Wednesday, September 26, 2007

SUGABABES - About you now ( OFFICIAL MUSIC VIDEO)

It is always a plus when a favorite group comes out with a new single.
It is even better when that group is the Sugababes!
This group from the UK will keep you tapping your toes. They are an awesome pop group. Glad they have a new song. Cannot wait until they have a new album.
Enjoy the vid!

Saturday, September 22, 2007

Take That - Shine


Here is a video from Take That called Shine. Great song. Nice and poppy. Great for a Saturday. So, if you happen to be in the branches today, play this video and bop along and smile!

Tuesday, September 18, 2007

Anthony Callea - Addicted to you


Here is Anthony Callea, Addicted to You. It seems Anthony won the Australian Idol contest a few years ago. He has two albums so far. I just started listening to him and have only been able to hear him through his Youtube videos. But they are fabulous. He has two albums so far and I am planning on getting them as soon as I can. I really like this song!

Always bringing you the best in new music. Mysterious Musings. The place to be for tunes!

Monday, September 17, 2007

Peter Bjorn and John


This song rocks! I would like it even better if I could post it to my blog. However, that feature does not seem to be working today. But if this works, give this song a listen! You will be glad you did!

Friday, September 14, 2007

Dark Road

Here is the wonderful Annie Lennox with her new video for the single "Dark Road". The new album is out in October. It will be fabulous. She just gets lovelier with age. And what an entertainer.

Enjoy the video!

Monday, September 10, 2007

Week 9 Thing 23 (the Wrap Up)

Here we are at the end. (sniff sniff) and I have made it through my journey. And now I have this blog that I will keep and update with various things that I come across on my way through life. So keep checking back! You might find something useful. I am going to answer some questions now.

1. What were your favorite discoveries or exercises on this learning journey?

I learned about myself throughout this process. I learned that I am very comfortable with the internet and while others seemed to struggle with the assigments, I was able to just try new things and play and have fun. I really liked looking at the Web 2.0 awards. It was a nice collection of sites that I can go to and explore. It was a useful place to find the best of the best and learn something, too.

2. How has this program assisted or affected your lifelong learning goals?

I want to learn how to do a little bit more now. I would really like to learn how to set up my own podcast and put it on my blog. It really served as a starting point to help me learn more and dig a little bit deeper.

3. Were there any take-aways or unexpected outcomes from this program that surprised you?

Because of the link to the Maryland 2.0 site I learned all about Second Life, and signed up for an account. Now, when I get home, I can't get enough. I have an avatar and get to wander around this vast landscape with unlimited possibilities. There is so much to do, and to learn there as well. For example, you can actually learn to create and "build" your own objects. I have not really had the chance to play around with that, yet, but I will!

4. What could we do differently to improve upon this program’s format or concept?And last but not least…

I really liked the way the program was set up. I like learning on the computer and enjoyed watching the videos and listening to the podcasts. But then, I am really comfortable with this as a format. I think there were some librarians who were struggling because they were not as sure of themselves on how to do things here. They might need a little more time, or support.
Maybe if someone from Info services could stop by the branches to "check in" just to see how things are going. We did have a few of use trying to help the rest, so it seemed to work out. But some people are really nervous about the internet!

5. If we offered another discovery program like this in the future, would you again chose to participate?

I would. I had fun with the program and want to learn more. I am sure there are a lot of great sites that we have not even included, and as things change, more new sites and services will be invented every day. As I said before, I would like to learn how to do a podcast. Maybe we can include that in the future? A more advanced 23 things? I think we can also repeat the basics for those that need more practice. That way we can serve all levels of learning at once.

6. How would you describe your learning experience in a few words or a few sentences, so we can share our successes and promote this program?

I gained a lot from the program. I liked the self paced learning style and the fact that you could "visit" other participants sites to see the progress. I liked how it opened up dialogue in the branch as we discussed what we were doing and learning. I liked being able to tick off each thing as I got closer to the end. I liked having the blog as a finished project to show my success. I really had fun experimenting with the sites. I really enjoy my job as a librarian and this is one of the reasons. We need to keep on top of new technology. This was a great way to do it!

Thanks for all the work you did on setting up the program. I hope we get a new list of 23 more things that we can do soon!

Friday, September 7, 2007

Week 9 Thing 22 (the Ogg Vorbis)

For this exercise, I decided to explore Project Gutenberg.

