Musings & Memories Montage
Telling My Stories and Discovering Your Stories
Happy New Years from NYC
12/31/07

Well the craziness has begun down in "The City." We were down there last week, the Saturday before Christmas. The place is an energy buzz. I'll put up photos shortly. In the mean time, you might enjoy enjoying New Years Eve the same way we will ... via the Internet! No, we're not actually crazy enough to be down there (yet) but I am keeping up via Earthcam's Streaming Video.

Enjoy,
Have fun!
pam

Pam is a Texan living on the Southern Fringes of Upstate New York. She enjoys messing with people's minds by consistently offering up proof that all of New York state is NOT New York City.
A Great Time was Had by All
11/18/07

The wedding went very very smoothly yesterday and the rehearsal dinner was highly eatable. (Homemade goodies all around!) I suspect we all put on mmm 2 or 3 pounds a piece. Oh and then we all had another piece of cake this morning at church.

The best overheard line was said by one of the groom's brothers to the groom (scroll down).

DSCF5584

Oh man! She's already got you trained!

Have fun,
Enjoy,
pam

Pam is a Texan living on the Southern Fringe of Upstate New York. She counts herself as exceedingly blessed.
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Last comment made by Sarah ~ 11/25/07
Decisions and a Story about Men and Women
05/08/07

Hmmm well it seems I am getting threatening posts and harassing emails. So I give up ...

Yes, it's true! Atypical said, "If you don't come out of hiding soon, I am going to have to send my rambunctiously adorable epileptic dog out in search - and he has a bad sense of direction!"

And Mary-LUE sent me a note saying, "You are awfully quiet. Has Second Life stolen you away from us?"

Even this IM from my own daughter!
[12:05] violetkey: Hi, how goes it?
[12:06] MarillaAnne: HEY I'm actually writing a post
[12:07] violetkey: yeah, i've heard that before

And from my own husband!
[12:12] Billy: u really should put up a new pic
[12:12] Billy: the snow is long gone now

So they've confirmed to me something ... it's time to take my own advice. It's time for me to give up only posting when I have time to write -- as I prefer to. It's time for me to stop dismissing the small bits of time that I have.

Between all the activities that spring brings and working towards having my own business in Second Life, I am simply not able to devote large chunks of time to writing those long meandering posts that I love. But that doesn't mean I should just stop!

Aside: I do have two longish posts that I'm working with but every time I sit with them, the heart of it seems to slip just beyond the confinement of words. But there is progress being made.

Also, for the moment, I am not going to separate my "First Life" and my "Second Life" in this blog. I had toyed with the idea. And I may yet. But for now, I'm just going to tell about both.

Today is about First Life and how proud I am of my hubby. (He gets very frustrated that I always make him look like a saint ... but ... he never gives me anything bad to write about ... for which I am eternally grateful!)

One Sunday morning, shortly after we started attending our church, the pastor and his wife told about a lovely dinner they had attended the night before. A church in Connecticut had invited them to a meal prepared by the men in the church especially for the ladies.

Well the men in our church were not to be outdone! And I do not know how they possibly could be. They rolled up their sleeves and the Saturday before Mother's Day they put on one Royal Shebang!

All of us ladies were properly impressed and I don't know how we could have enjoyed ourselves more.

Billy grilled all day ... brisket and chicken. Anyone who's had Billy's grill'n will tell you it is fantastic. He's very careful to cause the effect to be much closer to slowly smoked meat.

The rest of the men ... oh my! Decorated, organized, fixed excellent side dishes, planned/performed music, and then the pastor gave us some encouraging words.

Now, I want to tell you about the most amazing affect of two very important aspects: 1) This was not hailed as a Mother's Day dinner. It was a dinner to honor the ladies of the church (and their friends). 2) The men never sat down with us.

As an event to honor the ladies, the men made little speeches about things that this event had made them reflect on. How much the women do in the church, how as a group the ladies bring the feeling of family to the church (this was especially pointed out by a single young man), and how we work diligently, side by side, with the men to make community events successful, etc. These facts are true -- motherhood and marriage have nothing to do with them. It was all about the ladies bringing their unique blessings to the church.

Now, the majority of us are married. And I will be the first to admit that we fully expected the men to put out the food and all of us to go through a line and for all of us to sit down together.

But they did not do this. They seated all of us ladies and then served us. They brought us punch and bread and the main course and all the sides and desert and coffee or hot tea.

At first, it felt funny to be separated from Billy but I quickly got use to it -- as did all of the other married women. Soon we were a group of women laughing and carrying on and enjoying the company of each other.

After the meal they ushered us into the sanctuary and we were seated as a group and we sang together and were sung to by a few of the men.

Then the pastor spoke to us about how the pressures in today's world are huge for women and encouraged us to take them seriously. He encouraged us to especially protect our hearts, souls, and emotions by "Rejoicing alway."

"It is not always. It is alway as in every way." Also Rejoice is to re-live joy ... not that every moment is joy but that every moment we can remember another joy.

And all the while, most of the men were cleaning up in the back.

I cannot begin to tell you what a huge huge blessing the whole evening was. The men totally cocooned us into a moment just for us. And we women fully enjoyed the company of other women, each of us in a different place in our individual lives. ... our only common threads were our womanhood ... and the fact that each of was connected to another man or woman who was in some way connected to our church ... and no it was not always by membership.

Okay now this is one more aside for anyone who attends the same church: No, Billy did not make himself sick grilling. He woke up with a fierce headache Saturday morning and it carried on through Sunday. He just didn't admit it to anyone on Saturday -- not even me! And I ended up with a round of insomnia Saturday that hit me like a ton of bricks Sunday morning. (Often I make it through the next morning.) So that's why we weren't there Sunday. Ya'll didn't do anything to us :~)

Okay, tomorrow I will introduce you to Janford and her Second Life islands. An absolute oasis! Right now I have to get ready to attend a meeting in Second Life and then also follow up on some advice from Janford.
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Last comment made by atypical ~ 05/09/07
If This is God's Will -- Where's the Joy?
04/10/07

Well, there's a little problem with asking a storyteller a question: Storytellers don't answer questions with three words or less. PLUS You will always get a very very long story if you ask the storyteller when she's starting to feel alive again after spending a week cooped up, isolated and feeling like a pile of cold, cooked spaghetti noodles. (Really.)

Plus we all know I have this meme affliction wherein I twist every meme to meet my own objectives.

Yeah ... so ... out of Atypical's interview questions ... I generated at least an entire week's worth of verb-age.

I am starting with Atypical's question #4:
Can you give one example of a time in your life where joy welled up so much inside of you that it had to spray out, sprinkler like, on anyone who happened to pass by?
My very, very first thought was of the incredible experience that carried us from Oregon to New York. (I had wanted to go back to Texas but ... )

How many people do you know who have nothing ... nada ... zippo ... ZZ-EE-RR-OO in the bank account and no reason to believe money is "in the mail," "winging it's way to you," and certainly "we're in the money" is not a phrase they know?

Ok how many of those people would paper the nation with a resume and cover letter claiming to be able to "self re-locate" at that very moment -- in that very condition?

