Wishing everyone a wonderful summer,

beautifully safe short trips

and long and restful vacations.

Sorry about the late desktop wallpaper. 
I mean well, I’m just slowing down. 

The arrows have a meaning, sort of forward looking
which I hope will be the direction this country I love will head soon!

the larger size, CLICK HERE

I almost forgot, I will be posting off and on but am closing comments.  I have not been able to reciprocate and I don’t expect anyone to comment when I can’t keep up with you.  If you read and enjoy or find some of the desktops useful, wonderful.

Best to everyone,
Becca

 

Wherever you are in this world

Happy Father’s Day
Xanga

  

Desktops for Guys is not what I am best at.  I have a few I hope lean towards guy related interests as  some of my favorite Xangans are Guys. 

All of the work in the graphics is my own.  I am using photos taken by friends from a photo group. 

Smaller than the original but I thought you might like to see where the desktops originated from.  I believe this is a scene in Canada.

 

One of my renditions.  Click on the desktop graphics for 800 x 600.  This one is a bit on the psychedelic side but I liked it.  1024 x 768

 

 

This photo was taken in Australia.  The graphics member who supplied it said dress it up so I did.

 

800 x 600, a night life variation.  Great for reminders of your out late drinking days or maybe you still go out late and dance all night long. 
1024 x 768

 

This is Scotland and it is a masterpiece of modern machinery, called the Falkirk Wheel.  Here is a link to read about it, CLICK HERE

 

800 x 600 in my version  and 1024 x 768

 

This mess lives in Australia but I understand it will look new once again.

 

800 x 600, Grab this desktop if you are into demolition derby.  Bring it up by clicking the link and you will see its not a bad desktop but graphically interesting and it looks just like the cars at the derby.  1024 x 768

   

800 x 600, I am not a car person.  Our challenge was to graphically restore this Chevy Nomad.  Not too bad for someone who knows nothing about cars.  1024 x 768

 

This is a scene in Bermuda

  

800 x 600 click the pic.  I pictured a night like this in Bermuda and have used this on my desktop for a feeling of tranquility.  If you would like to lounge in Bermuda, I can assure you this desktop has that lounging, peaceful feel and will carry you to Bermuda in a wink of an eye.  You deserve it.  1024 x 768

800 x 600, click on the pic.  Some of you love to garden so an English cottage supplied by my friend who also supplied the Bermuda photo.  I made all of the tubes used from photos he took in his own garden.  Aren’t the Clematis beautiful?  The cottage is in an area of England and it is centuries old.  1024 x 768

I hope I covered bases enough to satisfy interests.  If not, I’ll try harder the next time. 

 

Happy Fathers Day Xanga Guys,

Becca

 

Mother’s Day was a feel good weekend. 

We  added to my movie collection and to a few “I wants” for my kitchen addiction, cookware.  Our movies purchased included another Oscar’s Best Picture.  I now have, after study, a corrected figure, 39 best pictures on hand and 38 titles I need to add to this segment of my collection.  All of the Oscar Best Picture winners are still in existence, VHS and DVD.  Most of mine are the newer ones.  Columbia House has most of what I am missing, my wish list is long.  They are minus about 4 titles but what they don’t have Amazon or Barnes and Noble will.

What is so neat about the older best pics is, the stories and the famous of the eras come to life on the screen along with the experience of seeing the past no longer with us.  The IMDB has the whole list CLICK HERE.  There are movies in the grouping I have never seen and actors I have never experienced telling stories I won’t ever know unless I add them to my collection.  It’s exciting to realize the older movies relate to time frames similar to today’s experience with only the environment appearing different.  Man doesn’t change.  He retains his faults and his good points for the future’s story telling and future discernment all surrounded by equilibriums. 

Desktop, It says, “Flowers Trees and Animal life,
the stuff real life is made of”

For 1024 x 768 CLICK HERE

 

Today, I do some reading.  I am taking time away from computing, regularly, and enjoying it.  I watched 3 of my very favorite movies, again, this week.  I love adventure and never tire of the Jurassic Park series.  How else would I ever see dinosaurs so life like and experience a situation so out of this world?

