Back To School - Top 10's

Hi All,

Well, I hate to say it, but it is back-to-school time again. Yes, another summer has come and gone and we are in 'back-to-school' mode once again.  So...for long time readers, that means I'm going to generate another 'Top 10' list.  This time the list is all about 'things that relate to back-to-school'.  Here it goes!  Enjoy - and have a great school year!

Click on this link for an article from Time Magazine titled, 'Top 10 Back-to-School iPhone Applications'.  With titles of apps like CourseSmart, Stanza, Evernote and Graphing Calculator, students will have more time to study and get good grades.  Thanks technology!

From Mashable comes this article on 'Top 10 Back-to-School Brain Foods'. Note that readers might want to stock on pumpkin seeds, potatoes, chili peppers, oysters and steak - among other things. 

From Yahoo! comes an article titled, 'Top 10 School Supplies - Back to School Shopping Guide'.  Seriously, this is the most basic and useful list that I've found!  With items like lunch boxes, backpacks, flashdrives/jump drvies, locks, calculators, binders, staples and glue, this is the most down to earth, practical list I've seen for back to school supplies in a long time. 

From a legal website called 'Findlaw.com', comes this article called 'Top 10 Back-to-School Traffic Safety Tips'.  The very first entry on the list is 'Don't text while driving'....duh....'nuff said.   I'm also a fan of the fifth item in the entry, 'budget extra travel time'.  And for children the warning to 'use the crosswalk' is a very, very good starting point.

And finally, the reason why school exists is, well, learning.  So the website School Family.com should be interesting from that perspective.  But.. the article 'Better Grades - 10 Ways You Can Help' is worth reading for parents and is very helpful for students and parents alike. 

Some good ideas that appear in the article include creating routines, prepare for the morning the night before, help your child get organized, provide a quite place for homework, limit distractions, encourage intellectual curiosity, allow for free time, build a relationship with teachers, focus on effort rather than grades and learn how to step back...go figure. 

This next article is very helpful for students.  Entitled 'Get Good Grades in 10 Easy Steps' the article will help get any student on his or her way to getting good grades.  For example, a few of the very helpful hints include 'believing in yourself', 'being organized', 'managing your time well', 'being successful in the classroom (don't skip class and prepare for class)', 'take good notes', 'study smart' and of course, 'get help when you need it'.

So there you go - some links on the tools, safety and how to get good grades for this school year.

Good luck and have a great school year!

Regards,
Stu

Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About Babysitting - But Were Afraid To Ask...

Hi All,

Babysitting - ah yes...time to get away from the children and take some time for yourself.  That's good stuff - and necessary when you take care of an infant or toddler or pre-schooler.  You needs some time for yourself - and that's where todays' blog entry comes in.

The topic: babysitting.  And we'll discuss how to find a babysitter, the going rates for babysitters and some books on how to interview potential babysitters.

Click on this link from the FarmingdalePatch for an article entitled 'What's the Going Rate For Babysitting?' Just to save you some time and reading - but it is still worthwhile to click on the link and read the article! - the 'average' rate for babysitting is currently $10/hour...

The above mentioned article from Farmingdale Patch mentions a very useful website called Care.com. Essentially Care.com acts as a conduit for caregivers and for parents.  In other words, parents can find babysitters that are located near there home AND babysitters can upload a profile and search for babysitting jobs.  What a site! And just as a heads up, users can look for 'care' for children, for parents, for pets and - believe it or not - for your home...

Furthermore, the type of care can be identified - babysitters and nannies, child care centers, special needs and tutoring and lessons can all be found very easily. 

This next link comes from Kidshealth.org and is very useful for the teenager in your life who wants to start babysitting.  With topics like 'Having a Business Plan', 'Thinking About the Kids You Want to Care For', 'Safety of the Children While Babysitting', 'Preparation in Babysitting', and 'How to Behave With the Children While You are Babysitting' the article is comprehensive, well-worded and an easy read for the future babysitter in your life. 

So now that you have a list of potential babysitters, what are you going to ask them when you meet them for the first time? Think no further and surf no further - the following links will be helpful when the time comes to interview prospective babysitters.

