Audiobooks ~ Week 9, Thing 22

Eeek! I'm hoping that I did something wrong! I went to the gutenburg site and downloaded an audio book. It was read by the computer, and not very well I might add.

I enjoy *some* audiobooks. If the narrator is good, then I'm a happy camper. If not, I get annoyed and bored. A good example of an excellent narrator would be Jim Dale who read the Harry Potter series. Amazing narrator!!! A bad example would be whomever read Blackwood Farm by Anne Rice. I couldn't stand the voice, and everytime I hear the word "Quinn" now, I cringe. That horribly fake southern drawl the narrator used made me want to puncture my eardrums or plug my ears with whatever I could get my hands on!

And, reading ebooks is painful for me. I'm still a big fan of curling up with a good book. I spend enough of my life at a computer that I don't want to read there, too.

But, I can appreciate that it's convenient for people. If I was unable to read free audiobooks, in any form, would be very important to me. I understand that there are libraries participating in downloadable books. I hope that these are read by actual people. Actually, while playing with the podcasts I found someone reading Dracula. It wasn't bad at all, and they broke it down by chapters. That's another venue that I think would be interesting to pursue.

Looking for Podcasts ~ Week 9, Thing 21

I tried podcast.net and found a very interesting podcast on the historical meanings of the animals in Harry Potter. It's certainly something that I think the kids would be interested in. Searching was easy enough, too. Adding it to my bloglines account wasn't a problem, but I didn't see an option to have it automatically loaded. I used the copy and paste method.

I then went on to play with a few cool urban legends/ghost stories podcasts. The one I listened to was about New Jersey and it just so happened that they had a discussion about the hotel that was at the area where the Great White Shark attacks took place that spawned the idea for Jaws. At this point in my life the instances of of shark information popping up out of nowhere are just funny, despite my phobia. I'm wondering if I should read the books about the subject after all.

I'm having a good bit of fun with this. I can see myself finding some good podcasts to keep up with. I'd just like to find a little more time to check out what's out there.

Mr. Bean : The Library

Fun With Youtube ~ Week 9, Thing 20

This was a fun adventure with youtube. I've used the site before to see the new World of Warcraft videos or character models, or to see music videos, or any random assortment of things. What I like most about the site is its entertainment value. It has potential for teaching purposes. I've seen a couple of how-to videos on there. It's a great way to teach people new skills, including those of the technology variety.

The video that I chose was Mr. Bean Goes to the Library. I chose this one for many reason. First, it's funny. I like Mr. Bean and it was library related, so it seemed to be a good match. Second, it's a good reflection of how people think of libraries. No loud noises, uptight, older librarians, and rules, rules, rules! No one there was having a good time. The only other thing that could have been added was a reading librarian! It's good to laugh at the stereotype and to realize that we've moved far, far beyond that.

There is one thing though... After watching that I'm definitely glad that we don't have books that are of such an age that they must be handled with gloves. Yes, I must admit... When he put the white out on the page and then cut out pages my heart did stop for a beat or two. Maybe some things never change.

Time to Play! ~ Week 8, Thing 19

I selected arcaplay.com. This site has a collection of games that can be added to your blog. I added mine to my myspace page. Now anyone that logs onto my page can play the game right on my page! I figured that at this stage of 23 Things, it was time to have a little fun! The games are entertaining, there's a good selection, and they are relatively good quality. I'll certainly recommend this site to our young patrons that enjoy myspace and other forms of blogs.

Google Docs ~ Week 8, Thing 18

Ooohh... I have a new toy! I love it! I've used other programs like this in the past, but I love that you can invite people and work on a project at the same time, while instant messaging even! And, there's a spread sheet option. I really can't wait to put this to good use.

I wish I had this earlier when we were making a group effort to change the layout of the information desk. The program we used would only let one person view the document at a time. I'll make sure to share this with the rest of the staff!

Playing in the Sandbox ~ Week 7, Thing 17

I added my blog to the favorite blogs list. I also took some time to check around to see if anyone had wikis started that I could just add to. I didn't find one that seemed to just be a list, or a group of people chatting about favorite things. Unfortunately I'm in a time crunch (still ironing out things from the merge), so I opted not to create my own wiki at this point. It is something that I feel comfortable doing in the future, though.