Have a super week and BGTU,

Becca aka LittleE

Happy Mother’s Day
Xanga Ladies

If you are a mom, were a mom, are going to be a mom sometime in the future, or would like to be a mom, YOU QUALIFY.  

Happy Mother’s Day, I hope all of you have a great Mothers Day weekend. 

 

Some Mother’s Day Desktops for your favorite MOM and
a choice of colors as color is so personal

CLICK the pic for Canadian Goose Mother and Babies in Green 800 x 600 or
Green  1024 x 768.  

Pink Geese-800 x 600, 1024 x 768, 

Gold Geese-800 x 600, 1024 x 768, 

Purple Geese, 800 x 600, 1024 x 768

This one looks beautiful in full size, Click it for 800 x 600, or for 1024 x 768

In ORIENTAL RED 800 x 600, 1024 x 768 in

Blue 800 x 600, 1024 x 768, in

Lavendar 800 x 600, 1024 x 768

This isn’t the norm for my graphics.  I don’t use a lot of other peoples things but she was a challenge entered in a group I belong to so I planted her in one of my photos and here she is for Mother’s Day.  Click on the pic for 800 x 600 and for 1024 x 768

 

Best to everyone,
Becca aka LittleE

 

 

I had another great weekend and a super beginning to the new week.  The weather is sunny but not hot.  My hedges are dripping from a light rain that fell most of the night.  I hear birds very close by, the equation, a perfect combination.  Add to it the fact I have no one to argue with and perfection is more-so.

Another trivial but well known fact about me if you know me at all.  I love movies and have a fair collection.  My collection, tapes and DVD (wishing they were all DVD) numbers 521 pieces and growing.  I rarely see movies on first issue, buying them when they are for sale in the stores.  My collection displays a variety of interests ranging from Sports to War to Love, Adventure and more.  A part of my collection is dedicated to the Oscar winners, Best Pictures dating back to 1927, find the complete list on this page, CLICK HERE.  I have in my “Best Pic” collection now, over half of the titles and grab them whenever I am fortunate to find them.  One of my happy moments this week was the purchase of a brand new DVD re-mastered 1952 Best Pic I did not have, The Greatest Show on Earth (1952) and I paid $5.44 for it.  Thrilled me!

I have 10 new/old movies coming from Columbia House for Mothers Day.  The instigation for this order was another DVD purchase for $5.44, a Barbra Streisand movie, “the Mirror Has Two Faces”.  Barbra is a favorite of mine.  I have enjoyed her voice and her movies for years but own very few.  She was always on my list to buy but was always shoved to the side for something else.  Not this time, I have 8 of her movies coming.  You might be surprised to know that as famous as this woman is she has done very few movies comparatively.  The list totals 17 in number over a 35 year span, CLICK HERE to view it.  Some actors have 10 times over that number and are not one tenth as wealthy though they may be as talented.  She has to be a hugely smart business women.  I was surprised when I looked at the list and realized it should be no real problem to get them all.  I own 3 and have 8 ordered.  That totals 11 out of 17.  I only need to locate 6 to round it out. 

The balance of my order, one of Sean Connery “the Great Train Robbery” and the first season of “House”. 

I am a happy camper.

The really bad part of my week:  Sunday, daytime TV, a movie I just happened to find and watch.  Title, “Scream” CLICK HERE for data base info.  I have to tell you as a parent, as a concerned adult, as someone aware of what is happening to, for, and about our young people and less than stable personalities, THEY ARE WATCHING THIS STUFF and YOU HAD BETTER WATCH IT TO REALIZE FOR YOURSELF, WHAT IS OUT THERE.  I have never seen such a demented bloodbath in my life.  I saw nothing funny in it, about it or entertaining in it.  What I saw was a reason behind a lot of real problems.  We need to be more concerned, more aware, more complaining, more something when it comes to what a world already going insane has acceptably entered into the equation entertainments for age groups childhood to teen and over the edge adult.  I hate this kind of movie, I don’t buy them and I don’t watch them but I have come to the conclusion that more of us, including myself, had better be watching so the sane among us can work at problem solving.  It’s no wonder so many people are in the poor/unstable mental condition they are as they are being served up such destructive materials to fuel their fires in a laughing and lax manner.

