Some Desert Flowers And Concerns

Am in the process of watering my garden. I received quite a pleasant surprise, maybe. I planted a hybrid opuntia and two types of polka dot opuntia. It appears that the hybrids and red polka dot are going to bloom. Am not sure about the white polka dot. This will be the first time I have had cactus in the ground bloom. If they are going to bloom... it is kind of like to be or not to be. Sooo very exciting!!! Nope, after very close-up examination, the new colorful sprouts on the cactus in the garden is just this year's new foliage (pears... hence, prickly pears). One of the images from the 19th. Actually looks kind of nice. Don't often capture a whole bee. Mostly bee butts because they are down inside the flowers grabbing some chow.

The bee is gathering pollen from a globemallow which I was able to sprout in my personal garden. Next year, my own will look this nice and hopefully attract bees as well.

Ceniza

One of my favorite ornamental shrubs here in Vegas. Figwort, purple sage, texas sage are a few common names. Leucophyllum frutescens smells nice and attracts bees. Yet, up-close in a confined space the flower aroma is pungent... offensive to me.

Was able to process and zoom in to show the foliage along with the papery purple petals of this plant.

As I work with these images, it comes back to me about my concerns with a photowalk. There is a cost and the images make it worth the effort. And sharing them. Dropped out of "social" media for a while. Rejoined and it is a lot better... photography is for people to see. And enjoy. For instance, below is silverbush (moonflowers):

The cactus are not blooming at all. I have a peanut cactus that will bloom shortly. Waited to finalize this post until I was certain the opuntia are not blooming.Below is an image of the hybrid opuntia

I circled what might have been a flower bud, yet with close examination the pad the young pad segments are obviously at different stages of development. Will continue the cactus discussion inside another post.

A Quick Post

Possibly!!?, my focus may have returned. Don't know how to explain this process of falling into melancholy and feeling absolutely no inspiration. Nor can I explain the process of (hopefully) crawling out of it. Literally crawling. Have maintained my style of living thank G-d. Started my website. Just checked the hyperlink and it actually functions correctly. Yaaaay.

"Histories" by Polybius

This is my current project. Uploaded a rough draft e-book put together by Project Gutenberg and am in the process of reading Volume I and researching the information. The characters, places, and events recorded by the historian. And the Spring wildflower superbloom is almost over. As a photographer, Spring is an important event. This is the 4th or 5th Year that I have missed the event. This makes me think that March has something to do with my melancholy. Who knows? Am just hoping that I am out of my slump.

Origin of the "State" name of Palestine

Am going out to capture images of olive trees, which made me think of olive oil leading into thoughts of Greece and Lebanon. So am going to compose a post with quotes about Philistia and Palestine. Because of the proximity to olive growing regions of the Mediterranean Sea. Cannot think of anything to blog about and this is on my mind. Our olive trees here in Las Vegas, Nevada are certainly beautiful. The images themselves are worthy of a post, yet wanted to include my thoughts.

Joel 3.4:  Yea, and what have ye to do with me, O Tyre, and Zidon, and all the coasts of Palestine (H6428 rolling, that is, migratory; Pelesheth, a region of Syria: - Palestina, Palestine, Philistia, Philistines.? will ye render me a recompence? and if ye recompense me, swiftly and speedily will I return your recompence upon your own head; [KJV which has been added to the public domain]. The Book of Joel was written centuries before the birth of Christ Jesus according to Wikipedia. Quite a few of my link references (most of them) are Wiki because I think that the guidelines for each collection of each of the subjects keeps the discussions accurate. Inside this particular Wikipedia discussion of Joel, there is a sub-heading of "historical context" and a list for "further reading." 

Genesis 21.34:  And Abraham sojourned in the Philistines' (H6430 Patrial from H6429; a Pelishtite or inhabitant of Pelesheth: - Philistine.) land many days. [KJV which has been added to the public domain]. Wikipedia discusses the book of Genesis at this permalink. Am quoting these particular Biblical verses because it shows the linkage between Philistia and Palestine. 

