Earth Hour and Unplugged Saturdays

Sometime last year, I blogged about Earth Hour. Last year, we resolved to go one Saturday a month Unplugged (sort of). What we resolved to do was not to watch TV or turn on the computer on the third Saturday of each month. We didn't actually unplug everything on that day. We just tried to get away from the seemingly ever-presence of the TV and computer for a one day per month.

It definitely requires some planning and forethought. Mad Scientist's church calling is Primary Music Leader (still....almost 4 years now...plus the 3 years in the Bay Area) and that sometimes requires the computer to print out the music schedule and visuals. Mine is Visiting Teaching Leader and that also requires computer related stuff at times, so we definitely have had to plan.

I will it admit that has been rough at times. Especially when one of us has to be away from home for a length of time and the other is stuck at home with not much by way of distraction. It HAS been good for us though, because we are all a bit too addicted to the computer and the boys could probably watch TV shows for a good chunk of time if we let them. And we've been able to spend more quality time with each other, so that's good. We'll likely continue this.

Also, Saturday, March 27th, is Earth Hour. Cities all over the world will be turning off their lights at 8:30pm (local time) as a signal for action on climate change. Okay, I know that some of you out there don't believe that there is evidence of climate change. I'm not going to debate you on that. But, I think there is something to be said about treating our resources wisely. So, we invite you to participate in Earth Hour too!

Deliquent Math Geek

How can I properly consider myself a Math Geek when I don't post a blog entry on Pi Day? Well, I was too busy eating yummy pie to post anything. It was tasty. This year, n x 1.6 km (for n>1) was proud that he helped make the crust for the chocolate pie and the peach pie. He also helped me make the chocolate pudding filling and expertly added marshmallows to the pudding.

For those of you who are not Math Geeks, Pi Day is celebrated on March 14 (3/14) in honor of the number Pi (3.14159....).

Random Technology Related Thoughts

There are a few technology related things that I thought I might throw out there. Some are just fun. Some have made my life better.

* Google Calendar - Since becoming a Momma, I seem to be steadily losing parts of my brain and sanity. This is troublesome because I was forgetful before I even became a mom and now it is even worse. In my younger days, I would carry around a little calendar to write down important stuff. I no longer do this so I regularly forget things. Now, I've discovered that I can set up my Google calendar to email me reminders of things coming up. I can have different calendars reflecting general reminders, birthdays, volunteer obligations, when library books are due and stuff related to my church calling. I can set up how often it emails me a reminder and it is also pretty easy to set up recurring event reminders like birthdays. Since, I have started using this, I feel like I've reclaimed a bit of my life. Whew!

* Leech Block - I like to play games. Board games, but specifically, computer games. There are various and sundry games that I'll play from casual Match-3-in-a-row games and word games to more involved ones like Settlers of Catan (yes you can play it online against bots.) I could waste hours upon hours playing games and totally ignore my children in the meantime. So, in my early days of trying to cut down on my wasted time, I would have Mad Scientist use the parental filters on our computer to block game websites. Yes. I'm that pathetic.

So, Mad Scientist was sick of turning on and off the parental filters for me and found an add on to Firefox called Leech Block. The idea is this add-on helps you block those websites that leech away your time. So this has really helped me not waste so much time. Each day, I allow myself to play a 1/2 hour worth of games and then for all the other times, specific game sites are blocked to me. You can specify the days that you want and the time intervals that the sites are blocked. Mad Scientist even uses it at work because he often will find himself wasting time on news and sports websites. You can even specify the program to let you visit a certain site for 5 minutes per hour (for example). Anyway. I love it. It is good for me and good for my kids. You might think it is good for you if Facebook or the like has sucked you in and caused you to shamefully neglect your blog.

* Firefox Personas - Mad Scientist found this fun thing online that can spruce up the look of the top of your Firefox browser. It is called Firefox Personas. Basically, you can add a bit of art at the top of your browser and they have a bunch of stuff already designed that you can pick. Or you could even design on yourself, which I did for us in Photoshop. Ours has a train for our oldest son and a Southwest airplane for our youngest son and a Mini Cooper (red, of course!) for me. I still need to add a bike for Mad Scientist. Anyway, it's kind of fun, if you care about that sort of thing. :)