Tracking

I have used google alerts with the town I live in for news.  I have never used Social Mention or Addictomatic.  I've signed up for them all and am still pondering the questions about using them with my library.  I really like Addictomatic's interface...there is a lot going on, but so much info.  I tried a few other searches and found it to be a great one stop searching tool for what is happening with different topics.  I plan on playing around with these sites more.  They seem very useful!

Delicious

Here is another thing I have gotten away from and am now reconnected with...my Delicious account!!! Luckily my account is still there with all my wonderful sites.  I don't know how I lost touch with it because I used to use it so much.  Especially with having two computers at my house and using my work computer.  Delicious and I are now friends again.  When I used it in the past I used it for more personal use.  I did save sites for use at work on there too.  However I haven't thought of using it with co-workers, customers, etc.  After looking at LaGrange Park's and Holdrege's sites I realize how useful this would be to use at work.  Especially with homework sites.  While thinking of using delicious professionally I just realized another way I can use the social networking side of it...I do a workshop for teachers on realiable online resources.  This would be a great way for me not only to organize the sites I come across as I plan the workshop, but for the participants to check out my delicious page after the workshop for more sites.

Google Reader

I use RSS feeds on my phone to read my news daily.  I once set up a bloglines account and was following a bunch of blogs...but somewhere along the way I moved away from it and eventually forgot about it until now!  I just signed up for a Google Reader and think this might work better for me because I use my gmail account daily and can easily access Reader when I am logged into my gmail.  Signing up was easy and I added some blogs to follow.  I hope this helps me stay ontop of my favorite blogs and become more organized with them.  Right now I randomly go onto them and go through pages of backlog since the last time I was on and I find myself forgetting about blogs I like to go to.  We'll see how this goes!

I Just Ate Too Many Cookies

I do a really good job of aimlessly cruising around the Internet and eating cookies at the same time. I guess that is what happens after a busy day of work. Of course the cookies are homemade, I am selective and wouldn't waste a stomachache on anything but homemade chocolate chip. While I am on the topic of cookies I don't know what people did for recipes before the Internet. I do have a million cookbooks (and I know that is what people used pre-Internet). But the luxury of googling recipes that you've lost or had at a party is wonderful and I can't get enough of food blogs and their beautiful pictures that make me want to try everything I see. I guess technology has changed my relationship with the kitchen! Aside from food, technology is constantly changing my life. I feel I am constantly asking what we did before the Internet...even though I grew up without it. It makes me realize that I adapt so quickly to changing technology that I forget what life was like without it...it's a little scary or a lot scary at times! Even with my phone, for the past year I've had a smart phone and I can't imagine what I did before having the Internet on my phone. When I was out of the country recently it was really hard not to use the Internet on my phone (otherwise I would be charged millions of dollars for using it). I was going through withdrawal from checking emails and looking up restaurants. I adapted and could function...but there were so many moments that I wanted to pull my phone out and use it. Luckily all our hotels had wi-fi and I had my laptop with me.