my budget breakfast

my budget breakfast, originally uploaded by lvalvane.

some of my teapots

my budget breakfast, originally uploaded by lvalvane.

vintage lamp on drop front

vintage lamp on drop front, originally uploaded by lvalvane.

exercise 23

This has been an amazing journey. Creating a blog has been a fun and exciting way to learn a lot of new skills. Other than the software we us for circulation here, I was a total novice. My only internet skills were online banking, bill paying, shopping and googleing. I didn't even know how to cut and paste. One thing I really enjoyed was photo shop and learning to post photos online ( I am going to have to buy a digital camera now). It was very fortunate for me that my friends her at WU were much more skilled than myself, I would never had made it without them. Thank you all. I also liked the online version of word processing. I thought It was much easier to use. Utube was and eye opener. Some of the things I saw were fabulous and a marvel to watch. Avatars were very amusing and every one got a big kick out of creating "mini mes". My only regret was that there wasn't more time to explore some of the things at a slower pace. I know it had been pared down, but it was still overwhelming at some points. I am so glad for the experiences though.

exercise 22

Downloadable media was really eye-opening. HCPL's site is awsome. I had no idea. I visited LibriVox and Wowio first. The thing that really excited me most was the LibriVox volunteers program. I listened to some samples and was very impressed with what I heard. What I would really love to try, however is to read myself. This is something I hope to follow-up with on my own time. The goal of having all public domain books available free is wonderful and I hope to try to do may part. I personally love audio books myself. Listening to a book is my worst vice. It is the ultimate luxury to me.

exercise 21

Podcasts have enormous potential and I found some were very interesting. It is really time consuming to find things though, simply because there is simply so much out there to wade through. Podcast.net seemed a little more user friendly to me than yahoo (overwhelming)or podcastalley.com. I still like books better(sorry). I did enjoy a podcast about the Biltmore however and will explore this media againg soon. I sure there are more things that I would find enjoyable too.

exercise 21

DraculaDracula ch. 1(Oct 28, 2006)

EXERCISE 20 CONT...

YouTube is very entertaining and some of the things were really awesome. This could get very time consuming, if I only had the time. I can certainly understand the attraction, but I don't have time for all the things I want to do now. Maybe when I retire......

EXERCISE 20

exercise 19

This is really amazing. I think I agree with those who think this will make word obsolete. This is so much more flexible and offers so many bells and whistles, why would anyone prefer to be tied down with word documents. ZOHO writer rocks!!!

exercise 18

I guess it would have been a good idea to look at what 18 was before posting 17. I haven't changed my mind about the potential risks. That said, I really liked ratemyspace.hgtv.com. I may have to sign up to add my two cents. I'll have to think about that one (it could get addictive really easily). I still don't the the internet is a real social life and certainly not a good substitute for the real thing.

exercise 17

I think the internet is way cool. I think it is probably the easiest and fastest thing going if you're looking for quick info. I also do all my banking online and always know exactly where my account stands. Paying bills online is so much easier. You can pay everyone in less time than it takes to find a stamp. You never have to try and remember if you missed anyone. You can check in a matter of seconds. I don't really get the "visiting" online so many people seem to love. I think many people tell strangers things they don't share with family. There are so many other people out there look for weaknesses to exploit. It's a jungle with some really scary people out there. I think people are more easily fooled when they can't see the person that they are "talking" to and lose a lot of the use of their instint to judge the other person's character.

exercise 16

Wiki-Wiki! Sorry, I just couldn't resist. Well I guess wikis are interesting...but I am a little unsure about them as a reference source. I went to the hcpl site and added my blog to the list. That wasn't too painful. Something I did in exc. 15 sure was though. I got hundreds of emails. My yahoo account is a mess. Thank goodness I didn't use my hcpl account. WEW!!!

Exercise 15

I read "iceburgs", "more powerful way to cooperate" and "temporary place in time". Icebergs was a little out there. Tempory place in time had some really amazing ideas and gave me a lot to think about. The librarian's 2.0 maifesto seemed spot on.

Exercise 14

Technorati was entertaining. I did try searches using th URL. , tags & blogs. The first two seemed to get the same results, buy the results in "blog" were conpletely different. I'm not too sure about claiming my blog or using watchlists. Maybe later.

exercise 13

Del.icio.us was really interesting. If I get internet at home, this might be interesting to explore. I wish I had seen it before making my avatar. There are a lot more options out there than I realized or even dreamed of. This does look like it could be really time consuming if you have the time.

exercise 12

I signed up for library elf. I was a little put off by the personal information that they asked for but then again, who would care what I am reading? So I jumped in.

exercise 11

See my feed to the left on Library Thing. This is so cool!!! It was really interesting to see how many people had chosen the same books.

Exercise 10

excercise 9

I found the search tools a little overwhelming. I tried the seach tool on bloglines, feedster, ane topix. Some of the information was interesting. I also got some surprises. I had put decorating as the subject and pulled up a blog on Che Guaveara and the scary CIA. The amount of information alone made it difficult to take it all in.

exercise 8

I watched the tutorial, set up my bloglines account, ordered CNN and also Keddy's blog(whew!!!)

My Breakfast Room exercise 7 edited photo

Exercise 6

Color picker was interesting. I wonder if I might be able find a way to use it in decorating. There isn't time here to really explore enough. This is something I do want to come back to on my own time.

Furniture on Flickr - Exercise 5

my 30's English drop front, originally uploaded by lvalvane.

This was my first vintage piece. It is a 1930's English drop front writing desk. It is where all incoming mail is put and sorted through later. If my son lets his mail pile up, I look at my desk, not piles of mail. This is a much more pleasant view.

internet safety exercise 4

Internet safety is always a concern. Anything you put on the internet is out there forever, and some people may access it without your knowledge or permission. I would not have chosen to create a blog myself for this reason. Hopefully this I an unfounded concern.

I've never even seen a blog before!!! - exercise 2 & 3

This is a really strange experience for me. I hope that I'm doing this right. I have worked for Harris county for almost 8 years and this is probably the scariest thing I've done yet, but it is exciting too.

I'm a little shy in my learning style. It takes me a little while to get past my nervousness to have fun with a new skill. This hasn't been as difficult as I expected (so far).