Snapshot Sunday #13

 

UPDATE:  Literally the last thing I did before I went to bed last night was hit publish on this post.  I didn’t wait for it because my wifi hasn’t been all that cooperative lately and it was really late already.  This morning, I woke up to an error message.  Oops.  So, today we’ve got a Mistakenly Monday edition of Snapshot Sunday!

Welcome to another edition of Snapshot Sunday, where I’m sharing my pictures for the photo a day challenge hosted by Chantelle at Fat Mum Slim.  We’ve started a new month, so this week’s entries are the final few days of October and the first couple of November.  I’m not sure how long Chantelle plans to run her game, but my plan is to finish up at the end of the year.  It’s been fun, but I think I might like to try something different for a while, though I’d like to find something else photography related.  We’ll see.

  Prompt:  Looking Back.  I don’t have a ton of Billy’s baby pictures hanging around my house, but I still have this collage frame up because I love it!

 

  Prompt:  Moon.  On a hazy night, the glow of the moon through the branches of one of my trees.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  Prompt:  Clothes.  I prefer warm weather to cold, but I prefer cold-weather clothes.  I like long sleeves because I so often get chilly when I’m inside, and, also, winter clothes are soft and fuzzy!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  Prompt:  Whatever You Please.  My cats are often the subject of my snapshots.  This is Mel, enjoying the sunshine and a roll around in the dirt and leaves.

 

 

 

 

 

  Prompt:  Something Beginning with C.  This is the cooktop I hope to make mine in the next couple of weeks. (Before Thanksgiving is my hope.) Or maybe a different model, I haven’t quite decided yet, but something similar.  And then it will be a double C: Cheri’s Cooktop.

 

 

 

 

  Prompt:  Color.  I always want to go up to the northeast somewhere to see the fall leaves because we don’t really get anything too drastic here.  Some of the maple trees around here do turn a gorgeous shade of red, but for the most part it’s pretty much what you see here—a bit of gold and some rusty red that mostly end up looking like various shades of brown.

 

 

 

 

  Prompt:  Breakfast.  Even though breakfast food is my favorite, I rarely actually have the meal because I’m not overly fond of eating when I first get up.  But on Saturdays, I have to have something on my way to school, or I’ll never get through the lectures.  This week, McDonald’s helped me out.

And now, just a few shots from Saturday’s ΦΘΚ induction ceremony . . .

 

During the ceremony.

 

 

 

 

 

  Proud new members.

 

 

 

This semester’s officers, most of whom are also new members.

 

 

 

And, finally, our silly group photo that we took to enter a Facebook contest and try to win some money for our chapter.  If you are so inclined, I’d appreciate any votes you feel like giving us (you can vote daily until the 15th), or if you’d be willing to share the link with others so that they may vote as well. You can vote here.  Thanks!

And that’s it for this week’s picture round up.  What kind of memories did you make this week?

Snapshot Sunday #12, with a Side of Sports

 

  Before we get to this week’s pictures, let me tell you what’s on my TV mind today:  sports.  I suppose it’s not all that surprising, at the end of the weekend.  After all, weekends are practically synonymous with television sports, right? 

  I live in a college town with a pretty good football team, so fall Saturdays around here are all about NCAA.  We lost yesterday, which was a bummer, but we—and thousands of others—watched it all unfold in horrendous living color from the comfort of our living rooms.

Late in the game, the local channel put a crawler across the screen that one of the most popular players on our local NBA team had been traded, so that’s been quite the topic for the past twenty-four hours or so.

Today, of course, it was the NFL all afternoon (including a game from Wembley Stadium, no less), and then tonight saw San Francisco complete the sweep of Detroit to become World Series Champions.

It’s been a busy couple of sports days.  Like most weekends.  But watching the baseball post-game hoopla, I was amazed—as I always am—by the Giants pulling on their Championship tees and hats.  What I can never figure out is what happens when a series goes best of seven and both sides print up the winning apparel and one of them is left with a bunch of worthless material?  What do they do with all those clothes?  That is a lot of money to waste, and I figure there’s probably some sort of league rules about having them out floating around with the wrong winner on them, so I always think they probably can’t even donate them to homeless shelters or anything.  I like to envision some poor guy in a basement at the stadium, waiting until the last out to start running the screen press machine, churning out just enough for the winning team, but I can’t quite convince myself that’s the way it really works.

At any rate, that train of thought invariably leads me to wondering about the basic state of money in sports.  Of course, I think we’ll all agree that unless you happen to be a Buffet or Gates, the numbers are simply staggering.  So today I wondered just about TV money, and I thought I’d do a quick Google search.  I was not much less staggered by that amount.

