Project Exploring the Internet: Day 28

So I was thinking, what cool internet thing can I explore or share today....

And I thought well, I should put some Halloween message up on the blog. So I Googled Halloween glitter for some pic to put up.

I found a nice one as you can see above. Then I thought, why don't I just share this site with everyone. You can use it for many different holidays and messages.

The site is called, Glitter Graphics Now.

Another example:





Now go fancy up your blog.

:)

Project Exploring the Internet: Day 27

It's kind of a shallow site in a sense but it's kinda fun too. Hot or Not is a different kind of a site.

It's a place to put your picture up and have people rate your looks.

I took mine down. LOL

I had it up there for a while and had a high score. Then I got up over 100 ratings or something like that and my score started going down, as it should have LOL. I quickly printed off my pic and score and deleted my account. LOL

Then I said to my wife, "see honey, I really am a 9/10."

:)

Yeah, I don't think she bought it either.

LOL

Project Exploring the Internet: Day 26

Ok ok, I know this will probably be one of my lesser popular posts but I LOVE boxing. I thought I'd share one of my favorite boxing sites to go to.

BoxRec is a great site where you can see the record of ANY boxer that has EVER fought.

Examples:
Muhammad Ali, Mike Tyson, George Foreman, Joe Frazier, Sonny Liston, Floyd Patterson, Archie Moore, Rocky Marciano, Joe Louis, Jim Braddock, Jack Dempsey, Jack Johnson, James Jeffries, James Corbett, John L. Sullivan, Charlie Mitchell, Jack Burke, Sugar Ray Leonard

They've also got rankings, a schedule, news, and a forum.

Project Exploring the Internet: Day 25

Comedy Central Jokes.com has a bunch of funny comedian clips and some funny jokes on the site.

My Comedy List on PPL is full of good comedy. On that list are full shows by Carlos Mencia, Dave Chappelle and Robin Williams.

Best Comedians:
Redd Foxx - Jokes I Can't Tell On TV Part 1, Jokes I Can't Tell on TV Part 2, Jokes I Can't Tell on TV Part 3, Jokes I Can't Tell on TV Part 4

Bernie Mac - Def Comedy Jam

Cedric the Entertainer - Def Comedy Jam,

Don Burnstick - Winnipeg Comedy Festival

Jeff Dunham - Spark of Insanity Walter Part 1, Spark of Insanity Walter Part 2, Spark of Insanity Walter Part 3, Spark of Insanity Peanut Part 1, Spark of Insanity Peanut Part 2, Spark of Insanity Peanut Part 3, Achmed The Dead Terrorist

Elen Degeneres - The Beginning Part 1, The Beginning Part 2, The Beginning Part 3, The Beginning Part 4, The Beginning Part 5, The Beginning Part 6, The Beginning Part 7, One Night Stand Part 1, One Night Stand Part 2, One Night Stand Part 3, One Night Stand Part 4

Mylo Smith - Powwow Comedy Jam Rapid City

Gabriel Iglesias - Hot and Fluffy Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6

Chris Tucker - Arsenio Hall Show

Kat Williams - Weed

Steve Harvey - Michael Jackson

Russell Peters - Beat Your Kids

Chris Rock - Rap Music

Dave Chappelle - SF Part 1, SF Part 2, SF Part 3

Bill Cosby - Brain Damage

Comedy Bits:
Some Things Change

Shows:
Def Comedy Jam - Chris Tucker, Bernie Mac, and Martin Lawrence

Project Exploring the Internet: Day 24

There are more than 15,000 free worksheets for your kids at School Express.

Here are some examples of the many worksheets they have:

Social Studies
History
Hand Writing
Phonics


I do have a problem with one of their history worksheets though. It says, "Who discovered America in 1492?"

My answer to that is that one cannot discover a place where millions of people already live. How are you going to tell the Native students in your class that Christopher Columbus, who was completely lost, discovered you? That's just wrong.


They also give you the option to create your own worksheets.

Right now, I'm creating my own Ojibwe language wordfind. SWEET!

I used to make word finds the hard way. Have you ever done that? It takes forever.

:)

I love this site. The days of me spending $5 on a workbook for the kids are OVER!

Project Exploring the Internet: Day 23

I kinda like WebMD. At WebMD you can use the site to help diagnose any physical illness you may have.

WebMD also has about a thousand health tips.

They also have a bunch of videos.

This one on Swine Flu is a good example of the kind of videos they have.

Project Exploring the Internet: Day 22

Writing about a familiar site to me and that's Yahoo Games.

Don't you wish you had free games like this growing up?

I mean, when we were growing up we had to play board games, and then you needed someone to play with, and it wasn't always easy to find someone.

Nowadays, you can sit at home on your computer at any time of the day and play just about anyone in the world. I'm in Minnesota and I've played games against people from just about every state and people in other countries including England.

That's COOL!

I'm a big fan of:

Literati - It's almost exactly like Scrabble.

Chess - I'm not very good at Chess, but I can beat beginners. LOL

Cribbage - My wife loves this game. I think it's too much LUCK! LOL

Word Racer - It's fun against other beginners but against pro's.... it sucks. And the pro's on this game have no problem whooping up on beginners.

There are a bunch of other games as well. Check 'em out, have fun and don't forget to ask the person you're playing where they are from.

:)

Project Exploring the Internet: Day 21

Whoa! The "Followers" are back up. Right on. It's been a few days.

So last night coming home from the store, where I bought a new set of headphones with an attached microphone, I wondered outloud to my wife if there was any site that offered karaoake where you could sing to a song and then record it and save it.

So when I got home, I did a search for one, and yep, there is one!

Karaokeplay.com has a lot of good songs to pick from. You create your own profile there (of course it's all free) and then add a picture. It's kinda like blogger with music instead of blogs.

You also have the option to go check out the recordings of other users.

Nope, I can't sing well, so I'm not recording anything except for maybe some kids songs with my kids. LOL

Some other Karoake sites I came across but haven't tried yet:

Redkaraoke.com - You can rate other users' recordings. I don't want people rating my singing. LOL

and

KaraokeParty.com

Project Exploring the Internet: Day 20

The boom of online radio stations is really cool for me. I live way out in the country and we can only pick up a handful of radio stations on the regular old radio.

