What I Meant To Say

Image via CrunchBase

Why is it that you always think of the perfect thing to say after the fact?  Last night was no exception.  I taught an overview of Twitter and all the good things came to me after the class had left.  I’m left feeling as if I let them down by not passing along this info.  I had so much in my head, so much I had planned to show and talk about but somehow there is never enough time.

So here is a list of things I hope I pointed out but in case I didn’t:

• Your follower/following ratio – this ratio should not be horribly lopsided.  5 followers but following 500 isn’t good.  More than likely that person is just in it for the numbers (so folks just want to have the most followers but aren’t really using Twitter correctly).
• Before you follow – view their profile.  Is their bio filled out?  Who are they following?  What is their follower/following ratio?  Read some of their tweets, all of them help you to decide is this person really someone I want to follow.
• Twitter vs. Facebook – Twitter is more informational.  Facebook is more fun.  Each has it’s place and they can connect (have Twitter update your status on Facebook) but I don’t get the same level of information on Facebook as I do on Twitter.
• To understand Twitter you need to use Twitter.  Not that the concept is so hard to grasp just that it can have so many applications depending on what you want from it.
• I did say this but feel I should elaborate – Twitter is what you get out of it.  I use it to stay on top of trends (professionally or just what’s going on in the world), I use it to stay informed (following BBCnews, BreakingNews, NyTimes as well as several experts in the social media arena), I use it to connect to others in my profession, I use it for note taking (I’ve live blogged a photography class I attend at the library just using Twitter.  Because I hashtagged my Tweets I was able to go back later and put all my notes into a cohesive blog post).
• Use Twitter for what you want but be real.  If you want to connect with other like minded folks, Twitter is great for that.  If you want to promote your business, non-profit, favorite charity, etc. it is also great for that.  Just beware.  Don’t be an institution.  People want to follow real people no matter whether is it a Mom who is looking to connect to other stay at home Moms or it is a Fortune 500 company trying to connect with their customers.  Let your personality shine through on your tweets.  Don’t be stuffy.  Also don’t make it all about you – engage a conversation with your customers.  Make yourself approachable.  Twitter is just another doorway into your business – good customer service extends to the web as well.
• Protecting your tweets isn’t always a good thing.  If you are out on the social web the point is to share.  I understand about wanting to be in control of what you share with others.  Protecting your tweets just puts another layer between you and the people/customers who may want to follow you.  This also keeps your tweets out of searches.  So if I search for dog grooming and your are a dog groomer with protected tweets I’m not going to see you and you may miss an opportunity for business.  What are you protecting?  Think twice before you protect your tweets.
• Be patient.  Give it a try.  Twitter wasn’t built in a day.  You need to try it on, take it out for a test drive, kick the tires a little bit before you decide.  The social web has a web site for everyone – Twitter maybe for you or it may not.  But at least give it a try.

RSS is Dead, Long Live RSS?

Image by loic_hay via Flickr

I have to admit that my jury is still out on RSS.  I understand it, have taught classes about it and have used several different readers over the years.  So I found it interesting that @lrainie retweeted 2 blog articles about RSS today.

First one, The Top 5 Reasons RSS Readers Went Wrong, pointed out very good reasons that RSS exerpience just isn’t what it should be.  I completely agreed with #2 & #5 – “One of the things I like about shared links in Twitter & Facebook is that I can start or read a conversation about the story and otherwise give feedback (i.e. “like” or retweet) to the publisher of the news as part of the experience.” – “The process of adding feeds still takes too many steps. If I see your Twitter profile and think you’re worth following, I click the “follow” button and I’m done.“  I’m not thinking that Twitter is the answer for everything but they do make it easy to “subscribe” and share.

The second article, If You Think RSS is Dead Then That’s Your Loss and It’s a Big One,  of course takes the other side of things.  My feelings is that Marshall is entitled to his opinion as much as Dare and Sam are entitled to theirs.

My jury is still out.  I use Google Reader and have quite a few feeds but to be honest I barely read them anymore.  I pay attention to my Twitter stream and Friendfeed.  I follow people like @lrainie, @Mashable, @rww, and @Jeremiah Owyang that give me perspective on the social web and the Internet in general.  I follow people like @MLx, @baldgeekinmd, @msauers, @libraryman, @lorireed, @pollyalida and others that keep me up on my profession (Libraries & Training).  I follow people like @nengard, @ranginui, @wizzyrea, @Miromurr, @gmcharlt, @magnusenger, @nirak and more that keep me up on things going on in the Open Source community.

I don’t know if RSS is dead but for me the social web and looking to people I know and/or trust (compare to some news agency) is MY way of keeping on top of things.

