7 Color Lagoon

I have recently begun reading aloud for a fascinating and, I believe, worthwhile site, LibriVox.org .

One of my first attempts was for a recurring series they produce weekly of a short poem read by different volunteers. This week’s was “I’m Nobody” by Emily Dickinson which can be downloaded (individual readings or entirely) at I’m Nobody .

My sound engineer capabilities were never used before and have a long way to go. My reading abilities have been but, sadly, I hear and feel the weaknesses that have crept in from illness and age. Still, this is such a worthwhile project and I enjoy reading to others.

I just completed my first longer work, “The Signalman”, a short ghost story by Charles Dickens from 1866. It will probably appear in Ghost Stories #004 next month.

Books

I was playing with some image-editing software and this ripe-red picture from my garden. The gardener/guard brought a cutting from somewhere and it took. The result is a durable, waxy flower of long duration about 8 inches long. It is far from delicate but pleasant to have.

The Blogger Photoblog is OK but only OK. I am working slowly to build a better web-site and galleries of pictures in a pleasing format. It is taking time. The new image editing and gallery-building software is marvelous but complex. Stay tuned.

Mexico
Photography
Flowers

Knight, Death and the Devil Visit Pictures From Old Books.

The New York Times used this as their “Quotation of the Day” today.

“The American people have lost faith in the president’s conduct of this war. The American people see the reality of the war; the president does not.”
SPEAKER NANCY PELOSI, a California Democrat, in bringing an end to a charged debate in the House.

I must also mention — there will be more mention of it, description and examples — a wonderful site for lovers of books and people who either want/need audio books or are willing to volunteer their time and reading skills to read aloud and record books no longer limited by copyright. I was enough impressed with the idea to begin my little recording studio for http://www.librivox.org.

Audacity is a freeware audio production application that makes it possible — or GarageBand for those with the money. A new microphone will help my recordings when I find one here or have one shipped from the States. It is a cross-platform application which will work on Mac, Windows and Linux. Now that I have read a few short poems and a Dickens ghost story I am beginning to learn how to edit the wave forms of my voice. It is also taking time to get so used to hearing and seeing my voice.

Visit an article I wrote and posted on another blog of mine Travel Dangers and which is being featured in the Politics section of Blogcritics Magazine..

It must share credit with Mark Schannon from Virginia who worked hard as my editor to put it into much more readable shape. One quality of Blogcritics is that it is a compendium of writing that is edited with an expectation of some professionalism. Visit.

My cousin sent me a link to this short movie which is quite sappy, sweet and aimed at meditating, dog-lovers and, finally, an advertisement for a book on meditating with your dog.

In spite of all these things I would normally avoid, sappiness and dogs, it is a sweet interlude, well-done and, who knows, it might be time for me to have a dog and learn to meditate with it. The meditation and the dog could be comforting.

Health
Lifestyles
Dogs

The Australian Pine is said, I was told by a Briton living in Miami, is a predator species out of its native environment and illegal to plant in Florida.

This one has been a horrible pain. It was obviously a cute little tree 30 years ago when the house was built. Its roots were now threatening the house and the septic. It took much to cut it with its massive, multiple trunks.

Science
Environment