Garden Trains

Image by Duncan Harris via Flickr

While snow is gently falling outside, I am thinking of gardens. And while gardens and gardening are the domain of fellow Beacher writer Maggie Beyer, I hope I am not treading too deeply into her territory by mentioning garden trains. I have become fascinated by them.

So naturally I searched the Web for sites about hobbyists who indulge in these large scale model trains. My interest, I believe, was piqued many years back when I researched and wrote a story about Littleville in Chesterton. Littleville is long gone, and it did not have any garden trains. But the concept is very similar. What I like about garden train hobbyists is their fondness for videotaping—and uploading—their footage to the Web. Watching the videos is like being thrown into the pages of Gulliver’s Travels. Well, almost.

Here are some of the places I visited that are all about model trains, and mostly garden trains.

Hamburg’s Miniature Wonderland (www.miniatur-wunderland.com/). My friend Shar, who is a prolific emailer, sent me a link to a YouTube video about Hamburg’s incredible model railroad exhibit. Here is part of that email, in quotes:

“This is simply unbelievable. The Miniature Wunderland model railroad in Hamburg , Germany is the largest in the world, covering 16,146 square feet of space with more than 10,000 train cars running around its 6.8 miles of HO scale track.
Now, the makers of this huge layout have created a video that gives you a jaw-dropping look at the vast scope of this intricate work of art. Its construction started in 2000, and is still underway, with a tiny airport due for completion by the end of this year.
This is just the beginning – there are plans to double to layout by 2014.”

After reading that, who would not take a look at the video? I have posted the video portion on my blog, which you can find at http://cyberscribbles.wordpress.com.

Andrew’s Garden Railway (http://homepage.ntworld.com/andrewburchell/). Hamburg’s exhibit may be a hard act to follow, but if you are at all interested in garden trains, particularly installing one in your own garden, this is a good start. His railway is a 16mm narrow gauge train and his pictures are good. Take that from someone who sifted through a who lotta sites to find some decent ones.

Orchard Light Railway (www.tonyw.org.uk). Think you can’t make a run if there is snow in the garden? Tony shows you how it’s done with his locomotive plow.

Railway World (www.railwayworld.tv). Train buffs can enjoy movies of steam trains, list or view upcoming events, and much more.

Garden Trains on Film (http://gardentrainsonfilm.webs.com). Model train hobbyists display their amateur videography skils, and most with flying colors, I might add. One video is titled, “Enjoying the Thyme.” When you are at this site, be sure to view the video, “Morning Passenger Run on the Tuscarora Railroad.” It will put you in an entirely different world. There are lots of very good videos here, so be prepared to spend a good half hour or more viewing them.

Hamburg’s Miniature Vunderland

Best of Wikipedia, Shorty Awards, Significant Objects

Image via Wikipedia

Last week I mentioned Twitter’s helpfulness (or not) in making connections for locating missing people and for providing other information during the quake aftermath. I typed in www.twitter.com/haiti and was instantly provided a number of links. More than a half-hour later I found myself deep into the links, finding bits of information at each of them. That experience wanted me to reevaluate my own membership in Twitter. Most of you know that my opinions have been negative up to now. How old-fogey and cantankerous of me

Twitter has provided an excellent community connection for the day-to-day, and often hour-by-hour or minute-by-minute information stream. One of the links I followed led to the ICRC, the International Committee of the Red Cross. Dozens of Red Cross agencies worldwide follow the Twitter/ICRC tweets. And wireless devices within the ravaged country are doing the job of getting the word out wherever and whenever it’s needed.

Somehow I made my way back to Romanesco at Poynter.org, where professional journalists hang out. The list of classes and seminars, as well as information about Twitter applications, for example are very important to today’s crop of emerging journalists. Therefore, on the eve of this, the 25^th anniversary edition of the Beacher, I will no longer bad-mouth the social media explosion on the ‘net. It would serve only to display my ignorance, and my pride would be stung severely. There are excellent uses, as well as stupid uses for new media. Those plugged-in journalists know the difference.

That said, let’s get on with other discoveries for the week.

The Shorty Awards (http://shortyawards.com). While we are still on the subject of Twitter, might as well mention the latest addition to recognizing “good stuff” floating around the Web. Shorty Awards are meant to go to the best Twitter-ers (tweeters?) in at least a dozen categories. A look at the list enticed me to sample some of the nominations, which now provides me with a bonanza of websites to review. I don’t want to insult you by explaining why these are called the “Shorty Awards.” I am assuming the whole world, or at least CyberScribbles readers, have accessed Twitter at least once.

