Sharing photos, videos, vintage images I've discovered, and -- occasionally -- commentary and thoughts from retired life and travels.

blogging

Moving on

December 14, 2009

While I’m moving on – or back – to other things, climate issues will continue to be an interest. With 5 of my last 6 posts being on the subject, it’s time to look at other things.  I’ll try to figure out a way to continue to share some of what I learn, though, without this becoming a climate change blog.

image

I’m still happy with Windows 7.  My computer at work uses XP, though, and moving back and forth between Windows 7 and XP makes getting used to Windows 7 a little harder, I think.

Yes, I am still working.  A contract extension has been approved and, assuming the VP signs the funding paperwork, I will be there until about the middle of March.  After that, I plan not to work for at least the rest of 2010.

Regular visitors to Exit 78 may recognize that my theme has changed once again.  I have moved to the Thesis theme, which allows a lot more control over the appearance.  I’ve got the basic structure down pretty good now, but I’ll be tweaking on it, so there may be subtle changes day to day.

I still have a little bit of material to post from our September trip, photo galleries to develop and publish and images from the great depression to share.

Moving on.

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What’s a blog?

November 14, 2009

About our blogs

I’ve been blogging for several years now and currently have 3 active blogs.

I post to Exit78 the most, sharing some of my photos, vintage images I’ve discovered, and — occasionally — commentary and thoughts from retired life.

Haw Creek Out ‘n About is images and information about places — where we are, where we’ve been, and where we’d like to go, while Haw Creek is intended to be primarily related to information on recreational vehicles.

I publish posts on our travels simultaneously on Exit78 and Haw Creek Out ‘n About.

Karen’s blog, Quilts….etc., as the title implies, is mostly about her quilting, but she also chats about a lot of other things that interest her.

We both have regular readers, though I think Karen has more than I do, and we both read a number of other blogs.

There are several different, though similar, definitions of the word, “blog.”

The word “blog” is a contraction of the term “weblog” or “web log.”

The term actually originated from online diarists. Early web diaries (c. 1994) evolved into web journals, then web logs, and, today, blogs.

Capture A blog is a type of website where material is published on some periodic basis in reverse chronological order through “entries” or posts.  In other words, for readers, the most recent post comes first.

image Though blogs are most commonly used for personal online journals, blogs are used in wide variety of ways.  Types of blogs include business blogs, political blogs, news blog, travel blogs, fashion blogs, project blogs, education blogs, niche blogs, music blogs of all varieties, and much, much more.

image Most bloggers are hobbyists motivated by self-expression and sharing expertise.  Contrary to the common perception of bloggers being controversial, snide, sarcastic, or pompous, most bloggers feel that their blogging style is sincere, conversational, or expert.

While many hobby bloggers enjoy blogging and stick with it, most blogs actually die quite quickly.  Other blogs die a slow death, with irregular, hit-and-miss posting, and then… nothing.  Last year, I took a look back at the blogs I had been reading a year earlier.  Less than a quarter of them were still active.

For more information on blogs and blogging see Technorati’s State of the Blogosphere – 2009 or Wikipedia’s article, Blog.

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Busy…, wet…, behind — and more photos!

October 30, 2009

I really have intended to work my way through the photos from our September trip. However, I have managed to find other activities to keep me from that goal.  I do, however, have a new photo gallery for Day 3 of Rocky Mountain National Park.

This new notebook sure is small compared to her old one.

Check out Day 3 of Rocky Mountain National Park and my other Haw Creek photo galleries.

Work, of course, takes a huge chunk of time and my time is shifted since the simulator is primarily available for the students in the evening. While I was planning for the contract to be over at the end of 2009, there is a distinct possibility that I will be there until the second week of March.

Karen has a new notebook computer. I spent the better part of a day installing all of her old programs and transferring files.  The notebook runs on Windows 7.

I’m going to also be moving from XP to Windows 7.  After restoring my laptop to near original configuration, there are still times where I am waiting an excessive time  for processes to finish.  My new laptop is on order and will be assembled and shipped next week.

Early this year, I rediscovered a love for reading.  I used to read three or more novels a week on a regular basis.  After many years of only a few books a year, I’m now reading at least a couple of books a week.

This has been the wettest year of all the years we have lived in Arkansas.  Much of the state is well over 20″ over the normal rainfall amounts for the year to date.  This is already about the 12th or 13th wettest year on record for Little Rock.  From what I understand, the wettest year on record was in the 1880s, and there was a little more than ten inches more than what Little Rock has already so far this year — and there is still two more months of 2009 to go.

I’m going to be concentrating on posting the rest of the material from our September trip and building photo galleries. I’ll post on other topics as I have the time and the inclination.

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Resetting

October 14, 2009

reset

Ten days ago, I had finally had it.

