A FEW LAST LIVE WRITER THOUGHTS………..

  After 3 weeks of sunny dry days it's nice to see the rain coming down this morning.  Just in time to help out my newly planted cedar trees.  Re-located & transplanted some shrubs yesterday so it's a bonus day for them as well.

Remember to hover your mouse over the photos to see the captions & click on the photos to enlarge them.

Forgot to include the address for LIVE WRITER yesterday so just click the link.  I have a few more things about Live Writer to say & then I'll get on with other things.  And thanks to some helpful tips from RICK, LAURIE, & ROD, I've been able to fit a few more Live Writer pieces to-gether. 

Yes, LW can be saved to draft & also auto-saved as your doing it.  That is very important!!  Go to Tools-Options-Editing & put in how often you want LW to auto-save your blog to draft.  I selected....one minute!!  Do not forget to do this because it will save you a lot of grief & frustration down the road when your computer suddenly winks off for whatever reason & your in the middle of a blog.  Just re-open LW later, go to Drafts & resume where you left off before being so rudely interrupted!!  Your blog can also be manually saved at any time by just clicking on the ‘Save Draft’ button near the top left of center.

NO, THIS IS NOT THE KIND OF TOAD YOU TOW BEHIND YOUR MOTORHOME!!

Figured out the Photo Album feature too & that is going to be super helpful for sure & here's a neat-O feature I like.  When you press 'View Photo Album' it opens up our Windows Live Photo Album.  You can click each photo individually but I would recommend clicking on 'Slideshow' because it presents the photos in a really super nice photo color format.  Also recommend looking to the bottom of that screen & clicking on the little square box with an arrow in it.  That will give you a full screen...'WOW & DOUBLE WOW!!'  Microsoft has done a really nice job here. Press your Esc key at the top left of your keyboard to exit the full screen mode.

Vera, a faithful blog follower liked the way Blogger would substantially enlarge the photos she clicked on before but LW wasn't doing that.  Well Vera I think I may have solved that last night as well but not sure yet.  Might take me a couple blogs to get my settings correct but I think we can make those pictures nice & big for you again once I get the hang of things:))

View Full Album

I have both our Hotmail & Gmail accounts set up to receive a copy of each blog everyday & that has been my way of backing every blog up.  I will continue to do that but another great feature of LW is that it automatically places a copy of your blog into ‘My Documents’ each time you publish a post.  You don't have to try & remember to do that......LW automatically does it for you.  Wow, how great is that!!

 

I also figured out how to add a Video.   Has some kind of ‘You Tube’ connection I think.  Only takes a minute or two setting that up & it's done.  Now you can click & & press buttons for instructions on how to get your video from your hard drive to the blog.  Depending on the size of your video it may take a few minutes to load.  While loading you can continue with your blog.  I’m going to try adding a video to the end of this blog:)) I know what tags are so I'll try adding them in this blog later then click them on-line to see if they work.  My 'previewed' blog last night wasn't exactly the same as I had laid it out but was close.  Probably just needs a little tweaking on my part.  And I still haven’t got my picture sizes right quite right.

Now, one thing that has not worked for me is my Picasa plug in thingy which is found at the end of the 'Insert' list.  At least I don't think it's working because I kept getting an error message trying to install it half a dozen times.  I'm not really sure what it is supposed to do but I know I can only access about a third of my photo albums at the moment & it may be connected to that.  Would appreciate any help on that one.

I am typing this blog using my old method of doing it in my Outlook Express email format.  In yesterday's blog I did it entirely in LW itself.  I feel a little more comfortable doing it in Outlook for now until I'm a bit more familiar with LW & then may make the switch to doing the entire blog right there. 

I had a video all set to go in here but after 4 unsuccessful attempts to upload it I will have to call it quits & head back to the drawing board.  Thought I had this video thing figured out but I guess not yet!!

IN CONCLUSION..… Hardest part for me so far is getting the photos sized right so I am going to have to devote some extra time to that.  I do a lot of cropping in some of my photos & I think that is what’s giving me a hard time when it comes to sizing.  When I previewed to-night’s blog everything looked fine but I have a feeling when I publish it the photos will somehow come out smaller…….We’ll see.  Sure is great brain exercise though!!

