Clear Blue Dei

Ever since I found the “Bigfoot” (at best guess) version of my post How to Redirect your Blog to a different URL Part 2: Wordpress (titled “How to Airt your Blog to a different URL Portion 2: Wordpress.“)  I have been thinking of Bigfoot.  Here is a note from my original post that was translated on the “Bigfoot” page:

“NOTE: you will cognize if it is not putted upwards right because you ‘ll get an mistake when assay to add the domain name to your blog.”

Oddly enough, Bigfoot may be Scottish (or thereabouts) since he uses “airt” and “ain” which at least resembles that accent. But he uses it wrong, which is not surprising for Bigfoot, the fact that he speaks and writes at all is pretty amazing (although he does use Windows Live for his blog). Heck, the fact that he exists is pretty incredible, although some people dispute even this.

Bigfoot claims his name is “Dennis”, but then again, he claims to have written my post, too. As a matter of fact, he (or a relative) has a Vox blog called “Alabama Restaurants Info“. There is only 1 post written (copied) so far, but it is a good one and I look forward to more. The post is called “Has anyone ever interrupted into a Eatery to do their ain nutrient?” and here is a sample of the Bigfoot review of a mexican restaurant (near as I can tell):

“here was this Mexican eatery that we seed and we discovered that concern was not good. So we sayed a couple of dishes we believed we would wish. The nutrient was horrific!! The refried beans savour like they came out of a  can, the rice was mush and the carnitas savour like they were a hebdomad old. No Good!!!!”

Who knew that Bigfeet (foots?) not only eat mexican food, but critique it. And in the same post we get some of the Bigfoot wisdom:

“I well-nigh interrupted into McDonald ’s to do a late nighttime Collation Wrapper but i chickened out. Plus they were unfastened.

Nope, I havent have sex….does brand ya wonderthough..I wonderment which resteraunt would be the one that everyone would desire to interrupt into? peace

my friend once assay that. luckily he was simply bluffing about the gun so his sentence is very much lower than it should be.”

After pearls like that, who wouldn’t be interested to know more about Bigfoot? Well, Bigfoot has written several books. The first one I became familiar with is Bigfoot: I Not Dead with this review:

“In his eagerly anticipated follow-up to Me Write Book, Bigfoot returns from exile to share his inspiring, hilarious, and often deeply disturbing experiences as a misunderstood forest gentleman and tragic media darling. These entertaining and often grizzly stories stand not only as a testament to the greatness of the legendary man-beast, but also as a chilling cautionary tale of the downside of a life of celebrity, cannibalism, celebrity cannibalism, wanton violence, and lack of toilet training. As in Me Write Book, full-color glossy spreads depict every intimate, disgusting, and downright insane moment of Bigfoot’s life. Bigfoot: I Not Dead is an unforgettable memoir that will stay with readers long after his foul scent has dissipated.”

I read this out of order, Me Write Book: It Bigfoot Memoir was his first book and he sounds like he was more naive and lovable back then. From Amazon:

“Like many reclusive celebrities, Big Foot is misunderstood. In his touching memoir Me Write Book he wants to set the record straight, proving that although he’s larger, hairier, and more foul-smelling than most of us, he’s really not so different underneath.

Only the most cold-hearted among us could look on without compassion as this hirsute Everyman struggles bravely with parental abandonement, Pringles potato crisps, embarrassing moments with peach schnapps, the desperate loneliness of personal ads, and ‘roid rage.

Readers will never forget the plaintive voice from the wilderness that howls from every page of this searing, intimate account of a man-beast in the promised land.”.

And he also wrote In Me Own Words: The Autobiography of Bigfoot.

Here is a Bigfoot Action Figure which may or may not be what Bigfoot really looks like but “Intricate articulation allows it to be posed just like frame 352 of the famous film footage.”

If you want to see if you can find the elusive Bigfoot, here’s the Bigfoot Observer’s Field Manual: A practical and easy-to-follow step-by-step guide to your very own face-to-face encounter with a legend. If he was a human celebrity, this would be stalking, but I guess all’s fair for a Bigfoot. And like any celebrity, it appears he has moved to California: The Hoopa Project: Bigfoot Encounters in California. I would suggest looking in L.A. first.

~Susan Mellott

This is the most recent edition of the Smart Car Newsletter. I haven’t posted one for awhile so I thought I’d upload this one, especially since it refers to the holiday promotion of 20% off in the Smart store through Dec. 24. And if this newsletter does not appear correctly, please click here. If this email is not displayed correctly, please click here. December edition 2009 Year 2009 There has never been a better time to test drive a smart fortwo! As part of smart Value Days, now through December 31, 2009, visit a smart center, take a test drive and receive a gift valued up to $50 from the smart USA Collection of personal accessories.[1] Hurry, offer ends soon! >> Click here. Dear Susan, Welcome to the December issue of the smart USA e-newsletter. smart USA wishes you a great holiday season! Thank you for your interest in the smart brand and happy reading. The smart USA Team living: Re-think Parking! The smart fortwo is the perfect car for the city. It now costs 50% less to park at select New York City area parking lots and structures. Hundreds of parking facility operators across the New York City area realize that using half of a parking space should only cost half the price. Read more about the participating New York City area parking companies offering half price parking. >> Click here. local: smart USA gear store The smart USA gear store is offering a holiday promotion of 20% off all orders through December 24, 2009! Our e-commerce store features the official smart USA branded merchandise collection, including clothing, accessories and model cars. smart USA gear makes a perfect gift this holiday season for that smart enthusiast in your life! Shop now to save big! >> Click here. trends: The 12 Days of Shopping smart USA is involved in an exciting new partnership with Westfield Malls. This is a national promotion for the 2009 holiday season called the “The 12 Days of Shopping”. The promotion began on November 27th, 2009, and will run through Sunday, December 20th, 2009. As a grand prize, Westfield Malls will be giving away a 2009 smart fortwo. To find a Westfield mall near you: >> Click here. Please do not respond to this email. Click here if you wish to unsubscribe. © 2009 smart USA. All rights reserved. All illustrations and specifications contained in this email are based on the latest product information available at the time of sending. smart USA reserves the right to make changes at any time, without notice, in colors, materials, equipment, specifications, and models. Any variations in colors shown are due to variations in monitor resolution. Illustrations may include test situations. Some vehicles may be shown with non-U.S. equipment. Some vehicles are shown with optional equipment. this message was sent by smart USA Distributor LLC 1765 S. Telegraph Rd. Bloomfield Hills, MI 48302 1.800.smart.USA smartUSA.com [1] Restrictions apply. Visit smartUSA.com for further details.

