Shopping, Part One: The Ones That Got Away

I've been frequently questioned about my shopping experiences in South Africa. Since I do take such pleasure in shopping, this isn't a question I feel I can adequately answer in only one post. I've decided to break it down. This one is all about those things that are still sitting in some shop on another continent (or worse, in some other lucky b*'s closet).

First of all, I was a little disappointed that I couldn't buy trinkets willy-nilly as I did in Egypt. Egypt was like a giant dollar store. Honestly, nearly every necklace I bought was $1US. In all of our travels throughout southern Africa, I didn't encounter a single $1 necklace. Things weren't wildly expensive, but still, $5 per piece adds up much more quickly than $1 per piece. *sigh* Anyway...

For months before leaving on our trip, I dreamed of Oudtshoorn and its ostrich-y bounty. I daydreamed about the perfect pair of pink ostrich leather boots. I even looked up average prices for ostrich leather in the area, but deluded myself that I would get a great buy. OK, yeah, the prices were good, but still SKY HIGH! I didn't have a snowball's chance at my delicious boots, since a freakin' purse was $400US. Well, at least the ones I wanted were that much. Dammit. So, no purse. Or boots.

That brings us to the saga of the springbok purse. The day before going to Oudtshoorn, I saw a lovely red springbok shopper-style purse. It was priced at $136US. I've never paid that kind of money for a single purse. Yes, I know I'm cheap. Anyway, I consoled myself (after petting the purse for several minutes) with daydreams of the impending ostrich leather purchases. We all know how that turned out, but hindsight is always 20/20. To use another cliche, a bird in the hand, blah, blah... I spent the rest of the trip looking for the same springbok purse at the same price. Unfortunately, the prices around Cape Town were WAY higher than in this little store in Knysna. Poop. I almost broke down in Jewel Africa, a tony jewelry store in Cape Town. I'd found a similar purse in natural springbok. I was about to plunk down $150US, and that was after negotiating a significant discount on this thing. These purses are super-posh in South Africa. Suddenly, just as I was about to do the deed, I remembered something. I have seen lamps made from deer legs in the US. I have seen deer heads mounted on walls in the US. And this has, across the board, indicated what? Anyone? DING, DING - REDNECK! Now, this lovely purse would be oh-so-stylish in South Africa. In the US? I might as well display a gun rack and Confederate flag in my vehicle's rear window. Still, I long for the lovely red springbok purse. Somehow that had all of the style with very little of the redneck (despite that fact that it was, indeed, red). Dammit.

I wish I had purchased a shirt. I'm not a fan of printed tees. However, I wanted something trendy that would let everyone know I'm a world traveler. I saw a really cute top in Kruger National Park. I thought about it and decided that I would buy it when we came back to the same area later in the day. Wouldn't you know it? Time ran short and we didn't go back to the same area of the park. Crap. I saw another cutie top in Cape Town at the V&A Waterfront. This was the day that Bob, my hubby, was pissier than usual about shopping. When he reaches that level of pissiness, it actually takes the fun out of shopping for me (and that's hard to do). I tried on one top, it didn't fit, and that was that. So, no shirts. Dammit.

We were presented with some shopping opportunities at Shops of Fragile Things. Fragile Things Store One was the Ngwenya Glass Factory in Swaziland. They made all sorts of pretty glass things, but frankly, I don't need stemware. I don't need a cute little glass hippo. I don't need a huge art glass bowl. What did I need/want (whatever!)? It's like they knew my Jack Skellington-loving self would be in their store on that day. There was this weird, funky, white light bulb-looking skull face with a black glass base. I think you were supposed to put a candle or light inside of it and it would glow. It was nice. It was heavy as heck. It was nearly impossible to get home in one piece considering that we were only on week one of a three week trip. Dammit.

Fragile Thing Store Two was the land of the ostrich egg. I wasn't terribly fond of the painted eggs. There were pretty, but not so much my style. I did like the punched eggs though. When lit from inside, they glowed prettily. However, I could only think of two things: how would I get this home, and if I did, how long would it survive my cat? I had to give the ostrich egg up too. Dammit.

However, I did not walk away completely sans ostrich. I took a picture of this very lovely chandelier that was hanging in the lobby of the Chobe Marine Lodge in Bostwana. I wonder how much this would have cost to ship home (not that it was for sale, but you know what I mean).

