Envision, Encourage, Experience

I admit it - I love gadgets! Tech gadgets. Kitchen gadgets. All kinds of gadgets.

This weekend I read again about a new tech gadget that takes the place of a business card… Poken! At the PokenZoo you can see all the critters they offer. These critters “talk” to each other by touching the hand-like icon on one to the hand-like icon on another. Instantly it transfers the data, the digital business card you created with all kinds of information about you. You can have several accounts (I think 3) so you could have a work contacts or casual contacts. I see it as being great at conferences! I hate having all those business cards to keep track of. With this, I envision being able to download the info, hopefully a picture also, and then being able to add my notes to make it more relevant in the future.  Of course the website notes more fun environments — when you go clubbing, at parties, reunions, as well as the more traditional (business) meetings.

I know I am going to get one, and soon. I have a conference in January I would like to take it to, just in case someone else has one. I just can’t decide on the green or pink alien, or the pink geisha, or perhaps I should be more practical and get the flash drive. Mmmm, decisions, decisions.

Let me know if you have been poked!

I don’t whine about Tucson’s weather much, unless it is during the months of July and August, when it gets to be about 110 degrees and 70% humidity. Then I wonder how brain cells I have fried in our heat to still be living here.

Today is one of those days you love about Tucson - and since it is in May, well that makes it all the better. It is under 80 degrees, there is a cool breeze and it is sunny. Gosh I love it. The only thing I can think to whine about is that I am stuck inside at work. Only when I go from building to building to drop off paperwork do I get to enjoy it.

But Tucson weather is fickle, and I don’t expect this to last too many more days. Our forecast is for the mid 90’s again by the beginning of next week. And this week has been crazy. Monday we broke a record for daily high temp of 102. Yesterday (thursday), we broke it for daily low temp of 68. Plus it has rained for the past 3 days - nothing really heavy, but steady for the middle 24 hours. I have lived in Tucson for 26 years and I can’t remember it raining in May, but I have been told it has. But to show it how little we get, yesterday’s rain of 0.53 inch broke the daily record of 0.21 inch set in 1920. Normal rainfall for the entire month of May averages just 0.24 inch. (Az Daily Star)

So, I will try not to think anymore about the wonderful weather outside, while I work on bibliographic stats inside. Tomorrow I am off and I will have to find something outside to do (versus the laundry I had planned). In fact, I think I will try and be outside all weekend, since it is a long weekend.

To everyone…have a great Memorial Day weekend!

I was introduced to bubbl.us today and I LOVE it! It’s logo is “brainstorming made simple” and it is. It allows you to make mind maps. From a single ‘bubble’ you can add additional thoughts, organize thoughts by moving them to different bubbles, and so on. It is very easy to use. I can see this being a great tool for those of use working on papers (aka: dissertations) and well as in the classroom.

Another app I have come to love is box.net , which allows for file sharing over the web. For instance, I added box.net to my home page for work and now I just add my powerpoints and handouts to it. When I doing my bibliographic instruction and the instuctor asks for a copy of the powerpoint or handout, I just direct them to my web page and they can download the document on their computer. (Some instructors like to post the powerpoints to the class’s web page, for those that were missing or for a tutorial later in the semester.) Besides being so easy to use, I also like the fact that it is not taking up memory space on my homepage.

What are some of your favorite Web 2.0 apps?

Sometimes nature’s beauty just takes your breath away … Hubble’s Greatest Hits

As a librarian I am expected to know copyright law to assist faculty and students. Rarely am I asked about International copyright laws, so when I saw this International Copyright quiz, I had to take it. It is short, with the answers at the bottom.

The college I work at, Pima Community College, has a great resource for faculty on copyright and fair use. It is designed for our faculty, but it can be used by any educator. It is very concise and easy to read. (Just be aware that this is how our institution interprets copyright and fair use, your institution may interpret differently.)

I realized today that there are only 2 times a year that I really do nothing. One is for the Rose Bowl parade and the other is for March Madness. Before I started my doctoral work, every Rose Bowl parade I would sit in front of the TV and bind a quilt. I always made sure I had a quilt to bind. It was a great motivator to get a quilt done and quilted so it could be basted. It was also special because we are a one TV family. Always have been, even with the boys growing up. So for me to have total control of the TV for just my show, was great!

During March Madness I don’t have to commandeer the  TV. We are a college basketball family. Everyone does the brackets; first on paper and now online, which works well because one son lives in Hawaii. During the first weekend, nothing gets done. Well, the laundry and some swiffering (we now have a shar pai that is shedding in drifts) - but food is carried in or we go through out leftovers. Next weekend will be similar, although there will probably be time for more errands. Luckily for me, the first weekend is at the end of my spring break so I have all week to get things done. (As a student at the UA and now an employee at Pima, I think it is great that they have always planned it this way. Thanks!) Well, the games are over for now. Tomorrow I go back to work, and a busy week it will be.

With the UA winning and now heading to Indianapolis for the Sweet 16, all is right with the world. Go Cats!

I am a big Dreamworks Animation fan - I think I have seen every one of one their movies. The same goes for Pixar - between the two we probably own 90% of their animated movies!! Pixar’s movie Bolt

, had some of the best animation (parts looked so realistic - more like pics than drawings)! I grew up on Disney - Snow White being the first animation I remember seeing. Today’s kids have even better quality to view. I admit my undergrad is a BFA, but that just means I hold them to a higher standard, which they both continually meet and exceed.

