Official Post 16 - Thing 18 - Google docs

I tried to use Zoho writer, but sadly this is now blocked on all the staff and learn.net pcs - odd! So I used my google account to access google.docs instead. I found this really really easy to use, and created a wee powerpoint type presentation which I could then publish - you should be able to access this here:



I found google.docs very easy to use, particularly if you are used to other word processing programmes. I can see that it would be really useful for sharing documents with others, or creating a 'shared' document which could be edited by multiple people - how handy for a shared presentation!

Official Post 15 - Thing 17 - Social networking

YAY, this is so my favourite bit of web 2.0 :) Social networking is not very new to me, been on Bebo and Facebook for a while. Was on Bebo first, as my younger brother was on, and MADE me join to be his friend. I found Bebo was a great way to get in contact with lots of my friends from school, and I still keep in touch with heaps of them thru Bebo. I then got an invite to Facebook by one of my sisters (who is hardly ever on it I might add!), and when I joined, I discovered that lots and lots of our friends were on Facebook, and so its a great way to keep up with all our current friends (and family too). I get asked which I prefer, and for me Facebook is king, but lots of people like Bebo better cause its more colourful. I like Facebook because I find it has more of a community feel to me, might be cause I have more friends on it, not sure....lol! I also like that I can chat to friends that are online at the same time as me via Facebook, I've never been an instant messenger person, so this is the closest I get. I have looked at myspace as well, but really, its bad enough trying to keep up with my Facebook and Bebo accounts, let alone starting another one....arrgghh! But, social networking is great on so many levels, for example, went to a party recently, and was able to instantly share the pics with all my friends and their friends, yay!

Want to come be my friend on either Bebo or Facebook? You can look me up using my name (yes, time to come clean....looking for Kelly Mucalo will find me for sure, not too many Kelly Mucalo's out there apparently, just the one so it seems, yay! unique!)
You have to be my friend to view my profiles, but I'm always happy to have new friends :) See you online!

Official Post 14 - Web 2.0 and Library 2.0

Wow! What thought provoking stuff indeed! I read all of the links from our resource list, and it really brought home just why we are doing this whole learning exercise. It also really made me think about just how much I live in the web 2.0 environment myself already, and about how many of our customers are doing the same. If I wasn't a librarian, I would very rarely visit the library, and that's the honest truth. I would continue to come in and pick up my books, but if libraries delivered would I even do that?

I love that our website is becoming more and more user friendly, I can subscribe to the rss feeds of my favourite new items (new graphic novels, new adult and teen fiction, cooking books and on and on), so that the moment these are available, I can request all the fantastic new books coming out. I can subscribe to NextReads, and get a great list of recommended reads to request from in all my favourite genres. In my online life, I am constantly coming across books I want to read in a variety of places (what are my friends reading in facebook?), and I request them. But then I have to juggle my reading time with all my other pursuits....its no wonder that we really are having to work hard to bring our libraries to people, rather than expecting them to come to us.

And the last non-fiction book I borrowed? a cookbook. ALL my other information needs are always met online......why wait for a book to arrive, or have to go out my door when I can find it online? when I can read about other peoples experiences and share from them? Need good dairy free recipes? check out this persons blog, not only does she share her experiences and recipes, shes got some great links to other sites! this is our new world, and I think we are more immersed in it than we realise :)

I have embedded that great video here again, cause I thought it was really good, and I wanted to be able to find it again easily. If you didn't watch it, do....makes you think :)

Official Post 13 - Technorati

YUK! I don't much like technorati at all.....theres 30 minutes of my life I would like back, lol.
I explored the site a little, then did the exercise of searching for Learning 2.0 in a variety of ways (not particularly user friendly I have to say). It was interesting that you seem to find more results in the blogs than in the posts, but whew, what information overload.....so so so many blogs about this topic, guess librarians all around the world are at this minute also blogging about their own experiences in the world of 2.0 (wonder if they liked technorati more than me?)

I did however 'claim my blog' so now I have a technorati account that will probably never be used. (theres now a nice little link to the right there so that technorati lovers can add me to their favorites, though the chances of them finding me in the scary wide web is pretty small!) Sorry, not gonna tag any of my blog entries, cause I'm totally over technorati now, and moving on :)

Official Post 12 - Del.icio.us Social Bookmarking

Right, I actually started this way back when I did my last official type post, so I've just taken my time to refamiliarise myself with it, and add some new bookmarks (from my home bookmark list).
I started off just having a look around, and checking out the work account, but soon decided it would be much more fun to make my own account up. So I did, and I think this is a really useful tool! we have 2 pcs and 2 laptops here at home, with different bookmarks saved all over the place, so this is a really useful way of being able to access all my favourite sites from one place! I also had fun with the tagging, trying to be useful and creative.
I mostly see this as a personally useful and fun tool to use - a way of checking out what other sites are liked by people who like the same sites as me. Its also entertaining to see how popular my favourite sites are!
I guess it could be used for research, as in someone may have created a list of excellent sites on a topic, which you could then tap into, but I don't think this would be my first point of call to check.
I added a 'badge' for my Del.icio.us account here on my blog - its over there somewhere on the right, go on, check it out, you know you want to!

