Ramblings About Music, the Mouse or Mostly Whatever

Luciano Pavarotti, 1935-2007

2007-09-06T09:26:00.000-04:00

Luciano Pavarotti has lost his battle with cancer. He will be remembered as "the tenor" of his generation, not only because of his voice, but because of his wonderful personality. He introduced opera to many who would otherwise not have given the art form a single thought. He often performed with many pop stars and performed many benefit concerts. Here is a clip from a 1988 recital at the Met. Pavarotti is singing the Act 3, Scene 1 aria "Nessun dorma" from Puccini's opera Turandot. Maestro James Levine is at the piano.

The End is Here. Hallelujah, Amen! (Week 10 #23)

2007-08-15T13:55:00.000-04:00

Well, it's finally over. I found the program to be informative. It helps to know what's out there whether it be useful or crap. I found that I liked using Flickr and YouTube the most enjoyable modules. I also think that Wikis were the most confusing. I also found that there is a lot of useful stuff out there and there is a lot of stuff that looks useful but is really crap. All that being said, I found the program to be important mostly to demonstrate that there is so much "out there" , be it useful or just garbage. It's always important to make people aware of all possibilities.

One problem that I found with this program was that we were told it would not take much of our time to complete each task. This was entirely untrue. Some of the tasks took a great deal of time. Maybe you were asking us to do too much each week. I think by asking us to do less each week many people would have felt that its was not as time consuming. One other problem (it's just personal bugaboo) is the fact that you should have posted assignments at least a week in advance so if we were out of the office we could at least work ahead. Nobody likes to play catch up after they have been away, especially since they are also playing catch up with their regular work duties.

If a similar program were offered again, I'm not sure I would participate unless the incentives were worth the trouble or it would take less time to complete each task.

So long, Farewell, Learning 2.0 players and keep checking my blog. It's not going away.

Social Networking, It's not for Everyone (Especially Me!!) Week 10 #22

2007-08-15T13:15:00.000-04:00

RANT ALERT!! RANT ALERT!!

Oh, come on! Perhaps it's a generational thing, call me an old fart! Once again here's another something to keep people's fat asses in their chairs staring at a computer screen. OK, I'm a private person so you will never see me participating in Facebook, MySpace or any online social network. Online social networks are like six degrees of separation on steroids. I think that most of the people using them share too much information about themselves and use them for frivolous recreational purposes or an easy way to look for a "hook up". As you can tell, I don't hold them in high regards. I'm sure that many people do use them to connect with family and friends, but for the most part I see them as being silly, yet another way of non-personal communication. Unfortunately, since they are so popular maybe libraries should become involved with them. If my post has offended you or pissed you off, too damn bad, get over yourself!!

Disney's Tower of Terror!

2007-08-09T12:25:00.000-04:00

OK, it's time to take a look at another Disney thrill ride. The Tower of Terror is a ride that resembles a 1920s type hotel. One night long ago 5 people mysteriously came up missing. It is now your turn to check-in. Alas, since the folks went missing in the elevator you will now need to take the service elevator to your room. This ride features an elevator that works like no other elevator you have ever been on before.

Take a ride on the Tower of Terror.

Podcast, Podblast and Some Crapcast Week 9 #21

2007-08-09T10:54:00.000-04:00

Well there certainly is a lot of silliness and crap out there. I found some interesting Disney podcasts. I've added a couple of them to my RSS feed. My favorite has to be DIS Unplugged. It's a round table discussion of anything Disney. There were a lot of podcasts listed for book reviews. I listened to some. Some were biased and silly, some were intelligent. I noticed that a lot of libraries used podcasts for promo (especially public libraries). Here at OU we have several library tour podcasts offered in several different languages. Of the three directories that you gave us to use I found that Podcastalley.com and Podcast.net were my favorites to use. I didn't care much for the Yahoo product and I really don't know why. Perhaps it's because I'm tired of seeing their use of that nauseating blue color.

Youbie Tubie Wubie Week 9 #20 Pt..B

2007-08-07T09:53:00.000-04:00

OK, I've used YouTube several places in my blog before. I find adding videos to my blog is fairly easy. YouTube can be used for a variety of things in the library. The library can use them for instructional videos as well as videos promoting any library services and broadcasting any important library programs.

