When I was a kid I loved this season, and one of the traditions I like was the Advent Calendar. Though you can purchase Advent calendars all over, I found in recent years a place to buy Advent calendars imported from Germany, a little classier looking and containing what I consider a finer German chocolate than a cheap imitation. You can get the Wawi Chocolate Advent Calendars from World Markets (formerly Cost Plus). If you're looking to avoid adding these tiny chocolates to your waistline and still would like to participate in this tradition you can do so on-line! There are several web-based Advent Calendars - in researching this article I came across a great article on the Huffington Post: Online Advent Calendars Offer Spiritual Opportunity at the Computer Here are several Advent Calendars featured by Huffington Post with their direct link and a brief description: "Love Revealed" by Trinity Wall Street Episcopal Church offers an inspiring profile of a young person who is making a difference in the world for each day of the Advent season (this calendar is pictured above) The Advent Calendar by Beliefnet.com offers a variety of daily content including articles, devotionals and quizzes. I checked out several Apps on my iPhone which were promoted or listed as Advent Calendars but did not find one I thought worth mentioning. If you have downloaded and used one that is, let me know in the comments below. And for my friends & colleagues who celebrate Hanukkah - check out the 'Virtual Menorah' And if you have an iPhone, you may want to download the Dreidel App by Excell Tech Mobile (it's free and allows you to 'spin' the on-screen Dreidel as many times as you like).
Busted Halo's 2010 Advent Surprise Calendar reveals a short quotation for each day along with a "microchallenge" -- an easily doable but meaningful task to help you make the most of the Advent season.
EWTN Global Catholic Network's Advent Calendar provides scripture, commentary and ideas for Advent actions, small good deeds or actions to reinforce the spirit of the season.
The Advent Calendar hosted by Loyola Press, is geared towards children and gives them a daily charge to share in the spirit of the season.
The Ecumenical Advocacy Alliance's "Live the Promise!" is an Advent calendar which will go live on December 1, World AIDS Day. With pieces written by Christians from around the world, these devotions on faith and current HIV issues will lead readers in daily Biblical reflection and prayer up to Christmas in both Western and Eastern traditions.
St. Margaret Mary Parish of Naperville, Illinois offers this simple and accessible Advent calendar. Click on each day for a short scripture passage to spur thought and reflection for the holiday season.
Family Fun
Cool T-Shirts for Tech Geeks
And I am glad I did because I was reminded of some very cool T-shirts made by a company who are based in Texas (with stores in both Austin and Round Rock). In addition to custom screen and embroidery, and pre-printed T-shirts with a strong emphasis in school and school athletics themes, they have some great T-shirt designs for the technology experts and geeks in your life! Here is a sampling of some of their shirts:Just yesterday I came across some notes I made at a Tech Conference I attended back in 2008 - the TCEA - Texas Computer Educators Association.
You can check out more of their store and peruse the full collection of Tech shirts here: http://store.rocksports.net/tech.html
'Gesture Based Technologies' - the next rage in gaming?
If you think/thought the Nintendo Wii is cool, wait until you get to try the new round of gaming! News is out today that Microsoft's newest gaming concept will be out for sale in October 2010... just in time for holiday shopping!
Project Natal - a video game system that reads body movement and doesn't require remote controls - is an add-on for the Xbox 360 console. A camera reads players' body movements and then transfers them into the characters in a game. So you might play soccer, for example, by kicking your leg rather than clicking a button on a remote or swinging a controller, as is the case with the Nintendo Wii.
Natal is part of a new wave of "gesture-based" technologies that are coming to market. The underlying idea is that people should be able to use natural body movements and hand gestures to control consumer electronics, rather than clicking buttons or dragging mouse pointers across screens.
Apparently Microsoft is not alone as Sony has another competitor called the 'PlayStation Move' (expected out later this year as well)
Merry Christmas! (with some online holiday fun)
To you and your loved ones I wish a very Merry Christmas!
If you should find yourself with a little time on your hands and looking for some fun online today... here are a couple of suggestions from Your Technology Tutor:
Make A Snowflake
Remember when you were a kid and you would fold up a piece of paper, cut patterns, unfold and then look at your 'snowflake'? Well your kids (and you) can do that online without any paper trimming! Visit the Make-a-Flake website, click on 'Make Your Own Snowflake'. Then maneuver the scissors icon to where you wan to cut... click to begin, then click again and again to make a pattern/cut. Click Preview and your paper will unfold and show your work. You can even save to the online gallery for other to view. Cool!
Northpole.com
Here is a website www.NorthPole.com that had more than 10 million visitors last Christmas. It is a website that first
debuted on the Web in 1996. It's one purpose is "to provide all of our visitors an enriched
Christmas experience through a totally child-safe, innovative,
imaginative, and yet traditional holiday website" You and your youngens can click on the different buildings at the 'North Pole' and play a number of different Christmas activities.
