tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-77805476966871006202024-03-13T09:59:44.567-07:00Musings from MâvarinArchive of the defunct AOL Journal <i>Musings from Mâvarin</i> (2004-2005, with intermittent postings through 1/5/08).Karen Funk Blocherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16860091802901743222noreply@blogger.comBlogger693125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7780547696687100620.post-47644269840543790642008-10-08T23:16:00.000-07:002008-10-20T00:51:49.650-07:00Tips for the Great AOL-J MigrationAccidentally posted here (and then cross-posted on <span style="font-style: italic;"><a href="http://outmmavarin.blogspot.com/">Outpost Mâvarin</a></span>) because I wasn't paying attention:<br /><br />Foolishly, I've made no attempt to back up my old AOL Journal <span style="font-style: italic;">Musings from Mâvarin</span> since <a href="http://outmavarin.blogspot.com/2008/09/final-indignity-for-aol-j-land.html">the announcement was made</a> in late September that AOL Journals will cease to exist at the end of October. There were three reasons for this:<br /><ol><li>I've been too busy obsessing about the election, the dogs, etc.</li><li>Past attempts to manually transfer or save my old blog entries have been extremely time-consuming and tedious. I hesitated to renew such efforts, especially because</li><li>AOL promised that there would be a way to automatically migrate the entire blog to another service. Rumor had it that the other service in question would be Blogger, which would be both sensible and convenient.</li></ol><br />Well, for once, I win! After a week and a half of anxious waiting for further info on how to transfer <span style="font-style: italic;">Musings</span> onto Blogger / BlogSpot, I got the official AOL mail today, containing the all-important link to use to get started. A mere 10 minutes or so later, all 686 entries (or whatever the exact number is) of <span style="font-style: italic;">Musings</span> were posted and published at <a href="http://musingsfrommavarin.blogspot.com/">http://musingsfrommavarin.blogspot.com/</a>. I've done some tweaking since then, but the basic process was remarkably painless.<br /><br />Since many people are probably still unfamiliar with Blogger and understandably nervous about transferring their beloved journals, I hereby offer some handy tips:<br /><br />1. <span style="font-weight: bold;">What you need.</span> You must have a Google account. If you already use Blogger, iGoogle or gmail, you already have a Google account. If not, signing up is quick and painless, and can be done by following directions from the migration pages or almost any Google-related or Blogger-related screen. Your account name is whatever (real) email address you give them.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/ibOVryjZrcjzI-Kkq1nr-Q?authkey=aecH-pBu-vE"><img src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/Mavarin2/SO2ryw7RETI/AAAAAAAAG14/-kLsMyGcX8E/s800/migrate.jpg" /></a><br /></div><br />2. <span style="font-weight: bold;">Don't be afraid to just do it.</span> Copying your journal into BlogSpot using the automated setup AOL and Blogger put together does not affect your AOL Journal itself, which will still be there until October 31, 2008 (but not after). Nor does it affect any other blog you already have on BlogSpot or elsewhere. It creates a new blog, based on almost all the data in your old one. (I'll cover the exceptions further down this list.) Just click on <a href="http://www.blogger.com/AolToBlogger">the link</a> in the email you got from AOL and follow the simple directions. (Note: <a href="javascript:location.hash='Entry2691';%20void%200">Paul</a> reports that this can get glitchy if you try to use the browser that part of the AOL software. Use an external browser such as Firefox instead.)<br /><br />If your blog's name was unique, for example <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">Flippy Floppy Flump</span> (<span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">http://journals.aol.com/yourscreenname/FlippyFloppyFlump</span>), Blogger will offer to keep that title (<span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">http://flippyfloppyflump.blogspot.com</span>). If your title is already in use as a BlogSpot URL, you'll need to tweak the web address, but this is easy to do.<br /><br />3. <span style="font-weight: bold;">Almost any template will do for starters.</span> During the migration process, you will be asked to choose a template from a short list, and will have an opportunity to preview each of the options. A template is a standard set of codes that tell Blogger the basic layout of your blog. If you see something you like, go for it. If not, just pick one you don't actively hate. Chances are excellent that you're going to change it in the next five minutes anyway.<br /><br />4. <span style="font-weight: bold;">Follow the directions, and Publish when offered the chance to do so.</span> If there is a problem, check <a href="http://knownissues.blogspot.com/">here</a> for further info. Chances are excellent, however, that it will also go through smoothly in just a few minutes. (If you've been posting more than once a day, or long daily posts for several years, it will probably take a smidge longer.) If you're on dial-up, of course, it could take a lot longer. You may want to get the ball rolling and go do something else for a while. Once you Publish, you will see your blog in all its rescued glory. Taa-dah!<br /><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/7aUKFw9YWYwccnkmG9uzcQ?authkey=aecH-pBu-vE"><img src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/Mavarin2/SO2rMLHBlXI/AAAAAAAAG1w/RQZ8TGlrjYM/s800/simple.jpg" /></a><br /></div><br />5. <span style="font-weight: bold;">Ready for a new template?</span> Your new blog will not look just like the old one, but you have many more options for making it look the way you want it. If you like the way it looks using the template you chose during migration, then great! Congratulations! If not, go to the Blogger dashboard (click on the orange B or the word Customize at the top of your blog) . From the Layout tab, choose "Pick New Template." Again you'll see a graphic list of templates to preview, but this time the selection is much greater. If you are used to posting large photos, or largish photos with text wrapped around them, I recommend <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">Simple II</span> at the very bottom of the list. The advantage of it is that it doesn't have a sidebar, which gives you a much wider area for your blog entries. The disadvantage is that everything you would otherwise put on a sidebar will have to go across the top or bottom of the page, or be dropped altogether. Even better is <span style="color: rgb(0, 153, 0);">Minima Stretch</span>, which is the format of this blog as of October 20th.<br /><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/pOCwRsIjR3qyNFLygJ4Z0A?authkey=aecH-pBu-vE"><img src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/Mavarin2/SO2rL6K_b8I/AAAAAAAAG1Q/1oldTu5GqEc/s800/descrip.jpg" /></a></div><br />6. <span style="font-weight: bold;">Describe the blog and set your settings.</span> You know the introductory text that you had at the top of your old journal? That didn't transfer over, but it's easy to fix. Open your old AOL Journal in another tab or window, and copy the blog description. Back in the other window, go to the Settings tab of the dashboard. Under Basic is a place to paste in your blog description. Or, if you prefer, you can write a new one, or leave it out entirely.<br /><br />While you're at it, go through the other settings and make any changes you want. If you don't know what a particular option means, you can always leave it on the default setting for now. One of the tabs has an About Me section, which will display on all your blogs unless you choose otherwise. This can also be copied over from AOL if you so desire. Permissions on who can read your journal (or post to it if it's a group blog), who can comment and whether they need to type in capcha letters to do it can all be managed from the Settings tab.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/cCwz2NbylP-BaY_Xxc22dQ?authkey=aecH-pBu-vE"><img src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/Mavarin2/SO2rMLvmRRI/AAAAAAAAG1g/2OwgbKKb180/s800/muscolor.jpg" /></a><br /></div><br />7. <span style="font-weight: bold;">Look at the colors!</span> Even with whatever template you selected, you're not stuck with the default colors for page background, test, borders and links. From the Layout tab, selected Fonts and Colors and make any changes you like.<br /><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/tYbTCYv-HEOsB-BfwJNAhA?authkey=aecH-pBu-vE"><img src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/Mavarin2/SO2rMMmkDlI/AAAAAAAAG1o/wqjcU6iPJmw/s800/pgelements.jpg" /></a><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Layout with sidebar.</span><br /></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-style: italic;"><a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/0fGvBAeHOa0zAlYaPotbCw?authkey=aecH-pBu-vE"><img style="width: 688px; height: 339px;" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/Mavarin2/SO2rLyaN4VI/AAAAAAAAG1Y/rnOQY8zOnK8/s800/elements.jpg" /></a><br />Simple II layout with no sidebar.</span><br /></div><br />8. <span style="font-weight: bold;">Now, what's missing?</span> If you had a list of links or other stuff on the sidebar, it probably didn't transfer over. This is easily fixed, but may be the most tedious and time-consuming part of the process. From the Layout tab select Page Elements. from here you can "Add a Gadget" to include linking lists, quotes, pictures, weather and other cool widgets on your sidebar, or at the top or bottom of your blog. The bad news is that if you want a list of links, you'll have to type or paste them into the gadget one by one. On the other hand, chances are your old sidebar was full of AOL-J addresses that need to be updated anyway. For <span style="font-style: italic;">Musings</span>, I didn't add the links, on the theory that they're too stale and people can get more current ones from the <span style="font-style: italic;">Outpost</span>. Once you've added your gadgets, use your mouse to drag and drop them in an order that makes sense to you.<br /><br />9. <span style="font-weight: bold;">Explore and troubleshoot.</span> Refresh the page on your blog and look it over. Is it the way you want it? Is anything still missing that matters to you? Do the entries display adequately? Are the photos all there? Chances are that if you uploaded photos directly in AOL Journals, they will now be in <a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/">Picasa</a>, the Google photo hosting service that stores (among other things) any photos uploaded in Blogger. If something's missing, you may need to upload it again from your computer if it matters to you.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">10. Decide what to do about dead links.</span> You've probably linked to friends' AOL Journals quite a few times over the years. Now they all link to something that will no longer exist. You have four options:<br /><ol><li>Leave them alone as an archive of what used to be. It's unlikely that anyone is going to click through from that 2005 entry about that quiz you found on Sandy's* blog.</li><li>Include a sidebar on your blog with the current addresses of your friend's transferred blogs, and trust readers to male the connection.</li><li>Post a gadget or other note explaining that AOL links will no longer work, with a hint on what the updated URL probably looks like (see Tip #1 at the top of this entry).</li><li>Go through and update any links that really matter to you, such as the ones in that really popular entry from 2006 you still get comments on.<br /></li></ol>*Name chosen at random.<br /><br />That's it! That wasn't nearly as bad as you thought it would be, was it? From here there are lots of things you can do to tweak and customize things further, but the tips above should get you up and running, and protect your journal's contents from total oblivion.<br /><br />Let me know how it goes.<br /><br />KarenKaren Funk Blocherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16860091802901743222noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7780547696687100620.post-44774092301558207932008-01-05T14:03:00.000-08:002008-10-09T22:36:40.116-07:00Weekend Assignment #197: Missing Words<font size="4">Oops! I forgot to crosspost <a href="http://outmavarin.blogspot.com/2008/01/weekend-assignment-196-missing-words.html">this</a>!<br/><br/></font><p><font size="4">Ok, we're going to try this. John Scalzi <a href="http://journals.aol.com/mavarin/scalzicelebration/entries/2007/12/12/thank-you-for-the-weekend-assignments/1174">left off</a> with <a href="http://journals.aol.com/johnmscalzi/bytheway/entries/2007/12/20/weekend-assignment-196-plans-for-2008/8113?numComment=all">Weekend</a> <a href="http://journals.aol.com/johnmscalzi/bytheway/entries/2007/12/24/2008-plans/8125">Assignment #196</a>,
so with his permission and encouragement, let's try to keep it going.
Here then is Weekend Assignment #197 (numbering corrected Saturday at
4:38 AM):<br/><br/></font></p><div style="text-align: center;"><font size="4"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieARmebUvR1cycVcqZqXl-DYH-4nPmccmSsSYf_LaJbF95BsJUCW1cfnjau8R7WCGXaBwR9_AcTIXRXd7Ks9VH_gzs9lU2kxLksOyAoNXhm9Bmb1OvoKoS0CRt0w3zZo-zfvSjmmD3ct0/s1600-h/notv04590.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieARmebUvR1cycVcqZqXl-DYH-4nPmccmSsSYf_LaJbF95BsJUCW1cfnjau8R7WCGXaBwR9_AcTIXRXd7Ks9VH_gzs9lU2kxLksOyAoNXhm9Bmb1OvoKoS0CRt0w3zZo-zfvSjmmD3ct0/s400/notv04590.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5151522513282517090" border="0"/></a><span style="font-style: italic;">There's not a lot on tv these days.</span><br/></font></div><font size="4"><br/><span style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">Weekend Assignment #197:</span>
Now that the WGA strike has had lots of time to affect the prime time
television schedules, how is it affecting you as a viewer? What show do
you miss most, aside from reruns? </span>Do you miss your weekly
appointment with that ill-behaved doctor, or your visits to Wisteria
Lane? Does it bother you not to laugh at fresh jokes on your favorite
sitcom? Or are you just as happy watching reality shows, or new
episodes of shows that have been held back until now? We want to know!<br/><br/><span style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">Extra Credit:</span> how are you spending the time instead?</span><br/><br/>To
be honest, I don't watch much broadcast TV myself. Most of the time I
watch DVDs instead, if anything. But even I am missing the few shows I
normally do watch. Three of them are--or were--on NBC's Monday night sf
lineup: <span style="font-style: italic;">Chuck</span>, followed by <span style="font-style: italic;">Heroes</span>, followed by <span style="font-style: italic;">Journeyman</span>.
I kind of lost track of Chuck after he fought with his beautiful C.I.A.
minder once too often, but I watched the other two every week.<br/><br/>And much as I like Hiro and Peter and Claire, I have to say the show I miss the most that night is <span style="font-style: italic;">Journeyman</span>. I'm a sucker for time travel shows anyway, and this one does it well. Sure, it's essentially a <span style="font-style: italic;">Quantum Leap</span>
ripoff, but there are worse things to rip off--much worse. And the
character dynamics are interesting, as the wife struggles to cope with
her frequently time-lost husband, their young son starts to catch on to
what is happening, and the traveler's brother struggles to make sense
of what's happening with more mundane explanations. Good stuff!<br/><br/>Then there's Tuesday night. And yes, Julie, I do miss <span style="font-style: italic;">House MD</span>, probably more than <span style="font-style: italic;">Journeyman</span>. I think.<br/><br/>And
what do I do on Monday and Tuesday nights? Why, I spend it at the
computer, of course, with a DVD running on one laptop and ten tabs of
Firefox open on the other!<br/><br/>Your turn: write up what you miss (or
don't miss) on tv these days, and come back here (or to the <i>Outpost</i>) and leave a link in
comments. If for some reason you have trouble commenting (although it
should work for everyone, one way or another), feel free to email your
link to mavarin at aol.com. To give time for word to spread and
everyone to play, I'll do the roundup of your links in one week, next
Thursday night. Got it? Good! Thanks, folks! I know I'm no John Scalzi,
but we don't have to lose his legacy, as long as some of us care enough
to keep it going!<br/><br/><span style="font-weight: bold;">Edit: </span>I
have been taken to task for not explaining what the WGA is and why it
matters. I don't want to get into the politics of it (let's just say
I'm pro-WGA and leave it at that), but here's what it's about:<br/><br/>WGA is the <a href="http://www.wga.org/">Writer's Guild of America</a>,
the folks who write the TV shows. As has been widely reported over the
last few months, they're on strike, so networks and production
companies are running out of new episodes of comedies and dramas. Why
it matters, aside from inconvenience to the viewer and economic impact
on the entertainment industry and the New York and California
economies, is that it's a battle over writers being compensated for
their work in new media such as Internet downloads. The result will set
a precedent in determining the extent to which new tech is made part of
the royalty pie.<br/><br/>Karen<br/><br/>*** copying over the first comment from the <i>Outpost</i>:***<br/><br/><font color="#000099"><i>
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/profile/17663519449786809686" rel="nofollow">John Scalzi</a> said...<br/>Hey! My first time as a participant! And I'm the first to post!<br/><br/>My answer is <a href="http://scalzi.com/whatever/?p=272" rel="nofollow">here</a>.<br/><br/>Thanks for taking these up, Karen. I think you're going to do a great job.</i><br/><font color="#000000"><br/>Oh boy oh boy oh boy!</font></font></font><div class="tags" id="tagsLocation"><font size="4"><br/>Tags: <a rel="tag" target="_blank" href="http://technorati.com/tag/Weekend+Assignment">Weekend Assignment</a></font></div>Karen Funk Blocherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16860091802901743222noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7780547696687100620.post-90076768729216204202007-12-31T20:36:00.000-08:002008-11-19T21:50:16.319-08:00Your Substitute Monday Photo Shoot: What's New?<font size="3"><i>Cross-posted from Outpost Mâvarin:</i>
<a href="http://outmavarin.blogspot.com/2007/12/your-substitute-monday-photo-shoot.html">Your Substitute Monday Photo Shoot: What's New?</a></font>
<p><font face="Arial" size="3">As you should all know by now, today (Monday, December 31st, 2007) was John Scalzi's last day blogging for AOL on <a href="http://journals.aol.com/johnmscalzi/bytheway/"><span style="font-style: italic;">By the Way</span></a>.
A number of people have said they were going to miss John's Monday
Photo Shoots, and a few have asked me whether anyone will be picking up
the slack, and assigning them in John's stead. MPS addict that I am,
I'm willing to give it a shot. How about you?<br/><br/>Here's how this
will work: I will post an entry every Monday with that week's subject.
