Is anyone having problems with Blogger?

   I went to get on this blog and decided to check my stats.  I haven't been on for a while because I've been busy with other things.  I noticed I was getting an unusual large amounts of hits (I should say large for me but small for most of you since I get so few visitors) on a degree of mine I had posted part of when I was talking about some certificates I've gotten through the years...  I went to check it out  and as I read the blog I noticed the very 1st  image was missing - the reason for the post.  I looked at the rest of the post and noticed other things were missing too and I had not removed them. I decided to go ahead and remove them since I was uncomfortable about the way things were being tampered with this post.  I thought it was a problem with just that one post and went on to catch up with some blogs I like to follow and didn't look at any other posts of mine.
    I just was able to get back on this blog again.  I started to look at things and I've realized just about every post I have, has some missing images.  This is so sickening to me- just the thought of all the time and effort I went to upload and post them. Trying to remember what what was used and should be there.  Should I go to the effort to replace them or what?  What really gets to me is that most of the images that are missing are the ones that attract people to this blog. It's like someone has deliberately blocked my most popular images. Is this a virus? Was I deliberately sabotaged or iss it due to something else. I feel so frustrated about this - Should I give up on blogging?
IS ANYONE ELSE OUT THERE HAVING MISSING IMAGES ON THEIR BLOGS OR SIMILAR PROBLEMS WITH THEIR BLOG?  DOES ANYONE KNOW HOW I CAN GET THIS FIXED?

This Blog is now 1 year old

Today is this blogs first anniversary.
As you can see I wouldn't have many viewers if it wasn't for the Accretionary Wedge and for that I want to thank the people that thought up AW and have kept it going.   I have enjoyed participating in it. 

 Here's the most viewed items.

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Accretionary Wedge - 29: What Geologic feature abo... Dec 1, 2010, 4 comments  820 Pageviews

ACCRETIONARY WEDGE# 32 Mar 8, 2011, 4 comments  204 Pageviews

Call to Post - Accrectionary Wedge #29 Nov 7, 2010, 6 comments  172 Pageviews

Hodges Gardens State Park, LA Jun 2, 2011,  116 Pageviews

No place like home Mar 20, 2011,   116 Pageviews

Accretionary Wedge 28 Oct 25, 2010, 1 comment  109 Pageviews

Crepe Myrtle Jun 4, 2011,  92 Pageviews

AW-34 Weird Geology May 13, 2011, 2 comments  88 Pageviews

Bake Sale -- Accretionary Wedge- 30 Jan 21, 201,  1 73 Pageviews

  I also need to thank Lockwood over at Outside the Interzone.  We used to be friends and I found him again through facebook back in Aug 2009.  From his facebook page I discovered his blog.  Through his blog I discovered the geoblogshpere.  Through the geoblogsphere I found the Accretionary Wedge. 
   Up until then I had never been much on the computer, I always had too many other things going on.   But once I discovered the geoblogsphere I got hooked on viewing the various blogs.  I have a tendency to stick to the blogs that are active in the Accretionary Wedge.  Over the last couple of years I feel like these blogs authors have become my friends.  I love to read about all the wonderful things they are studying/ viewing/ thinking about -- I liked being able to be connected to geology again.  Geology has always been a love of mine and I had gotten away from it for various reasons.  It was nice to find other people who like geology as much as I do.

    I also need to thank Silver Fox - she was the one who finally convinced me that I needed to have a blog.  At first I didn't think I would want to post anything but then, I started to get into it and found out I did like doing it. 
   I know I'm not the best writer. I tell my kids you have to practice if you ever want to get good at something and writing post does give me some practice. It also makes me realize how much I've not used over that last 30 years since I've been out of college. Now a days I have very little reason to write, but feel like it is an important skill to have.  This blog does help me with that.
   And I know my geology is very rusty since I've been out of the field for close to 20 years and have forgotten a lot. Its amazing how when you don't work with something a lot how quickly you do forget stuff. Yet at the same time I am amazed that I do recall some of the stuff I do.  I like being able to go back and look at that stuff again.  But that's why I thing the geoblogsphere is so great.  I can refresh my memory and get update with what others are writing about.  I like the way it lets me explore so many different areas - areas that I may not have been able to study in great detail before. 
    I think it is so marvelous the way we can share images like we now can do.  I remembered when I got into the geology there were very few photographic images.  Most of the the things were hand drawn and written about.  Sometime you think you understand what is being discussed but then when you would see it in person it would make more sense to you.  With the images that are now shared it is another step along that line of helping you understand things better.  Although I must admit, to me, nothing beats going out to the outcrop itself and seeing the material first hand. 

