The sun shines but its soooooooooo cold.

The sun shines but its sooooooo cold 

I’ve spent quite a bit of time on the computer these last couple of days. After my ‘almost’ lost everything incident, I’m taking my sisters advice and storing some stuff online. I didn’t realise how much stuff I had stored on that external hard drive until it was almost too late, its quite a bit, in fact its loads. It would take me forever to transfer all those files somewhere else so; I decided … prioritise. I’ve made the photos my major priority. Not all of the photos, just the ones I’ve taken of all those lovely places I visited over the last few years. I have an old flickr account that I used for every thing until a few years ago. Then I became busy, and began storing stuff on the external hard drive, so I stopped using it. Now I’ve gone back there and started sorting through the huge backlog of photos I have and I’m saving them a few at a time on flickr. It doesn’t help that while I stopped using flickr, it updated itself, it has changed and completely and virtually reinvented itself. It never was the most user friendly site but now every thing has changed, it’s even worse. I spent the first few hours figuring how to use it again. Plus it seems pretty slow but, as it’s already there, and as I have loads of storage space there, and as I’ve already paid for it, I’m going to persevere and get as much stuff on there as possible. This could take a while, I’m thinking I’m going to have to schedule in at least a couple of computer evenings per week to keep up with every thing. All the other stuff, documents of various types, I guess I’ll just back up with other plug in storage devices. One thing’s for sure, being that close to losing everything has made me sit up and take notice of how important backing up is.

I’ve also had my PC completely overhauled by my brother-in-law and sister. It’s amazing what technology can do, I just download a little programme, logged in, sat back and watched my computer magically fix itself. Actually what really happened is that the programme I downloaded allows my sister to sit in her house in France, log into my computer in Scotland and magically fix it……I love technology.

So today I spent catching up with every ones blogs here. I was wondering why no one seemed to be posting anything and then I realised you were, but all my notifications were ending up in my Spam folder. Another thing I noticed was the spell checker has mysteriously disappeared from the comments section, so if I have left a comment on your blog and the spelling is a little ‘unusual’ that’s why.

Feeling kinda good today, the decorating is more or less up to date, the computer is more or less up to date and I’ve have had a few great days out even though it’s been very cold here. So thought I’d share a few of the photos I’ve been sorting through.

First are a couple of photos from a little village called Letham. We tend to go there when the weather is too bad for us to go too far away, it has a fantastic craft shop that sells every thing you could ever possibly need for any type of craft and then more stuff you would never dream of. It also has a little coffee shop that sells home made soup, home made bread, a selection of home made cakes and….. Has Local craft work on display and for sale.  There’s another shop there that’s a bit pricy but has wonderful, wonderful felted and fabric craft work for sale. This is the view from outside the craft shop, the one with snow on the hills was taken in December and the damp misty one was taken a couple of weeks ago.The one at the top of the page was also taken in Letham on the misty day.

Next up are a couple of photos from the harbour taken in January on a day that felt like the ice age but looked like the middle of summer.  

This is Glenesk taken on another beautifully bright but totally freezing day in February.

On Saturday I had my first visit to the beach for the year year. We walked along Elliot water until it reached the sea and then walked back toward the harbour along the beach. It was a bit odd, the photos make it look like the middle of summer but every one out that day wore many layers of warm clothing toped off with hats scarves and gloves.  

This last photo was taken from the nearby town of Forfar. My daughter lives there and she actually called me over to take photos of the snow on the hills. She can see those hills from her house and she wants a painting of them. This is the photo I’ve decided to use for her painting. I’ve cropped it into a longer shape because I have a long canvas I can use, also I think the shape will enhance the look of the hills.

I'm under crisis

I feel as if I’ve just suffered the biggest disaster of my life. It’s as if someone just flushed my life away. It’s not the decorating, that’s all going fine, paper’s successfully on the wall, it’s all looking good and I’ll start painting this weekend, if I feel up to it. At the moment I couldn’t care less about the damn decorating. I just want to sit and cry.  