Significant Objects (http://significantobjects.com). Creative writers need to look at this website. I immediately thought of Charley McKelvey when I accessed these pages of stories. Each writer in this project chooses an object—a curious one—around which to pen a story. The object, along with the story, are then placed for sale on eBay. Proceeds go to a creative writing and literacy project in Boston, where this gem of an idea originated. The idea has spawned some offshoots, including writing contests. And it’s good reading, too. Betcha there will be a book coming out eventually.

The Best of Wikipedia (http://bestofwikipedia.tumblr.com). Are you familiar with the television commercial in which a young lady entertains her friends with a constant flow of trivia garnered from her surfing expeditions? Well, I can imagine this not-so-fictional character spending lots and lots of time at The Best of Wikipedia. While I was there, I learned about dwile flonking, Acoustic Kitty, borborygmus, and a Gamma Knife, among other things. You’ll have to access this website to understand what these are, because it would take me another column to explain them.

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• Alt Med guy whacked with Shorty end of the stick (blogs.discovermagazine.com)

Architecture, NY Social News, Bad News & the Holiday Spot

Image by Wonderlane via Flickr

(Note: Twitter comments are forthcoming in next week’s column)

Remember a few years ago when MySpace was all the rage? Currently, Facebook is the social network at the top of the pack. I found a former acquaintance while tapping into the Facebook pipeline, only to discover that I would have to sign up for my own Facebook account to get any additional information. After my brief encounter with Twitter, I will wait before deciding to register on another pop-network. So far, no luck finding this acquaintance’s contact information on Google or WhoWhere. The Facebook people are probably gloating.In light of the Haiti earthquake, many people have been using Twitter and Facebook for tracking lost relatives and friends. I’ll attempt to capture more information on the helpfulness of those sites in time for next week’s column.

Meanwhile, here is what the past week’s surfing uncovered:

Arounder (www.arounder.com). Found while wandering some architecture sites. A treat if you like those 360° virtual tours. This site has the potential to be a decent tourist reference (if you hate Google Earth, for example). Trouble is, there are only a handful of places around the world that have been captured here. But, you’ll always have Paris. And Rome, Florence, Savannah, Georgia and a few other choices.

Design Home Tours (www.designintuit.com). If you like paging through Architectural Digest but are too cheap to subscribe to it, this website might fulfill your cravings. My time spent at this site was totally escapist. Use it to shut out the world or to gather ideas for your own home. Your choice.

New York Social Diary (http://newyorksocialdiary.com). I would like to think that I am too above ever coming home from the supermarket with a National Enquirer. I can fool myself and others by glomming onto the content of the online New York Social Diary instead. Here, you can get your gossip and still feel like you are above the hoi polloi. Actually, if you read the doings of the Big Apple’s social elite regularly, you might be able to scoop the tabloids. The doings of celebrities and those well-bred socialites will be good fodder for conversation at your next social gathering.

Probably Bad News (http://probablybadnews.com). In past issues, I’ve mentioned many positive news sites. Today I add some balance by introducing you to this selection. Actually, it is a humor site. You will definitely find something here to chuckle about.

Sound Sleeping (www.soundsleeping.com). I guess you could consider this an “app.” All you will find is a set of sound volume adjusters and a choice of vibes, rain, thunder,ocean, chimes, songbirds and seagulls. Make your own sound mix, then lay back and snooze thanks to the soothing sounds. This app would be perfect to pull up from your bookmark menu during those times at the office when the stress is driving you nuts.

The Holiday Spot (www.theholidayspot.com). I am mentioning this site earlier than I intended. In a few weeks, we will be celebrating Groundhog Day, Valentine’s Day and Chinese New Year. The Year of the Tiger celebration coincides with the big red hearts, roses, and gooey candy day. Ironic that this is the Year of the Tiger. The Holiday Spot is filled with informative stuff, including popular Chinese New Year recipes. Plan ahead.

Grubhub, 52 Journey, Zumbox

Image via Wikipedia

Happy Twenty-ten, as we have been advised to pronounce this new year and new decade. I am overwhelmed already by the advances in computer technology and I don’t expect to catch up any time soon. My son kids me about my 25-year old dinosaur of a television set, but it still works for me. It’s all about priorities.

