To all the Fundies that like to play word games with Obamas' name

Fundies like to say Obama-Biden = Osama bin Laden

Give this a quick think.

McCain. Remove the Mc. That's right, Cain. The first Murderer.

:þ

It was bound to happen sooner or later

After umteen gigs of photographs taken, my first SD card for my camera has fallen to the wayside. A small piece of the casing fell off and it wouldn't work in the built in SD card reader on my computer, nor could the camera read it. I pried the back off and checked. The flash memory itself was undamaged. I pressed it into the front of the SD case and gingerly put it in the external card reader. Blue light came on, auto play started, and I breathed a sigh of relief. I was at least able to recover the photographs that I hadn't offloaded.

I showed the naked flash memory to aikidomayland. "Can I get a new SD card now?" He sighed and said yes.

I do wish there was a way to updated the firmware on my camera to take the 4 gig or above cards, but alas no.

One day later

And my calf still hurts. Been reading up on severe leg cramps, like the one I had last night. It's not unusual for it to continue to hurt for a few days. Also, taking quinine, magnesium, and potassium supplements will prevent them.

I only had the one, but am still feeling the after effects.

How to remodel a paper bag

aka "How the heck does he fit into that?

The remodeling consists of Loki putting a window in the back, and a small vent on the top. As you can see, he fill the bag!

Then he did a boneless U turn inside of the bag.

Nap time!

Would have preferred the alarm clock this morning

Or even the cats waking me up. Rolling over and the feeling as if the muscle on my calf was trying to self destruct isn't what I would call a pleasant way.

The apple sized knot of cramped muscle on my calf suddenly came up. I felt my eyes cross, and I called out for aikidomayland and manged to gasp "Cramp right calf" and rolled over. He had no problem finding it as it was an extended almost fist sized knot of muscle sticking out. After he was done pushing toes towards my knee, and massaging at the same time, I was able to breath. I tried to stand, and am lucky the bathroom door frame was nearby.

All day, it's been wanting to cramp up again. Have a feeling I am low on potassium. I tried to take my scooter out, but the second I tried to push it to the door, that fist sized cramp made an appearance again. Assumed the position: toes on the wall, heel on the floor and leaned towards the wall. I sent aikidomayland a text message and asked him to bring some bananas home. *sigh*

Calf still hurts. :/

A *really* Teensy Weensy Spider

Normally I would have cropped the photograph to get ‘closer’ view of the spider, but I wanted to show the perspective on size compared to the screen and splining, to show small the critter was.

Lumix DMC-FZ30
Digital King Macro lens
Twin Thyristor Flash
Focal Length 10mm
Exp 1/30 sec at F/4
ISO-100

This used to be

A small 6 inch tall (from the ground up) rosemary plant.

It's becoming a nice little shrub! Delicious too, even friends have told me it's the sweetest smelling rosemary they have ever smelled.

Brown bagging a cat?

Loki entertains himself with a paper bag.

The dreaded "Year of Firsts"

aikidomayland is having a rough time. Anyone who has lost something knows about the "Year of the Firsts". First birthday, first Christmas, first New Years without someone.

It's his first Fathers' Day coming up without Pop. He hasn't been sleeping very well, is withdrawn, and obviously depressed. There's nothing to be done except to muddle through it, and wait for the next "First" to come along.

A trip down memory lane

JediNightwolf and me at The Devils Hopyard, CT, Nov 1998.

I kept trying to hide behind my hands, and he grabbed my arms. Ah well, all in good fun.

Australian Mountain Ducks aka Shelducks

I wanted to get both the male and the female close up, but I couldn't get them both in the same frame. So, two close up shots, merged.

Lumix DMC-FZ30
Focal Length 89mm
Exp 1/400 sec at F/4
ISO-80

Men of 'religion'

Whenever they get cold busted doing something illegal, they never ever own up and take responsibility for their actions.

It's always something that made them do it.

Drug addiction
Gay or Hetero Sex addiction
Porn Addiction
Alcohol Addiction.

*coughcoughbullshitcoughcough*

Dude, you stole lots of money from people, and it had nothing to do with you playing one handed while checking out porn. If you had been busy with that, you wouldn't have had the time or energy to scheme and plot a way to rip your parishioners off.

While leaving Foo Gwai this past Sunday

It was a multi-staged pork bun sacrifice to akire-yta!

As Delicious Irony,  Discordia13 and Bunny_M, aikidomayland and I  were walking back to our cars as a gaggle of chatty people, I spotted this huge adult raven walking up to a puddle , and got a couple of good shots.  

