The New version of Google’s Picasa Photo Organizing/Editing software has just gotten better.  The coolest new feature is “Face Movie.”  Combining the face recognition feature, I selected the Album of all of the photos that my daughter was in.  I then told Picasa to make a face movie.  What a great slideshow of memories!  The software tries to keep the face in the same place and change the picture.  What a quick way to make something for a birthday or other special occasion! Down load Picasa here.

Colorful Chain-link Duct Tape Clutch : general crafts : Shop | Joann.com

Want to give it a try?  I can get you a referral.  Just ask!

My girls are in the K-12 system and also need school uniforms. Here is the Amazon link for them:



Do we change styles as we become more mature in our learning?  Do we become more flexible in the way we learn, and can we adapt to the different modalities that are thrown at us?

I thought this site had a nice approach to pulling many learning theories together and applying them to lifelong learning.

I am especially partial to David Kolb’s Learning Style Model.

The Facebook Button – Jing Help Center

Question: If I am watching a YouTube video and I want to share what is said 4 minutes and 21 seconds into the video, how do I get the video to start at the 4 minute and 21 second mark?

Answer: Copy and paste the YouTube video URL and add the following code to the end of the URL #t=4m21s

Example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZZApfdRwYI#t=1m12s

To do it on an embedded video, use the “start” parameter. Note that start takes seconds as a parameter, not minutes and seconds. For example, to start an embedded video 31 minutes and 8 seconds into a video, 31*60+8 = 1868 seconds, so you would need to append &start=1868 to the value= link.

Give it a try!

SoftChalk FAQ – The five questions posted most recently:

Windows 7 is my operating system. I am having trouble entering my license information. What should I do?
Tuesday, November 17, 2009 3:28 PM

You may need to turn off your User Account Control. Please see the steps below.

1.  From your desktop, click on the Start menu (round ball) in the lower left corner of your screen.
2.  Type UAC and press Enter.
3.  Drag the slider to the Never notify setting.
4.  Re-boot your computer.
5.  Start LessonBuilder and choose Help/Enter License.
6.  Enter your license info. Click OK.
7.  Enable your User Account Control by repeating steps 1-4 except reset your Notify option to your previous setting.

I have been using Google’s Picasa for quite some time, but I didn’t have the newest version (nor did I access Picasaweb) before I upgraded my computer system.  This new version allows me to use face recognition so that it can find all the pictures with a certain person in it.  As soon as I identified my daughters in several photos I uploaded, I was able to view all the pictures of them.  It was very neat to scroll through their development — it shows only a close up of their face in all the pictures.  It was also interesting to see how accurate it was.  Out of the thousands of pictures I have of those two, it only made a few errors.  I had to look at the whole picture to make the determination which daughter is was, too!  It identifies who it thinks is in the pictures and then asks you to confirm.  What was amazing was that it could identify the baby pictures.

If you haven’t tried this one yet.  It is a must!

I am going to download this.  I think the girls will love to use it.  Okay, who am I kidding — I want to play with it, too!  I think it will especially be fun for Christmas tunes we make up.  I haven’t found out what it exports to — maybe it will even interface with my piano!

I was looking for something to convert an Access ACCDB file, and stumbled upon this link.  Unfortunately, it did not work for my file; but this looked interesting enough to keep a link on it to try again in the future!

 I am currently running the 2010 Beta 2 version of Visual Studio.

Basically, whatever you type in the Subject line becomes the photo’s title.  Whatever you type in the body of the message becomes the photo description.  Then type tags:  tag1, tag2, “really cool”, tag 4 in either your subject line or body to add your tagging to the photo.

WARNING:  Be sure you send optimized — smaller-sized photos to your account.  A good way to do this from your computer is to right click on the photo and send the smaller sized photo to your special email address.

I downloaded the demo version of this game for three purposes:

1.  To see if this would be helpful in studying for the CCNA exam.
2.  To evaluate it for the Game Design class.
3.  To see if I might want to buy it for $49.95.

As I first opened the game (it is a very large download and install), I thought it was geared for the “younger generations.”  It is a learning game — quiz game if you will.  Those have a tendency to be, well, boring!  As I started through the game, I thought it was a good study tool, but not sure of it’s “stickiness.”  Would someone play this to learn/review instead of the more “traditional” means.  Then the bugs came out…they started to eat my bonus points if I hadn’t answered that portion of the question yet.  I found the game play to be very interesting, and definitely player-centric.  I later was working strategy of finding questions that I wanted to answer right away — then stacking up my points on those questions.

I still am not sure how anything is scored, or what the scores mean; but it is definitely worth a try.  If you’re not into networking, just look at it for the design and learning aspects of it.

First, I had to create a character. My WOW mentor, Dave, told me what Realm to create that character in. The download of the software was quick because it streams content as necessary. Each start-up does take a little bit of time, but not too objectionable.  My young daughters were watching mommy do her “work” as we set up my character together — yes, I am a cow.  They had fun deciding on what kind of horns I should have.

As they were doing other things, I went on my first game quest:  to bring back meat and feathers from some birds.  Well, I told my youngest what I needed to do — put them to sleep, and take some things from them.  She is quite observant, and said,  “If you are making them sleep, then why are you hitting them with a stick?”  I was caught.  I logged out for awhile.

I returned when the children were in bed.  I got lost and ended up in some ravine with things trying to attack me.  I fell down, and it looked like I was sleeping.  I told a fellow player the next day, and he did not reveal to me that I had actually “died” in the game.

When I got back to the game, I was in heaven.  I couldn’t figure out how to talk to the spirit — then found out I was too far away.  When I met up with my mentor the next day, I asked told him that I was dead (in the game).  His comment was, “Get used to it!”  Such compassion!

10-day trial — have played 2-out-of-5 days.  Had offers to “level me up,” but I don’t want to miss this important process in game play.  My ultimate goal is to create this type of game play for a learning game or a game for social change.  Boy, do I have high expectations! 

First, I made sure there were no weird things on the floor — like power cords.  Then, I blocked the area I wanted it to clean.  At that time, I found out that the "wall" needed two "D" batteries (which I didn’t have).  So I found the rechargable "D" batteries and made blockades with boxes and other large things. 

I did find that the stairs were an issue.  It got hung up on the steps that lead to the foyer.  So I set up another blockage for the stairs. I think I will need two more "walls" for my house.  What I did like, was that it fits under my buffet!  The buffet is very large and heavy, and really hasn’t been cleaned under in a long while because of the difficulty in moving it.  It also has little brushes that helps get it close to the wall.

I really didn’t time how long it took to clean the room.  I was anxious to empty the bin to see how much dirt it picked up.  Wow, was I amazed!  It really did the job!

I will now recommend, along with my other friends, the Roomba — that I have affectionally named "Rosy."

I will continue to use these formulas and try others. I hope to fit this into a Brownie Try-It badge, too! I guess I’ll have to buy this book; it’s a keeper.

The book also talks about realizing that you may be on autopilot, and that you need not be. The choice is yours, dare to take a chance to change your life for the better.

Yes, another library summer read!