Rolling Along

well, the fun continues! My daughter has finally learned to ride her 2 wheel bike and there is no stopping her now. She has a new found freedom in riding her bike, wind blowing through her hair (well, as much as can get through the helmet).

It certainly brought back memories of learning to ride a bike myself. What a difference 30 odd years makes! When I learned it was out of the back parking lot of the apartment and after some scrapes and bruises I was off. Once I learned to ride, I was out there with my friends riding here, there and everywhere. There certainly wasn't the big safety issue of today- helmet? not a chance (I still don't have one!!); my parents said bye at the door and went back inside to do the housework or whatever as I took off for the afternoon.

Do we have this today- no way! Has the media and society made us as parents overly cautious? Am I too overprotective of my children? I am very aware of this and try to give them as much freedom as I think is good, but I certainly do keep an eye on what is going on around and about. I take my kids over to the park and sit on a park bench as they run around, ride their bikes, play with friends. They are going further afield with their play and I'm okay with that. As I sit on the bench, I'm constantly watching the coming and going of people just to be aware of the surroundings. Is this overprotective?

I don't think my daughter feels overprotected as she rides around on her own. She can ride the paths at the park alone and has fun doing so. She doesn't appear to be held back in any way and the smile on her face as she pedals along is something to see! The joys and innocence of childhood. I hope it lasts a good long time yet!!

Doing something for the community

Saturday, our karate school did a wonderful thing. We held a kickathon to raise money for the community playground. The playground as it is right now, is a very old, rusty, dangerous piece of equipment. My son has fallen on it numerous times and scraped himself up quite badly. The new structure will be up to modern standards and best of all, safe!

The karate students all raised money and on Saturday every person threw 5000 kicks!! The kickers ranged from kids aged 4 up to the adults. There were approx. 80 participants and what a great feeling at the end of it all to know that we had accomplished this feat! The legs were tired, the butts were sore, sweat was rolling, but we all felt great!! What a wonderful feeling to know that you've participated in such a challenge and that the end result will be well worth the effort!

This was a full day event. We had a BBQ, a clown came to entertain the kids, the Reptile Guy was there with his Anaconda and there were raffles. Every bit of money taken in was put into the envelope for the playground. It looks as though our Sensei (who organized the whole thing) reached his desired goal of raising $10,000!!!!!

It is definitely a good feeling to give back. I wish more people would experience this feeling by giving of themselves to help out their community. This world would definitely be a better place!

Something to Ponder

Well now that Learning 2.0 is over, this blog will get back to the musings and thoughts of life. What makes life the adventure that it is?

I was reminded of a very interesting thing while taking my brown belt test on the weekend. In karate there is a student creed that all students (no matter the age) must memorize and be able to recite when asked. The words in the creed are simple but when one thinks about the meaning behind them, it makes one wonder if this should be a creed for every single person.

The Student Creed-

I will keep my thoughts positive, because my thoughts become my words;
I will keep my words positive, because my words become my actions;
I will keep my actions positive, because my actions become my values;
I will keep my values positive, because my values become my destiny.

Stop and think of the meaning behind these words. Would this not do society good if every person could follow this? Learn these words and try to use them in your every day life.

Wrap up on Learning 2.0

Learning 2.0 at McMaster has been a great experience. The ETG committee did a fabulous job in putting together the information, explaining it all, and most important being there to fire questions at.

I have loved these past few months. I enjoy learning new things and (more than that) I love to play!! Some of the things in Learning 2.0 were familiar to me and therefore it was fun to explore those areas a bit further. Some things were new (like wikis, social bookmarking, and some online applications and tools) and it was wonderful to try out these new things. I've learned many new things and have passed on information to my hubby to try. I will definitely continue exploring other neat 2.0 features.

I look forward to using my MP3 player and I'm REALLY hoping to win that laptop to have my own computer (and not have to share with my family!!!)

Thanks to Jeff, the ETG committee and my group leader for all the support and encouragement in this venture. What's next??? I can't wait!

Browser Tools

I'm always amazed at how many cool things there are out there. I've used Firefox as a browser interchangeably with IE. I went into the add ons and discovered a whole world of things available. I must admit, I only downloaded two for the sake of time, but will definitely find time to browse and see what else is available. I added the weather, which is a nice handy tool. It is nice in that it resides on the status bar out of the way. I also added the Dilbert button which when clicked will give the daily Dilbert strip. Always good to have some comedic relief in the day.
The MORRIS bookmarklets are quite a neat tool. I added the whole lot into my favourites. I tried it out while doing some searching in Amicus for some gov pubs. It worked very nicely, although I'll have to try to set it up so that it doesn't open in the same window (don't know if this can be done, but I'll poke around and see). I like how the small window pops up and you can just copy and paste into it. I can see this being quite useful for cataloguing purposes.

