One Man and a Laptop

Summer Sport - Controlling Cicada Killer Wasp

2011-07-24T15:17:00.003-04:00

A few years back, it looked like my yard had several large ant hills but on closer examination the dirt was pulled out of a hole to a burrow about the diameter of a quarter. There were also lots of fast flying insects all around. At first I thought they were hornets, they looked mean and just knew they would sting me if I got in their way. I was wrong. This morning I took my camera outside and took all these pictures to tell about this creature that annually invades my yard.

After doing some online research, I discovered that the insect was the eastern cicada killer wasp (Sphecius speciosus). Each year they come back around the time the cicadas start making noises which seem to be around the middle part of July. Pictured below is a cicada that I found a female cicada killer wasp carrying.

The female cicada killer wasp is larger than the male and is shown here shortly after her landing carrying a paralyzed annual cicada (Tibicen linnei) back to her burrow.

I found that she puts it in a nest cell, lays an egg on it, and then seals the cell. A grub will hatch from the egg in a few days, eat the cicada, and overwinter underground in a hard cocoon which it weaves. It will pupate in the spring, hatch in July or August, dig its way to the surface, and live above ground for 2-6 weeks before it dies.

I spend time discovering ways to exterminate these creatures since they make major hills of dirt on my lawn. I have tried to fill the holes with insulation foam which did not help so have never done that again. I have tried to used wasp spray which with the wasps speed makes it very difficult to hit them with the stream of insecticide. I finally discovered what works best for me. I have two main pieces of equipment, scissors and a badminton racket.

I swat the badminton racket trying to hit a flying wasp. I found that if I miss I keep on swinging and sometimes hit it on another pass since sometimes the wasp seem to be attracted to the movement. I can hear when I hit a wasp. I have the scissors to cut the wasp in half it I find it.

In the early mornings I find the females digging out their borrows. I spray insecticide down the hole the wait for a few seconds for the female to come out then I cut her in half with scissors.

Below is a picture of a male cicada killer wasp. A female can be twice the size of a male. I hope that sometime I will be able to exterminate these so they don't come back year after year.

My Dad's Blog, A Three Year Father-Son Project

2011-02-02T05:50:00.001-05:00

My father and I have been working on a joint project for the past three years. We started in November 2007 when my daughter shared that she was creating The Mauney Family Blog before her son Isaac was born. My brother Mike came over to his house one day and created this blog for him since he thought that everyone needed to have a blog. Dad said to him, "What in the world is a blog?" He shared it was quite easy for anyone to have with no cost. He told him that at this point in his 80 year old life, a blog was one thing that he did not need; Mike insisted that they create one then and there so it would be on his computer just in case my dad would ever wanted to write anything to share with the folks that had access to it on the Internet.

My dad thought long and hard about what he could do with a blog since he came from a time that you did not waste anything and I imagine that went for digital resources too. He kept asking himself and other, "What can I ever do with a blog?"

For years I had asked Dad to tell us more about when he was young growing up in the country so the rest of the family and I would know a little about his life when he was young. He knew that for the past several years, I had tried to get him to share stories about our family history so he jumped on this opportunity. That day he started to write about some of the things that he enjoyed doing. That is how the story of his life unfolded. We committed to work on this project together as a father - son project and set a goal to post a new entry about his life each week and for it to be published every Sunday and that we would continue until he finished telling his story.   Each week, he sent me an e-mail that contained the journal entry for the week, I would edit, and we would publish on the blog with pictures.

A couple times we thought we were finished, had a break, but continued to add more content. He even posted stories of his parents and each of his siblings each week for three months.  I finally know which cousins belong to my aunts and uncles!

As this project developed, I enouraged him to make recordings of some of the stories to be linked within the blog. Here is a link to some of the blog entries where there is audio of him telling the stories. At this time he has over 70 stories!   For Christmas this year I had a copy of his blog printed.   A digital copy is below and a .pdf copy can be downloaded.