    I decided to do this blog because my kids wanted me to get into the 21st century and become computer literate.  I thought if I could figure out how a blog works that would be a step along that line.  Like how to import links and images.  The funny thing about computers is that I used to be really into them back when I had more time to work with them.  I had a Commodore 64 (that 64 was for 64 Kilobytes of memory) in the early 1980's.  Then in the 90's I had a PC, and then a PC 286 and a PC 486 and a finally a pentium laptop.  After a while I got tired of always having to learn how a new system worked.  I got tired having to deal with adobe reader problems and not working with other things.  I got tired of dealing with viruses and other computer glitches. I didn't have the time to relearn all this stuff and got to the point I just settled with what I had.  Unfortunately what I had didn't have internet capability and thus that is how I got so out of date.  This blog was to get me into it again and it did do that job.

  I like having a blog because it let me keep other blogs that I like to follow in one spot.  It makes it easy to check up on them because I can see when new post are out.  At first I tried to connect with email feeds but I don't like that because of all the stuff that goes there and then having to plow through it all when I just want to find out what my meetings and such are. By having that feature I can go to them when I have time to really look at them and enjoy them.
    I also like the fact that I could keep my trips and such in one spot too.  I do have some post that I have not published - like my Ohio U reunion in Athens, Oh; a trip to Fort Smith, Jackson Ms, and Toledo Oh, that I may publish or may not but its nice to have them  in one spot so if I want to post them I can .. 

    One of the main reasons I wanted to get  involved is because I wanted to connect to other people.  I wanted to meet people that liked Geology too.  I am a little disappointed I just had two followers for the year - Dan and Meg.  I want to thank you two for making that connection, I really did appreciate that.  Because my followers were so few and it was discouraging to me to see it I decided to go ahead and remove that feature from my blog. 
  The good thing is I do know there are some people that follow me regularly through the All-Geo website and will look at my stuff that way.  I should also thank the people at the All-Geo website that do pass on my post to others.
   And finally I feel like I have made a friend through Dana Hunter @ En Tequila Es Verde.  I just love the way she writes - she has so much enthusiasm about it.  I'm glad she's channeled her talents to describing geologic items.  She gives me inspiration as to how I can improve my writing.  

I know this blog isn't as popular as some of the other blogs out there.  I sometimes wonder why I bother with it.  But to me its my stuff and Dana has encouraged me to keep after it if I'm only doing it for myself.  Who knows maybe someday it may uplift or give someone some pleasure when they wanted something to take there minds off of their own troubles.  I know the geoblogsphere was there for me when I really needed it the most to help deal with my brothers death.  There were many a night I would escape into those blogs and got so much comfort from them when I was try to get over my grief of my loss.  I loved the way they got me thinking about other things that had nothing to do with my life. I'm just grateful I now have a place I can escape to when I need to get a break from things.

Joining the Banned Books Week Meme

Dana Hunter had this post at En Tequila Es Verdad.  

Banned Books Week Meme

It's that time o' the year again, that joyous and irreverent turning up our ink-stained noses at the fools who think banning books is a good idea. Time for a meme, wouldn't you say?

I got this handy list of the most frequently-challenged books 2000-2009 from the American Library Association's website. I've highlighted the ones I've read in bold. Feel free to do the same, my darlings - and do treat yourself to some delicious literary contraband this week.

