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 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. ;)