Thing 16: Geotagging

I think geotagging is a pretty useful feature, especially for professional photography. There have been times when I've come across a picture of something that looks interesting, and I've wondered where it was taken, but unless the person added a caption to it, I may have no way of knowing. With geotagging, it's much easier to find a picture and know exactly where it is, or even the other way around. If you have an area you know you want to search in and have a specific subject you need, it's also very easy to search that way. I'm not sure yet if I will personally be able to use it professionally in the future, but you never really know until you get there.

Thing 15: Podcasts

I've never really listened to podcasts in the past except for one that I used to follow regularly from a TV show I used to watch. I do, however, believe that I could actually gain some interest in them and if I am able to find some that are interesting to me, follow them and listen to them on a regular basis. I did use the Podcast.com directory and I found that it was fairly easy to navigate. I wasn't sure exactly what I was interested in at the time, so I decided to just go straight for the Most Popular Podcasts section where I actually found one podcast that I listened to for a while from How Stuff Works.com where they spoke about the phrase "low man on the totem pole", it's context, usage, and meaning. While it may sound boring, it was actually oddly entertaining for a while hahah.

Thing 14: Research Project Calculator

Personally, after playing with both the University of Minnesota Assignment Calculator and the Research Project Calculator, I prefer the University of Minnesota Assignment Calculator more. I just happen to like the fact that it provides you with a 12 step process rather than a 5 step process. This makes me feel like I'm on more of a schedule since it basically gives 12 deadlines rather than 5. For me, deadlines are what I need to make me work, without deadlines my work just doesn't get done until the very last minute. with the University of Minnesota Assignment Calculator, I feel like I'd be able to get my work done better, assuming that I follow it closely. As for the future, I'm not entirely sure that these tools would be very useful to me considering that I'll be going into graphic design. Especially with the Research Project Calculator, I feel like these tools are more for mapping out deadines and outlines for papers, etc.

Thing 13: Online Productivity Tools

If you've been paying any attention at all to my last few blog posts, I'm pretty sure you can guess the option I went with for this one... Yes, I created an iGoogle home page (surprisingly, I didn't already have one!). I used to My Yahoo! but that was when I used Yahoo! as my primary email address, so I haven't actually checked that in a few years. However, iGoogle actually seems pretty handy so I'll most likely be setting it as my homepage once I get home. It's helpful because not only can I get the news that I want to hear about, locally and nationally, I can get information on the entertainment industry (movies, music, etc.) and most importantly, get the weather right when I log in, since one of the first things I always do in the morning is check the weather to see how I'm gonna need to dress that day. So, I think this iGoogle page will be very beneficial to me. Thanks again Google! ^_^

Thing 12: Tagging and Del.icio.us

I've seen the Del.icio.us buttons on news stories, etc. before, but I've never really known what it was. I guess I always just kind of assumed it was like Digg or Reddit or one of those news sites back in Thing 6 because the buttons were always near each other. While the site layout may be similar to those, the concept is not quite the same. I do, however, like the way Del.icio.us is set up. The way you can always have your list of bookmarks available wherever you are, and especially the way you can view comments people have left on given sites, based on the tags. I think it's a much handier way of getting to know a site a little bit better before actually using it yourself; similar to reading a synopsis of a movie or book. If the comments sound interesting, then it's worth checking out.

Thing 11: Online Creations

As you can see, I chose to use the Big Huge Labs tool Mosaic Maker. I actually found this tool quite easy and very intuitive to use. You just simply choose how many rows and columns you would like your collage to be, choose a background color, set the spacing between photos, select which photos you want to be included, and voila! You have a nice little collage of your photos. I can't really see a professional setting where you might need to use a tool like this, but I can definitely see its uses in a personal setting; simply to make collages of you and your friends and family or of a special event.

Thing 10: More Flickring Around

First of all, here is my beautiful puzzle that I made from one of my Flickr photos.

And here is my lolcat, her name is Panda.