Geez? What kind of shots did you need for that trip?!

Many have asked me about the health risks and preparations for traveling to South Africa, Swaziland, Zimbabwe, and Botswana. Keep in mind that South Africa is not a lot different from the US. There are huge cities, medium cities, small cities, towns, rural areas, etc. By and large, it's just as developed a country as the US. I explain this only because some who questioned me thought that we were traveling to a country without any mod cons.

Lots of people have asked me about drinking the water. In fact, we were warned not to drink the water by our local health department. I think they just say that no matter where you go. Yes, by and large, we could drink the water. No, for the most part, it wasn't just in our hotels. Yes, you could drink a tall, iced drink at most any restaurant. We had plenty of iced drinks. It's just as safe as the water at home (however safe that is, but I'm a germaphobe).

No, we really didn't have to get many shots. We both got hepatitis boosters and made sure our tetanus shots were up to date. Most health care professionals recommend those for walking out your front door. We did have to take anti-malarial tablets for a long time, since we started our travel in a risk area and ended in another risk area. One of the less savvy travelers (quit pointing at me!) learned an important lesson about mosquitos. Insect repellant helps to keep them away! Please, it's not like you knew that before I told you. Why is it that in the 20-minute span of time between walking out my door in Vic Falls and running back to the room for repellant, I got 25 or so bites and Bob, my hubby, got none? Go figure. So far, I remain malaria-free. Also, we had lovely mosquito nets in our room in Vic Falls. Each night, someone came to prepare our room for bedtime, shutting the deck door shutters and unfurling the netting around the bed. This is very pretty and romantic with the lights on. Every little girl dreamed of a canopy bed, right? With all the lights off in a really dark room? Nets are weird and creepy, and I was pretty sure things were in the room. Evil things. Ghosty things. I really shouldn't watch so many horror movies.

So basically, traveling to southern Africa required no fancy medical attention. Being a complete idiot and not wearing insect repellant is statistically unlikely to result in the need for fancy medical attention. If I suddenly get flu-like symptoms, I'll be getting myself to the doctor sooner rather than later. Traveling in southern Africa? Just about as safe as traveling at home, which in either case, depends entirely on where you're traveling.

It's My Turn!

Bob and I posted to our joint vacation blog throughout our trip to southern Africa. It was mostly suitable for viewing by all of our family and friends. My SIL even used it in her classroom with her 5th graders. That's WAY cool! However, since coming home, I've gotten tons of questions about our trip. I thought it might be fun to blog about some of the questions and comments I've gotten, plus some of my own experiences and misconceptions. Keep tuning in for a series of posts!

Another Thing done...checking out MySpace

OK, here's where we see how completely old and lame I really am. Seriously, I must be a total loser. I completely can't get into MySpace. I check things out for about 5 minutes and then I'm bored. So here's what I can see are the uses for MySpace in MyWorld...

• Busting hooligans at work: If you know one of the hooligans, you can often find that person's MySpace page. If you get that far, you can check out who that person's friends are. Before you know it, you have real names and can evict them from the premises when necessary. At the very least, it serves as entertainment. Also, I am really living up to my loser status by using the word "hooligan".
• Checking out people you used to know: Sometimes you can find people that you knew in high school or college, or dated in the past, or whatever. Sometimes it's interesting to see what someone is up to these days. Sometimes it's fun when you find out someone that you didn't really like anyway turned out to be as big a joke as you hoped. That was kinda mean, wasn't it? Anyway, my interest in this one wanes after about 2 minutes. Zzzzzz.

But, that means I've checked another Thing off of my list. One of these days I'll have to check out FaceBook, but I think I'll have similar results.

23 Things Commentary

As a 23 Things participant, I've been asked to reflect on the project. I'm supposed to think about how the 23 Things project has been valuable to me, to Maryland libraries, and/or the library profession in general. Part of the final week's assignment was to blog about likes and dislikes, so you've heard that all before. Recently, I've been asked to lead a library team about technology for adults. Several of the 23 Things will be potentially useful as the team looks at its charter. As for the importance to Maryland libraries? Naturally, it's important to know what's going on in the technological world. These sorts of things will steer how we do business now and in the future. I guess that's why it's important to the library profession in general. Plus, it was fun. We all need a little fun, right?

I've tackled another Thing!

