Blog Class

Three Weeks left until school starts!






I am starting to get ready for our home school co-op for this fall. I will be teaching a class on blogging and yes I have been consulting the above referenced book for a few pointers. One thing I will be emphasizing in the class is Internet safety. I will be instructing my students not to use their own names on their blogs. To that end, I will be no longer using the names of my children and replacing them with nicknames. My oldest will be called by the not surprising moniker, bunny girl. My son will be known as Spider Droid to combine his love for Star Wars and his previous passion for Spiderman. My daughter with the penchant for Lucyisms will be referred to as Princess puppy. (Lucyisms will be referred to as puppyisms)



I blog using blogger and will be teaching my students this platform. One of the things I like about blogging is the ease of removing or editing previous posts from blogosphere. In the weeks to come, I will be editing past posts and replacing the kids names with their nicknames.

I am excited about the class. I have created a new blog just for the class, but will still be linking things here as well.



Next Time: Blah Blah Blogging

Despicable Me Vs. Toy Story III

After 300 blog posts were completed on this blog earlier this year, I looked back on my 25 most used labels and from time to time I count them down here.

Label# 16 (3 way tie) Reviews

I have reviewed many things on this blog. Books, films, & music. Today I am going to compare two movies my family watched yesterday . While most of the family went to watch Toy Story III again with Amy who had not seen it yet, Spider Droid and I went to see Despicable Me.

I had taken everyone but Amy to watch Toy Story III on opening day in 3D. I can only vouch for about 90% of the movie as I made 3 runs to refill popcorn. What I did see was quite entertaining. I definitely enjoyed TS3 and would recommend it somewhat highly. (PS Amy did not like TS3 at all...she found it violent, scary, and poorly written, but that's just HER opinion, and this is NOT her blog!)

I will say though, that it is not nearly as good as the original and while I had first thought it better than TS2, I realized afterwards that much of the plot of 3 is just a reworking of 2. I also thought that the 10 (4 * $2.50) extra dollars I spent on 3-D were wasted. (The 4.50 I spent on the kids popcorn were a shrewd purchase with my multiple refill trips) The only thing that was really enhanced by the glasses were the short at the beginning and the Despicable Me trailer.

There was also a more dark side to TS3 that I thought was unneeded. Without giving away the plot, the danger the main characters were in the end caused my youngest daughter nightmares (which is why we didn't take her when Amy went yesterday.) The suspense in the other 2 films was much less scary.

I will admit that I did cry like a baby at the movie's conclusion. If the theme of the movie could have been toned down just a bit it would have been a much better ending to a fine series.

Now while TS3 was a movie that I thought would be fine for the whole family it was not, at least for ours. Despicable Me was a movie that I thought would only be suitable for Spider Droid and myself, but after watching it, I am convinced that all the kids would love it.

Despicable Me is one of those films where you laugh from beginning to end. We didn't buy popcorn this time so I can say that for the entirety of the film. The movie quickly shows it has depth beyond the premise of an aging villain trying to pull off one final evil plot.

Because of timing issues we did not see the movie in 3-D. It would have easily been worth the extra $5.00 ($2.50 * 2(Do I have to spell out everything for you?!!!!)). From the 3-D trailer I saw at TS3 and from the version we saw, it is easy to tell how the 3-D experience would add to the visual excitement of the film.

But even with all the visual excitement, it was never where I thought it would overwhelm a certain 4-year old of mine. The tone of this movie is not nearly as dark as a tale of a villain bent on evil schemes could have been. I would recommend it much more than I would TS3.

Well that's what I have for you review wise.

Next Time: Blogging Class

Six Word Saturday

Six Word Saturday Time:

My 6: I haven't forgot how to blog!

It's not that I've been super busy, I really haven't been. It's not that I haven't had anything to blog about, Lucyisms still abound here and there's always plenty of things for me to tell you. It isn't like I said I wouldn't blog while the White Sox were on their current hot streak. If I did, who knows when I'd blog again. The truth is if it wasn't for the kind transmission by my wife on Monday, I would have maintained blog silence for a week.

Blogging just hasn't been my bread and butter this summer. I am gearing up to teach a blogging class this fall at our home school co-op. So, I actually have been working on blogging on the down low. More on that later.
I am also trying to get use to the keyboard on my new laptop and I keep on typing my new words in the middle of my old ones.

I hope all is well for my readers, if I have any left. I will be back to blogging with abandon soon.
Head on over to See my face dot com to check out more six word Saturday.

Next Time: Toy Story to 3-D and beyond!

All Heart

4 weeks left till school starts
Dave is out helping people today, so I thought I'd take this moment to infiltrate his blog. Shh...don't tell him. Dave is all heart. When anyone needs ANYTHING, he is right there to help out, to give of himself. His dad broke his shoulder this week, so he needed some help on a household project he was working on. Then the Illinois floods came and ruined the basement of his sister-in-law. So today Dave is taking time to shuttle between places to do some grunt work. Dave is not a fix-it man, but that doesn't matter. He is all heart. You need something, I'm there. That's his attitude. While we'll miss hanging out with him today, we are thankful that he's out there, helping people who really need it. We love you Dave!
Amy/HSD's wife

Local Anesthesia?

It is time once again for six word Saturday over at show my face dot com. Today's Six:

Think Local. Drink Local. GPS Needed.

There are many unusual things about me. Here are just a few that relate to today's rant.

1) I listen to the radio quite often.
2) I pay attention to the commercials.
3) I notice discrepancies between fact and error (in advertisements and other programming.)
4) When I notice these discrepancies or abnormalities, I talk back to the radio as if it could hear me.


While I am for the most part a Chicago White Sox fan, I listen to quite a few Chicago Cubs games. A long time sponsor of Chicago Cubs baseball is Old Style Beer. For the past few years Old Style has had the advertising catch phrase: Think Local. Drink Local. They have had several different radio ads over the past few years but the idea is to tie in the Old Style product with being authentically Chicago.

This is not a bad idea, as I have been following the Cubs since the early 70's and Old Style has been connected to the team and the broadcasts as far back as I remember.

The thing that gets to me is at the end of the commercial after they have made the whole think local, drink local, pitch they announce the name of the company and where there company is from: G Heileman Company, Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Hey! So, let's get this straight. Chicago Cubs fans should think local and drink local by buying beer from a company in a different state?

This year, the ads have been about how to "Kraeusen (the sytematic way Old Style is brewed)" different Chicago institutions. The idea is that since Kraeusening makes Old Style better, the ads tell how to make other typically Chicago things like 16-inch softball better. So when these commercials come on, I usually talk back to the radio and say: here is how I would Kraeusen this commercial, I wouldn't talk about how great it is to be local and then say: "Hey, we're not even from here."

One of the first years this campaign was on the radio, the Cubs and the Milwaukee Brewers fought for the lead in the division almost all Summer. Ironically, the company championing being local had their offices in a town where most of their residents were cheering against the Cubs.

The crazy thing is I don't drink alcohol at all. So Why does a non-beer-drinking Sox fan get all worked up about beer commercials primarily played during Cubs games? If I could answer that question, my therapy bills would be so much lower.

Now that you know that I think loco, head back to Six Word Saturday at Show my face dot com.