Suchy's 23 Sticks

I forgot to put a blog post about being finished with More Things on a Stick. I'm finished! And just under the deadline, too. Whew!

I think I liked this thing more than 23 Things on a Stick, just because I was introduced to more things here that I either knew about and didn't really use or that I didn't know about. I'm a big social web user, so the first 23 Things weren't new to me, but some of this stuff was.

I am still not a Twitter convert, though. I just don't like it. 140 characters only? I must be getting old to say this, but I'm just not into the quickest, short thoughts, like texting. I don't text often and to me Twitter is just texting online. I can't say I dig it. But, who knows, maybe I soon will?

Thanks so much for taking the economy and making it a Thing. A person could do that with almost anything since there are so many different social web tools available, so having that as one of the Things really reinforced that idea for me.

Last year I said 23 Things on a Stick was better than a deep fried twinkie on a hot summer ferris wheel ride, hence the MN state fair's on-a-stick craze. And, on a completely different tangent, this year I may have to try the frydog on-a-stick (hotdogs covered in french fries and deep fried), or what some may call heart-attack-on-a-stick:

Doesn't it look delicious? Check out the full story at TwinCities.com.

Anyhoo, back to my original train of thought. I don't know if I can beat last year's better-than-a-deep-fried-twinkie statement, but let me try.

More Things on a Stick was better than chocolate. Now, you may think that doesn't really mean much, but if you knew how much of a chocoholic I am, then you'd know! And, thanks to hulu, you can even watch Chocolate Television online, like this story about Kama Sutra chocolates...not for the faint of heart. ;) (Not really, but the title sure is suggestive, but no worries, the content is not).



Thanks, More Things! I look forward to the next multitype training, whatever that may be!

I've been a member of WJMN for awhile now, they even included me in their little Spotlight pieces once. I like that WJMN is there, and this summer I'm going to start taking my first class from them! I wanted to start last semester, but I just got so busy. I really need a class on Photoshop, so I'm so glad to see they offer so many. I hope to start digging into the class next week, actually!

WJMN is really nice, but I sadly admit that I kind of forget it's there. When I'm searching for library-related issues and I want to see what other librarians have done, there are so many people sharing so many wonderful things in WJMN butI forget about. I'm going to have to start putting it as more of a presence on my browser.

I can't think of other things WJMN can host. I really love that they have all these courses for us to take and I love the social networking piece of it, too. I guess when I think of something that I'd like to see incorporated into it I'll be vocal about it, but I just can't think of anything right now.

Wait, is there a WJMN blog? I'd read their blog to keep more up-to-date about it...I don't see one...am I missing it??

So, for this Thing, I went in and found a couple other librarians to friend in WJMN, I scoped out the course I want to start taking, and I posted another message on a message board. I also checked out the events calendar and I see something hosted by WJMN that I'd love to go to but I'm out of town on the day it's being held, but I'm sure I'll find something else on the events calendar that I can soon attend. I'm all for WJMN and I promise to do more in there!

I think cloud computing is a trend that is going to continue and will probably just be the norm soon...and I think that's a good thing.

Honestly, though, I really don't do cloud computing so much right now. Sure, I can access my bookmarks anywhere and I love that, and I can see my RSS feeds anywhere, and I've used things like SlideShare to have slide shows easily accessible, but I haven't yet uploaded my documents to Google Docs to have them accessible anywhere, but I do see that in my near future. Also, once they make a good online storage site for music and videos (DRM free) I would pay to have all my music and videos stored somewhere, too.

Accessibility is really the key to cloud computing, and the more you can access things from any computer, the more likely you are to use them. I just see this as a trend that's going to continue, and I think some people will think that this is just how things are. Take my students, for example. On any campus computer they can access their M: Drive, which is the drive they store all their documents to. We do have four public computers in each of our libraries, and on the public computers we only have the Internet available, not the M: Drive. Students are floored when they sit down at those computers and don't understand why they can't access our M: Drive. I think having documents at their fingertips wherever they are is something they are more used to so we should start getting used to that, too, if we aren't already.

I suppose there are disadvantages, for instance how much do you want one service, like Google, knowing about you? Or, my dream of having a good place to store my music and videos, what if that place starts raising the price or goes out of business, then what? We can all see by just even doing 23 Things or More Things that a lot of these web-based tools go away, so should we really put all of our items in one thing, hoping it will always be there?

