The Finish Line!

Wow! I've completed the 23 things of Library 2.0! It was a blast! The most fun exercise was probably the image generators. The most useful...probably the RSS feeds. I also liked the Zoho Writer...great to know about if you need to compose a quick document out on the web.

It was a great ride and I definitely learned a lot about Web 2.0 tools. I can certainly see some ways that these exercises could be incorporated into the Library. Am I ready for another 23? Sure!...just give my a little bit to absorb it all!

Keep it Green!

SuffolkWave

I checked out the library's newest downloadable database, SuffolkWave. One can download not only books but audio and video! I found The Google Story which seems like an apropos read (or listen!) since Google is one of the biggest companies behind all this technology I've been discovering with Library 2.0.

Green Day Video on the Environment

In exploring YouTube I came across this Green Day video on the environment:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-qxG0Uvs5Y

Web 2.0 Tools

I was amazed at the number of Web 2.0 tools highlighted at the following web site: http://www.seomoz.org/web2.0/ I, of course, looked for something ecology minded and did indeed find http://www.begreennow.com/. I used their carbon footprint calculator and was dismayed to see I'm higher than average in my use of c20 emissions! They encourage you to give to their causes to offset your carbon footprint. I don't know enough about their organization to give them a nay or yea. I have my own set of environmental organizations that I give to that hopefully offset my carbon footprint. The site does have some interesting articles and links about everything green though...so it's worth a look.

Lightning Struck Trees

Unfortunately the trees that I blogged about earlier that were struck by lightning have died or are dying.  I thought maybe the bigger ones might survive because we have had enough rain and not a lot of really hot days.  But alas it doesn't look like that will be the case.  The cycle of nature will continue, however, and these trees will provide food for insects and the insects will provide food for the birds; particularly the woodpeckers as the trees start to decompose.

 

We have several different type of woodpeckers who visit our feeders for suet.  They are such beautiful birds and ever so wary; particularly the red-headed Flickers.  When I hear the rattatattat of these woodpeckers it amazes me that something so small can make such a loud noise...particularly in the morning!

 

I'm publishing this post from a web-based word processor program called Zoho Writer.  Pretty cool!

 

Wikis

Wikis can definitely be useful tools. After playing with PBWiki, however, i found it to be a little outdated, kind of hard to navigate and not in keeping with Web 2.0.

Just for fun, my kids and I created a wiki on wikihow -- how to build a finger church. So we've expanded the knowledge base of the world with this enlightning information! Here's the link:
http://www.wikihow.com/Create-a-Church-With-Your-Fingers

Web 2.0 & Library 2.0

I'm having so much fun adding all these Web and Library 2.0 features to my blog. I think not only libraryland but most business have been and will be effected by the web. One must catch the wave and keep current with technology and the web in order to keep the library a valuable benefit for the community.

Technorati Profile

Gardening

I just love gardening! We had our 7th Annual Plant Swap at work this month. It rained the weekend before our plant swap which could have made digging up plants for the swap something of a chore. Our gardeners, however, are a hardy bunch. A little rain and a continuing deluge on the day of our plant swap didn't deter the gardeners. We all had a good time and exchanged some fun and interesting plants.

I've included a link for my Rollyo search on gardening. Looking for some gardening advice about plant diseases and slugs or what to plant where...try my gardening search!

http://rollyo.com/cbrand/gardening/

LibraryThing

I just created an account at LibraryThing. I cataloged several gardening, birding and bird song identification books and audio. I love the bird song identification CD. I listen to it on the way home from work. It's amazing how in no time you can learn to identify which birds are singing and calling in your backyard. My family thinks I'm nuts, of course, but can they identify our feathered friends...I think not! Here's the link to my LibraryThing list of materials:
http://www.librarything.com/catalog/cbrand

The Fury of Nature

Last Thursday's scary thunderstorm left several trees in my neighborhood damaged by lightning. The bark must have just exploded off the trees! Whole strips of the bark can be found littered on ground up to 20 feet away. A line of exposed wood runs all the way up the trees; from the ground to the very top of the trees. Poor trees! I don't think they will survive. I've Hockneyizered the photo on the left.

Nature Sounds Added to Accompany your Reading

I used several search tools to look for RSS feeds. I like Technorati the best. It was easy and gave a lot of hits divided into categories such as Music, Blogs and Posts. I found the Crickets and Water sound track, located to the right, which you may play while you read this post.

New Environmental Features on my Blog

I've just learned how to add up-to-date environmental news to this blog. The Nature Quote of the Day and the news from National Geographic and MSNBC are all RSS feeds. When they update their sites, these items will also be updated on my blog. How easy it is to stay in the know!

