So I want to study maths again.  The first question I need to deal with is whether to repeat the equivalent courses to those I’ve already done.

I got through quite a lot with the OU:

MST121 – Using mathematics
MS221 – Exploring mathematics
M208 – Pure mathematics

But these were a while ago now – and one thing I know for sure about maths is that if you don’t use it you lose it very quickly indeed.  I studied with the OU from 2003 – 2005 and I’m thinking thats too long ago now for me to head straight back in where I left off.

So I think I’ll just start off where I likely would have if I was just leaving school.  The added restriction is the availability of courses extramurally.

So here’s my list to try and work out which courses to do when!

Course – Semesters – prerequisites

160.101 Calculus I – 2/double/3 – none
160.102 Linear Mathematics – 1 – none
160.203 Calculus II – 1 – 160.101
160.204 Differential Equations I – 2 – 160.101
160.211 Applied Linear Algebra – 2 – 160.102
160.212 Discrete Mathematics – 1 – 160.101 or 160.102

Tricky.  The only paper available in Semester 3 (summer school) is 160.101.  Which means taking 160.102 in Semester 1, then 160.211 in Semester 2.  So I guess thats the plan!

Before you become an Android developer you will need:

- to have previous knowledge about Java (J2SE is enough)
- a PC with Windows or Linux, or a Macintosh, with a nice processor (Please, read the System Requirements)
- desire to learn about an exciting platform =)

Good, but what I have to install?

Ok, the necessary tools are listed below…

#1 – Java SDK

I recommend Java SDK 1.5 or later. Download it at Sun’s oficial page HERE.
After download it, configure Java correctly. Try THIS LINK if you are using Linux or THIS LINK if you are using Windows.

Note: If you are on Mac OS X Leopard, don’t worry about Java configuration. It is already done. =)

#2 – Android SDK

Humm, this interests us. It’s highly recommended to you to save this address: http://developer.android.com. This is the official Android’s developers page. In this address you can read some articles, make SDK downloads, research about some Android classes and much more. Well, for downloading Android SDK go to THIS ADDRESS, and download the version relative to your operating system.

In the truth the Android SDK by itself does not need installation. It is a zip file with many folders and files inside it. Unzip the Android SDK and go to the next step…

#3 – Eclipse IDE

Eclipse is highly recommended to program in Android. Download the most recent version of Eclipse HERE. Download Eclipse IDE for Java Developers for your platform:

#4 – ADT Plugin

ADT Plugin is required to integrate your Eclipse with the Android SDK. You can download it from Eclipse. More instructions about how to install ADT Plugin, please read THIS.

#4 – FINISH

Well done! Now you can start to program in this fantastic and exciting platform! Good luck!

Followers of this blog know that I have devoted a series of posts to blocking writer’s block and other creative blocks.  But the most common blocks don’t concern projects that are creative, but tasks that are onerous.  These are usually tasks that feel extremely uncreative and yet are difficult, daunting, impossible to begin.

I have developed a number of strategies to deal with such onerous projects:

1.  Close your eyes and wish for as long as possible that the project will just go away. You’ll be amazed how often, with enough procrastination,  a  project will simply be mooted, no longer relevant.  (Christmas cards are, of course, a prime example.  Though the worst case I ever had was with a wedding present I delayed sending long enough for the couple to break up.)

This strategy even works with projects that are not time-sensitive.   Take a cluttered closet that houses, in its depths, scads of missing clothes—time doesn’t make the clutter go away, but usually other demands surface, new clothes are purchased, pounds are put on—suddenly the disorder in the closet just doesn’t seem to matter.

2. Involve someone else.  Often you will still be the person who ends up doing the work, but you’ll at least have someone to witness the work, and, hopefully, to listen to you kvetch.  If it’s that cluttered closet you are working on, you can also ask them for permission to throw your things out.  (Generally, if it’s a good, useful, sort of person, they will be quite willing to have you throw your old stuff out.)

3.  Sugarcoat the bullet.  Sometimes you just can’t put a task off any longer; i.e. the tension of procrastination and insecurity has gotten way more uncomfortable than any amount of despairing but determined slogging away.

You have to bite the bullet. And yet you just can’t bear to clamp down.

Some kind of sugarcoating of the bullet may be required.  This should be a pampering that will make the task easier,  but won’t cause further delay.    (Don’t say, for example, I’ll just take a nap first. And don’t spend a couple of hours, shopping for items that will supposedly make your work oh so much easier.)

If your task is relatively mindless, listening to an audiobook or pod cast can make the work palatable.  If the task does demand a lot of your mind, try listening to music or an audiobook that you know too well to find fully distracting.  (Or, for example, the audio, with only occasional glimpses of the visuals, of a Robert Pattinson trailer.)

Remember that the point of all this is to create a distraction, but a mild one–a distraction that does not take you away from the work, but from your resistance to the work.

(Not the TV.)

4.  Just do it.  I hate to paraphrase a corporate slogan.  Still, once you’ve shut your eyes, delayed, given up on involving anyone, and used up all the sugar you have and still haven’t been able to get it to stick to the bullet,  just make yourself begin.  Momentum is a physical reality, but it can only kick into gear when you do.

There are five sets of attributes or “stats” that characters in Warcraft use to determine their basic abilities. Some stats are more important than others depending upon the class you are playing. These five stats are: strength, agility, stamina, intellect, and spirit. All combat mechanics depend upon these attributes. The biggest question I hear from new players is, “what stats should I concentrate on for my character?” If you’re just starting out, use the following guidelines when evaluating gear. I’ve listed the classes below along with the two or three stats you should concentrate on when leveling.

Death Knight: strength, stamina

Druid (feral spec): strength, agility, stamina;
Druid (balance or restoration spec): intellect, stamina

Hunter: agility, stamina, intellect

Mage: intellect, stamina

Paladin (holy spec): stamina, intellect;
Paladin (protection or retribution spec): strength, stamina

Priest: intellect, spirit, stamina

Rogue: agility, stamina

Shaman (elemental or restoration spec): intellect, stamina;
Shaman (enhancement spec): strength, agility, stamina

Warlock: intellect, stamina

Warrior: strength, agility, stamina

There are other stats you will see on gear besides these but concentrating on these stats will get you on a firm footing for your character. The biggest mistake I see beginners make besides having the wrong base stats on gear is confusing “attack power” and “spell power.” Just yesterday in Stormwind I saw a level 34 hunter with +spell power on the shoulders they were wearing. Hunters gain absolutely nothing from +spell power gear.

The following classes benefit from +attack power gear: Death Knight, Druid (feral spec), Hunter, Paladin (protection or retribution spec), Rogue, Shaman (enhancement spec), and Warrior.

