Yes, I know. It's been almost 4 months since my last post. And I've done nothing in the way of the 23 things. My things have ... stalled. In my defense, I've been pretty busy. But it's also possible I may have been devoting much of my computer time to Lexulous and WoW. (Have I mentioned how much I LOVE my new laptop? It's got scads of RAM and the most amazing graphics card...) Don't judge me.
However, I am now compelled to blog as something truly bizarre happened to me today.
I set my car on fire.
No, not intentionally. And no, cigarettes, fireworks, O'Leary's cow, and spontaneous human combustion were not involved. Neither was the engine nor the wiring.
The time: 6 p.m., having just left the library.
The place: the intersection of Main & Pines.
The temperature (why yes, I do believe it's relevant): a not so balmy 96 degrees.
There I was, stuck in limbo waiting for a left turn, windows open (I don't air condition 'til it gets over 100), sun beating down, and in the sunbeam I catch what appears to be a lot of dust swirling 'round my passenger seat. (They are harvesting now you know, just check out all the combines etc. trekking back and forth on Highway 27 slowing my Fairfield commute to a crawl.)
I start to roll up the window when I realize the "dust" isn't coming in...it's going OUT.
It is not, in fact, dust. It is smoke. And it's rapidly growing in volume.
The vinyl cup/CD/stuff holder between the two front seats is ON FIRE.
Of course, that's when I finally get a break in traffic.
I zip on over to the pawn shop parking lot driving one handed while beating at the flaming spot with MY OTHER HAND. I wasn't thinking very clearly at that point. The fire, not very big to begin with, is now out, but I dump my water bottle over it anyway 'cause hey, what's a little water damage after all? It's not like I haven't spilled carmel macchiatos over there on numerous occasions.
Then I get out of the car and examine the damage. (My hand, by the way, is fine. It's ashy. So is the seat divider.) Surrounded by cracked and blackened vinyl is a hole the size of a dime. I can see stuffing.
How, you might ask, did this happen? Although the (almost) full moon may be involved, it all comes back to this winter. Remember this winter? The winter of 5 feet of snow in under 24 hours? The winter when two months later, we were still down to two lanes of traffic in a five lane road? The winter of the Ruts of Doom? Yeah, THAT winter. I shook the passenger side mirror right out of the mirror holder going over snow ruts. It was washboard city. I may even have shaken some of my fillings loose. I didn't even know I'd lost it 'til I arrived at the library and went "Hey, where's my mirror?"
I drive a 2005 Ford Escape. With electric mirrors. Ford refuses to replace just the glass--you must replace the entire unit to the tune of almost $400. The unit works just fine, rotating back and forth, angling this way and that. It's just mirrorless. And while I can buy the unit for about $100...I lack the necessary mechanical skills to get into the door frame, remove, replace, and rewire the lot. Even with the help of the Auto Repair Reference Center.
Being cheap, I temporarily replaced the mirror with adhesive mylar I'd purchased from Schucks, intending at some point to either replace the unit or have a glass shop cut me a mirror to fit. (Schucks and Napa, by the way, sell a variety of these self-stick things. Apparently I am not alone in my unwillingness to part with that kind of cash.) Life and cash flow being what they are, I never got around to replacing the mirror.
Apparently all that's been saving me from fiery death these past few months has been unseasonably wet weather. For the most part, I've had my tinted windows rolled up. Today, the windows were down, the angle of the reflected sun was just right, the car was already quite warm having been sitting in the hot sun all day, traffic on Pines was insane and preventing me from making my turn, and, voila--FIRE!
Freak accident.
For the record, I removed the mylar immediately. Co-workers take note: no need to fear I'll be turning the car wash into one great big fireball! And I'll be getting myself to a glass shop immediately following the holiday. Not to mention picking up a vinyl repair kit from my good friends over at Napa.
Sigh.
Saturday, July 4, 2009
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
It's alive, alive!!
It being George, my new laptop. :) Which arrived Monday after some FedEx detours. The mouse and carrying case were also detoured via UPS. The shipping experience with Dell this go-round has been...less than ideal. But I don't care...because I have a new computer! A speedy computer. A pretty computer. (Vista may suck down the Ram, but boy oh boy is it pretty.)
And after far more tweaking than I expected, I'm online! There was a brief moment of panic when I feared my Actiontec modem (which George insists is actually a Texas Instruments RNDIS Adapter) wasn't compatible with Vista...but it seems I have 32 bit, not 64 bit Vista so a quick trip to the library to download a driver and I was good to go. Mostly. Ran into some more trouble...as soon as the driver was installed, George started talking to the web, downloading Windows updates...but me, I couldn't get online. To access my connection I needed a "username & password, provided by my ISP". For the record, Qwest tech support was no help at all...but the Qwest community forums were exceedingly helpful and after following a number of posters' suggestions, lo, I am connected to the internet in my living room. Oh frabjous day. At the moment I'm downloading Windows updates and World of Warcraft updates. (Cue the extremely contented sigh--WoW, I've missed you so.)
BTW, for anyone contemplating the joys of "upgrading" to Windows Vista...I highly recommend the book HACKING VISTA by Steve Sinchak. I checked it out of my local library and am loving it so much, I'm probably going to have to break down and buy my own copy. I'm not quite brave enough to alter the registry settings (yet!) but the book is filled with all sorts of simple tweaks designed to make Vista more friendly for the beginning computer user and to make it a bit more...compatible with other software. Vista does not play well with others, no matter what Bill Gates might say differently.
So very soon I should be back on track with the "things" and working on rolling my own search engine. And tackling my online book discussion duties with Eliza Dresang's Jane Addams award contenders. I am so very, very behind. I'd forgotten what a "joy" getting a new PC was. Stay tuned...
And after far more tweaking than I expected, I'm online! There was a brief moment of panic when I feared my Actiontec modem (which George insists is actually a Texas Instruments RNDIS Adapter) wasn't compatible with Vista...but it seems I have 32 bit, not 64 bit Vista so a quick trip to the library to download a driver and I was good to go. Mostly. Ran into some more trouble...as soon as the driver was installed, George started talking to the web, downloading Windows updates...but me, I couldn't get online. To access my connection I needed a "username & password, provided by my ISP". For the record, Qwest tech support was no help at all...but the Qwest community forums were exceedingly helpful and after following a number of posters' suggestions, lo, I am connected to the internet in my living room. Oh frabjous day. At the moment I'm downloading Windows updates and World of Warcraft updates. (Cue the extremely contented sigh--WoW, I've missed you so.)
BTW, for anyone contemplating the joys of "upgrading" to Windows Vista...I highly recommend the book HACKING VISTA by Steve Sinchak. I checked it out of my local library and am loving it so much, I'm probably going to have to break down and buy my own copy. I'm not quite brave enough to alter the registry settings (yet!) but the book is filled with all sorts of simple tweaks designed to make Vista more friendly for the beginning computer user and to make it a bit more...compatible with other software. Vista does not play well with others, no matter what Bill Gates might say differently.
So very soon I should be back on track with the "things" and working on rolling my own search engine. And tackling my online book discussion duties with Eliza Dresang's Jane Addams award contenders. I am so very, very behind. I'd forgotten what a "joy" getting a new PC was. Stay tuned...
Thursday, March 5, 2009
Wailey, wailey, wailey.
Have just received notice from Dell that they've shipped my new laptop & mouse! Huzzah! Mouse will arrive earlier than expected (Hooray!) on the 13th. Laptop ... will arrive later than expected (Horrors!) on the 17th. Countdown to George has been re-set accordingly. Cue the pained sighs. And not a few sniffles. Maybe even a tear or two.