My priorities for surfing have remained the same since the inception of this column more than a decade ago: find interesting, and/or useful family-friendly websites. Each year I find it more challenging to sift through the words and images and movies and audio. My former personal favorites now tend to mimic each other, instead of giving me something creative to enjoy. I have had to change my search tactics. I now keep pen and paper handy when I’m watching the tube. Assorted websites are mentioned more frequently and deserve a glance. What follows are some that I found during our holiday break.

Grubhub (www.grubhub.com). Serving several major cities including Chicago, this food ordering and delivery service has the potential to save the day for Second City workers. If you work in Chicago and despise the idea of facing the cold winds, sleet and snow of the season to retrieve lunch, then cheer up. Grubhub has contracted with cafes and restaurants across the city and into surrounding ‘burbs to get tasty grub to you easily. Life is good, indeed.

52 Journey (www.50in52journey.com). Dafna Michaelson planned a year-long journey to all fifty states to meet and expose unsung heroes and heroines who, in their own quiet way, developed a solution to a problem that need fixing. Dafna usually found at least two or more of these community solution-makers in each state. She shadowed them, videotaped them, then uploaded their stories on this website for the rest of us to see. For the year-long experience, Dafna created the Journey Institute to expand the community solution model through roundtables and networking and more brainstorming. Talk about a wonderful way to utilize internet resources. When we read about these individuals and their good deeds, it can inspire and motivate the rest of us to follow a similar path. The “just do it” philosophy applies here.

Zumbox (www.zumbox.com). This site is sowing the seeds for a paperless postal service. At least, its presence on the ‘net, which debuted about one year ago, has the potential to further the green living movement. Similar to the online banking service concept, Zumbox allows people to opt to have selected paper mail delivered instead to their email box. Businesses and organizations can send out notices, newsletters, etc. for about a nickel per mailing address. Zumbox already has everyone’s street address in its database, so it’s a matter of learning about, going to, and signing up for the service. The city of Minneapolis is using Zumbox to mail notices. I am still digesting this whole Zumbox concept, and am not ready to sign up. I am still getting used to my paper shredder. Plus, everyone has a mailbox, but not everyone has an e-mailbox (or computer) yet. But businesses may want to look into this concept, since Zumbox proposes to positively affect the bottom line.

Merree holidays

Image via Wikipedia

I am listening to Pandora radio (www.pandora.com) Christmas music as I write this final column of 2009.The music certainly sets the mood. It’s nice to have Pandora at one’s fingertips, free, no file-swapping, nothing illegal about it. Choose between classical, jazz, swinging, or other genres of music and create your own station.

Screaming Santa (http://screamingsanta.ning.com/). After you’ve tuned in to Pandora, then set your sights to Screaming Santa, where it’s fun to look through the “albums” of photos of kids who are very unhappy when they encounter Santa, often for the first time. To be truthful, some of those Santas really ARE scary looking. But not only weepy children featured, adorable and smiling children with Santa add to the mix. My vote for best stays with the screamers, because you cannot pose scared children.

Classic Showbiz (http://twitter.com/ClassicShowbiz). Did you read that URL carefully? It’s from Twitter, for heaven’s sakes. I usually do not troll Twitter, so I imagine I am missing out on lots of good stuff to tell you about. This tweeter has good stuff, namely links to episodes of old-time television Christmas shows. Such as the Walton’s 2-part episode. Remember the kinder, gentler days (1977) of John-boy and his siblings? Nostalgia abounds through the links at this Twitterer’s site. Bob Hope, Shari Lewis, I Love Lucy, Mr. Magoo and a bunch of additional vintage fare is waiting for you to access it. Go ahead and take that walk down memory lane—you don’t need cable television, just a fast Internet connection and plenty of spare time.

North Pole (www.northpole.com). This is a kiddie wonderland that can keep youngsters from preschool to sixth grade distracted from searching the house for hidden presents. One of the nicest parts is where you plug in a child’s name and some additional information and get a personalized, printable Christmas story that will thrill the younger set. And, you can choose from three themes: Elf for a Day; Christmas Eve Cleanup, or North Pole Christmas Party. Shucks, since they are free, you can choose all three and have plenty of bedtime reading in addition to The Night Before Christmas. If your child forgot to tell Santa absolutely everything he or she wanted in the letter sent to him, he can write another one online and get a quick reply from the man in the red suit. And if that is not all, there are lots and lots of recipes for the grownups, thanks to a link to Mrs. Claus’ cookbook. The North Pole was a fun site to visit, and no one needs a coat to visit there.

