Baggywrinkle

admin February 9th, 2007

Current Mood: Playful

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This may be considered cheating, but I’m trying to get a jump on the process because I started late. Click on the thumbnails to see bigger versions. You can also go to my photo gallery to see them in the Project Spectrum folder.

1. Blue Pine. We got a great deal on a timeshare in Smuggler’s Notch, Vermont for the week before Thanksgiving several years ago. We took my brother and sister-in-law up with us. We had a huge snow storm and everything looked like a Currier & Ives scene. This was a stand of pine trees on the side of the road.
2. Same trip. We found this great covered bridge just off the side of the road. The creek was moving quickly and it was snowing pretty hard. Perfect New England scene.
3. Same trip, same creek, from a different direction.
4. A really Fungi! This was fungi growing on a log in my backyard. I was experimenting with my then current camera (a Nikon) and it’s great macro ability.
5. “Happy Couple”. This cute couple was found outside my office a few years ago. I had fun playing with Photoshop with this.
6. “Middleground” or Stratford Shoals. This lighthouse was finished in 1877 and sits atop a “mountain peak” that juts out of the middle of Long Island Sound. All around this is very deep water so huge tankers would not expect to slam into a mountain peak in the middle of Long Island Sound. I’ve heard that in the early 1900’s the keeper of the light had sheep there. I know in the 60’s and 70’s my brother had many a party there. This is an active USCG Navigational Aid, not open to the public. Its an eerie site to see.
7. One of the 20 or so morning doves that frequented our bird feeder and deck last winter. Image was run through a Photoshop tutorial to give it the appearance of a pencil sketch.
8. A pine bough from my favorite White Pine in my yard. Its a massive tree and has a lot of character.
9. Evil snowflakes from last year.

• Photography , Yada Yada , Project Spectrum
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admin February 7th, 2007

Current Mood: Playful

I signed up for Project Spectrum in the hopes it would inspire some creativity in me.

The task is as follows:

• Knitting , Spinning , Photography , Yada Yada
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admin February 6th, 2007

Current Mood: Mischievous

I hate Macs. I have always hated Macs. I hate people who use Macs. I even hate people who don’t use Macs but sometimes wish they did. Macs are glorified Fisher-Price activity centres for adults; computers for scaredy cats too nervous to learn how proper computers work; computers for people who earnestly believe in feng shui.

Read more here…

The entire ad campaign is a lie, then again, as my husband always says “What is the first rule of advertising? LIE! Take your worst fault and sell it as your best feature!”

The computer stores will only stock what sells; go look for yourself, 95% of the stock will be for PCs. You’re lucky to find a shelf-worth of stuff for macs. And that includes “fun stuff” like graphics, video and gaming software. Dollar for dollar, CPU and Memory being equal, a PC will blow away an equivalent mac.

I thought there had been a mixup at the hospital and they gave me the wrong 25 year old when my son announced he wanted a mac…. he got one and realizes now how utterly deficient they are. The only nice thing about them is that they are UNIX based, but then again, I can get a far superior PC to run Ubuntu on if I want a UNIX platform.

Stepping off my Dell Box now, must face the 17° temps outside and go home to knit. I’m on Tier 2 of my Forest Path!

• Flippancy , Yada Yada
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admin February 3rd, 2007

Current Mood: Happy

Third time’s a charm! I started my Forest Path Stole 3 times and I’m finally happy with it. First was a commercial yarn that turned out to be too heavy and saggy. Second attempt was with my foggy fall yarn, but with size 6 needles. The lace was far too tight so I, once again, ripped it all out and started over with size 9 needles.

Mind you, the pictures suck, but as things progress I’ll take better ones. You can click on these small ones to even larger, suckier pictures!

I’m still not happy with how the camera displays the yarn color. It always shows it much duller than it really is.

I was over at JenLa’s blog reading about a yarn incident with a cute dog and spotted mention of “Forest Path Stole KAL!” Fancy that, I just happen to be making that! So, I’m all signed up. Click the button in the side bar and you too can join the madness! Once you get to the diamonds, it goes pretty quick (even for a slow knitter like me). I hope to have my last diamond of tier 1 done tonight!

