Chatting with Skype & Meebo

Who thought communicating with other people could be so much... well, nontraditional and full of different options? Now, if I don't feel like writing a letter and sending it via snail mail, or calling someone on the phone, or even chatting online using the old-fashioned AIM program, I can do other things that give me more options and flexibility. With Meebo, for instance, I could log right into AIM in my browser without having to download anything. I thought that was pretty convenient. If I'm traveling and using someone else's computer, I can still chat. And, if I wanted, I could chat with ALL my buddies who use other chat services simultaneously, such as those from Yahoo IM, etc. I actually liked Meebo, and it's at least one thing, out of the 10, that I may continue to use in the future.

Skype was cool too, as I could add contacts and call them as I would chat someone up online. I called Dana and he pointed out a number of features, including being able to IM and play games while talking on the headset. The iChat program on my Mac, however, has much of the same functionality, but without the feature that enables one to call real telephones in meatspace. So, if I found that I wanted to make lots of long distance, international, or conference calls, I might find Skype quite useful. I'll keep it in mind.

Getting Personal with iGoogle

Omg! So, it's like I can make my own webpage with all the stuff that I want to see... and nothing that I don't. The iGoogle exercise looked intimidating at first, but when I opened it up and started playing around with the themes and widgets, I realized that it could actually be kinda fun. This is similar to my Mac dashboard, where I have placed a few widgets that I like to use. So now, not only do I have to rely on my Mac dashboard, but I can have an iGoogle equivalent as well. There seems to be no shortage of options for me in cyberspace.

Wikis

Ah, wikis... I've been reading and hearing about them for so long now that I had almost forgotten the fundamental selling-point of one--the ability to edit and save. I thought, "Like, I can do that too?" Yeah, YOU! So, on this 28th day of the merry month of May of the year 2008, I have, for the first time in my life, indulged in the enthralling experience of editing a wiki--and saving too!

I visited the space planning page in the Public Services Wiki and, after reading the comments, began to sense the faint tinge of a small opinion forming in the lower recesses of my neural cavity. This opinion grew and grew and started to march it's way to the forefront of my consciousness. Once it had occupied such a central spot in my mind that it threatened to completely obstruct the flow of thought-traffic, it faced me right in the back of the eyes and demanded that I hear what it had to say and that it be expressed for all to know. It insisted upon being propagated in the minds of all those to whom it might concern. So, being the pushover that I am, I gave in to its demands and took advantage of the fortuitous features of the wiki. I promptly delivered this crabby, cantankerous opinion right into the wiki edit form and, after making sure its diaper was changed and its hair neatly combed, I moved to click the "save" button... when I suddenly felt a swarm of butterflies swirling around in my stomach. My heart palpitated, my head went numb, my palms began to sweat.... What was this? Something in me was resisting, even dreading the exposure I might gain from revealing my opinion. But, the opinion screamed back and threatened to give me a sharp jab in the parietal lobe. Immediately seized with a greater fear of disobeying its surly command, I mechanically reached down and clicked SAVE. A flood of relief washed over me. What a joy to be rid of that obstreperous opinion! And thank god for wikis, without which it would still be uncomforably lodged in my poor head, battering the place to smitherines!

Social Bookmarking and Folksonomies

Hip hip hurray! Social bookmarking is so much fun! Instead of clogging up my browser's bookmarks menu, I can do way more cool stuff on del.icio.us. I just posted a bunch of my favorite websites on there and was able to add my own tags and descriptions (click here to see my page). And I could also see the lists of other people who had bookmarked some of the same sites. And I could do searches on some of my favorite topics and discovery really cool websites that other people have found--ones that I never would have found in a million years on my own. So, you should to social bookmarking too. It could save your life someday.

