All wore out

I have been creating blogs for each of the men so they can write their travel memoirs and I made each of them a Picasa account and set up slideshows on their blogs for their photos.

I have created a special account for the laptop using the new offline gmail, that came out a couple of days ago. This is so we can write our emails while offline and then as soon as we are online again gmail sends it on its way.

I had a bit of a hassle with offline gmail but I think I have it beat now. I put filters on all the incoming mail so the friend's mail that is forwarded from his acccount is red, mine that comes from the blog and other places as Vic Grace is green and our family mail is blue. The day before we leave I will tell each of the mail accounts to delete or archive the mail once it is forwarded to the laptop.

On top of that my desktop computer needs a new virus checker and I was in the process of downloading that when the power went out for four hours. So I am still hassling with that a bit as I could not get the activation key. I think I will be able to solve that tomorrow.

AND I have been answering all the plaintive calls from our friend on how do I do this or that on his computer along with hubby in the armchair behind me uttering similar requests.

No wonder I went to bed last night with a bad headache.

Time to learn Globish and communicate worldwide

Globish allows you to communicate in English using only 1500 words and employs simple, but standard grammatical structure. One need only learn the pronunciation and spelling for 1500 words. Globish provides a tool for having a conversation anywhere in the world. It is a new form of English that is developing around the world, used by people for whom it is their second language.
Users must avoid humour, metaphor, abbreviation and anything else that can cause cross-cultural confusion and Globish is spoken slowly and in short sentences.

Don’t say Globish is the gateway to international conversation

Do say Globish helps you to talk to people from other countries

Experiments are already being held in Indian classrooms teaching Grade 3 children this international language. Denmark's business community is having discussions on the use of Globish for international trade. France has been resisting but its chief education minister sees the value of everyone being able to communicate in a lingua franca as Latin was for centuries.
The English Language can be extremely complicated if an English speaker or writer wants to show off all of its possibilities in words and structure to other English speakers. However, the form of English called Globish gives us a simpler, more universal tool to  communicate with more than 5 times as many people.
The simple goal of Globish is to reach only a common ground where everyone understands everyone else, everywhere in the world. It is estimated that within 20 years 76% of trade will be done in English.
How to talk the talk

Use only words in the Globish glossary
Keep sentences short
Repeat yourself
Avoid metaphors and colourful expressions
Avoid negative questions
Avoid all humour 
Avoid acronyms
Use gestures and visual aids


Available soon dictionaries and online lessons.
Globish

Darn, Dash and D....t I can't get it to work

I put Skype on the laptop but I just can't get it to work. I have tried everything I know to set the audio so I can hear the other party but am unable to do so. I thought it would be useful to have on there for the Mexico trip. Maybe I will go looking for other software for the laptop. I am planning to email to keep in touch most of the time but thought it would be a good idea to be able to phone.

Besides it is the principle of the matter. I can't get it to work and I will bully and worry at it until I do, that is the way I am. Drives my husband crazy as he hears me muttering and complaining to myself and flouncing around in a snit. I just hate it when something doesn't work.

You'd think at my age I would be all peace and serenity wouldn't you, don't believe it for a minute.

Heads or Tails - Loud

Skittles started a meme called Heads or Tails and this week the topic is Loud which can be interpreted however one wishes.

How would you like it if you were never allowed to be LOUD again.

I have just finished a book which made several references to the Roman Catholic order of the Convent of Cistercians of the Strict Observance. In the book the nuns were never allowed to speak to each other but used hand signals to communicate. In fact they were not permitted to look at each other but to keep their eyes downcast and friendships were not permitted. The convent was completely enclosed with windows barred and placed high so one could not look outside. It sounded terrible to me but I researched it and came up with a little information.

Cistercians Sisters of the Strict Observance Rules

• Food consists of bread, vegetables, and fruits. Milk and cheese may also be given except in Advent, Lent, and  Fridays.
• Meat, fish, and eggs are forbidden at all times, except to the sick.
• All sleep in a common dormitory, the beds being divided from each other only by a partition and curtain, the bed to consist of mattress and pillow stuffed with straw, and sufficient covering. The sisters are obliged to sleep in their regular clothing; which consists of ordinary underwear, a habit of white, and a scapular of black wool, with a leathern cincture; the cowl, of the same material as the habit, is worn over all.
• Enclosure, according to canon law, is perpetual in all houses. It is never allowed for the religious to speak amongst themselves, though the one in charge of a work or employment may give necessary directions; and all have the right of conversing with the superiors at any time except during the night hours, called the "great silence".
• It would be a place where they would eat only the simplest, harshest food; would abstain totally from meat. There would be time for both manual labour and spiritual reading. Above all, it would be a place of silence where they could pursue contemplation.