GROANER'S CORNER:))   A Pessimist sees a dark tunnel, an optimist sees a light at the end of the tunnel, & a realist sees the lights of a coming train.  The train engineer sees 3 idiots standing on the tracks!!

OUR PHOTO ALBUMS  http://picasaweb.google.com/stargeezerguy/

The only thing better than right now will someday be the memories of right now...AL.

LiveJournal Tags: Windows Live Writer. Moab Utah,Arches National Park,Vintage cars,Bayfield Ontario,The Bayfield Bunch

LETS HAVE US A LOOK AT WINDOWS LIVE WRITER

BAYFIELD  HARBOR

Thought I would try my hand at putting to-gether a blog which will show a few of the things Live Writer will do.  I have figured out about a third of it so far.  I have added ‘Color Pop’ & ‘Reflection’ to the above photo.  Color Pop enhances the colors to deeper richer colors.  I have also added a white Bayfield Bunch watermark in the lower right corner.  Photo sizes are a standard small, medium, or large format, but you have the option of changing the photos to any size you want which is what I did with all of them.

Photo at right of our house is in the small format & has a slight shadow border added to it.

 

I made Pickle head Kelly even smaller & added a ‘Photopaper’ border.  Here is a Hyperlink added for our SUNRISES & SUNSETS site at Smug Mug.

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HANG ON BUDDY	THIS 4 PICTURE BOX FORMAT IS CALLED A TABLE & YOU CAN ADD PHOTOS OR TEXT OR BOTH…..I STRETCHED THE FLOWERS BELOW.
TILTED THE CONE FLOWER	TURNED THIS COLOR PHOTO TO BLACK & WHITE.

I haven’t totally figured out the ‘Photo Album’ stuff yet but it’s something like the photos below.  Haven’t got the, ‘View Full Album’ thingy figured out.  Don’t know what it does but maybe once I post the blog……it might work.

View Full Album

Stretched this little green bug clear across the page & hit him with a ‘Color Pop’ feature plus cropped my arm out of the picture. 

HAD A LITTLE TROUBLE GETTING THE PUSH PIN LOCATED BUT IT'S PRETTY CLOSE.

                  NICE MAP FEATURE THOUGH

h f j u b o 7

There is a bit of a learning curve involved to all this but most of it is just having enough patience to stick with it & keep clicking on the feature buttons to see how things work.  Helps to have a good short term memory too.  If I’ve made it this far with my lack of patience & short term memory…….then any of you folks out there can do this.

Added rounded corners to the photo of the Red Tail Hawk taken in Leslie Canyon, Arizona. 

And you can underline things as well.

Or change the text style anytime…

And I have totally distorted the hawk over a grassy field in the picture below.

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Now, don’t even begin to ask me how long it took me to put this blog to-gether but it’s one of those things that the more you do it the smoother & faster things will become.  I haven’t figured out the ‘Adding Video’ part yet or how  ‘Tags’ work & I’m not sure about the ‘Add a plug-in…’ feature but it will just take time.  And I’m sure there is more features that I haven’t even found yet.

So, in conclusion, I would say that I have made the switch from Blogger to Live Writer & it’s now a matter of refining everything until I have the blog looking the way I want it.  Not there yet but I’m working on it.

Going to post this early to-day because I’m not sure if  live Writer autosaves the blog like blogger does.  I don’t need an electricity burp to wipe it all out on me!!!!!!!!

GROANER’S CORNER:))  Did you know that flea's can jump 130 times higher than their own height. In human terms this is equal to a 6ft. person jumping 780 ft. into the air.

OUR PHOTO ALBUMS  http://picasaweb.google.com/stargeezerguy/

The only thing better than right now will someday be the memories of right now...AL.

MONTICELLO…..DEFENCE AGAINST INDIAN ATTACK

Nearly did a double take this afternoon when I saw Kelly heading for the motorhome with an armload of clothes.  She followed that with some dishes, shoes, & an assortment of odds & ends destined for travel to the southwest.  That just kind of makes things officially official.  Hadn't expected her to do that for another month yet. 