This is my Tech Edition of gift ideas for the holidays.  These are all things that I really find neat and useful. And fun!

And let me say, if you haven’t realized it already, that I am very budget-conscious. I don’t recommend or want the highest end things, I recommend the things that are the best bang for a regular person on a budget.

UPDATE 12/10/2009: If you read this before, you didn’t see this item. But I had to go back and add it because it is just too good not to include and I had just forgotten to add it in the first place.  And what is that item?  It is the Gboard: a Keyboard just for Gmail.  You may be thinking that sounds like a gimmick, I thought so too.  But after reading Mashable’s review of the Gboard and given the super-reasonable price of $19.99, I think this is a great stocking stuffing and useful gadget for people who use gmail regularly. It does all the functions that can be done with keyboard shortcuts in Gmail, but doesn’t require you to memorize all the shortcuts and is easier to use. Mashable says: “Overall we’re impressed with the Gboard. It does what it says it will do, the keys are laid out in a way that makes sense, and, for heavy Gmail users, shortcuts can save a tremendous amount time throughout the day.” For $19.99, if I was a Gmail user or knew someone who was, I’d consider this as a gift.

The Droid by Motorola. I have a Verizon cell phone old-style that I got in 2004 and it has been just fine for me.  It does everything I want, takes decent pictures and videos, good signal for calling, good battery life, voice calling, etc (no bluetooth but that isn’t a big deal to me).  I have never had a desire to upgrade because I never saw a phone that I wanted or that seemed all that exciting.

The iPhone never did it for me at all. Too expensive, too proprietary and on AT&T so fugetaboutit. I never really got the iPhone buzz.  But then the Droid came out. I’d heard rumblings about the Android operating system that sounded intriguing, but didn’t see the definitive phone that ran it.  Until the Droid.

My husband just got one for work and he brought it home for me to check out. I haven’t even looked it over to speak of and I’m am starting to want it. I was looking at it and thinking, “OK, it’s nice. Keyboard is still too small for my fat fingers. Not seeing anything special”.  Then I stumbled on the Google voice command lookup. I said “papillon” and it brought back a search list. I said “getting wine stains out of carpet” and it brought back instructions. I said “directions to Newcastle Indiana” and it gave me map and step-by-step instructions using GPS.  That started getting my attention! I’m really starting to get the itch now. And I can get it for $99 with Verizon 2-year renewal. The only sticking point is that I am hesitant to pay more a month for web/data access. I don’t go out that often to where I would not have my computer or my netbook and paying a fair amt more for the web when I can usually get it for free is hard. And I have a GPS that is free access. I don’t really need it and I have most everything it offers, but I do kind of want one.

Next are a few tech tools for easily converting your old negatives, slides and photographs to digital pictures. I know everyone has a stack of photographs laying around that they have taken over the years and would like to scan them in digitally but using a regular scanner, it is quite time-consuming. I wanted something that I could just feed photos into while watching TV or the like. Something easy and not too labor intensive. I did some research and decided on the Pandigital SCN02 PhotoLink One Touch Scanner w/Memory Card for a quick, easy and reasonably priced photo copier. I love this and it is definitely on my wish list. It is $85.68 on Amazon.

And an item that I have recently purchased is the Innovative Technology 35mm Negative and Slide Converter to PC. I love it and recommend it for a reasonably priced negative and slide converter. I am not going to go into great detail here because I wrote a post on how to use it and showing the results. But I will say that I think it was a very worthwhile purchase and was only $49.99.

Another item that I found and want is a pocket projector. If you travel at all, for business or for pleasure, this is sure to please. You can connect the pocket projector to your laptop or netbook and watch TV shows and movies projected on your hotel wall with a picture up to 60″ that is both clear and vibrant. (a good place to watch online is hulu.com or any of the TV station websites). Or give a presentation or slideshow for business without having to lug a huge projector around. Or play your video games in big picture.  Or hook it up to your phone (can’t quite see why, but I’m sure there is a good reason). Or collaborate with someone and not have to crowd around the little computer screen. And with the cost of adding luggage to your airfare these days, the less you have to carry, the better.

The Optoma EP-PK-101 PICO Pocket Projector- 4 oz.. is somewhat expensive, at $219 but it’s just a clever little thing. It connects to a wide range of things.
Connects to:
a) iPod, iPhone, and iTouch with included bundled connection kit
b) Camcorders, DV-Cams, and Digital Cameras enabled with standard composite AV Out with included composite cable
c) DVD Players and other video players enable with standard composite AV Out with included composite cable
Note: This product does not connect to notebook computers, PCs, PDAs, cell phones, or other devices unless the device has composite output. Please make sure to consult your device’s owner manual.
and it only weighs 4 oz. It projects an image size up to 60 inches. You can recharge the battery via USB or included AC charger. It was listed in the Time’s best travel gadgets of 2009.

While that sounds decent, I personally would bite the bullet and spend $299 and get the Cinemin Swivel Multimedia Pico Projector which is another pocket projector that looks very good and has all the connectors and everything to connect to a wide variety of devices (without requiring a video composite connection). With this, a netbook and this pocket projector and you are good to go! And it is made by Wow Wee, who have been making the most incredible and innovative toys and gadgets for quite a while.

As a matter of fact, if you have a minute you might just pop over to their site and see if anything else catches your eye.  Their robotic toys (and all their toys) are really something. And not nearly as expensive as you’d think. Check out the Rovio, a mobile webcam robot that you can control from anywhere in the world. And you can hear what is going on whenever it is and also say things over it’s speaker. Can’t you see a little Rovio wheeling up and swiveling it’s head towards someone and saying something to them while you watch and talk and control it’s movement? Or that makes it’s security rounds that you have programmed it to do? If I didn’t have pets, I might be interested more but with pets, it would last about 2 seconds around here. But watch it in action: The WowWee Rovio Wi-Fi Enabled Robotic WebCam is available on Amazon for a budget-busting $209. Too much for essentially an adult toy, unless you have that kind of money and don’t know what to get the person who has everything.

