Here are a couple of shots of the twinkling stars and the last eclipse of the moon for the Daily Posts Weekly Photo Challenge: Twinkle.
I love trying to take pictures at night. So far, I have not been very lucky with getting my photos of the night sky to come out very well. I just got a telescope to play with. Hopefully that will help. 🙂
I just got back from a trip to New Orleans. I was there for the WorkBoat Show. I always try to spend some extra time there if I can. It’s such a great city to just hang out in. There’s so much to see and do and it’s such a creative place.
I saw lots of really beautiful Christmas decorations. Here are a couple of the Christmas trees for the Daily Posts Weekly Photo Challenge: Twinkle.
I went to New Orleans for the WorkBoat Show again this year. I stayed over a couple of days to just chill out and enjoy New Orleans. It’s such a great city to hang out in. 🙂
I did try to check around to see if there was anything especially interesting going on. I checked online and didn’t see anything unusual. I had thought about going on another walking tour or going to the WWll museum, or the Pharmacy museum. What won out in the end was sleeping late. 😉
I had just got around to wandering out of the hotel and I heard the drums playing. I had to find out what was going on. I’m so glad I did. 🙂
I followed my ears down the street a couple of blocks until I ran into the crowd lined up along St Charles street and the parade marching by.
It was so neat. I missed out on the beginning of it, but I was still in time to see a few groups of dancers, majorettes, and marching bands. The riding club and their little miniature horses were SO cute! So were the little girls all dressed up in their sparkling outfits, tapping their way down the street.
Floats carrying bands playing Dixieland jazz and Santa-hatted, bead throwing locals were interspersed among the dance schools and high school marching bands. Santa and his dancing elves brought up the rear.
And tho I think for some reason the bikers weren’t in the parade (technically), they didn’t let that ruin their fun and they had their own little parade right after the last musical blasting car passed by.
Nowhere like New Orleans for a party! 🙂
I love this quote, it is SO true! Wake up world!! We all need to govern ourselves and forget about the rest of it!
After a VERY late night, I drug myself out of bed to check out the WorkBoat Show.
I didn’t really plan on staying up half the night, but I saw on Facebook that a friend and travel writer was going to be in town for a ‘comp trip’. I had met her at a travel writing workshop in Boston a couple of years ago. After messaging back and forth on Facebook before leaving home, we agreed to meet up here in New Orleans after she finished up her work.
Turns out, when I went to meet her, she was in the middle of dinner with the whole group of writers involved on the comp trip. It was an interesting evening, for true! 🙂
I got back to my hotel about 0200 in the morning, but for some reason I just couldn’t sleep. So it was pretty hard to get up and out. Once I did, I walked over to the Convention center for the WorkBoat Show.
In the same Facebook conversation, I learned there was another writer (and fellow blogger who I met at the same workshop) coming to town for the show. We planned to meet up too. The first thing we wanted to do was to hear Capt Phillips. He was the Keynote speaker.
Remember the Maersk Alabama, the American flagged ship that got attacked by pirates a couple of years ago? Tom Hanks played him in the movie? Yep, that Capt Phillips. He gave a good presentation and we got to ask questions and afterwards have pictures taken with him (I skipped that but my friend got hers done).
As the presentation was ending, I spotted another friend of mine from Kirby Towing. We stopped to say hi on the way out. That’s what I love about these events. I always wind up meeting so many of my old friends. It’s great to catch up and hear what everybody’s been doing. 🙂
I had a couple of hours before the next presentation. My writer friend was doing an interview with a guy from the Deadliest Catch, so I went to wander around a little bit and ran into some other old friends.
Father Sinclair and Doreen from the Apostleship of the Sea. They always have so many good projects going on to help the sailors and the maritime community. Sinclair still sails, but he somehow finds the time to get involved with all kinds of important stuff.
I went to the presentation on mariner health issues. I picked that one since I have a lot of concerns of my own about how the medical standards are getting harder and harder to meet and are being used to throw a lot of us sailors out of our jobs. It seems a lot of the companies want 50 years of experience in a 20 year old body. 🙁
Spent the rest of the afternoon wandering through the convention center and checking out some of the things there that I’m especially interested in. The latest DP systems from Kongsberg, MT, L3, etc.
