"All About Me" and "Wordplay"...

'To the complaint 'There are no people in these photographs,' I respond, 'There are always two people: The photographer and the viewer."
                                                                                    -Ansel Adams

Happy Sunday journal folk!  How is everyone today?  I have changed my "All About Me" section around some and I encourage you to visit it and click anything that is clickable.  You may notice that I added an icon that says "The Healing Garden" to this section.   The Healing Garden participants support one another who have disabilities and illnesses.  If you want to know more about this wonderful group or have an illness or disability and want support or someone to talk to follow this link or come back at a later date and click on the logo in my sidebar.  Someone will be there to share with you!!  As I Am (a disabilities journal) and Positive Pals are wonderful journals that are springing out wonderful ministries.  You don't have to be alone.  I don't talk about my disabilities too often.  Someday I will doan entry or two about what I have been through and am going through.  It is a full-time job to keep myself well.

On a lighter note, I wanted to wish a HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my soul-sister, Cathy, who is such a wonderful friend to me.  She had her birthday a few days ago.  Cathy, you are a dear to me and I wanted the world to know that I love you !!  Cathy has a wonderful and peaceful and smart blog over at journalspace if you want to click on her name and go see it!!

Now on to "Wordplay"!...

If you notice, alot of times I put quotes at the top of my entries that go with "Wordplay" or with other entries I write.  "Wordplay" is about photography today and how we view it, hence the quote.  Yes, a picture is worth a thousand words, or even more.  I wanted to give you four pictures and see if they evoke any feelings or emotions.  What words come up when you view these pictures?  Can you list several words that come to mind?  Does any memory come up or any thought or feeling or any story from your past?  Write a short poem about one of the pictures if you would like.  Please place your answers in the comments section.  If you want to do this as an entry in your journal please come back and put your entry URL so that we can go view your answer in your journal.  You may "Save As" to your computer any of these pictures and put these pictures in your journal entry.


                   

                   

                   

                    

My answer:  I chose the winter picture because I like the "feel" of it.  The words that come to mind when I see it are:  pure, cold, serene, calm, clean, peaceful.  I would actually love to be standing in this spot.  I know it's very cold, but it is also a very calming and soothing picture to me.  Blue and white are meditative colors and water is also very meditative.  I wrote a haiku for this picture:

Snow's first fall flits down
As the lake gulps up its flakes
Trees are sole keeper

 

How about you?  Would you like to pick a picture and give it a try?

Have a good day everyone and thanks for playing! xox

My Name in Pictures...

Good afternoon all my journal pals!  I've been busy, busy, busy these past couple weeks with Matt here.    We had a wonderful visit =D!!   Now I am so behind.   When my kids visit I let alot of things slide with the thought in mind that I will catch up when they leave.   I only see them once or twice a year and it's hard to not spend as much time as possible with them.  My boyfriend has an injured knee.  Seems he has a cyst behind his knee and it blew up like a balloon.  So I was taking care of him alot while Matt was here.  Now everything is kind of out of whack.  I am trying to get things back on track.  I had to go to Baltimore to the neuro-ophthalmologist for a checkup (all is well!) and that ruined a couple of days of energy for me, too.  I got DSL.  Yay!!  Did I tell you guys this?  I don't think so.  I have been so busy that I haven't even been able to install it yet!  Hopefully I can in the next couple of days.    Seems like I am always complaining about being behind.  I need to either get caught up or stop complaining =).

I wanted to wish a very HAPPY BIRTHDAY to a couple of very special ladies - Kelley (private journal) and Tammy!  You two arevery special to me!  Hope your year coming up is filled with the best joys ever!  If you are able, please go wish them a happy one!

