Friday, September 7, 2007

week nine; thing 21: podcasts

I thought I knew. I thought I knew what a podcast was. And then I watched one. It was a ninja explaining podcast in a way I had not seen or heard of before. And I was captured by his imagination.

It went like this: A podcast is like an apple pie factory that keeps making apple pies and putting them out for sharks to eat. The sharks line up and wait for the apple pies. And the pies keep coming at the sharks; more and more---- fresh and new--- delicious apple pies! That was his metaphor for podcast feeds: Information coming to you, non-musical, (though can contain music) audio and/or video broadcasts delivered regularly over the internet through RSS.

My search for a podcast of interest began at Yahoopodcasts and ended at podcastalley. I subscribed to thisone through bloglines. Now, I can listen to it on my computer, or download it to my mp3player and take it on-the-go! Pretty cool.

Tuesday, September 4, 2007

week nine; thing 20: youtube



Ok, confessions of a newbie-blogger: this was my first visit to YouTube. I had viewed the site, once or twice, from afar, over someone's shoulder. I had imagined the way to Youtube, but had not been before now. Wow! You can search under countless categories for the video clip that will suit you to a T, but it may take some time...you'll find clips that are boring, slow, and obviously made with someone else in mind. And, you'll find clips that entertain and instruct, home-videos, music videos, and current-event video clips, and much more!

The site has an aura of "you-can-too!" That's how I feel when I'm youtubing: You can too. You can see what others see....you can make what others make....you can do what others do (like watch youtube!)

Posting the video-clip to my blog was not a problem...just followed the directions and ta-da! But, selecting the clip was time consuming because there were quite a few good ones. I was torn between and comedy and a dance clip. In the end, I chose this one on Alan Alda because I like the way he pronounces "Chile." The whole library setting, book discussion-thing, did not influence my decision at all.