Time Interviews Stephen King

Interesting interview with Stephen King in Time magazine. I've been a fan of Stephen King since I was in my late teens. We saw The Mist this weekend, which was good overall, but I found the ending disappointing. In the original story - one of my favorites - the ending is ambiguous, but in the movie they have eliminated that, to the detriment of the story, in my opinion. King writes a regular column for Entertainment Weekly called The Pop of King, in which he discusses pop culture. The Time interview and his weekly column expose a different side of the author.

Link via Library Stuff

Week 10: #23 The End?

It is hard to believe that this is the final exercise. When the idea for doing a 23 Things type project was first suggested (in late 2006 or early 2007) by several different people it was hard to imagine this point. After months of planning and then doing, we are done - at least for now.

What were your favorite discoveries or exercises on this learning journey?

I loved doing avatars - and seeing what other people came up with. I also enjoyed reading people's blogs and discovering some good strong - and sometime unexpected - voices.

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

It has reinforced the need to always keep learning. When Thomas Jefferson founded the University of Virginia, my alma mater, he didn't believe in using the terms freshman, sophomore, etc. - or even giving degrees. The reason for this is he didn't think people ever stopped learning. While they give degrees now, it's still first year, second year, etc. - because you're never senior in learning. This has always been my philosophy and this program reinforces that.

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

For me, it the number of people who participated and the overwhelmingly positive response. While some people started and didn't continue, we've had a good continuation rate. I have been so pleased with how many people have joined in on this journey.

What ideas do you have for using these technologies at Harris County Public Library?

I would like to get more people involved in blogging. We're about to move the web server, which will allow us to upgrade some software, including Moveable Type. I would like to see more staff blogging for the public.

I'd like to make Harriet into a Wiki. I'd also like to see us use Wiki software on the main website, perhaps for the links section.

I think we should do some kind of trading card to hand out to the public.

What if we had everyone at a branch create an avatar and featured that on the branch page?

For the Adult SRP we're looking at using a Wiki. I'd like to see about using LibraryThing or Twitter to feature some content from customers.

Above all else, we need more staff involved on the website and we need to involve our customers.

What else do you want to learn about? What other web 2.0 applications are you interested in?

I have a list started on my del.icio.us account with ideas of sites for the next step in iHCPL.

This has been one of the most rewarding experiences of my career - helping with and participating in iHCPL. I hope that we can continue this type of program in the coming year. My thanks to all the participants and iHCPL team members.

Sesame Street - For Adults Only?

If you can't see the video, click here.

A recent article in the New York Times by Virginia Heffernan relates that the first two seasons of Sesame Street are now out on DVD, but come with the following warning:

These early ‘Sesame Street’ episodes are intended for grown-ups, and may not suit the needs of today’s preschool child.

Being born in 1970, I grew up with Sesame Street. I love(d) Big Bird, Snuffleupagus, Oscar the Grouch, Kermit, and Cookie Monster. Now I find that the early episodes aren't good enough for todays children. I suppose I understand some of it - the article relates that in one episode Cookie Monster has a pipe - but I loved Sesame Street and I don't think it harmed me.

I had a Cookie Monster puppet, which I fed cookies to - my mom had to clean out his "throat" periodically of crumbs. I also had a Sesame Street activity book that gave me ideas like making drums from oatmeal containers. Do kids do this today?

I know educational standards have evolved for children, especially young children, but it disturbs me that something I grew up on - that I loved - is considered inappropriate now. Boy, do I feel old.

What American Accent Do You Have?

This is an interesting quiz. I thought my result was interesting as it points to my relatives in Minnesota, although I'm originally from the DC area.

