #18 about Collaborative Writing and Word Processing I used Google Docs. Since I already had a Google account and had played around with Google Docs before. Although I like the idea of an online Alternative to Office there are some pluses and minuses to it. A plus of course is that you do not have to pay hundreds for an application that will take up loads of space on your hard-drive. The fact that it is online and can be accessed from anywhere and you can share online is definitely another plus. Now I played around with Word processing before in Google Docs and made a simple doc and that seems to be OK. I like to play around with Slide-show presentations like PowerPoint because I find they can be more fun. I made a presentation in Google Docs. It was pretty simple to do however I did have a few problems. At first it was not playing the presentation. I kept getting a 404 error and then when I went back into the document it changed the formatting of my presentation. All the graphics that I inserted were re-sized and made tiny. I was not impressed with the Presentation app from Google Docs. Although I do think these are easy cheap solutions for maybe small businesses or homes where you just want to do a school paper and such I don't think that Microsoft Office will go out of business anytime soon as some think. For more elaborate presentations and documents Google Docs just did not impress me. Nor would I feel 100% secure knowing that if I REALLY needed a doc or presentation and the Google Website is down I am completely out of luck. Me personally I like features in PowerPoint such as the transitions between slide-shows and the option to add music files and such. These features are not available in Google Docs so I probably wouldn't use if for anything elaborate. Its just a simple solution for simple docs and if that's all it wants to be then it works pretty well. ;)

Assignment #17 1/2 - Facebook

2007-12-04T12:17:00.000-05:00

I've never got into the myspace/mybook thingy. I kinda felt that I would never update it and just did not want weirdos to see info on my and/or want to be "friends"...ha ha! ;) Anyways for this assignment I did as asked and read through the Top Ten Facebook Apps for Librarians I thought there were 3 Apps that would be useful and/or our patrons would like. The three being: Books iRead, Librarian, and My Wikipedia. The Books iRead reminded me of LibraryThing which we learned about earlier in our project. It was a fun utility for keeping track of what you are reading and sharing with others so you can know what you may want to read next. The Librarian I thought was a useful little tool that I could see our patrons using and I saw it has a "Ask a Librarian" feature like the one we use at QL. My Wikipedia is a great resource. Like I said before I LOVE Wikipedia and I think it is a good reference resource. I also saw that there were Apps for specific locations library catalogs. It would be a useful tool to create an App that could search the QL catalog.

Assignment #17-More Wiki Stuff

2007-12-04T10:27:00.000-05:00

So for assignment #17 I decided to do it on another thing that I enjoy. And it wasn't U2 this time...ha ha! ;) First off a little explanation...those who know me know that I LOVE learning about other cultures and one of my obsessions is Asian Cultures and entertainment. Next to my American Movie DVDs nobody is surprised to see Japanese Animation (Anime) DVDs as well as Chinese Movies and Korean Dramas. So I decided to do my Wiki assigment on one of these topics. I did an edit in Wikipedia to a search for Korean Dramas I added a link to Koreandramas.net (a fan club forum I belong to based in Philadelphia). Lovely bunch of people that I have met personally and made great friendships with. If all goes well then I am planning to go with a bunch of members from the group on a trip to South Korea next year. It should be alot of fun and I can't wait. I am hoping I will be able to make it. I plan to visit South Korea, China, Japan and Hong Kong someday. :)

Assigment #16-Wikis and Holiday Festivities. :)

2007-12-03T16:25:00.000-05:00

Well I am in the Christmas spirit so I decided to add some Holiday Cheer to my blog. New Snowflaky back ground and maybe some other stuff to come. ;) Happy Holidays to all!

Now on to the assignment...well I LOVE Wikis. I ALWAYS use Wikipedia. To me it is like a one stop shop for pretty much any topic. You can get a definition as well as links to other sites, other resources and even links to wikis for related topics. It is awesome plus unlike doing a search in a search engine you tend to get accurate information. I looked at the Book Lovers Wiki and I thought this is something that would be valuable to use in the Library. Customers can add Book Reviews and such. It is also something that could be used by departments for a knowledge-base. Staff can add learning info to one single place. Can also be used for sharing all kinds information where anyone can add to it.

