This is my life!

Just bumped into a nifty app, Wordle, which creates a cloud based on text you put into it. Just for grins I put in my del.icio.us username and got the result below. How does this thing know that this is MY LIFE most recently?



Or here's a link to it in the Wordle Gallery.

I'm Feeling Stifled

I thought I would be able to at least use Google Reader and look at my RSS feeds and keep up with possibilities for a New 23 Things program the multitypes are developing for this fall/winter. Well, I can look at my RSS feeds all right, but anything that is a Web2.0 application is completely blocked by the hospital filtering process. Every one of the things that I wanted to look at has brought up this nasty, intimidating message: You Are in Violation of Hospital Policy

100-006
and/or other network access agreements.

Read the policy below very carefully.

NOTE: This Site is being blocked by content filtering software according to standards set by Hospital Administration. A third-party vendor maintains this database. MGH makes no claim on it's validity.

Apparently, if you chose to interact with a screen and use some brain power, instead of sitting passively with your hands in your lap and your brain disengaged, you must be doing something wrong.

I now so do understand the frustrations of the many school media center employees who are similarly crippled by filtering policies that are not well thought out and who were unable to do so many of the first 23 Things on a Stick.

At least in libraries, you can ask to have the filter turned off if you are an adult. I see no easy way to do this with the hospital connection. It' s quite frightening, if you think about it, to have some outside entity have that much control over what you are allowed to see or not.

Censorship Rears Its Ugly Head

Because of the illness of a family member, I am currently in Marquette, Michigan spending my days first in ICU, then Intermediate Care/Cardiac, and now the Medical unit of MGH. Thought I'd be able to use my laptop to keep up with work and in touch with the library community with whom I work. However, despite the availability of wireless connections anywhere in the hospital (GOOD!) I have found that many of the avenues that I use to keep in touch are blocked by their filters (BAD!) I am not able to load my Google Home Page completely because Facebook is verboten; same for Twitter. I brought the laptop up for my dad to check his e-mail now that he is able to, and he was unable to access a joke sent by a friend. That also was a n0-no. I guess I was lucky that I can log onto Blogger and post this message. Access to technology-Great! Ability to get where you want to go-we've still got a long way to go! Crippled by censorship! Not allowed to listen to podcasts from Fox News either when I tried that as Dad wanted to listen to Chris Wallace's program.

If any of my NCLC bloggers happen to read this post, I have not been able to read your blogs for a week. Sitting and waiting for doctors and test results is just wearying. I hope to get back to reading your blogs soon. Thanks to Ann Walker Smalley for responding to one of my bloggers for assistance with editing Zoho docs when I was not able to do so right away.