Trappists is the popular name for members of the Roman Catholic order of Cistercians of the Strict Observance, which traces its beginnings back to 1664 at the monastery of La Trappe  in France. The Trappists stress the penitential aspect of monasticism - little food, no meat, hard manual labour, and strict silence.

In the mid 20th century the Trappists increased in membership, particularly in the United States.  The Trappist monks and nuns, who wear a white habit with black scapular, now have about 70 abbeys worldwide.

Have you noticed food prices creeping up?

Image via WikipediaCanadian food prices have persistently escalated and are predicted to remain costlier in the coming months.

The cost of food rose 7.3% in 2008, inching up 0.3% in December for a fourteenth straight month of increase, Statistics Canada figures showed Friday. Marking the sharpest increase was the cost of fresh vegetables, which were 26.9% higher than in December last year. Other notable increases included a 18.9% rise in fruit prices, a 12.4% increase in bakery product prices, a 6% rise in the cost of dairy products and a 5.5% increase in meat prices.
Alia McMullen, Financial Post  Published: Friday, January 23, 2009

A little humour to lighten your day

 Read the whole article it is quite amusing about strange place names in Britain.

No Snickering - That Road Sign Means Something Else - NYTimes.com

Camera Critters

It has been a long time since I had any critters to share.
This went on for about 2 miles (4km) before they moved off the road. They wouldn't let us pass.

Visit Camera Critters and see who else has photos to share

Study in ice

Across frozen Babine Lake- part of the Bulkeley Mountain Range 

The  lake contains large rainbow trout to 12+ lbs., cutthroat to 2-1/2 lbs. and Lake Char that are capable of reaching 35 lbs. Also the legend of Babalina a great monster living somewhere in the depths.

This lake is 200 km (124 miles) long and about 200 metres (600 feet) deep and the fishing is fabulous in certain areas. One of the reasons for such great fishing is the Sockeye salmon which return by the tens of thousands come home in Fall to spawn in the creeks that feed into Babine Lake.

There have been several UFO sightings in the last few years situated over the island on the left.

GOLD SAUCER ABOVE CANADIAN COPPER MINE
The witness was driving with his partner on October 22, 2002, when they observed a large, glowing, orange-gold saucer-shaped object hovering right over the top of the old Bell Copper Mine, which is located on an island in Babine Lake.

"The witnesses pulled over and watched the object hover low to the ground, then rise up very slowly, come to a complete stop, move sideways, then stop and descend again. The lights' intensity grew as the witnesses watched, and the object moved out over the lake and stopped for a few seconds, then went back to hover over the top of the mine once again.

"The witnesses said the ground beneath and around the object was lit up for a considerable distance, and the brightness of the craft caused it to cast a strong reflection on the lake. The men watched for about seven minutes, until it rose up and departed slowly, heading north, maintaining a low altitude until it was out of their sight."

"The craft was sitting over the closed  Bell Copper Mine, where numerous fossils have been found, including mammoth bones."  Ufology Resource Centre

This is the same area where the new gold and copper mine is scheduled to open in 2011, construction beginning this year.

My character look alike

JMB had this on her blog so did it for fun. Apparently Harry Potter and I have similar traits. He may be a young wizard but I am definitely in the old witch category!

Gifted and studious, you willingly approach the perils ahead with the help of your talents and friends.
I don't go looking for trouble. Trouble usually finds me.

Sunny banks

Our friend who is coming to Mexico with us sent this photo he took this morning. It shows the large cloud that has been over the village with the distant bank of the lake in golden sunshine. A nice shot I thought. Sort of hopeful. The cloud is in the forefront of the picture obscuring the mountains behind. It is a huge cloud probably several miles wide and a hundred miles long, covering the lake but when you get away from the lake the sun is shining every where else than here in the village. Actually we did get a glimmer of sun for a couple of hours this afternoon maybe the cloud has lifted and tomorrow will be nice. Hopeful thought.

Heads or Tails - All (Should have been Feat or Feet but my mistake)

Skittles started a meme some time ago called Heads or Tails this week the theme is ALL. I had no idea what I was going to do but I finally had a brain wave.

As I mentioned earlier this week I was trying out different Note taking applications as Google Notebook is closing down and I had ALL my bookmarks and notes in there. I have tried several others and the hands down winner is Evernote.

Evernote gives you a place online to store your notes but the most functionality comes if you download their free application onto your computer. This allows you access to ALL your notes even if you are not on the Internet. I downloaded it on both the desktop and the laptop. Now if I make a note in one it is synchronized on the web and on the other computer plus I can find it on Windows, or Mac, Firefox or any other browser.