Who Moved My FriendFeed?

Image via CrunchBase

By now most folks who use Friendfeed know that it was acquired by Facebook yesterday.  If you visit Friendfeed today you’ll see lots of gloom and doom predictions, rats leaving the sinking ship and so on.  Ah, human nature is amazing to behold in action.  Move someone’s cheese and they just can’t handle it.

I’m not saying you have to like Facebook, I’m not saying you have to stay if you don’t feel like it but let’s wait and see if all that you are sure is going to happen, happens.  I remember when I first started at Friendfeed everyone was predicting the fall of Twitter – everyone is moving over here they won’t use Twitter.  I even blogged about this and letting the dust settle before I made any rash decisions or predictions.

I maybe one of the few at Friendfeed that love both sites and use them differently.  I don’t know what is going to happen (and neither do any of you who aren’t employeed by Facebook).  So let’s just sit back, see what happens and for once not assume the worst.  If you have to leave based on some princple then go but do it quietly please.

I guess my quote on my Momentile profile says it all – “Embrace change because it’s going to happen anyway.“   If you have been around the interwebs for any time at all you should know by now that things change, sites get bought out, new ones become the golden child and tried but true ones fade away.  It will be an interesting next couple of months to see just what happens to Friendfeed and who stays or goes.  Maybe I should have gone into psychiatry – manking and the way they thing/react is indeed very interesting to study.

Thanks for Spreading the Word – Twitter & Raising Funds for LFPL

Image via CrunchBase

For those who don’t understand how things like Twitter, Facebook, Friendfeed and blogs can help you get your message (be it an individual or a company/organization) let me give you a perfect example from yesterday.

Steve Lawson posted a blog entry on See Also trying to raise money to help the Louisville Free Public Library.  Folks who subscribe to his RSS feed I’m sure saw this post, as well as those who searched and stumbled upon it that way but I love how we all jumped on this and spread the news.

My original Tweet:

mlibrarianusLet’s Flood Them With Cash: I know the economic times pull on everyone’s purse strings.  What I̵.. http://bit.ly/yFnHq

Then my followers retweeted (thanks to them all for helping to spread the word):

eclasperRT @AtYourLibrary: RT @mlibrarianus: Louisville Free Public Lib is under more than 3 ft of water – donate today http://twurl.nl/uumkmn

thesheckRT @mlibrarianus: Louisville Free Public Lib is under more than 3 ft of water – donate today if you can http://twurl.nl/uumkmn #libraries

AtYourLibraryRT @mlibrarianus: Louisville Free Public Lib is under more than 3 ft of water – donate today if you can http://twurl.nl/uumkmn

prattlibraryRT @mlibrarianus Louisville Free PL in desperate need – is under more than 3 ft of water – donate today if you can: http://twurl.nl/uumkm

Grants_PrattRT @mlibrarianus Louisville Free PL in desperate need – is under more than 3 ft of water – donate today if you can: http://twurl.nl/uumkm

JobCenter_PrattRT @mlibrarianus Louisville Free PL in desperate need – is under more than 3 ft of water – donate today if you can: http://twurl.nl/uumkmn

calimaeLouisville Free Public Library is under more than 3 ft of water – donate today if you can http://twurl.nl/uumkmn (via @mlibrarianus)

TuphlosRT @TaraLSF RT @mlibrarianus Support Your Library – keep Louisville Free Public Library in mind. They are under water – need your help

TaraLSFRT @mlibrarianus Support Your Library – keep Louisville Free Public Library in mind. They are under water – need your help to recover h …

My followers added their own original Tweets or retweeted other to spread the word:

gregschwartz http://twitpic.com/cujvz – Today’s first pic

TaraLSFRT @amandamcneil How to donate to the Louisville Library ($1mil in damages): http://bit.ly/yrkVm

TaraLSFRT @yo_bj RT: @TheRepoRat: Help Louisville Free Public Library, devastated by flash flooding: http://bit.ly/tJea7

mlibrarianus#fb New blog post Let’s Flood Them With Cash: I know the economic times pull on everyone&.. http://bit.ly/yFnHq

cjburnsRT @czamm: Louisville Free Public Library needs your help http://icanhaz.com/LFPLNYH – LSW raising funds

librarianbydayLouisville Free Public Library Needs Your Help http://bit.ly/tJea7

mir_bRT @gregschwartz Watching the h2o being poured out of our servers. Depressing. and http://twitpic.com/cujvz – Today’s first pic #lfplflood

mir_bRT @czamm Louisville Free Public Library needs your help http://icanhaz.com/LFPLNYH (LSW fundraiser) #lfplflood

cindiRT @czamm Louisville Free Public Library needs your help http://icanhaz.com/LFPLNYH

ellbeeceeRT @czamm Louisville Free Public Library needs your help http://icanhaz.com/LFPLNYH (LSW fundraiser)

mir_bLouisville Free Public Library, hang in there. #lfplflood

gregschwartzWatching the h2o being poured out of our servers. Depressing.

