# 40 Retroland

I didn't know what to expect seeing just the word Retroland, a social networking site where members can reconnect with the things they loved "back in the days" and interact with people who share the same fond memories.
It's a great site, least for me, reminiscing about old TV, films, music, lollies, games etc. However what the site needs is a link to the theme music, at least for the TV shows, so I've put links to the YouTube clips of some of my favourites -
Rocky and Bullwinkle
Bullwinkle J. Moose, was lovable, dimwitted, and his sidekick pal was a flying squirrel named Rocky, short for Rocket J. Squirrel. Their cliffhanger ending inspired comic adventures pitted them against the evil Boris Badenov and Natasha Fatale.
The Banana Splits combined live-action, psychedelic rock music and classic animation, with a generous helping of short comedic sketches. The group was comprised of Fleagle (beagle,) Bingo (gorilla,) Drooper (lion) and Snorky (elephant.) recurring live-action feature segment called Danger Island - aahh-oohh Chongo and the cartoons "The Three Musketeers" based on the classic literary work, and "The Arabian Nights". (loved those great buggies the Splits drove).
The Beverly Hillbillies, a clan of rural folk found their way to a world of luxury in the wealthy community of Bel Air. The ensuing antics as they tried to assimilate into their new high-brow surroundings was the simple, yet endearing premise that made them a television favourite. At the show’s peak, 60 million people were tuning in each week.
Addams Family ran for only 2 seasons, and cast Gomez, the father of the clan, as a flamboyant lawyer; Morticia, the mother, was an icy and aloof femme fatale; their children were Pugsley, a chubby hell-raiser, and Wednesday, a happy-go-lucky little girl; Granny, a batty old witch, and Uncle Fester, a bald middle-aged man. Lurch, a tall ghoulish-looking servant, who rarely spoke, except to boom out "You rang?" and Thing; a hand that scampered around on its fingers.
The Cattanooga Cats were a feline rock band. Members of the band included the lead singer-guitarist, Country, singer-dancer Kitty Jo, bassist-cellist Scoots, and Groove, the drummer. Segments featured on the show were "Around the World in 79 Days", very loosely based upon the Jules Verne novel, "It’s the Wolf!" which featured Mildew the wolf, who wanted nothing more than to eat Lambsy. "Motor Mouse and Auto Cat" pitted Auto Cat against Motor Mouse in various car races (a la Tom & Jerry). (My sister could remembrr this show, but I'd forgotten it, till I saw the theme clip and it all came rushing back).
The Lone Ranger (theme from "William Tell Overture") the incognito defender of justice whose weapon of choice was his intellect, rather than his sidearm. He carried one, but he would never kill with it, only wounding adversaries with his famed silver bullets as a last resort. starring Clayton Moore as the fabled hero and Jay Silverheels as his faithful friend and sidekick, Tonto.
There are toys, like the Smurfs, they were short, blue and bald, lived inside mushrooms in a remote part of a medieval forest and loved to sing and dance. Smurfs debuted as a Saturday morning cartoon, which created a phenomenon across the world that few toys have been able to surpass. Smurfrabilia came out in force: the little plastic figurines from BP servos, plush toys, school supplies, swimsuits, plates, cups, foodstuff, sheets, clothing, car accessories, lunch-boxes, video games, and wallpaper patterns.
Spirograph is a geometric drawing toy, the set comes with a variety of plastic shapes, like circles, triangles and spirals. The shapes are ridged so they can engage with other shapes like connected gears.
Troll Dolls, as we’ve come to know them are generally short, potbellied, with big hands and feet and exaggerated facial features. A tuft of crazy-coloured hair sprouted from the top of the troll’s virtually non-existent forehead. (so ugly I wasn't allowed to have one).