He watched me, I watched him.

Wade in and sip or admiring his reflection?

Lumix DMC-FZ30
Focal Length 89mm
Exp 1/320sec at F/4
ISO-80

as always, click on image for full posted size.

Loki is diabolical in his timing and foot placement

Right in the middle of posting a reply, just as I was going to do some more editing of a reply after a preview, he leaps onto the keyboard (short cut to the windowsill) one back foot lands on CRTL and Z, and and front foot lands on ENTER key.

I am very glad that LiveJournal has 'edit reply' feature. Oy

*snrk*

see more pwn and owned pictures

Macro photography

A spider sits in the middle of its web. Taken at night. Spider is about 1 cm in length. Had to reach up with the camera to get the photograh

Common Orb spider in Western Australia. Not sure what exact species.

Lumix DMC-FZ30
Focal Length 7.4 mm
Exp 1/30 sec at f/4.0
Bounce flash
ISO 100

Oh really?

Some idiot is trying to tell me that art created by digital means isn't 'real', and for me to hang my original art on the wall, I would have to hang the harddrive on the wall, because anything else would be a lie.

I countered with "I guess you should be hanging sables and camels on the walls because that is what your brushes are made out of? Maybe you should go out and grind rocks and mix the tints with egg yolks too?"

His comments and rants are reminiscent of what people used to say when cameras were being used, how those portraits aren't 'real' art. What is with people that if anything new tech-wise, they have to circle the wagons and denigrate it?

Different Digital Painting programs I tried with Wacom

1: ArtRage: small program, doesn't hog system resources. But for me, it's too clumsy. The brush controls are thick and counter intuitive. There is a free version and an inexpensive $25 US shareware version.

2: Corel PainterX: pretty good all round painting program. Anyone who has used any older PaintShop Pro programs will feel right at home, as the tool bar layout and keyboard short cuts are still the same. Many good brushes and tools makes for good results. There are some plugins available too. Expensive price tag of $349 US will put off most newbies.

3: Adobe PhotoShop CS3: Comes with many tools and many brushes, and also has importable brushes. Can also use a lot of the Alien Skin plugins. I would suggest this program for the experienced digital painter, as beginners could easily be overwhelmed. It's a great program, but the price tag of $649 and $999 US will put most people off.

3a: Adobe Illustrator: Comes with many templates, swatches, shapes and brushes, All the functionality of PhotoShop, but less photograph centered and more drawing/painting. It is a little less expensive than Photoshop, but not by much at $599 US.(I have CS2 that I got years ago, the latest is CS3)

4: TwistedBrush Pro Studio: Easy to set up, easy to use, whether a newbie or experienced digital painter. There are many brushes, pencils, chalk, pen, and object brushes. Art filters and effects are included with the software. I have found this to be the hands down winner overall. Compared to the cost of Corel and Adobe, the $119 US price tag will attract not only the experienced digital painter, but will not be too much of a shocker for the beginner.

Oh... my

I logged onto my RedBubble site to check for messages, and found something that kind of made me boggle.

I was looking through some of the group photos thinking to myself which would inspire me to want to draw/paint; and, sure enough I found myself being attracted to seeing this work just like a magnet; I mean, I looked…then, tried looking elsewhere…then, went back to look again…; went off once more…went back to go take yet another look. For me, any artwork which I tend to find myself returning to again and again; this tells me that work touches me really very deeply.

In my opinion, you are a truly GREAT photographer…because, after looking through all of your gallery…I can see you do it not just once, alone…but, again and again, successfully…creating some truly ‘unforgettable’ photos. Extremely well done. Your talents are just brilliant!

I take photos myself occasionally; but, unlike you, I’m not very skilled or technical; so I only use 35mm(point and shoot)/use once, then, throw away cameras/or else, my LG mobile phone camera. So, certainly I deeply appreciate any tips that you have to offer me to improve. Thus, I noted especially what you said in your profile, the gist of which went ‘you take photos like you were making a film; this helps you to focus; and, also, to be very highly selective.’ - Anyway, thanks a lot for the tip; I promise I won’t ever forget it! ;)

shadoutcarver says "Next step, your own exhibition."

Filed under "Pot meet kettle"*

Last night, while staring at the wall, waiting for the NurofenPLus to kick in to relieve dental visit pain, aikidomayland started snoring behind me. And when he snores, the sounds can build up to be like a chain saw going down a well.

The Pot/Kettle is this: He snored so loud, he startled himself awake, and then he jostled me to tell me I was snoring too loud and he couldn't sleep.