We did it with my husband's resume -- with a complete trust in God that He was perfectly able to make it happen. The very first clue that this was a perfectly fine idea was how the two of us felt about it's very existence. It's birth was the first time Billy and I had been on the same page in almost a year. That out of sync feeling that had been so disconcerting suddenly disappeared.

I want to tell you that from the time the phone rang 30 minutes after the first resume went out until we moved into our current apartment 90 days later -- every single moment of every day was filled with contentment, peace, joy ...

Yeah ... and I'd have to lie in order to tell you that. It was full of struggle, suspense, doubt, anger, fear, hurt, separation from my better half, etc. Of course, this drama was only one of six extreme drama's going on all at the same time. Oh yes ... when we do drama, we do it up right!

So, how is it that I reached a point of "sprinkling" joy everywhere? Because God is good ... Great ... AWESOME !!!

If you start at the beginning of the story and read all the way through, I created a page just for that: Our Moving to NY Story

You will find most of the dramas listed in this post: A Banner Week. I started my blog a few weeks after I sent out this "Dear Everybody" note.

The overview to strictly the moving story and some of the conclusion is in A Moving West Coast - East Coast Story. It also has footnotes with links to the hair-raising details of the money story. If you are looking for some courage to believe in God's care, I strongly suggest you find those footnotes.

The joy part? :: smirk :: Seek and ye shall find. It's a perfectly grand story that deserves it's place in time. So, I encourage you to persevere to the end.

I used this as an opportunity to go back and put these posts back in order the way I want them read and I turned on the commenting for each post.

It is perfectly legal to bookmark the story and come back to read in bits and pieces.

Enjoy
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Last comment made by Terri B. ~ 04/13/07
Haiku with One Deep Breath #3 -- Spring's Song Risk
04/07/07

This week the prompt over at One Deep Breath was an encouragement to slow down and listen to spring's song.

When I finally got over there and read it, I burst out in laughter. Just the night before when I opened our door, I was accosted by spring's song. It turns out that the swamp critters took a great risk though.

Great Swamp's sweet Spring song
burst forth in eve's cacophony;
next night frozen mute.
This image is of a revisit of a swamp dawning at the end of last August.



Go read/see more poetry
Read the prompt

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Last comment made by susanlavonne ~ 04/13/07
Ok Ya'll it's Your Turn to Talk
04/03/07

I think I'm fighting with the flu ... Yes, I'm taking appropriate non-drugs and drugs ... so don't leave me any drug advice ... I have enough!

Instead, what I really want is to hear from you about you and yours. And feel free to talk among yourselves ... leave notes for each other ...

I just feel too brainless to even go look at my feed reader ... so if you've written something you want me to know about ... leave me a link.

If you've found something fantastic out on the web lately ... leave me a link.

If your dog had puppies, tell me about it.

Ya get the idea?

I'll be fading in and out ... so have fun.

And for pities sake don't say "oh I'm so sorry your sick." I don't need to be reminded. I going to assume you aren't jumping up and down happy. I think you're nicer than that.
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Last comment made by Barbara ~ 04/09/07
Haiku with One Deep Breath #2 -- One Line Poems
04/01/07

First a note ... If you expected to arrive here and read about Casey and the Magnolia Cafe, something went all sideways and so you can find it on another post of mine: here.

This week the prompt over at One Deep Breath was about writing one line poems. What? A one line poem?

Well, I'd love to explain it to you in detail but besides the fact that I am again posting my poem at the very last second. I'm also striving to accomplish this in about 15 min ... and I'm trying to fix a post gone awry.

go on over to One Deep Breath and read through the references.

My one liner is in keeping with my Texas Spring Fever:

Texas unique thunder storms across rolling prairie hills.
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Last comment made by Marcia (MeeAugraphie) ~ 04/10/07
Magnolia's Cafe, Patterson NY
03/30/07

...

Sleeping with Bread -- Springy Short Stack
03/28/07


My Sleeping with Bread refused to be deep and thoughtful this week. I actually wrote it Monday afternoon at the cafe but between obsessing over my baby and being overwhelmed by the blogosphere ... well here we are ... again ... Wednesday.

Blessings:
  • Hints of Spring

  • More birds

  • Little gray squirrels

  • Deer visitations

  • New Friends

  • The New Computer arrived safe and sound! Happy Dance!

Missing:
I started down that slippery slope of homesickness when I was reading my National Geographic Adventure Magazine and noticed an advertisement for TravelTex.com. They proudly proclaim:
Who am I to argue? So I checked them out. It's a fairly decent site actually. The screen saver download was disappointing since they don't use images that are actually large enough for my monitor.

But! I found out that I can control a camera in Texas from New York. It's rather fun. But be patient with it. The camera really does receive every request you make. Every left and right and every zoom. Alright, if you want to play with the camera, click to get in line. Literally. You're looking for a button that says "Get in Line."

Oh and you should also know that by mid-May, I know I'd be ready to come back to my "Southern Fringes of Upstate NY!" Or maybe somewhere even cooler. So obviously I just have a small case of Texas Spring Fever.

The Sleeping with Bread meme is propagated by Mary of Life, the Universe and Everything. It gives us a chance to stop and consider God's blessings and a chance to evaluate what is giving us pause or grief.
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Last comment made by Sarah O ~ 04/07/07
A Modern Child's Handprint
03/28/07

I'm the first to admit that I thought my child's hand print in tempera paint or clay was just too cute. But do you know what happens to those over the years? I'm not going to spell it out for you. I will tell you that it just gets messy -- and other things that could make you cry.

Enter stage center (yes, use the lift and include dry ice effects), one highly creative, exceedingly modern dad -- Mike Leonen. Mike is an award winning writer. He won his awards in journalism. Now he stays home to give time to his sons, write a hysterical blog, and explore his skills in the visual arts. Let me show you his latest ...

Mike Leonen: Something about Parenting

Posted with Mike Leonen's permission.
Please do not use this image without Mike Leonen's consent.

If you have a child, a grandchild, a niece, a nephew, a close friend with a child, ... the possibilities are endless ... you can completely understand the importance of this piece of art work. And I'm sure you can completely understand how much better digital survives compared to clay or tempera!

Mike is offering to create your unique image starting at the most insane price of $18. Trust me when I say this: I would never create it for you for $18 and you know how much I love my readers. MOREOVER, He his giving you the rights to print and reprint the digital file he creates for you. This is a generous licensing agreement. Many artists control the printing process -- and charge dearly for it. So I highly suggest that you get over to Mike's Something about Parenting blog and take advantage of him his incredible offer before he comes to his senses. And while you're there, add Mike to your RSS feed reader.

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Last comment made by Kim ~ 03/29/07
Now! This is what I call Tracking!
03/28/07

A moment by moment update on it's location.



Now ... Poughkeepsie is about 28 miles +/- from me. I'm up. I'm dressed. I'm even going to open my front door today. (OK. You've got me. The door's really gonna be open because the weather is being soooo wonderfully warm. And yes I'm almost always up and dressed by now. Still ... it all fits in nicely with being ultra prepared in case the UPS delivery route makes a sudden deviation straight to my house.)

