Library Musings

Doesn’t matter what year, there are always strange tech problems that we fix so frequently it comes to seem natural. When I was a tween/teen I had the most marvelous ten-speed bike. I even named it: Ums. I constantly biked around the small college town where I lived…except for when the chain slipped off the derailleurs and I had to get off the bike and fix them. Years later an in-law commented that every time he saw me with the bike I was fixing it, not riding it. I hadn’t thought about it until he said that, but he was right. I was so proud of that bike and so much enjoyment from it that I didn’t even notice how much of my time went into the basics of keeping it running.

And now there is my freaking modem and Internet connection. In an evening of using the Internet I find it necessary to stop 8 to 10 times because I lose my Internet connection. I unplug the modem, wait about 20 seconds, plug it back it back in, wait for it to negotiate, and then check my connection by launching WeatherBug all before taking the risk of returning to using my browser. And that’s when I don’t have to disconnect, turn off the computer and start everything back up from base level.

Bicycle — Modem. It’s the same thing. Maybe I should name my modem Ums, Jr.

Some WD-40 might have helped the bike. I have requested my ISP to send me a replacement modem, and if that doesn’t work I’ll be switching my account to either cable of satellite in spite of the hassle of changing my e-mail address and etc.

Aargh!

I am reading Here Comes Everybody by Clay Shirky I am grateful to have found this book. I had gotten the impression (rightly or wrongly) from projects such as 23 Things, that the best way for me to understand Web 2.0 was to go forth and create my own blogs, wikis, etc.

Here Comes Everybody talks about the Power Curve, best known for the 80/20 application common to businesses, etc. According to the Power Curve, the first one or two blogs in an area will be significantly more successful than those from third position on down. Twenty percent of the blogs will have 80% of the readers. 80% will have only one reader. (And I sometimes think that reader is the person who is writing the blog–at least in my case.)

It doesn’t mean that keeping a blog is a bad thing, but it takes the pressure of trying to “sell” your blog to others off. I can now comfortably think of my blog as a place for my own musings and for my own reflection and remembrance on/of those musings. And I can concentrate more time on following the 20% of blogs that are successful and offer me a reading benefit.

I’ve also learned a lot about Wikipedia and why it works, as well as the concept of Wikis and why they have to have an interested audience even if it is small and temporary. (As in my YALSA class on young adult lit.)

There is also a disturbing comment about the (non-existent) future of librarianship in the book. I’ll need to consider that further. I know the idea has been discussed at length on LM-Net.

I have more of the book to read. I’ll see what else I can learn there.

Just a quick entry. If you like dogs, you’ve got to have the screensaver I just got.

Go to http://www.screensavers.com. Select “animals”. Scroll down and click on “Must Love Puppies–Pug” Follow the install directions from there.

I saw it on a computer at my local monogram store and had to have it. They didn’t know where they got it, but on a whim I tried screensavers.com and found it.

Oh, and if  you don’t like dogs … there’s no hope for you! Who doesn’t like dogs? LOL

I’m at home with the Christmas tree lit and carols playing. Since I gave myself a Zune for Christmas I’ve been enjoying downloading songs and albums from Amazon. I highly recommend Holiday Classics by the 101 Strings. Is anyone other than me old enough to remember the 101 Strings? They are (were) an orchestra that played nice, minimally embellished, well-known tunes.

It’s not Thanksgiving, but it just occurred to me that Microsoft (or whatever programmers wherever) did a wonderful thing when they created cut/copy and paste. Can you imagine if they hadn’t thought of it and we had to copy a URL letter by letter to create a link? Not to mention the many other uses.

I’ve been spending a lot of time at LibraryThing. I am enjoying adding books to my library there (see furdog), but more than that I’m into the groups right now. Currently, I’m an active member of the 75 Books Challenge for 2009, DAW books, Fantasy Fans, Read YA Lit, Name That Book, and Disaster Buffs.

The 75 Books Challenge led me to a website I hadn’t used before: Ticker Factory.

Here’s my ticker for the challenge:

I ran across an excellent post on Sue Waters’ edublog today. Between the five tips she offers and the info available in the comments to the post, the post is really a good place to “enhance your bloggin’ skills”.

What Sue had to say makes me realize that it’s time for me to get back to reading other blogs as well as posting to my own here. I do get a lot of blogging ideas from the books I read and from the daily challenges and triumphs in my own library, but I need a little enrichment.

Anyway, getting back to what I was originally going to post about today. I just finished reading Replay by Ken Grimwood. If you’ve ever entertained the classic fantasy of going back in time to do your life over again knowing what you do now, this will be an excellent choice to read. I loved the overall arc of the storyline, and certain characters became very near and dear to me.

I had a few criticisms but they’re very minor: The epilogue is written as if the author had no idea of what the book he just wrote was really about. And there were some scenes of sex and drugs that bothered me, although I can see where they were necessary to the storyline.

Overall though, this is a wonderful book. One of the very best I’ve read in a while. It’s available at Amazon, of course. Amazon lists some other books by Grimwood, but evidently they do not measure up to Replay.

So…can you tell me:

1. Have you read Replay, and what did you like and/or dislike about it?

2. Did you visit Sue Waters’ blog? Any comments you want to post here about that? Did you comment there?

3. What are your three favorite library blogs? I’d like to know that the ones I start reading are some of the best!

Thanks for reading–this is day 5 of my post-something-everyday challenge.

“The truth is technology is only great when you know how to use it.”

It’s a quote from a Sprint commercial, but how apropos.