Barbaro Lives on

Today is the anniversary of Barbaro's passing. It has been announced today that he will be buried and memorialized at Churchill Downs, the site of his greatest victory. Rest in peace, dear boy, a Friend of Barbaro forever

Happy Holidays from Twister

Thing 35- Twitter and Jaiku

Now I am feeling my age. I explored Twitter and
Jaiku and found another way people are "socializing." I signed up for a Twitter account, am following Tweets by two other members so far, and posted the link to the right. I don't see myself using this site much--I don't IM anyone, don't even know email messages of friends to register, and don't use my cell phone for text messaging. I can see this as a fun thing for Teens and the college crowd, but don't they just text message each other? Wonder if it would be useful as a quick reminder site for upcoming Library programs and meetings such as the monthly TAB meeting. Hmmm! Let's put our thinking caps on. If this is where everyone is, we need to follow them and grab them to the Library site.

Thing 34-- A Healthy thing!

Having just completed the Health Risk Assessment, I want to re-focus myself on my health and weight issues (again!) before the holidays come and go and it's time to make New Year's resolutions. I consider myself a healthy eater and do the best I can to exercise (walking and yoga are my things) but time on the job cuts into our time for activities. Add getting older to that mix and I've found what worked before no longer works for me. These 2 sites and a few others I've found surfing the web require diligence and setting goals to get results. But I like the way one can personalize all of the intake in a day (food), exercise (output) and get a real analysis of what's going on. After looking at a gazillion diet books in my quest through the years, it always amounts to calories in and calories burned. But I found out today that after breakfast and lunch, I have between 400-600 calories left today. I have not exercised since the wind is blowing and it is spitting flurries outside, and I have eaten too many carbs (healthy ones). These sites are going to help me. It is worth checking: Nutridiary and Fitday
Years ago, I logged everything I ate and kept a diary; I think I need to get back to that.

Thing 33-Expressing myself through online art

One of the lessons I learned from our blogging through the 23 Things was that I miss using my creative side. I love the visual arts and dabbled in art projects many moons ago. This exercise was right up my alley. I could get mesmerized doing this stuff. I tried them all and was disappointed I could not show everyone my creations. I did a fair rendering of a Picasso like portrait with mrpicassohead
I was intrigued and playful with the snowflake exercise (soon we'll be watching the snow fall!) Snowflake Maker
I did the string art--much fun with that-- String Spin

By far I had the most fun with sand art; it reminded me of the Etch a Sketch I used to love combined with lava lamps that so fascinate me. Much fun.
Falling Sand

I especially liked the falling sand exercise; I used different colors and the sand spilled over my sketch. You can tell I really really liked it.

More Thing 32

OK, I'm done and totally frustrated with this. I cannot post my Omnidrive document to my blog. I could not post it from Zoho either. Neither site would recognize my blog. Since it was created and saved, I did post it with my Zoho documents to the right on my blog by making it public. You will have to open it. I thought it was a sentimental story you might enjoy. I also posted the old fashioned picture here. I am ready to move on.

Thing 32 Omnidrive

I have played around with Omnidrive since last week trying to determine whether or not to download it to my computer here at home or to use the web client. I couldn't get either one working properly when I tried it on a work computer and like many other "things" in these exercises, I can get very frustrated trying to get the program to work. I don't want to end my Beyond 23 Things this way. So, I tried again from home and alas, using the web client, I got it to work. It is a great sharing tool. I created a document called Halloween Memories, added a graphic, and tried to post it here. I followed all the directions and it does not recognize my blog. I saved it so I can try to post it from a work computer. This has happened before along the way through the lessons and then magically one day it works. Let's hope I can post it.
http://www.omnidrive.com

In Memory of Turf Champion, George Washington

George Washington was euthanized at the Breeder's Cup Classic track at Monmouth, NJ on October 27, 2007. He was only 4 years old. He was bred in the United States and one of Roy and Gretchen Jackson's horses before he was sold at a young age. He was trained and raced on the turf in England and Europe. Very famous and much loved. He was known as "Gorgeous George" and he was. This is one of the last photographs of him before his tragic breakdown during the last 1/16 mile of the race. RIP, George; run free in equine heaven with Barbaro

Thing 31--Getting organized--Who me?

