thursday next

library quotes: Terry Pratchett

2007-10-30T12:10:00.000-07:00

"The library didn't only contain magical books, the ones which are chained to the shelves and are very dangerous. It also contained perfectly ordinary books, printed on commonplace paper in mundane ink. It would be a mistake to think that they weren't also dangerous just because reading them didn't make fireworks go off in the sky. Reading them sometimes did the more dangerous trick of making fireworks go off in the privacy of the reader's brain."
Terry Pratchett. Soul Music.

tlc: facebook

2007-10-25T18:48:00.001-07:00

Me and James, my older brother and new "facebook friend".

TLC has facilitated interdepartmental communication and allowed me to see aspects of my coworker's personalities that I would not otherwise be privy to, but honestly despite all the opportunities to meet and greet other Nova library employees, I tend to spend most of my TLC online time with the other two YS librarians. Sure, I could just as easily shout from my office door to Rebecca's to ask how her day is going, but I like the added communication and insight I get from reading her blog. If nothing else, I can see the goofy picture she's posted of the Shermanettes (one where I'm wearing crazy BFG ears for a Roald Dahl storytime). And while Beth isn't quite as prolific a poster, it's fun to peruse her posts -- she has such a distinct writing and speaking style, I can almost hear her reading the posts aloud. It's not surprising that when I finally checked the facebook account I'd established months ago, in addition to friends requests from my older brother, a friend from undergrad and a friend from high school, I also had a poke from Beth. I promptly passed the poke along to Rebecca, and I'm sure the cycle of pokes and messages is just starting.

tlc: podcasts

2007-10-25T17:29:00.000-07:00

Readers of my blog may have noticed that in internet land I often go by the name Thursday Next. Occasionally that name has been taken by another Jasper Fforde fan, so in some places I'm also known as next.thursday (or some variation thereof). Obviously, not every Thursday you meet on the net is me, but it still seemed odd to search for story times at podcast.net (looking for public libraries posting songs and storytime sessions on the Internet) and stumble across a podcast posted by a Next Thursday that is, uhm... not quite work appropriate. "Hmm," I say to myself, "that's not the kind of bedtime story I'm looking for. I'll try a yahoo podcast search instead." This time I don't even have a chance to type in search words -- 5 of the top 20 podcasts in the "most popular" section of the main page are marked "explicit". Two of the top twenty, however, are language assistance podcats (for learning Chinese and ESL learners). This inspired me to search for "learn spanish" and check out a few podcasts that will (hopefully) help me connect and converse with my boyfriend's family. There is certainly a wealth of useful information on the interweb for library patrons, but I'd advise you to use caution when including podcast search engines in your programming.

Ninja Libraian

2007-10-25T17:25:00.001-07:00

I'm not advocating violence against patrons mind you, but the ninja librarian is fantastic. And in response to the tlc question for our youtube assignment -- "Can you see any features or componets of the site that might be interesting if they were applied to library websites?" -- perhaps this video would be an effective deterrent to cell phone use in the library if we posted it on our main page or played it on a loop on the tvs throughout the ASLRITC with a warning scrolling on the screen: "caution, this building is patrolled by ninja librarians". =)

PLS: Special Halloween Display

2007-10-25T07:16:00.000-07:00

Come downstairs to PLS to see a special Halloween display featuring the eyeball collection of Dick Fredrickson. Thanks Dick!

tlc: kayak

2007-10-21T16:58:00.000-07:00

I discovered Kayak on my own a few days ago when price shopping for plane tickets, so it seems appropriate that I discuss this tech tool in today's post for tlc. Kayak is quick and convenient; a one stop shop for comparing the prices of the major discount ticket distributors. You can select your vendors, hotwire, expedia, etcetera, and the results will pop up in multiple windows side by side on your screen. The only thing not to like about Kayak is the logo, I know it's supposed to look like, well, a kayak, but to me it's more like the eye of Sauron. Creepy.

