This is my name in Chinese characters, created by Chinesetools.eu. The program is easy to use but is limited in what is in it's data base.

I have not found anything else I wanted to play with at this time so will post this as is.

Flickr toys

Now this is fun. However, the quality of the product is lacking--enlarging kind of breaks up the picture. Keeping it smaller makes the bubble comments too small.

Ok, I think I am figuring this out. We adult kids don't have the same freedom as our children do about just clicking around on a website or program, understanding what we see, and then maing it work. Too often, terms are not intuitive for me unless they remind me of something else I have already learned.

Anyway, on the left is the picture that I referred to in my last post. It is from flickr--not sure how to credit it. When I was at the Wall, it was covered insnow--some of it iced enough to slide down. The most amazing part is what the picture does not show--going on and on and on over these many mountain peaks. We were only on a very small portion of miles and miles of wall.

I used the add image button to put this picture in, after I found the url in the picture's properties. I still do not know how to imbed links which I know is possible. ( I have found the link button but have not tried working with it yet.)

The image on the right was uploaded from my computer files--that I know how to do. I had to play with it a little to figure out how to move it around once I got it here. My preference would have been for it to appear below the text, where my curser was but that does not seem to be how this works.

This image is how I often feel about working with new stuff--I have learned that the edit mode of this program is not very good--once you are there, you can't get back to the preview window and once something is deleted, i.e a picture, you have to start over , as there does not seem to be a forward, back option like microsoft has.

Well, enough for today.

flickr picture

Since I am not sure how to create a link, I cut and pasted the address for a very nice picture of the Great Wall of China. I would have liked a winter scene since that is the time of year when my family saw the Wall, but at any time of the year, it is amazing to see. It snakes over the surrounding hill/mountain tops and is wide enough for 7 horses, at least, to ride abreast.

Flickr is an amazing site, but since I am not interested in creating yet another email account, I will not be subscribing at this time. So, here goes.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/13211556@N00/2223943987/

RSS

The concept of having a place to view multiple feeds is great. However, 10 feeds is way too many for me. I barely have the time to review my email/listservs, much less multiple feeds. However, it is fun to very occasionally check the feeds for something interesting. For example, I subscribed to urban legends and this could be a really interesting thing to view, especially since I won't feel any compulsion to view it every day. I guess for my daily quick looks, I like the mishmash of stuff that MSN brings together, which I can easily scan when I do my personal email. For me, I think under 5 feeds will be about right, especially as I find those that are particularly meaningful/helpful to me.

Life Long Learner

I believe that everyone is a life long learner but some of us are more focused and committed to the process. Others, like myself, struggle with an "I can't" complex. Although I know this is not healthy, I still have to fight the natural tendancy to see huge roadblocks to any new idea or project. Once I get started, however, I do fine. Sometimes, I suprise myself and others by being the intiator rather than the resistant follower. Usually, I am a combination of both. This class is a good example. My first response was, "I don't have time, I don't really need this, etc." The more I resisted, the more I realized some of my resistance was related to the limitations of our library web page and how frustrating it is to try anything new that might be related to that. So then, I switch boats and try to explain to other staff members why we need a new web page so we can use stuff like blogs and wikiis. Go figure. So, here I am, scrambling to get caught up with the rest of the class.