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26/02/2009 Numa Numa – Warning do not watch this video! You will get addicted to it.If you watch this video, the song will never get out of your head. But, it's fun!
My hubby and I recently signed up for Netflix. It’s a mail order DVD rental service. But, it recently added streaming movies to the service! So, my hubby and I bought a Netflix player to receive the streaming and feed it to the TV. I found out that in addition to playing Netflix streaming, I can also get YouTube videos on this device! I can even log in to my YouTube account, and access my favorites. So, I was playing around YouTube on the Netflix viewer yesterday adding things that I thought my hubby might like to my favorites… And, I came across this one again. Remember, I warned you! This song will be stuck in the head for a while, and this guy is so fun to watch! X “Who’s On First?” - Everybody has to hear this at least once in their life….Abbott and Costello were one of the funnies comedy duos of all time. For more information, their families have an official website: http://www.abbottandcostello.net/ This is one of their most famous routines. For your edification: X
The First Signs of Spring!I saw the first robin of the season this morning! Some birds fly south in the winter and then come back when it is warmer here. Yippy! This robin says that spring will be here soon! Also, our goldfish in our pond are hungry. That’s a sign of spring, too. All winter long the fish are practically dormant, just floating in place near the bottom of the pond my hubby built for me. Even when the pond is covered with ice, they do fine, as long as there is always a hole in the ice. Since we have a waterfall that is run by a pump, there is always a whole at the bottom of the waterfall. So, when my hubby and I go outside, the fish are now happy to see us, and are hoping we are bringing food. They let us know when it is time to start feeding them in the spring, and when to stop feeding them in the winter. They go all winter with no food. God designed some amazing abilities in his creatures! Soon, the fish will be spawning and maybe we will have more babies. There is a natural balance to the pond. Too many fish will not be hatched. Having too many fish in a pond is bad for the fish. But, there is something magical that God designed that no more than a healthy number of fish will occur naturally in a pond. Most of our fish have been hatched in our pond, and are children or grandchildren, etc, of our first few fish. It’s always exciting to find a new baby fish. My hubby and I both name the fish, but I’m in charge of remembering all the names. It’s not easy! X 24/02/2009 How not to sell me vinyl sidingI had a total stranger ring my bell yesterday to sell me vinyl siding (it covers up old house paint and lasts for years). He was the most high-pressure salesman, and the most rude salesman, that I’ve ever encountered. First off, we don’t buy anything from door to door people who say we need it. If we think we need something, we check around for the best price. Anyway, this guy was insisting, rudely, that I needed to buy vinyl siding from him, when I told him “No thank you”, he kept on and would not stop. I am not rude to sales people. I just politely tell them “No thank you”, and they usually leave. But he kept on. I told him “No” again, he started trying to sell me new windows, as well. He was so insistent that being polite was not going to make him go away. Finally, I just had to close the door and walk away. You haven't heard the worst part, yet. As he walked away, he yelled “You better find Jesus!”. What in the heck? I found Jesus 12 years ago, but that is beside the point. What does finding Jesus have to do with buying vinyl siding from a rude salesman? He needs a better sales technique. X 23/02/2009 What is this security warning and why do I get it?Would somebody please tell me what this is: Thank you! X
21/02/2009 Coffee Talk: A new Windows Live Group dedicated to hanging out and relaxing with friends.Hello Everybody! Lately, a bunch of people, including me, have been just hanging out and visiting in the comments sections of Spaces, and it’s been great! I love just hanging out with my online friends and shooting the breeze and relaxing. So, a couple of us have started a new Windows Live Group for the sole purpose of just hanging out. Would you like to join us? If you would like to come on in, relax, take your shoes off, and hang out with friends, this is the group for you! You are invited to join Coffee Talk. Feel free to tell your friends about this group, and ask them to join too. The more the merrier!
