Proof I’m old. Example #425

Last night while digging through old toys. I came across Colorforms. I brought them out for Tink and Buzz. They were more amused with them then I thought they would be.

Tink was enjoying the Cabbage Patch Colorform. A three story house, with flaps to open. (fridge, cabinets, dressers) A thanks to Aunt Frances for parting with your favorite childhood toy! Tink set up the whole house and had me come check out what she had done.

Me “Looks great, everyone’s watching tv”
Tink “Yea, but I can’t find the remote for the tv.”
Me “Well back when I was a kid we didn’t have remotes. You’d go up to the tv and change the channel. ON the tv” 
Tink “So EVERY time you wanted to change the channel. You got out of your chair?!”
Me “Well there wasn’t as many channels to go through”
Tink “Well how did you do the OnDemand?”
Me “Sigh. We didn’t have OnDemand. We used a book we bought each week, called the TV Guide”
Tink just STARES at me. And says “So what’s with the bug antenna’s on the tv?”
Me. “Um, that’s so we could get a good picture on the screen…”
Tink “What? That is so weird”
Me “Note, this is why all we did was play with toys all day, or play outside. TV was just to complicated”
Tink “I would have just played with the Nook or the laptop instead”
Me. Palm to forehead. Walks away.

JCat McGack

One Billion.

Today Mark Zuckerberg celebrates on his Facebook page the fact that one billion people are on Facebook daily. Here is what he wrote…

This morning, there are more than one billion people using Facebook actively each month.
If you're reading this: thank you for giving me and my little team the honor of serving you.
Helping a billion people connect is amazing, humbling and by far the thing I am most proud of in my life.
I am committed to working every day to make Facebook better for you, and hopefully together one day we will be able to connect the rest of the world too.

If you go on his page, there is also a great video on this. About how things connect us. How we us simple things to remind us that we are not alone out there.

To many of my readers, you know me through facebook. Through some sort of personal life journey we’ve crossed paths. And too many times I hear about how people don’t have time to waste on facebook. They’d rather have a ‘real life’

I get that. It makes sense not to sit in front of your computer all day and read what everyone else is doing and do your own thing.

But understand WHY I do love facebook. And why I’m one of the proud billion that use it daily.

I’ve got friends and family far away. East coast, west coast, down south. I can’t afford air fare, and to have a phone conversation to catch up with a 4 and 6 year old underfoot… well it’s just that much easier to chat, share and connect on facebook.

I love that I can upload pictures of how I move around my furniture… to bad this is backwards…

I can upload what is going on in my garden…

Family get together with cousins can enjoy pictures afterwards. I mean do you remember growing up you’d say “Make me a copy of that, would you?” Not anymore. Now you can tag your friends, family and they can get their own pictures!

And who doesn’t get tired of seeing a bazillion pictures of a mom and her kids?! I don’t care! I’ll just post them anyway!! Bwahahaha!

I can post what I’m up to, how I feel, Facebook wants to know “what’s on your mind” which is a very dangerous thing for them to ask most times.

There is danger with it. Too much sharing, too many pictures, too strong of an opinion on religion and politics. The cyber bullies, the creepy stalkers. I do know the danger it can do to someone.

This coming from the girl who’s on her 4th blog due to over sharing, and too strong of an opinion. I’ve learned to hold back, but not to compromise myself.

Facebook is here. It’s staying around. Sadly MySpace and all it’s blinky lights and backgrounds just didn’t cut it. Sure I get sick of the blue trim on facebook. But for all the other reasons, I just can’t get enough of it.

Thanks to Mark Zukerberg and his team. You’ve changed lives, connected people I never thought I’d hear from again, and made me a fan for life.

JCat McGack

Pictures Pictures everywhere.

SD cards, flash drives, CD’s, hard drive, and photo websites.

I’ve got pictures EVERYWHERE. I AM somewhat organized. But not to the level I should be for the amount of photo’s I take.

