Mormon Wedding Jackets

If you're LDS you know exactly what I'm talking about.  These have got to be the ugliest thing on Earth.  Do I blame the brides who wear them or the wedding dress industry?  I'll spread the blame around and call them both to account.  When I got married in the mid 1980's dress manufacturers still made bridal gowns with sleeves and even high necklines.  A Mormon bride could find a dress she liked without too much trouble.  Skip ahead to now; what 99% of wedding dresses are strapless.  LDS brides have turned to the dreaded ugly jacket. This looks almost like the long rectangles they sell with prom dresses to keep them modest.  Both ruin the look of the dress.  In researching this post I found a blog, http://ldsbrideblog.com/adding-sleeves-jackets-vs-build-ups/ that talks about how to make a strapless gown modest.  I also got the pictures from there. One suggestion was to make the jacket out of lace.  I'm glad that was mentioned because just last week my daughter, Holiday, and I were saying lace would be an improvement. We also came up with the idea of some sort of lace blouse to go under the dress.  If the bride can't have a dress made a lace jacket is a much better alternative to the solid fabric jacket. I like the jacket with the cascades, don't get me wrong, but not on top of a wedding dress; come on people.  Make it fuzzy and throw it on to keep yourself warm in early fall. 

Another suggestion was to make what the blog calls "build ups".  Basically this means taking a strapless dress and remaking the bodice while incorporating parts of the original dress and adding sleeves.  My question is why didn't you get someone to make the whole dress the way your wanted it in the first place?   It's got to be cheaper to do it my way. 

LDS brides should make a stink about the lack of modest wedding gowns.  Maybe more manufacturers will go back to making a selection of dresses with sleeves and modest necklines.  I'm tired of seeing these ugly jackets over beautiful wedding gowns.  I'm not the only one.  I looked through my Facebook friends' photos and I found only one with a jacket over dress number.  Surprisingly hers was plain and looked nice.  Most of my friends must have made their dresses or had them made. 

My Last Camera, or Maybe Not

I look through the viewfinder and what do I see,

Something that's there, or may not be.

I click the shutter and the picture comes up,

Do I say nope or smile cause it's yep?

This hit and miss exercise had gone on long enough.  thank goodness I'm not shooting film.  At least I can delete the sub-par images and be none the less for wear.  The Viewfinder on my Canon Digital Rebel XTi is fine for outdoor shooting.  I found myself having to shoot wide and crop indoors, leading to more computer time.  My video camera has no viewfinder.  It just has a live view screen.  I have trouble shooting outside because I can't see the screen very well in bright sunlight. 

Technology is still helping me keep up my hobby/business.  I decided I needed a DSLR with video and live view.  I didn't have much research to do.  The new camera had to be a Canon.  I have a lot of money invested in Canon lenses.  It couldn't be a full frame because again I already have all these lenses.  So my choices were narrowed to the Canon Rebel T3, T3i, and T5i.  The T3 was out because it's not much of an upgrade from my XTi.  The other two are similar but I choose the T5i comes with a lense that focuses quietly.  No strange noise when shooting video. 

Now I have spare cameras and not at a disadvantage where ever I am.  Andrea is going to be my apprentice so all cameras will be put to use.  I'll use my new camera as a crutch when I need it and my old tried and trues when I don't. 

Driving Rules for Youngsters

"They're stupid in Georgia,"  Beazle is fond of saying.  She has had many chances to say it lately when I tell her about Georgia's driving rules for teens.  Thou many state are tightening their rules for teens driving, Georgia is the one we have to deal with. 

When Merritt and Holiday got their licenses in Arkansas they could take the road test whenever they thought they were ready.  If they passed they got their regular, unrestricted license.  Not so for Andrea in Georgia.  She has to keep her permit for a year and a day no matter how competent she becomes during that time.  Because she is under eighteen there is a lot of Joshua's Law rigamarole she has to go through:  thirty hours of classroom instruction, six hours of behind the wheel instruction from a driving school, fourth hours of driving with at least six hours being at night.  OR the teen can take the class online, print out this umpteen page driving lesson book, go through them and have a parent witness that they were done, plus the forty hours of driving with at least six hours at night.  Needless to say we're doing the latter.

We're enjoying a measure of freedom with Andrea driving.  We have some neighbors who ride with us while she drives.  She still have to work around other people's schedule but it's better than being strictly on MARTA. 

When the weed eater broke it was nice to be able to take it into Sears instead of finding someone to come to the house to fix it.  Andrea put the address of the service center in her phone's GPS and off she went.  Our neighbor thought we were taking it to the Sears in the nearby mall but we went all the way to Chamblee to the service center.  She got on the freeway, drove, exited, made a wrong turn, turned around, found Sears service center, parked away from other cars, and was proud of herself. 

Going back the way she came wasn't in her wheel house.  Our neighbor told her she was heading back toward Chamblee.  Andrea pulled off the freeway and parked at a gas station.  she put our address into her GPS and off we went.  I told her to program HOME in the GPS so she won't have to put it in every time. 

