Thing 14: Technorati and Tags in Blogs

Technorati is an interesting tool. It's kindof a Dogpile for blogs. I searched "Library 2.0" as directed and discovered a blog that I have since added to my RSS feeds--The Librarian's Guide to Etiquette--a totally tongue-in-cheek, hysterically funny guide to the do's and don'ts of librarianship. I also found a great YouTube video about Librarianship as a career. This 1947 film, called Your Life Work, speaks to the depth and breadth of a Librarian's existence, so I just had to share it. If you aren't a Librarian, take a moment of your time to consider the fulfilling career outlined in this movie.

Thing 13: Del.icio.us and Tagging

This is actually a pretty cool. Though, like much of the 23 Things stuff, I'm not sure I'll ever use this.

Personally, I actually feel like I'd be regressing by dumping a bunch of bookmarks into a large pot with the only access being, in essence, a keyword(s) search. I feel like I maintain a pretty easy-to-access organized control over the bookmarks I've collected. I mostly only use two computers (my work PC and my home laptop). There's a slight difference between the Bookmarks content on my work versus my home computer and I feel that's how it should be. My laptop travels with me and, even if it didn't, I'm a savvy enough searcher that I can quickly enough find just about any particular webpage I might want.

On the other hand, I really liked the YouTube video created by CommonCraft. It well highlight the advantages there'd be in sharing links within workgroups, etc. Someday....!

Thing 12: Rollyo and Onward Ho!!

Wow! I can't believe it has been two whole weeks since I've had a moment to work with 23 Things. Well, to be honest, I've looked at Rollyo several times in the past 2 weeks and I think I've hit a mental block.

I just don't see the point! I have favorite sites that I like to search, but I don't necessarily have multiple favorite sites that I use to search for the same thing. If I want to see what's out there on a number of sites, I search using my [current] favorite search engine, Google. If I want to see if results are different using another search engine, I search using my all-time-favorite, been-around-for-ever, already-available, Rollyo-esque mega-search engine, Dogpile.

To be fair, I actually tried to create one, went through the whole process, found, cut, and pasted about a half-dozen urls, hit the "Create" button and ... nada! For some reason, it didn't take. So, the feeling is mutual and I'm outta there!

Thing 11: LibraryThing

This is really very cool, though I was really surprised at the quality (or, should I say, lack of quality) of some of the records available. I did change from Amazon to the Washington, DC consortium as a source for records, which did seem to help. So far I've only listed a few titles from my collection that I could remember off the top of my head, but I'm looking forward to adding more from home. My "standard blog widget" is in the sidebar.

Thing 10: Image Generator

I played around with Yahoo and Meez and took a look at SpeechAgent. SpeechAgent is interesting for future reference, but I didn't feel like going there this evening. Yahoo didn't have as many choices as Meez, so I decided to generate and image using Meez. The results are in the sidebar. I like to go to the movies a lot. My Meez regret is that I couldn't find popcorn to hold onto and eat. After all, what's a night at the movies without popcorn?

Think 9: MERLIN and Feed Finders

I got so caught up in reviewing and using the various Feed Finders (aka RSS "search tools"), that I almost forgot to set up the RSS feed for MERLIN. After all that time and searching using a variety of subject terms in each of the FFs, I'm not sure that I find them all that different or that I prefer one over the other. To be honest, I think that the Search function on Bloglines is just as good, for my purposes, as any of the rest. I did find some interesting stuff and, though I doubt I'll really be able to look at most of it every singe day, it will be nice to have something to glance at when I have a spare moment to relax and catch up.

Thing 8: RSS Feeds and Bloglines

Well, despite the fact that I really didn't want to create yet another account in another product (I think this particular rant will be a recurring theme), I have created a Bloglines account and very quickly added some feeds. Actually, it was very easy to added 5 right off the bat by choosing the "Booklover" [sic] group that automatically signed me up for various feeds that had book-related content. Cool! I also choose several links in the "Popular" column--who could resist a regular feed of Daily Show Videos care of Comedy Central? Anyway, this is the link to my blogroll:
http://www.bloglines.com/public/D0bebb0bie

Thing 7: All Things Technological

Actually, despite my little rant for Thing 6, I've really been finding the whole 23 Things thang a bit of fun. I haven't done that much so far, but I've had a great time exploring the wild array of free stuff there is on the Internet which to play and work. It has been a topic of conversation among my friends, many of whom work in "tech" jobs yet seem oblivious to what's "out there" and many of whom have very non-technology-based careers/lives yet run internationally-renowned websites and usergroups, or write very savvy blogs, etc.

About the same time I started this program, I bought my first digital camera. I used to do a lot of photography and was actually fairly good at it--even did it professionally! But for years, I've despaired of lugging around my professional-grade camera, macro-zoom lens, filters, blah, blah, blah and had pretty much resorted to picking up the little cardboard numbers that I could use to capture a moment, but not much else. My first outing with my new camera was a friend's birthday party at Gadsby's Tavern (dinner) and the Tavern Museum (dancing). My 23-Things experience with Flickr and Picasa gave me the impetus to make an appointment with the Mac Genius, where I learned how to share the pictures I took at the party, using my .Mac account.

Thing 6: Flickr Mashups, etc.

Ya know... I spent a goodly number of hours foolin' around with these last week and, frankly, I'm sorta unimpressed. Oh sure, there are gobs of cool and fun "tools" out there--especially those designed by FD--but, seriously, I actually have a life!! While I did take some time to check out the "posters" created on LolCat Generator (see below), I really don't need to whittle away the hours finding every single picture on Flickr that contains that particular color of yellow that matches a skirt I own or making Andy-Warhol-like posters with pictures of myself using the Warholizer.