Hakuna Matata... No Worries

Children found playing in Durham water fountain on hot summer day.    

                                      BTW, turn up the volume before watching the video!              

        

                     

 

Okay, so they're bronze children.

Statues.

I call it Public art.

Each time I go to SouthPoint Mall (about 4 times a year), I park on the side closest to the lively water fountain. I enjoy walking past it and feeling the cool energy of the flowing waters almost pushing those children into space on their little water disks.

You are probably thinking I've gone cuckoo over making movies, that I have nothing better to do than to sit and transfer my camera videos from my computer to the Windows Movie Maker before uploading them to UnCut Videos. Truth is, it takes so long to complete the process, and I work on it at night after my husband has gone to bed. During the day, I am in my classroom getting ready for you know what to start. Yes, I've even made a video of that, too, though I may not post that one. Got to find a way to make it interesting.

Each time I make a movie, I discover some new feature in the Windows Movie Maker program. For example, during the arrangement of this movie short, I learned how to mute the actual sounds coming from the video, then added the audio music clip from a CD favorite. Not only that, I discovered, through my need to have a very brief musical piece, how to shorten the music clip so that it ended where I wanted it to end. I also learned how to move the audio clip around so that it began just after the title frame. It fades in at the beginning, and fades out at the end.

For those of you who are wanting to do the same with your video clips, it's very easy once you have done a few. I must warn you, though, that if your family is already complaining that they've missed you ever since you started your journal/blog, they will probably forget who you are by the time you have loaded up your first video.

Getting past that first one is the clincher, you see. Each subsequent movie went much faster. Kind of like having a baby. The first one takes forever to birth, but those that follow are generally quicker in delivery. So I've heard, having never had more than one child.

The difference in this analogy is that any pain you experience while transferring your video from computer to YouTube or UnCut Videos will likely be in your shoulders and neck because you are spending too much time sitting at the computer!

As for the song I chose, Hakuna Matata... it sounds playful, and matches the rhythm of the splashing water very well. It also reflects the way I felt the day I was at the mall. Sheria (Aimer) and I had met for lunch. It was a Saturday. I would like to tell you the story of how I drove to the mall twice that day, but it's rather long, and it makes me look very stupid. In fact, I called myself stupid several times that morning on my way home to get my wallet. There, now you know the punch line. The details are inconsequential!

Back in February, Sheria, Caroline, and I met for lunch... our first meeting as aoljournalers. We had such a great time sharing stories about ourselves, and answering each other's questions about ourselves. Caroline couldn't make it this time (we missed you, Caroline) but Sheria and I were able to. She's a fascinating person to sit down and talk with. I learned more about the legislative process during those two hours than I've learned these past few years as a teacher of fifth graders.

I'd like to visit her in our State Capitol one day, at her convenience, and follow her around, like a shadow. She would explain what's going on, point out who's who and what's what in a way that I would understand. That's a teacher's field trip I'd like to go on one day.

After we parted company, I walked past the water fountain, took the pictures and some video. I also filmed someone called Juggle Boy. I'm thinking of posting him next. I'll have to learn how to delete unnecessary footage, though, because it is over 8 minutes long, and some of it is preparatory action, not part of the act itself.

Coming Soon: Juggle Boy at South Point Mall!

 

 

Tags: Hakuna Matata, public art, water fountain sculptures, bronze sculptures, SouthPoint Mall, Windows Movie Maker, making movies for your journal, blogplug

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Seven Spanish Angels in Montgomery, Alabama

I've been hinting at it for some time ever since I got back from Alabama... the video I've worked hard to make into a movie for my journal. 

Without further adieu, here they are, singing Seven Spanish Angels.....

              Dave and Teresa!   

                      

How they met:

Dave and Teresa met at a bluegrass festival, through a mutual friend, in Fort Deposit, Alabama, although Teresa is sure that she probably encountered him originally at Old Alabama Town (where I met them in July). 

There was an acoustic jam session at Old Town every 2nd and 4th Saturday in those days before they met. 

Says Teresa of their meeting, "I never missed a jam session.  Dave only came once in a blue moon.  ... If he came into a room at the jam session, I left and if I came into a room, Dave left.  He thought I sang awful and I thought he had a huge ego.  He heard me singing "Seven Spanish Angels" one time and walked out in disgust."

But fate would have them be together. Their turning point came when Dave performed at a concert at Old Alabama town, when he chased Teresa down at intermission and talked to her.

