Results tagged “online” from Only in York County

Go vote!

And check back to our Election Central home page throughout the night for the latest vote totals, videos, photos, stories and more.

That's all for your public-service announcement for the day.

I'm still celebrating the Game 1 Phillies victory in the World Series. I hope that, by the time you're reading this on Friday morning, I'll be celebrating another!

So, while I'm off partying and cheering, here's a look at some interesting sites featuring Yorkers:

· Chris on the AT is Chris Sheaffer's log of his hike southward on the Appalachian Trail - all 2,167 miles. Chris is a 2002 Central York High School grad. Read more about his undertaking here.

· A magazine for professional truckers honored a Windsor man, Jim Waltemyer, for 37 years of safe, accident-free driving. He hauls Federal Express freight.

· Speaking of vehicles, if you haven't seen the work of Prueitt and Sons auto restoration of Glen Rock, you're missing out. They do amazing things. Check out their "In Progress" photo gallery.

· Here are the memories of many Yorkers about S&H Green Stamps. Expect more from me on that subject in a future post, but in the meantime, if you remember those, leave me a comment!

Have you spotted news about Yorkers elsewhere? Let me know, because I'd love to feature it on the blog. And, it bears repeating - Go Phillies!

The Pennsylvania Dutch Heritage Group locally is very active and has a great newsletter. One of their issues earlier this year included several sites related to the Pennsylvania Dutch language and culture.

- The Pennsylvania German Society
- The Kutztown Folk Festival, which is held each year to celebrate "Pennsylvania Dutch Folklife and Fun."
- Kutztown University's Pennsylvania German Cultural Heritage Center
- Hiwwe-Wie-Driwwe, written 99 percent in Pennsylvania Dutch, offers audio lessons in the language. (Check them out on the right under "Webclass.")
- German-Pennsylvanian Association
- Pioneers and Patriarchs focuses on Pennsylvania Dutch History, Genealogy and Culture.
- Pennsylvania German Board, a message board in and about "Dutch"

And I would be very remiss if I didn't mention, again, the amazing "Nau loss mich yuscht eppes saage! En Blog uff Deitsch" by "Der Douglas." You might remember it from my post earlier this year.

Check them out, and let me know what you think, or if you know of any other sites like this. I'm in the process of adding these to our list of history and tradition resources online, so if you have more, I'd love to hear about them.

A couple of quick good reads about Yorkers elsewhere - yes, we occasionally leave the comforts of home!

From "The Scribbler" column by Jack Brubaker of Lancaster Newspapers, Ann Pettigrew, a York woman taking the train out of Lancaster, heard an unusual "bird" - or rather, a recording of one being played from a nearby billboard.

From the University of Delaware's UDaily, Fran and Ralph Bowers of Felton headed to the university's annual Coast Day on Oct. 4. The event is designed to teach visitors about Delaware's coastal resources and the work of the college's environmental department. "We're big beachcombers and we still learned a lot," Ralph Bowers said.

Have you spotted news about Yorkers elsewhere? Let me know, because I'd love to feature it on the blog.

Remember when I posted about the cake disaster that only an editor could love?

Well, my friend Megan then told me about CakeWrecks.com, a site dedicated to showcases cakes, well, gone wrong.

It cracked me up! Do yourself a favor today and check it out. And, just because I like to talk about food, post me a comment and tell me what your favorite kind of cake/icing combo is (and where you buy it, if you don't feel that buying a cake is some kind of sin against humanity.)

Important note: The cake pictured here is decidedly NOT a wreck - it was decorated in 2007 by Mary Jo Sturgill at her home in Dover Township, and I picked it for the blog because my daughter loves cake AND ladybugs! So, this one's for Sarah. :)

Yes, I know you all love reading my blog. And we even get a little multicultural when we get comments from Mark, who tells us hello from Austria.

But here's a real multicultural blog experience for you, courtesy of the Pennsylvania Dutch Heritage Group's newsletter from earlier this year.

Check out "Nau loss mich yuscht eppes saage! En Blog uff Deitsch", billed as the only blog on the Internet written entirely in Pennsylvania Dutch.

Here's what I can tell, with my VERY limited "Dutch" knowledge: The author is Douglas J. Madenford; he lived or lives in Reading; and he has degrees from Lock Haven University and - I think - is pursuing a Master's degree at Millersville.

The second part of the title of the blog I translate as "A blog in Dutch." The first part, though, completely escapes me. I tried translating it kind of word-for-word and came up with "Now leave me just (???) say."

Anyone have any insight to offer? Or have any other Penna. Dutch sites to recommend?

