ihcpl Crafts & hobbies: #64:zines

I believe I would like to make a zine on cats(one of my favorite subjects). I would start with some pictures of different breeds of cats, then I would discuss the characteristics of the different breeds. I would like to use colored paper and a special spiral-binding machine, needle, and thread to put my zine together. I would just start with maybe four pages, then work up to more pages in my next zine. Searching for information on cats for the zine would be interesting and informative. I could learn some new things to help my out of control cats. I believe that zines would be appropriate inside the library, but they would need to be put in a special section in my opinion. They could encourage the would-be-writer who likes to write for fun. This, I believe, fits well in today's blog world because it could get inspiring writers together to share ideas. It might also be the discovery tool for an up and coming future novelist.

ihcpl Crafts & hobbies: #62:decpouge

I have not yet done a decoupage, but it seems like a lot fun, and the research I did on it leads me to believe that if I ever get time, I would like to decoupage something. I was very surprised that there were so many things that you could decoupage. First of all, I know the materials that you need: white glue(mod podge), object you want to decoupage, wrapping paper, magazines, wallpaper, origami paper, scissors, x-acto or utility knife, paint brush, popsicle stick, and polyurethane sealer. These seem like simple enough items to purchase. I went on "Flickr" to view the decoupages that were done. Four of my favorites on that site were "beautiful blue cups with ladybugs on them; an angel (cinjinho para decoupage that was a beautiful red and gold color; target Tuesday decoupage buttons, and decoupage servithentochnik Marina 6899. These were several Christmas items(beaufiful bottles, a Church, an Angel). They were beautiful colors. The "etsy" site had four items I really liked: a LaBelle necklace, Hoops earings, a bluebird turquoise patina, and e for eggs plates. The colors of these were beautiful. The last site I visited was google. There were some unique poster chairs on this site which looked fascinating. I never dreamed that you could use decoupage on so many things! I am sure that I would enjoy decoupaging as a hobby from viewing these sites.

#65:Crafts & hobbies: Coin collecting

I really enjoyed the coin collecting ihcpl. I found several dealers of coins in our area by going to "google maps: coin dealers." I found several in Humble, which is really close to my home. I found "Regal gold buyers" which deals only in coins; "Houston Precious metals" in Houston, which deals in other things as well as coins; "Gold exchange" in Humble(coin dealers); "The coin shop" in Spring, Texas, which handles coins, supplies & etc., and "Eagle numismatics" coin dealers specifically. I also took out 2 pennies, 1 nickel, and 1 dime from my drawer, and searched them on "historical image library." I found that the pennies were just normal pennies with Abraham Lincoln on them. These were from 1989 to 2009. The nickel was a 2008 nickel with Thomas Jefferson on it. It was dated 2006, and he was 57 years old and vice-president when he appeared on the coin. The dime was a 2002 dime. It first appeared in 1946, and had Franklin Delano Roosevelt on it. This was a very interesting experience. I also found some coin dealers in the state of Texas on google maps. Most of them were in Dallas, one was in Beaumont, and one in Houston. So there are many dealers if you want to search them. Overall, this was a very interesting experience.

ihcpl #66:hobbies: knitting and crocheting

I would like to make all three items: a prayer shawl, a chemo hat, and a lap blanket. I don't knit or crochet, but it sounds very relaxing, and the reason that I would like to make all three of these things, is that it would be a very different and valuable experience for each one. Also, it would help a soldier, a chemotherapy patient, and it would really be rewarding to think that you were helping someone with something that you had hand made. We do not have a knitting or crocheting group at Kingwood. There is a private one that meets, but it is not among the employees. I guess that I would start with spreading the word around about the class, pick a good time for everyone, email everyone, and get ideas from other employees as to what they would want the group to consist of. If we ever have time, I think that it would be a very good thing to do.

Pets: #71: finding a pet

I took the PetPicker Quiz quiz twice. The first time, it told me my ideal pet was a bird. The second time, it told me that my ideal pet was a dog. I have three cats, so I think something went wrong. But it was fun. I then went into Petfinder. There were two animals on it looking for a home. They were part of the "Happy tails" section of the site. Olive was looking for a home in Reno, Nevada. She was a medium adult female cat. She was darling. I hope she found a home. The other pet was a dog, Grover. His rescuers and new owners changed his name to Denali. They were from North Richland Hills in Dallas. That was a happy story. The other site, Pet Harbor was a wonderful site that could help you find a lost pet. Jeff was looking for his cat, Robin. I hope he found her. This site sends postcards to the area where the pet has been lost. They track them by zipcode. They also benefit animals to be adopted, they help the public to adopt the pets, and they help the animal shelters to get them together. This is a wonderful site also. These were very interesting to visit.

#72:pet health online:fitness and exercise

I went to PetFit.com and they had an exercise where you tie an elastic band around a toy. Put this onto your dumbells and watch the cat go craz;y as they to catch the toy. This looks a good exercise for cats. The other exercise is to shine a light onto the wall and watch your cat jump at the light and chase it. We already do this, and it gives Fred a lot of exercise. We also play with his toys with him. This gives him good exercise. He gets enough exercise. The other two cats, Midnight and Ellie, are older cats and don't exercise at all. I guess they are past that part of their lives.

