Well hello blog! It’s been almost a year since I have visited you and for that I am very sorry. Life has been kinda crazy. My 4 children have made sure that the last year resembles a roller coaster ride with ups and downs, twists and turns, and the occasional gut drop. In between the adventures of mothering I have learned how to can my home made preserves as well as belly dance. With the adventures in belly dancing I have taken on creating my own group choreography as well as costume designs and sewing. After being a beginner for 4 months I finally got to move up to the intermediate level which I LOVE. It challenges me mentally and physically and makes me feel like a more beautiful person. I would love to be able to afford more classes and workshops but for now I will be happy with my 1 day a week.
I’ll try to stop by more often but I make no promises. I’m just going to take this ride for as long as it goes on.
Seems everything these days has to have a cushy place to rest and electronics are not excluded! My husband has now requested a new chair for his Droid Eris (however he didn’t want to pay $14.99 or even $9.99 for one). So with a little research and a few online photos I came up with a pattern and made a cell phone bean bag chair. It sure didn’t take long to put together and the end result I am quite pleased with (as well as the price tag).
Now some of you who know me may be thinking “who the heck is Natasha?”.
Natasha is the name that I have given my Nook (the Barnes & Noble E-Reader). So far she has been a formidable companion. Our first day together was spent charging and setting up her wi-fi compatibilities as well as upgrading her software to the new version 1.3.0. Once this was done we were off and searching for books by the dozens! With over 90,000 free e-books to choose from I have enough choices to last me for years without ever having to actually buy a book (which is perfect because I am a major tight wad!). I was also directed to a great site especially for free downloads which touted the 30 Best sites for downloading free ebooks. For days I had my face buried in my nook. Almost to the point my family wondered if I may ever put it down.
Then I got the bug to figure out how to download my music files to her. Tunes and a good book, what could be better? Unfortunately there is not much in for out there on how to get the files from your pc to your nook. I did however finally figure out that I could transfer my mp4′s from iTunes directly to my nook via the USB that comes with the unit (also called “side loading”). All I had to do was Select the songs I wanted in iTunes and drag them to the My Music folder on my nook. What could be easier? Now I can work while listening to music that my customers can’t hear (via the headphone jack). Life is almost complete!
Now jump forward a few days. I get an email spouting the “get mom a nook for mother’s day”. Low and behold the nook they show has a new wallpaper that I didn’t have in my factory setting. Thus started my journey to find the lovely picture they had shown in their advertising. Though I searched high and low, sadly this picture was not to be found. The good news is that I did stumble across a great site called www.nook-look.com that had a bunch of FREE down loadable wallpapers and screen savers. This wonderful site also had very easy to follow direction on how to create your own. Now my Natasha can put on a new face when ever she likes! You can see my creations here.
I love the new companionship I have gained through my nook; however she does have a few quirks. With the 1.3.0 upgrade you now have the ability to browse the web. Now it’s not super fast or flash compatible but it is functional. That is until you want to send a complete email. You can read your mail, delete your mail, start an email and send it with just a recipient and title but it will NOT let you type text into the body of the email. I’m not sure if this is just a beta release issue that they plan to fix in the future or if they just plan on keeping it as a browser only type set up. Facebook reacts the same way. You can browse your page to death but you can not update your status or respond to others comments. I hope that this will be fixed in the future as it was part of my decision to but the nook and I’d like to be able to fully access my online accounts through it. I would also like to see more games added to the new “games” section. Chess and Suduku are nice for some but I much prefer word games. JMHO
To note a few great things about Natasha. The battery life is fantastic if you remember to turn off the wi-fi when you aren’t using it. In the 2 weeks that she has been here I have only had to charge her 3 times. The factory installed wallpapers and screen savers are quite nice. The touch screen navigation is great for people with fingers of all sizes with very few miss taps. I do enjoy the Daily reads by Grin & Tonic as they are dry humor at it’s best. Did I mention the over 90,000 FREE books?!
Today I decided to give in to making wallpapers for my Nook . Here are a few of my first collaborations!
Microsoft is allowing netbook users to download Windows 7, its new operating system, onto a bootable USB or burn it onto a DVD, in yet another move by Redmond to disseminate the operating system to as many users as possible. Although Microsoft reported yet another quarter of declining revenues, executives remain hopeful that Windows 7, rising PC sales and a sunnier economic outlook will translate into a more profitable 2010.
