Tuesday, December 22, 2015

Thing 9: Social Media

Facebook is the only social media platform I regularly use. Although I'm on it about every day, I don't use it as my public diary, and I share things just occasionally. I use it more to collect information (like about K-pop, go figure) than to share information. I had already liked the Geneva Public Library District page (that Ellen curates), so I receive library updates on my news feed.

When I accessed the page on my phone, I saw that Ellen had recently posted a promotion for my upcoming 20s & 30s program, Aluminum Embossing Workshop, and decided to shamelessly plug my own program by sharing it. I'm pretty average at texting, but for some reason, knowing that what I wrote was going to be posted publicly, I stressed out about the spelling and grammar and ended up making many more mistakes than I normally do (which I fixed, of course, to my best knowledge).

Based on a class I took in grad school about using social media in libraries, I learned that libraries shouldn't use platforms solely for promoting activities with dates and times. They need to balance those with fluffy posts (like fun pictures or lists) and make sure they respond to comments from followers as a way of both giving and receiving information. Whenever I see a fun post, like from Book Riot, or a trailer for an upcoming book-to-movie, I'll send the link the Ellen.

Book Riot recently posted Book Riot Best of 2015 listing the best books of the year. The list was compiled by online voters, so it's most likely a list of popular books rather than the best written or most literary ones. Not every reader will agree!

Pictures are also fun to post. I can't remember if any of these were posted on Geneva's page or if I just saw them elsewhere:









So funny, right?

Tuesday, December 15, 2015

Thing 8: Presentations

I downloaded Google Slides to my phone. I had previously made presentations on Google Drive for classes, but had not used my phone. After having tried out both versions of it, I can say I definitely prefer the computer version over the mobile version.

On the mobile version, it was easy enough to fill in the text boxes and add new slides, but beyond that, it was frustrating. I couldn't figure out how to add a theme to the presentation or move text boxes/images/videos around the page. After adding text to two pages, I switched over to the online computer version and completed my presentation much more efficiently.

I can see the usefulness of the app in that you can present it essentially anywhere you are as long as you have your phone and a wifi or data connection. I think it's pretty cool that you can choose to view it on your device or present it on a video call. However, when I went back to the mobile version to view my presentation, I became frustrated with it again. I could easily swipe or tap the screen to move on to the next slide, except for the final slide! There was no indication that it was the final slide, and no matter how many times I swiped or tapped the screen, it would not change. If you're watching a presentation that you're unfamiliar with, it's hard to tell when you're at the end of it! It is expected that there is a black screen at the end of a presentation, but using this app, you might think there's more to come!

I created my presentation on something about me, my love for K-pop. Many of you may know about it, but I'm sure it's news to others of you! Enjoy!

Did Someone Say K-pop?

Claps all around

Friday, December 11, 2015

Thing 7: Saving & Sharing Docs

I decided to try out Dropbox for Thing 7. I just recently used Dropbox for the first time about a month ago when my sister and I wanted to share our pictures of our trip to Thailand with each other. It was a much more preferable method to emailing all the pictures! Although we both shared pictures through Dropbox, I hadn't really explored the product. And even though the app came installed on my phone when I got it, I hadn't previously used the mobile version.

The app is easy enough to figure out and divides uploads into general categories of files and pictures. And there's also a feature that allows a user to store some files that are accessible offline.

Because I already had pictures from my trip to Thailand saved in my Dropbox account, I decided to share one of the photos with Ellen. I was surprised at how many different methods of sharing there were, like texting, email, Facebook, Wunderlist, Flipboard, Feedly, Skype, and others. I could also share it with my Blogger app, which I thought would be a great and easy way to get the photo on this post! However, it only sent me this link to the photo, not the photo itself:

https://www.dropbox.com/sc/kbmxa081g3js8d7/AAB_hIclSmcgZCZkoe6C0ceUa

So I opened the link from the draft of a post, which took me to the photo located on Dropbox, which I then downloaded to my computer and then uploaded to Blogger. Maybe there's a better way to get a photo from Dropbox to Blogger without having to deal with a link, but this is how I figured out how to do it.

Paradise with a guaranteed sunburn
I shared this photo with Ellen, via both texting and email. I wanted to see if one of the ways would work better. Both methods of sharing delivered the photo to Ellen quite promptly. She was able to click on the link and see the photo without having to be logged in to Dropbox.

Overall, Dropbox is a helpful tool to have if you need to access files and photos from multiple locations or want to share items with others, but I wish, by sharing the photo with my Blogger app, that it would upload the photo to my photo album on the blog rather than beginning a post with just a URL.

How I feel completing Thing 7


Tuesday, December 1, 2015

Thing 6: Creating & Editing Docs

I have been using Google Docs on a computer for the past few years. I have a few qualms about it, but I find it very useful, particularly because multiple users can access it concurrently and I can access it from any device with Internet access. As a student, this was very helpful with group papers.

But I hadn't ever used the Google Docs app before. The app is fine, but I have a harder time editing text, and it doesn't seem to have as many formatting options as the browser version. I began to write my short story on the app, but I've never cared much for writing extensively on my phone. I decided to switch to the browser version on my computer and the typing went much faster! (and I found quite a few mistakes from my phone version, whether it was my poor typing or an incorrect autocorrect).

