Interesting coincidence: I wanted to listen to an audio file (an interview of Seetha Gunraj by Michael Schellenberg) today that I found on BookLounge.ca (actually I was notified about this file and about the book from a newsletter that I subscribe to), but first had to update some software.... this meant actually downloading the Itunes plug in.
The BookLounge.ca site also has podcasts, so I decided to use their RSS feed for this exercise.
I really do not like having to download all these plugins etc. in order to get everything to work... too much trouble that I'd just as soon do without. Besides, I'm not really a "music" person, don't have an ipod, and although I acquired an MP3 player with a cd-player once, I haven't actually bothered to use it. Only this past year did I rip music off a cd-rom onto my computer.... I'm not really a dinosaur but....
Here is a link to the BookLounge.ca page on podcasts and how-to do it. This is where I found the RSS link for their author podcasts. http://www.booklounge.ca/podcasts/guide.html
Anyway, I'm actually looking forward to testing this out further by way of seeing how the automatic downloads work.
Time to log off! Ciao.
Friday, March 27, 2009
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Browser Tools: RULA week 10
Although we're already in week 11, I did complete the week ten assignment but forgot to blog about it. I decided to download and install the Firefox Screengrabber application. First, I had to download a more current version of Firefox. I got some technical advice from Simon and everything worked out fine. The application seems simple enough to use.
Not much else to report here.
Not much else to report here.
More on GoogleMaps and Public Transit
I just realized that Google Maps also has a public transit tie-in. Unfortunately, the TTC and the City of Toronto are not participants at this time, however you'll see from this url that many of the major cities in Canada are already participating in this innovative feature:
http://maps.google.com/intl/en/landing/transit/text.html#2-canada
I've just contacted my city councillor and copied the Chair of the TTC (Councillor Giambrone) and Mayor David Miller encouraging them to participate too. Maybe you'll want to contact your city councillor as well. Here is a link to the elected officials:
http://app.toronto.ca/im/council/councillors.jsp
http://maps.google.com/intl/en/landing/transit/text.html#2-canada
I've just contacted my city councillor and copied the Chair of the TTC (Councillor Giambrone) and Mayor David Miller encouraging them to participate too. Maybe you'll want to contact your city councillor as well. Here is a link to the elected officials:
http://app.toronto.ca/im/council/councillors.jsp
Sunday, March 15, 2009
Social Networking Pt. 2: The Facebook Account
I've created the account, but really, I still think that e-mail is more than sufficient for my needs and wants as far as staying in touch with my real friends and acquaintances. I suppose there is some value in the networking possibilities of the site but there are only so many hours in a day and life is too short to spend it all on some electronic interface....
I haven't even been watching tv that much in the last year. Now that spring is almost here, I think I'll be out walking more, and listening to the birds chirping and singing, rather than to a talking book or sound recording.
logging off and shutting down,
Val
I've created the account, but really, I still think that e-mail is more than sufficient for my needs and wants as far as staying in touch with my real friends and acquaintances. I suppose there is some value in the networking possibilities of the site but there are only so many hours in a day and life is too short to spend it all on some electronic interface....
I haven't even been watching tv that much in the last year. Now that spring is almost here, I think I'll be out walking more, and listening to the birds chirping and singing, rather than to a talking book or sound recording.
logging off and shutting down,
Val
Social Networking Pt. 1
Just checked out some of the library sites noted on the RULA2.0 blog that have social networking features. I'm far from impressed!
Seems like so much of a wasted effort to me.
If you were a real friend of mine, I might be interested in the diagnosis that your cat has OCD. In reality, you're some stranger in NYC and I couldn't care less!
The Denver site was way too busy. You need to have an attention deficit disorder to find it exciting.
Meow,
val
P.S. Why doesn't the RULA posting mention any of the controversies such as Facebook's recent media flare up about "ownership" and "use" of postings.....
Ignoring important issues like this does not serve the user community well. Let's use tools but be smart about them.
Seems like so much of a wasted effort to me.
If you were a real friend of mine, I might be interested in the diagnosis that your cat has OCD. In reality, you're some stranger in NYC and I couldn't care less!
The Denver site was way too busy. You need to have an attention deficit disorder to find it exciting.
Meow,
val
P.S. Why doesn't the RULA posting mention any of the controversies such as Facebook's recent media flare up about "ownership" and "use" of postings.....
Ignoring important issues like this does not serve the user community well. Let's use tools but be smart about them.
Rula2.0 Catchup
Better late than never....
