Every picture tells a post

Do you remember when there were blogs that just posted pictures of stuff? That was so pre-instagram. I'm not joining another source of distraction so these pictures will be shown here.

 

I offer you a few pictures of outdoor art and a song.  

 

How many youngsters know what this is?

This next one was not taken by me. I've never been to Belgium. I pulled this picture off the artist's page so I suspect the artist is in the picture (the human sized one). His name is Wilfried De Cock.

 

 

Bird watcher keeper

I snapped (clicked?) the picture of the next one. This object (leave your guess) was displayed inside but didn't start that way.

what is it?

Two of the parks nearby seem to be competing for visitors with art installations. Here's a picture from each of the them.

that nature look

too many fruit loops

Interested in a Spanish song by Linda Ronstadt? I know very little Spanish. No matter (no problema) I still like the beat that starts up after the intro. The title means frenzy.

 

 

Breaking out of the cloister bar

My retirement has resulted in more time being spent at home than in the past. This is not all bad of course. The longer low stress time allows me to wonder about a plethora of topics. To sound more interesting I will start saying that I’ve been cloistered in my quiet study at home.

But the world is not your cloister. The saying is the world is your oyster. I really dislike oysters. I never could get my head around eating raw stuff. Regardless of the shellfish, one should get out into the world.

Occasionally I do get out and about. Most recently, I journeyed from the Illinois prairie to South Carolina hoops-n-hollers (commonly known as hills and valleys). I hope you enjoy my recent discoveries as much as I enjoy sharing them.

Lego has included seniors

During the visit I discovered these interesting Lego characters in my grandkids' collection. I can only hope their Lego characters help them think of me.

I thought running was healthy

I spotted this worn out 5K runner in a nearby town around Halloween. Strange way to advertise for an upcoming 5K. That guy definitely has blown out his knees.

clever? NOT funny

I noticed this clever modification of the sign on this baby changing table. Now while I’ll admit it’s clever, I didn’t find it funny. Probably done by a young guy who thinks he’s clever but probably has not experienced becoming a father yet.

peaceful restful place at a rest stop

Two things helped improve my cross country road trip. Nice clean rest stops help. This relaxing waterfall was at a North Carolina rest stop. A second more recent addition to my travels is satellite radio. I rather listen to music than talk or commercials. On this last trip there was a Margaritaville channel. It was a temporary channel that offered me plenty of Jimmy Buffett that was new to me. Here’s one I liked.




Hey before the volcano blows leave me a comment.

plethora of fragments

Welcome to the House of Lisle. Watch your virtual step, be careful clicking across the digital floor. I’m a blogger and it’s been many months since I used the word plethora.

Did you visit Mrs. 4444’s blog today?  She offers a fragment feast every Friday.

Did you have a good Halloween?

flippin Frappuccino - 
What Few-Clowns-Short-of-Circus group created the retail term activewear? Does that imply you are more active than just breathing when you wear activewear products?  Really, are we not all active while sprawled on the couch ordering activewear from a smartphone?  Can you find “relaxed-fit” items in the activewear store?  I’m always focused on perfecting my laziness so I would more inclined to visit the inactivewear store. (also, shouldn't it be activeware?)


Don’t worry be happy, I’m not complaining, just puzzled.
 

wearing earthwear

Hmm, I just forgot the fragment I had in mind.  Be on the look-out for a loose fragment.  It could be funny.

Think back to the dawn of digital cameras. The first cameras had low pixel resolution (pixel count) compared to the ones found in smartphones today. It didn't take long before we had a pixel competition between the manufacturers. Competition is good and it provided us better inexpensive cameras. However, there is a downside to this pixel race. The picture files became huge memory suckers.

I noticed this recently when uploading pictures. (a geek moment?) Our past pictures whose files were under 1 megabyte(MB) still look great. Now I was seeing 2 and 3 MB picture files. Yeah, if you are still reading, you might be saying, "I don't give a pixel about bytes." Well maybe you should.

If most of your pictures will be shown online or shared on a smartphone and not printed (I have not printed out pictures in over a year) then you don't need 2 plus MB pictures. According to this chart, 1 MB (1280x960 pixels) produces a very good 5x7 print. Think about those multiple MB's of wasted pixels being stored in your near full memory and using up your wireless data plan. The gadget industry is happy to sell storage and transport for all those unnecessary pixels.

I readjusted the resolution setting on our camera and lowered my picture file size (a pixel diet plan?).


