The Michael Jordan Task (#23)

In a lot of ways Webolution was just like eating thanksgiving dinner. With heart-thumping enthusiasm you await the meal, you eat as much as you possibly can without puking and then you lay down and fall asleep.

Okay, maybe I didn't didn't await it as much as I do thanksgiving but I ate as much internet knowledge as I could and sometime tonight I am going to sleep. Comparing Webolution to a meal did not work out like I had hoped but nonetheless Nancy and Cari's creation has benefited me in numerous ways.

These are some examples of what I now know:

CreativeCommons is now my favorite site to find images that I can claim as my own.

TinyURL could be used for certain pranks.

I can use Picnik to alter pictures of Rush Limbaugh.

These are just a few things I can take from Webolution and I am glad that I actually followed through and completed all 23 tasks.

Nice.

Task 22__Crisis

Here I am.

At one point in Webolution I was so behind that giving up was a serious option. But due to willpower and an insatiable appetite for prizes I am going to finish in time.

I liked the pictures from the cooking blog and the self-help sites were interesting, the next time that my hard drive crashes I might be able to take a DIY approach and save it myself. The politics blog was funny, in a serious kind of way.

Fox News is a joke.

I don't frequent any one blog, but 1hiphop is kind of cool. Dealing mostly with the good hip hop from the 1990s. The stars of today, 50 Cent and Lil' Wayne are totally bogus compared to Organized Konfusion. I had the whole nerd/urban dweller M.O. going on in high school, reading Star Wars novels and listening to Mobb Deep will do that to you.

Task 23 is in my sights.

Task 21__Time Travel

It is the year 2023, I am roughly forty-three years old and living in Santa Clara, CA. I am married to Jane Doe and have two children (Jeanie and Jabari). I work full-time at a job I love and come home each night to an endearing (though sometimes contentious wife) and fill my evenings with dinner, household chores, helping the kids with homework, yelling at the dog and drinking beer on the couch.

My life is that of a typical married man.

Except for the fact that I am also a bounty hunter who is hired by the United States government which pays quite nicely as a secondary source of cash. My outfit is pictured above. To put it concisely, I chase down Bristol Palin and her group of renegades who are trying to privatize the National Park Service so some scoundrel can make money off US citizens who want to watch elk and camp out.

Things get hairy from time to time but I know the fight is worth it. With a renewed sense of satisfaction I go home each night, crack a Budweiser and watch football games or fix the backed up toilet.

Task 20__Pencil

Task 20 featured websites that we all visit quite a bit here in the library. I have used both to help patrons many more times than I can remember. Carol has also helped me decide which local establishments to frequent by looking at the Health Department's restaurant cleanliness rating site, thanks Carol.

I had a little trouble locating the house I grew up in, the map seemed to have some trouble loading. In the past I have helped a patron look up possible meth houses in the city and the website worked fairly well in that regard. Good old drug houses, I love them. Using the website to find places where I could open a drug dealing operation could really work out.

The Colorado state website is also a big hit en la biblioteca. A patron might come in hoping to find a tax form and in most instances it is quite easy to find the form they are seeking. I usually encourage them to commit tax fraud while they are at the desk, being that I am a rebel and all. If professional athletes can do it, why can't the regular joe.

On a side note, can things get any better than having Carrie Prejean as a celebrity in this country?. She is a wannabe Sarah Palin who is so obsessed with lying and pro-family ideals that she forgot to actually live up to her fundamental upbringing.

And Carrie is someone young American girls are to look up to?

Task 19___Aeration

On any summer day the following might have taken place recently.

Standing calmly at the kitchen counter I open up a package of raw hamburger, most likely it would be 80/20 which leads to a juicier burger. As I drop the gooey mass on the plate it makes a "ppphlllattt" sound and I start to mix in finely chopped garlic as well as salt and pepper. The combination works wonders on the tastebuds. I am tempted to eat the raw meat as is but fight the urge because certain people consider it faux pas for some reason.

I go for a flattened football shape on the patties and make sure that I wipe the excess goo from my hands onto my brother's pillow and head out back.

The grill has been heating for about fifteen minutes and with great care I place the patties onto the hot surface. In eight minutes I flip them and in about ten minutes later sit down to enjoy this delicious treat. I enjoy this meal and relax under the shade.

Thankfully, this moment was made possible because I checked the schedule on the staff wiki to ensure that I wasn't working. My knowledge of the wiki is unparalleled, evidenced by my score of 100%. Thank the wiki gods for our plentiful blessings.

