Who Do You Think Would Make A Good Blogger?

Ready for a news flash?  Not everyone with an internet connection has their own blog!

I’ll wait quietly while you recover from the shock. 

The funny thing is that there are people in my life that I’m secretly convinced would make a smashing success out of blogging.  Like a friend of mine who lives off the grid.  She and her husband have a self-sufficient farm, complete with various farm animals. They have one daughter who is two years old and they all share a four room cabin.  No electricity.  But they do run a generator every other night to wash dishes and take showers. 

Now granted, it would be a little difficult to blog without a computer or electricity, but I would sign up for her feed in an instant, if for no other reason than to find out how they survive without downloading podcasts.

Another elderly gentleman in my church is a true renaissance man.  He paints. He gardens.  He writes poetry.  He sings the most wonderful deep baritone.  He has never even set his rear end in front of a computer, but he has so much wisdom to share.  Geez, he could send his updates by carrier pigeon, and I would be happy to read them!

And there are millions more people out there with incredible stories  and no way to share them.  I’m bringing this up now because I’m getting ready to help lead another session of the Blog Writing Course.  If you know someone who you think has a story to tell, or just a great way with words, why not send them my way.  Tell them to sign up for this great introduction to blogging, where you are learning right alongside a supportive group of peers who are starting out just like you. 

This ain’t your momma’s writing course.  Not with Topsy at the helm.  This is full-on fun.  So tell your non-blogging friends to get their butts over to the site and sign up!  Everybody’s got a story to tell. 

 

Technorati Tags: blogging,blog writing,blog writing class,blog writing course

As Time Goes By

                         

 

Yep, today is a big day.  Today is my: BLOG-I-VERSARY !!!!  One year ago today I started up ole’ Topsy-Techie with the naive notion that someone might want to read about a crazy homeschooling family and their addiction to all things “connected.”

 

Some of you have been along for the ride from almost the very beginning.  Others of you have just grabbed on to the bumper before we slid into third gear.  But anniversaries are good times to look back in the rearview mirror and reflect on what you have gone through together.  So crank up Tony Bennett up there in the audio player, and let’s see what the past year has taught us…

• Geeks are born, not made
• Children are never to be trusted, especially with an internet connection and few hours of free time
• There is no amount of marital doldrums that can’t be cured by a little technology
• There is no amount of sickness that can’t be alleviated by a new internet obsession
• Our country’s financial future must NEVER be dependent on my money handling
• Our country’s upcoming digital switchover, however, may be in dire need of my expertise
• Being anonymous is not always as glamorous and mysterious as it is cracked up to be
• Geekiness is not catching, but it is definitely contagious
• Parents that want a peaceful house must never, EVER deprive their children of decent computers
• Just because a house is being improved does not mean it is SAFE to live in
• Parenting is not for the faint hearted…OR the pacifist, apparently
• You gotta pay to play
• Some addictions just aren’t worth fighting

I would say we have learned a lot this past year, my bloglings. Now go off to your day today older, wiser, and perhaps a little more wired. Let’s just call that my little contribution to the world. 

A Little Nepotism Never Hurt

My hubby gets overlooked a good bit on this here blog thingy because he just goes along on his merry way every day trying not to upset the apple cart that is Topsy-Techieland.  He doesn’t create drama.  He doesn’t take sides.  He doesn’t stoke the fires of dissent. 

What he does do is keep us from taking ourselves too seriously.  Yes, believe it or not, that can happen once in a while, and R-T knows exactly where to stick that pin so that our balloon can deflate at just the right speed and still somehow save face.  He is probably the single funniest human being I’ve ever had the fortune to know, and no matter what the subject matter, my hubby WILL find a way to make it pee-your-pants hilariously funny. 

We laugh more around here than is probably legally allowed.  We laugh at our local newscasters.  We laugh at our relatives (well, except for the ones that read this blog, of course).  We laugh at the way we dress, the way we speak to each other, and the way we call each other to the phone.  Everything we do or see can be fodder for our hilarity.

And the reason we laugh so much?  Probably because we see so much to cry about.  You see, my husband is the operations director for our local homeless shelter, and not a day goes by that he doesn’t encounter people in crisis.  It’s not an easy job.  Not by a long shot.  Success stories are few, and relapses are common.  In a job like my husbands, you get to know people well enough to take it personally when they lose a child because they can’t overcome drug addiction, or get stabbed under a bridge, or have their last dollar stolen from them because they weren’t mentally able to distinguish the people you can trust from the people you can’t.

