My shared del.icio.us bookmarks from 02-28-2006

• Standard Browser Keyboard Shortcuts
  Here is a list of all the keyboard shortcuts from Coding Horror that work in Firefox now and will work in IE7. Going through the list I picked up some new shortcuts.
  (tags: IE, firefox, shortcuts)
• Writing Tips for Non-Writers Who Don’t Want to Work at Writing
  What writing tips would you whisper to those who aren’t aspiring professionals, but would like to write better? Here are 10 lessons that will help right away.
  (tags: writing)

I just checked out the audio-book Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey from the local library. I have never heard Dave Ramsey on the radio but have heard of him from friends and relatives. As a matter of fact I understand my wee grandson likes to blurt out something along the lines of “I am Debt Free” every so often.

As I have been listening to the audio-book and am impressed so far. Of course on the first CD he has not really got into the system yet. He is preparing the listener for the system by telling us how ‘fat and unhealthy’ we are financially and that the world has trained us to be credit stupid. Is he too simplistic? I may have an opinion on that later. But I do believe he is correct that most of us in America are no different than a tantrum-throwing 2-year-old who hollers “I want, I want” – the only difference is there are no parents out there to tell us NO! Instead there are credit companies who happily lend us money.

So far he starts out by debunking a number of credit myths. Here are some of them:

Myth: Lending money to family and friends is a blessing.
Truth: Lending money to family changes the relationship. You now have a master/servant relationship and until the money is paid back there will not be the same.

Myth: By cosigning a loan, I am helping a friend or relative.
Truth: Be ready to repay the loan. The bank wants a cosigner for a reason – they don’t expect the friend or relative to pay.

Myth: Aren’t there positive uses of a credit card? Like rebates and airline miles?
Truth: There is NO positive side to credit card use. You will spend more if you use credit cards cause it hurts to pay cash. So even by paying the bills in full, you are not beating the system! And most families end up not paying in full.

A study by Dun & Bradstreet showed that the credit-card user spends 12 to 18 percent more when using credit instead of cash. It hurts when you spend cash, and therefore you spend less. The big question is, what do millionaires do? They don’t get rich with free hats, brownie points, air miles, and the use of someone else’s money. What do broke people do? They use credit cards.

Myth: Debt is a tool and should be used to help create prosperity.
Truth: Debt isn’t used by wealthy people nearly as much as we are led to believe. (That is how they became wealthy.) If you’re in debt, then you’re a slave, in the sense that you do not have the freedom to use your money as you see fit.

Myth: Debt consolidation saves interest, and you have one smaller payment.
Truth: Debt consolidation is dangerous because you treat only the symptom. You think you’ve done something about the debt problem but the debt is still there, as are the habits that caused it – you just extended it! Many times the payment is lower because the term to pay back the loan is longer – not because the interest is lower.

Myth: Make sure your teenager gets a credit card so he or she will learn to be responsible with money.
Truth: Getting a credit card for your teenager is an excellent way to teach him or her to be financially irresponsible. That’s why teens are now the number-one target of credit card companies.

I will let you know what I learn as I proceed through disk 2.

I wrote before about the Evil Micro Cache - The Ultimate Urban GeoCache Container. I have just come across another one that is much more clever.

I will not disclose it’s location so as not to give it away but reading the logs for this cache it is fun to see people who have gone back 2, 3, or even 4 times looking for it.

The cache creator has taken a bolt and cut 1 inch or more off the end. Then they hollow out the main portion of the bolt using a drill press or some other equipment that I don’t have. A nut is then glued or soldered to the cut off portion leaving some threads to screw back on to the main portion of the bolt.

A small log can be rolled up and placed inside the bolt. The bolt can then be put through any existing hole in an otherwise obvious spot but remain unnoticed.

Geocaching has once again made get up and get outside. We just got back from camping & caching in Walla Walla when I find out that Debiko has hidden 3 more caches in the area. Normally I could ignore them for a couple days – but there were 3 geocaches all hidden in the Chamna Natural Preserve and it was only 3pm!

This is one of my most favorite places to hike and am always glad to find new caches hidden in this area. It looked like we could make a big loop and with a little back tracking be able to do all three.