(After this week, it will be early Monday AM, not Monday night.) If you
want to join in, take your picture, post it to your blog or journal,
and leave a link in the comments to the original entry here. On
Thursday night, I'll do a follow-up entry just as John did, linking
back to everyone who participated. Simple, no? Then let's get started!<br/><br/><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153); font-size: 130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Your Substitute Monday Photo Shoot #1:</span> <span style="color: rgb(0, 153, 0); font-weight: bold;">What's New?</span>
In honor of the new year, show us something new. It can be a gift you
got over the holidays, something you gave yourself, or even something
that symbolizes the New Year to you. If it's new, it'll do!</span><br/><br/>Here's mine:<br/><br/><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHILx7ENrIMBlhTeBizhfZ6EH1os2zq_6G3tkzx9bEZNpYwXEHjcpxsacSQcV-ZBEt5lOmZC5Dma_DfRFtu0bsZjH49cVuginu61J5pSJlPG1NlcyKcFI6RWnx7_-mhK4UYTfkMx3EvzY/s1600-h/h2g204581.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHILx7ENrIMBlhTeBizhfZ6EH1os2zq_6G3tkzx9bEZNpYwXEHjcpxsacSQcV-ZBEt5lOmZC5Dma_DfRFtu0bsZjH49cVuginu61J5pSJlPG1NlcyKcFI6RWnx7_-mhK4UYTfkMx3EvzY/s400/h2g204581.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5150352671565269010" border="0"/></a><br/>This is the coolest Christmas present I got this year: the 25th Anniversary Illustrated Collector's Edition of the <span style="font-style: italic;">Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy</span>
by Douglas Adams. It's one of my favorite books of all time. It's also
one of my favorite tv shows and spoken word records, several of my
favorite audio tapes, my very favorite radio show and my second
favorite towel. It's not remotely my favorite film, but one can't have
everything.<br/><br/><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHS1BFZ-qqXYDJ85nt-d-eQje8GCPaNJKH54Osz1_0TW_KS5gY0WTGg5nGc4cKn78oHbTUqUO0tPQwjBoND0fHkO0kmCjfihCxd4r9LWIxkI3_hX1KO4MLeWmH0E97RZMkhVHZUK4Wol8/s1600-h/h2g204583.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHS1BFZ-qqXYDJ85nt-d-eQje8GCPaNJKH54Osz1_0TW_KS5gY0WTGg5nGc4cKn78oHbTUqUO0tPQwjBoND0fHkO0kmCjfihCxd4r9LWIxkI3_hX1KO4MLeWmH0E97RZMkhVHZUK4Wol8/s400/h2g204583.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5150352675860236322" border="0"/></a><br/>I have the text of the first <span style="font-style: italic;">Hitchhiker's</span>
book in several editions as it is, but this one is pretty special. It's
full of visual reproductions of annotated scripts, behind the scenes
photos from the various productions, merchandise, flyers and fan
memorabilia. Love it! (And yes, I realize the above photo isn't
terribly good from a technical standpoint. The glare off glossy paper
gets me every time!)<br/><br/>Your turn! Take a picture of something new,
post it to your blog, and come back here and leave your link. You have
until midnight Thursday night, when I will compile the roundup of
links from both <i>Musings</i> and the <i>Outpost</i>. Remember, your participation or lack thereof will determine
whether there's still a Monday Photo Shoot in the weeks ahead. And if
someone else wants to take it over, please let me know so we can
coordinate. Thanks!<br/><br/>Karen</font></p>
<font size="3"></font><div class="tags" id="tagsLocation"><font size="4"><br/>Tags: <a rel="tag" target="_blank" href="http://technorati.com/tag/Monday+Photo+Shoot">Monday Photo Shoot</a>, <a rel="tag" target="_blank" href="http://technorati.com/tag/What%27s+New">What's New</a>, <a rel="tag" target="_blank" href="http://technorati.com/tag/Scalzi">Scalzi</a></font></div>Karen Funk Blocherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16860091802901743222noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7780547696687100620.post-74707997218662106042007-12-14T19:38:00.000-08:002008-11-19T21:50:52.666-08:00Celebrate Him Home<font size="4">Cross-posted from
<a href="http://outmavarin.blogspot.com">Outpost Mâvarin</a>:</font><p><font size="4"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicBI9Q8skFQXOIcV0BY6cBb9PslyQgEoVdfxvyMcpqCcANx8iBAN9s4DDCPYmn0qe43Ua5IKgleH4hO-Dxpzo-vCag7eoCPjoLWk_d0WhUzHht6Tba1e08vfyNnHvDyzzKa15_upytH3E/s1600-h/kodinoaol.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicBI9Q8skFQXOIcV0BY6cBb9PslyQgEoVdfxvyMcpqCcANx8iBAN9s4DDCPYmn0qe43Ua5IKgleH4hO-Dxpzo-vCag7eoCPjoLWk_d0WhUzHht6Tba1e08vfyNnHvDyzzKa15_upytH3E/s400/kodinoaol.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5143369201744587122" border="0"/></a><br/>As we know, AOL will soon be parting company with John Scalzi, creator of the AOL Journal <a href="http://journals.aol.com/johnmscalzi/bytheway/"><span style="font-style: italic;">By the Way</span></a>, the Weekend Assignments, Monday Photo Shoots, and <a href="http://ficlets.com/authors/scalzi">a handful of nifty Ficlets</a>.
This is one of those "by mutual agreement" situations; AOL is
contemplating a change in direction, and Scalzi is contemplating how
much easier it will be to meet his deadlines for writing books if he's
not busy amusing us with news of phosphorescent cats and fun games and
pictures out hotel windows.<br/><br/>I already did my main <a href="http://outmavarin.blogspot.com/2007/12/by-wayside.html">Scalzi tribute entry</a>, so I'm not going to go on and on about him tonight.<br/><br/>That's where <span style="font-style: italic;">you </span>come in.<br/><br/>Are
you one of John Scalzi's many fans? Was it because of him that you
first learned how to upload a photo or a video, or had at least one
thing to write about each weekend? Has <span style="font-style: italic;">By the Way</span> or the <a href="http://ficlets.com/blog">Ficlets blog</a>
always been a "must read" for you? As time ticks away to the end of the
year, when Scalzi's AOL contract runs out, would you like to show your
appreciation for his four years of fun and inspiration and community
building, and share your favorite Scalzi memes or moments with other
readers?<br/><br/>If so, we've got just the journal for you!<br/><br/>It's called<br/></font></p><font size="4"><a href="http://journals.aol.com/mavarin/scalzicelebration/">ScalziCelebration</a><br/><br/>and it just went live Wednesday night. <a href="http://ellipsissuddenlycarly.blogspot.com/">Carly</a> (whose idea this was), <a href="http://sepintx.blogspot.com/">Steven</a>
and I have put it together on AOL as a centralized place in which we
can all thank John Scalzi for all his good work, and leave links to our
own tributes, favorite Monday Photo Shoots, Weekend Assignments,
Ficlets or other Scalzi-related fun. We've got three entries to get
things started, and we'll be adding more over the next three weeks,
featuring YOUR links and tributes, plus several surprises. So click on
over and see what you think. Let's gather our scattered journaling
community one more time, and give our Blogfather a big send-off!<br/><br/>Karen
</font><div class="tags" id="tagsLocation"><font size="4"><br/>Tags: <a rel="tag" target="_blank" href="http://technorati.com/tag/AOL-J">AOL-J</a>, <a rel="tag" target="_blank" href="http://technorati.com/tag/blogging">blogging</a>, <a rel="tag" target="_blank" href="http://technorati.com/tag/Scalzi">Scalzi</a></font></div>Karen Funk Blocherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16860091802901743222noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7780547696687100620.post-51505243783560847882007-05-26T18:15:00.000-07:002008-10-09T01:54:39.785-07:00Pointing at the Past<p>Because I'm totally insane sometimes in an OCD sort of way, I've spent an hour or two today updating two <span style="font-style: italic;">Musings</span> entries from 2004:</p><div class="entry_padding entry_date">5/21/04</div><div class="entry_padding entry_normal"><a set="yes" linkindex="259" href="http://musingsfrommavarin.blogspot.com/2004/05/las-vegas-non-gamblers-experience.html">Las Vegas: The Non-Gamblers' Experience</a></div><div class="entry_padding entry_normal"> </div><div class="entry_padding entry_normal"><a set="yes" linkindex="143" href="http://musingsfrommavarin.blogspot.com/2004/05/sublime-and-ridiculous-lv-as-sff.html">The Sublime and the Ridiculous: LV as a SF/F Destination</a><br /><br />Blame John Scalzi and Joe Loong. John Scalzi <a href="http://journals.aol.com/johnmscalzi/bytheway/entries/2007/05/25/sloth-the-hippest-deadly-sin/7471">wrote about people using moblity scooters</a> to get around the Las Vegas Strip, which reminded me how much fun John (Blocher) and I had walking around the place three years ago taking photos. But when I looked at my two postings about it, I saw something <a href="http://journals.aol.com/journalseditor/magicsmoke/entries/2007/05/18/followup-on-aol-pictures-albums-embedded-in-journals/2222">Joe warned</a> <a href="http://journals.aol.com/journalseditor/magicsmoke/entries/2007/05/23/update-on-r11b-fixes-no-classic-album-view-this-week/2242">us</a> <a href="http://journals.aol.com/journalseditor/magicsmoke/entries/2007/05/23/a-workaround-for-embedding-albums-in-your-journals/2243">about recently</a>: an old AOL You've Got Pictures album was displayed as a Ken Burns style Woohoo slideshow.</div><div class="entry_padding entry_normal"> </div><div class="entry_padding entry_normal">I actually hate the old YPG albums (too small and never worked well for me and my dial-up) and love the Ken Burnsy thing. That's not a problem for me at all. I've even put a Ken Burns Woohoo on <a href="http://smallangelstucson.org/">my church's main web page</a>. But the tiny, grainy photos in that entry, taken three years ago with a Mavica and edited with whatever I had available at the time, are not improved by scrolling lovingly across an extra-large display of the dark, low-res images. So I've deleted one photo that was especially bad, edited full size versions of eight more shots and added them in. And yes, I left it Ken Burns style. Because I don't quite trust you folks to go take a look at the original entry, here is the revised slideshow:</div><div class="entry_padding entry_normal"> </div><div class="entry_padding entry_normal"><embed id="widgetDiv" name="kenBurnsWoohoo" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" src="http://woohoo.aim.com/web/woohoo/kenBurnsWoohoo.swf" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" flashvars="border=2&randomBackground=true&aimName=mavarin&aolApiServer=api.pictures.aol.com&noLogo=true&aolAlbumId=ZtCgyRdypAwh3m0kxCGPaGDHJX19z4PkiSXTV%2BcOfYY%3D" bgcolor="000000" salign="TL" scale="noScale" menu="false" quality="BEST" wmode="transparent" height="380" width="380"></embed></div><div class="entry_padding entry_normal"> </div><div class="entry_padding entry_normal">Hmm. It won't display for me in this entry. Stupid dial-up! I'll be interested to know whether it displays for anyone else. It could be a slow connection issue, or it could simply be the way I copied and pasted it in here. (I did get it to display when I loaded the individual entry, so it's probably a connection speed issue. YGP gets impatient with the wait while the Journals product is still loading the other pictures on the page, not to mention the darn ad.)</div><div class="entry_padding entry_normal"> </div><div class="entry_padding entry_normal">But all this is a silly thing to do, isn't it? These are extremely obscure journal entries, virtually unknown to the search engines and remembered only by me. When I posted those musings about our Las Vegas trip in May 2004, I only had about two or three readers. Grainy pictures aside, I wrote what I still think is a really good entry about Las Vegas becoming a viable destination for fans of scence fiction and fantasy, but nobody ever saw it or commented. And this entire journal, <em>Musings from Mâvarin</em>, is virtually abandoned now. So why did I bother fixing up a three year old posting in a disused journal? Um, because I could, I think. And three years later, I still hope someone will read it and leave a comment.</div><div class="entry_padding entry_normal"> </div><div class="entry_padding entry_normal">Karen </div><div class="tags" id="tagsLocation"><br />Tags: <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Las+Vegas" target="_blank" rel="tag">Las Vegas</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Woohoo" target="_blankrel=tag">Woohoo</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/photo+editing" target="_blank" rel="tag">photo editing</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/AOL-J" target="_blank" rel="tag">AOL-J</a></div>Karen Funk Blocherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16860091802901743222noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7780547696687100620.post-44826043561513324822007-03-16T02:50:00.000-07:002008-10-09T22:36:40.117-07:00Remembrance of Weekend Assignments Past<P><FONT face=Arial size=4>Cross-posted from </FONT><A href="http://outmavarin.blogspot.com/2007/03/stories-of-weekend-assignments.html"><FONT face=Arial size=4>Outpost Mâvarin</FONT></A><FONT face=Arial size=4> because it seems appropriate:</FONT></P>
<P><A href="http://journals.aol.com/johnmscalzi/bytheway/entries/2007/03/15/weekend-assignment-156-your-favorite-weekend-assignment-entry/7257"><FONT face=Arial size=4>Stories of the Weekend Assignments</FONT></A><FONT face=Arial size=4> </FONT></P>
<DIV class=post-header-line-1><FONT face=Arial size=4></FONT></DIV>
<DIV class=post-body>
<P><B style="COLOR: rgb(0,0,153)"><A href="http://journals.aol.com/johnmscalzi/bytheway/entries/2007/03/15/weekend-assignment-156-your-favorite-weekend-assignment-entry/7257"><FONT face=Arial size=4>Weekend Assignment #156</FONT></A><FONT face=Arial size=4>: Repost your favorite Weekend Assignment from the past three years.</FONT></B><FONT face=Arial><FONT size=4><SPAN style="COLOR: rgb(0,0,153)"> Or, if you can't choose, post the first Weekend Assignment you ever participated in. </SPAN><BR/><BR/><B style="COLOR: rgb(0,0,153)">Extra Credit: </B><SPAN style="COLOR: rgb(0,0,153)">Should we keep doing the Weekend Assignments? Or after three years, should we give it a rest? Let me know; I'm curious. </SPAN><BR/><BR/>When I first saw this assignment this afternoon, I thought it would be quick and easy. All I needed to do was look up <A href="http://journals.aol.com/mavarin/MusingsfromMavarin/entries/2004/07/03/holiday-picnic-with-tom-and-abby-and-friends/786">Holiday Picnic with Tom and Abby and Friends</A>, repost it, and I'd been "rolling with puppies," or whatever it is that Willow says in that one Buffy episode. Then I though I ought to actually look and see what else I've written at Scalzi's behest since June 2004. I started with a search for <A href="http://search.aol.com/aolcom/search?invocationType=_tbd_&query=Weekend%20Assignment%20site%3Ajournals.aol.com/mavarin/MusingsfromMavarin">Weekend Assignments on <SPAN style="FONT-STYLE: italic">Musings from Mâvarin</SPAN></A>, and never really got beyond that. After all, between the two blogs, I've written over a hundred of these things. It really wasn't possible for me to read (or even skim) all of them tonight.<BR/><BR/>But I did read or skim a bunch of them, and I found two contradictory patterns emerging:<BR/></FONT></FONT></P>
<OL><FONT face=Arial><FONT size=4>
<LI><FONT face=Arial size=4>Despite the occasional overlap, there really has been a huge variety of subject matter in Scalzi's assignments.</FONT></LI>
<LI><FONT face=Arial size=4>Despite #1, I personally tend to write responses that hook in to my own obsessions. Several times I've worked in some kind of time travel story or premise, relating to The Beatles, Disneyland, <SPAN style="FONT-STYLE: italic">Doctor Who</SPAN> and certain early U.S. presidents. I've written about my novels, about books by L'Engle and others, and about friends, teachers and relatives of the past and present. And when the assignment was something that didn't interest me, such as pie, I tended to dispose of it as quickly as possible and find a tangent to carry us someplace more interesting.</FONT></LI></FONT></FONT></OL><FONT face=Arial><FONT size=4><FONT face=Arial size=4>That last thing under #2 led to the entry I'll be reposting tonight instead of the picnic with Thomas Jefferson. Oddly enough, it involves the same "Scalzi's clone" photo that Scalzi himself reposted today. I don't like it much, and wasn't terribly interested in captioning it, but that was the assignment that night. So I did it, and then I had an interesting conversation about it with my pirate house guest, Black Rose Katie Specks. Enjoy.<BR/><BR/></FONT><FONT face=Arial><FONT size=4><B>Thursday, November 3, 2005<BR/>9:17:00 PM MST </B><BR/><SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-SIZE: 130%; COLOR: rgb(255,0,0)">The Clone and the House Guest</SPAN><BR/></FONT></FONT></FONT></FONT>
