A big ol’ hat tip to Lisa Wood of Best Website Tips for this one! She recently blogged about the new Wordpress.tv, about which I’m very excited! I love to learn via video and I think this will be much easier to search through for answers to your problems than the Wordpress message boards. (Although I do often find those helpful!)

On the homepage it says:

Wordpress.tv is Your Visual Resource for All Things Wordpress

This is definitely going to be a great resource for all of us that use Wordpress! And some of the videos even have the embed code, so if we find a particular video that we think will be of really good use to our readers, we can post the video right on our blogs!

Oh cool! The welcome video has an embed code! Here ya go:

I have been here:

visited 11 states (22%)
Create your own visited map of The United States or try another Douwe Osinga project

I am so glad I found this on my blogging friend, Drew’s blog! Sidenote funny: For the longest time when I first met him, I thought Drew’s name was ‘Ben’, because, in the online world he goes by ‘benspark’! It’s been a couple years now that I’ve known him, and by now I’ve forgotten the origins of that name!

But I am so glad that I saw that thing on his site, because, I was just saying to my kids recently that I wished there was something like that on which I could mark and see exactly where I’ve been. I know I haven’t been too far, but, I’d still like to ’see’ it!

Momma – did I get it right? Did I leave any out? Can you believe – I almost left out New York!!! My dream trip, people – and my momma took me on it in 2000!! She put off her bathroom remodel just so that she could take me! Is she the absolute coolest, or what?! (And yeah, sometimes I forget some of our childhood trips – or I think I’ve been somewhere I haven’t – or I think my brother slept in a drawer….uh yeah…..I’m a dork, so I try to ask my mom to back up my stories all the time now! LOL)

As I was looking at the list of states, I was thinking, I really need to get to Vermont. That is where the first Burnett landed in this country. Burnett is my maiden name. My dad actually saw where this person signed the book in the town offices. (Eeps – did I get that one right, Momma?) Anyway, we went to Vermont first, so I need to go there.

But I’m dying, nay – salivating, jonesing, praying, hoping, wishing, and dreaming to go back to NYC! I loved it just EVERY. BIT. AS. MUCH. as I thought I would – and more! And it loved me, too! Oh yeah – Momma can back me up on that one, too! Hahaha! The stories, oh the stories!!

So you guys all go make your own maps – then leave the links to where you’ve published them in the comments! Let me see where you’ve been!

Momma – if you wanna do one, too – just send the html code it gives you to me in an email. You’ll have to make it a word doc. as I’m sure the email program on both or either ends will chop it up. And if you do, make two – I know you’ve been out of the country and will make a ‘World’ one, but, I’d like to plainly see all the states you’ve visited, as well! (Now see, I was right, we need to get you blogging!)

I pop bubble wrap at 4.82 bubbles per second! I popped 196 bubbles in 40.7 seconds at www.Virtual-Bubblewrap.com! Can you beat my score?

I need more coffee – I’ve only had one cup so far. Perhaps I’ll do better later. Ha!

Well, more like – CNN made me cry. Well, I think I’ll say it’s both CNN and Obama’s fault! See, by Wednesday, I thought all the crying was over. The announcers and news people kept talking about how on Wednesday it was back to the grindstone. It was all fun and games and celebration on Tuesday, but, on Wednesday, Obama would have to get to work.

And actually, ‘get to work’ is exactly what he did! The problem was that I opened up the CNN website and there on the homepage was this picture:

It was the first time I saw Obama sitting at ‘the desk’. A black man.

A black man.

See what I mean?

Now look, I have half a brain – heck, maybe even 3/4 of a brain. I’m not going to endorse, support, or vote for, some half-wit black man just to get a black man in the Oval Office. That is absolutely not what happened here – so let’s not get started on that tangent. (Yes, I’ve gotten that from my husband several times – I’m getting a bit sensitive about it.)

It’s just like he said in his speech – his own father couldn’t eat in certain restaurants. Wow. Just wow.

And to tell you the truth, I don’t even know if I was allowed to take that photo. Eeps. But could I resist? No way. If a CNN dude happens by and tells me to take it down, I definitely will, but, I’m keeping it for my private collection, just to open up sometimes and look at. Just looking at it fills me with all of the hope Obama talks about.

Politicians weren’t the only ones sweating with nervousness on January 20th! No sir! There were some DC geeks who were probably exhausted and very stressed. They were tasked with completely updating the Whitehouse.gov site and making the changeover right at 12pm, DC time. It went from the ‘George Bush Whitehouse website’ to the ‘Barack Obama Whitehouse website’ right at the moment our new leader was sworn in! (Actually, I think the swearing in ran five minutes late, if I heard the announcers correctly.)

My geek flag was flying high witnessing this and picturing the room in which the magic changeover was occurring! I think I was picturing a scene from Jurassic Park – you know that computer room, and how the dishonest guy was freaking out, or later when the cigarette-smoking guy was freaking out, trying to get everything back online. I was also thinking of some of the episodes of RockStartup, when the team at PayPerPost was undergoing big upgrades and they were all stressed! And I’m sure there were dozens of other movie parts stuck in my head, but, I was definitely picturing the scene – with geeky joy and excitement!

Here is the George Bush Whitehouse website:

(The funny part about this is that I actually still have this page open!! I opened the ‘new’ site in another tab, because, I wanted to keep the GB version live for a little bit. A little bit has since turned into days and I haven’t restarted my laptop since! I usually restart my laptop at least daily! And I have no idea why I am so stuck on this. I get really sentimental about things, is all I can come up with – only, that’s super silly, as I actually voted for Obama! LOL!!)
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Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore have made a really cool video all about how singular American citizens are going to PLEDGE to help Obama – and the nation – out! You’ve got to watch it! Here you go:

The company founded by Ashton, Catalyst Media, teamed up with MySpace to produce the video and encourage community service. There is a MySpace profile all about this movement, called The Presidential Pledge. You can go there now and send them a friend request! They’ve asked that people make their own ‘I Pledge’ videos, too. There are instructions on the Presidential Pledge MySpace page on how to include your own videos!

Ashton was interviewed by Us Magazine and said,

“We are honored to be working with MySpace to rally the entertainment industry to answer President-elect Barack Obama’s call to service,” said Kutcher in a statement. “The Presidential Pledge is a platform for people across the nation and throughout the world to make a first-person commitment of service to our new president, articulating a specific intent or action to become an agent of positive change.”