tlc: zoho

2007-10-21T16:27:00.000-07:00

Most things in Library 2.0 have a cute name, and zoho is no exception. So it's cute and supposedly convenient but I think the odds aren't great that I will use this tool often. There are only so many gizmos and gadgets I want to add to my life, and this one doesn't seem essential. Yes, it's convenient that I can, presumably, save a document and continue working on it from a different computer, but I already tend to email myself important documents (thanks to the absolutely ridiculous storage capacity of gmail). In an ideal world, I'd just buy a kickass laptop and take it with me everywhere. Besides, I find zoho a total pain to use; I ended up clicking on random things only to watch the screen refresh to show ... the exact same screen. While some of ya'll seem to have mastered zoho with ease (*cough* tallmanicus), I plan on pretending zoho doesn't exsist.

Rowling outs Hogwarts character

2007-10-20T06:23:00.000-07:00

http://www.hp-lexicon.org/wizards/dumbledore.html

By Hillel Italie, AP Writer

NEW YORK - Harry Potter fans, the rumors are true: Albus Dumbledore, master wizard and Headmaster of Hogwarts, is gay. J.K. Rowling, author of the mega-selling fantasy series that ended last summer, outed the beloved character Friday night while appearing before a full house at Carnegie Hall.

After reading briefly from the final book, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows," she took questions from audience members.

She was asked by one young fan whether Dumbledore finds "true love."

"Dumbledore is gay," the author responded to gasps and applause.

She then explained that Dumbledore was smitten with rival Gellert Grindelwald, whom he defeated long ago in a battle between good and bad wizards. "Falling in love can blind us to an extent," Rowling said of Dumbledore's feelings, adding that Dumbledore was "horribly, terribly let down."

Dumbledore's love, she observed, was his "great tragedy."

"Oh, my god," Rowling concluded with a laugh, "the fan fiction."

Potter readers on fan sites and elsewhere on the Internet have speculated on the sexuality of Dumbledore, noting that he has no close relationship with women and a mysterious, troubled past. And explicit scenes with Dumbledore already have appeared in fan fiction.

Rowling told the audience that while working on the planned sixth Potter film, "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince," she spotted a reference in the script to a girl who once was of interest to Dumbledore. A note was duly passed to director David Yates, revealing the truth about her character.

Rowling, finishing a brief "Open Book Tour" of the United States, her first tour here since 2000, also said that she regarded her Potter books as a "prolonged argument for tolerance" and urged her fans to "question authority."

Not everyone likes her work, Rowling said, likely referring to Christian groups that have alleged the books promote witchcraft. Her news about Dumbledore, she said, will give them one more reason.

Personally, this just gives me one more reason to thank Rowling for creating such a wonderful world full of rich and diverse characters. It is important for people to see their lives reflected in literature, and many times the GLBT population is either shut out of popular fiction or relegated to small sidekick roles. Dumbledore is a popular and widely respected character, known for his intelligence, integrity and strength. I only wish that we had known earlier in the series -- better late than never I suppose but the fact that Rowling only felt she could reveal Dumbledore's sexuality after the series is safely finished only emphasizes that homosexuality is still seen as taboo, particularly in the world of juvenile literature. But let's focus on the positive, young people who are questioning thier sexuality or struggling for acceptance now have a new positive role model, one who is a legend in the wizarding world -- Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore.

tlc: technorati redux

2007-10-15T16:58:00.000-07:00

I must be a genius, since I already wrote a post on technorati for tlc. Check under August posts or just click on the tlc label and scroll down for the original post.

tlc: nsulibs wiki

2007-10-15T15:54:00.000-07:00

Alright guys, I need you to do me a favor. I've lived in Fort Lauderdale for over a year now and I only have two favorite restaurants: 1. Mario the Baker: good Italian food with lots of garlic & 2. Capsian Persian Grill : simply delicious. I love to play in the kitchen, making random recipes and a few favorites and Pablo is such a damn good cook that we hardly ever bother going out to eat. It's easier on the budget I suppose, but it means the kitchen always seems to be a bit messy and we hardly ever get a night off or a night out. So, back to that favor ... everyone should go to the nsulibs wiki, check out the favorite resturants section and recommend at least one good local place to eat. What kind of resturants? Anything non-TGIFy (everyone knows where to find Chili's & Bennigans). I'd love to hear about little local places, mom and pop diners, great ethnic cuisine and the like. Thanks!

tlc: wanna wiki?