I met a few more old friends. Hope to spend some more time with them tomorrow in between all the other events. 🙂
Well, this is it. The last assignment for the Photography 101 Challenge. It’s Triumph.
I thought about this one a lot. I really can’t think of anything I have photos of, to show the idea of- “triumph”-other than the fact that I actually managed to FINISH this challenge. I even somehow did it within the time frame they had set for it.
For me, that really is an accomplishment. Usually I fall so far behind in these things I never manage to complete them and it would be months too late if I had.
So I decided to make another gallery of some of my favorite photos from the various assignments. Here they are…
If you like any of these and want to see more of the original post they were featured in, you can search my blog for the words at the bottom of the photos (double, moment, solitary, etc). 🙂
It’s almost over. In fact, I think it is officially over. But here’s my post for Day 19: Double of the Photography 101 challenge anyway.
Here’s my post for Day 18: Edge of the Photography 101 challenge. I think it’s pretty edgy in a couple of ways. 😉
Since I just saw the email from the Daily Post re:Converge, I’m going to use this post and photo for that challenge too. 🙂
I took this picture (and about 1000 more) at the Houston art museum. Problem is somehow I lost a huge amount of them. I have no idea what happened. I was glad I still had some left.
I like that museum. Actually, there are 2 of them. There’s the Museum of Fine Arts (FREE Thursdays) and the Contemporary Arts Museum (FREE always!) right across the street.
This picture is from the tunnel between them. They always have some good stuff to see and they have new exhibits pretty much every month. It’s worth checking out if you’re in Houston.
Here’s my post for Day 17: Glass in the Photography 101 challenge. I haven’t really been out to take pictures. Too busy trying to catch up on other things. But I found a couple of good ones on my computer (I sure WISH I could get the darn thing fixed!!).
I took these last time I was in New Orleans. I went on a plantation tour one day. We went to Laura Plantation and Oak Alley. I’ve never been on one of those tours before. I thought it was interesting how different they were, even though they were both built to do the same thing.
I liked the contrast in these 2 shots too. One is very old and also practical. The other is brand new and really serves no purpose other than decoration.
I’ve been busy with other things again and falling behind on blogging. Here’s my post for Day 16: Treasure of the photography challenge.
No, not the flag (or the moon). In fact, I treasure my (and your) right to trash it if you so choose. What I really treasure are the principles that flag (or the country behind it) represents. Or, I should say, USED to represent.
Principles we mostly seem to have forgotten. Principles “our government” now seems hell bent on squeezing out of us.
The most basic of those principles is not stated explicitly in our founding documents, but it’s there. It is the principle of self-ownership. This simply means that YOU own YOUR life. No one else. Period! All else derives from that (fact).
The founding principles of America were all based on that very simple premise.
Principles announced to the world in statements like these from the Declaration of Independence:
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed,
–That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.
Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. Those are the things our government was established to PROTECT. Today, it does everything it can to destroy those things. So, I treasure what little there is left of them.
Here’s my choice for the Day 15: Landscape challenge.
I took it when I went out to Las Vegas for the Freedom Festival. I took a side trip to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, Bryce Canyon and Zion National Parks. I only wish I had more time. It was an amazing trip!
Here’s my photo for the Day 14 assignment: Swarm. Yes, they were “moving about in great numbers”. I do love to watch them, they’re so calming. 🙂
At first I thought it said movement, but then I saw it was really moment, but the assignment (Day 13) is still to play around with blur and movement. I think there are a lot of ways to interpret this one. 🙂
I’m still stuck in class all day and it’s way too cold out here for me to go out (and I have no transportation either), so I’ve been picking out old photos to try and illustrate the themes for the challenges.
Here’s a photo I took in New Orleans last winter. I loved watching this couple dance and listen to the band play in the street. New Orleans is really great for this kind of thing. 🙂
It’s not really blurry, but I hope you can get the idea of motion anyway. The couple was really dancing up a storm (swing, jitterbug, etc.), the musicians were all tapping their toes and swaying to the music and everyone was having a great time.
