FINIS!

I am very pleased to announce that I have finished all 23 things. I didn't skip or skimp; I gave time and effort to each of the 23. My favorite discoveries/ exercises include LibraryThing, RSS feeds, podcasts/vodcasts, wikis, and online productivity tools.
This program fit in perfectly with my lifelong learning philosophy: we learn by doing. I learned much that I will use again, and certainly much that I forgot immediately. (Did I learn it, then?) I learned enough to feel comfortable discussing things such as wikis and rss feeds and social networking with my colleagues. And not only can I discuss them; I can USE them! I also used blogger to create a vacation blog for our summer vacation. We took photos daily, and I blogged, with photos, each evening, so my family and a few friends could experience the trip with us. Would I have done this before MD 23 things? Not on your life! Now I'm getting ready to do LATI, and guess what? We have to create a blog! I'll be so prepared for that!
An unexpected and pleasant outcome was finding kindred spirits as I read blogs of colleagues and co-workers. Who would have thought so many librarians at one branch are backyard birdwatchers/bird feeders? Or squirrel lovers? Or that we read the same books for fun? Or that we harbor curmudgeonly feelings about certain subjects.
If another discovery program were offered in the future, I would probably choose to participate. I would hope that the description of how much time we would be commiting would be a bit more forthright, though. We went into 23 Things thinking that we could spend an hour a week, or an hour per thing number, but in fact, we spent much more time than that. For people who spend their lives doing technology-oriented things, of course they could finish more quickly than those of us who use what is necessary when it is necessary. I still don't think that would average out to an hour a week. Our branch was very good in seeing that everyone had the needed time to work at the branch, but many of us still ended up taking some exercises home.
In a few words: sometimes frustrating, often challenging, frequently rewarding. When in the room with someone who managed to complete an activity, sounds of YaY! and WooHoo! could be heard, and everyone in the room joined in celebrating with that person. Sharing this activity with the staff helped make this a fun program.
WooHoo!