Natalie's House Update!

Well, tile and hardwood are done and the master bedroom has carpet! Whoo-hoo! The spare bedroom carpet will be done tomorrow. Things are moving fast now! All the appliances are in, glass and mirrors are in. Still to do: get the propane tank set, baseboards, touch up paint, new gutters, and lots o' little things.

House update Sept 4, 2009

Well, I haven't updated in about 2 weeks. Over the last two weeks a lot has happened. We now have steps in the front and back, concrete was poured in the carport. We have all of our light fixtures and ceiling fans. A/C was installed. This weeks, Braid's (Rio Vista) started working on the flooring. There will be tile in the kitchen, laundry, and bathrooms - hardwood in the living room, dining room, down the hall and office - and carpet in the two bedrooms.

Here are two pictures, one is the exterior - looks a lot like the last picture I posted. And one of the kitchen with the tile sans grout. Grout gets smushed into the spaces on Tuesday!

The tile is a black/grey porcelein Dal tile that is supposed to look like slate. I wanted slate but after seeing how "slate-y" it can be (i.e. slice your bare foot in the middle of the night when you're going to the kitchen for a glass of water) and the care it needs (every four years strip and re-seal it) I decided on a no-care porcelein tile instead!

House Construction Update!

The house is really coming along.

Done - plumbing, lights, electricity, decking

Coming up - cement for carport; flooring

Move in date - October 1st!

House update July 2009

Here is my living room, built in bookcase.

White ceilings and trim and cabinetry...

"wise owl" for the walls.

Thing #27!!! 27 things is DONE - or is it???

Well, here i find myself - the 27th thing in a voyage of I.T. discovery! This trip has been a lot of fun and I've enjoyed learning SO MUCH! Here is a recap - by thingy:
1) Read this blog - this was my first time reading a "blog" very cool
2) Lifelong learners - might have learned a little something here, kinda forgot already - "Play" wasn't that in there somewhere?
3) Set up my own blog - this was very cool, and I think I'll keep it going, I enjoy it. One thing I didn't like very much about the blogging is that most people don't use their "real" name so I don't know who I'm following, or who's following me. I wish people would just use their real name.
4) Publicized my blog with the 27 things so people could read and follow if they wanted to.
5) Flickr - I think I'd use this one again
6) Flickr Mashups - didn't quite get this one.
7) Blog post about anything techno - I think I talked about Google Chrome
8) RSS Feeds - setup Bloglines and now I'm addicted to LOLcats - thank you very much!
9) Read some library blogs and RSS feeds, but they're not as addicting as LOLcats!
10) Online Image Generator - This was okay, don't know if I'll use it again
11) Library Thing - definitely liked it but I need to play with it more to see if I want to maintain it or just add my books to my virtual facebook bookshelf....hmmm...decisions
12) Rollyo - eh...didn't really like this
13) Tagging and Del.icio.us - still learning, I've imported all of my bookmarks, now I have to organize them.
14) Technorati - I didn't get this one - don't think i'll use it much
15) Library 2.0 - I came to the conclusion that the library and any viable business has to learn to move forward with technology or they will be left in the dust.
16) Wikis - Wikis are cool, it's neat to work on a webpage along with other people.
17) Add an entry to the library wiki - I did
18) Online docs - LOVED this one, and I recently heard that Microsoft is going to have a free online docs, like their "Word" only a little more scaled down. Maybe they realize the free stuff is out there and they better get on the bandwagon or lose business.
19) Web 2.0 awards - I loved this site, I even bookmarked it! I can't wait to see the new awards - I think this is a cool way to see what products are out there and popular with the people.
20)You Tube - this site is fun and interesting. It is easy to see how this can be used in just about every setting - teaching and learning and just plain fun.
21) Podcasts - I don't think I'd listen to podcasts on a regular basis, but would be willing to listen to one if it had info I needed.
22) Downloadable audios - this one was easy - I've been downloading for a while. I love it! I download the audio book, put it on my mp3 player, and listen while I garden. Right now I'm listening to "Agnes and the Hitman" FABULOUS
23) SPL Website - Nice changes
24) Mango - need to use it more - want to learn Spanish!
25) Twitter - not sure, is this better than Facebook? I don't tweet from my cell phone so I don't know if I'll use it much.
26) Thingfo - don't really know what it is as I could not sign up - by "invite" only, but how do you get invited?
27) wrap up ! This was a great learning experience. And I know it doesn't end here....every day there are new products out there. I don't want to be all 20 minutes ago....

