The Universe

Credit: NASA, ESA, and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)

Acknowledgment: J. Blakeslee (JHU) and R. Thompson (University of Arizona)

I am like a kid in a candy store! I visited the Hubble gallery website Look at this picture! It's the universe... well, a portion of the universe as seen from the Hubble telescope, but look at it! Each one of those globs or spiraling swirls is a galaxy! 

Each one is a single galaxy! Now there is a word that starts with G I could have added to the G-word assignment back in November.

You can download it with even finer resolution, up to 4265 x 3513 pixels for high quality prints, or download to your monitor, like for wallpaper... and there are many more pictures to choose from. If you like pictures of the cosmos, this is the place to go!

One of my favorite Hubble photos is the Pillars of Creation in a Star-Forming Region. Even more spectacular is the Stellar Spire in the Eagle Nebula. Absolutely breathtaking!

After you have visited these sites to see up close what you never paid much attention to because they're so far away, there's a place that explains how color is added to the Hubble photos to make them even more vibrant than what we'd see if we were in a space vehicle observing it in person.

As the following quote from "The Meaning of Color in Hubble Images" explains: The colors in Hubble images, which are assigned for various reasons, aren't always what we'd see if we were able to visit the imaged objects in a spacecraft. We often use color as a tool, whether it is to enhance an object's detail or to visualize what ordinarily could never be seen by the human eye.

If you need photos of the planets in our solar system for your classroom, or just because you are a fan of cosmic matter, there is a collection of the most remarkable images available to anyone who has access to the internet. You don't even have to spend another dime on anything (well, you will need photo quality paper to print on)... just download and print them yourself!!  Can it be any easier?

So a big thank you to By The Way blogger, John Scalzi, for the photo (as seen above) he inserted onto his page which reminded me of one of my favorite websites. Until I saw it, I had not thought to add my favorite cosmos picture, but as I mentioned earlier, I'm learning some new tricks as I navigate around this place. It's like he said in one of his earlier entries in 2003:

Hopefully something I write about will encourage you to write in your own AOL Journal, or to create your own Journal to take part in the conversation.

This is exactly what I'm doing. I like my new toy.

Merry Christmas Graphic!

I'll have to say thank you to Penny for this graphic. I accidentally clicked on her graphic,  the above Merry Christmas, and saw that I could copy it, so I did, and thought, hmm, could I paste it into my journal? Why not try and see what  happens. I did, and here it is!

So, Penny, if this is unethical, because I don't know where you got it from, and if I'm doing something inappropriate by borrowing someone's graphics, tell me and I won't do it again. I'm going to post a message in her journal to let her know so she'll know I was not intending to steal, although I was intending to borrow.

What is the correct thing to do when you see a graphic you like? Can I just copy and paste them onto this page as easy as this? Have I stumbled upon something that everyone else knew how to do but me? You mean I don't even have to know html language to do this?

 

Of Adding Pictures to the Journal

I finally found out how to add pictures to my journal... big ones like Joe uses at his website. Today he wrote an entry that explained all about it, just as I was considering checking out another blog website. So, as I read and reread his instructions, I began to think about how I save my photos, or even how I take my photos.

Just last week I was talking to our Youth Group leader about taking candid photos for our church directory. I had been walking into each Sunday School classroom to take photos of our members and visitors in Sunday School. Good thing I talked to him first, though, for he mentioned to me that the people printing the book need our pictures to be shot using the highest quality (highest pixel numbers), so I checked my digital camera to make sure it was at the higher setting, wondering why anyone would want to select a lower quality setting for their pictures.

After reading Joe's entry about adding pictures to our journals, I know the answer to that question. Joe says this:

"Size-wise, for your typical three-column Journal (which is a left sidebar, a center column, and a right sidebar), a good photo width is about 450 pixels wide. Also, don't forget to try to keep the file size down -- ideally, you want to save it at the lowest JPEG image quality that still preserves the look of the photo (that is, it doesn't introduce the weird jaggies called Compression artifacts).

Oh, and one more thing -- photos are typically better saved as JPEG files; drawings usually do better as GIF files."