Says Teresa about that pursuit, "I blew him off but he came to Old Alabama Town where I was working at the time and told me he needed a part-time job 4 days a week.  .... I have a kind heart and got him a job there where he grew on me. We became very close friends." 

Gradually, they fell in love at Old Alabama Town. They ran off to Pigeon Forge, Tennessee to be married in the mountains. They honeymooned at Dollywood!

Teresa found a new job soon after, but her working hours were too long. As  newly-weds they were miserable.  The rigorous work schedule cut into their family time (eventually they had three kids).

Teresa had dreams of owning their own business so she could be with her husband and three young children. Now they are back at Old Town, the place where they first fell in love. 

Teresa said, "We knew that Tourists had no where to get refreshment conveniently while touring Old Town from having both been block guides at Old Town.  I thought it would be the perfect place for a coffee house." 

But she had to convince Dave of the dream coffee house location.  With no business plan or money (but for the Grace of God) they opened up the coffee house in November, 2006. 

"We feel like we have come home because Dave had left Old Town that January to take care of our baby full time when my maternity leave was over at Cracker Barrel."

I asked them what drives and motivates them each day:

"We are so grateful when we get to meet new visitors to our area, and love to make new friends . We are glad we can offer refreshments to them,"  she responded.

Their wanting to be together as a family also drives them. A nursery was added in the back near the kitchen so their youngest could be with them all day.

"Dave and I have quite an age difference between us and we don't want to miss another moment together.  Now we have all of each other we can take.

"We sing together as "Dave and Teresa" usually but Dave has a band named "The Blue Valley Boys"  that has been together since 1945.  Dave joined them in 1979 (I was only 8 years old!!!)  The original band members have passed on and left Dave their namesake." 

They play live bluegrass music nearly every Saturday at their Coffee House. 

In her email that she sent me in response to my questions about their life, Teresa wrote:

"It was a pleasure to meet ya'll last week and thank you for your thoughtfulness and sending the pictures.  We don't mind you using them.  Dave and I have actually had quite a few pictures snapped of us over the years due to singing together.  It is amazing how people from all over the world like country and bluegrass and we are thrilled to share it.  If you have any more questions we will be glad to answer for you.  Have a wonderful week,

Dave and Teresa"  

 

You can visit with Dave and Teresa and their family at Nellie Cameron's Coffee House 317 N. Hull Street in Old Alabama Town, Montgomery.

 

Tags: Old Alabama Town, Blue Valley Boys, Dave and Teresa, Nellie Cameron's Coffee House, historic downtown Montgomery Alabama, bluegrass music, Seven Spanish Angels, blogplug

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Our Trip to Alabama

                                           

What's new about this video, for me, is that I've added music. Oh! And a title and credits at the end...!

It was Sheria's idea after she viewed the Red Velvet Ant video I had posted in the previous entry. She had suggested adding music to the ant video... and I think that would be fun... but that project is on hold for now. I decided to add music to my Alabama show instead.

Turn up your volume for this one... it is 3 minutes and 41 seconds long. Five days wrapped up in 3:41 secs.

I don't know the name of the young woman singing this song, but I loved her voice, and the lyrics... those that I understood. The bulk of the photos were taken in downtown historic Montgomery, Alabama, where we had spent the night at Capitol Inn.

It was my intent to put titles over some of the slides so you'd know what you were looking at. For instance, Martin Luther King, Jr.'s home in Montgomery, and just down the road, the church he pastored at, or the place where Rosa Parks got on the bus that fateful day, now commemorated with a plaque. You can figure out the State Capitol building easily enough, but there were stories for each of those buildings I snapped, narratives recounted by our trolley driver, Michael. He's in the video as well.

If you ever go to Montgomery, go to the visitor's center and tell them you want to get on the trolley driven by Michael. He was a lot of fun, thoughtful about us tourists, and knew his history.

Like I said, it was my intent. It took me so long to learn how to do the movie making and uploading to AOL unCut Videos business that I had forgotten which building was which by the time I arranged the photos and made them into a "movie."

So, just enjoy the music, with the pictures. The reason I'm in the first part is because they are in order of sequence, and it was my birthday that day. I had asked Steve if he minded taking a tour of historic Montgomery, since we were there. He said it was my birthday... of course! Also, those first two shots (following me) of Montgomery are taken from the balcony of our room. Kind of like Scalzi's View from the Room entries <grin>.