Assignment #15-Library 2.0 & Web 2.0

2007-11-29T14:01:00.000-05:00

I finally got around to this assignment. I got to admit at first I was reading some of the perspectives and they were a little zzzzzzz... ha ha! So I kind of dreaded coming back to this assignment but since I wanted to do them in order so here I am. I went on and read some others instead that kept my attention.
The most interesting one to me was the OCLC Next Space Newsletter – Web 2.0: Where will the next generation of the web it take libraries? Tom Storey-stated in it "In Web 2.0, the Web becomes the center of a new digital lifestyle that changes our culture and touches every aspect of our lives. The Web moves from simply being sites and search engines to a shared network space that drives work, research, education, entertainment and social activities—essentially everything people do. You and your mobile and nonmobile devices—PDA, MP3, laptop, cell phone, camera, PC, TV, etc.—are always online, connected to one another and to the Web." In Library 2.0 its basically the same concept only how it relates to library services. I can't say how a Librarian feels about all of this, since I am not a Librarian but from a "Techy" view I think that this exactly where the Web and the Library is headed. A few years ago I got a CD called "The Library of the Future". It was basically a CD with Hundreds of pieces of literature. I mean everything you could think of was on there. It was mostly the classics. However at the time you could see that maybe that was the future of Libraries. However with the boom of the Internet and with so many ways that you can easily access it this changed. Now the future of the libraries is a total integration of the Internet into our services. Yes Libraries have be caught in the WEB. ;)
Library 2.os concepts are already in use in Queens Library. From our OPACs, to our website, to My Account.
As much as some people may hate technology (not me of course I LOVE it ;) ) the reality is that Technology and the Web IS the future and it is becoming more and more a part of our daily lives. As such Libraries HAVE TO adapt to it or else find themselves a thing of the past.

Technorati-assigment #14-something different

2007-11-07T16:52:00.000-05:00

Ok so I played around with Technorati. I did the search for “Learning 2.0” in Blog posts, in tags and in the Blog Directory as the assignment suggested. Some results were different and some were the same. I came across bloggers who had done the program at other organizations. I also found our Queens Library Learning 2.0 listed on there as well. I found that Technorati for me was pretty simple and I understood what I was seeing but if you don't I think you would be totally lost. I also looked through the "popular sites". I came across Boing Boing, which according to Technorati is the most popular blog ever. It definately was entertaining when I looked at it lots of weird and interesting tid-bits. I also found in the "Popular blogs" Engadget, a site that I subscribed to in Bloglines. I also came across Internet Duct Tape, Techcrunch, Lifehacker, and Gizmodo, all are pretty cool techy sites. I'll have to add them to my Bloglines account. :)

Mmmmm so del.icio.us-assignment #13

2007-11-03T22:11:00.000-04:00

I played around with del.icio.us as the assignment suggested...At first I went to the list created by Queens Library Learning 2.0. After checking that one out I did a search. Hmmmm...what could it have been on ...well what about U2. Yes, AGAIN, I did a search on U2 and saw some interesting sites that others had set as their favorites. I plan to go back and create an account and add my favorites for different interests. I think it is pretty cool that you can tag your favorites so that when you search it will list only the faves that have the same tag. I can see this being a very useful tool for doing research. Say I use a PC at school and I did a search and found a bunch of sites that will help with my research it is alot easier to add them to your del.icio.us account and then be able to access them at home from that same account. It is also a cool way to find other sites that are in others faves that relate to a topic you are interested. Say I am in a U2 fan group and I set-up a del.icio.us account and added my favorite U2 sites (the same ones on that Rollyo search roll ;) ) my fellow-fans can create his/her own account and add sites from my list to theirs very easily. Just hit save right next to the site and its now added to your faves. Also I think they are cool because saving favorites in a browser you have to constantly back them up so they are not lost if your hard drive ever crashes. You can't access them everywhere. Also to find stuff you have to make sure to keep them very organized in folders and such or you will have to search through them all till you find the one you need. With the tags all you have to do is search for 1 lil word and all your sites with that tag are listed. Much easier. So yes I think del.icio.us has alot of possibilities. :)

Assignment #12-Rollyo

2007-11-03T20:23:00.000-04:00

For this assignment I decided to go back to my favorite Rock band, U2 and create my search on U2. I created a Rollyo account and a search roll. I added a bunch of my favorite sites. I added about 20 sites or so. I also created a Widget and added my search to my blog. You can see my search roll right here on the top right hand side. Rollyo was pretty easy to use. I think the search rolls are a good idea because you can limit searches down to specific subjects. In more generic search engines when you do a search you have to sift through tons of sites that many have nothing to do with what you are looking for. With search rolls since the sites are already set to specific subjects you are certain to find relevant information for the search you are trying to do.

