Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Thursday, April 2, 2009
Finally!
I just realised it's the 2nd of April today which means Wilbur Smith's latest novel 'Assegai' is out! It's off to the bookstore for me after work! Woohoo!
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Detective Rosie heads north after solving her latest case....
I'm feeling pretty happy with myself today. I did some detective work to try and find the date of death of an ex-resident of Williamstown. The person enquiring had the death notice, but no date.
It's times like this my mind wants to go blank and not think...and I wasted a bit of time trying to locate a certain online resource which I could not find, and then I thought, well why not try the most obvious?? This is what we were taught in Uni! So I clicked on the libraries online databases link and then scrolled down till I found 'Ancestry.com' and then clicked on that and typed in the name of the deceased along with what state (VIC) and got the result he'd been looking for..the date of death along with location of burial (Williamstown).
It was a good feeling afterwards. It's the first time I've had to use 'Ancestry.com' in a work setting and I liked it and found it incredibly easy to use.
I like results! Good results!
Must have a proper look at the other databases and keep in mind for further info. requests.
***
Anyway, work hat off, I am supposed to be loading the bike up with luggage/camping equipment at the moment. Tomorrow morning I'm heading off on a two night ride up to the Snowy Mountains.
I'm heading up via what is supposed to be a great dirt/gravel rd called 'Barry Way'...I think it's got about 70km of dirt on it. Takes you up past Omeo to Jindabyne - from there we're (Marty and me) heading around the Alpine Way and then off up to the Snowy Mtns Hwy and who knows where :)
We're camping each night. Marty has a trangia and burner and I've packed tinned Chunky and powdered mashed potato for tea. I'll grab a bottle of red wine or something tomorrow before we set up camp and sit back under the stars, drink wine, eat tinned Chunky and undehydrated mashed potatos and relax.
I better go pack. And I have to wash my bike jeans tonight because we bought the most delicious Chinese takeaway from Footscray tonight and I loved it so much that I did the 'drink the juices out of the bottom of the plate' thing and it spilt all over my new bike jeans I was wearing....seafood juice too! Smelly!
So wash bike pants...
Pack rest of stuff into bag...
Load it all onto bike...
Bed...
zzzz
Have a great Friday and wknd all - whatever you end up doing! :)
It's times like this my mind wants to go blank and not think...and I wasted a bit of time trying to locate a certain online resource which I could not find, and then I thought, well why not try the most obvious?? This is what we were taught in Uni! So I clicked on the libraries online databases link and then scrolled down till I found 'Ancestry.com' and then clicked on that and typed in the name of the deceased along with what state (VIC) and got the result he'd been looking for..the date of death along with location of burial (Williamstown).
It was a good feeling afterwards. It's the first time I've had to use 'Ancestry.com' in a work setting and I liked it and found it incredibly easy to use.
I like results! Good results!
Must have a proper look at the other databases and keep in mind for further info. requests.
***
Anyway, work hat off, I am supposed to be loading the bike up with luggage/camping equipment at the moment. Tomorrow morning I'm heading off on a two night ride up to the Snowy Mountains.
I'm heading up via what is supposed to be a great dirt/gravel rd called 'Barry Way'...I think it's got about 70km of dirt on it. Takes you up past Omeo to Jindabyne - from there we're (Marty and me) heading around the Alpine Way and then off up to the Snowy Mtns Hwy and who knows where :)
We're camping each night. Marty has a trangia and burner and I've packed tinned Chunky and powdered mashed potato for tea. I'll grab a bottle of red wine or something tomorrow before we set up camp and sit back under the stars, drink wine, eat tinned Chunky and undehydrated mashed potatos and relax.
I better go pack. And I have to wash my bike jeans tonight because we bought the most delicious Chinese takeaway from Footscray tonight and I loved it so much that I did the 'drink the juices out of the bottom of the plate' thing and it spilt all over my new bike jeans I was wearing....seafood juice too! Smelly!
So wash bike pants...
Pack rest of stuff into bag...
Load it all onto bike...