Beverly Sills (Week 9 #20 Pt. A)

2007-08-07T09:45:00.001-04:00

Earlier this year the great American soprano Beverly Sills passed away. Here is a clip of her 1980 farewell performance celebrating the retirement of her singing career.

Whatever!!! Week 8 #19

2007-08-06T09:48:00.000-04:00

I don't know if it's because getting tired of these Learning2.0 assignments or if I really am not impressed with the things I've found, but I am really not finding much from the awards list that really want to write about. Almost everything that is listed falls short of what I want it to do or is far inferior to things I already use. So for the sake of this assignment I choose Yahoo Local. Yahoo Local will list entries that are rated and also allow you to rate them as well. For example, if you are looking for Italian restaurants in Columbus, OH, you will get a list of them that are rated. It will also allow you to add your ratings. You can do this for doctors, dentists, museums, car washes, etc..
The possibilities are endless. Well, I guess that's enough B.S. for this post. So that's it.

Web-based apps get few snaps Week 8, #18

2007-08-02T09:53:00.001-04:00

Well this week we looked at web-based apps. using Google Documents and Zoho. In a committee I am on we have been using Google Documents to work on, share and edit documents pertaining to the committee's work. I can't say that I have any great love for Google Documents. I find that the differences it has from Word are are small and make it very annoying to use. I did take a look at Zoho and it seems to act a little more like Word and is less annoying. Both Zoho Planner and Google Calender were OK. I think I like using our corporate time much better. I'm not sure if that's because I'm more familiar with it or it's just more comfortable to use. Looked at both Google's and Zoho's spreadsheet programs and I can't really say much about them simply because I don't use spreadsheets often enough to make a comment.

Wiki Wiki Whatever Week 7, #16 & #17

2007-07-26T12:24:00.001-04:00

What do I find interesting about wikis? Really not much. I guess that's because we have been using them here in the reference department for quite awhile. Wikis can be used for any number of things: Groups to share information ( like our refwiki here at Alden ), They can be used as a place to share subject related information(there are some wikis here in ref. that have been set up by subject bibliographers)or just a place where people can share any info about anything they want. One wiki I look at a lot is CPDL.org. It's a wiki that has public domain choral sheet music available for you to download.

As for setting up and editing wikis, I find the process to be somewhat difficult. It certainly, in my opinion, is a process that is not very intuitive. I found that the materials that were presented were not that helpful. I would have used the help page but didn't see one ( if there was one it certainly was not visible). I'm the kind of person that needs detailed step by step information.
The process certainly was vague in a lot of places. I will be editing wikis as little as possible unless I have detailed "step by step" information on the process.

Learning 2.0 Comments Week 6#15

2007-07-21T10:19:00.001-04:00

Once again I find these types of assignments in Learning 2.0 superfluous. I don't wish to share my thoughts with every damn Tom, Dick , or Harry.

Here it is anyway.

In the Iceberg article by Anderson, He makes some valid points about library use. Although I tend to agree with most of the points he makes, one thing I disagree with is "his come to us" statement.
People are still coming to the library. They may not physically be coming to the library but virtually coming to the library (they may not recognize that they are coming but they are). There are many resources owned by libraries that people can access for free that they would otherwise spend a lot to purchase. So therefore, They are still coming to the library, They just don't know it.

As far as what Library 2.0 means to me. It just demonstrates that there is a great big world out there and there are many ways accessing it and organizing what take from it.

Technorati Comments Week 6#14

2007-07-19T14:27:00.000-04:00

What a hoot. It's really cool how you can find what's been blogged about. A great sandbox to play in!!! I like the the different ways you can search not only for blogs but pics and etc.. I'm much happier with this assignment. Unlike the other sources we've had to look at I found this easy to use and very intuitive. Although fun, I'm not sure I will ever use it again.

Comments on del.icio.us Week 6#13

2007-07-19T13:13:00.000-04:00

OK, here are my comments on del.icio.us. I find that it is really useful for the portability of your book marks. I see you can not only store your own bookmarks but have the capability of of seeing bookmarks that other people have shared. I really have no use for this at this time. I find the way it works is not very intuitive. Until it's easier to use I most likely will not use it. I also find this is very useful for folks that can't live their life away from their computer. Frankly, life is too short to sit your ass in front of a computer all the time.