LibraryThing-assignment #11

2007-11-02T23:08:00.000-04:00

The LibraryThing "assignment" is another one that I enjoyed. The reason being that I LOVE to read. I love the "Classics". Of course when adding books my mind went blank to the books that I have read so I added only some of my faves that I remember. I plan to add more as I remember them. I also thought it was cool that you can make a widget of your books, basically a virtual bookshelf. I created a widget and added it here on the right hand side there. Check it out and you'll see some of my favorite books. As well as some of my favorite subjects. I think looking at what people read or listen to you can learn what kind of person they are...Or at least what they are into. Anyone can easily see even with the few books that I added that I enjoy classic literature and poetry as well as History and ancient civilizations. I will also add books on religion as well as other faves at a later date. This "assignment" also made me want to go out and look out for more books including keeping an eye out for Dan Brown's sequel to The DaVinci Code. Hey at least its not Harry Potter...ha ha! ;)

Here's yet another taste of my faves:

The Mother of God
By W.B. Yeats

The threefold terror of love, a fallen flare
Through the hollow of an ear;
Wings beating about the room;
The terror of all terrors that I bore
The Heavens in my womb.

Had I not found content among the shows
Every common woman knows,
Chimney corner, garden walk,
Or rocky cistern where we tread the clothes
And gather all the talk?

What is this flesh I purchased with my pains,
This fallen star my milk sustains,
This love that makes my heart's blood stop
Or strikes a sudden chill into my bones
And bids my hair stand up?

Like Yeats...find more poems at:http://www.lib.umd.edu/ETC/ReadingRoom/Poetry/Yeats/

Assignment #10 now THIS is what I live for! ;)

2007-11-01T19:30:00.000-04:00

How's this for cool! ;) Ok so this has to be the best "assignment" yet. This was the most fun! I have had experience with generators before like the ones I have already used in this blog. Including the scrolling marquee one and the banner at the bottom. I checked out all the sites suggested and I thought the best one for finding the best image generators was The Generator Blog. It had a huge selection of generators. I like the image and text generators the best because you can make loads of fun stuff for your blog or webpage.

Since I couldn't pick just one I made a list of my faves:

Animated Neon sign -http://www.imagechef.com/ic/make.jsp?tid=Studio+Neon+Animated
Loads of fun stuff: http://www.glassgiant.com/make_pictures.php
More fun stuff: http://www.redkid.net/generator/sign.php
B-day cake - http://www.imagechef.com/ic/make.jsp?tid=Cake+With+Number
Disneyland sign - http://www.addletters.com/disneyland-sign-generator.htm
Candy Hearts - http://www.cryptogram.com/hearts/
Coffee- http://www.imagechef.com/ic/make.jsp?tid=Cappuccino
Cassette Tape- http://www.says-it.com/cassette/mixtape.php
Keyboard key - http://www.glassgiant.com/custom_keyboard/
Dog Tags - http://www.glassgiant.com/dogtags/
Funny Money, playing cards, monuments: http://www.festisite.com/tools/generators/money/
Campaign button - http://www.imagechef.com/ic/make.jsp?tid=Election+Campaign+Button
Error Mesagehttp://atom.smasher.org/error/
Name in Lightshttp://www.notcelebrity.co.uk/?page_id=145
Giant cookiehttp://www.glassgiant.com/giant_cookie/
Hollywood signhttp://www.glassgiant.com/hollywood_sign/
IPOD Billboard signhttp://www.redkid.net/generator/billboard/sign.php
IPODhttp://www.redkid.net/generator/ipod/sign.php
License Platehttp://www.acme.com/licensemaker/

Some of these I have added to my site. Look around you'll see them. ;)

Happy Halloween! Trick or treating and Feed searching! ;)

2007-10-26T13:28:00.000-04:00

Happy Halloween to all the ghouls and ghosts out there!

