Classic Novels

I need to go back and read some of these novels again. I can't remember the last time I got into a good novel. I think I'll start with The Catcher in the Rye.
http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/43945489/ns/today-back_to_school/t/books-you-really-should-have-read-high-school?gt1=43001

I haven't heard of these frequently banned books.
http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/44699167/ns/today-books/t/risky-reads-books-have-been-banned?gt1=43001

Modeling Industry

Heard this on NPR today.
http://www.npr.org/2011/09/28/140882246/the-life-of-a-fashion-model-grueling-not-glitzy
Never understood why the modeling industry exists. The customer base of  women with 0% body fat and thousands of dollars to waste on goofy looking outfits can't be that large.

Library 2.0

Dr Wendy Schulz describes four versions of libraries in To a Temporary Place in Time. I think library 4.0, the neo-library will become the most important in the future. Libraries should and will take a page from bookstores and make the library a place where patrons can relax and feel like they are at home, except without screaming kids, the list of household chores needing to be done, and surrounded by people who share similar interests. The  library will become the modern day bar for non-drinkers.  Library 2.0 will take a vital part of creating a global community in the local library through checking out book and movie reviews before borrowing them, to checking out what other local libraries have to check out. The librarian will be there to facilitate finding information, as well as organizing and planning community event to take place at the library. The library is quickly becoming a central part of our communities just as churches and bars were decades ago.

Tagging & Folksonomies

This was a fun exercise. I strangely loved The Aura of East Asian Female Singers stack but in my defense it is 4 in the morning and my brain isn't working at full capacity right now. This is the site for that stack, http://del.icio.us/stacks/view/PGJgBH. My stack is probably much more boring for most people, but I’m a news junkie so I like the sites I put on there. http://del.icio.us/stacks/ryebread44. I'm not entirely sure how much I'll use this feature in the future. I can't see using this feature for research purposes because their are so many more efficient resources to use such as library databases and old fashioned books.  I may find interesting bookmarks about current events, world affairs, and now East Asian female singers through this site however. 

RSS and Newsreader

I really enjoy using RSS. I always love technology that does what it is supposed to do, make tasks easier. Instead of going to every site to see the stories on them, I can just go to my RSS feed. Personally I love news, general commentary, sports, and tech sites, and when I’m subscribed to a number of these sites, I can find articles I want to read right off the bat. Libraries can use RSS to quickly view multiple book reviews of the same book and decide if they should purchase it or not. My only concern is that by bypassing the advertisements on these websites, its taking an important revenue source away from them I would hate to start paying subscription fees if some of these websites become too unprofitable.

The method I found easiest to find newsfeeds was by clicking “add a subscription” and then searching for a subject or website that I wanted to add. Some Useful newsfeeds I found were NPR, and the Reader’s Club.  I didn’t find too many useless newsfeeds. By far the best way to find newsfeeds is by searching for them with the add a subscription feature.  Here's my site: http://www.google.com/reader/view/#overview-page

Wikis

There are many interesting wiki pages with this activity. The only wiki page I knew of before this activity was Wikipedia. The St. Joseph County Public Library Subject Guide made it easy to find websites and books that I was interested in. The book lovers wiki was surprising critical in some the reviews and offered refreshing opinions on the materials. I know the next book I want to read has to be The Tender Bar. I’ve been reading historical non-fiction for so long I think I’ve forgotten how fun autobiographies are to read. The Library Success: A Best Practices Wiki looks like an good way to spread ideas on how to Librarians can improve libraries. All in all there are some interesting wiki sites out there that I didn't know existed.

Bullied to death in Buffalo

Stories like this one really piss me off.
http://digitallife.today.com/_news/2011/09/21/7879728-teen-contributor-to-it-gets-better-project-takes-his-own-life?GT1=43001

Neurodiversity

I hope to see more autistic people out in society and around people. Loneliness is probably the worst part of many of their lives.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44573581/ns/health-the_new_york_times/

"Weird Al" Yankovic - White & Nerdy

NPR: Jessup Correctional Institute Library

http://www.npr.org/player/v2/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=1&islist=false&id=136765589&m=136765562

Definatly think the fathers reading to their children is an excellent program. Giving fathers a small oportunity to be a part of their kids lives will help them stay out of trouble and help the kids who see their fathers doing something for them. Hopefully that program doesn't get cut.

Worst Person of the Week

Worst person of the week, right here in Buffalo.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44532007/ns/us_news-crime_and_courts/

Ryan Fitzpatrick and Buffalo

Not the most flattering description of Buffalo but an interesting article anyways. http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/6947144/can-ryan-fitzpatrick-save-buffalo

Windows 8 article

Here's an interesting article about the new Windows 8 platform. http://technolog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/09/09/7692111-can-windows-8-save-the-pc

My take: Apple will start losing market share with tablets unless they adopt full keyboards for their ipads. Get the full keyboard Apple!

Is Buffalo the most depressed sports fan base?

From http://www.grantland.com/blog/the-triangle/post/_/id/3790/the-most-depressed-fan-base-a-grantland-investigation

"Fair enough. Seriously, though, if I were a Buffalo fan, I might punch a wall at this point. Or at least write an angry tirade about Kobe Bryant on a message board. And that takes some effort in Buffalo; the Internet hasn't caught on, so they have to use actual wooden message boards in the town square."

Seriously guys, we need to take down those wooden message boards...

Flickr

My experiance with Flickr was actually not too bad. Luckily I own a digital camera so I was able to take some pictures and load them onto my computer rather easily. I wanted to take a picture of this book on Crete that was published in 1905. I purchased it at my local library and I think I got rid of it after deciding I didn't want to read a book from 1905. I wish I had kept it, it probably made someone a millionaire. Instead I took a picture of my local libary's website and some other books I bought at different libraries. The link to the pictures is http://www.flickr.com/photos/67404330@N04/. It was only when I started messing around on Blogger that I breifly considered throwing my mom's laptop out the window. Since I just broke my laptop, I decided not to. I can't figure out how to change the title of my blog from 7 and 1/2 things to something more generic. I guess I'll just keep it as is.

Ryan's New Blog

The learning habit that I am best at is, "Begin with an end in mind". I never start a project that I don't know if I can finish. For instance I chose to work towards a Masters degree instead of a PHD because I knew that if I couldn't get a half-way decent job in the next couple of years I would go crazy.
The learning habit that I am worst at is, "Use technology to your advantage". Two days ago my laptop fell off of a chair I put it on and broke. I am now without a personal computer for up to a month. I went to Capen Hall last night to work on this blog and the computer couldn't bring up a webpage without the computer freezing up. So then I tried another computer, and that one also froze up. I also could not print out the readings for the my courses. Thankfully I've found a new computer lab where the computers work so I guess things have worked out in the end.