Monkeying Around

Come over to my Blogger blog and see some Monkeying Around <g>

Well, I've decided to start 'mirroring' some of the entries between here and my Blogspot Blog. Some posts will only be relevent to one venue or the other, but any that can be both places will be... Soooooooo..... This is the entry that the above link pointed to:

 

I've been meaning to post some of my more recent zoo pictures, but just haven't had the time to do the little bit of photoshopping (is that a word?) needed to get them into an entry. Not that I do all that much to them. Basically I do a crop, some kind of framing/feathering, pop on a drop shadow and I'm done. Still it takes time... time I haven't had this week. These pictures are not from my most recent trip (those haven't even made it to the hard drive yet), but from a visit I made a few weeks ago. I hope you enjoy them.

So what have I been doing with my time? Basically trying to reorganize my life. At least it feels that way. So many of my AOL friends have moved their blogs, or gone private, left, come back....It just makes my head spin thinking about it! To keep up I've had to figure out Bloglines,which turned out to be one of the bright spots in all of this mess... Lovin' Bloglines. If any of you aren't using it, I recommend it. If you are having problems. Drop me a line. I wrote 2 tutorials to help out a couple of friends and I saved them so they are easy to pass on. One is on setting up your feeds originally, the other is reading your feed once they are up and running.

The other time suckers have been the AOL Journal message board and let's not forget taking a couple of minutes each day to drop the 'protest' e-mail to the address we have been given. I'm ready for life to settle back down, but I don't see that happening in the near future O.K. let's get back to the pics.

The little guy you see here is a young Colobus. He is one of the Black and White variety and cute as a button. They are born white. After about a month they start to change colors. I actually have a picture of him from my old camera when he was white. But he was being held by mom, and by the time I cropped and blew it up the quality just wasn't so acceptable. Next time there's a baby, I'll be ready!

I love that my new camera does 'burst mode'. This means I set up a shot and can take several frames very quickly. This gives me the capability of catching this little guy 'flying' thru the air! The picture at the top of the page is one that took me a couple of times to catch just right. He would run up thru the grass jump on that log/support and then push himself off backwards and into the air to again land in the grass. Too Cute!

The picture to the left is of the little guy 'play attacking' one of the older Colobus'. I believe that is his mother, but I'm not sure because ALL of the adults allow him to pretty much get away with murder. He appears to be VERY spoiled!

The picture to the right here is a prime example of how spoiled he is. If you look the 'rope' he is swinging on it is an adult Colobus' tail!!

Want to know a little bit more about Colobus'? Click on this link and go to the African Wildlife Foundation. They have a very nice page about them.

Whenever a door closes, a window opens

Although I am not happy about the Banner Ad situation here on our Journals, I have to admit that some good (at least for me!) has come out of all of this. I was e-mailing back and for the with Judith Heartsong, and it occurred to me that I have actually gotten a couple of positive things out of all of this hoopla. Bear with me here.

As I mentioned to Judith, in the early years of the Internet I learned a little thing called HTML. Back then all you needed was a text editor, a little knowledge of HTML, a bit of patience... and you could easily make your own web pages. Fast forward a few years and you find me traveling around the country with the circus. Being on the road I seldom had access to an Internet connection, and when I did I was only interested in getting a hold of my e-mail. Remember, I am very self-centered. Since I wasn't using the HTML anymore, I didn't pay any attention to the changes being made.

Time passes, HTML changes. Things like CSS are invented and put into use. My knowledge of simple HTML becomes archaic.

Last year, when I started this journal, I bought two books. One on HTML, and the other on CSS. Soon I learned that AOL journals didn't accept many HTML tags, and the ones that they did were well documented. Being the lazy person that I am, I just learned the codes I needed, and left well enough along.

Enter the Banner Ads! Looking around for options, I found myself over at Blogspot where I started a journal. And, lo and behold, Blogger allows quite extensive revamping of its templates! Using my admittedly limited knowledge I was able to cobble together something that will work for me. This was all well and good, but it incited in me the desire to re-establish my knowledge of web page construction. I will definitely be pulling those two (thick <g>) books out and setting myself off in pursuit of that illusive thing called knowledge.

