Have you wondered how I got those nice frames around my photos? And, how about the text or “watermark” with our web site lightly on the photos? I use a great free program called FSResizer by FastStone. Visit them at www.FastStone.org for several very handy photo tools. FSResizer is specifically made for Windows. I do not use Window, however. Our family computer runs on Ubuntu Linux and FSResizer works wonderfully under Ubuntu with WINE. WINE is a program that enables certain Windows programs to run under Linux. How Cool!
Besides making frames around the photos, and putting a watermark on them, FSResizer also does them in BATCH mode, that is, a bunch at one time. FSResizer also will resize the photos, rotate them, crop them, change the canvas, color depth, and color adjustments. It will change the number of dots per inch that the photo is made up of. Give FSResizer a try, it is a real slick lightweight program that I couldn’t do without.
There have been some nice comments left about Carol’s Mom’s 80th birthday party. You can read them HERE, along with lots of nice pictures and a ten minute video.
What a fantastic bunch of pictures you have done.
Thank you very much for puting them on Internet, we really enjoy watching you all. Hugs
Birgitta-Lars (Sweden)
You all did a great job honoring a great lady!!!!!!
Douglas C. Houtz
WOW! What a special time.
We all have benefited from the legacy we were given by our parents and grandparents, when I pause to ponder ( I’m told I do it frequently ) I’m truly humbled. It was so wonderful to see you all, and share this memory. Debby has been continually amazed at the family. I told her early on in our relationship that ‘this is as much fun as you can have without needing liquor license’, (joke).
EyeLuvEwe-all,
Steve Nordberg
Dear Auntie Myrtle: It was so fun to visit your birthday party in pictures! I’m so sorry we missed it, but it looks like you had a wonderful time. Our best wishes.
Phil & Ruth
HERE is the first round of pictures from Myrtle’s 80th Birthday Party. There are quite a lot of pictures here. To view a slide show of the pictures click HERE. If you would like to see an overview of all of them, click HERE. We would love to have you leave comments.
We attended the McDougall Family Reunion last week-end, June 27 – 29. We saw many relatives that we haven’t seen in a long time and many who we did not know. It was a real fun time for the family. The reunion was in Bonner and Missoula, Montana. Bonner is just a few miles east of Missoula.
Friday evening, we had a nice get together at St. Ann Church in Bonner. We enjoyed a great home made spaghetti dinner and good fellowship. Saturday afternoon, we had a nice picnic at Greenough Park in Missoula; and on Sunday, we gathered once again at St. Ann Church in Bonner for a great breakfast buffet.
During the weekend, our children enjoyed a nice swim at the KOA campground where one of my brothers, and one of my sisters and their families were staying. We went to church at SHEC, “South Hills Evangelical Church”. What a wonderful service that was; God certainly showed up there. At our Saturday picnic, we took a nice hike around Greenough Park. It is a very beautiful place.
We took lots of pictures and you can see some of them HERE and let others know that they can see them here. Click “Comments” at the bottom of this post and leave a message. We would love to hear from you. John
This morning as I was coming home from Helena, an MPCAC parade of classic cars were leaving Clancy, heading south on the frontage road. I, being on the interstate, easily passed them and arrived at home in Jefferson City before they made it that far. I went running into the house telling everyone to climb into our Dodge. Most of the kids were still in their PJ’s, as we headed down the hill to the intersection of the frontage road and I-15. We made it just in time to see the cars turning in front of us to head south on I-15. I shot a little video of the parade. Enjoy!
Putting picture albums on our web site is kind of a long task. I am trying to make it easier and am testing out two online photo galleries. They are Picasa Web and Flickr. I am testing these out with some pictures that I have taken while I travel around the state for my job. I would be interested to hear from you, what you like the most. Click the pictures below to try them out and please click the comment button at the bottom of this post to leave me a message. John
Click the picture above to see Photo Album using Flickr.
Click the picture above to see Photo Album using Picasa Web.
As many of you may know, I work for the Montana Department of Transportation. A video has been produced by MDT called “Room to Live” that describes the importance of seat belts. This is a very impactful video and I encourage you to watch it. In your car, there is “Room to Live“… if you have your seatbelt on.
Have you ever wished you had all of your favorite computer applications handy when you were on someone elses computer? How about your e-mail, or passwords to different web sites? How about your word processor and documents? PortableApps.com comes to the rescue. Portable applications are specially designed versions of your favorite applications that run completely on a USB thumb drive. They don’t have to be installed on your computer and when you are done, there is no trace of them left on the computer you are using. They all reside and run from your USB thumbdrive.
This is a snapshot of my portable apps menu. Many of these applications, I use all the time, so I don’t have to learn new programs just to be portable. Here is my list:
Firefox Portable – If you are still using Internet Explorer, you don’t know what you are missing.
FSResizer – This is a picture resizer, that I use all the time to change the size of my web photos
KeePass Portable – Do you have problems remembering all of your different password for different web sites or applications? This is a handy organizer that keeps them all nice and safe.
KompoZer Portable – This is a WYSIWYG application for creating stand alone web pages.
OpenOffice.org Portable – This is an office application suite similar to Microsoft’s Office, but completely FREE.
Sunbird Portable – Is a calendar and organizer similar to Microsoft’s Outlook. It is much more complete than Outlook Express.
Thunderbird Portable – is an E-mail client that I have setup with all of our E-mail accounts and I can check my E-mail very easy where ever I go. I still prefer to use an E-mail program like this, than to go onto the Internet to check my E-mail.
Gimp Portable – I just added this one and is not shown on the picture of my Portable Apps menu. Gimp is a photo program similar to Photo Shop. I use it all the time on pictures we take with our digital camera.
Take the plunge and pick up an inexpensive USB thumb drive and carry your favorite applications with you. There are many many other applications that can be added to the list. Check them all out at PortableApps.com. It’s fun! John
It has been raining for two solid days now. The moisture is actually a blessing even if it interrupted our plans for this weekend. The rain is really bringing out the green in the area around us. Here is a picture of the beautiful Elkhorn Mountains taken from our front deck. Click on the picture to see a larger view. What a nice morning!
Our colorful weather map from yesterday got even more colorful. It has been raining or snowing all day long; and we have canceled our camping trip. We were to be camped right next to a river that may be out of it’s banks while I am writing this. We decided that if the kids can get all of their chores done, we will relax around here and do whatever we want and have a good Memorial Day weekend in spite of the weather.
We live in a nice migratory path, and get some very beautiful birds coming through in the spring. Today, we had a bunch of Lazuli Buntings come through. HERE are some very blury pictures of some of them. I took the pictures through the window with the lens zoomed in as far as it would go. There was no way I was going to go out in the rain to take the pictures. That is for the birds!
Have you wondered how I got those nice frames around my photos? And, how about the text or “watermark” with our web site lightly on the photos? I use a great free program called FSResizer by FastStone. Visit them at www.FastStone.org for several very handy photo tools. FSResizer is specifically made for Windows. I do not use Window, however. Our family computer runs on Ubuntu Linux and FSResizer works wonderfully under Ubuntu with WINE. WINE is a program that enables certain Windows programs to run under Linux. How Cool!
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