susie-q-t

as promised, here is my take on the assignments for weeks 3 & 4 of UK's Blue 2.0

First, let me say that I love the whole idea of RSS (really simple syndication). When you want to keep up with a variety of feeds, whether they're business or personal, this is the fastest, most efficient way to do that. I don't think I'm unusual in that I have little or no time during a normal day to read extraneous stuff. RSS helps me maintain some semblance of a normal life outside the confines of my job.

I think I would be ok with bloglines if it were not for the fact that I am, and have been for some time, using Google Reader. The reason I will stick with Google Reader instead of bloglines is because I have it on my Google page with several other key widgets (is that what they're called?) that I look to for various and sundry meaningless things....like my horoscope..... but I digress.

Bloglines is very easy to use, set up, and maintain. I don't find it particularly appealing aesthetically speaking, but it is minimally sleek and a lot of people like that look.

Oh, and the question I believe was: "what blogs do you like?"


I love, love, love Mustache's of the Nineteenth Century. mustachesofthenineteenthcentury.blogspot.com This is one of the most creative endeavors ever and it's very educational is a funny kind of way.


The other blog I enjoy is zemkat.blogspot.com This blog is packed with intellectual tidbits about everything: from techie stuff to slis stuff to general good humor...that's appropriate.



The blog I've been keeping an eye on the longest is stuckincustoms This guy is one of my fav photogs. He does some really incredible work and is very communicative via his blog. If you're into photography at all, he is not to be missed! And he includes a tutorial on how he achieves his incredible HDR photos!



Oh, and finally, I don't keep up with this blog but I stumbled across it recently when I was a panelist for the blogger awards. There were a lot of categories that I just would never look at ordinarily and that's where I found Cap'n Dyke, Lesbian Pirate Queen and Rogue Blogger lesbianpiratequeen.wordpress.com This woman is hysterical and, if you've ever read any of the Daniel Defoe Pirates! books, you'll love this.

PBwiki, on the other hand, is not extraordinary, intuitive, marginally fun, or or or or or or (can you tell I don't like it?)

In keeping with the day's theme, here is the link to my wiki susieqt.pbwiki.com it is sparse, sparse, sparse, and will remain so. Instead, I will build a wiki using mediawiki as referenced in another Blue 2.0 blog called zemkat's blue blog (remember I said it was a wealth of information?). It's free and open source and that's a huge plus when it comes time to understand what you're building. In fact, in talking with a fellow artist, I think we'll build a wiki for our small artist group as a collaborative project. We tried years ago to make some collaborative artwork but not eveything we did was......good......I think we'll have more success with something akin to wiki-ness. If nothing else, it will foster our communication in other ways than a simple yahoo!groups connection.

As to wikis in general, they're great tools. Wikipedia is awesome and, while it's not accurate 100% of the time, it is, none the less, a fantastic source to at least point you in a legitimate direction when you need good information. There's a lot to be said for that.

Wikis are absolutely fantastic tools for the workplace. We use a wiki here in our office. For me, and I know for some of my co-workers, it took some getting used to. I was of the paper club (that's what I call those of us who just have to have something written down, something to hold in their hand, something to mark on and doodle all over) and, I',m still in the club to some extent, but I've come to depend on the wiki as a real collaborative tool where anyone with the expertise, however big or small, can contribute to the overall brain-trust of the department. In this way, you're not isolating the knowledge base but making it accessible to everyone and anyone who may need it. It has proven invaluable and completely changed my perspective of what can be accomplished with this kind of technology.

In short, I don't like PBwiki but I love wiki-ness.

...and now, for something completely different....

wake up little susie

Having a unique name is really great...except when you're a kid. As most of us are painfully aware, kids can be cruel and having such a unique moniker as mine, well, you might as well put a bullseye on your forehead and hand them an arrow!

Very early in my first grade experience I was tired of being the object of uniqueness. I got off the bus one day, walked into the house where my mother was cooking dinner, and promptly announced, very adult-like in fact, that I wanted to change my name. Smiling, she turned from the sink and asked, "What do you want to change it to?"

"Susie," I said confidently.

Nearly 40 years later my dear, sweet granny still calls me Susie.

everyone has a story

In the short time this blog has been in existence I've had nearly a half dozen people come to me with their "name" stories. Mis-heard names, mis-pronounced names, wrong names, really wrong names, you "name" it, one of us has had experience with it.

I encourage anyone who reads this to consider the bastardization of their names, or the same for those whom they love, and comment on them here. If you're reading this, you've got a story. I'd love to hear it and I'm sure others would, too.

P.S. blog entry concerning Blue 2.0 assignment in the not-too-distant future (I'm actually busy working at my job lately)