Just finished messing about with some of the Google docs stuff. It was quite straightforward to create a new post for sharing but I didn't try uploading an existing file. I received a couple of notices that people were sharing things with me, including Michelle's name game activity that I finally completed a little while ago.
The google mapping helped me to calculate some distances that I've been walking in the RUNAMOK team exercise project. Practical uses for learning things is more in keeping with my learning goals.
Now, let's see about last week's activities....
val - virile
Better late than never....
Just finished messing about with some of the Google docs stuff. It was quite straightforward to create a new post for sharing but I didn't try uploading an existing file. I received a couple of notices that people were sharing things with me, including Michelle's name game activity that I finally completed a little while ago.
The google mapping helped me to calculate some distances that I've been walking in the RUNAMOK team exercise project. Practical uses for learning things is more in keeping with my learning goals.
Now, let's see about last week's activities....
val - virile
Thursday, March 5, 2009
Dinner With Shani Mootoo
The dinner that I won with author Shani Mootoo was held on Feb. 21, 2009 and it was a magical event. In addition to me and my four guests, the diners included a number of people from The House of Anansi Press including the president of the company who was our gracious host, Shani's partner, and a young journalist from The National Post. The Press has some publicity information posted on their website.
http://www.anansi.ca/anansi_reader.cfm
Shani and her kitchen assistants did a remarkable job, preparing an appetizer of polenta with coriander served with roasted tomatoes and baked kale. There were two main courses with half of the guests dining on seafood, and half on poultry. The poultry dish was baked chicken breast, stuffed with spinach I believe, and coated in baked ground cumin and cinnamon. This came with an apple sauce and a form of glazed carrots seasoned with thyme and bay leaves. The seafood dish was a bouillabaisse or fish stew that contained fresh scallops flown in from Nova Scotia, shrimp, clams, salmon and monk fish. There was a fresh greens salad and the dessert was a true work of art: poached pears with whipped cream and a fresh mint leaf. A Bacci chocolate was served as the finale.
The red and white wines were all very tasty, and the conversations most enjoyable. I probably drank too much, and talked too much but can attest that everyone seemed to have a wonderful time and my guests did not disappoint as they added so nicely to the mix that evening. Shani answered countless questions about her writing, her visual art, her love for a Trinidad that is no more, and of course we enjoyed talking about the characters in her recently published novel Valmiki's Daughter.
I've been asked to submit a book review to the Caribbean literary studies journal
MaComère, and hope my review will meet their standards.
Thank you Shani and House of Anansi Press for making this wonderful dinner happen.
http://www.anansi.ca/anansi_reader.cfm
Shani and her kitchen assistants did a remarkable job, preparing an appetizer of polenta with coriander served with roasted tomatoes and baked kale. There were two main courses with half of the guests dining on seafood, and half on poultry. The poultry dish was baked chicken breast, stuffed with spinach I believe, and coated in baked ground cumin and cinnamon. This came with an apple sauce and a form of glazed carrots seasoned with thyme and bay leaves. The seafood dish was a bouillabaisse or fish stew that contained fresh scallops flown in from Nova Scotia, shrimp, clams, salmon and monk fish. There was a fresh greens salad and the dessert was a true work of art: poached pears with whipped cream and a fresh mint leaf. A Bacci chocolate was served as the finale.
The red and white wines were all very tasty, and the conversations most enjoyable. I probably drank too much, and talked too much but can attest that everyone seemed to have a wonderful time and my guests did not disappoint as they added so nicely to the mix that evening. Shani answered countless questions about her writing, her visual art, her love for a Trinidad that is no more, and of course we enjoyed talking about the characters in her recently published novel Valmiki's Daughter.
I've been asked to submit a book review to the Caribbean literary studies journal
MaComère, and hope my review will meet their standards.
Thank you Shani and House of Anansi Press for making this wonderful dinner happen.
LibraryThing
Library Thing
Here I am again playing catch up... two weeks behind but at last I've got my Library thing account up and running. The site is quite easy to use, but I hate all of these separate logins and passwords.
Here is a link to my catalog:
http://www.librarything.com/catalog/vlem
My profile isn't fleshed out very fully yet:
http://www.librarything.com/profile/vlem
I did remember to tag my records with RULA20. Did you?
Well, I have to move on to another post.
Here I am again playing catch up... two weeks behind but at last I've got my Library thing account up and running. The site is quite easy to use, but I hate all of these separate logins and passwords.
Here is a link to my catalog:
http://www.librarything.com/catalog/vlem
My profile isn't fleshed out very fully yet:
http://www.librarything.com/profile/vlem
I did remember to tag my records with RULA20. Did you?
Well, I have to move on to another post.
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