Thing 2 : look at other blogs

Looking at other blogs in just asking for trouble because I follow so many already! I love my Google reader and have a bunch of blogs which I read every day - or whenever they publish. I follow a bunch of library blogs, but consciously follow some from other, related fields.

I heard or read somewhere that you should occasionally go to a 'left field' conference because it's amazing what concepts can be filched and applied to libraries. For example, supply chain management. I helped a friend with a course of study once (proof reading) and then applied those principles to the work flow in the workplace.... I digress though: back to blogs :)

I have been through and looked at all the NZ blogs (us Kiwi's have to stick together) and then I dived in to some of the new blogs written by cpd23 participants. The delicious listing is very clever - being sorted by countries. I do hope we get to learn how to do that! Bit surprised to find one of the cpd23ers has created a blog with the same title as mine ... will send little mind daggers at them and hope they choose a unique name instead.

Thing 1: Why I'm doing the cpd 23 things course

I have long considered working through a 23 Things programme and never quite got around to it... until today.

Joining a global 'team project' like this will help me commit to going the distance. I much prefer doing things alongside others rather than beavering away on my own.

I decided a couple of years ago that my old 'library' skills gained in the late 80s were almost totally irrelevant and that I needed to upskill - and fast. I started playing around with Twitter (love it), started a blog (to save interesting internet stuff to share with my colleagues), use Linkedin (professional contacts) and dabbled briefly in FaceBook (I've moved on).

However there are lots of things I havn't played with so this will be a way to work through a bunch of stuff in an orderly manner. Oh and I'd like my work colleagues to come along for the ride to!

7 Top TED Talks

I am still amazed when I discover people who don't know about TED which is a web site of riverting talks by remarkable people.

In the spirit of the Agnostic Maybe blogpost here are my top TED talks (in no particUlar order)

1. William Kamkwamba: On building a windmill and How I harnessed the wind
2. Elizabeth Gilbert on Nurturing Creativity
3. Hans Rosling showing the best stats you've ever seen
4. Sir Ken Robinson: do schools kill creativity?
5. Aimee Mullins: Accessible design in prosthetics
6. Temple Grandin: The world needs all kinds of minds.

making models from text

10 Things you should know about librarianship

If you want to work in libraries

View more presentations from Ned Potter

The Future of Libraries by R. David lankes

This is a splendid presentation which I have watched several times now - and which I will certainly watch again:

Future of Libraries from R. David Lankes on Vimeo.

I need a Telecomms 'broker'

Wasted another half hour of my life yesterday in a Telecom shop waiting for someone to help me; not the first time I've done that either. I gave up in the end because there were 4 other people also queueing - and I needed someone to spend time helping me.

You see it occurs to me that my family spends a significant whack every month on telecommunications and it needs reviewing. It is so hard to do and takes so much time and energy. I just want someone to say this is the best option for you and it will cost $x.

We have 7 cell phones on 3 different networks in my immediate family. Vodafone doesn't get good reception at our home; meaning only from the eastern end of the south-facing couch if you hold you arm up high at a 45 degree angle, the upper bunk in the boys bedroom or standing on the bbq table in the backyard with your left leg tucked up behind your right ear ... not ideal really. Telecom mobile coverage is great.

But Telecom broadband is shite at the beach - terribly slow. I could hand deliver messages to London quicker than Telecom 'max/max' service. Which makes no sense because I switched to Actrix and its bloody fast. I switched because Atrix reset data quotas daily which saves masses of stress because I am no longer have to scream at the children from day 16 in the month until the counter is reset. How can Actrix be so fast over Telecom lines when Telecom's was so bad? It uses the same bloody lines!!

So now we 3 cell phones that need replacing (2 on the old network) and 1 which is out of its contract and simply hideous to use; I can't see the screen outside and fonts are too small for a woman of a certain age.

Oh and no one rings us on the landline now (except the ex-bloke and the bank and I'll happily avoid both of them) so I can't see the point of keeping it - except I need it for Sky. We have Sky digital because its the only way to get TV reception (yes even the free ordinary channels) . If we go with Vodafone we can get cheap Sky .... but no cell reception.

I hate it all ...

So this is what I want:

The 4 kids and I to have 1 phone each, we can all text anyone no matter network they are on, with a generous text allowance, and we can all phone each other too. At least 2 of the phones need data plans for checking emails, facebook, twitter etc I want to have fast broadband at home and either a massive data allowance so we never run out, or 1GB data reset daily (my preference). I want to keep Sky (kids would like MySky). 3 of us need new phones - I'd like a smart phone. And I don't want to spend a month sorting it out or a fortune every month.