You can map anything, you know. You can map your trip to avoid detours. You can map the shortest journey to your new home to reduce moving services expenses. You can map the distance between your home and office. Heck you can even map different terms for carbonated beverages.

HUH? Is that right? Well, yes, it is. Strange Maps is just that: a blog full of maps that depict all sorts of odd things. The pop vs. soda map is one of my favorites but there so many others there that everyone will find something to amuse and entertain.

For instance, did you know that there was once a state in the US that never quite made it to official status? Check out the map of Absaroka. Or how about a view of cannibalism throughout history? Didn’t know that map existed, did you?

Go ahead and look around the site. See something really odd? Let me know about it. With two years worth of entries, there’s just too much there for one person to discover alone. Post your favorites in my comments!

I hate this time of year. I love summer and would gladly never look at another snowflake again. I know, it’s still technically summer. But it’s also the end of summer for my kids.

School begins for my youngest son on August 20. Can you believe that? It’s just too early. I’m not ready to send him back yet. Doesn’t matter, though. Levi waved his school list in front of me every day this past week and I finally relented. We went School Shopping.

After we piled the cart with loose leaf paper, spiral notebooks, pens, pencils and a couple hundred other things that the teachers want the kids to have, we headed over to the electronics section. We walked past the digital cameras, lingered at the Lenovo Thinkpad display, checked out the release date for Madden 09 and finally stood in front of the jump drives.

This is significant because I can remember when kids (in other words, me) did not need electronics. I remember when I thought it was quite a leap the first time one of my kids was required to pay a school fee for a 3 1/4 inch floppy.

(For the record, it irked me that I couldn’t just send one of my own since I bought them in bulk. The teacher thought she had to buy them from their supplier or they wouldn’t work in the school’s computers!)

Anyway, our kids are now required to come to school prepared with a jump drive. The paper said that 1GB is a minimum requirement but the 2GB was marked down so I got that one. I wonder how long it will be before kids are required to have laptops at school.

Sometimes I look up a simple question and end up with information about all kinds of other things. Go ahead and admit it; you do that, too. It’s one of the wonderful things about the internet. It’s also the reason I seldom make it through my to-do list.

Anyway, one of the kids asked me why Easter is so early some years and later other years. I know the answer, kind of. I knew it had to do with the moon. At least I thought I knew that. I’m old and information gets fuzzy bouncing around my brain. So I looked it up, took a stop along the way to discover that one of Kepler’s Laws states that all planets move in ellipticals (who knew?) and finally found what I wanted.

Do you know the answser? If not, here it is. Although there’s some long, drawn out explanation for all of this, Easter is the first Sunday after the first full moon following the spring equinox.

Today is the Spring Equinox. The full moon this year is on March 21, which is Friday. That’s why Easter will be this coming Sunday.

Next year the March full moon will occur on March 10 and the next one won’t be until April 9. So Easter in 2009 will be on the following Sunday, or April 12.

And now you know how the date for Easter is determined.

This great big Internet world is very much like real life. There are wonderful, interesting, entertaining and educational places to visit, just as there are places less desirable sites that I prefer to avoid. I love that we all have the choice to decide for ourselves and I love that every once in a while, someone will put out a site that offers something for free that is of real value. Such is the case with Manybooks.net.

Matthew McClintock, the guy who maintains the site, provides a huge database of ebooks as a service to the internet community. Not only can you find all the books from the Gutenberg Project (except for the Human Genome Project and audio eBooks) but also many public domain and creative commons works from other sources.

The ebooks at manybooks.net are listed by Title, Author, Category or Language. I’m not sure how many books are listed but the categories I’ve browsed are filled with great reads. Whether you’re interested in Computers, Humor, Fiction or the Classics, you’ll find something here to download. There are even book covers that you can download! These would be as cool hanging on my wall as rare movie posters or vintage photographs, especially in a home library or reading room.

Free is good. Books are wonderful. Free books are just plain old fantastic. Thanks to manybooks.net, we can all enjoy great books at no charge. Of course, if you want to help out, there are ways. You can donate through paypal or amazon.com to manybooks.net or to Project Gutenberg. If you can’t afford a donation but would still like to help, check out the Distributed Proofreaders site and consider signing up to volunteer to proofread a page or two of the books that are made available online. It’s really a great way to get involved and give something to the Internet community.

I live in an industrial region. When I was young, the primary industries here were coal and steel. Those who didn’t go to college after high school knew that they’d make a livable wage working in one of the steel mills or in the coal mine. These weren’t easy jobs but honest work for those willing to work hard.