Geocaching Part 5: Creating My First Geocache Project

2010-05-24T06:43:00.006-04:00

I have enjoyed being a member of the geocacher's community. When it comes to technology, I look for ways various digital tools can be used in the educational setting. This spring I created a project called Geocacher Surveys and finally opening it up for participation. I wanted to wait until the end of the 2009-10 school year which is a good time to prepare for use during 2010-11 and beyond.

In this project, students use surveys to collect and analyze data. This project uses geocaches to locate folks to take one or more of the surveys on this site. Once geocachers participate by taking a survey or two, they can drop the information card into another cache they visit to help spread the word. I created a wiki with information about this project. There are several ways that teachers, students and geocachers can become part of this project:

create surveys that the results can be used in the classroom using Google Forms and set for everyone to be able to see the results
duplicate and distribute cards in caches
take surveys and pass the cards along
utilize/analyze the information submitted

This is a picture of the card.
It is my hope that you can participate in this project or send on to someone who you feel may be interested. Post replies to this post if you have other project ideas using geocaching!

Geocaching Part 4: Creating My First Geocaches

2010-01-23T08:53:00.020-05:00

After our vacation to Hilton Head Island, the Christmas season arrived and then it turned cold for a few weeks, really cold for North Carolina. I decided to become more of an active part in the geocaching community by creating a series of caches about Coulwood Hills, the community I live in. I have been an active part of Coulwood Community Council and even was the first webmaster, starting their first website. I created the Coulwood Hills Tour Series of four caches, each telling part of the history of our fifty year-old community starting with the first cache. As a bonus and encouragement to finish the series, each cache gave partial coordinates for the fifth and bonus cache.

I placed all created, filled all five caches placed them in their predetermined locations that I had found in the fall when I started thinking about the project and when poison ivy was visible... did not want to make the mistake like some have done and place it near this stuff I have been so allergic to all my life.

I used cookie tins and plastic containers with lids that have good seals. I will check them every few weeks to see which ones hold up the best. After I started geocaching, I looked for swag I could use around the house, stuff on sale at stores, and at yard sales. It does not take long to accumulate

LOTS of it. I always like to leave better swag than I take so I have all good stuff... so much, I was able to easily fill the five caches with three having themed goodies:

Cache 1 - General Content - largest cache
Cache 2 - Audio CDs
Cache 3 - Technology related stuff
Cache 4 - General
Cache 4 - Sports and Leisure

The caches were set out on Friday, January 15 in the morning and final approval by geocaching.com was finished at 6:30 a.m. The first to find the first cache was within two hours. During the first week, eight teams took the tour of Coulwood as they found the caches. There has been great response

and the finding the series and bonus can be done within an hour. To find the caches go to geocaching.com, Hide and Seek a Cache, then search for Hidden by Username, and enter glenngurley. It made true the statement, "If you build it they will come." I made sure I built this series the best I could to represent the community well.

Below is the graphics of the log sheets. Coordinates for the bonus cache are on the information sheets about the history of the Coulwood Hills Community.

One of the five pictures this family posted on the first geocache. Think they really enjoyed the spider glasses I had as swag in the cache.... Check the actual log on geocaching.com and see how they look on the puppy! Make sure you click on view all logs.

Geocaching Part 3: Make It Part Of Your Vacation

2009-12-04T07:24:00.029-05:00

Our vacation this year was November 28-December 5 on Hilton Head Island and so glad the days have been so nice. There is no way to predict the weather this time of year. It was perfect fall temperatures with low humidity so I was glad that I went on geocaching.com and printed several cache data sheets prior to hitting the road. I brought my box of geocaching stuff, GPS, extra log sheets, Bug-A-Boo eggs, lots of loot to exchange, cameras to document finds, and a travel bug to drop off. I knew this would be the best time to introduce Robin to geocaching. I wanted her to know what I was talking about when I spoke of looking forward to the day that Isaac and I could go out together to find caches.

