New Year Intentions Check-in; Bearing Up, Bearing Down, Wearing and Request for Photo Advice

Happy February! I'm wanting to check in about New Years Intentions, and am finding myself once again two days behind on things and tired out from another Anchorage trip.

I did get to meet 'Snowzilla' this time (I'm standing there for scale, looking up in awe):

--I don't usually get excited by random artwork, but this was the biggest snowman I've ever met by a long way, and I was excited! Apparently some guy in Anchorage builds Snowzilla every year and the municipality thinks it's a nuisance because of all the gawkers and photographers (whose ranks we duly joined).

Speaking of photography: I know that having photographs in the blog really enhances the experience. Conversely, having the blog as a vehicle for sharing photos is a great encouragement to me to take more of them. However, I've just started to have problems with the pictures. Blogger is telling me that I've reached my storage limit and need to buy more room. When I delete pictures so that I can upload new ones, the deleted ones disappear from the blog. I was also just made aware that the pics I upload from my Canon Powershot are very big files: usually 3-4 MB.

Does anyone have any advice for me on this? I'd love to know how to make the photo file sizes smaller, so that I can fit more pics into Blogger.

Food experimentation pictures, and also goofy pictures like this one--

...on a walk with a wonderful friend, several times around University Lake in Anchorage, we noticed that this rock (or iceberg?) is the local doggie bulletin board. This was Phil's answer, and I just got the shot before several canine characters rushed up to make sure that he wasn't wiping their data.

These weekly trips to Anchorage are taking a toll. In my New Year Intentions post, I mentioned that I needed to become more circumspect with my blogging and blog participation. So far this year, we've been offline and on the road for a couple of days out of each week, so circumspection has been enforced, but it always feels like I'm cramming more into less space. On the other hand, one of my most important blog-related intentions was that my blogging should be a part of my writing practice as opposed to a time-sink that detracts from it. Despite the adverse situation, I would have to say that so far this intention is being carried through successfully. I have written a couple of poems based on thoughts that I blogged about, and have otherwise put thought and craft into my posts rather than just cranking 'em out.

At the one-month mark, the major-theme intention of 'reviewing' is definitely active. This includes things as diverse as going through my notebook and making sure that I'm following through with writing projects on the one hand, and defrosting the fridge on the other! Ask me if I've done these things before we head back to Anchorage on Sunday or Monday...

As we bear up with the disruption and discombobulation, it's also time to bear down on a variety of paperwork things that will make the future a better place, ranging from scholarship applications to taxes. I have signed up for a couple of writing classes coming up this month, so as to continue learning from powerful teachers, and this past week I also taught my first ever poetry workshop myself!

I'm hoping that by the time I post next, I'll have solved my photo dilemma so that I can post more pics (it's snowing and gorgeous here and I wish I could share a picture) (thanks in advance for all helpful suggestions), and this week I intend to write about PUFAs as promised, and to continue to share thoughts about my current starch self-experiment.

Much love