Winter

My January wall calendar from the World Wildlife Fund has a picture of a couple of polar bears. It actually looks like they're kissing - being friendly, in any case. Speaking of polar bears, I got a good shot of some polar bears at a zoo in Copenhagen, Denmark, many years ago. I'll see if I can dig it up. Here it is:



The polar bears can have this winter weather. I prefer a little warmer climate, although I guess those of us who live here in this part of California shouldn't complain. It was 54 degrees below zero in Embarrass, MN, yesterday. They're used to it though. The record in that part of the world is 60º below. I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy.

I don't think the sun will shine around here today. It's a good time to stay in and catch up on my blogging. I've been remiss lately, spending too much time trying to get my new computer tweaked to my own fancy. I think I have six or eight different programs on this computer that will manipulate photos. You really only need one, if it's a good one. I'm afraid most of mine aren't that good. The best one I have is Paint Shop Pro by Jasc. It's the fanciest program and will do almost anything any other program will do. For simplicity's sake, I prefer Irfanview, a freeware program designed by a guy in Germany who gives it away. I guess he just enjoys complicated programming. I also use Microsoft's Image Composer and ArcSoft's PhotoImpression 5, not to mention their PhotoMontage, Dell's Picture Studio 3, PhotoMax Pro, Camedia Master by Olympus, Microsoft's Paint, as well as their Picture It, and Adobe's Photo Deluxe (which version only works on my old computer and doesn't like XP. Gee, that's nine different programs, isn't it. I didn't realize that, but, let me tell you, it's too confusing. Stick to one or two good ones. You'll be better off.