Made me want to fwap him with a pillow.

I see a nap sometime in my future.

*Also proof of what I had though was happening for a long long time

Run silent, run deep

Since both Loki and Keito are in for the night, we took their collars off for brushing and grooming, and decided to leave them off for a while. It has been an hilarious night of silent stalking and pouncing. *snickerteehee* It's hilarious watching a cat levitate 3ft into the air from a standstill from being surprised by the other.

Yup, this about sums it up.

A small bit of deviousness

After my friend shadoutcarver had looked at my latest digital art work, and made suggesting about changing it, I told her no.

Then I explained my reasons why I was going to leave the one I posted on my blog the way it was.

The ones I post on my blog are not the perfect end product. I leave small things that I have fixed from the final 'salable' artwork on the blogged ones. Why? Not due to me thinking my work is sought after, but because people will help themselves to images they find on the web, I post the 'almost' completed versions here.

I showed shadoutcarver the version on my sales site.

But the funny thing is, she spotted what was off with the one I posted on my webblog. She has a good eye.

Drill and fill aka Dental visit

Got right side upper and lower cleaned, and one loose filling replaced, Have another filling the dentist said was 'dodgy' and when I told her that tooth is heat and cold sensitive, an appointment was made to have the filling replaced.

My mouth is numb, and I talk like Sylvester The Cat. :D

Japanese Vase

Digital art created by TwistedBrush Pro Studio

A nice surprise

I had mentioned offhandedly to a friend of mine in US that I missed "Cheez-it", as it's going on 9 yrs since i had had some. They go great with minestrone soup.

He kindly offered to send me some.

Less than two weeks later, I get a card in the mailbox (yes, the one yesterday where the driver refused to stop). that I had a parcel to pick up. I had expected it to be a small parcel, about the size of a mouse pad, but the thickness of a large book. Imagine my suprise when it turned out to be this:

Luckily the carton fit on the center of my scooter and I could use the pedals as foot pegs.

Gonna have to send him something for his birthday. :D (thinks of huggin' the stuffins' outta Jared)

Who needs a guard dog when you have guard cats?

Loki spotted neighbors dog in the road.

Keito stands guard with Loki, watching the progress of neighbors' dog in the road.

*snrk*

Mondays' Sunday Recap

As I posted yesterday, I had gotten up very early to take photos of the eclipse. Unfortunately, as the Earth rotates so the Moon, and its show, dipped below the trees. Such is life.

Loaded up the car for archery, allowing aikidomayland to get a bit extra shut eye. Got text message from Delicious Irony about company at Foo Gwai. We were amenable.

Archery was good. Got to demonstrate to new group of newbies the differences between long bows, static recurves, and compound bows. One of the women asked "Is it harder to shoot the horse bows, than the other type?" Oh yeah.

Met up with Delicious Irony and Discordia13 at Foo Gwai, and had a marvelous lunch. Belated Happy Birthday to Discordia. 4 way Pork bun sacrifice to akire-yta was a marvel to behold.

Today, the Postal Delivery guy and me are gonna have words. He pulled up, and by the time it took for me to get to the door, he had started to pull down the driveway, leaned out and dumped a "Sorry to have missed you card" and took off. All with me at the top of the drive way yelling HELLO! HELLO! WAIT! (and those who know the lay out, know the carport is less than 50 ft from the mail box.) He starts driving away. HEY! WAIT!!!! Didn't even turn his head, and turned the corner and away he went.

I said "Oh for F&&KS sake!" and one of the neighbors asked "Did he just bloody well ignore you?" Seemed it to me. I called the post office and told them this time, I am filing a complaint.

Candid Photography

Young boy examines his fathers’ arrows.

Love the hat. :))

Lumix DMC-FZ30 full 12x zoom
Focal Length 89mm
Exp 1/800 sec at f/4
ISO-100

Well, I tried

Lunar eclipse early this morning. Was up, camera and tripod ready... and all the fewking trees were blocking my view, no matter where I stood.

Next time, I get on my scooter and scout for clear location.

Oh, it's gonna be a long day for me.

Grrrrr

Perfect candid shot lined up.. right until some idiot, who wasn't any where near the shot, said "Hey Look! She's taking your picture!"

&$%#^&$&. (use whatever epithet you so choose)

There is no need for Australia to limit electric bikes to 200 watts to keep them at 30 kph

The purported reason for keeping electric scooters and electric assist bikes at 200 watts is supposedly to keep them at 20mph (30kph), therefore not requiring license and registration. But that makes going up any sort of continual uphill difficult, and trip planning an exercise in creativity. There are 350 to 750 watt motors that give the uphill power, but don't go above the legal 30 kph.