Thing #26 - Thingfo! ALMOST DONE!!

Well - I went to the link and this is what it said:

Thingfo is currently invite-only while we focus on the next version. Existing users, sign in.
We're cooking up some new and exciting things for release later this summer.
Feel free to contact us on our blog, or on Twitter, or info @ thingfo dot com.

Did you read that? INVITE ONLY

Sooooooo,..... hmmmm.......not sure what to do but I can't sign up.......

I shall read some other blogging posts to see if I'm the only one......

There was no "Sign UP" page just a "Sign IN" page........

I'm interested but stymied....

Ta for now!

Thing #25

Twitter - confusing - but I was confused about Blogging too (and honestly I still am a little) - I'm confused about the following thing.....I thought i signed up for about 10 different people, but only 6 showed up on my following. And then I thought their "tweets" would just pop up on my page, but they don't look like they do, I have to click on their faces to go to them?

(sidebar - oh wait, I just looked at my twitter page and there is a lot of different tweets now...)

And, I wonder if this is any different/better than facebook? On facebook it looks like people "tweet"; they are short little snippets of messages that people write.

So that's a good question, what is the advantage to me to use Twitter over Facebook? Because I don't think I can maintain too many different social sites. I am really enjoying the facebook and I'm enjoying this blog....

Tell me, anyone, why should I maintain a twitter account????

http://twitter.com/deltabeavers

Thing #24 - Mango languages

Well, of course I went for the Spanish, it seems like a good language to learn in our area. I took Spanish for two years in high school and later had an Hispanic friend that talked to me quite a bit in Spanish. I remember thinking one day, after we had had a slow conversation together, that I was really learning the language because I did NOT have to translate each word in my mind to have it make sense to me.

Then alas, that friend moved away and now my Spanish skills are beyong rusty.

Enter Mango Language Learning!! I did the first couple of lessons and it was a LOT of fun, very repetitive, which I liked. I did go through the lessons quickly but realized I can go back and take my time and probably really learn something.

I definitely like it!

Thing #23 - SPL Website

I like the new website's graphics, I think it definitely has a "cooler" look to it than it used to.
However, it still seems difficult to find things. If you know that you've seen a database in the past...say Mitchell's on Demand...what do you click on to get to that database? And the click for "D0, make, be for teens" is different than the "teens" link at the top...

And if you type something into the search screen, "Find in the Catalog" - you get Encore, which I think is confusing to a patron that just wants the regular "I'm used to it" library catalog, and how do you get to the regular catalog if you're in Encore? But if you click on the word "catalog" on the Home Page you WILL go directly to the regular catalog....

Maybe we need a search screen that searches SPL's website. Like a "site map", I've used that on other businesses websites - like Universities.

I guess I'd have to do research on other library websites to see how it could be more user friendly. But again, the GRAPHICS are great, I love them, it just seems like finding actual information is difficult and frustrating and might make people still flock to Google or Amazon.com

Thing #22 - downloadable books

This is an easy one. I've been downloading audiobooks for over a year and I really love it! I started a year ago in the springtime when I was working on my flower beds. It is so nice to listen to a story while you are working in the garden. I have played around a little bit with the "Search" feature and I think I've really figured out how to find things easily. I love the Overdrive interface and am excited to try the new program out.

Thing #21 - Podcasts

Well, hopefully this works! I got onto podcast.com and am making myself a widget for books podcasts. These podcasts are book reviews, etc. It seems like podcasting is pretty cool!

Too Cute not to share...

see more Lolcats and funny pictures

House update

Coming along! Inside is sheetrocked, taped, textured and inside doors are going in. Outside is about the same as it was before, no changes....

Thing #20 - YouTube!

Here is my YouTube posting - a cute lil' kitty! I think I should post something on YouTube! I have been videoing my house being built....hmmm...maybe some "time-lapse" video, with music. Lights - Action!

Thing #19 2.0 tools

I am going to bookmark this site of awards. The list is from 2008, I wonder when the 2009 awards come out? December, January of 2010? Anyway, it was VERY cool! I LOVE the names of some of these sites:

furl

lulu

oodle

wufoo

esnips

zango

goowy

Who woulda thought it??!!
I will actually be looking at a lot of them, but the first one I decided to look at in depth is "lulu".