Here's a list of online radio stations:

Country:
CMT Radio Stations, AOL Country Radio, KVET Texas Country Radio

Here's a List of Country Radio Online.

POP:
KDWB MPLS

Sports Talk Radio:
KFAN MPLS, The Ticket Dallas, Atlanta 790, Calgary 770, Florida 790, Toronto 590, St. Louis 590, Utah 1320, Oklahoma 98.1, Seattle 950, Memphis 560

Native Radio Stations
Gathering of Nations Radio, Kili Radio

Live365.com has thousands of online radio stations.

At Pandora.com you can make your own radio station where it plays (at random) the kind of music you request.

Project Explore the Internet: Day 19

Kaboose Halloween:

They've got cool Halloween stuff and Ideas:

Crafts - Vampire Bats

Costumes - Sunflower

Recipes - Creepy Crawly Nightcrawlers

Coloring Pages - Wolfman, Frankenstein and Dracula

Games - Halloween Tic Tac Toe

They have a lot more but those are just some examples. It's a really good site. If you have kids at home, it's a must see.

Project Exploring the Internet: Day 18

Day 18 of this project and I'm still able to find interesting sites.

:)

How about Day 318? Hmmmm....

________________________________________

Fora TV is a site to watch educational shows. I guess one could say it's a library of discussions and lectures on science, environment, politics, economy, technology, and culture.

For example:

A REALLY Inconvenient Truth: Dan Miller (68 min) - He talks about climate change.

Michael Moore on "Capitalism A Love Story" (64 min)

Peter C. Doherty: The Science of Climate Change (86 min)

Re-Greening the Emerald Planet (73 min) with David Hayes and Tom Lovejoy

________________________________________


My oldest just turned 13 in August.... my first teenager. I remember I used to sleep a lot as a teenager, and sleep in. It was hard to get me up. Now maybe I'm being paid back for giving my mom a hard time getting me up for school. It is HARD waking that my 13 year old up sometimes!

________________________________________

Project Exploring the Internet: Day 17b

Big props to Amy for introducing me to Kate Voegele - Lift Me Up.

I've never heard that song before or Kate Voegele.

Thanks Amy.

I thought I'd share that song with y'all too.

Project Exploring the Internet: Day 17

I guess Flu season is going strong. I heard about a website that tracks the Flu on the radio this morning.

At Google Flu Trends you can track which states have the highest flu trends and how the percentages of the flu go up and down.

At the CDC Flu Activity and Surveillance, they give you numbers of people with the Flu in the states and they also have a map.

I know, I know, it's not as cool as free online TV episodes or free online movies or free school lessons, but I found it interesting for a couple minutes anyways.

:)

Project Exploring the Internet: Day 16

I just found a site called Academic Earth and I absolutely love it!

I LOVE finding new GOOD sites!

This site has FREE video courses from big Universities:
Berkeley, Harvard, MIT, Princeton, Stanford, UCLA, and Yale.

Some of the Subjects they cover:
Advanced Placement (AP) Test Prep
Astronomy
Biology
Chemistry
Computer Science
Economics
Engineering
Entrepreneurship
History
Law
Literature
Mathematics
Medicine
Philosophy
Physics
Political Science
Pre-Med
Psychology

If you like learning new stuff, this is great!

Project Exploring the Internet: Day 15

I really wanted to share this cool game/online world called Second Life with y'all.



I've never even heard of it before I started going there a little over a year ago. How does that happen?

You see, that's EXACTLY why I started this Blog.

When I logged in and finally started playing it, I noticed that there were over 50,000 people in the online virtual world. Unbelievable. I later found out that there were 1.5 million people that knew about it and I had no idea. I heard in a news report that over 6 million people have played it. I thought that number was a little high but it's not just Americans and Canadians playing it. People from countries all over play it. The online world has translators that translate your typing into the language of the user so it is really possible to communicate with anyone there.

Second Life is so cool. It's like a virtual chat room. Why do people even go to regular chat rooms anymore? And in Secondlife, you don't have all of the spammers like a Yahoo chat room does. Secondlife is basically a chat room where you have a 3D Avatar/character that you can make look like whatever you want.

I made my Avatar look a lot like myself. Most of the people on there make their Avatars look like supermodels but not everyone. You can be Robin Hood, Elvis, a midget, or just about anyone you want. I think most actually just make themselves regular people.

In Second Life, one can meet someone and even go on dates LOL. I'm married, I can't really do that, but I'm just saying.... Why would one even go to a dating site? You can go to Secondlife and meet all kinds of people and find out what their personality is like before you go any further.

Where can you go on dates to in Second Life? There are bars, concerts, and there are even CHURCHES. Yes, there are REAL churches in Second Life people go watch a real life video feed on Sundays.



There are also other spiritual sites to go to!

There are beautiful gardens and beaches to go to. In Second Life, one can go to just about any place one can in real life.

They actually have EDUCATIONAL sites on Secondlife. They have libraries and other places where you can go learn. One of the first educational places I went to was an ocean site where they teach you about ocean fish. I was also once in an old Egyption tomb learning about old Pharoahs and such.

Through Second Life, there are also news casts and group discussions. They can get very interesting. Here are some examples, check these out:





I've met some really nice people on Second Life. I find that when you get away from the crowd and meet someone 1 on 1 away from everyone else, it works out better. Some places can be full of cliques of regulars. Some people even give you things such as different clothing items and such. Someone even gave me some dance moves. LOL! I wish they could do that in real life.

:)

There is also LIVE music there! YES! Real musicians go in their studios and play/sing LIVE over Second Life. It's a way for them to get their names and music out there.

Here is a concert given live on Second Life by Suzen Juel:



Second Life Youtube Videos
EDUCATIONAL:
Second Life in Education, Educational Uses in Second Life, Ohio University in Second Life, Murdoch University in Second Life

Real Life Newscasts Report on Second Life:
CNN in Second Life, Second Life on BBC News, NBC News on Second Life

Music in Second Life:
Irene Grandi Concert, Grace Cylindrian - Float Away, Suzanne Vega - Tom's Diner, Lyn Carlberg

Project Exploring the Internet: Day 14

Just about everyone already knows what "Twitter" is so I don't need to explain much about it. I have a Twitter page but almost never update it so I won't even waste anyone's time sharing it.