It took the better part of two days, but by gum, I've managed to clean my guest bedroom, paint it, and redecorate it. Hooray! I've even managed to take some before and after pictures so everyone could see the amazing transformation. Below are the before pictures. Things are a little messy. One of my early sewing projects was making the valances for this bedroom. They used to be navy blue with a burgundy flip side. I can't believe how much the blue faded!


And now for the reveal...

It's hard to tell from the photos (lighting is so important!), but the paint is a robin's egg blue. I repurposed some sheers from my family room so I could tie the blues and greens in the bedspread together. I even managed to put pictures in the picture frames. Now I need a nap! This was one Thing that I've been wanting to do for a while, but just haven't had the gumption to do. Of course, most of the crap that was stored in this room is now stored in our home office. We've ordered a futon for that room so my niece has a place to sleep when she comes down. Sleeping on the floor in a sleeping bag was cool when she was younger, but it'll start wearing thin soon. So now we've got a week or two before the futon frame comes and we need to do something with all of the junk. I probably shouldn't keep putting off another one of my Things - the yard sale. That would clear a bunch of junk pretty quickly!

Library Elf

Checking this task off of my 43 Things list took a few more days than usual. First of all, my confirmation email got trapped by the spam filter. I waited patiently until 2 PM on the following day to get my digest. I dutifully released my confirmation and was on my way to being a full-fledged member of Library Elf. Hooray! I was pleasantly surprised to see how many MD library systems play ball with them. So what does the Elf do? It sends me an email every few days reminding me that I have overdues and what other junk I have checked out. Why do I care? Well, in a way, I don't. I'm here every day and I can check My Account on our library catalog. Also, I do get those nice little emails from CCPL reminding me when stuff is due. So why do I bother? Well, first of all, it's kind of neat. Secondly, Library Elf keeps reminding me that stuff is overdue. It's really in-my-face about it. With CCPL, I only get one email and then I've forgotten by the time I get home. This morning, the Elf reminded me to get my overdues gathered and get them back (and I did!!!). Otherwise, I tend to forget. A lot.

Oh, those tricky RSS feeds...

I thought I was so super-cool by adding my Netflix queue on my Bloglines page. Everyone could see all of the movies that we were waiting to watch and could comment on my blog and make suggestions. Luckily, I happened to have noticed that any ol' schmuck could also CHANGE my queue! Holy moly! Thank goodness I noticed that little gem of info in time. I could have made my feed private, but then what's the point? Now we know.

Blinkx and you'll miss it

So I checked out Blinkx next. What it does is search for video clips the web over and compile them. I guess it's interesting, but I was looking at tv shows and stuff. I was hoping to find more free stuff. Preview clips don't count for me. Zzzzzz. So, the long and short of this is: (a) I'll have to pay $1.99 each on iTunes to catch up with Monk, or (b) I'll have to start the next season without having seen all of this season, or (c) I'll have to keep checking on when USA will repeat the episodes I've missed, or (d) I'll have to Netflix a few of the discs for Season Five when they're released. Blinkx did not help me in my Monkquest. So, I continued looking to see what else Blinkx is good for. You can see news clips that you probably wouldn't find otherwise. That's pretty neat!

Visited Countries and Visited States

Hey, this was fun and simple! Here are all of the states I've visited (however briefly).

create your own visited states map

And here's a map of the countries I've visited (which will be expanding by 5 in November and December!).


create your own visited countries map

So what have I learned here? Since I've only visited 2% of the world, I'd better get crackin'! Geez, there's so much world to see and so little money and annual leave. Where would you like to go? Post a comment telling everyone about your dream destinations! Where else would I like to go? Naturally, I'd like to visit all of the places on my upcoming trip, so they'll make my Top Ten List, which goes like this (list is subject to change at any minute depending on personal whims and the latest Travel Channel show I've watched):

1. South Africa
2. Botswana
3. Swaziland
4. Zambia
5. Zimbabwe
6. Morocco
7. Italy
8. U.A.E.
9. India
10. China
11. Tunisia
12. Spain
13. Turkey

So what's 43 more?