This is far more serious, this is a genuine, major, mega life crisis; my external hard drive has wiped EVERYTHING stored on it and now, it doesn’t even register on the computer. It’s well and truly knackered. Maybe that doesn’t sound too much like a crisis to some people but consider this; my computer is old and not to be trusted and every couple of months I transfer every thing from my computer hard drive onto the external hard drive and then wipe the computer hard drive. When I say EVERYTHING, I really do mean EVERYTHING. ALL, yes ALL of the  photos I’ve taken over ALL the years of the wonderful Scottish countryside, all my family photos, my photos from France, last years photos of Barcelona, Carcassonne, La Rochelle, every last one of my photos GONE forever. It gets worse; believe it or not I have kept copies of EVERY single blog I ever posted. It started with 360, onto Multiply and then here on Blogger. My way of writing a blog post is to first write it out on a word doc (as I’m doing now)  then put the word doc in a folder together with the pictures for the post and then post online from that folder. ALL of those folders were named and dated and then kept in bigger folders marked either, 360, Multiply, Blogger or FB. There was other stuff, personal stuff; all my passport details, insurance details, email lists etc. I had so much stuff from when I worked in the school, pictures of the kids and the work they did. I know I am a bit (maybe more than a bit) on the obsessive side, but keeping everything and backing it all up on the external has been part of my life and my way of doing things for a long time now. I genuinely feel in shock, it’s almost like grieving, I can understand the devastation people feel after losing everything in a house fire. Right now I feel physically sick. I’ve been onto my sister, she’s the computer expert, and I’ve followed all her advice but…..NOTHING……………it’s all GONE.

A question; How to do certain stuff here??

A general question for any one who happens to be passing.
Is there a way to change all of the font in all of the posts in one blog centrally from the dashboard?? Problem is I have just imported a whole heap of old posts to a storage blog over here. Now I need to go back and change the colour font to be able to read it, ( I now have a dark back ground and need the font large and white) sounds easy enough, except that I'm talking about almost 1000 posts. To do it manually one at a time would be too time consuming, tedious and utterly boring.
I would like a way to do this centrally and choose one font colour, style and size that would automatically 'overwrite' the existing Font... any ideas any one???

The Impermanence of Art

The impermanence of art

I suppose, if you want to be pedantic about it, ever thing is impermanent, but talking specifically about art; there are certain art forms whose temporary nature is an integral part of what they are.
I’m talking here about, for example,  performance art, once the ‘performance’ is finished, the art ceases to be, until the next performance, and then its not the same performance as it was, it’s not even an exact replica of the original. that would be impossible.

Performance art

There are other types of temporary art; Sand art for example, beautiful pictures created in sand that are constantly changed into other pictures. None of these pictures are permanent, the only thing that remains after the pictures vanish is the sand box and even that is dismantled and moved around.

Sand Art

And then there is water art, this is a relatively new one on me. Its nature is quite similar to sand art, pictures created out of water that emerge and then disappear.

Water art




 I think I have, (completely unintentionally), created something else that has built in obsolescence. I’ve told every one I’m copying my art and poetry posts from Multiply directly Blogger. There is debate about these posts will continuing to exist after 01.12.2012 when Multiply turns the  lights off. I’ve made a complete online gallery called, ‘The Forgotten Studio’, which is exactly what it will be if every thing disappears. The more I read what Frank says, the more I see the logic and believe it will cease to exist. But when I read what Bennett says, she makes a good case for things never actually being deleted from sites and every thing remaining. The uncertainty adds another element to the whole thing, this site isn’t exactly ‘impermanent’, but it’s not permanent either. I feel a bit like those people who were doing the countdown to the end of time according to the Mayan calendar.  It’s a case of, lets make the most of it until Dec 1 this year’ and then wait and see. I have really enjoyed making this gallery, I’ve seen paintings I forgot I posted and read poems I’ve not read for ages. I’ve read comments and treasured the times we spent together discussing this painting or that poem. The gallery isn’t finished, I still have about 6 months worth of posts to copy/ past and post but I’m taking a break because; I’ve posted so many things I have to decode those awful little words every time I post something new and its driving me mad. That is especially difficult for me given the state of my eyes right now. The album, ‘’The Forgotten Gallery’’ is on blogger, it is open to every one you don’t need a blogger account and any one can comment. If you want to take a look at the many, many art works we have discussed in the last 5 years or so, I recommend you go there as soon as possible and certainly before Dec1 this year………..we are on countdown

