DJ Is Sometimes a Puzzle

Keeping in Touch

We live in a mobile world. We raise great kids in rural communities and then are forced to see them have to leave to make a living because there are no jobs available to keep them close to home. Older folks in the northern climes seek the sun in winter and travel south and west to more temperate and warmer places, leaving other family behind. With families scattered far and wide, how can they keep in touch and share experiences? Technology has given us some tools like phone and e-mail and now web 2.0 has given us more ways to share our life experiences with those we love.

Today I bumped into a very cool new application Lifesnapz while seeking out projects for our upcoming "More Things on a Stick" that looks to be a winner.

This description is from their web site: "LifeSnapz is a free, easy and secure way for people to record and organize important events, milestones and memories in their lives.

Users of LifeSnapz, can contribute text, photos, and video to describe these events, share them with self-designated groups (like family members, colleagues, schoolmates or youth sports teams) and explore these events using dynamic timelines, maps, and lists.

Our vision is a site where users and groups can keep their memories alive and vibrant so that they can be relived for many years thereafter."

Once signed up, the site itself was easy to navigate, very intuitive for users. You can create a group, then create an event, upload pictures and/or videos, and caption and tag them. Inviting others to join you and giving them either full or view only rights was simple as well. There is a discussion and comments feature. You can list those present at the event by name and they are listed on the page. Photos can be uploaded or imported from your computer, Flickr, Picasa, or Youtube.

Multiple events can then form a visual timeline for you. You can map the location of the events as well with the integrated Google map feature. You can sign up for e-mail notices of updates to your groups and events too. Privacy settings allow you to share only what you want with those you trust.

Simple, but oh so cool. It took me less than fifteen minutes to get started with my first group and event and invite family members to join. I had planned to start a family blog to help us all stay in touch, but LifeSnapz seems like it would be much easier for non-techies to use.

Of course, it's not the same as being together in person, but at least we'll be able to keep up with how everyone looks and share the events that are important in each other's lives.

Trying out Animoto

Test run to see how it works. Not hard to do, but the selection of tunes is limited. If you're going to use it, it would be good to be prepared with your own music.

Jack O'Lantern

Now It's Fall, Just the Nicest Time of All

I loved pulling children's books out for special displays, be it seasonal, holiday or just because. The tiny Lois Lenski book Now It's Fall was always tucked far back on the deep shelf with larger books, out of sight. When it was put out on seasonal display, tiny hands quickly plucked it up to take it home and have it read aloud, short snippets of fall activities in equally short rhyme, snapshots in time of the season.

In looking for More 23Things I found a Web2.0 application which could be used to make your own little storybook, Showbeyond. According to their web site Showbeyond is a multimedia slidecast creator, online publishing platform, and story sharing community. With Showbeyond you can easily grab your images, and then add your sound and text to create your stories. You can then share your story with the world, or just a few chosen friends. It would be a great tool to use with a class of any age.

I found one shared story which reminded me of the spirit of fall held in Lois Lenski's lovely little book. The title is Autumn Leaves posted by Aseret41 on September 29, 2008. It would make a lovely picture book to share with little ones, and would be great in a story time.

Superior Reading

It seems like I have been reading Nevada Barr's Winter Study for a long time now. This is the second book she's set in Isle Royal National Park. I picked it up because it incorporates information about Rolf Peterson's ongoing study of the wolves on the island and as a Yooper, I've read many newspaper accounts of the wolf study in the Houghton Daily Mining Gazette over the years. While the book is as good a story as her others, I guess I'm not really wanting to be reminded of the winter conditions at the end of summer. It's all too soon that the landscape will resemble frozen tundra and we'll all be exhausted just getting bundled up in our winter wear before we can head outside. I have strong recollections of reading another of her books during an outbreak of temperatures ranging down to forty below zero. Her all to vivid descriptions of spelunking in narrow passageways below ground gripped me with a panicky claustrophobia. The tiny house where we stay in Minnesota suddenly seemed the size of a matchbox and I needed space and air. I don't recommend standing outdoors in pj's and robe at midnight when it's forty below..but I had to gulp in huge breaths of fresh cold air and not feel so confined. Now that's GOOD writing!

Labor Day 2008 in Ontonagon

The 51st annual Labor Day celebration in Ontonagon will not soon be forgotten. Early Sunday morning a fire of yet undetermined origin broke out taking with it almost an entire block of buildings. Strong south winds carried embers across the street, gutting another business, and damaging several others. The embers carried for blocks, raining down on tinder dry grass in yards of homes east of the river from River Street back as far as Amygdaloid Street. (It brought back to me disquieting memories of the blaze which burned the Elk Hotel in the sixties where the old jail in which we resided two blocks from that fire was cascaded with large chunks of pine embers still blazing as they landed on the roof.)

In a strange twist of fate, author Henry Kisor had only several days earlier taken some striking photographs of the block which burned, showing the false fronts of the buildings, popular when they were built. You can view the before the fire pictures on one of his blogs, The Whodunit Photographer. His other blog, The Reluctant Blogger, has some wonderful photos and commentary on the aftermath of the fire.

My father tells me that Joan Volek Gersten, coloratura soprano, lived upstairs in the pink building on the left growing up. My great-grandfather, Ira Dowd, had his shop in the Connie's Place building (ice cream shop), and Uncle Walter Scott's barbershop was next door (video store) according to local genealogist (and cousin) Andy Lockhart.