A Week And A Day Later...

 

Honesty, I have been including a quote with my posts since my first day of Ellipsis, beginning when it was on AOL Journals, but anymore I am finding that including a quote is really unnecessary, because, well, life has just been quoting itself. A week and a day after the verdict in his hush money trial, a conviction on on all 34 counts, this is here we are.

 

 Bwahahahahahahahahaha!

 

This never needed a quote either.

 

And was seriously unfunny.

 

The PVS Of AOL

"I have learned that if you must leave a place that you have lined in and loved and where all your yesteryear's are buried deep, leave it any way except a slow way, leave it the fastest way you can. Never turn back and never believe that an hour you remember is a better our because it is dead. Passed years seem safe ones, vanquished ones, while the future lives in a cloud, formidable from a distance."

~Beryl Markham

West With The Night 

Get ready to laugh. And believe me, it's okay if you do. You see, I just pulled the plug on my old AOL account. That's right. As of today... 2019... I pulled the plug. Why it took so long to unsubscribe from AOL, an ISP that's been in a metaphoric persistent vegetative state since I officially left AOL Journals in protest, in 2005, I don't know.  I know I am a procrastinator. I am also hopelessly sentimental. Both those things could be the reason. Or maybe I am just lazy. Shrug. Maybe it's all of the above. I don't know.

The AOL post that you see above was technically my last post, and I only did that one because a few of the AOL blog authors that remained after the big banner ad scandal, asked some of we originals to comeback for a limited reunion, and I didn't have the heart to not participate. AOL had recently decided to do away with the journals community altogether, so it with this last post, that I finally let go of the first blog/journals community I had belonged to and I never looked back.

I didn't really miss that blogging platform, after I got acquainted with Blogger. It was roughly the same, but it contained a lot more choices for customization. It wasn't long before I was on my way. It was a new beginning, which in retrospect I think I needed. I made some good friends on AOL and fortunalety they ended up on Blogger too, and I was able to continue a couple projects that we had started in the other community. The Round Robin photo chalenge was the most near and dear to my heart. I enjoyed it very much, but after a whileI just ran out of steam. It ran its course.

But I digress. AOL went through more than one change, as it found itself floundering with almost no idea who or what it wanted to be. It closed all the featured that made it user and community friendsly, right around the time it figured out that it made more money as an internet billboard. Ad revenue replaced customer loyalty. Eventually, it went completely free for members, and that was fine, if you didn't mind putting up with ads everywhere on the service. And I didn't. It was free to keep everything in place, so no big deal.

Well, last year things changed again, and now it costs $4.99 a month for access to basic features. I paid the cost for a few months, and then finally decided, let go. I would still have the email accounts, although I am in the process of moving those screen names to GMAIL. When that task is completed, who knows, maybe I will simply pretend it never existed to begin with. When I close a door, I like for the door to remain shut, and as I grow older, I am finding it to be the best policy for lots of stuff.

Never look back. Just keep walking toward the sun. And I think I kinda love making this change right now, what with spring being about new beginnings and all. There is a proper symmetry to it.

That time I came home from a day of photography, to find Dylan had got on my desk and typed HELP into the AOL search, about a dozen times. I guess it was the cat version of yelling... STRANGER DANGER! 

Mood: Happy
~Me 

I Am A Very Active Shutterbug... 2586 Seconds

"When words become unclear, I shall focus with photographs. When images become inadequate, I shall be content with silence."

~Ansel Adams

2586 seconds. Going all the way back to 2005. Those seconds actually became more minutes than I can count, if you factor in editing, and posting, and searching for the exact quote to fit with the picture, that set the mood for my postings here on Ellipsis. I kept that Flickr account for folks who would rather look than read. I understood that preference. Sometimes I didn't really want my blog words to overshadow the point of my photography. And sometimes I just didn't have the words. Sometimes it's the photo that needs to be what make the point, and if you've truly captured a moment that can yell louder than words, then you've accomplished something as a photographer... well... at least as... "a would be, hopeful, semi-professional photographer."

That quote was from The Stepford Wives. It was the character of, Joanna Eberhart, explaining to the local welcome lady, who also had her own column in the local paper, where newcomers to the village were introduced to the community, that that was who she was as a person. But even after that quote was given to the columnist, Joanna was still described in the paper as a... "newcomer to Stepford, and very active shutterbug." When I watched that scene, I realized that Joanna and I both shared the same dream, the dream to be remembered one day, through our photography. But as it turned out for Joanna, that would never happen. I don't want to give away what her husband had in mind when he moved them to Stepford, in case you are one of the 4 people who doesn't know the story, but here is a hint, Walter Eberhart, like the rest of the men of Stepford, suffered from deadly case of chauvinism. Deadly for Joanna, that is!

