Show Me Your Desktop: February 2011

I got a new laptop for Christmas. I'm curious to see how things change over the next year so I've captured my desktop for future reference. I think I'll do this once a month & see what develops.


What do you think, do you want to play along?

Basketball and a Shiny Sink

Feel like I need to go all out on something, today. I was real tempted for it to be a guiltless no-work day... but I couldn't convince myself that I could really do it guilt-less-ly so decided it wouldn't be that.

I ended up joining Fly Lady again. So I have bleach soaking in my kitchen sinks & in my downstairs bathroom. I've set the timer for 1 hour, which is the suggested amount of soak time, meanwhile I'm going to clean the downstairs bathroom and my stove irons are in the dishwasher. When the sinks are done, so am I. No more work for me for the rest of the day. I think I'm going to pull out the cushion on the lounge chair & read in the sun in the backyard!

I'm setting an alarm on my phone so that I can be in the driveway playing basketball when Ethan's bus drives up. I'll bet he won't be able to resist playing with me. My goal is that he'll throw the backpack down in the driveway & be playing before ever setting foot in the house. !!

We're going to embrace the weekend, straight out of the gate!

Ortega Chicken Casserole

Ethan often asks me, "When are you going to make casserole, again?" He loves them. He doesn't generally specify which casserole, just that it's time for me to make one, again. This casserole is another that I got from my Mother, it's full of canned soup & chicken, but I still crave it. I had a bit of a panic yesterday when I went into my recipe box and this card had been lost. Luckily I had made a recipe box full of recipes for my friend, Heather, some 11 years ago and found an old computer file.
Note: this is a retro recipe, very mild, good for littles who won't eat anything spicy, it is a lot of soup! In the future I think I will try updating it by using less soup and mixing it with red or green enchilada sauce. I do like the corn tortilla mixed into the casserole & the crispness of the tortillas on top, although they would dish up better if cut into squares.


Ortega Chicken Casserole

2 cans Cream of Mushroom soup, condensed
2 cans Cream of Chicken soup, condensed
1 can Ortega chilies, cut up (I use mild)
4 chicken breasts, cooked and cubed, or shredded (be sure to use the full 4 breasts of chicken or it will be too saucy)
1 medium onion, chopped
10 corn tortillas, cut into strips, or squares
1 cup cheddar or jack cheese, grated

In a large bowl mix soups, chilies, chicken and onion. Pour one layer of mixture into bottom of a casserole dish.  Top with a layer of tortillas and repeat, sprinkle top layer of tortillas with cheese.

Casserole can be frozen at this point if desired.

Bake 45-50 minutes at 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

TweetDeck: Using FiltersTo Achieve Inbox Zero on Twitter.

*****UPDATE August 21, 2011 *****
I noticed recently that the filters no longer search hyperlinks in a post, so instead of using "4sq" to filter Foursquare posts, I'm now using "I'm at"
****END of UPDATE*****

TweetDeck is a utility I use on my laptop for Twitter, it also has functionality for Facebook, Foursquare, LinkedIn, Google Buzz & MySpace. I recently figured out how to use the TIME filter in TweetDeck. I tried to use it in the past, but couldn't figure out what it was doing, so I thought I'd share in case other people were equally puzzled by how it works. I like TweetDeck because of the ability to track which Tweets I've seen and which I have not, and the ability to clear out what I've already seen. It allows me to have a kind-of Inbox Zero with Twitter.

In TweetDeck you can apply a filter to any column. Click the icon that looks like an arrow pointing down at a log (technical term, I know) then you can select which filter you want to use.
Choices are Text, Name, Source & Time.
Then you select - or +

+ means you want to to display information that meets whatever criteria you are filtering.
- means you want to exclude or filter OUT certain criteria.

My Unfiltered Timeline

Now an explanation of filter types.

Text - type a word or term in the box. When my timeline is really long I often use it to clear out foursquare tweets. It's really easy because they all have the foursquare address in the tweet so I set my filter to: Text, +, 4sq then it displays all the foursquare tweets. I click the "mark all as seen" button followed by the "clear seen updates". Another great way to use this is if someone has used a hashtag (#example) and you don't want to be spoiled for that TV show, or are not attending that conference, you can easily remove all those tweets from your timeline by filtering & clearing that hashtag.

Timeline filtering Text of 4sq

Name - type a user name to display (+) or omit (-)

Timeline filtering by name where I typed in my user name.

Source - Filter by the app or utility someone used to post their tweet. I've never found a need for this, but here is what it looks like.