My next challenge is to post this, including videos, on 4 separate sites……….
Oh happy, happy learning curve.

http://theforgottenstudio.blogspot.co.uk/

I'm still sorting through all my old Multiply posts, saving this and deleting and deciding what to post and what not to post. I've just come across something I'd forgotten about, I once asked the question ''Does the Internet really exist'', I've got no idea why i asked the question or exactly where my head was at that day, and I'm still not sure I understand the answer. I thought this one was worth re-posting just our of curiosity.

Just had am extraordinarily weird conversation about the nature of the Internet with my daughter. Apparently the nature of networks is part of a course she is studying and this bought us to the subject of the Internet in general and what, exactly, the Internet actually is. By which I mean; does the Internet actually exist, and if it does, where exactly it is and what form does it take. If something exists in strictly empirical terms it is usual to expect the ‘thing’ in question to have form and to be accessible to and detectable by our senses. The Internet very obviously doesn’t fall into this category. My computer, which does exist in these terms, can be used to show images and hear sounds from the Internet, but it’s not the Internet itself, it’s a computer, a machine which is easily understood as being part of the ‘real’ and empirically validated world.
Which led us to ask; ‘’if the Internet actually exists, and if it doesn’t exist in empirical form, what category of existence does the Internet fall into and how is it’s existence defined’’?
‘’And if it does exist in empirical terms how does this definition work’’??
I can’t be the only person to have thought of this, there must be some clever philosophical thinker out there who has defined the existence of the Internet and I would really like to know how this definition works.
These questions seem important to me, if things are now accepted as having ‘being’ without being subject to empirical scrutiny, that opens up a whole lot of space for a whole lot of debate about the definition of existence. This website said  ''frequently asked questions about the internet'' but it didn't answer my question.

http://emeagwali.com/history/internet/

edit delete reply forgetmenot525 wrote on Mar 28, '10 realitychecks said LOL good one! :-) lol

delete reply realitychecks wrote on Mar 28, '10 LOL good one!

delete reply nemo4sun wrote on Mar 28, '10 :)

edit delete reply forgetmenot525 wrote on Mar 28, '10 nemo4sun said north korea :) thats what I call a reality check Nemo :-))

delete reply nemo4sun wrote on Mar 28, '10 realitychecks said if you were to isolate all the people then what would you have? north korea :)

edit delete reply forgetmenot525 wrote on Mar 28, '10 stillwandering said opens up a whole lot of space for a whole lot of debate about the definition of existence. Quite ;) I like your thinking................and tend to agree

delete reply stillwandering wrote on Mar 28, '10, edited on Mar 28, '10 What is a book, for that matter ~ it's more than the pages of paper bound together with ink symbols on it, it communicates the story, but it isn't The Story in itself

delete reply stillwandering wrote on Mar 28, '10 opens up a whole lot of space for a whole lot of debate about the definition of existence. Quite ;)

delete reply stillwandering wrote on Mar 28, '10 Internet to me is an outer reflection of inner reality, the Inner Net, the state of being constantly connected and in communication, and it's no accident that the internet becomes faster and more all inlcusive as our awareness of all the inner connections and continual communication widens. The internet reflects what we've been doing all along but weren't aware of ~ communicating with all, continually, and there is a growing awareness that "reality" and consciousness are way more than what you can see in the physical.

delete reply realitychecks wrote on Mar 27, '10 the internet is millions of computers all wired together, communicating with one another. the network alone without the computers would be nothing, just a jumble of wiring basically. the computers without the network of wiring would all just be individual computers, isolated from one another. how useful is that? this world makes an interesting metaphor. the world is made up of people. take away the people and what world is it? it isn't. if you were to isolate all the people then what would you have? so much for that. put them all together and you have The World. maybe it would make sense if a friend who used the Internet before html and the www and al gore would reminisce about how it all was. totally different animal now.

