Not Swamp Thing, Not Wild Thing ...

LibraryThing! Argh! Another way to have hours, days, and perhaps even weeks vanish into the ether!

But I was a good little librarian and opened my account, added my five titles, and even stuck a widget on my blog. Here's the link to my catalog: http://www.librarything.com/catalog/maxinemarks

Whoops. I guess I just divulged my name. Ah, I could never keep a secret!

Lost in Translation

I played around with an image generator and here's my first name (Maxine) in Chinese:
If there are any Chinese staffers out there who would dispute this, please leave me a comment. I personally can neither confirm nor deny the validity of this.

To see your name in Chinese, go to http://www.chinesetools.eu/names/.

And that's Thing #10!

All the News That's Fit to Feed

Zipping along with Things 8 & 9. Bla Bla has now joined Bloglines--has a certain ring to it, no? I subscribed to a number of feeds, mostly book-related. These I can rationalize reading at work. The others? I fear this is not the kind of thing I need to do on a regular basis. This is a procrastinator's nightmare. I have deliberately cancelled most of my magazine and newspaper subscriptions, because I could easily spend the rest of my waking hours reading and clipping. I must show at least the semblance of a normal life! And, coincidentally, check out my current email signature (which does change from book to book):

"We told him to get on with it. We liked wasting time, but almost nothing was more annoying than having our wasted time wasted on something not worth wasting it on." Then we came to the end, Joshua Ferris.

Technology Rant

No, this isn't a rant against technology. It's a rant against people who use the term as an excuse to be lazy. I used to work at another library where an older colleague used to fetch me every time a patron wanted to change a font in a Microsoft Word document. "She's our computer expert," she would say. Puleez! I still get called to unjam printers with the line "Maxine's great with the technology stuff." I do not consider myself a technological whiz kid. I am willing to try things and don't get frightened by computers, which I guess gives me a leg up on your average bear. But still, I'm learning from this series of exercises that there's plenty of technology with which I am totally unfamiliar.

The problem with Learning 2.0 is that it's not mandatory. Thus, the people who already have an interest will explore, and those who don't will ignore it and go on their merry ignorant way. Tis pity.

Sons of Flickr

Combining Flickr fun with vacation fun--what could be better? One of the featured third party Flickr apps was fd's Flickr Toys, and I had fun playing with the Magazine Cover. OK, so it's not really London--it's Bath--but it is a pretty decent shot of three broads abroad. Kathryn and Nancy--tally ho!

Seriously, tho, I never even got to most of the other Flickr tools, so I have a feeling I'll be back here another day.

My Friend Flickr

Yippee! I think I've already covered this item, albeit out of order--which is par for the course for me. I created the letter banner across the top of my blog with Flickr letters. All it took was going to Flickr, typing in letter b (and l and a, respectively), and selecting the ones that I liked. When you double-click on the photo, you get the option of different sizes for download.

Like so:




Then you can import it into a graphics program and play to your heart's content. I told you--I learn best by playing!

2 Out of 7-1/2 Ain't Bad

Onward, she said, trying desperately now to play catch-up ...The easiest by far is the "play" aspect, which I also truly believe is also the best way to learn. If it's not fun, and it's not required, let's face it--none of us would put ourselves out. The trick is, therefore, to find the play in the mundane. Not always an easy task, but hey, I was choosing my fave between play and viewing problems as challenges and opportunities.

More difficult is to maintain a positive outlook and mindset. All of the time. 'Nuff said.

Yay! Four down!