No Fixed Plans

  Prince Gong's Mansion, Beijing Hosted by Dan of No Facilities,  Thursday Doors, a weekly feature allowing door lovers to come together to admire and share their favorite door photos from around the world. Feel free to join in on the fun by creating your own Thursday Doors post each week and then sharing your link in the comments below, anytime between 12:01 am Thursday morning and Saturday noon (North American eastern time). Click here to see more doors, click here.

  Pabst Mansion Every Tuesday Cee offers a challenge to bloggers. This week she's inspired us to share posts featuring photos with circles or wheels. Mine come from two Wisconsin sites, the Pabst Mansion and Old World Wisconsin. To see more fun fotos, click here .  Pabst Mansion Round Logs, Norwegian Cabin, Old World Wisconsin Old World Wisconsin, Pommeranian Cabin

  My contribution to Sami's Mural Monday is this mural on a cave wall at 1000 Buddha Mountain in Jinan, China. If you want to see more murals, click here . You'll be glad you did.

  Summer Palace, Beijing Saturday Sculpture encourages bloggers to share photos of any and all kinds of sculptures. To join, you need to: 1. Share a photo of a sculpture on your blog. 2. Link here to No Fixed Plans, the new hub for the challenge. It's a fun challenge. Give it a try.

  Pabst Mansion, Milswaukee Xingfu Mama hosts the weekly Pull Up a Seat photo challenge for bloggers, which has opened my eyes to the intriguing or beautiful chairs, benches, sofas, etc. Here's one from the Pabst Mansion. It's a work of art, isn't it? To see more seats, click here. 

  Luoyang, China Hosted by Dan of No Facilities,  Thursday Doors, a weekly feature allowing door lovers to come together to admire and share their favorite door photos from around the world. Feel free to join in on the fun by creating your own Thursday Doors post each week and then sharing your link in the comments below, anytime between 12:01 am Thursday morning and Saturday noon (North American eastern time). Click here to see more doors, click here . 

 Has an O in the Middle Cee's challenging bloggers to post photos of objects that have the letter O somewhere in the middle of the word. I went with shoes. To see more middle O photos, click here. 

  Shanghai, China Each week Cee of Cee's Photography challenges bloggers with a fun prompt. This week we're to share photos with lots of blue.  What will you choose to share? Click here to see more fun photos, click here . Melbourne, Australia Shanghai, China Northbrook, IL 

  Hosted by Colorful World, Monday Murals challenges bloggers to share photos with murals. This week I'm sharing one from Jinan, China featuring two favorite Chinese cartoon characters. If you'd like to see more murals, click here . 

  My post for Alive and Trekking's Which Way Photo Challenge is a stone path in Zhujiayu. To see more ways from around the world, click here . 

 

Every week Sepia Saturday challenges bloggers with a visual prompt. This week's prompt inspired me to find bridges from old Chicago. Jack Knife Bridge, Chicago Detroit Publishing Co., Copyright Claimant, and Publisher Detroit Publishing Co, Behm, Hans, photographer.  Jackknife Bridge, Chicago, Ill . United States Illinois Chicago, ca. 1907. Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/2016813803/. Detroit Publishing Co., Copyright Claimant, and Publisher Detroit Publishing Co, Behm, Hans, photographer.  Jackknife Bridge, Chicago, Ill . United States Illinois Chicago, ca. 1907. Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/2016813803/. Historic American Engineering Record, Creator, Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Company, Ketler & Elliot Company, City Of Chicago, Richard M Daley, Sponsor Chicago Department Of Transportation, Thomas R Walker, S L Kaderbek, and Matthew T Sneddon.  Chicago River Bascule Bridge, Franklin Street, Spanning Chicago River at North Franklin Street, Chicago, Cook County,

  Saturday Sculpture encourages bloggers to share photos of any and all kinds of sculptures. To join, you need to: 1. Share a photo of a sculpture on your blog. 2. Link here to No Fixed Plans, the new hub for the challenge. It's a fun challenge. Give it a try.

  For this weekly challenge Xingfu Mama will make a post every Friday morning. To play along: Create a post with a photo of places one sits or might sit, or art about sitting, and maybe a little background or story about the spot or a picture of the view. Add a tag “Pull up a seat”. Add a link to your post in the Pull up a Seat comment section, either by writing a comment with your URL or by creating a pingback.

