23 Mobile Things--Thing 5

Thing 5 is all about notetaking and the many ways we can do that using our mobile devices.  There are numerous apps for this, but I chose to look at Remember the Milk and Dragon Dictation.  Get started with Remember the Milk or Get started with Dragon Dictation.

I would have liked to have looked at Bamboo Paper (Here's a little information on that), but for some reason it wouldn't show up on the App store when I looked for it for my iPhone.  (I suspect it is because I have a 4s and, even though I keep it updated, it may not be able to handle everything out there).  The reason I think I may have liked Bamboo paper was that it allowed for drawing and, as an artist, it might have been fun to try it out.  I did find an app for Bamboo Loop where you can make your own digital cards to send to friends in the "loop" or share on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and Instagram.  That might be an interesting thing to look into at some point.  In order to use it well with an iPhone, it is recommended to use a stylus as it can be hard to make any fine lines with just your fingers.

Anyway, I worked a bit with Remember the Milk and Dragon Dictation.  They probably could make me quite a bit more organized, but my brain just doesn't seem to organize lists and other notes well.  I keep things up to date on the calendar on my phone, but trying to add more notes and lists just seems to be beyond me (even when there are great apps that do this).

Using Dragon Dictation makes me think a lot of using Siri and, I guess, that I just never get around to using Siri, so trying to come up with things in Dragon Dictation just isn't what works for my personality either.

I imagine notetaking is a great thing - the best I tend to do is to make a grocery list (when I remember) and a list of Christmas presents that we're going to buy for family (mostly because my husband reminds me I should make a list of these things).  I fear remembering to remind myself to do something is one of the hardest things for me to do and even these beautiful apps, don't make it any better!

23 Mobile Things--Thing 4

On thing 4 we were assigned to be "Keeping Up" by downloading an app that would be a one stop shop for all the news in which you might be interested.

I chose to download the Flipboard app.  Find information on how to download it here.

I've used it a little bit and it is pretty easy to get a hang of flipping through the various news stories that come from the web and Facebook and your favorite blogs.  You are also able to add a "magazine" to your account.  I added some Etsy pages, so that I could flip through various gift ideas for family members.

Time will tell if this is something I will use a lot or not.  I feel like my phone is already a source of being a one stop shop even if it means I open a few more apps here and there.  If I am trying to find out what my Facebook friends are saying, I guess that I prefer to go to Facebook itself, so that I can easily navigate to all of the Facebook features.

I do like the options for finding out news related items on your favorite topics, so I might keep this app to find those bits of information more easily.  I really enjoy reading about fashion (even if I'm not very fashionable) and about world news.  I tend to like to see all sorts of different sources for this information, so that I feel like I am getting a more well rounded picture of events (especially concerning world news).  Because of this, Flipboard probably would not become the only source I would look to, but it is a nice addition, as I was finding articles that I had not previously found.

23 Mobile Things--Thing 3

When I was looking at some of the different examples of utilities for my iPhone, the one that drew me most was the StandApp. Here's the link on how to get started.

Working as a librarian in a small library, there are days when I am moving all the time and there are also days that I end up sitting at the computer most of the time.  The reminder to get up and do something every once in a while has been very helpful.  I haven't tracked progress well for myself on this device, but I am sure this will become more and more valuable to me in the future.  (Although, my weight is only likely to increase right now as I am 3 and a half months pregnant!).

I know that this will really be helpful at home, too, once my baby arrives.  I tend to be a bit scatterbrained when there is a lot going on (and I'm pretty sure a newborn baby will be "A LOT going on" when he or she comes along), so having a little alarm to remind me to get up and move, stretch, or even just stand will be very helpful!

Hmmm . . . looks like it is about time for me to get up and get moving :)

23 Mobile Things--Thing 2

In this Thing we were asked to learn all sorts of bits and pieces of ways our mobile device can be used. I have an iPhone 4S and had just updated it to iOS 7 for the purpose of making doing the 23 mobile things that much easier, so having links to this information and researching more about how everything works was very helpful for me.

