10 Random Things about Me

1. I have played softball almost every year since I was 10.  I am now on two teams; one an all-star team trying to make the Gay Games in Cologne Germany in 2010.
2. I grew up in a small modest farming community south of Toledo.  All the cornfields I passed on the way to high school are gone…replaced by huge homes, some in the $500,000+range.  Maybe I should have stayed close to home.  Nah.
3. One of my lowest grades in high school…speech class.  I was so shy that it was incredibly painful to get in front of a group and talk.  I speak in front of groups now, but still battle shyness.
4. My first job out of school – coordinating and doing public speaking for local rape crisis center.  That will get anyone over fear of public speaking.  My first presentation was to a ninth grade health class.  I can’t imagine any public speaking engagement EVER being more challenging than that – and remind myself of that every time I am nervous before public speaking.
5. Who mostly rules my life?  My kitty. For the last 17.5 years.  The one I had a fear of commitment and responsibility for when I said yes and took him in.  Here’s hoping for several more years.
6. I sit on my porch and give out candy every Halloween because my kitty (see #5) sits out there with me and lets all the trick or treaters pet him.  It’s fun to watch the kids get excited to pet the kitty.  In his younger days, the parents would say, “Oh, this is where that cat lives”  Sorry…
7. I spent a year of college in Madrid.  Truly an amazing life experience.  Other countries traveled to while I was over there…Portugal, France, Italy, Germany, Belgium and Morocco.
8. I am enjoying life as an empty nester.
9. Yes, Ohio State football is one reason I chose OSU for law school.  But only ONE reason…and not the first reason either!  I’ve always been a fan – Go Bucks!  And I’m a season ticket holder for OSU women’s basketball too.
10. I started at the Library as a page to supplement my income at the rape crisis center.  I wanted to work somewhere that I believed in the mission.  After the rape crisis center, I added “and can pay me” to the list of criteria.  I believe in libraries, so I stayed.  Added bonus: I met my life partner here!

Final Thoughts – Thing 23!

I liked doing 23 Things and am glad CML made it a priority.  I have been doing several of the things for years and have talked about them, but when very few people know what I am talking about, there is no traction for new ideas.  So, the best thing about this is that soooo many people went through this and will all have at least a basic idea of these 23 things.  This will help the organization do things differently and try new things.

Some of the 23 things are things I have heard about and have wanted to try, but didn’t prioritize it or didn’t have a structure to do something with it so they made little sense to me.  I appreciated having assignments to do so there was a purpose and goal to working with each thing.  And I am glad to finally have worked with these things – especially Flickr and Del.cio.us (even tho I still haven’t decided about Del.cio.us.)

Finally, there was no way I only spent 20 mins on any of these things.  There never would have been enough time to even do the thing let alone play with it enough to actually understand what it could do for me – personally or professionally.  As it is, I already feel like I have to go back to a few of the things and spend more time to truly get it -  like Library Thing, Del.cio.us, and Google Docs, to name a few.

I look forward to the changes this program brings to CML.  I would definitely do something like this again.  My biggest recommendation would be to shorten it – 23 Things is a lot to get through and do it well enough to remember or understand things well enough to translate into our everyday life.  Thanks for letting us do this!

MOLDI

I am very happy about the AV download station for MOLDI.  I have been using MOLDI for several years and have had few problems with it, but the download station is quick and easy.  I was surprised at how easy it really is!  My thoughts about MOLDI – I never really look at titles that aren’t always available, because when I want to download an audio, I want it now.  This is not a media I’ve started pre-planning for.  Of the always available titles, there are few I have heard of before or am looking for – BUT I have enjoyed everything I listened to.  So, I recommend this tool and look forward to even better access as the publishing world realizes we are all wanting digital!

Podcasts

I have been listening to podcasts for several years.  I love the idea, but I have gotten overwhelmed with them.  Like my magazine subscription, at first I enjoy it and then it starts piling up and then I am behind and then it is just one more thing to do.  I can’t remember what I first used for podcasts, but most recently I have used iTunes.  I mostly use it to listen to things I would listen to on the tv or radio…I haven’t subscribed to just an ordinary person.  I have listened to Fantasy Football pre-season analysis from ESPN to prepare for upcoming drafts, I have listened to Coffee Talk Spanish to refresh a little on lost language skills, I have listened to various NPR shows that are broadcast at a time that doesnt fit my listening schedule, I have listened to Book Talk type shows to learn about books that are out, etc.

As with about everything we have done with L&P, I absolutely see a use for this both internally and externally at CML.  I am glad this is part of 23 Things so many others can learn about the fun of podcasts.

YouTube

Ok, spent waaaaaayyy too long playing w/YouTube.  I have never spent time just searching through it before.  I could spend years watching everything I’ve missed…nice to know it is there…takes the pressure off needing to see something when it happens.  There is so much to do all the time that we can’t do it all…web2.0 is certainly helping with that.