joshuamneffRT @czamm Louisville Free Public Library needs your help http://icanhaz.com/LFPLNYH

TaraLSFRT @Jill_HW Flood devastation at Louisville (KY) Free Public Library from @gregschwartz http://twitpic.com/cujvz

Jill_HWFlood devastation at Louisville (KY) Free Public Library from @gregschwartz http://twitpic.com/cujvz

libraryfutureRT @cpellegr The LSW is helping out the Louisville Free Public Library: http://tinyurl.com/lc42u8 Spread the word.

laurabottsHelp the flooded Louisville Free Public Library: http://tinyurl.com/lc42u8

beccalovesbooksReading about the Louisville Free Public Library and their damage from the rain. I wish there were something I could physically do to help!

jambinaRT @cpellegr: The LSW is helping out the Louisville Free Public Library: http://tinyurl.com/lc42u8 Spread the word.

lisacarlucciRT @libraryfuture @cpellegr The LSW is helping out the Louisville Free Public Library: http://tinyurl.com/lc42u8 Spread the word!

BillDrew4RT @cjburns: RT @czamm: Louisville Free Public Library needs your help http://icanhaz.com/LFPLNYH – LSW raising funds

millerlibrarianRT @libraryfuture RT @cpellegr The LSW is helping out the Louisville Free Public Library: http://tinyurl.com/lc42u8 Spread the word.

kenleyneufeldFwd: Let’s raise $5k for Louisville Public Library in the name of the LSW – http://bit.ly/DTj2K (via… [pic] http://ff.im/-6cMjG

kenleyneufeldFor you non-librarian types, the Louisville PL was flooded yesterday. Help out with a small/large donation at http://bit.ly/DTj2K

cclibrarian#Librarian Feeds reading:Louisville: Can A Plague of Locusts Be Far Behind? http://bit.ly/DkyU7

baldgeekinmdRT @cpellegr The LSW is helping out the Louisville Free Public Library: http://tinyurl.com/lc42u8 Spread the word.

HoCo_Library Help out! Louisville Public Library hit hard by rain and flood. To read more and to donate http://bit.ly/3kb2NN

Jill_HWLet’s raise $5,000 for Louisville Public Library in the name of the LSW – http://tinyurl.com/lc42u8

codslapHelp the Louisville free Public Lib. They had a huge flood. http://bit.ly/3vaf6V Let’s see if we can meet the LSW donation goal of $5,000.

http://twitpic.com/cvorn – My (former?) officegregschwartz

And others I don’t even know got into the act

wfplnews WFPL The Edit: LFPL Closed All Week: The Louisville Free Public Library’s main branch downtown wil.. http://bit.ly/bFral

wfplnews WFPL The Edit: Eat A Pie For The Library: @michellej at Consuming Louisville has started taking ma.. http://bit.ly/oQWxa

AriThatcher Help the Louisville Free Public Library recover from flood damage http://bit.ly/S8edr

Jen_Cook RT @TeresaMedeiros: Book drive 2 help out Louisville Free Public Library-flooded yesterday-massive damage. http://bit.ly/GkZNK

RainyDayBooks RT Help the Louisville Free Public Library out. http://bit.ly/3vaf6V . You don’t know what you’ve lost until it’s gone.

Achilles_healin @joshuamneff Donated, sir. … RT @czamm Louisville Free Public Library needs your help http://icanhaz.com/LFPLNYH

Steve reported today that $600 has already been raised (less than 24 hours after posting his blog entry).  Thank you to all who helped spread the word and more importantly to those who contributed to a very worthy cause.

Library Folks Have Real Lives Too (or Two) – Day 3

How ironic that last year when I chronicled my week for Library Day in the Life, I had to take my husband in for some testing.  Turns out this year wasn’t going to be an exception except this time it was my Mom.  She was scheduled to have a bronchoscopy.

Day 3

Woke up early because I was sleeping in a strange bed (at my parent’s house).  Went back to sleep and woke up again at 7:30 (which is sleeping in during the week for me so that was a treat).  Jumped in the shower and got dressed.  My Mother never listens – she is going to feed you within an inch of your life if she can.  I told her cereal for breakfast was fine (that is what I have at home) but of course she had peaches cut and a blueberry muffin in the toaster oven as well.  I humored her on the peaches (love ‘em) but wasn’t hungry enough for the muffin.  Checked email quickly (both work and Gmail) before we left for Chambersburg Hospital.