Seeing these things every day either makes you bitter, or increases your desire for justice.  Fortunately, my hubby has chosen the latter.  He knows that he can either be angry with God or be God’s hands in the world.  Fortunately, my hubby has chosen the latter.

And one of the ways R-T tries to make sense of all the injustice he sees on a daily basis is by talking about it.  Laughing about it.  Trying to see it in light of his faith.  And he is doing all this in a very public way on his new blog.  So today, I’m showing my hubby a little linky love and suggesting that you drop by and see what kind of impact one man with a heart and a vision and a huge sense of humor can make on the homeless scene. 

And then you will understand just why we need to laugh so much around here. 

The Great Dilemmas Of Life

Uber has recently come into some money.  Well, (if Obama can quote scripture, then so can I) the truth is that he has “put off childish things” (1 Cor. 13), and has decided he doesn’t want most of his video games anymore.  He even cancelled his video game rental subscription!  Even though the Video Game Freeze of 2008 came on kind of gradually, I’m still not sure I was completely prepared for the Great Video Game Chuck-Off of 2009.

This was a kid who when he was five years old, could beat his dad at several Sega Genesis games. ( Good times, good times)  This was a kid whose online nickname was always something that involved the word ‘videogamer’ in between some random numbers.  Who used to ask for stuffed animal replicas of his favorite gaming characters. 

Where did that kid go???

These days, it’s all about social networking and portable applications.  If it can’t “Friend” you or let you send text messages while you pee, then what the heck good is it??!!  So after successfully selling most of his massive collection to the future “Videogamer66775”s of the world, he has pocketed some serious bucks, and is poring over iTouch websites and books. 

The good news is that Uber has kindly offered to let me go halvsies with him on the iTouch.  You see, I recently put off a couple childish things myself, and came into a few George Washington’s of my own.  And therein lies the dilemma…

I have been doing a bit of research on one of those handy dandy Roku devices that let you stream your Netflix and Amazon movies and tv shows right to your television.  I had almost put down my payment on the puppy when Uber offered me this alternative way to burn my bundle of clams. 

“You seriously would rather have some device that just lets you sit on the couch and watch movies once in a while rather than this cool portable gadget that lets you not only watch movies, but update your Facebook, help you find cool restaurants when you are out, and keep up with your RSS feeds??” he taunted.

I’m considering signing him up for the debate team.  He can be seriously persuasive when he wants to be.  So, I’ve given myself a one week cool-down period to decide where my pretty pennies will finally end up. 

Half of an iTouch or a whole Roku?  I may not sleep for a week.

 

Technorati Tags: iTouch,video games,Roku

One of THOSE Days

 

This has been one of THOSE days.  And by that, I mean one of those tremendously lovely, wish you could hold it in time, kind of days.  Homeschool glided along like a swing on a breezy day.  I got more than I ever dreamed of accomplished on the work front.  H-T and I created some delectable candies in the kitchen.  The dogs have been particularly well-behaved.

What more could a girl want???  You think that’s all?  It isn’t.

Today is the honored chance we get every year to celebrate the dreams and accomplishments of one of our nation’s greatest visionaries.  It doesn’t seem to matter how many years we have studied Martin Luther King, Jr. in homeschool, the boys never seem to tire of hearing about him.  And even when we think we know all there is to know, we become aware of some new facet of his life that brings all the awe rushing back again. 

Then to top it all off, while we get to celebrate the vision of one African-American, we are on the eve of celebrating the inception of that vision in our new president.  Wow.  It’s hard to stay dry-eyed on a night like this.  Especially when I look out my window and see something else I’ve been hoping and praying for…SNOW!!!!

I love THOSE days.

Twittered Out and Fed Up

You know that aunt that comes to all your family gatherings and feels the need to share in great gory detail about her various aches, pains, surgeries, and scars?  And if you end up having to sit by her all night, you pretty much have to knock back more than just a few Bud Lights to survive the evening with any measure of your sanity intact?

Well, I am telling you to give the woman a break.  Sometimes, even when you know other people don’t care, you just NEED to share.  And besides, throw in a few bad email experiences, and some Windows Vista and I am that aunt.

You see, when things aren’t quite working out in my techie little world, I simply must tell someone.  And since my husband gets this really glaze-y stare when I try to share my online woes with him, then I’m afraid that you are the ones stuck sitting next to me all evening.  It sucks, but life just does, sometimes.  So go grab your lager of choice and DEAL, k?

