Natalie's Natterings

Oh noes Pod People!

2009-08-03T01:32:00.000-07:00

Ah, podcasting. The name always brings to my mind the image of a person in some space age egg-shaped thing. Subscribing to a podcast is very easy. I subbed to NPR's All Music Considered, Live Concerts and Second Stage using My Yahoo and the Pittsburgh Hear and Now: On Stage, Rated PG, Tuned In and The Steelers Report using XML. And I did it all in less time than it took to listen to my copy of Queensryche's "Rage For Order". Not bad at all. Now the question is will I be able to keep up with all these subscriptions. Time will tell...

As Ewe Lick It

2009-08-03T01:04:00.000-07:00

So, I'd d/led some audio books a while ago for the Week 5 of the 23 Things, but I forgot to post about it. Ooops. So anyway, I checked out Net Library's offerings, and after perusing my choices, I finally settled on downloading "A Brief History of Time" by Stephen Hawking. Yeah, I'm overly ambitious. Also, I was hoping that the audio book was recorded by Hawking himself. I was wrong. I did like the voice of the narrator but a scientific work might be too deep for audio books. As I mentioned in my language post, I'm rather visual, so I need to read something that's deep.

I also used Overdrive to download an audio performance of "As You Like It" as performed by David Tennant and the movie "Dementia 13", a very old movie directed by Francis Ford Coppola. These were more accessible to me. Shakespeare is always meant to be read aloud, so it's perfect for an audio book. I've watched movies online in streaming mode, so watching Coppola's work wasn't very new to me. I also watch any DVD's I own on my computer as well. Of course, I have a lovely large flat screen monitor. I imagine it would be less enjoyable on an older, smaller screen.

Overall, I'd say I would use e-audio books for poetry or prose meant to be read aloud. It's not as useful for non-fiction for me because I had to concentrate very hard to get it due to my visual learning. I figure, if I'm gonna have to work, I may as well get the actual book and read it. Being able to view videos on the computer is always fun, especially since my taste in movies and TV shows is very different from my mom's.

The downside is that you have to install software, though Net Library does have a link for direct downloading. I'm not a fan of downloading something unless I'm sure I really want to use it because even if you uninstall, little bits of the program can remain and muck up the registry. Also, the selection is very Spartan, in my opinion. I'm guessing there's some problems with getting ebooks for loaning as opposed to having them available for purchase, as on Amazon's site. And finally, it's hard to fall asleep with a laptop on your chest.

STARFISH LOVES YOU!!!!!1111!!!

2009-07-13T17:22:00.000-07:00

Guess what, kids? The Charlie the Unicorn video has two sequels! Since yinz enjoyed the original, I'm embedding the sequels, named Charlie the Unicorn 2 and Charlie the Unicorn 3, natch.

Smoke on the Water and Fire in the Fox

2009-07-13T16:30:00.000-07:00

So, I tried the Firefox browser, and I have to say, it isn't half bad. I was already familiar with tabs from using IE 7 and 8, and I really like using CTRL+ and CTRL- to enlarge and decrease the overall page or text only. As for some of the add-ons in the list, I think some aren't that big of a deal. StumbleUpon or Personas aren't very important for me. AdBlock, however, is pretty darn cool. It's definitely one of those apps wherein you notice its absence rather than presence. For now, I'm gonna stick with IE 7 and 8 because it's used by so many sites, but Firefox is a contender. Also, cute red foxy is cute.

Oh, and I nearly forgot, one thing I like about IE 8 that Firefox doesn't seem to have is, when I open a new tab in 8, it shows several thumbnails of the pages I've visited the most. Then all I have to do is click on the thumbnail to get to the site. Perhaps there is an add-on for that, but IE 8 does it automatically, so bit of a win there, I'd say.

Guten tag. Hola. Bonjour. Yo.

2009-07-06T12:29:00.000-07:00

For the Week 6 topic, databases, I first chose EBSCOHost, and searched for great white sharks and clicked on the full text box. I got a number of results in well known publications such as National Geographic and Smithsonian. I like EBSCO for general searching, before one has narrowed down a topic. Also, I like that Northland users can access it remotely.

