mommy bytes mommy bytes Software geek and mom blogs about her life. I blog about the trial of parenting and work. I also review books and classical music, keep up with many podcasts and send along fun things I find on the internet. 
Articles
Tuesday Toot - 1400 Photos Tagged on Flickr
2008-02-12 06:04:00 In my obsessively organized way, I have been slowly but surely recovering from six months of photos being thrown up on Flickr and not tagged. Two years ago, I allowed 500 pictures to go untagged and thought that was totally unreasonable, but last year, I completely got in over my head with a total of 1400 untagged photos. It all started with a trip to Las Vegas where I took over 400 photos with my new camera (and that is after I deleted the bad ones). It quickly snowballed over the summer with way too many activities and no time to reflect on them. During my illness the past two months, I've been unable to go to the gym so I've been staying in my office at lunch tagging away. I've sworn that all pictures going up from now on will be tagged immediately, but we'll see what happens next summer. The new Flickr Uploadr 3.0 allows you to tag before uploading, but I've had problems with large batches not getting uploaded. Being all tagged up will also allow me to go back and fi... More About: Photos , Tagged , Tuesday
Goodbye Blogrush, Hello Entrecard!
2008-02-12 03:41:00 (Edited to add: this empty space is where the Blogrush widget was supposed to appear, but apparently refuses to unless it is on the sidebar... I even tried turning it back on in the sidebar and it still didn't appear in the post. Plus it added crap to the feed, doesn't pass my SQA standards!)Last year when Blogrush debuted, the blogosphere was all abuzz with excitement about a blog promotion program aimed at increasing traffic through their widget. John Reese had a bit of a heavy handed approach where you had to place the widget high up on your site and create traffic for other blogs in order for you to get credits for your posts to run. I felt obligated to click on posts in my own widget to see what was out there and keep my credits up. And then we got a pat on our backs for making it past the 10,000 blog sweep of low quality blogs. But the proof is in the traffic. For a while, I got a few hits on my posts, but lately there has been a lot of "ice" in the buzz column. And... More About: Goodbye
Photo Hunters - Heavy
2008-02-09 05:26:00 That's one really heavy snowball for the snowman!--- Thanks for reading this feed. Please stop by to comment! More About: Photo , Heavy , Hunters
Proverbs by Adam, First Grader
2008-02-08 01:35:00 Karmyn at Dreaming What If's... posted a hysterical list of proverbs finished by her first grade son. This was based on Desert Songbird's list from other first graders at The Ice Box. Since we have a first grader handy, I thought we'd give it a shot as well. In the beginning, Adam did about five half-heartedly with nonsensical answers and then he didn't want to do it. I told him that it was for the blog and then he instantly perked up and came up with these gems. Just for the fame! We've even added extra bonus proverbs from the image. Check out other kid's proverbs too!1. Don't change horses... with a bad guy2. Strike while the... baseball flies3. It's always darkest before... night (bzzt!)4. Never underestimate the power of... electricty5. You can lead a horse to water but... not fish6. Don't bite the hand that... punches7. No news is... trouble8. A miss is as good as a ... sir9. You can't teach an old dog new... tricks (he knew one!)10. If you lie down with the dog... More About: Proverbs
Happy Chinese New Year 2008
2008-02-07 06:00:00 We went down to New York to visit Grandma and celebrate Chinese New Year . Here are a few pictures from the festivities. Lion dance costume and an origami flowers.Kung Fu fan dance with my mom performing in the back (far right).Traditional hot pot dinner. Yes, we've got American rolls, Italian meatballs, and milk in a Heineken mug! Red envelopes sponsored by Hennessy Cognac(!) and an overly generous Grandma. I sense an alcohol theme this year... Check out the whole set of pictures here.Here one last shot of Dova from last year when we made homemade dumplings in an attempt to be really Chinese...--- Thanks for reading this feed. Please stop by to comment! More About: Happy , Chinese New Year
Thursday Thirteen #32 - Searches that landed here
2008-02-07 01:26:00 Here are some web searches that landed somewhere in my blog (I tried to keep them somewhat clean)...Really tough technical phone interview questions - As predicted, my Google Interview is always at the top of the hit list. I only did it to get traffic after all . If I had the wherewithal to Google it myself before I went into the interview, maybe I would've done better!Letting go of a married man with dignity - Oh my, this is not the right place for that. If the guy is having an affair, he needs no dignity! If it's your own husband (doubtful from the wording), well you would need some help then. This search pointed to my Letting Go of Anger post about my dad.What they don't tell you about liposuction - This is a classic example of hitting all the words except for the key one, which would be Things They Don't Tell You About Breastfeeding.Sodium Content of Thin n Trim Swiss Cheese - Believe it or not, my Market Basket vs. Hannaford post has consistently been in the top 5 entr... More About: Thirteen , Thursday
