Tag: Forever

ART, DFW Metroplex, Museums, Photo Organization, Photo Organization Coach, Photography, Restaurants & Bars, Scrapbooking, Shopping

The Weekend Report

Jane Sadek

TRAVEL HERE: FAVORITE PEOPLE, PLACES & THINGS

Friday Favorites

On Friday night I met some of my favorite people at a place which is destined to become one of my favorites, Rosini Vineyards. Friday night usually finds me safely tucked away at home, but this week I was invited to join a group of girls from my real estate world at Rosini’s, a couple of our favorite agents and some folks from the lending and title world. Names and stories will be forever a secret, but I can tell you about Rosini’s.

I have no idea why I haven’t been there before. I have been invited to several occasions hosted there, but I’ve always had more demanding things on my schedule. I added it to my list of things I wanted to do, but hadn’t gotten there, yet. Now I want to go every Friday. The thing is, the space is small and you need to make reservations and making reservations is one of my challenges. Hubby likes spontaneity and doing things by the seat of our pants. In his defense, when we do make plans ahead, something usually comes up and we’re scrambling to get to whatever plans we made.

Do plan on making a visit, however. Get out your phone and make a reservation, because it is so worth it. The ambiance is great, the food is good and so is the wine. They had a musician entertaining and he was smart enough to play in the background so there was good (and hysterical) conversation around the table.

I ordered a Charcuterie Board for us and it was both lovely and tasty. Most of my friends were sharing bottles, but I wanted to taste more than one wine. They don’t show it on the menu, but they also offer tastings. I’d hoped to be served a flight, but instead you have to keep going back to the bar to get the next taste. I didn’t buy up cases of anything to take home, but most of the selections I tried were quite nice.

Favorite Things on Saturday

I woke up early on Saturday (big surprise, right) and hit the scrapbooking studio (another big surprise). I’m doing my travel album for 2022 and the best news there is that there was travel. Covid kept us close to home. We weren’t afraid of the disease. We just didn’t want the hassle or the travel photos with of masks. I’d finished up New York and set out on our Club Med Sandpiper Bay trip and before the weekend was over, I had worked my way to St. Louis for Joyce Meyer.

But that was just the tip of my Memory Keeping iceberg. FOREVER was having their Family History Online Event. I wanted to watch it live, because if I didn’t, where else was I going to find three hours in my schedule. Some friends and customers were planning to come join me, but a variety of things got in the way. Still I hooked my laptop up to the TV and settled down for a wave of ideas.

There was a lot of good information there, but most of it really wasn’t applicable to my own memory keeping journey. I’m not a genealogy enthusiast, I no longer have an older generation to video and I haven’t quite embraced video as my own media. I get it. FOREVER’S Family Research Services are amazing and video freaks need their own streaming service. I’m not those people. At least not yet.

However, there was more. They walked through the digitization process and the advantages of their storage. They also dug deep into the Auto Print products, which are amazing, but just not in my thing. What I did walk away with was a new appreciation for QR codes. I’m always challenged by which photos and words to put on a Christmas Card. With QR codes, I can not only put a QR code which will lead to an entire file of photos (or a video), but I can actually add an audio file which would allow me to say what I wanted to say without having to fit all the words on the card. Watch this space later this year and see if I do it!

My ever faithful bestie did come by after her dance lesson for the final sessions of the Family History Online event and we shared a pizza. The information relit her desire for memory keeping which is the whole purpose of the event in the first place. It would be hard to get my fire to burn any brighter.

Amazing Sunday

Sunday was an orgy of things I love to do. It started with Bill and I visiting my next door neighbor’s church. She is very active at First United Methodist Heath. While attending church is one of my favorite things, church shopping is not, but that’s what we’re doing now – again.

FUMAH is a happening place. I thought their photo-focused Lenten activities were genius and they have an active Women’s Group. There were several other things I really liked about it, but it’s not exactly the right fit for me. It’s a little on the liturgical side of things and the sermon was expository and topical, rather than exegesis. The music was lovely and they mix contemporary with traditional music, but they also broadcast the words on the wall without any music. I hate trying to follow some song I don’t know without being able to look at the music. I know this is the direction most churches are going, both in teaching style and music, but I’m looking for the unicorn.

From there we went for coffee and Bill wanted to try Dunkin Donuts. We both get tired of Starbucks, but Dunkin is not the answer. They don’t have a coffee fixing place. They just add the sugar and cream themselves, but not to Bill’s taste. The hot chocolate was a mix and they don’t have low fat or skim milk. However, the conversation was great and I did love my sausage and cheese kolache.