On Monday we headed to Sea Pines to visit Harbor Town then headed to the closest cache which as at the Banyard Ruins. I taught Robin to navigate with the GPS and to read the compass when we started our walking search. It was exciting to find the first cache and glad it was a larger one so we could go through the contents. This picture shows Robin's hand as she was going through all the contents of the cache! Afterwards we spend time reading about this historical site. We also visited Compass Rose Park where we learned about the history of Hilton Head Island. The modern development here started in the early 1950s where there was careful planning to have a blending of the environment and man-made structures.

We both enjoyed this so much that we found eight caches over the two morning we spent geocaching. Locating these caches took us to some of the the many parks and recreational areas on the Island that we would not have visited. I have found that this sport takes you to many special locations that otherwise would have been missed. We enjoyed finding the larger caches the best but found ourselves seeking some microcaches as well. This is a picture of our first find of an aluminum micro-cache capsule purchased from geocaching.org.

If you are a member of geocaching.com (free) you can view our logs to learn about places we visited and see the pictures we submitted.

Logs for glenngurley Hilton Head Geocaching:
12/1/2009 found Dead End [log]
12/1/2009 found Meadow Micro [log]
12/1/2009 found Crossings Park [log]
12/1/2009 found Land Locked [log]
12/1/2009 found On Gator Pond [log]
11/30/2009 found Peligro:los lagartos [log]
11/30/2009 found Compass Rose Park [log]
11/30/2009 found Erkeno's Ruins [log]
12/1/2009 retrieved Emily's Friend?
(Travel Bug Dog Tag) from Land Locked [log]
11/30/2009 placed Mr. Buckeye--EAGLE
(Travel Bug Dog Tag) in Erkeno's Ruins [log]
11/30/2009 retrieved Smiley the Geocacher
(Travel Bug Dog Tag) from Erkeno's Ruins [log]

Geocaching Part 2: Dress Appropriately and Know Your Plants!

2009-09-01T22:27:00.039-04:00

The summer of 2009 will be remembered as the time I started geocaching as an active interest; I had access to a GPS and account on geocaching.com. I went online and was surprised to find two caches in our neighborhood park in Coulwood! I quickly printed out the two guide sheets, entered both waypoints N 35° 18.436 W 080° 56.484 and N 35° 18.412 W 080° 56.593 (sets of coordinates for locations of the geocaches) on the GPS, and headed out the door! It was not long before I discovered a few important things that a geocacher needs to consider before heading out on their first adventure.

I did not realize that you actually have to go off the main path and into a wooded area to retrieve a cache. As I walked the Coulwood Park trail and reading the direction and distance on the GPS, I thought, "Am I suppose to actually leave the walking trail and go into those woods?" After going down the trail different directions and not getting closer to the cache, the answer was, "Well yeah if you are going to find it!" There I was in shorts and flip flops! I watched every step I took on my trek to the hidden cache. Having to look down, I found myself running into a few spider webs and bushing into some plant branches. It was evident that I am more cautious in my old age.

I am extremely allergic to poison ivy so I know what it looks like and can spot it at a distance. I have found that when you geocache in the summer in North Carolina you will see an abundance of poison ivy. It is VERY IMPORTANT that every geocacher can identify poison ivy and poison oak. They both have only three leaves , are shades of green, and found in various sizes . We also have an abundance of Virginia Creeper, pictured on the right. It has five leaves like the fingers on your hand so it is safe to touch.

During my hunts I have found that it is evident that some caches are put out in the winter then when summer arrives, they are surrounded by poison ivy. The hint on the data sheet for one of the caches I planned to find was Base of Tree. It was the tree pictured below. Needless to say, I passed up retrieving this cache!

Geocaching Part 1: Getting Started

2009-08-28T06:44:00.014-04:00

I have been spending time learning to geocache and want to share my experiences as I learn to treasure hunt using high tech tools. In short, someone hides a container of inexpensive items in a container -- a cache and the latitude and longitude are posted on geocaching.com so that people can go hunting for it. Most geocachers use handheld GPS (Global Positioning System) units (cost around $100) to locate the cache. The GPS is a special radio receiver that measures the distance from your location to satellites that orbit the Earth broadcasting radio signals and can take you to coordinates you enter into the device.