2007-10-15T14:25:00.000-07:00

Meta-wiki, or, the genius of Stephen Colbert.

Colbert often reflects on the tenuous reality he believes (or "believes") is created by wikipeida entries. The entry on Wikipedia regarding wikis as seen on The Colbert Report is so meta that I just had to post that section in full in my wiki post.

"Wikiality featured as "The Wørd" on July 31, 2006.
Colbert has made repeated references on the show to Wikipedia, which he refers to as his "favorite website", generally in "The Wørd" segment. Colbert's first reference to Wikipedia was on the July 31, 2006 broadcast, when "The Wørd" was wikiality, defined as the concept that "together we can create a reality that we all agree on — the reality we just agreed on."[95] He explained that on Wikipedia "any user can change any entry, and if enough users agree with them, it becomes true."
Other "Wørds" invented relating to Wikipedia include "Wikilobbying", defined as "when money determines Wikipedia entries, reality has become a commodity", alluding to a case in which Microsoft allegedly hired someone to tamper with Wikipedia,[96] and "Self-determination", where corporations are allowed to act out their fantasies online by editing their own Wikipedia entries. Colbert described Wikipedia as, "Second Life for corporations", saying if a corporation wants to pretend to be someone else online, then that is their business.[97]
On May 24, 2007, the guest was Jimmy Wales, the founder of Wikipedia. Stephen Colbert called Wikipedia a "battlefield for information", a tool which "brings democracy to information" and moves away from the views of the "elite who study things and got to say what is or is not real." During the interview, Colbert showed a sentence on the screen: "Librarians are hiding something", which Wales could not see, with the implication that Wales could not stop a critical mass of individuals from editing a page according to the dictates of one influential individual. Wales responded that "the interesting thing about it [The Colbert Report] is that Wikipedians watch it."[98]

tlc: reflections on library 2.0

2007-10-15T14:13:00.000-07:00

Of all the articles included on tlc's exercise 15, I found Rick Anderson's to be the most appealing. According to Anderson: "In the post-print era, libraries no longer have the monopoly power that they had in the days before the Internet. We have to be a bit more humble in the current environment, and find new ways to bring our services to patrons rather than insisting that they come to us—whether physically or virtually. At a minimum, this means placing library services and content in the user’s preferred environment (i.e., the Web); even better, it means integrating our services into their daily patterns of work, study and play."

I have to say, he makes a compelling argument; of course, I'm already a believer in constantly renewing and revising library services. I'm very excited about integrating new resources, such as a PLS blog, into our library services. I don't, however, always find Library 2.0 to be the most effective method of reaching our community. Instead of being inclusive, communicating with the community at large and expanding our patron base, I often find new technology tools to be a bit exclusive, catering to the tech savvy. The patrons who may need us the most, those who don't know how to navigate the net to find new and essential information, may be left behind if we concentrate too strongly on new library services. A compromise is therefore needed, a blend of services that reach out to all of our patrons. I look forward to seeing how library 2.0 will invigorate existing library services without replacing the most effective method of communicating with our patrons: a friendly chat with their local librarian.

tlc: del.icio.us

2007-10-15T14:00:00.001-07:00

I've always loved the name of this tech tool; it was even the inspiration for my Recipe Search Engine (Rollyo = Delicious). Now I just need to take the time to create a delicious del.icio.us. I've already started with an essential Southern recipe -- buttermilk fried chicken. Mmm... del.icio.us = scrumptious!

