Bored? Make a Flowchart!

These are fun. They're flowcharts on flowcharts. The first is on whether you should make a flowchart, and the second is how to read flowcharts. Don't know how well you can see them here, so if you need to, click on the image and it'll come up (bigger) in a new window:





Fun, huh? Makes me want to work in an office again. Not. (hee hee hee)

We Love LibriVox!

When was the last time you listened to a good audio book? And when, I ask you in all seriousness, was the last time your kids did? I bring this up 'cause about a couple of years ago I found a great resource for FREE audiobooks on the web (of course it's free, that's what I live for)(hee hee hee). I'm referring to LibriVox. Their site is filled with free classic audiobooks, all for the downloading. The site has a catalog and you can search by genre, which I do, for "children." They have hundreds of entries there, some of which are short stories and the rest of which are full books. One of my children has gotten a bunch of Sherlock Holmes stories, and the other is currently into both the L. Frank Baum Oz books and the Tom Swift adventure books (by various authors). They both listen to their stories as they go to sleep or do things quietly in their rooms (which in our house happens very rarely). It's a great way to keep your kids interested in reading, especially if you want them to learn a bit about some classic books. I say "classic" 'cause LibriVox, like Project Gutenberg, only deals with out-of-copyright books (ie, pre-1923). That's not so bad, though, because there are a ton of really, REALLY good books on there free for the taking.

If you're interested in getting one of these books and are hesitant 'cause you've not done this before, it's easy: go to LibriVox.org, click on "Librivox catalog" on the box on the left, and run from there, filling in either an author or a title, or look below that and you can click on "browse entire catalog." Assuming you found the book you want, you then get to that page, and scroll down to where each file (or chapter) is named. After the file name, there are several several file types listed. Right click on the type you want (I usually choose the mp3@128kps) and tell them the location to which you'd like to save the file (I put them in my "downloads" folder). You have to do that with each file. Relatively speaking, an easy process, and fast, depending on the speed of your connection. After you get all the files you need (or want), you just need to play them, either on your computer or your mp3 player or (my choice for my kids) on a cd. I'll leave those directions to you. But if you need any directions on MS Media Player, I've got it in XP and Vista, so send me a note and I'll send directions.

I've gotten probably 25 books from LibriVox so far, and am currently work on another. I hope you all check it out and give it a try. It's a great idea well executed!

Couldn't Resist...

Nothing Fun, Just Interesting...

My son has played "follow the links" from the lolcats site to the (lol)dogs site to a rather cynical but often quite silly site called "FailBlog." It's filled with mostly pictures but occasionally video of stuff that, well, just didn't work as their owners had planned. He pulled up something today that looks so benign when you first glance at it, but, well, you watch and see:



Did you not gasp at the end? And did you not worry that the cop was gonna blow up at any minute (at the end there)? Whew!

What's Pandora? Free Radio on Your Computer !!

Hey, have any of you checked out Pandora yet? It'a a great site that plays music based on your musical choices. Once you have an account, you create "stations" based on either a group or song or type of music. And they have TONS of tracks, so almost anything you enter gets matched to other similar songs. And did I mention it's FREE? I think they operate on the presumption that they'll introduce you to music in the genre you like but that you haven't heard before (and then order the tracks/albums through them). Which is cool with me.

My musical tastes run to the relatively obscure, so I have a station that's geared around The Pogues (Irish rock and folk), XTC (80's alternative rock), and Sara Bareilles (00's mellow pop). And I could have set up any number of other "stations" as well.

I keep this music on when I'm working on the computer or in the house in general. It's even on my internet-radio receiver in my room, so once I set it up once, I can access it from any computer or receiver.

So if you've become bored with regular broadcast radio, why not check out www.pandora.com and see what you can find there?

Gotta Post It, Just Once...

You did it, America! Woo Hoo!!!



I do not have what might be defined as "unbridled optimism." I just have more than I would have had the other side been elected. Done.

I Knew Welsh Was Tough, But This is Just Ridiculous...

With a friend, I visited Wales back in the '80s. I have two great memories of that trip. The first is of the beach at Tenby, which was at the base of an incredibly high, rocky hill, and at which the water was unbelieveably cold. The second memory was of the family we stayed with. They were my friend's boyfriend's grandparents, and they were natives of Wales, and hence English was not their first language. With the great prevalence of English (even in Wales), we didn't think this would be a problem. Hee hee hee on us. We were fine with the grandmother, and her sister and the sister's husband. But the grandfather was tough; not only was his first language Welsh, but he also whispered and was going senile. Which means that not only could we not understand what he was saying, we couldn't HEAR what he was saying. Oh boy. I guess 50 years in the mines will do that to ya...