So, you know, why couldn't UPS at least told me when the package crossed state lines? They don't have to actually rescan each box in a "truck" (aka plane). They could just do a batch update.

I still maintain that UPS can't do that because then they'd have to admit that it's not really the transportation that delays delivery ... it's really about prioritizing. Don't they think we're mature enough to chose a priority vs a methodology?

FedEx Overnight is totally based on priority. Works out pretty well in my mind.

Ok well ... I'm usually on the near tail-end of the deliveries with UPS ... so today I shall be entertaining myself with blogging and cleaning house.

I still have a few things left over from last week that I want to talk about.

Late Monday afternoon I went down to the cafe to just enjoy some time with my thoughts away from a keyboard. I got a few bloggable ideas.

Yesterday I bumped into two things. One, is the very epitome of why I hang out with moms and dads. The other is one reason why I don't miss the tech world. And it explains why I am so strict with my blog.

I'm going to do all the light-weight stuff first because I'm afraid that the last item is going to take up most of a day to compose something mostly coherent.
"Baby" Update
03/27/07

Finally!!



That's about 72 miles away. Now, there's no telling when it will get here tomorrow.

Arrgggg!

Okay I think I might should tell ya'll some of the rest of the story.

Back ... wwway back ... before MailBoxes etc was a household name ... back when the franchise was maybe four or five years old, I worked in one of the stores.

It was fascinating. People thought the counter was the bar and I was the bartender. They'd walk in and put their packages down and then fill me in on alllllllllllll the drama surrounding this package -- and if I was really lucky, they'd also include their life story.

One thing we did on a regular basis was call the customer service people to track down a package. It was just a regular love-fest. Not.

So fast forward about fifteen years and what did my Daughter V do for about 1.5 yrs? She worked at a FedEx/Kinko's. She did everything I did at MBE in a whole new modern way.

Guess what ... nothing's really changed as far as people go. One small advantage she had: She could at least try to track a package by looking it up online. 'Cause that love-fest thing with customer service ... that didn't change either.

And we're both laughing about my frustration about the (lack of) tracking re my baby. Just because you know how the system works doesn't take away anxiety.

Next stage: Will it be in one working piece if it does actually make it to my door?

After all ... to quote my former employer ... "They say there's not a war on but I'd never know it by the shape these boxes arrive in."
Where IS my NEW Baby?!
03/26/07

Ok ... so ... a few of you may have noticed that ...

  • I have a daughter who lives in Portland.

  • She's seriously thinking of popping down to Dallas, TX for a long weekend in April.

  • Nothing hugely urgent -- just her haircut is six months old and there's this once-a-year nationally-top-ranked art show ...

  • This kind of chatter use to be reserved for the likes of the Kennedys and the Rockefellers.

So obviously air travel has come a very long way. VERY! We live in a new world. Really.

So but for some reason ... UPS wants us all to believe that they still actually put all of those "ground shipments" into their little brown trucks and actually Drive them across country ... from say ... Colorado to New York.

Personally I don't believe this. I have proof, too.



This is a screen shot of the tracking of my NEW computer from Colorado to New York. First, as we've established ... I don't think it's in a little brown truck somewhere. Nope. Because if it were ... they could at least have the decency to stop and scan the box and transmit it's new location ... like ... is it safe to assume that it's made it across the flatlands of Kansas ... or did the driver take the scenic route through the southern edge of Kansas? No. They can't stop and scan the package and let me know if it could be in, oh say, Indiana, visiting my friend Laurie. No. They can't tell me any of this.

Why? (well aside from the very high unlikelihood that my friend would know a UPS driver who would know that she's my friend and that that box is my new baby ...) ... They cannot scan the box and give me a location update because the box is not in a truck. Shipping it by truck from Colorado to New York would be hugely inefficient. It would NOT fit into the new world.

So ... you see ... obviously ... there's a plot.
  • It boarded an airplane.

  • My new computer is sitting down in NYC right this minute in a warehouse.

  • They can't scan it and provide me with an update on it's current location because then I would expect delivery today.

  • This is all about their convenience.

Look, don't expect logical from me. They aren't telling me where my new baby is. For four six days all I've known is that it's left it's originating city in Colorado ... well really do I even know that? What exactly does "Departure Scan" really mean?

My nerves are wearing thin.
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Last comment made by Mike ~ 03/27/07
The Wikipedia Time Machine Meme
03/25/07

Well, I think we can pretty well establish that I have a proven record of struggling to remain inside the boundaries of any meme's original scope and intent. Mary of Life, Universe and Everything tagged me for a fairly harmless looking little meme. The idea is ...

1. Go to Wikipedia and type in your Birthday Month and day only.
2. List 3 Events that occurred that day.
3. List 2 important Birth days.
4. List 1 Death.
5. List a Holiday or Observance. (if any)
6. Tag 5 other bloggers.
I came close to staying within the boundaries. As to #6, I'm tired from all the exploring I did when I fell head over heals into this little exercise. It was amusing, informative, and ... a little disheartening to discover that only movie stars and musicians were born after say 1945-ish. Oh, yeah, right, as I was saying ... I'm worn out from goofing off with this ... so ya'll talk amongst yourselves, compare notes, and tag someone else to do the meme. Then come back and let me know "who, what, when, where ...." If you want, you can even throw in "why."

For my birthday: July 3

EventsBirths
  • 1567 - Samuel de Champlain, French explorer (d.1635)[Loved to do small things on his birthday ... like establish cities in out of the way places ... like Canada.]
  • 1738 - John Singleton Copley, American painter (d.1815) "... was a Boston-born American artist of the colonial period, famous for his portraits of important figures in colonial New England, particularly men and women of the middle class. His portraits were innovative in that they tended to portray their subjects with artifacts that were indicative of their lives." [Yeah ... but when the going got tough ... he took off for England.]
  • 1958 - Aaron Tippin, American [country] singer [I do not mind sharing my bday with him.]
Death
1749 - William Jones, Welsh mathematician (b.1675) "As a
mathematician, his most noted contribution is his proposal for the use of the symbol π (the Greek letter pi) to represent the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter. He became a close friend of Sir Isaac Newton and Sir Edmund Halley. In 1712, he became a Fellow of the Royal Society, and was later its Vice-President." [The man knew how to collect friends! Can you imagine bumping into the three of them at the local coffee shop?]

Holiday / Observance
July 3 is the official first day of the Dog Days of Summer. And my mom will be the first to vouch for the truth of this statement. She does not have fond memories of dealing with a first new baby in the heat.


