Jennifer has some pretty cool challenges on her blog. This one is for the One Word Photo Challenge. The word of the week is: barn. Here is my entry. The pictures are of my friends pasture and barn. I was actually taking pictures of the cattle, I don’t usually see them so close to the house.
I just happened to check my Bigstock account today and found out I sold another photo (below) since the last time I looked. Woo-woo!! 🙂
This is what I saw today at Bigstock…
| Date | Time | Description | Type | Amount | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan 30, 2016 | 1:07 am | Offshore Yellow on Blue | Bigstock Partner – Single Web Use | $0.63 |
So, I’ve now made a total of $5.33. I only have 40 photos approved and online with Bigstock. My approval rating is only 43%. I need to get better at figuring out why they reject my photos and I need to get more photos uploaded and approved.
My goal this year is to get 5 photos edited and uploaded to Bigstock, Canstock and Dreamstime each week. So far, I have not been doing very well with that.
I do know some people who have managed to do very well with this stock photography. They started from scratch, like me, but they’ve uploaded a lot more photos than I have, and so they’ve sold a lot more than I have. I need to make the time to do it too!
Today’s prompt for the Just Jot It January challenge is: SoSC– Odd/Even.
I really can’t think of too much to post except the obvious (numbers). So, here goes…
2- even number of boats
3- odd number of boats
Seems pretty lame, but I’m running out of steam here lately.
I took these photos out of Port Fourchon, last time I was working up there. I really hate working out of that place, but I’d be real happy to be headed back there right now. Just happy to have some work anywhere right now.
I haven’t been up to doing many of these challenges lately, but this week the Daily Post is doing a challenge on ‘gathering’. They seem to be looking for something more along the lines of a holiday gathering of family and friends. The typical Christmas kind of thing. Maybe I’ll find something like that later.
For now, I’m thinking more along the lines of gathering in the catch. Like this photo from the tuna boat. I took it a couple of years ago, when I was sailing as captain on the Pacific Breeze, hunting around the South Pacific.
I actually miss that job.
My response to the Daily Posts weekly photography challenge.
I took these at the Houston Museum of Natural Science a couple of weeks ago. A butterfly was just coming out of its cocoon. They have a beautiful butterfly center there. I thought it would fit this weeks theme of ‘transition’. 🙂
People have been asking ‘what’s up?”, yep, it surprised me. Some people have actually sent me messages asking where I’ve been. Neat. 🙂 I’m sorry I haven’t been around here much lately. I’ve just been worn out. Too tired to spend the time and effort to even write a post. 🙁
Maybe you wonder what has been keeping me so busy? Nothing really. I think I’ve just been so frustrated with this thing lately, and maybe even a little depressed. I can’t seem to make any progress in getting my blog back to where I am interacting with people like I was before I moved. I don’t know what went wrong or how to fix it and it’s been bothering me. A LOT! And then there’s been the other issue with my photos. 🙁
I even consulted a couple of computer ‘geeks’ to see if they could help me. So far no luck. I have’nt had much time since I asked them either, so part of that may be my fault.
Since my last posts here on Sunday, I’ve been fairly busy. I spent the first part of last week in my new job in the mornings. Monday night my DPO friend was in town so she drove down from Houston to visit me and we went out to Red Lobster for dinner. Tuesday night was my usual Campaign for Liberty meeting. Wednesday I met my DPO friend again and we had a good time shopping at the Galleria with a late dinner at the Cheesecake Factory (yum!).
I took the day off Thursday, just went to visit my friend J and brought over a big pot of my favorite beef stew. She doesn’t get out much and I felt like she could use some homemade cooking. 🙂 We had a nice talk about all kinds of things. I really wish she was still up for going out together.
Friday I went to a lunch meeting in Houston where they had an interesting presentation about FPSO’s (yeah, I know, most people probably wouldn’t think that was very interesting, but I really do still like to learn about all that stuff!). I was going to the zoo afterwards, but they closed it early for a ‘Feast With the Beasts’ and I didn’t want to pay (a LOT) extra to enter since I’m a member and should get free entry.
I went to the Museum of Natural Science instead. I always really like their ‘bug house’ (exhibits on insects, etc) and butterfly center. It’s really fascinating to watch the butterflies come out of their chrysalis and pump themselves up to fly away. I like to take lots of pictures of all the butterflies and flowers. It’s a really relaxing experience, sitting around listening to the waterfalls while the butterflies land on you. I only wish it wasn’t always so HOT and HUMID in there!
I got a membership there too, so I could see all the exhibits. They had Faberge‘ there again which I really enjoyed. I always did love beautiful things and there were a lot of them in there, much more than just the famous eggs. Everything they made was just exquisite! So finely made, so delicate, so intricate, so gorgeous, so expensive!