I am happy to have learned that I can save battery life on my phone in so many different ways.  You would think that after having an iPhone for a few years, I would have known some of the ways to do this, but I always seem to think that I'll research that at some point and never get around to it.  I'm sure I'm not alone in this ;)  So, now I can truly close apps by double tapping the home button and swiping whatever I don't need to be running in the background all the time (I'm pretty sure I don't need constant updates from Candy Crush, whatever Candy Crush wants to think).  Then I also went into settings tapped on general, down to accessibility, and turned reduce motion on.  This makes it so that when I look at the picture of my little kitty Melvin his eyes no longer seem to follow me wherever I go.  I mean that is kinda cute (or kinda creepy, depending), but I guess the 3-D motion can really wear down your battery as well.

There are lots of little things that Siri can do for you, but I confess to not having really used Siri at all.  It is interesting that you can make Siri female or male now and that you can also use her/him/it to find out what your friends are saying on Twitter and such, but, at this point in time, I haven't found enough need to even have Siri set up on my phone.  Maybe that will change.

Oh, the other bit of information that I really like having is that we can now see the time stamp on every text that we send and gets sent to us.  That is really a nice feature.  In the past, it has been a bit annoying to not be able to see when I specifically sent a message (when it was in the middle of the conversation).

Anyway, those are some of the things that stood out to me most in learning more about iOS 7 on my phone.

The green grass will grow again!

On another note: here is a little dose of Springtime that was gifted to our library by one of our beautiful Story Hour participants!

23 Mobile Things---Thing 1

This is our little kitty, Melvin

Hey everyone!! Long time, no post once again. Life has changed for me quite a bit in the last couple of years. I've kept up with doing all sorts of stuff (like taking pictures and knitting and all that), but blogging has fallen by the wayside. Well, no more! If you'll notice on my profile, I have become a librarian for my local library since I saw you last. I'm loving my job and as a part of training (and reminding me how to do all sorts of things), I'm participating in a thing called 23 Mobile Things. Bear with me as I attempt all sorts of fancy things on this page and show you what I have been up to in the process.

As I work on these 23 Mobile Things, I hope to reconnect with the blogosphere at large and learn to be even more comfortable with all things mobile. 

Thanks for staying with me (if anyone I know is still out there) and stay warm!!!

It has been a wee bit cold here in MN ;)

Happy June!!!!!!

Been so long since I posted anything . . .

Here are a few photos of the goings on around my place!

Kitten Jail

Pretty flowers on my front porch

Dandelion Pieces

And, the most stunning photo of all---Norman sticks out his tongue!

Hope your June has been a good one!

O Christmas Tree!

Our lovely white pine!

A Couple of things I've made . . .

 A few projects I have finished in the last couple of months (that I actually took the time to photograph)

Tea Cozy I made for my mom for Christmas.

Ravelry link

Gull Wing socks made for me!

Pretty, pretty, huh?

Ravelry link

Candelabra Socks made for me, too!

Ummm . . . pretty, pretty, too, huh?

Ravelry link

Chevron Scarf

Guess I'm making a lot for me lately, but I promise I'm working on a couple of other projects for other people, too!

This is just not one of them.  Ravelry link

Hello!

 

 

Rowdy running through the archway at the bottom of the cow yard.

Just a quick hello!  I should run home now and make an apple crisp for our historical society New England Pot Roast Dinner tonight.  Have a great day!!!!!!

Nobs from the old stove we pulled out of one of the out buildings on the farm.

 

The setting sun shines through some pretty fall leaves.

Been a Doing

Just some shots of what we've been a doing around here!

From front to back--Spot, Mickey, and Hook!

Looking through the arches

The rented bull-y (he really isn't a bully, he's very nice) who will be the father of next year's little calves.

The view of from the backside!

Hmmm . . . pretty flower

Get a good stretch in Norman!

"My Baaaaaaaaahnie lies over the ocean, my baaaaaaaaaaahnie lies over the sea!"  Bernie likes to sing real loud.

Fireworks

Went to the annual Fireworks show put on for our town festival.  Fun, fun, fun!  I recorded portions of the show with my phone, soooooo . . . in just in case you have been hoping to see some fireworks, here they are--not nearly as good as in person, but still, nice!

