How to use Flickr....

Because my mom's friend asked her and she asked me to show them and this is the easiest way to do that on a day when my pet donkey has died and I have a cough and have to go to urgent care... without further long story short...I give to you... How to use flickr in 15 easy steps... maybe more if this drives you to drink somewhere in the middle, it's up to you.

Your starting page on Flickr, note the "Your Contacts" at the bottom, pics from your contacts show up here.

Under the "You" tab find the Upload Photos and Videos option

Choose your photographs from your computer....

Choose your privacy settings, public for photographs you don't care who sees and this is the easiest setting

While your pictures are uploading, perhaps consider starting up a hobby, like crochet, novel writing, cooking

Once your photographs have uploaded, click the "Add a description" option

Here you can add tags, an easy way to find your photographs or for others to find your photographs, and add them to a set or create a set for them to be in.. scroll to the bottom of the page..

Choose a set or create one

Here you can save them as is, or save them and also edit them with the fun tool "Picnik" try it, it's fun

Once you have your photographs uploaded you can mess with them individually by clicking on that button in the left corner of each photograph, in this case I'm going to rotate it. You can also edit in picnik or delete, view all sizes if this isn't your photograph so you can download it to your computer

This is a set, in the top right hand corner there is an email button, facebook, twitter, you can choose how you want to share with friends

Or you can click this button to grab a link and paste into an email or write on a napkin for someone to find your set

For people to be able to easily see your photographs you need to adjust your account, under the "you" tab click "your account"

In your Privacy & Permissions section of your account, adjust the top one, also.. for the truly nosy.. that is not my current or recent or a functioning email because I felt like being difficult. hmph.

For others to be able to download your photograph and work on it, click anyone, if you want to add someone as a contact and then only they (and your other contacts can see your photographs), click the "your contacts" option there.

.  Find the contacts tab next to the "you" tab, to the right, then either search for those that you know or have them find you... 

Hope that helped,
sincerely,
Megzy. *cough* .. now off to the doctor yippee whohoo.

Life in Tapestry Form

There's a lot I don't know about my family.. there's a lot I don't understand and I may never totally understand them.
Life is a tapestry made of up all the threads of the people that have touched our lives in some way. I think most of that is laid on the background of family.
Recently, almost as if it was yesterday... oh wait. That was yesterday, I started communicating with a few cousins. It was strange at first, these strangers that I share dna with. Are they like me? Am I like them? Do we do the same things? Like the same things?
I don't know yet, I must admit I find the whole idea intriguing.

I also wholeheartedly believe that there's the family we are related to, and we should get to know them at least recognize them in case we ever need a kidney or something, but there's also the family that we have chosen by choosing the people that surround us, that we trust. In that case I can honestly say that I have never been cousinless. That I have always had a random aged very eclectic mix of people that formed a great support group for me, there were artists, mothers, sisters, daughters, fathers, brothers, photographers, fashionistas, glamour girls, cowboys, hard workers, crafty people, .... survivors. I couldn't have asked for more in my life.
I don't ask for any different for my children. Cousin wise, they don't have a lot of options, I'm thinking of taking them to a family reunion in July so they can meet hundreds at once and be dazzled, but honestly, I am profoundly grateful for the people who have adopted us and allowed us to adopt them. They have formed a stunning and stable backdrop for my children to embroider their lives across and I'd like to say...
Thank You.

love,
Megzy

Laying out my heart....

I am laying all my cards on this 'table', laying out my heart for you all to see.

Take what you will from it, or don't. Either way, words are building up in my head and keeping me awake at night and writing them down is my only hope of a less troubled night of sleep.

It all started last year, seems like not that long ago and almost forever at the same time. I trusted the wrong people, persons, whatever, with my heart. I trusted. Trust is hard for me, I'm still working on that but I think it might be a lifetime project. I trusted. They let me down. They threw me away like garbage taking up too much room in their lives. They made me feel worthless.....because I allowed them to.
I allowed these people to come into my life in whatever way they were a part of it, and I allowed them to act badly and I did not stand up for myself and ask why. I did not stand up and say don't treat me this way. I allowed them to crumple me up like used gum and toss me aside. Why did I do that? I still don't know.
Will I do it again? No. I will not.
Wait don't think that I'm giving up on the human race, I'm not. No such thing. I am still full of hope that people mean what they say, mean to keep their promises.
However, I am no longer going to allow people to stomp on me. If I had had greater courage to ask the Why questions perhaps things would be different, maybe not.
Seems to me that if people get that upset in the first place to act that badly towards a fellow human, they probably weren't really friends in the first place, and that, dear friends...is not my fault.
This year, I give my heart away freely, I will trust more, and I will be braver. I will do this because although I will get slammed a few times and I will get hurt... most of the time I will find new friends where I least expected it and I will discover new facets to myself and my mere existence as a human on this planet.
I still have a lot to learn.
but this much I know.
I am not a doormat.