For my mother's birthday: March 23

EventsBirths
  • 1699 - John Bartram, American botanist (d.1777)
  • 1924 - Bette Nesmith Graham, American inventor (d.1980)
  • 1941 - Jim Trelease, American educator and children's literature author [My kids will remember The Read-Aloud Handbook and now out is The New Read-Aloud Handbook. I can say without hesitation Jim Trelease's book contributed to my children's great love of books. It is a HUGE MUST GET BOOK if you have children ... or grandchildren ... or know children ... or know anyone who has children ...]
Death
1982 - Barney Clark, first artificial heart recipient (b.1921)

Holidays
I was totally dissatisfied with the holidays listed on Wikipedia so, with very little effort, I discovered that March 23 is both "Liberty Day" (in honor of the 1775 speech by Mr. Henry) and it is "Near Miss Day." You can read "Did the Earth almost get hit by an asteroid on March 23, 1989?" at The Astronomy Cafe
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Last comment made by Darren ~ 03/26/07
Hey, Have Ya'll Noticed This?
03/13/07

Ok ... I'm the first to admit ... I tend to be ... what's the word ? ... phrase ? ... musically unaware? ... no ... if music is on, I hate it or love it ... well whatever it is ... it's definitely not "musically addicted." I have a collection that amounts to about maybe 20 CD's stored in my itunes player. And probably at least 40% of these I've adopted. They came to me because my husband shares his 20 CD's that he purchased mostly before we got married.

But ... gradually ... I'm trying to become more music aware. It is very gradual. Very very very gradual for many reasons ... like I can't concentrate on anything else if the music is too loud, too soft, or has words. Seriously. We'll chalk that up to my ADD.

So anyway having some desire to have more music in my life has made me somewhat aware of my music options on the Internet. Sometimes I play Accuradio. Sometimes I poke at the stations attached to itunes or Windows Media Player. A great deal of my music still comes from Dallas. Occasionally I listen to KPLX (my country fix at 99.5 - the Wolf! Sunday nights offer me an excellent opportunity to stay in touch with my Texan accent with The Front Porch Show with Texas Native Justin Frazell - 6p to 9p). Every now and then I remember that Dallas has a pretty good classical station, WRR. (But I avoid the City Council meetings like the plague.)

At Christmas I check in on KCBI (Christian). (I raised my kids and kept my sanity in those days by listening to KCBI when I was stuck in the kitchen FOR HOURS.) When I want to feel a little bit in touch with a trend slightly more current, I listen to Positive Hits Alternative, yRadio, while Billy listens to zRadio. They are sister stations in Florida.

Yesterday I was glancing at my Google Reader and it brought me this by way of my subscription to Google Operating System: Unofficial news and tips about Google™:

Musicovery is fun! Limited selection. True. But a fairly good time machine all the same. Now, when you read the post at Google Operating System, you will see that he and his readers have some other ideas, also. One mention is Last.fm.

A word of warning: Do not load up the Last.fm site with the young and impressionable nearby. The users can have some very raunchy avitars. That said ... WOW! I love it.

The link I'm providing takes you to the "Listen" page. It's true ... if you type in one artist, you will get a very close-knit group of songs that weave in and near this artist's genre. For example ... I entered "Jars of Clay" and so far I've listened to "Newsboys" "Delerious?" "Audio Adrenalin" "Third Eye Blind" "Petra" and "Building 429."

When I want quiet, I enter "Enya" or "George Winston." (Unfortunately none of his music is available but it usually results in instrumentals with no words.) Then I get more music like theirs.

Last.fm also learns what music to play for you and it's fairly easy to teach it ("heart" or "stamp out" symbols). With some discernment, you can also figure out how to create a play list. There's also a downloadable program to help you with your library that is stashed on your computer. Yeah. No. I haven't felt the need to organize my 20 cds.

Well, alright, so, give me some artists to expand my horizons with and ya'll go have fun, now. Ya hear?
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Last comment made by Darren a/k/a Clare's Dad ~ 03/14/07
Just because my Husband is Harassing Me
03/04/07

I just logged in to check the status of my blog ... but since he's being ... obnoxious ...

I am making a new post. He says I can't do it in ten minutes. But here I am ... making a ten minute post. And actually I have to do it in five because I just remembered I haven't put any makeup on ... ttyl!
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Last comment made by Wendy Ann Edwina D'Cunha e Pereira ~ 03/09/07
I am Officially a Driven Blogger
02/28/07

Yes. It's true. I am being driven. I think I am being driven east.

We've rented a zipcar for the next two days. Today is whim day. Right now the plan is drive east and see the sea. But ...

We're going to go eat breakfast at a local restaurant. If we talk to someone and they have a plan, it could very easily become Our plan.

Tomorrow is all business. We're going to some fancy Microsoft meeting. Out on Long Island ... never been on Long Island.

So ... if you see a car wearing a logo like the one on the car below ... well just think of us. Don't wave. It's not us. We're in a different sort that I don't have time to run out and take a pic of.

Have fun!

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Last comment made by Darren a/k/a Clare's Dad ~ 03/05/07
Ya is not You; Ya'll is not You-All
02/18/07

Originally from the Southern United States, I resist highfalutin attempts to claim ya'll is a contraction of you-all. This causes the misspelling of ya'll as y'all. Goodness Gracious! Please do not spell ya'll incorrectly.

Ya'll is, in fact, a contraction of ya all. Believing ya'll contains the word you is emphatically wrong. Ya and You have very different uses and meanings in smooth Southern speech -- which is full of subtle nuances meant to cause action through charm and enticement. Southern speech has two exacting purposes for the word you: a) formality, b) a clear warning signal.

Formally, Southerners use you as most foreigners are accustomed: "It is very nice to meet you. I hope you have a nice day." Certainly the listener is a foreigner, without community ties, and will not be invited to Sunday dinner.

If the speaker adds, "You need to avoid trouble. You take the county road," this is not friendly advice nor gentle suggestion. Do not be confused by charming, polite delivery. These are imperative commands.

When Southerners use you in an informal setting, especially with those of familiarity, pay careful attention. "You will go to the barn and milk the cow. You will be home at nine." These sentences indicate both imperative commands and forceful expression of irritation. With the sweet-talking tendencies of the Southerner, you may or may not be emphasized. If so, the voice volume increases almost imperceptibly. Regardless, know for certain, you is in Trouble!

Southern people sweet talk their way through life with a wonderful, melodic rhythm that "allows ya ta jus' set back 'n relax." We know a relaxed person is a happy person and, well, a happy person is more co-operative. Ya is part of relaxation: "It's great to meet ya. Can ya join us at mom's? If ya wanna better route, ..."

Understand that when Southerners use you-all, it is immediately followed by a phrase the listeners do not want to hear. "If you-all don't hush right now, you-all will milk the cows and be home by nine." This speech, probably delivered in lowered tones, leaves little room for doubt.

Southerners phrase the above in a relaxed and endearing way: "Won't ya'll help me with this little situation? Perhaps ya'll could milk the cows ... and then stay out past nine." Ya is relaxed. Ya'll is the epitome of charming relaxation: Ya with the l sound gently added in elongated, soft tones.

Southerners refrain somewhat from publicly sweet-talk'n everyone these days (sexual harassment). We still tend to be friendly and avoid over using you and you-all.

Since we have this all cleared up, ya'll have fun now! Ya hear?
My Dad Called: "Are ya'll staying warm?"
02/06/07

His real question is: How is Billy doing walking to and from the train?

So ... what I really have to tell you about is "the unfriendly New Yorkers."

