Smart, but feeling dumb - Thing 4

Okay, what am I missing? I have been futzing around for 2 hours trying to figure out how to spell with Flickr. Could it be something that my home computer is blocking (or is it just my brain)? Help! Here is the closest I got before giving up. I wanted to spell out "Smart, but feeling dumb," but now I just want to spell "DUMB" (I am referring to me, not the assignment). I've got to move on. I was hoping to get caught up on all my "things" today in anticipation of the others coming tomorrow. I did find Color Pickr and that was really cool. I played around with the world map and found Texas images. Wow, some people take really good pictures and/or are very good at editing their pics. I wanted to try out the captioner and even had a picture I wanted to use picked out, but couldn't figure out how to do it. Here's the picture. I was going to caption it with something like "What did I do to deserve this?!" Maybe I'll try to come back to this as I get caught up on my other "things."

Forbidden Flickring

I decided to do the Flickring Choice 2 assignment as well to gain experience. I've had some problems getting this done due to camera issues and home computer issues, but hopefully I will succeed today. At this point all I am trying to do is get this done so I can move on to the next things. These pictures are from a trip to Houston last fall to the Forbidden Gardens in Katy, Texas. It is an miniature replica of the Forbidden Gardens in China. It was created by a Chinese businessman that wanted to educate his children and other Chinese students who had moved to the U.S. for their college education and may not get an opportunity to see the real thing. My daughter is interested in all things Asian so this was an interesting and educational excursion for her. We are going back down to Houston this summer for an exhibit of the real terra cotta soldiers.

Life is Flickring before my eyes

You name it an Flickr has it. At least it seems that way. I didn't try looking for anything that might be considered pornographic or obscene, but there were tons of images for everything I tried. I looked at book-related themes such as people reading and cats reading. Then I moved on to some of my own personal interests such as polymer clay, marbled paper, fractals, and kaleidoscopes. If I am ever out of ideas for stuff to make all I need to do is go to Flickr for inspiration.

Thing 3 has made me realize how much photography has changed with the advent of digital cameras and cell phones. As with everything there is the good with the bad. The good being the sharing of images - family, creative, historical. The bad being the reduction of privacy and clogging up the Internet with junk.

Digital photography has been a boon for me. Before digital cameras I became known as the "Headhunter" because I was always chopping off the heads of my subjects in photographs. I wasted a lot of film (and money) taking bad pictures. Digital cameras allow me to see my work right away and allows for "do overs."

In the nick of time

This North Texas 23 could not have come at a better time for me. I am going to start contributing to Fort Worth Library's "Readers Nook" blog. My first article will appear on Wednesday. It looks unsophisticated compared to the more experienced contributors, but I am sure it will look better as I gain more experience. The trick will be coming up with something to write about every week. We'll see how it goes. I will be most interested in seeing if I get any reader feedback. Wish me luck!

Reading at the speed of light

I watched the shifted librarian video. I enjoyed it, but had difficulty reading fast enough. I have also seen Stephen Abram speak in person on Library 2.0 just last month. He was very thought provoking and I enjoyed his sense of humor. The exponential growth of knowledge is hard to keep up with and there is so much to filter, but even so I can see where it can lead to great things. I like the idea of collaborative knowledge and, having been a former ILL librarian, I wouldn't mind seeing copyright laws fall by the wayside. That would save a lot of people a lot of work. Of course I might feel differently if I put my blood, sweat, and tears into publishing something and found someone else claiming it as his own.

Ode to Oblio

"A point in every direction is as good a no point at all." This quote says everything about how I've been feeling about technology lately. I can really relate to Oblio from the 1970's cartoon, THE POINT. There are so many directions that I could go that I don't know where to start. This North Texas 23 program came just at the right time for me and I am looking forward to joining the 21st century. Maybe my 24th thing should be to finally get a cell phone.