In this Thing, there are a lot of tools to help save money, make money, manage money, etc. I checked out a bunch of them, so I suppose I'll just go down the list.

FuelEconomy.gov was cool, though my exact car wasn't listed, but I found one close to it. If anyone wants to research their car, this is a great place to start.

Erideshare is also a great way to find carpools in your area. I would tell anyone of this site, but warn them just like anything to be smart when contacting people they don't know online.

RetailMeNot and FatWallet are really cool. Whenever I shop online I always search for coupon codes online before I checkout, and I usually can find them. Almost every store has coupon codes for shopping online, so it's silly not to try searching. Thanks for giving me a couple more places to find things like this!

One thing I'm going to really use from this section is a tip from the frugal dad offering 75 money saving tips page. He mentions a website where you can get paid to take online surveys, and he says he's been a member of the one he lists for over a year and it isn't a scam. Most of them are so I haven't tried that, but since he says this one isn't I'm totally going to sign up and start doing that. It's worth a shot!

These are all really great things and I'm going to show this wiki post to anyone who has questions about things they can do in this economy. Woo-hoo, More Things!!

I have watched TV and videos online for years, through all the services you mention, but also through many others you haven't talked about...you know, the services that are out there that let you watch streaming television shows on your computer from cable channels like HBO and Showtime. Those other sites.

I think HBO and Showtime and other paid cable channels need to get on the bandwagon and allow their shows to be freely accessible online so they wouldn't have to worry about these other sites. I think they'd still get their revenue through all the ads that they could have. ABC's Full Episode Player won awards for being so good, and it is really good. I've used it successfully on many different types and speeds of computers and it hasn't let me down yet. Every time there would be a commercial break in the show on TV there is one in the Full Episode Player (albeit a shorter one). The cable channels could really do this same thing, and I think without losing their base.

I have many friends who watch TV online like this and also subscribe to the cable channels because, let's face it, watching something on a bigger TV with better sound is just always better than watching it on a computer. My friends only use these other sources when they missed the show on TV or they forgot to set their DVR to record it.

People like me use these sites because I wouldn't pay to have HBO or Showtime in my house anyway. If there's a show I really want to watch and it's not available online I rent the DVDs. I still sometimes rent the DVDs even after I watch the episodes online. Making the episodes freely online would only bring a larger audience, in my opinion, and that larger audience may be more apt to rent or buy the DVDs in the future, right?

That's just my little rant about online TV, so I'll stop now, but I will say that I love it. I think TV watching is going to go to a more online format like this, so the industry needs to figure out a way to make it successful, and ad revenue is just one way.

And, since you said to embed something, I searched for my favorite band, Green Day, and found the little thing they did in The Simpsons Movie. How cute!



As for how I could use this in the library, I think it's a great thing to show students. Besides fun things (like my Simpsons movie clip) there are also informative things here that students could use and that teachers should be showing them. I don't think teachers know a lot about these things, so maybe I should alert them to things like this more often.

I have loved Pandora for years! Surprisingly, I don't have too many radio stations in there, though. I think I only have about 10 stations, and the reason for that is that I have combined stations over the years. Patty Griffin can easily be compared to the Dixie Chicks (since they sang some of her songs anyway) and Miranda Lambert could be grouped into that crowd along with Jonatha Brooke and Rachael Yamagata, so over the years my radio stations have become more compact.

As for whether or not Internet radio will take over broadcast, I'm not sure. I definitely never turn on the radio in my house because I use the Internet radio instead, but in the car I still use broadcast...unless of course I turn on Pandora on my iPhone. Hmmm...

It probably will take over broadcast radio, but I don't think broadcast radio will go away, but it may just change. I'm not sure what it will change into, but I just don't see it going away. I see it going maybe more underground and people may produce funky underground radio stations, though I suppose they could do this online, too. Hmmm...

Good question, More Things! I just don't really know the answer. The Internet is changing how we do so many things, so maybe this will change how we listen to the radio?

One of my favorite radio stations in Pandora is my Santa Baby Station full of the good old time Christmas songs. It's a staple during the Christmas season for me.

Thing 41 asks us to try a service where we could add all our web2.0 services together to keep on top of them better. I don't think this is right for me.