There is one more real video I want to add here, the part where Dave and Teresa sang for us at the Nellie Cameron's Coffee House. (They're the couple singing behind the cash register in the slide show above.) I'm working on that one next.

The purpose of the Alabama trip was to visit my mother... I wrote about her in a previous entry, called Alabama Mama. she's at the end of the slideshow movie. I showed her how to get on the computer and send an email while I was there, but since I haven't received any email from her, I'm thinking she either forgot the steps, or hasn't been able to get to the public library to get on the computer. But doesn't she look intense at the computer? Just like a kid learning something new.

The rainbow at the end was exactly that... on our way back home to NC, there was a rain, and I had to shoot through the window of the car to get it because it wasn't easily shot from the passenger side. Seconds later, it was gone. They are both the same rainbow, two different photos, and I color enhanced one of them to make it more dramatic, and also to learn more about the new editing features on my Zoom Browser. I thought it was relevant and pleasing to end the slideshow this way, with the promise of the Dream that takes us all home.

Tags: Our Trip to Alabama, Montgomery, Gulf Shores, Mobile; Biloxi, Mississippi, historic downtown Montgomery, The Promise, Yanni's Ethnicity Album

My first video upload... drumroll, please!

Well, let's see if it works, then!

Patrick and Greg both gave me some detailed advice and instructions about how to get my video from my Computer to either AOL Uncut videos or YouTube. I'd been having trouble with the file size, but after what, two or three nights of playing with the Windows Movie Maker, I finally realized that the missing puzzle piece was the Movie Wizard... I had not installed it. I tried to do the upload without it.... didn't work.

Without wasting too many words, here is the video I took Sunday afternoon while walking along the lovely Haw River. I just want to preface the viewing with these words: the resolution was greatly reduced to get it on this journal. The original was as clear as any TV movie I've seen.

Chasing this little bug around with a camera just inches from the ground was not easy... it was hot and humid, I had already tried to take a still photo of it, unsuccessfully, and so decided to use the video recording feature in my camera instead. By then I was out of breath from trying to follow it around. The sweat was dripping from my forehead into my eyes... stinging they were.

But I got the movie! All 35 seconds of it.

I titled it Red Velvet Ant or "Cow Killer"                        

                           

If you can't see the video, click on this link to get it: http://uncutvideo.aol.com/users/bgilmore725/3610baa2bf3efc06c6336fff4793a588?index=0

In case you have never seen one (but I've got a feeling you have), its name is a misnomer. The Red Velvet Ant, AKA "Cow Killer," is not an ant at all. It is shaped like one,but is really a wasp. The one you see here is likely a female... males have wings.

According to my internet source, the red velvet-ant is the largest velvet-ant species, reaching about 3/4 inch in length. The one I saw Sunday afternoon while walking the trail along the Haw River had to have been about that length, truly it is the largest red velvet ant I have ever seen in the 35 years I've lived in NC.

If the movie image wasn't clear enough, here is a photo of the critter... I did not take the photo, but found it doing an aol image search here.

                              

If you have never seen one, don't mistaken that rich dark red color to be anything less than a warning!! The females can give a painful sting.

If you are squeamish about bugs and how they live, don't go tothe website I hyperlinked to read about their life cycle. From the point of view of helpless, cocooning, ground-nesting bees, it is a horror story.

If this video entry works, I expect I'll be doing a few more in the future. It was fun and easy once I had the MovieWizard installed, which took only seconds.

So, what do you think? Tomorrow I will work on the Montgomery, Alabama video.

 

Information provided by Texas Cooperative Extension and Texas A&M University, Entomology Department.

 

Tags: blogplugs, Red Velvet Ant, Cow-Killer, Haw River Trail

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The Tau (Way) of Dogs

After reading Indigo's humorous entry tonight, and the words to Elvis' "Dog's Life", I remembered a poem I wrote a few years back about my dogs. It was spring, and I was jealous that my dogs had nothing to do all day except look out the window, chase squirrels, and sleep. Summer was a few months away that March day. I had wished I was following the "Way of the Dogs".

                                  

The Tau (Way) of Dogs

Little doggies in the dark want to go outside and bark

At the people, at the cars, at the squirrels and the stars.

From the window they can see pigeons, blue jays, chickadees,

Cardinals and finches, too. Then a squirrel leaps into view!