The economy has shifted, though. So many of our factory jobs are gone. Granted, it’s good to get a college education however, not everyone is cut out for college. Not everyone wants to sit behind a desk or wear a suit. Some people actually enjoy working outside, wearing a hard hat and steel-toed boots. I know because I’m married to someone like that.

Some jobs can’t be sent overseas. My husband is a stone mason, for example, and that job has to be performed right here. Likewise, heavy machine operators are still in demand. In an effort to recruit and train those interested in this skilled job, the National Association of Heavy Equipment Training Schools has made available, through various online video distribution sites, almost 100 videos. Now, all of those videos can be searched easily at the NAHETS Video Catalog Blog where they are organized into various categories.

Whether you’re looking for information on specific equipment, from backhoes to water trucks, or testimonials from students, you’ll be able to locate quickly the video resource you need. You’ll also find other useful links as well as up-to-date industry news.

I may be in a special situation, being married to someone in construction and having 3 sons in the same industry, but I’ve had the opportunity to watch men maneuver cranes and backhoes and such and I’m in awe of their skill. If you think you have what it takes to operate heavy machinery or know someone else who does, check out the NAHETS Blog for valuable information. You can see from the following press release that quite a bit of work has gone into creating a site that is both educational and informational for those in the industry as well as those considering it.

Since early 2007, the National Association of Heavy Equipment Training Schools (NAHETS) has been filming, editing, and distributing videos on heavy equipment throughout the world-wide web. Now that nearly 100 videos are distributed, people from the industry to the general public viewer can become more familiar, knowledgeable, and aware of the different kinds of heavy equipment and about the association that trains and educates people to operate that equipment—NAHETS.

NAHETS heavy equipment videos are found on almost every video distribution site on the web; however, there is a main video site at NAHETS Video Catalog Blog where videos are listed and organized. Here you will find videos that profile various kinds of heavy equipment: backhoes, cranes, excavators, wheel loaders, and more. Some videos show student testimonials that explain their experience in attending NAHETS schools. Other videos talk about safety, job placement assistance, how to get started in becoming a heavy equipment operator. Complementary to the videos are links to related sites and an RSS feed for industry-related news.

In addition to the video catalog, internet users can type in keywords such as, “heavy equipment school” and “nahets,” to find videos on various distribution sites. You will also find other videos at NAHETS.com.

As to the purpose and mission behind heavy equipment video distribution for NAHETS, Matt Klabacka, executive director, said the following:

When it comes to learning and becoming familiar with a concept—especially heavy equipment operating—people always learn better when they can see something visual. It enhances the learning process. This is why NAHETS has visually-oriented websites and uses simulators in heavy equipment training. This is also why NAHETS is dedicated to distributing videos on the heavy equipment operating industry throughout the internet. Some may think it is not a bid deal, but there are people out there who will benefit greatly—from seeing—what heavy equipment operators do and where they can go in order to become heavy equipment operators.

The National Association of Heavy Equipment Training Schools (NAHETS) officially started in 2006. Its mission is to train, educate, certify, and provide job placement assistance for those aspiring to become heavy equipment operators. There are currently five NAHETS member schools and colleges across the country that have been in operation both before and after NAHETS was founded. These schools and colleges are united in providing the most skilled entry-level heavy equipment operators for the construction and heavy equipment industries.

XXX

Contact

Matt Klabacka, Executive Director
2920 N. Green Valley Pkwy, Ste. 822
Henderson, NV 89014
mattk@nahets.com
702-644-9315 ext. 232

Whether you’re a parent with a high school kid or a student trying to figure out how to afford college, I’ve got some great news for you. Are you ready for this? Okay, listen up!

People want to give you money for college!

That’s right. There are huge amounts of money available to high school students preparing for college. Much of that money goes unclaimed or is given away with very little competition. The trick is to find the money that you are qualified to receive.

The task is not as difficult as you might think. Anyone can conduct a free college scholarship search by answering just a few questions, selecting some options to filter the scholarships by area of study, GPA, need, and othe criteria and letting Scholarships.com do the rest. This is so much easier than buying one of several books (revised each year) and laboring through page after page trying to find the scholarships that pertain to your interests and situation. How do I know. I did it with my son, Jesse. If only I’d had Scholarships.com back then!

In fact, Scholarships.com is a one-stop resource for anyone considering college in the future. Their college search function is a great first step to finding the perfect place to continue your education. They even have a blog with updated information and articles pertaining to all aspects of continuing education.

The one page I have still not finished clicking through is the resource center. If you have a question, this page will almost certainly answer it for you or lead you to the answer. When I finish looking through there, I’m going to the site map to be sure I haven’t missed anything.