I thought that it might be good for our customers to be able to pick a classic novel and listen to it instead of reading it. The youth of today seem to like audio formats to text formats, and project Gutenberg had a lot of classic literature to choose from. I was also unaware that you could listen to the books as well as read them!

For my first foray into the world of audio files, I selected George Eliot and Middlemarch. And then I hit my first snag. It seems that many of the files on Project Gutenberg have a computer generated voice. I was listening, it sounded quite like a robot, and I quickly decided that a computerized voice is not what I need when listening to Victorian Literature. It just doesn't fit.

But luckily, I could also search for human read audio files. For the computer generated files it was easy to do, you just opened the web page and clicked and listened, but for the human read files it required a little more work.

You have to download the human read files and they are in a format that I have never heard of before. They have a .ogg extension. They are called Ogg Vorbis files! I really think that is kind of a catchy name. So I downloaded my .ogg file and put it on my desktop. But my computer balked at this point because I had nothing to open the file with.

But, being the computer genius that I am, I quickly solved that problem by going into Google and typing "opening .ogg files" and wouldn't you know, I found an application called Audacity.

That quickly downloaded and installed and I was able to open my .ogg file and begin to listen to Queen Lucia by Benson. Much more fun to listen to by human voice. And I learned a little bit more about auido files.

I think I am going to spend some more time with the software I installed called Audacity. It appears to be able to do quite a few things and looks like it might be quite fun to play around with. I will be sure to let you know.

This weekend I am going to check out overdrive and maybe download an audio to listen to at home. Looks pretty easy to do, I watched the tutorial and will give it a go.

Then, I am ready to summarize the program and wait for the next list of 23 to do!

Wednesday, September 5, 2007

Kate Nash - Mouthwash [Official video]

Here is a new artist that I like. Kate Nash and her song Mouthwash. Not sure what the title means yet, have to pay closer attention to the song. But it is rather uplifting and bouncy and I love her voice. I definately have her album on my list of things to get in the future! I hope to hear more from Kate and hopefully there will be some videos for future singles. Good Job Kate!

Tuesday, September 4, 2007

Week 9 Thing 21

Podcasts.

I had never really thought about them before.

I knew they were out there, floating around, but I am more visual than auditory, so I spend more time watching youtube than listening to podcasts.

But I was unaware just what was available.

I spent some time this weekend searching podcasts.yahoo.com.

I searched for House Music. I searched for Techno. I searched for UK Music and I wound up with some awesome radio shows that I can play while I cook dinner. One of them includes some unsigned British artists and is a little weird, but hey, I am all about weird.

Don't believe me? Try going to www.nyub.net and give it a listen.

Then, I searched for language. Did you know you can learn Japanese, Chinese and even French via a podcast? Really. I spent Sunday night trying to teach my dog French. I started the podcast and went to cook dinner. My dog sat listening and learning how to use the airport in France, with all the necessary vocabulary. I am not sure if she really picked anything up. But I found it to be quite awesome.

Oh, yeah. And I DID check out the library sites that use podcasts, too. I liked the fact that you could create a story on the net like we have dial-a-story. I also like the idea of booktalks that you can listen to. More fun than you can shake a stick at.

Still don't know how to make a podcast myself, but I think I will leave that as a learning task after I complete the program. I only have two more things to go, so I should be done soon.

Until then, keep listening. And check in sometime in the future. You may have a mysterious voice to contend with!

Thursday, August 30, 2007

Week 9 Thing 20

As you all know, I am no stranger to youtube. In fact, youtube has made my life so much better!

For example, here is the new single from Girls Aloud - Sexy No No No. I love Girls Aloud, but they are a group from the United Kingdom and don't release music in the U.S. So, the only way I can find out about their new releases is to scan for info from England. But youtube changed all that. When the girls release a video, the video is posted in the same week of the release. And me, at home, in Baltimore, can log on and see the video almost immediately. And I can determine if I like the song and want to spend my money on it.

Youtube really makes the world a smaller place. It is a great place to find tunes and experience new music. Give it a try! You can find music from all eras, new videos and old. Just don't annoy the coworkers too much.

Wednesday, August 29, 2007

Week Eight Thing 19

Just came back from a visit to http://www.oodle.com

Oodle was one of the winners of the Web 2.0 awards and I can see why. Oodle searches the classified ads for certain cities, and luckily, Baltimore is one of the cities I can search.