1. Harry Potter (series), by J.K. Rowling
2. Alice series, by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
3. The Chocolate War, by Robert Cormier
4. And Tango Makes Three, by Justin Richardson/Peter Parnell
5. Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck
6. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, by Maya Angelou
7. Scary Stories (series), by Alvin Schwartz
8. His Dark Materials (series), by Philip Pullman
9. ttyl; ttfn; l8r g8r (series), by Myracle, Lauren
10. The Perks of Being a Wallflower, by Stephen Chbosky
11. Fallen Angels, by Walter Dean Myers
12. It’s Perfectly Normal, by Robie Harris
13. Captain Underpants (series), by Dav Pilkey
14. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain
15. The Bluest Eye, by Toni Morrison
16. Forever, by Judy Blume
17. The Color Purple, by Alice Walker
18. Go Ask Alice, by Anonymous
19. Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger
20. King and King, by Linda de Haan
21. To Kill A Mockingbird, by Harper Lee
22. Gossip Girl (series), by Cecily von Ziegesar
23. The Giver, by Lois Lowry
24. In the Night Kitchen, by Maurice Sendak
25. Killing Mr. Griffen, by Lois Duncan
26. Beloved, by Toni Morrison
27. My Brother Sam Is Dead, by James Lincoln Collier
28. Bridge To Terabithia, by Katherine Paterson
29. The Face on the Milk Carton, by Caroline B. Cooney
30. We All Fall Down, by Robert Cormier
31. What My Mother Doesn’t Know, by Sonya Sones
32. Bless Me, Ultima, by Rudolfo Anaya
33. Snow Falling on Cedars, by David Guterson
34. The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big, Round Things, by Carolyn Mackler
35. Angus, Thongs, and Full Frontal Snogging, by Louise Rennison
36. Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley
37. It’s So Amazing, by Robie Harris
38. Arming America, by Michael Bellasiles
39. Kaffir Boy, by Mark Mathabane
40. Life is Funny, by E.R. Frank
41. Whale Talk, by Chris Crutcher
42. The Fighting Ground, by Avi
43. Blubber, by Judy Blume
44. Athletic Shorts, by Chris Crutcher
45. Crazy Lady, by Jane Leslie Conly
46. Slaughterhouse-Five, by Kurt Vonnegut
47. The Adventures of Super Diaper Baby, by George Beard
48. Rainbow Boys, by Alex Sanchez
49. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, by Ken Kesey
50. The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini
51. Daughters of Eve, by Lois Duncan
52. The Great Gilly Hopkins, by Katherine Paterson
53. You Hear Me?, by Betsy Franco
54. The Facts Speak for Themselves, by Brock Cole
55. Summer of My German Soldier, by Bette Green
56. When Dad Killed Mom, by Julius Lester
57. Blood and Chocolate, by Annette Curtis Klause
58. Fat Kid Rules the World, by K.L. Going
59. Olive’s Ocean, by Kevin Henkes
60. Speak, by Laurie Halse Anderson
61. Draw Me A Star, by Eric Carle
62. The Stupids (series), by Harry Allard
63. The Terrorist, by Caroline B. Cooney
64. Mick Harte Was Here, by Barbara Park
65. The Things They Carried, by Tim O’Brien
66. Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, by Mildred Taylor
67. A Time to Kill, by John Grisham
68. Always Running, by Luis Rodriguez
69. Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury
70. Harris and Me, by Gary Paulsen
71. Junie B. Jones (series), by Barbara Park
72. Song of Solomon, by Toni Morrison
73. What’s Happening to My Body Book, by Lynda Madaras
74. The Lovely Bones, by Alice Sebold
75. Anastasia (series), by Lois Lowry
76. A Prayer for Owen Meany, by John Irving
77. Crazy: A Novel, by Benjamin Lebert
78. The Joy of Gay Sex, by Dr. Charles Silverstein
79. The Upstairs Room, by Johanna Reiss
80. A Day No Pigs Would Die, by Robert Newton Peck
81. Black Boy, by Richard Wright
82. Deal With It!, by Esther Drill
83. Detour for Emmy, by Marilyn Reynolds
84. So Far From the Bamboo Grove, by Yoko Watkins
85. Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes, by Chris Crutcher
86. Cut, by Patricia McCormick
87. Tiger Eyes, by Judy Blume
88. The Handmaid’s Tale, by Margaret Atwood
89. Friday Night Lights, by H.G. Bissenger
90. A Wrinkle in Time, by Madeline L’Engle
91. Julie of the Wolves, by Jean Craighead George
92. The Boy Who Lost His Face, by Louis Sachar
93. Bumps in the Night, by Harry Allard
94. Goosebumps (series), by R.L. Stine
95. Shade’s Children, by Garth Nix
96. Grendel, by John Gardner
97. The House of the Spirits, by Isabel Allende
98. I Saw Esau, by Iona Opte
99. Are You There, God?  It’s Me, Margaret, by Judy Blume
100. America: A Novel, by E.R. Frank

That's a pathetic showing, I admit. time to get readin'.

