Hero Jean

This is SO COOL!

This is me, I’m a super-hero now:

Isn’t that SO COOL! I got to make her, er, I mean, me. If you want to be a super-hero too, check it out. It’s way better than working. I, er, I mean. It’s great to do during a coffeebreak….

Later Note: My daughter joined the hero forces:

Since the family that saves the world together, stays together, here’s my husband:

Check out the brain on that guy.

Unfortunately at this time, our cats could not join the Oram Family World Saving Forces (aka OFWSF).

It’s All Kid’s Play Website

It’s up!

The It’s All Kid’s Play (dot ca) is now up and running. If you’ve checked out the blog, you’ll find that the website is simply a bigger version of the blog.

So if you have kids or know somebody with kids, pass the link(s) along.

What is ‘It’s All Kid’s Play’? Basically it is over 700 things for kids to do to prevent the dreaded two words “I’m bored” from escaping your child’s mouth. The site is totally free and sports activities from the rules to forgotten games such as ‘Red Rover’ to instructions for crafts such as ‘Make a Grass Hair man’ to car ride games like ‘Round-Up’ to general silliness like ‘Wiggle your toes in cold, wet noodles’. The site also has a jokes page, ‘other links’ page and a book recommendation page.

So stop on by and enjoy!

Santa Claus is Coming to Town: Track Santa!

Have you been naughty or nice? If you’ve decided to be naughty and save Santa a trip, then read no further.

However, if you were nice, or simply want to watch Santa on his journey, go to Google Earth and watch Santa’s progress across this great world. (You will have to do a bit of downloading, but don’t worry, they make it simple and easy. And just think how cool it will be to show your kids where Santa is. Gee, kids, Santa Claus is coming to town, better hit the hay!):

Interested in more? Try these links:

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/12/tracking-santa-backstory.html

http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10128642-2.html?tag=mncol;posts

http://blog.wired.com/cars/2008/12/norad-keeps-the.html

‘Tis The Season for Parties

With the advent of virtual relationships, global business, and email friends, what do you do when you want to hold a Christmas party for your friends, family, colleagues and fans, but they are spread out all over this great big world? Why, you hold a virtual Christmas party, of course. No worries about food or someone falling into the punch bowl. It’s prefect. Or is it?

You can’t see me very well, but I’m the gal in green with the blue hair. To say I was undressed is an understatement, and that was even before I took ‘off’ my hair and couldn’t get it back on. There were actually three of us who had the same avatar. However, nobody seemed to find it funny when we were all together in the same party venue (there were 4) and I yelled, “Hey look, triplets!” I guess virtual party humour is different.

So other than riding the dragon, the carousal, learning I had the ability to walk great distances under water, playing bumper cars by myself, wearing a big present on my avatar’s hips, and discovering that I could slam through a tree with a sleigh with nobody would get hurt, it was actually kind of, well…lame. I’m sorry, really I am. It was a great idea. It was just, well, virtual. Maybe if I knew someone, or if I had met the hostess. Or figured out how to get my hands on a dress so I wasn’t the only dame (okay, one of three) in fish nets and a skull t-shirt. Honestly, I did try to dress up, but my first attempt left me nude for about 15 minutes while I tried to figure things out and after that I was a tad hesitant to mix things up.

People mingle differently online. People didn’t chat much and often wandered around by themselves. You can’t tell affect and body language is at a bare minimum. Plus, everyone has weird names. So, it’s not like a real Christmas party in a lot of ways. Near the end of my time in the party (I got bored and wondered why I was there), some guy walked by and gave me 5 Lindens (Second Life money). Didn’t say hi or anything, just suddenly I had money. Weird. Maybe he thought I couldn’t afford a dress. Either way, I tried to thank him, but by the time I figured out what was going on, he was half way across the venue. Oh well.

So while it was an interesting adventure it was also an hour of my life that I will never get back. Maybe if I had figured out how to put on the skates. Or I had met someone to talk with for more than a second or two. Or even if I had gotten my numbers for the draw, then it would have been a bit more exciting. Or if I wasn’t naturally a wallflower in that sort of setting. Or…it was real.

Middle Name Contest

Finally, a contest for me. Over on this writer’s website, Nothing But Bonfires, she is having a contest. If you have a middle name, you can enter to win a Nintendo DS Lite. Not totally sure what exactly it is, but my nephew has one, so that means it must be cool, new and probably costs more than I would be comfortable shelling out for a game system. Oh yeah, and if you don’t have a middle name, you can enter–just say what you wish it was. Wahoo!

This contest brings a few things to mind for me. First, if you wish you had a middle name, why the hell don’t you give yourself one? For a few bucks, you can even make it legal. I know this because I did it when I was 19. I didn’t actually give myself a middle name as so much as gave myself a first name, but that is a rather long and somewhat convoluted story. (Not really, but there is some back story involved.) Second, if you are a writer, the comments section is GOLD! Hilarious, wondrous gold! I mean at this point there are almost 500 entries. Yep, my odds of winning decline by the minute. Anyway, there is all sorts of interesting rants, ideas, voices, names and complaints. It is great! There is even some woman who needed 30 years to embrace ‘Jean’ as her middle name. Give me a break and suck it up honey!