I'm honestly not worried about the "swine flu" (technically H1N1 influenza) outbreak that's been talked about so much lately.

That said, it never hurts to be prepared and well-informed, right? I think one of the reasons I'm not panicky and stressed out over this potential sickness is the volume I've read about it while at work.

So, in the interest of helping everyone stay informed - and NOT to "spread panic," as one friend of mine accused me of - we created a "swine flu center" on the YDR news site. Click the image below to check it out. All credit for the hard work on this goes to fellow editor Amy, who really got an online skills workout building this while I was off last week! Way to go, Amy!

From last Friday's Page-A-Day calendar comes a wonderful and demeaning exercise designed to see if you are faster than a digital sheep:

Go here and try it out - it takes less than a minute.

Then come back and tell me what you are. On my first try, I only made "ambling armadillo," but my second one was just slightly better. Rose actually got worse on her second try, because she started trying to tranquilize the sheep before they ran! So don't do that - there's a time penalty.

C'mon, anyone out there have a reaction speed above "snail?"

Earlier this week, Hubby sent me a post from Book Flaps, a blog by Jim Lewin, the owner of the York Emporium on West Market Street downtown.

Take a minute to read the post - it's here - and then come back and read the rest of this one.

Well, Hubby read that and his first thought was, he'd love to live in a dream world where we didn't need income and he could work at the Emporium and be paid in books. (You might notice his thoughts as the "anonymous" comment on the post above.)

I read that and thought, oh, wow, how romantic! Didn't really give it much of a thought later, though.

Fast-forward to today, when I'm reading my friends' Facebook statuses.

From my friend Mandy, it says, Mandy "is going to be on the emporium website with her fiance." It only took a second for it to click. My response?

"Wait, that was YOU? I read about that!" I said, and I sent her the link.

Only in York County.

PS - Congratulations, Mandy and Brandon!

One of my favorite things to do with Hubby is send funny Craigslist postings back and forth.

Well, he got me the best one on Saturday night.

"I am looking to get a dairy goat. Will perform weeks/months worth of farm work or math tutoring in exchange. I am an experienced tutor and work as a professional mathematician."

The scary part? He thought maybe it was me! (You'll remember that I was considering goat ownership last summer.)

It was not my post, but I wish it had been. That's an awesome idea. I'm a big fan of barter, and an even bigger fan of unusual barter combinations. (There was also one on Craigslist in which someone would trade homemade pet beds for a tattoo... also not me. Sorry. But if you have a goat and a tattoo for me, I might be willing to trade you for all the scrapple you can eat...)

HA!

Remember a couple of weeks ago, I talked about the new Virtually Organized Web site?

And remember that I said its owner, local professional organizer Debbie Jordan Kravitz, was giving away a site-warming prize?

I WON!!! I am getting a $50 gift certificate to the Container Store. (Here's her post declaring me the winner, if you want proof.) I can't even tell you how much it made my night late last night to find that out!

Debbie's only request is that I plan out my project and THEN buy, rather than just adding additional clutter. And I think I know what I'm going to do. I'll soon be posting photos of my just-started scrapbooking work space, and I saw a couple of neat things at the Container Store Web site that would be perfect fits.

Thanks, Debbie! :)

A bit of shameless self-promotion today; please take a look at our new blog, Record Tracker, which takes a look at public records in Pennsylvania.

Basically (and I'm REALLY oversimplifying here), the law says that many records kept by government agencies have to be made available if they are requested. Want to know what your lawmakers are spending your tax dollars on? That's findable using open records.

The new blog will help keep an eye on the open records process and what documents are available. In conjunction, we've got a news section called Full Disclosure that shares news on the open records law, as well as our reporting compiled through open records.

One of our editors, Scott Blanchard, is compiling all this information, so if you have info you'd like to see reported, drop him a note at sblanchard@ydr.com.

I've got one New Year's resolution, and along with it, a new favorite Web site.

Mint bills itself as "refreshing money management." Basically, it's great if you are someone who manages your credit cards, bank accounts, 401(k), mortgage, car loan, etc., online. It's free; you put in all your logons (don't worry, it's super-secure), and then Mint brings up a ton of information, from your current balances, to a list of specific transactions, to a breakdown of the categories in which you've spent your money.

My biggest expenditures came in... wait for it... FOOD! Big surprise?

Hubby and I are spending 2009 trying to get our finances in order. We've set up a budget, and though we're only a couple weeks in, it seems to be working well. Mint is nice because we can both log in and see where we stand on all our accounts, where before, Hubby always had to come find me and say "Do I use this account? Do I use that account?"

