Thing 7: Content Saving and Sharing, Pinterest

Pinterest: "Pinterest is a visual bookmarking tool that turns that traditional list of bookmarks into a bulletin board-type display of photos. You pin to Boards (folders) you create so you can find the pins again. Each photo/pin is a link to the site where you found it. This is great for visual learners or anyone who needs a pictorial reminder of just why you saved that link. Pinterest has many social features to explore, too, but this Thing focuses on the saving/finding features of the mobile app for Pinterest."

I am a mad fiend for Pinterest and I love using it on my iPhone. I use it both personally and professionally. How much do I use it?

Personally, I currently have 137 boards and yes, I am going to bore you with what they are. I am heavily into vintage and antique things and fairy tales. Fair warning.

1. Aged P's (inspirational senior citizens)
2. Alice, I Love You (Wonderland related)
3. Wonderful Animals
4. Art Deco Glamour
5. Art Nouveau Jewelry/Hair Ornaments
6. Art Nouveau Splendor
7. Arthurian Tales
8. Arts and Crafts Period
9. Authors and Other Famous Folk I've Met
10. Autobiography 1963+
11. Autumn
12. Beauties Illustrated (pictures, not photos, of the beautiful, mostly women)
13. Black Cats, to Thelma
14. Book Beauty (book covers)
15. Book Fun (book covers)
16. Ray Bradbury Tribute
17. Burlesque Beauties
18. Buttons and Buckles
19. C is for Clauser (letter C script)
20. Carousel Creatures
21. Chickens
22. Old-Time Circus
23. Art Deco Cosy Cottages (illustration)
24. D is for Donell (letter D script)
25. Downton Abbey
26. Dreamy Beauties (Pre-Raphaelitesque photos)
27. Playing Dress Up
28. My Faerie Fey
29. Fairy Gardening
30. Fairy Princesses (old photos)
31. Fairy Tales (misc.)
32. Fairy Tales Around the World
33. Feedsack Prints
34. Fabulous Felines
35. Flowers
36. Flower Fairies of My Garden (Cicely Mary Barker's illustrations)
37. Gardening/Cottage Gardening
38. Girlfriend Looks Like a Boyfriend
39. Glamour Girls (old photos of famous ladies)
40. Glamping!
41. Our Baby Goddaughter, Olive (present ideas)
42. Halloween Postcards: Finding True Love
43. Halloween Postcards: Romantic
44. Vintage Halloween
45. Vintage Halloween Photos
46. Vintagey, Shabbyish Home Style
47. I Like It (misc)
48. Whimsical Illustration
49. Jesus
50. Jewelry
51. Lovely Lace
52. Librarians
53. Sumptuous Lingerie
54. Lucky Cats (Maneki Neko)
55. Makeup, Hairstyles, Nails
56. Mysterious Merfolk
57. MN Spay/Neuter Rescue Cats (where I volunteer)
58. Naughty (and vintage)
59. Interesting People
60. Peter Pan
61. Pin Ups
62. Pin Ups with Pets
63. Pinocchio
64. FATshionistas Plus Size Style (group board, not created by me)
65. Plus Size Style
66. Pre-Raphaelites and Co.
67. Prettiest in Pink
68. Reading Relate
69. Maurice Sendak: a Tribute
70. Spring!
71. Squirrels for Mom
72. Style Inspiration
73. Colorful Tara
74. Tea Party Time (vintage with primarily children and animals)
75. Terraria
76. Tricksters (Coyote, Brer Rabbit, etc.)
77. Trims and Embellishments
78. My Twin Cities
79. Valentines
80. Vintage Children
81. Vintage Couples
82. Vintage Gentlemen
83. Vintage Ladies
84. Vintage Pets
85. Winter Holidays
86. Glorious Victorian (begins boards of vintage fashions)
87. Edwardian Beauty
88. Edwardian Beauty 2
89. Edwardian Underpinnings and Sleepwear
90. 1920s Style
91. 1930s Style
92. 1940s Style
93. 1950s Style
94. Vintage Stylemakers (modern folks with vintage flair)
95. Armless Maiden (begins boards of fairy tale illustrations)
96. Baba Yaga
97. Beauty and the Beast
98. Billy Goats Gruff
99. Bluebeard and Co.
100. Boy Who Drew Cats
101. Bremen Town Musicians
102. Briar Rose
103. Brother & Sister
104. Cinderella
105. Donkeyskin/Manyfurs
106. East O' the Sun, West O' the Moon
107. Emperor's New Clothes
108. Frog Prince
109. Goldilocks/Three Bears
110. Goose Girl
111. Hansel & Gretel
112. Jack & the Beanstalk
113. Jorinda & Joringel
114. Juniper/Almond Tree
115. Little Match Girl
116. Little Mermaid
117. Little Snow Maiden
118. Princess & Pea
119. Puss in Boots
120. Rapunzel
121. Red Riding Hood
122. Red Shoes/Andersen
123. Rumpelstiltskin
124. Snow Queen
125. Snow White
126. Snow White & Rose Red
127. Steadfast Tin Soldier
128. Three Pigs
129. Thumbelina
130. Tinderbox
131. Toads and Diamonds
132. 12 Dancing Princesses
133. Wild Swans
134. Andersen's Fairy Tales Covers
135. Grimms' Fairy Tales Covers
136. Oscar Wilde's Fairy Tales
137. Fairy Tale Faction (group board, not created by me)

You can find these boards here: http://www.pinterest.com/cleery/

And some that have come and gone: Nutcracker, Tribute to Edward Gorey, Compassion, Wardian Cases, etc.