<P><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 100%; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><SPAN style="COLOR: rgb(0,0,153)"><FONT face=Arial><FONT size=4><I><B><A href="http://journals.aol.com/johnmscalzi/bytheway/entries/5012"><FONT size=4>Weekend Assignment #84</FONT></A><FONT size=4>: Take a look at the picture below. Tell us what you think is going on in the picture.</FONT></B><FONT size=4> You can write as long as you want, or as short as you like -- even a photo caption works. Now, it's a fairly </FONT></I><I><FONT size=4>weird picture, but I thought that would just give you more to work with. Ready? Here you go:</FONT></I></FONT></FONT></SPAN><FONT face=Arial><FONT size=4><BR/><BR/><FONT size=4><IMG src="http://hometown.aol.com/johnmscalzi/badclonea.jpg" width=400/><BR/></FONT></FONT></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 100%; COLOR: rgb(0,102,0); FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><FONT face=Arial><FONT size=4><FONT size=4>John Scalzi is finally forced to admit it was a bad idea to crib<BR/>his cloning experiment from a <I>Treehouse of Horror</I> episode of </FONT><I><BR/><FONT size=4>The Simpsons</FONT></I><FONT size=4>.</FONT></FONT></FONT></SPAN><FONT face=Arial><FONT size=4><BR/><SPAN style="COLOR: rgb(0,0,153)"><I><BR/><FONT face=Arial><FONT size=4><B>Extra Credit:</B> Would you like to see more "explain what's going on in the picture" sort of assignments? </FONT></FONT></I></SPAN><BR/><BR/><FONT face=Arial><FONT size=4>No. Not as such. There's not enough material here for writing one of my patented long entries. Yet somehow I'll manage anyway, especially with my nosy house guest asking questions!<BR/><BR/><SPAN style="COLOR: rgb(204,0,0)"><IMG alt="Kate is not amused." hspace=10 src="http://images.mavarin.com/kate3917.jpg" width=300 align=right vspace=10/>"Tell me again who John Scalzi is," </SPAN>Black Rose Kate orders.<BR/><BR/>"He's AOL's designated, professional blogger," I tell her. "He's there to encourage and inspire people to post in their AOL Journals, give tips on how it's done, point the way to interesting or amusing stuff online, and generally entertain us."<BR/><BR/><SPAN style="COLOR: rgb(204,0,0)">"Then by what authority can he assign you to do anything?"</SPAN><BR/><BR/></FONT><FONT size=4><FONT color=#000000>"Oh, it's completely voluntary. But it gives me something to write about that I might not have thought of otherwise."<BR/></FONT><BR/><SPAN style="COLOR: rgb(204,0,0)">"Is this something you wanted to write about, now that he's thought of it for you?"</SPAN> <FONT color=#000000>she asks pointedly.</FONT><BR/><BR/><FONT color=#000000>"Not really, but I'm proud of the caption I came up with for it."</FONT><BR/><BR/><SPAN style="COLOR: rgb(204,0,0)">"I do not understand it. What is a clone?"</SPAN><BR/><BR/></FONT><FONT size=4><FONT color=#000000>"A clone is an exact copy of a person, like a twin, but made by science instead of nature. It's been done with a sheep and other animals. Nobody's ever really cloned a human being yet, as far as we know, and a lot of people say we shouldn't even try it."<BR/></FONT><BR/><SPAN style="COLOR: rgb(204,0,0)">"But the monster on the left isn't an exact copy,"</SPAN> </FONT><FONT size=4><FONT color=#000000>Kate points out.<BR/><BR/>I decide not to mention that "monster" would not be a politically correct term for a "cloned American," even a wonky-looking one like Scalzi's. "That's because the premise of the photo is that the cloning experiment didn't quite work out," I explain. "It's supposed to be a joke."<BR/></FONT><BR/><SPAN style="COLOR: rgb(204,0,0)">"Well, I fail to see the humour in it,"</SPAN> <FONT color=#000000>says Kate.</FONT> <SPAN style="COLOR: rgb(204,0,0)">"What does your caption mean, about <I>The Simpsons</I>? You have DVDs with that name on them. Are there clones in <I>The Simpsons</I>?"</SPAN><BR/><BR/><FONT color=#000000>"Not that I recall," I admit. "But the fake clone in the picture looks a little like the drawings of Homer Simpson in the tv show."</FONT><BR/><BR/><SPAN style="COLOR: rgb(204,0,0)">"There are drawings in the tv show?"</SPAN><BR/><BR/><FONT color=#000000>"It's nothing but drawings. You can watch some of the DVDs tomorrow if you like."</FONT><BR/><BR/><SPAN style="COLOR: rgb(204,0,0)">"And the treehouse of horror? What, pray tell, is that?"</SPAN><BR/><BR/><FONT color=#000000>"It's a series of Halloween episodes of <I>The Simpsons</I>, in which horrible things happen. If a cloning experiment went wrong on <I>The Simpsons</I>, it would probably be in a <I>Treehouse of Horror</I> episode."</FONT><BR/><BR/><FONT color=#000000>Black Rose Kate shakes her head.</FONT> <SPAN style="COLOR: rgb(204,0,0)">"I think I have done very well so far in understanding your century; but this explanation remains unclear to me."</SPAN><BR/><BR/></FONT><FONT size=4><FONT color=#400000>"It's not important," I tell her. "Nothing kills a joke faster than trying to explain it."<BR/><BR/>Kate nods thoughtfully. Then she hits me with a question that I should have expected but didn't. </FONT><SPAN style="COLOR: rgb(204,0,0)">"Am I a clone?"</SPAN><BR/><BR/></FONT><FONT size=4><FONT color=#000000>I look at her. There is no denying that Katie Specks looks enough like me that she could indeed be my clone. It is also true that she still doesn't know how she got here. I can't blame her for wondering whether she might not be who she thinks she is.<BR/><BR/>"You're not a clone," I tell her.<BR/></FONT><BR/></FONT></FONT><SPAN style="COLOR: rgb(204,0,0)"><FONT face=Arial><FONT size=4><IMG alt='Karen as "Not Rani," and Kate' hspace=10 src="http://mavarin.com/images/katetest.jpg" width=300 align=right vspace=10/><SPAN style="COLOR: rgb(204,0,0)">"Am I a twin?"</SPAN><BR/><BR/><FONT color=#000000>"Not of me, you aren't. Perhaps we're related."</FONT><BR/><BR/><SPAN style="COLOR: rgb(204,0,0)">"Aye, perhaps. Were your ancesters from England or Ireland?"</SPAN><BR/><BR/><FONT color=#000000>"Some of them. I used to jokingly refer to the Irish ones as Viking Irish royalty, the ones who got tired of returning north and became landed gentry instead."</FONT><BR/><BR/><SPAN style="COLOR: rgb(204,0,0)">"Aye, I come from the same hardy stock,"</SPAN> says Kate. <SPAN style="COLOR: rgb(204,0,0)">"Mayhap we are relatives. But stay, I have one more question for ye."</SPAN><BR/><BR/></FONT><FONT size=4><FONT color=#000000>"What's that?"<BR/></FONT><BR/><SPAN style="COLOR: rgb(204,0,0)">"Am I fictional? You told people that I was a fictional character."</SPAN><BR/><BR/></FONT><FONT size=4><FONT color=#000000>Uh-oh. "How do you know about that?"<BR/></FONT><BR/><SPAN style="COLOR: rgb(204,0,0)">"I read the emails you sent to Paul and Gem."</SPAN><BR/><BR/><FONT color=#000000>Poor Kate! I'll have to approach my explanation delicately. </FONT></FONT><FONT size=4><FONT color=#000000>"I didn't think you would learn to use my computer so quickly," I admit.<BR/></FONT><BR/><IMG alt="Kate is amused." hspace=10 src="http://mavarin.com/images/kate3911.jpg" width=300 align=right vspace=10/><SPAN style="COLOR: rgb(204,0,0)">"I find your keyboard difficult to operate, especially the keys with the letters missing. But even I can point and click with the mouse. What is your explanation, Karen?"</SPAN><BR/><BR/></FONT><FONT size=4><FONT color=#000000>"What would you have me tell everyone, Kate? If I post the truth, that you're really here but we don't know why or how, people will either assume that I'm lying, or that I'm crazy, or that I'm telling a story. As a fiction writer, I'd rather they think I'm writing fiction than that I'm lying or crazy."<BR/></FONT><BR/><SPAN style="COLOR: rgb(204,0,0)">"You think people will not believe the plain truth?"</SPAN><BR/><BR/></FONT><FONT size=4><FONT color=#000000>"That's right. People just don't turn up from centuries past, alive and well and asking questions."<BR/></FONT><BR/>Kate chuckles. <SPAN style="COLOR: rgb(204,0,0)">"Fair enough. All right, then. We can pretend that you're spinning a yarn, an it helps you preserve your reputation."</SPAN><BR/><BR/></FONT><FONT color=#000000 size=4>"Thank you."<BR/></FONT></FONT><SPAN style="COLOR: rgb(204,0,0)"><BR/><FONT face=Arial size=4>"But you should have asked me, Karen."</FONT></SPAN><BR/><BR/><FONT face=Arial><FONT size=4><FONT color=#000000>I nod. "Yes. Sorry."<BR/></FONT><BR/><SPAN style="COLOR: rgb(204,0,0)">"Aye, well, 'tis unimportant now. Tell me more about <I>The Simpsons</I>. Do these drawings you mention move, like the images in <I>Buffy</I>?"</SPAN><BR/><BR/></FONT><FONT color=#000000 size=4>I think I'll spare you the rest of that conversation.<BR/><BR/>Karen</FONT></FONT></SPAN><FONT face=Arial color=#000000 size=4> </FONT></FONT></FONT></P><FONT face=Arial><FONT size=4><FONT face=Arial><FONT size=4><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 130%"><SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Some Fictional and/or Time Travel W.A.'s:<BR/></SPAN></SPAN></FONT></FONT><FONT size=4><A style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial" href="http://journals.aol.com/mavarin/MusingsfromMavarin/entries/2004/07/03/holiday-picnic-with-tom-and-abby-and-friends/786">Holiday Picnic with Tom and Abby and Friends</A><BR style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial"/><A style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial" href="http://journals.aol.com/mavarin/MusingsfromMavarin/entries/2005/11/11/not-your-usual-subscriptions/2094">Not Your Usual Subscriptions</A><BR style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial"/><A style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial" href="http://journals.aol.com/mavarin/MusingsfromMavarin/entries/2004/11/12/with-the-beatles/1321">With the Beatles</A></FONT><A class="find indent" href="http://www2.blogger.com/redir?src=websearch&requestId=14447d319b849353&clickedItemRank=8&userQuery=Weekend+Assignment+site%3Ajournals.aol.com%2Fmavarin%2FMusingsfromMavarin&clickedItemURN=http%3A%2F%2Fjournals.aol.com%2Fmavarin%2FMusingsfromMavarin%2Fentries%2F2004%2F11%2F12%2Fwith-the-beatles%2F1321&title=With+the+Beatles&moduleId=matchingsites.jsp.M&clickedItemPageRanking=-42&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;clickedItemPage=6&clickedItemDescription=WebResults" property="f:title"><FONT face=Arial size=4></FONT></A><BR/><BR/><FONT face=Arial><FONT size=4><SPAN><SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-SIZE: 130%">Black Rose Katie Specks</SPAN><BR/></SPAN>An 18th Century pirate looks at the modern world.<BR/></FONT></FONT></FONT></FONT>
<UL><FONT face=Arial><FONT size=4>
<LI><A href="http://mavarin.blogspot.com/2005/11/black-rose-kate-on-halloween-and.html"><FONT face=Arial size=4>On Halloween and Modern Life</FONT></A></LI>
<LI><A href="http://mavarin.blogspot.com/2005/11/black-rose-kate-on-technology.html"><FONT face=Arial size=4>On Technology and Fictional Pirates</FONT></A></LI>
<LI><A href="http://mavarin.blogspot.com/2005/11/black-rose-kate-on-love-and-deathand.html"><FONT face=Arial size=4>On Love and Death...and Life</FONT></A></LI>
<LI><A href="http://mavarin.blogspot.com/2005/11/clone-and-house-guest.html"><FONT face=Arial size=4>The Clone and the House Guest</FONT></A></LI>
<LI><A href="http://mavarin.blogspot.com/2005/11/pirate-incognito.html"><FONT face=Arial size=4>A Pirate Incognito</FONT></A></LI>
<LI><A href="http://mavarin.blogspot.com/2005/11/kate-weighs-in-coming-attractions.html"><FONT face=Arial size=4>Kate Weighs In</FONT></A></LI>
<LI><A href="http://mavarin.blogspot.com/2005/11/absent-friends.html"><FONT face=Arial size=4>Absent Friends</FONT></A></LI></FONT></FONT></UL>
<DIV style="CLEAR: both"><FONT face=Arial><FONT size=4><FONT face=Arial size=4></FONT></FONT></FONT></DIV></DIV>
<DIV class=post-footer>
<P class="post-footer-line post-footer-line-2"><FONT face=Arial><FONT size=4><BR/><FONT face=Arial size=4>Tags:</FONT><A href="http://technorati.com/tag/%3A+Black+Rose+Kate" target=_blank rel=tag><FONT face=Arial size=4> Black Rose Kate</FONT></A><FONT face=Arial size=4>, </FONT><A href="http://technorati.com/tag/Fiction" target=_blank rel=tag><FONT face=Arial size=4>Fiction</FONT></A><FONT face=Arial size=4>, </FONT><A href="http://technorati.com/tag/Time+Travel" target=_blank rel=tag><FONT face=Arial size=4>Time Travel</FONT></A><FONT face=Arial size=4>, </FONT><A href="http://technorati.com/tag/Weekend+Assignment" target=_blank rel=tag><FONT face=Arial size=4>Weekend Assignment</FONT></A></FONT></FONT></P></DIV>Karen Funk Blocherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16860091802901743222noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7780547696687100620.post-88700578636118522712006-10-24T01:10:00.000-07:002008-11-19T21:51:31.116-08:00Cover Me<FONT face=Arial size=3><STRONG>Cross-posted from <A href="http://outmavarin.blogspot.com/">Outpost Mâvarin</A>:</STRONG><BR><BR><A href="http://journals.aol.com/johnmscalzi/bytheway/entries/2006/10/23/your-monday-photo-shoot-things-you-made/6648"><STRONG><EM>Your Monday Photo Shoot</EM></STRONG></A><EM><FONT color=#000099><STRONG>: Take a picture of something you've made.</STRONG><FONT style="COLOR: rgb(0,0,153); FONT-STYLE: italic"> Pottery, cookies, a drawing or painting, a poem or a pipe cleaner stick man -- it's all good, it just has to have been made by you. Show off your creativity. </FONT></FONT></EM><BR><BR>First of all, John Scalzi, <A href="http://ellipsissuddenlycarly.blogspot.com/">Carly</A>, <A href="http://sepintx.blogspot.com/">Steven</A>, <A href="http://journals.aol.com/deslily/HereThereandEverywhere/">Pat</A> and I want you to know you've put us in a bit of a pickle with this one. Compare your topic with the one announced this past Thursday for <A href="http://roundrobinphoto.blogspot.com/2006/10/round-robin-challenge-creative-side-of.html">the next Round Robin Photo Challenge</A>, entries to be posted on Wednesday, November 1st:<BR><BR><FONT style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Pat (Deslily) author of the journal, "<A href="http://herethereandeverywhere2ndedition.blogspot.com/">Here There And Everywhere 2nd Edition</A>," has chosen <FONT style="COLOR: rgb(255,0,0)">"The Creative Side Of You"</FONT> as our theme for the challenge.... <FONT style="COLOR: rgb(255,0,0); FONT-STYLE: italic">Show off your creative side, by posting photos of anything you have created from scratch. </FONT></FONT><BR><BR>See? Pretty much the same thing, isn't it? You've kinda stolen our thunder here.<BR><BR>Of course we'll forgive you if you plug the <A href="http://roundrobinphoto.blogspot.com/">Round Robin Photo Challenges</A>. We've being doing these for a year and a half, and you haven't mentioned them yet, perhaps because we didn't ask! Well, we're asking now - nicely, even. Pretty please, beloved Blogfather? Hey, you can even be a Robin yourself if you want to!<BR><BR>While our favorite Campbell Award winner is mulling that over, let's get on with posting a few pictures of things I made. These are three issues of <FONT style="FONT-STYLE: italic">The Observer</FONT>, the <FONT style="FONT-STYLE: italic">Quantum Leap</FONT> fanzine / newsletter I used to edit. I designed all of these covers (and many others), wrote much of the stuff inside and edited the rest.<BR><BR><A href="http://mavarin.com/images/obsv3656a.jpg"><IMG style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: pointer; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://mavarin.com/images/obsv3656a.jpg" border=0></A><BR>This first cover doesn't look like much, but it's from the first issue of the zine, back around Christmas 1990. It's also an almost exact replica of the cover of a report issued to members of a Senate Committee deciding the fate of Project Quantum Leap in the second season premiere episode, "Honeymoon Express."<BR><BR><A href="http://mavarin.com/images/obsv3656.jpg"><IMG style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: pointer; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://mavarin.com/images/obsv3656.jpg" border=0></A><BR>This cover is from the fourth issue. I didn't take the photo, and I certainly didn't create or design one of the premiere news magazines of all time. But I did design this parody of their distinctive covers. It refers to a line of dialogue in the pilot episode, in which Al tells amnesiac Sam Beckett that "<FONT style="FONT-STYLE: italic">Time Magazine</FONT> even called you 'the next Einstein.'" I sent a framed copy of this to the show's production office, back in the day.<BR><BR><A href="http://mavarin.com/images/obsv3659g.jpg"><IMG style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: pointer; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://mavarin.com/images/obsv3659g.jpg" border=0></A><BR><BR>Now we come to the best cover I ever did, certainly the most ambitious and labor-intensive. Back in 1993 I did have access to PhotoShop, unlike now, and worked on a Mac. On the other hand, it was 1993, a long time ago in terms of technology. I replaced every face, every object on the cover of The Beatles' <FONT style="FONT-STYLE: italic">Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band</FONT> with someone or something Leapish. I had trouble photographing the glossy cover well, but you get the idea. Click on the photos for much larger versions of the <FONT style="FONT-STYLE: italic">Observer</FONT> 9 (Number nine, number nine) cover.<BR><BR><A href="http://mavarin.com/images/obs9cug.jpg"><IMG style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: pointer; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://mavarin.com/images/obs9cug.jpg" border=0></A><BR>The four Beatles in the center are <FONT style="FONT-STYLE: italic">QL</FONT> creator Donald P. Bellisario, stars Dean Stockwell and Scott Bakula, and writer/co-executive producer Deborah Pratt. The four waxwork Beatles to the left have been replaced by the four founders of Project Quantum Leap the club. The rest of the cover has guest stars, writers, producers, fans, a crew T-shirt, Dean Stockell's Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and a Panasonic camera. And Look! Teresa Murray's holding a copy of <FONT style="FONT-STYLE: italic">Observer</FONT> 4 in her waxwork hand! <BR><BR>If you'd like to join in on the Round Robin topic, we'll be delighted to have you! Please see the <A href="http://roundrobinphoto.blogspot.com/">Round Robin blog</A> for details. The posting date for entries about <FONT style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold"><FONT style="COLOR: rgb(255,0,0)">"The Creative Side Of You"</FONT></FONT> is Wednesday, November 1st.<BR><BR>Karen<BR><BR><FONT style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Technorati Tags: <A href="http://www.technorati.com/tag/photos" rel=tag>Photos</A>, <A href="http://www.technorati.com/tag/memes" rel=tag>memes</A>, <A href="http://www.technorati.com/tag/creative" rel=tag>Creative</A>, <A href="http://www.technorati.com/tag/fanzines" rel=tag>Fanzines</A>, <A href="http://www.technorati.com/tag/RoundRobinPhoto" rel=tag>Round Robin Photo</A>, <A href="http://www.technorati.com/tag/Monday+Photo+Shoot" rel=tag>Monday Photo Shoot</A>, <A href="http://www.technorati.com/tag/Scalzi" rel=tag>Scalzi</A>, <A href="http://technorati.com/tag/Quantum+Leap" rel=tag>Quantum Leap</A></FONT></FONT>Karen Funk Blocherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16860091802901743222noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7780547696687100620.post-77059159891412129712006-10-20T21:55:00.000-07:002008-11-19T22:13:41.431-08:00Classic Spooky Music!<p><span style="font-size:130%;"><strong>Cross-posted, as usual, from <em><a href="http://outmavarin.blogspot.com/">Outpost Mâvarin</a></em> (except the pictures here are bigger)....<br /></strong></span><br /><a href="http://mavarin.com/images/hauncd2.jpg"><span style="font-family:Arial;font-size:100%;color:#ff0000;"><em><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; width: 320px; cursor: pointer;" alt="" src="http://mavarin.com/images/hauncd2.jpg" border="0" /></em></span></a><span style="font-family:Arial;font-size:100%;color:#ff0000;"><em> </em></span><a style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 0, 153); font-style: italic;" href="http://journals.aol.com/johnmscalzi/bytheway/entries/2006/10/19/weekend-assignment-135-songs-for-a-spooky-evening/6636"><span style="font-family:Arial;font-size:100%;color:#ff0000;">Weekend Assignment:</span></a><span style="font-family:Arial;font-size:100%;color:#ff0000;"><em> We're making a Halloween Music Mix! Suggest a song. The song can be scary, spooky or silly, but it should fit into Halloween somehow. All genres are acceptable; indeed, I'd be very interested to know of a country or samba song that would work. </em></span></p><p><span style="font-family:Arial;font-size:100%;"><em><span style="color:#ff0000;"><strong>Extra Credit:</strong> Are you spooked easily?</span></em><br /><br />You know, I could swear I've written about this before, complete with posted photos of my <i>Haunted Mansion</i> and Buffy <i>Once More With Feeling</i> CDs. But Google says no. AOL Journals search says no. Actually reading titles on the <i>Musings </i>archive pages for 10/05 and 10/04, and looking at any entries that sound as though they might contain what I remember, I still can't find it.<br /><br />Yes, well, okay, I did find my "Haunted by the Mansion" entry, but that wasn't so much about the music. I don't care. I remember writing about party music involving Disney attraction music and <i>Buffy </i>and <i>Quantum Leap</i>...oh. Okay, that's the problem. It was party music in general, or sf and fantasy party music, not specifically Disney or Halloween. Even if I still haven't found the entry. It was probably on the <em>Outpost</em>, anyway.