I See Recipes

This thought comes fresh to my mind because I've been allowed into the kitchen again at my home after many months of banishment. In the past two evenings, I've cooked a delightful sheperdesque pie (mashed potatoes filled with sauteed spinach, green beans, watercress, onions and garlic) and a tasty lemon pepper parmesan salmon filet with an alfredo pasta (brown rice noodles, tomatoes, spinach, watercress); my wife helped with that one. While these came from my own culinary mind, there are many places on the web to get new ideas for the kitchen. Recipezaar and All Recipes are two excellent sources for getting creative in the kitchen. I also have been recommended MealsForYou and Living Cookbook seems like a nice software program for organizing and helping in the kitchen.

Free Online Collaboration Workspace

I've been working on a research paper for one of my Masters courses and have been testing various online workspaces for recommendation. The most impressive product I've encountered is AceProject. With multiple project and user management, task tracking, timesheets, and various reporting tools, you'll find this to be a comprehensive package. The free version is limited in number of users, projects and file upload, however, there are upgrades for various monthly fees.

Yerba Mate

Looking for a subsitute for coffee and that uneasy feeling it can give you in your belly; try Yerba Mate. One of only a few teas that can be brewed in hot or cold water, it is a perfect drink to start your day, liven the afternoon and steady your evening activities. It goes excellent with different types of milk and honey. You can usually buy it in bulk or in pre-packages at your local co-op or naturual foods store.

Help has arrived: Fly Lady

Allow me to introduce my wife's best online pal: Fly Lady. She (Marla Cilley aka Fly Lady) and her site, FlyLady dot net have found their way onto our Favorites as well as into our home. We have tried different methods (wife initiated, myself incorporated) of de-cluttering and cleaning our home and lives. We are but novices in this artform, but continue to learn the masterful ways that are humorously designed and described by Fly Lady.

Buddha Moving Time

Props to my graphic design friend, Cain.

New to Me: Fandango

Fandango dot com was introduced to me on Wednesday afternoon when my wife and I were scrambling to decide what Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire showing to see. My sister interjected, "what about fandango.com?", and I was like, "Whaaaaa?". She then said you could buy movie tickets online. Conversation over. I booked downstairs in my parents house with credit card in hand and in only a few short minutes, I had purchased two tickets for that evening. I realized two things, I still have a lot to learn about the internet and that Voldermort returns (I knew that already, actually).

Useful Windows Run commands

A La Lifehacker Useful Windows Run commands:

"The Fix My XP web site lists 99 Windows Run commands for keyboard lovin' PC users.

To invoke the Run box, hold down the Windows key and hit R (or from the Start Menu, choose 'Run.') From there type any one of the keywords listed to launch an app: like calc for Calculator or clpbrd for the Clipboard Viewer or freecell for the card game. Don't forget you can also create your own Run commands that launch apps and documents you configure. See previous Lifehacker post Cheap Windows keyboard launcher for more info."

99 Useful Run Commands @ Fix My XP

Summarize with Google Reader

I know little about RSS feeds, though I want to learn. With everything else on my plate, I don't get many opportunities to educate myself on this technology. I was perusing this AskMetafilter thread and found a suggest for Google Reader. I did a couple searches to get my favorite sites in the reader and with the quick click of a button, I had my favorite sites summarized. Now I just click my Google Reader link on my Favorites list and BAM!, I get quick updates from my most frequently visited sites. Thank you technology for making things simple.

Bored At Work

Play Yeti Sports. Over a handful of online games, some with a great winter theme. *Quick free account creation required.

Full Belly?

If you are experiencing pain anything like mine, you may be having serious digestion problems from yesterday's festivities and other dietary choices over time. Some helpful suggestions for natural digestive aid would be papaya enzymes, herbal teas, and, if desperate, other options. Read this overview about colon cleansing and always consult your physician before attempting any of these methods.

An Archive of Information

Use Archive Dot Org. I don't think I need to say anymore once you've visited, however, there is an abundance of audio, video and text files for all of your intellectual needs.

User reviews

I find the site, Epinions, to be an excellent consumer opinion site for so many products. I've used it for car shopping, computers and peripherals, getting married (just kidding, darling) and more. Other sites with similiar formats are Bizrate, Comsumer Report and Consumer World. Don't forget about the Better Business Bureau and remember to be an informed shopper.

A Simple Discovery

Visiting another helpful site, LifeHack, yielded another excellent resource for living a simpler life. The title is in fact, Live Simple and is written by John December. Mr. December has his own useful site, December Dot Com. Every link in this blog-blurb provides hours of informative articles and references. Read away, but don't forget about me amidst all these more developed sites.

Magic Movie Moments

Looking for a unique big people movie to watch this holiday? Seek no further and rent (or buy): Le Fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain. A magical story, spoken in French,with English sub-titles and voice narration, it is a tale of charity and love that will warm your spirit for the coming holidays. As they say, "She'll change your life."

