Photo Friday: Phantasmagoria

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Had to look this one up!  PHANTASMAGORIA!! 

I am attempting to use this definition as my inspiration today: 

a constantly changing medley of real or imagined images

However, I’m OUT OF TOWN on another fun trip and prepping this post early, scheduling the publication.   I had ideas of taking some kind of photo with time elapse – on film?  and digitizing it but… nah.

So then I had an idea to find a photo of something MOVING and playing with some kind of crazy photo tool.   Come to find out that you can download free software to create phantasmagorias!    Which brings up another “however”:    I hate to download stuff onto my PC.    I’m silly paranoid like that.  

Going back to Big Huge Labs where we did the Hockney effect for Self Portraits, I found the BEAD effect.   I hope this qualifies.    I present to you the original photo of a water fall in Costa Rica, the purplized bead look and then the thumbnail which really captures the look I hoped for.     You can also go stand far away from your monitor to see the bigger one and catch the same effect, I think…

 

 

 

 

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I have no idea if this fits the theme!    I did NOT want to go look at any of the actual picture suggestions for the free downloadable software for phantasmagoria that I’m sure would distract me and give me reason to doubt….   So, in the humble words that always offer comfort:

It is, what it is.

 

 

 

J’aime l’océan

I love the ocean!

The Atlantic, from Sandwich, Massachusetts

The BLUES!   the GREENS!    the fact I got the horizon level!

Energy and Spunk (spirit and pluck!)

Thank you to WREKE HAVOC for the comment that sparked this title.   [Apparently, no longer a nice word?]   I don’t really have any idea what I will write in this post to live up to said title, but here goes…   Let the fingers fly and may I be brave enough to hit the PUBLISH button.

By the way, as soon as I do post this post, I will be running over to Wreke’s blog to see her Monday post if she has one.    Follow me if you like.     She almost always has a MUSIC post and they are FUN.   [updated:  here’s the link.]

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What do you think about my thought-separator, the little diamond?   I found this when Jan of Curious State of Affairs told me about the characters available in the WP editor.   The heart is an option there, too.     No, I didn’t know about this until last week.   oh well.

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The symbol above is called a lozenge.    Huh?   OK.       I had friends visiting this weekend for the Memorial Day Holiday.    We spent most of Monday driving around Cape Cod.    The ocean has such beautiful colors!   or colours, whichever spelling you prefer.     I have yet to upload the pics and don’t want to interrupt this flow of words to do all that.   Hopefully, I will remember later.   

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I just got a phone call that my tutor-EE is out of town and has to cancel today’s appointment.   Which, on one hand is GREAT!   this means my day is now wide open!     But sad, that I hope we can get onto a regular routine.   It’s so tough to constantly re-arrange the schedule and eventually wonder if I should even bother!    This tutor-EE is a new one;   I had my initial session with her last week.     The prior tutor-EE had the usual challenges and I’m being told I was TOO patient and went WAY OVER the tolerance levels needed to attempt to accomodate her!     She eventually never called to re-set a new time to meet after failing to show up once and it looks like she may either have to get a new tutor or …    I’m not sure.   The coordinator will have to deal with this now.

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In a few minutes, I will check in for my next flight ‘outtaheah’.   I’m traveling with the Hub once again to a sunny place with a pool while he ‘conferences’.   LOVE IT!   read and lounge, lounge and read.   Wander around and snap photos.   repeat.      UHOH.   He JUST NOW emailed a reminder to get that laundry started.     Better go do that.    

Talk at ya next week sometime!  PS – I have my next Photo Friday assignment complete and set up to publish early morning hours on May 30th so I’m ready for it.   🙂       ← did my smiley face work?!   Hasn’t worked since ….  well, you know. 

 

 

 

Photo Friday: EMOTION

Let’s not forget that the little emotions are the great captains of our lives and we obey them without realizing it.  ~Vincent Van Gogh, 1889

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Here we are, another Friday.    I wasn’t into this assignment as much as weeks past and having had a little spat – really, it wasn’t even that.  Shall we say a conversation (one-sided.  HIS) that has affected me in the negative.

When dealing with people, remember you are not dealing with creatures of logic, but creatures of emotion.  ~Dale Carnegie

I have to remember that my “job” is being my husband’s ‘personal assistant’ (hey!  WITH benefits!) and sometimes he treats me like an employee.     I get ‘performance reviews’ like the one this morning where he  gives me not only some tasks to do TODAY but also how he would handle certain situations.    SItuations that I failed to do properly yesterday.    And like any typical person who gets a cricitized, I’m taking it harder than I should.   He’s absolutely right – I didn’t handle the situation well.  

aha!    I’m experiencing STRONG FEELINGS?!   How do I capture this on film?!   digitally?!     As usual, my fingertips run to open a new window to access Google.   “define emotion”:   Yep ==>  strong feelings.    I open my folder of photos to see if anything jumps out at me…    Ah, perhaps the shots I just took this week – certainly THAT would be appropriate?   And then, I go tripping through some of the QUOTE sites hoping something will tie this all together…

One’s suffering disappears when one lets oneself go, when one yields – even to sadness.  ~Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Southern Mail, 1929, translated from French by Curtis Cate

FLOWERS!  YES!!     Not the most beautiful photos by any professional standards;  these are me just wandering around my yard taking candid shots of what makes me feel good.   FLOWERS MAKE ME FEEL GOOD!