The greatest thing is the search capability which will find any and ALL references to a word in your notes. For example I wanted to play some radio on my desktop today as we do not get good reception out here. So I just typed music and a link I had saved ages ago popped up to Musicovery which is a great place to listen to music of ALL types, styles and eras.

But I digress, Evernote lets you import scans and photographs also. I had some notes on the back cover of last year's day timer about women's heart attacks so I photographed it and put in Evernote. So here you see my scrawl saved for posterity.

The problem with this is reading my own writing of course.

You can use your phone, record audio take photos and send yourself reminder emails. For those who need to keep a record or receipt, or perhaps a business card a quick photo of them will put them on your Evernote, or maybe you would like to take a photo of a restaurant menu for future reference. I have put a copy of my prescriptions in there and ALL contacts I really want to keep in case I lose my address book or cannot load the laptop onto the internet to check my Gmail contact list. I had to transfer ALL my information from Google Notebooks so I selected each notebook I had created and sent a copy to Google Docs and then clipped it to Evernote so I have them ALL. There really wasn't that much rush as Google is not closing it down right away but I did not want to leave it until I came back from Mexico and find them ALL gone.

I tried to see if my Bible program could be used with it. I highlighted a verse copied it into Evernote with a note and tagged it with the book and topic, so that might prove useful. I think there are endless uses for this program.

So you see this post did turn out to be about ALL the stuff I have been doing on the Internet lately.

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Heads or Tails - All

Skittles started a meme a while back called Heads or Tails this week the subject to write about is ALL or AL. Since I couldn't think of anything to write and I wanted to try out a new Firefox extension called Fireshot I did this. ( I did this before the one about Evernote and it self published so you got two alls this week)

Inauguration

I was planning to watch Obama's inauguration but my TV satellite dish cable was damaged due to ice falling off the roof but I have found a solution. A complete guide to all the events.

So hope that is helpful to someone else also. ReadWriteWeb where I found this information, or at least it downloaded its feed into my Google Reader is one of my favoured sites for keeping in touch with what is new and cool.

I have been busy the last few days finding a new note taking vehicle. I was chagrined, to say the least, that Google is going to fade out Google Notebook, where I have extensive bookmarks and notes. So I have been trying out several others. Clipmarks, Ubernote, Evernotes to name a few. At least Ubernotes lets me import my notebooks from Google and is relatively simple to use. Evernote is probably more useful in the long run but since it only allows 40MB a month free might limit some although it is only $5 a month for unlimited usage. I have tried Clipmarks before and never got into it.

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All things gray

There has been an enormous gray cloud over the village for several days. Because we live next to a huge lake, when it is cold but not cold enough, we get deep cloud as the lake water and the air differs in temperature. We have had a respite from the extreme cold the last little while and therefore we are surrounded in gray. Can't have it all ways it seems, although if you drive out of the village you suddenly come into bright sunshine and on the other side of the lake you can see the sun shining on the opposite bank. It is like we are in perpetual dusk. I am sure looking forward to the bright sunshine of Mexico.

I have been fighting winter depression a bit lately. I thought I was doing okay until hubby mentioned that he could see that I was a bit depressed. I wonder what it is he senses when I feel this way because I think I am functioning as normal.

Blogger Toolbox: 100+ Tools and Themes

Blogger Toolbox: 100+ Tools and Themes

Came across this morning in my mail box. I haven't had time to look at it all but thought some of you might like to peruse some of these resources.

Depressing bedside manner

I went to the doctor today, just to get prescriptions so I have enough medication for our trip to Mexico and since my doctor was away there was another doctor filling in. He was pleasant enough but he certainly was a harbinger of woe.

1. He told me that although my diabetic control of blood glucose was excellent I would inevitably end up on insulin.
2. He suggested that I go on medication for the diabetes and then I can eat anything.
3. That I would likely have heart, kidney or eye problems down the line.
4. That although my blood pressure is like a teenagers don't expect that to last.
5. The one good thing he had to say was my allergies would probably go away while in Mexico.

My own doctor tells me that if I keep up the good work I will probably live to be a hundred. That is a message I would rather hear and is the encouragement I need to keep watching what I eat and how much exercise I get.

Fortunately this other doctor didn't make me depressed just mad. How many patients, who are not as feisty as I am, has he depressed into giving up the fight against what afflicts them.

Heads or Tails - Bottle

Image via WikipediaSkittles started a meme some time ago called Heads or Tails, this week our writing prompt is Bottle.

