Thing 23.....appreciating the finish...briefly...

Meeting of the Racers...by John Mottern, c1989.


So one of the best things about starting a project, race (even animal racers), or to-do list, is *to finish*.

Until there is another project, race, or to-do list (which is pretty much instantaneous, but work with me here.....)

The 23 Things, for me, is officially complete. I'm not sure if anyone will continue to follow my blog (oh yes, that will remain at the same URL. I am hooked on this blogging phenom) tho' there will likely be a modified title coming soon....

I've learned 143% more than I thought I would, and am very glad that I started this, kept with it, and finished it as well. Is there a free t-shirt? Because any runner will tell you....it's all about the free t-shirt at the end of a race, esp if it's a high quality wicking shirt ;) and believe me, this 23 Things, learning/brain wise, definitely was at least a 5K race. That happened to take 2 months to complete, and every Thing worked towards my goal of continual life long learning....

okay Top Chef is ending. Must see who gets to pack up their knives tonight....and, just to tie it all together, I love that it's the BACON that won it for the challenger. love thy bacon! until the next post, peace ~jd

Thing 22....the final push...

Straight from the 23 Things site for Thing 22: What Did I Learn Today?
* "It really doesn’t take that much time."
hmmm, depends on who you ask on this. in the big picture of life? no. but in terms of having FT work, another job and that thing called life on the outside, it kinda does. I feel like it took quite a bit of time to complete this task. however, I feel that it was well worth the time. Kinda like college...(much less partying with the 23 Things however...)

* "You know you can do it." yes, yes I can. Seeing as I'm a runner too, I'm a huge believer in you can do anything you set your mind to. You cannot make someone do something unless they want to on their own. Just sayin'....

* "It's fun to know and use these tools." overall, yep, it is. Some were more fun than others (YouTube, Facebook, etc). But seeing as lots of the public know about them, it's really nice to be informed now...

* "We need to keep informed." Most definitely. If there's ever a 23 Things part II (oh, in say, the fall) I would take part. For now, I feel kinda full up on the 'learning' curve....a little break would be divine...

*" We need the support of each other and our administrators and supervisors so we have the time and help we need to learn and stay informed. " This one hits home the most for me. And I feel like I am a salmon swimming upstream in the worst riptide possible....there is SOOOOOO much I want to do with *many* of these Things work related, and I'm doing all I can to ask politely, professionally, etc, but so far no dice. I hope this changes, and soon. I'm chompin' at the bit (so chompin'!!!) to get things up and running related to all of this....

soooo, without further ado, here comes the FINISH LINE! yeah baby!

Thing 21 ~ another day, another new account....

View my page on 23 Things on a Stick

Well, I joined Ning, one of the 3 choices given in Thing 21. The finish line is so close, but yet so far at this moment....I'm hoping this badge attaches correctly. HTML still makes me a little nervous as I'm really not sure what I'm doing...it's a lot of trial and error....and asking techie friends for help ;)

It might be shameless to admit, but I really will unlikely use Ning much after this 23 Things is completed. And come on folks, you (those 23 Things folks) just got me mildly addicted to Facebook ~ I really really don't need to be online any more than I already am....

As for social networking sites outside of MySpace and Facebook, I am part of just a few others. Greytalk.com is, as it sounds, a networking site for all folks into greyhounds. I don't use it as often as I used to, but it's handy for medical reference, fun photos, and there are some *seriously* devoted owners on it. I have a different screen name on that site as I thought that was the thing to do 3 or 4 years ago when I signed up....you didn't use your 'real' name, you made one up...

The other site I use regularly, and unsurprisingly, is a beginner's discussion group on RunnersWorld.com. Any questions/training/topics running related are here, and the folks who post are super knowledgeable and my type of running people...of varying ages, paces, levels, etc. some are even local, which is kinda cool. I'm known by yet another alias on this board of discussions..

