Happy Halloween

 

May your Gobblin' wishes all come true!...

 

Happy Halloween !!

Inkdeath

 

 

 Inkdeath by Cornelia Funke

Hardcover: 656 pages
Publisher: The Chicken House (September 26, 2008)
ISBN-10: 0439866286

Product Description

The Adderhead--his immortality bound in a book by Meggie's father, Mo--has ordered his henchmen to plunder the villages. The peasants' only defense is a band of outlaws led by the Bluejay--Mo's fictitious double, whose identity he has reluctantly adopted. But the Book of Immortality is unraveling, and the Adderhead again fears the White Women of Death. To bring the renegade Bluejay back to repair the book, the Adderhead kidnaps all the children in the kingdom, dooming them to slavery in his silver mines unless Mo surrenders. First Dustfinger, now Mo: Can anyone save this cursed story?

Imagine an author inside of his own book, trying to write more into the story when things aren't as he thought they should be. 

A new story being written within a story?  Can the outcome of something you create for a new part of a story really be what you thought it would be, or would there be factors you hadn't counted on?  Can you cause a death? Can you cause someone to come back from the dead simply by writing it that way? 

Inkdeath is the conclusion to Inkheart and Inkspell... at over 600 pages long I can't say I was disappointed.  For most of the book the story just kept unraveling and at times I just felt as if these characters could go on forever telling their story.

If I were to find anything at all wrong with ANY of these three books it might be that although the ending began to build nicely, with excitement, it was still a little of a let down...just a little, but not enough for me to say that you wouldn't enjoy this trilogy to it's fullest.

It was filled with fabulous characters, and a land in which any fantasy reader might like to "really" visit... and all you need to do that is the right reader to get you there! 

It certainly had it's share of villains, and they were as despicable as any villain could be! 

I just found the entire story so well told that I hope when the movie of Inkheart finally gets released in January that they decide to do the other two movies too!

A Sample from Inkdeath (pg. 148)

 "What about your second child?" Resa went on.  "Do you want the baby born in this world?"

Mo looked around him , and once more Meggie felt something she had long known: By now her father loved this world as much as she and Resa had once done.  Perhaps he even loved it more.

"Why not?' he retorted, "Do you want it born in a world where what it longs for can be found only in books?"

Resa's voice shook when she replied, but now it was with anger.  "How can you say such a thing?  Everything you find here was born in our world.  Where else did Fenoglio get it all from?"

"How should I know?  Do you really still think there's only one real world, and the others are just pale offshoots?"

Something to ponder, don't ya think?!

This trilogy is a keeper fersure! I envy anyone planning on reading this set of books now that they are all out in print and you don't have to wait in between books!!

 

Got Candy?

I hope everyone has purchased the candy you will need for this Friday when the witches and goblins come a knockin' at your door!

A thought crossed my mind but since the above skull is David's and not mine.. and because I don't drive so I can't get to a pet store I can't really do it.. I thought this skull would look neat in a small fish tank with lots of mealworms crawling in and out and all around it..heh.. then keep the tank right next to the bowl of candy and see how many kids will actually take a candy bar lol..   well.. ya know.. it was a thought.

Speaking of Halloween...

Recently I found a blog. (like I don't have a long enough list of blogs to visit!)

This one is more centered around movies,.. including old movies, and ya'll know I enjoy old movies.  Anyway, the blog is written by a young fellow named Dan and he has a good list of "must see" Halloween movies so I thought I'd pimp his blog and give you his link to check it out.  Here it is:  Daniel's Critical Corner.

Just in Time..

Well, I did it!  I replaced all the photo's that I've posted for the last 3 years!  And none too soon... the last 3 weeks worth (prior to aol announcing the collapse of journals) had turned into little red X's a week sooner than they said they would.

In order to replace those pics I had to have blogspot open, photobucket open, my copy of my journal in word open, notepad open and paintshop pro open!  It was not fun!

Now I ask that if anyone should, at any time, go into my archives and fine little red X's instead of a photo to let me know.  There shouldn't be any, but at times I was so tired while replacing them that I may have made a mistake here and there.