Rollyo ( I don't think so ) Week 5 #12

2007-07-13T12:59:00.000-04:00

It is definitely not very intuitive and because of that fact I will never use it. I understand what it does and I think it could be a very useful tool for pulling together all of your related web sources.
It took me forever just to figure out how to use it. Then after looking at things others have rolled. I thought that the information was too cluttered and not as easy to discern the results as it should have been.

LibraryThing (What the Hell) Learning 2.0 Week 5 #11

2007-07-11T15:30:00.000-04:00

Can I tell how useless this is to me. I'm sure there are people that love to futz around with this type of stuff but I'm not one of them. My book shelf works just as well as this thing. As if I have the F#@!ing Library of Congress in my house, please give me a break!!! What I read is my own business. I don't really give a tinker's damn about what other people think about the books. If I want to do discuss a book I sure as hell don't want to do it online. I can see where some people (and they really need to get a life) would like this but I am not one of them. Anyway here is a link to my LibraryThing page.
http://www.librarything.com/catalog/disneyac513

Sign you will not see at a Disney park (Learning 2.0 Week 5 #10)

2007-07-11T15:09:00.000-04:00

OK you definitely will never see this sign at Disney. I created it using a Disneyland Sign Generator. It can be found at http://www.addletters.com/disneyland-sign-generator.htm

Week 4 RSS Assignment (#8 & #9)

2007-07-06T07:44:00.000-04:00

I find that feeds can be useful for keeping current on any news type event. I'm a drum corps fan and it's an easy way to to keep track of the nightly scores throughout the Drum corp season. I'm also tend to be a little bit of news junkie so I have set up feeds from my favorite news sources. Although very useful, I will probably not continue to use RSS very much after Learning 2.0. (#8)

I found that the easiest way to get a feed is to look fer the icon on you favorite sites. Most of the search tools I found to be "too much". It was definitely information overload. It was wading through a lot a crap to find what you want. Of all the search tools that were mentioned I liked Technorati the best. I really don't know why. Perhaps it was the catchy name. It was the most appealing odf the ones I looked at. (#9)

RSS is definitely for the person that lives their life sitting in front of a computer.

Beverly Sills 1929-2007

2007-07-05T14:33:00.001-04:00

I was saddened by the passing of one of America's greatest sopranos. Beverly Sills has probably done more for the popularity of opera in America than any other artist in the field of opera. She proved through her actions that opera was not for the snobbish upper class of our society, but for all to enjoy. She appeared on television with many popular celebrities and at one time, I have read that she filled in for Johnny Carson on the "Tonight Show". I remember the first album of her music that I owned was selections from La Traviata. The album was definitely one of the reasons that I became so interested in opera and singing. Although she had been retired from singing for many years, she worked extensively in the field of opera. She was the general director of the New York City Opera for several years, has been the chair of the Lincoln Center and served as chairwoman of the Metropolitan Opera.

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star How I Wonder WHAT You Are

2007-06-27T15:08:00.000-04:00

Did you know that W. A. Mozart is often credited with writing this popular tune? In fact he did not write this tune at all. The original tune is a French song titled "Ah vous dirai-je maman" and is anything but a children's song. In the original song a daughter tells her mother about how she was seduced. Mozart did set this tune to twelve variations (K.265) around 1782. He is not the only composer to compose a setting of this tune but perhaps since he is the most popular, that is why everyone gives him credit for writing the song.

Columbus, Ohio taken from atop the giant Ferris Wheel at the State Fair ( just playing around with images)

2007-06-27T13:59:00.000-04:00

Here's a cool pic of downtown Columbus skyline.

Ponderings and Rants About Technology in This World!!!

2007-06-26T15:38:00.000-04:00

OK here we go this seems like a lame thing to do for a Learning 2.0 blog post so I'm taking the opportunity to whine and bitch about tech things that piss me off.
Why is it when you go to a store, does every card reader (ATMs also) work differently?
Why is it when you use library databases every vendors interface is different? I do realize that there are some basic concepts that they all use. I think there should be some uniform standards that are used across the board for all search databases? I want them to look alike and act alike. Why is it when you go to a store and the cash registers are not working the cashiers can't seem to do the simple calculation of counting back your change in their head?!!! Because we are so technologically advanced are we raising a nation of dummies?!!! Can't people think on their own anymore?!!! Oh well, I could go on forever. I guess it's the little things about this techie world that really piss me off. There you have it. The assignment was to comment on technology so there is my comment! I really don't see the point of this "thing" in the scheme of the "23 things". It's just busy work.