I loved this story and thought I'd share. In Wales, as in Ireland, all road signs are printed in Welsh as well as English. So recently a sign showe up that looked like this:



Looks like a regular road sign, right? Hee hee hee... wrong. The top (the English) is correct. I guess having designed that part, the highways office then sent that text to their translation service. The translator was not available, as their email response read (in Welsh) "I am not in the office at the moment. Send any work to be translated." Hee hee again: the roads department assumed that that was the translation they asked for, and put it on the sign. Hence, the sign now read the English text on the tope and the "out of office" response on the bottom. Hee hee hee once again!

Hee Hee Hee... "Animal" Strikes in Germany!!

Sorry, kids, I know it's been a while, but with the start of school for my offspring, I've been a bit overwhelmed.

I'm a bit down right now, so I've decided to show you something that I got a real kick out of. I hope you like it:

It seems that the German police are a bit bothered by a driver who's been getting around their speed cameras. Apparently the cameras in Germany are only set to capture the identity of the driver, and for them (as for US cars), that's the left-side seat. Well apparently a hoaxster driving an Audi with British registration has been speeding in Bayreuth and avoiding apprehension by riding with a member of the Muppets in his passenger seat. The pic looks something like this:



The author of the blog I saw this on says: "The No.1 suspect is Animal – the manic drummer from The Muppet Show’s house band The Electric Mayhem. But several residents of Sesame Street are also in the frame, including the lovable monster Grover and Bert’s rubber-ducky-loving sidekick Ernie."

But this has to be my favorite. He doesn't credit it, but I guess it's from the police in Bayreuth: “This may be an example of the famous British sense of humour but it is still dangerous driving. The driver has been caught on camera on several occasions and the puppet is on the passenger seat every time. We suspect he positions the toy deliberately before accelerating past the camera.” Ya think?

: )

Just Have to Post This...

see more crazy cat pics

Keep everyone down on the Gulf Coast in your prayers...

Time for Lolcatz!

Need to put a smile on your face? Here you go:

I'm having trouble re-sizing the top one. The caption says "you gonna just stand there? for the lubba jeebus, help me!" I'm sure you get the idea.


see more crazy cat pics

and


see more crazy cat pics

HAPPY MONDAY!

WOO HOO!! XO Computers Available from Amazon in November!

Woo Hoo again! The XO, a computer developed out of the MIT Media Lab )and intended for distribution to children in developing areas of the world), will be sold to the public by Amazon as part of an upcoming fundraising initiative. They were sold last year, but then the program was run by the developers themselves, and it didn't go well (it went ok, but not great I guess). I can't complain, though; ours was delivered, sans instructions or almost any documentation, on December 19 or 20. It's the coolest thing on the planet! It has a reader application so you can read e-books, it as a few (children's) games, with more available - free - on their site, it has several usb ports for use with other hardware, like iPods and a mouse, it has a video cam and speakers, and yes: WI-FI!!!! I've taken it on vacation several times and used it to access my email; what a great toy! Oh yeah, and the kids like it too.

Anyway, this was announced only today and for further information, you can look here:
http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9114103&intsrc=hm_list

or here:
http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/150642/amazon_to_sell_olpc_xo_laptops_from_november.html

The way it worked last year was that you paid $400 and received one XO computer. Since the XO only costs $200, the other half of your payment is tax-deductible as it goes to send another computer to a child in a developing country. The one I gave last year is somewhere in Mongolia now. Cool, huh? And we got a tax deduction too! Rock on, gadget junkies!

Opera Rules!!

Today at 1PM Google released their first browser, "Chrome."  Let's see how it goes.  Me, I'm hesitant since I'm a diehard fan of the "Opera" browser; it's lightning-fast, sleek-looking, takes up little precious hard-drive space, and lets me save my bookmarks as icons (yeah!!!).  And it doesn't crash as often as ANYTHING ever put out by Microsoft (take that, Internet Explorer!!!!!).  Did I mention it's FREE? Yeah, I use IE if I have to (occasionally, some low-rent websites can't be viewed by Opera), but ONLY if I have to.  Opera is great and I just wish more people knew about/used it.  Here's the link if you wanna check out this fast, EASY browser, and if you need help downloading it or using it, write me (or make a comment to this post): http://www.opera.com/.

