Happy Birthday Mom!

28 August 2008, 2:28 pm by Giggles
Categories: Family

Today is my mom’s birthday. When I was learning my multiplication facts she taught me that 4×8 was how old she was. So that’s how old she is. 😉

I have a great mom. She does all kinds of fun things. She loves pompoms and pipe cleaners and wiggly eyes and fake fur and can make just about anything you want. She did art classes during the summer for us and some of the neighbor kids when we were little. I remember the day we put hot wax in the bottom of some bathroom cups and then dunked them in cold water, making the wax form weird shapes as it cooled quickly.

My mom was the best mom I could’ve asked for. She taught me all kinds of things, like how to stock up on fabric for that day when the stores run out. We read books together. We would go look for sales early Saturday morning together. She taught me how to cook. A lot of what I do I do because of my mom.

I hope she has a real good birthday today. She deserves it.

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Books I have read

27 August 2008, 11:16 am by Giggles
Categories: Books, Learn Something, Meme

There is a blog meme going around that I’ve heard someone is waiting for me to participate in. Unfortunately, I won’t be. At least not exactly.

The meme is a list of 100 books that you are supposed to mark the ones you have read. Unfortunately, how this list came to be is suspect. The meme starts by saying the list is apparently sponsored by the BBC. That word, “apparently” stood out to me.

I didn’t want a list that was apparently sponsored by someone if they had not actually sponsored it. So I went to the BBC website and found the actual list of books they did come up with. The actual list is different from the apparent list. The claim of how many the average adult has read on the list is completely bogus and does not come from the BBC at all.

I blame the folklore side of me for trying to track down the truth of this.

Here’s the actual book list. I’ve put the titles I’ve read in bold and put an asterisk in front of the ones I want to read. The ones I really liked get a smiley and a frowny next to the ones I really didn’t like.

BBC’s Big Read – the top 200 favorite books in the UK.

Edit: On second thought, that list was long and distracting here. I’ve made it a page on my B.Log. Go check it out there.

Now, for those of you who did the fake list, why not give the real list a try?

Also, what have we learned from this activity? We’ve learned that I have very different tastes in books from the BBC’s general audience. I have around 30 books on my to-read list right now, and not a one of them is actually on this list of 200 right here. And I’m not going to read a book just because it is on somebody’s list. There’s only so much time in this life, I want to spend it reading the books I want to read.

Also, we’ve learned I should not write blog posts when I’ve been dealing with financial aid stuff, or my lack thereof. It makes me cranky.

Do I read? Of course I read. I had to start a whole different blog just to keep track of my books. Of course it’s only a partial list from the last five years. All the books from before 2003 aren’t on that list. Go check out the other blog. Giggles Reads B.Log

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Baby Blankets

26 August 2008, 8:58 am by Giggles
Categories: Family, Happy Things, Quilting/Sewing/Knitting/Crafting

By the end of this week I will be an aunt. I’m still not sure how I like the sound of that. But I’m excited for my nephew to be here. Several months ago my sister was helping a friend of hers make some receiving blankets. My brother-in-law commented to her that they looked real easy and she could make a bunch for their baby. My sister told him she didn’t need to because I was going to make blankets for their baby.

That’s my job in the family, I’m the blanket maker. And I’ve actually had to laugh at myself as I’ve found myself getting a bit defensive when I find out someone else has made a blanket for my nephew. I’m the blanket maker! Don’t they know that?

My sister was right though, I made a lot of blankets for the baby. My mom has one receiving blanket and four sets of bibs/burp rags to match it that she will bring to my sister when the baby is born. I mailed three more blankets with matching bibs and burp rags to my sister last Monday to make sure my nephew could come home from the hospital in a blanket I made him. And then I scrambled to finish his quilt. These are the three sets I mailed last week. I’ll have to see if my mom or sister can get a picture of the sets my mom has with her right now. I hope the kid likes ducks.

During the Olympics I worked on hand quilting my quilt, but I also took one week to cut, piece, and quilt Goobi’s quilt. I hope he likes frogs too. I love how this turned out. I got it in the mail Friday afternoon and mailed it priority. My sister got it yesterday. This is the quilt I had Brett oooo and aaaah over last week.42D

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Blogging 101 – the hows and whys

25 August 2008, 10:38 pm by Giggles
Categories: Gospel, Science & Tech

A friend of mine emailed me a few weeks ago and asked me what I knew about blogs because she was going to be teaching a lesson on them for an Enrichment Meeting in Relief Society. I then turned the question to people I know who blog. Together we all came up with some great information and put together a document with all of our ideas. I thought I’d share it with anyone else who is interested.

I want to thank all the contributers – Mr. Me, Book Guardian, Fran, Laylabean, and Estrogen Garden.

If we missed an important point you want to share, feel free to add it as a comment to this post.