Well on to "thing #9". So I used the four search tools suggested on the QL Learning 2.0 site as well as using the search utility in Bloglines. I think Bloglines was the easiest to use. I liked the fact that you can exclude feeds you already have on your list from the search. It can be very useful if you have alot of feeds on a certain topic to not have to weed through everything and just see ones you are not subscribed to. I did a search on THE GREATEST BAND IN THE WORLD=U2 . And I found 3 feeds and added them to my Bloglines acct. They were:

@U2blog - U2 news and discussion
News @U2
U2 News, U2 Lyrics, U2 Tour, U2 Live, U2 Video: U2fanlife

I also liked Technorati but I liked Bloglines the best. The other 2 searches I found a little less user friendly. As a result of these "assignments" I am more aware now of RSS Feeds on sites. That little icon is a bit more visible now and has prompted me to subscribe to more and more feeds. Its definately a cool way of keeping up-to-date with sites that interest you.

Ok now on to "assignment" #10. Enjoy your Halloween guys and don't eat tooooo much candy or you'll get a tummy ache and keep the dentist in business. ;)

RSS Feed Me.

2007-10-19T13:57:00.000-04:00

I have known about RSS Feeds for some time but never really played around with them much. They are definately a cool way to keep up to date on your favorite blogs/websites. It is great for sites where you may post a question and are waiting for an answer. Instead of having to constantly check the site and go through stuff that you really don't care about. It is much easier to just log on to say your Bloglines account and see when new info is posted and it will show you the post right there without you having to go back to the site. Very nice! I signed up for an account and added not just 10 as our assignment suggested but 13 feeds. Of course I picked feeds of sites that I am interested in. These included latest news, techy stuff, travel, movies and other entertainment. I also signed up to the feed for our very own Queens Library Learning 2.0 In this way I will keep updated on the new assignments added or any other news posted. I also created my own RSS Feed for my blog. The button is right up in that lil' corner there on this page so feel free to subscribe if you like.

My Feeds :

Bloglines News
Engadget
Extremetech
Fodor's Travel Wire
New Urban Legends
Official Google Blog
PC Magazine: New Product Reviews
Queens Library Learning 2.0
Rolling Stone: Features
Rotten Tomatoes: Movies
SPIKE Animation & Cartoons Channel
Wired Top Stories
Yahoo! News: Top Stories

Ahhh Technology..gotta love it! :)

2007-10-15T15:50:00.000-04:00

For the next assignment about writing about technology I decided to write about my latest adventure with Technology. I decided to write about my new 160 gb IPOD and the hell I went through with it.

The story goes: My PC at home went kaput for a bit...the story on that was well kinda my own fault because I decided to torture myself yet again and buy yet another crappy Apple product...yes they had suckered me into buying the U2 edition IPOD when it came out but hey it was U2 so I HAD to get it...anyways my IPOD was getting full since it was only a 20 GB and so it was time for a new MP3 player...as soon as I decide to buy Apple puts out the 160 gb one and being the Hard Drive space junky that I am I got suckered into buying one yet again...MY fault...anyways from the minute I plugged it in I had problems with synching, crashing Itunes and an occassional freezing...after trying time and time again to get my whole library onto the IPOD without it crashing Itunes I was successful...now I decided to get album art for my music which the stupid thing does not just update what is on your IPOD but sees it as a whole new file and deletes what is on your IPOD and reinstalls the file now with the album art...so it deleted like 40 songs off of the IPOD and then Itunes crashes yet again and will not synch even trying time and time again...went to the Apple site and hordes of people are complaining about the same kind of issues...Apple puts out a firmware update stating that THIS will fix all your problems...guess what IT DOESNT!...more people complain...next Apple puts out new version of Itunes...and THIS will fix all your problems..guess what... IT DOESN'T, in fact after installing the new version my PC no longer recognized the IPod. I was ready to pull my hair out. I decide to do a system restore to before the last Itunes and guess what PC will no longer load my profile in Windows...since only I use the PC I only have 1 admin profile so I could not even change to another profile to delete mine and start over fresh...decide to try reinstalling Windows...nope wont let me do it unless I format my hard drive and if I do that ALL my stuff is gone...NO WAY...decide to install on 2nd HD but same request wants me to format...NO WAY!...had to wind up going to Staples (cuz I had a $10 off card) and buying a new HD...went out and got a 500 gb internal. for like $110 and with the coupon got it for $100. Not bad for half a terrabyte Anyways put Windows on that and popped it in...made it the Master and my original HD the slave. Still had some PC problems...after a bunch more techy fixes I got it working...Anyways my stuff was there YAY and I copied it over to the new drive on a 2nd partition I made. Then I took that drive out and put the old 2nd HD in and am keeping that one as the slave as has more space than the other one. Now I have 750gb in my PC. Anyways after that I reinstalled Itunes and plugged in the IPOD..it was still not recognizing it. At this point I didn't know if it was the software of the Ipod itself. I plugged it into my laptop and the same thing...I was almost ready to go back to the store and return it...I mean it had only been a week and it hadn't worked right at all...so back to the forums I went and saw alot of people had the same problem and one person appeared to have found a solution...I tried it on my PC and that appears to have done it. It appears that the new version of Itunes installs the Apple USB driver in the wrong place...once you move it into the correct directory in Windows it is fine. Now my PC recognizes it and it actually is working ok now...damn Apple products! After all that trouble I hope Steve jobs gets Hemorroids and has a bumpy ride cross country on his next Apple tour!! :)

