Have you ever tried an interactive, animated calendar for your PC or laptop?

There is something about a calendar that is very reassuring. It prepares you to make your New Year's resolutions. Every Christmas, I usually receive one. And its a nice gift, without being overtly one.

Some people make lovely, family- oriented calendars, with photos of their kids for Granny. After a few years, these calendars become instant, nostalgic "scrapbooks" of family events.

But other people like sophisticated, hi-tech type calendars, based on programming and databases, which can be installed on the computer. They have nice features, like alarms that go off on days you have appointments. Emails that can be sent at the click of a mouse, on a certain date or a scheduling system that organizes your life immediately and automatically in the calendar database. Sometimes these types of calendars can be overwhelming with their many options for displaying data.

I like the comfort of an old-fashioned, large-print calendar interface combined with some low-tech features, such as animations, links, etc., to upload to a computer. It strikes me, that this type of calendar would be ideal for elementary and secondary students.

The latest one I've found on the Internet is actually an animated PowerPoint presentation with cute, animated gifs. The main holidays and astronomical events are clearly indicated, as well as the dates for setting the clocks forward and backwards. There is also room below each date for typing in a short reminder or note. Perfect for school-age children. And then there are hand-made, vintage ones like this home-made Lil' Lulu, which I thought up recently.

Well, I always say, one can never be too prepared, so I have mine installed already. Hope I'll even make it to 2008!