Weekend Assignment #57: Beyond Our Borders

John Scalzi's gives us the following:

Weekend Assigment #57: Share some of your favorite Journals, Blogs and Web sites not on AOL Journals. Come on, we know you go off the school grounds from time to time. Tell us where you go. 'Cause we want to go, too. Even just one pick is fine (no more than five, though. Pick the best to share). Also, just in case this was a temptation, my site off AOL should not be one of your selections.

Wow.... first an easy Monday Photo assignment... Now an easy weekend assignment!!!

Favorite all-time site: Pogo Games! And, yes I am a member, and <sigh> yes I think I have to get all the badges EVERY week <LOL>

Another site that I visit often and have mentioned more than once in this Journal:  National Geographic

Extra credit: Find a link you think your mother might like. What is it?

If my Mom had internet access (long story as to why she doesn't <g>) I think I would send her to Pogo... she loves games, especially things like solitaire and yahtzee... I think she would get a kick out of playing against and talking to people all over the world

Your Monday Photo Shoot: Hubble's 15th Birthday

From John Scalzi over at By the Way:

Your Monday Photo Shoot: Hubble's 15th Birthday

Today marksthe 15th anniversay of the Hubble Space Telescope's launch -- and that being the case, I thought we'd do something special for the Monday Photo Shoot:

The Monday Photo Shoot: Show off your favorite Hubble Space Telescope image. Tell us why you love it.

This almost seems like cheating.... I LOVE the Hubble Site and have spent a lot of time there looking at images. There is no looking thru pictures to find a suitable one, or finding a suitable subject TO take a picture of and editing them and preparing them for web viewing. Just go to the Hubble Site, pick up my favorite (and yes, I AM a Geek and have a few favorites), save it to my computer and upload to my FTP space. Easy! And still, here it is Friday evening and I am just getting around to doing it <g>

I chose to feature this image for a couple of reasons. First, I like the name: Horsehead Nebula, and second I think it sort of looks like a horse's head, and third I like Horses <g>.

So, here it is, my favorite Hubble image:

Do It!!!

O.k.... You all know that I have a little Pembroke Welsh Corgi Princess named Morgan who is the light of my life. I love ALL of my furkids, but Morgan is the baby of the family and as such is also very spoiled. However, being brought up in a family with both 'parents' being in the 'business' of handling animals, she is really very well mannered. I bring this up because often she has been taught to do certain things for different reasons that maybe your average family pet would not have been taught...

Now, with the above paragraph in mind, let me set the scenario where I think I may be unintentionally setting up my neighbor's child for future visits to the child psychologist <g>

When you Housebreak a dog, it is very important that after they 'do their duty' that you continue your walk for a while. This way the dog doesn't get the idea that the moment they 'go potty' they will be taken back in the house. If they get the idea that going potty equals back into the house and the end of their walk, they will take forever to find the 'perfect' place to go... thus prolonging their walk! BUT, as winter came on and it got colder (and often snowing or raining) I didn't want to spend a lot of time outside after dark waiting for Morgan to go potty, so I started working on a new behavior. I took some treats that I knew Morgan loved out with me (She LOVES the yogurt treats), and when she would start to get set to go I would say "Do IT" in a firm voice and as soon as she pottied give her the treat. Well, before long when I would tell her "Morgan, Do It!" She would quickly do her business and I could get back onto the warm train <g>.

Flash forward to the present and me going back to work. When I wasn't working we would have a nice long morning walk... Now, I need Morgan to do her thing and get back in the house so I can go to work, and we have moved our long walk to the evening after I get home from work.

So, I am standing on the back side of our apartment building.. little 'poopie bag' in hand and admonishing.

"Morgan, Do It"

and

"Hurry up Morgan, Just Do It"

and

"Do it NOW, Morgan"

When it occurs to me that the people who live next door to us have a little girl just about a year old... who is really cute and adorable...and...

Named Morgan!  Poorthing... I hope they aren't working on potty training yet... ...... .....

Writer's Block

Lately I've just been stumped about subjects for a Journal entry. I don't know if my life is really that boring, or if I just feel like it is <LOL>.... So, I've decided to randomly pick pictures out of my files (either digital or hardcopy) and see if I can come up with an entry from it! Soooooooo.... Here goes the first one:

This is a picture from a trip we took to Busch Gardens around Christmas time. The attraction is advertised as:

Myombe Reserve

Enter the lush forest where gorillas and chimpanzees can be viewed in the naturalistic habitat of Myombe Reserve. Tour the Great Ape Domain amid waterfalls and through shrouds of mist and fog to get an up close look at these majestic primates.

