Some insight into what occupies my time up here in the cabin while acclimating.

Since I purchased VZAccess ($59 a month!), which affords me internet access on my computer, I now have internet in the cabin. There are about 8 photographers' blogs I normally follow and I continue following them up here. (I also get out and shoot too.)

So.....I spent quite a bit of time reflecting on what I read this morning.
When you have time, if you want to read about a special salesman named Derrick and see a very motivational video of him video taped by Zach Aris, read Zach's photographer's blog. Start your reading with Zach's blog entry dated Aug 12th and then continue reading two more blogs about Derrick, dated the 13th and 14th.
Zach continues to be inspirational ever since I first became aware of Zach when he posted a Wednesday guest blog video on Scott Kelby's blog 6 months ago. (If you haven't seen this video of Zach's on Scott's site, this is a must see.


Then, I converted some video of the birds around our cabin.

Our very own Cind!

Cindy's first TV interview.



You go girl.

Working on my golf swing.

Happy Father's Day!

This musician ( http://www.youtube.com/user/carlosian2 ) composed this video for his daughter because she loves Taylor Swift.

Sleepy? Tired? Need a burst of energy? Click on this link.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TjLCJKoot4U

How the hell did someone capture this fantastic happening?

Thanks to Carol D for sending me this link.

Live Eagle nest and 3 chicks in the sidebar of my blog.

Carol Leigh posted a live view link to viewing an Eagle Family in British Columbia and I've embedded the link off to the right and down the sidebar of this blog so I can monitor the daily goings on. Very cool AND I get to see the birds without the mess in my courtyard.

Click on the screen located in the sidebar of this blog for previous happenings in the day. Wait a second to connect to the live view. Turn your sound down this family is LOUD.

Don't forget to check out the other Seekpoints on the Live View link, especially the one where dad brings gull.

My low and high in the day!

The low:
Before leaving this ER room, I shot a photo of where I'd hung out this morning from 7am to 11am after waking with a pain in my chest that scared me.

I'm fine now. No one thinks the pain was heart related, but after calling and canceling a morning workout with Stacy who said I should go to ER and then calling and talking to Keenan (Ray's retired cardiologist golfing buddy) who said have Ray take you to ER , I decided I better go. Ray drove me the 7 minutes to Eisenhower Hospital's ER. Ray knew the procedure would take about 4 hours from the last time we'd been there.

This is the second time I've gone to this ER since we moved to the desert with concern over heart related pain. I didn't want to go. I hate going there. I feel like a hypochondriac or the girl who cried wolf. It's the 4th time I've been in the hospital or ER since we moved here. First when I fractured my hip bike riding, next when I had an systemic reaction to a red ant bite, and then the two heart pain related scares.

The pain in my chest went away in the hospital. After eating lunch at home, the pain came back a bit. The ER doctor wants me to have another cardio stress test but he, and I too, think this is gastrointestinal. Maybe my nightly popcorn snack is playing havoc with my intestines or esophagus? Do you think? Wouldn't that be horrible? Anyway, I am not worried, so I hope you aren't either. Just reporting my day.

The high:
On the evening news, Brian Williams reported a story about this lady singer and gave the viewers this link to hear what he was referring to. On the news clip I noticed Simon Cowel was involved as it was some British American Idol type show. I raced to my computer to view this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lp0IWv8QZY The judges mouths fell open and remained that way as the woman continued to sing for her audition.

Another video brings tears to my eyes.

A gotta watch, from GottaGo

A friend of mine sent me an email with this message below: (Note.....I normally do not like and do not want forwarded emails AND never open them. Thank goodness I opened, read, and followed the YouTube link on this one.)

Life's for sharing by T-Mobile. Last Friday Jan 16, 2009, T-Mobile launched their new commercial. It was shot at Liverpool station in London .. They used 400 dancers and 10 hidden cameras. No one but the station employees and dancers knew what was going on... it was aired on YouTube and TV and you can see the number of passers by that shot what they could with their mobile phones. It has to be the best commercial yet.... enjoy!!!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQ3d3KigPQM&feature=channel

A profoundly inspirational video.

A guest photographer I'd never heard of, but won't forget, made this video rather than write a blog on Scott Kelby's blog as Wednesday's guest blogger.
The video is about 8 minutes or so. Watch it all the way through. I hope you too feel just a little bit better after watching it.
http://www.scottkelby.com/blog/2009/archives/3433

I have been in another computer crash funk, only the 2nd in the last 5 months. I've put my life on hold trying to get my life back. Funny how my life is now on my computer.

Keep it simple. Right.

A birthday gift to myself.

I took myself out on a date today. I packed up all my camera equipment, tripod and camera. I used a 70 -300 mm lens and shot photos of the migratory birds at the Salton Sea. I'm doing the Artist's Way by Julia Cameron and in Week 5 of the 12 week book I'm finally taking the time to go on the required weekly Artist date. I had a ball all by myself. It's funny how I had to talk myself into doing this too. I wasn't in the mood.

I've posted a couple photos (I took over 300).




I've also uploaded two videos from today.

I filmed a video when I first arrived at the Salton Sea and then a second video during the wonderful sunset about an hour and a half later. I know Lane, you don't like sunsets, but this one was really something. All alone, I found myself saying outloud, "Oh my god. The sky can't get any redder."

I hope I remember this the next time I feel too lazy to take myself out on an Artist's Date. I really never want to do anything, especially in the afternoon or night. But, invariably, when I do what I don't think I want to do, I have a great time. So....I don't need to be listening to my head anymore.

Check out the Salton Sea in the videos below.

