Driving In Traffic

You know, when your 10 years old, the worst thing you should have to worry about is boys pulling your pig-tails. However, Olivia King has Cystic Fibrosis and needs a liver transplant. If that wasn’t enough—she also needs $185,000 to cover the medical expenses (not covered by insurance). Read her Mom’s journal here.

Last week Toby Bloomberg asked me if I thought we could rally the Atlanta blogosphere and perhaps others to lend a hand to get the word out about a very ill young girl, Olivia King, who needs our help. So this Friday, Toby formally tagged me and asked me to help spread the word about Olivia.

So here’s how you can help:

1. Participate in the golf tournament on July 7, 2007 at Orchard Hills in Newnan (My Father-in-law’s favorite course!). CALL 817-232-1773 or 678-522-4941 FOR MORE INFO!
2. Sponsor something at the golf tournament– call the numbers above
3. Donate through Helping Hand Ministries (tax-deductible)
4. If you don’t care about the tax break and want to make an online donation please go to Mom Barb’s PayPal Account. Use kingbkmp1@bellsouth.net as the email code.
5. Blog about this!
6. Send or post a note of encouragement!
7. Go to the Chipin I created to donate directly to Olivia’s Mom
8. Promote the Chipin badge on your MySpace, Facebook, or other social networking sites.

“Envy slays itself with its own arrows.” Greek Proverb

Hello… my name is Carol and I have a terminal case of Nikon Digital Camera Envy (photo by Kodoma). My preoccupation with Nikon started when I was my high school’s photographer and was able to use the schools beautiful 50mm camera. Over the years it has gotten worse. Now…This condition has ruined my online life (none of my photos are on my blog and I do not have a flickr account) because I have two other (Minolta and Sony) digital cameras that I hate using because of the knowledge that I do not have the camera of my dreams.

For about a year I have had a serious case of camera envy directly pointed at Josh Hallett and his Nikon D80. This case of camera envy is quite severe– in fact, it might go right on in to Camera Covet. In hopes releasing the demons, I have personally confessed my envy to Josh several times. But honestly, that hasn’t worked. In fact, I’m almost convinced that Josh enjoys these little confessionals– as he usually finds some new cool thing to show/tell me about his camera. It’s like giving a drink to an alcoholic…

It is so bad that recently at a blogger meet up in Atlanta after Podcamp when the non-blogging hubby met Josh for the first time, he shook his hand and said “Nice to meet you. However, you’d be wise to keep both hands on your camera and if it ever comes up missing– give me a call, its likely at my house hidden in my wife’s closet.

In fact, my serious case of Nikon Envy may have reached terminal stage when Mike Schinkel showed up at the Atlanta Social Media Club Meeting with his new Nikon D40 and showed me all of the photos he’d been playing with. showed up at this month’s

Now… I’ve learned from Josh that Nikon has a blogger program and they are giving cameras to bloggers/photographers who use their own photos or who have large flickr libraries. Doh!!!!!!!!
So here I am— no flickr account, no photos online, and nothing but sadness in my heart. The only thing I can offer is a prayer asking for forgiveness for having such a lapse in character.

Let this be a warning to you… envy does indeed slay itself with its own arrows. I am living proof! Get treatment early– with the first signs and avoid my fate.

I suppose my only chance at redemption is to convert the change jar (photo by El Ramon)from “video camera” to “Nikon Dreams”

OK– the live blogging thing didn’t work out too well. Mostly because I couldn’t stay connected to the Emory network. Everytime I shut my laptop — it would ask me to re-register. I’m not whining– I’m just explaining… ok… maybe I’m whining a little bit. Anyway, the day was filled with a lot of helpful hints and tips for the newbie and the advanced podcaster. As a newbie, I found the following tidbits helpful:

1. The average podcast is about 20 minutes long. It is always better to be brief rather than long-winded.
2. Start podcasting with a minimum set of hardware & software (free if possible) and give yourself a path for upgrading.
3. There is indeed a minimum leve of sound quality you need and a good $40 USB headset with microphone should be able to get you there.
4. Audacity or Garage Band are two good tools for editing your audio.
5. MP3 is the only universal format and good audiofiles have a bit rate of 64kbps-128 kpbs (96 is good) and a sample rate of 44.1khz.
6. If you don’t have a blog, there are many services that will publish your podcast.
7. Gabcast will let you record your podcast via a toll free number.
8. Podcast directories are good for promoting your blog. Good ones include: www.podcast.net, www.podcastdirectory.com, www.podcast411.com, and www.podcastalley.com.
9. Freevlog.com is a good resource for vlogging.
10. There are a bunch of helpful folks in the podcasting, blogging and vlogging space. If you are interested and/or need help, don’t be afraid to ask someone. Most are willing to help and give advice.

Tags:PodcampAtlanta podcasting vlogging PodcampAtlanta2007 social media

Ben prides himself in his instigating abilities. Obviously he’s pretty good at it as I’m participating in his ‘writing assignment’ of the week. Hopefully I will get in under the wire and my post will be worth $5 toward a charity.
Life Lessons I’ve Learned in 2006

1. Adults and children alike should take part in the folly of dreaming big. Suspend disbelief and allow your imagination to run wild.
2. My friend Lynn taught me that it is important to do one thing each day toward making your dream a reality. She’s done that and soon she will be opening her gallery storefront.

Now for more mundane things…

1. Ipods are cool. I’m hoping Santa will bring me one tonight.
2. MySpace is over-rated. Too much noise and not enough focus.
3. The newer Ren and Stimpy cartoons are not as funny as the older ones.
4. Symantec customer service stinks.