As much work as that was (and it WAS!) other people still had it worse.  Some folks, once they uploaded photo's to the web, would delete them from their hard drive (I did not.  I have 59 folders worth of pictures from my journal alone!).   If they wanted to save their photo's they had to download them all back to their hard drive (one at a time) before they could then upload them to another site to replace them in blogspot! 

Besides whatever pictures I uploaded thru blogger I also uploaded some 2,112 to photobucket!

I think a bunch of us need to send AOL a nice thank you note ..heh.

Anyway.. it's done, and I don't ever want to repeat that again!

I hope all the aol journals managed to make some sort of transition, even if they don't/ didn't replace photo's..

It's a shame aol is slowly taking away all the perks to being on aol.. I have a feeling soon there won't be aol at all.  I know many don't like aol but it's still a shame because for people like me (old and not too bright) it is a program that allows the untrained to be able to get around on a computer.

On a completely different note...

I am only half way thru Inkdeath but slowly getting back to reading it.. I can already tell anyone who read her first two books, that she has another winner in this one!

Friday...

I just want to thank everyone for your good wishes on my brothers passing.

David and I are doing fairly well. I think we are even a bit better than I expected.

We buried my brother yesterday, on a gorgeous fall day, with the trees in the cemetary at their prettiest. He was surrounded in "the Glen" with pretty reds and yellow trees. He would have liked that.

I was presented an American flag folded in the Armed Services fashion because my brother was a Vet. I didn't expect that.

I'm not really facing the far ahead future yet, but just taking a day at a time for now. I even got back to my book last night, though I admit I didn't read for very long. Maybe a little more today.

I know I will have ups and downs for a while now, but I think without realizing it, the 3 months in the hospital gave us fair warning. So.. I'm dong ok.

Since I don't work, and David went back to work and I am here alone, I will be at my computer to help keep my mind busy. I am still trying to save my blog photo's and I think I will be able to do that before time runs out with aol. It may seem strange to be doing this at this point and time, but it helps !

Thanks again.. I will begin to get back to reading and commenting in other blogs, slow but sure.

My Brother the Artist

James McCormick

March 17, 1939- October 19,2008

 

My brother passed away this evening of congestive heart failure.

A Fall Type Day..

My reading is going slowly, which I don't really mind since it's a book I wouldn't mind how long it was! (Inkdeath)

I've been working my butt off uploading and replacing all the photo's for my blog from when I began in Oct. 2005 until about a month ago when aol informed us that aol was deleting all aol journals and web space where photo's were uploaded to.

Actually, I am doing rather well at this.. I began at the beginning (duh) and have worked my way up to the beginning of Feb 2008! I have uploaded about 1,700 pics and replaced them.  The worst part is going in the html of each post to replace the new address for each photo.. time consuming and makes for a sore neck and shoulders each day .. I wake early, sometimes 5 am and work on it until 9 or 10 am when I finally poop out and just can't stand to do one more post !  I've deleted a few posts but not many.  Mostly when I get extremely tired and come up against a post with more than 10 pictures in one post!

To say that I will be more than happy when this is over is a gross understatement!!!

I will admit it's even more tiresome because of this head cold that I can't seem to get rid of.. *sigh*

Today, now that my "work hours" are over (don't want to see another old post today) I am watching  blogs of people doing the "24 hour read-a-thon"

Other than reading their on going blogs about their reading my only contribution to their great strides to read more than normal in a 24 hr period would be for me to post a photo of my latest book porn.....  taaa daaaa....

To be honest there's not a book here I could finish in 24 hours at the rate I read! lol

I think it's time I take a break from the computer and do a little of my own reading in Inkdeath.  I hope everyone is having a great weekend!

Did You Hear The One About...

Sometimes things you hear on Oprah can really give you those "light bulb moments", as Oprah likes to say.

The other day they were discussing "rudeness".

The topic of Cell Phones came up, about how people misuse and abuse them... I smiled.... a lot. I hate cell phones except for emergencies.

Then a woman in the audience stood up and talked about a "rude use of the cell phone" that happened to her.

It seems she had a doctor's appointment.  She kept her appointment and when she got into the room was told to undress from the waist down and lay down and put her feet in the stirrups.  I know women reading this have all done it .. and you men know what woman go thru during exams.

She got in the stirrups and the doctors cell phone rang...