Bed...
zzzz
Have a great Friday and wknd all - whatever you end up doing! :)
Saturday, March 21, 2009
Saturdayzzzzzz
I'm tired. For some weird reason I had it in my head that I started work at 8.45am today. Last night I set the alarm for 7 so I'd have time for a shower etc beforehand. I just double checked the roster to see it's 9.45am. I could have slept for another hr!!!
Today I'm at Newport with Russell. I've never worked at Newport on a Saturday before. I wonder if it's busy.
It's only a short shift till 1 and then I'm coming home to get the girls and we're going to do something. I'm not sure what, but it will be something.
We're in the city now - so many options. It's great!
Today I'm at Newport with Russell. I've never worked at Newport on a Saturday before. I wonder if it's busy.
It's only a short shift till 1 and then I'm coming home to get the girls and we're going to do something. I'm not sure what, but it will be something.
We're in the city now - so many options. It's great!
Friday, March 13, 2009
This is the end....
.
But also the beginning...
The biggest thing I learnt whilst doing all this Webolution stuff??
My biggest 'enemy' is myself.
It's quite easy to close your mind off to all this stuff. If we didn't have to learn it - would we? Would we go out of our way to discover what Podcasts are and how to tag and how to create our very own motorcycle search tool? Would we let the World Wide Web world pass us by? Can we survive without it? In our personal lives - sure. In our roles as library professionals? I'm not so sure. I think that as library staff we need to keep up to date with everything that's happening.
I often look at YouTube for various clips etc...however I have never noticed all the options that are available to users. I was blind to them. By doing the WEbolution I suddenly became aware of all these little colored boxes all over the page...boxes to send here and do this and do that. I really didn't see them on my other visits there. BLIND!
So the Webolution has opened my mind up and my eyes up to what is happening out there in the WWW. I feel kinda relieved - I knew I was falling behind this new technological age of persons who know all this stuff and are adept at it and use it like it's nothing. It's just something they know. I envy them that! And I guess now that I've been 'exposed' to it all I will keep at it and every now and then refresh my 'skills' wtih the various applications and keep my eyes open to whatever else arises in the future.
I'm going to keep this blog because I like it. :)
Thanks Katie for the WEbolution! Thanks for the support and encouragement and colorful emails!
And thanks to those who've read and commented on my blog!
And thanks to all who've kept at me to complete it. Good stuff! :)
But also the beginning...
The biggest thing I learnt whilst doing all this Webolution stuff??
My biggest 'enemy' is myself.
It's quite easy to close your mind off to all this stuff. If we didn't have to learn it - would we? Would we go out of our way to discover what Podcasts are and how to tag and how to create our very own motorcycle search tool? Would we let the World Wide Web world pass us by? Can we survive without it? In our personal lives - sure. In our roles as library professionals? I'm not so sure. I think that as library staff we need to keep up to date with everything that's happening.
I often look at YouTube for various clips etc...however I have never noticed all the options that are available to users. I was blind to them. By doing the WEbolution I suddenly became aware of all these little colored boxes all over the page...boxes to send here and do this and do that. I really didn't see them on my other visits there. BLIND!
So the Webolution has opened my mind up and my eyes up to what is happening out there in the WWW. I feel kinda relieved - I knew I was falling behind this new technological age of persons who know all this stuff and are adept at it and use it like it's nothing. It's just something they know. I envy them that! And I guess now that I've been 'exposed' to it all I will keep at it and every now and then refresh my 'skills' wtih the various applications and keep my eyes open to whatever else arises in the future.
I'm going to keep this blog because I like it. :)
Thanks Katie for the WEbolution! Thanks for the support and encouragement and colorful emails!
And thanks to those who've read and commented on my blog!
And thanks to all who've kept at me to complete it. Good stuff! :)
Podcasts
I had a look at PodcastAlley.com
The one thing that really stands out for me about this site is the lack of search options available. Perhaps I'm doing it wrong? There just doesn't seem to be any options available - you search for your term and get back a million results - some of them not even relevant or slightly relevant to your query.
