Task 10 LibraryThing

A poor start to the week. After wasting quite some time trying to figure out not just how to use RSS feeds, but why on earth I might want to, I have decided to move on and return to RSS when I am feeling more positive.

And so to LibraryThing. This is a fun place to be - here are my books. The first book I added to my Library probably neatly sums up my feelings about LibraryThing, Flickr, Picasa and RSS Feeds.

It's taken a book about one of my passions, patchwork and quilting, to introduce me to some of the concepts of Zen Buddhism. The author relates creating quilts to understanding Buddhism's Eight Keys to Happiness. One of those keys is "right purpose". "If your purpose for making a quilt, or your purpose for doing anything for that matter, is clear to you, it's easier to commit yourself to the task."

I can see the value in all these sites and I appreciate the opportunity to learn about them because the day may come when they serve the right purpose for me. Because I love having books, reading them, talking about them, sharing them I might come back to LibraryThing sooner. It was certainly easy to join, fairly intuitive to use and fun to play around on - but then so too is the Book Club I belong to.

Task 7 Comment on blogs and blogging

I've received a couple of comments - thank you - and I've posted a couple of comments.
I chose posts I wanted to comment on and was fortunate to have found bloggers using different blog websites. Both were easy to post to.

I'm enjoying blogging - I've never kept a diary so this seems like a similar indulgence - and I think that's a little how I feel about it - it's a bit self-indulgent if you've nothing to say that is actually either meaningful or very funny. But, for the purposes of the exercise it's great fun.

Task 6 Use Picasa Web Albums

I've played around with Picasa. I enjoyed playing Where in the World - and managed to come within spitting distance for a few pictures - but through blind luck rather than knowledge. I havn't published an image of my own. As I already have pics on Flickr I didnt see much point in uploading more stuff to another site, especially since my interest in photography is practically nil and my ability roughly the same - the thought of sharing my pictures with the world is almost embarrassing.
Still - it's good to know another place to browse other than Google Images.
I found these lovely images on Picasa while I was looking at Amish quilts - I got distracted by a photo of a quilt draped over a covered bridge and went off to look at covered bridges instead....

Task 5 Explore Flikr!

I had a few problems uploading to Flikr using Firefox, but found it much easier when I tried IE. I have uploaded some pictures which you can view here

My first post on my own blog

My favourite habit is 7 1/2 PLAY!!
Here's one of my favourite players - JOHN HIATT.


Finally here - so many links on so many pages just to be sure I wasn't missing out on something I absolutely needed to know before I started.

Yesterday I was wasting time waiting for Coles to open - no Saturday trading for ANZAC Day -what a bummer - desperate for bread and milk to stuff down the open mouths of the starving boys in my house - and in the window of the bookshop was a notice about a new novel from Brisbane author Anne Infante that she has written on her blog. It bothers me that she won't receive a penny for her labours, but what a concept. When I told my son about it he rolled his eyes at me (as he sometimes does when I open my mouth) and led me to MY (not that you'd know it) computer and showed me site after site of similar blogs, including one where he has 4 novellas posted. And I never knew about this secret life of his - his pen name is Instigate Insanity - makes a mother proud!

So already I have learnt about places to explore on the internet that I had no idea before how to find. And already I have learnt that someone I thought I knew as well as anyone could know him had a whole creative life that had no connection to me - he'd made it all for himself. So despite that awful pen name I am proud of him.

Lifelong learning is a process that happens every waking moment to every human being - it's just that some of us have a better time of learning and a clearer and easier path to follow than others. So I have resolved to no longer despair that my boy is learning nothing by sitting attached to the computer for hours because in 5 minutes he showed me a whole part of his world that was vibrant and alive and had meaning for him outside of the world I have so carefully built up for him to live in. (Instead I can just despair about his cigarette addiction or the state of his room).

So - the hardest of the 7 1/2 Habits for me? I think it's accepting responsibility for your own learning - because it's so easy for me to make excuses not to follow through with projects - like managing all the stuff of everyday life often takes up as much time as I have to spare.

And the easiest? Creating my own toolbox - because I already have one just waiting for things I can add to it - the best part of 23 things is that it's giving me permission to do stuff I wouldn't make time for otherwise. Mind you I am already pretty comfortable with Habit no 7 1/2....

WOW That's Tasks 1 to 4 taken care of.