Hump Day Hmm 2/6/08 - Ethics and Mores of Social Media and Social Networkin
2008-02-06 04:50:00 Here's my first Hump Day Hmm post. I'm not one to be so serious, but since I commented twice on Julie's Twitter Do or Don't post, I should really put in my two cents. Here's Julie's preface on the topic:Two Square Meals was inspired by my Twitter Do or Don't post and suggested for next week (2-6): What are the ethics and mores of social media and social networking? (If you don't think you use social media or networking, think again. You are online, you use it or it uses you, or both. Bloggers you read review products, or you do that yourself. There is an interchange and exchange of linking, passing along of awards, "digging" or "skirting" posts, trading back and forth of comments, community building, and so forth. What is this online space for you? How do you use it? What do you expect of it, in all realms? What behavior---business or personal--crosses a line in your opinion? What are the lines? Write honestly about what this space is for you and what you believe the ethi... More About: Social , Media , Ethics
Wordless Wednesday - Zen Kitty
2008-02-06 02:44:00 Image from Comedy Central. Thanks Quentin!--- Thanks for reading this feed. Please stop by to comment! More About: Kitty , Wednesday
Tuesday Toot - Adam and math
2008-02-05 16:24:00 So far in first grade, Adam has brought home a lot of single digit addition and subtraction with word problems and such, so I was surprised to see this sheet come home last week. Apparently, they started working on simple double digit addition with no carry-on (first 3 problems on the left). Of course, Adam finished this quickly so the teacher added six more problems (last 3 on the left and first 3 on the right, I can tell from the handwriting). He finished those, so she finally added double digits with carry-on. Although he didn't get them all right, he did get a few right, so obviously he understood what he was doing. I asked him whether she taught him how to carry-on and he said no. I asked how he did the problems and he said that he just figured them out. He said it was so cool that one answer was one thousand thirty-five. So he is well on his way to being a math whiz and being a total geek on the math team, just like his mom. I'm so proud of you Adam!--- Thanks for r... More About: Math , Tuesday
Stay away from the sick kid!
2008-02-04 18:01:00 Silly USB facemask from Gadget Crunch. Do you think it would help?Stay away from the sick kid being me, that is. I have yet to fully recover from last December's bout of pneumonia. I've gotten better, maybe to 95% or so, but then I get sick again every couple weeks. Not the same illness each time, sometimes a head cold, sometimes a cough, sometimes a slight fever, but now I've finally amassed enough symptoms to warrant another visit to my doctor. I have a cough, I've lost my voice (which some say has to do with how much I yell at the kids), one of my ears hurts and has been blocked for a week, and one of my eyes is totally crusted over. It took me five minutes in the shower this morning for my eye to open up! It appears my immune system is compromised this winter and my body refuses to be completely healthy. I've become that sickly kid at school that nobody wants go near. And this from the girl who regularly goes to the gym (at least before December), has been at a her... More About: Sick
vi Rocks! And so does xkcd!
2008-02-01 20:29:00 Right on the heels of my geeky jokes, xkcd comes out with this awesome comic on Real Programmers. I was never an emacs fan, but I loved vi and its quirky commands like ZZ and q! (save and quit, quit without saving). Best of all, the navigation keys h,j,k,l (left, down, up, right) were exactly the same keys used in larn. OMG, I'm really getting my inner geek on!!--- Thanks for reading this feed. Please stop by to comment! More About: Rocks
Thursday Thirteen #31 - Old Geek Jokes
2008-01-31 01:59:00 This week I try my hand at old geek jokes, because it takes one to know one.You know you're an old geek when:You remember when IBM's main product was the Selectric.You remember when ding meant you've typed to the end of the line, not that you have new mail.You've messed up your code by dropping your punch card program. (OK, I admit I'm not THAT old.)You've used a teletype as a computer terminal.You've owned a Trash-80 (i.e. TRS-80) or Commodore 64.You've owned a 9-pin dot matrix printer.When people say monochrome, you say Amber or Green?You've written papers using vi (my favorite), emacs and nroff/troff.You've used a modem with a phone handset at 1200 baud.You've posted on usenet way before the internets.You know that expanded memory was anything over 640k RAM and extended memory was over 1MB (80286 need only apply).You've used Lotus 1-2-3 for DOS.You've used WordPerfect for DOS.You can still write DOS batch files off the top of your head. Ugh, only a mid-rank computer... More About: Jokes , Geek , Thirteen , Thursday
Wordless Wednesday - LOL Breastfeeding
