Learn + Play 2008

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2009-10-29T20:35:00.001-07:00

Me at work, as you can see, there was lots to do that day :-)

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Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrreeeeeeeeaaaaat! ;-)

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2009-10-29T20:22:00.001-07:00

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My Dewey Section

2008-11-26T09:44:00.000-08:00

Yet again, another one of the interesting "about you" things on Cathy's blog caught my eye. So here is my own dewey decimal section and description:

Jonathan campbell's Dewey Decimal Section:

096 Books notable for illustrations

Jonathan campbell's birthday: 1/11/1985 = 111+1985 = 2096

Class:
000 Computer Science, Information & General Works

Contains:
Encyclopedias, magazines, journals and books with quotations.

What it says about you:
You are very informative and up to date. You're working on living in the here and now, not the past. You go through a lot of changes. When you make a decision you can be very sure of yourself, maybe even stubborn, but your friends appreciate your honesty and resolve.

Find your Dewey Decimal Section at Spacefem.com

Blog Analysis

2008-11-12T11:57:00.000-08:00

Thanks to Cathy and her post about blog analysis, I decided to get mine analyzed and see how I write. So here goes...

According to Typealyzer: I belong to ESTP - The Doers, which means..."The active and play-ful type. They are especially attuned to people and things around them and often full of energy, talking, joking and engaging in physical out-door activities.

The Doers are happiest with action-filled work which craves their full attention and focus. They might be very impulsive and more keen on starting something new than following it through. They might have a problem with sitting still or remaining inactive for any period of time."

According to Gender Analyzer: They are 87% sure my blog is written by a man. Lol, GO genderanalyzer!:-)

According to the Blog Readability Test: My blog is...

TV Reviews

Hahaha, pretty good, eh?;-)

And finally, according to the Business Opportunities Weblog site, my "Genius" status blog is worth exactly $0.00! Lol, well... so much for thinking I had a good thing going here...:-)

Well, lots of fun and a good experience overall! I encourage everyone to get analyzed and see what happens. Take it easy all!

Willing to help!

2008-10-28T12:07:00.000-07:00

I just wanted to put it out there that if anyone needs help with any of the "things" on Learn & Play, I would be very happy to work on it with you! It can be anything that's giving you trouble, big or small, I'll try my best to answer any questions. So, shoot me an e-mail or vocera me, however u want to do it!:-) Good luck all!

Wrapping up Learn & Play 2008

2008-10-27T15:48:00.000-07:00

After so much learning and so much adventure, it is finally time to say goodbye to Learn & Play. It's been fun and I must say, quite an experience becoming familiar with so many new tools on the web. I have no doubt that what I've done will be useful in the future, whether it be for my onw personal use , or if it enables me to help a customer in need.
Of all the things that I will take away from Learn & Play, I think none of them are more important than realizing what you don't know and continuing your journey of lifelong learning through the years:-)

Good to be MOLDI

2008-10-27T11:46:00.000-07:00

And so Learn & Play finally gets back into the realm of things that I actually have heard of before:-) I've heard of and looked at the MOLDI page before and though I didn't actually try to download anything previously, I thought it was a great idea and a pretty cool tool to have.
This time around while looking at the site, I did attempt to check out and download 2 audio books. Neither one of them worked however (I suspect because I'm on a staff pc) but I got the gist of how it should work anyways. I suppose I'll give it a try again at home and see how it works out. But, for better or worse, this has been my experience so far;-)

Podcast (or... downloadable youtube?)

2008-10-22T11:59:00.000-07:00

There are tons of sites for locating and downloading podcasts out there that I discovered. Some of the ones that I liked included podcastalley, podcast.com, and massively.com. All of which seemed to offer a variety of content to download. I've never been one for watching podcasts, though some of my friends are very avid watchers of some of them. So before now I was aware of them but didn't actually have any personal experience with them. Learning more everyday, geeez, will the journey never end?!;-)

Youtube-in

2008-10-22T11:31:00.000-07:00

I love youtube! Though it is not new to me at all, it still continues to amaze me the obscure videos that I can find by searching there. It is especially helpful now during the political season to have a good laugh at some political parodies and pranksters. Another video site that I know of and use every so often is launch.com, which brings music videos to people via yahoo.