If you know anyone who does not own a pocket camcorder, they may be interested in one of the various ones on the market.  The main ones are the Pure Digital Flip Mino and Ultra, the Creative Labs Vado and the Kodak Zi6 or Zi8. Consumer Search has two full reviews of these: digital camcorders and HD camcorders and you can judge for yourself which one works best for you. You can also see their reviews of each specific one and they are very good. They also include some regular camcorders (not the Flip style) but I would not get one of them, I would go with the pocket camcorder unless there is a compelling reason not to. They are super-easy to use and they plug right into your USB port to upload. All the other camcorders I have owned were difficult to use and especially difficult to upload to your PC. And I was always hunting for the proper cables and it was too much work for me. The pocket camcorders have very limited features (they basically just record and play) and no editing capabilities but you can do all the editing, cropping, splicing, etc. that you would want when you get the video on the PC and it is really how you would want to do your editing anyway. The pocket camcorders are all very similar and in my opinion, just figure out which feature is most important to you (price, HD, etc) and pick the one that matches it best. I got the Kodak Zi6 because it was a good price and most importantly to me, the viewing screen is larger than the others.  I don’t see as well as I’d like (getting old, y’know) and that was the deciding factor for me.

If you or someone you are buying for already has a pocket camcorder, then they may like some of the accessories for them, like the waterproof case so you can use them underwater. Flip Video AWC2T Underwater Case for UltraHD and Ultra 2nd Generation camcorders (Clear), Flip Video Underwater Case for 1st Generation Flip Ultra Camcorders, Creative Labs VA0580 Vado and Vado HD Waterproof Pouch (Blue), Aquapac 404 Mini Underwater Camera Case, these are a few on Amazon. Another way to find them is to just do a google-type search on “underwater camcorder case Kodak Zi6” but replace the Kodak Zi6 with the specific camera case you are looking for.

Another thing that I already have, but could not live without, is a GPS with voice instructions. My whole family has them and swears by them. My sister moved temporarily to Orlando and it was a godsend.  I have an old Garmin C530 that is the pre-nuvi version (similar to the lowest end nuvi but smaller screen). It works just fine for me. The nuvi versions have a bigger screen, but with the voice instructions, you don’t really need to look at the screen. The most important part is that they have voice instructions and especially that they have text-to-speech.  That means they say things like “In 300 feet, turn left on Winchester Road”. They tell you the road name, not just to turn left in 300 feet (and you don’t know for sure which street).

An interesting question for some of these gadgets is: How long will it be before they are outmoded because the functionality is included in a all-in-one smart phone. The Droid and other new phones have built-in voice GPS and I believe they may be all you would need (I have to test on my husband’s Droid) and they can also take pictures and record like the pocket camcorders. The quality may not be quite as good, but if all you are doing is uploading them to the internet, which is what a lot of people do, you will barely notice the difference. Especially for the $100 – $300 you would save by not buy a dedicated camcorder. They have pretty much definitively replaced the Palm and other handheld devices.

If they had a more functional keyboard, they could replace all kinds of things. There is a rumor about a Tablet PC by Apple in 2010. If it is as expected, it will replace a number of gadgets (how many are unknown at this point). One thing it is supposed to be able to do is act as an e-book reader. If you know me, you will know that I am a very big reader. You might wonder why I didn’t have an e-book reader on my gadgets list. It is mainly because I don’t want to pay the prices they charge to download books and there are very few good free e-books out there and our library does not lend e-books yet. If the prices came down (significantly, or had a cheap subscription plan) or especially, if our library gets e-books, I will reevaluate my decision. At least the e-book readers like the Barnes and Noble Nook and the new Kindle 2 are non-proprietary. It appears they are settling on a standard and that is important. That is a huge downside of the Apple Tablet. Everything they do is extremely proprietary and they don’t open source. That is pretty much why I don’t have much to do with iPhones, etc.

One last tech-ish item is the Nintendo Wii. We do not own a Wii or for that matter, any of the latest game systems. We have a Playstation 2 and enjoy it when we have people over (infrequently). We have Dance, Dance, Revolution dance pads and Guitar Hero with guitars. We haven’t had any reason to upgrade though. But the Wii has a lot of things that I have not seen with the other game systems. The other game systems are pretty much limited to gamers and kids. The Wii has afficienados of all ages and interests. My uncle belongs to a Wii bowling league at his independent living apartment complex. A friend’s mom (and their whole family pretty much) use it to exercise. It looks like a lot of fun and very interactive. I like that kind of thing, but most all of the serious games for gaming systems are just too complicated and difficult for me. And now you can get one easily for $199 and with some looking, some places will throw in a $50 gift card.

And of course, if someone already has one, there is a plethora of accessories for the Wii. That is the drawback of a wii, the system is reasonable but the games and accoutrements easily cost the price of one apiece. Rather than list them all, wii and accessories will show you a list from amazon.

The Wii MotionPlus accessory for Nintendo Wii ($20, or $50 with a game, available at bestbuy.com and elsewhere) is an attachment for the original “Wiimote” controller. The MotionPlus makes the motion-sensing controls more sensitive and precise, so a flick of a wrist can turn your virtual tennis racket and spin your bowling ball. If your gift recipient doesn’t already own “Wii Sports Resort,” it’s worth throwing that in, too — it adds frisbee-throwing with a dog, water-scooter racing, sword fighting and other new games and comes with one MotionPlus attachment.  Here is a writeup that includes this and more tech gift ideas for $100 or less.

Anyone who has a wii would probably really appreciate a game or accessory for it since there are so many things it can do. And they come in all price ranges.

Well, that is it for my budget friendly tech toys and gadgets for 2009. I’m sure the people on your list would love at least one of these items and you probably may too.

Happy Holidays!

~Susan Mellott

Presents for people who are enamored of all things cute and collectible. And some generally amusing stuff to keep it interesting.

Oh hai! If you have been hanging around the internet much, you will have heard of lolcats and have probably visited I can haz cheezburger at least a time or two for your lolcat fix. And if you are even more of a lol head, you probably talk in lolspeak (teh furst language born of teh intertubes.) and know why IS that walrus looking for a blue bucket?” Kthx. And if that is so, you may want to visit the lolmart.  My favorite is the lolrus. He is as cute as a button and if you want to show your love, check out the lolrus tshirt (picture on left).

Or for lolcat with a twist, visit the lolcat bible store with tshirts printed with the lolspeak versions of bible verses like John 3:16 (16 So liek teh Ceiling Kitteh lieks teh ppl lots and he sez ‘Oh hai I givez u me only kitteh and ifs u beleeves him u wont evr diez no moar, kthxbai!’) and Matthew 3:13-15 (13 Den Happy Cat caem from Garary, to has water baf from John14 But John was all “Ur doin it rong, j00 needz to water baf me” 15 And Happy Cat sayed “STFU and gib to me water baf n00b” and John did.) and a cute sticker with ceiling cat (the goodly/godly cat as opposed to basement cat) that says “Mah God, lemme show yu him”. On the back of the tshirts is a link to the lolcat bible translation site which has most of the bible translated into lolspeak.

