3.0

Okay, done. For now.
Just as one cannot simultaneously know an object's exact position and speed, one cannot complete the "23 Things" and say that one is now all nice and caught up. For in the time it takes to compose one of these blog entries, the technology has evolved, and one will find that what one has learned has morphed from new to now to then.
But we are librarians. Keeping up with the ever-changing universe of information is a constant struggle, and we are used to it. Of course, there is much, much, much more to keep up with now than there was back when I got degreed, but it is much, much, much more accessible.
Keeping up with all the various ways to access useful information is important, I think we can all agree. Is it equally important to know how to make your own jokey post-its or trading cards? Sort of: one need not be fluent in the more frivolous applications, but one must have a passing familiarity in order a) to impress those who might not know about them, thereby strengthening the conception that librarians are omniscient; and b) to avoid seeming clueless and out of touch to those already conversant in the area of silly, gimmicky web stuff.
So yeah. Now I got feeds, I got blogs, I got gmail, I got moldi, I got flickr, delicious, googledox, and on and on. Go, me. But ya know what? Still don't get twitter. Makes me think of an old joke: a kid grows up and never says a word, family thinks he's mute, until one day at dinner he says "Soup's cold." Family is astounded, demands to know why he went ten years without speaking, only now commenting that the soup is cold. Kid says, "Up until now, everything's been pretty much okay." The point is, I'm one of those who has trouble saying anything if I don't have anything worth saying. Even blogging is an effort. So put me on twitter, and I might say, "Soup's cold," but if the soup ain't cold, I won't take up my fellow twits' time. And to my twitter followers out there, ya know I love you all, but god help me it is a distraction that an easily-distracted person doesn't need. It's nothing personal.
Whew. Where was I? Oh, yeah, yeah, the 36 Chambers--I mean, the 23 Things. Much fun. Some I had already encountered, some were entirely new. Some I will continue to use on a daily basis, some not so much, but hopefully I now know enough to bring along the patrons. (I know, I called them "patrons." I think it's a classy word.) By this time next year, perhaps there will be a fresh 23 things. By this time next year, maybe I will be able to type these words by thinking them. By this time next year, Indiana will have a top-10 men's basketball team. By this time next year, I will have a kid in high school. By this time next year, Palin will be on a reality TV show. By this time next year, the economy will be in a shambles, there will be bread lines, and we will make tremendous strides in civil rights issues because people will have real problems and will realize that allowing dudes to marry dudes is not going to bring about the end of the world.
Ah, I'll miss this...