inevitable

You Are 60% Addicted to Blogthings

You're a Blogthings fiend - addicted but not totally dependent. So what if you know your personality type by heart? And while you may feel like Blogthings is crack... There are people much worse off than you!

How Addicted To Blogthings Are You?

SG1 fan favorites

In preparation of the Stargate Universe premier next week, Syfy is having a Stargate Fan Favorite marathon. Arguably the best two episodes ever are on at 8:00 pm and 9:00 pm, 1969 and Window of Opportunity (better known as fan favorite groundhog day).

Both of them are available on hulu.com!

I really miss Stargate, with Colonel Jack O'Neill(two l's). Luckily I have the series on DVD ... and it's on hulu.com.

day late, image short

Ironically, Wordle crashed my computer last evening (the blue screen of death on my new laptop, I was no happy) while attempting to create a new project for the post. I made the above image at lunch this afternoon.

nu jurnL nu toys

Or, in English, new journal new toys.

I picked up the September issue of School Library Journal late this morning while taking a break from web work before lunch. My plan was to take a few minutes to begin perusing the book reviews and place a few juvenile books in a cart for purchase. I didn't get very far; an impromptu visit from the boss took time, but did see their site of the month. Or, in this case, sites of the month. Two of them caught my attention.

transL8it!
"transl8it! (trans-late-it) is simple to use. Just type in your SMS, text, emoticon, smiley, slang or chat room lingo and let transL8it! convert it to plain english -- OR -- type in your phrase in english and convert it to SMS TXT lingo slang!"

Wordle
"Wordle is a toy for generating “word clouds” from text that you provide. The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text."

I experimented with Wordle before (see A Picture's Worth) using blog posts to create word art. I included it as an emerging technology option for students to investigate for classroom use in a course this summer, some of the resulting posts were very interesting. Earlier this month I read a blog post that lead me to another interesting visual, 100 Days of Twitter Turned Into Pictures. Now I am wondering how a compilation of Twitter posts would appear as a Wordle.

As for transL8tit, I used it to create this post title.

Presenting Ideas

It's that time of year, time to try and enhance my portfolio/vita by submitting presentation abstracts for conferences. I presented three times during the last academic year, once locally at an interest group, once at a state level conference and once nationally. Late this summer, I declined an invitation to present for the first time. Why? I re-wrote the project on which I had based my abstract making the presentation irrelevant (oops).

I met with a COE professor earlier this week to discuss submitting for a spring conference. I have presented with her before and she quite simply hates PowerPoint. We have something planned, so all is well, but I was intrigued after reading a post on Argh Ink this morning featuring Ignite (check out the comments for more discussion).

"If you had five minutes on stage what would you say? What if you only got 20 slides and they rotated automatically after 15 seconds? Around the world geeks have been putting together Ignite nights to show their answers." - Ignite

After searching a bit, the story telling element seems to be key. As with any other presentations it relies on preparation, quality information, and visual elements are key. I have been on the short end of a panel presentation on more than one occasion, forced to significantly whittle away my prepared discussion, and wonder if this might be one way to eliminate that problem.

• Slideshare: Ignite Presentation Tips
• How to Give a Successful Ignite Presentation
• YouTube - iGNiTe's Channel
• Presentation Zen: The Ignite Presentation Method
• Wikipedia: Ignite (event)
  

This time, it's global

"It is my pleasure to inform you that on August 30th, 2009 your information was reviewed and accepted for inclusion in the 2009/2010 edition of our registry.

The Global Directory of Who's Who each year, recognizes and selects key executives, professionals and organizations in all disciplines and industries for outstanding business and professional achievements. This recognition is shared by those who have reached a distinguished level of success in their chosen profession.

Please take a moment to complete the invitation by clicking on the link below. We ask that you complete it carefully, as it will be reviewed by our editorial department.

** Please complete the online link by September 30th.

The Global Directory of Who's Who is pleased to inform you that there are no fees or dues to be included in the publication. On behalf of the publishing department and our esteemed staff, we wish you continued success."

