Me and My World

I know that's probably not your normal statement during Christmas, but that's what I heard on Christmas here. We spent our holiday in Rotorua again. We drove down on Friday afternoon. Saturday morning we woke up with the kids ready to see their stockings. Emily (7), Grace (3), Orrin (1). We opened the stockings and gifts there, and Anna made us a fabulous breakfast. We then lunched at her mom's house with more gift unwrapping. After an afternoon nap, we all piled in to go the farm of Anna's brother for a BBQ. While he and his wife finished the milking there was a huge nerf gun fight. Everyone was involved (other than grandma who was busy inside). Em was the one who yelled, "Uncle Jeremy, I'm going to kill you!" It was amusing to watch everyone run around shooting each other hiding around cars and jumping into paddock to find darts.

it's been a while. i've not really had much to post about, hence the no posting. we've really just been busy working and doing stuff for church. we did have a nice weekend this week. we had thanksgiving dinner on saturday with our friends over in Waitakere (why-ta-kay-ray) *there are no emphasis on any syllables in Maori. so they all have the same emphasis :-) anyhow, it was a good dinner. they had invited a lot of kiwi friends, which made it fun. it was estimated we had 52 people!

First there was the boy two days ago that couldn't speak in complete sentences. Seriously, how do you pass your classes!!?? How do you parents and teachers let you get by with this?

Here is my last post for work. This series of ones did give me things to look at that I've not used before. Sometimes I wonder how you found these sites, Tosca. My answers in the final survey for would I promote these could have veried in that I would have answered "might promote to customers". It depends on the situation. Of course, that's my answer for most things in life. I don't know until I'm in the situation. I doubt I will look at most of these ever again, but it is good knowledge. I can't decide whether I liked it spread out to twice the lenth. I would say it was good only b/c there are a million other things going on during this time of change...like Paul's evil quizzes. :-)

Encompass Culture is yet another bookclub thing. I didn't find it any better than the rest. The graphics for searching for book titles is cool, but that's about it. I wouldn't reccommend it to anyone. In the age of easy uploading and image overload, why would this site use just text to help you figure out how to use the site. I just kept wanting to not read the long list of things. Maybe I'm just tired. :-) I would rather just use the other options we have for recommended reading.

Ok, I will deviate from my picture show now to do my next work blog. This is mostly b/c I've not had the time to get the rest of the pics off my camra and put them up here. :-(

Slideshare is a social slideshow network. You can search for slideshows (you know, like powerpoint presentations) on whatever topic you might be interested in looking at. Interesting concept. Cool you can share them, if you want to. I'm more of a private person and probably wouldn't really be into doing this myself, but I can see the draw of it for businesses. They don't have to email a .ppt to anyone and worry about it working or not. You can just upload it up to the web for free and give whomever you chose the link. I would recommend this to someone who is wanting to get information out on a widescale...not just a handful of people. It is easy to use, so that is good.

I also got to see Melissa and her new boy, Lucas. This marks off #2 and #3 babies on my list.

First Jer went up to Kerusso to work, while I hung out with people in Arkansas. My first day was with mom. The second day I went shopping and lunch with my high school buds, Stephanie and Wynter. Steph is carrying a little boy in her belly. I'm sad I won't be there after she delivers.

Tastespotting.com maybe should be called drool spotting b/c that's what your co-workers are going to be doing when they see you going through this site. It's a site that you pick from pictures different recipes. It gives the link to the blog that has the recipe so you can make it yourself. I chose almond brittle. It happens to be low gi, which was my objective. I first chose a pumpkin barley rissotto, but it took way to long to cook. I might use that during a hoilday or something where I don't have to be working beforehand. Plus...it might have required a food processor, which I don't have. If you want to drool over some food or find a new recipe, try this site.

Feed My Inbox is an easy to use website that sends RSS feeds to your email from your favorite websites. Too busy to go look and see what sites have updated? They can email you when it does. Many sites have this capability without using this outside website. What I want to know is will this website use my email for its own advantages, like advertising?

While I am pleased that you understand the need for toilets to be cleaned regularly, I am requesting that you not make the toilet self cleaning via flush water. I am more than happy to clean it off myself in a more sanitary fashion rather than using the water of the previous squatter.

This is kinda what I feel like.