I brought my twins and a neighbor friend of theirs. What I forgot to bring was water. Luckily it was cool out and late enough in the day that there was not a problem. We ended up walking 3 miles and taking 90 minutes to recover all 3 caches. Each of the boys was able to find a cache, which kept everyone happy!

Activity choices are pretty limited in Walla Walla this time of year. The wineries would be open but 4 kids in tow probably would not make us welcome. We decided to do some geocaching. Von would be our chauffeur, I would be the navigator, and we would see how many caches we could do while putzing around the area.

The only items on our itinerary were to visit the Whitman Mission Historical Site and to check out the Harris Park campground along the Walla Walla River outside of Milton-Freewater, Oregon.

So at about 10:30 we got started and our first stop was over to the Fort Walla Walla Museum (closed for the winter) and do a cache called “At Ease” located in the military cemetery. The cemetery was interesting in that not only were there graves for the military personnel and their families but I saw one labeled “Indian, Nez Perce” and “Indian, Prisoner”.

We did 5 more caches around town and on our way out to the Whitman Mission Historical Site. There we watched an interesting movie about the history of the mission, went through the museum, walked up (way up) to the monument, and checked out the grounds. We then did a cache located near the mission and then headed back into town for some lunch at Taco Bell.

We did a nearby cache then headed down to Oregon to check out the Harris Park Campground for a possible stay later this year (when it is much warmer). The campground was closed for the winter but looked like a nice place to stay for a long weekend.

After visiting the campground we did some caches in Milton-Freewater aka Muddy Frogwater. An interesting cache was the “Pioneer Cemetery:Ford” which had graves going back to the 1870s and “Cache Some Air” which promised a roller coaster ride as the road undulates under you.

All in all we were able to do a dozen caches. The kids had a great time and Von tells me that they are already asking to go camping again soon.

While traveling around Milton-Freewater, Oregon, we started to notice all the frogs around town. There were painted frogs on the sides of buildings, carved frogs on the side of the road, and signs welcoming you to “Muddy Frogwater County”.

So I went and did some research and found out that it all began as a some good-natured teasing back in the early 70s, with some out of town friends calling the city of Milton-Freewater, Muddy Frogwater. Only thing was the name stuck and even the townfolk of Milton-Freewater started using the moniker.

One night some guys decided it was time the new town name became official and late one evening they snuck to the edge of town and painted “Muddy-Frogwater” over the “Welcome to Milton-Freewater” sign. It is said this was one of the first recorded instances of graffiti the town had known.

The town’s annual festival, which used to be the “Pea Festival” with its very own “Pea Princess” was dieing a slow death. Some folk decided it should be reborn and decided the new town festival would henceforth be called “The Muddy Frogwater Festival”.

Sources:
www.muddyfrogwater.com
www.muddyfrogwaterfestival.com

This looks like it could be an interesting art exhibit. From what I can tell online, Ian Martin uses a process called ‘photogravure’ to produce his art. Photogravure was developed in the 1850s and used to be the only way to make prints from photos but is rarely used today due to the costs involved. The process produces a print which is said to have the subtlety of a photograph and the art quality of a lithograph.

Location: Esvelt Gallery @ CBC
Cost: Free
Exhibit Dates: February 27 – March 22
Gallery Hours: Monday – Friday 8:00 am – 4:30 pm
Gallery Hours: Monday – Thursday 6:00 pm – 8:30 pm
Artist’s Presentation: March 2, 6-7 pm, CBC Theatre
Opening Reception: March 2, 7-9 pm, Esvelt Gallery

Wenatchee photographer Ian Martin specializes in photogravures of the landscape of Eastern Washington. His poetic interpretations of the dryland steppe help us to reinterpret our daily environment and to more fully understand its timeless beauty.

For some examples of his art you can check out waterworks gallery and Bau-Xi Gallery

While out geocaching with Kevin & Kyle a couple weeks ago we stopped at the fish ladder and fish viewing room at McNary Dam in Umatilla, Oregon. We have stopped in a couple times and not seen anything but this time there were a number of large salmon moving through the ladder.

