• Fill out as much or as little information as you want. Don’t want to share your birthdate? Just make one up. You can be 29 again! For greater privacy, use a special email created just for Facebook.
• Use a picture of your dog, your favorite book, or your favorite vacation spot!
• Privacy settings – learn them, use them!  Click on the down arrow next to “Account” in the upper right corner, then use the Account and Privacy Settings. Here, you can decide who sees your information, how much they see. You can narrow it down to just one person that you don’t want seeing your updates, or make entire groups. You can control who posts to your page, or who tags you in photos or videos.
• Too many friends overwhelming you when you first log in? Sick of seeing the same junk from a certain someone?  Create lists and use them well!  When you’re logged into Facebook, click on the upper left Facebook image, click on Friends,  then “Create Lists”.
• Got a friend request that you don’t want to answer to? Is it your boss? Is it a long-lost ex? A clingy acquaintance? When you get the request, do NOTHING. If you click on ignore, the person will be know you’ve declined because they will be able to send you another friend request. If you do nothing, you can feign confusion and pretend you missed it. Forever.

So, Foursquare is a location-based social network. What’s this mean? It means that you connect with your friends just like you would on Facebook or Twitter, and the only thing you do on Foursquare is you “check in” to locations as you are visiting them. This means your friends can see where you are at all times. It’s a handy tool for stalkers – Stalking Made Easy 101. Note that Foursquare requires a GPS-enabled mobile device. It can be done with regular texting, but it’s not that fun or practical…

Why on earth would you want to let people know where you are, you ask? Funny you should ask that! Well, it’s a neat way to try to meet other people – when you check into a location, you can see who else is currently checked in. Or, you can see who else is in the neighborhood near you. For example, last month I was up at the Sports Authority in Milford, then I went to the Stop & Shop next to the Mall. As I checked into the Stop & Shop, I discovered a friend of mine that I hadn’t seen in a long time was right next door at the mall – so I sent him a quick text and said, “hey! I’m next door, got time for lunch?” (He ate already.) Just some examples of the benefits of Foursquare.

Also, you earn points, and you can earn badges and chances to get specials, or become Mayor of a location for checking into locations. Foursquare hasn’t figured out what to really do with the points yet (they had a special once where you could turn in points for a charity cause), but the badges are fun to earn and the specials and Mayorship perks can be pretty neat. Also, when you’re checking into a location, it will also show nearby specials – so for example, if someone has checked into the Chase Bank next door, it will pop up with a special about the Fairfield Public Library too!

I know your next question will be privacy concerns, so here’s what people can do to alleviate those concerns:
A) Don’t use your real picture.
B) Don’t use your real name.
C) Don’t allow anyone other than your friends to see where you’ve checked into (much like Facebook privacy options).
D) Don’t allow Foursquare to post to anywhere else other than Foursquare (there are options to post to Twitter and Facebook as well).
E) Don’t check in until you’re almost leaving -this is what I do. As a warning, this can sometimes backfire. For example, I had checked into the aforementioned Sports Authority as I was getting in my car to leave, only to discover that they were giving a $10 discount to anyone who checked in! So like a jerk, I went back inside, asked them to return the stuff and make a new purchase. (They were nice about it.)

What the heck does this have to do with the library? Well – both the Main Library and the Branch Library are on Foursquare. It’s finally been made possible for me to become manager of the Main Library on Foursquare, and I have finally been able to set up the specials. We haven’t been able to properly announce it for a while, but here are the specials we have: for every 5 checkins, you get a free reusable Fairfield, Connecticut shopping bag. If you become mayor, you will get a 1GB USB thumb drive.

Now, this falls on the staff to verify the patron checkin. If a patron comes in and says “hey I checked into the library! Gimme my bag!” you say “hooray! go to the reference desk!” If you are at the reference desk, you say, “hooray! show me your checkin!” At that point, the patron should whip out their nifty cell phones or whatever they have, and they should be showing you the Foursquare app that says “you’re now checked in to Fairfield Public Library” or something similar. Then you can hand them a bag. At the Main Library, the bags and the USB drives are down where the disks for sale are kept (patrons can purchase a USB drive for $10, just fyi). If a person becomes Mayor, which will take a while, it will say “Congrats! You’ve just stolen the title of Mayor of Fairfield Public Library from Lauren B.!” or something similar. The person checking in will then have a crown next to their name.

Phew! Just think, this was only a brief overview.

To see more of the library on Foursquare:

http://foursquare.com/venue/501417

http://foursquare.com/venue/1415396

If you have questions, don’t hesitate to ask. Actually, don’t ask me until November, since I’ll be in California until then. I will likely hold a class and/or make a video to help clarify what Foursquare is about in the future. But for now, remember to say “hooray!” to people checking in, and send them off to the ref desk for their prizes. Two weeks ago we did have someone checking in, and he was quite delighted to have received a bag from us. Hopefully the trend will continue!

Now I just need to win the danged Fishing Tournament to become Salty Miriella!

• 68 Bonescale Snapper
• 18 Fangtooth Herring
• 16 Glacial Salmon
• 22 Pygmy Suckerfish
• 1 Reinforced Crate (with 2 Frostweave Cloth)

Then I moved west to Winter’s Breath Lake:

• 3 Crystallized Water
• 78 Fangtooth Herring
• 46 Pygmy Suckerfish
• 4 Reinforced Crates (14 Borean Leather Scraps, 2 Cobalt Ore)

Todays total:  234

Fjord Total: 437.

Grand Total: 1621.