<br /><br />So, for the record, I'll just recap the Halloween standards around here before moving on to some other selections:<br /><br /><i><b>The Haunted Mansion 30th Anniversary</b></i> CD. Features the entire Disneyland attraction narration and music and effects, outtakes by Paul Frees and others, a clip from the Florida one, a Vincent Price narration for Phantom Manor, and even a Japanese Ghose Host. But the main drawing card is still that great song, "Grim Grinning Ghosts," with Thurl Ravenscroft as one of the singers.<br /></span><i><b><br /><span style="font-family:Arial;font-size:100%;">Chilling, Thrilling Sounds of the Haunted House</span></b></i><span style="font-family:Arial;font-size:100%;">. I don't actually have this on CD, but I used to play the sound effects side of this Disneyland record every year when I was a teenager.<br /><br /><i><b>Pirates of the Caribbean</b></i> CD. Same kind of deal as the Haunted Mansion one. It's not as overtly Halloween, but you gotta love Paul Frees intoning "Dead men tell no tales!" On the CD, several dead men proceed to tell tales in outtakes.<br /><br />But, as I say, I've already expressed by appreciation for these recordings. Let's change the channel - literally.<br /><br /></span></p><span style="font-family:Arial;font-size:100%;"></span><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://mavarin.com/images/frid3651.jpg"><span style="font-family:Arial;font-size:100%;"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; cursor: pointer; text-align: center;" alt="" src="http://mavarin.com/images/frid3651.jpg" border="0" /></span></a><br /><span style="font-family:Arial;font-size:100%;"><i>The new Frigidaire</i><br /></span></div><br /><span style="font-family:Arial;font-size:100%;">This afternoon, as I waited for the refrigerator to arrive, I turned our digital cable on to the music channel labeled "Sounds of the Season," and immediately got to hear "Werewolves of London" by Warren Zevon. 11 hours later, that channel is still on, on its second run through its surprisingly large Halloween playlist. I've heard three different songs by Bobby "Boris" Pickett (two of which of boringly derivative of his one real hit), soundtrack music by John Carpenter, Elvira sounding a little like Julie Brown, "Bewitched" (the tv theme) by Peggy Lee(!), a parody song called "Drac the Knife," two songs from <i>Rocky Horror Picture Show</i>, songs by the Ramones, the Cramps, Bing Crosby, Andrew Gold, Michael Jackson ("Thriller," of course) and whatever unknowns someone called Drew recorded on surprisingly decent cover versions of songs for Halloween party CDs. Good stuff, some of it, plus a lot of forgettable stuff, and a few clunkers, such as "Dracula's Theme from <i>Swan Lake</i>," in which a silly, badly acted spoken word scenario in a graveyard is combined with Tchaikovsky.<br /><br /></span><a href="http://mavarin.com/images/hsng3641.jpg"><span style="font-family:Arial;font-size:100%;"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; cursor: pointer; text-align: center;" alt="" src="http://mavarin.com/images/hsng3641.jpg" border="0" /></span></a><br /><span style="font-family:Arial;font-size:100%;">Still, classical music does deserve its rightful place on the Halloween playlist. On the Fantasia soundtrack alone (which I bought on LP back in college, and had to exchange several times due to a bad pressing) has Bach's </span><a title="Toccata and Fugue in D minor, BWV 538" style="font-style: italic;" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toccata_and_Fugue_in_D_minor%2C_BWV_565"><span style="font-family:Arial;font-size:100%;">Toccata and Fugue in D minor</span></a><span style="font-family:Arial;font-size:100%;">, the quintessential spooky organ music, plus </span><a title="Modest Mussorgsky" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modest_Petrovich_Mussorgsky"><span style="font-family:Arial;font-size:100%;">Modest Mussorgsky</span></a><span style="font-family:Arial;font-size:100%;">'s <i><a href="http://outmavarin.blogspot.com/Night%20on%20Bald%20Mountain">Night on Bald Mountain</a></i>. (Actually, I was reading today that the <em>Fantasia</em> version of <em>Night on Bald Mountain</em> I know was heavily revised by <a title="Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikolai_Rimsky-Korsakov">Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov</a> and <a title="Leopold Stokowski" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leopold_Stokowski">Leopold Stokowski</a>.)<br /><br /></span><a href="http://mavarin.com/images/skeldan1.jpg"><span style="font-family:Arial;font-size:100%;"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; cursor: pointer; text-align: center;" alt="" src="http://mavarin.com/images/skeldan1.jpg" border="0" /></span></a><br /><span style="font-family:Arial;font-size:100%;">But my favorite spooky classical piece (albeit less so now than when I was a kid) has always been <i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danse_Macabre_%28Saint-Sa%C3%ABns%29">Danse Macabre</a></i> by </span><a title="Camille Saint-Saëns" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camille_Saint-Sa%C3%ABns"><span style="font-family:Arial;font-size:100%;">Camille Saint-Saëns</span></a><span style="font-family:Arial;font-size:100%;">. (Listen to it </span><a href="http://www.karadar.com/Dictionary/saint-saens.html"><span style="font-family:Arial;font-size:100%;">here</span></a><span style="font-family:Arial;font-size:100%;">.) It's based on a medieval allegory about </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danse_Macabre"><span style="font-family:Arial;font-size:100%;">dancing skeletal figures</span></a><span style="font-family:Arial;font-size:100%;"> from all walks of life - the rich and the poor, the powerful and the peasants - all called by Death. (Hey, these people were dealing with the Plague at the time.) I remember being exposed to this musical masterpiece back in elementary school, and even seeing a cartoon that went with it. But like that blog entry about spooky music, I can't prove that what Iremember ever existed. Yes, there's a great Disney cartoon called <i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Skeleton_Dance">The Skeleton Dance</a></i>, the first Silly Symphony ever made. I've even read claims that the music for that was the <em>Danse Macabre</em>, or, at least, that brilliant cartoon composer-arranger </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Stalling"><span style="font-family:Arial;font-size:100%;">Carl Stalling</span></a><span style="font-family:Arial;font-size:100%;"> adapted the Saint-Saens for it. But it just doesn't sound like it to me. Ah, well. Next you'll tell me there is no wooden bridge in Lucerne, Switzerland that depicts the Dance of Death on its wooden panels. But there is. I photographed it when I was 15 years old. And no, I don't have the pictures.<br /><br /><b>Extra Credit:</b> well, I am a little spooked that I can't prove what I remember, and also that it's past 2:30 AM already!<br /><br />Karen<br /><br /></span><div id="tagsLocation" class="tags">Tags: <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Scalzi" target="_blank" rel="tag">Scalzi</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Weekend+Assignment" target="_blank" rel="tag">Weekend Assignment</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Halloween+Music" target="_blank" rel="tag">Halloween Music</a></div>Karen Funk Blocherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16860091802901743222noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7780547696687100620.post-17317876911996317602006-10-17T21:20:00.000-07:002008-11-19T21:50:16.320-08:00MPS: Wonderful Worlds of Color<P><A style="COLOR: rgb(0,102,0)" href="http://journals.aol.com/johnmscalzi/bytheway/entries/2006/10/16/your-monday-photo-shoot-off-color-photos/6621">Your Monday Photo Shoot:</A><SPAN style="COLOR: rgb(0,102,0)"> Turn something an unexpected color. Most photo editing software will let you fiddle with the hue of your photos: Use that feature to make your photos subject a color it would be impossible (or at least, very unlikely) for it to be in real life.<BR><BR></SPAN></P>
<DIV style="TEXT-ALIGN: center"><SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold; COLOR: rgb(255,0,0)">Okay. I can do that!</SPAN><BR></DIV><BR><BR>
<DIV style="TEXT-ALIGN: center"><A href="http://images.mavarin.com/canl2862c2.jpg"><IMG style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: pointer; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="a canal near Yuma" src="http://images.mavarin.com/canl2862c2.jpg" border=0></A><SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold; COLOR: rgb(204,102,0)">A canal outside Yuma.</SPAN><BR></DIV><BR><A href="http://images.mavarin.com/yumcc2852.jpg"><IMG style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: pointer; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="Sand dunes near Yuma - or perhaps an alien planet" src="http://images.mavarin.com/yumcc2852.jpg" border=0></A><BR>
<DIV style="TEXT-ALIGN: center"><SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold; COLOR: rgb(51,0,153)">Sand dunes near Yuma. Or is it another planet?</SPAN><BR></DIV><BR>
<DIV style="TEXT-ALIGN: center"><A href="http://images.mavarin.com/dnsyc3008.jpg"><IMG style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: pointer; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="Purple pumpkin eaters rejoice" src="http://images.mavarin.com/dnsyc3008.jpg" border=0></A><SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold; COLOR: rgb(102,0,204); FONT-STYLE: italic">Any purple pumpkin eaters around? Disneyland.</SPAN><BR></DIV>
<P><BR>Oddly enough, I've had color on my mind today. I did some work on a Wikipedia article called "<A href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Spectrum_Song">The Spectrum Song</A>," the lyrics of which begin,<BR><BR><SPAN style="COLOR: rgb(0,0,153); FONT-STYLE: italic">Red, yellow, green, red,</SPAN> <SPAN style="COLOR: rgb(0,0,153); FONT-STYLE: italic"><BR>Blue, blue blue,</SPAN><BR><SPAN style="COLOR: rgb(0,0,153); FONT-STYLE: italic">Pink, green, brown, yellow, orange,</SPAN><BR><SPAN style="COLOR: rgb(0,0,153); FONT-STYLE: italic">Red, red.</SPAN><BR><BR><SPAN class=technoratitags>It was sung by <A href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Frees">Paul Frees </A>as <A href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludwig_Von_Drake">Ludwig Von Drake,</A> in the first-ever episode of <A href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disney_anthology_television_series"><SPAN style="FONT-STYLE: italic">Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color</SPAN></A>. It was part of the first Von Drake cartoon, <EM>An Adventure in Color</EM>. The first half of the episode was all color this, color that, and it was all in aid of promoting the show's new name, new color format, and its move to NBC. But that's okay. It's a cute song by the Sherman Brothers. John had it on a recond as a kid. And <EM>Wonderful World of Color</EM> was my era of watching that show, back when Uncle Walt was still alive to host it.</SPAN><BR><BR><BR></P>
<P><A href="http://images.mavarin.com/colr3577p.jpg"><IMG style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: pointer; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt=Boo! src="http://images.mavarin.com/colr3577p.jpg" border=0></A>This last shot is an experiment and a teaser for the Round Robin Photo Challenge, "<A href="http://roundrobinphoto.blogspot.com/2006/10/round-robin-challenge-very-scary.html">Very Scary</A>." More scary pictures tomorrow night!<BR><BR>Karen</P>
<P>Originally posted on Outpost Mâvarin, 10/17/2006 01:01:00 AM (more or less)</P>
<P><BR><SPAN class=technoratitags>Technorati Tags: <A href="http://www.technorati.com/tag/Monday+Photo+Shoot" rel=tag>Monday Photo Shoot</A>, <A href="http://www.technorati.com/tag/Scalzi" rel=tag>Scalzi</A>, <A href="http://technorati.com/tag/Disney" rel=tag>Disney</A>, <A href="http://technorati.com/tag/color" rel=tag>Color</A>, <A href="http://www.technorati.com/tag/photos" rel=tag>Photos</A>, <A href="http://www.technorati.com/tag/Wikipedia" rel=tag>Wikipedia</A></SPAN> </P>Karen Funk Blocherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16860091802901743222noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7780547696687100620.post-63953494451573473812006-10-17T20:57:00.000-07:002008-11-19T21:53:04.641-08:00Statistical People<P style="TEXT-ALIGN: center"><IMG alt="the people ahead of us at Disneyland, October 8, 2006" src="http://images.mavarin.com/dsny3156.jpg"> </P>
<DIV style="TEXT-ALIGN: center"></DIV>
<DIV style="TEXT-ALIGN: center"><EM>The people ahead of us at Disneyland, October 8, 2006</EM></DIV>
<P></P>
<P><A href="http://journals.aol.com/johnmscalzi/bytheway/entries/2006/10/17/300-million-and-counting/6623">John Scalzi mentioned today</A> the heavily-reported fact that the U.S. population officially just hit 300 million. I wrote such a long comment about this that I've decided to post it here:</P>
<P>When this subject comes up it always reminds me of a population counter display I saw at the 1964 New York World's Fair. Back then the count was a little over 200 million, and for years afterward that was my rule of thumb - 210 million, 214 million, 220 million...after that I lost track. I was fascinated at the time by the ticker (I was seven years old), and wanted to know how they knew that someone had been born, someone had died, someone had immigrated, someone had emigrated. The display covered all four of those factors. I think it was my brother Steve (age 14 at the time) who explained about statistics and estimates and the census. </P>
<P>But ever since then I've never quite believed the official count - in general, perhaps, but not specifically. Having gone door to door as an enumerator for R.L. Polk in 1977, I know that people don't always want to be counted. How do they know exactly how many people are evading the census takers? How do they know the degree of fluctuation in the birth and death rates between actual counts? So okay, yes, MAYBE the 300 millionth current American arrived today by birth, boat, plane or on foot. But more likely it's a statistical convention, and only vaguely correct. In terms of real living breathing people, the milestone may have been reached last week or last mont, or could be yet to come - and we'll never know it. </P>
<P>Is this milestone, such as it is, a good thing or a bad thing? Some of each, I expect. There are economic facters involved, and political ones, and sociological ones, and environmental ones. Economically, the country needs an influx of taxpayers to pay for the social security benefits of aging baby boomers. Legal immigration seems likely to fit the bill there. But sociologically, we are still fighting that same old human tendency to label people outside our own tribe as Them, and view Them with suspicion and disdain. 75 years ago it was the Irish and the Italians and the Poles who got such treatment. Now it's Mexicans and Muslims and people from India and Africa (yes, I know those categories aren't mutually exclusive). It was wrong then. It's wrong now. Being "white" is a social construct rather than a genetic one, anyway. We need to get over all these subdivisions, and deal with people as people.</P>
<P style="TEXT-ALIGN: center"><IMG alt="the people behind us at Disneyland, October 8,2006" src="http://images.mavarin.com/dsny3157.jpg"> </P>
<DIV style="TEXT-ALIGN: center"></DIV>
<DIV style="TEXT-ALIGN: center"><EM>The people behind us at Disneyland, October 8, 2006</EM></DIV>
<P></P>
<P>Environmentally, we probably don't want to overdo things with a new population boom, but we can probably handle things if we do it right, with strict standards to curb pollution and global warming, and efficient use of land for food and well as living space. There are a number of countries with more people per square acre than we have. It's not pleasant (ask my husband, who just suffered through huge Disneyland crowds), but it can be done.</P>
<P>Hmm. Clearly I needed to blog this. And now I have.</P>
<P>I'll have my Round Robin post after midnight tonight, on the other blog.<BR></P>
<P>Karen</P>
<P>Cross-posted:<BR><A href="http://journals.aol.com/mavarin/MusingsfromMavarin/">http://journals.aol.com/mavarin/MusingsfromMavarin/</A><BR><A href="http://outmavarin.blogspot.com/">http://outmavarin.blogspot.com</A><BR><BR><SPAN class=technoratitags>Technorati Tags: <A href="http://www.technorati.com/tag/population" rel=tag>Population</A>, <A href="http://www.technorati.com/tag/Scalzi" rel=tag>Scalzi</A>, <A href="http://technorati.com/tag/ethics" rel=tag>Ethics</A></SPAN></P>Karen Funk Blocherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16860091802901743222noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7780547696687100620.post-7157022445527738232006-10-13T02:41:00.000-07:002008-10-09T22:36:40.118-07:00E Plebneesta and the Dangerous Writers<SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold; COLOR: rgb(0,0,153); FONT-STYLE: italic" size="3"><A href="http://journals.aol.com/johnmscalzi/bytheway/entries/2006/10/12/weekend-assignment-133-heroes-of-free-speech/6606"><FONT size=4>Weekend Assignment #133</FONT></A></SPAN><FONT size=4><SPAN style="COLOR: rgb(0,0,153); FONT-STYLE: italic" size="3">: Share with us a person or person who you think is a model for free speech in the United States. It can be one of the Founding Fathers, another historical personage, or someone who is living right now. Yes, this is slightly more work than the usual Weekend Assignment, but, you know. Free speech is worth it. For those of you in the UK or Canada, you can nominate someone who represent free speech in your own country, or pick someone from the US. </SPAN><BR/><BR/><SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold; COLOR: rgb(0,0,153); FONT-STYLE: italic" size="3">Extra Credit:</SPAN><SPAN style="COLOR: rgb(0,0,153); FONT-STYLE: italic" size="3"> A favorite controversial book (it doesn't have to be from an American).</SPAN></FONT><BR/><BR/><A href="http://mavarin.com/images/constitution-a.jpg"><IMG style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: pointer" alt="" src="http://mavarin.com/images/constitution-a.jpg" border=0/></A><FONT face=Arial size=3>I'm not up for the full-blown rant on this subject, at least not tonight. Tonight I'm just going to toss out some names and a few anecdotes, and call it a night. Maybe over the weekend I'll take the subject and run with it.<BR/><BR/>When I was in high school, the U.S. Constitution always reminded me of a silly bit in a Gene Roddenberry-penned episode of <SPAN style="FONT-STYLE: italic">Star Trek</SPAN>, "The Omega Glory." It still does, really. In the episode, the Yangs would trot out a tattered American flag as their leader chanted a garbled version of the Preamble to the Constitution. "We the People of the United States" became, at least to my ears, "E Plebneesta."<BR/><BR/>And if you break it down, "E plebneesta" makes a surprising amount of sense. "E" also begins the Latin motto "E pluribus unum": "from many, one." "Plebn" could refer to plebians, or ordinary people. And "eesta" could be "ista," a (usually)plural suffix found in words like "Sandinista" or "fashionista." So "E plebneesta" becomes "From the ordinary people and their proponents." And that's pretty much what the Constitution is, the ordinary people (as represented by wealthy landowners) ceding certain rights to various branches of government, while retaining others for themselves.<BR/><BR/>Yes, I know the Preamble and the Bill of Rights are two different parts of the Constitution. I'm mentioning the E Plebneesta anyway, because to me the whole Constitution is important and sacred, its priniciples worthy of a lot more respect than certain politicians give it. So there. That's my preamble to this entry.<BR/><BR/>Thinking about the actual Bill of Rights, though, leads me to an entirely different memory, from a Weekend Assignment two years ago. The actual assignment was about which Founding Father we'd each like to hang out with. It provoked in me an account of </FONT><A href="http://journals.aol.com/mavarin/MusingsfromMavarin/entries/2004/07/03/holiday-picnic-with-tom-and-abby-and-friends/786"><FONT face=Arial size=3>a fictional 21st century picnic</FONT></A><FONT face=Arial size=3>, to be attended by John and Abigail Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and James and Dolley Madison. In my first entry, I merely mentioned the guest list and the two destinations, but the follow-up entry was a vignette in which time traveler Karen </FONT><A href="http://journals.aol.com/mavarin/MusingsfromMavarin/entries/2004/07/04/the-madisons-receive-an-invitation/787"><FONT face=Arial size=3>invited the Madisons</FONT></A><FONT face=Arial size=3> to the 2004 picnic, and mentioned the Bill of Rights.<BR/><BR/></FONT>