#72: Pet health online

I went to the CatAge website and figured out my cat Fred's age. According to them, his cat age is 23.6. That's 7.7 years younger than the average CatAge for Fred's breed. CatAge is the biological age of you cat, measured in people years. They also said that our cat is lucky to have a such a good caretaker. They said Fred is an ideal weight for an optimal CatAge, and that we are taking good care of him with regular veterinary checkups. We are also taking the right measures to keep your cat's daily food quantity in control. We also keep Fred indoors, and this is much safer for him. All in all, I hope we are doing the right for Fred and our other two kitties. We surely do love them, and they give back to us everyday!

PETS #73: LOSING A FRIEND

I went on four pet web sites concerning the death of a pet. The first one is probably the most well known site. It is the "Rainbow bridge pet loss grief center." It gave some very helpful information about how to deal with children and the loss of a pet. It said you should talk about the death to get it out in the open, you should give the child hugs and reassurance during this process, and you can encourage the child to share his loss with someone important in his life like a teacher. The second one I went to was the "Grief and loss by Margaret Muns, DVM." It said that dealing with the loss of a pet was sometimes harder than dealing with the loss of a person. This is because you have lost a non-judgmental love source, and this is very hard. Also, you no longer have anything to nurture. This is especially hard for older persons. The third source that I went was "VetMed.Forum. This site lets you ask general questions about your loss. The fourth source that I went to was "Peteducation.com." This source gave the steps in grieving the loss of a pet. They are: shock & denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. These are much the same as for the loss of a person. It also said that the death of a pet was very hard because people didn't understand. They can say "It was just an animal-you can always get another one." Also, the support group for animal death is smaller than the support group for persons. They were all very interesting and helpful.

ihcpl: #74: Parade of pets: social petworking

I am doing the #74 Social petworking ihcpl. I created a profile of my cat Fred for the first exercise. It was fun because Fred does so many cute things (of course, cute only to his owners!). I liked being able to share his profile with other crazy and loving pet owners. I used the petpop.com website. I also was able to find out some things about my cat Midnight's insulin change on the Pet products site. I was able to find out why her current insulin has been discontinued and some things about her new insulin. So this was very helpful.

ihcpl #75: google and beyond

I went to all three search engines and tried several quieries on them. In "google" I tried a search on the local weather. It gave me good information and the weather radar map. I also searched the weather on "yahoo" and "bing." I think that google and yahoo had the most information on the local weather. I also searched the Haiti earthquake. All three search engines had a great deal of information, most of it up to date. It also gave information on where to give aid, and what aid efforts were being made. I didn't know that these search engines would have the sports scores for football games on them. That was great. I also did a search of all the Catholic churches in Houston, and it gave extensive information. These were things that I would not have thought to look up on any of these search engines. It was also to interesting to see a calculator on google and yahoo.

ihcpl: #75:google and beyond

The number one search engine in all categories on "hitwise" whenever I searched was www.google.com>. The percentage was 71.96% searches as opposed to its closest competitor "search.yahoo.com" with a 14.81% usage. Our family uses google to search most things. We do also use the mapquest for directions on a regular basis.

ichpl: searching #75: google and beyond

ihcpl: Searching #75: google and beyond

I searched three entries in "blindsearch." The first subject that I searched was "Haiti." I was looking for information on the very recent earthquake in Haiti. Column #2 in blindsearch gave me the most information on the earthquake. The two headline entries that I went into were "Haiti news. headlines and latest stories on yahoo! news. I got quite a lot of very recent information on the earthquake. The other one I searched was "Haiti-salon.com. It also gave me good information. The second quiery I made was on "cats." Column #1 gave me the most information on cats: their care, behavior, and actions. The two items I looked under were "cats. cat adoption: cat care at cats.com. This gave a lot about cat health, behavior and feeding. The second entry I looked at was "about cats-all about cats and kittens-cat care-cat behavior. The third quiery I made was on the economy. Column "3 gave me the most on information on what I was looking for. This was information on jobs, public opinion on the economy, any improvement, current and future outlooks for the economy. I looked under "economic news and job reports-CNN money.com" and "economy.com. Moodys reporting on economy."

ihcpl:#76: sound effects: "simply the best sounds"

I also enjoyed using "simply the best sounds." It gave some wonderful sound effects. I went into MDI sounds: Movie Midi files:ghostbusters. I love the music and effects from that movie. I also got into the bugs bunny : you've got troubles mac sound. I went into commercials MP3. I picked one of my favorite commericals: the taco bell "yo quiero taco bell" sound clip. From the WAV files, I picked bugs bunny again. I picked the cartoon "bunny-troubles." It brought back many memories. I also went into Sun audio and picked "transportation sound effects." I listened to the "horn" sound effect and the "police siren" effects. They were both very authentic. I can see how these aids would be very helpful if you were blogging and needed sounds added.

ihcpl #76: searching: sound effects

I had a lot fun with searching for animal sounds in the "find sounds" section. I searched for cat sounds, dog sounds, chimpanzee sounds, and monkey sounds. There was an abundance of sounds for all these animals. Then when I tried to search a sound for fish and snake, there were fewer sounds. There were no sounds found for "possum" or "farrett." I can see why these animal sounds weren't found. I also found quite a few bird sounds on the site. It was very informative.