Thought I’d share my new passion in dog-less hunting with you. I’m not going tramping through South Dakota’s cornfields and sloughs this year. No siree! I’m going to stay at home nice and warm in front of my computer and dig up bones of dead relatives on the Internet.

O.K. so I’m joking about the dog. He never lived, but I am doing a little genealogical research online. Just updated my profile at Ancestry.com. Whadda ya think?

For those of you who are link lazy, the bottom line is: “Therein lies the problem with genealogical research, a lot of what people write down in public records is not indeed a fact.”. My mother and grandmother were not necessarily Native American even though it says so on their South Dakota marriage licenses to Natives. Either that, or the census taker was lying. Who ya gonna believe; all the people who’ve asked me if I have Native heritage from my physical appearance or my grandma who told me I was “a little white girl, now act like it” perhaps too many times?

No, seriously. This shit makes my head hurt but I found an ancient family photograph album and how else am I going to figure out who all these people are? I’ve already managed to hook into another person’s research in one line of the family and taken a giant leap back in time. Kinda fun, in a sedate sort of way.

Oh, yeah, back to my point. This new profile at the genealogical site makes about my 800th online profile. Will all these millions of “public profiles” solve the public record lies problem or will it just add to it immensely?

This blog should be about wonder, meaning the noun.  I would love to share those things that truly awe and amaze me. Whether online or off, true beauty or genius fills me with a sense of wonder.

Of course, there is the fact that I don’t get out much so I am easily impressed. And, all too often probably, I write about Wonder: the capitalized version. That’d be me. I’m Wonder.

I think anyone who writes; whether it be blog or brochure, wiki or writ; puts some chunk of id into it.  I maybe pork a little more of me into my scrawls than most.

One way or another, I hope at least you can say you had a piece of Wonder when you leave.  But hurry back. There are changes comin’ honey-pie.

In the first, I was scammed into buying some illegal software. I’m still pissed off about it but that doesn’t ring the bell nor get my money back. Since the beginning of my Internet adventures, spotting scams and alerting my readers has been important to me. Obviously, I’m not the expert I believed myself to be.

In the second happening, a dear friend I’m rapidly losing to a battle with COPD told me that if I’m going to “waste my time writing for the Internet . . . write about something that matters”.

Ah, the old ‘what really matters?’ dilemma. What does really matter? Shall I write about air? Water? Maybe a religion?

Yet, in a way, I can see that he’s right. Time is precious. I should write about what really matters.

This is going to be some interesting research. I’ll be back in a few years.

My personal Native American hero is Sitting Bull.  Even today, I think some of his words speak the truth, as in his famous quote about the people who were conquering his:

This nation is like a spring freshet; it overruns its banks and destroys all who are in its path”.
Sitting Bull

He said much more about the war with America, his people and the people who were to come.  You can find many Sitting Bull quotes that are relevant today here.

I believe that I am 1/16th, or possibly 1/8th, Yankton Lakota Sioux.  My heritage has been clouded by years of misinformation but I am hopeful with new DNA technology and patience I can find my real roots.

This also serves as an example of a post concepted of a need to share some quotes that kind of blew me away when I read them :)

If this is the only course you are interested in at Lynda.com, save your money. For similar reasons that the Blogger.com class didn’t quite make it, this video course didn’t either.

Digital cameras are not a subject you can make a film about years ago or really months ago and have people really “educated” by it today.

That being said, I am pretty much green to digital photography so I learned some things. I at least learned enough to have some idea of what they’re talking about in my camera instruction book and a little of when to use different features that are on my camera.

I learned you could take pictures from a moving vehicle and posted my first video on YouTube :)  The pictures looked a lot better on my computer so I suppose I need to take a class in movie making too.

I learned enough to be sure that the subject interests me and to sign up for another class. I’ve got 2 weeks on my month trial subscription yet. I think that’s plenty of time to take Digital Photography Principals from Taz Tally. You know who he is?

Since I’m already head over heels with Molly Holzschlag, does that mean I’m widening my horizons as I grow older? Actually, I’m becoming asexual as I grow older which is a whole, long and ugly other story that, thankfully doesn’t belong here, lol.

Getting back to Garrick (isn’t he a cutie?), what a great presenter of video training!  Mmm, that voice, especially when he chuckles.  Well, you just have to be there.

I did get fairly bored in class because not only does Garrick teach how to use Dreamweaver 8, he gives a lot of the fundamentals of web design.  And, even not paying attention, I learn’t some things I should have know’d a long time ago :)

These videos covered all of the basics of Dreamweaver 8 and a lot of things that really aren’t so basic.

I came away from this video class hooked on Dreamweaver.  Not for the design interface so much, I still have to fight myself not to spend all my time in coding view, but for the synchronization between files and even web servers.