Looking into Firefox

2008-10-21T14:52:00.000-07:00

Thing #19 I have decided to do on Firefox, the internet browser. I have used Firefox before so it is not something that is new to me in that sense. But it is not a program that I use often, and I will mostly choose Internet Explorer over it when provided with the choice because that's what i'm used to. However... I will without hesitation admit that firefox has some benificial aspects and features that make it superior to I.E. If it weren't for the fact that old habits die hard, i'd probably be a huge user of firefox, and who knows... maybe someday I'll decide to make the switch;-) No telling what the future holds!

Hello everyone!:-)

2008-10-21T12:58:00.001-07:00

Hello everyone:-)

2008-10-21T12:52:00.001-07:00

Web 2.0 Awards Trial... and eventual success!

2008-10-21T12:20:00.001-07:00

After a failed attempt at working with Juicecaster, I decided to go with another tool on the web 2.0 awards list. So, I looked through and the widgets part caught my eye. I've never worked with widgets before but I know that they're a big thing so I said "Hey, I wanna learn to be a widget worker!". And thus, I created an account and "Bravo!!"...

Not the most original of widget I do understand but, it's a place to start;-) How bout this one?!

I think I'll have the hang of this in no time;-)Until next time all, power to the widgets!

PictureMail

2008-10-21T11:46:00.001-07:00

Well, this is my pretty sad attempt at using juicecaster... this tool is not all around a simple thing to work with. But, as you can see, I was able to display a picture of Linden's interior by sending in a pic with my cell phone. So I'll leave it up there for now and maybe as our learn and play journey continues, there will be something else I can snag a quick pic or video of a post it. I know you're all giddy with anticipation! ;-) And the suspense builds...

Goggle doc rocks socks!:-)

2008-10-20T11:35:00.000-07:00

So I've been a gmail member for about 4 years now I'm very sad to say that only during this excercise have I ever heard of Google Docs! What?!!! :-) Now, granted, I have all the office tools I need on my computer as programs, but how cool is it that I have no need for them with this online greatness?
I had heard of another cool office program that is downloadable and free called Openoffice.org that will let you get actual programs to install on your pc. Could be useful to someone that doesn't have internet at home and wanted to download the program here at the library, flash drive it, then BAM! free word processing and other useful tools on their home computer. That makes for one heck of a happy customer!:-D

Learning 2.0

2008-10-16T12:36:00.000-07:00

It's very interesting and exciting to see the way that web 2.0 is revolutionizing the way people look at and use the internet. Even more exciting (personally speaking) is the idea of library 2.0 and how it is making libraries more accessible, user friendly, innovative, and technologically savvy!
There are still some (meaning just about everybody) people I talk to outside of work that when I say, "I work at a library", the first thing that they say is, "Wow, you must read a lot!". It never fails that it's a good reason to "lol" for a moment and then I get to go into letting them know that even though books are a huge part of what we do, there are so many other things that we offer... Library 2.0 speaks to exactly that and how we should be reaching out to everyone we can and inviting them to discover what the library has to offer for their own personal use.

Wiki Sandbox

2008-09-30T12:18:00.000-07:00

After being accepted as being able to edit this page, it was surprisingly easy to add my entries. This was my first experience with editing a wiki, so I was surprised to get it done without any confusion or difficulties. I added my picks of The Office and Heroes to the favorite tv show page and the name of my blog to the favorite blogs page.

Wiki use at the Library

2008-09-26T11:17:00.000-07:00

I watched the online wiki tutorial on the Learn and Play blog and that got me thinking about some other ways that these could be useful to our organization. One thing I could see, is having a 20/20 vision wiki and it would act much like all of the branch community meeting we have been having. This would be most useful for our customers that are computer saavy but would also be able to be edited by staff for those who don't have the time/ability to do this themeselves.
On top of this, I could see each branch having a wiki of their own so that comments and suggestions could be made about anything such as building changes, programs, staffing needs, services, and the system in general. I could certainly see this as being a valuable resource for the library as well as for customers to feel like their voices are being heard.

del.icio.us

2008-09-26T11:06:00.000-07:00

Before I went to and got signed up for this site, I had NO I had absolutely no idea what it was about. When I looked at it finally, I didn't really see how useful an "online social bookmarking" tool would be... Now, I got signed up and actually got to look at some of the bookmarks and what this site has to offer and it's really intriguing and useful. Even in the little bit of time that I checked the site out after signing up, I found some bookmarks of things that I thought were cool/interesting.
This could be especially useful for people who do not own their own computer or move around to different computers often and they still have some websites or links that they need to access often or have with them on the go!:-)

Twitter

2008-09-25T11:49:00.001-07:00

I think this website is simply great! :-) It was unbelievably easy to sign up for and get started with its step by step process. So before I knew it, my profile was up and running and I was submitting my first couple of "tweets". I can even update it from my cell phone either by using text messages or mobile internet, which is remarkably convenient and helpful!
I did just get signed up though, and nobody I know uses it so I'm sending a call out to ALL CML employees, search for me as jon_c2003 or just click here and see what I'm up to every once in a while!:-) Thanks all, until next time...

