No Christmas tree? Use Books!

I found this on this blog and could not resist passing it along, just as this writer did, so the chain of credit is getting long for this great idea. If I understand it right, IMJ is who to credit.

My house is too cluttered to do this, but I think it's a cool idea!

MapMuse - Find it near you

MapMuse is a great place to find places of interest near you.

For instance, I did a search for corn mazes in Missouri and found 43 places. You can search by zip code or metropolitan city also.

You can search for everything from garden centers to drive-in movie theatres to brand name stores, to scrapbook stores and clubs.

Although there are many sites listed, I did notice some missing from my area. However, there are features to add missing links and new links are being added all the time. This site is already a great resource, but over time, should continue to become more comprehensive.

PS> Whew, finally had time for a techy internet find post. How long has it been? I have so much saved up to share and no time to share!

Poll Results and New Poll

Thanks to the 105 people who voted in my poll in my sidebar. I did not even blog about it, so I was excited so many saw it.

I find the results interesting. I was one of the 16 people who voted for the second slot as our schools started on August 16th, but I am impressed that the highest results were still after Labor Day. Aren't you?

I put up a new poll. I am curious as to whether or not you have purchased your first Christmas gift yet! Not me! I used to buy this early, but I am so burnt out in life in recent years I do not start until December usually, or at least after Thanksgiving. Feel free to leave your comment on this post about the new poll and then vote. Poll will be up until the end of September.

Is the Moon Really Made of Cheese?

Google is always so silly with their surprises.

Did you know that if you zoom all the way in on Google Moon, it will become cheese?

I love sharing What the Duck with my readers every once in a while.

These cartoons are so funny because they are so applicable to my life.

I would love to have a DSLR camera for Christmas, with a hute rebate offer! Wouldn't you?

Actually, I wish they would do away with rebates and just give us the products at the actual price. They make the instructions so detailed that if you even forgot to circle the appropriate thing, it makes the rebate invalid. Can you imagine the risk of an invalid rebate as large as the one in this cartoon?

MR Ducks

I went photowalking again on Sunday, so you can view the photos at the bottom of the page. I got some nice shots of ducks, but I had to get them from a distance because Abbie Rae (my dog) would have scared them farther away had I got closer. You can see they are already headed away from us.

This just made me think of my Dad who loved this riddle. Little things like this make me miss him. Isn't it strange what little things will bring back memories?

Read this by saying some the letters outloud, not the sounds of the letters. (ie. say, 'em 'ar)

MR DUCKS
MR NOT DUCKS
OSAR
CDEDBD WANGS
LIB
MR DUCKS!


MR FARMERS!
MR NOT!
OSAR
CMMT POCKETS?
LIB
MR FARMERS


MR SNAKES!
MR NOT!
OSAR
CM BDIS
LIB
MR SNAKES


MR MICE!
MR NOT!
OSAR
CMEDBD FEET?
LIB
MR MICE

Kaboodle is an Enabler

I finally found the time to visit and play with Kaboodle. I have read a lot about it, but it has taken me a while to find the time to explore it myself.

I must say, I really like it! What took me so long! Now, get on over there and try it yourself and be sure to add me as a friend!

What is Kaboodle, you ask? It is a wish list of things you would like to buy. I really need my boys to create an account to make Christmas shopping easier for me. I can hear me now: "Go Kaboodle or No Christmas!" "Get what you want for Christmas, use Kaboodle!"

I also see Kaboodle as a social networking tool to enable each other.

Add your digibuddies as a friend and each time they add something to their wish list, you get an e-mail notifying you of the same.

Join the Digital Scrapbooking group to find other familiar scrappers or chat in the forum area. Search for other groups of interest. This is a fast way to see what all other Kaboodlers of interest are finding and wanting. Oh, enable me!

I understand that if you are "Kaboodled," that means someone RAK'd you by giving you what was on your wish list.

I created only three categories for my wish lists (and put two in my sidebar). One for digital scrapbooking and one for all other wishes. I am not really one to have that many things I want and thought this would be sufficient for me.

I also created a category for "got it" for purchased items so that I can move items there or give them reviews if I like them a lot.

I see many of the digital scrapbookers have categories sorted by shop and I may find a need for that later.

Add your Kaboodle link to signatures in e-mails and forums.


