MP3 great for travelers!

I already have a great MP3 player (see previous post) but I am going to give my Learn 2.0 MP3 player to my lovely Mom. She is a audio book fanatic and she needs to start downloading some books. No tapes and cds to fumble around with on her trips. I know my luggage is lighter having an MP3 player!!

Digital music rights debate (sorry nothing travel related this time)

- Where do stand on the digital rights management debate? I feel that we should be able to copy material we own and be able to give to a friend. Maybe it would encourage them to purchase more cds or downloads from this artist. But I can see how this could get out of hand
Should media be offered with unrestricted rights or pay per use rights? Media should have restricted rights and if the band is popular enough should only be downloaded by paying for it.
Metallica or Napster? Neither, there not my bag baby.
Ipod or Etunes? Down with Ipod, I hate companies that take over a name for an item. Ipod is the Klenex of media players. (Do you want a Klenex? No I want Puffs please! :))
I personally own a Creative Zen vision M and it ROCKS!!

Solo trip to Denver

On 6/4 and 6/5 I went to Denver,CO for the second time. Last time I went to the Denver Zoo which was beautiful and Cherry Creek State Park which was adjacent to my hotel in Aurora. This time I was able to go into the Rockies. I highly recommend the tour company Gray Line tours. They will pick you up from your hotel if you are in downtown Denver or Central Denver. There are different tours, but I took the Denver Mountain Parks tour which is a 4 hour tour ($45) that goes to Dinosaur Ridge, Red Rocks Amplitheater and Lookout Mountain. Our tour guide was Ron King, I think he should have been named Joe King since he always had funny things to say.
It was very beautiful. If you are in Denver if you don't want to rent a car this is a great idea.
I can't wait to go back again. There is a more extensive tour that is 9 hours long and is $99 so next time I go I will probably go on this tour. The Rockies are magical and draw you in. I fell in love with them like many others before me. I definitely recommend this as a vacation destination. These pictures definitely don't do it justice.

Learning online

What started me creating this blog is a great program the Orange County Library System in Orlando,Fl has for its employees called Learn 2.0. I have been really enjoying this as you can tell from previous posts.
It's been great to see how all of us our helping each other out with our assignments, especially how to customize our blogs or understand some of the jargon in the lessons for Web 2.0 lite people like myself. I can see that I am becoming more informed about whats going on in the world of the internet and how we are what makes up the WWW. Especially how we are interconnected through the internet.

My next blog should be some information of my solo trip to Denver,CO with pics!

Some Web 2.0 Travel applications I found

I was able to find some great Web 2.0 applications for travel:
www.tripadvisor.com - 2nd most popular travel website. Fellow travelers share there travel experiences, tips, pictures and videos. I highly recommend this one.
www.connectedtraveler.com has videos, blogs, podcasts and photos. You can also post classifieds, reviews and create your own page.
www.travelistic.com has many videos for travelers
www.trivop.com is the first video guide for hotels. Travelers and hoteliers can submit their videos.

Have fun visiting these sites. There are hours of fun here!!

Some Learn 2.0 applications for the traveler

There are some great sites that I found for the traveler who knows the importance of research. If you use books like I do to do your research there are great ways to keep track of the titles you have used and found very helpful. Some examples are:
Library Thing; Elf; Guru Library; Shelfari
Book Mooch is a great way to trade with other travelers who love to research. If you have been to one destination and have a book you are willing to part with for another book that is good for your next destination, Book Mooch is for you.

Web 2.0

It's so exciting to see how we make up the web and have created many different cyber-communities and ways to share about ourselves.
The videos on YouTube and pages on MySpace were cool . It was great to see OCLS mentioned by our customers and not just staff.

There are obviously many online videos and blogs and vlogs based on TRAVEL. I look forward to looking for some and sharing with you later.
Do you have any to share?

RSS feeds for travelers

In lesson 3 I learned about RSS feeds. There are so many about travel, it was so hard to choose. Here are the RSS feeds I have subscribed to. Maybe you'll want to subscribe also through Bloglines.
www.travelocity.com (travel deals)
www.expedia.com (more lovely travel deals)
www.orbitz.com (even more)
www.fodors.com (cool travel podcasts)
www.redstravel.net (travel writing by a world traveling woman Amy Harking)
www.netscape.com and select travel stories

Do you have any to share?

Welcome to the first Tripp-traveler post!!

Hello All,
My name is Dawn and welcome to my first blog! I know you are as exciting as am.
As you can tell my passion is travel. I guess it is not a coincidence that my last name is Tripp. :)
Here I will post about past travel experiences and future plans. Also, some tips for solo-traveling which I love to do!!!
I have worked at the Orange County Library System for 8 years and it is a great place to do research for travelling. Frommer and Fodor are my friends! :)
Well I hope you enjoy this and feel free to comment.

Happy Trails!