Tiny Titans: Welcome to the Treehouse
Those of you who know me in RL have heard my superhero rant before--big industry (I'm talking about you, Hollywood!) promotes its superhero summer blockbusters to young children (buy the happy meal toy! the lunch box! the coloring book! the pajamas!) when the material really isn't age-appropriate. I find myself regularly explaining to parents of preschoolers that no, there really isn't anything about Batman on our shelves that's likely to appeal to their 3-year old in terms of content, illustrations, or length of text, no matter whether or not the child has already seen the movie. Ditto for the 6, 7 & 8-year olds. (Yeah, there's another rant in there about taking them to the movie in the first place, but I'll spare you that for the moment.) While there've been a few beginning reader series over the years that have helped fill the kid-friendly superhero void a bit, they go out of print, and when they go, they go fast. Thankfully, we're seeing some new offerings these days. The Big Two (DC and Marvel) have recently been publishing more kid-friendly superhero comics and even (gasp!) chapter-books. And I'm here today to tell you about my new favorite from DC:
Collecting issues #1-8 of Tiny Titans, TINY TITANS: WELCOME TO THE TREEHOUSE (ISBN 9781401220785) is a must-have superhero title for young children. Written by Art Baltazar & Franco (Patrick the Wolf Boy!) with art by Baltazar, it's an exceedingly cute and funny look at the teen titans as young children. They've got the powers, costumes, and personalities their later teen and adult selves would evidence but all of the emo, the angst, and the age-inappropriate baggage has been removed. This is a truly kid-friendly, all-ages title that shows the young sidekicks/super-hero wannabes attending elementary school (their teachers are all super-villains, though the most villainous thing they do is assign homework), exploring the Batcave (watch out for the penguins!), reveling in their first crush, making new friends, finding the perfect pet, and doing "battle" with their future nemeses on the playground. The humor here (horrible knock-knocks and all) is sure to appeal to anyone 4th grade on down but there are also some serious issues being addressed. Raven, Rose, and Robin all struggle to find their own identities and disassociate themselves with their sometimes embarrassing parental figures (Trigun, The Terminator, and Batman, respectively.) Cassie learns the hard way to be true to her self and to not let her peers dictate her sense of fashion. And Starfire gets a close-up look at what it means to be a two-faced friend.
Things, meanwhile, that made me howl with utter glee:
*Alfred putting the intrepid explorers, penguins and all, into the time-out corner.
*"Tiny Titans versus the Fearsome Five : The Winners Get to Use the Swings!"
*Aqua Lad's pet fish, Fluffy.
*The "How many Beast Boy Alpacas Can You Count? (Hint: They're the Green Ones)" activity page.
*Cyborg as Easy-Bake Oven
There's a lot here to appeal to adult fans of the Titans and a number of in-jokes that may go over the heads of anyone unfamiliar with the older-audience fare, Principal "They call him The Terminator" Slade, for example. As such, Tiny Titans is good clean fun for the whole family. Go check it out now!
Collecting issues #1-8 of Tiny Titans, TINY TITANS: WELCOME TO THE TREEHOUSE (ISBN 9781401220785) is a must-have superhero title for young children. Written by Art Baltazar & Franco (Patrick the Wolf Boy!) with art by Baltazar, it's an exceedingly cute and funny look at the teen titans as young children. They've got the powers, costumes, and personalities their later teen and adult selves would evidence but all of the emo, the angst, and the age-inappropriate baggage has been removed. This is a truly kid-friendly, all-ages title that shows the young sidekicks/super-hero wannabes attending elementary school (their teachers are all super-villains, though the most villainous thing they do is assign homework), exploring the Batcave (watch out for the penguins!), reveling in their first crush, making new friends, finding the perfect pet, and doing "battle" with their future nemeses on the playground. The humor here (horrible knock-knocks and all) is sure to appeal to anyone 4th grade on down but there are also some serious issues being addressed. Raven, Rose, and Robin all struggle to find their own identities and disassociate themselves with their sometimes embarrassing parental figures (Trigun, The Terminator, and Batman, respectively.) Cassie learns the hard way to be true to her self and to not let her peers dictate her sense of fashion. And Starfire gets a close-up look at what it means to be a two-faced friend.
Things, meanwhile, that made me howl with utter glee:
*Alfred putting the intrepid explorers, penguins and all, into the time-out corner.
*"Tiny Titans versus the Fearsome Five : The Winners Get to Use the Swings!"
*Aqua Lad's pet fish, Fluffy.
*The "How many Beast Boy Alpacas Can You Count? (Hint: They're the Green Ones)" activity page.
*Cyborg as Easy-Bake Oven
There's a lot here to appeal to adult fans of the Titans and a number of in-jokes that may go over the heads of anyone unfamiliar with the older-audience fare, Principal "They call him The Terminator" Slade, for example. As such, Tiny Titans is good clean fun for the whole family. Go check it out now!
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
Flickr! It's not just for fun anymore!
True story from the stacks: I actually used some of my newly discovered learning 2.0 tools assisting a customer this weekend. The gentleman in question wanted to upload a picture of himself to his yahoo profile and had no idea where to begin. No problem--I'd done that very thing whilst playing about with avatars. Next, he wanted to edit his picture. Not so easily accomplished on the library's software stations with a read-only CD...so I suggested he create a Flickr account, upload his pictures there, and set about tweaking them to his heart's content using picnik. Not only could he easily manipulate and save the changes there, his photos would be accessible to him from anywhere with web access. Although his computer time was up, he seemed v. intrigued--another convert to web 2.0!
Library Thing Redux
Apparently I'm something of a joiner these days. Virtually, anyway. I have just joined the LibraryThing group, "Read YA Lit." (It's over here if you're interested...http://www.librarything.com/groups/readyalit.) They were discussing a book a month through August and while discussion seems to have gone on hiatus, there're some fantastic recommendations of overlooked titles and whatnot flying back and forth. Not that I'm a fan of YA lit or anything...
Also thought the founder of the site had an excellent idea about how to use LibraryThing. Forget about cataloging everything in your library--instead, use it to catalog everything you read. Voila, instant memory aid the next time you're stumped to recommend a title.
Mind you, I've been using goodreads in that very fashion since creating my account. Not that I've updated those virtual bookshelves any more frequently than I have those in LibraryThing. (Gwendolyn, when did you find the time to add, let alone read 617 books?!) I suppose it now comes down to choosing one tool over the other. sigh. That seems to be one of my main complaints about social networking tools--there's so much duplication. The other being, of course, that there's so little time to actually make use of all of these tools...
Also thought the founder of the site had an excellent idea about how to use LibraryThing. Forget about cataloging everything in your library--instead, use it to catalog everything you read. Voila, instant memory aid the next time you're stumped to recommend a title.
Mind you, I've been using goodreads in that very fashion since creating my account. Not that I've updated those virtual bookshelves any more frequently than I have those in LibraryThing. (Gwendolyn, when did you find the time to add, let alone read 617 books?!) I suppose it now comes down to choosing one tool over the other. sigh. That seems to be one of my main complaints about social networking tools--there's so much duplication. The other being, of course, that there's so little time to actually make use of all of these tools...
LibraryThing, You Make My Heart Sing! a.k.a. Thing#11
Ahhhh, LibraryThing. Never again will I wonder if I actually own a copy of a particular title. Assuming I've got online access and can check my virtual shelf over at http://www.librarything.com/catalog/cyanbe, that is. And assuming I ever get around to actually entering my library...the graphic novels alone take up the better part of 9(!) shelves.
Check out a random display of titles from my library in the gadget at lower right! This took a bit of doing, actually. LibraryThing's Blog Widgets were easy to find and even easier to use...but once I'd generated the script I couldn't figure out how to add it to my blog, Blogger newbie that I am. (For any of you playing the home game who find yourselves in a similar situation, the gadget you want to add is under Basic, "Html/Java"--just paste in your script & you're good to go.)
I ran into a slight hiccup when adding a sampling of my library--I couldn't find a record for THE LIVING DEAD, edited by John Joseph Adams. Well, I couldn't find a correct record, anyway. The only thing that matched my ISBN search turned up THE LIVING DEAD by Stephen King. King is NOT the author--he's a contributor. One of MANY. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to have been cataloged by the good ol' LoC and Amazon's info is incorrect. Not that that's stopped 131 other LibraryThing users from glomming on to this particular record. (LibraryThing warned me about this in the help files, actually. Bad cataloging is not, sadly, unheard of.) GRRRR.
My inner cataloger couldn't live with Stephen King, who authored only 1 of 34 stories in the collection and isn't even listed amongst the 1st 15 contriubtors, as main author. So I edited the record, uploaded a new cover image, added all of the other authors to the record, and submitted a v. short review. I also got sloppy--I didn't bother to re-order the contributors that had already been input into the record to match the TOC. (My inner catalog will never be satisfied. She demands marc fields the better to input physical description data in proper order. And, waffling as to whether to call the authors of the short stories "authors" or "contributors," she opted to leave their role blank instead. She will undoubtedly lose sleep over this. Diane, if you're reading, care to ring in on what the correct term is? My inner cataloger must be appeased. Mayhap I'll go back and fix the lot.) In the meantime, it'll be interesting to see if anyone grabs up my record rather than the Stephen King one.