And if you're about to freak out because you think this post is about you... take a deep breath and read the following carefully:
It is not about YOU. This is about ME. And if you think you were the ONE to hurt me... please be assured that you are not the ONE, there were several of you and all in the space of year... I think you should find one another, maybe form a group of some kind, get matching jackets and have club meetings. I harbor no resentment, I cling to no hate, it's not who I am. I do not retaliate, I do not seek vengeance, I do not attack, I do not hit back... I am a pacifist, I am for peace. .... always ;)

I wish....

I wish that when a dream dies that we could have a funeral for it... that we could lay it out in a casket and surround it with flowers and say "look wasn't it beautiful? Wasn't it just too young to be gone?"
Then we could all talk about what could have been and have food and crying would be allowed, and we could have closure and maybe grieve for awhile and move on. 
Since we can't do that, I'm just going to say that sometimes things don't turn out the way we want, sometimes the answer to our pleas is no, not now. 
And... life goes on, and new dreams will come, they always do.

YOU are the wind beneath my cape....

Ever wonder why Superman, Batman, all those cape wearing type superheroes sit at the top of a building and look down at the city.. 
it's so their cape can flap around and make that whoosh sound... 
why does their cape flap around anyways?
because there is a large amount of air that is blowing it around for them....
Where does this air come from?? 
I am going to theorize that it comes from haters. That's right.. the hot air of the nonsensical rantings and ravings of people who have nothing better to do then complain about them and cause trouble and make accusations and mostly put a lot more hot air out there... 

Recently I got myself in trouble.. again. *gasp* you say, well... it's true sadly enough. 
I used a word that got people in my far flung gene pool upset with me, it wasn't a bad word, it wasn't even a slang word, but these people who do not know me and do not care to know me got mad. They got mad enough to cause stress and woe to my immediate family, and I do NOT LIKE THAT.

I do not and will never understand why people who have a choice to do the kind thing or the wrong thing.. pick the wrong thing 99% of the time. 
My mom and dad said I was a very kind person, I don't know about that, I don't think a kind person would get fed up with everyone thinking their little "me me me me" thoughts all the time, I doubt a kind person would be tempted every now and then to open the car door when passing a bicyclist... but that's another story. 

People will never understand one another 100% percent. People will always take something that is said the wrong way. We will always cause one another pain in some way. 
But... I still want to hope. I want to believe that those that misunderstand me will take the time to get to know me better, I want to think that there is an entire human family out there that is dysfunctional but honest, honest enough to realize that we can take the high road or the easy road. 
I want to believe. I do. 
In the meantime... I have to be my own superhero, because if I don't save myself from drowning in this sea of missed chances, missed opportunities, and miscommunication noone will.  
So thank you people who like to hate and cause trouble... because of you, my cape goes whoosh and I remember I can fly.... 

oh.. and make it a great day! :)
~ Megzy

Starting Fresh...

Started working again, but this is a little different, photographing just for me, without even a shadow of a thought of sales... well alright there is a shadow of a thought, but, just for me.
Our friends got me started again, they started a 365 day project group on Flickr, and I joined... and I'm having a really good time.
Life has been like that lately, there are moments I just don't want to enjoy, I want to wallow, I want to be upset... and I can't help it, I just can't stick with a good slump, a thrilling downward spiral.
I am learning to say no to things that I don't want to do and that makes the yeses when I say them so much more honest and heartfelt and I make myself all proud in the process of doing :)
I'm growing up I suppose, although it doesn't feel like it, I don't miss the awkward birth - 30 years.. but.. I do kind of miss the size 2 jeans.
I am starting to photograph again, and to take what I like, to learn what I like, to edit how I like.... it's fun, why didn't I do this earlier???  :)

Life, Love, and Letting go

Let me start off by saying that I have never NEVER been good with goodbyes, ever. That whole "letting go" thing is a difficult concept for me.
That being said..
Today I am saying goodbye and letting go of a small life that has been in my care for just about the past 6 years. Her name is Clyde, and those of you who have followed my photographs over the years will recognize her as my African Leopard Tortoise.
...and although I love her very much, and I have found her to be excellent company, she's going off to a better home today. A home that will give her the winter habitat and diet that she needs, and hopefully they will see in her the personality that I have come to love dearly.
Making this decision is beyond hard, it would be selfish and wrong for me to keep her just because I happen to love her but can't provide well for her.
It is because I love her and respect her life that she is finding a new family.
and I... I am... going to let her go.
We have learned a lot about life and love over the past year, and maybe a little bit about letting go. We have had friends going through terrible situations and there's nothing we can do to help.
This is all that I have learned and maybe it's a lot, that the one you love may have come to you damaged and no matter how tenderly you hold them, how willing you are to keep them safe, and to love them... they may still fly away. But love is being able to let them go and hoping that while they were there that you helped them to be a better more complete person.