Patrick, the racer in my son’s four part film series, reaches Ruin Rui in this final episode. To see episodes I, II, and III, visit YouTube. This was one of the films featured in the Highland Park Teen Film Festival in early February. He also wrote a film that was produced by an eighth grader (my son is a seventh grader) with various teen actors and one librarian actress, but it is not (yet) online.

I’ve been spending a lot of time uploading videos; last week I set up a video for a client on a site not yet public, and today I uploaded two teen films to the Highland Park Public Library Teen Film page (Ite’s Adventure and Baby Troubles). There are a lot of details with converting films to the proper web format then getting them online without errors, especially if they are large files, which films often are.

My son tells me in this final episode the bowling pins are attacking Patrick the racer, but in the end he prevails. The scene takes place right next to my herb garden, which is currently still covered in snow, but the snow is melting.

If it’s a Sunday morning and my daughter wants to go on a trip, I often head over to Lucy Banta’s Twitter account njfamilymag. Every day she tweets activities in New Jersey, most for children but some for adults, too. This past Sunday I found out about a play called “If You Give a Pig a Pancake & Other Story Books” at Raritan Valley Community College Theater. So the daughter and I headed over to Raritan Valley Community College to watch the show. It was a lot of fun; I especially liked the dramatizations of How I Became a Pirate by Melinda Long and the Lily’s Big Day by Kevin Henkes.

Our main disappointment with the show, however, was that the actors did not come meet us outside the way we had experienced at the Forum Theater in Metuchen. RVCC also has strict rules about no photography during the show.

This coming Sunday, however, I won’t be needing to check Lucy’s account; I’ll be heading over to the Highland Park Public Library to watch the annual Teen Film Festival. My son told me he wrote the script for one of the films and put together a short animation film as well. It’s my birthday that day, so come join me in the celebration!

I found out by reading Carl in Jerusalem that the National Museum of American Jewish History will be opening in November 2010 in Philadelphia. Philadelphia is only a little over an hour away from Highland Park by car, so we will aim to head to the new museum after it opens.

This dragon is on display in the children’s room at the Highland Park Public Library. I took the photo on one of our trips to visit Belle, the therapy dog. Belle is on vacation until February. Have a good holiday, Belle! See you next year.

This is the whole colorful quilt.

For more photos with a little or a lot of red, visit Ruby Tuesday:

Belle is a dog. My daughter has been reading to her once a week at the Highland Park Public Library. Last year my daughter struggled with reading even the simplest words. This year she is making progress, and she feels comfortable at her reading sessions with Belle, who is sometimes called a “therapy” dog.

This past week she chose to read a Fancy, Nancy book to Belle. See more of Belle and my daughter on the Highland Park Public Library photo gallery.

I am glad Belle has a red collar, so she can be my Ruby Tuesday post for this week. For more photos with red, visit:

For a short time only, one can see my pumpkin on the children’s page of the Highland Park Public Library.

Images on my Blog

      
      

      

Elsewhere in the Blogosphere

• Mottel writes about how and why we don’t blow the shofar on Shabbat
• Michelle feels like she fell down the rabbit hole. (oh, dear)
• Mary (our wonderful Ruby Tuesday host and much more) wishes a Shana Tova to her Jewish friends.
• Highland Parkers (lots of whom I know) cleaned up the mugwort.

Eva Abreu, a Social Media consultant, will be giving a series of 4 lectures on Social Media at the Highland Park Public Library.

1. Thursday, September 3: Introduction to Social Media
   What exactly is Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn? Learn how to cultivate business relationships online. Find out how much time is needed and how you will benefit. Eva Abreu is who will show you how to plan and implement your Social Media Campaign.
2. Thursday, September 17: Using Twitter
   Learn why everyone is on Twitter, how to set up a profile, and how to choose who to follow. Also, what to “tweet” about using seach features. Finally you will know how to collaborate and connect online and offline.
3. Thursday, October 1: Using Facebook
   Facebook isn’t just for kids. Learn how to set up your profile, the difference between a group and business page, and how to post events.
4. Thursday, October 15: Blogging – How To Start
   Why should you start a blog? Learn what the difference is between a blog and a website. Find out about easy blogging tools, how often to blog, and what to write in a blog.

You may register at the library, by phone or register online.

Eva’s latest venture is New Jersey Social Media. Learn more on her site.

On November 16, I will be giving a Twitter Research Workshop at the library. More information on that workshop coming soon, including a blog post on how one can do passive or active research on many current topics on Twitter.