CyberMinions.net

My friend Don was kind enough to make this available for a re-blog. Enjoy. :-)

Life With Wee People: The Road To Hell... Paved With Good Intentions?

Carolyn Tann-Starr     Michelle Viggianno     Laraine Shape

Outside Blog Minion Report    ClubChaosAgents.com

CyberMinions.net   TannStarr.com

Life With Wee People... It can be Heaven. It can be Hell. We are tasked as parents to teach our children right from wrong so they can know the difference and weigh the ramifications of their short and long term actions. Our children are not always our own bloodline. Sometimes, they are cyber in nature, living in our computers and playing in the World Wide Web...

When you are dealing in digital DNA, the bits and bytes of your virtual genome has a synergy that affects the dynamics of the other people at play in the electronic sandbox. When we play nice, there is balance and healthy debate. When we play naughty, the spectrum of reactions can range from mild to the sublime and on rare occasions erupt in violence.

Do you believe you will be absolved because the free speech road to hell you are traveling upon was paved with good intentions? Did you write to expose? Did you write to shock? Did you write with the thought that one day your grandchildren may be reading your posts? Are you writing because you have something to say or are you saying something so you can meet a deadline and get paid? What and who do you look to incite with your careless words? Who are you looking to trigger a response from? What type of comments are you inviting? Where do you think those comments will come from?

When you clicked on the submit button, what did you teach me today?

Did I learn a new trick? Did I learn a new fact? DID YOU REALLY EDUCATE ME? Did you teach me to love? Did you teach me to hate? Did we share a laugh? Empathy? Sympathy? Or contempt? I have to ask because some teach better than others. Some learn better than others...

Then there are those who neither teach or learn anything. You may think this an impossibility, but I assure you it is not. 'Tis highly probable and quite provable with a few key words and a search engine. I find most offenders who travel in cyberspace along the moron trajectory present with brief displays of antisocial cyber-behavior that peaks with a diatribe so outrageous their sphere of digital influence diminishes. It is fascinating to watch the pretenders crash and burn. They do it with such flair as they attack what they do not know or fully understand with a false bravado (or simply ignorance).

IRONY AND PARODY IS NOT AN EXCUSE FOR RANK STUPIDITY: MOST READERS ARE SMARTER THAN YOU THINK...

Viggiano whispered a missive: Now come here, closer, hurry up, come down the perimeter road with us, it’s safe more or less, we have something very important to tell you...

I shall pick up where she left off... I have something to tell you: The Highway of Self Indulgent Musing can lead many astray while you preen and beam during your arrogant attack of members struggling to survive. Those of us who work hard will never forget you as we un-subscribe from your diatribe.

Enjoy your stroll towards cyberhell.

Granny Carol says hello. I suspect a few others may have a greeting for you as well...

My blog post mini-rant therapy is done.

I spotted the envelope one day when I was six. It was addressed to my brother with an important government return address. It stated - "Registered Alien" next to his name.  Oh the shame, the horror. I knew he was weird, dangerously smug, but this!  He must be a handsome "Grey" I surmised.  But wait a minute; weren't aliens highly intelligent, possessing amazing powers? I ventured a guess that he was suffering from a truly universal malady, one that struck countless humans as well. Evidently, like many others, he was short on talent, long on looks. Though lately, I could hardly understand him as he and our mother were always speaking Latin together.  Something about getting him into the right university, but now I seriously doubted that was the case. Later that evening I questioned my mother about this as tactfully as I could.  She distastefully recoiled and stated in French "We are all registered aliens, except you. What about it?" I stopped in my tracks, I was surrounded.

I should have known something was up with them. The food - always a dead giveaway - snails, frog legs, anchovy fillets criss-crossing everything, often with olives punctuating the negative space; prompting a neighbor to always comment, "oh, it  looks like a board game" which in turn prompted my mother to later mutter "culinary barbarians..." There was also all that runny cheese that could hardly be contained in the plastic wrap, oval and flat rounds tins with keys and strange writing on them filled the cupboards, no neon bright ketchup or mustard ever to be found. And that music they always listened to - opera, never in English or anything clearly understandable.... I had been blind and yet the only one not afflicted.  No wonder when my parents came home, my friends took off so quickly. I used to think it strange when asked if they wanted to stay for dinner, they were visibly shaken.

