Software for Children

I like to read about new software, and during my reading, I discovered two software for children. The software disables the keyboard and mouse from doing anything damaging to your computer and allows the children to play by pressing keys, moving the mouse, and clicking the mouse. I've tried Maddie, but I haven't tried Baby Smash yet.

Maddie

Baby Smash

Maddie works well for cleaning the keyboard and mouse, too. Once a week I load up Maddie and wipe down my workstation with disinfecting wipes. I recall reading a study in which the researchers discovered that a multitude of bacteria grow on keyboards, mice, and telephone handles if not cleaned properly often.

If anyone tries out either software, leave some comments here, or go to download.com, softpedia.com, or a similar site and write a (brief) review.

Gifts

We received a number of beautiful and/or useful gifts from the bridal shower and wedding, and we are both grateful to everyone for their generosity. It was much more important to both of us that we have our family and friends join us on our special occasion. The gifts were very much an added bonus to sharing the day with people who shape our lives and support us.

I was surprised we received so many gifts! We have a number of friends who are students and some relatives who we are not as close with, yet we received gifts from these friends and relatives too! Everyone was very generous, and the gifts are very nice and much appreciated.

Before the wedding, I didn't expect gifts from anyone, especially from our student friends and given the fact that gas prices are high and we might be in a recession, although I knew we would receive gifts from close family anyway. We both know what it's like to be students: there's often not enough money to pay for tuition much less gifts for any occasion. And I don't think it's necessary to give gifts just because you are related to the bride or groom. Miss Conduct summed this up quite well in an entry on her blog, responding to a myth about giving gifts:

"Surprise: you don't actually have to give a wedding present at all. It's not the price of admission. You are at a wedding to celebrate with the couple. Of course, if you like someone well enough to go to their wedding, you will like them well enough to get them a present--one that is appropriate to their stage in life, your relationship with them, their need, and your budget.

"But there's the rub. Gas is $4 a gallon. Food prices have doubled. We are all feeling the strain this summer, and . . . June is 'wedding season,' which means that people--especially those in their 20s and early 30s, not the most financially stable of ages--might have more than one wedding to attend in the next few months, along with graduations and Fathers' Day.

. . . .

"Miss Conduct says if you can't afford a wedding present, don't go into debt for one. Go to the wedding anyway, and give a nice card. If your cash flow situation will ease up in a while, give the couple a present then. You don't owe them anything but your joyously present self--and anyway, getting wedding gifts in dribs and drabs is more surprising and fun and makes the thank-you-note-writing chores easier because they don't all have to be written at once." (Source)

I agree with Miss Conduct. I would much rather have the presence of family and friends than a gift. Nonetheless, we really do appreciate the gifts we received. Most were thoughtful, beautiful, or downright useful. Thanks everyone!

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Here are some pictures of the mess we made while opening gifts:



And here's Kyra in the cute shirt I gave her for her birthday (the day after the wedding):



Isn't she cute! (But psycho!)

Notice

My husband is officially a nerd. Hence the need for a Firefox 3 banner on our site. I may have married him, take no responsibility for his nerdiness.

Wedding Video

It's finally available!

Our Wedding Ceremony

The quality could be better (Facebook's version looks less pixelated), so if I find a way to improve it, I will replace this version.

Video Rant

Update on July 14, 2008: Google Video appears to be working much better now. I uploaded three videos last night, and it all worked immediately. Thanks for listening, Google employees!

We have a video of the wedding online.

So where's the video? Well, let me tell you. I have somewhat limited access to my computer right now, because Kyra sleeps more than I do and my computer is in the bedroom. It takes a long time to load the video from the camera onto the computer. I finally had a chance to do that last night, and I excitedly uploaded the video of the wedding ceremony to Google Video and Facebook.

If you're on Facebook and you're my "friend," you may have seen the video already or at least read that I uploaded it. It worked well, and it was rather fast, too. If you want to see it, find me on Facebook or add me to your "friends" list, and I'll gladly share it.

What about Google Video? Well, let me tell you. The video uploaded. It took a while, but it finally made it to Google Video. Then Google had to "process" it, probably meaning they were checking it for pornography or copyrighted content. After a couple of hours, it finally said it was "Live." But it's not. I click, and nothing appears. I go to the help section, there are no answers. I go to the Google Video group on Google Groups, and TONS of people are having the same problem. No one knows why or what to do to solve the problem. Google employees rarely respond to help. If you want to experience it first hand, take a look:

http://groups.google.com/group/google-video-help

People are downright PISSED. And so am I! It took a long time to upload that video, and I'm upset that they wasted my time! Google doesn't even provide another way to contact them! I should have gone to YouTube to upload it. Next time, I will, and I think I'll migrate ALL of my videos there, too, including the two "videos" of the baby's heartbeat. I was so upset, after waiting an entire day for the video to work, that I started a group to talk about how Google hasn't been serving their users.

As for photos, given how many photos our friends took, the fact that we haven't yet received the professional photos yet (soon, I hope), and I don't have much time at my own computer (I'm writing this entry on Kyra's laptop), I haven't had a chance to upload photos. It will take a long time when I finally get the chance, too, since there are so many.

At any rate, when I finally get the video running (on Google Video or YouTube, or maybe a non-Google service), I will post it here ASAP. Oh, and sorry for ranting. It's a journal, what do you expect? : )