Bloggers: Apple or PC?

I would love opinions from any of you who visit here on whether you have or would buy an Apple or PC.

But I especially would like to hear from others who write a blog because you may have reasons for or against one because of specific blogging applications.

My sister-in-law and I just visited a large computer store and the salesman we talked to was all about Apple.  He couldn’t say enough good things about it.  But that seems like it would be a big move for us PC people.

So, I’m soliciting opinions about Apple/Mac versus PC’s.  Which do you have?  Or, when you get ready to buy a new computer, which would you buy and what are your reasons?

I’d appreciate any opinions or experiences any of you can share with me.

Words, words, words …

… I’ve got words, and I have the statistics to prove it!  I’ve now written over 700 posts.

I remember telling DD, when she encouraged me to start writing a blog, that I didn’t think I would be able to think of enough to write about.  Ha!

Soooo, in honor of this milestone, I thought I would give away some of the results of my new “flavor of the month” hobby — making greeting cards from my photos.

These are some I’ve made to give away at our golf fun day in July.

So, if you would like to “throw your hat in” for the give-away, here’s how it will work.

Between now and midnight on Sunday, June 27, please leave a comment here, and I will randomly draw a winner on the 28th.

For that winner, I will make six cards (they are blank inside), with any combination of the following three pictures (all six of one picture — two of each of the pictures — three of two different pictures — you get the idea, whatever you want).

Orrrr,  if there is some other photo I have published (that doesn’t have people in it, please) that you would like made into cards, I could  do that.

Although I would make one exception to the “no people” rule because this one is me, and I don’t need anyone else’s permission.  I’ve made some get well cards to send out myself with this picture and words on the front.  I have no idea if that would be fun for any of you to send out, but I’m hoping I’ve given some sick people a laugh when I sent them this baby!  (You could write on the inside something like, “Cheer up!  You can’t possibly feel worse than she looks!”)

But whether you win greeting cards or not, those of you who have taken the time to read many of my 700 posts have my undying gratitude!  You are the secret ingredient in the “add humor and faith … mix well” batter that makes writing this blog fun for me.  Thank you.

Every computer user’s nightmare!

 

Yesterday morning I decided to put this picture on the computer as the wallpaper. But after I got it on, the words under the icons weren’t easily read (and we’re all about “easily read” any more!), so I went into “my computer” to see if I could just change the font of the words under the icons to black.  Ah, but as I was looking around, I found something about fonts being larger.  Ohh, all the better!  So, I clicked on it.

I could still see the computer “wallpaper” in the background but it was suddenly in blacks and grays, and then at some point it just disappeared.  But that was the least of my worries — I had hit a reallllly bad key or combination of keys somehow, because words were suddenly in big fat white letters on black background!  The letters were big enough that they didn’t all fit in a box, so (still in the “my computer” maze of long lists with drop-down boxes and click heres) it was very hard to even tell where I was, or read an instruction to see if it was the one I needed to click on to get the heck out of there!

Long (verrry long) story short, I found a choice where I could, and I don’t remember the exact words, “go back to original set-up” or something like that.  I clicked on it.  That click apparently put me back to the original settings (from 6 years ago!) for my computer, but with some big gaps!

When I look at my blog now, it is just words and pictures with just a few lines separating things.  I can’t see the header at all.  I called DD and she said  my blog looked fine, so I guess you are seeing this normally, but it’s very frustrating for me that I don’t see it normally!

This page where I “write a post”, as I look at it, is pretty much typing on a white page, with just a few black or light blue lines dividing the sections of the page.  It’s hard to explain but it looks verrrry different.  And the worst part is that at the top of this box I’m typing in are all the icons you can normally click on to do things, but most of those are now blank boxes!  For instance, to make something “bold” or “italics”, I luckily remember which of those blank boxes represent those functions, so I can use them, even though blank.