He answered it!  (It was his private number and so was not an emergency.)

Then he proceeded to talk on the phone for several minutes, leaving the lady laying there with her feet in the stirrups.

The audience was appalled.  I was appalled.  You should be appalled.

I don't understand why people don't realize how they abuse the privilege of owning a cell phone.  

Why do you answer the cell phone while in a bathroom??

Why do you answer the cell phone while driving?

Why do you answer the cell phone in the middle of conversing with someone face to face??

Is it true that no one has learned that you can TURN OFF THE PHONE when you are busy doing other things, like driving , or taking care of other business.  If there's an emergency.. trust me.. THEY WILL CALL BACK!  (and odds are there's not a damn thing you can do about the emergency anyway)... and.. they have the capability of leaving an message if it's important don't they?!!  (hello?)

ok.. that's it .. I know I didn't need to get on the soap box and I wouldn't have if I didn't hear that story on Oprah. 

.. Think about it.. you could use some quiet time!

Inkspell

Inkspell by Cornelia Funke.

Mass Market Paperback: 656 pages
Publisher: The Chicken House (April 1, 2007)
ISBN-10: 0439554012

Amazon.com Review
Just a few chapters into Inkspell, Mo (a.k.a. "Silvertongue") sagely says to his daughter, "Stories never really end, Meggie, even if the books like to pretend they do. Stories always go on. They don't end on the last page, any more than they begin on the first page." A fitting meta-observation for this, the unplanned second installment in Cornelia Funke's beloved now-trilogy.

Of course, it's that sort of earnest, almost gushing veneration of books and book-loving that made the absorbing suspense-fantasy Inkheart so wonderful in the first place, with that lit-affection getting woven integrally into the plot (Inkheart being both Funke's first book in the series, and the fictitious book within that book, authored by the frustrated Fenoglio, now trapped within the book, er, within the book. Fenoglio, perhaps not surprisingly, self-referentially wishes in Inkspell that he had written a sequel to Inkheart.) Inkspell should serve as a special treat for fans of the first book, as characters from Inkheart who have found themselves in the "real world" (if there is such a thing) find themselves read back into their own mythic, word-spun world--along with some of our favorite "real-world" characters. As with the previous book, Funke's greatest accomplishment here is telling such a rich and involving (and fun!) story, while still managing sweet, subtle commentary on the nature of words and meaning. Expect a tantalizing finale, too--as Funke says, "No reader will forgive me the ending, though, without a part three."

I think this Inkheart trilogy has a magical hold on me. Although book two, Inkspell, took me longer to read than it normally would have (due to trying to save my blog photo's).. it still wouldn't let me set it down and not go to it until I was finished with what I had to do.

It beckoned me, "come hither and read just a few chapters!" (yeah, right, just a few..cha!)

It shouldn't be calling to me... I've read it before... but the whispers reached my, hard of hearing, ears and I would pick up the book and stroke my hand over it lovingly. There's something about the Inkheart books that insists you run your fingers over the smooth, silky feeling cover and hug the book even before you begin to read each day. As I reach for the bookmark, I find myself nearly speaking out loud to the book: Here I come again... what dangers and rescues are waiting for me today?

There's just to much going on to leave the book resting on the desk for very long.

In Inkspell, Meg, Mo, Resa and Fenoglio have been read into Inkheart we have to find out if they survive!.. what a great second book ! It doesn't slow down the progression of the story for a moment! Cornelia's powerful characters are so unforgettable and many so endearing, that you have to visit them each and every day. What's Meggie up to now? Dustfinger is a dad?! Can Farid really talk to fire like Dustfinger? And is Mo really the Bluejay?

And now that book 3 has finally been released I no longer have to wait to find out "what can possibly happen next?!" !!

For your enjoyment, just a few quotes from Inkspell:

"Of course!" As Orpheus spoke, the hellhound bared its teeth and glared at Farid. "To start with, the words were rather hard to find. Perhaps because I was so excited. As I told you at our first meeting, this book, Inkheart"... Orpheus stroked the volume... "was my favorite when I was a child. I was eleven when I last saw it. I kept borrowing it from our run down library until it was stolen. Unfortunately, I hadn't been brave enough to steal it myself, and then someone else did, but I never forgot it. This book taught me once and for all, how easily you can escape this world with the help of words! You can find friends between the pages of a book, wonderful friends! Friends like you, fire-eaters, giants, fairies....! Have you any idea how bitterly I wept when I read about your death? But you're alive, and everything will be all right! You will retell the story...."

