[nfbmi-talk] {Disarmed} free moviesFw: [mamas-corner] For Thursday, December 16, 2010
gkitchen
ghkitchen at comcast.net
Tue Dec 28 03:12:19 UTC 2010
----- Original Message -----
From: Melanie
To: mamas-corner
Sent: Thursday, December 16, 2010 8:24 AM
Subject: [mamas-corner] For Thursday, December 16, 2010
May this page touch your heart, give you a smile or just give you a few minutes of pleasure.
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In This Issue:
Today's Audio Book:
The Christmas Promise by Donna VanLiere. In mp3 format
Today's Movies:
The Christmas Wife. Described. In mp3 format.
This Christmas. Not Described. In mp3 format.
Jim's Old Time Radio Grab Bag:
Christmas Part Three. 41 Shows.
Special Christmas Music For This Week:
Sugarland. Gold And Green
Dan's Tech Tips:
Low Cost Magnification Software
Steve's Daily Tip:
Thawing Times For Whole Turkeys
Timetable For Roasting Fresh Or Thawed Tturkey
Recipes For Today:
Best Recipes. Main Dishes:
The Luxury Liner
Great American Recipes. From Your Home Bakery:
Southern Rosemary Muffins
Quote For Today. ???
Did You Know? ???
Random Facts. ???
Today's Brain Challenge. ???
Member's Section:
Christmas First
Long Live Scrooge
The Magical Christmas Of 1969
Special Announcement:
Social Outreach Council Phone Chat
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Today's Audio Book:
The Christmas Promise by Donna Van Liere
mp3 format.
Genre: Fiction
The fourth book in The Christmas Hope series
Each Christmas we are given a promise from heaven. And each year on earth we make promises to each other. This is a story about how a promise from one person to another shows us the true meaning of faith, remembrance, and love.
Seven years ago Gloria endured a family tragedy that almost shook her faith entirely.
Each Christmas she places a card in an envelope on her tree, restating a promise she made to her husband before he died. Now, having moved from her small town and all the painful memories it held, she is building a life by caring for people in need. Whether it's a young mother who can't pay her electric bill or a family who needs some extra food, Gloria always finds a way.
Miriam is a thorn in Gloria's side. Miriam is a constantly critical, disapproving neighbor who looks with suspicion at all the good things Gloria does. When a twist of fate makes them roommates instead of neighbors, it's the ultimate test of patience and faith.
Chaz has a good job as head of security at Wilson's Department Store, but each night he returns home to an empty apartment. He longs for a wife and family of his own but realizes that the life choices he's made have alienated him. He befriends a young boy whose mother has fallen on hard times, giving him a chance to have a life he thought impossible.
In The Christmas Promise, the lives of these characters collide and we learn that even as we move ahead, the past is never far behind. And when we are forgiven much, we love much. In this warmly humorous and deeply poignant story, we are reminded that the Christmas Promise is the promise of second chances.
http://www.sendspace.com/file/la4f63
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Today's Movies:
The Christmas Wife
Described. Audio Only.
mp3 format.
Genre: Drama
Tagline:
N/A
Starring:
Jason Robards
Julie Harris
Don Francks
Director:
David Hugh Jones
Year: 1988
Made For TV
A widower not wanting to face his first Christmas alone responds to an ad for "social introductions." He meets a woman who is happy to celebrate the holidays with him. She bids him to not ask about her personal life which harbors a secret that threatens their developing friendship and could ultimately change both their lives.
John Tanner, recently widowed, faces his first Christmas alone. Noticing a newspaper advertisement for 'social introductions', John goes to an agency in search of someone with whom to share Christmas. He meets Iris who, though shy and reserved, is happy to join him on one condition: No questions. Their initial awkwardness is soon relieved by the rituals of the season: trimming the tree, giving gifts, cozy chats by the fireside; and a warm friendship begins to develop. But there's a secret side to the Christmas wife, that when revealed, will change both their lives forever.