Microsoft has developed a solution for porting Windows 7 onto netbooks that lack a DVD drive: a USB memory stick. The feature was announced during the Windows 7 launch event in New York City on Oct. 22.
Specifically, netbook users can use Microsoft’s newly revamped online store to download Windows 7 for Netbooks onto a bootable USB, or burn it onto a DVD.
“For netbook users without DVD drives, the Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool [WUDT] will take an ISO image and create a bootable USB device that can be used to install Windows 7,” Microsoft spokesperson Brandon LeBlanc wrote in an Oct. 22 entry on The Windows Blog. “The WUDT can also create a Windows 7 installation DVD from the ISO file as well.”
The WUDT will work with PCs already running Windows XP or Vista. However, there are also some caveats for netbook users looking to take the USB route.
“Please note that in order to boot off of a USB device (or external DVD player), you will need to configure your BIOS to boot off of that device,” LeBlanc added in his blog post. “If you’re not comfortable making this type of BIOS change I recommend you seek assistance from your favorite ‘tech geek.’”
The WUDT plays into Microsoft’s strategy to port Windows 7 onto as many devices as possible. Now that the operating system has been released, Redmond needs it to be a sizable hit among both consumers and the enterprise in order to help reverse a declining revenue trend.
Despite the popularity of netbooks, PC sales have been slumping due to the recession, and weighing down Microsoft’s revenues in the process. On Oct. 23, Microsoft released earnings for the first quarter of fiscal 2010 that showed a 14 percent decline year-over-year from the same quarter in 2008, with revenues of $12.92 billion.
During that period, Microsoft’s operating income, net income and diluting earnings per share for the quarter declined 25 percent, 18 percent and 17 percent, respectively. Microsoft is hopeful, though, that its new collection of products plus a corporate culture increasingly devoted to streamlining will ultimately translate into positive earnings in 2010.
“Windows division revenue will be in line with overall PC growth,” Chris Liddell, Microsoft’s chief financial officer, said during an Oct. 23 earnings call. “Our strategies will position us to take advantage of the economic recovery.”
Liddell expressed hope in what he termed “good” feedback from corporations with regard to adopting Windows 7. Although 80 percent of all commercial PCs continue to run Windows XP, according to a recent report from research firm Forrester, the support for XP’s Service Packs 2 and 3 will end in April 2014.
Long before that point, of course, Microsoft is hoping that people will have made the leap to Windows 7—even if they need a USB device to make that happen.
Source from: http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Windows/Microsoft-Offers-Windows-7-on-USB-Drives-for-Netbooks-225258/
Google Inc. wants to answer your mobile phone calls when you can’t or just don’t want to talk.
In its latest bid to become a bigger player in telecommunications, the Internet search leader is giving people a chance to have its free voice mail service answer calls to their cell phones. The offering was introduced Tuesday.
The voice mail feature is part of Google Voice, a fledging service striving to become a hub for phone calls to people’s mobile, home and office numbers.
Taking advantage of all of its tools requires getting a new number from Google Voice, a leap that many people aren’t ready to make.
So Google has come up with a way to tie existing mobile phone numbers to its voice mail service. The process requires requesting an invitation from Google and then following a few steps outlined at http://www.google.com/googlevoice/about.html. Invitations also are available from Google Voice’s current users.
“We see this as a perfect step for getting familiar with Google Voice without a lot of change,” said Vincent Paquet, a senior product manager.
The caveat: People choosing to stick with their existing phone numbers won’t be able to take advantage of all Google Voice features, such as directing calls to a home or office number.
But the voice mail option will provide more bells and whistles than what most major mobile phone carriers offer in their standard packages.
Among other things, Google’s voice mail service automatically transcribes messages and lets users customize greetings for frequent callers.
As part of its expansion efforts, Google developed a voice application for the iPhone that didn’t get approved by Apple Inc. The snub triggered a Federal Communications Commission inquiry into whether Apple and the iPhone’s U.S. carrier, AT&T Inc., might have been trying to stifle a potential competitor.
