I'm dreaming ... of a nap!

It's either allergies or tension or exhaustion ... I'm not feeling too well. There's been so much crammed into these past few weeks that I'm starting to feel it! Rest is on the horizon, though!

So I have developed a bit of a love / hate relationship with Zotero and RefWorks. My humanities project was due yesterday, and I had a last minute realization that Zotero didn't pull through the cities in the citations. I was able to get it all corrected, but MAN! It was a bit aggravating to have to go back to find each source again - I am just so thankful that it's all over!

Today is the day for the 2600 quiz. I'm re-watching some of the lectures to cram in every bit of info that I can. I have no idea how well I will do - open book will help a lot, but that means having a strong enough understanding to find anything that I need to look up. I also need to work on the assignment for this week. We're getting so close!!!

Zotero Installation Screencast

I just completed my screencast for the installation and configuration of Zotero. This was actually a good experience! I get a kick out of trying all of these new systems. Jing was a lot easier than I expected, too! It was a bit intimidating, at first, but after you get going, it's not that bad. I noticed in my Google Reader that people were having difficulty getting the aspect ratio correct - I probably should have looked it up or something, but I just played with the HTML code until it was smaller. I also saw on the discussion board that some of the recordings are disappearing off of their blogs ... so I'm going to put the link HERE and then embed my screencast below. Hopefully it will stick one way or another!

Lab One - CHECK!

I just finished my lab in Dabble DB. I'm happy to say that it went pretty well. I use Excel daily at work, so I was pretty familiar with all of the tasks. It was a little awkward following the instruction sheet, though. I'm used to running free - but this was good experience. I work in the Treasury department at a retail corporate office, and one thing that I do is manage the check receivables. I create numerous spreadsheets each month documenting every check that we receive (all of the basic info - payer, amount, check number, date, etc ... as well as coding for our internal accounting structure). I then load the spreadsheet into our ledger. I'm really thankful that I have the experience to work with Excel ... I only wish I was able to attend training to learn more of the functionality. It is really interesting to watch some of the expert users automate systems with Macros. It's a wonderful tool - I wish I had more experience!

I honestly forgot about the lab, so I have been working on that instead of the Zotero project. The goal is to get Zotero done tomorrow, as well as watch a lecture and the research assignment for my other course. I know it's a lot to squeeze in one day, but husband gets back from his race on Sunday afternoon, and I want to spend at least a little time with him. I also need to start getting ready for this quiz! I'm hoping that there are not too many technical questions on the hardware - that has been the most difficult part for me!

Anticipation and Contemplation

I turned my first assignment in Sunday night. It felt good to get it off of my plate. I have seen some posts by others regarding the Zotero assignment, and plan to start that on Thursday. It doesn't sound like it is going very well for some, which makes me a bit nervous. I've never used Zotero. We'll see - hopefully it will come together well.

I subscribe to a local listserv, and one of the messages today contained a link to an article on a new method of checking out books in Manchester, England. Here is the LINK. In one sense, I think that it is great the way that Microsoft and schools are experimenting with innovative technology. Fingerprint technology is popping up everywhere. Even some of the computers where I work are equipped with fingerprint identification security. I recognize the concerns about security of personal information, but when you think about it, we really leave fingerprints everywhere. I guess that matching the identity with the fingerprint is where it becomes sketchy ... so I can see that. All things considered, if someone is uncomfortable, then they can just opt out. It is a voluntary system, after all.