Come on in, relax, take your shoes off, and hang out with friends (The group name, Coffee Talk, was chosen because of a running skit on Saturday Night Live. Mike Myers played Paul Baldwin, and later Linda Richman, the host, and later hostess, of Coffee Talk, a television talk show. The show was introduced by the host or hostess like this: “What can we talk about on Coffee Talk? Dogs, daughters, coffee, you know...no big whoop”) X Screen Captures are Easy with Windows Live Writer!Every day for the last week, I’ve been playing with my Windows Live Essentials programs looking for new ways to use them. Yesterday, while playing with Windows Live Writer, I found out that you don’t need a special tool like Snagit to do screen captures (getting a picture of what is on your computer screen). Here’s what I discovered: As a test, I did “Shift/PrtScn” (while holding down “Shift” key, hit the “PrtScn” key near the top right of your keyboard) and went directly into Windows Live Writer and did “Right Click/Paste”. By golly, there was my image! If you want to try it, paste in your image like I just said, then click on the image to bring up the photo tools on the right side of Writer. If you do not see the photo tools, select the “View” pull down menu, and put a checkmark next to “Taskpane”. Before you crop, be sure to make the image the “Original” size so you can see what you are doing. Go to the Advance tab, and click on “Crop”. A new screen pops up, with a windows for you to center on the desired part of your image. You can also see on the actual image the area that has been selected. When you like your selection, hit “OK” in the bottom corner. Also, if you don’t like how the Crop turned out, click your image and try again! You can keep adjusting the limits of the Crop until you like what you see. You can’t make a mistake, because you have unlimited chances to get it right! X
20/02/2009 Stupid Human Tricks – Top This(David Letterman has a bit where people do silly things, and it is called “Stupid Human Tricks”) Here is Greg Edwards’ Claim to fame:
Yep, you read correctly, he said about his son: I can dig into Logan's poop up to my elbows while eating a ham sandwich Can you top this? I didn’t think so. Greg is the winner! X Getting video out of your camera and onto your Space is easier with Windows Live Photo Gallery and Windows Live Writer.I tend to do the same things, in the same ways, time after time. As long as it works, I don’t look for a better way. But, lately, I have decided it is more fun to learn new things. So, this week I have been playing with the different programs offered as part of Windows Live Essentials, and I’ve been finding faster ways, and easier ways, of getting the same things done. Take this morning, for instance, I took a video of Penny, my cockatiel, and I wanted to get it from my camera to my space. The old way to do it, was to plug in my camera to the computer, wait for the camera’s software to come up, fool with it for a while, and finally get the pictures and videos out of the camera and into the proper folder. Well, today, I just decided I was going to use nothing but Windows Live Essentials programs, and see what happened. Wow. This was much easier! First off, I plugged my camera into the computer in the usual way, but I noticed a list of options that popped up, one of which was to transfer my photos with Windows Live Photo Gallery. I didn’t have to do anything! Photo Gallery put them in My Pictures folder. The only thing I had to do was to give the name of the new folder for those particular pictures. Next, I opened Windows Live Writer. I was playing with photo effects and photo album styles the last few days, and I had noticed “Insert/Video” on the toolbar. So, I decided I would try that and see what happens. Here’s how to upload your video:
I also recently heard about a new program called “Community Clips Recorder”, and I downloaded the program so I can take videos of things I do on the computer. So, I made a little movie of how I loaded up the video of Penny (there is only video, no audio):
How to upload video to Windows Live Writer
After you upload your video, you will see this message: “Soapbox is processing your uploaded video. This might take a while”. Soon, you will see your video! (Unfortunately, my video of how I uploaded my video to my blog would not finish loading into my Writer. I tried loading up my how to video the same way I am talking about. For now, I’m going to host it in YouTube.com while I figure out why it “Failed Processing” two separate times. Maybe it is an incompatible video format as I suspect) X Windows Live Tags: Clubhouse, story, writer, photo gallery, how to, how-to, essentials, community clips recorder A potty-trained cockatiel? You’ve got to be kidding! – Nope, not kidding and here’s a video of Penny for proof.I posted a blog the other day about how my sweet cockatiel, Penny, loves spending all day with me. During the conversation in my comments, I mentioned that Penny is