I've known about FriendFeed and Lifestream for awhile now and maybe that's all I need to know for now. I think the great thing about this 23 Things and More Things program is that it reminds me of why someone would want to use some of these things, and it refreshes my memory that these things are out there if I do get questioned about this, but it doesn't mean I have to use all of these things.

I don't think I use too many tools (though some could argue with me) and I am still fine going directly to the site to use them. However, when it does get to be too much to manage, this is a great way to keep on track of them all. My Bloglines account made going to multiple websites for information so much easier, so the more and more I get into these things the more I can see how this could be helpful.

There are some really great mashups out there, and since you mentioned Spell with Flickr (one of my favorites), I couldn't resist:



As for some of the other mashups, I'm so excited to start playing!

Well, I'd like to say the BookTour Mashup for Google Earth is great, but it was so hard to use. It looked like they had our author visit with The Night Birds author Thomas Maltman on the big map, but when I downloaded it I couldn't find it. I wanted it to just highlight author speaking engagements from Minnesota for the next few months and there is no way to do that. It was really difficult to use so I'm not a fan of that one. With improvements it'd be great! (Or maybe I just don't know how to use it well? I don't really use Google Earth all that much.)

LazyLibrary is definitely something I need to send my sister's way. She always complains about the length of books, so that one she will make great use of. Too funny that someone actually made that! (I can see how it would be useful for my students, too, so I'll definitely bookmark that one in delicious.)

Some of the other mashups didn't work the best for me. Wheel of Food is a fun one, but it didn't have all the restaurants on it and hardly any of them were listed for "supper." It didn't like the word "dinner." CrimeReports didn't have anything listed in my town for the last 30 days. Now, I'd like to think that was a sign that no crime happened in the last 30 days, but I know that's not true. Maybe these mashups work better in larger cities but not so much in the smaller ones?

I do scrapbook my vacations, though I'm really behind doing so. Scrapbooking takes a lot of time, and when you go on a two-week vacation to different countries you can bet you take a lot of photos.

This idea of digital scrapbooking is really interesting, though not as nice as regular scrapbooks, in my opinion, however easier to share. My favorite site in this Thing is Scrapblog where you can actually create and host your scrapbook online. A lot of the items under the Resources section of Thing 39 look like templates you can use and download to create your scrapbook and then save it and print it out or email it, but I like the idea of it being hosted somewhere.

So, in Scrapblog, a lot of the items I really wanted to use you had to have "credits" for, and it said you had to log in to purchase credits. So, I didn't use exactly what I wanted, but there were free things available and I made due. I didn't really go to town on the scrapbook, but I can see how you could use it for something. Here's a scrapbook page I made for our Edible Book Festival:

If I really wanted to make a big scrapbook with these pictures I would do more, but I get the picture on this one. I just wish they had more free things, but since they don't then maybe using the items under the Resource section would be better for me. I could then go and find different things I like and put them all together myself?

I can see how this could be useful. If I wanted to make a big advertisement of any event we had, the digital scrapbooks could really jazz it up. I can see this in personal use, too, though I still do like doing all the pasting and gluing and sticking on the old fashioned acid-free paper. But, this sure is quicker. Maybe I'll change my mind on that someday. :)

I have used Captivate and SnagIt for a couple years now. I want to update and create more tutorials over the summer, but for some reason my Captivate doesn't work anymore. I even reinstalled it and nothing. The IT department doesn't support it, it was just bought by the library for me to use, so I'm kind of stuck. They did tell me to try a few things, which I haven't had a chance to do yet, and they will help me try to trouble shoot as best they can, but we shall see.

I've used Jing just to try it out, but I haven't attempted to make anything for work since I have Captivate. But, maybe I will have to use Jing if Captivate just won't work anymore for me.

I've never heard of Skitch, but I watched the video and it looks awesome! My computer at home is a Mac so I'm going to have to download and use that.

All of these tools can be useful in libraries for tutorials or for e-reference questions. Jing is probably the most useful in terms of e-reference questions. If I'm trying to explain to someone in Meebo how to do something, it would just be so quick and easy to quickly use Jing, have them host the video and get a link from them to quickly pass off to the patrons. Brilliant! I was thinking about that last semester but I didn't really come across a time to try it, so I hope to try it and get feedback sometime.