Flickr Fun

2007-10-11T16:17:00.000-04:00

For the Flickr fun assignment I played around with the FD Flickr Toys sight. They had alot of fun items. For the most part I liked most of them. But the one I decided to use was the Mosaic Maker

I used it to make a mosaic of the photos I have on Flickr. These pictures were also from my trip to Puerto Rico. Other faves were the Hockneyizer and Warholizer for those of us who want to make our photos into works of art. Framer is perfect for those stamp collectors out there. Billboard and Magazine Cover are for those who always wanted to be "famous". While Calendar and Wallpaper are not only fun but useful tools.

On Flikr Bits there were also several fun tools but the one that stood out to me was Display Fusion. It is more for the "techy people" out there as it can be used for such things as making your wallpaper stretch across 2 monitors, if you happen to use 2 monitors at once.

Puerto Rico-Ponce Plaza

2007-10-11T14:03:00.001-04:00

Puerto Rico-Ponce Plaza
Originally uploaded by iluvu2_

This is a picture I had put-up on Flickr ages ago. I took this picture the last time I went to Puerto Rico. It was a beautiful fountain in a square in Ponce. Ponce is probably one of my most favorite towns in Puerto Rico. Its a fabulous blend of the old and the new. You can find old Spanish architecture beside modern high end shops. It is definately someplace to visit if you ever go to P.R. I always loved this picture. Its very gothic. I took a Photo Journalism course when I was in college and I think my professor would have liked this picture. :)

Life Long Learning-7 & 1/2 Habits online tutorial

2007-09-28T16:30:00.000-04:00

OK so I just did the 7 & 1/2 Habits online tutorial* and it was quite interesting.
What I would consider my strongest points would be:

View Problems As Challenges: The nature of my job as a Help Desk technician has me seeing new problems everyday. So there are always new challenges for me. There are many times that I will come across problems I have never seen before. I will have to figure out first off where I can go to find a solution and then look for the solution. I have a great satisfaction when I can figure out the solution. Especially if I can figure out the solution on my own. At times it is almost like putting in that last piece in a jigsaw puzzle.
Use Technology to Your Advantage: Again as an IT Professional computers are my life. I am a huge techy person and I live on the internet. If you can't find it on the net then it doesn't exist. So I always look for answers to problems I can not figure out on the internet. I also use the internet and computer to learn. You can learn to cook, travel or learn a language on the internet or through software. So why not. There are plenty of resources out there to help you reach your goal.

What I would consider my weakest point would be:

Confident in Yourself As a Competent Effective Learner: The problem I have is not so much in my confidence in being able to learn but in that I want to learn things fast. I can be impatient when I don't get something and if something fustrates me enough I may give up on it all together. As a result I may not learn it at all since I gave up out of fustration. I got to keep telling my self that Rome wasn't built in a day.

In general life long learning is a good thing. I am always willing to learn something new. I think that anything that you learn can only enhance your life. I like to learn about other cultures and would like to learn new languages. I also would like to travel to other countries. I think that learning about other cultures can make us appreciate and respect others. It can also make us see that we are not so different after all.

Hi Hi

2007-09-24T10:20:00.000-04:00

Hi ya! Marlene from the ITS-Help Desk here. Thought I'd see what this program is all about. If I can be of any assistance to any fellow participants please let me know.

Hasta lluego/L8R!

~Marlene~