Friday Funnies

Maybe you were expecting an update on Simon the Scarecrow?
(There will be one at the end of this post)
Today it was time again for a photo funny.

No More Practice or a Frustrated Musician ?

This exhibit photo was taken at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (MassMoCA) in August. I don't recall the title for this work, but am sure it had one.

The results for the 2017 Downtown Nashua Scarecrow Contest will probably be posted in a few days. Grenville and myself have really appreciated the votes from all our fellow bloggers — THANKS for your support (keep those votes coming).

Simon Scarecrow remains in the Top 10 as of 6 a.m. today.
psst . . . you can still vote here today "as it's not over till it's over"

Thankfully, it will be at midnight tonight. We're hopeful that Simon Scarecrow can hold onto that the Top 10 position and claim those braggin' rights.

Simon Says — Enjoy your weekend, Everyone.

Simon is in Top 10 !

The postings will continue until morale improves

(apologies to Captain Bligh who uttered something similar, but much nastier)

UPDATE: Simon Scarecrow as of 9:00 a.m. today was (still) in the Top 10 @ #10 with 109 votes. The #9 spot is currently held by a bank with 141, so today's mantra is BEAT the BANK.

Admittedly, this may be one of the only times we ever get to do that, so WHY NOT?

This Simon Scarecrow voting campaign has been a bit of fun as our British friends might say. I've been posting here on the blog, and contacting friends through messages and emails since I don't use other social media. Voting appeals have also been posted on the Clocktower resident's portal, which unfortunately doesn't get a lot of attention, except when folks complain.

BIG THANKS to all fellow bloggers who have voted for Simon (a "single" scarecrow dad).

Vote early and Vote often here at least thru Friday the 13th 👻 which YIKES is tomorrow.

(and it's also when these posting will finally end)

AND, when the voting results are all in, an update will be posted — of course, you'd expect that.

CDs and Comments (Simon Update)

Simon the Scarecrow says THANK YOU !

He was in the Top 10 in the downtown Nashua scarecrow contest as of 8:30 a.m. today. 

Simon needs Votes daily. Voting ends on Friday, Oct 13 👻 (so will these updates).

VOTE here daily for Simon  (voting open to all).
Thanks, fellow bloggers for your support. 

GO Team Simon 🎃

It was great to read the comments from fellow bloggers and photographers on a previous post about my project of backing up photos from CD/DVDs onto external drives. 

The task is on-going and time-intensive, so I'm taking a break. Even though I'm not planning to use CDs for future storage, I looked up some info on this popular storage media specifically if they deteriorate over time, why and how.

Did you know that CD deterioration is called "disc rot?" 
And that most types of disc rot are caused by careless use or storage, but it's not always the user's fault.

A CD contains different layers. Standard CDs usually have a reflective layer made from aluminum. When exposed to air, aluminum oxidizes, usually around the edges of the CD. But, degradation of the reflective layer is not the only cause of disc rot.

Another form called "bronzing" is caused by a manufacturing fault. This happens when the outer coating of the CD erodes, leaving a silver layer exposed. When silver is exposed, it tarnishes and the CD is ruined. 

Part of what makes it hard to preserve CDs is that they are not uniform. As with most products, there were various manufacturing standards, many dependent on the year and the factory.

For most CD users, two questions prevail: 
How long do CDs last? and What's the average age of a CD?

There's no clear answer and no average lifespan or average disc. CDs can last for many years, if properly cared for. Aside from purposely cutting them up, the most common way to destroy CDs is by leaving them in a hot environment, like a car. Music CDs that are played a lot — are often the ones most likely to be damaged.

All this information could be irrelevant, as CDs may become obsolete in time (remember 8-tracks and cassettes). Newer computers don't come with CD drives.

Now onto your comments . . .

Sandra (MadSnapper) Like you, I'm using several external drives too and putting certain categories on each. I've also heard that external drives can "crash" just like PC hard drives. Solid state drives are said to be better as there are less moving parts, but the price range for the capacity wasn't an option. I'm also not storing images in the cloud.

Michelle (It's a Small Town Life!) Like you, I've saved (copies of) some of my favorites on the PC and also to external drives. 

Cheryl (The Farmer's Daughter) I also have some USB flash drives and have moved some images onto these, but they are not large enough for all my images.

Baili (Baili and I) So glad the post gave you some useful information. That said, my task is far from done as I've only completed going through family events.

Lorraine (Mamas Mercantile) Thanks for the compliment. This project has been long overdue, as with many projects. I always admire the projects you complete and post about.

William (Ottawa Daily Photo) As a photographer, I know you also take many photos and was wondering about your comment that you store them in different email accounts.

John (The AC is On) You're right and I am using multiple external drives to separate my images into categories, like family events, road trips, scenics. My plan is not to overload any one drive. I've also heard that many professional photographers store their back-ups in another location, which I'm not doing now.

