Follow Friday - An Easy Blog Improvement!

I was checking the Geneablogger roll up on Monday and saw that Find My Ancestor had a series of posts on Mobile Monday about making your blog easier to read in  "Making Your Blog Mobile Friendly".  I was certainly interested in what A.C. Ivory had to say.  I read blog posts on my computer through my Google Reader, but when I'm out and about and have time to kill, I whip out my iPhone and scroll through with my MobileRSS app.

So occasionally I've noticed that the whole blog doesn't feed into the Mobile Reader or maybe I want to comment on someone's blog, so I go to the blogsite on my iPhone. It tends to take longer to load and then you have to expand the screen to be able to actually read the small type on the blog.  It's not an impossible feat, but what if it were easier to read on a mobile phone?  Ever go to Wikipedia or a news page and the information fits your screen perfectly?  They configured their pages so that they are easier to read on mobile phones!  Did you know that it's super easy for you to do with your blog?  I found out it was when I clicked through A.C.'s posts and now my blog is mobile-friendly!

The Find My Ancestor blog not only tells you how to do this with a Blogger account, but also with WordPress.  The link to A.C.'s "Mobile Monday" series will take you to all of his "Mobile Monday" blog posts, so scroll down if a new post has been made!  He's got a short video that shows how to do it.  I'm not going to go into explaining it here, because he did such a wonderful job!

Sure loyal fans will visit your blog regardless of whether you make it mobile-friendly or not, but why not be cutting-edge and make it easier on them!  They may come back more frequently!

I'm sure there's got to be a way to do this with websites.  If anyone knows how, let me know!  Mine's still under construction, but I'll certainly be wanting to make it mobile-friendly as soon as it's up and running!

Happy blogging!

Thankful Thursday - I Love FREE Stuff!!!

I'm a member of the National Genealogical Society and I'm a fan on Facebook as well.  Now you don't need to be a member to become a fan of their page, but why wouldn't someone want to be a member!

A couple days ago I saw one of their posts in my FB newsfeed about a FREE Course offered by the National Institute for Genealogical Studies on Social Media use.  Now when I say free, I mean the course is free, but there is one book that is required for use during the course, Social Networking for Genealogists (Baltimore, Maryland: Genealogical Publishing Company, 2009) by Drew Smith. You can find the book for less than $20.00.  I think that's a pretty reasonable price!  

There is an additional optional "text" you can buy.  It's the printed course materials.  This way you don't have to print everything out from your home computer.  That is only $8.00 through GenealogicalStudies.com. You can check on the requirement materials for the course on the "supplies" tab at the course's website (below).

I know I feel pretty comfortable in my own little bubble of social networking, but we can always learn more.  It also may be a pretty good course for those of our genealogical comrades that haven't quite embraced technology fully yet, or are afraid to.  Maybe this is just what the doctor ordered!

You can check out NGS' blog post on the course by clicking here.

You can also go straight to the registration/course description page by clicking here.

The only problem I encountered was that it doesn't state if the participants in the online course meet in a chat at a scheduled time each week or if assignments are posted and that's it.  I'll be giving a call in Thursday to find out those details and will post an update!

Head on over to their pages and take a look.  You may find that it's not the right course for you, or it may be perfect for you!  You never know until you look!


UPDATE!:  I got an error message when I tried to register for the course, so this morning I called the number at the bottom of the registration page.  The woman I talked to was wonderfully patient with all of my questions and she made sure that I was registered for the course.  I found out that there are live meetings, but they are not mandatory.  If you register for the course you will receive several emails that detail what to expect.  So a couple weeks until I get the emails, but I feel extremely confident that all my questions will be answered!  I'm ready to have fun with this course! :)

Organize Your Home Office Day - The Beginning of the End

My built-ins are a disorganized nightmare

While it may be "Organize Your Home Office Day", I won't lie and say that my home office will be organized by the end of today.  My nephew and mother-in-law are leaving for the airport in the morning, I've got a webinar in the afternoon, then it'll be time immediately following that to pick up the kids, make dinner and take my oldest to CCD in the evening.  There will be about 3 hours in there that I can dedicate to making a dent in what is my home office.

