Rollyo

Now this is a very useful website. I enjoyed it very much. I looked up Victoria Cross winners and was impressed by what it found. So much easier than typing a term into Google and ending up with 25,000 hits about Victoria B.C. and Queen Victoria. This is a site I'll use a lot. I can certainly see it being useful for the staff at the reference desk too. Oh, I also found a good recipe for an asian chicken and noodle dish too.

Library Thing

My first impression of this site was "ok, so what?". I guess I didn't quite get the sense of listing all my books. But the more I got into it (and admitedly I haven't spent a ton of time on it), I could see its appeal more and more. It would be kind of interesting seeing what other people think of the books I like and getting their reactions to them. It's like belonging to a giant online book club. I don't know how much I'd use this site for that purpose but I think if there was a book I wanted to read but wasn't sure about I might use this site to get some feedback about it.

Image generators

Here's my name in Tibetan

RSS

I signed up for all these different feeds, including one about cats, and ended up ordering a new toy for my cat Ted. This could be dangerous.
It's mind boggling how many different sites are out there on an incredible variety of subjects. There is truly something for everyone. I subscribed to a few news sites then did the fun ones that provide updated info on celebrities and fashion and all that silly mind candy that we can't do without.
I'm looking forward to really taking some time to look around and find out what else is out there.
It is handy to have these things all in one place so you don't have to go looking through each individually.

Technology and me

Like most people I think I have a love/hate relationship with technology. I certainly appreciate it on the job, especially when I'm doing things like creating posters. Design programs like Publisher can really make me look good (although it does take a bit of creativity too).
I just think sometimes machines have a mind of their own. Like when you're printing a letter and all of a sudden the machine takes a page from a different drawer even when you didn't change your printer settings. What's that about? Computers sometimes make a few too many assumptions about what you want to do.
I sometimes think about one of my earliest jobs (you don't need to know how many years ago, suffice it to say it was a few) where I made posters by photocopying pictures from clip art books and pasting them onto paper. Then I would type out the text and photocopy it to enlarge it. I thought the stuff I did was so great. I'm sure it would horrify me to see it now.
We're certainly not ever going to turn away from technology so one might as well embrace it and use it for what one needs. I guess the trick is to not be too intimidated by it although that's easier said than done.

Flickr mash ups

I think the mash ups about travel are terrific. It's such a great way to get information, maps, photos, etc from people who have been there. Takes some of the guess work out of the trip and lets you know some of the things to be aware of. I could see using this site before I booked any kind of trip.

Ahhh Japan!

I've always wanted to go to Japan so here is my vicarious vacation courtesy of Peter Gurnhum in Flickr.
Doesn't look much like December in Canada does it?