I had quite a scare yesterday with a CNN Breaking News email about those tornadoes in Florida. They hit in the same county where my dad lives. Took quite a while for me to get through, but I did. They actually slept right through it. The twisters hit only 11 miles North of them! I truly thank the Powers that Be that my folks got through this. I was so shook up I sat in my office and cried with relief!

Oh well, back to my shawl!

• Knitting , Yada Yada
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admin February 3rd, 2007

Current Mood: Playful

Are you tired of getting road rash on your boobs? Tired of tripping over them in the dark or flinging them over your shoulders to get them out of the way? Do you dread dressing up for an important party cause your limited to turtlenecks to cover the industrialized hoist?

Problem solved!

How freakin annoying! I’ve been trying to post this for a week! I can not find any plugin for dumping flash file in a post that actually work. I must have installed 10 of them.

• Yada Yada , WTF?
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admin January 23rd, 2007

Current Mood: Sickly

So, I was reading Cara’s post about doctor appointments, weight, etc…

I just did my annual groinocological exam, I was only about 9 months late with it… I have to go back for a sono next Saturday; I have musical cysts in my ovaries. Sometimes they are in my right ovary, sometimes my left, and on really special occasions I get them in BOTH ovaries at the same time! It’s a total crap shoot as to where they will be this time.

I thought I was finally approaching menopause this last year. Alas, the wandering periods seem to have stabilized, but with each passing month the pain and backaches get worse. When I was younger I never knew when my period would hit me, never had pain or cramps or bled to death. Couldn’t figure out what “they” were all complaining about and thought those who took to their beds once a month were wimps… My pal ended up having a hysterectomy to stop the bleeding; she used to “give birth to chicken livers” for weeks at a time. Get this, a few months after her procedure she started bleeding a bit and called the doctor. They said that can happen; the cervix acts like a mini uterus at times; sloughs off a lining. WTF? That’s why she got rid of the uterus, did ya think to mention that to her? She thought it grew back!

I sympathize with the weight. I need to easily drop 50+ pounds, but I’m so friggin tired of fighting the battle. If one person is in my kitchen, its one person too many and I hate it. I hate cooking and am too wiped when I get home to cook. I normally just forage when I get home. I’ll eat yogurt or steel cut oatmeal 3 times a day rather than cook. Over the holiday food fest I fell back into my carb craving habits, which packed on several pounds I didn’t need. My “goal” is to lose enough to fit into Costco/BJ’s clothes. I’ve reached it several times, but it never lasts. I’ve been heavy all my life; born with the fat gene, get over it and move on to the next topic.

I dread going to my GP, he’s a freaking athlete and always barks at me about my weight. He’s big military and complements my CG activities, but still, get off my back about the weight or I’ll sit on ya! I usually try to see his associate as he’s a fellow computer geek with a prescription pad and has the Geek Physique! The first thing we do is compare the latest toys we’ve acquired since my last visit. I need to make an appointment for refills pronto.

In the comments on Cara’s post there was mention of putting off going to a dermatologist. [waves hand] Yep, me too. I’ve had a spot on my nose that flairs up all the time, especially when I have to blow my nose a lot, and it bleeds like a pig. I already have a constant nose bleed from September through April as it is with allergies but then this spot starts bleeding all over the place… I have several moles that should be looked at too, but it seems that the majority of dermatologists have moved over to the higher income “beauty treatments” and I really don’t want to go there. I don’t want laser treatment, botox, or facials requiring a mortgage. I want a normal doctor not looking to make his/her next luxury yacht payment off my sad derma. Gimme a cream for my eczema, a cure for my rosacea and cut off the moles/anomalies and let me go home. I don’t need to look 20 years younger or have that rosy glow of youth. I don’t wear makeup, am allergic to “beauty products,” have bad skin, am ugly and fat, gimme my meds and let me go.

I think the cold that has been lurking in the shadows for 2 months may be about ready to knock me off my feet. I’m feeling a new, higher level of crapiness the last few hours that leads me to believe I may be spending the next few days in bed. Maybe I’ll catch up on some things while I lay there and wish for a meteorite to hit me.