It turns out that MLB is making about a billion dollars a year on television contracts.  A billion.  With a B.  And they aren’t alone in raking in big bucks.  The NBA is somehow managing to squeak by with $930 million a year, and even our local collegiate conference (schools/conferences negotiate their own television contracts because the NCAA was barred from making all broadcast decisions years ago) is reportedly making $200M annually between football and basketball airtime. 

But, as you might imagine, the NFL is the king of the heap when it comes to collecting the dough.  They’re currently making $1.9 billion dollars a year, with that figure set to increase after next season to $3.1 billion. 

Am I the only person astounded by these numbers?  And this is just broadcast revenue we’re talking about, not ticket sales, or concessions, or any sort of merchandising.  Strictly TV money.  And that’s strictly the “big” sports.  I haven’t even checked on things like golf, auto racing, tennis, or the occasional billiards tournament and what-have-you.  The networks are shelling out just insane amounts of money for these games.

So who pays for it all?  Well, advertisers pick up a big chunk of it, of course, but a lot of it is also coming from me and you.  I saw one report that said the average television subscriber (cable/satellite) is paying $4.69 per month to have ESPN included in their lineup.  And that’s just the start of the sports channel costs.  They estimate that sports programming is responsible for roughly 50% of the average television bill each month, even though it’s only about 20% of the viewing time.  That seems a little out of whack to me.

As I said, there is a lot of sports watching that goes on in this household, so I can’t say that we’re not getting some return on the money we’re being charged, I’m just saying maybe we ought to slow things down a little and consider whether these dollar amounts seem reasonable.  I mean, after all, these are just games we’re talking about here.  Maybe we just need a little perspective, and could start dialing back the sports budget just a little bit.  And maybe start by putting that guy in the basement to work, and making sure there isn’t any money wasted on championship tee shirts that never see the light of day.

But, enough of that.  Let’s move on to this week’s photos, shall we?  After all, it is Snapshot Sunday.  As always, prompts are provided by Chantelle, entertaining us from over at Fat Mum Slim. 

  Prompt:  Calm.  A peaceful moment on my neighborhood walk.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  Prompt:  In Your Town.  Truthfully, I have no idea what this is.  It’s been sitting in the front yard of a house here in town for my whole life.  I believe it’s a spaceship of some sort.  How or why?  Who knows?  My dad told me the owner was once an engineering student or something over at the university, and it was built as a school project.  But he didn’t know the guy; it seemed like just pretty much town lore.  And it seems perfectly reasonable, too, but I prefer to imagine some sort of ET-type of encounter and the owner kept this as a memento. 

 

  Prompt: The View From Here.  Here is sitting at the top of my road, waiting on traffic so that I may get on the highway.  No one likes waiting on traffic, but the clouds were pretty.

 

 

 

 

  Prompt:  Weather.  It was dreary and overcast most all day.  The clouds finally broke up just in time for sunset, and we never did get any rain.  Fine by me.

 

 

 

 

  Prompt:  People.  It turns out there really aren’t very many people in the library after 8:00, which was when I remembered I hadn’t yet taken my picture for the day.  But at least there were a couple.  When my study group and I arrived, I think we at least doubled the population.

 

 

 

 

 

 

  Prompt:  Listening To.  Come On Eileen, one of the best one hit wonder songs ever.  I’m not sure how I managed to download it from an exercise album, but it seems appropriate, because that’s when I listen to it most.  It’ll really help get you moving.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  Prompt:  Morning.  Saturday morning at the campus, and not a lot going on.  Turns out there aren’t too many people goofy enough to sign up for an 8AM weekend class!

And that wraps up the photos for today.  Tomorrow begins a brand new week, and I think it might be a little more settled.  I’ve fallen completely behind on the fun things lately, like blog reading, exercising (well, maybe not entirely fun), more picture taking.  Going to work on carving out time for that stuff again, starting Monday.  Oh, and I have a phone interview tomorrow, too.  Some sort of contact center for a logistics company, so we’ll see how that goes.  Here’s wishing you all a pleasant new week, too.

Snapshot Sunday #11

 

  A joint post today, with just a few words about television, and then the weekly wrap up of daily pictures.  In terms of TV, as we move later into October, it becomes time for networks to start examining their lineups and giving new shows the go-ahead or quickly pulling the plug on things that just haven’t worked out.

So far, two new shows have already gotten the axe—neither particularly surprising.  The first to go, lasting only two episodes, was Made in Jersey.  It was on my own watch list, so I saw both of the episodes.  I’d say it was . . . okay.  Certainly nothing to write home about, but not the worst I’ve ever seen, either.  But you gotta figure that a Friday night program needs to be a little bit stronger than “okay”. 

Then, a few days ago, NBC announced it was cancelling Animal Practice.  I’ll admit that I have not seen even one of the four or five episodes that have been aired, but the ads alone left me convinced this program would not only not entertain me, but would also not be long for the world.  I’m pretty sure I haven’t missed anything. 

