Well, the calendar says this must be the Spring Flickr… who am I to argue?

[andyg0404]

Hello everybody and welcome back to My Weekly Flickr.

Today was not a good day to renew my driver's license.

In New Jersey we have to renew our driver's license every four years and it involves a trip to the Motor Vehicle office as it's a photo ID. I had seen an article some time ago that led me to believe that senior citizens would be exempt so I was dismayed when the renewal arrived and specifically told me to go to the office. It even left out the return envelope. I finally found the article again and it turns out I had stopped reading too quickly. It said that people born before 1964 were eligible for skipping the trip to the office but only if you're one of the lucky ones to get a piece of paper allowing it. Another lottery I didn't win.

Trips to the Motor Vehicle offices in NJ are legendary for tales of anger and frustration. One of the nastier habits they have in some locations is allowing you to line up, spend four hours on line only to be turned away when the clock says the day is over, rather than taking care of those who have been waiting. Four years ago I went to the office in North Bergen, NJ and was surprised that it only took me about 40 minutes. I took a cab from my home, then when I was finished I took the bus into the City as I would on any Saturday. I planned on doing that again today. But when I contacted the cab companies in town I was given an estimate of $45 for the trip, a substantial increase from the last time and something I found rather steep. So I decided to take the bus. Actually two buses since NJ isn't the best state for public transportation within the state. I had to take the bus into the City and then travel back out to North Bergen on another bus. Of course the bus from my town into NY ran late and I missed the 7AM back out by a minute. That would have got me to the office around 7:30AM for an 8AM opening which would have helped significantly. Instead I caught the 7:15AM which got me there at 7:50 AM. As we drove past the office headed to the bus stop I heard the bus driver comment, boy, I wouldn't want to have to wait on that line! Oh boy!

I deliberately picked today to go as it is in the middle of the month when it should be the least crowded, beginning and end of month are the worst. So I was surprised to see a line with probably a hundred people when I got there.  This may be due to a letter to the editor that appeared in the Bergen Record last week heralding this office for its good customer service. The author ruefully said it would probably prompt more people to use it. I got on line and waited. The office opened at 8AM and they moved people along but I didn't receive my license until 9:30 AM. They take your picture and then display it on a computer screen, the image must be 8"x8" or so. When it flashed on the screen for my approval I just gaped at it. I looked like a refugee from a horror film. I've seen mug shots of people looking better. It's similar to the time many years ago when I was walking down Fifth Avenue and saw that on the other side of the street they had a television showing you as you walk by. It was a demonstration of HD TV so I walked over to look at myself. It was frightening. Then I smiled and that made it worse. I can see why people on television wear makeup. At least the picture isn't as bad when it's shrunk down for the actual license. I didn't ask for copies to frame.

I thought the worst of my day was over but another reason this wasn't a great day to renew your license, at least in North Bergen, is that their Department of Public Works was doing public works and had the Avenue blocked off. Which prevented buses from coming and left me wondering if I was ever going to be able to get home. A bus finally showed up and a 30 minute trip took an hour and fifteen minutes. I was more tired from doing all the standing around than from one of my long walks. But I finally made it into NY and after checking on things in my office I walked up to Christie's for their American Art preview.

This made the day so much better. It wasn't an enormous auction but most everything in it was quality and many of my favorite artists were represented.  There were 98 items in the auction and this is a link to all the images. http://www.christies.com/lotfinder/salebrowse.aspx?intSaleid=26087&viewType=grid&num=90 Below are some things I especially liked. Be sure to enlarge them as the initial images don't show off the highlights as well as the enlargement.

MAXFIELD PARRISH (1870-1966) OLD WHITE BIRCH -  The image on the screen can't begin to show how beautiful this painting is, in person it shines and has a 3D quality to it which is saying something for me since I don't have binocular vision. The colors which are muted on the screen are bright and glow when you stand in front of it. The texturing is remarkable.
http://tinyurl.com/jhazgxj

NORMAN ROCKWELL (1894-1978) OLD MAN AND BOY: HALLOWEEN - This is from a 1952 calendar series; there were several other earlier pictures, one from 1917 and two more from the mid-thirties. This is a nice depiction of an old man carving a Jack-O-Lantern for a little boy while a small dog avidly watches. They're surrounded by three already finished pumpkins all lit up.  http://tinyurl.com/zqlx9yz

