All Books are Not Created Equal

I've been eyeball deep in selecting books for this coming school year and since I'm (part) Dutch, I'm (part) cheap frugal, so I'm going through our curricula's book lists to see what I can get at the library and what we ought to purchase.

One item on the list: The Everything American Presidents Book by Kelly and Kelly. I've read some from the Everything series before, and while they're interesting and all, they're graphically pretty spare. A quick perusal on Amazon proved there are gajillions of books about US presidents. Surely one could be more visually appealing. Right?

I found what looked like the perfect alternative. Our Country's Presidents by Ann Bausum. Put out by National Geographic, this one was sure to be better. Right? I decided to check out both from the library to see.

Sure enough, the National Geographic book was beautiful. Stunning illustrations, sharp layout. I added the book to my Amazon shopping cart and moved on to the next item.

Then this morning I wondered ... why would the authors of my curriculum recommend the Everything book when the National Geographic book is so obviously superior? Unless it's not. Hmmm.

I did an experiment (pretty smart of me). I read (even smarter!) the section on George Washington in the Natl. Geographic book. And THEN (wait for it - it's really smart) I read the section on George Washington in the Everything book.

Here's what the Natl. Geographic book said:
Ooh, pretty pictures, let's see, bla bla bla, George Washington, bla bla bla. Something about his wife. Bla bla bla, and he died of strep throat.

The Everything book:
Wow, Washington's mother was rot; so he didn't actually cut down a cherry tree! And he didn't have wooden dentures. So that's how he inherited Mount Vernon! Plus he came to believe slavery was immoral and was the only founding father to free all his slaves.

So Natl. Geographic with the dry tone of textbook is going out of the shopping cart, the Everything Book is, well, why don't I just get it from the library? One thing is certain: the curriculum writers really did choose the better book.

Why I Will NOT Use CafePress, and Why You Shouldn't Either!

A year or so ago I tossed some of my artwork up on CafePress just for kicks. Within a few months I gained a few contract design jobs through it (folk noticed my artwork, didn't like CafePress's prices, so I made a custom design and pointed them to other vendors), and made about $6. Woohoo. Thrilling.

Then I logged in to find a bizarre shop in my "My Shops" section. Admin_CP7945435.

Initially they made an iPhone 5 case (shortly after the iPhone 5 release) with a small markup. I thought, "Cool! Maybe this is a featured product! That's cool, even if it's only a few bucks in my pocket!" In fact, here is that product. Note the small markup:

So I let it go. But today I logged in to see more products in the mysterious Admin_CP7945435 shop. Yet now my more popular artwork is appearing on products with no markup.

No markup means no profit - for me. In short, CafePress slapped my art on their products and sold sold sold. They didn't ask permission, didn't notify me, just claimed rights to my images and ran with it. Here's another one:

For the mathematically challenged, $0.00 markup means $0.00 profit for me.

I am more than a little peeved by this. I did notice in the Terms of Service that they are allowed to use my images for marketing and such. But does that right apply to selling my stuff without my permission or my knowledge, and without giving me a penny? Was the first iPhone 5 case a "trial run" to see if I'd notice their creepy little Admin_CP7945435 shop, if I'd close it or let it sail?

I put an email in to customer service - we'll see how they spin it. But my days using CafePress are Over as of - my cursor is hovering over the "delete shop" button - Click! - right now.

Symbaloo: My New BFF

Thanks to Mud Pie's 2nd grade teacher, I discovered Symbaloo. Which is really nothing more than a cross-user, cross-platform version of Safari's "Top Sites" start page. Well, ok, it is more than Top Sites, because with Symbaloo I can make a webmix (or mix of bookmarked sites - that's visual rather than a pulldown list), and I can put it as the homepage for each of the kiddos. What's more, they can each have their own customized homepage!

I can put Dance Mat Typing and Starfall on Mud Pie's, Spelling City and TimeMaps on Fish's, and National Geographic and Kitchen Chemistry on St. Nick's. Along with about three dozen more - each. Each kiddo can have a customized background, too. Even Rowdy has a home page, though there's not much on it since she'd rather eat the mouse than click it.

Solved is the problem of Fish starting up the computer, clicking Firefox, and surfing away to Gamezone or some other time-waste site. Solved is the problem of finding a great educational link, emailing it to myself, losing the email beneath a zillion others, and forgetting about it entirely. I can add and delete links at will from my computer - no more logging on to the Family Dinosaur to change up the kids' home pages or nagging St. Nick to visit such-and-such site. Any changes made from the master webmix will be reflected on any computer where that webmix is displayed! How cool is that? What a fabulous educational resource!

Bathroom Remodel From Hell: How to Remove Wallpaper in Just Four Years!

A special note to whoever installed this hideous wallpaper: there is a special room in hell, just for you.

This was our bathroom when we first moved in. That was 2008. Sometime in 2009 we moved the treadmill to the family room, because honestly, who wants a treadmill in the bathroom? Shortly after that, we ripped out the wallpaper. Or tried to.

We scored, we sprayed chemicals, we waited. We pulled and off came the paper, leaving a fuzzy wallpaper backing behind. We tried scoring again, and spraying more, stronger chemicals. With putty knives, we hacked away the sticky backing one inch at a time. That half wall behind the toilet? That took an entire day.

Over the next couple of years I'd return to the mess. The wallpaper itself was gone, but all the walls were discolored yellow fur. I'd try chemicals, hot water, fabric softener. All the things friends said would peel wallpaper off like a charm. But nothing worked.

By about 2011 the carpet had ground-in toothpaste, new gross stains in addition to the ones that were already there. So we ripped it up. Bare concrete with rusty nail heads along the baseboards, yellow-fur-lined walls. The bathroom was so nasty guests refused to use it. H@ll, even we refused to use it.

And then the amazing happened. It's now 2013 (obviously). I asked a man at church how to get nails out of concrete, and I Googled for wallpaper removal tips. After five or so pages of, "Dif!" and "Fabric softener!" one blogger mentioned removing wallpaper with vinegar. Wow, vinegar that I already use for everything from setting dyes to cleaning glass. What could it hurt? So I mixed up a bottle of half-vinegar, half-hot-water, and set to work.

An hour later, I'd cleared an entire wall of yellow fur. By the end of a weekend, our bathroom looked like this:

Ok, not much of an improvement, unless you'd seen the furry walls and rusty nails. The glue residue is now gone, the ceiling washed and prepped for fresh paint. We're almost done! The next post will likely have something to do with chalkboard paint, or lighting, or tile, or shopping for sink bases.

Sigh. I was so excited. I guess we're not almost done after all.

MIT Courses for FREE?!? Kitchen Chemistry

So, ok, I've been neglecting my dear little blog for Pinterest and the Benjamin Moore color picker app because I'm eyeball deep in remodeling projects. But as an aside, the other day I did a random search for "Kitchen Chemistry" - since we'll be doing chemistry next year for school. What should I find but this?

MIT, yes, that MIT, offers a free, online course in Kitchen Chemistry. The course syllabus is a list of culinary delights. Guacamole, Death by Chocolate Cookies, Scones and Coffee. Sound like fun? Do you think St. Nick is going to be taking this class on his own? Not a chance.

St. Nick is truly looking forward to this (Pancakes!) and was blown away by all the other fabulous offerings in his areas of interest. So was I, not to mention courses in MY areas of interest.

Flat Stanley Travels the World!

Mud Pie's Flat Stanley returned not long ago, so while the kiddos were asleep with flu and fevers, I took the photos Stan collected and made a little video.

 I think Stan had a great trip!