It breaks it down nicely into categories if you are just browsing, like I was doing. When you select a category, you get a nice listing of sub headings along the left hand side of the screen so you can narrow down your search. For example, I selected Cats as a heading and looked at available cats in the Baltimore Area. I can limit that further to Himalayan, my favorite type of cat. I can also limit by location, if I only wanted to travel to Towson, or if I had lived in Annapolis.

It offers the basic classified searches, apartments, real estate, objects and things for sale, pets, tickets to concerts and sporting events and even personal advertisements. It was quite fun to browse to see what was available. You even have a nice keyword function if you were looking for something more specific.

As my laptop is giving me gas, I might log on to Oodle and look around. What can I lose?

I hope all of you in Blogland are doing well on the 23 things and finding cool new sites to experience. I never would have noticed Oodle if not for the 23 things. I am going back to the awards to play around with some other winning sites. Catch you on the flip side.

Week Eight Thing 18

Week 8 Thing 18

Moving along.

Here I am on Zoho Writer creating a fabulous little document I hope to export to my blog. surprised

And it even does smilies.

It looks like I can do some nifty things with it, like insert a link (although this function seems to be not working correctly. I don't seem to be able to insert one.

http://www.hedkandi.com/ and there it is!

I have named my document and have saved it. I can even strike out text if I want to.

I can really see the wonderful benefits to having something like this in libraries. We no longer have to rely on Microsoft Office, we can direct customers to Zoho Writer. They can create documents such as resumes and save them on Zoho Writer without needing to have a disk or a thumb drive. They can then open the document on any other PC that they log in to. It looks like they can even email the document as an attachment, right from here. I definately hope to steer some of my customers to Zoho Writer. I hope to learn how to use it more myself. What a great way to use the web.

Tuesday, August 21, 2007

Week seven thing 16 and 17.

Just a song to make sure you are awake! Today I was reading about Wikis. I like the concept behind wikis, I am just not sure how useful they would be to me. I would have a problem with putting my words out on the internet and having anyone anywhere editing them at will. I think that some of the information on Wikipedia is good, but how can you tell that someone hasn't just edited the info and posted incorrect information? If I wanted to, I could head over to Wikipedia right now and cause all sorts of chaos by simply changing dates and times and changing the spelling of key terms. Then I would sit back and wait until someone catches my changes and fixes them. But someone could go to Wikipedia to do a school project and get bad information and thus get a bad grade. So, I think you have to be careful as to whom you let change your words.

But I can see how it would be useful if several people were working on a group project and all needed to add to and edit a document. Then you would not need to track down the current document on a disk, you could just log in and see the work in progress. Then you could add and update your changes. This would make it easier for all people concerned. Definately a good use for a wiki.

I hung around the wiki sandbox and it is a fun idea, but I could't think of anything to post. It was very freeform and chaotic and had no real organization and it was hard for me to just jump on in and add some other nonsense. I like to have a purpose behind my writing. But I did add my link to the list of links to prove that I was there!

So, I know how to use a wiki if ever I should need one. I guess that is all that matters.

Friday, July 20, 2007

Library 2.0 Perspectives

And a video.

This is Victoria Hart. "Whatever Happened to Romance". Three points if you can answer that question.

I have been thinking about library 2.0 and everything that we have been learning. I guess my thoughts lie with both training of the customers and learning from them. We have always had technology classes in the library but they have traditionally been "Introduction to the internet" and "introduction to Microsoft Word". Now there is so much more that our customers are experiencing. I know that I am always finding new things to do and see online. I am oftened amazed at our younger customers who are playing online games, watching videos, and posting with rapid fire precision. If we could tap into our customers knowledge base, and let them know that we are interested, we might be able to work with them to create programs that are fun and enlightening and can teach us librarians a thing or two.

I know that funding sometimes prohibits us from being as cutting edge as we would like to be. The minute we purchase a new piece of technology, it begins to become outdated. But with web applications, maybe some of our customers at home can experience the library in a new way.

Perhaps a virtual librarian can be projected right into their living room.

I am just excited to be part of the ride!

Thursday, July 19, 2007

Be Good or Be Gone, Fionn Regan

I know, I know.

Long time no post. I have been suffering in this heat. I don't think my brain has been working all that well. When it gets above ninety, I start sliding. Can't think of things to say and surely can't update the ole' blog.

But, I can't keep my public waiting, so I thought I would entertain you with a video.

This is Fionn Regan and I really love him. I just ordered his CD and hope to get it this week. Definately someone worth listening to.