I have never known a minute, or second of that. For most of the 2586 seconds that it took to create those photographs, Alan was right by my side. He was the one who put the camera in my hand, and drove me anywhere I wanted to go, just so I could create something, anything, that would replace the debilitating psychological pain I was in. I went through one of those life changing events, that some folks don't come back from. At one point I had sunk so far into despair, that I ended up with Anhedonia, and it was at that point, he encouraged me to step outside myself, and into the seconds that go by. And, as it turned out, it was all those seconds adding up, that gave me my heart and mind back. It was hard as HELL to find something to care about, but we took it slow, and after a while I began a blog on AOL Journals where I could put words and pictures together, and within a year or two, I was well on my way to healing.

After AOL Journals folded up, I migrated over here to Blogger, along with several of my AOL friends, and also to Flickr to display my photos. I am still in contact with several of them, but we lost my friend Steven, back in 2009. I loved him, and he was an amazing friend and mentor when it came to my photography. I wouldn't be nearly as good today, had it not been for his encouragement and help when it came to some of the technical aspects of taking a decent photograph. I miss his friendship, and I think about him often. He was an amazing photographer, and he had a gentle soul. He and Alan both guided me along with the healing that needed to happen. Alan in real life, and Steven in my Internet life. So, unlike Joanna Eberhart, it wasn't the men in my life that held me back, instead it was the men in my life that helped me flourish as a photographer, and as a person!

But back to why I have that picture posted. It seems that the free Flickr accounts will only be able to display 1,000 photos, beginning on January 9th. That meant I needed to download my my collections or risk losing them. So I have been a bit busy the last few days, and I will continue to be busy for the next several weeks as I bring them over to Google Photos and arrange them in some sort of album groupings that make sense. And yes, one day the bottom will fall out of that as well, but you see, "I am a very active shutterbug" and therefore it's just something I have to deal with. It's tough being a "would be, hopeful, semi-professional photographer." But when all those seconds add up, its more than worth it!

~Mood: Happy/Thankful

~Me  :)

The "Off Market" Anniversary

"Real love stores never have endings"

~Richard Bach

Love Story

Today is a big day for me. It is the anniversary of my blogging on Ellipsis... yep... it was 13 years ago today that I began sharing my life on the World Wide Web! Well, on AOL at first, then on Blogger. It's been a wild ride, and if you asked me back then if I thought I would be buying a house in Stockton, California one day, I would have laughed and laughed and laughed. 13 years ago today I had just come in from a swim, and Elvis was tickling my knees as I toyed with the idea of blogging. Would I have enough interesting things to say? Would I enjoy sharing my thoughts with total strangers? How would my photography fit in? LOL. The answer to all the questions seemed to be positive, so off I went... into the big pond of AOL blogging. And here we are today! Now, not only do I blog, I mircoblog on Twitter, and share my photography on Flickr and Pintrest and I have made some amazingly supportive friends on Twitter and even flirted... OUT LOUD... with Dylan McDermott, before Maggie Q of course! I know, I know... the flirting was minor and I wasn't keeping Dylan McDermott awake at night, but it still feels creepy to flirt with another girl's fella... right? Didn't Alan mind me flirting with Dylan McDermott? You ask.Well, no, he found it amusing, especially when I would blush with each little alert that beeped on my phone that told me he had just favorited something stupid I had just said. LOL. I don't know who enjoyed my flirting with Dylan McDermott more, me or Alan! I would like to think I at least made #Mcdillet smile a little too!

But like I said, that was before Maggie Q.

Sigh.

But here we are. I will be explaining what happened this summer soon. Probably this Autumn when I get back to blogging daily, but for now here is a look at our new home. We get the keys either late this week or early next week. Until then we are still in Turlock, or as I like to call it...

THE LAND THAT TIME FORGOT! 

Home

Yeah, I know, I have a "Mad Men" styled kitchen, complete with a PINK oven. LOL. But that's just temporary. We need to get moved in and all the utilities put into place, and some painting done, then we are going to renovate this fall. Probably in October. You'll see... it's going to look amazing. I am going for a Tuscan theme, so give it some time. You'll see! But until then, how completely cool is a PINK oven? I am tempted to leave it for nostalgia sake, but I miss my stove and oven Alan bought me a few years ago. Shrug. Still... it's kinda cool to have Barbie's Dream Kitchen!

In Real Estate terms the words "Off Market" are AWESOME!

So much has happened in the last 13 years!

Thank you so much for supporting me, and coming along with me for the ride! I love you, my friends!

"There is no mystery... that's the beauty of it. We are entirely explicable to each other, and yet we stay. What a miracle that is!"

~Kamila Shamsie.

Broken Verses

Mood: Happy

~Me :) 

Just Like Yesterday, Or 7 Years Ago...