Gigi (Gigi-Hawaii) While I also have several external memory sticks, all of them combined have less storage capacity than one of the external drives I am using.

Ludwig (Cafe Ludwig) I really appreciated reading your comments, as you are quite an avid and accomplished photographer. I know that raw photo files are much larger than jpg files, which I mainly shoot. I can certainly understand your need to do back-ups both before and after processing, but doubt that I will do the same. The searching by tags certainly makes it easier.

Denise (An English Girl Rambles) Glad the information was helpful. And, like you, I also appreciated the advice left in the comments. It's so true that we all "learn" better after a computer mishap (unfortunately).

Emma (Leaves on My Tree) I agree that it's so easy to lose precious images, which is exactly why I'm doing this project.

Thanks, everyone, for letting me know how you handle your image storage. I always learn new ways to do things from others.

Simon Says — VOTE !

🎃 Afternoon Update 🎃 - Simon is climbing in the scarecrow contest ratings. Thanks to everyone's help, he's made the Top 10 at #10. BUT there's only 5 votes between Simon & the #9 scarecrow . . . Thanks and keep on voting folks 

Thanks fellow bloggers YOUR votes helped Simon Scarecrow & Friends climb (a bit) in the 2017 Downtown Nashua (NH) Scarecrow Contest voting.

Selfies with Simon count for 5 EXTRA voting points, and that's what we did this past weekend. 

In case there's anyone who didn't read the previous blog post, Simon is the contest entry from Clocktower Apartments where we live. Grenville and myself were part of the 6-person team who built Simon. 

So, our interest in this contest is personal and "bragging rights" are important, right? (as fellow blogger Michelle previously commented)

As of today's online check of the top 10, the #1 and #2 vote getters are scarecrows from  local schools with over 400 votes each — YIKES !

Yes, we know, that between now and the voting end this Friday the 13th, we won't be able to come (anywhere) near those numbers. 

BUT there's still hope for a placement. Today, the #9 top vote getter had 80 votes and #10 had 74 votes . . . Maybe we can oust one of those and make the Top 10 ? 

(Internet sourced clipart)

Maybe it's wishful thinking or even day-dreaming, BUT we're appealing and maybe even groveling.

We're asking all of you who already voted to keep voting daily. If you haven't voted, please do!

AND, you can also have your friends vote for Simon & Friends too, it's allowed.

Voting is simple, no log-in, sign-on or $$ are involved.

You can vote, 1X every 24 hours here:  2017 Downtown Nashua Scarecrow Contest

Voting ends Friday, Oct. 13. 

Help us get Simon & Friends (at least) into the Top 10.
UPDATE - as of 1 pm today, Simon is within 2 votes of 10th place

"Simon" Scarecrow Needs Votes

"Simon" is on the first page, the 11th scarecrow

Fall has arrived in Nashua, NH, and so have the downtown scarecrows displayed on lamp posts along along Main Street. All have been designed and decorated by local businesses and organizations. 

This is the 3rd Annual Downtown Scarecrow Competition.

Clocktower Apartments where Grenville and I live also has a scarecrow entry. Our interest in this competition is personal as Grenville and myself plus a few other residents here designed and built "Simon" the Scarecrow and his friends.

But, they need more a LOT more votes — and you can help, and it's easy. 

Anyone can cast a vote, once every 24 hours at: 2017 Downtown Nashua Scarecrow Contest (click on this link to the voting site).

Voting is open until Friday, Oct. 13. 

One vote per day; so every 24 hours you can vote, each vote is 1 point.

As of today, "Simon" is doing very poorly, terrible in fact, and getting "creamed" by other scarecrows especially a couple from local schools. (Unofficially, we heard that school flyers go out requesting parents and children to vote and vote often.)

Three top vote getters will be announced later — no prizes, just bragging rights.

If you cast some votes, Thanks from us and Simon too !

Friday Funnies

Open or really REALLY closed?
That's what we wondered too.

This barbershop is located in downtown Nashua, NH; note the street number.

Enjoy your weekend, Everyone.

Backing-Up Photos

That's what has been taking up most of my daytime hours (and some evening ones too) the past week. It's a very time-consuming project.

More so because I've been going through over 10 years of family events previously backed up on CDS and DVDs and sorting through and transferring some (not all) to a very compact 2TB external drive. 

Not only did I have too many CDs, but they took up space and trying to find specific images, when needed, usually involved searching through multiple CDs.

Transferring to this external drive now lets me group images by year and/or special occasion, such as births, graduations, holidays. 

Since the external drive is read-write (many times) adding and/or deleting images is easy. This is a big plus as my CDs were (CD-Rs) which used a write-once technology. Simply put it meant that once an area of the disc was written to, it could not be erased.

My task is by no means over there's a lot of road trip and scenics on CDs to sort through soon. I've already bought a couple more external drives.

As for all those CDs, I'm not keeping any and they've already been trashed. 

How do other photographers handle this, I wondered?