After creating a profile on geocaching.com, I searched for caches near my home. I was surprised to find that there are 57 within five miles of my area code and 237 within ten miles! I printed out a few pages about caches that were close by in Coulwood Park, Dog Days of Summer - GCQ6A4 and Follow My Tracks - GC1D926. This is my picture before heading out on my first geocaching adventure on August 8, 2009. At this point, I am a neocacher which means I am a novice geocacher. I thought I would blog about becoming an experienced geocacher with many discoveries logged, travelers released, and some caches created and left for others to find.

My first experience geocaching was in June of 2005, the month I retired from education. Teachers at Highland School of Technology learned to navigate using GPS units during summer staff development provided by Karen Creech and Acacia Dixon from the NC Department of Public Instruction. I created a geocaching activity for the staff members which led them on cache searches around the school's campus and finally guided them to our end-of-year cookout at Crowders Mountain State Park.

From June 2005 until July 2009 I did not have access to a GPS unit so I put geocaching on hold and did not fully explore this exciting activity. Now that I have access to a unit, I plan to learn all I can before I take my grandson on his first adventure in a couple of years!

Celebrating July 4th with Isaac

2009-07-06T16:01:00.020-04:00

On July 3, 2009, I traveled home from a week long trip to Cullowhee, NC where I was working with other educators in learning to use Web 2.0 tools. I arrived home to a nonstop weekend as Isaac's Gramps. Granni and I with the help of Kati and Ray watched Isaac from Friday morning until Sunday afternoon so Betsy and Steven could go on a weekend trip to the mountains of NC. It was special to have the extended time with our grandson.

Highlights of this weekend include playing with Isaac in his backyard pool. Dad and I go to yard sales almost every Saturday after we each our breakfast at Circle G. A month ago we found this pool for $5. He loves water and could not get enough of playing in his pool! I think he had a better time in "Isaac's pool" than the community pool he usually goes to when he swims.

He loves to splash! He filled the cups up numerous times and poured water all around and even on his head. I had a great time just watching and taking pictures. Of course I did my share of filling the cups too and pouring on Isaac... something he liked me to do!

On July 4th, Kati and Ray, who spent each night with Isaac, brought him to his great aunt Donna's house to watch the 51st Coulwood Community Parade. He watched everything that was going on and had the best of times. He helped pick up candy that folks in the parade tossed out as they passed. We all took turns holding Isaac as he enjoyed this event. We did not know what his reaction would be to all the loud noises but he watched like you see him in this picture taking it all in. He waved as several floats passed. The haul of candy improved this year due to having Isaac in my arms ;-)

Later in the afternoon, we went to Granny's and Paw Paws for a cookout. We had hamburgers and hot dogs.

We provided health meals for Isaac all weekend but had to purchase him a Happy Meal this one time, our first time keeping him for the weekend... guess we had to do this as a major spoil by grandparents. Knowing processed food is not good, we won't make a habit of doing it! We did enjoy watching him find the longest french fries and carefully dipping and re dipping them in the ketchup then eating them one at a time.

We ended the weekend by taking Isaac to eat Chinese. The little guy really likes to eat out and is so good. After arriving home, we put him down for some much needed rest so he could wake up refreshed when his parent's returned from their time away.

Ray and Kati's Wedding

2009-06-22T05:26:00.020-04:00

On Saturday, June 20, 2009 Kati and Ray were married at the Great Aunt Stella Center in uptown Charlotte. Pictured here are both of my daughters, their husbands, and my grandson. It was the hottest day of the summer outside so think goodness for air conditioning! My niece, Katelyn Mullins played the harp and Steven Mauney, my son-in-law played the piano and sang.

The reception was filled with family and friends who congratulated the newly weds. Beautifully set tables and decorations, delicious food, favorite music selections, and video memories were all part of the celebration.