On the off chance you want to try the Google browser, here's the link: http://www.google.com/chrome. Good luck with that!

Seeing Ghosts

With the recent spate of suicide-by-train deaths in this area, I’m noticing something I’d not really heard in the several years I’ve been here: long, insistent train horns being blown between the two nearby stations. As the engineers leave one, they begin a series of long horn blasts that really get your attention, the kind that make you wonder if everything is ok, or if they see something on the tracks and they’re trying to warn it to move. I can understand why they do it. Because of the suicide deaths of the three boys in the past three months (they were 17, 18, and 20, I think), I’m sure this line has become somewhat of a last-choice assignment for the staff of these trains (ie, when given their schedules, they heave a heavy sigh when they see they’re coming down here).  

Also, do you think they pass on information from engineer to engineer? Do you think they – the engineers - try to prevent it in any way other than blowing their horns more? Do they slow the trains when they approach certain crossings (like the one near me)? And do they support each other when it happens? Does it happen enough that there are that many other engineers who’ve hit people?  

This whole thing is so sad, and not only for the families of the boys, but also for the train staff. It’ll never be enough to hear “it wasn’t your fault” or “you know he wasn’t in his right mind” or “he shouldn’t’ve been playing on the tracks.” All the engineer remembers is that there was someone on the tracks and he hit him. And killed him. I’m sure that’s not an easy thing to deal with, or drive away from. And even when in their conscious mind they know that the boys were drunk, or off their medication, or lovesick, their unconsciouses must play vicious games with them, replaying the event over and over, during daylight and night.

I wonder if they get psychological help when this happens [there goes another series of horn blasts]. I mean, how can an engineer go back to work when he’s constantly hallucinating about young men playing on the tracks directly in front of his several-thousand-ton train? That can’t be good, for him or the train he’s driving. I wonder if they have on-site psychologists or if the engineers get time off to see someone on their own. Do they get automatically transferred to another train line? Do they retire early? What exactly do they do for the train staff when this happens? Has this even been an issue before? And, has this ever happened so many times in one short period on one line?  

We’re seeing a bunch of suicide prevention talks and articles geared toward the kids. I really wonder what’s being done for the staff of those trains… [another bunch of horn blasts].

Which Came First? "Buffalo Soldier" or "The Tra-La-La Song"?

 I realize I'm old enough to be contemplating things things of a much more serious nature, but this was brought up recently and I felt I needed to find out the answer: which came first, Bob Marley's song "Buffalo Soldiers":

(check out what he sings at 1:33 in the song)

or the theme song from The Banana Splits, also known as "The Tra-la-la Song"?

I had to dig a little, but I've indeed found that the tv theme debuted with The Banana Splits in 1968, and the pop song was recorded in 1980 and released in 1983 (posthumously).  Makes you wonder what Bob Marley was watching when he composed the song.  But wait, he was a rasta, which makes me wonder even more...

What Exactly IS a "Lolcat"?

A "Lolcat" is a picture of a cat - or kitten - that has a cute caption appended to it. The "lol" part of the name refers to the im shortcut which means "laugh out loud," which I do A LOT when I see these.  There's a certain new "lolcat" language that's developed too; it takes a bit to get used to it, but once you do it's great (and cute).  There are some wonderful ones out there: cute ones, funny ones, scary ones. Some of my favorites can be found on http://icanhascheezburger.com. This is a great site with thousands of funny pics, mostly of cats. Go there, have some fun, enjoy!

Big Black Dogs = Marshmallows (at least ours is!)

As you can see from the pic to the right, we have a big beautiful black doggy.  When our last (big black) dog died, and I became lonesome, I specifically looked for a large dark dog for our family.  I learned during that search that black dogs - specifically big black dogs - take the longest to get adopted out.  (Note: we're an "adopt" family; we didn't consider buying, as we think there are so many unwanted animals out there)  I was really amazed that so many people have a "thing" about black dogs, especially large ones, as I've found they've the best personalities and are great with children.   That's been my experience anyway.  And to point out how great they can be, I've tried to show people the big baby that is our dog.  He's sweet, energetic when he wants to be, swims better than most humans, and is not aggressive to other animals (he doesn't care about squirrels and is often scared by small dogs (really!!) ).  Relative to other dogs I know, he's the epitome of the well-trained family dog.

