To be a Social Networking Butterfly or not.....

It's been a while between postings I know. I've noticed that I often think about what I would like to blog and even mentally draft blogs in my head.

So here goes the real thing....

I've been investigating the world of social networking. As an older and more responsible muppet to 2 younger mupp-ettes (if you will) it's an area that does hold some degree of dread for me. I can hear my children now "You're so old" with "uncool" implied but not actually said.

After looking at a few networking sites I came across an example of a young man with autism who wasn't able to verbally communicate with people but who had lots of social network friends and was able to deal with people very effectively this way (without all the distracting and ambiguous facial expressions that we all use and which people with autism find very challenging to interpret). This example actually made me feel good and see a real value for social networking sites.

Another example I came across was where a library had set up a networking site specifically to gather information and advice about what gaming platforms and associated games (think along the lines of PlayStation and Xbox) would be best for the library. This one particularly hit home with me as a member asked questions about the Xbox 360 nunchuks and remotes. I'd recently had exactly the same questions and was very confused by the whole nunchuk issue. (I'm sure you'll have guessed that my children were more than happy to answer these questions that I had, and now I'm not an expert by any means but I'm not a novice either.)

As to whether I would feel comfortable with the mupp-ettes joining a social networking site - I'm still thinking about that one!

Wide Weird Wonderful World of Wikis

I love alliterations! I always have and probably always will. (I could have added more words stating with "W" in the title but I restrained myself.) This time I've been discovering (as the title states) Wikis. I really wasn't all that familiar with them beyond Wikipedia and I had my doubts about the veracity of the entries. But I've happily found that wikis are very useful. It was explained to me that wikis "are a type of website where everyone can pitch in".

A few of the wikis I looked at were Public Libraries NSW Marketing Group Wiki. After looking around at their Tips and Tricks, Merchandise, Photos and Updates sections it appeared that a lot of this sort of information could/ would be found on some organisations intranets. There were templates for a checklist and an event booking sheet - all very helpful.

Wookieepedia was another wiki I looked at and I now know that despite what I thought, I am not a true Star Wars fan. This was a real fan-based site and I discovered that I am soooooooooo ignorant about Star Wars, after all I still think that the first film is the FIRST FILM, while my children keep telling me that it's really the fourth in the series!!!!

I came across a book that sounds really interesting and that I will have to order from the library. It's called "Flushed: How the Plumber Saved Civilization" and it's got me intrigued I have to admit. I read a review about it on Book Lovers Wiki which was a summer reading club for adults wiki which is now locked and is kept active as an archive creating a "snapshot in time" of what the members were reading at that time.

This time's venture into technology has made me stop and look at wikis in a different way. See you can teach an old muppet new tricks.

Oops! Sock Monkeys Part 2

I know, I know. I botched it up. I did say I was on a learning curve.

The images that I wanted to include didn't post. I discovered that the original Sock Monkey trio image I had planned to include was copyright protected, which is fair enough - I didn't research it quite far enough, and the Evil Sock Monkey - well to be honest I'm not quite sure why that didn't appear. We are having a number of computer problems and maybe that had something to do with it. Your guess would be as good as mine.....better probably.

So I'm going to try again and hopefully with much more success this time.

I do need to add that by these images appearing in this blog their owners do not endorse me or the blog. The trio photo appears on Flickr and was uploaded by red5standingby, while the Evil, Evil Sock Monkey photo was uploaded by Flidas. There I think I've done all the legal stuff. Enjoy!

But wait, there's more. I've found an entry in Wikipedia which explains Sock Monkeys. Again enjoy!

What is it with Sock Monkeys?

I'm still on a learning curve. I've just started reading a new book- a collection of short stories from one of my "new" favourite authors, that is an author I've discovered recently whose work I really enjoy.

I was reading the introduction (yes I'm one of those muppets who read introductions and let's just leave it at that) and he mentioned that one of the stories was inspired by a photograph of a particular Sock Monkey he had seen. This got me thinking "Sock Monkey? Sock Monkey? What is a Sock Monkey?" I had images of stuffed toys resembling monkeys created out of socks that had seen better days. Maybe that's where the lost ones go? I'll have to give that some more thought....

Anyway back to the learning curve I went on Flickr and went looking for sock monkeys and discovered that there's lots of them.

So I decided to post two contrasting versions of them so other people/muppets could contemplate the world of Sock Monkeys with me. Who would have thought that such things exist? The colourful trio look very friendly and harmless but the evil, evil Sock Monkey....I wouldn't want to mess with him. Although I do like the fact that he is sitting beside an empty liquor bottle. But maybe that says more about me than the evil Sock Monkey!

Woo Hoo!

I did it! I've created a blog! I know for most people probably not a big achievement, but for a person with some Luddite tendencies this is HUGE. When I told my children that I was doing this and what I'd called it I think they heaved a sigh of relief believing (mistakenly) that I would only be ranting in cyberspace and save their poor eardrums. No more would they have to listen to me curse (in a sedated manner) about people who shouldn't be driving if they don't know the road rules.

Speaking of which, this week's particular sore point is with drivers who don't know/ understand/ care about the roundabout rules! Grrrr. I cross alot of roundabouts in my daily driving and I'm sick of drivers who completely ignore the rules and think that by just approaching a roundabout that it's all theirs.

Anyway that's enough for today and it probably has saved my children's eardrums for the moment.