After their perfect wedding, reception, and well wishes as they left the building through a tunnel of bubbles, Ray and Kati leave for their honeymoon in Williamsburg, VA. Due to all the digital cameras, they will have visual memories of this very special day when they became Mr. and Mrs. William Ray Leach. Visit their blog as they share about their life together rayandkati.blogspot.com.

2008-12-07T11:53:00.009-05:00

Lost and Found
On Friday evening, December 5, Robin and I went to the movies. As we walked to the car I found a Cannon PowerShot SD750 7.1 mega pixels camera that had been run over by a car and in the rain. I picked it up before it was hit again but could not find the owner. It was raining so I thought someone was picking a person up so they would not get wet and the camera must have been dropped when they were getting into the car and imagined that the owner was well on the way home without realizing the loss. The 3" LCD screen was broken but all the rest seemed to work. It contained a 2g SD card with pictures of these two people with their son and family members getting ready for the Christmas holiday season. I could find no contact information. I left a messages at the movie and mall offices.

It reminded me that four years ago I purchased my first USB Flash Drive. It was purple plastic in an oval shape with a removable cap on the connector. I was so excited to have one and it could hold 128 mb of data. I could carry all my data files with me in my pocket and was able to open them on just about any computer that had a USB slot. I presented session at the NCETC, an educational technology conference in North Carolina. It was the year there was a major snow and ice storm. In the evening, the hotel lost power and I remember packing everything and loading up the car the next morning in the dim morning light so I could check out and head home. Little did I know that I must have dropped my USB flash drive. At that point in time, few folks knew about this type of device. I called the Drury Inn after arriving home and discovering the lost item but they said they could not find anything with that description in the lost and found. There was no personal identification information anywhere on or in the USB drive. I kept kicking myself for not having any contact identification indicated.

I learned a hard lesson during that event. From that point on, I always create a text file that I load on every digital card, mp3 player, portable hard drives, etc. I have. I open notepad, a text editor, in Windows and type in my name and contact information then save the file as If_Found_Return_To-Glenn_Gurley.txt.

If Found Return to Glenn Gurley
Please Call: 704-458-5702 or
E-Mail: glenngurley@gmail.com

This information makes it possible for a person to return a lost memory card. Contact me if you know the people that are on this post. I would like to return the camera and memory card.

2008-11-23T08:40:00.015-05:00

Being a Gramps and Isaac's First Birthday...

When I found that I was going to have a grandson, it did not take me long to decide what I was going to be called. As our daughters were growing up, in addition to reading the entire Little House on the Prairie Series I also read them all the Berenstain Bear Books. I remember Betsy and I always going to the children's section of the bookstores we visited to see if any new books were out. If we found new ones, that would be our purchase we made together. The grandfather in this series is Grizzly Gramps but I am just going to stick with Gramps for Isaac's name for me. I certainly wanted to have one before he started calling me a name he made up! Could not imagine being called Gaga or Imp or Pupu. I am looking forward to the day that I can start reading this series to Isaac, we still have all the books and in addition I have six DVDs filled with 30-minute episodes that we can watch together when his is old enough. We have always been a family of readers and I am sure that Isaac will enjoy books as well. Pictured here are Robin and Betsy reading together.

I did not realize how a grandson could change my life nor how special it would be. For years my friends have shared pictures of their grandchildren and shared how special they are. If it was in a group, I would always say how cute and really not make over the pictures and walk on while the other folks spent time looking at the pictures and listening to the stories the proud grandparent would share. I am having to go back and repent for being that way and now I am there as long as they want to share, listening, asking questions, and comparing notes. When we found that Betsy was expecting, almost all the folks that were already grandparents shared that there is nothing like having grandchildren. It was hard for me to understand until after Isaac was born. It was evident that he recognized me at around five months and is special each time we are together. How special is the grin on his face and the rapid crawling and now walking to me so I can pick him up. It melts my heart everytime!

Isaac turned one year old on November 21, 2008. Robin and I took he and Betsy out to Moe's for his birthday. I think that was more for the adults since Isaac could not eat any of the food from the restaurant but he seemed to have a good time. He enjoyed helping me get the salsa and riding on my shoulders so he could see everything from way up!