2008-01-30 01:52:00 We interrupt our steady stream of family pictures to bring you a LOLCat from I Can Has Cheezburger.--- Thanks for reading this feed. Please stop by to comment! More About: Breastfeeding , Wednesday
Tuesday Toot - Coding Queen
2008-01-29 15:48:00 Hello Mommy Community's newest meme! I have no problem tooting my horn or my family's horn because that's what this blog is all about, right? This week I want to toot my horn about work. Sure, I get recognition for outstanding work that I have done in the past, like that time I went to our customer's site and miraculously cleared up all the open issues, even the ones where we were scratching our heads and used the big shovel for (and we were not shoveling dirt). After that trip, even the general manager came to congratulate me. Unfortunately, I got pneumonia afterwards and didn't get to revel too much, but at least I fixed the problems before I got sick.Well this time, the customer asked for an feature that was planned for a subsequent release of software, and they wanted it in two weeks for a visit from their customer (big name pharmaceutical company that makes a purple blue pill). It was a significant amount of work, which I didn't think could be done in two weeks. I ... More About: Coding , Queen , Tuesday
Photo Friday - Pictures From the Kids
2008-01-25 15:19:00 Adam and Dova have their own digital camera, thanks to Quentin, and they absolutely love taking photos, just like their mom. I've posted some of Adam's and Dova's pictures before, but Crazy Hip Blog Mamas has given me an excuse to post more! Check out the other participants here.By Adam, age 6:This was taken with my new camera the day I got it. Adam took his camera to school one day (without letting us know!) and took these shots of glass gems and a rock they were learning about in kindergarten.There is a sports mosaic mode on their camera where a rapid succession of 16 photos is taken. We often have a fun time trying to come up with good action shots.By Dova, age 3:This is a view of the beam along our kitchen wall of our post and beam house. The rectangular patch of light is from the skylight above the kitchen.This silly photograph of dad taking his blood pressure was actually published in this article from NowPublic about health insurance and blood pressure. I've only had ... More About: Pictures , Photo , Kids , The Kids , Friday
Knitted Hearts Winners
2008-01-25 02:23:00 Thanks everyone for entering the Knitted Hearts Pay It Forward!! Here are the entrants and some linky love:Christine at From Dates to Diapers, and beyondMelissa at LifeWithTwonor_lou at silly mommy of 2 silly girlsdodoCarrie at Life is Like a Mountain RailwaySeaBird at SeaBird ChroniclesA Cup of JoyeastcoastlifewindycindyStacey at JameeForeverDana Lynne at Too Many Interests & Potential Topics to Successfully Grant a Title To...Janice Jdeelong at Things in OregonAnd the winners selected from Random.org are:Here are your random numbers: 2 10 3 11 Timestamp: 2008-01-25 01:44:13 UTCCongratulations Melissa, nor_lou, Stacey and Dana Lynne!Now for some knitting details on the hearts:I bought the purple and red flag yarns from the Target One Spot last year. They looked like so much fun, but I hadn't found a good use for them until now. The purple yarn is King Tut Egyptian cotton and the red yarn is Lion Chenille (except for the middle heart which was acrylic). Adam's heart is th... More About: Winners
Thursday Thirteen #30 - NPR roundup
2008-01-24 03:50:00 It's been a while since I've had an NPR roundup, so here are my favorite stories from the last few months.Couple Finds Good Will in Taste Tests - This couple tries a social experiment to see if people will share a taste of their food with them in restaurants. Amazingly just about everyone does. I don't know how I would react especially when it comes to sharing the germs.Concealed Weapon: Eels' Second Set of Teeth - Scientist recently discovered that the moray eel actually shoots a second set of teeth out of its throat, grabs fish and pulls it down its throat. Just like in Alien! But just when you are scared out of your wits, there is a funny surprise at the end of this story.Finding Redemption Through Acceptance - This essay for 'This I Believe' from a former interrogator at Guantanamo Bay was very moving and shows that tolerance and acceptance can be healing.Who is Singing Me Lullabies - One of many recent interviews with Oliver Sacks where he talks of an 85-year woman b... More About: Roundup , Thirteen , Thursday
Wordless Wednesday - Our Newest Pets
2008-01-23 04:40:00 Here are Orient Frog, Sally Star and Flower Balloon, as named by Dova.Need to practice photographing fish, they are not as easy as the kids or the cats! More About: Pets , Wednesday
Pizza Hut's Book It Program - Now With SMS