Now that the words Philitia and Palestine have been established as Pelesheth, the identity of Pelesheth needs exploration. I found the identity while studying a book by Polybius. Am very tired at the moment so may just go to bed. A discussion by another blogger is here. If I am remembering correctly, the Pelesheth people are named on the Merneptah Stone. Am not sure if I would be allowed to quote anything because of copyright protection. The translators certainly earned the right to protect their work, yet maybe they left it open to the public. I am not sure. After I sleep will gather some olive tree images

Went out on a photowalk to capture olive tree images. There isn't any fruit at this time of year (Spring) yet the trees certainly are olive bearing during harvest. The ground below the trees is littered with last seasons fall off and olive pits.

Olive trees are planted all over Las Vegas because they tolerate the heat and summer drought conditions. The bark is quite unique and makes identification quite easy. The base of the older trunks is ornate and very unique in their own right. Personally, I think the first people that moved into the valley planted them so much to make cooking oil so available.

The foliage provides excellent shade as well.

Am going through carefully and reading the "Histories by Polybius" located at project gutenberg dot com. As soon as I come across the information needed to trace the mention of the tribes of Sea Peoples that were defeated by the Egyptians, I will complete this blog. Pelesheth is one of the peoples mentioned. Showing that Philistians were not Arabs from the region of what we erroneously name as Palestine today (think Cana'an). I went ahead and used the Wikipedia site, Sea Peoples in order to quickly illustrate my point. Scrolling down through the page there is a list of the peoples (pirates and criminals) that invaded Egypt and were dispersed after their defeat by Ramesses. This article is well worth the time to read.

UPDATE: the olive trees have started to bloom. Am interested in following them through the season.

DISCLAIMER:
Small/fine print of course!!
I am not stating an opinion inside this post. This post is just a collection of facts easily accessible on our Internet.
This blog post is a PARODY.

Saint Patrick's Day

Below is an image of my Shamrocks. I have had these flowers for over years. The bulbs were given to my by mom. She had them for quite a number of years, also.

Happy Saint Patrick's Day 2017

I added a few images to my flickr photostream. Address is over in "About Me"

More about the Shamrock

Something I Have Forgotten

When the nuclear power plant at Sendai, Japan was destroyed by the Tsunami, I learned of the ocean currents carrying nuclear waste to America's Pacific Northwest coastline. Thought about taking a long walk along the coast with a gamma detector. It just came back into my thoughts tonight. I had forgotten, and because of my poor memory, thought it might be a good idea to record the idea.Am going to use my blog to structure a plan. Yaaaay!!

Maintaining Goal Set 11 March

Have been in kind of a slump. No motivation. Nothing. Bummed out. Was going to leave yet there must be a reason for everything. I think it was because of the pain, its limiting me, and my disappointment (trauma) of having to change computers. Something happened to the on/off switch of my Optiplex. My kid brother bought me a new machine. Flat out awesome, hey? He knows the challenges life presents me. His gift really takes the edge off of things.

I am going to repair my old machine and use Window 7. Windows 10 might be okay yet this machine is linked into another "new" browser named Edge. Instead of continuing to perfect Microsoft Internet Explorer the techie have decided to start from scratch with Edge. Instead of allowing their customers to navigate inside a brand new unfamiliar machine with a familiar browser, they have issued another set of problems to overcome. Was really looking forward to using this machine with an uncorrupted version of IE, yet it seems I will use Google. This will be fine until I am competent enough to use Linux. Am going to start using that because for instance I cannot remove "Edge" from this piece of my property without messing up its core capabilities. There "was" this talking thing on here. I removed it. Search is sufficient. I don't talk to machines with my phone neither when I use the tracking device which is rarely. And apparently this new machine is just some type of tracking device, sooo, I put Spybot Anti-telemetry on here. I keep track of my own passwords and do not need a record of the sites visited. If I cannot remember the sites must not have been that important. I keep my own list of notations using notepad. Another thing this machine used to have is access to cloud storage. The reason I have 1TB of storage is to keep my own storage locally. I do not copy video because of copyright law. I do not need video stored inside because the whole concept is to purchase a video because of copyrights. Video is what takes up the most storage. I know because as a photographer my local storage doesn't really take up that much room. The open source free e-books from Gutenberg Project do not take up that much room. For me it is all about obeying my own set of goals and rules governing "me." My images have plenty of room. My books the same. Anything I want is already on the Internet. The company the provides my service allows me to connect to this machine via a router. Which I do not use. Wifi is open and not protected by laws governing my privacy. Those beautiful young women that got hacked learned the hard way that privacy is non-existent using wifi and cloud.