From MamaOT.com comes this link filled with "22 Questions to Always Ask a Potential Babysitter".  From About.com's section on Child Care comes this link for 'Questions To Ask a Potential Babysitter'.  Finally, from a source that comes with 'street credentials' comes this link from Boston.com/Moms - article is called '15 Questions To Ask A New Babysitter'.

The American Academy of Pediatricians (AAP) is one of the foremost organizations in the world that concerns itself with Children's health and well-being issues.  They have a very user friendly website called HealthyChildren.org which can be accessed by clicking on this link.  In addition, users can click on this link which goes to a page filled with 'Babysitting Reminders'.  Note that the whole darn site is chock filled with informative, current, modern parenting advice and suggstions.  Don't miss it!

And finally, the Farmingdale Public Library has books on 'How to Babysit?'.  Click on this link to go to the library card catalog and see the titles we own.

Hope the links are useful and the topic was interesting.

Regards,
Stu

What Languages Are Spoken In Your Community?

Hi All,

What languages are spoken in your community?   Well wouldn't that be an interesting question to get an answer to!!!  Search no more reader, for the answer is at hand in this handy-dandy (and concise) blog entry. 

Brought to you by the US Census Bureau the Language Mapper can be accessed by clicking on this link.

So what the heck is the language mapper?  Users can select a language (and an ability level) to start.  FYI, Spanish is the default language and users can zoom in to navigate to a particular region of the country.  Map background can be changed as well. Other languages included include Chinese, Japanese, Korean, French, Spanish, Italian, Arabic, Russian, Polish, German, and other languages. 

FYI users can use the 'Select a Language' icon in the middle of the page on the same color bar that the phrase 'United States Census Bureau Language Mapper' is located.  From there you can choose the language you are interested in evaluating.

Enjoy the Census Bureau's Language Mapper - its a pretty neat tool!
Regards,
Stu

Pancakes - Everybody's Favorite Breakfast

Hi All,

Today's post is all about pancakes - everybody's favorite breakfast. And why shouldn't they be?  They are certainly fun to make at home, taste delicious, kids love 'em and they are easy to make.  Finally, when combined with blueberries or bananas or strawberries they can be remotely healthy...sort of.

Anyway, read on for more about the history of pancakes, recipes, pancake synonyms,  some pancake trivia, and pictures of delicious pancakes.  I'll also include links to some pancake recipe books that we own in the Farmingdale Public Library.  Note: Before you drive over to the library to pick up the books, it would be a good idea to check the library card catalog to see if the books are on the shelf.

As long time readers know, I like to cover my basic facts about topics by going to my 'go-to' source: Wikipedia.  Wikipedia is a good site to get basic information on a huge variety of topics.

That all said, click here for the link to pancakes on Wikipedia.  The entry is fairly comprehensive entry with subheadings like 'regional varieties', ' pancake restaurant chains', 'pancake day' and 'external links!

For information about pancake history, click on this link from 'The Nibble' entitled 'Pancake History' and from 'The Trib' -a newspaper from the Ohio area. Finally, from ABC.com comes a site called 'The Chew' which also discusses the history of the pancake.

The following 2 links have recipes for making various types of pancakes!  One thing though - DO NOT forget the milk! Milk makes the pancakes go from just 'really, really good' to 'wow Mom - these pancakes are amazing!'.  Go figure - here's a link to the 'Got Milk'  website :) (it also includes commercials, benefits of milk and more!)

1. Allrecipes.com - this link has thumbnails pictures of the pancake recipes - below which is the title of the recipe.  Recipe variations include 'Fluffy Pancakes', 'Banana Pancakes I', 'Pumpkin Pancakes',  "Todd's Famous Blueberry Pancakes' and much, much more.  Delicious!

2.  Foodnetwork - OMG!  Clicking on this link will lead you to a page from the Food Network that has 195 (as of the time of writing) pancake recipes.  Seriously, if you chose one pancake recipe per week from this site, it would take you over 3 years to go through and cook all the recipes on the page!  Wow. Again you get recipes like 'Blueberry Buttermilk Pancakes', 'Oatmeal Cookie Pancakes' and 'Chocolate Chip Pancakes with Cinnmon Cream' among many, many others.

For information about the nutritional value of pancakes - from Self - click on this link. You'll find information like a nutritional target map, caloric ratio pyramid, nutrient balance and protein quality.  Go figure!

