Just for fun

8 May 2007

Photo updates (and RSS feed)

Jim Computers and internet, Family, Just for fun 2

I’ll bet you didn’t know that our photo gallery had its own RSS feeds. Actually, you can be excused, because for a while the feeds disappeared. I went looking for them today, and discovered they were missing, and reactivated them.

I’ve updated the Recent shots… album with pictures from Taxco, a nearby trout farm, and more. Here are the most recent photos that are in the album (brought to you by the wonders of the RSS news feed):

Each album has its own RSS feed. To find it, go to the album you want, then look to the left of the page. What most people will want is the newest photos, so to find those use this news feed
You should already know that Finding direction has its own news feed, at http://feeds.feedburner.com/findingdirection. And if you’re a real CottrillCompass.com fanatic, I created a MASTER feed that will show the latest entries in both the photo gallery AND Finding direction:

http://feeds.feedburner.com/CottrillCompass-dot-com
Don’t even know what an RSS feed is? An RSS feed is a specially formatted feed that updates whenever something at the source it’s updated. It’s read by news reading programs. It’s a way to always keep up to date with the latest. Some programs that read news feeds include:

GreatNews (I use this a lot)
Thunderbird
Firefox
Internet Explorer

And of course online services like:

Google Reader
My Yahoo!
BlogLines

One more thing, and this is really nifty. You can use Google Photos Screensaver to automatically add our most recent photos to your screensaver! I had a little trouble getting this to work with the normal album screensavers, so just to make things more complicated, I made a new feed just for use in the Google Photos Screensaver. Use this one:

Feed for Google Photo Screensaver
The screensaver will show the latest 50 photos (I think!), along with the titles. You can click a link to go directly to the photo online to read the description.

Now you have more information than you ever wanted. But if you want to learn more about news or web feeds, check out this article on Wikipedia.

1 April 2007

Google’s “Dark porcelain” project

Jim Just for fun, News and current issues 0

You know what today is, right? No, not that. No, that‘s not what I’m talking about either. No, it’s the time of year new and amazing Google revelations come down the pipes.

You can read my post from last year about Google Romance. The year before that was Google Gulp, the amazing and the most technologically advanced drink of all time.

Strangely related to Google Gulp is the offer from this year – free high speed internet access. But not just any access. It’s called TiSP, which stands for Toilet Internet Service Provider. Yes, you actually flush the cable down your toilet (using the patented GFlushâ„¢ system) and it will connect to an access node. This from the official press release:

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., April 1, 2007 – Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) today announced the launch of Google TiSP (BETA)â„¢, a free in-home wireless broadband service that delivers online connectivity via users’ plumbing systems. The Toilet Internet Service Provider (TiSP) project is a self-installed, ad-supported online service that will be offered entirely free to any consumer with a WiFi-capable PC and a toilet connected to a local municipal sewage system.

Really? Well, no, not really. But I’ll let you read more about TiSP yourself here. The FAQ page is my favourite.

26 March 2007

Just improvise.

Jim Just for fun, Ministry glimpses, Other missionary blogs, Video Blogs 6

I’ve done my share of improvising.

One day I took Hannah to Sunday School in Calgary, and there was no teacher. So I taught a Sunday School lesson, crafts and all. How did it go? Ask the kids. You remember the time I lost the song I was going to sing, and I did one I hadn’t practised.

Many years ago I was in Apatzingan, Mexico. I had only an hour to prepare a sermon. I sat down to get started, when someone came to tell me that we had misunderstood when the service was – it was now! Somehow the Lord got me through that one! At least that time it was in English (I was being translated).

Last week we were talking about some Christian history topics in conversation class. I brought in a timeline so that we could see some things in context. I was being asked about some numbers on my timeline, and I said they were just for a seminar I taught (2000 Years of Missions). "Oh, you should teach us!" Ha ha, sure. I don’t have nearly enough Spanish for such a thing. Maybe in a few years.

"No, really – you should teach us. What do you think?" "Sure, yeah, he should".

Yeah, hah hah… whatever you want.

You can see where this is going, can’t you? After all my joking affirmation, my teacher was making plans and asking what I needed and planning where we could do it. So this week, apparently, I have 8 hours of teaching time (2 hours each day- today, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday). After I’d said sure, whatever you want so many times, I wasn’t sure how to refuse.

Now, of course, I won’t really be teaching. I’ll be standing there introducing topics and asking how to say this and that. I’m the one who knows the least Spanish in the class, and of course I’ll need words that aren’t in the dictionary – names, places, terminology.