Task 18: Bearing Gifts of Hamburgers

Out of all the tasks so far this one means the most to me. The journey that is my life is fulfilled and only because of Task 18. My spirit felt half empty each moment that I experienced prior to this exercise. I can finally go on living now that I have known this level of living. To sum it up, Task 18 is my being and my being is Task 18.

The anticipation of this was building as I used Tiny URL to make a link about one of the greatest basketball players of all time, Terrell Brandon. He was simply the most underrated point guard in the history of the Minnesota Timberwolves. Come on, he had two first names and his style was Steve Nash-esque.

The second part of the task melted my heart like something you might find between hot pancakes. You see, this Zamzar thing has totally changed my perception of file converters. I thought that they all took five hours to download and that you had to give the website your credit card information. Pure ecstasy enveloped me and I fell to the floor like a half-empty bag of potatoes.

I can only hope that MCPLD patrons feel the same way that I do.

Task 17: Disambiguate

Finally getting with sneezing distance of Task 20 so I am pretty excited about that. Even though I have been a slacker through most of Webolution 3.0 redemption will be mine.

This task was actually quite informative to a soul like myself.

I first checked out LibraryBytes and was intrigued by the post on the secret to learning. It was interesting and I found out that the reason I sometimes did poorly on tests in school was that I needed to change my learning location. Instead of studying in the Mesa State College Library I should have studied in the rec center or locker rooms. The different atmosphere would have helped me retain that the information I needed to do well on the exam. I will definitely keep this in mind for the future.

ResourceShelf was great, it had an H1N1 vaccine location finder that brought up a Google maps page showing me where I could get a seasonal or H1N1 vaccine if I was about to keel over. In my last death throes I could run as fast as possible to the Walgreens on North Avenue or their Fruita location and be saved by an employee who would probably have a dish of cookies and milk waiting for me after the injection.

Task 16: Reinvigorate

They sent me to complete a task which only years later do I fully understand. I was sent into the year 2026 to help the resistance ward off the evil advances of Office-Bad, a sentient robot force which was threatening to take over all the ice cream shops in British Columbia. I was a little unsure about my mission, but then again, knowing something doesn't mean you know it all.

In 2012 I had been spending my time developing a new device of liberation called OpenOffice-Good, I had just perfected the inner workings of the device when the people of 2026 had me time warped to the future. Thankfully I had been running a marathon each day and happened to be in excellent shape.

My first assault on Office-Evil was an ambush as they were drinking Schlitz malt liquor and shooting the breeze. I expertly tuned the OpenOffice-Good device and used it to devour the Office-Evil platoons as if they were chicken wings at Eric "Badlands" Booker's dinner table. All in all, I was able to defeat the evil army and make it home in time to catch the Superbowl.

OpenOffice saved British Columbia because it is free, easy to use, and remarkably similar to Office products. I know about the public library uses today and in 2012 I will know about it's other virtuous abilities.

Task 15: Fingerclipped

clipped from www.flickr.com

I had heard that this task was a difficult and so I was a little unsure about how it would all end up. Would I face ridicule from co-workers because of my Clipmarks ineptitude? After downloading the application I found that all of my fears were unwarranted, sort of. I was easily able to clip a picture of the sweet picture you see above. A little window then opened asking me if I wanted to post it to my blog and I agreed to take part in this endeavor. However, it didn't work and I ended up having to embed the picture into this blog. Overall this task was successful and I could see it being used for things such as AskColorado (I'll try it out soon).

On another subject, does anyone realize how good Maurice Jones-Drew and Ray Rice have been this season. These two guys are simply the best thing in the written history of fantasy football. I think they should run together in the 2016 presidential election. How does "Maurice and Ray in 2016" sound? Could you see it? I definitely could. They could just have Jay Cutler (who will be out of the league by 2014) take over their duties during the NFL season.

Task 14: The Spice

During a steamy LA summer afternoon in June 1983 I was approached by David Lynch. It turned out that he wanted me to be the Padishah Emperor in the upcoming Dune movie base on Frank Herbert's award-winning novel. I was unsure at first and asked myself the following questions: Would taking the role affect my academics at Wingate Elementary School in a few years? Instead of being paid money, might I receive compensation in GI Joe action figures? If I become an actor, would I even have to bother with school? Then Lynch and I conversed by using these exact phrases: Lynch: "So what do say kid?" Me: "Uhh I am 4 years old and don't know who you are" Lynch: "Listen, do you want the role or not?" Me: "Do you think you could buy me a Donut?" Lynch: "Sure, I will buy you 15,000 bearclaws if you take the role" Me: "Sweet, let me ask my parents" Lynch: "Radical, have your parents call me fo' sho" Me: "Peace Dave-meister"

And that is why I downloaded Dune from Overdrive today. I have read the entire series and also the author's biography. I would recommend the Dune books to anyone who likes literate Science Fiction. You will not be disappointed.