The end is near. I feel like the closing credits are about to scroll and I swear there's some kind of denouement score cueing up as a soundtrack...actually if I had a soundtrack to pick for this entire 23 Things process, it would SO be this..... which I do in fact have on my iPod and was a fantabulously done documentary...peace...~jd

All the Cool Kids are Doing It....Thing 20 Facebook

alrighty, i'm a mac girl. all the way back to when I was 8 years old and was given an Apple IIE as a Christmas present. the mac folks are genius. so are their ads. And Justin Long? *hottie*. (and I've been a sucker for him since the long cancelled TV show "Ed" was on). yep, a little young for me, but meh. Not like I had a real shot anyway. And he has Drew. As in Barrymore for those that read People besides me ;) (Hi Stacy & Kelly!)

So while I usually think the world of Google, Facebook is it's own creature and appears to be the hot young stud of this popularity contest compared to MySpace (which seemed to be Homecoming King for a while (hahaha). But considering my dh and his 40-something friends, along with much younger friends as well, seem to be everywhere in Facebook, I think it appears to be "Top Dawg" lately. So this is the site I chose to sign up for.

It's crazy. I'm not sure I'm ready for this, but here I go. Finding people that I haven't seen or spoken to since high school (for anyone who cares, I graduated from John Hersey High School in 1991). Like tonight I signed up, emailed one person who came up as graduating with me that looked like a girl I've always wondered 'what happened to Michelle?' and 4 hours later I have an email from her. Crazy cool~

I do talk regularly with 3-4 friends who I know from way back in those days. All of them are out of state from me, and email has kept us in touch well. But a site like this to network with long lost friends and those of now is pretty cool (even if i continually made fun of my husband often when he first signed up' 'what are you? fourteen again??!?!' I'd say.). Words = Eaten. Point for dh. Facebook is intuitive, easy to use, doesn't ask a million questions to get you to sign up for it, and it seems like people i *never* thought I'd see on it (hi DS!!) are there~ small miracles in one website. and for the youth of today, clearly I can see how this is a huge thing for them. friends to keep tabs with, text, write on their walls, stay in contact with as they go from high school to college, and beyond....

so just do it. try it. i guarantee you'll be amazed at who you find (or who finds you). I can't compare this to MySpace as I haven't gotten to it yet. I've searched it a bit, but I do not plan to sign up. One is *plenty* for my time/brain/online habits ~ If it wasn't 10:09 on a Sunday night I'd go run. I could use it......have a great week everyone~ the finish line to this 23 Things is on the horizon, and I will do it. I'm a determined (aka stubborn or driven) girl.....~jd

Podcasting, baby! Thing 19

okay, well podcasting doesn't really shake your groove thang like this iPod graphic, but it can make life more entertaining on road trips, long running jaunts, or even in daily life once you find some favorites.

i do have an iPod, and generally use it for music, but when i realized that some of my favorite NPR programs were free downloads, and i could get them through either iTunes or the NPR website links, i was a happy girl :) Wait! Wait! Don't Tell Me! and Car Talk are two of those favorites, but as you can gander from my linkage, there are over six hundred podcasts through NPR alone. There's got to be something out there that you would like to try or listen to for the first time. Got speakers on your computer at work? Hook up and dive into podcasting! (maybe kinda quietly tho' so as not to bug your coworkers ;)

As this Thing mentioned, it's not necessary to have an MP3 player or iPod, but it's one the big reasons podcasts are so hugely popular and out there for the world. I looked at a few of the suggested directories mentioned (Podcastalley.com, MPR, Podcast.com- i liked the format of this one the best) and all are easy to search, easy to find feeds to, and have topics for every possible thing under the sun. And speaking of sun, it's Sunday morming, and time for my favorite show on this day. The scones I made are in the oven, the coffee is brewed and now time to watch my show and read the Sunday *paper*. (nothing will ever replace the ritual of a Sunday newspaper, not even the web imho). Peace~ jd

Thing 18 ~ Youtube

wow. A local guy does well. The founder of this site hails from the town I now reside in. I kind of feel insignificant in what I do. I read to toddlers and sell wine. This guy is a gazillionaire who hooked the world into putting anything and almost everything out there on video on the web.