Could you imagine doing this blog AND keeping up on Twitter?

I thought I would share some popular Twitterers today though because it's kinda fun to see what your favorite actor/athlete/singer is doing.


Popular people on Twitter:

Ashton Kutcher: Star of That 70's Show and Demi Moore's husband.

Ellen DeGeneres: Comedian, Talk Show Host

Christina Applegate: Star of Married with Children.

Bill Maher: Comedian

David Hewlett: Star of Stargate Atlantis.

Oprah Winfrey: Talk Show Host, Actress

Kevin Love: Minnesota Timberwolves PF.

Wil Wheaton: Actor on Star Trek the Next Generation.

MC Hammer: Rapper with hits "Can't Touch This" and "Hammer Time."

Barack Obama: President of the United States.

Jerry Zgoda: MPLS Star Trib sports reporter.

Chad Ocho Cinco: NFL WR for the Bengals

Terrell Owens: Buffalo Bills WR

Britney Spears: Singer

Lance Armstrong: Bicyclist

Snoop Dogg: Rapper

Levar Burton: Actor from Star Trek and Roots

Penn Jillette: Actor

Al Gore: Politician

Demi Moore: Actress and Mrs. Ashton Kutcher

John Tesh: Singer, Author, Radio Show Host

Ryan Seacrest: TV Show Host

Brent Spiner: Actor(Data on Star Trek)

Shaquille O'Neal: Basketball Player

Jimmy Fallon: Actor

Kim Kardashian: Ummmm.... I don't know why the heck she's famous! I guess she's like Paris Hilton, just famous for being famous. LOL

Hugh Jackman: Actor


I'm not that interested in the big time actors/atresses Twitters but I do find the actors like Brent Spiner and Will Wheaton very interesting.

Other Lists of Twitterers:
Comedy Central Top 100 Comedian Twitterers
Musicians on Twitter
SarahCPR's Fomous People on Twitter List

Project Exploring the Internet: Day 13

This is a site I've used in the past but wanted to share it. It is called FreeLang.net.

With this site you can download just about any language dictionary you want.

You don't think they have the language you want? Here are a few examples:

ABENAKI-PENOBSCOT, AFRIKAANS, ARABIC, ARMENIAN, BLACKFOOT, BRAZILIAN PORTUGUESE, BRAZILIAN VENETO, BURMESE, CANTONESE (romanized), CHEROKEE (ANIYAWIYA), CHEYENNE, CHOCTAW, CORNISH, CROATIAN, CZECH, DANISH, DUTCH, ESTONIAN, FINNISH, FRENCH, FRISIAN, GEORGIAN, GERMAN, GOTHIC, GREEK, GWICH'IN, HAIDA, HAITIAN CREOLE, HAWAIIAN, HEBREW (romanized), HINDI (romanized), HMONG, HUNGARIAN, ICELANDIC, INDONESIAN, INUIT, IRISH GAELIC, ITALIAN, JAPANESE, KHMER, KOREAN (romanized), KURDISH, LATIN, LATVIAN, LITHUANIAN, MACEDONIAN, MAORI, MISKITO, MOHAWK, MONGOLIAN, NAHUATL, NORWEGIAN, OJIBWE, OTTOMAN TURKISH, PASHTO, PERSIAN, PHOENICIAN, POLISH, PORTUGUESE, PRUSSIAN, PUNJABI (romanized), QUECHUA, ROMANIAN, RUSSIAN, SAMOAN, SANSKRIT, SCOTTISH GAELIC, SERBIAN, SLOVAK, SLOVENIAN, SOMALI, SPANISH, SWAHILI, SWEDISH, TAHITIAN, THAI, TIBETAN, TONGAN, TURKISH, UKRAINIAN, VENETIAN, VIETNAMESE, WELSH, YIDDISH, ZULU

This site is incredible but it gets even better....

Did I mention it is totally free?

Did I mention the download is very fast?

It's a great option to help learn a language. It's especially helpful if you have a child in a language class such as Spanish or French.

I downloaded the Ojibwe dictionary. I LOVE it!

The dictionary allows you to search for words Ojibwe-English or English-Ojibwe.

When you search for words, you can add them to a list. You can create as many lists as you want. After you have made a list, you can print it off and study it.

Another option with your list is to practice online with it. You simply click on "Start Practice" and the word will pop up on your screen like a flashcard and you'll have a set time to say the word. It's pretty good practice, better than making out your own flashcards.

The best part about this is that it is on your computer. You don't have to be online to use it.

Did I mention that it's free?

:)

Project Exploring the Internet: Day 12

The YouTube Downloader is EXCELLENT!

Go to that page and download the YouTube Downloader. With that tool, one can download any YouTube video. Please be careful not to download any copyrighted material. You don't want to get into any trouble, but this tool is PERFECT for downloading something another user did that isn't copyrighted.

Downloading a relatives videos is a perfect use of this tool.

This downloader gives you the option to download the video in various formats also so you can use it with your MP3 player etc.

Using this will also allow you to watch videos while you are offline.

I've been having fun with it today. I thought I'd share.

:)

Project Exploring the Internet: Day 11

Anyone think I was going to miss today?

Busy busy day.

This is actually becoming a challenge now.

LOL

It's not really hard, but the consistency of it....

I found a some cool quotes pages:

QuoteDB:
"Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity." -- Martin Luther King Jr.

Brainy Quote:
"Let us put our minds together and see what life we can make for our children." --Sitting Bull

The Quote Garden:
"Nobody can make you feel inferior without your consent." -- Eleanor Roosevelt

Legends of America:
"The land is sacred. These words are at the core of your being. The land is our mother, the rivers our blood. Take our land away and we die. That is, the Indian in us dies." -- Mary Brave Bird

World of Quotes:
"A bad word whispered will echo a hundred miles." -- Chinese Proverb

DahlilamaQuotesDaily.com:
"Sectarian feelings and criticism of other teachings or other sects is very bad, poisonous, and should be avoided."-- Dahli Lama

Good Quotes:
"An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind". -- Gandhi

Quote Cosmos:
"I find that the harder I work, the more luck I seem to have." -- Thomas Jefferson

Some of those sites will email you a quote of the day. I thought that was really cool anyways.