 

On a lighter note, “a poem” about the good stuff
Books and Movies
© RSBlain 2006

When your concentration wanes
And your eyes aren’t as good as they were
Movies substitute for Books
Loving Books and spending hours turning pages
While disappearing into a world not readily available, otherwise,
Happens less as,
The ability or lack of is dictated by
Bi-focal’s and faulty concentration valve

Books are so “life changing”
Fragile words on fragile paper pages
As fragile as my eyes and concentration …
Movies, are now, “the order of the day”
They are what book lovers call “a poor replacement” 
So, the question, remains
If so poor a replacement, why do good movies excite me so?

---

 

Until the next time,
Becca aka LittleE

Easter was very nice and I am still in contemplation mode. 

Saturday was beautiful, in fact it was what the PERFECT day for Easter has been.  Easter Sunday was not quite as agreeable having an overcast appearance but it had its sunny moments and a nice temperature with rain staying its distance.  John and I took advantage of it going out for our first real taste of Spring and a fast food picnic.

My favorite pastime is no real secret.  I fell in love with digital photography having purchased my first and so far only digital camera for my daughters wedding in June, 2001.  You may realize how many miles are on that camera if you have looked at my blogs and some short trip tales.  I had no idea then how much it would add to my computing or to my enjoyment of graphics.  Photo opportunities are everywhere around me in Cincinnati, believe it or not.  John and I have favorite spots.  A repeated list of the available: The Cincinnati Zoo, Kings Island, Old Coney Island, the Cincinnati Riverfront, the ballpark and stadiums, wonderful county and city parks, the airports large and small and any drive thru some of the more expensive areas if you can get thru them without catching a case of the “Little Green Dragon” and the racetrack and Kentucky Horse Park.  We even have a disaster or two here, the latest being a tornado that ripped up and out a very popular flea market that sits across the river in Kentucky about a 45 minute drive from here.  Most of what I mentioned, though, is about 20 minutes to a half hour from us.  The Kentucky Horse Park is a 2 hour drive away.  Any and all of the spots on my list will give photos to die for and there are a lot of beautiful things not mentioned. 

Photo op perfection, for me, is a drive through the Spring Grove Cemetery grounds.  An acquired plot of ground in the earlier days of Cincinnati, it was planned and executed by the wealthy for the wealthy.  No drive (40 miles of paved road) within it disproves that statement.  Not just for the dead, many a wedding occurs and wedding photos are taken as a part of the grounds offerings and many a picnic is eaten while viewing the plantings and the many lakes and planned places of rest.  Cincinnati is not a bad place to visit with a camera.  There really is a lot of things to do  .

Sharing a few things with Xanga friends.  Some wallpapers I made from our Easter outing and a short story about a new friend.  The story:  I find the nicest men from the UK, online.  Not going into it a lot, this man belongs to a very small photo editing group I joined as I was asked to help manage and instruct a little.  Kenneth reminds me in his own way of Terry.  Quite a bit older than Terry, Kenneth is in his eighties, loves computing, plays with graphic programs and is musically talented having played the piano and Hammond organ most of his life.  He is a dear sweet man who gives of his talents in much the same way Terry gave of his but he has no Sarah’s side.  I was blessed with a gift I requested.  I asked Kenneth if in the mp3 he makes could he sing in one of them and he has been adding his voice to some ever since.  My favorite was his first and I am praying this link will work so those of you who care to, can listen.  I did get his permission to share this.  CLICK HERE to listen to Kenneth’s Mothers song so named as Kenneth told me she sang it while hanging the wash out on washing days and that is how he learned the words to it.  This next link is also Kenneth and it is very much a reminder of Terry, Morning stroll.  A short dialogue and video.  The voice, the accent seem all very familiar in an uncanny way.

Easter Wallpapers …

I found a Cinderella GooseGirl at the lake.  She was darling.  Click on it for 800 x 600

CLICK HERE for 1024 x 768

I have enhanced a lot of the color in this.  Click on the image for 800 x 600

CLICK HERE for 1024 x 768

Click the pic to bring up 800 x 600

I am adding this piece.  It is indicative of the many mausoleums on the Spring Grove grounds.  Interesting architecture but it looks much too cold for eternity.  For 1028 x 768 CLICK HERE

Take care of you till the next time I have something to share.

