Summary- Rhapsody of summer!

Summer- cicadas clicking and whirring, their noise almost drowning out the whine of a weed-eater, the sky is blue and I'm off swimming in the warm sea soon!

Enough of the rhapsody, here's my summary of the aclweb2.1 challenge.

First, I'm grateful that the challenge is mounted- yes, I improved a lot of my computer skills on the first, but without repetition some items are easily forgotten.

Setting off on aclweb 2.1, reminded me of some skills, but along the way I learnt more. I suppose I could have hunted out Geni and My Heritage sites but, without needing them,I hadn't bothered, yet I have used the sites already at work.

Likewise, I've used various sites to check out books and authors but the ones offered on the course particularly, Book jetty and Book reporter I've already been able to recommend, and use when preparing notes for my radio spot.

The big find for me was Animoto- it was so easy to use and my family are now getting lots of photos in that form- but I do think it could be adapted for work. "Get to know your local library" ; "Story time at the library" "Book Display on topics on the day" etc. I would never have looked for such a site, as I would have presumed the skill required, beyond me.

The other big find was Digg- I quite often miss the news, so to have items of interest, scientific or spoof easily accessible is great.
Thank you aclweb2.1 team!You really are the tops!

Rosenpage

Digg This!

Digg this! I saw the sign at the base of "Indian Authors" on the website and following your suggestion checked out Newsvine and Reddit and StumbleUpon but after a look around decided to go with Digg, because it had a wide variety of items, was easy to follow and I liked the items that others had Dugg. After becoming a member I filled in the checklist. On my return, up popped a list of news sites and near the top was this story-

Israel Returns Palestine's Lawn Mower, Mideast Conflict Ends
A creative spoof!

From now on Digg is going to be one of my regular check spots-
Another fascinating article a member had found was this one on a scientific break through.

New Biomaterial Helps Bones Heal
Wendy Zukerman, ABC Science Online

I am still on Del.icio.us and want to keep that, as it is useful with the tags, but, I think I'll have more fun with Digg and Dugg.

double trouble

GoAnimate.com: Double, double toil and...


Like it? Create your own at GoAnimate.com. It's free and fun!

Go Animate - double, double, toil and...

http://goanimate.com/go/movie/0LL_NmM-S-F0?utm_source=emailshare&uid=0HESETDcCZ74

This is a link to my animation-  hope you enjoy it.

I had considerable trouble accessing the scene I wanted-evidently I was hitting the wrong button as I kept getting the blank screen, when I wanted the Monsters' scene.

 

Finally, found the secret tabs and from then on I had " fun". I made one with music but was not happy with it,  so that was not saved: started again and as I had accidentally discovered how to make witchy slightly less rotund, had better proportion. Had almost completed it and tried to save, but it came up asking for a title etc. and as I was not ready for that, I  panicked and hit  x and lost the lot!

The last time I tried a few more Cut and add scenes.   After previewing the scene where I had wanted an earthquake, on the word "rubble," I found  the earthquake effect activated

too late, so I made a note to edit later and carried on.  When I previewed the final shoot, I was able to go back one scene and fix it, but couldn't get scenes further back.  

Given heaps of time I would edit some scenes a little tighter and cut the length of the closeups...but it is a beginner's effort!

Animoto 2 Small one

animot

Brown Jacket and hat

animoto

Brown Jacket and Hat.

   Fun! I have to thank Animoto-they do such great work! 

I'm going to make more of this model in the future- he is so gorgeous!  Of course, I'm not biased-MUCH!

The explanatory buttons did help but I think I'll experiment more with resizing the photos using the download they suggested.  I 'm going to try taking some photos in sequence with animoto in mind. Be great to take some pics at the library, eg chn at storytime,  animoto it and post on our website

Bookjetty

Approached this site with a sniffy attitiude as I am a great fan of Librarything, but within a short time decided I'd check out the book I mentioned earlier, "Out Stealing Horses". Wow! A preview gave an excellent summary of the book without revealing vital information.  I grudgingly moved to the world library check and not knowing our Central Library postcode, put in my daughter's postcode and state. Up popped not only ten libraries giving the closest one first, and the distance, (in miles) but also more detail, call sign, reserve button, etc! Now that could be handy!

I have added some read and wanted books onto "My Bookshelf" and found the search tab easy to use. I noted the facility for adding ISBN numbers and for adding text from another folder-handy if you've already catalogued books elsewhere. Some older books(botanical) didn't appear when I typed in their titles, but the system supplied me with several, similar choices- I thought that was good! If you're interested here's the link!

http://www.bookjetty.com/people/rosenpage/books

Week Three. Authors on the Web

Author yellowpages; the bookreport.com plus Bookreporter.com can find an immense number of websites supplied by publishers and authors. Clearly authors who have little skill in designing a website would be wise to consider Author Yellow Pages- most impressed with their versatility-

the book on ageing by Charla is superbly advertised by its site.