  I went ahead and undid hers that were in bold and then made bold the ones I've read.  What really surprised me is the fact that some of them I read simply because my children were required to read them in school.  I like to read what they are reading just so I can know if they are getting the material or answer any questions they may develop due to what they have read.  There are only one or two that I can understand being on that list.  Some of them totally baffle me why they would be on it like the Captain Underpants stuff and Julie of the Wolves.  I know some of these are award winning books, because of the social issues they bring to light.  
   My thoughts on this is: a book that gets a child reading is good, and its up to the parent to monitor what they read.  If you don't want your child reading a book then explain to them why it is objectionable to you. Its not up to the schools to make that call - to me its what parenting is all about.
  I also feel the surest way for a child to want to read something is to find out it is banned.  I know when I was younger I was always curious about the banned items and why they would be banned.  I was good at finding ways to get copies of banned books to read with my friends so we could see what was so objectionable. (I went to a catholic school and there were a lot of banned books/movies that we weren't suppose to read like J R Tolkiens 'Lord of the Rings' one of my all time favorites.) If they just would put the copy on the shelf and make no big deal about it most kids will ignore the book if you have a well stock library. There are too many other books out there to get their attention.

Now I muse upon what book I should read next to find out why someone would want to ban it.

East Texas Oil Museum, Kilgore Texas

  On Saturday, I headed over to East Texas to look at some rocks in a backyard sale.  My husband and I were done looking or I should say I couldn't carry any more rocks and had to stop looking, around 3:30.  We decided to head back home. On the way to the sale we noticed signs for the East Texas Oil Museum  in Kilgore Texas.  Years before we had taken our kids to that museum and liked it a lot. On the way back my husband suggested we visit it again.  We got there at 4:00 an hour before closing.  We missed the last viewing of the movie but was able to enjoy everything else.
Here's some of the photos I took of the place that isn't in its web page.

 The front as you drive up to it.

 The wooden oil rig that sits out front of the museum

 More pictures of the wooden rig and how it was set up.  This is suppose to be a replica of the one that discovered the East Texas oil field.

 Some of the equipment that was used during that time

 I liked seeing this drill bit.  It was the deepest fishing job and went to a depth of 31,441 feet for the tune of  $6 million dollars.  I was amazed that they would go for recovering it and not abandoning that well.  No telling how much it cost to drill that deep.

 I liked seeing this sign that showed all the different products made from petroleum.  Sometimes I have a tendency to forget all the things that are derived from oil.

 A picture of Joiner and Lloyd the discoverers of the field.

 They had a wall with different people who where honor for their work in the Oil industry.

 I liked this display of belt buckles of the different companies that were involved in the area. 

 This was interesting showing the outline of the field.

 They had a display case of other economic rocks from the area. 

 I thought this display was really clever.  They had made quilted pictures using leather showing different oil traps.  The black was the oil. I saw this display in the gift shop area and was hoping they were for sale, but they weren't.  I wouldn't mind having some of these pictures in my home and said someone could make some money making replicas of these displays. 

This was a replica of a present day working rig.  I thought it was interesting to look at these and to see how some things are still the same while others have evolved over time.

They had a replica of a museum. I felt the display explaining this was weak and could use some work, especially if you didn't take the elevator ride or see the movie- after all it was suppose to be a replica of the museum and you think museums would talk about the geology of the area.. -- It was the geology in the area that made it so famous.
There was an Elevator ride that describe the geology that you go through to get to the pay zone. I thought it was a cute idea riding the elevator deep down into the earth. (You really didn't but they just rolled the display so it looked like you were).   Basically the they talked/showed the different formations: 
Queen City
Reckaw
Carizzo
Wilcox
 - Wilcox is important because it has lignite in it.(swamps and near shore material)
Midway Chalk - composed  mostly of forminifera (ocean deposits)At 1800 ft
Navarro Sandstone - @2200 ft
Marlbrook
Pecan Gap -@2800 ft
Brownstone @3100 ft
Austin Chalk @ 3400 ft which acts as the trapping mechanism.
Woodbine Sandstone @4200 ft - the pay zone
  ( they didn't talk about how old it was or what type of environment it was deposited in.  Just that it was a sandstone with a lot of space for the oil.)
Under the Woodbine is the Wichita Limestone which is probably the source rock for the oil.
They did talk about the Woodbine being pinched out and that forming the trapping mechanism, but very little about the Sabine uplift causing the pinchout.
The show was only 8 minutes long, and I know they kept it short to keep kids attention but I did feel like they could have made it maybe10 minutes long and added a bit more geologic information. It did mention that the East Texas field was a water drive field with the water pushing the oil up to the Woodbine pinchout against the Austin chalk.  The Austin chalk is a very tight formation and is mined in the south with it being a good source rock for making cement.