These classes benefit from +spell power gear: Druid (balance or restoration spec), Mage, Paladin (holy spec), Priest, Shaman (elemental or restoration spec), and Warlock.

Keep these attributes in mind for your character class and your leveling experience will be a lot easier.

Taking the first step is usually the most challenging part in any new endeavor.  Embarking on a career as a Voiceover Talent is no different.  Where do I start?  Who do I contact?  How do I cut a demo?  Who do I send it to?  These are all valid questions, and you will find answers to them as you progress in your career.  However, when it comes to Voiceover work, the first thing everyone must prepare for is how to deal with rejection.

Most people who get involved in Voiceovers do so because all their friends and family told them how great their voice was and how they could make a killing doing commercials, movie trailers, etc.  While that may be true, it will take a while to get there.  Unlike family and friends, Casting Directors, Producers, and other industry executives only care about the finished product.  And when faced with the task of choosing between criticism of your talent and getting the product exactly the way they want it, well, they’ll choose the latter every time.  The key for the vocal talent is to not take it personally.  It doesn’t mean your voice is of poor quality, it just means your voice did not match what they were looking for.  If you can accept this fact, and commit to relentlessly auditioning, then you have taken your first step.

Then next step is to find your “money” voice.  This is the voice that you feel the most comfortable with when delivering the script.  It’s a voice that you can do at any time, even when you’re standing on your head during an earthquake.  Often, it will not be your natural speaking voice.  Starting out, you may want to avoid the temptation of trying to develop too many voices.  It is better to develop a single voice that you can do with absolute consistency, and then move on from there if you feel the need.

Lastly, it may be helpful to check out some websites and listen to a sampling of people who are currently working in the industry.  Two such sites are:

www.voices.com

www.voice123.com

Listen to their demos, review their feedback, and start making your plan.

Before I moved to New Zealand I had been studying for a Bachelor of Arts degree by distance learning with the UK’s Open University.  I was studying primarily mathematics, which as a topic has nothing to do with my worklife at all, perhaps why I enjoyed it so much. It stretched my brain in ways work doesn’t. Most importantly it was a completely individual pursuit.  Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy working with people. But I spend my workdays in a long parade of meetings – negotiating, pursuading, managing, etc.  So when it comes to studying, I particularly enjoy having complete control over my own study, and having the outcomes of that study being entirely the result of my own efforts.

When I arrived in NZ I couldn’t find an equivalent of the OU.  I looked at the Open Polytechnic, but it had no real maths courses.  I also looked at Victoria University of Wellington, but there seemed to be no distance learning option, and much as I’d love to give up work and study fulltime, I don’t think that really an option at the moment (I’ll keep getting those Lotto tickets just in case though).

After a while I gave up looking for an equivalent course, I got distracted by other things and even ended up doing some work related study.  Interestingly though, this did not provide anything like the same level of relaxation I had previously found from studying – in fact I just felt as though I was bringing work home with me.

Finally a couple of weeks ago, a friend mentioned Massey University to me.  I looked at their website, and realised that I could continue my studies there as an extramural student.

I’m thinking perhaps a Bachelor of Arts with a mathematics major.

I have previously used thebump.com to keep a photo journal of my pregnancy.  With baby almost here, I was looking for something Tom and I could use to share our journey as our little family begins to grow.

I will be 39 weeks tomorrow!  Every day I wake up and think today could be the day we meet Lilah…but for now she seems to be comfy in my tummy.   I have become increasingly uncomfortable in this last month.  Up until this time I haven’t really had too many complaints, but now I seem to be grumbling a lot more when trying to put on my socks, getting in and out of the car, and trying to find a comfortable position for sleeping.

This morning I went to my weekly prenatal class at Blooma.  This class has been a great experience for me.  I hadn’t previously been much of a yoga person, but this has been a great time to recenter and focus on me and baby.  We work a lot with breathing and relaxing and I am hoping this will be helpful during labor.  At the beginning of each class we go around and introduce ourselves, tell everyone our due date and comment about the topic for that day.  Today we were talking about nurturing.  When my turn came it went something like this…”my name is Casie, I am due in about a week and up until the past couple days I have felt like I have been very nurturing to baby, but lately…I…(insert tears, tears and some more tears)…”  I could not hold back my emotions and the tears just started coming!  I kept talking to say that the previous few days had been filled with a lot of negative thoughts about how I am going to be able to handle labor and that I am starting to feel more anxious and afraid than relaxed and strong.  Luckily, I was surrounded by all pregnant women that seemed to understand where I was coming from and (hopefully) weren’t judging that I was an emotional mess.  They had some great supportive things to say and I used todays class to recenter and try to regain some of the positive thoughts and energy that I have been lacking lately. 

It has been good for me to share these fears with Tom.  There are times when he can tell I am overwhelmed with anxiety about what is about to come in the next week.  Sometimes I question whether I will be able to stick with my plan of natural birth.  I guess I cannot say for sure that I will, since there are so many things that can happen during the labor experience…but it is my plan as of now and I am banking on my strength as well as Toms for us to get through it!  Ohhh this is going to be an amazing experience! 

SO SOON!!!

Below are thebump.com journal entries that I have previously written.   As you can tell, at about 20 weeks my motivation for journaling tapered.   

Positive Pregnancy Test
April 5th, 2009
I always imagined that once I was pregnant, I would be creative in the way that I told Tom the wonderful news. I even had a special picture frame a friend gave me, that was going to be part incorporated into the surprise. I did not realize how much uncertainty there would be…and instead of a cute creative surprise for Tom…it turned out to be him and I, standing in the kitchen, squinting at two pregnancy tests and ME asking HIM, “what is that?! Is that a line?” With his response being, “I think so, what does that mean?” I told him it would mean that I was pregnant, but I said it in such a confused way that neither him nor I were convinced that I actually was.  Because I took the test on the first day I was supposed to get my period, the line was very very faint.  So there I was the next day, at the dollar store, purchasing 6 pregnancy tests.  I figured 1 per day was a good number.

I called my doctor that day to fill them in on my confusion. The conversation went something like this: Nurse: “Nursing line how can I help you?” Casie: “Yes, ah, I am calling, ah, because I think I might be pregnant and I don’t know what to do.” (Silence) Nurse: “Ok, why do you THINK you are pregnant?” Casie: “Well I was supposed to get my period yesterday and I have taken 4 pregnancy tests that are all positive.” Nurse (I’m sure wondering how dense I could be): “Well that means you are pregnant.” Casie: “Really?” (Still not convinced) “Ok, what do I do now?” After a few more questions, and endless “Congratulations!” and “How exciting!” comments from the nurse, she let me know that I was at 4 weeks and that I should schedule an appt for when I reached 6 weeks to come in and talk with a nurse practitioner. The reassurance from the nurse convinced me a little bit that I MIGHT be pregnant, but it was really through 11 more pregnancy tests the following two weeks (hey, they are only a DOLLAR!) that started to get me really excited. Each one with a line a little darker than the last. Ofcourse, I kept them all too, because how cool is it to line them up and see the progression of that line…from a faint “I-wonder-if-that’s-even-a-line” line, to a line that almost beats the original line in darkness!