Source from: http://tech.yahoo.com/news/ap/20091027/ap_on_hi_te/us_tec_techbit_google_voice
LONDON (Reuters) – Tweeters are being invited to submit questions for the spirits of departed celebrities including Michael Jackson and William Shakespeare as part of the world’s first Twitter seance.
A psychic medium will then try to contact the stars — who were chosen along with actor River Phoenix and Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain from nominations sent in by the public — at the London-based seance on Friday, the day before Halloween.
Other prominent dead figures nominated by tweeters keen to pose questions during the “tweance” included John Lennon, Marilyn Monroe, Abraham Lincoln and Houdini.
Twitter users will be able to follow the seance live on the micro-blogging site, which psychic Jayne Wallace will use to relay any responses she receives from the spirits
Source from:http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20091027/od_uk_nm/oukoe_uk_britain_twitter
Local tattoo artist Scotty Savell wants your help to break a Guinness World Record while raising money for cancer awareness and education.
Ink has been Savell’s passion for the last 13 years, and now he’s using that passion in an attempt to break a world record.
Starting Friday Oct 23rd at noon, Savell will tattoo customers for 24 hours straight at Freakys Tattoo and Body Piercings. They are located on Colfax Avenue and Ivanhoe Street in Denver.
Savell says it’s not just about the record. It’s about giving back.
“I have quite a few people in my family who have been affected by cancer. Breast cancer, stomach cancer, brain cancer. Mostly it wasn’t about breaking a record. A lot of it was, how do we hold an event to make money for cancer awareness and education,” he said.
Available designs will be awareness ribbons in a certain size based on Guinness World Record guidelines of 3.72 x 3.72 inches, but customers can pick a cause and a color.
Event organizers say if you’re too “manly” for an awareness ribbon they’ve got a crossbones design for you.
The current record for the most tattoos in a 24-hour period is 801 tattoos set in 2008 by Arizona tattoo artist Hollis Cantrell.
All participants must be over the age of 18.
Ribbon tattoos cost $30 (or $20 between the slower hours of 1 to 6 a.m.), an off-the-street savings of almost 500 percent. Though walk-ins are welcome and encouraged, interested parties can e-mail tatsforacause@yahoo.com to schedule an appointment. It all goes down at Freaky’s, 5701 East Colfax Avenue. Get more information at www.freakys.com or by calling 303-765-2628.
Considering Halloween is my favorite holiday of all times I thought I would share with you all it’s origin and traditions.
ANCIENT ORIGINS
Halloween’s origins date back to the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain (pronounced sow-in).
The Celts, who lived 2,000 years ago in the area that is now Ireland, the United Kingdom, and northern France, celebrated their new year on November 1. This day marked the end of summer and the harvest and the beginning of the dark, cold winter, a time of year that was often associated with human death. Celts believed that on the night before the new year, the boundary between the worlds of the living and the dead became blurred. On the night of October 31, they celebrated Samhain, when it was believed that the ghosts of the dead returned to earth. In addition to causing trouble and damaging crops, Celts thought that the presence of the otherworldly spirits made it easier for the Druids, or Celtic priests, to make predictions about the future. For a people entirely dependent on the volatile natural world, these prophecies were an important source of comfort and direction during the long, dark winter.
To commemorate the event, Druids built huge sacred bonfires, where the people gathered to burn crops and animals as sacrifices to the Celtic deities.
During the celebration, the Celts wore costumes, typically consisting of animal heads and skins, and attempted to tell each other’s fortunes. When the celebration was over, they re-lit their hearth fires, which they had extinguished earlier that evening, from the sacred bonfire to help protect them during the coming winter.
By A.D. 43, Romans had conquered the majority of Celtic territory. In the course of the four hundred years that they ruled the Celtic lands, two festivals of Roman origin were combined with the traditional Celtic celebration of Samhain.
The first was Feralia, a day in late October when the Romans traditionally commemorated the passing of the dead. The second was a day to honor Pomona, the Roman goddess of fruit and trees. The symbol of Pomona is the apple and the incorporation of this celebration into Samhain probably explains the tradition of “bobbing” for apples that is practiced today on Halloween.