Ahh, technology

My creation
Originally uploaded by karylann13.

Here I am Warholized! I used fd's Flickr Toys to create these 9 pictures of myself. Now if I could get each of these mini-me's to get to work on all the chores I have to do, that would truly be wonderous!

Shopping with my new Envirosax

I did my grocery shopping over the weekend and brought along my new Envirosax bags. I really stuffed them just to see how much they would hold and if the could withstand the weight. The really worked great. I also purchased 3 recycled bags from Stop and Shop. They have a flat bottom and also fold up, though not as small. I marked one of them meat and will use that one for my meat purchases each week. The clerk went to put my eggs in a separate plastic bag and I explained my boycott on plastic, so the eggs went in with the meat. I ended up needing only one paper bag to finish my shopping!

No More Grocery Bags

I recently read an article about San Francisco being the first city to ban those plastic shopping bags. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2007/03/28/MNGDROT5QN1.DTL To quote from the article: "Trillion to 5 trillion - Number of nondegradable plastic bags used worldwide annually.
430,000 gallons - Amount of oil needed to produce 100 million nondegradable plastic bags." Yikes!!!

Well it inspired me to ban them from my home. I purchased 5 Envirosax bags. Each 19" x 23" bag rolls up to become a tiny 1" x 4" and fits in the handy 3x5 zip bag. I'll let you know how I like them!

One less lock in the landfill!

Over the weekend my daughter asked me for a new bike lock. When I asked her where her original bike lock was, she presented me with a locked Master lock. "So...????", I asked. She reported she had forgotten the combination. Hmmm! Well, I pondered and played with the lock for awhile and then decided to search the Internet. Sure enough I found a math algorithm for opening the lock. It narrowed the lock combo possibilities from 64,000 to just 100. On the 97th combination, unbelievably, the lock opened! Granted it took some time to do but like I said...one less lock in the garbage!

No Impact Man

Wow! I watched Good Morning America this morning and saw the segment on No Impact Man. It was about a couple in NYC who, as a year-long experiment, are trying to have no impact on the environment. They are not buying anything new. They use solar for electricity. They and their 2-year old are only eating foods that don't have packaging and that have been grown organically within a 250 mile radius of NYC. They don't use public transportation or the elevators at home or work. They wash their clothes in the bathtub. They keep a compost in the kitchen. All to reduce the impact on the environment and to reduce their carbon footprints. Wow, talk about commitment! I've attached a link to their blog: http://noimpactman.typepad.com/blog/

Keep it Green!

Listened to 71/2 Habits of Highly Successful Learners

Speaking of habits...I just listened to 7 1/2 Habits of Highly Successful Learners. Of the seven and one-half habits, I'd say my easiest is using technology. I've always been the kind of person that likes to know how things work. I can remember taking apart my brand new watch when I was a kid to see how it worked. It was one of those big-faced watches with the shiny wide plastic bands; the style had a name but I can't remember it right now. Well unfortunately I got it apart but never did get it back together and had to wear it broken all that Summer. I couldn't let on to my parents that I broke it on day one! Anyway I've gotten better at taking apart and putting back together. Of the other 6 1/2 habits I'd say just getting started would be the hardest for me; beginning with the end in mind. Once I'm underway I'm like a bulldozer but I often procrastinate starting.

A Spring Day

I woke up Saturday morning to the sound of a white-throated sparrow singing her poor Sam peabody call outside my window: http://www.mbr-pwrc.usgs.gov/id/htmwav/h5580so.mp3 A light breeze brought me the fragrant smell of the hyacinths. Ahhh, Spring! I was brought out of my reverie by the sharp rat-a-tat-tat sound of a blue jay pecking at some food in the gutter outside the window. Every morning these very smart and industrious blue jays line up to eat our outside cat's dry food. Three jays stand guard in various positions and watch for Butchie. If he is not around, they take turns rotating down to his dish to eat his kitty crunchies! When he arrives, their raucous calls can be heard throughout the neighborhood: http://www.shades-of-night.com/aviary/sounds/bjcall.wav

All this in just 5 minutes and I haven't even gotten out of bed yet! Nature is so wonderful and plays such an integral part not only in the grand scheme of life but in those small moments in an individual's day. Hence the topic of my blog - the environment. My family laughingly and fondly calls me a "tree hugger" because of my commitment to several local environmental non-profits. Well now I'm going to try to expand that commitment both in my own habits and by writing in this blog. Look for more later! Keep it green!