Spoon(RSS)feeding or getting the internet to stalk you

OK, I was so good. I did my homework, got a bunch of feeds going and now I'm waiting, waiting, waiting for someone to post on one to make sure it will come through.

Well, the pot ain't boiling...so little properly "proactive" (read "impatient") me has found a way. I've subscribed to my own gal'dang blog and I'm gonna post to it. Then the eternal question--did I do it right?--will be answered (OK, it will be answered in respect to RSS anyway).

Oh, yeah, homework. So I set up my RSS account in Google Reader, because if I have to memorize one more password I'm going to have to start deleting key words from my cranial hard-drive (if I can't remember your name when we talk, just know that it means I can log-on to something...somewhere). Within G-mail all this took was clicking on "more", then on "Reader". So, yippee I have that.

Then I'm subscribing to krl2pt0, using the magic button, which worked fine but has the amusing side effect (at least for me--the side effect... well, maybe the amusing, too) of being titled "title unknown". Then I move on to subscribe to a couple fellow krlbloggers (we'll need a better name if we want to form a group, but I digress). So I go to their blog, click on the subscribe thing at the bottom, it gives me a window saying it's saving it in "feeds", cool. Do it with another, same deal. Then I go to my reader, where the heck are they?--not there. So I repeat adding them by cut/paste into the reader and all is happy.

What happened, you may ask. Well, sit right back and you'll hear a tale, a tale of a big ol' software company that wants to be all things to all people and help you 'til it hurts (you, not them--especially in the wallet region)...Explorer (yes, children, a Microsoft product) was very helpfully intercepting my attempts to save feeds from Google-based (oh my, a major competitor...insert shocked gasps here) blogs and adding them to a "Feeds" button in my favorites, thus making everything happily, conveniently connected to them. Unfortunately, that would nullify the whole web-based thing I was going for.

Luckily, this doesn't happen on the sights that have the magic "add to Google" button, so adding a feed on Outdoor Adventure and Survival books from the Hennepin County Library (that's Minneapolis, MN for those not readily versed in Midwestern counties) went much more smoothly, with no interference from Redmond (Washington, not Minnesota--if there is one, I don't think they care about my RSS feeds).

As for podcasting, I just went to the Splendid Table website and listened to a podcast with a simple push of a button. Boy, that homework was hard (it does make you hungry though...Oh, maybe that's the show). I have also listened to live streaming archived This American Life instead of audiobooks, they have a player on the site that pops up instead of playing through media player...this is also easy. And, yes, I am aware that I have an NPR addiction (mostly filled by KUOW) and I refuse to seek treatment.

I think I've had just about enough of this wacky world for now, out of the web and into the hole.

Books from Blogs, how to get hype?

OK, so last night I was sitting there darning a sock (yes, darning--needle, yarn, wooden "egg"--holding the old-fashioned belief that things that can be repaired, should be) and watching a DVD (about quilting, so you'll have to work out the high-tech vs. low-tech math for yourself). I was thinking about the nice comments people have written on my blog (Thank you, by the way.) and how some blogs get big followings and turn into books (Yarn Harlot, Julie and Julia, Wendy Knits, and Crazy Aunt Purl's Drunk, Divorced, and Covered in Cat Hair to name a few--all held by KRL [the links are to the blogs, KRL has the books]).

So, I was developing a theory on how to get a "fan base"--anyone can use this, 'cause I'm not going to--by getting your blog to pop up in search-engine results. The idea would be to just randomly use as many words/word sets as you could think of that you think people are plugging into Google (i.e. naked, free, buy, sell, sex, bare, knitting, patterns, etc.) to just get random people to find you. Take the examples above and expand the list and see if you are suddenly getting book contract offers (or maybe being stalked by all the perverts and pedophiles online--just check out the news, they may be the only ones looking). If you get famous, feel free to acknowledge me in your book, oh and 10% of your profits wouldn't be turned away.

Now that I've offered my enlightened plan for your future...back in the hole.

Tagging, without spray paint

OK, so now I'm a blogger and a tagger. I was under the impression that tagging was spray painting some kind of signature mark all over town--fences, buses, newspaper stands--but alas, in the age of technology everything one knows can no longer be learned from bad (OK I liked them at the time, but really) '80s break dancing movies (I mean really, didn't they call the one chick Special K...flashbacks, baby).

Anyhoo, back to my high-tech tagger lifestyle. As a resident of the hole, I had been unaware of this del.icio.us thangy but its actually pretty cool. I don't care too much about the social aspect--I do live in a hole largely by choice. The having a list of links that I can get at from anywhere...that's awesome. For someone like me who has limited access and generally gets online from somewhere other than my own personal technology dinosaur this could actually be...dare I say (well, type) it?...USEFUL (wow, who'd a thunk it?).

I can see the usefulness of group lists for reference desks, I'm not so sure about some other positions for work use. I mostly tagged some of my personal interests and general info (knitting pattern sites, boat sites, various news and weather sites). They are the kind of thing one might like to have handy, you never want to be without information about an approaching storm or a last minute knitting pattern.

As for the other people looking at my list, that does add potential creep factor and makes me sure that I won't be tagging anything too personal, or that would lead anyone to anybody else's personal info. But that's part of my whole disinterest in sharing personal stuff in general, much less on a potentially worldwide forum (if anybody peeled themselves away from ridiculous youtube videos long enough to stumble on my blog). I don't tell people I know everything about me, why would I spew it out to the world, regardless of what name it's under.

So, assignment completed. Trying to maintain momentum and enthusiasm to stay with the larnin' sperience.

Back to my hole sweet hole.

out of the hole, onto the water

So, as previously stated, I'm into things that are incompatible with computers and high tech gadgets in general. For instance: this is the kayak I launched Sunday. While I could put computer bits into it...what would be the point. And why in the world would I be surfing the web when I could be doing this.

I will give credit to computers though, the kit was designed on CADD (computer aided drafting/design) software and the panels were cut using CNC (no idea what it stands for, but its some kind of computery cutting control). That's great. As to the construction the only high tech power tools I used were a trouble light and a shop vac. Maybe I should count the kerosene heater. Otherwise everything was hand tools--no cords, no batteries, no reboots.

Ah, back in the hole now.

First Light/43 Things

Ok, on the list of 43 things that the author wants to learn several have nothing to do with anything I can do. Not because I have a bad attitude (which I do sometimes have), but because I don't have the technology...literally. I don't have a cell phone, my home computer software is to the level of out-of-date that it just freezes up if I try to get to a web page that has anything flashy on it (like changing pictures), it can almost handle pages that are just text. I like taking pictures with a film camera, although I will often get them on cd so I can email them to people, but I can only do this from work or as a library patron--don't own the technology.

As for the rest of the list, very little of it is anything I would come up with the desire/need to learn on my own. The out-of-date computer at my house is rarely turned on. Most of my interests and hobbies cannot be pursued while attached to an electronic box. Even as things I want to learn for work I'm still not sure most of it would apply to my everyday duties. I can see where the blog stuff could be useful for committee communications, but it also seems like every separate blog and email account just adds to side work and pulls us away from our primary work duties.

I also watched the video podcast on lifelong learning, which I liked better because of having less emphasis on just technology learning. I tend to use the technology to learn other things (getting patterns/instructions off the web, looking through the online catalog to find books or instructional DVDs) more than learning the technology for its own sake. Basically, I'm comfortable with computers, use them for my purposes and try not to get used by them. Plus, I spend 40 hours a week with the thing--I have other things that need to get done.

That's my first post. Now back into my hole.