Sorry For All Of The Missing Photos

Time Has Not Been Good To My Blogger Blog

For me, pictures are worth a thousand words and today it's meaning has never been clearer when I see the blank place-keepers where my hard work used to be.

Through the years a few things happened that made my old Blogger blogs a nightmare to behold:

• changing code
• discontinued software
• changing platforms
• accidental deletion for space
• greed

Photobucket, although the worst offender, is not the only one. Windows Live Writer and Live Spaces started it all. When Live Spaces was shut down I moved my blog to Blogger. I had already been using Windows Live Writer to write my posts it was an awesome word processor which I felt was ahead of its time.

I used Windows Live Writer for everything it was versatile, by Microsoft, and could be used for Blogger blogs. I connected it to Bekkie In Wonderland which allowed me to write my posts in an environment that looked like a preview of BIW so before publishing a post I knew how it would look.

Any Blogger blog could be connected in the same way and Windows Live Writer was everything Blogger's word processor should have been. (Making a note here that Blogger's word processor is still the same to this day with no improvements!) I used Windows Live Writer for all of my Blogger sites.

Even with Live Spaces discontinued Windows Live Writer was around for decades! As a word processor, it was one of the first to give you coding control using (the then new,) HTML code. It gave you total control over the size of images letting you drag whatever size you wished. That and other little things made it a great word processor.

As time went on it started to become obsolete as I started to see grumblings from Microsoft about pulling support. One day it didn't look like my website anymore when I wrote new posts and a year or so later it was pulled. Actually, it quit working (I was that hard-core.)

In the meantime, I found a site called Photobucket and not only could I store unlimited images for free I could do so like an image library. I could store animated GIF files (then new) and get the codes to post them anywhere including my blogs.

I tried to look at my account to see how long I've had it but can't find anything. It's a very old account maybe started in the 80's? The amount of ads around and on top of my images is bad and it takes forever to load. It wasn't always like this but as the years went on the ads grew.

I used to pay for Photobucket yearly. I did this for 2 years (I don't remember how much) it was a long time ago. I stopped paying and more years went by. My account was very buggy to use taking up precious time but it was easy and I used it for all of my sites.

Losing Windows Live Writer was bad because the HTML was a little different so switching to Blogger's processor gave me problems. Some of the posts were a different font, spaced wrong, etc. and it just made them look bad. I had to do a lot of work and delete a lot of work just to keep my content. It was terrible and time-consuming redoing old posts.

Just a year or so ago, I noticed the majority of the images on my websites were pulled along with a message from Photobucket telling me they were now charging for hosting. It was then I realized how much I had relied on Photobucket, a free service, and it was devastating. Nothing was for free anymore.

No way was I paying them again and now I could write my own code. I had to rework so many of my websites I gave up, deleting 3 of my older Blogger sites.

My WordPress blogs weren't as bad because I was already writing my own code on them. They use an easier HTML code than Blogger does meaning transferring one post in HTML from Blogger to WordPress doesn't work smoothly. So what else is new? Lol!

After deciding to keep Bekkie In Wonderland (my oldest blog) and already doing all the work to keep the posts I did keep I ran out of space on my Google Drive. I knew I wasn't going to get away without paying this time it was just a matter of who to pay.

It took me forever to go through my Google Drive and delete Gigs of images. I was very careful but not careful enough because some of the storage wasn't old files like I thought. When I saw BIW was missing most of its images AGAIN my heart sank. I still have the images elsewhere but didn't remember those particular pictures were linked to BIW.

I couldn't delete enough images on my Google Drive so I had to pay for a year of storage and still lost all of that work on BIW, some of it (image replacement) had been done once already.

Exhausted I'm done for now. My posts are fine without the pictures although I'm very unhappy about it this time. I'm not sure what to do. Some posts are ok but BIW is pretty much wiped out. All of the contributing factors have helped but I made the final boo-boo that brought me to this point.

Sorry for the missing photos. If you blog, I know some of you had Photobucket and maybe Windows Live accounts (in the past) too. I feel for you! What have you done about your missing images?

There's no need to pay for hosting images in this day and age! You can do it on your blogs word processor. Just make what you want (using images, words, and links) under Compose, when finished, use the HTML button, copy and paste it into an HTML box from your website.

