At long last, Thing 23

Yippee!! I'm finally done. And I'm really glad I kept going. This was a really interesting, albeit frustrating, set of experiences. I'm pretty sure that I won't ever think about, much less use, many of these things. But it's really nice to know the language that our users are coming to us with, and to be acquainted with the types of technologies they're using. I'll probably try to keep up my Facebook account, and my Good Reads account, but we'll see if my resolve lasts past the end of the week. Not sure if the Blog will continue or not. Thanks to Metronet, etc. for sponsoring this, and I'm looking forward to more Things in my future.

Thing 22--keeping up

I've been following some of the suggested blogs for some time in my Bloglines account, especially Tame the Web by the extremely voluble Michael Stephens, and Library Trainer by Lori Reed of the Charlotte/Mecklenburg County Public Library, which deals specifically with training around Library 2.0 and Web 2.0, along with things like the LJ Insider, and several from various parts of ALA, and of course the Minitex Reference Services one. I've now subscribed to Library Stuff as a way to keep up with more general library news. We'll see if I can keep up with that one any better than I can with Michael or Stephen Abrams.
Almost done!!

Thing 21--other social networks

If I spent as much time exploring these other social networks as I'd like, I wouldn't have time to actually have a life worth revealing to my friends on these other social networks. Ah, the irony! Of course, I'm not sure that even without spending any time at all on the social networks would mean that I'd have a life worth revealing to my friends on the social networks. That being said, I played with the Good Reads site, and think I like it better than LibraryThing. I thought I linked it to my Facebook page as a list of what I'd read, but I couldn't find it, so I'll have to try again. I also played with Gather.com--especially the MPR version of it, and linked to Flixter to check how "movie compatible" I am with some of my facebook friends. I'm thinking the only one that I might keep up with is the Good Reads listing of what I've read, but that would involve trying to remeber to go in and update my list every week or so, which, given my advancing years and retreating memory, might be a stretch.
On to 22.

Thing 20--Facebook

Well, I set up my Facebook account, and within 2 hours, I had invites to be friends with 5 people, and now, three days later, I've got 14 friends (more than might admit to it in real life). Although I have to admit that my daughter is a reluctant friend--she'd rather I didn't snoop in her account, and really, I'd rather not know most of what she's writing about. I can see the utility of this for far-flung friends like my daughter's now-dispersed college crowd, but since I see most of my "friends" on almost a daily basis, I'm not sure how much I'll use it. The other reason I may not is that it will remind me all the more forcefully just how dull and boring my life really is. And since it's dull and boring to me, imagine how dull and boring it'll seem to those who have chosen to befriend me. It may be their lives will seem all the more rich and fulfilling in comparison. In which case, I guess that it does have some utility after all.
I'll probably spend some time exploring the site and the add ons over the next couple of weeks. I did join the Libraries and Librarian and the ALA groups today, and will watch to see what happens with those. I'm also intrigued by the photo sharing possibilities, and will think about how I might load my Europe pictures to share them with those who have expressed interest in seeing them. But as I said, they'll probably be surprised at how dull and boring Europe can seem when seen through my eyes and camera lens.
Only three more. I'm gonna make it after all. (I wonder if I can find a sound clip of that line from the Mary Tyler Moore theme song. More than likely. But I'm gonna go home instead.) On to 21