<DIV class=post-body>
<DIV style="TEXT-ALIGN: center"><A href="http://mavarin.com/images/bill_of_rights_630.jpg"><FONT face=Arial size=3><IMG style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: pointer; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://mavarin.com/images/bill_of_rights_630.jpg" border=0/></FONT></A><FONT face=Arial size=3><SPAN style="FONT-STYLE: italic">The Bill of Rights, image enhanced slightly for visibility</SPAN><BR/></FONT></DIV><BR/><A href="http://mavarin.com/tj3.gif"><FONT face=Arial size=3><IMG style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 10pt 10pt 10px 10px; WIDTH: 200px; CURSOR: pointer" alt="" src="http://mavarin.com/tj3.gif" border=0/></FONT></A><FONT face=Arial size=3>So, now that I've fictionally partied with Tom Jefferson (left), who believed that "half a loaf" of rights secured to the people was better than none, and James Madison, who wrote the Bill of Rights (partly cribbed from the </FONT><A title="Virginia Declaration of Rights" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virginia_Declaration_of_Rights"><FONT face=Arial size=3>Virginia Declaration of Rights</FONT></A><FONT face=Arial size=3> and the writings of John Locke), what proponents of that all-important first amendment right of free speech do I especially admire? Well, those two guys for sure, and Samuel Adams, for starters. I really should learn more about Madison; he didn't say much during that picnic. He did mention, however, that he mostly put the Bill of Rights together to keep the newly-formed Constitutional government from collapsing in the wrangle between Federalists and Anti-Federalists.<BR/><BR/>More contemporary outspoken people who made a difference in my lifetime: Martin Luther King, Jr. is probably the most important one. If you're going to say things that people don't want to hear, it's helpful to have a thirst for justice, a substantive message backed up by action, and a gift for oratory. Some of those old speeches still blow me away. At a more personal level, I used to admire the heck out of George Carlin, with his infamous Seven Words. It wasn't that I actually liked or used every one of those words myself, although I did use the two biggies in those days. What I admired was Carlin's ability to satirize the folly of thinking those words, of all the words in the language, were so dangerous and harmful that they must never be broadcast.<BR/><BR/>I was going to work in a riff about Harlan Ellison here, but let's skip it.</FONT><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 100%; FONT-FAMILY: Arial" size="3"><BR/></SPAN>
<P><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 100%; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><IMG alt="Most of my Wrinkle collection." hspace=10 src="http://images.mavarin.com/wit1005.jpg" width=400 vspace=10/></SPAN></P><FONT face=Arial size=3>Favorite controversial book? That's got to be </FONT><A href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Wrinkle_in_Time"><SPAN style="FONT-STYLE: italic"><FONT face=Arial size=3>A Wrinkle in Time</FONT></SPAN></A><FONT face=Arial size=3>, of course. This classic about love and faith, friendship and family, and individuals fighting evil (including enforced, mindless conformity) rates high (#22 in the 1990s) on banned book lists. It's been slipping down the charts with the advent of new targets for self-appointed censors, but it's still an important and misunderstood book. But I've already </FONT><A href="http://journals.aol.com/mavarin/MusingsfromMavarin/entries/2005/04/19/my-wrinkle-in-time/1718"><FONT face=Arial size=3>ranted that rant</FONT></A><FONT face=Arial size=3>, at least once.<BR/><BR/>Karen<BR/><BR/></FONT>Tags: <A href="http://technorati.com/tag/Scalzi" target=_blank rel=tag>Scalzi</A>, <A href="http://technorati.com/tag/Weekend+Assignment" target=_blank rel=tag>Weekend Assignment</A>, <A href="http://technorati.com/tag/Ethics" target=_blank rel=tag>Ethics</A>, <A href="http://technorati.com/tag/Constitution" target=_blank rel=tag>Constitution</A>, <A href="http://technorati.com/tag/Bill+of+Rights" target=_blank rel=tag>Bill of Rights</A>, <A href="http://technorati.com/tag/L%27Engle" target=_blank rel=tag>L'Engle</A></DIV>Karen Funk Blocherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16860091802901743222noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7780547696687100620.post-46443092025934347902006-10-03T01:35:00.000-07:002008-11-19T21:53:49.625-08:00Minor Exhibits at the Museum of the Weird<P><FONT face=Arial size=3><B style="COLOR: rgb(0,0,153); FONT-STYLE: italic"><A href="http://journals.aol.com/johnmscalzi/bytheway/entries/2006/10/02/your-monday-photo-shoot-bobble-heads/6560">Your Monday Photo Shoot</A>: Someone in your house you probably have one (or more) bobble-head figurines. Immortalize them in photo. </B><SPAN style="COLOR: rgb(0,0,153); FONT-STYLE: italic">For this, any bobbly toy will do -- bobbly hula girls, toy animals with bobbly tails, it's all good. They just have to be bobbly somewhere along the line. </SPAN></FONT></P>
<P><FONT face=Arial size=3><SPAN style="COLOR: rgb(0,0,153); FONT-STYLE: italic"></SPAN><A href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5236/441/1600/bkcase.jpg"><IMG style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: pointer; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5236/441/400/bkcase.jpg" border=0></A>I wanted to show you our collection of 2001 Arizona Diamondbacks bobbleheads, but they're in a box somewhere. The best I can do on that front is show you this picture from a couple of years ago. Third shelf down on the left, you can just about make out a boxless Gonzo (Luis Gonzales, who just played his last game for he Diamondbacks) in front of some red and white boxes. Those boxes contain boxes of Gonzo, Schilling, Randy Johnson, Craig Counsell and others - even manager Bob Brenly. </FONT></P>
<P><FONT face=Arial size=3><A href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5236/441/1600/bobl2791.jpg"><IMG style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: pointer; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5236/441/400/bobl2791.jpg" border=0></A></FONT></P>
<P><FONT face=Arial size=3>But okay, let's try to do better with a new photo or three or four. Here are some shelves on John's side of the bed. Can you tell which of these exhibits in our personal Museum of the Weird is a bobblehead? Do you know exactly what it's supposed to be? </FONT></P>
<P><FONT face=Arial size=3><A href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5236/441/1600/bobl2790.jpg"><IMG style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: pointer; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5236/441/400/bobl2790.jpg" border=0></A> On the right: P-Chan from Ranma 1/2. Not a bobblehead. Neither is the vintage, politically incorrect china figurine in the middle. There it is on the left: <A href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rat_Fink">Rat Fink</A>! Rat Fink was a character from the 1950s and 1960s, associated with flamboyant hot rod car customizer <A href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ed_Roth">Ed "Big Daddy" Roth.</A> Frankly, that's about all I know on the subject. This is on <SPAN style="FONT-STYLE: italic">John's</SPAN> side of the room, after all! </FONT></P>
<P><FONT face=Arial size=3><A href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5236/441/1600/bobl2794.jpg"><IMG style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: pointer; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5236/441/400/bobl2794.jpg" border=0></A> One more bobblehead. This is a Happy Meal toy of Stitch in his Elvis outfit. Lilo is in my cubicle at work. </FONT></P>
<P><FONT face=Arial size=3><A href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5236/441/1600/bobl2793.jpg"><IMG style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: pointer; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5236/441/400/bobl2793.jpg" border=0></A>Here's Stitch in his usual habitat among some other M.o.W. exhibits: Liddle Kiddles and Kiddle Kolognes, DAM trolls and Wishniks, Remco's Heidi, Jan and Spunky "pocketbook dolls," Britain's Ltd. Knight and Turk. a china poodle from the 1960s, and a china dragon bank (called Dino for obvious reasons) that I've had since seventh grade. Enough. I had less than five hours of sleep last night, and less than three hours the night before. Good night! </FONT></P>
<P><FONT face=Arial size=3>Karen </FONT></P>
<P><FONT face=Arial size=3><SPAN class=technoratitags>Technorati Tags: <A href="http://www.technorati.com/tag/Scalzi" rel=tag>Scalzi</A>, <A href="http://www.technorati.com/tag/Monday+Photo+Shoot" rel=tag>Monday Photo Shoot</A>, <A href="http://technorati.com/tag/Bobbleheads" rel=tag>Bobbleheads</A>, <A href="http://www.technorati.com/tag/Museum+of+the+Weird" rel=tag>Museum of the Weird</A></SPAN></FONT></P>Karen Funk Blocherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16860091802901743222noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7780547696687100620.post-46547327856253527952006-09-28T22:54:00.000-07:002008-10-08T16:13:40.051-07:00A Seldom-Seen Meme<FONT face=Arial size=3><A href="http://roundrobinphoto.blogspot.com/"><IMG alt="Click the Robin for more info!" hspace=10 src="http://mavarin.com/roundrobw2.jpg" width=180 align=right vspace=10 border=2><BR>Click here for Round Robin info!</A>
<P>I don't mean to say by my subject line that the following meme is rare, or the concept terribly original. It's just an acknowledgment that recently I personally have been avoiding most memes other than the <A href="http://roundrobinphoto.blogspot.com/">Round Robin Photo Challenges</A>. Most of the time I'm not even reading other people's meme entries, especially the ones that all lists of questions and suchlike.<BR><BR>But I'll do this one that <A href="http://journals.aol.ca/plittle/AuroraWalkingVacation/entries/2006/09/27/666/2105" target=_top>Paul</A> did, partly because I like it, and partly to do the beta journals thing for <A href="http://beta.journals.aol.com/journalseditor/magicsmoke/entries/2006/09/28/please-help-us-fix-r8/1669">Editor Jeff</A> and the gang.<BR><BR><STRONG>Go to your 6th journal entry:</STRONG> <A href="http://journals.aol.com/mavarin/MusingsfromMavarin/entries/2004/03/25/googling-for-dollars-sort-of/480">Googling for Dollars (sort of)<BR></A><BR><STRONG>Write down the 6th sentence:</STRONG> The reporter evidently had Google in front of her also, but couldn't make sense of what she saw.<BR><BR><STRONG>Now, give 6 links which have something to do with this journal entry and/or sentence:</STRONG><BR><BR><A href="http://hfeatherina.wordpress.com/2006/07/23/pik-nik-electrik-on-ile-ste-helene/">Pik-Nik Electrik on <B>Ile Ste. Helene</B> « An Idealist’s Downward <BR><BR><A href="http://moreena.blogspot.com/">falling down is <B>also</B> a gift</A><BR><BR><A href="http://www.properlychilled.com/news/story.php?story=159">Ninja Tune North America Newsletter - August - News - Properly</A><BR><BR><A href="http://nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/archives/006563.html">Making Light: "I <B>also</B> feared <B>she</B> would judge my life and find it </A><BR><BR><A href="http://michellemalkin.com/archives/000252.htm">Michelle Malkin: LOST AND FOUND?</A><BR><BR> I have to say that I'm finding it annoying that I have to do extensive editing in HTML to make <EM>Musings</EM> entries do what I want them to do. I basically never want a <P> and a bunch of extra font tags. I want to define the font once, without a lot of clutter; and <br> break tags give a lot more control and cleaner coding than the paragraphs. Ah, well.<BR><BR>Also, when I tried to link the name Paul to his meme entry, AOL replaced his name with the raw URL. It didn't do that with the other links, though, so perhaps I accidentally hit "paste" somehow. Phooey.<BR><BR><A href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5236/441/1600/humm2674s.jpg"><IMG style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; CURSOR: pointer" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5236/441/320/humm2674s.jpg" border=0></A>Speaking of the <EM><A href="http://roundrobinphoto.blogspot.com/">Round Robin Photo Challenges</A></EM>, the next one, "ABCs of Autumn," has a posting date of Wednesday, October 4th. The idea, courtesy of <A href="http://tjexpressions.blogspot.com/">TJ</A>, is to post Autumn-related pictures based on your first and last initials. For example, this is a Kinetic Bird (KB), a hummingbird that is still in Tucson in September. <A href="http://roundrobinphoto.blogspot.com/2006/09/round-robin-challenge-abcs-of-autumn.html">Click here</A> for info on that particular challenge, and to RSVP if you'd like to participate. Everyone is welcome!<BR><BR>Karen</FONT> </P>
<DIV id=tagsLocation class="tags"><BR>Tags: <A href="http://technorati.com/tag/memes" target=_blank rel=tag>memes</A>, <A href="http://technorati.com/tag/Round+Robin+Photo+Challenge" target=_blank rel=tag>Round Robin Photo Challenge</A>, <A href="http://technorati.com/tag/Google" target=_blank rel=tag>Google</A></DIV>Karen Funk Blocherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16860091802901743222noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7780547696687100620.post-60088709374287469182006-09-28T01:54:00.000-07:002008-11-19T21:50:16.321-08:00Horsie in the Sky<FONT face=Arial size=3>Sooner or later, pretty much everything technological lets you down, particularly anything to do with computers. Both AOL and Blogger have been buggy this week. Blogger doesn't want to save entries, AOL Journals for a while refused to recognize a journal's author and show the buttons for adding and editing entries, and now AOL won't show pictures I uploaded to Blogger on Monday night. Sigh. So I just uploaded all of those, plus the pictures for tonight, to <A href="http://images.mavarin.com/">http://images.mavarin.com</A>. I used to do that all the time, because I don't much like the AOL photo uploading options, and I've had intermittent trouble uploading photos to Blogger in the past. Since switching to Firefox, I hadn't been having that problem, but now that Blogger's being unreliable again, uploading to mavarin.com seems like the sensible way to go.<BR><BR>End of rant.<BR><BR>So anyway, here are some pictures and explanations.<BR><BR><B>1. Horsie in the Sky (with Glasses)</B><BR><BR><A href="http://images.mavarin.com/hors2724.jpg"><IMG style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: pointer; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://images.mavarin.com/hors2724.jpg" border=0></A><BR>On Monday night, I wrote about my disastrous attempt to check whether the animal hospital on 22nd St was the building with a life-sized horse on the second floor. As you may recall, I got stuck in road construction, and no, it wasn't the right building anyway. The one I was thinking of is a tack shop on Speedway near Swan. Here it is. Can you see the horse?<BR><BR><A href="http://images.mavarin.com/hors2725.jpg"><IMG style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: pointer; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://images.mavarin.com/hors2725.jpg" border=0></A><BR>Tonight, shortly after sunset, I drove over to Speedway and Swan. I ended up driving around in circles for a bit, trying to find a back way on streets that don't actually go through to Speedway. Oh, well. When I got there, the store was closed and the upper room wasn't lit. All things considered, it's remarkable I managed to get these two photos to clean up even this well.<BR><BR><B>2. Natural, Saturated, Autocorrected Surrealism</B><BR><BR>With my usual obsession for playing around with sunset photos, I've come up with three versions of the exact same picture, taken tonight through the second floor window of Unnamed Largish Company. Let's compare:<BR><BR><A href="http://images.mavarin.com/snst2713.jpg"><IMG style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: pointer; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://images.mavarin.com/snst2713.jpg" border=0></A>The only thing I did to this one was stretch the corner a little to "straighten" the vertical bar, and crop a bit. The color and brightness values are exactly as the camera "saw" them.<BR><BR><BR><A href="http://images.mavarin.com/snst2713s.jpg"><IMG style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: pointer; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://images.mavarin.com/snst2713s.jpg" border=0></A><BR>Version two. I lightened the shadows a bit, and the midtones a bit less, and boosted the saturation a moderate amount. Does it look better, more natural, or more interesting, or none of the above? I can't decide.<BR><BR><A href="http://images.mavarin.com/snst2713sa.jpg"><IMG style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: pointer; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://images.mavarin.com/snst2713sa.jpg" border=0></A>Version Three is just Version Two with an Autocorrect applied in Microsoft Office Photo Manager. It produced colors seldom found in nature, at least in the sky. But isn't it pretty? I like those purple clouds.<BR><BR><A href="http://images.mavarin.com/snst2718.jpg"><IMG style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: pointer; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://images.mavarin.com/snst2718.jpg" border=0></A>Same sunset, about seven minutes later. No, wait. This was tonight. The other was last night. All I did to this shot was crop and resize.<BR><BR><B>3. Blame it on the Meat</B><BR><BR>There were a couple of minor but bizarre mishaps today that had nothing to do with technology.<BR><BR>First off, John has a cold - or something. He seldom takes time off when he's sick, but he did it today. Poor Johnny!<BR><BR>Second, Tuffy came to me this morning with one of her rear legs in the air. I knew she must really be uncomfortable, because she refused to eat a dog biscuit. I was on my way out the door to work, so I asked John to check her over. There was an ant between her toes! Poor Tuffy! She was limping even after John removed the ant, so we think the ant must have bit her. She's fine tonight, though.<BR><BR>Third, I was nearly to the bottom of the steps from the second floor of Unnamed Largish Company today, heading out to lunch and to make a car payment, when I fell from the penultimate step and landed flat on my face - well, on my knees and hands, really - on the floor at the bottom. Why? How? I have no idea. I didn't trip over anything, as far as I know; and my knees didn't give way, as far as I know. I'm a bit scraped and sore, but it's no big deal. Except... how the heck did I manage to fall down stairs I take every day? Poor Karen!<BR><BR><B>4. What Do You Mean, It's a Start?</B><BR><BR>I was pretty proud last night of all the work I did on the Wikipedia article about <I>A Wind in the Door</I>, until the head of <A title="Wikipedia:WikiProject Novels" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_Novels">WikiProject Novels</A> bummed me out. He went through all the L'Engle novel articles late last night, and labeled them as follows on their Talk pages:<BR><BR><B><A title="Category:Start-Class articles" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Start-Class_articles">Start</A></B> This article has been <A title="Wikipedia:WikiProject Novels/Assessment" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_Novels/Assessment">rated</A></B><SPAN style="COLOR: rgb(0,0,153)"> as Start-Class</B> on the<SPAN style="COLOR: rgb(0,0,102)"> <A title="Wikipedia:WikiProject Novels/Assessment" style="COLOR: rgb(0,0,102)" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_Novels/Assessment#Quality_scale"><FONT face=Arial size=3>quality scale</A>.<BR><BR>Start Class? Even the one for <A href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Wind_in_the_Door"><I>A Wind in the Door</I></A>, with all its analysis and seconary sources? I looked up what Start-Class actually means. The guideline reads as follows:<BR><BR><FONT style="COLOR: rgb(0,0,153); FONT-STYLE: italic">The article has a meaningful amount of good content, but it is still weak in many areas, and may lack a key element such as a standard <A title="Wikipedia:List of infoboxes" style="COLOR: rgb(0,0,153); FONT-STYLE: italic" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:List_of_infoboxes">infobox</A>. Has at least one serious element of gathered materials, including any one of the following: </FONT>
