Week 10 * Thing 19

Well, I can certainly see all kinds of school applications for this stuff! I know some of my teachers have been using Google Docs, but it seems to me that this set up has more refinement in its toolbars, more stuff ready-to-go, in an obvious and intuitive layout.

Now I want comment boxes in my Word at school.

One part of this exercise was a bit alarming though. I started an account with 30Boxes. com ("It will organize your life!"), but immediately deleted it when it started dragging in all of these online accounts I had set up last spring during my first go at the 23 Things. My Flickr account, my dog's MySpace, all kinds of things. Just a chilly reminder that, if you've put it on the internet, you no longer control it -- whatever it is.

P.S. Hey, I posted from Zoho. This is too hip for words! Shiny!

Week 9 * Things 17 & 18

Well, I going to skive out of this one by referring to a wiki for which I am already the wikiwizard, "The Cormorant's Rock"*. We have used it for two years now to organize** my family reunion. I have taken this opportunity to update the info, such as it is, and will be adding some new documents from last summer's gathering as soon as they arrive in my in-box. But, since wikis are already in my Happy Place, I will forge ahead to Thing 19 and it's friends.

*The name comes from the English translation of the name of the large rock/tiny island which is the site of Castle Stalker, the traditional seat of Clan Stewart of Appin. The Gaelic, "Creag an Sgairibh" is also the clan war cry, which you can hear at any highland games or Burn's Night supper with clan members in attendence.
**The term "organized" is used here in the very broadest sense.

Week 8 & 1/2 * Thing 15

Well, pleased as I am to finally get a look at this Technorati, I don't think I'll be bookmarking it right off the bat, on account of the following --

• I couldn't find ANY posts on Norwegian Red cattle. Well, in English anyway.
• I spent too much time trying to find the "tutorials" in About.com, not realizing that they were those puny tidbits of actual information cleverly wedged into the spaces between the ads. This is not, of course Technorati's fault in any way, but it meant I started out grumpy.
• I couldn't find any way to dig out Robin McKinley's blog, to which I am currently addicted, despite having a wide choice of fairly unusual words and phrases to use as search terms -- one would think that "hellhounds" coupled with "chocolate" would do it, wouldn't one?

On the other hand, watching the cloud tag undulate, and thinking about what that signifies could easily drive one to recreational substance abuse of the benign, philosophical variety.

Week 8 * Thing 14

Well, so far I think I've had about a fifty percent success rate with Del.icio.us. In comparison with our friend Mr. Google, it worked brilliantly for researching people, but not so well for terms with potentially more than one meaning (Twelfth Night the holiday, as opposed to Twelfth Night the Shakespearean play; or The Kippers the satirical folk band, as opposed to The Kippers, a new British term for adult children who live at home [Kids In Parents' Pockets Eroding Retirement Savings]). I am more than willing to assume that this is because I haven't learned how to refine my searches sufficiently, and that it will become more useful as I learn.

I very much fear that one of the long-term results of this research will be a future of unkind remarks from a younger household member. He approached the computer as a Del.icio.us link to a YouTube video about Norwegian Reds, a breed of cows in which I have recently become interested, was unfolding as some kind of AI tutorial. "And people complain about ME wasting time on YouTube!" he says. He was particularly taken by the "Thank you for viewing" message at the end. I can pretty much guarantee that he will still be picking on me about this until I am too old to be satisfying to harass.

Week 7 * Thing 13, or, The Blue Boare Phoenix Rises to LibraryThing

Well, after seven months of fannying about with real life (to no avail,) here I am back in cyberspace, confronting LibraryThing. My first impression is that it shares many qualities with recreational substance abuse -- I could happily wallow in it all the livelong day, but that wouldn't necessarily be a good thing.

I mean, it is TRULY gratifying to discover that there are at least fifty-seven other people in the world who have some sort feeling for Frontier Wolf. I am the only Rosemary Sutcliff fan I know in real life -- now I have a way to communicate with my cyberpeers. It could easily become my drug of choice.

And the collective stats are fascinating too. If I am reading the Zeitgeist section correctly, the third most popular author is Terry Pratchett, who follows only Ms. Rowling and Mr. King. But Pratchett is not nearly as well known, at least in the circles in which I travel (though I am doing my best to ameliorate that situation.) Does that meant that there are more Pratchett fans than Tolkien fans (J.R.R. came in fourth) or Austen fans (Jane was way down the line)? Or are Pratchett fans for some reason just more likely to use LibraryThing? Maybe Pratchett fans are just more cool? or more techy? The sociology of it all is crying out for a dissertation.

But if I take the time to really indulge in it all, my print library would be left unshelved, my dog left unfed, my children left unchauffeured. And several of my dependents think already think that I am too irresponsible already.

But now I have a spiffy "Random Books from My Library" on my blog just like Pam Burke, so I have filled out my personal cool quotient for the week. Maybe the month.

Week 7 * Thing 12

Well, I can sleep well tonight, because the Gnome Name Generator has revealed to me that my gnome's gname is Stewart the Lost Night Watchman of Wick. (As a Pratchett fan, I am of course favorably disposed towards the Night Watch.)

But honestly, do these people not have day jobs -- or is this what they do at their day jobs?

Not that I didn't have fun. I enjoyed the Letter James e-cards, and I may actually go back to that site. And the Pocket Emo Generator helped me in my quest to define and identify this new sub-cultural group -- wearing a messenger bag seems to be key.

Disappointingly, the Instant Salvation Generator did not live up to it name. The Merovingian Name Generator seems to have a leaning toward the lewd, but I guess the Merovingians did too.

Creating avatars was definitely too creepy for me -- I assume it's a sign of age. They just all seem too slinky and insidious, as though they might inexplicably mutate into a computer virus if I saved one in my computer. So I didn't.

Not a Week at All

Well, since my day job has been getting so excruciatingly in the way, I really have little of substance to add here -- at least, little that is on topic. As a diversionary measure, I will post this video on THE hot topic of current politics -- wren hunting.