Lego Momma

I imagined myself as a Lego momma today using the Mini-Mizer. I plan on showing this image generator to one of my grandson. He loves Lego Star Wars, and would probably get a kick out of creating the Star Wars characters.

Still Exploring RSS feeds

Wow! I really like www.topix.net. The site is well organized. The default home page automatically loads the news for my local area. The site is very easy to navigate— real easy to spend too much time wandering from post to post, I'm afraid. I found a good RSS in the OTHER TOPICS/SciTech News section for Apple. Since I’ve been a diehard Macintosh user since 1985, I thought that adding a feed to my Bloglines account to keep up with Apple news would be a good idea.

I tried to check out Feedster, but the site wouldn't come up. Syndic8.com needs to have their site redesigned. I have nothing more to say about Syndic8.

I'm looking forward to spending more time at Technorati. Hope to find some art, graphic design, and web design blogs to add to my blog roll.

News Aggregators and Blog Rolls

I just got a Yahoo account in order to try out Bloglines. I already had an iGoogle page with all my favorite news sites. Today I started a blog roll of my favorite blogs on my personal blog. I have a Facebook account on which I can add more RSS options if I please.

I don't even like to watch the national news on television— way too much politics, exaggerated sensationalism, gloom and doom, and a whole lot of nonsense! Can I just be a hermit instead? There are crazy people out there!

I think the solution is to pick one place on the Web to go to for all my favorite topics and sites of interest. I just haven't figured out where that is yet.

Scary droid

I clicked on an avatar a few minutes ago, and it took me to a site called SitePal. I checked out the demo and an animated character started talking. I found it to be bit creepy. I think it might have been because her eyes were open just a little too wide; you know, kind of like she was hyped up on speed. Scary!

Flickr Comic Strips

In exploring Flickr Web Applications I found the Bubblr comic strip too enticing not to try it out. the search function was little frustrating. I think image tags must be extremely subjective. Anyway, it was fun! If you want to see my first attempt at a Web 2.0 comic strip, take a look at Web 2.0 by web2momma

Louie the Wonder Dog

I have always liked the companionship of dogs. They listen to you when no one else will. They always accept you for who you are. My dogs have always been glad to see me when I come home from work. Once I had a dog who actually learned to speak a little English. She could say “Hello” when I came home from work. Sure, it wasn't enunciated clearly, but it was close enough that I understood it. She could also say “water” and “braunschweiger". Braunschweiger Liver Sausage was her favorite treat.

Today, I want to share some photos of my friend Louie the Wonder Dog. I just started a Flickr account as part of my “23 Things” Web 2.0 learning experience, and so I uploaded some recent photos of Louie. Louie is by far the most charming and engaging canine friend I've ever known. I'm sure I'll share more about Louie with you in later posts, but right now, I just want you to take a look at the photos I've posted of him at www.flickr.com/photos/web2momma. Enjoy!

I am a Lifelong Learner

I love learning! Life is much more interesting if you are actually interested. I also love teaching— been teaching ever since my baby sister was born when I was two. As I got older I discovered that the best way to muster enough self-discipline to keep learning complex new skills was to commit myself to teaching someone else. Nothing like a commitment to someone else to keep me going! I've been teaching oil painting since 1998. Working with my students has been a real blessing. I love to see their excitement when they learn something new. It isn't just the personal gratification that keeps me going though. Sometimes I surprise myself by what come out of my mouth when a student asks me a particularly challenging question. I find myself expressing opinions that I never knew I had. I learn a lot about myself in those moments. Verbalizing my thought and opinions make them more real, and more specific.

I thought you might enjoy seeing this painting I did of me and my sister from on old black and white photo from my parents’ photo collection.