Crankypantsing, Meta

Crankypantsing about Crankypantsing

Shelly

One of the blogs I occasionally read is by a woman who really, really, really does not like tourists mucking up her lovely city. Having lived in a tourist town (albeit much smaller than San Francisco!), I know that it can get old, being surrounded by people who are unconnected and who don’t belong there. And in our case, people who would wander into our house, thinking it was a shop.

So, I can sympathize. Really. What I don’t understand is that she, herself, travels all the time. She’s always posting about going here or there, or about her travel plans for her next week off. Doesn’t that strike you as a bit hypocritical? I mean, she’s a tourist herself, and here she is griping about tourists. And I can guarantee you, her impact as a tourist on the small towns she visits is much greater than that of the folks who swarm San Francisco is on her.

In other news, there’s a vulnerability in the version of WordPress I’ve got installed on my blog. I’ve been reluctant to upgrade, because of all the hell I went through with having to reinstall Coppermine. I’ve noticed, though, that my blog is loading very slowly. I assumed it one of my web host’s periodic slow-downs, but apparently not. I looked, and someone hacked my blog account and loaded a bunch of code into my template. It was easy to nuke, and is running nice and fast now, but I guess this means it’s time to upgrade to a more secure version.

Fingers crossed! I’m downloading a back-up, in case things go ‘splodey. I won’t be able to reinstall from the back-up, but at least I won’t entirely lose 3 years worth of journaling, either.

Crankypantsing, Meta

Errors

Shelly

I has them. Or, my blog does. I upgraded WordPress this morning, which I’ve been putting off. After the fiasco I had with Coppermine going ‘splodey and the lack of help in fixing it, I just didn’t want to invite myself to an encore performance. Ugh.

So, first, my whole blog was hosed. Nice. I reinstalled from a back-up, and it’s working, except for the obvious errors. Apparently WordPress 2.3x doesn’t have the same structure as older versions, so it handles things like post categories and links differently.

And that’s about all I know. The actual posts are there, and comments seem to be working. I haven’t checked to see if there are errors when you try to comment. I don’t need to make myself feel any more stabby than I already do.

All this, because my blog was hacked and there was a bunch of code inserted into my footer template. It was making everything load slooooowly. I removed it, then decided I’d better upgrade. Silly me!

Genealogy

Today’s Findings

Shelly

It’s more of a singular finding, actually, than a findings. I may have misunderstood, but I thought Estelle Hoover (grandma’s grandmother) was paralyzed later in life (polio?). Not so! Whatever happened to her occurred at a young age, because she was listed in the 1880 census as being paralyzed. She would have been about seven years old in 1880.

Other than that, I’ve been cleaning up census info and trying to fill in some of the gaps as I come across them, which is why I saw the reference to Estelle being paralyzed.

Something else I turned up, which might be something and might be nothing. The 1870 census lists a Henry Hoover married to a Tallula, with a son named Adolphus. I’ve been assuming that this is Estelle’s family. The names are uncommon and the ages and locations match. I wouldn’t have thought twice about it, if it hadn’t been for the fact that Henry’s occupation is listed as a physician. I don’t think that can be correct. If it’s not, then the enumerator made a mistake, Henry or Tallula lied, or it’s not the same family after all.

1870 US Census
1870 US Census, lines 86-88

I just think it’s unlikely that Henry, who is listed as a dairyman in the 1880 census, a peddler the 1889-1890 Atlanta directory, and a repairman in the 1900 census, could have been a physician in 1870. I mean, I realize that doctors weren’t quite the same thing back then as they are now, but that’s a pretty big stretch even so. On he other hand, that would have been right after the Civil War. If he’d fought in the war, who knows what sort of position he held? He might have actually been trained as a doctor or medic, then not stayed with it after the war.

Photography

Horse Skull

Shelly

IMG_1529b

One of my mom’s friends is a sculptor. When I was up there a few weeks ago, we went to her studio so I could meet her, look at her work, and take photos of some of her horse bones.

IMG_1537

IMG_1543

I’m working with a kit lens, which isn’t great in low light, even with the aperture wide open. Then again, it might have helped if I’d remembered to boost the ISO. Duh! At 200 indoors, I’m lucky anything turned out.

Photography

Dew Drops

Shelly

IMG_2053

I think this is a cabbage rose, but on the other hand, I’m not entirely sure it’s not a peony. I was so distracted by the poison ivy that I forgot to look at the foliage. I know there were other roses growing in the same bed, and I don’t recall there being peonies in that bed. There are peonies in the bed next to it, though, so I just don’t know.

Anyway, the flower–whatever it is–is a little past its prime. I like the photo, though. I didn’t notice the dew drops at the time (again, distracted by the poison ivy!), so they were a nice surprise.

My Garden, Photography

Inverted Lens Macro

Shelly

IMG_2008
Wild Columbine Seed Pod

This was my first try, and it’s a little breezy outside, so it’s not as sharp as it could be. All you do is invert the lens. The only hard part is manually holding it in place. Because it’s an older lens, it’s heavy, and my hands got a little tired and unsteady after awhile.

This was a few shots later, and I think it turned out better. Both were taken with a Tamron SP 28-80mm 1:3.5-4.2 lens.

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Ivy Roots on Brick Wall