By now, pretty well everyone you know has a digital camera and thousands of pictures were taken during the last few weeks within your family alone. Unfortunately, one of the hardest things to do with those pictures afterwards is share them.

Sure you can sign up with one of the many free (and not so free ) picture sharing websites that are out there but whomever you want to share pictures with will have to do the same. Or you will have to burn a couple of CDs or DVDs or print off a bunch of pictures and send them in the mail or post or ….

Of course, pretty well everyone you know has email now, and you could attache a few pictures to your email and send them that way, but with todays cameras it isn’t unheard of having just one picture being 5MB in size and adding just a few of these to one email can quickly cause hiccups for most peoples email services… so what to do…

Here is a quick and easy service that will allow you to send files up to 100MB in size to whomever you wish…. with no cost involved…. AND if you want to send larger files – there is a small and very affordable fee that will allow you to do that too! Plus it won’t clutter up your (or your friends ) email to boot!

The service is called yousendit and their website is www.yousendit.com. The free service runs at a lower priority ( which is fair – they are a business ) but it does deliver.

To send pictures via their service just select the pictures you wish (making sure that the total stays under 100MB in size ) and create an archive with them (one large file ) if you don’t have an archive or a ZIP tool ( the most common format for archives ) then I recommend a great free one available from www.IZArc.org which is called the same name IZArc and can archive and unarchive files available in almost any format ( Not sure what Mac users can use, and Linux users usually have tools already installed for such purpose…)

Once your archive is created, login ( you need to create an account if you haven’t been there before ) to www.yousendit.com and click on the send button. You will get a small window popping up which will allow you to upload the archive and enter in the email address, a subject line, and a small note ( max of 100 characters ). Fill in the pertinent information, upload the file and send it.

Once the file has been sent you will receive a confirmation window (as well as an email ) with the link to download the archive from (so that you can send this link to more people if you so desire and/or download it yourself … )

The person(s) who will recieve the email you just sent out will get a notification and the note you sent them in their email, which will include the link for them to download whatever information you sent them in your archive.  This archive will be available for 7 days or a maximum of 100 days ( which is a lot for a free service! )

Once your recipients receive their files/pictures they will be able to do with them as they see fit … includ them in their own collection, put them in a digital picture frame or whatever….

I’ve used this service to send many pictures between my daughter and myself and although it may be running at “low priority” they still receive their email within the day and get their pictures just as quickly.

If you are looking for a way to save yourself and your friends or family a lot of grief and at the same time share pictures or any other shareable information – this is definately the way to go – check it out…. www. yousendit.com

So you can read it as a page within my blog ( and yes I asked for and received permission to do so from the author ) you can read it here – or you can also find it here – www.randsinrepose.com/archives/2007/11/11/the_nerd_handbook.html on the original website.

It will give you more insite within those few short paragraphs than anything else that I have read on the subject. If you want to know just what is going on with your nerdy/geeky/techie kid/brother/spouse/friend/? then read this article – it explains a lot!

He holds nothing back in his writing and is extremely insightful and can be irreverent – his whole blog is worth reading and checking out www.randsinrepose.com. Where you will find postings on Tech Life, Management and Vegas.

Even now being happily being retired, I can certainly relate to the first two categories and aspire to the third! I would say that his blog is as good as a book – which by coincidence – he has published! Check out managinghumans.com to find out more.

From what I have discerned from his website and Amazon this book isn’t so much about “Managing People” as it is in getting an insight about people from which you can then choose best your managing style. With emphasis of course, on “techie types!” It is available from Amazon here… Managing Humans

Above all else enjoy the article – it is well worth the read!

Unfortunately we always had “higher” priorities for the household budget. Eventually I discovered computers (for which I squirreled away my pennies at a time until I could afford one. To be truthful, I actually got a credit card dedicated for my computer habit. It lasted for years and my computers kept me busy enough to “ignore” the video games that were coming out.

To be truthful, my youngest daughter actually acquired several old game consoles from either neighbors or garage sales and I did enjoy getting beat by her whenever we played one of her Sonic or car race games. Man she’s a pretty tough competitor ( would like to think that she gets that from her old man…)

I guess it really should not have been a surprise for me then, when she hooked up with a boyfriend who also liked Video games and had himself a Wii. What was a real big surprise was that my wife actually bought me one for our anniversary!

For those who may not have heard of Nintendo’s latest game console, let me just summarize by describing it as the next generation of Video Gaming. It’s like when automatic transmissions were introduced – it made the automobile attractive to everyone. I think that is what the Wii has done for Nintendo. It’s a Video Game, that is made for everyone!