File name: Wife.zip
http://www.sendspace.com/file/pw4c2b
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This Christmas
Not Described. Audio Only
mp3 format
Genre: Drama
Tagline:
You can't exchange family
Starring:
Delroy Lindo
Idris Elba
Loretta Devine
Director:
Preston A. Whitmore, II
Year: 2007
Rated: PG13
Upon gathering together under one roof for the first time in seven years, an estranged family celebrating Christmas rediscovers long-forgotten bonds
Ma'Dere is the matriarch to the large and loving Whitfield family, which consists of her three daughters, Kelli, Lisa, and Mel, and her sons, Michael, Claude, and Quentin. They are an extremely attractive and successful bunch, but no sooner have they shared their first meal together than the hidden tensions begin to boil to the surface. Long-kept secrets come tumbling out, and the Whitfields soon engender enough drama to support several spin-off soap operas. There's interracial marriage, infidelity, gambling debts, an AWOL soldier, and repressed dreams of musical stardom, to name just a few of the issues they are forced to tackle in between stuffing the turkey and decorating the tree. Will their many problems and misunderstandings be resolved by Christmas day?
File name: Christmas.zip
http://www.sendspace.com/file/9ltbd2
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Jim's Old Time Radio Grab Bag:
Just a reminder to grab the radio shows that Jim made available on Monday. He will be deleting them on Sunday and putting new ones up on Monday. Here is the link again in case you missed it.
Christmas, Part Three. 41 Shows:
http://www.sendspace.com/file/sb1ebp
_________________________
Special Christmas Music For This Week:
Sugarland. Gold And Green
Track List:
01_City_Of_Silver_Dreams
02_Winter_Wonderland
03_Holly_Jolly_Christmas
04_Coming_Home
05_Gold_And_Green
06_Maybe_Baby_New_Years_Day
07_Nuttin_For_Christmas
08_O_Come_O_Come_Emmanuel
09_Little_Wood_Guitar
10_Silent_Night
http://www.sendspace.com/file/jsvy3o
________________________
Dan's Tech Tips:
Low Cost Magnification Software
11/30/2010
The most frequently asked question in access technology is almost certainly "Is all of it this expensive?" Most of it is, and as such, lower cost options are especially worthy of investigation. I have spent quite a bit of time investigating some of the cheaper options out there for low vision consumers. The software I looked at is the following:
ZoomText Express ($49.99), the "light" version of the market leader:
http://www.aisquared.com/zoomtextexpress
iZoom ($299):
http://www.aisquared.com/zoomtextexpress
WinZoom ($299):
http://www.getwinzoom.com/
WinZoom Lite ($59.95)
http://getwinzoom.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=28&Itemid=14
Let me outline some basic specifications, for lowest to highest cost:
· ZoomText Express ($49.99)
§ Three unlabeled magnification levels
§ Three color schemes (normal, inverse, tint white areas)
§ No speech
§ Cursor enhancements
· WinZoom Lite ($59.99)
§ Magnification between 1x and 4x
§ One mouse enhancement
§ Full screen and lens magnification
§ No color schemes
§ No speech
§ One pointer enhancement (size change)
· iZoom ($299)
§ Magnification up to 36x
§ Twelve color schemes, and three custom schemes
§ Speech available
§ Eight types of magnification (full screen, split screen, lens, etc)
§ Pointer enhancements, cursor enhancement
· WinZoom ($299)
§ Magnification up to 36x
§ Eleven color schemes
§ Speech available
§ Six types of magnification
§ Pointer enhancements, cursor enhancement
There is, as you might expect, quite a gap between ZoomText Express/WinZoom Lite and iZoom/WinZoom. For the lower price, ZoomText Express builds on the strengths of its big brother ZoomText - the product has an extremely simple and easy to use interface, though it is obviously limited, and will not be sufficient for any but the least affected of low vision users. It has a help index that uses the standard Windows tree view format. WinZoom Lite is also very straightforward to use, and has a brief PDF help document. In testing, WinZoom Lite proved a little less robust than ZoomText Express; ZoomText Express installed and ran on our testing machines, while WinZoom Lite was sluggish to the point of being unusable on two of the three machines it was tested on, even after uninstalling other access technology products. After extensive troubleshooting, the WinZoom support team at Clarity has promised to implement a feature that remedied similar behavior in the regular version of WinZoom.
There are a few keyboard shortcuts for core functionality in ZoomText Express, which can help speed things up for users. No shortcut keys were listed in the documentation for WinZoom Lite.
iZoom and WinZoom are extremely similar in their feature set, and offer very similar magnification ranges, color schemes, pointer enhancements and speech. Both can be downloaded or shipped to the user, and both use PDF help files, a format that is not quite as simple to use as ZoomText Express's help. As mentioned above, there were some initial issues with WinZoom - the magnified view responded very slowly. The support team, while ultimately successful in fixing the problem, was less than forthcoming, which may be a concern for less tech savvy users.