This is a self-publishing site. I've been thinking about self-publishing. I wrote a book a few years back - an historical romance set in the delta, but of course, it went nowhere fast. Maybe one of these online self-publishing sites will be the answer....??? hmmmmm......

Zoho!

Update on my house!

Here is the living room with insulation. Very cozy.

My builder now says Oct 1st!

Thing #16 and #17 / Wikis

Wikis were SO interesting. I had a ton of fun "playing" in the sandbox. It seems like they are very easy to use and it's wonderful not having to know HTML code. That was one of the problems I had with MySpace. I can't understand HTML code and when I go into my old MySpace account and want to add or take away from my profile, it's so difficult.

Anyway, this is what I posted on the Sandbox, in case you haven't visited and edited it yourself lately: (interesting, my picture of my house didn't come through...hmmm.....)

FrontPage Learn About Wikis Sandbox Discovery Resources Staff Blogs Page Editing Instructions

This is fun! I like how you can click on the "star" up in the left hand corner and it SAID it would notify you when there are changes, I hope so. I'm glad we're trying all of these new things. And hello to you too lordy! Here is a picture of my house, builder says October 1st for a move-in! Whoo-hoo!
This is posted on June 6th! Natalie

Thing #15 Library 2.0

Library 2.0, or what does the future hold for us?

I read the articles about Library 2.0 and 3.0 and even 4.0 with much interest. I think the library and technology is evolving so fast right now that just as we learn one thing a newer thing comes up to take its place.

I think if we as libraries are going to be viable we HAVE to go with the flow or we will be quickly left in the dust. This isn't just about libraries but any business, has to keep up with technology or other businesses will do it for us. I was just reading the "Costco Connection" magazine I get and there was an article on using technology to help your business. My husband has a land-leveling business (for farmers) and even though most of his customers are not on the internet, we set him up with a webpage anyway. One thing I though sounded really interesting was to do a video (since his business is an "action" type business) post it on YouTube and have a link directly from his website. I think it will be a little difficult, but just as with our libraries (only on a MUCH smaller scale) if we don't keep up with technology, we'll get left in the peat-dust of another more savvy land-leveling business. The other thing I picked up from that Costco article was that, although there are many interactive/2.0/marketing things you can do, you must choose the things that are practical for YOUR business. The other ideas that were in that article were not practical for my husband's business (like setting up a paypal account, or interactive chat rooms).

So, the library has to decide which (of all of the hundreds of new things coming out) are the best ones to pursue.

Here is a GREAT ONE! - My shelver, Lori, (who will probably post the same thing I am) has an iPhone, she got a new free app called "Cardstar" and she put her library card number on it AND IT WORKS!! We scanned her iPhone into millennium and we were able to check out her books with it!

Here is a picture!

I'm so far behind!

I don't know what happened! I guess just "May" happened! My last post was almost two weeks ago! May was one crazy month, the biggies were my husbands grandmother died and my daughter graduated from high school. It just seems like the month was busy, busy, busy. I'm behind on things at home and behinder on things at work - including 27 things.

Well....I'm....back!

Update on my house!

Here is an "inside" picture, the outside isn't changing much anymore. On the outside they still have to paint and put in the porch (trex-deck), and of course steps and then we landscape; but all of that is a little further down the road.

So now I think I better start showing the inside. I took this picture standing in the doorway of my front door and I'm looking towards the living room. The area I'm focused on will be a floor to ceiling bookcase that spans the whole wall and my TV will be in the middle. I'm hoping to buy a library ladder but boy are they pricey! If anyone has a good tip on getting one for less, let me know! I check ebay every so often but haven't found any that fit right. I have an antique ladder that can be used but even the "hardware" for a library ladder is expensive.

Thing #14 - Technorati

Well, I played around Technorati - I looked up the tags "new home" and found some cool blogs to follow, decorating and stuff. I don't know how much I'll use this site - there have been other things I've learned that I've loved more - like BLOGGING! I know....I know....I can put tags on my own blogs so people can "find" me - I will! that will be cool.

Thing #13 - del.icio.us

This site was confusing to me. I could not watch the 8-minute video, something about "Media Player Classic could not find something, blah, blah, blah" one of those error messages. It asked me if I wanted to look for pegs or something like that on the net.