Isaac celebrated his birthday with family and friends Saturday afternoon. There were animals all over the house since that was the party's theme. Pictured here is Isaac enjoying his first birthday cake! It did not take him long to understand that he could eat this cake anyway he wanted! He enjoyed eating with his hands but also wanted a spoon too. He played and played until he fell asleep when I was riding him on my shoulders. He woke up after a few minutes in his Mom's arms ready to be part of the party once again. I am sure that Betsy will post pictures in her blog... so for more about Isaac's first birthday and pictures of his first year, visit the Mauney Family Blog.

2008-11-01T09:21:00.028-04:00

Will Richardson is an educator that has share his experiences in the classroom using Web 2.o tools - Will's blog. For the past couple years I have read this publications and his speaking at conferences and on podcasts. I am glad to be in a workshop with him all day today. Will's focus is finding, "How do these technology change teaching and learning?" We were given Will's book, Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms, an excellent read.

It is amazing how quickly the world and students are changing. An eleven year old student created the online blogging project 25 Days to Make a Difference. It went on for another eleven months and she has communicated with students across the globe that would like to be part of a project like this.

Learn based on what we need to know. Teachers need to have students look at news from around the globe rather than just USA sources so they will have a global perspective. If we are having students use paper and pencil without technology we are not preparing them for their future life. What are we doing as educators to use these tools. 95% of things on Web 2.0 are just taking the same things from pencil paper and making it digital... do not utilize the interactivity that could be incorporated. Don't ask students what you know but what you can do with information you find.

Web 2.0 Tools

Students are creating groups - fanfiction.net - students create additional chapters to books
Twitter - mini blogging
Ask question from cellphone - 46645 - text Google question for answer - rethink memory work when you can Google anything from a phone or computer
All MIT courses are online - no cost and no credit from MIT but free
Wikipedia - Bogus Websites
Fylp - Multimedia magazines online that flip from page to page with audio, text, and movies
Yugma - desktop sharing
Creating Avatars - Scratch - Doppelme.com - With DoppelMe you can create a cool graphical likeness of yourself, your friends, family or any group of people for use as an avatar in forums, instant messenger, blogs and almost anywhere else on the web.
Teachers come from anywhere in the world - any age and person - Skype and Yugma
Consider phone technology
RSS - Google Reader - Must learn to scan with so much information - click on Add Subscription to search for RSS information that interest you. You can also paste any URL into the text box.
Social Bookmarking - Delicious

Podcasting, vodcasting, and screencasting

Gcast - Use your phone to create an audio file to download to your computer.
Copyright and Sharing Content
Creative Commons - share audio - ccmixer - Creative Commons mix site - check license
Brazil is leading the world in learning to remix
Posting Podcast - Podomatic
iTunes Store - Click on Podcast then Submit Podcasts
livemoca.com - Learn foreign language
jumpcut.com - can upload, edit, and share online
Cloud computing - having everything on the Internet
There is a lot of stuff on the YouTube - http://schooltube.com/ http://teachertube.com/ http://studenttube.net/ - just about anything can be learned by watching a YouTube video
Screen Cast - jing to create and then upload to Screencast.com
Webcam max (pc) Cam Twist - Mac
Stickam
ubiquity - from Mozilla Labs
Technorati - http://www.technorati.com/ - blogs
Bloggers - Educational Technology - Howard Rheingold Danah Boyd Clarence Fisher Darren Kuropatwa Karl Fisch Ann Smith Classroom 20 Dean Shareski George Seimens Janni Black Stephens Downs Tom Hoffman

FYI - Surfthechannel.com - can find all tv shows (links to pirated video) in Sweden

2008-04-05T19:24:00.009-04:00

Keeping Up With My Blogging Family!

Since November 2007, I have six family blogs that I have added to other blogs I read in my personal blogosphere. As of December 2007, blog search engine Technorati was tracking more than 112 million blogs so there are blogs of every sort. Here is how blogging fever caught on with my family...