So this is probably my last post for a few days, unless there is some divine intervention and God suddenly makes me able to think more like a computer and figure out what the heck I did wrong.  Anyway, barring that, I probably won’t post again until after the Geek Squad comes sometime Monday.

    By the way, because it would bring back such bad memories I’ll probably never use the picture at the top for my wallpaper again!  Instead I’ve now put this one on.   It is one I took of our brick sidewalk in the rain a couple years ago for a photography class, and it’s always been a favorite of mine.  (And the words under the icons show up just fine on it!)

I told Hubby at some point during the very frustrating day that was yesterday, that no calamity hurts worse than one that you cause for yourself.  In this case, because I simply wanted to change  a font.  Rats.

(I know — the pictures aren’t at all necessary for this sorry little tale — but I thought without them this post would be just toooo depressing for you!)

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It’s easier if you put the horse BEFORE the cart!

  

When I want to put a picture with a story I write, I look for it by going  back through my photo archives, guessing at about when I took the photo (because they are grouped by the date I downloaded them from whatever camera I used).  An inexact science at best. 

For example, I recently came across a picture of me as a little kid (yes, I know, there are alot of those!) in the kitchen of our old house in Springfield.  And I realized there was a connection between that picture and one I took about a year ago.  Soooo, I started looking for the more recent picture  so that I could do a post about their connection, but I couldn’t find it.

Part of the problem is that my photos aren’t in consistently-named files.  The Kodak camera I used first, lists them by numeric-only dates, i.e. 8-2-09.  While the Panasonic system that goes with my current camera lists them this way “Aug 2 2009”.  Also in the mix are old photos I have downloaded (which are filed alphabetically by how I have named them) that, depending on whether I’ve edited them or not, can be found in one or all of four systems — these two systems, plus the “My pictures” on my hard drive and my new Picasa 3 editing program. 

Can you see how comfusing it is for me, an already disorganized person, to locate a specific photo?

Ha!  But I think I’ve discovered a solution!  Late last night when I was looking for the “lost” photo in all those systems, out of frustration, I decided to just start from the beginning of one system and go through each file methodically (not something I always think to do — that methodical thing) until I found the picture I wanted.

But as I went through the files, I would come across another picture that I would think, “Oh, I should do a post about that!”  So, I pulled up my blog too, and started creating drafts for future posts that are just the picture(s) I’ve come across and a “working title” that will remind me what picture it is when I look at the title. 

I now realize I was going at the link between pictures and posts from the wrong end!  Rather than deciding to write a post and THEN looking for the picture that I have in mind for it, I am now going to go through my photos, put them in drafts, and use those drafts to write posts!

Of course, not all of my posts necessarily include photos and some of them are about a picture I took yesterday, but when they are going to include an older picture, this is going to be a much less stressful way to do it.

I just hope WordPress doesn’t have a limit on how many drafts you can store, because I think I may end up with alot of them!

May this be an encouragement to all of you.  If at 63 years old I can still have an occasional “ah ha” moment and come up with a new way to do something, then I hope that will encourage you to never say “I’m too old (or set in my ways) to change.”

May you have an “ah ha” moment of your own today!

A Snapshot of Friendship

 

Last week I had the rare pleasure of getting to meet two fellow bloggers — C and V from Stickhorse Cowgirls!  Hubby and I were passing through the city where they live and I had contacted them and asked if we could have dinner.  Hubby just stayed long enough to eat, and then he left the three of us to gab till our hearts content.  And we did just that.

It was so exciting to get to put faces to two women who had over months of reading and commenting on each other’s blogs, become my blogging friends.  We talked (and ate, at least part of the time) for three hours, with nary an awkward silence.  The conversation really was more like old friends catching up after a long absence, rather than strangers meeting for the first time.  Remarkable, touching, fun, memorable.  And now, I consider V and C real, honest-to-goodness friends of mine.