This is a start to this Thing, and I plan to complete it before Sunday, but in a related post up above is The Rose Ensemble (aka my way to visit Europe once a year with amazingly talented cool peeps~) from last fall's choral festival in Tolosa, Spain. A land of great food, chilled wine, and awesome awesome scenery and coffee ~ jd

Thing 17....ELM

All hail the poor elm trees of America. The suburb of Chicago that I grew up in (Arlington Heights) had these up and down the streets all around town....until the late 90's when they started falling fast and furious to Dutch Elm Disease :( So sad. And the trend has risen in the loss of these gorgeous trees every year, so much so that you can't drive around the Cities without seeing the red rings of death on those that are to come down. So call me a Treehugger. I'm okay with that....I love nature, and one of the best things about living in the upper Midwest is the change of all four seasons. And there is no better guage of knowing the season than by trees (okay and yes, temperature :) Here's my plug for Arbor Day, which falls this month. Plant a tree, folks. Let's keep our cities green and beautiful!

Okay, Thing 17. ELM. (seeeee the correlation? slick, huh? ;) (btw, one friend, who i'm convinced is probably one of two people who actually reads this, who's not in library work asked "is that 23 Things really "due" by April 16? Yup. so now it's pressure time to get the last seven Things finished...)

ANYWAY. We have access to most of the ELM (...that stands for Electronic Library for Minnesota) databases through the Ramsey Cty Libraries. A few we don't. It's all about funding and what our system can afford, which sadly *isn't* the entire world. Here's a link to ELM if you're that curious... http://elm4you.org/

Those that we do provide access to are used often and for patrons of all types. Younger students (elementary-high school) and post secondary, graduate, PHD folks, the average Joe or Jane, you name it. They're pretty intuitive to use to the average patron who has searching experience on a computer. For those who haven't used PCs much, we offer classes for that. Okay, here's one disclaimer I feel I should make. For now, my career is centered 95% of my time in the children's room of the Roseville Library. This means I don't help patrons nearly as much with these databases and electronic resources as those that work the adult reference desk do. And many school districts in our area have access to ELM as well and students lucky enough to retain media/information tech specialists (aka librarians) hopefully know of these and use them. So once in a while I help educate the public about them, and access them in my work for a student's research needs. But most of the time I'm pointing out great books to teach kids how to read or learn how to use the potty. True story...

I've have played with some of the 23 Things Grand Marshal's ideas, and after spending the past few hours on this off and on, I declare this Thing completed. ~jd Bring on 18~

Thing 16 ~ Student 2.0 Tools

well, this toon goes against how I was as a student. I was always done with projects early. Not wicked stupid early, but a day or two early. Get 'er done! I don't think in all 18 1/2 years of total schooling that I *ever* pulled an all nighter. You knew the stuff or you didn't. Staying up all night didn't do anything for me...it just made me cranky and tired. So I chose to sleep. Grad school was 3 years after finishing my BA in Elementary Education. It was more of a challenge to get stuff done, but had I had this or this admittedly, life would have been easier and linked well to the online life I have today. Back in the 'old' days (clears throat, I *only* graduated with my MLIS in 2001 people) I didn't use the web nearly as much as I do now for work and play.