Add the tools to your browser. It is SO easy to add to your Kaboodle from any web page. See an ad that you like? Now there is no more saving the ad for future reference. Go to the site and click on "Add to Kaboodle" from the browser. It takes you to a Kaboodle page to add it to your wish list, and then takes you back to the original page. I was quite surprised how quick and easy it was.

I wanted to play and since I love Jeri's kits, I decided to add all of her kits that I do not own yet. I also found some books I on my wish list and added them from Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Once again, it was quick and easy.

This is not only helpful for those shopping for a gift for you, but also a nice way to remind yourself of those things you want, but cannot purchase right now. In addition, it allows me to let my wants sit for a while and to then come back some time later to reevaluate my desires. Do I really need what I wanted on first impulse? Delete, Delete, Delete!

I've Got a Plug-In

I have really been enjoying these cartoons, especially since they are about photography and Photoshop. Really, if you had never experienced Photoshop, you would not "get" this one! It made me laugh. I've shared these before, but if you missed it, go read more of them here.

Humor for Today

I found these jokes I had saved from somewhere and they made me laugh again, so I though I would share them with you.

*******
Expensive Place:

When Mike got home last night, his wife demanded that he take her out to some place expensive.
So Mike took her to the gas station.

Well it's true.....
*******

I was having trouble with my computer. So I called Harold, the computer guy, to come over.

Harold clicked a couple of buttons and solved the problem. He gave me a bill for a minimum service call. As he was walking away, I called after him, "So, what was wrong?"

He replied, "It was an ID ten T error."

I didn't want to appear stupid, but nonetheless inquired: "An ID ten T error? What's that, in case I need to fix it again?"

The computer guy grinned, "Haven't you ever heard of an ID ten T error before?"

"No," I replied.

"Write it down," he said, "and I think you'll figure it out."

So I wrote out I D 1 0 T.

I used to like Harold.

Internet Finds

Are my readers ready for some more internet finds? I have over 40 more finds to share, but only so much time! In addition, some of them look great to me, but I have to test them before I recommend them. There was one I tested yesterday and was excited about, but then was disappointed.

*************************

• 
  After importing and checking 1,500 bookmarks (favorites) into my del.icio.us, I found a handy tool that I wish I had before! Download AM-DeadLink to test all the links in your favorites to see if they are still good! I tested it and love it! Click on the column header for error to sort the favorites, select all the bad links, and delete them all at once! In the alternative, take a moment to check the link personally to see if it has been moved. It will also test text, as well as download the FavIcons to your links (of which I some day plan to create a new one for my blog whenever I get time!) View the links from a split screen, search for duplicates, and more! This is a must-have tool!
  
• 
  Writing a blog for journaling purposes? Afraid that something might accidentally happen to it? The same people who provided the AM-DeadLink have also provided a tool called Website Archive. I tested it! Wow! Within seconds, this entire blog and all posts were downloaded to my hard drive! Spot something you want to save? Save any website anywhere. (Psst...a bit on the same principle as Evernote...someone should compare them and let me know.) Did I say these people were awesome? They also offer two other products.
  
• 
  I found a new great place for finding quotations for scrapbook pages! I love it! It is called "Quotations Book." Need a new widget for a change on your blog? They've got one! Really, if you are a scrapper, you must check this out!
  
• 
  Having computer problems? Wondering if it is your internet connection? Take a speed test to see if you are able to download and upload as fast as what you are paying for. Compare your results with others in your area.
  
• 
  TechEBlog has shared 5 Google tricks in video format that are interesting, including finding a WWII bomber plan and animals on Google Earth, how to search Google without advertisements, and how to search for webcams. I have never downloaded Google Earth, but after watching this, I may just have to some day.
  
• 
  The City List has potential to be a well visited spot once the participation level rises. Nominate or vote for your favorite place to eat or your favorite club. Traveling? Search a city for the top rated places to visit. Currently, it appears that only Washington DC is listed and I cannot quite figure that out, but the concept is cool.
  
• 
  This site really brought back memories of when I made gum wrapper bracelets as a youth. Check out the Starburst Wrapper Tutorial. Maybe some day I will have a granddaughter to do this with.
  
• 
  Ever worry about someone sending you spam after you sign up at a site or forum or other place that requires you to activate the account by e-mail? GuerrillaMail is yet another temporary e-mail address provider.
  
• 
  Do you like to camp as I do? Here is a great Camp Cooking Tips.
  