JAMES MCNEILL WHISTLER (1834-1903) - FONDAMENTE DEI MORI - This is a lovely pastel showing houses on a canal with boats in the water and a crowd of pedestrians. Whistler always used muted, dark colors and this is a rather hazy view.  http://tinyurl.com/h3b3l24

JOHN SINGER SARGENT (1856-1925) - FRANÇOIS FLAMENG AND PAUL HELLEU - This is one of Sargent's early portraits, he was only about 24 years old and it could have easily been a part of the wonderful exhibit of portrait paintings at the Met last year.  http://tinyurl.com/gm8u377

JOHN SINGER SARGENT - SAN GEREMIA - This is a very nice watercolor of a Venetian Canal with a palace in the background. He sold it to the Brooklyn Museum in 1909, probably as part of a large lot of watercolors that he split between Brooklyn and the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. I was surprised to see they let it go at auction in 1926. According to the provenance Joan Whitney Payson got it from her Father in 1927 and it's stayed in the family until now.  http://tinyurl.com/hqgll3l

WINSLOW HOMER (1836-1910) - SHEPHERDESS RESTING - This is another watercolor, a very simple depiction of a young woman sitting in the shade of a tree on an open field. Again it's difficult to see in the image that he made little dabs of color to show fallen leaves as well as showing the blue sash of the hat falling off to the side.  http://tinyurl.com/gtlgmj2

FREDERIC EDWIN CHURCH (1826-1900) - A NEW ENGLAND LAKE Church is one of the Hudson River painters as are Cropsey and Gifford below and they all paint magnificent landscapes. This is a majestic painting showing a cloud strewn sky over mountains behind a valley with a tree lined lake with cattle resting in the water. http://tinyurl.com/z3bso9w

JASPER FRANCIS CROPSEY (1823-1900) - OCTOBER ON THE HUDSON - I was lucky in that just as I got to the vacant space where this painting was supposed to be, one of the employees brought it back and hung it back on the wall. Lovely depiction of Fall foliage with cattle grazing and boats out on the lake. http://tinyurl.com/guccgat

SANFORD ROBINSON GIFFORD (1823-1880) - ON THE ANDROSCOGGIN - This is a wonderful landscape, cloud misted mountains overlooking a tranquil lake. A man in a boat with women on shore and a little house over in the far left of the painting.  A very serene painting as so many of the Hudson River paintings are. http://tinyurl.com/hmposre

This was a great show, very much enjoyed my visit.

And here for your viewing pleasure as well, this week's Flickrs.

Andy G.

CK no longer makes my favourite dress, but they make this, which is very similar. Time to stock up!

https://www.flickr.com/photos/51106326@N00/26855073961/

Cut out mini dress (Black)_9

https://www.flickr.com/photos/trans_kyoko/6418593785/

IMG_7464

https://www.flickr.com/photos/rafiats/25232353254

Red shoes

https://www.flickr.com/photos/135626092@N07/25437038600/

Chantelle Taylor

https://www.flickr.com/photos/boyswillbegirls/24287338610/

snartjul

https://www.flickr.com/photos/93992491@N00/4123638344/

Fishnets and heels

https://www.flickr.com/photos/62740346@N08/8107138133/

Sissy Dress Saturday

https://www.flickr.com/photos/24078110@N08/8535291112/

.. trip ..

https://www.flickr.com/photos/camillla_cd/26156020572/

White Wedding Day

https://www.flickr.com/photos/57172609@N04/26107879830/

leggy blonde!

https://www.flickr.com/photos/136031688@N06/25765070404/

[andyg0404]

Hello everybody and welcome back to My Weekly Flickr.

We had a pretty nice week weather wise but today is cool and rain is threatening  which is the forecast for tomorrow and Monday as well. Hope I’m not outside walking when it comes.

I walked up to the Met today to take in the second rotation of the Japanese gallery, the Mary Griggs Burke exhibit, and was surprised to discover that it was still being installed. It must be running late as I had notes on my calendar that it should have been hung by now. Half of the gallery was closed but there were some new items although my memory of the exhibitions I see isn’t the most reliable. I’m fairly certain though that these two magnificent screens weren’t up the last time. They are both covered with little scenes of people going about their business and there’s much to see. You have to click on the image to enlarge it but even then it’s hard to really envision how wonderful the screens are when looking at them on the computer. Here are links to both of them.