So now that I'm done with the 23 Things, what's next? I took a look at the 43 Things article and took a few ideas from that. From there, I decided to go ahead and join the 43 Things website and make my own list. I was suprised by the community of it! It was really cool to see other people who shared some of my goals. Naturally, I got sidetracked by checking out the 43 Places feature as well. You can share travel tips, find people that live in or have visited specific areas, and tell your travel stories. How much fun is that?! So I guess I'll start in on my list and blog about that stuff. As an aside, one of the 43 Things was to join Netflix and rent movies. We joined Netflix sometime back in the fall, mostly because I wanted to watch Footballers' Wives. This weekend, when I was checking on our queue, I noticed a little link to RSS. "Hmmmm", said I. I went ahead and added my queue to my Bloglines page, so it's out there for all to see. My 43 Things list and my Bloglines page have links over on the sidebar. Check it out!

Week Nine, Thing 23

YES!!! Thing 23! WOOHOO! So here's the part where I summarize my thoughts, I guess. So, on to those thought-provoking questions...

What were your favorite discoveries or exercises on this learning journey? Well, obviously I liked creating my Meez. Playing dress-up with an online animated skinny mini-me is obviously a good time. Not suprisingly, I loved playing with Barbie as a child. This is like an acceptable adult alternative. :) I also loved putting together a list of RSS feeds on my Bloglines page. I've read several articles that I would've have otherwise missed.

How has this program assisted or affected your lifelong learning goals? Well, first of all, I think I'll keep blogging. Also, as mentioned above, I'm getting a ton more news than I did! As cliche as it sounds, it's brought the world in closer to me. I have been arguing for some time that the Internet isn't separating us, but bringing us closer. Things like the podcast I found and some of the news feeds I subscribe are truly doing that for me. I feel like a can keep in touch with things going on in parts of the world that I have visited or want to visit.

Were there any take-aways or unexpected outcomes from this program that surprised you? YES! Frankly, I didn't think I'd be into this blogging thing at all. I'm really surprised at how much I'm enjoying it and I will probably continue to do so. I've had a terrific time checking out other blogs too. I also didn't expect to see so many other staff people talking about the 23 Things. It's really been much more fun than I expected, and I learned more than I expected.


What could we do differently to improve upon this program’s format or concept? As per one of my blog rants, it would be lovely if all links opened in a new window. Some links did, but at other times, I had found that I'd navigated away from the 23 Things window. It was very useful to have that window open as I worked so that I could refer back to the discovery exercise.


If we offered another discovery program like this in the future, would you again chose to participate? Definitely! Hopefully it will be as fun.


How would you describe your learning experience in a few words or a few sentences, so we can share our successes and promote this program? This was a true learning experience in which I was fully engaged. I wasn't just going through the motions. I really got into the spirit of the exercise and was completely absorbed in several of the assignments. You know a learning experience is a good one when you can't wait to run and tell people about your latest discovery or triumph!

Week Nine, Thing 22

I've been familiar with Overdrive since CCPL started subscribing to it some time ago. I even went to Digipalooza last summer, which was Overdrive's first annual conference. It was in Cleveland, home of Overdrive, and they had speakers that discussed content, the future of e- and audio books, how libraries used the content, and just what the company offered. Personally, I don't (yet!) have a device that will play Overdrive files (darn that iPod!). Naturally, I didn't bother checking out any audio books for myself. I did once try to download a documentary on the Ramones. It was going to take the better part of my life to download (even on a T1), so I quickly aborted that mission.

Since I had no earthly idea that Project Gutenburg had audio books, I decided to check that out. Neat! First, I had to check out the computer-generated books. I knew it would be hilarious, but it was WAY funnier than I expected. People are supposed to listen to that? Then I checked out the human-generated audio books, because that's more realistic. They sound just fine. I checked out E. Nesbit's Five Children and It. I had to read it in library school and I have a fondness for the story. So, the moral of the story is, kiddies, if you wait until the night before your assignment is due to read your classic, try an audio book from here!

Week Nine, Thing 21

When I first heard about podcasting, I said to myself, "Why would anyone want to download a podcast to their iPod? It's like listening to talk radio or something. People pay for brief audio clips and listen to them like a track?" Then I found out that podcasts were named after the iPod, but they're really just another audio file. So then it made more sense to think that people would want to be able to add audio clips to web pages and stuff. It wasn't until I had heard about travelcasts that I saw some really cool potential in podcasting. In fact, I only recently heard about this. My husband and I took a few days to check out Philadelphia. While searching for travel info, I ran across some podcasts that you could download to your portable media player. You could listen to a personal guided tour of the historic district. Cool, huh? So, I looked around Podcast Alley to find a podcast of interest. Since I think this travel idea is so cool, I went in that direction. First, I tried to subscribe to a collection of podcasts of Cape Town audio tours. It totally didn't work, but I can download them. So then I checked out the The ZA Show podcast, which is a radio show about things going on in South Africa and Cape Town. It's pronounced "zed-ay" show, BTW. It's a regular podcast from a South African couple. They do news, music, interviews, etc.