  The museum did a very good job of capturing the feel of what it would have been like to live in Kilgore during those early years of 1930's. I think when we saw it before, the kids liked to see how their grandparents lived.  They couldn't get over the fact there was no TV's or computers and just had radio and going out to the movies - things like that made very interesting to see. If you look at the website you can see the way the town was during that time.


After we were done at the museum we decided to drive around Kilgore.  They have a lot of interesting oil and gas things to see in the area.  I was draw by seeing all these derricks that were so close together.  Usually in the industry the closest wells can be is on 5 acre spacing and these were a lot closer than 5 acres.

 I couldn't imagine how they got so many rigs so close together.

Then we read the signs and found out that this was a replica of the richest acre in the world back when the East Texas Oil field was being developed in the early 1930's.  It was  because of wells being so close together like this that they started to regulate the spacing of wells to keep the integrity of the field going.

 I thought it made a nice little park to go and see.

Around the corner from this park was another park that kids could play at.  Called Christmas tree park.  It wasn't named for Christmas trees but the equipment that is used in drilling wells and keeping them from blowing out.

 Some other pictures of the Christmas tree park

And finally I just had to get a shot of the Texas Railroad Commission since I used to have to deal with them a lot back in my days of working in the oil industry.  I always thought it was such an unusual name for being in charge of regulating the oil industry.

Muse thought:  I wonder what it must have been like to own some acreage back in the early 1930's.  And how heartbreaking it must have been if you were on the otherside of the Woodbine pinchout.

Rocking Backyard sale

  I went to the Gem and mineral show back in August ( here ), while I was there I met some interesting people.  One person in particular I had a good time talking with.  He was a vendor and my son bought a geode from him and had it cracked open.  Because I got a couple of things from him he gave me a flier describing a backyard rock sale he was going to have in East Texas on Sept 24.
  I took the flier to be polite and almost filed it away in my trash can but for some reason I decided to keep it.  I never really thought I would go but I kept on thinking about all the nice stuff this guy had at the gem & mineral show.
  Saturday the 24 rolled around and I was surprised we had nothing on the calendar.  Usually there is some kid activity we have to go to like a football game or outing.  My youngest son spent the night at a friends house and my husband and I found ourselves all alone.  My birthday & my second son's birthday is in a couple of days and my husband wanted to know what else we had going on this week.  We looked at the calendar and realized that next weekend we were going be very busy unloading pumpkins and working in the pumpkin patch.  My husband said if we are going to celebrate it we better do it today, (my son is away at college so we are not planning on doing much with him for his birthday - we'll do it when he gets a break and can come home and visit).  He asked me what I really would like to do to celebrate it. I thought about it and had a hard time coming up with anything, but then I remembered the flier I suggested going to backyard rock sale.  I was surprised my husband said sure why not and we got in the car and drove an hour to this rock sale.
  Needless to say I was in seventh heaven totally enjoying it, while my husband was bored.  I was very thankful there was a mall close by and he was able to go there and kill some time at it.  After awhile he came back to see if I was done yet but I wasn't.  He had found a football game on the car radio station and said for me to take all the time I wanted because he was going to go sit in the car and listen to it.  So I was able to spend all the time I wanted to at that place. The flier said there were 35 Tons!! of rocks and I believed.  I was able to get some stuff that I probably would never have been able to get on my own, considering where I live. 

I knew I was going to enjoy this place the moment I saw how his storage shed was design with these shelves of rocks on the outside.

 Then you notice the storage bins all crammed full of rocks from all over the world.  Like these:

And here's this one where you can see how many are in each bin.

And this  was his back yard.  I was amazed that they would have so many rocks.