Or maybe you’d like a little engrish on your gift.  Engrish is what non-english speakers put on their signs, etc. that is supposed to be a translation into english and usually ends up almost indecipherable and pretty funny. The main site, Engrish.com! Be Juicy! is well worth a stop and is almost guaranteed to help you waste an hour or two (or a whole lot more). And while this doesn’t have a store associated with it, if you like engrish, you will also enjoy Hanzi Smatter – dedicated to the misuse of chinese characters in western culture.

And one last stop for the cute-addict is the hello kitty and friends shop at Sanrio. They have it all. If you can’t get your cute fix here, you can’t get it anywhere. And for the Hello Kitty fans who want to branch out, there are many other characters you can collect as well, such as Charmmy Kitty. “Charmmy Kitty is a white persian cat that Papa gave to Hello Kitty as a gift. She is well-mannered, quiet, and listens to whatever Hello Kitty says. She loves objects that are bright and sparkly! Charmmy Kitty wears a lace-lined ribbon on her left ear, and a necklace which holds the key to Hello Kitty’s jewelry box.”

or Badtz-Maru: “As his April 1st birthday would suggest, Badtz-Maru is one mischievous little penguin. He lives with his mother and his pinball playing father in Gorgeoustown. He attends the first grade at Gorgeous Academy. Batz-Maru attracts a lot of attention as he walks his pet alligator, Pochi. Badtz-Maru has dreams of greatness when he grows up but for now he rolls his eyes at his humorous life in Gorgeoustown.”

Sanrio may not have the definitive collection of all these characters, but with a little searching you should have no trouble finding more. And another place to look for Hello Kitty and other Japanese related items (manga and anime characters too, and other things) is J-List, a wonderful toybox of things from Japan. And they have an adults-only section as well, which has some fascinating things to look at. JBox is the All Ages, Family Friendly site. This site goes on and on with everything imaginable.  Almost too much to take in all at once if you don’t have something specific you are looking for.  A search on my very favorite character, Totoro, turned up 4 pages of items.

And not to leave anyone out, if you hate Hello Kitty and have made it this far in this post, here is a site you won’t want to miss. It is Hello Kitty Hell – One Man’s Life With Cute Overload. This man married a Hello Kitty Fanatic and keeps his sanity by posting about it.

And one last stop not to miss is Kid Robot. If you have any idea what the things on this list are, not only will you want to go to Kid Robot, but chances are, you already have.

From their About Us page: “The products sold at Kidrobot are the centerpieces of a global movement that exemplifies the cutting edge of both pop art and mass culture. Many Kidrobot toys, such as Dunny, MUNNY, and Frank Kozik’s Labbits and Mongers, attract huge followings. Artists that work with Kidrobot have gained celebrity status-these include USA artists Frank Kozik, Tim Biskup, Huck Gee, Joe Ledbetter, Tristan Eaton, Paul Budnitz, and Tara McPherson; the German design collective eBoy; Japan’s Devilrobots & Mad Barbarians; French street artists Tilt & Mist; the UK’s TADO and ilovedust; Australia’s Nathan Jurevicius; Argentina’s DOMA; and many, many others.

A blend of sculpture and popular art, many of Kidrobot’s exclusive toys are extremely rare and collectible. Artists often create a series of only a few hundred to a few thousand pieces, so once a toy is sold out, it’s sold out forever. Kidrobot toys retail anywhere from $5 to $25,000, and many appreciate in value over time.”

I first heard of Dunnies while watching HGTV when they went into someone’s very expensive, very artistic house and they had a collection of high-end, gallery quality Dunnies. Since then, I found out about Kid Robot and the other collectible items.  Here are a few of the 3 1/2″ Dunnies for sale on their site for a reasonable $7.95.

And last but not least is Bibo.  Archie McPhee carried the original Bibo (as far as I know) and both my husband and I got the squeeze toy (see left).  And I had a Bibo t-shirt with the story of Bibo on the back.  I think the shirt is probably gone by now and I’ll bet it is a collectible.  It should be. I’m not sure why the one sold on Archie McPhee is blue now, but ours were red like the photo.

Who is Bibo?

“Bibo is a God Monster with intelligence. He has two big eyes, and he knows very well what people want to do. He cannot speak, but only “Bi-Bo.” When there is any danger happened, he will speak. The top of his head will light up and his hip will makes many colorful smoke to help him survive because this smoke is very stinking and it can hinder the sight of his enemies.

We love Bibo very much because he always survive by using some funny ways.”

To get the full Bibo story, and other interesting and humorous thoughts, visit the Archie McPhee Blog.

For other cool ideas for gifts, take a look at my list of posts filed under shopping.

Enjoy!

~Susan Mellott

Here comes another Christmas and we all wonder what to get the hard-to-please among our family and friends.  Well, good old Archie McPhee still isn’t letting us down! Despite the fact that they no longer carry the Illustrated Librarian  line of temporary tattoos (perfect for the librarian on your list), they do have a nice “Read or Die” shopping bag  which is new.  For other librarian(and zombie)  related items  you can check out my post Librarians and Zombies: Novel Presents You will Love (and some librarian trivia)

And while I am mentioning past posts with shopping ideas, here is my post on the Keyringer, a useful item for finding your keys and other lost things. I got one and used it to attach to my dad’s remote at the nursing home so I could find it when it got lost (as it frequently did). It worked well and was a good idea, however, the batteries seem to have died pretty quickly and I have to reorder some more. Update: got batteries and opened the non-working one and it only had 1 battery in it. Not sure where the other one went, possibly taken out for something else at the nursing home? In any case, I think the batteries would still be working in both of them if the one had both batteries!  The beep is louder now though since I put new ones in. So I still like and recommend them.

And have you (or a “friend”) ever felt uncomfortable going “commando” under your gloves or even worse, having your whole hands, just as the good lord made them, flapping around for all to see?  Then you will definitely want a pair of handerpants for Christmas.  And you can wear them under gloves for a little extra warmth and security. Now if only they made handdresses. Or handskirts, that would be pretty! Hear that Archie? A little lace handskirt would be very nice.

Moving on, my next pick for a great place to shop is ThinkGeek.  For a practical gift, this really caught my eye.  Who wouldn’t want a watch with a built-in USB drive? Well, maybe not everyone, but I know I would. Seriously, I really would. I think this is really neat and I especially like that it is an analog watch. Digital watches just tell you what time it is now, analog watches tell you where you are in relationship to the daily flow of time.  At least that is how I see it.

