#84: Writer Communities & Author Websites

I must say that I have neverr contacted a favorite author or any author. I have noticed that alot of authors have their websites underneath their photo on the back inside cover or just underneath the breif info. of that peticular author. I have always been satisfied with knowing just that small piece of information about them. If I like their writing then that is all I need to know. The idea of a book being published based on popular vote does not make me have less faith in the material, but does make me question it a bit. If it still sounds interesting to me then by all means I would still read it. I have read books before that many people would tell me how excellent the story was and then when I read it I find it to be very boring. I have also read many books by the same author and have found many of them to be excellent and then some that I can't even finish reading because the story is not holding my interest.

# 83: Paper to Pixels (or e-ink)

I totally prefer paper over pixels. There is just something comforting about have the book in hand while reading a story. I can totally put myself into the book when I am reading it, verse's through some other device. For some reason it just doesn't work for me. I have tried and can never finish reading the entire story. As for, price or availability I would rather wait a little longer for the requested material then to pay more for sooner and I would not pay the same price for a digital book as I would for a paper copy. Once again, it is about having that book in my hand.

I visited iFiction and I do like the idea of previewing before I pay. That way I know if it is something that I would really be interested in or not. I would be more likely to make the purchase knowing that it would be something that I would like to read. BUT...........I still like the real thing, call me old fashion : )

#82: Print on Demand

After visiting the sites I found that some of the books can be cheaper and some are about the same. I liked what Xlibris had to offer especially the "take a look inside". It gave you a sneak preview of the contents of the book. I must say that I have never read any of books from either of the sites and I don't think that I ever would. I say that because my time is linited to how much I can read ever day, therefore I would prefer not taking my chances on something that has not gone through the traditional route of a company's financial backing.

I did enjoy what Lulu had to offer with publishing your own calendars, cookbooks, & photo books. NOW..........that is something that I would like to do. I also, thought that POD (print on demand) would be the way to go cost wise (especiallly if you where just starting out).

#81: Get Out Your Crystal Ball

I don't agree that 3D will be like the switch to color. I personally do not care to wear the glasses and have found that watching something in 3D will cause me to get a severe headache and has also made me nauseated. I do think that the younger generation will adapt to it quickly.

I am not that quick to adapt to some of the new gadgets. A few years back my husband and I purchased our first flat screen HD television and now less then 3 years later we have noticed that there is an imagine that has burned into the screen. It is very annoying when they show a person's face where the image is burned, because it puts a shadow on the persons face. We also own a television (tube television) that is over 20 years old and it still has a crystal clear picture. So, much for new technology :( My favorite new gadget is my DVR, I have only had it now for 5 months and I do not know what I ever did without it : )

# 80: Movies

I have watched an entire film on my computer before, but found that it is not something that I would do again. First of all I find it more comfortable form my sofa and it still allows me to do other things at the same time. Second, of all when I watch a movie I usually have one or more of my family members with me.

I viewed some of the sites for trailers on upcoming film, but I found that I would not use them, simply because my inter-net provider has the trailer viewing on the home page. It is very convenient.

We have satelite television and prefer buying the movies through pay per view. I think the only time that I would use one of these free based services would be to search for movie trailers.

#79: Television

I have never used Hulu.com before, but after watching a couple of my favorite show on it, I became hooked. I must say that I prefer watching them on abc.com only because most of the shows that I watch are on abc. I was able to watch full episodes on both sites.

I have not ever watched a t.v. show on my cell phone only because the phone that I have now is not capable of that. In the future should I purchase such a phone I don't think that it would be something that I would do. Although I do see the advantages of having the option to do so, especially if you are waiting in a doctors office or the bus ride to work. I have never posted video's to a site.

#69 Database Researching

REMINDER: #70 Genealogy is on blog prior to #67.

I used Ancestry.com for my search. The subject that I used was my father-in-law, from when he was in the military. He served in the U.S. World War 11. When he enlisted in the Army he was first stationed at Fort Hayes. It was interesting to find out that prior to his enlistment he was a skilled brick and stone mason, and tile setter. This was a piece of info that I never knew about my father-in-law.

#68: Detective Work

I researched a few different oral history records from Texas. It was interesting to read some of the biographical notes. A few that I researched where Sam Houston, Houston Ship Channel, and Galveston Island (1915 Hurricane).

