Attitude Check

[Post on blogging. Early due to Halloween. List of previous blogging posts.]

How have I been doing since the latest meltdown and recovery [Hiatus & I’m Baaaaaack … With Camera]? Pretty well.

I attended a meet-up for bloggers in my area. I was told that I must merge my personal and blog Twitter accounts into one. That I must use Instagram & Pinterest & Twitter to drive traffic to my blog. That I must… Well, no. As I said in the mission statement above, until someone offers to pay me, I don’t HAVE to do jack. Too militant? What I mean to say is that I am happy with the blog the way it is. And that’s a good thing.

For me, Twitter is a way to create a moving sidebar for the blog. Of course, now that I have been assimilated into the collective [Newest], my opinion may change.

I think the meltdown got rid of the last remnants of commercial thinking. For 20+ years, I wrote what the nice people with checks wanted me to write. I wrote newspaper pieces, magazine articles, even a book to order. If I had an assignment for a new magazine. I would read several issues cover to cover, including editorials and advertisements. I would absorb and reproduce their house style. The first iteration of the blog, Back to Eventing, was targeted to a specific audience. Once I started writing for myself, I was still trying to anticipate an audience. That way lies madness. One cannot write for the Internet as a whole.

I have come to decide that writing a blog is closer in method to writing fiction. You write the story you have to tell, then you look for an audience. So this is me, writing my blog, saying what I have to say, then looking around to see if anyone is interested in reading.

Thank you for visiting.

Newest Toy

Resistance is futile.
Resistance is futile.

We have joined the 21st century. We went to the Verizon store, closed our eyes, signed, and emerged with two smart phones. My first project will be to live tweet my next horse show, the National Academy Championship Horse Show, November 1-3, 2013, Murfressboro, TN. Website, Facebook.

I will be one of eight competitors from Stepping Stone Farm: three WTC, three WT, one leadline, one driving. The entire show is Academy.

If you wish to follow along:
I have expanded the tweet display on my sidebar –>
OR
@RodneysSaga (https://twitter.com/RodneysSaga)
OR
Google search: Twitter Rodney’s Saga

For those of you who might be interested in my every move but are not on Twitter (Hi Moms!), I don’t believe you need an account to access a page. You just won’t be able to send tweets.

My inaugural phone Twitter pic for those who do not wish to click over:

Hello Twitterverse!
Hello Twitterverse!
Caveat:
I may tweet a few times and get bored with it. I may tweet my fool head off. I may tweet extensively on Wednesday and Thursday when we are getting ready and then drop off the face of the earth once competition starts on Friday. We shall see.

The blog will continue as normal. I will have daily posts queued up through the middle of next week. National Academy related posts will start Friday. I leave Wednesday. (Don’t bother breaking into our house, Mathilda’s Lead Minion will be here doing the honors.) I always check, one way or another, that the day’s posts came up. Other than that, I dunno how much reading/commenting I will do during the show. See above. I’ll be back once the show is over and I have recuperated.

For the information junkies among us, horseshowtime.com has schedules, class counts, and all manner of other data. My classes:
Friday AM – 14 Academy WT Pleasure–Adult
Friday PM – 21 Academy WT Equitation–Adult
These two are definite. The rest of my weekend depends on how the first class in each division goes.
Saturday AM – 39 Academy WT Equitation–Adult Championship
Saturday PM – 53 Academy WT Pleasure–Adult Championship
Sunday 54 Academy WT Pleasure National Finals–Adult (first class, yikes! But yeah!) & 62 Academy WT Equitation National Finals–Adult

Go Team Stepping Stone!

Gratuitous Cat Picture: Stairs

Rodney's Saga cats on stairs

I thought this deserved more than a thumbnail at the end of a post.

Had intended start my new Sunday project today, Didn’t happen. Aiming at two Sundays from now. Stay tuned.

Update: This is standard cat feeding protocol at Stepping Stone Farm, where I take saddleseat lessons. The only unusual thing about this day is that it was cold. Therefore, all 8 barn cats showed up.

I asked about preferred steps. Answer, “It does appear that there is a hierarchy amongst the cats.”

Foto Friday: Spotted in GIMP

Learning photo manipulations. Apparently none of the cool kids use the photo right out of the camera any more.

Base photo:
Spotted exercises base

Quickmask tutorial:
Spotted exercises edges

Clearing the background:
Select by color only worked so far. All of the other colors – water, railing, buildings – have corresponding bits of color on the main figure. Who knew.
Spotted exercises background

Adjusting the color:
(This is for the Blithe Traveler, who says she likes pictures that make her blink.)
Spotted exercises color2

Threshold:
Dunno what it means but it looks neat.
Spotted exercises threshold

Text:
Spotted exercises text

Result:
I can make simple changes, but get lost when the tutorial assumes a step. Random button pushing yields interesting but non-significant results. Not really seeing the point. Guess I’ll remain uncool a while longer.

Magic Feet

Rodney and I did our mounting block exercise [Where]. Since the ground crew was absent, I did nothing tricksy. After a while, I got bored with sitting and did some flexion exercises from the ground. Look right, look left, give to the bit. Lather, rinse, repeat.

After any work session, I can tell Rodney’s mood by how fast he departs once I finish brushing him. On this day, he tried to leave before he was dismissed. He ground ties reliably enough (He’s within an enclosed space if I’m wrong) that I had dropped the rope and turned to get something from the grooming box. By the time I turned back, he had started to move away. He drifted out of my reach before I could grab the rope. However, I reacted fast enough to stomp on the end of the leadrope thereby forcing him to halt.

For all that Rodney is sweet and gorgeous, he is not the brightest bulb in the chandelier. I could see the thought balloon, ‘Huh! How did she do that?’ He now thinks I have a magic gravitational power that stops him in his tracks.

It’s all in the timing.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Percy
Percy
Note the hind paw behind his head.