I grew up in Dallas, TX. I have lived in the DFW metroplex and in East Texas. I did not know it was possible to feel like vapor. My presence was always acknowledged in some way ... just because I breathed.

I have also visited Portland, Oregon for a year. I say visited because almost as soon as I got there, I wanted to leave. We wouldn't even open up a local banking account. Why? Because unless a person knows you in Portland, Oregon people do not even acknowledge that you are taking up space. You are vapor.

I wanted to go back to Texas. My husband wanted out of Oregon but wanted to find a way to stay in the NW -- in Washington. Nothing was working out. So we papered the nation with his resume and within 30 minutes, Billy was sure we were moving to NY. And the short of it is that we did.

I expected more of the same aloofness. Instead ... I am in a new form of culture shock. I can smile and receive smiles -- not suspicion-filled scowls. I can be just standing around taking up space and suddenly be in conversation. I can laugh quietly to myself about something overheard at the next table in the cafe ... and suddenly I am included in the group's conversation -- with my opinion sought. I can ask questions and get detailed answers. I can pass someone and ask about the book they are carrying. I can find myself walking next to a stranger on the sidewalk and suddenly we're talking about our surroundings and observations.

It is like being back in Texas ... people love to talk ... interact ... have opinions ... hear opinions.

I had a realtor tell me I just know how to bring out the best in New Yorkers but ... it's not just me ... for example .... I offer up one proof: The Starbucks here have regulars and the regulars have a "Regulars Club." If you become involved in conversation with one of the regulars, you will very likely soon be in conversation with all of the regulars who are present. If your coffee shop has a "Regulars Club" like this, you know what I mean ... (if it doesn't, I'll pass on my infiltration tips that I used in Oregon -- just ask.)

AND ...

Let's talk about how it is that my husband is staying warm in sub-freezing weather when he has to hike 1.5 miles to the train station.

My husband is not a small man. He wears an imposing full-length, black duster coat. He takes a backpack with him to work every day. Up until recently it's been dark when he leaves the house. And still ... all of that imposing figure stuff figured in .... almost every morning ... He walks away from the house ... and someone stops and picks him up.

We do not know the people in the small town we live in. It's not always the same someone. Sometimes it's someone who has spoken with him at the train station ... sometimes it's someone who has only observed him at the train station. Sometimes it's someone he talks to every morning. Sometimes it's a lady. Sometimes it's a gentleman.

Every evening he has to change trains. Sometimes there is a person there who sees him and brings him the rest of the way home. If not, he comes on the next train to our town. More often than not ... someone there offers him a ride home.

Sunday he tried to walk home from the A&P (a little further a way) ... Nope. He didn't make it home on foot that day, either. Yep, another complete stranger (with tips on hiking Germany dirt cheep, by the way).

They say the unfriendliness is worse down by the city ... but ... last Thursday, at Grand Central, people volunteered info when they saw it would be useful, stopped short so that I could take photos uninterrupted, smiled if I smiled, and answered any question I had.

I told my dad this and he said, "People talk about how unfriendly New Yorkers are -- but I'm just not believing it's true anymore."

Yeah! Me neither, Daddy!
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Last comment made by Sophie ~ 02/15/07
MarillaAnne's del.icio.us Thursday Thirteen #5
01/11/07

This week more people standing in need of prayer and generosity and all the while incredible stories spin all around them.

Update: The incredible story for Kelli has taken a new turn. Please continue to the list for a few details! 01/13/07

And ... I made a startling discovery about myself. And I'm over-committed and believe you should be, also. Well, I wouldn't want you to be bored.

And ...


del.icio.us MarillaAnne's del.icio.us Thursday thirteen

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add marillaanne to your del.icio.us network!Add me to your network

Links to other Thursday Thirteens!
If you are participating in Thursday Thirteen, please leave a link in your comment.

What I mean is ... Please spell it out for us all that you are participating in Thursday Thirteen and leave your link.

And don't be bashful if it's already Friday or Saturday ... leave me a note anyway and I'll come visit ... especially since I do most of my Thursday Thirteen visiting on Friday since most of you post to your blog and my blog after I'm asleep for the day anyway :~)

Today's Participants at ThursdayThirteen.com

The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It's easy, and fun!
Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!
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Last comment made by MarillaAnne ~ 01/13/07
MarillaAnne's del.icio.us Thursday Thirteen #4
01/04/07

This set has two tours and a few other items of note. Enjoy~


del.icio.us MarillaAnne's del.icio.us Thursday thirteen

I've not been out on the web as much as usual since Billy was home on vacation. We just kept finding lots of things to do. Go figure.

So on Tuesday afternoon I kind of panicked. I had exactly precisely ONE del.icio.us tag for this week: Sophie's post (below). So ... I decided it was time for "a one hour tour." "A one hour tour" means that I start at one site and just start surfing about ... with the goal of leaving each site rather quickly. I'm horrible at the quickly part as you will see...
del.icio.us I am marillaanne on del.icio.us
add marillaanne to your del.icio.us network!Add me to your network

Links to other Thursday Thirteens!
If you are participating in Thursday Thirteen, please leave a link in your comment.

What I mean is ... Please spell it out for us all that you are participating in Thursday Thirteen and leave your link.

And don't be bashful if it's already Friday or Saturday ... leave me a note anyway and I'll come visit ... especially since I do most of my Thursday Thirteen visiting on Friday since most of you post to my blog after I'm asleep for the day anyway :~)

Today's Participants at ThursdayThirteen.com

The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It's easy, and fun!
Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!
(11)
Last comment made by Cindy Swanson ~ 01/08/07
5 Things You may not Know about Me.
12/29/06

On Christmas Eve, Kim at Embracing Momminess tagged me for the "5 things you may not know about me" meme. Ok ... hmmm ...

1) My middle name is the same as my grandmother's, my mother's, and my oldest daughter's ... And we are all very fond of the name Elise.

2) I have been to at least 18 states by car and 2 by plane.

3) In the four years before the last six months, I have lived in tents, a very old RV, hotels, other people's homes, and my mini-van ... each one was for months at a time ... each adventure has a story and a reason.

4) I get restless. I would rather travel than sit still. I would like to travel and have a steady income. If anyone has ideas and suggestions on that ... feel free to pass along ideas.

5) I was born in the year the video below describes. Much of the video feels like watching home movies.

BUT First ... I am going to tag some people to do this meme ... cause if I getta do it then I think others ought to have the same fun.

As near as I can discern, three out of my four alliances have not had the pleasure of participating in this particular meme. So I tag Sophia at A Hole in the Fence, Mary-LUE at Life, the Universe & Everything, and Darren at Clare's Dad.

Enjoy!

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Last comment made by MarillaAnne ~ 01/02/07
Today the rest of the story and rolling the credits (pt 1 orf 3)
11/30/06

The story of how Fussy's NaBloPoMo idea mixed with more people and more ideas changed my world. Part one is "The Rest of the Story."

Long Long ago in a little city in Texas a girl was born. As this girl grew up there were two things she did consistently: Teach and write. We all know that a prophet is not appreciated in her own town so we cannot say that her younger brothers were appreciative of her teaching efforts. She did, however, find an accepting audience among her dolls.