What potential do I see for this? I could see some Ghost Walk possibilities! We could do podcasts for do-it-yourself walking tours and for the driving tour of the county. That might be fun!

For this discovery exercise, I didn't do the optional part about making my own podcast. I just didn't have anything to say. If I did, I would. :)

Week Nine, Thing 20

For this Thing, I checked out You Tube. I've looked at stuff on it before, but it's mostly been related to the Numa Numa song. It's interesting that there are even commercials for products available now. I've also looked at library videos. I saw someone's purse being snatched and some kid asleep in a study carrel. I can see some intesting applications for libraries here. We could embed video tours or storytimes on web pages. The Westminster branch could do video updates about the renovation. Of course, we'd have to figure out the video editing part first. You Tube is pretty much the last step in the video promotion process.

For this task, I decided to check out some interests that I haven't thought about it awhile: Stainboy and Lenore. I decided to post Lenore. Please be aware: Lenore is neither cute nor dead (exactly). She's a semi-violent zombie creature. If you don't find humor in these things, don't watch!

A Special Blog Bulletin

After an earlier rant on this very blog, I wondered how I could make my own links in Stuff to See open up in new windows. After reading a post by Stephen Borg on the Blogger Help Group, I started playing around with the HTML. I tried several times without success, but I finally got it to work!!!! HOORAY!

Week Eight, Thing 19

I had fun looking through the list of Web 2.0 winners. Of course, just through the 23 Things, I have used several of them. Some of the more notable ones that I've used outside of the 23 Things are etsy and Pandora. Etsy has all sorts of craft things for sale, plus it's a community. I bought some rockin' skirt patterns from there once. I can't remember who turned me on to Pandora Radio, but I really like that. It really gives some spot-on recommendations. So much so, in fact, that I've purchased music based on songs that come on my channels.

So I decided to check out reddit and judysbook. Reddit takes both "real" news and screwy headlines and lets you rate them. As you rate them, it learns your tastes and presents headlines that should be more to your liking. I haven't played that much, so I can't yet tell if it's learning. I found some great headlines though! Judysbook is a shopping website. You join and enter your zip. It's supposed to tell you of deals in your area, but it seemed to have far more online deals. We'll see how it does over time.

Week 8, Thing 18b

OMG, of course I create the hugest document ever to post. Oh well, too bad. I probably spent way too much time monkeying around with it too, but I really wanted to explore Google Docs. I chose that one simply because I use several Google-based tools and Google is heading for world domination. Anyway, it's a really cool collaborative tool! It's neat the be able to have other people be allowed to make changes to a document. I have had occasions where other people have told me they made changes in a document that I've sent as an email attachment. What they didn't realize was that they couldn't make changes directly in the document. They had to save, change, save, reattach, etc. This would be a perfect tool to get around all that! Here's the downside. I am super-used to tables in Word. I'm pretty good at tweaking them. I couldn't tweak this nearly as much as I wanted. Consequently, it's not as pretty as I'd like. Plus, the refresh kept screwing up my cut and paste. Also, the undo didn't undo as many times as I would have thought. Overall, this was a pretty cool tool though!