 

I love lilacs.   I love the dark purple lilacs best!    I am so very excited that these are just about to bloom and in my front yard!     We planted them last summer and though I requested this variety, you never know if that’s what you are really going to get.    I’m thrilled.   Just thrilled that I have lilacs and plenty of them!    I can sit here at my PC and glance out the window to see them.    

I present to you ‘Study of Lilacs To Emote Good Feeling’.

Sadness flowers to the next renewing joy.  ~Jareb Teague

 

♦

and for a bonus, may I also give you unnamed orange flower (perennial) that smells really good too!   This little guy cheers me almost as much as my lilacs but I can’t see him from the window…

 

Feelings are much like waves, we can’t stop them from coming but we can choose which one to surf.  ~Jonatan Mårtensson

CHOOSE JOY!   go look at some flowers that inspire you.

 

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I should have known this would be an ’emotional’ series!    Please visit my PFer friends and read the stories!     Such great emoting…

Jan gives tribute to her beautiful friend.
Tall Chick gives us a tale to laugh with.
Julie’s  “But I Just Don’t WANNA!” at Just for Fun

 

David Cook Wins!

 For the best play-by-play of last night, click here!  Napping at Red Lights

 ♦

I enjoyed the finale – I LOVED the duets:   Carly & Michael Johns (Wrote Me A Letter)  and especially, the one at the beginning with the two Davids.  Their voices are so different and yet blended in harmony WOW!   

Loved ZZTop!    Enjoyed Carrie Underwood – she’s figured out stage presence, huh?  But I don’t care for that new song (Last Name).   Momma always told me not to say mean things about other people, so I won’t mention anything about Donna Summers.   And, is it me or does Bryan Adams actually look almost good?   WHY!?  do men get better looking as they age?     

Good luck to all the contestants – I love to see what happens next.   

10,000 Views

Apparently, sometime yesterday, my blog stats’ view count hit 10,000.
It’s a party now!   

Bummer, yesterday was also a day I could upload an image to my posts but today it’s a no-go.    I had to cut and paste the image above which means that I don’t know how to re-size it.    I’m still annoyed beyond words about the incompatibility of the wordpress editor with my PC on the linking issue crap.   I hate that I have to know/remember the code so that you can see one word vs the ugly url.   AND that it takes you away from this blog rather than open another window.     I noticed today that one of my favorite bloggers has abandoned her WP blog due to ‘issues’ and has started a new one on the typepad platform…

  
Anyway, please excuse the griping when I should be celebrating that anyone has even stopped by to read these words.  AND!!!  these words, too:   Tonight is the END of this season’s IDOLmania!   or, to put it another way?

 
What am I going to do on Tuesday and Wednesday nights?    Well… on Tuesdays?   Looks like I’ll be watching DEADLIEST CATCH.   Hub can’t get enough of it and all I keep thinking is

WHERE CAN I GET ME SOME KING CRAB LEGS?!   MmmmMmMmmMM!

More Doors

More Doors, Gates, Entryways…    Copyright CuriousC/IdeaJump

SOUTH CAROLINA of an April

            

Newport RI

All shots taken with Kodak EasyShare…

 

 

I’m Addicted

I’m addicted to this song.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KE2orthS3TQ

 

(wp isnt’ cooperating today?)

Golly Gee

Golly gee, friends, I’m NOT supposed to explain any non-postings and whatnots due to that No-Obligation Blogging Creed, but I’m feeling a touch of the blogchore syndrome of late.  (no offense to all you, my lovelies!   more like a lack of inspiration and a need to be moving, outside, getting sunshine…)

I’ve been trying to post more door photos.   Must be destined for another day.

Have you ever been out and about and think you see a blog-buddy?    Now, I have never MET you all, but from avatars or photos you post, I will see someone and think “Ohmigod!   That person looks just like ______!”    and I truly have to stop myself before wandering over and asking,

“excuse me, but do you blog?”

or

“Wow – you look just like…    You remind me of someone I sort of know on the internet….   Um, hi, do I know you?”

But, I think better of it.    and thus fail to make the human connection and prefer to scurry home and check my blogstats instead.   Actually, I’m not even doing that.   I haven’t been signing in but rather I type in the ideajump.wordpress address just to see if any comments!    and then, not being signed into WordPress, I go do laundry or go outside and pull weeds.

HOWEVER…  if you were reading a Nicholas Sparks book while getting your oil changed last week at the car dealer on 44, then I think I saw you!

Happy Monday.

Photo Friday: Doors, Doorways, Entryways…

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Today’s theme is Doors, Doorways and Entryways.   To the house, to the soul, whereever…

This week, I wanted to take some FRESH photos.   Allow me to set the scene:   on my walks down an old town byway, I see a nice farmhouse and between it and the street are these extremely interesting evergreens with boughs that dip and look so original!   Perhaps, a long long time ago there was a fence that was built right over them and they had to bend and move to re-orient themselves to reach the sky?

THAT is what I had a hard time capturing – the bendies!   But that’s not the theme – it’s the way the owners have a path THROUGH the bendies that give this the coolness aspect.

First, the shot taken from the rockwall across the road:

Zooming in…

and now, the grand finale!

 

 

 

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Plus, a few other fun photo shots of other paths, doors, etc…

 Not gettin’ to THIS door, huh? 

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This one is my ‘to the soul’ exhibit:

 Ah, lush green….

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Compared to the image in my mind’s eye, what the digitals caught is not as impressive as I had hoped.  Oh well.   I love taking pics of doors and have many many from my visits to various places over the years.   I have the idea of framing a bunch of these and have yet to get around to it.