8 Weeks
May 9th, 2009
The first few days of this week were miserable. From the moment I woke up I was sleepy, nauseous and overall miserable. I felt emotional and all I could do was motivate myself at work with little goals to get through the day. Even with that, I was a zombie by 3:30pm each day and just wanted to crash. Yesterday was the first day in awhile that I have woken up and felt “great”. I could tell from my morning run that it was going to be a good day. Instead of focusing on each step I was able to notice everything around me…the beautiful sunrise coming over the downtown skyline, all the birds and squirrels…and I saw a huge hawk! Everything seemed so peaceful and the run was easy. After work my Mom and I met up in Edina and browsed through Hot Mama maternity clothes. I am very excited for when I start showing and can wear some cute maternity tops. I am still a little weirded out by the maternity jeans and bottoms with the elastic waist…but I will deal with that when I come to it. On Monday (9weeks) Tom and I will start documenting on a weekly basis with pictures of my tummy. This seems a little odd to me still as well, but I think it is so cool in the end to see the progression of a pregnant belly! I am starting to look into good places to go for maternity consignment items, so if anyone has any suggestions, please do share!

9 1/2 Weeks
May 13th, 2009
This week has been going pretty smoothly so far. The biggest challenge has been sticking with my workout routine. When my alarm goes off at 5:00am, getting up and out the door is very very hard. Even though it is annoying, it helps that the cat goes crazy when the alarm goes off and paws at my head to wake up. I realize that I am not going to get good sleep anyway, so it helps me make my way to the kitchen… Today I just feel weird. My stomach feels funny and almost everything I think about to eat does not sound good. I walked to the grocery store on my lunch break and settled on some oatmeal. My usual turkey sandwich makes my stomach churn when I think about it. Monday night Tom and I put an offer in on a home in St. Louis Park. It would be a great home for us to start a family in and has enough room for someday when we have more than one kid. It definitely needs some work, but the price is right…so hopefully we will be hearing more soon on what the seller thinks of our offer. Monday night was also a big night because Tom and I went to a Bruce Springsteen concert with a couple friends. Tom pointed out that it was baby’s first concert. It was a great show. His friend got us a limo and tickets for our wedding present. Even though it was a looooong day and night of being out on the town, it was worth it…we had a ton of fun. I was completely spent the next day, so it was nice that I had previously taken the day off of work (anticipating that I might have had a few drinks at the concert). So I got to get some good rest yesterday. My best friend, Molly, is getting married on Saturday!! I have been looking forward to this SO MUCH. I am a bridesmaid. Her dresses for the bridesmaids are perfect for a little bloated belly. Other than that, I am just really looking forward to our appointment on 06/01 for our 12-week check up!!

11 Weeks Tomorrow!
May 25th, 2009
The past couple weeks have pretty much been the same routine: Get up at 5:00am to workout, work at 8am, spend a few hours with Tom after work and then crashing at 8:30pm. The amount of time I spend sleeping is a bit frustrating, but nothing feels better lately! Today was a beautiful day. Tom and I slept in until about 11am and then headed out for a walk to Lake Calhoun to meet a friend at the beach. I told Tom before we left that it would take 45 minutes to walk from our apt to the beach. An hour and a half later we met up with Katie. She offered to give us a ride home, but we were up for the long walk back….until about 45 minutes into our walk back when my hips started to ache the walk became a bit challenging. We made it back, 8 miles later, with a good workout and great farmers tans…and crashed on the couch for a bit. This week I ordered a few belly bands which I’m hoping will come in handy with making some of my work clothes a bit more comfortable. Overall I have been wearing skirts and dresses which have been nice and roomy. I have already gotten some great clothes from my aunt Denise and Michelle. This will be great as I get along to the later weeks. Yesterday I went out to Hutchinson to spend some time at my grandparents. My grandpa and Grandma were both very excited about becoming great grandparents. My aunt Michelle gave me some TINY TINY newborn diapers. I showed Tom when I got home, it is amazing how tiny they are! It is hard to believe that in a little over 6 months there will be a little baby in them!! Only 8 more days until our week 12 doctors appointment!

12 Weeks
June 1st, 2009
This weekend was a big weekend for Tom and I. Saturday we moved from St. Louis Park to St. Paul to live in Tom’s Grandma’s upper duplex. It will be a great spot to be while we are looking for a house. So most of the weekend consisted of packing, moving and unpacking. Yesterday we found a listing for a house in Minnetonka that we went to check out. Turns out it would be a great fit for us, so we put an offer on it this morning. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE!! This would be a great location, size and it even has a baby room all set! The couple who are there now moved there 6 years ago when they were expecting, so maybe they will lean towards our offer since they know we are execting as well. Wouldnt that be nice… Then after a pregnant power nap (“power” as in 2 hours), we headed to our second dcctor’s appointment. WEEK 12 today!! This time we got to meet with my main OBGYN. It was exciting to share the news with her since I have been seeing her for so long…she knows a lot of my past and was very excited for Tom and I. Towards the end of the appt she found the babies heartbeat. It made me so nervous to feel her try to find the heartbeat. All I could hear on the moniter was mine, and then suddenly a very rapid beat could be heard…THERE IS A BABY IN THERE!! It was very overwhelming and exciting and wonderful. And ofcourse to be able to turn and see Tom there and excited was amazing. I feel like up until today I have been bogged down by the physical side of the pregnancy (tired, nauseated, etc), but being able to hear the baby cleared all of those negative thoughts and gave me a strong reminder of why my body is going through all of these changes…so worth it!! I bought my first pair of maternity pants. Not entirely because I needed them, but because I needed a new pair of summer capris and why not be as comfortable as possible and be able to wear them all summer? They are super comfy. The doctor gave me the go ahead to keep running, which I am thrilled about. Even though I havent been and wasnt planning on doing the distances I have in the past, I still love running and now with being in St. Paul, close to Summit, I’m sure I will take full advantage of it. And HEY, if Charlotte in Sex and the City can do it, why can’t I? haha Thanks Molls… Our next appointment is at 16 weeks on June 29th. After that we have the Birth Center Tour at Abbott on July 8th. Very exciting!