This article was in an area paper recently and it discusses the "black dog situation".  I hope you read it and consider a black dog the next time you go animal-shopping.  They're wonderful!

http://www.app.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080811/LIFE05/80811005/1006/LIFE

PS  Don't forget to look on Petfinder to see what animals are available to be adopted in your area:

http://www.petfinder.com/

Cheer Up Kids!

For whatever reasons, it's seemed to be a bit stressy around here lately.  So I've taken it upon myself to cheer you all up.

First off, a video from a classic movie, featuring two actors the likes of whom we won't see again:



And I thought of this last night, as the rain cleared and we chased a beautiful rainbow that seemed to end over the ocean:



Hope your day gets good!

The Name Game in Court

I don't think I could EVER do this to my child. I've just always liked fun but "normal" (read: boring) names for kids. I realize there are some that like to be more creative, but I wasn't one of them when it came to naming my three children. The first is named after his dad and grandfather, the second has his first name chosen by my husband and the second is my father's name, and the the third is my choice of first name and the second and third are after her grandmothers. Dull, boring, but for us, nice and thoughtful.

Here's why I bring this up. There was an item in the news today about a case out of New Zealand about a judge who placed a girl "under custodianship of the court" while a new name was chosen for her. Her legal ("given") name is, now sit down, and don't choke all of you "she must be named for a saint/family member" people, "Talula Does The Hula From Hawaii."  Yeah, that's it.  That's her legal name. Hee hee hee. Can you imagine going around with a moniker like that? And she's 9. Can you imagine how the other girls would slay her if they knew? (They don't, though, 'cause she was so embarrassed that she told them to call her "K.").   And can you imagine what she thinks of her parents as a result of this?  She had to SUE to get a "normal" name.  That's bad.  Her therapy bills are gonna be B I G .

Although on the one hand I hope this is a hoax, on the other hand, it's been featured on the CBC (Canada), Reuters Africa, USA Today, the AP, and the BBC. If they've been taken in, then someone did a great job! Here's some story links:

http://africa.reuters.com/odd/news/usnSP5901.html
http://blogs.usatoday.com/ondeadline/2008/07/parents-lose-cu.html
http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2008/07/24/talula-nz-name.html

and the best article on the whole thing:

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10523288

So the next time you think oddly of someone because of what they chose to name their child, just think of poor 9-year-old Talula Does The Hula From Hawaii and the other children mentioned in the articles (one named "Violence" and another named "Number 16 Bus Shelter") and you'll realize that the people you know are nowhere NEAR so bad.

And don't think this hasn't happened here. Just think of Moon Unit and Dweezil Zappa, and Apple Martin (daughter of Gwyneth Paltrow). Ugh.

I wish I worked in a place like this...

http://view.break.com/521743 - Watch more free videos

'Nuff said...

(hee hee hee)

And I Thought Summer HERE Was Boring...

I think the Swedes need something new to occupy their time. Read on:

There's a discrimination issue that's raging in Sweden right now. It involves - sit down - birthday invitations. Yup. You read right. Birthday invitations (or their improper distribution) can cause discrimination. Did you know that? I didn't. I guess the rules in Sweden are different.

The details: in a school south of Stockholm recently, an 8-year-old boy who had given out invitations to his birthday party had the invitations confiscated by his teacher. The reason: he hadn't given them to everyone in his class. Two boys were not invited. Why? His father says one of the boys bullied his son, and the second hadn't invited him to his party. But as a result of not receiving the invitations, those two boys were discriminated against. Or so the school says.

Now, I've heard - and abided by - those rules at private pre-schools, and I thought they were pretty justified for a group of really little kids (and this was a PRIVATE school). But do we really need to have PARLIAMENT decide whether this is discrimination? And why is it discrimination? Because some children will have their feelings hurt 'cause they weren't invited to a private party? Well maybe there was some justification there. And how did the other boy get away with not inviting everyone? How come he wasn't bagged for discrimination?

I don't believe in a "big government" that has to make rules for everything. In fact I personally believe some things just shouldn't be legislated. And this is one of them. Social mores are based on current social custom, which, I think, should not be legislated. Prohibition, anyone?

And hey, don't people in Sweden have anything else to worry about? This is soooo silly, and for it to have reached the Parliamentary Ombudsman is ridiculous. I've always wanted to visit Sweden, and Norway, and Denmark, and Finland, but I gotta start wondering about a place that has to establish rules on who must be invited to a birthday party. Good Grief!!!

More Info:  http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hkBG46h2R7GP4O08d5vSYk416N0gD91JTSFG0