No Twitter!

I get why Twitter is useful, and why people like it. Twitter links people and interest groups and communities. It's accessible to people in small places and big places. It hopes to influence what is being talked about around the world.

Despite all this positive-sounding stuff, I don't want to Twitter. I consented (willingly) to a cellphone and a Facebook account, and I still feel pangs of remorse at being part of these large, faceless, privacy-sucking entities.

Maybe I'm a luddite, or a slow adapter, or just plain uncool. I do have visions of ending up in a cave somewhere scratching my head and trying to make fire while everyone else on earth is exchanging the minutiae of their daily lives through chips implanted in their forearms.

But then I also have visions of being one of the last free persons on earth with access to privacy, walking through the wilderness while others are shackled in techno-dungeons thinking they are enjoying a picnic in a rainforest when really they are just viewing said repast on a screen.

Don't get me wrong - it's not like I think I would be the only one walking through the wilderness, that I have some kind of superior knowledge that would allow me to remain immune to being shackled in a techno-dungeon. I just know that I don't want to be accessible all the time. I don't even want the possibility of being accessible all the time.

Sometimes I think that applications like Twitter, that allow for constant connection, are responsible in part for creating a society where people can't connect with those who are right in front of them. That they are so busy telling people what they are doing that they forget to just live in the moment and enjoy what they are doing.

So maybe I'll just go out for a walk instead of Twittering. I hope that maybe the colour of the sky, or the buds on the trees, or the people I meet, will tell me something that Twitter won't be able to tell me.

Love LibraryThing

Being eternally skeptical of all things technological (this seems to be a recurring theme in my blog postings), I tried LibraryThing, thinking that at least it involved books, so couldn't be all bad.

And indeed, it was not all bad - in fact it was mostly very good. I already have a "homemade" reading list of my own - a completely unembellished word document containing the books I have read since 2004 - and LibraryThing seems to be just a nicer looking version of it, complete with pictures of book covers to add to the records I create. I think I may even start using it instead of my homemade list, as I do have a fondness for pictures of all kinds (see previous post) and it allows me to see what other people are reading and recommending. It's also much easier to use and easier to add to than the visual bookshelf on Facebook, which takes forever to load and always leaves me feeling like someone somewhere is spying on my booklist and thinking about ways to sell things to me.

I thought I might be put off by the fact that LibraryThing allows you to find others who have similar tastes in reading ( I always like to think that I am totally unique, especially when it comes to reading!) but I actually enjoy being part of it and hope to find some good recommendations from other book lovers in the not-too-distant future.

Will Google take over the world? (a gen X perspective)

I enjoy using Google calendar, I have to admit. I like to be organized and nothing pleases me more (except maybe making lists) than putting things that I have to do into little calendar boxes.
Yes, Google makes its online calendar easy to use. Yes, it is unintimidating. But darn it, are we going to end up slaves to the Google universe? So many Google options, all of them easy to use and unintimidating. Will we reach a point where we can't make a move without Google - when every computer in the world crashes and then how will we edit our photos or know what we're doing that day or do our banking (I can see this being an option in the near future) or regulate our breathing? (an option for the farther off future).

So I guess this answers the question (in a somewhat hysterical fashion) about my use of Google calendar instead of using the more traditional options. I am staring fondly at my Grand & Toy paper desk calendar, much maligned by pen scratches and whiteout and the occasional smear of lunch - and I feel calmer.

Oh Flickr, Oh YouTube

I've never been much interested in either Flickr or YouTube. I'm always suspicious of things everyone likes, and these two technologies were no exception.

But it turns out everyone likes these applications for a reason. So ridiculously user-friendly. So easy to search. So quick with the results. So easy to find something you'd be interested in, which would lead to other things you would be interested in, and other things you would be interested in...I may turn into a technology junkie yet.

RSSS anxiety!

I have always thought that those little RSS (real simple syndication) boxes on websites were cute - they looked cheerful and potentially useful, I thought, and then I busily ignored them and went on my way.

And yes, I found out today, they really are useful - using Bloglines, I chose a few popular feeds that interested me and also cut and pasted a link from CBC into bloglines to get their RSS feed as well. There they were - cute little feeds just waiting to be read. Easy, quick, awesome, right?

Well, sort of. What I didn't count on was the anxiety produced when I suddenly saw all this information waiting to be read. I'm a librarian, I should enjoy having all this information to read, shouldn't I? But. it. was. just. too. much. information. I can't read it all! Even if I did have time to read it, I would then spend time wanting to buy/read/see/eat/wear/know all the things I was reading about, producing even more and different anxiety. It's just too much!

I may have to go back to my pre-RSSS state, or maybe just take it one feed at a time...too much excitement at once!

Imagine All Those Images

I love pictures of people and things. A glossy spread in Vanity Fair, a coffee table book on restoring city apartments, boxes of old photos in a junk shop - other places, other faces, other anything that I don't see on a regular basis really appeal to me.