delete reply realitychecks wrote on Mar 27, '10 it's a series of tubes twisted tangled up tubes massive, massive tubes!!! http://realitychecks.multiply.com/music/item/1/

delete reply initiativestain wrote on Mar 27, '10 This has much to be thought about within what you have wrote, I just logged on and I have to come back and think about this - tremendous area that you came up with. Very thought provoking!

delete reply bennett1 wrote on Mar 27, '10 I don't know what to add, except the definition of empirical: 1 : originating in or based on observation or experience 2 : relying on experience or observation alone often without due regard for system and theory 3 : capable of being verified or disproved by observation or experiment So the existence of the internet can be easily be verified by your senses as opposed to having someone just tell you there is something called the internet and you take it on their word or by inductive/deductive reasoning.

delete reply nemo4sun wrote on Mar 27, '10 wouldn't that be transcendental masturbation? lol :)

delete reply flintville wrote on Mar 27, '10 tesstruhartz said Maybe it is all fake and we are talking to ourselves Credit where credit is due, you made me laugh out loud! XOXO me

delete reply flintville wrote on Mar 27, '10 Almost a transcendental post... Animal. Vegetable. Mineral. Which leads me to rock, paper, scissors. hehehe XOXO me

delete reply welshdoug wrote on Mar 27, '10 This stuff is way over my head. Why don't you and your daughter talk about bunny rabbits? Basically if the internet doesn't exist, what do I tell my Wife I've been looking at for the past few years?

delete reply agnes128 wrote on Mar 27, '10 Yes, all this almost intangible stuff is stored somewhere, using HUGE amount of energy. Each one of our clicks produces heat. More energy is used to cool the servers. Guess in a close future, we-all will be taxed on the number of clicks ;-D Sorry to spoil the fun, I think in fact I like better the ethereal explanation and wil stick to it from now on ;-D

delete reply nemo4sun wrote on Mar 27, '10 forgetmenot525 said now you've confused me again. So... the energy used to transmit the 'image' on the internet is dispersed and changes, but the 'image' that is being transmitted does not change and is around for ever even if and when there is no means of recovering this 'image'. Which brings me back to infinity, if every thing the internet sends remains unchanged and is 'out there somewhere', the internet is potentially infinite which is not something previously part of our experience. i still contend that sooner or later the waves break down they do travel on past the point of reception like the people behind you seeing my flashlight in my example plus the lifetime of certain waves is strong but sooner or later they do brake down like frank said about seeing the stars true we can see the light but not the warmth as from our star the sun and there is to much to corrupt them in the world :)

edit delete reply forgetmenot525 wrote on Mar 27, '10 brendainmad said love the definition of the Internet from the IT Crowd, meaning a black box kept on top of Big Ben. However, I think you have more logical explanations here. logical or not I rather like this IT crowd :-)

edit delete reply forgetmenot525 wrote on Mar 27, '10 veryfrank said There is a distinction between the energy to transmit an image and the resultant image, they are two different things. now you've confused me again. So... the energy used to transmit the 'image' on the internet is dispersed and changes, but the 'image' that is being transmitted does not change and is around for ever even if and when there is no means of recovering this 'image'. Which brings me back to infinity, if every thing the internet sends remains unchanged and is 'out there somewhere', the internet is potentially infinite which is not something previously part of our experience.

delete reply nemo4sun wrote on Mar 27, '10 forgetmenot525 said ahhhhh big sigh...............ok i'm beginning to get the mechanics of it all, but I have to admit there are still aspects of the internet that to me, break with previously understood definitions of 'reality', or existence or similar things. But thank you people for your input :-) you are welcome this has been a most fun conversation :)

delete reply nemo4sun wrote on Mar 27, '10 brendainmad said I love the definition of the Internet from the IT Crowd, meaning a black box kept on top of Big Ben. However, I think you have more logical explanations here. i thought that was a riot :)

delete reply brendainmad wrote on Mar 27, '10 I love the definition of the Internet from the IT Crowd, meaning a black box kept on top of Big Ben. However, I think you have more logical explanations here.