Gaming and Virtual Environments

Well this week was another fun one, as I love to play. My family has accessed online games for a while now. We have played online crosswords, Soduko etc.; the kids play games on treehouse.ca and discoverykids.ca and my husband, being an avid poker player, has played online poker. His comment about the online poker is that it certainly doesn't take the place of the real thing (don't get the same interaction with the players) it is great for testing and improving your skills.

I tried various of the free online arcade style games (I love frogger- does that show my age?? lol). I attended the gaming session that Kelly gave, which was great! Seeing WoW in action showed me that I could really get into playing the game (I used to play dungeons and dragons in University) just to find the time... Being such a wall flower (yeah right) I was the first one to jump up and have a go on DDR. I had danced on the mat at a party in the past and found it quite hilarious and lots of fun!!

I am a part of Second Life as one of the participants in the virtual reference pilot over the summer. I am really enjoying SL and having fun exploring all the different aspects of the world. The kids are always asking me to go onto Second Life and play. They of course find it amusing when my avatar crashes from flying or bumps into walls (but I'm getting better). My avatar is Isobella Sands. If you are in world, look for me, we can do coffee!

I believe that gaming and virtual worlds have a part in learning and the library. Looking at Second Life, obviously the library is there for virtual reference. There are possibly some other benefits as well that can be explored- meetings, library sessions in world, classes, etc. We just have to open our minds and explore all possibilities. Some games require a lot of strategy in order to play the game, not unlike the strategy needed for research and study. Could these skills be improved by playing games? Something to ponder!

Online Social Networks

Well this was an easy week for me! I'm a Facebook veteran (so to speak) at this point. I've been on Facebook for quite a well now. I love it!! I've hooked up with some great friends (old and new), my cousins are on, and I've invited some karate friends to join. I've joined a variety of different groups and I've created a group of my own for my karate club. I'm hooked on it and find that I'm on there quite a lot just to see what's happening. Uploading pictures is an easy process and it's fun to share some photos with friends. I like that you can set your privacy to whatever you want so that not everyone can view your info.

I had explored myspace in the past but didn't really like it so much. I find Facebook much more user friendly and easy to navigate through. LinkedIn looks interesting and I may explore it in the future, but right now I'm quite happy in Facebook.

Online Applications and Tools

I had a blast with this stuff! So many cool and fun things to play with. With spending so much time on the computer doing work, it's nice to be able to spend some time just playing. I particularly liked Snipshot and RedKid.net. I've used LastFM in the past but prefer to listen to my own music. The flickr Toys looks really cool and I'll have to spend some more time with it and play around.

My avatar from RedKid.net is on the right of my blog. I also created signposts and other fun stuff. I can see using this for some family fun as well.

Here's another thing I did in RedKid.net using my favourite saying:



Life is so much fun!!!

Raise a Little Hell

I was reading an article in today's edition of the Hamilton Spectator that made me think about some people that I come across in life. The article can be found here.

I am a firm believer in trying to live every day to the fullest, get something out of it and be optimistic. Certainly we are all faced with challenges, but it's the way that we handle the challenge that will determine the outcome for us. I try to find the positive in any given situation. If something is troublesome, I look to see if I can do something about it to change the situation. Instead of just sitting and complaining about something, I try to find out what it is that is bothering me about it. Once I've figured out what that thing is, I see whether I can do something about it to change it. If I can, then I try to do it! I find that too many people don't do this. These people are 'happy' to sit and complain. If you can do something, then DO it, if not, then stop complaining, suck it up and move on! You are only a victim of life, if you choose to be!

A great song from past years was on the radio coming to work yesterday- Trooper's 'Raise a Little Hell'. The lyrics in the song sums it all up for me:

If you don't like
What you got
Why don't you change it
If your world is all screwed up
Rearrange it

Raise a little Hell ...

If you don't like what you see
Why don't you fight it
If you know there's something wrong
Why don't you right it

Raise a little Hell ...

In the end it comes down to your thinking
And there's really nobody to blame
When it feels like your ship is sinking
And you're too tired to play the game

Nobody's going to help you
You've just got to stand up alone
And dig in your heels
And see how it feels
To raise a little Hell of your own

Social Bookmarking & Tagging

Well I've found this stuff very interesting indeed. I was amazed at the differences I was coming up with searching my topics in del.icio.us and Google.

I have searched for martial arts information on the web in the past and have found some good information but I've also come up with a large amount of irrelevant information as well- a lot of sites selling equipment or schools teaching martial arts, but not necessarily information on martial arts.

Using del.icio.us, I was quite impressed at how accurate the information was that I was getting. I hit on exactly the types of information I was interested in. When I hit upon a particular site that interested me, I looked at the tags and used them to further refine my search or pull up something that I hadn't fully thought of as a term or tag.

I have created an account in del.icio.us and have been actively adding some great content. I've added some tags and I've also added the del.icio.us buttons on my toolbar for quick access. I can certainly see using this on an ongoing basis. I also love that I can view it on any computer, so I can see my bookmarks at my desk and at home or whereever else I am accessing a computer.

