April 2nd was the birthday of master storyteller Hans Christian Andersen and the day chosen as International Children's Book Day. The day is sponsored by IBBY (The International Board on Books for Young People) which has been working for many years to bring together children and books.
Our library display shows the attractive poster and below it, children's picture books in English, featuring tales from all parts of the globe, and to the side, a range of children's books in various languages.

Back to books- "Gargoyle" by Andrew Davidson

Back to Books- I'm so happy to read- a little imagination fills the universe!
Closer to earth, this week's book develops from a car accident which leaves the driver horrendously burnt. The graphic description of burns treatment would normally have me shutting the book-but such is the skill of the writer I found it engrossing. The main character was loathsome; a once beautiful drug addict who runs a porn film company. The story centres on the theme of his redemption by love. But what a story! The heroine (and I use the term fully) is a sculptor of gargoyles who claims to have been his lover, when he was a mercenary, and they met when she was a novice scholar in a medieval monastery. The characters they knew in the past, and the people they affect in the present interweave to form an original masterpiece.

The book's title is simple and like the story effective. "Gargoyle" and the author is Andrew Davidson.

Summary- Rhapsody of summer!

Summer- cicadas clicking and whirring, their noise almost drowning out the whine of a weed-eater, the sky is blue and I'm off swimming in the warm sea soon!

Enough of the rhapsody, here's my summary of the aclweb2.1 challenge.

First, I'm grateful that the challenge is mounted- yes, I improved a lot of my computer skills on the first, but without repetition some items are easily forgotten.

Setting off on aclweb 2.1, reminded me of some skills, but along the way I learnt more. I suppose I could have hunted out Geni and My Heritage sites but, without needing them,I hadn't bothered, yet I have used the sites already at work.

Likewise, I've used various sites to check out books and authors but the ones offered on the course particularly, Book jetty and Book reporter I've already been able to recommend, and use when preparing notes for my radio spot.

The big find for me was Animoto- it was so easy to use and my family are now getting lots of photos in that form- but I do think it could be adapted for work. "Get to know your local library" ; "Story time at the library" "Book Display on topics on the day" etc. I would never have looked for such a site, as I would have presumed the skill required, beyond me.

The other big find was Digg- I quite often miss the news, so to have items of interest, scientific or spoof easily accessible is great.
Thank you aclweb2.1 team!You really are the tops!

Rosenpage

Digg This!

Digg this! I saw the sign at the base of "Indian Authors" on the website and following your suggestion checked out Newsvine and Reddit and StumbleUpon but after a look around decided to go with Digg, because it had a wide variety of items, was easy to follow and I liked the items that others had Dugg. After becoming a member I filled in the checklist. On my return, up popped a list of news sites and near the top was this story-

Israel Returns Palestine's Lawn Mower, Mideast Conflict Ends
A creative spoof!

From now on Digg is going to be one of my regular check spots-
Another fascinating article a member had found was this one on a scientific break through.

New Biomaterial Helps Bones Heal
Wendy Zukerman, ABC Science Online

I am still on Del.icio.us and want to keep that, as it is useful with the tags, but, I think I'll have more fun with Digg and Dugg.

double trouble

GoAnimate.com: Double, double toil and...


Like it? Create your own at GoAnimate.com. It's free and fun!

Go Animate - double, double, toil and...

http://goanimate.com/go/movie/0LL_NmM-S-F0?utm_source=emailshare&uid=0HESETDcCZ74

This is a link to my animation-  hope you enjoy it.

I had considerable trouble accessing the scene I wanted-evidently I was hitting the wrong button as I kept getting the blank screen, when I wanted the Monsters' scene.

 

Finally, found the secret tabs and from then on I had " fun". I made one with music but was not happy with it,  so that was not saved: started again and as I had accidentally discovered how to make witchy slightly less rotund, had better proportion. Had almost completed it and tried to save, but it came up asking for a title etc. and as I was not ready for that, I  panicked and hit  x and lost the lot!

The last time I tried a few more Cut and add scenes.   After previewing the scene where I had wanted an earthquake, on the word "rubble," I found  the earthquake effect activated

too late, so I made a note to edit later and carried on.  When I previewed the final shoot, I was able to go back one scene and fix it, but couldn't get scenes further back.  

Given heaps of time I would edit some scenes a little tighter and cut the length of the closeups...but it is a beginner's effort!

Animoto 2 Small one