Why am I fascinated by technorati? It's such an odd glimpse into modern culture. What do we care about? What do we idolize? What (and who) do we mock? What do we post about obsessively in blogs around the world? The answers you find may be strange. A search on Harry Potter bring up not only videos from the Potter Puppet Pals (odd but mostly innocuous and definitely humorous puppet shows put on by a group of Potter fans) but also blog posts for x-rated videos. It's not surprising, really, since the internet has everything. A quick search, especially a search on visual media and blogs, will turn up everything from the infantile to the intellectual and much more. The full spectrum of modern culture can be seen at http://technorati.com/.
Thursday Next is:
1) an intrepid literary detective dreamed up by the fabulous Jasper Fforde; a heroine traversing the literary world within the text, jumping from page to page, genre to genre to save BookWorld and the (in)sanity of it's readers.
2) for the purposes of this blog, Thursday Next is also Meagan Albright, youth services librarian at the aslritc @ nsu.
From The Eyre Affair to The Big Over Easy, check out Jasper Fforde books here:
http://novacat.nova.edu/search/a?SEARCH
=fforde%2C+jasper&searchscope=13
Hello again to those who attended the learning challenge kick off. I hope you all had fun. I certainly did, as is evidenced by the goofy picture above.I considered including the lyrics to House of Pain's classic 1992 hit in this post but ultimately decided against it since:
1) the lyrics are a tad work inappropriate
2) the lyrics are a tad repititive
3) let's face it, catchy as it is, the song is lame.
Those interested in the lyrics can google it themselves. =)
"Venezuala's four-legged mobile libraries".
Libraries in Venezula are using mules as bookmobiles to "spread the benefits of reading to people who are isolated from much of the world around them". The mules trek up the dangerous slopes of the Andes mountains, loaded with books as they made thier slow but sure way up the slope. "Bibliomu-u-u-u-las!", the children shout as the bags of books are brought to the tiny town. For information on bibliomulas, go to BBC Mundo.
7 and a 1/2 life long learning habits:
easiest: #6 Use Technology to Your Advantage.
I constantly use technology.
Need a recipe? http://www.epicurious.com/
Need a laugh? http://www.unshelved.com/Default.aspx
How about a hilarious video tutorial of databases in the library? http://youtube.com/watch?v=nik3pyJwaYI
hardest: #1 Begin with the End in Mind
It is difficult to begin with the end in mind when you have about 42 alternate options for every decision you may make. When people ask me what I think I'll be doing in 5 years, I have to ask them whether they'd like plan A, plan B, auxiliary plan B2, emergency back up plan B3 or the one in which I simply win the lottery and buy my weight in books each day.