A friend told me that she keeps most of her images saved on her desktop computer. And, as far as I know, she doesn't backup to any external media or to cloud storage. That seems risky because if her PC crashes, she could risk losing those images.

A couple of fellow bloggers and avid photographers, Elaine of Our Country Cove Life and AC (John) of The AC is On have told me how they backup their photo images.

If you take a lot of photos too, HOW do you back them up?

Recipe for Infidelity?

In place of the usual Friday Funnies, here's an equally amusing, but true story, and a recipe too which asks the question . . .

Could the brownie recipe of a famous actress lead to infidelity?

That was the claim left 2 years in a recipe comment when The New York Times published Katharine Hepburn's Brownie Recipe. The comments had the usual tales of recipe success, failure, and tweaks, but only one went viral at the time, and then was forgotten, but not by The Times. 

A few weeks ago, the paper did an article noting that of over 16 million comments ever reviewed, the so-called "brownie infidelity comment" was an all-time favorite.

In case you missed it, here's that original comment as written . . . 

“This has been my go-to brownie recipe for 30 years. In the ’80s, an acquaintance in Germany to whom I brought some of the brownies, and who considered herself a great cook, asked for the recipe but was never able to get it to work. She kept asking me what she was doing wrong and I was never able to solve her problem. Eventually, she moved to the U.S. and stole my husband!”

Names have been omitted, but the story was on NPR and network stations this week. According to the stories, the woman and her husband became friends with another couple when in Europe. The wife was given the brownie recipe, but despite trying couldn't "get it right" and reportedly accused the recipe giver of leaving out ingredients.

Later, that woman, whose own marriage had ended, visited the "recipe giver" in the U.S. She began an affair with the recipe giver's husband. The recipe giver later divorced her husband, relocated and remarried. 

And, that's why this brownie recipe, which was said to be the late Ms. Hepburn's personal favorite, has become as notorious as she was rumored to be.

Coincidentally, it too has a well-known connection to marital infidelity. Hepburn and actor Spencer Tracy carried on a 25-year relationship and he was married throughout it, until his 1967 death. Hepburn died in 2003.

After reading about the "brownie infidelity" story this week, I decided to try the recipe. That said, I'm not sharing it with married friends. Hopefully, none will read this blog post. You might consider doing the same — just to be on the safe side (just saying).

Katherine Hepburn Brownie Recipe

Set oven to 325° F. Butter the bottom of an 8x8-inch baking pan or line it with aluminum foil or parchment paper.

• 1/2 C cocoa or 2 squares (2 oz.) unsweetened baker's chocolate
• 1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter
• 1 C sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1/4 C flour
• 1 tsp vanilla
• Pinch of salt
• 1 C chopped walnuts or pecans

1. Melt butter with the cocoa or chocolate together in a heavy saucepan over medium
   
   low, whisking constantly till blended. 
2. Remove from heat and stir in the sugar. Cool before you whisk in the eggs and vanilla, so as not to cook the eggs. 
3. Stir in flour, salt and walnuts. Mix well. 
4. Pour into well-buttered square baking pan. Bake at 325 degrees for about 40 minutes till a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. 
5. Cool completely and cut into squares. (The brownies may be difficult to slice cleanly; use a sharp knife and a spatula to help loosen from the baking dish.)

NOTE: The 1/4 cup of flour is not a typo. Reportedly, Ms. Hepburn, after tasting brownies made by a friend's father, was said to have commented: "Too much flour; and don’t over- bake them. They should be moist, not cakey.”  She then gave her own recipe.

Enjoy your weekend, Everyone.
(Yes, we did enjoy the brownies.)

Frenzied or Frazzled Fireworks

These fireworks shots were taken awhile ago, and forgotten about until this weekend when I started reorganizing photo files on my computer. The results were not as good as previous attempts, which is probably why I forgot about the photos until now.. 

These displays were shot along the river walk in Nashua, NH near the mill apartments where we live. The viewing location was not ideal as trees and poles blocked a clear view. The camera has a "fireworks" setting, but was handheld with erratic results.

This one reminded me of flames in a fire.

And, this one appeared to look like holiday lights. 

This final shot reminded me of an explosion.

Hope your weekend was a good one and cooler than ours. It's still "summer-like" here in NH and daytime as temperatures were in the high 80s both Saturday and Sunday. 

Friday Funnies

Private eyes

They're watching you

They see your every move * . . .

This granite, bronze and electric light sculpture is by Louise Bourgeois (1911-2010) on the grounds of the Williams College Museum of Art in Williamstown, MA. 

* Lyrics from Private Eyes (written by Warren Pash and Janna Allen with arrangement and chords by Daryl Hall) was a 1981 hit single by the singing duo of Daryl Hall and John Oates (Hall & Oates) and the title track from their album that year. The song hit number one on the Billboard Hot 100 charts for two weeks in 1981. 

Enjoy your weekend, Everyone.