SIFF Update #1

We finally settled on three movies to see this year. The first one we caught was today: Gunga Din.

Two Thumbs Way Up!

Cary Grant, Douglas Fairbanks Jr. and Victor McLagen in 117 minutes of black and white fun.

Three British soldiers must save India from a revival of the murderous Kali cult (and one of their own from marriage and the tea business) with only their fists, their wits, and the aid of native water bearer named Gunga Din in this epic, rambunctious 19th century adventure.

There were great action scenes and some fabulous one liners. And who doesn't like a movie with cute elephants???

This was extra fun for us because our favorite show on Adult Swim- The Venture Bros.- has made several references to Gunga Din. And the jokes are even funnier now! Plus, you have to love cartoons made for us Gen Xers who while officially "all grown up" still want to watch cartoons!

It's SIFF Time!

Ah, summer is in the air and it's time to enjoy SIFF. I am lucky enough to have a movie guru for a friend who takes all the work out of choosing what to see. He was so organized this year that he made a Google calendar and shared it with me! That's what friends are for!

For those of you who are not so lucky, check out the list! I myself am intrigued by Swashbuckler Saturdays and of course the Midnight Movies. I am told by my dear husband that we need to see a horror film about sheep New Zealand. I think aliens are involved...

Faux Pas Overload

OMG. Why are there so many people with poor car alarm etiquette? We went to a wedding last weekend and had to take the ferry from Seattle to Bainbridge. As we get out of the car my husband only locked the car (no arming) because the ride would most likely set it off.

We are upstairs as the ferry got underway and the first of the "please turn off you car alarm off" messages start. The first one wasn't so bad. But then every five minutes...the black Audi is still going off...a black four wheel drive Audi...a black four wheel drive Audi with plates that say it was bought at University Volkswagen. YES! The announcements got that specific! And when we went down to our car- you could still hear the alarm going off! It had been blaring for the entire ferry ride!

We arrived at the wedding ok, and when we got out of the car my brilliant husband states that we will forgo arming the car a second time because we would not want it to go off during the ceremony. What happens? Someones alarm goes off! Really! They were sitting in front of us so we got to watch as they ignored it the first time. The second time it went off the really embarrassed wife made her husband go disarm it. Their faux pas was only trumped by the guest who forgot to turn off her cell phone (courtesy mode people- how hard- really?) and her very loud ringer of an old fashion telephone rang while the bride and groom were exchanging their vows!!! The bride was looking a little cranky at this...can't blame her.

Now, one would think all the possible rudeness had happened? No! There's still more! We get all loaded back on the ferry and the announcement comes on "would the owner of a..." and my flippant spouse and I say in unison "black Audi"- and it was! The same jerk from the first ferry was on the same boat as us! And they had learned nothing! It gets even better- as we were pulling into traffic back in Seattle the evil black Audi was in front of us (we had a moment of fear wondering if they had been at the same wedding) but we were able to dispel that fear when the idiot driver made an illegal u-turn and block both lanes of traffic! Truly, unbelievable.

I can report though, the wedding was beautiful and my knitted gift bag was quite lovely with some pretty soap from Lush. Now back to the socks for my dear husband...

Reflection

Wow! I can't believe we're done. It seems like we just started...thinking back I was cautiously optimistic that this would be a good learning experience. I am so happy to say that it was!

We covered a lot of concepts. These were the big winners for me:

• I LOVE Blogging! I got roped into my homeowner association's board, and my comment was: we needed a community blog or wiki.
• I'm taking advantage of the reader feature through Gmail.
• I have a Facebook account. And I'm cool enough that the teens in my life message me!
• While I like Library Thing, I love my DVD Aficionado account.
• My personal webpage of children's links is being turned into a wiki.
• Online generators are almost too fun to play with...
• I love my search engine. I keep thinking of more websites to add to it.
• I'm trying out online applications for my WLA board. Zoho didn't work out so well, but I'm going to resend the information from Google.
• I already enjoyed YouTube, but now I know how to embed video.
• I like the idea of listening to Podcasts. I don't know how much time I'll have to listen to them, but I think it will be easier when I can download them on my new MP3 Player instead of being tied to my tower.
• I'm really excited to start downloading eBooks!

This may sound bizarre, but I'm really going to miss checking the 27 Things blog each Monday and reading about the latest lesson. This has been a wonderful use of staff time, and I didn't even begrudge the hours I spent at home finding just the right pictures I wanted to upload.

This was a great way to continue my lifelong learning goals. Technology is just going to become more and more integrated in our everyday lives. It's important not to be left behind!

I really liked the format of Learning 2.0, it worked very well for my learning style. The hands aspect is so important. If I'd just attended a lecture or read an article about any of these skills, it wouldn't have stuck with me. I for one would be happy to have "upgrade" sessions. And if I could go back in time, I would tell myself not to hesitate at all! I was going to learn a lot and come out with some great new skills. Or at least a blog that I can go back and reference...

My suggestion for a new topic is pretty tame. Much like eBooks, I know we have the eMovies. I keep meaning to look at them from home or try one out but it's yet to happen. Maybe if I get to blog about it, that will finally motivate me.

