My mind is fully challenged, many things are "sketchy" so I've printed the lessons & my New Year's resolution is to revisit a lesson each week. All these new tools need LOTS of practicing before I really can feel/sound intelligent. I didn't realize how overloaded my "system" was until my husband & I had bowls of chili for supper last night, & with my last bite I realized I'd warmed maranara sauce, wondering why there was little chili flavor! My next challenge is what to do with the leftover noodles!!! A couple days of vacation should give the answer!
Happy New Year.

Lesson 8 is interesting but I've yet to understand why I NEED another place for my bookmarks. Favorites on Yahoo works just fine for me. After I created a Delicious account & put all my favorites there, I couldn't see much difference than what I used in Yahoo favorites, except for organizing according to type. It is good to know all this creative stuff is out there & maybe some day I'll be inspired to play around with it more. Perhaps people who live at their computers on their jobs would find these sites exciting & useful. I'm just excited to be able to create & retrieve my circulation schedule I'm working on for 2009 in Microsoft Office & Excel, challenge enough for right now! Does this date me?

I thought after today's Health Fair & all the talk of body fat this was perfectly appropriate. Dark chocolate is a healtlh food so think healthy!

I'm moving right along with a free account in Google docs! I did a test document that it actually saved. Lesson 7 social networking "one-stop-shopping" is intriguing, I had no idea all that stuff is out there. Since I didn't need a new partner or a job I skipped over that part! A check of Jasmine Rockwell's My Space was interesting, as was Julie Erickson's. However when I looked at Wynne Sayer's I didn't appreciate the language in samanthacr's interests in the little pink box so that was the end of THAT for me! I was shocked to see that language so my interest in My Space dimmed considerably.

You tube is interesting! I decided I needed something humorous & "mindless" but I DID pick something involving a book! Family Guy Electric Man shocked the dog reading a book! I didn't know that when I started watching it so it made it all seem "work related" & not JUST play!!!

Update: I spoke too soon about my excitement of downloading a podcast from Comic Talk Cafe! I was told my computer couldn't download it, and I was welcome to purchase software related to this file type! I said no thanks. Sometimes I feel like there has to be a simpler way to do all this exciting stuff!

I think the old addage "you can't teach an old dog new tricks" is false. This old gal is learning a new vocabulary! I actually knew what they were talking about with a podcast since I get information from a medical clinic in a podcast. I looked at commoncraft.com, mediafly, clicked on audio books, Fitness Rocks & tried to do a feed with Fitness Rocks but they didn't publish a feed, I was informed. Sigh! I tried Podcast.com, category books, picked Comic Talk Cafe podcast, & actually got it downloaded without incident! Amazing stuff! It's also amazing how many WINDOWS I had open!

Be sure you have a LARGE block of time before you attempt this. I chose Mediafly.com, then was told to go to GoodleVideo, I clicked on Health, then Yoga today. After 9 minutes (seriously) of watching this colored wheel spin, I exited that site & clicked on Tranquility du jour, which was The Tranquil Chick outlining her workshop & retreat schedule for the rest of 2008 & into 2009 plus information about her Tranquility Clothing Line, not at all what I thought it would be. Next I tried Fitness Rocks, which was some guy saying all nutritional supplements, herbs, etc. were bad for you since the label can say anything it wants. After 10 minutes, I shut him off & got into Perseus Podcasts of bestselling authors. I thought you could select a book or author but that did not happen. None of the books listed interested me. I tried Self-Help & listened a bit to Dave Ramsey's show about getting out of debt. Apparently there are zillions of options if you have the time/interest to search. I did add the Perseus Podcast/best selling authors to my RSS feeds. This was just the very FIRST part of the exercise & it took over an hour. Every time I see that I must SUBSCRIBE to something or create another account it makes me a tad nervous. I've lost so many things out there somewhere (my card, map, etc.) I wonder who all has access to my "stuff" I can't find! The activity was aptly named a "challenge"!!!!!

Halloween costume humor

A patron told me Friday he & his wife noticed the new sign on the front door of the library saying bottled drinks are allowed in the library. He told his wife "I'm glad to see the library has gotten into the modern age of allowing drinks." Then he said, "And then YOU walked out (in my pioneer woman costume) & I told my wife, well maybe not the WHOLE library has gotten into the modern age."

Happy Halloween. I don't know how pioneer women could see where they were going but I guess they didn't have as much stuff to run into as we do! I do appreciate regular clothing where I can see who is coming up beside me!

Perhaps this penguin did one too many "library challenges" this week! This photo from Flickr by Frank Hurley made me laugh. The other 3 penguins look bewildered, a look I wear while "challenging" myself! I'm sure they're telling him "Tomorrow will be better."

More flickr

Am I the only one that is MORE than challenged by this challenge? This is as challenging as trying to stand upright & not blow away in 45+ mph winds yesterday! I uploaded 2 more photos in Flikr, then I tried color picks & did the personality quiz. It said my decorating personality was "sun-kissed, you have the elements of energy, friendliness & EASE." Was that ever false, there is no EASE yet, but I keep hoping. It was fun doing the color stuff. Next I tried the map, picked Norway & couldn't get it to do anything. Finally I got tired of looking at the hourglass after about 10 minutes! Another day is coming.

It's not snowing--I refuse to believe that white stuff coming straight down is snow. Only one person on staff is excited about such an early snow & she's originally from FLORIDA!

SURFING THE INTERNET BOOSTS AGING BRAINS

I was checking my RSS feeds & came across this quote:"Many people search the Internet for health information. Now new research suggests that the simple act of Googling may be good for your brain health." You may see me really getting into this challenge now! I shall no longer feel guilty about the amount of time I'm "playing" on the Internet for this challenge, since I shall be brain healthy. I''m always reminded of a former boss 25 years ago, who called me when I'd gotten home from a hospital stay from type A flu. He said not to come back to work until I was 100%. I said "I have never BEEN 100%." He said! "I was referring to your PHYSICAL health." So now with this new research , surely there's hope!

This image of my grandson going really fast down the slide expresses my feelings of trying to do Flicker!!!! I guess I'm technology challenged, I seem to always miss a step or two & take twice as long as normal folk to get it done! The challenge is to keep at it, & I'm most thankful for other staff assisting me. Since I don't have a digital camera or camera phone I can't try that yet. I just got into the modern age awhile back with a bank debit card! So there's hope for the future!

Library challenge #3 was REALLY challenging! I managed to open an account & subscribe to Unshelved, a Food site & Travelin' librarian. I'm not sure if I'll keep those or choose new ones!

It's time to start blogging. Creating my account was a bit of a challenge, thankfully other staff members are experts! I have been on vacation for the past 2 weeks, I even thought a couple times about what I should write in my blog when I returned! This is my favorite time of year so we enjoyed walks, looking at fall colors, picking apples (that turned out to NOT be on Mom's apartment property--they were delicious & I wasn't arrested) & of course eating out.

7 1/2 Habits: the easiest thing for me would be to have confidence in myself as a competent effective worker. I'd not feel too confident in a new job, but I've been doing this job for many years. There have been many challenges of new, improved methods of doing things; I love learning new stuff. Going to workshops, conventions & seminars recharge my batteries!

The most difficult habit is using technology to my advantage. I don't have a computer at home so practice time is limited & I feel like I'm wasting time to just "play" if I have no real goal. Sometimes I find so many choices when searching & I'm never sure which one to pick to find the information quickly--maybe I shouldn't try to be so quick!