Farther into the book:

"Were there other people who could read aloud the way I can? I didn't believe it until Dustfinger came up to me in the musty, ramshackle library. Oh God, how my heart beat when I saw his face with the three pale scars left by Basta's knife! It beat faster than on the day I first kissed a girl. It really was him, the melancholy hero of my very favorite book. And I helped him to disappear into it again, but what about me? Hopeless." He laughed, a sad and bitter laugh. "I just hope he doesn't have to die the death that idiot of an author intended for him. No, he can't! He'll be all right. I'm sure he will. After all, Capricorn is dead and Basta's a coward. Do you know, I wrote to that Fenoglio, the author, when I was twelve, telling him he must change his story, or at least write a sequel in which Dustfinger comes back? He never answered my letter, any more than Inkheart ever had a sequel. Oh, well. " Orpheus sighed deeply.

I think I'd really like to meet Cornelia Funke and thank her in person for having such a great story hidden inside of her, and writing it all down so everyone could read and enjoy it... I'm glad I still have one book left before I have to say good-bye to these fantastic characters and fabulous story!

Bits 'n' Pieces

Ever have times when your thoughts jump all around?  Some things on your mind are very important, and others not.  But how important things are doesn't set the precedence.

I've been dealing with heavy stress the past few months (years actually).. at times I think my mind picks little things to come to the front of my mind, because I know I can't deal with bigger things right now.

One small thing that leaped out at me was a photo on the "aol opening page" as I opened it yesterday.  The caption under the photo said, "do you know who this is?"  The answer was: Why yes I do!  This is Tony Dow.. he played Wally Cleaver, the big brother to Beaver, in Leave It To Beaver...

So I clicked on the article to see why the photo was there.  In turn it led to a website.. this web site.  If you follow this link you will find a group of photo's of actors "then and now"...

That made me think even more.

About a book I thought would be great to have, but was not written yet.  The idea came to me when I helped  at the autograph shows when I lived In California.  Being able to meet and help many of the older generation of actors and actresses always made me feel good inside and smile a lot. 

Even though they didn't look like when I first remembered seeing them, be it a television show like Leave It to Beaver (Wally, really was a cutie!) or a movie, they all did something for me.  They all took me away from my trials and tribulations for the amount to time I watched the show they were in or the movie they made.

In their own way, they were a spice of life.  Something to lift you up for an hour or more and make you feel many things, many emotions.. but none of them related to   what you were going back to when that show or movie was over.

It's a pretty wonderful thing these people do... and whenever I still go to a show and look at their faces and listen to stories other people tell them about how they affected their life.. I still smile.

And so it was, many years ago that I dreamed of a book I wanted to write.  Not that I am a writer mind you, but I didn't have to be if this book was done properly. Others could tell the stories and I could just type it up.

First, of course, there would be the "then" picture and a recent photo for the book.  Then each actor that agreed to the photo's  would also be asked to tell a short story into a recorder.  I wanted it to be short, but something that stayed with them all their life.  Maybe a funny joke someone played on them while making a movie, or someone who befriended them and stayed their best friend all these long years.  A little something that you and I would not know, but was forever memorable to them.

Mostly, I hoped it would be a comical story.. to keep the people reading the book smiling.

Along with the pictures and the short story each would tell that would then be written up (and not used without final approval from that person), then I had hoped that many of these people, who by the way, probably do not work at their craft anymore, or if they do are difficult to get a hold of, would also provide an address (could be a po box or a manager) where those who would like to write a fan letter or send for an autographed photo could do so.  And of course each person in the book would have a credit list.

Many retired actors have no way fans can contact them.  You or I may think that would be a blessing... but not always.  Which is why the book would not be for everyone.. but there are many who I think would like it. 

For a number or years now I've sat with quite a few of these actors and actresses for hours at a time..and one thing I've seen, is the happiness in their faces when fans come up to them still gushing to meet them, even if they hadn't make a movie or appearance in many years.   They beam when they hear people tell them how much they have admired their work. And I honestly think it does them good inside.