So when I take pictures that I want to print on paper, I need to change my camera setting to the higher quality number, and when I'm planning on using the pictures in my journal, I should set the camera to the lower quality setting.

Question, Joe: What if I want to do both? Can I change the pixel number after I have saved the photo to my ZoomBrowser photo edit program? When I take pictures I'm not usually thinking "These are going to be printed, or these are going in my journal." Most of the time, they don't go anywhere beyond my photo album program. They are there waiting for me to play with them, and this journal gives me the opportunity to do that. However, for nearly two years now I have been shooting all my pictures as though they would someday be printed, the high quality setting.

Can I ever use them in my journal using the method you explained in your entry, Joe?

I tried using the File Manager, but when I came to the part where I select the pictures I want to upload, nothing uploaded. I wondered then if it was because the four pictures I had selected had the larger number pixel width.

Seriously, I am very interested in using photos in my journal because I like to take pictures as much as I like to write!

I will be back with a very large picture in here one day!

I found this Snow Globe while visiting the journal website of Astaryth at blogspot.com. It is funny, in a twisted kind of way, but sometimes I feel like shaking things up a bit, and a snowglobe, at least this one, fulfills that desire.

Actually, it made me think of my nephew, Johnnie. I remember when he was a kid. He loved snow globes. Every year, someone gave him a new one for Christmas. He has quite a collection to this day. So, in honor of him, I'm putting this link of the ultimate snow globe fantasy... if readers have other snowglobe links, post them here so I can send them to my nephew. Merry Christmas, Johnnie!

Release 3 (R3) in Beta

I'm going to try Joe's suggestion about using the Beta version of the journal so I can access the convenient blogging links in the footers that only become apparent if you add beta to the front of a journal address.

I'm going to copy and link to his entry where he explains all this.

This is just an experiment to help increase my technology IQ.

What follows is directly copied from Joe Loong's journal. For those who are not familiar with Joe, he's the tech guru programmer of the AOL journal pages. I have his journal linked to mine on the right, Magic Smoke, if you want to check him out.

Here goes. Hope I did it right!

 

Release 3 (R3) in Beta :

"* Blog About This Entry is even more useful than I originally thought, but only if you're using Microsoft's Internet Explorer (this includes the browser that you use with your AOL software). I did not realize this because I was using the Firefox browser when I tested Blog About This Entry.

So, say I'm looking at the beta version of Product Manager Susan's entry about privacy settings and online presence (again, you can get to the Journals beta simply by adding "beta." to the beginning of any Journal's address),  http://beta.journals.aol.com/blogsinsider/intheknow/entries/804. I have something I want to say about her entry, so I want to do my own blog post talking about it and linking to it.

If I just click the "Blog about this entry" link in the footer of her entry, it will pop open a window for a new blog entry; the subject will be prepopulated, and there will be a hyperlink to Susan's entry -- you can change both of these, as well as add your own words, just like a regular entry.  Then, choose which blog of yours you want to publish to (via the pulldown menu at the bottom), and then you're all set:

Pretty simple, but it gets better.

If you're using Internet Explorer, you can "quote" from the Journal entry, just like you can quote text when you're replying to an e-mail.

What you do is use your mouse to highlight the portion of the entry you want to quote --it can include both words and pictures:

Then, with the part you want to quote still highlighted, scroll down to entry's footer and click "Blog about this entry." This will pop up the window to create a new blog entry, but it will also include the words and/or pictures you highlighted.

You can then add your own commentary; click save, and it will publish to your blog."

It looks like it worked! The copy part worked. Now let's see if it will Save to my journal. Thanks for the info, Joe!

Post Your Christmas Tree!

I didn't get lucky the other night. With the tree, that is.

http://journals.aol.com/bgilmore725/Wanderer/entries/821

It has been standing undecorated in my living room since Mickie and Elizabeth put it together for me Sunday afternoon. After church that day I had taken them out to lunch and to Target on a Christmas shopping mission to buy presents for their parents and each other, but not for themselves. We made it back to my house by 3:00, and with only an hour before they needed to be at MYF (youth group), they wanted to put up my tree.