Fifty-four Scenes from The Tale of Genji (Genji monogatari) -  http://tinyurl.com/jaayfcw
Scenes in and around the Capital -  http://tinyurl.com/gsogwrk

Afterwards I walked over to the European galleries and took in a small show of  four paintings, Joseph Mallord William Turner’s Whaling pictures. These were painted at the end of Turner’s long career, he was in his 70’s, and somewhat baffled the critics but overall were well received. They’re paintings that you need to step away from to appreciate. I find if I’m too close I start to see the paint rather than the painting and there is much obscuring of image here. It’s the first time they’ve been reunited since he painted them, three live at the Tate in London and the other one is from the Met’s collection.

This is a link to the four images on the Met website: http://www.metmuseum.org/exhibitions/objects?exhibitionId=09f6270c-c3c1-4e7e-9edb-4ab07c8b10f9 and this is a link to a Wall Street Journal article that discusses the paintings and the exhibit. http://www.wsj.com/articles/turners-whaling-pictures-review-a-leviathan-talent-1463520060 The exhibit had several smaller watercolors and the Journal article has an illustration of a very small watercolor done a number of years earlier. It’s a much clearer image than the four large paintings.  The Frick just announced they will be having a Turner exhibit in the Fall which should be enjoyable, the Frick owns several that are very high quality.

And now, on to the Flickrs.

Andy G.

Siblings can be tricky!

https://www.flickr.com/photos/60741642@N06/26129467133/

Roses grow on you.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/stefanied/25891935860/

Grey hombré hair

https://www.flickr.com/photos/amandarichards/25633261863/

Casual Kitty

https://www.flickr.com/photos/31584076@N00/24342606521/

Anita 0421 - little berry dress

https://www.flickr.com/photos/anita-dreamgirl/26382155255/

2016-04-09_11-29-18

https://www.flickr.com/photos/14479876@N04/26268108781/

20160408_211402

https://www.flickr.com/photos/noirjuliette/26247238131/

DSC_0061

https://www.flickr.com/photos/126049380@N07/20386976610/

Untitled

https://www.flickr.com/photos/pearlatgirl/24769368963/

DLV 2015 Thursday Night

https://www.flickr.com/photos/vivianchen05/17086221209/

Me and My Melody

[andyg0404]

Hello everybody and welcome back to My Weekly Flickr.

Summer weather certainly arrived with a bang this week. Temperatures in the high 80’s, into the 90’s with plenty of sunshine, I’m definitely enjoying it. Broke out the shorts and the short sleeve shirt for the first time this week and finally got to open the windows in my house. Let’s hope it doesn’t snow.

I went into the City this morning and took a walk up to the Neue Galerie on Fifth Avenue and 86th Street to see their current exhibit, Munch and Expressionism, the art of Edvard Munch. I’ve written about the Neue, it’s funded by Ronald Lauder and is home to early 20th century Austrian and German art. It’s major acquisition was the Gustave Klimt Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer, which Ron Lauder acquired for $135 million from her heirs after they reacquired it from the Austrian authorities  It’s a beautiful painting and sits in the main gallery on the second floor along with a number of other Klimt paintings, all very lovely. Munch is definitely an acquired taste and he’s not someone I feel overly comfortable with. Nor with his German expressionist peers. I find his work rather cold which isn’t surprising since his art speaks of isolation and pain. Hopper’s art speaks of isolation but there’s a warmth there I don’t feel in Munch. He repeated themes in his works, The Scream, which is his most widely known painting, has a number of different versions; there’s a pastel that’s the star of this exhibit as well as several wood block prints. The version in the exhibit was sold at auction several years ago for $120 million and loaned to the museum for this exhibit. It was an interesting exhibit, some of his portraits are more open and appealing but like the Turner paintings I spoke of last week, you need to step away to see the person in the painting and not just the paint. I was glad the security at the museum has been toned down a bit. You just walk through the metal detector without having to empty your pockets and undress. In past visits it was so intense that a friend commented after going through it that he feared a cavity search would be next. This is a link to a description of the exhibit from the website, along with some images.  http://www.neuegalerie.org/content/munch-and-expressionism-0  This is a link to the press page on the museum website with current articles from the major newspapers and venues that discuss the exhibition. http://www.neuegalerie.org/news