However, I just found this online - Bank of America is doing a promotion of Monsters vs Aliens…for some reason. Actually apparently it has to do with Bank of America’s former VP & CFO who is now President at Dreamworks, B of A is giving out coupons that can be redeem. (See Nikke Fink’s blog entry Whaaaaat? Bailed out Bank of America Paying Consumers to see Hollywood film) With the coupon you  download, you can get the 3-D glasses for free (versus $2-$5 at theaters). While I don’t normally promote something like this, my feeling is B of A received bailout money and now they are doing movie promos!? - maybe it doesn’t make my head hurt like the bonuses (which actually were a contractual obligation), but still, why should a bank that supposedly needed assistance from the government voluntarily be promoting a movie.

I guess the B of A promotion in intended for only their customers (wait… I believe some of the nickels they received were mine!), but the online promotion doesn’t really verify if you are or not; you just check a box. It’s up to you, if you are not a B of A customer, whether you go for the promotion or not.

I am looking forward to going - I have never seen an entire movie in 3-d. I really liked Chuck in 3-D and have watched it at least 4 times.  (When the girl throws the knife, I still duck!)  One thing I have learned, that I must have my glasses on for the 3-D effect to work. The first time, I had taken them off, as my eyes were tired and I didn’t really experience it. When I rewatched it, with the glasses on - whoa!!

I have been reading so much lately, and so many things get me fired up, that I have no where near enough time to do all that I want. And the more I read, the more resources I find that there is no way I can read everything I want to  or feel I need to.

I am in my dissertation process - so I read about that. I also have been meeting with colleagues and discussing library web pages, social networking and Web 2.0. While this is not necessarily part of my official duties at work, I believe it is contributing to it as I stay fresh and current in issues.

I never knew what to call that time until I read an article in the February 1, 2009 issue of Library Journal. The article, The Start-Up Librarian, written by Kyle Jones talks about giving librarians time to innovative work that interests them.  He talks about how Google has done that and they have reaped the rewards in not only more community involvement, but also with the design of things like Google Reader and Gmail.

This 20% concept is not new I am sure, but it is a novel concept. I think it is great and if I was in a position of authority I would definitely encourage it. However, I am not. Yet. In the meantime, I will use my 20% to read more articles on the fringe and on emerging technologies so that I will be ready when the institution I work for is ready for me!

Well, I have been home 4 days and I am still not caught up on my sleep (got home around 5 am on Monday and had to be at work by noon), but sometimes you get caught up in stuff and you don’t realize it until you look at the clock which I just did.

Just wanted to pass along a blog entry - When you Aren’t  Collaborating, is the Wiki still useful? It is on the Future Changes blog - a great blog on wikis. Most topics have to do with wikis in the workplace, but I have found the info to valuable in the education field.

I am a wiki person. Some friends call me the Wiki Queen because I am a HUGE evangelist of wikis, plus I have about 13 of them for various projects. (Some were used for classes at Pepperdine so they are inactive at this time.) I even use a wiki for my personal webpage.  Which is what the blog posting is saying — wikis are great for collaborative work, but also for solo projects. It mentions “capturing research notes”, which is what I did during my coursework period at Pepperdine. All my notes on the (most) of the books I read are there. When I had to write my comps paper, it was so easy to find the quotes and information I needed. And it was everywhere I was. When I wrote at work during my lunch period, I just pulled up the wiki and there were my notes. I LOVED IT!!!

I am currently teaching at class through the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay for PODetc . It is called Survey of Emerging Technology and in the final module we create a wiki. For this course I am having them set it up for the beginning of a digital portfolio. This is another great use for a wiki!

Gosh I love wikis!!

I have always said, “in my next life I want to come back as a food critic.” What a great job - being paid to eat wonderful meals at restaurants. I rarely ate out as a kid, and in our early years of marriage, we had kids fairly quickly, so eating out was a luxury saved for when people came to visit us. (I also thought I should volunteer my services to be a food critic - looking at family friendly restaurants, but I never seemed to have the time to do that with four boys running around.)

Now the boys are grown and we eat out more. And when we travel, I love to try the local foods. We tend to eat where the locals do - mom & pop places, small restaurants, side of the road, and we are rarely let down. Kaua’i is no different.

At the Kilohana luau, we had kalua pork which was so tender and juicy. I also had coconut ratatouille,  taro rolls (made from taro root) with passion fruit butter. I can say I tried poi (with my mahi mahi), but … well, I can say I tried it. At the Oki diner I tried loco moco for the first time. (I also had it today for breakfast.)  Yesterday, coming back from the northside, we stopped at a roadside stand and bought some huli huli chicken. (Which I am told is just BBQ chicken, but it tasted so good and had a different flavor than any chicken I had before.) We’ve had some specialty burgers,  kabobs, fresh fruit, and oh, to help wash it down a Mai Tai or two.

Everything has been so good. I have to admit there is one thing I have not tried - spam. Spam is very popular here and appears on most menus. Costco even has a couple of hawaiian cookbooks that feature the “delicacy.”

We still have a week here, so I am looking forward to many more meals. I am not sure about you, but my mouth is watering. I wonder where we are going for supper!