Oh thinking of pictures, check out my trip to pre-school the other day.

a little dated but stay with me

Just another Lisleman observation but first I need to take you back a few years.

I had just joined FB or should I say I got my face booked?

I was getting the hang of the FB posting and commenting. I don’t think they even had like the like thing like back then. Like wow. Like why use like the word like? It’s as if the FB audience has a one word vocabulary. I like digress.

So I was racing to facing more friends and family on my book of faces. I collected a jambalaya of jokers.

I left electronic gaming back with a high score on a Ms. Pacman machine at a Texas bar. Now I never wore a cool big cowboy hat or boots but I could joystick the pixels around the screen at that Texas bar alright. That was back in my Air Force days which were long after my viking days.

source

Where was I? Oh yeah FB. Many pixels and digital bytes and bits later I’m on a social screen called facebook and start getting requests to help my friends with farming. A farm game?

No disrespect to farmers but I never wanted to be one. Also, it’s general knowledge that leaving the farm has been an ongoing trend for almost a 100 years. There was a time back in the counterculture 60’s that moving to a farm was cool. I’m sure those hippies were not your typical farmer.

After a little googling and reading I’ve discovered that Farmville is run by a company named Zynga. (I’m hoping the next woodstock festival is on Zynga’s farm)

Zynga has made (will continue to make?) large sums of money from people’s attraction to games. I had forgotten how many quarters were dropped on Ms. Pacman.

Another related popular human characteristic is our visual attention. Knowing pictures attract attention, I often try to include at least one picture in my posts (what do you think of that one above?).

Currently there is a bit of a visual/photo battle going on in social media. I found this interesting article on the “All Things D” site. Here’s an excerpt:

“Facebook, I’ve been told, sees far and away more activity and engagement from users focused on photos in the stream than they do from text-based status updates. Google, too, sees high engagement from in-stream pictures.”

The visual is fine but I do hope future generations still remember how to read and write. Playing games can be too addicting and most don’t help your reading and writing skills. Like everyone should like learn more than just like.

future friday fragments

time - it's so confusing

It's already Friday where some readers live.  So if you read this on Thursday then consider it a future Friday Fragment.

Don't know if Princess of FF, Mrs. 4444, has a crystal ball or any crystal for that matter.  But she does collect FF posts and you can enjoy them anytime.

Dumb criminal stories are funny, don't you think?

This is not the first time I've heard of a sting like the Cook County Sheriff did recently.  They sent 10,000 letters to people with outstanding warrants offering promises of $500 gift coupons, plasma televisions and video game systems.  50 wanted fugitives made appointments to collect their prize.  Their prize was a ride to jail.

 

I was digging through boxes of old pictures (hey don't get going about organizing them.  Some are in albums) and came across this one from a past Halloween.  Maybe our family was a-few-clowns-short-of-a-circus.

Last Sunday I posted a few old pictures.  Pictures are among those things that get better with age.  People also can get better with age.  It is just a matter of what they get better at.  Blogging might be one.

maybe wearing more stylish clothes get better with age

Old vs. new -  Now you might have seen the Apple ad for their latest I-phone smartphone.  You might even have one already.  I'm not a smartphone user but if you are and have interacted with this personal assistant, Siri, please share in the comment section.  I find the whole subject of computer interaction interesting.  I knew it would not be long before we saw Siri parodies.  Here's an ad you will never see Apple run but it will crack you up.






I discovered by accident that blogger offers up your post pictures in a slideshow now.  For as long as I can remember, readers could click on post picture and if there was larger version it would pop up.  Now when you click on a picture you get the bigger version but it comes in a nice slideshow along with the other post pictures.  Go ahead give it a try here and let me know what you think.

Happy Halloween

Reminder - The LLL #4 is still open for your links to laughs.  Share a laugh and promote good dentistry.
 

barbie message what about ken

Yes finally!  I found the above picture years ago and I knew I would be able to get a blog post out of it someday.  I never cared for Barbies but troll dolls were cool even way back in the late sixties.

So did you hear about this controversial Barbie doll?

Some Barbie designer (who are these people?  Didn't make it in the real life fashion biz?) produced an inked/tattooed Barbie.

Don't be too worried about your impressionable girls getting a hold of one.  They sold out quickly.  According to reports the doll was produced for the adult collectors.  Ok I understand collecting old Barbies but buying new ones as an adult?  I have better uses for $50. 

