Photo Editing Tools iHCPL Week 3: #7

I came; I saw; I cropped.

I found iStar’s recommended tools easier as I went from Pixer to Snipshot to Picnik. The last one was easiest for me to use.

Pixer was so slooow to upload. Its display was so large that when I went to crop it my cursor got lost on the screen and then wandered too close to the edge and then tumbled off the screen and the crop box went berserk. It took me several tries to trim the images to the size I wanted. I never felt that I had complete control of the dimensions.

Snipshot was much easier because I could see the entire image on one screen and I did not have to wait for the image to load. Picnik was the easiest of the three for me. I cropped and turned color images into black and white and added lettering and made myself the above lolcat, which although not quite up to the standards of http://icanhascheezburger.com/, was easy to do, because more like the editing that I’d learned at my Harris County ITC Microsoft Training fundamental classes on Publisher and PowerPoint.

iHCPL and photos

I can hardly wait for the online photo editing tools.

Flickr has been the most challenging exercise for me. First I had a member of the digital natives generation show me how to use the digital camera and transfer the file to the PC. (This is my default learning style for any technology developed after Ronald Reagan left the White House.)

Then I went to Flickr, set up an account and then tried uploading photos several times before I finally got the hang of it. It helped to read iStar’s blog and the blogs to which it directed me. I did not at first find the Flickr site intuitive. This is because I am both chronologically gifted and a very linear thinker. I learn by compulsive reading followed by mutterings and grumblings rising in pitch to expletives as my attempts to operate the machinery do not produce the desired results. After giving myself a helpful time-out for therapeutic sulking, I returned to the task and the software performed exactly as anticipated.

For the mashups I tried to match HCPL Blue and Orange with Colorpicker, but I was unsuccessful. I had better luck with the FDToys trading card maker. I create my own library trading card, and then tried to put it on the map with Flickr. I should mention that I once again went through the ritual mutterings and grumblings (RM&G) followed by a break after which the software again performed exactly as anticipated.

Navigating the Flickr map led me to more RM&G, but this time when I took a break I followed the advice on the Help / FAQ / The Map page and watched the movie.

As they suggested, “A good first step might be to watch our Exploring the Map screencast.”

I then knew that I could move my cursor to where I was attempting to go, double click it, and the map would then be centered at the X I’d marked on the spot. Who knew what marvelous things I could learn departing from my usual learning style? I got to locate my trading card right on the District of Columbia’s main library, as illustrated above.

iHCPL : Week 2 : Thing 3 : Post 2

What can I say about personal information? This morning my son-in-law sent me a link to a photo of me on the web that I didn’t realize was there. I should clarify: it was there without my knowledge, but not without my permission. http://www.flickr.com/photos/ala_members/1064665060/

iHCPL : Week 2 : Thing 3

In answer to the question from iStar (http://ihcpl.blogspot.com/), “How comfortable are you sharing online?”

My answer is less so that I used to be now that I’ve leaned all these scary things from the cautionary tale that the Free Range Librarian's blog referred to about getting “dooced.” What if my boss looks up the word on Urban Dictionary and finds it displayed next to a banner that makes uncomplimentary reference to her favorite baseball team?

I hereby pledge not only not to post any personal information but also to abide by the Scout Law (http://www.scouting.org/factsheets/02-503a.html) and the Booklist Selection Policy (http://www.ala.org/ala/booklist/insidebooklist/booklistpolicy/booklistselection.htm). In other words I shall only post positive and uplifting sentiments and reviews of books that have redeeming social value. And if I don’t have anything nice to say I shall remain silent on the subject, at least in print.

But seriously, folks, why would I want to do anything that would not strengthen communities and enrich lives?

Jack Plank tells tales by Natalie Babbitt

Jack Plank tells tales / Natalie Babbitt.-- New York : Scholastic, 2007.

x, 128 p. : ill. ; 21 cm.

ISBN: 978-0-545-00496-1
"Michael Di Capua Books"

1. Storytellers -- Jamaica -- Fiction. 2. Pirates -- Caribbean Area -- Fiction.

813.54

Jack Plank is an unemployed pirate who needs a new job. He’s just been downsized – to use an anachronism for a tale set in 1720. It seems Jack was never too good at plundering; he was better at staying aboard and making soup. So, when the buccaneering business took a downturn, he was let go, and set ashore near the little port of Saltwash, Jamaica.

There he takes a room at the widow DelFresco’s rooming house. For the next eight days he looks for work, but comes back every evening with a different tale of why he is unable to work as a farmer, baker, fortune-teller, fisherman, barber, goldsmith, actor, or musician. And all of his tales relate, not to a lack of the necessary skills for any of these trades, but to his experiences in his former line of work. And while his stories are all improbable or puzzling they are also very interesting. In the end, he does what many underemployed citizens of seaport towns do – he earns his living in the tourist trade. He becomes the resident storyteller, the attraction at the rooming house when Mrs. DelFresco serves tea.

Who would have thought that a pirate's stories filled with trolls, mermaids, ghosts, feral children that shriek like seagulls and men that turn into octopi could be gentle and comforting tales? But by skillfully building her stories around the humans and their affections and interactions rather than their fears Babbitt has done so. She’s also illustrated the stories with drawings that perfectly match her gentle tone.

iHCPL Starts Today!

Blogger, and Flickr, and Wikis, oh my!

The objectives of this program are to:

• Encourage exploration of Web 2.0 and new technologies by HCPL staff.
• Provide staff with new tools (that are freely available on the Internet) to better support HCPL's mission of providing "information and resources to enrich lives and strengthen communities through innovative services within and beyond our walls."
• Help demystify new technologies and assist customers in their use.
• Reward staff for taking the initiative to complete 23 self-discovery exercises.
  
  
  

Elijah of Buxton by Christopher Paul Curtis

Elijah of Buxton / Christopher Paul Curtis.— New York : Scholastic, 2007. Scheduled for publication in October 2007.

ISBN: 9780439023443

Elijah Freeman was the first child born free in Canada. His other claim to fame was that, as an infant, he had thrown up on Frederick Douglass while the famous orator was visiting the settlement of former slaves in Buxton, Ontario. Buxton is right across the river from Detroit. It’s 1859 and eleven-year-old Elijah sometimes finds it hard to understand how some words or ways of talking will make his elders fly into an unexpected rage. It’s because he’s never known slavery. He can see the physical scars that it’s left on many of the adults, but he can’t see the emotional ones, until an unplanned trip to Michigan gives him a frightening first-hand view.

Curtis’s always strong sense of humor and his ability to accurately see and report from a child’s point of view makes Elijah of Buxton by turns laugh-out-loud funny and icily frightening, with a bright bit of Hope at the end of the tale.

1. Freedom -- Fiction. 2. Slavery -- Fiction. 3. Blacks -- Canada -- Fiction. 4. North Buxton (Ont.) -- Fiction. 5. Canada -- Fiction.

813.54