Last night I blogged about the little western town of Chloride & to-day we had a nice email from some folks living near there saying if we ever travel that way again to stop by & they would give us the nickel tour of the area complete with history.   Mighty nice of them western folks I'd say.  The same day we were in Chloride we had also been to another small western town not far away.  Monticello was even smaller than Chloride & it's houses were arranged around a central square much like a fort might have been.  It was deliberately built like this as a defense against Indian attacks.  For our visit to MONTICELLO click HERE & for the photos click HERE. 

Before leaving Truth or Consequences that morning on our search for these western towns we had stopped at the MOVING WALL MEMORIAL dedicated to Vietnam veterans.  You can read about the wall & how it was inspired by the Memorial Vietnam wall in Washington by clicking on the capital letters.  This wall travelled from State to State years ago & now calls Truth or Consequences it's home.

Yesterday afternoon I took my health card out of my wallet & waved it in front of my sore right knee & said, "if you don't get yourself smartened up by Monday morning Mister I am going to call the Doctor & have you looked at!!!!"  I noticed a big improvement in my knee when I woke up this morning:))

I wonder why bad stuff is always cheaper than good stuff.  Isn't it supposed to be the other way around.  I was at the grocery store in Goderich this morning looking for a box of healthy cereal.  They had rows of huge jumbo boxes filled with Captain Sugarballs cereal.  It would take 2 people just carry one box out of the store.   Probably on sale for a cheap couple of bucks.  I guess people take that stuff home & fill their kids up with it.  Next on the shelf was some natural fiber & fruit cereal guaranteed to make you live till you die.  The tiny wafer thin box was so small it could have fit in my shirt pocket.  I bet you would have had to mortgage your house to buy a box of that stuff.   Why are things like that anyway.  Have I exaggerated this little tale.......well ok, maybe just a little:)) 

Also had a nice email this week from Lori at Bayfield's prestigious LITTLE INN.  Seems they would like to use some of my photos & I was more than happy to oblige.  Thanks guys:))

GROANER'S CORNER:((  You know your over the hill when you & your teeth don't sleep to-gether!!

OUR PHOTO ALBUMS  http://picasaweb.google.com/stargeezerguy/

The only thing better than right now will someday be the memories of right now...AL.

BLOG DECISIONS & THE LITTLE WESTERN GHOST TOWN AT THE END OF THE ROAD

To-day’s blog photos are of Chloride, New Mexico.  The little western ghost town at the end of the road.  Hoover your mouse over all the photos to see the captions.  Blog done in Live Writer.  I’m hoping I have my photos sized better to-night.

I was in the Canadian Navy many, many, moons ago so I know what it feels like to be seasick.  Kinda was feeling that way to-day from so much leaning back & forth, back & forth.  First I was leaning to-wards Live Writer & then a comment would come in & I would lean back over the other way to Blogger's New Editor.  Vera's comment swung me back to the Blogger side of the deck  but then a big LAURIE & ODEL wave came rolling in striking me broadside knocking me back over to the Live Writer side of the deck again.  Dear oh dear, this is quite an unpredictable blog storm going on here to-day & these are indeed heavy seas matey!!  Check out Laurie's helpful tips about Live Writer in our last night's blog comments.

RICK ran himself into a big blog block Friday  but did very well at picking himself up, dusting himself off, & finishing up his blog in true blogger fashion form by blogging about blogging with no mind blocking.  Ok, say that one real fast 6 times:))

 