 I asked him were they all came from and he told me that his son was a geologist and got him interested in rocks and how he could sell them and make some money.  He said he acquires industrial equipment and sell it to others.  Frequently when he gets stuff there is rocks that come with the whole package deal.  Through his son they've been able to pick out the stuff that will sell.  They supply a lot of people with the stones that they use to do lapidary work.
  Now on to the stuff that I acquired.

 Left top - a crystallized bivalve.  Top Right gastropod Exogyra Ponderosa, and bottom is a piece of a ammonite shell.

Oolitic sandstone

turrelite

 With this one I learned something new.  Turrelite is 'A Texas asphalt shale' (I need to pass this word to Evelyn when she gets to T's at Georneys).  The picture above is the weathered surface, while the one below is the cracked open surface.  

turrelite

Amethyst

 I liked this Amethyst because it had such nice crystalline form, plus it showed how there was no cleavage in it but had a conchoidal fracture to it which is so typical of quartz. 

Blue Azurite and green Malachite

Sphalerite

Sodalite

 This one intrigued me.  It is a gneiss but some of the minerals were hard to figure out.  The guy I got it from was stumped by this one too.  I've taken a couple of different images of it at different angles.  I think the black minerals are in the garnet family based on the shape.  But they were definitely altered. 

 Above the top of the rock had some shiny stuff that looks gold to copper in color.  (Any insight on this rock would be greatly appreciated.)

Muscovite and Muscovite in a granite type rock.

 The guy told me the rock below had tourmaline in it and was a granite.  I thought he was totally wrong on that one - I thought the black mineral would be a hornblende and is probably  in andesite or a tuff.

(Cath made a comment and so I decided to edit and add a few more pictures of this rock from different angles.

petrified wood

I was able to get all sorts of petrified wood.  I could tell they obtained a lot of it and that was what most of the lapidary people were looking at. I liked the one above because you could see a branch on it.  Also it had quartz veins running through it that may be opal.

Petrified wood

 Looking at the petrified wood I could tell it came from different places.  I asked the vendor but he didn't know where it came from.  The bottom piece looked like it may have been from Arizona while the other two big pieces look like they may have been from south Louisiana.

Obsidian

 I liked the rainbow obsidian because it did have the two colors it it and showed good conchodial fracturing. The other one I liked because it had feldspar phenocrysts in it.

Basalt

 I liked this piece of basalt because I could see the columnar joints on it.

Anthracite

 At first I thought this maybe another piece of obsidian or basalt.  But when I picked it up it was lighter than the other rocks like that.  It was in a separate bin with a lot of other rocks similar to it.  The more I looked at the rocks in the bin I realized they were probably Anthracite.  I need to do more tests on it before I'll know for sure if it anthracite or so something else.

 There were lots of geodes and parts of geodes to look at. Here's some that I just called it chalcedony or agate. Below is another one that I liked the colors that were in it.

Agate

I liked the color in the one below.  I thought it was an unusual yellow color. 

chert/ agate

There were some good samples of quarts.

clear quartz with hexagonal, trigonal-trapezohedral crystalline stucture, next to some rose quartz

 

I thought this was an usual looking rock.  The vendor and I tried to figure it out.  I think at one time there was a shell there that has dissolved away and was later filled in with a siliceous solution.  The pieces that chip away and revile a fresh surface that looks like chert.

This next rock I really like.  When I saw the side I was WOW!! a minnie normal fault!  With the right side the down side.

 Then when I looked at the top of it, it was so neat to see the ripple marks on it.  It was definitely a keeper and one I had to get.

Rhyolite

 

 The vendor called this one Chinese paper ??? but I forgot the whole name.  To me it was just a basalt with feldspar in it, most likely orthoclase, plagioclase (thanks for the correction Cath).

Gypsum/selenite

Unakite

 This one through me.  I thought it was plagioclase in a olivine, but the vendor gave it a specific name so I wrote it down.  When I got home I was able to find it on my one chart.  I like learning new stuff like this.

Aventurine

 At first I thought these were the same.  But when it came time to get them I found out one was amazonite and the other aventurine.  When I got home I couldn't remember which was which and had to look them up in my references.  I think I got them right because the Aventurine is associated with quartz. While the amazonite is a green variety of microcline.

amazonite

jasper

scoria

 and finally this one - a gneiss.

With that I wish you a gneiss day.