The End has Come!

            I traveled from my home here in Halifax County to Abingdon, Maryland (11 hours round trip) every weekend for two years while I attended college for horticulture.  Audio books made this experience a breeze.  Since I still have family in Baltimore, I make the trip often.  I searched for 5 or so books on my book list on LibraiVox with no hits.  I checked out the Southern Virginia Libraries United electronically and was very pleased to see some on my list and others that looked like good “listens”.  Will get another MP3 player so I can download something for my next trip since I can plug the player into my car.  Gives me a lot more options than I find on the shelf.  

            The translator websites  are great to know about.  There are times I am researching plants and get info from foreign websites.  Whoever would have thought Kaksikymmentäkolme asioita  would mean twenty three things in English.  I was thinking it might be some exotic plant!

            As far as my experience, some weeks it was difficult.  Probably would have been easier if I had a more uptodate computer or a tablet or faster internet connection than satellite can provide.  My goal was to discover ways to share Master Gardener information to the public.  I didn’t achieve that goal but still was glad I stuck through to the end.  I love that Goodreads and LibraryThing send e-mails with book suggestions.  Still haven’t heard that the Sustainability class on Coursera has a start date but looking forward to it.  I love taking classes online at my convenience.  Really glad to have the audiobook source.  No doubt in the future I will find ways to use the sites in the course so good knowledge to have under my belt.  Good to learn how to create a blog.  Thanks for the opportunity.

Almost over

            I have had some experience with Google Docs and what you see on the screen doesn't always match up with what prints out so be aware of that.

            The thing I have enjoyed most about the 20 things so far is the opportunity for online college level courses.  Last week Andrew Ng and Daphne Koller were listed as Pioneers in the Top 100 Most Influential People in the World by Time Magazine for creating Coursera.  Drew Gilpin Faust, President of Harvard University joined with then MIT President Susan Hockfield to develop edX and were listed on The 3^rd Annual Fierce List by More Magazine .  If you Google MOOC which stands for Massive Open Online Courses you will find many other options. 

Only 5 left!

Thought today would be typical because my internet security did not like Vuvox so didn’t get to check out that site.

            I created an account in Stupeflix and it was relatively easy to set up.  I did mess up on the music because I didn’t realize at first that you had to click the musical note line to add audio.  At first it got attached to a picture.  Managed to get my video in here after a first failed attempt.  The video sure makes my photos look great!
            Timeline was easy enough.  I could see a use for that if I was doing a big project and wanted to break it down into manageable increments.

            Managed to get through these without feeling too blond!

14 and 15 resolved

Went through all the news aggregators and only Pulse let me sign up and then couldn’t download or open properly.  So bombed out on that.  It would be nice to have that set up when we go on our next cruise so we could get some local news.  However, the cruise line wants $10 a day to get online.  That is $10 they won’t get from me!  Hey I'm Irish, it is in the blood.

            Netvibes could have some potential if I had some patience.  I didn’t find it easy to get to things I would like to view or read just got about 1000 tweets on gardening and I am not interested in someone’s opinion.  I want something factual so I’ll stick to my .gov or .edu sites.  It looked like you would have the potential to add information from lots of magazines but gardening wasn’t a category so I would have to weed through a lot of manure before I got to something I could use. 

            Good to know these things are out there but wow – you could spend your life reading tweets and never connect with the real world!

Made it halfway through

Bombed out on Springpad.  It wants a newer Internet Explorer than Windows XP can handle so couldn’t access the site.  Easy job on this one.  Didn’t even have to feel stupid.

            I have a Google calendar and really depended on it.  Google made an upgrade this summer.  Since that time I can no longer view the calendar highlights on my home page.  I have asked the world how to get that back with no luck.  Really miss this feature.  I have to open the calendar every day now to view my events.

I survived Lessons 9 to 11!

