Waterfire recall from an ambulating photographer

The photographer, Jennifer Lehner, happened to catch some good fotos of Columbus' skyline at the five-months-ago Waterfire on the Mile (Columbus chapter) event that improv. jazz musicians in the collective known as the Outpost Improvisers Collective participated in by playing some music prior to the log-containing braziers being lit. I'm in one of the fotos, although you cannot tell me apart from anyone else unless i were to indicate for you.

http://jclphotography.blogspot.com/2008/07/waterfire-columbus-ohio.html

Neat

GAP commercials featuring, among other things, an orchestrated bell chime "Greensleeves/We Three Kings" mix/spoof.

Learn & Play program end(?) and summarization

I found CML's Learn & Play initiative to be a nice way of exploring the web and discovering useful Web 2.o tools while coming to work every day. It was fun to learn about these things while on the library's own clock, despite my own previous personal exploration of these services to some degree away from the library's work environs. I liked blogging the experience, as it kept a rolling log of our progress, and was an easy way of tracking said progress while simultaneously getting the participant into the habit of writing/typing about their experiences - a sort of online journaling process, if you will. Technology, utilized in the personal/social development sense that we've used it, has greatly assisted us in the work that we do, and has made it easier (and more fun?) to communicate and explore than ever!

MOLDI

The Mid-Ohio Library Digital Initiative's website, with all of its digital media available for download, seems like a great resource for avid audiobook listeners, digital mavens, and connected types who just want a bit of free digitally downloadable resources. Granted, the resources are not blockbuster movies, titles released on behemoth or indie music labels, etc., but the site does provide a number of things for free. To its credit, I would enjoy downloading any of the movies on personal travel that feature worldy destinations and enticing locales. Overall, a nice resource available to CML and its patrons.

CML's Web 2.0 Toolbox

I already utilize Google Gmail, the Firefox browser, assorted other tools, and now LibraryThing, among others, but I think that I could be assisted in many of my materials queries by adding the CML catalog search toolbar to my browser. On the face of it, this tool seems like it will prove to be a fantastic addition to my browser. I also am anxious to create my own StumbleUpon account, as I am already familiar with the site through friends' sharings with me, but have not yet set up my own account there. I think that this site pools together some great independent websites out there and lets you, well, quite literally just stumble upon them!

Discovering Web 2.0 Tools

I opted to "explore" facebook, although I really already had an established facebook account. My account lets me everything that Twitter does, plus much more. Like Twitter, you can update your "profile status", letting the world know what you're up to, or where you are; unlike Twitter, however, you can upload photos, create extensive notes, join "groups", add applications, utilize a facebook IM chat client, and much, much more. For instance, I've also signed up to use another Web 2.0 service, Last.fm (a music streaming and tagging site that allows people to "broadcast" and share info about what music they're listening to currently, as well as bios on the groups/musicians, etc.). With a facebook/Last.fm shared application, I can share the music that I'm listening to through the Last.fm software, and have this info appear on my facebook profile pages. Total integration! I confess that I am a stalwart facebook addict, and need to temper my time spent on this social networking site with actual physical activity/movement, but alas, it is a useful, if somewhat all-consuming, tool for individuals and organizations alike.

http://www.facebook.com

Google Docs experimentation

I don't think I like Google Docs as much as Microsoft Word, purely because it lacks the ability to enter special characters (accented characters, etc.) through means of simple keystroke combinations, an ability that Word possesses. However, it seems to be a great tool for sharing simple Office-like documents on the fly, with no potential for version compatibility issues to arise. Its built-in integration with the web itself makes it near lightning-quick to share with other collaborators, etc., so it could be great for large organizations such as CML where locations and sites are spread out across the city.

Favorite animals

So, I've just recently edited the CML Learn & Play wiki @ pbwiki.com, and I listed a few of my favorite animals, including cheetahs, green iguanas, cats, and dogs.

http://learnandplaycml.pbwiki.com/Favorite+Animals

Wikis

Wikis are absolutely great! I'm a die-hard disciple, or at least an advocate, of Wikipedia, and I use this site on a near daily basis. I've even edited entries within Wikipedia (an entry concerning a musician and his musical collaborations with other music groups/musicians). With regards to library usage, I can already envision one example where collaborative wikis could be useful: for meeting room bookers and attendants in organizing their agendas, supplies needed, etc. when planning meetings within any of the library's public meeting rooms.