16 Weeks 5 Days
July 4th, 2009
The past 4 weeks have brought a bit of relief for me. The nausea and exhaustion I was feeling before have subsided for the most part. Last night I even stayed up until 11:30pm! I do have my days though, where all I can think about at work is getting home and crawling into bed. Since I have been able to stay up longer, this means I have been able to spend a little more time with Tom, which has been very nice. Last weekend we went to St. Cloud because he was participating in a basketball tournament withi some high school friends, called Star of the North. It was a lot of fun to see him play basketball. It was my first time seeing him play and turned out to be a very fun weekend. It was also nice to have a minuature getaway since it is probably going to be quiet some time before we actually do get away! We were thinking of going on a little trip for our 1 year anniversary coming up on Auguest 2nd, but we are now closing on our house July 22nd and moving on August 1st. What could be better that moving into our first home on our first anniversary! The last month has been nervewracking with our offer being placed on the house in Minnetonka and then going back and forth with the sellers to make a deal that worked. Only a few weeks and we will be closing the deal! I am so excited to get settled and be able to then start looking more a baby stuff to get prepared. Speaking of which, Tom and I were talking last night about how we are going to be able to fogure out what the heck we actually need to buy to get prepared for baby. How are we supposed to know what and how many and what kind of things we are even supposed to be looking at? It seems overwhelming…this morning I looked through a book my Mom gave me and found a whole chapter with checklists of the necessary items and items to hold off on. I think this should be quiet helpful. I was a little stressed about it last night. This past Monday I had my 16 week follow up with the doctor. She went over all my lab results from the previous time which were all good, then she made sure everything felt ok and I got to listen to the baby’s heartbeat again. Amazing even the second time! She also let me know when there were sounds of the baby moving, which was super cool. I cannot wait until our ultrasound on July 29th! Yesterday I got to see Avery,,,besides the fact that she is a beautiful little one…it was very strange holding a baby and thinking that the end result of this pregnancy is a real live baby! hahah that probably sounds strange, but it feels different when you are holding one and telling yourself that this is what you are going to have in your arms come December. Well, for some reason everyone keeps telling me that they think I am going to have a girl. I think everyone is telling Tom that they think I am going to have a boy. So we are mixed on that level, but I am not sure what makes people have these opinions anyway? One very scientific reasoning from a coworker (when I asked why she thought I was going to have a girl), was that I looked cute that day. I thought that was an interesting method. Sometimes before bed I try to think about it a lot and will my body to tell me in a dream what it is going to be. There has been only one night where I was holding a baby in my dream and it was a girl. So who knows what that means, but I do know I would be perfectly happy with either, I am only hoping for a healthy little baby. Even though my running is been becoming a bit harder these days, I am still trying to make it out when I can. I love being able to enjoy the weather and the time around the Summit, Mississippi river area. It is so beautiful around here in the summer. Yesterday I did a 5 mile circuit run by the river. At this point it only takes me 3 minutes of running to get winded, so I have been doing 3 minutes of running and 2 minutes of walking. It feels nice and balanced this way. That is all for now, Im sure the next time I write will be on the 29th when we find out the sex!!!

17 Weeks 5 Days
July 11th, 2009
I think I am actually really starting to look pregnant… Today when I was running a man on the path said good job for getting out and running as I passed. I can only assume, good job for getting out even though you are pregnant…unless he compliments every runner as they pass. Either way I could definitely feel and see my tummy on my run today. T-18 days until we find out BOY or GIRL!!!!

21 Weeks 3 Days
August 6th, 2009
IT’S A GIRL!!! Tom and I had our ultrasound this past week. We found out that baby is healthy and that we are having a baby girl! It was an amazing day to be able to see her and watch her move. Amazing!! Her name is Lilah Christine Laughlin. Due date is still December 14th.

Over the years I’ve helped several people prepare, compile, format and print family histories. You can avoid many problems if you start simple and right. There are many things you need to know about. However, let’s not start by overwhelming you or “dumping the whole load.” We will try and do this one step at a time with several blog articles. We’ll eat this family history elephant one spoonful at a time.

Major Goal - Start by using the right software and saving money.

All word processing programs are not created equal! I can promise that most of them are going to give you a migraine headache before you finish your project. Unfortunately, the pain is not going to strike until later after you’ve invested much time and effort. We could easily refer to this as a real “Attack of the Heart!” 

 Here’s one of my “Marlo’s Minefield Warnings.” You will not be able to lock or anchor your photos on the pages in your book no matter how hard you try. You will not discover this problem until you create the PDFs from which your book will be created by a printing company.  Two expensive solutions are to purchase a costly desktop publishing software (several hundred dollars) or to have a professional format and prepare your book for printing (a loan from the bank) .

Solution #1 - Get and learn to use Open Office (OO)

Six months ago I downloaded and started playing around with Open Office. I didn’t feel I had time to learn to use another word processor but since the program / download was free I couldn’t resist messing around with another program. I hoped to find an inexpensive alternative to help my friends and our users publish a family history. I’ve not been impressed with the “automatic” types of programs that sort of combine names, dates and locations into a pseudo family history. Very boring, not motivational and very impersonal - not my idea of a history or something to impose on my children and grandchildren. I want my grandchildren to love me and not have to resist reading grandpa’s old boring stuff.

WOW! OO  really impressed me! Not only was it free but it offered so many additional options perfect for formatting a family history. I have a solution at the end of the blog you will like. Please don’t let the following list snow you under:

1. Comes with a built-in PDF creator
2. Free add-on PDF module that allows you to edit PDFs
3. One, two (or more) columns formats
4. Page numbering 
5. Mirror margins
6. Text flowing around photos
7. Headers and footers
8. Hyperlinks
9. Automated table of contents
10. Index (if you want to do one) 
11. Much more

Solution #2 Saving Money

Open Office is FREE! You read correctly. All you skeptics (I’m one) are thinking what’s the catch? It must be full of spyware -NO. It must be a cut down or a crippled version to entice you to buy the expensive “Real” version - NO.  You can read more about OOs growth and development here.

Some of you will be getting a new computer during the holidays, or because of all the great deals, or maybe your one-eyed monster (computer) needs to be retired.  You will be faced with the decision of purchasing a new word processing system since the computer will probably come with a trial period word processor.

 I challenge you to download Open Office. You will save a bunch of money (so you can add more RAM to your computer) and you will feel right at home using Open Office (OO). It will also read and write other word processing files so you don’t have to worry about all the documents you already have created with those two other word processors. You will also be able to easily create PDFs.

Download Open Office

The Good News!