:)

Project Exploring the Internet: Day 10

Have you ever heard someone say something like OMG instead of Oh My God?

I understand OMG but people use all kinds of letters and numbers that I don't because I don't text. So when I came across Net Lingo today, I was happy.

I think every parent should probably learn these. This site reports that, "95% of parents don't recognize the lingo kids use to let people know that their parents are watching" and that, "89% of sexual solicitations are made in either chat rooms or Instant Messages."

Those are some scary numbers eh.

Some examples:
420 - marijuana
831 - I love you
AITR - adult in the room
182 - I hate you
KPC - keeping parents clueless
PAL - parents are listening
WYRN - what's your real name

I really don't use any of these but I do overuse the simple LOL a lot, many do but you know you're on the internet too long when you actually say the letters L-O-L instead of laughing. Yes, I've heard people do it.

LOL

The other thing I like about this site is the Smiley's page. It tells you how to make all kinds of smiley's.

@>--;-- for a rose.

*<|:-) for Santa Claus.

Project Exploring the Internet: Day 9

Who needs cable anymore when you can just watch your shows online for free?

Well, I guess I do since my internet is hooked up through the cable.

LOL

Some of these shows I posted here change regularly. The website hosting them is only licensed to show them for a short while, and then they change episodes.

Here are some full episodes on Youtube:

MacGyver(112 episodes), Beverly Hills 90210 (87 episodes), Jericho(Season 1), Bewitched(105 episodes), Star Trek (original, 72 episodes), Look-a-Like (22 episodes), American Gladiators (26 episodes), Sex Wars (5 episodes), The Peoples Book of Records (9 episodes), Fear Factor UK (26 episodes), Battle Dome (44 episodes), Funniest Pets and People(20 episodes), Gemini Division (9 episodes), Starhunter 2300 (22 episodes), The Last Enemy (5 episodes), The Dresden Files (12 episodes), Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom (29 episodes), Fantasy Island (20 episodes), I Dream of Jeannie (51 episodes), He-Man (13 episodes), The Lone Ranger (13 episodes), Married with Children (100 episodes)


Here are some full episodes on Fancast:

Highlander(120 episodes), The A-Team(97 episodes), Battlestar Galactica (original - 25 episodes), Buck Rogers (37 episodes), Doogie Howser (97 episodes), Eureka (5 episodes), ECW Wrestling (83 episodes), The Fall Guy (22 episodes), The Flintstones (9 episodes), Gilligan's Island (17 episodes), Growing Pains (13 episodes), The Incredible Hulk (62 episodes), Knight Rider (newer) (9 episodes), Knight Rider (older) (22 episodes), Land of the Lost (17 episodes), The Love Boat (16 episodes), Monk (3 episodes), Punk'd (40 episodes), Sliders (46 episodes), Scare Tactics (5 episodes), Stargate SG1 (154 episodes), Stargate Atlantis (10 episodes), The Bionic Woman (14 episodes), Survivor Samoa (4 episodes)


Here are some full episodes on Hulu:

Stargate Universe (3 episodes), Lost (93 episodes), Reba (46 episodes), Firefly: Serenity(5 episodes), Stargate SG1(Seasons 1-7), The Simpsons(5 episodes), House (2 episodes), The Pretender (22 episodes), Angel (5 episodes), Highlander (118 episodes), The Outer Limits (118 episodes), National Geographic Specials (11 episodes), Doogie Howser (97 episodes), Hell's Kitchen (23 episodes), The A-Team (97 episodes), Roswell (22 episodes), Married With Children (70 episodes), Psych (3 episodes), Cops(4 episodes), Sliders (46 episodes), The Practice (53 episodes), Stargate Atlantis (10 episodes), John Doe (21 episodes), Monk (3 episodes), Airwolf(75 episodes), Major Dad(96 episodes), Quantum Leap (31 episodes), Journeyman(13 episodes), Knight Rider (older)(22 episodes), Charles in Charge(21 episodes), Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader(63 episodes), Heads Up Poker Championship(24 episodes), Tremors (11 episodes), Crusoe (12 episodes), Sanctuary (5 episodes), Empires (4 episodes), Charlies Angels (62 episodes), Maury Povich(20 episodes), Kings(6 episodes), The Best of Comics Unleashed(108 episodes), Bones (5 episodes), Dog Whisperer (3 episodes), Kings (12 episodes)


Here are some full episodes on AOL Video:

The View (5 episodes), Jericho, King of the Hill, Quantum Leap, Stargate SG1 (88 episodes), The Moment of Truth, The Pretender, WCG Ultimate Gamer, Head of the Class, CHiPs, Wonder Woman, Hangin with Mr. Cooper (31 episodes)


TV Land:

Leave it to Beaver(9 episodes), Andy Griffith(5 episodes), Sanford and Son(5 episodes)


ABC:

Wipeout(3 episodes), Dancing With The Stars(11 episodes)


Unique Single Episodes/Shows:

American Holocaust (30 Min) - "This is the only film to date that addresses the Jewish and Indian Holocausts together. This powerful, hard-hitting documentary reveals the link between Adolf Hitler’s treatment of German Jews and the U.S. government’s treatment of American Indians. This film was entered into the OSCARS for consideration in 2000."


There are many more shows on those sites but I just posted some popular shows and then my favorites. I like sci-fi....

Where was the internet when we were kids???? Kids today don't know how great they got it. Some of us only had 4 or 5 channels growing up until cable hit, and then you still couldn't see any show anytime.

My favorites in no particular order: MacGyver, Stargate, Sliders, Survivor and The A-Team

Project Exploring the Internet: Day 8

Did you know you can get the newspaper online for free now?

Here are some online newspapers to check out:
MPLS Star Tribune: The Minneapolis newspaper

USA TODAY: The USA Today newspaper

Dallas News: Dallas newspaper

Houston Chronicle: Houston newspaper

LA Times: Los Angeles newspaper

SF Chronicle: SF newspaper

The Detroit News: Detroit newspaper

The NY Times: NY newspaper

Anchorage Daily News: Alaska newspaper

Tampa Tribune: Tampa Bay newspaper

FREEBIE OF THE DAY: Free Olive Recipe Book

Project Exploring the Internet: Day 7

I think my age is starting to show. I’m 36. I was at a poker league tournament (for points, not money) and Guns N’ Roses came on jukebox, it was “Patience.” I started swaying back and forth as I looked at my cards. I think my feet were doing the Axl dance under the table.