• 
  I am not so sure I would want one of these see-through computer screens, unless, that is, I want to look through it to watch television, see misbehaving children, or have a beautiful outdoor scene behind it. Okay, this may be cool. Check it out! I think I want one.
  
• 
  Have you ever gotten hungry just watching commercials? Here is a great comparison of Fast food ads vs. real food. It puts a good perspective on ads.
  
• 
  Change your photographs into a piece of classical art! Really, it is not so hard. You will love this comparison page. It appears that there is a "color match" tool in Photoshop CS that I do not have in Photoshop Elements. However, there is the saying: "where there is a will, there is a way." I feel a challenge coming on!
  
  

Time Wasters

I thought I would break down my internet find posts this time into individual posts.

Ready to waste some time on the internet? It's great for zoning out after a long day at work or when you are trying to tune out your noisy children!

Flicker Vision (beta) is fun to just sit and watch as it shares photos from around the world in map format as they are being posts.

Play a great game of chess at The Thinking Machine.

Grab the circles on The Attractors and move them about see what happens!

This is a game even I can do! Use the arrow keys to box in the pacman guys at Pacxon.

Nikal is a great place to explore your imagination...okay, it really takes no brainer for this one!

Power Cursor is really cool! Use your mouse on their samples and you can actually feel the touch of the elements!

Jackson Pollock is another huge time waster of random ink blots changing colors with each click of the mouse. It is fun watching these things sometimes.

Internet Finds for Today

I believe most of my readers enjoy my "internet finds" posts. I hope you enjoy this one too. I have so much to share and so little time! Stay tuned for more!

DIGITAL SCRAPBOOKING

It seems a sad day for DIP users as they are discontinuing the program, claiming that the tools can be found in Microsoft Vista. This will be an interesting story to watch.

For those of you looking for free textures to create papers or simply to use as a background on a layout as is (or with a lowered opacity), I have recently come across the Texture King.

I found this great list of Photoshop filters, plug-ins, brushes, actions, and gradients at Tutorial Tomb Forum

Adobe has a Kids Club with tutorials for Photoshop. I found several of them applicable to enhancing photos to be placed in digital scrapbooking layouts.

I saw this Picture Dots and thought of how it might be fun to take our own photo and make a dot-to-dot with it and put it in a layout. Anyone gonna try?

Here is a great page with 11 tips for photography.

GENEALOGY

As I am going through all my old links, I will share some of them.
Do you have ancestors in Germany or Ireland? It is helpful to know these lands geographically to better do research. Multimap is a great site for viewing maps globally.

The Social Security index is a must-have tool for genealogy. It is amazing how quickly a person shows up in the index after passing away. It is the best way to find individuals in more recent history since the Census are only available through 1930's (which was made available in 2002). I have utilized this tool in so many ways, even other than genealogy. If you find an ancestor in the index, you may order a copy of their Social Security Application. I have learned lots of little tidbits through this document.

Random Acts of Genealogical Kindness (RAGK) is the place to find volunteers willing to do research for you by specific location.

FUN FINDS

Meebo appears to be rising in popularity as an Instant Messenging tool which combines aim, yahoo, google, and msn IM's. There is a free widget called "Meebo Me" which acts similar to the cbox shout-out box. Along with other features, you can get into a "Meebo Room" to chat.

Are you a Photobucket user? I know the number of users is many. I find it interesting that MySpace just purchased Photobucket for $250 million dollars. Geez, how does MySpace generate so much income?

Do you love reality t.v. like I do? This page has tonight's calendar, reviews, and upcoming new shows.

10 x 10 is a unique news site. It scans and anaylzes news blogs every hour and choosed the top 100 words with the top 100 corresponding photos. Click on the photos and links to take you to the news stories.

Bored? Do a quiz, meme, or toy at Blogthings and put it on your blog. It may impress others. Look at my quick quiz. It says I am a peanut butter and jelly sandwish, which ironically is one of the few foods I absolutely do not like! Now the grilled cheese or club sandwishes I could go for!

You Are a Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich

You life your life in a free form, artistic style. You are incredibly creative and at times, quite messy. Deep down, you are a kid at heart. And you aren't afraid to express it. Your best friend: The Grilled Cheese Sandwich Your mortal enemy: The Club Sandwich

What Kind of Sandwich Are You?

