THING 44. THE ECONOMY

Over the past year, I've had many discussions with friends about the economy. Who predicted the meltdown? When will the economy pick up and start booming again? Are we headed for inflation? After the economy recovers, what's going to cause the next bubble to burst? And what are the signs to watch for?

I watched the video "Understanding the financial crisis for kids & grownups." It gives a good summary of mortgages and investing and how combining the two after deregulation in 1999 led to the present crisis. I also watched the CommonCraft video on saving and compound interest.

I looked at the websites for this Thing. Frugal Dad offers 75 hints-- #56 is Rediscover a local library. Gas Buddy-- enter a zip code and gas prices for that area are displayed.

Recently I cataloged a book on keeping chickens. This seems to be a topic of increasing interest. I looked at the websites Raising Chickens and MadCity Chickens. The city of Shoreview (along with Seattle, Spokane and Madison) now allows residents to keep chickens, with certain restrictions. No roosters allowed. I have a feeling my townhouse association would not take kindly to me raising chickens in our common area. My grandmother raised chickens and I have many memories of Sunday dinners with fried chicken.

THING 43. ONLINE TV AND VIDEO

This was another Thing I liked. Since I don't have cable, I asked coworkers for suggestions for cable shows they like. Here's what I found on Hulu:

Burn notice had many interviews. I watched one. Didn't see that full episodes were available.

Breaking bad. You have to sit through 2 minutes of ads before seeing an 8 minute minisode.

Life after people. More ads. Watched clip on what would happen to animals if people disappeared from the earth. Wild animals would multiply. Domestic animals would die or turn feral. Gorillas would be the top mammal. Then watched clip on trash and no people. The worst trash would last a million years. A single styrofoam cup could last indefintely. And on that cheery note it's time to move on.

I discovered Hulu is more than TV. There are movies on Hulu and trailers. I watched the trailer for Bride and Prejudice, a Bollywood version of Jane Austen's book. National Geographic specials are on Hulu--excerpts as well as some full length programs.

It was while looking through the National Geographic lineup that I had a eureka moment. The trebuchet question. Every year I get the trebuchet question. A patron, usually a young male, wants information about the trebuchet, a medieval siege weapon. I found clips on Hulu from the History Channel showing what trebuchets look like and how they work. I can answer a reference question with Hulu!

What happens when you subscribe on Hulu? Some shows have a subscribe icon. I looked all over the website for an explanation of the features. Hulu's how-tos are buried in a pulldown box I got by using "subscribe" as a search word. There's a list of videos explaining various features, including "How to subscribe to a show." Why isn't there a link on the home page for Hulu how-tos?

I don't watch much TV except for the news. Hulu is fun to play around with, but I don't think it will drastically change my viewing habits. I don't have time to watch hours of TV and movies. With Hulu, you have to spend a lot of time searching, and maybe the full length show you want isn't available. I like the free, on-demand access of Internet video. What impact will Hulu and similar websites have on viewers? Internet TV competes with broadcast and cable TV. It must cut into their number of viewers. How much, I don't know. I can't predict that it will replace them. I have heard of people who watch TV mainly on the Internet.

THING 42. MUSIC 2.0

This Thing could have come sooner. I have heard about internet radio and streaming for some time but have never delved into it. Since I listen to music often on the radio, this Thing was very interesting to me. I have heard of Sirius Radio, so I looked at their website. I could have signed up for a free, 7-day trial, but I'm tired of signing up for accounts. Using the Internet, I listened to news on BBC World Service and to music on MPR. I listened to 365live. I tried Radio-Locator, but there was a problem with Windows Media Player. I made a personal list with Pandora, but I didn't sign up for an account. I also tried out Grooveshark and Songza.

I created a quilt album widget with Aretha Franklin albums on Last.fm. The only part that uploaded was the red border. I tossed that and tried to upload a widget of classical radio stations from 365live, but that wouldn't upload, either.

I hope internet radio does not totally replace broadcast radio. I'm concerned that if it does, we'd have to pay for all radio. Besides, it's easier to turn a radio on and tune to the station you want. I don't want to have to log on everytime I listen to the radio.

THING 41. MASHUP YOUR LIFE

Mashups would not make my life easier, because I'm not a big fan of social networking. Mashups would be a drain on my productivity and not a booster. Too time-consuming. I don't see myself using this Thing much. I haven't looked at my Facebook, Ning or Twitter pages for some time. However, I can see why people who have multiple email accounts and social networking accounts might want to bring them together in one place for easy access.

I looked at most of the websites. I tried Superglu several times on different days. Not there anymore. Apparently Superglu didn't have much sticking power. I thought about signing up for Fuser, but I don't have the right version of Internet Explorer.
I looked at TabUp and watched the demo, but I didn't sign up.

On to Thing 42.