My Goal Accomplishments

GARDEN: Have been working in my garden. Boring stuff... just hours of pulling weeds. A good garden takes years to "make" and this is only my second season. Last year it was Bermuda grass that choked everything. This year the grass is under control with London Rockets growing. This encourages me because my garden topsoil is healthier. Desert soil is the top two inches. The London Rockets last year could not root because the soil was too impacted yet the Bermuda grass just spread. The London Rockets this year are everywhere. There is still a lot of Bermuda grass only on top and easy to remove because I removed the root system last year.

Started a nice area for mulch last year. Am contributing to last year's area and have started another area this year. The idea is to create depth and "living" soil. Plus this year I may purchase and add some earth worms... yet am not sure they will survive the hot season.

COMPUTER: Have been working on the computer. Boring stuff... just hours of HTML5 and CSS. Over and over. For instance, this blog post. Am working with an e-book titled, <>"Project Gutenberg's The Histories of Polybius, Vol. I (of 2)." There are a lot of attribution to be given in order to use this book. http://www.pgdp.net is the location of the fine people named Distributed Proofreading that assembled the book. There is a lot of front-end coding involved to insure that people get the correct recognition. I have spent at least fifty hours organising the e-book so that when I run it using Chrome it is pleasant in appearance. Over the next few "years" I will add maps, my comments, and visual frills so that I enjoy reading the first and hopefully second volume.

In addition, I have purchased a domain name and will begin using it soon. Am just a beginner so do not know how to explain this any better at the moment. Purchased server space from GoDaddy and am using the free basic Word Press container. So I am staying active with computer but really need to review and continue further with my Alison.com lessons. It's all about motivation (I just would like to feel better).

EXERCISE: Have been working on keeping up an exercise routine. Boring stuff... just trying my best. Have discovered the need to walk more. Almost didn't make it to the bus stop the other day. At least I am not losing my balance as much. Will admit that I have slacked off because exercise is not very entertaining, yet I really need to continue.

PHOTOGRAPHY:Have been capturing images. Boring and am trying to keep it interesting.

New Desktop Background

Made the most excellent hamburger dinner the other night.

Mash the hamburger together with the spices. Thoroughly. With a lid. Cook out the fat and impurities within the meat: both sides. Then complete the cooking in the olive oil until done. Turn off the heat and melt the cheese onto the piece of cooked meat using the heat of the pan and lid.

• one-half pound of ground beef
• bread,mayo and sweet pickle relish
• tato tots
• sliced of genuine mild cheddar cheese
• one tbsp of worchestershire sauce
• one-tbsp of diced pepper
• one-half tsp. of salt
• one-half tsp. of garlic powder
• one-half tsp. of chili powder


• two tbsps of olive oil

And put everything together for proper presentation like I have shown below. This is one of the best burger combinations assembled around here in quite a while. I hope that the meat only came from 3000 different animals and not the usual 5000 different animals. This is why I drain the grease and impurities before adding olive oil to finish frying.

If anyone reads this would really appreciate a comment. Will respond.

DISCLAIMER:
Small/fine print of course!!
It is illegal to rate the quality of the products we purchase in America and the outlets that offer products in America.
This blog post is a PARODY.