Overall, I would take the computer browser version over the app version any day (mainly because I prefer typing on a keypad compared to a phone), but I would definitely use the app version if I needed to write something or check on a document and didn't have access to a computer.

So onto the story. The requirement to create a short story around "The self-assured fingerprint expert watered the lawn close to a broken refrigerator during the party for the deadly frog," was quite a challenge. To amuse myself, I decided to give my characters the names of Korean celebrities. Just so you know.

And here we go:

Suho’s life was on a predictable track. At least it had been until a severe storm hit the previous night. He had never seen such destruction. The wind howled, thunder drummed, and rain pelted the ground. The only thing Suho could possibly compare to the fear and chaos produced by the stormy night was his past experience as a K-pop idol.
Suho as an idol

Suho had become an idol because he loved to sing and perform on stage with his 11 other ridiculously good-looking group members. But nothing had ever quite prepared him for the crazy fans. But with fame came fear. Being followed by people obsessed with him made him terrified for his life and was the sole reason he had left his group and created this boring, yet safe, life of a fingerprint expert. He had been on the police force for two years now, investigating crimes anywhere from co-workers stealing each other's coffee mugs to crimes of passion. The coffee mug cases were the real tough ones because the criminals always washed the mugs after using them, thereby removing all fingerprints and rendering Suho’s expertise unnecessary.

Suho as a fingerprint expert
His pursuit of justice had been the most important focus of his life. That, and his deep love for singing. But as he was no longer a K-pop star, he no longer had his audience. So one year ago, he turned to the next best thing; he got a pet frog who would have to give him undivided attention. Kwangsoo, the frog he bought to fill the hole in his life, wasn't quite living up to his expectations. In fact, he was anything but attentive, but he was all Suho had.

This all changed last night during the storm. Suho hadn't been expecting the power to go out, and he certainly hadn't been expecting the house to be hit by lightning. As he was preparing his playlist to croon his frog to sleep, all of a sudden the house began to shake and a bolt of lightning hit. The current of electricity found its way to Kwangsoo’s cage and electrocuted the amphibian. In a Hulk-like experience, Kwangsoo started to grow at a massive speed, so quickly that he easily broke through his cage and the house was soon destroyed. At the shock of it all, Suho lost consciousness.

Suho witnessing his frog getting electrocuted

Kwangsoo before
Kwangsoo after

He awoke the next morning to find himself as a prisoner of Kwangsoo, now a giant and terrifying frog. Although he was feeling quite unwell, he was forced to do the frog's bidding. The storm had caused a lot of damage, and Kwangsoo destruction in the wake of his new size and power hadn’t helped. As he was led outside to begin the cleanup, he saw debris scattered everywhere. There were beds, pots and pans, unicycles, carpet samples, and much more, spread out as far as the eye could see.

After a long day of moving debris and cleaning, Kwangsoo the Great held a party in his own honor to establish his rule over the city. All survivors of the previous night’s storm who were not injured were required to attend in order to pay homage to the lord frog. The main course at dinner, a plateful of flies, did nothing to help the ease the common people. Suho, greatly distressed by the responsibility he felt toward the current condition of the city and its people, felt overwhelmed and needed a breath of fresh air. Once outside the celebration hall, he sat down on a broken refrigerator turned over on its side, debris that had yet to be removed, and was able to calm down to the point where he could think. He noticed a garden hose dribbling water on the nearby lawn and took a drink. While taking a large gulp of somewhat rusty water, an idea hit him, and he wondered if he might possibly have come up with an idea to rid the city of the frightening Kwangsoo the Great. The more he thought about his plan, the more confident and self-assured he became.

Suho ran inside, located the nearest fire alarm and pulled down on it.  Although Suho had always abided by the law that one should never pull the fire alarm unless there is a real fire, he felt that this emergency called for such action. Immediately alarms sounded and the overhead sprinklers began spewing water and drenching everyone. People started screaming in fear and running out the doors. Except for Kwangsoo the Great. At the moment the first drops of water hit him, he began to croak in pain. His whole body lit up with bright lights, and his croaks were soon drowned out by the sound of electric currents. As quickly as he had grown in size the night before, he now diminished back to his former self. Suho, knowing he was no longer in danger of his frog, picked him up and put in him a box (with breathing holes, of course Suho wasn’t cruel).

The next morning, Suho took Kwangsoo to the local zoo and donated him to the amphibian exhibit. The zookeeper had no idea that the new frog had been the people’s despot the day before. Of course, no one knew what had happened. No one but Suho. While drinking from the garden hose the night before, Suho had realized that Kwangsoo’s ferocity and deadliness had been created by a bolt of lightning. And two things that don’t go together are water and electricity. If electricity was what brought Kwangsoo to power, could water be his downfall? Suho had been right, but no one would ever know it was him, the former idol, who was to be credited with their rescue. But since he felt somewhat responsible for the incident in the first place, he didn’t want his police buddies looking into the story anyway.

So happy singing with his friends
As the city returned to normal life and finished cleaning up the mess the storm and Kwangsoo had made, Suho thought back on his love of singing. He had no desire to return to the life of a superstar, and he enjoyed his work as a fingerprint expert on the police force. But his life could not be without music. He gathered together many of his co-workers, and, once a week, they had a karaoke night. Suho was, by far, the best, and was able to continue his music and perform for an adoring crowd without having to fear for his safety from crazy fans who thought he was each of their true loves.  

The End

What story did I just read? K-pop.....?