This next paragraph really has nothing to do with this post. I just thought I would throw it in here.

Laura and I were eating dinner this evening when I noticed Finnegan Gordon Belle (Flipper Human the cat) laying on the chair next to us. Now, just to give a bit of background on this cat…he is grouchy when he sleeps. He really has no time or patience for people who get in the way of his “resting sessions.”

Well, after I finished slowly (repeatedly) placing my food in my mouth, I decided to walk over and pet the cat. I got a few good pets in. I thought this was nice. What did the cat do in return? He looked up at me, shifted his weight, sat up and bit my hand. Nuff said. I walked away and left him alone. Sure, when he wants to get picked up every other minute of the day, I accommodate him, but when I want to play, noooooo.

Here he is, the bum…

Finnegan Gordon Belle

Man, you can almost see the attitude.

Ok, back to the post. If you haven’t noticed around the blogging world yet, things are a bit slow this Summer. I guess people are outside, enjoying the weather. I am sure all sorts of families are vacationing at the beach and places like that. Gee, even I got in the car a few times this season. Well, let’s just say all this enjoyment hasn’t really helped my reading habits. Blog reading I mean. Yes, it’s sad but true.

In my opinion, if you want to be one of these crazy bloggers, you have to write all the time. You have to wake up and want to bring the camera with you when you get your morning coffee. It truly is a disgusting way to live, but if you’ve ever written in a format like this, you’ll know what I am talking about.

The thing of it is…we computer people LOVE to read what you write. It doesn’t matter what it is. We just want to keep up with your lives. I should actually be writing this to myself because I have been slipping through the cracks lately. I mean, I have been cutting down some small trees on the side of the property, but I don’t think I can bring the camera every time, nor do I think people want to continuously read about it. I’m not even sure what I can take a picture of. I keep asking Laura if it looks any different than it did earlier and she just gives me a sad look and turns her face back and forth, saying…”no, my sweet prince, it doesn’t.”

I sometimes make the joke to Laura that people don’t need to call me to see how I am doing. All they need to do is read this silly thing. It’s kind of not fair because I do a lot of calling. Trust me, let’s not change this arrangement. I like you reading and I like doing the calling. Oftentimes, I feel more comfortable if things are on my terms.

I guess I get a little depressed when I see the internet get light for a while. I think overall traffic takes a hit during the Summer. I never thought I would see the day when I get excited at the prospect of a rainy day in September…when all the kids are back at school and college is in session. Ooohhh, look at all those users checking out my sites. The Christmas season is a whole other story.

It’s amazing. For all the cool things we do in the Summer, we really don’t feel like writing about many of them. Maybe it’s the sunshine. Maybe it’s the guilt of bringing the laptop out on the deck with us and writing, when we really should be looking at the squirrels. Perhaps that’s why some of the best authors like to go up to their chilly cabins to write and don’t do it on the beaches of Barbados. Really now, Barbados is no place to write. Maybe Vail…

My friends, the good news is there are new blogs being formed every day. Just yesterday, an old friend of mine showed interest in making a blog of his own. I hope he does because the world needs more smart writing. I am actually curious about what he has to say. I am sure there are other great blogs that have been started recently that I never knew about. Oh, it’s going to be fun because the blogging season is right around the corner.

So, for those people who have shown interest recently about blogging and why they should get into it, I will explain what I like about the whole thing. Basically, I think this is a place for people to get to know me. I really like the format and I feel comfortable sharing things here. I really don’t care if some trucker from India reads this thing every morning before he has his breakfast. If he finds me entertaining and gets a kick out of the projects that I do, then that’s cool. You know, I bet there are a few truckers who like to read my blog.

Also, I really like to take pictures. Here, I can post them and tell people all about what I was doing. Of course, if you haven’t noticed, I think the stuff I do is reeeeally important.

The best thing is when I help people. I know I have said this before, but when someone gets some use out of what I write, that makes it all worth while. You can imagine the blisters on my fingers from all this writing. Can you imagine that?

