So now that the learning 2.0 stuff is over this blog is now my travel blog. This is my first entry as a travel blog. We don't leave for 52 days and 22 hours. Let's just say 53 days... less than 2 months. Anyway, I thought I'd make this first entry about what our plans are and how they are going so far.
We leave on March 8th and fly to Singapore. We stop there for 2 or 3 hours and then fly to Egypt (Cairo). We'll be flying Singapore Airlines. There is only a few hours we have to wait at Singapore Airport so hopefully the flight from Melbourne isn't delayed too much. There are not many flights to Egypt and if we were to miss the connecting flight then we would miss the start of the tour we have booked in Egypt. We arrive in Egypt close to midnight, and will have someone waiting for us there to take us to our hotel (Hotel Pharaoh). We will then sleep and spend the next day wandering around Cairo and having no idea about anything, should be fun. Apparently Cairo has a population of about 16 million, a bit more than what I'm used to. Later that day we will meet up with our tour guide and will spend the night again at Hotel Pharaoh then head off to Alexandria the next morning. In Alexandria we plan to visit the library, and Liz wants to swim in the Mediterranean so we may do that as well. I'm sure we'll also find some other stuff to do. We stay there the night and head back to Cairo the next day.
After another night in Cairo our big adventure begins, starting with looking at places around Cairo and visiting pyramids and whatnot. That night we catch the overnight train to Aswan. In Aswan we do some more stuff, go on a boat, and a camel. The next day we go to Abu Simbel and check out our Nile cruise boat. The next few days we cruise up the Nile, stopping at places of interest and generally enjoying ourselves. Day 7 we ride some donkeys into the valley of the kings as the sun rises. Apparently it's a very nice experience, not sure how comfortable it is to ride a donkey though. Hopefully it won't be too hard to steer them. At the end of the day we head off to Baris and spend the night sleeping under the stars. The next day we do more stuff, see more stuff, travel further into the desert and spend the night in some reed huts! The next few days we do more stuff, travel through the desert some more and get back to Cairo at the end of day 11. We have one more night there and then we have a flight to Austria!!
We arrive in Vienna on the 22nd of March at 7pm. And that's all we've planned so far. We have no accommodation yet for Vienna. No idea about anything there really. I know Billy Joel has a song called Vienna though. Hopefully things will sort themselves out. We plan to buy a Eurail pass thingy which will allow us to travel about for a bit. We intend to go to Prague from Vienna and relax there for a bit and then we have no concrete plans. We'll travel west until we get to London. Then we'll find somewhere to stay for the next few months and work and earn money so we can afford to get to Africa before we come home. Liz is going to Africa a month or so before I do because she has an archaeology dig to work on. Once she's finished that then I'll go meet her and we'll probably have a tour around East/South Africa and see lions and things. Then we'll either stay in South Africa for a little bit before coming home or not, depending on our money situation I guess. So that's our plans... we don't even have a uk visa yet though. We sent the application (which cost $500) on Tuesday and hopefully we'll hear back from them soon.
Feel free to leave a comment below. Any travel tips or info that would be of help to us. Or anything interesting at all. I'll write again soon when I have something new to say, or perhaps when I have nothing new at all to say. If you're interested in our trip then check back here occasionally. I'll try and update it as much as I can. Thanks for reading.
Sunday, January 13, 2008
Sunday, December 2, 2007
#23 The end (just in time)
Finally finished. I enjoyed doing the Learning 2.0 program. Even though I feel that I know quite a bit about the things that were covered I’d never actually used any most them.
I’d never written a blog before (I did attempt it once but I’m very boring so I gave up).
I’d never used flickr or online image generators. I’d heard of rss feeds but never realised that it was so easy to use and so handy. I was a bit worried about that task as all the people at the library that got there before me had had trouble with it and didn’t like it. I think it’s great and bloglines has been my homepage ever since.
