Twitter

Twitter...I don't get it. Trying out Twitter, 'playing' with it, adding contacts, has demonstrated one big component of my personality - I am antisocial. I couldn't think of anyone with whom I wanted to share that much of my life. I did accidently participate in my first IM (instant message) and that was pretty cool, even if my son was eventually sorry he acknowledge being online since it gave me the opportunity to quiz him about his life - he loves it when I do that. But he was too polite to totally ignore me (though I could tell that his responses were the written equivalent of "Mmhmm...yeah...oh...ok." God bless him.)

My Twitter username is patob1495. I'm so excited that I have another username to memorize!! Thank God I have a razor sharp memory. Looking back on my Twitter posts I realize that under ordinary circumstances I would never have thrown those posts out there for just anyone to read - I would direct it to specific people.

Libraries could use Twitter in place of general emails about needing materials for projects (paper towel tubes, trashed CDs, bubble wrap). It would cut down on emails. I personally can't see using Twitter because it's usefulness is in it's immediacy and I don't have a cell phone that can receive Twitter (mine is VERY basic - for emergencies). So - I'm a twit about Twitter!

Good Reads (rather than Library Thing)

I already have a Good Reads account which I use rather than Library Thing. Why, you ask? Basically because several people I know already use Good Reads so I'm tagging along. No, not that kind of tagging. Though I have 102 books listed I haven't tagged them by genre or other identifying factors.

I don't utilize Good Reads as I should because I always forget to add to it and, though one function of this tool is to keep one organized (and to share titles with friends), if I was organized enough to use it I probably wouldn't need it. Well, that explanation makes sense to me.

Image Generator - Letter James

I could spend hours on the Letter James site it's so addicting. Here are three images I generated from the site and then emailed to friends and family. Try it and you'll be hooked -I promise you.

Finding Feeds

From the title one would naturally assume that we're talking restaurants. Sorry, no restaurants (though you might want to check out my Bloglines feed for Restaurant Widow "dining.drinking.cooking in Columbus, Ohio").

No, it's time to play more with RSS feeds. I looked at Topix.net, Syndic8.com and Technorati and didn't particularly like any of them. They seem geared toward News (yes with a capital N) or news of the weird, nothing I was interested in.

I like iGoogle and my.Yahoo aggregators 'cause they're pretty and organized visually AND because it was easy to pick sites of interest. Or I go to favorite websites to link to their feeds. Notice the pics of my iGoogle and my.Yahoo. Nice, right?

I like discovering feeds by bumming around, jumping from one site to another, serendipitously finding something of interest and then BAM, adding it to my favorites list (old way) and now adding it to my Bloglines list.
P.S. Thanks to Steve for preventing a total whine fest by helping me with the screen shots.

RSS feeds

I've basically thrown 12 feeds on to my blogspot account in order to complete this task therefore these aren't necessarily feeds that I will use in the future or that I can unequivacally recommend. I'll go back later and spend time picking and choosing what I'll really use as I become more familiar or see a need. However, I may not need to add many feeds because I already use Google and Yahoo as aggregator sites (did I say that correctly?) and they are much prettier to look at. For the most part I've put RSS feeds for NPR programs on both G and Y; Fresh Air, All Things Considered, Weekend Edition. I'm more comfortable with how these are organized since I am such a visual learner.

www.bloglines.com/public/listentothis

On the the next task!