A Day at the Louvre - Monday

We had an incredible Monday at the Louvre. It took us some time to find the entrance through the Louvre mall as the line outside went forever around the fountain in the outside plaza. At the Louvre mall we thought we would avoid the line at the Louvre so we went to find a restroom but we ended up paying a euro to use the restrooms but it was in a toilet store! At the Louvre we saw the original Mona Lisa, the Venice de Milo, statues by Michelangelo, the horses of Marly, the three Graces by Cranach, and many more famous artist. It was so overwhelming and a very huge museum but so interesting. We were thoroughly exhausted at the end of the day from all the walking but so satisfied from seeing such great artists. We ended the day at a very nice but crowded French restaurant. Paris is so breathtakingly beautiful!

Paris - Sunday

Yeah! We slept in a little while longer this morning and had a leisurely morning! We went La Pere-Lachaise cemetary which was an enormous old cemetary where many famous Parisian's are buried. There were so many huge monuments, very close together so finding the ones we wanted to see was difficult. We did find Frederic Chopin's and Jim Morrison of the Doors monuments but decided not to spend too much time wandering around to see others as we had other things to do. Very interesting and the monuments were really elaborate.

We headed to the Musee de L'armee (Army Museum) where Napoleon monument is located but by the time we got there and inquired how long it took to go through we decided we didn't have enough time to cover it and get to Notre Dame for a free organ concert. We really just wanted to see Napoleon's monument but had to pay for the full museum cost to do it. We headed to Notre Dame for the concert and the sites which were good. Afterwards we meandered through some gift shops and watched some street entertainers. We went to eat at a very nice Asian restaurant not too far from the apartment which was very good.

Monday, while Lynne heads to class, Peg and I will head to the Louvre.

Paris - Saturday

Today, we went to a art and artisan market on Bastille St, stopped at a bakery shop for some delicious Paris sweets and cafe/tea and then to Sacre Coeur Church which was beautiful. It was built around 1870's and the gilded ceiling was awesome. By the church were also more artist and the quality of their work was exquisite. Some were doing pencil/charcoal portraits that were really life like. This area was up in a very hilly area overlooking Paris. We definitely got our exercise going up and down the cobblestone streets but the area was very picturesque.

Check out my pics I posted from yesterday and today on my flickr link http://www.flickr.com/photos/12473770@N03/


Paris is truly amazing and I am so lucky to be here.

Paris update - Friday

The three of us had a really big day today! We went to the Palace of Versailles which is enormous and belonged to Louis XIV, king of France built in 1661. It was incredible! Lots of enormous paintings, sculptures, furnishings, lots of marble, gilded bronze and gold along with the history of France. The grounds were vast and we also toured Marie Antoinette's home and surrounding area. It was fun but we are now exhausted from all the walking. It is on the outskirts of town so we took the Metro to the train to get there and didn't get back until almost 8pm. Took lots of pictures but will post them later on the flickr site. Paris is absolutely incredible!

Paris update

We went to Lynne's school today and helped her figure out which metro stops  to take to get to class.  Peg and I walked around and saw artist drawing by Luxembourg Palace/Museum butwe didn't go in but with a brisk wind it was very cold.  Had several layers on.  When Lynne was done we went to the Pantheon which had huge Roman columns and beautiful paintings and sculptures inside.  Also it has this huge pendululm which helped prove the rotation of the earth.  Also in the lower level were unbelievable amount of crypts where famous people were buried (i.e. Voltaire, Rousseau, Victor Hugo, Louis Braille (inventor of braille), etc.)  It seemed to go on forever and it was colder down there than outside.  We then went to a beautiful church nearby where st.Genevieve was honored.  

We are very proud of ourselves for manuevering the metro line and figuring out where we need to go.  Walking is a whole other story as the streets are laid out like spokes on a wheels so there are no straight square blocks.  We just ask sometimes.  My French is not so good!

We are exhausted from all the walking, but it is very exciting and it is hard to believe I am here.  Tomorrow we are going to Palace of Versailles.

Paris trip

We had a good flight and landed before 7 instead of 7:25. By the time we got our luggage and figured out how to get to the train it was after 7:30. It took us until 9:30 before we got to our apartment but it is much closer to st. paul metro stop, right across the street from it is one gate but the gate with the brown double doors was just down an alley and a little ways to the left. Weather here is much colder than we thought so I have been freezing. I wish I would have brought my cuddleduds. very windy today when we went to get some groceries, etc. Apartment is good but small. Elevator is a hoot! It is barely big enough for one person and suitcase. about 2 by 3 feet. and you have to push the door open when it stops. It took me a little while to figure that out as I was first to use it. you wouldn't have liked it! We had nice meal with Lynne's friends upstairs and she took us on a short walking tour to get 3 prong plug we needed as none of us thought to bring one.
It is so hard to believe we are here! Very exciting and the building architecture is incredible!

Thing 47 Evaluation

I did it!!! I am so glad that I pushed myself to finish as it was a great learning experience. I wish I would have finished 23 things because I know I missed out on some of great things. I hope the links for these will stay accessible so we can get back to some of them as there was so much more that I didn't get to even see.

Thing 46 Webjunction Minnesota

I have a Webjunction account so I logged in and looked at the information. I looked at some of the training and went to TechAtlas, Training Resources and Webinars. I have participated in some of their webinars in the past. Minnesota reflections from the Minnesota Digital library is one of the best and coolest with old pictures that are being digitized. A great project.