I was at a table with 4 other people. Three of them were in their early 20’s. The other was probably in her late 50’s or early 60’s. I looked at one of the younger guys and asked him if he’d ever seen these guys live before. This kid asked me, “Who is it?”

Say what!?!?

I looked at the other 2 youngsters expecting them to know. They didn’t.

I responded with a stunned voice, “It’s Guns N’ Roses.” The kid just shrugged and said that he knew that (he didn’t).

Really? Kids in their early 20’s don’t know who Guns N’ Roses are?

Then I started wondering to myself, the way older people today (those in their 60’s and higher) might get up to some old Patsy Cline song and start dancing, are those of us in our late 30’s and early 40’s, when we hit 60 and 70, are we going to get up and start doing the Axl dance when an old Guns N’ Roses song comes on?

LOL

I can just hear my grandkids saying, “Go grampa! Go grampa!”

:)

Ok, getting back on track here, I think Project Exploring the Internet is going good so far. It’s taking up a LOT of time but that’s ok. I’m actually staying focused on something and I think it’s helping me stay focused on other things as well.

When I see in the comments section that someone learned something from what I blogged about, that makes it all worth it. Big Big thanks for the great comments everyone.

I’ve been writing more on topics than say concentrating on one individual website. I think that’s ok, and probably better. Sooner or later though, I’m going to run out of interesting topics and I’ll be exploring “Joe Bob’s Family Farm Website.”

LOL

BUT NOT TODAY!

:)

Today I’m looking at places to watch movies legally online.

These are all places that have legal movies to watch. There is no downloading. These places have permission to play these movies.

Some movies, they keep on their sites forever, while with others, they only have permission to play them for an allotted time, so in a month, some of these links may not work, but they all work now.

On Crackle Movies:

Legends of the Fall (133 min), The Karate Kid 2 (113 min), The Karate Kid 3 (112 min), Bram Stokers Dracula (127 min), Boyz N The Hood (112 min), Ghostbusters (105 min), Cliffhanger (113 min), Groundhog Day (101 min), In The Line of Fire (129 min), Knock Off (91 min), Nowhere to Run (94 min), Johnny Mnemonic (97 min)


On YouTube Movies:

Dragonstorm (92 min), Supersize Me (99 min), Jail Bait (100 min), Deeply (101 min), Top Dog (85 min), Monster Island, Phat Beach (99 min), The River King (99 min), Spirits of Bruce Lee (93 min), Snowwalker (105 min), The Last Warrior (94 min), Stealth Fighter (97 min), Undiscovered (97 min), Harvard Man (96 min)


On Hulu:

Windtalkers (134 min), Death Warrant (88 min), Life (108 min), Saints and Soldiers (90 min), The Secret of Nimh (88 min), Trolls 2 (94 min), Black Dog (88 min)


On FANCAST:

Rob Roy (139 min), Dawn of the Dead (100 min), Lone Wolf McQuade (107 min),


On AOL VIDEO:

Heavy Metal in Baghdad (84 min), Totally Baked (98 min), The Godson (100 min), Lawn Dogs (101 min)


On Documentary Wire:

An Inconvenient Truth (96 min), Earthlings (95 min)


That's 42 movies to get you started and places to search for other movies. They really do switch the movies up quite a bit so if there is something you like on this list, I suggest you watch it now.

Wondering which ones are my favs? Out of the movies I listed above, probably the 'Legends of the Fall' and the 'Karate Kid' movies.

On another note, we got about a 1/2 an inch of snow last night and it's snowing right now....

FREEBIE OF THE DAY: Good Nights sample

Project Exploring the Internet: Day 6

28 degrees right now.... BRRRRRRRR

We're going to be trick-or-treating in 3 weeks in our winter clothes. We won't need costumes. LOL

So when it's too cold to do much outside (there is no snow yet), what is there to do?

You could read.

You've probably read all of the books on your shelf though right? There is a large library of free books to read online.

Over the summer I had wondered if there were books online, so I started to research it and found some sites. Over the last couple days here, I have enhanced that search and came up with some places to find online books and some pretty good books as well:

_____________________________

Scribd - Scribd has a lot of free books to read but it has so much more than just books. It has coloring pages and worksheets for kids, recipes, magazines, various documents, and writings by their members.

A book from Scribd.com:
Lakes and Sea Monsters

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Online Books from UPenn - This site has over 35,000 free books.

Books I plan to read from UPenn:
Indian Life and Indian History, The life, history and travels of Kah-ge-ga-gah-bowh, The traditional history and characteristic sketches of the Ojibway nation

_____________________________

Project Gutenberg - It has a large catalog of books and great search methods. You can search by top 100 all time, top 100 yesterday, authors, and also by titles.

Popular books from Gutenberg:
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Pride and Prejudice, The Kama Sutra of Vatsyayana, Frankenstein

_____________________________


Questia - Questia has more than 5,000 books for free.

Popular Books from Questia:
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, Tarzan of the Apes, Jane Eyre, The Scarlet Letter, The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin

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Classic Book Library - It doesn't let you search by author or title but it does by genre. It doesn't have as many books as the other sites.

A popular book from the Classic Book Library:
Great Expectations

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FullBooks.com - Full Books has many many free books. The problem with this site is that there is no search engine. You simply have to click on the A’s or B’s to search for book titles that start with those letters.

My picks from Full Books:
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Old Indian Days, Old Indian Legends

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Authorama - Not a lot of books and one can only search by authors but it has some nice books.

My picks from Authorama:
Wau-Bun, Indian Heroes by Charles Eastman

_____________________________


Bored.com - I'm not real excited about how they allow you to search for books but the site looks good. They have some interesting books for kids.

A book I'm curious about from Bored.com:
Among the Sioux

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Fiction.us - They have many popular fiction novels.

Popular books from Fiction.us:
Little Women, Wuthering Heights

_____________________________

OnlineLiterature.com - You may search this site by authors. There are a lot of good books here.

