#23 I did it Harriet's Way....

And now, the end is near...
I planned each charted course;
Each careful step along the byway,
But more, much more than this,
I did it my way
- Paul Anka, 1969

My thoughts on web 2.0? I did enjoy the program and yes, I will probably miss it. It did open my eyes to new resources and some fantastic websites I didn't know about. I was not aware of how big blog land is, and suspect I just have an inkling of an idea of what is out there. It has been a lot of fun and I have learned a lot - at least 23 things anyway! It is a lot to keep up with. I may keep this blog going. It would be fantastic to implement some of the things we have explored, like wiki's and rss feeds into our daily work somehow so we can keep and improve upon the skills we have acquired.

#22 Faux books

Well, I must say, I found this exercise a bit frustrating! I couldn't find, or rather wait around long enough to find titles I was interested in. They may or may not have Theodore Dreiser's An American Tragedy, I wouldn't know, because it took so long to find out I gave up! I downloaded a word doc of it once, but found it difficult to read off the computer. I thought listening to it would be easier, but alas....t'was not to be...

I did find Walt Whitman and Edgar Allen Poe, of which we only have one book in our library of one author, and none of the other - disgraceful! No Poe?!#$%^&*.

Story time just wouldn't be the same on an mp3 player now would it?

#21 It's a pod pod world...

Harriet has been pod surfing and almost drowned in her own excitement in the first few minutes. There's a tsunami of pod casts out there. Some faves; It's a mod mod world, This is SKA cast, Miz Kitty's Parlour, BRC Radio... the list is endless.

Once again, be mindful of how how much time you spend in the big pond or you'll end up looking like a shriveled pickle. This girl is impatient! It's just not Harriet's style to sit around waiting for podcasts to download. Anything more than two minutes is an age and should be enough to remind you that there is real surf to be surfed, sand to walk on, gardens to be admired, dancing to be had, hotake to be consumed...

As for uses in the library, pod casts can be used for staff training, patron training, classes, tours, how to use library facilities and more and more and more...

#20 Harriet grooves with You Tube

#19 Web 2.0 awards & groovy sites...

Wow! Harriet was web 2.0 savvy before she even knew it! I have been exploring some of the winners of the Web 2.0 awards only to discover that I use some of them on a regular basis.

I was an absolute devotee of Pandora.com, an excellent music resource. Sadly they have encountered licensing issues and are now restricted to only being accessible in the United States. I LOVED Pandora. What an awesome concept! You basically told Pandora what your favourite style of music is, and it created a play list or 'radio station' just for you. You could even give it just one song that you really like, for example a James Brown song, and it would play it for you along with other soul or funk songs in the same style. Or you type in the name of a group, say Bob Marley and the Wailers, and you would get a selection of reggae bands and songs. It is brilliant. And it was free! Pandora would remember your preferences and create 'stations' for you that you could visit again. They are hoping to go global again sometime soon; not soon enough for me - I MISS PANDORA!

Harriet is also a regular etsy.com shopper. Looking for something a little bit different and unique? Everything on Etsy is hand crafted by talented artists and crafty folk. Unlike ebay, you don't need to bid; the prices are set, and in some cases, you can custom order from the creators themselves. Aahh! The magic of web 2.0...

#18 My Zoho and Fred

Hello... I have just been having a play with Zoho. It is a very useful resource, especially if you are away from your computer. All you need is an Internet connection and you access your files from anywhere in the world. This is great if you are OS and want to travel light. Just pop into an Internet cafe or library and away you go. It does make USB sticks obsolete doesn't it? Here's an excerpt from Harriet's diary (I keep this on Zoho so no-one can ever discover my secrets!)...ta ta.

Dear diary,
I had the most wonderful afternoon with my pals from the dance troupe! We're rehearsing a new show and it's going to be fabuluos! We have a new member, goes by the name of Fred; he is such a sweetie! Not bad for an old fella. Here's a picture of me out the front showing Fred the ropes. He's very good; took to it like a fish to water! Can't wait for our next rehearsal; it's shaping up quite well! Stay tuned...H.