Way back then, when I thought of the possibility of the book it was tentatively called "Then 'n' Now" or "Remember Me?".  But that was all before life got in the way..

That little website brought that all back to the front of my mind.. ..  one photo and one caption.. weird how things sneak up on you.

Oh Gawd...

I feel like .................................... poop.

I had an awful sore throat yesterday.. hurt like heck to swallow, and my doc is out of town. (naturally)

Today I woke at 4 am.. sneezing some, blowing a lot. 

It is now 11:20 and my head feels like a balloon wanting to pop.  I am still sneezing some, blowing a lot... my throat no longer hurts, but I can't breath long enough to take a nap without sneezing or needing to blow my nose!

*groan*

From 4 till nearly 6, in between tissues, I was working on replacing photo's in my archives...

Sometimes I wonder where my brain disappears to when I make posts!

In one post alone I had sixteen pictures...  that's SIXTEEN !  

I read the post and it made me smile though. *sigh*.. I was hoping it would be one I could just delete, but it was a "memory" of my assault I did against Sherry Lansing when she was the head of Paramount Studios, and they were going to make a new Star Trek Movie but were "dumping" the originals.   Needless to say this did not thrill me.  Not that I didn't like the people from The Next Generation.. I do like them... I just didn't think they had to dump the "originals",  I thought there was room for both. (silly me).  Anyway, I sent Lansing lots of mail to show my displeasure with her choices... heh. 

Needless to say, they made the Next Generation Movie, and dumped the originals anyway *sigh*.. but I had to do what I had to do. (De was pleased, even though he couldn't say so to anyone at Paramount lol)

So.. I had to save the 16 pictures to the post...

I feel so awful with this..head cold (?)... I sure hope I don't have any move posts with that many pictures to upload and move!

Make My Life Easier.. I Dare You!

Another blogger friend, Astaryth is one of those people I can always count on to give me help when I am drowning!

With the mass exit from AOL going on she posted some helpful things to those who only have AOL journals and have never blogged anywhere else. (admitting here, that AOL does/ did have the simplest journal going. You sure didn't have to be even close to being a techie to be able to journal there.) It's a shame that they are closing the journals up. I realize you can't keep things going if you aren't making money when you are a business... but it's the perks that keep a person with the product.. at least it has been for me.

Anyway, I digress...

Astaryth, happened to mention a little program she used to write up her blog in so that she didn't have to write it directly in her blog. Knowing Astaryth understands much of that techie stuff I drooled at the thought of the program and began to check it out. My first discovery was that I would have to take a bunch of stuff I didn't want in order to have this "writer". Once again Astaryth came to the rescue and told me how to get "just the writer".. once again I began to panic. Would I be able to use this program??? (I am also one of those people who hate having things on their computer that I don't use! I'm not a "lets try and see what this is" person and then be stuck with it on the computer.)

I took the leap of faith, and I am writing this post in the Window's Live Writer right now... so far .. so good.. but there are things I will need to learn that's for sure. But even if I can only write this up and have it in my blog without the formatting going wacky on me I will be very happy. I'm not all that happy working on "drafts" so I hope this works, and I think it will do great!

If something like this interests you here is a link to get it (yes it's free). http://get.live.com/writer/overview.

Well, I wanted to share this tidbit, in case it would help anyone, and I've done that...

I hope everyone had a good day!

Copy and Paste

Since my blog means so much to me, I am working as hard as I can to save it from disappearing. (well, the photo's anyway)..

I only have until the end of this month to do this. Once the photo's disappear, so do the names of what pics when where in the html.

I've been doing this a few days now.. needles to say, my neck hurts my back hurts and my butt hurts! I'm not used to hours at a time, none stop , working at the computer. Before this the only time I've done that kind of work is when I've gotten a new computer and had to put everything back on it and do all sorts of setting etc. That would take me about a week of 10 hrs a day to get it all going again...and it was grueling!... and so is trying to upload and replace 3,000 photo's in a month! I honestly doubt I will make it, but I can't just sit and wait for the photo's to disappear, thanks to AOL.