I pride myself on my organizational skills and was glad to see such a service exists that allows a user to import contacts from other sites, coordinate work, and life and beyond. I created a work calendar, a partial social calendar, and added all of my appointments for the next few months. You can even create a countdown to an event. It's not that complicated to do but I lead a simple life (really) and I don't even have/need a Franklin planner. I left my calendars private. Not needing to share this with everyone. Try one for yourself:
http://www.plaxo.com/info

I also looked at ICal; lots of shared calendars there and many categories to search, view, download or subscibe to; I searched some categories with no results but found a "Moon phases" calendar. It's important, here at the Library to know when there is a full moon--it's tomorrow!
http://icalshare.com/about.php

Thing 30 LOLCats, etc

This was a fun thing--another image maker spot, especially if you like cats. I created a silly Halloween cat to post but I haven't got the link back from Cheezburger. I did get a basic one back that I posted of Petey, who iz da boss. He is not doing anything silly in this photo--just posing in all his glory. This must be one of the sites where a lot of people gather amusing pet photos that appear in your unsolicited email from friends and family. I also looked at the many amusing photos here:
http://lolcats.com/

Thing 29--Scrapblog

This is my first attempt at creating a Scrapblog. I plan to do another one featuring some favorite books but I want a theme for them. It is cool to resize photos, add stickers, picture frames, and pages. This was easy to navigate. I plan to do this again for sure. By the way, my cats want to know when they are going to get some attention from me and get featured on this blog. They are jealous of the doggies and horses. Patience, kittyboys; you, too will join in the fun.

Champions of my heart

Thing 28

Actually, I spent a lot of time with this. I created more magazine covers and have not posted them. I do have them saved, however, for possible future use. I created the magazine: Top Cats of the World. I also created a billboard (see below) of Times Square at a future time when Fitzroy becomes top dog at Westminster. Such fun with this.

Fitzroy Wins Westminster

Fitzroy Wins Westminster,
originally uploaded by LuvBarbaro.

So exciting to know the top dog at Westminster. It's Youngstown's very own Fitzroy, the Border Terrorist. He strutted his stuff at the premier dog show. There was never a question among the audience. He won everyone's heart and the judge's too. Congratulations Fitzroy!

Thing 28-One of My Cats is on the Cover of Top Cats of the World

I played around with creating a magazine cover and using different methods to post it. I created a cover using Big Huge Labs as my image generator site. I downloaded the cover to my computer, I uploaded it to both Photobucket and Flickr. When I blogged it from Flickr directly here, I didn't like the size of the post so I resized it and clicking on it takes you to the larger size on the Flickr site. The first cover I did on another subject (a dog alas!) was way too large so I deleted it. But now that I know how to do this, I am going to work on that one again.

On Chesil Beach--Thing 27 Photobucket

Ian McEwan is one of my favorite literary authors and a Booker Prize winner. His book Atonement is due to be released soon as a major motion picture starring Keira Knightley and James McAvoy. This powerful story stayed with me a long time and led me to his other writings. A must read. His latest book is On Chesil Beach. This novella is set in England in 1962 and deals with college graduates Florence and Edward on their wedding night. The story is set on the cusp of the sexual revolution. These newlyweds are desperately in love but each possesses unrelenting anxiety about the physical act of sex; both are virgins and relics, so to speak, of Victorian times. Their fears and their inability to discuss them openly forms the crux of the story. A brief, poignant and ultimately tragic story. The Library also owns the audio edition. McEwan does an excellent job with the narration and there is an added bonus on the CD--an interview with the author.



I used Photobucket here to create a slideshow of Chesil Beach, a breathtaking vacation spot on the English coast

Thing 26 has been fun

It is time to move on; I can get carried away adding these widgets. Customizing the colors and size has been important to me. This site was easy to use and navigate.

Thing 26 --Widgets

I love movies; my favorites are listed in my profile; of course, once a movie becomes a "classic" on my terms, I will add it to my favorites. I use Rotten Tomatoes frequently as a source for reviews for movies purchased for the Library. It is one of several sources consulted. The next movie I must see is Elizabeth: the Golden Age. I have seen most of the movies on Elizabeth I

The Widgets are Coming

I am going to add several widgets here. I like using them with such quick access.

Thing 25-- Newsletters

I worked with LetterPop and gained a real appreciation for our Graphic Arts Dept's ability to produce stunning issues of It's Happening. I played around with my newsletter changing fonts, sizes, and experimenting with text. There are a lot of neat templates to use. I chose one for the fall season. I could see using this on a personal level--creating those holiday letters to family and friends. Here at the Library, we have our experts on staff. I had a difficult time posting the links; there are times when I can't get things to work from a computer at YPL. I had to do this exercise at home.
http://www.letterpop.com/builder.php?newsletter_id=63005