#17 Go see!

...Harriet joins the sandbox! And the best part? Anyone can play! Although, I must say; there are some cheeky buggers loitering around in there, getting up close and personal 'n all. My word...some of the propositions this girl's been getting! Cheeky or what?

#16 Wiki Wiki Nudge Nudge Wink Wink

Wiki's - what can I say? Brilliant if you want to believe everything you read and couldn't be bothered researching your topic. I LOVE Wikipedia, in any language. I've made many contributions to wiki's - you can trust me, I have a degree! If it's on the net, it's gospel.

Seriously (for once), they are a good idea as long as they are not abused. Like most things on the information super highway it is open to abuse. I think it is a good idea in the work environment where new ideas need to be communicated to a large number of people; then feedback can be given and everyone's views can be known and considered. A better way to go than emails that are ignored and deleted. As long as people are constructive and have a valid point of view, I mean, I wouldn't encourage anyone to do a Harriet or anything..... except maybe Harriet, of course...as if she could resist......

#15 On web 2.0 and other stuff (of course)

Well if you think Harriet has been deliberately avoiding this next post, you are quite right. It's all a little onerous for this party gal. What does it all mean to me? Here's one perspective....Web 2.0, yes yes it's wonderful, amazing technology. I am truly amazed.... at the stupidity of people! Put yourself out there folks; get a blog, let psychos work out where you live, who you live with, where you work, where you socialise (on myspace and facebook because I don't actually have a social life, just a virtual one!!), what you do (they don't need to work this one out because you get on there everyday and tell them), even what kind of mood you're in; sad, happy, goofy, IRRITATED. For goodness sake, help, "does my bum look big in this?" It does provide humor however. Did you know the feds are now finding criminals on facebook and other social network sites? Yes it's true. Obviously they haven't learned about mashups and incognito yet!

Meanwhile, Harriet is living her life in the real world. Harriet went round the corner and caught up with the crew to see the fantastic Mr. Bo from nawlins. Yes folks, the dance floor beckoned once more. Shaking it with the the strange and lovely Dice Man, the sexy, sultry Ms. Caviar, Mr. Melbourne shakin' them maracas; what a night! Harriet even scored some bling from the man hisself!

Gosh!

Goodness! It's a whole new month and I haven't even noticed. Yes folks, Harriet has been partying again! The girl can't help herself. She's been all over town these past few weeks being entertained by all sorts. A couple of strapping Texans are in town, and well, someone has to entertain them.

Harriet's been shimmy-ing at the Koko, pogo-ing at Chez Cindy, sipping absinthe on the 35th Floor, jazzing it up at the Top End, shakin' it at Off the Hip and tearing up the sticky carpet with all sorts of Exotic types. And it doesn't stop there! The festive season has started and there's barely enough time to fit work in. Harriet needs a holiday - partying is such hard work. H

ps - I WILL get on to #15. Right now it's enough that I get out of bed in the morning... ta ta.

#14 Harriet's more glitterati than technorati

When I did a key word search on Learning 2.0 in Technorati I was inundated with 26,428 blog posts! The same search of blogs threw up 694...PHEW! A much more manageable number.
I did spot Senorita Laura on the LibraryBytes page - library people do get out there in cyberspace don't they? If we're not careful they just may take over, if they haven't already...
What do I think of technorati? Again, far more information than I REALLY need to know, but now I know it's there.

Harriet is finding out just how much activity there is out there in blog land, but really would prefer shopping on the High Street, which is what went on today...shoes, pants, skirts, tops...the works. As much as I like this blogging thing there's nothing like a three course meal, glass of wine and an afternoon of shopping!

#13 Harriet's del.icio.us delectables...

I have to admit that when I first glanced at del.icio.us I slammed the lid down fast and ran to the safe refuge of the latest book I have my nose stuck in. No, I'm not going to tell you what it is because I know what you sneaky librarians are like (just shy of stalkers truth be told!); you'll be so busy looking up everyone's current issues you won't notice that the returns chute is overflowing or that it is 10.03 and you forgot to open the library - OOPS!