There are many more links here that are library related for both large and small libraries so it is a good site for all Minnesota libraries whether they are public or academic. There is even a link to government information in the 21st century.

Thing 45 Cloud Computing

This is great! I had no clue what Cloud Computing term meant but it is a great analogy. More and more we will be using the internet to save and access data. Being able to backup our data on the internet provides off site storage in case of a disaster. I am concerned with this myself with my own data as I use a backup drive but this will not work if there were a fire, tornado or other disaster. I am definitely going to look into an online backup service but the cost seems to be the prohibitive factor. Moxy is free for under 2 GB so I may investigate that option at least for my genealogy file.

This list at Mashup and the other sites allow people to access their desktop computers from anywhere. It is an ever evolving exciting time in the technology field as more and more access is available. Learning and keeping up with it is a real challenge.

Thing 44 The Economy

There are several useful sites on money management, economy, bargain shopping, gardening, and other ways to save money in these tough economic times. Say it Visually shows a chart and how we and the government got into this financial mess. MyMoney.gov and some great government sites which I bookmarked to check out more thoroughly when I have time. Wallstreetfighter had the top new money management sites and some looked very interesting but I would want to check to see how secure they were before giving them my financial data.

Thing 43 Online TV and Video

Hulu allows you to search for television shows that you missed or want to watch. It is a great way to catch up on some tv shows on your computer. The sight is easy to use and to search for particular shows.

Joost seems to be more music videos and it was harder to find what you wanted. Every time I tried to search a tv show, a list of music videos would display.

I think that this will definitely be a viable option instead of cable where the charges are exorbitant with limited competition for pricing and options. It is a great option for people on a busy schedule and might not be home or think to record their favorite shows. I will definitely keep this in mind for when I miss a show although it is nicer to watch on a bigger screen.

Thing 42 Music 2.0

I tried blip.fm but they didn't play the songs I searched for so I don't know what I did wrong. Also I don't know if this sight is connecting to other potentially unsafe computers.
Last.fm was great and it groups like artist together and suggest others. It was great fun to set up a list of favorite artist/songs http://www.last.fm/listen/artist/Tina%2BTurner/similarartists#pane=webRadioPlayer&station=%252Flisten%252Fartist%252FCher%252Fsimilarartists

I plan to play around more with this site when I have more time.

Thing 41 Mashup your life

This thing goes through sites to combine your identities so they appear in one place, i.e. instant messager, twitter, email etc. Since I am not the active on multiple network sites I did not find these useful for me but others might. After looking at lifestream and friendfeed and what they do, I really don't want to have others seeing and following what I do nor do I want to see others.

Thing 40 Mashup the Web

This is using a combination of applications at one time or putting them together.
I tried Crime report for my area but they don't participate so there wasn't a report so I did the Minneapolis area. Flickr Memari has simple games you can play. Wheel of food lets you spin the wheel to choose restaurants near by to go when you can't decide. Walkable rates areas where you live to see if it is walkable or not. Ping.fm is for social networking and lets you send messages to multiple places all at once (i.e. email service, instant messaging, my space, facebook, etc.)
Let me Google that for you is something you could when someone wants to know the answer to a question that you googled to get the answer. Sending the link to them would start the google search. It was kind of cute! I can think of some circumtances where I could use this!

Thing 39 Digital storytelliing

This was a really neat feature with scrapbooking and photo editing links. I liked picnik which did some quick and easy edits and enhancing of photos although one needed to pay to get all the features.

Scrapblog was a another cool site.
This was made in scrapblog using scrapbuilder for making a Father Day card. http://www.scrapblog.com/04A1E7EB-6D21/3572125D-BB88



Smilebox was another great site with lots of scrapbook designs.

The only bad thing about all of this is that you have to give out your email address for everything!

Thing 38 Screencasting

I really liked Jing and will be able to use this in my job. Often times staff want to know how to do something either in Aleph or some other program. Using Jing I will be able to video capture the screen and email it to them. I only used it a little bit to test it but once I get proficient, it shouldn't take too long to do. I tested how to setup and run a particular report in Aleph and saved it and then did another one to retrieve the report. You can save these and reuse or edit in the future. I tried twice to upload the video but it was almost 2 mg so maybe it was too big. Screencast is similar to Jing but I didn't get a chance to play with it. There were other programs also mentioned that need to to purchased. Skitch also looks really good but I didn't get a chance to try it. Jing can have text added and from what I saw of Skitch you can draw on your video. I would like to learn more about both of these when I get a chance to play with them.

thing 37

Thing 37 Photo tales

I used animoto to create a video incorporating music and pictures. Pretty cool!

Thing 36 Comic relief

There are some useful tools here like Online generators in Technology magazine using cooltext.com to generate buttons for web pages. There were links that went to silly things like generating a Dewey Decimal number for your name which ended up also telling you something about yourself. I wanted to do the vinyl record one but it didn't work.

Thing 35 Books 2.0

I think some would really like some of the links to review books, exchange books, keep track of and organizing books and children's books that you can read online and save for reading later to your kids or grandkids. Many good links that I explored. You can even get books through an RSS feed although I don't know how you regulate how often you get this to be able to keep up reading it.