Well, it’s getting a bit late now and I fear that I am not making sense anymore. I just want to warn you that the camera comes back out tomorrow and I am going to be outside with it. I am going to take a picture of something and post it here. You just wait…

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One of the things that always annoyed me what that no on can really see the detail in my photos. The new camera that I got takes great pictures, but when I shrink them down to fit in the blog, I lose so much of the close up detail. For the blog, I shrink the photos down to 503 pixels. For the photo gallery, I will shrink them down to 1000 pixels. That should let the average blog reader (civilian) see what I want them to see.

Jay Gaulard Photo Gallery

Where can you see this marvelous new gallery? Well, right here. The gallery is an open source application developed by Coppermine Photo Gallery.

I just put a few photos in there for now. I am not going to drive myself nuts be going back to every photo I ever took to try to fill it up. Also, I am reserving the gallery for only really good photos…not everyday things I post here. Well, some of the stuff I post here, but only the good stuff. I will also refer to the gallery in my posts if I have a better photo over there.

When visiting the gallery, be sure to click the thumbnail photo. When the photo gets large, click it again for the really big one. That’s where you’ll see some really cool stuff.

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Kindly notice the yellowish box in the upper right-hand corner of this new and beautiful template. In this yellowish box, you will see a “Want to subscribe?” heading. Please place your email in the box to the right of where it says, “Enter your email address:” to receive my posts via email. If you do this, you will never miss another post. They will be delivered right to your inbox. How? By robots and aliens.

I entered my own email address and completed the sign-up process. Then, I wrote a post. I haven’t received it via email yet, but I’m sure I will. It may just take a few seconds.

Enjoy.

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A few days ago, I was talking to my mother on the phone as she was driving up to my brother’s house in Virginia. She wasn’t driving…she is much too careful for that. She expressed in subtle, but forceful terms that she was not pleased at all with my decision to upgrade my blog template. She held the phone up in the air and I heard my sister, Lauren, yell, “Put it back!!!”

Now, being the man I am, I tend to be more attracted to the plain types of websites. I don’t really go after the spicy ones. I thought I had it. Well, I guess not. Neither my mother, nor my sister shared my taste. I think the main issue wasn’t the template, but the fact that it now showed two columns on the homepage, instead of one. My mother now had to scroll to the right to read the entries. Also, the entries now had to be clicked, instead of being available right one the homepage. I guess they don’t like to click.

The reasons I liked the plain template is just that…the entry titles had to be clicked. All 30+ images didn’t need to be loaded right there on one page, slowing down the site. That and the plainness of it.

I think I have found a compromise. What you are looking at is the second version of the old template. This one has the posts over to the left again, so there is no scrolling to the right. Also, it only shows the most recent post and the others below it with no photos.

How’s that? Do my number one blog readers like this one better? As my mother would say with her hand on her hip, “I certainly hope so.”

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I tried to find the simplest theme on the planet and this is one of them. I am sick of all the fluff. Also, the page load time is much faster with this theme because it is “table-less” and no post images show on the homepage. That was a problem for those of you with slower connections.

The only bad thing is now you guys are going to have to click on each post title to see if there are any photos in it. Sorry about that. Maybe there is a way to get thumbnail photos on the homepage or something. I am sure I can figure it out. Until then, enjoy the new theme and just assume that I put photos in almost every post.

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Now, if you have been following this blog for any amount of time, you certainly know how fond I am of taking pictures. With this in mind, I walked over to the wall and saw the writing on it. A few moments later, I was on CircuitCity.com ordering a new camera.

It really doesn’t take me very long to do these types of things. I basically visited the camera section and narrowed it down to show just Sony cameras. I like Sony cameras because they plug in easily with a USB cord. I looked at the 12+ mega pixel cameras and saw that only point and shoot one on the page. It’s the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W300 13.6-Megapixel Digital Camera. I read a few reviews and bought it.

