Quest 12 - Podcast

I found this part of quest 12 to be extremely interesting.

I have iTunes downloaded at home, which is nice, but I also found a website, www.podshow.com where people can subscribe and add podcasts to playlists without having to download any kind of applications. That is very cool.

While doing this, I found some podcasts concerning Jane Austen and Pride and Prejudice. Not only did I find critics who have recorded their critiques on her works, I've also found fans who record themselves reading the novels and giving their commentary on it as well. It's pretty cool.

Quest 12 - Youtube

I love this site because you can find videos covering just about anything. And I mean anything, from silly things that remind you of world's funniest home videos, to practical how-to instructional videos, to music videos, to video blogs (in other words, instead of writing a journal, people just record their daily life activities, with some censorship, of course.

I chose a Casting Crowns video for my post. Here is the link to it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wPqZSbs8IMo

I just like Casting Crowns a lot. But I really like this song and video in particular because it shows how some people put material things before their loved ones. Obviously, the man in the video had good intentions, he was working hard to provide for his family. But there's a difference between necessity and extravagance.

Also, there is a Christian version of Youtube, called Godtube, that is also pretty popular.

Here's a link to that: www.godtube.com

There is a video on there that is absolutely adorable, it's called Little Girl and Psalm 23. You should check it out!

The only thing I don't like about Youtube is the occasional stumble across videos with inappropriate content.

Quest 11 - Google Docs

Sad Seasons

In the fall,

when the color of the world

fled the cold,

she became threadbare to him

like worn, faded jeans

that had been patched up

too many times –

Discarded.

Like the autumn leaves,

the pieces of her dying love

grew brittle brown and fell away,

leaving her weakened wishes naked

before the unforgiving winter.

As the sharp and stinging November winds

foretold December’s icy rains,

her doubts gave way to despair.

As the frozen soil slumbered

beneath the snows,

her pain numbed her trust in happiness.

* as you can see, I used google docs to make this blog. I thought it was really cool that you could creat a document online and have it post directly to your blog, without having to log on to your blog. It does it automatically. The google docs feature is pretty neat but there is one thing that it does not have that good ol' Microsoft Word does: A wider variety of fonts. I'm sure there are a few or many other features, but that specific one was the one that stuck out to me (I wanted to put the title of my poem in a cursive font and that isn't available with google docs).

Quest 10 - playhouse

I created a smiley using the smiley generator from The Generator Blog. My blog doesn't want to post the link to my smiley, however. It says that tags cannot be included in the html.

[url=http://ezsmiley.com][img]http://www.ezsmiley.com/r/-eyes=Eyes_Glasses-body=Bodies_Blue-leftside=undefined-rightside=Rightside_Thumbup-legs=undefined-hat=undefined-mouth=undefined-misc=Misc_Book-background=Backgrounds_Grey1.gif[/img][/url]

So, perhaps you can copy and paste this into the address bar, click go and it will take you there.

Quest 9 - wiki

I decided to check out Library Success: A Best Practices Wiki.

I think wikis are very int tools because so many people can contribute facts on things. But there is a negative to that, too. Just because someone contributes information on a certain subject, it does not make that information correct. I guess that all depends on the credibility of the person contributing the information.

I like the fact that email verification is needed to make adjustments to the Library Success: A Best Practices Wiki, though. It cuts down on the ability to post nonsensical things.

I also like the way wikipedia is set up, the categories and the different links you can click on in entries that will take you to other places with more information on whatever subject you're looking at. It is very organized.

I imagine this would be very useful for the reference section of the library.

Quest 8 - social networking

This quest is a piece of cake.

I have an account, as I mentioned before, with myspace. I deleted, like I said, when I was a senior in college. I recreated an account, however, this past August. I also have an account with Facebook.

Myspace and Facebook connects, not only with people in your local area, but also around the U.S. and the world.

Why would I need both? Well, it seems that most of my college and high school friends are on Facebook, so that's why I'm still keeping up with my account there.