I didn’t think to buy a CD from this band, I wish I remembered their name. But I did get one from another one that was playing further up the street. Here’s a post I did about that one. Check it out, the music’s worth a listen. 😉
I tried to find some of the photos in my computer so I could ‘finish’ the task for the other day. To look at these buildings in Black and White. I did look on my computer, but for some reason, I couldn’t find all the photos I used (or I couldn’t get them to a place where I could change them into black and white versions).
Here is what these same photos look like in Black and White. I didn’t change anything else. I probably could have made these look a lot better if I had the time to play around with them and edit them even a little bit. Let me know what you think. Which versions do you like better?
I’m trying to keep up with the tasks for the Photography 101 challenge. I’m pretty busy this week in the Leadership course at MITAGS, but doing what I can here. 😉
This is my choice for the Day 12: Architecture assignment.
Here are a few of my favorite photos I felt would illustrate this theme. I couldn’t make up my mind, so I did a slide show. I do really like to take pictures of interesting architecture, so I have a lot of these pictures. 🙂
The assignment was to think about lines and shapes and to try and go monochromatic, but I just didn’t have the time to mess around with editing tonight and have to get up too early in the morning to think about it. I do think most of these would work nicely in B&W. Maybe if I have time tomorrow I’ll try and see if I can change them. If I can figure it out, I’ll post it. 🙂
School. UGH! It takes too much time! 🙁
If anyone has any comments about any of these photos, I’d like to hear them. Which do you like best (or not like)? What do you like or dislike about them? Do you think I should have just stuck to one style of building (modern, art deco, temples, etc.)? Or one location (New Orleans, Thailand, Chicago, etc.)? Or do you like the large variety? Do you like the post with the gallery, or do you prefer it when I have all the pictures just all sitting there?
I’m trying to keep up with the tasks for the Photography 101 challenge. I’m pretty busy this week in the Leadership course at MITAGS, but doing what I can here. 😉
This is my choice for the Day 11: A Pop of Color assignment.
The assignment talks about “paying attention to how color affects your images.”
Here are a few of my favorite photos I felt would illustrate this theme. I kind-of took it to mean photos where the use of color influenced the feeling or mood of the shot. Or the color just really made the whole photo stand out.
If anyone has any comments about any of these photos, I’d like to hear them. Which do you like best (or not like)? Do you think they fit the theme? What do you like or dislike about them? Do you like the post better when I put the pictures up like this? or in a gallery where you see them one at a time like the one I did for the post on the “Natural World“?
I’m FINALLY catching up with the tasks for the Photography 101 challenge. This is my choice for the Day 10: Mystery assignment.
The assignment talks about playing around with lighting to create a mysterious atmosphere. For this challenge, I felt like going a different direction and just showing an object that is mysterious in itself (at least to me- I’m sure the Korean people will know exactly what these things are and will probably think I’m pretty ignorant not to know).
This was taken in Korea back in April. I was at the famous seafood market in Busan and took tons of pictures. I love going to the market in foreign countries. The things they have on sale are so different than the things I see in my local supermarket. I never could figure out what these things are. My best guess is some kind of sea squirt. I do know the Koreans like to eat them. 😉
Anybody have any ideas?
I’m curious (but no, not enough to try eating one). 😉
Here’s my entry for the Daily Posts’ Weekly Photo Challenge: Achievement challenge.
Master Unlimited license from the US Coast Guard
It might not seem like such a big deal just from looking at it (the old style was much more impressive), but it took me over 30 years of steadily working towards my goal to get one. I admit, it’s not usually THAT hard to get. It doesn’t take most people that long to get one (if it did, they wouldn’t be able to run all the ships we have running around the world).
This license shows the world that I am capable of running ANY ship, anywhere in the world (or at least that’s what it did mean before they started up with the new rules, there are some few restrictions now).
I know the usual path is for a person to go to one of our maritime universities. You can go to one of those schools and come out in 4 years with a bachelors degree AND a maritime license.