I'm not sure how other bloggers do their blogs but here's what works for me.  I type the blog in an email format in Outlook Express just as I would an email to someone.  I like Outlook's easy to use Spellchecker & that's a big plus.  When finished, I copy the blog, open my Blogger program & paste what I've written right into the blog program's body.  (Blogger's New Editor or Live Writer) From there I click the photo icon & head off into My Pictures & locate the photos I want to put in the blog.  Until a few days ago I would start with the last picture first.   I did that because I always had to drag the photo from the top of the blog all the way through the text & drop it in place.  It was easier to do if I didn't have to drag the photo over other photos already in the blog.  I am looking forward to not having to do that anymore.  After I have the photos in the blog I add the captions & adjust all the spacing.  I then put in the links & title.  A last minute check & whoosh, there goes another blog.  I then read it on our website & I would say about one out of every 4 or 5 blogs I have to go back & fix up mistakes I had overlooked.  Many times I miss the errors I've made & the blog lands on you anyway.........mistakes & all:))

Over the last little while I've been posting some of our ghost town travels in the southwest & have had to search through archived photos for blog pictures.  I've been disappointed in the quality of my photos especially in the exposure & color departments so I'm hoping to kick my photography up a notch & concentrate more on quality this year.  Fellow RVing friend Gordon Wolford is my kind of photographer & I'm always inspired by his work.  Not likely I will ever reach Gordon's level but I do hope to make some improvements in my own stuff.  Check out Gordon's recent central Ontario photography gallery HERE.  Gordon & Sandra's RVing blog site can be found HERE, & Gordon's own Nomads News site is HERE. 

In March of 2008 while boondocked near Elephant Butte State Park in Truth or Consequences, New Mexico for a week we did some day trips around the area & found a sleepy little western ghost town at the end of a long winding dusty road.  The towns name was CHLORIDE & back in the 1800's it was under constant attack by Apache Indians.   Only saw 2 people in town the day we were there & one of them gave us a tour of an old general store that has been lovingly rebuilt & restored as a labor of love complete with all it's original stock.  The blog for our visit to Chloride is HERE & our photos of Chloride are HERE.

Our days are getting cooler & our night's are getting colder.  Most of our front yard bird's are gone now & to-morrow will be another one of my favorite Saturday mornings.  Oh, how sweet it is..............:))

GROANER'S CORNER:((  And did you know..........If a statue in the park of a person on a horse has both front legs in the air, the person died in battle. If the horse has one front leg in the air the person died as a result of wounds received in battle. If the horse has all four legs on the ground, the person died of natural causes.

OUR PHOTO ALBUMS  http://picasaweb.google.com/stargeezerguy/

The only thing better than right now will someday be the memories of right now...AL.

WELL HERE I GO TRYING LIVE WRITER

 SOME WINDMILLS FOR MIKE:))

I think this is our 17th consecutive day of beautiful warm sunny weather but I am looking forward to some predicted rainy days at the beginning of next week.  I like the change in pace plus I need some serious time to get things caught up here in computerland.  It's hard for me to sit inside on nice sunny days because the guilt just drives me bonkers.  Always feel I should be outside doing something constructive.

  HAULED THESE BIG CEDARS HOME TO-DAY

Knee is still acting up but things outside don't get done by themselves so I hooked up the utility trailer & hauled some branches & stuff down to our waste recycle area here in the park.  Many times in the past I have ended up hauling more stuff home than what I took there & to-day was no exception.  Spotted about a dozen 15' cedar trees that had been pulled out of the ground & discarded.  The trees were still fresh & had fairly good root systems on them so them so no way I could just leave the trees there to die.  Ron, our Park's number 1 employee came by in his little 'Skid-steer' machine & between the two of us we got all the big trees loaded onto my trailer. 

WE HAVE A SANDY LOAM SOIL HERE SO I USE LOTS OF PEAT MOSS FOR PLANTING

I knew my neighbor Richard would like some of these cedars so when I got home I had Richard come over & we took 4 of the trees to his place.  I then started digging big holes out front here at home & spent the next hour or so planting 5 big cedars.  They may or may not live but at least now they are back in the ground with plenty of water & peat moss & have a fighting chance.  Four years ago another neighbor pulled out 32 cedar trees & I was able to salvage 25 of them which are still growing to-day.

