...mission accomplished...!

...our mission, if we chose to accept it, was to navigate through all 19? weeks of krl2pt0. I have mixed emotions regarding this accomplishment. I am relieved, validated, somewhat elated, still confused and....slightly sad. I think I'll speak to the sad part first. Somewhere around the middle of the assignments I decided that if I finished, I would go and read every one of the krl2pt0 blogs....and that is what i have started to do. I am somewhere in the "s's" right now, with about 30 more to go. The sad part comes about when I realize how many of my co-workers didn't finish, many never even made it past the first post. That very well could have been me. It was a huge struggle to keep up every week. I looked forward to our "rest weeks" when I could try to get caught up. I almost quit several times, especially when I was 3 weeks behind. I used my 1/2 hour at work religiously, and that wasn't close to being enough time to slog my way through. Closest estimate...AT LEAST 30 HOURS OF MY OWN TIME went into working through the assignments. I've talked to several people who said..."I just didn't have the time to do this". Honestly, neither did I, so what did I give up to finish?

...aye, there's the rub...

....Sites for Students, redux...

...I did think that my college freshman daughter might find some of these sites useful, so I sent her some links. ( I must admit that is one thing I've learned to do during the course of krl2pt0!)

My 15 year old son might also find some use in some of the note sharing sites, especially for his AP World History class.

...so, the end is in site. I truly didn't think I'd make it this far. When I finish, I'm going to hoist a "wee dram" of a good single malt in celebration!

...Sites for Students...

....well, back again. This week's assignment was a bit more interesting to me, I must admit. Not that I really understand most of what I looked at!

Instead of just 2 sites, I checked out 7...Zolo, NoteMesh, Notecentric, Stikkit, Backpack, CoMindWork, and just for the heck of it, Jobster. I have to say that I really didn't understand a good portion of them, probably because you have to join most of them to get the full effect. I found that to be a major frustration for me, the teasing with just enough info, then being expected to sign up.

For future reference, I thought Zolo might be the most useful to me. I hope that someday I'll have the time to spend on really getting a good sense of what is available there. I generally feel to be in sensory overload mode in relation to our assignments, knowing that for me to get any real benefit I'll have to go back later and spend some concentrated time at sites that I feel may be useful. (Oh drat, looks like I'm out of room...how can I make this post longer...?)

...what the Tweet...

is Twitter all about??#! You've got me. Once again I've done the requisite reading of countless sights re: our current assignment, Twitter. I've added a "tweet" or two to the krltwitter, the latest just a little while ago, and I've signed up for Twitter myself as "stillkicking".... I can't for the life of me figure out how to make krl's Twitter one of my "followers", but if you go to the krl Twitter and search for "stillkicking", you'll find me.

I was a bit nonplussed to find in some of the links I read re:Twitter that you can have twitters from your friends list go directly to your cell phone as a text message....so you can be "tweeted" 24/7...

The mind boggles.

As far as use in the library goes, do we really want to be constantly interrupting work to check email for a new Twitter, or even worse, have our cell phones "tweeting" all the time. It's bad enough with patron's phones ringing left and right at various volumes and imaginative ring tones. I mean really, wouldn't a phone call do just as well in most cases? (over the VOIP's of course...)

...i don't think i have enough brain cells...

...to do this stuff. Facebook is the current assignment...so okay, I've read alot about it, I've toured the Facebook site, I've even gone to the Meredith Farkas "Social Networking in Libraries" link....honestly, my eyes are glazing over and my poor, feeble pea brain is in a whirl.

Then I go check out the directions to start a Facebook site and I revert to total brain death. Woe is me...! Sure, i can see some benefits to having a Facebook page (i think?), but once again, I'm not sure that I want to put the effort into starting it, let alone maintaining it.

Both my 19 year-old daughter and my 15 year-old son have Facebook accounts, neither of which I am privy to. When I mentioned to my daughter that part of the new krl2pt0 assignment was to join Facebook, her comment was rather startling..."so, are you going to stalk me on Facebook now?" Wowza, that gave me pause. I hope her comment was tongue in cheek, my gut tells me it wasn't.

So, once again, I leave here very conflicted...

....wikis2...UFF DA!!!!.....

...ye gods and little fishes!!....after three tries and much confusion on my part, I think I finally managed to add to the Poulsbo Branch wiki. WHEW!!!! I found it to be way more work than I''m interested in doing on just about any basis. As I've said from the start, I am really not very computer savvy, and while I did manage (I think) to add to the wiki, I really don't have a clue what I'm doing....and I'm not sure I could do it again.

I don't have any great ideas about adding to the general KRL wiki, either, or even why we as an organization would want to do this. I guess some folks might get a real charge out of it and contribute alot to it. Me???? I just don't have the time or the desire to become proficient.

...here, wiki, wiki...

....hmmmm, well I think I've managed to do a very simple post to the fake wiki, I've read about wikis and looked at other wikis and I just don't see what all the fuss is about. It just seems to be one big blog that anyone can mess with. All this virtual socializing seems so "cold" to me. Anyone can say anything about any subject, true or not, and there's no "warm-body" contact...no body language, no facial expression, no tone of voice to add to the message. I must truly be a dinosaur, 'cause i just can't seem to warm up to this virtual social network craze. I think it's a cop-out. Without the accountability of face-to-face interactions, people are "allowed" to say anything to anybody.... I fear that the "human" race is on the verge of losing it's collective conscience, and I fervantly hope that I will never live to see that actual day come to pass.

The thought makes me want to cry.

...well, life's been interesting lately...

....hence, the fairly long lapse since my last post....

sooo, I've done "the youtube thing, finally, and here are some thoughts....it's an interesting concept, but again, I just don't see myself getting all wrapped up in it.

I watched several of the assignment videos; "The Evolution of Dance" was clever, "Pachebel Rant" was hysterical (one of my favorite musical pieces, by the way), "Library Dominoes" was mildly amusing, and "March of the Librarians" pretty lame. I dutifully searched for and found the KRL "fish" story....

I also did searches for subjects I have an interst in, such as Grand Prix Jumping, Fancy(pet) Rats and telemark skiing.

Visiting Youtube is kind of like watching America's Funniest Home Videos. I might do it when I felt I had nothing better to do....

I think, just for kicks, I'd like to figure out how to embed a video in my blog sometime, but I'll save that for later, like when I'm caught up with the assignments...onward to wikis