If you have the means to go to a 4 year university like that, you will come out with a 3rd mate license (or 3rd assistant engineer) and then you only need a year of sea time to get a 2nd mates license. One more year of sea time and you can get your Chief Mates license (along with a test). One year sailing as Chief Mate and you can get your Unlimited Masters license. So, you can become an Unlimited Master in only about 10 years, or even less if you’re lucky with finding the right kind of work.
That is the way MOST people get their license. I was not able to do it that way. First of all, I couldn’t afford to go to school for 4 years. I had to work. You can’t work offshore AND go to school. It’s really hard to be in 2 places at the same time!
Some people are able to go to Kings Point, the US Merchant Marine Academy. If you can get into that school, its FREE! I did try, but I was too fat to pass their physical. Then I tried to get in the Navy. Same problem- too fat.
So, I went to a 2 year program instead. I moved to Texas to go to the Ocean Marine Technology program at Brazosport College. It was a 2 year program that when you finished you would get an Associates Degree in Ocean Marine Technology AND both an AB (able body seaman) and a QMED (qualified member of the engine department).
It took me 5 years to finish, (and to my regret I never tested for the QMED so I can’t work in the engine department any more).
When I got out, I started working in the offshore oil field. I worked my way up from ordinary seaman, to able body seaman, to 1000 ton mate, to 1600 ton captain.
I started the OMT program in 1978. I was able to work my way up to 1600 ton master by 1986. It was NOT easy. I had a couple of strikes against me from the start. One, I was female and things were VERY hard for women trying to work offshore in those days. Two, I was fat. The job description is ABLE BODY seaman. Most people did (and some still do) discriminate against me for both of those reasons.
When I got my 1600 ton masters license from the Coast Guard, they gave me an unlimited 2nd mates license along with it. Like an IDIOT I gave it back to them! I had not asked for that license, simply because I didn’t feel completely confident in my ability to do that job. I didn’t want to be thrown into a situation where I might screw up and hurt somebody.
The Coast Guard officer who had just given me my license was shocked at my decision. Apparently no one else had ever given back their license they had earned before. But I was told that I could come back and get it at any time, whenever I wanted it.
BIG MISTAKE! The USCG changed the rules re: licensing without telling me (or anybody else). That was against their own rules, they are required to publicize it any time they want to change the rules, to prevent just exactly what happened to me!
When I did feel confident of my skills to run the bridge of a large ship, I went back to the USCG to ask for the 2nd mates license I should have already had. They informed me then that they had changed the rules and I could not have it. I would have to stop sailing as master/mate and go back down the ladder to sailing as AB in order to get a THIRD mates license!
WTF??!! I would have to go 2 steps down the ladder to earn again what I was already owed! I would have to work for a minimum of 3 years as AB to get that license back! So, I sucked it up and went and found a job as an AB on a ship large enough that it would count towards getting back that 2nd mates license I had already earned.
I was lucky to get a job with SeaRiver on their tankers. I spent a few years running up the West Coast to Alaska. I really enjoyed the job and they helped me get my third mates license. The only problem with them was, they told me they would NEVER promote me to third mate due to the fact that I was an “alcoholic”.
WTF??!! Yeah, I had a DWI, way back in 1982. When I asked for a promotion it was 1998 or so. Yeah, they consider you PERMANENTLY an alcoholic if you’ve EVER had any problem with it. WOW!
Considering their experience with the Exxon Valdez and the fact that they threw Captain Hazlewood under the bus to get the focus off of their company POLICY (which REALLY caused the accident), I can totally understand their reasoning. So I just quit. People told me I should have sued them over that, but it really wasn’t worth arguing with them about it to me (and I would have had to win millions since for sure I would have been black-balled).