potty-trained. For those of you who don’t happen to trust the word of sweet old X, here’s some proof for you. I took this video earlier this morning: Warning! This shows a cockatiel pooping while standing on her potty perch. (warning added per Greg’s suggestion) Although, I don’t know what kind of video proof of a potty-trained cockatiel would not show pooping, but I digress. (Edited to add: I just happened to notice that the Soapbox video in this post was going to be removed soon. I just edited my post and reloaded the video with YouTube.com. YouTube arbitrarily picked the frame below to show as the still. I apologize to all the poop-a-phobes. I went to YouTube to edit the frame, but it might take a whole day to change to a profile of Penny instead of what you see below.) Edited to add, again. Good news! YouTube revised the still frame so that you see a cute profile of Penny instead of the product of Penny’s cleverness at being potty trained. All’s well that ends well…
X
That’s not really Penny talking at the end. That is me. Penny doesn’t talk. All she does is love me unconditionally, and that is plenty! X Post a favorite line from a favorite song.First off, I want to address the subject of off-topic comments to blogs. There is currently a running discussion about this in Live Soapbox Group called:
(TG, you don’t mind a plug, do you?) So, I want to publically state my preference:
Conversations have a life of their own. In my humble opinion, conversations that take off on a tangent are the most fun. I feel honored if people come to my space, take their shoes off, and shoot the breeze. A conversation is like a box of chocolates, and I like surprises! I like not knowing what I’m going to get in my comments. I feel especially honored when I wake up to find out that friends were hanging out in my Space after I left! I’m happy that my friends feel comfortable enough to make themselves at home. Now that this has been said, here is a topic, and I expect you to stick to it! Har har har…. This morning, I happened to be thinking of the philosophy of the Rolling Stones:
That line is short, but powerful, and I have loved it since I first heard that song in junior high school. I’m curious to hear what lines of songs you like, I would especially like to hear your favorite philosophical lines, but that is not mandatory. This morning, while my internet was down, I caught myself thinking: “Don’t it always seem to go, that you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone, you take paradise, put up a parking lot” from a song sung by Joni Mitchell. I really appreciated how much I enjoy being in my home community, Windows Live. So, come on in, relax, take your shoes off. X Windows Live keeps me connected to the world…This morning my internet was down…. I felt isolated from the world… I start each day by logging in to Windows Live to see what is new in the world. From my Home Page, I can see everything from the latest world news to my local temperature and how the weather is going to be in my town. I can see upcoming events on my calendar, I can see what new person what’s to be friends with me, who wants me to join their group, and I can see what my current friends are talking about. But, this morning, my internet was down… After I look at my Home Page and take care of my invitations for Groups and Friends, I click my shortcut for Recent Comments. From this one page I can see who left notes on my Profile, on my blogs and Guestbook. in my Space. But, this morning, my internet was down… After I look at my comments, and respond to them, I go to my Windows Live Groups to see what has happened overnight. I own and co-own a few groups, plus I am a member of several others, and I like to keep up with what is going on in all of them. But, this morning, my internet was down… After I get caught up with everything I missed out on overnight, I might decide to write a blog for my Windows Live Space. Either I will write about something interesting that happened or something interesting I learned. And, sometimes, I will just rant about something I am irked about. My space is the place I can talk about anything I want! But, this morning, my internet was down… So, instead of enjoying my coffee and getting caught up with the things in my world, I spent the morning on hold with my internet provider, until they found out what the problem was… So, here I am in Live.com, a place that I enjoy. Better late than never! X
