So Much to Catch Up On

Wow!  This has been an eventful summer for someone who rarely goes anywhere.  I am still amazed at having my art in an online gallery belonging to a legitimate store front gallery in Arizona.  In September I was able to get started on my own business domain, for Capirani Photography and it is connected to the online gallery site as well.  This was truly exciting for me because I have always wanted my own domain and a professional website.  Although I have not yet sold anything, I was contacted last week by another photographer in the online gallery.  He does abstract work also, but his work is done with a program he actually designed himself.  His work is really one of a kind.  I hope you will take a look at it.  His name is Allen Hirsh and if you read his bio on the page, you will see what I mean when I say that his work is unique.  You can also visit his business website from that link as well.  Tell him I sent you.

Whew!  What else?  Oh yes.  I'm teaching myself Hebrew!  Yes you read that correctly.  This is something I have been wanting to do for many years but thought maybe it was too hard for me.  And until the availability of the internet, how would I hope to be able to learn?  Who would teach me?  But over this summer I have become interested in Messianic Jewish praise and worship music, which is often sung in Hebrew.  I wanted to be able to sing along, so I started trying to find the lyrics online.  I even wrote to the church in Jerusalem that puts out the YouTube videos of the music I am learning. The church is called King of Kings Community Church of Jerusalem and I really enjoy the music as well as the preaching.  It is a combination Christian/Messianic Jewish community church located in Jerusalem, Israel.  The playlist link I gave you above lists the first few songs I am learning, but I only have the words for three of the songs so far and parts of the others.  I will probably end up emailing them again for the words to the rest of these songs.  But in the meantime, teaching myself Hebrew makes me feel like I belong to their church and that I am doing something to draw myself closer to God.

Okay, so where and how am I teaching myself Hebrew?  Well, I started out looking for different websites on the subject and found a couple that seemed to be easy enough to get started with.  And I then went to YouTube again to find videos so I could actually hear the words pronounced as I learned.  I ended up narrowing it down to two sites so far, plus the YouTube.  The YouTube site is actually connected to one of the regular websites so I don't even have to use YouTube now.  The first site I chose was Israel Hebrew: Learn Hebrew and Stay Updated With Israel News.  Through that site I went on to download a pdf file they suggested that was supposedly used by the US government for learning Hebrew.  You can find that on the link above.  They give some good options including some books you can buy if you want to pay for instruction.  The pdf file is free, however.  After that I went to Hebrew Pod 101 and that is where I went after finding their videos on YouTube.  YouTube only has a few of their videos so to get the most out of the lessons using the website is better.  In all honesty, other than the different form of writing, and alphabet, it is a lot like learning Spanish, which I took in high school and college.  Doing this by myself is not so fun, but I am really motivated to learn.  It fills some of my time as well as exercises my mind.  There is really no downside to this.

The last thing I wanted to talk about here tonight is the idea of making a possible change to this blog.  This is still in the brainstorming phase and since I am brainstorming with myself, who knows where I will end up.  The thing is, I want to do something to be an influence to others in some way.  Although I post a lot of things on Facebook, it isn't what I really want to do with Facebook.  I want to work with Facebook more to promote my photography and just hang out with friends.  Plus if I do this right, I can reach more people with a blog than I can a private Facebook account.  The question is, in what way do I want to do this?  There are a lot of thoughts going through my head at any given time on this topic.  Sometimes I want to talk about how I wonder what happened to everything?  I mean, America...people...values...morality...and so much more.  So I think it will probably end up being more in that line.  But I also want to help people who are searching to find the Lord and be saved before it is too late.  I want to leave something online that could maybe be found after the Rapture to help guide people to the truth so that during the Tribulation, they can read and learn and find truth.  But right now, as I said, it is still in the thinking phase.  I don't really know how to start.

It's colder outside.  Autumn is much cooler this year than usual.  It makes me wonder if winter is going to be like last year.  I hope not.  It makes things really difficult for me when there is so much snow and ice that I end up really locked inside.  Odd though, because this spring, and summer, I did not spend much time outside at all.  It was mild enough to enjoy too.  Aside from the photography, I'm dealing with some personal issues that keep me occupied and it just seems to make things harder for me to want to do.  Well, it's almost 4 a.m. here and I really should start winding down to try to get some sleep.  Please do take a look at the websites I've posted for you.  Especially if you are also interested in learning Hebrew.

Time For Some Fun

I have been playing around on YouTube this afternoon and evening. Nothing special, just more classic oldies. That is, until I came across this one. That is when I decided it was time for some fun on this blog again. So here goes.....