Although regulations vary by state, federal law classifies electric bikes as bicycles, and no license or registration is required as long as they don't go faster than 20 mph and their power doesn't exceed 750 watts.

Price largely determines weight, quality and battery type. A few hundred dollars gets you an IZIP mountain bike from Amazon with a heavy lead-acid battery. For $1,400, you can buy a 250-watt folding bike powered by a more-powerful, longer-lasting nickel-metal hydride battery like those in a camera or a Toyota Prius. At the high end, $2,525 buys an extra-light 350-watt model sporting a lightweight lithium-ion battery similar to a laptop's. Most models can go at least 20 miles before plugging in to recharge.

I'm not looking to set any landspeed records, but considering how hilly it is where I live, a bit more oomph to get up some of these hills would be nice.

Candid Photography

"Veggies are his business"
Restocking the mixed salad greens bin so fast, his hands are a blur of motion.

I was reading on the Candid photography forum, a complaint as to why so and sos picture was declined, and why one was accepted.

The rejected photograph was a general beach scene, and it didn't meet the criteria of "photos that are taken of persons going about their daily lives – and are not aware of a camera present. We want to see captures – slices of time ", not by a long shot.

Personally, I think the complaint was was sour grapes on the part of the person whose photograph was kicked back. I looked at the one he complained subject must have known she was being photographed.

My comment was this:

I looked at "Midnight Against the wall". IMO If the subject had been looking directly at the camera, then the complaint about it not being candid would be valid. But she is looking off to her left and up at someone. Not at the camera.

A good zoom lens, and enough light around the subject and that could have been taken from 50 ft away, unbeknown to the her, even if the she is looking in that direction.

I have had images rejected, and once I fixed it or re-shot it, it got accepted. It's called learning and improving.

Todays' Lesson: Courtesy

Dear kind sweet lovable aikidomayland;
When you take your shower in the morning, and you use up all the hot water, knowing full well I have plans to go out so I too need a shower, and also knowing that the sun won't hit the solar panels until much much later in the morning (10amish), it would be common courtesy for you to turn the booster on before you go.

That is all.

Starry Southern Night Skies

No where near as star filled as the visible Northern Hemisphere at night, but enough. It's amazing how much the eye can't see that the camera picks up. Will be trying thing again when there isn't an almost full moon in the sky.

Lumix DMCFZ30
Focal Length 7.5mm
30 second exposure at f/2.8
ISO-80

Well, that's done

For the price of one emergency vet visit, both the furwads are covered medically for a year.

My favorite lines in Hellboy 2

Hellboy and Abe talking about how Abe feels about the Princess.

HB "Yup, you're in love." and offers Abe a beer.

"My body's a temple."

"Now it's an amusement park."

Atonal singing of Barry Manilow ballads ensue.

Hello, I am low blood sugar... have we met?

Gah! The shakes, twitching, numbness, dizziness, and then a headache.

Must be more careful.

Dental visit

The good news is my teeth are in pretty good shape. I do have some cracks that the dentist thinks are due to me clenching teeth because of stress. The big problem is gums/bone. We are hopeful to stabilize them, and if not, I will see specialist on building the bone back up.

Going back next Wednesday to have other side cleaned, and a possible drill and fill.

Yeah, toys

I am tired of being housebound due to not knowing how to get anywhere.

Solved that quick-fast-and-in-a-hurry. Got a portable GPS that has 'bike path' mapping option. Will be planning trips that will bypass some of those really steep hills that might be a bit too much for my scooter. I expect to put a lot of mileage on my e-scooter.

Went to the dentist office today, to see if I could finally be in a dentist chair without it pulling really hard on my lower back. Dr Ian isn't there anymore, but I was told they would keep to the promise about "you can do whatever needs be done, cleaning, drilling, whatever, but numb my mouth first! I could sit in the chair with only one position being umm uncomfortable. I know I am 2 yrs overdue for a check up, but they agreed I had more important things to take care of first.

So, I go in tomorrow for exam, and probably to make an appointment for a cleaning. I know I need something done to one of my front teeth, the one slightly overlapped by the other, so probably has the start of, if not already a cavity.

More Wacom Bamboo work

Kandyce McClure, star of "Battlestar Galactica" and "Jeremiah"

This isn't a photograph put through an art filter, but a digital painting done with TwistedBrush Pro Studio. Click on image for full sized.

