Internet GEMS and computing

(c) 2016 Graphic Stock

I am not sure why I am calling this post “Internet Gems and computing”.  Perhaps when I learn them, they are a gem to me.  You have to realize something.  I am not a Millennial.  I was not born into a push button, selfie world.  Computers came into the home when I was a pre-teen/teen, something like that. I learned a language that went a little like this “10 Print Hello”.  I forgot what it was called.  I was learning how to type on a typewriter.  I played games on an Atari and Nintendo 64.  My first computer was a Radio Shack computer.  I saved things on a floppy disk, and the list goes on and on. 

So when I say things like, “I learned how to delete a blog on Blogger, it is like learning how to drive.  I am going over photos that were saved on CDs, determining what photos to keep, because I am getting a 5 TB (that’s Terabyte) external drive, with 1 TB solely dedicated to photos.  When you are a business, you think about things like this.  I already have 4 cloud storages, but I am decluttering, and I need the space.

Sprinkled throughout the “Interwebs”, as a person Awesomely Luvvie coins the internet, are my comments on how much I love learning Photoshop.  Illustrator and InDesign are next on my list, and should be starting soon.  I am learning how to create a website without coding.  How is that possible?  My bestie friend Renae Christine from Rich Mom University is showing me how.   Yes, I could have paid hundreds of dollars for someone to make my website, but I am a hands-on type of person.  It is no fun to hand your precious “baby” over to someone, and when they try to explain to you what they did, the language goes over your head.  No fun at all. This way I know what I want, what I to put on my website/blog, and if something goes wrong, I can fix it, instead of waiting until the next morning.  I do not have time for that, and neither do my customers.

So these are my GEMs.  No acronym.  In case you are wondering which blog I deleted, it was my Disney blog.  I have something better than the sad, pitiful, neglected blog I was posting. The other two (Simply Organized Crafts and P. Lynne Designs) blogs are being reformatted to a self-hosted WordPress (I am working on that), and as soon as I do that, I am merging this blog (still a separate blog) into P. Lynne Designs.  The last blog (Tricia’s Baskets) will be part of Simply Organized Crafts, but again a separate blog.  This will give me the privilege to delete my Blogger account (I think), but overall Google will not have their paws on them.

So you are wondering why I wrote this… That is the big thousand-dollar question.  Stay tuned.

I’m done, move it along people

Disclaimer: Patricia Logan and P. Lynne Designs is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com. As an Amazon Associate, I earn a commission from qualifying purchases.

(c) 2016 GraphicStock

I was cruising along, minding my own business (OK, I was being nosey) when I came across this news feed on Facebook (my version of Fox News): “Jada Pinkett Smith responds to Chris Rocks’ Jokes at the Oscars.” Let me fill you in… she has moved on.  Time to come out and play.

I am done.  All this hype of about boycotting the Oscars, which I was going to boycott anyway.  My reasons were different from Jada’s reason.  I think that the Oscars have been a little bit over the top in recent years, and to me, I will always have my favorites, and no little statue can tell me any different.  I am going to see my favorite actor no matter what they are in (except anything that is against my values), even if I am the only one in the theater or wait until that movie comes on Netflix, Amazon Prime, or On Demand.  It does not matter if the actor is black, white, blue, or green though I tend to have a little more favoritism towards the black actors.

I have read the comments on how Will Smith is not that good of an actor to deserve a nod on the carpet for Concussion or any movie that he has done in the past.  That is a matter of opinion.  Some say that he, Jada, and the kids are weird.  Come to think of it, most people in Hollywood (or Hollyweird) are strange.  You have to be strange and open to new things and people, in order to play someone or something different from your personality. 

To that, I say I blame the writers and producers in the industry.  They are out of touch and have no concept of the make-up of people in this country or this world.  They go by what sells. 

Take Zoe Saldana.  She was recently picked to play Nina Simone in an up and coming movie.  I have no doubt that she is a good actress.  She can play a wide range of movie role based on her looks alone.  Nina Simone, who was a dark-skinned poet and Jazz singer, is best known for her song, “To be Young, Gifted, and Black”, and the subject of my last post (as well as my pastor’s sermon last week), is being played by Saldana, who is light-skinned and mixed.  Now, I have a slight problem only to ask the question, “were there no dark-skinned actresses who were talented enough to play Ms. Simone?” My other question is, “Why are we playing the race card again within our own race?”  For years, as far as I remember hearing about, there has always been a fight among ourselves, “light-skinned V. dark-skinned”.  It was even during the time of slavery.  Please stop this once for all.  I never had a problem because I am in the middle.  I was born, what I like to call, “milk-chocolate”, a combo of a dark-skinned father and a light-skinned mother and having a severe case of eczema as a child.  If it wasn’t for eczema, I could actually go either way on the issue.  This skin condition darkens the skin.