It’s ok, not only have I improvised before, I’ve also embarrassed myself before. Often. Daily. I’m used to it. And now I can do it for 8 solid hours. They teach conversation in this school – why don’t they have a course on keeping your mouth shut?

This post was inspired by a post by Andrew Comings in which he shared this video of Danish musician and comedian Victor Borge. Talk about improvisation. Borge was a brilliant musician, and could think fast even at 80 years old. Of course, he already knew the language – of music…

14 February 2007

Valentines Day 2007

Jim Family, Just for fun 2

I actually made this little video for Grandma and Grandpa Winger, but I might as well share it with you too! Besides, you can see a bit of our living room. (Actually, that open space is supposed to be a dining room, but we don’t have any dining room furniture yet.)

Grandma and Grandpa gave Hannah and Nathanael these little straw-shooters for Valentine's Day, so they had fun shooting them around the house.

20 January 2007

¡Child claims he doesn’t need candy!

Jim Family, Just for fun, Mexico 5

The other night we went down the street to the local convenience store (OXXO) to get some milk. Nathanael and I went, so that we could have some man-talk time.

Nathanael, as is his custom, walked around the store touching everything that he could get away with touching and speculating on whether or not we needed those chips or that granola bar or this … oops! Don’t touch THAT!

I went to the counter to pay. Convenience store counters in your area are probably much like this one. Placed within easy grab on the front of the counter are chocolate bars, gum, and other types of candy. Nathanael was convinced he needed a package of candy, and so he took it out and told me all about it and placed in on the counter.

As is my custom, I let him know that indeed he did not need the candy. So I taught him how to say “no necesito” – I don’t need (this). So he started saying,”No necesito” while he took out the candy. And placed it on the counter.

No, he didn’t get the candy. (After all, he quite rightly insisted that he “didn’t need it”!)

That night we were eating a delicious turkey casserole. And deviled eggs. He didn’t want his egg, and he smushed it on the table. We told him that he needs to keep food he doesn’t want on his plate, not on the table. He didn’t get the point, telling us that he was done. Then he pushed the egg onto his plate, crying,”Â¡No necesito!”

I guess he understood more than I thought…

(This is a good thing, right?!)

6 January 2007

The Cottrills and the Magi

Jim Family, Food, Mexico 1

Today is DÃa de los Reyes Magos (Day of the Magi Kings) here in Mexico. In Canada most people generally miss the significance of Epiphany, which is celebrated in many othere countries. Mexico is rich with tradition on this day.

Boys and girls recently wrote thier letters to the Magi, asking for the gifts they wanted. Those letters were tied to helium balloons (for sale everywhere) and sent up into the sky. Last night, they were lying in bed wondering if the three kings were going to grant their wishes.

This morning, they no doubt found their new toys, probably on top of their shoes (I think the original tradition was in the shoes, but who’s satisfied with gifts that size these days, unless they’re iPods?).

This being Shari’s and my second Three Kings Day in Mexico, we took on some of the traditions. We had a few gifts that we held back at Christmas for the kids. Last night we got together with some friends (missionaries heading the Honduras from the States) and had the traditional rosca – a specially shaped cake like the one you see in the photo (courtesy of Christian Frausto Bernal). Inside are tiny white dolls, representing baby Jesus. The first person to get a doll has to host the next party, on February 2nd (DÃa de la Candelaria, Candlemas). This year, I was the lucky one. 🙂

Rosca de Reyes

The Mexican traditions are a blend of many cultures. The Rosca tradition comes from Spain. The rest of the traditional meal shows a pre-Spanish heritage – hot chocolate (chocolate is from Mexico) and tamales (corn or maize being the staple of the new world). There are also hints of both Christian and pagan beliefs in some traditions.

Around this time of year you can also get your picture taken with the 3 mystics. We saw them in the mall in fabulous costumes, where I believe Santa was before Christmas.

(Note: Yes, there’s a lot of extra or non-biblical tradition here. In the Bible, these were Magi or “wise men”, not kings, and we don’t know how many there were or what their names were. See 7 Things you might not have known about Christmasâ€¦)

You can read more about the Mexican traditions here: Â¡Ya Vienen Los Reyes Magos!

Below you can see all of us about to enjoy our rosca. Now next year, remember: if you didn’t get everything you wanted for Christmas, ask the Magi – perhaps they’re still in a giving mood!

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