I had planned to be done by now!

I was hoping that I'd finish my 23rd thing by the time I left for my vacation, but what with one thing and another, both at home and at work, I didn't. I might be able to work on Thing 15 at home before I fly off the Paris on Tuesday, but I'm also not packed or fully equiped with clothes and toiletries and plane snacks. If it's a choice between learning about gaming and buying Mike and Ike's, the gaming will probably lose every time. On the other hand, if it's a choice between learning about gaming and cleaning the bathrooms (another thing on my to-do list)I know which one I'd pick, but if I hope for congenial relations during the trip, I'd better do the bathrooms. However, I'm sure that the "things" will be uppermost on my mind as I'm wandering the streets of Paris, Rome, and Florence, etc., so I'll blog all about that when I'm back.

Librarything--Thing 14

I'm thinking that this is one that I might actually use on a regular basis. For a long time I've wanted to figure out a way to keep track of all the series I'm reading. I'm anal enough that I NEED to read them in order, and when there's a lot of titles in the series, it's sometimes hard to remember where I am. So I'm thinking I cound use Librarything to keep track of the ones I've read. The one problem is that I've got to figure out a way to be able to list the titles that I've read in each individual series in order. I'll work on that. In the meantime, I'll explore the other features, such as the reviews, etc. I'm also still trying to figure out why i can't import stuff into this blog. The latest failure is the Librarything widget. I'm going to keep working on that also. But, first it's on to Thing 15.

Thing 13, part 2

What I meant to add to my last post is that I've tried online calendaring before with an Outlook calendar, and, because I'm not as tied to my computer as others are, it was difficult for me to keep it up in any organized way. One of the lessons I'm taking away from all of these tools is that unless an individual was organized prior to the appearance of these Web tools, all of online tools will not help someone to get organized. Or maybe it's just that I'm not all that interested in being that organized. I can see the allure of the group calendaring function for those who need to schedule meetings, and I've looked with interest at online reference desk scheduling programs; but for the type of scheduling I do for me as an individual, my little pocket calendar that I bought for $2.00 at WalMart does what I need it to. And it comes with me wherever I go.

Thing 13

I think I've figured out why I'm not really interested in these so-called productivity tools. In order for them to really help improve my productivity, they would have to help me organize or streamline activities which I am already undertaking. If I had, for example, a dozen or more web sites that I routinely checked for updates, having a site like PageFlakes organize them on my homepage would be very useful. That's what Bloglines does for the blogs that I follow. However, and this is a BIG however, I don't have that pre-existing set of sites to watch, so anything I do with one of these tools is extra work, and I'm just not that interested in keeping up with a bunch of specific sites.
That being said, I did create a PageFlakes page for myself, and put a bunch of stuff on it that I probably won't be able to keep up with. I'd make it my home page on the computer on my desk at work, but there are some days when I never log it on, and I can see the stuff piling up, much like posts from "Stephen's Lighthouse" does on my Bloglines account.
I tried to put a countdown to my vacation to Europe widget here, but the code wouldn't transfer right. I'm not sure if it's not working because it's not working, or because I'm incompetent--"the nut behind the wheel" as my father-in-law puts it. I'd like to believe that it's the former, but it's probably the latter. Oh well. On to Thing 14.

Thing 12--I'm halfway there!

Coincidental to looking at the sites related to this thing, I was watching Almanac on Friday night, when they had a guest talking about the consolidation of broadcast and print media and how that meant that the audiences did not hear about lots and lots of stories, important or otherwise, because of it.  The guest was representing an organization that is trying to use the web to counteract that tendency.  It's an important issue, I know.  But, that being said, I don't think I'm willing to spend the time to become my own editor.  I want someone to distill the events of the day me and tell me what I need to know.  Admittedly, that's not necessarily what the mainstream media is doing, what with its fascination with Brittany, et al, but that's what the hoi polloi seem to want, so that's what we all get.  But the blogosphere  doesn't really do what I'm asking either, and the question arises about who's news selections I should trust.  So I don't think I'll be using any of these services; both because i don't have time, and because I'm a little too lazy.  And so on to Thing 13.