So imagine how much I enjoyed Google Images, an entirely different and very easy way to look at photos of almost anything, using a simple search box to type in keywords. I found photos of my favourite hotel in Vancouver (The Sylvia), my favourite musician (Beck) my favourite cafe (Cafe Sabarsky in New York) and my favourite yoga position (shavasana). The range of photos available offers lots of choice, and I was pleasantly surprised by the amount of Canadian content - something I was originally skeptical about. I also like that each image lists a link to it's origin, often a website that is interesting in itself to browse.

Probably the only drawback to Google Images is that visuals of more obscure places and faces are not always available, and that a search will yield results that have no connection to what you are actually looking for. However, I've found this doesn't happen too often, and I'm usually pleased with the photos that are retrieved.

Facebook I hate you, Facebook I love you

I've had a Facebook account for a few years now, and like any relationship, it can be good and bad.

Facebook is good in that you can find people that you actually wonder about and would like to talk to again. I recently connected with a grade school friend who now lives in San Francisco, and whom I haven't see in 20 years. She let me know she was coming to Canada to visit last summer and we were able to spend a couple of hours catching up on each other's lives.

Facebook is bad in that people you never wonder about and never want to talk to again can also find you. This includes the jerk from high school that you still dislike 20 years later who suddenly wants to be your "friend" when you were never friends, not even in person, or that tiresome narcissist who feels the need to share ten times a day the minutiae of her life, in which you are never interested. If it weren't for the "block" option that Facebook provides (a very satisfying yet somewhat passive aggressive way to deal with facebook reality) I would be very tempted to get rid of my Facebook account altogether.

But of course I can't do that....how would I keep track of all those birthdays I need to keep track of without the birthday reminder? How would I feel smug about all the books I read without the visual bookshelf? How would I know when the Flight of the Conchords is going on tour without being their fan on Facebook? I know I am probably wasting my time with all of this, but I can't seem to stop. Ah Facebook, I hate you, Facebook, I love you - now, what am I going to write in my status line today?

The Wonders of Wikipedia!

Being a librarian (I seem doomed to want to start all my posts this way) I believe in the power of the written word. I believe that the written word is good and necessary, and can't imagine changing it once it has been written down somewhere.

So imagine my consternation at the suggestion that I visit Wikipedia (which I have often done, no big deal) and edit one of the articles I found there (big deal - it's the written word! How could it possibly be changed by an ordinary someone like me?)

Fighting a small amount of panic (only small amount of panic, it's not open heart surgery, for God's sake) I found an article on my favourite movie, Moonstruck (the best movie of all time, how could anyone resist feisty Cher and passionate Nicholas Cage and obstreperous Vincent Gardenia and long-suffering Olympia Dukakis?) and immediately discovered two small grammatical errors in one of the first paragraphs.

Hesitantly I clicked on edit and fixed them both, thereby discovering that I may love the written word, but I love the written word even more when it is spelt correctly and in correct grammatical form. I was hooked! I went madly through the rest of the article, correcting grammar and sentence structure at breakneck speed, and adding a few details about the movie I thought should be included.

This was a very satisfying experience and one I just might repeat (and yes, I have thought that maybe I don't get out enough). After all, there's bound to be a few spelling mistakes in the Wikipedia article about my second favorite movie, Blade Runner (brooding Harrison Ford, sad Sean Young and crazy Darryl Hannah) that cannot remain uncorrected. I owe it to the written word.

The Bounty of Best Websites

I am a fan of Best Websites, even if I do get lost in its electronic goodness sometimes. Working on the third floor reference desk for two years, I certainly appreciated being able to access websites that staff have added to the site for their usefulness, and then be able to recommend them to customers who can use them at home. Sharing is what the Library does better than anyone, and Best Websites provides an additional opportunity to share our knowledge and resources with our customers.

Books I Hate

Being a librarian, I am more than happy to recommend great books to read. What kind of librarian would I be if I couldn't do that? But sometimes I just want to be annoyed with bad books instead of recommending good ones. Here are a few annoying books I have (attempted) to read lately:

You Better Not Cry/Augusten Burroughs: How many more times is this guy going to mine his dysfunctional past for juicy book-worthy nuggets that will take him to the top of the Bestseller list? This time it's Christmas and you can bet he has a whole cargo plane of emotional baggage to share...trouble is, we've heard it all before, several times.

Remarkable Creatures/Tracy Chevalier: How I long for The Girl With the Pearl Earring when I read books like this. Is she getting tired of writing, or just tired of writing historical fiction? Stereotypical characters (ragged urchin, ridged spinster, repressed Victorian man of science) and predictable plot - not so remarkable.

Change in Altitude/Anita Shreve: Once again she disappoints with a good-ish story followed by an abrupt and predictable ending. Does she ever look at The Weight of Water or Fortune's Rocks and remember the good old days when she wasn't writing for Oprah's sycophants?