Of course it is much more fun to find these videos by accident. Then it is a fun surprise. But below are some I looked for to add to the summertime fun.











And now.....for your comparison and pleasure....





Well??? Which one is your favorite version???









No summer party would be complete without these now would they???





Well, I hope you had fun at my little impromptu summer party. That's all for tonight...that is...unless I come across something else I might just have to add.

I Just Couldn't Resist

Sorry about that little comment at the end.

Leave It To YouTube!!!!

POPCORN by Hot Butter. I have wanted this song for years and have never been able to find it! Thanks YouTube!



Some other oldies but goodies that really take me back in time....this is a mix of different things...some funny ones you may have forgotten about along with some really good ones.

LOVE IS BLUE and others



MUSIC BOX DANCER



DEAD SKUNK IN THE MIDDLE OF THE ROAD Yep you read that right! It was really a hit way back in the 70's. I am not sure if this is the original group that made it a hit.



CITY OF NEW ORLEANS by Arlo Guthrie



THE BATTLE OF NEW ORLEANS by Johnny Horton



I'M GONNA BUY ME A DOG by The Monkees The Monkees tv series was the beginning of music videos.



LAST TRAIN TO CLARKSVILLE by The Monkees



CLOSE TO YOU by The Carpenters A real classic.



THE YO-YO MAN by The Smothers Brothers



A HORSE WITH NO NAME by America



THANK GOD I'M A COUNTRY BOY by John Denver along with narration by John Denver with Glen Campbell, Johnny Cash, and Roger Miller accompanying. COUNTRY ROADS with Johnny Cash.



A FIFTH OF BEETHOVEN by Walter Murphy



ROLL OVER BEETHOVEN by The Electric Light Orchestra




Okay, any other classic and fun oldies you will have to find for yourself. I still am trying to think of one instrumental that is never played on the radio anymore. But back in the early 70's it was really popular, along with Popcorn and The Horse and other instrumentals of the era. If you can think of what it is, let me know. Like you can get into my mind and figure it out, right? Well, it was a really good song for driving, if you know what I mean. There are other songs I would like to find on YouTube, but my memory is not what it used to be I guess. Most of what I do find is more by accident than anything else. I hope you enjoyed this mix of memories.

Amazing Music Machine Videos

Just found this and had to add it to this blog! This is soooo cool. If you enjoy drum solos, you won't believe this one!

After I found the drum machine, I checked out some of the other videos listed there. It's called "Animusic". I am adding some of them here. These are amazing...just how do they do this one? I sure would like to know. The music is soothing and beautiful.

There are a lot more of these on YouTube. These are so interesting. And so creative. I am having a lot of fun just finding more of these to watch.

You can go to http://www.animusic.com/ and to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animusic for more information.

Frustrated and Confused

Some people who know me might say I am always confused...

Okay, if you check into my photography blog you will see what is upsetting me so much right now. As much as I love my new camera, especially taking home videos of my grandkids, I am now having problems with the fact that those same videos come out in .mov format. They work great on my computer. But the sound does not burn to CD's along with the video, and without the sound, the videos don't mean a lot. The kids are doing a lot of talking to me, to the camera, to each other. Unless you can read lips, without the sound, the videos are pretty ineffective.

Am I to give up? No. I am looking into ways to convert the .mov format to .avi without losing anything in the process. Any ideas? All I am reading is just frustrating and confusing me more.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I am changing topics now because I am tired of dealing with that issue.

Daughter and I went shopping and out to lunch today. I got that monitor off this morning finally. Two weeks of that was long enough. Grandson was cute as usual. He is a little flirt like most babies his age are.

Easter was quiet--very quiet since Daughter and Son do their Easter with their other sides of the family, as they do all the main holidays. I had a relaxing day that ended with my favorite movie, The Sound of Music. I wanted to watch The Passion of the Christ again but since I don't have that video, I settled for checking out the website and then looking online to maybe buy the video. Instead I decided to check at WalMart today when we were shopping to see if I could get it there. They were out. So I will have to wait until next paycheck and see if they have it by then...unless I decide to go ahead and order it online.

In the meantime, sit back and enjoy these clips from The Sound of Music that I found on YouTube.

Now seriously...what would these videos mean without sound if these were taken of your family? I know these are movies and the sound works. Just imagine though that your children or grandchildren were singing a good night song at a big party at your house and you took really nice video of it...and oh no...no sound!!!

Someone out there must know how to fix my problem! Come on, speak up.