My picks from OnlineLiterature.com
Booker T. Washington - Up From Slavery (Autobiography), My Bondage and My Freedom by Frederick Douglass, Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe, The Art of War by Sun Tzu

_____________________________


Now, go read some books, but don't forget to read Project Exploring the Internet as well.

:)

Freebie of the Day: Free sample of Dromeo Pain Relief Lotion

Project Exploring the Internet: Day 5

The great winterization procrastination is continuing. I still haven't fixed the windows for winter time yet and there's a good chance of snow this weekend. I have to give the lawn one last mow also, find the shovels, fix the dog house....

And here I am blogging.

LOL

:)

(And yes, I am a big time abuser of "LOL" and the smiley.)

Ok, so to today I decided to discover zoo's online.

The San Diego Zoo is probably one of the worlds most popular zoos. The zoo’s online site is just as amazing.

Click on Animal Zones and a map of the zoo will come up. On that map there are links to information and videos on many of the animals at the zoo:
Giraffe, Wallaby, Koala, Camel, Lynx, Snow Leopard, Cougar, Jaguar, Elephants, Lion Tailed Macaque, Sun Bear are just a few examples.

The Minnesota Zoo is the zoo I grew up with. I never realized they were online with live web cams.

Live Cams:
Dolphin, Gibbon, Beaver, Macaque

The animals do not have artificial light so you can only see them when it is sunny out in MN. If you right click it, then click on "zoom" and then "full screen," you can see better. Waaby (my 3 year old) likes the full screen view.

I wish they had more live cams but I'm grateful for what they do have.

The MN Zoo also has very informative animal pages. When you go to these pages, be sure to click on “Fun Facts,” “Behind the Scenes,” “Detailed Info” or the other options they have for each animal. These are just a few examples:
Beaver, Bald Eagle, Coyote, Fisher, Lynx, Turtle, Frog and Snake, Porcupine, Cougar, Wolf

If you have older children that have to do reports for English class, those are some really useful pages.

The Smithsonian National Zoological Park has taken webcams to a whole new level.

The National Zoo web cams:
Cheetah Cam, Otter Cam, Amazon Fish Cam, Leopard Cam, Leopard Cub Cam, Ferret Cam, Lion Cam, Tiger Cam, Octopus Cam, Fishing Cat Cam, Pink Flamingo Cam, Golden Lion Tamarin Cam, Gorilla Cam, Kiwi Cam, Orangutan Cam, Panda Cam, Sloth Bear Cam

The Indianapolis Zoo animal cams:
Walrus Cam, Sea Lion Cam, Penguin Cam

The Indy Zoo cams aren't that great. You have to download an add-on (which I did and it seems safe) and you can't enlarge the cam view to full screen. There were animals on the cams though when I viewed them.

Other Online Animal Cams:
Ferretcam.org has a live stream of ferrets.
Saddlebrook has a live cam of horses.
Gatorland has a live cam of aligators.

It's nice that Waaby can kinda have a zoo experience right at home any day. One thing you have to remember about the live cams is to be patient. Sometimes the animals are out of view. Other times they aren't in their cages because the cages are being cleaned. I like watching the workers and the people watching the animals sometimes just as much as the animals. I don't think some of them know they are on the cam.

"HEY KID, DON'T PICK YOUR NOSE! YOU'RE BEING BROADCASTED!"

:)

Other Zoo's Online:
Denver Zoo, Phoenix Zoo, Cincinatti Zoo, Pittsburgh Zoo

FREEBIE OF THE DAY: Free OMG GOP STICKER

Project Exploring the Internet: Day 4

So this project challenge hasn’t been too overwhelming yet. I’m having a lot of fun doing it so far and I got my first follower yesterday and my second today! VERY COOL!

The comments I’ve gotten so far have been very positive. This is great.

So, back to it….

For a LONG time I’ve wanted to learn American Sign Language. There aren’t any courses nearby so I’ve never done it. I decided to look online for some free places to learn. I found some great ones.

Why didn’t I think of that a long time ago?

I mean, the internet is right there! Why wouldn’t I search for it? Why didn’t anyone tell me this stuff was online?

You see, this is EXACTLY why I’m doing this Project Explore the Internet. It’s for me to learn about new things but also for me to share really cool things with other people. Hopefully y’all share some too.

If I would have found these sign language sites years ago, I may be fluent now.

Well, forget me, my 3 year old (Waaby) would probably know more now than she does.

She already knows “apple,” “thank you,” “mom,” and “dad.” Waaby uses them every chance she gets. It is SO CUTE!

When I saw this You Tube video that babies can learn sign language before they can speak I got really excited, even though a little frustrated that I didn’t know about it with all of my kids.



The baby’s name in that video is Fireese. She is so cute! It’s amazing what she and her mother have accomplished. Other Fireese videos:
12 Months, 13 Months, 15 Months, 17 Months, 2 Years, ABC’s

I guess the best way to start is the ABC's and there are some videos on You Tube that can help you there: Expert Village ABC's, Mark Esposito ABC’s,
Smart Hands ABC’s, Rob Nielson ABC’s

I still don’t have the ABC’s down. Waaby and I will keep practicing.

:)

The American Sign Language Pro site is incredible. They have a dictionary so that you can find any word you want and they have a video showing you how to sign that word, not just a picture you have to figure out. It's incredible and more than I expected. You can’t really tell from a picture in a book how to do the motion. The videos in the dictionary were a welcomed surprise.

The dictionary and videos aren't just limited to just words either. There is also a section with a large list of phrases. This section is really going to help us in learning.

Expert Village with Rachel Berman, has some good videos out there that are really good at teaching you certain aspects of signing and not just the signs. These are short, but really good lessons:
Basics: Deaf/Hearing, Introducing Yourself, Where are you from?, Essential Expressions, Etiquette, Talking About Yourself, The 5 W Questions, Socializing, Personality, Clothes, Shoes, Glasses and Contacts, Phone and Email, Face, Height, Hair, Ethnicity, Likes and Dislikes, Hyper and Mellow, Friendly and Unfriendly, Anxious and Nervous, Happy and Sad, Angry, Excited and Not Excited, Confused, Bored, Indifferent and Tired, Numbers, Names, Pets, Furniture, Home and Address, Laundry, Yard, Computer and TV, Colors, Drinks, Vegetables, Fruit, Meals, Grocery Shopping, Zoo Animals, School

In these videos, this student gives basic lessons for her mom. It's really good. Lesson 1 and Lesson 2

The Rob Nielson videos on You Tube are pretty good:
Numbers, Greetings and Introductions

Signing Time with Rachel Coleman has GREAT videos for kids that Waaby absolutely loves. Eyewitness News did an interview with her and it was very informative. I'm so glad she's been able to use her talents with sign language.

