Coffee Klatch

Here’s a resource that I use a lot when I’m doing genealogy research. It’s a gazetteer, which is an interesting name for a geographical dictionary. When I’m doing research, sometimes I only have a city name and a state, but I like to include the county as well. Especially if I’m trying to find a difficult Census report. I’ve tried a variety of gazetteers, but this one I’ve found easiest to work with and the most thorough. Using the Probert Encyclopaedia Gazetteer I can look up the city or town (even tiny villages) and find the county.

Probert says their gazetteer is “A dictionary of over 70,000 countries, states, counties, departments, provinces, cities, towns, villages, hamlets, rivers, seas and other places of the world,” but I’ve found that it’s mostly United States, with a little bit of England and a tiny bit of Canada thrown in. Still, for finding spellings and locations of villages, rivers, etc., in the U.S., it’s a great resource.

And one worth bookmarking: http://www.probertencyclopaedia.com/places.htm

Americans pride themselves on having what many consider to be the best government in the world. Whether or not that’s true is a topic for another day. But for all the pride that Americans take in their country, they sure don’t know much about it!

“According to a new poll, only one in four Americans can name two of the five freedoms guaranteed by the First Amendment. But more than half of Americans can name at least two of the characters on The Simpsons. Hey, if they ran the Constitution on TV eight times a day, we’d know it.” –Jimmy Kimmel

Me? I’ve been able to recite the entire Preamble to the Constitution since I was a kid. Thanks to Schoolhouse Rock! There sure is something to be said for running USEFUL programming on TV.

By the way, the First Amendment, in full, is:

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

Apopular “frozen food” among children is “tater tots.” Up there with hot dogs and macaroni and cheese, it’s one of those foods that parents can add to dinner without any fuss (from MOST kids). And with store brand versions (Potato Gems, Tater Nuggets, etc.), they’re cheaper than they used to be and so become a good choice for a side dish at dinner.

The only thing is… they can get boring. They’re just potatoes that are shredded, put back together and baked or fried. Now, a BIG exception to that is my one of my favorite fast foods. From Taco John’s. They’re called Potato Ole’s and they’re like tater tots but more flat like discs instead of cylindrical. (Although, YES, technically they’re still cylindrical.) Anyway, what’s great about them is that they’re seasoned with a not that spicy, sort of sweet concoction that makes them irresistible! At least to me.

So when we’ve had tater tots (in whatever form) at home, I’ve tried adding a little seasoning to them. And you know what? They’re not as boring any more! You can add all kinds of spices or seasoning mixes to them, along with some salt, and you’ve got all kinds of variety! My favorite is a light dose of cumin. When you add cumin and salt to tater tots, they’re almost (but not quite) like the Potato Ole’s from Taco John’s. But you can add Lawry’s salt, paprika, pepper, onion powder, even oregano (ground). With oregano, they’re almost pizza-ish when dipped in ketchup.
Pretty much any ground or powdered spice or herb can work. If it’s good with potatoes, it’s even better with tater tots!

Current music: Kommt Zusammen, by 2raumwohnung

President Bush summed up his thoughts on the whole Hezbollah problem by using an expletive when talking to Tony Blair at the G8 Summit today, according to CNN. Leaders are often filmed when sitting down to eat, but the sound usually isn’t recorded. A microphone picked up this comment:

“See, the irony is what they really need to do is to get Syria to get Hezbollah to stop doing this (expletive).”

Join the crowd of frustrated people around the world, Mr. President!

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest has been out for two weeks now. Of course, it’s still at the #1 position in the box office. After two weekends (so, technically, 10 days), the movie has grossed over $258 million! That puts it at #34 ALL TIME in box office takes. The Curse of the Black Pearl grossed $305 million total (#21 all time).

If you’re curious about what’s making the most money in the movie industry, here are a couple links that I tend to use. They show you the titles, distributors, cumulative gross, and release date. Quick and handy for finding out how a movie’s doing.

Box office this weekend: http://movies.yahoo.com/mv/boxoffice/weekend/
All Time Box Office: http://movies.yahoo.com/mv/boxoffice/alltime/

I recently discovered a musical group that’s worth hearing. It’s one of those groups that’s not particularly well known, but once they’re discovered they become a favorite. The group is called Garmarna.

(FYI, Garm is the wolf in Norse mythology that swallows the sun and creates endless winter. That really does set the tone of this group.)

According to Amazon, “Gamarna was one of the first Swedish bands to blend dance tunes and songs from the ballad tradition, much like a Scandinavian version of the Irish group De Dannan.” Since their first album, they’ve become one of Sweden’s most innovative folk groups. They have a sound that is both ancient and modern at the same time and the vocals of Emma Hardelin (yes, in Swedish) are exquisite!

Here is a discography, from most recent to oldest. Feel free to click the links and sample their music, since Amazon has song samples in Windows Media and RealOne formats. Also, you can visit their official website and the website for their music label, NorthSide, home of “extraordinary Nordic Roots music.”

Hildegard von Bingen (Sept. 2001) is named after a 12-century nun wrote some very ethereal and spiritual music. This album combines the strings, acoustic guitars, percussion, and vocals of Garmarna with this ancient-sounding music to make an interesting and appealing recording. This is a very interesting CD because it builds on actual early European music with folk sounds and modern dance rhythms. And if it gets very popular, it could get young people interested in Von Bingen’s music from 900 years ago, which would be most excellent.