Sending the wrong message to young girls?  Honestly if you worried about that type of thing why even let any type of Barbie doll in the house.  I would be more worried about the "normal" Barbie giving my daughter the desire for a boob job.  (IMHO a boob job is even a dumber idea than some ink job)

One possible advantage of this would be the lesson of watching the tattoo wear off with age.  Now that lesson would take awhile unless you borrow my portable orbital sander.

Now from my experience with raising daughters (also noticed with granddaughter) the Barbies are most often found naked.  At least the tattoo distracts you from the thought she has been running a nudist camp in the toy box. 

 

athletic Barbie - do you think her hair gets messed up?

This was fun.  I hope you enjoyed the trolls roasting Barbie as much as I did.

Oh, no word from Ken on this latest development.

Oh BTW, Lisleman is still collecting Left-over Laugh posts on his LLL#4. (please tell me why I am writing this in the third person??)

digital daily life whatever

(from “soak up the sun”)

“....I don't have digital

I don't have diddly squat

It's not having what you want

It's wanting what you've got....”

(thanks Sheryl Crow)

I don’t have a smartphone. Really, I don’t want one, at least for now. My sister (any family reading this could probably figure out which sister but my family doesn’t typically read the blog anyway) has a droid. She knows how to take pictures and text. I also found out once driving around Chicago that she knew how to turn on the navigation app but not much more. In the end, we called (you know those old fashion talking exchanges) the restaurant.

Texting is a great option but since I don’t have a full keyboard, my texting speed is very slow. If it’s going to be more than one or two texts, please just call. Voice is better than text.

I don’t have a smartphone. (in the rare event that my sister reads this I want to emphasize that point) Pictures are too tiny on my flip-phone. I think she forgets. She’s busy. She sends me almost all of the pictures I ever get on my phone. I wish she would learn to email them instead. I’m planning to alert her kids to this post so maybe they could teach her the email option. Now I’m wondering if she ever uses the email app on her smartphone. I’m guessing she doesn’t.

Hey readers who are older than 20 - remember film cameras? I have not used a film camera since the last century. But I remember living in the last century. You should too, it was only 10 or so years ago. Most everyone didn’t bother taking film based pictures that were frivolous because each picture was going to add to your developing cost. Unless you have a tiny memory card with no room, that extra picture today is only going to take a minuscule part of your battery’s charge. Our digital daily life is different from when it was just a daily life.

My sister sent me a picture the other day while I was walking through the woods which is a very low tech place. Logs but no log-ins or log-outs. I am 100% positive that if digital cameras and smartphones had not work their way into our daily life, I would have never ever seen the following picture.

Nice of her to think of me while she was looking in her fridge.  Maybe the beer in that bottom drawer made her think of me.

Now she did send some nice pictures from her recent trip to my email account, but it was from her husband’s smartphone.

I don’t have a smartphone.  Until I transferred the picture (my phone has bluetooth) to the computer I didn’t know she had beer in the fridge.  Mental note to self - tell sister I like Sam Adams much better than Bud Light.  Is there an app for that???

another circus    

 

Mars in opposition

So it's not just the Republicans, even planets now.

Ok, I'm not going there (Mars or politics) but have you heard of or seen APOD?

It stands for A Personal Obsessive Devotee    Astronomy Picture Of the Day

The web site offers a gadget that you can put into a blog or your iGoogle page which I did.  The gadget shows you a new picture everyday.  Actually, I noticed a few days where a short video clip was offered instead.  Not only do you see beautiful wondrous pictures, you also learn some interesting facts about the universe.

Do you like pink?  If yes, you should plan a visit to Mars.  Here's part of the picture APOD offered about a week ago.  I found it so oddly attractive that I saved it as my desktop background screen.  The picture shows melting pinkish sand dunes covered with light frost.  Sounds like the universe dreamed up a dessert.

One more Mars news item -
Remember those two rovers up there?  They are still being used.  Originally their mission was planned for less than a year.  They have been there since 2004.  They are like energizer bunnies.




 

Well now, Spirit has gotten stuck in a sand trap.  (send Tiger Woods he knows about getting stuck)  So now it's no more golf for Spirit but NASA plans to continue to collect data and perform science experiments while it sits stationary.

So what would it be like stuck in melting pinkish sand dunes covered with light frost?

baby contest

It took a long long time but I'm in a baby contest!!