I had been created a photo gallery from the images of our first day in Rocky Mountain National Park.  Unfortunately, I was having more difficulties than normal in getting the gallery uploaded to the server.

I had also been having more and more little problems with my computer — nothing serious that kept me from using it, just a bunch of little things that I either found a work-around on or just gave up on.

The computer was working and doing just about everything I needed, but it was 3 years old, and it was time for a change.

A drastic change.

No, I didn’t go out and buy a new computer, though that was a consideration.

Instead, I reset the computer back to the original software configuration.  I’ve taken more drastic measures — such as reformatting the hard drive or buying a new one — to resolve problems with previous computers.  This was bad enough, since I had to reload the programs I wanted and install all of the updates.  That’s still not completely done.

I’ve also also figured out my problem with uploading material to the server.  I’m in the process of downloading all of my material from the server and will be changing the way that I publish new stuff to the website.  (The problem was in Microsoft FrontPage extensions, which I won’t be using any more.)

With working odd hours and dealing with all this, posting material from our September trip was interrupted.  I will be posting more from the trip, hopefully in the next day or so.

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Thanks for visiting…, and for the comments

September 30, 2009

Note: I’m including links to the most recent posts of the commenters on the days that they left the comments. This is from the CommentLuv plug-in and it didn’t seem to capture all of the most recent posts. though.Canton Lake

Answers to Questions:

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Cath Lawson asked, about National Parks – specifically Yellowstone, Rocky Mountain, Yosemite:

Which one do you reckon is best for seeing the most wildlife? The kids are keen to see bears and other critters – from a distance I hope. :)

Also – 12,000 ft is v high. Do you get altitude sickness? Is there anything you can take for it – or anything you can do to make it easier?

We’ve not visited Yosemite, but I understand there is quite a bit of wildlife there.  Overall, we’ve seen more wildlife in Yellowstone than any other park, but some people visit and don’t see many animals.  Bears are actually a very rare sight in any park, though we saw 4 this year back east.

12,000 feet is high and, yes, we did feel it.  However, it wasn’t as bad as one other time as this time for a couple of days we didn’t go above 8 to 9,000 feet.

It looks like Yellowstone and RMNP are doable in one trip – if you have enough time. Have you been to all the US national parks? Which is your favourite, or is it hard to choose?

We have not been to even a quarter of the national parks.  Our favorites, I think are Yellowstone and Grand Teton,  They are very close to each other yet offer very different experiences.  We may make a project out of seeing ALL of the national parks and monuments.

I haven’t seen a coyote before aside from on TV. Do they sound a lot like wolves?

They have more of a yip to their howl, I guess, and do it groups.

On Day Use:

…this is just a parking area for people who are visiting for the day right? It has to be the prettiest car park I ever saw.

Actually, it is parking, and picnicking, playground, fishing, and more.

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From Dot:

Do you sell your photos?  I’m thinking you could make this series into a book, with commentary.  Also, I know it’s your blog, but will you ever post photos of Karen’s quilts?

No, I don’t sell my photos, though I am thinking of really concentrating on my photography more and perhaps do some photobooks down the road — more for the memoraries and legacy than money.  Karen does post pictures of her quilts on her blog.

While the number of people who visit my blog is small compared to some, I do have some regular visitors, and some regular commenters. Responding to comments is something that I don’t do as well as I should — and I will work on that! —, so periodically, if I get behind on comment response, I will recognize those who have been nice enough to comment when they visit my blog.

Since we left for our September trip, I received comments from:

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Journaling, blogging and traveling — with a new solution

September 22, 2009

On my blogs, I like to share some of what we’ve seen and done while we are traveling.   I always seem to get behind and come up short with what I had planned hoped to do.

The same thing goes with my photos, but then, perhaps, that’s part of the problem.  I’m doing fairly well this time with the photos.  I have 3 1/2 days worth of images to go through.  Unfortunately, I’ve not finished with going through the photos from several prior trips.

I have a new solution that I think will work rather well.

Instead of trying to keep up with blogging while we are traveling, I will be journaling and photographing as we go.  The journal will be a pocket-sized moleskine notebook, where I will keep both brief notes as well as extended entries.  These, along with photographs, will be used to develop blog posts with “Commentary and images from the road.”

I started doing some of that this time, which is what enabled me to finish the trip with most of the images processed.  I will pick back up with the travel journal blogs from September 5th.

I am publishing all posts specifically related to our travels on two blogs, Exit78 and Haw Creek Out ‘n About.  Apart from our travels, these two blogs otherwise have different focuses.

Some of the days of our trip warrant  more than one blog post.  I will be mixing mostly topical posts with mostly pictorial.

We got back home on Friday and Karen headed out today for a week in Wisconsin where she will be taking care of the grandkids while our daughter goes to New York City with her husband on a business trip.

I get to stay home and go to work.

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This post is being simultaneously published on Exit78 and Haw Creek Out ‘n About

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