Unfortunately many of the toys are Americanised and this is especially true for the foods group, but here’s a few -
Jawbreakers, alternatelyknown as Everlasting Gobstoppers. Jawbreakers are a generic name for hard candies, They come in a variety of sizes, from the miniature (and fairly easy to chew) version, which are a bit smaller than marbles, to those that are nearly as big as apples and certainly not suitable for the unsuspecting novice. jawbreakers are legendary for their strength and ability to last and last. It turns out that the process for making them is even more time-consuming than eating them, it takes between 14 and 19 days to make a single candy.
Then there are the Chips Ahoy biscuits and lolly necklaces and finally this entry "Dear Australia, Please be so kind as to keep the Violet Crumble pipeline flowing to us in the States. I know we may not seem appreciative at times but there are those of us who really do cherish them. Your Friend, America PS: By all means, you can keep the Vegemite."

#39 Watermusic on Animoto

I discovered Animoto back in 2007 when doing Thing 10 - Image generators. Animoto is a web application that produces professional videos using their own technology to analyze your images and to select music to create your own short video production.
In 2007 I chose flowers as my theme, this time I've chosen underwater subjects, I must try something different to use the more dramatic/cresendo music that's available (maybe something using Carmens toureadors)

#38 Comic relief

This Thing revolves around having some fun with our work and play, making comic strips. There are a lot of online comic strip makers and some you can even upload your own pictures. Shelf Check, is series of Library comics available on ToonDoo
For this exercise we needed to find a couple library related comics you like, and create our own comic.
I always enjoy the Unshelved strips, as they seem to have an uncanny idea of what is happening in our own library (that there could be a spy in the organisation supplying them with fodder), here's an inspirational role of librarianship one.
I then used ToonDoo to create a strip using photos.

Earthsea

Based on Ursula K. Le Guin's classic fantasy tales is an epic DVD. A quest story set in the magical world of Earthsea.
The Amulet of Peace has ensured harmony between humans and dragons for centuries. But when the Amulet is broken and a piece of it disappears, the Kargads attack the islands, and it's up to a humble blacksmith Ged (and wizard-to-be) to restore the balance and stop the evil King Tygath from conquering Earthsea and gaining immortality.
Geb is aided by his mentor the elderly wizard Ogion, fellow student-wizard Vetch and finally in the Tombs of Atuan the priestess Tenar.
This rendering of the Earthsea story in the “Lord of the rings” style, while the Roke school scenes are reminiscent of Harry P. and Hogwarts. It has a wealth of CGI digital effects , some lavish set and costume designs, and beautiful atmospheric settings (especially Geb’s meeting with the Gebbeth in the boat).
I read the books years ago, and found the story vastly changed from what I remembered (even though it runs for 170 minutes), and also aimed at a more adult audience (hence the M rating) than the book version. It would be best to see the movie, then read the books.

#37 Music stations

With Online radio stations you can influence the programing by telling it what music you like. The two featured are Pandora and LastFM. With both you can input your favorite music and listen to something like it - but different. Depending on what you like you could find a lot of new tunes and artists or possibly none. Both also incorporate a social aspect so you could meet new friends who share your musical tastes.
Due to licensing constraints, Pandora no longer allows access for listeners located outside of the U.S., so I joined up with LastFM.
It appears that it builds a relationship by gathering together the tagging elements that listeners give tracks and artists. It can play most songs you request, provided they can get the rights to it, so it can be a more unusual recording – live versions rather than the single or album track.
From starting with Stevie Wright's epic "Evie" (they didn't have all 3 parts) I came across Sherbet doing the Police’s “Roxanne” from 2003! LastFM also has links to YouTube and to iTunes.

I searched for artists and tracks and added them to my library, then created a Widget for my blog, so I can have my own pirate radio station, I even included "A walk in the Black Forest" in my playlist (a Goodies joke - the "Radio Goodies" episode). So check out the sidebar on the blog to play my selections.

Australian abandonments

This Weburbanist link is to 12 abandoned houses, deserted neighbourhoods and ghost towns, and what makes this list even more interesting is it has TWO Aussie entries.

An entreprenurial spirit drove Henry Ferdinand Halloran to envision a majestic (and profitable) housing development near Canberra in the early 20th century. The development only got as far as a lovely stone arch, some ornamental pillars, and a few bandstands before the Great Depression caused Halloran to abandon his plans.

I find the idea that one of the world's youngest cities - a planned city - (construction began in 1913) can have a 'ghost town' amazing.