I think it's nice that there are tools like Big Huge Labs online for photo editing, however I feel like if you need a photo edited for something professional or an assignment, it would still be better to do the work yourself. Personally, I would feel more accomplished having done the editing and everything on my own, rather than putting pictures into a generator and having the final product just spit out. Though, if you find yourself in a time crunch and just can't do it yourself, these tools can be quite useful.

Thing 9: Photosharing with Flickr

CLICK HERE for the original shot by moonjazz on Flickr

Here is the image that I eventually chose from the many that I came across on Flickr after using the keyword Minneapolis. Depending on the reason for searching for an image, I feel like Flickr can be much more useful than the image function of a search engine. For one thing, using a photosharing site like Flickr, you tend to get many more artistic shots from professional photographers rather than the random assortment foun if searching with something like Google Images. I actually find searching with Flickr much more enjoyable, because of the artistic nature of most of the images found as well as the fact that you can find many different types of pictures that you won't find with a search engine.

Thing 8: Wikis

I've heard that Wikis can be unreliable due to their open, public nature, but I've never actually attempted to edit one and seen how easy it really is. I decided to search up the Philippines Wiki and decided to edit the page regarding Boracay Island. I added some of my opinions to the Recreation section very easily and now understand a little better why teachers are reluctant to accept Wikis as a realiable source. While not all wikis are as easily accessible as this, many are, and the fact that they can be edited by anyone, leaves the chance of compromising information being added to be highly likely. I'd say, think twice before using a Wiki as a reliable source, especially if it's for a topic that you're not familiar with, it's just that much harder to know what's true or false.

Thing 7: Online Collaboration Tools

Well, long time no see, Blogger.

Of the two collaboration tools that the documents were provided for, I chose to use Google Docs, mainly because, to be honest, I am a Google fanboy. And with my obvious bias aside, I actually found that Google Docs is a pretty useful tool. I've heard of it before, but never actually used it; having tested it out now, it has a fairly wide range of functions. It has just about all the basics that one may need to edit a document. On a sidenote, however, along the lines of my Google favoritism, there is also a new... let's just call it an Uber-Collaboration Tool, in comparison to these... that was recently released in beta form, Google Wave. Google Wave, in a sense, is much like these document editing tools on steroids. Not only does it include this document editing function, it has improved the functionality and added more. The diversity of Google Wave is way too much for me to discuss right now, but I would recommend that you Google it and maybe do some research on what it can do; I'm sure you'll be impressed.

Thing 6: Digg & Reddit...[et al]

I'd never really been the type to keep up with news and such very much, but these sites seemed quite useful. I knew of Digg and Reddit before, but I never really used them. I would see Digg buttons on news stoies all the time, and I kind of knew the general idea of the site, but I never actually went there and checked it out. They actually do seem pretty interesting, the way that users choose the main news stories. Of all of them though, I think Mixx was the one that interested me the most. The layout of the site just seemed a bit more organized and professional to me I suppose. Not to say that the other sites aren't organized, something about Mixx just caught my eye. Also, of the four, Newsvine was my least favorite. Just as something caught my eye about Mixx, something about Newsvine just appeared very unappealing to me.

Aside from these news sites, I actually recently began using StumbleUpon regularly (which is funny considering they mention it in this Thing). I just made an account the other day, and I'm pretty hooked. I find it to be a good time waster; just click your preferences, and Stumble! Then in no time, you're presented with website after website of things that might interest you. Sure, from time to time you'll hit a lame site, but I've actually "Stumbled Upon" a bunch of really interesting sites, stories, and blogs that I would have never found otherwise. Thanks StumbleUpon!

Thing 5: Beyond MyFaceSpaceBooking

Well, once again, I already had a Twitter prior to doing this... Thing... I had joined probably just under a year ago, right before the Twitter bug hit the entire population, or at least that's how it seemed to occur. I actually followed an interesting usage curve over the past few months of being a "Tweeter."

