Readers' Choice

There are many great blogs out there (shout out to Emily, Jessica, Ellen, Kristen C., and Kylie), so thank you for reading mine!

This awards ceremony took me through an emotional roller coaster. Here's the basic rundown of my feelings:

When they started announcing the winners:

 When names of other high contenders were called:

When my name was called for Readers' Choice:

Giving my thank you speech:

Yes, parents, thank you for EXO

Getting a little carried away with my grand ambitions:

Thing 12: Video & Audio

By now, you all know I listen to Kpop as my main genre of music. When I'm at home, I typically listen to it on iTunes or YouTube (if I want to watch the music video or happen to not own the song). When I'm in the car, I'll typically listen to the CDs I've created, and when I'm elsewhere, I'll listen to the music I've put on my phone.

I have a Pandora account that I use when I'm using a computer that isn't my personal laptop. It's more mobile than Spotify because it's web-based as opposed to requiring a software download. Because I already have a Pandora account, I decided to download the Pandora app.

It's pretty easy to figure out. One difference between the app and the browser version is that the app pushes recommended stations and the browser lists similar artists. Maybe they both provide recommended artists and stations (which are essentially the same thing because the stations are given the names of the artists), but just push them in different ways. And one thing that grabbed my attention was the profile tab. It stood out in a way the browser version doesn't. I have not filled out any kind of information on it and don't plan to. I don't think of going to Pandora for social media, but I recall years ago people sharing on Facebook what they were listening to on Pandora. I can't say that I've seen it in the past few years. Maybe it's no longer available or maybe it's just no longer cool.

Hmm, I already know I like those first five groups...

While the Pandora app works just fine, it does require either wi-fi or a data plan, so if I'm going on a road trip, using this is probably going to take up a lot of data. And it can't be used while on airplane mode. I've added my favorite songs to my phone so I can listen to them anywhere and not have to be connected, but of course, the selection is finite. If I'm in the mood to try some other songs, Pandora is a good choice.

How I think I look dancing to Kpop

How I actually look dancing to Kpop

XOXO EXO!

My favorite Kpop group, EXO, is coming to Chicago in February. The concert sold out in about five minutes but my sister and I managed to get tickets! If you see me dancing around the library, this is probably the why. Huzzah for Kpop!

My reaction to getting tickets to the EXO concert!

Thing 11: Edit, Save, & Share Photos

Believe it or not, I didn't have Instagram until today. I know Instagram is super popular, but it's just something I hadn't ever put the time into joining. I used my Facebook account to sign up for it ( I didn't want to have to create a separate account), so it brought in all my Facebook friends as potential followers and suggestions for pages I can follow. I would say I was quite startled by how freakishly fast one of my friends followed me. As I played around with the app, I realized, first and foremost, that I had spelled my name incorrectly on my handle, and I also figured out how to make my account private, which was not the default setting.

I don't think I'll use my account much to post photos, but I think I may use Instagram to follow others. I'm now following my sister, a few friends, about 20 Korean celebrities, and Geneva Public Library, of course! Although I succeeded in following the library (due to my perseverance), it took a bit more looking that I would have liked. When I typed in the library's name, the first results were for a location, not an account. Other users must have assigned their pictures the location of Geneva Public Library (District), so those locations, including ours, Ohio, and New York, came up first, and I had to scroll down to the bottom to find our library's account.

For my post for the Library, I took a photo of our teen drawing boxes for the Winter Reading Program and used the Clarendon filter because I felt it made the green pop a bit more.

Hey teens, there's still time to read and win prizes!

How many shots does it take for Kpop idols to look good?

Thing 10: Chat

Of the options given to use for Thing 10, I use both Messenger and Skype on a regular basis. Messenger for chatting by text, Skype for video chatting (although I did use Messenger for a phone call with my sister when I was in Thailand).

I use Messenger and my phone's texting plan as means to communicate with friends and family. Messenger is handy because I can chat with people whose phone numbers I don't have or who live abroad, like my sister in Indonesia. Plus, sending links, images, and videos is, overall, a more fluid process and the Messenger app can handle longer messages. And because Messenger is run by Facebook, I can chat with friends on my computer (my preference) or my phone no matter where I am. With regular texting, I can only use my phone, and when I have a lot to say, it's tiring (what a tragic life I lead), I make more mistakes, and the long messages are divided up to send as smaller batches.

Even K-pop idols are amazed at what phones can do

For our assignment, I decided to bug Ellen using Messenger. It was kind of hard responding only in questions! I once did this in person as improv and failed on my second line. At least this time I was able to collect my thoughts and make sure it was a question. Ellen is quite responsive, so we had this chat in a relatively short span of time and I could see when she had read my messages and was writing back.

As you all know, Ellen is a sweetheart, so our hostile tone is all fun and games. No feelings were hurt in the completion of Thing 10.

Thank you, Ellen, for your help! And for the treats....very yummy:)

Over halfway done with 19 Mobile Things, I'm like...

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?

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