Posts (page 2)

and other free, fascinating, and informative how-tos.

Well, that isn't exactly the title of the publication but it does tell you how to Make Homemade Cheese (PDF) and even includes recipes! I have seen dairy farms and cheese making places (my oh so technical terms) on the Discovery Channel but it always looked so intimidating, what with all the industrial equipment and such. After reading the free publications from the New Mexico State University I realized there is more I can make in my own humble kitchen and backyard than I previously thought. Don't worry if making homemade cheese doesn't appeal to you, they have documents on everything from reconstructing clothing to potty training toddlers to recipes for pinto beans and my personal favorite, In a Pinch Ingredient Substitutions (PDF).

More favorites of mine:

• Make Jelly, Jam, and Spread at Home (PDF)
• Managing Your Family's Money (PDF)
• Rags to Riches (clothing reconstruction) PDF
• Pattern Alteration (PDF)
• How to Keep a Small Poultry Flock (PDF)
• Creating Strong Families (PDF)
• Backyard Composting (PDF)
• Growing Sweetcorn in Home and Market Gardens (PDF)
• When to Harvest Vegetables (HTML)

More free nutritional, cooking, sewing, canning, and family publications at the New Mexico State University How To Publications site

I Want Sandy is a service that is designed to be your virtual office assistant on the internet and on the go. More than just to-do lists, I Want Sandy can keep track of your contacts, notes, calendar, important dates, and even shopping lists. While you can manage your data online through the website, I found that the site is clunky and hard to navigate. I Want Sandy excels at email and mobile communication integrating with SMS and Twitter. While I had no problem getting the service to work with Twitter, I never could get the authorization SMS to go through to my phone even though they have my provider listed.

Personally I Want Sandy was more complex than I needed and I have found other targeted services work better for managing my to-do list. With so many features it is difficult to get used to at first, but if you are looking for a robust free internet service to manage everything I Want Sandy is your dream assistant. For those like me that struggled to get used to the commands there is well laid out documentation and cheat sheets to get you on your way to organizing your day on the go.

This is a BzzAgent Review and is my honest opinion of the service posted. 

I haven't checked into BzzAgent (see below for more info on BzzAgent) for a while and thought I would update my info and see what opportunities were available while I was at it. Low and behold they had several sites in their queue that I am a member of and enjoy very much with 43 Things just being one of them. I have written up a few things about each one and will post them one at a time over the next few days.

43 Things is a productivity site geared towards personal goal making and achieving. The social side of the site allows you to not only see who else has your to-dos in common on their goal plans, but you can also give and receive encouragement towards your goals. My favorite part of 43 Things is the social aspect of it. Not only can you see who else has your goals in common but you can share and receive encouragement towards those things. Although I don't use 43 Things to keep a common, every day to-do list, I do use it to list those things I need a little extra push to get done. If I have "organize my closet" on a list that is viewable by the public and people can see when I haven't gotten around to it a year later, it is a tad bit embarrassing. Keeping these items on 43 Things not only makes you feel normal (there may be hundreds of others that have the same items on their goal list as you do) but the cheers I have received from absolute strangers for goals I have posted makes me feel like I have accomplished something when I get it done.

Feel free to look me up at 43 Things if you stop and visit! Of course, I go by linuxchic.

About BzzAgent:  Bzz is creating discussions and enabling information to spread from one person to the next and the next. It's the word on the street, the energy around a product — it's about creating and sharing ideas that people will talk about. It's about honesty and upfront disclosure of the nature of the information as well. Interested in spreading some Bzz? Click here to learn more.

Originally published at The LC on the DL. You can comment here or there.

Between the soaring gas prices and the rising costs of necessities we are really feeling the crunch of the economy at home. While it would be awesome if the blogs and podcast would finally start pulling in some extra cash, they really haven't done it yet. My family made a lot of sacrifices over the last year while I spent every waking moment on the computer writing, podcasting, and researching content and the time has come where I can't expect them to continue to miss me 80 hours a week not to mention I am missing them most of all. Online has to take a backseat to my family since giving up my day job is not an option. My family is more important than any other blog or social network!
ing event is so hopefully everyone understands why it seems I have gone dark for awhile.

Besides the new challenges facing the average family in the US right now, the real wake up call was that 10 years and a better income later, I had less money now than I did in the past in a single income family. We were doing something wrong and we had to do something to fix it or we will never survive the current economy crisis. We are going back to our roots and doing what we used to to save money and make our hard earned money go as far as possible. We also realized we don't spend enough quality time together so we made a plan and agreed to start implementing change. We put our plans in motion a few weeks ago and things are looking up.

One of the easiest changes I can make is to alter my work schedule to cut down daycare costs so I can be home when school gets out. This starts this week and I will be getting up before the sun comes up to start my commute to work every day and I will be home more with the kids and be around to take care of my home.I have gotten some great tips from online blogs and groups in addition to just common sense back to basics living for overcoming the rising costs of living. We will survive stronger, happier, and healthier than ever and I will share more of our money saving tips that include our garden, made from scratch recipes, sewing/crochet/knitting, and smart shopping methods. My free time has moved completely over to household productivity/management time but blogging won't cease completely; posts will be less frequent, but they won't be absent.