She grew up, got married ... it was the dark ages ... before Internet. She often felt she had a lot to say but no one to listen – except her three kids. So she taught them. All I can confidently tell you is ... they all survived.

Then life changed and her husband grew tired of her constantly ignoring the fact that she had always wanted to write. He also grew tired of her ignoring her artistic abilities so he bought her a camera. In the summer of 2003 a friend gave her a web site. So gradually she learned to sit still and write ... and she learned about photography ... and she slowly became ruler of her own web site.

But still there was no one to listen. Well, ok existing family and friends listened occasionally. But let's face it ... mostly they are spoiled and expect the lady (yes she did grow up to eventually become a lady) to bring any news worth hearing to them. They were not inclined to bring themselves to her web site in order to listen. That's a slight exageration -- two of them have been good to visit regularly ... plus her husband ... so three she had three "readers"!

The lady was whining one night about only having Photoshop 4 and how expensive it would be to upgrade and my husband introduced me to GIMP – which I didn't have the patience to learn while killing various laptop pc's and reloading others. And now that I have a computer that could run it ... I still don't have the patience ... (oh oops ... I've switched from third person to first person or some such grammatical blunder.)

But I did look at various Google searches for various bits of GIMP help ... and I'm fairly certain that's how I met up with Schmutzie of milk money or not, here I come. (It's a good story so I'm sticking with it.) We have many things in common but hmmm yesterday I finally came up with this ... She's like Saturday Night Live and I'm more like I Love Lucy when it comes to how we present our lives. And if you read our blogs side by side, you would swear that we would have to logically have a large amount of dislike for each other. The truth is ... we hit it off pretty well, thank you. We give each other room to think and things to think about. We have a very "Internet coffee shop" kind of relationship. We "bump into each other" from time to time ... have quick chats to catch up and trade ideas ... and then we're off again.

We've discussed mind control (ADD type stuff), how we should or should not treat our readers (largely exploring this really interesting blog media and how we can end up affecting people in ways we never expected), and we've discussed various ways to grow traffic to a blog (she's been at this much longer than I).

Fortunately on one of our visits, I noticed that she was preparing to participate in NaBloPoMo. And since I had been trying without success to "do a blog" on my web site for over a month ... without ever developing any type of discipline, I was onto that idea in a flash!

And so November came and I was still trying to redirect my flock from the idea of getting news from me in emails towards the goal of them coming to me to get the latest. It was not going well.

In the mean time ... on November 2, Merseydotes of Elevated Umbrella got a brilliant idea.
I browsed through the list of participating blogs on Fussy's page and clicked through a dozen or so to see who was out there. I've picked five new blogs to follow for the month. These are blogs that I'd never visited before yesterday, ...

The Odd Mix picked up on the idea and sucked me into his mix on November 6th ...

And somewhere along the way Lane of Pink Elephants created the NaBloPoMo randomizer ... and my reading life got very rich.

and now ... what is the results of all of this? Well that's what we're going to spend the day assessing. But it's pretty obvious what the morals to the story are: The smallest days of your life have seeds that bring forth big things. And, in a galaxy far, far away but somehow linked to you by the smallest little single link on the Internet, someone is creating ideas that can change your life forever.

Stay tuned ... the dog wants out, I need breakfast, and we have yet to analyze the ramifications and roll the credits ... we Have to roll the credits! All of this will be added below this post and before the entry about Mary-LUE.
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Last comment made by MarillaAnne ~ 12/01/06
This Just In: Snow in Plano, TX
11/30/06

A story of an icy irony. And a small interruption between the movie and the credits ... but don't worry the credits are still coming.

My Darling Husband, Billy, has been dieing to see snow. He thought moving to New York would mean sure-fire snow. But no! We have yet to see even one flake.
[15:19] marillaanne: meghan just IM'd
[15:19] Billy: Yes and ?
[15:19] marillaanne: it's snowing
[15:19] Billy: NO@@@@
[15:20] Billy: We have chance of snow on Sunday night
[15:20] marillaanne: oh really
[15:20] Billy: This is freakn unfair!

Of course, now we have to wait and see how much they get, how long it lasts, etc compared to how much we get, how long it lasts ... etc!

Right now I'm sitting here with the door open. It's been open all day. Just a wonderful Texas winter day in New York ... so I guess it's fitting that Texas should have New York's snow.

Oh wait there's more ...
[15:43] Meghan: ok it stopped snowin its been doin it off and on
[15:44] Meghan: ok ready for summer now
[15:44] marillaanne: LOL

You think she's kidding? Last year I was there for their winter. One day. Very early in December. That was it.

Maybe when Meghan feels up to it she'll post a pic of their snow.

Ok I'm still working on the credits ... you know how credits are these days ... as long as the movie.
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Last comment made by Daughter V ~ 11/30/06
Friends Send Notes: Tonya
11/29/06

Tonya is a friend whom I've met face to face with exactly twice or thrice in ten years of communicating over the Internet. She sent me a note about Canstruction and gall bladder surgery.

Ok no they aren't related events and they didn't even come in the same note.

Let's do cans of peas first because they're more fun.

Tonya sent me an email full of very fascinating images like the one to the left. The image to the left is actually from the Canstruction® 2006 National Winners Press Release which announced the top 10 national winners from the 2005-2006 year (July-June).

From the press release:
The NYDC hosted the 14th Annual CANSTRUCTION Competition & Gala Reception, on November 9 - 22, 2006. I have not seen images from that event online. However, in NYDC's intro video that plays on their home page, it is mentioned that one year they collected and gave away 80,000 cans of food.

From Canstruct's Mission Page:
Mission: Canstruct a World Without Hunger

Trademarked by the Society for Design Administration, and working in tandem with the American Institute of Architects and other members of the design and construction industry, Canstruction® is making a significant contribution to the fight against HUNGER.

Canstruction® combines the competitive spirit of a design/build competition with a unique way to help feed hungry people. Competing teams, lead by architects and engineers, showcase their talents by designing giant sculptures made entirely out of canned foods. At the close of the exhibitions all of the food used in the structures is donated to local food banks for distribution to pantries, shelters, soup kitchens, elderly and day care centers.

A visual feast for the eyes, you will not want to miss the eighty Canstruction® Competitions scheduled to occur in 2006-2007.

The NYDC hosted the 14th Annual CANSTRUCTION Competition & Gala Reception, on November 9 - 22, 2006. I have not seen images from that event online. However, in NYDC's intro video that plays on their home page, it is mentioned that one year they collected and gave away 80,000 cans of food. (And no I cannot explain why NY is having their 14th anniversary when Canstruction is half way into their 11th year.)

Look for a Hosted event: Participating Cities

To loads of images go to www.canstruction.org and
1) watch the images on the home page.
2) In the Competitions menu check out the winners from 2006 back to 2002.
3) In the Multimedia menu ... more images.
4) In the About menu there's a PowerPoint.

A good collection of images from the 13th Annual NYDC Canstruction can be seen at The Bridge and Tunnel Club. (Which is a new find for me.)

Oh yeah ... the gall bladder. It's Tonya's turn to have hers out. Pray it goes well.

