Researching My Spanish Ancestry- the California Connection

(Click here to see a video introduction and overview I produced to go along with this story)

I recently mined ancestry.com, other online sites, my parents' memories and a brother's Southern California location to put together this probing post about my late Grandpa Frank.

Click here for the story. 

Below: Frank Gomez, always a dapper dresser and Frank and Anna, the early years of their long marriage

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Red Moon Eclipse a Sight to See!

It was well worth going outside in the cold late Sunday night to get a glimpse of a rare celestial event. This was the so-called "Super Blood Wolf Moon" lunar eclipse.

I took this photo from my backyard area at around 11:45 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 20, 2019

"During a total lunar eclipse, the Earth blocks the light from the sun, giving the moon's surface a red glow, which many refer to as a red moon," according to Fortune.com.

Foggy Morning

I dashed outside my house- camera in hand- early one recent foggy morning to see if I could capture an interesting image or two.

This is the best shot I came back with as the fog quickly lifted. I just got one shot before the street lamp light turned off. Really like this photograph!

I processed the original image (below) using the great and free Snapseed photo editor app that I have on my iPad and iPhone. I like the high dynamic range or HDR filters especially. They can really make a picture pop.

Before bringing a photo into Snapseed, I will often use the basic processing tool on the iPad and iPhone. This is good for cropping and also making sure the image is even. 

Favorite Magnolia Cemetery Art

This image is the result of a project I was working on a few months ago in Prezi (aka PowerPoint 2.0). This version was not what it was supposed to be in the sense of not being an interactive Prezi. But I kind of like it anyway even with the red marks. To see the real Prezi, click here.  

So I thought I would share the image here on my blog. That's another nice thing about having a blog is that it can become a home to all sorts of content. 

Magnolia Cemetery is truly a special, beautiful and historic place. I am so pleased to have written two books about this grand Victorian necropolis.  See my links at the top of my blog for information about my books or go to my Amazon authors page.  

2018 Home Front Challenges

After the year we have been through in 2018 I will never again take for granted having a good roof over my head.

Christmas this year brought great gratitude for our beautiful home being whole again after a summer disaster.

Orangeburg Book Signing a Fun Day!

On Saturday, Dec. 22, just a few days before Christmas, I was part of a book signing at Swift Books in Orangeburg. The shop, owned by Dean and Edie Swift, is located on Chestnut Street in the Five Rivers Market antique mall.

I love the antique mall!  Before leaving I returned nearly half the money I made selling books after buying some Christmas gifts for the family.

Chicago's Holiday Season Charm!

On the eve of Christmas and New Year's, Chicago was a great place to visit for several days!  Alesia was sent there on a business trip and I was able to join her after completing finals and final grading. Our younger son lives and works there now too, so this trip was much anticipated, to say the least!

This may be my favorite photograph (from among the hundreds taken) during my Chicago December visit. The sax playing, Santa hat wearing musician provided a pop of sound and color on this one day that was very foggy from dawn to dusk.

This picture is a favorite too. I took it from the stairs going to the "L" train station near our hotel.

Sottile House Shines at Night!

Walking to my car Monday night after my College of Charleston class I stopped and admired the old Sottile House at 11 College St. The beautiful yellow Victorian mansion dates to 1890 but looks better than ever, especially at night.

With some processing tools from Snapseed, a free photo editing app, I created this image, which adds to the beauty of the elegant structure. Not bad for an iPhone 7 picture, right?

Nighttime Capture- love the lighting!

Sunday Grave Trotting in Charleston!

In my College of Charleston class, "Beyond the Grave: What Old Cemeteries Tell and Teaching the Living," I needed to call a late semester audible. A few classes were wiped out by the busy hurricane season and I needed to get in some assignments.

Class Photo at the Unique Unitarian Churchyard

So I asked the students to come out on a late Sunday morning to visit a pair of old Charleston graveyards within walking distance of campus.

Unfortunately, less than half the class showed up. For my MIAs?  They missed out on a neat experience.

Prezi Project a Pain But Results Are Good!

It has been a while since I've produced a PowerPoint-type presentation in what's called PowerPoint 2.0, aka Prezi.

I'm having my college students create a top ten or ten all-time favorites list using Prezi as the platform.  So, to demonstrate how Prezi Next works (this has replaced Prezi Classic, of which I am much more familiar and comfortable) I wanted to put together a new Prezi. With all of the Magnolia Cemetery photos I have taken over the years I thought this could be a great subject. And I narrowed it down to 10 favorite statuary cemetery art figures.

Magnolia Cemetery has lots to choose from in this area, in that it is a beautiful Victorian necropolis that dates to 1850.




Embedding a Prezi in a Blogger post like this requires a couple steps. Here is the link I used that shows how to do it.  The short tutorial includes this HTML code. All you do is paste over the red part the URL that can be generated for your particular Prezi:

Before producing the first Prezi at the top of this post, I did one incorrectly that turned out like the above. I was able to convert it to a JPEG, then shared on a Facebook site called "Charleston History Before 1945." I like how it looks, though I cannot get rid of all the red underlines.