I’d like to explain my camera obsession. See I have this fear… of loosing memories. My grandfather had Alzheimer's for the last 2 years of his life and it crushed me to think SO many things that he cherished, memories of childhood, my grandmother and his children, grandchildren, friends and life, thoughts and ideas… erased.

Not that having photos surrounding me when I’m 89 will save me from this horrible disease. But it’s my comfort. To pass on my memories, my stories, my thoughts. Maybe if I loose my mind too, I can look at my pictures and scrapbooks to see stories that are nice to read.

It’s obvious I document and take photos of the big moments. Birthdays, holidays, and family get together. But for me it’s the everyday that means the most to me.

The everyday back yard playing, the everyday art room adventure, the random walk to the park, just playing around, a moment that I think is something I want to save.

It’s the two of them playing Lego’s with a Star Wars Squinkie party in the park and some are eating in the cafe. A whole new meaning to the Cantina!

Buzz enjoying some pinwheels at the 3 French Hens Market.

My toes enjoying a fire on the deck.

It’s all the little things, pictures remind me of happy times, and tiny memories that will fade fast. I’ve taken pictures of me having a post partum meltdown. I’ve taken pictures of me fat, of me with good hair and make up.

I take pictures of my messy laundry piles to post on face book about what I am up too, and then my clean loft to remind me of how nice it looks all put away. I’m a big fan of before and after shots.

I also find it wonderful that little point and shoot cameras can capture video. I love to take candid videos. A trip to McD’s with the kids? I do an interview. Even when they are little. Just to hear their voice at that age, to see their actions. (this one is from 2 years ago)

Tink and Buzz at McD’s March 2010

And this also stems back to family. I take videos of the kids to remember their voice. When I was a kid my sister had a voice, just like everyone else… by 14 her voice was gone due to her muscle disorder Dystonia. 

I have the few family videos taken, with her talking on them. I cherish them. And I never take for granted the voices my children have.

I remember when I was first blogging, and trying to figure the fastest way to get my photos from my camera to my computer. I didn’t have an SD drive on my old tower. So I had to take my SD cards to the store. Burn a CD of pictures, and upload them that way. (that was a bitch. I SO wanted to blog each day and share everyday. It’d take me a week sometimes to share!) I have 4 years of picture CD’s. All marked with the events on them, and in photo CD boxes by year.

I then came across this device it’s a USB converter drive. Holds an SD card in one end, and plugs right into the tower. NOW that was a faster way to share my pictures!

But since then I’ve gotten a laptop with an SD drive, I still use the converter because I often have two SD cards currently in use.

Oh and while I’m giving out my SD and Flash drive advice. You seriously should eject them properly. I know there is a funny saying on Pinterest about life is too short to eject USB correctly. I did that once, just pulled out the SD card with out going through the proper way of ejecting it… lost it all. Lucky me it was barely full and I had already transferred the pictures over to my photo site.

So the photo site that I RAVE about, that I threw a house party for. Yes I volunteered through their site to host a party and explain the site. Everyone who attended received a free tote bag, free cards, and a free book. Plus I had printed out tip and ideas from the site.

Note when I like a brand or company, I will back them and brag about them to the point you think I either work for them or have stock with them.

Shutterfly is who I use. Here’s what they’ve got to offer…

Securely store your images for a lifetime—at no cost. We never delete photos

Get guaranteed 100% customer satisfaction

Benefit from award-winning customer service

Store your pictures, just as they are, at full resolution

Pick up prints at Target, Walgreens, and CVS in as little as an hour

And if you join, 50 free 4x6’s from them. I LOVE their photo books, I make at least 4 a year, sometimes more. The more you make, they often give you free prints. Free cards too. Free shipping is almost always after $30 spent.

Now that you know where I store my pictures, and print my pictures, and share my pictures… oh yea. SUPER cute share pages, also free. Check out mine. You can have more then one share site (so one for family, one for sports teams, one for school…)

Here’s mine… Momarazzi McHale.

I share my YouTube video links as well on my share site. Super easy for family to see your pictures and what you’ve been up to!

Right so the thing I REALLY wanted to share with you is what I’m up to now. Organizing my pictures.