Cool--I just successfully added a book to my library via Twitter! Want to know how? Read "Twitter Your Books to LibraryThing" at http://www.librarything.com/blog/2009/01/twitter-your-books-to-librarything.php. It's fast, it's speedy, it doesn't involve much in the way of typing! I may finally have found something to justify Twitter's existence! (Not a fan, no, how could you tell?) OH. Sigh. It would appear I have found yet another example of bad cataloging and must needs edit my newly twittered book. Again with the sigh.
Time to call it a night...I've got books to organize on my virtual shelf, dontcha know.
Check out a random display of titles from my library in the gadget at lower right! This took a bit of doing, actually. LibraryThing's Blog Widgets were easy to find and even easier to use...but once I'd generated the script I couldn't figure out how to add it to my blog, Blogger newbie that I am. (For any of you playing the home game who find yourselves in a similar situation, the gadget you want to add is under Basic, "Html/Java"--just paste in your script & you're good to go.)
I ran into a slight hiccup when adding a sampling of my library--I couldn't find a record for THE LIVING DEAD, edited by John Joseph Adams. Well, I couldn't find a correct record, anyway. The only thing that matched my ISBN search turned up THE LIVING DEAD by Stephen King. King is NOT the author--he's a contributor. One of MANY. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to have been cataloged by the good ol' LoC and Amazon's info is incorrect. Not that that's stopped 131 other LibraryThing users from glomming on to this particular record. (LibraryThing warned me about this in the help files, actually. Bad cataloging is not, sadly, unheard of.) GRRRR.
My inner cataloger couldn't live with Stephen King, who authored only 1 of 34 stories in the collection and isn't even listed amongst the 1st 15 contriubtors, as main author. So I edited the record, uploaded a new cover image, added all of the other authors to the record, and submitted a v. short review. I also got sloppy--I didn't bother to re-order the contributors that had already been input into the record to match the TOC. (My inner catalog will never be satisfied. She demands marc fields the better to input physical description data in proper order. And, waffling as to whether to call the authors of the short stories "authors" or "contributors," she opted to leave their role blank instead. She will undoubtedly lose sleep over this. Diane, if you're reading, care to ring in on what the correct term is? My inner cataloger must be appeased. Mayhap I'll go back and fix the lot.) In the meantime, it'll be interesting to see if anyone grabs up my record rather than the Stephen King one.
Cool--I just successfully added a book to my library via Twitter! Want to know how? Read "Twitter Your Books to LibraryThing" at http://www.librarything.com/blog/2009/01/twitter-your-books-to-librarything.php. It's fast, it's speedy, it doesn't involve much in the way of typing! I may finally have found something to justify Twitter's existence! (Not a fan, no, how could you tell?) OH. Sigh. It would appear I have found yet another example of bad cataloging and must needs edit my newly twittered book. Again with the sigh.
Time to call it a night...I've got books to organize on my virtual shelf, dontcha know.
Sunday, March 1, 2009
Coraline
Went to see Coraline Saturday night for the 2nd time. Still haven't managed to catch it in 3D yet, but I suppose there's still time. The animation in this movie is amazing. I loved, loved, loved it. And will undoubtedly own it once it's released on dvd. I loved the audience response last night, too--the kids were utterly silent for the most part, totally caught up in the film. And two little boys insisted on staying through the credits. Here's a trailer, in case you've missed it:
(BTW, I once again made the mistake of reading YouTube comments. They both amuse and irritate me no end. For the record, this is NOT a movie by Tim Burton. It is a movie by Henry Selick. Written for the screen and directed by Selick, actually. And yes, he worked on Nightmare Before Christmas. He was the director whereas Burton was the writer. Working on a movie together does not make Mr. Burton and Mr. Selick the same person. And, last I checked, Neil Gaiman was NOT a Scientologist. Nor is he trying to brainwash viewers to the Scientologist point of view. YMMV. And actually...this IS a movie for children. Just because a film is creepy and disturbing doesn't mean it's inappropriate for kids. Give kids some credit--they know how to appreciate both. I really must avoid the comments in the future. I can feel my blood pressure creeping ever-skyward.)
As much as I love this film, I do have a few quibbles with the liberties they've taken with the original source material. Spoilers abound below for both the book and movie, so consider yourselves warned...highlight over the text to read as per Wilma's most excellent suggestion! (And if anyone reading this knows how to hide text below a cut in blogger, please sing out. Help files only apply to "classic templates." Oh, LiveJournal, I miss you so...)
I don't mind that they've turned an independent and spirited young British girl into an independent, spirited, blue-haired young girl from Michigan who seems to have been transplanted to Ashland, Oregon. (Ashland?! That was the only explanation I could come up with for the folks running about in Shakespearean garb. Other thoughts?) I love the blue hair, actually. And the American setting bothered me not a bit. Though I missed the Frog wellingtons.
The insertion of spying dolls was interesting and while it had nothing to do with the book, I loved their look. (I want to make a Coraline of my very own.) The creation scene of Coraline's "Little Me" at the beginning was deliciously creepy and did a lovely job of setting the tone for the rest of the film.
I missed the rats' musical numbers from the book, but was delighed to discover that the Other Father sings. (And yes, that IS They Might Be Giants performing the number. Heee!!!)
Here are my main problems with the film version: I was very surprised and disappointed by the introduction of an original character--Wybie Lovat. Don't get me wrong, I like Wybie--he was good for comic relief and the provision of a very timely rescue. But that's what bothers me--the fact that Coraline NEEDED to be rescued.
Coraline of the book was a very courageous and determined young lady who did what needed doing (with a little help from a curmudgeonly cat)on her own and succeeded. That's a very powerful message for children, and it was diluted in the film. In fact, my most favorite line in the book was missing completely from the movie: "Because when you're scared but you still do it anyway, that's brave." That's a message that children (and grownups, too) need to hear.
I was disappointed by the final well scene in the movie. In the book, Coraline schemes and builds a trap for the Other Mother's right hand and disposes of it quite...handily. She shows smarts & courage. In the movie, she's pretty much on the run from the hand and is rescued at the last minute by Wybie and his dirtbike. They don't seem to have an actual plan for the hand's disposal--the well's proximity dictates their actions, not any actual forethought or planning. In short, movie Coraline is less brave, less independent, and less smart. And that just makes me mad.
All of the above being said...I still think you should go see it. And while you're at it, check out the book, too. Or the audio, read by Neil with music by the Gothic Archies , or the amazing graphic novel with illustrations by P. Craig Russell. You won't be sorry you did.
(BTW, I once again made the mistake of reading YouTube comments. They both amuse and irritate me no end. For the record, this is NOT a movie by Tim Burton. It is a movie by Henry Selick. Written for the screen and directed by Selick, actually. And yes, he worked on Nightmare Before Christmas. He was the director whereas Burton was the writer. Working on a movie together does not make Mr. Burton and Mr. Selick the same person. And, last I checked, Neil Gaiman was NOT a Scientologist. Nor is he trying to brainwash viewers to the Scientologist point of view. YMMV. And actually...this IS a movie for children. Just because a film is creepy and disturbing doesn't mean it's inappropriate for kids. Give kids some credit--they know how to appreciate both. I really must avoid the comments in the future. I can feel my blood pressure creeping ever-skyward.)
As much as I love this film, I do have a few quibbles with the liberties they've taken with the original source material. Spoilers abound below for both the book and movie, so consider yourselves warned...highlight over the text to read as per Wilma's most excellent suggestion! (And if anyone reading this knows how to hide text below a cut in blogger, please sing out. Help files only apply to "classic templates." Oh, LiveJournal, I miss you so...)
I don't mind that they've turned an independent and spirited young British girl into an independent, spirited, blue-haired young girl from Michigan who seems to have been transplanted to Ashland, Oregon. (Ashland?! That was the only explanation I could come up with for the folks running about in Shakespearean garb. Other thoughts?) I love the blue hair, actually. And the American setting bothered me not a bit. Though I missed the Frog wellingtons.
The insertion of spying dolls was interesting and while it had nothing to do with the book, I loved their look. (I want to make a Coraline of my very own.) The creation scene of Coraline's "Little Me" at the beginning was deliciously creepy and did a lovely job of setting the tone for the rest of the film.
