Hacked and snubbed

First I'd like to apologize for not posting much these days. There really doesn't seem to be anything to write about at this time. Let's see how that goes in the future, shall we?
I'm sure we've all heard about those Chinese hackers. Would you believe they hacked into my gmail account? I couldn't imagine why they'd want to read my oh-so-exciting emails but they apparently did. Google keeps warning me that my account has been hacked with a bright red pop-up. I've already done everything recommended and there was just the one incident and I think it's probably related to my eBay shopping history. I've been buying quite a few things from China in the last couple of months. Hmmmmm ...........
The snubbing is something that occurred at the end of the last school year and I won't go into details in public (I'd be happy to explain in an email, though). The result of it is that we have decided not to hand out our scholarship at Henry's high school any longer. We're moving it to the public high schools in Napa from now on. I feel good about this decision but it took a lot of discussion and doubt and second guessing to finally arrive at this point.

Dear Henry

Dear Henry,

It's been three and a half years today, and it was almost exactly at this time that you died. I still remember it all much too well, that waiting room at San Francisco General, the young doctors and all the other details. The worst day of our lives without doubt.

You're still in my thoughts every day, thankfully not as the first thought of the day, but throughout the day. Good memories and not so good ones. I have your picture right in front of me at the computer, the serious one.

You've missed so much, it's been such a busy year. Good things: Kate got married and it was absolutely beautiful. Wish you could have been there. Not sure you would have enjoyed it, might have had to wear a tux yourself. Dad looked absolutely amazing in his. And Kate was so beautiful, wish you could have seen her. Maybe you did? I don't know.

Not so good things: Grandma died unexpectedly in March and we had a little health scare with Dad. All's well now, but, man that was a bit of a shock.

I'm learning computer things - all by myself, no net, no safety harness, no Henry to help when I get stuck :-) I can make slide shows now, and I have ideas for a few more. Dad and I went to that bridge last week to take a few more pictures for the next one. I know you wouldn't like that, it'll feature you - the Henry I remember didn't like being the center of attention.

We're doing pizza tonight, in your memory. It's a nice way to remember you. We've actually tried out lots of places just with you in mind this summer. I think you'd approve of most of them, maybe not the borderline scuzzy one in Berkeley, but maybe so. The pizza's great.

Miss you lots, as always and wish you'd seen a way out of that situation, something much less drastic.

Much love,

♥Mum♥

P.S. That may well have been a typo, but it's stuck.

P.P.S. We're almost ready to cancel your phone plan and are thinking of what to do with your car. Moving on ......

Bridge Rail Foundation Conference and Workshop

The Bridge Rail Foundation will hold a conference and workshop in San Francisco on November 6, 2010.
More information to be found here:

http://www.bridgerail.org/

Today is/was purple day

Quite a few of my Facebook friends (and plenty of others) are/were wearing purple today in support of the gay teenagers who were harassed so badly they saw no other way out than to take their lives.
There isn't a whole lot I can say about this, I'm not good with words and it's all been said I would think.
I am quite familiar with bullying; always having been on the small and timid side I made an easy target. I am quite certain that bullying also contributed to what happened with Henry. Not necessarily bullying towards the end but along the way. He was a rather sensitive child.
One of my friends said it perfectly in her blog post today: It does get easier. And I can attest to that. One grows up, learns to deal with things, gains a certain distance, realizes that the problem is the other person's (the bully's) and, with any luck, is the stronger for it.
Sometime today I remembered a quote by Eric Idle (of Monty Python fame) I heard recently: Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will make me go in a corner and cry by myself for hours. So true!

A slide show

It worked. Wow. My second "real" slide show. The other one has somewhat cheesy music, this one does not. And I did it all by myself - nobody holding my hand, standing over me, giving advice. Just me and the computer (we aren't such great friends). Maybe there's hope for me yet?

This is October?

I realize this is a pretty crummy picture, BUT .......... it's the middle of October, it's after 3 p.m. and it's 95 degrees outside. What's going on? Yes, I know we had a nice, cool summer and saved tons of money by not having to use the A/C, but this a a bit much. The second or third (I've lost count) heatwave since September. I'm ready for cooler weather, I want to wear jeans again, not little dresses.
Okay, enough whining. I realize I've slipped in my little challenge. Even though I've taken quite a few pictures (my memory card proves it), I haven't uploaded any here (there are a few on FB). But I've learned a new skill in Digicam class: I can make slide shows now and set them to music (if the computer cooperates). There's one on FB and if I could only learn to upload it here, I just might (even though the music is kind of cheesy). I have ideas for many, many more, just need to find the time, take a few more pix and find the motivation. Spending the day in front of the computer is NOT my idea of a good time anymore.

From the archives

I'm cheating here - just a little. I did take this picture myself, just not today. And I won't be taking a lot of pictures until I get all my old ones sorted, organized and stored and possibly off the computer. I still haven't completely wrapped my head around the way I'm supposed to do it. Thankfully, we're not running out of memory yet.
We're taught in class to upload to the computer, Photoshop Elements (whichever version; we're using 7 in class and that's what I have at home but I've only just installed it; version 9 is just out) and to organize into folders there. Then the folders are supposed to be burned to CD's (two copies, one to take the place of negatives, one just to be on the safe side) and, after checking that everything worked, everything is to be deleted from the computer. I'm not quite ready to do that. I'm organizing and deleting bad or unnecessary ones, but I'm not at the point where I can do the rest of what I'm supposed to do.
Who would have thought that photography could get so complicated?