Another Day of Bliss

Interview with a Candidate

blogster520 — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 15:20:00 +0000

Here are a couple of reasons I would never vote for a Republican. I do agree with some of what they stand for, but they always put their big fat feet in their mouths when they start talking about regulating morality. We have some social issues already. What about how people are shooting and stabbing and robbing each other every day? Or can’t read or write a simple sentence. Or know much about our history or the history of the world. Or the universe.

It looks like they don’t really care.

First question – So what is it about same-gender marriage that is so threatening to you?

Answer – Well, as you know, the Gay Agenda will ruin America as we know it. These people are only preparing us for the next step of their plan. That is, to marry dogs, cars, cell phones once they get their way. And most importantly, God himself has said that marriage is between one man and one woman.

Second question – You would repeal legalized abortion. So is a woman’s body her own?

Answer – It says in the bible that you do not kill. A fetus of 48 cells is a living human being. God is the one who determines when life begins and ends. Abortion is killing people.

My Medical Dilemma

blogster520 — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 16:27:24 +0000

Once you have cancer, albeit a “curable” one, they say you live with the fear all your life. The way you cope with the fear has a lot to do with the quality of your life, whether “cured” or “not.” Either way, a survivor can’t define themselves, and I certainly don’t, on the events of the cancer diagnosis, treatment and ongoing recovery.

Reminds me a lot of what I hear about addiction. An alcoholic is “recovering.” A drug user is “recovering.” Hey, even a Catholic is “recovering.” It is ongoing, and lifelong, and I can finally understand this.

Each time my mammogram rolls around, which is now, my throat closes up, my heart beats, and even my blood sugar rises a degree. I am not good at anticipation; not for the bad things, anyway. So I need all the help from the core of my being, from my strength both physical and spiritual, to get me through the days ahead. Again, it is akin to a prisoner awaiting sentencing. Any change in my condition, new cancer, metastasis, infection, bump lump etc., throws my entire life awry.

There is no planning for this. A cut requires recovery. A burn requires therapy. A break or sprain requires time to heal. But the mind goes on hurting, way past when the physical scars close up.

I know there’s nothing wrong with me. Aside from over-exercise at the gym causing aches in the morning. There is nothing wrong.

I will cope by living in the moment. There is nothing I can do about what is to come, except be.

And that is the most difficult thing of all.

Best in Show Off

blogster520 — Fri, 18 Mar 2011 13:00:47 +0000

Hi gang! Today I’m going to reveal a secret! What’s the best ever conversion software to take your great big fat CR2 shots and turn them into lowly jpg’s? Here’s the deal -

Using Canon’s proprietary Digital Professional Pro software, I am able to take a whole bunch of RAW pics, download them using Windows’ own window, have them automatically deleted off my memory card, and safely install them back into my own folders. Stay with me here.

First, hook up your memory card.
after all is downloaded and deleted from your card
open up DPP
if necessary, navigate to the folder you are taking the RAW files from, in my case *.CR2
Open up the conversion window in DPP
Tell DPP where to put the new files which will be *.JPG’s
Run the conversion
When done, all I do is open up Windows Live Photo Gallery, my own choice but you can use your own choice of photo manager
In WLPG, sort this way -
Group By – Date Taken Descending; Sort By Date Taken Ascending
This will put the RAW vs. JPG’s side by side in order so you can actually make your edits rationally, without having to try to figure out where or when these were taken or converted.
On pics like a family portrait around a table, or a quick look at a meeting I went to, I just delete the RAW files off the bat.
On other pics, I may mess around in photo software, and save off before deleting the RAW file. They are so much fun to mess with!
On pics I need to keep for future work for competition or exhibit purposes, I do save them.

So, if you don’t understand a lot of this, take a basic computer class. If you do, great! Here’s the really great thing – I can bookmark this description and go back to it from time to time. That brings me to my next suggestion.

Feel free to explore your own workflow; you should do that anyway. Just write it down, even on a text document, and in my case it’s installed right on my Dell Dock, which is an ersatz Apple-type ribbon where I can keep quick links to things. The choice is up to you.

Use your choices, use your imagination. Show it off!

Let me know what you think!

Living in the Future Problems

blogster520 — Wed, 02 Mar 2011 12:04:55 +0000

It used to be that living in the past was a problem for some. Now that I’m pushing another decade in age, I have noticed that my intention to keep up with the times, not fall behind and therefore be in with the in crowd, albeit of one, moi, has encountered some speedbumps along the way.

Example – in discussing a weekend stay at a mountain resort, I was asked to pick up some brochures to show a friend, who is even younger than me. Talk about living under a rock, you may say. There are a couple of things wrong with this request. First, and foremost, businesses have online presence, which contain far, far more than a mere brochure, with its glossy tryptich format, can provide. Websites are not only up to the minute news, hopefully, of the latest and greatest features of this business, but don’t use paper, and are instantly available any time to the viewer. Whereas paper will endup under a pile of otherpapers, and not found when needed.

Another example – annual directories of organizations. This annual chore takes weeks of work and preperation, then a trip to the printer, then the anxiety of wondering if the printer understands what you want in the publication. Thecost and the paper usedf again are a complete waste of time, for somehting that lateer versions of PC’s and Mac’s operating systems can search for and display in milliseconds.

Let’s not discuss newsletters. Beond belief, I know of a computer club that actually just this past month stopped distributing paper copies and is now saving hundreds of dollars a month, not to mention a frew tropical forests, because of that. and notbody peeped. Of course not! This should have been in the reverse. And there is a new term I favor – “Opt Out.” Let’s do it!

Come out of the rock before it’s too late. The anxiety of waiting to see if a printed version of something is to your liking, is like the old days when you waited to see if your roll of film was oworth anything. and then you had to deal with the negatives. The only thing negative is the wasteful space you had to store them in.

I’m hoping for less paper in my life. In saying that, I’m moving on to my electonic diary here, andoffering my thoughts whether or not you want them – ha!

oops, I just cut my finger.

The Old Ones are the Wildest

blogster520 — Sat, 26 Feb 2011 20:01:55 +0000

After my Zumba class today, we were stretching a bit to prevent those injuries that come from, well, not stretching. As I usually do, I ran to the wall, which is an unbreakable mirror, to perform a quad stretch, something that usually makes me keel over trying to grab my ankle. My instructor must have seen me do that, and warned me that my rocker shoes were dangerous instruments in a dance class. I might fall over backwards.

Well, I don’t blame her. Here was this old lady falling against the wall, and I’m sure it seemed the shoes became obvious. I’m sure that many people wearing these rocker sneakers, which are really built for walking, fall over all the time. I don’t think I’m one of them. First of all, I never had such comfort in my feet. I never fall for fads, and I thought this rocker thing was a fad at first.

But when I bought my first pair, I was amazed that it took some pressure off the front of my feet, that I felt my whole life, probably the way my foot is built in the first place. I have walked miles in “regular” sneakers, and almost collapsed from the pain, both in my foot and back. But these shoes somehow compensate for my extremely high arches, and cushion the expected pounding. I was so happy to find this out, I have two pairs, and have been wearing them for such high-impact activities as Zumba.

I’ll go back to flat sneakers for the gym. I have actually seen other instructors wear the rockers, and nothing is ever said. I’m sure I seemed a weak link at the point of the quad stretch. I’ll watch that. But darn, I can’t grab my ankles any other way. It would be a shame if my theory is correct, and the shoes made such a difference. Time will tell.