:o

Soul legend Isaac Hayes dead at 65

(CNN) -- Soul singer and arranger Isaac Hayes, who won Grammy awards and an Oscar for the theme from the 1971 action film "Shaft," has died, sheriff's officials in Memphis, Tennessee, reported Sunday.
Relatives found Hayes, 65, unconscious in his home next to a still-running treadmill, said Steve Shular, a spokesman for the Shelby County Sheriff's Department.

The little things that brighten your day

I got this notification:

Dear Ms. Chung!

I want to personally congratulate you. Your photograph "Looking for grasses" has won in "Western_Australia" . This is an honor your fellow photograph enthusiasts have bestowed upon you, and it is my pleasure to inform you of your victory!

Your work is the kind that we are proud to have here on PicPublisher. I hope that you continue to capture the world around you, and share it with the members of PicPublisher. As your high ranking indicates, we are always happy to see more of your fine work. Keep it up!

Bag 'o Merlot

aikidomayland is a wine efficianado and somewhat of a snob about it. Since he took a 'wine course', he will wax on prosaic about bouquet, nose, oak aged etc etc. Me, I am a bit more basic. I will just say sample A tastes better than B or C. I know all the proper terms, but find them pretentious.

On Catch of the Day, we got a heck of a bargain on a case of export quality 2004 vintage collection of reds, Cabernet, Merlot, and Shiraz.

They arrived and they are in 'bags':

Now we know why the shipping charges were so low. Glass bottles would have been much heavier. This didn't lessen the quality of the Merlot. It was very nice. And there was no worry about it being 'corked'. I have had a few glasses of wine that tasted like slightly mildewed cork. bleh!

I see me marinating medallions of good quality beef or making a red wine sauce to dress it. Maybe some waygu.

I wonder how many have done this?

08:08 am on 08-08-08

Candid Photography

Waiting for the Bus.

We are looking for photos that are taken of persons going about their daily lives – and are not aware of a camera present. We want to see captures – slices of time – of people without the reservation that naturally comes with photography. The primary subject of the image should be a person or persons. The story emanating from the photo must be dominated by the person/s in the photo – and not ancillary or incidental. This can be in the way of a full candid portrait, or a wider scene – but always with the human subjects as the main focus. We are not after snaps of your family while they are not looking. There is not much challenge in that. Candid photography of strangers can be very challenging – and that is exactly what we are after.

Riddle me this

Why is it the only time the Post Office tries to deliver something, and you are home, is that 10 minute time slot that you are in the shower?

Oh well

I might end up bowing to the inevitable.

I finally downloaded and have been trialling PhotoShop CS3. It loads up faster, and has more tools so I might not end up jogging between it and another graphics program to get things done. Most of the plugins I have been using with CS2 work with CS3, and the few that don't, the installed stand alone version still works, so if I *really* need to use that particular plugin, I can, it's just not as convenient.

I have a few more weeks of putting it through it's paces before deciding.

MUhahahahahaah

My Unitarian Jihad Name is: Sister Cattle Prod of Enlightenment. What's yours?

Isn't this the way?

The first beautiful sunny day in a few weeks, so I packed up a camera, hopped on my e-scooter, and headed out. Paid a few bills, and headed back to the park.

For a long time, I have wanted to get photographs of the magpies, corellas, and the gallahs that are always hanging out in the park on days like this.

Batteries charged: check
Camera lens clean: check
Flash card in : check
Look for birds....... Look for birds...? Where the hell are they?

Yup, no birds to be seen anywhere, no dogs/people/vehicles to have scared them off. Just not there.

*sigh*

My first digitally painted portrait

Jewel Stait: Star of ‘Firefly’, and ‘Stargate: Atlantis’

h.t. to shadoutcarver for 'proofing it for me'.

Someone should tell Keito about his umm hiding technique

He should emulate Loki if he is going to hide. Note Loki with his tail tucked close.

Feline "Hide and Go Seek" combined with "Tag".

What a week

aikidomayland has been home all week because of this cold/flu, meaning he is well rested and recuperating, but I am exhausted and still feeling bleh. Such is life.

I was asked "What's with all the digital stuff you've been doing?"

Answer is simple. The weather. I am not taking cameras out in pouring rain. That and I have my new toy, aka pen-tablet.

I asked Kae Dash if I could use one of the photographs I took of him. It was the polite thing to do.

Scant Shelter

New Holland Honey Eater in the bare branches of a Wattle tree, lit by the stark light of the winter sun.

Silicone Spider and it's Web