inquiring, interested, probing, questioning, snooping, nosy, prying

all of these are synonyms for curious. Never really thought of prying or nosy in the same category as questioning and interested, so I will challenge Merriam-Webster on that one. Does that make me curious?

I don't have to think too hard about that one, anyway. I'm very curious about some things. I'll eat just about anything, and I love kim chee (fermented cabbage, look above right) with squid, sashimi, octopus, giblets, liver and I am sure there are other things that show up on a lot of "I refuse to eat that" lists that don't bother me in the least. I grew up eating dirt pies, blades of grass and more than a few insects; not much phases me. I read once that an adventurous appetite was something that the military looked for in secret agents. Add a little self-defense training and a disguise and I could be on Alias!

Seth Godin's video about curiosity was right on. As a kid, I was constantly taking things apart, then trying to put the broken objects back together again (not so hot when I realized that I couldn't get my Fisher Price box record player to work again; quick lesson: I am not mechanically inclined) and there would be notes on my report card that I "asked too many questions." My parents never discouraged this, but it wasn't exactly cherished, either. I was a notorious snooper for Christmas and birthday gifts, but once I discovered how disappointed I was when I actually found something, that came to an end. My mother warned me it wouldn't be fun and she was right. sigh.

I don't consider myself to be curious in a gadfly kind of way. I didn't ask a million questions of professors during my college years. As an adult, I am not nearly as curious as when I was young. But I still love trying new things - new lotion, new gum, new restaurants, etc. Project Play was just the right speed for me. I could try new things while playing around at my desk. Very safe! And I learned a lot.

Thank you to the Project Play Coordinators - this was a great semester and I will really miss it. I bookmarked Netvibes and GoogleSites and the other suggestions to keep up with playing.

So until we meet again, I will continue playing more, learning more, fearing less and eating whatever life throws my way.

i'll take mine with m&ms and oreo bits, please.

I love ice cream smoosh-ins! What a smart idea, to take your scoops of ice cream and spread them around on a slab of marble, then smoosh in your toppings and scoop it all back into a dish or cone. Just the way you like it!

Too bad we aren't talking about ice cream today. Rather, we are discussing an online concept I can only partially wrap my head around. Mash-Ups. I get it when talking about music. I get it when talking about adding Google maps or census data to your document, adding widgets or weather to your web page or blog or combining amazon info with your library catalog. I just don't get Yahoo Pipes. I recently read an article where a librarian created a virtual assistant with Yahoo Pipes and didn't replace the human who had been her previous assistant because it worked so well. Wha?

I like the idea of adding mash-up value to our library catalog. Let people make wish lists. Let them track what they've read. What they want to read. Add comments. Send lists to friends. If they want to do it and aren't concerned about their privacy, why not? Add away. Even though I don't really get how the apps work (is that what Mr. Suit from ZDNet called them?) I appreciate the final product. Good work, out there! Keep it up!

For this week's assignment, I added a listing for my favorite lunch spot, Marigold Kitchen, to Map Builder. If you're hungry and you're downtown and you want to grab a little lunch, I'll be your date! I love that place.

I can't believe it is already Week 10. I am playing more, learning more and fearing less than I ever did before. Ciao!

more than 2.0. maybe 3.0. possibly 3.5.

At this stage of the game, I can safely say that I am way more 2.0 than YouTube. Finally! Something that I am on track with! I have been 'friending' my way around YouTube for a couple of years already, mostly watching stuff that other people send me or popular newsy items. Really important stuff, like funny animal antics, or replays of controversial events that occur on daytime tv (remember the Clay Aiken/Kelly Ripa scandal of 'o6?). Or checking to see which wedding dress Nikki wore when she married Victor the second time on Y&R. YouTube is a goldmine for that kind of stuff.

After a recent trip to Chicago, I was singing about the caramelcrisp/cheesecorn mix from Garrett Popcorn and my mom said she remembered seeing a segment about it on the Food Network. I immediately checked YouTube, and sure enough, there it was. Watch here:



While I was searching, I also discovered that Halle Berry and I share a love for the Mix. It is delicious!

Libraries can also get in on the fun of YouTube in many ways: amateur movie-making contests promoting the library, school promos for the summer library program, author visits and lectures (with permission, of course), training sessions, virtual tours and so much more. It would be great to have a fancy camera, but I can make little movies with my phone and Canon Sure Shot (often by accident!), so, really, anyone can do it.

Now, if only I could figure out what T9 texting is all about...

Until I get that sorted out, I guess I will play more, learn more and fear less, while eating as much Garrett Mix as possible. Next up: Ethel's Chocolate Lounge!

starring Johnny Depp

- that's who I would like to screencast in my movie! oh wait, screencasting is a computer tutorial, not really a movie. kind of like a movie, though. definitely more interactive than watching a powerpoint slideshow and more interesting than just a podcast if you are looking for something visual. I like listening to podcasts because I am doing something else, like exercising or riding the bus, but I really benefit from seeing demonstrations and hearing demonstrations when I am learning, so screencasts are the way to go.