Christmas Party Games (www.bowtieproducts.com/christmas_party_games_and_puzzles.). If the holdiday gatherings you attend are dull, then you can pep them up with the group games explained here. They certainly are family-friendly, and that’s important. Some are quizzes whose subject matter is Christmas carols. Follow a special link to access the answers.

As they say, Time Flies When You’re Having Fun. We have reached the last issue of 2009, and everyone at the Beacher is ready for some rest and recreation. Have a wonderful holiday and see you back here in mid-January.

End of ‘09 Means Review Time

Image via Wikipedia

We’re coming close to the end of 2009, and as usual, the time has flown by. Last week I began the task of reviewing all the year’s columns to pick those I consider to be worthy of mentioning again in a modified Top Ten list. While going through the dozens of sites I found in 2009, I also gathered up a few new ones to mention. Let’s look at them:

Let’s Say Thanks (www.letssaythanks.com). Since I did not learn about this until after I wrote the Thanksgiving week CyberScribbles column, I’m telling you about it now, in time for Christmas delivery. You can send a free greeting card to a soldier in the Armed Forces to let them know you appreciate their service to America. You can choose from at least eight or ten designs, drawn by school students, and you can pick a ready-made written greeting or you can write your own. The main thing is to let someone who is serving our country and far away from home know that we are thinking of them. All of us like getting mail, and we can enjoy giving some cheer thanks to this website.

Traffic Wise (www.in.gov/indot.carsprogram.org/). This (Indiana) state-sponsored website is designed to help motorists navigate roads easier. It lets you know which roads are under construction, where you’ll find detours, and how to avoid delays and major headaches. I suppose this web effort is Hoosiers’ tax money at work, but it is a welcome sight for road warriors.

Now back to my 2009 Top Ten list. Last week I featured Gasbuddy.com, ThePaperboy.com, StillTasty.com, BargainBriana.com, and CriminalSearches.com. Here are the rest:

Red Pen (http://redpeninc.blogspot.com). This is the home of one of several online grammar and spelling nazis who scour sites for glaring errors. We all have our pet peeves. My current peeve is using the word “less” where the word “fewer” belongs. Just one of my little quirks. So, it’s nice to know that there are others out there, notably the folks at Red Pen, who think along the same lines.

TGISFW (www. Tgisfw..com). The initials stand for “Thank Gilligan its safe for work.” That means you will waste mucho time at this website. But hey—we all need diversion. This is clean diversion, and that is a rare commodity on the ‘net these days.

Wayback Machine (www.internetarchive.org). If you are a long-time surfer, and I mean going all the way back to the mid-nineties, you might be missing that clunky old website you tagged in your bookmark file of your first computer. Well, guess what? It is entirely possible to take that trip back to memory lane if you can remember the name or URL of that fave. That is what the Internet Archive provides. And that’s not all—you will find open source audio and video files you can download free. Got a hankering for some old Grateful Dead music? This is the place to find them. Best of all, they’re free to download.

Art Studio Chalkboard (http://studiochalkboard.evansville.edu). When I posted this the first time, I had the URL wrong. If you gave up the first time, here is your second chance to kibbutz on art classes and dip your brush into a new hobby. This site is for all levels of artists, and it has won numerous awards.

Guess I will stop with Top Nine this year. In next week’s issue, which is the Beacher’s last of 2009, I’ll tell you about entertaining Christmas-related sites.

A New Masthead

I’ve given this blog a new look. Yes, that’s a photo of the dunes in Beverly Shores that I took several years ago, when I still used a film camera. The only thing the masthead has in common with website reviews is that it reflects where the column first appears–in The Beacher, of course!

2009 Web Reviews

Image via CrunchBase

For the first time ever I spent most of Cyber Monday on the internet, searching for bargains. Since I was not in the market for electronics, my shopping adventure did not lead anywhere. Which is probably a good thing, since I have been exhorting the message about shopping locally in this column for years. Thus, I betrayed my own advice and wasted much of a day glued to my monitor, all for naught.

What I did not do, and should have, was to go back to columns I wrote in March about finding coupons, rebates, discount codes and alerts for good bargains. I would have discovered that Jet Blue was offering excellent prices for one day only on Cyber Monday for one-way travel. The best Cyber Monday deals may have been hidden from the masses of online shoppers, whereas those insider bargain-hunter websites would have been a better choice than a Google or Bing search.

