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Category Archives: doing it wrong
The Department of Doing it Wrong
About every 2-3 weeks were getting a special, exclusive, JUST-FOR-YOU offer for a business loan for the tenant who was in our space before us. I’m talking about the office. He moved out in September of 2008. I can understand maybe a year later, but 5+ years? Update your mailing list.
Last week, in a fit of irritation, I stuck the offer into the pre-paid envelope and wrote on it, “This person hasn’t been at this location since 2008.”
This week we got another letter for previous tenant who is not at this location. The image above is from that letter. It was a normal white paper letter. I added the rainbow and the texture, because I can.
Still Not Mastering the Patterns and Textures Thing
I like the way this one came out but I could never figure out how to do it again. It’s fun to play but I’m an impatient learner. Once I’ve done it a couple of times, I want to be good at it.
Nice to have an excuse to sit around the house all weekend but I’m ready to get out in the world again.
We cleared the driveway and unburied my car to make it easier to get out of here in the morning.
Time to ditch the computer and do something else.
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Precipitation
It is a mess out there. We haven’t had snow like this since the great Christmas snowpocalypse of 2008. It’s raining now. There’s a good chance we’re going to lose the gutters again. We’ve already been out there twice to try to knock snow off them.
I am grateful we don’t have to go anywhere and we have lots of food in the cupboard.
Tonight I’m making this pot roast with mushrooms thing. The house smells amazing.
How about this one? This is midterm exam quality. I had to use all sorts of tricks, many of which took me forever.
The before side I took when I got home from work on Thursday. There were just a few wispy flakes. The after side I took this evening. Hopefully this is cleared up by the Monday commute.
Dumb and Dumberer
This afternoon I had an appointment in downtown Vancouver. Bob and I decided to walk to it.
The morning walk was terrific. It was semi-sunny and the air refreshing. We took lots of pictures and visited with some neighbors.
The walk home was less terrific. It had started snowing again, heavy and wet. The walk home is a gentle uphill. By the time I got home I was pooped and I still had to throw some dinner on the stove and mix up my bread for tomorrow. I make a sourdough loaf almost every week.
Then I somehow managed to stick my photocard (tired, not paying attention) in the DVD slot instead of the card slot and it plooped right in. I had a mild panic attack. Quickly powered down the machine. Powered up the laptop. Typed HELP! and my problem into a search engine because no matter what dumb thing you do, there’s always someone who did it before you.
I wouldn’t have cared so much except I really wanted my photos.
One suggestion was to tilt the machine on its side and shake it. Another suggestion involved a credit card and something sticky like a mailing label or tape. First I had to disconnect everything from everything. Then I shook and tilted my heart out. Nothing seemed to be happening. I wondered if I still have Apple Care and when the hell I was going to get around to carting my computer to some fix it guy. And whether I would be honest or make up a cover story.
I remained calm. I propped my machine on the bed so I could tilt it toward me while I held a baby flashlight in my teeth and wiggled a credit card in the slot. And [long frustrating bit omitted] it worked!
And now my brain is melted. Lots more snow photos *with filters* later this weekend.
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Snow Day
Super busy week. I’ve barely had time to pull up my socks.
Sleep situation is improving. Not rock star quality yet, but I’m keeping my fingers crossed.
I just did a long lesson on filters which is the best part. It’s hard to resist the urge to add a gnarly filter to everything.
Weather is crap so maybe I can finish this class this weekend.
Wide Awake Some More
This morning I was telling my sister that I’m nervous putting any of my practice pictures online because I’m afraid they’ll end up in some sort of mean-spirited click bait “12 People Who Should Be Outlawed from Photoshop” website. Am I the only person who worries about accidentally becoming the butt of some meme?
I couldn’t figure out any photos that would look nice blended together so I practiced on a bunch of random photos. I did some funny ones with the cat.
I was going to make a joke about creating a watermark for “my work.” A few years ago I was thinking of selling something on ebay and I was looking at similar items to see how people did it. On one listing there was this totally over-exposed crap photo of a pair of pants with a giant copyright mark on it. Right. Because someone is going to steal your crap photo of a pair of pants you’re trying to sell and then do what?
My insomnia continues. Last night was night #6. My poor tiny brain goes to mush pretty quickly so this is the best I’ve got for now. I’m going to curl up in front of the TV and watch a soccer match (USA) this afternoon. Have I mentioned Timbers pre-season starts at the end of the month? Yahoo!
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The Unicorn Hair
Yesterday I spent the entire afternoon thinking I was 30 minutes away from being able to Photoshop. Didn’t happen so I did extra today.
I’m lucky in the gray hair department in that I don’t have very many. I’m not opposed to the idea of dyeing but I don’t want to have to deal with touch ups all the time. It’s not an issue now. We’ll see how I feel in a few years.
I have a single gray hair in the exact middle-front of my head, where my horn would be if I was a unicorn. Do you know those stories like where the purse has coin and they spend it and then the next day the purse has a coin? Or they chop down the tree and then the next morning they look out the window and the tree is back out there?
That is my unicorn gray hair. I yank that sucker out and it’s back the next time I look. I’m afraid if I keep yanking it I’m going to have a bald spot where my unicorn horn would be.
At least the other gray hairs have the good sense to grow in the back of my head where I hardly notice them.
The Gratitude Plant
I didn’t want to make any formal declaration that I would post a project photo every day but that’s my aim. It’s not totally realistic because some of my weekdays are endlessly long (like today) so this one is pretty phoned in.
Co-worker gave me the gratitude plant back in March on the day designated for office people to give the people who keep everything running a plant-based gift and take them to lunch. This plant said minimal maintenance which I thought, Yay. I know I present myself like I’m good with plants but actually my skill is picking out plants that are difficult to kill or otherwise ruin.
The gratitude plant sat on my desk for months and pieces of it kept shriveling up and falling off. Was I watering too much or not enough? The directions said 4-6 weeks but I stuck with a straight 4 weeks. I set up a reminder on my calendar and every 4 weeks I get a note that says, “Water Gratitude Plant, Location: lobby chairs.”
I finally went to the plant website and looked it up and it said it needs a lot of sunlight and if anything, err on the side of too little water. That would have been good information to include next to “minimal maintenance.” There are no windows by my desk so I stuck it in colleague’s office for a couple of weeks but more bits shriveled and fell off so I just brought it home yesterday and put it on a very sunny windowsill.
I can hear it yodeling with joy from here.
I Found the Letters
When I transferred photos from the camera card for the photo intended for today, I found the photo of my stack of letters that I mentioned a couple of days ago.
I had another story I was going to tell but now I can’t remember. Something to look forward to tomorrow.
Toes
Goodness. I thought I’d add some other tidbit that I learned to this photo and it was taking too long to remember how to do it. At least I did a selection on a cat.
Also great news, there is another class just for layer masks and selections. Seeing as how it’s only taken me 6 months to get through half the course I’m working on now, I should be masking and selecting like a champion in another 3-5 years.