Time for The Photo Scavenger Hunt brought to you by Krissy.  The subject of this week's hunt is "things that start with the first letter of your name".  My beloved sissy didn't say if this was your first or last, so I decided to do my full name.  My initials are V.M.F. - Valerie Maire Fisher.  Yes, I spelled my middle name correctly.  It's Gaelic for Mary.  It is pronounced more-uh.  The first picture I have for you today for The "V" in my name is my "V" Tree.  Do you remember me posting my "V" Tree about a year and a half ago?  It had no leaves on it.  You could see the "V" in the limbs clearly.  I thought it would be interesting to show you the "V" Tree in full foliage.  Here is my favorite, glorious tree - my "V" Tree.   It is across the street from my house and when it has no leaves  you can see that it forms a perfect "V".  It shouts my name to me =) !!...

            

The second picture I have for you to represent the letters of my name is a picture of mallard ducks and fish.  That would take care of the "M" and "F" in my name.  These ducks and fish reside in the creek at the park down the street from my house...

                

I have two final pictures for you.  They are violet flowers.  They represent my simple initials V.F.  I'm getting complicated, huh?  LOL  These are in my front yard -   these pretty violet petunias...

                    

I like how this picture turned out, too, so I am posting it...

                   

Thanks for coming to visit and seeing my V.M.F. pictures!  I will be back later with "Wordplay"!!    Have a wonderful rest of your Sunday!!  xox

"Wordplay"!...

Good morning everyone!  I hope you all are having a fine day!  I'm pretty quiet this week because my son, Matt, is visiting for ten days.  We're off to go see a movie and then out for a bite to eat this afternoon.  That should be lots of fun!  Matt's changed a bit this past visit.  He is more laid back.  I like it.  He came with a brow piercing and a tattoo this time.  The tattoo is a treble clef on his left arm.   Next, he is getting a double-bass clef on his right arm.  I guess it's the artist in him.  I like the tattoo and the brow piercing.  Am I a bad mother?  LOL  I will try to get a picture of the tattoo before he leaves.  It's really cool.  He found the clef on the internet and the tattoo artist did a really good job.  Speaking of symbols on the internet, I wanted to do "Wordplay" this morning.  It has to do with some interesting symbols.  So, here goes...

                                                    
                            
My sister Krissy sent me a fun site.  It translates English into hieroglyphics.  I was skeptical when I first saw this.  Could they really translate today's English into ancient hieroglyphics?  

I looked up hieroglyphics in Webster's and it says, "The picture script of the ancient Egyptian priesthood." 

I also found out that this writing uses more than 2,000 characters that represent common objects in ancient Egypt.  Hieroglyphs can represent the sound of the object or an idea associated with the object.  Alphabet characters were the basis for hieroglyphic writing.  I was surprised to find this out.  The basic hieroglyph characters are referred to as the alphabet.  The characters are read as the "sound" of the object they represented.  Vowels were spoken in their language, but  were usually not written unless a word began with a vowel or where it might be confusing if it was left out.  I found most of this information at this site.  I know, this is getting kind of confusing.  It will make sense in a moment, hopefully.

For "Wordplay", I want you to go here and type in your first name in the search box and hit "Translate into Hieroglyphics".  Learn what characters make up your name in hieroglyphics!!  Neat!!

I tried to copy and paste and save and paste and it's forbidden.  It will allow you to print it out if you want to, though.  Come back here and let us know what symbols make up your name!

My name, "Valerie" is -  viper, arm, lion, vulture, mouth, reed leaf,
                     vulture

What symbols make up your name?

Have a lovely rest of the day! xox

Give this a try!...

Congratulations, Valerie!
Your IQ score is 133


This number is based on a scientific formula that compares how many questions you answered correctly on the Classic IQ Test relative to others.

Your Intellectual Type is Insightful Linguist. This means you are highly intelligent and have the natural fluency of a writer and the visual and spatial strengths of an artist. Those skills contribute to your creative and expressive mind. And that's just some of what we know about you from your test results.

Wow, I feel so exposed posting this.  I don't know why.  I guess an I.Q. is something that is personal and private.  I decided to post it anyway.  It's a fun test!  Take the test when you have a free 20 minutes or so, copy your results and come back and paste them in my comments section.  I would love to know what you got!!  ...if you dare!! 