I went ahead and registered, because it SOUNDS like a site I might like - it SOUNDS like it's a site that will organize my bookmarks? But I guess I'm confused about that too. I just need a "layman's" explanation of what the heck this site is for! So, as I said, I did register and right away it asked me to download something so that something would pop up and bookmark my pages, or something like that.... well, I went ahead and clicked to do that and ANOTHER ERROR CAME UP! I'm just confused about everything to do with del.icio.us. Which brings me to it's slightly stupid name del.icio.us???!!! What they hey? Do you just say it's name "delicious" or do you slowly pronounce each syllable - de-li-ci-ous ?? It gives me a headache thinking about it.

This looks like the type of site that might be useful IF you have the time to really sit and play with it and figure it out - and right now I don't feel like I have a lot of time to play with something that I don't really know if I'll use or not.

There are so many choices of new things on the web!

Okay....rambling.....sorry.....

Thing 12b - my house again!

Okay, every other post has to be a picture of my house - sorry!

Here it is, gosh I feel like I could move in! Oh wait, there are no walls inside, or flooring, or heat or air or water or electricity......

Thing 12 - ROLLYO

Select Search Engine...Ancient EgyptSearch The Web

Powered by Rollyo

HERE IS MY ROLLYO! Whoo-hoo it wasn't as hard as I thought it might be.

My Rollyo is for "Ancient Egypt" websites. I've only uploaded a few sites that I use, but will soon add more. This Rollyo is because this year I did a twelve week program on Ancient Egypt with Isleton School's 6th grade class. It was a BLAST! We made cat mummies, sugar pyramids, learned how to write our names in hieroglyphs, learned about the Nile River and Gods and Pharaohs. The 6th grade teacher begged, yes BEGGED, me to collaborate with her again (I am grinning like the Cheshire Cat) to do it again next year. It was as much fun for me as it was for the kids. We had a wrap-up party at the end where we watched a video about ancient Egypt, had Egyptian type foods and drinks and praised everyone's work.

Okay, back to my house....

Okay, now that I dutifully talked about Thing #11 (Library Thing - which I love) I can talk about my house guilt free.

Here is a new picture, taken yesterday evening. The roofing is done, the doors are going in, the siding is going on. Not that anyone cares but all of the venting in the roofing is coming out on the backyard side of the house, that way when you drive up you'll only see a very clean-line roof. We had decided against anything "fancy" on the roof - no gables or dormers or anything like that. We do have the 9' high ceilings inside, though, so that's cool.

I've been taking all of my pictures from the same angle. Maybe next time I'll get a shot from the back, or up on the levee. We'll see.....

Thing #11

Thing #11 - Library Thing. Loved it! I uploaded my Harry Potter titles and Gone With the Wind (of course!). I haven't had a ton of time to play with it, but will!

I have a book at home that I keep track of all the books I read. I would like to make a list online of those and then I could catalog the books I actually own - which actually are not that many since I feel like I "own" the millions of books available through SPL and Link+

I think Library Thing is something that I will get a lot of use out of.

Just an updated photo of house

I can't help it! I'm excited to show the next picture (taken this morning) the house has windows!

Yes, it's true

My creation
Originally uploaded by NatalieBeaver

No your eyes are not deceiving you....this is a photo of me with my sweetie-pie Clark Gable. He popped into the library to see if I was busy for lunch. As you can see I'm happy to see him.....



(well.....maybe it was done through fd's Flickr Toys!)

Thing #9

Okay, I found a few "library" related blogs, as well as a few others that I am now subscribing to through my RSS reader "Bloglines". What i ended up doing is : after logging in to bloglines, on the left handside was a link called "Top 1000 Feeds" or something like that. I scanned through those and found about 20 that sounded good - like "Library Garden" and "Library Journal News" etc. I also found some cute ones like "LOL cute cats" which has some really cute pictures of cats.

Anyway, maybe it will be okay and I'll be excited about checking for updates!

Thing 8

Well, I signed up for Bloglines (RSS Feeds). I'm not sure it's something I'll use much and I have to wonder how popular it really is.
After signing up I started doing some searching for a feed that I would actually like to read once in a while.... so after thinkin' and thinkin' I decided I would like to read more home decorating/home building/gardening articles. So what better place than Home And Garden TV or DIY network? Both of these offered feeds, which I subscribed to, but both of them show the latest article is from 2007!!
Then I tried another home decorating website (something I'd never heard of before) and it too dated to 2007 as the newest feed.

hmmm.....is there a conspiracy here?

