Congratulations to the baby of our family (that’s Tianna for those less inclined to common sense) as she graduated, oops, my bad… was promoted from 8th grade to the ranks of the high schoolers. That noble and lofty goal has finally been attained, but not without its own rewards along the way. First and foremost, those of you who were lucky enough, got to hear Tianna speak at her promotion this evening as she represented her class as their Valedictorian (hopefully someone recorded this momentous occasion). But that honorable title of class Valedictorian wasn’t enough for our Ti, she was also the top Language Arts student in the eighth grade this year! As a result, her name and one of her stories get to take their place among those who’ve gone before her on Mr. Wisniewski’s Wall of Fame! So a giant congratulations to Tianna and her accomplishments! I for one am extremely proud of you and wish we could have been there tonight to hear your speech and to help celebrate. Now, party on!
Firefox Facts
So I’m having a hard time settling on what is my main browser. I really like Firefox, and that is for sure what I use when I’m developing web pages. But, if I’m posting to our blog, I’m usually using Safari. You can’t beat OS X’s built in spell check as you type feature. But for general surfing, I’m stuck at about 50/50 between Firefox and Safari. Speed between the two is not an issue. There are a couple of other odd little quirks with each browser that keeps me from using it all the time. However, if Firefox is your main browser or at least you use it as much as I do, you’ll find Firefox Facts to be a helpful read. It’s a free ebook you can download at firefoxfacts.com. Not only will you get some tips and tweaks on how to improve your surfing experience, you’ll also get reviews of some of the more popular extensions. And hey, you can’t be free!
Printable Maps
Need a quick general map? Check out the nationalatlas.gov Map Maker. There are tons of options as far as what type of map to build, location to include, what you want shown on the map, etc. Want to see the average rainfall in Monroe, LA? Or how about the average energy consumption in Fresno, CA? How about the average three point percentage among hoopsters? OK, probably not that one, but the previous two for sure among other things. It’s a great little utility for building a map to your specifications.
Happy Trails…
Safe travels to the Freeman’s of Flagstaff as they head out from the cozy confines of the shadow of the San Francisco Peaks for a place actually closer to San Francisco, sunny Fresno. So everyone plan their summer vacations for that trip down highway 99. I’m sure Trish, Will, and the Kiddies will be happy to take us all to Yosemite and Sequoia.
Have a safe trip! And unlike helping move Melissa and her 20 tons of books, I really wish we could be out there to help with the move. And one more thing, be wary when you stop to take a nap in Bakersfield, make sure you scan the area for nearby train tracks!
Happy Mother’s Day
Happy Mother’s Day to all the Moms in our “little” family. Enjoy your day, and make sure the boys are taking orders from you!
Apple – Get a Mac
The new Apple ads are out and they’re pretty entertaining, as long as you’re not a diehard Windows person. So if you’ve got a high speed connection or are willing to wait a couple of minutes for the download, and you’re not a diehard Windows person, check them out.
Winners announced
This is a little bit of older news (I’ve been sitting on it since January), but the past two or three years the Original Mac Games Cup has been held by iDevGames. The winners for the latest contest have been announced.
iDevGames – News – Winners of Original Mac Games (OMG) Cup 2005 Announced
You can download and play for free, all of the winners from the past contest as well as tons of other fun games from here:
iTunes Smart Playlists
Here’s one way to build the ultimate playlist in iTunes. One that covers what you’ve listened to the most. One that covers your highest rated songs. One that covers both new songs and old song you love but may have forgotten about. For sure this isn’t the only way to do things. But if you don’t use all the things mentioned in this article, at least reading it will get you in the right frame of mind to build your own ultimate playlist.
National Gas Map
As the cost gets disturbingly closer to $3.00/gallon in our area, I’m all for anything to help me save a few cents. We never seem to have one gas station in our area that is consistantly the lowest. It’s a little frustrating. Hopefully this will help some of you also.
Progress
Since I got up early with Frankie this morning (he’s another story I’ve yet to get to), I made one more subtle change to the design of the site. I’ve very pleased with how it all looks now. Maybe a special prize can be had for the one who points out what change I made. And no, the three articles I’ve posted today do not count.
Right now, the title is displayed using a font specified in the code or your browser’s default sans-serif font if one of the specific fonts listed in the code isn’t installed on your computer. I’m toying with the idea of replacing that with a graphic of our title, similar to what’s on the Main page. Right now though, I like how things look with the Lucida Grande (OS X) or Verdana (Windows) fonts.