"When anybody asks me what time it is, I always say, "Yesterday, plus 24 hours."

~Jarod Kintz

Some of you reading this post might recognize the graphic above as the template I used for the AOL Journals version of Ellipsis. I think I still have a few readers from that era, but if you discovered me here on Blogger then I now get to give you a glimpse of the early days of my mental blogging meanderings. LOL. AOL Ellipsis was posted to for the first time on August 23rd 2003, and last posted to October 31st 2005, although I had made the trek to Blogger a year earlier, after the ridiculous banner ad drama. I posted my first post here on Wednesday, November 16th, 2005.


Hello Blogsphere...

Remember that show "Suddenly Susan?" The basic premise was that this slightly ditzy girl suddenly finds herself all on her own in the world...and suddenly it all opens up with a lot of previously unforeseen opportunities. Well, after the "Black Tuesday" that AOL just gave to Journal Land, I "suddenly" find myself here. I have a new home. Right now the walls are bare, I haven't met my neighbors, and my furniture hasn't arrived, but it's home. And it's got a great view of the future!

Always, Carly

And that's how I ended up here! At lot has happened since then, I might reflect on those things as we move through the summer, and approach the anniversary of when I began journaling/blogging, August 23rd. There is so much that has happened, that it stuns me when I think about all the changes. Some of them were good for me, others, well, I would give anything if they hadn't happened. But they did, and one learns to deal with them, to make peace with them, and then move on. It's a sink or swim world and one simply has to survive. I curled up in a ball once, and with good reason mind you, but I learned some coping skills from that experience that I carry with me to this day! Hopefully, if I am ever faced with that kind of stress again, I will be able to deal fully with it.

Blogging has done a lot for me. It has been a great catharsis. I don't need to have a million readers. I don't need praise. I don't need to be coddled. All those things are nice, but at the end of the day, I just need a place where I can dispose of what my dear friend Pam called, head noise, that rattles in my mind. The good... and the bad. I have been blessed, because there has been way more good than bad. Way more friends than enemies. Way more happiness than sadness, and way more creativity than lack of it. Yes! I have been, and continue to be, BLESSED.

Can you believe that this summer will mark the 11th year of this blog? Where does time go?

Mood: Happy

~Me :)

4 Years 364 Days Give Or Take

"I sincerely believe blogging can save America."

-John Jay Hooker

What Does The Title Of Your Blog Mean?

Can you believe I have been blogging 5 years? Well, actually, as of tomorrow it will have been 5 years, officially, oh, how about I just explain. As some of you may remember, I am part of the great AOL exodus, of November 2005. Originally Ellipsis was an AOL Journal, but after the banner ad scandal, I left my simple pink journal behind, along with approximately 150 others, and looked for a new home in a different neighborhood.

Well, at least that's how I thought of it. I sent out a change of address email, and some folks supported me and understood my decision, and some didn't. I don't want to dwell on anything negative here, I have since let go of the disappointment, but I will say I wish the folks who went their own way all the best. I always did. I am just sorry the friendships had to end. Change happens, and but it never has to affect relationships if we don't want it to.

Anyway, here I am on Blogger, ready to welcome the start of my next 5 years of blogging. I hope that isn't an ambitious number, lol, blogging can be difficult from time to time. I get tired. And because of some physical pain, a lot of time I am not able to get out with the camera as much as I would like to, so I have to rely on archived images, or pictures I find on the net, to go along with whatever I am trying to convey to you. I will always prefer to use my own photos, because I am a visual person, I speak through my photos. A lot of the time, I try to present you photos that tell the whole tale, rather then babble on, and on, and on.

So, I don't know for sure I will be celebrating Ellipsis's 10th anniversary or not, but I know I am going to give it a go. I have stuff to say. Politics, photography, healthy living, cats, monkeys, 9/11, recipes, cat care, Fibromyalgia, Degenerative Arthritis, John Ritter, Elvis, spooky movies, chocolate, life, art, LOST, George W. Bush, Type 2 Diabetes, Play-Doh, autumn, Halloween, married life, men, clothes, hairstyles, and Mr. November all make up my Ellipsis life. (...)

Main Entry: el·lip·sis
Function: noun
Pronunciation: i-'lip-s&s, e-
Inflected Form(s): plural el·lip·ses /-"sez/
Etymology: Latin, from Greek elleipsis ellipsis, ellipse, from elleipein to leave out, fall short, from en in + leipein to leave -- more at IN , LOAN
1 a : the omission of one or more words that are obviously understood but that must be supplied to make a construction grammatically complete b : a sudden leap from one topic to another
2 : marks or a mark (as ... or * or -) indicating an omission (as of words) or a pause

-OndineMonet
Ellipsis 5th Anniversary
August 23, 2008