This latest intelligence sent me on a "search and compare" mission canvassing my neighborhood.  What was really going on in everyone else's home?  Sadly, no one else was fooled.  Every time it rained, the snails would sail out onto the sidewalks. Inevitably, the phone would ring. The neighborhood boys would call and say - "Tell your mother - dinner's on the sidewalk!" For some reason this never bothered me, I thought it rather clever. But I never dared tell my mother this timely news for fear of her going out in the rain and catching them. At this point, I felt she would eat anything that moved.

But really, how had I let myself be duped like this.  Now, it all made sense as to why most of my parent's friends and associates were just like them - certainly aliens as well. And most of them had that insidious "Eiffel Tower" monument, or " Leaning Tower of Pisa"  somewhere in their homes.  Obviously a miniature version of a communication tower, similar to the one Felix and the Professor had...All this made me far more interested in the other houses and buildings around me. I knew what was going on in my newly deemed freakish household.  But what did people who were not connected to such beings do, really?  I had to venture out beyond my circle of friends at this point.

My home, from the outside looked normal.  Once you entered, well, that was a different story. We had modern yet slightly rustic Italian furniture, some of it was sculptural looking made with straight almost Giacometti looking hand wrought iron supports that reminded me of bird legs, cork floors, not as nice as the cork now, and paintings that I didn't really understand. There was brick and wood and white walls everywhere. Just red, black and white it seemed. My mother loved it. The rest of us just endured it. Actually, I hated it. I used to color with crayons, as that was the only medium that stuck, alternating bands of expressive colors in the rusticated grout lines of the brick that surrounded the fireplace as well as an entire wall whenever I could. My ongoing, yet constantly interrupted goal was to finish the entire wall before I was caught. Then my color rationed family could see how truly lovely it would be. I thought it looked beautiful, similar to a Mondrian. Believe me I always paid the price, but I yearned for some extra color and that was all there was in my arsenal. My patient father cleaned it repeatedly and always winked at me afterward.  He was a painter, he knew.  Even though he was one of them...

For my mission, I began to focus on the Spanish Colonial houses and buildings in my neighborhood. They had huge windows and courtyards and foliage allowing me to do my reconnaissance. Everyday, after school, I would leave my friends and go off on my own and peer into various windows in Hollywood, CA. of all places. I chose my streets carefully but was not afraid of anything, why should I be? I lived among aliens.

Our house was modest in comparison to these grand structures. Could mere humans live in these? It was a stroke of surreptitious timing that in one of these beautifully ornate facades, I peered through the mullioned window and saw that "The Munsters" was on.  I, of course always noticed that Marilyn looked so normal and was surrounded by....why I never thought of this before.  Marilyn was just like me, or I was just like Marilyn. And the nerve, those Munters thought she was odd, less than... I had to sit down and peer over the carved stone of the window surround and really observe how she behaved among all this madness. I could not really hear the soundtrack, so I focused intently on the expressions, the gestures, all the unspoken courtesies. She seemed so comfortable, so gracious, so kind and giving. Affectionate even. What was her problem?  She was like I used to be, downright oblivious.

During the walk home I kept telling myself, if Marilyn can do it, so can I. Besides, she looked great next to them.  I could use a boost with regards to my slipping authority being the lone minority and all. This new approach, possibly showcasing my attractive normalacy, made me quite happy as during my astute observations just moments ago, it led me to believe that my mother and brother, especially, were so full of themselves, just like Lily Munster.  So for awhile, I abandoned peering into Spanish Colonial windows and hurried home instead to study at "The School Of Marilyn" otherwise known as "The Munsters" on dealing with, well, you know....the differences within families.