By the 800s, the influence of Christianity had spread into Celtic lands. In the seventh century, Pope Boniface IV designated November 1 All Saints’ Day, a time to honor saints and martyrs. It is widely believed today that the pope was attempting to replace the Celtic festival of the dead with a related, but church-sanctioned holiday. The celebration was also called All-hallows or All-hallowmas (from Middle English Alholowmesse meaning All Saints’ Day) and the night before it, the night of Samhain, began to be called All-hallows Eve and, eventually, Halloween. Even later, in A.D. 1000, the church would make November 2 All Souls’ Day, a day to honor the dead. It was celebrated similarly to Samhain, with big bonfires, parades, and dressing up in costumes as saints, angels, and devils. Together, the three celebrations, the eve of All Saints’, All Saints’, and All Souls’, were called Hallowmas.
HALLOWEEN COMES TO AMERICA
As European immigrants came to America, they brought their varied Halloween customs with them. Because of the rigid Protestant belief systems that characterized early New England, celebration of Halloween in colonial times was extremely limited there.
It was much more common in Maryland and the southern colonies. As the beliefs and customs of different European ethnic groups, as well as the American Indians, meshed, a distinctly American version of Halloween began to emerge. The first celebrations included “play parties,” public events held to celebrate the harvest, where neighbors would share stories of the dead, tell each other’s fortunes, dance, and sing. Colonial Halloween festivities also featured the telling of ghost stories and mischief-making of all kinds. By the middle of the nineteenth century, annual autumn festivities were common, but Halloween was not yet celebrated everywhere in the country.
In the second half of the nineteenth century, America was flooded with new immigrants. These new immigrants, especially the millions of Irish fleeing Ireland’s potato famine of 1846, helped to popularize the celebration of Halloween nationally. Taking from Irish and English traditions, Americans began to dress up in costumes and go house to house asking for food or money, a practice that eventually became today’s “trick-or-treat” tradition. Young women believed that, on Halloween, they could divine the name or appearance of their future husband by doing tricks with yarn, apple parings, or mirrors.
In the late 1800s, there was a move in America to mold Halloween into a holiday more about community and neighborly get-togethers, than about ghosts, pranks, and witchcraft.
At the turn of the century, Halloween parties for both children and adults became the most common way to celebrate the day. Parties focused on games, foods of the season, and festive costumes. Parents were encouraged by newspapers and community leaders to take anything “frightening” or “grotesque” out of Halloween celebrations. Because of their efforts, Halloween lost most of its superstitious and religious overtones by the beginning of the twentieth century.
By the 1920s and 1930s, Halloween had become a secular, but community-centered holiday, with parades and town-wide parties as the featured entertainment. Despite the best efforts of many schools and communities, vandalism began to plague Halloween celebrations in many communities during this time. By the 1950s, town leaders had successfully limited vandalism and Halloween had evolved into a holiday directed mainly at the young. Due to the high numbers of young children during the fifties baby boom, parties moved from town civic centers into the classroom or home, where they could be more easily accommodated. Between 1920 and 1950, the centuries-old practice of trick-or-treating was also revived. Trick-or-treating was a relatively inexpensive way for an entire community to share the Halloween celebration. In theory, families could also prevent tricks being played on them by providing the neighborhood children with small treats. A new American tradition was born, and it has continued to grow. Today, Americans spend an estimated $6.9 billion annually on Halloween, making it the country’s second largest commercial holiday.
TODAY’S TRADITIONS
The American tradition of “trick-or-treating” probably dates back to the early All Souls’ Day parades in England. During the festivities, poor citizens would beg for food and families would give them pastries called “soul cakes” in return for their promise to pray for the family’s dead relatives.
The distribution of soul cakes was encouraged by the church as a way to replace the ancient practice of leaving food and wine for roaming spirits. The practice, which was referred to as “going a-souling” was eventually taken up by children who would visit the houses in their neighborhood and be given ale, food, and money.
The tradition of dressing in costume for Halloween has both European and Celtic roots. Hundreds of years ago, winter was an uncertain and frightening time. Food supplies often ran low and, for the many people afraid of the dark, the short days of winter were full of constant worry. On Halloween, when it was believed that ghosts came back to the earthly world, people thought that they would encounter ghosts if they left their homes. To avoid being recognized by these ghosts, people would wear masks when they left their homes after dark so that the ghosts would mistake them for fellow spirits. On Halloween, to keep ghosts away from their houses, people would place bowls of food outside their homes to appease the ghosts and prevent them from attempting to enter.
