Summer 2008

I hope everyone else is having a pleasant summer. So far, I have been biking and walking on lots of rail trails. The RTC ( http://www.railtrails.org/index.html) is a great organization and I love them. So far this year, we have been on the Wabash Cannonball Trail in Ohio, the Lower Trail, the Staple Bend Tunnel Trail and the Johnstown Flood Trail all in Pennsylvania, the Western Maryland Rail Trail and the Great Allegany Passage in Maryland, among others. Sometimes we walk, sometimes we ride recumbent bikes. Besides biking and walking, my other summer passions are NASCAR (love KK#9)...went to Michigan, great track and lots less fans this year thanks to the gas price issues and concerts...saw Bowling for Soup on a very hot day in Virginia in early June. They put on a fabulous show! Love their music AND they are very funny guys. Hoping to see Journey and Cheap Trick later in the year. It will be interesting to hear Journey's new lead singer. Two years ago, we had the pleasure of hearing both Steve A. and JSS and both did a great job so I'll be waiting to judge the new guy for myself. Always get a good show out of Robin Zander and Rick Nielsen so will look forward to CT. Love Def Leppard and their new album is good but am passing up their concerts because I do not like their opening acts.

I Love SLACKER

Recently discovered Slacker. I invite you to listen to my favorite music. Listen here:

http://www.slacker.com/?sid=stations/6256597/1211572693

Wheels no, Heat yes

Now that I have 23 things behind me, I will go on and blog about the more interesting things in life. Like how does it feel to be a mobile library with no wheels? Yep, we're in the shop again. I'm sure it is some form of Murphy's Law that the one problem your vehicle has is the one problem the mechanic has never seen before! Go figure. And the other big news is the heat...I haven't heard about anyone frying eggs on the sidewalk but surely some intrepid reporter will repeat this insipid experiment yet one more time for public amusement. That particular trick ceased to amuse me years ago.

The upside to 23 things is that I have practically become a youtube addict and am pondering the addition of high speed internet to my house...nah, I'm too cheap. It's no wonder MTV and VH1 no longer play videos--all the great ones are on youtube.

PBwikis

Check out the comments below my Sandbox or Litter Box post--the founder and CEO of PBwiki actually commented---now there's a guy interested in his product--how impressive is that in this day and age?

Challenging, Frustrating, Fun?

As I worked my way through 23 things, I found it challenging and at times very frustrating. Many of the websites we were sent to assumed a certain level of computer expertise and if you didn't have it, well, you were just left hanging or you had to read pages and pages of help, follow mulitiple links and perhaps, even after all that, seek help from a real person in your system. And if you were real lucky you could find a smart cookie (God Bless you, Ashley!) who could point you in the right direction. The things I found to be the most fun were things I was already familiar with such as flickr and youtube. But the problem with them is, who has enough time to really enjoy these sites?

I simply cannot understand where so many people seem to find the time to spend in the virtual world. I fear they are abandoning the real world to live vicariously in a fantasyland. For example, yesterday was Independence Day, July 4th, a day when I would assume most people would be out enjoying parks, picnicking with family or friends and just generally enjoying the great outdoors since it is summer. Well, you know what they say about assuming...ass u me...silly me!

My mom informed me that she had tried to logon to her favorite gaming site (yes, she's one of those 'gaming seniors' you've heard about) and there were 57,000 people playing the game she wanted to play. 57,000! She said the most she had ever encountered previously was 12,000. She said the total number of people playing games on the site exceeded a half million. On the afternoon of July 4th! It just boggles my mind that there are that many people on ONE gaming site on a holiday afternoon. What happened to parades, ball games and other real world interaction? I find this a sad commentary on current society. Do I think 23 things has value? Of course. Am I glad I did it? Yes, again. Would I like to be more computer savvy than I am now? Absolutely, but I am busy living life in the real world and for me, that comes first.

Here lies my zoho doc

ABOUT GOOGLE DOC AND ZOHO:
I spent way too many hours trying to get google doc and zoho to work. It might be me but I found both difficult to navigate. Zoho is better but there are no help buttons that I could find and you can't move things as readily as in Microsoft Word. If you don't already have a working knowledge of this type of thing it is hard to get the hang of it and tends to frustrate one quickly.

Application for

Bookmobile Service

to

Daycares, Homeschools, Community stops

 

     

To get a stop, the bookmobile requires the following:

1.  At least 15 books per month must be checked out at stop.

2.  There must be ample parking and/or turnaround space for a 35' vehicle (this includes no low wires or trees.)

3.  There must be time available on the bookmobile schedule when we are in your area.

 

For further information, please call 301-739-3250, ext. 155

 

Bookmobile Department

Washington County Free Library

100 S. Potomac St.

Hagerstown, MD  21740

Podcasts

I have listened to podcasts in the past but trying to download one for this excercise proved futile. First, my home dial-up was too slow, then the work PC will not read the code correctly and finally the work laptop will not let me download because I do not have administrative privileges and I have already had the tech guys down here once so I am throwing in the towel. I did add one to my bloglines account but due to all the above stated problems, I have been unable to listen to it myself...go figure