On an upside, Springroll got her little sand crawler pet from the fishing treasures bag today. Yay! Now if Miriella would just get it, we’d be in better shape.

Today’s Total:  256 fish and other things caught.

Grand Total: 1184 fish and other things caught.  I’m going to head to Howling Fjord for a bit to try to catch the Dark Herring.

Fishing Part two: Now in the Howling Fjord, Fort Wildervar:

• 105 Bonescale Snapper
• 1 Crystallized Water
• 46 Fangtooth Herring
• 48 Glacial Salmon
• 18 Pygmy Suckerfish
• 3 Reinforced Crates (2 Cobalt Ore, 3 Frostweave Cloth, 3 Borean Leather Scraps)

Today’s Fjord Total: 203 (not counting the suckerfish)

Grand Total: 1387.

• 104 Darkclaw Lobster
• 1 Golden Pearl
• 21 Large Raw Mightfish
• 6 Raw Glossy Mightfish
• 2 Raw Rockscale Cod
• 8 Raw Spotted Yellowtail
• 66 Raw Summer Bass
• 1 Reinforced Locked Chest
• 2 Solid Blasting Powder
• 16 Stonescale Eel
• 22 Zesty Clam Meat

Today’s Current Total: 248 fish and other things caught.

Overall Total: 813 fish and other things caught. Soon, perhaps?

Session 2, before I was whisked off to VoA:

• 52 Darkclaw Lobster
• 1 Iridescent Pearl
• 11 Large Raw Mightfish
• 5 Raw Spotted Yellowtail
• 13 Raw Summer Bass
• 1 Reinforced Locked Chest
• 26 Stonescale Eel
• 7 Zesty Clam Meat

Today’s Current Total:  363.

Overall Total:  928 fish and other things caught.

I’ve been trying for it on and off, but now I’m on a serious chase for it, so here goes the numbers for yesterday and today’s fishing sessions so far:

Azshara, Bay of Storms:

• 7 Pound Lobster
• 9 Pound Lobster
• 12 Pound Lobster
• 1 Black Pearl
• 1 Golden Pearl
• 174 Darkclaw Lobster
• 1 Iridescent Pearl
• 23 Large Raw Mightfish
• 5 Raw Spotted Yellowtail
• 89 Raw Summer Bass
• 4 Reinforced Locked Chest
• 2 Small Lustrous Pearl
• 1 Solid Blasting Powder (from 1 Venture Company Supplies Crate)
• 29 Stonescale Eel
• 32 Zesty Clam Meat

This brings it to a total of 360 catches (minus the pearls). My goal is to fish to 1000 fish here in Azshara, and after, if I still haven’t caught one of the rares, I’ll head to Howling Fjord or Grizzly Hills for the Dark Herring. Who wouldn’t want to get stabbed in the face with a fish?

Wish me luck. It’s apparent I’ll need it, though I did catch Old Ironjaw in under 2 hours of work two nights ago

Session Two Saturday night:

• 15 Pound Lobster (they’re getting bigger!)
• 92 Pound Mightfish
• 81 Darkclaw Lobster
• 1 Iridescent Pearl
• 21 Large Raw Mightfish
• 9 Raw Spotted Yellowtail
• 29 Raw Summer Bass
• 3 Reinforced Locked Chest
• 3 Solid Blasting Powder
• 36 Stonescale Eel
• 21 Zesty Clam Meat

Total:  565 fish and other things caught.

The weekend came, and I was busy moving into my new apartment – and, as a result, had no internet access in my humble abode for over a week. I have no idea how I survived, but I did. Tonight was the first night I’d been back, so here’s the tonight’s total tally before I fished up the sea turtle:

7 Barrelhead Goby
1 Bonescale Snapper
17 Borean Leather Scraps
4 Borean Man O’ War
17 Cobalt Ore
10 Crystallized Water
101 Deep Sea Monsterbelly
6 Frostweave Cloth
14 Glacial Salmon
5 Imperial Manta Ray
109 Moonglow Cuttlefish
13 Musselback Sculpin
12 Nettlefish
170 Pygmy Suckerfish
4 Rockfin Grouper
8 Succulent Clam Meat

Today’s Total: 440 Fish, 58 other thingies. A grand total of 1045 fish, and lots of other various crap in reinforced crates and whatnots, so for me the average was just about 1 in 1000, which really isn’t bad at all; I thought I’d be around for much much longer, lurking the waters of the Frozen Sea for so long.

He’s very cute, and very worth it!

This includes about 10 minutes of fishing for the new Dalaran daily Fishing quest, and about 20 minutes of fishing in Elwynn Forest (I still need the One That Didn’t Get Away achievement) while the Northrend servers crashed, uncrashed, recrashed.

Today’s Fishing Daily was The Ghostfish. From the reward, I looted the Sealed Vial of Poison quest starter item, some deviate fish, a Northsea pearl, and some elixirs of water walking.

Fished up on Day 1:

8 Barrelhead Goby
3 Borean Man O’War
7 Borean Leather Scraps
7 Cobalt Ore
21 Crystallized Water
112 Deep Sea Monsterbelly
21 Frostweave Cloth
7 Glassfin Minnow
9 Imperial Manta Ray
144 Moonglow Cuttlefish
36 Nettlefish
255 Pygmy Suckerfish
12 Raw Brillian Smallfish
9 Raw Longjaw Mud Snapper
2 Rockfin Grouper
8 Sickly Fish

That makes 605 fish.

and a couple of other grey items that I deleted.

Bleh.