I can see how these tools could benefit both public and academic librarians. More so the academics, having access to prof's syllabyi, rubrics (which makes me think of my friends, the Rupprechts), research students need to do etc. But we have many colleges and universities within 30 miles of our building (actual two notable universities within a mere 6 or 7 miles) and if a student needed access to their research project calculators from the library's internet or full service machines, they'd be in luck.

sidenote of the day. Today is the warmest day since my birthday (which was in November). Times are a changing. When you're given lemons (like 7" of snow 4 days ago), make lemonade. (yes a splash of hooch is okay ;) And by George, I have tomorrow off, when it's supposed to be even a little bit warmer. I'm trying to remain the glass half full girl... ~jd

Thing 15 ~ Gaming

okay, like I need another thing to get me sucked into web-land more than I already am.....so this means Gaming is one of the last things JD needs to have in her life. I'm already immersed with blogging, reading news, sharing photos, email, IM and working with the public via computer based info searching during my day job. That said, I generally perused Puzzle Pirates, and Second Life, but I didn't go all crazy and look at them in depth. Partially because of time and partially because virtual reality or role playing games just aren't my thing. I do realize, however, that they are lots of other peoples thing...I can see how Second Life would be very appealing to teens who might not really know their 'place' in the world yet, and feel like they can be their true selves in some virtual land. A place where they won't be judged by others....while they find their way along in this big game of life.....heck I don't think I really found myself til about age 30. In some ways, I'm still figuring it out in varying degrees...growing, learning, trying new things...

PLA offered a few sessions on Gaming, none of which I attended due to other sessions that interested me a bit more, but I realize that Gaming is it's own entity in the world of web offerings. And a HUGE entity at that. Our branch library is on track to undergo a major transformation next year into 2010 and I will work with our Computer Services team of folks to help design a gaming/computing specific area just for teens, as the teen population makes up a great majority of Gamers out there. Right now we do not have seperate teen computers. I look forward to the day when we do, where teens can game to their hearts content and be welcomed into a public library setting of their own...

I will admit here that a colleague of mine did mention something to me the other day about a zoo game. So after the ever-popular Google search, I found this and that sucked me in for a lovely 20 or so minutes before I had to force myself to quit playing....a self intervention if you will. Finding my inner strength. All that good stuff ... Peace and happy gaming to you all..~jd

Thing 14 (and a brief PLA recap)

A few words about PLA. Exhilirating. Exciting. Exhausting. I can't believe the high feeling of learning and meeting people from all over the world, to the completely whipped feeling I had each night I came home from the conference (or from my 2nd job right after the conference). It's Sunday night and I had a 9 mile run this morning and am still just fatigued beyond words. That said the conference was completely amazing, and the decision to close the festivities with Paula Poundstone was awesome! I have loved her Wait! Wait! Don't Tell Me! appearances (ahem, she was on this week, and yes, the Podcast is a free download. Just do it.), and have actually loved her since my high school days.....she was completely hilarious, esp with a room full of librarians, and she played off the crowd in amazing ways :) Oh, and Paula has 9, NINE, cats. And my good friend Heidi just emailed this to me. For all you cat folks out there.... CLICK HERE. (Thanks YouTube). So thanks PLA. You kicked my butt, but in the best of ways...and I'm very much hoping to try new things, and experiment with what I've learned at work very soon....

LibraryThing is fun to play with, easy to use, and can be super useful to libraries, if those libraries allow their staff to use blogs and other 2.0 things on their website. I'm not trying to get fired, or reprimanded by my higher powers that be, but at press time , we the staff, are not allowed access (ie posting or linking via our website ) to such things in our system. Very sad. (fwiw, of course I understand the want to keep all of the library website safe & secure). The good news is I keep hearing we're getting closer to being able to link such useful resources to our library's website. I strongly believe patrons would really enjoy & benefit being able to tap into the library web site, and look up what the children's librarians are reading and recommending in terms of new titles, topics (ie potty training or going to the dentist), or popular themes that are constantly asked for (trains, dinosaurs, princess books, etc). Right now we share booklists by paper only. The standard 12 or 13 colors (brights, pastels, etc) for parents to select from via a brand new display on the wall in the kids room in our branch. The display and the handouts are both very nice. However, I still want access, like the rest of the world it seems, esp when it comes to library websites full of blogs & other 2.0 hotties, to putting these lists online somehow. LibraryThing would definitely be a great, and current, addition to the paper handouts...I will do my best to wait patiently......(man it's hard though, esp coming off of PLA).


