Take a deep breath and look at these photos I took this afternoon - you might just be able to smell the grass and feel the warm sun.  Click on any of the photos to see a larger view.  I'll also post the full set and few other artsy, creative-releasing photos that I've taken lately on my flickr site:  www.flickr.com/photos/bellacantare
 

There's this cool orchid in my office lobby that was begging me to take it's photo.  So I took a dozen.  And then I messed with some of the SOOTC shots (Straight Out Of The Camera).  Let me know what you think.




This one just has some increased contrast




Basically the same photo, but minus the contrast and messing with the color saturation.
 

The colors are warmer on this one

 

There's a new contest HERE where you sign up for a contest where you have to post a blog a day.  If you do then you could win some fabulous prizes (well, maybe not FABulous, but really, a prize is a prize).  Since I rely on my office computer to do these blogs it really depends on my schedule and who happens to be able to view my computer screen during the day that determines when or if I can post at all.  Those are hard circumstances to get around, so I don't think I can sign up for A Post A Day or NaBloPoMo as it's being referred to.

I learned about it from Maggie and may actually buy her book one day.

Gosh, I think this is my most-linked blog.

My friend Eli has a new tap instruction DVD out - it's on sale here:  http://www.tapdancemadeeasy.com . And if you're nice, I may just send you the link to the discounted dvd price (20% off!).

I've personally taken tap classes from Eli and I loved every minute of it.  It takes some getting used to, even just learning to make a sound with your taps isn't as easy as it seems, but once I got past the first couple of classes I just couldn't get enough!  Eli's really easy to learn from and the tap dvd makes it easy to see the instructor's feet from different angles and the subtitle option gives the counts (I've never seen that with any other tap videos).

Even if you've never thought about tap before, why not?!?  It's great exercise (wait till you learn flaps and combos and timesteps, you'll be breaking into quite a sweat!) and a ton of fun.  It's also a great time waster now that I know some timesteps and paddles...I tap in the grocery store line, waiting for BART, and even during choir practice, as Clair will surely attest to.  :-)

He's coming out with an intermediate video to follow up on this beginning video - probably in about a year.  So get TAPPING, and maybe you'll be as good as me!  HAHA

Dustin Diamond (AKA - Screech from Saved by the Bell) is apparently losing his home (foreclosure) and is trying to raise enough money to save it by selling t-shirts with his mug on it.  He's now a stand-up comic, and not doing too well with that obviously, but he sought out the help of some lawyer to help keep his house when his property value when up, but according to Diamond's website, the guy screwed him even further and now it's being foreclosed.

See the article here and Diamond's website for his shirt sales and his side of the story here.

"The owner of Geno's Steaks, one of Philadelphia's best-known cheesesteak joints, stirred controversy by posting signs telling customers, "This Is AMERICA: WHEN ORDERING `SPEAK ENGLISH.'" What do you think?"

I know my mom would agree with the restaurant owner in this article, she always says that people from foreign countries would come to live in the United States should learn to speak English.  But I've always had a problem with that ideal because the United States does not have an official language. 

What further upsets me is the live vote on the msn article that asks if people agree with the owner of Geno show that 66% of people think he's right and has the right to tell people what language they should use and another 22% don't see anything wrong with what he's doing.  I think that's very sad.

Furthermore, how many of us have traveled to foreign lands and not been able to speak the language?  How many of us did a year or semester abroad with school with little knowledge of a country's language, let alone their culture?  Why in my travels to Mexico (a Spanish speaking country) was it considered normal for all the vendors, shop owners and hotel workers to speak and understand English?  Why isn't the reverse situation (foreign speakers in the United States) tolerated as much?  Why shouldn't we all learn Spanish fluently in school as other countries teach English?