While walking thru this attraction, we turned a corner and I got this really cool picture. It almost feels like you are actually in the jungle and peeking thru the trees to catch a glimpse of the gorillas...

Boo

I know people sometimes wonder what in the world I manage to find to do with myself that I don't have time to make more than one entry in a week...So, I thought I would show you ONE of the ways I find to spend my time. This is a picture I took last Sunday. I didn't get any that were exactly what I wanted, but I decided to play with this particular one in my photo editing software, and I was pleased with the results.....

So, you have all seen pictures of Morgan, the spoiled Corgi... and D.K, the cat Princess... but I have never posted a picture of Boo.

Boo is 14 years old and I actually helped his mother deliver him. He has lived with me since he was 6 months old, when I purchased him from the people who owned his mother. Boo is an Arabian horse with an impressive pedigree... which he cares nothing about <g>. He often follows me around the barn where I board him much like a dog would. His favorite treats are carrots and these little horse treats I get him that are peppermint flavored. He is as spoiled in his own way as my dog and cat are. I visit him each evening when I get off from work, and he recognizes my truck and meets me at the place where I throw his hay over and give him his evening treats. Sunday is my day to feed all of the animals at the barn so the man who boards Boo can have a day off to spend with his family and attending church. I think Boo looks forward to Sundays because that is the day that I spend the most time with him. Since G. works on Sundays, I am free to spend a good portion of my day at the barn.

Hope you all enjoyed my attempt at Photoshop Magic!

Monday Photo Shoot-Action!

This week, John Scalzi over at By the Way has the following task for us:

There's something magical about catching objects (and people) in motion, so that's the theme of this Monday's Photo Shoot:

Your Monday Photo Shoot: Action! Catch something or someone in the middle of movement. If needed, explain what we're seeing. It can be anything: People, pets, animals, machines -- just catch them on the move.

Hmmmm... Well, my first thought was that I have just taught Morgan (Now known as the AMAZING Corgi) how to jump thru a hula hoop, and wouldn't that make a neat picture. Well, and so it would, except for Two things:

Problem #1: When I first teach Morgan a new behavior, she will only do it for me. Eventually, she will do it for anyone, but in the beginning you have to do the hand signal EXACTLY, or she just looks at you confused. Therefore, I would have to be the one holding the hoop and sending her thru it.

Problem #2: G. and my digital camera do not always get along. Sidenote: This is also why there are very few pictures of me doing anything <LOL>. He does pretty good with something posed, but trying to take a moving picture with my digital camera can be a little tricky as it is an older one and has the delay problem (i.e. you click the button, but the picture is NOT taken instantaneously)

Sooooo, because of the above, (and after several failed attempts and a frustrated G. <g>) I decided to change my mind and show you all one of my favorite pictures from when I used to be involved with a show where I performed with a variety of horses. This picture is about 7 years old. Problem solved. I already had the picture, it was just not a digital picture and I had never gotten aroundto scanning it. No Problem!

Well, no problem, except that I am lazy. And, have you ever noticed that when you are lazy, you actually often end up doing MORE work??

Rather than just carrying my laptop into the other room, pulling out the scanner, plugging it in, turning it on, and connecting it to the laptop, I decide that the aforementioned process was too much trouble. I'll just lay the picture on the arm of the couch and take a picture of the picture, put it into my photo editing software and crop out the background leaving the picture.... See the example of why this doesn't work. I left the arm of the couch in so you could tell what I was trying to do. <g> If you leave the flash on you get that reflection you see... and if you don't use the flash you get... Nada! It's just too dark to see...

So, after 'saving time and effort', I drag my laptop into the other room, pull out the scanner, plug it in, turn it on, connect it to the laptop and scan the picture.... This takes all of about 3 minutes! And, you get the picture below that I'm using for this week's assignment.

This is a time lapse pic a friend took of us riding in a drill pattern. To give you an idea of what's going on, we are riding the horses at a gallop, while carrying flaming torches, and doing figure 8's and cross throughs with each other. I LOVED doing this drill... what a Rush!

The last picture here is one that I already had on my laptop and just lets you see a picture of all of us not in motion.

Sooooo, the moral of the story is: If you want to save time, just go and get the scanner out and do the job correctly the first time <g>