Or for a more esoteric (yet still fun and definitely geeky) idea, there are the interactive t-shirts. My favorites in these are definitely the Electronic Rock Guitar shirt and the Electronic Drum Kit shirt.  Get a couple of people wearing these and you have a band! I like the idea of the guitar shirt, but I have to admit, I think the drums are the bee’s knees!  I almost got one until my husband mentioned that I might not want to be messing with my “cymbals”  in public.  I guess that is a good point. I hadn’t really thought of it. Anyway, here is a video of the Electronic Drum shirt in action:

And if you know someone whose look would be complete if they only had a grill, here are some very reasonably priced grillz. And they are all one-size-fits-all.  I am partial to the golden style blue domination premium grill. Only $49.99 and unique enough that your friends probably don’t already have this. But hurry, they are almost sold out! Or if they have all the grills they need, maybe a pimp cup would be the thing. Again, extremely reasonable prices, for the budget conscious pimp. These are all from IcedOutGear.

And for those of us who live and breathe social media and who need a little splash of color for their chair or couch, visit Craftsquatch, for all the social media icons, in pillow form.  They have the twitter bird, the RSS icon, the facebook icon and more. Show your love of your favorite social networking sites and tools, through interior decorating.

And  if that all wasn’t enough, here is a whole bunch more geek (gamer) related items from Split Reason, Gear for Geeks and Gamers.  The +15 frost resistant beanie is one of my favorite items from this store. Who doesn’t need one of those?

And one last idea, one that my husband has on his wish list. How about a nice bow tie from Absolute ties?  Sean wants one in his school colors (which “coincidentally” is also the Hogswart school colors. He “says” he went to school in “New Zealand”…) For the true bow tie person, they would only want one that you tie yourself. Sean still takes a while to get it tied, but he is working on it. Practice makes perfect.  I’ll bet you didn’t know that the bow tie is going to be the next big thing in men’s office apparel. Well it is if Sean has any say about it.  At least it is becoming a trend among the male library types. Well, it might…

Happy holidays and take care,

~Susan Mellott

I have many old negatives, including negatives that I had developed but not printed back when I had my own darkroom.  I also have many slides including all my wedding pictures to my first husband, who is dead now.

(Or at least I should have them,  I’ve kept them safe and specially put away ever since 1974, hoping I’d find a way to print them back then, or make a digital print now.  But I got this, went to look for them, very excited to convert and I can’t find them. They are not where I keep all my important memorabilia and I don’t know why. I’ve looked all over and can’t find them. It makes me very sad. But anyway…)

My dad also recently died and he had lots of negatives that I was interested in.  And when I was a baby/toddler, my dad had a 3D camera that took the slides that are double and when you view them in a viewer you see the picture in 3D. So I wanted to convert those as well (not to 3D unfortunately, but actually, my eyes do not focus together properly so I don’t have 3D or depth perception anyway. I seem to function fine though although you’d think it might be problematic).

I’d been thinking about this for a while, so when I saw a negative and slide converter on Woot!, for a very cheap price it seemed (about $50), I went off and checked the reviews on it to see if I wanted to buy it.

In the process, I actually found that it had so-so reviews, but that the Innovative Technology Negative and Slide Converter had better reviews for about the same amount of money. Not necessarily fantastic reviews, but it was one of the least expensive and easy and got 3/5 on Amazon (none of the others got much better and a lot were worse, even though they were more expensive) and that worked for me. If you go to the Innovative Technology website to look at this, you might also want to check out their other products. They have a lot of really interesting products, from other analog to digital converters, to cool retro items, to leading edge, really innovative items. BTW, Innovative Technology 35mm Negative and Slide Converter to PC
Amazon is where I bought my IT Converter.

When I got it, I opened it up and it was very easy to use and understand. It has the base/reader that plugs into your USB port and 2 trays (one for negatives and one for slides) that you click through the converter to read the pictures onto your computer.  It comes with film scan software that shows the picture for what is currently in the converter and lets you copy and save it as a digital image.

To load the tray, you just click open the cover, put in your negatives strip (or 4 slides in the slide tray), close the cover and put the tray in the slot on the side of the converter.  The trays have guides that make it easy to load them correctly.

negative tray

slide tray

And although most people probably don’t have 3D slides, I was able to load them in by putting two side by side and just printing one of each.

The trays hold several negatives/slides at a time and you manually click the tray through the converter one at a time to capture each picture. It is easy though and not really any more time consuming than anything else.  Actually, it is quicker than trying to scan pictures in and save them, at least if you are using a regular scanner.

And as an aside:

I’m sure the dedicated photo scanners are quicker and someday I’d like to get one, especially if you could load in several photos at a time and it would run them in and scan them automatically. The Pandigital SCN02 PhotoLink One Touch Scanner w/Memory Card for $86 on Amazon looks interesting and got very good reviews.  But that is for another day.  It’s hard to justify spending money for that when I can do it myself with what I have.  But the negative and slide converter is something I was unable to do until now.

So back to the topic of this post …

With the software you can capture the pictures, view them, rotate the image,  change to mirror image (if the negative or slide was reversed) and save them in a bunch instead of one by one (saving you time by not having to wait for each one to be saved which is somewhat slow). The software is extremely intuitive and easy to use.  It has very limited functionality, but you can do all the editing you want to the captured pictures after you have saved them by using any other editing program. The filmscan software is also very slow so you have to have patience.

Filmscan.exe

a baby picture of mehang-gliding

Here are some of the pictures I captured (I just did a couple of each type so these are not by any means the best of the captures).  The first one is from a 3D slide of me as a baby. Thennext one is a slide taken about 1980 when we went hang-gliding.

This picture is me when I was a baby, about 1956. It was copied from a negative.  None of these captures were edited (except for cropping my baby picture) so this is how they came out.  The negatives and slides have been thrown in boxes, kept in sandwich bags and just generally not taken care of. The negatives that were more recent looked better, like the more recent slides (by more recent, I mean the ones taken around 1980).

There is also photo editing software you can buy that will go a long way towards cleaning up the pictures after they are scanned. And it is just that easy.

Keep your memories and take care,

~Susan Mellott

I outgrew my free wordpress.com blog so I decided to go with a custom self-hosted wordpress.org blog. I wrote a blog post at the time about making this decision. It reads a little strangely since it was originally written on my free wordpress blog allthingsweb20.wordpress.com.  I wanted to have more control over my blog and blog plug-ins, etc.