AOL did come up with a good transfer from AOL to blogspot. And it looks like everything transferred just fine. The problem remains that when AOL deletes the space where we uploaded our photo's the pictures will still disappear because their html address will be an AOL address.

Now when I open a post in archives and see more than one photo (which is almost all the time).. I groan! I have to upload them to photobucket, copy the script, delete (IMG) at the head and foot of the script, then copy and paste it into each post. This of course means I have to eyeball every html post and find the AOL jpg address for each photo so I paste the corrected one in, then post the old post ,and hit the back button twice to get back to the archive list.

It is very time consuming! After each session I could use a good rubdown!.. or any rubdown at all!.. *groan* I think I should never use a photo in my posts again! ... but it's something I enjoy alot, working with photo's in psp. *sigh*

I can't win. So, I will close with some words of wisdom:

"Never accept a drink from a urologist."

Inkheart

Inkheart by Cornelia Funke




Paperback: 560 pages
Publisher: Scholastic Paperbacks (June 1, 2005)
ISBN-10: 0439709105

Amazon.com ReviewMeggie’s father, Mo, has an wonderful and sometimes terrible ability. When he reads aloud from books, he brings the characters to life--literally. Mo discovered his power when Maggie was just a baby. He read so lyrically from the the book Inkheart, that several of the book’s wicked characters ended up blinking and cursing on his cottage floor. Then Mo discovered something even worse--when he read Capricorn and his henchmen out of Inkheart, he accidentally read Meggie’s mother in.
Meggie, now a young lady, knows nothing of her father's bizarre and powerful talent, only that Mo still refuses to read to her. Capricorn, a being so evil he would "feed a bird to a cat on purpose, just to watch it being torn apart," has searched for Meggie's father for years, wanting to twist Mo's powerful talent to his own dark means. Finally, Capricorn realizes that the best way to lure Mo to his remote mountain hideaway is to use his beloved, oblivious daughter Meggie as bait!

This is a reread for me. The first of a trilogy that I read some time ago. It's a YA book, but I enjoy it so much I can tell you that adults will like it every bit as much as a young person will.

It's the story of a young girl (Meggie) and her father (Mo). When Meggie was very young Mo would read to her, and one night a strange thing happened.. characters from the book he was reading appeared in his house! ... and his wife "disappeared".

That was nine years ago and now the past is catching up to Mo. One of the unsavory characters that came out of the book has been searching for him to read things out of a book for him. Needless to say, this is a book about... books! (I'm smiling).

Inkheart has great character building and fabulous characters both good and evil! It has already been made into a movie that will be released in January. The movie managed to entice the likes of Brandon Frazier who plays Mo and Helen Mirrin who plays Elinor and Andy Serkis who plays the evil Capricorn.

Quotes from Inkheart:

"If you take a book with you on a journey," Mo had said when he put the first one in her box, "an odd thing happens: The book begins collecting your memories. And forever after you have only to open that book to be back where you first read it. It will all come into your mind with the very first words: the sights you saw in that place, what it smelled like, the ice cream you ate while you were reading it ... yes, books are like flypaper. Memories cling to the printed page better than anything else."
(Mo knows!)

(Basta speaking) "Who thought up that story?" he asked. "Your father? You think I look stupid? Everyone knows that stories in books are as old as the hills and were written by people dead and buried long ago." he jabbed the blade of the knife into the wood, pulled it our, and jabbed it in again. Flatnose was trampling around overhead.
(Everyone knows books are written by dead people)

(Elinor) She wept, so loudly that she even alarmed herself and put a hand to her mouth. A twig cracked under her feet, and the light went out behind one of the windows in Capricorn's village. She had been right. The world was a terrible place, cruel, pitiless, dark as a bad dream. Not a good place to live in. Only in books could you find pity, comfort happiness... and love. Books loved anyone who opened them, they gave yo security and friendship and didn't ask anything in return; they never went away, never, not even when you treated them badly. Love, truth, beauty, wisdom and consolation against death. Who had said that? Someone else who loved books; she couldn't remember the author's name, only the words. Words are immortal.. until someone comes along and burns them.
(No one loves books like Elinor)

I will move on to reread Inkspell, and then finally get to read the newly released 3rd book called Inkdeath!