This is what I wish I were doing. :-)




I hate this thing. I had it all typed, then it had problems publishing and deleted my little paragraph about this site. PicApp is a semi-useful website where you can get free pictures to embed into your blog. I don't know if I'll recommend it to someone unless they're desparate. I find google to be easier. If you do a search and find a pic you like, but don't copy the code, good luck finding it again even with the same search terms. I did a search for "head" and got some pictures of a woman giving birth. REALLY?? I understand why, but still...

So, Tosca is at it again. She is forcing my hand and making me do more web 2.0 things. I do have to say thought that looking at the overview, I will be learning new stuff that I wouldn't have known about before. I haven't heard of most of them on the list. There will be 6 of them, my readers. So, bear with me and maybe you'll learn something too.

The first is Box.net. So far, I like it. This is a website that you can get a free or paid subscription to upload files to. You can either keep them to yourself or share them with others. They can even edit them, if you so use. I see this being quite handy for those in uni (college for my US friends), esp. anyone doing long distance learning. You can even create basic files online to store. That's handy. I also noticed that you can have it sync to your desktop, and it is usable with mobile devices (like iphone/ipad/blackberries). I might even use it for church when we update the website. I see it being useful there. Customers will like this too. They don't have to buy a thumb drive or a cd to save their CVs anymore. Of course, they will still have to give us more than a 2 mintue warning that their time is up. :-) Here is a link to my poem I wrote just for this assignment.

Since nomone has disputed the revised version via email, I'm assuming it's good.

Sept 12-Arrive 8:40 pm in LR

Sept 13-Jer goes to Kerusso, Eliza stays in Cabot

Sept 16-Eliza, and hopefully dad, go to cousin Jeremy's wedding in Nebraska

Sept 18 or 19-meet back up with Jer

Sept 19-21-be in Stillwater, OK

Sept 21-24-be in Lubbock

Sept 24-26-in Aledo

Sept 26-spend night with Marlars in Dallas

Sept 27-Oct 1 be back in Cabot

Oct 1-leave LR 3:45 pm

Here's the basic schedule for our trip back to the states.

Family Camp Pictures

Plenty has been going on to prevent me the time of posting.

So, I'll start with the Algebra. I was quite proud of myself for making an algebraic formula for figuring out the average door count for a couple of days after the counter stopped working. It wasn't as simple as figuring out the average. My boss wanted what the counter would have said if we did have the average. Oh well. It was fun. I was showing another colleague what I did so she could do it the next day when I wasn't there and she didn't understand the formula, but understood the concept and could do it. Funny.

This is my last work post...unless Tosca comes up with more crazy stuff for us to do. :-) Overall, the most useful thing for me was using Zamzar. Coverting files are the top thing I have to help with following anything related to printing. The one I really didn't like was Twitter, but that's b/c I knew I wouldn't and have been against it from the start. It didn't really stand a chance. The Good Reads were cool. Too bad I don't have more time.

I like facebook for keeping up with friends and family back home, which is important as I live so far away. I also use it to communicate with some of my teens at church during the week. It's quite easy to use, when they're not changing the format of it on a regular basis.

Facebook for a public library is useful in getting the popularity up of the library. People see what you do, so "word of mouth" works in our favor. I haven't had anyone ask me about our page, but I would tell them about it if they did ask, or I thought they used facebook and the library a lot.

Ok, it might not be the funniest ever, but the funniest to happen to me. I go to leave for work this morning and found out that our license plates have been stolen. We have the ones where you have it on front and back. The person so kindly screwed them off and even put the screws back, so it looked at first glance. I called the police station to find out what to do. I have to go the post shop (where you do car licensing and whatnot) to work on getting new plates. He said some might be able to give me some today, but most don't keep them on hand. Bonus: I can't drive my car there to do it or anywhere else for that matter until we have plates! This does include work. He said if we can avoid it, have a friend drive us or let us borrow their car. My supervisor at work said, "I'm not sure what leave to put this under..." :-) It's good we're staying with friends, but I don't want to extra burden them!! Extra Bonus with cherries on top: My cousin Carlos comes in today. He's visiting for his R&R from Iraq. Luckily, our friends already volunteered to help go pick him up as I was supposed to be at work. I hope we can get plates soon. They don't seem to do the temp plates. We were wanting to do some traveling with Carlos, not to mention just showing him around and stuff. Our buses are really nice here, so we'd use them, but there's not a bus stop around our friends house b/c it's a new subdivision. Does this make things fun! I really am laughing about this. That's all I can really do. Oh man...

