Game on...

Status: 45% zombie, 55% perk


Gaming huh? Online games are fun, but can be a huge time-sucker. And I do mean HUGE. There have been times in my life when I have probably spent a bit too much time playing games online - they're good for tuning out and sometimes ignoring the world around you.

But - they aren't all bad. As with anything, moderation...

I played a couple of the games on Yahoo games - a quick round of Wordsense Challenge (I've always liked word games), and a couple of quick rounds of Jewel Quest. But really, I don't have time to do these things at home anymore. Nor do I even feel compelled to play them.

Anyhow, I suppose the employees of the future might be a little different than those not raised on computer games. Then again, they might not. I think some people will work hard and do well, and others won't.

Though maybe if we let employees earn points and buy new gear with their points, and go up in level for their achievements...

Who knows?

Time to go home.

Rev your search engines...

Status: 108% zombie

I'll admit it - I pretty much just use Google for my searching. It's there, and it's relatively painless. I could probably hone my searching skills a bit, but in general I feel like I get pretty good results. I'm familiar with the page layout, and know what to ignore. It's, well...comfortable.

I checked out the metasearch sites, and found that the results were fairly similar. I did a search on Yellowstone. I did note that both Mamma and Dogpile seemed the same, and more "commercially" (for lack of a better word). The Yellowstone National Park site was several spots down the list on both search engines. On Rollyo, however, it was the number one WEB result. At first I didn't really like Rollyo, but I can see how it could be very useful if you were conducting similar searches over and over again (or accessing the same sites repeatedly). I also found the result page layout to be easy on my eyes - and the useful information was buried under advertisements. I did not like the fact that Mamma had sponsored links at the top AND the bottom of the results page.

The best thing about Dogpile is the SearchSpy feature - a continuous stream of what other people are searching for. It can be very amusing!

Gotta run - the information desk awaits!!!

Holy Avatar, Bat Princess!

Status: 13% Zombie, 87% Perk

Okay...skipping way ahead here to avatars and Second Life.

I created that batty little blue-haired thing at tektek.org - sort of cute I suppose. Not sure exactly what purpose it serves, but I may be able to use it somewhere.

It's kind of fun now and then to create little avatars to use as your personal identifier on websites where one might lurk about. Often I just use one of my photos, or some strange little picture I've found along my internet travels.

I checked out the DoppelMe.com site - HIDEOUS. At least if you're going to play around with these things, they ought to look good!

I prefer Meez.com - a little more interesting. Don't you think?

I do. That's just one of my personal meez avatars - I also have a library meez. I've updated it a bit in anticipation of the Oak Harbor teens reaching the goal I've set for them. 50,000 pages (combined) and I'll dye my hair purple when they come back to school. I am sure they will reach it - they've submitted over 300 book reviews so far!!!

One of the questions to answer here is what I think of my virtual self vs. my real self. Ummmm, I don't really think of my virtual self as being anybody but an extension of the real me. Though I don't have a pet dragon and my hair isn't to my ankles, I think they are reasonable representations of myself... I do take pictures in cemeteries, after all!

As for Ms. Dewey - I don't like her. She gets annoying pretty quickly. And I certainly hope people don't think that's the kind of customer service you get from librarians!!!

As for Second Life - it seems interesting, but I don't really have the time or inclination to delve too deeply into it right now. I signed up today, but don't have the software downloaded and therefore didn't spend any time with it. I watched one of the short movies, and it was fairly impressive. It seems like you can do quite a bit there - but really, wouldn't it be better to be out doing all of this in the real world?

You know - the place with fresh air...and sunshine...and baby crows in your yard...