The Dark Side

"Luke... I am your father..." *strange hissing noises here*

Yes, I've been the target of phising before. Have I ever fallen for it? Nope. At least not that I know of... yet. I have recieved those emails asking me to update my account or my bank facts and figures. Odd thing really, but most of the time I don't have an account with that website or have any transactions with that bank. So those are pretty easy to spot.

I've also noticed that most of those banking sites have this little button you can push to notify them when someone is trying to use their system or name in a phising scam. Simply push button, forward the email, and know that their lawyers are using your information, plus that of others, to hunt down and stop the scam. It just gives me a warm, fuzzy feeling inside.

I've also gotten emails telling me sob stories about how they aren't a U.S. citizen and they'd like to use my bank account to get their money into the country. Or that I've inherited money from some rich relative and all I have to do is give them my account information. Sorry folks, but I'm not falling for it. You want to get your money into the U.S.? - get a cashier's check or go to a money exchange. Rich relative? - Yeah, right, I've never heard of them, but they love me enough to leave me an inheritance. Get their lawyer to call mine.

Call me skeptical, but most of the time, if I don't know the person that email is from, I won't even open it to see what they want from me. Nowadays, it's just not worth my time and effort.

The one GOOD thing about those advertisements you get - Sometimes they have really funny titles. Like the one time I got an email from the "ball man." I laughed and just had to find out, so I did bother opening the email - it was someone selling monogrammed and personalized golf balls. I laughed harder.

Improvement

I'm not big for online college classes. I took a few and... I just like human interaction. However, for the fun "personal growth" sort of things, I really like online media. For example, "How Stuff Works" is one of my favorite sites. I still can't tell you how my washing machine works (because I don't care as long as it does it's job), but I can give you the website to find out for yourself. I've spent hours lost in finding out how things work... or rather, useless information about things like haunted houses and animals of all sorts.

So now you brought me 5 Minute Lifeopedia. Gee, thanks. Now I can watch tons of videos on useless information too. *shrug* Put me on Jeopardy, I'll do great on those odd topics they seem to come up with.

Memories of Oranges

I quite enjoyed taking a look at Orlando Memories. There's even a link directly to OCLS information. Wow! So it was a lot of fun to look at the pictures and such taken in just the past year. I also found the amusing article "You know you're from Orlando when..." My coworkers and I had a good laugh reading through some of them. So, if you haven't read it, go do so now. :-) I think a site like this helps us remember the past and also shows us how far the library has come from it's humble beginnings.

I like the Orange Slices website. There are many good ideas, and also some that just need a little refining. What I most enjoy is the fact that, since it is a blog, a good idea without details can easily be added to. Many of the best ideas come from a group working together.

Seomoz

Time to be honest, yet again - I hate Craigslist! I have a friend who swears she can always find anything and everything she needs on it, and I've tried but... I just find it infuriating. I mean, you pull up the first page and all it shows is about one hundred links. No thank you, I'll just Google it. However, I figured if THAT was number 1, I'd like to see how number 2 managed. So I decided to check out Oodle. I like it, cute name. It's... it's beautiful. It's craigslist made usable. You simply input "what" and "where." It's great. I can handle this. And, best of all, it actually found the things I was looking for.

Then, I looked at Philantrophy and found one of my most favorite web sites of all time. Care2. Click buttons to save things. It's paid by the ads and other stuff that the site hosts. Just take a minute to check it out. I'm sure you'll find something you can support.

Where's the mouse?

I actually tend to agree with this. Being that I haven't subscribed to cable in... gosh... about 4 years at least, I certainly have a "cognitive surplus." This is not to say I spend hours on Wikipedia. No, no. I spend time reading, playing video games, talking to friends, etc. However, I do accomplish many of these things ONLINE.

The last time I watched TV, which I only do with the use of bunny-ears, I managed to bring in the Presidental voting statistics. I watched the results on TV, but I watched the speeches online the next day. Now how much of this actually serves to raise my "cognitive" abilities? Well, that I really couldn't tell you. But as Clay says, doing SOMEthing is better than doing NOthing.

Even my grandmother spends many of her hours of free time - yes, she is retired - on her computer. She can read the newspapers from Maine (where she's from and has family), chat online with her kids and grandkids, and she even sends the occasional humorous email.

As for sitting mindlessly on the sofa, well, yes, I do find ways to do that even without a TV. They are called DVDs. I can become strangly fascinated with watching TV series on DVD. However, I usually watch them with friends (or husband), which lends itself nicely to intellectual conversations about... well, okay, so watching "Supernatural" and talking about vampires and werewolves isn't the best example... You get my point. :)

Play

Okay, so I did it last year, but my Meez needed an update.

I've also been looking back over 2.0 and refreshing my memory on things I'd forgotten about, or just haven't used that often.

Technology?

Once again, I have to be honest. I hate mission statements. Why? Because most of the time, they are long, boring, and meaningless. Now, I have to give our mission statement credit - it is easy to read and (mostly) understandable. My problem is with all the added definitions.

So how do I see OCLS helping the community? Well, we have computer classes where patrons and staff can learn about the newest technology available (LIVE). We are innovative in bringing new technology - such as Overdrive and ebooks - into the system and making them accesible to the community. Some of them are just for fun (PLAY). We offer online resources that can help people learn (LEARN) about many different topics, including how to set-up and operate your own small business (WORK).