I have a friend of mine, who upon looking at the Wii when it first came out, said that it wasn’t a “real” Video Game Console and that it was designed for little kids (I think he honestly based this comment on the lack of “blood and guts” games that other consoles had.) He predicted that after the initial “flash” of excitement and reactionary buying, that things would settle down and the Wii would only look like a small bump on the road of Video Game improvements.

Some “bump”. It’s been over 14 months now, when it has been almost impossible to find a Wii Console in any number at any store. Unless you want to buy it on E-bay, for almost twice the price. I was reading just yesterday, that the Wii is poised to become the #1 selling Video Game Console in the world (beating the Xbox.)

So what makes the Wii so successful, certainly not “state of the art graphics” or “mature themes”? What it has that no other console has is that it is “interactive” with the player. Instead of just pushing buttons and twisting joysticks, one actually has to hold the controller as if it were a real “device” – be it a baseball bat, tennis racket, fishing rod or bowling ball.

So instead of trying to figure out the myriad number and combinations of buttons when playing a game, one just picks up the remote (game controller) and push the button showed on the TV screen and use it as if it was actually what you were playing. This makes it intuitive and simple and fun – all in one fell swoop.

The result is that EVERYONE can play, from two year olds to 90 year olds and they are! The Wii is becoming a hit in places where people can’t get out. For the first time ever you can go bowling, or play baseball in your own home or room. As a matter of fact I just had my two grandsons (two and four years old) along with their parents over for a fun Wii night (the boys favorite game so far is baseball!)

Because so many of these interactive games are physical (like tennis or baseball) one can actually get a good workout, without having to go outside! Be warned however, the Wii remote comes with a wrist strap, which should be clipped securely on the wrist. There has been more than one television taken out by someone flinging the Wii accidentally at the screen! This has happened so often that Panasonic is actually starting to “harden” some of it’s larger screens to avoid possible “accidental” damage in future!

I see now that the Wii is now attracting the “blood and guts” game developers, but thankfully there are also more and more “fun” games coming out as well, with plenty of sports games to boot. I’m really looking forward to Deca Sports which should be coming out this summer.

Virtual curling….. What more could you ask for!!

Yes Christmas is coming which I think takes care of a good chunk of many peoples spare time this time of year. So that is certainly a part of it. But with Christmas in this part of the world comes snow, storms and just plain weather. A case in point was the last two days.

We (my wife and I) were asked to look after our two grandsons (both under 5) for a couple of hours while my son in law drove to work. Both of them (son in law and daughter) work at the airport and once in a while have overlapping shifts, which means that sometimes we are lucky enough to babysit the boys for a couple of hours.

This particular time they were dropped off due to the weather, he didn’t want them in the car with him on the road. It was dangerous, and while he may have had no choice to be there, he could at least make sure the kids weren’t and so we got them for a short while…. we thought…

It took him much longer than he had expected to get to the airport and the storm had gotten much worse, and was still building. They did the right thing and were smart in deciding to take a hotel room at the airport, instead of trying to fight though the storm to get home. So our two hour babysitting job turned into much, much more!

My wife and I have often said, “There’s a reason why you have children in your twenties.” We usually say this after just two hours of being managed by two high energy boys. Well we’ve just survived about 24 hours with them now… It was an interesting and very fun time. Don’t get me wrong they were precious and extremely well behaved, but they are a full time job all by themselves!’

Yesterday, by the time the youngest boy had left (the older of the two having been dropped off to school that morning by ‘Grandma’,) I was ready to collapse, except now I had to catch up on some of the things that I couldn’t do earlier with him. (Like dig out the 60+ centimeters of snow that had fallen and blown into the driveway.)

My wife managed to hang in and stay up ’till about 9:30 and I dragged myself upstairs around 10:30 (we both usually stay up way past eleven.) Now this morning I look around at all the “other stuff” that needs to be done. All the little things that got put aside while the boys were here… and now I have a full day of just doing all those little things that needed to get done earlier…

Man, I would do it again in a heartbeat, the fun, the laughter, the conversations, the joy and the love make it all worthwhile. Those 24hours were filled with enough activities and stories to fill a book. But there is a reason why we are grandparents now – we’d never make it if we had to spend ALL our time raising kids again – it kinda makes me wonder how we did it the first time!

So…. now back to work…. till next time ….