A personal update.....

Wowza! I didn't realise quite how long it had been since I was in here working on mah blog....oops. I have a pretty good reason tho - honest! This last month and a bit has been awfully interesting for me....started having these nasty abdominal pains in the middle of the night, and these 'attacks' started coming more and more often (from weekly to nearly every second night!), and lasting longer and longer (up to 5 hours long in the end...ouch!). After many middle of the night visits to the A and E clinic, it was finally dicovered (thanks Mr Ultrasound Scan) that I had a gallbladder chock full of stones. I was then put on a waiting list to have my gallbladder removed.

But apparently my gallbladder had bigger plans than that, and a few weeks ago I was hit with a massive attack (which even my industrial painkillers did nothing for) and I was rushed into hospital to have my gallbladder out pronto. I feel a little sad that I can't remember my ambulance ride there, but apparently pethadone will do that to ya. So, I was admitted on the Monday....but didn't get my op till the Thursday arvo/evening....during which time I had a couple more attacks, but hey, I was in the right place....morphine anyone? (Truth be told, I hated the morphine, it made me feel so sick...lol) So one keyhole surgery later, and I'm freeeee of gallbladder nasty pains....YAY.

So here I am at home recuperating. Spent pretty much all of last week in bed feeling sore but awful grateful (thanks to my lovely nurses at Middlemore, and the doctors too). I felt well enough to be let out of the house with my husband on the weekend.......YAY, free from the house! But then I felt awful again Sunday night, so it was perhaps not the best idea I had had. So here I am taking it easy again. My lovely mother has been a saint, taking me to my doctors appointments, bloodtests and follow ups, and apparently all is looking good.

Big thankies to all my friends and family, for the visits and well wishes etc. Thanks also to my lovely work collegues for the lovely plant and card.....I miss work.....and the gym.....lol!

Huge thankies to my husband who was amazingly good to me, and made a terrific nurse at home :) So where's your gallbladder? heres a lil pic for you from Wikipedia.com...see, this is an edumacational post too! (course, mines not there anymore!)

and p.s...they kept the stones for me and guess how many there were left- 27 of them! omigosh. My sister wanted me to put a pic of them here on the blog, but I thought that mite be too gross for ya all :)

Official post 11 - playing with the PBWiki library wiki

So editing a wiki is pretty easy! I can see why people get worried about the quality of info u can find when its so so easy to edit. I went to our nice safe wiki sandbox area at https://manukaulearn.pbwiki.com/Favourite-Blogs and added my blog to the list....I may have been rude, cause I added it to the top...mwahahahaha! I was tired of always being at the bottom of the list, tee hee. I then went into https://manukaulearn.pbwiki.com/Favourite-Books and added a comic book related entry (go SiP!), this time I was more polite and added it to the bottom of the list.

Official post 10 - Wiki'ing

This was a slightly boring 'thing' to explore....I'm pretty familiar with using Wikipedia, as a tool it can be a really useful way of collecting lots of knowledge in one place. I've used it lots when looking at anything comic book related (authors/artists/particular titles), as the comic book industry and fans seemed to have wholeheartedly embraced wiki technology. I looked at the suggested library links, and found them very informative......but thats wiki's all over, informative, but just not all that attractive or fun. How could we use wiki's in libraries? As they are so useful for collecting information....I think they could be useful for creating staff resources, perhaps for collecting and sharing info for a project (eg RFID? instead of update emails, all the info could be put into a wiki for staff to check on?) It could be a fun tool to use with the public, maybe to build book lists on a theme? customers could edit it to add their suggestions?
Hmmm, interesting....
Visit http://comics.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page for an interesting comic book wiki

Official post 9 - my latest technological interests

Ahhh, the joys of technology! I feel pretty happy in the on-line environment, I spend lots of time social networking with friends on Facebook and Bebo (I prefer Facebook....each to their own right?) I also spend lots of time (perhaps a little too much time) playing an online roleplaying game called World of Warcraft (aka WoW).

If you want to know more about WoW visit http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/
My new most favourite thing in the world is my 8gig ipod nano. Its a thing of wonder indeed. Yes, it has taken me a while to join the ipod revolution.....but I'm here at last! I've been spending lots of time over the last few weeks adding songs to my itunes from cds, and making playlists. I got my ipod cause I was tired of the music at the gym....sometimes they take a while to put a new cd on, and sometimes they play total rubbish. Now I control my own moosics...and it totally rocks! (and pops, and dances and r'n'bs too).