There are a couple of others that I’m watching that I worry may also be facing the chopping block soon.  Partners is fairly amusing, but it’s a little bit over-the-top and often comes across as over-acted and frantic.  On the other hand, Last Resort is well-acted, and has an interesting story line, but I fear it’s already becoming difficult to sustain the necessary balance of intrigue and reality to keep a show like this going.  There are only so many times a a nuclear submarine and crew can realistically be threatened, a crew can question/disobey commanding officers and still be welcomed back into the fold, or the heroic and/or mutinous captain can save the day with an impassioned speech.  Combine a difficult-to-sustain story line with some low ratings, and I’d say the sub’s days may be numbered.  That’s sort of sad to me; I’d at least like to give it a chance to dig a really deep hole, but it might not work out that way.

And, lastly, while it’s not precisely a cancellation, it’s been announced that Private Practice will leave the air after thirteen episodes this season.  Star Kate Walsh was ready to move on, and the decision has been made not to continue without her.  I never watched the show with any regularity, but when I did, I found it to be decent, with some interesting characters.  I’m sure there are many fans who will be upset by the decision. 

So that’s all I know about fall cancellations at this point; let’s move on to Snapshot Sunday, shall we?

As always, the photos are inspired by prompts from Chantelle and her Photo a Day challenge over at Fat Mum Slim.

 Prompt: Makes You Laugh.  This picture makes me laugh. I was playing with the new panorama feature on my phone, and didn’t follow instructions and hold it steady. And, Brian walked through the photo, turning him into some sort of half-invisible man.  All in all, funny results.

 

  Prompt:  Dinnertime.  When the timer pops up, it’s time to eat!

 

 

 

 

 

 

  Prompt:  Something You Wrote.  My most recent blog post.  Well, you know, most recent then.

 

 

  Prompt:  Fruit.  Some melons at the grocery store.  I really wanted to buy some, but it’s so late in the year, I was afraid they’d be nasty.

 

  Prompt:  Made You Smile Today.  My silly cats often drink from the birdbath, though I’d think their own water bowl would be much more convenient for them.  But they don’t usually do it by standing completely on top of it.  Mel must’ve been feeling adventurous today.  Also, as an aside, I’m pretty sure this is part of why I don’t get so many birds anymore.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  Prompt:  Letters.  My least favorite pic of the week; this is in a dark hallway, and I don’t seem to have the skills necessary to light it properly.

 

 

  Prompt:  4 O’Clock.  Okay, clearly this isn’t really a photograph.  But, each time that 4:00 rolled around on Saturday, I was sound asleep, so I cheated a little!

And that’s it for this week.  Chantelle has just posted the prompt list for November (I haven’t even looked at it yet, but I saw that it was there), so if you want to join in next month, go get the list and start getting ready.

Until next time, happy picturing.  Oh, and happy TV watching, too!

Snapshot Sunday #10

 

Before we get to this week’s daily photos, I have some wonderful news.  When I went outside this morning to feed the cats, my presumed-dead mama cat, Sable, was there waiting for me!  I couldn’t believe it!  I was so glad to see her!  Billy was the one who found and buried the poor kitty the other day, and believed it was Sable, so I texted him right away to let him know.  He didn’t believe me.  Even when he got home from work, when I asked if he’d seen her, he said, “No.  I buried Sable the other day.”  I had to go out and find her, and wake her from her afternoon nap, before he would believe she was home.  Of course, it’s still sad that some cat was killed by a passing car, but I am immensely grateful that it wasn’t my cat.  I’ve never been so glad that the boys in my life have such difficulty telling one cat from another.  I will be getting to previous comments soon, but I want to thank everyone who offered such kind thoughts.

And now, for this week’s Snapshot Sunday, with prompts, as always, provided by Chantelle, over at Fat Mum Slim. 

 

  Prompt:  Light.  A few of the many lights in my living room.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  Prompt:  Angle.  This tree trunk is one of my favorite subjects in my neighborhood.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  Prompt:  Red.  Sometimes I cheat a little, and this is one of those times.  I didn’t take this pic on the actual day, but I did take it with this prompt in mind, so I think that should count for something.

 

 

 

 

 

 

  Prompt:  Emotion.  In this case, exhaustion and just a touch of frustration.  Why, oh why did I leave two full chapters of reading and assignments until the last week of class?

 

 

  Prompt:  Something Close Up.  Some of the last bit of color remaining in the year.

 

  Prompt:  On the Table.  One of the least used tables in our home.

 

 

 

 

 

  Prompt:  Landscape.  A vista not too far from our house.

And I think that’s it for this week.  No extra photos, because not much has been going on.  Maybe next week; it’s fall break, so I’ve only got class one day.  Maybe something exciting will be going on then.

