Searching #78 : Video

It seems like you're just not cool unless your image or video of you doing something silly is posted somewhere. The other day I stumbled upon a video upload of a friend of mine Wii dancing in her living room to Britney Spears' Womanizer. (I didn't know she could move like that) But the point is, our world has gotten a lot smaller when every little thing we do is suddenly available globally. Youtube trawling is for noobs...real videophiles use Truveo, which searches not just for clips but full episodes, news, music and then sorts by popularity, including "most Twittered." I searched Truveo for a popular video and it found news stories about the video first. Hmmm... Searching Blinkx can be overwhelming but it immediately found the video plus a link to the original Youtube posting. All have "share" buttons so you can keep the love going by re-posting to your Twitter, Facebook, MySpace or blog accounts. Don't have any of these? Well, you're just not cool. Here's the video I searched for. Some people go all out when it comes to making a "save the date" video.



Regarding the HCPL YouTube videos, perhaps a video of special events like the Snake Man or a guest speaker's presentation would be helpful, especially if the kids missed the day. I'm not sure if people want to take the time to view a video when they're trying to get something printed. Honestly, reading or watching instructions makes the situation more frustrating because really...they just want you do it for them. Sometimes, even the simplest instructions are just way over their heads. Where do I return the books?

Is there any water around here?

Searching #77 : Images

The question is: How many clicks does it take to find an image of Santa that doesn't look like a troll? When I think of the image of a "troll," being a girl from the '70's, this is what I think of. So I didn't find an image of Santa Claus that looked like this at Allfree-ClipArt although I did find lots of terrible images of candy canes, etc. and a few pictures of the C. Man himself in six clicks. I guess the assignment could have been better worded. I read "10 Places to Find Free Images Online” and found some good tips for finding pictures. Flickr has always been my standby and I do search for photos that are Creative Commons licensed. PhotoRogue is an interesting concept because if you can't find what you're looking for, volunteer photographers will go out (maybe -- no promises) and take the photo and return between 3-10 photos and post them in their gallery for free. Couple of creepy things about this: They claim they'll photograph anything...even "that cute girl who works at the cafe by your house." Hello? Stalker tool!! No thanks. Another site that I like but was not listed in the module, is Everystockphoto.com, a search engine for free photos; gorgeous, high-def free pictures which sometimes come from places like Flickr but are all Creative Commons, attribute requested. The "license" button tells you what you're free to do with that photo and under what conditions per the owner of the photo. Finally, I went to Schools.Clipart, and located a photo of a Chinese dragon (what else?) that could be used in our Chinese New Year program to wish you peace and prosperity, which you'll need if you want to pay for some really quality images. The best option, I suppose, is to take and post your own pictures like this one from my backyard last week.

dragon by jupiterimages.com

Ten Skills Every Man Should Have

Listverse published an article recently about the Ten Skills Every Man Should Have. To those of you who are shocked that I'm commenting on a list of skill sets bordering on sexist and no doubt prejudicially gender specific.... get over it. As the mother of a 20-year old son, I have to admit that it would be nice if he were on the plus side of knowing these. Right now, he's about 6 out of 10 but I'm working on it. And some of these definitely cross gender lines. In a nutshell: 1) Score a baseball game - not sure why this is important but apparently, all men should know why BB stands for "walk." 2) Build a fire. I've seen Survivor (in fact, every darn episode but that's another story) and everyone knows that building a fire is the ultimate tie-breaker - and fire is life - so, yes, I can see that. 3) Tie a tie. Still don't get why some men never mastered this skill and continue to ask us to do it for them. Men look great in ties, so I agree 4) Hold their own in a sport. Any sport. Women like men to be physically fit. Sexist or not, non-athletic men are unattractive...so, yes. 5) Car maintenance. Better him than me, so yes, a man should be able to change a tire, identify all fluids or at least know how to get the car to someone who can fix it. 6) Wingman. Apparently, this is part of the much lauded "Bro Code." Don't get it, but at least it forces them to befriend someone. 7) Converse. How many men do you know who only grunt at you and expect you to understand? Come out of the cave and quit being afraid to interject an opinion - even if it IS totally wrong (snort!) 8) Basic first aid. Children do not need Mom to affix a Bandaid. Men should be able to stop bleeding, reduce a fever and clean a wound. And when YOU get sick, having to force feed Tylenol to you while you whine, "Feel my head!" does not endear you to us. 9) Fix things. This one is for women too but tell the truth, there's nothing less attractive than an incompetent man, right? 10) Cook. Also, for women. Really. It's not that hard. I've always said, "If you can read, you can cook." Everyone should be able to come up with a basic, nutritious, homemade meal without having to, "Fold back foil to reveal tater tots." Also, Top Ramen and Pop Tarts don't count. And ladies, you know when a man invites you over to his place because he's prepared a meal all by himself, just for you ....he's a keeper.