Words by OddMix
11/13/06

The Odd Mix likes to throw out challenges. This particular challenge is match conform and rebel to images ... it just so happens ...

That last night I was struck by the difference between my old computer and my "new" computer.

Conform



Rebel (Inside)



and because rebels are always more interesting I present ...

Rebel (Outside)



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Notes from the Weekend
11/12/06

Our typical type of weekend. Walks. Books. Visits. Country.

#1 Found a nice cafe / coffee shop in White Plains, NY called Camille's Sidewalk Cafe. It's at 15 Bank St. -- just caddy corner to the train station. We had a very fine tomato soup and enjoyed the kicked-back atmosphere. Oh and the first very fine picante since we left Texas.

#2 Went to Barnes and Noble for hours. Skimmed over several books ... Purchased The Virtual Handshake by David Teten and Scott Allen. Dove-tails nicely with Talent by Tom Peters that I started reading last week ... which dove-tails with The Long Tail by Chris Anderson. They're very busy confirming some things I've been suspicious of. Yeah. We need to talk.

#3 My friend JoAn called. God is good all the time. He blessed her and her (grown) daughters with a specific blessing we've been requesting.

#4 JoAn has some cancer testing in about 8 days. Please remember her.

#5 Excerpt from conversation with JoAn ...
Me: "JoAn I'm going to have to set the record straight. I made a post about SEO and building blog community and now a few people think I'm a blogging/SEO expert but I'm just telling them what I discovered about two weeks ago!"

Joan:"But hon, you are an expert. You did exactly what your are expert at: Explaining things."

Me: "Uh ... well ... I guess so ... I forget that's what I'm really good at ... but yeah ... I even said that was my expertise in my FAQ About me."

(Pretty funny ... I thought ... that I have to talk to a friend to remember who I am)

#6 Talked to my brothers. Both have 18/ 19 yr old daughters dating. It's so hard on them. (Their older sister has some sympathy for them and their daughters.)

#7 Yesterday I trotted to the train station beside my husband, approx 1.4 miles, in 19 min. Today I walked 4.8 miles with dog and husband. Shelbie dog will sleep for 3 days ... I will be fine ... no hills involved.

#8 We stopped into an antique shop ... does anybody know if $300 is an appropriate price for what appears to be a hand crafted oak dining table ... approx 5ft long and 3.5 ft wide? I have searched the web and 600 images at ebay and I can't find anything like it. I'm going to go back down there and take some pics.

#9 Today we started sorting through the benefits package for 2007. With us coming in from the woods ... well so many choices is dang confusing. Tomorrow Billy and I are going to place a call and talk to some poor soul in benefits ... who doesn't even know they're a poor soul yet.

#10 Perfect ending ... me limping through this post on my poor little baby while Billy uses the good computer to play country music videos ... us humming along ... dog snoring ... LOL and I just thought of the perfect Images for OddMix's word game.

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Staying out of BlockBuster Stores
11/07/06

Billy meets very interesting people on the train. One day he met the husband of the husband/wife team that owns and writes the Hacking NetFlix.com blog. My friend JoAn keeps telling me I should be telling you about all the resourceful ways we do what we do without a car. So the two together resulted in this post.

I've been popping in from time to time at the Hacking NetFlix.com blog and one of the topics really caught my attention: Blockbuster Launches Total Access Program. They asked this question: "Would you consider switching from Netflix to Blockbuster because of the Total Access program?"

My first response thought was, "No! What a pain in the who-ha that would be to walk 1.5 miles just to deal with movies." .... but as I got to thinking back to this last year we spent with Valerie and the fun and games of renting movies through BB, I came to the conclusion that I really do not miss the BlockBuster in-store experience.

The only way the BlockBuster in-store exchange could appeal to me is if they ...

1) Provide me with a car or tear down the house across the street and put in a store.

(All of the following stand regardless of car or location arrangements they provide.)

2) On snowy days/nights they deliver.

3) On cold days/nights, they deliver.

4) On days that the temp exceeds 85 they deliver.

5) On days that the humidity level exceeds 85% they deliver.

6) I can shop in my pj's.

7) As soon as I walk in the store they begin previewing only movies I want shown.

8) As soon as I enter, all crying/whining children and adults are hustled out of the store.

9) The person behind the counter waves me to the front of the line and is very cheerful and engages me in brilliant conversation ... all while quickly expediting the procedure.

10) All trashy edibles are removed from the store and replaced by organic whole foods. (I hate the smell of the stores.)

Until BlockBuster complies with my demands, I'm resourceful ... I can entertain myself between NetFlix deliveries.

I thought I'd start pampering myself and get caught up on Chick Flicks ... Do you have a fave three? Ok, Or does the woman in your life have a fave three?

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The Grey Hare is Cool!!
11/06/06

OK I am very happy this morning. On Saturday Billy and I took the train down the White Plains. We always sit in facing seats to buy a little space. This means that usually there's another set of facing seats across the aisle from us. On the weekends, this means that the space usually becomes filled with a group of very excited travelers. This Saturday was no dif.

A group of girls landed in the seats across the aisle. Soon they were yacking up a subject I am interested in: Social Websites. One of their comments really caught my interest. "I think it's run in a little safer way."

"Excuse me? Which service are ya'll discussing?"

"Facebook," they replied.

"Ah, I thought so. I just found out about Facebook. I've signed up but I've not done anything with it ... I also have a MySpace but MySpace is just so full of trash."

They were quick to agree.

So then I started asking them about ... the other sites I've bumped into.

"Have you played with Xanga?"

"Yeah but ... (boring)"

"Yeah I have to agree ... for some reason things just aren't clicking as well there."

"What about Imeem?"

Looks of total confusion ...

"Well it's sort of like Facebook ... full of people about ya'll's age but no one is really talking to anybody new ... they only seem to talk to people they know in Real Life. ... but ... what about 43things? Have ya'll played with it?"

More looks of confusion. "What's that?"

Oh well ... hmm it's a kind of goal-setting site. People are really open there and talk rather freely. It's very easy to have great discussions there. And it has several neighboring sites ... one is 43places ... where people talk about where they've been and where they want to go ... And then there's 43people because as you go around between the 43things and 43places, you meet people that you think ... 'Hey, I'd like to meet them in Real Life.' ... I find it's lots of fun!"

They were saying that sounded like fun ...

"Ok Ok ... let me ask ya'll this. Do ya'll use meebo?"

More looks of total confusion.

"oh oh ya'll this is the coolest thing. You know how you have friends who use Yahoo chat, and MSN chat, and AIM, etc? ... and it's a pain ... right?"

Enthusiastic statements of agreement went up.

"Alright meebo let's you chat with everybody on all of those services in one place with one tool."

They about fell out of their seats ... "How do you spell meebo?"

And so I told them ... "And ... Ya'll that's just the beginning. You know how you have a MySpace and at Xanga that you don't really use but ... Well you can go to meebome and get a little bit of code to put on those pages. You just copy and paste it. The code creates little chat boxes.