Both programs have user-changeable shortcut keys, though iZoom has a few more than WinZoom. For those users who like having a second screen, iZoom also has dual monitor support.
The speech features in iZoom and WinZoom are again very similar. Both have a narrator function that will read the content a user highlights, and will echo certain page elements when they become active.
WinZoom and iZoom are much fuller offerings, then, but both fall short of their more expensive counterparts in one very important aspect - neither has magnification and smoothing that compares favorably to ZoomText, Lunar or MAGic, which means that at higher magnifications especially the users of these products will be at a disadvantage.
A final note is that those with low vision who know that their vision is going to decline further may find it worthwhile to invest in a product that ties in with a screen access software product, such as MAGic (with JAWS) or SuperNova Magnifier (formerly Lunar/LunarPlus), so that when they need full speech access, there is not a whole new product to learn.
The conclusion is the obvious one - you get what you pay for. Users with mild vision loss can benefit from the most basic products listed here, though as with any product I would recommend downloading a trial version before purchasing the full product. WinZoom and iZoom have more features for a little more money, and will be a much better product for those with considerable vision loss, if not on a par with their full feature counterparts.
If you have any questions about the tips posted in Dan's Tech tips, please contact Dan at the following email address:
dthompson5 at mchsi.com
_________________________
Steve's Daily Tip:
Thawing Times For Whole Turkeys
Weight of Turkey: 8 to 12 pounds
In Refrigerator: 1 to 2 days
In Cold Water: 4 to 6 hours
Weight of Turkey: 12 to 16 pounds
In Refrigerator: 2 to 3 days
In Cold Water: 6 to 9 hours
Weight of Turkey: 16 to 20 pounds
In Refrigerator: 3 to 4 days
In Cold Water: 9 to 11 hours
Weight of Turkey: 20 to 24 pounds
In Refrigerator: 4 to 5 days
In Cold Water: 11 to 12 hours
NOTE: If the cold water method is used, change water every 30 minutes.
After thawing for either method, remove neck and giblets, wash turkey inside and outside with cold water, and drain well. Wash hands, utensils, sink, counter, and anything else that touches raw turkey with hot, soapy water.
Timetable For Roasting Fresh Or Thawed Tturkey in a 325 degree oven:
Weight: * 6 to 8 pounds
Unstuffed: 2 1/4 to 3 1/4 hours
Stuffed: 3 to 3 1/2 hours
Weight: 8 to 12 pounds
Unstuffed: 3 to 4 hours
Stuffed: 3 1/2 to 4 1/2 hours
Weight: 12 to 16 pounds
Unstuffed: 3 1/2 to 4 1/2 hours
Stuffed: 4 1/2 to 5 1/2 hours
Weight: 16 to 20 pounds
Unstuffed: 4 to 5 hours
Stuffed: 5 1/2 to 6 1/2 hours
Weight: 20 to 24 pounds
Unstuffed: 4 1/2 to 5 1/2 hours
Stuffed: 6 1/2 to 7 hours
Weight: 24 to 28 pounds
Unstuffed: 5 to 6 1/2 hours
Stuffed: 7 to 8 1/2 hours
_________________________
Recipes For Today:
Best Recipes
From The Backs Of Boxes, Bottles, Cans And Jars.
Main Dishes:
The Luxury Liner
2 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup onion, finely chopped
1 cup zucchini, finely diced
1/2 cup Holland House Sherry Cooking Wine
1/2 cup water
2 tablespoons tomato sauce or 1 ripe tomato, chopped
1 chicken flavored bouillon cube
1/2 pound medium size fresh or frozen shrimp, shelled and deveined
1 tablespoon cornstarch, dissolved in 2 tablespoons cold water
1 tablespoon bread crumbs
3 California avocados, halved, pitted and peeled
Melt butter in saucepan. Add onion and zucchini and cook 5 minutes over medium heat. Stir in sherry, water, bouillon cube and tomato. Cook 3 minutes over high heat. Add shrimp and cook, stirring, about 1 minute until shrimp turn pink. Add cornstarch mixture and cook, stirring, until mixture comes to a boil. Remove from heat. Place avocado halves on baking dish. Fill each half with shrimp mixture, spooning remainder of sauce around them. Sprinkle with bread crumbs and broil 1 to 2 minutes until crumbs brown. Serve immediately, as an appetizer for six or luncheon entree for three.