My oldest daughter Betsy started her blog (The Mauney Family) to keep the family current on Isaac, my first grandchild. I serves as an online record of his growth.
My brother Mike (Mike Goes A Bloggin') enjoys writing and after seeing Betsy's blog he started one to share his writing with the family instead of sending out e-mails.
My brother encouraged our Dad to start a blog and tell some of his stories. Dad (Glenn A. Gurley) went to Blogspot and started his own blog and decided to share his life's story through text and also to record some of the stories he would share. This has ended up being a joint effort of my Dad and I.
After reading her sister Betsy's and Paw Paw's blogs, my daughter Kati started her blog (A Little Thing Called Life) where she shares life of a university student and becoming engaged.
My daughter is engaged to Ray and he started his blog Looking Forward... and also an internship blog
Finally, I pulled out my blog, dusted it off, and started it up again!

Think goodness I can subscribe to blogs by using RSS feeds and with one click can see if any blogs have been updated. The RSS readers (podcatchers) check feeds every few minutes and shows the newest updates. So instead of having to visit a dozen different places to get updates, I just go to one screen and see it combined ("aggregated") into a single window. Every time a blogger makes a new post, I receive an update through my RSS reader, Google Reader. So if I receive an update I know there is fresh content to read and if I don’t receive an update, there is no new content, so there is no point in my visiting the site.

There are several podcatcher sites; I use Google Reader. Several RSS feeds can be added so there is content from many locations all in one place. So rather than visit 20 blogs a day and wait/check for new content, RSS does this automatically on the one page. Clever, and it saves time and energy, so it might be worth using if you visit several blogs daily. Once an update is published at the source server, RSS send updates and only takes moments to get to your screen.

Video about Google Reader. Instructions to set up an account with Google and add feeds:

Go to Google.com and look for the list of services at the very top of the page and click on “more”
Click on “Reader”
Log in to your Google Account with the user id and password you created when you created the account or go to the link for “Create an Account”. A Google e-mail account is free and a good one to have in addition to the e-mail account you normally use
Click on the “Add Subscription” tab located on the upper left frame
Type or paste a RSS feed URL into the box and click “Add”
To read your feed just click on the name of the feed.

To read the new material that has been posted, log in to your RSS reader page. I use G-mail so all I have to do is click on Reader when I am checking my e-mail.

Web browsers may contain built-in feed readers. Mozilla Firefox comes with built-in feeds set up already and you add the ones you find to the existing list. Internet Explorer 7+ has one built in too and is under the Favorites tab. These remain on the computer you put them on so when you are on a different computer, you don't have access to your feeds like you do using Google Reader.

You may want to check into using a podcatcher to make your Internet social life more efficient.

2008-03-22T21:57:00.010-04:00

Family Pictures, How They Have Changed!

As I was making sure that my Nikon D-40 SLR Digital Camera was charged up and there was plenty of room on my 2 gigabyte secure digital card so everything would be ready to take to my parent’s house for Easter, I thought back at how photography has changed over the past few years. I remember my first digital camera had a resolution of 640 x 480 and started with around 1 mega pixel. This camera has 6.1 mega pixels and has more bells and whistles than I think I will ever use. I keep the pictures at 6.1 mega pixels so when I crop or edit the pictures they will be of excellent quality. Leaving the picture size at maximum resolution I have been able to crop small section of the picture and it still turn out well when printed.

As I have been working with my Dad on his blog I see the limited photographs that show him growing up. I have more that were taken when I was growing up and even more when my daughters were growing up. All these combined don’t equal the number of photographs that we have taken in the past few years. Now, we are free from the long process of taking 12, 24, or 36 pictures on a roll of film and after it is shot, carefully rewinding, removing the roll, and taking it to a store to have it developed.