I did get a good result though - typed in 'rare books' and got back Bibliophilia. I've added the RSS feed to my bloglines account. HOnestly though, I couldn't find anything useful with Podcasts. Perhaps its cos I'm not a fan of information overload - or perhaps it's just that I'm a busy mum who doesn't have time to take a deeper interest in Podcasts or perhaps it's cos I'm a bit like Homer Simpson sometimes - 'Everytime I learn something new it pushes old stuff out of my brain'.
The one thing that really stands out for me about this site is the lack of search options available. Perhaps I'm doing it wrong? There just doesn't seem to be any options available - you search for your term and get back a million results - some of them not even relevant or slightly relevant to your query.
I did get a good result though - typed in 'rare books' and got back Bibliophilia. I've added the RSS feed to my bloglines account. HOnestly though, I couldn't find anything useful with Podcasts. Perhaps its cos I'm not a fan of information overload - or perhaps it's just that I'm a busy mum who doesn't have time to take a deeper interest in Podcasts or perhaps it's cos I'm a bit like Homer Simpson sometimes - 'Everytime I learn something new it pushes old stuff out of my brain'.
Thursday, March 12, 2009
Memories and music...
And one more cos I love it so much:
The Mooche - Duke Ellington.
First time I heard this I was standing the galley of Enterprize during my first ever trip outside the Heads and around to Phillip Island/Westernport Bay.
I was on cook duties along with 2 other crew - Edwina and Ludo (a tall awesome Belgian). Edwina being ships cook was doing the main part and Ludo and I were her taste testers...we were testing the amt of chilli to add to the mix. Ludo had bought along some Cd's of his and one of them was a Duke Ellington disc. This played in the background while the ship rocked about and we taste tested and danced....it's an awesome memory of mine and I don't think I will ever forget and if I did, I'd only have to play that Duke Ellington CD (I went out and bought it straight after we got ashore) and be transported back to the Galley and the music and the laughs.
The Mooche - Duke Ellington.
First time I heard this I was standing the galley of Enterprize during my first ever trip outside the Heads and around to Phillip Island/Westernport Bay.
I was on cook duties along with 2 other crew - Edwina and Ludo (a tall awesome Belgian). Edwina being ships cook was doing the main part and Ludo and I were her taste testers...we were testing the amt of chilli to add to the mix. Ludo had bought along some Cd's of his and one of them was a Duke Ellington disc. This played in the background while the ship rocked about and we taste tested and danced....it's an awesome memory of mine and I don't think I will ever forget and if I did, I'd only have to play that Duke Ellington CD (I went out and bought it straight after we got ashore) and be transported back to the Galley and the music and the laughs.
YouTube
YouTube - something I am familiar with!
My YouTube video is a trailer of a documentary called 'Riding solo to the top of the world'. I'd really like to see this. It's the kind of thing I like to do one day :)
Riding Solo... is a film about filmmaker Gaurav Jani's solo motorcycle journey from Mumbai to one of the remotest places in the world, the Changthang Plateau in Ladakh, bordering China. As a one-man film unit, he astonishes you, filming the landscape he passes by and the people he interacts with, capturing moments of beauty, pain, love, hardship, self doubt and spiritual triumphs.
This was a solo trip. All footage was filmed by himself. No film crews. No backup vehicle/support. Just him and the rd and the journey. How nice is that. :)
My YouTube video is a trailer of a documentary called 'Riding solo to the top of the world'. I'd really like to see this. It's the kind of thing I like to do one day :)
Riding Solo... is a film about filmmaker Gaurav Jani's solo motorcycle journey from Mumbai to one of the remotest places in the world, the Changthang Plateau in Ladakh, bordering China. As a one-man film unit, he astonishes you, filming the landscape he passes by and the people he interacts with, capturing moments of beauty, pain, love, hardship, self doubt and spiritual triumphs.
This was a solo trip. All footage was filmed by himself. No film crews. No backup vehicle/support. Just him and the rd and the journey. How nice is that. :)
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Friday, March 6, 2009
Zoho
Oh wow...check it out! Everything from 'Zoho is not Soso' was typed up using Zoho's online word processor and then saved to my Zoho account and then shared via the 'post to my blog' option. After selecting this option I was presented with a screen asking me for my blog type and sign in details. Entered all this info and my blog title appeared...posted the document and got back a message saying it had been posted to my blog. Came here, refreshed page and saw that it had indeed been posted here. How awesome is that! Even the photo of Audrey turned out.