Yikes, I take a TON. And they were in folders marked with what events they were, but the computer alphabetizes them, thus throwing them all over and not in order… so I read this in a magazine and palm smack to forehead I don’t know why I didn’t think of doing this sooner.

Simple filing.

Make a file for each year.

So I’ve got files 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, and 2012 (I don’t have photos further back on this hard drive, and I go back that far because I have a few from when Buzz what a baby, so I need a year for that)

Open a year folder and inside that folder make 12 new folders. Label each one by month. Important label them with the number first. So 01 January, 02 February… it keeps them in number order, not alphabetical.

NOW I had to take all the folders I had. And put them where they belonged. So for example one titled Halloween 2010 goes to the file in 2010, and under the file 10 October. It’s tedious work. BUT since I’ve started this it’s SUPER easy to find shots I’m looking for.

I do have under each year some other folders. One for each of us. I often find a head shot of a family member, and keep them separate from the monthly files.

Pets have an annual file as well. Seeing that they don’t change much after the first year.

Having to do this in my Shutterfly account too. I had originally just made a lot of files, again titled for each event. Now making Year albums, and moving files to the year. A little at a time, I mean I’ve been at this for a month now. Working on and off when I get a few few moments. Again it’s not fun. But with all the shots I take… it’s important to keep it organized and I know I’ll be happy in the end.

I do this for myself, but I also do this for the kids. For future generations. I scrapbook as well, and my kids LOVE to pull their books I’ve done and flip through them enjoying their life story.

I have to call out some of my girlfriends I recently had dinner with. They both said I take SO many pictures, seeing that I share them all the time on Facebook. And they said neither of them take anywhere NEAR as many pictures of their kids and day to day life. For me it’s hard not to. I point, I shoot, I upload. Constantly.

But I’m not alone, I know I’ve talked to one of my fellow Momarazzi friends and we both agreed that we have a problem! We feel that if we didn’t take pictures of an outing or an event it didn’t happen.

Our lives are busy, our kids are growing so fast, we do so many fun things, I want to remember them ALL.

What do you do? Shutterbug junkie? Just for the big events? Do you own a camera, or do you rely on your cell phone?

JCat McGack

My kids and I enjoying the farmers market

To the Cloud

If you’ve ever tried to take a picture of your kids together. BOTH smiling, BOTH looking SOMEWHERE near the camera AT the same time is just about impossible with out some sort of goofy dance (pun intended. See photos) to get their attention.

Do that at Disney World when your kids get about a 2 shot chance of getting this right with a character meet and greet.

HA.

So I will show you what I mean…

Shot A.) Buzz is taking a nap.

Shot B.) Great they are both looking but I’m too low on Goofy and he has NO eyes!

Shot C.) Goofy has one eye, and Tink is more amused by Mickey Mouse behind me…

Shot D.) Now I introduce you to… Windows Live Photo Gallery ‘Fuse Photos’ option under ‘Create’ THIS is one, tricky thing to pull off let me tell you. The pictures have to line up JUST about pretty much perfect. You chose the two or three pictures you like. (maybe more)

And Photo fuse matched up the photos. And it starts to help, sometimes it’s spot on. Sometimes it tries to decapitate your people. I just close out their box. And draw my own around the person I need to swap out. And it chooses the same head. From the other shots to add in. GIVE yourself a bit more then around their head, this photo fuse is a bit off sometimes.

I was able to get Goofy with two eyes, and both kids looking… thank you technology for fixing this once in a life time shot!

If you want to see the funny commercial on ‘The Cloud’. Check it out here. I sweat it’s NOT that easy, but pretty close.

Happy photo editing!

JCat McGack

Test.

Last post didn’t post from here… so we are testing. Please stay tuned for a real blog post to come…Damn you Windows Live Writer.

JCat McGack

Freedom

If you’ve been keeping up here, you know that recently we (my family and I) found out about an App for iPad users to speak for them. To get up to speed check out this post and come back… I’ll wait here…

Now that your up to speed, and you realize that it’s been 15 years, yes HALF of my sisters life has been silenced by her muscle disorder. Dystonia.

