Number NINE...number NINE...number NINE...

(Note: only the Beatles fans in the audience will get that reference.)

So, here we arrive at Learning 2.0 step nine. Ergo, I used Technorati to search for "endangered species", found an environmental blog called Gristmill, and added it to my Bloglines feed by clicking the handy little button. You can check here to see that I'm not lying to you:

http://www.bloglines.com/public/MCR

And...that's it, basically. As you were.

The Fine Art of Making Things Harder Than Need Be

(Or: The Road of Learning Has a Few Potholes)

There are few things more frustrating than being unable to complete a task not because YOU'VE done anything wrong, but because someone or something on the other end is messing up. To wit, it took me six tries to sign up with Bloglines because the site kept failing to send me my confirmation email. However, it finally worked. So here are the results, in glorious black and white:

http://www.bloglines.com/public/MCR

I don't know. I can see how if you routinely read a lot of blogs and/or news sites, this would be an easy way to see which of them had updated. Still, personally, I doubt I'll have much use for it. It was as much trouble to set the thing up as it would have been to just visit the sites I normally read.

Also, part of the fun of looking at blogs like my co-workers' is seeing the way they've set up their pages...the colors and fonts and images they've chosen to represent themselves. The Bloglines method gets the text of their posts across efficiently, but robs me of the visual enjoyment of seeing the page as the creator intended. Although perhaps I'm just odd that way.

(This Line Has Been Intentionally Left Blank)

Next step, blogging about technology. Well, I'm using technology to type this, and you're using technology to read it. So technology has brought us closer together as people, if you want to think of it that way, even though I actually have no idea who you are. (Unless you reply, of course. Which reminds me, I need to go comment on other peoples' blogs too.)

Technology is also allowing me to listen to the Sweeney Todd soundtrack as I type, as well as being responsible for the light that lets me see what I'm doing. So I suppose without technology I'd be sitting here in the dark doing nothing. But most likely my dog would be OK with that.

Reaching new lows...quite literally.

On to the amazing SPLS Learning step #6! What Flickr application intrigues me the most? Well. "Intrigues" is far too strong a word, but the Internet Inferno application at least has a vaguely interesting concept. Clicking on the site causes it to bring up random images from Flickr associated with the descriptions of the various levels of Hell in Dante's Inferno. (Am I allowed to say Hell in an official blog? Guess I'll find out.)

Anyway, not a bad idea, but the actual execution is disappointing. Most of the images seem to be completely random, having nothing to do with the topic at all. Although it was slightly amusing to see that the 8th Circle, Bolgia Four: Sorcerers and False Prophets contained an image of Mickey Mouse. I always thought there was something a little suspect about that guy.

The Unparalleled Excitement of Looking At Pictures On the Internet.

I have been told to link to a Flickr photo on my blog. So this is me linking to a Flickr photo on my blog. And this is you looking at it, or deciding you don't really want to and going off to do something more interesting.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/cuba_photos/753347562/

My doggie is not a purebred Siberian Husky, but his coloration and facial markings are very similar to those of this handsome fellow here. The photographer has many nice-looking photos from all around the world in his gallery. (It seems only right to give the guy a bit of free advertising, seeing as how I'm exploiting one of his images here.)

Enter freely, and of your own will.

This is one of my all-time favorite sites, so naturally I feel compelled to inflict it on as many people as possible.

The Miskatonic Mansion
http://www.miskatonic.net

The amount of effort and detail involved in this site is truly amazing. A little familiarity with the works of H. P. Lovecraft is useful, but not essential.

Enter, explore, enjoy. But don't go into the woods at night, and above all, don't make Veronica angry.

P.S. Those of you who are truly intrepid explorers may discover a familiar name on one of the tombstones in the old graveyard.

These are not the posts you're looking for.

Apparently for our first post we're supposed to write about the 7 1/2 Habits thing. It has not been adequately explained to me how one can have half a habit, but there we are.

Which is easiest for me? Well, if I'm forced to choose--and I suppose I am--it'd most likely be #2, "Accept responsibility for your own learning." Mostly because it seems odd that anyone else would accept responsibility for it.

The hardest? Well, if I can't say "all the rest", then #3: "View problems as challenges." I have a tendency to view problems as problems. (Also I view apples as apples, oranges as oranges, that sort of thing.) If this is bad and wrong and evil, then shall I hang my head in shame, but not for very long.

Have an absolutely spiffing weekend, and may the Force be with you.