My newer posts are ok so please read around the missing images until I can get to them. New posts will be more important. Life outside of my websites hasn't been much easier recently everything is getting too expensive in my state of California.

 Keep On Bloggin'!

Happiness

Happiness

Happiness is emotional

simple in its beginnings

endorphins fill my brain

muscles relax

others tense

pulling at the corners of my mouth

sounds escape my lips
as childish giggles.

Happiness is addictive

good times amplified

one beaming smile

spreading across many faces

we feel giddy

makes us fall in love

it makes the world go round

it’s better when shared.

Happiness is temporary

we’d like it to last forever

still, it leaves us

without warning

but when we least expect it

someone smiles

and it reminds us

that it’s just around the corner.

© Rebecca Sanchez 2018

Happiness never lasts but that doesn’t mean we’ll never be happy again. We never know what will make us smile. Open up and be receptive to happiness in any form. How are you doing? Have a great day!

Want to read more of my poetry? Capricious Poet.

Super Duper Blue

Super Duper Blue

The moon plays tricks

with a lunar eclipse

eyes to the skies

the full moon comes soon

twice this month is nice

number two is blue

tipping and slipping

under the earth’s umbra

invitingly in syzygy

this blood moon makes us swoon.

© Rebecca Sanchez 2018

Yes, I did rhyme syzygy, look it up. Lol!

A Blue Moon is when two full moons happen in the same calendar month; lunar eclipses occur when the moon passes into Earth’s shadow; and supermoons happen when the moon’s perigee — its closest approach to Earth in a single orbit — coincides with a full moon. In this case, the supermoon also happens to be the day of the lunar eclipse.

The second full moon and the lunar eclipse will occur on the night of Jan. 30 or the morning of the 31st. And the supermoon will take place on the night of Jan. 30, which is technically one day before the moon reaches peak fullness, but even NASA is willing to call the event a supermoon nonetheless.

I watched it last night on my patio it was awesome! My picture isn’t great, but it’s the only camera I had (cell phone.) This was when the moon was fully eclipsed and was orange.

This is what it looked like (although this isn't from this year.)

I don't know if you saw it but it was totally worth getting up at 4:30am to see. At the time I had no idea I'd be able to watch it from my patio. Once I figured that out, I got in a chair with a blanket and had a great view. A one of a kind viewing last seen in the 1800's.

I'd love to hear if you saw it or not so leave me some comments. If you want to write a poem of your own in the comments please do.

Have a good hump! Take care!

Happy 2018

A Very Good Year

The month of December has come to a close

the weather has brought a new blanket of snow

Christmas has faded from Rudolph’s red nose

looks like it’s time for the new year.

To the party we go with our friends in tow

faces aglow and dressed in our best

jollification where ever we go

looks like it’s time for the new year.

Champagne is flowing as midnight draws near

resolutions are made as we watch the ball drop

we raise up our glasses to toast to good cheer

that this New Year, be a very good year!

© Rebecca Sanchez 2011

I've posted this poem before but it begged to be repeated. I am happy for the chance for another year. 2017 was unreal! So many famous people died that I cared about and grew up with.

• Jerry Lewis
• Chester Bennington
• Tom Petty
• Jim Nabors
• David Cassidy
• Fats Domino
• Della Rese
• Martin Landau

and many more. Getting older is like this, more and more people dropping off while you inch near the edge....

Happy New Year! Hahahahahaha! (I posted this late because I forgot even though our blogs have a scheduler.)

Walking Through Doors

The doorway arrived in the nick of time
at the stroke of midnight before the first fireworks
wide open, brightly illuminated and full of promise
on the brink, I took my departure.

New doors open to us throughout life
some require keys before opening
some demand a pound or two of flesh
a lesson learned, an entrance earned.

Sometimes we balk at the opening
without realizing we’re on a new threshold
like not recognizing the dawn of a new day
letting that door slam shut in our faces.

Cooling our heals in the vestibule
aware and anxious to make our emergence
an unmarked exit opens to the unknown
that first step can be a real bitch!

© Rebecca Sanchez 2018

Wrote this today it's about doorways with New Years hinted in it. Have a nice week, it begins!

What's Happened To Our Blogs?

