AKA Riptide Furse

There is so much going on next weekend but one sure bet is the National Book Festival in Washington, DC on Sept. 26. This is a FREE event that has something for family members of all ages.

There are different pavilions including one with PBS Kids Raising Readers and ReadAloud.org. Visit the pavilion for your home state. Kids can collect stamps and stickers from many of the stations.

Checkout this small sampling of the authors that will be there.

CHILDREN

Sponsored by AT&T

• *Special Presentation*
• Mary Brigid Barrett
• Holly Black
• Kate DiCamillo
• Tony DiTerlizzi
• Nikki Grimes
• Shannon Hale
• Craig Hatkoff
• Steven Kellogg
• Lois Lowry
• Megan McDonald
• Charles Santore
• Jon Scieszka
• David Shannon
• Mo Willems

TEENS & CHILDREN

Sponsored by Target

• Judy Blume
• Patrick Carman
• Sharon Creech
• Carmen Agra Deedy
• Paula Deen
• Kate DiCamillo
• Shannon Hale
• Liz Kessler
• Jeff Kinney
• Wilson Kimeli Naiyomah
• Kadir Nelson
• James Patterson
• Jerry Pinkney
• Rick Riordan
• Sharon Robinson
• James L. Swanson
• Jacqueline Woodson

FICTION & FANTASY

Sponsored by Target

• Sabiha Al Khemir
• Julia Alvarez
• Junot Díaz
• John Grisham
• John Irving
• Katherine Neville
• Jodi Picoult
• Nicholas Sparks
• Jeannette Walls
• Colson Whitehead
• David Wroblewski

Get the entire list of authors and more about all of the things you can expect to do over at the National Book Festival website http://loc.gov/bookfest

Technorati Tags: books,freebies,free,Washington DC,families

Museum Day 2009 is on September 26 this year. You and your family can gain free admission to a long list of museums that normally charge a fee. Sponsored by the Smithsonian, the list of participating museums includes many that are not part of the Smithsonian. The site includes a google map of participating museums. Type in your address and find museums closest to where you are.

http://microsite.smithsonianmag.com/museumday/index.html

Target is sponsoring FREE and reduced-fee events in and around many of the larger cities in the U.S. Checkout this page and look up your city from the list.

http://sites.target.com/site/en/company/page.jsp?contentId=WCMP04-031764&ref=sr_shorturl_arts

Image by krossbow via Flickr

Last night we gave an introduction to hunts in Second Life. These hunts are great for several reasons:

• Gives you a reason to explore more of the creative sims and builds in Second Life.
• You get free things from different designers. These can include clothing, hair, shapes, skin, furniture and more.
• Meet new people and help each other.
• Learn new skills and problem solve. The hunts can be difficult and using the hints to find things can take some thought. Also different designers use different ways to package some of their wares so you learn more about what is possible in Second Life as you find more objects.

Hunts usually work this way. You are given a starting point or slurl. There you find an information or notecard giver to get more info on the hunt. There may also be a group to join. This is where updates, changes and errors are posted so join it if you can. The group sometimes has a lot of chatter. This can either be helpful or annoying.

You will usually be looking for a particular shaped object. You will need to hunt and look around for that particular object till you find it. This can take a long time by yourself if the store or place is large. Best to team up and divide and conquer.

When you find the object click it or right click and buy it. They should be FREE. If it wants to charge you money then you have the wrong object. In the object will be the freebie(s) and a landmark to the next stop on the hunt. Some hunts are small with 5 or 6 freebies and others go well into the hundreds of freebies.

We looked primarily at the Just For The Guys Hunt that is going on right now across the grid from July 1 – July 31. We started with this page on the SLHunts blog http://slhunts.wordpress.com/2009/06/18/just-for-the-guys-hunt/ This tells us basic information about the hunt. What dates is it running. Where do we start. How many items are we looking for. What are you looking for.

We headed off to the KMadd Sim http://slurl.com/secondlife/Kmadd%20Enterprise/190/88/26 where the hunt is to start. We joined the group. Then started looking for the first fedora. The store was huge and we were running out of time. I searched for Just For The Guys Hunt hints and found this blog and found this http://huntlocations.blogspot.com/2009/06/just-for-men-hunt.html

Be sure not give away locations of the objects. You can give hints and if you are working with someone or a team use personal IM to tell but don’t use open chat as it ruins the fun for others.

A couple of other hunts we mentioned going on right now is the Cinderella’s Lost Slipper Hunt http://cinderellalostslipper.blogspot.com/

And the Slice Of Summer Hunt http://crystal.chiisana.net/SoS/index.php?instructions

You can keep track of all the hunts going on or upcoming on the SL Hunts blog.

Got a tip for hunting or have you found something good on a hunt? Share a picture on Flickr and then include a link in the comments.

This is cross posted on the DEN in Second Life Blog

Image via Wikipedia

You become the predator, the hunter/huntress. You’re goal is to stalk your prey by using your eyes and your wits. You follow your prey clue after clue with each one comes a little reward but you want more. Team up to make it easier and more fun or go the hunt alone and rely on your own skills.