You have to be impressed withBookreporter.com-It  has hundreds of reviews and they cover everyone from Sue Grafton and Penny Vincenzi to Cormac Mccarthy. A section on Books to Movies plus authors' bios, and advance notice of many new books appearing in the next three months, mainly  authors with American backgrounds) brings up a lot of info. Unfortunately, I didn't notice many topsellers in this list-could be because their new books usually come out pre Christmas I'll look into it again, but in the meantime, I just go direct to source eg.

http://www.jeffreyarcher.co.uk/

A web site which links to the most popular author in Auckland City Libraries last year.  A great story teller, I also follow his blog, which covers his activities in the art and theatre world in England, and the auctions where he acts as auctioneer for charities.

http://www.jeffreyarchers.blogspot.com/

 

One marvellous system I found on Authors on the Web/ Reading group Guides, an international roundup of clubs, was a link to some of the latest news/interviews regarding authors and books. 

An interview with AnnPatchett ( Bel Canto and Run) audio and words with the Wall Street Journal  on the subject of reading

" ...If someone gave you a device with which you could see entire worlds just by holding it in front of your eyes, worlds of such beauty and complexity that they took your breath away, worlds of suffering and redemption, love and suspense and enlightenment, all of them there for the taking, wouldn't you want to show this device to everyone you knew? Why are more people reading? Because they are either discovering or remembering just how good it can be. I've got a book for you, my friend, all you've got to do is open it up."

Week Three Litlovers

Quite often the librarian who runs our library book club will ask for suggestions -its difficult finding a book which has sufficient copies available in our catalogue, which avid readers haven't read!

Litclub, a section of the Litlovers site  is designed for  just this situation. I was impressed with the variety of titles recommended and even more when I checked out the resources. Selecting a book I knew "Out Stealing Horses" by Per Pettersen,  the site gave a summary of the book, an author's bio, critics reports, reviews, and to top it all ten searching questions leading to good discussion.

Sometimes I do a radio slot and it would be handy to use the site to check on awards, other books by the author etc. The part devoted to setting up a kids club was interesting but the Blog contained the fun-although there's a Litfun too!

I thought I could profit from trying two of the courses, but unfortunately our catalogue does not have the books listed to study.  Out of the eleven books, the only one available is Edith Wharton's  "Roman Fever"  (far from being a favourite author of mine!)

Week 2 Genealogy

My cousin rang me last night and asked if I knew where one of my more distant cousins fitted into the family tree. I knew the branch, but trying to remember the parents' names reminded me of this task. Its my day off but...

My Heritage is a great site Ok- so I didn't say that this morning, when after joining up and loading in details, I left it for an hour; on return, I couldn't find the all important disc which enables editing. Displeased!

I left it to look at the other recommended site, Geni and started entering a tree there. It was fine but the Country of Birth arrow slide drove me nuts - it had its own pattern- which was fine, if the ancestors lived in UK, USA, South Africa etc but not NZ. In alphabetical order the closest I could get was New Caledonia!! It could be my wibbly, wobbly mouse- but I would have l liked the site better, if I could have entered the country manually.

Lunch improved my mood and I returned to the My Heritage site and the all important disc was back with the records I had entered earlier. I have had no trouble since and wonder if it was a site upload, blocking editing. Have spent an enjoyable time following lines so far back to the grea great great great grand parents. Not quite sure how, or if I want to transfer it here, as on my computer at home I can adjust settings. Not sure about accessing sidebars either- will have to check up.

A good feature of My Heritage site- the email log in. A space enables you to send an email to various relatives to ask for family details- discovered how many nieces and nephews birthdays/ year I've forgotten. Thought the calendar which sends emails to remind one of upcoming anniversaries and birthdays would be useful!

Have redone the exercise using Geni. See the sidebar thanks to Willow!

The photo- a young member of my family tree.

Task 1 Week 1

Yay! Very pleased to have this course - my techno skills improved with the last one, and I have used many in my work,(particularly Library thing)  but with others,  rust has set in.  My blog is still the same, as is my gmail,  so I'll carry on with adding my book of the day/ week/ month.

The Painted Garden in New Zealand Art by Christopher Johnstone 

 This tells the story of flower and garden painting in New Zealand. Ok, with all the brilliant reproductions and the size it  looks like a coffee table book- but it is easily read and the scholarship evident, but not overwhelming.  Superb layout; the chronological order is simple to follow from  1840 to 2008.  I have seen enough of the works featured, to praise the colour tones used .  

Look out for it!