(Unfortunate)Serendipity ?

I bet George Stephanopoulos was surprised at his DNA results showing his genealogical ancestry. And if you look at the side by side photographs carefully, you can actually see similarities especially in the nose and eyes. You can pick your friends, but not your relatives.

Simplicity is Simply Ketchup

Simplicity is to be desired in computer applications, particularly those social Web2.0 applications. The easier they are to use, and easier they make your life, the better.

Today I bumped into the simplest of apps, that looks to be very useful as well. It's called Ketchup. Ketchup looks like it can help organize your life, a sort of diary in the cloud, to keep track on your meetings with the ability to date and name the meeting and participants, keep track of the agenda, and make any notes you might want to remember about the meeting, and all of this in one place. If you do a lot of phone or online meetings, Ketchup could help you organize these notes. Your meeting notes can be printed as well. Clicking the box labeled "public" at the top of the page makes your notes accessible to others, and generates a URL that can be shared.

This screenshot has a much better explanation:



Ketchup launched several weeks ago and is currently free. While there are plans to monetize, they do say they will retain a free version for light users.

Simplicity is Ketchup's charm. When you sign up to try it, send some invitations for friends. They'll thank you for it.

Trendwatching & Libraries

Check out this SlideShare Presentation:

Trendwatching & Libraries

View more presentations from hblowers.

21st Century Literacy

Literacy doesn't necessarily have the same meaning today as it has in the past. A newly coined word for today's understanding of literacy is "transliteracy".

Social Media, Libraries and Web 2.0 Study

Social Media, Libraries, and Web 2.0: How American Libraries are Using New Tools for Public Relations and to Attract new Users - Second Survey November 2009

View more documents from Curtis Rogers.

Buzz the Gut circa 1990

An old friend found and shared this video from Youtube. It's a copy of a copy of a copy of an old video converted to a new format. The bridge at the beginning of the video no longer exists. It was torn down and replaced in another location which bypassed River Street, the main drag. This video is a slow motion "buzz the gut" that generations of kids have done. Many of the buildings are no longer there. Here's a cruise through Ontonagon in 1990, ending at the piers and beach at the end of the street.

New Year Resolutions

Since the New Year has arrived, I looked for a New Year's resolution generator and found one that's fun here.

The two favorites I generated are included below here,in no particular order.





In all seriousness, I do need to take more pictures this year. With two point and shoot, one SLR and a Flip camera at hand, I just need to remember to take more pictures. I'm hoping to learn more photography skills by experimenting with my cameras and making it fun. Besides that, I've got a Flickr Pro account, so I might as well use it.

Governor Huckabee's Plan

I kind of like Governor Huckabee's plan. It may not be politically correct, but at least it isn't apologetic. It might even have the deterrent effect on terrorists that a court trial has not.

Not Surprising!

And I bet the shoddy software wasn't cheap either!

How to Do the Mattress Stitch

Distressing News Stressing Library Staff

Library Advocacy Day from ALA Washington on Vimeo.

How Big?

This illustration gives one an idea of the vastness and reach of the Internet.


Created by Online Education

A Friend's Dream and Home for a While

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This video is of a home built by my friend Judy and her husband. As we worked on a record conversion project for her school library one summer, she and her husband were busily working on the finishing touches of their dream home.

They only lived in the home for a short time before he died quite suddenly, leaving her with a home that was now a big responsibility for her. She's had it up for sale.
This house is priced to sell! For more information contact Judy Klun (218) 235-1570.

You can read more about this lovely home here.