Follow the link below at the end and see if you can find me in the pictures over at Two Yorks and a Bean blog.

I should do a before and after - 50 some years before and after.  Actually, I put a few shots of myself as a kid back on post about the Great Smoky Mountains.  Here's one of them.

This baby contest stuff has me wondering who the youngest blogger is out there.  I've heard of very young kids playing the piano.  Will that type of thing happen to bloggers in the future?

Little Johnny started blogging when he was 3.  Now he's thirty and still living in the basement blogging away.

CHECK OUT BLOGGER KIDS -- Take a look over at Two Yorks and a Bean.

riding the bus

WHILE STILL IN BED!!

This surprising picture was in the Chicago Tribune today:

(PHOTO Alex Garcia/Chicago Tribune)

The crash happened at about 5:40 a.m. on Tuesday.  I'm not a morning person but this would get me going.

The 36-year-old female bus driver was cited for negligent driving and has a Dec. 31 court date in traffic court.  I'm thinking they could also cite her for remodeling a home without a city permit.

The people on the bus (as I write this that kid's song popped into my head) were injured but are now reported all in good condition.  The family (single mother with her four sons) in the home were not hurt, but I suspect wakened up in a rude way.

This sure could of been much worst.  Good thing no gas line was broken resulting in a fire.

Maybe riding in the back of bus is better.

Here's another shot with color:

(PHOTO Alex Garcia/Chicago Tribune)

The breaking (is that a BAD pun??) news story - here.

solar info link

fishy pictures

This past week my wife got some free tickets for the Shedd Aquarium here in Chicago.  They have a new show called "Fantasea".  We were invited to preview the show.  It was an interesting entertaining show.

The Shedd Aquarium is right on the lake and the grand view of the lake adds to its enjoyment.

Another aspect of our visit was the more relaxed less crowded aquarium since the summer crowds are gone.

Here's some pictures.

Here' more on the new show:

mini bull repeat

-----
Note a similar post was first done on Aug. 16, 2008.
-----

So why repeat?
Since I posted this, my records show that this picture is very popular. I also consider it a very cute picture. Mini Bull and toddler - great combo

But the picture site I used for the blog, Imageshack, must have some limit on the number of times the picture is shown. I am using it on a free account so it's the old you get what you pay for. Over the months I noticed this picture (and others ) don't always display. Any readers know more about this problem - please comment below.

Here's where I found the picture :
Little Moos picture web album

And here's a post of the picture again:


-----
what I originally wrote about it
-----
I learned today that there are miniature cattle. In fact there are various breeds of mini cows and mini bulls. Now I don't have the land or inclination to become a cowboy anytime soon but it might make sense to start small.

One big benefit of the mini cattle is less feed and land for grazing. I read at one site that 3-4 acres is enough for a few of them.

So if I ever move out to some western state maybe I could start ranching on a real small scale. Might not be a bad idea for getting fresh milk.

Some people get them for pets. Remember the pot belly pig pets about 20 years ago?? I think a mini bull would be better.

Thanks to Little Moos for the above picture.
Here's some reasons to go small (maybe W should try this in retirement)


I wonder if they can moo very loud.

=========moooore info=====================
This link has other links about mini cattle and also an active message board.
Link

==============update=====================
If you happened here looking for mini cattle info those links above should be good, but if you are interesting in odd fun stuff check out my other blog.

If you want a list of other strange posting I've done here then click this.

Here's some more posts about pets.
Also, I checked those links above in the original post and they are still good links.
thanks for stopping by.
OH if you know MORE about mini cattle/cow/bull PLEASE leave a comment below.

sharp dressed man

As ZZ Top told me long ago,
"...every girl's crazy 'bout a sharp dressed man.."

Well I've been cleaned up a few times in my life, but honestly I prefer T-shirts.

With today's digital picture technology anyone can be a sharp dressed man in a photo anyway.



Ok, so you know when look at those vacation pictures and there's LESS than a sharp dressed tourist in the background. Well now you can fix that.
Remove Tourists from Travel Photos

BUT I DON'T GET IT -
why would you want to modify the picture that much?

I heard a story that some image enhancement shops get requests to fix vacation pictures.

Here's a photo from a trip that I would NOT want to remove the extras.



Hey most of my family fails in just removing the zombie red eyes. So red eye removal, maybe some cropping OK, but completely taking thing out or putting them in the picture?

For me vacation pictures are memories. I don't want fake memories.