I’ve started to create a family history book template for use with OO. I hope to release the templates at the Mesa, Arizona Family History Expo, January 22 – 23. My goal is to do all the hard stuff (formatting, page numbers, margins, table of contents, etc) so you can concentrate your efforts on compiling and writing your history instead of fighting with the software.

I will also write another blog explaining how Heritage Collector will help you organize and find the photos you want to use in your book. This was the initial reason we created Heritage Collector (Previously called Photo Collector). We discovered one of the more difficult struggles was finding the scanned photos to be used in a history. I will also show you how easy Heritage Collector can help you create a self-running CD/DVD to go in the cover of your history containing a narrated sideshow, all the photos used in the book and a searchable PDF of the history. This is really fun stuff and helps get the younger geeks (today’s computer wizards) interested in learning and reading your family history.

Consult Chapter 7, Creating a Bound History, in the Digital Family History Guidebook for more information about preparing and printing a family history.

FINAL TIP: Start writing some fun and interesting stories. Let your creative juices flow by NOT worrying about finding photos, formatting or organizing the content. Just get the fun and important stories  into your computer on paper using a pen or pencil as your input device. It will be worth it and you will be amazed how interested your family will become. So keep your project a secret and don’t let them read any of it until you are ready but drop hints to increase the intrigue!

Please refer to the Easier Scanning blog before you start scanning photos for your book.

I’ve taught many scanning classes and  I’ve answered many questions. I will offer more scanning suggestions and tips as this blog grows – just a spoonful at a time.

Here’s a scanning tip I consider the most important.

Scan all images using the following settings:

Image Size = 8 x 10 inches or 10 x 8 inches depending on the shape of the photo.

TIP – When scanning only enter one half of the image size number (8 or 10) and then click in the other image size box. The scanning software will automatically compute the other number keeping your image proportional. This will avoid creating distorted photos of tall / skinny or short / fat relatives! Be nice – this is not the way to get even with uncle Herman.

Resolution / DPI = 150 -350 DPI depending on the quality of the photo.

TIP: Avoid using a high DPI on poor quality images. All you will get is a very large image file with no improvement in image quality.

TIP: You are using your scanner as an enlarger. You will need to use the advanced settings option in your scanner in order to change the output or image target size as recommended above.

WHY? I know you all think I’m nuts!  In my classes I always get raised eyebrows or eyes rolled up toward the ceiling (like my kids used to do) until the attendees (too old to be students) hear the following reasons.

Most of us have no idea how we will be using our scanned images in the future. Don’t make the typical mistake of thinking your computer is magic and will allow you to stretch or enlarge photos later.

TIP: Stretching photos is a great trick for making scary Halloween photos with the pointed teeth, funny looking eyes with a little pixelization thrown for a spooky appearance - be nice to uncle Herman.

Someday you may decide to create a beautiful hardbound book, print out a calendar or engage in another project requiring large photos. Photos are never larger than 8 x 10 inches in a family history book so your scans will enhance interest and help create a professional looking book. You will be able to “shrink” your large scans to the desired size with a minimal amount of image quality loss for use on other pages in the book or calendar.

Don’t worry about filling up your hard drive with large image files. Move your scans to an external drive or to CD/DVDs for storage later use.

You may only have one change to scan some old photos so please do it right the first time!!

Need more scanning help? Purchase my Easier Scanning Tutorials or consult chapter two, “Easier Scanning,” in the Digital Family Guidebook that also comes in PDF with Heritage Collector.

Test Runs

Goal: 500 Calories burned

Result: 500 Calories burned (approx 3.41 miles)

Song of the Day:

Stick Out Ya Wrist – Nelly (w/Toya), XXX Soundtrack

So I’ve semi-decided where I’m going to go from here now that the Walk to Run Program is over.  To see how well that’s going to work, I’ve decided to do a series of Test Runs targeting various things.  The results of these runs will determine my heading for the next 3 months or so.

Today was interesting.  31 degrees out.  Brrrr…  Some moron had watered his lawn in the middle of the day.  I laughed as I ran by it and saw it all frozen.  Luckily, not much water on the roads so there was only one area I had to be careful in while running to make sure to go around the ice.  Should be interesting from now on.  We’ll see how much longer I can go in the neighborhood before I have to find somewhere else to run. 

Field work is perhaps one of the main things that drive students towards a career in archaeology.  What could be more fun than digging in the dirt and making discoveries? Field schools are usually six-week long summer training programs that teach undergrad and graduate students the main techniques for digging.  They give you hands-on experience in being an archaeologist. Field schools are not always all fun and games, however.  Being outside for six weeks, rain or shine, with the same group of people can be trying.  But in the end, it is a worthwhile experience and strong friendships are often formed.

While it is useful to have a field school experience in your undergrad years, there are opportunities available for people of all ages. You can choose to participate in a local dig, or you can travel to a different part of the world. Here are some suggestions for opportunities for students or volunteers.

· If enrolled as a student, check with the archaeology department at your university or other local universities.

· Contact a local historical or archaeological society.

· Contact a museum.

· Shovel Bums

· Archaeology Fieldwork

More and more it is expected to have your master’s degree in order to advance your career in archaeology. While a bachelor’s degree in archaeology or anthropology is preferred, many schools accept students from many different majors. There are many programs out there, it is just a matter of choosing one that fits your own personal needs and goals. Every school is different, and it may be helpful to have an idea of what career field, geographic region, or time period you are interested in before applying to graduate schools.  This way, you can compare your interests and goals with those of the professors and choose a school that may have a specific program for you.  One great website that can help you find the right graduate school is gradschools.com.  Specifically, the website for archaeology grad schools can be foundhere
.

While this produces a very extensive and useful list, there is one school that I know of in particular that is not on this list.  It is Indiana University of Pennsylvania, and they have created a brand new M.A. program in Applied Archaeology.  The first semester began in Fall 2009, and I am a student here. IUP is located in rural Indiana, Pennsylvania, and it is a well-known public university with a strong undergraduate archaeology program.  The M.A. program is in its first year and accepts students from a wide variety of specialties.  The professors are very knowledgeable with a great deal of real world experience in archaeological research and programs. The school boasts state-of-the-art facilities in the IUP Archaeological Services lab, which has provided technical assistance for agencies across the state.

oProgramWebsite

oArchaeological Services website

Non-profits are always looking for volunteers. So if there’s a non-profit you would like to work at, try volunteering there first. In this economy, it’s tough to get a full-time job at many organizations, but if you prove your worth to them doing volunteer work, they may want to hire you. Alexandra Levit landed her job by volunteering first. Beware: she cautions that larger non-profits are the most likely to hire you.