I know some people wouldn't feel comfortable putting all that financial info into one site, but it doesn't bother me. Among other things, I'm so broke that if the people at Mint were looking for identities to steal, mine would NOT be one of them! :)

Did anyone else make any resolutions? My sister Louise said she's going to try to focus on the moment and the positive more, which I think is great. Anybody else have one? (If you have any finance tips to help me with my resolution, post those too. I could use them!)

You remember my new daily calendar with a weird Web site each day?

Well, yesterday's was super-funny. There's this company, Blendtec, that makes super-high-quality blenders. And they have this video series called "Will it blend?"

It's divided into "Try this at home" and "Don't try this at home" sections. Of course, the "don't try this" ones are the funnies.

Here are some of my favorites:

iPod
stun gun
Bic lighters
glowsticks

As my Christmas gift to myself, I get a page-a-day desk calendar each year. Last year's was made up of Scrabble puzzles; this year, I wanted to go with something a little different.

So, in keeping with the half of my job in which I'm the online editor, I picked the "Page-A-Day 2009 Wacky Web Sites calendar: 365 for the weird & wired."

I'm looking forward to trying out a new site each day. Lucky you, readers, you'll get to share in the ones I enjoy.

Today's is pretty fun. This page from Tulane University lists the "special" holidays and commemorative days for each day of the year. Today, for instance, is the "Festival of Sleep Day," and if you remember how I spent part of Christmas Day, you'll know why I like that idea so much! (My birthday, ironically, is Square Dance Day. Won't be celebrating that one!)

January is, among other things, Hot Tea Month (yay!) and also Prune Breakfast Month (boo!!!) Oh, and Diet Month. Don't get me started...

... and because I do, here are a couple of sites around the good ol' Internet that regularly tickle my funny bone. As a warning - some of these sites contain posts that might not be suitable for work or kids; other times, they contain stuff so funny yet so appropriate that I'm showing it to my 8-year-old. So use some good judgment.

Passive-Agressive Notes: passiveaggressivenotes.com

You almost have to see these to believe them. Like the note taped to a work fridge that says "I know the Dow just dropped 600 points. But please don't eat lunches that are not yours. Thnx."

Failblog: failblog.org or, to see only G-rated "fails," failblog.org/tag/g-rated.

Here's a good newspaper-related fail:

see more pwn and owned pictures

Finally, here's a Youtube video that almost makes me want to turn vegetarian:

So, tickle my funny bone some more... where do you find funny stuff online?

This fall's election promises to be huge, no matter who you support.

So here's my public-service message: Read up on the issues and the candidates. Decide who you're going to pick. Then show up three weeks or so from now and vote!

Want some one-stop-shopping for election news? We're doing our best to offer both national updates plus news on local elections, like the Platts/Avillo race for the U.S. House. Check it out in our politics section.

And if you have an election question that you'd like answered (or, if you're a grammar Nazi, that you'd like TO HAVE answered), post a comment and I'll see what I can do.

Yet another fun thing I found on the internet and thought I'd share. How it works:

Go to this page. Refresh until you find a total of five quotes that apply to you, then post them on your blog.

Here are my five.

1. "There is always some madness in love. But there is also always some reason in madness." ~Friedrich Nietzsche

2. "I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be." ~Douglas Adams

3. "I dwell in possibility." ~Emily Dickinson

4. "Do or do not. There is no try." ~Yoda

5. "Courage is the power to let go of the familiar. " ~Raymond Lindquist

Even if you don't have a blog, try to find at least one you like and post it as a comment for me. I am really interested to see what other people come up with.

I could not be happier that, today, I can finally tell you what I've been spending just about every waking moment on this summer at work!

We've just launched a new high school sports Web site that, honestly, I think is the best work our team has ever done. It looks nice, it's easy to navigate, and it has a LOT of stuff.

Check it out at GameTimePA.com. We'll be running a live scoreboard of tonight's first-of-the-season football games, so bookmark it and check back often!

(Don't know what a meme is? Learn more.)

I normally don't get into these, but I love music, so I had to try this one out.

- - - - - - Your Life: The Soundtrack - - - - -
Open your music player (iTunes, Winamp, Media Player, etc). Put it on shuffle. Press play. For every question type the song that's on. When you go to a new question press the next button.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Opening Credits: Runaway Train - Soul Asylum

Waking Up: Who Said - Hannah Montana

Theme song: New Age Girl - Deadeye Dick

Falling in Love: The Great Intoxication - David Byrne