This post deals primarily with pointing your blog to either a domain name you purchased or a domain (or sub-domain) on your self-hosted site. You would still be using your original blog and it would still be on wordpress.com, but you could get it using your own domain name, like clear.bluedei.com instead of allthingsweb20.wordpress.com.

But WordPress.com doesn’t make it easy to understand all the nuances of redirecting. Here is a description from their blog. Ok, now do you understand? I don’t and I had no trouble whatsoever redirecting my google blogger blog. Also, there is conflicting information on different support pages.

In addition, they charge you to be able to redirect your blog. You can see the charges for this (and other upgrades) in the screen print below.

Per wordpress.com:

“You can map a subdomain to your WordPress.com blog for 9.97 credits ($9.97) per year. This is ideal for web administrators who already have a functioning website at a primary domain, example.com, and wish to use blog.example.com as the official domain/URL for their WordPress.com-powered blog. Note that you cannot map the “www” subdomain because WordPress.com removes the “www” from all URLs.”

Here is their support page for domain mapping, either through them or using your own domain name.  It seems pretty straightforward to follow their instructions for buying a domain name through them. If you buy the domain name from them and have them map your wordpress.com blog to that domain name,you should be able to follow these instructions and as long as you pay them $14.97 a year ($5.00 for registering a domain name and $9.97 to point your blog to the new name) , you should be good to go. You don’t have to worry about doing anything else in this post. But read the next couple of paragraphs before you decide on this.

For managing your domain that you created through them they offer this support page.  It’s confusing but if you bought through them, you may want to read it. One caveat with going this route is the statement I found in their documentation (although for the life of me I cannot find it now, I did not save the site I pasted it from and finding anything in wordpress.com support/forums/etc. is practically impossible). This is what it said about registering through them:

“You will be able to use any domain that you already control; you don’t have to register with us. Many people will be happier with other registrars because they offer fine DNS control. If you register a new domain with us, your domain will be usable for your blog only. You will be able to transfer your domain to another registrar, though not in the initial release. ”

I don’t like the sound of “your domain will be usable for your blog only”.  Maybe I’m misunderstanding it but if I paid for and registered a domain through them, I’d want to use it for whatever I wanted (like point it to another website or use it for my blogger blog instead or whatever). You also get limited functionality and I would hate to have to go through wordpress.com’s support to get answersto anything or any kind of support for my new domain.

So unless you really want a plug and play way to purchase a domain name and point your blog to it, I would not recommend buying a domain through them. You will get much better support and functionality by using a domain name registrar such as GoDaddy and for the same price or cheaper. But if you do decide to buy your domain name and have your blog redirected by them, following the relatively simple directions they provide, you don’t have to worry about doing anything else in this post.

But assuming you prefer to buy your own domain name through a different domain name registrar, you have a bit more set up to do.

After you have purchased your domain name (godaddy.com is as good as anywhere to do this)  you need to point the new domain name nameservers to wordpress.com.

There are different ways to add the nameservers depending on what registrar you are using.  Regardless, they will all use the nameservers below (step 6). You can also contact your domain name registrar or hosting service and have them set them for you.  The domain hosting service we use, inmotionhosting.com, does not allow us to change nameservers, CNAME records, etc on our own so we have to contact them and ask them to do it. Not ideal, but at least they are very responsive about making changes that you ask of them.

Here is how you would set the nameservers correctly for your GoDaddy.com domain name to point your wordpress.com blog to the new name:

NOTE: You can set nameservers for your Domain on the Product Dashboard, or the Domain Manager. To set nameservers on the Dashboard log in to your Account Manager, and select the Domains tab. Click the Domain you want to set nameservers for, and then click Nameservers.

To Set the Nameservers for Your Domain

1. Log in to your Account Manager.
2. In the My Products section, select Domain Manager.
3. Use the checkbox(es) to select the domain name(s) you want to modify.
4. Click Nameservers.
5. Select the following:

   I want to park my domains

   Specifies you want to park your domain on our parked servers. We automatically park your new domain registrations. The parked page displays when someone opens your domain from a Web browser.

   I want to forward my domains

   Specifies you want to forward this domain to another URL. For more information about forwarding domains, see Forwarding or Masking Your Domain .

   I have a hosting account with these domains

   Specifies your domain is hosted with us and you want to use our nameservers.

   I host my domains with another provider

   Specifies your domain is hosted with another company, and allows you to enter the company’s nameservers.

6. If you selected I host my domains with another provider, enter your nameservers. You must enter at least two nameservers for your domain.

NOTE: remove any existing name servers and add these:

NS1.WORDPRESS.COM
NS2.WORDPRESS.COM
NS3.WORDPRESS.COM

Click OK.

If you are pointing your blog to a subdomain (like clear.bluedei.com) instead of the domain (bluedei.com), you’ll need to add a CNAME record through your domain management on your host (if available). We are not allowed to add / change CNAME records ourselves through our host provider, inmotionhosting.com, so I contacted their support and asked them to do it for me.

The first wordpress.com support page that I went to said “Add a CNAME record through the registrar where you purchased your domain or through your DNS provider. You should NOT change your Name Server information if you wish to only map a subdomain. The CNAME should look something like the following (please note the fullstop character at the end of each domain name): subdomain.yourdomain.com. IN CNAME yourblog.wordpress.com”

So my CNAME record according to this would be “clear.bluedei.com. IN CNAME allthingsweb20.wordpress.com”.  But when I tried that and then tried to add that domain name in wordpress.com, I got the following error:

It was telling me that the correct syntax for the CNAME record was “clear 14400 IN CNAME allthingsweb20.wordpress.com”

So I had InmotionHosting set up this CNAME record “clear 14400 IN CNAME allthingsweb20.wordpress.com”

Now you need to point your wordpress.com blog to your new domain name.

1. After the name server change takes effect, go to Settings -> Domains in your blog’s dashboard, enter the domain into the form at the top of the page, and click the Add domain to blog button. If the name servers are verified, you will be prompted to purchase the required credits via PayPal and complete the upgrade/mapping process.
   

NOTE: you will know if it is not set up right because you’ll get an error when trying to add the domain name to your blog.

1. After you have made your purchase, go back to the Settings -> Domains page, select the radio button next to the domain you just mapped to your blog, and click the Update Primary Domain button.
2. 

Now when you type in your new domain (or subdomain) URL, you will see your original wordpress.com blog.