The boys thought it was pretty cool. I am going to have to rememeber to take the kids again between July and September when the migration is at a peak.

One of the caches we did was the Pioneer Cemetery: Ford in Milton-Freewater, Oregon. It is one of a 11 cache Pioneer Cemetery series that the cache placer, RCH-WWW, has put around the area documenting many of the old cemeteries in the Walla Walla area.

According to RCH-WWW:

FORD (aka Valley & Ballou) CEMETERY is one of the oldest cemeteries in Walla Walla Valley. It was established in 1864. In fact, there are still “wooden headstones” standing in the southeast corner of the property. The name came from a Mr. Ninevah Ford who lived near here and owned the property in the late 1800’s. Mr. Ford came west in 1843—the same wagon train as MY great-great uncle Solomon Emerick and Dr. Marcus Whitman–who was returning to the Walla Walla Valley from his trip east. Mr. Ford served as the state legislature and as a county (Umatilla County) commissioner. He fought in the Nez Perce Indian War. Mr. Ford had engineering skills, and helped to build roads & bridges in the valley.

I was amazed to see the wooden headstones. I took some photos of these and some of the older headstones.

Well, we made it to the 2006 LIGO Open House. Brendan, Kevin, Kyle, and Kirsten went with me to see what was going on at this open house. The 30 foot slinky never materialized but the kids still had fun.

The first thing we did was go on a tour of the facility. They actually had more people show up than they were expecting and in a couple of spots it was hard to hear the explanations, especially when we were inside. I guess we will just have to go again. They have the tours on the 2nd Saturday of every month.

The hardest thing for me to grasp was the incredibly small numbers they are dealing with. Just when you get to think of stars being billions of light years away (and how far that really is) these guys start talking about measuring movements so small that it almost seems that a butterfly flapping it’s wings on the other side of the world would actually disturb it’s measurement.

Each of the 2 ‘tubes’ that the laser travels down is about 2 1/2 miles long. They have pumped out these tubes using ion pumps that have no moving parts!

We made it to Walla Walla for the weekend and after getting the travel trailer filled with water and hooked up to electricity I told the kids it was time for a walk and find some nearby caches.

There is a path from the back of the RV park that led to a bike path. We were not sure how many we would do. The first cache was less than 1/4 mile away so off we went.

We ended up doing 4 caches along the bike trail. They were all part of Franz26′s “Botony 099 Series” which he describes as:

These caches will take you to the places where specific trees, shrubs, vines or plants can be identified. The individual cache might be in or right next to the described plant, or only close enough for the plant to be seen from the cache site. More caches in the series to come shortly.

The four we found were:

• Golden Current
• Black Hawthorn
• Lodgepole Pine
• Blackberry

After leaving the park we did one more, Muffler Art, and then used the cell phone to call for an extraction. The kids were frozen so while we waited I bought a couple coffees for the boys and french fries all around.

From the website:
The Franklin County RV Park at TRAC in Pasco, Washington was opened to the public in 2004. The quiet convenience of having an RV park at the TRAC facility in has helped it become the premiere destination for both full time stays and overnighters. The Franklin County RV Park at TRAC offers full ammenities including high tech wireless internet and cable TV.

The RV Park is nestled behind the TRAC Facility far enough from the freeway to avoid the noise, yet still offers quick access. Local businesses cater to your needs and many are within walking distance.

A bicycle trail right outside TRAC can take you on a 25 mile round trip tour of the Tri-Cities. The three rivers in the area, Columbia, Snake and Yakima offer many water sports as do the 10 golf courses and driving ranges in the area. The Columbia Basin is home to many renowned wineries as well and tours occur frequently.

• Quick Freeway Access
• Adjacent to Dust Devils Baseball Stadium & TRAC

The interpretive center at the Whitman Mission National Historic Site commemorates the courage of Marcus and Narcissa Whitman, the role they played in establishing the Oregon Trail, and the region’s dramatic history including the challenges encountered when two different cultures meet. No historic buildings remain but as one guide book mentions, the simple outline of the mission in the ground is strangely affecting. The best impression of what the area looked like to the Whitmans can be found by hiking up to the overlook on the adjacent hill.

