Celebrate Leap Day

[Technical note: the district firewall is blocking 2 pictures of a leaping frog...category--forum/blog. I got the 1st one from my file...when it showed blocked I went to MS Clipart and captured the same frog...blocked again!! Why did I do that ....because I ALWAYS doubt myself...thought maybe I had forgotten where I got the first one!

Nevertheless..it is a picture of a leaping frog for crying out loud...nothing more...more a "trusted" site. I had noticed over the past few days more & more of my pictues/book covers are showing up as dreaded red Xs.

I - do - not - get - it

To the people who look at this outside the district, no, I'm not crazy (and neither are you), yes there are 2 pictures of the same frog and now you know why.

Saturday update: took one off...seems they now load in district (including other pix that were not loading...not sure how or why...don't really care...just as long as they do.

Ok...back to our regularly scheduled proram...]

Is this just too perfect!

February 29th is Leap Day...the initial day of the Year of the Frog as designated by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums.

See more over at A Library By Any Other Name including some great book resources (again)put together by one of my favorite book review bloggers.

Doing a little happy leap about it all! :-)

Wanna See or Hear More about 2.0?

Check out this free magazine about blogging and podcasting...I have been reading it for interest's sake for about a year. It will give you some perspective of these two tools outside the realm of education. Pretty amazing to get a glimpse at just how much is out there!

You can register for a free online podcast version or online version with the coolest reader technology--love watching the pages turn (yes I am easily entertained!)

I know what you are thinking...Yup, another email/password but you can use one you already have! :-)

Blogger & Podcaster For Aspiring New Media Titans...perfect title for all us 23 Things media titans, don't you think?

Enjoy! ...or not, the choice is yours.

Thing #14 Technorati is Worth a Claim

I have used Technorati for many months. My main purpose was that that comes from claiming a blog. I claimed my first blog so that I could see all the different blogs known as authorities that "found" it because of the tags or things I mentioned and for whatever reason either mentioned it in their blogs or put it on ther blogrolls.

Because Technorati keeps a list of these blogs for me, I am able to go in and study these blogs individually and learn from them, see what we have in common, and follow them if they fit a need. Several times a curriculum-related blog has latched onto something I posted and I get to see how the information does work out in a classroom.

In the beginning, I also took a look at the Top 100 blogs...amazing how many are educationally technology or library related...lots of good "stuff" to learn about. Take a look at Engadget, Mashable, ReadWrite Web, 43 Folders.

I have done searches through it as well, but not too many because I have so many other ways to locate resources. I think it comes down to whatever works for you and whatever you get used to first. Choice...that's the key!

Technorati...another way to share the wealth of information.

Goodnight,

Froggy Wart

Thing #9 Too Many Blogs, Too Little Time

I have a pretty extensive list of blogs in my blogroll over at my other blog. I collected those blogs thru a variety of ways over the last 3+ years and finally dropped them in my blog about 14 months ago when I finally broke down and created one!

My history with blogs started with teenage angst blogs and that is NOT a great way to start, believe me! Then I started hearing/reading about blogging leaders in education and particularly, librarianship, through conferences and professional websites and journals. Can't remember the first batch too much, but really caught the blog fever at the Texas Library Association conference a few years ago when I attended two sessions on the subject.

More recently, I have used the traditional methods of discovering blogs to follow. I do check out award winners such as found at Edublogs and I use web sites such as Technorati to see who has connected to my blog...it is always such a surprise who picks up my blog thru the tags I have included there and words in my posts! I am currently following several Google Alerts for blog content that is of interest as well. Another way I find and follow blog postings is to read someone else's public reader page. In other words, I let an expert pull the materials I should read! Works for me!

x

But I have found most of the blogs I follow and many of my very favorite blogs by checking out what other bloggers post about, have on their blogrolls, and thru birdwalks from one blog to another, to another, to another. This is why Google notebook should prove to be helpful to me.

x

I have many blogs not on my blogroll simply because I read them for fun. Some include friends' blogs and non-educationally based blogs. I enjoy the subjects like recipes or places where people live, but mostly importantly, these non-work-related blogs are just plain fun to read. The writers are talented story tellers and can make a great story out of a crazy beagle, squirrels in the belfry, travels to bookstores or around the world, and make me laugh every time I open their blogs!

x

My current problem because of all these blogs...I need to cull out the dead wood...blogs that have not updated in awhile, have changed the focus and I don't follow that line of thought, or just plain don't say it with the same enthusiasm as someone else I read as well. Maybe if I can around to doing this, my list will be a better fit for the time I can devote to it all!

See you around the pad,

Froggy Wart

Thing #3 Enough Experimenting Already

In the 4 Cs article, it said experimenting is a key component to having fun with this social networking tool called blogging (don't you just love how the name evolved!)...but I think 3 templates and scads of color and font changes over the last few days IS enough experimenting...and of course, as usual, I went back to the tried and true (and comfortable like old shoes) template...just couldn't break out of my mold too much (side effects of living in a soggy bog?)

But don't you love the picture in the banner!!
Well, I guess you'd love it if you can see it...here... I will include a picture of the picture because it probably won't show in district...and if it does, won't that be a pleasant surprise!

As far as the Avatar is concerned, it's like playing virtual paper dolls isn't it...of course, there are probably only about three of us out there that even remember paper dolls. But anyway, it is is fun and frustrating all at the same time...making choices and then not having ENOUGH choices or the ability to add all the extras that would REALLY explain who I am on the inside! But everything that is there, is a piece of me.

I do wish my Avatar would move like it does on the website...have tried to read up on why it does not, but can't find anything...anybody have any ideas?

I guess I am an information artisan...making it my "own!"

ok, bring on the comments!...remember, comments are a key feature!!!

See ya later,
Froggy Wart