Variation:
Chicken breast cut into 1/4 inch cubes may be substituted.
_____
Great American Recipes
From Your Home Bakery
Southern Rosemary Muffins
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon dried rosemary, crushed
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
4 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter or margarine, melted
2/3 cup buttermilk
1 egg, beaten
1 tablespoon melted butter
For Honey Peach Butter:
1/2 cup butter, softened
6 tablespoons peach preserves
2 teaspoons honey
In a bowl, combine the flour, rosemary, sugar, baking powder and salt. In another bowl, mix together the 1/2 cup melted butter, buttermilk and egg. Make a well in the dry ingredients. Pour in the liquid. Stir only until mixture is moistened. There will be lumps in the batter. Spoon into buttered muffin tins. Drizzle with 1 tablespoon melted butter. Bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes. While muffins are baking, beat the 1/2 cup softened butter until fluffy. Mix in the peach preserves and honey. Serve peach butter with the hot muffins.
Good Served With:
Grilled or roast chicken, rice pilaf and buttered peas.
Microwave Directions:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon dried rosemary, crushed
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
4 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter or margarine, melted
2/3 cup buttermilk
1 egg, beaten
For Honey Peach Butter:
1/2 cup butter, softened
6 tablespoons peach preserves
2 teaspoons honey
In a bowl, combine the flour, rosemary, sugar, baking powder and salt. In another bowl, mix together the 1/2 cup melted butter, buttermilk and egg. Make a well in the dry ingredients. Pour in the liquid. Stir only until mixture is moistened. Pour batter into double lined microsafe muffin pan. Don't fill more than two-thirds full. Microwave on high for 1 1/2 minutes. Let rest for 2 minutes. Microwave again on high for another minute. Prepare the peach butter. Beat 1/2 cup softened butter until fluffy and creamy. Add peach preserves and honey. Mix to combine. Serve muffins hot with peach butter.
Makes 12 muffins.
_________________________
Quote For Today:
There is love at Christmas because Christmas was born of love. Let us, each one, keep alive this spirit of love and glorify God.
Josepha Emms
_________________________
Did You Know?
... that today is Lucy Gift Tradition Day? In the December 16, 1996, "Peanuts" comic strip, Lucy wishes Schroeder a Happy Beethoven's Birthday and then declares that "according to tradition, today is the day when boys give expensive presents to girls."
_________________________
Random Facts:
In the wild, the poinsettia can reach heights of 12 feet with leaves measuring six to eight inches across. It is actually a small tropical tree belonging to the Euphorbia plant family. Its botanical name is Euphorbia pulcherrima although in English-speaking countries it is more commonly known as the poinsettia. A native of southern Mexico, the poinsettia blooms in December and has been used in that country to decorate churches for centuries.
In the fourteenth to sixteenth centuries, the Aztecs used the poinsettia leaves to dye fabric for clothing and the sap for medicinal purposes, including to help control fevers. They also considered the red color a symbol of purity, and so poinsettias were traditionally part of religious ceremonies.
_________________________
Today's Brain Challenge:
Previous Common Bond:
Jimmy Buffett
Annie Lennox
Alannah Myles
Answer:
They all were born on December 25th
Today's Common Bond
What do these three things have in common?
Jim Carrey
Patrick Stewart
George C. Scott
Look for the answer in the next issue.
_____
Previous Trivia Question:
Who was seated next to me a day or two ago in the song Jingle Bells?
Answer:
Miss Fanny Bright
Today's Trivia Question is:
What is the name of Tiny Tim's father in the story, " A Christmas Carol?"
Look for the answer in the next issue.
_________________________
Member's Section:
Christmas First
The world was but a cradle,
When the infant child was born.
Nothing but a manger,
For which to keep him warm.
The angels' chorus sang,
There was frankincense and myrrh.
But not a sound he made,
This child, with heart so pure.
No mortal man could see,
As the star shone down so bright.
How this small defenseless babe,
Would fill the world with light.
For on that peaceful night,
God sent his only son.
That one day he'd be a man,
Eternal life would come.
So let us now rejoice,
Our souls through him redeemed.
Remember not the presents,
But what Christmas truly means.