Garmarna (May 2001) is the fourth CD they’ve recorded, but the first to actually use their name as the title. That’s because it has the songs that they recorded in their self-titled album back in 1993, with the addition of six songs from their 1992 demo. This particular CD is all acoustic and is more folk-musicy than their other CDs. Some say this one is more ‘raw’ than the others, but some also like it for that very thing. Favorite songs: Seeming Polska, Kleveberg’s Fire, Skenpolska, and Moon’s Polska.

Vengeance (April 1999) is often described as the quintessential Garmarna recording. It’s dark yet danceable, enchanting yet melancholy. It definitely sounds like folk music, but with mixtures of rhythms and ambiences that create a rich musical experience. Amazon’s review says: “The ancient and modern achieve an almost perfect balance here, the original material sounding as if it should be centuries old. Blood, guts, violence, love, they’re all here, every aspect of the human condition.” Favorite songs: Euchari, Polska, Vengeance, and Stomped Bread.

God’s Musicians (Sept. 1996) is another excellent recording. Definite folksong backgrounds, but reworked in that unique Garmarna way to create something very special. Many of the songs really evoke images and moods of Vikings in the winter, gathered around fires to block out the cold, and singing songs to keep their spirits up and to remember. Favorite songs: Friends and Kin, Sir Holger, Halling from Macedonia, Today as Before, and Werewolf.

Vittrad (Nov. 1994) was the first full length album by this group. It set the stage for Garmana’s niche in the music world: dark medieval-ish music with layered textures of modern acoustic instruments and haunting vocals. True Garmarna fans seem to gravitate toward this recording as one of their favorites. Favorite songs: Garm’s Bark, Crumbling Away, We Won’t Grieve…, and Little Kersti.

I‘ve been on MySpace for about a week and a half now and I have to say I’m less than thrilled. The strength of MySpace is in networking, of course. Anyone can join and it’s easy to set up a customized space.

What I don’t like is how unsecure the system is, how anybody can set up fake profiles, how many of those fake profiles are used to build a network of “friends” who will then follow their links to porn sites, and how nasty so many of the members’ sites look. There are lots of ways to customize your site and it’s easy to add bits of code, sure, but most of them result in web pages that are hard to read and WAY overly busy.

In contrast, I recommend to you a system that is well-organized, classy looking, and quite secure. It’s called Facebook and it’s “an online directory that connects people through social networks.”

What makes it more secure is that your profile is tied to a particular network. The networks are based off of high schools, colleges, and places of employment. ALL of those are based on email address domains. So you can’t sign up with hotmail or yahoo or even gmail. It’s based on the domain of the school or employer and they support over 2,500 colleges, 22,000 high schools and 1,000 work networks. If yours isn’t listed, you can request that they add it. Now, you CAN change add a gmail or hotmail or whatever account and make that your default, but you have to start by joining a network that’s based on your official email address.

Privacy is customizable, too. You can choose to only show a “limited profile” to some people or totally block them, making you invisible to them on Facebook. You can also choose whether anyone can view your profile, or only people in your network. Same is true for who can add you as a friend and who can view your photos.

You can still browse or search for friends, and you have lots of ways to show your connections to people. There are plenty of communication tools built in, too. You can even organize events, join groups, and upload TONS of photos. The limit is 60 pictures per album, but I don’t know if there’s a limit to the number of albums. Plus, you can tag and comment on your photos and others’ photos. That includes clicking on people in the pictures and attaching their names (if they’re in Facebook). Any picture you see, you can mouse over the tags and see a box pop up on the photo, telling you which person that is. If you click on the tag, it will take you to that person’s profile. Pretty slick!

So if you’re looking for some kind of social software for staying in touch with people or looking for old friends, I highly recommend Facebook to you. It’s much more professional, organized, and secure.

If you sign up with Facebook, look me up!

Yesterday I finally got the long-anticipated DVD that I’d ordered. Something that people my age will want because it brings back memories of childhood, and at the same time something that kids will want because it’s fun, musical, cartoony, and (gasp!) educational.

Schoolhouse Rock was something that used to be on TV every week during Saturday morning cartoons. In my area of the country, it would be on at 9:55, right before the 10:00 show. The creators of Schoolhouse Rock realized, even back then, that people learn better when other intelligences or learning styles are involved. Particularly music. When kids hear a song that teaches them something while watching a cartoon, it sticks with them. Why do you think I can still recite the Preamble to the Constitution? I learned it through Schoolhouse Rock!

Anyway, they’ve come out with the 30th Anniversary Edition! This 2-DVD set is a MUST-HAVE for anybody who liked “Conjunction Junction” or “I’m Just a Bill” or “Three is a Magic Number” or “Interjections!” Here are some reasons why you should get this:

• It has ALL 46 of the songs!
• There are Play-All and Shuffle-All features, as well as jukebox features where you can pick the songs you want and then play them.
• It has the new song “I’m Gonna Send Your Vote to College.”
• It also has the long-lost song “The Weather Show.”
• It ALSO has the never-before-released “Scooter Computer and Mr. Chips” set of 3 songs.
• Arrange-A-Song puzzles
• Earn-Your-Diploma trivia game
• Audio commentaries
• Subtitles, so you can see every word of every song!
• And other featurettes, music videos, easter eggs, etc.

Isn’t that AWESOME?? Did you even KNOW that there were 46 different songs? They fell into the categories of Grammar Rock, Science Rock, Money Rock, Multiplication Rock, and America Rock. And they even have some of the people who did the original voices to do the talking on the menu options.

Some of the songs I can still sing just about all of the words. Others are very familiar, but I can only remember words here and there. Others are vaguely familiar and still others I’ve never even heard of!

Check it out! Schoolhouse Rock ROCKS!