I missed the rats' musical numbers from the book, but was delighed to discover that the Other Father sings. (And yes, that IS They Might Be Giants performing the number. Heee!!!)
Here are my main problems with the film version: I was very surprised and disappointed by the introduction of an original character--Wybie Lovat. Don't get me wrong, I like Wybie--he was good for comic relief and the provision of a very timely rescue. But that's what bothers me--the fact that Coraline NEEDED to be rescued.
Coraline of the book was a very courageous and determined young lady who did what needed doing (with a little help from a curmudgeonly cat)on her own and succeeded. That's a very powerful message for children, and it was diluted in the film. In fact, my most favorite line in the book was missing completely from the movie: "Because when you're scared but you still do it anyway, that's brave." That's a message that children (and grownups, too) need to hear.
I was disappointed by the final well scene in the movie. In the book, Coraline schemes and builds a trap for the Other Mother's right hand and disposes of it quite...handily. She shows smarts & courage. In the movie, she's pretty much on the run from the hand and is rescued at the last minute by Wybie and his dirtbike. They don't seem to have an actual plan for the hand's disposal--the well's proximity dictates their actions, not any actual forethought or planning. In short, movie Coraline is less brave, less independent, and less smart. And that just makes me mad.
All of the above being said...I still think you should go see it. And while you're at it, check out the book, too. Or the audio, read by Neil with music by the Gothic Archies , or the amazing graphic novel with illustrations by P. Craig Russell. You won't be sorry you did.
Friday, February 27, 2009
Thing #9--Feed Your Head!
Okay, here we are at Thing #9: "Finding Feeds." I think we're finally back on track, number-wise, anyway.
I'm brand new to actively seeking out newsfeeds. Sure, friends would pass on the occasional link and I'd subscribe through google reader. But go looking for feeds? Why on earth would I?! I preferred to stalk my favorite websites instead. Unfortunately, many comics-related websites are no longer being regularly updated, their creators & contributors having jumped on the blogging bandwagon. So this is a very timely assignment for me. With several search tools at my disposal, I set out to find feeds dedicated to covering comic books, graphic novels, and manga, primarily for kids.
Syndic8.com
Of the five search tools I tried, Syndic8.com was my least favorite. It's extremely cluttered. The information given about the various feeds isn't especially self-explanatory or helpful. Creation date--meaning when the feed was listed with Syndic8.com? When it started "broadcasting" on the web? What's with the various statuses? "Awaiting repair"? "Polling"? "Awaiting Approval?" By whom? And what does this tell me about the site's reliability and content?
The layout is awkward--I'd click on various links and find myself unable to return to the previous page. Clicking back to the front page and starting from scratch seemed to be my only option and I had to click on the Syndic8 logo in the upper left corner. I thought I'd hit the jackpot when I accidentally clicked on categories and found a "comics" category. But what did I find? A list of feeds from Topix.net! It was surreal.
I'm extremely leery of the results generated through "search for feed" on the main page. My search on "all-ages comics" turned up a few sites I was familiar with...and "Free 3D Adult Comics" among other just as unlikely prospects. Really not what I had in mind. I have no idea how the search results are generated--key words in posts? Blog titles & post tags? Tags generated by the blogs' authors? I had no idea how to refine my search. (And anyone who knows me knows I'm a big fan of filters, exact phrases, and Boolean operators. I blame my early encounters with LexisNexis & Dialog. And yes, I AM that old.) To top it all off, Syndic8.com doesn't seem to have a help page. I don't think I'll be making a return visit.
Topix.net
Topix.net wasn't what I expected. The description on our Learning 2.0 blog had led me to believe I'd only be finding feeds from major news and media outlets. I wasn't planning on finding much of anything to subscribe to--while the major media feature the occasional article or even column about comics and graphic novels, they've usually got a much bigger focus. Much to my surprise, Topix.net's advanced search lets you limit your results to "just blogs" or "no blogs." (And if you're looking for news, you can limit by city or zip code, too, which is a very spiffy feature!) Limiting my search to "just blogs" I found a couple that I'd missed on Syndic8 & Technorati (either through faulty searching on my part or lack of inclusion in those particular tools) so all in all it was a productive visit. I could see myself using this site again. I do wish they'd list the url for the feed directly, though, rather than hotlinking it beneath the name. When I'm browsing I use urls to help me pick and choose--some I recognize from other sources, some I weed out based on type of site, etc. I miss having them readily visible. Sure I can mouse over, but that takes longer than a visual pan & scan. (And yes,the irony is killing me because I've been mostly hiding the links in this blog to save space and clean the place up a bit. I may have to re-think this particular position.)
www.bloglines.com/search
Bloglines' search tool is pretty easy to use. You can search your terms in posts, feeds, citations, or the whole world wide web. Since I'm looking for news on a fairly specific topic (comics/graphic novels/manga for kids) I narrowed my search to feeds, hoping to find blogs devoted to my obsession. Failing to pull up much of anything I hadn't seen before, I tried searching for posts with my search terms that excluded my feeds. Sound good, doesn't it? Find new blogs with content I'm interested in! Unfortunately...it didn't work as advertised. I pulled up a bunch of posts from feeds I'm already subscribing too. Ah well. The results were still more on target than what I pulled up over at Syndic8.
Google Reader (http://www.google.com/reader/)
I'm a Google Reader dilettante. And since I'm in the process of comparing bloglines to Google Reader, I thought I'd give Google Reader's search tool a try. Only first...I had to find it. Which proved more difficult than I imagined. Bloglines search tool is soooooo easy to find--it's a tab right at the top of the page, dead center under your account name. Google Reader's on the other hand... Logged into my account I was drawn immediately to the very prominent search box at the top of the page. No joy--this search box searches ONLY feeds I'm already subscribed to. I'll give it points in that I can limit the search to certain folders and I do love the ability to limit my search...but it's only searching what I've thoeretically already read.
Help was...unhelpful. The articles about "How do I find a feed?" and "How can I subscribe to feeds?" assumed I already knew what I wanted to subscribe to and just needed to find the feed info. They 'helpfully' suggested using GR's "add subscription" button and pasting in the url, or searching the blog for the RSS button or the "subscribe" link and then following the instructions.
Poking about on my page, I discovered the tantalizingly named "Browse for stuff."
I'm a big fan of stuff. And I like to browse. So I clicked on it. Success! At last we had a search tool! Sort of. Browse for stuff is divided into two sections--Reccomendations & Feed Discovery. I was curious about the recommendations. As were other GR users, based on the comments in the help section. No official answers were forthcoming as to how these recommendations were generated, but users speculated they appeared to be based on a combination of feeds you most recently subscribed to and content you most frequently subscribed to. Suffice to say, about 1 in 5 were of interest to me.
So I ventured forth into Feed Discovery. Feed Discovery comes in two flavors (2 1/2, but who's counting?): (1) Feed Bundles & (the oh-so-descriptive) (2) Browse. Feed Bundles are groups of feeds on a certain topic that are "generated by comparing your interests with feeds of users similar to you." Similar to me how? That we share a feed subscription or two? It's a big web, and that leaves a lot of room for error... The Feed Bundles were extremely disappointing. For starters, the "Comics" bundle was a collection of 10 "recommended" webcomics, 3 of which I already subscribed to via a google reader, 2 of which are delivered directly to my inbox, and the others of which are all bookmarked by me over on delicious. 10 recs and NOTHING I hadn't seen before. There were no "comic book" or "graphic novel" or "manga" feed bundles. Based on my other subscriptions, I tried "Games" and "Gaming" and found blogs devoted to specific platforms or specific electronic games--none of which I owned. There wasn't a board game or library gaming blog to be found amongst them, despite my subscriptions to blogs of such ilk. These feeds were also somewhat redundant as many of the links were then replicated in the "Nintendo" and "PS3" bundles further down the list. The "library" bundle was also disappointing--again, I subscribed to several of the blogs already and the others weren't of interest to me. (After all, why should I read someone else's rants about working in a library? I'm quite capable of ranting on my own, thanks, and with better spelling.) And nothing popped up in terms of early literacy or working with children and youth.
Browse wasn't much better, alas. Here I could finally enter search terms and "search for feeds." But what was I searching? Key words in posts? Tags? Blog titles? All of the above? And from where? All of the web? Or only blogs already subscribed to by other google readers? There was no explanation. And no instruction as to how to state my search. No limits, either... As to how many results I retrieved, well, I really don't know. No numbers were stated. Just page after page of hits with a "next page" link at the bottom. I don't even know how many pages were retrieved. I do know that I found 1-2 links per page to actually be what I was looking for. How extremely frustrating.