sophie: breaking the blinds

2007-10-13T14:05:00.000-07:00

This is why newly purchased townhouses and very curious puppies don't always mix well. Sophia just had to see what the people were doing outside. Ah well, who needs functional blinds when you've got the love of a good dog?

play is "the highest form of research"

2007-10-10T09:32:00.000-07:00

Kids apply themselves at Museum of Play

Many of America's 300-plus children's museums, employing bigger and bolder settings, have been pulling out all the stops to pique the curiosity of their patrons to the point where they'll want to read books or perform on stage, exercise their muscles or get better acquainted with nature.
Over the last decade or two, they've been widening their net to make room for an ever younger, preschool crowd. At Strong, which almost doubled in size in 2006 but still pays homage to its roots as a cultural history museum, there's also a big push to attract more teenagers and preteens.
When the inhabitants are hard at play, squeals of delight echo all day through this city's cavernous child laboratory -- the nation's second-biggest after The Children's Museum of Indianapolis, Indiana. But peer around many corners, and studiousness prevails.
None other than Albert Einstein, after all, called play "the highest form of research."The shift toward accommodating toddlers and even crawlers largely paralleled a flurry of early childhood brain research affirming the social, intellectual and physical benefits of play.
"Play is really how children learn and that is their work as young children," said Janet Rice Elman, executive director of the Association of Children's Museums. "They learn best through touching, seeing, smelling, climbing, testing. They're also learning social skills, how to work with other children."

discworld = delicious

2007-10-04T10:52:00.001-07:00

I must have this cake.

South Park me

2007-09-26T12:44:00.000-07:00

I know a lot of people compain about the "verbing" of nouns, but I think language is meant to be played with and adapted. (Punctuation, on the other hand, is much less flexible.) Thus I have no problem with my post title "south park me", and I invite each of you to South Park ify or Simpsonize yourself. Thanks Rebecca for the link to the South Park image generator!

If you can read this you might enjoy the library.

2007-09-25T08:24:00.000-07:00

Changing the image of librarians in modern society is an interesting challenge, especially in an time when many see libaries as outdated warehouses for dusty books. Libraries are, of course, dynamic environments providing Internet access and online help, video games and DDR marathons, popular best sellers and car repair manuals, and a million other useful, entertaining and necessary things. Wyoming libraries have a slightly insane and hopefully effective new ad campaign with creative billboards & catchy bumper stickers. I've already seen detractors of this new campaign on the web, but I love it. I want a Florida version (or even a Nova / Broward version). Ideas anyone?

quiz time: what tarot card am I?

2007-09-24T17:40:00.000-07:00

I'm addicted to online quizzes. I will happily waste hours on "What Buffy (BtVS) character are you?" (usually Willow) & "What 80's teen movie star is your guy?" (Ducky). It's no surprise then that while perusing Girl Detective the discovery of a "What tarot card are you?" quiz led to instant clicking and a solid 3 minutes debating whether magic, love or learning is more integral to my life. (Yes, I do take these quizzes that seriously. Yes, I do realize that most of them are made up by sixteen year olds. And, yes, I do occasionally cheat to get the answer I want. I'd rather be Hermione Granger , thank you.)

What Tarot Card am I?

You are The High Priestess

Science, Wisdom, Knowledge, Education.

The High Priestess is the card of knowledge, instinctual, supernatural, secret knowledge. She holds scrolls of arcane information that she might, or might not reveal to you. The moon crown on her head as well as the crescent by her foot indicates her willingness to illuminate what you otherwise might not see, reveal the secrets you need to know. The High Priestess is also associated with the moon however and can also indicate change or fluctuation, particularly when it comes to your moods.

What Tarot Card are You?
Take the Test to Find Out.

blogger beware: flickr

2007-09-24T13:36:00.000-07:00

"A Texas family has sued Australia's Virgin Mobile phone company, claiming it caused their teenage daughter grief and humiliation by plastering her photo on billboards and website advertisements without consent.
The family of Alison Chang says Virgin Mobile grabbed the picture from Flickr, Yahoo Inc's popular photo-sharing website, and failed to credit the photographer by name.