For some reason, I decided to listen to my grandmother and go back to school. I had a bunch of money saved up. It was gone in 2 years. I had to go back to work. I took a job with Coastal Tankships as 3rd mate. I asked them in the interview if they had any problems with me being ‘an alcoholic” due to my long ago arrest for DWI. They laughed and basically welcomed me on board. 🙂
I had a great time working for Coastal as 3rd mate. I had some really great ABs that helped me learn how to be a good Third mate. I would have stayed there forever. But Coastal sold out to El Paso and they scrapped all their ships. 🙁
I had seen the writing on the wall since the buy-out and had already applied to Oceaneering. It took them over 6 months to actually hire me. It worked out well, since it gave me the time I needed to study and pass my Second mate exam. Talk about STRESS!
I passed the tests and got my Second mates license in January 2002. On February 1, 2002 the STCW 95 amendments went into effect. Whew! In by the skin of my teeth!! I had been hearing rumors of this huge change in the rules, but nobody had any real knowledge of what was going on. Even the USCG, who would be in charge of enforcing these new rules had NO idea when I asked them about it in November 2001 when I was applying to take the Second mates exam.
The problem (again) was that they didn’t notify anyone of what the rules were or how they would affect us. It is a rule that they HAVE to do that. They didn’t. So, I got ROYALLY SCREWED (again)!
I should have been able to simply get my 1 years sea time as second mate and then sit for my Chief Mates license. Since they changed the rules (again), I would now be forced to (re)take a dozen classes (each of which cost a minimum of $1000).
So, yes, I TRIED to protest. I wrote to everyone from the local USCG office to the President. No one was willing to consider my arguments (the fact that they did not follow their own rules, the fact that I had ALREADY taken each and every one of the required classes). All I got from any of them was that the USCG thought the rules were the rules and had to be followed (never mind the fact that THEY broke the rules)!
In the meantime, while I was trying to protest, I started taking the courses whenever I had both the time and the money together. It took me over 7 years and $50,000 (not counting the lost income I should have already been earning) to complete the courses so that I could apply to test for my Chief mates license!
I FINALLY got it and then had to get a minimum of 6 months sea time sailing AS CHIEF MATE. It was really hard to find a position as chief mate and so I did just get the bare minimum. I was able to use a full year sea time as Second mate to fulfill the requirements for Master.
I got my Masters unlimited license in December 2011. I was SO happy. I could hardly wait to get outside the building and shout YEAH! FINALLY GOT IT!!
If you click on the link, you can see what these license USED to look like.
As usual, I’m late and having a hard time keeping up with the tasks for the Photography 101 challenge. This is my choice for the Day 9: Warmth assignment.
This was taken in Korea back in April. I was at the market and took tons of pictures. I chose these to represent warmth for a few reasons: the soup/stew was physically hot, it tasted hot, it was full of hot spices, it also included the hot stove and hot coals, and the warmth of the Korean lady. 🙂
As usual, I’m late and having a hard time keeping up with the tasks for the Photography 101 challenge. This is my post for the Day 8 assignment: The Natural World.
I’ve been super busy and haven’t really had the chance to get out and take any NEW photos for this challenge. I did go to Moody Gardens on the way home from the FRC course in Galveston the other day and took a bunch of pictures very similar to these. I just haven’t had the chance to upload them onto my computer yet.
Do you consider it ‘cheating’ that these pictures were all taken at an aquarium and I wasn’t actually underwater myself?
Let me know what you think of the photos. I’m doing the challenge to practice my photography and get feedback on what works and what doesn’t. 🙂
As usual, I’m late and having a hard time keeping up with the tasks for the Photography 101 challenge. This is my choice for the Day 8: Landmark assignment.
This was taken in Korea back in April. I was at the Busan Tower and took tons of pictures. I was lucky enough to be in Korea during the celebrations for Buddha’s birthday. There were dozens of these traditional paper lanterns set up here around the tower and other places around town.
Sorry to say, it was also a very sad time while I was there and lots of the usual festivities were cancelled due to the Sewol ferry disaster.
As usual, I’m late and having a hard time keeping up with the tasks for the Photography 101 challenge. This is my choice for the Day 7: Connect assignment.
This was taken in Korea back in April. I was at the Busan Tower and took tons of pictures of these locks. I was told it’s kind-of a tradition that when couples decide they want to ‘go steady’ or get engaged, they come up here and put these locks up to show the world that they’re ‘locked together forever’. 🙂
I couldn’t decide on just one here. Which one do you like best? Why?