Timeline filtering by Source where I typed in Hoot (for Hoot Suite)

I have understood how to use those filters for a long time, but i could never get the time filter to work. I tried entering the date (because I only wanted to see today's tweets, I tried entering the hour - I couldn't get it display anything to even TRY to figure out what it was doing.)

Time - Enter the number of hours removed from now that you want to filter. This is tricky so I will give you a for example for + and - filtering because it works a little differently and the logic seems backward to me.

Note: After using the time filter my column often goes blank & stays that way even after turning off filters. I find that switching to one of the other filters, like Text, will fix the problem and the Tweets will display, again.

In this example I've filtered by + 1 this is showing me all tweets that were tweeted within the last hour.  Remembering tip + is inside the specified number of hours.
You could use this to see if there is anything immediate going on. I often start with oldest tweets and work my way up, but this has sometimes meant I didn't see an announcement for an online chat, or missed out on a conversation that was going on (I goofed & had to screen cap this much later than the others if you are noticing a discrepancy on time between this & the other screen caps - sorry for the confusion.)

In this example I've filtered by - 1 and it is showing me all tweets that were more than an hour ago. Remembering Tip - is outside the specified number of hours.

How I most often use this feature is when I have already seen a bunch of tweets on my phone. Like when I have been out and about, or in the evening after my laptop was turned off. Many times in the morning I want to clear out the stuff from the previous evening, until about 6 AM when a lot of people are starting their day. I often filter an hour or a few at a time so I can quickly at-a-glance make sure I'm not missing anything, but get the all cleared out in a hurry.

In this example I'm filtering by Time - 7
which is showing me all tweets that were tweeted MORE than 7 hours ago.

Was this helpful? How do you use filters?
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Yesterday & Today Week 1

I finished watching the video Tutorials & brainstorming work for Week 1 of Yesterday & Today. Feel insecure about it, still don't know what stories to tell. Trust that it will come to me more clearly as I move forward, not going to let it bog me down. May look at what other people have said on the message board. Tomorrow begins Week 3. I am behind, as usual. Perhaps that should be one of my stories, how I am a straggler.

Wordless Wednesday

Promise: My One Little Word 2011

The word I have chosen for 2011 is PROMISE.
Perhaps I should say this word chose me.When I found that word, all of this meaning came upon me like a flood.

PROMISE

like full of promise / hopeful with bright prospects
like God's promise to transform my life if I will let HIM
like the promise of a child's future
like the promise of relationships restored
like the binding commitment of promising to love & respect till death do us part
like the opposite of doom

Like the promise of this verse

Jeremiah 29:11

For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

This is the kind of restoration, of healing that I see in the PROMISE of 2011

Isaiah 61:1-3

The Year of the LORD’s Favor

 ¹ The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me,
   because the LORD has anointed me
   to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
   to proclaim freedom for the captives
   and release from darkness for the prisoners,
² to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favor
   and the day of vengeance of our God,
to comfort all who mourn,
 ³ and provide for those who grieve in Zion—
to bestow on them a crown of beauty
   instead of ashes,
the oil of joy
   instead of mourning,
and a garment of praise
   instead of a spirit of despair.
They will be called oaks of righteousness,
   a planting of the LORD
   for the display of his splendor.

One Little Word: Pondering the Possibilities

This word art is created from the list of words I considered for my One Little Word for 2011. They came from a brainstorming session & several of them were real contenders, but once I thought of THE word, I knew I had the right one.

One Little Word: Title Page

I think this photo is a perfect metaphor for a new year filled with PROMISE.

I made a title page for my One Little Word, this is 5x7 in size & was kind of a get-my-feet-wet run on the new laptop using Photoshop Elements 9 for the first time. The frame outline & words were a PNG file which was one of the pre-class downloads. I reserve the right to change it completely if I want to as the album progresses. That's my prerogative as a woman & a digi scrapper.

I took the photo yesterday with my phone while Visiting Bayou Bend Gardens.

Family Visit

I've been quiet because I have family staying with us. My Dad & his wife, Debbie, are here visiting. We've had such a nice time seeing the sights & in conversation, that I have barely been online. I haven't even moved my Christmas photos off of my camera yet (this is also due to beginning the migration onto my NEW laptop - Yay!)

I hope everything is going well for you.
I did join the class Yesterday & Today and I also signed up for One Little Word 2011. I did choose my word, but I want to explain what the word means to me when I share my word. I hope to have more to say about classes in the coming days.

Happy New Year!