"Wordplay", etc..

  
   
     "The advertising industry is one of our most basic forms
    of communication and, allegedly, of information.  Yet,
    obviously, much of this ostensible information is not
    purveyed to inform but to manipulate and to achieve a
    result - to make somebody think he needs something
    that very possibly he doesn't need, or to make him think
    one version of something is better than another version
    when the ground for such a belief really doesn't exist."
                                           - Marvin E. Frankel


I want to apologize for my week hiatus from "Wordplay".  I had a brain freeze.  I do have a few week's worth of fresh ideas for you, so keep coming back and thanks for playing!  Also, I have decided to post "Wordplay" Saturday mornings as it is an easier and slower morning for me.  Wednesday mornings have become too full of activity.  So visit my journal Saturday mornings for "Wordplay" and I will try to be very consistent!  I wanted to thank Paul for advertising "Wordplay" in his last posting of CarnivAOL.  Thanks, Paul!  If you want to know how to have one of your entries posted in CarnivAOL pay him a visit!  Submissions are due by midnight Sunday for his Tuesday postings!

                                                       

                 
The quote at the top of the page will make more sense when I introduce today's "Wordplay".   It has to do with advertising and wording in advertising.  Choosing the right words in advertising is so important.  There are many slogans and ditties that have stayed in our brain over the years because they have been ingenious - the wording that is.  The words stick in your head forever.  For today's "Wordplay" I would like you to take this 10 question quiz.  How many did you get correct?  Which ones did you have a hard time with?  Did you enjoy taking the quiz?  For those of you living in the U.K. and out of the States, was it harder for you?  What do you think about advertising?  I only missed one.   I had to guess at three of them and got two out of the three that I guessed.  Seven were easy for me.  One answer I was very surprised with.  So, go take the quiz and see what you get and tell me your results and enjoy!!

I hope everyone is having a very nice weekend!  I am so excited because my son, Matt, is coming for a ten-day visit on Monday!!  Yay!!  Have a nice day all! xox

Happy Birthday USA and Honey...

 HAPPY 230th BIRTHDAY USA!!

I was over at Kellen's place reading the Declaration of Independence this morning.  I thought it would be a great way to start off Independence Day.  I wonder how much Americans really do know about today's holiday?  Today is the anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.  It is the 230th birthday of our country!  Did you know that the signers of the Declaration of Independence pledged their lives, fortunes and sacred honor?  I wonder how many Americans would do this today for our freedom?  This is nice to meditate on as we celebrate today's holiday.  God bless everyone and God bless our soldiers who are pledging their lives daily as well.  My prayer is that each one of you comes home safely.  Have a wonderful 4th of July everyone!  Love, Valerie xox

Oh, one more thing.  It is someone else's birthday today...

                             

Happy birthday, Honey!!  You have been such a loyal and wonderful and loving pet!!  I love you!!

Photo Scavenger Hunt #81 Participants...

I wanted to thank Krissy very much for giving me the opportunity to host her Monday Morning Question and Photo Scavenger Hunt while she has been away.  She has posted a Monday Morning Question this morning and a subject for this week's hunt if you can pop over and pay her a visit.  She is running her games this week and trying to have things as normal as possible.  Again, thanks Krissy, and welcome back!! 

Now on to this week's hunt!  Here are the participants.  I am sure you will enjoy viewing these!

Entries for Photo Scavenger Hunt #81 brought to you by Krissy from Sometimes I Think:

Category:  "things that make a sound"

Here are the journals that participated:

The Ways of Rayne
Northern Trip
Julie Loses It, My Weight Loss Journey
A Little Left of Center
There is a Season
Photo Trek
Linda's World
Holiday Photos
Footprints in the Sand
JUST FOR FUN
Photo Blog

Wishing everyone a good Fourth of July tomorrow!  Have a lovely day! xox