Two glasses of rouge later (yes, Harriet advocates the use and aid of alcohol whenever possible) and Harriet LOVES del.icio.us for its sheer simplicity. Don't know why it looks complicated, it is the simplest thing I've done on this thingy blog diary whatever you wanna call it. Did I miss something? Or am I getting better at this?

I have just added a few sites that I visit frequently and some new ones relating to Learning 2.0. I don't find it too different than my current way of bookmarking, but it is interesting to see what other people are looking at and discover that some of them are as mad as Harriet!

When Harriet is fully recovered from the weekend, she will add some more sites, but right now she needs more than 40 winks.....goodnight, H.

Harriet has put her affairs in order!

Well, after two debauched nights shimmying on the dance floor, Harriet is convalescing and having some quiet time. She has put her telephone off the hook because she has a faint and niggling memory of giving her phone number to someone she suspects she may have kissed but can't remember who! What she does remember is that he smelt rather fishy...best to put it behind her and sort out her blog entries.

You may have noticed that they have been all out of whack. Well, with some clever manipulation of times and dates, Harriet now makes much more sense, and her posts aren't as scrambled as she appears to be. Harriet is quite chuffed at this achievement (as I am sure will be the poor darlings that have to track 720 blogs!!!).

So if you've visited Harriet before, TAKE ANOTHER LOOK as you will find some of her most recent entries further down the page.

#12 Rollyo

I've done my rollyo, that was easy, but I wish you could see the sites I have chosen from the drop down menu from my blog. I don't like how it takes you to the rollyo site. Hmmmm... a bit like having your own filing cabinet to search through, if it's anything like mine, you never know what's in there!

#11 Library thing

Harriet has discovered library thing! My top 5 favourite all time books I have read over and over and over and over can be found here. Did you know that Sylvia Plath initially published her only novel under the pseudonym Victoria Lucas? Don't waste your time reading my blog - GO AND READ A BOOK! NOW....H

#10 Image generators & Twiggy

Oh, goodness! You'll never believe who I interviewed for the mag this morning! Can't guess, well I'll tell you - TWIGGY, yes that icon of all fashion icons! Lucky for me Brace Caldwell took violently ill this morning (nothing to do with the help of the Nujol I slipped into his tea!), and I had to step in and cover the assignment for him. Poor sod's been on the crapper all day they tell me.
Anyhoo, can't divulge the details of the article just yet, but here's a teaser for you...taken by David Bailey no less!

Image generators - what fun! If you'd like to achieve the same effect as the Twiggy shot, visit Warholiser. More pics soon I hope, there are so many generators I could spend the whole bleedin' night here. Ta ta for now - H.

#9 RSS feeds

Ok; I've done it. Thanks to Zoya, I have been able to create my blog line and as you can see, you can view the different sites and feeds I have subscribed to. They are a mixed bag of news, personal interests and library blogs.

What do I think about all of this? I think it is great if you have a particular interest, but as I said earlier, you still have to go looking for it. The advantage is that it is in the one place, the disadvantage is that you now have a heap of stuff to read when you get home and by the time you get through it you are pale and emaciated and you realise you no longer have time to cook dinner, you need to upgrade your prescription lenses because your four eyes are getting worse, you then need to take all your clothes in because you've lost weight (or get someone else to do it becasue you can't see very well....)......AND then it dawns on you that you haven't had any face to face communication with any REAL people for hours, maybe even days and your inbox starts to get overloaded with mail from concerned friends, and the library fines are piling up because you just haven't had time to watch those DVDs or pray tell READ A BOOK! Start talking to people again....remember friends and family, and if you live alone, talk to yourself, use the telephone...VOIP if you have to!

#9 & 11 So frustrating! Bloglines and widgets...

I'd like to tell you I added a blogline to my blog but I can't! I have been trying for the past hour but I can't work out how to do it. I am sure it is simple, but I am obviously missing something!!! The picture on the left indicates what I felt while TRYING to it figure out.
So...I gave up and added a widget to my Library thing, so now my top 5 books are displayed for you. Actually, there are only books 5 books listed, but I will add more...one day...promise! Now I am sooooo exhausted, I don't know how I am ever going to get the shopping done. Of course, I could do it online and have it delivered....ah, technology!