Here are a few of their videos:
Nice to Meet You, Colors of The Rainbow, Helping Out Around the House, Walking Through the Zoo, Signs for Teachers, Happy Birthday, Days of the Week, My House, Spring, Going Outside, Bugs, Caterpillar Dreams, Proud to Be Me

Researching for this post was fun. I'm sure I missed many good sites and if you know of any, please post them.

One thing I want y'all to be careful of though, is that there is a lot of not-so-good stuff out there. There are some videos where a lady is doing the signs wrong. It's really frustrating when you are starting to learn something, and then you find out it's wrong.

There are also other forms of sign language. So you really have to be careful that you stay with the same kind of sign language. American Sign Language is what I used here and it is what is used in the United States.

On another note: I'm learning a lot doing this project but I still don't have my windows covered for winter. LOL!

This blog may get me put in the doghouse.

:)

FREEBIE OF THE DAY: Free Oust Gift Pack

Project Exploring the Internet: Day 3

It is too cold for early October. It's 34 degrees right now.

Today’s theme is music music music!

Finding music online for free to be exact, and I do mean legally.

So we are going to stay away from Limewire and sites like that, which can also be dangerous. You never know what you are downloading. Many have downloaded virus’ from those sites.

We’ll start with a site I’m very familiar with, Project Playlist. This site is incredible for free music. This site is completely free. When you go there, sign up. Once you have an account you can create your own playlist. On your playlist you can put up to 200 songs. You may also create as many playlists as you want.

Project Playlist is compatible with Blogger. To put your playlist on Blogger you simply click on “customize” in the top right hand corner of your blog. Then you click on “Add a Gadget.” In the top right hand corner, there is a search box. Type in “Project Playlist” and then hit enter. When it comes up, click on it. Ok, now to get YOUR playlist to go on your page you need your playlist number. In a separate window, go to your playlist. In the address bar there will be a number such as http://www.playlist.com/playlist/554845963. Just copy the number of your playlist that is on the end such as 554845963 and paste that in the box titled “Playlist #.” Then click save. The playlist will then be at the bottom of your blog.

If you don’t want to make a playlist of your own but would still like to put one on your page, feel free to use one of mine.

My favorites - 554845963, Latino - 1000557835, Country - 2067360011, Native American - 2283468299, HipHop/Rap - 2283507979, Love Songs - 2566288651, Sports Songs - 2566299915, Best of the 80’s - 2566336779, Kids Songs - 2705412107, Halloween Songs - 2919092747, Christmas Songs - 2921665035, TV Show Themes - 3514735627, Movie Songs - 3514915595

Here’s an example of a Project Playlist Player:

Project Playlist is good for making music lists and they have an unlimited photo album. That is also good. However, the message boards there are lousy. They are full of trolls and just plain MEAN people. They are very poorly moderated. Have fun at PPL but stay away from the message boards.

Now for a site I’m pretty new to and still learning, Flashwidgetz. Of course it’s also free. I don’t like to go to pay sites.

Flashwidgetz is different from Project Playlist because it has video playlists (although PPL is working on installing them).

If you can’t find a song on Project Playlist, Flashwidgetz may have it.

These sites are legal because they only link to music where the music is (supposed to be) put on by the copyright owners and you can’t download it.

My Flashwidgetz Page is a work in progress.

I’m torn between which site I prefer right now.

These are whole albums I found on Myspace Music for free that I like:
Young Guns II Soundtrack, Journey to the Spirit World by Buddy Red Bow, Music From a Painted Cave by Robert Mirabal, In The Blood by Robert Mirabal, Indians Indians by Robert Mirabal, Raven in the Snow by Bill Miller, The Red Road by Bill Miller, The Essential Marty Robbins by Marty Robbins, Gunfighter Ballads by Marty Robbins, The Essential Kris Kristofferson by Kris Kristofferson, Ultimate Dolly Parton - by Dolly Parton, Loretta Lynn's All Time Greatest Hits - by Loretta Lynn, Wave on Wave by Pat Green, The Essential John Denver by John Denver, The Ultimate Chris Ledoux Collection by Chris Ledoux, John Anderson's Greatest Hits by John Anderson, Walela by Walela, The Best of Clannad by Clannad, Charlie Daniels Band 16 Greatest Hits by The Charlie Daniels Band, The Randy Travis Anthology by Randy Travis, Cross Road by Bon Jovi, These Days by Bon Jovi, One Wild Night Live by Bon Jovi, 100,000,000 Bon Jovi Fans Can't Be Wrong by Bon Jovi, Bonnie Tyler Super Hits by Bonnie Tyler, Secret Love: Live by Freddie Fender, Cold Hard Truth by George Jones, Cherry Pie by Warrant, My Love Ultimate Essential by Celine Dion

Grooveshark is a lesser known music engine but it’s a good one. It has some songs that I could not find anywhere else! Thank you Grooveshark.

Songs I like on Grooveshark:
Jody Thomas Gaskin - Powwow Princess, Jody Thomas Gaskin - Part of Being Anishinaabe, Rodney Carrington - Older Women, Cletus T. Judd - Cletus Went Down To Florida, Trace Adkins - Honkytonk Badonkadonk

I’m sure everyone has been to Youtube. Youtube has a TON of music videos on it. You can make playlists on Youtube as well but the thing that isn’t good there is that you can’t re-order your songs.

Some of my favorite songs on Youtube:
Shania Twain - Dance With the One That Brought You, Claude McKenzie - Pishumuss, Dude Mowrey - Hold On Elroy, Keith Secola - NDN Kars, Bill Miller - Tumbleweed, Robert Mirabal - Little Indians, Robbie Robertson - It’s a Good Day to Die, Shadowyze - Bumpy Roads, Marty Robbins - Cowboy in the Continental Suit



Yahoo has music too! Did you know that? Did you know they had videos too? Yahoo Music is probably the least of my favorite places to go for music but it’s alright.