I recived the package today and opened it. One of the first things I noticed is that, while it does use a USB cord to connect to the computer, the connection that fits the camera is not a traditional USB connection. This was a little disappointing because I really like to have things that use USB cords. I don’t want to have to worry about forgetting this special cord when I am traveling. Oh well.

Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W300 13.6-Megapixel Digital Camera - front view.

Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W300 13.6-Megapixel Digital Camera - side view.

Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W300 13.6-Megapixel Digital Camera - rear view.

I installed the battery and turned the camera on. Then, I took about three pictures. I tried to take a forth picture, but was notified that there was no more memory on the camera. Good thing there was a deal at Circuit City where they gave away a 2GB Sandisk memory stick with the purchase of this camera. Also, the problem was that the camera was set to the highest quality. You can imagine how large the file sizes of the photos on a 13.6 mega pixel camera can be. If you can’t, they are about 4MB each.

I installed the 2GB memory stick and took a few more photos. I then plugged the camera in to the USB cord and opened the folder on the computer. Oddly, I could only see the photos on the memory stick (mass storage). I deleted them. Then, I took the memory stick out of the camera. I re-plugged the camera in and saw the first photos I took (internal storage). I tried to delete those photos from the folder in the computer and it wouldn’t let me. I learned that if you are using internal storage on a digitial camera, you can only delete the photos by using the camera’s delete function. If you are using mass storage, you can delete them from the computer.

There are many features on this camera, such as:
- 13.6 megapixels
- 3x optical zoom (which people don’t think is all too great for the price)
- 2.7” LCD display
- Dual image stabilizers (which I need because I have a bad habit of taking blurry photos)
- Face detection (detects up to 8 faces and focuses on each one of them)
- 9-point auto focus
- Smile Shutter mode (the reviews say this really works)
- Dual aspect ratios (normal or widescreen)
- HD slide show with music
- Image optimization
- Easy shooting mode
- In-camera image enhancements
- Scene modes (this camera actually has a description on the screen when you change modes - this is good because I really never knew what any of them meant)
- Burst shooting mode (up to 100 shots consecutively at almost two shots per second)
- Shoot movies
- 15MB of internal memory

If all these features work as described, you will start noticing higher quality photos in my blog posts.

Peace out.

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I was just going over one of my websites (BlogLeeg.com) and there was an interesting article about some improvements people can make to their blogs. Some of them were bogus, but one of them caught my eye.

Think about it…people are at your blog to read about you. Your readers want to know what’s going on in your life and your world. Maybe, just maybe, they should know what you look like. The suggestion that I read said to put a photo of yourself in one of your columns or on your “About” page. I thought that was a spiffy idea, so I put up twelve. I tend to overdo things sometimes.

So, if you visit my “About” page, you can see all my pretty pictures. As I was posting these photos, I couldn’t help but wonder f I am getting weird looking in my old age. I try to stay somewhat normal, but time does take it’s toll…nah.

I still can’t figure out if I look more French, Irish, Italian or Hungarian.

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It’s like business…nothing is ever good enough. You can make the “holy cow” ten billion dollar sale, but what did you really do? You just made the next ten billion dollar sale a little less exciting. I get comments and I thank you for them, but here is what I really want…

I want every single person who ever read this blog to comment on a post. Use a fake name, I don’t care. I like getting comments. They are fun to read and respond to, although, I am not the best responder. I get a kick out of when people try to push my buttons and say things that go against my grain. I am doing my part now I ask that you do yours.

Now, if I can just take my own advice and start commenting on people’s blogs…

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I was typing the last post in this blog a few minutes ago and noticed that it now has a Pagerank of 2. That’s twice of what it was at 1. The reason it’s only a 2 is because I have relatively few links to the blog and the domain name is very young. Some of my other sites picked up a few points.

Good luck and let me know if your site gained any PR.

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