WEEK 10 -- PLAY
Exploring Fun Sites: Ok, down to the fun part! I've made it this far (only heaven knows how: in my "spare time" I guess). Before getting to the fun, I would like to sum up my experience with AurThings. It was so frustrating at times that I could have screamed. Lots of link rot goin' on in the instructions. Since we were requested (read: non-negotiable) that we complete AurThings and since it is so time-consuming and we are all so busy with everything else, it seems cruel that there was no infrastructure and support to keep the instructions up-to-date and the links workable/updated. So many links didn't work; at first I would contact the writers of AurThings, but they didn't have the time to update the links, so I just stopped reporting all the inconsistencies and the rotted links that ended only in frustrating error messages, or sites to which we were sent that no longer functioned the same way. This is life, I know, that things are always in some kind of flux. I take a larger view that we can end up doing this to our users as well as ourselves by not being strategic about rolling out ever newer technology, sometimes for its own sake and not strategically at all. Why make it so much harder on ourselves?
That being said, I did learn quite a bit and in general the documentation and written instructions were good, friendly, encouraging and content-rich. I still don't quite understand how the Blogger software works; thank goodness I have had a little experience with html. When all else failed and I couldn't get text to stop italicizing, etc., I would switch to the "Edit HTML" mode and see if I could extract some of the offending, non-compliant (to my wishes) code.
Just in time for Christmas I finish AurThings. What a gift to have this off my shoulders! I actually liked AurThings a lot, but I didn't like having the obligation hanging over me most of this semester.
PLEASE ARCHIVE ALL THE AURTHINGS resources or just leave it where it is or, even better, make a commitment to update it and keep it updated for the next year or so. I can appreciate the incredible amount of work that went into writing instructions, choosing the tools to emphasize, and finding all the supporting links and URLs. Let's keep this as a continuing resource for the near future, at least.
**Guess-the-Google. It had a series of approximately 20 screenshots and it was timing me. I was able to see the connections among a series of pictures (probably more correctly, a "montage") and guess them pretty quickly. My final score was 300, and that was even with letting the clock tick down on me several times as I got distracted with a phone call or other small distraction.
**Rice. I used to play this at home as I like word-type games. I had to stop myself at 400 grains of rice donated. It is nice to play and contribute in some small way to the demise of world hunger. Seems to me this game used to have more difficult words. I sailed through the words this morning, speed of light practically! :-)
Having too much fun here! Need to wind this up. I have already used (prior to AurThings) and so am not revisiting right now:
> Animoto
> Xtranormal (made a short video about greyhounds--what else?!)
> Wordle
**Wordle. Well, OK, I couldn't resist Wordle. I LOVE World. I put the URL to this blog through Wordle and made several random and "custom" changes, e.g., font, color scheme. I also added text to the first box: the words to "A Prayer for Animals" by Albert Schweitzer, or at least commonly attributed to him. A copy of the Prayer hangs in my office here at the Library. Also a very interesting Wordle appeared and I ran it through several randomizations as well.
**Webby Awards. I think I tend to look at these on at least an annual basis. They have lots of categories and links to all the award-winning sites. A very good site to browse for ideas on new websites that might be helpful or fun. Although "fun" isn't usually something I am looking for in a work setting, i.e., I don't really ever do video games, here or anywhere else. Guess I'm showing my age. Or, like my greyhounds, I just never socially developed my sense of play, at least as far as computer games are concerned.
**Jackson Pollock. You don't want to know what I think about this site. As my mother always said...
**Spelling Bee. Ditto the Jackson Pollock comments. 'Nuff said.
So, at 2:01 p.m., Mountain Standard Time, while listening to Naxos Music Library's GERMAN BAROQUE CHRISTMAS album, I bid y'all adieu. Au 'voir, goodbye. Adios muchachas. AurThings it's been real.
Con amour,
Linda
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