 

Its movement catches doggie eyes. Tails are wagging, ears held high,

Scratching at the window panes. Just one thought in doggie brains.

Bounding to the back door then, leaping on the couch again.

Excitedly at the door they stand knowing freedom is at hand.

 

Waiting for the door to open, staring at it, ever hoping.

Patient little doggies know doors open when they gotta go!

Finally, their wish comes true. They bolt into the morning dew,

Heading for the squirrel trail, searching for that squirrel tail.

 

Squirrel hears them coming fast. It scampers up a tree at last.

Doggies sniffing all around, noses vacuuming the ground.

Giving up on squirrel chase, soon the two are in a race.

Running through the woods once more and then they’re standing at the door.

                                                 

Again it opens at their scratching. At the window they sit watching

For another chance to see that squirrel scurrying down a tree.

Finally, on the couch they lie letting out their doggie sighs,

Happy to be home again. When summer comes, I’ll be like them!

 

They run and play and eat and sleep, no calendars for them keep.

No phones to answer, no bills to pay. I’d say my dogs have found “The Way.”

                             

                      Bea Gilmore, 3-17-02

 

I use it as a model, sometimes, to break the ice for kids in the classroom when they start writing their own poems. By the time they hear it, they already know all about Max and Misty, have seen pictures of them, so they laugh when I read it to them.

I think it's important for the kids to read real writing from their own teachers, even the poems. We've been told to read in front of our students so they'll pick up reading as a daily habit. I think, likewise, we should write in front of them too. I've got a collection of poems and stories I've written, as well as those written by other people, including other students.

It always amazes a student when I read them the poems of Mattie Stepanek. They can't believe that he was so young when he wrote them. Then I tell them Mattie's story, and they want to read more of his poems. Mattie was, and is, an inspiration for us all.

If you are not familiar with the mission, words, and spirit of young peacemaker Mattie, who died three years ago at the age of 14, check out his website.

And in closing, just a side-note, in case you didn't notice: this is my third entry in 24 hours. It won't happen again, until my 3rd year anniversary, in 2008.

And a big thank you to Donna for making this tag for me some time ago. It seems appropriate with my new position integrating art with grade level curriculum this coming school year. Which is only three weeks away, folks!

                                                                   

 

Tags: The Way of Dogs, Mattie Stepanek

Revisting August 3, 2005

To mark the anniversary of my second year as an AOL journaler, I wanted to bring up my very first entry. It still amuses me, even after all this time. I thought it might amuse some of you who know me a little better now.

You'll find out why I began the journal, and why I first called it Ant Farm Analogies. I hope you enjoy reading it. I didn't know how to add pictures back then.

Here is the link.

http://journals.aol.com/bgilmore725/Wanderer/entries/2005/08/02/why-start-an-ant-farm/522

And thank you, Donna, Indigo, and Guido, for the suggestion to try AOL Uncut video for my video clip... I'll work on it this evening.

Also, Greg, you mentioned the resolution size... I think that's probably the reason I couldn't upload it to YouTube... you suggested "there is a way to reduce the resolution to VGA 640x480 "... so I will try that as well, if aol uncut doesn't work. When I reduce the resolution, will I lose quality of the video? It's so clear and very high quality in its current resolution... none of my previous videos have ever looked so good (I have a new camera, a Canon PowerShotA570 IS). This new camera has some features the other one didn't, like an image stabilizer, and a rotation sensor so I can take pictures at any angle, and still see them on the monitor in an upright position.

I fumigated my house this morning.

I laughed reading the comments about critters from y'all. Thanks for visiting!!

Tags: Ant Farm Analogies, uploading videos to YouTube/AOL Uncut Videos

YouTube, Two years in J-land, and Lonestar ticks

Ugh! I've just spent two hours playing around with a video that I want to upload to YouTube so I can add it to my journal here. It is something that shows what we did in Montgomery, Alabama, and I just wanted everyone to see it. If I succeed in accomplishing this feat, it will be the first time ever I added a video that I made to my journal entry.

Tomorrow (well, today actually, the third of August) is my 2nd year here at AOL journals and I wanted to do something special to mark it. Adding a special video clip would be just the thing.

My problem, I think, is that I have a video clip, just 1 m 52 seconds long. However, it is 198 mb large. YouTube will not accept anything over 100 mb. I don't know how to shrink my video so it will fit. Timewise, I am well within their parameters (limit of 10 minutes).

