Oh Google, you're going to make me drink

So the pics clearly are not fixed, or not reliably anyway. Strange that some of my Google Photos show just fine and some don't.

Anyway today I discovered that since Picasa is part of the Google family my Google Photos are available through there. Perhaps I can get Picasa to give me clear links to the photos which Google Photos won't.

Turns out that Picasa will indeed provide a clear link. Heres an example of what I'm talking about. Here's a picture of potatoes harvested from our garden:

Here's the link Picasa provides: https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-YCXP_OgIDJs/VdH5KfSZ3-I/AAAAAAAAAgc/thAfLdZJvqI/s800-Ic42/IMG_20150817_100726153.jpg

Notice how it ends in "IMG_20150817_100726153.jpg" this is what I refer to as a "clear link", meaning its an actual web path to the actual file residing on some server somewhere.

For the same image Google Photos provides: https://goo.gl/photos/A9nPix8cVc67MDn49
This is not a clear link, it takes you to a web page, not the picture. I got that using the "share" link in the photo, the alternative is what I did with Picasa, right click on the image and choose "Copy image address" which is something it would appear Google doesn't want you to do because sometimes you need to right click two, three or four times before you can get that option. Anyway the link it provides looks like this: https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/NJEes5mtUxLWrPHn0tAbFdGnUw0pdccXbdWnFOnqN8Nx9XhW_sWwAeOEEQOGMqU8DV9IGkld4pmXOlnGZ8w39ZBi0Dn_gfIKUd-wsQd8oPBPYxSPWMRFJKDz7XhQd9hSlHjdMLv815pEMRze7ZgU-imMMZ5uimU4GAeMf-yGtrsRyW4FdRYsuyeMKLvA28alg_gEAucDbhIOM_JkfEzdu8RbMTCux3CqtqT_R5myHkBDq04XQWkHOqL1LvwUKcWF0a-xWJZ49NCwKyGTktf7IiFJTbFGofe23v7-vDSJj6yaeovmv-Q4pf-nQ5m_8qyn7Manx0h52lel7IrQart3uLi52INL6jEfn4XQYUFns-CZE5YoL_1xaGQBcl11CK5p4H9wYGkD3k_LTgJ2d3Ww5QJG12rMZRmq1VlIHafT91f3G5aqT7uqPZ9lyxW2QXCGSdJqfX9sS66CsTl2qc9mvxcmCbd8AE5LmKYGsrppdVu4bvHlI4tzUNANew2ggB_DayxAU532I_Kg3VP6NJB2LA-0zma5Dqf6QMDWjUWP0TDsgzb_7Z-N4silHcjljJyyCm83=w1216-h2158-no

which is sort of a direct link in that it takes you directly to the photo but it isn't a clear link because theres no file name in it. Because theres no file name its useless for posting pictures on webpages and I think this is the reason Blogger has been having a hard time with it. Interestingly my wick lantern post hasn't had half the issues some of the others have and I don't know why...

Anyway hollar at me if you can see the pictures on the first couple posts below, if it doesn't work this time I'll go back to Photobucket. PB has a pretty good system for providing clear links but their web page is soooo sloooow it takes forever to work with. I think they do this so you'll click on the ads, but thats not working for me at all...

Stupid Google Photos

Google owns blogger so you'd think it'd be easy to use Google Photos to share my pics with you guys, not so apparently.

Somebody mentioned that they couldn't see my pictures. I took a look from my phone and couldn't see them, rats. So I logged into my computer and COULD see them. Thats odd right? So I logged out of my Google account and now I can't see the pictures.

The odd thing is that I actually have 2 Google accounts and I can see the pictures if I'm logged into either of them but not if I've logged out. So apparently I've got a setting wrong somewhere but I'll be dammed if I can find it. Google is surprisingly no help at all, they apparently don't know that Google Photos exists, they only ever reference Picasa which I think is dead now anyway...

So the search for a good photo host goes on...

Yoga pants frustration

I'm sure some of you will be surprised that I'm into yoga. If I'm honest I'm not THAT into yoga but from time to time I'll get the mat out and move around some. It helps my back immensely.
I'm also sure that some of you will be surprised that I'd like to start jogging. I've talked about wanting to lose weight in the past and frankly I've hit a wall. I beat the 210 pound barrier but the 205 pound wall is one I've been struggling with for 6 months now. I can get slightly under it but not for long. This is an important line for me because I remember getting my first hunting license at age 13 and I already weighed 205. In retrospect I was quite porky at 13 but I was nearly full grown at that point, I don't think my inseam has changed since then.

So anyway for Christmas I asked Angie for a pair of yoga pants. I haven't done any yoga in the house all winter since it was too cold to do it in shorts. The pair she got me are nice but they're long, like you can't see my feet at all when I wear them. Today I was thinking I'd like to get going on the jogging thing. I read an article last night about the 20X training plan and while I certainly don't want to work out like a navy seal I realize that if I'm ever going to get under 200 pounds I need to move a lot more and I need to burn a lot more calories when I'm moving which means I need to move faster.

Off to Amazon to search for yoga pants and its just as Angie explained, shorter yoga pants seem to be in short supply. I can find shorts and pants so long they'll get under my heels but nothing in between, with one exception. The exception is skin tight and frankly guys my size either don't want to be seen in something skin tight or SHOULDN'T be seen in something skin tight...

So there are my choices, mid thigh or dragging on the floor. I don't understand this, how can I do yoga if every time I try to put my foot down I have to pull the pants out from under my feet? Don't people get frustrated with this? Does nobody else do yoga in a house thats too cold for shorts?

First world problems right?