19/02/2009 Beginner’s Visual Guide to Windows Live Writer Photo Album StylesLast time, I blogged about the Windows Live Writer photo effects. Windows Live Writer is one of the great programs that comes with Windows Live Essentials. Here’s something else you can do with photos in Windows Live Writer, make different styles of albums: On the top menu of Windows Live Writer select Insert/Photo Album/From Files/Add Photos then hold down the control key while you select the photos you want. After you have chosen your photos, hit “Insert” on the bottom right corner. Your photo album will show up in the Spread position, which is apparently the default. But, when you click on your album, a side bar of options will show up on the left. You can choose your album style, there. I’m going to show you the five different options that Windows Live Writer gives to show your album in your blog. Clicking on each of these will open the full album. These options are just to show a sample of the pictures in your album. Each of the Album Styles are shown on the left, and the name of that option is shown on the right: X
Beginner’s Visual Guide to Windows Live Writer Photo EffectsI’ve been using Windows Live Writer since it first came out in beta. I love it to death, but, for some reason, I’ve never gotten around to learning how to do photo effects. I have been so happy with the text editing features, that I just never got around to it. Or, maybe I am intimidated by the beautiful work I’ve seen. Either way, it’s time for me to learn. I figured that while I am learning how, I can post it here, and the next beginner can have a little head start by seeing at a glance what the different effects look like. (My parrot Rufus, is going to model my photo effects) I’m going to tell you the name of the option, and where to find it, I’m going to tell you what you have to do, and I’m going to tell you the results. My comments will be to the left or right of each photo, and in this format:
So,there you have it! We have now tried all of the photo effects that Windows Live Writer has to offer. In addition, you can combine all of those effects on a particular picture in an unlimited number of ways, for unlimited results. But, now I know, and now you know, the basic photo options in Windows Live Writer. Using all I’ve learned from playing around with the features, I’m going to try to apply them all to improve this picture of Rufus that I took in my back yard…… 
Wow! All I did was use Color Pop and Sharpen, and it makes a world of difference! Thank you Windows Live Writer! X
Windows Live Tags: Clubhouse, story, writer, photo, effects, how to, how-to, rotate, contrast, crop, tilt, watermark, black and white, sepia tone, adjust temperature, color pop, sharpen, gaussian Blur, emboss
The Wilhelm Scream – Great Moments in American Film History, and on “Lost” last night!I was watching Lost last night, minding my own business, dum de dum de dum, and all of a sudden I heard a Wilhelm Scream! I confirmed it by asking others about it on the Internet Movie Database Lost message board. Sorry, but I can’t tell you where it is in the show, because if I do, it will be a big spoiler for people in other countries who have not seen that far yet. (Send me a PM, and I’ll tell you) We have a Windows Live Group for fans of the show Lost. It is called: Lost Fans. Check it out! The those not fortunate enough to know what the heck I am talking about, then this is your lucky day! Check out the Wilhelm Screen Wiki Page for the written history, and this page to hear the Wilhelm Scream all by itself. Below you will find a cinematic history of the use of the Wilhelm Scream in some movies of the past. Now that you will know what it is, you, like me, will be ever vigilante in listening for it. It adds a little more fun to your movie watching pleasure: Enjoy:
Edited to add: While I’m on the subject, I have some sound effect pet peeves I’d like to rant about: My pet peeve sound effect is "leather". People who do "leather" sound effects for saddles, jackets, purses, couches, are VERY proud of their work. For some reason, leather sound effects always seem way too loud for what's happening in the scene. My other sound effect pet peeve is the "red tailed hawk". They use that for crows, ravens, buzzards, falcons, etc. Watch, the next time you see a scene with a mountain, some sky, some trees, and especially a valley, listen for the call of that "red tailed hawk" and notice what kind of bird they show it coming out of. As a long time bird watcher, this bugs me.... Here is a real red tailed hawk doing a red tailed hawk call. I just played it, and my birds had fits! (in my humble opinion, I believe that God programmed birds with that sound so they would know to be afraid of predators. My turtle is afraid of shadows coming across him for the same reason, and he closes up his shell!) X
18/02/2009 I have a sleeping cockatiel on my shoulder – Also a video of Alex the amazing parrot
