Just Testing

 

Two Happy Faces at My Back Door

I need More Practice

I am very rusty in using blogger will need a refresher course to help me.

Just an update

I need to keep this blog active, so I am just writing a short note.

Time Time Time

Need to find time for blogs.

About Time

Must find time to keep my blogs up to date.

Baby Sitting

3 more sleeps. Then off they go back to their mother.

10 days of mayhem. At the same time as looking after two little grand daughters aged 3 & 5 I am trying to learn and practice for a humorous speech competition on Sunday 12th October.

I like to practice in front of a video camera - As soon as I start practicing my grand daughters - ask - Are you practicing your speech? They know that they have got 7 minutes for mayhem. Off they go in different directions, on Monday the three year old took a jar of honey off the table and it got spilt on her bed when the 5 year old was jumping on the bed. On Tuesday a banana milk shake was spilt on the floor. I am not sure if I want to practice my speech today.

Thank goodness for the movie "Barbie & the Diamond castle" they watch it twice aday.

Have to go now they want me to put on the movie again.

Not much time for reading. I am too tired at night to read more than a few pages.

Books I am Reading

I have just finished reading The household guide to dying a novel by Debra Adelaide. I really enjoyed this book and read it really fast. It is about an author and domestic advice columnist who is dying from breast cancer and her quest to tie up loose ends before she dies.

Another book I finished a few days ago was also about dying but being able to come back at an earlier time and change things so that your life has a happier ending it is called Will you be there? by Guillaume Musso.

I loved reading Geraldine Brooks novel People of the book. I loved the concept of the history of the book and all the people who had a hand in writing the book and protecting it over hundreds of years.

Rustic Theme

Today I found an interesting blog.
http://www.dustedbywhimsy.blogspot.com/
It is interesting because last Saturday 7th June 2008 I took some photographs of my toes. I was trying to get a rustic theme - a picture of my toes (I really need a manicure and should remove the old chipped nail polish) and a picture of my rustic old clothes trolley under the clothes line. The wheel keeps falling off the trolley and my husband keeps saying he should put new wheels on it but never gets around to it.

There is a lot of history behind this trolley.

The wheels came off the pram we bought in 1979 for our first baby. I pushed the pram which later converted into a stroller for three years then again for another three years with second son.

When our children no longer needed to be pushed around in pram or stroller we put the wheels to good use on the clothes trolley.

The basket has just about had it. I have been looking for a new basket but have not yet found one that I want.

The peg bag was made by my sister in law. I gave her the material and she made a peg bag for herself and one for me. When the bag was first in use the dark blue material kept running every time it was left out in the rain and I kept getting blue hands when I picked up the pegs.

But sadly its still hanging in and serving a useful purpose just like my toes.

Now the bike in this picture has a lot of history. We got the bike from my grandmother in 1982.

It was really old then and we fixed it up for our children. It was yellow and red then. It got a lot of rough treatment for years and then got hung up in the shed for a few years. A few years ago we got it down and re-painted it and now it gets a run around every few weeks when our granddaughters come to stay. The front tyre keeps falling off and has to be put back on.

Every time I see the bike I think of all the children who have enjoyed riding it.

Shoe Story

In March I wore the above shoe hat to a Mad Hatters Tea Party. I was supposed to be the dormouse for the evening so I thought a shoe on my head would be appropriate.

The party was a themed night for the Toastmasters Club that I am in.

An Interesting Blog

I have been wasting time searching different blogs and came across a very interesting blog. That I thought I might share.

http://chriskong57.blogspot.com/2008/06/shoe-boxa-touching-story.html


Today my husband is making a display cupboard for me. I will put some of my favorite books in it and on the three top shelves I will display my shoe collection.

I love reading about shoe stories, and collecting tiny shoes.

I am not about to start crocheting tiny shoes although I do have a some very easy instructions somewhere in one of my cupboards for crocheted baby bootees. I made some when my I was having my first son - 29 years ago.

Yesterday I tried to make a fabric dolls shoe using instructions for leather but it did not quite work out the way it was supposed to. It is very fiddly and I do not think I will waste my money buying the leather.

More Dream Houses

A Dream House

I saw this house recently while on holidays at Tamborine Mountain.

A perfect dream house for children.

Dreamhouse For Chooks

This is our finished Dream house for our chooks. It has a veranda and a finial on the pitched roof.
Our chooks love their home. Our rooster crows every morning at 6am.

PICT0189
Originally uploaded by my dreamhouse

Building a dream house for chooks

Building work in progress.

Long awaited new air conditioner

coolair059
Originally uploaded by my dreamhouse

New Air Conditioner arrives at Ballina Library April 2007.

Finished

I have had a look at Facebook and Myspace. I think Facebook would only be of use for sharing information with very close friends. I do not think I would use Facebook for tracking down school friends.

My Space has a few more features that may be useful. Although I do not like the way you age is displayed. At least on face book you can hide you details.

I have really enjoyed the last few months and will keep on adding information to this Blog.

There are a lot of features that I would like to explore further and in more depth.

I have made some corrections in some of my Blogs and added further information to some,

See WOW Week three for additional information.

Dot the I's and cross the T's

Almost There

Learning new technology is not as nerve wracking as driving along the Pacific Highway near Ballina.

Just checking. What have I learnt about the 71/2 habits of learning?