And now for flavor 2 1/2--Browse by Category. (It was cut off in the screencapture--it lurks at the very bottom of the "Feed Discovery" window.) Sounds pretty good, doesn't it? Expect there are only 7 categories. 7 very broad categories. And again, no way to limit within those categories or know how many blogs are contained within each.
I found this whole Google Reader exploration process to be very depressing. I've been a big google fan for a long time. And I love my igoogle page and all its little widgets. For the most part my google experiences have been very easy and the tasks self-explanatory. And when in doubt, I've had detailed and easy to access help files to fall back on. Google Reader just doesn't live up to the standard Google's set with its other products.
http://www.technorati.com
Technorati was probably my favorite of the five search tools. For starters, it's got some great help and FAQ files and a spiffy "site guide" that explains just how Technorati differs from RSS search engines. Technorati isn't searching just xml coding or blogs with RSS feeds--it's searching ALL blogs and the html coding, too! Assuming it's doing what it says it does, it's searching a much bigger chunk of the web than others.
Technorati's search tools come in a variety of flavors. All of which I hope I understand fully and am using correctly. There's a Blog Directory (http://technorati.com/blogs/directory/) that lets you browse by general category. I was a little disappointed in the categories, actually--no "comics," naturally, but no "books" or "reading" either--instead the term of choice is "literature." That's a little too, well, stuffy for my tastes. Looking at profiles for the blogs contained therein DID provide me with my beloved "books" tag, however. There's also an advanced search (http://technorati.com/search?advanced) that lets you search for exact phrases, urls, even use boolean "nots." It's also got a spiffy feature that lets you enter the url for a blog that you like...to find other blogs that link to it! For the most part, though, your basic Blog Search should do the trick. Start off by running amok through the blogosphere at http://technorati.com/search where from your initial (usually huge) results list you can limit your search to just keywords within a post, limit your search to keywords within a post's tags, or limit your search still further to keywords pulled from the BLOG's tags. This is where Technorati's really spiffy--you, the blogger, can "claim" (a.k.a. register) your blog with Technorati and then tag your own blog. How you describe/designate your own content determines how easily or not readers are going to find your material. That puts a lot of power in the hands of the blogger/author.
I was intrigued by the idea of the author indexing their own material. And a little bit leary of it as well, fearing a repeat occurrence of Syndic8's "Free 3D Adult Comics." (For the record--I clicked. They were definitely adult. And 3-dimensional. But definitely not comics. And definitely not for kids or all-ages.) I couldn't find anything mentioned as to whether or not Technorati was verifying that the tags being used by bloggers in their profile pages actually reflected their blogs' content. I did find through the "Blog Quality Guidelines" that they monitor for "over-tagging." And that they don't want spam. And won't index "objectionable, obscene, offensive content or content that promotes or displays pornography." So some form of oversight seems to be taking place. In any event, I didn't find any adult content in my search for kids comics, so I was a happy camper and, overall, pretty darn satisfied with my searching experience at Technorati.
To be honest, though, I'm still finding feeds more through word of mouth than anything else. Sometimes a blog is recommended by a friend, sometimes by a favorite website. My feed subscriptions tend to be ... serendipitous. And I think I prefer it that way. That being said, my blogroll (off to the right in my links section, go check it out!) has grown exponentially over the course of this particular homework assignment.
Next up: Newsreader Deathmatch! Two readers enter (google reader and bloglines), one reader leaves. See you next post, live at Thunderdome!
I'm brand new to actively seeking out newsfeeds. Sure, friends would pass on the occasional link and I'd subscribe through google reader. But go looking for feeds? Why on earth would I?! I preferred to stalk my favorite websites instead. Unfortunately, many comics-related websites are no longer being regularly updated, their creators & contributors having jumped on the blogging bandwagon. So this is a very timely assignment for me. With several search tools at my disposal, I set out to find feeds dedicated to covering comic books, graphic novels, and manga, primarily for kids.
Syndic8.com
Of the five search tools I tried, Syndic8.com was my least favorite. It's extremely cluttered. The information given about the various feeds isn't especially self-explanatory or helpful. Creation date--meaning when the feed was listed with Syndic8.com? When it started "broadcasting" on the web? What's with the various statuses? "Awaiting repair"? "Polling"? "Awaiting Approval?" By whom? And what does this tell me about the site's reliability and content?
The layout is awkward--I'd click on various links and find myself unable to return to the previous page. Clicking back to the front page and starting from scratch seemed to be my only option and I had to click on the Syndic8 logo in the upper left corner. I thought I'd hit the jackpot when I accidentally clicked on categories and found a "comics" category. But what did I find? A list of feeds from Topix.net! It was surreal.
I'm extremely leery of the results generated through "search for feed" on the main page. My search on "all-ages comics" turned up a few sites I was familiar with...and "Free 3D Adult Comics" among other just as unlikely prospects. Really not what I had in mind. I have no idea how the search results are generated--key words in posts? Blog titles & post tags? Tags generated by the blogs' authors? I had no idea how to refine my search. (And anyone who knows me knows I'm a big fan of filters, exact phrases, and Boolean operators. I blame my early encounters with LexisNexis & Dialog. And yes, I AM that old.) To top it all off, Syndic8.com doesn't seem to have a help page. I don't think I'll be making a return visit.
Topix.net
Topix.net wasn't what I expected. The description on our Learning 2.0 blog had led me to believe I'd only be finding feeds from major news and media outlets. I wasn't planning on finding much of anything to subscribe to--while the major media feature the occasional article or even column about comics and graphic novels, they've usually got a much bigger focus. Much to my surprise, Topix.net's advanced search lets you limit your results to "just blogs" or "no blogs." (And if you're looking for news, you can limit by city or zip code, too, which is a very spiffy feature!) Limiting my search to "just blogs" I found a couple that I'd missed on Syndic8 & Technorati (either through faulty searching on my part or lack of inclusion in those particular tools) so all in all it was a productive visit. I could see myself using this site again. I do wish they'd list the url for the feed directly, though, rather than hotlinking it beneath the name. When I'm browsing I use urls to help me pick and choose--some I recognize from other sources, some I weed out based on type of site, etc. I miss having them readily visible. Sure I can mouse over, but that takes longer than a visual pan & scan. (And yes,the irony is killing me because I've been mostly hiding the links in this blog to save space and clean the place up a bit. I may have to re-think this particular position.)
www.bloglines.com/search
Bloglines' search tool is pretty easy to use. You can search your terms in posts, feeds, citations, or the whole world wide web. Since I'm looking for news on a fairly specific topic (comics/graphic novels/manga for kids) I narrowed my search to feeds, hoping to find blogs devoted to my obsession. Failing to pull up much of anything I hadn't seen before, I tried searching for posts with my search terms that excluded my feeds. Sound good, doesn't it? Find new blogs with content I'm interested in! Unfortunately...it didn't work as advertised. I pulled up a bunch of posts from feeds I'm already subscribing too. Ah well. The results were still more on target than what I pulled up over at Syndic8.
Google Reader (http://www.google.com/reader/)
I'm a Google Reader dilettante. And since I'm in the process of comparing bloglines to Google Reader, I thought I'd give Google Reader's search tool a try. Only first...I had to find it. Which proved more difficult than I imagined. Bloglines search tool is soooooo easy to find--it's a tab right at the top of the page, dead center under your account name. Google Reader's on the other hand... Logged into my account I was drawn immediately to the very prominent search box at the top of the page. No joy--this search box searches ONLY feeds I'm already subscribed to. I'll give it points in that I can limit the search to certain folders and I do love the ability to limit my search...but it's only searching what I've thoeretically already read.
Help was...unhelpful. The articles about "How do I find a feed?" and "How can I subscribe to feeds?" assumed I already knew what I wanted to subscribe to and just needed to find the feed info. They 'helpfully' suggested using GR's "add subscription" button and pasting in the url, or searching the blog for the RSS button or the "subscribe" link and then following the instructions.
Poking about on my page, I discovered the tantalizingly named "Browse for stuff."
I'm a big fan of stuff. And I like to browse. So I clicked on it. Success! At last we had a search tool! Sort of. Browse for stuff is divided into two sections--Reccomendations & Feed Discovery. I was curious about the recommendations. As were other GR users, based on the comments in the help section. No official answers were forthcoming as to how these recommendations were generated, but users speculated they appeared to be based on a combination of feeds you most recently subscribed to and content you most frequently subscribed to. Suffice to say, about 1 in 5 were of interest to me.