My husband was born in Cheshire England but his accent is closer to a Scouse from Merseyside, Liverpool, England. His accent is highly distinctive. A person from Liverpool is called a Liverpudlian, but are more often described as Scousers and are noted for the fast, highly accented manner of speech, with a range of rising and falling tone.


There are several words that irritate me when he says them. Bottle is one of them. When he says it the tt's are completely absent so it is bo'le. Coming from my background that grates on the ear somewhat. Also the letter H is always said as haich rather that aich and any sentence that includes the phrase 'isn't there' comes out as 'isn't thee'.

The word Scouse was originally a variation of "lobscouse", the name of a dish of lamb stew mixed with hardtack eaten by sailors.  The dish was traditionally the fare of the poor people, using the cheapest cuts of meat available. 

So he may say "Our Vic isn't thee a bo'le of wine with our scouse".

We are TV-less

Last night a large chunk of snow and ice fell off the roof and sliced through the cable from the TV satellite dish. I was going to cancel it anyway at the end of them month preparatory for our time away in Mexico so now it is canceled for good until we can get a repair man out.

We may not resume it when we get back, after all we only seem to watch the news and the odd show. Probably paying over $600 a year just so we can know about the misery going on in the world does not make a lot of sense. I enjoy the occasional movie and I did put the TV on for company when hubby was away visiting his sister for two weeks but apart from that it is not on much, and now hubby has the laptop to play with it is on even less.

Ultimate List of Free Windows Software from Microsoft

Came across this on my Internet travels. Might be useful stuff there for someone.
Ultimate List of Free Windows Software from Microsoft - Windows Live

Trying to learn to walk a tightrope

As some of you may remember I was diagnosed with Diabetes II last May. Although I was pretty upset at the time I was not overly surprised as my father developed it in later years and I have always been quite sensitive to carbohydrates, my ankles swelling if I had too much bread or cake for example. About 30 years ago I cut my intake of grains down considerably because of that problem. Because I have always watched my carbohydrate intake I have none of the health problems associated with diabetes but I have to keep my blood sugars under control all the time. Most of the time I do fine but I do have some issues with the morning reading. I control the diabetes by diet alone and am not on any medication.

Right now I am trying to plan what I can eat while on the road to Mexico. We will probably have breakfast and then get on the road each day. My husband and his buddy can then go until supper time with nothing except a cup of coffee. Not that that is a good routine but they are not willing to change it. I cannot, I must have regular meals, as that is my medicine, and we don't want to stop all the time so I am planning what I can have on hand in the car that will not upset the blood glucose apple cart. I will have to insist they take time for exercise, at least for me, as sitting for hours on end is not good either, and since they are like a couple of camels, visiting the bathroom infrequently, I will have to call a halt every so often regardless. They were trying to figure out how far we could get per day factoring my bathroom breaks, can you believe it!

I found that, over Christmas, relaxing my vigilance even a tiny bit caused my blood glucose to go up and it took a while to bring it back to normal. Especially the morning reading. So I don't want to allow the trip to Mexico to screw things up. Diabetes can set you up for blindness, kidney failure, loss of limb and heart problems just to name a few horrors so it is nothing to mess with.

Diabetes is a very individual disease, what works for one does not work for another, what raises my blood glucose may not raise yours, so there is a lot of experimentation to find what works for you as an individual and no one else can do that for you. You are on your own as your doctor and nutritionist can only give you a guideline but it is up to you to find out what works. Thank goodness for the Internet because there is a wealth of information to be found.

I have tried the very low carb approach and while it was wonderful for the blood glucose readings it did not suit me personally. I find the more balanced approach of the Zone diet works well. This program suggest taking your carbs mostly from fruit and veg and limiting grains which suits me but I find it a bit complicated to work with. The hardest thing for me is to drink a lot, I am rarely thirsty but if one isn't getting bulk from grains you need the lubrication of lots of water to keep things going smoothly.

Anyway that is where my head has been for the last few days. I think I have a plan now and I typed it up on my desktop computer and transferred the notes to the laptop with my neat little USB gadget, so handy.

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Blogging pat on the back

This was in my email box this morning. I will have to go check them out now won't I? Maybe you got one too.

Dear Vic,

Our editors recently reviewed your blog and have given it a 7.0 score out of (10) in the Personal Blogs category of Blogged.com.
This is quite an achievement!

http://www.blogged.com/directory/personal-blogs

We evaluated your blog based on the following criteria: Frequency of Updates, Relevance of Content, Site Design, and Writing Style.
After carefully reviewing each of these criteria, your site was given its 7.0 score.

