iGoogle

Well we are on the home stretch now with #9--Setting Up a Google Account. And lucky me, I already have one. I don't use it that often but it is a nice place to house my RSS feeds.

I did just go back in and personalize my page with the "beach" theme. Nice.

My friend and I are also taking use of the Google Docs feature to help plan our trip to England.

Overall, I'm a fan of iGoogle. Then again, I'm pretty much a fan of everything Google. I think it would be awesome to work there for a year or two. Though with all the free food, I'm sure I'd gain a ton of weight...

Wikis

So here it is a beautiful Saturday afternoon and I'm at work getting caught up on a few things. Normally I'm not so pro-work as to voluntarily come in on a weekend but I kind of got sucked into March Madness and got a bit behind.

I'm now up to Exercise #8 Wikis. I was looking forward to this one since I've already created a wiki and can just blog about it. It is part of the wiki test pilot done through EEE. The wiki is for the class History 202 Slavery and the Atlantic World. The professor, Rachel O'Toole, wanted a place where students could record all the primary sources they found dealing with this topic. So I started it with help from Rachel and it is a pretty good list. I've checked a couple of times and seen that the students have also contributed. The good: I don't have to be the sole editor of the site. The bad: I'm not the biggest fan of the editing capabilities.

Side note: Duke (2 seed) is losing to West Virginia (7 seed) right now. Life is good.

Facebook

I resisted the whole facebook/my space thing for a long time (as well as having a blog--see where that got me!) and was finally beaten into submission at the library when we had a workshop about it. Now of course I'm hooked! I think the real draw for me is playing scrabbulous and having friends from high school track me down. It is a nice way to stay in touch with people but without having to put any real work into it fostering relationships. Plus, it is a nice place for me to store photos.

RSS Feeds

Woo Hoo! Here's a task I've already completed. I have Google Reader and have set it up to get feeds from UCLA Newly Added Titles and History Compass. Right now it is geared for work so I don't have personal stuff on there. It is nice but I only remember to check it every week or so. I need Google Reader and Instant Messanger to pop up instantaneously when I log on to my work computer--those are the two things I always forget to do.

Technorati for dummies?

Okay so I followed all the instructions--I wrote about something, did the whole "ping" thing on Technorati and Ping-o-matic, waited an hour, and then did a keyword search for "Jane Austen" but to no avail. My blog post did not appear. Ho hum. Well at least I understand the reasoning behind it. And honestly, I really don't want anyone finding this blog since it is a work assignment and deadly dull. So I'm okay with my post not appearing on Technorati. On to the next task...

The Complete Jane Austen on PBS

Back in January PBS and Masterpiece Theater began showing new (and some old favorites) adaptations of Jane Austen novels. Surprisingly my new favorite adapation is my least favorite book, Northanger Abbey. They did a great job of showing Catherine's gothic flights of fancy and it is the first time I've actually warmed to Henry Tilney. (Also it should be noted that Catherine was really pretty and had some great dresses!) PBS knew not to mess around with Pride & Prejudice but just showed the Jennifer Ehle / Colin Firth adapation over a three week period. Sigh. It is still amazing and wonderful and makes me gush like a thirteen-year old girl. Seriously, has there every been a character more dashing than Mr. Darcy? I think not. Right now we have entered a lull until March 23rd's showing of an older adapatation of Emma with Kate Bosworth. I do enjoy this, except the actor playing Mr. Knightly in no way can compete with Jeremy Northam's Mr. Knightly.

Here's the promo: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O13N8aGXapk

Okay so why did I just make an entry about this? I needed to for my next 10 Things assignment--how to use Technorati. Which I'm sure I'll add a post about soon...