I recreated my myspace because it keeps me better connected with my family. So each has it's uses. These accounts are so much better than email, because there is more information, activity, color, etc. involved.

For instance, each network allows photo posting, so people can upload photos of what they've been doing lately, and that's a great way to see how someone is doing. This is also true about blogs and online journaling. Facebook and Myspace put all of these things together. And it's easier than email, because you can just post a quick "Hello" or "How's it going" when you're strapped for time.

Here is a link to my myspace: http://www.myspace.com/cordelia_lynn

And one for my facebook:

Quest 7 - Flickr - option A

I decided to do option A for this quest concerning flickr. I'm in an autumn-y (like that? I just made it up) mood.

I very much like this time of year, so I put "autumn" in the flickr search field and it came up with a large amount of photos/images concerning this wonderful season.

I found this photo meaningful: http://www.flickr.com/photos/gooner1/1917869584/

It reminds me of the wooden benches surrounding the Reflection Pond at Charleston Southern University (my alma mater). The bench in the photo looks just like them. For some reason, I guess the maintaince crew wasn't instructed to stain/treat the benches before they were put on campus (or any of the trash bins), and not even a year later, all of them looked like this, old and mildewy/moldy.

And just for the sake of information, this image is a set of three for the person who posted it.

Quest 6 - one and two

I found this quest on tagging interesting. I mean, I don't really do a lot of bookmarking or storing things in a favorites folder...I suppose I'm not getting as much out of the internet as I could be getting because I'm not doing those things.

So this would be a very useful tool. It's interesting to see how many people save websites to these things. It shows how popular sites are. It reminds me of webites or podcasts that have hit counters (for those of you who don't know, hit counters record how many times a webpage is viewed or podcast is listened to, etc.) I am wary, though, of getting too computer savvy (if there is such a thing). When I was in college, I spent crazy amounts of free time on myspace. And when I was a senior, I deleted my myspace account, and I was myspace sober for almost a year.

Anyway...I prefer delicious over technorati. Delicious seems to be more efficient than technorati is.

Quest Five

I know we didn't have to post a blog concerning this quest, but I wanted to. I created a Trading Card of myself. It's pretty darn cool.

Quest 4 - rss feed

Okay so I went to bloglines and set up an rss feed that includes 11 links to different news sites, art sides and nerdy wordy sites. : ) Here's the link: http://rpc.bloglines.com/blogroll?html=1&id=cordelialynn


I think the rss feed is really awesome. It's opened me up to more websites that specialize in things that I'm interested in. Some websites I am already aware of, but most of them, until today, I didn't know existed!

Quest 3 - The IM experience

I am an avid IMer. In fact, I have an account at Yahoo, through my email, that I use to keep in touch with family and friends in Michigan.

I just chatted with my mother last night, who shared some recipe from the Food Network Channel with me. She loves that channel, and while I don't mind cooking, I will admit my mother is much better than I am when it comes to that sort of thing.

I enjoy IMing, but I do think that the "age of IMing" is hurting the generation to a degree, because it allows for spelling things incorrectly which in turn gives people the idea that if they spell things incorrectly in letters, emails, papers, etc, it isn't a big deal, that the recipient(s) won't mind.

In other words, the lines between formal and informal terms of address have been blurred and proper etiquette has been set aside.

7 1/2 Life Learning Habits

The easiest habit for me is number two: accepting responsibility for my own learning.
I say this is the easiest because I made it my responsibility to get through high school and college, not any one else's. I also make it my responsibility to learn other things, like another language or activity. I don't depend on others to bring things to my notice first. I seek learning opportunities and try to learn as much as I can.

The hardest habit for me is number five: creating my own learning toolbox. I am not the most organized person when it comes to my personal belongings. It wasn't until I was a year into college that I figured out that the system I used to organize my homework and other things for classes, the same system I used for high school, didn't work for me as well as another system could. Also, when I took it upon myself to learn Spanish, I wasn't very organized with the system I used to help me with that, until halfway through the class I was taking. So, I definitely need to work on that.

I came, I saw, I conquered.

I am here at last :)