The Little Hookster

Hook asks, "Do you wish you had little horn nubs on the top of your head?  I bet you do because they'd make you look sooooooooooooooo cute"

Olden Days

I've been thinking today of way back when.  A time nearing 14-15 years ago when I went to Romania just out of high school and also after my first year of college.  I am thinking of a place called Iasi and the Casa de Copii Copou and the Casa de Copii Bucium.  I am thinking of the children I met who are full grown now, but that I will probably never see again.  I am thinking of Christi and Bogdan and Gabi and Vlad and Florin and George and Edy and Adi and so many other names that I can't even think how to spell anymore, but I am thinking of them.

At the Broken Piano--Casa de Copii Bucium July or August 1998

Don't know where you are, but still I think of you often!

Hey there

My dad is having major back surgery today, so any thoughts and prayers you could send his way would be great--surgery should have started a couple of hours ago and will last until late this afternoon or into the evening.  (It is two back surgeries in one, so what I really hope is that they can actually do the whole surgery at once and not have to go back in tomorrow and keep him sedated for even longer).

Its been a hot one here lately

So I made Sangria last night and we ate out on the deck.  Yep, that was our supper: Sangria and cherries.  Okay, we might have had a easy to make frozen pizza with it, too, but this was the pretty part of our meal.

Mmmm  . . . good stuff. 

Try to stay cool--in our home with no air conditioning this has meant cold showers, sleeping on the living room floor, and even going out to see the 4th Pirates of the Caribbean movie at the air conditioned cheap theater one hot Sunday afternoon. 

Been a Running

These past weeks have been filled with running, running, running as our church prepared for its 125th Anniversary--we go to a little country church, so that means everyone does something and many do many things.  I was in charge of editing and putting together a 1 hour DVD of our church history (along with my mom who scanned in hundreds of photos), putting a hanging photo display back together (that we had to rip apart in order to make use many of the photos) in a way that would be acid free and conserve our church's photos for many more years, designing a set of church banners to go in the front of the church that reflected our church's theme chapter for the weekend (Hebrews 11) and also would be appropriate for use throughout other times of year at the church, preparing a special number or two for a Sat. evening service as well as leading it, and making a dessert for the Sunday afternoon meal--woooooeeeee . . . busy, busy!  There are many others who had just as busy, if not busier schedules for the weekend, so I am certainly not the only one who had much to do . . .

But . . . throw in the fact that with Friday evening came a big wind storm and a power outage at the church that lasted through Saturday evening, we can sure say we were kept on our toes!  We all pitched in and I think that everyone who was able to come out had great time (at least, I know I did).  Playing old fashioned picnic games (like 3-legged races and the like), singing songs with piano and guitar accompaniment and visiting with old friends doesn't take any power (and we had a generator running to keep the refrigerator and big chest freezer going, so our food wouldn't go bad). 

What a great weekend all in all--and I have had many compliments on the DVD I put together--only about 5 left and I believe they are all spoken for, so I'll probably be making a few more copies!

The Pastor who was my confirmation pastor and there while I was in high school was able to come back and visit as well as the Pastor who we had when I was first born--it was great to see them!

Hope your past few weeks have brought you joy!

New baby calf at my house (or in the pasture--whatever)

Tinkerbell is the proud momma of a bouncing baby bull that we have named Hook!

These pictures were taken just a little while after little Hook was born.  Of course, we missed seeing him being born by about 20 minutes--we sure thought that Tinkerbell looked like she was going to calf at anytime and . . . ummm . . . she did!

Tinkerbell likes to sniff your hand for treats.

And then she wants to play (although it looks scary, she just wants to try to tap your hand and then she goes right back to sniffing you or to just standing there)

Another photo of Tink and the new baby out in the pasture with Dan (and Dakota--now Tinkerbell does not care for Dakota, so we did have to keep chasing Dakota back)

Petting little Hook--he was still wet.

Tink checking me out to make sure I'm safe to pet her new baby.