A Penny A Day

You have so many pennies. The world is ridden with pennies. Remember, these pennies are money. Also remember, the Salvation Army will be jingling their bells outside stores across the country. Consider, for a moment, dropping a few pennies in each time you pass. If you drop 10 pennies a day for the next 31 days, you've donated only $3.10, but you've given 31times (double that if you give both walking in and out of the store). Now imagine 100,000 people (not too many actually) doing the same thing for the next 31 days; over $300,000! That's alot for "just pennies a day".

Reminder: Warm up the Video Camera

If your family is like ours, you probably get caught up in the magical moments and forget to turn on the video camera. This makes perfect sense, why pre-occupy yourself with whether your hands are shaking while you video tape your six month old in her super saucer. However, this is the time of the season to dust off the tapes and capture some footage. Loved ones are all around and you can preserve the memory of many in one 30 minute video collage. So today, tomorrow or the next, strap the camera to your hip and become a movie maker for a day. In the years to come, you will come to appreciate the few minutes of togetherness and memory you were able to save by doing so. Happy Thanksgiving!

Online FTP

Net2FTP has been an excellent tool as I've begun the process of developing my son's preschool website. I have a work computer and home computer. I began the site on my home computer and then would have creative inspirations while at work. I started getting files disorganized between the two computers. Finally, I started making the edits directly in Net2FTP and it has worked out perfectly. Now, when I do a search for a quick html or css tip, I can apply it immediately (that whole patience thing again). I highly recommend this free service for gentle FTP needs.

Better Things To Do

You don't have to participate in Black Friday; you can still certainly be productive for the holidays, though. Start by writing heart-felt cards, building hand-crafted gifts, baking cookies with your current pantry stock, and so many other activities that will get you in the mood without driving you crazy because of mass crowds at malls and stores. A few pennies saved is not worth the stress and the better gift is the one spent on with love and time versus money and frustration. Via Lifehacker via AdBusters.

Contribute when you can

I've encountered this quite a few times. Customer service and technical phone support often don't right away know the answers to problems. They log the call and say they'll get back to you. Having little patience, I figure out it on my own. Then, instead of being lazy, I call them back, have them look up the call/ticket log and give them my solution. I have done this with D-Link, Kensington, Dell and a few others. Also, if I've found a question on a forum that relates to something I was searching for and later found the answer, I document the solution in the original search find. Even if it was originally created 2 or 3 years ago, it is helpful for the next person who searches. Just some food for thought as we move deeper into the age of free information.

Use Open Office

Open Office is a comparable software suite to compete with Microsoft Office, yet it is free. When I bought my new laptop, I opted out on Microsoft Office (saving hundreds of $$) because Open Office does a sufficient job. Keep in mind, you can save files in formats that allow Microsoft Office users to open and edit (amongst many other tools).

There are plenty of available resources for Open Office, including video tutorials. Via Lifehacker via NewsForge.

Helpful Children

Having trouble getting your children to follow through on requests. Turn them into secret missions, games with prizes, fantasy thrills; just be sure you keep the request and outcome positive. I specifically have been successful with having my son, Forrest, do secret missions to get him to brush his teeth, carrying things to the kitchen and so forth. He caught on one time though because the spies never showed.

Here is a good article from Mothering Magazine:
Let's Take a Bath in the Magical Forest : Moving through the Day with Play. Mothering is the publication of choice in our household and is highly recommended for new and alternative ideas in parenting.

Helpful Sites

There are so many, aren't there?!

I have an addiction to increasing my intelligence in many things. The folks at Lifehacker often seem to read my mind as posts arrive daily that are perfectly pertinent to my day's projects. Additionally, Ask Metafilter is another place full of constant helpful advice, allowing visitors to post and comment on any number of topics.

Since the day flies by, those are the places I visit multiple times daily just to see what's new. Other sites, like, W3 Schools for web design help, Security Forums for computer help, and others. I want you to keep coming back so I am not going to give you all my secrets in one serving.

Hello Hello

My name is Michael Shearer and I am busy (and I'm sure you are too, so I will make this brief). With an equally ambitious wife, a six month old daughter, a four-year-old son, a dog, two cars (one broken), a full-time job, Masters classes; I burn it at all ends. Even with all of these responsibilities, I still like to run up and down the stairs to do something quick on the computer like start a blog.

I love writing and have a growing joy for web publishing. While a novice designer, I did put together one public website, found here. Today I intend on using my skills and resources to get blogging. While I would love to have Google send me checks every month, it will be a while before I wrap my head around AdSense. Actually, it may be awhile before I have visitors other than my wife...and she just laughs at me. Nonetheless, I hope you enjoy the content I provide; it should be miscellaneous, but useful, randomly entertaining and overall worth your quick few minutes of scanning. Please provide me any feedback you may have by comment or email. Namaste!