So, I've added some titles to my bookshelf, some of my recent favorites, some of my old favs, and I hope to play around with this more as time goes on (in terms of adding my humble reviews to what I'm reading or have read). Both adult and children's books are on my list, at the moment, in completely random order. I'll do "the librarian thing" and organize them super soon....so happy week and, like a Finish line, I hope to get at least 3-5 Things done this week since the deadline of completion is fast approaching, and I *am* starting to feel like this is a race......~jd

Thing 13. online productivity....irony to me...

considering i'm feeling very underproductive about the 23 things lately. okay, diving in now.....all focused with a goal to finish 13 & 14 by tomorrow...

chapter one: webpages and widgets~ my dh at home has his own webpage as our start page, therefore, I'm not really seeing that I need one of my own. They were fun to play aroud with however. iGoogle was easy to use, as are most of the Google-Land products. But I felt that PageFlakes was just a bit more organized and more to my style of page layout. I really never have been much of a fan of Yahoo! Not for any really valid 'bad' reasons, just that I am a Gmail girl, I have almost always preferred Google products and Yahoo! (at least back in the day) was full of spam and advertising, neither of which are my cups of tea. So after playing around with this part of 13, if i was to have a web page of my own, I've found a few sites worth bookmarking for later..

the widget part of this thing took me *eons*. sad but true. the one recommended through the fine 23 Things folk wouldn't work. no idea what I was doing wrong, but it wouldn't count down. So I went with a good ol' Google search and found this site...ps i apologize for the spelling error in buongiorno. it's not super simple to edit at this point :( But now I know exactly how long until I jet off to Italy with my dh and his singing posse in June ~ And seeing as Lake Como in St Paul is about a mile from my house, I felt it worthy to post the other, bigger, grander Lake Como on my counter.....oh, and thanks, LibraryGuy, for helping me navigate that whole HTML thing. good to know for future posts....you're a stellar teacher...

chapter two of Thing 13: Calendars~ okay here's where i'm going to sound rather aged. I really really *really* like my paper calendar. (for work *and* play bookings/meetings/events) the one that i tote around with no problem. the one that is this whole planner thing that weighs a solid few pounds. the one that if i want to leave it at home and go away for four days, i can and i don't care that i can't access it from some remote location on my cell or on my laptop (both of which are at home as well i might add if i leave town; I mean for real....WHY do some folks just feel the absolute need to bring work with them on holiday?? if i'm trying to enjoy the quiet of a great little coffee shop in a small town, the last thing I need is some yahoo in his best Ralph Lauren vacation wear yakking away about how impt this meeting is he's missing while he's out of town >:-( The world is NOT all about you dude! You're polluting my solace!) whoops! sorry for the soap box moment....

Did i do this part of Thing 13? well, sort of. I did monkey around with Google Calendar, Scrybe, iCal (which is on my Macbook at home) and 30 Boxes. All four worked similarly. As with many other comparitive studies I've done for these Things. Google was grand. Scrybe was okay. iCal is something I would only access from home, and 30 Boxes had a nice clean layout that was appealing.

As with other Things, I really am tired of signing up for free accounts, that at this juncture, I'm just not going to use all that much. And as stated, I really am not wanting to give up the paper calendar yet, so while it was educational to play around with different calendar tools, I prefer my colored pens and big clunky wonderfully archaic sprial planner in front of me. I should admit at this point that 2 years ago I basically asked for a Palm organizer for Christmas from dh. Who was wonderfully nice and did get me one. the Palm rode around with me for about 6 months, I sort of used it now and again, but still pined for my paper calender. Remember Trapper Keepers? I think I just got really sucked in to having a planner all the time as a student. And that carried over somehow to my grown up years. So do I think the calendar tools would be handy in the library field of work? yes, if all staff had access to the same one. yes, if you really don't like paper calendars. will i use one anytime soon? doubtful.

