people

Bushfire at Warrumbungle National Park

Over the last couple of days a terrible, horrific bushfire has impacted on the Warrumbungle National Park, Siding Springs Observatory, 33 homes and numerous rural buildings near Coonabarabran in New South Wales, Australia. The bushfire is believed to have burnt out some 500 000 hectares and now has a fire front of over 100km in length.

Obviously the fire is a terrible tragedy for the people living in the region, as well as the natural wonder that is the Warrumbungle National Park. This fire was started by lightning strikes in a major heatwave currently being experienced in Australia. The tinder dry conditions and gale force hot winds have fanned the blaze and even now as I write, the bushfire is again threatening homes in the region and is expected to burn for weeks. 

The Warrumbungle National Park is one of my favourite places in Australia and I have visited the region many times. It is a sad and tragic disaster in more ways than one. 

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Storybook

Today’s link is to a site for people who are interested in or are actually writing a book or books. Storybook is Open Source software and available for free. From what I’ve seen of the software and a tutorial that I found on using it, Storybook looks to be a very useful piece of software. For a change I have two links – one for the software itself and one for the tutorial I found on it.

For more, visit:
http://storybook.intertec.ch/joomla/

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/organize-create-stories-novels-storybook/

 

EveryTrail

Today’s link is to EveryTrail, which is a very useful social network and web application for bushwalkers. It is a network that makes it very easy to share with like-minded people the activities you experience, whether those activities include bushwalking and camping, or road trips, sight seeing trips, boating, cycling, etc. With EveryTrail you are able to map (geo-tagging) just where you went and then share it with others. You can also share photos of your trip and embed your maps in your website and Blog.

Fore more, visit:
http://www.everytrail.com/

Mylifelisted.com

Mylifelisted.com is a social network where members can list, count and share their life experiences. It seems a little odd perhaps to make lists of your experiences – what you’ve done, when you’ve done it, where you’ve been and what you’ve achieved – but it may be a useful way to remember your life to some degree. When you add locations on a map, add photos and comments, add the names of people who shared your experiences, the lists you form begin to take on even more meaning. So perhaps mylifelisted.com could be a helpful and useful way to remember your life.

Mylifelisted.com has only just begun and I have only just signed up, so time will tell as to how useful a site it is. I’ll give it a try anyhow.

http://www.mylifelisted.com

Zork 1: The Great Underground Empire

For the next few posts I’m taking a break from the various web applications I have been using and looking at a few time wasters – games. I grew up in a time when the majority of games played were text-based adventure games. Some people will remember these games with a fondness, while those who never played them will probably be bored with them rather quickly.

Below is a link to Zork 1: The Great Underground Empire
http://www.xs4all.nl/~pot/infocom/zork1.html

flickchart

If you like watching movies (and there are few people that don’t), perhaps you would be interested in a site that ranks movies that you watch according to ratings that you determine. If you are, perhaps flickchart is a social networking type site that you may like to join. Visit flickchart at:

http://www.flickchart.com/

My profile at flickchart can be found at:

http://www.flickchart.com/particularkev

The Only Way to Travel in Suburbia

Michael and Kevin Matthews with Grandma MatthewsThis photo was another salvaged from my grandfather’s slide collection. It would have been taken back in the 1970s. I have no idea where it was taken.

The three people in the photo are my grandmother in the lower left corner, my cousin Michael is on the tank at left and I am on the tank at right.

Facebook: A Few Ideas to Improve Your Facebook Experience

This week I thought I might make my daily posts all about Facebook. I use Facebook as my preferred general social network and know that there are issues that annoy people – I know there are plenty of things about Facebook I can’t stand.

Here is a link to some suggestions that may improve your Facebook experience.

http://www.easytweaks.com/2009/11/20/cool-facebook-tricks-tips/

Blogging: An Introduction

Blogging is all over the World Wide Web these days, with Blogs now being the most popular websites around. However, there are still plenty of people who don’t have a Blog and new web surfers who don’t understand them. This post is for you:

http://codex.wordpress.org/Introduction_to_Blogging