Next up was a visit to the Dallas Museum of Art and a stroll around Klyde Warren Park. We’d almost gone to the museum last Sunday, but had gotten distracted wandering around Deep Ellum and Uptown. Probably a good thing, because a new exhibition was opening and it might have been crowded.

I’m a member of the museum at the Ambassador level, but I’m not much of an Ambassador, because they’ve gone digital and I never know what’s going on. There was a time when my mailbox was full of all kinds of invitations and magazines from the museum. I loved it – but now everything comes to my email and email is just a lot of noise. They send me too much, so I just delete most of it and then when I want to know something, I have to go looking for it. If a subject line does catch my eye, then I have to print it out and it’s going to be in black and while and then it’s going to get lost on my desk, because it looks like everything else. So, the DMA & I aren’t really friends anymore.

Anyway, I did go and for some reason, they wanted to scan my membership card when I came in. I wonder what they scan if you aren’t a member. Then I had to go stand in line to get my tickets to the new exhibition. That is one good benefit of membership. I can take several people a day to the museum and get them into the exhibition free. You should call me and I’ll take you to this new exhibit, it’s gorgeous.

The name of the exhibit is Saints, Sinners, Lovers, and Fools: 300 Years of Flemish Masterworks. While I loved the art, I thought the first half title was hyperbolic. There are images related to all those nouns in the exhibit, but it is Flemish Masterworks, so there is no scandal. To my disappointment, the information on the wall is fairly sketchy and they have no audio tour or QR codes for more information. So, if you are not a fan of classical artworks, you’re going to have a hard time connecting the title to the artwork. You’ll be strolling through quickly and heading somewhere else.

However, if, like me, you love to see gorgeous figurative art from the past, you’re gonna love this one. Breathtaking altarpieces, intriguing portraits and even some vanitas. We went through it, double back to see it again and then enjoyed the third view also. After a quick stop in the gift shop we headed out to the park.

It seems there have been changes every time I go – probably because I don’t visit it often enough, but they’ve actually added new fountains at one end and upgraded the playground at the other. There are still lots of food trucks, but the restaurant is now Mi Cocina. Our visit was leisurely, but we didn’t really linger very much, because NorthPark was up next.

I love NorthPark. I wish I had a life that allowed me to go every day. I want to shop all the stores, look at all the plants and art and eat at all the places. Bill never wants to go, because it’s impossible to find a parking spot, but this time was different. They have reserved parking for low-e and hybrid cars. Bill has a hybrid. We parked next to a handicapped space and were right in front of an entrance.

I had a birthday gift card to spend and I wanted to go to Pandora. I upgraded my basic bracelet, because the arthritis in my thumbs just didn’t like the one I had. Now, I can get it off and on easy peasy. It will get a lot more wear. Their new thing is rose gold, but thank you, I’ll stick with my silver.

We enjoyed our stroll through NorthPark, especially the kid’s art they had on display in front of Macy’s, but I was dismayed to discover few things are where they used to be. It’s a big game of fruit basket turnover and while I didn’t recognize many of the new players, I fear some of my favorites my be out of the game, because something called Blue Nile is going up in the Brighton spot and I can’t find Brighton on the directory.

I came home from NorthPark very happy with my weekend. Next week we’ll have more New York, more Memory Keeping and another Weekend Report. Please come back to see me!!

DFW Metroplex, Photo Organization, Photo Organization Coach, Photography

Back to Digital

Jane Sadek

MEMORY KEEPING 101 – STORING AND CURATING YOUR PHOTOS ON FOREVER

Why Forever?

Back in November I introduced you to Forever Storage and the reasons I think it is best way to store your photos online. If you would like to review that post, click here, but here’s a chart that spells it out.

Perhaps the best part of a Forever account is that you buy your storage rather than rent it. Think about the difference in a landlord and a tenant. With other storage systems, your photos are merely tenants on someone else’s property. The landlord makes the rules. The landlord has a right to enter the property. The landlord is responsible for maintenance and you’re screwed if they don’t do it. If the landlord changes the rules, you either have to live with it or you’re stuck with the new rules. The list goes on.

At Forever, you own the property your photos are stored on. You make the rules about your photos. No one can go in there without your permission. No one can change the rules without your permission. You can do as much or as little as you like with your photos. It’s yours.

When you’re renting space for your photos, if you don’t make your rent payment, you lose access to your photos and what’s more, they don’t even have a plan for you to pass on your space, even if you want to. At Forever, you buy your space, so it belongs to you and whoever comes along after you.

Fully Customized Organization

I’ve used a lot of different online storage products in my life and while they will give you all the space in the world for a small monthly fee, your options for setting up your library are always limited. When I first started using Forever, I didn’t even know how to appreciate the flexibility I was given. It took me a while to create a system that worked for me, because it’s not just a matter of fill in the blanks.

