Making Practicing Easier

   Many parents feel frustrated with practice sessions at home. They often feel the conflict that arises about practice indicates they are bad parents. Children can behave in strange and bizarre ways when it is time to practice. It is not unusual for children to resist being told what to do. As a teacher, parents often appeal to me to tell their children to practice because they feel their child will not listen to them. So, what is going on if this is a universal problem?

Edmund Sprunger has some important ideas on this subject in a book called, "Helping Parents Practice". There are three ideas in the beginning of the book that make sense to me.

1) Children are vulnerable and want to look good in the eyes of their parents. They crave attention as a sign that they are loved. If their actions get attention, good or bad, they feel safer. Keep in mind that your child feels insecure when she is not able play perfectly. When practicing gets hard, behavior can become trying for the parent.

2) When dealing with your child's vulnerability, notice if what you are doing is improving the situation or making it worse. Pay attention to outcome of your suggestions to your child.

3) Prepare yourself to try new ways to infuse your practice time with your child with more calm and help them enter the "Land of Easier". Wouldn't it be great if you, as a parent, had a magic wand to make hard things easy? It is time you told you child that you really don't have a magic wand. But, you can make things easier.

"This book contains specific strategies for working in ways that are easier- and more effective in the long run- than fixing and correcting bad things."

I will be revisiting this topic and ideas to make practice easier in subsequent posts.

Why Are You Giving Your Child Piano Lessons?

Dear Parents,

  Why are you giving your child piano lessons? You may be asking yourself that as the winter holidays come to a close and no one has touched the piano. Let me remind you of some of the reasons you are doing this very good thing.
  1)You come from a musical family and the joy of music has is permanently in your DNA. No? How about these reasons:

  2) You always wanted your child to be bi-lingual and music is one of the most beautiful languages.
  3) Your child showed signs of musicality from the beginning.
  4) Playing and reading music is related to achieving intellectually.
  5) Musicians have skills in self-discipline
  6) You want a well rounded child and the piano is a stepping stone to other artistic endeavors.
  7) Playing the piano is a life skill which benefits others.
  8) You know your teenager will need an outlet for their fluctuating hormones.
  9) Your child needs to learn how others feel and playing music by different composers is a doorway into the soul of another human being.
 10) You don't want to hear your child say,"I wish you had made me practice and learn the piano."

   I cannot begin to count how many adults have said to me that they wish they had kept taking piano lessons. But, to date, no pianist has told me that they wished they had spent their time on something else.
So, chin up, lets go forward and listen to another semester of beautiful music.

The Library will close at 5:00 p.m. on December 31 and will be closed January 1 & 2 for New Year's Day

All San Francisco Public Libraries will close at 5:00 p.m. on December 31 and will be closed January 1 & 2 for New Year's Day.

The Glen Park Library will reopen on Tuesday, January 3 at 10:00am after the New Years Holiday.

Merry Christmas

   The holidays are a favorite time of year for me and for my family. No lessons until next year and some time to evaluate and ponder.
  Happy Holidays to all of you whether you are waiting for him....

                                                                  or Him.............................

Library closed Dec 24th-26th, 2011

Please note that the Glen Park Branch and all other San Francisco Public Libraries will be closed from Saturday, December 24 until Monday, December 26 for the Christmas holiday. We will resume our regular opening hours on Tuesday, December 27 at 10:00am.

Windows Phone Tango at CES, Windows Phone Apollo announced!

Tango is the next Windows Phone version that will be announced and launched at the upcoming CES 2012 in Las Vegas. It will be demonstrated on the still unannounced Nokia Lumia 719 and Lumia 900 on January 13.

The Tango update is supposed to bring LTE support and smaller resolution displays compatibility.

Furthermore, Windows Phone Apollo - the next major Windows release (codenamed Windows Phone 8), will be announced and launched in mid-June 2012 at the Nokia Connection 2012. The Apollo will bring support for dual-core processors, high-res displays and NFC. It might do some changes on the UI, too.

We should be also getting multiple hi-end Nokia gadgets at the Nokia Connection 2012 including the long-rumored successor of the camera-centric N8 and Nokia's first Windows 8-based tablet.

Obama sends his sympathy

December 20, 2011 - U.S. President Barack Obama now extends his sympathy to the Philippines where some areas are affected by the Typhoon Sendong.