Avatar Creator

I finally found an avatar creator that I like. I hate real photos of myself, so a nice avatar is much better to display. This one has many features which enable you to create a look-alike avatar. It is the Mii Editor for Wii. You can export it as a .jpg.

Being into digital scrapbooking has me joining forums as I have never done before, which gives me the need for a nice avatar.

Other places to make avatars are on my link page--tab at the top of this page.

Internet Finds

PHOTOSHOP (ELEMENTS)

Coloring Tutorial is posted here and it looks similar to something I plan on writing some day. In the meantime, learn here!

So, Grafx has felt the need to embrace the digital scrapbooking world with a tutorial to make layouts. The more I read, the more I see digital scrapbooking's influence in the internet. I have a first layout tutorial, but for those just learning, there cannot be enough of them. You can see a list of all of his tutorials here. Misty Cato has a new first layout tutorial also.

It appears that certain .png files can hack computers through certain programs. I have often wondered about downloading too many digiscrapping freebies (which I do not do) from just anywhere and whether it might be dangerous. Now I know it may be. Be careful out there! I am sure Windows and Adobe will be on top of fixing this.

Smart Picker is a color wheel that will work right inside Photoshop Elements! If I had the money I would probably purchase it and test it. Anyone else have a review?

It appears Adobe is not happy with our lingo. Check out their guidelines. We are allowed to "enhance with Adobe Photoshop software" (be sure to apply the copyright symble if you know how to do that when blogging, I do not ), but we are not allowed to use "photoshop" or "photoshopped," nor are we to refer to ourselves as "photoshoppers." What's up with that? I think I may remain guilty of misuse.

MickM.com has a lot of tutorials for Photoshop, not all applicable to Photoshop Elements, but some may be. They are rated and can be searched, which is helpful.

DITITAL SCRAPBOOKING

About.com has some cute spring paper piecing patterns that could also be utilized in digiscrapping.

Ellie over at Ellie's Treasures is compiling a huge list of links (including to me!). You are sure to find a lot of resources there. No need to click on her tabs, just keep scrolling and scrolling down!

Here's a great blog where she shares her sketches with us! Hurry, run on over to Little Book of Sketches.

Want to get creative with your journaling by writing a little ditty that rhymes? Here is a great resource called the RhymeZone.

FUN FINDS

If you enjoy cooking in the slow cooker and need new recipes, I found a new meme by Diary of a SAHM. Like me, even if you do not have time to join, you can watch them and click around for recipes.

Ms. Dewey is a fun place to search the internet. She sure has some interesting antics in response to your searching or lack thereof.

Do you want to see what the moom looks like up close and personal? Have fun cruising about at Google Moon. See where the Apolla crafts landed.

Godtube is a Youtube for, well, God. It is still fairly new and I can only hope it does not get bombarded by opponants of the same as I have seen happen to other sites. I am hopeful that this will take off and be a great place to visit. It appears to be a site reserved for only Christians.

Although the words has been out for a while, it is worthy to mention the Family Watchdog site. Search the national sex offender list for your area. You will be surprised. Click on a location to get some suprisingly detailed information about the offender.

If you like to play online games, the Kingdom of Loathing looks to be fun with its hand drawn images and cute humorous themes. If only I had time for such a thing, which I do not.

Someone shared with me Norwood Young on Myspace and I enjoyed listening to his clips of Christian music. So soft and relaxing. Also, he's not bad looking, but I'm married and not looking.


I have SO many more things to share with you, but need to get away from this computer and work in my garden. I will leave you with this fun video called the Fat Rant which I can SO identify with! She speaks for me!

Presidential Candidates Use MySpace

I had posted some time ago about presidential candidates using the internet to get voters more this election. Now I am seeing it once again, only on an organized level. Did you know all of the candidates have a myspace page? With lots of "friends."

Check it out!

This certainly will be a history making election with their use of the tool called "the internet."

There is even going to be online debates for the 2008 election!

I'm a Top Momma!

I am not sure what I did, but I got an e-mail that says:

You are now on the front page of TopMomma.com!!!! Time is of the essence, so make sure that you tell all your friends and readers ASAP to get the most clicks possible!

So, I was given this url in the e-mail to and I guess I'm supposed to tell you all to click on it to keep me on the front page as long as possible.

So, just click here! Pretty please!