I had an interesting transit adventure upon leaving the gallery. I crossed 86th Street and waited for the crosstown bus to go through Central Park and take the subway down to the Port Authority. The bus arrived and when I stepped on there was no machine to accept my Metro Card. A sign said to pay outside. I was very nonplussed. I stepped off the bus and there was a machine by the curb which completely baffled me. It had as many buttons on it as slot machine and for the life of me I couldn’t figure out what I was supposed to do. Perhaps if I wasn’t under duress I might have eventually figured it out but I was certain that while I dithered in front of it the bus was going to pull out leaving me there. So I got back on the bus and asked the driver how it worked. He told me to move to the back so I thought there was another way of paying on the bus but as I stood there looking lost, a woman took pity on me and explained that the driver had just let me on without paying. She explained how the machine worked, it has a button that you press after which you then inset your card and it registers the transaction. Then you can board the bus through any door, front or back. I don’t remember this system being in place the last time I was at the Neue which my notes tell me was in December 2014. And it’s not in place on 72nd or 79th Streets which I cross on a regular basis so I’m not sure how widespread it is. But I’ve been riding the subways and buses since I was 10 years old and if it was difficult for me I can imagine what it must be like for a tourist. Not sure what’s gained by this new technology either. I think It’s another case of change for changes sake which I don’t like.

And I’m still waiting to receive my senior discount Metro Card. I visited the MTA website and discovered that you can actually call them although it’s not very evident. You can dial 511 between the hours of 6AM and 10PM and check the status of your application. I’ve heard of 911 and 311 but 511 was a new one to me. And I had to wait until I was at my office as it’s not a number that you can dial out of state, I don’t believe.  Early Monday morning I dialed and after a remarkably long voice mail interrogation I finally got to speak to an actual person, who it appeared was actually in the office and not in some Far Eastern land. They verified that the application I had submitted a month earlier had been received and they were still polishing it up before they could release it to me, a process that would probably take another two weeks. I thanked them as I was grateful it hadn’t been lost in the mail. I had to have a picture taken and have the form notarized so I wasn’t anxious to have to go through the process a second time. You can avoid that by going to the office but it’s downtown and has no user friendly hours.

OK, I’ve finished my rant so I guess we can wander over to the Flickrs now.

Andy G.

Noble Princess MISAKKY 001

https://www.flickr.com/photos/misakky/25332219130/

08

https://www.flickr.com/photos/137432660@N02/26351724192/

still in urgent need of a shopping friend! my photography is useless!

https://www.flickr.com/photos/136031688@N06/26297435252/

SAM_0423

https://www.flickr.com/photos/74474495@N06/26434930876/

16 316w

https://www.flickr.com/photos/mariaclare/26236725000/

Meow

https://www.flickr.com/photos/davina_wayne/26228527270/

033

https://www.flickr.com/photos/sissy_alice/6667228097/

Jen - ready to dance

https://www.flickr.com/photos/96282103@N00/26338073462/

A start towards a theme picture

https://www.flickr.com/photos/132986144@N05/24235522103/

DSC03807

https://www.flickr.com/photos/117560929@N03/15860451733/

formal gown.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/132986144@N05/25113086119/

[andyg0404]

Hello everybody and welcome back to My Weekly Flickr.