Michelle Viggiano  Scottsdale & Phoenix Four Winds Healthy Home Carpet and Air Duct Cleaning www.healthyhomeaz.com 

I think Izzy's Dad is awesome too. Can ya' help a bay-bay out? (LOL) ;-)

Life With Wee People: Mother's Day Musings (Every Day Is Mother's Day)

I have been writing this post since May. I keep deleting it. There are so many things that I can say about living and caring for learning disabled children. They are brilliant in some regards and clueless in another. They present with the quirkiest personalities I have ever seen. You never know a person until you live with them. I find myself wondering what my kids think about living with me (LOL).

I have CyberBabies. They have digital expectations. They expect to see themselves roaming across the Internet on Facebook, YouTube and their Mama's blog posts. They actually turn on the computer to look for themselves (LOL). It's really neat. Noah sits in front and Stephen climbs up on the chair so he can lean across his back, put his arms around his neck and watch what ever Noah decides they should be looking at in YouTube over his shoulder. It makes me very happy to see Noah so proud to be the older brother in control of their snacks and entertainment. He takes his job very seriously. Snack-age is serious business in my house  (LOL).

When they play nice I find myself thinking that every day is mother's day. Children are a blessing. They are a gift from God. You have to enjoy them when you can because you have no idea how much time you, or anyone else, has. I was thinking I would like to do something special for the pookies. The little minions have been such a joy to tease this week. We have tickets to the Museum we have yet to use. I think it's time to use 'em.

Lately, Noah's complaint has been the fact that we haven't been exploring enough houses. My boy has actually been telling me he wants to see a house. Hmm... that's what I get for convincing them they are mini-Realtors-in-training (LOL). Guess it's time for me to do another turtle run. Except I am not going to show him a regular house. I am going to show him buildings that he previously found very interesting that people do not live in. We're going to do landmarks and Museums. Technically they are houses... They are home to knowledge.

My pookies could use a culture break. How about you? Wanna do Manhattan with the wee people? I do... Was there yesterday and had a great time. Here's a little eye candy from my run with my blogging buddies in the rain (LOL). Shall be talking more about this later. ;-)

http://blog.penelopetrunk.com/2009/07/21/how-to-decide-how-much-to-tell-about-yourself-on-your-blog/

Penelope Trunk is a Blogger that you have got to read. She's amazingly open and heartbreakingly honest. Don't believe me? Click the above link and find out just how far she is willing to go to help people while she shares.

I cried when I read this and found myself growing addicted to her blog in just one morning. She is amazing. You have to read this and leave her a kind comment. I insist. The simple honesty about her life will make you wonder why you don't unburden yourself of useless secrets, stress and just let crap go. I share a lot, but have never shared on this level. Go read her blog posts. They are amazing...

I hope chicka is on Facebook. I am soooo going to friend her if she is. Can you say new Penelope Trunk fan? Seriously... :-)

Life With Wee People: Minion Painting 101

You may not think you can paint because you have it in your head that it has to look like something, some place or someone. That's not true. You can express yourself just by your use of color. How you scrape it, blend it, contrast and highlight says a lot about you.

Painting is a very personal thing. When you create paintings for your blog they don't have to be a 20 x 20 canvass like we are using. Get yourself 8 x 10 panels and do what ever you want, then scan those puppies in. You can uses bits and pieces of them to create very interesting backgrounds for your text art to float above.

Step one to being original and pimping your blog (LOL).

Minion Painting is all about expressing yourself with color. You can use one or you can use every tube in the store. Just do it and see what you get... Think happy thoughts. Play some music. Have fun being creative. Stop comparing yourself to other people! Start your first drawing and see where it goes. You may end up with some very interesting spot art for your blog posts (LOL). Just sayin... :-)

Watch the Minion Painting 101 movie and see if you can identify the section of the painting I used to create this background. I started with the background at 100%, then made the first overlay photograph I took of trees on Fifth Ave in Manhattan a transparency at 45%, the CC Ambassadors at 50%, the little minions at 85% and the text art at 100% with a drop shadow of 8.

