Beneath the Wraps

          When Jenna told me her assignment was on camera history, I smiled as I had recently touched on that same subject in class discussion post that I briefly mention here .   I ended up with this thought on digital cameras versus film:        " The digital camera was made available to the public in 1988 (Ternholm, 2007).  Before the start of the 21st Century,  I had known several people who had tried to sway me into the perks of having/owning digital.  I don't remember all the reasons I had for sticking with my 35mm and rolls of film, but one of the reasons was because I had convinced myself that the picture quality was better from the film than the digital results.         "It wasn't until our family had an opportunity of hosting a foreign exchange student that I was "swayed" to the perks that a digital camera could provide.  My "so...

            As soon as Jenna returned home from school yesterday, Roland and I went to a neighbor's house to pick apples.   Jenna did not wish to go.  Instead, she started on some homework she had.   When I returned, she asked me to help her with a specific topic.   She had been assigned to write about an invention and had picked cameras as her topic.   Oh, yes.   What a great historical item.                My first suggestion to her was to make a comment on the straight faces that are seen in so many old photographs.   No one is smiling.   They all look serious.   Cameras seemed to be a lot heavier and bulkier back then.   It would take the photographer a huge amount of time just to set up his equipment and even longer to capture the pose.           ...

            There is a couple in the stake who had moved into a house with lots of land.   The original owner had used some of the land was used to grow baco grapes.   When the couple moved in, he asked to continue with growing his grapes and maintained that part of the land.   He has now retired from maintaining the land.   It's not necessarily an investment the family was interested in and decided to invite all those who lived in the stake to come and pick as many grapes as we want.   These were offered for free.             So for family home evening, we loaded up the car with buckets, scissors, gloves and knee pads - though we did not need the latter.   The couple has grown into a family and had various children out in the orchard to direct participants on where to go and start cutting.  Cutting grapes off the vine was probably the ...

          Roland Loves watching movies and television.   I tolerate T.V. but as I have mentioned before, if we were to get rid of it, neither Jenna nor I would be upset about it.   There are so many things that are greater than sitting on the couch (an uncomfortable one at that) watching moving pictures and reading the closed captioned because even at 72 decibels, the sound is usually in competition with the A/C and the fan - unless you are in another room and then it's like "Why is the volume up so dang loud?"           I can watch a couple of movies, I guess, but then I am burned out.   I cannot or will not watch 8 hours straight of "American Pickers" or "Flea Market Flip" or even "Big Bang Theory"   Even four hours is too much.             So yesterday, Roland asks if I want to see a movie.     ...

            The discussion for this week is to: "Think about a time when your mind was successfully changed either by a message delivered in print, on a screen, or in person from someone else. What factors swayed you?"   The first thing that came to mind was accepting gay rights.   As with many others, I grew up believing in the influence of society.   "Homosexuality was wrong and therefore anyone who practiced was wrong" and I think made to feel worthless. It was something I had been taught all of my life.   But through Corey, I've come to realize that to be gay or attracted to the same sex is often NOT a choice.   Really, why would an individual go through all the pain and prerecession in addition to having desires that he/she can't seem to control or explain? Why shouldn't they have the same rights as others who develop feelings for the opposite sex? No person has control over developing a love for anot...

          Jenna has early morning seminary.   She started this morning.   Arrangements have been made for taking the students from the church to the school - though I had planned on assisting with that this morning.   From the time she left the house to the time I arrived at the church was one of the quickest hours I have ever experienced in my life.             I had forgotten about her being in seminary or school traffic or buses or how much I loathe driving in school traffic.   I had somehow managed to forget all of that during the summer.   As soon as I pulled out of my driveway and saw a school bus, I thought "Oh, no." And then I had to fight the brightness of the sun on top of that.   Good grief.           How is it possible that my baby had just barely turned eleven before our official move to Ore...

Ever since preschool, Jenna has had this unbelievable talent of being able to talk AND to listen at the SAME TIME! Who does that?  I could never work in telemarketing as I know I will have co-workers around me that will have louder voices than what I’ll attempt to be hearing over the phone.  I’ve always had a problem concentrating on one sound or voice when there is a louder sound penetrating my ears. I also find it hard to concentrate on speaking if my voice is in competition with other sounds. Last night Jenna asked if she could watch “What Would You Do?” as it is truly one of her favorite programs.  The entire time it was on, she was jabbering at me – telling me about different friends, certain plans, responding to whatever might ail her, personality traits . . . on and on.  The entire time she was talking to me, she would also respond to the T.V.  “No!  That isn’t right!  Why do people do that?” and then she would turn back to me, “. . . a...