This one class ended up being worth what it cost me to take classes for a whole month on Lynda.com. I only signed up for one month at the basic level.  I’m already covered for most of this month but I’m betting I’ll be signing up for a yearly plan to save a couple dinero before my “rent” expires.

Think I saw a coupon online somewhere that’ll save me enough that the “premium” classes won’t cost much more than the “regular” version. Naah, whadda I need with Exercises?  I’ve got enough exercises right here in my ‘puter to keep me busy for the rest of my life.

Reminds me, I forgot to tell you about the Digital Photography Principles class that was worth this month’s subscription fee all by itself, too.  Back at ya soon.

RecentX is a program that keeps track of all of your recently closed files, imagine that.   I had expected a video game that lets you kill your exhusband 19 different ways but I downloaded it anyway.

It’s great for me.  Has tabs for Files, Folders, Programs and Websites and just records what you close and when.

Yes, I know I already can keep track of most of that to some extent but not like this.  I now have a nice iconic bar tucked away in the corner of my screen that gets me back where I was fast.

There are some big changes coming, if not in the U.S., then at least in my life.  I just ordered my first laptop computer.  (No sh*t from the Mac fans or real geek types, o.k.?  It’s what I can afford.)

No more being chained to a desk in my office. Ah, life is going to be so sweet.  Of course, my bailout’s paying for it, right?

I voted first thing this morning.  For Obama.  I live in South Dakota.  Hence, ergo thus.

I also finished my Digital Photography class this morning (more on that later).

Was deciding on another two classes to add to my morning “education” time and realized a couple of things I wanted to know weren’t covered in any great detail at Lynda.com.  A few searches with more specific terms; i.e. advanced layout in Dreamweaver 8, advanced forms Ruby on Rails, etc. turned up a ton more online education sources.

The kicker was, there are more sources for FREE online education than there are paid!  ROFL! (More about those after I’ve had a chance to look at the quality.)

I love the Internet.  I just wish there was a “slower version” for us Oldtimers. Bad enough a gal starts “toot’n” here and there when she gets older, now I’ve started “tweet’n” too!  Even added a thingy over in the sidebar that gives a whistle when I click publish here.

Hafta warn you though that the “OTO” the tweet tool folks just presented me upon logging into my account trying to see if there were any configuration options just about made me puke. The tool itself seems o.k. and it was just a snippet of code to be pasted where you wanted (except I don’t have it where I want it, another story).

I have to quit smoking.  It’s the only way I’ll ever live long enough to learn all this.

I have to reiterate here that I took this class to have a benchmark to compare the quality and depth of Lynda.com video training in a program I already thought I knew well.

So, as expected, I did not learn a lot in the Blogger class.  But, I did fall in love with Molly Holzschlag.

Molly Holzschlag

She’s got a beautiful, pleasant voice to listen to and a nice way of putting things.
Molly also has an intimate knowledge of the Blogger.com platform.

Or, anyway she did back in June-July 2004 when these videos were made.

And there is my first “boo on you”, Lynda.com.  I really think you can afford to pay Molly to update the Blogger video and it would be worthwhile.  Unless, of course, maybe I’m the only one who has chosen to view those particular videos for the past couple of years.

Luckily, Blogger.com was a stable platform when Lynda.com produced the videos.  They had a great piece of online blogging software way back then.  Blogger has actually changed very little since Molly was teaching about it.  They’ve added a few new features but the basics still work just the way she shows you that they do.  Of course, Google, who now owns Blogger, could change that any day.

And that’s the basic problem in producing “training videos” for an online platform of any kind.  Many online programs change often and dramatically.  If you are interested in any kind of instruction for a program, online or on your local computer, try to ascertain that the book, video or class pertains to the version of the program that you want to use.

All in all, if you’re interested in establishing a weblog at Blogger.com, this is still a very worthwhile online class to take.  If you’re new to the whole concept of an online blogging platform, it will tend to help you no matter where you end up blogging.

So, I’m just going to hand out a little “grandmotherly advice” here though I had no intention of doing so.

First, you’re not even voting for the president so get your worries about that one out of your head.  Learn everything you have time for about the candidates where your vote counts.

Realize that the government that has the greatest effect on your life is probably your local government.  They’re the ones that have to provide you with the basic services that make life as we know it possible.  Pay a lot of attention to which of your neighbors you give that kind of responsibility and power.

The last, and most important, thing I’d like to drum into your head is to actually go and vote.  If you can’t decide on all of the candidates, that’s o.k.  Just go put in your “token vote” for president and vote for the candidates that you’ve decided to support.  After that, you can fill in the rest like multiple choice tests in high school, either by system or random choice, however you did it then.  Or not, whatever.

People aren’t as stupid as the politicians think. More and more of us are laughing off our ‘civic duty’ to vote, rejecting the role of compulsory constituent.”
Bob Black