Originally published at The LC on the DL. You can comment here or there.

They don't even have to play and the more damaged and useless they are the better. I am searching for these to refashion into crocheted shopping bags, door mats, and place mats. I intent to rip the tape out of the casing and use as yarn. I have a few I think are bad in our personal library, after that I will be hitting the freecycle lists. If you are interested in repurposing your old tapes into an item such as I mentioned and aren't so crafty yourself, I would consider making some for you out of your old tapes if you send them to me. Comment if you are interested and I will post the results of my experiment when I get a few items done so you can decide if you want some of your !
own. If you search on flickr you can see the geniuses that have already made some bags and accessories (I couldn't find any I could include on this post under creative commons licensing).

The only thing I haven't figured out what to do with is the casings since I really don't want those going to the landfills either.

Cool link: VHS Clutch Purse Instructions 

Originally published at The LC on the DL. You can comment here or there.

We had a busy weekend what with the Easter bunny visit and all. I did last minute shopping at the ever handy Wal-mart and discovered every other mother in town waited til after 10pm to grab their last minute items. Wal-mart was a madhouse! Favorite item the kids received in their baskets? Parachute eggs! They are a little bit bigger than normal and have a parachute that is a bit bigger than a dinner plate attached to them. Inside is a gummy paratroop!
er. One ended up stuck in a tree but over all good times were had.

My oldest daughter organized a family talent show and movie night Saturday. She served Triscuit cracker pizzas and cola floats but my youngest son provided pretty much all the talent. She worked really hard on the family event and put up decorations, fliers, and had the three year old taking tickets.

The rest of the weekend was spent working on getting NixNews.com ready for release and tweaking out a new theme for linuxchic.net. I know I probably re-theme linuxchic.net more than I should, but while the orange madness seemed like a good idea a few months ago, it was starting to seriously burn my eyeballs. Hopefully you will find the new theme more attractive and easier to navigate. If you feel the urge, stop by NixNews.com and check it out. Feel free to let me know of any bugs, suggestions, or just random opinions you may have of it.

Image from Amigurumi Kingdom on Flickr

Originally published at The LC on the DL. You can comment here or there.

I have been trying to finish up the pile of crochet projects I have had backed up for some time so that I could start some new ones on the Knifty Knitter Loom Kit I bought recently. I find fabric arts to be incredibly soothing to my soul and it quiets the mind. Can't stress out when you are focusing on the yarn in your hands (or sewing needle and thread).

I finished up my daughter's baby afghan that I dawdled on for so long I had to expand the size to grow with her and still be useful. I finished it up at a tad bigger than a crib mattress so that it fits her toddler bed quiet nicely and will continue to be a nice throw and lap afghan as she grows up. The green stripes match her bedroom fabric and the pink stripe in the middle is her favorite color. I think the only part she cares about right now is the fact that she can stick her fingers out through the afghan holes. She thinks that is pretty neat.

I also started and finished a smaller afghan for my friends who's baby arrived about a month earlier than planned. The gift was about a month late but I think they like it just the same.

I made a purse as well as a market bag for my Grandmama's birthday this week. The purse was made on one of my new looms and came out considerably smaller than I expected it to come out. It has a nice cabling pattern though. The market bag was made from recycled Target bags that I cut into strips then crocheted together with a speed hook. It was a big hit and I will definitely make more.

The first project that I attempted to make was wrist warmers for my 11 year old daughter. The pattern was a little too loose for my liking but she likes them quite a bit. I am currently making a fashion scarf out of left overs from the baby afghan and my small loom and should have that done any day now. I will be loaning the small loom to a friend at work as she wants to learn to make things. Next up, an afghan or two. The projects aren't super fancy, but I like them anyway.

If you have an account at Ravelry (the social networking site for yarn lovers) feel free to friend me, I of course go by linuxhic.

Originally published at The LC on the DL. You can comment here or there.

I have been trying to finish up the pile of crochet projects I have had backed up for some time so that I could start some new ones on the Knifty Knitter Loom Kit I bought recently. I find fabric arts to be incredibly soothing to my soul and it quiets the mind. Can't stress out when you are focusing on the yarn in your hands (or sewing needle and thread).

I finished up my daughter's baby afghan that I dawdled on for so long I had to expand the size to grow with her and still be useful. I finished it up at a tad bigger than a crib mattress so that it fits her toddler bed quiet nicely and will continue to be a nice throw and lap afghan as she grows up. The green stripes match her bedroom fabric and the pink stripe in the middle is her favorite color. I think the only part she cares about right now is the fact that she can stick her fingers out through the afghan holes. She thinks that is pretty neat.

I also started and finished a smaller afghan for my friends who's baby arrived about a month earlier than planned. The gift was about a month late but I think they like it just the same.

I made a purse as well as a market bag for my Grandmama's birthday this week. The purse was made on one of my new looms and came out considerably smaller than I expected it to come out. It has a nice cabling pattern though. The market bag was made from recycled Target bags that I cut into strips then crocheted together with a speed hook. It was a big hit and I will definitely make more.