So far, this trilogy and one other (Bartimaeus trilogy) are the greatest kids books I've read and would highly recommend them!

(this is not to say I haven't read others that are fabulous.. but these two trilogies are "complete".. whereas others I am reading still have not completed their stories..)

Three Years Ago

Today is October 5th.

That means that I've been journaling/ blogging for a full 3 years now.

Who'da thunk? Not me, that's for sure!

For reasons listed in the lower posts, I've been going thru my archives alot. It's amazing what when thru my head 3 years ago...

For instance... 3 years ago I posted something about my autograph collection...






...and showed these few photo's I took.. A few of the people in these photo's who were still alive have passed on since then. It's incredible how fast we loose them.

Three years ago I posted about my first love, when I was but 10 yrs old. A movie actor named Turhan Bey...


... he was supposed to marry me when I got older and protect me like he protected Maria Montez in Ali Baba & the Forty Thieves.

Well.. I sure got older.. but he never married me! *sigh*

Three years ago I remembered The Mickey Mouse Club and especially watching "Spin and Marty"!.. (at this point i was in love with "Marty" played by David Stollery)




(David Stollery. Harry Carey Jr. Tim Considine)

... David Stollery didn't marry me either. (I didn't score well in this department!) But I did meet him and got a big hug from him!

Three years ago I was remembering doing volunteer work for Tippi Hedren at Shambala Preserve when I lived in California..

Daisy Cougar was my personal favorite animal there.

And 3 years ago I remembered someone I miss very much, my friend, DeForest Kelley. Actually, I remembered him several times.. in several posts.. heh.

(convention pics I took)


(DeForest fooling his audience and telling them I was Lily Tomlin... De loved a good joke.

(at a picnic at the house I lived in )

Three years ago today... I started all that... never realizing that it would be continued for so long. My blog has changed over the years. Now, it's mostly about the books I read. But I still put in some memories, and I also write about other things I enjoy, like old movies and autograph shows.

It's been a lot of work, but fun at the same time.
It was raining when I began this post... now the sun is out... I guess it's going to be a good Anniversary day after all.

Margaritaville

The News about aol and my blog continues to weigh heavy on me.

I need a drink! Maybe several!




I just wanted to remind anyone who ever thought about checking in some of my archives that, since I don't know the outcome of all of this that you might want to consider scrolling through some it while you can.

There are many photo's of my friend DeForest Kelley in there and if you go back far enough there are posts with photo's of me as a teenager!! (back in the days of dinosaurs and such! )

Here's a few links to some posts from other halloweens and posts concerning DeForest if you are interested but don't want to dig too deep into archives:

halloween posts from other years..

http://herethereandeverywhere2ndedition.blogspot.com/2005/10/halloween-doodles-from-paint-shop-pro.html

http://herethereandeverywhere2ndedition.blogspot.com/2005/10/halloween-memory.html

http://herethereandeverywhere2ndedition.blogspot.com/2006/10/this-weeks-halloween-animation.html

http://herethereandeverywhere2ndedition.blogspot.com/2006/10/halloween-is-growing-close.html

http://herethereandeverywhere2ndedition.blogspot.com/2006/10/witches-n-bats-n-goblins-oh-my.html


DeForest stories

http://herethereandeverywhere2ndedition.blogspot.com/2005/12/pookey-and-movie-star.html

http://herethereandeverywhere2ndedition.blogspot.com/2005/12/one-more-story-for-jj.html

http://herethereandeverywhere2ndedition.blogspot.com/2005/12/undiscovered-country.html

http://herethereandeverywhere2ndedition.blogspot.com/2005/12/merry-christmas-to-me.html

http://herethereandeverywhere2ndedition.blogspot.com/2006/01/is-the-party-to-whom-i-am-speaking.html

http://herethereandeverywhere2ndedition.blogspot.com/2006/01/january-20th.html

http://herethereandeverywhere2ndedition.blogspot.com/2006/01/he-wasnt-good-guy.html

http://herethereandeverywhere2ndedition.blogspot.com/2006/03/de-cowboy.html

http://herethereandeverywhere2ndedition.blogspot.com/2006/03/part-ii.html

http://herethereandeverywhere2ndedition.blogspot.com/2006/05/toby-jack-and-rory-calhoun.html

http://herethereandeverywhere2ndedition.blogspot.com/2006/05/boys-will-be-boys.html

http://herethereandeverywhere2ndedition.blogspot.com/2006/05/stuntman.html

Ok... time for that drink!


oh.. one last thing.. did anyone get multiple "posts" from me the other day?? I did replace a handful of pics and had to click "publish post" for it to renew .. let me know please in comments.

