Whoohooo! The Camera is Rolling and We are Rolling with Laughter

Well, I had intended to do the Web 2.0 explorations in order. I mean, why not? But today I've changed my mind. Fellow blogger Book Pusher and I went to a local elementary school with the costume for our SRC Mascot, Sneaks the Library Cat. Book Pusher brought her brand new digital camera that records video. I brought my cat attitude.

So she documented me climbing into the costume and strutting down the hall, greeting the kids as they entered school for the day. In between photos, she took some hilarious video clips. At one point Sneaks was being hugged by about a zillion little kids, and he began to sway from side to side and, ominously, felt his feet lifting sightly off the ground. He feared tipping over backwards and crushing Kindergarteners. Luckily, the brave reading teacher intervened. Later she said she thought the kids were going to carry away Sneaks like a colony of ants with a potato chip. Seen on video the scene is really funny and --WOW--Sneaks is a Rock Star! Those kids rushed him like the crazed SRC fans we were hoping to create. So what if they tore the shirt off his back? (Not really, just kidding, but some did pull his tail.)

In another clip, Sneaks is startled to find himself on TV for the morning announcements. His fans begged for him, so he had to oblige. The camera is rolling and he hears music for the opening credits. So he bops around and pats the serious 5th grade anchorgirls on the head like the silly cat he is. On video, the music is actually the song "It's a Grand Old Flag, It's a High Flying Flag," precusor to the pledge of allegiance. Who knew? Sneaks was still deafened by the screaming mob and everything he hears is mysteriously muffled, anyway. I did wonder if Sneaks had been inadvertently disrespectful, but the reading teacher, a nice, but tough lady, did not rebuke him, so I guess it was okay. She did call him a ham, but hey, what cat isn't?

So now Book Pusher and I want to play around with the video clips, (we have like 8 of them) and maybe connect them together and share them with the school. I'm taking Skillsoft training and had a tutorial on Vista's movie maker, so we might try that. I'm sure there are websites for it as well. Maybe the software we need is lurking on the library harddrive. Plus we need an easy way to share the clips. Most of the shots are from a distance, so you probably couldn't identify any particular child, but we are leary about putting it on YouTube to share. Also, this was Book Pusher's first time with her new camera and most of the clips are sideways. We are not sure if we can rotate them like you can with photographs. Even sideways, they are hilarious. Unfortunately, Book Pusher took her finger off the button when I was teasing her by saying, "Too bad our photographer can't work her camera. . . ." because then the rest of the video would show that first trys often turn out surprisingly well! Yay for Book Pusher!

We will keep you updated on the video and maybe can attach a clip to our blogs.

We welcome any advice on working with video clips. Please post comments!

Flickr

Today I created a Flickr account and linked it to my blog. I had a bunch of cat photos on my work computer that I use as a screensaver, so I just uploaded them. I've had a Kodakgallery Account for years but have resisted using Flickr because most of my home photos are of friends and family. I worried about privacy, though you can limit who sees your pictures. Also, uploading only 6 at a time seemed like a pain. I'll have to play around with it a little more and see how I really like it.

Part of the trouble right now is that there are too many places to put things. I have about 5 years worth of photos in Kodakgallery and now I have some in Flickr. My husband has his travel photos in Fickr, and since he just got a MacBook, he has put some photos in our iPage account. Plus we have the originals stored on an external hard drive in the basement. It is so much more complicated than a shoebox (in fact, I have prints I've ordered online in a shoebox). Is it even worth putting them in an old fashioned album anymore?

At my library branch we put photos of staff and programs on our common drive. We have folders labeled SRC, Parties, Storytime, Building, etc. Staff can go in anytime to look at them. If we made a Flickr account we'd have to be sure to limit the viewers. But then it might be easier to get actual prints made.

Archivists learn about web 2.0

I was excited to begin this web 2.0 library project since my husband thinks about web 2.0 alot in his job as an archivist. He co-authored the following presentation at the last MARAC conference. Being a real web 2.0 guy, he then published the powerpoint presentation to slideshare.com where it can reach many viewers. Take a look:

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Below, Annabelle studies the web 2.0 slideshow during a test of the powerpoint projector. Even cats are getting into it!

Decisions

This is my first post for my web 2.0 training. I'm doing this at home, where I can have some quiet time. Got all settled in with a mug of Masala Chocolate Chai and a Poptart (chocolate of course) when my home office cat, Henrietta, started whining and crying. So much for quiet. Tossing a catnip mouse down the hall did not deter her so I chased her under the bed several times and now she is tired and ready for a nap.

I've named this blog after my latest food obsession, chocolate tea. I'm trying to eat less sweets so the tea is a substitute. I believe that Poptarts don't count as sweets because they have added vitamins and minerals and they are a breakfast food, not a dessert. I've had a lot of people disagree with me on that point, but I'm holding to it.

Anyway, that's how I thought up the name for this blog. My husband, who has been blogging for a long time, says lots of confused chocolate tea drinkers will look at my blog and be disappointed. So I apologize in advance to anyone who shows up here by accident. I'm not really going to blog about tea.