Quick drive to the hospital from my folks house.  Walked into the Same Day Services area of the hospital and checked Mom in.  We found 3 seats (Dad, Mom and I) and proceeded to wait for her to be called.  Odd thing is they called my Father’s name instead.  Gee, maybe Dad would do the procedure for Mom instead?  Nah.  They went back to get her prepped and I settled in for a wait.  Pulled out my iPod and shuffled my tunes.  Grabbed my book, The Moses Stone by James Becker (picked it up at Heathrow) and didn’t get very far when my Dad came out.  They would allow me to go in the room with her (which was much better than waiting in the waiting room).

They wheeled Mom into the procedure room.  2 students were there to observe the procedure.  One student, Joe,  turned out to be a med student who had attended University of Maryland and had worked in Columbia, MD for awhile.  Small world!  The nurses couldn’t have been nicer and Joe and the other student were great.  Dr. Jamblin came in and asked if we had any questions (my Dad almost asked him where he had been as he was 30 mins. late).  We left to go wait.

I swear they were done in 15 minutes or so.  The nurse said that Mom was a good patient.  We went back into the room and the doctor told us how things went.  Unfortunately, we won’t know the results until Monday the 3rd of August.  Gee, thought the procedure was bad but waiting through the weekend might be worse.

After they took a chest x-ray to make sure Mom’s lung hadn’t collapsed they wheeled her into recovery.  She wouldn’t be released until her gag reflex returned.  It did as the numbing drugs wore off but so did the realization that a strange foreign object had been down her throat.  She said her throat was on fire.  Nurses said we could use Tylenol and throat lozenges to ease the discomfort.

Dad went out to bring the car around and I stayed with Mom.  Then off to get lozenges for her throat and lunch for all of us.  We stopped at Panera and I was really surprised – their Panera had a drive-thru!  Wish the ones here did.  Took all our goodies home and ate lunch.  Poor Mom probably shouldn’t have eaten as much as she did as she wound up getting sick.  All the stuff they gave her (and they warned us this can happen) just didn’t agree with soup and a salad.  So I shipped her off to bed.

This gave Dad time to play around with his new Blu-Ray disc player and for me to catch up on Twitter, Facebook, email and such.  Wound up writing my blog post from the previous day at my parent’s house.

Between the pouring down rain storms I managed to get outside and take a few photos.   A neighbor’s daylily had blown off it’s stem and landed in the road.  I liked the dark orange against the blacktop of the road.  Didn’t get to stay out very long as the next line of storms came through.  So I went back inside and fixed dinner for my folks.  Nothing big just leftovers from the birthday dinner I had taken up for my Dad on Sunday (lasagna and salad).

Then I headed home to Reisterstown.  Once home I was greeted by 2 very happy dogs.  Maddie, the English Springer Spaniel and my constant shadow, had missed me terribly.  But Dani, the Lab mix, was also glad to see me.  Dealt with dogs, downloaded and edited pics …. crawled into bed around 9:30.  Thought I was tired but wound up watching “Top Chef Masters” instead.  Actually never did see who was the final winner.

I would have much rather been at work than in the hospital.  But since she had to go through this I was glad I was there for Mom.  Let’s just hope the results are good.

A Day in the Life – Take Two

Image by emdot via Flickr

The 2nd Annual Library Day in the Life started today. Same rules apply – “whether you are a librarian or library worker of any kind, help us share and learn about the joys and challenges of working in a library.” So after a full day of work, walking of the dogs, mowing part of our 2 acres, fixing dinner and cleaning up I finally sat down to watch “The Hunting Party” episode of  season two of Lost while I put my notes into a blog post.

Monday July 27, 2009

Got to work just before 7:30 am to find that I wasn’t the only early bird this morning.  Julian Clark (who is also participating in this via Twitter – @julian2) was in before me and already hard at work.