• Yada Yada
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admin January 22nd, 2007

Current Mood: Cool

Over the weekend our Coast Guard Auxiliary Division had its Change of Watch. This is the formal ceremony where the old bridge turns over the helm to the new bridge. We look back and review the year, give awards and make plans for the next year. Members of the “Gold Side” usually attend to give awards and over all, it is our reward for the volunteer hours we put in to support the US Coast Guard.
At last year’s presentation I received Auxiliarist of the Year and I also received a Challenge Coin from the Captain of the Port (see here and here) among other awards. Challenge Coins are not given lightly, so I was floored to receive one and, as tradition dictates, carry it with me, always.
In 2006 I held a National position (Branch Chief), which exhausted me. I ended up putting in roughly 50 hours a week (over 2400 hours in 2006). I’ve dropped that position as it was too much with all the local positions I hold. At right is my reward for all that work.

Included are 1st place Computer Services (fourth year in a row for that), Certificates of appreciation, “1,000 Hour Club” for putting in over 1,000 hours during the year, and, the biggie. I trumped last year by receiving the Captain’s Award and Trophy!

The plaque is mine, and I hold the trophy for a year. The trophy weighs a ton and has a pewter Poseidon and mermaid at the top holding the Coast Guard shield. I’m number 26; last one on the bottom row on the base. Unfortunately, it appears that in his 26 years of travel among the Division members, his trident has gotten slightly banged up and won’t be spearing his dinner anytime soon.

Another cool award; our Flotilla was named “Best Damned Flotilla” with the Flotilla of the Year award! You can see my Big Guy; Sanjay, and our passed Flotilla Commander accepting the award. They were the elected leaders of our Flotilla last year. This shot shows 11 of us with the award.

Sanjay won 2nd Place for Computer Services, unfortunately, the award company mistook him for the Sanjay in jail for securities fraud, so we have to wait for the plaque to be changed.
It was a great day and I got all the Mimosa’s I wanted . Now, if I could just get rid of this freaking cold. I’ve felt like crap since December and I finally thought I was going to get hit with it when Sanjay started sniffling a few days ago, but all it did was raise the level of my crapiness to a new high.

• US Coast Guard , Yada Yada
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admin January 22nd, 2007

Current Mood: Sickly

Check it out, even though my last full year of school was sixth grade, I can keep my GED! I always knew I learned more on the street than in school!

• Flippancy , Yada Yada
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admin January 18th, 2007

Current Mood: Mischievous

My cup overflows with joy! I’ve found a new way to waste time punish those who do me wrong!

Everyone, point your browsers to http://youaredamned.com/ and submit your list of pond scum to spend eternity in Hell. Lucifer, himself, will send each dirtbag an email telling them they’ve been damned and their name will appear on the wall of doom.

What a pisser…. 2:30pm on Thursday…. haven’t done much all week… can I stretch out my run of laziness till tomorrow? Tune in and see what other things I come up with!

• Flippancy , Yada Yada , Mean People Suck
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admin January 18th, 2007

Current Mood: Bored

So much work, so little time… so what am I doing? Playing with a new toy! I’m a Photoshop fiend and hobby photographer. In November when I went to the photo expo in NYC I stopped at my favorite plugin vendor: Alien Skin. I told them I’ve always yearned for a plugin that could realistically convert a photo into an oil painting. They told me to wait until January, so I did. Oh, Honey! Was it worth it! If you love to play with Photos and/or Photoshop I urge you to run as fast as your little MasterCard will take you to get SNAP art!! Holy crap, this is fucking awesome the coolest! B-D

See my original image above. Yes, it is a glorious sunset. Living on the North Shore of Long Island, I am presented with this treat daily. Biased opinion? You’re damn right! The Long Island Sound has the best sunsets on the planet. Yep, already looks like a painting. We can even see the elusive green flash on many days.
Now, feast your eyes on a small sample of the limitless number of possibilities of this plugin. Click the sample to see a larger number of settings.

• Photography , Yada Yada
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