Thing 7 - Technology

I have turned into one of those old timers when I say "I remember when..." But I do remember when we had only card catalogs that consisted of cards in drawers. I always felt bad not knowing what other locations had available. I believe I sent many a customer on a wild goose chase, driving from branch to branch, looking for books. When OPL started with DYNIX in the 1990's it allowed me to confidently tell the patron that my branch did not own a specific title but another branch did. Instead of calling 9 locations trying to determine if a book was available, I only had to call one before sending a patron out. The wild geese have been tamed!

Thing 6: Mashups

I love the flickr color pickr. I think I would like to use it for backgrounds on flyers. I have seen the trading cards posted in libraries. It could be used as a quick version of the "Read" poster or as bookmarks with staff recommended titles listed on them.

I put some photos of the family and pets into a flickr account. I put two photos under the owhatageek tag. One is of my boys goofing in a hardware store and the other is the photo in this blog of Caleb with Obama. It is nice to be able to show the photos without worrying which computer or device I saved it on.

We met Senator Obama in Council Bluffs before the Iowa Caucus. We were at the end of a long line and his security was trying to hurry him along. When Caleb wanted to shake the Senator's hand Obama nudged the security man aside and reached for Caleb's hand.

Family time

I flew into Durango, CO this morning. It is great seeing my family. Malachi has homecoming this weekend. I finally had the chance to see him play a football game. Unfortunately, his undefeated team lost tonight. I think I may be bad luck for the guys.
Thanks to everyone that has asked about my mother. She will have surgery sometime in the next couple of weeks to unblock some arteries. Thinking about facing difficult health issues reminded me of Randy Pausch, the author of The last lecture. If you haven't seen it please take a look. It really puts things into perspective. Family is important and how your kids see you react to difficult times will shape how they react to unhappy times.

Waiting room

Stuck again at the hospital waiting room. My mom is getting poked, pricked, xrayed and whatever else they do to you when you are unconscious. No matter what floor I am on at the hospital there is always a free internet computer. It is amazing to think that 10-15 years ago family members had to wait for a phone call and phone tree to find out the results of tests and procedures. Now, everyone can find out at virtually the same time by logging onto am IM or blog account.....boredom

or maybe, lost in the web?

I am excited to do the 23 things. I have always wanted to try to set up a blog, play with a wiki, learn about RSS, etc... but I have never taken the time to do it. I guess that is the main problem about myself from the 7 1/2 habits, I never take the time to play. I am pretty good about the other things, viewing problems as challenges, confidence in self, etc... but I never take the time to do the hands on learning portion of technology.
Of course, some of the problem may be that I am cheap/poor and will not pay for internet at home :) so I don't have an opportunity to play at home and I feel funny goofing on the web when I have a stack of catalogs waiting for attention. Thank you Think Tank for giving me an excuse to play.