• Swapped out the backup tapes and exchanged last week’s set for the new set for both the Horizon and the Authority Works servers.
• Put a new sheet up for the server room temperature sheet (librarian in charge has to record the temp once a day to ensure the servers stay cool)
• Unforward the helpdesk phone line (gets forward after hours to one of IT’s cell phones)
• Performed the morning duties for Monday
• Headed to Staff Lounge to get a mug full of ice for my homemade green tea with lime
• Settled into my desk – logged into both my Ubuntu and Windows machines
• Checked voice mail – one call from the Head of Collection Services in response to a question about what we do when titles are no longer available from OverDrive
• Checked email (both work and Gmail)
• Checked to see if there any pending helpdesk tickets to assign (luckily there were none)
• Using Twirl I Twittered about Library Day in the Life (smiled when armylibrarian retweeted my tweet about Library Day in the Life)
• Sent email (per Central Library Manager’s request) to rest of the Howard County Library signage committee about the cool picture I found of Seattle Public Library’s call no. floor mats
• Checked Flickr, Facebook and Twitter and rss feeds (social|median and RWW)
• Dugg a couple of worthy articles
• Updated Online Request a title for your bookclub form on library’s web site
• Reviewed Si fStaff Intranet) for submissions that may need to be published  and cleaned up expired announcements
• Went to our Miller Branch to take the last Library101 photos
• Got back to Central Library about 15 minutes after we had opened (due to budget restrictions we are now opening at 10 am instead of 9 am) and got one of the few remaining parking spaces (we are loved!)
• Worked on email bouncebacks notices (always a lot after the weekend) – remove the address from customer’s account, put block on the account asking for an updated email address
  
• Responded to email from the Executive Director and CEO about how to get an important presentation to the architects before the 1pm meeting
• Took call from librarian at the main information desk – problem with receipt printer and trapping hold – conflict between the printer and keyboard
• Just got back to desk when the fiction desk called with a problem – not sure what happened as they said they couldn’t trap hold but when I was there had no problem (didn’t hear anything more from them about this issue)
• Queued up several Tweets for the library’s official Twitter account – @HoCo_Library
• Email to head of collection services about removing titles from catalog that aren’t part of Overdrive anymore.
• Closed 2 helpdesk tickets regarding customer question and error message with OverDrive – one could have been found by looking through the help section
• Finally some lunch and my guilty pleasure of playing Bejeweled Blitz on Faceboo
• Answered IM question from librarian about OpenOffice and adding page numbers.   Found answer by Googling – gee, why didn’t the librarian do that?
• Wrote another Tweet for the library’s official account
• Edited and uploaded images I took at Miller Branch for Library101 video project
• Wrote post for Open Source blog – waiting review
• Sent email to staff that had pictures taken for library101 w/link to Flickr
• Resized library101 images and uploaded to facebook
• Updated email alias and closed helpdesk ticket – didn’t need to update – realized I forgot to update the mailing list (not just the group in Deksnow)
• Worked on some AOL bounced backs – people forget that they sign up for email notices from the library then they mark us as spam
• Closed another helpdesk ticket about OverDrive – seems like the problems come in batches
• Fixed email mailing list so all names display on staff intranet
• Investigated how we managed to have Maryland spelled incorrectly on one of our PAC screensavers for the last couple of yrs.
• Surfing web sites to get ideas for navigation for our new staff intranet – using stumbleupon

After 3:30 pm so it’s time to go home.  WHEW, what a day.

What I Learned From Michael Jackson’s Death

Image by [ Zenat El3ain ]™ via Flickr

I hate to jump on the band wagon.  I’m not just posting this to see my blog stats rise all based on the demise of a celebrity.  I guess this is my Friday rant/vent session.  But it is also a reminder of what I learned today.

First of all, my condolances go out to both Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson’s family and friends.  Losing someone you care about is never easy whether it’s anticipated or not.   I can’t imagine how it must feel.   What should be a private moment to mourn you loss being scrutinized and put under media/public attention.

The media frustrates me with the way they run everything into the ground.  These people haven’t even been dead 24 hours.  In Farrah’s case we know what caused her death but in Michael’s case they are just speculating.  Until  all the reports are in no one in the media can say anything with surety.  MOVE ON there is other news to be covered, I don’t need to hear the same 5 sentences repeated a myriad of different ways.  I trust that you will give me the news when you have confirmation – in the meantime report something else instead of rehashing speculations.  But the most frustrating part is those who are not in the know, who are not even privy to the sources the media has trying to comment, judge or even condemn someone.

From what information we have most would hazard a guess that Michael Jackson didn’t have the best of childhoods.  I don’t know how the pressure to perform coupled with the every glaring spotlight would have effected you but I am not that strong.  Yes, some people have had hard lives and are able to move on or even go on to really become an inspiration.  But you know what, some people just aren’t that strong.  Some people don’t have the support system or tools in life to get over their issues.  Does that make them any less worthy of our sympathy?  I for one am not going to sit in judgment of them for not being able to overcome.  You know it’s not my job.  I was raised to believe that job feel to someone else and I wasn’t suppose to try and do his job.