#9 Beyond the blog

Aloha - I've been surfing again (in my bathing suit complete with modesty skirt - yes!) and riding the library blog waves, and as usual have drowned in information super highway overload once more. Some of my favorites library blogs are:
librarian.net
tales from the liberry
cool librarian

but of course there so many more to discover. Catch your own.
H.

#8 Bother! RSS information overload...

I am not even sure where I am at with this diary, blog thingy, but I can tell you I've been all over cyberspace and am a bit over this time-consuming, hour muncher, insatiable thirst for my time and patience. 15 minutes a day - what rot! Everytime I go near this thing I get lost out there in some parallel universe, only to forget why I went there in the first place. I've done the RSS feeds thingy, have subscribed to the BBC news (goodness knows why, I can watch it on the telly), and half a dozen other feeds I've lost interest in. I cut it back to 3, but don't even get time to look at those let alone read them. Being a naturally curious and enquiring person 'n all, I am happy to find things I am interested in, WHEN I am interested in them.

I did come across an interesting site called Read it Swap it
where you can do just that. Alternatively you can just leave a book on a park bench. Good karma will bring you another book to read.

#7 Got the film back!

Sorry it's taken so long, but I haven't had a chance to take my film into Boots for a week. Here are the shots from our fun fashion parade. The oldies loved it. Shame David Bailey wasn't on hand to do the shoot! These ones turned out rather well! It's such a long process;waiting a week for a film to be developed. Some clever chap should invent a camera that let's you see the images straight away so you can toss them if they're no good. We went through rolls and rolls of film. Anyways...these are my favorites. Until later....ciao.


Amazing how far technology has come. From old film roles to instant uploading of photos to your pc. Now back in the the day we had polaroid instant cameras, but NOTHING like today's capabilities. I have to say though, I do miss flicking through photo albums, even if digital storage takes up a lot less shelf space. We used to have slide nights, where everyone would gather round with finger food and drinks. It was a party! Now we email photos to each other, and talk less. We don't talk to each other as much, we type to each other! H

# 6 Harriet's first vinyl release....

Out now, available at Polyester Records, Missing Link and Off the Hip Records, Yes; our very own Harriet has a released some wax. Go-Go to the grooviest sounds, shake it to the hip-shaking beats, and shimmy to the irresistible charms of Harriet Cracknell, hipster beat mod girl extraordinaire! Get your copy now!


This is cool! Mashups are fun...
http://www.says-it.com/record/

#5 Week whatever and photo fun

1964
I'm so excited! To cheer up Susie's 'ol gran who's just been put in an old people's home we're putting on a fashion show for their entertainment. We get to show off our latest threads from Carnaby Street.

2007
I dug out some old photographs last night of my friends and I way back when. We had so much fun putting on a fashion show for the local retirement home in Camden Town. This is Susie, Judy and I. Weren't we the most! I remember it like it was yesterday. Thank goodness for technolgy - I was able to scan the photos and upload them to flickr so they can be preserved forever. They were beginning to fade, but with a bit of photoshopping I was able to restore some colour. And check out that bagde! Technology hey - amazing what one can do these days!

Another day another bill paid

September, 1964
Toast is burnt, tea's gone cold and there's a run in my stockings! My white patent leather boots will cover that. It's raining out, again. I almost trip down the stairs as I grab my mac and brolly and head off to work, late as usual....

I work for Honey magazine - this is the latest issue.


September, 2007

It's drizzling outside, a gray dull day, but that shouldn't distract me from today's deadline. I need that article posted by three o'clock. A cup of tea, some toast as I settle down to work at my Mac...

These days I freelance, and from time to time I get my short stories published. Mostly I self-publish.

#3 & 4 Welcome to Harriet's way

Finally, a place to exercise my inner curmudgeon! Stay tuned crazy kids... we're in for a swinging time!