Join us on Wed., July 22 at 5 PM SLT (8PM Eastern) for the Predator/Prey workshop where you will learn about 3 hunts that are happening right now in Second Life. One hunt is just for the guys. Another hunt is for the ladies that fancy themselves a princess. The third hunt is for that perfect slice of summer.

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Eduisland%20II/132/131/22

Image by krossbow via Flickr

Lowe’s has a nice program called Build and Grow Clinics for children. The program features kits that introduce children to basic carpentry, gardening and more.  These clinics usually take place on Saturdays but your mileage may vary.

July 11th  the clinic has the children learning to build their own treasure chest.

July 25th  the clinic has the children learning to build a helicopter.

Recommended grades 1st thru 5th. The first 50 children to register and be present at the beginning of the workshop will receive the kit, apron and goggles.

https://www.lowesbuildandgrow.com/default.asp

Last year I did something a little crazy where I posted a new piece of music every day of the year. The music is free for you to use under creative commons – attribution license.

I have packaged all of the songs from last May into a zip file so you can download them all at once.

366 Days of Music May

Technorati Tags: podcast safe music,music,mp3,freebies

Image by krossbow via Flickr

Barnes & Noble has announced it’s summer reading program. Students can get a free book after reading 8 books.

Find out more info here http://www.barnesandnoble.com/summerreading/

Image by krossbow via Flickr

WooHoo! MaggieMoo’s is giving away free ice cream. It’s on the one day everyone could use something nice and sweet and especially free – tax day, April 15.

You can find a MaggieMoo’s Treatery near you at this link

http://www.maggiemoos.com/visit_a_treatery/

Maggie Moo’s main page is here http://www.maggiemoos.com/

Here is the news release announcing the free ice cream:

ATLANTA - March 23, 2009 - MaggieMoo’s Ice Cream & Treatery has announced that on April 15, 2009 participating Treateries nationwide will reward customers with one free single-scoop of ice cream in honor of Tax Day. MaggieMoo’s will create its own "e-cone-omic" ice cream stimulus package for customers that will include MaggieMoo’s award-winning, super-premium ice cream. MaggieMoo’s is managed by NexCen Franchise Management, Inc., a subsidiary of NexCen Brands, Inc.

The nationwide ice cream social will take place throughout the day, and customers are encouraged to file-in-line at participating Treateries across the country.

"Tax Day is often a stressful time, and MaggieMoo’s stimulus package is meant to reward customers and to encourage those who have never tried our ice cream to have a taste," said Jenn Johnston, senior vice president of brand marketing for NexCen Franchise Management. "Ice cream has a unique way of making people happy, and we wanted to give our customers something to smile about on Tax Day."

In 2008, MaggieMoo’s was awarded four National Ice Cream Retailers Association Awards for its ice cream based on color, texture, taste and other factors that determine the quality of the product. The brand also just recently announced a new line of signature "Stylicious" ice cream cupcakes. Cakes and cupcakes are available for online ordering at participating stores through www.maggiemoos.com.

 

http://www.nexcenbrands.com/press032309_print.html

Technorati Tags: Free,MaggieMoo,April,Treatery,Maggie,maggiemoos

Find movies, TV shows matching your taste watch online - Jinni

Many of you are probably Pandora fans. You tell Pandora what music you like and it plays more music with the same genetic markers. Well here is the breaking news. Jinni has the movie genome code and can suggest similar movies based on what you like. Want to give it a try? I have 10 beta invites. Just leave me a comment with one of your favorite movies and I’ll send you an invite.

Technorati Tags: movies, movie genome, beta invites, beta

Image via Wikipedia

Library of Congress Open House Feb. 16 - The Library Today (Library of Congress)

Main Reading Room Open for Washington’s Birthday

In honor of the federal Washington’s Birthday Holiday, the magnificent Main Reading Room in the Thomas Jefferson Building welcomes visitors for a special public open house on Monday, Feb. 16, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. The Main Reading Room is located on the first floor of the Thomas Jefferson Building, 10 First Street, S.E. Washington, DC.

The Great Hall, the Library of Congress Experience and other Library exhibitions will also be open to visitors, including “With Malice Toward None: The Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Exhibition,” which opens with special evening hours on Feb. 12 from 5 to 9 p.m.

@Scholastic

@Scholastic via kwout

Lots of things happening in DC and this has to be one of the coolest. Meet Ruby Bridges. Follow the link above for more info. She will be downtown on January 19.

Here is a link for more things happening for students and their families.

InauguralFest

Here it is the last one of the year.

Happy New Year everyone!

#366  12-31-08.mp3

#365 12-30-08.mp3

OK so I realized I was off a while back but wasn’t sure just how many I was off. I finally got around to it and so I don’t go through the rest of my life thinking that I cheated any of you following this or discovering it later, here are the the 2 songs to catch up and finish in a couple of days with this year long project.

#363 363.mp3

#364  364.mp3