2008-01-21 21:56:00 This year, we were introduced to Pizza Hut's Book It program from Adam's school. Now, I am all for reading incentives, but encouraging obesity along with it? Obviously, this is also a marketing ploy to bring families into Pizza Hut every month. Elementary school-aged kids need to be brought in by their parents and parents needs to pay for their own meals as well as any preschool siblings, so there's good money to be made. Over the summer, I had the unfortunate experience of having my credit card number stolen at a Pizza Hut, so we had been avoiding it like the plague. Since our kids aren't obese, we decided to use the vouchers for the free personal pan pizzas. We actually missed the first two months of vouchers because I didn't realize that they expired within a month and was saving them up to buy pizzas for the whole family. Now that we've gone twice, Adam voraciously reads his allotment of books each month to get his next voucher.The problem with Pizza Hut is that it is ... More About: Program
One Post to Wax Political
2008-01-21 15:28:00 I am not one to discuss politics on the blog, but this quiz was too good to pass up. Although I almost overwhelmingly agree on issues with Hillary Clinton, it takes more to get my vote and lead a country than aligned views. Great leadership is not about having the same views, it is about trust, integrity and inspiration. Risa Green from Mommy Track'd sums it up perfectly in this article, I Want To Love Hillary, although she got heavily flamed for it. Hillary doesn't inspire passion, she is all business, to the point of appearing cold-hearted. But as a woman, I feel the gender obligation to propel her forward. Let's face it, when it comes down to the average American who gets sucked in by negative campaigning and false emails, presidential elections are just a personality contest. I will cast my vote on the candidate who aligns with (most) of my views and who I feel can best lead and inspire the country.If you want to know how the candidates stack up on issues and issues alo... More About: Political , Post
Homework for Parents
2008-01-20 05:03:00 When Adam first started Preschool when he was three, he came home with an "assignment" to create a house with pictures of his family with his own picture on top. Obviously at age 3, this is not something that a preschooler can do, but rather a parent assignment. Oh great, I thought, now it begins, homework for parents starting at age 3! At this point, I was rather uncrafty (hadn't even learned to knit yet) and definitely not a scrapbooker. This sheet of paper was huge and even if I printed out fairly large pictures, I would have to decorate the rest somehow. And of course I waited until the very last day to complete it. Here was his very first house:The next year, when the "assignment" came up again, I was prepared for it and actually let him help me with the stickers. Plus now he had a baby sister in the pictures.At the end of the year, he brought his houses home and always took them out to look at. I began to soften my stance on this parent homework as it was obviously v... More About: Homework , Parents , Pare
Photo Hunters - Important
2008-01-19 01:49:00 This ubiquitous photo of me (as avatar for Blogger, Flickr, MyBlogLog, Fuelmyblog among others) was published in Fuelmyblog's book, Revealing The Human Behind Avatar, in an effort to make me feel important!! Just kidding .Seriously though, check out the book. It's a "wicked cool" collection of bloggers. And join Fuelmyblog and send some fuel my way! More About: Photo , Hunters
Thursday Thirteen #29 - Random Tips
2008-01-17 03:49:00 I'm going from geeky tips to random household (and work) tips this week.If you microwave soup in a bowl, place a potholder under the bowl before putting it in the microwave. That way you don't burn your fingers on the bowl trying to get it out.Use a plastic knife to fish toast out of the toaster. This is especially handy at work where plastic knives abound.I use chopsticks at home for the toaster and toaster oven. Just don't use a metal knife!Use a plastic knife to cut brownies in the pan. Works better than a spatula and doesn't scratch up your pan like a metal knife.If you make brownie bites in a mini-muffin pan, grease the pan generously and run a toothpick around the edges to free them up afterwards.When making a 13"x9" cake, run a spatula around the edges and underneath as much as possible, put a cutting board over the top and flip. I've been baking these forever and on the last rectangular cake I made, I totally forgot and tried to catch the cake with my hands only to ... More About: Tips , Random , Thirteen , Thursday
Barnes and Noble vs. Amazon
2008-01-16 04:22:00 I have nothing against the brick and mortar Barnes and Noble stores. In fact I have fond childhood memories of going to the Barnes and Noble in NYC and being in complete awe of what I believed was the biggest bookstore in the world. My parents would take me on special trips to the city to buy either books from Barnes and Noble or sheet music from Patelson's (this was way before the internet and SheetMusicPlus). Back then it was the only way to purchase books that weren't carried in the mall bookstores or sheet music beyond your intermediate player. These trips were pursuits of knowledge and art and were always held dear to me.Now that the internet is here, I rarely step into bookstores. If I'm looking for a bestseller, I can often find it at BJ's Wholesale club at a price comparable to Amazon . I will visit Barnes and Noble or Borders occasionally, but only if I have a gift card or coupon (and often it will still cost more than Amazon). Now I could go into Barnes and Noble...