<UL style="COLOR: rgb(0,0,153); FONT-STYLE: italic">
<LI><FONT face=Arial size=3>a particularly useful picture or graphic</FONT></LI>
<LI><FONT face=Arial size=3>multiple links that help explain or illustrate the topic</FONT></LI>
<LI><FONT face=Arial size=3>a subheading that fully treats an element of the topic</FONT></LI>
<LI><FONT face=Arial size=3>multiple subheadings that indicate material that could be added to complete the article</FONT></LI></UL>
<P><FONT color=#000000><SPAN style="COLOR: rgb(0,0,153); FONT-STYLE: italic">Useful to some, provides a moderate amount of information, but many readers will need to find additional sources of information. The article clearly needs to be expanded.</SPAN><BR><BR><SPAN style="COLOR: rgb(0,0,153); FONT-STYLE: italic">Substantial/major editing is needed, most material for a complete article needs to be added. This article still needs to be completed, so an article </SPAN><A title=Wikipedia:Cleanup style="COLOR: rgb(0,0,153); FONT-STYLE: italic" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Cleanup">cleanup</A><SPAN style="COLOR: rgb(0,0,153); FONT-STYLE: italic"> tag is inappropriate at this stage.</SPAN></FONT></P>
<P><FONT color=#000000><SPAN style="COLOR: rgb(0,0,153); FONT-STYLE: italic"></SPAN>But...but...but...! It has a picture and an infobox, a link or two, and multiple subheadings! Way to be harsh! I thought about asking the guy why this article didn't rate at least the next step up, but it was already 2 AM by them, so I just went to bed. But...but...but...it's not <I>fair!</I><BR><BR></FONT></FONT><FONT color=#000000>Karen<BR><BR><FONT class=technoratitags><FONT face=Arial size=3>Technorati Tags: <A href="http://www.technorati.com/tag/photos" rel=tag>Photos</A>, <A href="http://www.technorati.com/tag/Wikipedia" rel=tag>Wikipedia</A>, <A href="http://technorati.com/tag/personal" rel=tag>Personal</A></FONT></FONT></FONT></SPAN></SPAN></FONT></P>Karen Funk Blocherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16860091802901743222noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7780547696687100620.post-50555606187814813962006-09-26T09:46:00.000-07:002008-10-08T16:13:40.052-07:00Why Are Both Blogs Being Mean to Me?<P><FONT size=4>Okay, so I shouldn't do this from work, but I just wanted to paste in a P.S. to the previous entry. But the <EM>Musings</EM> page insisted on calling me "Journals" instead of "Mavarin", no matter how or how many times I signed in as myself; and no editing buttons appeared. I finally found a workaround on the People Connection Blogs page, but sheesh! Doesn't AOL <EM>want</EM> me to resume posting here?</FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=4>Here's what I wanted to paste in below, aside from fixing all my typos and so on. What can I say? I was tired and didn't proofread properly.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=4>Pasted text follows:</FONT></P>
<P><STRONG><FONT color=#ff0000 size=4>Karen </FONT></STRONG></P>
<P><STRONG><FONT color=#ff0000 size=4>P.S. You would think that would be the end of the struggle, but the Blogger server that hosts the Outpost was having problems last night and this morning. When I hit the "Publish Post" button, I repeatedly got a white screen that nevertheless said "Done" at the bottom (as in, "Done loading the page"). No confirming email, no entry when I refreshed the blog. Arrow back: the entry was still in the Create Post window, anyway. What a relief! I did a Save as Draft in case that helped, and the page showed a draft of the entry and also the actual entry. But the entry still wasn't there. </FONT></STRONG></P>
<P><STRONG><FONT color=#ff0000 size=4>Finally, at Carly's suggestion, I opened the edit window in a different browser, and posted from that. There was at least a minute of the looping notice that it was 0% published. Then, oh joy! 40%! Then 100%, and I heart the new email alert sound. Success! But this morning, Betty reported that the photos, which are hosted on that same Blogger server, weren't showing up on my crossposting to <EM><A href="http://journals.aol.com/mavarin/MusingsfromMavarin/">Musings from Mâvarin</A></EM>. Darn server! Try again, Betty! They should be showing up now.- KFB</FONT></STRONG></P>
<P><FONT color=#000000 size=4>Saving this entry finally gave my editing buttons! Yay! So I got to fix the entry at last. </FONT></P>
<P><FONT color=#000000 size=4>Karen</FONT></P>Karen Funk Blocherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16860091802901743222noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7780547696687100620.post-81335685999966814162006-09-26T02:18:00.000-07:002008-10-09T22:36:40.119-07:00My Titanic Struggle to Post a Picture of a Horse<P><FONT face=Arial color=#ff0000 size=4>Yay! I finally got my Edit buttons. See above.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT face=Arial size=4>Cross-posted from <A href="http://outmavarin.blogspot.com/">Outpost Mâvarin</A>:</FONT></P>
<P><SPAN style="COLOR: rgb(0,0,153); FONT-STYLE: italic"><A href="http://journals.aol.com/johnmscalzi/bytheway/entries/2006/09/25/your-monday-photo-shoot-horses/6525"><SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold"><FONT face=Arial color=#333333 size=4>Your Monday Photo Shoot:</FONT></SPAN></A><FONT face=Arial size=4> Horses are nice. Show us a horse picture you've taken. It can be new, or one from your files. It just needs to have a horse in it. </FONT></SPAN><BR><BR><FONT face=Arial size=4>That doesn't sound so hard, does it? After all, at some point in my life, I must have taken at least one picture of a horse. Or I could take a new one. After all, this is Tucson, part of the fabled Old West.<BR><BR>Well...yes. I've taken pictures of horses before. And yes, Tucson has its place in Western history.<BR><BR>But no, it wasn't easy to come up with a horse photo.<BR><BR><SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Attempt #1: Invisible Horses on Tanque Verde Road</SPAN><BR><BR>I thought it would be nice to actually take a new photo of a horse. But where could I do that, on a Monday evening in the city of Tucson? Contrary to the history and image of the place, it's been a long time since horses on the street were a common sight around here.<BR><BR>But there's horse property on Tanque Verde Road, between the OK Corral Steakhouse and the Catalina Highway turnoff. So after work I turned right instead of left, and headed north and east. But it was sunset, and I guess the horses were in for the night. I didn't see a single one.<BR><BR><SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Attempt #2: Horses as Business Signs</SPAN><BR><BR>I kind of had the idea that there might at least be a life sized statue of a horse on top of the OK Corral restaurant. I looked as I drove by, on my way back from looking for the real thing. Nope. There was a life-sized steer on the roof. No horse.<BR><BR>Well, then, what about Trail Dust Town? They have a Museum of the Horse Soldier, and lots of Western props and artifacts. But there was a car behind me as I pulled in, and the parking lot near the museum was full. I couldn't even get a good look at the graphic at the museum entrance, let alone take a picture. No horse statue outside, either. I drove around the complex, but although there were plenty of wagons, none of them had even fake horses to pull them. Drat! I went home.<BR><BR><SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Attempt #3: The Horsie in the Window</SPAN><BR><BR>There are two buildings in town that remind me so strongly of each other that I don't always remember which one has a full-size statue of a horse in a lit second story window. That would be a neat trick, I think, and a neat picture - a horse on the second floor!<BR><BR>One of the buildings is a saddle supply shop, the other an animal hospital. Both have huge windows and lit rooms on the second floor. One is a couple of lights from my home, on 22nd St. near Swan. The other is farther north, at Speedway and Swan.<BR><BR>So when I went to get dinner for John and myself, I made a side trip to check whether the building on 22nd is the one with the horse. Bad mistake. The road was torn up at Craycroft, with a night construction crew working. One guy was in a hole up to his waist. The only lane open in either direction was the right turn lane. I was trapped for about twenty minutes, trying to drive a few blocks and then turn around. And - you guessed it - it's not the animal hospital on 22nd that has the horse in the window. It's the saddle supply on Speedway. And I'd already delayed dinner too much to go any further out of my way, just to take that picture.<BR><BR></FONT><SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold"><FONT face=Arial size=4>Attempt #4: Rodeo Shots at the Bar<BR><BR></P>
<P></FONT></SPAN><A href="http://images.mavarin.com/hors2700.jpg"><FONT face=Arial size=4><IMG style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: pointer; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://images.mavarin.com/hors2700.jpg" border=0></FONT></A><BR><FONT face=Arial size=4>But when I got to Chuey's, which is half sports bar, half Baja-themed mesquite grill, I thought my luck had finally changed. Some of the tv sets happened to be airing a rodeo! So while I waited for the food, I positioned myself by a likely tv set and started taking pictures. But darn it, those cowboys are fast! This was the best horse picture I got out of about eight shots I took. Mostly, I kept ending up with blurry action shots of the cowboy roping a steer on foot.<BR><BR><SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Attempt #5: Horses by Breyer</SPAN><BR><BR></FONT><A href="http://images.mavarin.com/brey2691.jpg"><FONT face=Arial size=4><IMG style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: pointer; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://images.mavarin.com/brey2691.jpg" border=0></FONT></A><BR><FONT face=Arial size=4>I always knew I could resort to a shot like this if I had to. Here are a couple of old, plastic Breyer horses. The mare is the exact model and color of the Breyer horse I had as a kid. The foal turned up at a yard sale years ago, stained and with legs bent out of postition. It cleaned up fairly well, and although it's not perfect I like it. But Scalzi didn't say anything about pictures of toy horses.<BR><BR><SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Attempt #6: Horses on File</SPAN><BR><BR>So I went through the photo files on my computer. I actually don't have a lot of horse pictures on it. Not at all.<BR><BR></FONT><A href="http://images.mavarin.com/irnh0407.jpg"><FONT face=Arial size=4><IMG style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: pointer; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://images.mavarin.com/irnh0407.jpg" border=0></FONT></A><SPAN class=technoratitags><BR><FONT face=Arial size=4>How about an "Iron Horse"? This is one of several shots I have of the locomotive at Old Tucson.<BR><BR><BR></FONT></SPAN><A href="http://images.mavarin.com/hors0414.jpg"><FONT face=Arial size=4><IMG style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: pointer; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://images.mavarin.com/hors0414.jpg" border=0></FONT></A><BR><SPAN class=technoratitags><FONT face=Arial size=4>This is another Old Tucson shot. The rear end of this horse as photographed is terribly lightstruck, and you can't see the head much at all.<BR><BR><SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Attempt #7: Painting the Pony</SPAN><BR><BR></FONT><A href="http://images.mavarin.com/hors0414e.jpg"><FONT face=Arial size=4><IMG style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: pointer; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://images.mavarin.com/hors0414e.jpg" border=0></FONT></A><BR><FONT face=Arial size=4>As an experiment, I used the cloning tool on my cheap software to recolor the shaggy horse. How do you think I did? I'm not too happy with it, myself.<BR><BR><B>Attempt #8: A Photo of a Photo</B><BR><BR>My scanner has apparently died since I unplugged it recently, so that John could clean it and use it (he did neither). When I click on the scanner icon, it crashes the software. So if I want to show you a physical picture taken 20 years ago, I have to find a way to photograph the photograph without the image getting too flashed out or skewed.<BR><BR></FONT><A href="http://images.mavarin.com/hors2708.jpg"><FONT face=Arial size=4><IMG style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: pointer; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://images.mavarin.com/hors2708.jpg" border=0></FONT></A><BR><FONT face=Arial size=4>It took a while - three mini-photo sessions and about a dozen shots - but with the right arrangement, careful cropping and some photo editing, I finally came up with a picture that's not too, too terrible. I took this a few seconds before I got a much closer, better picture of the dog on the horse. I won second or third place once in a photography contest with that one, but I've used it in a Scalzi assignment at least once before. So we'll settle for the prequel.<BR><BR>And that will have to do. Good night!</FONT></P><FONT face=Arial size=4>
<P><FONT color=#000000>Karen </FONT></P>
<P><FONT color=#000000>P.S. You would think that would be the end of the struggle, but the Blogger server that hosts the Outpost was having problems last night and this morning. When I hit the "Publish Post" button, I repeatedly got a white screen that nevertheless said "Done" at the bottom (as in, "Done loading the page"). No confirming email, no entry when I refreshed the blog. Arrow back: the entry was still in the Create Post window, anyway. What a relief! I did a Save as Draft in case that helped, and the page showed a draft of the entry and also the actual entry. But the entry still wasn't there. </FONT></P>
<P><FONT color=#000000>Finally, at Carly's suggestion, I opened the edit window in a different browser, and posted from that. There was at least a minute of the looping notice that it was 0% published. Then, oh joy! 40%! Then 100%, and I heart the new email alert sound. Success! But this morning, Betty reported that the photos, which are hosted on that same Blogger server, weren't showing up on my crossposting to <EM><A href="http://journals.aol.com/mavarin/MusingsfromMavarin/">Musings from Mâvarin</A></EM>. Darn server! Try again, Betty! They should be showing up now.- KFB</FONT></P>