However, all of this crazy professional media (and real people via Twitter, Facebook, blogs, Friendfeed and other social media) attention has taught me a reminder.  The next time I see something and start to pass judgement on it, I will think Michael Jackson.  It will be my personal reminder to myself that it is not my place to pass judgement on someone.  I have not walked in their shoes, I have not experienced their life in any way, shape or form, I am not them.  I believe that the universe teaches us lessons for a reason – guess I needed to be reminded of this lesson.  We could all learn from Michael Jackson’s death.  I’m just sorry it took him dying to remind me of my place.

Tale of Two Customers Experiences

It was the best of customer experiences, it was the worst of customer experiences.  Odd that they both took place during the same conference.

BAD:

I attended the 2009 Maryland Library Association conference held at the Clarion hotel in Ocean City, Maryland.  I left my home in Northwest Baltimore County to travel to Maryland’s Eastern Shore around 6:30 pm.  Believe it or not I’m not familiar with Ocean City despite being a Maryland native.  I’m more of a Rehoboth Beach, DE kinda of girl.  So I took my trusty GPS with me so I wouldn’t get lost.  Of course that is exactly what happened or at least it took me on a very round about way to the Clarion in OC.

For some reason the day before a large convention which had most of the hotel booked they decided to paint half of their parking lot.  So when I get there there was no parking on the same side of the street as the hotel.  I parked in front of the office area and walked in to see where I could park.  “Hi, I’m here to attend a convention and I’m staying the night.  Can you tell me where I can park, your lot is full.” “There is overflow parking across the street.” is what I heard back.  No, “Oh let me check you in first since you’ll need to place a tag on your car” or “Would you like to check in now and then park your car?”  Instead I get back in my car, drive down a couple lights to find a spot where I can do a U-turn and park my car.  Since I’ve heard horror stories of people being hit while crossing Coastal Highway, I decided to be a good pedisterian and crossed at the crosswalk, drag my bag on the sidewalk until I get back to the hotel.

When I get there I see four people working the desk, three of them talking to each other and one actually helping someone.  Finally one of the talkers looks up and asks me if I’d like to check in.  After I check in and get my key she then tells that I need to hang this tag on my car which is now unconviently parked across an eight lane highway.  It wasn’t that big a deal to walk over there it was just the topping on poor customer service.  Good customer service would have dictated that when I came in to find out where to park they should have offered to check me in and give me the tag then.

In this day and age with the economy depressed as it is and businesses failing left and right customer service, good customer service is MORE essential than ever.  Just because I am attending a conference in your hotel does not mean I have to book a room in your hotel.  I can assure you that next year if I attend MLA 2010 I won’t be staying at the Clarion.  I’ll find a place that actually understands what proper customer service looks like.

GOOD:

Thank goodness I was able to experience the opposite of the above customer service issue while I was still in Ocean City.  Thursday night I went to dinner with a good friend.  Since he is more familiar with Ocean City and what they have to offer I asked him to pick the place.  We drove up to Galaxy66 Bar and Grille.   As I walked through the door I realized that this was going to be a different dinning experience.  The decor, colors used, even the plates on the table set a tone.  Then from the moment we walked in the customer service and attention to detail was excellent.

I asked our waiters if they served Coke products.  Sounds a bit odd but I’ve made the mistake over the years of asking for a Diet Coke but they fail to tell me that it’s really Diet Pepsi.   I explained to the guys that I had gone all day without a Diet Coke and I was jonesing big time.  That was just the start.  They brought me a Diet Coke and before the last drop was finished there was another glass was brought to me.  Their attention was the right blend of anticipating what we needed, asking us and staying away so we could chat and dine.  The menu was unique.  The flavor combinations were different but they worked.  I was pleasantly surprised with my bokchoy salad – red curry aioli, scallion crepe, radiccio, yellow and orange peppers, crispy lo mein noodles and shoestring carrots.  I then followed that very generous portion of salad with the gnocchi – seasonal mushrooms, rocket, garlic truffle oil, aged Parmesan.  Dinner was accompanied by toasted bread with my favorite herb, rosemary.

It was a wonderful time to spend with an old friend and the restuarant only made it better.  I judge a restaurant not only by it’s customer service, food but also by it’s ladies room.  It doesn’t have to be fancy but just clean.  Well, Galaxy66 had both.  The funky decor continued into the ladies room and it was clean.  To me that means you care – if you care about that then I have faith that the kitchen has as much if not more care given to it.  The icing on the cake for me was the card that came with the bill.  Being the social web guru that I am I absolutely loved seeing that they were on Facebook.  When I visited their web site they are also listed as being on Twitter.  You know I just had to follow and friend them.  Thank you to our waiters, the chef and the manager of Galaxy66 for great customer service, a wonderful unique meal and making my short stay in Ocean City a lot better (especially after the Clarion’s boo-boo).