From the Website

In 1836, before the wagon trains, a small intrepid group of Presbyterian missionaries traveled with the annual fur trapper’s caravan into “Oregon Country.” Missionaries Narcissa Whitman and Eliza Spalding became the first white women to travel across the continent. Differences in culture led to growing tensions between the Cayuse people and the Whitmans. Their mission became an important stop along the Oregon Trail, but passing immigrants added to the tension. A measles outbreak in 1847 killed half the local Cayuse. Some of the Cayuse blamed these deaths on Dr. Whitman. Dr. and Mrs. Whitman were killed; sixty people were taken hostage. The deaths of the Whitmans sent a shock wave across the country and prompted Congress to make Oregon a U.S. territory.

Whitman Mission National Historic Site preserves the original mission grounds of the Waiilatpu Mission, the mass grave where the Whitmans are buried, and the 1897 memorial shaft. There is a self-guiding interpretive trail of the mission grounds, grave, and monument.

The site also includes a museum, a 10-minute introductory slide show, a bookstore, bathrooms, and picnic area. No food or drink is available for purchase at the site.

Ranger talks are presented during the summer. The park also hosts demonstrations and special events.

Fees

• Adults: $3.00 good for 7 days, maximum of $5.00 for a family.
• Under 17: free
• Federal National Parks, Golden Age, Golden Eagle, and Golden Access passes are honored.

website: www.nps.gov/whmi/
address: 328 Whitman Mission Road, Walla Walla, WA 99362
lat/lon: 46.0407130, -118.4626390
Headquarters: (509) 522-6360
Visitor Info: (509) 522-6357

The Academy of Children’s Theatre (ACT) always puts on a good show. The next one scheduled is “Redwall” and should be quite entertaining.

Performance Dates

• Feb. 24, 25, 2006 @ 7:00pm
• Feb. 26, 2006 @ 3:00pm
• March 3, 4, 2006 @ 7:00pm
• March 5, 2006 @ 3:00pm

Location

• Chief Joseph Auditorium
  504 Wilson, Richland, Washington 99352
• lat/lon: 46.2954490, -119.2818690

Tickets

• $9 Adults
• $5 Children under 12

Tickets available at the ACT Studio, Book Worm stores in Richland and Kennewick, the Battelle Performing Arts Office in Richland.

Story Summary

As the inhabitants of Redwall Abbey bask in the glorious Summer of the Late Rose, all is quiet and peaceful. But things are not as they seem. Cluny the Scourge, the evil one-eyed rat warlord, is hell-bent on destroying the tranquility as he prepares to fight a bloody battle for the ownership of Redwall. This dazzling story in the Redwall series is packed with all the wit, wisdom, humor, and blood-curdling adventure of the other books in the collection, but has the added bonus of taking the reader right back to the heart and soul of Redwall Abbey and the characters who live there.

Magical, mystical, and the stuff of legends, this stunning tale of good battling with–and ultimately triumphing over–evil takes the reader on a roller-coaster adventure that barely draws breath from the first page to the very last. Brian Jacques is a true master of his craft. –Susan Harrison @ Amazon.com

Academy of Children’s Theatre (ACT)

ACT is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization that presents four family plays each year. Over 250 children and adults are directly involved in the play productions. Children are mentored in all aspects of theatre, including lighting and sound, stage managing, assisting the director, and learning make-up skills. Classes and workshops are provided quarterly for children from age 3.5 through high school.

It’s that time of year again! The 2006 Regional Home & Garden Show put on by the Home Builder’s Association of the Tri-Cities. Von & I have gone the last couple of years to get ideas of things we can do at our home. (So far I am not sure any of them have been implemented).

This is the one place where you can shop and compare, purchase new products and even plan an entire building or remodeling project — all under one roof! The TRAC is filled with beautiful landscapes, building supplies, decks, pools, spas, windows, window treatments, gardening accessories, and much more. If you want to raise the roof, remodel the kitchen or expand out the side this is a great place because you are going to meet lots of experts. From remodeling your bathroom to designing your yard, garden, and patio, you can get answers on how to “do it right.” Each exhibit is staffed by people who will be happy to give you professional help and a bunch of goodies to take home.