So I ventured forth into Feed Discovery. Feed Discovery comes in two flavors (2 1/2, but who's counting?): (1) Feed Bundles & (the oh-so-descriptive) (2) Browse. Feed Bundles are groups of feeds on a certain topic that are "generated by comparing your interests with feeds of users similar to you." Similar to me how? That we share a feed subscription or two? It's a big web, and that leaves a lot of room for error... The Feed Bundles were extremely disappointing. For starters, the "Comics" bundle was a collection of 10 "recommended" webcomics, 3 of which I already subscribed to via a google reader, 2 of which are delivered directly to my inbox, and the others of which are all bookmarked by me over on delicious. 10 recs and NOTHING I hadn't seen before. There were no "comic book" or "graphic novel" or "manga" feed bundles. Based on my other subscriptions, I tried "Games" and "Gaming" and found blogs devoted to specific platforms or specific electronic games--none of which I owned. There wasn't a board game or library gaming blog to be found amongst them, despite my subscriptions to blogs of such ilk. These feeds were also somewhat redundant as many of the links were then replicated in the "Nintendo" and "PS3" bundles further down the list. The "library" bundle was also disappointing--again, I subscribed to several of the blogs already and the others weren't of interest to me. (After all, why should I read someone else's rants about working in a library? I'm quite capable of ranting on my own, thanks, and with better spelling.) And nothing popped up in terms of early literacy or working with children and youth.
Browse wasn't much better, alas. Here I could finally enter search terms and "search for feeds." But what was I searching? Key words in posts? Tags? Blog titles? All of the above? And from where? All of the web? Or only blogs already subscribed to by other google readers? There was no explanation. And no instruction as to how to state my search. No limits, either... As to how many results I retrieved, well, I really don't know. No numbers were stated. Just page after page of hits with a "next page" link at the bottom. I don't even know how many pages were retrieved. I do know that I found 1-2 links per page to actually be what I was looking for. How extremely frustrating.
And now for flavor 2 1/2--Browse by Category. (It was cut off in the screencapture--it lurks at the very bottom of the "Feed Discovery" window.) Sounds pretty good, doesn't it? Expect there are only 7 categories. 7 very broad categories. And again, no way to limit within those categories or know how many blogs are contained within each.
I found this whole Google Reader exploration process to be very depressing. I've been a big google fan for a long time. And I love my igoogle page and all its little widgets. For the most part my google experiences have been very easy and the tasks self-explanatory. And when in doubt, I've had detailed and easy to access help files to fall back on. Google Reader just doesn't live up to the standard Google's set with its other products.
http://www.technorati.com
Technorati was probably my favorite of the five search tools. For starters, it's got some great help and FAQ files and a spiffy "site guide" that explains just how Technorati differs from RSS search engines. Technorati isn't searching just xml coding or blogs with RSS feeds--it's searching ALL blogs and the html coding, too! Assuming it's doing what it says it does, it's searching a much bigger chunk of the web than others.
Technorati's search tools come in a variety of flavors. All of which I hope I understand fully and am using correctly. There's a Blog Directory (http://technorati.com/blogs/directory/) that lets you browse by general category. I was a little disappointed in the categories, actually--no "comics," naturally, but no "books" or "reading" either--instead the term of choice is "literature." That's a little too, well, stuffy for my tastes. Looking at profiles for the blogs contained therein DID provide me with my beloved "books" tag, however. There's also an advanced search (http://technorati.com/search?advanced) that lets you search for exact phrases, urls, even use boolean "nots." It's also got a spiffy feature that lets you enter the url for a blog that you like...to find other blogs that link to it! For the most part, though, your basic Blog Search should do the trick. Start off by running amok through the blogosphere at http://technorati.com/search where from your initial (usually huge) results list you can limit your search to just keywords within a post, limit your search to keywords within a post's tags, or limit your search still further to keywords pulled from the BLOG's tags. This is where Technorati's really spiffy--you, the blogger, can "claim" (a.k.a. register) your blog with Technorati and then tag your own blog. How you describe/designate your own content determines how easily or not readers are going to find your material. That puts a lot of power in the hands of the blogger/author.
I was intrigued by the idea of the author indexing their own material. And a little bit leary of it as well, fearing a repeat occurrence of Syndic8's "Free 3D Adult Comics." (For the record--I clicked. They were definitely adult. And 3-dimensional. But definitely not comics. And definitely not for kids or all-ages.) I couldn't find anything mentioned as to whether or not Technorati was verifying that the tags being used by bloggers in their profile pages actually reflected their blogs' content. I did find through the "Blog Quality Guidelines" that they monitor for "over-tagging." And that they don't want spam. And won't index "objectionable, obscene, offensive content or content that promotes or displays pornography." So some form of oversight seems to be taking place. In any event, I didn't find any adult content in my search for kids comics, so I was a happy camper and, overall, pretty darn satisfied with my searching experience at Technorati.
To be honest, though, I'm still finding feeds more through word of mouth than anything else. Sometimes a blog is recommended by a friend, sometimes by a favorite website. My feed subscriptions tend to be ... serendipitous. And I think I prefer it that way. That being said, my blogroll (off to the right in my links section, go check it out!) has grown exponentially over the course of this particular homework assignment.
Next up: Newsreader Deathmatch! Two readers enter (google reader and bloglines), one reader leaves. See you next post, live at Thunderdome!
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Computer Porn
No, not THAT kind of computer porn. THIS kind of computer porn:
I could stare at it all day. Isn't it a thing of beauty & joy? Totally drool-worthy. It's an XPS M1530. I ordered mine from Dell today. (Using the employee purchase program. All you SCLD folks, take note--a 7% discount is nothing to sneeze at!) It should arrive sometime around the 13th. And when it does, I will hug it & squeeze it & call it George.
Just look at what it's got under that "Tuxedo Black" case:
Intel Core 2 Duo Processor T8300 (2.4GHz/800Mhz FSB, 3 MB Cache)
4GB Shared Dual CHannel DDR2 SDRAM at 667 MHz
15.4" LCD
500 GB SATA Hard Drive
Slot Load Blu-ray Disc (BD/DVD/CD read/write)
85 WHR 9-cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery
256 MB NVIDIA GeForce 8600 M GT
Yep...that last bit's the video card. I foresee a lot of DOOM and WoW in my immediate future. Cue the blissful and contented sigh.
(Okay, in all honesty--the sigh is neither entirely blissful nor contented. Dell's operating system of choice for the XPS line--Vista. They don't even give you the option of paying through the nose and "downgrading" to XP anymore. Alas. Oh well...at least I'll be better able to empathize with our wireless customers that are using it.)
I could stare at it all day. Isn't it a thing of beauty & joy? Totally drool-worthy. It's an XPS M1530. I ordered mine from Dell today. (Using the employee purchase program. All you SCLD folks, take note--a 7% discount is nothing to sneeze at!) It should arrive sometime around the 13th. And when it does, I will hug it & squeeze it & call it George.Just look at what it's got under that "Tuxedo Black" case:
Intel Core 2 Duo Processor T8300 (2.4GHz/800Mhz FSB, 3 MB Cache)
4GB Shared Dual CHannel DDR2 SDRAM at 667 MHz
15.4" LCD
500 GB SATA Hard Drive
Slot Load Blu-ray Disc (BD/DVD/CD read/write)
85 WHR 9-cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery
256 MB NVIDIA GeForce 8600 M GT
Yep...that last bit's the video card. I foresee a lot of DOOM and WoW in my immediate future. Cue the blissful and contented sigh.
(Okay, in all honesty--the sigh is neither entirely blissful nor contented. Dell's operating system of choice for the XPS line--Vista. They don't even give you the option of paying through the nose and "downgrading" to XP anymore. Alas. Oh well...at least I'll be better able to empathize with our wireless customers that are using it.)
the high point of my work week
Possibly the high point of my entire career even. Was (wait for it!) being propositioned on Question Point by a 9000 year old man from Kentucky who wanted to marry me. He was quite insistent about both points. And not at all deterred when I repeatedly declined his oh so generous offer, explained I was unavailable, and tried to steer the chat back to "Do you have a reference question I can help you with?".