RANT OVER My apologies If I offended you. I'm in a foul mood today.

My Flickr Creation (just having some fun)

2007-06-26T14:38:00.001-04:00

My creation
Originally uploaded by disneyac513

Just playing around with some of the stuff on flickr. There are a lot of fun and silly things you can do with flickr. Nothing stuck out as being very intriguing to me. There are a lot of useful things you can do with it. I liked the ability to make CD covers this would be good when I give photo discs as gifts to friends and relatives. Wow, there are so many things you can do with flickr. For a little fun, using FD Flickr zToys, I made this magazine cover from a pic I took at the state fair.

Piggies at the Ohio State Fair 2006

2007-06-26T11:53:00.001-04:00

I'm just trying to see how easy it is to get photos fron Kodak Easyshare. I think I've figured it out.
I wish there were a way to post them directly.

Expedition Everest

2007-06-23T14:59:00.001-04:00

Expedition Everest
Originally uploaded by alan.shaw

Expedition Everest is the newest addition to Disney World's very small (4) but exciting collection of coasters. The ride at first seems to be a totally unadventurous trip up a mountain pass until your train can go no further because the track in front of you has been ripped apart by the yeti. You come to a complete stop then all of a sudden you are hurdled backward in to the mountain where you encounter the wrath of the yeti. You will come to stop again and continue your fast paced ride where you will encounter giant life-like anamatronc yeti. This is a ride that is not to be missed. Be sure to ride it when visiting Disney's Animal Kingdom the next time you are in Florida.

Take a ride on Expedition Everest.

Silly joke about email

2007-06-21T13:25:00.001-04:00

A Boston couple decide to go to Fla. to thaw out during a particularly icy winter. They planned to stay at the same hotel where they honeymooned 20 years before. Because of their hectic schedules the husband left for Fla. first on Friday and the wife was flying down the following day. The husband checked into the hotel and unlike years before, there was a computer in his room, and he decided to send an email to his wife and accidentally left out one letter in her email address.; Without noticing his horror, he sent the email to the wrong address.; Meanwhile somewhere in Huston, a widow had just returned from her husband's funeral. He was a Minister who was called home to glory after suffering a heart attack.The widow decided to check her email, expecting messages from relatives and friends.; After reading the first message, she screamed and then fainted. Her son rushed into the room, found his mother on the floor, and glanced up and saw the computer screen which read:
: To: My Wife; Subject: I have arrived!; Dearest Love,; I know you are surprised to hear from me. They have computers here now, and you are allowed to send emails to your loved ones. I have just arrived and have been checked in. I see that everything is prepared for your arrival tomorrow, and look forward to seeing you then. Hope your journey is as uneventful as mine was.; P.S. It sure is hot down here!

Need to book a flight? Try Side Step

2007-06-21T09:25:00.000-04:00

My sister told me about this website that compares airline prices. Unlike the sites Orbitz, Travelocity, etc. or the individual airline sites, this site will search multiple sites for lowest fare available at that time. After you select your flight you will be redirected to the site offering that fare. Give it a try.

http://www.sidestep.com/

Oh MY I hate to keep diaries. I can't believe I'm now blogging ARGH!! (also7 1/2 habits)

2007-06-20T09:27:00.000-04:00

OK well here I am blogging. I really wouldn't be doing it if it were not because of library 2.0. I'm not really keen on keeping any kind of journal of diary. Anyway here I am. Well anyway here here are my comments on the 71/2 habits. Once again I really don't like sharing my thoughts. The most difficult thing about the habits is goal setting. I always find it hard to see the end of anything because I see the end as ever changing (even if it's not). I'm too much of an abstract thinker. I guess, why set goals when they constantly change? I really do set goals but they are very abstract and have no hard or specific conclusion. That is the hardest of the habits for me. The easiest I can't really say. Everything listed is fairly easy. I guess the play part would be the easiest (DUH).
OK, there you have it.