I read another one of RICK'S informative blogs this morning about the Windows Live Writer.  I remember giving that a try 3 or 4 months ago one time but got so bogged down in Windows downloads that I'm not even sure if I ever made it to the Live Writer part.  Must have been a low patience day for me because I dumped the whole thing after about 20 minutes of blundering around in a Windows pea souper of a fog.  I have a short attention span & if I can't make headway with something in a short period of time I turf it & head off in another direction.  I almost did that again to-day when once again I went Windows hunting for....... 'Live Writer.'

Waded through the usual morass of Microsoft Windows downloads, add ons, plug ins, plug outs, free this & that, toolbars, crowbars, chocolate bars.   I somehow ended up with another hotmail account along the way called Live ID or something.  By the time I found Live Writer I had already misplaced & lost it.  I think it must have been sandwiched between Windows live Bloogerbulst  & Microsoft's myopic Umplestencer!! Just could not get a concept in my head of what or where this Live Writer thing was supposed to be.  The ticking clock was counting down on my patience meter & I had to make a decision.  Turf the whole Microsoft Windows Bloogerstencer idea or call for back-up!!  I called for back-up.  

LOTS OF WATER & PEAT MOSS GO INTO THE HOLE FIRST

Within minutes, or was it seconds,  Kelly took over the computer's flight controls & had Live Writer up & on the screen as if there was nothing to it.  And for her, there wasn't anything to it but I'm another story.  She always finds stuff I can't, see's things I don't, & has the uncanny ability to have lost forever items appear magically out of nowhere.  Whether it be a computer program, a shirt, pair of gloves, a coffee cup or a lost hammer.  Makes no difference, she always finds stuff.  I bet she could find Amelia Earhart too!!

Haven't decided yet if I'm going to try Live Writer or not to-night.  Had a quick look at it earlier & saw some things I liked.  I should probably play around with it first before trying a blog but like everything else I get I'm always too impatient to learn how to use it first.  Just jump into the pilot's seat, crank up the engines to full  throttle & head off screaming down the runway.  

OK, JUST ONE MORE TREE TO PLANT

In MIKE & PAT'S TRAVELS a couple days ago Mike was talking about his childhood & his fondness for windmills.  That reminded me of a windmill photo I had take this past March on our way home from Arizona.  I think it was somewhere around Bowie Texas that I spotted a bunch of windmills huddled to-gether in a field.  By the time I got my camera swung around we were almost past them but I did get one shot out the motorhome's window & that's the photo that heads this blog.   Ride on over to MIKE'S blogger site & see how he spent a big part of his younger days on his horse Angel, riding the range checking windmills for maintenance repairs & water.  As a boy his horse Patches took him to school & back & sometimes in some mighty deep snow.   A true cowboy this fellow.  A lifestyle I only dreamed about as a kid.

Kelly tells me this afternoon that we may have to extend our departure date to October 24th instead of the 17th because of her Deerpark Lodge job.  Al is not a happy camper!!!!

OK, I have just put this altogether using Windows Live Writer.  Tried out some picture frames too.  I think I’m maybe going to like this…….we’ll see:))  If I go to publish this thing now & it all goes glooberfooster I’m a gonna be really ticked off & may run away to a foreign country & bury my head in the sand!!

GROANER'S CORNER:((  Remember to smile.......it gives your face something to do!!

OUR PHOTO ALBUMS  http://picasaweb.google.com/stargeezerguy/

The only thing better than right now will someday be the memories of right now...AL.

ONE MONTH TO DEPARTURE....THE EXCITMENT & APPREHENSION BUILDS

A COUPLE OF TO-DAY'S PHOTOS ARE BORROWED FROM LAST SEPTEMBER (all photos should be clickable to enlarge now)

Purolator delivered our new Star Choice satellite dish yesterday & I knew I was in trouble right off the bat. I had unrealistically hoped the dish would have arrived in more of an assembled state. When I opened the box & saw all the screws, nuts & bolts, washers, tubes, & pieces, my mechanically challenged mind went into automatic shut down mode & seized up. I did force myself to waste some valuable time looking at the instructions but couldn't even comprehend step one. It didn't take Kelly long to get on the phone.