I found a screencast about something that I wanted to know more about that is very web 2.0: Joost. What is Joost? It's the magic of television, with the power of the internet built right in! It's online tv. On demand. Kind of my dream. I love being able to catch up on several episodes of Lost at one time, now that episodes are online. But if I am more than a couple of weeks behind (ok, months), those episodes go away and aren't available for free anymore. Joost isn't quite there, yet, but I have high hopes that someday it will be.

If you are curious about Joost, watch this screencast:


As for libraries, the possibilities for screencasts are endless. Screencasts for setting up free email is a great idea; I can also see using screencasts for how to create a resume, as a replacement for our paper pathfinder on Ancient Cultures, for a virtual tour of the library, for database quick guides and approximately one million other things.

Play more, learn more (like how to make candy sushi, thanks to wikihow) and fear less. Ta for now.

watch out grammar girl, here I come!

listening to podcasts is not something new for me, and I added feeds for Grammar Girl and Mr. Manners to my blogroll when we were learning about RSS in Semester One. I have been subscribing to podcasts thru iTunes for awhile: radio shows, classical music, podcasts for running, programs from the Art Institute of Chicago, New Yorker fiction, you get the idea. iTunes downloads the most recent podcasts automatically every time I log in, but I regularly forget to check, so adding them to my bloglines account is a good reminder that new episodes are available.

We have often talked about what we might use podcasts for at our library (book reviews, tutorials on how to create free email accounts, talking patrons through the free credit report page which is very confusing and difficult to navigate if you are new to the web) but I have never tried to create one. So I created a podcast of my most recent book review for MADreads and it is available for the world to hear on Gabcast! Project Play Week 6 #2

My voice sounds kind of muffled and weird - I can see where it would pay to have a little microphone, but I was quite amazed that I could do this over the phone. That could not have been easier. Energized by my first attempt, I am already planning how to take over the world with my new podcasting skills.

Now I need to work out some kind of Bill Gates/Steve Jobs masterplan. Any ideas? Would you listen to podcasts about cupcakes? candy? what's new on zappos or j.crew? hollywood news according to pinky? While I am working out those kinks, I will continue to play more, learn more and fear less. Ciao for now!

who do you know?

not too many folks, apparently, as I have zero online "friends" as defined by MySpace and Facebook. oh well.

I remember hearing Stephen Abram (Mr. Innovation from SirsiDynix) speak at WiLSWorld a couple of years ago and he was touting his daughter's 3000 (or some huge number) of MySpace friends and I was skeptical at the time. How meaningful could those friendships possibly be? I am still skeptical. But more understanding. Now that I have a dogster page, I understand more about how you can have friends (or pup pals as it may be) that you have never met and that you don't keep in contact with more than that initial "hey, let's be friends" business. One acceptance email and you are friends for life.

So where does this leave libraries and the quest to satisfy the knowledge needs of the public? I am on the fence. My niece uses MySpace for email and chat. Constantly. But she doesn't really do anything else with her page. My cousin who is a freshman at UW is all about Facebook. She met all sorts of other incoming frosh before she even graduated from high school! For these two girls, social neworking sites are for just that, socializing. They are not doing research or homework via these sites.

I think a traditional web page that is attractive and easy to use is more important in spreading the word that libraries have a lot to offer. I have tried searching on MySpace and never have much luck. After browsing the sites for this week's assignment, I'm still not that enamored. The AskAway site is great; it is clear and easy to use. Denver's site is kinda ugly and Oshkosh's was very hard for me to view. The green and gold gave me a headache! La Crosse and Charlotte have pages that look pretty cool. But I would still go to their library homepages first if I wanted info.

That said, here's a link to my seriously lacking MySpace page that has thus far only been used to email with the aforementioned 17-yr-old niece who lives in Tennessee. She won't add me as a friend, though! (My page is really pathetic looking, but I found out that hers is all tricked out because she bribed a techie kid that she works with at the mall! It really is all about who you know.)

I am trying to play more, learn more, and fear less. Now that other humans may view my MySpace page, I need to find someone to fancy it up and fast!

baby's got some brand new shoes

abécédaire entrées has a new look! I took this week's lesson catch-up time to play around a bit with changing the template of my blog. It took a lot of tweaking and some unfortunate choices to figure out how to change the code (preview is a very important feature) but I finally found something I liked. So long Scribe, hello Love (the name of the template that I copied the background from). Don't these shoes look lethal?

Until next week, play more, learn more, fear less, and take time to breathe. Love is in the air!