Next, this whole notion of to-do lists, including Backpack. Again, post-it notes were invented here in St Paul at 3M years ago and for good reason. They work. They don't need plugging in. I don't need to be logged on to anything, and my inexperience with having something like and iPhone or a Blackberry or any other techno-toy to keep track of my life on that lights up and sings and does all other amazing things is showing more and more as I type up this Thing. I *did* try Backpack for a little while, and it seems like a really quality product. Yet another thing to tuck into some small crevice of my brain in case I want to ever go back to it to try out for more than a little while. I will admit I use the Post-Its on our Mac often (a built in software option that yes, is handy).

So off into the wild blue yonder I go with my paper calendar, that doesn't need plugging in or turning on, my colored fine point Sharpies and my post it notes full of things I need to do in the coming days ~ jd

thing 12.....social & media just don't mix...

hmmmm, well here's my two cents after reading the prompts for Thing 12.

I like being social. I like my news. I do not necessarily like them both together. Oh sure, it leads to interesting discussions 'around the water cooler' as the saying goes...and yes, I agree with the point in the 23 Things site that librarians need to be in the know, and that patrons will read things online, become curious and come to the desk asking about such-n-such. Fine and dandy. That's what Google is for. My view is that I don't need to be signed up for RSS or site feeds on social media news sites to know or find such things. And what I read is pretty specific to certain sites. Local & national news. What I want to read in news may not be what others want to read, and the way I scope out my personal amt of news is a system I rather like....I'm not usually one of those 'I don't like change' people, but when it comes to Internet news & social sites, I'm happy with my way. I will say that the de.licio.us site is something I've grown to like and use from Thing 11 related to Thing 12...

Out of the 4 sites recommended to look at, I liked Newsvine best. I preferred the layout looking more 'newsy' like a CNN or a Star Tribune site with photos. Not just link after link after link...blech. boring. I think these can be helpful for the right people. I'm just not convinced I'm one of them. And imho, I think they can be productivity detractors as there's quite a few of them, and even if a person worked with just one, it's easy to get sucked into headline after headline after link after link and then, *poof* 30 minutes of non-productivity have gone by (whether at home or at work).

So onto Lucky Thing 13 on this snowy gray cold St Patty's Day ~ See my post from Wed Mar 12th about snowfall in March if you missed it ;) and all I can say today is thankfully my race was *yesterday*...

Thing 11...del.icio.us tagging....

not exactly the most intriguing things ever but here's my two cents...

tagging.  been there done that.  super easy.  i really didn't feel like going back and retagging every post i've made, so i did the last 3 or 4...I don't think i need to tag in blogland as much as i do in sites like Flickr, where i have many more things to organize. at least so far.

del.icio.us....well, i have a laptop with 2 browsers i prefer.  the one i use the most often wasn't really 'delicious' friendly.  safari worked okay, but honestly, i already have bookmarks in my browsers of my favorite sites, so this really isn't something i'd use on a personal level.... unless i was travelling and checking email quickly from, say, a place where i don't speak the language and hijack an internet terminal quickly in a library  until i get caught and literally apologize profusely in english and broken spanish and hightail it outta there;)  which, yes, did happen in the past year.  but it would work just as slick from, say, my dad's house in Arizona.  all of my favorite links conveniently packaged in one handy little link.

now from work.  well, as was mentioned by a coworker, they kind of frown on us keeping track of our 'favorites' and there's plenty of work to do that's not necessarily related to my favorite things.  and those sites are already kind of ingrained into the URL bars (like B&T, amazon, B&N.com, BWIBooks, etc).  now if i was a prof or worked in a class capacity where i needed to keep track of syllabi, etc, i can totally see how this is super useful for that kind of job...