What American accent do you have? Your Result: The Inland North You may think you speak "Standard English straight out of the dictionary" but when you step away from the Great Lakes you get asked annoying questions like "Are you from Wisconsin?" or "Are you from Chicago?" Chances are you call carbonated drinks "pop."
The Midland
The Northeast
Philadelphia
The South
The West
Boston
North Central
What American accent do you have? Quiz Created on GoToQuiz

Week 9: #22 The Joys of Downloadable Media

Since I am intimately familiar with the HCPL Digital Media Catalog, I decided to look at LibriVox. I though the selection of free recorded books was excellent considering that all of them had to be recorded by someone. While they aren't up to the quality of a professionally recorded book, they aren't bad. I took a brief listen to two different titles, one of which was Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë - one of my favorite books. My two issues with this site are that there were multiple different readers for the book and that each chapter begins with a notation of what the recording is. I'm glad this resource is out there, but I think I will stick to the Digital Media Catalog for my recordings. Right now I'm listening to A Lick of Frost by Laurell K. Hamilton and have been listening to Tamora Pierce's Tortall books - which I adore.

Week 9: #21 Podcasts

I looked at PodcastAlley and found a couple of Podcasts that fit my tastes. First I tried then I tried Splendid Table: Kitchen Questions, then I tried MuggleCast. Frankly, podcasts just don't appeal to me, but then I'm not much on talk radio. I can see the appeal, it's just not for me. I think in part because I'm more of a visual or kinesthetic (need to be doing something) learner. What's funny, is I really do like audiobooks, but I think because it's a story is why I like it.

While they don't personally appeal to me, I think it's something we need to seriously look at for the library. When Linda and I gave a presentation on iHCPL at the UNT All school Day for Houston, one of the presenters said they use podcasts in the schools because they don't have to worry about a child appearing on camera. It's also a bit simpler to deal with. Something to think about.

Week 9: #20 I Tube, YouTube, We All Tube

Can't see the video, click here.

How silly is it, that I LOVE the above commercial. I can sit and watch it again and again. I suppose it's because I have a part dachshund named Scrappy, whom I adore. That's the thing about YouTube and other video services, we can get to video of our favorite TV shows, old commercials, and just about anything you can imagine. I think we have used video very effectively during iHCPL, thanks to Beth's amazing skill. Each week we've had a relevant video to introduce that week's topic - all thanks to YouTube. We've already started embedding video on the HCPL website. Video is going to become more and more integrated into the web and we need to be along for the ride.

What's Your Flavor

And the quizzing continues. Found this on another blog.

What Flower Are You?

I came across this on one of the other iHCPL blogs. What can I say, I'm a sucker for quizzes.

I am a Snapdragon What Flower Are You?

"Mischief is your middle name, but your first is friend. You are quite the prankster that loves to make other people laugh."

I'm not sure if that's an accurate description of me, but I have always loved snapdragons.

Week 8: #19 Zoho

So, I'm trying out Zoho Writer.  At home, I don't have Word - or at least I don't want to pay for it - so this may be a good alternative when I need to write a document.  I also like that it will publish to a blog, although I have to say I'd probably just write directly on a blog. 

Let's see what it will do:

Bold - Underline - Italic - I like that it did that using standard keyboard commands (I'm a keyboard person)
Fonts: Verdana, Palantino Linotype, Small Font,  Comic Sans, - Not a bad selection for documents.

It will do a text box - to the left is a picture of Harlequin AKA Harley, who Patrick has fallen in love with and we are keeping.

Update: Well, to get it to look halfway decent on the blog I had to remove text boxes and the larger type.  That said, I still think this is a cool program and will be using it at home.  I do like that when I click publish - after the innitial time - it updates the post.

Overall, this is a pretty cool program.  It has it's limitations, but it's something I'll be sharing with Patrick since he is a writer and I'm not.  Very cool!

Record a Drawing

Click here if you can't see it.

I came across this on a Librarian in Black blog post talking about the tools presentation from Internet Librarian. This could be a neat tool for trying to visually explain something to people. Try it out at Screencast.com.

Dog Available

We had a very sweet female puppy wander up on our property last night. We have surveyed our neighbors and she doesn't seem to belong to anyone in our area. She is female, is maybe 15-20 pounds and 4-6 months old (maybe younger). She has pretty big paws and our best guess is she'll be 50-60 pounds when full grown. She is multi-colored (white, black, brown, and brindle. She is very people friendly and while a bit timid around our other dogs, seems to be OK with them.

If you're interested, please let me know.