I’m still trying to catch up on the assignments for the Photography 101 challenge. I’ve been pretty busy with trying to get caught up on everything I’ve needed to take care of when I get home. Everything from going through the mail, paying the bills, to doctor and dentist appointments and TRYING to get my computers working properly again.
They’re still not. 🙁
Oh yeah, those USCG courses I have to keep taking too. FRC this week, Leadership next week. So, I’m not going to get down on myself for not keeping up when I’ve got all that other stuff to do.
Actually, they did not really give an assignment for the weekend. They just gave us some ideas to play around with. I’ve already done a little bit of experimenting with the photo gallery idea, so I thought I’d post a link to this one of my visit to the Houston Maritime Museum a few months ago.
As usual, I’m late and having a hard time keeping up with the tasks for the Photography 101 challenge. This is my photo for the Day 5: Solitude assignment.
This was a little easier for me than the last one (bliss). I don’t normally take a lot of pictures of people, but I do sometimes catch them in a photo if I see something that just happens to catch my eye.
I took a lot more than usual people pictures on my recent trip to Korea. This was taken in Busan back in April. I’m not sure why, but this is one of my favorite pictures from that trip. 🙂
As usual, I’m late and having a hard time keeping up with the tasks for the Photography 101 challenge. This is my photo for the Day 4: Bliss assignment. 
This was a hard one for me. I had a hard time coming up with an idea of how to represent the idea of “bliss” in a photo. I had an especially hard time since I don’t normally take a lot of pictures of people.
Then I remembered my recent trip to Korea and these photos of Buddha. I was in Korea for Buddhas Birthday celebrations (this picture was taken in Seoul). I’m not religious, but I thought I remembered something about Buddha and it related to the idea of bliss. Buddha and nirvana, right?
Some of his statues make him seem like he has discovered bliss (maybe not this one tho).
I’m going to try again to participate in one of the Blogging University’s challenges. This one is Photography 101. A picture a day to challenge us to improve our photography. I HOPE I can keep up with this one, but I’m already a couple of days behind.
I’m due off the rig and will start traveling home tomorrow morning (if all goes well). So I’ll probably have even less internet access than I’ve had here on board. I’m also stuck without my good camera here and can’t take any photos here anyway (I have to get a hot work permit to use the camera on deck).
Anyway, here’s my photo for ‘water’.
water- 3 kinds- clouds, rainbow, ocean
I’m out on the rig right now. A different one than the one I took that picture from. I was working in the Gulf of Mexico then. The water is pretty much the same here off the West Coast of Africa. So far, it hasn’t even been rough yet. I’ve been surprised at how calm it’s been here.
It’s also been very overcast since I started working here in July. I wonder what the reason is for it always being so cloudy. Just the last couple of weeks it’s started clearing up off and on. I hope that continues. I much prefer clear blue skies and starry nights to dreary, grey overcast days.
I take a LOT of pictures of water, that IS where I spend most of my time. 😉
If you want to see more, you might like to check out some of these earlier posts (or just search my blog for “water”).
I’m going to try again to participate in one of the Blogging University’s challenges. This one is Photography 101. A picture a day to challenge us to improve our photography. I HOPE I can keep up with this one, but I’m already a couple of days behind.
I’m due off the rig and will start traveling home tomorrow morning (if all goes well). So I’ll probably have even less internet access than I’ve had here on board. I’m also stuck without my good camera here and can’t take any photos here anyway (I have to get a hot work permit to use the camera on deck).
Anyway, here’s my photo for ‘street’.
This is a photo I took last time I was down at the beach. I say beach cause the name of the town is ‘Surfside Beach’ (Texas).
I used to live down there for a while and most of my friends still do. If I go out when I’m home, this is usually where I go. I don’t actually spend much time anymore on the real beach like I used to. I just like to hang out with my friends and catch up on all the local news and gossip.
