Amazing Photos

Wow! I wish I was this good -- these people apparently know photography AND Photoshop very well --> DP Challenge. My sister, Jeanne, has asked me to photograph a beautiful full-sized, perfectly formed mimosa tree here in town, so I am going to try.

By the way, the photo here is from DP Challenge, not my own. I only wish I was this good. Click on it to see the full-sized version.

AOLRecipes.Matson.info

Years ago, I spent a kazillion hours copying genealogists' recipes from the Golden Gate Genealogy Forum message boards on AOL. AOL had a cool feature where I could put a link on any regular web page to a part of the internal AOL system. Of course, only AOL members could actually go there, but I was intrigued and set up a large cookbook with those links (as well as copies of the recipes for nonAOL members).

In its ongoing effort to destroy itself, AOL eliminated those sleek, well-made message boards, deleted the old postings, then created strange new awkward Internet boards that almost nobody from our group uses anymore. (Other Internet boards have existed a long time, so who cares about the new AOL ones?)

As a result, all of my links are worthless. I could not even count how many links I had made -- hundreds. I was glad to see such interest in my cookbook site that many people wrote to ask about the broken links.

As a responsible web master, I worked on the broken links last night and had them point to the regular text versions of the recipes. Thanks to everyone who expressed concern - and thanks for using the cookbook site.

If you would like to share recipes, I invite you to post at the Golden Gate Genealogy Forum's current recipes page (aka GenealogyForum.com).

Cooking for Engineers

My husband found this link titled Cooking for Engineers (of course, since he is an engineer). It's a serious cookbook -- well made and includes many photos. One of the first segments explains the results of a test made on cooking bacon in different ways. It was done in a detailed, scientific way. Frankly, I think someone has too much time on their hands.

Happy Flag Day

Today is Flag Day. I walked this morning wearing a good ole red, white and blue patriotic shirt. According to the link, there's a word for people who like to study flags. They are vexillologists ... good question for a trivia game.

I usually like to wish everyone a happy "whatever-the-current-holiday" might be. Is this appropriate for Flag Day? Should I wish everyone a "solemn and meaningful" Flag Day? Most of the people I talked to on my morning walk did not know that today was Flag Day.

I went to the FlagDay.com website and could not even find a direct explanation for what today is supposed to be about or what we are supposed to do today - I guess businesses will not be giving this day off anytime soon. Oh the joy of obscure holidays.

Make a Life Poster

Thanks to Sondra G. for this link to making a "Life Poster." This is so cool -- take 98 pictures and make a full-sized poster from them - a record of someone's life or a period in their life or of any other subject (where 98 photos can be found).

It takes about a half hour to make (if you have your photos handy) and costs about $29 according to Mike Matas (the link goes to his blog and the picture is his). This would also be fun to make for children, relatives, etc. It is geared for someone using a Photo iPod, but it would work for anyone without an iPod, too.

If you don't have 98 photos, Mike says you can split one photo into 4 segments (like those big TV walls at the mall, etc.). I want to do this -- and have my own poster. I wish I had taken even more photos of my daughter when she was little than I did. While I am sitting here wishing, I wish  there had been affordable digital cameras when she was littler and I would have taken a kazillion more photos - ha!

The Infinite Cat Project

Thanks to Jane who posts on Muddy's blog from time to time, we got this link. It's subtle, but as you click through the pages, it becomes funnier and funnier. Try The Infinite Cat Project and select the "Next Cat" link at the top right of the page. At first, you may not notice anything peculiar -- but as you view more pages, it will become clear and amusing.

I sent in a photo. I know it has to be done quickly because half a dozen people might send in a photo at the same time and that would not work. Anyway, if my photo is accepted, it will be the "Next Cat" after this one --> #948. If Myst is not there, I need to make another submission or, if the link does not go to a picture, it has not been posted yet. If you go to the link above, then click on this link to see my submission. Both pictures go together.

P.S. The photo was accepted! See it here --> Infinite Cat Project #949. There's already one after it -- so cute, too!

In Honor of Stupid People Likely to Sue

Thanks to Lil S. for this gem that's been floating around the Internet. I feel like changing the title to, "In Honor of Picky Lawyers." Everything in the box below came from the letter - the witty comments are not mine.

... So funny even it is not all true. (I have no reason to suspect it isn't true, but you can't believe anything that comes across the Internet without verifying it and Snopes had nothing on this one when I checked.)

Changing Logos

I started having fun with Photoshop again and made about 60 new logos (I got carried away playing with type and images). I can't decide on just one so I have a new logo appear with every page load on my Photo Blog and thought I would try it here.