The only sad part to my ipod story, is that 2 weeks after I got it, they launched a brand new generation of the nano's, which for the same size are $50 cheaper....aggghhh! and they come in very cool colours including purple...DOUBLE AGGGHHHH!

Official post 8 - More Flicker Fun (mashups)

This was yet more fun - it seems that I already played with a few of the toys on http://bighugelabs.com/flickr/ on an earlier exercise (when playing around with generators). I did have a look around at some of the other tools, but none of them really appealed to me (for the purposes of our exercises), but I can see that for at home use for photo management they could come in handy. I played around with a few more fun toys on FD Toys, and made the following trading card and magazine cover, both of which I uploaded to my flickr account (the upload from FD toys worked nice and easily...yay!) I did add hopefully the right tags to my trading card to try and add it to the Librarian trading card cluster, but it doesn't seem to have added there - not sure how to get it into the cluster? maybe my tags are wrong? I had a lot of fun making the magazine cover - many thanks to cover girl Eclair :)

Official post 7 - Fun with flickr

Well, flickr is pretty cool I have to admit. I have played around with photo sites before, mostly picassa, but usually I just upload pics to share on my facebook or bebo accounts for friends and family to see. I firstly uploaded a few cool display pics from when I was working at Pakuranga Library many moons ago....I think u should be able to see those here http://www.flickr.com/photos/30831196@N08/sets/72157607439800302/
Then I uploaded my homemade LOLcat pics...cause I'm trying to spread them all around the net.....tee hee. Then I decided I really wanted to play with picnik cause it sounded like fun, and it totally rocks! U can see the result of my playing below.......mwahahahaha. I can see that I will be having lots of fun playing with our home pics.....funneh xmas cards here I come!
The only downside to all this was the trying to blog my pic from flickr....It seemed to be going perfectly, but kept failing at the last step. So then I thought I would upload it through blogger via the web, which worked, but not properly, there was an error with it. At that point I got fed up and saved the pic from flickr to my flash drive to upload to blogger the usual way....which worked perfectly as always.

My husband the comedian.....

Have you guys seen that funneh new Whitcoulls ad? The one with the couple...where the woman has a fit at having to do everything and makes her partner sleep on the couch? and then when she comes home from work she finds post it notes attached around the house....eg one on the jam jar saying I loosened this, one on the dog saying I've been fed, and so on? Well, I came home from work the other day and found these...





















And many many more! On the front door there was 'I sprayed around the door for bugs'. On the front hallway mat 'I put notes all around the house' and so on. I did think it was pretty funny....but I was most impressed by the 'I did the dishes' one....because YAY! I came home to the dishes done....SWEET!

Somethings coot from upcoming LOLcats

This seemed appropriate for the blog so I thought I'd share it.


And the next one is just too funneh...

Not for nom indeed!

Official post 6 - Rollyo

Hmmm, rollyo is a strange and interesting concept. I made my own searchroll called Comic book mecca, and listed some of my favourite useful comic book sites (see my Rollyo link on the right there). I don't really know who might find this useful...but u never know, someone mite want to do a safe wee comic related search! I also added my favourite local comic book shops Heroes for Sale and Gotham comics to it...so perhaps this could be some free web publicity for them...tee hee. I have to say at the end of this, I don't really think I would really use Rollyo myself...and I was wondering just how useful it really is - then I talked to one of the other staff here and she told me she made a freebee colouring in sheet searchroll. As an ex-children's librarian I was most impressed......and thought that would be most useful indeedy!

Official post 5 - Library thing

Eeeek! Thought I'd better post about this before everyone thinks I've given up on blogging! Library thing is quite interesting....I've added only 14 books to my library so far, and I found the author pages really interesting (although it seems that some are probably not 'official' pages as such....ahem) You can see a selection of my titles over to the right there on my widget, or by going to http://www.librarything.com/catalog/comicbookgal08
Overall this is an interesting application.....but its kind of similar to a small application I have on my facebook account...so I don't know that I'll be keeping on with it. It will be very useful for some library customers tho.

(PS....I did try to add another library thing widget for searching to the blog....but the work computer started misbehaving, and I decided I was spending way to much time on this topic....time to move on methinks!)

My very own LOLcats!

Ok, this is TOTALLY my favourite generator of all time. I used http://bighugelabs.com/flickr/lolcat.php to make my very very own LOLcats, using photos of my fur babies Malcolm, Felix and Eclair. I knew those cute pics wud come in handy someday. So what do u think, shud I upload these to I can has cheezburger? wud anyone else out there think these were remotely funny or cute?

I luffs generators!