Playing in layers can be a beautiful thing... Painting your own layers and taking your own photographs to merge together? Priceless... :-)

Stay tuned for Minion Painting 102 (LOL). If you do not have Photoshop you may want to think about it. If you don't have an Outside Blog, e-mail me.

Wordy C Club Chaos Bootcamp requires a team effort. Google domination is serious business. We're going to have lots of fun with the love links... There will be homework assigned (LMAO). Seriously! Gotta get you to page one of Google. Can't do that if you don't do your homework. The grade is your page ranking bay-bay. There will be Skype par-tays involved for the members of the fan pages, so stay tuned for the CyberMinions.net schedule of events and keep your eyes peeled for the Facebook comment links of your Ambassadors.  ;-)

http://www.youtube.com/user/CTannStarr

Update: Edit 7/22/2009 on video regarding website URL for CyberMinions.net

TLW is about to lead a group of talented, social media divas on a wild ride, or is it the newbies who are gonna be freaked out? I'm riding shotgun on the project. Jo Soss and Lizette Fitzpatrick have got our backs. We're gonna Rock the Rain (LMAO). 

Can you say Club Chaos SEO Bootcamp?

How about Google Domination?

We're gonna show you how to pimp your outside blog, so don't think this is just another cold call to catch a client. Creativity is an experience. You are either gonna take advantage of the platform, or you're not. That's up to you.

Curious? Good. You need an outside blog to come out and play with us.

Don't have one? You need to get one bay-bay. ;-)

Feel free to shoot me an e-mail for more information.

We're creating a whole series of new graphics and videos for your learning entertainment...Be afraid... Be very afraid (LMAO). ;-)

ActiveRain Group Club Chaos Icon

I had fun creating this bit of art. I've been working on it all morning. Seems a couple of the bay-bays wanted note cards and mugs (LOL). I hear a tee shirt may be in order. I second the motion. Hmm... Whaddaya' know... Change is good (LOL). ;-)

I love the ActiveRain Group Club Chaos because that's where my virtual family resides. It's my favorite place to be when I want to visit the people living in my computer. Yesterday, I took my wee people on an eye candy hunt to the Prospect Park Zoo just so I could photograph the Monarch butterflies. I actually shot several species (and a few animals) since I hate wasting a chance to collect some eye candy. They have a neat little collection on location in orientation and discovery for the kids to see and learn about. Every so often the butterfly collection changes (I suspect when wee people accidentally drop the glass frames - LOL).

My wee people are very entertaining little men to take on a joy ride. We enjoyed a group play-date in Brooklyn and roamed the park and zoo on a fun photo-shoot so I could populate the Life With Wee People series. The shorties are being featured on the Outside Blog Minion Report, ActiveRain Cartoon Network, Club Chaos Agents.com and CyberMinions.net. They are two of my favorite subjects to use when it comes to creating and illustrating graphic art blurbs. My boys supply me with a lot of material to work with (LOL).

The fun thing is, being wee people, they don't realize they're working. I pay them in M&Ms with peanuts, of course (LMAO).

Stay tuned for a peek of the Prospect Park Zoo in the next Life With Wee People Localism blog post entitled Zoo Minions. :-)

Life With Wee People: Halo

CyberMinions.net The Illustrated Dictionary of Chaos Page 1 & Page 2

Carolyn Tann-Starr     Laraine Shape     Michelle Viggiano

I love to watch my son dance, especially to the song Halo. Stephen the Minion Blur loves Beyonce and a host of really cool artists like Amy Grant, Darlene Zschech, Ella Fitzgerald and Lady Ga Ga. Dude jumps in the bed to the Black Eyed Peas and will float around the house if I put on Yo Yo Ma.

From classical to head banging, my guy pie boogies to them all. Right now "Pump It" is playing and the Blur Minion is getting his bounce on with the Black Eyed Peas. He's not the only one. So am I (LOL).

We love music and routinely cook up a batch of our own brand of noise. Right now, I'm editing some film for a CyberMinions.net presentation. I wonder what type of music I'm going to arrange for tonight's little search engine optimization project.

Hmm... this could get very interesting... the wee people are "helping" me minion style (LOL). ;-)