Learning the Value of Blogs!

While checking into one of the blogs I liked—The Guardian newspaper in London—I discovered a new book site devoted to offering excerpts from books, flash fiction and poetry. Ursula LeGuin is one of the founding members.

Needless to say, I have added it to my list.

It is called the Book View Cafe

And now on to what I am supposed to be discussing here.

I enjoyed Library 2. It seems that a library should change with the times or even ahead of the times. Language must change, adapt and develop in order to stay alive, so it makes sense that libraries, these cathedrals of language, should also change, adapt and develop in order to stay alive and be of service to the public.

After checking out the blogs from various libraries in the country, I have to say that this looks like the way for Jacksonville to get people interested in the library and what we have to offer.

The SJCPL Subject Guides interested me, since I had a customer who wanted to know if she could find out what fiction we had that was set in the 18th century. A blog with that type of information could be helpful to those who simply want to read historical novels of a specific period. Fairfax County Library has a list of popular fiction, although I noticed that the readers did not post any reviews!

JaxCat and LibraryThing

OK, that was an easy one! I think I got the JaxCat right, although I have not checked it to see if it actually works.

The LibraryThing was easy, too. I picked five books, as instructed. Two of them I have waiting for me, but the other three have been read. It reminds me of the tee shirts that were around a little while ago: "So many books and so little time."

The hard part will be getting a link to my library, so let me go explore that, and I shall come back.

OK. I am back and here it is: My library!

Now for the picture generator game. Very good fun, indeed. As you can see, I created a poster for the class I will be teaching for the next 10 weeks. I shall keep you informed of the progress of my students and, of course, my gradual decline into insanity when I find out they can't tell a noun from a verb.

Supposedly the JaxCat is on the page, so let us go and have a squint at it.

No sign of it, although there are a couple of crossed spanners or something, so click on the top one and the coding for the gadget will appear to show that I tried.
Yes, I did, I really did!

(Added later) I did get it there, but you may have to hit the refresh button to see it. I tried to resize it following the instructions, but it did not work.

Party Cat

Party Cat
Originally uploaded by Blethers

He is ready for the fun at the Jacksonville Landing!


My thanks to Kema for showing me some of the tricks of using Flickr. When I have more time, I shall investigate some more, because it looks like fun.

RSS Feeds etc.

This was the most challenging exercise so far. I had a hard time finding feeds that interested me, but did come up with some. No way do I want loads of news—it tends to be too depressing these days—so I went for just what interested me.

My thanks go to Ed Lein for all the help he offered. Without that, I would still be floundering. Maybe I am, who knows!

I have had a problem with the code given for showing my blogroll. Not sure if my own code will work or not.

Try this!

Ye gods! It works!!

Blogs

I was about to shelve a book the other day when its title caught my attention—Petite Anglaise. It is the story of Catherine Anderson, a Brit ex-pat who lives in Paris. She writes of the life she leads, and it seemed so much more interesting than other blogs I have read. Maybe I am indulging in some wishful thinking? So I have included it in my list of blogs.

Hi-Tech Stuff

There were some interesting links and information about phishing and other such scams on the internet.

I sent an email to someone I did not know and was astonished to be told by my email service that the address was suspected of being a home for phishing scams. So I promptly dropped that email. I get enough of the ones from strange banks asking for account information or telling me I am about to receive millions if I will just comply with their wishes.

A new type of article called a charticle is now making its appearance. Apparently, it is a compilation of text, images, and graphics that are taking the place of articles. According to my source (Freelance Writer's Report for November), these are appearing in the Florida Times-Union among other papers. See www.grumpyeditor.com if you want to keep up with what's happening in the newspaper world.

So, we are supposed to be writing three blogs this week. Or last week. Well, this is the second one, but I am not entirely certain what the third one should have been about.

Just hold on, folks, for the next instalment when all will be revealed.

Flickr

OK! Set up some photos on Flickr. They are the animals in my life, all of them except one a rescue animal. And mostly with thanks to SACARC, the Springfield Animal Care and Rescue Club, which works hard to save animals that are neglected, abused or homeless in Springfield.

I enjoyed doing that and do hope I am doing it correctly. Here is the address: www.flickr.com/photos/blethers , so let me know if it looks OK for a beginner!

Here is a link to SACARC's website so you can see for yourself what they do, and perhaps you might feel like making a contribution to help them. Every little helps this totally volunteer organization! www.sacarc.org