Inappropriate responses I wanted to type, all of which would no doubt earn me a politely worded reprimand from my OCLC overlords:
"Lazarus Long, is that you?!"
"Sorry, but I like a man with a little more age and experience."
"You don't look a day over 35."
"Tempting, given these currently uncertain economic times. Do you have a steady job, your own home, and are you willing to sign a pre-nup promising to keep me in a style to which I can only dream of becoming accustomed?"
Please note, I replied with NONE of the above. I CAN be taught restraint. Truly, this was a red-letter day in my new career as a virtual reference librarian.
Inappropriate responses I wanted to type, all of which would no doubt earn me a politely worded reprimand from my OCLC overlords:
"Lazarus Long, is that you?!"
"Sorry, but I like a man with a little more age and experience."
"You don't look a day over 35."
"Tempting, given these currently uncertain economic times. Do you have a steady job, your own home, and are you willing to sign a pre-nup promising to keep me in a style to which I can only dream of becoming accustomed?"
Please note, I replied with NONE of the above. I CAN be taught restraint. Truly, this was a red-letter day in my new career as a virtual reference librarian.
Monday, February 23, 2009
More Fun with Thing#10--The Generator Blog
The Generator Blog at http://generatorblog.blogspot.com/ may be one of my new favorite places to play. I'm having so much fun, I subscribed to its RSS feed so I can keep track of all the new ways to play on the web! Sadly, a number of the previously posted generators (A-Team Episode, anyone?) are dead links. Below you'll find a few of the viable generators I discovered. (BTW, for every generator I blog about...I checked out at least 3 more. This is...addictive. Penguin writing, customized cappuccino, sheep poetry, Simpsons' Church Sign Generator, Scribbler, The Neitsczhe Family Circus... their time will come.)
And lo, I looked into my pancakes and saw the face of ... cat?!
Make a Miracle! of your very own at http://glassgiant.com/miracles/
(I was hoping the miracle would appear in my toast. I'm not really a pancake person. And it would better advertise my allegiance to The Church of Toast.)
This one amused me...view the word "library" from the side and you get...
(For the record, that's "GHASTLY." It doesn't show up well against my template. Still tickles my funny bone, though. Click on it to see what I'm talking about.)
My name...
(That's "silly," BTW. It too refuses to play nicely with my template.)
Courtesy of The Side View Generator at http://en.genzu.net/sokumen/ where the word you enter is interpreted as dots which are then rotated so that they're seen from a different angle, giving you, voila!, a new word entirely.
¿ƃuılǝıɔ ǝɥʇ uo noʎ ǝɹɐ ʎɥʍ `sıɥʇ ƃuıpɐǝɹ ǝɹ,noʎ ɟı
The above was generated at Upside Down Writing at http://www.sherv.net/flip.html. Now if I can just find one that will let me do mirror writing...
I've always been amused by Despair.com. Their demotivator posters gave me many a not-s0-secret thrill when I was a supervisor. I have one of their coffee cups--"This cup is now half empty." And I adore their BitterSweets: Valentine Candy for the Rest of Us. So imagine my squee when I found the Candy Heart Generator by way of the Generator Blog. And I proceeded to make my very own bittersweets! I'm pretty sure this generator was intended for those romantically inclined, but me, I'm not that girl. Enjoy!
And I finally found a glitter generator that's easy to use AND free over at Glitter Graphics. At last I can let my inner 11-year-old girl run free. Look, this one even scrolls...and it sparkles!
(Sonia, I really hope you didn't just spew all over your keyboard.)
Make a word poem (the text is gibberish, it's the image that's supposed to mean something) over at Williams Words Generator by submitting a word 10 characters or less in length. (Oh, if it would only allow more characters...)
I liked the one I made for "my library" better, but couldn't manage a successful screen capture. Those screens, they're wily beasts, don't you know. You've got to sneak up on 'em...
I actually got this fortune once at a local Chinese restaurant. Amazing how well those cookies know the real me...
You can make your own over at the Fortune Cookie Message Generator.
Fun with fridge magnets over at the Fridge Messages!
I think I would've enjoyed this one even more if it included a greater variety of colors, capital letters, and more punctuation.
Found a new way to make picture mosaics over at the Image Mosaic Generator!
I'd mentioned in an earlier post I didn't care for FD Toys' mosaic generator because it required you have a large flickr photostream to draw from. I'd downloaded AndreaMosaic instead which included its own image gallery. Although this generator lacks the special effects capabilities of AndreaMosaic, you don't have to download anything to your PC. IMG draws images from all over Flickr for you. Pretty nifty, no? Try standing back a few feet or so to get the full effect.
Not quite sure what to say about this one, or what it says about me! This is my life as interpreted by Mondrian:
Input information about yourself over at my Data=my Mondrian. The information is converted into data...the data is converted into values...and the values are converted into art. Try it for yourself!
Here's a Dynamic Einstein Picture I created over at http://www.hetemeel.com/einsteinform.php
(Now if only I'd been able to think of something clever to write on the chalkboard. sigh.)
And now for something completely different! As I used google-fu to find it rather than The Generator Blog. You, too can write just like Leonardo! Da Vinci, that is. Not Di Caprio. Found this at Boston's Museum of Science whilst googling mirror writing. I'm planning on using it in a future Clue Done It program as a clue, just watch and see if I don't. Doesn't look much like SCLD's official brand, now does it?
One last image to share, this one brought to you by Coraline the Movie (more about its awesomeness in a later post). Your name in mice, here at the Bobinsky Theater.
Isn't the Mouse Circus just amazing?
I am in awe of the creativity evidenced by all of these software developers. Most of these folks are coding for fun not profit and look at all the toys they've come up with. Isn't this cool?
**Editor's note: Grrrr. Arrgggghhhh. How much do I hate the fact that preview in no way reflects how this looks when actually posted into my template?! Let me count the ways. Again with the Grrrr.**
And lo, I looked into my pancakes and saw the face of ... cat?!
Make a Miracle! of your very own at http://glassgiant.com/miracles/
(I was hoping the miracle would appear in my toast. I'm not really a pancake person. And it would better advertise my allegiance to The Church of Toast.)
This one amused me...view the word "library" from the side and you get...
(For the record, that's "GHASTLY." It doesn't show up well against my template. Still tickles my funny bone, though. Click on it to see what I'm talking about.)My name...
(That's "silly," BTW. It too refuses to play nicely with my template.)Courtesy of The Side View Generator at http://en.genzu.net/sokumen/ where the word you enter is interpreted as dots which are then rotated so that they're seen from a different angle, giving you, voila!, a new word entirely.
¿ƃuılǝıɔ ǝɥʇ uo noʎ ǝɹɐ ʎɥʍ `sıɥʇ ƃuıpɐǝɹ ǝɹ,noʎ ɟı
The above was generated at Upside Down Writing at http://www.sherv.net/flip.html. Now if I can just find one that will let me do mirror writing...
I've always been amused by Despair.com. Their demotivator posters gave me many a not-s0-secret thrill when I was a supervisor. I have one of their coffee cups--"This cup is now half empty." And I adore their BitterSweets: Valentine Candy for the Rest of Us. So imagine my squee when I found the Candy Heart Generator by way of the Generator Blog. And I proceeded to make my very own bittersweets! I'm pretty sure this generator was intended for those romantically inclined, but me, I'm not that girl. Enjoy!
And I finally found a glitter generator that's easy to use AND free over at Glitter Graphics. At last I can let my inner 11-year-old girl run free. Look, this one even scrolls...and it sparkles!
(Sonia, I really hope you didn't just spew all over your keyboard.)
Make a word poem (the text is gibberish, it's the image that's supposed to mean something) over at Williams Words Generator by submitting a word 10 characters or less in length. (Oh, if it would only allow more characters...)
I liked the one I made for "my library" better, but couldn't manage a successful screen capture. Those screens, they're wily beasts, don't you know. You've got to sneak up on 'em...
I actually got this fortune once at a local Chinese restaurant. Amazing how well those cookies know the real me...
You can make your own over at the Fortune Cookie Message Generator.
Fun with fridge magnets over at the Fridge Messages!
I think I would've enjoyed this one even more if it included a greater variety of colors, capital letters, and more punctuation.
Found a new way to make picture mosaics over at the Image Mosaic Generator!