My Zoho document:
My Zoho document:
Zoho is not Soso...
It's rather awesome actually.
How cool that this exists. I never knew there was such a thing as an online word processor. And free as well. Woohoo.
I can see the benefits. It'd be great for the girls if they have school assignments- esp if they're working as part of a group. Saves mucking about with emailing to each other etc and it means all the group can have input into the progress of the assignment.. It's also great for the girls as it means they don't have to muck around with saving stuff to USB. Eg...if they have a project to complete and they're at their Dads for the wknd, they can access and edit their docs from Zoho.
We'll definitely be using this program. Our Microsoft Word program on the comp atm is rather temperamental anyway - sometimes freezes for no good reason...sometimes just shuts down on its own. Annoys us so we try not to use it (I'm not organised enough to take it to a computer guru ;)
The Word processor application looks great. Seems to do everything word processing application should do. Great stuff.
Love all the options of what one can do wtih their document - Share it, publish it, post it to blog, email it, etc
Adding an image from my computer was simple too....here's one of my youngest daughter Audrey - it ws taken a few years ago. She looks totally huggable in this shot with her pink glitter hat and big 'fur' coat on.
Wiki's...my findings/thoughts
I had a look at a few of the wiki's posted up on the hblwebolution site - including Library Success : A best practices wiki and The Bull Run library wiki
I can definitely see the benefits and appeal of the Library Success wiki. It gives library professionals the chance to share ideas, thoughts, experiences on a whole range of subjects etc. I'd love to see more sharing of ideas on there though...such as ideas for 'themes' and 'displays' etc. The site doesn't look well utilized which is a shame. It's rather simple to navigate - the categories page lists a number of headings and after clicking on these we're given a list of subcategories and a list of relevant articles.
I found some categories that I thought weren't really needed - eg. in the books category there are some articles that probably aren't really warranted for the wiki - they being recommendations of books in certain genres. If I were looking for a book in a certain genre, I don't think I'd bother checking this wiki. I'd be using this wiki to give and get ideas on stuff such as 'programs' and 'courses' and ideas for 'displays' and stuff. Lots of stuff. But not recommendations on what books you could recommend to someone who's read all the Gossip girls books. Perhaps I feel this way because this part of the wiki doesn't have many contributions, and perhaps if more posted their ideas on books etc, I would head here if I had a moment of doubt on how to help a patron out.
The other site - The Bull Run library is pretty basic. It has info on the library and it's current programs/news etc. I'm a bit confused however as to who contributes to this site - patrons/staff/volunteers? A note to the side says that it is not not sponsored by nor associated with the Prince William County Library System or Prince William County. It just seems to be a 'noticeboard' of stuff to do with the library.
I can definitely see the benefits and appeal of the Library Success wiki. It gives library professionals the chance to share ideas, thoughts, experiences on a whole range of subjects etc. I'd love to see more sharing of ideas on there though...such as ideas for 'themes' and 'displays' etc. The site doesn't look well utilized which is a shame. It's rather simple to navigate - the categories page lists a number of headings and after clicking on these we're given a list of subcategories and a list of relevant articles.
I found some categories that I thought weren't really needed - eg. in the books category there are some articles that probably aren't really warranted for the wiki - they being recommendations of books in certain genres. If I were looking for a book in a certain genre, I don't think I'd bother checking this wiki. I'd be using this wiki to give and get ideas on stuff such as 'programs' and 'courses' and ideas for 'displays' and stuff. Lots of stuff. But not recommendations on what books you could recommend to someone who's read all the Gossip girls books. Perhaps I feel this way because this part of the wiki doesn't have many contributions, and perhaps if more posted their ideas on books etc, I would head here if I had a moment of doubt on how to help a patron out.