According to Obama, he extends his sympathy with all the people of America to the victims of  the disaster.

"On behalf of the American people, I wish to express my deep condolences for the Tremendous loss of life and devastation caused by recent flooding in the Philippines."

Obama said on behalf of the long friendship between America and the Philippine, they are ready to assist us especially in terms of humanitarian assistance and recovery efforts.

"In the spirit of our long history of friendship and cooperation with the Philippines, the United States stands ready to assist the Philippine Government Should people and humanitarian assistance and recovery efforts be needed," said Obama.

What food you would make if you were hungry, but didn’t want to cook?

Sometimes people are so busy that they couldn’t do other chores in their home like cleaning around especially cooking. I know it’s because of their schedule because they are somewhat workaholic.

When a person can’t do other things because of business, they tend to hire some service to other people. For instance in cleaning, they hire a maid for cleaning chores in the house, they hire a driver for faster and safer transportation, they hire a security guard for security, they hire a cook for their food, etc.

There are many more services to be hired but there are also persons who don’t want to hire someone. They are so busy but still they try and fix those to-do lists. In cooking, a busy person might cook or don’t’ if they are really hungry. A hungry person might cook food which are easy prepare and they are:

Sandwich. If you are hungry but don’t want to cook for food, a sandwich is the best choice to eat. Sandwich is the easiest food you can make if you are really hungry just place something in between two bread loaves or slice and you’re done.

A traditional sandwich is just an arrangement of some spreads (it could be catchup, mustard, cheese, etc.) in between a two slice of loaves. Ham, egg, and patty are also common for the sandwich. Lettuce, tomato, and pickles are also another common spreads for a sandwich.

Making a sandwich is very easy and it will only take just a minute to arrange these ingredients. So if you are really hungry but didn’t want to cook for food, making a sandwich is the best choice.

Cereal. For breakfast, the easiest and fastest way to make food without cooking is cereal. Unlike sandwich, a cereal has fewer ingredients. There are many kinds of cereal like those which are flavoured with chocolate and in bigger forms and those who are in size of grains of wheat.

We all know that to prepare or to cook these cereals you just need a liquid. Milk and hot water are the common for this preparation; milk for those chocolate flavoured cereals and in bigger sizes; hot water for the wheat grain kind of cereal. Just add the two ingredients and you are done.

Making cereal for a meal is very easy and needs a fewer preparation and ingredient. This is also a good choice for those hungry persons who didn’t want to cook for food.

Instant Noodles. These foods are like cereals, you just need a hot water to prepare the food. As easy as it is, you just have to pour the hot water to the noodle and wait for just a minute or two and you are done.

Instant noodles can be very useful in times of hunger. It is also comes with different flavours so that people may enjoy the meal. These flavours are spices that you put together with the hot water and the noodles.

Though instant noodles are one of the easiest foods to make, it is not the best choice for a hungry person to eat because eating instant noodles are not that good for the health of our body. It is not advisable to take in oftentimes but I think that can be a good choice to just feel your stomach for a hungry moment.

Which part of your body can be used to flirt?

When you like a person, you might do things to make him/her notice you. It might be in a good way or in a bad way. In good ways, you might talk to him/her, ask for his/her name, be nice and kind to him/her, etc. In bad ways, behaviour is much undesirable.

Flirting is behaviour of a person in a playfully alluring way. This means that it has something to do with persuading moves and attitudes to attract a person’s attention. It might be in contact physically or mentally as long as there is a connection between the two persons that are participating.

There are many ways to flirt with someone using things that are used in communications. Using these things in communication like phones or internet, the person might persuade his/her partner in a manner of text while in personal, it might be physical contact or through a manner of conversation, signs and signals.

There are people who use not just things but their own body to flirt with someone. These parts of our body are the common parts that we used when we flirt with someone else:

Eyes. Eyes can be very attractive, for me it should be an asset of a person. Eyes can speak though not to say words or phrase to tell you something but it can give you a message or a sign or signal through this eye contact.

A person might flirt using his/her eyes by giving a signal like winking, or an eye contact with or without any conversation between the involved persons. Eye contact is very persuasive for to others, this can mean an appreciation that you wanted to hear more from your partner.