Social Networks - Facebook & More

Yeah, so I've been a member of Facebook for how long now? Well, probably only a year. But, I've been on Myspace and other sites for alot longer. It's kind of cool to be able to meet people I haven't seen since preschool or other characters from the murkier recesses of my past that I had hoped never to come in contact with again. But, I don't know, there's something impersonal about the virtual relationships these social networking sites tend to foster. People can create whatever image of themselves that they want the world to perceive. And, yeah, I used to get envious of all the "popular" people with their billions of friends mirthfully lobbing raccoons and unicorns at each other. But then I just got tired of it all... it's too much info... white noise even... You know, those people may have a billion online friends, but what is gained from spending every waking moment plugged into the computer incessantly constructing and enhancing their virtual faces to the world? Do we sometimes get so lost in the making of our lives to attract others, that we forget to live? Anyway... please forgive my philosophical banter. I'm not so much the suspicious Luddite I seem to be, or maybe I'm lying. How would you know?

RSS Feeds & Readers

Ok, Dana made me do this one a long time ago. He enlisted the help of a somewhat reticent guinea pig to test out the intelligibility of his instructions for this, Thing 5. I must have passed the test, though admittedly, I don't remember exactly what I did... But, having finally battled my way into Bloglines.com (couldn't remember the username and password again!), I see feeds for things ranging from LA Times music reviews to the Yosemite blog. Yep, those things are cool... I must have put them there. So, I guess it's kind of convenient to be able to go in here and quickly scan all the latest entries for my favorite blogs... But, alas, if only I could remember... what is it called again? Blogfeed... or Blogsomething? and what e-mail and password did I use??? Ugh...

Tagging Using Technorati

"The exercise for this Thing is pretty straightforward..." So begins the instructions for Thing 4: Tagging Using Technorati. Straightforward my foot! After reading it over several times, I finally discerned what I was being instructed to do--and I did it. But, I have had no success in being able to call up my blog entries in blog search engines. Perhaps, being an unstraightforward person, I've managed to miss something. But, I think I understand how this is supposed to work...

Flickr

Yo, so this is where I'd rather be right now (music cue: Main Theme for Seven Years in Tibet). And I'm thrilled to pieces that I can share this image with you thanks to Flickr! I uploaded the image as part of a set last year in order to share it with friends and family all over the country. I wanted them to know that I don't spend all of my time sitting crumpled up, transfixed in front of a computer display with cocked head, tired watering eyes, and a line of drool dangling from the lower corner of my bottom lip. There is something to be said about venturing away, if even with great trepidation, from our man-made, live-wired, technology-laden, methane-enshrouded, concrete-plastic-and-steel-encrusted environment to the almost alien natural world of plants, dirt, rocks, bugs, wind, protazoa-infested water, mud, snow, and the relentless radiation of the hot sun. Somehow, the second environment makes me feel more alive. But, alas, I couldn't survive out there forever on my own. Gotta make a living. So, here I am sitting crumpled up, transfixed...

Argh!

I hate technology! It took me over an hour to log back into my blog account. Blogspot kept insisting that my login email was my gmail account, when, in fact, I had used my yahoo account as my username. It thought it was being kind and helpful by filling that information in for me, while disallowing me from inputing the correct username. How arrogant! It thought it was being so clever in assuming that I was a new user and wished to create a new blog from scratch. How wrong and unsympathetic it was! We grappled back and forth until I finally acted upon a brilliant idea: clear the cache and cookies from my web browser. Suddenly the username field was released from the clutches of an imposed solution to my life's inefficiencies. I was thus able to enter my true username and, after a hard-fought battle, I got in. How frustrating! Google, there are so many ridiculously intelligent and creative beings working for you, you should have known this kind of problem had the potential to exist and preventative measures should have been taken. Heaven forbid, one of your users should become disgruntled and contemplate refusing to use any of your services in the future. That could deal quite a crippling blow.

Blogging

Yep, I successfully created a blog. Now I'm one step closer to being a fully formed technological creature of the 21st century. This is exciting. Soon enough, I will be completely liberated from the need to interface with other human beings in the primitive realm of meatspace. Oh, brave new world!

Hot diggity dog!

World wide web, look out. Here I come! I'm going to splatter my neural exhaust all over this page, and it ain't gonna be pretty.