_____
Long Live Scrooge
Dickens is amazing. I walked out of ACT Theatre's "A Christmas Carol"
with three passages going through my mind. The first is when two gentlemen call upon Scrooge for donations. "We choose this time, because it is a time, of all others, when want is keenly felt." If I send only a handful of Christmas cards this year, it will be to my friends who are lonely, going through difficult times, or have lost someone they love.
And again, when Fred, Scrooge's nephew, comes to call upon him on Christmas Eve, he says, "There are many things from which I might have derived good by which I have not profited. Christmas among the rest. And therefore, uncle, though it has never put a scrap of gold or silver in my pocket, I believe that it has done me good." It's the warm feeling when you donate to that Salvation Army person in the Santa hat who holds the door open for you.
And then there's Fezziwig, Scrooge's boss when he was an apprentice, who threw an annual Christmas Eve festivity. The Ghost of Christmas Past asks, "He has spent but a few pounds of your mortal money: three of four, perhaps. Is that so much that he deserves this praise?" Scrooge exclaims, "He has the power to render us happy or unhappy. The happiness he gives is quite as great as if it cost a fortune." So do we all. We can push or shove our way through traffic and stores, or we can wave others on.
We all have the power to reach out to others and affect their lives, not only at Christmas, but any time of the year. Dickens' most powerful message lies in his concluding lines: ".and it was always said of him, that he knew how to keep Christmas well, if any man alive possessed the knowledge. May that be truly said of us, and all of us!" Long live Scrooge.
Linda L. Dodge
_____
The Magical Christmas Of 1969
My first Christmas being married and oh talk about poor. I was laid off from the plant in February after being married in January and could not find a job for six months. When I found my next job, it paid less than one half of what I was making and to top matters off, we had to move to take the job.
The job, a local pizza place, did moderately well, just well enough to pay my bills, but nothing else. We were looking towards a grim Christmas with no tree, and maybe one present each. My co-workers were just kids, but we got along well as I was just a 23 years old myself. They understood our plight for the holidays.
Christmas evening, the 24th, we just finished a modest supper when we heard, ka-thump, ka-thump, ka-thump. We lived in a second story apt in an older home and the noise got louder, ka-thump, ka-thump, ka-thump. A knock at the door, I opened it and there stood my young co-workers with a tree. They had chopped the tree down and dragged it to my house and each person had 'borrowed' some ornaments from their family tree.
My wife and I were deeply moved. The chatter of the kids made the house warm, my wife fixed popcorn for all as we decorated the tree. Looking back on my 57 Christmases, only a few stand out, this was one. The Spirit of Christmas was in my home that night. Angels were in my home disguised as teenagers. The Spirit of giving overcame any material greed that night. Merry Christmas my friends, merry Christmas.
BJ Cassady
_________________________
Special Announcement:
Social Outreach Council Phone Chat
Dear Friends,
The Social Outreach Council, SOC, Activities Planning Committee is at it once again.
This time, we have created a conference line.
Here, we plan on holding scheduled chats about many different things, such as cooking, sports, service dogs, and our favorite soaps, just to name a few.
As the winter holidays draw near, the first thing we would like to do is open the line and welcome those who want to come in and just chat.
One of our SOC members will make it a point to be on the line throughout each day, if at all possible.
We know the holidays can be a busy time, but also a stressful and lonely time for those who might not necessarily be surrounded by family.
We invite you to come in and join us for good conversation.
After the first of the year, we will begin our organized chats.
By then, you will have met many of us and we will have gotten to know you and what your interests are.
We look forward to meeting you.
What is SOC, you ask?
Last spring a group of friends from Missouri got together and started a social organization.
Our mission is to promote entertainment and recreational activities for the blind in Missouri, however anyone is welcome to join in on our teleconferences.
The conference dial-in number is as follows:
(712) 775-7200
The conference code is:
784899#
Sincerely,
Linda Coccovizzo
SOC Activities Planning Chair
_________________________
Where there is sadness, I hope I brought some laughter. Where there is grief, I hope I offered some comfort. Where there is hate, I hope some love was found here. Where there is doubt, I hoped I showed you words of faith.
_____
That's it for today.
If you have any contributions for the members section, please send them to:
mamas-corner-owner at yahoogroups.com
If you know of someone who would like to join Mama's Corner, please have them send a blank email to:
mamas-corner-subscribe at yahoogroups.com
_____
Have an awesome HALLOWEEN!
Melanie
(Mama Peach)
_____
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