Any means of an eye might be termed as flirting but not all movements or signals that it can made. Sometimes eyes might lie to you even if you’re good at these. Eyes don’t control the whole human body but our mind.

Lips. Unlike eyes that can use by a boy or a girl, lips may not be advisable for boys to use for flirting. Boys do attract on lips, I like them too, and that is why girls used to give glamour to them. Girls used to play with their lips when they are flirting because the attractive portrait of it.

Girls used these as to make a lustful moment to attract persons which they like. They tend to play with it, biting it in usual way to persuade someone. In this way of flirting they could actually succeed for it is a very attractive and persuasive for most boys.

Lips together with a good language and speech might be better. With its beauty plus some body movement, any boy can be attracted to it. This is playful for the girls, and some of girls who really know how to flirt loves to play and used it.

Hands. Hands may ne be attractive if you look through it physically. Its cleanliness and skin beauty might be a good factor to attract any person. Though, most boys don’t see that hands are not that attractive, hands are very useful when used in flirting.

Hands may use in a good way in flirting but sometimes it carries the risk to do bad ways. But, if you really want to attract a person, you will use it in a good conduct. Typically, people don’t use their hands while they are flirting I mean what can you do with your hands? I can just say put them inside your pocket and do some confident ways in flirting.

What things are the most listed in a New Year’s Resolution?

We all know what New Year’s Resolution is, it’s a list of things that we changed and we must do throughout the year. It’s more like a to-do list or just a rules and regulations made by ourselves. And because of that, many New Year’s Resolution was not keep in a year. They thought that these rules were made by themselves and they have also the right to obey or abandon these regulations.

And now for another start of the year, we have already made our own New Year’s Resolution. We have our own changes and rules for ourselves and we all hope that we could keep these promises. But what are the most common things which are listed in a New Year’s Resolution?

Go on a Diet. Maybe most of people who made a New Year’s Resolution have these words in their list. Diet, reduce food taking in, don’t eat too much, don’t eat foods with high cholesterol, eat healthy foods, be a vegetarian, take pills, etc. These are just some examples for the phrase “Go on a Diet” which is in many New Year’s Resolution.

I don’t have any statistics for the population who barely needs a diet but I am sure that it could be such part which means many of us all around the world is in diet. Every year we wish to be a healthy person and so the word diet comes in. That is why it is also a popular word in our list in New Year’s Resolution.

Quit Smoking. Well, it is very alarming for us that smoking is a deadly activity but others seem to have no care about the effect of smoking to their health. Smokers knew about this kind of thing, that they could die because of this deadly habit. Smoking is never easy to stop for a smoker. For many smokers around the world, the two words “Quit smoking” might be in their New Year’s Resolution.

There are many smokers around the world, but only few of them have concern about their health. Nor they had it in their New Year’s Resolution it is hard for them to keep it because smoking for smokers can’t stop for a sudden. But other smokers had their own strategies to stop this bad habit and in that way they can keep their words in their New Year’s resolution.

Change Bad Attitude/Habit. This is the most common things that could be written in every New Year’s Resolution. I will not be a hard-headed person anymore, I will woke up early in the morning, I will do the household chores, I will be a good person to my enemies, I will be helpful to my family, I will carry my own responsibilities, I will not be temperamental anymore, I will not be mad at all small things, I will not, I will not, I will, I will, etc. These are just examples that might be listed in our New Year’s Resolution. Over all, it is for our own improvement and purpose.

There are times that we can’t keep these promises to ourselves throughout the year. Just because it is too hard for us, we forgot about it, etc. How can we earn trust to others if we can’t trust ourselves for these simple things? Bad habits/attitudes are meant to be change and meant to improve not to be worst but to be better.

Before Turning Nighty in (19)

December 19, 2011 – This Monday has the meaning of hard work for this was a very busy day for me. Monday morning was such pleasant because of the good weather. These recent days, the weather was not fine because of Typhoon Sendong but I thank God for the very good weather for the start of the day.

Household chores chased me and that my Mom needs some help for it. The changing of the power outlet bought me some time to make some rest after my breakfast. It was easy for me to do this kind of things because of my course. After changing the power outlet, I was tasked to remove some unnecessary thing under the roof (we don’t have a ceiling). It was easy to remove the wood but I noticed something that is needed to change the place in order use so I ask my Mom what to do about that.