For some reason I do not understand, Penny, my cockatiel, wants to be with me all day, every day. I know that it happens, I know that it is quite common that a member of the parrot type of bird will get bonded to a human quite often. But, even though I know how common it is, I just don’t understand why. Penny is a little bird. She is smaller around than my fist, but for some reason, she trusts me with her life. Of all the places in the whole wide world, Penny would rather be with me. Sometimes, I will take Penny with me if I go my local pet shop that specializes in birds, and she will ride on my shoulder as we walk around looking at the other birds. People always ask me: “How you you get your bird to stay on your shoulder like that!” I always have to explain that the hard part is getting her OFF my shoulder at bedtime. I do trim her long flight feathers so she can’t get lost if she gets startled. I do that with Rufus, my parrot,, too, and any other bird I take outside without a cage. Trimming the long flight feathers is just like getting a haircut. It grows back just fine. When I first got Penny, she was really wild and really scared of me. I knew nothing about birds, but I’ve had a lot of pets that I’ve trained over the years. So, using the principles I’d already known that worked, I set about trying to gain her trust. Oh, boy, did I do a good job of gaining her trust! Like I said, she is itty bitty, and she trusts me with her life. I can’t imagine how I would feel if somebody a hundred times taller than me would reach out their hand. I think I’d rather run away, than get on it. But, for whatever reason, My Pretty Penny loves me. Thank you God for giving me such wonderful companionship in my pets! Edited to add: Since we’ve been talking about parrots, the subject of Alex and Dr Pepperberg came up. Here’s a video of them working together. Alex is the one with the feathers:
Look how feather picked Alex is. Parrots pull out their feathers when they are stressed. In this video, Alex keeps asking to “go back”, he want to go back to his house. he does not want to work anymore. This video is very sad to watch. He was an amazing bird, but he was worked too hard. Sadly, Alex died last year. He was an amazing bird. X Have you tried AutoCollage with Windows Live Photo Gallery?First off, thank you to Kimmy for the inspiration! Kimmy did a collage of photos of wild birds, and it turned out beautiful! I’ve always wanted to do a collage of my pets, so when I saw Kimmy’s collage I got all excited and tried it right away! So, I played around with AutoCollage and Windows Live Photo Gallery, and after a few tries I got this:
It is so easy, you should give it a try! It will make collage after collage with the pictures you choose, and if you like it, you save it. I save all of mine just in case! Sometimes, a part you want gets covered over. It took me a few tries before I got everybody’s face showing pretty good. Check out this space for more information about the program: AutoCollage Windows Live Space. Windows Live Photo Gallery is part of the Windows Live Essentials that has several great free programs! If you don’t have them all yet, you should give them a try, too! Here’s a quick rundown on how to use AutoCollage with Windows Live Photo Gallery:
There is a lot more to it, there are more options, but this is enough to get you started. Now you know as much as I do! I’ll try it again soon and learn more about AutoCollage, but I wanted to make sure that you knew about this so you can play with it, too! As I said above, this Space has more info: AutoCollage Windows Live Space It is the space for the AutoCollage team, and will have the most up to date information about AutoCollage, plus some more instructions. Have fun! X
17/02/2009 The “Photo Gallery plug-in for Facebook” announcement came one day too late for me!Today, the Windows Live Team blog Posted A Photo Gallery plug-in for Facebook. Here is a part of that article:
This is wonderful news! But, it came too late for me! I loaded up pictures onto my Facebook page yesterday! Anyway, it is very nice that Windows Live is continuously making things easier for us to interact with the rest of the internet. Hopefully, I can save you the effort that I did. Find out more about the plug-in here: A Photo Gallery plug-in for Facebook. Happy photo uploading! X
Jesus is just alright with me. Jesus is just alright, oh yeah! I came across a picture of a “Cool” Jesus: I just liked it, and decided to share it, for no apparent reason, which is why I do most stuff. X Coffee Break Topic: What was your first car? Do you still have it?My first car was a 65 VW Bug named Chauncey. It had a crank sunroof, and was sea foam green. By the time I had driven it for over 25 years, it had damage all around: all four fenders and the hood and engine cover. It had a lot of personality! When I married my hubby, I sold most everything that did not fit in the moving van, including my beloved Chauncey. We moved cross country from California to Oklahoma to set down new roots. That's what love will do to you…. The only thing we kept that did not fit in the moving van was my 1991 Chevy Blazer that we pulled behind the U-Haul. I figured the Chevy was newer, and would last longer. (The dang practical side of me decided that.) Practicality speaking, it was a good decision, my Chevy Blazer is still going strong. But, boy oh boy, I miss Chauncey. Boo hoo. (I had a lot of fun in this car, so I’m going to put this post in the “Entertainment” category.) X |
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