You need x number of y item to complete your ______ in the game you play on Facebook. The quickest way to get those items is to post a status update listing what you need. This tends to annoy people who don’t play. Here’s how to keep posting without angering the non-players:

1. Create a new list. Naming it after the game you play would seem the obvious choice.
2. Add to the list all of the people you know who play that game. If you’re not sure, I’m certain that no one will mind if you post ONE status polling for other players to identify themselves.
3. Whenever you post a status listing what you need, click on the “lock” icon under the posting bar and choose “Customize”. Choose “Specific People” from the first pull-down menu in the box that appears, then enter the name of your custom list into the field that appears. When you post your status update, only those on your custom list will be able to see it.
4. Testing your custom posting to make sure you did it correctly would not go amiss.

Found this helpful? Please feel free to re-post it.

Amazon is on a crusade to provide its customers with product packaging that is easy to open!

You can read about the project, including a short list of Amazon’s partners in the project here:

Packages You Won’t Need a Saw to Open

Via Mental Floss

Last year, I learned how to assemble simple hobby electronics kits. Following my recent frustration at the basement flooding problem we are having (the sump pump stops working, the sump overflows, and the ADT sensor never triggers), I went and looked for some solutions to the problem. What I came up with is an electronics mini-kit that senses the presence of water and sounds a horn alarm.
I recently came across the Botanicalls houseplant sensor, that posts twitter tweets when it senses the plant needs water and after the plant is watered, via an ethernet port on the sensor.
While surfing the web, I came across an article about setting up the same kind of notifier for a doorbell. If I had the know-how, I’d take that one step further and rig up a webcam to snap a picture when the doorbell event is triggered, so I could include a picture of the person(s) ringing the bell.
I’ve long wished that the house could inform me when there’s a problem. With a little learning and a little practice, I might just be able to enable it to do that!

Yesterday I rode the Mt. Sunapee ski lift with some friends, and brought my camera along to take pictures. It was a beautiful day: cloudy, but not too chilly. I got some fantastic pictures, and they are all posted in my Flickr Photostream. Click the below picture to see the rest!

Jacq and Rosie @ Salt Hill Pub

I changed my blog theme to match the season and installed a few new widgets. Most widgets are rather transparent, but I now have a plugin that automatically pings Twitter whenever I post (which then gets forwarded on to Facebook), a plugin that lets me include an avatar, if I can figure out how to select the image I want, and a plugin that suggests related posts below the post text. As an added bonus, here’s a featured photo for you, from the party I went to last night.

This weekend was Pirate Adventure Weekend at MDRF. Wet was the condition of the weekend. Bullets to follow…

* We arrived at the KOA on Friday in enough time to set up the tent in dry and sunlit conditions
* The pot-luck dinner was great. The chickens turned out very good and everything else was fantastic to boot.
* The rain that followed was not so fantastic. We discovered that our tent needs to be re-waterproofed, so there was lots of Chinese Water Torture courtesy of Mother Nature
* Saturday morning, we re-pitched the common fly, which had collapsed after the wet ground lost its grip on the stakes
* Saturday at MDRF was lots of rain, lots of mud, and lots of fun! So much fun, in fact, that I’ll have to come back and fill in how much fun it was once I remember
* Saturday, after faire, we came back and I threw all the bedding into the dryers.
* Dinner was KFC (nomme, nomme), and then there was lots of reminiscing about previous Encampments. We (sort of) concluded that we need to keep a Crew memory book, just to remember the funny things that are said and done at these events.
* Sunday was more rain and more mud. There was a huge turnout at MDRF despite the rain and the mud. A few people engaged in mud-bathing, including two pre-school age girls who were covered head-to-toe in mud, and having a great time, to boot!
* Sunday night was a quiet campers-only evening, with everyone sitting around the campfire (there was no rain!) making smores and drinking ciders.
* We managed to kill a pie iron by leaving it in the fire a bit too long (it was aluminum, and all that’s left are two very sad headless metal sticks)
* We got home on Monday to a basement full of water. It seems that the sump pump stopped working, and the water alarm never alerted ADT.
* A bright spot at the end of a damp weekend was that Ms. Athena (the puppy) got straight “A”s on her Kennel Report Card – apparently she had a great time while she was there!

I have posted all of the pictures I took to my Flickr Photostream

Lots of people have recently asked me where I get my various fans. Here are some links to my accessory sources:

Dharma trading has silk fans that are ready for decorating. You can get a Big Silk Fan, Regular Silk Fan, or a paddle fan. It looks like soon they may also have cotton fans.

House of Rice has lots of fans to choose from, but the one I used to have (nylon, that made lots of noise when opened), is the Dragon Cloth Fan, which comes in several colors, with or without decoration.

House of Rice also sells parasols. The black one I have is the large size, but unfortunately does not seem to be available in black at the present time (only solid white and solid red).

You can also purchase House of Rice products on Amazon

You can also get some lovely silk fans that have been painted by etsy user gilbea.

**please note that I have previously purchased items from Dharma Trading and from House of Rice, and can recommend them. I have never purchased any product from etsy, and cannot vouch for any etsy seller simply because I have no experience with the site or its sellers**

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about French hoods. I have one that matches a dress I haven’t worn in years. It is, in my opinion, incredibly flimsy and difficult to wear, requiring regular adjustment. I’ve noticed that this is a common problem. I have seen two examples of how to construct and wear a sturdier French hood so that it requires less frequent adjustment.

The first example is Sarah Lorraine’s French Hoods Page, which includes downloadable patterns and instructions on how to don and wear a French hood, with pictures. The details there I found to be rather important were that she braids her hair and then secures it to her head crown or halo style using period hair-taping, and that provides support for the hood, keeping it from sliding backward.

The second example was provided to me in person. Last year at Pennsic, I attended a beaded veil edging class given by Lady Sarra Bossard. At the end of the class, she brought out one of her French hoods, which was constructed differently than any other I’ve seen. Instead of being shaped like a headband or tiara, it had a really strong crown-shaped foundation, which would be hidden by the veil. It kind of looked like a modern sun visor with the visor turned about, and was custom fitted, not stretchy.

I want to take those two examples and make a super-hood. One I can wear for 8 hours and not have to “fix”. So far, I have figured that I can make the base using a strip of plastic canvas measured directly on my head, with the ends cut at an angle and stitched together so that it will sit directly and perfectly on my head. I’m thinking I will cover the base with duct tape to keep any sharp pointies from poking through. I can then cover the base with fabric and make the “visor” part separately, not attaching it until it is also covered with fabric. Then I can decorate the hood with beads and such, and attach a piece of cloth for the veil. I should then be able to secure it to my head using one or two pins and be done with it.

I can get my supplies for this project tomorrow morning. I will post a new post to report on how it turns out if I do manage to follow through

Wine distributor Fair Wind Wines ensures the “Green” quality of wine by shipping it via sailship.

From their website:

Fair Wind Wine Ltd, sustainable transport sails exclusive French Wines on traditional wine routes from Languedoc to Ireland.

Visit the photo gallery and the CTMV homepage.

via Maritime Monday 124

I had to get a replacement BlackBerry, as my previous one bricked itself on Tuesday. I haven’t yet gone and restored my address book from the backup I keep on my computer, so my address book looks really sparse. I figure now is an excellent time for contact information verification. If you have your contact information maintained somewhere online where I can see it (ie Facebook or Plaxo), go verify that it’s all correct. If you have neither of those, you can always email your current information to me (click here to see my email address)