In the clouds....

The final week of CCL Learn the second wave. I'm desperately trying to get back on track and have launched myself into the clouds. Jane and Darryl both found this module very interesting and so have I. It is similar to the material I covered in Digital Technologies through Victoria University and MLIS but with the added bonus of no Philip Calvert to drive me insane. Anyway as always I digress....LibraryThing has become a bit of an obsession for me lately and I can see it being very beneficial both as a personal and professional tool. I like the idea of keeping an online reading log and being able to rate and tag items. I also find other people's reviews and ratings fascinating. As a professional tool it has many possibilities: author suggestions for 'If you like" reading lists, searching tags for titles (fiction is notoriously under-catalogued) sharing reading lists with colleagues etc.

Framed

This isn't the clearest photo ever, Ronald Hackston took the pic and is no David Bailey, but it shows a Seventeenth century gravestone from a Kirkyard just across the road from my Mumsey's house. She lives in Cupar a small Scottish town in the Kingdom of Fife. I went to school in Cupar and lived there for several years yet had absolutely no appreciation whats so-ever of its history or architecture.

This gravestone fascinates me as it represents the final resting place of two heads and a hand removed from Coventantor martyrs. Laurence Hay and Andrew Pitulloch were hung in Edinburgh's grassmarket and then beheaded. David Hackston of Rathillet had both his hands cut off, was hung but cut down while still alive before being disemboweled and having his heart removed. Their deaths and dismemberment was designed to act as a warning to others and various parts of David Hackston were deposited around Scotland to further reinforce the message that resistance to Episcopalianism was futile. The moral of the story, don't murder Bishops and don't mess with the Scots, we are a blood thirsty race.
I like the uncompromising and graphic representation of the heads and hand. Even everyday gravestones from this period in Europe had quite grisly imagery of skulls, crossbones, sands of time and interment tools. All quite different to the angelic scenes on Victorian graves.
I couldn't link this image to Flickr as I haven't joined up with Flickr and don't have a Yahoo account but I am getting the gist of it all I think....well maybe.
Toodle-pip

Technology why must you mock me?

I missed week 3 of CCL Learn but am back on the trail of technology glory, well kind of..both Ning and Blogger are being mean to me!!! I uploaded a niffty Ning application for giving your photos a frame or cartoon effect but when I tried to transform my profile pic into Kenny from South Park, nada.

Undetered I tried to upload a YouTube video, again no-go. In a fit of rage I turned to Blogger to vent my spleen and discovered I am still under investigation for being a SpamBlogger. Oh the shame...I've asked for a spam review but have a niggling memory of doing that once before, soI may disappear from the blogosphere.

I hope everyone is having fun with CCL learn. One of my team-mates has recieved her CCL Learn completion certificate so I am feeling spurred on to finish so I too can wave some paperwork around the workroom and feel triumphant.

I am off to try Ning again and transform myself into Kenny, Garfield or Hello Kitty.

Week 3 at CCL Learn HQ

Social networking this week and a new experience, Ning. I've obviously been living in terrible ignorance 'cos, until today, I'd never even heard of Ning. I have since learned that 36 million other peeps were somewhat quicker off the mark.
I do use Facebook regularly but like many of the technologies I am confronted with I don't use it to its full potential.

I am however hopelessly addicted to changing my photo on Facebook, currently I am using a lovely b&w pic of 1930's hearthrob Robert Donat, but I've been Zippy from Rainbow, Dangermouse, Hedy Lamarr and Mrs Slocombe a.k.a Mollie Sugden with a divine lavender hair rinse. I was also briefly addicted to the Facebook quizzes but they seem to have become rather amateur psychologist in nature and pointless.

Social Networking (SN) is fascinating and although I think many libraries are still trying to work out how to find a credible role in the SN scene it is a potentially exciting opportunity for connecting to customers. I have steered away from joining the CCL facebook page as I feel quite geeky enough but hooray to anyone braver than moi.

Lovely, lovely showbiz gossip!

Week Two of CCL Learn and it's all about RSS feeds and Podcasts. Google Reader could potentially revolutionise my access to juicy Showbiz gossip and provide a one-stop shop for tracking the fabulous lives of the A-Z listers. I've subscribed to The Daily Mail Showbiz pages and Sky Showbiz and now know that Wayne and Colleen have had a baby and I've seen inside the home of Mel B, I can die contented now that I've peeped through Mel's keyhole.

For a bit of balance and so I don't become even more of a bubble-bonce I've subscribed to The Guardian book and film pages too.

Podcasts next.....watch this space.

CCL Learn- The Second Wave

The Second Wave is here....well eventually. We all got a little bit lost but Alice managed to corral us into the second floor meeting room and give us a run through of the basics.

I've eaten five, maybe even six vanilla milk shakes but am still bitter that Darryl managed to gobble one. Revenge when it comes will be swift and disturbing!!