Thing 25 - Bloggers Toolkit

I looked at the videos about widgets and there was a lot of good information included. I looked through Widgetbox and Google to search for some widgets to put on my blog. I found that both were easy to navigate, but I liked Widgetbox a little better - it had better categories and it gave you live previews of how the widget would actually work in your blog!

I've used some widgets before. I had LibraryThing on my blog during the first round, and then added RSS at the beginning of this round. I also used Clustrmap on a wiki that our library set up for Teen Read Week. I added 2 new widgets for this Thing, a digital clock on the bottom of the page and a movie trailer widget. I took the movie trailer one off already as it took you off the page. Isn't the whole point of widgets to get people to stay on your blog?

The best widget I've seen looking at other peoples blogs was a Super Mario widget on Shane's blog. Although I lost right away, it was fun!

Finishing Thing 24

Alright, I finally found a template that I like (mostly). It bothers me that there are gold flecks in my avatars face, but as you scroll down they go away - it's something I can live with. I was also able to replace all of my widgets that disappeared when I was playing around with how things looked.

gah!!!

This is frustrating! I tried to switch the template of my blog, but then it erased all the widgets I had from last time, including my avatar, my librarything, etc.

grr

Thing 24: Refreshing your blog

I've been lazy since we finished the first round of 23 things; I haven't blogged at all. That's a lie - I did set up another blog with some people at work, but we failed at updating that one as well. Part of my problem is that I don't have anything interesting to say, so people won't read it. And if people aren't reading it, what's the point?

When I logged into my blog (for the first time in a long time) the template that I had before no longer worked. I'd been using one that I found through Pyzam and my guess is that it just became inactive or something. There were a couple other people who were using similar templates and there's didn't work anymore either. I picked one of the templates that Blogger had, but they were all boring, so I'm pretty sure I'll be spending some time looking through some fun sites to find a more interesting background.

I looked through some of the new Gadgets Blogger has added and most were ho-hum, except for the RSS feed!! That is an awesome update! This well make it much easier for people to keep track of when other people have updated their blogs. It'll make communication a lot easier.

I liked the way my avatar looked and I had the ultimate perfect background for it, so all I did was change my outfit. I'd played around with the Yahoo avatars a bit during the first round, so I was going to use one of the other sites, but none of them really caught my eye and you would've had to register with a new password. Since I already had one I could play with - I just stuck with what I knew.

Thing 23 - The End

I really enjoyed participating in Thing 23; I learned a lot and it gave me an excuse to play around on the Internet. I would definitely participate in a program like this again - I thought I was pretty up to date on technology, but have learned that sadly, I'm really not. Right now, I'm trying to figure out how to use everything that we've done at our library. Not just to aid us in helping patrons, but maybe showing patrons how to do some of these things for themselves. There is so much information out there - I'm excited to see what else I can learn.
The end.

Thing 22 - What Did I Learn Today?

Taking part in 23 Things has at times been frustrating, but overall has been a good experience. I've enjoyed seeing all the options that are out in the technology world, whether I think I'll use them or not. There are a few things that when I was first introduced to them I didn't think I would ever look at the site again. Of course, those are the ones that I've now become addicted to. My favorite Things were: Bloglines, LibraryThing, Facebook, discovering other social networks, and YouTube.

I'm not sure if I'll keep up with my blog. I don't have much going on in my life outside of work, so I think I would run out of stuff to talk about. Maybe I'll try it for a few weeks and see how it goes. I will be using many of the things I've learned, both at work and at home. I will also continue to play with the different technologies that I've started accounts with. There was so much information during 23 Things, that I don't think it had time to sink in. Now I can go back and actually take my time working through things.

Thing 21 - Beyond MySpace: Other Social Networks

I am a member of Flixter and of last. fm. I got involved in Flixter through my Facebook account, which had a movie application I added which created a Flixter account for me. I signed up for Last.fm in March and it has been awesome! At first it was a little creepy because of it's audioscrobber, but once I witnessed the amazingness that ensued I was converted. Last.fm automatically builds a profile for each user based on the music that is already on your computer and then can recommend other music or show you other users accounts that share your interest.

I'd be interested in using Gather and WebJunction in the future. I've tried WebJunction a few times and haven't been able to get it to work, but I haven't really been gung-ho about it. If I maybe applied myself I could probably get it to work. :)