Mission 101 progress report.

I originally posted my Mission 101 list here, so I thought I'd post the update here, also.

I so need to update my 101 things list, but I've been working so hard on trying to accomplish some of the goals, that I really haven't had time. In addition to that, I am much too busy playing silly farming games when I do sit down at the computer.
I've been making some pretty good progress in my yard and that is saying a lot. I'm sure I could do a lot more if:
A. I wasn't so tired all the time.
B. I didn't have a computer.
C. I had never started playing Farm Town and other facsimiles.
D. I was younger. (I could do a lot more at 52 than I can at 59.)
E. I made lists and stuck to them. ( I make lists. I really do. I never look at them once they are written.)
F. I was retired and could stay home all day.

Even so, I am making pretty good progress and it's been a pretty good summer. I've noticed however that my social goals are quite lacking in accomplishment. When I take a vacation from my job, I take it to work on my house and yard. I need to learn how to take a vacation to do nothing except go places and see people.

I accidentally saw a good friend of mine in making a simple decision about where to go for lunch. But seeing friends should be planned or included in plans, not accidental. I'm working on that. I have gotten better at getting together with people, but it's a slow process for me. I'm a hermit by nature. I know to some people I seem really social. Even when I take social ability type tests or quizzes I am often labeled an extrovert, but really, I'm not. I answer the questions with what I actually do instead of what I would like to do. When you have kids, you have to learn to be social and include others in your life. That's just how it is. So even though I've learned how to cope and even be fun in social situations, I am by nature a loner and a recluse. (in other words, God gave me kids for a reason?) Who knows? But someday I would still love to live alone.

I have been able to get together with my grandkids more. I also am still working on going to my friends sometimes instead of always wanting them to come here. In other words, getting out of the house. I have a date with my nephew in September sometime to go on a photo shooting drive. I will probably include my friend, Jewel, in that if I can. It will depend on her work schedule and his. I've been taking photos like mad. I love my new camera but already want a newer one. Probably in part because I was duped in getting that one. NEVER do business with TVs Depot. NEVER! It's a fair warning, so heed it!

I was supposed to be blogging regularly and also reading new blogs and commenting. One of the problems I have with that is my name I think. When I click the "next blog" button on Blogspot it sends me to blogs written in Spanish. I think they are basing that on assumptions because of my last name, which is actually Filipino. It's frustrating for me and I give up. Maybe I will just start picking out blogs on my friends's reading list or go to Nablopomo's site and pick some. I really don't have the time to read blogs, though. Or, more accurately, I can't stay awake long enough to read and comment on more than one blog. But I will work on this. I did make comments in both my "t-shirt surgery" community and my 100_Snapshots community, so that counts. I also made some progress on my list and I'm almost done with the first list in 100_Snapshots.

So my non-update is sort of an update after all. I will post an update with my list included when it starts to rain again. I have too much to do outside right now to worry about the inside! House cleaning, inside painting, flooring and all that can wait until the weather turns. I don't want to waste the good weather indoors.
Tags: 101 things in 1001 days, accomplishments, getting there, progress report, update

Blogging.

I SERIOUSLY need to start blogging again. Seriously. I have no idea how I got so far off track. Oh, yeah. Farm town. hmmmm.
Here's a couple of pics I'd like to share.
I've become entranced with taking pictures of the moon. I've been playing with f-stops and shutter speeds and I'm figuring it out. Here are some of the pics.

This first pic I took using my tripod on top of the parking garage at work and using the "night" setting on my camera. I think it was a fluke that it turned out, but I was very excited that my camera had this range.


The reason I think that one was a fluke is because this is what I got the next night taking one at my house with the camera on the tripod out in the middle of my street and still using the "night" preset setting.


I spent some time thinking about it and thought that maybe it was because at my house it is so dark and at the parking garage you have the lights of the city surrounding you. So I tried again at the parking garage but wasn't able to duplicate that first picture. I got the bright light effect of the second picture.

I found that I could always get good detail taking pictures of the day moon, however. This one was taken in early evening before it got dark.


I spent some time playing with the camera in different darkness situations and learning how to set the fstop and shutter speed and then tried again. Originally I just tried setting the shutter speed manually. I got good detail, but the moon is so dark. This one is taken from atop the garage.


So I played a little more. In this one I set both the fstop and the shutter speed manually. But it still turned out quite dark. I knew there must be some way to duplicate that first picture that apparently was quite accidental. This one was taken from my driveway.


Finally, I just took pictures, one at a time, using all different combinations of fstop and shutter speed, until finally...

One turned out


And then another one even closer


So then I tried to get a picture of the moon surrounded by the clouds that were drifting in, but I got this...just the moon.


No matter what combination I tried, I either got ones like the one above, or ones like this, where the clouds show, but the moon is a bright light. So I need to work on that technique and maybe read up about how people go about getting those lovely pictures of the moon surrounded by clouds.


These two pictures are of the planet that was to the left and below the moon and according to the starguide that I use must be Jupiter. Obviously, my camera does not have quite THAT capability, but it was fun trying. I couldn't get my tripod steady enough on the recycling can which is why you see the movement in the light. But hey! I took a picture of the planet Jupiter. haha. I'm sure enjoying my new camera.