Week 8, Thing 18a

Travel Itinerary

Thursday, Day 1:		We begin our journey!
Friday, Day 2:		We arrive in Johannesburg.
Saturday, Day 3:		We tour Johannesburg and Soweto.
Sunday, Day 4:		We leave Johannesburg traveling by bus. En route, we'll see the Klein Drakensburg escarpment, and travel the Panorama Route. In the afternoon, we'll arrive at Kruger National Park.
Monday, Day 5:		We'll enjoy a full-day private safari at Kruger National Park, hopefully seeing the Big Five. Photo from Flickr by MauritsV Sunrise at Kruger National Park
Tuesday, Day 6:		We go on another full-day safari through the Kruger lowveld area.
Wednesday, Day 7:		We leave the park by bus and travel to Mbabane, Swaziland. En route, we'll visit Swazi Glassworks.
Thursday, Day 8:		We visit a Swazi chief's umphakatsi, witness a candlemaking demonstration, and shop at a local Swazi marketplace. Photo on Flickr by kruger_doreen Craft market in Mbabane
Friday, Day 9:		We travel by bus to the KwaZulu-Natal region of SA. We'll spend the day in a Zulu uzumi and learn about traditional Zulu lifestyle and culture. In the evening, we enjoy a traditional Zulu meal, with singning and dancing afterward.
Saturday, Day 10:		We travel by bus to Durban. We spend the day touring the city, including the Indian market.
Sunday, Day 11:		We visit uShaka Marine World and other area attractions.
Monday, Day 12:		We leave Durban and fly to Port Elizabeth. We then travel by bus to George.
Tuesday, Day 13:		We travel by bus along the Garden Route to Knysna and visit the Featherbed Bay Nature Reserve. Photo on Flickr by johnson_c_l Featherbed Bay
Wednesday, Day 14:		We visit theOudtshoorn/Cango area, where we see an ostrich farm and a wildlife sanctuary.
Thursday, Day 15:		We travel by bus to Cape Town, stopping in Mossel Bay and Swellendam along the way
Friday, Day 16:		We tour Cape Town, including Table Mountain.
Saturday, Day 17:		We tour the Cape peninsula, including Cape Point Nature Reserve. This evening, we dine with a local family in their home.
Sunday, Day 18:		We continue touring Cape Town and visit Robben Island. Photo on Flickr by Paul Waterfront in Cape Town with Table Mountain in the background.
Monday, Day 19:		In the morning, we drive out to the Stellenbosch Winelands for a tour. In the afternoon, we fly from Cape Town to Johannesburg.
Tuesday, Day 20:		We fly from Johannesburg to Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe.
Wednesday, Day 21:		We spend the day exploring Victoria Falls and the nearby Livingstone Museum in Zambia.
Thursday, Day 22:		We take a half-day drive through Chobe National Park in Botswana. That evening, we enjoy a traditional Boma dinner.
Friday, Day 23:		We fly from Zimbabwe to Johannesburg to US. Photo on Flickr by giamplume Victoria Falls
Saturday, Day 24:		We continue our return flight to the US.

Week Seven, Thing 17

I went to the Sandbox and added my blog. It took me a sec because I didn't really read the directions. Directions are boring, but apparently sometimes useful. Anyway, I added my blog (by title, not address) and linked to it. I also added the book I'm currently reading to the book blog. I feel all special because I linked to the book in Amazon.

Week Seven, Thing 16

We've been wiki-ing for some time now at CCPL. What shocks me about wikis is how often I use Wikipedia. I realize that complete dullards and charlatans can create entries, but still, most I find are on the up-and-up and pretty useful. I really enjoyed the book-oriented wikis that Thing 16 linked to. It could be a really fun way to do a staff picks newsletter. I guess the thing that makes a wiki cool is also the thing that makes a wiki not so cool - the ability to post. I suppose things can be locked down to a certain point, but then do you defeat the point of the wiki as a format? If any schlub can post, you have to watch the wiki all the time to make sure that the aforementioned dullards and charlatans haven't been at work.

Week Six, Thing 15

First off, I should probably say that I think Web 2.0 is a buzzword. I think the same of Library 2.0. Why? Well, it's because (IMO) these aren't clear steps of change or upgrades to the world; it's a more progressive shift. To me, to have a 2.0 means that there has to be a 1.0. Ya know, clear steps of change - a timeline. Anyway, it's natural to expect that as the world gets more used to technology and the Web, we will expect more from it and abandon some of our old ways. The same can be said of libraries. It's not that I don't believe in these shifts in behavior and expectations. It's obvious that the world, the Web, and libraries are changing to accomodate these shifts. It's just the buzzword thing that gets me.