Library Thing was good but I’m not sure if I’ll have the time to keep it updated. I’ll try and get back to it and use it more. It would be nice if there was a way to add a list of books that aren’t in your library, but you’d like to read. I have trouble remembering all the books I plan to read.
Rollyo was interesting and something I’d never heard of before. I like the idea of it and think it could be handy on a library website.
Del.icio.us was great! I really liked the idea of del.icio.us and plan to continue using it in the future, although when you install the buttons onto a computer with internet explorer 7 they don’t really fit well. But I think del.icio.us will be handy for me next year when I so a bit of travelling.
I didn’t like technorati. Not a bit. Maybe I missed something? But from my experience with it, I just didn’t like it.
Wikis were great. I use wikipedia quite a bit but it was interesting to see what other areas wikis can be used for. I think they definitely could have a use as part of library projects and possibly personal projects.
Google Docs and Zoho writer was something I was looking forward to. I love the idea of not having to use a disk or storage device. Accessing files from any computer with the internet is great. I think we should run lessons on zoho or google docs in the library as I think it’s something the customers could make use of and I just think it would be a good idea for as many people to know about it as possible. I think it still has some improvements to make but it's a great tool that I will defintely use in the future.
Youtube is good but there is so much rubbish on it!!! That task took me the most time, not because I was enjoying lots of videos, but because there was not much good on it. I think it’s a good resource if you have an idea of what you’re looking for but if you just looking for anything good to post on your blog (like I was for the task) then it can get a bit annoying.
I like podcasts, and will try in the future to make more time to listen to them. I’d be interested to see what other staff have found and liked. I’ll have to check their blogs.
And ebooks, well you know what I think of those. I just wrote about them earlier today. .
Overall, I’d say my favourite tasks were, zoho/google docs, del.icio.us, podcasts, and my number one top favourite was rss and bloglines!!
My only advice for future programs would be not to say it takes only 15 minutes a day because it seemed to be a bit more than that. Maybe 2 hours a week sounds better, which is really just a bit more than 15 mins a day. I think actually trying to do these tasks in 15 minute blocks is too difficult. Even one hour and 15 minutes a week sounds better than 15 mins a day…
But overall I think it was great and thanks to the organisers for all their work. It must be difficult to keep up with so many blogs but I think it would be a fun job as well. I’m already looking forward to Learning 3.0
Glenn 2.0
I’d never written a blog before (I did attempt it once but I’m very boring so I gave up).
I’d never used flickr or online image generators. I’d heard of rss feeds but never realised that it was so easy to use and so handy. I was a bit worried about that task as all the people at the library that got there before me had had trouble with it and didn’t like it. I think it’s great and bloglines has been my homepage ever since.
Library Thing was good but I’m not sure if I’ll have the time to keep it updated. I’ll try and get back to it and use it more. It would be nice if there was a way to add a list of books that aren’t in your library, but you’d like to read. I have trouble remembering all the books I plan to read.
Rollyo was interesting and something I’d never heard of before. I like the idea of it and think it could be handy on a library website.
Del.icio.us was great! I really liked the idea of del.icio.us and plan to continue using it in the future, although when you install the buttons onto a computer with internet explorer 7 they don’t really fit well. But I think del.icio.us will be handy for me next year when I so a bit of travelling.
I didn’t like technorati. Not a bit. Maybe I missed something? But from my experience with it, I just didn’t like it.
Wikis were great. I use wikipedia quite a bit but it was interesting to see what other areas wikis can be used for. I think they definitely could have a use as part of library projects and possibly personal projects.
Google Docs and Zoho writer was something I was looking forward to. I love the idea of not having to use a disk or storage device. Accessing files from any computer with the internet is great. I think we should run lessons on zoho or google docs in the library as I think it’s something the customers could make use of and I just think it would be a good idea for as many people to know about it as possible. I think it still has some improvements to make but it's a great tool that I will defintely use in the future.
