Unit 1 and Unit 2

I think I love my pseudonym: Tropea Castle. Apparently it was an Italian castle destroyed in 1876.

I'm very impressed with Picnik - I found it very intuitive, much easier to use than Paint. I wish I had known about this site while still in school, it would have been very handy. I also love the little phrases they'd use while everything was loading: "buttering bread," "fluffing clouds," etc. Adorable. I'm pretty sure I'll use this site in the future.

I like Flikr, it's useful for keeping up with a lot of photos. I also had fun exploring Montager, although it took a while to load for me.

I'm playing catch up, so I'm also posting my favorite blogs for my Unit 1.

I love, absolutely love Cake Wrecks, a hilarious blog about professional cakes gone horribly awry. It generally makes me laugh until I cry.

I stole this one from Shelley, but now I read it almost everyday: I love A Blog About History. I'm a big history nerd.

Last but not least, I sometimes read Deep Fried Kudzu, a blog chronicling the weird and wacky of my Sunny Homeland.

My friends call me Rudyard

The New York Times calls this a "feel good" book, but added that it is "quite boring." I used Picnik to create the cover, and found it really easy to use. I'm a newbie to Flickr, and I liked the Color Fields site, but I got frustrated when I couldn't save the copywritten images to my computer. I thought everything on the internet was supposed to be free?

Better Than Danny's

My favorite thing about this exercise was that my WikiRandom click took me to a blues album (Blue Horizon--though I decided my pen name should be spelled like Bleue from upstairs) which was put out by someone named RORY Block. Cool, huh? Anyway, here's my amazing book cover.

Better late than never

I apologize for posting this late. I really want this project to inspire all of us, so here's hoping ALL of us will post on time for Unit 2!

I don't put blogs in my RSS feed (although I probably should), but I do login periodically to see what is happening on the following blogs:

Planet Esme

A Chair, A Fireplace and a Tea Cozy

Technology Adventure Unit Two

Unit two: Images
2/21-3/6

We take a lot of photos down here and we should show them off! The Library uploads photos to Flickr for people to look at, and photos will be great to share with patrons once we have Drupal running.

Play at Flickr: Check your e-mail for the login and password.

From this page, you can view our photostream, see what our contacts have uploaded and explore. There’s a lot you can do with Flickr, socially and sharing, but we’ll stick to the basics.

Click on “Your Photostream” to see all of the Library’s photos. Photo sets, specific albums, are along the right side. Explore! Use tags on individual photo pages to see more with the same tag. You can browse the Library’s collection like that, or the entire Flickr site. You can also explore groups, where people share their photos on a particular theme.

Now let’s practice uploading. Take a photo during a program or around the Library, or just choose one of our recent photos saved on the G drive. Click on the Flickr logo to get back home, then click on Upload Photos on the right side and select your photo.

All photos from our department are tagged opplfamily so that they appear on the Hi Kids page and all Library photos are tagged “oak park public library” (with quotes to keep the phrase together). Add other tags as necessary. Add the photo to the correct set. Give the photo a title and, optionally, a description. Click save and admire your work. (Optionally: Click the ticky box to make this photo private and viewable only to people logged into the OPPL account.)

Make your own book cover: Now try to make your own picture to upload at the blog. Pictures add interest to blog posts and should be used often. We’ll twist the internet album cover meme and turn it into a book cover.

Go to Wiki Random
The random Wikipedia article you get is your pseudonym.

Go to Quotations Page
The last four or five words of the very last quote on the page is the title of your book.

Go to Flickr Explore
From the drop down, select the month of your last birthday. Click on your birthday on the resulting calendar and click on the third image to be your cover image. Choose Actions, view all sizes. Right click on the image and save it to your computer. The Medium size is probably the easiest to work with. (If this photo is unavailable for download, you can choose another.)

Use a graphics program like Paint.net (on our computers) or Picnik (online program) to put it all together. In Paint, explore the tool descriptions to learn about all the options. Open the photo you want used. Crop it to be approximately book cover proportioned. Add text with the T on the sidebar, choose your font, click where you want to type, and enter it in. Use the compass like cursor under the text to move it around.

Picnik walks you through a lot of the options, plus gives fun extras you can add to your images and lets you save to the computer or your favorite social networking site. Crop your photo under Edit, and add text under Create. I find it more intuitive than Paint, but your mileage may vary. :)

Get creative! See samples at Flickr's Cover Meme tag.

Create a new post in blogger, upload your book cover and tell us about your adventures with images. Did you have any problems? Did you find anything cool at Flickr you want to share? How can we use Flickr more, or image generators and graphics programs like this? What about Flickr applications like Color Fields, You Gotta See This or Montagr? Any other neat ones you found?

Don’t forget to tag/label your post with unit two. You have two weeks, until March 6, to get your post up and comment on some other posts. Have fun!

You bloggin?

I must admit I generally only use sports blogs, although I have been visiting Graphic Novel Reporter lately. It has got a ton of content and has helped this graphic novel novice catch up on what’s new. My true passion is NBA basketball, and one of the best ball blogs is The Basketball Jones. It started as a humble podcast five years ago and has grown into an everyday videocast and blog. Another great one is Free Darko, a philosophy and sociology infused NBA blog that has produced two AMAZING books. The books are great to look at—regardless if you follow basketball—so let me know if you’d like to see them.

Keepin' it really small

There is only one blog (so far!) that I follow. Leslie told me about it when I wanted to start slowly adding on one blog at a time, it's called Kid's Lit. If you've ever gotten a request for a book from me it's probably because of something I read on this blog. I also get the SLJ electronic newsletter and will read Fuse 8 or Shelftalker if the entry looks interesting. Alright I'll add them! Anyone know of a good Cubs one to follow?

Bloggy Goodness

Unlike Gennie and Rory, I don't really use Google Reader. I do get a lot of site update pushes via twitter and/or facebook, though, so I know when to go looking for content at my favorites. Secondary blogs, I visit when I remember about them, and just play catch up. Perhaps not efficient, but it works.

Favorite Library World blogs:
Collecting Children's Books: Peter mostly deals with older books, plus trivia and trends, but he does so with a sense of humor and a dash of bitchiness.

American Indians in Children's Literature: Debbie is a polarizing person, and I don't always agree with what she has to say, but I always appreciate her point of view.

Mel's Desk: Melissa has great plans and ideas for the under 2 storytime crowd.

Storytime at Richmond Memorial Library: This one is pretty new to me, but I've been going through their archive and getting some nice storytime ideas.

SLJ and Horn Book blogs, including Fuse #8, Read Roger and Tea Cozy, which appears to be missing today.

Favorite Blogs:
Tom and Lorenzo/Project Rungay: Best Blog Ever? Quite possibly. For fans of Mad Men, Glee, and Project Runway, plus fashion in general, celebrities and costume design. (The Mad Men style posts are amazing.)

A Blog About History: Near daily pictures and updates on new archaeological and historical finds around the world.

Boots in the Oven: My cousin and her husband are pretty big food bloggers down in Austin, and their restaurant reviews are amazing. They are setting off on a 14 month trip around the world next month, and I can't wait to see what they eat.

Already Pretty: Fashion tips and tricks that are useful and positive.

Smart Bitches, Trashy Books: Romance novel reviews and commentary.

I like blogs with snappy writing and great pictures, it seems!