You think you give enough, volunteer enough, give your life enough and maybe even dedicate your career to helping those in need is enough. You think you give so much of yourself, that it feels like it periodically drain your life-force. 

Then a tiny, spunky, intelligent, blonde woman named Wendy Davis pops into your life on one important day--a moment in history, and singlehandedly changes the rights and freedoms for every woman in the whole state of Texas so they have control over their own body. She speaks for 13 hours straight, without sitting or taking a single break, to her comrades in the senate. She hopes, prays, yells, argues, validates every word.

Her goal is complicated, twisted with state and religion, morals, morality and basic human rights, yet every state has the right: giving women the right to choose what happens to their own body. Abortion.

The crowds cheer and roar so much in the last minutes, it's closed down to the public. Troopers make arrests, but those roars, those live stream viewers that the senate wasn't expecting made the difference. Wendy used her tools and we backed her up with our stories. It was a moment in time to be savored, to learn from and to continue until every being has equality in every fashion. Every senator that walked out said that they truly believed if it weren't for the roars, cheers and sudden unexpected attention from the 200,000+ live viewers on YouTube, things might have turned out different. Literally by a mere 2-3 minutes.

It is this moment in time you realize there IS more you can do, say, and fight for.

Much more.

Starting point: this is why it is so very important to vote and to make sure your voice is heard and tallied. Make change and give to women, children, men, and even animals rights that our US troops fight and die for every day. It is our duty to vote, our duty to make changes, and our duty make sure our children's children don't have the same battles, even if there is still a war.

It is our duty to improve as humans, progress, grow to respect everything and everyone regardless of religion, ethnicity, age, gender, sexual preference and so much more, and give all you can give.

Cheer.
Roar.
Vote.
Make change.
Write Senators.
Tell your stories.
Hang signs.
Carry signs.
Help make change.
Be a better human.

Thank you Wendy Davis.

On a end note, a Christian stated to me that it was morally wrong to abort a fetus, regardless of days, weeks, months. I simply replied with "Women who were raped. FREEDOM.". Message understood. Simple, easy, fast and it opened their eyes. This is an example of how you can make change with just a few words.

State Sen. Wendy Davis, D-Ft. Worth, late in the evening during her filibuster of abortion bills that descended into chaos as political drama unfolded at the Texas Capitol in the last hour of the 83rd Texas legislature's first called special session, June 26, 2013

Read more: http://nation.time.com/2013/07/09/filibustering-days-over-wendy-davis-faces-a-big-decision/#ixzz2Ycok82jL

The Kindle app for iPhone, iPad, PC and Mac is free, but do you really want to pay for a book to test it? Amazon offers 1000's of free books for the taking and the list grows daily. These are not just the classics, however the classics library has grown to over 2.5 million. You will find a wide range from fiction to nonfiction current books listed. 

Click to go to Amazons Free Book Collections and scroll down the Amazon page for more links to freebies for Kindle.

Here is a before and after photo of myself using the "Snapseed" iPhone/iPad app. With one click and one in-app filter called "grunge", I have a mystified the photo. This app is a personal favorite for general use in the photo apps category. It is pretty amazing what a filter can do for a face and its surroundings.

This photo was taken and manipulated 71 weeks ago according to my Instagram feed. Snapseed was bought out by Google shortly after that initial posting. Those big guys can't keep their paws off of the little guys hard work, right? Then again, for a few million bucks I would sign over my app and both of my kidneys to Google.

Why do I share this post? I get asked A LOT about what I use or do to my photos and avatars. Well, it is really pretty simple. Everything I do, from taking the photo to the finished manipulated product, is done on my iPhone using filters, filters, filters!

Originally, long ago, I paid for this app, but now it is free with "in-app purchases" for filters packs.

You can get Snapseed here: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/snapseed/id439438619?mt=8

"BENEFITS: 
• Easily adjust your photos with a single tap using Auto Correct 
• Tweak your photo to perfection with Tune Image 
• Use Selective Adjust to enhance specific objects or areas in your photos 
• Experiment with fun & innovative filters like Retrolux, Drama, Vintage, Grunge, and Tilt-Shift 
• Add one of the many high quality frames for a finishing touch 
• Share your creations via email, Google+, and other built-in sharing methods

SUPPORTS: 
• 6.25 MP images for iPad, iPhone 3GS, and iPod Touch (3rd & 4th Gen), 16 MP images for iPad 2 and iPhone 4, 4S, 20.25 MP images for iPad 3rd Gen and iPhone 5 (larger images will be automatically down sampled by iOS) 
• JPEG and TIFF photos 
• RAW photos (requires iPad, iPad2, or iPad 3rd Gen) transferred using the Camera Connector Kit (if files show up as a small thumbnail, go to Settings > Location Services and turn this setting to On for Snapseed. This is required to allow Snapseed to use the iOS RAW processing) 
• Language support: English, German, French, Spanish, Italian, Brazilian Portuguese, Japanese, Chinese (Traditional and Simplified), and Arabic"

On a side note, I am still working on moving my 100s of posts to this new location. Time is a rare luxury for me these days, and so is functional wifi or 3G/4G/LTE. I do have numerous posts about other photo apps that are going to be moved here soon enough. I know what is good, bad and what crashes your phone and crunches your photos! Get Snapseed for iPhone and iPad!

Until then, LL&P!

It's Sunday! What a crazy week!

I returned from Moore, OK to take care of some business. Soon after I had to make a trip to St. Louis. It was going to be a day trip, a very long day into night trip, but I had to stay the night. I returned from St. Louis Friday and a tornado hit across the street from where my hotel was. I missed it by a mere few hours and there was no sign of that weather coming! When I got home, I arrived to tornado watches, flash floods and areal flooding at my own house.

Today I will be tearing out my front bedroom carpet, which I use for storage, and my living room carpet. It was minor damage. It came up from under the house. It included sewer and dirt brown water. Hazardous? Slightly. Luckily the kitchen and other two bedrooms were a new addition with concrete and there was no overflow.

While I had my own issues, Oklahoma was hit by several tornadoes again. If that weren't bad enough, some crossed Moore--again! And to top off the tornado damage, buildings that weren't damaged took heavy flooding in. It's a whole new situation and mess when I arrive back.

I leave tomorrow afternoon. I may wait until early Tuesday to make sure my house is prepped for a month long dry out and away mission.

Good news? Of course! I started updating this blog with my older posts finally. Also, I have photos of my porch baby birds and animals below.

Tomorrow I will be giving you a very direct list of what, where and how to donate to Oklahoma and St. Louis tornado and flood victims. I'll need to verify listings first thing tomorrow so you don't waste time shipping or donating where it isn't needed.