Tags: Lessons+Learned, 2006,

I’ve been watching all of my feeds with interest as people I read have been “tagged” with this fun new meme of posting “5 Things You Don’t Know About Me”. I especially loved when Nedra admitted that she was a Rush Fan in her youth. I also liked learning Beth’s Barbie Website story.

I’ve never been tagged before so I was really surprised that Toby at Diva Marketing tagged me. So here goes…

1. I love reading strange, absurd and utterly rediculous fiction.
2. I love the Foo Fighters.
3. I played flute in middle and high school and no matter how hard I practiced I never made it higher than last chair in “first band”. In other words… I suck!
4. I have way too many close friends who are preacher’s kids.
5. My husband and I have an organic vegetable garden every spring and summer.

OK– now to spread the fun. I tag….

Brad or Kevin, because they say what I’m sometimes afraid to say.
Dr. Petty because I’m sure there are still some stories I haven’t heard.

Will Clarke because I want to know more about what makes this author tick– or dare I ask.
Dale because I read his blogs regularly but just realized that I know very little about him.

Tisa because she’s my blog momma and needs a reason to post.

I’ve just finished setting up a Squidoo lens to support my Dollar Philanthropy Blog. Drop by, give it a spin and let me know what you think. Did I forget something? Any ideas for improvement?

Over the holiday weekend, I spent time relaxing and cruising around Technorati. I came across a great new blog by Stella, a sassy boston terrier in Manhattan. Stella is one opinionated lady who has no patience with cockapoos and she has a real ax to grind with Lassie. Check her out here: Stelleto Blog.

Since Stella is a dog, she doesn’t speak like a human. However, she has managed to craft a few really good haikus in her most recent post.

Technorati tags: dogs, Pets, Fun Stuff

The Tooth Fairy has her own webpage and the cursor takes the shape of Fairy dust. Additionally, amongst all her travels, she finds time to answer children’s e-mail! Now how cool is that?!?!?!

Now as if that wasn’t enough, the Tooth Fairy has a blog too! She started it on April 15th. So drop by and see what everyone has been asking and all of her clever answers.

This is what Friday Fun is all about! You can’t help but giggle and smile.

Hey Tooth Fairy, I think you’re really cool. So much so, that I almost wish I still had my wisdom teeth so I could drop you a line to “remind” you to come pick them up.

Technorati tags: Tooth Fairy

The Wind-up:
For those of you who have a laptop, you know that not every place has a wifi set up for you to use. Many that do are not to generous and will charge you an arm and a leg for it’s use.

I found this really cool site, Plazes, that is sort of an underground attempt to log all the places, you can access the internet from your laptop (wireless and lan based). Given how hinkey my Hubby is about our wireless network security, I was delighted that I did not see my address on there, but I did find a few places that I knew nothing about. In fact, I think the next time I’m out and about I might just drop by a few of the places listed by me and see if it works.

The Pitch:

Plazes is a downloadable program that logs all of the places that a user accesses the internet while rambling about with his or her laptop.

The Plazer looks for the hardware ID of your local network (MAC ID) and checks whether it is already in the database with an address, so we can place you at that location. That is all it does. The Plazer is NOT Spy/Mal/Adware. The Plazer does not make your network or your PC vulnerable to any attacks. Your MAC ID is not publicly accessible and is only used for identifying your network.

Coordinates for these hot spots gets loaded into the Plazes program and you are allowed to add pictures and comments. It also integrates with Flickr.

Plazes users are given Karma Points for finding new Plazes.

Every time you discover a new Plaze, you get karma points. Top discoverers show up in a special list so you can compete with others and map your favorite Plazes. If you are the discoverer of a Plaze you will be presented a button to edit your special description. You get karma points for every Plaze you discover and for every successful invitation you sent out. Your Karma points are reflected in the discoverer list.

The Swing:

Since I haven’t used this, I don’t know if it is a “Home Run,” “Base Hit”, “Pop Fly” or a “Strike-out”. I’d be interested in hearing people’s take on this. At the very least, it sounds like it could be a little fun.

Technorati tags: Plazes, Wireless, WiFi

I two months ago lost my cat, Augustus. He was a wonderful pet that we shamelessly spoiled. The profound sadness has dropped away and now the Hubby and I have had fun remembering all the good stuff about having our boy around to entertain us.

It was just a few days ago, my eye was caught by a headline that read “Lynx look to top pick Augustus for leadership.” WOW! I always knew that kitty was destined for greatness! He definitely demonstrated his leadership skills in his ability to hurry us to the treats or to the food bowl each morning to fill it for HRH’s royal dining pleasure. I quickly clicked on the article. Eventhough I knew it was not about our boy, I was still a bit disappointed to find that it was not about my Augustus at all… instead it was about an LSU Lady Tiger baskeball player going to the WNBA.

It was about that time I got notice that a friend of mine was starting her own jewelry business, DanaRuth Designs, and one of her lines was going to be pet jewelry. I couldn’t help but think about how a little Crown for Augustus’ collar would have been his “Cat’s Meow”. (I know she calls them Princess, but I wouldn’t have told my very manly cat that).

Dana also has some really cute dog tags (Pictured below) that can be personalized. Drop by her site to find information on how to order.

I know it seems silly— pet jewelry…. But you know, it is that kind of fun stuff that adds a bit of folly to life. And it’s calorie-free, no-sugar added, and cholesterol-free. Sign me up!

Technorati tags: pets, Dogs, Dog collars