This year the event will run from Friday to Sunday, the 24th through 26th of February at the TRAC facility in Pasco.

Schedule

• Friday, Feb. 24; 1pm to 8 pm
• Saturday, Feb. 25; 9 am to 8 pm
• Sunday, Feb. 26; 9 am to 5 pm

Admission

• $6 Adults
• 12 and under free
• $1 off admission price with a nonperishable food item for Salvation Army.

BUSINESS WIRE has a story from Allstate claims adjusters exposing a major myth surrounding every woman’s best friend: The Most Common Reasons Diamonds May Not Last Forever.

Here are some of the top reasons diamonds are often lost forever.

Flushed Away – Left on a counter near a sink or toilet. Just add running water or a flush of the toilet and you can almost hear the sound of memories and thousands of dollars swirling down the drain.

Tossed to the Curb – Hiding valuables in your very own secret place. It’s just too bad that your other family members didn’t know they were throwing away trash that doubles as your secret hiding place.

Opportunity Knocks – Leaving your rings out on display. Whether you are at a hotel or at home, leaving valuables out in the open is a risky proposition, particularly when others have access.

Poor Stitching – Rings go on fingers, not in pockets. Who knew it could be so expensive to stitch up a hole in your pocket?

Slippery Proposition – Resizing a ring can be a hassle. It’s just a little loose. It can wait until tomorrow … or perhaps it can’t.

Preventing Your Investment From Going Down the Drain

After the hype I heard about 30Boxes I went looking for a calendar that I could use. I wanted to be able to share my calendar with my wife and have it integrate with either Outlook or my Palm. I knew the Yahoo calendar would do this but I just could not get past the ads on the site.

I came across AirSet that seemed to fit the bill completely. It’s motto is: Life is stressful. Keeping it organized shouldn’t be. It has a calender and contact list that will sync with Outlook or a Palm – and since I sync it with Outlook it automatically syncs with my Palm. The contact list also syncs with Outlook, another plus. It can also send reminders to an e-mail address or a phone.

One feature I like is that it will send you a summary of the next day’s calendar. I have it email it to me the night before so I can make sure that I remember all I have planned.

AirSet has the default personal calendar where you can put private calendar items. But its strength is that it will let you create separate calendars for yourself and others. I have set up a calendar for Family, where I can put things I want to share with my family, and one for the Office, where I can keep track of days-off and vacations. The office calendar is even ‘published’ so that I can use it inside our internal office website for everyone to view.

Adding Events

5 People You Meet in Heaven is written by Mitch Albom, author of the acclaimed Tuesdays with Morrie.

After listening to the book I was not real sure what I thought of it. The author tells us that the popular misconception of heaven, people strumming harps while sitting on clouds, is all wrong. He replaces this misconception with his own fantasy that when we die 5 people are waiting for us to help us make sense of what appeared to be meaningless lives. From each person you learn a ‘lesson’ that helps make you ‘whole’.

Sometimes I felt the author was trying too hard to pull at the reader’s heartstrings. The story tries to communicate that people, many unknown to us, affect our lives and we in turn affect others. I suppose in a sense it might give people hope that a meaningless life may in actuality have purpose.

The story is about Eddie “Maintenance” who was never able to escape his childhood home, the Ruby Pier Amusement Park, and was haunted by his memories of being a prisoner of war during WWII. The story begins with Eddie’s death and through a series of flashbacks helped along by the ’5 people’, Eddie begins to see meaning in his life – not too much different that “A Christmas Carol” but in heaven rather than with ghosts.

The story line that caught me most was when Eddie was with his wife who had passed away 30+ years earlier. She appeared to him as she looked on their wedding day. He asked her if she could ‘appear’ in any form she wanted, and if so could she please change her appearance to how she looked just prior to her death, in her late 40s, rather than like she was on their wedding day.

As a ‘feel good’ story it will probably be popular for quite a long time. I am not sure I would have finished the book if I was reading it, but having the story read to you on CD helps it move quickly. There were no real driveway moments when I felt I had to leave it running after stopping the car.

