I belong to a creative crafts club, and we sometimes get the chance to test new products for companies. Recently, I tested something called a Flip Book. I had to have a digital camera and computer, and know enough to take a 30 second video, then download it to my computer. I decided to take a short video of Lady, the family dog. After I downloaded it and replayed it, I was concerned because the TV was on, so there was a lot of extraneous noise. Then there was me, trying to get Lady to look up at me. She looked at me once, saw the camera and started looking anywhere but the camera. I signed onto the company's website and followed the simple instructions to download the video to their site. Because I was testing the product, there was no charge to me,but the cost for one Flip Book is $8.99, plus shipping, total is around $11.98.
I wasn't totally sure exactly what I would be getting, but I didn't need to worry about the noise, at least. What they were testing was the process of making your video, downloading and ordering. I wrote a review for the company. This week I received my book. It's about the size of my cellphone. It's got the cover I ordered. They take your video and break it down, picture by picture. You just flip the pictures quickly, and there's your video! No power or battery to run out. You can carry it in your pocket. It's really quite fun. They also offer greeting Flips books, 4 for $19.95. I'm assuming that these are shorter versions, but haven't seen them yet. This seems to be a new company with a cute idea. Only time will tell, if it's a hit.
Thursday, April 23, 2009
Thursday, April 16, 2009
Royalty, That's Us.
I think that I wrote once that we were not descended from William the Conqueror, but were descended from his half brother, Richard. Richard went with William and fought in the Battle of Hastings. For his reward, he was given much land and many titles. He took the name of Earl of Clare, and the area he ruled in Ireland was names county Clare in the family's honor.
I was working on another line of our genealogy, and discovered we are descended from the first King Henry of England. He became king after his father, King William, the Conqueror. So, we are directly descended, after all. This points up a discovery I've made, in my researches. Most of the royals were related to each other at least in one line, and often, in several. The nobility seemed to want to keep the titles, the lands, and the money, as much in the family as possible. They made alliances with other families, but there was just a lot of inter-marrying.
We're also descended from Henry the second. His family was the Plantagenants, who produced many of the English Kings and Queens. Henry II wasn't the son of Henry I though, different family. Don't get excited about being related to Richard, the Lion-hearted though. He and his brothers, Prince Geoffery, and Prince John were from Eleanor of Aquitane, HenryII' wife. He set her aside, and imprisoned her in a castle in France, then took up with Rosamond, who gave him a son, in his old age named William Longsepree. He is the one who is our ancestor.
In any case, we're also related to several Scottish Kings, including Robert, the Bruce and several early French kings. I'm sure you notice, however, it doesn't do much to improve our current lives. I've always loved studying earlyhistory,so now realising there were some of my ancestors living that history,has made it seem a bit more real to me. It's fun, anyway.
I was working on another line of our genealogy, and discovered we are descended from the first King Henry of England. He became king after his father, King William, the Conqueror. So, we are directly descended, after all. This points up a discovery I've made, in my researches. Most of the royals were related to each other at least in one line, and often, in several. The nobility seemed to want to keep the titles, the lands, and the money, as much in the family as possible. They made alliances with other families, but there was just a lot of inter-marrying.
We're also descended from Henry the second. His family was the Plantagenants, who produced many of the English Kings and Queens. Henry II wasn't the son of Henry I though, different family. Don't get excited about being related to Richard, the Lion-hearted though. He and his brothers, Prince Geoffery, and Prince John were from Eleanor of Aquitane, HenryII' wife. He set her aside, and imprisoned her in a castle in France, then took up with Rosamond, who gave him a son, in his old age named William Longsepree. He is the one who is our ancestor.
In any case, we're also related to several Scottish Kings, including Robert, the Bruce and several early French kings. I'm sure you notice, however, it doesn't do much to improve our current lives. I've always loved studying earlyhistory,so now realising there were some of my ancestors living that history,has made it seem a bit more real to me. It's fun, anyway.
Wednesday, April 08, 2009
Updates
I haven't been posting so much lately. I actually worked all this last weekend for our now quarterly promotion, A Taste of Sam's. This time it was called A Taste of Spring. Of course it snowed, but then it was LDS Conference weekend. Storminess is pretty much a given. This next Thursday, Friday and Saturday, I work to sell people things for Easter. I guess people still have to eat, and for our Catholic members, it's the end of Lent. They're probably hungry for something besides fish by now.
We had some nice days on Sunday and Monday. Today, we went out and enlarged some flower beds and nearly got blown away! It's raining now. That's okay, rain is good. Over last week, Snowbird got 14 feet of snow. Pretty nice. Sure glad it mostly stayed in the mountains.
Another thing that keeps me occupied is genealogy. It can almost get to be an obsession. What will the next century bring? How many kings are we related to. When you get back before the year 1000, it seems that there's a king behind every bush! Of course, there's so much inter-marriage, that it gets confusing. On the Peck side,(Mom's Grandfather's side) we go back to the Normans and the Vikings. On that line we aren't directly decended from William, the Conqueror. We are, however decended from his brother Richard, who became Richard De Clare. Imagine my surprise when I was doing the Scottish line to find out we are decended from William through his son Henry who became King of England after William. Then there all the Scottish Kings. There really was a MacBeth. He killed one of our royal Scotts ancestors with the help of the English king. Of course, these people were killing each other off right and left, even though they were all family. Sometimes, midevile times can seem romantic, but there were some real disadvantages. Even the richest of them would have not had a comfortable bathroom, or even one with much function
Oh, and we're related to French kings and German royalty, as well. It's quite amazing, but I guess there were a lot less people then, plus many of the royalty kept concubines in the 4th and 5th century, and it seems thier children were accepted. Probably they wanted huge families as a power base. Even so, it sure shows how connected we are to each other.
I've got kind of discouraged on the Haggerty line. The Irish don't have much of thier info online yet, or even on microfilm. They also charge for a lot of the information. I still haven't made the connection from Elias Haggerty and his father who was born in Ireland yet. I'll keep plugging away though.
We had some nice days on Sunday and Monday. Today, we went out and enlarged some flower beds and nearly got blown away! It's raining now. That's okay, rain is good. Over last week, Snowbird got 14 feet of snow. Pretty nice. Sure glad it mostly stayed in the mountains.
Another thing that keeps me occupied is genealogy. It can almost get to be an obsession. What will the next century bring? How many kings are we related to. When you get back before the year 1000, it seems that there's a king behind every bush! Of course, there's so much inter-marriage, that it gets confusing. On the Peck side,(Mom's Grandfather's side) we go back to the Normans and the Vikings. On that line we aren't directly decended from William, the Conqueror. We are, however decended from his brother Richard, who became Richard De Clare. Imagine my surprise when I was doing the Scottish line to find out we are decended from William through his son Henry who became King of England after William. Then there all the Scottish Kings. There really was a MacBeth. He killed one of our royal Scotts ancestors with the help of the English king. Of course, these people were killing each other off right and left, even though they were all family. Sometimes, midevile times can seem romantic, but there were some real disadvantages. Even the richest of them would have not had a comfortable bathroom, or even one with much function
Oh, and we're related to French kings and German royalty, as well. It's quite amazing, but I guess there were a lot less people then, plus many of the royalty kept concubines in the 4th and 5th century, and it seems thier children were accepted. Probably they wanted huge families as a power base. Even so, it sure shows how connected we are to each other.
I've got kind of discouraged on the Haggerty line. The Irish don't have much of thier info online yet, or even on microfilm. They also charge for a lot of the information. I still haven't made the connection from Elias Haggerty and his father who was born in Ireland yet. I'll keep plugging away though.
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