I've really enjoyed doing 23 things, but I've just been told that the official finish date was last week (Thursday 8 April) - I even wrote a post about this, so there's no-one to blame but myself. For some reason, I'd got it in my head that the deadline was today but Laura Wilkinson has just broken the bad news. I've spent so much time and energy doing the 23 things only to find that I'm just too late.
Hmmm... not sure about this. I think that ThinkFree office is too similar to Google Docs to be worthy of its own "thing"! Despite this, I actually think I'd prefer to go with ThinkFree if I needed to use a shared space, for no obvious explicable reason. It might be because my experience with Google docs was not a positive one, or maybe because it's not Google it seems marginally (or comparatively) less corporate and omnipotent. As you could sign-in using your Google log-in, they may very well be in cohorts, but it doesn't really make sense for Google to have two near identical shared space sites, although I could be wildly underestimating their desire to monopolise the market!
- group members not receiving the Google docs invitations. As a result, we’ve resorted to sending invitations to the space to people’s personal or home email addresses. I think that the Bodleian Libraries’ spam filter is particularly potent, as this isn’t the first time emails have failed to come through
- group members receiving invitations only to find the space ‘blank’ or empty files
It’s a real shame when those people who are reluctant to embrace new technologies are proved right, as I think the Internet is a marvellous thing with lots of potential to assist rather than hinder people. We’ve also been having lots of problems using our CDC wiki as Wetpaint won’t allow existing users to extend invitations to people who are not already members. For anyone who’s been experiencing similar problems with Wetpaint, you can read more about the problems here.
Disappointing.
On another note, can anyone tell me what the default font is in Blogger? I like the default font, but I cut and pasted some text from a Word document into this post and have been through all the font options trying to find the default without success. When I've tried to change the font, it seems to select different sections of text at random, despite highlighting the entire text. I've kept it this way to demonstrate the problem.
Now we're talking!
So, I'm signed up and ready to roll with Twitter. I'm duly following various people and organizations and I've tweeted about my experience of 23 things, including the #ox23 'hashtag' (great word!) Initial thoughts? I can't help but feel that Twitter is for people with way too much time on their hands. I think it's difficult to impart information of any real substance in sixty characters, or whatever it is. From tracking down other ox23 tweeters, I can see that some people are tweeting every hour or so. Eh?
Hmmm... despite my minimal knowledge of LinkedIn, I'm a bit sceptical of online communities that exist for networking and professional purposes. This shouldn't really be the case as the option of networking online is far, far preferable to actually doing it in the flesh (shudder).
Hmmm... working in the Bodleian Directorate office means that I'm generally a safe distance from the library front-line, although I do use the Social Sciences Library and central Bodleian relatively regularly, so I can comment from the user end of the spectrum, I suppose!
Erk! I've just discovered that 23 things finishes on Friday 9 April! In order to qualify for the £10 Amazon voucher you need to have completed all 23 things before then. Stress!
Did anyone see the amazing article in Saturday's Guardian newspaper about the freak lightning stopping over Lake Maracaibo?
I've already got a Delicious account, but it's personal and I don't particularly want to share it with my work colleagues. I've created a new "work-friendly" account and added the requisite five sites and tagged them accordingly (including OX23). I hadn't installed the "bookmarklet" (good word!) during my first attempt at using Delicious, but I've done it now. Genius idea! I can now bookmark everything in sight! 
Look at this pic: phenomenal! It looks like Mordor! Unfortunately, the reduced size of the snap doesn't do it much justice. You can see a much larger version here.
So, here's a screenshot from my photostream, having uploaded some pics to flickr. 
It's my 30th birthday in July which is very exciting and I'm trying to figure out what I'd like to do and where I'd like to go. I'm not the greatest hostess as I'm usually too busy worrying whether everyone else is enjoying themselves to have a good time myself. As this year is quite a special birthday, I'm concentrating on having maximum fun and enjoyment for me!
Right on the Northumberland coast, with lots of huge, empty beaches to walk along... perfect.
As it's February 15 (ok - a day late, I know), I thought I'd choose one of the most oversubscribed places in the world for this time of year: Paris!
I'm not sure who 'I Am Baker' is (proud creator of the glorious cake on the left), but they're welcome round ours any day!
Did anyone notice the glossy supplement that fell out of the weekend papers on "Experiencing Jordan"? Prior to reading this, I probably wouldn't have been able to tell you very much about the place, but now I've been totally suckered by a bit of PR (and some incredible pics).
In a shameless contradiction of my earlier claim that "I never return to places I've already been", please humour me whilst I waffle some more about previous travelling experiences.
Anyone who says that Australia has no culture obviously hasn't done their homework. Aboriginal culture is one of the oldest in the world (over 50,000 years) and when you consider the extreme and hostile landscape the Aborigines have endured and adapted to, in addition to the rampant opposition and prejudice they've suffered it's pretty incredible that they even still exist at all.
Ta da! Many thanks to Jane for helping me fix this - much appreciated. I've never used the 'paint' option, so there's another skill I can add to my technical repertoire! From cruising other people's blogs (can't remember whose, unfortunately), I've also noted that blogger works better when accessed via Firefox. I wonder why? The good news is that a lot of the problems I was experiencing before have now been solved as a result of switching to Firefox. Hurray!
I'll start with somewhere I've wanted to go for ages: Iceland. Numerous things aroused my interest in the country, not least the most divine book of photographs that I happened upon during my short stint in the bookstack. WOW. The title of the collection is 'Lost in Iceland' by Sigurgeir Sigurjonsson (shelfmark M07.D00338) and it's really something special. The places he captures and the colours are just spectacular - well worth a look.