Innocents! They had no idea how long it takes to put up a tree, even a little artificial seven footer like mine. I asked them if they had ever helped their parents put up a tree. "No, mom always did it while we were at school," came the reply. They really had not known the joy of decorating the tree. I had to let them help!

I put on a Christmas CD, then dragged the long box from the back bedroom where it has been sitting for over a week waiting for someone to take it out and set it up. The girls were so excited. I told them they would have to first sort the branches into their little piles by size, and I showed them the schematic of how it should go together, then I went into the kitchen to make us some hot chocolate. They were busily snapping on the branches, carefully matching up the different letter codes with the diagram, placing each in its appropriate hole. I joined in and soon we had all the branches in place. We stopped for some hot chocolate with marshmallows. It was nearly 3:30 when Mickie said lets put on the lights.

"My dear, you don't realize how long lights take," I told her. She insisted. She begged. She suggested we call the youth group leader to tell him they'd be a little late. Finally, I said, "There is no way we can put up lights in 15 minutes. You guys need to be at MYF in 30 minutes... no, I'll get Steve to help with the lights. Sorry."

They were not happy to leave the bare tree, naked as it were, in the middle ofthe living room floor, but they finally consented to go without the job finished. If we had had a good hour, I might have been able to do it, but with the lights still wound in their boxes, needing to be checked for usefulness, I didn't even want to get it started.

Steve has tomorrow off... maybe the two of us can get to the lights by tomorrow evening. Once the lights are on, the rest is a cinch. I enjoy hanging the ornaments... each comes with a special memory. When I packed them up after the holidays last year, I wrapped them in leftover colored tissue and bubble wrap. Unwrapping them as I prepare to decorate the tree will be like unwrapping little gifts all over again. Some I have forgotten and to see them again will be such a surprise.

We've got to get those lights on! After the tree is up, I will post a picture. Why don't you post a picture of your Christmas tree and send me a link? I would love that! I think my readers would too.

 

Evening Entry

It's almost 6pm and the darkness outside reminds me that soon Steve will be home from work. I'm going to heat up the beef stew I made yesterday. It had cooked all day in the crock pot, huge chunks of lean beef, potatoes, carrots, and celery, simmering all day long, spreading the aroma of "homecooked, made-from-scratch" goodness all over the house. I called him on the phone mid-day, to sort of tease him, give him something to look forward to when he got home, but before I could get out the words "beef stew", he had asked me how I was feeling today. I said I felt fine, why did he ask? He explained that he woke up at 3 a.m feeling nauseous, and on his way to work had to pull off the road and puke. Thought he had some kind of bug. One of his co-workers had gone home with similar symptoms just the other day.

I told him I was sorry, and did he still feel sick? He said he did, and he would probably go to bed when he got home. I sympathized with him, then told him about the beef stew, which by then had lost all its powers of temptation. When he did finally come home, I made him some tomato soup instead because that was all he could handle (what he asked for), and then he took a shower, and went to bed.

Today, I called him at work to see if he was feeling any better. He sounded back to normal. So, for dinner tonight I will re-heat the beef stew, which will be even more aromatic the second time around, bake some rolls, and peel a couple of tangerines.

And if he's still feeling fine, I'm going to ask him to help me put the lights on the Christmas tree that Mickie and Elizabeth helped me put up today. When I told him that the girls had put up the tree (they did do most of the work after I told them what to do, color-coded branches and all), he sounded pleased and surprised. Putting up the tree is not a job he likes to do, you see. I like everything about putting one up except the lights... I despise stringing on the lights... it takes too long, and it takes two people, but he doesn't like to do that part either. Actually, he doesn't like doing any part of it and if he had  his ruthers, he wouldn't do any of it. He just does it because I want it. Eventually I come to the lights, and that's when I ask him to help me. He rolls his eyes, he holds the lights for me while I try to wrap them around the branches, and if I tell him what to do at any point, he's done with me. Then I have to finish the tree myself.

I think he could go through the entire season without seeing a Christmas tree and he'd be perfectly happy. Maybe tonight it will be different. I don't know, the homemade beef stew, the hot rolls, a wife in a good mood... maybe tonight I'll get lucky!