I wanted to be social

from: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkVbJ66_kB36ed9g7Ik0BQarpJQNyDsC7SONQXu567f2BCk5uc95CaCaWLDzTduMMQ9WHV1_alUigSYz0f983SZGm5mXzwGAlscvzHwWwr7x8XgpETLlqS6aYDPmL376zSj4iXQfG2RfA/s400/070228AL711040237.jpg

My nephew, Lyle, just emailed me. (We were supposed to meet last night, but he stood me up.) Anyway, he was all excited. Seems he had just finished NOTteRing (Network of Three Running), with a couple of his friends, Steffan and Leslee. He's says they did at least 12 miles. I'm skeptical, but he might be telling me the truth for a change. If you've not seen NOTteRing it's quite something.

NOTteRing is the practice of running three abreast, hands tightly held, with the tallest member (not necessarily the heaviest member), in the center. Lyle tells me Steffan picked this up when he was in Sweden where "everyone is doing it." Anyway, at some point in the run, the combined energy of the three results in some, well, frankly unbelievable moves. If I hadn't seen this recently with my own eyes I certainly wouldn't be blogging it. The synergy created by running as a triad apparently enables the participants to run longer, faster, and with less exertion than would be required if running singly or doubly.

Scaling: Another amazing thing is the ability of those NOTteRing to scale otherwise insurmountable obstacles. I observed Steffan, Leslee, and a third runner (not Lyle), scale the back side of a park bench recently. They didn't hurdle the obstacle, but scaled it; literally walking up the back side and down the seat as if slightly airborne. And in perfect unison. It was quite unbelievable.

Another practice in NOTteRing that I've observed is called "Debbing," (short for Debiting, I think). When the triad obtains a certain speed, it is no longer necessary for all three to actually run in the customary sense. One or more of the trio can actually run on just one leg and be held and propelled by the group with no loss of speed. Thus the group can further conserve energy and run even further. The photo above illustrates what I'm describing, but is not an actual photo of a NOTteRing session. I'll try to get a photo of this phenomenon for the blog soon, as I can understand your skepticism.

Your friend ferd.

Thing 8 - Communicating Web 2.0 Style

I use email all the time at work. Sometimes it seems like I don't do much else all day except read and respond to email. I don't travel much (see below), but when I return to work from being off for a week (often with an intestinal upset -- the details of which I will not describe), I spend at least the first half of the day dealing with my inbox. I don't know how we managed to do our jobs before email, when we had to get up out of our chairs and go to talk to a person, but I know I was much slimmer then. (You should have seen me before TV remotes were invented.)

Sometimes someone at work will email something rather inflamatory to a group and the various group members will shoot off several emails back and forth, ccing and bccing, and before you know it the Systems people will be telling us that we've exceeded the allowable size of our mailboxes. I always get a chuckle out of that. When it gets really bad, my supervisor will send an email to everyone telling them to stop emailing and he'll call a meeting instead. I always hate that. It means getting up from my desk and walking somewhere.

While I email alot, I'm not an active text (or instant) messager. I have conducted Ask-A-Librarian sessions before moving to a job "off desk." This was a forced move. (More to follow.) I just finished chatting with NEFLIN who was very friendly and upbeat. Thanks NEFLIN.

I've attended several webinars - both one-way and two-way - in the course of my job. It's nice not to have to travel to attend these. As part of this assignment I went to the Opal archives and listened to part of "Finding Travel Information and Make Reservations Online" presented by Tom Peters. You might think it's ironic that I chose a webinar on travel when I don't really like to travel. I do too.

The webinar was written in 11/05 and presented in 1/06 and was somewhat dated. For example, Tom didn't mention such travel search engines as kayak.com, which is a great site for travel information. I like travel information, I just don't like to travel.

Your friend ferd.

Thing 7 Online Image Generators

This "motivational poster" was created using an image generator at Big Huge Labs - http://bighugelabs.com/flickr/motivator.php

Working on 23 Things is alot like climbing Half Dome. Especially when you get ready to publish your post and realize you didn't save the most recent version, but a version you had been working on several days before and have to start all over. Except Half Dome isn't really like that because you'd never forget where you were on the rock unless you slipped off and got a concussion that left you with partial amnesia. But most likely if you slipped off you'd be dead and wouldn't care about 23 Things. So I guess the two really have nothing in common. But I liked the photo. I found it at http://crd.lbl.gov/~dhbailey/photos/dhb-half-dome.jpg It might be a photo of me.

Your friend ferd.