Little Hook's little face!  You can't quite see the spot where his horns will start to grow, but there is a tiny round circle on both sides of his head.  Longhorns have much smaller calves that Herefords do--although the Longhorns are a smaller breed of animal than the Hereford as well.  We want to keep petting and being around Hook as much as possible, so that he will be nice and friendly.  He will be becoming a Steer later this summer sometime.

Oh, Little Hook was born 42 weeks to the day that his daddy arrived on the ranch to meet his mother last Fall in Wisconsin.  His daddy's name is Spike.

A Month of Sundays

So we've had some wet and cool weeks this spring, but we have seen plenty of flowers, too (though, these flowers were supposed to be facing a different direction, but they uploaded a little funny--so much for making all of my images come up square and hoping that the more vertical photos would work again!)

Anyway, we've had some beautiful Sunday afternoons in the last month and I've been able to search out some beautiful sites (just down the road and up the ditch and next to a field I found some blankets of Mayflowers!)

So perfect and clean!  We saw them while driving home from church and I told Dan we would have to take a walk back to see them after we had lunch . . . and so we did--aren't you thankful!!!!

The next weekend we let the cows and horses out onto pasture.  (You might notice that our horse, Checotah, looks mighty wooly--we are quite sure that she has Cushings.  She was starting to have her hair grow really long last year, but it definitely got much worse this year--Dan just gave her a good clipping on Monday, so she's looking much better now!

While the rest of the animals went out to pasture, Mickey just couldn't get past the fact that he had to go through where a gate had been electrified for his entire life.  We figured, eh, he'll get hungry enough and wander out to his mother sometime overnight.  By the next afternoon, he was still in the yard and separated from his mother with no signs of going out on his own--sooooo . . . Dan decided to try to get him to go into the pasture again--this time when Gert (his momma) saw Dan going to fetch Mickey, she came and stood right by the gate to moo her encouragement!

So Mickey started on his way to his mother (through the muddy wet at the bottom of the cow yard)

And he finally decided that he really would like to be with his mother and the rest of the fam!

And that he had really missed his mother's milk!

 . . . a lot!  He must have nursed there for a good 5 minutes or more!

Beauty was quite happy to eat the grass after a winter of hay! (good hay, let me tell you, but it isn't fresh grass--come late fall when they've had grass for months on end, though, they're going to be excited for hay)

Soooo . . . in our wanderings after getting all the animals in the pasture we also came across one of the wild plum trees in the pasture just at the end of its full bloom.

And Dan looked good, so I snapped a photo (or two or three or four)

Back on Memorial Day we spent the day at the home of my parents-in-law.  Here my niece and her cousin (and best friend) laugh as I take their picture.

Here they are much more well composed.  This is the picture that Kalyn wants on her birthday card this year.  (of course, I told her that what I put on her birthday card is my decision, so she might get a picture of her ear instead).

Ummmm . . .  this one uploaded sideways and I don't feel like going back and trying to upload it again and again when I know I saved it the right way, so turn your head or your screen and you'll see a pretty rainbow over the cow shed rather than to the left of the cow shed)

Last week Dan got a new bike (well new to us).  A 2008 Honda Rebel to commute to work on and to make himself look cool--you should see him in his motorcycle chaps (okay, no you shouldn't because I don't want you to--I'll keep him for myself!)

Nice!  (and the bike is, too)

Dan's brother, Jason, his dad, and there's Dan again all on their bikes.  His brother was visiting last week and came with us to pick up Dan's bike and then his dad thought he better come on over and they all went for a quick ride into town together.  What a fun night!

And sometime in the midst of all of this I made dandelion jelly--good stuff.

Hope your month has been great!  I'll be starting to teach a musikgarten class through our local community education program next week, so wish me luck on that (I've got some busy weeks coming up--we're having a wagon train start here next week for a ride through a bunch of local communities and I was in charge of finding musicians for their first night of camping with a community picnic and our church has its 125th anniversary celebration (and I'm involved with music and I have to finish off editing and putting together a history dvd for that as well--wish me luck with that, too--so many pictures (that my mom has thankfully scanned in, but now we have to figure out exactly where all of them will go!)  Hmmmm . . .  I've got to make some special banners for the front of the church, too--soooo . . . lots to do!