Yea, wikis!

Library 2.0

Reading some of the articles concerning library 2.0 musings linked from the 23 Things blog, I noted that one key to progress seemed to be the idea of openness (and constant evolution) with regards to bringing libraries to people, and not the other way around; that is, tailoring the library experience to suit the needs of its users where that need is present, and not forcing users to go out of their way to obtain needed information where the case may be that easier access channels could be implemented. Library 2.0 seeks to create librarians who are "superstars" of information, who can gather information and draw connections between relevant bits of information from a cloud that is increasingly expanding and sometimes diluted. I don't know if this thought chain is just a foggy cloud in itself, but that seems to be the gist at least; nurturing research and connection skills among both librarians and the public, and enabling greater accessibility.

Del.icio.us and tagging

Del.icio.us is not necessarily my favorite web 2.0 tool, but I can sort of see the utility that it serves to those inclined to tag and categorize emerging trends, phenomena, and "it" things cropping up all over the web's vast expanses. To that end, it serves its goal quite well, as options to bookmark many a webpage through Del.icio.us are present across the web's global terrain. One can not only tag a site (writ large) via Del.icio.us, but also, say, a single article authored within a site.

http://delicious.com/Geosaurus

Library Thing!

The Thing(!) is Library Thing. The thingiest thing that ever thingingly thinged. This site was superb for use in creating a list of one's favorite books and presenting them as a collection to be perused almost as if it were a virtual bookshelf of book covers and vital stats on said literature, sans the complete works themselves in digital format. Un trés neat and nifty site!

http://www.librarything.com/catalog/Geosaurus

Twittering tweety tweets ♫

Exploring the personal-activity-and-whereabouts updating and social broadcasting site Twitter, I found the service to be rather inane. Twitter was only able to find one person within my e-mail contacts who was already using Twitter for his own devices and purposes. Needless to say, I wasn't much enthralled with Twitter's offering to web 2.0

http://twitter.com/Geosaurus

Bloglines and Google Reader

As already mentioned, I've managed to access my Google Reader account (seemingly already made up and there for me even when I had no idea of its existence), and to explore within. However, I've also established a Bloglines account, and I've found both services to be neat ways of keeping abreast of developments from journalistic and newsworthy sites across the web via RSS feeds.

RSS comprehension, pt. 1

Just starting w/ Google Reader to subscribe to updates from neat sites via RSS feeds. No news on how hyperreal and hyperspaced I may become following a transition to such a fast pace of reading, subscribing, and updating. Golly! Sheesh!

Flickr "third-party mashup" site plug

http://flickrvision.com/

Geoff says, "Become inundated with fotos hasta sus sentidos become cached".

Thanks go to Aaronius ;-)

Flickr discoveries

Here is a photo of an iguana-like lizard from México, uploaded to the Flickr site by a co-worker's daughter (Beth Bahleda). It's name is Carl. ¡Viva Carl!

"world music" publications and links to their respective podcasts

http://www.globalrhythm.net/PODCAST/

http://www.songlines.co.uk/

Vote for space exploration?

http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/10/message-from-sp.html

If space exploration isn't your thing, then how about some awesome sports-and-fitness-related tech!

A treadmill vehicle?! (no longer must you be content with merely stationary running)



How about super-springy shoes?!

Anthro Majors? Maybe I can still stay in the loop; hmmm...

Here's a link to "anthropology resources" under the OSU Libraries' blog index of OSU's blogged about subject matter.

http://library.osu.edu/blogs/anthropology

Image generators. . . always amusing ;o)

My startup business in zany, mixed-up, not-so-lucrative enterprises

Great Leaping Lizards, oh my!

So, my herpetological days have long ago halted, back behind yesterday's horizon, but I can still reminisce over my reptiles, right? A brief reptile recount of herps had in my Holocene life:

• Anole shipped to me in a box in the winter... DOA (never trust wondrous-sounding ads in the Boy Scouts magazine "Boys' Life")
  
• Auggy, Diablo, and various other names that got attached to a temperamental green iguana (Iguana iguana)
• Leopard Gecko (Eublepharis macularius)
• More to come? . . . I'd love to someday perhaps have room and board for a bearded dragon (Pogona vitticeps)