The Good.. The Bad.. & the Very Ugly

First of all.. anyone who gets any sort of feed when I post, I apologize if you received a few of them today.

I am in a quandary as to what to do, or what I want to do, or what I will do.

I know.. this makes no sense to you. But it will in a moment. Actually, I didn't plan on talking about this just yet but the fact that as I did what I did in my blog today and suddenly realized people may be getting alerts that I am posting something new, when I am not... and so I need to discuss this.

I am about to have a blog anniversary.. this Sunday will be 3 years I have been doing a journal/blog. I am also coming up on my 1,000 post! And anyone who has read me for any length of time knows that I can't make a post without photo's.

What some may or may not know is that I began journaling on aol. When they put ads on my journal I migrated here to blogspot. Being older I sometimes don't learn new programs without a lot of help, and so when frustrated what I did was to make a "private" journal in aol... I would write my post there, upload all photo's to aol file manager/ aol pictures.. a total now of over 3,000 photo's since I began, and then simply copy and paste my post to blogspot (and to wordpress, which I couldn't master either!).

Are you following me so far?

1- 3 yrs journaling
2- nearly 1,000 posts
3- nearly 3,000 photo's used
4- all written on aol and pasted to blogspot

I received an email from aol the other day...
They are closing up their journals.
We were advised to back up our journals and to download all photo's from file manager and aol pictures because they too would be deleted.

Did I hear a groan?

Let me repeat, I've used 3,000 pictures in my blog, who's html address leads to aol, who will be deleting all files the end of October.

Did I hear a curse word or two?

So... there is good news and bad news.

Good news is, that I have my entire blog copied on Word and saved to cd, and I also have every photo I've ever used saved in folders and saved to cd. So, when they delete file manager and aol pictures I won't actually "loose" my pictures.

Bad news is: every photo on my blog will disappear. Three years worth of posts that need photo's to enjoy the post will simply disappear. And for those who don't already know this, you cannot copy and paste from Word into Blogspot. Well.. you can.. but you loose all your formatting. Re: all paragraphs run together and no photo's copy over.

Aol says they are trying to find a way to transfer an aol journal to blogspot. I wonder why since they will be void of the photo's people have used. Some of the bloggers on aol have been doing their blog for 5 years!

Yes the words may transfer but, let me repeat... if it is COPIED over to blogspot, all the html for pictures will still contain aol addresses and those will be deleted.

Still following me?

After I had my, ohhhhh third or fourth cry over this (I'm not stressed enough with my brother mind you), I started doing some small things.

1- I opened a photobucket account (free).
2- Uploaded all the photo's I used for Myrtle's blog (since there weren't all that many).
And replaced all the photo's in Myrtle's blog.
3- Then I uploaded all the pics in my sidebar to "Here There and Everywhere" to Photobucket and copied all the html to those in my template. So, now those won't disappear.

I began acting like I could handle this.

But, I am doubtful.

There's no way that in one month I can upload and replace 3,000 pictures! (though I stupidly tired a few today, which is why you who have "feeds" may have gotten post notices. Once again.. I'm sorry 'bout that.)

So... unless AOL comes up with a transfer that INCLUDES pictures, basically.. I am screwed. I do realize most people do not go into archives. But I do. And honestly, at this moment I don't know that I will continue to blog once the photo's disappear at the end of October.

For now I will try using photobucket. I've also found that if I upload from blogspot and pics can only be "small/ med/ large" that it quite often ruins (pixelates) the picture. So, we'll see. But ya'll know I'm not a patient person and WAITING is not something I do well ... and waiting to see if aol actually comes up with something is so doubtful to me, mainly because of the photo's to everyone's journals being on aol file manager and aol photo's.

.... oh happy day.... Not!