First of all, I’m tired to death of Twitter.  If you follow me on Twitter, or I have been following you, I apologize in advance if this hurts, but I AM BORED OF YOU!! For some reason, no matter what people Twitter about lately, it just feels rehashed, contrived, and time-wasting.  It was a great experiment, but a failed one overall – – for me at least.  I’m happy to give over my Twitter time to Facebook, anyway because I actually KNOW those folks, and have a history with them.  Face-less messaging somehow just wasn’t my cup of tea after all.

Secondly, I have been lamenting on the fact that no one was updating their blogs lately (including myself).  The truth was everyone else was doing fine…it was my Windows Feed Reader that had gone to hell in a hand basket.  You guys had been saying big important things, like you were moving, and you were having pseudo-fantasies about Dave Matthews, and you were finding snow on the beach, and finding out your children were getting key parts in a play, and I was MISSING IT ALL!  Stupid, stupid Windows!  So, I threw in the towel and manually entered all my feeds into Google Reader (which I later found out you don’t have to do manually, but I’ll save that gory story for another family gathering.) 

Oh Boise, Idaho do I love Google Reader!!!  (BTW, that’s my new  thing.  I randomly insert U.S. cities as exclamations.  I figure it will somehow improve the boys’ geography.)  Now that is a real woman’s feed reader.  It is stylish, sexy, and oh-so-easy on the eyes.  And the best part?  It actually works!!

So let’s go back and recap now, in case you missed one of the details while you were grabbing that last beer.  I’m…

TWITTERED OUT AND FED UP…get it? got it? good.

Sacramento, California that was good to get off my chest!!!  Now you want to hear about my ingrown toenail?

 

Technorati Tags: Twitter,Google Reader,feed readers

Hi. Bye.

That’s all I have time for lately, it would seem.  So let me fill in that short little space between the words to let you know that I will be hosting the Carnival of Homeschooling here on Topsy-Techie next month.  If you’ve got a post you would like to have included, I will be giving info very soon on just how to do that.  Click on the picture below for more information about the Carnival if you have never participated before.  I will REALLY try to get back to posting more frequently as soon as possible.  Life has just somehow kicked me where it hurts, of late.  (Maybe everyone?  Most of the blogs I stalk have been pretty quiet as well…what’s up with that??)

 

Technorati Tags: Carnival of Homeschooling

I am addicted to dots…

 

Yep.  It’s a full-on ‘Ellipsis Syndrome’ of some sort that I simply have no control over.  It is my absolute favorite punctuation in the whole wide world.  I was looking back over some of my old blog posts, and they have literally been invaded by ellipsi (which I am just guessing is the plural, cause it just makes sense, ya know)

Maybe my crib sheets were polka dotted?  Perhaps I had too many cameras flash in my eyes as a child?  Whatever the reason, I cannot go more than two paragraphs without interjecting those cute little pinpoints.

So, I am embracing my inner dot fetish and have brushed up on some fun facts about the ellipsis, care of Wikipedia:

• The triple-dot punctuation mark is also called a suspension point, points of ellipsis, periods of ellipsis, or colloquially, dot-dot-dot [and I thought dot-dot-dot was just our little ‘pet name’ secret]
• An ellipsis at the end of the sentence that ends with a period (or such a period followed by an ellipsis) appears as four dots…. [boy have I ever been breaking that rule…I thought the four-dotters were just trying to prove they were better than everyone]
• In legal writing in the United States, Rule 5.3 in the Bluebook citation guide governs the use of ellipses and requires a space before the first dot and between the two subsequent dots. [I have also not been nearly anal enough about my dots]
• In Japanese manga, the ellipsis by itself represents speechlessness, or a "pregnant pause." [seriously, who knew my little friends could express so much raw emotion?? and apparently they can even knock people up too!!]
• The diagonal and vertical forms of the ellipsis are particularly useful for showing missing terms in matrices, such as the size-n identity matrix  [I have no clue what that means, but if it trying to say that people who use the ellipsis also like the Matrix movie, then that is just like, too freakily coincidental!!!]
• In some programming languages (including Perl, Ruby, and Pascal), a shortened two-dot ellipsis is used to represent a range of values given two endpoints  [techies can be such slackers]

I also discovered tonight that Facebook has a group of fellow ellipsis fans.  No, seriously.  It is called “Obessesed with the ellipsis…that’s right I am…”  Isn’t that just the most awesome thing??  The group even has 71 members.  Well, ok, 72 now. 