Now, here's the part that's off the charts. You don't have to sit there on that page waiting for someone to come by and chat with you. You just go off and leave the box out there on the web. When someone stumbles onto that page and wants to chat, they just send you a message. Then a chat box pops open in your meebo ... and you talk with them ... right there in meebo. You don't even have to have your MySpace page open. It works with any site that lets you drop little scripts into it –like MySpace does."

That was it ... that was all they could stand.

"If you don't mind us asking ... How is it that you know about all these things?"

I laughed ... "I'm a geek from way back. I've been playing with computers for 20 years and with the Internet for about 10 years. Right now I'm writing. For the month of November I'm doing NaNoWriMo and NaBloPoMo. It's fun. Oh and I just volunteered to help with a web site re-do ... but I'm thinking I only want a small role ..."

Then I had to get off the train ... I think they were kind of relieved ;) I don't think they were prepared to have their cool conversation hi-jacked by a Grey Hare. Grey Hare's aren't suppose to know about cool Internet stuff ... especially not female Grey Hares ;-)

Anyway, I wasn't on chat all this weekend ... so I didn't know that meebo did some very beautiful and very useful upgrades sometime Friday until this morning. You should go look! .

Now ... in keeping with being a geek ... I have to tell ya'll something ... There is the simple fact that the meebo team is creating an exceptionally brilliant idea for just the right moment ... ... which one could say is just a brilliant business concept ... ... but brilliant business concepts fail all the time. ... One could say they are simply taking advantage of the social aspect of the Internet ... but sites fail all the time trying to capitalize on this Social Internet. ... So why is it that they are succeeding? Two things.

First: They understand that the stability and usability of their code IS a Social Event. Being socially flakey is the kiss of death on the Internet. Therefore ... any Internet code (site or tool) that is flake-y and or difficult to use is kissed by death. BUT meebo has been creating stable code. It is a stable chat tool. It started out plain and is beginning to put on a cooler wardrobe ... but ... its goal is stability before flash and their users know this and love this about them.

Second: They understand that they live in a social world. They are both social on the web AND off the web. meebo has a blog. They tell people about Team meebo. They tell the world about Team meebo's lunch, work space, travel-styles, etc. meebo has a community forum. meebo lets their users hang out and talk about willy-nilly and wiki-help stuff. They also arrange very simple meetups. For example, tomorrow morning, Tuesday, November 7, there will be one on the Caltrain's "Baby Bullet." You can read meebo's Blog entry: mobile meebo meetup tuesday!

AND TEAM MEEBO TALKS BACK !! Team meebo not only helps initiate topics for discussion ... they stay in the discussion. Team m not only provides space for their fans to initiate discussions ... they enter into the fans' discussions.

You know ... there's one last thing you should know about meebo ... it all runs inside a browser window. You don't have to download and install anything in order to chat.

Oh and ... I also placed a meebome chat window here: Talk to MarillaAnne. You're welcome to stop in and say hello.

Hmm so you might be wondering ... why did a conversation on a train with a bunch of maybe 20-something girls make me so happy? Because when I was younger, I loved meeting older people who could talk to me about my world. I always said to myself, "I want to be like that when I grow up." Saturday, I realized I'm becoming like that ... ... and I want to keep becoming like that.

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One of the Most Amazing Photo Collections
11/05/06

NASA announced on Halloween plans for a fifth servicing mission to the Hubble Space Telescope. Shuttle astronauts will visit the telescope to extend and improve the observatory's capabilities through 2013.

I am thrilled to know that the photos will keep pouring in (like the one below). God's world is so vast and so amazing. I'm loving getting to know more about it.

You can read more about it here: Hubble's page at NASA



This is one of my favorite wallpapers (for my pc of course). You can get yours at Hubble.org's website gallery: The Orion Nebula
Looking for "The Good Old Days?"
08/18/06

Are you looking for a free audio book of a "classic"? A free book for your eBook reader?

What if you have to read "one of those old books" for school? Would it be easier to be able to search through it on the computer? Or better yet ... what if you could also listen to it?

And just what if you are doing research on the good old days, and you want a bit of info that everyone and their brother won't have ... then what?

And what if you still need some sort of relaxing distraction but that computer game is getting boring and you feel a little ... useless? Then what?

And how could there possibly be a connection between the last paragraph and the first? Well ... let me tell you.

Project Gutenberg is collecting and scanning literature and music of virtually all types. The item must have an expired copyright or be copyright-free. (But, no, they won't take in your latest unpublished novel or poem or short story ... etc. But! I know who will.)

Unlike other services, Project Gutenberg does not stop with the scanned pages. The accepted works are always converted into TXT formatted files and then into HTML, PDF and other formats for eBook readers. Some are being made available as audio files. The audio files are human voice or computer-generated.

If I were doing research, I would be inclined to use the PDF text because Adobe's Reader program does a very useful search display.

If I were being told to read a classic book, I would be very inclined to listen to it ... even if it's a computer-generated recording. A few months ago I started listening to Robinson Crusoe. Much to my surprise, it wasn't long until the passion of the author's words overtook the oddness of the computer voice. I still find myself musing over the story's beginning.

Now, back to my odd question ... Are your strategy-based computer games (aka solitaire and freecell) becoming dull? Or worse yet, are they making you feel useless?!

All of this work is accomplished by volunteers! I highly suggest you explore your "page a day" or "smooth reading" options at Distributed Proofreaders.

Explore Project Gutenberg and Distributed Proofreaders very carefully and thoroughly. You will find many useful (expected and unexpected) resources.

Some people act like there's a war on between audio books and eBooks and that eBooks are losing. I don't think so. I think that people just don't know how to use them together ... I think people don't know how to enjoy learning. What do you think?
Hey ... I'm Working in the Background
08/28/06

I gotta get caught up on my emails. And I'm working on some fun stuff for the web site. In the mean time ... Ever hear of the "Coke & Mentos Guys?" Alright I know a lot of you are on dial up .... but trust me these guys are worth the wait!

Just follow the link to EepyBird.com

So ... you've seen the video ... but did you also notice that Mentos is having a contest? Check it out at Mentos Geyeser Video Contest

Have Fun!
How "One Red Paperclip" Became Something Else Entirely
09/11/06

one red paperclipSometime ago I bumped into Kyle MacDonald out on the Internet ... he's totally unaware of the bump. And I kind of lost track of the bump in the midst of my trek from Oregon to New York.

But let me ask you ... Just exactly how much do you think that one red paperclip is worth?

Kyle reminds me of my nephew Calvin. Calvin always knew that what he had was of greater value to you ... and what you had was of greater value to him ... so obviously you should trade ... and obviously you should both believe you are trading up.

Kyle believes this same creed with all of his being ... and so do the people who traded with him.

Kyle started with one red paper clip and one simply stated goal: To trade until he could trade for a house.

You must simply go read the story of One Red Paperclip

Unfortunately, I cannot recommend the One Red Paperclip Trading Post. One read through the forum posts for yourself and you'll understand why. Perhaps the idea will mature somewhere along the way.

But ... still ... I'm thinking ... I wonder what I could trade ... and what I could get ...
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    08/18/06
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    10/26/06
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