Mission Hills CC Hiking Group's second hike of the season this morning. We hiked the Eisenhower loop at the Living Desert.

There were four of us who braved what we thought would be a very cold 7:30am morning hike here in sunny Palm Desert: Linda, my friend Heidi, Sandra and Ellen. This was the first time Sandra and Ellen joined us on one of our hikes. I've said this before, but MHCC Hiking Group has the neatest members.

Surprisingly, the only time I felt a bit cold was at the WAMU parking lot before we headed out to the Living Desert in Palm Desert to hike the 5.5 mile Eisenhower loop trail.

The first mile of the hike is level. Once we started to climb everyone began shedding the many layers we were wearing. (After last week's cold hike, we made sure we were dressed properly.) We skipped taking a break at the shady picnic area at the top of our 1.8 mile ascent, as the sun was still down behind Eisenhower Peak. Not stopping for a break didn't keep me from eating my snack of walnuts and raisins while descending the next 1.7 miles. No siree! I don't need to be seated to eat. The last 750 yards, before reaching the level desert wash, took us through a rocky and sandy canyon! Oh, and today was the first time I ever saw pooled water on the canyon portion of the hike.

Below are two videos that I hope will inspire and motivate all you MHCC hiking group members to join us on our Saturday hikes. And don't forget Bonnie's Wednesday hikes.

After the first flat mile, you'll see us hiking up the 1.8 miles before descending on the return loop.


It was a nice after-hike treat to view the sheep. The Bighorn Sheep aren't always visible in their fenced in mountain home at the Living Desert. Take a look and pay attention to the last part of the video.


To see still more photos from our hike, go to http://flickr.com/photos/gottagolinda/.

By the way, Bonnie's rained out hike last Wednesday is now rescheduled for January 14th. Bonnie will be sending out email notification I'm sure.

Intimidating storm clouds prevented ALL of the Mission Hills CC Hiking Group hikers from hiking today.

We knew it was supposed to be in the 50's at the start of the hike. But gale force winds, black clouds and potential rain here in the desert foothills? When six of us showed up at our meeting place at Bob Hope and Gerald Ford at 7:30am this morning, none of us expected the quick weather change we experienced during the 20 minute drive to the Art Smith Trailhead.

The six of us drove to the trailhead in two cars. After parking my car at the Art Smith trailhead, I climbed up a small embankment looking to see if Ernie and Carol's car was approaching. I was nearly blown over from the 40+ mile an hour gusting winds.

Peggy, Carol, Ernie, another Carol, Heidi and I stood outside our cars, fighting the wind while discussing whether we'd venture up into the San Jacinto foothills with the rapidly growing storm clouds darkening more and more of the sky.

Some of our group didn't have rain jackets. The temperature in the car had read 49 degrees. With the high winds and most likely rain, I didn't feel comfortable with hikers heading out without rain jackets. So sadly but smartly, Peggy, Carol and Carol decided not to go on the hike.

Heidi, Ernie and I actually had a great time leaning into the wind and kind of excitedly looking forward to what the weather was going to do. The black clouds coming in from the West over the top of the San Jacinto Mountains seemed to indicate we very likely would be drenched with rain.

Hiking the steep trail kept us warm as we climbed all the way to our rest stop about 1 hour and 40 minutes after we started. The rain didn't come. During our 20 minute break in a gully, the winds stopped.

We retraced our steps and descended the trail as the sky filled with even more black storm clouds. But all we ever felt was an occasional drop of rain and no more wind.

The sun was out on the valley floor, and we started taking off some of our warm clothing as we talked and enjoyed the remainder of our hike.

I felt sad the others hadn't been on the hike.

A quick video of the noisy wind and black clouds as we hiked.


Here's a link to a few photos from the day: http://flickr.com/photos/gottagolinda/

The Virtue Family again this year!

My friend writes:
I know it’s a repeat from last year …… but I just couldn’t resist. Enjoy.
http://elfyourself.jibjab.com/view/aFa5KLCXDd2PGg33

A little giddy at the end of our visit to the Getty yesterday.

Almost out of the Getty, I felt the need to do one more video. Stacy is always a great subject. I saw the stage and asked Stacy to sing. She sang her Grammy song. I love Stacy. She always makes me laugh. I bet you can't watch this video and not smile!

Talks David Griffin: Photography connects us with the world

http://ted.com/index.php/talks/david_griffin_on_how_photography_cohttp://ted.com/index.php/nnects.html

This clip is almost 15 minutes long, but well worth the time spent watching it.

Incredible talent

My morning meditation routine is to read blogs of note on Blogger.com.
After watching this video I feel cheated in the "talents given out" department.
Both this video clip and the video below come from http://ruthebabes.blogspot.com/

Incredible talent

Posted using ShareThis

Imitation

And this blog really got my attention leaving me feeling very sad.
Imitation

Posted using ShareThis

We're five, we're five. We're big girls now we're five.

I know this is gross but I felt it was only fair I post Stacy's photos of me in the bathroom at the Getty. I was sitting there totally relaxed, blowing my nose, when Stacy's camera and flash appeared under the stall partition and took me by surprise.

Stacy got this shot of me during our camera war. We hurt from how hard and long we laughed during this child play.

Just before leaving the Getty Museum I took this video with my blog in mind. Enjoy.

I'm back. Here is a pick-me-up video.

http://pixsylated.com/2008/10/the-best-web-video-ive-seen-in-a-month-no-ever/
I'm sure LR needs a break to watch it.
Enjoy, as I did.

p.s. Once you click on the link don't forget to read Matt's story linked on the blog.

On the road to Santa Fe, NM with my friend, Carol.