Don't stop writing on your old blogs!

Today I decided to go through my blogroll to see what's happened to everyone. Since it's the holidays my thought was, this is the time when people are apt to reach out and touch someone by writing on their blogs.

This is my last (and oldest blogsite) on Blogger. I made a lot of my online friends here some of whom I still see on social networks and such today. This is the only site where I still have a blogroll. 

Old-fashioned blogs have pretty much gone obsolete in 2017. I know I haven't had time to look at what other people are reading when visiting their sites these days. I sometimes scan blogrolls when I run into them but mostly to see if I'm on them.

In the early days of blogging, we were being introduced to spaces and blog spots. We featured other bloggers (unknown popular authors) on our sites, handed out blogging awards, had blogrolls, and other tricks to get more traffic to our blogs. You remember those days if you're an older blogger.

As I went through my blogroll I was sad to remove several of my old friend's blogs. What was worse was the number of blogs still up that haven't been written on since 2015 or later. 2013 was the last prime year on Blogger that I blogged too so I understand the timeline. It was a good time to blog, get comments and make friends. So what happened?

The blog killer appears to be time itself. Once the blog world settled down and got serious "everyman blogs" lost readers because they had no lasting substance. Online friends are wonderful but you can't count on them to come read your posts and bring their friends if they aren't relevant. People want to read more than just hear about your day or look at your family photos anymore there's a big world out there.

A handful of popular blogs on my list got more popular. They made it because they had funny stories, real artwork, already large followings and daily posts. Some of them moved to better homes (different URL's) but I was happy to see some of them still around.

So what can we do with our old, lonely blogs? Bekkie In Wonderland is my oldest blog and in the same boat. I've written on it a long time and lost some of it to old failing coding and losing Windows Live Writer which I used for years.

As I moved my main blogs to Wordpress and new audiences I stopped writing on BIW and forgot about it. My comments, coming from old friends who also had Blogger blogs were sparse and I almost deleted it with the others but I couldn't.

I decided to give Bekkie In Wonderland another chance for readers. I updated and started writing on it again. I want to invite you to do the same. There is one good reason:

• the older the blog the better the place on the search engines

There is power in this. A brand new website takes time for the search engines to pick it up and then it will not be on the first page of said search. This is the only way people will find your site so it's super important. Even if you change the name of your site as long as it's at the old URL it will keep its place when doing a search for it.

If you aren't going to write about a certain subject anymore you can redo your site, even rename it. The only thing you can't do is change the URL and what does that matter if you are only blogging about normal things in your everyday life?

I ask you to reconsider. Don't stop writing on your old blogs, an occasional post keeps them alive and will keep your readers from jumping the sinking ship. Writers need to write and we need practice if anything. Write about the news, trends, things you like that are in the news or trending...I think you get my gist.

Of course, if you can't ride get off the horse. Everyone has a website these days but not everyone was meant to be a writer. Writing is more work than glory.

Some Good Quotes About Writing

“To gain your own voice, you have to forget about having it heard.”

—Allen Ginsberg, WD

“Writing a book is a horrible, exhausting struggle, like a long bout of some painful illness. One would never undertake such a thing if one were not driven on by some demon whom one can neither resist nor understand.”

—George Orwel

“Who wants to become a writer? And why? Because it’s the answer to everything. … It’s the streaming reason for living. To note, to pin down, to build up, to create, to be astonished at nothing, to cherish the oddities, to let nothing go down the drain, to make something, to make a great flower out of life, even if it’s a cactus.”
—Enid Bagnold

“It ain’t whatcha write, it’s the way atcha write it.”

—Jack Kerouac, WD

“We are all apprentices in a craft where no one ever becomes a master.”
—Ernest Hemingway

“Every secret of a writer’s soul, every experience of his life, every quality of his mind, is written large in his works.”
—Virginia Woolf

“The greatest part of a writer’s time is spent in reading, in order to write; a man will turn over half a library to make one book.”
—Samuel Johnson

“When your story is ready for rewrite, cut it to the bone. Get rid of every ounce of excess fat. This is going to hurt; revising a story down to the bare essentials is always a little like murdering children, but it must be done.”
—Stephen King, WD

“Beware of advice—even this.”
—Carl Sandburg, WD

“Let the world burn through you. Throw the prism light, white hot, on paper.”
—Ray Bradbury, WD

And this sums up what's happened to blogging and life in 2017.