Regards, LittleE aka Becca

 

 

Giving over the internet isn’t easy.  You can’t just reach out your hand placing a gift in the hand of someone else.  I find though, bloggers give and give many times over of just about all of their inner emotions.  Sometimes that is the most difficult thing, to give of yourself, honest emotions.  Bloggers do it everyday helping each other as well as entertaining those who may read them.  I don’t give as much as some but, I like to give and though I may not be as giving or as entertaining it doesn’t make me less caring.  I have made a lot of fine acquaintance on the Xanga blogs of people who I think about whenever I am tapping away on the computer.  Not a holiday or festivity happens I don’t think of all of you.

 

A gift for whoever might like to have them, two different desktop wallpapers, freshly made for the occasion.  Consider them a card for the season from me.  My photography on the first, my graphics work on both.  Both sent to all of you with my good thoughts. 

 

Click on the graphic to bring up the 800 x 600 wallpaper.

Follow the CLICK HERE links for the 1024 x 768 CLICK HERE

Click on the graphic to bring up the 800 x 600 wallpaper.

Follow the CLICK HERE links for the 1024 x 768 CLICK HERE

The second one is my graphics work but not my photography. 

Wishing all of Xanga a blessed Easter season. 

Becca

 

I am taking another online computer course.  At the same time I continue working with two photo/graphics groups and am managing to update my photo site in a more timely way than I am updating LittleEgypt.  I haven’t had a lot to say lately and I know readers don’t appreciate wasted words. 

The course I am taking is basic .css (cascading style sheets) a little more advanced than the basic html class I took not long ago.  I know next to nothing about css but intend to know enough when I’m done to write a simplified tutorial explaining .css basics in down to earth language anyone can understand.  It will be shared on the pages I am building while learning css.  I really am not, a dummy.  The fact is, most of us don’t fit in the dummy category but the help tutorials for software and hardware, especially in the computing field, leave me cold and feeling a bit on the angry and stupid side. 

The problem with most tutorials … they are written by people who are so smart they forget most of their paycheck comes from people like myself who are out here buying most of the computers and other hardware and software in the stores.  Most of us spending the money aren’t computer genius in this new age of computing but only people who have fallen for the high tech advertising that makes us all think we can’t live without this entertaining but destructive invention. 

Tutorials should be written in such a way they help the guy who spends the money to enjoy his newfound interest.  If your hobby has it’s hand out constantly for repairs because of hackers, spyware, and faulty file conflicts, where is the fun?  I am willing to bet without knowing any statistics, the stress created by computing is making someone some real money.  Not to mention the money the manufacturers of the hard and software are making from overly repeated business.   There is a lot in the computing world that isn’t working for the public interest say for instance all of our banking and credit cards online that are yet to be taken off the endangered species list. 

Stress and headache are the payback to the computer programs purchaser as it all, in my mind, continues in a beta stage.  Until a solid and permanent fix for all the hijacking, hacking, virus and all else that plagues computing is available (and free would be nice as we didn’t ask for all the crap that goes with computing) we purchasers will continue spending big bucks while someone else is laughing his way to the bank.

 

A Poem

Spring
 © RSBlain April 1, 2006

Daffodils, ornamented with frills
Sprout from tufts on nearby hills
Their golden colors light up spots
Where later will grow Forget-Me-Nots

Splashes of color catch my eye
As passing pixels, butterflies
Their gently rising, falling wings
Are reminders each of other Springs

The freshest buds and painted flowers
Enhance the joy of daylight hours
With perfumed blooms and sweetened air
Perfection, the dress Springtime wears

Check out my updated photo pages, CLICK for PhotoGraphics.

Have a super week and take care of you,
LittleE

All meanderings on my pages are my own, © RSBlain

 

Happy St Patrick’s Day
and Irish Smiles
 Xanga

I would be remiss if I forgot to wish everyone a healthy St Patrick’s Day.  There are so many of you who have made a real impression in my life with good wishes and good thoughts sent my way and always when needed. 

Wishing each and every one of you every good Irish Blessing you have read being struck by the simplicity and well written sentiments. 

Love and good thoughts coming to all of you.

 

 

Becca aka LittleE