Thing 32 - Google Maps & Mashups

I played with Google Maps and created "my map" showing the places I have lived. I tried to link it to this blog post, but the html that I pasted into my blog entry did not take me to "my map"! I tried several times, unsuccessfully. Now I'm thinking maybe it needs to be added as a widget??? If you see a map of the places I have lived, you'll know I was successful. There were lots of interesting mashups - I could make one of hotels/motels and restaurants to avoid!! We could make a map that shows the locations of all our library branches (oh yes, someone already did that...)

Thing #31 More Twitter

Tweet, tweet, tweet. I've been experimenting with Twitter: I added my name to the directory, JustTweetIt. This is a good place to find people to follow. I've added a bunch of folks to follow, thanks in part to Ruth Solie's account (I looked to see who she's following - this is kind of like Delicious ,isn't it?). Anyway, thanks, Ruth! I wanted to add LoudTweeter to post a digest of tweets to my blog, but it currently does not work with Blogger. I'd like to use Twitterfox, but cannot download anything onto the computers I use. What does my Twitter page say about me??? Probably that I'm new to tweeting - hopefully that I try to make it a worthwhile activity (I don't post totally useless stuff). Right now I'm in it for what I can get out of it, but hopefully I can add some decent content, too! I check my account every few days - and I've deleted Ashton Kutcher - CNN would be much more interesting - but Ashton will probably win his little contest anyway. This is getting too long - unlike tweets ;-)
What stage am I at? I think it would be value in interaction. What is Twitter? Sharing quick tidbits that others might be interested in!

More Thing #30 - Delicious

Thing #30 More ways to use RSS and Delicious

Yes, I feel guilty about my RSS feeds - each time I go into Google Reader there are hundreds of "unreads". And I have tried to keep the feeds manageable. Now I've fed my blog to Twitter! I think Traffic.com would be great if I lived in a large city - not much use to me in northwest MN. I added rssWeather.com for the town closest to my lake home so I can keep track of potential weather threats there. Tabbloid is very cool - I think that would be fun to try.
I'll let you know about Delicious when I get that far - this is all for now. Bye.

Thing #29 - Google Tools

We are in the midst of a March blizzard so I thought this would be a good day to work on my Things. Let me say, I've learned something very important today: do not attempt to bake cookies while working on the Things. I burned most of them! Another thing I learned today: don't believe the weather widget - it says light snow and 6mph winds for Fisher - what a joke!
Google tools are great. I have the calendar on my iGoogle homepage and have added things like birthdays, anniversaries, team schedules, and some important school dates. I signed up for Google Alerts - I want to know anything about the author, Spring Warren (she wrote her first novel, Turpentine, last year - it's wonderful and I recommend it to all of you). I also signed up for a number of alerts at Alerts.com. I'm hoping my e-mail account doesn't go into overload.
Google Sites is a cool tool, not unlike PBwiki - could be very useful for a school project or adding info to my school library home page. And I was delighted to learn about Goog-411 - there have been many times when I could have used that tool (if only I'd known).

Thing #28 - Customized Home Pages

Last year I set up an iGoogle page, so I decided to stick with it, making a few revisions. I deleted a number of widgets that I'm sure I wouldn't make use of (some games, some NFL sports, and some entertainment widgets) and added some new ones that I thought would be nice to have. I added Flicker, Facebook, Twitter, and a few new games. I already had GoogleTalk and GoogleReader - just clicked "as read" the 1,000+ unread feeds!! Okay, I'm busted - I haven't made much use of GoogleReader. When I set up my iGoogle page last winter, I didn't set it as my default home page - this time around I will do that so I'll be sure to make better use of it!

Thing # 27 - Twitter

I think it took me 3 hours to read through all the links that were listed for this Thing! I've bookmarked some of the sites, and printed off some of the articles. After watching Perry Belcher's youtube video (which was very helpful) I couldn't resist watching "How Twitter Ruined My Life" - I laughed so hard I cried! It's a good example of how not to use Twitter.


I set up an account, played around with design (not very successfully, I might add), invited some friends to sign up for Twitter accounts, did some Tweeting. So far, I have a hard time picturing myself using this, especially since I don't enjoy texting on my phone. If I add a tool that lets me Tweet directly from my browser, maybe... I don't know. I will try to remember to be social, show some personality, add value/content, ask questions, etc. I didn't see much use for Facebook when I first started with that last winter, and now I go to it several times a week. Maybe Twitter will grow on me, too. BTW, if you're looking for me on Twitter, my username is sillyp. :-)

Thing #26 - Join the Ning

Thing #26 - Join the Ning

I joined Ning the first time around. I have to say I was surprised to see that our NLLN group hasn't made use of it since last April, so I started a new discussion. I think there has to be a current discussion going to get people to come to the site. I added a couple of friends, commented on Alice's picture, sent a message to Glenn, and created a Ning badge to include in my blog. I definitely think LARL employees could use a Ning group to discuss various topics - we always appreciate the chance to get together at All Staff Day to talk with one another - this is one way we could continue the conversations.

Thing #25 - Bloggers Toolkit

There were so many tools to explore - this Thing took a really long time! I chose several widgets to add to my blog, as you can see. I added a picture of an old Coast Guard station - taken from my Flickr account. I considered doing a PictureTrail, but decided not to spend any more time (since I'd already done one in an earlier post). I added a search box. I also added ClustrMaps so I can keep track of visitors to my blog from all over the world (ha ha ha). But the coolest thing I added was the automatic podcast generation, using Odiogo - this is awesome! I learned not to type in caps, because the reader reads the letters instead of the word. He/it? is a very good reader, but doesn't know how to pronounce Agassiz. Click on "listen now" and check it out for yourself!

Thing #24 - Refresh Your Blog

Here we go again! As you can see, I have not made a single entry in this blog since I completed the first 23 Things last year. I had good intentions of re-purposing my blog and adding it to my school library home page, but things have not gone the way I'd planned. My position at school was cut to .3 FTE and I've had no time to play with blogging - it's all I can do to accomplish the bare minimum. For this Thing I added a photo and a new avatar, changed some colors, but did not change the template - guess I liked what I already had. What do I like about blogging? Well, it's kind of like keeping a journal, and I have enjoyed re-reading last year's entries. I also enjoyed reading the other participants' blogs as I worked on completing those first 23 things. I commented a few times, but not very often. Does that make me a voyeur???