Youtube is good but there is so much rubbish on it!!! That task took me the most time, not because I was enjoying lots of videos, but because there was not much good on it. I think it’s a good resource if you have an idea of what you’re looking for but if you just looking for anything good to post on your blog (like I was for the task) then it can get a bit annoying.
I like podcasts, and will try in the future to make more time to listen to them. I’d be interested to see what other staff have found and liked. I’ll have to check their blogs.
And ebooks, well you know what I think of those. I just wrote about them earlier today. .
Overall, I’d say my favourite tasks were, zoho/google docs, del.icio.us, podcasts, and my number one top favourite was rss and bloglines!!
My only advice for future programs would be not to say it takes only 15 minutes a day because it seemed to be a bit more than that. Maybe 2 hours a week sounds better, which is really just a bit more than 15 mins a day. I think actually trying to do these tasks in 15 minute blocks is too difficult. Even one hour and 15 minutes a week sounds better than 15 mins a day…
But overall I think it was great and thanks to the organisers for all their work. It must be difficult to keep up with so many blogs but I think it would be a fun job as well. I’m already looking forward to Learning 3.0
Glenn 2.0
#22 Audiobooks (Books 2.0)
I’m not sure yet about downloadable audiobooks and ebooks. I think it will still be a while before they take off. Looking around the world ebook fair site I don’t think they’d do too much business with your general library visitor. All their titles seem to be quite old. If they had best sellers, and more recent and popular authors then I could see its use being more likely than it is now. Also, I didn’t think the children’s book on the site would be of too much interest either. I think once more recent titles become available as ebooks it will still probably take some time before Australian content became a part of the site. Maybe some of the classic fairy tales and kids stories would be alright but I don’t really think ebooks will be a big part of libraries services for a while yet. I can’t really picture kids being read stories from a computer screen as they lay in bed falling asleep. I think ebooks will become popular when the option of printed books isn’t as available as it is now. I know that ebooks are supposed to be cheaper, and you can buy special screens to read them from etc. but I still think they’re a long way off.
#21 Glenn 2.0 is now subscribed to 3 podcasts and 1 smodcast
I don’t do podcasts. I tried one early this year but I just don’t really have the time to listen to them. I like the idea of them though. I used to listen to the Smodcast podcast that Kevin Smith and Scott Mosier do and they are great, and it’s entertaining and funny. But it goes for about an hour each time. I think I listened to the first 5 or so but then started falling behind so I stopped listening to it.
I didn’t really have an idea of how many podcasts were out there until this exercise when I searched around the three directories. I didn’t like yahoo. It seemed to just have mainly American results. The other two were quite good. I liked the look of the books and writing podcast I found using podcast.net but it seems to be out of date and the rss link doesn’t work. I found another good one with writing tips though which I subscribed to. I also found a travel one which I listened to for a bit and found quite interesting. It was a podcast by Rick Steves which I believe is from an American radio station, but it was good and interesting with some good travel tips. I subscribed to that one as well. I also decided to subscribe to Kevin Smith and Scott Mosier’s podcast but I couldn’t find it in podcast.net or podcastalley.com. I did find it using yahoo though. They call their podcast SModcast by using the first letters of each of their surnames. I highly recommend it to anyone that appreciates their style of humour, particularly if you like their dvd commentaries. They can be very offensive though.
I would have liked to create my own podcast for this exercise but there are two reasons that I can’t. I don’t have the equipment, and I don’t have anything interesting to say.
I now am subscribed to four very different podcasts, as you can see on the right. Hopefully I’ll get the chance to listen to them sometime.
Oh, I almost forgot. Podcasts in the library. I think it’s a great idea. Our library has done it once with a Chritos Tsiolkas session at our Northcote library but none have been done since then. I think it’s a great idea to record author talks and other interesting events that the library puts on. It is good to go back and listen to the talks again, and also for the people that missed it to have the chance to hear how it was. I think that by making these podcasts available on the website will ultimately increase the number of customers that will attend author talks in the future. It’s another great way of promoting what the library does.