I tried 3 different places to download free music.

Muzic.com--not hard to use, but kept not working in some places
Amazon.com--very easy to use, but have to have a US account. I do have one, so it worked for me. :-)
Garageband.com--easy to use, didn't have any problems.

The only thing I encountered to be the same is our computers are too slow to download the music. It might not be so bad on the customer computers, but on the staff ones, I never did get any to download because I gave up, it was sooo slow.

Good Reads is a great site for advid readers who are always looking for new authors and titles. You can talk about what you liked and didn't like about the books you have already read and keep up with people who similar books as you. I think it is a great site for readers advisory; however I don't think I have the time to do it right now. If I wasn't driving 2+ hours a day to work, I might do it. I don't feel encouraged to do it during my lunch break; I would want time at home to do it. Plus, I probably wouldn't do much by way of reviews purely because I'm already doing this at work. Now, I guess I could copy and paste them, but whatever. I would promote this to people who are willing to spend the time to do it. It would take regular reviewing and searching to use this site to the fullest. The quizes on the site are an interesting aspect, but I equate that to be those who have lots of free time, like those doing all the applications on facebook.

I have now completed the twitter learning section of the web 2.0. I am not happy about it. If any of my friends and family are twitter-ites (I just made that word up), do NOT look for me. I won't be using it after this. I have long said I would not get a twitter. I have too much on my plate to care or worry about the daily goings on of people. I barely follow on facebook and it's more interesting b/c I get to see pictures! It's not that it's hard to use; I just don't want to. It's not the easiest thing to figure out, but it is doable. I guess I expected it to have a block at the top kinda like facebook to type in w/o clicking on a person. Maybe there is one, but I didn't see it this time. I feel I am compitent in it enough to help somone wanting to use it, but don't want to use it personally. I even got the luxury of blocking someone seconds after I signed up. I had a follower (whom I'd never heard of) immediately who wanted me to follow the link to their pics. Can we say porn? I would definately be hunted down at work had I clicked on that. :-) I guess the library can promote our events via Twitter. I would only promote our twitter to those I knew had a twitter account. I wouldn't suggest someone get a twitter account to follow us. Our website is good for those things as well.

What a funny title. I wonder how they came up with it. I guess I could look, but that's not going to happen right now. :-) Zamzar is a neat little website that does file conversions. Do you have a document you need to change to a .pdf? This site will do it. Did your sister send you a .docx and you can only open .doc, well then, this site can convert it and email it to you within mintues. How cool is that. It does all kinds of files: documents, images, powerpoints. It is very easy to do. With four easy steps, anyone can do it, staff and customers alike. The only things you need are the file in question and an email address. This is very useful for our learn.nets as customers are frequently asking how they can change files. I would use this site anytime at work. I don't really think I'd personally use it at home much because I have more sophisticated programs to do it for me. :-) Does it sound too good to be true? Give it a try. www.zamzar.com

To my regular readers:

At work, we are doing a learning exercise to learn about different web 2.0 aspects. I am to blog 6 differnent experiences up to July. So, when you see "Week **..." in the subject it's a work exercise. :-)

To my work co-horts:

I don't know what my 2.0 expectations are. In reference into the blog exercise, I regularly blog, as you can see from my blog history. I do expect to learn about Zamzar and more about Good Reads. I've never even heard about Zamzar before. Twitter is not one I'm excited about. I have plenty of friends/family, including my husband, who tweet (see I even know the terminology), so it's not as though there's not much I expect to learn about that. Facebook is something I use regularly as well to keep up with my friends and family. We use it to post events for our church youth and young adults. I personally love it because I can see what my family, all of whom are halfway around the world, is up to. It can't be too hard to use, as my grandma uses it. (I love you Grandma and Grandpa!) I can't say as I have any fears either about web 2.0 technology. I'm not afaid of the technology as some people are.

A public library might use a blog to share about events/activities going on. You might also post pictures about past events or changes in library layout. Staff members could take turns posting about favorite books or featured new books if they don't have anything else in place for something like this. Customers could expect the things listed above as well as changes in hours for holidays.

Both times (US and NZ) have now changed for the seasons. So, we are once again further apart in time...it might technically be closer but whatever. Now when you want to know what time it is Subtract 7 hours and add a day.

