Here I am again..

Well .. as always I've gotten sidetracked. I'm famous for being consistent and then getting busy and shelfing something. I've not learned that it takes at least a month or two for me to do something and then actually stick to it.

Anyway ... quite a few things have happened lately that I'd like to take note of.

1. I have been growing my hair out since at least June / July of last year with the intent of donating it to . I came into work last Monday and decided that was the day I was cutting it off. The minimum that you need to donate in order for it to used by Locks of Love is 10 inches. Anything shorter they actually sell it and use the money to support their efforts, so all is not lost if you don't have 10 inches to give. So now my hair is at the base of my neck .. let's say the lowest point of my hair is about a half inch below my ear. It's SHORT!! But .. I love it!! No regrets here .. it's for a great cause and I really like the change!!

Here are a few photos pre- and post cutting. I have yet to post a photo of my hair as it is now ... I have not had a second to take a photo .. but I'll try to do that soon.






2. My MinPin foster was adopted out yesterday (Tuesday). I met a coworker and his family on Friday and introduced them to Lacy. Having been in my house since January 31st, she had been turned into a complete dollbaby, and I had never met anyone that did not fall in love with her. They applied and she went home with them yesterday. I'll get my next pin probably this weekend and depending on the energy level of this foster, I may end up getting a Chihuahua foster shortly after.

3. Yes, people I'm STILL going to the gym. We got a bit obsessive there for a while .. we were going about 6 times a week and were there and average of two hours each time. Now it's tapering back a bit ... I have decided to get it back to a 'normal' amount of time because I wasn't get much else done besides the gym! This is why I say that I need to do something for a couple of months, because after pushing for two months, I'm to the point where I just go and I actually enjoy it. Crazy, eh?


Ok .. there may be more, but I'm going to relax for a bit. I'll update later.

Adding Copyright Info to Your Photos

Someone made a comment on one of my photos a while back and had talked about people stealing photos from flickr. Here's the photo discussing just one of my dilemmas.


Anyone you can go to google, type in your name, and if websites were nice enough to mention your name, then your photos would show up. But not all websites do that. I've found some of my Kevin Costner photos where they've pretended they owned the photos. Not cool and I was not nice about it.

So .. about 6 or 7 people have asked about adding copyright info. You want to not only add a watermark, but also fill in the copyright info. I found two websites on here that seem to sum it up pretty nicely and do pretty much what I do:

This shows just how to add the copyright info, but it does explain it out a bit better:
www.riecks.com/forphotogs/copyrightaction.html

This talks about how to add the watermark:
www.dphotojournal.com/watermarking-adding-copyright-with-photoshop/
It only talks about how to add the symbol, but it's the same process for adding in the text as well.

Also, something very important that I don't think they mention ... when you're done adding the watermarks, be sure to flatten the image (I think it's somewhere under the Image menu, but I don't have Photoshop here to check). Otherwise people can essentially pull the layers apart with the right software and remove the copyright. Also, export your image only at a resolution of 100dpi because people cannot have too much fun with that small of an image.

Definitely automate both of these .. I actually have mine done separate and not within the same 'action,' that way if I'm sending out a photo without the watermark, I can still easily add in the copyright info.

Just Checking in ...

Of course, I'm typically bad about keeping up with most things that I'd like to be more routine. Most .. but not everything.

I'm FINALLY feeling almost better ... still coughing up things out of my lungs, but it's still progress. I gave up on waiting and Saturday I got back to my regular life and figured I'd get better eventually.

I'm amazed at how much and how quickly my life fills up with details and plans. I'm already looking barely down the road and I'm still waiting for that 'free' time so I can relax and get a few things done around the house. Well .. that's apparently not happening this week or this weekend .. so maybe we'll get so rain one of these days and my schedule will lighten up a bit :o)

Oh well .. it's getting late and I must run.

Google - Street View

Of course I'm all interested in the new Street View feature in Google. It's just fascinating!!

In addition to finding a few laughs on it, whether I've seen it or others have found them, I've added some of the Links here:

Here's a zoomed in section, showing a person's license plate number. This is publicly posted .. I'd be so stressed out if my information was 'up for grabs' by any person, technically worldwide, that wants it. But that's my opinion.

I did not find this myself, but someone was apparently looking for adult bookstores to catch someone walking into one. Pretty funny especially if his other half has no idea!!

This is a sad story... The man seen in the photo has a story behind him ... which is discussed here.

Yep, this one is hilarious all the way around!! Funny enough that it ends up on the internet for everyone to see!

Here's someone who looks to be breaking into someone's house in broad daylight. Can we say busted???

These poor people .. they will be momentarily remembered for all the CRAP they've tossed out of their house!!

Noe Picker!!

Nose Picker #2!!

Talk about getting shamed .. busted digging up your nose!!

Peeping Tom .. or Peeing Tom??

This is a place where they sit outside and play chess. Nothing fancy, but it was something I really liked seeing when we were there :o)

I'm going to add to this as I find more or find more time ... :o)

A Photography Slump ...

I knew it was happening and I'm still trying to find my way out ... I'm in the midst of a horribly long and painful photography slump. I'd say it slowly started back last August and it hit it's worst in December. Ever since then, it's been just a steady unwaivering slump ...

Of course, going on vacation doesn't count .. it's easy to find 'life' when it's not in the every day.

Being sick and STUCK IN THIS D@MN HOUSE all week, I've had more than enough time to browse through my photos .. the thousands of photos wasting away on my hard drive. While I was living in the world of Denial, it hit me hard that I'm neck deep in this slump.

So here are my failed efforts to pull me out of my slump:

• I went out and bought a second DSLR, the Nikon D1X. I needed a second camera anyway and I got a good deal on it.
• I went to San Fran .. hoping that a change of scenery would send me home more inspired. It sent me home wanting to move out of town...