It is a hanger for wet clothes. This is a very tiring thing I say, you will hang up yourself to remove each nails that clipped the hanger. It was hard for me because the thing that keeps me tired is the heat that comes to me by staying just inches under the roof. After removing the hanger, I need to replace its position in a place where it can be used. Now the nailing part is easy for I will not hang my self anymore.

After these tiring businesses, I fall asleep and had a late lunch because of it. My afternoon was meant for updating and fixing some things around my blog and it took me hours to finish. Now I forgot the date that tomorrow (December 20) is my birthday because of this busy day. There are thoughts now that comes to my mind, or maybe I was just too excited for tomorrow. But I’m still glad that Lord made me a very useful person this day.

Now is the last day of being an 18 year old man and tomorrow is another journey for me as a teenager.

Age only means a number and just a numerical value,

Being yourself in all times and ages describe only you;

Time will change and test your personality,

But to live with God is to live in eternity

Teen Winter Read

What are you doing over winter break? Why not sign up for the Teen Winter Reading contest? You can win prizes!
How it works:

Beginning Friday, December 16, 2011, visit a participating library and pick up a reading log.

Fill out one reading log for every five hours that you read.

Return the logs to a participating library by Saturday, January 14th.

For every 5 hours you read, your name will be automatically entered into a raffle for cool prizes! The more you read, the more chances you have to win!

And remember that you can read in the language of your choice. Practice your multilingual skills!

You must be between the ages of 12 and 18 and have a San Francisco Public Library card to enter. Participation is free and prizes are funded by the Friends of the San Francisco Public Library.

NDRRMC lost track on Death Tolls

December 19, 2011 - National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) almost lost to track the true number of fatalities due to the lashes of Typhoon Sendong in Cagayan de Oro City and other provinces in Mindanao.

According to NDRRMC Executive Director Benito Ramos, based on the last record, up to nearly 784 fatalities are recorded due to the storm.

But officials still worries that the death toll still increases due to new reports associated with these bodies recovered.

Most claimed corpse were recovered in the state of decomposition which is supposedly the big problem on how to dispose them.

Meanwhile, the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) sents experts in the above areas to assist to help in identifying those killed.

According to NBI Medico-Legal Division chief Dr. Alvin David, the team went to CDO was compose of Disaster Victim Identification Team (DVIT) that includes medico-legal, forensic odontologist and dactyloscopy.

David assured that it will be quick to identify their bodies because for the first time said they would use a high-tech, genetic analyzer used in forensic investigations.

"We have the DNA machines where we can possibly compare 'yong DNA profile of the victim with the nearest of kin para madali ang identification process. The result would be 99.9 percent," said David.

David added that 24 hours passed since the victims of the storm was recovered so that only one physical features of these victims are usually blackening face, protruding the lips, eyes and bloated body.

"Mahirap nang magbase ng identification on the physical features alone," officials added.

Meanwhile, additional 500 coffins will be distributed by the Armed Forces of the Philippines for the victims of Typhoon Sendong.

Announced by AFP public affairs office head Arnulfo Burgos, that the landing ship vessel of the Philippine Navy will be shipping from Sangley Point, Cavite who will bear the coffins and said relief goods for disaster victims.

AFP chief Gen. Jesse Dellosa ordered the deployment of a battalion of soldiers to assist in rescue operations in Cagayan de Oro City and nearby provinces.

There are also two medical teams reportedly sent by AFP in affected areas.

The Local Water Utilities Administration (LWUA) rushed the work to restore the supply of clean water for the victims of Typhoon Sendong in the city of Cagayan de Oro.

According to LWUA Public Affairs Division Manager Engr. Antonio Magtibay, while waiting for the repair of damaged water facilities in the town of Macasandig, they already sent four portable water treatment plant.

Two of these plants are expected to come to the city this evening while the two were to be carried for one more day on the ship.

LWUA also sent some engineers to perform an assessment and give a remedial procedure to the damaged water district facilities.

Source: Bomboradyo

What are the common things you do during New Year’s Eve?

 

All the people in the world celebrates the first seconds and minutes of the year. As become the tradition, people do a lot of things for the preparation in celebrating the Year End and the incoming New Year. Just like other holidays, celebrating New Year is one of the best I say.

