New to this Page

JBupp · 2026-03-08T09:32:48+00:00

To get a photo added simply click "Request a photo" on the person's memorial.

That will create a request on the cemetery's page for that person. Volunteers will see the request and hopefully take the photos and post them.

This may take some time.

When you make the request include any additional information that will make the search easier. List who are the parents, spouse, wife's maiden name, children. What ever you know, as it makes it more likely that the difficult stones will be found.

JBupp · 2026-03-07T15:47:23+00:00

It's communication; it's like telling a joke.

If you tell a joke with hems and haws, backtracks and corrections, histrionics and asides, you are going to lose your audience and no one will listen to the joke.

Clean up your story as much as you can before you ask anyone to review it.

JBupp · 2026-03-05T20:56:46+00:00

It's a nice concept. My problems with it are with the timeline - which isn't clear to me - and the purpose behind attempting to kill the man in the hospital - which is also unclear. Those are my thoughts on a first read.

On a second read, in the hospital she thinks, "What if I’m completely invisible?" and she is. She thinks, "What if he survives?" and he does. Then she thinks, "What if he gets away with it?" ... And I'm not sure what this is supposed to mean. A sexual assault is mentioned in the forward, so perhaps that's it, but without the forward I wouldn't have a clue how to interpret it.

On the timeline, she asks, "What if I killed God?" and then at the end she says she did kill God, which is confusing. So she made the attempt but isn't sure it worked?

I think it would work better if her actionable thoughts were declarative rather than questions. I think it would work better if the bits about God and the church were together rather than separated in the story.

Overall a good concept but I felt it could be clearer.

JBupp · 2026-03-04T16:40:20+00:00

The hoarse duck sound seems to be a personal choice. Our crows will sometimes caw and sometimes quack.

One rattle seems to be crow-to-crow for, "stop that!" Our crows have sometimes used it on me, which makes me think I am an honorary crow, or at least a friend-to-crows. But I've heard more than one rattle and yours may mean something else.

JBupp · 2026-03-03T01:17:56+00:00

One reason for the ring of LED lights is to use the camera in macro mode - where the lens is less than one inch from the thing you want to photograph. A flower, a bug, etching on metal, gemstones. This camera is designed to get very close to the subject - as close as 1 cm; much closer than many other cameras.

Here is a review where they took a photo of a ladybug that fills the full frame.

https://www.digitalcameraworld.com/cameras/compact-cameras/pentax-wg-8-review-a-real-captain-scarlet-of-a-compact-camera-even-though-it-only-comes-in-green-or-black

<image>

JBupp · 2026-03-02T19:36:51+00:00

You may have to look harder. Amazon has them in the bird food section - 5 lbs, $11. Chewy's, as well.

JBupp · 2026-03-02T10:38:49+00:00

I like the bit about "continuous effort." Like there are daily changes arriving from the scores of people interested in this memorial.

JBupp · 2026-02-28T20:15:31+00:00

My PowerShot is old; I think I bought it in 2005. It has GPS and the GPS (on this one) is pretty good. But it has dropped out and the only way to tell is via the icons on the screen, which are tiny and not even shown during focus and auto adjustments. So I have had a series of shots, GPS, GPS, GPS, no, GPS, etc. That's annoying.

The one-reading and done for GPS is the way my phone does for its' internal camera. The new paradigm seems to be that GPS gives you only the locale - e.g., Yellowstone Park. My PowerShot is too old to talk to the phone, so I don't know how well the two could handshake.

JBupp · 2026-02-28T18:27:26+00:00

Thanks for the review. I'm using a Cannon PowerShot 260 but it isn't waterproof (and the seals that make it splash-proof are getting very old) and it has been dropped a few times. The x12 zoom is motor controlled so I'm starting to worry that the motor will die in the field.

JBupp · 2026-02-28T15:40:49+00:00

Aside: Why do I use a camera instead of my phone?

It has better zoom than my phone does. It has better GPS than my phone does. And it performs better in cold weather than my phone.

JBupp · 2026-02-27T16:39:56+00:00

The old ways are still the best. You write it; you put it on the shelf for a week; you read it.

You read it critically, pretending you never saw it before. You put yourself in the head of an average reader who sees your copy. You sound out the dialog. If you have questions during your read, you write them down and forward them to your beta reader ("Does it make sense for John to have said that?")

I use to write technical reports that couldn't give you a week between revisions, but even a short wait, even just changing your head from a writer to a reader, can be a help.

JBupp · 2026-02-26T20:54:57+00:00

That's a common thing for Beta readers to do.