Chinese, Cartoons, Carrots

Three of my grandchildren are spending the night with me tonight. Right now they are asleep, one on each end of my couch and another on the floor. They got here around 7:00 pm and the action began. It was supposed to be girl night but Grandson wanted to be part of the group, so he is here too. That's okay, he's happy, the girls are happy, and I am happy. We ordered Chinese food delivered. They shared a big order of sweet n sour chicken, tasted the egg rolls and teriyaki chicken and decided against it. They fought over the slice of carrots in each dish so I told them they could get some carrots out of the fridge to eat. So they ate a small part of their sweet n sour chicken and put it all away in the fridge for tomorrow, got out the bag of baby carrots and proceeded to eat probably half of that bag over the rest of the evening. At least they were eating healthy. After dinner they climbed up in my big chair with me and we got on the phone for them to call Grandpa. I videoed the whole conversation because oldest Granddaughter will not talk on the phone to Grandpa. She is bashful. On the other hand, youngest Granddaughter loves to just talk and talk and talk. Grandson talked for a little while, but youngest Granddaughter took over most of the conversation. After telephone time, we watched all the children's videos I have saved off of YouTube for when they all visit. Grandson has seen them so many times he knew what each one was and had to describe it for the girls. About 9:45 youngest Granddaughter asked what time it was and decided it was bedtime. So I took video of them getting their beds situated and them getting settled down, which meant many trips to the bathroom, putting the carrots back in the fridge, getting toys put away so there was room for beds and blankets and pillows. My couch is all pillows and cushions so they are now all over my living room floor and from what I saw of it, I may be barricaded in this chair for the night. Then there was a flurry of afghans and throws being spread about, folded, unfolded, shared or not shared until they finally decided it was all the way they wanted it. But then they had to go get special sleep toys from the toybox...another flurry of activity. All on video. Then the goodnight hugs and kisses, and finally they settled down to watch more cartoons until they fell asleep. We watched Bugs Bunny, Coyote and Roadrunner, The Chipmunks, and then some quiet down music videos with nice scenery. They turned over and now they are sleeping and quiet. I haven't decided where I am going to sleep tonight. They will be up with the light that comes in and makes my living room bright with all these big bay windows I have. I will feel better being in here when they wake up. And there is still that barricade of cushions and extra afghans I would have to cross. But either way I am going to have to be brave and try it. The ladies room is way down the hall from here. I am so glad I was prepared ahead of time with all these YouTube videos. Grandson always wants to sit up here with me and watch cartoons. We have the Muppets also and other old cartoons that aren't on television much anymore if at all. The neatest thing about it is that this workstation I have for working in my recliner also allows me to swing the monitor/keyboard arm out so people in the rest of the room can watch whatever is on the monitor. That is how I could let them watch cartoons to go to sleep with. Now I am relaxing here with sirius satellite radio on EZ listening while I catch up on the computer and get myself to the point where I can go to sleep. Tomorrow there may be no relaxing, at least not before noon.

For your viewing pleasure, here is Bugs Bunny in Hillbilly Hare, compliments of YouTube...one of the many videos Grandkids enjoyed tonight.

Busy Fun Day

Just a quick health note...I was back in normal sinus rhythm last night just after midnight.

Today was a good day overall. Worked this morning, had a relaxing afternoon, then went to pick up my granddaughters for their weekend with their dad. I haven't done that for awhile and it was nice to get to do that. It also gave me a chance to play with my new camera. I got some pictures and two really nice videos. The first video they thought I was just taking pictures and they were really hamming it up. Then I got them talking about things and it was really neat. Of course, they are 5 and 6 going on 30, like all little girls their age. They mentally rearranged my house while we were driving home, trying to make room for a play room for themselves instead of having their toy box in a corner of the living room. The youngest loves to clean and do all the cooking and laundry kinds of things. She even told me she got a real cooking set for Christmas so she can help cook at home. The older one loves getting attention but is bashful when she wants to be. I don't get to see these two as much as I do the other two and when I do, it is always fun. They asked if they can come spend the night with me so I need to figure out a good time for that. I am sure they will wear me out! But it will be fun.
Tonight I spent the evening getting the pictures and videos off my camera and onto the computer, emailed a few pictures, and tried to email the videos, but that didn't work. So I made a cd of all the pictures and videos of the grandkids and can just give or mail the cd when I get the chance. After that I spent the rest of the evening playing with YouTube videos and music. I really enjoy YouTube and all the good oldies music they have on there. I was enjoying myself so much I almost forgot about the blogs! Maybe I am not so addicted to blogging as I thought!

Anyone out there want to lose weight and exercise with me? We can make a progress blog if I get enough replies.