It didn’t take long for me to get the hang of it and now I love it. Forever keeps a library of everything you upload to the site and with a few query words you can get to exactly what you want, You also get to set up whatever albums you want and then nest albums under there to as many levels as you want. Each album you access quickly tells you how many photos are in that album and how many nested albums you have within that album.

Within any album, you get to chose the order you want them in and if none of the automatic choices work, you can create your own.

As you set up your albums and nested albums, you can create a name for them and then you can fully describe what the album is about and if you want, put a date or date range on it.

Tagging is a breeze, but that’s only the beginning of the ways you can identify your photos with Forever.

Most online photo storage picks up information from your metadata and you’re stuck with whatever is there. Not with Forever. You have total control.

Just because it was Conger-7 wherever you got it from doesn’t mean it has to stay that. If the date taken is really just the date you uploaded it, you can change it to the real date.

Want that photo to be in other albums? That’s easy and it doesn’t take up more of your storage to do that.

And the description? None of that 25 words or 100 character stuff. Tell the whole story. Don’t want to key it in, fine, go to the app and use voice to tell the story. You’re not going to run out of space.

Sharing

While Forever will stay out of your storage and diligently protect it from others who shouldn’t be in there, it’s got all kinds of ways to share your images when you want to do so. You can share a single shot or an entire album or even your whole account. You can also set a level of sharing for the top level of each album. You might have some items you want to stay private, just for you. Friends and Family could have their own level of access to other albums. Then you could even have public items you opened up to whoever wanted to see them, so it’s great for all kinds of applications like teams, schools or other groups.

There are other ways to give the people you want access to your files. You can collaborate with others in you albums and decide what level of collaboration you want them to have. You can set up a manager and allow them to act as you if you want. You can also designate who you want to have access and control of your files and which files after you. Try that with icloud!

Auto Uploading

Have you ever wished that every photo you took on your phone or added to Facebook could be captured permanently somewhere so you never have to worry about losing them? Forever can do that. Or you can do one or the other of them. Up to you!

So What’s the Bad News?

If you’ve been using a free service or have been paying $1.99 per month for 100 gigabytes of storage, the bad news at Forever is sticker shock. The first time you hear how much 100 GB of storage costs at Forever it is going to be a difficult pill to swallow.

I must be honest with you. While I love Forever storage, I have to admit I don’t like all the rigmarole it takes to figure out how much you have to pay. On the day in November I wrote this post, with all the various deals and discounts available, you could get 100 GB of storage for $387.98 or something close to that (according to how you stacked the deals). However, the retail price for 100 GB of storage is $1000. I think that’s crazy, but someone smarter than me dreamed up this pricing and if you’ve ever shopped at Macy’s or Kohl’s, it will seem familiar. (This dress is $400, but today with a coupon you can get it for $19.99.)

So, while $387.98 is a lot, it’s really not fair to compare it with the $1.99 a month at Google, for instance. Google can rent that space for that price, because they owe you nothing in the way of privacy or security. They also know they will be able to make money off your photos with data mining and advertising. If they lose all your pictures, that’s OK. They can compress your photos anytime they want, so they will take up less space. If they want to delete your photos, all they have to do is send you an email and if you miss it, that’s tough. They also have your permission to use it for whatever else they want to.

On the other hand – all you will ever pay for your Forever storage is $387.98. After 16 years, when you’ve paid Google that much (if they don’t raise the price, which they most likely will) you’ll still have to go on paying something every month and if your kids take over the account, then they will have to keep paying as will your grandkids, great grandkids or whoever of your decedents is still around – if Google is still around. Remember VCRs? Which reminds me, that you Forever account will be upgraded for free to whatever formats come around after .jpg or whatever has disappeared.

Chances are at this point I have confused you more than I have helped you, so give me a call and lets review this. Whenever you decide you want to purchase your storage, I will research the deals at the time and make sure you get the best of them.

Come back next week and we’ll dig beyond mere storage and see what else Forever has to offer.

ART, DFW Metroplex, Performing Arts, Photo Organization, Photography, Restaurants & Bars, Scrapbooking, WRITING

The Weekend Report

Jane Sadek

TRAVEL HERE – NCFCA AT DBU, AT MY DESK & TAKING DOWN THE TREE

National Christian Forensics and Communications Association

Once upon a time, before there was a Spot On Images and we lived in Dallas, I used to attend Dallas Christian Writers Guild. Somehow that ended up taking me to Denton for a group of writers I can’t remember the name of. While I was never able to sell my novel, I did make some great friends. One of them, Rachel, invited me to judge at a speech tournament. By then, I’d figured out the market was focused on paranormal young adult fiction and wasn’t interested in a simple romance at a retirement center. I’d also moved to Wylie.