It's only been 35 days!

It's only been 35 days from the first day that they dug the footings for our house. I can't believe it's coming along so fast, although that 's what everybody says, that it goes up really fast. Then when they get to the inside stuff it takes FOR-E-VER......

#7 - Blog about Technology

Wow, I'm on Thing 7!

I've decided to blog about Google Chrome. I just downloaded it on my computer at home because it "sounds" like the next big thing. The reason I say "sounds" is because I think that new technology is coming at us so fast - and just as quickly gets pushed aside for something else - that you never know if the thing that you think is the next best thing, really is!

Anyway, here is a link to a Google website that is a comic strip explaining what Google Chrome is all about. The comic strip is 38 panels long so it's not just some short little snippet.

http://www.google.com/googlebooks/chrome/small_00.html

I will admit that I haven't read every single panel in the comic strip, but what I have read seems to make sense. This is a new way of searching that is faster and more comprehensive. When I was getting some help on an Intuit website for my husband's business I happened to tell the techie guy from Intuit (based out of Menlo Park) that I was using Google Chrome and he said he LOVES Google Chrome. Hey, there's a good endorsement, right?

my house april 2009

my house april 2009
Originally uploaded by NatalieBeaver

Well here is another picture (is anyone sick of looking at my house yet?) I have to admit, when other people have gone on ad nauseum about a project/trip/kids/grandkids I got sick of it!

So, forgive me and switch the page if your feeling queasy.....

Flickr

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

New house, coming along!

Here is an updated photo - taken on my lunchbreak today.  My readers will be happy to know that my stress level has been greatly reduced.  

Things are moving along smoothly and my framer said that the trusses will arrive tomorrow!  That should be a big day.  I'll try to take another picture tomorrow (gotta document!) and we'll see the difference! 

Confused about "following"

Can someone help me figure out this "following" thing? I am following a few other bloggers, and other bloggers are "following" me....but where do I click to find their page? I have clicked on their little tiny square picture, but that doesn't take me to their page/blog, it just gives me a little snippet of info about them (like who THEY'RE following).

The only way to read someone's blog seems to be from the 27 things blog, on the right hand side, there is a list of recent blogs and if you click on one it takes you to that blog; or to know the exact URL address and type it into the address bar.

HELP! There must be another way!

Your friend in blogness - Natalie

7 1/2 Habits

Okay, I'm doing things out of order - as usual:
The 7 1/2 habits....hmmm..... which habit is the easiest?
probably #1 ) Begin with the End in Mind! I like to think about what I'm going to get out of learning something. Like the 27 things - I can already think about the end - that I'll be more comfortable using 2.0 technology. I want to learn it, I want to understand what it is and not get frustrated by it, and I want to sound fairly intelligent when I talk about it!

Which habit will be the hardest? #3) View problems as challenges. Sometimes it's very difficult to take a step back from a "problem" and just realize that it really is a challenge, I'll learn something new and learn to react a certain way once a problem/challenge pops up. Realizing that every problem is not the end of the world is a difficult lesson, but one that can be learned.

Stressed about my house....

Okay, I should be excited about building my house, but i'm not. I'm stressed out because my husband is not happy with the builder. I AM happy with the builder, I think he's doing a fine job. I've heard that marriages endure a ton of stress during the building of a house and I really don't want to be stressed...but.... I used to think it was because one spouse wanted stainless appliances and one wanted white (or whatever) and my problems are SO MUCH MORE STRESSFUL THAN THAT! Oh well, I guess I'll get through it.

What to say, what to write......

Hmmmmm-----my first "blog" - to blog or not to blog - hmmmmm.....
Well, should I keep this professional, or get personal? Probably not TOO personal....
Does anyone really care what I have to say? What I think about?
This is hard - - you know when I was a teenager, I kept a diary, maybe I'll think about it like that (although, as I said before, not TOO personal)
Work is good, life at home right now, not so good. Building a house....nuf said...stress level through the roof.
Easter is coming, that should be nice, weather should be nice.
Well, okay, enough about me....I'll sign off now

What a RANDOM blog!