the OTHER mother

Thank You, Dear Bloggers

Bloggers, you really made the first Blog Reader Appreciation Day a wonderful virtual event.  Here's the complete list of participants.  Thanks, all of you, readers and bloggers alike!

Hers and Hers

iphone uploaded to flickr by Madalin Matica

We took the plunge, and the water is fine.

Tell Them I Was Here

Those of us with full time jobs most likely have a business card, but until Valentine's Day, I've never had a card to identify me as a blogger.  Check out this gift from my sweetie.  The circle is a little larger than a quarter.  It has my name, the URL for this blog, and on the back it says: The Other Mother.  Cool?

Design by Nicole Richard via Etsy

Question of the Day: Where Do You Go?

Here's a geeky question for you this weekend.  Which (if any) of the "social networks" (a.k.a. Web 2.0) do you use or enjoy?  I'm thinking of virtual arenas such as FaceBook, My Space, LinkedIn, Second Life, Twitter, Stumble Upon, and so on and so on. What do you get out of participating?

La La La La Links

Do you encourage or discourage computer use for your toddlers?

I'm such a geek that I try to find websites that the kids will enjoy.  Here are a few recent discoveries.

Something for Carrie = Check out PLAY by Dust Films

Something for Pearl = Make a visit to Bembo's Zoo - based on the book by the same name

Rainy day activity = Try printing and building one of these ReadyMech toys.  They're the paper dolls of the digital age.  I doubt I have the skill set for the assembly, but you probably do.

Other Mother Button

Want one of these buttons?  Right-click and it's yours, all yours!

Announcing the TLL Award

Our friends at TLL (The Lesbian Lifestyle) have created a new award for lesbian blogs and websites.  The nominated blogs must be written or maintained by lesbians.  You can nominate your favorites up until the deadline, Jan. 31st. 

Pop Goes the Jojo Photo

I discovered the Warholizer from one of your blogs.  Quite a sea change.  I'm not sure what I think of it.

Vote Today!

One of my favorite blogs, LesbianDad, is a finalist for the 2006 Weblog Award for Best New Blog. You can be a good citizen and cast your vote here.  The polls close on December 15.

Procrastination or Bust

When the going gets tough, the tough procrastinate--do other people operate this way or is it just me?   Here are my favorite procrastination websites of the week.  (If you don't like word games, skip down to the next post.)

• The Problem Site
• Babble
• Word Sandwich

Click on the art to send a free ecard via Writers in the Schools!

Send Free E-Cards from WITS

You may remember that I work for an education nonprofit called Writers in the Schools (WITS).  I wanted to tell you about The Meeting House, one of our new projects. The Meeting House has two embodiments--a physical structure and a virtual one.  Both of them are structures created from art and writing by Houston children. 

You can send free e-cards featuring writing and art by kids via the website. Any art image can be sent by clicking the button on the bottom right corner. 

2 moms, 2 dads

Just stumbled upon this site -- if not new, it's new to me.  2moms2dads.com

DIY Movie Making

Okay. It's Friday. Time for a bit of fun.  Let's make movies!  Work samples to follow....

Here is the movie that Baba sent to Pearl and Mamamia.

And here is the movie that Pearl and Mamamia made in response to Baba's movie.  Pearl says that the main character in both the stories is an owl.

My Cloud

Some of my blog friends made word clouds and I saw them and wanted my own.  Mine, mine, mine.  Hey, you, get offa....

Toddlers and their Secret Lives

Like many American professionals, I keep lots of my relevant work information on a PDA  (personal digital assistant), and it contains documents and databases from my computer at the office.  I take it home each night, so I can do some of my work there and then play a game of solitaire before bedtime.

For the past week or so, I arrive at work, place the PDA in its "cradle" and see the same message.  Program Memory is critically Low: Please end one of the following applications.  And I have to close several before the little device will cooperate. 

Then last night I discovered a folder full of digital files I didn't know were there saved in a format that I didn't recognize.  I opened one, then another, then another.  These were sound files.  Someone had been tape recording with my iPaq.  I could tell from the dates that this had gone on for several weeks.  Each recording began with percussion, presumably the stylus tapping against the screen.  It sounded like a squirrel scampering in someone's attic.  Then voices set in--mine, Marcia, sometimes Pearl's too.  Some recordings were only 5 seconds long.  One lasted half an hour.

The Montessori people refer to everything a child does as "work," and apparently our child has been "working" very hard in the off hours.  By the time she's three, will she be podcasting?

Spell with Flickr

Check out Spell with Flikr.  And thanks, Neil, for this cool link.

New Wave Grooviness

Have you ever played with the typogenerator?  It is barrel-of-monkeys fun!   Thanks to my friends at spunga.com for pointing us towards this fine playground. 

Here's how it works.  You type in a few words, and the computer does a Google image search based on your list and creates a work of art based on what it finds.  I'm lovin' it.