Searching, Learning, Culling

After a good meal, the dogs were ready to sit back and think philosophically. The article called "To a Temporary Place in Time" made Blackie think about the style shifts she's seen over the years. People get all excited about doing things a certain way, presenting a particular emphasis, and that's all everyone talks about for a short time. But then something new and a little bit different comes along, and the paradigm shifts.

Rufus, being younger and (therefore) having both a shorter perspective and a shorter attention span, doesn't have much interest in customizing his search engine or eating his kibbles from a new self-feeding container.

So, the dogs' thoughts are that the more things change, the more they stay the same. If there's a package of blue tennis balls at the store, let Mom buy the contrasting color so she doesn't lose them in the lawn any more. They're still tennis balls, after all.

If Dogs Had Cameras

Blackie figures she could probably work a camera, if it had big buttons, as long as it was on a base so she didn't have to hold it, and if it was auto-focus and automatic in every way. Dogs don't normally care much for pictures, but art can be fun (just ask Tillamook Cheddar) so Blackie tried her paw at making a picture of Mom.

The controls on the image generator were very easy to use, but rather limited in options. This was the closest Black could come to how Mom seems to look. If they only had a scent generator, we'd be in business!

Rufus did not participate in this exercise. To him, "fun" must absolutely, positively involve a spherical object.

Tagging and, well, you know...

The dogs laughed out loud at these lessons on tagging and sharing info. Whether it's putting a tag in your blog so others will know you've covered a topic, or adding a book title to your LibraryThing so your friends can see where you've been reading, this is an inately canine thing to do! Of course you want others to know where you've been and what you've been doing. Of course you leave little tags here and there so they can pick up your trail. And of course you find a common place to post these tags so that they're easily found and recognized. This is what social networking is all about, people!

Blackie patiently explained to young Rufie that humans haven't been in touch with their social needs. She further reminded him that they have a very poor sense of smell, so their tagging cannot be done invisibly. It's a good thing they can read, and that they have the Internet, or the dogs would have to do everything for them. Turning on the computer is like going to the dogpark. Let them have their time at the keyboard and they'll be happier and better socialized, and maybe then they'll take you out for a nice run and fetch.

Mom has a new toy...

...but we don't get to play with it! What's fun about that? Well, at least you can finally see what we really look like. Our stand-ins were okay, but (no offense to them) they were second-rate. Mom finally got a camera phone, and she was able to take photos after only one lesson from a Boy. Then, wonder of wonders, she was able to send the photos to her computer (where she spends way too much time, in our opinion) and upload them to our blog. All that, and we only had to hold still. We don't like to hold still, except when we're sleeping. Maybe that's why she made us go outside, and she threw tennis balls for Rufus for a long time.

A word of explanation about our images, by the way. Blackie doesn't always pant, but she was quite bored by the time Rufus was tired enough to sit still. Rufus only pants like this (look at that incredibly elongated tongue!) after a long, hard run. It would be nice if Mom could get pictures of us looking more engaged and noble, but we are not the posing types. (Besides, Blackie knows that Rufus doesn't do "noble," even on his best days.)

Dog Friends

As you can see in the photo at right, Blackie and Rufus have been joined by a friend. His name is Tom, and he found them by browsing MySpace. The three dogs are off on a water adventure, but they will be checking on their OurSpace page again soon. If you'd like to be their friend, here's the link to view their profiles:

http://www.myspace.com/175410448

Please join us in virtual play by visiting our page! Let's go fetch! Let's swim in a swamp! Let's eat roadkill together!

We made an OurSpace page! Yeah for us!

Sorry, but the dogs are, shall we say, *dog tired* after trying for several days to establish a MySpace networking base. Setting up the profile wasn't hard, but it took three people to explain to them how to choose and apply a layout. Oh, but they are very pleased with that layout -- it's done in shades of tennis-ball green and yellow!

This networking thing seems like a lot of work, considering that Blackie and Rufus were happy just waiting for friends to drop by whenever they took a notion to visit. One more URL, one more password, one more computery thing to maintain... Blackie isn't very interested in continuing this part of the 27 Things, and Rufus doesn't have the patience to sit at a keyboard.

Hey -- this lady looks like she could use a break. Do you think she'd like to pet me for a while? Maybe go out in the back yard and toss a few spherical objects? We hope she's not too busy maintaining her network.

Networking for the Network

The dogs have been mulling over the possibilities of MySpace for the library. Prior to reading about libraries and MySpace, all Rufus had considered was that this might be another way to find someone to play fetch with him. But if they made their own MySpace page, with the right sorts of identification or marketing, there's the potential that they might meet other interesting library-minded canines. The virtual play-yard just got enormous! Now that's something to bark about!

RSS Feeds... Sleepers?

Blackie roused herself from her nap long enough to play around with RSS feeds and subscriptions to KCLS coworkers' blogs. Rufus lost interest immediately, as this process did not offer activity or excitement. Blackie found it interesting to think that she could know just what was posted on other sites, without having to actually go to those sites herself. Seeing as how she prefers to spend her days at rest, this makes good sense to her. However, there was no kibble appearing out of the CPU, so she got a drink and went back to sleep as soon as she finished this exercise. It will be nice to read them later -- maybe after a good dinner.

Getting Ready for Automatic Feeds

Blackie is particularly excited about the possibilities of RSS feeds. She likes her kibbles, and she likes 'em all day. It can't get any better than having them delivered automatically, without any extra commercial distractions! Rufus is still trying to play with Retrievr to get it to make tennis balls for him, but he occasionally checks to see if Blackie is done with her nap and ready to get the food-thing going. RSS, here we yum!

(By the way, this photo shows one of Blackie's role models.)

The Dogs Try Flickr

Blackie and Rufus had some trouble with this week's assignments. They were immediately attracted to Retrievr (for obvious reasons) but were not satisfied with the results. Rufus saw the lovely lime green shades, and the perfect round template, and thought of his most precious possession. Unfortunately, his "sketch" did not yield the desired outcome -- photos of tennis balls. Blackie suggested returning to old faithful Google, and they completed an image search for the perfect ball-fetching grassy field. After a good run, they'll come back inside and try more Flickr tools, without the constraints of specificity.