101 Christmas 'Classics' Online
Came across this website just this past week, and although it was created some 3 years ago and some of the links to the online videos/movies are dead, there are some fun things to watch all broug
ht together here. It's a cool list, broken down by different groups of these video shorts (and longer clips) that are found online... here is a sampling of the groups that are listed:
The Essentials
Cartoons
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Stop-Motion Animation (Claymation)
Versions of 'A Christmas Carol'
Sitcoms
Music Videos
Christmas 'Radio'
Lastly, here is a link that provides non-stop Christmas music for your holiday enjoyment:
Thanksgiving Weekend - Taking In A Movie
So maybe the family is visiting from out of town, the kids are out of school for the holiday and you're looking for something fun to do together, out of the house? A lot of people take in a movie. In fact the Thanksgiving Day 3-day weekend is one of the biggest box-office weekends of the year.
Here are the most popular main-stream Hollywood releases that will be in theaters this weekend:
- Bad Lieutenant Port of Call New Orleans
- The Blind Side
- Me and Orson Welles
- Ninja Assassin
- Old Dogs
- Planet 51
- The Princess and the Frog
- Red Cliff
- The Road The
- Twilight Saga: New Moon
I should point out that although not on this list, a noteworthy movie for consideration is the recent release of the animated Disney remake of the Dickens classic: A Christmas Carol (in both regular and Imax 3D versions). We have some family friends who were involved in the production of this new motion-capture/animation studio and it looks awesome (we're waiting until a little closer to the Christmas holiday to see it ourselves).
So, if you've got children of your own or your relatives are visiting with their children and you want to ensure you see a movie that is appropriate for younger viewers, what can you do?
I recommend using one of the on-line movie review websites that is designed to provide parents/others with a heads-up about the content of a movie. There are many who believe the MPAA rating system is more designed to encourage attendance that to truly provide sufficient caution to parents for inappropriate content - these on-line sources of information can be quite helpful.
Now I should say that I am not so much of a 'prude'. I appreciate a great movie or film that is well done, even if it has content that might be considered by some as offensive -- as long as it is within the context of the characters/action to include (sorry, gratuitous violence, rampant obscenity does nothing for me).But when taking my 9-year old son to a new movie - I prefer to err on the side of thoughtfulness and expose him to ideas and action that are appropriate to his age level and life experience. I am leery of some of the websites that are overt in either their specific viewpoints but more appreciate a site who provides me with the facts, the information and lets me make up my own mind as to what is appropriate for my child.
One such website is Kids In Mind - they share full details on the content in a new movie that parents might find objectionable, with a synopsis (brief outline) of the movie and really allow you to better decide is a particular movie is right for your child/ren. This site is part of the Critics.com group and I like their intentions and their delivery of information.
Friday is National Day of Listening... a great time to capture your family history!
This Friday I have a suggestion for you, for us all. In addition to reheating the left-overs, partaking in the 'Black Friday' sales at obscenely early hours... listen to someone. Ok, that sounds rather odd -- but Friday is the official 'National Day of Listening'.
Put forth by the non-profit organization 'Story Corps' they recommend and invite you to "set aside one hour to record a conversation with someone important to you. You can interview anyone you choose: an older relative, a friend, a teacher, or someone from the neighborhood."
With so many readily accessible technology tools - it is easier than ever to document the life stories of folks who are important to us, whether they are family, friends or community members. My first experience with a life store is when I recorded my grandmother some 20 years ago. I was amazed at the stories she shared with me (and my video camera)... I had not previously heard of what she shared with me that day. I now treasure her stories preserved. I have also interviewed my father on a couple of different occasions and glad for that as he passed away this April.
I like how the Story Corps call this a Day of Listening... kind of takes away some of the 'pressure' on both sides of conducting an interview. Really that's what a good interview is anyway -- an opportunity for active listening... where we _really_ listen to the stories of another person.
The website has some good materials to get you started on this project... after you click on the 'National Day of Listening on the Study Corps website you can
1. Download the Do-It-Yourself Instruction Guide. This 4-page PDF document takes you though pretty much all you need to know and do to prepare for and conduct your Listening
2. Create a question list using their custom Question Generator. This is really cool - it's a series of about 4 interactive web pages that allow to construct your own questions to ask your 'subject'. Then you can print it out... there are lots of great questions for you to peel away the years and open up some great memories.
And these resources are free!
You can read more about the Story Corps on the StoryCoprs website
Real Simple Instructions for using RSS Feeds
RSS is a technology acronym that stands for Real Simple Syndication. It is a way to receive regular updates, news or 'feeds' from your favorite website or online service.
In this short streaming video, Chet Davis shares details about RSS Feeds (also known as a Web feed, RDF or Atom feed) along with why and how you can subscribe to and read RSS Feeds.
If you would prefer to view the streaming video on my screencast.com page click here
