Thing 16

I must be getting old. Not only do I not find this all that interesting, I'm not sure I see the connection to Web or Library 2.0. I will admit that, as a public librarian, this kind of assignment helper is somewhat less relevant to me than it would be to an academic librarian, especially those teaching bibliographic instruction classes. But we get a LOT of students needing help with writing papers, albeit mostly of the "where can I find information on this topic?" or "how do I cite this resource" nature. I guess that I can see keeping this in mind as one alternative to Turabian, et al., but except for remote users, I don't see a clear advantage to either of these tools.

Thing 15, part 2--Second Life

I looked at the YouTube video, as well as several other of the listed resources, on Second Life. I have to say I still don't get it. Oh, I understand the idea that it's a way to exercise one's creativity, and that it's possible to create venues for online communication and training opportunities for people from all over. But what I don't get is the whole creation of avatars to represent individuals and of virtual locations in which this communication and training can take place. It seems to me that the types of "serious" uses of Second Life described in some of the resources can be accomplished in other,less time- and technology-intensive ways. I admit that some of the images that I saw were really beautiful, and showed a lot of creativity, but ultimately the question is, to what end? Since I'm more of a gomer than a gamer, maybe it's just me, but I just don't get it.<em>

Thing 15, part 1

OK, so I just spent (wasted) about an hour playing Pirate Puzzles, and I have to say, I still don't see the allure. Granted that this particular game is free, and thus pretty primitive, but other than figuring out the keyboard commands for the various puzzles, it doesn't hold much of a challenge. I can't claim to know how the multi-player part of it works, but based on what I have seen, don't really care how the multi-player part of it works.
I know I keep saying this, but tomorrow I intend to watch the Second Life video, but don't hold out much hope that I'll be enthralled enough to actually investigate further. I know I should reserve judgement until I've actually looked at it, but everything i've heard and/or read about it leads me to believe that it's nothing I'm interested in using. However, as I've said before, it is important to know enough about it to, not only know that I'm not interested in it personally, but also to know why others are. So I'll watch the video, and hopefully understand something about it. I'll post the results as soon as I watch.

ok, maybe not so soon

I'm still trying to get myself back on track with this since returning from vacation, but with one thing and another, I haven't. Maybe tomorrow. No, I really mean it this time. Really. Although, the fact that I'm taking so long to do the gaming one may be some indication of the relative importance gaming has in my life. But I do recognize that it has a place in libraries, and that I do need to familiarize myself with the games that our patrons are using. That doesn't mean that I envision myself as a gamer or even a potential gamer (I'm actually closer to a gomer, if you want to know the truth), but I really do want to play a little to seee what the online gaming world is all about. Maybe tomorrow--or did I already say that?

I'm back, and i didn't think about gaming once...

The Mike and Ike's were purchased, the bathrooms were cleaned, the trip was fabulous, and still I didn't do Thing 15--maybe tomorrow. Or maybe not, but soon.

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.