What To Do With Your Digital SLR

I had the good fortune to attend a WONDERFUL class last night at the Howard County Library.    My hats off to Cristina Lozare of the Central Library  for orchestrating this.  She not only contacted the two passionate photographers to teach the class but she really marketed the class – so well attended class there were no empty chairs.  The class was presented by Anne Kelley Looney and Jeff Kniple.  They did an amazing job of sharing their love of photography, answering questions and making things make sense to this buddy photographer (read very, very much a beginner).  They even kindly stayed after the library closed to help people with the cameras they had bought.  I love to see passionate people share with others.  It was just such an infectious atmosphere to be in.

I decided to Twitter my notes with the hashtag #dslr so I could go back and put them altogether.  The infectious atmosphere must have translated to my Tweets because I had 2 of my followers tell me “really enjoyed your #dslr tweets” and ” following your tweets makes me want to go out and take pics…but it’s dark!“.  I even had a couple of comments on my Facebook page because of my tweets from the class.  I was happy to share this fabulous class with everyone.  I promise Cristina that I’d pull my tweets together into a cohesive list so she could let those pass them on to those who attended the class last night.

My tweets from the class – a lot of good information that I’m happy to share:

• Sitting in Digital SLR class at Central Library waiting for it to begin – going to hashtag it #dslr for my notes
• Class offered by Anne Kelley Looney and Jeff Kniple
• this class will help those stuck in the program mode to get out of it – get a little bit technical to get creative
• 5 main things – focusing, shutter opening, aperture, ISO speed, white balance
• your eye sees things differently than the camera
• Nikon D200 has 11 focal pts where as the Canon 5d only have 9 pts
• use whatever you are most comfortable w/live view or viewfinder – most don’t focus as accurately in live view
• biggest reason to use viewfinder – DSLR were designed that way and can be held more firmly/proper grip – leads to sharper pics
• subject not moving/nor you -choose manual focus – subject not moving too fast – single shot autofocus
• subject moving – use servo or continuous autofocus mode
• Exposure – if you can’t see it doesn’t matter if it’s in focus
• aperture let’s light in more or less efficiently depending on setting – aperture is like the size hose to fill the bucket
• to a camera the world is grey – camera’s try to average the range of tones into an exposure
• scenes that fall into the extremes throw off many cameras – sun in frame, beach or snow scene, night time, high contrast
• camera is trying to capture the best image wo/over or under exposing what it thinks is the subject
• shutter speeds – camera is giving you a fraction of a second for shutter speed
• camera is trying to capture the best image wo/over or under exposing what it thinks is the subject
• fix exposure change the shutter speed, too dark – slower shutter speed , too light – faster shutter speed
• aperture – fstops – lower # = bigger the higher the number the smaller the whole in the lens
• fix improper exposure is to change aperture – too light close down lens w/higher # too dark open lens to lower #
• ISO lower # less sensitive it is to light – higher speed requires less light for correct exposure
• ISO range fromn 50 – 25,600 most DSLRs 200 – 3200
• too dark – go up to higher ISo , too light – go to lower ISO – be careful to a pt that is OK – no free lunch
• higher ISO lose bit of color, clarity – and you get grainy/noise less sharpness
• wt balance – natural light different colors, tungsten – yellow, shaded areas more blue, fluorescent is greener
• when possible use white balance setting for the type of light you have – if mixed light use camera’s auto balance
• read up on raw files change light and switch things around
• 4 exp. modes – Program camera chooses apt. and shutter speed
• A or Av you pick apt. S ot TV – you pick shutter speed
• simplest solution to too dark or too light – adjust your exp comp wheelt to a + number and take it again
• if too light – turn exp to – side and repeat the process until you get it right
• inside or if dark enough around you – look at screen
• if too bright use the highlight warning screen or histogram
• blow out the highlights means too much light in a particular area – no value – the bucket is over filled -over exposed
• digital you are exposing for the highights where as film was exposing for the shadows
• using histogram don’t lose stuff on the far right of the image – the white side
• don’t over extend the sensor on the dark or the light end – you want it to be in a range – you don’t want extremes
• got to get it right in the camera no matter what editing software you use
• larger apt give smaller amt of photo in focus – smaller apt gives more in focus
• shutter speeds 2nd most important key to sharp images – blur or freeze the subject
• old rule of thumb – equal length of lens that you are using to ensure sharp pic
• 1 1/2 times the length of lens w/today’s DSLRs – 50mm 1/75 or faster 100mm 1/150 or faster
• you can cheat a little if your lens has VR or image stabilization – read manual or marketing on it
• shoot at lowest ISO rating that your camera is made for – move it up if you have to – no farther than you have to
• most important accessory – flash! match a flash to your camera system
• bounce flash gives softer look – bounce off wall can give directional light no harsh shadows
• shadow directly off to the side – from on board flash
• if the photo is not interesting, you are not close enough – Henri Cartier-Bresson
• flash can be a great way to freeze action
• evoke a feeling – tell a story – document a moment – express imagination – be fact or fiction – be understood uniquely – suspend belief
• compostion – how you want everything in the image to relate to each other
• composing your image what/where main subject is and what else is included – yopu are telling them what YOU want them to see
• white card under subject draw light from the sky into the subject – simple way to get more of what you are looking for
• composition – size, position, focus of subject
• where does your eye start? how do your eyes move around the image
• main subject – where you want viewer’s eye to go – rule of thirds based on 19th cen painters
• most powerful spots where the lines intersect in the rules of thirds
• upper left and lower right most compelling spots for main subjects
• our eyes will follow the subject’s eyes – make sure there is room on the left and right of subject
• support the main subject – soft focus background, lines leading to the subject contrast between lt & dk framing subject
• your image is a story – support main character but there are supporting characters too
• main subj – edge light – juxtapose near/far objects, include something in foreground – leading lines, tone, contrast create depth
• looking at photographs from famous photographers over the ages to demonstrate the things that support main subject
• creative ways – get close, wide angle, strong light as an edge light, shift subject away from center
• watch the background – so easy to make this mistake but so easy to avoid this mistake
• 2 or more people similarly toned clothing allows focus to be on the people expression relationship than the clothing transcends style
• remember wide angle lens will widen the subjects at edges – use 50/70 and walk a bit away – will look better
• always power off before changing memory, battery or lens
• don’t change lens in dusty area – have camera down to take off lens and put new lens on
• your computer monitor can be out of calibration so what you think is color correct may not – create relationship with photo lab