I didn’t really have an idea of how many podcasts were out there until this exercise when I searched around the three directories. I didn’t like yahoo. It seemed to just have mainly American results. The other two were quite good. I liked the look of the books and writing podcast I found using podcast.net but it seems to be out of date and the rss link doesn’t work. I found another good one with writing tips though which I subscribed to. I also found a travel one which I listened to for a bit and found quite interesting. It was a podcast by Rick Steves which I believe is from an American radio station, but it was good and interesting with some good travel tips. I subscribed to that one as well. I also decided to subscribe to Kevin Smith and Scott Mosier’s podcast but I couldn’t find it in podcast.net or podcastalley.com. I did find it using yahoo though. They call their podcast SModcast by using the first letters of each of their surnames. I highly recommend it to anyone that appreciates their style of humour, particularly if you like their dvd commentaries. They can be very offensive though.
I would have liked to create my own podcast for this exercise but there are two reasons that I can’t. I don’t have the equipment, and I don’t have anything interesting to say.
I now am subscribed to four very different podcasts, as you can see on the right. Hopefully I’ll get the chance to listen to them sometime.
Oh, I almost forgot. Podcasts in the library. I think it’s a great idea. Our library has done it once with a Chritos Tsiolkas session at our Northcote library but none have been done since then. I think it’s a great idea to record author talks and other interesting events that the library puts on. It is good to go back and listen to the talks again, and also for the people that missed it to have the chance to hear how it was. I think that by making these podcasts available on the website will ultimately increase the number of customers that will attend author talks in the future. It’s another great way of promoting what the library does.
Friday, November 30, 2007
#20 I too can youtube!
This was harder than I thought. I’ve used youtube before but mainly looking at stuff people send to me, and usually it’s funny or interesting. And obviously I’ve used it a little during the learning 2.0 program. But when I had to find something on my own to post in here I had a bit of trouble. There is so much rubbish out there!! I browsed randomly for a while and found nothing, and then I typed in “Christmas humour” thinking that a nice funny Christmas video would look nice on my blog. They weren’t funny though. Not one. I also found some “vlogs” which I guess I can see the point of but I didn’t see anything that interested me. Not something I could do myself, I’m not that interesting. I enjoy looking at youtbe for the old tv show themes that I used to watch but can’t remember. A while ago I found the opening credits to Pugwall which was a show I used to like, and Supergran, another show and book/s that I loved. But these weren’t really something that I wanted to post on my blog. I was surprised that I actually learnt a bit about youtube during this task. When I started searching for music videos I found videos of people with guitars showing how to play various songs. I liked this and didn’t know stuff like that was on there.
After looking at a lot of videos that were just made by random people and weren’t very good, or were live and didn’t sound great, I found some good ones. I have decided to post one on here from Belle and Sebastian, another favourite band of mine. I chose this video since it sort of combines music and books, which the library does now quite often with bands playing every couple of months or so. Libraries never used to be noisy with bands playing but I guess it’s just another aspect of libraries 2.0 – the way libraries will be in the future to relate to the people of today. I know web 2.0 is all about information technology, but I think libraries 2.0 is a bit more than that.
It turns out that I did find a couple of non-official music videos that weren’t too bad so I’ve added them below. If I knew how to upload videos to youtube I could put up a couple of the music videos I’ve worked on but I don’t have the equipment.
This first song is one of the most beautiful songs I’ve ever heard, I had to go through a lot of different videos on youtube to find one that looked ok and sounded good, but I couldn’t not put this song on – it’s too great.
This other video was just another that caught my eye. Another great song with some great images.
When posting youtube videos onto my blog I have to adjust the width and height settings otherwise the video is cut off a bit on the right hand side. For these videos I also tried adjusting the colour settings to make it green like my blog template.