12/17/2009 And if you want to read an interesting take on this blog post, called “How to Airt your Blog to a different URL Portion 2: Wordpress.” and clearly translated by Bigfoot (Bigfoot say “I not dead!”), follow the link. Sometimes I wonder…

Round and round. Take care,

~Susan Mellott

This is the first in a 4 part series of blog posts about redirecting your blog to point to another URL.

In this post,  I cover how to set up your google blog so that someone can type in your custom domain name (mine is blog.bluedei.com)  and it shows your Google Blogger blog (mine is bluedei.blogspot.com). In other words, if you had a google blog already and you bought a domain name of your own and want to use it instead, this is how you would do it.

In Part 2  I will show you how to point your blog in Wordpress.com to another URL and you will see that it is not at all as easy or intuitive and it is also not free like blogger. If you want to redirect in wordpress.com you have to pay for it.

And in Part 3, I will explain how to set up an existing wordpress.com blog to point not only to a new URL, but to one that also has a wordpress blog that replaces the wordpress.com blog (and has been loaded with the same blog posts as on the old blog). This is very poorly covered in the wordpress.com documentation.

Part 4 covers how to redirect a self-hosted wordpress blog on a subdomain to another URL.  My husband did this with his deep.bluedei.com blog. He purchased TSCRobinson.com from godaddy and redirected his blog to this URL.

Intro:

I am using a subdomain blog.bluedei.com for this since we have the ability to create subdomains (we have a web host). I could also have just used bluedei.com but we have several blogs (such as my husband’s blog deep.bluedei.com , his fun blog drawn.bluedei.com and my blog clear.bluedei.com) so we use different subdomains.

If you just want to point to your own domain name (like my husband also uses tscrobinson.com) and you don’t have a hosting service, you can buy the name/URL, you don’t need a hosting service. See step 1 for the best way to do this.

When I first decided to write a blog, I knew I wanted to go with either Google Blogger or Wordpress.com (both free), but I didn’t know which one had the best features, etc. So I set up a blog on on both Blogger and Wordpress.com and worked with both of them to see what they had to offer. And after working with both of them, I realized that I may want to get my own domain and use self-hosted Wordpress from Wordpress.org instead since it offers more advanced features and gave me more things to play with and learn. So after studying these 3 choices, I decided on my own self-hosted Wordpress blog.

But in the process, I ended up with duplicate blogs in different places. And since I had my own URL, I wanted to figure out how to allow someone to use my new domain name ( blog.bluedei.com) and point to an existing blog and in this case, I was testing my Google Blog bluedei.blogger.com.

Redirecting a Google Blogspot / Blogger Blog to a custom domain:

Basically, there are only 2 main things you will need to do to redirect a Google Blog. You need to create a CNAME record on your own host server domain (and possibly A records) in order to point your Google Blogger blog to your new domain (or in this case, subdomain, the domain name is just bluedei.com) and you will need to tell Google Blogger the new URL ( e.g. blog.bluedei.com).

1. Create a CNAME record (and possibly A records) on host server domain

TIP: If you also need to buy your new URL, do it when you set up your Blogger (step 2) and you can skip all this setup and go directly to step 2. It costs essentially the same as any other ($10/year) and they will automatically take care of setting the CNAME, etc. They use godaddy.com, which is what most people use anyway.  If you do this, you can skip the CNAME setup instructions and go directly to step #2 since you will have them set the CNAME  (and A records) for you at the time you set up Blogger to point to the new URL.

“The easiest way to register a domain is to buy your domain directly through Blogger. If you go this route, we’ll automatically configure all of your relevant DNS settings and attach your new domain to your existing blog immediately.”

Here is a link to blogger help that is specific for several of the common registrars (like godaddy.com etc)

TIP: If you have used the URL to point elsewhere in the past, be sure to delete (or have deleted) any existing CNAME entries for the URL you want to set up.

If you can create your own CNAME record and have your host name server you would follow the directions here that google blogger says (or give them this information and ask your host support to do it):

“# Log in to your account on your hosting service’s website, and go to the DNS management page. Since CNAME records are special Domain Name Service (DNS) records, they may be in sections such as DNS Management or Name Server Management. It’s possible that you will have to enable advanced settings to create a CNAME record.# Use the information in the following table when you create your CNAME record.
If your service requires you to enter server information directly into the DNS tables, the entry below needs to have a type CNAME associated with them.

Host Name/Alias  Value/Destination
www                        ghs.google.com

* This is the part of your website?s address that you designated. For instance, if you chose www.mydomain.com as the address, www is the host name.”

I was not able to edit my own CNAME records so I just contacted my  inmotionhosting.com support and they set it up for me.  I told them to set the CNAME for blog.bluedei.com to ghs.google.com (specifically, “blog.bluedei.com IN CNAME ghs.google.com).

If you just have the URL, you would contact the company (i.e. we used godaddy.com) to set up a CNAME.

Additionally, if you are using a “naked domain” (like bluedei.com instead of a subdomain like blog.bluedei.com), you need to create the following “A” name records so you can use www.bluedei.com as well as just bluedei.com.

• Create ‘A’ NAME records for your naked domain (blog.com)

Creating A records for your naked domain is important as it allows Google to redirect people who use in your naked domain name (blog.com) to your blog page (www.example.com). If you do not do this, visitors who leave off the www will see an error page.

There are four separate A records you will create, and can be done from the same control panel you accessed your CNAME records. Simply point your naked domain (example.com, without the ‘www’) to each of the following IP addresses:

216.239.32.21

216.239.34.21

216.239.36.21

216.239.38.21

2. Setting Google Blogger to point to your new URL

Go to the Settings tab and then pick the Publishing tab. At the top where it says “Publish on blogspot” you will see Switch to custom domain. Click on the custom link to tell Google you will be wanting to redirect your blog. The “custom” will change to “blogspot.com”

TIP: At any time, you can switch back to your free google blog by clicking on blogspot.com which will direct it back to your free Google blog.

TIP: This is when/where you buy your new URL if you need one. Click on the  Need a domain? “Buy one now” under advanced settings.Now we need to tell Blogger the new URL that we want to use. We do this by going to the next section on the page (Advanced Settings: Your Domain) and entering the domain (or subdomain) that want to redirect to. In my case, I am using blog.bluedei.com.

You can also use a Missing files host by clicking on “Yes”. If you specify a missing files host, Blogger will look there if it cannot find a specified file on your regular domain. Learn more about missing files hosts.. Your missing files host must be a subdomain in the same domain as your blog. I don’t use this function at this time.

