Pasture Zen

For me, walking outside and looking at nature through my camera  is a form of meditation.  When I walk quietly and carry a big lens, magic can happen.  I achieve a zen state where I am  a part of nature.

You can see the Owlets in tomorrow’s post.

Today, we’re honoring the letter Z with Jenny Matlock for Alphabe-Thursday.  I’m also sharing with Rurality Blog Hop, Thursday’s Favorite Things, and Skywatch Friday.

Random 5 Friday Rant

1.  I suppose my first thing is that I still have no flowers blooming, and this week’s prompt for Nurture Photography is flowers/lilac.  Well, good thing I bought those flowers last weekend.

SOOC

2.  I absolutely love blogging.  I started my first blog when I was so excited about adding to my farm that I thought I would explode if I couldn’t share it with someone.  It started simple and personal.  As I continued, it became a way to meet like-minded people and share my knowledge of goats.  Then I started my poetry blog for that creative expression that I hadn’t had in many years.

SOOC

I’ve grown so much as a person, a writer, and a photographer directly because of blogging.  It’s very motivating, and I haven’t missed a day of blogging in over three years.

SOOC

3.  I am absolutely addicted to my comments.  I love hearing from people and visiting them to get to know what’s going on in their lives.  I’ve laughed and cried and been amazed at how much I care for people that only exist in my life through this blogging community.

SOOC

4.  When WordPress changed their commenting to require people to sign in if they had a WordPress or Gravatar account attached to the e-mail address, it was very annoying.  Of course, you could use a different e-mail address, or you could use Twitter or Facebook to comment also, but I hate that they tried to force people to use their platform.  It completely goes against the idea of a blogging community.  That’s why I removed the requirement of putting in an e-mail address.  I want to be able to click on a person’s name a visit their blog, not their Gravatar picture or Twitter page.

I find the Discus comments asking me to register with them annoying because I don’t want to register with any more things.  I already struggle remembering my user names and passwords for the way too many I already have.  At least, I can put my blog name or just a first name and comment.  Unfortunately, it doesn’t allow people to reciprocate.

I also get annoyed by those pages that track and rate your comments.  Really, what is up with that.  I must say, my comment rating was one of the highest I’ve seen, but it still is annoying.

I quit going to blogs that require a Blogger id.  If they don’t want my comments because of my WordPress platform, there are plenty of blogs that welcome me and my comments.

SOOC

5.  Next, I really need to air my thoughts about the Google+ commenting that some people are changing to with Blogger.  I do have a g-mail account.  I got it when my goat Millie decided to be the spokesgoat for Eden Hills.  She used my e-mail to set up her Blogger account.  For over three years, she’s had her blogger account, and she posts and comments as Millie Ann Saanen.

Suddenly, people have started this Google+ commenting, and if I click in the box to comment, it pops up a page requiring me to create a public Google+ account.  If I do that, it suddenly eliminates Millie’s Blogger profile.  It takes people to this public Google+ account that I was forced to create, didn’t want, and it doesn’t let anyone find my blog.  With the open id, I can link to my poetry blog or my farm blog, and  Millie still has her Blogger id.

Let’s face it, we blog because we like the interaction.  Google+ does not let us interact as a blogging community; it’s a gated community.  I’m sorry to say, if you change your comments to require Google+, I won’t be commenting anymore. I did everything I could to eliminate those restrictions when WordPress made their change, and I hope people will keep in mind that they only limit their blogging interactions when they require people to use Google+.

Sorry to be on my high horse, but I just wanted to share my opinon.

Linking to Random 5 Friday, Nurture Photography, SOOC Sunday, Weekly Top Shot, and Weekend Reflections.  Homestead Barn Hop and Clever Chick’s Blog Hop.

My Name is Teresa

and I’m a blogoholic.  Seriously.  When I wrote and published my first blog post two years ago (Feb 2, 2010), I had no idea it would become a daily ritual to talk about my farm.  My first posts had no pictures, and then just one and then I upgraded my computer and Internet, and look at me now!  Every post is a photo essay.  I even throw in a gratuitous cat picture occasionally.

Leo and Bob

Many of you already know that one of my goats, Millie, has her own blog that she started about a month after I started mine.  I continue to be her blog photographer, and I help her with other tech things.  It’s not easy to type when you have cloven hooves.

Millie

I’ve gone digital and upgraded my camera.  Now, I’ve taken another huge leap.  I actually opened Photoshop Elements that came with something and I forgot I had it on the computer.  Look what I did while playing with my new flash for the camera.

This is straight out of the camera (SOOC).

Before

Here’s the result after I finished playing with it.

After

I discovered photobucket.com.  It’s free, and it’s fun.  Look!  I made a collage.  I can show you my five original goats from oldest to youngest~Millie, Minnie, Maddie, Cutie, and Meg.

I also made buttons for both Millie and me.  I’ve wanted a button that people could grab for a long time, and I could never figure out how to do it.  That html stuff is crazy.  Finally, I found a wonderful site that all I needed was my picture and it’s direct link (on photobucket), my blog name and my blog web address.  That’s easy.  Then I went HERE, and it gave me the code to copy and paste~super easy!

I confess, I didn’t use photobucket to do my blog button, but that is the picture I used, and LOOK~it’s another collage.  How fun is it to play with this stuff!?!  Do you notice there are three buttons?  I’m coming out.  Well, I already came out on Facebook.  Speaking of which, I never even was on Facebook and thought it was stupid until I wanted to use it to share my blog.  I’m afraid I might also be addicted to Facebook.  But wait!  This is about the blogs. I have a top secret poetry blog, and this is my coming out.

Because I’m such a blogoholic and because I’ve just discovered the fun of digital photography and editing pictures, I’ve started a fourth blog, just for photography.  I just posted all kinds of fizzy fruit pictures, and it’s where I’m going to play with my pictures.  Soon, I’ll have a button up for it too.  It’s for all those great photography memes that I want to join in on, but can’t figure out how to make them fit the farm theme.

But now, I’m afraid I’ll spend so much time blogging that I won’t have time to do anything to blog about.  I seem to get confused with my multiple personalities.  Is there some kind of meeting for me?