ChaseU's Collection | Daniel Boone Regional Library | BiblioCommons

ChaseU's Collection Daniel Boone Regional Library BiblioCommons

Yessir, a new catalogue!!!

Well, I went ahead and gave our new library catalogue a little test drive. I think it's a huge improvement. I got to where I was only using OPAC as a last resort. That sucker was WORTHLESS. In short I am thrilled about this new catalogue. Looking forward to getting to know it better.

The three library related feeds that I subscibed to are as follows: Aweful Library Books, Library Journal News, and the Unquiet Librarian.

I think this thing is pretty neat, and I have subscribed to other feeds, including the Missouri Theatre, The Columbia Tribune and various other blogs that I am following.
It's pretty fun learning this stuff.

Web 2.0 Award Winner

Just took a gander at last.fm. What a neat site!! Users are able to search for any artist and see what other folks have to say about them. I am currently all into the band Punch Brothers. I was able to easily find them and was able learn things about them that I never knew. Also handy is the "similar artists" section. In that section I was able to view songs that I might not otherwise have heard of that I will probably like being a fan of the group whose site I just looked up. There is also a section for classical music. I haven't quite delved into this part of the site yet. But I sure plan to.

Brahms Symphonies

Well, I was reading about one of my favorite composers today, Johannes Brahms. I have made myself a project of fully immersing myself into his four symphonies. In my younger years, when I was hearing these works for the first time, the common question among new aquaintances, who were well versed in classical music, was always, "what's the best Brahms Symphony?!" I asked one of my old teachers this question one time, and after a little discussion and singing our favorite melodies and themes of the symphonies to one another for while, he waved the question off and said, "Ach, it's a stupid question. It's futile to compare masterpieces!!" Oh, man, I loved that. So now when the question comes up I always say this as if I had come up with it on my own. Pretty smart of me, eh?

Thougts on 7 1/2 Habits of Lifelong Learning

Well, I just finished reading the 7 1/2 Habits of Lifelong Learning. The easiest habit for me I think is the first one: Begin with the end in mind. I have always had no problem coming up with great and noble things that I could learn. I always kinda wanted to learn a foreign language, and find the idea of it very easy to grasp, but then I encounter problems. Which brings me to the hardest of the habits, Number 3: viewing problems as challenges. When I encounter problems learning a new task I get soooo discouraged that I just up and quit. But I think viewing and reviewing these habits will help a lot. Might be helpful to hunker down and learn them. :)

A new venture

Well, I think this thing will be fun. I've always wanted to start one of these, but was always too dang lazy. I have a buddy that blogs and he's tried, on many occasions, to convince me of its benefits. One that has stuck in my mind is that if you write a lot, keep a journal, or diary, or in this case a blog, you will become more articulate in your speech. On that one point my buddy has me convinced!! I guess time will tell. I never really had a passion for writing only because nobody ever told me that I was any good at it. In fact plenty of teachers throughout my school career have told me that I'm downright bad at it. So I never took to it. I think that's probably the only reason I do music: other people that I think are good at it keep telling me that I'm good too.
Anyhoo, hopefully this will be kind of a neat thing to do.