I talked to a computer savvy friend of mine, D, and he said I could probably go to Windows Movie Maker and edit my movie. But I really don't need to trim any footage from it. I just need to make it fit within 100 mB.

Any of you know how to do that? Patrick... he's made movies on YouTube... he's the man I should talk to! Yeah, I think I'll email him.

I played around in Windows Movie Maker to see what I could do, and it was interesting because I had never done that before. Didn't even know I had the feature until an hour ago.

Until I get that video, I won't be writing about the Montgomery trip. It's just something special I want to do.

Instead, may I substitute another topic of interest?

Have you ever seen such a small critter before? Next to the penny.  Looks like a tick, doesn't it?

                                                     

                                             (photo credit Iowa State University Entomology Department)

It is the lonestar tick. I had never heard of the lonestar tick until two days ago when I found one on me. It was so small, I thought it was a mite. I only found it because I could feel it crawling on me, and I studied it through a strong magnifying glass. I stuck the sticky side of scotch tape to it so it couldn't escape while I figured out what it was. I thought it was a mite.

I searched mites on the internet, but did not find any suitable pictures to match the littlest bug I have ever seen.

I found six more on me within the hour. I was about to freak out, you see, because I was still thinking mites, and how was I going to get rid of mites. I knew it wasn't lice. I wasn't even thinking ticks... the dog tick, brown tick, and deer tick ... now these I would recognize.

I gave both my dogs baths, vacuumed the carpets, and scrubbed myself thoroughly in the shower trying to get those critters off of me. It worked. I didn't feel creepy crawlers onme for the rest of the night.

I had managed to save five of them (on the sticky tape). The next day, I dropped them off at my veterinarian's office so she could examine them through her microscope. She called me, they were lonestar ticks... in the larval stage. She told me that lonestar ticks can attach themselves at any stage. She was concerned that I had found so many on me... and how many more might I not have found?

Worst, they are often carriers of Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever. I marked my calendar just in case two weeks from now I get sick.

Here's what I gleaned from NC State University:

All stages of Amblyomma americanum, the lone star tick , readily feed on man and large wild or domestic animals such as deer and dogs. Adults and nymphs are abundant in the spring and summer months. The mite-like larvae of this species, commonly called seed ticks, are abundant in the fall. In this stage, the lone star tick readily attacks humans. This tick is found in habitats similar to those of the American dog tick. It transmits a form of Lyme disease called STARI (Southern Tick Associated Rash Infection) caused by the spirochete, Borrelia lonestari. The lone star tick also transmits bacteria that cause erhlichiosis, which is similar to RMSF, but is rarely fatal.  The lone star tick occurs predominantly in the coastal plain, but it rapidly invading the piedmont of North Carolina. http://pamlico.ces.ncsu.edu/index.php?page=news&ci=PEST+1

How did I get them? Our home is surrounded by trees and woods. Lots of wooded vegetation between our home and our neighbors. We love the view, the dogs have freedom to roam, there is a sense of privacy here, of being out in the woods. These are the good points of living close to nature.

However, Tuesday I walked through the woods on a narrow doggie path to my neighbor's home to see how she was doing (widowed 18 months ago). Later, I walked back home (roughly 50-60 yards) the same way. I've done this many times in the past without picking up pesty critters. But this time I must have walked through a massof recently hatched ticks. These baby ticks, or seed ticks, are so small, the only reason I saw them was that they were moving. They were smaller than my smallest freckle.

Here's another photo of an adult female,and  a tiny larva, next to a dime for size comparison. The white spot on the female gives them their name. I found the photos on the internet.

                               

                                (photo credit Iowa State University Entomology Department)

 

 Here's some idea of just how tiny the thing was. Actually, this is showing a deer tick nymph, I believe. The ones I had were even smaller than this. This photo came from http://www.canlyme.com/ticks.html

For now I appear to be tick-free. I'm going to fumigate my house just to be sure that I've gotten the ticks, the ants, the moths, wasps, spiders, centipedes, millipedes, and whatever else could be crawling over us, on us, or between the walls of our home.

http://www.ent.iastate.edu/imagegal/ticks/aamer/a-amer-larva.html

http://www.ent.iastate.edu/imagegal/ticks/aamer/aamerfandnwdime.html

 

                                                               

 

 

Tags: Lonestar ticks, uploading videos,