Netvibes as "A Game of Thrones"

Local history: One of the things the Gunter Library & Museum can contribute to the community is to begin an Obituary File of Gunter residents. Some research into past issues of the Herald-Democrat is needed to begin the historical files. A local volunteer who will begin to clip the current area newspapers can soon provide valuable information.

Books I'm currently reading: "A Game of Thrones: A Song of Ice and Fire" by George R.R. Martin. This is the first book in a series of seven. The second book is "A Clash of Kings" and the third is "A Storm of Swords." The author of this immensely popular series has been called "the American Tolkien" by Time magazine.
The series is even being adapted as a graphic novel. Looking at the sketches of characters in the graphic novel on my Kindle, I have decided that I want to read the graphic format, but I think I will finish reading the series first. I have my own images of the characters. After I complete the series, then I'll see how illustrator Tommy Patterson has interpreted them.
I think author George Martin has done a fine job of delineating his characters. There are a lot of characters to keep track of, and also the geography of the lands seems to escape me. I presume the book itself has a map, but my Kindle version doesn't show the map. My favorite characters so far are Jon Snow and Arrya his half-sister, and brother Bran. A lot of characters seem to be losing their lives with a swish of the sword and I wonder what will happen to my favorites before the first book is finished.
While the epic fantasy may attract teen readers, the book definitely presents adult situations. There is a lot of violence also. When Hollywood makes a movie of it, they will have plenty of scope to classify it as R rated. Still, the series, as far as I have read it, is quite readable, a grand adventure, and, I presume, a quest will appear, although its outlines are vague at this point in my reading.

Step Two of the Beyond Two-Step Technology Training: I've been experimenting with netvibes as a webpage designer. So far I'm impressed with the comprehensiveness available when one starts adding gadgets and blogs and links. It is rather overwhelming to click on links and find them taking over the page you are designing. I've decided one must proceed cautiously in order not to open up the entire Pandora's box of the Internet at once. I added one link and found I'd drowned myself in more than 4000 connections. A disciplined approach is needed to maintain a useful design of the dashboard. I'll probably go back and delete the genealogy dashboard I've started and build it again one link at a time. I can see where this dashboard approach can help one design a useful and very thorough approach to a topic. Libraries and other entities can definitely make use of this technology. But my first experience with it left me feeling a little bit like the lion tamer in the cage without his whip. Or like the reader of the bewildering details and plot twists of "Game of Thrones." Next I'll have to try out the iGoogle technology and see which one I like the best.