Per Google: “The most common use for this feature is when you have a number of images or other files stored on your own FTP server and then you move them to another server. Normally, this would break all the links to these files that are in your blog posts. However, if you use this feature then the broken links will all be redirected to the new location. (Assuming, of course, that the files all keep the same names and locations that they had on the original server.)

This situation may arise if you originally published your blog via FTP and then switched to using custom domain publishing. Images originally posted to your server do not get transferred over to Blogger when you do this, so you may want to move them all to a server such as images.yourdomain.com and use that as your missing files host.”

Now save your settings and that is it! You should now be able to key in your custom URL (mine is blog.bluedei.com) and it should pull up your existing Google blog. If this is all too confusing still, here is a search that pulls up blogger help pages about this.

It really is pretty easy and I was impressed with Google Blogger’s implementation.
Always move in a new direction!

~Susan Mellott

• Wow! And shows lots more stuff! RT @blackfriday Walmart Black Friday ad leak shows $78 Magnavox blu-ray player. http://bit.ly/2FwQv8 #
• The Reality of a Times Bestseller http://znqte.th8.us #
• @natrobinson nominated! in reply to natrobinson #
• RT @ScepticGeek Timeless vs Real Time http://bit.ly/35nYCx #
• today only … you … can … get … SHATNERQUAKE … forfree! http://bit.ly/4l1T2o #
• RT @tscrobinson My book has a web page. http://www.neal-schuman.com… #
• RT @DownloadSquad Microsoft Store employees perform dance of the cringe (via @engadget) http://tinyurl.com/ygmfder #
• I follow/like @tfollowers, but I went to their profile, clicked on their website and got rickrolled to a site I cannot exit from. Not good. #
• OK, I COULD exit from @tfollowers website. I was hesitant to click OK on the “oh come on, don’t leave, buy something!” popup. seemed spammy #
• RT @blackfriday CNN looks at Walmart’s tv deals, which include a 32-inch Emerson LCD 720p HDTV for $248 http://bit.ly/2qTLfE #
• wootoff! #
• RT @MeetingBoy In business U can go far with nothing more than positive attitude & a cmd of industry jargon. A little too far if you ask me. #
• reading from @time http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1934027_1934003_1933981,00.html handymans xray vision #
• from @time http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1934027_1934003_1933958,00.html Solar shingles. Cool! #
• uploading pics from my camera and getting ready to install a plug-in to my blog to auto-post to twitter b4 I write my next blog post. #
• also waiting for Sean to call – he is bringing home King Gyros and I am hungry! He doing some jamming and I’m sure having fun! #
• “Video: Kitteh Climbs Policeman” – http://twlol.com/tw/?v1-212029 #lol #ichc #
• Yes Virginia, There IS a Clear Blue Dei blog! Stay Tuned! – http://shar.es/az90D #
• test tweet from my blog widget #
• 3rd day of sinus unhappiness due to the weather. It is better though, I don’t have a pounding headache! #
• #RioVegas to win #
• RT @apodixis I don’t like to think of it as getting older. I prefer to think of it as “leveling up.” #
• Bought Samsung HE front-loading washer and dryer set from Lowe’s for $100 cheaper than Sears on Black Friday! and no getting up 2am! #
• @mekiser the vitamin D supplement is something almost everyone needs according to my Dr. She tested me and I was really low and that helps. #
• @mekiser Your running outside really helps to get Vit D (from the sun). I’m an “inside Susie” :^) so the lowest normal was 24 & I was 12. #
• @mekiser I take the vit D gel caps. I’m curious what my Vit D is. IDK if they tested it again this last time since my thyroid was so bad in reply to mekiser #
• @mekiser I haven’t had a problem with calcium so far I don’t think. I’m lucky at least I have dense, strong bones. #
• #CSI used twitter to help solve it’s case! #
• I want them all!!! Oddball gifts for techies – Tech and gadgets- msnbc.com – http://shar.es/aib4b #
• #followfriday #ff @loadedsanta because he sounds more like I think Santa is really like #
• #followfriday @textfiles for his great work in preserving computer history and for voicing @sockington @sockelganger @pennycat #
• Allen County Public Library @acpl one of America’s Star Libraries! http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6705856.html?nid=3281 #
• @awelfle http://twitpic.com/psg0d – You two look like twins! #
• I find #facebook extremely counter-intuitive and frustrating. Good idea, poor implementation. & acts up a lot unless it supposed to do that. #
• Chill, #facebook! I’m trying to use you, quit pushing all this crap on me. #
• @emmaayres My sis just told abt greyhound racetrack that is closing & the dogs will be killed if they can’t find a home. Getting info now. in reply to emmaayres #
• How I see my job: blog, twitter, FB, inform, learn. How Sean sees it: clean house. I like my def better. still, the house needs cleaned. #
• BTW, my last tweet was intended for humorous porpoises only. :^) #
• #followfriday @ActuallyNPH is Neil Patrick Harris and he is a pretty funny, interesting guy, down to earth. real. #
• Just because it’s on Twitter, it (still) isn’t true – Te… http://bit.ly/bV6SC/ #
• @shifted “love @dell’s in-home service!” I totally agree! I just had the motherboard and memory replaced a couple wks ago, no problems. in reply to shifted #
• B&N Nook sells out, now too late for holiday orders. via Yahoo! Tech news #
• #RioVegas for the win #
• @ellyssa Thanks for all your tweets, I always enjoy them and find lots of interesting information from them. I’m glad I followed you. in reply to ellyssa #
• What happened to Second Life? BBC news: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/8367957.stm — Who didn’t know that would happen? #
• What happened to Second Life? http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/… — Who didn’t know that would happen? Oops! didn’t attrib — via @mstephens7 #
• @mekiser way to run! #
• before he was @libraryman http://www.flickr.com/photos/mellottrobinson/4123346704/in/set-72157622725637533/ #
• @textfiles darn, I missed Scottathon II. I completely forgot… Congrats on reaching your goal! in reply to textfiles #
• RT @RatRaceTrap “A year from now you may wish you had started today.” –Karen Lamb #rq #
• Happy 70th birthday Jessamyn’s dad @twests! #
• RT @rob_sheridan: Writer Roger Avary (@AVARY) is serving time in prison. He’s #34 and he’s documenting it via Twitter. Fascinating to follow #
• RT @neilhimself Some people are asking about why @AVARY is in jail for a year: http://bit.ly/88IvpK is the Huffington Post article. #
• @onWave thanks for the BF spreadsheet! in reply to onWave #

Powered by Twitter Tools

Believe it or not, Starbucks is selling holiday cookies with a math theme.
Check out the “Pi”ler bear!

~Susan Mellott