Wishing you all a happy and healthy week ahead, with lots of photo opportunities.

Snapshot Sunday #9

 

I’m running a little behind this week, which means today’s Snapshot Sunday is really more like a Montage Monday, but pretend with me, won’t you?  Anyway, this week’s photo challenge pictures will wrap up the September challenge, and get us started into October, so let’s see what’s in store.

 

  Prompt:  Frame.  I mentioned once before that one of the few things I actually stockpile around my house is picture frames.  This is a few of the ones just waiting for a picture.  (This is the missing pic from last week.)

 

 

 

 

 

  Prompt:  You, Then.  The final September entry.  I’m not sure, but I’d guess this is maybe 8th grade.  That is a stylish collar, right?

 

 

 

 

 

 

  Prompt:  Where You Stood.  To be truthful, I’m not sure what body of water this is, but it’s in Branson, MO.  I think Table Rock Lake, but I just wanted to go see the water, so I didn’t pay that much attention to the signage of where we actually ended up.  We were right next to the dam, so I suppose we could’ve been on the river side of things (especially given that there’s a river boat out in the distance of this picture!), but I sort of think it was the lake.

 

  Prompt:  Lunchtime.  There is no meal that’s wrong for cereal, as far as I’m concerned, and if it’s Frosted Flakes, better yet.

 

 

 

 

 

 

  Prompt:  This Happened Today.  I made dinner!  What with Granny being sick and then me being out of town, I’m pretty sure it had been two full weeks since I’d cooked.  And, truthfully, I think we might’ve had pork chops back then, too, but it was long enough ago nobody could remember.  Brian was just glad to have some home cooking!

 

 

 

 

  Prompt:  What You Read.  The bylaws of the Rose State College chapter of Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society.  I joined up for a little social and networking interaction at school.  They needed officers, so I am now the PR/Media go-to person.

 

 

 

 

 

  Prompt:  Shadow.  I usually turn on lights in every room I enter as I’m walking through the house, including the hallway.  Now you can see why: pretty creepy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

  Prompt:  I’m Thankful For . . .  Brian.  For a lot of reasons, but today marked the second weekend he’d been over at Granny’s house taking care of some chores, even though I couldn’t be there.  Today it was mowing the lawn; last week it was repairing some plumbing.  I’m grateful he is both able and willing to do those things for her.

 

 

 

There wasn’t much going on this past week, mostly just getting back into the swing of things after last weekends getaway.  I don’t think I took a single picture except for the daily photo prompts.  But I do have a few pics from my weekend in Branson.

                                    
The first stop (after our hotel) was the Sight and Sound Theatre, where we were seeing a production of Joseph.  When Kim found the show, she originally thought it was actually Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, which is why she wanted this to be my birthday present, since we’re both fans, after seeing a college production way back in the day.  We realized a day or two before we left that it was really a completely original telling of the story, but who’s going to complain about an evening of musical theater anyway?  We both agreed that the composer and lyricist of this show are no Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice, but there were live animals which was neat.  Except for the rat; Kim wasn’t too thrilled with the idea of a rat being even a little bit loose in the same room as she was.

We stopped at a scenic overlook and I snapped a few pictures of the countryside. Our hotel and the Joseph theater are both in this photo, way off in the distance. 

 

  One day we saw a few of these things flying through the air.  I don’t know what they’re called, and I’d never want to ride one, but it was kind of cool.

In the totally random department, we saw this giant bust of President Kennedy next to a gas station.  Later, we saw one of President Reagan, too, next to a gift shop, if I recall.  When I got home, I tried to find out what the significance is, but I didn’t find an answer.  Although there is also apparently a Roosevelt somewhere that we didn’t run across.

And, one of my favorite stops, we visited the Butterfly Palace, and saw lots of gorgeous butterflies. 

                             

       

   When she was getting dressed that morning, Kim laughingly said the butterflies would like that she was all bright and colorful like a flower; little did she know how right she’d be.  Those white ones really liked her shirt.  As you may can tell from the expression, however, she was not as thrilled with them as they were with her.

 

 

Even as long as Kim and I have been friends, I bet there are fewer than a dozen photos of us together, mainly because neither of us are all that thrilled with having our pictures taken.  I told her I one of my goals for the weekend was to remedy that situation.  Sadly, except for maybe a goofy phone pic or two, this is the only one we got.  But it’s a start.

 

  Oh, I almost forgot about this one, though I don’t think it counts.  At the butterfly place, there was a mirror maze, which took us longer to get out of than you’d think it would.  It amused me, Kim not so much.  But I did snap a pic of us in the murky darkness.

We went to a shopping center that was on a river—White River, I think.  You know I had to take at least a couple of pics there, too, including this one.

We had a really fun time in Branson, and I’m already ready for another girls getaway!

Wishing you all a happy and healthy week ahead.