I'd mentioned in an earlier post I didn't care for FD Toys' mosaic generator because it required you have a large flickr photostream to draw from. I'd downloaded AndreaMosaic instead which included its own image gallery. Although this generator lacks the special effects capabilities of AndreaMosaic, you don't have to download anything to your PC. IMG draws images from all over Flickr for you. Pretty nifty, no? Try standing back a few feet or so to get the full effect.
Not quite sure what to say about this one, or what it says about me! This is my life as interpreted by Mondrian:
Input information about yourself over at my Data=my Mondrian. The information is converted into data...the data is converted into values...and the values are converted into art. Try it for yourself!Here's a Dynamic Einstein Picture I created over at http://www.hetemeel.com/einsteinform.php
(Now if only I'd been able to think of something clever to write on the chalkboard. sigh.)
And now for something completely different! As I used google-fu to find it rather than The Generator Blog. You, too can write just like Leonardo! Da Vinci, that is. Not Di Caprio. Found this at Boston's Museum of Science whilst googling mirror writing. I'm planning on using it in a future Clue Done It program as a clue, just watch and see if I don't. Doesn't look much like SCLD's official brand, now does it?
One last image to share, this one brought to you by Coraline the Movie (more about its awesomeness in a later post). Your name in mice, here at the Bobinsky Theater.
Isn't the Mouse Circus just amazing?
I am in awe of the creativity evidenced by all of these software developers. Most of these folks are coding for fun not profit and look at all the toys they've come up with. Isn't this cool?
**Editor's note: Grrrr. Arrgggghhhh. How much do I hate the fact that preview in no way reflects how this looks when actually posted into my template?! Let me count the ways. Again with the Grrrr.**
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Playing With Image & Text Generators
Yes, I know. I'm tackling the Things out of order again. (Hangs head in shame.) What can I say? I like to play. And image generators are a lot of fun to play with... Don't believe me? Check out what I've been up to lately...
Create your own beautiful word cloud at Wordle . Plug in any text you like, a delicious username, or the url of a page with an RSS feed & away you go! The only downside to Wordle is that there's no easy way to save the code for your creation or the image itself--screenshots are your only option. (Hello MS Paint, my old friend, how've you been?)
Here's my first attempt at Wordle art, created using Neil Gaiman's short story "I Cthulhu."
Wordle's awesome. It lets you change the appearance of the layout of your cloud (this one's half and half with straighter edges), the color scheme, & the font. And boy are there some exotic fonts (Grilled Cheese, anyone?) to choose from.
Here's another, created using tags from my bookmarks at http://delicious.com/holyexplodingshark:
Seeing as how any Wordle image is covered by a Creative Commons Attribution License, Wordle's got some neat programming & publicity possibilities for the library... (And yes, I actually followed the link about licensing--so long as we give credit where credit is due, e.g. the source of the text & the program used to generate the image, we could even make money off of our wordle art! How cool is that?) Me, I want to make up some manga & graphic novel posters for the teen area...
And speaking of manga...here's a WordHeart I made using some of my favorite manga and anime titles:
You can create WordHearts of your own over at http://www.neoformix.com/Projects/WordHearts/. WordHearts is yet another site that has no built in tools to save your image--screenshots are your one and only option. I really must learn to take better screen captures. I hear Firefox has some great plug-ins...
Here's an eyechart I created using Custom Eye Chart Maker over at http://www.eyechartmaker.com/:
I was pretty disappointed in this--I wanted room for more text. And it took me a while to realize that I didn't need to put spaces between words... (It also made me wonder why if eye charts are this easy to generate, why does my opthamologist insist on showing me the same chart for both my right and left eyes? I mean, my short term memory isn't so bad that I can't remember the line from one eye to the next. But I digress.)
I had much more fun following a link from Custom Eye Chart Maker to Custom Road Sign over at http://www.customroadsign.com/. This appealed to my sense of humor:
I'll say this for both the road sign and eye chart makers, though--they're the first image generators I've played with today that allow me to right click and save the image directly to my PC. Flash is fun, but it's not easy to save.
It was suggested by TPTB that we explore a few "Discovery Resources," the better to get a handle on image generators. I'd already spent a considerable amount of time playing over at FD Toys (see my previous posts RE: fun with Flickr) so I thought I'd check out LetterJames. The following were created using the E-Card Service, right clicking on the finished image, and saving to my PC.
(Don't mind me. I'm having a Stephen King/Stanley Kubrick flashback here. It'll pass. Just give it a moment.)
Honestly, I found LetterJames to be disappointing. Yes, the images are exceedingly easy to save--three cheers for right-click save-as! Yes, it allows you to superimpose your own text over a gallery of 300 images (a huge plus for those of us who don't have digital cameras) to create cards, calendars, posters, and more. The AlphaPictures technology is really neat--it makes your text appear as skywriting, letters in the sand, spray painted grafitti, etc., whatever's appropriate to the image. Just like this:
Can't fault the end product at all. But the process...well, I've got a few complaints about that.
For starters, I reallly would've appreciated a search feature for the gallery. Some of the categories are huge, and I really didn't want to waste my time browsing through 20+ screens. And speaking of wasting time... In order to create each and every image, you're required to type in a super secret security code! I hate those things. I fail utterly at those things. I really don't understand why you're asked for a code just to create. To purchase? Sure. To send? Ditto. But just to make the image? I wasted a lot of time trying to correctly enter codes. (Although not as much time as I wasted setting up my blog...blogger's security code check wouldn't take a single thing I typed. Honestly, I'm not that bad of a typist or a speller. Seriously.)
I also encountered a number of "error during the image processing" messages of doom whilst creating an image AFTER I'd successfully entered the security code and proved I wasn't a 'bot. Sometimes I could successfully "process" the image after repeated tries. Others I abandoned as a lost cause. I'd be interested in hearing if anyone else had similar experiences--maybe it's just my dinosaur of a PC or my DSL's speed.
Another problem I ran into at LetterJames was that with some images, the placement of text on the image had little (if anything?!) to do with the order in which the text was typed into the generator. My street sign took some playing with. Despite all the manga I read, I still think in terms of left to right, top to bottom. The image generator doesn't consistently follow this pattern. In this example, it seemed to equate text entry with the SIZE of the text in the final image, not its vertical position. Most prominent (the middle sign)--came from the the 1st & top text box. 2nd most prominent (the one at an angle at the TOP of the image)--the 2nd box in the middle. Smallest--the 3rd.
The ransom note below is another example. To create the image, I could place text in up to 8 fields. I only had enough text to fill 4...so I filled in the 1st four and the 1st 4 only. And retrieved a blank image. Filling boxes 5-8, OTOH, created this warning to any hooligans with designs on despoiling my library's manga collection:
Who knows what would have happened if I'd filled in all 8 fields?
The amount of text that could be entered in a text field varied from "card" to "card." Some were seemingly infinite, others not...as you'd discover when you ran up against the wall of the box at 60 miles an hour. Still others would take scads of text in the box...only to then "hide" it behind the picture.
I really think this site could be improved with some instructions. I expect a commercial site that's trying to sell a service (photo albums, calendars, etc.) to be a bit more user-friendly. Of course, the e-cards were free... I love the special effects, but the site required more trial & error & effort than I'm entirely comfortable with.
Exercising my google-fu, I went hunting for more text & image generators.
I'm fascinated by the typoGenerator. You input text and the generator performs a google image search matching whatever you typed and mashes whatever it finds into something that, according to the FAQ, isn't necessarily readable but "looks nice." It's random, but you can elect to save certain elements (style, colors & background)as you experiment. Here are a few of my experiments/artworks, generated using the tags from my delicious account:
Hit the jackpot with this nifty little collection of links to text generators: http://educationalsoftware.wikispaces.com/Text+Generators! It's where I grabbed the 3D Text Maker that is (supposed to) be animating "Welcome to Thing #10!" at the top of this entry. (Why isn't it animating, why? It should be sliding endlessly to the left.)
And The Graffiti Creator:
And the Logo Maker (in honor of the upcoming Trek movie):
(Hmm. The code button doesn't work for Logo Maker...and no matter what "size" I generate the image in on the screen, if I right click save I just get this itty bitty logo. Which doesn't show off the lovely twinkly stars of deepest outer space the way I'd like it to. Maybe this is a job for...print screen! Or maybe I'll just let it go.)And finally, because it wouldn't be my blog without another gratuitous mention of "the z-word" (as the niece & nephew have come to call it), I present...Spelling with Zombies!
You could learn a lot from a zombie.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