<P><FONT color=#ff0000>Wednesday night: now the photos aren't showing up for <EM>me </EM>(except the Breyer one; go figure). AOL and Blogger (the latter is where the photos were uploaded) aren't talking to each other, seemingly. So I just uploaded them to mavarin.com instead. Here's hoping!</FONT><BR><BR></FONT><SPAN class=technorati tags><FONT face=Arial size=4>Technorati Tags: </FONT><A href="http://www.technorati.com/tag/Scalzi" rel=tag><FONT face=Arial color=#225588 size=4>Scalzi</FONT></A><FONT face=Arial size=4>, </FONT><A href="http://www.technorati.com/tag/Monday+Photo+Shoot" rel=tag><FONT face=Arial color=#225588 size=4>Monday Photo Shoot</FONT></A><FONT face=Arial size=4>, </FONT><A href="http://technorati.com/tag/orses" rel=tag><FONT face=Arial color=#225588 size=4>Horses</FONT></A></SPAN></P></SPAN>Karen Funk Blocherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16860091802901743222noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7780547696687100620.post-17474288936112505112006-09-19T00:17:00.000-07:002008-11-19T21:55:45.154-08:00Orange and Blue...and a Certain Pirate's Flag<FONT face=Arial size=4>Crossposted from </FONT><A href="http://outmavarin.blogspot.com/"><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=4>Outpost Mâvarin</FONT></A><FONT face=Arial size=4>:</FONT> <BR><BR><A href="http://journals.aol.com/johnmscalzi/bytheway/entries/2006/09/18/your-monday-photo-shoot-color-opposites/6496"><STRONG><EM><FONT size=4>Your Monday Photo Shoot:</FONT></EM></STRONG></A><FONT size=4><EM><FONT color=#000099><STRONG> Post a picture that focuses on the contrast between two opposing colors. </STRONG><FONT style="COLOR: rgb(0,0,153); FONT-STYLE: italic">What colors are opposites? Green and red are opposites, as are blue and yellow, and orange and purple. So a picture that has something purple in front of something orange would work, or a picture that features blue and yellow in alternating stripes. The subject of the pictures could be anything you like -- but there have to be opposing colors in there.</FONT></FONT></EM><BR><BR>Seems to me that "opposite" colors should be complimentary - two colors that between them contain each of the three primary colors---red, yellow, and blue--exactly once. That means red and (yellow+blue=green), blue and (red+yellow=orange), and yellow and (red+blue=purple).<BR><BR></FONT><A href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5236/441/1600/orbl2612.jpg"><FONT size=4><IMG style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: pointer; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5236/441/400/orbl2612.jpg" border=0></FONT></A><BR><FONT size=4>Then there are the RGB (red/green/blue) and CMYK (cyan, magenta, yellow, black) color systems, but those confuse me, no matter how many times John explains them. So we'll stick with what I learned in school at age 8 or so. <BR><BR>The color combination I chose is blue and orange. Actually, I mostly ended up with turquoise and orange, because we have a lot of turquoise colored items around here. It's a midcentury modern kind of color. Close enough, right?<BR><BR></FONT><A href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5236/441/1600/orbl2611.jpg"><FONT size=4><IMG style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: pointer; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5236/441/400/orbl2611.jpg" border=0></FONT></A><BR><FONT size=4>You probably can't tell, but the orange plastic tumbler here is a tiki cup. I got it for John at K-Mart a year or two ago. The Diet Orange Crush is something I drink a lot of in the evenings, especially in summer.<BR><BR></FONT><A href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5236/441/1600/orbl2613.jpg"><FONT size=4><IMG style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: pointer; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5236/441/400/orbl2613.jpg" border=0></FONT></A><BR><FONT size=4>Here are the tiki tumblers in their native habitat, behind the Fiestaware butter dish in the sideboard.<BR><BR></FONT><A href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5236/441/1600/orbl2614.jpg"><FONT size=4><IMG style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: pointer; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5236/441/400/orbl2614.jpg" border=0></FONT></A><BR><FONT size=4>This is a slightly bluer blue, and an oranger orange. Being an organic Valencia, though, this orange is less orange than many oranges.<BR><BR></FONT><A href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5236/441/1600/kate2610.jpg"><FONT size=4><IMG style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: pointer; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5236/441/400/kate2610.jpg" border=0></FONT></A><BR><BR><FONT size=4>And let's finish off with a different color combination: red and green. Aye, I be hoisting the colors of bonny Black Rose Katie Specks, in case the wench turns up for Talk Like a Pirate Day! Mind ye, I've no guarantee she'll sail into landlocked Tucson any time soon. Still, an ye have a question for her, and mayhap I see her, 'tis certain I'll be passing it on!<BR><BR><BR>Karen<BR><BR><FONT style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Black Rose Katie Specks</FONT><BR>An 18th Century pirate looks at the modern world.<BR></FONT>
<UL>
<LI><A href="http://mavarin.blogspot.com/2005/11/black-rose-kate-on-halloween-and.html"><FONT size=4>On Halloween and Modern Life</FONT></A></LI>
<LI><A href="http://mavarin.blogspot.com/2005/11/black-rose-kate-on-technology.html"><FONT size=4>On Technology and Fictional Pirates</FONT></A></LI>
<LI><A href="http://mavarin.blogspot.com/2005/11/black-rose-kate-on-love-and-deathand.html"><FONT size=4>On Love and Death...and Life</FONT></A></LI>
<LI><A href="http://mavarin.blogspot.com/2005/11/clone-and-house-guest.html"><FONT size=4>The Clone and the House Guest</FONT></A></LI>
<LI><A href="http://mavarin.blogspot.com/2005/11/pirate-incognito.html"><FONT size=4>A Pirate Incognito</FONT></A></LI>
<LI><A href="http://mavarin.blogspot.com/2005/11/kate-weighs-in-coming-attractions.html"><FONT size=4>Kate Weighs In</FONT></A></LI>
<LI><A href="http://mavarin.blogspot.com/2005/11/absent-friends.html"><FONT size=4>Absent Friends</FONT></A></LI></UL><BR><FONT class=technoratitags><FONT size=4>Technorati Tags: <A href="http://www.technorati.com/tag/Scalzi" rel=tag><FONT size=4>Scalzi</FONT></A><FONT size=4>, </FONT><A href="http://www.technorati.com/tag/Monday+Photo+Shoot" rel=tag><FONT size=4>Monday Photo Shoot</FONT></A><FONT size=4>, </FONT><A href="http://technorati.com/tag/pirates" rel=tag><FONT size=4>Pirates</FONT></A><FONT size=4>, <A href="http://www.technorati.com/tag/colors">Colors</A></FONT></A></FONT></FONT>Karen Funk Blocherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16860091802901743222noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7780547696687100620.post-65254832744016189502006-09-18T01:30:00.000-07:002008-10-08T16:13:40.053-07:00Fake Sunsets, and Words on Hold<FONT face=Arial size=4>Crossposted from <A href="http://outmavarin.blogspot.com/">Outpost Mâvarin</A>:</FONT>
<DIV class=post-body>
<P><A href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5236/441/1600/suns2606.jpg"><FONT face=Arial><IMG style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: pointer; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5236/441/400/suns2606.jpg" border=0></FONT></A><BR><FONT face=Arial size=4>Is this the single dullest sunset photo you've ever seen? It's certainly the dullest one I've posted. This was sunset in Tucson tonight. Granted, sunset was almost over by this point: I came outside too late to catch much color digitally. The main cause, though is the fact that the monsoon is apparently over. See? No clouds. There haven't been any clouds in a few days now. There probably won't be any significant clouds again until January. Without clouds, sunsets in my neighborhood are sure to be dull, dull dull. The only to make Tucson sunsets interesting this time of year is to be somewhere at sunset that offers an interesting horizon, such as mountains, or saguaros, or the airplane graveyard.<BR><BR>Or...<BR><BR></FONT><A href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5236/441/1600/snst2430.jpg"><FONT face=Arial size=4><IMG style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: pointer; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5236/441/400/snst2430.jpg" border=0></FONT></A><FONT face=Arial size=4>I can show you a leftover image from a past sunset. Such as this one. I think this particular shot is pretty much as photographed, except for an autocorrect, which changed it very little.<BR><BR></FONT><A href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5236/441/1600/snst2549s.jpg"><FONT face=Arial size=4><IMG style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: pointer; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5236/441/400/snst2549s.jpg" border=0></FONT></A><FONT face=Arial size=4>Or this one. I did boost the saturation on this one, trying to recreate what my eyes saw. If I didn't tell you this, would the photo be a "lie"?<BR><BR>Or... <BR><BR>What if I stuck with tonight's photos, and played with those?<BR><BR></FONT><A href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5236/441/1600/suns2606a.jpg"><FONT face=Arial size=4><IMG style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: pointer; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5236/441/400/suns2606a.jpg" border=0></FONT></A><FONT face=Arial size=4>This one issimply an autocorrect. It didn't give us any color but blue, though.<BR><BR><BR></FONT><A href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5236/441/1600/fsun2606.jpg"><FONT face=Arial size=4><IMG style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: pointer; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5236/441/400/fsun2606.jpg" border=0></FONT></A><FONT face=Arial size=4>But how about this one? I cropped it, boosted the heck out of the saturation, and changed the hue.<BR><BR>Too much? Then how about this one?<BR><BR></FONT><A href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5236/441/1600/fsun2606b.jpg"><FONT face=Arial size=4><IMG style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: pointer; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5236/441/400/fsun2606b.jpg" border=0></FONT></A><FONT face=Arial><FONT size=4>Ooh. Ahh. Same shot, not cropped, autocorrected, saturated, contrast up, hue changed but not much.<BR><BR>If I didn't tell you all that, would you believe that's what I saw in the Tucson sky tonight? It wasn't. Reality was blue, with just a hint of color down at the bottom of the sky. Dull, dull, dull.<BR><BR>So, is it wrong to take a colorless sky and make it pretty? Is it wrong to take a pretty sky and make it spectacular? Beats me.<BR><BR>*****<BR><BR><BR>What the heck have I done all day? It's over now, and I keep trying to account for all the hours. This morning's church ran into the afternoon, so that's part of it. The Mass itself wasn't much longer, but our church administrator, Alicia, retired, and coffee hour was her party. My friends Kevin and Mary and I stayed until the very very end, as Father Smith was locking up. Then Kevin and I chatted with Mary in the church and in the parking lot, and after that Kevin and I went to Barnes & Noble. Dang! I meant to do something special for him to commemorate his turning 40, but I forgot. I'll have to make it up to him.<BR><BR>Anyway, Alicia was given flowers, and I photographed her and her replacement, and some prayer shawls that were blessed during church, and lots of other stuff. Most of those shots are to be posted on the St. Michael's blog this week, but maybe I'll show you one or two of them another time.<BR><BR>So that took me up to 2 PM. I came home from B&N with a L'Engle paperback of <SPAN style="FONT-STYLE: italic">A Wind in the Door</SPAN> so I don't mess up my hardback any further, rereading it. I'm almost halfway through the book now. Other than that, I watched some tv, and went shopping with John, and read a few blogs but not many.<BR><BR>The other thing I did, though, was finish editing Chapter Five and start on Chapter Six of <EM>Mages of Mâvarin</EM>. Tonight I posed a question to Sara (not Sarah, although I'd like her opinion, too) about whether a scene between Rutana and Talber is essential to the story. It's such a long book that maybe I shouldn't keep this character piece, even though it sets up several things for later. Then shortly after that bit, there's a "stub" of a scene on page 174 that's two paragraphs long, followed by a note in red ink. It reads, in part:<BR><BR><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; COLOR: red; FONT-FAMILY: Times">[Darsuma experiments with magic to try to find out what’s wrong. .... Need some big impressive spell, and eventual destruction of the necklace.] </SPAN><BR><BR>So now I either have to cut the scene or write it. There may be some sitting in restaurants in my future, trying to get that done.<BR><BR>I opened up the fiction blog tonight to write the next entry of <SPAN style="FONT-STYLE: italic">The Jace Letters</SPAN>, but I'm just not up to it tonight. I haven't slept well this weekend, and I'm not quite over this cold yet. It's just going to have to wait for Monday night.<BR><BR>Karen<BR><BR><BR><SPAN class=technoratitags>Technorati Tags: <A href="http://www.technorati.com/tag/sunsets" rel=tag>Sunsets</A>, <A href="http://www.technorati.com/tag/writing" rel=tag>Writing</A>, <A href="http://technorati.com/tag/tucson" rel=tag>Tucson</A></SPAN></FONT></FONT><SPAN class=technoratitags><A href="http://technorati.com/tag/tucson" rel=tag><BR></A></SPAN></P></DIV>
<P class=post-footer><EM><FONT face=Arial size=4>Outposted by Karen Funk Blocher, </FONT><A title="permanent link" href="http://outmavarin.blogspot.com/2006/09/fake-sunsets-and-words-on-hold.html"><FONT face=Arial size=4>9/18/2006 12:34:00 AM</FONT></A></EM></P>Karen Funk Blocherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16860091802901743222noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7780547696687100620.post-41878951130970923462006-08-29T04:16:00.000-07:002009-04-26T01:58:02.800-07:00Fascinating Tucson, Part Two<p><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:130%;" >For the other three parts of this (one in Musings, two at the Outpost, click below:<br /><br /><em>Outpost</em>: </span><a href="http://outmavarin.blogspot.com/2006/08/fascinating-tucson-part.html"><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:130%;" >Intro, Climate</span></a><br /><br /><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:130%;" >In <em>Musings</em>: </span><a href="http://musingsfrommavarin.blogspot.com/2006/08/fascinating-tucson-part-one.html"><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:130%;" >The Desert</span></a><br /><br /><span style="font-family:Arial;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><em>Outpost</em>: </span></span><a href="http://outmavarin.blogspot.com/2006/08/fascinating-tucson-part-b.html"><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:130%;" >History and Culture</span></a><br /><br /><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:130%;" >This is going to be a "fast and dirty" entry so that I can go to bed. Tucson is surrounded by four sets of mountains:<br /><br /><strong>North: The Catalinas.</strong><br /><br /><img alt="After lunch, the clouds start to vanish." src="http://images.mavarin.com/clou2427.jpg" height="375" width="500" /><br /><br />This is where Mount Lemmon is, with Summerhaven at the top. My very first </span><a href="http://roundrobinphoto.blogspot.com/"><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:130%;" >Round Robin Photo Challenges</span></a><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:130%;" > entry was a series on a trip up Mount Lemmon. (Speaking of which, the next Round Robin topic is "Nostalgia." Click </span><a href="http://roundrobinphoto.blogspot.com/"><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:130%;" >the link</span></a><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:130%;" > for details.)<br /><br /><img alt="Molino Basin" src="http://images.mavarin.com/mtl0802.jpg" height="375" width="500" /><br /></span></p><p><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:130%;" >Here is a shot at Molino Basin, about a quarter of the way up Mt. Lemmon Highway. The habitats at different elevations are called "<a href="http://www.doubletongued.org/index.php/dictionary/sky_island/">sky islands</a>," because they represent distinct ecosystems that are separate from surrounding areas. You'll find different species of birds among the aspen pines beyond Summerhaven than what you'll see in the trees at Molino.</span></p><p><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:130%;" >More on Mount Lemmon:</span></p><p><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:130%;" ><a href="http://musingsfrommavarin.blogspot.com/2005/04/diary-of-day-trip-part-one.html">Diary of a Day Trip, Part One</a></span><br /><br /><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:130%;" ><a href="http://musingsfrommavarin.blogspot.com/2005/04/diary-of-day-trip-mount-lemmon-part-two.html">Diary of a Day Trip: Mount Lemmon, Part Two</a></span><br /><br /><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:130%;" ><a href="http://musingsfrommavarin.blogspot.com/2005/04/diary-of-day-trip-mount-lemmon-part_04.html">Diary of a Day Trip: Mount Lemmon, Part Three</a></span><br /><br /><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:130%;" ><a href="http://musingsfrommavarin.blogspot.com/2005/04/diary-of-day-trip-mount-lemmon-part.html">Diary of a Day Trip: Mount Lemmon, Part Four</a></span></p><br /><br /><strong>East: The Rincons</strong><br /><br /><img src="http://images.mavarin.com/clud1888.jpg" /><br /><br />The Rincons are similar to the Catalinas, but shorter and undeveloped (i.e., no roads or houses on them). They are part of Saguaro National Park East. Colossal Cave is at the Rincon end of town.<br /><br /><strong>South: The Santa Ritas.</strong><br /><br /><img src="http://images.mavarin.com/clou2479.jpg" /><br /><br />These are a bit farther away than the others, down below the airport and Davis-Monthan AFB, toward Green Valley and including Madera Canyon. There was a fire in the Santa Ritas in 2005.<br /><br /><strong>West: The Tucson Mountains</strong><br /><br /><img src="http://images.mavarin.com/gate0426.jpg" /><br /><br />The Tucsons are very different from the other three ranges, looking like a bunch of piled rocks more than anything else. (Southern California has many mountains like these.) We used to live in the foothills of the Tucson Mountains. The range separates Tucson from the Avra Valley, where the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum and Old Tucson are, and where Saguaro National Park West is. The most spectacular way from the city to Old Tucson is across Gates Pass, a steep, scary, winding road with a great scenic lookout at the top. The photo is of my dad in Gates Pass in 2005.<br /><br />Karen<br /><br /><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:130%;" ><span class="technoratitags">Technorati Tags: <a href="http://www.technorati.com/tag/Scalzi" rel="tag">Scalzi</a>, <a href="http://www.technorati.com/tag/Weekend+Assignment" rel="tag">Weekend Assignment</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/mountains" rel="tag">Mountains</a>, </span></span><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/tucson" rel="tag"><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:130%;" >Tucson</span></a><br /><p></p>Karen Funk Blocherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16860091802901743222noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7780547696687100620.post-61931806188513335782006-08-25T03:02:00.000-07:002008-11-20T15:49:39.360-08:00Fascinating Tucson, Part One<P><EM><FONT color=#0000a0><STRONG>Your Weekend Assignment #126:</STRONG> <B>What is the most interesting thing about where you live?</B> "Thing" in this case would be a famous landmark, a famous current celebrity or historical personage from your home town or county, a notable celebration or sports event -- basically, anything that makes where you're from interesting and unique.<BR><BR><B>Extra Credit:</B> Are there any books that feature your home town (or someplace nearby) in any way?</FONT></EM><BR><BR><FONT face=Arial size=3>THE most interesting thing about Tucson? I don't think I can pick one thing. (Big surprise, huh?) I will tell you right off the bat that it's not Flandrau Planetarium, the Diamondback bridge or the statue of Padre Kino. Nor is it the fact that Lee Marvin lived here, John Dillinger was once captured here and Linda McCartney died here. Some Tucsonans might point to the University of Arizona basketball team, but I don't watch basketball. The Tucson Gem and Mineral Show is the largest in the country, but I don't care. No, no. None of the suggested ways for a place to be interesting are even in the running as reasons I find Tucson interesting.<BR><BR>As far as I'm concerned, Tucson is most notable for the following:</P>
<UL>
<LI>The desert, including the critters, the cacti, the washes, etc.</LI>
<LI>The mountains that surround the city</LI>
<LI>The climate, so different from the Syracuse weather I grew up with</LI>
<LI>The history and culture of the place</LI></UL>