Not only does Scholarships.com offer free scholarship searches, but they’ve laid everything out in an easy to navigate site so that you don’t have to wade through a bunch of information you don’t need. Just click straight to what you want to get the job done. Find a scholarship, click it, learn the requirements and apply. With just a few of the options selected, I found dozens of scholarships for my 16 year old son. That’s all free money for investing in education, which is the same as investing in the future.

If you give Scholarships.com a try, please stop back and let me know how it worked for you. I’m just amazed at the abundance of money that’s available so I’m curious if everyone else has the same results. I’ll be waiting to hear from everyone!

One thing I’ve noticed about educational websites for kids: a lot of adults like them, too. Well, at least this adult does. For the second time in a row, it’s taken me much too long to post a review because I’ve gotten lost in the site. And by that, I mean “gotten lost” in a totally good way.

I took a trip over to the National Geographic for Kids website and figured I’d pick one interesting topic for my focus. Impossible! Everything about that site is fascinating. I particularly enjoyed the story about the bats that come out during the summer in Texas. I kept thinking that I’d have to cover up with some high quality volcom clothing if I lived anywhere near that cave with millions of bats showing up every evening. I just don’t like the idea of those bats swooping down around my head.

There’s so much more to explore at National Geographic for Kids, though. Having watched every Little Foot cartoon as well as Diego’s Dinosaur Adventure more times than I can count, I headed right over to the Dinosaur quiz and then topped it off with the pre-historic Sea Monstor Brainteaser.

Of course, there are other activities and stories as well as games and activities. Whether you homeschool your kids and need a great resource or just want to supplement their regular school learning and give them a worthwhile website to explore, do check out National Geographic for Kids. And if you happen to spend hours there without the kids, I won’t tell.

Kids ask questions and I always try to answer them honestly. Some questions kids ask are funny to adults like when my then 5 year old asked, while looking at the ocean for the first time, “So, who fills that thing up every summer?” Other questions are poignant like, “Will Eliza (the hamster) go to heaven to be with great gramma now?”

One topic of questions, though, always stump me. No, not sex questions. I can handle those. The toughest questions I’ve gotten from my sons have all been about poop. Yes, I know, that’s not something you came here to read about today. But there you have it, the most fascinating topic for little boys is also the one I’m least qualified to discuss.

Since my oldest son is almost 29, I have quite a few questions floating around in my brain, waiting for answers. That’s part of the reason I love SmellyPoop.com so much. It answers all those questions that my kids have been asking me for years. And frankly, I’ve wondered about some of them myself but wouldn’t have dared to ask, lest I be stripped of my Girly Girl status. The closest I’ve ever come to such a topic was researching various colon cleanse products during my first 4 day fast.

Naturally, the highlight of the site (and the reason I consider it educational) is the FAQ on Poop as well as one on Farts. Just skim through the questions and I’ll bet you stop to read at least a few of the answers. Questions about various colors, the mysterious corn situation, and why on earth do dogs eat it are all included. Seriously, don’t tell me you never wondered!

There’s lots more to see at SmellyPoop.com, like the 100% free Greeting Cards featuring drawn pictures, photos and user submitted pics. There’s a forum, too, and even a place to buy poopy stuff. I really want the 2008 butt crack Calander.

You don’t have to tell me that you looked over the site. I know if you read this you won’t be able to resist. You’re dying to know the answers to those questions I listed, aren’t you? Yeah, I thought so.

I know that I don’t fit the stereotype of a girl in so many ways. Yes, I love makeup and shoes and clothes and anything that shines and sparkles. But I also love to assemble furniture with my own tools, tear apart computers and “remodel” their innards and generally build things or make things that are cool and unusual. And guess what? Someone has come up with a site for people like me!

Actually, Instructables has ideas and directions to make everything from a duct tape wallet to a JavaLog. Most of the items you’ll need are readily available and some can even be non-working parts from other things. Those projects are my favorite – recycling broken stuff into new usable stuff!

For example, if you’ve got a few old network cards around, how about transforming them into a cool notebook? I have every intention of making one of those for myself. If you keep looking around the site, you’ll find ways to reuse everything from old light bulbs, HDMI switches, dryer lint and who knows what else. (Okay, I’m exaggerating. But you get the idea.)

Whether you just like to tinker with stuff, the kids have a science project or you’re homeschooling, you’ll surely find some really great projects here suitable for just about every level of ability and knowledge. All of the projects come with detailed instructions and excellent pictures of the steps. Sign up for free and you’ll have the option of seeing all the instructions and pictures on one page.

Oh, and if you give one of the projects a try, why not come back here and share your experience with everyone? I’d love to see the finished product!