RANDOM STORIES - Read the Instructions!

Hi guys,

Right now I am burning Karren's newest movie. It's missing a small section but that will be corrected once she and her friend redo the part that got taped over. She'll use this as teaser to get her friend to come over to our house to finish it off.

So you ask, how can Mom be burning a dvd? It's simple really. The same old solution for a number of fixes I have done lately. Get the drivers/software on the computer first!!! If you expect the programs to work like they are supposed to.

We solved this with our brand new digital movie camera - get the Everio software on! That helped Brenda upload our "Anne of Green Gables" home movie files properly. Once that was done her own more sophisticated movie making software could read the files.

Karren was having trouble last week remembering how they had uploaded past movie files from our old analog movie camera. I figured it out right away ... we should make sure we have the driver/software on the computer first. Yeah, it was missing. Worked like a charm once we put it on. No more downloading all our movies with the webcam recording extra sound on top. 'Bout time we learned that, after all the movies that have been upoaded the wrong way in the past.

Today I decided to help Linda get her new birthday digi camera to upload pictures to the computer. I found the cd and cable that goes with it. You guessed it, she hadn't put the drivers/software onto the computer. Connecting to the computer by one little cable is just not enough. Everything works just like it was designed to now that I've installed the files.

I decided that while I'm into fixing things on the computer, I should install the software for my new multi-card reader. Once that was up and running I found it a lot easier transfer my cell phone pictures onto the computer.

Last but not least I thought that since Karren wanted her murder mystery movie project burnt onto dvd, I should ask the fella who built our computer what new dvd burning device I should get for the computer we have. He asked, "Don't you have the Nero drivers and software running on your computer already?" He was sure he had installed them. He said that Windows can pull off burning the cd's but you need the dvd files on the computer to get the dvd drive working properly for the burning process.

Well, I knew we had some Nero files on the computer but maybe I was missing others. They could have been deleted by accident. I never really knew the dvd drive needed software to work but hey, I could now see why. Every other program worth having sure does.

When I tried to upload all of the files from the cd I got a screen that said something was wrong, missing, and that I should try rebooting. So I figured, why not take off all the Nero stuff I do have on there and just start from scratch. Did that, rebooted and then once again I tried to install the whole ball of wax. Bingo, it worked!

So then I went to Karren's movie, asked the software to allow burning a dvd, and though it didn't like the cd-r disk I had put in I quickly replaced it with a dvd+r. The file is only 400MB but who cares. I'm just glad to know I don't need to buy a new dvd burner.

As I've been typing up my computer adventures for the day I notice the dvd disk has just popped out of the drive. I guess the burning is done already. That was fast.

Ah, the joys of following the instructions that come with our electronic toys in the first place.

TIME FOR FAMILY - Spring Cleaning

It’s a rewarding experience for parents to see their children learn the value of work. When our girls were little we found it was possible to teach them how to sort and fold their own laundry. Bundling their socks together was a challenge for their little hands but they came up with some unique ways to get them to stay together.

I remember the year my family moved to Quebec. I was starting Grade 7 and our mother began working full time as a waitress at CFB Valcartier. My sister and I were given most of the responsibility for helping keep our home tidy and organized.

Diane and I would make most of the meals, wash and dry all of the dishes, and on Saturday we had the laundry and vacuuming to do. We weren’t allowed to play outside until all the work was done. At least, that’s how I remember it.

I used to resent the fact that my brothers got off pretty much Scot free. All they had to do was help put the garbage out to the curb once a week and there were three of them to do it! So I had to chuckle when each of them joined the military. All of a sudden they had to learn how to iron their uniforms, polish their boots and keep their rooms clean.

When we asked our parents to buy us a large tent for camping they suggested we raise the money ourselves. Behind our home was a large field that served as the parking lot for the local racetrack. After the weekend races we would bring along some old potato sacks to fill with all the empty beer and pop bottles. The bleachers were littered with them. It didn’t take long to have enough money to buy a new tent.

Over the years we have encouraged our children to help pick up some of the litter around town. And every year we have lots of winter litter that blows into our yard. For years I have been concerned about construction litter and now it looks like the town is putting some real teeth into their tidiness bylaw. I look forward to cleaner fields in town.

Jami was helping with her schoolyard clean-up just recently and even though she was wearing gloves she still got a small cut from a piece of broken brown glass. Unfortunately school grounds and playing areas are a constant dumping ground for litter.

It’s only natural to hear little children ask their parents “Why do people drop their garbage like this?” And “Who will clean up the mess if we don’t?” We have used moments like these to encourage our girls to never be a litterbug themselves.

We should teach our children that every family and business in town has a responsibility to help make Beaumont become a more beautiful place to live, work and play.