delete reply veryfrank wrote on Mar 27, '10 forgetmenot525 said which must mean that every thing we write, in theory, would be accessible by our descendants thousands of years from now. That's up for debate, what is sent is a series of mathematical codes that are then deciphered by the receiving computer and become pictures and words again. The codes still exist as signals or waves, with or without the computer to do the physical translation. Where are the signals/waves, they are out there somewhere, they are not captured and held or locked-in by the receiving computer, they can't be destroyed. A change to the original transmission would produce a new set of mathematical codes and signals, the original doesn't change or just go away. There is a distinction between the energy to transmit an image and the resultant image, they are two different things.

edit delete reply forgetmenot525 wrote on Mar 27, '10 ahhhhh big sigh...............ok i'm beginning to get the mechanics of it all, but I have to admit there are still aspects of the internet that to me, break with previously understood definitions of 'reality', or existence or similar things. But thank you people for your input :-)

delete reply nemo4sun wrote on Mar 27, '10 think of it this way i am on land and you are on an island across a bay i am sending you morse code signals with a flashlight i turn on and off the switch which sends bursts of light your way this light is moving in waves at the speed of light the wavelengths hit you and you see them and make out what i am sending (wow! ~ i didn't know you knew morse code) but the waves don't stop there someone behind you can see it too but sooner or later the waves disperse if i lit a flashlight in ohio you can not see it were you are :)

edit delete reply forgetmenot525 wrote on Mar 27, '10 kathyinozarks said interesting-too "deep" for me lol I just enjoy all my friends here and learn from the internet and that is a very wise attitude Kathy, there's a lot to be said for 'just' enjoying things without too many questions.

edit delete reply forgetmenot525 wrote on Mar 27, '10 ok so if the energy was distributed not destroyed it would no longer be in the form of internet communications but in the form of light or sound some other energy force. Which makes a lot more sense than it remaining with us as an internet communication for all eternity. Because if it did the internet would be infinite and nothing in our reality is infinite, and if the internet was...........it really would be a different sort of existence.

delete reply kathyinozarks wrote on Mar 27, '10 interesting-too "deep" for me lol I just enjoy all my friends here and learn from the internet

delete reply nemo4sun wrote on Mar 27, '10, edited on Mar 27, '10 check the first part of this out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet the internet is a collective of stations that receive and forward your info what they talk about things sent that can be accessed by others even though you delete it it means the message you just sent went through many stations to get it me those places will have a record of it on their devices but if those devices are destroyed so is the info on them what you sent is not just circling the globe forever :)

edit delete reply forgetmenot525 wrote on Mar 27, '10 veryfrank said If Shakespeare had been on the Internet and been transmitted, it would still be around today, perhaps in a galaxy far, far away, but out there some where. which must mean that every thing we write, in theory, would be accessible by our descendants thousands of years from now.

edit delete reply forgetmenot525 wrote on Mar 27, '10 nemo4sun said he information still has to be stored somewhere on a devise (computer, cell phone etc)) the internet is just the connections between devises like our old 360 posts they are gone now because the computers they were stored on no longer exist Hmmm i was wondering about this, I thought, just as Frank said, once out there on the internet, it stays on the internet, which makes me wonder how much stuff the internet can store. I know what you mean about not being able to access it because 360 doesn't exist, but our not being able to access it doesn't mean its not there,

delete reply nemo4sun wrote on Mar 27, '10, edited on Mar 27, '10 the waves continue to travel the waves sent to a satellite not in a circle but traveling outward on but i would think they would become corrupt past a point like martians watching broadcast re-runs of "i love lucy" the broadcast waves may still be traveling out but are they usable? and they would have to come to a receiver that could translate it

delete reply veryfrank wrote on Mar 27, '10, edited on Mar 27, '10 If Shakespeare had been on the Internet and been transmitted, it would still be around today, perhaps in a galaxy far, far away, but out there some where. The light that we see from stars on a given night, may have been generated thousands, perhaps millions, of years ago and has traveled at light speed and take that long to get here. The point is that the original energy was disbursed, but not destroyed. If some device today could read what was transmitted, I believe that it would still be around. That is like the signals and pictures that we sent into space 40 years ago.