I have found Overdrive to be more user-friendly but I like both services and the good thing is that most problems can be resolved by checking out the FAQs or just playing around. Most patrons that know about the service truly appreciate it and offer to bring by fresh hot wings. I have never put an audiobook on my MP3 player. If I am pumping iron I listen to nothing but Chubb Rock.

Task 13: Laser Cannon

SoundSnap had some good stuff, I looked for Star Wars sound effects and discovered some
laser blasts/explosions that I have downloaded. I was thinking that when a patron put a book on
hold at the OPAC computers we could have a laser cannon sound effect go off. Something like "Phhhhewwwwwww" would probably work. If I heard a laser everytime I placed a hold I would think I was flying an X-Wing, and that would be awesome.

I also perused ArtistServer and LastFM, ArtistServer was somewhat cool although I didn't find a lot of stuff I would listen to on a regular basis. I have already been to LastFM but I paid another visit and looked around. I typed in Doseone and checked out some information on that dude, did you know that his real name is Adam Drucker?

Websites like LastFM are fulfilling because they sometimes introduce me to a band/group that I end up liking.

On another note, I wanted some chicken wings this weekend but never got to eat any.

Task 12

Hello Friends,

As a introduction to this post I will describe an incident which took place not too long ago.

The place is Ford City, PA. The thick east coast humidity makes me want a shower and the
sweat coming from my feet gives me what east coast folk call swampsocks. Ford City is the kind of place where I can recall the old baseball cards with the frame that looked like wood and licourice bubblegum. Watching the softball games across the road from my grandparent's house and catching fireflies in the evening. The look of the place is different from Colorado, I never wanted to live back there from November to May but the summers were special. Big, green, rolling hills that will forever remind me of times when things were as simple as whiffleball and being absorbed by another place.

Back to the Webolution task, I have already used Novelist quite a bit in helping patrons find books to read, it is very convenient for looking up a series by an author and for find books similar to a title a patron has already enjoyed. Using google to find this information is helpful only 50% of the time and Novelist has additional resources all in one place.

Novelist has also been endearingly useful to me in finding books for the new MCPLD book club, 1,2,3,4, Blastoff!

Task 11: Hey Crew

Once again I have been inconsistent in my posting, but this one will make up for lost time. I was a little disappointed by The Book Report's lack of material on one of my favorite authors, John Sladek. Yes, THE John Sladek. If you have not read his material you should do so immediately, Sladek is the reason that William Shakespeare decided to write, Sladek is the reason that strawberries are red. Sladek is the reason that pizza has those little puddles of of grease on them right before you eat a slice. Seriously, John Sladek wrote an incredibly funny novel entitled The Complete Roderick, it was actually a compilation of previous Roderick titles and it is beyond a doubt the best thing since grease puddles on
pizza.

I scoured the Book Report Network for information on Sladek but it was about as fulfilling as beating Robert's fantasy football team so I went to the Biography Resource Center and found an informative biography, it made me want to read Roderick collection

On another note, have you listened to music by MC Lyte? She is something else.

Task 10: Probably the best task ever

I use Masterfile Premier quite often at the information desk and it's usefulness is made apparent after completing the second portion of this task. Sometimes a patron will come in looking for Consumer Reports and I will walk them over to the periodicals, however, he/she may want a specific article dealing with solar powered food processors and there is no index. This is when Masterfile Premier comes in. We can use this feature to look up articles dealing with a certain subject and limit it by publication and date. This makes things much easier than the patron having to thumb through issues to find what they need. For the assignment I was looking for Consumer Reports issues with the keyword "restaurant" that was published between 2001 and 2004. I wanted a article on cheese but couldn't find something I liked. Anyways, I found an article comparing American sized restaurant portions to European portions and how this can affect a person's personal life. I was able to find a pretty cool biography on one of my childhood heroes, Rickey Henderson. This leftfielder from Chicago became the all-time stolen base leader and at the same time blessed us with many quotes that only he could come up with. Here are some... “If they want to pay me like Mike Gallego, I’ll play like Gallego.” “Whose ugly car is on the field?.” “Ricky’s the best.” “Don’t worry, Rickey, you’re still the best.” “Listen, people are always saying, ‘Rickey says Rickey.’ But it’s been blown way out of proportion. People might catch me, when they know I’m ticked off, saying, ‘Rickey, what the heck are you doing,Rickey?.’