I also played with Ancestry. I looked up my paternal grandfather and found the 1920 census results. He was about 16 at the time and had 7 siblings: Lena, Katie, Elizabeth, Ernest, Alma, Elwood and Clara (who was written as "Claud" by the Ancestry summary, though you can tell it's Clara in the original document). His parents, Ernest and Sofia (alternately written as Sofa and Sophie) were born in Germany, so Grandpa Harry was in the first generation born here. By the 1930 Census, he'd moved out of the house, and his dad, my great-grandfather, must have died, because he wasn't listed there. We have a lot of patrons using Ancestry here, so getting to know its nooks and crannies always is important.

Finally, I checked out the newest database, Mango. It is so fun and cool. The interface is very easy for users, and it's great having someone pronounce the words as you see them (I'm quite visual in my learning, so I can't just hear the words when I acquire a new language). I chose Japanese because I wanted something different from the usual French/Spanish/German choices. The only criticism I have is that I would've liked to see the words in Roman script as well as the traditional Japanese. I know that in Japan you're going to see the kanji, but as a Westerner, I need the extra help. However, I overall enjoy Mango and hope it overtakes Rosetta Stone as the go-to for immersion lessons, especially since Rosetta refuses to give library discounts.

Birdie goes tweet tweet

2009-07-01T14:13:00.000-07:00

As I mentioned in the comments section on the Week 8 post, I belong to Facebook and Twitter. With Facebook, I haven't done too much. I think it goes back to my feeling that what I do is not really that interesting. I am having a lot of fun with the Farmville game. It's just like when I garden, but I don't get all sweaty, yay!

My Twitter account is: http://twitter.com/cowsharky Promise to play nice if you visit. I turned my icon green in support of Iran and changed my location to Tehran in the vain hope of making it harder for Iran gov't censors to get to Iranian Twitter users. Not sure if it's helping any at all, but at least it's something.

I tend to follow celeb types, but I think I should get brownie points for not following Ashton Kutcher (I'm such a rebel). I seriously rec. Misha Collins' Twitter. He plays an angel on the show "Supernatural", is a published poet, once interned in the White House (the Clinton years--before Monica), snuck into Tibet to live with the monks, is an accomplished carpenter and built his own house, does yoga and is insanely bendy, and about ten million other things. No, I'm not b.s.-ing here. Anyway, he's been using his account for posting completely insane stories. Check it out, and make sure you go all the way to the beginning: http://twitter.com/mishacollins Seriously, dude brings the lulz big time.

Danger! Danger! High Voltage!

2009-07-01T13:16:00.000-07:00

Just as with You Tube, I've been visiting Flickr for quite a while. I haven't gotten to posting pics of my own, but I've found tons of other pics. I tend to visit photo pools of cute animals (especially tuxedo cats) and photostreams sent to my by friends. The craziest stream I've seen is "30 Ways to Die of Electrocution" (http://www.flickr.com/photos/bre/sets/72157611077138836/), old illustrations from a German book (circa 1930's) called Elektroschutz. The pictures were scanned and presented by Fickr user Bre Pettis, who has a blog here: http://brepettis.com/blog These pics are so bizarre that they're funny, as seen in the above example.

Since we're in Pittsburgh, shouldn't we call it Yinz Tube?

2009-07-01T12:54:00.000-07:00

I was a You Tube addict for quite a while before this week. I use it for many reasons such as finding music videos (great for when I'm in an 80's nostalgia mood), tv clips (which are often taken down due to copyright) and humor (such as dramatic readings of bad fanfic). I finally decided on the infamous "Charlie the Unicorn" vid for my embedding. It's just so utterly demented.

He's not heavy, he's my kitteh

2009-05-15T13:44:00.000-07:00

The pic on my user profile is of my beloved cat, Coyote. I named him after the Native American trickster god, but as he got older he developed a sort of howling meow, so it's even more apropos. As you may notice, he's a tad on the big side. When I got him as a kitten 9 years ago, I noticed two things: 1. He had the most beautiful green eyes ever, and 2. He had biiiiiig feets, so I was ready for a slightly big (20 lbs) cat. Some meanies may say he's fat, but I just say he's so full of awesome that he needs a bigger package. Anyways, they're just jealous that they don't have the best tuxedo kitteh ever. Yeah, that's it. Yup.

2009-05-13T08:51:00.000-07:00

Well, this is the inaugural post of my new blog for the 23 Things 'n' at. It seems odd, just rambling about what thoughts are in my head. I've commented on many blogs, but doing an actual post on my own blog almost seems rather navel-gazing for me. Yeah, I'll get over it. So far, I've been having a lot of fun with the 23 Things. I'm sure it will continue to be so.