So as you may have noticed in this post and others. I like play around with pictures for fun but not to enhance my vacation.

Oh, don't remember that ZZ Top song ?
here's a refresher

sundays in my city

Another blogging idea - pictures of your town - learn more over at Unknown Mami

She calls it "Sundays in My City".

I have a few pictures to share from a visit I made with my daughter to my home town. I last lived in Joliet, IL. back in the 70's and it went thru a bust and boom since. I imagine it is currently suffering some from the latest economy mess.

It was nice to see much of it cleaned up when I visited compared to when I last lived there.

Last year, Sir Paul McCartney stopped by in Joliet on his trip down route 66.

Here's picture of the Joliet Central High School and it's mascot, "Steelmen". At one time in Joliet's past the steel industry, played a big role. One of grandfathers worked at a factory that I believe made wire.



So that mascot is based on a sculpture by Louise Woodruff that was part of the 1933 Chicago's Century of Progress.



Here's a few pictures that show the popular limestone that was quarried in and around Joliet.

tech fake fraud or fun

Over at Lilly's Life is a post about picture technology and how it can be misused.

Well I consider this a technology story because about 15 years ago the technology for it to happened didn't exist. Actually the story involves a number of technologies that are converging to create both new options and new problems.

So here's the brief summary of the story. Lady from St. Louis posts a nice photo of her family (herself, husband, two kids) on some social community sites (believe it was facebook). Somebody thought it was a great picture and the picture ends up in a big store ad in the CZECH REPUBLIC. A college friend noticed it and alerted her.

If you check the story further, you'll learn that the family got interviewed on a morning TV show because of it. (not such a bad outcome)

The photo wasn't even modified much. Now modifying photos is a fun thing that I've played around with. I've made some special birthday cards with photos. I don't use the expensive photoshop just shareware and tools that came with the digital camera. I'm no expert in this.

This slideshow shows two things I did NOT do.
There a picture of me NOT hosting a TV show and another picture of me NOT at a red carpet event.



That last picture - the one of me, Cyndi Lauper and Freddie Mercury hanging out. They are wax. But is that much different than if I doctored a photo? What about those cardboard cut-outs stick their heads in? It's just easier to do it digitally.

On his blog, CJ also shows some altered photos that may have had a political impact.

One interesting aspect of this is how society starts using new technology without thinking about possible downsides. Don't misunderstand - I love digital photography, social sites (I'm blogger duh) internet communications and most technology. I'm suggesting people think a little more before acting.

Technology users benefit from giving some thought to how the technology might have negative impacts before they jump in. Sharing is great but often your control of who you share with is very limited. I posted about some great Chicago pictures. In this case the photographer wanted good control so he paid to join a photo site. Remember that saying - get what you pay for.

Technology keeps advancing (good) but the bad guys always find an unintended harmful use for it.

update news on travel picture challenge

What?

travel picture challenge??

Go to the previous post and read about it. Please note the answer to the question is now in the comment section. So it's like the answers in the back of the textbook.

The winner was Kit

Since I hope to collect more travel picture links I'm going to write about all this here at this post. (if you are wondering - I got used to sorting and arranging things on computers)

Shared travel photos here -- shared travel picture suggestions

Oh one more thing please leave me a link to any travel photos you would like to share.
THANKS

Share a smile

useful and entertaining public art

This is one of those examples of catching the moment. Our host took us over to this park to see this statue and as we approached, this young lady was refreshing herself. It was morning so maybe she just woke up. There was a language barrier but I recall she apologized for being in the way of our picture. She didn't realize she made the picture.

Hey blog readers - please name the city this picture was taken in. No prize really (bragging rights?) but I'll post the winner with a link to their blog (if you have one of course). I guess my family might win but unfortunately they don't read this blog much, so I doubt it.

The picture was taken in 2004.

I got a good response to these other travel pictures so I'm posting this one.

• ever hover
• nature calls on the road

I consider traveling as a means of sharing so here's a sharing idea -

if you have a favorite travel photo please leave a link to it in the comments and I'll post those links too (of course I reserve the right to not link it if I deem it inappropriate material - did you know there's photos on the web that some find inappropriate?)

Share a smile

driveby downsizing scary

Just this week I learned of two more friends hit by driveby downsizing. Scary times.

Things better turn around soon or we will be looking like this poor guy below.
I found this funny postcard at jafagirls.
I need to send these to my green friends.

Share a smile