I was saddened when I woke up this morning and turned on the news to see that Muhammad Ali had passed away. He’s someone I always admired and liked. When I was a child I listened to, and taped off the radio on my reel to reel tape recorder, his first fight with Sonny Liston. Howard Cosell did the color and I believe Don Dunphy did the blow by blow. It was very exciting when Liston didn’t come out for the 7th round, a major upset as no one gave Cassius Clay as he was known then a chance at winning. I still have the tape. I thought his stance on the war was principled especially in that it cost him millions of dollars and three and a half years of his prime. He easily could have gone into the army and fought a few exhibitions and continued with his career when he got out. When the ruling barring him from fighting was overturned I listened to his first fight, against Jerry Quarry, out on the terrace of the apartment I was living in with my folks. It was October and  cold and I had a transistor radio which had a short wave band and I was able to get a weak signal that allowed me to hear him win in the third round. He really was larger than life. When I was in my early twenties I worked as a messenger with a friend of mine for a week making deliveries in New York City. One afternoon we were driving down Fifth Avenue when I looked over and saw Ali walking down the street among a crowd of followers, he was literally head and shoulders above the crowd. We beeped and waved and he turned and waved back. The reports say that his Parkinson’s disease is a result of the beatings he took in the ring and I often wonder if this would have been his fate if his career hadn’t been interrupted; perhaps he wouldn’t have fought until he was 40 and not absorbed so much damage. I’m a newspaper collector and when I went out this morning to buy the papers I expected to save them but there was nothing in the papers at the 7-11 which surprised me but I guessed he had passed away too late to make the early editions. I was pleased that I was able to get the later editions when I traveled into the City. An era has definitely passed.

While I was in the City I walked up to the Onassis Center at 645 Fifth Avenue and saw the current exhibition, Gods And Mortals At Olympus: Ancient Dion, City Of Zeus. It was a nice addenda to the Pergamon exhibit at the Met I recently wrote about, filled with sculptures and other artifacts. The City of Dion suffered an earthquake in the fifth century AD and these artifacts were damaged and buried, first rediscovered in 1806 but serious excavations began in 1960. In the exhibit there are four statues of philosophers, three with heads and one with the head missing and the card said that the bodies were discovered first and later on in a different area they found the heads. It’s a great historical find.  This is a press release from the Center discussing the exhibit along with some images. http://onassisusa.org/press/Dion-long-lead-news.pdf and this is brief piece from the NY Times with an image of one of the rooms. http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/15/arts/design/gods-and-mortals-at-olympus-right-there-on-fifth-avenue.html?_r=0

And now, the Flickrs.

Andy G.

day1442-02 yellow mini wedding dress

https://www.flickr.com/photos/yumiko_misaki/4157842624/

sexy santa #6

https://www.flickr.com/photos/45111478%40N08/6675768769/

Léo Aquila

https://www.flickr.com/photos/61376251%40N07/25956666184/

Rock Chick

https://www.flickr.com/photos/95163690%40N07/26619453795/

0003

https://www.flickr.com/photos/137432660%40N02/26477936292/

Back to school. 2016

https://www.flickr.com/photos/rachel_valentine/26099394092/

DSCF0411

https://www.flickr.com/photos/frannytv/26239788890/

Hump status: Waiting

https://www.flickr.com/photos/ginalovergirl1/25975100913/

IMAG0157_1

https://www.flickr.com/photos/135809499%40N02/26109732121/

I'm taking a stand!!!

https://www.flickr.com/photos/bobbieteevee/26202859791/

1353507806802

https://www.flickr.com/photos/69375578%40N02/8206359384/

[andyg0404]

Hello everybody and welcome back to My Weekly Flickr.

This will be a quick one. I’m hoping the scattered thunderstorms forecast for this afternoon aren’t too bad as I’m taking my friend to the Bronx Botanical Gardens. The rain may be good for the flowers but it won’t be helpful on our walk. The Gardens are a 20 minute walk from where I grew up; we’ll take the subway up to Bedford Park Blvd and I’ll show my friend the building I grew up in just a block away. Always interesting to go back to the old neighborhood. We moved to New Jersey in 1966 and I’ve been back a few times since just to walk around.

Hope everyone has a good weekend.

Andy G.

Catch me if you can

https://www.flickr.com/photos/saki_75153/23171405489/

Again wear the tights

https://www.flickr.com/photos/48779471%40N04/16260892781/

Princess dress

https://www.flickr.com/photos/105651494%40N07/26154652873/

TranniesinTrouble Shoot 2

https://www.flickr.com/photos/vivianchen05/16468516961/

black mini dress

https://www.flickr.com/photos/katvarina/26007174165/

IMG_1756

https://www.flickr.com/photos/kerrymay/26148713933/

Can Can

https://www.flickr.com/photos/donnajune77/26750513055/ 

Selfie!

https://www.flickr.com/photos/natalia_femina/26533178252/

Cute gingham dress

https://www.flickr.com/photos/53516713%40N06/26672472876/

IMAG0112_1

https://www.flickr.com/photos/135809499%40N02/26055957291/

Leggy new dress

https://www.flickr.com/photos/nicolerosecd/26168559304/

[andyg0404]

Hello everybody and welcome back to My Weekly Flickr.