AWWWW NUTS, I WAS HOPING IT WOULD COME ASSEMBLED!!

 van rolled into our driveway this afteroon with the words L & A Southwest Satellite Systems on the side. (hmmmmm, how did they know we're going to the southwest:)) Two fellows jumped out & within mintues the satellite dish assembly was taking shape. Luckily, with a few simple modifications by the satellite guys we were able to use the same heavy duty tripod from our previous satellite internet/Star Choice set up. And, like I've blogged about before......if I want something done right it's usually better for me to get someone else to do it & to-day was another good example of that!! (that's why someone else is painting the kitchen cupboard doors right now too)

THE BOYS FROM L & A SOUTHWEST SATELLITE SYSTEMS TO MY RESCUE

My knee & I battled back & forth all day with both sides winning & losing a few wee battles here & there. Sometimes the knee was fine as I walked briskly around & then zap, a zinger of pain would flash around the joint like a small lightning storm causing me to wince & go into a limp & hobble shuffle. But, at least it's an improvement over the past few days so I'm looking forward to great & wondrous things from that knee in the very near future..........or else!!!!

Just as some fellow bloggers I'm not exactly singing the praises of the new post editor in blogger yet. Had a hard time placing photos last night plus a few other small things. Almost reverted back to the old editor but it was probably my old blogging habits interfering with the newer generation of doing things. I'll have another go at it to-night. I do like the fact that all my photos in the blog are now clickily enlargeable again. I had lost that feature a long time ago.

OUR NEW  SATELLITE DISH WILL BE USED WITH OUR OLD INTERNET TRIPOD

One month from to-day we will be on the eve of having the big wheels rolling for the southwest once more. As usual the excitement is always kept in check by it's counter part, apprehension. Will the tires be alright for another year, how about the brakes, hope we don't have any leaks in the water system, what if the aging sewer hose explodes in my face, is that Allison transmission as good as they say it is, what if a slide gets stuck in the out position, what if a Chinaman falls off his bicycle in Teananmen Square, will the dogs be OK this year, what if they don't let us across the border because one of the guards reads this blog, will our solar panel system work flawlessly again, hope the fridge doesn't quit, will Al's bad knee cause his right leg to fall off leaving him with only being able to do hikes going around in tight left circles, hope we don't get any bad dings in the windshield & I hope the car doesn't break loose from the tow bar on an interstate. There, I feel much calmer now. The excitement was just getting to be toooooo much when I realized to-day that we would be leaving in another month!! Nothing like a good solid dose of some really fine nerve rattling apprehension to keep that excitment in check.  Kinda like when you were a kid waiting on the platform for that first roller coaster ride.  Excited like crazy but scared like nuts that the roller coaster car was gonna fly right off the track on that first downhill curve!!

Took the van to Goderich to-day on a shake down cruise to check out the different transmission. All systems were go. We are very fortunate here in Bayfield to have a great garage & repair facility. The Bayfield Garage is run by an honest & soft spoken fellow by the name of Don Mcllwain. Fortunately Don isn't as old as the front part of the garage which I'm sure was lovingly constructed somewhere back in the last ice age. Additions to the garage have brought everything including equipment & staff up into the modern computer techno era & we the motoring public are very lucky to have Don, his equipment & his crew here to attend our rusty mufflers, worn tires, dead batteries, aging engines, squeaking brakes, overdo tune-ups, price war gas, & in our case....a flunky transmission. Would you believe they had that transmission changed in less than a day!!

AFTERNOON SIESTA WITH THE KID

The foliage is dying back in the flower beds, some leaves are drooping, & some shrubs are beginning to take on that worried pre-death look to winter. Soon it will be time to begin the annual ritual of returning all the lawn ornaments & furniture to the sheds for another season. In a few short months all this glorious green jungle of ours will look like the gray barren wastelands of Russian Siberia!!!! And feel about the same as well:((

GROANER'S CORNER:(( Some people try to turn back their odometers. Not me, I want people to know 'why' I look this way..... I've traveled a long distance and some of the roads were definitely not paved!!

OUR PHOTO ALBUMS http://picasaweb.google.com/stargeezerguy/
The only thing better than right now will someday be the memories of right now...AL.