Wikis or Wookies?? Thing 10...

in our suburban public library system, we do have a reference wiki (which every time i hear that word it takes me a millisecond to realize i didn't just hear 'wookie', as in star wars, and all i picture is Chewbacca for a flash) but honestly, i'm not sure how much it's used. or in my case i guess i just outed myself in that i do not use it. am i allowed to use the old 'there's just not enough time in the day' excuse to do reference work, ordering, selecting, related projects *and* serve the public at the desk?

i can see how wikis can help make communicating and working together on one common project easier by having a central location by which all people work from and give and receive information. as in the camping example in that little video we were asked to watch.... email is already one tool that it's easy to get bogged down or behind in and if there can be one wiki to prevent having to forward, reply and write many original emails for, then i'm for it.

i can totally understand teachers or profs banning the use of wiki information in research reports, with the whole angle of where is the information coming from and is it really credible. this is one more exercise for me to wonder what i'd really think of being a student in this day an age versus the last time I had to turn in any kind of research, which was 7 years ago.

After learning more about wiki's, i hope to use them more as i find them apropos to my work and i can see how they would be great tools in planning a camping trip with four or more friends.....(hint hint ya'll!) and having 7 children's librarians in varying buildings and having projects we all work on at times would make a wiki very handy to have around. or a wookie for that matter....he'd be a great hit at storytime! may the force be with you.....~jd

Thing 9....Google reigns supreme..

Thing 9.....collaborative tools. well, as has been mentioned in some of my other posts, I'm a Google fan 98% of the time. (ps this has been in the corner of my brain for a while now. for those who might be offended or annoyed by my lackadaisical use of lowercase letters and lack of capitalization, my deepest apologies....yes, i know when i *should* capitalize words. typing is faster without the shift key very often.....)

okay so Google Docs was easier for me to play with, and after initially thinking Zoho was a decent site, the fact that that Thing wasn't able to display in a format other than slideshow, I was kind of disappointed in it. Sorry Zoho. no hard feelings...but there was one person i wanted to actually give the recipe to in that exercise and it failed. Grrrr.

I went to try and edit the Google docs version of the Declaration of Independance and my Gmail address wasn't valid. "click here to validate this address"....okee dokee.....so here i am expecting immediate gratification with a return email and thinking i'm golden. (as that's usually how things like that work)

but silly me. it's friday night, about 10pm (for those who might surmise i lead an exciting life, LOL) ~ and apparently even the Google folks are out at the bars enjoying a night out while i do oh so exciting library work and enjoy an *actual* night off..... plus I'm starting to read this author's new title and very happy about diving into a book with more than 32 pages and no pictures in it in my hands for the first time in a quite a while~ that said, please don't ask me for at least a few weeks what I thought of it. I'm a slow reader. Really. Kind of embarrassingly so. For a few reasons. and it *is* training season now for running with two half marathons upcoming....plus work, chores and all of those other fun aspects of life...

Google still wins. Zoho, kinda clutzy. Lots going on on the page. and again, yet another think to log into or join in order to work on a "Thing" for this list of homework. And a girl can change her mind from one Thing to another. ;)

Thing 8....recipe included~

Some of my friends and neighbors have been happy to learn that my husband really enjoys baking when he has time (well yes, as have I!) Scones are one of his favorite treats to make and included in Thing 8, through Zoho Show, is a favorite recipe. I'm playing with Zoho to see if there's a better way to display the recipe all at once besides a slide show...

For my 'work' part of this project, I looked at the 3 recommended sites (Thumbstacks, Zoho Show and Slideshare) and found Zoho to be the most 'Google' like and easy site to navigate. I don't have PowerPoint on my MacBook (by choice) and this works pretty much identically. Fairly user friendly (but it crashed more than once on both the Mac and the work PC which = very annoying). That said it was easy to navigate, and pretty basic. For someone who's not familiar with doing a slide-based presentation for work or play, this worked pretty well. Happy baking :) ~jd

zoho link...