atomic rooster

the last one . . . for now.

So this is the end of the official "learn and play". My favorite exercise was the image generator cause of the beer labels I can now make. This program hasn't really affected my lifelong learning goals. I was pretty surprised by the amount of participation and how much people got into this experience. I suppose if another program similar to this was offered I would participate, but I would rather train with something that is more specific to my job and or assisting the public. If there are incentives to participate you can be sure that I will be there though. I can't wait to check back to the participants blog in a few months to see how many accounts have been de-activated or just flat out deleted!

MOLDI

MOLDI is a great tool, theoretically. I have tried helping a customer download e-books on her laptop but we could never get them to open. We went over the instructions three or four times and never got it working. Strike one. When I was browsing their collection one day at home I thought I might try and download a movie but wait... I was using a mac, and as of yet mac and ipod users are not able to download media off of MOLDI. Strike two. There are some improvements that need to be made but I am hopeful for the future.

podcasting

I think podcasting is a great way to convey information. I have found a podcast devoted to homebrewing which is pretty awesome. I suppose the library could use podcasting to promote events but I'm not sure how many people it would reach that wouldn't already know about said events or programs. I think that might just be two-point-overkill.

YouTube

I love youtube. I can always count on youtube for a quick pick me up. The video dislplayed below is a clip from one of my favorite shows, Trailer Park Boys. For those of you who are unfamiliar with this Canadian masterpiece, it is a "mocumentary" style TV show that films a small group of foul-mouthed, small time career criminals and their friends living their life in Sunnyvale trailer park. The group, lead by Ricky and Julian, are always coming up with cons and crimes to live. This clip is a montage of Ricky-isms. Ricky isn't too smart (he never got his grade 11) and he is always trying to use idioms and popular phrases but says things out of order, mispronounces words, or just all together making things up. These idioms are Ricky-isms and they are hilarious. WARNING: this video has language some may find offensive (in the way of the F-bomb). But if you enjoy the occasional obsenity, you need to watch Trailer Park Boys.

I wish the library could offer videos on demand in this format.

thing #19

If anyone pays attention to my blog you know I enjoy homebrewing. So for the latest "thing" we are supposed to check out the Power Tools page of CML's website. The first thing that caught my eye was the StumbleUpon site. I checked it out and it is kind of like a search engine in that you search for something you like (I searched for homebrew cider as I am planning on making some hard cider this weekend hopefully) and it gives you pages with that topic or similar topics. I found a great site that answered a lot of my questions about home made hard cider and if anyone is interested in checking it out I highly suggest it. To make your own cider, click here. Next stop, Lynd's Fruit farm!

last.fm

I just checked out last.fm and it is pretty sweet. I had been on this site before within the past few years but it has changed dramatically since I last saw it. Last time I tried to listen to music on their various radio "stations" it would never work and it just seemed like an irrelevant site as I would not find the information I was looking for there. On this site you can type in a band and it will pull up a radio station that plays songs by that band and similar artists (even very obscure bands you might not have thought they would have). This is a great way to discover new bands that seem to pop up by the minute. I love being able to listen to this music anywhere. This is truly a great step towards a solution between illegally downloading music and paying full price for albums. You get to listen to all kinds of music for free and you can download the songs through itunes and stuff like that. You can even put your own band on there to promote your music. Pretty sweet.