“Drama is life with the dull bits cut out” – Alfred Hitchcock

Starting to Write

There is no science to finding out what is a good subject for a play or a piece of theatre. The best thing is to go out and stimulate your imagination. Make discoveries through watching and listening to what is around you and what is tucked away in the back of your mind.

Task: Go to a public place and listen to the conversations around you. Try to capture a conversation word for word. Aim to write down as much as can, at least two sides of A4. Public transport is always good  for overhearing people – trains, buses or trams or you could try cafes, waiting rooms or bars.

When you get home have a look at the dialogue you’ve got. Which bits make you ask questions when you read them? How could you edit it, change or add material to it to make it into a scene? Imagine that you want to write this scene in a way which will draw your audience. Think about how this scene might start to tell a story.

When you’ve written your scene, either post it on our website or invite some friends to perform it with you, film it and post it onto our website. You can share it with other people and discuss it.

I really can’t decide on a “theme.” I actually don’t like anything and want something completely personalized to ME. So, please hang in there if you happen onto this site (because I am not exactly broadcasting that I am writing – still scared, I know, I know) and can’t stand that I keep changing it. I will settle with something… it just might not be until this weekend.

One problem I had when I first started programming is that I never could finish a game. I would have a great idea for a really fun and complicated game, I would start making the game but then either I got stuck, didn’t know what to do next, or knew what to do next just didn’t know how to do it. So I would stop making that game and start working on another game until the same things happened again. And then guess what I would do next, the same old thing!!! Again, and again, and again, are you getting the picture?

I was doing nothing wrong, at least not in the programming aspect (well actually there was a whole bunch in the programing aspect, that’s why I got stuck). But outside of the programming aspect I had a whole bunch of problems.

I was trying to make games that I wasn’t ready to make which really was my main problem; face it I was not ready to make Civilizations III, or II for that matter. I needed to get down to the basics and start all over with a program that said, “Hello World!”, (well maybe I was a little better than that). But the point I’m trying to make is I needed to get back down to my skill level, which is not making Civilizations III!

I also didn’t diagram my games which is a very important part in making a game, (after all if you don’t know what you are going make how can you make it). I needed to sit down and figure out every aspect of the game. Instead I sat down and started making the game.

But to be honest with you I don’t quite sit down and figure everything out, but I also don’t just sit down and start programming, I do kind of in between, I sit down figure out all the main aspects of the game and make the rest up on the go.

I did it!!!!!  Did you hear me roar all the way from central Virginia??

As some of you know, I participated in NaNoWriMo in November – tackling the feat of writing 50,000 words (more than I had ever written) of a book during the month of November.  ”Winning” was simply a matter of crossing the finish line – getting to 50k by Day 30.  For me, it was like running a long race, with the same feelings of excitement, fatigue, despair, loneliness AND camaraderie, hope, momentum, more despair, wondering if the end would ever come, and, finally, triumph.  I did it as part of my quest to find my calling, and I learned a lot about myself, writing and working on something important.

How to write a book – or accomplish YOUR dream:

1. Recruit – or find – a support team.  What a happy accident!  While writing is normally a solitary activity, I recruited two members of my writers’ group to join me as fellow WriMos (as they call participants), both to validate this crazy activity and to provide emotional support during this project.   Both of my friends helped me stay motivated during those long nights staring at an empty computer screen.  And the forums on the NaNoWriMo site provided so many ‘virtual’ teammates, from the WriMos moaning about just getting started a week before month end (!) to the WriMos suggesting that one’s main character develop a stutter (in order to get word counts up) or suggesting that characters break into song (nine hundred ninety-nine bottles of beer on the wall generates a LOT of words!).  A team makes you laugh and distracts you from the desolation of writer’s block (or whatever creative block you’re facing) and also whups your behind when you’re lollygagging.  Having a team mate can generate those competitive juices.  When one of my friends sent out the jubilant email announcing the completion of her book, it motivated me to finish MINE on time.
2. Know – and feel confident with – WHY you’re doing this crazy thing: A few people asked me ‘why are you doing this?’  I completely understood their confusion.  With no payoff, little likelihood of publication (of course, that’s the next ridiculous dream . . .), and a virtual guarantee of crap as the final product, attempting this made no sense – if you’re motivated by money, publication, or only producing the highest quality product.  But, for me, doing NaNoWriMo meant getting into the habit of writing every day, pushing myself to produce, even if my muse just didn’t feel like it, and becoming part of a community of writers.  For me, these 3 things are important hallmarks of a writer.  And knowing – and feeling confident with – my own reason for doing this crazy thing helped me face and answer the doubts and incredulity of nonbelievers.
3. Don’t let perfect get in the way of the good. If I had set the objective of writing perfect chapters, I would still be staring at Page 1 of my book.  The wonderful thing about a contest that was all about quantity and not at all about quality was that my inner editor – sometimes known as that inner control freak – didn’t have anything to edit or control.  And, when you let your wild, chaotic, uninhibited self free of your inner editor/inner control freak, sometimes what comes out is surprising, amazing, hilarious, entertaining, productive and GOOD!  Let the editor/control freak come out later for quality checks, but let the wild child have its chance first.
4. Have fun! There were times – a LOT of times, when I just didn’t think I had anything else to say, when the words dried up, when I felt that my plot was even boring ME so what was the point of continuing?  And I’d feel sorry for myself.  But, sometimes, I would just say, well, heck with it, if I’m going to do this, I might as well entertain myself.  Thus, great stretches of my book are filled with ridiculous puns, inside jokes, cliches and truisms.  And when I wrote those sections, I laughed my head off, and the energy of the story shows how much I was enjoying myself.  And, surprisingly, some of those sections weren’t bad.
5. Take risks, experiment.  I learned about a program called ‘Write or Die’ during my 30 day project.  It’s a program that allows you to type in a word count or time goal, then emits a sequence of warnings when your typing speed dips below the target rate, until the final warning – and then the program eats all the words you’ve typed.  When I used that program, I could knock out something like 700 words in 30 minutes.  What productivity.  The other risk I took was letting my characters follow paths that were a bit unexpected or untraditional.  Some of my best plot turns came from these experiments.
6. A little karma can help.  I noticed that many of the users sporting haloes (yes, angel haloes, signifying they had donated money to the website to support the cause) seemed to have higher than average word counts.  Wanting to leave no stone unturned, I sent in my donation.  And here I am.
7. No excuses, just do it.  So many people did this in the midst of finals, while caring for children, while working long hours.  So many people had a 10K or 20K or even 30k or 40K deficit a week before the month ended.  And they all just did it, and reading the stories of crossing the finish line will make you realize that anything is possible.

SO – try!  risk!  DO!