They also had an exhibit on spies. It was called “Spies, Traitors and Saboteurs: Fear and Freedom in America”. That was really interesting and I wish I had a lot more time to spend there to really take it all in.
One thing I liked was that they had little interactive quizzes set up at some of the exhibits. For instance, they had one that asked if the US government should be able to spy on their own citizens (like they ARE doing). Of course I answered no (HELL NO!).
I was absolutely stunned to see how many of my ‘fellow Americans’ answered differently. Amazing! Hard to believe so many are willing to give up their rights. Sad to see how many just don’t get Ben Franklins warning about those who would trade freedom for security.
Amazing how many have learned nothing from history and I guess that means that we will be repeating it all again. VERY VERY sad.
I was running out of time, they were closing the museum so I had to leave. It’s probably a good thing, since I was getting a little pissed off. Yes, it really does upset me whenever I’m reminded of how MUCH of my freedom has been stolen from me! I still find it hard to understand how anyone, much less any American, can stand it. Yet I see more and more of them willing to accept more and more of this theft every day.
So, the weekend came around and MORE rain! I spent the entire weekend being super lazy! I was just tired. Really worn out. I spent all day Saturday and Sunday lying around reading (Michael Chrichtons book “Travels”, Kim Harrisons “Witch With No Name”), watching TV (Saturday Night Live, Texas Music Scene, Househunters) and cooking up a storm. 🙂
Yesterday I eased back into things by catching up on phone calls, emails, etc and today I’m back in the flow of things. Went back to my new job this morning and political meeting again tonight. 🙂
Tomorrow I’m getting up REAL early to go to a conference I’ve been looking forward to for a long time. It’s called Fund Your Life Overseas. I’m still hoping to find SOME way to support myself without being tied down here in the states. I have been trying to move overseas for YEARS now. Decades actually.
The ONLY thing keeping me here is my finances. I hope I will be able to learn something new at this conference that will finally allow me to earn an INDEPENDENT living. Something not tied to any specific location would be best, but if its located outside of the US, that would probably be OK too.
So, if you don’t hear from me again for the next few days, don’t worry. I’ll be soaking up the info at the conference and hopefully the weather will be decent when I return. Since I already missed the Pirates, I’d really like to see the Barbarians at the RenFest! 🙂
I had a little spare time today, so I spent it TRYING to get my stolen photos back. Remember I mentioned that I had a virus? That I had to take my computer to the shop?
I got out an old computer to work with so hopefully I wouldn’t make things even worse with the one I just got fixed. I mean, if someone is already stealing your property and blackmailing you to get it back, how can you trust them to act honorably? To give you back your stuff even after you pay them off? I was afraid if I went to their website and clicked on their link, they might infect my computer even worse.
I went online to their website and figured out what they wanted, what I was supposed to do in order to get my photos back. They have all been encrypted so I can’t see them.
In the folder, along with my photos, the SOBs left a text document. The document instructs me to go online to a website. That website instructs me to send them FIVE HUNDRED DOLLARS!!!!!!!
AND, if I don’t send it within the next 30 days, the price doubles to ONE THOUSAND DOLLARS!!!!!!
AND, all that’s not bad enough, they don’t even make it easy to pay off their blackmail, they insist the money is only sent with bit coins! Do you have any idea how hard it is to get bit coins?
Let’s just say, I couldn’t buy them today. 🙁
Are my photos worth that much?
It really pisses me off that I should have to make that decision! Those photos are MINE and no one should be able to steal them from me!
It really SUCKS that there are so many people out there who just want to ruin a good thing (the internet in this case). They just can’t stand anything good going on in the world, they have to ruin it for everybody. Why do so many people get off on hacking the internet? Are there really that many sick psychopaths out there that have no empathy and get off on just fucking over perfect strangers?
I’ve been having a hard time keeping up around here lately. Since I moved my blog, I’ve had nothing but problems. I’ve been spending a hell of a lot of time just trying to get things working around here again.
But I always like Cee’s photography challenges and I did have a few decent photos of orchids around on the computer. So, I figured I’d join in on this one.
Here are some orchids from the Singapore Botanic Gardens, they have a really great orchid garden along with a lot of other beautiful plants. It’s a very relaxing place to go when you get tired of the ‘city’ of Singapore. 🙂
I’m still here in Nicaragua, but leaving tonight. I should be back home in Texas by morning.
I figured I’d add another pretty Nicaraguan one to Norms Thursday Door challenge this week. They do have a lot of very nice ones around down here.
I really liked the carvings of the toucans on these doors. These were in Granada.