I "released" the above email from my spam/quarantine folder out of sheer curiosity late last week. Undoubtedly my previous experience with Cambridge Who's Who predisposed me to read it with a definitively jaundiced eye, but a few things caught my interest; if my information has already been "reviewed and accepted for inclusion," why do I need to bother with the link; if I will already be included, why is the information going to be "reviewed by our (their) editorial department;" and how interesting that they are "pleased to inform" me that "there are not fees or dues to be included in the publication."

A catalog search revealed my library does not have the title, it is not part of any academic library in the state, and World Cat does not have a record of any library having the title as part of their collection. I moved my research to the web and, not surprisingly, found dissatisfied customers.

• Ripoff Report: The Global Directory of Who's Who Questionable Sales and Billing Practice
• Ripoff Report: Response to Allegations of Dishonest Practice
• The UnSponsored Link: Beware the Global Directory of Who's Who
• Complaints Board: Global Directory of Who's Who Complaints - Entire Company is a Scam
• BetterBusinessBureau: Global Directory of Who's Who -- Unsatisfactory Record

Curiosity satisfied, I deleted the email. It will be interesting to see if there is a follow-up; too bad it will not get beyond my spam folder.

September 11th

Photo Credit: Public Domain Wikipedia Commons

But I work Thursday night ...

"Tim McGraw will perform an hour long set beginning at 5:30 p.m., followed by an hour long set by The Black Eyed Peas at 6:40 p.m."

"At 8 p.m., Mr. McGraw and The Peas will perform again as part of a live show being televised on NBC and the NFL Network." - NFL Announces Kickoff Concert Schedule

Sure the actual free concert is in the 'burgh on Thursday evening, but they are going to televise some of it before I get home from work. I might have to see if my VCR still works! It's Tim McGraw, for heavens sake.

Shameful follow-up

Monday, I posted about gleefully working my way through six back issues (or three months) of Booklist and School Library Journal. Before I was able to feel too smug about the accomplishment, even with the fine sheen of shame, the September issue of Booklist appeared in my mail box. Since I was in the mood and this issue had a few Thanksgiving titles, it was a simple matter to peruse and purchase another 22 titles for the juvenile collection. Here are a few of my selections:

• Angry Management, Chris Crutcher
• Al Capone Shines My Shoes, Gennifer Choldenka
• Hate List, Jennifer Brown
• Geektastic: Stories from the Nerd Herd, Holly Black
• Duck for Turkey Day, Jacqueline Jules
• Turkey Trouble, Wendi Silvano
• Punctuation Celebration, Elsa Knight Bruno
• And Then Comes Halloween, Tom Brenner
• Breathless, Jessica Warman

Purchasing holiday books is often a bit of a conundrum; student teachers are in the classroom for the fall season, Halloween, and Thanksgiving, yet finished the first week of December. The juvenile collection does include Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, and Chinese New Year (to name a few), but they are not as extensively used during the traditional down times between the fall and spring academic year. With luck on my side, the Halloween and Thanksgiving titles on this list will be shelf ready in time for classroom use.

So, I'm curious

My personal library contains hardcover and paperback titles I read, read, and read again. There are very few books in the collection with only a single read to their credit. Case in point, after galloping through the most recent Jayne Castle book, Obsidian Prey, I proceeded to read and enjoy it a second and third time. A rough estimate of the pile of new books on my nightstand is upwards of five; yet, I am currently reading and enjoying my collection of J.D. Robb titles.

Today's title is Witness in Death, by my count the tenth book in the series. Not quite half through the book, Lt. Eve Dallas has made her first trip to the chief medical examiner's office meeting with Dr. Morse (p. 130) regarding a suspicious death. I will digress for a minute; the latest book in this series is Promises in Death. Though I happily admit the book I am reading is usually my favorite, Promises is one of the best entries in the series. It features one of my favorite secondary characters, chief medical examiner Dr. Morris and the murder of his lover.

It has been some time since I perused the paperbacks in the series, so as I was reading Witness, I initially thought the introduction of Dr. Morse was a typo. Continuing through the chapter, he continues to be Dr. Morse - not Dr. Morris. Now I am curious. Are there two medical examiners in the series? If not, when did Dr. Morse become Morris? Guess I will have to move through the next few and solve the mystery.