There are lot of things you can do during New Year’s Eve or the time between Year End and New Year. Aside from those preparations for this party, we also have some own business that how we will celebrate the New Year. It is not the deal either you are going to celebrate Year End or New Year or both but same thing is through.

People in some kind of celebration are always ready and prepared so when it comes to this big and special celebration they might do the following things during New Year’s Eve:

Eat. This is the very common thing or activity for any celebration. Foods are always everywhere in any party because it is one of our own needs. We can’t do any other things without energy so we need to eat foods to give us energy.

During New Year’s Eve, we tend to do other stuffs before eating our prepared foods. We love to eat that time after a very harmonic moment with our family, friends, relatives, etc. We eat foods without any following any timelines and we eat whenever we felt hungry. That is why there are other cases that foods are less after the first minutes of the New Year than before because we tend to eat a lot or it’s just we love to eat delicious food that time.

Countdown. Well, this is the most common things we love to do during or before New Year, counting down minutes as if it is the end of the world. During New Year’s Eve we always check for the time either two or three hours before just to make sure we will not be late when counting the final seconds of the current year and welcoming the New Year.

We prepare for things during New Year’s Eve with haste because counting down the time is one of the special things you can do for the Year End and for welcoming the New Year. Either we do prepare things before the New Year comes, or we don’t have anything to do, waiting for the countdown is sure you will not miss before the year ends.

Greet/Say “Happy New Year!”. There might be things we do during New Year’s Eve but to say and greet everyone a “Happy New Year!” is the only words we cannot forget. We cannot forget to greet anybody and say “Happy New Year!” because it’s the least we can do to give others a gratitude and respect when celebrating the New Year.

We eat some foods, we wait for the countdown and we say “Happy New Year!”. We always wanted give the essence of a holiday to anybody by means of greeting them or inviting them to our very least. Start the New Year with a smile in our face as we greet everyone a very warming “Happy New Year!”

On the Same Page book for Novemeber/December

Our current On the Same Book selection for November & Decemeber is:

Model Home by Eric Puchner

A tender and funny portrait of an unraveling family from the award-winning and critically acclaimed author of Music Through the Floor.
Warren Ziller moved his family to California in search of a charmed life and to all appearances, he found it: a gated community not far from the beach, amid the affluent splendor of Southern California in the 80s. But his American dream has been rudely interrupted. Despite their affection for each other, Warren, his wife Camille, and their three children have veered into separate lives, as distant as satellites. Worst of all, Warren has squandered the family’s money on a failing real estate venture.

When tragedy strikes, the Zillers are forced to move to one of the houses in Warren’s abandoned development in the middle of the desert. Marooned in a less-than-model home, each must reckon with what’s led them there and who’s to blame—and whether they can summon the forgiveness needed to hold them together. Subtly ambitious, brimming with the humor and unpredictability of life, Model Home delivers penetrating insights into the American family and into the imperfect ways we try to connect, from a writer “uncannily in tune with the heartbreak and absurdity of domestic life” (Los Angeles Times).

Docent Lecture: Holidays: Christmas, Chanukah & Other Festive Celebrations

Holidays: Christmas, Chanukah & Other Festive Celebrations

Docent Lecture and Slideshow



Wednesday, December 14
6:30pm
Glen Park Library
2825 Diamond Street

This lecture and slideshow focuses on beautiful and intriguing paintings that depict giving, receiving, feasting, and the enjoyment of holidays and other festivities.
Holiday treats will be available!

Piano Accompanying: Not Just Performance but Service

  Several weeks ago my student played a duet with me during a church service. She is a beginner musician but plays with feeling and thoughtfulness. She had the melody in both hands and I played a accompaniment. Her gift of service was well received and fortified her confidence in playing the piano. My daughter-in-law felt I had taken her advice to heart. "Children need to know why playing the piano is useful." Her words ring true and make it worth the effort to find opportunities to use my student's emerging skills.