After going to Find A Grave the cemetery that I chose was Ferncliff Cemetery and Mausoleum. It is the cemetery where Judy Garland is buried. The oldest burial that I found was 1931. The person was Lya DE Putti b. Jan. 10, 1896 Hungary, d. Nov. 27, 1931 New York. She was a actress of international silent films. Died of pneumonia following surgery to remove a chicken bone from her throat. Some of her credits in both Germany and America (1922) "Burning Soil", "Phantom", and "Othello". The arrival of sound ended her holly wood career. The photo to the right is of Lya De Putti.

# 67: Genealogy Genesis

First, let me start out by saying that I accidentlly started with the #70 post first. Therefore, when you are reading my blog you will see that it goes from #70 to #67, #68, and then #69.

I have never studied my genealogy in the past, but have always been curious about doing so. My grand parents on my father side died before I was ever born and I have always wanted to know more about them. Several, years ago I came across some very old photo's in an old cedar chest of my parents. I discovered them after my father had passed away and my mother was never able to tell me who the people where, only that they where from my fathers side of the family. I am hoping in the next few modules I will be able to learn a way to research these photo's.

The first step that I would take would be visiting the library, I know from working there that we have many helpful books. Researching my last name and creating a family tree would be my second step and looking into obituaries and cemeteries would be the third.

Genealogy # 70: Genealogy 2.0

I have set up an account with My Heritage and have made a celebrity collage, but when I try to post it to my blog it either says login failed or that I need to set up a blog. I will keep trying.

Well what do you know I was finally able to post the collage to my blog. I was entering the wrong info. into the blog user name. NOW..............that was fun, I am not sure that I agree with some of the celebrity match ups that was matched to my photo. With the exception of one, Linda Hamilton. In my younger years she starred on a show called Beauty and the Beast and I had alot of my family and friends tell me that we looked alike. So, that was a big surprise to see her photo matched with mine.

The Footnote page was pretty neat. I was amazed at what people are doing with footnote. Posting photos of news clips, letters, and even grave stones. I even discovered Jack Kerouac's famous scroll On the Road. I will definetly have to let my brother know about this site, as he is a big historical nut.

#78: Video

I enjoyed both Truveo and Blinkx, but I preferred watching the videos on Truveo. Blinkx had more categories to choose from, I especially liked the one for kids. I have grand children and found that it would be a nice place to search for different games.

As someone who works in the library I have discovered that many of our patrons have difficulty with the on line catalog. I thought that would be a idea of actually having the video on the online catalog when a patron is trying to research it.

#77 : Images

When I used ALLFREECLIPART I had to click 5 times in order to get to a color Santa, but it would have counted as 6 if I where to count the click to get to Christmas. I have enjoyed using Flickr, I was introduced to it for the first time when we did the very first blog of 21 things. I find it to be very user friendly when having to edit photo's. I also, thought that Photo Rogue was quite interesting. I was amazed by the idea that you could request for a photo of anything and they would try and make it happen. There where two on the home page that I thought to be spectacular, Jewelry and Crystal 029 and blainybackyard.

The illustration that I found from the clip art program was of a birthday cake, because we just celebrated the 5th birthday of our branch.

http://downloads.clipart.com/20380401jpg?t=ba43090639246189ef527ec7092bc4f9

#76: Sound Effects

http://kessels.com/CatSounds/kitten2.wav

http://nhest.org/mdove.wav

http://www.worldtune.com/audio/treefrogs.au

http://simplythebest.net/sounds/WAV/WAV_files/...20th_century_fox.wav

http://simplythebest.net/sounds/WAV/WAV_files/...chevrolet.wav

http://simplythebest.net/sounds/WAV/WAV_files/...candy_bar.wav

#75: Google and Beyond

I do think this will affect how I search in the future, even though the search for my 3rd choice was almost identical (Google & Yahoo). I was very surprised to see that all three of my queries ended up being Yahoo!, when the one I use most of the time is Google. I think I will try it again with three more queries, just to see if it comes out the same. Got me curious, now!!!

The #1 search engine on Hitwise (week ending 01/02/10) was google.com @ 72.25%. I did not find that to be surprising because I find that Google is very user friendly.

After, exploring the three different search engines I found that my favorite is still Google. I also discovered that they have a place called Sport Scores, all you have to do is put in the name of your favorite team and it brings up all the scores (my husband and I are big pro-football fans). BUT........ my biggest discovery was a place called Fill In The Blank. With this you can ask any question and then by adding an asterisk in the blank part of the question it will give you the answer to your question. AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!