Professionally, I have 29 boards. I use them to share book titles and to save display and programming ideas.

1. Adult Fiction: Fairy Tale Root
2. Adult Fiction: Mythological Root
3. fiftyfifty.me 2013 Books
4. fiftyfifty.me 2013 Movies
5. Flannel Boards
6. Fairy Tale Retellings: Chapter Books
7. Fairy Tale Retellings: Teen
8. African Folktales
9. Australian Aboriginal Tales
10. Chinese Folktales
11. Japanese Folktales
12. Russian Folktales
13. Kid's Bulletin Boards
14. Based on Greek/Roman Mythology: Chapter Books
15. Based on Greek/Roman Mythology: Teens
16. Kid's Craft Ideas
17. Kid's Program Ideas
18. Librarian
19. Library Decoration
20. Matryoshka Stories
21. Pro Reading/Pro Library
22. Based on Mythology: Chapter Books (Norse, Egyptian, etc.)
23. Based on Mythology: Teens (Norse, Egyptian, etc.)
24. Passive Programs
25. Storytellers (Pueblo Storyteller dolls)
26. Storytime (activities)
27. Family Storytime Books
28. Teen Displays
29. Teen Program Ideas

Check them out at: http://www.pinterest.com/bookbesotted/

Thing 6: Creating and Editing Docs

Although I can't imagine ever choosing to create or edit a document on the tiny screen of my iPhone, the app that I picked for this thing is CloudOn.

Here is the deal: "CloudOn brings you Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint to your device. Sure, there are other apps that do this, too, but this app brings them to the device and they look exactly like they do on your computer, so it’s not hard to figure out how to use them."

 It was easy to download, and I opened up a Word document, but from there I admit I was clueless. I couldn't figure out why my keyboard wasn't coming up.

So, I Googled CloudOn for iPhone and found a helpful little video:

http://site.cloudon.com/help/knowledgebase/articles/148789-video-cloudon-for-iphone-overview

So, umm, you need to open the document in your "desired service," in my case, GoogleDrive. From there you can type and edit as you choose. It seems handy, and I might use it in a pinch, but honestly, my work computer and home laptop would be all I'd need in most cases.

Chinese Fables by Shiho S. Nunes

Chinese Fables: "The Dragon Slayer" and Other Timeless Tales of Wisdom by Shiho S. Nunes, Illus. by Lak-Khee Tay-Audouard, 2013.

The book's preface explains that the nineteen fables in this collection were chosen from Chinese Fables and Parables by Wolfram Eberhard, an American folklorist.  In the eary 1970s, he recorded five hundred tales with a line or two. Nunes expanded the descriptions into stories such as "The Practical Bride," "Kwan-Yin, the Goddess of Mercy," and ""Sakyami and Lao-Tse," and kept the core truths and moral lessons. Many, like ""Scaring the Tigers," "The Same Difference"  and "The King of Beasts," will make readers smile. The original sources, from 500-250 BCE to 1368-1643, are listed in the back of the book.

The book's attractive  pencil and wash pictures have elements of traditional Chinese art and are inspired by Chinese folk art. To match the "rustic quality of these tales" Lak-Khee Tay-Audouard used ground tea powder, earth, pressed leaves, sackcloth, charcoal and bamboo rag paper to create her illustrations.

Rabbit's Gift: a Fable From China

Rabbit's Gift: a Fable From China by  George Shannon, Illus. by Laura Dronzek, 2007.

This centuries-old folktale has been shared in China, Germany, Japan, France, Spain, Syria and Jordan. In wintertime, a lucky rabbit finds two turnips and decides to leave one for his friend Donkey. She already has enough food, and kindly takes it to Goat's door and so the gifting goes on. Imagine Rabbit's surprise the next morning when he finds it again at his house!

Laura Dronzek's  child-pleasing acrylic paint illustrations enrich the story. The uncluttered, serene pictures put the emphasis on the generous animal friends. The rich colors Dronzek has chosen contrast nicely with the snowy winter landscape.She includes decorative turnip borders that incorporate the Chinese symbols for rabbit, donkey, goat and deer.

Mouse Match by Ed Young

Mouse Match by Ed Young, 1997.