Question: anyone else working on their dream, either a little at a time, or in 30 (or 40) day chunks?  How is YOUR effort going?  Any lessons learned?

As always, if you liked this post, please consider sharing with a friend:

NaNoWriMo status: Winna, winna, chicken dinner!  Woohoo!

Since it costs a lot to win, and even more to lose,

You and me bound to spend some time wondering what to choose.

Goes to show, you don’t ever know.

Watch each card you play and play it slow.

Wait until that deal come ‘round.

Don’t you let that deal go down, no, no.

-Deal written by Robert Hunter

Sure, I learned the law behind what is involved in a Will Contest in law school but the practical, nuts and bolts end of a Will Contest can be learned just by listening to one song.  A successful Will Contest has the effect of undoing a Will or proving that one Will is valid over another Will; or that the person making the will made some sort of unnatural disposition of assets that was procured by fraud, duress or mistake, among others.

Will Contests are almost impossible to win, largely due to the fact that the person with the best evidence as to whether or not the Will was improper is deceased.  I have never really seen anyone win a Will Contest.  Even if you “win” do you really “win”- after all it’s going to cost a lot to win and even more to lose (truer words have never been spoken).   Something to keep in mind:  your worst case scenario- a battle that goes on forever, is your attorney’s best case scenario-a “billable” battle that goes on forever- or at least until the money runs out.

Most of the time a Will Contest amounts to not much more than a common street level shakedown- I bother you until you give me money to go away.  Sometimes people use Will Contests not so much as a shakedown, but as an attempt to hurt others- now this is no good for the soul.  I propose a better (non legal solution):  Avoiding Will Contests is easy- work really hard to make things right during life and not after death by initiating a Will Contest. To paraphrase:  make peace with people during their lives not war after they are gone- after all world peace starts at home!

Have you ever wondered what makes a good writer? After giving it some thought I’ve compiled the top five qualities I think a good writer must have.

5. Patience – Writing won’t be easy. There will be days when you have absolutely nothing to add to the story. Or days when you realize the end is so far away and the only thing preventing you from finishing is white space. Keep writing! Take it one sentence at a time, your persistence will pay off!

4. Attention to detail – Can your readers see in detail the scene you are describing? The location? The people involved? Have you answered the questions the average reader will have?

3. Good listener/observer – Writers need to be good listeners and always observing their surroundings. What about a person’s personality intrigues you? What about their style of dress makes them unique? What stands out to you when you enter the mall, the club, the grocery store, the gym? Have you ever been in a situation where you thought, “This could only happen to me!” or “No one would believe this…” Recreate the scene in your manuscript and bring it to life.

2. Avid reader – A good writer will immerse themselves in a pool of words. It’s a given; the more you read the more information you will obtain. But did you know it also helps you to determine what attracts you to a story? What qualities does your favorite writers possess? What makes you stay up all night and read a book?

1. Vivid imagination – Think about authors like J.K. Rowling (Harry Potter) or Stephenie Myer (Twilight). Rowling’s Harry Potter series is 700 plus pages of fictional places, creatures, and if that weren’t enough she threw in a dash of magic! These weren’t places that existed before. She created a whole world with her imagination. What can your imagination create? One of my favorite movies is The Never Ending Story. Remember the characters in the movie? Remember Falkor? Unforgettable.

Share your ideas in the comment section below!

Stefanie Newell is a freelance writer based in Chicago and author of the novel The Buzz: When celebrity gossip goes wrong…

• Cultural Resource Management (Private Sector)
  • The field of CRM is a growing industry that employs many archaeologists across the country.  Any time there is federal money being used for development or building, archaeological surveys and assessments must be the first step.  CRM firms are hired by builders to perform these surveys, compile data, and report to the builder any findings that may be disturbed by their project.  CRM requires a few business skills such as being able to professionally deal with clients.
  • Useful websites:
    • American Cultural Resources Association
    • eCulturalResources
    • National Park Services
  • State and Federal Government
    • National Park Service
    • U.S. Forest Service
    • Bureau of Land Management
    • U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
    • State Historic Preservation Office
    • Highway Departments
  • Academia
    • Working as a professor in a university can be very rewarding.  Teaching young students about the discipline and inspiring future archaeologists is very important to our field.  Working in a university setting also allows and encourages you to pursue your own research interests.  The summers give you valuable time to work on projects and do fieldwork, and students may be employed to help you.
  • Museums: Try these sites!  Illinois State Museum FAQSThe Princeton Review 

Getting into a new framework is for sure hard work, you have a steep curve of learning, limited time to do it, work to deliver and many more things to learn, you have to be choosy, so should you really use one? For me it goes down to some simple questions:

• Does the benefits of using a framework outweighs the cost of learning?
• Does my project really need it?
• Do I get a personal benefit from learning it?

And for Small Projects?

If your project is quite small you might be better off without a framework, however if you develop projects continuously it might be a good opportunity to get your feet wet using the simple project as a sample.

Does the Learning curve really pays off?

The time you need to invest to get things done is a great consideration, some frameworks/languages take hours or days before you can actually start typing any piece of code.

The benefits of using a framework must always outweight the cost involved, this benefits can be applied to the project or in an improvement of your coding abilities, I’d normally ask myself:

• After all this, will my coding be faster?
• Will my coding be more scalable, robust, easy to change, etc?
• Can all this new knowledge be used somewhere else or just in this language/framework?

Is that Useful knowledge?

Frameworks are more than code, they include practices, patterns, workflows, configurations, conventions, etc…

Unless I’m planning to work continuously on a framework I try to avoid too specific knowledge, call me lazy but, No, I don’t really want to know all about that super complex security API, I don’t want to learn another sub-dialect that will obscure my SQL without adding isolation.

If the learning you have to do is on the language itself, a new programming paradigm, patterns or similar things, go ahead and invest any time required, this is what makes you a better developer. Yes you should know objects, yes, you should know observers, events, etc.

Avoid patternitis!

A terrible thing about some frameworks is that they push patterns into people, I believe patterns are useful ways to solve problems, not magic cards that stop developers from thinking.

I see developers trying to use 3-5 patterns together without any idea why they need them; I believe that a pattern must be used after is required, meaning, you need to have the problem first and then apply the solution.

So shall you use a framework?

After all said, I think you should, look for a framework that you plan to reuse or one that seems to be the right size for your application.

Try to find a framework that compensate the time invested with some real time-saving tools. A framework must REALLY make you faster and better not just force you to type more in ways you will probably understand in long long time.

Well this is the place where I stop being objective and I talk about my Tequila framework in relation to the previous points.

Do I recommend Tequila?