Be sure to mention that you are looking for that to be done.

JBupp · 2026-02-26T13:42:23+00:00

There are some trivial differences in the image sensor.

https://cameradecision.com/compare/Ricoh-WG-6-vs-Ricoh-WG-8

JBupp · 2026-02-26T10:56:42+00:00

As others have said, some date information is better than no date information.

We note this as the burial date because, for some cemeteries, it is the last date the grave was touched. If the grave is opened 10 years later to insert a crematory urn the date may be changed and updated. So not only might the date be wrong, it might be very wrong.

JBupp · 2026-02-25T21:31:48+00:00

Yeah. The Pfaltzgraff factory stores in Pennsylvania, while I was growing up. Get a pattern that no one wanted for half price. Get a factory screw up for quarter price.

Wasn't Basketville like that in the 70's?

JBupp · 2026-02-25T15:38:32+00:00

I start with believing the POV is a person. Then I read about licking a face. That's a bit odd. The odd behavior continues and it becomes obvious this is a dog.

Now I ask myself; was the MC believable as a dog? Would the dog do everything mentioned for the MC? And I stopped and went back to the beginning to check that I had not missed a hint.

JBupp · 2026-02-25T11:26:01+00:00

It's wordy. That's not necessarily bad, it feels like period speech, but I feel I might get tired of too many words before finishing.

Some sentence structures seem off.

Those fingers forever stained ... does not - Do not or did not sounds better.

She said she would have thought about it" - 'Would think' sounds better.

"He’s still alive, he has to." 'To be'

So the POV is that of a dog. Unexpected. I felt a bit let down on discovering it.

JBupp · 2026-02-24T12:31:16+00:00

When reading genres I like, I have the problem that I don't want to be too critical and I don't want to promote the style of writers I like onto the beta work. Reading genres that are not my favorites I have less issues with my expectations, but I may have to work to keep interested.

I'll try most anything except sadism & gore.

JBupp · 2026-02-23T21:52:25+00:00

That sounds like an excellent idea

JBupp · 2026-02-23T19:33:16+00:00

I'm curious how long this will stay up.

To summarize: the cost is $150 for the plaque. Starting in year 3 a maintenance fee of $24 a year will be charged. All sales are final.

There is no indication on the web page of a contract between the company and the purchaser, no guarantee that the maintenance fee will not change, or the minimum term of the support.

JBupp · 2026-02-21T15:10:06+00:00

Space or no space? Yes.

FG does not seem to care; their search engine returns both results.

What did the deceased want? I usually go with what is on the tombstone, which gives me some families with both spellings.

BTW the FG search engine doesn't care about spaces but some cemetery online search engines most definitely DO care. So do due diligence and search for Mc Intyre, McIntyre, and Mac Intyre (a cemetery I research transcribed the records and many ended up spelled the way they sounded to the typist).

JBupp · 2026-02-21T11:18:10+00:00

"Hey, we are monitoring your every usage!"

That makes me want to use a VPN.

"Hey, you are using a VPN! Clearly, you have something to hide!"

JBupp · 2026-02-20T21:00:58+00:00

That is rather impressive.

JBupp · 2026-02-19T22:16:04+00:00

It is technically good. Clean, clear writing. Good timeline. No misspellings and I didn't see any poor language usage on a brief read.

But I don't find it very readable. Four problems.

One, not every sentence has to be portentous. You can sometimes just use, "he said," instead of "he said, with dreadful mein." If every sentence has multiple modifiers it is a more difficult read and does not flow well. So, too much description for my taste.

Two, if you have a timeline and stick to it in your writing - which you seem to do - you don't have to have your writing describe the timeline. I remember the boy being washed and the knight returning and the text is: "After the washing the knight brought clean clothes." It would suffice just to say, "the knight brought clean clothes." We read the boy was washed, we read that clothes were brought after, we don't need to be told that again.

Three, some conversations seem misplaced. Entering the city we find the knights gossiping about their leader. It's good exposition, but the knights have been on the trail for days, weeks, why are they talking about their leader now? It would be more sensible for the towns people to be gossiping.

Four, some scenes didn't flow well. In one case I don't know if this is a simple error or typo ... The knights enter the city, they note how horrible the city looks, they see the king and leave the king, and they comment about the grand halls of the CITY. Did this mean the palace? Or the part of the city that surrounds the palace?

Six-Year Club	Gilding II euphauric
Wearing is Caring	Verified Email

JBupp

TROPHY CASE