Just heard about nLite on DigitalLifeTV. It allows you to remove Windows components such as Media Player, Outlook Express, MSN Explorer, Messenger and all the other crud that gets thrown in.

nLite is a tool for permanent Windows component removal and pre-installation Windows setup. After removal there is an option to make bootable image ready for burning on cd or testing in virtual machines. With nLite you will be able to have Windows installation which on install doesn’t include, or even contain on cd, unwanted components.

In other words you can build your own CD that has all the latest fixes and has all the above mentioned ‘crud’ already removed, so they are never even installed.

nLite Features

• Service Pack Integration
• Component Removal
• Unattended Setup
• Driver Integration
• Hotfixes Integration
• Tweaks
• Patches
• Bootable ISO creation

Looks pretty handy! If you like to rebuild your system from scratch once and a while this would be a great tool!

I have never been one for case mods – but this beer dispensing case mod looks pretty tempting!

Someone called it a “radically overclocked liquid-cooled computer” and I would have to agree.

Hat-Tip to Gizmodo

Reuters reports that Volkswagen’s American unit is working on a prototype in-car navigation system using Google’s “Google Earth” mapping technology. The software would give drivers a bird’s eye view of the road ahead.

The two companies are working with the graphics chipmaker Nvidia Corp. to build an in-car navigation map system and a three-dimensional display so passengers can recognize where they are in relation to the surrounding topography.

The car manufacturer showed off the prototype car at the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in January.

A spokesman for the automaker said there were no definite plans to use the technology inside cars. But the collaboration between the automaker and Google shows the progress the Web search leader is making expanding beyond the computer realm.

It will be interesting to see how this plays out. For most people, being able to see the buildings and the landmarks for reference would be much easier to use than a regular flat map with a moving marker on it.

RV Resort Four Seasons
1440 The Dalles Military Rd.
Walla Walla, WA 99362

• Picnic Area by creek with picnic tables
• On city bus route
• Next to Fort Walla Walla Museum
• Club meeting rooms
• Woodalls Rating: ****

From WebSite: Yes we said it and mean it. We even named ourselves after it. We can truly boast about our true four seasons here in the Walla Walla Valley. There is no other place like it. We are proud of our home and we welcome you to it.

Walla Walla is rich in history. You can follow in the footsteps of Native Americans, explorers, pioneers, missionaries and trappers. Immerse yourself in the rich history of the Pacific Northwest. The people of the Walla Walla Valley played an important part in our nations’ history that continues to inspire and fascinate today. Come experience their history. Lewis and Clark made their way through the Walla Walla Valley charting their course by the sun with over 300 days of sunshine a year to enjoy, we have it all for you to enjoy.

The 2006 LIGO Open House is scheduled for February 11, 2006 from 1:30 to 4:30 PM. There will be tours, demonstrations and lots of hands-on science fun. Admission is free and LIGO’s facilities are handicap accessible.

Come out for an afternoon of hands-on, minds-on, family science fun. Hosts will be on hand to help you navigate interactive exhibits and demonstrations, including a 30-foot giant slinky, gravity’s bicycle wheel, liquid nitrogen, and many others. You can even take a safe and fascinating peek at the sun through a solar telescope.

Einstein’s Messengers, the new 25-minute film describing LIGO’s quest to unlock the mysteries of gravitational waves will be shown.

Schedule

• Einstein’s Messengers: 1:30 PM, 2:30 PM, 3:30 PM
• LIGO Tours: 2:00 PM, 3:00 PM, 4:00 PM
• Exhibits and demonstrations will be available throughout the afternoon

Info

• Free admission for all ages
• No reservations necessary
• For more information call 509-372-8300 ext 248
• Driving directions to LIGO Hanford or use the Google mapping function above, under the post title.

Harris Park
78689 Walla Walla River Rd,
Milton Freewater, OR

• (541) 938-5330
• lat/lon: 45.830278, -118.169444
• Elevation: 2080 ft

Umatilla Marina & RV Park
1710 Quincy
PO Box 277
Umatilla, OR 97882

• (541) 922-3939
• Park Map
• lat/lon: 45.9234, -119.3298
• Elevation: 296 ft
• Next to the Columbia River, only minutes off Interstate 82, Interstate 84, and Highway 730.