Well I made it if your project is on PHP, sure I do, I believe I didn’t add any extra work apart of the multiple files, while it’s not perfect, you get clean minimal code, class inheritance, useful functions, easy data access, security ready, multi language ready, isolated model, easy to maintain templates, mashable content, xml output, json output.

Also while it takes some learning save some functions you will be coding on PHP all the time and finally you get a code generator that can do your whole application with a single click, that should compensate the time you invest understanding the file structure and the MVC code separation.

Jingle Cross 2009 is officially  in the books, and there are far too many stories to tell in just one blog post.  However, we would like to share the results of the MASI CXR frameset drawing for the Women’s Beginner category.  Heidi came out to the races on a borrowed mountain bike and got a day license in order to give cyclocross a try.  She raced on Saturday, and the next day we drew her name from among all the racers.  Here she is with her new frame:

Photo courtesy of Mauro Heck.

There are lots of pictures and videos from the weekend on Mauro’s page.  We had a great time sponsoring the event and were glad to see the registration numbers for the Women’s Beginner category were up this year.  Looking forward to next year!

In other big news we finally received our much anticipated shop waterbottles!

These bottles are BPA & DEHA free if you’re interested in that kind of thing.  Even though it would have been far more DIY to rig up a way to attach our screenprinting frame to blank bottles, we’re pretty happy with how they turned out, outsourced or no.

In Part 3 of this series we discussed the various classes in the game and ways to choose the right class for your play style. Now that you’ve picked out a class to try, we’re going to cover some basic game mechanics and how to get started in one of the beginning areas.

Basic movement of your character is accomplished three ways: using your mouse, using your arrow keys, or with the a, s, d, w, and x keys on your keyboard. The spacebar will make your character jump. These are pretty much the same movement keys you will find in other games and you should be familiar with them if you’ve ever played any video game whatsoever.

There's your first quest dead ahead. And no, I have no idea what happened to that gnome on the ground, officer.

Each of the races in the two factions have what is called a “starting zone.” When you first enter the game, there will be tutorial hints to assist you as you move through the starting zone and complete quests. As you complete the quest objectives and defeat various computer generated creatures (known as “mobs”), you gain experience points (also called “xp”). Once you accumulate enough experience points, your character will go up in “levels” giving you additional abilities. Any characters you create will start at level 1. The current character level cap is 80. Quests can be obtained from various computer generated characters known as “non-player characters” (also referred to as “npcs”) and you can find these quest givers by the large yellow exclamation point over their heads. To interact with the quest giver, right-click on them (this applies to other npcs and mobs as well). Once you’ve completed a quest, the quest giver will have a large yellow question mark over its head, indicating that you can turn-in the quest and receive any quest rewards. When you first log-in after creating your character, there will be a quest giver directly in front of you.

Blizzard does an amazing job with its quests. Every zone in the game will have several storylines available from the quests. Many of these quests will be overarching and move your character to new zones and related storylines. You’ll encounter subplots as you level up and new developments in old storylines that are not readily apparent at first. There are several ways to level a character in Warcraft besides quests, but I highly recommend doing quests just for learning the background and context for what is happening in the game.

This hunter is level 1 with 86 health and 84 mana.

Let’s take a look at what you have on the screen in front of you. In the upper left hand corner there is a small portrait of your character and a couple of colored bars. The top green bar is your character’s health expressed in health points. The blue bar below it is the amount of energy your character has to perform certain actions or spells. The character we’re looking at here is a hunter and hunters use an energy source called “mana.” Many classes also use mana such as mages, warlocks, priests, and paladins while the remaining classes will use different sources of energy such as “rage” (tanking druids and warriors) and “energy” (dps druids and rogues). No matter what it’s called, this energy pool limits how many combat actions or spells you can cast before you must replenish the pool. Managing your energy pool is an important task in Warcraft.

You are here.

In the upper right hand corner of your Warcraft screen is the “minimap.” This circle will give you an overhead view of your character’s location (our hunter is currently in “Coldridge Valley” according to the map). If there are any quest givers nearby, a yellow exclamation point will appear on the minimap. Your character is shown by the silver directional arrow in the center of the map. You can zoom in or out by clicking on the plus or minus signs. The minimap can be hidden by clicking on the maroon and yellow button in the upper right of the minimap. There are three other important functions on the minimap — the calendar, the mail icon, and the magnifying glass icon. The calendar will show upcoming important in-game events. The small envelope symbol will show that you have mail awaiting at a nearby mailbox and who it is from if you mouse over it. The magnifying glass is a multi-search tool. It will show the location of various nearby services, such as the nearest mailbox, the nearest weapon and armor repairer, the nearest food vendor and so on.

The left side of your action bar is for spells and abilities.

The most important part of screen real estate is the action bars at the bottom of your Warcraft screen. The left hand side of your action bar is where you place your abilities and spells for use. Each slot is assigned a number; for instance, pressing “1″ with the action bar above would cause my character to attack with his axe, pressing “3″ would cause him to shoot his rifle. The middle right is a series of small icons that bring up various game functions (mouse over them in-game to read the button descriptions to get an idea of what each one does). The far right is your bag slots for storing items and weapons. You start with one 16-slot bag. To open it, right-click on it. To move objects in and out of your bags or your action bar slots, click-and-drag the items with your mouse. As you acquire more bags, you can place them in the open slots available on the right.

The right side is for game functions and your bag slots.

Setting up your combat and spell action bars is essential for playing in Warcraft. You can access additional action bar slots by clicking on the small arrows in the center of the action bar or pressing “shift-1,” “shift-2,” etc. You have six action bars available in this manner. As you gain new abilities and spells, they will become available in your spellbook. You access your spellbox by clicking on the small book icon in the action bar or by pressing “p” on your keyboard.

Your spellbook.

Every character class will have four selectable tabs on the upper right of their spellbook. The first tab is for general abilities such as cooking, fishing, and first aid. The other three will be class-specific and based on the class’ “talent trees.” For instance, a hunter has talents available from the beast mastery, markmanship, and survival schools. This level 1 hunter has not trained in all these schools so his spellbook only has spells available from markmanship and survival at the moment, hence only three tabs are shown above. As you level a character, you will visit your class trainer to learn new spells and abilities which then become available for use in your action bars from your spellbook. To add any spell from your spellbook to your action bar, simply click-and-drag the picture of the ability and drop it in one of the numbered action bar slots. Note that not all abilities in your spellbook can be placed in your action bars. For instance, in the screenshot above, my hunter has some “passive” abilities which are always active and do not need to be put into effect by clicking on them from the action bar.

This covers some of the basic mechanics in the game. In the next installment of this series, I’ll recommend some ways to set-up your action bars for play with some advanced features and we’ll go out and complete our first quest for some shiny loot.