Well, I played around with some of the mashups, tools, and third-party sites suggested - my favorites were the trading card maker and FlickrSLiDR. Here are my creations:
My librarian trading card!
I love that photo - I was dressed up as Madame Trelawney from Harry Potter for the 7th book release party at Barnes & Noble. Can you see the resemblance?Recently I helped my mother sort through my grandmother's things. She passed away about a year and a half ago, and we are just now going through everything in her bedroom, deciding what to keep, what to donate to Hospice, and what to pitch. It's a difficult and emotional process, but also exciting - my mother and I came across some really cool stuff (click on the photos to enlarge):
I found this "recipe card," written by my grandfather, tucked away in a side pocket of one of my grandmother's old purses. It's so cute and romantic! The best part is the last line - "Bake the hell out of it!" My grandpa's a funny guy.
These little cards are so adorable! I found these in my grandmother's dresser, wrapped up in tissue paper for safekeeping. My mother said that grandma wasn't sure what she wanted to do with them, only that she really liked them and wanted to keep them nice. I haven't decided what to do with them yet, either - maybe a craft project? We'll see.
My grandmother had so many purses, most of which we decided to give to Hospice. But this particular purse caught my eye. It's a faux leather clutch, and I fell in love with it! Check out the awesome lining fabric - it really makes it stand out. It even has this cute mirror attachment on the inside. Unfortunately, the outside of the purse is starting to flake, so I have to be careful with it. I'm probably only going to use it for special occasions. Still, an awesome find!Fun story: Today I went to Wendy's for lunch. I pulled up to the window to pay and gave the guy my debit card. He looked at me sorta funny, ran the card, then said, "I'm sorry, your card was denied." What?! I looked at him in disbelief - there's no WAY my card should have been denied! Then he started laughing, and said, "Nah, just kidding!" I could have been mad, I guess, but instead I cracked up. He said, "See? I made you smile." You sure did, random Wendy's employee. You sure did.
And, for your amusement, here's what I would look like if I had been in high school in the 60's, courtesy of Yearbookyourself.com:
Now that's one sexy lady, am I right? :D
Things 3 and 4 were pretty easy to accomplish - start a blog and record it in the tracking log. Done and done. I'm not sure that I really even need to post about it, but I am anyway for consistency. So... yeah. There you go.
Just so this post doesn't feel like a complete waste, here is a list of some blogs/websites/comics that you all need to check out right now:
Cake Wrecks. Just do it - you'll thank me later.
The Domestic Scientist. Renee is talented & funny - check out all of her awesome creations!
The Martha Blog. Yes, that Martha. Yes, I'm serious.
Indexed. Most of you probably read this already, but did you know that Jessica Hagy is from Columbus? Well, now you do.
Xkcd. The ultimate geek web comic. If you don't read this, there is something wrong with you, and we can no longer be friends.
As I mentioned in my previous post, I am participating in Learn & Play @ CML. As I go, I will be posting about each of the 23 "things" that we do, in hopes of getting cool prizes at the end. This is my first official post about one of the things - namely, Thing #2. Thing #1 was simply familiarizing myself with the program, so I didn't really need to post about that. (Hmm, this is starting to sound like a Dr. Seuss book - Thing #1 and Thing #2.) I hope even my non-library staff readers will find my posts about the "things" somewhat interesting, even if you already know all this stuff.
Anyhow, I just watched an online tutorial about lifelong learning. Ironically, I had already watched it before on my own when I first learned about the Learning 2.0 program. But I watched it again, and it got me thinking about people I help everyday at work. So many of them have just given up on learning, especially when it comes to computers. Most of the time it's people who need jobs, and employers expect them to be able to fill out a job application online even though they've never touched a computer before. Some of these people just want you to do everything for them, which can be really frustrating. How do you convince someone to learn when they don't want to? How do you make it exciting for them?
But not everyone is that way! We have so many customers that come to our technology training classes - they want to learn, and even if it's difficult for them, they are making progress. It's extremely rewarding to see people take charge of their lives and better themselves - and know that you played a small part in the process.
As for me, there are a lot of things I want to learn. Right now, I need to learn more about investing. Not only for my own financial gains, but because I deal with investment and business questions on a daily basis - I certainly don't want to be stumped when someone asks me to look up the price of a bond! Also, one of the 23 things is learning about wikis, and although I already know what a wiki IS, I am definitely curious about why and how libraries are using them.
Now for the assignment part of the project: what is easiest and hardest for me to do? Out of the 7 1/2 Habits of Highly Successful Lifelong Learners, I think it's easiest for me to teach and mentor others. I love sharing what I know with other people! On the other hand, it's hardest for me to have confidence in myself as an effective learner. I can get easily frustrated if I don't "get" something right away. That's definitely something I need to work on!
So, dear readers - what are you learning about right now, or what do you want to learn more about? Do you consider yourself a lifelong learner?
My library is finally starting Helene Blowers' Learning 2.0 program - only we're re-branding it (as we are so good at doing) to "Learn & Play @ CML" - woohoo! I've been hoping we'd do this program since before we even hired Helene, so I'm pretty excited. Of course, it won't really be hard for me to participate... I've pretty much done all of the 23 things already. But it will be really neat to see my coworkers use some of these services for the first time. I *heart* the interwebz.
Anyway, since everyone else at work is blogging about the program, I had to be sure to put in my 2 cents as well. The program starts tomorrow (with an kick off presentation by Michael Stephens, awesome), and I'll be adding this blog to the official blog roll. Hmm, I sure hope I haven't said anything on here that I'll regret... haha. :D