So, I'm willing to give a surprise to anyone who can help me come up with a new breakfast. It needs to be high in protein and easy to make. It could be made the night before or several days in advance, just so long as it doesn't take much time in the morning. There are two meals I'm excluding b/c I'm doing them now and want something new: eggs and bacon; granola. It could be hot or cold...hot would be a bonus since winter is starting soon though. :-)

So, I'm sitting here on my bed wondering what the heck I'm going to write about. It's been almost a month, but I don't feel too bad about this considering how long it's been since some other people have posted. hint hint!! Anyhow, we're in the throws of looking for a new place to live. The Kemps have already found a place and moving out Easter weekend. We've narrowed it down to what city we want to live in. That's good right? We're staying in this city, rather than move to the one I work in. Church and most of our friends are here, so we've decided to stay here. Plus, at some point we'd like my job to be here.

So, our work visas went through today! I get to continue working w/o pause. I had already figured out what I was going to do during that time, but it's better I get to keep working. I don't lose my vacation days this way.

I'm trying to remember all that's happened lately.

Mr. Funky's Super Crochet Wonderful

so, jer told me a funny story tonight. we're watching this new tv show, which of course started ages ago there in the states called "Modern Family". the kid is jumping on the trampoline with a box on his head. i turned to jeremy and said, " that looks like something you'd do." he agreed. :-) then he told me this story. when he was little, he used to get on the floor with a box over him with the flaps out flat on the floor. he used to go really fast until he ran into things. he says of course he always knew when he was coming up on something b/c the flaps indicated this. but the funny thing is he did this not because it was funny to him. he though it would look funny to anyone watching, and he thought that'd be funny. he doesn't even know if anyone ever saw him. so, to those of his family who read this, did you ever see him do this?

This is Scott and Rissa Marlar. You've read about them before. They're from Texas and live over here with 2 of their 3 kids. Well, sadly, they are moving back to the states on the 31st. So, lots of things are changing for them. We're buying a lot of their stuff for when we move house in a few months. Everyone is giving them dinners and such to say goodbye and spend quality time with them. Tonight was one such dinner. There is a lovely Japanese couple who own a take away shop, with a few tables too for eat in. Jeremy and I frequent there. The lady comes to church sometimes. The Marlar's met them by doing English lessons with them. They asked Jeremy and I to come to dinner tonight at the restaurant. Jeremy, however, is camping with a couple of other families up north this weekend, but I got to go to the dinner. It was soooo good. They cooked different Asian meals and kept feeding us. I am so stuffed, I had to push my waistline down on my jeans to keep from hurting too much. I felt I needed to try a little of everything they put out. There was so many different plates. They also have organic ice cream. We got half way through that when she remembered she made cheesecake and fruit for dessert, so we had that after the ice cream. They had a lot left over. You would have thought they cooked for more than 7 people. Of course, they didn't eat but 2 bites worth b/c they said they're trying to lose weight from a recent trip the south island. They're so sweet. We love eating at their place. I will attempt to spell their first names for you. I haven't a clue what their last name is. :-) Horoko (wife) and Ichiro (husband) This is how we say it...all the o's are long /Ho ro ko/ and /E cheer o/

So, apparently i accidently started a Christmas tradition a few years ago. i manage to lose the family pictures rebecca (jer's sister) gives us for christmas. i always find them like 6 months later in a "safe" place. i then remember why i chose this place. usually they get put in a "safe" place b/c i'm not at my house. but this year i was at home when received them. any thoughts on where i put them? they're not on my desk. or with what we got for christmas from them. or on the shelf in the closet i put things. or my purse. or with my bills stuff. hmmm...i'd like to find them so i can put one in a frame.

So, Jeremy downloaded the pics from Christmas and such onto his computer and deleted them from the camra, but has yet to put them on iphoto. so i can't post pics until he (or i) moves them to iphoto, so i can get to them.

I put in for 3 weeks vacation in september. the dates are Sept 12-Oct 4 (NZ time). so hopefully i can find a good deal on tickets sometime, and we'll be going back to the states during this period. i might even be able to break my promise to cousin Jeremy and go to his wedding. :-) he had to miss my wedding b/c i sent him on an errand back to the house to get the guest book for the recepetion. it was very sweet of him. i guess he can send me on some errand for during his wedding. it's only fair!