Wordless Wednesday - Happy Hockey Player
2008-01-16 04:12:00 Thanks for reading this feed. Please stop by to comment! More About: Hockey , Player , Happy , Wednesday
Photo Hunters - Skinny
2008-01-12 02:12:00 Here's (not so skinny) Dova with her impossibly skinny Ariel doll. It's bad enough that the media glamorizes skinny models and celebrities, but bombarding toddlers with these super skinny dolls is disgraceful. Yes, I don't have to buy them, but how can you say no to that face and happy smile? And whose brilliant idea was it to make those tiny shoes for little girls to play with? I've taken the shoes from all her princesses (12 pairs!) and stored them safely away in a separate baggie to satisfy this mom's obsession with not losing pieces. And no, we still haven't found where she stashed the Little Mermaid DVD over a year ago. More About: Photo , Skinny , Hunters
Pay It Forward - Valentine's Edition
2008-01-11 01:18:00 Karmyn over at Dreaming What Ifs... sent me these wonderful homemade cards for her Pay It Forward exchange. Now she did change the rules and didn't require that people continue the Pay It Forward on their blogs, but I decided to play along. So since September, I've been wracking my brains as to what I could make, as I am not all that crafty and surely no one wants a cute piece of software code. Finally, I decided on these little knit hearts, based on the Mochimochi pattern. No, they are not filled with potpourri, I am NOT that crafty!If you'd like one, leave a comment with your choice of color, red or purple. And to keep Karmyn's tradition, you are not required to Pay It Forward or even have a blog. I will randomly choose four winners on January 24th, so spread the word. More About: Edition , Valentin
Thursday Thirteen #28 - Geeky Tips
2008-01-10 01:25:00 Since I'm solely a Windows user at home and at work, these tips are heavily Windows-centric. Still, these are ones that I swear by and you may not know of.If you don't have voice notes on your phone, or even if you do, use Jott to have your voice notes transcribed to an email to yourself (or even a blog or twitter post).In Microsoft Word, if you double-click the Format Painter toolbar button, it stays on and you can format paint to your heart's delight.On a windows computer, use the Windows-e key to bring up Windows Explorer. You can also use Windows-r for the Run command, Windows-m to minimize all windows and Windows-M to maximize. There are others, but those are the main ones I use.Use the Back button on the mouse. On a mouse that has more than three buttons (left, right, scroll wheel), it is usually a button near your thumb. My Logitech wireless mouse actually uses push left and right on the scroll wheel as extra buttons, so I program those to be Back and Forward (Alt-Left ... More About: Tips , Thirteen , Thursday , Geeky
Wordless Wednesday - Knitted Strawberry Hat
2008-01-09 05:06:00 OK, not so wordless this week. I spent two months knitting this hat for Dova which she was apparently excited about, but when it was completed she refused to wear it. I finally begged her to wear it just for a picture and this is the best I got. Adam claims he would wear it, but fortunately(?) it is too small for him. The free pattern is from The Golden Fleece. I used red Lion Chenille and green Red Heart Super Saver with size 7 needles. Cast on 80 stitches and put in five row of seeds. The biggest question was what to do with all the green yarn carried between seeds. I started by weaving it in halfway between seeds, and ended up weaving it in every other stitch (see this photo if you are really interested). If I were to do it again, I would start the seeds at 16 rows instead of 20 and make the stem out of 6 or 8 stitches instead of 10. And make darn sure that the recipient will wear it!! More About: Strawberry , Wednesday
Blogging vs. Nintendo
More articles from this author:2008-01-08 04:59:00 Many eons ago when I was in college (that would be from 1983-1987) there were no ubiquitous laptops in dorm rooms, only mainframes and terminals in public areas. Even so, there were computer games, and talk on Unix (sort of like instant messaging), so things weren't all that different from today. Except that computer games were mostly text-based adventure games. In my senior year, I got totally hooked on larn, a rogue-like game where you could actually walk within text walls which looked like || and == and cast spells by shooting asterisks **. Geez, how much fun can that be? Apparently it was so appealing that I spent at least two all-nighters playing it instead of writing my senior thesis. I actually won the game (thanks to the walk through walls spell) before my boyfriend and was totally ecstatic. The fact that I let my school work slide almost jeopardizing my graduation date, was a bit disconcerting though. After that, I decided to stayed away from computer games because... More About: Nintendo , Blogging 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 |
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