Searching #76 Sound FX

I love this clip about the Superb Lyrebird from Australia from David Attenborough's documentary, "The Life of Birds." This bird can not only create his own song, he can also accurately mimic 20 other bird songs as well as pretty much any other sound he hears: human voices, chainsaws, cars, cameras and car alarms. It's not as good as the bird, but here's what I found at Findsounds: a panda, a yellow-bellied sapsucker and a rhino. Regarding Simply The Best sounds, I found these in the public domain: cartoon witch (reminds me of my favorite Witch Hazel), a really creepy version of Happy Birthday, and, um...some gas. I doubt I'll need to add any of these to my blog (except maybe that flatulence one! ha). This does remind me of that Mosquito cell phone ring that only young people can hear. Supposedly, age reduces your sensitivity to certain frequencies so the older you are, the less you can hear. Ehh?? This 17,000 Hz ring tone was all the rage a few years ago when teens used it on their cell phones so adults couldn't hear when they were being contacted in class. Okay, go ahead and listen. And don't pretend you can hear it, either, you old fogey! Sounds are great for certain mediums, I suppose, but I believe blogs, like books, are best read in blissful silence.

Searching #75 Google and Beyond

When Tristan was small and went in search of something, he never said, "I'm looking for something," he always said, "I'm finding something." I thought that was interesting because there's a huge connotative difference in confidence in using one word over the other, don't you think? When I search the web, I'm definitely looking because I'm never sure what I'm going to find. Most times, I'm not disappointed and there's the rare occasion where I'm knocked for a loop at what I find. Like most folks, Google is probably my first choice but I'm warming up to the others. That's why I was surprised to see Bing as the leader for my searches at Blind Search. I searched for the new Green Lantern movie (Yahoo), a recipe for Enchiladas Suizas (Bing) and Shetland Sheepdogs (Bing). We have a Bing toolbar on our computers at work but I am stubborn about change so I still go to Google. I'll definitely have to take another look at Bing! At Hitwise, Google was numero UNO the week I searched, both in terms of volume (72.25%) and number of visits (64.05%) over Yahoo's volume (14.83%) and number of visits (10.96%). Personally, I think it's more a matter of what you're used to over preference, much like web browsers. A lot of noobs still think Internet Explorer is the only way to go and would never think of giving Firefox a shot. (psst! Give it a shot...it's better!) Maybe it's a case of better marketing but I think it's just fear of the unknown. There's some fairly computer savvy people at my branch who are still afraid of online banking so there's no real measuring stick for being adaptable to change, especially if it involves technology. Recently, I've been exploring the new features of Bing, which I like, but still can get the same from my old friend Google. Yahoo seems pretty much the same as before, which is a disappointment. I do have to remind myself about some of Google's nifty features like Google Books (which I've used to search titles for work). Thank goodness they've settled that lawsuit! Adding an asterisk at the end of a keyword to "fill in the blank" is helpful, as is typing in "movies" followed by your zip code to find what's available in your area. And of course, nothing is more breathtaking OR scarier than Google Earth, in my opinion. If you don't believe me, use Google Books to search for George Orwell's 1984. So it turns out that the act of finding, to use Tristan's verbage, is easy to be confident about if you're flexible enough to embrace change and curious enough to try what's being offered. In other words, it's there if you're willing to open your eyes and look.

All Day Football

"You say at Haf-Time is play time. Is Haf-Time yet?"