Lights Out! Portland Goes Semi-Dark – for Earth Hour March 28, 2009 - 03/28/09 12:52 AM
An international event sponsored by the World Wildlife Fund, Earth Hour is a global effort to encourage individuals, families, businesses and governments to shut "non-essential" lights off for one hour to focus awareness on climate change. Earth Hour began in Australia in 2007. That year 2.2 million homes and businesses turned off their lights for one hour. In 2008, in a world-wide global sustainability event 50 million people switched off their lights.  
This year organizers hope that one billion people will turn off their lights in what they are calling a global vote in favor of the earth and against global … (16 comments)

Which Detective Is YOUR Website? Columbo?? Miss Marple? Or.... - 03/25/09 11:11 PM
Can your website detect visitors who are visiting via their smart phones?
Does your website allow those visitors the ability to see a message just for them? And then allow them to call or email you - get a map - with just a tap?
Schmap Enable does just that. A little bit of code enables your website for the mobile internet, and ensures that visitors with iphones, Blackberries and other smartphones can easily find your location on a map.  Visitors with smartphones see a yellow banner that says 'Tap here for contact details and map.' Regular web visitors don't see the banner. 
Getting the code is … (16 comments)

SchmapME! Your Own Mobile Friendly Map Page - 03/24/09 03:02 PM
Schmap.com is a site with lots of fun ways to use maps and guides. You can download over 200 city guides, put maps in your tweets, create map and site widgets for your blogs and websites, share your maps, reviews and travel plans to mention just a few of the creative things you can do with their innovative technology. You can create your own schmap.me page - soooo very easy to do -with your own unique name. See an example at www.schmap.me/alexsapdx.
Here's how!
Create your personal schmap.me page to share with others. The page will display your map and contacts on a … (8 comments)

The Places You'll Go! The Surprises You'll Get! A photo goes to New York! - 03/24/09 06:32 AM
There are many ways that being on Active Rain helps, teaches or surprises.  A small, half forgotten event might grow into something wild and wonderful, and you might find your creative efforts end up in New York City.
Last November Kathy McGraw had an idea. She decided to open a Group where everyone could share pictures with each other, and "not have to worry about all the Copyright stuff" as she put it. She established a Flickr AR group:  Foto Share Shop for Bloggers.   Any Active Rain member or other blogger was welcome to join, and use the photos in the … (10 comments)

It Happens on the Courthouse Steps - 03/22/09 05:21 AM
If you had asked me I would have said that the auction would have been in an office, in a building, maybe in a courtroom. It wasn't.  The residential property auction was held in Oregon City, on the Clackamas County Courthouse steps.
I figured that auctions on the courthouse steps were obsolete, a story from another time.  Yes, it had been common during the depression, maybe lasting into the fifties or sixties.  But now, in the internet age - wouldn't there be a 21st century way of holding a property auction?
I went with a client. She was curious about a house … (54 comments)

Speechless Sunday ..... Green Zebras and Brandywines: Can hardly wait! - 03/22/09 02:29 AM

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Camelias and Purges: Second and Third Thoughts - 03/16/09 12:00 AM
Driving through Southeast Portland today I noticed the camelias are looking gorgeous.  
I saw bright red, white and pink blooms glowing in pale light. Their deep green leaves have been thoroughly cleaned by wind and rain, the storm that blew through last night. I felt a pang, and realized I missed my red camelia. The one that stood by the back door for the five years I've lived in my house.
It's gone because I tore it out last summer.  Camelias are messy.  They fade and drop brown blooms, get wet, turn black and mucky over time.  I kept tracking fragments into the house, so I cut … (12 comments)

The Place You Love is Gone! - 03/15/09 04:18 PM
Was going through my old copies of Preservation, the magazine published by the National Historic Trust, today - I am trying like crazy to get through the stacks of magazines I've been waiting for a chance to read!  and I came across the July/August 2008 issue.  There is a review of the book referenced in the title above by Melissa Holbrook Pierson, which was written by Dwight Young.
Pierson describes 'progess' and what it means, about losing the scenes of childhood to a form of modernzation she describes as a pulverization into unrecognizability by examining three places she lived.  Young, the reviewer says … (8 comments)

A Few Random Things -- this meme jumped from FaceBook to ActiveRain - 03/06/09 04:36 AM
I was first tagged on Facebook, for 25 Random Things about me, and did it awhile ago. I hadn't seen it here on Active Rain until Anne Marie Malfi tagged me -- thank goodness she didn't ask me to tag 25 friends!   Anne Marie said she hadn't ever been accused of being random -- have to say I have been. In talking I often move from one thing to another, to another and to another -- and while it may seem random to other people, I almost always can connect the dots!
I've also been asked to respond to 48 statements -- sorry … (13 comments)

A Shredtastic Paper Shredding Party! - 03/04/09 11:28 PM
Missy Gerber of Organizers Northwest sent this event notice to me -- and said to pass it on!   They'd love to have a big turnout - and the event is certainly timely.   You can shred all the receipts you don't have to keep for income tax purposes.  You can shred all the tax info that is more than 7 years old --although, please check with your accountant or tax preparer first, just to make sure it is okay.  
You can shred all those old love letters you don't want your new flame to stumble on.  Or you can shred your old diaries … (7 comments)