We’ve also created Blogged.com score badges with your score prominently displayed. Simply visit your website’s summary page on Blogged.com:

Just one problem though they have the old wordpress blog not this one.

Fruit ripening dates

 

I found this little chart in a local newspaper on our travels over Christmas and thought it might be useful for someone, especially those who like to can.

Early Fruits		Apples
Strawberries	June 20-July 10	Transparent	July 15
Raspberries	July 10-July 31	Wealthy	August 15
Sweet Cherries	July 20-August 7	Sunrise	August 20
Lapin Cherries	August  5-August 20	Gravenstein	August 25
Pie Cherries	July 23-July 30	Tydeman	September 1
Soft Fruits		Gala	September 7
Apricots	July 20-August 12	Elstar	September 10
Peaches	August 1-September 15	McIntosh	September 15
Plums	August 15-September 15	Spartan	October 1
Italian Prunes	September 10	Red Delicious	October 7
Pears		Golden Delicious	October 7
Flemish Beauty	August 20	Jonagold	October 10
Bartlett	September 1	Rome Beauty	October 15
D'Anjour	September 30

Heads or Tails - 3 things

Skittles started a meme some time ago called Heads or Tails, this week our writing prompt is 3 things I learned in 2008. I can't think of anything this evening that I learned although I sincerely hope that I learned something or it is time to cock up my toes!

Three things I would learn to use or have my husband do so, if  we still had a family at home are these three web applications that provide a fun way to build Internet projects with kids.

Dad-o-Matic, a blog where dads give views, reviews, news, and ideas about parenting.

KaBoom! PlaySpace Finder is a site where families can look for play spaces for their kids in their community. Don't know if it works in Canada though.  It features a Google Maps mashup, the ability to upload photos of the place, a comments section, and an amenities section to tell parents and kids what kinds of structures and toys they might expect upon arriving. One fun way to use the service is to take your kids on a “mission” to map out, photograph, list, and then review playgrounds in the area. It becomes a bit of a science/media making project, as well as a means of improving the quality of the content.

Tumblon is a site that helps parents chart their children’s growth, while also preserving milestones and memories.  The system plans to “learn” about your child through the different milestones you share. Based on this, they will recommend age and other demographic-appropriate products like books, so that parents might find resources to follow along with.

From an article found on Mashable

Have you tried Google's SearchWiki yet?

I've been noticing some small, gray icons that appear next to my Google search results along with a comments balloon, signs of a new search feature that Google calls SearchWiki.

SearchWiki is a tool that allows you to collect your own opinions about web pages on a searched topic and to share notes with others. A logged-in Google user can push up an item in their Google search results to the top of the page or eliminate it from the results altogether. Google users can also leave comments on a given link or add a link of their own by typing it into a box at the bottom of the search page. The primary use of this feature is to serve as a note-taker for an individual person, similar to a social bookmarking tool which can be set to private mode if you wish.

SearchWiki will be more interesting as more people use it and comment on searches. As Google collects SearchWiki content, it's building a kind of stealth social bookmarking service on a much more useful scale.

I have dabbled with it but not used it that much, mainly because I forget about it, but I think it could become a useful tool. SearchWiki Help

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Does a belief in evolution demand atheism?

Cover via Amazon

There seems to be two strong opinions that many people stand on, both poles apart, leaving reasonable people to choose between these two extremes or slip into an apathy where they do not make any choice at all.
Many believe the same as Richard Dawkins, a prominent evolutionist who is quoted as saying, "Faith is the great cop-out, the great excuse to evade the need to think and evaluate evidence..."
On the other extreme certain religious groups attack science as dangerous and point to a literal interpretation of sacred texts believing that science is responsible for the disintegration in society.
This leaves many people rejecting both the trustworthiness of science and the value of religion, or are conflicted in their thinking not knowing what to think holding that science and faith should operate separately.
Can there be harmony between science and spiritual world views? Personally I have never had a conflict in my mind between belief in God and science, to me science just proves God.
This Christmas my eldest son gave me a book called 'The Language of God' written by Dr. Francis S. Collins one of the world's leading scientists. The book refutes the stereotypes of hostility between science and religion and challenges the reader to find a unity of knowledge that encompasses both faith and reason.
Dr. Francis Collins is head of the Human Gnome Project working at the cutting edge of DNA research, the code of life, yet he is a man of unshakable faith in God and Scripture. In the book he makes a case for God and for science arguing that physics, chemistry and biology can all fit together with belief in God and the Bible.
As I read through this book I will try to share insights I learn. It is not a light and easy read so it may take some time.