The Marble Jar Channel

Hi, everyone!  This is Lara Hammock from the Marble Jar Channel and in today's video, I'll share how I take paperless notes on PowerPoint slides for my distance education classes.  I've recently gone back to graduate school to get a masters in social work.  My program is hybrid, meaning it's mostly online with a more minor in-person component.  This is a part-time program, so I'm enrolled in two classes this semester.  Both of my professors provide PowerPoint slides that accompany our independent reading.  I find it useful to use the PowerPoint slides as a reference while reading the material (rather than reviewing them afterwards) in order to structure my learning in the same way the professor has organized her notes.  In fact, what I really prefer is to write directly on the PowerPoint slides.  This isn't always possible in every class if you are in a lecture and the professor doesn't make the slides available in advance, but for my distance educati

Hi, everyone!  This is Lara Hammock from the Marble Jar Channel and in today’s video, I’ll share my thoughts on how to apologize properly.  First, let me just confess that apologies don’t come easily to me —particularly in the heat of the moment.  I have a bit of a defensive streak and I like nothing more than BEING RIGHT.  It’s not exactly my best characteristic. But my temper flares out as quickly as it ignites and it doesn’t take me too long to start to consider how MY actions might have contributed to a conflict — sometimes just a couple of minutes. And in those cases, I muster up my courage and I apologize. I’ve apologized to my husband a thousand times. I’ve apologized to my kids, my parents, my in-laws, my coworkers, my friends.  The thing is — and this is what I tell my kids — we are going to do crappy things to each other.  It’s inevitable and happens all the time.  Not because we terrible people, but because we aren’t paying attention, we misread a situation, we said

Hi, everyone. This is Lara Hammock from the Marble Jar Channel and in today’s video, I’ll show you how I use some of the new multitasking features in iOS 11.  I just downloaded iOS 11 and wasted a couple of hours one morning geeking out figuring out all of the new features. There are a bunch of new things, but in this video, I’ll talk about some of the ways that I use multitasking. App Switching I have been a huge fan of multitasking since it was first introduced.  By far the feature I use the most is app switching. Basically, this is the ability to switch between apps without going back to the home screen.  You used to do this by swiping up with four fingers to reveal the multitasking screen.  It didn’t work with three — you had to use four.  With iOS 11 there are now 2 ways to app switch without going back to the home screen. You can do a small swipe from the bottom, which reveals the Dock.  I find this to be a little harder to do when the keyboard is displayed.  The dock

Hi, everyone!  This is Lara Hammock from the Marble Jar channel and in today's video, I'll show you how I turn my task list from Toodledo into a schedule in Notability! I read an interesting article recently in  thesimpledollar.com  where the author had reviewed and ranked 5 popular productivity hacks. I'll include a link to the article in the comments section ( https://www.thesimpledollar.com/5-time-saving-productivity-hacks-reviewed/ ).  The hack that ranked highest out of the 5, shaving 72 very specific minutes off the daily clock, was getting rid of to do lists and replacing them with a schedule. I got a little miffed when I first read this since I live and die by my task list. But then I realized that I already employ this hack -- turning my to do list into a schedule -- pretty much every day.  What that means in practice is, instead of having a list of things that need to be accomplished even if they are prioritized, you estimate how long it will take to comp

Hi, everyone!  This is Lara Hammock from the Marble Jar channel and in today's video I'll talk about what you might want to say to your teen or preteen about cussing and code switching. Truth be told -- I don't swear much. I'm definitely a little looser if I have a beer or two in me, but it's not really baked into my style of speech.  Growing up, my parents were at opposite ends of the cussing spectrum.  My dad swore like a sailor -- still does.  And three year old me could recite his favorite string of pretty colorful 7 curse words like a pro. My mom was never comfortable with it and it showed. At one point, in a fit of pique, she called one of us a piece of shit -- and if sounded so weird coming out of her mouth -- AND she seemed so uncomfortable saying it -- that we all just stopped and laughed for 5 minutes. Probably not exactly the affect she was intending.  Just Words At any rate, I tell my kids -- curse words are just words like any other. They don

Hi, everyone!  This is Lara Hammock from the Marble Jar channel and in today's video I'll share my rationale for giving my kids Snapchat rather than Instagram.  My kids both got phones when they were in 7th grade. I would say soical media was a way bigger deal when my daughter got her phone last year than even 3 years ago when my son got his, so her experience is probably more relevant than his.  At the time, both of these platforms were more straightforward. Instagram was and is a highly visual social media platform where you post artsy photos and selfies for your friends and followers to view, like, and comment on. Snapchat was a silly point to point communication tool where you sent photos to friends that disappeared after a few seconds.  Since that time, Snapchat has added lots of features that make it more like other "feed" centric platforms, but I was basing my decisions off of the Snapchat of "then".  I really think these decisions differ f

Hi, everyone!  This is Lara Hammock from the Marble Jar channel and in today's video, we're going to talk about the conversation you need to have with your teenaged son about Porn.  I know, I know. You don't want to have this conversation. But honestly, you need to. Our kids are being exposed to stuff that *we've* never even seen and at a really early age.  And don't even tell me that your kid has never seen anything.  I'll give myself a cramp rolling my eyes so hard.  Every kid now has a tiny computer in their hands and even if you've put content filters on *your* kid's phone (and if you haven't, I've got a bunch of videos on this topic), I guarantee you his friends have access to everything that is out there -- and it is a lot.  If this is your son's introduction to sex, he is going to need a little help in interpreting what he is seeing. Okay -- I'm not asking you to break down all of the sexual positions in a porno for him, b

Hi, everyone!  This is Lara Hammock from the Marble Jar channel and in today's video, I'll show you how I make to if the main screens in my house into digital photo frames using Chrome and Chromecast!  This is part of a series of videos on how I manage and access digital photos.   The way we appreciate photos now is SO different now than when my kids were born.  When is the last time you sat down and looked through an album of printed pictures?  By far my favorite way to enjoy pictures is through a randomly scrolling slideshow, playing as I'm doing other activities.  Let me show you how to do this on both a PC and a TV.   If you have watched any of my series on organizing and accessing digital photos, you know that I use Google Photos to access and share pictures. All of my photos are replicated in the cloud through Google Photos.  The good news is that Google Photos has a variety of apps on a variety of platforms that allow you to play a random slideshow of your p