The printing station is a cluttered

The bookshelf o'stuff

My husband and I share the office and it's horribly laid out.  When we first moved into the home we were excited that it had a separate room that we would be able to use exclusively as an office.  It even had built in bookshelves (although we came to see that we had more books than shelves!).  As with most things, you notice flaws once you move in that you may have been oblivious to beforehand.  Things like the phone jack is in the back of the bottom shelf of the bookcase (no, you didn't read that wrong...who the hell puts a phone jack in the bookcase!) and the cable port is on the opposite side of the room.  Pretty much makes for a cable nightmare.  My hubby has been working overtime trying to get us as wireless as possible.  He's the tech person of the two of us and he's doing an awesome job considering he's got the anti-tech wife.  I simply walk by technology and it spontaneously combusts.

The not-too-bad-desk

Unfortunately, even though Cherie got her groove back about a month ago, I wasn't groovin' in the home office.  I've actually been working from the dining room table.  Great space, but it put a damper in using it for diner!

Since my PTA meltdown back in November, the office became a repository of stuff and I just wasn't motivated to clear it out.  That ends today.  I'm going to don my snorkel and swim fins and dive on in.  It's time to organize so my hubby and I have a work-friendly environment for Cub Scouts, PTA, and (most importantly) my business!

My is that the next pictures I'll post of my office will be much better looking!

World Poetry Day - Immortality Through Our Descendants

Shakespeare...

DON'T CRINGE AND RUN AWAY!!!!

Shakespeare understood the importance of leaving behind children.  That they are our path to immortality.  We live on through them.  As long as there are descendants, we too live in some form.  I'm a big Shakespeare fan.  Can I wax poetic on all aspects of his works?  No.  I'm reading his entire works this year via the Shakespeare in a Year group.  I'm a little far behind, but even if I don't finish with the group I will finish.  It's different reading Shakespeare as an adult than as a high school kid.  You tend to understand more of it.  These are two of my favorite sonnets.  It made me realize how passionately he felt about having children.

Sonnet IX

Is it for fear to wet a widow's eye

That thou consum'st thyself in single life?

Ah! if thou issueless shalt hap to die,

The world will wail thee, like a makeless wife:

The world will be thy widow, and still weep

That thou no form of thee hast left behind,

When every private widow well may keep,

By childrens eyes, her husband's shape in mind.

Look, what an unthrift in the world doth spend

Shifts but his place, for still the world enjoys it:

But beauty's waste hath in the world an end, 

And kept unus'd, the user so destroys it.

No love toward others in that bosom sits, 

That on himself such murderous shame commits.

Die without leaving a child and the world weeps for the loss, while should a wife lose her husband (or vice versa), they continue to see their spouse in their children's faces.  You continue to live on through your children.

Sonnet II

When forty winters shall besiege thy brow,

And dig deep trenches in thy beauty's field, 

Thy youth's proud livery, so gaz'd on now,

Will be a tatter'd weed, of small worth held:

Then being ask'd where all thy beauty lies,

Where all the treasure of thy lusty days;

To say, within thine own deep sunken eyes,

Were an all-eating shame and thriftless praise.

How much more praise deserv'd thy beauty's use,

If thou couldst answer - 'This fair child of mine

Shall sum my count, and make my old excuse-'

Proving his beauty by succession thine!

This were to be new-made when thou art old, 

And see thy blood warm when thou feel'st it cold.

As we reach the end of our lives we see that there is still so much life left.  Life that we issued.  Why wouldn't a parent as they grow old not look at their children and grandchildren and smile!