The land is still held by Halloran’s family, and in the 1970s they built their own residence there. The home remains the sole modern structure in what could have been a thriving suburb. Although none of the Environa plots were ever sold, the planned use of the land makes it seem a ghost town today, even though it is bounded by Canberra's ever increasing sprawl. It's possible with their apparent housing shortage crisis that Environa could still become a surburb yet. Check out its location on View Larger Map'>Google maps>

Not all abandoned towns are the result of accidents, disasters, or poor planning. Some are intentionally abandoned in an effort to create something new and beneficial. The town Adaminaby was permanently evacuated and intentionally flooded in 1957 as part of the Snowy Mountains hydro-electric scheme. Over 100 buildings were moved to the town’s new site 9 kilometers away, but others were left in place when the water was brought in. In 2007 the drought uncovered the remnants. The newly exposed remnants of the old town were haunting not only because of the life they used to hold, but because they were reminders of the severity of the drought. (And what a waste of what had been a truly different dive site!).

I couldn't get this link to work as a slideshow, but you can manually advance through these "Running on empty" pictures and it has bridges photos too!
See also my blog entry on Lake Eildon (1 April 2008)

Still editing photos

After fiddling with the homestead buildings in the previous post, I thought I'd see what Picnik can do with the "washed-out" look.
These photos are more of the slides, this one taken in 1961 where a bad batch of film had the colour leach out shortly after the slide was made.
While I've been a bit heavy-handed with the colours now, it is a stronger image, not as insipid looking.

#36 Photo editing

This Thing features Picnik and a number of other photo editor sites. I encountered Picnik a couple of Things ago (Box.net the online file storage).

This exercise wants you to use one of the sites, edit a few pictures and save them, then write the experience and include either a link to or embed one of the pictures you edited. Maybe even a before and after images.

The image I chose, was originally a transparent slide, taken in 1959, and digitally scanned by a commercial photographic shop in 2005.
This image is the after shot, I'd fiddled with the lighting mostly, and just a tinker with the colour.


Finally, as the details of buildings are the most important to me, I concentrated on them (to the detriment of the now yellow sky), but now I can distinguish that the shed is actually made of blocks.
I found this a great experience with regards this picture. I did find that I don't have as much flexiblity with rotating images as I do with Microsoft's Picture Manager, but appreciate the lighting and colour features more with Picnik.

#35 Micro/mini blogging

Mini blogs are limited to short messages (frequently 140 characters),people from all over the world are using their mini-blog to arrange meetings at restaurants or movies but there really isn't a limit to how you use it. It has been used for mini-emails between colleagues, etc.
So this week's mission go and set up an account. Post a message, find a few friends to "follow."
I signed up to Twitter - your posts are called Tweets, and must admit I can't see what the rave is about, I found the posts generally a waste of time, more throw-away than even SMS, some are below -
is feeling very cold. Hate it when the environment is so cold. :(
Zip zap zaboooooooo!
Anyone have a juicer they are not using?
Thinking about when England was totally different
not sure why I'd bother to get excited, did fiddle with the design of my profile page.

#34 Health on the Web

This Thing focused on the online tools available to assist you losing weight. You sign up , fill in the food chart and the activity chart for a typical day, and it calculates the number of calories consumed compared to the number of calories burned. I used FitDay.
Firstly starting this just on Christmas was not a good idea (this pav was just tooooo much temptation), but I found it difficult to find the correct food entry or serving amount to really reflect what I ate (the Americanisms didn't help).
The pie-charts I found useful and the breakdown of the elements eg. Fats into saturated & monounsaturated, and the nutrient RDA (recommended dietary allowance).

Brilliantly bookish

It's some time since I visited the WebUrbanist site, which was partly to blame for the whole abandoned thing. One of the recent articles was "Brilliantly bookish - 15 dazzling library designs" it goes on to say that 'libraries can be amazing places - so why shouldn’t they look the part? From alien blob monster buildings to futuristic steel-and-glass mega-structures, here fifteen libraries that prove books can be very cool.' Among the gee-whiz international libraries is the Peninsula's Mornington Branch Library building.

The rest are at weburbanist