Rachel suggested I give judging a whirl. The tournament was going to be in Wylie at a church almost around the corner from our rental. She had no idea I’d been on the speech team at Bryan Adams High School. NCFCA, to which her children belonged, just needed community judges. She thought I’d be good at it, because she’d observed me critique the works of my fellow writers. I was flattered at the time and agreed to do it.

Now, I’ve got to admit. These kids blew me away. I’d belonged to the National Forensics League back in the late 60/early 70’s. My fondest memories of the time was a trip to a Houston tournament in Jimmy Johnson’s red Impala convertible. After our sponsor threatened our lives if we went to Galveston, we, of course, snuck out and went to Galveston. It was 10 minutes on the beach and we had to head back, but the exhilaration of the outing stays with me, even today.

The home-schooled members of NCFCA are dead serious about their craft, unlike us crazy public school kids, who just wanted a reason to get away from home. Don’t get me wrong, we had some really great people on the speech squad, who would walk away with all the trophies, but most of us were just there for a good time. NCFCA members are all there to compete!

Anyway, I loved the experience and have continued to volunteer every time I can. We moved to Rockwall and I discovered many of the families in the church participated in NCFCA, but that’s really not my primary motivator. I really just love the kids and love the experience of the speech tournaments. If you are the least bit intrigued by it, I think you should follow the link above and give it a try. They have a tournament over in Ft. Worth in March. I’d love to have someone to carpool with.

Last weekend they had a tournament at Dallas Baptist University and even though I was fighting with allergies, I went ahead and judged, because I love it so. I was not disappointed. It took the whole day. I judged four events and the commute was substantial, but I loved it.

Bill was not amused. I left the house at 8am and got home after 9:30 pm. The allergy symptoms I had been fighting were winning the battle and I was miserable, but my faith in the upcoming generation was renewed. I have hope things are going to be better in the world when these guys take over. Come with me in March and let’s help the next generation blossom!

Digital Photobook Project

If you read this blog at all, you know I’m all about scrapbooking and I have a business devoted to it, but I also offer digital solutions. I booked a new digital assignment which needed a quick turnaround, so I was afraid starting it from scratch would take too long. I decided to create the photobook from one of the gorgeous templates Forever has on their site, but that was totally new to me, because I usually create photobooks from scratch in Artisan. As if that weren’t challenging enough, I also decided to use the album planner in the Historian program.

I had assumed there was some sort of integration between the Historian album planner and the photobook templates on the Forever site. What is it they say? “Don’t never assume nothing.” Yes, I found the album planner to be a great tool, but it would have been an even better tool if I could have clicked a few buttons and automatically populated the template.

My other challenge had to do with saving the template in some format which would let me stop somewhere along the way. I knew there had to be a way, because few people can sit down and do a whole album in one sitting. After exhausting all the methods which made sense to me and losing a couple of starts, I had to call customer service for some help. I am happy to report in a few minutes I had talked to someone very knowledgeable who had all the answers I needed. The solution was easy, just not intuitive.

I finished the photobook and got it ready for my client to proof. However, I do have several integration innovations to suggest to Forever. The photobook templates are lovely, the Historian album planner is a great tool and Artisan is an amazing scrapbooking program. However, these three products need to be able to shake one another’s hand. Integration of their products is one of the big jobs at Forever, but Job One is always the security of the online storage. What might seem simple or apparent as a product feature isn’t going to happen until the Forever engineers are 100% certain it won’t compromise the storage. So while I might fuss a little bit, I’m happy Forever does things the way they do.

Taking Down the Tree

Client’s rush order out of the way, the Christmas tree standing in my living room was the next challenge. I usually go to church on Sunday mornings, but this week I was just too puny to do so. Yet, I was also feeling too good to sit on the sofa and vegetate, so I started the job. I gave it a good three hours and got about two thirds of the way through before I ran out of steam.

Then my bestie came over and we indulged in one of our favorite comfort foods, chicken pot pie! Later Bill dragged me to Olive Garden for dinner. He had a plan to maximize his monetary investment while feeding both of us. Good job Bill. We may be eating Olive Garden to go orders and leftovers all week, but you proved just how much food you could get for under $50!

The Christmas tree project was Job One for me on Monday. It’s time to get over the holidays and get back to real life. Come back next week for more adventures of Jane. Wednesday is Travel Talk and we’ll be talking about some Southwest challenges which happened long before the recent meltdown and Thursday we’re talking about what it costs to build a scrapbooking page. Looking forward to chatting with you!