Amanuensis Monday - Good Advice Through the Ages

I was actually preparing to transcribe an article on the Peshtigo Fire for today, but when I opened the digital copy of "The Waynesboro Village Record" for October 26, 1871 and began looking for the article on the fire, the following article caught my attention and I figured I'd have a bit of fun today!

Waynesboro Village Record, 26OCT1871

"Some Things

Have ideas of your own.

Be sure your own doctrines are sound before pitching into other people's.

Ride and belabor your own hobby to your hearts content, but for heaven's sake do not quarrel with friends and neighbors because they refuse to mount with you.

If it hurts your feelings to be snubbed and bluffed off, remember that others may not like it any better than you do.

Conceal the weak points in your nature with an honest mantle of self-poise and independence, and then many an intended sting will not wound or give you pain.

Earn your own self respect and then you will not imagine people intend to slight you.

Be sure you meirit [sic] respect and then do not lay awake nights worying [sic] about other people's opinion of yon [sic].

Above all things be kind to the poor, the sick, the old, the young, and to your wife, if you have one; and go slow when attempting to revege an injury, for ofttimes that which seems an injury proves a benefit.

In short, be kind and considerate to your friends, keep your enemies at a proper distance, in thought and every other way, and be as good to yourself as you possibly can without wronging anybody else. - Elm Orlon."

I found it amusing that it was in the newspaper let alone on the front page!  It's so interesting to see how different the news can be, but what a great insight into what was seen as important during our ancestor's time! 

I certainly did note upon reading "Some Things" that some things are as true today as they were back then!

Sunday's Obituary - Valentine Herman

"V. Herman Of Allenton Dies Tuesday (hand-written 1954)
Valentine Herman, 63, of Allenton, died Tuesday, Sept. 21, in that village.

He is survived by his wife, nee Hulda Hahn; three sons, Erwin, Raymond and William; four grandchildren, three daughters-in-law, two brothers, Carl and George, and two sisters, Mrs. Elizabeth Zimdahl and Mrs. Dora Kuehl.

Funeral services will be held Friday afternoon, Sept. 24, at 1:30 o'clock at Zion's Lutheran church Kohlsville, the Rev. G. Kaniess officiating.  Interment will be in Union cemetery, Theresa.  In state at the Ritger funeral home, Allenton after 1 p. m. today (Thursday) and until 11 a. m. Friday, and from noon until the hour of services at the church."

Valentine was actually the son of Valentin Hermann and Ernestine Mueller.  The surname can be spelled with one or two n's at the end. Valentine Jr was my husband's great-great uncle.

Funeral Card Friday - Joseph Batzler

”Joseph Batzler, Others Pass On (hand-written, 1981 - unknown Wisconsin newspaper clipping)

Joseph "Tom" Batzler, 76, a lifelong resident of the St. Kilian area, died early Tueday morning, June 30, at St. Agnes Hospital in Fond du Lac after a brief illness.

He was born in St. Kilian on March 27, 1905, to the late Jacob and Victoria Bonlender Batzler.  He was a retired farmer and truck driver for Baker Canning Co. in Theresa, and a member of St. Kilian Catholic Church in St. Kilian.

On June 7, 1932, he married Marcella Hurth in St. Kilian Catholic Church at St. Kilian.

Survivors include his wife; one son Gerald (Grace) of R. 3, Campbellsport; two daughters, Joann (Raymond) Sippel of R. 3, Campbellsport, and Susan at home.  He is further survived by eight grandchildren; one brother, Oscar, of Lomira; one sister, Miss Anna Batzler, of St. Kilian; many in-laws, other relatives and friends.  One brother, one sister and one grandchild preceded him in death.

Visitation at Miller's Funeral Home in Kewaskum will be from 4 to 9 p.m. Thursday with a prayer vigil at 8 p.m.  Services will be held Friday, at 10:30 a.m. at the funeral home and at 11:00 a.m. at St. Kilian Catholic Church in St. Kilian.  The Revs. Joseph McDonald and Arthur Kalinski will officiate and burial will be in the church cemetery.”