YouTube

I expected the 'funnies' on YouTube but was amazed by what else was available. I decided to spot check some key historical events and found them all. Nelson Mandela's first interview in May 1961; Martin Luther King's 'I have a Dream' speech; film about the Mau Mau uprising; and most amazing of all footage from the Battle of the Somme. I was struck by the possibilites YouTube has for teaching. Film has an important place in education and it struck me that seeing and listening to Mandela as he was fifty years ago would make more impact than just reading a typescript. Very thought provoking.

How did it get so late so soon? (Dr Seuss)

I enjoyed browsing through the various podcast 'supermarkets' but came back the good old BBC as the alley was a bit scary and alien in its content. I successfully subscribed to 'Chris Evans Breakfast - the best bits' having come across him on my day off and 'Friday Night Comedy' from Radio 4 as I particularly like the banter as I cook supper at the end of the week. It was very easy to add them to my Google Reader. I just need to find time to listen to them now...

Be awesome! Be a book [mark] nut! (Dr Seuss)

Wow! Well that's a bit more useful. I wasn't convinced by Delicious for personal bookmarking yesterday but I can see how useful it would be in the library context. I am now itching to do something for my subject area! I investigated and added the VHL and HFL Delicious sites to my network, and toggled back and forth. It was much easier today, probably because I was excited by the task and its potential. I am also embarrassed to say that I was unaware of the OULS web 2.0 directory but I will now be exploring it further. Thanks!

I am not sure how Dr Seuss would feel about my addition to his quote but it seemed an appropriate tweak...

You can steer yourself, any direction you choose (Dr Seuss)

My steering was a bit hit and miss with Thing 9 until I got into the swing of it. No problem getting a Delicious account - I was pleased that I could use my Yahoo details. I did however stall a little the next day as I was unable to provide the correct username and password which didn't make sense. Problem diverted when I spotted the Yahoo ID button... I failed miserably to install bookmarklet - something to do with licencing (??) so resorted to copying and pasting urls which was straightforward. I liked the intuitive picklist of suggested tags which was helpful but it took me a while to realise that you had to miss out spaces in your tags eg '23things' rather than '23 things'. As I write this I realise that I should perhaps have read through the information 'How do I get started' but I didn't...

I saved my blog to ox23 but wasn't able to find my fellow ox23 taggers first time as I'd typed in Ox23 - case sensitive as well... (I'm certainly learning by my mistakes!). I had another 'duh' moment when I failed to work out how to save bookmarks - it was a bit boring copying and pasting until a save box magically formed in front of my eyes after the titles of the sites I liked the look of. I think I'm too old for this...

So here I am with a nice selection of bookmarks to browse through. How do I feel about Delicious? I think the same as I would after running a half-marathon - hot, bothered and a bit (lot) tired and I thought that this would be an easy week! I will try and persevere with it but I must say that googling sites and adding to my favourites has worked very well for me so far....

Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened (Dr Seuss)

Reader in the Reading Room 1
Originally uploaded by Sarah R.2010

Here's a picture I've brought in from Flickr of the old RSC Library. It was a small specialist Library which housed materials on the causes and consequences of forced migration. This image is of the reading room. Through the window you can see Worcester Street and the wall of Worcester College, though thankfully the rather scary barbed wire along the top of the wall is not visible. Although the physical Library no longer exists you can now visit the staff and collections in the Social Science Library.

Success is doing ordinary things extraordinarily well (Anon)

Well that was fun! I just had a brief foray into Picnik and had a 'good go' at one of my images. I'm not convinced I improved on the original but it was very easy to crop, play with colour (saturation and temperature!) and generally do some experimenting. It has certainly given me the confidence I needed to deal with my home photos and I'm looking forward to tackling the dreaded red-eye in due course...

Think left and think right and think low and think high. Oh the thinks you can think if only you try (Dr Seuss)

This was the week I wanted to find out more about but worried most about! My main worry was how to get photographs in a place that could be downloaded into Flickr. I finally tracked down some photos of the old RSC Library taken in 2007 which were easily retrievable and perfect for the task.

Setting up the Yahoo account was relatively straightforward apart from the old password and username game, but progess followed and the Flickr account was up and running. While I wait for my membership to be approved to go into the group pool I have worked on my newly created set of images entitled 'The old RSC Library'. They have been tagged, titled and described. One image was also rotated successfully. To old hands this may seem very basic but to me has been a major achievement and thanks go to Joanna for helping me through the process.

I look forward to sharing pictures of the old Refugee Studies Centre Library as it was before it was integrated into the SSL in August 2009.

A quick update. Six images have now been added to the pool. Hurrah!

Many fine things can be done in a day if you don't always make that day tomorrow (Anon)

Decided that I should really push myself and investigate my Google Reader a bit more. I now know how to star an item and email interesting snippets. Joanna was pleased (I think) to receive an item on pruning Autumn raspberries. I have also 'managed' my subscriptions which didn't work as I thought it should yesterday but looks ok today (what is all that about?). I now have relevant folders for my feeds which makes them easier to find. I usually live in a rather random world (according to my family) but this task has sorted me into one with a more organised outlook. Perhaps I should try to apply these skills at home...

(I'm now rationing my Dr Seuss quotes for 'new things' but have discovered additional 'thing' quotes in one of my feeds. So these things can be useful after all...).

Being crazy isn't enough (Dr Seuss)

Well perhaps I am crazy enough. The annexed blogs from yesterday have provided me with 36 new posts so Jane's tip to prune them might be sensible. Perhaps they will settle down once the feeds stop being new? The posts do seem to go back a bit in time. I think I was expecting the most recent post for each not older messages as well. I see there are additional tasks to manage my subscriptions. I'll tackle those later in the week when I feel stronger.

If things start happening, don't worry, don't stew, just go right along and you'll start happening too! (Dr Seuss)

Well rather scarily things started happening very quickly after I popped in to see Joanna. She gave me a couple of annexing tips and suddenly I was rampaging through more blogs than I knew what to do with.

After taking a deep breath I decided I needed a more systematic and sensible approach and that I should limit myself to a few feeds only. Joanna and Emma's blogs have been added as have Dr Seuss's quotes (my stockpile is rapidly diminishing); frugal recipes (the kids need feeding cheap and filling meals); crime and thriller book reviews (for those moments when I might have time to read); digital photography tips (for when I'm out and about with my camera); and organic allotment tips (for when the ground is actually diggable again). It was fun adding them. Not sure what happens now. Will I be deluged with tips? Have I been too rash with my selection? I'll see what happens tomorrow because I really don't know what these feeds will do...

Sometimes the questions are complicated and the answers are simple (Dr Seuss)

I couldn't understand why I appeared to be logged into Google Reader when I hadn't put in my username and password... Anyway I did seem to get myself in and successfully annexed the 23 Things blog to my new Reader. Well if nothing else I appear to be getting the jargon...