<P><FONT face=Arial size=3>As an experiment, I'm going to write about two of these at the <FONT style="FONT-STYLE: italic">Outpost</FONT>, and the other two in <FONT style="FONT-STYLE: italic">Musings</FONT>. Each of the bullet points above will have its own entry, one per blog per night.</FONT></P>
<P><STRONG><FONT face=Arial size=3>The Desert</STRONG></FONT></P>
<P><FONT face=Arial size=3>When we first came to Tucson in 1986, we fell in love with the desert here. <IMG src="http://mavarin.com/images/thrasher.jpg" width=300 align=left>It was full of interesting new birds like <A href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyrrhuloxia">pyrrhuloxias</A> and <A href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phainopepla">phainopeplas</A>, curve-billed thrashers (like the one shown here) and brown towhees, and fun mammals such as coyotes and javalinas. We learned about rivers that only have visible water when it rains, and riparian habitats where water supports trees and certain kinds of birds. We found out that a palo verde is a tree with green bark and yellow blossoms, and how an ocotillo looks very different during a rainy season (such as the monsoon) than the rest of the year. And we learned that when it starts to rain at the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum, getting under a ramada may not protect you much. A ramada is basically a roof for providing shade, and sometimes it's made of saguaro ribs (the sticks inside a saguaro cactus that hold it up) laid side by side. That's good for shade, but it doesn't do much to block precipitation, when there is any.</FONT></P>
<P><IMG src="http://mavarin.com/images/grecatal.jpg"></P>
<P><FONT face=Arial size=3>A very green patch of desert in March 2004, across from the Target on Grant Rd.<FONT size=+0></P>
<P><FONT face=Arial size=3>Yeah, we liked the desert a lot. About two weeks after we got here, we bought a house in the foothills of the Tucson Mountains, where the desert was in our back yard. We had <A href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saguaro">saguaros</A> and sagebrush and palo verde trees, coyotes and tortoises and <A href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Javalina">javalinas</A> and over 50 species of birds. I like the house we're in now, but I really miss having the desert out my door.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT face=Arial size=3><IMG src="http://mavarin.com/images/sun0203b.jpg"></FONT></P>
<P><EM><FONT face=Arial size=3>Toward the bottom of Mount Lemmon, March 2005</FONT></EM></P>
<P><FONT face=Arial size=3>On the <EM>Outpost</EM>: <A href="http://outmavarin.blogspot.com/2006/08/fascinating-tucson-part.html">Climate</A></P>
<P><FONT face=Arial size=3>Tomorrow night: Mountains.</P>
<P>Karen</P>
<P>Technorati Tags: <A href="http://www.technorati.com/tag/Scalzi" rel=tag>Scalzi</A>, <A href="http://www.technorati.com/tag/Weekend+Assignment" rel=tag>Weekend Assignment</A>, <A href="http://technorati.com/tag/desert" rel=tag>Desert</A>, <A href="http://technorati.com/tag/monsoon" rel=tag>Monsoon</A>, <A href="http://technorati.com/tag/tucson" rel=tag>Tucson</A></P></FONT></FONT></FONT></FONT></FONT>Karen Funk Blocherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16860091802901743222noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7780547696687100620.post-80787524319256789652006-08-22T01:10:00.000-07:002008-11-19T22:32:32.435-08:00Silly Self Portraits<P><FONT size=4>In honor of AOL-J Land's three-year Anniversary (and yes, I know I'm late), I'm going to revive this journal, the first blog I ever had, and post the Monday Photo Shoot here, seeing as how I never did actually leave AOL. I'm still paying for it, and will continue to do so until we get the computers networked to the cable modem. Despite my angry words of nine months ago, I may as well get some use out of poor old <I>Musings</I>. So: here we go! This week it's from Joe instead of <A href="http://journals.aol.com/johnmscalzi/bytheway">John</A>:<BR><BR></FONT><FONT color=#0000a0 size=4><I><B><A href="http://journals.aol.com/journalseditor/magicsmoke/entries/2006/08/21/your-monday-photo-shoot-my-camera-and-me/1602">Your Monday Photo Shoot</A>: Take a photo that shows you with your camera.</B> A <B>mirror or other reflective surface</B> would probably help here.<BR><BR>Also, tell us a little about your camera, and how you use it. </I></FONT><FONT size=4><BR><BR><IMG src="http://images.mavarin.com/self2251.jpg"><BR>Self Portrait, Take One<BR><BR><IMG src="http://images.mavarin.com/self2251cr.jpg"><BR>Same photo, crayon effect, color boosted and midtones lightened.<BR><BR><IMG src="http://images.mavarin.com/self2251hc.jpg"><BR>Color saturated, high contrast<BR><BR><IMG src="http://images.mavarin.com/self2251sp.jpg"><BR>Spiral effect<BR><BR><IMG src="http://images.mavarin.com/self2251wp.jpg"><BR>Whirlpool effect<BR><BR><IMG src="http://images.mavarin.com/self2252.jpg"><BR>Take Two: no flash<BR><BR><IMG src="http://mavarin.com/images/ghoul3.jpg"><BR>Ghoul effect. A moldy oldie from 2004.<BR><BR></FONT><FONT face="Times New Roman, Times, serif" color=#3333ff size=4><EM><IMG alt="Captured by aliens!" src="http://images.mavarin.com/shou2368a.jpg"></EM></FONT><FONT size=4><BR><BR>Dalek effect. August 2005.<BR><BR>Since you ask, Joe, I'm pretty hard on my camera, and use it almost daily. The lens cover doesn't close well and I have no case for it, but I put it in my pocket or my purse anyway. I'm sure the motor on the lens and whatever is supposed to open the iris have been messed up since I got the camera in early March, but it's been getting worse. A good cleaning might help - a little. It's a Nikon Coolpix P1, with 8.0 megapixels, a 3.5x zoom (which didn't work as of yesterday), and WiFi, which is more than my computer has. I researched this camera when my Canon broke. It would have been a great deal, had it not been defective. I didn't want to believe there was something wrong with the camera until it was too late to return it. Darn it.</FONT></P><FONT size=4>
<P><FONT size=4>The ghoul shot shows the Sony Mavica, which was our first digital camera. One of the reasons it's so big, aside from the fact that it's a fairly early digital, is that it stores its photos on - wait for it - floppy disks! If I send off the Nikon for servicing, that's what I'll be stuck with for a camera until I get the Nikon back.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=4>The Dalek shot (the Dalek covers up the camera) was taken with the Canon, the one that doesat the end of February. It was a good camera while it lasted, but then it started freezing up, and suddenly it was gone.</FONT><BR><BR>Karen<BR><BR>See also: <A href="http://outmavarin.blogspot.com/2006/08/my-year-in-and-out-of-j-land.html">My Year In and Out of J-Land</A><BR></FONT>Tags: <A href="http://technorati.com/tag/monday+photo+shoot" target=_blank rel=tag>monday photo shoot</A>, <A href="http://technorati.com/tag/self+portraits" target=_blank rel=tag>self portraits</A><BR></P>Karen Funk Blocherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16860091802901743222noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7780547696687100620.post-77886292352109843602005-12-02T11:20:00.000-08:002008-10-08T16:13:40.054-07:00Small Favors<P><FONT face=Arial size=4>AOL's "charset" fix has been installed, so I can finally display this word properly again:</FONT></P>
<P><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=7>Mâvarin</FONT></P>
<P><FONT face=Arial size=4>Do I feel better now? </FONT></P>
<P><FONT face=Arial size=4>No, not much. I could probably live with the ads, if they stayed above the little line, and if that were the only problem. But it's not. There's always some new annoyance.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT face=Arial size=4>I'm thinking seriously about investing the hundreds of hours of work needed to port my home page, my Madeleine L'Engle pages, etc. over to </FONT><A href="http://www.mavarin.com/"><FONT face=Arial size=4>www.mavarin.com</FONT></A><FONT face=Arial size=4>, and over 500 <EM>Musings</EM> entries to </FONT><A href="http://outmavarin.blogspot.com/"><FONT face=Arial size=4>Outpost Mâvarin</FONT></A><FONT face=Arial size=4>. Then I'd need to prod husband John to get me on his Cox connection. That would enable me to cancel AOL. Heck, I've only been here since 1993. That's a quarter of the time I've been on this planet.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT face=Arial size=4>Is it any wonder that leaving AOL is hard for me?</FONT></P>
<P><FONT face=Arial size=4>Karen</FONT></P>
<P>****Yeah, yeah. I haven't actually left AOL yet, for a number of reasons, but I don't post here anymore. I'm just adding a couple of photos here to make sure I'm giving someone correct directions on how to do it. I'm out of practice!</P>
<P><IMG src="http://hometown.aol.com/Mavarin/mirr1344.jpg"></P>
<P><IMG src="http://hometown.aol.com/Mavarin/traf1535.jpg"></P>
<P><IMG src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5236/441/1600/rsun1385.jpg"></P>Karen Funk Blocherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16860091802901743222noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7780547696687100620.post-71457563619673516892005-11-26T20:56:00.000-08:002008-10-08T16:13:40.055-07:00Journal Reader's Digest<P><STRONG><FONT face=Arial color=#ff0000 size=4>As usual, the following journal entry is not an endorsement of whatever ad may be shown above it.</FONT></STRONG></P>
<P><FONT face=Arial size=4>Just when you think I've abandoned <EM>Musing</EM>s entirely, here I am with another entry. I just thought I'd bring you up to date with a little promo of what I've been reading and writing this past week.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT face=Arial><FONT size=4><STRONG>1. The AOL banners controversy rages on.</STRONG> </FONT></FONT></P>
<P><FONT face=Arial size=4>Despite my frequent homilies about how this should not be a battle between factions of journalers, those who stay and those who go, there are still rather extreme expressions of anger here and there, many of them directed at the wrong people. This situation is not the fault of any journaler, John or Joe, or even the advertisers. This is a decision that AOL's execs made. </FONT></P>
<P><FONT face=Arial size=4>People are legitimately angry for a whole host of reasons, some of them going back months or years; and other people legitimately don't see what all the fuss is about. Some people are so convinced that their point of view is the only one that they feel the need to attack anyone who disagrees. There's probably a fair bit of natural aggressiveness in some cases, seizing on the opportunity to wreak havoc. </FONT></P>
<P><FONT face=Arial size=4>The result is that the same little battles between journalers, and factions of journalers, that have always been part of J-Land, now have a new excuse to exist. Is this community? Is this the spirit of J-Land? I don't think so, but that kind of useless, destructive behavior has always existed, and will continue to exist. </FONT></P>
<P><FONT face=Arial size=4>It's up to the rest of us to maintain the positive qualities of the J-Land legacy, on and off AOL itself. Remember, as I keep saying, and many others keep saying, it's only a web address. An interesting journal or blog is no less so if it does or does not have .aol or .blogspot (or something else) in the name.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT face=Arial><FONT size=4><STRONG>2. AOL's Spin Doctor:</STRONG> </FONT></FONT></P>
<P><FONT face=Arial size=4>I read three very similar articles this week in the semi-mainstream press (led by <EM>The Washington Post</EM>) about the journal ads controversy. I'm not going to bother with links; I'm sure you can find them easily, and probably have already done so. What strikes me about all three is that they reported a claim from an AOL press liaison that only "several dozen" people had complained. None of the articles even suggested that this number might be understated. Shame on them! I saw a listing today of nearly 70 ex-AOL blogs, and I know for a fact that the list is incompete. Add to that all the people who complained but did not actually leave, and it adds up to a heck of a lot more than 36 people. I'd love to know what the real numbers are. It still sounds like a tiny number compared to the many thousands of AOL Journals in existence, but there are two mitigating factors: 1) many of those journals, probably at least half, are abandoned or largely inactive, and 2) it is a truism in p.r. generally that for everyone who bothers to complain about anything to a company, there are probably ten others who are griping in private to friends and family.</FONT></P>
<P><STRONG><FONT face=Arial size=4>3. Am I Playing To An Empty House?</FONT></STRONG></P>
<P><FONT face=Arial size=4>This being Saturday night, I've posted my latest fiction entry over on <EM><A href="http://mavarin.blogspot.com/">Messages from Mavarin</A></EM>: <EM>Heirs of <!--StartFragment -->Mavarin</EM>, Chapter One, Part Three. (Rats. I just went to the trouble of putting in the accents, only to take them out again because of AOL's nonstandard characters glitch.) <EM>Messages</EM> has been my fiction-only blog since June, 2004, so it continues to be the logical place to post my fiction entries. </FONT></P>
<P><FONT face=Arial size=4><IMG hspace=10 src="http://mavarin.com/clipart/BestFiction1.jpg" align=left vspace=10>I used to cross-post them here, but I cannot, will not do so while this accent glitch continues. Chances are excellent that I will never post fiction on AOL again. What a sad end to my brief co-reign as the VIVI winner for best fiction/poetry journal! I can't even add the graphic for that to my sidebar here, because to do so would mean losing my last remaining properly-spelled use of the word Mavarin. Drat.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT face=Arial size=4>Anyway, the point of this rant is that I would be grateful if you would continue to read my fiction anyway, on the same blog where it's always been--even if it does have blogspot in the URL. And if you do, please leave me a comment, will you? I'm currently serializing the first two chapters of my first novel, my best, most polished piece of fiction to date, thirty years in the making, literally my life's work. If nobody cares enough to even read it, I may just curl up and die. And you don't want that, do you? Well, do you?</FONT></P>
<P><FONT face=Arial size=4>Karen</FONT></P>
<P><A href="http://outmavarin.blogspot.com/"><FONT face=Arial size=4>http://outmavarin.blogspot.com</FONT></A><FONT face=Arial size=4> - main blog</FONT></P>
<P><A href="http://mavarin.blogspot.com/"><FONT face=Arial size=4>http://mavarin.blogspot.com</FONT></A><FONT face=Arial size=4> - fiction blog.</FONT></P>Karen Funk Blocherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16860091802901743222noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7780547696687100620.post-5888757110974535352005-11-20T21:05:00.000-08:002008-10-08T16:13:40.055-07:00A Blogger's Pop Quiz<P><FONT face=Arial color=#ff0000 size=4>* This journal does not endorse the advertisements at the top of this page. *</FONT></P>
<P><FONT face=Arial color=#ff0000 size=4>No, wait. This is interesting. The current ad is a drug company pledging matching donations to fight HIV/AIDS. I DO support that, but I don't necessarily endorse the drug the company is advertising at the same time.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT face=Arial size=4>Cross-posted from <A href="http://outmavarin.blogspot.com/">Outpost Mavarin</A>, so that as many people will see it as possible:<BR><BR>Here's a short math quiz for you.<BR><BR>1. You have ten friends in J-Land, each of whom has an AOL Journal. Then AOL places banner ads on those journals without prior notice, and releases a buggy "upgrade" that makes it nearly impossible to post without taking heroic measures. Within the week,<BR>
<UL>
<LI>Three of your friends continue to blog on AOL exclusively.</LI><BR>
<LI>Three more set up Blogger accounts but also keep their AOL Journals going with occasional posts, mostly griping about AOL.</LI><BR>
<LI>Three switch to Blogspot entirely, either letting their AOL Journals lie fallow or taking them private with no readers.</LI><BR>
<LI>One is so upset with the diaspora and ongoing technical difficulties that he stops posting entirely.</LI></UL>
<P>How many of these people have betrayed you?<BR> a) Six<BR> b) Four<BR> c) Three<BR> d) One<BR> e) Zero<BR><BR>2. You learn that someone has been harrassing the three people who stuck with AOL exclusively, and that someone else is harrassing the three who switched to Blogspot exclusively. Meanwhile, of the three people who had blogs on both services, one decides to go back to AOL for most of her blogging, one decides to keep both blogs going indefinitely, and one decides it's time to make the switch to Blogspot for everything. How many of these people are doing something wrong?</P>
<P> a) Five<BR> b) Four<BR> c) Three<BR> d) Two<BR> e) One<BR><BR>Answers: <BR> 1. e) Zero. None of these people are doing anything <EM>to you</EM>. They are merely trying to make the best of a difficult situation. All anyone has really cost you is the convenience of AOL Alerts. And we all know how buggy those have been lately!<BR><BR> 2. d) Two. Nobody should be harrassing anyone. The rest are just trying to get on with their lives and blogs.<BR><BR>I've been reading all weekend of people giving each other grief for leaving AOL or not leaving AOL. I've also read a few reports that some people are feeling betrayed by journalers who left AOL, and refuse to read their new blogs on other services. Come on, people! it's only a web address! There is no need for an Us and Them mentality here. If we continue to read and comment (without rancor) on each other's blogs, write the best entries we can, and post our best pictures, then we still have a community. And that's what we all want, isn't it?<BR><BR>Karen </P>
<P><IMG src="http://mavarin.com/images/suns3847a.jpg"></P></FONT>Karen Funk Blocherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16860091802901743222noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7780547696687100620.post-49721721926571596062005-11-17T23:01:00.000-08:002008-11-19T22:06:27.571-08:00<font size="4"><b>A reminder - I do NOT condone or support the
advertisement found above this entry - whatever it is. Nuts to B of A,
Quisno's and the rest.</b><br>
<br>
This may be "cheating," but I'm just generating an alert <i>here </i>to tell you I did the Weekend Assignment <a href="http://outmavarin.blogspot.com"><i>there</i></a>. I've been blogging a couple of times a day - are you keeping up? <br>
<br>
Karen<br>
<a href="http://outmavarin.blogspot.com">Outpost Mavarin</a> - my new main blog <br>
<a href="http://outmavarin.blogspot.com">http://outmavarin.blogspot.com</a><br>
<br>
<a href="http://mavarin.blogspot.com">Messages from Mavarin</a> (for my Saturday fiction entry)<br>
</font><a href="http://mavarin.blogspot.com"><font size="4">http://mavarin.blogspot.com</font></a><br>
<font size="4"><br>
Interesting - now I can't even reach the subject line after the fact.<br>
</font>Karen Funk Blocherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16860091802901743222noreply@blogger.com0