After looking at a lot of videos that were just made by random people and weren’t very good, or were live and didn’t sound great, I found some good ones. I have decided to post one on here from Belle and Sebastian, another favourite band of mine. I chose this video since it sort of combines music and books, which the library does now quite often with bands playing every couple of months or so. Libraries never used to be noisy with bands playing but I guess it’s just another aspect of libraries 2.0 – the way libraries will be in the future to relate to the people of today. I know web 2.0 is all about information technology, but I think libraries 2.0 is a bit more than that.
It turns out that I did find a couple of non-official music videos that weren’t too bad so I’ve added them below. If I knew how to upload videos to youtube I could put up a couple of the music videos I’ve worked on but I don’t have the equipment.
This first song is one of the most beautiful songs I’ve ever heard, I had to go through a lot of different videos on youtube to find one that looked ok and sounded good, but I couldn’t not put this song on – it’s too great.
This other video was just another that caught my eye. Another great song with some great images.
When posting youtube videos onto my blog I have to adjust the width and height settings otherwise the video is cut off a bit on the right hand side. For these videos I also tried adjusting the colour settings to make it green like my blog template.
Thursday, November 29, 2007
#19 Web 2.0 tools
I recognized quite a few of the sites mentioned in the web 2.0 awards. The first category I clicked on was music. I saw that last.fm was one of the sites mentioned so I will talk about that.
Last.fm is great for people that love listening to music. I’ll explain it for those of you that don’t know much about it - when you download the software, the site is able to see what music you play on your computer. On my home computer I have about 10,000 songs and constantly play them in my winamp application. Each of these songs registers with last.fm, even when not connected to the internet, the software remembers what has been played and sends it off to the site next time it is connected. Each week the site updates and tells you who you’ve been listening to the most with weekly charts. There is also an overall chart. It also lists your ‘neighbours’ (people that have been listening to similar music) You can see my last.fm profile here.
I had a look at some other web 2.0 award nominations and found the one sentence stories. I really didn’t think this was too great. Didn’t really see the point in it. There were a couple that were almost interesting but if I’m going to waste my time on the computer I’d rather be doing something fun (like playing hobowars on facebook) or something interesting. One sentence stories get boring very quickly.
Speaking of facebook, the video below is a song about facebook, which I found quite amusing.
Last.fm is great for people that love listening to music. I’ll explain it for those of you that don’t know much about it - when you download the software, the site is able to see what music you play on your computer. On my home computer I have about 10,000 songs and constantly play them in my winamp application. Each of these songs registers with last.fm, even when not connected to the internet, the software remembers what has been played and sends it off to the site next time it is connected. Each week the site updates and tells you who you’ve been listening to the most with weekly charts. There is also an overall chart. It also lists your ‘neighbours’ (people that have been listening to similar music) You can see my last.fm profile here.
I had a look at some other web 2.0 award nominations and found the one sentence stories. I really didn’t think this was too great. Didn’t really see the point in it. There were a couple that were almost interesting but if I’m going to waste my time on the computer I’d rather be doing something fun (like playing hobowars on facebook) or something interesting. One sentence stories get boring very quickly.
Speaking of facebook, the video below is a song about facebook, which I found quite amusing.
Google Docs
Google Docs looks a lot simpler than zoho. A lot less buttons. I think this is the one I will continue to use after the learning 2.0 program is finished. It doesn't seem to show you page margins with a ruler across the top so I don't know if I'm writing to the edge of the page or not. I also don't see as many functions as zoho uses but I don't need smiley faces. I just had a look at the other tabs (insert and revisions) and have found that it seems to cover all that I need.
I think this would be very handy for school groups writing assignments. Last year a group I was in emailed so many versions of the same file to each other that it wasted a lot of space in my inbox, and after a while some of us were checking and editing the wrong file. Google Docs would have been a much more simpler way to do things. I didn't know about it back then though.
I found it interesting that the word 'zoho' isn't in the google docs spell check, and the word 'google' isn't in the zoho spell check. I liked that in Zoho you could publish a document to your blog as a draft. That doesn't seem possible in Google Docs.
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