When I get my MP3 player, the first thing I'm going to download is a good old Amelia Peabody mystery. I just love the way Barbara Rosenblat narrates, and the hold list for the audio versions is usually long.

Thanks for all your work Learning 2.0, this has been great.

More Knitting = More Better

My socks for WLA were a success so now I get to knit something for me! Not really, I'm knitting for my husband- but the sock drawer they will live in is still in my house, so it kinda counts.

I went to the Seattle Knitting Expo a few weeks ago which was a bit of a let down. It was over $75 to take a class, and I wasn't that excited to go...but I did get a great recommendation for a sock book, Knitting Vintage Socks: New Twists on Classic Patters by Nancy Bush. It has patterns from 100 years ago, lots of cool pictures of the original newsletters, history of knitting and how she translated the old patterns in to directions modern knitters can understand . The sock patterns themselves are neat in their own right so I'm knitting the Gentleman's Dress Sock for my dear husband. Lucky him.

I got this great yarn while I was down in Portland, but I have this sinking feeling that I'm going to have to call them and get more shipped to me. That's what I get for going in to a yarn store while out of town and asking "what do you have here that I can't get at my local yarn store". It seemed like a good idea at the time...

On the gift front (because I never seem to knit for me) we have a wedding to attend on Saturday, and I have no idea what to get them. They are merging house holds so they didn't register any where. People! This is very hard on your guests! Since they don't need any more material items I found some ideas in Last-Minute Knitted Gifts by Joelle Hoverson...maybe the knitted bag on the cover. They could keep their wedding favors inside!

Podcasts

I know I don't have to post, but I have to share that there are lots of pod casts all about Firefly! One about the creator Joss Whedon, cast and other good stuff called Firefly Talk. I need to listen to this- especially since it's still up to date and they just had an interview with Orson Scott Card! How cool is that!

It's all in the name for me- Podcast Alley had the most zing. Once I stopped messing around and got to looking for library pod casts, my opinion, eh- not so much. I was looking for "library and kids" and most of the interesting ones haven't posted in over a year. No luck for listening to Poopy Diaper, Thomas Ford, CineKids or OtterScrubber. What can I say, good names! I ended up subscribing to LibVibe which I am listening to now and is, no surprise, pretty eh.

YouTube

I've been looking forward to this one! YouTube is so much fun. I can't tell you how many times I've been dragged over to a computer to check something out. My husband's all time fav- the group acting out the first level of Super Mario Bros. It's really funny! And dead on accurate...

To be totally honest, I can't really think of a demographic that is using YouTube and would be interested in library related videos. Storytimes have the in person connection with children that you can't recreate in a 2D medium. Teens would be amused at spoofs, and to be honest- so would I! But whatever "it" is, it HAS to be interesting, the competition on YouTube for my limited attention span is pretty steep.

How close am I? Not this close...

Real Men Knit! Really!

And for my husband...

And the Award Goes To....

I looked at the Web 2.0 Awards and in particular the travel awards. Always a big interest of mine - and our patrons.

There was no definite winner for this category due to not enough nominations or a clear winner. I looked at all five honorable mentions and they were intriguing in different ways.

Kayak looks like all the other travel sites- at first glance. But there were some features that I found appealing as an online traveler. It automatically had my departure city as Seattle. I like that! It also made finding an airport code easy! It tries finishing your airport as you type, so it was only a few letters in to typing Houston that I had the correct lists of airports. I like. They do deals and buzz, which is the cheap tickets that only come up for half an hour or until they sell out.

Jumpclaimer has an interesting premise, but fizzled flat in my opinion. It's supposed to be the online version of travel postcards using your cellphone to send SMS (shore message service). You text your location to the site and it puts a "thumbtack" on your location. In theory, family and friends can track your trip. But you would need to look up the location codes online ahead of time. For example, if I wanted to say I went through Bellevue, I would send an SMS to +41 78 872 7679 with my location in the format of test#country_code#town_name#your_comment and put in the code for Bellevue: 47,61056,-122,19944. Too complicated for me! If I wanted to send my coworkers/family/friends postcards while I'm on vacation, I would. But you know what? I don't! I'm on vacation! I don't want to be thinking of them at all....you can all look at my photos when I get back.

TravBuddy can be my buddy. It links to travel blogs, photos, travel guides, people traveling to and living in the locale! Lots of interactive information. I looked at the Belize entries and it seemed on the mark from my own travel experience there.

Tripmojo needs to find its mojo. I don't know what it wanted to do. You put in hotel names and I was expecting to get reviews. In actuality, it only pulled up a list on nearby hotels and when you clicked on the hotlink for more information....it sent you to the corporate site. Totally useless.

Wayfaring has some neat possibilities. You open an account and can create personalized maps (using Google maps) that can be shared with friends and family. You can make a map of your day, where you go and where to park. This could be useful to patrons and KCLS since I believe I saw another suggestion in the memo that the directions to libraries need to be updated.

Of the five I think Wayfaring, Travbuddy and Kyak are the most useful of the bunch. Happy traveling!