Chang's photo was part of a Virgin Mobile Australia campaign called "Are You With Us Or What?" It features pictures downloaded from Flickr superimposed with the company's ad slogans.
The picture of 16-year-old Chang flashing a peace sign was taken in April by Alison's youth counsellor, who posted it that day on his Flickr page, according to Alison's brother, Damon.
In the ad, Virgin Mobile printed one of its campaign slogans, "Dump your pen friend," over Alison's picture.
The ad also says "Free text virgin to virgin" at the bottom.
The experience damaged Alison's reputation and exposed her to ridicule from her peers and scrutiny from people who can now Google her, the family said in the lawsuit."

http://www.smh.com.au/news/technology/
virgin-sued-for-using-teens-photo /2007/09/21/1189881735928.html

Since Alison clearly didn't want her picture all over the Internet, I'm not including it in this post. I'm extremely hesitant to mark any of the pictures I use in myspace as public because I don't want everybody to able to see my photos and I don't have much in my flickr account for the same reason. The Verizon ad takes privacy rights, copyright and more to a whole new level. This picture is innocous, a cute photo taken at a church picnic, but many people have much more, uhm, iffy pictures in their flickr accounts. You don't want potential employers, or people across the world, to see pictures of you next to the keg at a house party or out at a club at 2 am, so please be careful what you post on the Internet. This goes for pictures of friends and family also, especially children. If you are going to post pictures, mark them as private instead of public so that only friends can view them.

tlc: blogline v.3

2007-09-19T13:38:00.000-07:00

Blogroll! Click below for an updated version of my blogroll.

http://www.bloglines.com/public/DuncanIdaho

Bonus points to anyone who can name the book that inspired my blogline name (DuncanIdaho). I'll give you a hint, check out the picture included in this post. =)

tlc: blogline (update)

2007-09-17T11:43:00.000-07:00

Greg Sidberry of the Sherman library recently sent an email that would have been useful to me when I completed the bloglines exercise last week. (Or, as I like to say after too many vieweings of The Wedding Singer, "Once again, things that could've been brought to my attention YESTERDAY!") The email, a link to the top 25 librarian bloggers (as determined "by the numbers"), may come in handy if any of you tlc-ers are searching for library blogs to link to your blogline.

See the full listing and the info behind the rankings at

http://oedb.org/library/features/top-25-librarian-bloggers-by-the-numbers

Gorilla Librarian

2007-09-17T10:29:00.001-07:00

Librarians love Monty Python!

librarians of penzance?

2007-09-17T10:20:00.000-07:00

I'll give 5 bucks to the first librarian to record this song and put it on youtube!

I am the Very Model of Computerized Librarian

Based on the song "I Am The Very Model of a Modern Major-General" from Gilbert and Sullivan's The Pirates of Penzance.

I am the very model of computerized Librarian,
I seek out information zoologic to agrarian,
I know each subject that is found in an encyclopedia
I handle every AV tool and every type of media;
My online databases can locate each journal article,
In physics texts, I can define each elemental particle,
In atlases and online maps, I find the way to Timbuktu,
Identify each capital from Bogota to Katmandu.
I navigate the Internet with speed and perspicacity;
Evaluate each website for its content and veracity:
In fact, in finding information, most utilitarian,
I am the very model of computerized librarian.

I quickly search the Internet
or grab the right book off the shelf;
Then give the patron answers or
I teach him how to search himself,
I speed through every database like Galenet, FirstSearch, Dialog,
My records are all organized, just try my on-line catalog;
My homepage is a marvel of well-documented, helpful links,
It points to sites on modern jazz, hang-gliding and old Egypt's Sphinx!
I know just how to catalog in Dewey and in L. of C.,
I know the best books you should buy and those you wouldn't want for free.
I get you quotes on hot new stocks and find addresses in a trice,
The latest news, a star's birthday, song lyrics or a cure for lice:
In fact, in finding information, most utilitarian,
I am the very model of computerized librarian.

