Thing 22 - It's the final count down...

Right so that's me done on my 23 Things journey, I really did enjoy it, it was a great way to learn about new technologies. However starting with something as hard going as Netvibes could have pushed me over the edge and not want to continue. I have learnt a lot in the process and I will try and keep the blog going once I'm done with my knitting projects - as it is I have a few images still to add.

Ok so my actual first blog is of my kitties Jaffa and Zimba, but my first 23 Things blog post makes me sound a little nervous about the whole thing and worried, but at the same time I had been helping people in my office so I couldn't have been too worried. All I can say is that I gave everything a go and I know I should be  much more ready to accept Twitter especially if I want to be an information professional - but I just couldn't take to it so I might have to go back again at some point and get to grips with it.

I think the best thing has to be Tagxedo I like to be creative but I'm really not all that creative in reality so this was fab. However to put it into context though, I'm not sure when I would use this currently in my job but I like the fact that I now know they're so easy to do. The item I least enjoyed has to be Twitter, it annoyed me straight from the start, but at the same time I know I should get to grips with it so I can be "down" with the kids, and I know in writing that, that makes me so not "down" with the kids...

I would use RSS Feeds for work and I've set it up now that I get certain RSS Feeds into my email account. This is a really helpful way of keeping up to date with a lot of information, and a lot of groups that I subscribe to, such as CILIP, CILIP HIOW branch, and then for non work purposes I have a feed to a recipe blog so each time that is updated I can view the new recipe. See below how it looks once in my email account - this one is great as it comes with pictures in too.

RSS Feed for Vegetarian Food Blog

I'm really proud now that I've completed this, I think because I was part of the team running 23 Things I also feel quite tired and I'm glad it is now over. However the links and guides are still there for me to refer to if I want to learn a bit more.

I think 23 Things would be better starting with an easier item to ease everyone in. Also if the instructions were more generic that would help when working on each "Thing" as well as telling us why we would use it. Some of the instructions went straight into how to use it, but if you've not heard of it before you can't put it into context when using.

However I think it's been a great success for me, and others who I have followed by reading their blogs. We should all give ourselves a pat on the back!!! :)

Get into the driving seat for Google Drive

So Google Drive, I actually wrote the instructions for this "Thing" which before starting 23 Things I hadn't even heard of. I for one really like this tool, I now have it on my smartphone as an app as I like to save recipes and it's so easy to get access to these whilst cooking, and then through my phone I'm able to have my documents available offline - don't ask me how I did this as I'm not totally sure.

Here's an image of my recipe file on Google Drive, a lot of these recipes I've snipped from the Slimming World page on Facebook and then saved them so I can use them when I'm at home!!

However since starting this and being really pleased with it I have read others post where they were stating it wasn't as good and there are as ever other tools out there which can do the same thing. Even after reading other people's comments I will continue to use this as I really like it. I do a monthly budget and to be able to work on that document wherever I am is really handy rather than saving everything onto a memory stick! However I guess I wouldn't put any confidential items on there - so recipes and pictures of my cats it is...

Thing 20 - Slideshare

I wasn't quite sure what this was all about when I started but I did like searching for all sorts of slides/PowerPoint's. I decided to look for something on knitting and found this item on Learning to Knit Which when you click on this link I like the fact that it opens the PowerPoint ready for you to view in large format. Now how cool is that for a start of a PowerPoint.

I can see why you would use this in a training/learning/workplace situation, but I'm not sure whether I would use this for my own personal use.

Thing 16 - Flickr & Thing 17 Creative Commons

I was really looking forward to learning about Flickr as I had heard about it but I didn't know what it was all about. Once I got in there I didn't like the feel of it and straight away that put me off, also the fact that I had to sign up with another username and password put me off!

So I didn't really do much with this, even the enticement of the Flickr competition couldn't get me going on this Thing I'm afraid :(

Also reading what other people had said about the security and copyright of their images was certain and so I thought I wouldn't use it for my personal use.

So Creative Commons, this was really interesting to read and find out more about this. I had heard of the term but I didn't know what this actually meant. So was a really useful Thing to spend time learning about - just so I'm in the know... :)

LibraryThing - is it my Thing??

My line manager had been talking about LibraryThing for a long time and I thought it would be a great thing to do seeing as I'm a cataloguer and I catalogue books. However when it came to LibraryThing in the end I wasn't so sure if I was keen about it and didn't actually look at it properly. I probably wasn't keen because I read a lot of trash fiction and even more recently I've got a Kindle so I tend to download any free book which isn't that high brow at all. So I think LibraryThing will just show up my pretty bad reading preferences.

However I thought I should give it a go to find out how I get on, and now using it I quite like it, I like it even more because some times I forget what I've read of where I've got to with a series and so this would easily tell me what I have actually read. At the moment I rely on my Public Library record telling me what I've read.

I then also tried to see if my books had been read by less than 10 people, sadly the lowest I could get to was 12 - so not bad and that was with a free Kindle book Alice Parker's Metamorphosis (Book 1 of the new adventure series for children).

So here it is my LibraryThing collection... well this is a small listing of things I've read. This was more for playing reasons so now I'll have to start putting on other things I've read - with covers which do not resemble Mills and Boon :)

Thing 13 - So who didn't reflect in reflection week????

Yes that would be me, and so I'm realising late in the day that I should have said something so far!!!! What I can say now is that I was (and still am) enjoying 23 Things, it's tough going on a few items and I think Netvibes nearly killed me off in the beginning but I'm getting there. I was also having to write up some instructions for Google Drive, so I think I spent this time working on those instructions... That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it! :)

Thing 9 Browsing of Browsers

So browsers, I tend to be such a creature of habit and so in work I come in and use Internet Explorer. However it's quite annoying when using for work as some journal articles do not open in IE, but move over to Google Chrome and viola the article opens and you're on your way again. As ever with these things you think you know it all, but just the simple thing of moving around the tabs at the top of the screen was so useful.

My colleagues blog was really useful to read about Browsers, and I thought the Internet was always slow but it was interesting to read that Azadeh says it's just IE which is slow. So maybe it's time to move on and move over to Google Chrome which in fact I do use at home and I rather like! I haven't had enough time to try out all the instructions but one thing which is stopping me a little from moving over to Google Chrome all the time is importing my favourites so I'm going to have to do that when I have time.

So I have left out Firefox, I'm not sure why but I just don't like it, and I don't like the feel of it when I'm using it. This may sound strange but is is true and so I've spent little time working on it and using it during this Thing!