Until today.

The 4 of us piled into the van (it’s an hour away to our destination). It’s a Cat family adventure. We’ve taken MANY of these adventures, they are Frances adventures, for almost 6 years we searched for what was wrong with her, and after finding out the one word ‘Dystonia’ we then searched for a cure… there is none, but that didn’t stop us from our adventures. We went on to search for more knowledge of it, how to adapt to it, how to work with it, and how to make it better.

For YEARS, we insisted Frances would talk again. We knew she would. Our brains just wouldn’t let us think she wouldn’t. We tried Botox injections in her neck… not with a hard needle, but a soft bendy needle that she needed to have put in about 5-7 different injections around her neck. It was so painful she would squeeze my hand, I quickly learned to take off any rings. (after she squeezed my wedding ring right into my finger)

After a year of Botox injection, she was clear for DBS (Deep Brain Surgery) surgery, now years after the surgery, Frances is better with her Dystonia. Better as in she’s not twisted, bent over and contorted to the left at all times. But her ability to eat and drink is extremely difficult. Do me a favor… next time you try to eat or drink… don’t shut your mouth… you have to tilt your head, take miniature bites, and sips, and hope not to choke… that is how Frances eats and drinks.

And her speech is silenced.

Again, until today.

We walked into the Apple store. None of us owning anything newer then a iPod with a wheel on the front. Touch screens, and sliding screens, teaching my parents what an ‘App’ is (I’ve got a cell phone from Wal-Mart's pay monthly company) so it was ALL new to us.

As we all touched, and poked at these new machines, we laughed about how cool we were with our Apple II E WAY back in the day, and besides my iPod that is 4 years old, these are the ONLY two things we know about Apple.

We were greeted at the door by Megan. She was amazing. HOURS with us. Going over the Proloquo2Go app (they had one uploaded at the store. So we really got to see what this app was about) Megan has a cousin with Autism, so this was perfect. She knew this app well, and knew a site that had many other apps that talked for you, some under or around $5.00 too.

You could see that she knew how much this all meant to us.

It was between an iPod, or the iPhone… we were almost SURE we would pick the iPhone for Frances, it’s smaller, easier to carry… but she gave us a look and said no. And iPad is what she wanted. Bigger screen, easier to touch, and bonus the screen is so big our parents don’t need their reading glasses to read what Frances has typed (if she’s not going to have the iPad read it out loud)

I was SO excited for her, and I mean PUULLEEASSE, you KNOW I’d love to have an iPad myself, I tried to say I needed one too, just to help her learn to use it… that fell quickly on deaf ears.

So I did what I do best. Talked, and tried to take the iPad from my sister to show her what little I knew about it the app that I had googled online.

She promptly took it back. Gave me the finger. And quickly found the ‘Please be quiet’ button on the Proloquo2Go App… sigh. Well I wanted her to communicate so that is what I get!!

After hearing Frances talk through the app I looked at my mom with tears running down my face. She too was crying, and my dad was smiling. My sister had a grin from ear to ear, and that was when Megan and a manager started to hug us. They realized that this was not just a new toy for someone. It was changing a life.

It didn’t take long for us to quickly decide that this was it for Frances!

An iPad, Proloquo2Go App, a book like case to cover it.

I have to say we were amused at how fast it was to buy at the Apple store! You don’t go to a register, Megan had a small phone like device, slid the credit card right there, and my mom signed with her finger!

It doesn’t take much to entertain us, and this store, from it’s layout, to the devices in hand, the amounts of people pouring in to be helped and the HUGE amount of people working. It was a whole new world for us. And we were falling in love fast! (I was for sure!)

Now we, as in my parents and I. We’ve waited SO long to hear again what Frances was thinking. Blue has also never heard Frances. But we all probably agree the two people we want her to talk to… more than anyone… is Buzz and Tink.

Tink has already spent 5 years not hearing what Frances has to say, and Buzz 3.