Bag Ladies or My Earth Day at Admin

Yesterday was my first time to be the IT guru on-call at our Administrative offices.  First I set myself up in what is affectionately known as the “typewriter room” (given that name because there is still a typewriter in there that no one can remember when it was last used).  I had my little netbook laptop, my cell phone, Diet Coke and water to keep me happy.   Off I went to make sure that everyone in the office knew I was there to handle any of their computer/IT needs that might arise that day.

I had Tweeted earlier that morning (which feeds into my Facebook status) that I was challenging my colleagues at Admin to come for a walk with me and we’d pick up trash as our contribution to Earth Day.  A couple of ladies took me up on the challenge.  However, it didn’t look like Mother Nature was going to cooperate with us.  It drizzled or even pour a few times most of the morning.

After spending the morning updating the director’s pc with the latest version of Adobe Reader so she could open the budget PDFs, helping a co-worker understand the template and process we use to blog on Highly Recommended, answering helpdesk tickets about email aliases, talking with a staff member about how we could make her section of the Staff Intranet more up-to-date and a few other issues it was 1 o’clock before I knew it.  So off I went to try the salad bar at Harris Teeter (which was recommended by our Public Relations staff as almost a “baby Wegman’s”).

As I was leaving the building the sun decided to grace us with it’s prescence.  Ah, maybe we will get our help Earth day walk in this afternoon.  But first I needed to go over uploading photos to our library’s Flickr account and trying to edit one photo from Battle of the Books that had the highlights blown out.  Wasn’t the photographer’s fault as he was working with a basic point and shoot camera.  He needed a DSLR with a flash attachment so he could bounce the flash or other possibilities – the kids in the picture were all wearing tinsel like wigs and the flash just went crazy.  I wound up having to call my photography mentor and she was able to edit it a little bit.

So the two ladies who took my Twitter/Facebook challenge joined me for a walk armed with grocery and trash bags.  One of us picked up soley the recyclable bottles/cans and the other two went for the trash.  What really made me feel good was our influence on the kids that had just gotten out of the Cradlerock School next door to the library.  We were walking past them and I heard several say things like “oh because it’s Earth Day” as an explanation as to why 3 grown adults were picking up trash.  We even had 2 kids stop us and give us some that we had missed.  I hope next time they see a piece of trash they will pick it up whether or not it is Earth Day.

Mother Nature felt we had walked long enough so we got a little wet as we scurried back to East Columbia Branch.  All in all I think it was good to get the exercise, connect with co-workers and help the Earth a little.  My challenge is to keep some extra grocery bags in my car so next time I’m out I will pick up some trash.  This isn’t something to just do on Earth Day but everyday.  As others have said – every day is Earth Day.