Sooooo, I like the article Away From Icebergs. The idea of ditching our "just in case" collection was fascinating. Somehow I don't think we're quite ready to pitch all the books into the Dumpster, but it's interesting to see a smidge of this already happening. Reference collection? Puh-leez! How much do we even use those books anymore? We certainly don't buy nearly as many as we used to. It will be really interesting to see what happens with printing-on-demand and electronic books. It will be a little while before technology catches up and then users catch on to the technology. I also liked the idea of seeking out our customers. We did used to be the only game in town. Now so many people have Internet access and therefore access to information. Let's face it - I can Google and so can everyone else. Sure, you could say that my library experience makes me a better Googler. How long will that be true? I guess we'll be personal Googlers for those that don't care to or can't do it themselves. :)

In the article To Better Bibliographic Services, there was a really cool mention of making catalogs more like Amazon. It would rock to have users add their own online reviews of materials. I really take those comments into consideration when purchasing a product. The downside is that you'd have to have full-time moderators to be sure that the comments were suitable for prime time.

So there you have it. The world isn't doing anything different from any other time. Concepts evolve, people evolve. It's just happening really fast, so it's harder to keep up, let alone stay one step ahead.

Week Six, Thing 14b

It worked! I have officially claimed my blog and I found it through a search on mdlearn2 on Technorati. I did play around with some other searches too. One thing that surprised me was the number of non-personal sites that were favorites. Some were really business tools, I guess. I thought I might find more fun and funky blogs that I loved. I did find a blog for a restauranteur in Cape Town. Somehow he had the Learning 2.0 tag in there somewhere. Anyway, the top searches seemed about par for the course. Paris Hilton was way up there! So were the Sopranos, which makes perfect sense since the finale was last night. There was some crossover between favorited blogs and top blogs - not surprising. It will be fun to check back as more people doing this project get to Week Six.

Week Six, Thing 14a

I'm in the process of claiming my blog in Technorati. I'm supposed to add this nifty link...Technorati Profile... and everything should be peachy. Let's see...

Week Six, Thing 13

First off, I must say that I have Groove is in the Heart stuck in my head now. There's a line that uses the word delicious and that's rolling around in my head. I'm grooving to this imaginary song like Ally McBeal. Anyway, I enjoyed playing around with del.icio.us. I checked out the bookmarks on the PLCMCL2 page. They were just fascinatinzzzzzzzzz. I searched around for some other library-related sites and found a few that were more fun. At first I didn't notice any user comments. Frankly, I was too busy adding bookmarks to my page (check link on the right). When I slowed down, I did click and notice. I didn't see any really useful comments. That makes me realize that I should go back and add some useful comments in my own bookmarks. What was cool was checking out the tags and finding new sites. I'd start by bookmarking a known site and then I'd check out popular sites with the same tags. I found some cool sites about Egypt, South Africa, and tea.

Week Five, Thing 12

Hmmm, I haven't quite figured out how I can use Rollyo in my life. I hate to limit myself to a few select sites when I can search everthing. I guess there may be times when I really want to limit my search to a few sites. If I knew that I'd be performing the same type of search again and again, it might be worth it to set up my own rollyo search. In order to justify the time spent setting up the rollyo in the first place, I'd have to really feel like I'd perform that search often. It's good to keep it in mind though. Maybe as I perform Google searches, I'll start to see times when a custom rollyo would've been great to have. My rollyo search is off to the side, but if you want to check it out straight from this post, go to http://rollyo.com/christina_k/shoes_glorious_shoes/.

Week Five, Thing 11

I thought Library Thing (http://www.librarything.com/catalog/Christina_K) was pretty interesting. Frankly, I just can't see me ever being organized enough to actually catalog books that I own and/or have read. What was interesting (and a little freaky) was seeing the lists of other people who shared some of my books. I could definitely find some reader's advisory suggestions here! As OCD as I am though, I'm just not a cataloger at heart. I almost completely avoided it in library school.

Week Five, Thing 10

I will full-on admit that I enjoyed this WAY too much. I checked out a few of the other sites listed on the 23 Things, but I ended up having the most fun at http://meez.com. This image in the post is an uploaded image that I saved on my computer. The image in my profile was linked to through meez. It took me a little longer to work out how to do that. So what is the coolest thing about meez? You can actually buy some of the clothes. I was tooling along, trying on outfits, all the while thinking about how cute some things would be in real life. BAM! Check out the more info link under the pix! Thanks 23 Things for giving me yet another opportunity to shop!