This is a Chinese version of a folktale also found in Japan (see The Greatest of All, retold by Eric Kimmel, described in my post The Mightiest One ) . In his Author's Note, Ed Young tells readers that  some variety of the story is told in Korea, India, Burma, Ethiopia, France, Germany and North America (by native peoples).  In Mouse Match, loving mama and papa mice try to find a suitable husband for their wonderful daughter. They hope for no less than "the greatest and most powerful one in the world." So, they begin with the sun, only to learn that there is someone more powerful, the cloud, who claims that there is another still greater than he. The mice are passed through a chain of the mighty and finally find a surprising yet perfect match for their daughter and also gain wisdom that helps them to answer questions for the rest of their days.

The book's pages are printed on heavy card stock and folded accordion style so they can be pulled out to view the entire tale like a mural. One side is in English accompanied by Young's collage illustrations and the flip side has the story in Chinese:





From http://learningmandarinwithmydaughter.blogspot.com/



This book nicely showcases Ed Young's pastel and watercolor collages. The stark black silhouettes of the mice stand out against these backgrounds and the creatures' body language makes them endearingly expressive.  As in Young's best work, there is plenty of texture and subtle color variations that make readers want to touch the pages.

Thing 5: Notetaking

I'm going to have to skip over Thing 4 until I update my iPhone software. However, it looks like I can go ahead with Thing 5.

For this Thing, I'm trying out the Remember the Milk app:

"Make to-do lists for whatever you like with Remember the Milk. Organize and prioritize your lists, add tasks and due dates, search your tasks and notes, and even set up notification reminders via email or text message. Never forget your tasks with Remember the Milk."

You do need to set up an account once you add this app.

I admit that I was attracted to this app over the other choices by the cute cow logo. I also have to say that I have a stupid reason for being interested in a notes app. What frivolous notes do I want to keep? I've been giving up (ongoing process with pitfalls) all fizzy soda drinks and instead drinking lemonade when I really want something more than water. Restaurant lemonade varies widely. My memory of lemonades is unreliable. So, I want to keep notes in my phone of which restaurants have good lemonade and which is vile. The notes app that comes with my phone is even more unreliable then my memory; it eats my notes over time. So.

I pretty quickly learned that Remember the Milk is probably not what I need for my lemonade notes. It is also for a busier person than I am. It looks like you can nicely organize your tasks in detail. I use the calendar on my phone for events and appointments, and the one in my Outlook mail at work for work tasks. My personal life beyond that is just not that hard to manage, and I probably would use this app for my grocery list. Although honestly, I might just as likely write it out on paper.

But notes. I do want to keep some notes that I can refer to. Sometimes I want to jot down the names of my neighbors and their pets, so I can remember them. Or the name of a plant or flower that I want to add to my garden. Or the newest makeup that a magazine says will make me unbelievably beautiful (yes, master...I hear and obey...). So, I'm trying the Springpad app.

"Springpad is a free personal organizer app that lets you save and organize tasks, recipes, notes, movies and more. Save from anywhere, on any device. Springpad even offers suggestions to help you do more based upon what you’ve been saving."

 

You need to sign up for this app too, but you have the choice of using your Facebook, Twitter or email accounts.

Here are the templates to begin:

 

 

I picked quick notes. I really like it. I was able to put in all the silly notes I wanted under my own headings and in different notebooks. You can also have photos that accompany your notes. You can install the "Spring It!" webclipper to save things from the web to your notebooks.  Using this, I saved some birthday ideas for my mother in a new notebook: "Presents for Mom." I think that I will definitely explore Springpad more.

Chinese Tale Series: Chang'e Flying to the Moon

Chang'e Flying to the Moon Adapted by Wang Zhiwei, Trans. by Liu Yonghou, Illus. by Zhao Jing & others, 2005.

I think that this is the first Chinese folktale I've looked at that was produced and printed in China. It is part of Dolphin Books' Chinese Tale Series and is written in English and Chinese. The English translation is not always smooth, but the story is still quite interesting.
 Houyi the archer impresses a group of fairy maidens with his shooting talent and becomes charmed by the most beautiful one, Chang'e. Almost immediately, he has a chance to win her when he slays an attacking heavenly wolf. The Lord of Heaven decides that the two young ones should marry, but later, for reasons that are not explained, Houyi shoots down the nine suns, and gets himself and Chang'e thrown out of the heavenly palace and into the human world. Houyi adapts well to this life, having become a champion of the people and killing all the beasts and monsters that threaten them, such as Big Wind Bird, Three-Tailed Dragon, a nine headed monster and more. Chang'e is not having such an easy time. She misses her husband when he is gone, longs for life in the heavenly palace and frets because she and her man are now mortal.
In order to end his wife's worrying, Houyi makes the dangerous trip to Kunlun Mountain to visit the West Queen Mother and bring back the elixir of immortality. This brings about tragedy for the couple and explains why the moon is always bright and gentle on August 15th.

Learn more about Chang'e at: http://www.moonfestival.org/change.html