Sunday, May 16, 2010

May Musings


I like a thin book because it will steady a table, a leather volume because it will strop a razor, and a heavy book because it can be thrown at a cat.
-Mark Twain

I can particularly identify with the last one on his list.  Our cat wants to be up with the dawn chorus and then happily sleeps away the rest of the day.  At least it gives me an extra hour or so that I might otherwise have slept away to check my traplines (twitter, reader, mail) and blog.

Some of the gems I came across this week:

If your looking for ideas Tom Barrett's Interesting Ways collection can accessed here.

Shelly Terrell has blogged What Does Your Hashtag Use Say About You? 16 Resources with some ideas for branding yourself on Twitter using hashtags.

The Science Fiction Writers of America group has announced winners of the 2010 Nebula Awards.  Paolo Bacigalupi has taken the prize for best novel (The Windup Girl) and his latest Ship Breaker (YA) is getting great reviews.  And Booklist Online has the Top 10 SF/Fantasy for Youth: 2010.

If you're looking for stunning images for current events, discussion starters or writing prompts The Telegraph's Earth Picture Galleries has some great photos.

I've started a list of tools to replace Etherpad, all good for real-time collaborative editing.  Please leave a comment if you know of a good one I've missed.

Self Education: Five Essential Sites lists sites "with a serious focus on helping people along the journey of self-education" and well as linking to resources for lifelong learners.

The CC licensed photo by me.









5 comments:

teacherninja said...

I think Google Wave is the best etherpad replacement. You can even embed a google doc your group is working on. Heck, just the new features on google docs itselfvallows collaborative writing in real-time as well as chatting even without Wave. Just go to "settings" in docs, then "editing," then click on the box for "new version of google docs."

teacherninja said...

Oh, and let me know if you need a Google Wave invite.

Lesley Edwards said...

Thanks, Jim, how could I overlook the most obvious one of all? Do you happen to know if you create a feed for Google docs if you get the whole nine yards or are you able to select feeds for specific docs?

Bryan said...

Great list of resources (as usual), but your mention of your cat made me think of this post from the wonderful blog Awful Library Books: Cat training

MrsE said...

Thanks, Bryan, I'll show it to the cat, when she wakes up.