Playing Catsup

I'm a bad, bad blogger. I've neglected my poor 23 things blog, and I should be scolded. Okay, so it really boils down to the fact that I feel guilty playing like this at work, but since it is a sanctioned play time, I suppose I should get back in the groove here before the deadline hits.

So, in order to bring myself up to date with the 23 things, I'm going to do a couple right here.

Week 4 RSS feeds
I've known about RSS feeds for a bit, and while I see them as really neat opportunities for staying up to date on all my favorite review and news sources, I really don't see myself utilizing them on a daily basis. I set up a Google reader account, and to tell you the truth, I really didn't like the interface. I was just bored with it. I did find quite a few feeds that would be useful to me in my work with the teens, but I would much rather bookmark the site and check it every couple of days. I feel like the feed makes me miss out on the full experience, especially when I really like the layout of the site I'm accessing.

Week 5 Playing
Oh boy! I absolutely love, love, love GoodReads. If there is any one site that I visit on a daily basis, that would be it. I've discovered some really great reads just by browsing shelves belonging to other people. Many of my coworkers have accounts as well, so I can see what everyone is reading on a daily basis. Being able to keep track of the books I've read, want to read, or what is currently on my nightstand has come in handy many times. I even use it to select books for the teen book group. I love having access to all of those reviews and star ratings at just the click of a button. I've even put the Goodreads widget on the teen Myspace page so the teens can check out what I'm reading or what books are being considered for the book group.

Week 6 Tagging
I've heard whispers of Delicious in hallways, and elevators, and up until today had no idea what it was all about. Well, I have seen the light! I haven't had a chance to really explore this tool to its full extent, but I have a feeling that there is much more than meets the eye with this application. First of all, having remote access to all of my bookmarks? Talk about a life saver. How many times have I been working on a project (usually a craft project for the teens), needed to refer to a site, forgotten the URL and even the web page name, and been stuck because someone was using the computer I was on when I bookmarked the site? I only have a couple of bookmarks saved on my account at the moment, but as soon as I get a chance I'm going to really sit down and explore!

Okay, three weeks down, three more to go. I think I've made some good progress tonight, so I'm going to go relax now. (I'm doing this from home....double shame on me.)