LibraryThing

2008-09-24T11:37:00.000-07:00

I took a look at this website today and got an acount to check out what it's like. I can see how somthing like this might be used, however I also think that there are many improvements that could be made. Adding books that you've read is a pretty simple process and a good way to keep track of what you've read or would like to read in the future. One thing that I would have like to have see, and that I expect from anything with "library" in the title, is a way to get quick and easy suggestions of books to read. It's also not the most visually appealing site i've seen but meh, that's less important.

Online Image Generator

2008-09-12T09:46:00.000-07:00

Well, I took a run at working with an online image generator URL: logos.petrucci.ch/ and attempted to my a smiley in the likeness of me:-) And here he is:

Now, I do realize how bad he looks (huge understatement) but he's my own creation and that's all that matter, lol. But really, though I am nowhere near an artist, I could certainly see how a generator like this could be useful for many people. Good learning experience for me because I had no idea these existed before this excercise.

RSS Feeds

2008-09-08T12:33:00.000-07:00

I've officially had my first experience with RSS feeds and I'm not at all disappointed! This is a very convenient way to keep up of things you would check regularly (with the perk of having it all in one spot!). I can certainly see the benefit of subscribing to and keeping up with something like this. Though I personally might find it hard to remember to check it very frequently, lol. A great idea and a useful too none-the-less!:-)
There is this one library related feed that I subscribed to called "Library Stuff" that I found very informative and useful. Not to mention relevant to the things that we're doing here at CML, and that's always good;-) I encourage anyone who's interested to check it out.

Ravelry Site

2008-08-27T14:23:00.000-07:00

So I was discussing some how far technology has come with Cathy Williams while in the branch today and she happened to mention one of the online communities she belongs to called Ravelry.com. The more she told me about this site the more intrigued I was to learn that it was a site for people who knit! It's a place where you can share what you're working on, what you've done, even what kind of yarn you're using! I was so amazed by all this and still am excited that the web has been expanded to groups such as these. It really made me think of all the possibilities that are out there! That's it for my short post on how the internet continues to amaze me:-)

Flickr Experience

2008-08-25T11:40:00.000-07:00

Ok, so the next task in this Learn & Play journey involved becoming familiar with a site called Flickr. This is one site that I have very surprisingly never used or even heard of before! I was even more amazed of my ignorance when I began exploring the site and learning just how useful and cool everything it offers can be.
I started by just taking the tour and seeing what it had to offer. After I finished that I was very interested in seeing if it all was as easy as the site made it sound. So I signed up for an account myself and uploaded one of the pictures from a recent trip that I happened to have in my e-mail. The upload went incredibly smooth and so did the editing and making a description of it. You can see the finished product here (original on top, edited on bottom).

As you can see, the edited picture looks much more colorful. I'd have to say it's the most photo editing i've ever done, and it's not half bad if I do say so myself, lol.
While on my Flickr exploration I also took a look at some popular pictures that were randomly brought up. Here are a couple of my favorites:

Well, that's it for this blog but I have a strong feeling my time with Flickr has only just begun!

2008-08-12T13:48:00.001-07:00

Blog

Lifelong Learning & Me

2008-08-12T12:20:00.000-07:00

Listening to the presentation on lifelong learning after what seems like a lifetime worth of learning already behind me was a pretty cool experience. Each of these habits are intuitive and subtle but each plays an instrumental part in allowing those who are passionate about expanding their minds and and abilities to as close to their fullest potential as possible.

I'd have to say the one that I find most difficult to practice successfully is to "accept resposiblility for your own learning". Though it may seem a simple thing, it is all too often in the workplace that we get stuck telling ourselves that we know everything we need to in order to do our job successfully. And no matter how true that may be, though it is sometimes hard, we must realize that there are many things that if we made the effort to learn, would take our successful work skills and carry them infinitely on toward perfection. And it is this perfection, that we must make a conscious decision to strive for. That is the essence, I believe, of lifelong learning and the reason I believe it is one of the hardest habits to master.