See this screen shot? I'm not only on the front page, but I'm the very first spot! Ike! What did I do to get there? I signed up here about a month ago and never went back. I do not understand what is going on, but it is exciting!




So, I just put a button in my side bar. If you would take a moment each time you visit to click it, it might keep me on the front page! Have I told you how much I love my readers?

Fun Finds

SCRAPBOOKING FINDS

I am excited about this site that scrapgeek referred through Hannah called "Scrap The Boys." There is some great inspiration there!

Fonts 500 is a great place to see the top 500 fonts on the internet and to be able to download them without the hassle of popups.

Part 1 and Part 2 are great videos with photograph tips by Rick Sammon. I love these! Learn how "dead center is deadly."

UnzipThemAll is a program to unzip multiple files at one time. I downloaded this and tested it out and, wow!, it works great. It sure did make unzipping all of those freebies I had snatched since last summer easy. (yeah, I know, I've had the freebies way to long to not have them unzipped yet!)

Of course, scrappers may want to use proper English in journaling so that our future grandchildren will know that we were well educationed, right? Wanda found found this Open Directory for Writers and it is a great resource!

SuTree claims to be a "knowledge community" of learning videos (tutorials). Check it out! Search for "Photoshop" or other favorite programs. There are many topics of interest. 5min.com is another place with a variety of videos. Of course, Instructables has been around for a while; try searching there.

Al Wards from Action FX has to pages of tutorials for using Photoshop here and here. I have not viewed these to see if any are application to Photoshop Elements yet, but maybe they can be translated.

Many scrappers use Slide.com to put slideshows of layouts on their blogs (like in my sidebar). Slide.com has added new features to make it more of a social network.

TECHY FINDS

In Pictures has great tutorials with screen shots for all the typical office programs and more. I was very interested in the one for building websites. They indicate more tutorials are to come, including those for Photoshop!

FUN FINDS

Who is sick? Sick? Report it. Want to know who else is sick in your area and the trends, put in your zip code. I never dreamed of such a site! Wow! You can even receive outbreak alerts for your area by e-mail. There is even a forum for each area (state).

8hands is a cool new tool to bring together several of the social networks into an IM type interface to track all sites at once. Hopefully, they will add some more promintent sites to make this a comprehensive tool. This reminds me of the Trillian concept for IM's which is awesome. Tabber also seems to be a similar concept. I am guessing these will start popping up everywhere until one of them becomes the popular one to use.

GENEALOGY

Pipl is another one of those "really scary" sites that searches the internet for you and provide detailed information of individuals. Go ahead and test it with your own name.

Family Search.com (the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints site) has revamped its website and, in addition, is in the process of digitizing ALL of their records. 2.3 million microfilm records will be scanned in and available on the site. What an amazing project! I remember having to go to our local center and ordering microfilm and thereafter paying to print out the pages. This will be a great benefit to many! The project is call "scanstone."

Familylink.com is a new social networking site for genealogy. These things are popping up everywhere! What next!?

Whitepages.com has a new feature which lists names by popularity and can also filter names by location, including a map. This is very useful for tracking down areas where the name is popular in order to find someone. It even gives the most searched for names.

Search your surname in Google Books. I was surprised at the genealogy information I arrived upon.

New York to Paris - Getting Wet!

Wanna see something funny?

Going from NYC to Paris, Google Style


--Go to Google.com

--Click on Maps.

--Click on Get Directions.

--From New York, New York

--To Paris, France.

--And read line # 23.

Free Internet from Google!

Wow, this is unbelievable! Google is offering free internet service...it's in Beta...you have to check this out! I have always wondered would be next in technology!

Click here to go to Google TiSP.

The Glad Game

I saw the title of this first in Tina's sidebar.

You may recall that "The Glad Game" was made popular by the novel Pollyanna.

What a great thing for us to focus on! We should focus on the things we are glad about, the things we can do, and not worry about those things out of our control. Rejoicing and thanking God for what he has done for us helps to take our mind off of those stressful things in our life.

Finding the good in all things is such a blessing.

I invite you to post in the shout-out box each day one thing that you are glad about. Maybe there is some stress in your life. Take a moment to look for some good in that stress and post to share with others so that they too may be blessed. Yes, your life can be a blessing to others!

I had thought about adding a special shout-out box just for The Glad Game, but I also do want to limit adding too many things to my page that it takes too long to load. So, hey, we can just use what is there already!