The first project that I attempted to make was wrist warmers for my 11 year old daughter. The pattern was a little too loose for my liking but she likes them quite a bit. I am currently making a fashion scarf out of left overs from the baby afghan and my small loom and should have that done any day now. I will be loaning the small loom to a friend at work as she wants to learn to make things. Next up, an afghan or two. The projects aren't super fancy, but I like them anyway.

Originally published at The LC on the DL. You can comment here or there.

Where have I been this week? Not much on Twitter, no podcast last week, and hardly any posts. My deepest apologies. I had some minor surgery Monday which resulted in 13 stitches (six on the inside, 7 on the outside) on the side of my face almost right up against my ear. While I thought it wouldn't be too bad, the pain went on for days. You don't realize how much that skin gets tugged and pulled until you are all sewn up and try to eat, talk, laugh, cough, and sneeze. Holy moly! Tonight I am feeling much improved as compared to the beginning of the week and am starting to feel almost normal. Tomorrow the stitches come out and hopefully I will be able to put on my headphones and get a podcast out a!
s well as a bunch of new posts.

As for my frantic schedule I found this awesome spreadsheet to keep my blog posting focused and on schedule and have started tweaking it out for my own sites and get everything on track.

To sum it all up, I have had little energy or enthusiasm to do much of anything. Lack of sleep contributed too because every time I rolled over in my sleep I would end up on my stitches which would promptly wake me back up.

I did get some other things done though. I finished a crochet baby blanket for some friends of mine who's little one arrived about a month sooner than planned. She is a little doll baby and healthy. =) Crochet and sewing has always been a good outlet for me when I am stressed or not feeling well as it takes my mind off everything except what I am working on.

The kids are planning a garden and a worm farm and the nice weather this weekend really made them want to get started. Unfortunately the 70s we had today have now plunged to 46 degrees (F) with some rain and the threat of floods and a winter weather advisory. Snow is expected tomorrow - boo!!

We also checked out the new Bass Pro Shop this weekend. That place was amazing! They have a big climbing wall that kids were scrambling up, a restaurant, and outdoor gear I didn't even know existed. They have a large tank of fish from the lakes and rivers of Missouri and a 100lb catfish! The kids loved it! We checked out fishing gear and boats and left full of spring fever. I can't wait to get out to the lake and fish.

Well, enough for now, domestic duties are calling and winter is screaming at the door. I am going to go curl up under a blanket and relax a bit.

Originally published at The LC on the DL. You can comment here or there.

Podcasting keeps threatening to jump the shark. Seems like we hear that it won't take off, then we hear it's gaining ground, then we hear old media will never let it dig it's way to sunlight. Podcasting isn't dead and more lip service is being paid to it every day, however the service model that supports podcasters is old and broken.

We are trying to force podcasting into an old mold. Podcasting is not traditional media and the old ad systems and tracking methods just don't work. There isn't even a good stats system. Systems like RawVoice (powering Blubrry and TechPodcasts) as well as Podtrack are using redirects to count hits on the media files. How many hits versus how many downloads are completely different. How long are people listening? How much data is being transferred? Who knows, it's all bout the clicks. It's frustrating and there isn't anything else.

It leads into the same old ad model.

To get into the stats tracking system, and possibly the ad system, one has to go through a survey where they ask you about your subscriber base, your hit count, your page views... all the stats that I wonder how many people have a handle on if they are signing up for stats tracking.

There are systems for stats tracking - most are utilizing java script which is great if you aren't a tech site and all your visits have java script enabled and aren't using a plugin to block stuff. Did you know there is a plugin to actively block the Google Analytics code from placing the cookie on your system? Google shows that I have 1/32 the amount of hits that I actually have because the people that are make up my audience are the people that are blocking the cookie intrusion. When the day is over I am going to trust my webserver logs because only they know how many times they served up a page and to who.

With all this clicking and viewing and scripting comes the methods ad networks use.

Ad networks want click throughs - not page views. Affiliate advertising is great if people are going to buy that Dell or Apple computer while they are on your site. Most likely they won't but they will remember that Dell ad and go straight to dell.com when they are ready to buy. You provided the ad view that reminds them later what to buy but you see NOTHING from that ad in monetary value. It's free advertising and free website space. If you are lucky enough to have hundreds of thousands of page views per month or even day you will be lucky enough to get ads that pay with cost per impression. Why do you have to have such crazy traffic? Because now that you do you can command better pay.

This isn't even a model of traditional media. How often to people click on their TVs on on magazine ads? Never, the technology doesn't allow them to. Yet advertisers pay MILLIONS for the VIEWS.

THE VIEWS.

Even on television shows that have less viewers than many websites they are paying big bucks to get their ad on.

Why can't we command the same respect for our internet sites or for our podcasts and video? Because no one is standing up and saying "fuck this". I have a policy that I don't like to go on crazy rantfests about broken systems if I don't have a better suggestion or plan to roll up my sleeves and work on fixing it.

I am fed up with the crappy stats systems, the crappy online advertising models, and the substandard promotion directories and I plan on doing something about it.