delete reply nemo4sun wrote on Mar 27, '10 i may be wrong on this the information still has to be stored somewhere on a devise (computer, cell phone etc)) the internet is just the connections between devises like our old 360 posts they are gone now because the computers they were stored on no longer exist :)

edit delete reply forgetmenot525 wrote on Mar 27, '10, edited on Mar 27, '10 hmmmmm ok.............guess one of the problems I have with this is that it is so big. In my conversation with my daughter we asked the question; if the Internet were around 500 years ago, and Shakespeare used it, would we still be able to see what he wrote??, cos..................if that were the case, the amount of stuff stored on the internet over 500 years would be infinite..... does the internet have infinite capability?? cos if it does, its just about the only 'thing' in existence that does have infinity inbuilt. generally speaking infinity is something not experience in the 'real' world.

delete reply veryfrank wrote on Mar 27, '10 Yes, pretty much so, all energy has existence, although not always visible properties. Unfortunately, every stroke/signal that travels from point-to-point will exist forever, one doesn't 'erase' energy, simply disburses it. But you can't wrap it up in a neat little package with a physical existence. It is a label.

Comment deleted at the request of the author.

delete reply artimisia wrote on Mar 27, '10

delete reply nemo4sun wrote on Mar 27, '10 yep ~ much like sunlight :)

edit delete reply forgetmenot525 wrote on Mar 27, '10 ok... Frank and Nemo, when I ask ''what form of existance does the internet have' you are saying it has the form of 'waves' energy waves or microwaves or sound waves..... or similar. And these 'waves' are energy that have no physical form but do have some sort of 'real' existance??

delete reply artimisia wrote on Mar 27, '10 one of the difference between tv, radio AND THE INTERNET is that ordinary people communicate in real time through wires or waves...a bit like the telphone but everything visual and heard can be saved

delete reply nemo4sun wrote on Mar 27, '10 the signals are wavelengths you can not see like the signal from your tv remote to your tv or our voices traveling if we were on the phone :)

delete reply veryfrank wrote on Mar 27, '10 Empirical simply implies something derived or guided from or by experience or experiment. The issue doesn't have to have physical form, much as radio waves. The Internet is a series of communications connections, essentially computer-to-server-to-server-to-computer. The starting, midway and ending points have a physical existence, the transmission in between is simply energy. Not unlike the physical existence of a television studio and then the receiving television set, with nothing empirical in between. Does the Internet have an actual physical home? The answer is no, it is a collective identity. Does the Universe have an empirical 'home'?

delete reply nemo4sun wrote on Mar 27, '10 the internet is many forms in one system it is data entered into a electronic devise like me typing this right now it is entered into my ip port then send digitally through my cable tv wire to a station that send them as (i believe) microwave signals up to a satellite in space then broadcast back down to a station near you then you access them from there the internet is the network of stations that broadcasts and receives those signals :)

edit delete reply forgetmenot525 wrote on Mar 27, '10 artimisia said will this help ? thank you :-) it helps a great deal, how appropriate

delete reply artimisia wrote on Mar 27, '10 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDbyYGrswtg will this help ?

edit delete reply forgetmenot525 wrote on Mar 27, '10 depends on exactly what you mean. The nature of language and how it works has been the subject of philosophical debate for centuries but most people who debate the nature of language seem to agree that, even if the thought processes are not actually understood, the mechanics of brain activity and brain chemistry are (almost) understood. But if you mean does the mechanics that allow us to communicate, be it speech which utilises muscle etc or the written word which uses paper etc..., exist, then yes they do, empirically.

delete reply tesstruhartz wrote on Mar 27, '10 Maybe it is all fake and we are talking to ourselves

delete reply artimisia wrote on Mar 27, '10 does comunication exist it is process and not content ?

edit delete reply forgetmenot525 wrote on Mar 27, '10 ohhhh I'm so happy someone takes my question seriously thank you, think away and then get back to me :-)

delete reply simphanee wrote on Mar 27, '10 MOST interesting! I have some thinkin ta do on this one!

edit delete reply forgetmenot525 wrote on Mar 27, '10 and feeling it is the empirical sense based evidence that need to know it exists

delete reply tesstruhartz wrote on Mar 27, '10, edited on Mar 27, '10 i would say it is energy put to good use. Like electricity you can not see that either , but put your finger in a light socket and you will feel it.