  Weekend Coffee Share is a time for us to take a break out of our lives and enjoy some timely catching up with friends (old and new)! If we were having coffee, I'd begin by screaming. I know that's rude, but I can't help it. This new job is frustrating. The training was abysmal. Unprofessional, confusing and hurried. All the while the people giving it kept saying "I know you can't remember most of this but . . . " But there are better ways to train so more can be retained. First start by using the appropriate media. Not everything should be taught with PowerPoint. Second, don't talk too fast. Third allow questions. You might not want questions throughout your talk, but allow some time at some point for them. (Only one person forbid questions.) Sometimes comments like "Your mic isn't working" are essential for any good to come from a presentation. Fourth use fonts people can read. Embedding a two page letter into a slide that's embedded

Thursday Doors is a weekly blogging challenge allowing door lovers to come together to admire and share their favorite door photos from around the world. Feel free to join in on the fun by creating your own Thursday Doors post each week and then sharing it, between Thursday morning and Saturday noon (North American Eastern Time). To get to the hub where you'll find links to dozens of doors, click here .

 A Photo a Week Challenge Inspired by other photo bloggers, I thought I'd try Nancy Merrill's Photo a Week Challenge. This week's prompt is Multiple Shapes.   I've chosen this display of jade jewelry. To see more shapes, click here . 

  Last night I discovered Freedom Toons and their Debunkers series. If you need a laugh, check it out. They have loads of videos on all kinds of topics. Below is a sample of their other work.

  Here's my Monday Murals contribution. Every so often someone gets out his chalk and draws something on the sidewalk. (I think it's a neighbor's son.) To see more magnificent murals, click here . 

 condign (adj.) - deserved, worthy Example: "His sickness is a condign punishment for breaking the company's code of business ethics." Gerald Baker, WSJ, October 5, 2020. Reference "Condign." (n.d.) Merriam Webster Dictionary. Retrieved from https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/condign on September 13, 2021

 

  I gave up on Warner Fassbinder's The American Soldier. the film's only 74 minutes long, but by the 34 minute mark the stilted acting and uninteresting story left me cold. Fassbinder's attempt at film noir didn't work. It was like trying to put on a suit that was tailored for a completely different body type.  All the elements of noir were there: the sultry platinum blonde, the taciturn hero who's an outsider, the dirty cops. The American Soldier bored. I expected more of Fassbinder, but sometimes "even Homer sleeps." Life is short. I had to give up.

  Sepia Saturday has challenged bloggers with a photo of a man playing solitaire. Playing cards, solo or with others, is a fine pastime. I fondly remember my grandmother teaching me and my siblings to shuffle cards and play gin. An aunt tried to teach us poker. Bridge is a game that seems to have ended with my mother's generation. She still plays, but I never learned. (I do have one friend from high school who joined the high school bridge club. Now I wish I had.) Here's what I found while searching the Library of Congress archives. Opper, Frederick Burr, Artist.  McKinley has almost all the chips; - but the game is young, yet / F.Opper . , 1894. N.Y.: Published by Keppler & Schwarzmann, January 3. Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/2012648746/. Poker . , 1902. [United States: publisher not transcribed] Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/2018696743/. Siegel, Arthur S, photographer.  Detroit, Michigan. Poker hand and hands of girl players . Wayne County United States Mic

  Capt. Pabst Saturday Sculpture encourages bloggers to share photos of any and all kinds of sculptures. To join, you need to: 1. Share a photo of a sculpture on your blog. 2. Link here to No Fixed Plans in the comments, the new hub for the challenge. It's a fun challenge. Give it a try. I've shared a bust from the Pabst Mansion. It was made as a death mask. 

 

  Weekend Coffee Share is a time for us to take a break out of our lives and enjoy some timely catching up with friends (old and new)! If we were having coffee, I'd tell you I went to the Pabst Mansion in Milwaukee last Saturday. It's an elegant mansion for the brewer, Captain Pabst and his family. They lived there after Capt. Pabst retired. Built in 1892, the mansion is a showplace full of exquisite furnishings and art. Tickets are only $15 for adults. You should buy tickets ahead online as people were turned away when we were there.  For lunch Saturday I asked my friend, whose sister lives in Milwaukee, to pick a restaurant. We went to Miss Katie's Diner , a hole in the wall where President Clinton and First Lady Obama have dined. They have a typical diner menu and good prices. I started work this week and have gotten a clearer picture of this job. On Tuesday I was sworn on virtually. Wednesday was orientation with HR and Thursday and Friday have been training. It's