The idea of creating images on line will be useful.  The Master Gardeners are offering free tomato cage repair at the Halifax Farmers Market on May 11^th.  This will require use of a welding machine.  The Warning Sign Generator will be just the ticket to make a special danger sign.  Of course this will be a kid magnet for sure!

            I’m trying the Warholizer again.  Got the third step but didn’t get any results the first time.  But it is rainy and cloudy and the satellite isn’t at its best on those kinds of days.  Taking a very long time though.  I liked the idea of adding a quote but would have liked it more if it could have been an original quote.  I think I have time to fold clothes as slow as Warholizer is working! 

            I’m back from folding laundry and still Warholizer is working.  I could have done the same thing in Photoshop in a minute or so.  Can’t believe the results will justify the wait.  Will see if three is a charm. 

                        Wordle was cool and I got a great bunch of words Kathy'sGarden,  Goodforbodyandsoul, Bees, Birds, Butterflies, Natural, Colorful, Soothing, Sustainable but I could not figure out how to download as a JPG or in any other way that would allow me to post it on my blog.  Unfortunately I don’t have any 12 year olds available to ask. 

            I have used Pinterest since taking this course.  Went to discover Delicious but there wasn’t anything to discover but a blank screen.  StumbleUpon is a great name for that website because the experience was just like stumbling through a path and not learning anything during the stumble.  Was hoping that I might trip on a great gardening site I didn’t know about but that didn’t happen.  I do use Snopes a lot because I get so many bashing e-mails that are so ridiculous I can’t believe anyone would even pass them on.  Snopes generally validates with the absurdity of most of them.  PolitiFact was interesting and I will probably return to check out an e-mail claim.

            Checked out Lifehacker and well I guess my old eyes just couldn’t’ find the tags.  I have seen them on other websites and will check out further.  Can’t wait to see what next week’s exercises are and how stupid they will make me feel once again!  Thank goodness for the other things in my life that remind me I do have some useful skills.

6-7-8 Oh Yeah

If I get nothing out of 23 things these lessons were worth it and I didn’t even feel stupid!

I loved Goodreads.  I clicked on my favorite types of books and back came of list of which I’d read about half and the other half were things that I would probably like or were already on my Book List.  I selected 23 books that I liked and was looking for feedback but it was taking too long and I had to run to give a talk about Using Native Wildflowers in the Landscape.  But I will try again.  And hope that some of these books will be available at the library.  I would like to comment on “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks”.  I’ve known about this issue for a long time.  I grew up in Dundalk which included Turner Station where Henrietta and her husband lived after they moved from Clover.  The local paper “The Dundalk Eagle” published an article about the use of her cells back in the 70’s.  I knew every place mentioned on both ends of the book.  I was sorry that my Dad had passed before the book was published.  He would have enjoyed the book as much as my sister and I have.  If you haven’t read it, check it out. Very informative and poses some ethical questions.  One of the books that came up through Goodreads was “Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans from Colonial Times to the Present”.  Joe will have created a monster if I ever find out how to get to these books!

            Library Thing didn’t do it for me.  Couldn’t figure out how to get started and Goodreads was easy and full of good suggestions so why bother.

            My Literati was useful.  I searched for Soils, a topic I speak about often.  Information was reliable and I easily downloaded an article.  There was a list of items for recommended reading on the subject and one was "Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Men:  The Ideology of the Republic Party Before the Civil War”.  Well I thought that sounded interesting so I reserved it and well it is waiting for me at a circulation desk at some unknown place – it could be cyberspace or a physical location.  I have no clue.  Hope Joe gives me some direction because I would like to read it.

            The free online courses were good to know about.  edX and udacity were very technical and I didn’t see anything that hit me.  However on coursera there were some that I found intriguing especially Introduction to Sustainability.  No date set for this but I have signed up.  I am very concerned about the future of the earth especially water.  Here we take fresh clean water for granted and at the rate we are mining our aquifers, this may not even last my lifetime.  I love doing things online since it is a haul to go to any of the local community colleges.