I know we will be getting to Youtube on the 23 things, and I have more than made up for that week by all the videos I have been posting. But I love youtube. I hear all my new music that way. I have a couple of other artists I want to post this week, so if you are so inclined, please tune in and watch. You won't regret it.

Ciao!

Wednesday, June 27, 2007

Week Six, thing 13.

Have been playing around on del.icio.us. I have set up my own account, and have been saving files and tagging away.

For example, this new video by Amy Winehouse (Tears Dry On Their Own) can be tagged Winehouse, video, music, youtube, tears and hair. I wondered if there was a way to tag something as a phrase, so you could use "Amy Winehouse" or "big hair" as a tag, but so far I can only see how to do tagging with one word.

I find it interesting that after you tag something you can select your tagged word and click "popular" and find other sites that share that tag.

I can really see how del.icio.us can be used for research. If I were reading serious articles for a paper I could put them all together under one heading. Most of the sites I am tagging are purely for fun but they are links that I go to quite frequently and it is nice to be able to log in to del.icio.us from any computer and find my list of personal links that I can peruse.

I have several youtube videos saved on my del.icio.us account with tags so I can just type in video and get a list of my favorites.

Then I can post the video here and torture you all with it.

I hope the rest of you have as much fun tagging as I am having!!!

Tuesday, June 26, 2007

Patrizio Buanne - Il Mondo

This is Patrizio.

He is marvelous.

I just picked up his CD called "The Italian" and I really love it.

My coworker thinks he sounds like Tom Jones, and I guess she is right!

I am off to work on the next of my 23 things. I will leave you to swoon for a bit, and catch up with you on the flip side.

Thursday, June 21, 2007

Melanie C - I Want Candy

This is a little ditty that I have been listening to all week. It is the Fab-U-Lous Melanie C (Sporty Spice) who has a great new album available in the UK called This Time. Worth listening to.

I know you all think I have an uncontrollable Spice Girls fetish. I mean, this IS the second post involving one of the Girls, and it is definately starting a trend.

Who should be next? Ginger? Baby? Scary?

Leave a comment and let me know!

Monday, June 18, 2007

Week Five, thing Twelve

Just finished playing with Rollyo.

Made my own little collection of sites called "cruise info".

It seems to work.

I am thinking about putting a search bar onto the sidebar but haven't done that yet. My sidebar is getting quite crowded. The more the merrier.

I have put my "cruise info" search bar over onto the sidebar. Now you all can search and find the cruise of your dreams. I know I will be doing that soon!

So, I guess week 5 is finished. Now, onto week 6. Can't wait to see what I need to learn now.

Wednesday, June 13, 2007

Week Five: The Avatar

I am busily working on week Five of the 23 things.

As you can see, I have my own avatar on the sidebar. I made him on http://www.meez.com and you can, too! He doesn't really look all that much like me, maybe he is the me that I would like to look like. Anyway, it sure was fun.

I also put a Weather Pixie on my sidebar. You can as well if you go to http://weatherpixie.com/, but it takes a little work to get him or her on your sidebar. Weather Pixie is fun because you can pick your state and zip code and the pixie changes with the weather. In summer he is in shorts but when winter rolls around he will wear winter clothing. I think it is quite nifty.

I have also started putting my books onto Library Thing. Boy, I sure do like mystery novels. But it is a great way to keep track of my favorites. You can also go to http://www.goodreads.com/. Good Reads works just like Library Thing. I knew about that one first, and had a profile there but have also started one on Library Thing. I hope I can keep all my logins and passwords straight!

I hope the rest of you are having fun.

Tuesday, June 12, 2007

Posh Spice and the Rss Feed Post


Just a quick pic of Posh Spice (AKA Victoria Beckham) looking like a zebra. Does the woman ever eat?
This picture is to highlight my experience with RSS feeds and Bloglines. I DID set up my Bloglines account and one of the things I am supposed to do is share my feeds with my fellow librarians.
But I just can't.
The truth is, the news that I seem to be reading is all about trashy celebrities. If you read my Bloglines feeds, you would think I spend all my time looking at Britney's backside, her awful extensions, Paris crying in the car and the Jessica and John breakup.
And I do.
And I am not that fond of popular culture. I just like celebrities making asses out of themselves. I like to see them looking like dirt. I relish in their misery.
Does this make me a bad person? Maybe so.
But now I have a collection of RSS feeds and all my trash is in one place. Sure saves time!