I’m not terribly happy with technology currently.  I sent a video link  to two of my friends and it went out with no problem. One friend’s reply went to my spam filter on the web, never arriving in my inbox on my desktop. I thought that odd but didn’t really dwell on it.  Then I tried to send it to another friend and Verizon immediately rejected it as spam. I tried disabling the link, sending it as text, changing the subject line, sending it with no subject line, nothing I did allowed me to send the link. I finally sent it from my office email. Verizon ostensibly has a mechanism to resolve this situation on their website; if you think they’ve flagged your email incorrectly you can send it to them at a special email address and they will review it. They won’t contact you or acknowledge your email but if they decide it’s not spam, after an hour or so you can try and send it again. I did that and they still considered it spam. Then I wrote another friend one of my normal three page weekly emails and in the middle of it I included a paragraph about Verizon, also including the link. They flagged that email as spam as well. I submitted that to the website and they still judged it spam. To say I’m furious doesn’t do justice to the word furious. First of all, how many spammers send their emails one at a time? And their spam filter is supposed to catch incoming not outgoing. I Googled it and people on the web said that they were trying to send files to clients and Verizon flagged them as spam. Nanny Verizon is no better than Nanny Microsoft. And this is why if anyone asks, I hate technology. If anyone is interested this is the video. It’s a four minute animated video which was reported to have gotten the two creators jobs at Pixar. It’s only four minutes long and I found it heartwarming. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96kI8Mp1uOU

Then one day during the week I had problems with my office email. I work remotely from home now four days a week. Every morning I go into my office computer remotely and the first thing I do is reboot to start fresh. On Tuesday I did this, then opened my Outlook and everything was fine. Except I wasn’t able to access the Company calendar. So I shut the email, went to the task manager and made sure it had completely shut down, then reopened it. Wouldn’t open. Just hung up on loading profile. So I shut it again and went to open it in safe mode. Same thing, wouldn’t open. So I called our outside office IT person. By the time they called me back I had determined that two other employees had the same problem but the third employee didn’t. Very odd. When the senior IT person looked into it the answer was that it was a server problem between GoDaddy, my email provider, and Microsoft, the Darth Vader of the Internet. And there was no ETA as to when it would be fixed. When I asked why one of us wasn’t affected the answer was that as long as the email was open it was fine. It was only if you closed it that you couldn’t reopen it. It finally was corrected late in the day. A day I spent sending numerous client emails through Microsoft 365 webmail which is a very cumbersome, awkward, annoying email engine. I’ve said I’m a Luddite and these are just more reasons for that.

Not a big fan of bureaucracy either. Having turned 65 I am eligible for the Reduced Fare Metro Card which is a good deal as it’s half price on the subway. I don’t use it that often, no more than once a week if that,  but if you’re going to be an old fart you might as well take advantage of age related bonuses, there aren’t that many of them. I sent away for it on April 23rd. I had to have the form notarized and enclose a picture. This could have been avoided by visiting their office but it’s way downtown in Manhattan and has bankers hours so I would have had to wait for my vacation to go. When I didn’t receive it after a month I was concerned my application had been lost in the mail which would have been a pain, what with the notary and photo. So I called them and they said they had received my application and were trimming off the sharp edges and polishing it up and in another several weeks it would be ready to be released into the world. I waited another two weeks and called again and was told it had been printed on May 25th. I pointed out that two weeks had passed since May 25th. I asked when it was mailed and they said they didn’t know. What? The mailing is done in bulk and it can take three weeks. But I got home that day and it was in my mailbox.