I am having the best of times with Isaac, my first grandchild. I am already teaching him to call me Gramps and how to stand up and sit down. The picture that is flipping on this page is a four month picture of him. I edited a digital picture using an Internet based free service, BeFunky Cartoonizer to transform one of Isaac's photographs to this cartoon picture. The statement, "I love puppies" did not come out on the cartoon very clear so I decided to edit the words on the t-shirt to Gramp's Big Boy. To use the BeFunky Cartoonizer, you have to register but there is no cost to create the cartoons. After registering, you click on Cartoonizer then upload a picture, crop, then click on cartoonizer to sketch and then color. If you want to tweak a little you may want to try your hand using warp. Once you have your picture edited the way you want, print screen then crop down to the picture. You can save the picture to your account. You can even order, mugs, t-shirts, posters, or share the photo on a social networking site.

Another service that turns a picture into a conversation piece is Pictosaic. This is an online photo mosaic creator which can take an uploaded picture and turn it into a mosaic in a few seconds. Upload a picture, make choices of little pictures that will make up the picture. I like to have the original picture as one of the pictures so folks can locate it when viewing the picture. Isaac’s mom, Betsy, send the picture to SnapFish and they printed an 11” x 17” photograph which seemed the perfect size for this.

Sometimes you may want to resize your picture if it is too large or change the file type of a picture. I found a site that will do that for you. Gary’s Hood - Convert And Resize An Image - This web page will convert a .png, .gif, .jpg, .jpeg, .bmp, or .ico into any image format and size. The max image size to be uploaded is 5 megabytes and the max resolution to convert an image is 1280 x 1024. Animated gifs can be resized, but cannot be converted to another format.

I look forward to a day with my family, eating plenty of food and taking some memorable pictures!

2008-03-16T16:11:00.008-04:00

Starting all over...

I started this blog in 2004 while serving as Academy Coordinator at Highland School of Technology at the time I was working with students on senior projects. Starting in 2002 we had the students use Live Journal to record experiences and reflections during the time they were working on their senior projects. Here is the journal of one the students, Jeff Horn's Internship, that was written in the Spring of 2004. This allowed the teacher to stay current on the progress of the student as the student completed their work and me to check in as needed. The Live Journal blog entries and digital portfolio items saved from each of the classes students took at Highland were organized into each students' digital portfolio that was recorded on a CD for them to take when they graduated from high school. How things have changed in the last few years!

I want to keep this blog address that has my name so I am starting over fresh with this blog and renamed the title to One Man and a Laptop. A focus of this blog will be looking at tools that are available on the Internet.

I am adding a ClustrMaps to this blog to keep up with where folks are located that are viewing my blog. All visitors will be able to see at a glance where the site's visitors are located. This information is recorded when a visitor comes to the blog. This website creates a code that can be added to web pages so information will be collected and submitted to ClustrMaps and a graphic and link is added to the web page.

I became a grandfather on November 21, 2007 when my grandson Isaac Ryan Mauney was born. This picture was taken right before he turned four months old and I turned it into a cartoon drawing. I am finding that it is true when folks say there is nothing better than having grand kids. I already have a tent and some camping trips planned for our backyard!

Blog, blogs, and more blogs! My daughter Betsy started a blog so she could share with her family and friends about Isaac. See the Mauney Family Blog. After visiting their blog, my eighty year old father decided to create an online journal of his life which is updated every Sunday with more his story. Visit my Dad/Paw Paw's, blog to read about his interesting life and to listen as he tells some of the stories. Dad and I work on this journal together, he writes and e-mails me the stories, he gathers pictures that are included each week, and I serve as his editor. We discuss things using Gmail Chat and he records his audio using my iRiver MP3 player/recorder. This has been an excellent father and son project! There is a multitude of stories and pictures that family and friends would have never heard or seen if it were not for this blog. My daughter Betsy is taking this information and editing it for a book that we will have published for the family.

Kati, my daughter that is beginning her senior year as a student at UNCC, started her blog moving from away from Facebook. Visit her blog, A Little Thing Called Life... She is engaged to Ray Leach who is a senior at UNCC and has just posted their engagement pictures. Visit Ray's Blog - Looking Forward. He is really looking forward to finishing college and moving on with his life!