Habit 1. Begin with the end in mind.
When I commenced this online course I was hoping to learn about new technology and how I could use it in my work place and for my own interests.

Habit 2. Accept responsibility for your own learning!
I have always tried to accept responsibility for my own learning. I am continually refreshing my skills and learning new skills. I see learning as a challenge and am always setting new tasks.

I am a member of ALIA and committed to continued professional development - each year when I pay my ALIA membership renewal I inform ALIA what I have been doing in the last 12 months towards my Professional Development.

Habit 3. View Problems as Challenges.
While doing this online course I have had a few problems with RSS Feeds, Flickr, YouTube, and so on but I have enjoyed the challenge of trying to find a way around each problem.

Habit 4. Have confidence in yourself as a competent effective learner.
I am confident that I if I follow provided instructions I will be able to learn how to do what is required. Also I am confident that if instructions are incomplete I am prepared to try something different to achieve the desired results.

Habit 5. Create Your Own Learning Toolbox.
When I first read about the list of 7 1/2 habits I was intrigued by habit 5. I am keen to create my own learning tool box. In it I will put all of the essential tools that I need to effectively use electronic technology to add to my own learning and to improve my skills.

Habit 6. Use Technology to Your Advantage.
I am interested in Local History and would like to be able to create a WepPage of Blog that uses photographs, videos, and podcasts to gain interest and help make people aware of recording and preserving their own local history.

Habit 7. Teach and Mentor Others.
At work I have been able to work with other staff members as we worked our way through the Learning 2 activities.

Habit 7 1/2. Play.
I have spent many hours playing and having fun using the different technology that has been available while completing this online course.

Thank you for the fun learning environment. I have really enjoyed myself and have spent a lot more than 15 minutes a day in my own time at home just having fun.

Week 12: Wrap Up; Social Networks and Catch Up

Almost finished.

I am interested in joining Facebook and Myspace all the young people I know keep talking about these social networking sites and how great they are. A friend complained that he could not find anyone on Facebook that went to his school at the same time that he was there. He is in his fifties so I guess it will take some time before older people start using social networking. But as our children are using it we will need to also go to Facebook to connect with them and their friends.



If libraries want to encourage young people to use libraries they need to advertise that there is free Internet available for members, this could be done on Facebook or Myspac

Week 11. Online Applications and Tools

I have not been able to look at the slideshow from slide share for examples of of free online productive tools - it was too slow to load on dial up. I will try at work soon.

I was able to sign up for an account at Google Docs. I created a document and shared it with nswpln@gmail.com not sure if it went through correctly. The first time I put a (.) after nsw. So I tried sharing again using correct email address but it still went to same person.

It was easy to create a document and to look at different versions of same document after corrections.

I tried adding a picture but something went wrong so I deleted the link.

After the sharing document I then tried to send it to my blog - there were a few hiccups but eventually I found the correct tab to click. The instructions in help were a little different to what I did. But eventually the document was sent to my Blog. I wonder where the other two tries went.

I shared a book review for a book I read a few weeks ago as my document for this exercise.

Book Review

Agnes and the hitman by Jennifer Crusie and Bob Mayer

This book is about a woman with anger problems. She writes a food column and is called Cranky Agnes. Agnes is living in her dream house and will do anything to keep her house.

Agnes is preparing to cater for an important wedding. (She has a lot to lose if she doesn't hold the wedding at her house). As the wedding date gets closer things start going wrong.

Each time she solves a problem another obstacle appears. There is a few accidental killings, some shootouts and some murders.

There is a secret room, a missing 5 million dollars and lots of secrets.

It all starts when a picture of her dog wearing a necklace appears in the local newspaper.

All the way through the book Agnes keeps cooking delicious meals for her friends and anyone else who happens to call in to her house, especially at breakfast time.

As well as the delicious meals, Agnes finds time to spice up her love life.

I really enjoyed this book. There were a lot of surprises, some of the situations were a bit unbelievable but so funny.

Mashups - Calendar

This is a favorite beach that I sometimes go to.

Patrons using the library often ask to use a calendar. This type of Mashup could be used to make calendars with local scenic photographs or some local historic photographs and placed around the library. Or made available as requested. Monthly calendars could be put on computer desktops so users can quickly access a calendar.

Week 10. Mashups

I tried making a jig saw with one of my photographs but I did not like it.

Then I tried Hockneizing a photo of a cubby house I recently saw - when it was Hockneized it looked a bit like the house that Jack built. I liked it so I saved it.

Then I made a calendar of my favorite beach scene.

Mashups could be used in libraries to showcase activities and events held in the library.

They could be used in a display to advertise new books.

Week 9. Podcasts and Audio

I looked at some of the podcasts. Some of the book talks were interesting. A nice small snippet of information.

British Library podcasts were easy to listen to and very informative. Lists of podcasts arranged by year.



ABC Online had some interesting podcasts.



I did listen to some of this podcast. Click here to listen EdPod 2008_0410 Thursday 10 April 2008 Popular Podcasts EdPod Radio National.

It is easy to link to a podcast. Just right click and copy shortcut. Go to your blog write your blog highlight some text to click then click the ling option (near left align button) and right click and select past and add URL for the podcast.

Libraries could use Podcasts to feature guest speakers on their Webpage to advertise Book Talks, Youth Activities, and other special activities. Maybe story telling for children and oral history interviews from the Libraries Local History Collection to let patrons know what is available.