Ok, I have now gotten to the point of rambling so I will end this post.  The conclusion to all of this and my further thoughts… who cares.  Jada has moved on, and so should we.  We all know how America thinks about Black America in the first place.  This should not be news, but we (including me) make a big deal out if a situation, which goes beyond a little statue that to me is a glorified door stopper.  In fact, some actors say after the first 2 or 3 statues they win, they do not know where to put them in their home, so they rent out storage. It is kind of that sports trophy you won as a child.  Yes, if you have that statue in your hand, producers and directors will consider you for more roles, and writers will want to write characters with you in mind.  The problem is that they think that black America has nothing to offer but violence. 

This is probably one of the reasons why Bill Cosby (haters, sorry I brought up his name) created The Cosby Show, which shows that the black family is like the average American family, BUT he does not define the family.  Besides that, I hate to say this, but Caucasian America, you have some crazy stuff going on in your families, too, which most back families would not touch with a 10-feet pole.  It is happening now in our families, only because we want to be like you, and we want this thing called equality.

So now we are back to the Will Smith family being weird.  They are only weird because they want to blend in, and black people are not used to that.  They do not want to see the movies and shows they are in because black America has felt segregated for a long time, and the closer we get to “getting ours”, the further white American pulls away. 

It would be nice if everyone had equal arrests (preferred no arrests), equal opportunities of employment, getting loans, housing in the same neighborhoods, friendships, marriages without judgment of the couple, but until that happens, there will always be that inequality among races, religious beliefs, and sexual orientation.   The best way to combat this is to turn towards God and love yourself so you can learn to love others,

Are things tumultuous or calm right now in your life? Why do you think the energy is balanced this way?

Calm or tumultuous?
(c) 2015 p.Lynne Designs

I am not starting my March writings in the right way.  I wanted to welcome you in the only way I could, which is to have a big flashy sign that read, “Welcome to March”.  But instead, you go this writing prompt, LOL.

Ok, enough, I am in a silly mood. Welcome to March, and at BlogHer, my favorite place to find writing prompts when the mind is stuck.  This month’s theme is about “Energy”.  Tuesday’s topic has asked me if things in my life are “Tumultuous” or “Calm”?  The second part is why do I think it is that way.

At first, I had to think about that word, “tumultuous”, but it is a word that I personally do not use in my vocabulary (I need more big words in my life).  It simply means, “crazy”, “chaos”, or “screwy”.  I can say this my life is not calm.  I wish it was.  I wish my life right now is at a place where I am not up at 4:30 am writing posts because I cannot sleep.  My mind is racing, and thinking.  Here is the reason why I feel that way (that is the second part of this question)

I am have tossed myself in many directions in the past 4 years.  I have been questioning things like my faith, my life, my business, and my finances.  I have been questioning other things such as “How did I get to 50 so fast?”  “Why don’t I have a house by now?” “Why am I delaying adoption (now turned into foster care)?  “What up with my creativity lately?” “What am I afraid of when it comes to finding the right man in my life to date and marry?”  These are all the questions I have of myself.  I feel like people such as friends and family are passing me by.  I know what I want in life, but sometimes I am so confused.  I do want to succeed. 

I want to be that mom to a child whose birth mom abandoned.  Not necessary a pre-teen or a teen.  I know, I can hear people now asking me, “why not an older child?”  one of my aunts at Thanksgiving asked me that question.  I never got a chance to have a child in the formative years, and I just want to be able to teach this kid, not that I cannot teach an older child.  It is just that an older child has been trained to think a certain way, and any damage done to the child is hard to undo.  I have watched my foster sister go through that.  She was 6 when she came into my family’s lives, and I can say that she is a damaged person at 27 with 2 kids.  I try to help when I can. So do my parents, who she still calls mom and dad.

I want to be the best for God.  That means help others when I can and understanding what He wants from me, which is to obey what his word says in the bible.  He wants me to be happy.  He wants us all who believe to be happy.  I feel like sometimes I have overwhelmed myself, and that is when I have to step back a minute.  I have business, family, church, and my own person life to deal with, so my life is full, but not full enough.  I have room for other people (such as a baby and a mate) (Ohh, mate sound so Klingon-ish like). 

Yes, my life at the moment is not calm, and I doubt in the next 20 or so years it will be (especially if I am going to be 71 by the time this kid graduates).  And if any wants to know, yes I am asking for a child between 0-12 years of age.  I have my options since I am dealing with nephews and a niece ages 1,5, 7, 8, and 20.