When I can look up online all ephemeral material,
When I can get full text of every page in every serial,
When my computer translates every language and each dialect,
From Hindu texts in Sanskrit to Confucius with each analect,
When every book is digitized and indexed in my database,
When I'm the first librarian to travel into outer space -
And when I've indexed every site on every chromosome and gene,
You'll say a more computerized librarian has never been.

I'm working on an interface directly to the human mind,
So I can capture concepts that have not yet even been defined;
In fact, in finding information, most utilitarian,
I am the very model of computerized librarian.

Lyrics by Diane M. O'Keefe, M.S.L.S. and Janet T. O'Keefe, , M.L.S.

For an alternate version for a "modern-day librarian", go to

http://listserv.utk.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0203&L=jesse&P=5573

tlc: blogline

2007-09-14T07:48:00.000-07:00

In order to keep our sanity, it is sometimes necessary to check in with the rest of the library world and see how our compatriots are faring. Bloglines allows me to streamline that process, checking for new posts on mulitple librarian blogs in one fell swoop. My blogroll is listed below. Most of theseI just stumbled across today while completing the tlc blogline exercise. If you know of any good librarian blogs, let me know and I'll add them to my list.

tlc: flickr fun

2007-09-11T06:19:00.000-07:00

Displays: Trekkie

2007-09-10T12:02:00.000-07:00

"Eaten any good books lately?" -- Q (to Worf) (Deja-Q)

Many thanks to Melissa Karnosh at South Regional / BCC library for the use Captain Picard, Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock. If only she'd had a cardboard cutout of my favorite character, Q. C'est la vie. Come take a picture with classic Star Trek icons (I've seen two patrons posing with Picard already) and don't forget about the Star Trek matinee on Sunday, September 30 in the Public Library Services department. Beat the geeks with Trekkie Trivia and watch Star Trek II while screaming KHAAAN! with Kirk.

Authors: Armistead Maupin

2007-09-04T15:36:00.000-07:00

I met Armistead Maupin, author of the Tales of the City series, at the ALA annual conference in DC in June, 2007. Maupin was the keynote speaker at the PLA Awards. He started off his talk by commenting how strange it was that the person who was originally tapped for the keynote speaker spot, Elizabeth Edwards, was in San Fransico showing her support for gay marriage, while he, a famous gay San Fransican author, was in D.C. He was amazingly kind, funny and generous with his time. Be sure to check out his books from the aslritc today!

http://novacat.nova.edu/search/a?SEARCH
=maupin%2C+armistead&searchscope=13

tlc: technorati

2007-08-30T13:29:00.001-07:00

Technorati is an internet search engine that focuses on weblogs (as well as photos and video that have been uploaded to the internet). The logo says it all "zillions of photos, videos, blogs and more ... some of them have to be good. The right side of the page features an ever-changing listing of top search terms. Popular searches include Paris Hilton, Nick Lachey and Britney, all members of the royal court of American celebrity. (I'm only surprised the reigning queen, Lindsey Lohan, is absent). Slightly more substantial searches include politics (Ron Paul is a frequent search) and hurricane Dean. Appropriately enough for this blog, learning 2.0 and web 2.0 are also popular searches. Disturbingly enough, pantyhose also makes the top list, and I don't recommend clicking on that search term at work.

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/.

Want to know "everything in the known universe about [the] alvin sherman library"?

http://technorati.com/tag/%22alvin+sherman+library%22

who is Thursday Next?

2007-08-23T11:17:00.001-07:00

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

tlc: jump, jump, jump around

2007-08-23T11:08:00.000-07:00

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. =)

news and views: bibilomu-u-u-u-las

2007-08-22T15:33:00.000-07:00

"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.

tlc: life long learning

2007-08-22T12:45:00.000-07:00

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.