One of the unique things that makes us Canadian, is our nationwide angst over the French Language. I know all sorts of people across this great country, from one coast to the other, each and every one of them has a very distinct opinion, usually at one end of the spectrum or the other, about it.

I first learned French in High School, and I really loved it. I was paranoid about pronouncing it perfectly. I even tried to attended extra classes to ensure I spoke it properly when it came time to recite a chapter in front of the class. After school, I never had the opportunity to speak French again and slowly my skills started to disappear.

As the years went by (way too fast in my opinion), I fell in love and married the girl of my dreams. She was originally from Quebec and spoke French and English fluently. We married in Quebec City, where I met and tried to converse with many of my new in-laws who spoke only French.

I embarrassed myself terribly one evening when I called one of her Aunts, whose name is Marie-Paule, “Marie-Pool” which every one there heard as… “Mary Chicken“… They also took great glee in having me try to say some of the more “interesting” locations in Quebec – like Chicoutimi… The decision to stop speaking French followed quickly there after.

The greatest insult, I actually heard later, when my lovely wife told me that one or two of them were quite upset that I was an “Anglo” and couldn’t speak French. They predicted and complained that if we had any children, they too would speak only English as well. (I am extremely pleased to say that they could not have been further from the truth on that one!!)

I also discovered just a few years afterwards, that I had an unfortunate quirk with languages, I could only retain two languages at a time. While in the military, I studied a third language for a full year. It thoroughly corrupted and destroyed whatever was left of my fading French skills, and started to mangle my English as well. (There is something to be said for learning a second language when you are young!)

Years after my French had been laid to rest, our family moved “across the river” to a city in Quebec called Gatineau. I thought that this would be a perfect opportunity for me to “recover” what French I had left, and possibly even improve on it, or better yet – become bilingual – an awesome idea!

I quickly discovered a problem. Gatineau, for the most part, is a bilingual city, with French being it’s primary language of commerce and communication. So whenever I would “try” to speak French to a sales clerk, neighbor or even a local kid I would stumble and stall (trying to find the right word or phrase). They would quickly switch over to English for me. Which was great for communication, but it kind of sucked ’cause I wasn’t learning anything! In the end I gave up again…

As an aside, it was during our time in Gatineau that both my young daughters became fluently bilingual and to this day still retain their second language decades after leaving Quebec.

The hardest part with being married into a French family, was the conversation or actually the lack of it! While my wifes immediate family was bilingual, and I could converse with them in English, most of the outlying relations were not. Plus the family would slip in and out of French without even thinking. I would quickly get lost or left out of the conversation.

I met some of the most interesting people whenever we visited her family in Quebec and while my skills in understanding French improved, I could not converse with them. All conversations were heavily dependent upon my wife being able to translate for me.

Years passed, and while I lobbied heavily at work to go on French training (the Federal Government insists now that all its managers be fully bilingual) nothing ever happened. I was never sure if it was because I was indispensable or if I had just ticked off too many of my peers and seniors and that this was my pay back.

I can no longer remember how it happened, or when or where I received that old photocopy of “Le Instant French” but it was a huge eye opener for me. It changed my attitude towards trying to speak French with some of my in-laws and all at once I was conversing. Certainly no where near a native speaker, let alone someone raised in Quebec, but I was able to start getting my ideas across. It was liberating.

So now I struggle along when I can, and put up with the odd “say Chicoutimi” barbs that get thrown my way, because now I can talk to some of the most wonderful and interesting people in her family. I’m sure they get tired of my “Instant French” (I know I can get tired trying to put it together). But I can now converse with an amazing gentleman from Sept-Isles when I see him, or tease my brother-in-laws wife and/or boys. It’s great!

All this liberation from a silly little article written some time in the past by a gentleman by the name of Stephen Phizicky. Thank you Stephen!

I searched diligently to find the article on the web, but have had not luck. I also searched to find out who Stephen Phizicky was, but found nothing concrete. So I have transcribed the article and put it on my web page for all who would like to understand and learn how they too can take the first few steps. So that they too can speak French with a friend, neighbor, relative, or just the man in the street.

What has been most liberating for me. is that now I use my “Instant French” to speak with my two wonderful grandsons. They are being raised bilingual, but the emphasis is on their French language. They will go to French schools and have French homework and I speak to them in French when I can. I like to say that I have a two year-old and a four year-old teaching me French now. While I worry that my “French” could be corrupting theirs, I know that there will be plenty of teachers out there for them, to get it right. I expect I’ll be learning even more in a couple of years!

Life is wonderful!

À la prochaine!