Security:

  • Remember that unless you set it otherwise, anyone with the internet, anywhere in the world, can read your blog. And not everyone in the world is a good person.
  • Do not give the full names of your kids. One parent I know uses just their first initials. Another parent gave her kids nicknames that she uses on their blog. She also would blur their faces slightly when posting pictures of them.
  • Be careful when mentioning where you are, cities, schools, things that could be used to find your kids.
  • It’s better to mention a vacation after you are back than before you leave. No sense telling everyone your house is going to be empty for that time.
  • Blogs can be set to private so that only the people you invite can see them
  • Tagging posts make them more searchable.
  • Remember the privacy of others. If they aren’t your kids, don’t mention their names or specifics about them without talking to their parents first.
  • Several people I know use nicknames when talking about other people, even other adults, to protect privacy.
  • Individual posts can be marked as private and will not show up with the rest of your posts. The only time they will be shown is to you when you are logged in.
  • If you are paying for your own domain, it can be worth it to pay the tiny extra to have an anonymous domain where there is no name or address associated with it when people look it up.

Comments:

  • You can turn comments off completely
  • You can set it so you have to approve them every time before they post.
  • You can set them so that a person has to register before they can comment.
  • You can set it so an email address (all blogs require an email address before you can comment) has to have an approved comment before it can comment again.
  • You can have comment notifications emailed to you so you know when someone comments.

Blogger:

  • Part of Google
  • You have to have a Google account to create the blog and comment.
  • Free
  • Apparently blocks spam without you having to know about it.
  • Free templates
  • No coding knowledge needed – would definitely recommend Blogger to someone who has no previous web design experience

WordPress:

  • Can be downloaded to your own server* if you have one.
  • Can use their site for free as well (*do not have to have server).
  • Comes with Akismet that holds spam so you can go through it occasionally and see if a real comment got marked as spam by accident
  • Free templates (not as many as Blogger)
  • Good support forum

Live Journal:

  • Limits the number of links you can have.
  • Comments are nested (so a comment on a comment will appear under that comment and indented rather than at the bottom of a list)
  • Free

iWeb:

  • Available on Macs
  • You have to have your own paid for server or pay to upload it to their server to use it.
  • Simple drag-and-drop layout for it.
  • Is set up to do drag-and-drop podcasts as well.

Websites vs. Blogs:

  • Blogs can be commented on
  • Generally geared towards a specific purpose such as displaying a portfolio
  • Blogs can be searched, tagged, indexed
  • Usually need to know HTML/XHTML or web design to create a website

Pictures, Video, and Sound:

  • Available photo systems: Flickr, Google’s Picasa (must have a google account)
  • Crop your pictures. Lose the extra headroom, don’t cut people off at the joints (shoulders, elbows, waist, knees, ankles).
  • Resize your pictures. Generally the size your camera takes is way too big for a computer screen, and it will take forever to load, especially if people are using dial-up instead of high speed internet. Anything below 450×600 is a good size.
  • If you want to include videos use a software to compress before uploading or upload to Youtube and embed the code, or make it easy on yourself and link to it.
  • If you are including photos or images on your blog, the polite thing is to host them yourself, either through something like Flickr, Picasa, or on your blog. Linking to photos hosted by other people without their permission uses their bandwidth and is considered bad form. Also remember many images on other sites could be copyrighted.
  • Podcasts, an audio broadcast, can be added to your blog. You will need software (some can be downloaded for free) that lets you record sound and a computer microphone.

Reasons to Blog:

  • Blogging is another type of journaling, only with pictures.
  • Blog for yourself. If other people like it and read it, that can be fun, but it needs to be for you.
  • Blogs are great places to list what you’ve done, where you’ve been, what you’ve read.
  • It can be a lot of fun to go back and see what you wrote in the past, and you can even link to past entries when you reference things.
  • Elder Ballard had an article in the July Ensign about sharing the gospel using the internet (M. Russell Ballard, “Sharing the Gospel Using the Internet,” Ensign, Jul 2008, 58-63). A blog can be a way to share your testimony and spiritual experiences with the world. You can even include links to the Church’s site for talks and scriptures as you reference them.
  • You can use a blog to voice your concern about different issues. I was very surprised when a political rant I wrote last year got picked up by a few other people. But I was able to share my view on the matter through my blog with people I would not have talked to otherwise.

Other:

  • If you are interested in your blog statistics, some blog providers can tell you those, or you can use Sitemeter.com for free or http://easy-hit-counters.com/ as well.
  • It’s nice to ask people if you can link to their sites before you do.
  • Many blogs have it so that more than one person can contribute. Then you and your husband, you and your siblings, friends, can all write on the same blog.
  • When you are reading a blog, they have what is called an RSS feed. It is indicated by the little orange box in the address bar. That means that you can subscribe to a blog with a reader/feeder (common ones are: Google, Yahoo, Bloglines). When you subscribe to a blog, the reader/feeder will let you know when they have posted something new. Then you don’t have to continually check a blog to see if they have written something new. Some blogs even let you subscribe to the comments.
  • Blogs are made up of pages and posts. Pages are generally an “About me” page or something that you want to stay in one place permanently. A page will be the only information that shows up on the browser when you are looking at that page. Posts are like a continual long list of entries, with the new one being added on at the top of the list. They will appear with more than one on a browser window. You can set your blog so any number of posts show up at the same time.
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Closing Ceremonies at the Olympics

24 August 2008, 10:40 pm by Giggles
Categories: Exercise, Happy Things, Olympics

I watched the men’s gold medal basketball game last night. Would somebody PLEASE tell the announcers how to say the Spanish names? If I heard them mispronounce “Jimenez” one more time I was going to throw something. It grated on my ears every time. The stats guy can get the commentators all kinds of information, why not a pronunciation guide?