Here’s a Yahoo music video I like:
Lisa Stewart - Under the Light of the Texaco

I hope you had fun with this one y’all. IT TOOK FOREVER!

I'm going to put on a sweatshirt and plastic on the windows. I can't believe it's going to snow any day now. I'm not ready for it just yet.

Freebie of the Day: Womens 2010 Health Calendar

Project Exploring the Internet: Day 2

As you already know, Julie Powell inspired me to do this blog. If I ever get to meet her, I have to give her a big hug. This is so much fun!

Of course, it’s only Day 2.

By the time day 102 comes around I may be swearing at her….

:)

I’ve got 5 kids. I’m sure many of you have kids too.

Is anyone out there?

You ever have one of those days where your toddler just won’t let you get a thing done? The day where they just have to be held? The day where your arms are so tired from holding them that they feel like they are going to fall off?

Do you want to know what works, at least for a little while?

Coloring!

What, you don’t have any coloring books?

Today, I’ve done a search online and came up with a list for y’all that my kids have enjoyed and I would love to hear if your kids liked them too. They are all free and easy to print off.

One site with many good coloring pages is Coloringbookfun.com. They have Dora The Explorer, 101 Dalmations, A Bugs Life, Arthur, Bambi, Barney, Batman, Blues Clues, Boobah, Bratz, Brother Bear, Care Bears, Cinderella, Clifford, Lilo and Stitch, Lion King, Little Mermaid, Little Bill, Little Bear, Magic Schoolbus, Peanuts, Pokemon, Powerpuff Girls, Scooby Doo, Sesame Street, Rugrats, The Simpsons, Smurfs, Teletubbies, The Wiggles, just about every holiday, just about any kind of animal, the alphabet, numbers, and many many more.

My 3 year old Waaby (short for Waabigwan, it's Ojibwe) LOVES Dora. When I print off a Dora coloring page she gets the biggest smile on her face. I love making her smile.



ColoringKids.com has various coloring pages including the alphabet, animals, country, heroes, history, holidays, nature, numbers, Disney, and more.

Florida’s Finest Pest Control Coloring Book
Hannah Montana Coloring Pages
Spongebob Coloring Book
Diego Coloring Book
Sesame Street Coloring Pages
Alphabet Coloring Pages
Numbers Coloring Pages
Fire Safety Coloring Book

Someone at the grocery store in town, who doesn’t have the internet, asked me one time what you can do on the internet. I said just about everything. Then they said they have a computer but can’t really afford the internet. I told them that it pays for itself. It really does.

Just in not having to buy newspapers alone, it pays for itself. But when you figure in things like coloring books, one actually saves money.

Sure, the ink and paper cost money and you can go to the dollar store and get a cheap coloring book, but that coloring book only has one set of coloring pages, whether it be the alphabet or something else. Online, you can get anything your toddler/kid wants, and what they want changes quite a bit. And if you have 5 like I do, they all want something different. One wants Pokemon, while another wants Hannah Montana and another should be working on the alphabet.

Oh yeah, by the way, I had so much fun with my Day 1 assignment that I am going to already try something new with the Project Exploring the Internet. I’m going to TRY and do a Freebie of the Day. How long will that last?

:)

Freebie of the Day: AIDS Awareness Button

Project Exploring the Internet: Day 1

Excited about the new blog....

The kids are running in and out, except for the 13 year old who was up at 2am when I got out of bed for something to drink.

What to explore? Hmmm....

Free stuff seems like fun. I want something free!

So I Googled "Free Stuff."

Holy crap.

Too much crap to sort through.

So I went "free samples" instead. That seemed to work out better.

Walmart had some great samples. It appears they always have free samples they are giving out. I bookmarked that one. Today they had samples of Emergen-C and Garnier Shampoo.

Shop4Freebies seems like a good site that updates freebies regularly. Today they had Oregon Chai Tea and anI Love Bacteria T-Shirt.

Other free samples/stuff I found online:
Notepad and Pen
Space Camp CD and Poster
ThinkPad Journal Notebook
Essence Perfume

I DID send away for all that stuff.

:)

You think if I go to those sites every day for updated freebies, I'll be getting a freebie in the mail every day?

Who knows if it will work, but it should be fun to see which stuff actually shows up. I think it's going to be fun checking the mail box each day and having a new surprise.

Do you think anyone will ever read this blog?

:)

Project Exploring the Internet: The Intro

11/4/09
Sunday

I've been totally inspired by Julie Powell! This is what happens to me when I go see movies.

My wife and I went and seen "Julie and Julia" last night. My wife loved it. I thought it was ok with some funny parts.

I think my wife actually started crying with laughter when Julie Powell said, "I still have to bone a duck!" I've never heard her laugh so loud in a movie theater before.

The story is about Julie Powell, who started a blog where she wrote about cooking from Julia Child's cookbook. Let's just say it went well. She got a book and a freakin' movie out of it!

So I started wondering about what the heck I could blog about. I want a book too damn it!

:)

Then I started thinking about why I wasn't aware of blogs and how popular they are....

Don't ya just hate it when there have been thousands of people going to a great site for a couple of years and you could have been going there if you only knew about it?

Why don't your friends tell you about it?

Bunch of buggers eh! They've enjoyed something great and didn't want to share it?

BUGGERS!

That's it.... That's what I could write about!

Each day for the next year I am going to write about my explorations of the Internet and hopefully learn about some new sites, learn more about some older ones and share that information with y'all.

I'm no Internet pro. I've only had a basic computers course in college, which means I know how to turn the computer on, save a word document, print a word document and type something in the URL address bar.

:)

So the reader is getting Internet comings and goings from just some guy who is really just exploring around and not some Internet pro.

If I actually write something everyday I'll be shocked.

I'll need y'all to cheer me on and share some sites to explore.

THE CHALLENGE:
Go explore at least one site a day and write about it for 365 straight days.

THE CHALLENGER:
Goofy Dad Jody who is looking for some odd challenge besides the normal.

365 days, 1 Internet and 1 Goofy Dad

Quoting Julie Powell, "How far will it go? We can only wait. And wait. And wait...."

I must be a big goof doing this.

:)

Thanks,
Jody