That's probably all of the more extreme effort that I've put into pulling myself out of my slump / funk.

So, over Memorial Day weekend we went to the Newport Aquarium. I took maybe 20 pictures and I may only like 3 of them. The rest I took purely because I felt silly having a paperweight hanging around my neck.

Of course my goal for this summer is to roam the area and see what I'm missing ... I have not been able to do that much yet. Partly because things have been too busy lately and I have not had a free day. Partly because I can only go so far because of the kids at home. Partly because I'm going gung ho at the gym in an effort to lose my ass once and for all. And .. partly because I'm making up every excuse I can think of because I honestly have no inspiration / motivation / you name it. I make up excuses for not taking photos and for not working in my yard. While I can (and will) pay someone to do the yard work for me .. I can't pay someone to find my missing inspiration ...

So ... here I sit today thinking what am I going to do?? I keep trying to figure out now if it was all a phase or was it really something, and I'm letting that slip away without even trying to salvage it. It can't just be a phase ... I find so much peace and so much joy when I'm out on adventures, taking photos. So, does that mean I'm being self destructive, and stopping myself from being happy and doing something that I like?

I don't know the answer .. obviously ..

On one hand, I can contribute my lack of adventuring to the fact that I'm without reliable photo taking friends. But ... I'm also on a shortage of gym - accompanying friends, although that's not stopping me. So maybe I'm not at my breaking point yet?? So many questions.

But, it's clear ... I'm in a funk and I apparently am not going to work it out on my own, because it has yet to happen. I guess while I'm sitting here, bored, miserable, and not in the best condition I could hope for, I'll try and plot out a way to work through this. I'll be glad when I get back to work ....

Grumpy Gripe #101

This is why I don't get sick very often ... it drives me crazy!!

I'm bored, I'm SICK of sleeping, my dogs are driving me CRAZY, I'm grumpy, I feel terrible, blah blah ...

I wish I felt good enough to put a darn mask on and go into work .. not that they'd let me, and more importantly, that's not my only symptom.

I've watched TV just a little .. I don't know how people can just sit at home all day without going crazy ... I gave up and went back to bed, or at least just laid here, miserable, staring at the ceiling in peace, between episodes of coughing my insides up. I've played with my DS Lite until I've completely bored myself. I can't play the Wii without making life worse. I don't want to watch movies .. going back to that whole I can't sit here and just watch TV all day theory. I don't 'play' on the computer much anymore, so I have nothing to do on here. I could work on some photos but my blah feeling is giving me zero motivation to sit here for a few hours doing that ....

Needless to say .. I'm going mad!!

The doctor gave medicine and said that it should be gone by the end of the week ... end of the week .. is he freakin kidding me? The second I can tolerate it and it's no longer contagious, I'm going back to work. If I'm hear until Saturday like this .. I'll go insane!!


So ... the dogs are driving me crazy!! God love them, and I love them even more, but I'm in a house with mostly dogs under the age of 3 .. which means high maintenance, needy, always wanting to play with me. Which is typically fine because I'm never sitting here with them 24 hours a day for three days straight at their disposal. The fact that I'm sleeping 24 /7 is driving them crazy .. they keep wanting to play, but instead of going in the other room, they want to play right on the bed with me, and that's not flying. Every time I get up, they get so excited that they're pouncing me, and that's driving me crazy too!!

Can you tell I'm cranky?

But I'll give them credit, they're cute. They've been relatively patient with me over the past few days ... I'm sure they're going just as crazy as I am!!


So .. all in all .. I have nothing new to report. Nothing interesting going on, no good stories to tell, no fun adventures. Just bed, bed, and more bed. I won't be going to work again tomorrow, but I'm hoping that I'll be back Wednesday with any luck. However, I'm not getting my hopes up the way things are looking / feeling ...





On a side note ... I better be well by this weekend.

There's a flickr meet planned that I'm wanting to go to; that's on Saturday and it's a picnic / flickr meet so it should be fun. After that I was hoping to play racquetball for a bit and possibly get out and about for a change. I believe I may owe my friend, Will, a night of hanging out that night too.

On Sunday, we're going to see The Lion King, which I actually saw last year with my family. I'm definitely looking forward to seeing it again .. it has to be my favorite play of all time!! Tickets went on sale probably 9 months ago and we bought them that morning ... we're getting all dressed up for it ... it should be a great day!!!

I'm Sick of Being Sick!!!

Ok .. I've had my limit with this whole sick ordeal ... I need to start feeling better!!

I get sick like the rest of the population, but typically it only hangs out a day or so because it seems I have a decently strong immune system. So this time around, either something has changed or I have some horrid horrid bug!!!

First of all, I have no idea who I got it from or when I got it. Sadly I started feeling the scratchy throat Friday night but my sister and I went to the movies anyway to see Pirates 3. After the movie I hit the drugstore thinking it was just a scratchy throat. I woke up the next day and gave my friend Angie the same warning about my throat, yet she was OK with hanging out anyway. We went to see Shrek the Third and then to play racquetball .. but by the time I got home I was starting to feel it even more. Yes .. I know .. I'm the only idiot that is so ignorant of the 'sick' symptoms that I ignore them and keep going full speed. So I've had a fever since last night and it's not breaking for long .. which is leaving me cranky, tired of sleeping, cranky, icky feeling, cranky, you get the point ...

Anyway it feels like step throat with a severe ear infection, and a side of the feverish, hugging the toilet flu bug ... sounds fabulous, eh? I'm calling the doc first thing in the AM hoping to push my way into the door, to get some relief and start getting better. I have deadlines at work so this is not exactly coming at the most opportune time ...