All this brings me to the topics I will be covering this week and next. I’m taking a second look at all the websites I’ve mentioned here since January, and I’m picking my favorites from each month’s listings. (All of the listings are archived by month at http://cyberscribbles.wordpress.com).

Just one thing I want to do before getting into this week’s site reviews. I need to apologize to those of you who used Care2.com to send cards, based on my recommendations. Actually, the site is fine and the e-cards are great. But unless you want an emailbox full of messages from Care2, use a dummy email address before signing up for their free service. Okay. Let’s get on with this week’s reviews.

February 2009

Two websites I mentioned popped out at me right away. The extremely useful Gasbuddy.com is a money saver, if you don’t mind driving a few more blocks to find the lowest gas prices in your area. Bless those local spotters who take the time to log their findings on Gasbuddy for the rest of us to use.

Another site that I use frequently, and that you will like if you are an avid newspaper junkie—is ThePaperboy.com. If I want to know what’s happening in another part of the country, I can have The Paperboy lead me to links to local papers just about anywhere. And by the way, the Beacher is listed there.

March 2009

If I had remembered to check BargainBriana.com, I would have known about that Jet Blue offer on Cyber Monday only. But for as long as I have been writing this column, I have visited thousands of websites and just cannot remember all of them (nor do I bookmark that many of them). That’s why having the archive on the CyberScribbles blog is so useful.

StillTasty.com is another useful site that I had forgotten. It tells you how long it’s safe to keep certain foodstuffs before they go bad.. Another site that fits the usefulness category is CriminalSearches.com, if you are an employer or are perhaps thinking about pursuing a relationship with someone you just met. Be warned that this is a bare bones effort, in beta. It’s free, and that’s nice. But if you are really serious, you’ll probably need to dig much deeper, or use a fee-based background check service.

We didn’t get too far this week. I see that I’m out of room. Next week I will continue with what I consider the Best of 2009 sites mentioned in this column this year.

Send Season’s Greetings

Image via Wikipedia

So. You have survived Black Friday and you have your Christmas decorations hung. Now it’s time to tackle the Christmas card list. Are you going to continue the quaint custom of sending a real, touchable card that gets a stamp and is sent through the postal service, or are you going to send greetings via email? This week’s column addresses both choices.

I found some links through one of my cyber research sources (Streamings) that showcases all sorts of unusual, clever, or tacky mailbox conversions. If mail carriers passed these every day, no doubt their jobs would be more fun. I can imagine these whimsical mailboxes filled with dozens of Christmas cards. And yet, the snail mail version of seasonal card exchanges appears to be an endangered species. Anyway, enjoy browsing through the links to unusual mailboxes.

I usually receive at least one Christmas card—I’m talking the animated email version—each holiday season. I checked over at About.com and found a list of many, many email card sites devoted to the Christmas season. I reviewed several of them, many I had not known about, and list them for your convenience. Most, but not all of these email card sites have a “free” section of cards, but the idea is to subscribe for a fee to use the service’s best cards. The artists who create the animated or otherwise painterly e-cards deserve to be compensated for their skills. My guess is that many of these artists will see an increase in business as more and more people choose the e-card route to sending season’s greetings to friends and family.

Ugly Mailboxes (http://uglymailbox.com). Blogger Linda takes pictures of intriguing mailboxes and then posts them on her blog. She calls them “ugly,” and true, some are. Others, in my opinion, are very clever works of art. By the way, I like this blog’s banner title, and I’m glad someone has taken the initiative to post a phenomenon that may be extinct fifty years from now.

Sam’s Mailbox Picture Collection (http://sblom.com/mailbox). More fun mailboxes to view.

There I Fixed It (http://thereifixedit.com/tag/mailbox/). You might think this has to do with hardware and tools, but you will be surprised.

Care To Cards (www.care2.com/ecards). Send an e-card and help a nonprofit in the process. Lots of choices of free cards here. (Thanks to Tian for alerting me to this site).

Jacquie Lawson Cards (www.jacquielawson.com). Count yourself lucky if you have received one of her animated e-cards. They are delightful. You can subscribe and send any of your choice for a $12 annual fee. You can send your chosen card to as many people as you want, too.

Spirit Cards (ww.spiritcardcenter.com). Lovely, peaceful, and free. Thanks again to Tian for telling me about this site.