“We’re past the age of heroes and hero kings. … Most of our lives are basically mundane and dull, and it’s up to the writer to find ways to make them interesting.”
—John Updike, WD

Isn't that the truth? ~laughing~

I hope to visit some of the blogs I left on my blogroll and see some writing spawn again. Most of all, I hope to get a few readers back to my Wonderland because I still have a lot to talk about. This is where I can write about anything I want, unlike my other sites.

Happy Holidays!

Christmas Is Coming

So it's the holiday season again. When I was a child, like all children, Christmas was magical. My parents were great at it. They even hid presents in the tree and around the room they really knew how to work us kids into a frenzy. 

Then one day I became aware. Being the older sister of a 4 year younger brother I was the first. I don't remember how or why but I got old enough to finally understand the workings of Christmas. No Santa Claus? That about killed me.

I grew up a child with a huge imagination. It's one of the things that has helped me through life but finding out about Christmas was just one of the "truths" of life that I found shocking signaling the end of my childhood.

No magic? What about the rest of it? The Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy and more? All tall stories and for what? I still wonder. Would it be so bad to have kids know the real truth behind these childhood fibs? Maybe when we grew up we wouldn't be willing to believe every untrue lie fed to us by our government for example? The "experts"?

I don't know but I do know I'm getting off of the subject of Christmas. I'm not ready for it but I never am. Christmas was lost to me in the 90's along with Thanksgiving and most of the other holidays now all just indicators of more time passing.

If I had family who cared it might be more pleasant but I doubt it. I'm always broke these days, especially around the holidays so I don't get into Black Friday or Cyber Monday, etc. I might buy something small for myself just so I don't feel so sorry for "me".

When I think of Christmas this is what I think of. A snow-covered cabin all cozy inside with presents and a fire waiting. Perhaps a warm handsome man?

I used to have snow at Christmas but living in California that's out of the question unless one has money (and the knees) to go skiing. But this is what I do during the holidays.

I'm out riding my bicycle along the Bay Trail in San Mateo. It's really pretty year round even without snow. I miss it sometimes.

Candy canes are still one of my favorite candies! I actually learned to like fruitcake and I adore eggnog with dark rum. What do you like about Christmas?

The thing I still like each year is New Years. Now that I'm older I don't like how fast time is flying but I can't help but have some hope that each year will get better. This year is already better right now than last so I'm hoping for more of the same.

I like these old GIF's with such pretty Christmas scenery.

And even the ones with the old Christmas magic.

These are beautiful scenes that I've never seen with my eyes. Although I've seen some pretty sights in winter horse-drawn carriages and things like this are pretty much history.

You can't stop time or the holiday season. The stores would never let that happen!!

Christmas is coming just like every year...whatever way you celebrate, or don't, I hope you have the best Christmas ever!

Jumbo Blueberries

Nothing can make me happier than Jumbo blueberries from (of all places) Mexico! When these huge berries show up at Lucky's supermarket I'm there to buy 8 cartons of them and even that is not enough.

I usually shop at Safeway but Lucky's has a deal exclusively with Driscoll's to get their very best berries. Safeway will buy another brand or get Driscoll's from another area. The greengrocer at Lucky's told me this or I wouldn't have known.

All Driscoll's blueberries are not created equal.

It makes a huge difference! The berries from Peru are usually sour even if they look delicious. What a rip! I hate sour blueberries, all you can do is add sugar to them and use them for something else although most times I take them back to the store and return them.

Even the berries from California can't compare! I don't know what the deal is, but I never knew there were Jumbo blueberries and why does Mexico have them and we don't? What makes them so big and tasty? Do I want to know? (Uncomfortable laughter...)

My oatmeal without raspberries (didn't get any this time.) I make and serve it in a measuring cup. The dots are chia seeds.

My thing is oatmeal, in fact, every morning for breakfast I have my Red White and Blue Oatmeal with chia seeds. That is Quaker organic instant oatmeal with blueberries and raspberries. Oatmeal is the best breakfast food ever it sticks with me all morning and gives me energy for my morning bike rides.