  In my church this month the congregation is singing Christmas carols fifteen minutes prior to the service beginning. Two of my students, who attend the same church, are playing carols with me as accompanists. They are new to this skill and I have been singing with them to help them learn to follow another musician. Will they play perfectly? Probally not, but the leaders of this church understand the need to groom the next generation of church musicians. Abiding a few mistakes is a small price to pay for the huge reward of having volunteer, amateur pianists ready to assist a group and to provide music.
  You may have other musical venues to train your students, but I see the most consistent place, for those students who are in my church, is the prelude and postlude times in church meetings. They are not in the spotlight and I "break them in" as duet accompanists with me. Then later I can assign them a time to prepare music for the entire prelude or postlude period.
   I am a volunteer organist and am very vocal about music. Those leaders who organize music see the wisdom in my requests and I have support from them and from their parents.
   I can give credit to my responsibility as a church musician for my staying active in piano lessons for ten years. These opportunities to use my skill made me practice.

Cookbooks for Winter

If our cool, wintery weather inspires you to spend more time in the kitchen, be sure to take a look at the hundreds of cookbooks available at the Glen Park Library. You'll find recipes from countries around the world, books that focus on a particular type of food or cooking technique, and books that focus on entertaining and holiday meals. To whet your appetite, here are a few titles that were recently added to the collection:

Williams Sonoma Good Food to Share: Recipes for Entertaining with Family and Friends by Sara Kate Gillingham-Ryan offers tips and recipes for uncomplicated, relaxing dinner parties.

Saveur: The New Comfort Food edited by James Oseland, is full of delicious recipes from around the world, all illustrated with color photographs.
The Casserole Queens Cookbook: Put Some Lovin' in Your Oven, with 100 Easy One-Dish Recipes by Crystal Cook and Sandy Pollock is full of ideas for cozy meals at home or for a fun contribution to pot-luck parties.

What are the most common Christmas tree decorations?

We all have our perspective about the design and the art of having the theme of Christmas. We have a lot preparation for these decorations. But, Christmas trees are one of the most common Christmas decorations around the world.

We have a lot of requirements for our own Christmas trees but there are certain general for these has been as traditional. Aside from that your Christmas tree must be a pine tree, here are the most common Christmas tree decorations:

Christmas Balls. These is one of the most important if you are decorating your own Christmas tree. Christmas balls have been traditional as a decoration for Christmas trees and it comes out with many different colours.

As the size of the sphere, it comes from the smallest to the largest size that your Christmas tree can fit to itself. It comes from different colours depending on the theme of your Christmas decorations, like blue, white, green, and the most common is red.

Unlike other Christmas balls, there are some in the market that goes with some designs but the general colour is still applied. Fancies are added to them, changing their colours and styles giving them a brighter and artistic decoration to fit your own Christmas tree.

Candy canes. Candies are preferably for Christmas decorations as it is also somewhat general and traditional. But the most common candy as a Christmas decorations is the candy mint cane though others still decorate their own with other candies, chocolates and other sweetness.

Candy canes come with its mint flavour candy forming a cane with stripes of red and white through its body. These are commonly sold in some candy shops and stores and often used to eat and not to decorate. But people still used to decorate as it is very attractive to children as they love sweet foods.

Christmas lights. For its main purpose, Christmas lights are serve to give light and beauty to anything for Christmas. It is one of the most common Christmas decoration and so for the Christmas tree. Christmas trees and its decorations are useless if there are no lights with it. That is why Christmas trees have to fill it up so that it can be more entertaining and attractive even if it is in dark.

Christmas lights is a set of small lights arranged in one long thread and produces different colours such as blue, green, red, yellow, white, etc. These lights are also producing a rhythmic sequence that is very attractive to our eyes especially in the dark. This will make the tree glowing like it was decorated by stars above twinkling in each branches of the Christmas tree.

Toys. Just like candies, toys give beauty to your Christmas tree as it is also a source of different colours and style. Toys are also attractive to children which they are the most entertained person by a Christmas tree. They are light and can come with great styles and colours. People are not those familiars that toy are used as a decoration but for some it has been an honour especially for the children to hang their favourite toy around a very special tree.

Gifts. Though not part of the a Christmas tree, gifts are considered as a Christmas tree decoration as it give some style to the tree. Gifts are places under the tree as if they are to be shed. They are not hang around the tree because gifts are too heavy and big.

Gifts may come from sizes from small to large with forms such as sphere or a box depending on the thing inside. It is not required to hang around a tree because it may block the other decorations as well as the tree. Unlike small gifts with the same size of other Christmas tree decorations, they can be hang up around the branches as they can be fitted to the tree.