And here is a quote from Henderon's former teammate, Jeromy Burnitz:
"(Henderson's) the most original guy I've ever met. I love it."

Henderson was recently inducted in the Hall of Fame and I loved it.

Task 9: My website is up and running

The date is September 23, 2009. A young adventurer by the name of Isaac Andrew Rakiecki makes plans for the most enticingly extravagant website on this planet. He begins by mentioning himself only in third person, but the story does not end there...

Isaac is busy connecting neuron to neuron fusing neutrino to neutrino.

Suddenly darkness falls.

Minutes seem like 60 second periods.

Suddenly.....

A website is quickly set up using Weebly, you should totally check it out. Anyways, as soon as Isaac made his website, he grew tired of talking about himself in third person. I have not gone into all details of this story, some things have wait for the movie(s).

Until next time.

I was impressed by Creative Commons, I am always trying to find weird and or funny pictures for these reasons:

1. Finding pictures for my blog (specifically this one).

2. Editing funny pictures, for example, my parent's dog Lucy appears in a scene from Return of the Jedi.

3.Other things not dissimilar from the above 2.

The neat thing about Creative Commons
is it allows me to do these things without
worry of a lawsuit being directed towards
myself. I never knew that
CC (Creative Commons) existed until this
summer and already I have achieved a
quasi-intimate relationship with it. CC
definitely has plays a role in our work at
the library.

I was not too impressed by the music
section, most of the bands seem like the
Pineapple Crackers. They are all so obscure
that putting their work on CC might help
their fan base, I appreciate their drive to
make music though.

Trent Reznor is the man-ager!

Task 7:

Okay folks, I checked out each site and chose Shelfari, partially because I had heard Josh talk about it a few weeks ago (I am a little behind) and it looked cool. I have set up my virtual "Shelf" and have added most of the books that I have read recently. It is cool to be able to look at my reading history in a visual manner. It makes me realize that I read alot of non-fiction and have read more sci-fi in the past than I do know.

The Boulder Goodreads account was pretty cool and MCPLD would probably benefit from doing the same thing. It would be another way to connect with our patrons.about it a few weeks ago (I am a little behind) and it looked cool. I have set up my virtual "Shelf" and have added most of the books that I have read recently. It is cool to be able to look at my reading history in a visual manner. It makes me realize that I read alot of non-fiction and have read more sci-fi in the past than I do know.

I think I would use Shelfari to update my reading, but I haven't made any online "buddies" from it. I have not tried using Shelfari as a dating site though.

Task #6

Both of these tutorials were very useful, as a new public library employee the orientation was especially interesting. Of course, I know everything there is to know and therefore it was just a brush up. Honestly, it was useful and similar to the Library 101 orientation that I participated in a few years ago when we did the scavenger hunt. On a different topic, the Customer Service tutorial was very detailed and I think any time we can gain information from another library it is a good idea. MCPLD offers excellent customer service by the way.

Task #5: Cake

It has been a few days since my last post. But I am back on track, even if I missed out on the gift certificate. I was going to spend my saturday afternoon doing a bunch of tasks but realized I had more exciting things to do, like eating fish and chips....



Anyways, back to the blog. I have obviously used OPAC many times to place holds for patrons and myself here at the library and from remote locations. Placing holds on Millenium has it's advantages but most of the time the OPAC is my selected weapon. I have never used the book bag feature but I see that it could be useful in certain instances.

See you guys in a few

Task #4

I have a facebook account as well as a myspace (which I don't check all that much). They are both really good for dating and you can meet interesting people. I don't really see the allure of Twitter but I am sure it must be exhilarating. Plus it would be super cool to send a Tweet to my homey Newt Gingrich and Lee Scratch Perry. The Facebook sites were pretty informative. I was a litttle surprised that CAL only had 269 fans. Anyways this was a really nice task.

Task 3:

I took the quiz and got 86.666666666667%!, that means that I beat 86.666666666667% of everyone else who participated. Yes, I think the questions were rigged by the way.

Task 2: A One Two and Uh

I have been listening to online music through Pandora since 2006 and enjoy it quite a bit. It is an excellent source for finding new music. You might find me on the Tribe Called Quest station one day and the Oldies station the next. I discovered LastFM more recently as I was searching for a song by Denizen Kane that I had downloaded a few years back. I used Google to find the song and was able to listen to it on LastFM.

Task One Complete

Hey Crew,

This is a story of a guy and his blog. I am relatively new to blogging, I loved to do it when I was a child in the 1980's but then I didn't have access to a computer for a few years.


Now I am back for 2009.

Snacks Galore Guys