I really only stopped to take the photo because of the huge thunderstorm on the way. Notice the big black clouds in the background. The weather is usually pretty nice there. It’s especially nice in the summer when there’s always a good sea breeze. The winter is my favorite time to go to the beach there, there’s nobody else around and you can drive all the way to Galveston right at the waters edge. 🙂
PS- the featured image for this post was taken right around the corner from the one I chose for this post. I took it at the St Patrick’s Day Parade last year (it was raining, but that didn’t stop the parade). 🙂
Let me know which photo you like better (and why), it will help me improve my photography, which is part of the reason I’m doing this challenge.
Thanks! 🙂
I’m going to try again to participate in one of the Blogging University’s challenges. This one is Photography 101. A picture a day to challenge us to improve our photography. I HOPE I can keep up with this one, but I’m already a couple of days behind.
I’m due off the rig and will start traveling home tomorrow morning (if all goes well). So I’ll probably have even less internet access than I’ve had here on board. I’m also stuck without my good camera here and can’t take any photos here anyway (I have to get a hot work permit to use the camera on deck).
Anyway, here’s my photo for ‘home’.
This is a picture of my living room/library/bar. I spend a lot of my time on the couch there when I happen to be in town. I use my laptop there and it’s pretty comfortable to work there.
I’ve been trying to pack up my library and have made some progress, but it’s taking me a long time. I hate to get rid of my books! I don’t know if you can tell from this picture, but a few of the shelves are now (almost) empty. Before I started weeding them out, every one of them was stuffed full and books all over the furniture and floor too!
I LOVE to read!
This room also has a bar (notice the bar stools on the right of the photo). My dad made those barstools for me. 🙂
I fell in love with this house when I saw this room. It’s perfect for me to hang out. It also looks out through a sliding glass door onto a screened in porch. There was a big, old oak tree right next to it. I could watch the squirrels chase each other around all day. 🙂
That tree fell on my roof a couple of times, so I’m glad I finally found the cash to allow me to have it removed. I still have a couple more in the back yard, I just can’t see them from my living room couch.
I got the house cheap. Mostly because of that tree. It had fallen on the roof and caused a lot of damage. I spent a couple of months cleaning up the mess. I do a little bit of improvements whenever I have the time and the money at the same time.
I always have lots of projects to do when I’m home. 🙂
Does anybody know if you can do instagram on a laptop computer?
I always take pictures with my camera(s) and then upload them to my computer. Instagram looks like it would be pretty cool to play with, but when I tried to go there, it said I didn’t have any ‘devices’. I think they mean a phone, ipad, etc.
Any way to use it with a laptop instead of another kind of device?
From out of the hot bright sunshine I walk into the cavernous space. As my eyes adjust, I breathe in the smell of slightly stale cigarette smoke and listen to the sounds that surround me. I hear plinking, whirring, tweeks, cheeps, and bleeps. It sounds like R2-D2 having a major breakdown. The casino draws me into its cool dark depths.
Wandering between the crowded rows of an amazing variety of games, I hear the one armed bandits scroll and clunk. Bells ring along with the sound of coins falling into the plastic buckets that await the bounty. People of all ages and appearance sit and stare. Smoke and sip their free drinks.
The table games attract attention with their beautiful dealers all dressed in old time finery. They wear uniforms of sparkling, satin-shiny red lingerie. Fishnet stockings and black high heeled shoes complete the intended image.
Cards shuffle and fly towards the waiting marks at the blackjack tables. Young couples dressed to impress smile across the felt as they count their cards and hope for a 21.
Crowds of people cheer as someone wins a roll of the dice on the craps table. The roulette wheel spins and clicks and the ball drops to its last black number. Whoops and hollers as the man in the Bass Pro Shop t-shirt wins the game.
I make my way to Penny Lane. Take a seat. Slide my dollar into the waiting slot. Video machines with multiple games. Five kinds of Keno, 10 Slots, Poker. Jacks or Higher, 9s or Higher, Double Bonus, Triple Bonus, Deuces Wild, Aces Wild. All for only 1 cent each!
I have 100 tries to strike it rich! I play.