Thing #23: Summin' it up

I currently can't really feel too much of a sense of accomplishment over the fact that I'm finally working on the final Thing. I know that after #23 is written, I'll have to go back and fix several blogs that I didn't do properly, or maybe that I did the work for but never actually blogged about. So there's still work to go. With that said, it's still nice to know that I've finally managed to work my way to the end. This project certainly offered more challenges than I had anticipated. I went into my first Thing with an undeserved sense of arrogance, thinking that the internet couldn't possibly hold any real surprises for me and I'd breeze right through. In alot of cases, this was true, but along the way I found some Things that confounded and perplexed me, and others that were unexpectedly fun and fresh. I'm pleased with alot of my progress, especially today when I decided to add a few RSS feeds (previously quite the challenge) and had no trouble at all. This is juxtaposed with yesterday when it took me 2 hours to get a YouTube video posted into my blog. The 23 Things were a mixed bag of fun, boredom, challenge, and ease. Somewhere around thing 10 or 11, I totally burned out. I had done several Things in a row that just bored me senseless and I didn't even look at my blog again for several weeks. But upon my return, there were some fun exercises awaiting me and I'm glad for the experience.
I can't say that I'd really be eager to do a program like 23 Things again. It presented far more challenge and a much greater investment of time than I had originally expected. I would have thought I'd be finished months ago, but even after today I'm sure I'll be making corrections and additions. But this is the kind of work that really will be important as libraries become more and more technologically dependant. Gone are the days of us being able to rely on our reference books to "completely answer" a question. These days we have to at least have a working knowledge of many of the online components of our patron's lives. I'm not sure how many of these Things will continue to be popular in years to come and how many will be eclipsed by new and better programs, but at least now I have a firmer grasp of which direction the internet is headed.