And I was not the only person going out there and establishing secondary journals. Many other folks were doing it to! Soon my AOL alerts and folder of off-AOL blog links were just not cutting it. I had known about Bloglines for a while, but again remember the lazy part? It was so much easier to use AOL's occasionally wonky Alert systems than to learn another application. This was no longer true, and I found myself over at Bloglines signing up for an account and getting down to the business of putting ALL of those blog links into it.

Good News...... I actually prefer Bloglines! It is relatively simple to use, and doesn't fill up my inbox! After mentioning my use of Bloglines in comments, I received a couple of inquiries about how I did it. I quickly opened an e-mail and set about putting my new found knowledge to work helping others. If anyone else is trying Bloglines and having any problems I have written two 'help' files, feel free to comment, or drop me an e-mail and I would be happy to pass them on to you!

My conclusion to all of this is that no matter how horrible things are, it is possible to take something good away from it... Yeah, I know, Little Mary Sunshine aren't I???

Looking for Me?

If you are looking for me, I am here. I decided to set up an 'just in case' blog.... well, just in case <g>. I don't know if I will end up moving over there, or if I will keep my Journal here. I KNOW that I would prefer to stay here, but I am waiting for the outcome of the great BANNER AD DEBATE. When AOL lets us know exactly what is going on with the ads, and what is (and is not) going to be done, I will make a final decision.

You know, funny enough, it is not the ad itself that bothers me so much. I don't much care for how it looks, but it quickly scrolls off the page as I read a journal, so it's not really the ad... It's the principal of the whole thing. In fact, if AOL gave me a couple of options in regard to the advertising, I would probably be, if not happy, at least resigned.

What options?? Well, for starters I would like to be able to decide who is (and is not) advertised on my journal. For instance, say I work for X agency and I mention them occasionally in my journal. I definitely don't want an advertisement for Y agency, who happens to be a direct competitor, at the top of my journal! Also, the placement of the advertisement. Could I be given an option of ... oh, I don't know... maybe top of the page, bottom of the page, smaller ad in the side bar. Maybe a choice of static or animated. I know some of my readers are still on dial-up, and I worry about the number of pictures I use without also taxing their connection with a flashing banner at the top of my journal (which probably loads first <grumble>)

I don't think any of these things are unreasonable! For the time being, I am planning not to post here, but to post at the alternate site I have set up here. Once the dust settles I will make a final decision... and frankly I can't tell you at this point what it will be <huge sigh>

Veterans Day....

Your Monday Photo Shoot: Before & After

For this weeks assignment, John, the Blogfather, offer us this: Your Monday Photo Shoot: Before & After

Your Monday Photo Shoot: Do "Before and After" photos on any subject you like. The idea is to show change over a bit of time. Some easy ideas would be haircuts, cleaned-up rooms, kittens growing up into cats, and etc. And yes, this means you can dip into your collection of old photos (they certainly qualify as "before").

Hmmmm... I couldn't decide which set of pictures to go with, so I decided to let you all have a double dose of cuteness. D.K. (the cat) was thanking her lucky stars that I haven't scanned in any of her kitten pictures and is currently teasing poor Morgan about hers <g>

This first set of pictures is of Morgan at about 7 weeks old and then again this year on our Fourth of July outing to the local state park.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The second set of pictures is Boo at about 36 hours old (wearing his first little halter, which even taken up to the smallest holes was still way too big. O.K. big... ahhhh ) and then again this last summer. Oh, and the little fillies we had that year had little pink halters <LOL>

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

They were both sooo cute. Don't you just want to hug them??

VIVI Awards

I'm so looking forward to tonight's star-studded event! This is what I finally decided on to wear for the festivities. Isn't it great when price is no object??

Why don't you join us? All of the details are over at Betty's Journal here and updated here! I look forward to seeing you all there!

Update 11/6/05:

The evening was fantastic! Although I had to leave before the end, I enjoyed the event up till then. We should all be sure to thank Patrick, Vivian and Greg on the wonderful job they did.... remember, they are all Volunteers!! Also, Betty did a WONDERFUL job of keeping everything going. All the nominees were winners, and you should go here and here to check out all of them, and here to see the winners.

I didn't win my catagory, but was thrilled that my buddy Walter did! Love and hugs to Walter (and his Mommy <g>). I couldn't have lost to a better little guy!!

I so hope we do this again next year. I discovered a TON of new journals (like I needed more journals to read <eg>), and it was a lot of fun. Sooo many of my favorite journals and journalers won. I am on my way to make 'Congratulatory' (is that a word??) visits now!