When I was in the City last week with my friend we went into the subway and I walked over to what I still think of as the token booth even though they haven’t sold tokens in probably 20 years. I used them right up until they stopped accepting them. I wasn’t thrilled with the Metro Card, I would always see people passing the card through the slot repeatedly and cursing and I thought, that could be me. I presented my regular card and my senior card and asked to have the money transferred from one to the other. The woman immediately said NO. I was taken aback and said, what do you mean? She gave me the classic answer. I asked why and she gave me the classic answer to that as well. I confess to being perplexed, it just seemed so odd not to do it. When the regular card expires you bring it to the booth and they transfer the remaining funds to a new one.
 
So I called the MTA and told them the story. The agent reiterated their position. I asked the reason for the policy and was told they used to do it when the senior cards were first introduced but they don’t do it anymore. End of story. It’s like when you were a kid and you asked your parents a question and when you heard their answer you asked why.  And they said because. Hard to argue with reasoning like that.

Anyway, this morning I walked up to the Metropolitan museum and took in the second rotation of the Japanese art exhibit, The Mary Griggs Burke collection. I wrote a few weeks ago about trying to see it and I had arrived a week early but this time it was completely open and it was very nice indeed. Many beautiful scrolls and screens, a number of very colorful ones as opposed to the austere black ones which are also beautiful but in a different way. The Met has changed their website making viewing all the objects in the exhibit a more tedious process than it has to be. Instead of giving you option of so many on a screen, now you have to click on more at the bottom of the page to bring up a few more images. The really bad part is that if you’ve done that a few times and then click on one of the images, when you click back it starts at the beginning and you have start to clicking more again. More technology to get irritated about. Although it occurs to me you can right click and open it in another tab. Anyway, again, here are a few things I especially liked. Be sure to click on them to enlarge them.

Scenes of the Four Seasons in Kyoto - http://tinyurl.com/hazp6wn This is a wonderful, colorful scroll that basically shows a day at the beach in 18th Century Japan.

Puppies in Snow - http://burkecollection.org/catalogue/396-puppies-in-snow - This is a screen in simple black and white depicting just what the title says, puppies frolicking in the snow. Very spare but very beautiful.

Geese and Reeds - http://tinyurl.com/zygadfq Another very simple scroll in black and white showing three Geese, two looking upward and one hunkering down.

This is a link to all the objects in the exhibit. http://tinyurl.com/gvp8act
 
That’s it for today, on to the Flickrs.

Andy G.

DSC02122       I think I’m in love with Mimo-Momo now, she’s very pretty.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/mimo-momo/5519542905/

Red Sample 3

https://www.flickr.com/photos/vivianchen05/16540341266/

IMG_6545

https://www.flickr.com/photos/100379735%40N06/26646282862/

phase eight

https://www.flickr.com/photos/52912530%40N04/26170964783/

A brief rehearsal, some shots for hose lovers and a beautiful lace dress I bought the other day X

https://www.flickr.com/photos/annajblair/26929563325/

Strumpfhose Minirock High Heels

https://www.flickr.com/photos/127504935%40N04/26773570681/

bwEyes

https://www.flickr.com/photos/deedeeburke/26719444055/

2016-04-15_21.48.40

https://www.flickr.com/photos/136382964%40N05/26454556505/

Untitled

https://www.flickr.com/photos/brinleyanne1/26545631450/

DSC04449

https://www.flickr.com/photos/43853702%40N06/26498619862/

Selfie!

https://www.flickr.com/photos/natalia_femina/26533178252/

[Betty]

Sounds like it's not a problem with technology but the people who manage & implement it causing problems. Then some people & companies hide behind a wall of tech so they don't have to deliver advertised services & deals they offered to attract you to them. They deliberately make it complicated or difficult, or have complex policies so it's almost impossible to take advantage of the "great offers" they used to reel you in. Dot a single "i" wrong, & they say you didn't do it right or don't qualify.

I'm on Verizon DSL. I get a free verizon email account with it too, but I never used it (in decades), & don't know anybody using verizon mail. But they're not the only ones blocking innocent mail, or putting it in their spam folders, while allowing obvious spam right through.

You should see all the angry letters I get when somebody registers to be a member at Betty's but they never got a confirmation or activation mail from us. My servers show it was sent, it shows their mail server received it, but I have no idea what their mail server or they did with it after that. If their mail server sucks, or they don't know how to use their spam settings/filters, it's not my fault.

Probably close to 9 out of 10 times when I tell them to just check their spam folder, they find it.