AROUND THE WORLD
Halloween, one of the world’s oldest holidays, is still celebrated today in several countries around the globe.
The autumn rite is commemorated in the United Kingdom, although with a surprising and distinctive British twist. In Mexico, Latin America, and Spain, All Souls’ Day, the third day of the three-day Hallowmas observance, is the most important part of the celebration for many people. In Ireland and Canada, Halloween, which was once a frightening and superstitious time of year, is celebrated much as it is here in the United States, with trick-or-treating, costume parties, and fun for all ages.
EL DIA DE LOS MUERTOS
In Mexico, Latin America, and Spain, All Souls’ Day, which takes place on November 2, is commemorated with a three-day celebration that begins on the evening of October 31. The celebration is designed to honor the dead who, it is believed, return to their earthly homes on Halloween. Many families construct an altar to the dead in their homes to honor deceased relatives and decorate it with candy, flowers, photographs, samples of the deceased’s favorite foods and drinks, and fresh water. Often, a wash basin and towel are left out so that the spirit can wash before indulging in the feast.
Candles and incense are burned to help the deceased find the way home. Relatives also tidy the gravesites of their departed family members. This can include snipping weeds, making repairs, and painting. The grave is then decorated with flowers, wreaths, or paper streamers. On November 2, relatives gather at the gravesite to picnic and reminisce. Some gatherings even include tequila and a mariachi band! Celebrations honoring departed loved ones and family members are found as far back as ancient Egyptian times.
GUY FAWKES DAY
On the evening of November 5, bonfires are lit throughout England. Effigies are burned and fireworks are set off. Although it falls around the same time and has some similar traditions, this celebration has little to do with Halloween or the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain. The English, for the most part, stopped celebrating Halloween as Martin Luther’s Protestant Reformation began to spread. As followers of the new religion did not believe in saints, they had no reason to celebrate the eve of All Saints’ Day. However, a new autumn ritual did emerge. Guy Fawkes Day festivities were designed to commemorate the execution of a notorious English traitor, Guy Fawkes.
On November 5, 1606, Fawkes was executed after being convicted of attempting to blow up England’s parliament building. Fawkes was a member of a Catholic group who wanted to remove the Protestant King James from power. The original Guy Fawkes Day was celebrated right after his execution. The first bonfires, which were called “bone fires,” were set up to burn effigies and symbolic “bones” of the Catholic pope. It was not until two centuries later that effigies of the pope were replaced with those of Guy Fawkes. In addition to making effigies to be burned in the fires, children in some parts of England also walk the streets carrying an effigy or “guy” and ask for “a penny for the guy,” although they keep the money for themselves. This is as close to the American practice of “trick-or-treating” as can be found in England today. Guy Fawkes Day was even celebrated by the pilgrims at the first settlement at Plymouth. However, as the young nation began to develop its own history, Guy Fawkes was celebrated less frequently and eventually died out.
WHERE IT ALL BEGAN
In Ireland, where Halloween originated, the day is still celebrated much as it is in the United States. In rural areas, bonfires are lit as they were in the days of the Celts, and all over the country, children get dressed up in costumes and spend the evening “trick-or-treating” in their neighborhoods. After trick-or-treating, most people attend parties with neighbors and friends. At the parties, many games are played, including “snap-apple,” a game in which an apple on a string is tied to a doorframe or tree and players attempt to bite the hanging apple. In addition to bobbing for apples, parents often arrange treasure hunts, with candy or pastries as the “treasure.” The Irish also play a card game where cards are laid face down on a table with candy or coins underneath them. When a child chooses a card, he receives whatever prize is found below it.
A traditional food eaten on Halloween is barnbrack, a kind of fruitcake that can be bought in stores or baked at home. A muslin-wrapped treat is baked inside the cake that, it is said, can foretell the eater’s future. If a ring is found, it means that the person will soon be wed; a piece of straw means that a prosperous year is on its way. Children are also known to play tricks on their neighbors, such as “knock-a-dolly,” a prank in which children knock on the doors of their neighbors, but run away before the door is opened.
Source from: http://www.history.com/content/halloween/real-story-of-halloween