Maintaining Goal Set

My four goals, exercise, gardening, computer, and photography. Have to stay focused. Have been using HTML5 and CSS regularly, yet need to keep "growth" in mind. Am getting ready to go out to collect images. just doing basic chores and stuff too. Like yesterday, I had to spend most of the day getting to the doc's and pharmacy (great bus system and lengthy). Thank god for pain meds and coffee. The clerk that gave me my prescription started a lecture on alternatives and how he didn't "believe" in using controlled substances. I reminded him of tylenol and beer. Great! He probably doesn't have a problem moving the instant he tries to get out of bed in the morning. Getting up out of my chair to take a pee is difficult to say the least. Wish I was as strong and had the constitution of a real man. Anyway, am going to fix a quick breakfast and head out to collect images. Hope I can walk. Have an image of a cool plant I found yesterday at the doc's, below

Saw two lady birds and captured some images yet they ended up being too bright to use. This upset me a lot. The climate here is so dry, that insect life... any life images are precious. Am also going to work on my mulch heap today. Have the necessary chicken wire and need to sink four posts. This will be the difficult part. Yet after I get home. Am going to leave this blog for the time being.

New Desktop - Day Four

This is about the fourth day I have been using this machine. The trauma is almost over. Back to my projects. Am still editing up some e-books. Styling them so that they are readable on the Internet compared and contrasted with notepad write-ups. Second, need to get caught back into place at Alison.com courses. And finally, get some photography captured. These are primary objectives.

All I can say is, "I need to get my bum in gear." Am going to leave this post for the moment and will complete some of it tomorrow because tasks need to be accomplished in order to stay focused on tomorrows tasks. Am cooking a quick dinner so that I can get into bed. Put off shopping because the weather is crumby.

Scrambled Eggs

Fixings

Assembled

New Desktop - Day Two

Opinion: Windows 10 Is Just A Bloated Copy Of Android

I keep getting a popup asking how I would like to open documents. Documents I wrote on another computer that were migrated to this one. Would like to open them using the program that I used to created them. Why ask? It is really annoying.

UPDATE: I have removed the Mcafee bloat that came with this computer package. Windows Defender and Spybot will suffice. Mcafee had 17 different processes running. Am noticing a lot of processes running in Windows 10. Similar to "div" itis in HTML5, I think. Another thing I am noticing about Windows 10 is that the GUI on the desktop is very unimaginative and colorless. As I use it more, it seems as though this desktop is a bloated cell phone. Except for the processor, caches and hard-drive storage. Have a lot to learn in order to remedy this. Plus there are Dell add-ons that came with this package that aren't even compatible with Windows 10. I deleted this garbage. There "was" a nice 3D package, yet required the purchase of another half. If I ever want 3D will purchase a "complete" package of my own choice. Would like to figure out how to stop Microsoft "Edge" from opening anything. Nothing. Google is supreme. I have Internet Explorer as a secondary. And "Bing" is just as obnoxious.

What is important and I must remember? Is that Microsoft has to design desktops for a novice user. So that it can just be plugged in and work. Am just disappointed in how amateur the Windows appears to me. XP looked a lot better and Windows 7 being a step-down in appearance, this Windows 10 is another step down. This is my opinion and I have a right to it. Windows 10 desktop is just like an over-blown tire chalk (cell phone). Lazy techies didn't even design a desktop calculator. It is an exact replica of the cell phone screen on Android.

My next project is how to change the sounds upon notifications. Default makes me want to vomit. Oh, and you know that stupid Cortana thingie that takes up storage space on Android? It is default on Windows 10. Found where to delete it, yet there is not a "search" text box on the sicking attempt at a start menu. So am worried if I delete Cortana, I will not be able to text anything into search on the start menu. And if I were a gamer, these default settings on start might be good... for children's games. I have it almost set-up... yet there is an annoying green icon for xbox. It is some kind of thing to buy. Sheesh. Could search for that on Google. Just more wasted space. Like I would have any money to spare.

New Desktop - First Post

New Desktop

Am surprised how many games and such are included with this desktop. As soon as I can navigate properly on this machine am planning on removing all of the cell phone type add-on thingies. This is a working machine and I am not interested in cell phone gadgets. Like I have posted before, I make telephone calls with my phone. With my computer, am planning on my photography. Am not sure where to load my pocket wizard files so will wait. Am trying to get my anti-virus stuff uploaded... this has all sorts of Mcfee type stuff that they have set up so a new user will accidently upload. Will use "choose" something else, I am thinking.

Have been on this for a few hours now, and is starting to get loosened up. Got my camera software on here okay. Just need to find an activation code for Office and then I will be able to read all of the documents created over the last seven years.