I like the thought that it is so easy to film and post something.  This could make work a more efficient place.  Better than meeting minutes??? Probably…and a teaching tool to replace some in class training…Yes.  Now, if we get the tools at work to make this easier to do…

The optional part of Thing 20 is to embed a video in my blog, so here goes.  What to choose?  How does one limit and select from millions of options?  We are also supposed to say why we selected the particular video we post.  I think this one speaks for itself. 

Thing 19

Checking out some of CML’s Web 2.0 tools…I had already downloaded the toolbar and haven’t gotten very used to it yet.  I keep forgetting that My Acct button and go to website, then my acct, etc.  Trying to remember the button so I can do it quicker.  I think I will really like it once I remember it.  Today I also downloaded the Catalog plug-in.  I am also excited about that.  I do a good amount of checking for a single title and it will be nice to have the search right there for me, so it does not take me away from my work as much to go through multiple layers to get to the catalog.

I read the Tooling Around blog too.  I haven’t read that before and liked the information on Firefox.  I have had Firefox for a while, but haven’t spent any time really learning how to personalize it or maximize the benefits of using it.  The first thing I did was download the Color Tabs app.  Yay!  It is so much easier to find the tabs and then distinguish between them now that they stick out.  I haven’t even tried to fix my own color schemes yet…just having different colors is enough right now.  I also looked at the themes and downloaded one that is a glossy black-Acquatint Black Gloss – but I went back to the default for two reasons, it took away my color tabs and the font on the CML toolbar didn’t change to white so I could read it.  The other toolbars automatically changed font…

Anyway, I will continue to check Tooling Around now that I have seen it.  It is nice to get some good pointers in a quick, easy to find and read format.

L&P Wiki

Added my blog to the favorite wikis section per Thing 16.  I found it a little confusing at first, then finally got it.  So then I added my favorite athlete to that section.

I’ve recently been involved in a group project where document editing is involved.  I thought “too bad I haven’t done Thing 16 yet, we coulda used a wiki”  But after looking at it, I’m not sure I liked it enough for that.  I will have to play around more, but I didn’t like the lack of consistent formatting and it looked hard to determine who added what (unless people put their names on their contribution).  I want to know who is adding what, especially if it is a work related project.  Probably the ability to do that is there, but I didn’t see it in my 20 mins (ha!) on this Thing.

Plus, I looked ahead to Thing 17 while waiting for my access to the wiki to be approved and I’m thinking Google Docs may be a better solution to the group contribution (write/edit) pieces.  So, I’m off to Thing 17 with that in mind.

Thing 18

I looked at several of the Web 2.0 tools – there are too many!

Under organization, I looked at Backpack.  That could be a very useful tool for a work location to use to communicate and set priorities.  Maybe cut down a little on the email? Also had a group calendar feature.  I could see Library locations using this site.

I also looked at a Fitness tracking site.  I thought that would be cool, but it is still in beta and I didn’t like the sounds of some of its problems…like your personal stats accidentally being available publicly.  But it was cool because if you tracked your activity, etc it will rate it for you and graph it, etc.  A very visual way to track progress and keep motivated.

Finally, I looked at Urban Dining, which is a listing of local restaurants with people’s ratings.  I like that because I always feel like I’m in a rut when I go out, so now maybe I can find some new places to try.  I also looked at a cooking site where people film themselves cooking, like amateur food channel.  Could be entertaining…

Google Docs

Thing 17 is pretty interesting.  It is hard to answer the questions with just 20 mins spent on this thing (another Ha!)  I made a powerpoint presentation and a word doc.  It was very easy to do.  In the .ppt I could drag a picture from Flickr and drop it into a slide – how easy is that?  Very nice!

I like the idea of being able to create items and have them online.  All these web tools diminishing the need to own ones own memory devices, including the computer.  I don’t see people giving up their computer – or phone or other internet accessible device – but this really helps even out the digital divide.  Now, people who are using library computers, for example, can easily access their documents even if they can’t afford the flash drive.

Here is the short and sweet practice presentation I put together…or not, sorry don’t think I figured it out.

I didn’t have time to send my doc out to others and see how the collaboration aspect will work, but the thought of decreased email and more easily maintained version control is very exciting and I think will have significant impact on projects across the organization.

Wiki thoughts

The concept of Wiki’s make a lot of sense to me, but when I look at how other libraries are using wikis, I just think, “huh?”  I don’t think many of them are easy to read or understand, just a big clutter of words.  I like the idea of using a wiki on a project team to get everyone’s feedback without having to go through rounds of emails.  But that’s all I really like after spending my 15 (plus a little more) minutes on this thing.