The other site - The Bull Run library is pretty basic. It has info on the library and it's current programs/news etc. I'm a bit confused however as to who contributes to this site - patrons/staff/volunteers? A note to the side says that it is not not sponsored by nor associated with the Prince William County Library System or Prince William County. It just seems to be a 'noticeboard' of stuff to do with the library.
RESULT!
From this:
motorbike
to this:
Look at all those results for 'motorbike'.... *grin* It may have taken me 1000 years to work it out, but I finally got there. The HBL2.0 results are:
which goes to show that people are talking more about motorbikes than they are about computery stuff. :P
And speaking of motorbikes, here's a pic of Jakub Smrz
at the World Supers, PI last wknd.
jakub smrz
motorbike
to this:
Look at all those results for 'motorbike'.... *grin* It may have taken me 1000 years to work it out, but I finally got there. The HBL2.0 results are:
which goes to show that people are talking more about motorbikes than they are about computery stuff. :P
And speaking of motorbikes, here's a pic of Jakub Smrz
at the World Supers, PI last wknd.
jakub smrz
Thursday, March 5, 2009
Technorati & tagging
So here's my first attempt at tagging. I'll try the 'HBL2.0' tag challenge.
[HBL2.0]
Okay, so that worked...but I'm not sure whether that's what was supposed to work. If I click on that it takes me to the Technorati site and shows me all posts tagged with HBL2.0.
So why is it saying that no other posts are tagged with that?
Have I missed a step? Perhaps time to go back to the start. This technorati stuff confuses...
6/3/09 - okay I'm back to try this again. I just had another look at the info. for this learning activity and noticed the technorati tag on the hblwebolution site is not enclosed in brackets. Perhaps this is where my mistake is? Will try again....
http://technorati.com/tag/HBL2.0 rel="tag">HBL2.0
err..nope...that doesn't look right. *Heads back to Technorati site scratching head*...
I really should read ALL the instructions when reading instructions - just saw this:
HBL2.0/a>
Nope...
HBL2.0
Hmmm...looks like I got it with that last one. All I did was take the brackets out. Not sure why my 'nope' has come up like that though! And now I'm trying my hardest not to get all confused and lostlike...the 'Nope' actually came up as a highlighted link back to Technorati when I previewed my post, but then blogger wouldn't let me post some of the above links here so I deleted what I was told to delete and the post was published, minus parts of the results of my previous attempts.
It's all a mess but I will try again...a different tag this time!
motorbike
[HBL2.0]
Okay, so that worked...but I'm not sure whether that's what was supposed to work. If I click on that it takes me to the Technorati site and shows me all posts tagged with HBL2.0.
So why is it saying that no other posts are tagged with that?
Have I missed a step? Perhaps time to go back to the start. This technorati stuff confuses...
6/3/09 - okay I'm back to try this again. I just had another look at the info. for this learning activity and noticed the technorati tag on the hblwebolution site is not enclosed in brackets. Perhaps this is where my mistake is? Will try again....
http://technorati.com/tag/HBL2.0 rel="tag">HBL2.0
err..nope...that doesn't look right. *Heads back to Technorati site scratching head*...
I really should read ALL the instructions when reading instructions - just saw this:
The [tagname] can be anything, but it should be descriptive. Please only use tags that are relevant to the post. You do not need to include the brackets, just the descriptive keyword for your post. Just make sure to include rel="tag".
HBL2.0/a>
Nope...
HBL2.0
Hmmm...looks like I got it with that last one. All I did was take the brackets out. Not sure why my 'nope' has come up like that though! And now I'm trying my hardest not to get all confused and lostlike...the 'Nope' actually came up as a highlighted link back to Technorati when I previewed my post, but then blogger wouldn't let me post some of the above links here so I deleted what I was told to delete and the post was published, minus parts of the results of my previous attempts.
It's all a mess but I will try again...a different tag this time!
motorbike
Monday, March 2, 2009
Delicious
Knowing absolutely nothing about Delicious, or tagging, or bookmarking, I found the whole 'Delicious' thing very unappealing at first. Due to confusion of course. And not knowing what it was all about. So starting at the start I read through the info and I think I get it now.