Monday, June 11, 2007

8 Things Meme

I was tagged by Ellen and now must write eight things about myself. I wonder if you can guess who I am based on my responses.
1. As you can probably tell, I am a mystery lover. I especially love mysteries set in the United Kingdom. If you happen to run into me and ask me for a suggestion of a good book, be rest assured that there will be a dead body involved.
2. I adore pop music. There is nothing better. I think it might be because I grew up on Abba. Incidentally, much of the pop music I like also comes from the United Kingdom. I sense a trend here.
3. I am very fond of creatures that have four legs. I have three four legged creatures for a grand total of twelve legs. Added to the two two legged creatures that also live in the house, that would make it a sixteen leg household.
4. I rarely watch TV. I do like to watch full legnth movies and have a subscription to Netflix, but I do not have cable or a TV antenna. The only shows I watch are the shows I am able to watch online. If I am interested in a show, I wait until it comes out on DVD. Then I rent it, commercial free.
5. I live in a three story townhouse that also has a creepy basement. Does this make it a four story townhouse? I do not like going down into the basement because I have a pathological fear of spiders. Even when I can't see them, I know they are there, lurking. I hope I never need anything that might be in the basement!
6. I am not what you would call a neat person. In fact, I tend to be rather cluttered. I find comfort in my piles of books and music and odd whatnots that live on the coffee table. Like most cluttered folks, I tend to also know just where everything is.
7. I love to go out to eat and will try almost any type of cuisine. My favorite things to eat are Mexican and Indian. I also like sushi but I draw the line at raw fish. I like vegetable sushi. More mushrooms please.
8. I am not a fan of summer and I dislike heat intensely. I would much rather have things be cool and I really love the autumn best as a season. I don't have air conditioning in the living room of my house and it can be unbearable in the summer.
Play along! I am not going to tag anybody because I am not familiar enough with the new blogs in order to tag eight of you. But if you want to have some fun, play along. Just the facts, please!

Sunday, June 10, 2007

Saturday, June 9, 2007

New Technologies, me and you.

Today I am posting about a new technology that I love. It is called Rhapsody. I am sure you will want to jump on the Rhapsody bandwagon when I tell you all about it.

Rhapsody is a music service that costs only 14.95 a month. It is like a huge lending library of music. You have to get an Mp3 player called the Sansa (others will work but the Sansa works the best) and log on to Rhapsody and go to town.

The gist is that you don't own the music. You borrow it. Full legnth cd's. New music, old music, every type of music. You pick what you want and load it onto the Sansa and play it all you want. You can't burn it to a CD because you don't own it, but you can listen to it all you like.

It is a great way to find new artists that you may not know about. How many times have you purchased a CD because you liked one song, only to find out you hated the rest of them? How many times have you purchased a hot new artist, listened to it for a month and then tired of it and moved on to something else?

With Rhapsody you can borrow the music, listen and delete. Then get more. I love it!

Some of my new favorites are Rihanna's "Umbrella" , Erasure's new CD "Light at the End of the World" and the new Rufus Wainwright. Go get out there and start listening!

Friday, June 8, 2007

Maryland 23, Flickr and me


P1010122, originally uploaded by deweydjbus.

Been playing around with Flickr this morning and have managed to upload some photos I took on a cruise last December. This is a picture of an orchid in a garden in Barbados. I am a little bit familiar with photo sites, I have pictures uploaded on Shutterfly as well, but for the sake of the assignment, I am now also on Flickr.

I have also managed to set up my Flickr account so I can choose a picture and just create my post on Flickr,and it should transfer it right over to my blog. Nifty!

I do have to say that I am not a novice at blogging. I have had a personal blog for over two years and love posting as well as reading other blogs. But I really hope to learn some new things from the 23 items.

Hope everyone else is having fun learning!

Thursday, June 7, 2007

Welcome To Mysterious Musings

This is the first post on what will be a wonderful ride. As you can tell, I love reading mysteries. I have posted a list of some of my favorite reads on my sidebar, and all of you will need to read at least one.

Currently, I am reading Progress of a Crime by Julian Symons. Quite good, really. British. Won the award for best novel in 1960 for the Edgar Awards. They don't write em' like that anymore! Of course, I had to interlibrary loan the thing because it is such an old chestnut we don't own it in our system anymore. Some of the best novels are out of print.

In the car I am listening to Sparkling Cyanide by Agatha Christie. Just can't get any better than her! And we have some wonderful audio editions of her titles in our library. I think I have gone through most of them. Probably will have to listen to them all over again.

Definately will keep you posted!