I was so excited about del.icio.us and enjoyed the functionality of it, that I went home and showed my husband. He has a small home business where he winds custom made guitar pickups. He has a website and a blog, so I showed him how useful del.icio.us was for his information. He has already set up an account and is actively setting tags on various things. Another web 2.0 recruit!!

I went onto flickr and got lost in the sea of photos. I love photography and could spend many a day just swimming through the photos on flickr. One particular area that I enjoyed looking at was the photos of the Grand Canyon and the Southwest. I love Ansel Adams photography and the landscape of this area. I certainly hope one day to make it to the Grand Canyon to view it in person, but for now I can enjoy the photos in flickr!! Here is link to one picture (sunrise over the grand canyon) that I particularly love.

Wikis - week 4

In the past I've experimented with the digital reference shelf wiki using wetpaint, so I ventured into the other test wiki. Using PBWiki for adding my picks (Karate Mummy's picks) was very straight forward and simple. The toughest thing was adding my link to the sidebar, but I quickly figured that out through trial and error (I can be stubborn and if one thing doesn't work, I'll keep trying until something else does).

I can see how useful a wiki might be for organizing lists or keeping information of a similar topic together. I'm thinking of creating one for my group at karate where we can all add our fav. links to karate info. I am planning on using wikispaces as a different option (I like experimenting with different things) for the wiki. I'll document how that goes... stay tuned!

RSS Feeds

As I sit at home today (with pink eye) I decided to spend some time reading all the various blogs out there. I'm quite impressed with the variety of blogs that the libary staff have created! Some are basic, some of very creative and colourful, some are quite comedic. All are great!

This week's assignment was learning about the world of RSS feeds. I've used Bloglines as an aggregator for quite a while now, so I decided to give Google Reader a try. I must say, I like the different options for viewing and the set up of Google Reader much better than Bloglines. It does come down to personal taste, but I do think that I am going to import the blogs I have on Bloglines into Google Reader. It is more the display I think, over anything else, that I like better. It also has a great search feature.

As with Bloglines, Google Reader has a 'button' that can be added into the favourites menu, so all you have to do is click on the button when you are in a blog that you wish to subscribe to. This way you don't have to go through the dance of copy and pasting and hoping it has worked properly.

I've been enjoying this whole experience so far. It's taking what I already knew and is expanded on it. The best part of course is the playing!!

Monty Python - Always Look on the Bright Side of Life

Always loved this one!!

The road less travelled

I took this picture while hiking up at Mount Nemo. I was intrigued by the way the tree grew from the main trail. Obviously it had fallen over at one point, but still maintained enough contact with the earth to continue growing. The tree overlooked adversity and found a way to continue it's path upwards.

I try to use this image whenever faced with some adversity in life. Should I just throw my hands up in the air and give up, or find a different path to take, maybe the one less travelled, just like the tree! As long as a part of us stays centred on the ground, we can face any challenge that comes our way. Look for the less obvious, and do something with it!!

Learning about Learning Workshop - Gaming

I was unable to attend the entire workshop yesterday, but I was very glad to be present for the presentations in the afternoon. Listening to Krista and Jeff speak about Second Life and WoW, I began thinking of my own kids. I know, the mind wanders, but it was actually due to the content of the presentation and had me thinking about how my kids are already using computers and gaming.

My kids are 5 and 8, and already in school they have been exposed to games on the computer. Actually even before kindergarten, I had preschool games for them to play on the computer at home. As I was listening to Krista and Jeff speak about the worlds they travel to in the games and the quests their avatars tackle, I suddenly realized that this is what my kids are doing already (beit in a scaled down, basic sense). My kids also hook up their little 'gigapets' and travel through different lands and go on quests. It's amazing!

The benefit that I see right away, is the problem solving skills. Both kids are becoming very good at sitting and figuring out what they have to do and where they have to go in order to get the item requested in a particular quest. The kids have to organize their player to make sure that it is fed and healthy, or if the player needs something, the kids have to know what to give it and how. These are skills that they will be able to develop over time and be able to make use of in the 'real world'.

As Krista and Jeff finished their talks yesterday, I had to wonder what things will be like in 10-15 years when my kids are in university. I just hope that I'll be able to go along for the ride and be as tech savvy as they will certainly be!

Welcome to my blog

Hi and welcome to my blog. I've set up this blog as a means of documenting the fun and adventure of daily life beginning with the Learning 2.0 at McMaster.

I'm a very busy, active person and there is always something that comes up that makes me wonder and question things. I like to consider that I have a very positive outlook on life and I love to experience different things. Change to me is a great thing, as it keeps the mind active and alive! I don't shy away from things, in fact, my friends would probably say that I'm a bit crazy in the way that I 'jump' into things. To me, it's far better to try something then to never have experienced it at all.

The title for this blog defines what it will be- adventures in life (my life). ;-)