But, the real friendship I want to tell you about is the one between the two of them.  Sitting at a table with them for three hours gave me a little snapshot of their very special friendship (of over 50 years!), and how it blesses both their lives.  I can’t remember anything specific they said that would be an example.  All I can say is that I came away from that evening having been reminded of how precious old friendships can be when they are firmly grounded in shared love and respect and lots of shared memories.

May we all cherish and nourish the friendships we have been blessed with — both old and new.  They are such a plus in life.

Thank you, C and V for such a memorable, fun evening.  Now, when I read your words, I see your faces and hear your voices. 

A truly special evening.

I like MY blogging world, thank you!

 

On Thursday, my blogging friend, Beth, at C.Beth blog, did a post about some unkind exchanges on a message board that was discussing, of all things, lollipops!  I was amazed at the tone the commenters used not only about the product but about each other!  You can go here to read Beth’s post.

Reading those comments reminded me once again how thankful I am for my blogging world that is filled with bloggers and commenters who are unerringly polite and supportive to each other (and me!).

I think there may be a few reasons that have kept nasty, mean-spirited people from visiting here. 

~ One is my blogs title.  If someone is looking for smut or topics on the dark side or some topic that will just give them an excuse to rant and say unkind things to other people, I’m guessing they probably aren’t drawn to a blog entitled Add Humor and Faith.

~ I tend to visit blogs and develop friendships with bloggers and commenters who are of the same mind as me, i.e., who appreciate civility, try to see and encourage the good in others and enjoy a good story or a good laugh (or photography!).  And, I very seldom venture out onto the “big, bad” internet in general.  I have specific sites I go to to make purchases, but in general I’m very careful about new sites I visit.  In both cases, I hope that I am limiting my exposure and maybe fly under the radar in the bigger internet world.

I also watch my lauguage!  Not only will you not see swear words here (although, I do tend to use a heart-felt “crapola!” or “rats!” occasionally), but I am careful that I don’t use any specific words that might lead someone putting that certain word into a search engine to my site.  Case in point is the time I wrote about The Flasher (you can read that post here) and was careful not to use the anatomically correct word for the part he was flashing! (That was a little difficult since, after all, it was the focus of the story!)

And, lastly, twice, when I first started blogging, I got a commenter who left comments on a post  that were just a string of filthy words and thoughts.  In both cases, I just marked those comments as Spam and sent them off to the Word Press support group.  Now, it did happen twice, so obviously whatever they did the first time didn’t discourage the sick commenter, but I never heard from him after I sent his second comment to Word Press.  And THAT is one of the big reasons I will probably never leave the Word Press protective umbrella, because they took care of him for me, and I have no idea how, I just know I never heard from him again. (and also they are, without fail, kind and helpful when I ask them really dumb questions about blogging!)

So, thank you fellow bloggers and commenters for making up a wonderful blogging community in which we all can love and laugh and learn.  I am thankful for you.

(Hmmm. I just read back through this.  Is this dry as dirt?  Am I old as dirt?  Points to ponder.)

Happy Saturday!

For the Love of Photography

 

Yes, I think I can say I love photography, and no one is more surprised than me.  All of the years I was growing up and Mama was taking pictures at every gathering (she was a recorder of people and events most of the time as opposed to looking for pretty pictures), I have to admit it was sometimes a little inconvenient that, whatever was going on, there would routinely be times when everyone had to stop what they were doing and gather together so that Mama could record the moment with a photograph.

But now, when I look back through all the albums of her photographs, I am so thankful that she loved photography.  It is so much fun to look at pictures of events that I have lived and even ones that were before I was alive.  But they’re all there, recorded by Mama’s faithful camera.  And, I love sharing some of those old pictures with you too.

Of course, writing a blog and wanting to share with you what I see (or what Mama saw), was what finally kick started my interest in photography, so in that vein, here are a couple shots of sky, one of my favorite subjects, I’ve snapped recently with my old faithful Kodak.

Thank you, Mama, for planting the seeds of interest in photography in me all during my growing-up years.  All these years later I am enjoying it so much and I look forward to thanking you in person when we meet again.