For some goofy information about pancakes, click on this link from Merriam-Webster!

And of course, click on this link for a whole stack of books that the Farmingdale Public Library owns that deal with pancake recipes, pancake history and pancake fun!

Finally, for some pictures of utterly delectable, delicious, mouth-watering pancakes, click on this Google Images link for, you guessed it - pancakes!

Enjoy the pancakes and the pictures!
Regards,
Stu

You Used Your Microwave For What....?

Hi All,

Just came across an interesting website from Yahoo! - yes, that Yahoo!. The title of the article is '14 Surprising Uses For Your Microwave'.  My faves are #1 (Disinfecting and Deodorizing Sponges), #8 (Heating Up Health Aids like gel packs), and #13 (Toasting Nuts and Bread Crumbs)...

Cool stuff to be sure - and this gives me a smooth segueway into discussing websites that cover 'offbeat uses of daily kitchen products'. Read on dear reader!

From a website called 'The Kitchn' comes this entry called '4 Unexpected Uses For Kitchen Tongs'.  And from a website called Care2 comes another entry...this one is titled, '33 Other Ways to Use Single-Use Kitchen Appliances'.  Very clever - especially the 'waffle calzone'....

Finally, there is a whole book - which can be purchased from Amazon.com - entitled 'Joey Green's Encyclopedia of Offbeat Uses For Brand Name Products'.  Click on the title in the previous sentence to go to the Amazon page for the book.  Finally, click on this link to go to the Farmingdale library card catalog that connects to Joey Green's book titled, 'Joey Green's Mealtime Magic: More Than 250 Offbeat Recipes Using Beloved Brand-Name Products'. Who knew!!!

Enjoy the sites - you'll probably never look at kitchen appliances the same way again!
Regards,
Stu

The Number 7

Hi All,

I'm reviving a thread that I last covered back in March 2012...the topic was numbers.  That last post can be read here so readers can get a feel for the theme.

I stopped with the number 6...and today I'm going to move on to the number 7...go figure, eh?  So without further ado, an introduction the number 7 - and it is quite a number I might add!

Magnificent 7
With a cast that included  Yul Brynner, Eli Wallach, Steve McQueen, Charles Bronson, Robert Vaughn and James Coburn how could it be bad?  What a cast! What a movie. Click on this Wikipedia entry for a comprehensive summary of this modern movie classic. Trivia Question: Did you know that the Magnificent Seven was a remake of a Japanese movie titled, 'Seven Samurai'?  Click here for more on the Seven Samurai.

Seven Deadly Sins
Let's see what the 'Seven Deadly Sins' actually are: pride, envy, gluttony, lust, anger, greed and sloth. And click on this link for About.com's coverage of the Seven Deadly Sins - interesting stuff.


Seven Wonders of the World
The above link takes you to the Wikipedia entry for 'The Seven Wonders of the World'.  Click on this link for recent lists of 'Seven Wonders of...'  For example there is a list for the 'Seven Wonders of the Natural World', and the 'Seven Wonders of the Industrial World'....finally, click on this link from the American Society of Civil Engineers - its a link to the 'Seven Wonders of the Modern World' - engineer style.

7-11
Enjoy the website for the ubiquitous convenience store. Click on links like Hungry, Thirsty, Play, and Find-a-Store.  There's also a search box to find what you need at this icon of the strip mall.
 
Seven Brides For Seven Brothers

Starring Howard Keel and Jane Powell this entertaining movie is set in 1850 Oregon when a backwoodsman brings a wife home to his farm and then his brothers decide that they want to get married also.  Entertaining, fun flick - and the Farmingdale PL has the movie.  Click on this link to see if the movie is available from our card catalog. Enjoy!

Seven Habits of Highly Effective People 
The above link goes to Amazon.com's summary of this highly influential self-help, motivation/organization book.  Check out a few of the the hundreds of reviews for a fairly comprehensive overview of the book.

In the sports arena the following players wore the number seven on their uniforms:
NBA - Carmelo Anthony, Kenny Anderson, Jeremy Lin
MLB - Joe Mauer, Jose Reyes, Matt Holliday, Mickey Mantle, Ed Kranepool, Craig Biggio
NFL - John Elway, Dutch Clark


So there you have it - the number seven in a nutshell.  Enjoy the links!

Regards,
Stu