I decided to persue Andrea getting her license early because I'm visually impaired.  I figured Services for the Blind may be able to point me in the right direction.  My counselor and I did a three way call with the DMV.  Here is where more of Georgia's stupid rules come in.  At fourteen Andrea could have gotten her permit early.  Then she could have driven around with just me in the car because I'm visually impaired.  I asked the lady from the DMV is Andrea can drive with just me in the car now that she is sixteen and has her permit.  The lady said no, because the law is for fourteen-year-olds to get their permits early if a parent is visually impaired.  Since Andrea was sixteen when she got her permit she has to have a licensed driver ride in the front seat with her.  I couldn't wrap my brain around this at all.  I called her back the next day so she could explain it to me again.  I just knew she didn't understand the question or I didn't understand the answer.  We went over it all over again and the way I explained it here is how she explained it both times I spoke with her.  She didn't even sound like this was strange while explaining it.  It's obvious nobody proof read this when they wrote or passed it.  If you have a visually impaired parent why is there a cut off when you can drive the car without a licensed driver?  Either a licensed driver is needed or not; but why not if you start at fourteen put so if you wait until sixteen?  Shake my head.    

If it Ain't Broke......

When will they learn?  Do they need to keep tweeking their sites to keep their jobs?  Get a good site and they change it.  Never fails.

Most of you know how FaceBook just can't leave their site alone.  I check my page daily but I'm not a power user.  The only difference I noticed on the last change was notifications was moved from the left side of the page to the right side and the little icons looked a little different. 

Pond5 spent months developing it's new version.  I tried the new version but preferred the old except for one feature.  Luckily they kept both versions runing so we can switch back and forth. 

Yesterday Smugmug announced the unveiling of its new site.  I must have been under a rock; I didn't even know a change was in the works.  The new site was touted to be fully customizable and the customization much easier than the old version.  I was excited to get started but couldn't last night.  Smugmug had to first import my images and settings into the new site and that took half of forever.  I went to bed with it still transferring.

Today I found the new site just as difficult to customize as the old site had been. On top of that they renamed the photo organization.  The old version had Categories with Galleries in each category.  The new version calls Categories, folders.  It put all my pictures in folders and left the gallery section empty.  Why do they have both?  One of the other unless I'm missing something.

People on FaceBook talking about the troubles they're having with the new Smugmug.  Once we get used to it there will be no real difference between the old version and the new. 

People wish for new features.  We want better functionality.  We want to keep up with technology.  Most of all we want it to work properly without a lot of effort or learning curve.  I believe developers can integrate our wants and needs into their tried and true platform.  Why revamp everything so you'll have bugs to fix. 

No Contract

Andrea and I have had our ups and down when it comes to cell phones.  She doesn't like the phone I provide, she has it on silent, the screen cracks, she gets it stolen, always something.  Just over a year ago I threw up my hands in frustration and said forget it, I'm done, you'll get a phone when you buy one yourself.  Between Andrea not answering the phone I'd paid for and Sprint not standing behind a phone that was still under warranty I was Threw.  I had no contract so I took over hers and made her go without a phone. 

I get free of her Sprint contract on July 17th.  A few days later Andrea pops up talking about wanting a phone.  She tells me how I can add a line for $9.99 or something.  I tell her I don't want another contract.  I check prices of phones that will work with Spring and found them too expensive. 

Andrea calls Sprint to see if she can get a phone on her own account.  She can't.  They tell her if I get the phone for her she'll be able to transfer it to her own name after she turns eighteen.  Andrea even shows me a phone they said she could get for free.  I say no because I don't want a contract, you'll have to qualify and possible pay a deposit when you do turn eighteen to get the account in your name.  She's dissapointed but that's life.

I called A. T. & T. to see what they had.  It was even worse; even if you buy the phone you've got to sign a contract.  They've got to be kidding.  

We were at the mall yesterday and I noticed a Best Buy Mobile store.  I suggested we go in.  I was up front about what I wanted.  It must work on Sprint.  It must have no contract.  It must be cheap.   The lady said phones like that start at $200 and go up to $800.  How about a prepaid phone?  Andrea was reluctant to look at them because she thinks the ones at WalMart are made of cheap plastic.  We took a look at them since we were already there.  Andrea found a phone she liked and can afford.  She got an LG Optimus Elite for $69.  It's a smart phone that runs on the Android system.  She got the $35 a month service plan.  It has unlimited date and messaging on a 3 or 4 z network through Virgin Moble.  Because she talks very little she got the 300 minute plan. 

I'm happy because I still don't have a contract.  Andrea is happy because she has a phone she likes and to look at it you can't tell the difference between it and a several hundred dollar phone.  She can text and surf to her hearts content.  She has a bill now to learn responsibility. 

I surprised myself by suggesting she get the Best Buy warranty.  Usually I don't buy these things but she's hard on phones and the screen on her Sprint phone cracked before a year was over.  So I had her spring for the $11.99 a year Warranty.  I had to call Best Buy today to clarify.  Virgin Mobile's computer said she had two weeks to get insurance on her phone.  I speak to their customer service wondering what's going on.  The rep said the phone didn't have insurance and insurance is $5.99 a month.  I double check the receipt and call Best Buy.  Best Buy said we have insurance through Best Buy, not Virgin Mobile.