Houdini and Magic

Friday, Decemeber 2
4:00pm-4:30pm
Glen Park Library

To tie in with the Contemporary Jewish Museum's exhibit on Houdini, we will present a special program. Kids will make a magic craft and share magic tricks. Those who attend will receive free passes to the CJM as well.
School aged programs every 1st Friday. For ages 6 and up.

Teaching Piano Over the Internet

   We have heard that it is possible and thought how it might work in our studio and now I want to report I have had my first lesson over the internet. My student is my granddaughter who lives a half hour away. I see her often during the month but not every week. She is my guinea pig, and a cute one, if I can say so myself.

   Here are some thoughts on my first experience. There must be some learning curve time. My son and I both had to investigate the best service to use and practice calling each other. I had some issues with Skype on my PC so I was looking for another option. We settled on Google Video Chat because many people have a Gmail account which is what this service requires. Google has a plug-in to download and I had to solve an issue with my Apple Laptop working with Google but I prevailed and we found it very easy to call once the set-up was in place. The easiest service would be for Apple users as their FaceTime feature is already installed. This must happen from Apple to Apple devices.
   My laptop was the best solution to placing the camera at a good angle so that my student could see me and my piano keyboard. I slowed my teaching pace down so that I could show her more on the camera. and her mother was essential in the process as she could correct what did not seem to make sense to my granddaughter.
    Way back in olden times, we dreamed of this but who "wouldda thunk" it would happen.

Web camera software detects activity, triggers alarm, captures snapshots, records video, and sends captured images by e-mail

Modern professional protection application works with
any camera, IP cameras, and major capture cards.

Security application

has become so sophisticated that the regular
businessman who has been busy minding his store instead of pouring over electronics and online
know-how articles can be easily overwhelmed when it comes time to install or modernize his security system.


Fortunately, there is modern professional security application that simplifies much of the decision making.
You don't necessarily have to get rid of a working analog closed circuit TV system in order to renew to a streaming
video that can be watched from any online connected station or 3G phone. Video capture cards can digitally convert the
snapshots for broadcast. Until recently, there had been no real attempts to standardize the new Internet
cameras; every make and manufacturer functioned a little differently. And when you put webcams into the
join, finding one application to control them all was heavy.



Professional security software

is now available that will work for any webcamera
or IP camera and for most capture cards as well. You can supervise anything your activity
sensors are picking up at your house or firm while you can be half a world away.
The application itself may not be easy, but it can make life simpler for you.

Webcam software identifies movement, sounds
siren, captures snapshots, records video, and sends captured images by e-mail

Webcams
are fine for more than just making ip communications
more realistic. They can also be
an awfully valuable instrument
for use in home or commercial security.

Software
is now available that can detect movement and use
it as a trigger for several procedures.


The way that
it works is to study the picture sent by a webcam that is either attached via USB
or through a video capture card for movement. When it picks up
that movement, it can afterward acquire any number of procedures,
including triggering an alarm.

A more popular application, though, is to either
send live pictures of what is happening in the scene that is covered by the webcam
or to even webcast by online broadcasting accurately what is
happening with both audio and image. If installed covertly,
this application could even be used for stealthy surveillance.

Given the
large quantity of systems that either have a web camera connected
or can support one, this is an perfect way to inexpensively and easily protect
the spot across that workstation
from intrusion or robbery.

I'm using webcam software. I
can webcast Online video to view my home
from anywhere.

With my new

web camera software, I can run a broadcasting webcast
of my home viewable online. This opens up a group
of possibilities, the surface of which has not even been scratched in today's world. I can use
this broadcast for surveillance purposes, allowing me to watch what's going on in my room
at any moment from a remote viewing station.

As long as I have the web camera
running and a remote station with Internet access, I can view the site.
With the software and the camera, I can change the options to capture video,
sense movement (if I don't want to keep the webcam running at all times),
or use a combination of a online feed and recorded video to implement a protection
system that takes full benefit of new technology.

With a capture card,
I can simply transmit appropriate video and screenshots to use on
any computer.

With delicate files on my pc
and valuable belongings in my site,
it only makes sense to have a protection setup that I can supervise whenever I feel that my privacy
is being compromised. If I owned a small firm or lived with roommates, I couldn't imagine
living without it.