The Winning Post!!!

Now, my tip for a little each way flutter on this Saturday's Grand National is Dream Alliance (not pictured above - that's a flat racer.), the horse that was bred on a Welsh allotment. An amazing story, read it here:-

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/other_sports/horse_racing/8433158.stm

But I digress :)

Whoopee do! I did it! The Amazon voucher is *mine*

First of all, *huge* & grateful thanks to the lovely 23 Things help team & all my techno-savvy young colleagues who have so patiently steered me through any difficulties I've encountered - and there have been many :)

I have really, really enjoyed doing this. I've discovered loads of new things, & feel that I've massively improved my technical abilities. I think the most difficult thing to do was creating my I-Google page but, as I've gone on, I've got way more confident with up-loading, down-loading & feeling more sure about exploring new applications. There were points, during a wildly busy term, when I really didn't think I'd be able to complete some tasks but the thought of that voucher kept me going :)

I really like I-Google & Blogger & could play with Flickr for hours (note to self - restraint in all things:))
I've radically changed my view of Del.ici.ous & am using it, so the lesson there is perhaps to go back to some applications that I haven't got on with or found easy to use & reassess my initial view.
I do think, though, that my continued use of applications is going to be very much geared to being able to have them as gadgets on my I-Google page because it works well in the context of busy reading rooms not to have to keep logging in and out of applications & having to change screens.

Generally, though, I'm delighted to have mastered so much & to have explored Web 2.0.
I feel much more confident technically & am delighted that, at last, I know what this stuff actually *is*.

All in all, a great experience that I'm glad I did.

Happy Easter - almost there- yaaay!!!!

Yaay!!! Almost there. I've been on my Easter hols. so Happy Easter y'all. Hope you had a good one with loads of chocolate eggs.
I've had a Del.icio.us widget on I-Google for a while & it was primarily responsible for changing my view of Del'icio.us *completely*. I use it for saving all of my lovely articles from Le Figaro as it's the only saving device that Figaro's site will accept.

I've downloaded a Flickr photostream of some lovely flowers for you to enjoy on gloomy days when the daffodils are wet. I could see a photostream being a great tool for libraries to eg. show some pix of forthcoming exhibitions or exciting new building improvements, but I prefer pretty flowers:)

Bit of a short Blog this one, but I'm grimly determined to finish now - the Amazon voucher is in my sights!

I Thunked about ThinkFreeOffice

A Recipe for Butterfly Cakes


Preparation Time
30 minutes

Cooking Time
25 minutes

Makes
18

Ingredients

* 250g butter, at room temperature
* 330g (1 1/2 cups) caster sugar
* 2 tsp vanilla essence
* 4 eggs, at room temperature
* 450g (3 cups) self-raising flour, sifted
* 250ml (1 cup) milk
* 100g (1/2 cup) raw caster sugar
* 80ml (1/3 cup) water
* 125g unsalted butter, at room temperature
* 315g (1 cup) raspberry jam


Method

Preheat oven to 180°C.

You will need 18 paper cup-cake cases.


Beat the butter, sugar and vanilla essence in a large bowl until very pale and creamy. Add the eggs 1 at a time, beating well after each addition, until combined. Use a large metal spoon to gently fold in half the flour alternately with half the milk, until well combined. Repeat with remaining flour and milk.


Spoon the mixture evenly into the paper cases. Bake in preheated oven for 20 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centres comes out clean. Place on a wire rack to cool.


Meanwhile, combine sugar and water in a saucepan, and stir over medium-low heat until the sugar dissolves. Remove from heat and set aside for 20 minutes to cool to room temperature. Use an electric beater to beat the butter in a small bowl until white and creamy. Add the sugar syrup in a thin, steady stream and beat until well combined.


Use a sharp knife to cut a shallow V-shaped piece out of the top of each cake, about 1.5cm deep, leaving a 2cm-wide edge. Cut the piece of cake in half crossways to form 2 semicircles. Fill centre of each cake with 21/2 tsp of raspberry jam. Arrange 2 semicircles of cake in jam. Place mock cream into a clean piping bag fitted with a 1.5cm diameter fluted nozzle and pipe down centre between the "wings" on each cake.

Enjoy.

Which is more than I did ThinkFreeOffice. Lord above!! It's so *slow* & *clunky*.
I loaded up a macaroni cheese recipe from "My Documents" & shared it with another 23 Thinger but decided that life is too short & am returning forthwith to Google Document.

Google Document builds spreadsheets for you from your questionaire answers - I'm in *love*

Goggling at GoogleDoc.

Intuitive & easy to use. I've shared a document & made a Form





And I also made a Presentation






Scarily, I remember corporate mainframes *&* dumb terminals. When I first started working on-line the mainframe inhabited its own *floor* of the building - does this make me a candidate for display in a museum? :) (Don't answer that:))

Just a Quickie Wiki

Did some OULS hunting on the Oxford Web 2.0 Wiki & edited this article from OULS to Bodleian Libraries. very easy to do & I liked using my Twitter access rather than having to gain *yet another* usename/password.

Wicked Wiki

I've had a look at the Oxford web 2.0 wiki & it's interesting to see what's on there, particularly which social networks Oxford libraries are maintaining a presence on. Haven't seen a page that I would want to edit yet but will carry on exploring.

I'm already a fan of Wikipedia & it's one of the gadgets that I've put on my I-Google page. I find it particularly useful for interpreting internet slang for example "lol" or "Rickrolling". It's thanks to Wikipedia that I know that "Rickrolling" is a "viral internet meme" :) It's important to always remember that Wikipedia is user created & I would not use a Wikipedia entry as a source for anything I was writing without verifying the information elsewhere. I appreciate that there have been some awful examples of false entries but, interestingly, the current "scandal" concerning the French president & his wife is alleged to have been started by a young journalist who was interested to see whether he could create a news story by starting a rumour on *Twitter* - so there you go. Having worked in newspapers for years I have tattooed on my heart the number one rule for all research - *check your sources*

Above, you can see (tho you'll probably need a magnifying glass:)) a Wikipedia page for the novelist & short story writer Liam O'Flaherty. I've just added 3 further book titles to the information.

The Blue Fox by Sjón

The Blue Fox by Sjón, translated by Victoria Cribb - Times Online

This is *absolutely* the best book I've read this year (yes I know it's only March) so I'm sharing it with you but also demonstrating the joys of picking something up in Twitter & then saving it to my Delicious list on I-Google (that's the link above to the book review in The Times) - ooo00, I've *really* revised my ideas about Delicious - *loving* it now :)