Please let me know if this makes the page too slow to load or otherwise is annoying. The logos are coming from my AOL web space so they might not load every time. I could move them here to my Angelfire space, if need be.

Laminate the World!

In my church, I have taken on a new job. I am teaching music to elementary and preschool children. This is going to be fun because I have always loved singing with children. I had a nice chat with the previous chorister. She had a laminator and made all kinds of cute props. Staples sells several models. What makes one model better than the other? I wish a site existed such as Laminate.com with reviews. (After I wrote that, I checked, and the web address does exist, but it is just a company wanting to do it for a fee.)

I want one, too, but I can not decide which one to get. There are cold laminators and ones that run on heat. One person felt that the heat ones make a nicer, stiffer object. I wonder if they are messy to work with.

On the other hand, my husband told me that he is an experienced laminator (which he has done at work). I bought some regular, no machine-needed sheets and put him to work. He did a great job with our first set of props. I wonder if he would want to keep this up forever, though.

Oh boy, a new hobby! I can see having a good time with this, making bookmarks for older children, reusable signs, etc. I love my life. I just wish I had more hours in a day or needed less sleep. I can't do everything I want to do around all the things I don't think are fun but still have to do and age is creeping up too quickly. Ha!

(P.S. Did I mention what I learned about making DVDs more compatible? It works -- we found out that the ones with a menu worked better than autoplay. Some DVD players demand a region code before working and the menu seems to help with that.

Regions codes are just another ridiculous form of copy-protection so a person in one country can not play a movie intended to be shown in another country. Hackers can overcome this restriction and honest users are hurt by it. I say to just release DVDs all over the world at the same time and forget adding yet another problem for people like me to try and cope with.)

Here Comes Arlene

As of now, it is a tropical storm, but this morning's hot humid but sunny day has turned into an overcast, rain-threatening afternoon. That's good, though. We need the rain and relief from the hot day.

It's funny to watch this come in on the radar. Usually our weather arrives from the west. Now, it is coming from the southeast. I feel sorry for anyone who has damage and bad effects. As for us here in Huntsville, it is a pleasant rain (so far).

Here's the list of upcoming storm names. The next one will be Bret. I hope it is as gentle to everyone as Arlene is for us (so far).

I Have Posted 5,000 Photos

Two years ago, when I started photoblogging, my husband said something to the effect of, "I can't wait until this fad passes." I was taking a picture of him when we were eating out.

Today, he is accepting, even supportive, and I am still enjoying taking photos of life around me. I don't imagine that I will do this forever. Burnout can occur at any time. Interests change as we grow older, but it is still going on for now. When I stop having something to say, I will probably stop this blog, too. I have not yet found a day when I did not have something to say, though.

I got interested in Adobe Photoshop, bought several books about it and am learning the ins and outs of it, too. I need lots of raw material to work with.

Recently, I got interested in making movie compilations -- fancy slideshows of still photos and editing small digital camera movies, too.

I think people prefer very short (30-60 second) movies. Few folks want to sit through an entire recorded elementary school play, but everyone will watch a 30-second excerpt from it.

TextAmerica.com offers free space to people wanting to post those short movies or still photos or instant-as-it-happens shots from their cell cam. While TextAmerica has suffered a LOT of growing pains, they offer many fun options.

My 5,000th image was posted today! This is so much fun. I love peeking into the lives of others who post there, too, am glad for their encouragement and advice.

 Magix Movie Edit Pro 10

Thanks to George and Maurits, I have gotten a new little movie editing program, Magix Movie Edit Pro 10. What makes this special is its ability to handle those highly compressed digital camera movies - mpg, mov, avi, etc. As far as movie editors go, it is fairly easy to understand. There's a still a learning curve, but I think this is better than other movie editors.

I have Adobe Premiere Elements and I could never figure out how to edit those little digital camera files with it. (If anyone knows, I am still interested. I could only manage to drop them into larger compilations, but I could not edit them otherwise. It seems oriented for regular DV cameras.)

Here's my first movie, Anatomy of a Cat Fight. It is a WMV file (those seem to be the smallest). It is still kind of big and will take a while to download. I got the music from GarageBand.com. I love how I can put moving headlines and scene change effects into it.

I plan to

posting digital still photos -- and I still have a life outside computing the last time I checked (I wish we didn't need sleep - I have too much to do). I am about to hit 5,000 images in my photo blog, though! I plan to create a big sign for the big event to post on that day.