Thing 6 - Flickr Mashups

I checked out Clockr, Spell with Flickr, and tried FlickrColrPickr - Graffiti in Blue
















TOP writing's on the wall by damclean http://www.flickr.com/photos/53493629@N00/3009406/in/pool-49503134345@N01/
RIGHT graf12 by missjenm http://www.flickr.com/photos/19989461@N00/3967130/in/pool-49503134345@N01/
BOTTOM 5 ptz graff by deepspace9mm http://www.flickr.com/photos/41687544@N00/1058675/in/pool-49503134345@N01/

The purpose of FlickrColrPickr, says its creator, Jim Bumgardner, "...is simply to provide wonder and delight. Nothing more, nothing less. Isn't that enough?"

It is enough. It is enough.

I could see our library using this site to grab like-hued photos for eye-catching displays.
Your friend ferd

Thing 5 - Flickr

Ever since the fire in '59 I've been a little camera shy.


So I don't know about creating my own Flickr account. I'll think about it.

But in the meantime, I did the required reading and exploring and found some amazing images.
Phil Nesmith http://www.flickr.com/photos/visualadventure/
This is what I'm talking about!

Sexecutioner's photostream http://www.flickr.com/photos/sexecutioner/

jim_moore's photostream http://www.flickr.com/photos/filtre/

[Fruit bat claws - Sri Lanka]

While blogs might not have helped me learn more about the care and feeding of bats, Flickr has certainly kept me entertained. Obsessed, almost.

How might I use Flickr in my library?

Sometimes I come across some disturbing stains in the library. I know I'm not the only one bothered. Other staff are. I see them wrinkle their noses as they descend the stairs to the Circ. desk before opening. They've spotted the mark just to the left of the landing. It's been there for some time now. But it still disturbs.

A member of the Board of Trustees just the other night commented on a dark, slippery area in the alcove. We put up a safety cone.

And the spot in front of the PlayAway display - - it never dries.

I think we could use Flickr to document these stains. We could post them on the staff Intranet to alert other, less observant staff.

Or, because the young adults who visit us often seem to be looking for something to do, perhaps we could create a Stain Scavenger Hunt.

Teams of Youth Flickr Groups, wielding digital cameras, would be formed to search out various areas of the library that have been violated. As the group came upon a spot described on the list, they would snap a picture. At a predetermined time all teams would meet in front of the Reference desk to upload their photos to their Flickr accounts and share them amongst the teams. The team with the most stains correctly documented would win. Pizza and Coke would then be served.

Boy, this 23 Things has certainly gotten me thinking outside the box.
Your friend ferd

Thing 4 – RSS and Newsreaders

I set up an aggregator account using Google Reader and added the blogs of some of my fellow participants. I also added several news sites such as the New York Times and CNN, favorite author blogs, and feeds from favorite book stores. In a couple of instances, I noticed that the feed was not as current as the posts on the websites. Does anyone know why that is? I tried refreshing and resubscribing, but neither helped.

I think that setting up an RSS feed would be useful to some of our patrons (and to staff). I looked at the Hennepin County Library feed which informs patrons about library programs, services, changes in hours, etc. I found http://www.kegliography.blogspot.com/ by Jay Kegley to be an interesting mix of library and general technology news. Our library subscribes to BookLetters which has a feed. Patrons can sign up for a large number of newsletters (booklists, author bios, etc.) via our website and receive updates through their reader.

Your friend ferd

Thing 3 - Blog Search Tools

I explored Technorati and Google Blog Search. I’ve always been interested in raising bats, but when Mom was alive, she wouldn’t hear of it. Now that she’s “out of the picture,” I think it’s time for me to start living.

Anyway, I tried the search “raising bats” in both search engines. Technorati returned 586 hits and Google returned 25,376. When I re-searched using the “advanced” feature and on the exact phrase, Technorati returned two hits, Google returned eight (nine when I turned “safe search” off).

Neither of the two Technorati results was helpful, but one did take me to an interesting blog, Journal of a Marginalized White Male, that described a fight between neighbors Ozzie Ozbourne and Alice Cooper over some bats that Alice was raising in his backyard. I think the account might have been fictional.

The nine Google results weren’t much help either in my quest to learn more about raising bats. One blog contained a thread about washing bats in a washing machine. I just couldn’t follow the instructions. “Kairunlove” had a bat in her house, but chose not to make her profile available to me. “Harrington” owns three bats as pets. That's all he would share, except that his current mood is horny.

Several of the Google results were about raising baseball bats, which I have no interest in.

Comparing the two sites, I preferred the added features of Technorati such as the “Top 100 Blogs,” the blog directory, and “favorites.” Google invited me to create an email alert, add a blog search gadget, and subscribe to a blog search feed for “raising bats,” but somehow I felt I was going to be disappointed.

Ann Smarty (do you think that’s her real name?), in the Search Engine Journal blog, finds higher relevance and more useful results using Google Blog Search than using Technorati. While I got more result from Google, neither search engine gave me what I was looking for: a vibrant community of bat raising bloggers willing to share with me the highs and lows of their unique hobby.
Your friend ferd