New Look & Trip Update

Do you like the new look? My blog needed a little remodeling, so I went a little crazy. I'm not bowled over by it, but it does reflect my mood. Feeling very unsure of my job and what the future holds these past few months, as I'm sure many others are. This template certainly fits my emotional state, so it might be here for a while. I hope it doesn't overstay its welcome, though. When the template changes to a nature scene of some kind, you will know that I have emerged from my funk and all is well in my world again.

In the meantime, here are some photos I took in Louisiana with my daughter last week. We had a good time visiting my mom, our relatives, and her friends. We actually did a little cooking which was nice, but we also dined in restaurants and ate like royalty. Both of us flushed money down the toilet at The Hollywood Casino -- toilets being the slot machines. We tried our hand at roulette, blackjack and video poker, but fared even worse there. Lady luck was not with us this trip. On the last day we went downtown to take pictures and we were able to tour the Louisiana Old State Capitol building. I had my first wedding reception there in 1980. Seeing it again 29 years later, I was able to appreciate the aesthetics more. It is really stunning inside and out.

Interior of the Louisiana Old State Capitol building

Louisiana Old State Capitol building

In my mother's neighborhood

Slacking and Blipping

Wow, it's been a month to the day since I last updated this blog. What a complete and utter slacker I've been.

Do I have a good excuse for being so neglectful? Is there some physical affliction keeping me from writing? Are cosmic forces at work stifling what little writing abilities I possess? No. No. And 'maybe'.

Between Twitter, Facebook, photography excursions, and all the new gadgets, my time seems like a fart in a hurricane. I wonder: Can A.D.D. be acquired at 48 years old? I might be a new case study. :)

Another pretty major player has entered the scene: DJ-ing online. That's right--thanks to Jay, I am now addicted to blip.fm. It's like Twitter for music, but instead of tweets, you blip songs. Create a profile, search for any song online, and click blip, which automatically adds it to your blip list. Stream the public timeline or play your Favorite DJs. Personally, I like the public timeline best because you get a wider variety of music. If you see a song you like, you can give that DJ props and/or reblip their blip. If you really like their blips, you can add them as a favorite DJ. I've found some great music and rediscovered songs that I had forgotten all about. It'll also update Twitter automatically unless you choose not to.

Check me out at blip.fm.lousianabelle!

I Dreamed a Dream

As most of the world has seen by now, Susan Boyle walked on stage at Britain's Got Talent and proceeded to shatter an entertainment stereotype. Maybe our culture has finally (and rightly) grown tired of plastic, perfect entertainers parading on our screens. She truly opened the collective mind, allowing everyone who watched her to throw out their expectations of what a singer should look like. She is more beautiful than one hundred of the current pool of entertainers. What a gift she has!

I wish someone had warned me how moved I would be to witness the performance of this unassuming, humble soul. For the last several days I've been seeing links about her and avoiding them. I don't believe in cruelly poking fun at someone for their efforts simply because they look different from others. But because I was bored and had to watch something, I clicked on one of the YouTube links, fearing another William Hung performance. Initially, I felt sorry for this woman who was obviously being laughed at in such a public way. However, my pity soon turned to awe as she opened her mouth and let go that first note. When the crowd rose to their feet in applause and I saw the looks on the judges' faces, I became filled with emotion.

Look her up and be inspired. (I would include a video here, but embedding has been disabled on YouTube.) The lyrics to the song make this even more profound.

I Dreamed a Dream from Les Miserables

I dreamed a dream in time gone by
When hope was high
And life worth living
I dreamed that love would never die
I dreamed that God would be forgiving

Then I was young and unafraid
And dreams were made and used and wasted
There was no ransom to be paid
No song unsung, no wine untasted

But the tigers come at night
With their voices soft as thunder
As they tear your hope apart
And they turn your dream to shame

He slept a summer by my side
He filled my days with endless wonder
He took my childhood in his stride
But he was gone when autumn came

And still I dream he'll come to me
That we will live the years together
But there are dreams that cannot be
And there are storms we cannot weather

I had a dream my life would be
So different from this hell I'm living
So different now from what it seemed
Now life has killed the dream I dreamed

My Head is Spinning

Help! I've fallen on Gadget Avenue and I can't get up!

A persistent, nagging headache has been with me for well over a week. My blood pressure monitor is giving normal readouts, so the only thing I can attribute it to is T.O. (Technology Overload).

I come home from work and can't concentrate on my favorite TV show because I'm thinking of all the amazing things I'm going to do on the new iMac, or all the great shots I'm going to get with my new Prime lens, or the walk I need to go on so that I can use the new Shuffle (which after one week, I still have not even used), or obsessively checking my email on the Touch. I'm like a kid that got way too many toys for Christmas. If I start throwing tantrums or acting like a brat, just slap me.

Facebook, Twitter, and all the blogs I read add to the chaos. My brain hurts. Really. Not only is my addiction causing brain pain, I now have the attention span of a gnat. If an article or blog post is too long, I will skim until I find at least one interesting word or sentence, and if I don't find it quickly: buh-bye!

Sudden realization: my life is becoming defined by a series of clicks. No wonder dog clicker training is so effective. Yes, I am simple like the dog. And that's okay.

I've never had an addictive personality. I used to smoke like a train, but quit pretty easily. If I see something starting to overtake my life, I am fairly adept at stopping it - from toxic relationships to cigarettes. I'll end whatever it is without any qualms. This love of photography and computers, though, has me a little concerned.

Gadget Overload

Yes, I finally did it. I caved and purchased the 24" iMac yesterday -- all because we were a little early in meeting my daughter and her friend for dinner.

Since we had about 30 minutes to kill, I asked Double D to stop at Best Buy so that I could purchase a pair of Skullcandy headphones for my new Shuffle. Like a magnet I flew straight over to the computer section first just to drool over the Macs.

Mind you, I had only planned on drooling, not forking over moulah.

Best Buy's marketing strategy of putting the prices in black on a bright yellow field worked. When I saw $1499 for the 24" with 4GB memory and 640GB hard drive, I went "Whoa!" I thought I remembered seeing it a few months before for $1799. I called my daughter immediately and said I might be late for dinner because I had just been drawn into the iMac vortex. She, being the ever diligent daughter, looked up the price on Apple's web site, and sure enough, the price was $1499 there also. Jay got on the phone and said it was a really good price and he also thought it had been more expensive a few months prior. My mind became trapped in buy mode and I was powerless to stop it. Double D looked at my pleading eyes and said to go for it. I figured 'ya know, I don't have a car note anymore, so why shouldn't I'?

I titled this post "Gadget Overload" because in the same week I ordered a 50 mm Prime lens for Mabel and the day after that, I purchased the iPod Shuffle for when I take my walks. The week prior, I purchased the iPod Touch. I have never made so many gadget-y purchases in such a short period of time. I'm hoping nothing new comes out to tempt me.

Jay and Autumn came over today to help me get my new baby all set up. Jay was absolutely wonderful, patient, and full of information to help me navigate this thing. Thank you!!!!!!!

Oh, I never did get the Skullcandy headphones. I think that can wait.