• First, prior to actually joining Twitter, I held the same opinion as many others that I've spoken to that are also Twitter-virgins: "I don't get it, isn't it just like... Facebook statuses?"
• I ended up joining because I lost internet, thus no Facebook access, so I thought I'd give Twitter a shot to help me stay in touch with my friends more conveniently through SMS notifications.
• I quickly became an addict, Tweeting many times everyday. The addiction grew as more and more of my friends joined and I reached a point where my friends and I would have @reply conversations going... sometimes with all of us in the same room...
• Recently, I've hit my downward slope on my Twitter curve. I've actually turned off my SMS notifications and only Tweet occasionally.

All in all, I think Twitter and other social journals can be a very useful social communication tool, as long as they're not abused and overused.

Thing 4: Social Media

As I'm sure almost everyone can say upon finishing this Thing, I already had MySpace and Facebook. Hell, half my aunts and uncles have a Facebook and even my friend's grandma has one! I know there are still some out there that don't have a Facebook (luckily my parents are two of those people) but it feels like it's only a matter of time until it reaches them too. I'm actually not really planning on using either my MySpace or Facebook for professional networking. While I know they will play a role on the professional side of networking, I plan on using it for more of the social aspect. I keep my profile very limited to the public and try to screen the friends I accept and deny. Even then, I screen my profile for select people to only see limited information. When it comes to the professional side of networking, I plan to start a LinkedIn, which I've actually heard lots of good things about. I may not have much experience in the Graphic Design field yet, but I quite a few contacts that I'm hoping can help me get my foot in the door, and I'm hoping LinkedIn will help them help me. In fact, maybe I'll start one now =)

Thing 3: Online Communication

The main thing that I was looking for on the My Ai Campus site was an events calendar so that I can make sure to keep up with everything going on from day to day. Unfortunately, there was nothing on the My Ai Campus site, but I was able to eventually find it elsewhere.

I also had actually already completed the challenge for this Thing when I first set up my account. I just find it much more useful to forward my school email to my Gmail since that's the one that I use most often. For most anything that I sign up for where I would need to provide an email, that's the one I use; aside from my junk account, my Gmail is what I use as my more professional account. Now, rather than having to log in to both accounts everyday, I just need to go to one place ^_^ (I know it may sound a bit hypocritical especially considering my opinion on using RSS feeds from my last blog hahah).

Thing 2: Set Up and RSS Account and Add Feeds

I've always seen those RSS feeds and subscribe buttons on practically every site and wondered what they were and what an RSS feed was but never actually bothered to find out... well now I know. Having an aggregator account like Google Reader really does seem quite handy if you check a lot of news sites or sites with daily stories. However, I don't really follow those kinds of sites much; there are a few that I check occasionally, but not often enough to warrant the use of an RSS feed. Another thing for me is that I have gotten used to the routine of checking my daily sites and actually enjoy it. If I could use Google Reader and just have everything right in one place all at once, sure it would be convenient, but that kind of takes some of the fun out of it for me hahah.

So, at least for now, the verdict is in for me: RSS feeds, while simple and convenient, just not my cup of tea.

Thing 1: Set Up Your Blog

Alright, so basically, the fact that I am here actually able to write this and you (assuming someone will actually be reading this) are sitting there reading it is proof positive that I was able to successfully set up my Blogger blog, Ta-Da!!! It really wasn't all that difficult; fairly self explanatory with easy directions.

Aside from Blogger, I'm not exactly new to the blogging community. I started out on LiveJournal probably around 6 years ago, but have since stopped using it. From there I moved on to Xanga for a few years, but this past year I stopped using that as well. I currently have a Tumblr which I use relatively often; mainly to blog about random stuff and let people get to know me better. If you're interested, you can find it at KalYouByeIn.tumblr.com I don't exactly have the most interesting life in the world, so please don't get your hopes up, hahah.

I'm brand new to the school and don't know many people, so I'm hoping this might be one way I can kind of start to meet people. If you're interested in making a new friend, don't be afraid to subscribe, comment, get in touch with me on here somehow, I'll be hoping to do the same ^_^ I'll be finishing off these 16 Things as an assignment, but I'm thinking I might stick with the blog after that too; just talk about the school, experiences, classes, assignments, etc. so any and all feedback would be much appreciated.

See ya next Thing =P