On my home computer I have a 'favorites' folder. I save certain websites into my favorites folder for future reference. However if I am on another computer and want to access a particular website that I have saved in my fav's folder at home, then I'm not going to be able to do that.
If I create an account with Delicious, I will be able to save all my 'favorites' to this account, and then whenever I'm on some other computer I can just go to my Delicious account and find the 'bookmarked' site, and go there. :)
That's the instant benefit I see from using something such as this.
More reading and wandering about the site reveals that there are other benefits. From a research point of view, you'd be able to search all bookmarks tagged 'library' and get back a number of bookmarked sites for that term. You can also narrow down your search by searching for bookmarked sites that contain more than one particular tag...such as 'library' + 'books' + 'children'. Search results are more specific.
It's also a great site for 'discovering' what's out there as I found...unfortunatley time doesn't allow me to travel far today as another destination awaits - Newport - but I'd love to be able to get lost in this site and see where I end up!
On my home computer I have a 'favorites' folder. I save certain websites into my favorites folder for future reference. However if I am on another computer and want to access a particular website that I have saved in my fav's folder at home, then I'm not going to be able to do that.
If I create an account with Delicious, I will be able to save all my 'favorites' to this account, and then whenever I'm on some other computer I can just go to my Delicious account and find the 'bookmarked' site, and go there. :)
That's the instant benefit I see from using something such as this.
More reading and wandering about the site reveals that there are other benefits. From a research point of view, you'd be able to search all bookmarks tagged 'library' and get back a number of bookmarked sites for that term. You can also narrow down your search by searching for bookmarked sites that contain more than one particular tag...such as 'library' + 'books' + 'children'. Search results are more specific.
It's also a great site for 'discovering' what's out there as I found...unfortunatley time doesn't allow me to travel far today as another destination awaits - Newport - but I'd love to be able to get lost in this site and see where I end up!
Monday, February 23, 2009
Rollyo
I can see how Rollyo would come in handy for certain users/searches. If someone was after more specific information - or more 'reliable' information, they may be able to limit their search to sites that are of good authority.
I had a bit of fun creating my own search engine - Motorbikes. Usually if I need info on a bike or something to do with bikes, I'll search a number of sites separately using their own search engine, or I'll use the usual Google engine.
By using Rollyo I am able to group together the sites I most use to find info. and then do my search from the one page. Convenient and less time consuming and I've found the results are more specific and less varied.
Here is a link to my very own specialised motorcycle search engine - I've just come back to this search engine to see if I can find any info on a Regina chain set that I'm after for the bike...typed in Regina and got lots of relevant results. Great stuff!
Rollyo link: Motorbikes
I had a bit of fun creating my own search engine - Motorbikes. Usually if I need info on a bike or something to do with bikes, I'll search a number of sites separately using their own search engine, or I'll use the usual Google engine.
By using Rollyo I am able to group together the sites I most use to find info. and then do my search from the one page. Convenient and less time consuming and I've found the results are more specific and less varied.
Here is a link to my very own specialised motorcycle search engine - I've just come back to this search engine to see if I can find any info on a Regina chain set that I'm after for the bike...typed in Regina and got lots of relevant results. Great stuff!
Rollyo link: Motorbikes
Monday, February 9, 2009
Library thing
This looks like a really easy application to use. I'd love to have a closer look at it and see whether it's possible to use something like this to catalogue not only my own collection at home (I've LOTS!) but the Enterprize's collection of books. I've taken on the role as the ship's 'librarian' (even though I'm not qualified - I like the title ;) ) and this may be a good way to keep track of what's in the collection. Will def. be coming back to check this site out further.
http://www.librarything.com/catalog/RosieL
http://www.librarything.com/catalog/RosieL
I created this image using an online image generator called Motivator which allows us to create our own motivational type posters. I quite like this generator and have seen it used before -most often for humorous purposes. However with the fires atm and my sister still not knowing whether her house still stands or the state of her animals they were unable to evacuate, I found this image on the net of firefighters taking a break from the Gippsland fires and thought it apt to put it here.
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