It will be good to have some support.  And someone to talk to when I accidentally impregnate my pauses…

Are You A Digital Spy?

I was reading an article this morning about how parents and teens sometimes awkwardly exist together on the social network Facebook.  The article was about how certain teens feel very uncomfortable being “friends” with their folks on Facebook.  I am imagining that one of the reasons for their discomfort is worry over whether mom or dad might be using the network to spy on them or track their activities and friends.

I think that is a valid worry, at least in some cases.  I definitely didn’t join Facebook to look over Uber’s shoulder, but since he has been kind enough to “friend” me and his dad, we probably do find out little tidbits of info about him that we might not know otherwise.  But in general, Uber has sort of an open-book personality anyway.  When H-T gets on Facebook (OMG, that kid will be 13 in just over a month!!!), I can see him being far more reticent to make me and dad privy to his online dealings.  He is just a far more private kiddo.

But the truth is, that the digital age makes us somewhat of an open book to anyone who happens to really want to know about us.  I imagine that if I had your full name, your blog name, and possibly a couple other of your online id’s, I could find out some pretty detailed info about each and every one of you.  If we are online, we are kind of vulnerable.

So, the question is…do you ever take advantage of that vulnerability to dig deeper into your kids’ online lives?  Our internet filter, for instance, has a history feature, that lets me, if I so choose, check up on each and every site my kids have visited.  It would take me less than three minutes to scan over their entire catalog of current interests, obsessions, and possible misdeeds.  Have I used this feature?  Of course I have.  And not just to protect them from evil, either.  Sometimes, I’m just curious.  Nosy, even.  I really try to squelch this in myself, but it does come out at times.

So, here is a place for you to confess…no confession box required.  Are you a digital spy?  Have you looked at your kids IM history?  Their text messages?  Their web hits?  Or have you hit paydirt, and discovered a secret blog they have, or online journal? 

You can tell me.  I won’t squeal.  But I might possibly steal your ideas if they are particularly sneaky…

Technorati Tags: Facebook,technology,text messaging,parental filter

Wii-ve Got To Move It, Move It

The Topsies just celebrated our first anniversary with our Wii, and I’ll admit that in the latter part of the year, the poor little guy had been gathering a smidge of dust on his case.  But I wasn’t immune to those cool web ads and demos about the next best thing coming to Wii – – the Wii Fit!!

It has been months since I didn’t have to leave my top pants button unbuttoned, and that means it is HIGH TIME I got serious about getting fit – – and if some techie gadget is willing to motivate me toward my goals, then all the better.

I was hyped.  That is, of course, until I found out I was going to have to break into my neighbor’s house at 3:00 in the morning and steal theirs if I actually wanted one.  The blooming things were ridiculously hard to get your hands on.  Fortunately, there is nothing I like better than a challenge. 

Amazon.com was out of stock, of course, but offered to let you sign up for text messages when the Fits were restocked.  The first time they texted, my phone was out of power.  Missed it by a long shot.  A week later the text showed up during church.  I could barely concentrate on the rest of the service because I was so busy imagining our next sanctuary upgrade where we finally get free wi-fi alongside the hymnal racks in each pew.

A few days later, yet another text came while I was driving down the interstate.  Thank God I still don’t have net access on my phone, or this post would likely be written from the local mortuary. 

Finally, one fine afternoon, Amazon texted me that the Fits were in stock, and all I happened to be doing was laundry.  It was five minutes at the most between the time I got the text and the time I logged into Amazon only to discover that they were already sold out.  I was fairly sure that a personal boycott of Amazon by me and my family probably wasn’t going to bankrupt the company overnight, but the idea was definitely entertained.

But the very next day the little beep on my phone went off, and I  never even checked it.  I just knew.  I jumped up from the couch, ran down the hall, jumped over and across the bed, and bounded into the computer chair.  My fingers fairly flew as I typed in the letters. A-M-A-Z-O-N…   At this point, I figured that whether or not I got there in time, I had already burned quite a few calories in my attempt to order.  Bingo!!!  That was the lucky day that my online shopping cart finally got filled up with the Wii Fit.

The big box arrived a few days after Christmas.  Just in time to fulfill all my New Year’s resolutions and then some.  This is my year to move and groove it, and finally button my pants.  I can just feel it….

Technorati Tags: Wii Fit,Amazon.com,exercise,text messaging