I never spammed in my life. It's the same membership confirmation form letter that common boards like PHPBB, ProBoards, Vbulletin, & SMF have been using for over a decade. Our domains are listed as very safe, trustworthy, & secure by google, yahoo, amazon, AVAST, AVG, Alexa, Archive.org, microsoft, & most big universities. So I can't understand why any mail server would tag our membership confirmation mail as spam, unless they're run by morons or their software is broke.

I'm surprised how many people don't even know that most e-mail services have a spam folder you can check to see if a mail you were expecting might have been mistaken as spam & placed there. Then you just check it off as "not spam" so it doesn't make the same mistake again.

But still, about once a week I too find an email I was expecting & need in my spam folder.

Verizon don't like people sending large files or stuff with lots of text in it in their mail system. So calling it spam & blocking it is just an excuse to discourage you from sending large emails.

Maybe you can try a free email service like Yahoo mail, hotmail, or gmail, & see if they'll handle that kind of mail. I don't send big files in mail though. I just upload it to my servers or google drive & send them the link to it for them to view or download.

Google drive offers 15gb free cloud storage. Anything you store on it, you can right-click on to get a shareable link to send to anybody you want to share that specific file with (see our movie night). They can view or download it from the shareable link. But you need a free google account, to get google cloud storage, but that's pretty easy to get. You can get 100gb of storage there for only $1.99/mo. if 15gb for free isn't enough. No commitments, cancel anytime.

After getting google drive, it automatically implements a backup system for your files on your computer, android, or phone if you wish. I'll handle my own backups my own way, & don't want google roaming freely in my computer & devices anyway. So after I got & installed google drive. I promptly uninstalled everything google, & google drive from my computer. While logged in at my google drive page on the internet, I can upload any file from my computer to it or download anything from it as easy as you can upload or download pix at Betty's. Upload times are a lot slower than download times though, so uploading huge files like a whole TV show or movie, even highly compressed, will take a while.

Uploads to google drive or youtube for me are averaging around 90-97kbs, that's about a hour to upload 350mb. My DSL upload speed everywhere else is usually around 750kbs, & with dips down to 550kbs.

I can get to my google drive just like visiting a website with my computer, android, or phone. You just click on the thingy in the upper right corner of any google page & the dropdown menu will show "drive". When you get there, bookmark it. You may also set your browser or device to remember your login, so you don't have to type it every time.

When you send a shareable link, they don't need to login or have a google account to access the files that it links to. They just click on it like a web page, like we do for movie night. They only can access the file or folder the shareable link connects to, not your whole google drive, so everything you don't want to share is still private. If you're sending a lot of files, or working remotely or from a home office, a google drive may be just what you need. You can email or text the link to anybody you want. But if you post the link at a site where hundreds may click on it a day, they may cancel your account. It's supposed to be to share files with all your devices or a dozen or so people at a time, it's not a web server.

Like, you can post a link to something on your google drive in our members only area without exceeding it's usage & bandwidth limits, but if you posted it in our main public section, it would get too many clicks, & stop working.

Yep, you can post links to media on your google drive in our private area. But if you already have a google account, you also qualify for a youtube account. You can post your videos or slide shows on youtube for everybody. If it's copyrighted material, they may let it run as long as whoever claims rights to it gets the ad revenue from the ads on that youtube page. Unfortunately that's a scam. Most of the people who claim rights to the material on youtube are not the legal right owners of the material. It's just a scam - - they just claim they own the material or something in it, & get all the ad money.

I post a lot of public domain stuff on my youtube channels, but there's always dozens of people claiming rights to them who don't own any of it. Every day there's a rights dispute going on over a few videos at my channels. I'll pull the video before I'll let them have 1 penny of ad money on material that they really don't own.

[Angela M...]

Hey Betty, I have Hotmail & Yahoo mail and at least once or twice a week I get emails from businesses that regularly send me info and it is dumped in the spam box. I click not spam but it still happens sometimes. I do also get spam a few times a month from ladies who would love to make my day.

[Angela M...]

Love the Japanese art Andy g and I would love to visit Kyoto someday but I am not holding my breath on that one. Thanks again for the pics and your comments on the galleries and art. I look forward to it every week, it helps to brighten my day.