I've been sitting at home playing on my laptop with all the different generator toys on The Generator Blog and FD toys. I been making all sorts of cool posters and stuff, and making my husband look at em too. Heres a few of my favourite things:

My very own trading card...how awesome is that!

I hear its a 5 star flick! Don't miss it....lol

And here's my very own motivational poster....starring my fur babies Malcolm and Felix, please don't be offended...they was just trying to be funneh

Official post 4 - How cool are generators!

OMIGOSH! these are soooo cool! I had so much fun playing around with them. I'll have to save the coolest ones for playing around with at home, with some real photos. But anyways, I made a lil comic strip using http://generatorblog.blogspot.com/2008/08/comic.html (well, I am comicbookgal after all!) I think u can check it out at http://www.makebeliefscomix.com/comix.html?comix_id=10923256

and I also made this pic using the Letter James site

Free advertising, awesome! The one thing I can't wait to get home 2nite to check out is the LOLcat generator at http://bighugelabs.com/flickr/lolcat.php I have ALWAYS wanted to make my very own LOLcat pics using my furbaby photos from home. I'll post em for ur perusual once I get to play :)

Official post 3....even more RSSing

So there I was thinking I was all done with RSS, and then I clicked on the next lesson and there was MORE. But it turns out these were really good additions....now I actually like RSS, and I think I mite even keep on using my feeder. Of the three tools listed, I thought topix was interesting, and did use it to subscribe to a local news feed (once I figured out just where the RSS feed button was....needs to be bigger!), I hated syndic8 - found it really un userfriendly to navigate around...and I LOVED technorati (I got an awesome entertaiment news feed via it...such great goss!) I kind of wish I knew this lesson was coming up while doing the last one, I wasted soooo much time looking for feeds. I had a moment of excitement which got squashed, when I realised that my favourite site Icanhascheezburger.com can be subscribed to.....but then I found its blocked here at work, and I got stuck....now I can't remember how I even found it through technorati in the first place, so I'm just gonna have to subscribe when I get home :)



Ahhh, cute kitties AND sci-fi ....can it get any better than this?

Official post 2 - the joys of RSSing

Or rather the NOT joys (insert the Home Alone shocked face pic here....oh hold on...I can actually do that can't I, here I go)

Yep, thats me after the trials of RSS too! Its really interesting, and I can really see that for people who are constantly checking in on lots of sites, it would be a life saver! (Perhaps I should suggest to my hubby for all the different webcomics he keeps up with?) I subscribed to a bunch of fellow library bloggees, and this alone was interesting (thanks so much to those that added subscribe buttons....soooo much easier) I did some without too tho to make sure I cud. I also subscribed to the auckland weather feed.....a couple of webcomics including the sublime Unshelved, the itunes top 25, and a couple of different publishing book and comic sites. I was truely on a roll doing all this at home yesterday, until I surfed somewhere I shudn't and picked up some nasty spyware that totally took over the desktop (which was rather scary!) Turns out my husband took off our spyware blocker in order to update to a newer version, but hadn't gotten to it yet. Poor guy, took him an hour to get it off the puter.....thank goodness for his geek skills aye! Anyways, back to RSS, interesting, but not gonna start using it myself. Most of the sites I would be most interested in keeping track off aren't set up with RSS feeds....if they were mebbe it would be more useful. Are Manukau gonna get RSS feeds on their website? Would love to subscrible to parts of the new book lists that we add now, I love those lists so.

Just found the extra bit....made my blogroll public and heres the link.... http://www.bloglines.com/public/Comicbookgal08

Official Post 1 - making my blog

I think setting this blog up has take me the most ridiculous amount of time, tis lucky I'm doing it from home aye! I just couldn't bring myself to make some random thing, I needed a theme...an odd but intriguing title....did I succeed?
This is not my first visit into the blogosphere....I used to have a 'family' blog where all my family could post content, was a nice way to keep up with family further afield. But then we all discovered the joys of social networking (ahhh, facebook and bebo), and the blog died a sad death.
What did I learn? that adding a heading pic is slightly challenging...BUT I DID IT....WOOT!
I also learnt that blogger is even more user friendly than it used to be, and has some cool new features to play with. I guess u'll just have to watch this space to see me play with em!

The first post

How creative is that post title aye! Welcome to my blog.....I can promise there will be no eating of kittens whatsoever, so for those of u who are disappointed....this is not the blog for u!
This is my Manukau Libraries Web 2.0 blog, where I will explore the many wonders and excitement of web 2.0 (yes, even that pain in the tush RSS) Who am I? I'll give u a clue or 2.....I like comics....and cats (not the eating of).....and on-line gaming too, any help to ya? my profile pic is a bit of a giveaway too....lol.

Ahhh, comics AND cats combined.......a winning combination indeed!