Week Four, Thing 9

Wow! I really have to stop looking around for junk to add to my bloglines page: http://www.bloglines.com/public/ChristinaK. There's no way to keep up with the amount of information I've now inundated myself with. They all looked so interesting though. I had the most fun with Technorati. First of all, the sight was the most eye-catching. Lame, but true. I found a really cool blog for The Lost Girls. A bunch of chicks from NYC quit their jobs to travel the world. I stumbled upon that one when I did a search for South Africa. I tried a few different searches in each of the featured tools. Syndic8 didn't lead me to anything interesting at all. Topix led me to a local news gatherer, so we'll see how that works out. Of course, that means that there has to be actual local news. ;-) If I had a more specific purpose, I might have more insightful things to say. I was really just poking around and looking for fun topics. The Merlin site was easy to add. Bloglines does make it pretty simple. Well, I have about a million feeds to read, so I'd better get to it.

A Random Rant

OMG, here's what is completely annoying me. I wish the links on the 2.0 site would open in new windows. Call me lazy, but I like to have the 23 Things list open so I can go to the next one. Navigating away just makes me have to open a new window on my own so I can keep my handy list in front of me. Rant over. :)

Week Four, Thing 8

I knew of RSS, but I really hadn't paid it a lot of attention. I got news online, but I've never brought the sources altogether through a single access point. So now I have my bloglines account all set up at http://www.bloglines.com/public/ChristinaK. I have all my feeds in a convenient list now, which is pretty alright. Of course, I subscribed to the requisite number of library-related feeds. The Library Bytes blog was pretty cool. It mentioned the Maryland Libraries Learning 2.0 project. Of course, equally as interesting are all of the other feeds to which one can subscribe. OK, maybe not equally. Please - shoes/libraries? shoes/libraries? HELLO? OK, libraries pay for the shoes, so maybe libraries should come out ahead there. ;-) It was lots of fun to find some international news feeds. Also, NASCAR has a Nextel Cup feed, so now I'll know who Jr. signs with. The news is rumored to be coming down the pike pretty soon. Let's hope he signs with Gibbs!

Week Three, Thing 7

Ya know what interests me this week? I may be a little behind the times, but iTunes and my iPod have made my life so much easier. I got a Nano several months ago and had a blast adding tunes to it left and right. I bought new music and I added tons from my CD collection. I teach a group cycle class at a local gym and my old CDs that I had made for class music were getting a little stale. With only a cable, my iPod, and iTunes, I found I could easily make new mixes and play them through the gym's stereo. How cool (and EASY!) is that?! Whenever my music seems stale (or if I find a particular song doesn't work so well), I just create a new playlist. Download, drag and drop, work out! I've been feeling the need for a little My Chemical Romance to be played during class. Time to do a little iTunes shopping!

Week Three, Thing 6

OK, so I decided to check out Mappr. While I played around on Flickr, I also uploaded some of my personal photos from my vacation in Egypt. At first, it looked like Mappr was pretty lame because I only saw the US map. After a little digging, I found the world map. It was so cool to add my photos. Of course, my geographical knowledge of street-level Cairo is a bit limited. I more or less know where Zamalek is on a map, but I was a little more shaky on where to place a photo from the Citadel. I guessed. It was pretty cool to be the first person to post photos from that part of Africa!

Week Three, Thing 5b

Adult Non-fiction area
Originally uploaded by Christina's Camera

We're so excited about our upcoming renovation! These huge 90" shelving units are showing every one of their 27 years. It will be so nice to have shelving that will allow us to merchandise our collection.

Week Two, Thing Four

Blog registered, tracking sheet downloaded. All done!

Week Two, Thing Three

There's not much to say about this. Look Ma, I'm blogging!

Week One, Thing Two

So, I listened to Charlotte-Mecklinburg's 7 1/2 Habits online tutorial. Obviously, Play! is the easist rule for me to follow. It is the most fun, isn't it? Also, I do generally tend to begin with the end in mind. For instance, right now I'm trying to learn some basic Zulu. My goal, from the beginning, was to be able to successfully make some clicks and exchange basic pleasantries with people. Whenever I learn something new, I may change my end goal depending on my interest level in the activity. If I find that I'm great at Zulu and want to learn more, I may change my goal (fat chance, since right now I can only say, "Good day!"). The hardest habit for me to work with is creating my own learning toolbox. I probably do this naturally. Really, the part that makes that habit difficult is thinking about the toolbox. I just gather what I need, but don't really think in terms of building a collection of tools to help me achieve my goal. Guess I should, though!

Week One, Thing One

What's there to say about this? On to Thing Two...