The Last Thing!

Wow... Thing 23... When I started the Programme April 9th seemed like a very long way off, but suddenly it's the day after tomorrow.
I should really start this entry with an apology. To all my fellow participants who worked so hard to get to this stage... I am sorry I didn't read your blogs! I tried, but eventually it got to be too much like hard work to keep up with everyone's thoughts as well as doing the Things themselves, and something had to give.
I don't regret following the Programme, however. It was definitely a positive experience for me in terms of learning exciting new things about Web 2.0 which I would not have discovered for ages without it. There were times when it all got a bit much; when having Things to do on top of work and studying and sleep (and suddenly finding myself with a boyfriend) seemed like TOO MUCH, but I think it was worth it.
Without 23 Things I would not have discovered Twitter, and the glorious Texts From Last Night, which is by far the funniest thing I have found on the Internet this year. I would also not have penguins on my iGoogle page, or an iGoogle page for that matter. I will take those away, along with my blog, which I am going to rename and continue with for the sake of the few people I have arm-twisted into reading it. I will leave behind Delicious, which I thought was pointless, and those Office 2.0 applications which seemed like a good idea at the time but which will only come into their own in a few years when speeds are better and it doesn't take twenty minutes to load. I daresay other things we have covered will seep into use over time; I am going to unsubscribe to things on Google Reader so I don't feel guilty about the 544 unread items and someday I might have time to have a play with podcasts and YouTube. Today I found a Library of Congress Subject Heading (Hikikomori) which cited Wikipedia as a source... I was very pleased!
If I were to offer suggestions to the team I might say that this programme ought to have been run at a time when people were less busy, such as the Long Vac, maybe, and that perhaps two Things a week were a bit tough, especially the ones which took a lot of time.

So... all in all a positive (if a bit hard work) experience.
Thanks Team, for all your hard work! I hope it proves beneficial to the whole of the Bodleian Libraries Group and beyond to have so many Web-savvy librarians on the staff!

P.S. Yes, that is my trolley, and yes, it is extremely lilac!

Gadgets again

Remember back in the distant past when I rebelled? I'm doing it again. I added the required gadget to my iGoogle page, found the settings irritating, tried to remember my login, couldn't because I don't see the point of sharing my bookmarks, and deleted it. Twice. There are more useful gadgets which one can add to iGoogle and I am always changing mine. I have a nice picture of clouds at the moment, and various other things which I move around depending on my mood. The penguins, however, remain constant. I get the point of this whole gadget business, but frankly the Wikipedia search box I have above my link to the BBC news on iGoogle at the moment is much more useful to me.
Sorry!