But the Olympics…

The passion.

The drive.

The desire.

The emotion

The pushing to the limits and then beyond.

The love. The love of family. The love of sport. The love of teammate. The love of country. The love of all that is above.

The Olympics are unlike anything else humanity has ever put together. For two weeks we get to see the best. There are blemishes, humans are not perfect, but it is pretty darn close.

And I will miss them.

When do the next ones start again?

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Olympics, don’t let them end

23 August 2008, 10:17 pm by Giggles
Categories: Education, Exercise, Olympics

Yes, I cheered out loud during the last leg of the women’s 4×400 relay. That last straight was just, wow! I didn’t think she could do it, but that was incredible. I cheered for the men’s marathon too.

Gotta say though, I wasn’t that excited about the men’s 4×400 relay. But that’s mostly because I think two of the guys on it are, well, jerks. We swept the men’s 400m. But the gold and silver guys seemed upset with their finishes and didn’t even put their hands on their heart for the ceremony. Instead they stood there almost with scowls on their faces. The bronze guy on the other hand, he dove for the finish of the 400m and was singing along with a smile on his face for the whole time. Him I like. The other two, I don’t like so much.

I watched some canoeing earlier today. Those were fun races to watch. Then I read this online tonight: Canoeing-Kayaking not for the faint hearted. It talks about how several of the silver and bronze medalists required medical attention either at the end of the race or even on the medal podium as they were fainting or throwing-up. The gold medalists had enough adrenaline apparently that they didn’t have any problems. Even without a slight fear of water, I don’t think that’s a sport I’m going to pick up.

The Olympics have seriously screwed up my sleep. Okay, that’s not true. But everyone else says it so I thought I would. They’ve actually been just fine for my normal sleep routine. I’m very glad I haven’t already been teaching the last week. But normally the week before school starts I at least think about trying to get into a normal sleep schedule. Instead, I’m just going to jump straight into it on Monday. We’ll see how well that goes.

I’m going to miss the Olympics though. I love the individual stories of all the athletes. I love the amazing displays of what a human body can do. I love the insane speed, the mind blowing flips and turns, and all done with incredible gracefulness (I think the ribbon is my favorite part of the rhythmic gymnastics, it’s like painting on air). I’ll be sad to see them end. I have rearranged my schedule slightly tomorrow so I can watch the closing ceremonies. So one more Olympic blog post and then I’ll start talking about other things.

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Olympics still going strong

22 August 2008, 11:59 pm by Giggles
Categories: Exercise, Family, Olympics, Quilting/Sewing/Knitting/Crafting

While we are getting me a Chinese fan and a Chinese kite, can we get me a Chinese cone hat too?

Okay, running a 5K or a 10K on a track? That’s got to be one of the most boring things in the world. Amazing how fast they go, but I think just one mile on a track is boring. Why would I want to run 3, 6, or 9 miles on a track. Around. Around. Around. Around. Over. Under. And through! Except without the over, under, or through. I did run track in junior high, but I’m a road runner now. Of course they run that distance at least twice as fast as I do, but still, that’s too much like a hamster on an exercise wheel for me.

So proud of the female runner from Bahrain. She just goes to show that where there’s a will, there’s a way. And she found a way to be true to her religious beliefs and still compete in the Olympics. I just hope her body suit was made of something very breathable.

I think the runners that yelp are funny. You hear it more with the hurdlers, but some of the pure sprinters do it too.

I liked Johnson’s messy bun during the exhibit after the gymnastics competition. It went well with the whistling music: I’m footloose and fancy free and doing things on a four inch bar you couldn’t do in your dreams. And I thought Liukin’s choice of music was perfect. Made my eyes moist.

BMX did not disappoint. And I love the pictures of the race as well. The photographers at the Olympics are just incredible. And of course Bob had a great comment to go with the finals as well: “Coming up next is BMX, about which I will tell you candidly, I know nothing, but it is exciting.” And then later saying something to the effect of: “That’s the thing about the Olympics. You got synchronized you got badminton you got weight lifting you got… All constituencies served.”

I decided the baby quilt didn’t need more free motion on the stars. I couldn’t figure out how to do that so it would look the way I wanted. But they needed something. So I figured out what that something was, and now it’s done. 🙂 I even got it mailed this afternoon and the mail lady told me it should get there on Monday. So now that the quilt got finished before the baby, the race is to see which one my sister and brother-in-law will see first, the baby or the quilt. I took pictures before mailing it and I’ll put them up after it arrives at its destination. I wouldn’t want to ruin the surprise.

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