Jaxcat gadget

Well, I added it. Not sure why I want it on my blog but whatever. I do see how it could be useful to us if other places, companies, etc had it on their website, but how do you convince everybody they need it on their website?

Snowglobe generator

This is one of those Urbismus oatmeal paste paintings on the side of a building. I used it b/c I thought it already looked as though the people were trekking through the snow.

This was fun. As always I love any of the image generators. Here is the link to the actual generator: http://www.glassgiant.com/snowglobes/

Library Thing

I have dutifully added Library Thing to my blog. However, I have no intention of using it as I've been using Shelfari now for awhile and I really like it. They seem pretty similar and since I already have Shelfari and have an established bunch of friends on that, I'll stick with that. Here's the link to my Library Thing page: http://www.librarything.com/catalog.php?view=alishal

RSS Feeds - part 2

I'm not really sure what exactly I'm supposed to be doing different for the 2nd part than I did for the first - but I did find just using the seach box in bloglines as the most efficient search method for me.
I found a site I probably actually will use called The Planet Esme Plan: Best New Children's Books From Esme. I'm always looking for ways to find new books for my children and Esme is the Esme from the book Educating Esme, which I was have read and so was familiar with. Anyway so I added that to my feed.

RRS Feeds

Arrrgggghhhhhhh! This almost drove me insane. I hate things that ask for your username when you know full well you did not put in a username because all it asked for was your email address and a password. That one only took me half an hour to figure out.

I can see how this would be useful to people who go to the same news sites and read every single day. For someone like me, who 'remembers' to read the news like once a week, its really going to pile up and get annoying. Its one of those things where I can see the use for it, but I won't ever really use it myself. Anyway, here is the link to mine: http://www.bloglines.com/public/alishal

Technology or what I know of it...

I love technology. I love all the new things you can do with pictures online, I love having email and cell phones and IPODs. I love Shelfari - finally an alternative to dozens of little pieces of paper with book titles I want to read strewn all about. I love Tivo (or whatever its called now). I used to have to watch commercials- - the horror.
I guess what I love so much about technology and why I'm always willing to embrace the newest thing is that I can remember what it was like to not have it. I remember working a job w/o email and I remember when email was only internal like on some company server and it didn't go outside the company. I resisted the whole cell phone thing for ages. In August 1999, I was 7 months pregnant and I had a flat tire. Then I saw the reason for a cell phone! I can remember spending hours and hours making the perfect mixed tape for my car. Now its just click click click and there's the perfect playlist. Technology makes everything easier and it connects people faster. I find it fascinating. Do I understand it? Not really. But I also have never really understood how electricity works or what makes planes stay in the air and I certainly embrace that.
Here is my favorite thing though - maps online. I LOVE mapquest. Every time I travel from branch to branch, I do a mapquest just to see if there are any new roads open or whatever. I would say that I use mapquest at least 3 times a week, which is sort of weird - but its true. (And way more than that if I include using it for customers.) And I love mapmyrun.com to see how far a certain run route is. I love that. You used to have to get in your car and drive the route to see how far you were running. Now you just click on the route and it keeps totaling it up as you keep clicking. Brilliant!
A lot of things about technology are sort of vague and foggy to me though. Like how exactly does html work? I just don't get it. And why won't Outlook let us delete emails that we send? It has to ask permission to recall the email from the person you sent it to. Hello, the whole point is I don't want them to read it. Twitter makes no sense to me. Facebook is very confusing - its all jittery like myspace on redbull or something. And its very hard to keep up with all the new stuff but I guess as librarians, that's our job - and its usually fun -so that works.

Bead This Warholizer

I picked 'Bead This' to use and uploaded a pic of a clematis flower in my backyard. I love all the applications that turn things into drawing or sketch-looking things. It ended up looking a little dark which is surprising b/c the pic itself is v. bright.

I also used the Warholizer on a picture of my son. I really loved how this turned out as it is one of my favorite subjects to photograph and look at. :-)

Hearts in Nature

JPL2
Originally uploaded by grimaceshaped

This is a picture from the photography contest we did in Popular at Main. I had so much fun creating the photo categories, working on the contest, talking with the photographers, publicizing the event, judging the photos, and hosting the opening reception. The entire thing was such an enriching and educational experience.
This particular photo is of the winners from the 'Hearts in Nature' category, which was my favorite. It is amazing how many things form 'hearts' in nature and otherwise. I have found at least 5 perfect hearts in tar splashed on sidewalks and they are everywhere in leaves and flowers. Once you start noticing them, you realize they are everywhere.