It’s been hard for her to communicate with my kids. They can not read so her written, or typed out words were useless to my two, and with little and or no communication between them, their relationship was not what we all had wanted. Tink and Buzz love their Aunt, and talk of her often, they ask why she doesn’t talk, and I’ve explained. They accept her for who she is. And I’m hoping that they don’t remember the times when they couldn’t communicate with her.

So after a LONG day on our adventure, we come home, Tink and Buzz went crazy with questions to Frances. All we could do was smile and enjoy the conversation…

Frances talking to Buzz and Tink for the first time.

It was a huge day in our family history. I’m hoping to be interrupted, and told what my sister really thinks. I mean just think. ALL these years I’ve been the one doing all the talking. Jeez, I’m tired already. It’s time for Frances to have a voice.

Today was a day that we all know didn’t fix Frances’s voice, but what it did do is set her free.

JCat McGack

An app to set a voice free

Celebrating my mom's birthday at my house, after cake we were all sitting around watching 60 minutes, a story on Steve Jobs. None of us have iPhones, or iPads the only iPods we have have spinning wheels on the front of them. But we are always amazed at technology, and this mans story.

So after the Steve Jobs story, it goes into a story about parents who love this one app, specifically an app that helps people with Autism communicate....no one we know has Autism, so I pick up the remote to switch the channel to watch the new series "Once Upon A Time" we hear these words from the 60 minutes episode...

In the weeks since Steve Jobs died, there has been an outpouring of gratitude from his fans for the way his inventions, like the iPad, changed their lives.

Among the most passionate are parents of children with severe forms of autism, especially those who can't speak and appear hopelessly locked inside themselves. Those parents often say these kids understand more and know more than they're able to communicate.

Myself. My sister. My Father. My husband. My Mom. We ALL heard it. We just looked around the room, and tears ran down my face... did we all just hear the same thing?!

Frances isn't Autistic... but she has Dystonia  This has stopped my sister from speaking since she was 15 years old. She's 30. She can hear, she can think just fine, but her speech is what has been stopped. (we do finger spell some things, but the Dystonia has gone to her hands a bit too, so some letters are hard to read)

We all know too well that Frances is trapped inside herself. That she can't truly express how she feels most times. Limiting her story or her input to a finger spelled word, yes, no, thank you, and I'm sorry are her main signed words, or what she types into her Sidekick for my parents to read (after they get their glasses to read the words she types) 

How is Frances? I mean as an update she is good. She had DBS (Deep Brain Stimulation) surgery done years ago, she's tried the drugs with none of them working, some causing BAD hallucination side effects. Yes she is better off with the DBS surgery, with out the generators she would be 1000 times worse, but no speech, she is silenced. 

Until now... this app. it's new to us. Well the whole world of apps is. Yes we live under a rock, I mean we KNOW of apps, and how people love them. But our VERY budgeted cell phones allow us phones to talk and text on, so again outside of an iPod with a wheel on it. i-anything doesn't exist in our world. 

Of coarse we went right to the laptop and googled the app, it's called Proloquo2Go and found out that you can get it on the iPad or the iPhone, we were thinking that Frances doesn't need a huge iPad to lug around, why not an iPhone. I can't wait for the field trip for us to go into the Apple store as newbies.

But newbie's that are grasping onto some sort of hope that Steve Jobs created something that will let my sister not only talk through this, but be able to express her emotions as well. Where we don't have to stop and read what she is saying, that we can sit around and have a conversation and she can but in like I always do! 

I mean imagine, if you have a sibling, and when you talk at the table with family, and your all talking over each other, and you can't get a word in because they keep cutting in?! We want that. Blue has never heard his sister-in-law, and neither has my best friend.

I mean to be around my sister, my family and to have her chime in after 15 years of silence... I mean... just trying to wrap my brain around the fact that my kids will be able to hear and communicate with their Aunt... fingers crossed this works out, that this is a technology that will not fix my sister, I understand that... but a technology that  could set her free. 

Here's to you Frances, and to hearing what you have to say. ALL of it. 

xoxo.

JCat