Task 23--Survey--CHECK!

Wahoooooo! Webolution achievement glory. I really enjoyed Webolution. I was racing to finish before CAL and made it. Yipppeeee. So. Webolution in retrospect. I liked learning about many things. I think digital audiobook downloads, file conversions, and open office are the most "potentially helpful to patrons" things to learn that I've gotten out of this. I also liked a lot of the Reader's Advisory stuff which brought up some sites I hadn't looked at before. The reminders of our resources were good, too. I wasn't a big fan of the weird, non-famous, "indie" - aka we'll charge you once we're "somebody" - music tasks, but then again, I'm not musically inclined, and they're still good to know about. I feel like I learned more than I had known before about Open Source, and Copyright...which are increasingly important. My personal favorite just to play with was Picnik. Some were silly in that I can't think of a single actually useful purpose for, like Sound Snap, but they were still fun to experiment with. I think most importantly, Webolution exposes us to tools and sites and concepts we wouldn't cross paths with ordinairily, and thats all that matters. I'm considering my tech savviness horizons broadened. I support any attempts at occasional, ongoing webolution!

Task 22--Sites We Like--CHECK!

This one totally confuses me. It should be easy-peesy, yes, but. For the billionth time, I'm sure, I don't have the Internet at home, and even when I did, I was never a big surfer. So that leaves breaks here at work to do any of that type of thing, and it never really occurs to me. I do pretty much only practical, personally beneficial tasks online I guess. I don't personally follow any especially entertaining blogs or sites. So I have very little...or I guess nothing...to share. Which is sad. I do visit the occasional cake, baking, or general cooking websites...I like All Recipes a bunch. Seasonally speaking, I think Elf Yourself is the best thing ever created. See it in action, featuring yours truly Reference staff, here. I'll warn that you may fall over laughing. And then you will have to fill out an injury report, so be careful. Anyway. I did like Nancy's tastespotting, although that linked me from blog to blog to blog, and I can see how this type of thing is totally addicting, because all of a sudden, I find myself reading about this LA librarian who is also tackling baking and this month is making one bundt cake a day for thirty days. I hope she has a lot of hungry friends. Enjoyable, though. It should be fun to see what everyone else follows. Sorry I'm boring!

Task 21--Picnik--CHECK!

Okay. Best. Webolution. Task. Ever. Picnik really is a picnic. Things I love: A) it's free, B) no registration, C) super crazy easy to use, and D is for delightful. Yes, Photoshop is blow-your-mind extensive and the master of manipulating any image in any way imaginable, but the price makes it totally out of reach for most, and there's a lot of trickery to learn. (I took a class once, for fun, and it was awesome, but I could never buy it, so probably have lost everything. ::shrugs::) Picnik is super enjoyable and perfect for everyday, ordinary touchups and other edits or fun additions. I enjoyed it a lot. If I had the Internet at home, and if I had a lot of digital photos, I would seriously consider storing/sharing/editing through this site. Picassa is cool, too. This was a fun task to play with. And now. A Picniked photo of my cat, Oliver.

Task 20--Local and Other Gov't--CHECK!

This task is a good reminder of how helpful these sites can be, and yes, I forget about the Community Directory page periodically--I tend to just type in the addresses, but this is faster and more convenient. So cool things I discovered while exploring. I went to the Mesa County site, and out of curiosity, clicked on "Community Involvement" which led to "Volunteer Opportunities", which is exciting, and Animal Services needs some people for some pretty awesome things, one of which is being a foster parent to baby animals until they're old enough to be adoptable. That sounds like a WHOLE lot of fun (who doesn't like baby animals?), but I would probably want to keep them all and not give them up again. ::sigh:: But there were other options there as well. Next, I found all the Death/Birth record stuff through the Health Department, which is good to know. I found the Assessor page, which looks easy to use, but I don't own property, boo, so couldn't assess it. I then moved on to the State of Colorado site. I use this a lot to help patrons. Obviously taxes are a big one--Residents--Taxes. Easy enough. Another one I find myself using really frequently is Employment--Licenses. It gives a list of which professions require licenses, how to obtain them, how to apply for them or renew them, so. This is really helpful. Then I went back to the Community Directory to poke around some more. I went to the Chamber's site. And I found coupons! I love a bargain and I certainly love a coupon. Under Business Services, it has postings of them--like for Dos Hombres, Partyland, a Gourmet Cheesecake place. Fun! They also have a good local business directory. So Task 20 accomplished.