Just take another look at that picture of the berries! When they say Jumbo they aren't kidding! These berries are the size of grapes! They are sweet tasting and I can sit and eat one of these containers of them like grapes no problem.

I also eat them on a bed of spinach with pears and walnuts drizzled with Trader Joe's Pear Vinaigrette Dressing. Doesn't that look delicious?

So when I hear Jumbo Blueberries it makes me very happy! I have the last 5 containers of them from Lucky's in my fridge waiting for me to eat them. It's almost breakfast time....

Jumbo Mexican Blueberries or I Will Eat Them

I will eat them in my chair
I will eat them naked bare
I will eat them on a dare
I will eat them in my lair
I will eat them while I swear
I will eat them with no hair
I will eat them with much flair
I will eat them here and there
In my mouth without a care
I will eat them anywhere!

© Rebecca Sanchez 2017

To steal an idea from one of my favorite poets/artists Dr. Seuss.

I hope you have the best day ever! In a few, after my oatmeal with Jumbo berries, I'm going biking and it's a beautiful day outside.

What food makes you happy?

Keep On Bloggin'! I'm going to close each post with a GIF to think about.

Back Again With A New Look And Attitude

Well hello there readers! It's been awhile since I've written here but I'm about to change all that.

Happy to see you all and sending Good Vibes outward to you!

If you haven't been here in awhile Wonderland has a new look. I had a lot of fun doing it so let me know how you like it. I also went through and fixed a lot of old code and posts that got stripped out when Photobucket got greedy and screwed me.

About that, Photobucket, the image library that I've used for decades decided to charge users who host their own images through them on their websites and such. Without warning these ugly ads to go pay homage to them popped up everywhere because I had been using Photobucket faithfully for years. It was a great place to store images and they gave you the HTML code for using them other places. That's how I got in deep do-do when Photobucket decided to start making money offa me.

What they don't know is I know how to write my own darn code now and don't need them. Still, I had a lot of old posts that were messed up and dotted with ugly ads on them. Some got fixed and a bunch got thrown out but most of them needed to go.

I've been up to a lot! I bike 20-30 miles every other day on the Bay Trail in San Mateo. I have never felt better! I write about biking and health on Bike With Bekkie a newer blog on WordPress.

I hope you'll be back when I have more to say. After all of the work and years I've put into this blog I'm going to take advantage of it and the great place it has on Google search. I'm all spiffed up and ready for business.

It's a new time for me, almost a new year and as Billy Idol put it, "It's a nice day to, start again!" (From White Wedding.) Night folks!

Have A Happy Vintage New Year!

They have some very strange ideas about holidays in the past. I love to look up vintage cards because I always find things like these. (Above.) These cards are copies of vintage New Year cards and postcards from the Victorian Era.

Here's my New Years poem I post every year since I wrote it. I was so pleased to use the word "jollification" in it, it's a great word

Time For A Very Good Year

The month of December has come to a close
the weather has brought a new blanket of snow
Christmas has faded from Rudolph’s red nose
looks like it's time for the new year.

To the party we go with our friends in tow
faces aglow and dressed in our best
jollification where ever we go
looks like it’s time for the New Year.

Champagne is flowing as midnight draws near
resolutions are made as we watch the ball drop
we raise up our glasses to toast to good cheer
that this New Year, be a very good year!

© Rebecca Sanchez 2011

Here’s to wishing you, and yours, a very good year from the bottom of my heart!

About "Time-Balls"

The actual notion of a ball "dropping" to signal the passage of time dates back long before New Year's Eve was ever celebrated in Times Square. The first "time-ball" was installed atop England's Royal Observatory at Greenwich in 1833. This ball would drop at one o'clock every afternoon, allowing the captains of nearby ships to precisely set their chronometers (a vital navigational instrument).

Around 150 public time-balls are believed to have been installed around the world after the success at Greenwich, though few survive and still work. The tradition is carried on today in places like the United States Naval Observatory in Washington, DC, where a time-ball descends from a flagpole at noon each day - and of course, once a year in Times Square, where it marks the stroke of midnight not for a few ships' captains, but for over one billion people watching worldwide.

Source: About time-balls from a Google search.

Keep On Bloggin'!